Quarks, The Buddha, Iraq and the Eight Pillars

Read exactly what, here. It's Bush's 35-page Iraq plan.

Bush borrows from quantum physicist Murray Gell-Man (his Eightfold Way - Quark thing) and the Buddhists (with their Eightfold Path of the Buddha), calling his Iraq strategy the "Eight Pillars."

The Eight Pillars, from the White House website:

1. Defeat the Terrorists and Neutralize the Insurgency
2. Transition Iraq to Security Self-Reliance
3. Help Iraqis Form a National Compact for Democratic Government
4. Help Iraq Build Government Capacity and Provide Essential Services
5. Help Iraq Strengthen its Economy
6. Help Iraq Strengthen the Rule of Law and Promote Civil Rights
7. Increase International Support for Iraq
8. Strengthen Public Understanding of Coalition Efforts and Public Isolation of the Insurgents

The Buddhists' version is of Wisdom, Ethical Conduct and Mental Development:

1. View
2. Intention
3. Speech
4. Action
5. Work
6. Effort
7. Mindfulness
8. Concentration

***

Let's see how the politicos spin this.*

____

* -- An A+ for you, if you catch the pun.

Make Sure They Get Medicare Coverage

USA Today:

Up to half of smokers continue to light up cigarettes after being diagnosed with cancer ... . Some cancer patients never quit at all, while others relapse after they finish therapy, according to an article online Monday in the journal Cancer.

Let's quick fix this with another trillion dollar Medicare/Medicaid program...

Fake But Accurate, vs. Fake and False

The reliable Scott Johnson at Powerline highlights a buried detail in the ongoing MSM attempt to categorize Memogate as a mere instance of "maybe fake, but certainly accurate."

Scott highlights the inconvenient facts that a draft-age man who qualified for the Vietnam draft, likely qualified to get into TANG. And TANG had no wait list and was starved for candidates.

So, acceptance into TANG service may be of less prestige on a resume. But this also debunks the pervasive "Bush got preferential treatment" dogma of the MSM.

Not only are the Memogate memos false (which we know), but the "preferential treatment" assumption/religion is false:

"Mapes had originally begun work on the story of Bush's alleged preferential treatment in 1999. The Thornburgh-Boccardi report notes that Mapes had been informed in 1999 that there was no waiting list for President Bush's Texas Air National Guard unit at the time he entered:

-----" 'Mapes posited the 'darkest spin' that then-Colonel Walter Staudt, then in charge of the 147th Interceptor Group, deliberately kept these spots open 'to take in the children of privilege...while maintaining deniability.' Mapes told the panel that she never found any proof for this theory.'

"On the contrary, three witnesses with first-hand knowledge told Mapes in 1999 that Bush received no preferential treatment or assistance of any kind in admission to the unit as a pilot. She was told this by Colonel Rufus Martin, Personnel Staff Officer of the unit. She was told this by Major General Bobby Hodges, who stated to Mapes that the unit was "hurting for pilots at the time" due to "big turnover." She was told the same thing by General Staudt himself, who interviewed Bush in May 1968 before he was admitted into the Guard. Staudt told Mapes: 'No influence was used to get [President Bush] into the Guard. Nobody called me.'

"In the book, Mapes dismisses Staudt as a 'foulmouthed Bush loyalist[.]' "

In the face of multiply-sourced, independent and unanimous evidence that there was no TANG "wait list" and that Bush received no preferential treatment, the MSM/Leftist response is, basically, that such facts establish that the cover-up conspiracy is deeper and more pervasive.

Pass the Koolaid, please.

Katie Lied...

...and truth died:

"...[W]hen the "M&M's Chocolate Candies" balloon was supposed to have crossed the finish line, announcers Katie Couric, Matt Lauer and Al Roker stuck close to their scripts and the network ran footage of the balloon from last year's parade."

Has this Katie no dignity? Is nothing sacred?


And so begins M&M-Gate ... all because Katy Lied:

"Katy lies ... You could see it in her eyes."

Katie Lied. And the Truth Died.

Thanks, Yo

No matter what petty caca might interrupt my sleep on any given night, it really is insignificant.

These are the days. Give that some thought today.

And say "thanks" early and often.

Woodward and the MSM

The MSM is in anguish over Woodward. Read, e.g., this LATimes piece.

Why is the MSM so anguished over Woodward? Well, they don't know yet. But Bummer knows.

The Krugman/Dowd crowd is heavily invested in the notion that Bush or Rove intentionally "outted" Valeria Plame, as punishment for her husband's whistleblowing. In other words, this was a criminal act by Bush and Rove. An intentional, planned felonious attack against someone who was inconvenient to the Administration's position.

This MSM belief has achieved religious, litmus-test status, despite a fairly healthy stack of facts that rebut it.

Enter Woodward. His appearance has stirred massive cognitive dissonance among the Left. The reason (which the Left cannot recognize yet, with all that dissonance) is that Woodward - the strongest brand of Democratic whistleblower/"bring down the corrupt Administration" there is, now appears to be the first reporter to have been tipped about "Wilson's wife."

And as to the circumstances in which Woodward learned about "Wilson's wife," Woodward says:

"The person told me Wilson's wife worked for the CIA on weapons of mass destruction as a WMD analyst. ...The reference seemed to me to be casual and offhand, and that it did not appear to me to be either classified or sensitive. I testified that according to my understanding an analyst in the CIA is not normally an undercover position. "

"Casual and offhand? So much for all that nefarious evil intent that the Left has come to accept as dogma.

And that's why the Left is so anguished over Woodward, although they haven't worked through it all, yet.

Woodward found out that "Wilson's wife" worked at the CIA. Woodward told his fellow WAPO reporter, Pincus.

Pincus kept up his sleuthing into this intriguing matter. If you believe that the identity of Valerie Plame was no secret among the dining set it Washington, then Pincus likely nailed down who this "wife" was with a couple of phone calls.

So Pincus puts 2+2+2 together, and figures out that Valerie Plame is Wilson's husband. And Pincus wants the White House to confirm or deny what involvement Plame had in sending Wilson to Niger. So Pincus calls the White House.

Guess what, folks. No only is there no crime, there. But indeed, the Left's fictional religious tenet that Karl Rove engineered this, to punish Wilson, becomes roadkill.

Woodward and Pincus (and others) figured this out. It's the Investigative Reporters, Stupid.

Iraq Pullout. Just the Facts.

About those competing "Iraq Pullout" resolutions...You decide.

Representative Murtha's Resolution:

[Read the preamble clauses here]

...Therefore be it, Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That:

Section 1. The deployment of United States forces in Iraq, by direction of Congress, is hereby terminated and the forces involved are to be redeployed at the earliest
practicable date. ...

The Turner Resolution, voted down 403-3 on Friday:

"Resolved, that it is the sense of the House of Representatives that the deployment of United States forces in Iraq be terminated immediately."

The Buckhead Stops Here

Bummer believes that the Mainstream Media has strayed from its Constitutionally-protected role as an arbitration forum for facts and ideas.

In short, the MSM became the employer of Left-leaning activists, with "reporter" credentials.

As such, the MSM, individually and in the aggregate, is no longer a forum where facts and ideas from all sides get hashed out. Instead, the MSM itself censors facts and ideas that are not Leftist, and continues to present itself, individually and in the aggregate, as a fair "forum" where all "legitimate" facts and ideas are collected.

Ummm...yeah. Right.

***

The RatherGate scandal, which Bummer called MemoGate, was initiated by a blogger named Buckhead. It will forever be unknown whether Buckhead's initiation of the scrutiny was a "but for" causation of the scandal. Would it have broken, without Buckhead?

Anyway, the MSM, and its disgraced member Mary Mapes, continues to propagate the facially false idea that Buckhead the Blogger was some form of nefarious operative. Never mind the illogic of that; instead, it illustrates the continuing animosity of the MSM towards inconvenient "facts" that find their way into the public media, against the corpolitical wishes of the MSM.

Buckhead has kept his head low. But with Mapes' new book, in which a bare modicum of factual accuracy is discarded in yet another display of Leftist cognitive dissonance, Buckhead has re-appeared to debunk the Mapes-ian nonsense.

As to the "shallow mystery" of how Buckhead knew the TANG memos were false, Buckhead states:

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

Buckhead expands that a bit, saying:

"Any person who worked in an office before, during and after the desktop printing revolution ... could tell immediately that the documents were not from 1972. There are many millions of such people...the knowledge is common and widespread. The problems with the documents that I identified were obvious to millions of people and that is one reason that the story took off like it did.

"That it was me rather than someone else who first noticed the font problem is pure coincidence. It would have been picked up by someone else in a few minutes if I just gone to bed instead that night."

***
Buckhead, thanks for pulling no punches. I had endless fights with my Leftist friends in early December 2004 (which led to this blog), the sum and substance of my position being, "Anyone can spot these forgeries."

Altar

I was young. Pot was plentiful. Reagan had just taken office, and I had a paying job on the hill. We smoked that damned pot. We stayed all night at the Jefferson Memorial, until dawn.

You could do that, then.

We read these words, and others like them:

"I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."

We bought into it.

Some years later, I was president of an organization that has gotten a lot of curious press the past year, now that these "conservative" nominees are getting appointed. I took an older group there. We stayed all night. We froze our asses off. But they got to read these words, again:

"I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."

Again we bought into it.

And shortly thereafter, several of the guys we hung with got appointed. They didn't smoke pot, don't get me wrong.

A couple of decades later, I am really, really glad that Jefferson wrote those words. Some smart people then built a monument. And I got to hang there, a couple of times, all night, and contribute a little bit.

***

My guess is that the Park Police don't allow that sort of thing, anymore. I worry about that.

Archive Index Placeholder

Google and Blogger had come bugs in their programming. Hundreds of old posts didn't correctly archive to Google. This is a fixer.


Wednesday, August 31, 2005

What Did the Governor Say?
AP via Yahoo: "I can only imagine that this is what Hiroshima looked like 60 years ago," said Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour....AP via NYTimes: ''It looks like Hiroshima,'' Gov. Haley Barbour said Tuesday....NY Times: "It looks like Hiroshima is what it looks like," Gov. Haley Barbour said....LA Times: "I can only imagine," Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said slowly, "that this is what Hiroshima looked like 60 years ago."***I can't help this snark: One of the lesser Kennedy brains: "Perhaps it was Barbour’s memo that caused Katrina, at the last moment, to spare New Orleans and save its worst flailings for the Mississippi coast."
posted by BummerDietz @ 7:50 AM 0 comments
Saturday, August 27, 2005

A Penny of Thoughts
Victor Hanson continues to nail it to the tree:
"Yes, the long corrupt and murderous Middle East is aflame. ... By [Leftist, anti-war] logic, 1942 was far more disastrous than 1939, when the sway of prewar autocracies was unquestioned and we were at peace."I think the Iraq War debate will now get down to pragmatism. I've written a bit (e.g., here and here, etc.) about the Iraq War, but not too much.There are two strategically satisfactory outcomes in Iraq that are so politically incorrect that they cannot even be hinted at in public, but they may get fleshed now as pragmatism seeps into the debate.The first non-PC yet satisfactory outcome centers around the reality that, A Unified Iraq Is Not a Primary Goal:
"So if we’re going to get all practical, let’s be practical. A unified Iraq is a four-run homer, accelerating the Mideast peace process by years. But a one-run homer is all we need, and perhaps all we can afford. To wit: A balkanized Iraq with two working democratic zones, territories or countries (Kurdistan; Shia’stan) satisfies the basic strategic objectives of the [Wolfowitz] Plan."
The second non-PC yet satisfactory outcome recognizes this: Regional Mideast civil wars, involving democracy movements, are an improvement over the status quo and a likely step in the generational struggle that awaits the Mideast. (Hey, the US, European, Central and South American democracy movements were all marked by generations of rebellion and civil war; why should we somehow expect the Mideast be exempt?)Of course, Bush didn't detail the ugly realities of war in his casus belli - no Western leader ever does. Roosevelt didn't; Lincoln didn't; Churchill didn't.
posted by BummerDietz @ 3:20 PM 0 comments
Sunday, August 21, 2005

