Month: April 2004

Modest Proposal (Oh, I slay me)

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I have a set of related suggestions for changing the complexion of the national legislature. I am not wedded to any of them, but I think that they’d be interesting to discuss, so here goes: 1). Increase the number of Representatives in the House to 2,000. As someone’s pointed out in comments around here, our … Read more

Former UK Diplomats Slam Blair, Bush

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Via Kuro5hin
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In a letter to British Prime Minister Tony Blair published in The Independent, an overwhelming host of former diplomats* argued that the effort in Iraq is doomed:

The conduct of the war in Iraq has made it clear that there was no effective plan for the post-Saddam settlement. All those with experience of the area predicted that the occupation of Iraq by the coalition forces would meet serious and stubborn resistance, as has proved to be the case. To describe the resistance as led by terrorists, fanatics and foreigners is neither convincing nor helpful. Policy must take account of the nature and history of Iraq, the most complex country in the region. However much Iraqis may yearn for a democratic society, the belief that one could now be created by the coalition is naive.

It’s time to acknowledge we’ve made some mistakes and move on, quickly, to Plan B here.

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Hope in Bishkek, Part II

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As clearly I’ve had to take it upon myself to serve as the US-Kyrgyzstan Tourism Director / Diplomacy Chief (Colin Powell rudely ignoring my suggestion that he do some high-profile PR for our Central Asian ally), and as it’s a beautiful spring day here in the North East, I thought I’d share these awesome photos … Read more

Timing, Mr. President

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Via a diary on Kos Bush Defends Declaring End to Iraq Combat A year ago I did give the speech from the carrier saying we had achieved an important objective, accomplished a mission, which was the removal of Saddam Hussein,” Bush said. “As a result, there are no longer torture chambers or mass graves or … Read more

Rumsfeld’s War, Powell’s Occupation

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This is so unbelievably idiotic that I can barely comment. (The usual suspects, of course, think it brilliant.) But, for the sake of argument, assume that every single word of it is true — indeed, I’ll allow that there is likely a germ of truth to it, albeit poorly thought-out and expressed. Exactly who decided … Read more

Can We Call it “Corruption” Yet?

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Hat tip to Constant Reader Wilfred for this item ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Forget whether Bush siphoned off money set aside for the Afghanistan effort to start early planning for an Iraq invasion, forget that Bush is poised to request even more money for Iraq now (although some suspect he’ll wait until after the election), what the hell’s … Read more

Abu Ghraib

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Via the incomparable Gary Farber @ Amygdala

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As I noted before—when the photo of the soldier who had the Iraqi boy hold up a sign about killing his father and knocking up his sister was making the rounds—I can’t relate to the sort of stress doing the job our soldiers are doing must put them under. And, therefore, I tend to be very generous in my assessment of conduct unbecoming situations.

It’s a little tougher to be so evenhanded about the situation at Abu Ghraib though. And before anyone asks “Where’s the outrage from the Right on this?”: Here’s some.

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OK, this is not funny.

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The author of this doesn’t know me, or those like me. He or she has no idea what we go through, what it takes for us to get through the day. I’m not pushing it on anybody else; it’s nobody’s business but my own and my loved ones what I do or spend money on, … Read more

Hey, I forgot that I had this hobbyhorse…

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I was reading this post over at OTB…

(pause)

What? Oh. I just went to bed at a decent hour for a change. Sleep: it’s an amazing notion. I applaud whoever came up with it.

Anyhoo, James commented on (and later linked to, although I haven’t read it yet: it could be frothing) to this speech by outgoing Senator Zell Miller about the 17th Amendment – direct election of Senators – and why it should be repealed. This being something that I could reliably become exercised about in the past, I’d thought that I’d share.

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Chao: Working Overtime to Screw Workers

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The first time Labor Secretary Elaine Chao tried to overhaul the country’s Fair Labor Standards Act, there was a bit of squawking (1.5 million e-mails, letters, faxes and made phone calls to the White House, the Department of Labor and Congress…and not all of them from me either). So—her boss being up for re-election this year—she rolled up her sleeves, put in some long hours, and took another stab at it. And now, in the fine tradition of the Bush II administration, it’s much, much better…at least in Orwellian terms.

