We learn more by failure than we do by success.
Larry Summers' ouster as Harvard President as the result of faculty pressure is instructive on several levels.
It instructs us that even (or perhaps especially) at elite institutions, dissent from orthodoxy is not tolerated.
It instructs us that caving in to pressure does not solve your problems, it only encourages your opponents.
Excerpt from Dr. Sanity (read the whole thing):
In the history of academia, I don't think anyone has ever come closer to voluntary castration for the cause of radical feminism.
And look where it got him. As I have stated before, bullies --no matter what their gender or religion--only thrive on appeasement.
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
David Gregory: I Revoke My Proxy
The MSM is too easy to ridicule:
Apparently, communicating promptly with the Corpus Christi newspaper is considered "secretive" by the Washington press corps. I would have thought NBC News had ways of picking up news from other newspapers and the Internet. Of course, when you are the proxy for the American people, you ought to be notified by the news makers prior to notifying the peasant newspapers in the hinterlands. It may be that the vice president's staff was negligent in not knowing that David Gregory is the proxy of the American people. I didn't know that, but then I live in Texas and have a parochial view of things. All things considered, it is remarkable that I found out about this shooting as soon as I did. Maybe part of the problem is that Mr. Gregory spends too much time keeping the lines open for those that he really is a proxy for-liberal Democrats, the "beautiful and smart" opinion leaders in Hollywood, the academic community and the mainstream media.
To carry out your duties as "proxy for the American people", you really need to do a better job of representing our views, Mr. Gregory. Listening to David Gregory and Maureen Dowd on "Meet the Press", I came away with a better understanding as to why this hunting accident was such a significant national event and emblematic of everything wrong with the Bush administration (why stop there, it is probably equally emblematic of the ills of conservatism in general?). Mr. Gregory explained that "the vice president of the United States accidentally shot a man for the first time since Aaron Burr killed Alexander Hamilton." Now I am only a narrow-minded Texan, but I always looked at people who fought duels intending to kill their opponent differently than friends bird hunting, whose malice aforethought was directed only towards the birds. I guess at the higher levels of the Washington press corps, the mind works much differently.
Apparently, communicating promptly with the Corpus Christi newspaper is considered "secretive" by the Washington press corps. I would have thought NBC News had ways of picking up news from other newspapers and the Internet. Of course, when you are the proxy for the American people, you ought to be notified by the news makers prior to notifying the peasant newspapers in the hinterlands. It may be that the vice president's staff was negligent in not knowing that David Gregory is the proxy of the American people. I didn't know that, but then I live in Texas and have a parochial view of things. All things considered, it is remarkable that I found out about this shooting as soon as I did. Maybe part of the problem is that Mr. Gregory spends too much time keeping the lines open for those that he really is a proxy for-liberal Democrats, the "beautiful and smart" opinion leaders in Hollywood, the academic community and the mainstream media.
To carry out your duties as "proxy for the American people", you really need to do a better job of representing our views, Mr. Gregory. Listening to David Gregory and Maureen Dowd on "Meet the Press", I came away with a better understanding as to why this hunting accident was such a significant national event and emblematic of everything wrong with the Bush administration (why stop there, it is probably equally emblematic of the ills of conservatism in general?). Mr. Gregory explained that "the vice president of the United States accidentally shot a man for the first time since Aaron Burr killed Alexander Hamilton." Now I am only a narrow-minded Texan, but I always looked at people who fought duels intending to kill their opponent differently than friends bird hunting, whose malice aforethought was directed only towards the birds. I guess at the higher levels of the Washington press corps, the mind works much differently.
NASA's James Hansen Compares US Government to Nazis
The American Enterprise Institute discusses the global warming debate and finds that people who are skeptical of global warming are being labeled as Nazis. One scientist, NASA’s James Hansen, who landed in the headlines recently when he complained of political pressure, “compared having a Bush political appointee listen in on his media phone calls--an obnoxious but routine practice in the federal government--to Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union, eliciting rapturous applause from an audience in New York. And Hansen wonders why people call him an alarmist.”
That got me thinking. As a “financial advisor” for a major global investment firm I am not allowed to make public statements that have not received prior approval by our compliance department. Does that mean that I am living in Bergen Belsen or the Gulag?
As someone born in World War 2 Europe, I think that the Hitler and Stalin’s minions were a touch more repressive than that. In fact, to claim what Hansen is claiming is virtually holocaust denial. And you can get jail time in Austria for that.
That got me thinking. As a “financial advisor” for a major global investment firm I am not allowed to make public statements that have not received prior approval by our compliance department. Does that mean that I am living in Bergen Belsen or the Gulag?
As someone born in World War 2 Europe, I think that the Hitler and Stalin’s minions were a touch more repressive than that. In fact, to claim what Hansen is claiming is virtually holocaust denial. And you can get jail time in Austria for that.
The MSM on the War: Sniping From The Sidelines; Taking No Responsibility.
From Faces from the Front we get this useful reminder of the fact that "reality" is somewhat different in the U.S. (behind a computer screen or on a newpaper office) and Iraq.
On Paper, 8,000 Miles Away, Without Responsibility, The Opinions are Easy
An Open Letter to Kevin Drum, Jane Mayer, et.al
Have you ever seen a man turned to mush? A man with a wife and kids. An educated man who spoke several languages. A man who long knew the leader of his country was vicious and who joined the enemies of the leader. A man in his 40s who voted in his first election only a few months before?
It is easy to opine about abuse and torture and rules of engagement on paper, thousands of miles away from the crack of an AK or the bone jarring concussion from a shaped charge or when you have never looked into the eyes of a terrorist who has sawed the head off another human.
Have you ever stood on a narrow ribbon of asphalt on a 110 degree day in Al Anbar?
Have you ever seen your roomate bleeding out on that narrow ribbon of asphalt? Then minutes later, finding the man who detonated the bomb hiding in a building filled with South African tank rounds and pagers?What would you do if you had?
I had the honor of spending 5 months in Iraq with a platoon of infantry Marines and going with them outside the wire on dozens of missions.
They faced these situations. It was not an intellectual or bureaucratic exercise. The bullets, shrapnel and blood were real. The timeline from observation to action not days, or months or even minutes, but mere fractions of a second.
Have you faced these situations? I have and know more who have seen worse.
When I watched 'Ali', an Iraqi national working with the Marines, being pulled out of a smoking humvee, his body charred and limbs hanging by threads the world changed for me. For if the bomb had gone off a minute earlier, it would have been me they pulled out of that smoldering humvee. My limbs would have been dangling. And the Marines would have seen me turned into mush.
You see, it is easy condemn extremely tough interrogation techniques, rough handling of detainees and use of force exceeding the rules of engagement from 8,000 miles away where your decisions hold no weight and the responsibility for your decisions affect no lives.
Read the whole thing.
On Paper, 8,000 Miles Away, Without Responsibility, The Opinions are Easy
An Open Letter to Kevin Drum, Jane Mayer, et.al
Have you ever seen a man turned to mush? A man with a wife and kids. An educated man who spoke several languages. A man who long knew the leader of his country was vicious and who joined the enemies of the leader. A man in his 40s who voted in his first election only a few months before?
It is easy to opine about abuse and torture and rules of engagement on paper, thousands of miles away from the crack of an AK or the bone jarring concussion from a shaped charge or when you have never looked into the eyes of a terrorist who has sawed the head off another human.
Have you ever stood on a narrow ribbon of asphalt on a 110 degree day in Al Anbar?
Have you ever seen your roomate bleeding out on that narrow ribbon of asphalt? Then minutes later, finding the man who detonated the bomb hiding in a building filled with South African tank rounds and pagers?What would you do if you had?
I had the honor of spending 5 months in Iraq with a platoon of infantry Marines and going with them outside the wire on dozens of missions.
They faced these situations. It was not an intellectual or bureaucratic exercise. The bullets, shrapnel and blood were real. The timeline from observation to action not days, or months or even minutes, but mere fractions of a second.
Have you faced these situations? I have and know more who have seen worse.
When I watched 'Ali', an Iraqi national working with the Marines, being pulled out of a smoking humvee, his body charred and limbs hanging by threads the world changed for me. For if the bomb had gone off a minute earlier, it would have been me they pulled out of that smoldering humvee. My limbs would have been dangling. And the Marines would have seen me turned into mush.
You see, it is easy condemn extremely tough interrogation techniques, rough handling of detainees and use of force exceeding the rules of engagement from 8,000 miles away where your decisions hold no weight and the responsibility for your decisions affect no lives.
Read the whole thing.
Monday, February 20, 2006
GENUINE 100% MEDIA REPRESSION
How often must it be said that the members of the media are rank coward and despicable hypocrites. Having a conniption fit about being scooped by a small Texas paper is now considered standing up to “the man.” Cringing in fear and failing in your duty to inform your readers about the infamous 12 cartoons is now called an exercise in “good taste.” Bullcrap. The media are a bunch of self important lying bigots and cowardly weasels. Can I make it any clearer?
