Category Archives: Political Commentary

Political Commentary, War Commentary

Down A Big Cup Of Duuuhhhh

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Some intelligence agencies are starting to think that maybe bin Laden hasn’t been alive for a long time:

Questions about Bin Laden are being raised by intelligence officials who say that without a specific time mark with a photo of Bin Laden, his presence cannot be confirmed and the most recent statements could have been put together from older audio.

Yes, and that has been true since Tora Bora. Haven’t these people ever wondered, or speculated why bin Laden, who was second only to Senator Schumer when it came to being a camera hog, all of a sudden switched from video to audio about six years ago? Even if he said things that seemed to indicate knowledge of recent events, that could have been done by splicing and manipulating an audio tape, or finding someone to imitate his voice. Maybe they’ve been using voice prints, but I don’t know how reliable they really are. I do know that it’s a lot harder to fake a video, and when I consider the fact that we’ve heard only audios, and not seen a new video (at least one that can be shown to be from a post-2002 period) I have long thought that he’s been pushing up poppies since then.

Of course, the other reason that I’ve long thought that he’s dead is that our so-called intelligence agencies–the same ones that subverted our pressure on Iran last fall with their “intelligence” estimate that they’re not building a bomb–have continued to tell me that he’s alive. To me, the question is not whether or not he’s alive, but why so many in the so-called intelligence community have been so determined to continue to attempt to convince us that he is for the past six years.

Political Commentary, War Commentary

The Cairing Party

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The misspelling is deliberate:

Perhaps some members of Congress had been fooled by CAIR’s deception. But now they have no excuse. Now Sen. Barbara Mikulski, who saluted CAIR’s “important work,” and Sen. Paul Sarbanes, who applauded “CAIR’s mission,” know better.

The criminal briefing should also disabuse Rep. John Conyers, who’s trumpeted CAIR’s “long and distinguished history.” Rep. John Dingell, who said “my office door is always open” to CAIR, now has an obligation to slam it shut.

No red-blooded American lawmaker wants to do anything that would facilitate the support of terrorists, not even Rep. Dennis Kucinich, who’s gushed “CAIR has much to be proud of.”

And shame on the (much fewer) Republicans on the list as well.

Moderate American Muslims need to form and promote an organization that truly speaks for them, and not for radicals and terrorism. But if they do, will the Democrats pay any attention, or will they remain enthralled with CAIR?

Media Criticism, Political Commentary

The Big Lie Continues

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I don’t generally agree with Paul Krugman (to put it mildly) and in fact I don’t agree with much in this piece, either, except for one thing:

I’m not the first to point out that the Obama campaign seems dangerously close to becoming a cult of personality.

But the real reason I put this post up is to note the lie that will not die (mostly because the media liars, or at least deranged, such as Krugman, who may actually believe it, continue to promulgate it).

The prime example of Clinton rules in the 1990s was the way the press covered Whitewater. A small, failed land deal became the basis of a multiyear, multimillion-dollar investigation, which never found any evidence of wrongdoing on the Clintons’ part, yet the “scandal” became a symbol of the Clinton administration’s alleged corruption.

There was abundant evidence of wrongdoing found, and it can be found in Bob Ray’s report. The fact that he chose not to indict was not because there wasn’t “any” evidence. It was because he didn’t think that he had enough (and indeed, he may have thought that no amount would have been enough) to successfully prosecute and convict them, given the fact that it would only take a single Clinton cultist to hang a jury, as happened in the Susan MacDougal case.

Just to clarify the record. I won’t bother to fisk the rest of Krugman’s Clinton-defending nonsense today.

Political Commentary, War Commentary

Boo Hoo

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Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia is very demoralized:

In the Anbar document, the author describes an al-Qaida in crisis, with citizens growing weary of militants’ presence and foreign fighters too eager to participate in suicide missions rather than continuing to fight, said Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, a U.S. military spokesman.

“We lost cities and afterward, villages … We find ourselves in a wasteland desert,” Smith quoted the document as saying.

The memo cites militants’ increasing difficulty in moving around and transporting weapons and suicide belts because of better equipped Iraqi police and more watchful citizens, Smith said.

The author of the diary seized near Balad wrote that he was once in charge of 600 fighters, but only 20 were left “after the tribes changed course”_ a reference to how many Sunni tribesmen have switched sides to fight alongside the Americans, Smith said.

No thanks to Harry or Nancy. This is a real problem for the press. There may not be enough foreign fighters left to create the new Tet that they’re dying to report.

[Update early afternoon]

The WaPo has more detailed account. Apparently the diary was from the October time period.

Political Commentary

Fascists To The Left Of Me

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Matthew Franck liked Jonah’s book:

Edmund Burke in 1775, in what seems to be the first defense of partisanship in Western political thinking, argued that party loyalty and striving for victory over one’s opponents is a good thing, so long as loyalty to one’s own did not lead each party to attempt the “proscription” of the other. My second and last question prompted by Jonah’s Liberal Fascism is, how real is the prospect that one of our parties may try to proscribe the other. And which is more likely to try it?

It is a standard charge of left-wingers who claim to see “fascists” on the right that conservatives want to crack down on dissent and stifle freedom of political speech. But if, as Jonah powerfully argues, our fascists are liberals and many of our liberals are fascists–while fascism is much more weakly present (if at all) on the right–then it should not be surprising that we find the left to be the maker of speech codes, hate crimes laws, political correctness, indoctrination programs in all levels of education, campaign finance “reform,” and so on. Can anyone recall any similar campaigns by conservatives for the repression of dissent in the last several generations? (And no, efforts to revive now-lost prohibitions on obscenity and pornography don’t count.) Proscription of its opponents’ views–a classic great-party gambit by those who wish to unmake and remake regime-question settlements–seems to be the agenda of the American left, not of the right.

It’s not just fascism that is redefined by the book, but the words “left” and “right” as well.

Political Commentary

If This Isn’t Fascism…

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…what is it?

Toward the end of his speech, Dr. Suzuki said that “we can no longer tolerate what’s going on in Ottawa and Edmonton” and then encouraged attendees to hold politicians to a greater green standard.

“What I would challenge you to do is to put a lot of effort into trying to see whether there’s a legal way of throwing our so-called leaders into jail because what they’re doing is a criminal act,” said Dr. Suzuki, a former board member of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.

[Afternoon update]

Apparently, such is the threat from global warming that we’ll have to sacrifice democracy on its altar:

[T]he authors conclude that an authoritarian form of government is necessary, but this will be governance by experts and not by those who seek power.

Well, that’s a relief.

Actually, there’s a bunch of good stuff like this over at Jonah’s Liberal Fascism blog today. Just keep a scrollin.’ Including Joshua Lederberg’s thoughts on letting scientists run things.