South Dakota Politics

Biden on the War

Captain's Quarters:  "Senator Joe Biden writes an op-ed for today's Washington Post that gets the entire war on terror fundamentally wrong -- and demonstrates why the Democrats have entirely failed to provide any leadership on Iraq and the wider war."

Freedom

Charles Krauthammer:  America's Unique Devotion to Liberty 

The Left University II

In regards to my previous post on Professor Daly, columnist Mike Rosen has a great piece on the professor:

It's not just the University of Colorado at Boulder that harbors wacko, America-hating lefties. Behold, the sequel: "Son of Churchill." At Warren County Community College in rural New Jersey, John Peter Daly, an adjunct English professor, went off the deep end last week in an outrageous e-mail to a student.
...
So you know where Daly sits before you hear where he stands, you should be aware that he's a member of the Marxist Worker's World Party; a regular correspondent to their newspaper, Workers World; a gay activist; and an unsuccessful candidate for Congress in California of the Peace and Freedom Party (self-described as a "socialist and feminist political party" calling for "collective ownership" of industry and "an unconditional end to U.S. military intervention in the affairs of other nations").  None of this is illegal, of course, but it gives you a picture of an angry, self-disenfranchised outcast from mainstream society.                

Read the whole thing.

Schell Shocked.

Jonathan Schell doesn't care for Republicans.  He cares even less for Republican majorities.  Like most of those of the left these days, not caring for something is not enough.  He wants to believe that Republicans are somehow illegitimate, that their very existence, let alone their possession of Congress, somehow violates the laws of nature and of nature's god.  Hence this, from the Nation:

For some time I have been suggesting here that the aim of Republican strategy has been a Republican Party that permanently runs the United States and a United States that permanently runs the world. The two aims have been driven by a common purpose: to steadily and irreversibly increase and consolidate power in GOP hands, leading in the direction of a one-party state at home and a global American empire abroad. The most critical question has been whether American democracy, severely eroded but still breathing, would bring down the Republican machine, or whether the Republican machine--call it the budding one-party global empire--would bring down American democracy. This week, it looks as if democracy, after years of decline, has gained the upper hand.

Consider that first sentence: it combines a platitude with a fantasy.  All political parties in the United States aim to "permanently run the United States," or at least some part of it, like Maryland or Baton Rouge.  "Suggesting" that the Republican Party is somehow sinister because it is in fact a political party is a sign of a mind permanently unable to come into focus. 

As for the second part of the first sentence, the idea that Republicans want to permanently extend American administration over foreign nations is so ludicrous that one is tempted to ask Schell what color the sky is.  Suppose the Iraq insurgency had never shown up, and the U.S. were at this moment, a year ahead of Congressional elections, withdrawing the last of its troops from a stable and modestly Democratic nation.  Could any fool imagine that the Republican administration would regard this as disappointing? 

As far as I can remember, Schell rose to fame back during the Reagan era as an advocate of a "nuclear freeze."  The idea was that if the U.S. simply stopped building or deploying nuclear weapons, then the Soviet Union would see that we were no threat and follow suit.  And anyway, better a Soviet dominated world than one in smoking ruins.  But Schell's rhetoric was new in so far as he worked altogether in impressionistic prose about how terrible nuclear war would be.  "A Republic of Grass and Insects," or something like that.  Here was a sign of the intellectual decline of the left.  No ideas remained.  Only cute slogans and poster captions.  He hasn't gotten any better since.

Will Johnson Vote to Filibuster Alito?

We still don't know if Senator Tim Johnson will vote to filibuster Judge Alito, but he's keeping that option open.  ABC News reported that "Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson of South Dakota refused to rule out supporting a filibuster."  The Alito battle will begin after Christmas, so you'd think reporters would examine what Johnson might do.  Also, Powerline is discussing a new study indicating how much the media favors liberal judicial candidates compared to conservatives like Alito:

Rich Noyes of the Media Research Center compares the network news coverage of the Samuel Alito and Ruth Bader Ginsburg nominations. His overall finding is what you would expect -- outrageous liberal bias. When Alito was nominated, ABC, CNN, and CBS raced to see how many times they could squeeze the word conservative into their stories (NBC was less insistent). When Ginsburg was nominated the MSM networks uniformly pronounced her a moderate.

The contrast in the reporting (if you can call it that) with respect to the issue of abortion is particularly noteworthy. The networks greeted Alito's nomination with much hand-wringing about whether replacing a pro-abortion Justice with a conservative would change the direction of the Court on this issue. Twelve years ago, however, the networks gave no voice to the concerns of conservatives that replacing Byron White with Ginsburg would change the direcion of the Court with respect to such abortion-related issues such as parental consent and government funding. Then, as now, only the concerns of the pro-abortion activists were raised. Indeed, CBS' Paula Zahn pointed out that The National Abortion Rights Action League "is not totally comfortable with this nomination of Judge Ginsburg." At NBC, Katie Couric voiced similar fears.

Thus, at least when it comes to judicial nominations, these major news outlets are simply the mouthpieces of liberal interest groups.

The Aliens Are Coming!

