South Dakota Politics

Clinic at Pine Ridge Gets Go-Ahead

Indian Country Today:

It could be considered ironic that the South Dakota Legislature became the catalyst that thrust a tribal president onto center stage on a national level.

The passage of a bill in March that limits a woman's right to choose - even in the case of incest or rape - to have an abortion angered Oglala Sioux Tribal President Cecilia Fire Thunder, as it did many people. The nearly total ban on abortion makes an exception only if the mother's life is in danger.

Fire Thunder received national press when she mentioned the development of a women's clinic on a reservation.

That clinic is a go and will be called Sacred Choices Clinic.

Argus Leader on Rounds Lawsuit

In Friday's Argus Leader there was a story by Dan Haugen on Steve Round's lawsuit against the State of South Dakota. 

Relatives of Gov. Mike Rounds are suing the state over a deadly highway crash in Stanley County two years ago.

In a small state such as South Dakota, where the Rounds family has many ties in state government, observers say they are taking steps to avoid any conflicts of interest.

Gov. Mike Rounds isn't named in the wrongful death lawsuit.

It was filed on behalf of his brother, Steve Rounds; sister-in-law, Dee Ann Rounds; and her father,  Monny Truman.

Political Scientist Bob Burns (SDSU) and I are quoted in the article.  Here is my bit.

Ken Blanchard, a political science professor at Northern State University, also doubted the lawsuit would affect the campaign for governor. Rounds is running for re-election against Democratic challengers.

It's possible the story might serve as good gossip in Democratic circles, but without allegations of favoritism, Blanchard doesn't see it having traction with the public.

On the other hand, Blanchard said, "It's virtually universal in politics: The last thing you want the press paying attention to during a campaign is your brother."

Having seen the whole story, I think it very unlikely this will be a campaign issue. 

NYT

Our friends over at Powerline are noting another comical blunder committed by the New York Times:

From the corrections section of yesterday's New York Times:

An article and a picture caption yesterday about the funeral of Sgt. Jose Gomez of Queens, who was killed on April 20 in Iraq, referred incorrectly to the Army representative who comforted his mother. She was a sergeant first class — an enlisted woman, not an officer. The article also misstated the name of a service medal that a general presented to Sergeant Gomez's mother. It is a Purple Heart, not a Purple Star.

This is freaking unbelievable. "Purple Star"? We have never pretended to any expertise in military matters, but I wouldn't have thought there was a single adult American who didn't know that the medal that is awarded to wounded servicemen is the Purple Heart. Now we know there are at least two: the reporter who wrote that story, and the editor who--presumably--read it before it was published. Keep that in mind next time you're wondering whether to trust the Times' coverage of military affairs.

Ed Morrissey notes:

This contains two highly embarrassing mistakes for any publication that considers itself authoritative on military issues and news. As John Hinderaker points out, the Purple Heart may well be the most recognized military decoration, and one of our oldest. George Washington created the award as a way of honoring the efforts of enlistees, and the modern medal bears his silhouette. Given all of the discussion of John Kerry's service in Viet Nam and his three Purple Hearts, one would expect at least the editors of the New York Times to know the right name for the medal, if not the reporter herself.

The second mistake was identifying a sergeant as an officer. Up to now, I figured anyone with any understanding of military rank knew that sergeants were enlisted men and women, not commissioned officers. Most reporters used to know military rank and their commission or lack thereof simply by their devices of rank. Apparently, the Paper of Record has so little experience in these matters that their reporters and editors no longer can distinguish rank or medals. That should embarrass everyone at the New York Times and point out to its readers how little understanding the paper has of the American military in general.

Churchill

University of Colorado Ethnic Studies professor Ward Churchill has been under investigation for academic misconduct since the publication of his "little Eichmanns" essay comparing the victims of September 11 to Nazis.  The charges include plagarism and historical fabrication.  On May 5, the investigative panel looking into the allegations submitted its report recommending disciplinary action against Churchill, which will be made public next week.  Now Churchill and his lawyer David Lane are demanding that CU drop this "witch hunting" or face a lawsuit.  You can read the seven-page letter to the university here: Download WardChurchillSuit.pdf

History

Oral history from Iraq about the Battle of Fallujah: "Enjoy this all-too-rare clarity about the war and our enemies."

HT to Instapundit.

Andal

The Argus Leader today doesn't report that Roger Andal ran to chair the state Democratic Party in 1998, ran for the legislature as a Democrat a few times, and headed up Vets for Gore and Vets for Kerry, but in a story today they do note this:

Andal freely admits there's an ideological divide between himself and Thune. He worked for former Sen. Tom Daschle more than 20 years ago. Thune defeated Daschle in a bitter 2004 election.

Andal also said he headed veterans' groups for Daschle's and Sen. Tim Johnson's political campaigns against Thune. He served as an officer of Daschle's New Leadership for America political action committee, and he has contributed nearly $8,000 to Democratic candidates and organizations in the past decade, according to federal campaign finance reports.

Majority Support NSA Phone Surveillance

As I suggested, most Americans support the NSA program.

A majority of Americans initially support a controversial National Security Agency program to collect information on telephone calls made in the United States in an effort to identify and investigate potential terrorist threats, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.

