von

Thin

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Rice’s testimony is going to be today’s focus. We shouldn’t ignore Iraq or Afghanistan, however: — Warlord Rashid Dostum’s forces have overrun the capital of an Afghan province. — Ukrainian troops withdrew Wednesday from the Iraqi city of al Kut, and have requested U.S. support. — We’re making progress in Fallujah, but the fighting is … Read more

Time and other essential things (Part V): The Revenge

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Let’s take a tour ’round the far-right blogosphere: (UPDATE 2: A selective tour, as Tacitus reminds me in comments.) John O’Sullivan once again reminds us that he’s not merely an idiot, but an amoral idiot. O’Sullivan suggests that we should’ve executed prominent Ba’athists without trial and shot looters on sight in the opening days of … Read more

Time and other essential things (Part IV)

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The latest: Supporters of maverick Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr controlled government, religious and security buildings in the holy city of Najaf early Tuesday evening, according to a coalition source in southern Iraq. This report, if accurate, is not good news. Najaf is the home of al Sistani, perhaps the most prominent Shia leader in Iraq. … Read more

Time and other essential things (Part III)

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A week was indeed generous of me. There’s a showdown coming, and time favors our adversaries: On Monday, as American authorities issued an arrest warrant for Moktada al-Sadr, the radical Shiite cleric who set off the most serious insurrection so far in Iraq, his supporters were fortifying the mosque here with heavy weaponry, bracing for … Read more

Time and other essential things (Part II)

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Events are moving past us. This morning I predicted that we had at most a week to arrest al-Sadr. Now, if reports from the scene are to be believed (usual caveats apply), we may have even less time: A coup d’etat is taking place in Iraq a the moment. Al-Shu’la, Al-Hurria, Thawra (Sadr city), and … Read more

Dogs and cats, living together

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BOSTON — Trying to reverse partisan stereotypes, Democrat John Kerry (search) is launching a campaign to portray himself as a fiscal conservative, comparing his economic strategy with the $6 trillion in unpaid spending that he says President Bush has proposed over the next 10 years. . . . . “We intend to run to President … Read more

Time — and other essential things.

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Once again: The U.S.-led coalition plans to execute a months-old arrest warrant for Moqtada al-Sadr, an influential Shiite cleric who in recent weeks has incited violence against the United States and called the September 11, 2001, attacks a gift from God[.] We have no choice but to arrest al-Sadr. That’s the easy part. Here’s the … Read more

For the record . . . .

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I am a GRAMMAR GOD! If your mission in life is not already topreserve the English tongue, it should be.Congratulations and thank you! How grammatically sound are you? brought to you by Quizilla

Something a bit lighter . . . .

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While persuing the Conspiracy of Volokhs, I was directed to this ranking of law firm prestige. (Favorite entry: #4 Skadden: “uppers’ — “Great training opportunities and informal mentoring . . . .”; “downers” — “screamers.” Pretty accurate description, from what I know.) This is all mostly meaningless stuff, of course. Still, entry #25, Clifford Chance, … Read more

Foot-shooting watch.

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Buried at the end of the New York Times story discussed below (This is not an exit.): The Bush Administration (again) hurts itself with (another) selective disclosure of a confidential document in an attempt to rebut Clarke. The Administration has released the “National Security Presidential Directive,” which was on the President’s desk for signing on … Read more

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Discuss: “Report Is Better Than Expected; 308,000 Positions Created.” What’s Kerry going to talk about now?

This is not an exit.

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This is un-freakining-believable:

The White House confirmed on Thursday that it had withheld a variety of classified documents from Mr. Clinton’s files . . . from the [9-11] commission . . . . .

The commission and the White House were reacting to public complaints from former aides to Mr. Clinton, who said they had been surprised to learn in recent months that three-quarters of the nearly 11,000 pages of files the former president was ready to offer the commission had been withheld by the Bush administration. The former aides said the files contained highly classified documents about the Clinton administration’s efforts against Al Qaeda.

The purported explanation (at least today) is that the documents are “duplicative or unrelated,” or contain “highly sensitive” information that “could be relayed to the commission in other ways.”

With all due respect, bullshit.* The 9-11 Commission is entitled to see the original documents, and draw their own conclusions — not be fed the information in another way. If some of the documents are “sensitive,” then procedures can be put in place to protect them. If some of the documents happen to duplicate other documents, so be it. (Though it appears that the number of possible “duplicates” is low.) Better to provide full disclosure to the 9-11 Commission, than risk withholding an important document that appears to be a duplicate at first glance, but isn’t. (And, from personal experience, I can tell you that a small difference between seemingly identical draft and final documents can speak legions.)

