CONSERVATIVE BELIEFS

Last October, in the wake of the debate over placement of Harriet Miers on the federal Supreme Court, Rush Limbaugh penned an interesting opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal that contained a Reader’s Digest version on, generically, what conservatives believe. Although I’ve played with it stylistically, the text has not been altered:

We believe in:

individual liberty,

limited government,

capitalism,

the rule of law,

faith,

a color-blind society and

national security.

We support:

school choice,

enterprise zones,

tax cuts,

welfare reform,

faith-based initiatives,

political speech,

homeowner rights, and

the war on terrorism.

And at our core we embrace and celebrate the most magnificent governing document ever ratified by any nation – the U.S. Constitution. Along with the Declaration of Independence, which recognizes our God-given natural right to be free, it is the foundation on which our government is built and has enabled us to flourish as a people.

Works for me; I don’t remember reading this last October but that strikes me as a damn good general summation.

 

FLORIDA LEGISLATURE: DAYS 53-55 OF 60

The big news from The Buzz:

The Senate Coalition

Can Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rod Smith lay claim to killing the effort to weaken the class size amendment? Tom Lee gave him lots of credit for keeping together the decisive coalition of 14 Democrats and six moderate Republicans.

Story here.

Roundup of stories from the Palm Beach Post.

 

9-11 AND UNITED FLIGHT 93

Gerard Van der Leun reminisces about his 9-11 experiences in New York, declining to go see the film United 93 with friends but subsequently going to see it alone, and his thoughts on smoke, fire, starlight’s – and the indomitable human spirit that declines the role of passive victim. Here is his close:

“United 93” is a simply told, near-documentary look at how that fire in the field came to be. As I said above, the film has no message, but if you – as I finally did – choose to go, it will pose you a question: What would you do, an ordinary person in an extraordinary moment when life and death, good and evil, were as clear as the skies over America on September 11? Will you, as so many of our fellow citizens yearn to do these days, stay seated? Or will you stand up?

Of course, the enemy has penetrated the gates and convinced many that opposition for the sake of opposition is somehow patriotic. Mark Steyn does a good job shooting down that nonsense this week. His focus? A bogus quote sold as a famous Thomas Jefferson saying. It champions dissent as the highest form of patriotism.

Riiiiiiiiigggghhhhtttttt.

Our bigger problem, as 9-11 fades from the memory of so many, may not be those many folks who yearn to stay seated but those activists who are “smarter” than America and “stand up” to prove, once again, that America is the primary force for evil in this world.

 

STILL STUCK ON STUPID WHEN HURRICANE KATRINA IS DISCUSSED

Dafydd ab Hugh at Big Lizards tries, once again, to speak facts to power about the response to Hurricane Katrina. His post is based on an objective analysis of the Executive Summary produced by the Senate Homeland Security Committee:

Particularly noteworthy is the comparison of the “net evaluation” of each of the three [levels] of government [local first, then state, and last federal]; I define this as the number of accusations of failure combined with the number of accolades for success for a net failure or success score. Here are the figures:

o              City of New Orleans: 12 failures + 1 success = 11 net failures;

o              States of Louisiana and Mississippi: 11 failures + 2 successes = 9 net failures;

o              Federal agencies: 10 failures + 6 successes = 4 net failures;

o              White House: 1 failure + 2 successes = 1 net success.

Compare this record from the actual Executive Summary itself with the claim by AP that --

A Senate inquiry into the government’s Hurricane Katrina failures ripped the Bush administration anew Thursday and urged the scrapping of the nation’s disaster response agency. But with a new hurricane season just weeks away, senators conceded that few if any of their proposals could become reality in time.

The bipartisan investigation into one of the worst natural disasters in the nation’s history singled out President Bush and the White House as appearing indifferent to the devastation until two days after the storm hit.

By “appearing indifferent,” it’s clear that what AP really means is that Bush was directing the federal response from his Prairie Chapel Ranch in Crawford, TX, rather than from the White House itself. To the Associated Press, this is “indifference.”

Need we say more?

This is perhaps the most egregiously biased and slanted Katrina story since the first days after the storm itself, when the antique media blithely repeated ludicrous and lurid rumors of rapes, murders, and cannibalism -- and laid it all at the doorstep of the White House.

Media “madness” is indeed the proper phrase for it.

True dat. Another favorite blogger, Jason at the Countercolumn blog, made these relevant posts at the time:

"Why couldn't we preposition troops?"

"What does it take to move just one truck?"

For the official military doctrine on disaster relief operations, you can click here.

And because I liked it so much, I’m going to post this response in full that Jason copied from Jeff Jarvis’ site (the writer is responding to the typical mantra found all over the place contemporaneously in response to Katrina from the bitch-and-moan crowd):

I can’t BELIEVE you people.

Disgusting. Really disgusting. [RattlerGator: I felt the exact same way at the time, including disgust with TV folks ranging from talk show host Oprah Winfrey to Sheppard Smith on Fox]

You have NO CLUE what rescue efforts entail, what it takes to shift people and material over 100s of miles of randomly destroyed terrain in any sort of organized fashion, you’ve got no idea AT ALL what it takes to feed and house the people DOING the relief work, much less what it takes to actually get the job done.

One of the pissant little socialists here said:

“”"
And yes, BOB, Americans pay taxes so that this kind of situation never happens.
“”"

Really, tax dollars prevent hurricanes?

Oh, you mean you’re willing to spend upwards of a billion dollars a year nationally (in FY2000 FEMA requested 300 billion for disaster relief, this is one agency, and doesn’t include Coast Guard or National Guard budgets etc.) to keep men and material prepared for the kinds of disasters that happen once every decade or two?

Like hell you are. You’d be one of the first to whine about how that money could go to . . . well, let’s not get any nastier.

“”"
I cannot believe this is our country. The government should have been mobilized and ready to go on MONDAY!
“”"

They were. Bush made the “Disaster Area” declaration before the storm hit land.

Do some math would you PLEASE? I realize it’s “linear thinking”, and “hard”, but just stop and figure:

Let n be the number of buses needed to to shift people from one place to the other.
Let x be the number of miles you need to shift these people to get them to “safety”.
Let y be the number of people you can shift per bus.
Let p be the total population you’ve got to move.
Let h be the time you’ve got to move them in.

The simple calculation is:

n=p/y

How many people on a bus? Well, let’s assume a big bus, I think that’s around 70 people, and we’re going to move them 300 miles from the coast (the effected area reaches inland /at least/ 120 miles, my daughter lives in Central MS, and as of 3 this afternoon they were w/out power and she was heading to Atlanta to be with her mom)

How many people have we got to move? 2000:

29=2000/70 (this is integer math, we get whole buses so we round up).

10000 people:
143 buses.

100,000 people:
1429 busses.

Now, 1429 buses is a lot. And that’s also 1429 drivers that have to be gotten somewhere on time etc. Where are you going to get that many? You won’t. You can’t. The buses in the damaged areas cannot be planned on, nor can the drivers (they have families etc.). So you do with fewer buses but make multiple trips, this gets even worse, because now you add time into it, and it becomes about how long it takes to shift people, and how many you can shift per trip or hour.

All this takes planning. And shifting resources around (buses have to be fueled people have to be fed and watered etc.).

And 100,000 is only 1/10th-1/12th of the people in that area. In addition to just shifting these people you’ve got medical problems, rescue problems etc.

And you /cannot/ pre-plan and pre-stage because you don’t know where the damage will happen, so you can’t count on any particular route being open, and you can’t count on any particular *close* spot being safe, and if you’re too far away you’re running low on fuel inside the damage zone and and and and.

70 per bus, 300 miles each way. 60 miles per hour. That’s 70 people per bus in per 10 hours. Or 7 people per hour per bus.

You’ve got 100,000 people to shift, which means (basically) 14286 bus hours, so 10 buses finishes the job in 1428 hours, 100 finishes in 142 hours (actually add 5 to that for 1 one way trip). To get 100,000 people shifted in 48 hours you’re going to need roughly 298 buses. Which is also 298 drivers. This is all, of course, assuming that things go smoothly. You could probably gather up 3oo school buses from the states around the affected areas and get them in, but school buses are smaller (IIRC about 40 adults) than what I was talking about. Which means almost (fudging because of the hour) twice as many buses and drivers.

Right after a hurricane. And we haven’t even begun to talk about how many buses go to where and at what time. Or about how to handle medical problems on the bus, feed the people etc. Hell, even refueling the buses.

And note, we’re just talking about getting 100,000 people out of New Orleans and the surrounding area.

And we didn’t /know/ it was going to be New Orleans until Saturday/Sunday.

And on Tuesday morning (before the levee gave way) it looked like things were going to be, well, not ok, but not worse-case. So the planners started shifting resources and planning to the areas that were obviously going to need it.

Then the damn broke.

There are good reasons why there are NO large scale evacuation plans for any metropolitan [area] in this country. You simply CANNOT plan that sort of thing. Really, really bright people have tried, and they keep realizing it DOES NOT WORK.

Reality is NOT [amenable] to our desires /just/ because we wish it. Maybe someday we’ll be able to predict this stuff 2-3 weeks out with reasonable accuracy, and get people out of the way in time. Now we cannot, so we have to clean up afterwards.

The government is moving just as fast (or faster) on this disaster as they have in all the others, it’s just that now information flows even faster, and we’re all–left, center and right–hurting for these people.

(Aside: why did people stay in the path of a Cat 4/5 hurricane? Because the leftist school system, coupled with the Christian foot stomping over science has left people without a basic understanding of weather, physics and math? Well, partly. Because there is still a perception of Meterologists being completely WRONG? Well, partly. Because of 2 decades of media/newspapers predicting TEOTWAWKI [the end of the world as we know it] and it turns out to be not that big a deal? Partly. Because many were too poor to leave? Sure. Teach people math and physics and they’ll move when they realize how much energy is coming straight at them).

But you’re not interested in that, because that makes Bush (in this case) just someone reacting to events outside ANYONE’s control, and that means you can’t whine more about him.

And quite frankly [that’s] petty, lame, and rather small.

Mind you, that response is from a generic reader – not some government official – and came no later than Saturday, September 3^rd and the Hurricane, of course, hit the prior Monday.

Common.

Damn.

Sense.

Nuff said.

 

LAST WEEKEND AT U.F.

Florida is a unique American state and last weekend I was fortunate to be able to participate (as a spectator) in a unique college sporting event: a spring football game where some basketball players were the rock stars.