“Today, workers win. The department’s new rules guarantee and strengthen overtime rights for more American workers than ever before,” said Secretary Chao.

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Spanish Withdrawl

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In a previous post I suggested that the Madrid bombing and Socialist victory in the immediately following election was a victory for Al Qaeda because it allows them to plausibly claim to have enough power to change the outcome of Western elections. (Notice how the ‘plausibly claim’ lets us avoid getting into the hair-splitting and … Read more

It’s way late…

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… so I shall leave you with a reminder that the President and Vice President are meeting with the 9/11 panel tomorrow (as new Guest Blogger for Tacitus Harley rather – man, I’m really sorry to have to use this adjective – waggishly reminds us*). I’m sure that with enough effort one or two of … Read more

:blink: Sorry, what?

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Thankfully, this was slightly less of a WTF moment in context: UN bans WMD sales to terrorists The United Nations Security Council has unanimously passed a resolution aimed at keeping weapons of mass destruction out of the hands of terrorists. It means all UN member states will have to pass laws to stop terrorists and … Read more

I’m uncertain…

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…about just what would be the proper reaction to this particular group: Operation Take One For The Country. Amused? Appalled? Apprehensive? Approving? And that’s just the As. Not that what consenting adults do is any of my business, mind you, but this is definitely one of the… shoot, the censor circuits just kicked it up … Read more

The Problems Associated with Connecting the Dots

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Mark Lombardi’s art career was just beginning to soar when he reportedly hanged himself in his New York apartment. Because Mark’s work dealt with international conspiracies (his exhibitions have been notoriously visited by the FBI and others) and showing how certain leaders were connected to them, speculation ran rampant in the art world that he … Read more

Sleeping dragons.

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I see that we now estimate that North Korea now has eight or so nuclear weapons, and absolutely no incentive to give them up.

The increase in the estimate would underscore the strides North Korea has made in the past year as the Bush administration struggled to respond diplomatically while waging a war against Iraq in an unsuccessful effort to search for such weapons there.

Well, at least we got the North Koreans to agree to multilateral talks. Hurray!

Let’s quit the nonsense. North Korea wants aid and a security guarantee from the United States and, in exchange, claims that it will relinquish its nuclear weapons. In response, put the following on the table, do it publicly, say (and mean) that it’s non-negotiable, and get your allegedly-compliant Republican Congresspeople to push the necessary legislation through: “Done, on the condition that North Korea fully and completely opens itself to inspections by IAEA, in the manner that South Africa did when it gave up its nuclear arsenal. If you fail to follow through and/or renege in any part of the agreement, all guarantees are off and all non-essential food aid is immediately suspended.”

Then, send a carrier task force slowly steaming in the general direction of the Korean pennisula. (Do it very slowly, though; the idea is to get in position to respond to a future escalation by North Korea, as well as to send a subtle message to our partners, the Chinese, that we’re through being trifled with.* It is not to begin an escalation.)

Just my two cents, if the administration is listening.

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Back and forth

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Jack O’Toole and Ogged are both trying to wrest control of the current election narrative so that it actually works in the Democrats’ favor. O’Toole’s argument seems to be that there isn’t a general theme and strategy in the drive to unseat Bush; Ogged concurs and offers his own suggestion (‘not playing by the rules’). … Read more

Something’s going on…

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… we just won’t know what yet for a while: Blasts Rock Syrian Capital. AMMAN, Jordan, April 27 — Explosions and gunfire broke out in the diplomatic quarter of Damascus, the Syrian capital, Tuesday night in what officials described as a confrontation between security forces and a group of unidentified attackers. Witnesses said more than … Read more

The dream has died.

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Oliver Willis reports that Law and Order: SVU has referenced blogging in tonight’s show. (Sigh) I’ll get the lights if somebody else turns off the water and gets the mail forwarded, OK? It’s all going to go downhill from here anyway…

Flagging Support

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The outgoing flag of Iraq looks like this:

A contest-winning newly designed flag looks like this:

The idea, according to US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council (as reported in the Washington Post), was “an Islamic crescent on a field of pure white, with two blue stripes representing the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and a third yellow stripe to symbolize the country’s Kurdish minority.”