Here is Mark Steyn: Given that the media’s spent the last two weeks telling the public why they don’t need to see these Danish cartoons, it’s hard to take them seriously as sudden converts to the public’s right to know every detail, if only when it comes to minor hunting accidents.
The Legacy media has long been an object of derision to me. But until now I really did not think that these lickspittle bastards were rank cowards. I was wrong about that. They are.
Here is Mark Steyn: Given that the media’s spent the last two weeks telling the public why they don’t need to see these Danish cartoons, it’s hard to take them seriously as sudden converts to the public’s right to know every detail, if only when it comes to minor hunting accidents.
The Legacy media has long been an object of derision to me. But until now I really did not think that these lickspittle bastards were rank cowards. I was wrong about that. They are.
Democrats Call Iraq War Veterans Un-American
Via Powerline we learn that Democrats have called Lt. Col. Bob Stephenson and the other veterans supporting the mission in Iraq as "un-American."
The Democratic Party has undertaken a campaign to suppress two advertisements giving voice to the sentiments of Iraq war veterans and Gold Star Families who support the war.
The two advertisements can be viewed here.
JOHN adds: To my knowledge, not a single Democratic office-holder, in Minnesota or elsewhere, has disassociated himself from the Minnesota Democratic Party's position that it is "un-American" to support our government's policies in Iraq, and that expressions of such support should be banned from the airways.
The Democratic Party has undertaken a campaign to suppress two advertisements giving voice to the sentiments of Iraq war veterans and Gold Star Families who support the war.
The two advertisements can be viewed here.
JOHN adds: To my knowledge, not a single Democratic office-holder, in Minnesota or elsewhere, has disassociated himself from the Minnesota Democratic Party's position that it is "un-American" to support our government's policies in Iraq, and that expressions of such support should be banned from the airways.
Mark Steyn: Cheering tidbits lighten otherwise grim week
In an otherwise grim week -- at least on unimportant peripheral matters like Iranian nukes -- three things cheered me up. The first was the decision of Iran's bakers to rename Danish pastries "Roses of the Prophet Muhammed pastries.'' Has a ring to it, don't you think? If they're looking for a slogan, how about "Iranian pastry: There's nothing flakier. Except our president."
The second cheery sight was the destruction of a McDonald's in Lahore by the usual excitable young lads from the religion of pieces. Apparently the lively Pakistanis had burned every single Danish target in the city -- one early Victor Borge LP left behind by the last British governor -- and had been obliged to diversify. So they dragged Ronald McDonald out of the joint, torched him in the street and danced around his flaming remains shouting "Death to America! Death to Britain! Death to Tony Blair!"
I'm not sure I even get that. Ronald and Tony seem kind of similar from a distance but even on the all-infidels-look-alike-to-me-especially-when-they're-alight thesis you'd think they weren't that easily confused.
The third jolly event of the week was those other excitable fellows -- the Big Media White House reporters -- jumping up and down shouting "Death to Dick Cheney!" NBC's David Gregory, the George Clooney of the press corps, was yelling truth to power about why the Elmer-Fudd-in-gun-rampage story was released to "a local Corpus Christi newspaper, not the White House press corps at large.'' I know how he feels. I remember, like, four or five years ago -- early September, maybe second week -- there was this building collapse in New York and I had to learn about it from the TV because this notoriously secretive paranoid administration couldn't even e-mail me a timely press release. For an NBC guy discovering that some hicksville nowhere-burg one-stop-light feed-price sheet got tipped off before he did is like a dowager duchess turning up at the royal banquet to discover the scullery maid's been seated next to the queen.
So anyway David Gregory's going bananas and yelling "I will yell!" and "Don't be a jerk!" at the White House press secretary, and there's more smoke coming out of his ears than from Ronald McDonald in Lahore, and I'm thinking, you know, maybe Karl's latest range of Rovebots that he planted in American media corporations are just a wee bit too parodically self-absorbed to be plausible. And then this lady pipes up and asks, "Would this be much more serious if the man had died?"
Well, maybe. And maybe it would be even ever so much more serious still if, after peppering him with birdshot, Cheney had dragged him into a safe house in the Sunni Triangle and decapitated him with a rusty scimitar while shouting "Allahu Ahkbar!" and then sold the video to al-Jazeera.
Fortunately, the Washington Post had that wise old bird David Ignatius to put it in the proper historical context: "This incident," he mused, "reminds me a bit of Sen. Edward Kennedy's delay in informing Massachusetts authorities about his role in the fatal automobile accident at Chappaquiddick in 1969."
Hmm. Let's see. On the one hand, the guy leaves the gal at the bottom of the river struggling for breath pressed up against the window in some small air pocket while he pulls himself out of the briny, staggers home, sleeps it off and saunters in to inform the cops the following day that, oh yeah, there was some broad down there. And, on the other hand, the guy calls 911, has the other fellow taken to the hospital, lets the sheriff know promptly but neglects to fax David Gregory's make-up girl!
One can only hope others agree with Ignatius' insightful analogy, and that the reprehensible Cheney will be hounded from public life the way Kennedy was all those years ago. One would hate to think folks would just let it slide and three decades from now this Cheney guy will be sitting on some committee picking Supreme Court justices and whatnot.
Meanwhile, from Malaysia to Jordan to Scandinavia, it was a bad week for journalists increasingly constrained -- not to mention fired and otherwise humiliated -- in their ability to cover the big story of our time.
If I had to pick a single moment to contrast with the hilariously parochial narcissist buffoons of the Washington press, it would be another press conference in another government building, this time in Oslo, called by Norway's minister of labor. Surrounded by cabinet ministers and a phalanx of imams, Velbjorn Selbekk, the editor of an obscure Christian publication called Magazinet, issued an abject public apology for reprinting the Danish Muhammed cartoons. He had initially stood firm in the face of Muslim death threats and the usual lack of support from Europe's political class, but in the end Mr. Selbekk was prevailed upon to recant and the head of Norway's Islamic Council, Mohammed Hamdan, graciously accepted the apology and assured the prostrate editor that he was now under his personal protection. As the American author Bruce Bawer commented, "It was a picture right out of a sharia courtroom."
In Canada, by contrast, the Western Standard (for which I also write) stood firm in its decision to publish the cartoons, and as a result is suffering legal harassment from Muslim lobby groups and has been banned from both Air Canada and two of the country's leading bookstore chains, Indigo-Chapters and McNally Robinson. Paul McNally of the latter defended his action this way: "We feel there is nothing to gain on the side of freedom of expression and much to lose on the side of hurting feelings." Not exactly Voltaire, is it? "I disagree strongly with what you say but I will fight to the death for your right to say it as long as it doesn't hurt anybody's feelings." Maybe it could be Canada's new national motto.
It's easy to be tough about nothing. The press corps that noisily champions "the public's right to know" about a minor hunting accident simultaneously assures the public that they've no need to see these Danish cartoons that have caused riots, arson and death around the world. On CNN, out of "sensitivity" to Islam, they show the cartoons but with the Prophet's face pixilated so that he looks as if Cheney's ventilated him with birdshot and it turned puffy and gangrenous. C'mon, guys, these are interesting times. Anyone can unload the umpteenth round of blanks into the bulletproof Chimpy Hallibushitler, but why not take a shot at something that matters?
Or perhaps it would just be easier to change the term ''free press'' to the ''Roses of the Prophet Muhammed press.''
The second cheery sight was the destruction of a McDonald's in Lahore by the usual excitable young lads from the religion of pieces. Apparently the lively Pakistanis had burned every single Danish target in the city -- one early Victor Borge LP left behind by the last British governor -- and had been obliged to diversify. So they dragged Ronald McDonald out of the joint, torched him in the street and danced around his flaming remains shouting "Death to America! Death to Britain! Death to Tony Blair!"
I'm not sure I even get that. Ronald and Tony seem kind of similar from a distance but even on the all-infidels-look-alike-to-me-especially-when-they're-alight thesis you'd think they weren't that easily confused.
The third jolly event of the week was those other excitable fellows -- the Big Media White House reporters -- jumping up and down shouting "Death to Dick Cheney!" NBC's David Gregory, the George Clooney of the press corps, was yelling truth to power about why the Elmer-Fudd-in-gun-rampage story was released to "a local Corpus Christi newspaper, not the White House press corps at large.'' I know how he feels. I remember, like, four or five years ago -- early September, maybe second week -- there was this building collapse in New York and I had to learn about it from the TV because this notoriously secretive paranoid administration couldn't even e-mail me a timely press release. For an NBC guy discovering that some hicksville nowhere-burg one-stop-light feed-price sheet got tipped off before he did is like a dowager duchess turning up at the royal banquet to discover the scullery maid's been seated next to the queen.