Gone Fishin'
Out for a week. Leave a comment as to a BummerTopic that needs addressin'.-bummer
posted by BummerDietz @ 8:19 PM 0 comments
Saturday, August 20, 2005

MSM Slant-A-Thon VI
[updated]Folks who decry the bias of the mainstream media seem to have a special place in their hellhearts for Paul Krugman of the NYTimes Op/Ed page. True, Maureen Dowd is an idiot, but she's an ex beauty magazine staffer who favored someone; we expect her to be a tower of babel.Granted, Krugman is not a news reporter; he is an opinion writer. So yes, he gets some leeway.But, leeway doesn't equal faking facts. The CBS News folks behind MemoGate learned that lessobn; Paul Krugman has not.Krugman uses fake data. Scientists get fired for doing that; students and professors get bounced out of the school. Lawyers gets sanctioned. Krugman gets a cost-of-living raise.Krugman seems to know his citations are fake when he uses them, but he does it anyway. His attitude seems to be, "I have the bully pulpit, and you don't, so you can't stop me." The end justifies the means.We readers have supposed that one or more NYTimes editors and factcheckers catch errors, and therefor Krugman's fakery, the way that any thinking 8th grader would have caught the forged Rathergate memos.But they don't. Krugman just keeps doing it, without editorial oversight.The first NYTimes "Public Editor," Daniel Okrent, a self-described liberal Democrat, in his parting article for the NYTimes, blasted Krugman for his "habit of shaping, slicing and selectively citing numbers in a fashion that pleases his acolytes but leaves him open to substantive assaults."Fancy talk for calling someone a liar.Krugman deserves his hellheart place, because he is a microcosm of a very similar m.o. in the main stream media. Like Krugman's use of fake data, the MSM massages the hard news - i.e., the factual stream reported to the public - so as to render the facts to the MSM's liking.Krugman the op/ed writer uses facts he knows are false. The MSM similarly omits certain facts, and shades the reporting and/or emphasis of other facts, in a manner that is designed to comport with the political preferences of the MSM.Hey, this ain't new. Powerline fisks another Krugman piece today, but as they say, it's almost not worth the effort.But it is worth the effort, because it shines a light on this nefarious Rathergate-type activity. And for that, thanks, Hinderaker. Your blog is well-read, and the case against Krugman to date has been manifested only on little-visited blogs. You should do a "Klugman's Top 25 Fakes" for the record.[Update] The American Thinker posts a Krugman fisking, somewhat similar to the Powerline blast.Compare Powerline's* and the American Thinker's relative deference to polite language:Powerline: "The consortium's view...is a far cry from Krugman's claim."AT: "Quite simply, his statement is false. It is a lie."____* - Note to Hinderaker: Don't be gray when the matter isn't gray.
posted by BummerDietz @ 2:12 PM 2 comments
Friday, August 19, 2005

Court: Immunity No Shield for Thuggery
I swear I didn't write this article:
Calif. Court: Judicial Immunity No Shield for ThuggeryMike McKee, The Recorder
Judicial immunity is not absolute, a California appeal court ruled Wednesday in a bitterly contested case in which a lawyer acting as a referee was accused of assaulting a litigant.
"A judge's robe is not a king's crown," Justice M. Kathleen Butz, of Sacramento's 3rd District Court of Appeal, wrote. "[Judicial immunity] was neverintended to protect acts of thuggery against litigants merely because the assailant happens to be a judge.
"...We cannot accept Price's claim that a judge may, with absolute immunity, physically assault a litigant on the ground that he was exercising his powers to compel the parties to proceed with a scheduled deposition," Justice Butz wrote. Under the same rule, a judge could, without incurring civil liability, step down from the bench and choke an unruly litigant under the 'judicial' auspices of restoring order to the courtroom."
Absolute immunity linked to thuggery? Gosh, what a novel thought.

posted by BummerDietz @ 9:01 AM 0 comments
Thursday, August 18, 2005

Four Smoking Guns of Clinton Coverup?
Three stories broke - or, revived - so quickly this month that their collective import is hard to discern. See items 1-3, below. All three stories, plus one to come, bear proximately on the question of, "How could 9/11 have happened?" And all bear directly upon the competing claims of the political parties as to war policy, and corollary domestic policy (such as the Patriot Act). Hence, the MSM slant (or, refusal to pursue one or more of the stories) will be acute.The fourth story will revive, to wit, "How is the 'After Action Report' related to the three stories?"Put another way, "What was the objective of Clinton's National Security Advisor Sandy Berger, in his multiple trips to the National Archives to destroy memos concerning the Clinton Administration's actions regarding al qaeda?*"Four Smoking Guns of Coverup:1. Able Danger. CIA [oops; Pentagon - ed] operatives fingered the specific Atta gang a year before 9/11, but Clinton administration barriers prevented the CIA/Pentagon from notifying the FBI.2. The Mary Jo White memos. Directly related to the barriers, a prosecutor more-or-less predicts that a 9/11 will result...years before 9/11.3. The State Department Memos. The State Department warned that bin laden's move to Afghanistan in '96 was tantamount to mobilization for war.4. Millennium Bombing After Action Report. Internal, top secret "failure analysis" of the Clinton Administration's approach to bin laden and al qaeda.____* - Here are the reported facts, and timeline, that I have pieced together (online) re Bergergate:July - September 2003On July 18, September 2 and October 2, Berger goes to Archives, and is allowed into top secret room, to prepare for 9/11 commission testimony; and/or respond to 9/11 commission subpoena to Clinton administration.After Berger's visit, Archives officials believed documents were missing. An Archives employee called former White House deputy counsel Bruce Lindsey, who is former president Bill Clinton's liaison to the National Archives. The Archives employee said documents were missing and would have to be returned. The documents were returned the following day from Berger's office to the Archives. This returned batch did not include any 'after action reports.' It is unclear whether the Archives staff knows, or suspects, that after-action reports were taken in this first visit.October 2003After being busted in September, informally, by the Archives staff, Berger goes back to the Archives. Archives officials were wary, and this time, they specially coded the papers to more easily tell whether some went missing. They devised a coding system and marked the documents they knew Berger was interested in canvassing, and watched him carefully. They knew he was interested in all the versions of the millennium review, some of which bore handwritten notes from Clinton-era officials who had reviewed them. At one point an Archives employee even handed Berger a coded draft and asked whether he was sure he had seen it.Berger repeatedly persuaded monitors assigned to watch him review top-secret documents to break the rules and leave him alone. Berger asked them to leave the room so he could make sensitive phone calls. The Archives monitors told the FBI Berger was observed stuffing his socks with handwritten notes about files he reviewed that were going to the Sept. 11 panel.After this second round, Archives staff contacted the FBI.Berger hired a lawyer and volunteered that he had also taken 40 to 50 pages of notes during his visits. However, Berger still does not return at least some of the 4 or 5 copies of a 15-page "after action memos." They were "inadvertently discarded" according to Berger's attorney.January 2004The FBI raided Berger's house for missing documents, and he became the target of a probe.The missing documents are a number of copies of a January 2000 "after-action report" (4 or 5 copies, with handwritten comments) criticizing the government's response to terrorism plots at the turn of the millennium. The document was written by Richard A. Clarke, at Berger's direction. This report is said to be highly critical of Clinton terrorism strategy and response, and the various drafts have Clinton officials' comments on them. Perhaps two dozen specific recommendations - spin for "failure analysis" - were included in the report. (And the comments? They provide a real-time, irrebuttable snapshot of what the Clintons did, and did not do. Pretty much zero wiggle room. And during a post-9/11 election, something that takes away one's wiggle room is a bad thing. Bad things need to be scrubbed.)Clarke testifies to the 9/11 Commission in March, 2004, concurrently with the release of his book "Against All Enemies." Clarke, a Democrat, was the poster child for the political position claiming that Clinton was on top of the game against al qaeda, whereas Bush was negligent. The thrust of Clarke's book and testimony, coordinated with the 9/11 Commission hearings, echoed during the Democratic primaries, and his story was a significant factor in shaping the tone and substance of the Democratic candidates' (anti-war) positions and attacks on Bush.If it were to be shown that Clarke's book, and his 9/11 testimony, were misleading about Clinton, such would significantly lessen, if not destroy, the political message that Clarke came to symbolize, and constituted a blow to the Democrats' "Blame Bush" campaign message.The "After Action Report" is the smoking gun that supposedly does just that.
posted by BummerDietz @ 6:57 AM 2 comments
Wednesday, August 17, 2005

AbleBerger Continues...
A number of Bush supporters and Republicans have downplayed, even criticized, the so-called Able Danger story as a possible hoax, or worse. The problem - as with Memogate - is the lack of any credible evidence. In other words, the affair is comprised of nothing but speculation with no foundation.Low and behold, just when you thought the affair would die a deserved death, a witness has come forward.Kudos to the NYTimes (so often bashed here), for running multiple versions of the breaking story:
WASHINGTON, Aug. 16 - A military intelligence team repeatedly contacted the F.B.I. in 2000 to warn about the existence of an American-based terrorist cell that included the ringleader of the Sept. 11 attacks, according to a veteran Army intelligence officer who said he had now decided to risk his career by discussing the information publicly.
The officer, Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, said military lawyers later blocked the team from sharing any of its information with the bureau. Colonel Shaffer said in an interview on Monday night that the small, highly classified intelligence program, known as Able Danger, had identified the terrorist ringleader, Mohamed Atta, and three other future hijackers by name by mid-2000, and tried to arrange a meeting that summer with agents of the Washington field office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to share its information.
But he said military lawyers forced members of the intelligence program to cancel three scheduled meetings with the F.B.I. at the last minute, which left the bureau without information that Colonel Shaffer said might have led to Mr. Atta and the other terrorists while the Sept. 11 attacks were still being planned.
"I was at the point of near insubordination over the fact that this was something important, that this was something that should have been pursued," Colonel Shaffer said of his efforts to get the evidence from the intelligence program to the F.B.I. in 2000 and early 2001.
He said he learned later that lawyers associated with the Special Operations Command of the Defense Department had canceled the F.B.I. meetings because they feared controversy if Able Danger was portrayed as a military operation that hadviolated the privacy of civilians who were legally in the United States.
"It was because of the chain of command saying we're not going to pass on information - if something goes wrong, we'll get blamed," he said.
Compare the NYTimes-written version with the AP version. See if you don't agree that the AP version is watered down, compared to the NYTimes. Again, kudos to the NYTimes.I've speculated as to a potential Able Danger link to Sandy Berger and his Archives caper.And there is ample criticism as to why 9/11 Commissioner Jamie Gorelick refused to resign from the 9/11 investigative panel ... investigating matters under her direct control during the Clinton administration. The arsonist wearing a Fire Department investigator's badge?
How nasty, should a Gorelick-Berger coverup result from this.
Throw in a little gasoline regarding a parallel revelation - the "Mary Jo White" memos - and you start to wonder what the hell is up.
To you folks who read books, none of this should be a surprise. Gerald Posner's book, "Why America Slept," pre-dates the 9/11 Commission Report, and detailed many of the systemic reasons for the failure of Agency A to pass along information to Agency B, all of which would have prevented 9/11.
posted by BummerDietz @ 7:38 AM 0 comments
Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Cannon on a Gravel Road
If I were Bush, I'd walk out and meet with the unbalanced protestor named Cindy Sheehan. For effect, I might even do it without any security detail.I would let her vent. For a good half an hour. Cameras rolling. She might even hit me. I'd certainly tear up and cry. Her rant would include loads of incendiary anti-Semitic, blood-for-oil, "this country sucks," "down with imperialism" type drivel. If need be, I would bait her with a few softballs to get her rolling on her leftish rant.At some point, with a calm, father-figure President standing on a dirt road in Crawford, she would explode, like a truant 14-year old. Nothing rebuts a fool, than letting the fool speak.I'd make sure she got to lay it all out, cameras rolling.Then, out of the crowd would come the second mother. The mother of another dead or wounded soldier, who would praise country and the flag. She would talk of her son (or daughter's) love of country, of willing sacrifice, and just cause. Of her sorrow, but her support.And I'd also tear up and cry. Just like I had with the first mother.And the cameras would roll. The far-left clown squad surrounding Sheehan might heckle and misbehave; someone might even throw an egg. Let the cameras roll.And then I'd turn and walk back up that lonely dirt road to the ranch.And let the people choose which of these two is the mother that represents their country.
posted by BummerDietz @ 7:26 AM 4 comments
Sunday, August 14, 2005