Football is a great game that most of us love down here. It allows friends to travel from distances near and far and get together and enjoy athletic competition. My brothers and I, all Gator fans, use the annual Orange and Blue spring football game as an excuse to get away, break bread together, and have a few drinks. This year, the latest Buffalo Soldier in the family (another Gator fan) joined the ranks for the first time. In the picture below, from left to right, is yours truly, SuperDuperParatrooper, Big Brother, and Little Brother:

 

 

Also joining the group this year was a childhood friend from Orange Park (good ole Leonard) with his wifey (remarkably, she’s a genuine sports fan):

 

 

At some point during the outing Leonard told an interesting John McCain story from our youth. McCain, of course, was a prisoner of war in North Vietnam when we were truly young. He was stationed in Jacksonville at the time and he lived in Orange Park. For an interesting look back, take a quick look at this Vanderbilt University abstract of the December 23, 1970 broadcast of the CBS Evening News:

(Studio) North Vietnam prisoners of war list deepens concern for captured Americans
REPORTER: Walter Cronkite

(Hanoi, North Vietnam) [NOV. 1967 FILM SHOWN.] [Lieutenant Commander John McCAIN - describes capture; shot down over North Vietnam while bombing.]

(Orange Park, Florida) Ms. Carol McCain waits for word on husband; sons Doug and Andrew need father. [Ms. McCAIN - says doesn't know how to help boys with sports.] Daughter Cindy doesn't remember father. [Ms. McCAIN - quotes 4th verse of Navy Hymn; says it's family motto.] [Doug McCAIN - says North Vietnam will keep father till war over; hopes it's soon.] [Cindy McCAIN - says wants father back.] [Ms. McCAIN - reads letter from husband; says he sounds depressed.]
REPORTER: John Laurence

(Hanoi, North Vietnam) [McCAIN - says loves wife; hopes to see her soon.]

(Studio) McCain says recovered from wounds, well-treated; released prisoners of war reports McCain held in solitary for long periods.
REPORTER: Walter Cronkite

McCain was released as a POW on March 15, 1973. Leonard remembers that some of McCain’s kids attended school at Orange Park Elementary and one day after his release McCain came to an assembly at the school and talked to the students about his life.

I had forgotten that John McCain had an Orange Park connection. Yet another reason why it’s good to get together with old friends. It also helps that they know how to tailgate and bring along lots of good food:

 

 

Not only were we joined by an old Orange Park friend, but SuperDuperParatrooper brought down SuperDuperFlyGuy – an Air Force friend originally from Michigan and a Wolverine fan who, I must say, was a good guest and seemingly enjoyed himself down here in God’s Country:

 

 

But what about the game, right? Well, Tebow Madness was in full effect (45,000 people turned out, many to see Tebow) but I saw something that (I’m pretty sure) was a first at Florida Field – the basketball team made an appearance and were the rock stars of the day. I didn’t get a good picture of them (my digital cameral isn’t the best in the world) but I think this picture conveys just how much attention they garnered when they first showed up:

 

 

They commanded attention, that’s how big they are in Gainesville now. There were multiple ovations at different times just from acknowledging their movement in the stadium. On a related note, a post on GatorCountry.com wondered if this national championship felt better than the football national championship we won in 1996. Here were my thoughts:

This national basketball championship is the best University of Florida sports story ever -- in my opinion.

I'm still floating, still amazed not so much that we won it but how we won it. And with a group, frozen in time now, that couldn't have been cast any better. A team with personality, ferocious humbleness, and sheer willpower so strong that it took a back seat to no one. They seem to be virtually perfect representatives of our university.

Yeah, for me -- this is our greatest sports story ever.

That was confirmed for me at the Orange and Blue game when their appearance (in the midst of Tebow madness, mind you) captivated the crowd like we were witnessing rock stars. It was something to behold and this Florida Gator (many years from now, I hope) can die a very happy man.

If the 04’s were to flip the script and all announce for the draft today, I wouldn't love them any less and the gift they gave this university would still be as great.

Staying another year would be a sacrifice of sorts, but they would be gambling on themselves. To be so young and so confident and so grounded that they would even seriously consider staying (remember, this was laughed at by many at the end of the tournament) speaks well of so many folks who have been influential in their lives. Ultimately, though, it is a testament to the individual ball player who knows that the money will be there if it is meant to be.

Already in the history books, they have an opportunity to go down with the great teams in the sport. That kind of vision is rare in young people these days. So rare, that watching their journey next year is going to be fascinating and should be worthy of an ESPN episodic series.

Man, these are great days to be a fan of the Florida Gators. At the end of the day, good friends got together and posed for a parting shots – and this is the face of America for me:

 

 

Then it was time to get on the road and head back home. Dead ahead: Tallahassee and the rest of the Florida Panhandle.

 

Later, Gators.

 

DANA PRIEST HAS SOME “SPLAININ” TO DO ABOUT HER CIA STORIES

Instapundit links to Dan Riehl, who looks to have busted reporter Dana Priest and the Washington Post for apparently doing the bidding for Democrat-friendly, agenda-setting, opposition spooks and earning a Pulitzer Prize in the process:

Contrast these two excerpts below published three years apart. The second won a Pulitzer. The first isn't even archived on line.

2002: In other cases, usually involving lower-level captives, the CIA hands them to foreign intelligence services — notably those of Jordan, Egypt and Morocco — with a list of questions the agency wants answered. These "extraordinary renditions" are done without resort to legal process and usually involve countries with security services known for using brutal means.

2005: A second tier -- which these sources believe includes more than 70 detainees -- is a group considered less important, with less direct involvement in terrorism and having limited intelligence value. These prisoners, some of whom were originally taken to black sites, are delivered to intelligence services in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Afghanistan and other countries, a process sometimes known as "rendition." While the first-tier black sites are run by CIA officers, the jails in these countries are operated by the host nations, with CIA financial assistance and, sometimes, direction.

Notice the quotation marks around rendition above in 2005? A new and extraordinary term? Hardly. They left out this bit below from the 2002 story for the 2005 version. I wonder why?

The Clinton administration pioneered the use of extraordinary rendition after the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.

And just as a matter of curiosity, why is it that the above article is no longer available at the Washington Post on line? Archiving, most likely. At least I hope so. Fortunately, a web site archived the article, as did others - just not the Washington Post. Is it possible the story didn't get the traction and cause the hearings some might have thought before the 2004 election? [RattlerGator: hmmmmmm.]

I realize it's foolish to speculate, but why simply wait for passions around the GWOT to fade a bit before bringing the story back up, unless there was an agenda of some kind for any anticipated impact of the story? And why no reference to the earlier story at all?

Talk to me, Dana. Talk to the nation. Explain the self-evident dishonesty of the two stories.

It is apparent to me now that the more one reads the Washington Post and the New York Times, the more one realizes that the mainstream media are completely unprepared for the digital media revolution they are witnessing right before their eyes. One also realizes that these reporters, from Bob Woodward on down to the Dana Priest’s of today, aren’t independent in any real sense of the word but are bought proxies – whores, in fact – for the pimps that populate the primary Washington establishment agencies. Namely, the CIA, FBI, and State Department.

That’s why those very same pimps and prostitutes hated Jimmy Carter (campaigned as, and operated as, an outsider) so much when he was in office, and (quite likely) why Jimmy Carter has worked so hard to solidify his liberal bona fides since leaving office. It’s really painful for me to watch Jimmy Carter traipse around the world, pissing on America at event after event – all in a vain attempt to earn the love of the left by drifting more and more to the far left.

George W. Bush, a man who was of that world before creating a world for himself in Texas, has been remarkably skilled in doing battle with those pimps and prostitutes. And they’ve done their damndest to make him pay. But he has persevered, thank God.

Now we wait and hope to soon see this one question answered – has Dubya and his crew set up a nice, delectable rope-a-dope? Is it the perfect media storm? And is Patrick Fitzgerald, a prosecutor that Andy McCarthy of National Review seems to swear by, the front piece for that rope-a-dope? Has he used Karl Rove as perfect, irresistible bait? In the next few days I’m going to post a column on why I think a rope-a-dope strategy is in full bloom.

It may illuminate why Dana Priest is going to have so much explaining to do. I suspect she has been captured via a data mining exercise that very few people know about, and even fewer have operational knowledge. And that data mining instrument provided the foundation for this current sting operation that has smoked out Mary McCarthy and shown Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson to be the punk ass surrender monkeys they appear to be.

 

FLORIDA LEGISLATURE: DAY 52 OF 60

Speculation is growing that Allen Bense, the current Speaker of the Florida House, will challenge Katherine Harris for the right to compete with Bill Nelson for the right to be a United States Senator. Looking back to yesterday (day 51), here are two aggregators to check:

Fort Report

Sayfie Review

And here are the highlight stories from the St. Pete Times:

GOP urging Bense to enter race
Party leaders see the House Speaker as the best bet to challenge Katherine Harris.

State closes door on boot camps
Lawmakers have formalized a deal that shifts funding for boot camps to new programs that emphasize education.

Group pushes new seat belt law
A Durant student's death prompts about 100 family members and friends to take their plea for primary enforcement to Tallahassee.

House wine sales bill not to Senate's taste
The Florida House is all for your being able to buy wine on Internet sites - but only from smaller makers.

Lobbyists' suit against new rules in federal court
Today is Day 52 of the 60-day session of the Florida Legislature.

Defections may undercut Republican agenda
Larger class sizes and private school vouchers are GOP priorities, but the fate of those issues is uncertain.

And the Times also has an interesting political blog called The Buzz.

 

FLORIDA LEGISLATURE: DAY 51 OF 60

The 108^th regular legislative session since statehood in 1845, and the 38^th Regular Session under the current Florida Constitution, has a bit more than one week left. For the House, here’s their Daily Calendar and for the Senate, their Daily Calendar. As you can see, most of the up-front action will be in open session on the floor. Yesterday was the last day for regularly scheduled committee meetings.

Looking back to yesterday, here are two aggregators to check:

Fort Report

Sayfie Review

And here is a sample of stories from the Palm Beach Post reviewing Day 50:

·          Bill stops employers from outlawing concealed weapons in locked vehicles in the parking lot

·          Migrant farmworkers could soon have safer rides to work

·          Joint resolution makes it harder for courts to strike down laws when interpreting the constitution

·          Bill grants Floridians already possessing a permit to carry a gun the right to continue to do so during a declared state of emergency

Those aren’t laws that have been passed, those are bills in various stages of passage that still have hope of becoming laws. Except, that is, for the joint resolution that was cited which expresses the will of this Florida Legislature.

 

FLORIDA LEGISLATURE: DAY 50 OF 60

It almost all over, of course, but the shouting and the ceremonial sine die. But there will definitely be some hard feelings and some disputes in these final days as card hands get played, and “players” get “played” as well. Happens every year.

For the remainder of this term I will include daily links to two disparate news aggregators (Fort Report and Sayfie Review) as well as selected coverage from papers and other media around the state. Special attention will (likely) be given to the Miami Herald and St. Pete Times. For instance, here are four highlighted stories from today’s coverage in The Times:

Lawmaker loophole lingers
The money continues to flow from the legislator-controlled slush funds even as the Senate president works to halt it.

