Monthly Archives: August 2005

August 23, 2005 — John Hinderaker

Some Thoughts on Casualties in Times of War and Peace

It is universally acknowledged that public support for the Iraq war is eroding. Some of the polls supporting this claim are faulty because they are based on obviously misleading internal data, but the basic point cannot be denied: many Americans, possibly even a majority, have turned against the war. This should hardly be a surprise. On the contrary, how could it be otherwise? News reporting on the war consists almost »
August 23, 2005 — Paul Mirengoff

Gaza only

P. David Hornik in FrontPage Magazine shows how Secretary of State Rice is following in the unfortunate footsteps of former Secretary of State Baker and the Clinton administration by insisting that, with respect to Israeli withdrawals, “it cannot be Gaza only.” As Hornik notes, the accommodationist policies of the past two administrations “sunk Israel into death, mayhem, and continuous warfare and the Palestinians into poverty, dictatorship, and genocidal depravity.” But »
August 23, 2005 — Scott Johnson

Diamonds and rant

When we last checked in with Joan Baez, she was giving it up for peace and love in Charlottesville on the evening after the election this past November: “Joan Baez and me.” Today Eric Pfeiffer spent a little quality time with Baez at Camp Reality: “Joan Baez talks to the Buzz.” Baez proclaims: “When I »
August 23, 2005 — Paul Mirengoff

Preliminary thoughts on the emerging Iraqi constitution

There will be much hand-wringing about whether the draft Iraqi constitution creates a theocracy, sells out womens’ rights, and so forth. A good deal of the hand-wringing will come from those who wanted to leave Iraq in the hands of a murderous dictator (a dictator some are starting to praise for his attention to womens’ rights), and those who would have had us pull out of Iraq without paying any »
August 23, 2005 — John Hinderaker

Armed Forces Recruitment Exceeds Targets

Ralph Peters has a nominee for August’s most important unreported story: while the media were in a frenzy over Cindy Sheehan, the armed forces have quietly exceeded their recruitment goals for FY 2005: Every one of the Army’s 10 divisions »
August 23, 2005 — John Hinderaker

Pentagon: Still Not Convinced

Rowan Scarborough of the Washington Times reports that the Pentagon’s investigation has found no evidence that the Able Danger data-mining team found evidence in early 2000 that Mohammed Atta was in the U.S. at that time, and was part of an al Qaeda cell. At issue is the famous “chart” that supposedly was created in 2000, and showed Atta’s connections to other suspected terrorists. The Pentagon can’t find it: Larry »
August 23, 2005 — Scott Johnson

Today the UNDP, tomorrow the UN

In the New York Sun Meghan Clyne reports on the ripples generated by the United Nations’ support of anti-Israel propaganda distributed in the Gaza Strip: “UN’s anti-Israel propaganda prompts Congress to act.” Despite the headline, Clyne’s report is filled more with the huffing and puffing of politicians than with action. Clyne reports on a letter “with a series of tough questions prsented to the UNDP by the Senate Appropriations Committee”: »
August 23, 2005 — Scott Johnson

The heart of a mother

Bruce Kesler takes a look at the Augusta Free Press’s coverage of the mother of Jason Redifer: “The heart of a mother.” Jason was killed while serving in Iraq; his mother provides a contrast to the mother whom the media have made the center of the circus in Crawford this month. »
August 23, 2005 — Scott Johnson

Committed to “diversity”

The city of Minneapolis is a case study in the consequences of one-party liberal rule. What happens when liberals rule a city from top to bottom for 30 years? What happens when the city’s newspaper shares the politics of the city’s municipal leaders? Can the newspaper provide the kind of oversight that journalists proclaim to be their duty? Can the city fulfill its duty to secure the safety of its »
August 23, 2005 — John Hinderaker

Vote On Constitution Deferred

The Iraqi Parliament voted tonight to delay a decision on the draft constitution submitted yesterday by Shiite and Kurdish negotiators for three more days, to allow further negotiations with the Sunni minority. As we’ve repeatedly predicted, negotiations are likely to continue until the last possible moment. Ultimately the question is, is Iraq really a country? Before the war started, this was my biggest worry: that “Iraq” might be just a »
August 22, 2005 — Paul Mirengoff

Sticking to, but not penetrating, the wall

The New York Times reports that “an active-duty Navy captain has become the second military officer to come forward publicly to say that a secret defense intelligence program tagged the ringleader of the Sept. 11 attacks as a possible terrorist more than a year before the attacks.” According to the officer, Captain Scott Phillpot, “Atta was identified by Able Danger by January-February of 2000.” Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer went public »
August 22, 2005 — Paul Mirengoff

“The most famous conservative journalist whom liberals have never heard of” (but will)

The New Yorker has a profile of Hugh Hewitt by Nicholas Lemann, a liberal writer I admire. The profile apparently is not available online, but Hugh has reproduced the first and last paragraphs. They support his overall assesment — “a very fair but hard hitting piece.” Hugh’s friend Carol Platt Liebau agrees. »
August 22, 2005 — Scott Johnson

Krugmania strikes deep

On Friday the New York Times published Paul Krugman’s column “What they did last fall.” On Saturday Richard Baehr deconstructed the column at The American Thinker in “Krugman’s big lie,” and John H. also did so here in “Krugmania.” Even sequestered in his aerie Krugman must have felt some blowback over the weekend. He tries to rehabilitate himself in today’s column: “Don’t prettify our history.” How about not lying about »
August 22, 2005 — Scott Johnson

Live from Crawford

Gene Allen has been our man in Crawford covering the Cindy Sheehan media circus. Gene has returned from Crawford to his day job in Minneapolis, but NRO’s Eric Pfieiffer is on the scene at Camp Cindy live blogging for The Buzz. Pfeiffer’s most recent post is inspirational: “Crawford: Visiting with the counter protesters.” Question: Why haven’t we heard of Camp Qualls or Camp Reality before? »
August 22, 2005 — Paul Mirengoff

Knuckling under

ABC and its Washington D.C. affiliate WMAL have fired conservative talk show host Michael Graham. They did so under pressure from the group Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), after Graham had opined that Islam is a terrorist organization. Graham’s statement is incorrect (Islam is a religion not a terrorist organization) and offensive to some. However, many statements made on talk radio are incorrect and offensive. And Graham did not dream »
August 22, 2005 — John Hinderaker

Crunch Time for the Iraqi Constitution

The Associated Press is reporting that Shiite and Kurdish negotiators have a draft constitution that they are prepared to submit to Iraq’s parliament by the deadline of midnight tonight. However, Sunni negotiators say they still haven’t agreed to the draft and don’t want it submitted. Together, the Kurds and Shiites have enough votes in parliament to approve the draft constitution and have it voted on; however, the requirements for adoption »
August 22, 2005 — Paul Mirengoff

For what it’s worth

Betsy Newmark, who is guest-blogging for Michelle Malkin, provides (via her husband Craig) an excellent economic analysis of the “comparable worth” doctrine. This theory, a blast from the feminist past, has received far more attention than it deserves because an old John Roberts memo blasting it has turned up. Betsy’s husband provides evidence that “the vast majority of the wage gap [between men and women] can be attributed to differences »