So anyway David Gregory's going bananas and yelling "I will yell!" and "Don't be a jerk!" at the White House press secretary, and there's more smoke coming out of his ears than from Ronald McDonald in Lahore, and I'm thinking, you know, maybe Karl's latest range of Rovebots that he planted in American media corporations are just a wee bit too parodically self-absorbed to be plausible. And then this lady pipes up and asks, "Would this be much more serious if the man had died?"
Well, maybe. And maybe it would be even ever so much more serious still if, after peppering him with birdshot, Cheney had dragged him into a safe house in the Sunni Triangle and decapitated him with a rusty scimitar while shouting "Allahu Ahkbar!" and then sold the video to al-Jazeera.
Fortunately, the Washington Post had that wise old bird David Ignatius to put it in the proper historical context: "This incident," he mused, "reminds me a bit of Sen. Edward Kennedy's delay in informing Massachusetts authorities about his role in the fatal automobile accident at Chappaquiddick in 1969."
Hmm. Let's see. On the one hand, the guy leaves the gal at the bottom of the river struggling for breath pressed up against the window in some small air pocket while he pulls himself out of the briny, staggers home, sleeps it off and saunters in to inform the cops the following day that, oh yeah, there was some broad down there. And, on the other hand, the guy calls 911, has the other fellow taken to the hospital, lets the sheriff know promptly but neglects to fax David Gregory's make-up girl!
One can only hope others agree with Ignatius' insightful analogy, and that the reprehensible Cheney will be hounded from public life the way Kennedy was all those years ago. One would hate to think folks would just let it slide and three decades from now this Cheney guy will be sitting on some committee picking Supreme Court justices and whatnot.
Meanwhile, from Malaysia to Jordan to Scandinavia, it was a bad week for journalists increasingly constrained -- not to mention fired and otherwise humiliated -- in their ability to cover the big story of our time.
If I had to pick a single moment to contrast with the hilariously parochial narcissist buffoons of the Washington press, it would be another press conference in another government building, this time in Oslo, called by Norway's minister of labor. Surrounded by cabinet ministers and a phalanx of imams, Velbjorn Selbekk, the editor of an obscure Christian publication called Magazinet, issued an abject public apology for reprinting the Danish Muhammed cartoons. He had initially stood firm in the face of Muslim death threats and the usual lack of support from Europe's political class, but in the end Mr. Selbekk was prevailed upon to recant and the head of Norway's Islamic Council, Mohammed Hamdan, graciously accepted the apology and assured the prostrate editor that he was now under his personal protection. As the American author Bruce Bawer commented, "It was a picture right out of a sharia courtroom."
In Canada, by contrast, the Western Standard (for which I also write) stood firm in its decision to publish the cartoons, and as a result is suffering legal harassment from Muslim lobby groups and has been banned from both Air Canada and two of the country's leading bookstore chains, Indigo-Chapters and McNally Robinson. Paul McNally of the latter defended his action this way: "We feel there is nothing to gain on the side of freedom of expression and much to lose on the side of hurting feelings." Not exactly Voltaire, is it? "I disagree strongly with what you say but I will fight to the death for your right to say it as long as it doesn't hurt anybody's feelings." Maybe it could be Canada's new national motto.
It's easy to be tough about nothing. The press corps that noisily champions "the public's right to know" about a minor hunting accident simultaneously assures the public that they've no need to see these Danish cartoons that have caused riots, arson and death around the world. On CNN, out of "sensitivity" to Islam, they show the cartoons but with the Prophet's face pixilated so that he looks as if Cheney's ventilated him with birdshot and it turned puffy and gangrenous. C'mon, guys, these are interesting times. Anyone can unload the umpteenth round of blanks into the bulletproof Chimpy Hallibushitler, but why not take a shot at something that matters?
Or perhaps it would just be easier to change the term ''free press'' to the ''Roses of the Prophet Muhammed press.''
Those non-existent WMDs
In the beginning of the tape, Saddam says terrorist attacks are coming to the US but they won’t be from Iraq. Tariq Aziz then tells him that it would not be hard to set off a nuclear, chemical or bio weapon in Washington, but that it was not necessary for a state to do it. There is then some discussion to the effect that anyone could easily do such a thing and it could be argued, says ABC’s Ross, that this could be interpreted as Saddam saying he fears Iraq would be blamed for such an attack. The second part of the tape includes discussion about how quickly Iraq could reconstitute their WMD capability. Duelfer was interviewed for the piece and he said it does not prove that Iraq had WMD, but it shows that Saddam was a master of deception with the intention of acquiring and using WMD. The ABC story linked above gives many quotes from the piece. It is quite interesting.
In my opinion, when these tapes are added to the information we were getting from everywhere that Saddam had WMD and the intent to use it, it makes it difficult for me to imagine how any reasonable person could have ignored the threat Saddam posed. ]
In my opinion, when these tapes are added to the information we were getting from everywhere that Saddam had WMD and the intent to use it, it makes it difficult for me to imagine how any reasonable person could have ignored the threat Saddam posed. ]
The Media’s Partisan “Domestic Spying” Fight
Brent Bozell on the Media and NSA intercepts:
The debate over the propriety of intelligence-gathering by the Bush administration is complicated, and the programs themselves can lose their secrecy (and effectiveness) the more they are debated. The media aren’t monitoring the debate. They started the fight by blowing the lid off the NSA activity in the New York Times, and they’re pushing the fight day and night, clearly coming down against Bush, that arrogantly unconstitutional rogue.
When given a choice between more information about our intelligence-gathering methods and less safety, or less information about our intelligence-gathering and more safety, which do the public choose? The public tends to prefer more safety. The media prefer more information. And the media would prefer the public believe it agrees with them, even if it has to cook a few surveys to establish that canard.
A recent CBS News/New York Times poll brilliantly illlustrated how the public shifts sides on this question depending on how the question is framed. First question: “In order to reduce the threat of terrorism, would you be willing or not willing to allow government agencies to monitor the telephone calls and e-mails of ordinary Americans on a regular basis?”
“Ordinary Americans”?!? The only Americans being tapped would be those suspected of helping wage war on America – hardly “ordinary Americans.” Who could support secret government surveillance of ordinary Americans? It’s not surprising that this idea was rejected: 70 percent say they’re not willing to allow that, and only 28 percent say yes.
Then the CBS/Times pollsters changed the wording to be much more precise in who is being monitored: "In order to reduce the threat of terrorism, would you be willing or not willing to allow government agencies to monitor the telephone calls and e-mails of Americans that the government is suspicious of?" When the targets are suspected terrorists or sympathizers, the poll numbers completely flipped: 68 percent support monitoring them, and only 29 percent say no.
Now consider that according to the CBS/New York Times pollsters, President Bush has a 42 percent job approval rating, and a 52 percent approval rating in fighting terrorism. It’s shocking to see that almost 70 percent – including a big chunk of people who aren’t wild about Bush -- support keeping electronic tabs on our enemies.
It’s also somewhat shocking that our supposed accuracy-lauding media have preferred the first, more inaccurate phrasing – spying on “ordinary Americans” – over the second phrasing about terrorist suspects. In an eye-opening study of the 69 stories on the last seven weeks of ABC, CBS, and NBC evening-news coverage, Rich Noyes of the Media Research Center found that the TV reporters described who was being monitored.
Most correspondents in those stories portrayed the NSA as casting a wide net, targeting “Americans” or “U.S. citizens” (53, or 40 percent), or used terms such as “domestic” or “communications inside the U.S.” (60, or 45 percent). ABC's Dan Harris even began on December 24 by hyping “the spying was much more widespread, with millions of calls and e-mails tracked — perhaps even yours.”
Perhaps – if you’ve got al-Qaeda on your cell-phone’s speed-dial.
By contrast, only about a sixth of these descriptions (21, or 16 percent) stated that the government was focused on persons contacting suspected terrorists (12) or the suspected terrorists themselves (nine). For example, NBC's Pete Williams described monitoring of “suspected al-Qaeda members” on December 29.
There are more findings. Fully 83 percent of network stories suggested the NSA program was illegal, or legally questionable. Reporters framed the story as the government violating “civil liberties” in 42 percent of stories, but the NSA program’s role in the war on terror surfaced in only seven stories (ten percent). The supposed nonpartisan legal experts quoted on the ethics or legality of the NSA program were a slanted cast: 30 (or 56 percent) condemned the program, while only four (seven percent) found the program justifiable, an eight-to-one disparity.
One aspect of the story was almost completely ignored by TV reporters: the leak of classified information to the New York Times. Only five network stories focused on the leak probe, and those five mostly painted it as an act of retribution from an enraged Bush administration. And you certainly couldn’t expect a New York Times poll on the propriety of the New York Times.
In April of 1995, after the Oklahoma City bombing, President Clinton called for more agents to investigate domestic terror suspects, and more power to infiltrate terrorist plots and examine suspects’ “phone, hotel, and credit card records,” as CBS explained at the time. CBS didn’t shriek about “domestic spying” or commission a poll then questioning Clinton’s commitment to civil liberties. They noted Clinton’s handling of Oklahoma City “sent his approval ratings soaring.”
