All posts by Rand Simberg

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New Red Star In Orbit

The Chinese claim to have successfully launched their new manned capsule (without anyone in it, this time).

They do seem to be on track to developing their own independent crewed space capability, with the medium-term goal of sending Taikonauts (their word for astronauts) to the Moon. I hope that they do, because they’ll likely succeed, which may spur us to get off our butts here, and the way they’re going about it (using expendable rockets) will be easy to compete with if we ever harness free enterprise to the problem. Their program is basically a knock off of the Soviets.

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The Stupidity Defense

Layne is being culturally insensitive today.

You’ve heard of the insanity defense? Apparently the Arabs are trying to use the stupidity defense.

Buy a plane ticket? Sure! Next thing you’re going to tell me is that an Arab Muslim can drive a car or use an ATM or brush his teeth. Arab Muslims are retarded! We know that.

Political Commentary

Clinton Legacy Watch

Commenting on my post about a possible Iraqi connection to OKC, fellow blogger John Hudnall makes an additional point that’s worth repeating.

After 911, Bill Clinton was whining to his toadies and sycophants about how cruel and unfair history was–he never had an opportunity to be a great president, because he didn’t get to preside over a war. That sum’bitch Bush just had all the luck.

But as I pointed out, there was a lot of evidence of international connections to the OKC bombing, which was the biggest terrorist attack on US soil up until that time (since the first WTC attempt in 1993 was unsuccessful). But the Administration actively avoided following the evidence trail.

I already pointed out one reason–they wanted to demonize their political enemies, and not dilute any of the blame. But the other reason is perhaps that, had they actually found hard evidence of Iraqi involvement, they would have had to do something about it, and the public would have likely been unimpressed with lobbing a few cruise missiles at aspirin factories. Particularly considering Mr. Clinton’s own history, and his cabinet picks, this was not an Administration with either the temperament or talent to fight a real war.

So Mr. Clinton potentially had his opportunity for a war against terrorism in Oklahoma City. He chose instead, as Mr. Hudnall says, to use it for crass domestic partisan advantage. Had he instead sought to find the full truth, and properly responded to it, what happened on September 11 might have been avoided.

And thus the legacy continues to build.

Political Commentary

Iraqis In Oklahoma?

Most political observers agree that the Oklahoma City bombing resurrected Bill Clinton’s political career, or at least initiated the process. The Democrats had just lost the Congress in the 1994 elections, due to the health-care debacle, gun control, and a number of other overreaches. There were stories in Time and Newsweek about the “incredible shrinking President” and whether or not he was “relevant.”

OKC changed all that almost overnight. It not only allowed the Big He to go out on one of his “feel your pain” trips, but he and his minions used it to blast militias, talk radio, and evil Right-Wing Republicans, blaming them and their “hate speech” for the bombing.

All of this slander was contingent, of course, on the fact that the job was done, and done solely, by a member of such a “right-wing group.” So Tim McVeigh was the perfect fall guy, from the Administration’s point of view. Once they had the goods on him and Nichols, they basically quit looking for anyone else. Remember “John Doe #2”? Few others do, either, because all evidence that could implicate anyone but McVeigh and Nichols was excluded from their trial, and it became quickly forgotten.

While it could be argued that such evidence was irrelevant to the case against them, and thus properly excluded, it was also convenient to those who wanted to demonize the “right,” since it allowed the finger of blame to be pointed only at the evil right wingers. That full justice was never served wasn’t as important as making clear how evil McVeigh and like-thinking people were.

Well, now that we’re digging into terrorism, and terrorist connections, in light of the past few months, some old skeletons may be starting to clatter out of the closet, as described in this article at Insight. In the process of seeking additional justifications to go after Saddam, yet another old Clinton coverup may finally see the light of day.

Note the last, and key, paragraph:

But one thing is clear: Bill Clinton and Janet Reno exulted when they found a domestic conspiracy behind the Oklahoma City bombing, say administration insiders, and immediately ordered the FBI to call off its investigation of any international connection. Details of that connection finally are beginning to emerge.

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Blogspotty

Down again.

I’m whomping up a little perl script that will check once a minute or so automagically to see if it’s working. It’ll turn on a little traffic signal (green for up, red for down) so people can know not to waste any time with blogspotters.

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Still In Denial

In an article in Salon last week, Josh Marshall displayed his tendency to check his brains at the door when it comes to the Clintons. The full article is only available as a “premium” (i.e., you have to pay cash money for it), but I didn’t bother, because this (free, thankfully) excerpt leads me to conclude that it’s worth less than nothing:

The final report into the Whitewater investigation released Wednesday by the Office of Independent Counsel (OIC) confirmed what had been known for some time — that after all the tens of millions of dollars and eight years of investigation, the OIC found no evidence of any criminal activity on the part of Bill or Hillary Clinton in the various dealings that fell under the catchall heading of “Whitewater.”

As I already pointed out previously, if Josh really believes this, he’s delusional, or he didn’t read the report (I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt, and not simply call him a liar). And when a couple of Washington Post reporters tried the same thing the other day, their on-line headline later had to be revised to reflect reality.

Contrary to finding “no evidence of any criminal activity,” Mr. Ray actually found quite a bit–he just didn’t think that he had enough to get a conviction. But, as is the case with all Clinton liars and spinners, “insufficient” evidence somehow gets transmogrified into “none,” and it’s just a witchhunt on those poor paragons of virtue by the evil rightwingers.

Well, Josh, by your own standards, I find no evidence that you are a serious journalist.

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The Blasphemous West

Steven Den Beste has a nice description of Japan’s martial history and how it was necessary to end it and entirely restructure their culture in order to get a lasting peace with them.

The point, of course, is that we will almost certainly have to do the same thing with Islam, at least Wahabi Islam, to end the current war. It’s a long read, but a good one. As Steven says, our very existence is not just a threat to them–it’s blasphemy.

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Cracks In The Dam?

There’s an interesting little item in the Village Voice about questions concerning Cliff Baxter’s demise. He was the Enron executive who ostensibly committed suicide, but according to this report, he was talking about hiring a body guard shortly before his death–a behavior more consistent with later homicide than suicide.

But what I found most interesting were these words:

Those who doubt the official line think he’s another Vince Foster, murdered in cold blood to stop him from spilling the beans on Enron chief Ken Lay and blowing open the whole scam?offshore accounts, political connections, and all.

The title of the piece contains Foster’s name as well. He says it as though it’s established fact that Foster was murdered. Gee, while the Village Voice is hardly mainstream media, I thought that it was only “right-wing nuts” who have suspicions about the circumstances of Mr. Foster’s strange departure from this world.

Now that Mr. Starr has long departed from the prosecutorial scene, Mr. Ray has submitted his final report, and the Clinton’s have been out of office and power for over a year, I wonder if we’re going to start to see cracks appear in the official story on Foster?

If either Clinton, or even a Clinton or Rodham relative get indicted and/or convicted for the pardon mess, we may see the floodgates start to burst here.

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Pot, Meet Kettle…

At The Nation, the eternally loathesome Eric Alter writes:

Now Sullivan has launched a career in the brave new world of “blogging,” or vanity websites. And while his site arouses a certain gruesome car-wreck fascination, it serves primarily as a reminder to writers of why we need editors.

Well, certainly Mr. Alterman is the poster child for that concern. Maybe Katrina, Victor and David Corn were all on vacation this week. Or maybe the editors need editors…