The new survey found that 63 percent of Americans said they found the NSA program to be an acceptable way to investigate terrorism, including 44 percent who strongly endorsed the effort. Another 35 percent said the program was unacceptable, which included 24 percent who strongly objected to it.

A slightly larger majority--66 percent--said they would not be bothered if NSA collected records of personal calls they had made, the poll found.

Underlying those views is the belief that the need to investigate terrorism outweighs privacy concerns. According to the poll, 65 percent of those interviewed said it was more important to investigate potential terrorist threats "even if it intrudes on privacy." Three in 10--31 percent--said it was more important for the federal government not to intrude on personal privacy, even if that limits its ability to investigate possible terrorist threats.

Half--51 percent--approved of the way President Bush was handling privacy matters.

Mark Johnston: "I guess public information is only that which you see fit to print."

Hat tip to Greg Belfrage on this one.  Governor Mike Rounds' press secretary, Mark Johnston, has written a scathing editorial in the Argus Leader concerning that paper's recent war against the governor:

Regarding your recent editorial, "Gov. 1, Public 0," the writer made an effort to shape public opinion about how the Argus Leader is being denied critical public information in areas such as public health and safety.

What it really showed was your short-sighted, small-minded opinion about the paper being denied access to public information - and the facts lie within the pages of your own publication. Let me cite a few examples:

Since the first mumps case was suspected April 19, the Department of Health has issued four general news releases; updated our mumps Web site twice a week with new information (www.state.sd.us/doh/mumps); and made 10 updates on our EPI Listserve, which is an information source for health care providers and the media (the Argus Leader subscribes and receives the information).

When a house fire tragically killed a great state employee, and an apartment fire left one person dead and seven more in the hands of the Sioux Empire Red Cross, we provided information, as requested, so that your readers could have a better understanding about how prevalent house fire deaths are - and whether the state has oversight for inspecting apartment complexes.

When your paper wanted information from the South Dakota Department of Transportation about continuing road construction projects around your growing city, it was provided.We are here to provide information, the facts - nothing more, nothing less. This isn't about some "ginned up" feud you claim is going on between the governor and the Argus Leader.

If you go back and check the pages of your very own paper, the governor has spoken to many reporters on important topics such as education, agriculture, energy development, veterans benefits - again, the list goes on and on.

It appears you take issue with having to contact my office for information. That is my job. My sole purpose is to facilitate the flow of information between the departments and agencies of state government to local, regional and national media outlets. As a matter of fact, not too long ago, I was commended by your very own South Dakota Newspaper Association for helping reporters do their jobs.

So, please continue calling and sending e-mails. It is my job to provide the facts - no opinions, no speculations. That is your job.

P.S. Since you're choosing not to cover the governor in any meaningful way, you missed a really great story about the governor and Jeremy Bucholz, a former meth user and manufacturer who has beaten this horrible drug and turned his life around. On May 3 and 4, they traveled around the state and talked to more than 3,500 middle and high school students about a new campaign called Faces of Meth: Meth makes you Ugly.

That is a real public health and safety story that affects every city and county in this state. And, because of your so-called "feud," you chose not to cover it, and your readers didn't learn about it.

I guess public information is only that which you see fit to print.

Tax Cut

TaxProf Blog:  Joint Economic Committee Releases Tax Cuts Make Tax System More Progressive

Of course, the left and the MSM tend to think the tax is regressive. 

Pelosi

Nancy Pelosi, who cheaply remarked that if the Democrats gained control of the House they would pursue impeachment of the president, has backpedaled after protests by Republicans and some Democrats worried about rallying the Right.  Washington Post excerpt:

Seeking to choke off a Republican rallying cry, the House's top Democrat has told colleagues that the party will not seek to impeach President Bush even if it gains control of the House in November's elections, her office said last night.

Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) told her caucus members during their weekly closed meeting Wednesday "that impeachment is off the table; she is not interested in pursuing it," spokesman Brendan Daly said.

Some House Democrats, including ranking Judiciary Committee member John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, have called for impeachment hearings into allegations that Bush misled the nation about Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction and that he violated federal law by approving warrantless wiretaps on Americans. ... Daly said Pelosi never considered impeachment a priority. Republicans "are in such desperate shape," he said, "we don't want to give them anything to grab on to." He said Conyers agrees with Pelosi's thinking.

The Only Emperor used to be the Emperor of Ice Cream

While we are on the subject of liberty, I do think that there is a real threat lurking in modern civilization.  It isn't Bush or Osama, its the health Nazis.  From the London Times:

FOR 60 years the tinny jingle of Greensleeves that announced the arrival of the ice-cream van has been an indelible memory of childhood, but that sound may soon be removed from suburban streets. Health lobbyists have decided that ice-creams are too much of a danger to children’s health.

MPs and health officials are planning a series of measures across the country that are already forcing Mr Whippy and his helpers into meltdown.

Under an amendment to the Education and Inspection Bill to be put forward this week, local authorities will be given new powers to stop ice-cream vans from operating near school gates. The move comes as operators claim that they are already being forced out of business by an over-zealous health lobby.