I find it impossible to defend the Bush Administration’s policies with respect to the 9-11 Commission. They’ve foot-dragged, they’ve denied, they’ve delayed, and they’ve selectively withheld information from the Commission and the public. They’ve acted in every way other than in the country’s best interests. They are endangering your and my safety with their game-playing.

von

UPDATED 11:11 a.m. EST: For clarity.

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Broken Record Watch, Part II

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More: Suspected insurgents killed four American civilian contractors in a grenade attack Wednesday in central Iraq, U.S. officials said. Cheering residents in Fallujah pulled charred bodies from burning vehicles and hung them from a Euphrates River bridge. “Barbarous savages,” says Tacitus. True. Our principle enemies in Iraq are bad guys. They’re thugs, assassins, terrorists, criminals. … Read more

Broken Record Watch

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Save for the hands, feet, and (possibly) genitalia, I am a broken record on Iraq. But I seem to be a lonely broken record in the blogosphere, so let’s spin it around once more: We are in danger of losing Iraq. Today’s bombing — though hardly encouraging — is not the reason for my concern. … Read more

Crashing through the parlor door, what was your first reaction?*

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Well, if you’re the Bush-Cheney campaign, it’s probably the wrong freakin’ one.

UPDATE: Ob Wi demands, and the President responds! (That’s our story, and we’re sticking to it.) According to CNN: “The White House will allow national security adviser Condoleezza Rice to testify in public and under oath before the commission investigating the September 11 terrorist attacks[.]” Good thing we wasted a week coming to that conclusion.

In politics, as in life, it’s typically not the action that gets you. It’s the reaction. This ain’t news. Since Watergate, if not before, pundits have repeated that it’s not the third-rate burglary. It’s not the affair. It’s not the $60K in insider profits. No, it’s the response. The cover-up. The lie. The suggestion that if it takes so much to get a Big Mac outta ya, there’s gotta be an Extra Value Meal in there somewhere.

Bush’s response to his Air National Guard records is a case in point. Kevin Drum (among others) dug and dug and dug and dug. You know what was there? Pretty much nothing. But does anyone think that Bush won that round? A show of hands? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

L’affair Plame. Richard “Do you have a grinder for this axe?” Clarke. George “I prefer to twist in the wind” Bush? Tell me, Virginia, exactly who is afraid of Karl Rove? I’ve seen cannier strategies in student council campaigns — high school student council campaigns.

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Blogs that deserve more traffic

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I command you to go read the Fafblog. They’ve just done a redesign, and Fafnir, Giblets, and the dread “Medium Lobster” are on a roll. Be sure not to miss — Fafnir’s Terrorist voting guide: “Ayman al-Zawahiri: STRONGEST CAMPAIGN ISSUES: Tort reform, faith-based initiatives . . . . WOMEN’S RIGHTS: Opposes Roe v Wade on … Read more

One eye open.

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Nine more Iraqi policemen were killed today. It’s really not news, and that’s a shame. Until Iraq’s police start policing (spending all your time investigating the mass-murder of your fellow officers and trying to stay alive yourself, btw, does not count) we haven’t yet won in Iraq. We promised the Iraqi people that we would … Read more

Enough.

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Ten days ago, I criticized a decision by Mr. Johnson (of Little Green Footballs) to insult and deride Spanish mourners of the terror attacks in Madrid. Mr. Johnson’s decision not only showed an astonishing lack of judgment, but (as Kevin Drum also notes) likely was counterproductive to our fight against terrorism.

This is not the first or last time that Mr. Johnson showed a lack of judgment in his posts. On Friday, for instance, Meteor Blades (of The Daily Kos) and Tacitus (of, erm, Tacitus) confronted a misleading entry by Mr. Johnson on the civil war in Sudan. In the process, they also corrected several factual misstatements by Mr. Johnson’s regular commentators.

Rather than attempt to defend his ground or correct his original post, Mr. Johnson responded with ad homs. He then blocked access from Tacitus. It is worth noting that this is not the first time Mr. Johnson has responded to criticism by blocking access to his website.

Supposedly, a key purpose of Mr. Johnson’s Little Green Footballs is to show the horrific nature of Islamic radicalism, and to point out the cowardice of non-radical Muslims who fail to speak up against such horrors. This is a noble and worthy purpose, and it could make for an interesting and relevant weblog.