This story is extremely politicized. Americans can’t trust a liberal media, so partisan in this debate, to tell it to them straight.
The debate over the propriety of intelligence-gathering by the Bush administration is complicated, and the programs themselves can lose their secrecy (and effectiveness) the more they are debated. The media aren’t monitoring the debate. They started the fight by blowing the lid off the NSA activity in the New York Times, and they’re pushing the fight day and night, clearly coming down against Bush, that arrogantly unconstitutional rogue.
When given a choice between more information about our intelligence-gathering methods and less safety, or less information about our intelligence-gathering and more safety, which do the public choose? The public tends to prefer more safety. The media prefer more information. And the media would prefer the public believe it agrees with them, even if it has to cook a few surveys to establish that canard.
A recent CBS News/New York Times poll brilliantly illlustrated how the public shifts sides on this question depending on how the question is framed. First question: “In order to reduce the threat of terrorism, would you be willing or not willing to allow government agencies to monitor the telephone calls and e-mails of ordinary Americans on a regular basis?”
“Ordinary Americans”?!? The only Americans being tapped would be those suspected of helping wage war on America – hardly “ordinary Americans.” Who could support secret government surveillance of ordinary Americans? It’s not surprising that this idea was rejected: 70 percent say they’re not willing to allow that, and only 28 percent say yes.
Then the CBS/Times pollsters changed the wording to be much more precise in who is being monitored: "In order to reduce the threat of terrorism, would you be willing or not willing to allow government agencies to monitor the telephone calls and e-mails of Americans that the government is suspicious of?" When the targets are suspected terrorists or sympathizers, the poll numbers completely flipped: 68 percent support monitoring them, and only 29 percent say no.
Now consider that according to the CBS/New York Times pollsters, President Bush has a 42 percent job approval rating, and a 52 percent approval rating in fighting terrorism. It’s shocking to see that almost 70 percent – including a big chunk of people who aren’t wild about Bush -- support keeping electronic tabs on our enemies.
It’s also somewhat shocking that our supposed accuracy-lauding media have preferred the first, more inaccurate phrasing – spying on “ordinary Americans” – over the second phrasing about terrorist suspects. In an eye-opening study of the 69 stories on the last seven weeks of ABC, CBS, and NBC evening-news coverage, Rich Noyes of the Media Research Center found that the TV reporters described who was being monitored.
Most correspondents in those stories portrayed the NSA as casting a wide net, targeting “Americans” or “U.S. citizens” (53, or 40 percent), or used terms such as “domestic” or “communications inside the U.S.” (60, or 45 percent). ABC's Dan Harris even began on December 24 by hyping “the spying was much more widespread, with millions of calls and e-mails tracked — perhaps even yours.”
Perhaps – if you’ve got al-Qaeda on your cell-phone’s speed-dial.
By contrast, only about a sixth of these descriptions (21, or 16 percent) stated that the government was focused on persons contacting suspected terrorists (12) or the suspected terrorists themselves (nine). For example, NBC's Pete Williams described monitoring of “suspected al-Qaeda members” on December 29.
There are more findings. Fully 83 percent of network stories suggested the NSA program was illegal, or legally questionable. Reporters framed the story as the government violating “civil liberties” in 42 percent of stories, but the NSA program’s role in the war on terror surfaced in only seven stories (ten percent). The supposed nonpartisan legal experts quoted on the ethics or legality of the NSA program were a slanted cast: 30 (or 56 percent) condemned the program, while only four (seven percent) found the program justifiable, an eight-to-one disparity.
One aspect of the story was almost completely ignored by TV reporters: the leak of classified information to the New York Times. Only five network stories focused on the leak probe, and those five mostly painted it as an act of retribution from an enraged Bush administration. And you certainly couldn’t expect a New York Times poll on the propriety of the New York Times.
In April of 1995, after the Oklahoma City bombing, President Clinton called for more agents to investigate domestic terror suspects, and more power to infiltrate terrorist plots and examine suspects’ “phone, hotel, and credit card records,” as CBS explained at the time. CBS didn’t shriek about “domestic spying” or commission a poll then questioning Clinton’s commitment to civil liberties. They noted Clinton’s handling of Oklahoma City “sent his approval ratings soaring.”
This story is extremely politicized. Americans can’t trust a liberal media, so partisan in this debate, to tell it to them straight.
Friday, February 17, 2006
Three Incidents....
From the Belmont Club ... (read the whole thing)
The French aircraft carrier Clemenceau is classified as industrial waste.
The University of Washington declines to honor Lt Col Gregory "Pappy" Boyington.
San Francisco rejects the battleship Iowa because "Iowa was an instrument of war."
The French aircraft carrier Clemenceau is classified as industrial waste.
The University of Washington declines to honor Lt Col Gregory "Pappy" Boyington.
San Francisco rejects the battleship Iowa because "Iowa was an instrument of war."
The Spoiled Brat Media
Right to know? Bah, the media will tell us what it wants us to know, and "deep six" what it does not want us to know. Along with physical cowardice (they have still not shown the 12 cartoons of Mohammad for fear of physical reprisal) they are bloviating bastards.
Thomas Sowell has it right when he says:
An off-duty incident in Dick Cheney's private life has been hyped in the media as if it had some real significance for more than a quarter of a billion Americans.
The media want to know when was President Bush informed about this incident? What did the White House press secretary know and when did he know it?
The people who mattered -- doctors and local law enforcement -- were informed immediately about the hunting accident. What was President Bush supposed to do -- other than provide the media with something to print or broadcast?
The media are so full of themselves -- among other things that they are full of -- that they act as if the government exists to provide them with something to publicize. The time is long overdue to put these people in their place. Where is Margaret Tutwiler when we need her?
The New York Times informs us solemnly that, if Mr. Whittington dies, there will be a grand jury investigation.
If Mr. Whittington is so uncooperative as not to die, there will be much disappointment and frustration in Beltway media circles.
Thanks to the alternative media, the "Old Media" are now in the process of self-destructing in public. Watching David Gregory is like coming up on some brain damaged, alcohol addled derelict shouting as he shambles along the street. It is both fascinating and repellent. Yet no media pundit has come close to realizing what has happened. The consensus is that, by delaying the announcement, Dick Cheney has injured himself; committed a political error. Au contraire!Karl Rove could not have done a better job of helping them act crazy in front of the American public if he had told Dick Chaney to shoot his friend deliberately.
Could it have been a Rovian plot? The very thought brings a smile to my face.
Thomas Sowell has it right when he says:
An off-duty incident in Dick Cheney's private life has been hyped in the media as if it had some real significance for more than a quarter of a billion Americans.
The media want to know when was President Bush informed about this incident? What did the White House press secretary know and when did he know it?
The people who mattered -- doctors and local law enforcement -- were informed immediately about the hunting accident. What was President Bush supposed to do -- other than provide the media with something to print or broadcast?
The media are so full of themselves -- among other things that they are full of -- that they act as if the government exists to provide them with something to publicize. The time is long overdue to put these people in their place. Where is Margaret Tutwiler when we need her?
The New York Times informs us solemnly that, if Mr. Whittington dies, there will be a grand jury investigation.
If Mr. Whittington is so uncooperative as not to die, there will be much disappointment and frustration in Beltway media circles.
Thanks to the alternative media, the "Old Media" are now in the process of self-destructing in public. Watching David Gregory is like coming up on some brain damaged, alcohol addled derelict shouting as he shambles along the street. It is both fascinating and repellent. Yet no media pundit has come close to realizing what has happened. The consensus is that, by delaying the announcement, Dick Cheney has injured himself; committed a political error. Au contraire!Karl Rove could not have done a better job of helping them act crazy in front of the American public if he had told Dick Chaney to shoot his friend deliberately.
Could it have been a Rovian plot? The very thought brings a smile to my face.
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Owning the Issue
Today's Day By Day cartoon, by the excellent Chris Muir, exhibits a characteristic conceit of the Left. Please have a look at it, and at yesterday's cartoon as well, before continuing on here.
What does it mean for a political posture to claim to "own" an issue?
That others of different convictions have nothing valid to say on the matter.
That others of different convictions lack either the acknowledged expertise or the "moral authority" required to speak on the matter.
That debate is over; anything said contrary to the "official" position of the "owner" may be dismissed without analysis or consideration.
All of these things are directly implied by the "ownership" claim. Other things follow as well -- the "differential rectitude" of the "owners," for example -- but for the purposes of this tirade, the three above will suffice.
First, imagine the probable response from the Left were the Right to claim to "own" any of these issues:
National security and military preparedness;
Foreign policy and the maintenance of specific alliances and relationships;
Fairness in taxation;
Effective education;
The proper division of authority among the branches of the federal government;
The proper division of authority between Washington and the state governments;
The Constitution's limitations of the powers of government.