Local authorities have in recent weeks banned ice-cream vans from using pay-and-display parking spaces and set up “ice-cream-free”exclusion zones around busy shopping streets. Newham council, in east London, informed vendors last month that it would fine van owners up to £80 if they used pay-and-display bays. Greenwich council, in southeast London, has banned the vans from its streets altogether, while in Scotland, West Dunbartonshire council has introduced an exclusion zone around schools for vans.

My first reaction was: "Their ice cream vans play Greensleeves?"  Ours tend to play "Its a Small, Small, World," an insipid melody that burrows into the mind like a bowel weevil, and doesn't leave until the soul is hollowed out.  I am not generally in favor of the death penalty, but I would make an exception for whatever enemy of humanity composed that song. 

My second reaction is to note that ice cream is one of Western Civilization's greatest achievements, and anyone who is an enemy of the former is no friend to the latter.  Why is it that the left, which so vigorously defends pornography and the bath house, can't spare a little sympathy for those who would enjoy a scoop of gold medal ribbon?  Be afraid.  Be very afraid.  These are the enemies of freedom.

The New NSA Database Scandal

Samuel Johnson remarked that a second marriage is a triumph of hope over experience.  Another such triumph is evident in Mathew Cooper's piece in Time Magazine. 

To date, the Bush administration has enjoyed public support for a slew of policies — including detentions without trials and new methods of eavesdropping — that critics describe as an encroachment on civil liberties. Last year, the Democrats tried to make renewal of the USA Patriot Act an issue, but in the end they buried their objections and passed a bill that Bush could sign. When the NSA's policy of warrentless eavesdropping on some domestic calls was revealed by The New York Times in December, Democrats along with many Republicans also screamed from the rafters, but the program proved popular with the public. Presidential advisers thought it was such a winner that they put it in Bush's State of the Union address. Despite calls to investigate the program and shut it down, what the White House dubs the "terrorist surveillance program" continued unabated.  Will the new revelations about the NSA tip the balance? Perhaps.

Perhaps not.  The last time the NSA surveillance programs became an issue, Bush gained ten points in the polls.  I wouldn't hold my breath for a repeat, but neither do I expect this story to make a difference either way.  To begin with, the recent revelations aren't recent.  They were already reported in the New York Times.  Secondly, what is revealed is not exactly shocking news. John Hinderaker at Powerline has this:

Liberals are jumping up and down about USA Today's publication of another leak relating to the National Security Agency. It's considered a news flash that the NSA is collecting data on phone calls, with the cooperation of almost all of the major telecom companies, to look for suspicious patterns. This is a "data mining" project that does not involve listening in on conversations, but merely identifying phone numbers involved in possible terrorist communications.  . . .

[I]t's obvious that what the NSA does with this vast amount of data is to run it through computers, looking for suspicious patterns, especially involving known or suspected terrorist phone numbers. I did a quick calculation: assuming that there are 200 million adult Americans, each of whom places or receives ten phone calls a day (a conservative estimate, I think), it would require a small army of 35,000 full-time NSA employees to pay a total of one second of attention to each call. In other words, lighten up: the NSA obviously isn't tracking your phone calls with your friends and relatives.

In other words, the NSA is using data analysis to try to find communications between terrorists.  How important is this?  Hinderaker draws our attention to this story from Macleans Canada:

LONDON (AP) - The suicide bombers who killed 52 passengers on London's transit system had a string of contacts with someone in Pakistan just before striking, Britain's top law enforcement official said Thursday.  . . .

Thursday's report by the Intelligence and Security Committee concluded that intelligence agents had been alerted to two of the suicide bombers before the attacks but limited resources prevented them from uncovering the plot.

The committee said intelligence agents did not concentrate on the two terror suspects - Siddique Khan and Shazad Tanweer - because they were not believed to be an urgent threat and investigators decided to focus on "known plans to attack the U.K."

[Home Secretary John] Reid, speaking of the contacts in Pakistan ahead of the attacks, said authorities did not know what was discussed. Authorities have long held that the four bombers were homegrown terrorists who acted alone.

"There are a series of suspicious contacts from an unknown individual or individuals in Pakistan in the immediate run-up to the bombings," Reid said after his department released its narrative of the attacks. "We do not know their content."

Because the Brits were already monitoring phone communications, they had the information they needed to foil the London bombing, if only they had had the resources to exploit it.  It appears that they have since foiled several would-be attacks.  Maybe NSA data mining can help remedy the limited resources of Western Intelligence Agencies, and so prevent the next atrocity.  If so, shouldn't it have access to vast databases of phone numbers that might have tipped us off to the last major attack? 

Hinderaker points out that the data handed over to the NSA by major telecom firms is data they already share with one another.  Here is some interesting information from Qwest's "Privacy Policy" webpage.

The information we obtain from you is generally necessary for us to provide your services and design new services for your future use. For example, we need to know your name, address and the services you buy from us to properly provide and bill for those services. When you call us, our representatives pull up account records and may refer to your bill, your calling patterns, and other information we have to answer questions you may have or recommend how we can best serve you.

We may also use information in our records to protect our customers, employees or property — for instance, to investigate fraud, harassment or other types of unlawful service activities involving Qwest or other carriers that we do business with. In some cases, it may be necessary to provide this information to the government or third parties who make a lawful demand for it.

Okay.  Who else gets information about "calling patterns"? 