From our friends up north:

Paul Hellyer, Canada’s Defence Minister from 1963-67 under Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Prime Minister Lester Pearson, publicly stated: "UFOs, are as real as the airplanes that fly over your head."

Mr. Hellyer went on to say, "I'm so concerned about what the consequences might be of starting an intergalactic war, that I just think I had to say something."

Hellyer revealed, "The secrecy involved in all matters pertaining to the Roswell incident was unparalled. The classification was, from the outset, above top secret, so the vast majority of U.S. officials and politicians, let alone a mere allied minister of defence, were never in-the-loop."

Hellyer warned, "The United States military are preparing weapons which could be used against the aliens, and they could get us into an intergalactic war without us ever having any warning. He stated, "The Bush administration has finally agreed to let the military build a forward base on the moon, which will put them in a better position to keep track of the goings and comings of the visitors from space, and to shoot at them, if they so decide."

Hellyer’s speech ended with a standing ovation. He said, "The time has come to lift the veil of secrecy, and let the truth emerge, so there can be a real and informed debate, about one of the most important problems facing our planet today."

Indeed.

HT to Power Line.

Does Roe Make Sense?

Orin Kerr at Volokh leads us to this speech (pdf alert) by federal judge Raymond Randolph eviscerating the logic of Roe v. Wade, using a previously unpublished abortion opinion by famed federal judge Henry Friendly.  You might recall that Friendly was mentor to Chief Justice John Roberts. 

And the Good News Is

Due to Global Warming, pretty much every part of California that voted for Al Gore and John Kerry will soon be under water.  The British Guardian reports. 

The oceans will rise nearly half a metre by the end of the century, forcing coastlines back by hundreds of metres, the researchers claim. Scientists believe the acceleration is caused mainly by the surge in greenhouse gas emissions produced by the development of industry and introduction of fossil fuel burning.

Scary news that, especially if you paid a cool two million for a a Bay Area one bedroom, one bath christened with salt spray.  Scary for the rest of us, I suppose, considering all the childless couples that will be packing up their new age CDS, and looking for new real estate out where the Bush voters roam.  But the report puts a lot of things in perspective.

The analysis showed that during the past 5,000 years, sea levels rose at a rate of around 1mm each year, caused largely by the residual melting of icesheets from the previous ice age. But in the past 150 years, data from tide gauges and satellites show sea levels are rising at 2mm a year.

Now I can grasp the fact that 2mm a year is a lot more than 1mm a year.  Twice as much, if my grade school math hasn't deserted me.  On the other hand, if 2mm a year is bad, 1mm a year, or a quarter meter by the time folk start arguing about whether 2100, or 2101 is the first year of the twenty-second century, is pretty bad too.  I mean, how much does it matter if the water in your living room is just above or just below the coffee table with the cute blue tile that you bought only after being assured the artisan was paid according to fair labor rates?  And we are going to get the quarter meter rise even if we stop producing green house gases at all, which is the economic equivalent of not breathing out anymore. The tortoise eventually catches up with the hare. 

What this tells us is that global warming is something that we had better get used to, because not even Michael Moore knows how to stop it. But surely, our Bay Area Bodhisattva says as he spills a drop of Merlot with a quaint smoky aftertaste on his copy of Nation, it is imperative to reduce greenhouse gases at least to slow down the inevitable conquest of real estate by Poseidon, and give him more time to scope out small towns in Montana?  Well, no, according to the analysis. 

According to Prof Miller, there is little chance of slowing the rising tide caused by global warming. "There's not much one can do about sea level rise. It's clear that even if we strictly obeyed the Kyoto accord, it's still going to continue to warm. Personally, I don't think we're going to affect CO2 emissions enough to make a difference, no matter what we do. The Bush administration should stop asking whether temperatures are globally rising and admit the scientific fact that they are, but then turn the question around politically and say: 'We can't really do anything about this on any kind of cost basis at all'," he said.

And there you have it.  Efforts to slow down global warming by reducing human contributions is hopeless.  Why?  Because to be effective, we would have to strangle all economic growth in all nations.  Even that would merely delay the inevitable.  And that ain't going to happen. There's no way that millions of industrious folk in China and India are going to be denied their own cute coffee tables.  So what do we do?

The global warming argument is a canard.  We can't save ourselves or mother earth by reversing the economic development clock.  The only way forward is through.  Only very wealthy societies will be able to control their green houses emissions in the future, and deal with the effects of natural global warming.  The genie of economic development has been out of his bottle for a long time.  We should do everything we can to ensure that all nations become wealthy as rapidly as possible.  Only then will we have any hope of managing the global environment. 

 

See if you're faster than this woman...

100-Pound Woman Wins Turkey-Eating Contest

NEW YORK -- America's Thanksgiving holiday is known for massive feasts that produce bloated bellies. But one group of serious eaters took it a step farther _ engaging in a pre-Thanksgiving turkey-eating contest that challenged all to shove as much bird into their mouths as they could manage in 12 minutes.

This group of America's finest eaters assembled at Artie's Deli in New York on Wednesday to eat 10-pound roast turkeys in a contest sponsored by the gambling site GoldenPalace.com.