MSM Slant-A-Thon V
Data: In the past California election, 153 out of 153 incumbents in the California legislature won re-election. You read that correctly: 100%.***Can you ever remember an instance where, going into an election campaign, the MSM announced: '[Prominent Democrat's] approval ratings are tanking"?Such as November 1988 in the days before the election, when Dukakis was badly trailing Bush I, and was fading by the hour?Such as November 1984 in the days before the election, where Mondale was badly trailing Reagan, and was fading by the hour?Such as, in November 2003 in the days before the Recall election, where the polling to recall Governor Davis was a majority, and trending even worse as each day went by? (You may not know that California's largest paper, the LA Times, not only refused to use the word 'tanking' as to Davis, but also launched a front page 'scandal' story against candidate Schwarzenegger, just 2 business days before the election.]***When it's a Republican, different rules apply. In fact, no need to even use poll numbers when reporting on Republicans, when the MSM wants to portray a Republican as being doomed as an election begins. And particularly not, when the Republican has set for a vote a number of ballot initiatives that threaten to bust up an entrenched, fringe-left, Gerrymandering state legislature, with a fair process of drawing legislative districts:
Washington Post: "In California, [Republican] Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's poll numbers are tanking. Protests and boos greet his high-profile appearances... ."
Schwarzenegger was elected, because ordinarily complacent California voters woke up to a $15 billion dollar deficit, announced a few weeks after Governor Gray Davis won re-election in 2002.* In a crowded field of challengers, Schwarzenegger won a majority of votes , based upon a "take no prisoners, I will fix this" campaign.Arnold achieved a few early successes by negotiation and compromise with an entrenched, ideologically Left state legislature, and state bankruptcty was delayed. Then, gridlock again occurred. So Schwarzenegger has now gone back to the 'nuclear option," which he promised in the campaign. (The state Supreme Court certified Arnold's measures for the ballot, 2 days again, after furious attack by the Democratic Attorney General.)Meanwhile, the fundraising arm of the state Democratic party (the teacher's union and the government workers' unions) has been in full attack mode for 6 months, running ads against Arnold.Now comes the MSM: "Arnold's numbers are tanking."And when millions of average Californians start to pay attention in the few days before the election this fall, and most or all of Arnold's 'nuclear' initiatives win approval, what will the MSM report? Why, of course: "Election irregularities."___* - Bummer is obviously politically involved, yet Bummer cannot tell you the name of his state senator or assemblyman. No one cares, not even Bummer. Imagine the average guy's level of involvement -- less than zero.
But when Arnold says, "Do this," I'll do it.
And so will millions of average Californians who don't know the name of a single state legislator. We elected Arnold to bust things up, and we haven't really asked for an update since November 2003.
posted by BummerDietz @ 8:33 AM 1 comments
Friday, August 12, 2005

MacroEconomics Not Yet Comprehended
Bummer gets a little worked up over IslamoFascists. For 50 years, the US and USSR avoided nuclear annihilation under "Mutually Assured Destruction," built upon the premise that neither would attack first, knowing the result would be retaliatory decimation.IslamoFascists aren't stupid. Perhaps with 9/11, they had been led to believe that the US would do nothing. OK, that's a theory. But it's a Western-based theory. What if bin laden et al understood that the retaliation by the West against the islamic crescent would be 100-times that of 9/11 -- and intended that?If a suicide bomber represents the micro-economics of it all (and we think they are nuts), might not 9/11 represent the macro-economics of it all?A new macro-economics, that really doesn't conform to the Western mind.*Which is why Bummer gets worked up when journalists and politicians and others put out happy-talk that the IslamoFascists would never act in a manner that would invite massive military retaliation upon themselves:
"And there is one important factor at play: it is one of the Middle East's worst kept secrets that Israel has the nuclear bomb. Iran certainly knows this and it will have a clear deterrent effect.
The result is that Israel might not need to take pre-emptive military action against Iran - if only because Teheran would never use a nuclear weapon against Israel for fear of itself being attacked, and annihilated, by the Jewish state's nuclear arsenal."The Islamic fundamentalists would "never" use a nuke, for fear of retaliation? Who the hell assured the UK Telegraph journalist of that "fact"?And an islamic teenager would never blow himself and a trainload of people up, either, for fear of himself ... being ... dead?Hello....I worry that there is a "new macroeconomics" of mutually assured destruction -- the urban cousin to the paisan microeconomics of the suicide bomber. When the West wakes up to the reality of this new paradigm, a Western city or two may already be obliterated by IslamoFascist nukes.And that's the unfortunate day, I think, when a lot of Average Joes just say:
"F*ck it. Drop the bomb. Exterminate them all."Pretty much like we did, all summer long, in 1945.That's a bad day to wake up to.So I'm gung-ho for pre-emptive military intervention. Call me crazy, but I don't want to wake up on a day when the majority of Average Joes just says, "Nuke 'em all."_____* - There is a good argument that the Japanese Imperial leadership in WW2 had a mindset that was not Western-based...and acted accordingly. After the (conventional) carpet bombing and destruction of the 60 largest Japanese cities in the Summer of 1945, what else explains it? It's compelling.
posted by BummerDietz @ 12:38 PM 2 comments

BergerQuiddick is Back
BergerQuiddick, aka BergerGate, aka Sandy Burglar, remains an odd, almost unexplained footnote. I have previously speculated that Berger - a Kerry campaign staffer - went to the Archives to destroy draft memos which contained information that rebutted the Spring 2004 Democratic Presidential campaign theme being pushed by Richard Clarke, in connection with the 9/11 Commission Report.Whoops, look-y here:
The Sept. 11 commission knew military intelligence officials had identified lead hijacker Mohamed Atta as a member of al-Qaida who might be part of U.S.-based terror cell more than a year before the terror attacks but decided not to include that in its final report, a spokesman acknowledged Thursday.This breaking story has been dubbed the Able Danger Scandal.The Clinton Administration's CIA warned about Atta being the leader of an al qaeda attack cel, and the Justice Department refused to allow the FBI to be notified? And the Democrats, via Richard Clarke, are claiming that Bush failed to prevent 9/11?Beneath it all, I'll wager that Sandy Berger was at the Archives trying to scrub away Able Danger references.Update: Another Blog connects the dots regarding Berger. Note that Berger's sentencing has been pushed until September 2005.
posted by BummerDietz @ 4:41 AM 3 comments
Thursday, August 11, 2005

Right-Leaning Lunacy
Bummer was in Vegas a few years back with BummerBrother (BB). BB is a born-again, right-winger. Sitting at lunchtime at the entrance to an event, we watched spectators arriving at a venue. Many in the crowd - maybe 15% to 20% - consisted of female groups of 3 to 5 women each, in age range from early-20's to mid-30's. I commented that things had changed in Vegas. In the mid 1980's through the early 1990's (a peak Bummer-in-Vegas period), you did not see very many groups of women in Vegas, on weekend vacations together. "Man, would I have had a blast," I said to BB."They're all hookers," said BB."No, they're not. They're here to have a good time. They may hook up with a guy, but they aren't hookers," I said."No, they're all hookers," said BB."The 50 or 100 women we've seen in groups the past 30 minutes, every one of them is a hooker?" I asked."Yep," said BB."BB, the last time you were single, Reagan had just been shot. Things have changed. Women do this, now."BB's buddy chimed in. "Yep, things have changed. Normal women will come to Vegas in small groups, and hang out and maybe hook up with guys.""No, they don't," insisted BB. "The magazines and TV shows and movies want to convince you that women do that, but they don't. It's all a lie. They're hookers."***OK, then, what's my point?Cognitive Dissonance. The mind rejecting factual data that does not match ideological programming.***Bill at INDCJournal shines a light on a Right-Wing, dissonance-inebriated blogger. It's classic, true textbook stuff. Check it out.***
posted by BummerDietz @ 6:49 AM 1 comments
Monday, August 08, 2005

Bummer's Summer Guide: Impressing Eurochix
OK, so you're not Brad Pitt. But you find yourself in a lounge filled with Eurochix (or, American girls wanting to be Euro). You need to impress at least one, with the semblance that you are more than a Class of '82 Frat Social Chairman from some big university.My pals have their joke-telling film, the Aristocrats, out there and doing well, what with the telling of a filthy joke.But sometimes, you need savoir faire instead of a dirty joke. Here's your weapon.And ... fratboy, one more thing. Trust me on this: Practice the accents. Get it right -it's all about nailing the 6 words, seemingly effortlessly. If you do, the Eurochicas are yours. If you mess it up, then ... hey, you get this round, I get the Eurochica.It's a BummerRiginal, although I'm sure versions abound... .*****St. Peter and the ButterflyFollowing the downing of an airliner carrying a UN delegation, Heaven was already bursting at the seams. Only 5 places remained in Heaven for the 6 victims of the crash. One would be banished to Hell.The 6 unfortunate UN diplomats at the Gates pled with St. Peter to be admitted, but it was just an ugly cacophony from the quarreling American, Frenchman, Italian, Spaniard, Portuguese and German diplomats.Finally, St. Peter had heard enough of the ruckus, just as a beautiful colored moth fluttered by. St. Peter shouted, "Enough of this noise!" Admiring the moth, he said, "I will admit only those five souls who exhibit their cultural superiority by the voicing of simple poetry about this most delicate creature of God."So the American went first. "Your holiness, that creature is known to us as the gentle 'Butterfly.' " And as the words fell on St. Peter's ears, he smiled at the juxaposition of the soft nouns and hard consonants, weaving its sonic beauty.The Portuguese followed, in a soft voice matched to the syllables he spoke: "Most holy Peter, the gentle flutter is that of the 'Borboleta' to my people." And St. Peter seems to nod off in a five hundred year-old trance, as if he had visited the wharf of the great sailing ships on a spring day, nodding at the beauty of the image rendered by the language.The Italian was next: "Mi papa, in Roma at the base of the Vatican ramparts, for centuries we have spoken of this most dainty creature as the 'Farfalla.' " And St. Peter began softly humming some Verde opera as he closed his eyes to the joy his ears heard.The Frenchman was next, in a breathy whisper: "Most Honored Father, in ze fields outside of Paris, for two thousand years the children of the parish have chased this little bird with lacy fabric nets worthy of his Holiness, this gentle creature we call ze 'Papillon.' " St. Peter, now almost trance-like, smiled and nodded, "Oui, mon ami."The Spaniard spoke next, in a faint confession: "Father, I can offer only this: 'Mariposa.' " And St. Peter, speechless, could only tremble at the beautiful sound."What, this damned Schmetterling is sending me to Hell?" demanded the German.
posted by BummerDietz @ 7:38 PM 0 comments