We share information within our Qwest companies to enable us to better understand our customers' product and service needs, and to learn how to best design, develop, and package products and services to meet those needs.

And?  Come on, who else?

As a general rule, Qwest does not release customer account information to unaffiliated third parties without your permission unless we have a business relationship with those companies where the disclosure is appropriate. For example, we may hire outside companies as contractors or agents; or we might be engaged in a joint venture or partnership with a company. Upon occasion, Qwest may decide to stop providing a service or may decide to sell or transfer parts of our business to unaffiliated companies. When this happens, we may provide confidential customer information to these companies so that they can offer you the same or similar services. In all of these situations, we provide information to these other companies only as needed to accomplish our business objectives and the companies are bound by requirements to keep Qwest customers' information confidential.

But of course . . .

There are exceptions to the general rule. For example, we might provide information to regulatory or administrative agencies so that they can accomplish their regulatory tasks (for example, responding to a customer complaint) or to maximize the efficiencies of our own processes (such as getting mailing addresses correct, for example). Other disclosures will be driven by legal requirements imposed on Qwest. Qwest complies with "legal process," such as a subpoena or court order or other similar demand, associated with either criminal or civil proceedings.

So what exactly is this scandal that so appalls Senator Patrick Leahy?  What is it that Mathew Cooper thinks will finally turn Americans against the National Security Agency?  It concerns information that Qwest already shares with its affiliates, subsidiaries, and business partners, as well as with God knows how many "regulatory or administrative agencies."  The scandal is that this information has also been shared with agencies that are trying to prevent the next terrorist attack.  Maybe, just maybe, the real scandal is that we weren't doing this kind of surveillance all along.   

No. But just try finding a plumber on Saturday.

From Time, 1966

Jay Reding

Sioux Falls blogger Jay Reding gets a link from the blogfather, Instapundit, regarding the arrest of Egyptian blogger Alaa Abd El-Fatah.

AP

Regarding my post on Roger Andal yesturday, the Associated Press is reporting on growing criticism of him for his partisan activities while holding a non-political office.  Here's some more info on Andal:

Daschle staffer: 1970s
Ran as Democrat for Legislature: 1986, 1988
Ran for Democratic Party Chair: 1998
Veterans for Gore:  2000
Head of Veterans for Kerry: 2004
Head of Veterans for Daschle: 2004
Officer, Daschle’s new PAC: 2005

Roll Call, May 25, 2005: “Andal worked for then-Rep. Daschle in the late 1970s and headed up Veterans for Daschle last year.”

Argus Leader, August 25, 2004: “heads South Dakota Veterans for Kerry”

Associated Press, December 3, 2003: “Roger Andal was a district manager for Daschle when he was elected the House”

Argus Leader, May 25, 2003: “Roger Andal, a longtime Daschle supporter”

Technology Daily, August 14, 2002: Andal “a Democratic Party activist”

Argus Leader, October 20, 2000:  “Roger Andal was working for then-U.S. Rep. Tom Daschle in the late 1970s”

Associated Press, December 7, 1998:  Andal lost race to be new Democratic Party chairman.

Associated Press, December 3, 1998:  Andal has "worn a variety of hats for the Democratic Party. 'I think that we need to go back and review (former U.S. Sen.) George McGovern's original structure and efforts to build the party. The party has become fairly weak over the years.'"

U.S. Newswire, September 26, 1996: “Prominent Veterans, Leaders Across Nation Endorse Clinton/Gore”  [Andal in South Dakota]

Argus Leader, November 24, 1988: Andal runs as Democrat for state legislature in 1986 and 1988

NSA

Why is this news?  I mean, anyone who's read Tom Clancy knows the NSA has been doing this for years.  And besides, the program under Bush is far less intrusive than the one Clinton ran.  According to USA Today, the NSA is merely looking at phone numbers to detect patterns, while Bill Clinton allowed the screening of calls for content and substance.  John Hinderacker reacts in "NSA Accused of Protecting U.S. From Terrorists."  Excerpt:

One, as A.J. Strata points out, the USA Today article identified Qwest as the one major carrier that declined the NSA's request for cooperation. Presumably Qwest has now become the terrorists' telecom company of choice. Way to go, USA Today!

Two, it's obvious that what the NSA does with this vast amount of data is to run it through computers, looking for suspicious patterns, especially involving known or suspected terrorist phone numbers. I did a quick calculation: assuming that there are 200 million adult Americans, each of whom places or receives ten phone calls a day (a conservative estimate, I think), it would require a small army of 35,000 full-time NSA employees to pay a total of one second of attention to each call. In other words, lighten up: the NSA obviously isn't tracking your phone calls with your friends and relatives.

Three, it's interesting to juxtapose the NSA stories--this one plus the Agency's international terrorist surveillance program--with this account of a report earlier today by Britain's Intelligence and Security Committee on the subway bombings in London last July:

The suicide bombers who killed 52 passengers on London's transit system had a string of contacts with someone in Pakistan just before striking, Britain's top law enforcement official said Thursday.

However, authorities admitted they didn't know what was discussed in those contacts and stuck with their contention that the blasts were a home-grown plot and that the degree of involvement by al-Qaida, if any, was unknown.