Legislators back off property tax changes
A plan to let homeowners transfer their Save Our Homes caps appears to be on hold this session to allow leaders more time to study its effects.

Legislature conflicted on immigrants' tuition bill
Some lawmakers rethink a bill that lets illegal immigrants' kids pay the same college tuition as other Floridians.

Senators' suit seeks data on FCAT graders
Two Democratic senators sued the state Department of Education on Monday, seeking information about the academic credentials of temporary workers hired to grade essay questions on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.

1^st Story: Steve Bousquet uses scare quotes (“constitutional right”) to alert his readers that Senator JD Alexander is asserting a dubious free speech argument regarding the use of fundraising committees. Usage of loophole and slush fund in the headline properly set the table on how you are supposed to think.

2^nd Story: Jennifer Liberto has a story on the push to make property tax savings via the Save Our Homes initiative portable. The idea has support, apparently, but requires further study and this Palm Beach Post report helps explain why.

3^rd Story: Letitia Stein has a story on how the goodwill of Americans is being re-evaluated given the ungrateful nature of so many illegal immigrants across the land.

4^th Story: The AP has a story demonstrating more bitching and moaning from the crowd that detests the FCAT, still looking for a way to derail the FCAT by any means necessary.

Just another day on Florida’s version of Capitol Hill.

 

And a lovely Capitol it is, although I know this picture doesn't necessarily show it.

 

FLORIDA LEGISLATIVE SESSION PREPARING TO WIND DOWN

The 2006 Florida Legislative Session is down to its last two weeks. The Governor recommended a budget of $ 70.8 billion. In the Florida Legislature, all Senate bills have even numbers and all House bills have odd numbers. The House (HB 5001) has proposed a state budget of $70,756.5 billion and the Senate (SB 2700) has proposed $68,902.8 billion. Here is the State Budget Conference Committee meeting schedule for Tuesday:

* Education Appropriations, 8:30 a.m., 212 Knott Building

* Health Care Appropriations, 8:30 a.m., Allen Morris Hall (17 HOB)

* Agriculture & Environment Appropriations, 8:45 a.m., 214 The Capitol

As for Florida A&M University, here are some specific appropriations that appear solid in the House bill but not the Senate bill:

University Commons Renovation
$9,364,200
Campus Infrastructure Upgrades
$3,851,140
FAMU Developmental Research School
$2,500,000
FAMU Multi-Purpose Center Teaching Gymnasium
$2,850,000
Jones Hall Remodeling
$12,623,450

FAMU is also authorized (in both bills) to construct, via the issuance of bonds, the following projects:

Bragg Stadium Renovation
Housing, Phase IV and V
FAMU Foundation Building
Housing Facilities Renovation

That Senate bill is 391 pages and the House bill is 403 pages long. If you’re interested, that is.

 

MARY McCARTHY IS NO PATRIOT

The rope-a-dope that I have been suspecting may have just surfaced with its first play, nabbing a punk ass surrender monkey in the CIA who is also (naturally) a hack for the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party: Mary McCarthy. For those who may have some difficulty understanding why McCarthy is no patriot, a commenter (jerry) at Captain’s Quarters breaks it down thusly:

For those who have trouble understanding why McCarthy is law breaker and not a patriot I will restate what I said on the earlier threads. If a person who has access to classified information feels that the Executive Branch is breaking the law or doing something wrong then the proper method of disclosure is to call a staff member of the House or Senate Intelligence Committees. If there are any intelligence officers reading this thread and they do not know the how to contact one of these staffers then I will be glad to provide an appropriate phone number.

People who leak classified information to the press do so for political and not patriotic reasons. They are not whistleblowers; they are at a minimum criminals and at worst traitors. I class McCarthy as a traitor because she did it to undermine a Republican President in time of war solely to damage him to the advantage of the Democratic Party. There are too many more then casual connections between Dana Priest, Mary McCarthy, the Democratic Party and Joe Wilson.

[RattlerGator: here is the rope-a-dope] I was originally skeptical of the sting aspect of this story but the more I look at it the more it looks like she was set up by the CI people. All collaborating evidence cited by Dana Priest was either information that the Agency put out as part of the legend or more then likely given the nature of the MSM made up from whole cloth. .

You’ve been cold-busted, fool woman. May many of your fellow-travelers suffer the same consequences.

Well done on all counts, jerry. There are still countless folks in the country who believe that Colin Powell failed as Secretary of State because he didn’t counter-balance the President.

This is clear evidence of just how far off the tracks the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party is. The job of the Secretary of State is to advance the agenda of the President – not to counter it.

Mary McCarthy, although not responsible for advancing the agenda of the President, is certainly responsible for *not* working to counter said agenda. Because she did work in the executive branch and clearly suffers from the same delusions of so many with Bush Derangement Syndrome, the sweet success of this sting operation is made even better.

Keep on keepin’ on, Porter Goss. Root them out relentlessly; they don’t belong in such an important and non-partisan position.

 

ANDY McCARTHY HAS A DAMN GOOD QUESTION REGARDING THE WASHINGTON POST

The question, in a post on National Review’s The Corner, concerns this curious article concerning the CIA betrayer of national secrets who was rightly fired. Andy McCarthy wonders:

How can the [Washington Post] justify reporting one friend's mere impression that [Mary] McCarthy is not biased and that it is very difficult even for those who know her well to understand why she would leak sensitive information, and yet not report the objective fact that -- after a meteoric professional rise in intelligence circles during a Democratic administration -- McCarthy, while a government official on a government salary, gave at least $7700 of her own money in a single year to Democratic political campaigns?

Given the Post's delicate posture in this case -- having been the recipient of at least one highly sensitive leak on a subject about which it chose to publish a story damaging to national security -- you would think they might perceive a special obligation to play it down the middle here. But apparently not.

This morning's story is said to have had no fewer than eight contributors -- it was written by R. Jeffrey Smith and Dafna Linzer, and lists as contributors Walter Pincus, Al Kamen, Howard Kurtz and Dan Morse, and research editor Lucy Shackelford and researcher Magda Jean-Louis.

Since campaign contribution information is available on-line -- you don't even need to draft star reporters and research editors to dig it out -- is it too much to suppose that at least one of these eight folks might have mentioned, at least in passing, that this purported non-ideologue of a leaker was giving lots of money to the effort to unseat the present administration?

When the obvious parties seriously insist that there is no real left-wing bias in the American press, I want this question, this scenario, addressed.

 

SURVEY OF ECONOMIC NEWS

This is from the Club for Growth, Daily (Economic) News for April 21:

Deficits: Do They Matter? –
Brian Wesbury & Bill Mulvihill, FT Advisors

Pork-Barreling GOP Fights Earmark Reform -
John Berthoud, Human Events

High Gas Prices Do Not Equal Price Caps -
The Angry Federalists

Politics And The Gas Tax -
Caledonian-Record Editorial

Advice Unneeded -
IBD Editorial

New Trends In Online Traffic -
Leslie Walker, Washington Post

State of the Blogosphere -
David Sifry, Technorati

Very interesting range of stories.

 

BUFFALO SOLDIERS NATIONAL MUSEUM IN HOUSTON, TEXAS

If you haven’t done so lately, check out the Buffalo Soldiers National Museum in Houston, Texas. Here is the mission of the museum:

The primary objectives of the Buffalo Soldiers National Museum and Heritage Center are to preserve, promote and perpetuate the history, tradition and outstanding contributions of the Buffalo Soldiers toward the development and defense of the United States of America.

The mission and goals are to interpret, articulate, collect, display and preserve historical artifacts, documents, videos, prints and other historical memorabilia which details the history of the brave men and women who overcame extreme adversity while gallantly fighting the great American wars.

And, of course, they have a captivating piece of artwork on their website homepage that I hope to have an image of posted here but this blogging tool just isn't working for me right now. But trust me, click the link and check it out. It is beautiful.

SIDE NOTE: Bad weather is approaching Tallahassee at the time of this writing but I still hope to be heading down to Gainesville for the Orange and Blue game to meet up with my brothers and my nephew, the Super Duper Paratrooper. If all goes well, I may have a picture or three up by Sunday or Monday.

 

THE EFFECT OF UNCHALLENGED BETRAYAL IS RAMPANT, AND ILLITERATE, UNSERIOUSNESS

First (because I am stuck on this point), I refer you to my prior opinion column, “Betrayal,” and next ask you to consider this recent correction from the New York Times (thank you, Mudville Gazette):

An article on Sunday about civilian control of the military referred incorrectly to the status of retired officers under Article 88 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which prohibits the use of “contemptuous words” against the president, the secretary of defense and other high-ranking civilians. Retirees — along with officers on active duty — are indeed covered by the rule.

And now, how about a snippet from the offending section of the article in question from the Sunday New York Times:

Tensions between civilian leaders and the military brass are routine and occasionally erupt into public view. But the principle of civilian supremacy over the United States military has never been seriously challenged. In fact, Article 88 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice prescribes a court-martial for any commissioned officer who “uses contemptuous words against the president, the vice president, Congress, the secretary of defense” or other federal or state officials.

That prohibition, of course, does not forbid serving officers to speak candidly in private when asked for advice on military matters. Neither does the prohibition on “contemptuous words” apply to retirees.

“It’s certainly very unusual to have even retired military officers being this public about their opposition,” said Christopher F. Gelpi, a Duke University political scientist and co-author — with Peter D. Feaver, now a White House adviser — of a 2004 book on civil-military relations. “But I don’t think it’s improper at all. They’ve been careful not to violate the core tenet of civilian control — none of them has said these things publicly while on active duty.”

Don’t you just love that? They didn’t violate the “core” tenet of civilian control.

Do you see what I mean when I center this post on the idea that unchallenged betrayal leads to rampant, and illiterate, unseriousness?

The New York Times and their horde of fact-checkers makes a fundamental error that calls into question the entire tenor of their article, and to their minimal credit they have now minimally corrected that error (they, it seemed to me, wanted to portray General Pace as a poor, trapped poodle doing what comes naturally to a lap dog). Further, a Duke University political science professor has shown himself to be woefully illiterate on a subject he was presumably questioned about because of his presumed expertise.

Of course, we also have to consider this real nugget from the Times article:

The current generation of senior leaders is the best educated in history, he said, and some officers are intellectuals who are less willing than an earlier generation to keep quiet about policy disagreements.

My “ah ha!” moment: intellectuals unwilling to keep quiet about policy disagreements – the UCMJ be damned – because they are entirely content that they will never be called to account for spitting into the face of their duty, their honor, their country.