The enormous Eric "Badlands" Booker started quickly in the 12-minute contest, ripping through two turkey breasts and establishing an eight-ounce lead after three minutes.

As the contest progressed and the meat became moister in the drumsticks and shoulders, Sonya "The Black Widow" Thomas, Chip Simpson and Tim Janus gained speed.

At the end of 12 minutes, nearly all competitors had stripped their 10-pound bird down to the bones.

The Left University

Everybody knows that most college professors are left of center, and I have no problem with that as long as they're not using the classroom as a pulpit to impress their views on students or attack those that disagree with them.  However, an adjunct English professor at Warren Community College in New Jersey did just that.

Rebecca Beach, a freshman at Warren, received a vicious email in response to her email to the faculty announcing the appearance of decorated Iraq war hero, Lt. Col. Scott Rutter, to speak on campus. 

Professor John Daly emailed her back. Read the whole story and the professor's email in its entirety here.

Here are the gems he wrote to Rebecca:

"Your literature and signs in the entrance lobby look like fascist propaganda and is extremely offensive."

He continues on with a rant about the evils of capitalism, the war in Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, Exxon and racism.  He continues with this treat:

"I will continue to expose your right-wing, anti-people politics until groups like yours won't dare show their face on a college campus."

He concludes:

"Real freedom will come when soldiers in Iraq turn their guns on their superiors and fight for just causes and for people's needs."

Before the school administration could decide how to handle the situation (which I hope was to fire him), he resigned.  This man used his position of authority and power to try an intimidate her.  This is not an issue of academic free speech being suppressed, but outright harrassment of a conservative student.

HT to Ace of Spades and Freedom Folks.

RELATED
Weekly Standard:  The Left University
Pirate Ballerina:  Ward Churchill and "Fragging Officers"

Happy B-Day, WFB

William F. Buckley turns 80 today.  George Will honors him.  I am reading Miles Gone By to celebrate. 

How Am I Supposed To Live Without You

Nick and Jessica have broken up.  America morns.  I am reminded of this scene from Woody Allen's Annie Hall.

ALVY

				(Continuing to walk) 
			Large vibrating egg.  Well, I ask a 
			psychopath, I get that kind of an answer.  
			Jesus, I-I, uh, here ... 
				(He moves up the sidewalk to 
				a young trendy-looking couple, 
				arms wrapped around each other) 
			You-you look like a really happy couple.  
			Uh, uh ... are you?

					YOUNG WOMAN
 			Yeah.

					ALVY
 			Yeah!  So ... so h-h-how do you account 
			for it?

					YOUNG WOMAN 
			Uh, I'm very shallow and empty and I 
			have no ideas and nothing interesting 
			to say.

					YOUNG MAN 
			And I'm exactly the same way.

					ALVY 
			I see.  Well, that's very interesting.  
			So you've managed to work out something, huh?

If trendy, good-looking, airheads can't make it, who can?  

Hey, Me Too

Funny enough, I am also thankful for the steam room at the Aberdeen Fitness Center, because it keeps Prof. Blanchard from complaining about his sinuses. 

I am thankful for all God's creatures.  And the ability to kill them.  I will celebrate Thanksgiving by deer hunting.  Wish me luck, because I need all the luck I can get.  Now which end of the gun is the bangy end? 

I am thankful for Girl Friday.  I say a door that "should remain closed at all times" is not a door.  It's a wall. 

These guys are pretty cool.  Not cool like Mick Jaggar, but they do represent one of the few institutions on this earth that is actually older than Mick Jaggar. 

How about addicting internet games?  I tell you, I cannot play enough Battleship.  As a matter of fact, as long as I am online...

What I'm Thankful For

My good colleague, Dr. Schaff, takes the road of piety in his quick nod to America's November feast.  In doing so, he follows in the ruts of many a journalist, formal or otherwise.

Like Frost, I have decided to take the other fork in the road, and list the things I am really thankful for.  Its not that I don't appreciate spacious skies and amber waves of grain.  I am personally and professionally proud of the degree to which God has confirmed our souls in self control, and liberties in law.  Nor do I take second seat to anyone in my admiration for those heroes prov'd in liberating strife.  However, like most Americans I am just too accustomed to those blessings to really grasp what it would be like not to enjoy them. 

So here, on this November night, is what I really feel thankful for:

1.  High definition television. This comes first on the list only because I just finished watching one of Michael Wood's "In Search of Myths and Heroes," a series in which he takes works of ancient literature as themes in a travelogue.  Shots of a gorgeous raven-haired lass reading passages from Apollonius' Jason and the Argonauts punctuated panoramics of the Mediterranean and Black Sea coasts, the great domed church/mosque in Istanbul, and ancient ruins hidden in the coastal hills.  Take my word for, wide screen HD makes the TV I used to watch look like a faded post card. 

2. Harry Potter.  When I saw the trailer for the new movie it brought tears to my eyes.  House Blanchard is united in mutual affection for the Potter books.  We will be going together to see it Friday.