Thursday's report by the Intelligence and Security Committee concluded that intelligence agents had been alerted to two of the suicide bombers before the attacks but limited resources prevented them from uncovering the plot.

Reid, speaking of the contacts in Pakistan ahead of the attacks, said authorities did not know what was discussed. *** "There are a series of suspicious contacts from an unknown individual or individuals in Pakistan in the immediate run-up to the bombings," Reid said after his department released its narrative of the attacks. "We do not know their content."

Sounds like they should have listened in on those calls. These are exactly the kind of communications that are intercepted by the NSA under the terrorist surveillance program that has been widely denounced by Democrats.

Michelle Malkin has a roundup of reactions.  And to think, this story came out after Bush nominated Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden to director of the CIA.  Orin Kerr, who earlier took a look at Michael Hayden's view of the Fourth Amendment, discusses the legality of the NSA program.

Andal

Aberdeen American News:

The Republican chairman of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee says he is troubled by comments and letters written by the commander of South Dakota Disabled American Veterans.

Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, says he believes Roger Andal is casting "partisan aspersions" on Republican Sen. John Thune.

The group's Washington office says it has contacted Andal about his comments, but the commander says he stands by everything he's said.

Craig wrote Paul Jackson, national commander of Disabled American Veterans, earlier this month on the issue. Craig said that Andal has posted comments on the group's Web site and sent letters to local newspapers criticizing Thune's votes on veterans funding.

Andal's comments only referred to Thune's votes against Democratic amendments, Craig said, and did not mention that he voted for Republican amendments that also provided veterans funding.

Joe Violante, legislative director of the veterans group, said executive director David Gorman had called Andal to "make sure his efforts don't cross the line."

"We are veterans advocates and sometimes our people get a little too aggressive about what they do and don't realize how it's being perceived," Violante said.

Violante added that Craig and Thune "may be oversensitive because of the commander's background having been a Daschle supporter."

Andal says he worked for former Sen. Tom Daschle, the Democrat who was defeated by Thune in 2004, "some 20 years ago."

On Thune's votes, Andal says "he's simply voting wrong."

Andal, who was wounded in Vietnam and ends his term as commander this month, says he called for the resignation of Democrats in the past.

Kyle Downey, a spokesman for Thune, said the senator's office hopes "the new leadership is willing to work in a new non-partisan way to find solutions for South Dakota's veterans."

Andal has been sympathetic to Democrats before, which Sibby has noted here.

It's Official

Americans are idiots.  And God hates people who like Taylor Hicks.  Seriously.  The Pope says so. 

Progress in Iraq II

Bill Crawford of All Things Conservative takes a look at the latest Brookings Institution numbers from Iraq.

UPDATE:  The Futurist takes a closer look at the Brookings numbers.  Also see Ilya Somin's look at Iraqi federalism.

Bad Headline

Matt Drudge is good at hyping stories.  But sometimes his headlines are little more than blatant distortions.  Take his current top story.  By the time you click the link it may be gone, but it reads "Church Damns Da Vinci."  "How interesting," you say, " some church, probably the Catholic Church, is saying seeing or reading the Da Vinci Code is a sin."  Then you click the link.  Well, it's the Greek Orthodox Church for starters.  Second, the Orthodox Church is merely stating facts, namely that Dan Brown's story is riddled with historical falsehoods.  So then why are they "damning Da Vinci."  They aren't.  Here's how the article concludes.

The Orthodox church, to which 97 percent of Greeks belong, "does not call on people either to see or not to see the film, or to read or not to read the book ... but it is sure that those who do will see the lies and reject its riduculous content."

Seems as though the only thing damnable is Drudge's headline.

By the way, Amy Welborn has some nice resources on The Da Vinci Code.  Truth in advertising: I have not read this book, nor do I plan on it.  Why?  Not for any religious or philosophical reasons.  I just have very little interest in contemporary fiction. 

Exclamation Point

To emphasize Jason's point just below, look at the Freedom House rankings of the new members of the UN Human Rights Commission.  Nations are ranked 1-7 on both political rights and civil liberties.  A score of 1 is the best and 7 is the worst.  Freedom House then labels nations as "free," "partly free" or "not free." Here are the scores and labels:
Azerbaijan: PR: 6, CL:5 Not Free
China: PR: 7, CL: 6  Not Free
Cuba:  PR: 7, CL: 7  Not Free (Do I have to note that some members of Congress have a strange love affair with Cuba?)
Pakistan: PR:6, CL: 5  Not Free
Russia: PR: 6, CL: 5  Not Free
Saudi Arabia: PR: 7, CL: 6  Not Free

UN

Ed Morrissey:  "The United Nations validated every argument yesterday about the efficacy of its so-called reform when it announced that Cuba, China, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Azerbaijan would sit on its Human Rights Council."

Cuba, the same country with the terrible human rights record, is now part of the UN Human Rights Council.  It's a crazy world we live in.

Reflections on Keith Richards

My colleague Professor Schaff notes that the Rolling Stones's Keith Richards took a fall, and may suffer brain damage.  P. Schaff wonders how we will be able to tell the difference.  Its a fair question.  Internally Richards carries the scars of the worst excesses of the sixties.  Externally, well, he may be the ugliest famous person on record. 

