Boyd

Kristol:

Pelosi's endorsement today of the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq makes the House Democrats the party of defeat, the party of surrender. Bush's strong speech today means the GOP is likely to be--if Republican Congressmen just keep their nerve--the party of victory. Now it is possible that the situation in Iraq will worsen over the next year. If that happens, Bush and the GOP are in deep trouble. They would have been if Pelosi had said nothing. But it is much more likely that the situation in Iraq will stay more or less the same, or improve. In either case, Republicans will benefit from being the party of victory.

Yes. She made a bad mistake. At the least, it was a political miscalculation.

Reason:

They were called bulletin board systems, or BBSes: communities that allowed users to dial in at crawling modem speeds-usually only one at a time-and exchange private e-mails, public messages, and software files. The first of the boards appeared in 1978, when a snowstorm provoked hobbyists Ward Christensen and Randy Suess to hack together something they called CBBS, the Computerized Bulletin Board System, for their Chicago-area computer users group. By the mid-’90s, the BBS scene was all but defunct: The Internet had siphoned off its early-adopter members like a newborn insect devouring its mother.

There was one called Whale Zoo and a couple of others I knew about. Very cool. Probably even cooler than the first time I saw the web.

What were BBSes all about? Mainly arguing about politics or music or whatever. Hmmmm. Reminds me of something.

Jack Kelly says the way to clean up politics is campaign finance reform.

The McCain-Feingold law and earlier attempts at campaign finance reform have faltered mostly because they have wrongly defined the problem as too much money in politics, when the real problem is where the money comes from, and the strings attached to it.

Candidates for federal office should be permitted to accept campaign contributions only from citizens of the United States who are registered to vote in the state from which they are seeking election, or from the political party to which they belong.

There should be limits on how much an individual can give, because no one should be able to own their own congressman. But they should be higher than they are at present.

I don't think so. Here's how you do campaign finance.

1. Politicians may accept as much money as they want from anyone they want.

2. All donations must be disclosed and displayed on the web at a central location within two days of being received. The donor's name, address, amount of donation and a copy of the check front and back will be displayed. You can black out the account number.

3. All expenses along with a copy of the invoice will be displayed on the web within two days of being incurred.

4. The candidate's campaign bank statement will be displayed within two days of being received.

5. The penalty for violation is forfeiture of the race.

6. Same rules apply to political parties.

7. Unaffiliated organizations or individuals may speak freely so long as they're not under control of a candidate.

Transparency is the key. Make everyone a forensic accountant. The stigma of having been bought will keep folks straight. The penalty of losing a race will get bookkeeping in order.

Finally saw it. It sucks too. Why didn't we just stop after Empire Strikes Back? Oh yeah, all the billions we wouldn't have made.

Kelly:

Democrats have been claiming that corruption in Congress is a new, and uniquely Republican, phenomenon. But among nearly three dozen lawmakers who lobbied the Interior Department to block a license for an Indian casino in Louisiana after receiving contributions from rival tribes represented by Abramoff were many Democrats, among them Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, and Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, the senior Democrat on the committee investigating Abramoff.

Democrats, among them President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore, accepted illegal contributions from the Chinese government in 1996.

But there is no question that Republicans, who were swept into control of the House of Representatives in 1994 largely because of public outrage over the House banking and House post office scandals, have become what they came to Washington to clean up.

Partisans argue the other party is inherently more corrupt. But the problem is bipartisan, and systemic. Power corrupts. The greater the power is, and the longer that it is held, the more likely it is to be abused.

Systemic problems can be solved only by changing the system. There are three reforms that could break the stranglehold lobbyists have on our politics.

His suggestions for changing the system? Term limits, line item veto and true campaign finance reform.

For campaign finance laws to be effective, they must be simple to understand. In fact, for any law to be effective it must be understandable.

Derb:

Did I buy, or browse, a copy of the November 17 GQ, in order to get a look at Jennifer Aniston's bristols? No, I didn't. While I have no doubt that Ms. Aniston is a paragon of charm, wit, and intelligence, she is also 36 years old. Even with the strenuous body-hardening exercise routines now compulsory for movie stars, at age 36 the forces of nature have won out over the view-worthiness of the unsupported female bust.

It is, in fact, a sad truth about human life that beyond our salad days, very few of us are interesting to look at in the buff. Added to that sadness is the very unfair truth that a woman's salad days are shorter than a man's — really, in this precise context, only from about 15 to 20. The Nautilus and the treadmill can add a half decade or so, but by 36 the bloom is definitely off the rose. Very few of us, however, can face up to this fact honestly, and I am sure this diary item will generate more angry e-mails of protest than everything else I have written this month.

AS:

The difference between Randy "Duke" Cunningham and many of his Congressional colleagues is one of degree, not kind. He is an extreme manifestation of a corruption pervasive in Congress, a crookedness that spreads with the size of the federal government. Had Cunningham just waited a little while and become a defense firm lobbyist, he could have received his Rolls-Royce, yacht, and Louis-Philippe commode legally.

In Washington, D.C., cause and effect are never examined honestly. Politicians are expert at bemoaning a troubling effect even as they deepen its cause. So while the Democrats crank up their "culture of corruption" campaign and Republicans express to the press horror at their colleague Cunningham's conduct, both parties will continue to approve and strengthen the catalyst of money-related corruption: the Leviathan-like size and power of the federal government. This is the reason so much dirty money is sloshing back and forth between them and lobbyists. The more the federal government's reach is extended, the more lobbyists' money is spent to stay or release its hand.

Malkin has the story. The powers that be even found it within themselves to include a little marble in the design.

Look, no matter how many years you went to art school and how great an artist you think you are, you cannot improve on statues, walls, marble and granite. Stop trying. Especially stop trying with my tax money.

Read John In Carolina's post today about a misstatement in a NYT opinion piece from several months ago. John has been tenacious in getting a response from them.

Their answer? Silly reader, don't take us literally. Having endured the horrors of World War I trenches... doesn't mean anyone was actually in a trench.

Murchison:

Never mind that competition is the force that perennially drives the American economy. We really wouldn't want to see a tax-supported and government-regulated automobile industry. We'd prefer, I think, an industrial environment in which performance is rewarded and non-performance punished.

Our inability to reward or discipline the public schools in accordance with their achievements, or lack of same, helps explain the schools' general mediocrity. We seem sometimes to suppose that the whole purpose of public education is providing jobs and perquisites to the teachers' unions and the education bureaucracy, when what you want is a school system that polishes young minds to as high a gloss as possible.

Sowell:

One of the many affectations of the political left and the intelligentsia is to disdain crass material things. But it is the increased production of crass material things which has released hundreds of millions of human beings from the curse of grinding poverty and endless toil, and given them longer lives.

Oh yeah, greed is good, too (Except of course when it makes you do illegal and unethical things.). Courtesy of Laura Bush. I mean Mr. Sun.