No, betrayal is not too strong. Not too strong at all. I wonder when, pray tell, is a national publication or network or newscast going to seriously question retired Army Colonel Larry Wilkerson about his severe dereliction in duty?

 

SAY WHAT!?!

I stated earlier my suspicions about the strangeness surrounding the extraordinary attention attending to the alleged rape of a stripper by members of the Duke University Lacrosse team. I’m surely going to have to write more about the situation later but today I want to highlight an opinion column in the Orlando Sentinel by Jemele Hill. She starts out fairly well:

You probably don't know Melissa Reed or Nina Shahravan, but you almost certainly know the athletes they accused of rape -- Juwan Howard and Michael Irvin.

In 1996, Shahravan told police Erik Williams, a Cowboys offensive tackle at the time, and an unidentified man raped her at Williams' home while Irvin held her at gunpoint and videotaped the attack. It was a complete lie.

In 1998, Reed accused Howard and former Washington Wizards teammate Chris Webber of assaulting her at a party at Howard's house. A Maryland judge later ordered Reed to pay Howard $100,000 for maliciously defaming him.

In the real world, women rarely file false rape claims. In the sports world, false accusations happen all the time.

Good points, although . . . I would take issue that in the real world women rarely file false rape claims. In the “real” world, I think most folks might be surprised how often women lie about “things” sexual. I’m not saying women lie all the time, I’m just saying it is not a rare occurrence. And because there is so much societal shame involved with so much sexual activity (quite often, seriously reinforced by women themselves) there is an incentive for women to fib when they find themselves in a situation, after the fact, that they either find regretful or shameful.

I think that’s a fact. Many others, Ms. Hill included, would surely disagree. But this conclusion is what really had me scratching my head:

I don't know if this woman in Durham is telling the truth or not. But I do know the course of this case already is charted: trial, acquittal, civil suit, then a quiet, out-of-court settlement.

By the time this trial is done, she'll either be a gold digger or a liar.

And we'll still be wondering if justice was ever served.

Huh?

I’m not sure I see a civil suit with an out-of-court settlement in this situation – and I’m not sure if this is far removed from the first scenario presented. There is “no shame in this game” being played by so many young folks in our culture these days and they think nothing of flat-out lying in an attempt to get paid.

Further, there is an overbearing sham that seems to have settled into our public discussions when it comes to national “discussions” like this – and I highly doubt if black people are sharing their true thoughts on this situation. My personal thoughts are harsh towards the strippers in this case and I suspect most folks, black and white, feel that way. As I’ve said before, I doubt if the full story of what happened is going to come out but I feel no need to close ranks behind this woman with such an obviously manufactured story.

 

ARE THEY BRAIN-DEAD AT THE MIAMI HERALD?

How is it possible for Florida’s major newspaper, in Florida’s major media market, to have a native of the city – Anthony Grant – (who not only played high school ball in the city but coached high school ball in the city) attain a head coaching gig after helping lead the flagship university to the first national collegiate basketball championship in state history (!!!), and this (online, at least) is their only notation of it:

UF BASKETBALL

Florida’s national basketball title didn’t just benefit the players and a 40-year-old championship head coach.

Anthony Grant, Florida’s top assistant, was named head coach at Virginia Commonwealth after 10 years on Florida’s staff.

‘‘VCU is getting one of the brightest coaches in the nation in Anthony Grant,’’ Florida coach Billy Donovan said in a statement.

Grant is Donovan’s second assistant to become a head coach, following John Pelphrey, the current head coach at South Alabama.

Grant also coached under Donovan at Marshall.

-- ANDREW ABRAMSON

That was in a “college roundup” throw-away piece, by the way. How incredible is that? No mention of growing up in Miami, no mention of being a good high school player and a star high school coach in the city -- I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a more pathetic failure by a hometown paper to brag on one of their own. And Abramson, the reporter, is either a U.F. student or was recently a U.F. student.

Every day, it seems, there are fewer and fewer people at newspapers all over the country who have a single, solitary clue about what is a local story that has to be run. Local boy, married to local girl, wins national championship and gets rewarded with an opportunity to run his own program in a city, oh by the way, where his brother the medical doctor happens to live.

The lack of coverage from the Herald is beyond pathetic.

 

INTRODUCING THE NEXT GREAT AMERICAN COLLEGE BASKETBALL HEAD COACH: ANTHONY GRANT

Here’s the press release from VCU with the good news (the video of the press conference is an interesting visual, too):

RICHMOND, Va. - Virginia Commonwealth University named Anthony Grant its new men’s basketball coach on Tuesday, making him the ninth coach in the program’s history. Grant, a native of Miami, Florida, recently finished his 10th year at the University of Florida and his 12th year overall as a top assistant under veteran coach Billy Donovan, more than a decade of work culminating in the Gator’s first national title in basketball.

“Right now is an exciting time for VCU Athletics,” said VCU Director of Athletics Dr. Richard L. Sander.  ”Bringing in Anthony Grant, a national champion, to lead our men’s basketball program is very exciting.  Anthony is a star.  Coach Grant is an exceptional recruiter, he is a tremendous teacher, a superior coach and an even better person.  His addition to VCU positions us for greatness.”

“I am very excited to be here at VCU,” commented Grant.  ”I appreciate Dr. Sander, President [Eugene] Trani, and Mr. [Norwood] Teague giving me this opportunity.  There is an obvious commitment on behalf of the administration to athletics and men’s basketball in particular, to put us in a position to compete for championships.”

At Florida, Grant served as Donovan’s top aid in all phases of coaching, including recruiting, on-floor coaching, scouting, and practice planning.  Grant played a key role in helping the Gators to the 2006 NCAA title, the 2005 and 2006 Southeastern Conference Tournament titles, three SEC Eastern Division titles and back-to-back SEC Championships in 2000 and 2001. The 1999 and 2000 teams made the first back-to-back Sweet 16 appearances in school history and the 2000 squad made UF’s first appearance in the National Championship game. The Gators have reached eight straight NCAA Tournaments, capped by the national title in 2006 in which Florida became the first team since the 1968 UCLA Bruins to win both the national semifinal and the final by 15+ points. The Gators are 226-98 (.698) during Grant’s 10-year stint in Gainesville.

“The time and situation couldn’t be more perfect for Coach Grant to join VCU – both our program and league are poised to reach the next level,” said VCU President Eugene P. Trani.  ”We are thrilled to have a person of Anthony Grant’s stature, experience and recruiting talents, and eagerly await the successes that are ahead of us.”

Grant has been an integral part in the recruiting and coaching of nine McDonald’s All-Americans and four NBA First Round Draft choices. Four of the past seven signing classes for the Gators have been ranked in the top five in the nation by every major recruiting service.

Before making the journey south to Florida, Grant spent two years at Marshall, also under Donovan, helping the Thundering Herd to a 35-20 record.  Grant also served as an assistant for a single season at Stetson, after wrapping up a seven-year stint as a prep coach in Miami.  At the high school level, Grant’s teams captured three state titles, five straight national rankings in USA Today and an overall record of 172-11.

Prior to joining the coaching ranks, Grant spent his collegiate playing career at the University of Dayton (1983-87), guiding the Flyers to a 70-49 (.588) overall mark, a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances, and one National Invitational Tournament berth.  In his 105 appearances in a Flyer uniform, Grant registered 11.6 points and 6.7 rebounds each time out and was named the team’s Most Valuable Player as a senior.

Grant is married to the former Christina Harrell of Miami, Fla.  They have three sons, 10-year-old Anthony, 5-year-old Preston and Makai, 11 months. Their daughter, Jayda Danielle, is four years old.

“We are extremely proud and excited to have Anthony join the VCU family,” commented soon-to-be VCU Director of Athletics Norwood T. Teague.  “He brings the experience, the recruiting ability, and the drive that will continue to help build VCU men’s basketball.  I look forward to working with him for a long time. The future of VCU is very bright.”

Grant will inherit a program that went 19-10 a year ago, including an 11-7 mark in league play.  The Rams, who posted an impressive 12-2 record in the Alltel Pavilion at the Stuart C. Siegel Center and saw record-setting attendance figures last season, will return three starters among eight letterwinners, while welcoming two newcomers for the 2006-07 season.

These are exciting times in the Gator basketball family and many of us may be excited all out of proportion but . . . this man is going to be a great one. And oh yeah, North Carolina State is going to be seriously upset it didn't make an all-out push to hire this man.

 

AFRICA ROUNDUP

From the Mail & Guardian in South Africa:

Aids kills one child every twenty minutes in Zimbabwe The United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) is embarking on an ambitious programme to improve the health, education and nutrition of vulnerable children in Zimbabwe, where one child dies of HIV/Aids and another is orphaned every 20 minutes. Unicef said it had received a British donation of £22-million ($38,4-million) to help children facing some of the worst hardships anywhere in the world.

God bless all in Africa How do we manifest our identity as Africans without reference to an African value system? Why are the ancestors no longer honoured? How do we “respect those who have worked to build and develop our country” -- to use a phrase from our Constitution -- if we ignore the contribution of pre-colonial Africans under whose custodianship of land and culture the time-honoured philosophy of Ubuntu evolved?

A genderless faith African traditional religion does not discriminate against women. But you’d never know this because current study perpetuates the biases implicit in Judaeo-Christian analysis, and many scholars -- including African feminist scholars -- do not study ATR from direct experience. Their starting point is always the arrival of missionaries in South Africa.

DRC justice system flounders in turmoil Like other government institutions that were neglected during years of civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the justice system is in dire need of reform. Since 2002, the country's judicial officials have produced reports on ways to reform the justice system. However, these reforms have not been implemented because the government has been focused on efforts to move beyond the turmoil of civil conflict.

Libya hosts Western stars to remember US raid Basking in its two-year-old rapprochement with the West, Libya boasts that this year its commemorations of Washington's deadly 1986 air strikes on its main cities will be joined by Western stars. Veteran United States soul singer Lionel Ritchie and Spanish tenor Jose Carreras are among the acts that Libya says will be performing in the capital.

Poverty and tradition fuel Aids on Lake Victoria shores On the banks of Africa's largest lake, a deadly cocktail of poverty, prostitution and tribal widow inheritance practices is fuelling a surge in HIV/Aids even as progress is made in other areas. Here in Western Kenya where the water and fish from Lake Victoria are lifelines, communities are struggling against an alarming new rise in HIV/Aids cases that has plunged residents into despair.

'We want to see justice' One month after the rebels chopped off both of Abubakr Kargbo’s hands with an axe, his son was born. "I gave him my name," said the father of four, gesturing towards the young Abubakr with a stump. "I did not expect to live and I wanted my name to carry on."