Eternity Road has a Good Idea
The World Wide Web has matured just in the nick of time. The American news-consumer can no longer afford to have his information flow throttled by persons who place more importance on swaying him than on informing him. And "throttling" is just what many of our Old Media barons have in mind for us, as witness the near-absolute unwillingness among American newspapers and television broadcasters to show the twelve Jyllands-Posten cartoons over which millions of Muslims are beside themselves with shari'a-induced rage.
Hm, your Curmudgeon just had an idea. How about a trade? If the editors of the major American newspapers and television news bureaus will all agree to display the Jyllands-Posten cartoons prominently and at once, with a complete explanation of their context, the distortions spread about them, and the riots over them, then Vice-President Cheney will agree to make informing them his very first priority, the next time he shoots someone.
Hm, your Curmudgeon just had an idea. How about a trade? If the editors of the major American newspapers and television news bureaus will all agree to display the Jyllands-Posten cartoons prominently and at once, with a complete explanation of their context, the distortions spread about them, and the riots over them, then Vice-President Cheney will agree to make informing them his very first priority, the next time he shoots someone.
UW Declares "Pappy Boyington" a Rich White Male; Declines Honor
From PARADOSIS:
Gregory Pappy Boyington...graduate of the Univeristy of Washington (went to High School in Tacoma), winner of the medal of honor, shot down 28 enemy aircraft, was a prisoner of war for 20 months, and apparently does not - according to the student senate - deserve a memorial on campus. Apparently we are told that he "is not the type of person we want to honor" and some even went so far as to liken his duty in WW2 to murder. One of the biggest antagonists of the proposal was apparently the leader of the student Democratic Party. How sad.
This issue is particularly interesting to me because I personally knew Pappy Boyington, not so much as a friend, but as a regular visitor to the Chino Air Museum and Air Show. I met him on numerous occassions and thoroughly enjoyed his willingness to tell me stories about his experiences - and I must say it was HEAVEN to this young man who'd rather feel his way around a restored Corsair than hang out at the mall with his contemporaries.
Read the whole thing.
Here are the minutes of the UW Senate meeting which decided that Boyington was unworthy of these cretins' respect. I'm sure the Virginian Pilot editorial board would approve.
Gregory Pappy Boyington...graduate of the Univeristy of Washington (went to High School in Tacoma), winner of the medal of honor, shot down 28 enemy aircraft, was a prisoner of war for 20 months, and apparently does not - according to the student senate - deserve a memorial on campus. Apparently we are told that he "is not the type of person we want to honor" and some even went so far as to liken his duty in WW2 to murder. One of the biggest antagonists of the proposal was apparently the leader of the student Democratic Party. How sad.
This issue is particularly interesting to me because I personally knew Pappy Boyington, not so much as a friend, but as a regular visitor to the Chino Air Museum and Air Show. I met him on numerous occassions and thoroughly enjoyed his willingness to tell me stories about his experiences - and I must say it was HEAVEN to this young man who'd rather feel his way around a restored Corsair than hang out at the mall with his contemporaries.
Read the whole thing.
Here are the minutes of the UW Senate meeting which decided that Boyington was unworthy of these cretins' respect. I'm sure the Virginian Pilot editorial board would approve.
Monday, February 13, 2006
Steyn on Toon-Deaf Europe ... And the Virginian Pilot.
Toon-deaf Europe is taking the wrong stand
February 12, 2006
From Europe's biggest-selling newspaper, the Sun: ''Furious Muslims have blasted adult shop [i.e., sex shop] Ann Summers for selling a blowup male doll called Mustafa Shag."
Not literally "blasted" in the Danish Embassy sense, or at least not yet. Quite how Britain's Muslim Association found out about Mustafa Shag in order to be offended by him is not clear. It may be that there was some confusion: given that "blowup males" are one of Islam's leading exports, perhaps some believers went along expecting to find Ahmed and Walid modeling the new line of Semtex belts. Instead, they were confronted by just another filthy infidel sex gag. The Muslim Association's complaint, needless to say, is that the sex toy "insults the Prophet Muhammad -- who also has the title al-Mustapha.''
In a world in which Danish cartoons insult the prophet and Disney Piglet mugs insult the prophet and Burger King chocolate ice-cream swirl designs insult the prophet, maybe it would just be easier to make a list of things that don't insult him. Nonetheless, the Muslim Association wrote to the Ann Summers sex-shop chain, "We are asking you to have our Most Revered Prophet's name 'Mustafa' and the afflicted word 'shag' removed."
If I were a Muslim, I'd be "hurt" and "humiliated" that the revered prophet's name is given not to latex blowup males but to so many real blowup males: The leader of the 9/11 plotters? Mohammed Atta. The British Muslim who self-detonated in a Tel Aviv bar? Asif Mohammed Hanif. The gunman who shot up the El Al counter at LAX? Heshamed Mohamed Hedayet. The former U.S. Army sergeant who masterminded the slaughter at the embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania? Ali Mohamed. The murderer of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh? Mohammed Bouyeri. The notorious Sydney gang rapist? Mohammed Skaf. The Washington sniper? John Allen Muhammed. If I were a Muslim, I would be deeply offended that the prophet's name is the preferred appellation of so many killers and suicide bombers on every corner of the earth.
[snip]
The "Mustafa" template is one of the most revered in the English music-hall tradition: "I've been reading the latest scholarly monograph -- 'Sexual Practices of the Middle East by Mustapha Camel.'
[snip]
…it was NBC who back in the '70s used to have every sitcom joke about homosexuality vetted by a gay dentist in New Jersey. Apprised of this at a conference on censorship, the producer of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" remarked, "You mean there really is a tooth fairy?" [Hah!]
[snip]
The issue is not "freedom of speech" or "the responsibilities of the press" or "sensitivity to certain cultures." The issue, as it has been in all these loony tune controversies going back to the Salman Rushdie fatwa, is the point at which a free society musters the will to stand up to thugs. British Muslims march through the streets waving placards reading "BEHEAD THE ENEMIES OF ISLAM." If they mean that, bring it on. As my columnar confrere John O'Sullivan argued, we might as well fight in the first ditch as the last.
But then it's patiently explained to us for the umpteenth time that they're not representative, that there are many many "moderate Muslims.''
I believe that. I've met plenty of "moderate Muslims" in Jordan and Iraq and the Gulf states. But, as a reader wrote to me a year or two back, in Europe and North America they aren't so much "moderate Muslims" as quiescent Muslims. The few who do speak out wind up living in hiding or under 24-hour armed guard, like Dutch MP Ayaab Hirsi Ali.
So when the EU and the BBC and the New York Times [and the Virginian Pilot] say that we too need to be more "sensitive" to those fellows with "Behead the enemies of Islam" banners, they should look in the mirror: They're turning into "moderate Muslims," and likely to wind up as cowed and silenced and invisible.
February 12, 2006
From Europe's biggest-selling newspaper, the Sun: ''Furious Muslims have blasted adult shop [i.e., sex shop] Ann Summers for selling a blowup male doll called Mustafa Shag."
Not literally "blasted" in the Danish Embassy sense, or at least not yet. Quite how Britain's Muslim Association found out about Mustafa Shag in order to be offended by him is not clear. It may be that there was some confusion: given that "blowup males" are one of Islam's leading exports, perhaps some believers went along expecting to find Ahmed and Walid modeling the new line of Semtex belts. Instead, they were confronted by just another filthy infidel sex gag. The Muslim Association's complaint, needless to say, is that the sex toy "insults the Prophet Muhammad -- who also has the title al-Mustapha.''
In a world in which Danish cartoons insult the prophet and Disney Piglet mugs insult the prophet and Burger King chocolate ice-cream swirl designs insult the prophet, maybe it would just be easier to make a list of things that don't insult him. Nonetheless, the Muslim Association wrote to the Ann Summers sex-shop chain, "We are asking you to have our Most Revered Prophet's name 'Mustafa' and the afflicted word 'shag' removed."
If I were a Muslim, I'd be "hurt" and "humiliated" that the revered prophet's name is given not to latex blowup males but to so many real blowup males: The leader of the 9/11 plotters? Mohammed Atta. The British Muslim who self-detonated in a Tel Aviv bar? Asif Mohammed Hanif. The gunman who shot up the El Al counter at LAX? Heshamed Mohamed Hedayet. The former U.S. Army sergeant who masterminded the slaughter at the embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania? Ali Mohamed. The murderer of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh? Mohammed Bouyeri. The notorious Sydney gang rapist? Mohammed Skaf. The Washington sniper? John Allen Muhammed. If I were a Muslim, I would be deeply offended that the prophet's name is the preferred appellation of so many killers and suicide bombers on every corner of the earth.
[snip]
The "Mustafa" template is one of the most revered in the English music-hall tradition: "I've been reading the latest scholarly monograph -- 'Sexual Practices of the Middle East by Mustapha Camel.'