WS:

Over 60 years ago, when the American economy was still in the early phase of a war-induced recovery from a decade of stagnation and depression, and the future of capitalism was in doubt, Schumpeter wrote, "Capitalism . . . is by nature a form or method of economic change and not only never is but never can be stationary. . . . . The fundamental impulse that sets and keeps the capitalist engine in motion comes from the new consumer goods, the new methods of production or transportation, the new markets, the new forms of industrial organization that capitalist enterprise creates."

This process "incessantly" destroys the old economic structure, and creates a new one. Schumpeter concluded : "This process of Creative Destruction is the essential fact about capitalism. . . . Every piece of business strategy acquires its true significance only against the background of that . . . perennial gale of creative destruction . . . "

If capitalism requires continuous destruction to create wealth, why do we think heaping power (a lot of it economic power that would otherwise be handled by a capitalistic enterprise) on an unchanging, unchallenged government is a good thing?

I hope Dick Armey's WSJ editorial from today gets published somewhere on the web. In it he talks about Republicans having lost credibility as the party of government restraint. He says good policy is good politics. When you let politics govern, you get into trouble. Amen.

How did this happen? How did Republicans go from the party of fiscal discipline and less intrusive government to the party responsible for the looming financial disaster that is in our near future? Part of it was terrorism and the wars. War diverted attention from domestic politics and allowed politicians to fund every conceivable scheme their small minds could dream up. While the country worries about terrorism, the congressional elves hammer away in their workshops crafting legislation.

Another reason is the fact that safe districts have made the prospect of lifetime congressional employment a reality. Keep your nose clean and vote the way the leadership wants and you're guaranteed a pretty good job for life. Plus your leaders will kick you a few crumbs every once in a while like a new museum or a bike trail for your district to show the folks back home how truly important you are.

Last, but not least, more government spending is what the people want. Bush pledged to fund prescription drugs in his 2000 campaign, well before al Qaeda was on everyone's mind. With low interest rates and the limitless depths of the national debt, more government spending sure seems like the ultimate free lunch.

The real issue to me, the philosophical issue more than the economic issue, is that government spending promotes government dependency. Our mindset ought to be how to do for ourselves rather than giving power to this great taxing machine. The true potential of human capital will never be realized with government as middleman.

When you've got a chance to be great you take it.

MSNBC:

Before Monday night's overwhelming 26-7 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers at the RCA Dome, the Colts' 11th straight, Dungy told a Sports Illustrated writer he would rest his starters and risk blowing a perfect season rather than go for a shot at immortality.

As much as I like Dungy, I will revile him if he pulls his starters. Yeah, sure, the Super Bowl is the Super Bowl. Quick, who won it in 2000? But greatness is greatness. I'm warning you Tony, don't mess with history. The sports gods will not remember you well.

Glenn Reynolds:

High executive pay isn't bad in itself. Just think what it would be worth to GM to have a staff of executives who could turn the company around - it would be worth a lot.

The big problem, though, is that executives get high pay whether or not they do a good job.

No question about it. Part of the problem is that it's a by-product of laws designed to make hostile takeovers harder (Hostile to who? Current management. Certainly not hostile to shareholders.). Those measures entrenched management and made them less accountable to their employers - the owners.

Told you. Yesterday. Until corruption is fixed, it shouldn't be Republicans vs. Democrats, it should be us vs. them.

AP:

New evidence is emerging that the top Democrat on the Senate committee currently investigating Jack Abramoff got political money arranged by the lobbyist back in 2002 shortly after the lawmaker took action favorable to Abramoff's tribal clients.

Joe Lieberman:

I have just returned from my fourth trip to Iraq in the past 17 months and can report real progress there. More work needs to be done, of course, but the Iraqi people are in reach of a watershed transformation from the primitive, killing tyranny of Saddam to modern, self-governing, self-securing nationhood--unless the great American military that has given them and us this unexpected opportunity is prematurely withdrawn.

and...

Here is an ironic finding I brought back from Iraq. While U.S. public opinion polls show serious declines in support for the war and increasing pessimism about how it will end, polls conducted by Iraqis for Iraqi universities show increasing optimism. Two-thirds say they are better off than they were under Saddam, and a resounding 82% are confident their lives in Iraq will be better a year from now than they are today. What a colossal mistake it would be for America's bipartisan political leadership to choose this moment in history to lose its will and, in the famous phrase, to seize defeat from the jaws of the coming victory.

I sure like Joe Lieberman style Democrats. Why aren't there more of them?

City-Journal:

...but a couple of days ago something did rivet my attention: the silent tomfoolery of "gangsta" rappers "stylin’ " on Black Entertainment Television. Hopping around and making violent hand gestures, their long gold chains swaying, pants drooping low and eyes shaded, backed by adoring, barely-clad, pelvis-grinding young black women-with the sound off, the thuggish menace of these performers was unmistakable. The sensibility reverberates across the globe at present, from urban Morocco to the burning suburbs of Paris.

Black parents have decried to me the presence of such trash on BET, but liberal white America, especially its suburban progeny, tends to see black gangsta imagery as culturally authentic—to be respected and understood rather than subjected to the condemnation or mockery it deserves.

and...

But the black gangsta identity—the glorification of drug-dealing, crime, and serial sexual conquest, coupled with a blithe rationalization of fatherless black children-is what really deserves condemnation and concern, and not just in black barbershops, churches, and homes.

The folks promoting and performing this foolishness deserve scorn and mockery in the broader culture. It's not 'authentic' black culture. It's a money racket cashing in on impressionable youth, many of them white, who have more of their parents' money than they do their parents' sense.

Althouse on the new inductees - Black Sabbath, Sex Pistols, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Blondie and Miles Davis. Yep. Miles Davis.

Rock and roll isn't rock and roll anymore. Rock and roll is video games like Grand Theft Auto or something else.

Want to see something depressing? Watch this. It's a bunch of hair band wannabes wanting someone to validate them as cool by 'making it.' Which really means signing some big corporate contract so they can quit practicing their instruments and have their drugs and girls provided for them.

On the other hand, it is worth watching for Lemmy.

AP:

In a statement, prosecutors said Cunningham admitted to receiving at least $2.4 million in bribes paid to him by several conspirators through a variety of methods, including checks totaling over $1 million, cash, rugs, antiques, furniture, yacht club fees and vacations.

and...

Cunningham, an eight-term Republican congressman, had already announced in July that he would not seek re-election next year.

This is just pathetic. And how many of you out there want to give more power to government? What? You think your party is immune from this sort of corruption? Uh-huh. It's a product of power. No one is immune. End of story.

The Nation:

For some time I have been suggesting here that the aim of Republican strategy has been a Republican Party that permanently runs the United States and a United States that permanently runs the world. The two aims have been driven by a common purpose: to steadily and irreversibly increase and consolidate power in GOP hands, leading in the direction of a one-party state at home and a global American empire abroad.