Without spoiling any of this fun, I would point out that the Stones are, beyond a reasonable doubt, the greatest Rock band.  Unlike the Beatles, who whimped out early, the Stones kept producing core rock and roll music up to the present day.  I can pin down most of the periods in my life by the Stones songs that broke in that time.  I would like to see the boys keep on going, and if Richard's means the end of the Stones, that would be a sad day indeed.

ps.  He wasn't always, well, quite so ugly.

Blanchard in the Argus Leader

On Thursday, I believe, the Argus Leader will run an interesting story on one of Governor Rounds brothers.  I was asked by the reporter to comment on the political ramifications, and some of that will probably make it into the article. 

I also had a piece in the Sunday American News.  The topic of the commentary was the tenth anniversary of welfare reform. 

Back from the Twin Cities

I think it would be more accurate to call Minneapolis and St. Paul fraternal Siamese twins, joined at the Metrodome.  St. Paul has an altogether more modest feel to it, though I suppose that only means that it is less successful economically.  I like the cities, for short spans of time.  The food is about as good as anywhere, if you know where to look.  Its especially good for Ethiopian.  Try the Red Sea if you want to enjoy wafts of very authentic immigrant culture.  Crowds of young men often gather at the bar talking what sounds a lot like politics, though I certainly don't know Amharic. 

On the freeways Clan Blanchard can pass for locals, almost, as we drive our Subaru Forester.  So far as I can tell, this is the official vehicle of Blue Minnesota.  Except that we don't have a Kerry bumper sticker, or better yet one that reads "wake me up in four years."  You can take the temperature of the metropolitan left by glancing at the free city magazines distributed at almost every bar or restaurant, and the temperature is boiling mad. 

Richard Cohen, a liberal in good standing who writes for the Washington Post, has an interesting column on the rabid Internet left.  Cohen notes just how tolerant that part of the Democratic coalition can be. 

I wrote about Stephen Colbert and his unfunny performance at the White House Correspondents' dinner.  Kapow! Within a day, I got more than 2,000 e-mails. A day later, I got 1,000 more. By the fourth day, the number had reached 3,499 -- a figure that does not include the usual offers of nubile Russian women or loot from African dictators. The Colbert messages began with Patrick Manley (``You wouldn't know funny if it slapped you in the face'') and ended with Ron (``Colbert ROCKS, you MURDER'') who was so proud of his thought that he copied countless others. Ron, you're a genius.  . . .

It seemed that most of my correspondents had been egged on to write me by various blogs. In response, they smartly assembled into a digital lynch mob and went roaring after me. If I did not like Colbert, I must like Bush. If I write for The Washington Post, I must be a mainstream media warmonger. If I was over a certain age -- which I am -- I am simply out of it, wherever ``it'' may be. All in all, I was -- I am and, I guess, I remain -- the worthy object of ignorant, false and downright idiotic vituperation.  . . .

The message in this case truly is the medium. The e-mails pulse in my queue, emanating raw hatred. This spells trouble -- not for Bush or, in 2008, the next GOP presidential candidate, but for Democrats. The anger festering on the Democratic left will be taken out on the Democratic middle. (Watch out Hillary!) I have seen this anger before -- back in the Vietnam War era. That's when the anti-war wing of the Democratic Party helped elect Richard Nixon. In this way, they managed to prolong the very war they so hated.

The hatred is back. I know it's only words now appearing on my computer screen, but the words are so angry, so roiled with rage, that they are the functional equivalent of rocks once so furiously hurled during anti-war demonstrations. They hurt in a different way.

I can appreciate some of it. Institution after institution failed America -- the presidency, Congress and the press. They all endorsed a war to rid Iraq of what it did not have. Now, though, that gullibility is being matched by war critics who are so hyped on their own sanctimony that they will obliterate distinctions, punishing their friends for apostasy and, by so doing, aiding their enemies. If that's going to be the case, then Iraq is a war its critics will lose twice -- once because they couldn't stop it, and once more at the polls.

Like Cohen, I have seen this excessive passion wound my side of the argument.  I have said in this blog and in my American News columns that the activist core of the Republican coalition hated Bill Clinton all out of proportion to anything he did, said, or was.  It cost the Republicans dearly during the final years of Clinton's presidency.  I think that the corresponding hatred of Bush on the left helped Bush hang onto his Pennsylvania Avenue address for four more years.  Whether that excessive passion will help the Republicans this time around is doubtful, but I think Cohen is right that it will hurt Democrats in the long run.  It is not only Bush that the radical left despises, its the people and the states that voted for him.  See exhibit B on the right. 

In Federalist Ten Madison argued that one of the great things about a large Republic is that the more extreme factions cannot easily unite.  But the short guy from Mont Pelier didn't have the Internet to worry about.  There is a real danger that the net gives the most extreme factions in each coalition a more clearer voice makes it possible for them to occupy the center.  This is bad. 

It may only be my bias, but just right now the left wing blogosphere seems much less temperate than the right. I am not saying that the folk on the one side are better than those on the other.  I am just saying that, for now, one side exercises more reserve.  When, sooner or later, there is a Democrat in the White House, we will learn whether this is more than a product of circumstance. 