MSM Slant-A-Thon IV: Bury It
The editorial powers at the New York Times believe that effective world collectivist government, rather than US-led nation-state power, is appropriate.Look today in the NYTimes, page A8 of the National Edition. A big story is buried there. The Director of the Iraqi Graft Fund to Bribe European Governments, also known by its diplomatic name "Oil-for-Food", years after the fact, has been thrown out of the UN:
NEW YORK (AP) -- The former chief of the Iraq oil-for-food program resigned a day before investigators were to release a report that is expected to accuse him of taking kickbacks under the $64 billion humanitarian operation.OK, so bury the story on page A8. I guess we expect that from the MSM. So long as it runs an in-depth analysis of the ramifications of the scandal, to wit: "What negative consequences resulted from this bribery? Would the Iraq War have been necessary if the Hussein regime had not been funneled billions of dollars through the program? Would France and Germany have presented a unified UN Security Council front against Saddam in early 2003, had the bribes not existed?"There's a Pulitzer Prize awaiting ... .Alas, no. The New York Times instead uses more column inches in denouncing the scandal as a witch-hunt, than asking real questions:
In his letter, Sevan lashed out at Annan and said the oil-for-food program was far better run than the Development Fund for Iraq, the U.S., British, and later Iraqi-run operation that replaced it after the fall of Saddam's regime in 2003. Auditors have said billions of dollars in DFI money has been mismanaged and contracts were awarded without competitive bidding. ''The real Oil-for-Food 'scandal' is in the distortion and misrepresentation of the accomplishments and the record of the program by now well-established U.N. bashers,'' Sevan wrote. The NYTimes cannot dig into this story. To do so would be harmful to its editorial bias in favor of international organizations like the UN._______* - The UN should have called it the "Infant Refugee Nutrition Import/Export Program."
posted by BummerDietz @ 7:59 AM 1 comments
Saturday, August 06, 2005

The World Is Upside Down
It's all messed up when the Chairman of the Democratic Party abandons the membership.Democrats have been, and still are to some degree, identified as the party that first and foremost represents the interests of the "working man" - e.g., represents labor, rather than capital.Illegal immigration, social security bankruptcy and health care costs are the big issues for American workers right now.And what does Howard Dean do? He denounces illegal immigration reform:
"[In the upcoming election,] Do you know who the scapegoats are going to be? Immigrants," he said.When commentators claim that the "far left" has taken over the Democratic Party, it's difficult to sort through it all and find the truth. But illegal alien policy is truly an indicator. I connect the dots, here.Highlights: Socialism and collectivism, by definition, must be adopted worldwide, or they perish. When a liberal politician is more concerned about the international protetariat, than the American worker, he exposes himself as a member of the collectivist movement; to wit, a guy who would have been a card-carrying member of Comintern, a generation ago.
posted by BummerDietz @ 9:07 AM 2 comments
Thursday, August 04, 2005

Effective Illegal Alien Strategy
Federalism is a funny thing. Overlapping federal, state and local laws. Where they intersect, it can be messy.Yes, it's messy at the borders.States and localities can bypass the buy-off that has occured at the federal level. Here's how:1A. Pass local trespassing laws. Make it illegal for illegal aliens to enter private property, or to loiter.1B. Pass local labor laws, to enforce backup withholding (see below). Make it illegal (as a matter of local law) for employers to hire illegal aliens.2. Local police now have arrest powers.3. Arrest the illegals. Arrest the employers4. Speedy trial for illegals - 3 days.5. Pay a private "Con Air" transport company to take them to the border.6. Fine the hell out of the employers. Make it costly. Make it more costly than hiring legal workers.7. For good measure, enact a local backup withholding tax for any workers in the locality. Enfore this by imposing the outbound foreign wire-transfer tax on Western Union and other dispatches to Mexico. (Of course a lawsuit will result - that is the point).Sure it's radical, but unless you live in a border state, you have no idea how acute the problem is.
posted by BummerDietz @ 11:22 AM 3 comments

Encouraging Essay from the Left of Center
You may not agree with all 5 policy points made by Jim Wallace, but his commentary in today's NYTimes reads like a breath of fresh air.The NY Times, in particular, has adopted the Leftie tantrum screamer essay as its M.O.; why has it become so rare (now) to find a reasoned liberal viewpoint?
"...Abortion is one such case... . More than 1 million abortions are performed every year in this country. The Democrats should set forth proposals that aim to reduce that number by at least half... [and start] supporting reasonable restrictions on abortion, like parental notification for minors."As for 'family values,' the Democrats can become the truly pro-family party by supporting parents in doing the most important and difficult job in America: raising children. They need to adopt serious pro-family policies, including some that defend children against Hollywood sleaze and Internet pornography.... Rather than fighting over gay marriage, the Democrats must show that it is indeed possible to be 'pro-family' and in favor of gay civil rights at the same time."Poverty, war taxes, environment, morals issues, and national security. Wasn't so hard, was it?If the Dems were to adopt Wallace's substantive stance, and step to the plate on illegal immigration, social security reform and a willingness/eagerness to kill islamofascists, they'd be the majority party in the U.S.I don't agree with some of Wallace's specifics, but it's hard to quibble with most of his objectives. But I agree with Wallace more so than with either the current Republican or Democratic platforms.How discouraging.
posted by BummerDietz @ 9:16 AM 0 comments
Wednesday, August 03, 2005

Slant-A-Thon III - Russia Boots Out ABC
So, ABC runs a report with a Chechnyan rebel leader. Too sympathetic to the terrorists.Sorta like an Al Jeezera interview on its New York affiliate, about the sensitive, Che-like qualities of bin laden.Russia revokes ABC's license in Russia.And upon what does the MSM - in this case, the New York Times - blame all of this? Russian peasants' seething and evidently growing antipathy toward the United States?Wait...I was joking. The MSM actually spun it that way?
The decision underscored not only Russia's sensitivity to foreign perceptions of the war in Chechnya, but also a seething and evidently growing antipathy toward the United States and other countries viewed as hostile to Russia.Wow. In print. There it is. Transference of the writer's U.S.-loathing.
posted by BummerDietz @ 12:12 PM 0 comments
Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Slant-A-Thon II
Bush installs Bolton as UN Ambassador, over the filibuster of the Senate Democrats.And yet, per the slanted USA Today headlines (the same folks who co-produced the forged TANG memo attack on Bush), we're supposed to believe that:
"There's 'no clear winner' in Bolton fight."Sure there is a clear winner. Bush prevailed. The Senate Democrats lost.
posted by BummerDietz @ 3:16 PM 4 comments
Monday, August 01, 2005

MSM Slant-A-Thon
Whatever you think of John Bolton, the MSM "news" coverage of his nomination has been telling. You'd think Lavrenti Beria had just been appointed.Today's AP newswire sets the desired tone. Focus on lots of nasty adjectives of baseless charges, so that 3/4ths of the "news" story is a delivery vehicle for the spin that something is wrong with Bolton, and Bush is acting in bad faith. Toss in a few vague and tepid statements to "balance" the article.This MSM recipe has become so ... boring.Can you imagine the uproar if an AP article delved into the specific claims made by political opponents of Bolton, their motives, that their charges had proven baseless, and that it turns out the Democrats were simply being obstructionist? Unthinkable. Instead, the AP says, Bush is "frustrated."Left-of-center attack journalism, disquised as news, continues unabated.[Update: The linked AP article used the phrase, "Bush will circumvent." Later, it was changed to "Bush sidestepped."]
WASHINGTON - Frustrated by Democrats, President Bush will circumvent the Senate on Monday and install embattled nominee John Bolton to be ambassador to the United Nations' the White House said.Bush has the power to fill vacancies without Senate approval while Congress is in recess. Under the Constitution, a recess appointment during the lawmakers' August break would last until the next session of Congress, which begins in January 2007.In advance of Bush's announcement, Democrats said Bolton would start his new job on the wrong foot in a recess appointment. "He's damaged goods. This is a person who lacks credibility," Sen. Christopher Dodd said on "Fox News Sunday." Bush, he said, should think again before using a recess appointment to place Bolton at the United Nations while the Senate is on its traditional August break....Bolton's appointment ends a five-month impasse between the administration and Senate Democrats. [But you need to "think again," Mr. Bush. - Ed.]...At Bolton's April confirmation hearing, Democrats raised additional questions about his demeanor and attitude toward lower-level government officials.[You have to read to the bottom of the article before the AP lets out the following - Ed]:...Despite lengthy investigations, it was never clear that Bolton did anything improper.[But then, the AP gets right back to parsing what was the exact date that Bolton stopped beating his wife - Ed]:...Witnesses told the committee that Bolton lost his temper, tried to engineer the ouster of at least two intelligence analysts and otherwise threw his weight around. But Democrats were never able to establish that his actions crossed the line to out-and-out harassment or improper intimidation.Separately, Democrats and the White House deadlocked over Bolton's acknowledged request for names of U.S officials whose communications were secretly picked up by the National Security Agency. Democrats said the material might show that Bolton conducted a witch hunt for analysts or others who disagreed with him.In the face of objections from most Democrats and at least one Republican, Bush has steadfastly refused to withdraw Bolton's nomination — even after the Foreign Relations Committee sent it to the full Senate without the customary recommendation to approve it. [How dare this Bush guy ask for a - gasp - vote ! - Ed.]Though the debate over Bolton had largely faded from the headlines, critics raised fresh concerns this week when it surfaced that Bolton had neglected to tell Congress that he had been interviewed in 2003 in a government investigation into faulty prewar intelligence...."There's just too much unanswered about Bolton, and I think the president would make a truly serious mistake if he makes a recess appointment," Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, said in an interview.Image an AP story that was not left-spun:
Attacks on Bolton Prove Baseless
Washington Elite Believe that Libel Rules Should Not Apply To False Claims Against BoltonWASHINGTON - '9dmr'pv,povjkpvojtfv'jtv' eetc etc.