As I've said many times, the Republicans have taken advantage of their conservative constituents. Republicans have consolidated and abused their power. They have attracted would-be politicians because they're in power, not because these politicians share conservative principles.

What's the answer? Elect Democrats? Don't be silly. You think they've become un-corrupt in the ten years they've been out of power?

Here it is. Laid out. Solve the problem once and for all no matter who's in charge.

1. Term limits. 12 years. 2 Senate terms. 6 House terms.
2. A uniform geographical formula for drawing house districts or elect all representatives at-large. Safe districts have to go. They're anathema to democracy.

Salon:

For the past couple of years, since the summer my son Joe turned ghetto, I have felt like I live in a rap video - rappers crowding the camera frame above me, looking down like they just kicked my butt and are ready to do it again. As my husband, David, and I have watched Joe take on the gangsta swagger and pout, we have wandered around like the iguana in Eddie Murphy's Dr. Dolittle, muttering, "So young, so angry. Damn that rap music!" What did we do that our kid has embraced such a dark view of the world? Where did all we raised him with go? Where did who he was go?

Dear Lord,

I will not be able to deal with a 'gangsta' son. So please, let the rap music fad die out in the next 8-10 years.

Sincerely,

D Boyd

IHT:

Anyone who has seen the parade of sales representatives through a doctor's waiting room has probably noticed that they are frequently female and invariably good looking.

WSJ:

He can say he's changed his mind; or he can say that Roe v. Wade and the cases affirming it since 1973 are now settled law, outweighing his view that Roe was wrongly decided.

Neither option is satisfying, of course, the first for obvious reasons, the second because it elevates precedent over the Constitution.

I don't get this 'settled law' thing. Wasn't Plessy v. Ferguson settled law for about fifty years? What gives? Is law only settled when the outcome is what you want?

AS:

The whole Democrat menagerie has embarked on a campaign to Vietnamize Iraq: to make it a demonstrable defeat and by so doing regain the White House regardless of the consequences. If they succeed, Iraq will become a far greater failure than Vietnam was because the stakes are much higher abroad and at home. The next presidential election will, like the last one, be a referendum on Iraq. And if Iraq is a failure, the Democrats will be a success.

I hope this isn't true. But it sure seems like it. Otherwise you'd have a heck of a lot more dialogue on what needs to be done in Iraq rather than 'Bush lied. Bring the troops home.'

PL:

It is a deeply dishonest book that takes advantage of the ignorance, gullibility, and derangement of its target audience. It depends on its readers complete ignorance of the record in general, and of the Thornburgh-Boccardi report on the 60 Minute broadcast segment in particular.

Cobb:

When I was a junior in college, one of my roommates, Bernard was failing Optics. He took it hard. So my other roommate, Darius, said this isn't hard work. Shoveling asphalt in 100 degree heat is hard work. But let's be clear aobut something here in America. Being black is existentially hard work, until you lick the problem.

The AFC is still better, with the exception of the pathetic AFC East which should donate its given playoff spot to another division as a show of sportsmanship, however the NFC is making strides. After the Giants/Seahawks game there's a possibility that every division leader in the NFC will be 8-3. Bye weeks? Homefield advantage? Stay tuned.

The Panthers are going to kill me. But the Chicago defense looks like the real deal and winning, however ugly, in the rain in Buffalo is tough. Next week is major. The Falcons come to town. 1:00 pm bell time.

Cone has links to chess stories. I've been teaching Jack to play. I expect many hurt feelings in the next few years as he hates to lose.

Update: Let me know if you're local and you want to play online. Sometimes the anonymous bores are too much to take.

A commenter on a discussion board via Althouse:

When the only evident sign of investment is in the party you throw to announce an organization with an illegal name offering a service that no one understands and that you yourself aren't entirely able to define, you've got a real problem.

Hoagland:

Call it history's revenge or the Nixon-goes-to-China syndrome run amok: Events in the Middle East now force political leaders to eat vows never to do certain things and then pronounce the dish tasty. Their reversals carry seeds of hope for a desperate region.

The Bush administration promised never, ever to nation-build or to engage itself deeply in pushing Israelis and Palestinians to make peace. Yet Washington undertakes both, with mixed but valuable advances in Iraq and in the flickering peace process.

The biggest problem with being against the war is that you put yourself in the position of being against hope. And maybe it's foolish hope and the loss of American life is a waste - time will tell. However, no matter what you think of Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld and Rice, they have put events in motion in the Middle East that at least give the region the chance at liberty. Did you imagine that chance could happen in your lifetime?

WSJ:

My fellow Americans: We are winning, and winning decisively, in Iraq and the Middle East. We defeated Saddam Hussein's army in just a few weeks. None of the disasters that many feared would follow our invasion occurred. Our troops did not have to fight door to door to take Baghdad. The Iraqi oil fields were not set on fire. There was no civil war between the Sunnis and the Shiites. There was no grave humanitarian crisis.

Saddam Hussein was captured and is awaiting trial. His two murderous sons are dead. Most of the leading members of Saddam's regime have been captured or killed. After our easy military victory, we found ourselves inadequately prepared to defeat the terrorist insurgents, but now we are prevailing.

Human Events:

In October, researchers at Georgetown University released the first report on the impact that the D.C. voucher program has had on participating families. This study-based on focus group interviews with the families-found that parents and students alike were very satisfied with their experience in the scholarship program. Parents reported that their children had improved academically and showed more confidence and enthusiasm for learning.

D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams, a Democrat and leading champion of vouchers in the District, was quick to tout the report's findings. "The students are thriving, and the parents are very enthusiastic and involved," he explained. "The study results underscore the critical importance of school choice."

Barone via Pierce:

The Clinton healthcare plan in 1993-94 and the healthcare plan of John Kerry in the 2003-04 campaign both tried to relieve the Big Three of healthcare costs. Both were obviously responding to a major Democratic constituency, the UAW.

Here's the question. If health care costs are bankrupting huge corporations, why won't nationalized health care bankrupt the country?

We just don't compete in the torture department.

NewsMax:

"One of the worst things was putting 10 people in a one-square-meter room for weeks. They had a brief break every day and were allowed the toilet every three days," he said.

Malkin and Cobb say fry. Boyd is not sympathetic to Tookie's cause.

Update: My bad. California uses lethal injection.

AP/ABC:

Supporters, including rapper Snoop Dogg and Ras Baraka, the deputy mayor of Newark, N.J., have urged Schwarzenegger to spare Williams' life so he can continue his work with young people as an anti-gang activist.

I'd say letting young gang members see California end Tookie's life ought to go a long way to helping him get his anti-gang message out. Godspeed Took.

I am putting this on here for future reference (future being when I construct my Viking kitchen). Instapundit passes on a link to a very cool French cooking site.

Baltimore Sun:

Yet, while there's no sympathy for Mr. Scanlon among his former colleagues, they agree that the climate on Capitol Hill today is perfect for his sort of greedy predator.