3.  Google.   My father used to tell a joke the punch line of which was "yeast is yeast and nest is nest and never the mane shall tweet."  I never forgot those words, but I had no idea what the joke was.  My wife, one of the reference library persons at Northern, suggested: "google it."  I did, and now I have the rest of the story.  I found it at, of all places, the Volokh Conspiracy, one of the blogs that we here at SDP regular consult. 

4. Heated car seats.  Further proof that God loves us, and wants us to be happy.

5. Beer.  The original proof. 

6. The Barbecue Bible, by Steve Raichlen.  My favorite cookbook.  I'll take a slab of seasoned meat roasting on hot coals over a tall ship and a star to steer her by any day.  Well, most days. 

7.  My panini maker.  The grilled cheese sandwich is one of Western civilizations most perfect achievements.  Try tossing a little blue cheese in with the cheddar. 

8.  Down.  Goose down, that is.  Especially our down comforter.  I always thought that the dial on a thermostat was there so you could make the room comfortable.  My wife, God bless her, thinks its there so you can turn it down to save energy.  Crawling under that down comforter when the bedroom is roughly the temperature of Carlsbad Caverns makes up for almost all the disappointments of life.  And then there's my new down coat. 

9.  The steam room at the new Fitness Center.  Keeps the sinus passages clear and good Doctor Blanchard feeling like he can face reading another entry by Chad Shuldt at CCK. 

10.  My wife, my daughter, and my son, in order of acquaintance.  With Godspeed, we will be together again in about ten hours.  My cup runneth over.  Praise the Lord and pass the remote.

Thanksgiving and Civic Religion

Joe Knippenberg on Thanksgiving Proclamations through history. 

McGovern's Movie

LA Weekly:  The Plainsman: George McGovern's close-up

Poll Cats III

Some even more interesting poll numbers, summarized by Max Boot in the LATimes. 

[In] a survey last month from the U.S.-based International Republican Institute, 47% of Iraqis polled said their country was headed in the right direction, as opposed to 37% who said they thought that it was going in the wrong direction. And 56% thought things would be better in six months. Only 16% thought they would be worse.

American soldiers are also much more optimistic than American civilians. The Pew Research Center and the Council on Foreign Relations just released a survey of American elites that found that 64% of military officers are confident that we will succeed in establishing a stable democracy in Iraq. The comparable figures for journalists and academics are 33% and 27%, respectively. Even more impressive than the Pew poll is the evidence of how our service members are voting with their feet. Although both the Army and the Marine Corps are having trouble attracting fresh recruits — no surprise, given the state of public opinion regarding Iraq — reenlistment rates continue to exceed expectations. Veterans are expressing their confidence in the war effort by signing up to continue fighting.

Now, it could be that the Iraqi public and the U.S. armed forces are delusional. Maybe things really are on an irreversible downward slope. But before reaching such an apocalyptic conclusion, stop to consider why so many with firsthand experience have more hope than those without any.

Poll Cats II

In a recent blog, Poll Cats, I noted something that the press has been largely silent about: that the Democrats in Congress have been polling as bad or worse than Congressional Republicans or President Bush.  A Harris Poll that had Bush at 34% had Democrats at 31%.  I think the relentless assault on Bush has played a big roll in depressing his approval ratings.  I have no quarrel with the Donkeys over this, as I believe that this is what opposition parties are for.  As for why they have been gaining little traction by this strategy, I suggested the following:

I humbly submit that this is because the Democrat's strategy right now is so transparent.  With no policy of their own, they have been following the polls with the perfect alignment of a compass needle next to a bar magnet.  They may well be succeeding in their purpose, which is to depress Bush's numbers even further.  But they are hardly offering an honest alternative to Bush.

The Cook Political Report has a poll that confirms my submission.  The poll asks this question:

When Dems Criticize Bush's Policy In Iraq, Do You Think They Are Trying To Gain Partisan Advantage Or Believe It Will Help US' Efforts In Iraq?

Of those polled, 51% said that the Dems were trying to gain partisan advantage.  Only 31% thought that they were really trying to help US efforts in Iraq.  Independent voters agreed 45/36%.  The Democratic strategy is indeed transparent.

In answer to the following question:

Should US Military Withdraw Troops Immediately Regardless Of Impact, As Iraq Meets Goals, Or Set Fixed Publicly Available Timetable For Withdrawal?

the results were 16% for immediate withdrawal, and 30% for a fixed timetable.  But 49% favored withdrawal only as "goals were met."  Make no mistake about it, the war and President Bush are right now suffering a serious loss of support among the electorate.  But most of the respondents recognize that the strategy that Bush is in fact implementing is the only reasonable strategy available.  So far, the Iraqis have been meeting every goal at the time it was set. 

I don't blame anyone, Democrat or otherwise, who criticizes the war policy.  There are certainly good reasons for opposing the war.  But those put short term political strategy over long term foreign policy goals have to take responsibility for the effect that their speech has on our troops.  In response to this question:

When Dem Sens Criticize Bush's Policy On Iraq War, Does It Help/Hurt Morale Of Troops In Iraq?