[snip]
…it was NBC who back in the '70s used to have every sitcom joke about homosexuality vetted by a gay dentist in New Jersey. Apprised of this at a conference on censorship, the producer of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" remarked, "You mean there really is a tooth fairy?" [Hah!]
[snip]
The issue is not "freedom of speech" or "the responsibilities of the press" or "sensitivity to certain cultures." The issue, as it has been in all these loony tune controversies going back to the Salman Rushdie fatwa, is the point at which a free society musters the will to stand up to thugs. British Muslims march through the streets waving placards reading "BEHEAD THE ENEMIES OF ISLAM." If they mean that, bring it on. As my columnar confrere John O'Sullivan argued, we might as well fight in the first ditch as the last.
But then it's patiently explained to us for the umpteenth time that they're not representative, that there are many many "moderate Muslims.''
I believe that. I've met plenty of "moderate Muslims" in Jordan and Iraq and the Gulf states. But, as a reader wrote to me a year or two back, in Europe and North America they aren't so much "moderate Muslims" as quiescent Muslims. The few who do speak out wind up living in hiding or under 24-hour armed guard, like Dutch MP Ayaab Hirsi Ali.
So when the EU and the BBC and the New York Times [and the Virginian Pilot] say that we too need to be more "sensitive" to those fellows with "Behead the enemies of Islam" banners, they should look in the mirror: They're turning into "moderate Muslims," and likely to wind up as cowed and silenced and invisible.
THE BEST SUMMARY OF WHAT HAPPENED TO CAUSE RIOTING AFTER THE 12 CATROONS WERE PUBLISHED (BUT YOU WON'T FIND THIS IN THE VIRGINIAN PILOT)
FROM CAPTAIN'S QUARTERS:
The Traveling Imams
CQ reader Peter A in Denmark sends a translation of a new Jyllands-Posten article that delves into the origins of the Cartoon Wars that have raged around the world for the past two weeks. The true reasons for the manufactured outrage turn out to have more connection to other Danish actions than just the cartoons. The proper context shows that the Muslims in Denmark and elsewhere have much more of an agenda than simply protecting the Prophet from satire and their religious sensibilities from criticism. Be sure to read it all.
Read the whole thing. It ends:
So it isn't just a case of a few supposedly inflammatory cartoons appearing in Jyllands-Posten that set this off. This has been a deliberate provocation by Danish Muslims to inflame Islam against Denmark specifically and the West in general -- and it would have happened eventually even without the cartoons.
The Traveling Imams
CQ reader Peter A in Denmark sends a translation of a new Jyllands-Posten article that delves into the origins of the Cartoon Wars that have raged around the world for the past two weeks. The true reasons for the manufactured outrage turn out to have more connection to other Danish actions than just the cartoons. The proper context shows that the Muslims in Denmark and elsewhere have much more of an agenda than simply protecting the Prophet from satire and their religious sensibilities from criticism. Be sure to read it all.
Read the whole thing. It ends:
So it isn't just a case of a few supposedly inflammatory cartoons appearing in Jyllands-Posten that set this off. This has been a deliberate provocation by Danish Muslims to inflame Islam against Denmark specifically and the West in general -- and it would have happened eventually even without the cartoons.
Mark Steyn on Blue Helmet Rape
Mark Steyn makes a few great points about the UN and its peacekeeping mission. You know; the ones where the troops rape women and girls as young as four.
When in Rome, do as the Visigoths do
Read the whole thing:
But systemic UN child sex in at least 50 per cent of their missions? The transnational morality set can barely stifle their yawns. If you're going to rape prepubescent girls, make sure you're wearing a blue helmet.
And at least the Pentagon put a stop to Abu Ghraib. As a UN official in Congo told the Telegraph yesterday: "The crux of the problem is that if the UN gets bolshie with these governments then they stop providing the UN with troops and staff."
And the problem with that is?
In Congo, the UN has now forbidden all contact between its forces and the natives. The rest of the world should be so lucky.
When in Rome, do as the Visigoths do
Read the whole thing:
But systemic UN child sex in at least 50 per cent of their missions? The transnational morality set can barely stifle their yawns. If you're going to rape prepubescent girls, make sure you're wearing a blue helmet.
And at least the Pentagon put a stop to Abu Ghraib. As a UN official in Congo told the Telegraph yesterday: "The crux of the problem is that if the UN gets bolshie with these governments then they stop providing the UN with troops and staff."
And the problem with that is?
In Congo, the UN has now forbidden all contact between its forces and the natives. The rest of the world should be so lucky.
Mayor of Tall 'Afar Salutes 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment. Meanwhile David Gregory Whines.
Elements of the MSM, led by the ridiculous David Gregory of NBC, are working themselves into a fever pitch over the hunting accident involving Vice President Cheney. When they are whining about not being told about the accident for several hours, something else was happening.
Here is a story you won't find David Gregory covering any time soon. It's not part of the way the media covers Iraq.
From the Mayor of Tall 'Afar, Iraq:
In the Name of God the Compassionate and Merciful
To the Courageous Men and Women of the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment, who have changed the city of Tall’ Afar from a ghost town, in which terrorists spread death and destruction, to a secure city flourishing with life.
To the lion-hearts who liberated our city from the grasp of terrorists who were beheading men, women and children in the streets for many months.
To those who spread smiles on the faces of our children, and gave us restored hope, through their personal sacrifice and brave fighting, and gave new life to the city after hopelessness darkened our days, and stole our confidence in our ability to reestablish our city.
Our city was the main base of operations for Abu Mousab Al Zarqawi. The city was completely held hostage in the hands of his henchmen. Our schools, governmental services, businesses and offices were closed. Our streets were silent, and no one dared to walk them. Our people were barricaded in their homes out of fear; death awaited them around every corner. Terrorists occupied and controlled the only hospital in the city. Their savagery reached such a level that they stuffed the corpses of children with explosives and tossed them into the streets in order to kill grieving parents attempting to retrieve the bodies of their young. This was the situation of our city until God prepared and delivered unto them the courageous soldiers of the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment, who liberated this city, ridding it of Zarqawi’s followers after harsh fighting, killing many terrorists, and forcing the remaining butchers to flee the city like rats to the surrounding areas, where the bravery of other 3d ACR soldiers in Sinjar, Rabiah, Zumar and Avgani finally destroyed them.
I have met many soldiers of the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment; they are not only courageous men and women, but avenging angels sent by The God Himself to fight the evil of terrorism.
The leaders of this Regiment; COL McMaster, COL Armstrong, LTC Hickey, LTC Gibson, and LTC Reilly embody courage, strength, vision and wisdom. Officers and soldiers alike bristle with the confidence and character of knights in a bygone era. The mission they have accomplished, by means of a unique military operation, stands among the finest military feats to date in Operation Iraqi Freedom, and truly deserves to be studied in military science. This military operation was clean, with little collateral damage, despite the ferocity of the enemy. With the skill and precision of surgeons they dealt with the terrorist cancers in the city without causing unnecessary damage.
God bless this brave Regiment; God bless the families who dedicated these brave men and women. From the bottom of our hearts we thank the families. They have given us something we will never forget. To the families of those who have given their holy blood for our land, we all bow to you in reverence and to the souls of your loved ones. Their sacrifice was not in vain. They are not dead, but alive, and their souls hovering around us every second of every minute. They will never be forgotten for giving their precious lives. They have sacrificed that which is most valuable. We see them in the smile of every child, and in every flower growing in this land. Let America, their families, and the world be proud of their sacrifice for humanity and life.
Finally, no matter how much I write or speak about this brave Regiment, I haven’t the words to describe the courage of its officers and soldiers. I pray to God to grant happiness and health to these legendary heroes and their brave families.
NAJIM ABDULLAH ABID AL-JIBOURI
Mayor of Tall 'Afar, Ninewa, Iraq
Here is a story you won't find David Gregory covering any time soon. It's not part of the way the media covers Iraq.
From the Mayor of Tall 'Afar, Iraq:
In the Name of God the Compassionate and Merciful
To the Courageous Men and Women of the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment, who have changed the city of Tall’ Afar from a ghost town, in which terrorists spread death and destruction, to a secure city flourishing with life.
To the lion-hearts who liberated our city from the grasp of terrorists who were beheading men, women and children in the streets for many months.
To those who spread smiles on the faces of our children, and gave us restored hope, through their personal sacrifice and brave fighting, and gave new life to the city after hopelessness darkened our days, and stole our confidence in our ability to reestablish our city.
Our city was the main base of operations for Abu Mousab Al Zarqawi. The city was completely held hostage in the hands of his henchmen. Our schools, governmental services, businesses and offices were closed. Our streets were silent, and no one dared to walk them. Our people were barricaded in their homes out of fear; death awaited them around every corner. Terrorists occupied and controlled the only hospital in the city. Their savagery reached such a level that they stuffed the corpses of children with explosives and tossed them into the streets in order to kill grieving parents attempting to retrieve the bodies of their young. This was the situation of our city until God prepared and delivered unto them the courageous soldiers of the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment, who liberated this city, ridding it of Zarqawi’s followers after harsh fighting, killing many terrorists, and forcing the remaining butchers to flee the city like rats to the surrounding areas, where the bravery of other 3d ACR soldiers in Sinjar, Rabiah, Zumar and Avgani finally destroyed them.