Ironically, it's a lesson Republicans seem to have forgotten since those heady days of 1994 when they inherited control of Congress from the scandal-plagued Democrats.

Ed posted about this yesterday. What's the solution? Give control back to the Democrats? Yeah, right. You know they're dying to cash in now that the Republicans have shown them the way. If we put Democrats in control in '06, they'd be so corrupt so fast we'd be putting the Republicans back in in '08.

The issue is power and that no one can resist its charms. Nope, not even yours truly. Put me in DC dining at the Capital Grille every night and taking me over to Scotland to play golf and to Hawaii conferences on economic policy and to Las Vegas for $10,000 a night hookers and I'm quite sure reform would slowly, steadily slip from my mind.

The real issue is us. We know power corrupts, yet we continue to give more and more to the worst monopoly of all - the government. What did we expect to happen? That the government would live up to the ideals of Karl Marx? How many times do we have to learn this lesson?

WSJ:

The more Republicans stumble in Washington, the higher Sen. John McCain climbs in the polls. His political fortunes seem to run countercyclical to those of the party whose nomination for president he may very well capture in 2008.

and...

It is on this issue that Mr. McCain has struck the mother lode. More than any other first-tier GOP candidate in 2008, Mr. McCain has shrewdly tapped into the rage that conservatives are feeling over President Bush's $800 billion Medicare drug bill (which he voted against), the highway bill with its 6,000 earmarked white-elephant projects (which he also voted against), and the infamous $500 million Alaska Bridge to Nowhere (which he led the crusade to defund). Mr. McCain whips out a spreadsheet detailing the legislation he drafted with Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn to cut the budget by $100 billion by canceling the highway pork, delaying the prescription drug bill, establishing a commission to end worthless government programs, and so on. Give the man his due: He has monopolized the anti-big-government Reaganite message of late.

The thing that bothers me most about McCain is that he is vain, more vain than most politicians.

It is hard for me to reconcile McCain-Feingold with the kind of person who champions freedom. It was the ultimate insider power protection act. And it's one thing to have voted for it. It's quite another to have your name on it and to have pushed it for years.

The one redeeming feature is that his intentions were good. However, what matters is how you translate your intentions into actions and attempting to stifle freedom of speech is a bad position for a would-be president to have lauded.

On the other hand, if McCain will concentrate on the 'right' issues, he will be a powerful force.

Yahoo:

On September 25, 2005, in a startling speech at the University of Toronto that caught the attention of mainstream newspapers and magazines, Paul Hellyer, Canada’s Defence Minister from 1963-67 under Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Prime Minister Lester Pearson, publicly stated: "UFOs, are as real as the airplanes that fly over your head."

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

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

OK. That does it. I'm out. I have defended Bush when he went into Afghanistan. I have defended Bush when he went into Iraq. I was prepared to defend Bush if he decided to go into Iran or North Korea. However, that's it. I will not defend Bush getting us into an unnecessary war with aliens. No matter how much manipulated intelligence he may present that aliens are working on a cosmic death ray, it simply defies reason that aliens intend us any harm.

Plus there is zero evidence of a secret alliance between al Qaeda and the aliens. Sure, there have been reports of Atta meeting with aliens in Prague, but what's that prove? Aliens are everywhere, man.

I refuse to stand idly by while our brave, young Marines are hurtled into space to confront an enemy that has never harmed them. Plus do you realize how big space is? Talk about the mother of all quagmires. If we can't find Osama in Pakistan or Zarqawi in Iraq, imagine trying to find an alien in space. Plus what if they're invisible like those Predator cats. We'll be losing so many men, we'll have to bring back the draft. Somebody get Fogerty on the phone, it's time to warm up the Stratocaster.

Anyway, when we capture one of them does the Geneva convention apply or is that just for humans? See? This war has all kinds of problems. Bush has no idea what he's getting us into. They probably don't even want democracy in space. You know when you're flitting around in your spaceship, do you really have time to read the papers and go vote? You'd probably just rather have some alien dictator telling you what do. It's just part of their culture to have the chief alien handling things and if he's got to slaughter a few hundred thousand aliens here or there, so be it. Hey, who are we to interfere? Isn't that the prime directive or something?

And good lord, how much money do Cheney's buddies at Halliburton stand to make? It'll cost trillions to zap MREs all over the universe. And who knows, they'll probably be drilling for oil on the moon while they're supposed to be getting soldiers' uniforms dry cleaned and if they find anything we'll have to raise the price of gas to like $7.50 a gallon because it'll cost so much to get the stuff down here.

So, anyway, as I said, I'm out. I can't do it anymore. I will not be this administration's dupe for another war intended to keep us from getting good health care in this country. Now, let me find my old Krugman columns. I've got to rethink some things. Anybody got Roch's number?

VDH:

As American casualties mount in Iraq, politicians at home now fight over who said what and when about weapons of mass destruction and the need for going to war. One of the most frequent charges is that President Bush hyped a non-existent link between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida - and that as a result, we diverted our efforts from finishing off the real terrorists to start a new and costly war to replace a secular dictator.

This charge is false for several reasons - and illogical for even more. Almost every responsible U.S. government body had long warned about Saddam's links to al-Qaida terrorists. In 1998, for example, when the Clinton Justice Department indicted bin Laden, the writ read: "In addition, al-Qaida reached an understanding with the Government of Iraq that al-Qaida would not work against that government and that on particular projects, specifically including weapons development, al-Qaida would work cooperatively with the Government of Iraq."

Then in October 2002, George Tenet, the Clinton-appointed CIA director, warned the Senate in similar terms: "We have solid reporting of senior-level contacts between Iraq and al-Qaida going back a decade." Seventy-seven senators apparently agreed - including a majority of Democrats - and cited just that connection a few days later as a cause to go to war against Saddam: " ... Whereas members of al-Qaida, an organization bearing responsibility for attacks on the United States, its citizens, and interests, including the attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, are known to be in Iraq."

WFB:

Nine years ago in South Pyongan province, a unit of the North Korean army was assigned the job of widening a highway connecting Pyongyang to the nearest seaport. Demolition of a house standing in the way revealed, hidden between two bricks, a Bible and a list of 25 names: a Christian pastor, two assistant pastors, two elders and 20 parishioners. The 25 were all detained and, later that month, brought to the road construction site, where spectators had been arranged in neat rows. The parishioners were grouped off to one side while the pastor, the assistant pastors and the elders were bound hand and foot and made to lie down in front of a steamroller. As if following a script written in early Roman history, they were told they could escape death by denying their faith and pledging to serve Dear Leader Kim Jong II and Great Leader Kim Il Sung. They chose death.

Ms. Clyne quotes Mr. Hawk's report: "Some of the parishioners ... cried, screamed out, or fainted when the skulls made a popping sound as they were crushed beneath the steamroller."

Althouse pays tribute to Ali G. Kazakhstan is suing him for his character Borat.