Palestinian Authority In Economic Chaos

And these are the people that Jimmy Carter thinks are the on the side of angels. Hat Tip NLT.

Staff at the Palestinian Authority's environmental protection agency are grounded for lack of petrol money and are no longer able to monitor levels of industrial waste and sewage entering the water supply.

Surgeons at Gaza's biggest hospital have suspended non-essential surgery for lack of sutures, laboratory kits and anaesthetics.

That's what happens when you elect terrorists to run your government.  Of course when it comes to the PA the choice is between these terrorists and those terrorists, so it is hard to totally blame the electoral process. 

 

The Drugs Got There First

After a bad fall, Keith Richards could suffer brain damage.  The question is how will we be able to tell? 

Progress in Iraq

Ed Morrissey:  Captured AQ Documents: "Every Year Is Worse Than The Previous Year"

Meanwhile, this AP story notes that the "main stumbling blocks" towards forming a functioning Iraqi government have been cleared:

Iraq's prime minister-designate said Tuesday the main stumbling blocks to forming a new Cabinet have been overcome and he expects to present his team to parliament for approval by the end of the week.

Nouri al-Maliki said representatives of the country's political parties had agreed on what factions would hold the "main posts" but were still discussing the distribution of "a few" of them. Those included the ministries of oil, trade and transportation, he said.

China

Bad economic news for China:

Estimates of the growing pile of non-performing loans (NPLs) in China appear to have caught many by surprise, especially because Beijing's efforts to clean up its rickety state-owned banks were thought to have greatly reduced NPLs and the risk of a full-blown financial crisis.

According to Ernst & Young, the accounting firm, bad loans in the Chinese financial system have reached a staggering $US911 billion ($1.18 trillion), including $US225 billion in potential future NPLs in the four largest state-owned banks.

This equals 40 per cent of gross domestic product and China has already spent the equivalent of 25-30 per cent of GDP in previous bank bail-outs.

The revelation shows that half-hearted reforms have addressed merely the symptoms of China's financial fragility. Poor business practices are blamed for NPLs but the real source is political. As long as the communist party relies on state-controlled banks to maintain an unreformed core of a command economy, Chinese banks will make more bad loans.

Useful Idiot

Jimmy Carter is at it again.  And they gave this guy the Nobel Peace Prize. 

Jer 6:14-15: "They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.  Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush."

Another Elitist

In an Argus article on video lottery, one finds this nugget from one who supports video lottery against attempts to erradicate it through the initiative process.

Proponents of video lottery deride ease of initiative process

In fact, the industry's first step is to try to keep Brendtro's initiative off the ballot.

"This isn't as much about video lottery as it is about the initiative process,'' Hartford said. It's too easy to place issues on the ballot, he said, and "they (lottery foes) can lose again and again, but we can only lose once.''

The last time the issue surfaced, Hartford reviewed signatures on the petitions. He said he found numerous duplicates and other irregularities that could have been the basis of a legal challenge to the petition. His group chose not to do that then.

What an elitist. 

Argus Bias

One great way to detect bias is evidence of a double standard, such as treating Republicans one way and Democrats another.  Note this story in today's Argus Leader.  The headline is "Thune alters his stance on spending," and the Argus reports that Thune is spending money like, well, the rest of the Republicans.  Excerpt:

In one day, Republican John Thune publicly expressed concern that fellow senators had bloated an emergency spending bill to help pay for war efforts and hurricane relief with funding requests for unrelated projects. Then he turned around and voted against proposals that would have trimmed costs.

Thune, who considers himself a fiscal conservative, remains committed to keeping costs down, said Jessica Ferguson, a Thune spokeswoman.

Senators have not finished working on the bill, she said, adding that they will have a number of chances to vote on amendments before a final vote.

This entire article is trying to make Thune look like a hypocrite.  Now, I'll admit that I'm not happy Thune has done this.  The biggest problem facing the Republicans is their current affinity for spending and big-government conservatism.  Anyways, the problem here is the Argus' one-sided reporting.  If the paper wants to scrutinize South Dakota senators, it should be sure to examine both records.  I challenge the Argus to look at Johnson's voting pattern on these same spending issues.  It's pretty obvious they did not.  This amendment was unsuccessful to remove $6 million for sugarcane in Hawaii.  Thune voted for the spending cut, while Tim Johnson did not.  Senator Johnson voted with Thune on an amendment that would have returned the bill to the President's proposal.  Apparently this side of the story doesn't make for a great news story.  This is just another specific example of how a Republican Senator is blasted while a Democratic Senator gets a free pass.

HT to Sibby.

UPDATE:  Also take note of my earlier post on Porkbusters and how our senators were ranked.

Nature of the Enemy

Mudville Gazette is reporting on this London Times report on Atwar Bahjat, an Iraqi woman who was brutally murdered by terrorists for her courage to report on events in her native Samarra.  Bahjat, a television reporter for al-Arabiya television, covered the violence in Iraq until she was abducted while a group of Samarrans did nothing to help her.  Her body was found later along with those of her cameraman and sound man.  It was presumed she was shot to death, but it was far worse than that.  Bahjat experienced the worst perversion that could be done to another human being.  Mudville Gazette has more of the details and, I'll warn you, the description is rather graphic and quite clinical.  He ends with an important note, that the terrorists know that "if a brutality can be inflicted that exceeds all human ability to comprehend, the humans will find a way to deny it.  Or excuse it.  Or simply look the other way."  We're not looking the other way.