Little Green Footballs, however, fails in its claimed purpose. It consistently gets the facts wrong; it frequently substitutes prejudice for reason[**]; and it breeds misdirected hate in its comment boards. LGF’s errors and distortions make it all the more difficult for thoughtful bloggers to criticize the actions of radical Muslims, for, if they do, they run the risk of being lumped in with the “wingnut LGF crowd” and ignored.

This must end. We are fighting a terrible enemy in Islamic terrorism. Whether we describe that fight as a war, or a law enforcement action, or (as I do) something else entirely is less important than whether we choose to confront our enemy with clear heads, deft hands, and, where necessary, ruthless action.

Mr. Johnson deserves no more free passes from the Blogosphere. It’s time to start calling him on his mistakes.

von

UPDATE 2: ** So we’re clear, the FrontPage Magazine Article that LGF excerpts (misleadingly, IMHO) is not the target of this criticism; LGF is. I do disagree with significant portions of the FrontPage article, however. See my discussion with the article’s author, Mr. Spencer, in comments for more.

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Figures of Speech and Figures of War

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Like him or not (and, for me, it’s trending not), but President Bush gave an exceptional speech today: There is no dividing line–there is a dividing line in our world, not between nations, and not between religions or cultures, but a dividing line separating two visions of justice and the value of life. On a … Read more

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Murderous thugs say the darndest things: “Kerry will kill our nation while it sleeps because he and the Democrats have the cunning to embellish blasphemy and present it to the Arab and Muslim nation as civilization.” “Because of this we desire you (Bush) to be elected.” That’s it. I’m voting for Bush. I don’t truck … Read more

Some thoughts . . . .

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. . . for your considered opinion. Otherwise, it’s gonna be a light blogging day/week for me. First, Kerry’s an idiot for commenting that he has the support of “foreign leaders” (or more leaders, or whatever). He sounds like a Fifth columnist. And he deserves the crap he’s getting from Team Bush. On the other … Read more

Say what?

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From Andrew Sullivan, with whom I usually agree: Al Qaeda has been seriously weakened since 9/11, thanks almost entirely to those countries, especially the U.S., that chose to confront it. But it seems clear to me that the trend in Europe is now either appeasement of terror or active alliance with it. It is hard … Read more

Intelligence. And the lack thereof.

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One thing is clear: If Thursday’s attack on Spain was the work of al Queda (and, right now, the safe money says that it was), we were caught flat-foot again. The attack was preceded by no reports of “increased chatter.” The threat alert went unelevated. The State Department issued no new travel warnings. There were … Read more

Al Qaeda Claims Credit for Madrid Blasts

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If true, we can at least take comfort in the fact that the ETA has not dramatically escalated its activities. My money, however, is on an Al Qaeda-ETA collaboration. An “enemy of my enemy” alliance. It’s the theory that seems to best fit the known facts. But, then, blog analysis is not going to be … Read more

Von’s “Idiotarian” Award.

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I generally dislike the word “idiotarian.” Among other things, it’s horrible English. (What, the word “idiot” is too short and to the point for you?) A recent post on the bombing in Madrid by Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs, however, has caused me to reconsider. Accordingly, I will now honor Mr. Johnson with “Von’s First ‘Idiotarian’ Award” for the following unrepetent act of idiotarianism*:

At a Spanish demonstration protesting today’s terrorist attacks we find a perfect example of the sick hypocrisy that is poisoning Europe, as a useful idiot in knit cap and kaffiyeh proudly aligns himself with the symbol of Palestinian terrorism:

Mr. Johnson then includes a picture of a crowd of Spainaids grieving today’s killing of 170-plus people in the Madrid bombings. Members of the crowd have raised both hands in the European sign to “stop”. A young man in front — one of literally hundreds of other people — is wearing a knit cap and a kaffiyeh that suggests support for the Palestinians. Mr. Johnson continues:

I’ve always believed the signal to “stop” was a single hand held up. Holding both hands up in the air is a symbol of something else altogether.

A few, umm, minor comments: One hundred seventy-plus people have just been killed in an act of terrorism. Mr. Johnson’s response is to (1) point out that one member of a grieving crowd may, in fact, be an idiot (and, really, how likely is it that a crowd of hundreds won’t contain at least one idiot) and (2) make fun of the grieving crowd as a whole.

What cogent, emphathic analyses. What wonderful insight into the human condition. What glorious work in focusing on a single, droopy tree in the midst of a vast forest of grief. What good taste in decrying how that grief is expressed.

For shame.