NYT:

Sacha Baron Cohen, who plays the spoof Kazakh television reporter in his `"Da Ali G Show," incurred the wrath of Kazakhstan's Foreign Ministry this month after appearing as Borat at the annual MTV Europe Music Awards.

He described shooting dogs for fun and said his wife could not leave Kazakhstan as she was a woman. The Foreign Ministry said his behavior was unacceptable and that Cohen might be serving political orders to tarnish Kazakhstan's reputation.

Responding in character as Borat, Cohen, who is Jewish, said: "I like to state, I have no connection with Mr Cohen and fully support my government's position to sue this Jew."

"Since 2003 ... Kazakhstan is as civilized as any other country in the world," he said on his website, www.borat.kz.

"Women can now travel on inside of bus, homosexuals no longer have to wear blue hat and age of consent has been raised to eight years old."

Lenslinger posts about King Kong, 1976 version. It was the first movie I saw in a theater that didn't involve animation.

AP:

Gov. Bill Richardson is coming clean on his draft record - the baseball draft, that is, admitting that his claim to have been a pick of the Kansas City A's in 1966 was untrue.

and...

"After being notified of the situation and after researching the matter ... I came to the conclusion that I was not drafted by the A's," he said.

In other news, I learned today that I am not currently in Dallas quarterbacking the Cowboys.

Here's the discussion.

I can tell them. Free. In one word. Committees.

Success being defined as getting up leaves, eating too much, watching football (could have been better if the Lions had shown up), playing ball outside and hanging out with immediate and extended family. What a beautiful day.

Chapman:

Never has a victory cigar made such a big explosion. By giving cities a free hand to take property from one private owner and give it to another, the Supreme Court scared the bejesus out of millions of taxpaying homeowners.

They took to heart what Justice Sandra Day O'Connor warned in her dissent: "The specter of condemnation hangs over all property. Nothing is to prevent the state from replacing any Motel 6 with a Ritz-Carlton, any home with a shopping mall, or any farm with a factory." As fellow dissenter Justice Clarence Thomas lamented, "Though citizens are safe from the government in their homes, the homes themselves are not."

See this for more.

Sowell:

The fact that people sort themselves out in many ways is not usually a big problem -- except to those people who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling other people what to do. Government programs to unsort people who have sorted themselves out have produced one social disaster after another.

Captain Ed:

The Admiral Emeritus once told me that the definition of disillusionment was watching your martial-arts instructor get his ass kicked in a country-western bar.

Speaking of this, cage fighting or ultimate fighting or mixed martial arts, really surprised me when it started being shown in this country. The assumption on my part and others I think, had always been that the karate guys were the best fighters. However, this turned out not to be so. Royce Gracie, a little guy, beat the heck out of everybody he faced with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu which aims to get your opponent on the ground, immobilize him and make him submit with a choke or other painful maneuver.

Coulter:

Anti-war protests in the U.S. during the Vietnam War were a major source of moral support to the enemy. We know that not only from simple common sense, but from the statements of former North Vietnamese military leaders who evidently didn't get the memo telling them not to say so. In an Aug. 3, 1995, interview in The Wall Street Journal, Bui Tin, a former colonel in the North Vietnamese army, called the American peace movement "essential" to the North Vietnamese victory.

"Every day our leadership would listen to world news over the radio at 9 a.m. to follow the growth of the American anti-war movement," he said. "Visits to Hanoi by people like Jane Fonda and former Attorney General Ramsey Clark and ministers gave us confidence that we should hold on in the face of battlefield reverses."

A simple, elegant solution to the lawyer problem.

Stossel:

The legal system should be reformed so people bear the consequences of their own bad choices. The best solution would be to make people who file baseless lawsuits pay the costs of defending against them. "Loser pays," that system is called, and that's the way it works in most of the civilized world. America's tort lawyers cleverly call loser-pays the "the English Rule," as if it's an odd British idea. It's not. It's the "Rest-of-the-World Rule." Only America suffers under the bizarre "American Rule," which allows lawyers to sue again and again, while forcing others to pay. Loser-pays would bring some justice to their victims.

Reagan aide Lyn Nofziger:

"To me, conservative means believing in a minimum amount of government and a maximum amount of freedom - dash; and keeping government out of people's lives and business - dash; and leaving people alone," Mr. Nofziger says. "I recognize you have to have national defense and have to finance the government. But government does not have to be the be-all and end-all."

Why have we ended up with runaway government spending and the federal government involved in everything from prescription drugs to education to rebuilding New Orleans? It's because when something goes wrong or something happens we don't like, we want someone to complain to. We want someone to say it's OK and that they'll take care of it. So the people rush to the government and the government gladly assumes responsibility for taking care of the problem because, whether or not the government can do anything about the problem, with the assumption of responsibility for the problem comes great power.

"Ah, you have a problem," says the government. "Sure, I can help you. Of course, it will cost a little money. You won't mind paying a little more tax or going into debt a little more will you concerned citizen? Of course you won't."

So how does it start? It starts with noble intentions. Here's a major problem that no one can seem to do anything about.

"Let's use eminent domain to seize this man's property," argues well-respected citizen number one. "Yes! That's the answer," echo other respected citizens. "Then we can have the government sell this fellow's property whose uses for it we don't like to another fellow whose planned uses for it we do like."

And so it goes. The government seizes the pariah's property, sells it at a loss to a developer it is friendly with and everyone is happy - until the government finds another pariah whose property isn't being optimized. Having used eminent domain in the first case, the roadmap is in place. It is substantially less work for the bureaucrats charged with executing the task. Additionally there is less resistance from the people since precedent has been established. And before you know it, government is a heck of a lot bigger than it used to be.

AFI via ABP and others I'm sure.

Here are my top 27. My requirements were that I had seen it, I liked it and it made me feel good.