Saw a Twins Game this Afternoon

A wonderful baseball game.  The Twins won 4 to 2 over Detroit, which made it close enough to be exciting all the way.  Santana pitched a no-hitter through six innings, which was possible due to a catch by Torii Hunter that Spiderman would have missed.

SD 123 Hacked

RadioActive Chief:  SD Hack Job

Calling All Engineers

Popular Mechanics:

In an attempt to “seek novel solutions for mission challenges from non-traditional sources,” according to a press release, NASA has announced yet another public competition, this time to create a lunar landing “analog.” With a $2.5 million prize purse at stake, this is the twelfth such event to be announced in the past year under the space agency’s Centennial Challenge program. This new challenge is co-sponsored by the X Prize foundation, and will be held in October at the X Prize Cup Expo.

According to X Prize, the competition will be divided into two "levels." Level one, with a $350,000 first place prize, a vehicle to take off, fly to150 feet (50 meters) altitude, and then to hover for 90 seconds before landing precisely on a landing pad 100 meters away. Level two, which stipulates a hover of 180 seconds and a landing on a rocky, simulated moon surface, comes with a $1.25 million first place prize.

France

More bad news for France:

A burgeoning political scandal of alleged dirty tricks involving the cabinet's two top ministers has tainted the entire French government, pushing it to the brink of paralysis and collapse in the final year of President Jacques Chirac's administration, according to government officials and political analysts.

Ed Morrissey has an analysis of the affair.

Hollywood

Andrew Klavan says to "Draft Hollywood."  Excerpt:

THERE HAS NEVER been an age without war, not ever. Mass violence is a continual aspect of the human condition. Peace, like good weather, is always local and temporary — and what is peace anyway but the result of past victories in war and the effective threat of future war against would-be aggressors?

We play with our children, read books, go to work and enjoy recreations only because people with guns stand ready, willing and able to kill other people with guns who would kill us if they could.

It's sweet to forget this and therefore difficult to keep it in mind. "It is hard for those who live near a Police Station to believe in the triumph of violence," as T.S. Eliot wrote. That's us — we Americans, protected by a mighty military that by and large obeys the rules of our republic — safe enough, and keeping much of the world safe enough, so that we find it hard to believe in what would happen if that protection failed.

But these fighters do keep us safe. And because keeping us safe is harsh, dangerous work, we should glorify them, exalt them in story and song by way of appreciation.

Read the whole thing.

MI III

I saw Mission Impossible III the other night.  You need to intellectually suspend belief in the laws of physics to enjoy the film, but this is true of all action films.  It is a fun action thriller, although it is hard to watch Tom Cruise in romantic scenes without remembering that this guy is off his gourd.  Overall, thumbs up. 

Bring Back The Parties

What Jim Hoagland is noticing is the breakdown of political parties as a meaningful way to organize politically.  In the United States we have put legal obstacles in the way of strong parties, giving an incentive to form more and more narrow interest groups and for politicians to essentially operate as "free agents."  Some reforms that will help and also never pass:
1. Allow parties to once again raise money in unlimited amounts.
2. Allow parties to coordinate more easily with candidates. 
3. Move away from primary elections and replace them with caucus systems.  This would have to occur state by state and it as likely to become law as it is for me to end up playing center field for the New York Yankees. But we need to give the political party organizations more power in selecting their own nominees. 
4. Yes, narrow initiative, referendum, and recall laws so that the power of legislation is in the hands of legislators responsible to parties as opposed to giving legislative power to the general public who are organized via interest groups. 

People will organize to influence the government to their own self-interests.  That is what democracy is.  The question is how they will organize.  The best way is for them organize into large broad based political parties that can make demands on politicians.  Otherwise people will organize into interest groups or, worse yet, around individual charismatic leaders.  Neither of those two phenomena is edifying.

Hollywood Goes To War...Or Not

One Andrew Klavan asks why Hollywood is not producing any war movies, given the fact that we are at war.  I suspect his reasoning is largely correct: America in general and Hollywood in particular has lost the self-confidence to make patriotic war movies.  I would also note that the supposedly more patriotic war movies of recent times, namely Saving Private Ryan and We Were Soldiers or the mini-series Band of Brothers, are subtly subversive in that the central argument of the films is that the soldiers were not fighting for a cause but simply for their fellow soldiers.  In fact the two feature films mentioned almost explicitly say that there was no higher cause worth fighting for, thus the only nobility in the fighting was fighting for your comrades in arms.  Private Ryan is eerily divorced from the wider clash of ideologies at the heart of the Second World War.  It may be true that soldiers fight for each other and not for causes.  I just don't know, although my knowledge of the Civil War tells me most of those soldiers had a pretty good idea what they were fighting for. But nations do indeed fight for causes.  We need stories that show the nobility of our nation and the nobility of fighting for freedom and against tyranny.  But that suggests that we think America is on the side of freedom and our enemies are on the side of tyranny.  It also suggests that America has the moral authority to lead such a fight.  The question is whether we buy these two propositions.  I suspect our storytellers do not.