Update: The death toll from the blast now stands at 190, with 1,200 injured. It’s also worth noting that the photo that Mr. Johnson displays and criticizes on his web site does not appear to have run in any major news outlet. Rather, it appears to have been part of an online AP slideshow, which featured dozens of other photographs concerning the blasts and demonstrations relating thereto. Mr. Johnson chose to focus on this particular photo.

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Arrgh.

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I like Glenn Reynolds. I read him every day. But on certain legal subjects near to my heart, he completely screws up the law. (Last time it was on RICO’s application to the RIAA.)

My beef with Glenn follows. Oh, and as a general rule: do not assume that I, Glenn Reynolds, Eugene Volokh, Professor Bainbridge, or any other self-professed legal professional, knows what the hell they’re talking about when they’re talkin’ law.

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It’s turtles all the way down.

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Jeepers! Now that “thingy where Republican staffers looked at some memos they knew they shouldn’t look at, but it was really tempting and maybe sorta also the fault of a naive sys-admin” (the “probably-a-scandal-gate”) has taken another twist:

Senate Sergeant at Arms Bill Pickle is to investigate whether a confidential report on leaked Democratic memorandums was itself improperly leaked, potentially damaging the careers of more than 20 Senate staffers.

Enraged Republicans suspect the unredacted version — intended only for senators’ eyes — was given to the press accidentally on purpose.*

From The Hill. (Drum, as usual, is on top of it.)

Frankly, these guys desperately need to have a lock-in at the Y. You know, order pizza, swim in the pool, play ping-pong — it’ll be fun!

UPDATE: Harley chides: “you buried the lede. If Graham’s defection holds, this goes to a prosecutor.”

‘Tis true. Now, don’t you have a new baby and a lovely Deanna to Read more

WASPs and Daggers

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More evidence of just how skilled an operator George Tenet can be. (As if the fact that Tenet still has a job — despite being a Clinton holdover, the tragedy of 9-11, and faulty intelligence on Iraqi WMDs — wasn’t evidence enough.)

George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, told a Senate committee on Tuesday that he had privately intervened on several occasions to correct what he regarded as public misstatements on intelligence by Vice President Dick Cheney and others, and that he would do so again.

. . . .

[Tenet said:] “You have the confidence to know that when I believed that somebody was misconstruing intelligence, I said something about it. I don’t stand up in public and do it. I do my job the way I did it in two administrations.

“And policy makers — you know, this is a tough road. Policy makers take data. They interpret threat. They assess risk. They put urgency behind it, and sometimes it doesn’t uniquely comport with every word of an intelligence estimate.”

Behold the WASP dagger, skillfully employed. The soft takedown of Cheney is masterful, of course, but that’s not what grabbed me. Taking down Cheney is almost too easy: Cheney repeatedly puts himself so far in front of the Administration that he’s not so much scouting the road ahead as exploring the undiscovered country. (Undoubtably, Cheney intends to draw some flack from Bush by presenting himself as an easier target.)

No, what got me was Tenet’s statement that the “policy makers” — not him, not the CIA — determine the “ugency” of a particular threat. I provide data, he says. Others interpret it. They weigh it against other priorities. Whether one priority is more “urgent” than another is not my call. It is a pure question of policy.

The main intelligence failing, of course, was in assessing the urgency of the Iraqi WMD threat. But Tenet takes himself completely out of “urgency analysis”. The central intelligence failing on WMD is not even “intelligence” matter, according to Tenet. I didn’t fail.

* * * * *

There’s going to be a high profile scapegoat for the Iraqi WMD debacle. (The Bush Administration may not want one, but vengance and politics demand it.) It’s not going to be Cheney, for this would be a virtual admission of error. Cheney’s controversiality also makes him useful as a contrast to Bush.

After yesterday’s performance, I’m now convinced that the scapegoat will not be Tenet either. You cannot engage in a he-said-she-said with the scapegoat for the scapegoating to be effective. It looks petty. It looks political. It looks wrong. Tenet’s testimony provided the “he said.” That’s why it’s so masterful.

There are probably two more candidates for the scapegoat: Rice and Wolfowitz. I’m betting that it will be Wolfowitz — in contrast to Rice, he’s a relative outsider to Bush’s Texas team. But I don’t think he deserves it. Despite my disagreements with Wolfowitz on several foreign policy matters,* the man’s good at his job.

I’m frankly not so sure about Rice.

Let the betting commence.

von

Update: Minor changes to improve flow.

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So, is this a flip-flop?

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President Bush will answer all the questions of a federal commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks, the White House spokesman said today, suggesting that the president will be more flexible in his approach to the commission. Commission members said late last month that President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney had placed strict limits on … Read more

Are you lookin’ for a soft place to lie down??!! Or do you want to play??!!