I have met many soldiers of the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment; they are not only courageous men and women, but avenging angels sent by The God Himself to fight the evil of terrorism.
The leaders of this Regiment; COL McMaster, COL Armstrong, LTC Hickey, LTC Gibson, and LTC Reilly embody courage, strength, vision and wisdom. Officers and soldiers alike bristle with the confidence and character of knights in a bygone era. The mission they have accomplished, by means of a unique military operation, stands among the finest military feats to date in Operation Iraqi Freedom, and truly deserves to be studied in military science. This military operation was clean, with little collateral damage, despite the ferocity of the enemy. With the skill and precision of surgeons they dealt with the terrorist cancers in the city without causing unnecessary damage.
God bless this brave Regiment; God bless the families who dedicated these brave men and women. From the bottom of our hearts we thank the families. They have given us something we will never forget. To the families of those who have given their holy blood for our land, we all bow to you in reverence and to the souls of your loved ones. Their sacrifice was not in vain. They are not dead, but alive, and their souls hovering around us every second of every minute. They will never be forgotten for giving their precious lives. They have sacrificed that which is most valuable. We see them in the smile of every child, and in every flower growing in this land. Let America, their families, and the world be proud of their sacrifice for humanity and life.
Finally, no matter how much I write or speak about this brave Regiment, I haven’t the words to describe the courage of its officers and soldiers. I pray to God to grant happiness and health to these legendary heroes and their brave families.
NAJIM ABDULLAH ABID AL-JIBOURI
Mayor of Tall 'Afar, Ninewa, Iraq
Virginian Pilot Defends Censorship; Marvin Lake does Stepin Fetchit
The Virginian Pilot must have received several letters and e-mails about it’s failure to publish the famous 12 cartoons of Mohammad. And they have come out with an explanation via it’s “ Public Editor” a certain Marvin Lake.
Before Marvin begins his explanation he launches into a complaint that he has been the recipient of an e-mail campaign on this issue. My response to Marvin is, get used to it. E-mails are easy to forward and their volume is an indication that people are interested in the subject. I should add that receiving an e-mail is not nearly as attention-getting as receiving a bomb threat, or actually being bombed; this being the difference between people who care about a free press and those who wish to abort any negative portrayal of Mohammad.
Marvin begins:
The cartoons — actually a series of 12 — first appeared in September in the conservative Danish daily, Jyllands-Posten.
[Note the adjective: “conservative.” We are rarely treated to descriptive adjectives when referring to – for example the New York Times, the unofficial organ of the Liberal wing of the Democratic party]
They showed the founder of Islam, among other things, wearing a turban shaped like a bomb, and, in another, standing at heaven’s gates, arms raised, saying to what appears to be suicide bombers, “Stop, stop, we have run out of virgins.”
[Note that there were 12 drawings but Marvin describes two of them. Why? What do the other 10 depict?]
The drawings were considered by Muslims to be a violation of a protocol not to print any images of Muhammad, much less those of this nature. The drawings — and their subsequent reprinting in Spain, France, Germany, Switzerland and elsewhere abroad — sparked violent protests, deaths and threats.
[Well, actually they are not and they did not. Images of Mohammad are available in Islamic countries, even those ruled by Islamic clergy, like Iran. And the drawings appeared in the Jyllands-Posten four months before the riots began and were even published in an Egyptian newspaper without any rioting. So Marvin’s recitation of facts and opinions is wrong.]
Overwhelmingly, the American print media have refused to publish the offending cartoons, choosing instead to describe them.
[Actually this is not true either. As Marvin has demonstrated in his description of the cartoons, he characterizes two of them and ignores the rest. There is a reason for this. For anyone who has gone to the internet to view the cartoons, the worst than can be said of some is that some are mildly offensive if you are very easily offended and most are not offensive at all. But since the Virginian Pilot refuses to print the images, we have no way to make an independent judgment unless we go to the Internet.]
Ditto for the broadcast media, although ABC did show one of the cartoons during an evening news broadcast, and other networks have shown a blurred version of one or a fragment of a full cartoon.
[This contrasts shockingly with the media’s treatment of the Abu Ghraib pictures. They could not get enough of these images.]
The Pilot has not published the cartoons in its news section or on the editorial page.
Would we? I’ve learned to never say never. So the answer is: Probably not — at this point.
[So far we have gotten a distorted description of what happened and we are then told we can’t see the pictures in the Virginian Pilot. No reasons for this have so far been advanced.]
I know that answer may rile some readers. Like Michael Riley of South Mills, N.C., who e-mailed us that The Pilot, over the years, “has printed numerous cartoons offensive to Christians and even a few offensive to the Jewish religion.” He wanted to know if the American media’s treatment of the offending cartoons amounts to “a double standard or fear,” adding that the matter raises credibility issues.
[Please note that Marvin does not respond to this accusation. Perhaps because there is no response that would not bring derisive laughter.]
Pilot editor Denis Finley says he would publish the cartoons “if the right circumstances compelled me to do so.”
For instance? “One,” he said, “would be that it hits closer to home ... What if a business owner displayed them in his or her shop and the shop was torched? I think I would run them. Right now, they are more the topic of intellectual discussion in this country.”
[Let’s see, embassies burned, people killed, riots in European capitals, an American base attacked by an angry mob, but Denis Finley wants to wait until a local shop is torched before he’ll print the pictures? For this he gets paid the big bucks to make these kind of news judgments. Of course this is not the real reason. This is not the reason the entire American media has “spiked” these cartoons. This is so lame, it doesn’t pass the smell test.]
“The best day to publish would have been the first day of the story, but at that time I don’t think we understood how big this story would become,” Finley said. “To publish them on the news pages now would be a little bit Johnny-Come-Lately.”
[Oh, come on Denis, by publishing now you would scoop all but the Philadelphia Inquirer. You would be ahead of the NY Times, The Washington Post, the LA Times, Chicago Tribune, CNN, NBC, CBS and ABC. Isn’t this what every hard-charging newsman wants? To be the first? Johnny-Come-lately? Hell, Denis, you would be leading the parade. Or…. Are you afraid that there won’t be a parade and then the collective wrath of CAIR and every Islamic jihadist will converge on your little piece of real estate?]
Finley, who said he doesn’t like a lot of the editorial cartoons we publish but defends our right to do so, thinks that the Muhammad cartoons “would certainly be appropriate” on The Pilot’s editorial pages. But he can’t say for sure he would have used them originally had he been the chief of the editorial page . Finley has no involvement whatsoever with the editorial page.
[But Denis, no one is asking them to be run on the editorial pages. These are NEWS! The should be published so that your readers can understand the controversy and make their own judgements.]
Editorial page editor Dennis Hartig, who said he never saw the cartoons, isn’t sure if he would have used them when they were originally produced. He does know that he “would not run them now,” he says, “because the context has changed. Given the violence and the counter reaction in Europe, to run them now would raise questions about our motives that didn’t previously exist.”
[Dennis, your motives are so transparent that it's only a question of why you are so craven: is it physical cowardice or intellectual cowardice, or a combination of both?]
On the broader question of spoofing religious institutions, Hartig said: “Generally, we avoid cartoons that ridicule the sacred. But religion isn’t off limits and it can’t be because of the role religion plays in our public life,” he said. Hartig noted that Pat Robertson, the priest sex abuse scandal, prayer in schools, the Ten Commandments monument, gay marriage and the War on Christmas have been frequent subjects of the cartoons.
The question, Hartig said, is where to draw the line. “We have to be careful that we try to avoid a cartoon that some might see as sacrilege. Sometimes we get it right, and sometimes we don’t. It’s a tough balancing act.”
[One wonders what cartoons Dennis Hartig rejected as an act of sacrilege. I would like just one or two examples Dennis. Just e-mail them to me or put them in the comments. Because, without proof, Dennis, I have to put your assertion in the “unlikely” column.]
It’s a balancing act that applies to more than just religious topics, says Hartig, noting that The Pilot did not use a recent controversial editorial cartoon about Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and a bedridden figure with no arms or legs “out of concern that it would be misunderstood in our heavily military community.” Rumsfeld, while not off limits, “has not gotten any free passes from our cartoonists on the left or right,” Hartig adds.
Individuals who wish to see the cartoons can find them on the Internet. Indeed, some free-speech advocates and others have lobbied the U.S. media, largely unsuccessfully, for Web site postings to allow readers to see the cartoons. Like most major American newspapers, The Pilot has chosen not to post the cartoons, nor to provide a Web site for finding them.