Lake Victoria groans as pollution takes toll With a huge amount of detergent, a young man washes a bus on the shores of Lake Victoria while a woman nearby cleans dishes seemingly oblivious to the chemical contamination. It's an ordinary day here in Western Kenya where Africa's largest lake is under siege, its life-sustaining waters and fish increasingly polluted by sewage, industrial waste and chemicals.

Trouble in paradise Lodge owners in a prime coastal resort are pitting the Danish and Mozambican governments against each other in a bitter legal row over who owns a piece of paradise. Jørgen Nielsen, a Danish businessman, ran into trouble in paradise shortly after he bought rights to a piece of land in the Vilanculos Coastal Wildlife Sanctuary in 2001.

Two sides to post-war Mozambique People getting eaten by wild animals is only one side of the picture in post-war Mozambique -- the tourist boom is threatening a number of endangered marine species with local extinction. South African conservation organisations working in Mozambique are particularly worried about sea turtles and dugongs.

Humans: The new bushmeat Residents of Limpopo terrorised by a pride of escapee lions this week got off relatively lightly compared with villagers living in neighbouring Mozambique and Tanzania, where lions often turn into man-hunters. In 18 months in just one of the country’s 10 provinces at least 70 people were eaten by lions.

'Shocking systematic bullying' Court proceedings are brought to a halt in Harare's High Court D where two witnesses, flown in from Switzerland, are to testify in a murder case. The recording equipment has malfunctioned and the Justice Ministry is too broke to replace it. The Swiss ambassador to Zimbabwe, leaves the court and returns moments later with a cable -- for which he paid R15 -- so that the case can proceed.

Africa should beware the forces of liberal imperialism "The new millennium must continue to communicate the unequivocal message that -- Africa shall be free!" The Mail & Guardian publishes an edited version of the inaugural lecture of the Parliamentary Millennium Project, delivered by President Thabo Mbeki, on the struggle between the Afro-optimists and the Afro-pessimists.

Bleak future for Zimbabwe's Aids orphans The child squirms drowsily as it struggles to roll over on the bunk bed, eventually succumbing to sleep. The skin on its face is too taught. Wisps of hair look as if they could fall out at any minute. "He is just from his daily ARVs [anti-retroviral drugs]," says the woman who takes care of him at an orphanage in the eastern Zimbabwean city of Mutare.

Statue fatwa triggers uproar in Egypt A fatwa issued by Egypt's top religious authority that forbids the display of statues has art lovers fearing it could be used by Islamic extremists as an excuse to destroy Egypt's historical heritage. Egypt's Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa issued the religious edict that declared as un-Islamic the exhibition of statues in homes.

'Much ado about nothing' One would have assumed that the tumultuous chorus that this week accompanied the proposed formation of a human rights commission in Zimbabwe was a response to a presidential decree that any person found without a Zanu-PF membership card would be flogged at two-hourly intervals in a public square.

'He was very stubborn -- since his childhood days' A year after Charles Taylor launched his rebellion from deep in the Liberian forest sparking war across the region, his mother said he had always been a stubborn child. “Among all my children, Charles’s attitude is just different. He is a very stubborn person — since his childhood days,” Taylor’s mother, Yassa Zoe Taylor, said in 1990.

Taylor extradition does not help Johnson-Sirleaf The real test of a leader is not when to make a decision on turning north or south, but choosing which road will lead to one’s destination. For Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the new Liberian President, the dilemma is walking the road to reconciliation and economic recovery that may be barricaded by the indictment of Charles Taylor.

The little pill that could Misoprostol. It's not exactly a household name as far as drugs are concerned; however, it has the potential to improve -- and even save -- thousands of women's lives in Kenya. This medication is one of a number of drugs that can be used to induce abortion, in a procedure that has come to be known as "medical abortion", or "abortion by pill".

AIDS kills one child every twenty minutes in Zimbabwe? I highly doubt that; it’s just that kind of scare tactic that still causes me to wonder so much about the HIV “industry” now entrenched in the health care field.

 

BRAIN JAZZ

Gerard Van der Leun has charitably described my opinion piece today, “Betrayal,” as a form of brain jazz. Any praise from Van der Leun is high praise indeed and I hope he won’t mind too much if I reproduce, from his July 2003 post, his concept of what “it” is:

BRAIN JAZZ

We don't fill in a formula of departments and features every week, we're jamming.

We just make up our content on the fly. No going back. No edits. Mainlining others thoughts.

It's like an endless assortment of brain musicians high on brain jazz.

If you can type and have something to say, you can sit in and jam.

You can play. ANY NUMBER can play a number and that number is always an unknown number. But if you can play unknown numbers you can sit in on the session.

If not, you can just login and kick back and watch the others go at it.

You never know what you're going to get, or which way the next person is going to bend the thread.

You're just there, in real time, and saying, really, whatever comes into your head.

Sometimes its flat, even more often predictable, and, yes, it can get really boring, just like a lot of modern jazz.

But still, there are times -- rarer now to be sure -- when the thing just takes off

And you find yourself thinking things you never thought you'd think and saying things you never planned to say to a lot of people who are coming right back at you, jamming harder and seeing if you can all somehow take it higher.

Not to be profound, just to take it around. It's like being in a Doctor Strange intellectual groove and you've got lift off.

Have this happen a couple of time and you're hooked, man. Like me, man. I've been hooked for years, man, but it doesn't rule my life, man.

That man is one hell of a writer.

Imagine, just try to imagine, how pleased I am tonight.

 

From Within The Veil:

BETRAYAL

W.E.B. DuBois said the problem of the 20th Century would be the problem of the color line; solidly within the color line in the culture of the United States stands African Americans, obscured from view by something similar to a veil -- those within are visible behind that veil, but precisely how clearly? Those within obviously see beyond that veil, but again . . . exactly how clearly? I believe the challenge of the 21st Century will prove to be the same as the challenge of the 20th Century but with this distinct difference: the “special” burden presented by the challenge (and that which must be shouldered) will no longer be on those from without the veil. No, the special burden in the 21^st Century will be on those of us within the veil. As it should be.

April 17, 2006

I have the highest regard for Colin Powell and it would not be an overstatement to say he is a genuine personal hero. This past week has done quite a bit of personal damage to his exalted status in my imagination. This is certainly of no real import across the nation or for Colin Powell . . . unless, of course, it is being replicated in households across America, especially those where one or more members have been service members or officers in the United States military.

It is unsettling to live in a time when a gathering storm is approaching but so many refuse to recognize it for what it is. I think that may be why I coined the term (at least I think I coined it) “punk ass surrender monkey” at a time when so many were signing on to the “cheese-eating surrender monkey” meme a few years ago. That generalized French-bashing meme just didn’t seem to have enough of an edge to me and wasn’t nearly serious enough, and certainly didn’t look homeward.

Are we or are we not serious about this gathering storm? I’ve been wondering about that ever since 9-11. As part of that wonderment, I’ve tried to determine what accounts for the evident blindness of so many.

I wonder no more: for an explication of this “blindness,” including a good working definition of punk ass surrender monkey, consider a recent offering from Gerard Van der Leun – discussing the recent National Geographic exploitation piece, “The Gospel of Judas:”

Having risen through the echo chamber of “higher” education and survived the ruthless but quiet vetting process of their “profession,” these editors knew full well that what they were putting out into the world was not a “gospel.” They also knew that calling it a “gospel” would ensure greater attention and greater sales. Beyond that, the editors, secular cultists all, also got a quiet little tingle by having, in their minds, “stuck it” to the Christian church once again. As usual, such secularists love to stick it to Christianity. Addicts of auto-erotic spiritual asphyxiation, their onanistic pleasure in these deeds is only enhanced if they can be performed during the most holy days of the Chritian calendar. Only then can maximum profit and pleasure be assured. This dark thrill of denigration has the immediate benefit of pleasingly confirming them in their own Church of Zero, and the secondary benefit of being much, much safer than, say, sticking it to Islam, a faith that enforces its demands for respect with bombs and beheadings, and whose central message to all cowards is “Don’t mess with Muhammad.” The sad fact of our modern era is that if you denigrate Islam, you often have to bag up body parts and hose down the sidewalk, but when you denigrate Christianity the most you need to clean up after yourself is a warm washcloth.Your gedankenexperiment for today is to ask yourself, regardless of your religious beliefs, if the editors of National Geographic, being given an ancient manuscript that “proved” the Koran was nothing more than the blatherings of some ergot-besotted Bedouin who had munched one too many hallucinogenic plants while hanging out in a cave near Mecca, would have published the same “proof” as loudly and as broadly? Would they have done so, or would they have issued a Press Release citing concerns for the “provenance” of the manuscript and their employees’ safety? Regardless of your religious beliefs, you know the shameful answer.But beyond these considerations, the publication of the “Gospel” of Judas has another, deeper and more lasting benefit to our neophytes of nihilism. It puts one of the final elements of their anti-morality play at center stage. It seeks to sanctify treason.

Read the full entry; it’s a typically outstanding piece – and especially important as a topic for discussion within an African American culture that takes its faith seriously, but increasingly superficially. Which is why I want to highlight this Van der Leun paragraph:

It is true that the federal crime of treason is not easily established and is rarely if ever charged. But the formal crime of treason is not what I am discussing here. Rather the more common, garden variety of treason as understood by plain people -- the rabid and unremitting hatred, expressed in word or deed, of the country that gives you the freedom express your hatred. It is the treason of the ingrate, the soul-dead, the politically perverted, and the bitter; it is, as Roger Kimball at The New Criterion discusses, the treason of the intellectuals and “the undoing of thought.”

The ingrate.

The soul-dead.

The politically perverted.

The bitter.

These are the folks susceptible of becoming punk ass surrender monkeys.

Aren’t we in the black community tired, by now, of being led around by the nose from such disaffected folk looking to use us to advance their fad? People who we good and well know laugh at our faith? People who mock Christianity every opportunity they get?

Tell me again, National Geographic: is it the “lost” gospel or is it the “discredited, false and heretical” attempt to confuse the Christian church? An attempt universally shunted in the earliest years of the church, in fact? Yeah, I thought so.

One of the most powerful sentences in Gerard’s piece for me was this:

It is no longer sophisticated or fashionable to speak of selfishness as betrayal.

I’m going to ponder that sentence well into the future, it resonates just that strongly in my imagination.

It is also a perfect entry into another discussion about the bet, the gamble, the diverse leadership of Islamic radicals have made – that the weakness of democracy will inevitably lead to its collapse. All that is required, they obviously believe, is a devotion to being consistently radical enough over a long enough period – and democratic civilization the world-over will eventually grow weary and capitulate. And if they can’t be worn down, they (the ingrate, the soul-dead, the politically perverted, and the bitter) can be counted upon to betray their nation if paid enough.

They may be correct in their assessment vis-à-vis Europe; I firmly believe they certainly are incorrect about America. But here at home, my God – I have to admit they do have the best-intentioned allies any adversary could possibly hope for.