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. . . . Is what a certain hyperventilating football coach* used to say to his charges, way back in the way back (when I used to play).

Perhaps it’s just the weekend and Monday that I’ve had, but, yes, Coach, I am. Some soft grass in the sun. A dirty Sycamore for a little shade. Down by the river, in the hollow. Maybe you could get me a pillow?

The truth is that we’re all just looking for a soft place to lie down. People want food, they want shelter, they want family near, and they want good friends and cheer. If you give them the option to have half of it, they will take it — ninety-nine times out of a hundred. And that’s true (to paraphrase Slim Pickens in Dr. Strangelove) “regardless of race, color, or creed.”

Remember that the next time you hear hyperventilating about “Moslem this, terrorist that.” It is undoubtably true that many people — regardless of race, color, or creed — are evil. (We all sin in our hearts at least, as the naive peanut-farmin’ former president will confirm.) The rough nut of active evil, though, is not more than a glorified legume. Most people just want that soft place in the sun.

You’ll never know it, if all you’ll spare is an LGF minute. My discussion of the war on terror will wait another day. Consider this an open thread.

von

UPDATE: I promise to bring this back to theme.

Apparently, Spalding Gray is dead. By whose hand — his own or another — we’ll soon find out (undoubtably). This, though, rings painfully true:

“Everyone that looks like him from behind, I go up and check to make sure it’s not him,” Russo said in a phone interview with The Associated Press about a week ago. “If someone calls and hangs up, I always do star-69. You’re always thinking, ‘maybe.”‘

It’s thoughts like these that pulled me back; when I needed to pull back. And don’t lie — not here, not in anonymous cyberspace** — and say you never needed to pull back too. That soft patch of grass in the half-shade of the dirty Sycamore is worth more. It’s worth more to all of us.

In my teens and twenties, I had more than enough conversations with post-punks and artists and singers and writers and crazies and earnest football players-turned-hopeful-Kerouacs (such as myself, who never could write that crappy (or well)***). Every conversation was about the worthlessness of it all.

But life is worthy. It’s that perfect moment on a seventy-two degree October day. The moment you find heaven in a glass of mid-day gin and a GPC cigarette. It’s worth it. And sleep only refreshes when you wake up.

Sorry for the melodrama. News triggers thoughts, which triggers memories and musings, you know, which makes one forget one’s carefully-studied cynacisms. You may now return to your open thead.

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SOx: A Shout-out to the Law-nerds.

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Only for the lawyer-nerds: Professor Bainbridge has written what seems to be an interesting law review article on the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (popularly referred to as “SOx”). Basically, SOx is a response to the recent rash of corporate governance scandals, and resulted in the imposition of a series of (very boring) duties on certain lawyers intended to protect the public from corporate fraud.

I pass the article along for two reasons: First, having sat through innumerable boring SOx lectures, it’s great to see something on the subject that’s actually somewhat provocative. Second, as a practicing lawyer, I must say that I find most law review articles written by law professors to be somewhere between boring and useless (those written by practicioners tend to be better, ’cause they usually focus on real-world results*). Professor Bainbridge’s article looks to be neither. So, here’s a shout-out to the good Professor: keep doin’ what you’re doin’.

von

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Beware of lawyers offering advice, if they ask for no fee.

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Were I inclined to offer Kerry advice on a winning message against Bush, I would simply state: Read William Saletan’s recent article in Slate. Then read it again: Yesterday Kerry’s campaign responded to Bush’s ads by accusing the president of “unsteady leadership.” In the Democratic primaries, this accusation worked for Kerry, because liberals think Bush … Read more

Passing it along, Part II.

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I almost want this to pass without comment. Well, no I don’t: A woman charged with causing a fatal car crash in 1999 says that she couldn’t have been behind the wheel because she was performing a sex act on the driver at the time. . . . . Specyalski claims that Esposito was driving, … Read more

Credit where it’s due

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I’m a few days late, but let me applaud the Bush administration’s handling of the ongoing crisis in Haiti. It was right not to chose sides in a war with no good guys, right not to save Aristide, right not to deploy troops until the outcome was clear, and right to limit the mission at this time to certain clearly-identified goals. And I’m perfectly sanguine about it all, even if we “kidnapped” Aristide: He was no believer in democracy, and his departure averted a bloodbath.

Now, a personal note: a good friend’s father — an obstetrician* — is currently in Haiti doing good works and visiting his family. A brief thought or prayer on his behalf would be appreciated.

von

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