27. Searching for Bobby Fischer - I like chess and Ben Kingsley.
26. Saturday Night Fever - One for the ladies.
25. Stand and Deliver - Poor kids doing hard math for their teacher - the chief from Miami Vice.
24. 8 Mile - Awesome rap contest ending.
23. Lord of the Rings - My favorite part in all three is the chase when Liv Tyler is riding away from the Wraiths. Way cool.
22. Remember the Titans - Could have been so much better. However, I get chills when Will Patton says, "You blitz every down. I don't want them to gain another yard."
21. Ray - Country dumb, baby. There's much to be said for this tactic. Most people, including me, can't subjugate their ego enough to make it work.
20. Star Wars - What's left to say?
19. Cool Hand Luke - "What we've got here is... failure to communicate."
18. The Color of Money - Paul Newman. Back to back.
17. Ben-Hur - One of the first movies my dad brought home when we got a VCR. I thought he was hopelessly out of touch. I understand now.
16. Stand By Me - The movie is better than the book. The writer character says something about being a boy at 12 and what a special time it is. No doubt.
15. Hoosiers - Baskets are 10 feet high in every arena in the country.
14. Flashdance - I really, really like 80s music and fashion. Is it too early for 80s retro? Can somebody please start a band with a synthesizer? We've been authentic for the past 15 years.
13. Lean On Me - Moral of the story? Kids respect principals with baseball bats.
12. Glory - Denzel and Morgan. What can you say? Would have been top 10 with someone other than Broderick.
11. The Natural - Lightning boy.
10. Forrest Gump - Good all the way around. Wow.
9. The Breakfast Club - You probably had to grow up in the 80s to understand.
8. Dead Poets Society - Oh captain, my captain. I wish I had been rich and could have went to a boarding school in New England. It looks like a lot of fun.
7. Good Will Hunting - I almost forgive Ben Affleck for the rest of his career for making this one.
6. Braveheart - Freedom! I hope I'm as brave if I ever get drawn and quartered.
5. The Karate Kid - Saw this one at the Janus on opening night in a sold out theater. There was a live karate demonstration before the movie. You don't get that at the megaplex.
4. Coal Miner's Daughter - Butcher Holler was a tough place to grow up.
3. Rocky - Flying high now. What made this movie was that they had the guts to have Rocky lose.
2. An Officer and a Gentleman - Greatest romantic movie I've seen. My wife doesn't think so. I am unable to understand. How is it possible we don't agree on this?
1. The Shawshank Redemption - I sure would like to be on that beach sanding Andy's boat although I wouldn't want to crawl through a sewer to get there.

The following post is dedicated to the two people who will understand: Sun and Ben and follows their recent post and post on the same subject. Thanks to Mid-Atlantic Gateway for refreshing my memory.

Go back in time with me. Go back to Thursday, November 24, 1977. I was six.

The whole extended family was at my house near The Orchard on Church Street and had been there the whole day for the traditional feast. I remember it was dark or at least getting dark and someone, an uncle maybe, brought up the idea of going to the coliseum for wrestling.

What? What was that? Wrestling? You serious? You mean that sport I could only catch glimpses of here and there on Saturday afternoons? That wrestling? You can't be serious. You mean go to the coliseum tonight to see this thing in person and not have to sit around the house all night? No way. Too young? You're not pulling that one on me. Don't tease me like this. It is simply out of the question that I stay home with the women.

So off we go. 8:15 bell time.



Check the ticket prices. $5, $6, $7. $7 for the good seats. We sat in the cheap seats. Upper level. Up with all the smoke. And let me tell you something. I've been to rock concerts and country concerts and house parties and dance clubs and jazz clubs and blues clubs and rave parties in warehouses and run down Las Vegas casinos and just about any other type of nightlife you can imagine where people might smoke. However, there is nothing that can compare to the per capita smoking that occurred at Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling in the 1970s. It was like being in an airplane on a foggy day looking down through the haze. It was fantastic.

Anyway, I remember there were four or five of us. Maybe six. It was my dad, me, grandfather on my mother's side I think and a couple of uncles maybe. We all stood in the lobby and someone went to get tickets. Imagine that. Walking up to the ticket window 20 minutes before the show and getting tickets. Awesome. Wrestlemania changed all that. I will not forgive Vinny Mac for ruining this sport (although he did make a lot of money which I have to give him credit for), however, that is a story for another day.

The only match I have any recollection of is the Battle Royal. It was a two ring extravaganza. The idea was that all 22 wrestlers started out in one ring and had to be tossed into the adjacent ring and then onto the floor. Once their feet hit the floor, they were out. The final two men in each ring would then go at it in a regular match to crown the winner.

The big attraction on this night was Andre the Giant. He was in town to participate in the Battle Royal. Everyone assumed Andre would walk away the winner. He was 7' and 500 pounds. How could he not?



He didn't last anytime. All the little guys ganged up on him and threw him out. He was one of the first to go. It was smart on their part. But it was kind of a let down.

I remember Baron Von Raschke wrestling, but I don't remember what happened to him. I have no recall of Ric Flair. The final two were Blackjack Mulligan and Mr. Wrestling Tim Woods. Blackjack was a big Texas cowboy. He was the bad guy. Mr. Wrestling was the masked good guy from parts unknown (or Florida depending). I loved Mr. Wrestling.





Alas it was not to be. I don't remember much about the match, but Blackjack defeated my man quite handily and walked away with the $10,000 which I'm sure he promptly gave back.



And so ends the greatest Thanksgiving of all time. The moral of the story? Do cool stuff with your kids. They'll write about it 30 years later. I will never forget that night. At least what I can remember of it.

Steyn:

I don't know what Islamist Suicide-Bombing For Dummies defines as a "soft target" but a Jordanian-Palestinian wedding in the public area of an hotel in a Muslim country with no infidel troops must come pretty close to the softest target of all time. Even more revealing, look at who Zarqawi dispatched to blow up his brother Muslims: why would he send Ali Hussein Ali al-Shamari, one of his most trusted lieutenants, to die in an operation requiring practically no skill?

I've been wondering about this. Why send senior people on this mission? You're either mad at them (in which case I find it hard to believe the senior person would follow through) or you're running low on folks willing to buy the 72 virgins death benefit (or 72 sheep depending on your interpreter).

Human Events:

Writing in his diary of the dire economic straits and self-destructive behavior that consumed his fellow Puritans shortly after their arrival, Governor William Bradford painted a picture of destitute settlers selling their clothes and bed coverings for food while others "became servants to the Indians," cutting wood and fetching water in exchange for "a capful of corn." The most desperate among them starved, with Bradford recounting how one settler, in gathering shellfish along the shore, "was so weak...he stuck fast in the mud and was found dead in the place."

The colony’s leaders identified the source of their problem as a particularly vile form of what Bradford called "communism." Property in Plymouth Colony, he observed, was communally owned and cultivated. This system ("taking away of property and bringing [it] into a commonwealth") bred "confusion and discontent" and "retarded much employment that would have been to [the settlers’] benefit and comfort."

The most able and fit young men in Plymouth thought it an "injustice" that they were paid the same as those "not able to do a quarter the other could." Women, meanwhile, viewed the communal chores they were required to perform for others as a form of "slavery."

On the brink of extermination, the Colony’s leaders changed course and allotted a parcel of land to each settler, hoping the private ownership of farmland would encourage self-sufficiency and lead to the cultivation of more corn and other foodstuffs.

As Adam Smith would have predicted, this new system worked famously. "This had very good success," Bradford reported, "for it made all hands very industrious." In fact, "much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been" and productivity increased. "Women," for example, "went willingly into the field, and took their little ones with them to set corn."

Blyth:

We know from that adoring cover story in New York magazine a few weeks back that Maureen favors green cowboy boots, a pink Burberry - and lots of lame. That story also confided that Maureen is just such a "fox," an assertion that was somewhat belied by the photos, both old and current, accompanying the feature. The truth is that she is now a woman in her 50s who looks like an attractive woman in her 50s. Except for her forehead, which is age 27 and so smooth (I wonder, how come?) that it seems she wouldn't be able to frown even if Gloria Steinem hit her over the head with a frying pan.