Exhibit A, much to my chagrin, is Colin Powell and his sycophants. Using Gerard’s list, above, they represent “the bitter.” I held out for quite some time that Colin Powell was not engaged in underhanded activities with respect to the Bush Administration but it has become clear to me that Colin is well-trained in the art my mother describes as “throwing rocks and hiding your hands.” Consider retired Army Colonel Larry Wilkerson. I just watched him this weekend on C-SPAN deliver a grotesque display of pure hatred for Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld that was a sight to behold. It was so curious, in fact, that I had to do a little bit of checking on the man. When I found a Dana Milbank column in the Washington Post, I knew what to expect and was not disappointed in the slightest:

As Colin Powell’s right-hand man at the State Department, Larry Wilkerson seethed quietly [RattlerGator: Quietly? I bet!] during President Bush’s first term. Yesterday, Colonel Wilkerson made up for lost time.

He said the vice president and the secretary of defense created a “Cheney-Rumsfeld cabal” that hijacked U.S. foreign policy. He said of former defense undersecretary Douglas Feith: “Seldom in my life have I met a dumber man.” Addressing scholars, journalists and others at the New America Foundation, Wilkerson accused Bush of “cowboyism” and said he had viewed Condoleezza Rice as “extremely weak.” [RattlerGator: quite telling remark, wouldn’t you say?] Of American diplomacy, he fretted, “I’m not sure the State Department even exists anymore.” [RattlerGator: even more telling, still – right?]

And how about Karen Hughes’s efforts to boost the country’s image abroad? “It’s hard to sell [manure],” Wilkerson said, quoting an Egyptian friend. [RattlerGator: fertilizer, where fertilizer is needed, should be applied – that’s what we’re doing]

The man who was chief of staff at the State Department until early this year continued: “If you’re unilaterally declaring Kyoto dead, if you’re declaring the Geneva Conventions not operative, if you’re doing a host of things that the world doesn’t agree with you on and you’re doing it blatantly and in their face, without grace, then you’ve got to pay the consequences.” [RattlerGator: that’s called accepting the requirements of leadership; maybe when it bites Wilkerson in the ass he’ll remember his Army training]

Without grace?

Clearly, a European bureaucrat living in that fantasyland of Old Europe where (apparently) young new hires can’t be fired from their under-performing jobs, simply couldn’t have spit out an anti-American spin any better than Wilkerson did.

Now, I’m not saying Wilkerson is a monkey imitating his foreign master – just that he gives a damn good imitation of one. This makes him a punk ass surrender monkey of the bitter persuasion in my conception of things. These are folks who are well-intentioned but mistaken and, through their actions, engaged in doing the necessary bidding required for our adversary to be successful in their fight against America.

And that’s the problem with Washington, D.C. in the here and now – not enough people there have a problem with indirectly doing the bidding of our adversary – and, ultimately, the nation is going to have to do something about it. This is because there are, in actual fact, inherent weaknesses in all democratic forms of government. For instance, no one at that assembly thought to ask Colonel Wilkerson how does one hijack American foreign policy when one is doing precisely what the President wants one to do? As opposed to the foreign policy folks who are supposed to be doing what the President wants them to do overseas but who, clearly, were not.

Precisely who was doing the hijacking here, Colonel Wilkerson?

As Gerard said:

It is no longer sophisticated or fashionable to speak of selfishness as betrayal.

Here, in Colonel Wilkerson, is a man who was Chief of Staff at an agency that is constitutionally required to be the President’s – did you read that and comprehend its import – THE PRESIDENT’S – voice overseas. Not the American people and not the Congress – because we’re not talking about any kind of “by extension” situation – we’re talking about direct, in your lane, within your chain-of-command responsibility. You, as a State Department employee, might think you’re a citizen of the world (well and good) but you are not a United Nations unto yourself and you do work for a chief executive. However, when you’re too smart by half, and your government has been exceedingly good to you, apparently this class of folk forgets little niceties like respecting our own democratic processes.

The people elect a chief executive; we do not elect a Secretary of State nor the know-everything bureaucrats of the State Department who would dare spit in the face of the President of the United States. Nor do we elect commissioned officers in the United States military – who are drilled over and over again to stay in their lane, to work within their chain-of-command.

Can you possibly conceive of that man, Wilkerson, seriously advocating (and more importantly, implementing) the President’s foreign policy? I didn’t think so.

Now, is betrayal really too strong a concept to consider here? I say: Not. At. All. It seems to me it is directly on point and somebody has to call this man out on it.

The radical mullahs are banking on the Larry Wilkerson’s of America – so damn smart that they weaken the democratic process from the sheer heft of their own personal intellect, all the while presuming to serve a higher cause – as determined by their “cabal.” Wilkerson, it appears, loosely tosses around quite a few terms that seem to be more applicable to he and his crowd.

You’ve got to be some kind of stupid, or a double-agent of some sort, to seriously put forward the idea of someone hijacking American foreign policy when it is quite obvious you are not only the hijacking entity but the derelict entity, too.

Again, here’s Gerard:

Betrayal is a common catechism in the Church of the Self. Hymns to Me are the hosannas it hurls at an empty heaven. The politics of such a church require as First Things a rejection of all things not of, by, and for the self. A religion or a country of the people, by the people, and for the people is high on the list of things to be abhorred since it requires an allegiance that is other than to the self. The Church of the Self effectively mandates treason, and we see it now manifested daily in the bright robes of “unstiffled dissent” which shroud an increasingly vicious anti-Americanism that has its roots, not in reasoned criticism, but in unreasoned hate. We hear the hate but what we have not been allowed to see is the treason behind it.

There is something deeply offensive about a man only recently separated from a position at the highest levels of American foreign policy exhibiting no better home training than to speak in so vulgar a fashion about the leadership of American government. In the speech I saw on C-SPAN there came, inevitably, the question regarding Wilkerson’s former boss – Colin Powell. Why hadn’t Powell done or said more in opposition to those Bush Administration neanderthals when he was in office, the foreign correspondent wanted to know?

I would like to say that Colin Powell didn’t do so because he has better home training than that. There is, however, one problem with this assessment. General Powell’s fingerprints are all over this type of vitriol, including the recent “explosion” (more like a fart) of former military officers doing what they know damn well they should not do.

 

And the cutesy little answer provided by Wilkerson at that forum just isn’t going to fly. Colin Powell prefers to work within the system to effect change, he said. Is that right? Well why hasn’t he told you to STFU? And if you insisted on your present course, why wouldn’t he then publicly rebuke you? For if ever there was a time for General Powell to step forward and remind some folks of duty, honor and country – this strikes me as that time.

 

There is something doubly offensive about a man recently entrusted not only with a high-level military commission but subsequently with a high-level civilian post in the executive branch of government, and thereafter waltzing his butt out of that slot and personally attacking the leadership of the United States government.

 

I don’t give a damn whether Dana Milbank understands that or not. I do give a damn whether Colonel Wilkerson or General Powell honor that fidelity they owe to the United States, and to our chief executive.

 

 

CELEBRATE THIS HAPPY EASTER

Courtesy of Mark D. Roberts:

Prayer of Reflection

As I reflect upon this final word of Jesus from the cross, I am struck, Gracious Father, by the fact that this is my prayer too. To be sure, my situation is far from that of Your Son. And I'm hopeful that I still have many more days before my life's end. But, even still, at the end of all my striving, all my thinking, all my efforts, all my attempts to figure everything out, all my deeds, both good and bad, what do I have left but to trust You?

I think of the moving words of the hymn "Rock of Ages":

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee;
Let the water and the blood,
From Thy wounded side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure;
Save from wrath and make me pure.

Not the labor of my hands
Can fulfill Thy law’s demands;
Could my zeal no respite know,
Could my tears forever flow,
All for sin could not atone;
Thou must save, and Thou alone.

Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to the cross I cling;
Naked, come to Thee for dress;
Helpless look to Thee for grace;
Foul, I to the fountain fly;
Wash me, Savior, or I die.

Thou must save, dear God, and Thou alone. I have nothing to offer You but my trust in You to save me. So, like Jesus, I commend my spirit to You today, to rely on You, to believe in You, to live for You, until that day when I stand before You, with nothing in my hand but the cross.

Amen.

 

 

ANOTHER MILESTONE

Because blogging has always been something of a personal conversation with myself shared with anybody fool enough to read this website, it was something of a personal triumph to be included as a charter member of Pajamas Media – low readership and all. Because it has never been about trying to garner mega-hits on this website.

Today, I’m proud to announce that I’ve been selected for inclusion with the Conservative Brotherhood of bloggers. That’s “officially” included with the brotherhood for, in truth, I’ve always considered myself an “unofficial” member. Some of you, of course, may have already thought I was a member because I’ve included a prominent space for them on this website. I did that on my own because the idea was so solid, and worthy of support.

In what may be a strange admission, I purposely didn’t read any of them too regularly because I wanted (while having this essentially personal conversation with myself) to ensure that my online voice was authentically mine. That may not make sense to you but it makes sense to me.

Earlier this month I had decided to explore the idea of doing a Conservative Brotherhood Blogger of the Month kind of thing. There would be nothing to it other than a personal decision to pay great attention to the selected site for that month and, when moved to do so, comment (here on RattlerGator) on ideas or posts arising from the Site-of-the-Month for the selected period.

After pondering it a bit, I still like the idea and, unless the Brotherhood wants to expand on this concept or take it in another direction, that focus will start in May and the subject will be Joseph C. Phillips.

Thanks, again, to Cobb. My first online post involved him and in all seriousness, I consider this a tremendous honor. To conclude this post, I’d like to repeat the substance of an earlier post on May 11, 2005 featuring the perceptive words of another blogger, Submandave:

A while back Cobb, a blogger I've always enjoyed, put together a group he named the Conservative Brotherhood, a blog-roll of black conservative voices in the blogosphere. The other day he noted a commenter on Wizbang that apparently took [offense] to a group of “black” conservatives, believing their racially-based identification and membership criteria constituted a sort of racism that should be beyond conservatives. A similar, though less stridently expressed, sentiment was raised by fellow steeley-eyed killer of the deep and all around good guy Chap (of Chapomatic fame), who while uncomfortable with the idea of racially based exclusivity recognized that similar types of self-imposed selective grouping (MilBlogs, regional blog groups, even SubBlogs) is evident every day with little comment.