Among other feedback from Iraqi’s polled, however, is the widespread feeling that it looks too much like the Israeli flag:

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Cheney v. U.S. District Court, 03-475

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After two years of delays and having lost two rounds in lower courts, Cheney is about to face the final test in his quest to keep private his records of work on a national energy strategy.

Cheney Secrecy Case Goes to High Court

The executive branch’s argument in this battle is that forced disclosure of confidential records intrudes on a president’s power to get truthful advice. The questions (pdf file) they’re asking the Supreme Court to answer are

Whether the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), 5 U.S.C. App. 1, §§ 1 et seq., can be construed, consistent with the Constitution, principles of separation of powers, and this Court’s decisions governing judicial review of Executive Branch actions, to authorize broad discovery of the process by which the Vice President and other senior advisors gathered information to advise the President on important national policy matters, based solely on an unsupported allegation in a complaint that the advisory group was not constituted as the President expressly directed and the advisory group itself reported.

and

Whether the court of appeals had mandamus or appellate jurisdiction to review the district court’s unprecedented discovery orders in this litigation.

The argument of the groups pressing the matter, Judicial Watch and the Sierra Club, is that the public should be able to see what influence energy industries had in outlining our national energy policy.

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Lack of Discussion

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Imagine I suspected that someone broke into a house by stealing a key from its owner. If you later showed that someone else broke into another house by smashing a window, would you think that this showed I was wrong about the first person stealing a key? No? Then why is this considered a passable … Read more

Hope in Bishkek

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Even a LGF’er who had been battling me for days eventually admitted (after his own research) that Kyrgyzstan—as an example of a moderate Muslim democracy—does indeed represent hope in the WoT. Sure, emerging from the Soviet Union has shielded it somewhat and made it more secular than most Muslim countries, but Kyrgyzstan both bravely repelled … Read more

New Generation of Pro-Choice Voices

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I wish I had a first-hand account of yesterday’s march to share with you (feel free to use this as an open thread to share your experiences if you were there). I’ve attended previous marches in Washington focussed on preserving a woman’s right to choose, but didn’t attend this one. It sounds like I missed quite an event:

Massive March in Support of Abortion Rights

The turnout was among the largest seen in a city with a fabled history for such gatherings. Authorities no longer offer official crowd estimates, but various police sources informally estimated the throng at between 500,000 and 800,000 in the mile-long stretch of green space between the Capitol and the Washington Monument.

Perhaps most significant about the gathering (which included the usual mix of politicians, celebrities, and true believers) was the focus on “mobilizing a new generation of women to the fight.”

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Earth Day and Conservatives

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I don’t think it is actually Earth Day, but San Diego had its hugemongous EarthFair in Balboa Park. It is billed as the “largest free annual environmental fair in the world”. So I figure it offers a good excuse to comment on environmentalism. Personally I think of environmentalism, by which I mean an idea that … Read more

Fourth Estate?

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Such a simple statement… And the president at his barbecue with the press this August and a reporter said to him: Mr. President, is it really true you don’t read the press or watch us on television? And he said no. And the reporter then said: Well, how do you then know, Mr. President, what … Read more

Self-referencing…

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I really should con…vince the folks over at Socialism in an Age of Waiting to take a look at this debitage post (which draws off of my post about the Commissar’s post), so that I can find out if this really is a proper Marxist analysis of blogging. And if it is, I’m also curious … Read more

Um, is this going to be a problem?

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This is highly unlikely to impinge on regular blogospheric radar sets across the spectrum, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not of interest: Cyprus vote leaves island split. More than three-quarters of Greek Cypriots have voted against a UN plan to reunite the island in a referendum. Turkish Cypriots, in contrast, endorsed the plan with … Read more

What the Heck

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My Movable Type blog is taunting me. Whenever I try to go to the main editing menu I get the following error:”Can’t call method “description” on an undefined value at lib/MT/App/CMS.pm line 296.” WTF? I haven’t changed anything to my templates in months and I haven’t done anything but upload posts in months either. Help, … Read more