VDH:

So we should consider the French disaster a wake-up call. A nation cannot exist without shared values and a sense of common mission. We forgot that in the 1960s, when we encouraged racial separatism as a means of rectifying past discrimination. That kind of identity politics has proven a near-disaster. A salad bowl in place of the melting pot will, at the worst, turn America into something like the Balkans and at best ensure separatism along the lines of Quebec--or France.

Instead, the United States should return to its former ideal of a multiracial society under the inclusive aegis of Western culture. True, Americans are enriched by cultural diversity in food, fashion and the arts. Yet our core American values of democracy, human rights, private property, a free economy, an unfettered press and unbridled inquiry are not optional or up for discussion. In other words, we succeed precisely because we are the antithesis of a tribal Mexico, unfree China, intolerant Islamic Middle East--or socialist and statist France.

Scott Pierce has an update from the father of a marine in Iraq and what it's like on the ground. This is a must read.

Some highlights:

Captured enemy have apparently marveled at the marksmanship of our guys and how hard they fight. They are apparently told in Jihad school that the Americans rely solely on technology, and can be easily beaten in close quarters combat for their lack of toughness. Lets just say they know better now.

and...

The IED: The biggest killer of all. Can be anything from old Soviet anti-armor mines to jury rigged artillery shells. A lot found in Jordan's area were in abandoned cars. The enemy would take 2 or 3 155mm artillery shells and wire them together. Most were detonated by cell phone, and the explosions are enormous. You're not safe in any vehicle, even an M1 tank. Driving is by far the most dangerous thing our guys do over there. Lately, they are much more sophisticated shape charges (Iranian) specifically designed to penetrate armor. Fact: Most of the ready made IEDs are supplied by Iran, who is also providing terrorists (Hezbollah types) to train the insurgents in their use and tactics. Thats why the attacks have been so deadly lately. Their concealment methods are ingenious, the latest being shape charges in Styrofoam containers spray painted to look like the cinderblocks that litter all Iraqi roads. We find about 40% before they detonate, and the bomb disposal guys are unsung heroes of this war.

and...

Who are the bad guys?:

Most of the carnage is caused by the Zarqawi Al Qaeda group. They operate mostly in Anbar province (Fallujah and Ramadi). These are mostly foreigners, non-Iraqi Sunni Arab Jihadists from all over the Muslim world (and Europe). Most enter Iraq through Syria (with, of course, the knowledge and complicity of the Syrian govt. ) , and then travel down the at line which is the trail of towns along the Euphrates River that we've been hitting hard for the last few months. Some are virtually untrained young Jihadists that often end up as suicide bombers or in sacrifice squads. Most, however, are hard core terrorists from all the usual suspects (Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas etc.) These are the guys running around murdering civilians en masse and cutting heads off. The Chechens (many of whom are Caucasian), are supposedly the most ruthless and the best fighters. (they have been fighting the Russians for years). In the Baghdad area and south, most of the insurgents are Iranian inspired (and led) Iraqi Shiites. The Iranian Shiia have been very adept at infiltrating the Iraqi local govt., the police forces and the Army. They have had a massive spy and agitator network there since the Iran-Iraq war in the early 80s. Most of the Saddam loyalists were killed, captured or gave up long ago.

and...

The insurgent tactic most frustrating is their use of civilian non-combatants as cover. They know we do all we can to avoid civilian casualties and therefore schools, hospitals and (especially) Mosques are locations where they meet, stage for attacks, cache weapons and ammo and flee to when engaged. They have absolutely no regard whatsoever for civilian casualties. They will terrorize locals and murder without hesitation anyone believed to be sympathetic to the Americans or the new Iraqi govt. Kidnapping of family members (especially children) is common to influence people they are trying to influence but can't reach, such as local govt. officials, clerics, tribal leaders, etc.).

The first thing our guys are told is don't get captured. They know that if captured they will be tortured and beheaded on the internet. Zarqawi openly offers bounties for anyone who brings him a live American serviceman.. This motivates the criminal element who otherwise don't give a shit about the war. A lot of the beheading victims were actually kidnapped by common criminals and sold to Zarqawi. As such, for our guys, every fight is to the death. Surrender is not an option.

and...

According to Jordan, morale among our guys is very high. They not only believe they are winning, but that they are winning decisively. They are stunned and dismayed by what they see in the American press, whom they almost universally view as against them. The embedded reporters are despised and distrusted. They are inflicting casualties at a rate of 20-1 and then see shit like Are we losing in Iraq on TV and the print media. For the most part, they are satisfied with their equipment, food and leadership. Bottom line though, and they all say this, there are not enough guys there to drive the final stake through the heart of the insurgency, primarily because there aren't enough troops in-theater to shut down the borders with Iran and Syria . The Iranians and the Syrians just can't stand the thought of Iraq being an American ally (with, of course, permanent US bases there).

Yon via LGF.

This is really cool. Beautiful kids.

This is going to fail. They have no idea what they want to be and obviously corporate types have too much influence. Plus it's boring as hell.

OSM:

So how did this happen in the first place? Back at the beginning, certain, shall we say, paternalistically minded parties (i.e., the guys in suits) decided that we should act like grownups, and being as yet somewhat immature-at least as businesspeople--we did as we were told.

TCS:

No one sets the price of gasoline. If they could, oil company executives would charge $10 a gallon or more. However, because of competition, they have to charge an amount that will allow them to sell the gasoline that they are able to produce. After Katrina, they were able to produce less gasoline, so that at $2 a gallon they would have run out. They raised their prices to the point where they could not raise them further without losing most of their business to competitors.

If an oil company had decided magnanimously to sell gasoline at low prices, it would have run out of gasoline. If enough companies had done so, there would have been so little gasoline left that by October the public would have been at the mercy of those few suppliers that held any inventories. If gasoline had cost $2 a gallon in September, the shortage in October might have pushed the price up to $5 a gallon.

If a monopolist were in charge of the oil industry, he would shut down some refineries in order to reduce the availability of gasoline. A monopolist would rather produce less gasoline and charge $3 per gallon than produce more gasoline but have to charge $2 a gallon to sell it all.

Fortunately, the oil industry is not run by a monopolist, and we do not have to face $3 a gallon all the time. A competitive firm will not shut down its refinery capacity to keep supply off the market, because that only benefits its competitors.

Rush Limbaugh is allowing you to buy a gift subscription to Rush 24/7 which includes audio of his show and a subscription to his newsletter to give to a member of the military. Soldiers only receive one hour a day of Rush on Armed Forces Radio. The web access will allow them to hear all three hours.

Rush:

Sponsors may adopt as many soldiers as they would like at a reduced price. Each adopted soldier will receive a complimentary, one year subscription to Rush 24/7 and the Limbaugh Letter.

Come on big man. What are you doing? If soldiers are disappointed they only get one hour per day of you, give away the subscriptions. It doesn't cost you anything. Otherwise this appears to be a cheap marketing ploy reminiscent of a PBS fund raiser only using the military instead of Wild Kingdom as bait.