While I think the commenter on Wizbang may be speaking from a genuine belief that we should move toward a color blind society and that this is only made more difficult by continually highlighting race and ascribing a racial angle to every aspect of life, I believe his focus is off here. In the first place, there can be little argument that the experiences of Cobb, Juliette, La Shawn or any other of the CB in developing and expressing their conservative ideas as well as handling the reaction to their ideas is markedly different than those shared by many other conservatives and this difference is probably greatly related to cultural or societal expectations based upon race. As such, one would probably be just as accurate to describe the CB as a group based upon a shared experience resulting from skin color and political persuasion more than a group based just upon skin color and political persuasion. Secondly, no more than closing your eyes kept you hidden as a child, ignoring the real-world effects of racial identification (either self-identification or assumed identification on behalf of an observer) on experience does nothing to change that experience or make it less real. And third, that recognizing the impact that racial identification has in a situation where it implicitly and explicitly [affects] expectations and perceptions is not the same as creating [arbitrary] racial aspects to everything. If we were discussing the Brotherhood of Left-Handed Blacks, however, the commenter might have a stronger point.

To which, I remarked:

The man gets it; he actually gets it.

And that’s a beautiful thing.

Yes, it is.

It’s a big country, it’s a great country, and I’m not ashamed to say that I have served to defend it and will fight to preserve it. In part, because I have a good understanding of the contributions of my father, and the fathers of his father, to this great nation – a model republic for the world.

 

BASKETBALL JONES

How about a series of pictures from the Gators’ just completed run through the Final Four?

First up, a graphic honoring them for making the Final Four:

 

Then a classic shot from the game itself that captures the beauty of the game:

 

Next, a shot demonstrating just how supportive this team was for each other:

 

Here is Corey Brewer in a larger-than-life celebratory photo:

 

The team with the championship trophy:

 

The Orlando Sentinel made a graphic that, although it gave in to the flash of our shooting star (the camera, any camera, loves Joakim Noah), was still a good one:

 

The Architect, Billy Donovan, at the White House:

 

The best damn team in the nation, bar none, the University of Florida Fightin’ Gators are the undisputed 2005-2006 national college basketball champions.

 

PROTEST IDEA: PROTEST DILEMMA

From Cobb, the organizer and maintainer of sorts of the Conservative Brotherhood:

I've got a job keeping things flowing and I basically don't have time to hit the streets, but an extraordinary idea hit me today. Why not borrow a page from MLK in a protest against illegal immigration?

If Americans intentionally staged illegal demonstrations at the same place and time that those protesting in favor of 'undocumented workers' police and society would be faced with a very interesting challenge indeed. Should you arrest and prosecute Americans who are protesting in defense of the law while leaving potential illegal criminals on the streets protesting for rights they don't have or deserve?

Imagine an America where there are a million citizens in jail for defending our borders while 11 million illegals wander about free. It can't get any more stark than that.

The obvious answer, of course, to Cobb’s query: why not borrow a page from MLK in a protest against illegal immigration, is that it violates (or so it seems to me) the no-zero-sum maxim that (to me) seemed to work so well for the civil rights movement.

Further, because it sets worker against worker, it seems to follow (at least superficially) the approach of white segregationists back in the day. That’s not a recipe for success. It’s also one reason why I don’t oppose the Global War On Terror construct but I do think more needs to be made of its crucial subcomponent: the War For Freedom.

People respond better when they know we (as a nation) are fighting “for” something as opposed to “against” something.

More later.

 

STEPHEN STILLS

The University of Florida claims Stephen Stills as one of its own. Formerly a student at Gainesville High and U.F., Stills dropped out of college and went on to make history. He has a unique distinction in that he has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills & Nash.

I was stuck thinking about Stills last night, which led me to this:

Crosby, Stills & Nash: Their Remastered Greatest Hits

and here are two snippets of cuts featuring Stephen Stills from that collection:

Suite: Judy Blue Eyes (apparently about Judy Collins) and Southern Cross.

They made beautiful music, no doubt about that.

Nearly three years ago now, Stills donated $100,000 for an upgraded facility where the Florida band would rehearse and play.

Kudos to you, Stephen Stills. He’s still making music and touring. His website has a Florida-themed cut up for anyone to listen to. It’s called Drivin’ Thunder.

 

BARNETT ON ANOTHER ASPECT OF THE CONTINUING GLOBAL REVOLUTION WITH NEW MEDIA

One of my favorite bloggers, Thomas P.M. Barnett, has a good post up on a recent New York Times article by Seth Kugel on the fantastic popularity of a new Google service known as orkut – an online, invitation-only community that claims to connect people through a network of trusted friends.

So, on the one hand, it is by-invitation-only. But on the other hand, the entire universe gets to see your site and read your quasi-private communications with other folks who are presumed to be your “friends.”

Ohhhh-tay. I’m similarly amazed by MySpace.com – so, it must be something about the young folks today. Discretion is either under-appreciated or no longer applicable.

I’m betting on under-appreciated. But back to the revolution . . .

Reporting from Rio de Janeiro, here’s the opening of the Times article:

Ask Internet users here what they think of Orkut, the two-year-old Google social networking service, and you may get a blank stare. But pronounce it "or-KOO-chee," as they do in Portuguese, and watch faces light up.

"We were just talking about it!" said Suellen Monteiro, approached by a reporter as she gossiped with four girlfriends at a bar in the New York City Center mall here. The topic was the guy whom 18-year-old Aline Makray had met over the weekend at a Brazilian funk dance, who had since found her on Orkut and asked her to join his network.

Orkut, the invention of a Turkish-born software engineer named Orkut Buyukkokten, never really caught on in the United States, where MySpace rules teenage cyberspace. But it is nothing short of a cultural phenomenon in Brazil.

About 11 million of Orkut's more than 15 million users are registered as living in Brazil — a remarkable figure given that studies have estimated that only about 12 million Brazilians use the Internet from home. (And that 11 million does not include people like Ms. Makray, who clicked on Hungary as a nod to her heritage, or someone named Mauricio who wrote in Portuguese but jokingly registered as being from Mauritius.)

And from Barnett:

I like to write a lot about how the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) countries, or the pillars of my New Core, quietly go about setting the new rules for globalization, and how their 3-sigma approaches really point the realistic pathways for Gap shrinkage (instead of the Old Core--and especially America’s--pricey estimates and approaches).

Brazil is interesting in this regard WRT to the Web. First, there is their open-source sort of approach to encouraging people to use the web. Second, as this article points out, there is their rather intense social embrace of the web. Americans embrace the web socially as well, but the economic embrace tends to define us more (we are the world’s most intense shoppers, no doubt), as does the political-ideological embrace (all that blogging).

Just as Asians have taught the Old Core a lot about “thin content” (all that thumbing and imaging and doing-everything-through-the-cell-instead-of-the-PC--in contrast to the American style of “fat content” whereby we like the graphics and the video and the sound), the Brazilian embrace of social web sites shows us again how New Core states (the “second billion” on the web, as Ethan Zuckerman would identify them) seek personal connectivity more than political connectivity via the web.

This article is about how Brazilians have come to dominate a social networking service created by Google called Orkut. It is estimated that 11 million of Orkut 15 million subscribers are from Brazil, which is stunning because “only about 12 million Brazilians use the Internet from home.”

I would drop Russia from his BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) compilation and add Poland, but that’s neither here nor there – it (Orkut) is a fascinating development providing an insight into the utility of his whole “Core” and “Gap” hypotheses.

Barnett isn’t simply onto something – he’s standing on a hilltop peering over the horizon while many of us hear the thunderous pounding of hoofs approaching and are content to wonder what in the hell is that. Barnett is up on that crest shouting back to the rest of us, “Hey, take a look at this!”

He can’t be sure of what he sees. But he damn well knows it is substantive, and we will have to reckon with it – one way or the other.

The media revolution continues to evolve, in real time but at hyper-speed, and no one truly knows what the end is going to be.

 

WASHINGTON POST ADMITS THE OBVIOUS: PUNK ASS SURRENDER MONKEYS, PLEASE TAKE NOTE

And yes, I’m talking about you Joseph Wilson and Valerie Plame.

You know the ridiculously unserious nature of the “opposition” politics of the day are COMPLETELY out of control when even the Washington Post editorial board has to stand up and shout, in essence: STFU with all of this foolishness, mickey-fickey! Here’s Lorie Byrd, citing Ace of Spades, citing the Washington Post:

PRESIDENT BUSH was right to approve the declassification of parts of a National Intelligence Estimate about Iraq three years ago in order to make clear why he had believed that Saddam Hussein was seeking nuclear weapons. Presidents are authorized to declassify sensitive material, and the public benefits when they do. But the administration handled the release clumsily, exposing Mr. Bush to the hyperbolic charges of misconduct and hypocrisy that Democrats are leveling.

Rather than follow the usual declassification procedures and then invite reporters to a briefing – as the White House eventually did – Vice President Cheney initially chose to be secretive, ordering his chief of staff at the time, I. Lewis Libby, to leak the information to a favorite New York Times reporter. The full public disclosure followed 10 days later. There was nothing illegal or even particularly unusual about that; nor is this presidentially authorized leak necessarily comparable to other, unauthorized disclosures that the president believes, rightly or wrongly, compromise national security. Nevertheless, Mr. Cheney’s tactics make Mr. Bush look foolish for having subsequently denounced a different leak in the same controversy and vowing to “get to the bottom” of it. [RattlerGator: I beg to differ with that curious observation – he was obviously involved, unwillingly, in a partisan sparring match where he had been blindsided by a low blow]

The affair concerns, once again, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV and his absurdly over-examined visit to the African country of Niger in 2002. Each time the case surfaces, opponents of the war in Iraq use it to raise a different set of charges, so it’s worth recalling the previous iterations. Mr. Wilson originally claimed in a 2003 New York Times op-ed and in conversations with numerous reporters that he had debunked a report that Iraq was seeking to purchase uranium from Niger and that Mr. Bush’s subsequent inclusion of that allegation in his State of the Union address showed that he had deliberately “twisted” intelligence “to exaggerate the Iraq threat.” The material that Mr. Bush ordered declassified established, as have several subsequent investigations, that Mr. Wilson was the one guilty of twisting the truth. In fact, his report supported the conclusion that Iraq had sought uranium.

Mr. Wilson subsequently claimed that the White House set out to punish him for his supposed whistle-blowing by deliberately blowing the cover of his wife, Valerie Plame, who he said was an undercover CIA operative. This prompted the investigation by Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald. After more than 2 1/2 years of investigation, Mr. Fitzgerald has reported no evidence to support Mr. Wilson’s charge. In last week’s court filings, he stated that Mr. Bush did not authorize the leak of Ms. Plame’s identity. Mr. Libby’s motive in allegedly disclosing her name to reporters, Mr. Fitzgerald said, was to disprove yet another false assertion, that Mr. Wilson had been dispatched to Niger by Mr. Cheney. In fact Mr. Wilson was recommended for the trip by his wife. Mr. Libby is charged with perjury, for having lied about his discussions with two reporters. Yet neither the columnist who published Ms. Plame’s name, Robert D. Novak, nor Mr. Novak’s two sources have been charged with any wrongdoing.