Friday, July 29, 2005

Fatwa Against Terror
The Fiqh (trans: "Islamic Law") Council of North America (FCNA) has issued a religious edict - a fatwa - purportedly advising its members that terrorism and extremism are wrong:
"1. All acts of terrorism targeting civilians are haram (forbidden) in Islam.2. It is haram for a Muslim to cooperate with any individual or group that is involved in any act of terrorism or violence.3. It is the civic and religious duty of Muslims to cooperate with law enforcement authorities to protect the lives of all civilians."
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) offered its support for the fatwa. Yet, many noted terror watchers are highly suspect of the fatwa. "Bogus" is a word being used.***Guys, guys, guys ... take credit. The harsh light you have cast on these potential collaborators has had its effect. This is a public renunciation.Bummer isn't jumping on this anti-fatwa bandwagon (yet). Bummer is applauding (for now).BummerReaders know that he's a hardliner. Bummer ain't no pussy. Posted here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and ...well, you get the idea.A good islamofascist is a dead one. But this renunciation, on its face, is a very good development. First step down a long road.
UPDATE: Bummer is losing colleagues over his position on this. The 23 are down to 14, based upon the hate email. Maybe its BummerNaivete - not the first time.
Anyway, here is the entire English translation:
"The Fiqh Council of North America wishes to reaffirm Islam's absolute condemnation of terrorism and religious extremism. Islam strictly condemns religious extremism and the use of violence against innocent lives. There is no justification in Islam for extremism or terrorism. Targeting civilians’ life and property through suicide bombings or any other method of attack is haram – or forbidden - and those who commit these barbaric acts are criminals, not “martyrs.”
The Qur’an, Islam’s revealed text, states: "Whoever kills a person [unjustly]…it is as though he has killed all mankind. And whoever saves a life, it is as though he had saved all mankind." (Qur’an, 5:32)
Prophet Muhammad said there is no excuse for committing unjust acts: "Do not be people without minds of your own, saying that if others treat you well you will treat them well, and that if they do wrong you will do wrong to them. Instead, accustomyourselves to do good if people do good and not to do wrong (even) if they do evil." (Al-Tirmidhi) God mandates moderation in faith and in all aspects of life when He states in the Qur’an: “We made you to be a community of the middle way, so that (with the example of your lives) you might bear witness to the truth before all mankind.” (Qur’an, 2:143)
In another verse, God explains our duties as human beings when he says: “Let there arise from among you a band of people who invite to righteousness, and enjoin good and forbid evil.” (Qur’an, 3:104)
Islam teaches us to act in a caring manner to all of God's creation. The Prophet Muhammad, who is described in the Qur’an as “a mercy to the worlds” said: “All creation is the family of God, and the person most beloved by God (is the one) who iskind and caring toward His family." In the light of the teachings of the Qur’an and Sunnah we clearly and strongly state:
1. All acts of terrorism targeting civilians are haram (forbidden) in Islam.
2. It is haram for a Muslim to cooperate with any individual or group that is involved in any act of terrorism or violence.
3. It is the civic and religious duty of Muslims to cooperate with law enforcement authorities to protect the lives of all civilians.
We issue this fatwa following the guidance of our scripture, the Qur’an, and the teachings of our Prophet Muhammad – peace be upon him. We urge all people to resolve all conflicts in just and peaceful manners. We pray for the defeat of extremism and terrorism. We pray for the safety and security of our country, the United States, and its people. We pray for the safety and security of all inhabitants of our planet. We pray that interfaith harmony and cooperation prevail both in the United States and all around the globe. "
145 (and counting) Muslim organizations and Muslims are publicly supporting the renunciation.
posted by BummerDietz @ 9:55 AM 7 comments
Wednesday, July 27, 2005

MSM: You Shall Ignore The Gorilla
Is it a 900 lb. gorilla in the room? Or a pink elephant that is only visible to Bummer?The effect of illegal aliens on US labor union members, that is.The NYTimes this morning puts a tiara on the splintering of the AFL-CIO, looks around the room, and pretends the gorilla isn't there. Its lead editorial pretends that 15 million illegal workers don't exist:
"The labor federation has been on the ropes for years, losing battles ... against technology and global economic change. ... The unions that once organized the great blue-collar industries now mainly concentrate on managing the pain as their members watch their jobs give way to automation or globalization."***INTERNAL NY TIMES MEMO: "No staff member shall include in any labor union story or column any reference to the discredited allegation of any link between illegal immigration and the loss of jobs for US labor unions. Any violation of this edict shall result in immediate termination for cause, for engaging in racist workplace behavior."
posted by BummerDietz @ 7:08 AM 1 comments
Tuesday, July 26, 2005

It's So Dirty, The Teamsters Won't Say It
Two large labor unions, the Teamsters and the SEIU, have left the AFL-CIO. It's quite a birthday for the AFL-CIO: 25% of its members just walked out.Leftish MSM coverage is feeling about, trying to find some acceptable angle to pursue. Funny, amidst all this searching, not a single Teamster nor union steward, nor any MSM outlet, will dare say anything about the 900 lb. gorilla sitting in the union hall:
Illegal immigration is destroying the economic life of the American workingperson.Illegal Alien Workers. A phrase so dirty, so politically incorrect, that even the Teamsters blush.But the Comintern-inspired Left Wing won't talk straight to the union members.-Downward pressure on low-end wages?-Downward pressure on benefit packages?-Downward pressure on raises?-Downward pressure on hours and conditions?Not a peep from the unions.Check out the unions' websites for some insight as to how the unions view the 900 lb. illegal alien gorilla. Many have elaborate essays as to the union's efforts to increase the number of illegal workers ... and to insist that an employer pay benefits to the illegal alien who takes your job, at half the pay.
posted by BummerDietz @ 7:06 AM 1 comments
Monday, July 25, 2005

The Dead Ninth
The Supreme Court is a bunch of pussies, afraid of the nation's past. Maybe that's because the Supreme Court didn't give itself the power of judicial review until Marbury, in 1803. Too much use of the 9th, perhaps was not thought good for the Court's own power.Why else would the Court continue to pretend that the 9th Amendment to the Constitution doesn't exist?
"The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."Whether you want strict construction, or a make-it-up-as-we-go Court, the 9th is where the action should be.With a bunch of rickety jurisprudence pilings becoming somewhat rotted over the past 50 years, as Constitutional matters were "bent" by activist courts to achieve desired outcomes, watch the 9th become a hotbed in the coming 25 years.Many activist court decisions have had decades to make their mark on society. Query whether the social good intended thereby, can sustain itself, if the questionable rulings are abrogated.With Republicans, and even more so conservatives, in power in Washington for the foreseeable future, perhaps it will be left to localities to pass leftie laws. Now the lefties will cry for states' rights, and the right wingers will press the federal key.The late John Hart Ely, a liberal Democrat law school dean and scholar, warned of this coming inversion.
posted by BummerDietz @ 7:04 PM 1 comments
Sunday, July 24, 2005

The Monkey Crusade
The Scopes Anti-Science Trial went down 80 years ago. A local law prohibiting the teaching of science was upheld, but the harsh light of publicity lit a long fuse that eventually vitiated the underpinnings of such Dark-Ages codes.Bummer's outlandish attire at an oceanfront party last night - a shirt with a huge Crusader cross embroidered across the front* - goaded conversation with some Euro historians about the nature of the Crusades. What fine coincidence that this morning, an obscure Winston Churchill quote (below) appeared from behind a century-old veil.Might it be that the freedom of scienctific inquiry is the defining bedrock of "our" culture, versus "theirs?"BummerHypothesis: Science and scientific vigor are your friends. If they are not then they are enemies to be feared. They are truly enemies. **Said Churchill: ***
"How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! ... No stronger retrograde force exists in the world... .Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome."- Sir Winston Churchill, The River War, 1st edition, Vol. II, pp. 248-50 (1899)_*- Not indicative of Bummer's "faith" or lack thereof; rather, Cruciforms are in fashion now. Thanks, Madonna.** - Yes, Bummer often cites Scopes. Leftist feminists and leftist polemicists using the video medium have felt Bummers silver Scopes hammer... . *** - As always, LGF.
posted by BummerDietz @ 8:11 AM 1 comments
Friday, July 22, 2005

It's September 2001
9/11 is days old.You are a cop stationed at an airport. You see someone you suspect is a suicide bomber. Has on a heavy coat, despite the heat.You and your fellow cops tell him to stop. Instead, he runs. Running away from you and other cops, a couple of days after 9/11, in a high-security airport (or station).Suicide bombers have self-activated detonators, by the way.He falls, or is tackled, while running.Again, suicide bombers have self-activated detonators.Do you shoot him in the head 5 times ... or chance it?That's what just happened in London. Executed on the spot.
"He half-tripped, was half-pushed to the floor. The policeman nearest to me had the black automatic pistol in his left hand, he held it down to the guy and unloaded five shots into him."Get down with it. This is war. And don't run when halted by the cops in a station.
posted by BummerDietz @ 5:52 PM 2 comments

Victor D. Vonnegut
If you haven't yet gotten hooked on Vic Hanson, maybe this will goad you: His prose has the cadence of Vonnegut and the bite of Ambrose Bierce.Really.
"... And the cowboy Patriot Act to now-panicked European parliaments perhaps seems not so illiberal after all.
... Perhaps the jihadist killing was ... symptoms of a global pathology of young male Islamic radicals blaming all others for their own self-inflicted miseries.
... Had bin Laden ... slammed an airliner into a skyscraper in Shanghai, there is no telling what a nuclear China might have done... .
posted by BummerDietz @ 5:38 PM 1 comments
Saturday, July 16, 2005

Surrender Monkey Scores -- Hatchet Job Quadra Slap
Paul Begala -- a spokesmodel aide to President Clinton dating back to his Ozark days -- manages that which was previously thought impossible: The Hatchet-Job Quadra Slap !In a single speech, he proves that:(1) Republicans want to kill Americans,(2) Republicans are stupid,(3) Republicans are military pussies (compared to Democrats) and --- get ready --(4) Republicans supported Hitler.You can't make this stuff up any better:
"[Republicans] want to kill me and my children if they can... . They are utterly and completely brain-dead.... Republicans...didn't want to get in [WWII]... .They didn't have any problem with Hitler... .Democrats have always been just as tough as Republicans once they're in office."For what it's worth, I think one can discern the difference between, i.e., employed and employable ballers [that's a compliment] like Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and the now sidelined, out-of-work, looking-for-my-next-political-job tossers like Begala.
posted by BummerDietz @ 8:51 AM 2 comments
Friday, July 15, 2005

You Build It, Pay for It, and then Surrender It To Us
Shocker:The United Nations, representing a flotilla of countries without the knowledge or technology to build the internet, without the national stability to protect it, without the money to have developed it, without the money to maintain it, without anthing relevant, really, other than its existence, now nonetheless WANTS CONTROL OF THE INTERNET.A perfect microcosm of the issues at large.nb: Remember the pigs and the horse in Animal Farm?
posted by BummerDietz @ 8:11 AM 1 comments
Thursday, July 14, 2005

You Will Now Ignore all Pre-9/11 Islamic Fascism
Hugh Hewitt nails it:
As the bloody toll of the Islamist movement grows and its record of horrors lengthens from Bali to Beslan to Madrid to London, the incredible cost that can only be attributed to the Afghanistan metastasis that went unchecked from the time of bin Laden's return there in 1996 until the American-led invasion of 2001 becomes ever more clear. That was the true "breeding ground" of the world's menace, not the Sunni triangle, where jihadists are continually under pressure and increasingly desperate. The long years ahead in the global war on terrorism will be spent trying to undo the damage done by allowing the Islamist radicals a safe haven from which to export their ideology and to train and deploy their converts.
The realization of the price of inaction through the '90s has a huge political cost attached to it, one that the Democrats will bear if a full accounting is ever compiled. Thus the "breeding ground" rhetoric--empty and absurd as it is--is a convenient and even necessary bit of smoke. There's no fire underneath that smoke. Just a desperate hope that noise will drown out voices pointing to the real history of the rise of the Islamist threat.
posted by BummerDietz @ 1:12 PM 1 comments

Shocking Development in London Bombings
Flash:The London bombers were....Islamic fundamentalists acting like ordinary citizens.
posted by BummerDietz @ 8:03 AM 0 comments
Tuesday, July 12, 2005

More Dirty Laundry in the Plame Affair
The second act speculation unfolds:Fitzgerald (the special prosecutor) had a major bone to pick with Miller (the NYTimes reporter in jail).Right after 9/11, Fitzgerald was on the verge of indicting an Islamic front grou, Holy Land Foundation, and he is convinced that Miller tipped off the Foundation under the guise of “calling for comment,” and that the Foundation commenced a shredding party.From the Washington Post:
“Times reporter Judith Miller telephoned officials with the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, a Texas-based charity accused of being a front for Palestinian terrorists, and asked for a comment about what she said was the government's probable crackdown on the group. U.S. officials said this conversation and Miller's article on the subject in the Times on Dec. 4 increased the likelihood that the foundation destroyed or hid records before a hastily organized raid by agents that day."Fitzgerald sought her phone records on that occasion to uncover the source of a potential leak in his own office and was blocked by a New York judge named Robert Sweet.Miller didn't get so lucky this time.This theory has it all that Fitzgerald is going after Miller. And the theory goes that Miller, in calling around Washington on the story, was the person who used Plame's name.
posted by BummerDietz @ 4:31 PM 5 comments
Sunday, July 10, 2005