70% recognized the obvious, that it hurts the morale of the troops.  Imagine the soldiers patrolling the streets of Baghdad, or going into battle at the Syrian border.  How must they feel when Democrats keep saying over and over that they are dieing for nothing?  I can do no better here than to re-post the quote posted below by my esteemed colleague Mr. Heppler. 

I am just disgusted when I see and hear reports calling for the pullout of our military from Iraq. The American people do not see what really goes on here, all they see is what the media wants them to…and I think that we all know that the media likes to put a negative spin on it as well. I am here to tell you that everyday we are winning over the hearts of the people of Iraq. If you could see the smiling faces that I have seen you would know that we are making a difference in this country. I volunteered for the military, no one made me sign on that dotted line. Let me stay here and finish what we have started Mr. Murtha.

Those are not the words of any chicken hawk.  They are the words of an American soldier in Iraq. 

 

Iraq

With all of the talk going around about withdrawing from Iraq, how come nobody has consulted the guys that really matter, that would really know what's best?  Will Whitley, milblogger over at Same Ole' Different Day, responds to the media and Congressman Murtha.  An excerpt from the former:

I am just disgusted when I see and hear reports calling for the pullout of our military from Iraq. The American people do not see what really goes on here, all they see is what the media wants them to…and I think that we all know that the media likes to put a negative spin on it as well. I am here to tell you that everyday we are winning over the hearts of the people of Iraq. If you could see the smiling faces that I have seen you would know that we are making a difference in this country. I volunteered for the military, no one made me sign on that dotted line. Let me stay here and finish what we have started Mr. Murtha.

SD

Jay Leno mentioned South Dakota last night.  From The Hotline:

Jay Leno: "Yesterday, President Bush had an embarrasing moment after holding a press conference in China, did you see this on the news? He tried to leave the room, but the doors were locked. Once again, no exit strategy. ... As you know, President Bush has been in Asia all week. To prepare for the trip, he rented the movie "Kung Fu Hustle." ... A South Dakota teenager has been arrested for having sex with a department store manequin. I think he misunderstood the book "Sex for Dummies." No, he got arrested. Boy, that's when you know you're bad in bed, when the dummy presses charges. ... Ricky Martin has a new album out called "I don't care." It's named after what people say when they hear Ricky Martin has a new album out" ("Tonight Show," 11/21).

How Will Johnson Vote?

Watertown Public Opinion (reg. required):

Support sought for Alito

By Bob Mercer, Capitol Bureau

Friday, November 18, 2005 11:41 AM CST

Four Republican lawyers, including the South Dakota Legislature's top House and Senate members, made a public pitch Thursday on behalf of U.S. Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito.

They asked that U.S. Sen. Tim Johnson, a Democrat, vote for President Bush's choice to succeed retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

Their efforts might have been two months premature. Johnson isn't budging from his position of wanting to wait for the Senate confirmation hearing on Alito. The hearing is scheduled to start January 9.

“He truly doesn't announce any position until the hearings are concluded. He did that with (Chief Justice John) Roberts and he will follow suit with Alito,” said Julianne Fisher, the senator's communications director.

The panel of Republicans lawyers Thursday included state Sen. Lee Schoenbeck of Watertown, who is Senate president pro tem, and state Rep. Matt Michels of Yankton, who is speaker in the House of Representatives.

Michels and Schoenbeck participated in a teleconference for reporters. The event was organized by Progress for America, a conservative group working on behalf of the Bush White House for Alito's confirmation.

What do you get when you cross a unitarian with a klansman?

Someone who goes out at night to burn huge, wooden question marks.

Rhoads

Barry Rhoads,CEO of the Rhoads Group, speaks highly of John Thune:

When the spotlight shone on the junior senator from South Dakota, GOP darling John Thune (R), this summer as he fought to keep Ellsworth Air Force Base off the Pentagon’s chopping block, Rhoads’s name could not escape the notice of those who had all eyes turned to the fight.

The Rhoads Group, along with Kutak Rock LLP, was hired to save Ellsworth from the Pentagon’s 2005 round of base realignments and closures, and implicitly to keep Thune’s campaign promise to ensure that the Air Force base remains open.

“Thune worked doggedly,” said Rhoads, who sat in numerous meetings with the senator and his staff this summer. “This deal was not preordained that he was going to win. That base was at risk.”

And the Pittsburgh Steelers fan adds: “Thune was a great quarterback.”

Rhoads is an expert in these sort of fights.

Jim Seward

Celeste Calvitto scoops Kranz this morning by noting a rumored GOP candidate who may challenge Stephanie Herseth:   

State GOP chairman Randy Frederick told the crowd in Rapid City that he is frequently asked who is going to challenge Rep. Stephanie Herseth, D-S.D., in next year’s election.

“We have a lot of possibilities,” he said.

He didn’t name names, though.

But one name that is making the rounds is that of Butte County State’s Attorney Jim Seward.

A member of the South Dakota National Guard 109th Engineer Group, Seward was on leave during his re-election campaign last year while serving in Afghanistan under the U.S. Army 25th Infantry Division. He was stationed at Bagram Airfield north of the Afghan capital of Kabul and returned to his Butte County post last spring after an unpaid leave of absence.