No charges for any wrongdoing. But an anal retentive prosecutor keeps charging hard, lost in the pine forest looking for a baobab tree.

Yo, Democrats! Can the grown-ups come out to play, now?

 

MEDIA LIES

Roger Fraley at XDA posted the details yesterday:

Out of the 17,000 or so Americans wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan in the past three years, the perception was that many of them lost a limb or limbs to the IEDs and other fighting. There have been stories about American amputees in all the papers. Even in the funny papers, BD of Doonesbury is an Iraq War amputee. One of the soldiers on FX's now canceled Over There is an amputee. I thought there were thousands of them.

The Rocky Mountain News today has a series of stories on hard working, courageous soldiers overcoming the handicap that losing a limb or limbs creates (and some of them getting back to combat). Good stories. In the middle of one, there is the news that only 460 or so soldiers are amputees. That's way less than the popular conception and thus very good news in a myth puncturing way. Every single death and disability is a tragedy, mainly because they're all so young.

Good job, Roger. It’s a point that has to be made and reinforced. All the more important because so many in America and around the globe are still looking backwards in an era that requires they focus more on thinking forward. Wretchard the Cat explains why:

[John] Reid, before becoming the UK equivalent of SecDef was “a former member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (of which he has said: ‘I used to be a Communist. I used to believe in Santa Claus’)” and his views may be colored by his background. But I have no doubt that Reid's remarks, whatever their actual merit, are the first stirrings of a debate which will eventually reshape the international environment of the 21st century. And the world is changing. Austin Bay links to a long article in the National Journal which talks about a new “strategic convergence” within NATO which basically asserts the alliance is gradually going to war as concretely expressed by its growing commitment to combat in Afghanistan. One of the implied objectives of NATO's Afghan commitment is to gain experience in a new kind of warfare for which most of its members are unprepared but a recent hearing of the Senate Committee for Foreign Relations on Islamic Extremism in Europe strongly suggests that for the Continent at least, the war will also have a significant domestic component.

It is precisely radical Islam’s fixation on a domestic weakness inherent to democracies to which the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party is completely blind, and unforgivably so. Wretchard, here, is especially on the money:

Europe [is] smack in the middle of the War on Terror and the danger [is] real. And if its undersized militaries were unsuited to fight Al Qaeda in Central Asia they were little better off at home. It is in this context that some of Reid's most disturbing remarks must be read.

Here at home, we in the UK have recognised the need to update our approach. In the face of the new terrorist threat, we have made appropriate legal changes in our domestic legislation. For instance, we have changed our domestic legislation relating to maximum period of detention before charge. We may disagree about the length of time that we should hold people but there is a general consensus that there was good reason to extend that period. We have also introduced a new offence of "Glorifying Terrorism"

The issues that Reid raised were all prefigured in one way or the other by the US experience from 2002 to the present. They find their echoes in the Plame Affair. Guantanamo Bay. The McCain Amendment. In Iraq. That these problems are now coming to the general attention of Europe suggests that the problems themselves are real. If so, there is no Last Helicopter out of the situation unless it can take us away from the 21st century.

It’s time to get on with the tough work ahead, time for the Democrats to remember what the hell a “loyal” opposition is, to stop with the kiddy chit-chat and all the unserious grandstanding that identifies late-20^th century politics on both sides of the aisle.

9-11, remember? It changed everything in my world and I’m tired of waiting on the Democrats to come to terms with 9-11.

NOTE: I watched the Noon presentation on C-Span of the panel discussion on Hugh Hewitt’s book Painting the Map Red: The Fight to Create a Permanent Republican Majority and Bob Beckel made some good points, but . . . he’s trying to fight the good fight and I think he’s deathly afraid that the permanent Republican majority is about to be solidified.

The only people who can prevent the Republicans from achieving that majority now are the Republicans. And it is eminently possible that they may do just that. We’ll see.

 

FLASHBACK: NOV. 4, 2004

The subject: a post at Crooked Timber on Religion and Politics (and the need for Democrats and the left wing to more seriously engage faith and moral values – Amy Sullivan was the basis, or prompt, for the post and she’s still steady on the case for the Democrats). But hey, go ahead and read this post. I tell you, it is one fascinating thread. I was so compelled that I had to add a comment near the end of the thread and this is what I said:

Regarding Massachusetts: it’s not simply that Bush got that percentage of votes. No, no, no. It’s that he INCREASED his percentage in Massachusetts over [his year] 2000 [returns] against a native son. Many of you are seriously, seriously deluded. Harry, I feel for you my man. I finally fled the Democratic Party this year and, as a black man, have had two-hour discussions with friends passionately trying to turn me back. No way, and this thread certainly affirms that decision. Harry, you do make some good points but there are fewer and fewer of you in and of the left. The responses to this election by many have been nothing short of shameful, not to mention juvenile and unserious. I mean, secession? SECESSION? I’d never voted for a Republican before but I couldn’t be more proud of voting for George W. Bush. And switching to the Republican Party. The CERTAINTY that people of faith are unthinking is the greatest liability of the Democratic Party. How long before the Amy Sullivan’s of the world just give the hell up on all of y’all too? And will any of you ever stop to think of the consequences of FORCING her out? Just last night I had another conversation with a friend about Judge Pickering. The blatant lies told by the Democrats about this man still resonate with black people in the South. But then you hit them with the facts—and the reasonableness of his action in the cross-burning case, especially given the dispensation of the case for the two other defendants—and immediately the issue changes to some OTHER trumped up reason why this guy is just another evil Cracker. Sad. Really sad. The Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party has been allowed to live a lie for decades. Those days are ending. In actual fact, it is only because of rock-solid black support that the Howard Dean’s and John Kerry’s of America even have a national presence. Zell Miller is right and you folks still in the Democratic Party have no clue just how tenuous your national position is. You haven’t hit rock bottom yet but this thread clearly tells me that you are well on your way.

I was mighty proud of that entry at the time I submitted it and still am today.

 

IDENTITIES, MY BROTHERS –

AND MY SISTERS!

In The Corner/National Review Online, here’s Andrew Stuttaford quoting Harry's Place, quoting from Amartya Sen’s new book, Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny:

“The increasing tendency to overlook the many identities that any human being has and to try to classify individuals according to a single allegedly pre-eminent religious identity is an intellectual confusion that can animate dangerous divisiveness. An Islamist instigator of violence against infidels may want Muslims to forget that they have any identity other than being Islamic. What is surprising is that those who would like to quell that violence promote, in effect, the same intellectual disorientation by seeing Muslims primarily as members of an Islamic world…Increasing reliance on religion-based classification of the people of the world also tends to make the Western response to global terrorism and conflict peculiarly ham-handed. Respect for "other people" is shown by praising their religious books, rather than by taking note of the many-sided involvements and achievements, in nonreligious as well as religious fields, of different people in a globally interactive world. In confronting what is called "Islamic terrorism" in the muddled vocabulary of contemporary global politics, the intellectual force of Western policy is aimed quite substantially at trying to define—or redefine—Islam. To focus just on the grand religious classification is not only to miss other significant concerns and ideas that move people. It also has the effect of generally magnifying the voice of religious authority. The Muslim clerics, for example, are then treated as the ex officio spokesmen for the so-called Islamic world, even though a great many people who happen to be Muslim by religion have profound differences with what is proposed by one mullah or another.”

This is fantastic. Fouad Ajami also wrote a great review on Sen’s book in the Washington Post. Here’s an excerpt:

Nowadays the economist and Nobel laureate Amartya Sen travels the world, opinions at the ready. His subjects are rarely economic. In the main, he works "out of area," taking on a wide range of political and social issues that have little to do with the dismal science. He is serene and confident, full of good cheer, ready to see the best in everyone.

Over this discursive little book lies the shadow of Sen's formidable Harvard colleague, the political scientist Samuel P. Huntington, with his celebrated theory of the "clash of civilizations." Sen has assigned himself the role of the anti-Huntington: Sen sees Huntington's thesis of cultural conflict yielding a one-dimensional approach to human identity -- and leading to the "civilizational and religious partitioning of the world," which can only occasion greater global disorder.

Here, in contrast, is Sen celebrating the complexity of human identity: "The same person can be, without any contradiction, an American citizen, of Caribbean origin, with African ancestry, a Christian, a liberal, a woman, a vegetarian, a long-distance runner, a historian, a schoolteacher, a novelist, a feminist, a heterosexual, a believer in gay and lesbian rights, a theater lover, an environmental activist, a tennis fan, a jazz musician," etc. One's civilizational identity is not one's destiny, Sen observes, and civilizational "partitioning" -- seeing the planet culture by culture -- does not capture the messiness of the world. This Earth of ours, he says, is made more "flammable" by warring definitions of human identity, rather than an embrace of the many different facets that make us human.

Sen's faith in the multiplicity of claims on human loyalty is admirable, but it can hardly stand up to the fury of the true believers. In our combustible world today, Huntington's outlook has much greater power. His "cartography" of civilizations may have been too sharply drawn and he may have been a bit cavalier about modernity's appeal across cultural lines, but he came forth with a formidable work. Nor did he fail to see the fissures at the heart of particular societies -- hence his category of "torn countries," places like Turkey, Russia and Mexico, where the matter of loyalty and identity is fiercely contested. But Sen needs his straw man, and Huntington is pressed into the role.

Sen is a product of Western (British) education. But he sees no clear demarcation between the West and the rest (the language is Huntington's). There is nothing peculiarly Western about democracy, Sen argues. It has global roots; there were antecedents of it in India and in the Muslim world at about the same time when "Inquisitions were quite extensive in Europe, and heretics were still being burned at the stake." In his most intensely argued assertion, Sen sees the democratic inheritance as a truly universal enterprise. "The Western world has no proprietary right over democratic ideas," he writes. "While modern institutional forms of democracy are relatively new everywhere, the history of democracy in the form of public participation and reasoning is spread across the world." Western practice was not "sequestered" then, and it has not developed in some "splendid isolation."

I can’t find it right now but I have similarly written on this blog that I have many identities that are fundamental to who I am and some of them place me in a minority category and in some of them I am a majority.

The challenge for African Americans is to claim full ownership of who they (we) are as individuals and who they (we) we are as a cultural group – as well as who they (we) are not – while discussing apples to apples, and comparing oranges to oranges, if you know what I mean. Many things don’t (and shouldn’t) have a racial or cultural component.

We have seriously forgotten that and conflated far too many things that simply can’t be conflated.

 

YOU NEVER FORGET YOUR FIRST TIME

This first week in April was certainly my most eclectic week for visitors to the blog. For instance, by rank order, I’ve had visitors from quite a range of nations led by France,