Plame Affair: Wilson the Partisan Liar
The bipartisan, unanimous Senate Intelligence Committee Report called Valerie Plame's husband Joseph Wilson a liar, albeit such official reports don't use the word "liar."Wilson spent over a week in Niger on his information gathering trip. His specific task in being sent there, under an operational "Secret" clearance, was to look into possible Iraq procurement of uranium from Niger. The U.S. had received reports of a transaction, and it was thought (by whom? became an issue...) that Wilson might be able to add facts, given his experience in a neighboring African country.Out of work Democrat Wilson (anti-war, pro-Democrat) had political and career reasons to portray his trip as having "disproven" that Iraq has procured uranium for WMD's from Niger.But in fact, Wilson obtained corroborating evidence that Iraq had sought (although not obtained) uranium from Niger. Not a smoking gun, nor proof, but relevant corroborating information. It is this difference -- "Iraq had procured" vs. "Iraq had sought to procure," that underlay the entire affair (and a good microcosm of the larger political debate about Bush's pre-emptive war).Per the Report, the CIA "Counterproliferation Division" gave Wilson his script for his Niger trip and the questions to raise in his discussions with Nigerian officials. Wilson was to ask Nigerian officials if Niger was approached, conducted discussions, or entered into any agreements concerning uranium transfers with "countries of concern." [Report, p. 41]Wilson's information gathering tasks bear repeating. The information being sought was, "Had Niger:---- been approached?---- conducted discussions? or---- entered into agreements?"The Report calls Wilson a Liar on several points.First Wilson Lie: Wilson Lies to the Mainstream Media.The unanimous Senate Intelligence Committee Report calls Wilson a liar for his claims to the MSM that purported uranium purchase documents between Iraq and Niger were forgeries:
"[Wilson]...was the source of a Washington Post article ....which said, "Among [Wilson's] conclusions was that the documents may have been forged because 'the dates were wrong and the names were wrong... .' [Report, p. 45] But the Report noted a glaring problem with Wilson's lip-flapping claims to the Washington Post:
"[Wilson] had never seen the CIA reports and had no knowledge of what names and dates were in the reports. [Wilson told the Senate Committee] that he may have 'mispoken' to the reporter when he said he concluded that the documents were forged.' " [Report, p. 45][For those non-lawyers, the word "mispoken" is legalese for, "What I said was not true, and you've caught me and thus I am admitting is was not true, but of course I am not admitting that I committed perjury."]The Senate Committee caught Wilson in a lie, confronted him on it, and Wilson admitted he had lied to the Washington Post. It's in the Report.Second Wilson Lie: Wilson Lies to the Senate Intelligence Committee.The Report points out that Wilson lied a second time, on a related item. The initial intelligence reports about possible Iraqi purchases of Niger Nuke Nuggets included foreign agency reference to some documents, which now appear to have been forgeries (but no one knew at the time). Wilson lied to the Senate Committee, trying to cover up the anti-Bush lie he told the Washington Post set forth above (about the dates and names):
"[Wilson] said he discussed with his CIA contacts which names and figures should have appeared on any documentation of a legitimate uranium transaction. In fact, the intelligence report [i.e., the report written by the CIA agents who debriefed Wilson] made no mention of ... signatures that should have appeared on any documentation of such a deal. " [Report, page 44].Third Wilson Lie: Wilson Tries to Deep-Six Evidence He Uncovers Regarding Iraqi Uranium Procurement Efforts.Remember one of Wilson's key objectives: Gather information as to whether Niger had been approached concerning uranium purchases by Iraq.When Wilson was debriefed by the CIA after his trip, Wilson told one story. When grilled by the Senate Intelligence Committee, he told another. The differing Wilson stories were an attempt by Wilson to downplay the important admission he received from a Nigerian ex-official.
"[Wilson's description of his findings [to the Committee] differed from the DO intelligence report and [Wilson's] account of the information provided to him by CIA differed from the CIA officials' accounts in some respects." [Report, p. 44]. This is because Wilson had sat with Niger's former Prime Minister, and a Minister of Energy and Mines. They confirmed to Wilson that, in fact, both Iranian and Iraqi delegations met with the Nigerians in 1998-1999. The Iranian delegation in 1998 explicitly sought 400 tons of uranium ore, but no deal was ever completed.Then, in June 1999, some businessmen asked the Prime Minister to meet with an Iraqi delegation for the purpose of "expanding commercial relations" between the countries. (Remember, Iraq is under international embargo at this time.)The CIA intelligence report on the matter states that the Prime Minister thought that "expanding commercial relations" meant that Iraq wanted to discuss yellowcake. The Senate Report states that Wilson said the Prime Minister met with the Iraqi delegation, but that the Prime Minister told Wilson that nothing happened because the Minister "let the matter drop due to the UN sanctions on Iraq." [??? See "*" below.]So in summary, Wilson is sent to Niger, to speak with Nigerian officials about actual or attempted Iraqi procurement of uranium, and the Nigerian Prime Minister tells Wilson about the above meetings concerning Iraqis. A huge intelligence "get," right?Says the Washington Post:
"Wilson last year launched a public firestorm with his accusations that the administration had manipulated intelligence to build a case for war. He has said that his trip to Niger should have laid to rest any notion that Iraq sought uranium there and has said his findings were ignored by the White House." Back to the Senate Report: "[Wilson's description of his findings [to the Committee] differed from the DO intelligence report and [Wilson's] account of the information provided to him by CIA differed from the CIA officials' accounts in some respects." [Report, p. 44].Apparently, Wilson told the Committee that his objective in Niger was to refute that a sale of uranium had taken place. The CIA intelligence report differed, noting that Wilson was also to investigate whether Iraq had sought uranium from Niger. Remember, the CIA "talking points" script given to Wilson before he went to Niger included as one of Wilson's tasks finding out about whether Niger had been approached by Iraq about obtaining uranium.Wilson had uncovered an important piece of corroborating information, but Wilson did not like the political ramifications of his find. Instead, Wilson wanted to have "disproven" that uranium sales had occurred, yet he had corroborated that uranium had been sought.Wilson's later statements to the MSM, and his after-the-fact "changing the story" as to what were his objectives in Niger, were lies. Because Wilson didn't like the fact that what he found in Niger corroborated (correctly or incorrectly) the Iraqi "trying to develop WMDs"-justification for war.Fourth Wilson Lie: "The Wife Didn't Send Me" Lie.Frankly, I can't figure this one out just yet. Wilson denied that his wife got him the Niger job, but she did. Was it pride, or a Wilson objective to obscure that a career Democrat (his wife) had suggested a career Democrat for a job, with all the overtones of nepotism and bias that might be raised? Or a desire to instead portray himself as an envoy of Cheney, thus his factual findings against Iraq having uranium would be more credible (which he thought disproved an Iraq link, but unknown to Wilson actually corroborated another link)?And why did someone - presumably a Republican, but who knows - disclose the Plame connection? To debunk the idea that Wilson was acting as Tenet's or Cheney's personal envoy? That seems right, and the Rove-Cooper emails seem to point to this.______*-- Query: In June 1999, Prime Minister Mayaki is asked to meet with an Iraqi delegation. He does --let's assume that meeting was between July and September, perhaps. Mayaki left office a few months latter, in November 1999. Rather than Mayaki's claim that "UN sanctions" were the reason he didn't pursue the matter, isn't it more likely that the matter was "dropped" because Mayaki was no longer Prime Minister? And Joseph Wilson, the Niger expert, doesn't press this issue with Mayaki?
posted by BummerDietz @ 8:18 AM 6 comments
Saturday, July 09, 2005

Bummer Summer Mags
Bummer is tooling around along PCH this afternoon, Steely Dan Gaucho vibing out of the stereo of a bitchin' convertible, and there's the sign. "Garage Sale." Bummer's little PCH hacienda ain't the place one sees lots of Garage Sales.The old man is someone who Chauncy Gardner might have worked for. He's 80's or 90's, big ole hearing aide, but still a sharp old coot.A junkyard of a life, all laid out. I pick up a hemp rope for the winery, and an old VFW WWII vintage 4-book picture encylopedia, and a 100-year old Twain compendium."You went right for the good stuff," dit mon vieux ami."Yep, and I figure you're gonna tell me these are 5 bucks a piece."A pause."They are 5 bucks each.""Worth every damned penny," I admit.The old man smiles with pride. Young whipper giving props to his books, in front of the other old men sitting around.I buy the hemp rope and the books. I'm 27 bones lighter.And then they just appear: The boxes.Magazines. Pulp Gold.Inside: Treasure. Pure, adulterated pleasure. Suddenly it's 1975, and Bummer is visiting some pussy neighbor who happens to have an older brother, who happens to have some magazines in his closet."How much?" I ask the old man."A buck each. Got 7 or 8 titles, there..." The old man drifts off, but no matter, he is mind-surfing some 78-degree Hawaiian wave, sometime back in 1963..... He 's back in bliss."You must have 200 of them, there.""More than that," and he again drifts on his warm wave.***188 of them magazines, to be exact. Playboy, mostly, 1966-ish through mids-80's. Plus a couple dozen Penthouse from the 70's and early 80's, and a smattering of other mens mags of the era.I gave the old man $190, cash. "Keep the change."I look down at his little cashier desk. There's a stake of bolo ties, and the hand-lettered sign the old man has created: "Bolos - $2." Apparently, over the decades he had a hobby or job as a stone artist; there were lots of rocks and polished marble thingies, of another age. But there lay the polished stone marble bolo ties, $2 each."Wait - I'll take a bolo."The old man's compadres came over. They pepper rapid-fire both questions about the mags, and the bolo."You even heard of -- what's her name - Benton, she was my neighbor, she's in one of them. A while ago.""Yep, she married Hugh," I say."You know her, then?""You an afficiando?""Nope.""You looking for this one?"says another, exhibiting a fine amber bolo."That's a nice one.""Gonna sell 'em on that E-Bay?" asks the old man."Nope. For me."Pause."For you, then." And the old man just smiled. And he seemed to relish the 78-degree Hawaiian wave he was riding, from long ago.A generation passed, there.
posted by BummerDietz @ 7:36 PM 2 comments
Friday, July 08, 2005