Seward said he wasn’t prepared to comment on whether he is considering a race against Herseth.

What Kranz Does NOT Say

Jason had a great post yesterday about the important information that Dave Kranz of the Argus Leader leaves out of his writings.  This morning Kranz writes about Daschle's papers being given to SDSU, where Daschle graduated from in 1969.  What Kranz doesn't say is that he served as Daschle's "publicity chairman" when Daschle was President of the SDSU Political Science Club and how they ran a Democratic Presidential convention in 1968 and how Kranz then 'reported' on Daschle's work for the college newspaper. 

How to Lose a War

Op-ed from retired Army officer Ralph Peters in the NY Post (reg. required):

QUIT. It's that simple. There are plenty of more complex ways to lose a war, but none as reliable as just giving up.

Increasingly, quitting looks like the new American Way of War. No matter how great your team, you can't win the game if you walk off the field at half-time. That's precisely what the Democratic Party wants America to do in Iraq. Forget the fact that we've made remarkable progress under daunting conditions: The Dems are looking to throw the game just to embarrass the Bush administration.

Read the whole thing.  HT to Instapundit.

Bird Flu, or Flew?

When I first saw the headline on Drudge, "Birds Banned From B.C." I thought, "Boy, those Canadians sure are bigots."  It turns out it is chickens that we will not import from British Columbia.  So Drudge should be saying "Birds From B.C. Banned."  This does bring to mind a question.  If a chicken gets avian flu, should it take chicken soup to get over it?  Or would that be cannibalism?

Where's Daschle's Accountability?

Nobody has pointed out that it was Majority Leader Tom Daschle who was in charge of the Senate when the Iraq war autorization was passed.  Where's the accountability for Daschle, who voted for the war, but had some power to block it, just as he blocked lots of other legislation?

This article will help shed some light. 

Great Daschle Cartoon

From the Rapid City Journal:

Anti-anti-war

Found this over at Instapundit.  Sounds about right to me.

Clearly, the important administration arguments are beginning to coalesce: 1) Criticism of the war is not by itself unpatriotic 2) Similarly, answering anti-war critics is not challenging their patriotism 3) But opportunistic and cynical anti-war critics who are trying to walk back their own votes and level spurious charges at the Administration (they lied to take is into war) are themselves lying 4) These lies are hurting the country and the troops. 5) The burden of proof, in a post 911 world, was on Saddam Hussein to prove he’d disarmed; we could not wait for the threat to become imminent before acting 6) The cause the troops are fighting for is just and right 7) Iraq is moving toward freedom; and things on the ground are improving daily, regardless of what the MSM and prominent Dems would have us believe.

I'm not a big fan of the "it's hurting the troops" argument.  Although, in the abstract, it is possible that verbal arguments can hurt the troops, the argument rings about as hollow to me as "it's for the children."  Whenever you hear "it's for the children" you can almost guarantee it's about something else (and you'd also better hold on to your wallet).  Given that "it's hurting the troops" is the rhetorical big gun, one had better be very discrete in how one throws around that accusation. 

Herseth

So much for Herseth being a conservative "blue dog" Democrat:

Much less attention has been paid to the role of the Blue Dog Democrats, who have voted in lockstep with the rest of their party to oppose all spending cuts. The Blue Dogs talk a great game. They properly excoriate the Bush administration's fiscal record and have proposed a 12-step plan to control spending, which includes such sensible ideas as honest budget accounting. Rep. Jim Cooper of Tennessee has bravely called for delaying or ending the new prescription drug entitlement.

What the Blue Dogs haven't done is provide votes for any slowdown in federal spending. They complain they haven't been consulted by GOP leaders, and there is some truth to that. But the unmistakable impression is that they are now putting short-term partisanship ahead of good policy by trying to make the House ungovernable.

Alito TV Ads in South Dakota

Robert Novak:

Democratic senators from six red states returned home over the weekend for the Thanksgiving recess to confront television ads connecting critics of Judge Samuel Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court with left-wing special interests. A simultaneous message intended ultimately to reach 10 million Americans made this same point.
...
This pro-Alito ad has begun playing in Arkansas, Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and West Virginia. Identifying opposition to Alito with left-wing special interests is particularly unwelcome by Democratic senators up for re-election next year: Ben Nelson (Neb.), Kent Conrad (N.D.) and Robert Byrd (W.Va.). It might also trouble freshman Sen. Ken Salazar, who was elected in Colorado last year while promising not to filibuster judges, but who now says he has serious concerns with Alito.

AAN

A letter to the editor from Sunday's Aberdeen American News:

Thune deserves better coverage

To the editor - I was wondering how the paper would cover the coal train project that Sen. John Thune had a hand in bringing about. It received wide coverage on the local TV stations on Nov. 5. Since it will bring economic advantages to the state, you would think that even the American News would consider it a worthwhile front page item but, then again, it is John Thune. Why do I think that if it had been Sen. Tim Johnson or Rep. Stephanie Herseth, it would have rated at least a picture of Sen. Thune with the article, not in Section B and with a byline by Scott Waltman, your resident Democrat cheerleader?