[One more reason that the newspaper industry is dying while the internet is replacing it as the source of news and information for a large and growing segment of the public.]
Jeffrey A. Dvorkin, National Public Radio’s ombudsman, wrote last week: “In the United States, the war in Iraq has already exacerbated tensions between Americans and the Muslim World. Posting a cartoon might be seen as throwing more kerosene on a fire that is already out of control.”
The same can be said for printing the cartoons at this point.
[So there you have it. We are not printing these cartoons because we do not want to inflame the Muslim world. We will print pictures of Abu Ghraib and keep that controversy boiling. We will print articles about pissing on the Koran and keep that controversy boiling. We will tell the Arabs that we are torturing their people and keep that controversy boiling. But … we … won’t … show … our … readers … the … 12 … cartoons. Because we don’t want to cause any more controversy with our Islamic brethren. Oh, wait. Here’s the headline in the February 12th edition:
Video allegedly shows Iraqis being beaten by British soldiers.
Nah, that won’t inflame the Muslim world.]
Before Marvin begins his explanation he launches into a complaint that he has been the recipient of an e-mail campaign on this issue. My response to Marvin is, get used to it. E-mails are easy to forward and their volume is an indication that people are interested in the subject. I should add that receiving an e-mail is not nearly as attention-getting as receiving a bomb threat, or actually being bombed; this being the difference between people who care about a free press and those who wish to abort any negative portrayal of Mohammad.
Marvin begins:
The cartoons — actually a series of 12 — first appeared in September in the conservative Danish daily, Jyllands-Posten.
[Note the adjective: “conservative.” We are rarely treated to descriptive adjectives when referring to – for example the New York Times, the unofficial organ of the Liberal wing of the Democratic party]
They showed the founder of Islam, among other things, wearing a turban shaped like a bomb, and, in another, standing at heaven’s gates, arms raised, saying to what appears to be suicide bombers, “Stop, stop, we have run out of virgins.”
[Note that there were 12 drawings but Marvin describes two of them. Why? What do the other 10 depict?]
The drawings were considered by Muslims to be a violation of a protocol not to print any images of Muhammad, much less those of this nature. The drawings — and their subsequent reprinting in Spain, France, Germany, Switzerland and elsewhere abroad — sparked violent protests, deaths and threats.
[Well, actually they are not and they did not. Images of Mohammad are available in Islamic countries, even those ruled by Islamic clergy, like Iran. And the drawings appeared in the Jyllands-Posten four months before the riots began and were even published in an Egyptian newspaper without any rioting. So Marvin’s recitation of facts and opinions is wrong.]
Overwhelmingly, the American print media have refused to publish the offending cartoons, choosing instead to describe them.
[Actually this is not true either. As Marvin has demonstrated in his description of the cartoons, he characterizes two of them and ignores the rest. There is a reason for this. For anyone who has gone to the internet to view the cartoons, the worst than can be said of some is that some are mildly offensive if you are very easily offended and most are not offensive at all. But since the Virginian Pilot refuses to print the images, we have no way to make an independent judgment unless we go to the Internet.]
Ditto for the broadcast media, although ABC did show one of the cartoons during an evening news broadcast, and other networks have shown a blurred version of one or a fragment of a full cartoon.
[This contrasts shockingly with the media’s treatment of the Abu Ghraib pictures. They could not get enough of these images.]
The Pilot has not published the cartoons in its news section or on the editorial page.
Would we? I’ve learned to never say never. So the answer is: Probably not — at this point.
[So far we have gotten a distorted description of what happened and we are then told we can’t see the pictures in the Virginian Pilot. No reasons for this have so far been advanced.]
I know that answer may rile some readers. Like Michael Riley of South Mills, N.C., who e-mailed us that The Pilot, over the years, “has printed numerous cartoons offensive to Christians and even a few offensive to the Jewish religion.” He wanted to know if the American media’s treatment of the offending cartoons amounts to “a double standard or fear,” adding that the matter raises credibility issues.
[Please note that Marvin does not respond to this accusation. Perhaps because there is no response that would not bring derisive laughter.]
Pilot editor Denis Finley says he would publish the cartoons “if the right circumstances compelled me to do so.”
For instance? “One,” he said, “would be that it hits closer to home ... What if a business owner displayed them in his or her shop and the shop was torched? I think I would run them. Right now, they are more the topic of intellectual discussion in this country.”
[Let’s see, embassies burned, people killed, riots in European capitals, an American base attacked by an angry mob, but Denis Finley wants to wait until a local shop is torched before he’ll print the pictures? For this he gets paid the big bucks to make these kind of news judgments. Of course this is not the real reason. This is not the reason the entire American media has “spiked” these cartoons. This is so lame, it doesn’t pass the smell test.]
“The best day to publish would have been the first day of the story, but at that time I don’t think we understood how big this story would become,” Finley said. “To publish them on the news pages now would be a little bit Johnny-Come-Lately.”
[Oh, come on Denis, by publishing now you would scoop all but the Philadelphia Inquirer. You would be ahead of the NY Times, The Washington Post, the LA Times, Chicago Tribune, CNN, NBC, CBS and ABC. Isn’t this what every hard-charging newsman wants? To be the first? Johnny-Come-lately? Hell, Denis, you would be leading the parade. Or…. Are you afraid that there won’t be a parade and then the collective wrath of CAIR and every Islamic jihadist will converge on your little piece of real estate?]
Finley, who said he doesn’t like a lot of the editorial cartoons we publish but defends our right to do so, thinks that the Muhammad cartoons “would certainly be appropriate” on The Pilot’s editorial pages. But he can’t say for sure he would have used them originally had he been the chief of the editorial page . Finley has no involvement whatsoever with the editorial page.
[But Denis, no one is asking them to be run on the editorial pages. These are NEWS! The should be published so that your readers can understand the controversy and make their own judgements.]
Editorial page editor Dennis Hartig, who said he never saw the cartoons, isn’t sure if he would have used them when they were originally produced. He does know that he “would not run them now,” he says, “because the context has changed. Given the violence and the counter reaction in Europe, to run them now would raise questions about our motives that didn’t previously exist.”
[Dennis, your motives are so transparent that it's only a question of why you are so craven: is it physical cowardice or intellectual cowardice, or a combination of both?]
On the broader question of spoofing religious institutions, Hartig said: “Generally, we avoid cartoons that ridicule the sacred. But religion isn’t off limits and it can’t be because of the role religion plays in our public life,” he said. Hartig noted that Pat Robertson, the priest sex abuse scandal, prayer in schools, the Ten Commandments monument, gay marriage and the War on Christmas have been frequent subjects of the cartoons.
The question, Hartig said, is where to draw the line. “We have to be careful that we try to avoid a cartoon that some might see as sacrilege. Sometimes we get it right, and sometimes we don’t. It’s a tough balancing act.”
[One wonders what cartoons Dennis Hartig rejected as an act of sacrilege. I would like just one or two examples Dennis. Just e-mail them to me or put them in the comments. Because, without proof, Dennis, I have to put your assertion in the “unlikely” column.]
It’s a balancing act that applies to more than just religious topics, says Hartig, noting that The Pilot did not use a recent controversial editorial cartoon about Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and a bedridden figure with no arms or legs “out of concern that it would be misunderstood in our heavily military community.” Rumsfeld, while not off limits, “has not gotten any free passes from our cartoonists on the left or right,” Hartig adds.
Individuals who wish to see the cartoons can find them on the Internet. Indeed, some free-speech advocates and others have lobbied the U.S. media, largely unsuccessfully, for Web site postings to allow readers to see the cartoons. Like most major American newspapers, The Pilot has chosen not to post the cartoons, nor to provide a Web site for finding them.
[One more reason that the newspaper industry is dying while the internet is replacing it as the source of news and information for a large and growing segment of the public.]
Jeffrey A. Dvorkin, National Public Radio’s ombudsman, wrote last week: “In the United States, the war in Iraq has already exacerbated tensions between Americans and the Muslim World. Posting a cartoon might be seen as throwing more kerosene on a fire that is already out of control.”
The same can be said for printing the cartoons at this point.
[So there you have it. We are not printing these cartoons because we do not want to inflame the Muslim world. We will print pictures of Abu Ghraib and keep that controversy boiling. We will print articles about pissing on the Koran and keep that controversy boiling. We will tell the Arabs that we are torturing their people and keep that controversy boiling. But … we … won’t … show … our … readers … the … 12 … cartoons. Because we don’t want to cause any more controversy with our Islamic brethren. Oh, wait. Here’s the headline in the February 12th edition:
Video allegedly shows Iraqis being beaten by British soldiers.
Nah, that won’t inflame the Muslim world.]
UPDATE:
Oh, that beating by the Brits? Happened two years ago. If we're lucky the Pilot will post the images of Muhammad sometime in 2008.
UPDATE2:
Here's what really happened to cause the Moslem riots. It really wasn't the 12 cartoons, although they played a part.
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