There Is No Terror War
There is no bona fide War on Terror. It's all a ruse by the Republicans.Highlights of the 4,000 + people slain by Islamic terrorists over the last decade. Countless terrorist attacks against Israel are omitted:1. FEB 26 1993: Six people killed by a 500kg bomb beneath the World Trade Center in New York.2 DEC 11 1994: Explosion on a Philippine Airlines jet bound for Tokyo killed one and injured ten.3. JUN 25 1996: Nineteen US servicemen killed in Dharan, Saudi Arabia, when their housing complex was blown up by a suicide bomber.4. AUG 7 1998: American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania attacked in suicide truck bombings. Around 230 people died.5. SEP 11 2001: 2,986 people killed as hijacked planes are flown into New York’s Twin Towers and the US Pentagon, and in a fourth hijacked airliner.6. DEC 23 2001: Shoe bomber Richard Reid foiled trying to blow up flight from Paris to Miami.7. MAR 17 2002: Five people killed when terrorists hurled grenades into a church in Pakistan.8. APR 11 2002: Twenty one people, including 18 German tourists, killed when an ancient synagogue was bombed in Tunis.9. OCT 6 2002: French oil tanker, the Limburg, attacked by a suicide speed boat off the coast of Yemen. One crew member died.10. OCT 12 2002: A bomb in a Bali nightclub killed 202 people, mostly Australians.11. NOV 28 2002: Sixteen dead, including three bombers, at the Israeli Paradise Hotel in Mombassa, Kenya. Two missiles missed an Israeli plane carrying 200 people.12. MAY 12 2003: Suicide bombers hit three compounds for foreign workers in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The 34 dead included nine attackers.13. MAY 16 2003: Fourteen suicide bombers attacked four targets in the Moroccan capital Casablanca. Forty one people were killed.14. AUG 5 2003: Twelve killed by car bomb outside Marriott Hotel in Indonesian capital Jakarta.15. NOV 8 2003: Housing complex in Riyadh attacked by suicide car bomb. Seventeen dead, 100 hurt.16. NOV 15 2003: Two synagogues in Istanbul attacked, killing 23 and wounding at least 300.17. NOV 20 2003: Attacks on British Consulate and HSBC bank in Istanbul killed 27 and injured more than 450. Among the dead was Consul-General Roger Scott.18. MAR 11 2004: In Madrid, TEN bombs remotely detonated on four trains in the rush hour killed 191 commuters and wounded 2,000.19. MAY 29 2004: Gunmen stormed residential buildings for foreign workers in Khobar, Saudi Arabia. Twenty two workers killed.20. JUN 6 2004: Gunmen attacked a BBC crew in Suweidi, Saudi Arabia. Irish cameraman Simon Cumber was killed and BBC correspondent Frank Gardener injured.21. JUN 18 2004: American engineer Paul Johnson executed by his kidnappers in Riyadh.22. OCT 7 2004: At least 40 people killed when three suicide bombings hit resorts on Egypt’s Red Sea coast. At the Taba Hilton, a huge car bomb killed at least 30 people.23. DEC 6 2004: Five staff and four gunmen killed in a raid on US consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.24. JUL 7 2005: 50+ killed, hundreds injured in London transit bombings.
posted by BummerDietz @ 3:33 PM 0 comments
Thursday, July 07, 2005

Rehnquist Retirement Tip
Rehnquist will resign before Monday, July 11th.During the Senate Recess.It's all here.
posted by BummerDietz @ 1:08 PM 0 comments

NY Times' Immunity Thuggery
The MSM is going into hyper-drive over Judith Miller going to jail.Remember: The attorney-client privilege can be waived by the client. The attorney has no input on such waiver. If the client waives the privilege, the lawyer may be compelled to testify, like any other citizen. Also, if the communication by the client was in furtherance of a crime, the privilege does not apply.Waiver and crime. Those are the exceptions. Same for doctor-patient and clergy-member.The NY Times still clings to its immunity, regardless of the commission of a crime and regardless of waiver.Buried in the Times' own report today, is this cheeky dismissal of the fact that the "source" being protected has waived such protection:
"Investigators have presented many government officials with waiver forms instructing journalists to ignore pledges of confidentiality. Mr. Cooper, Ms. Miller and other journalists have said they view such waivers as coerced and ineffective."
Further, a reporter being contacted by a "source" for the criminal purpose of exposing the name of a CIA agent is a crime.
So, is it not a fair summary to say that the NY Times' position has nothing to do with protecting its sources? The sources have said, "Go ahead and speak with the government."
***
This is about institutional power, and immunity = power. The MSM wants immunity. It has nothing to do with "protecting sources."
By the way, the NY Times writes 7 paragraphs today disclosing that the "source" is Karl Rove. So much for protecting "sources."
posted by BummerDietz @ 11:08 AM 0 comments

Redux: The Nuclear Option is the 2006 Midterm Elections
Regarding the Supreme Court nomination(s):Bush will respond to a stalled Rehnquist-replacement nomination with an interim appointment. None will be needed with O'Connor. After the 2006 election, any nominee, including a filibustered nominee, will be greenlit, because the Democrats won't have 41 votes needed to hold a filibuster.I've written about it before, here. The Senate Democrats didn't seem to have the needed 41 votes to hold a filibuster 2 months ago.As I noted yesterday, with the 2006 midterm elections upcoming, and a more-than-likely gain for the Senate Repulbicans (gaining a seat or two [or more?]) to put their total at 57-58, +/-, the Senate 'Publicans need not abrogate the filibuster process. Instead, they can wait it out. That will put the Democrats at around 42 seats, +/-.The Democrats didn't have 41 votes on filibuster, despite having a de facto 45-seat delegation. If the Dem delegation is reduced to 42 seats, it's even less likely that the Dems can hold a filibuster. Using interim appointment(s) and the 06 Midterms, the 'Publicans (a) get their nominees on the court, (b) paint the Dems as being obstructionist, and (c) have a strong issue (Democrats are obstructing things) for the 2008 presidential election. ContraPoint: Force Hillary to vote on the filibuster. Make her defend it, in '08.***Note, Justice O'Connor did not resign. She is holding her seat until a replacement is confirmed. (Query the Constitutional issue, her resignation would not be effective upon an interim appointment by Bush - would an interim appointment be possible? O'Connor specifically states her retirement is "effective upon the nomination and confirmation of my successor.")Note, O'Connor also issued her retirement letter during a Senate Recess.
posted by BummerDietz @ 8:55 AM 1 comments
Wednesday, July 06, 2005

Effete Thug Ordered To Jail
New York Times reporter Judith Miller has been ordered jailed for refusing to obey a federal court subpeona. The Supreme Court let stand the 2 lower court rulings upoholding her obligation to obey the subpeona.Exactly the right decision. Backstory here.In a separate case, rapper L'il Kim was sentenced to a year in jail for trying to protect her friends from being prosecuted for a shooting. She lied to a jury. The Judge said:
"Going to jail because you lied to protect violent men with guns is not heroic. It's stupid and it's wrong."I wish Judith Miller's judge, Thomas Hogan, had made the same point. He would have said something like:
"Going to jail because you want to be a hero in a clique of organized effete thugs who wrongly claim to be above the law is not heroic. It's stupid and it's wrong."
posted by BummerDietz @ 12:29 PM 3 comments

S Ct Endgame Stuff
[See Update]So there exists the possibility of a stalemate with the "Gang of 14" and its claimed deal on the judicial filibuster.I'm not buying it. The Dems didn't have the votes lined up, for the Appellate battles a month ago.In any event, you can be sure that the following memo was drafted by a White House lawyer in the past few days:Section 2 of the Constitution provides:
Clause 2: [The President] ... shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint ... Judges of the supreme Court....Clause 3: The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.Lame duck President. Stalled Supreme Court nominee(s) caught in a partisan fight over the "filibuster." An energized Conservative base, viewing the nomination battle as a litmus test (much like the Left has viewed abortion as the litmus test issue for 30 years). The 'Publican "dealmakers" (i.e. the "Gang of 7") all with a Yossarian choice over any filibuster vote. Frist running for President in 08. Clinton needing to appear moderate to score '08 votes. The Left Wing deciding (again, in an act of political malpractice) to order a doomed Pickett's Charge over the nomination.In short: Too many Senators have too many reasons to avoid confrontation, yet the partisan Left will force the issue (even though they may be bluffing,or delusional, on having 41 votes.) A filibuster vote is unwanted confrontation. Ergo, the elements of a perfect storm of stalemate.The Constitution provides for these situations, with its built-in default mechanisms: "If stalemate, then X.' "That's Section 2, Clause 3. A Stalemate Clause. It lets the President make a short-term appointment, until the next Senate election.***Let's do the math. The Republicans hold the Senate, 55-44(+1). The Senate line-up may well be shuffled by the 2006 Senate Elections. 33 Senate seats will be put to the voters in 2006. 18 are held by Democrats, 15 by Republicans. 4 of those 33 seats are being surrendered by retiring Senators (3 Dems, 1 Republican).It's fanciful to imagine the Republicans NOT increasing their Senate control as a result of the 2006 elections. Assume a 57-42 Republican majority when the Senate reconvenes in January 2007.So, you're Bush. No 2008 election to worry about. Nor should you worry about your Supreme Court nominee getting held up in the Senate. You know that you can make an interim appointment during one of many upcoming Senate recesses, under Section 2, Clause 3 of the Constitution.Then, you simply wait for the 2006 midterm elections to break the logjam, and then ask the Senate, again, to confirm your recess appointments.The Dems don't see this one coming.[Update: With a Rehnquist death possible during a stalled nomination process, O'Connor is cognizant of not handing the Court over to a Left majority, in that her resignation is conditional upon the confirmation of her replacement: "This is to inform you of my decision to retire from my position as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, effective upon the nomination and confirmation of my successor."If her replacement gets stalled, and Rehnquist dies, there is a 4-4 tie, as she has not resigned. Bush may elect to effect interim appointments, as noted above.][Update: The Senate reconvenes on Monday, July 11. Watch for Rehnquist to resign before the Senate reconvenes. ]
posted by BummerDietz @ 8:20 AM 2 comments
Tuesday, July 05, 2005

Counsel Speaks Truth
Federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald nails it:
"Journalists are not entitled to promise complete confidentiality — no one in America is."All of this regarding the Plame Affair.
posted by BummerDietz @ 12:21 PM 0 comments

Best Peep Show in the Universe
A secret science geek, Bummer tries to visit this website daily.You are very welcome.
posted by BummerDietz @ 7:33 AM 0 comments
Friday, July 01, 2005

Good Vibrations for Africa
The Live Aid concert follow-up, Live8, happens this weekend.It will be a good show, yet as other spoil sports have pointed out, it won't change much as far as solving the Africa problem.What will solve the Africa problem? Sovereign Enterprise Zones -- basically, small zones inside the poor countries, that are leased byteh poor country for 50-70 years to Western nations, as sovereign territory of the Western nation (think of a cross between our European war cemetaries, Hong Kong, and an urban enterprise zone in a ghetto).The SEZ has a low tax (remitted to the poor country and perhaps a pan-African SEZ oversight agency), a court system provided by the Western country (no graft), and protection by the Western country military. Business will flourish there. As economic activity in the SEZ expands, business will build an infrastructure, irrespective of the inevitable revloving door of juntas who inhabit the make-believe bandit governments.As the small SEZ zone prospers, there is a spillover effect. Economic zones just outside the SEZ will develop in the poor country. Citizens will have money from working in the SEZ. Citizens will learn the benefits of a stable, corruption-free court, capital and military infrstructure. Worker income rises. Foreign investment flows into the SEZ - protected by the Western legal system and military protection.Each poor African nation with one or more SEZs will begin the long march to developing real economies and real governance, without the bandit governments looting everything.In 2 generations, it's a different ballgame for poor Africa. Other programs may help, but an SEZ program is the game changer.Think about it.
posted by BummerDietz @ 6:07 PM 3 comments
Thursday, June 30, 2005

Publisher Admitted to "Mere Mortal" Club
Time Inc., upon learning that its reporters are not above the laws that the rest of us have to live by, tries to save face (and mollify a Federal judge) by turning over the notes of a reporter-in-contempt.Yes, re: the Plame Affair. Backstory is all here.
posted by BummerDietz @ 7:20 AM 2 comments
Wednesday, June 29, 2005