Continued bias on the part of the American News? I think so. The News did find room on the front page on Nov. 3 for a picture of Sen. Tom Daschle, a non-player on the national scene, along with a long rambling article, spewing the same left wing spin that we continually hear from the likes of Kennedy, Boxer, Durbin, Kerry, Clinton and Schumer.

I couldn't help noticing that Daschle has joined a liberal think-tank called the Center for American Progress. So, it's official now, he's been "outed," but something many of us have known for a long time.

Jim Fix

Aberdeen

Kranz

Yesturday, AL political columnist David Kranz reported on Dick Wadhams' speech at the Republican state dinner that was on Thursday.  Kranz didn't tell the whole story, though.  During Wadhams' speech, he praised all of the work done by bloggers in South Dakota.  Kranz, who is often criticized by Dakota bloggers, was hovering in the back of the room.

Kranz also went to people and asked if they thought Thune might be chosen as a VP candidate in 2008 and when they answered they didn't know, Kranz concluded that this means it's likely.  Is this what passes for evidence for Kranz?  Another textbook case of a reporter manufacturing news.

Epp on Herseth

Todd Epp is pressuring Stephanie Herseth to oppose the Iraq War:

As a supporter of yours during both the 2002 and 2004 elections and as one of your constituents, I urge you to join Rep. Murtha and his considered position against the Iraq War.  To continue supporting President Bush will ultimately put you not just on the wrong side of your constituents, but on the wrong side of history--and the facts--as well.

I don't do this very often, but I must respectfully challenge Mr. Epp on one premise: that "the American people were mislead by the Bush Administration".  As myself and my colleagues here at SDP have noted, if that's true then it also means that Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Madeline Albright, Sandy Berger, William Cohen, Carl Levin, Tom Daschle, John Kerry, Nancy Pelosi, Bob Graham, Hillary Clinton, and Jay Rockefeller also "misled" the American people.  Norman Podhoretz made this argument quite clearly in his recent piece in Commentary.  As Jon Schaff noted, the Republicans have truth on their side.  That some intelligence was flawed is apparent, but to assert that we were misled or that the President lied about intelligence is wrong. 

Another Reason I'm Proud to be an American II

The Punkin Chunkin competition.  The Economist recognizes this as evidence of the true greatness of America. 

IF THE United Nations were to send weapons inspectors to Delaware, they would find a surprising number of superguns being assembled in backyards. If interrogated, the unshaven men tinkering with these enormous weapons would say they were building devices for hurling pumpkins great distances. The men from the UN would doubtless find this hard to believe.

Every year since 1986, near Millsboro, the Punkin Chunkin has been held. Last week, 100 teams vied to see whose machine could toss an 8-10lb (3.6-4.6kg) pumpkin farthest. There were various categories: air cannons, trebuchets, pedal-powered doohickeys. No explosives are allowed—a galling rule to some contestants. But the biggest air cannons, with barrels up to 150 feet (46 metres) long, can shoot their fruit projectiles most of a mile, making each one what one spectator called “one heck of a peashooter”.

Above you see the standard air cannon model.  The Economist goes on:

All in all, Punkin Chunkin is a symbol of what makes America great. Only in the richest country on earth could regular guys spend tens of thousands of dollars building a pumpkin gun. Only in a nation with such a fine tradition of inventiveness, not to mention martial prowess, would so many choose to. And only in a land of wide open spaces would they be able to practise their chunkin without killing their neighbours. Alas, the 285-acre cornfield where Punkin Chunkin has been held for the past 20 years is soon to be sold and developed. But the chunkers will probably move to Maryland.

Below is a trebuchet model. 

Zarqawi Alienates His Political Base II

Zarqawi's tribe in Jordan has disowned him.  From the Jerusalem Post:

Family members of Jordanian-born al-Qaida in Iraq chief Abu Musab al-Zarqawi have renounced the terror leader, telling King Abdullah II on Sunday that they were "sever links with him until doomsday."

Al-Zarqawi, whose real name is Ahmed Fadeel Nazzal al-Khalayleh, claimed responsibility for the Nov. 9 deadly attacks on three Amman hotels, which killed 58 people.

In half-page advertisements in Jordan's three main newspapers, 57 members of the al-Khalayleh family, including al-Zarqawi's brother and cousin, also reiterated their strong allegiance to the king.

It is possible that his political fortunes have sunk lower than that.  A report from Iraq has it that he was among a group of terrorists in Iraq who blew themselves up.  Again from the Jerusalem Post, HT to Powerline. 

The Elaph Arab media website reported on Sunday that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of the al-Qaida in Iraq terror group, may have been killed in Iraq on Sunday afternoon when eight terrorists blew themselves up in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

The unconfirmed report claimed that the explosions occurred while coalition forces surrounded the house in which al-Zarqawi was hiding. American and Iraqi forces are looking into the report.

I am inclined to doubt the story.  Zarqawi dies about every three months.  But as Powerline points out, its pretty cheery news either way. 

The Mosul Front

Associated Press reports:

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- U.S. forces sealed off a house in the northern city of Mosul where eight suspected al-Qaida members died in a gunfight _ some by their own hand to avoid capture. A U.S. official said Sunday that efforts were under way to determine if terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was among the dead.