I heard Rush today attempting to justify this nonsense with something like the soldiers will know the American people really care about them if someone has paid for a subscription. Lucky Rush getting to be the middleman in the transaction.

CMG:

Officials at Appalachian State University plan to meet with law enforcement personnel today to talk about growing safety concerns on campus and in the surrounding area. The mountain campus has the highest rate of drug problems among all schools within the University of North Carolina system.

Nah. Really? You mean they don't wear Birkenstocks, have goatees, look at lava lamps and listen to the Grateful Dead just because?

Q. What did the Grateful Dead fan say when he ran out of pot?

A. This band sucks.

Deep Throat is revealed and it's about as anticlimactic as you can get. Now, not a year later, Woodward has put himself in the middle of another Washington cover-up story with his own anonymous source trumping Miller's Libby. Nobody puts Bobby in a corner.

Newsweek:

The Plame drama thickens, as Washington once again tries to guess who Bob Woodward's been talking to.

Barone:

Now, the progress toward democracy in Iraq is leading Middle Easterners to concentrate on the question of how to build decent governments and decent societies. We can see the results -- the Cedar Revolution in Lebanon, the first seriously contested elections in Egypt, Libya's giving up WMDs, the Jordanian protests against Abu Musab Zarqawi's recent suicide attacks and even a bit of reform in Saudi Arabia. In Syria, The Washington Post's David Ignatius reports, "people talk politics here with a passion I haven't heard since the 1980s in Eastern Europe. They're writing manifestos, dreaming of new political parties, trying to rehabilitate old ones from the 1950s."

Almost surely none of this would have happened without the liberation of Iraq. And there democracy goes forward: Seventy-eight percent voted for the Constitution last month, and democratic parties are contesting the elections to be held next month.

WSJ:

Congress limped out of town last week for its Thanksgiving recess, and just in the nick of time. With its Iraq duck-and-cover, the failure to extend expiring tax cuts, and the refusal to control spending, the Members were doing more damage to the republic every day they stayed around.

Amid the carnage, however, there was one small triumph last week: Senate Appropriations powerhouse Ted Stevens decided to pull funding for the infamous $320 million "Bridge to Nowhere" in his home state of Alaska. For those joining this story in progress, the proposed project would have connected Ketchikan, Alaska with remote Gravina Island (population 50).

JN:

A final word on this (general) topic: I believe that black Republicans - black conservatives - are among the bravest people in America. I've talked before about the conservative on campus. But black Republicans must have the harder path. They risk so much: ostracism, scorn, defamation. As we've seen, they're jumped on by the black Left, and jumped on by the white Left (which feels no compunction). And they're no doubt condescended to by some conservatives. If you're a black Republican, you'd better have that elephant's skin that Mike Steele talks about. Those who do merit our highest esteem.

Jay Nordlinger:

I love something Maryland's governor, Robert Ehrlich, said to me in an interview last spring. "If Condi Rice were a Democrat, there'd be parades for her. She'd be on the cover of Time magazine every week."

If a Republican appoints a black female secretary of state, ho-hum. And, of course, that's the way it should be.

Via Power Line. Buckhead.

So how did he know?

The short answer is that I am 47 years old and I am not a blithering idiot.

Of course there's more.

It's slow to load and it's not complete. However, to hear the main snippet of what caused Malkin's post. Go here.

More and more folks are giving this serious thought. It's hard to imagine an institution worse than a bureaucracy without accountability. However, intelligence seems more necessary than ever since we're now dealing with small groups of terrorists. I have no idea how you figure out how to judge the effectiveness of the CIA and the rest. But you have to. Otherwise, it's where bureaucrats go to retire.

However, let's hope.

JP:

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

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

Update: Looks like the military is taking this seriously.

AP:

In Washington, a U.S. official said the identities of the terror suspects killed was unknown. Asked if they could include al-Zarqawi, the official replied: "There are efforts under way to determine if he was killed."

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.

American soldiers maintained control of the site, imposing extraordinary security measures, a day after a fierce gunbattle that broke out when Iraqi police and U.S. soldiers surrounded a house after reports that al-Qaida in Iraq members were inside.

Update II: Too good to be true. Maybe next time.

CNN:

In Beijing, China, a stop on President Bush's trip to Asia, National Security Council spokesman Frederick Jones discounted the prospect of al-Zarqawi's death.

"The report is highly unlikely and not credible," he said.

Ed Cone has an insightful column on abortion today.

Cone:

Looming above those hearings (Alito), and the entire generation-long conflict, is the Roe v. Wade decision that effectively legalized abortion in all 50 states. The idea that the Constitution safeguards the right to privacy remains a stretch for many people, including some libertarians and proponents of legalized abortion. I'd like to see an amendment to the Constitution that formally recognizes the right to privacy, but that seems like a pipe dream given the baggage that privacy carries with it.

If Roe is overturned, then the issue of abortion will return to the states. In that case, my guess is that most states would preserve a woman's right to choose, with varying levels of restrictions. A thoughtful middle ground and respect for differing opinions will be vitally important to moving ahead during this transition period, and afterward. In fact, those things sound like a pretty good idea even if Roe survives the Bush administration.

Here are a couple of earlier thoughts on the right to privacy.

Because this issue was left to the courts in the first place, the folks at the edges have hijacked the issue. Most folks don't think life begins at conception. Most folks can't distinguish between partial birth abortion and murder. The correct place to begin this discussion is viability. And if viability continues to get earlier and earlier, so be it.

You wonder who's buying them right?

AS:

On Monday of this past week, the local newspapers and TV stations all featured the results of a survey of Massachusetts baby boomers, those born between 1946 and 1964. MassINC (The Massachusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth) commissioned the survey, and found, alongside the expected -- too much debt, anxiety over retirement -- that 35 percent of boomers planned to leave Massachusetts when they retired.

and...

"The median price for a single-family house (in MA) in the quarter was $370,000, a 5.7 percent jump over last year," the Journal reported.

and...

See you in North Carolina. Soon.

Go here for the details.

During her interview last week on 101.1, Brad asked Michelle about rumors that her husband writes her column for her. Brad said he wanted to give her the opportunity to clear this up. I was embarrassed for Brad for asking this question. It was the most awkward part of the interview. How do you respond to something like that? And who else gets asked this type of question by Brad?

Malkin:

During one of countless book-related radio interviews this week, a liberal radio host insultingly asked me whether I write my own column. His question was prompted by vicious anonymous bloggers who portray me as a greedy Asian whore/dupe/brainwashing victim who simply parrots what my white slavemasters program into my empty little head. These critics have stepped up attacks on my husband Jesse as a fanatical right-wing puppeteer orchestrating all I do and say.

Update: My initial reaction. The rest of the interview was OK. Brad challenged her on several points and they went back and forth. I think she was surprised at ha