How Will Johnson Vote on Alito?

According to this AP story, Senator Biden is saying that a Democratic filibuster of Judge Alito is more likely.  How will Senator Tim Johnson vote on the filibuster?  Will he give Alito an up-or-down vote?  Here's more of the story:

The views that Samuel Alito expressed on reapportionment in a 20-year-old document could jeopardize his Supreme Court nomination and provoke a filibuster, a leading Democratic senator said Sunday.

"I think he's got a lot of explaining to do, and depending on how he does, I think will determine whether or not he has a problem or not," said Sen. Joseph Biden, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which plans confirmation hearings in early January.

Re-writing History

Some important writings on the lead up to war in Iraq appear today.  Former Senator Bob Graham of Florida, who once chaired the Intelligence Committee, writes in the Washington Post that the Bush Administration fudged the data on WMDs.  There are a couple problems with Graham's version of events.  First, as Powerline notes, why was he talking in late 2002 as if Iraq had WMDs, while the "real" intelligence suggested otherwise?  If Graham had issues with the intelligence he and other Senators were being given, why did it take him three years to express any concern?  Is he in therapy now and experiencing "recovered memory"?  The second problem is similar.  If Graham had such grave doubts about WMD intelligence in the run up to war, why could he convince so few of his colleagues to go along with him in voting against authorization for the war?  This suggests that, like Tim "obvious fabrication" Johnson, either Graham is making up history, or, if his history is correct, that he was a spectacularly ineffective Senator.  In Johnson's case, one has to believe that even though WMD intelligence was "obviously fabricated" it took him three years to figure out this obvious fabrication.  In Graham's case, one has to believe that Graham, because of his privileged position on the Intelligence Committee, had special insight into the fact that the intelligence was bad and either a) never bothered to tell his colleagues, or b) he told his colleagues and he convinced hardly any of them. 

Here is Michael Barone on the subject:

Bush, Cheney, and the administration have the truth on their side. Exhaustive and authoritative examinations of the prewar intelligence, by the bipartisan report of the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2004, by the Silberman-Robb commission in 2005, and by the British commission headed by Lord Butler, have established that U.S. intelligence agencies, and the intelligence organizations of leading countries like Britain, France, and Germany, believed that Saddam Hussein's regime was in possession of or developing weapons of mass destruction--chemical and biological weapons, which the regime had used before, and nuclear weapons, which it was working on in the 1980s.

To the charges that Bush "cherry-picked" intelligence, the commission cochaired by former Democratic Sen. Charles Robb found that the intelligence available to Bush but not to Congress was even more alarming than the intelligence Congress had. The Silberman-Robb panel also concluded, after a detailed investigation, that in no instance did Bush administration authorities pressure intelligence officials to alter their findings. Much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong. But Bush didn't lie about it.

The Invertebrates Rule

At least that's Mark Steyn's calculation.  While I find Steyn's rhetoric a bit overheated, I find he is largely right.  By the 1970s the Democratic Party had essentially lost its claim to rule because it fundamentally misunderstood the central problem of its age, the evil of Communism (to be fair, Richard Nixon made the same mistake).  It seems modern Democrats are making the same error by being more concerned with today's political fight than with the shape the world will take, say, ten or twenty years from now.  There is a new evil, international terrorism sponsored by a murderous ideology.  What do the Democrats aim to do about it?  Evidently, they will take an "exit strategy" from reality.  Here's Steyn:

One expects nothing from the Democrats. Their leaders are men like Jay Rockefeller, Democrat of West Virginia, who in 2002 voted for the war and denounced Saddam Hussein as an "imminent threat" and claimed that Iraq could have nuclear weapons by 2007 if not earlier. Now he says it's Bush who "lied" his way into war with a lot of scary mumbo-jumbo about WMD.

What does Rockefeller believe, really? I know what Bush believes: He thought Saddam should go in 2002 and today he's glad he's gone, as am I. I know what, say, Michael Moore believes: He wanted to leave Saddam in power in 2002, and today he thinks the "insurgents" are the Iraqi version of America's Minutemen. But what do Rockefeller and Reid and Kerry believe deep down? That voting for the war seemed the politically expedient thing to do in 2002 but that they've since done the math and figured that pandering to the moveon.org crowd is where the big bucks are?

The Cell Phone And The Decline of Civilization

Finally someone has said it.  And since it's George Will, it's said in a pithy manner.  It is rude to be with other people and talking on your cell phone at the same time.  A tidbit:

Many people have no notion of propriety when in the presence of other people, because they are not actually in the presence of other people, even when they are in public.

With everyone chatting on cell phones when not floating in iPod-land, ``this is an age  of social autism, in which people just can't see the value of imagining their impact on others.'' We are entertaining ourselves into inanition. (There are Web sites for people with Internet addiction. Think about that.) And multiplying technologies of portable entertainments will enable ``limitless self-absorption,'' which will make people solipsistic, inconsiderate and anti-social. Hence manners are becoming unmannerly in this ``age of lazy moral relativism combined with aggressive social insolence."