Flashback: CIA Set Out Iraq Terror Evidence
George Tenet, head of the CIA, sent the following letter to Senator Graham, Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, on October 7, 2002:In response to your letter of 4 October 2002, we have made unclassified material available to further the Senate's forthcoming open debate on a Joint Resolution concerning Iraq.As always, our declassification efforts seek a balance between your need for unfettered debate and our need to protect sources and methods. We have also been mindful of a shared interest in not providing to Saddam a blueprint of our intelligence capabilities and shortcomings, or with insight into our expectation of how he will and will not act. The salience of such concerns is only heightened by the possibility of hostilities between the U.S. and Iraq.These are some of the reasons why we did not include our classified judgments on Saddam's decision-making regarding the use of weapons of mass destruction (W.M.D.) in our recent unclassified paper on Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction. Viewing your request with those concerns in mind, however, we can declassify the following from the paragraphs you requested:Baghdad for now appears to be drawing a line short of conducting terrorist attacks with conventional or C.B.W. against the United States.Should Saddam conclude that a U.S.-led attack could no longer be deterred, he probably would become much less constrained in adopting terrorist actions. Such terrorism might involve conventional means, as with Iraq's unsuccessful attempt at a terrorist offensive in 1991, or C.B.W..Saddam might decide that the extreme step of assisting Islamist terrorists in conducting a W.M.D. attack against the United States would be his last chance to exact vengeance by taking a large number of victims with him.Regarding the 2 October closed hearing, we can declassify the following dialogue:Senator Levin: . . . If (Saddam) didn't feel threatened, did not feel threatened, is it likely that he would initiate an attack using a weapon of mass destruction?Senior Intelligence Witness: . . . My judgment would be that the probability of him initiating an attack — let me put a time frame on it — in the foreseeable future, given the conditions we understand now, the likelihood I think would be low.Senator Levin: Now if he did initiate an attack you've . . . indicated he would probably attempt clandestine attacks against us . . . But what about his use of weapons of mass destruction? If we initiate an attack and he thought he was in extremis or otherwise, what's the likelihood in response to our attack that he would use chemical or biological weapons?Senior Intelligence Witness: Pretty high, in my view.In the above dialogue, the witness's qualifications — "in the foreseeable future, given the conditions we understand now" — were intended to underscore that the likelihood of Saddam using W.M.D. for blackmail, deterrence, or otherwise grows as his arsenal builds. Moreover, if Saddam used W.M.D., it would disprove his repeated denials that he has such weapons.Regarding Senator Bayh's question of Iraqi links to Al Qaeda, Senators could draw from the following points for unclassified discussions:¶Our understanding of the relationship between Iraq and Al Qaeda is evolving and is based on sources of varying reliability. Some of the information we have received comes from detainees, including some of high rank.¶We have solid reporting of senior level contacts between Iraq and Al Qaeda going back a decade.¶Credible information indicates that Iraq and Al Qaeda have discussed safe haven and reciprocal nonaggression.¶Since Operation Enduring Freedom, we have solid evidence of the presence in Iraq of Al Qaeda members, including some that have been in Baghdad.¶We have credible reporting that Al Qaeda leaders sought contacts in Iraq who could help them acquire W.M.D. capabilities. The reporting also stated that Iraq has provided training to Al Qaeda members in the areas of poisons and gases and making conventional bombs.¶Iraq's increasing support to extremist Palestinians coupled with growing indications of relationship with Al Qaeda, suggest that Baghdad's links to terrorists will increase, even absent U.S. military action.
posted by BummerDietz @ 12:51 PM 0 comments

Iraq Particulars
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the role of invader, conquerer and then supporter, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to war (with all kudos to Andrew McCarthy, who pens an informative column on Bush's speech and which I rip off, below):
The president should know he hit the sweet spot during his Fort Bragg speech ecause all the right people are angry. The New York Times, with predictable disingenuousness, is railing this morning that the 9/11 references in the speech are out of bounds because Iraq had “nothing whatsoever to do with the terrorist ttacks.” Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and the tedious David Gergen, among others, are in Gergen’s words “offended” about use of the 9/11 “trump card.”If the president is guilty of anything, it's not that he's dwelling on 9/11 enough. It's that the administration has not done a good enough job of probing and underscoring the nexus between the Saddam regime and al Qaeda. It is absolutely appropriate, it is vital, for him to stress that connection.....The president needs to be talking about Saddam and terror because that’s what will get their attention in Damascus and Teheran.... On that score...What does the “nothing whatsoever” crowd have to say about:-- Ahmed Hikmat Shakir — the Iraqi Intelligence operative who facilitated a 9/11 hijacker into Malaysia and was in attendance at the Kuala Lampur meeting with two of the hijackers, and other conspirators, at what is roundly acknowledged to be the initial 9/11 planning session in January 2000? Who was arrested after the 9/11 attacks in possession of contact information for several known terrorists? Who managed to make his way out of Jordanian custody over our objections after the 9/11 attacks because of special pleading by Saddam’s regime?--Saddam's intelligence agency's efforts to recruit jihadists to bomb Radio Free Europe in Prague in the late 1990's?--Mohammed Atta's unexplained visits to Prague in 2000, and his alleged visit there in April 2001 which — notwithstanding the 9/11 Commission's dismissal of it (based on interviewing exactly zero relevant witnesses) — the Czechs have not retracted?--The Clinton Justice Department's allegation in a 1998 indictment (two months before the embassy bombings) against bin Laden, to wit: In addition, al Qaeda reached an understanding with the government of Iraq that al Qaeda would not work against that government and that on particular projects, specifically including weapons development, al Qaeda would work cooperatively with the Government of Iraq.--Seized Iraq Intelligence Service records indicating that Saddam's henchmen regarded bin Laden as an asset as early as 1992?--Saddam's hosting of al Qaeda No. 2, Ayman Zawahiri beginning in the early 1990’s, and reports of a large payment of money to Zawahiri in 1998?--Saddam’s ten years of harboring of 1993 World Trade Center bomber Abdul Rahman Yasin?--Iraqi Intelligence Service operatives being dispatched to meet with bin Laden in Afghanistan in 1998 (the year of bin Laden’s fatwa demanding the killing of all Americans, as well as the embassy bombings)?--Saddam’s official press lionizing bin Laden as “an Arab and Islamic hero” following the 1998 embassy bombing attacks?--he continued insistence of high-ranking Clinton administration officials to the 9/11 Commission that the 1998 retaliatory strikes (after the embassy bombings) against a Sudanese pharmaceutical factory were justified because the factory was a chemical weapons hub tied to Iraq and bin Laden?--Top Clinton administration counterterrorism official Richard Clarke’s assertions, based on intelligence reports in 1999, that Saddam had offered bin Laden asylum after the embassy bombings, and Clarke’s memo to then-National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, advising him not to fly U-2 missions against bin Laden in Afghanistan because he might be tipped off by Pakistani Intelligence, and “[a]rmed with that knowledge, old wily Usama will likely boogie to Baghdad”? (See 9/11 Commission Final Report, p. 134 & n.135.)--Terror master Abu Musab Zarqawi's choice to boogie to Baghdad of all places when he needed surgery after fighting American forces in Afghanistan in 2001?--Saddam's Intelligence Service running a training camp at Salman Pak, were terrorists were instructed in tactics for assassination, kidnapping and hijacking?--Former CIA Director George Tenet’s October 7, 2002 letter to Congress, which asserted:----- Our understanding of the relationship between Iraq and Al Qaeda is evolving and is based on sources of varying reliability. Some of the information we have received comes from detainees, including some of high rank.----- We have solid reporting of senior level contacts between Iraq and Al Qaeda going back a decade.----- Credible information indicates that Iraq and Al Qaeda have discussed safe haven and reciprocal nonaggression.----- Since Operation Enduring Freedom, we have solid evidence of the presence in Iraq of Al Qaeda members, including some that have been in Baghdad.----- We have credible reporting that Al Qaeda leaders sought contacts in Iraq who could help them acquire WMD capabilities. The reporting also stated that Iraq has provided training to Al Qaeda members in the areas of poisons and gases and making conventional bombs.----- Iraq's increasing support to extremist Palestinians coupled with growing indications of relationship with Al Qaeda suggest that Baghdad's links to terrorists will increase, even absent U.S. military action.
posted by BummerDietz @ 12:07 PM 0 comments

Read Back the Bush Transcript, Please
Following Bush's speech last night, all kinds of folks will be spinning today, as to the reason the U.S. went to war in Iraq.I remain puzzled at how little attention has been paid to the text of the classic Casus Belli given by Bush. To be fair, in the modern age, with a year-long run-up to the war, the classic "Statement of War" was disassembled a bit, but this Bush speech, in late February 2003, in front of a friendly audience (no protesters) just 3 weeks before the war began, has all the markings of the classic War Statement.Too many MSM's want to give you their version, marred by obvious spin, about "what Bush said," but few want to pull out the transcript. Too inconvenient, perhaps?The anti-Bush camp (which I consider the vast majority of MSM to belong to) will focus on the language concerning Hussein's weapon programs and terrorist ties, as the threat that must be confronted. The WMD weapons threat appears to have been significantly less than thought. The terrorist ties were there, but the ties at the time were not pervasive.The pro-Bush camp will focus on the language concerning the "just cause" of of liberating a people, and the "Wolfowitz Plan" strategic value of inserting a democracy into the broken region, as an agent of change for the entire region.(Bummer is an avid Wolfowitz advocate, as the Bummer23 may have discerned...hence, I tend to give shorter shrift to the WMD and terror ties issues.)The Iraq War Casus Belli transcript is here. It's worth a read; it puts all of today's spin in perspective. Highlights:
In Iraq, a dictator is building and hiding weapons that could enable him to dominate the Middle East and intimidate the civilized world -- and we will not allow it. This same tyrant has close ties to terrorist organizations, and could supply them with the terrible means to strike this country -- and America will not permit it. The danger posed by Saddam Hussein and his weapons cannot be ignored or wished away. The danger must be confronted.
The safety of the American people depends on ending this direct and growing threat. Acting against the danger will also contribute greatly to the long-term safety and stability of our world. The current Iraqi regime has shown the power of tyranny to spread discord and violence in the Middle East. A liberated Iraq can show the power of freedom to transform that vital region, by bringing hope and progress into thelives of millions. America's interests in security, and America's belief in liberty, both lead in the same direction: To a free and peaceful Iraq.The first to benefit from a free Iraq would be the Iraqi people, themselves…
Bringing stability and unity to a free Iraq will not be easy. Yet that is no excuse ....…The United States has no intention of determining the precise form of Iraq's new government. That choice belongs to the Iraqi people. Yet, we will ensure that one brutal dictator is not replaced by another. All Iraqis must have a voice in the new government, and all citizens must have their rights protected.
Rebuilding Iraq will require a sustained commitment from many nations, including our own: we will remain in Iraq as long as necessary, and not a day more….
There was a time when many said that the cultures of Japan and Germany were incapable of sustaining democratic values. Well, they were wrong. Some say the same of Iraq today….
The world has a clear interest in the spread of democratic values, because stable and free nations do not breed the ideologies of murder. They encourage the peaceful pursuit of a better life….
..Success in Iraq could also begin a new stage for Middle Eastern peace, and set in motion progress towards a truly democratic Palestinian state.
The passing of Saddam Hussein's regime will deprive terrorist networks of a wealthy patron that pays for terrorist training, and offers rewards to families of suicide bombers. And other regimes will be given a clear warning that support for terror will not be tolerated.
posted by BummerDietz @ 7:50 AM 1 comments
Tuesday, June 28, 2005

The Hollywood Mind
I cannot help but post these illuminating comments from one of the most popular directors of the age, Steven Spielberg:
"Oscar-winning director Steven Spielberg is baffled that fewer UFO sightings are made now than were made twenty years ago - because the technology to record would-be aliens is so commonplace today."...Spielberg says, 'There are millions of video cameras out there and they're picking up less videos of UFOs, alleged UFOs, than we picked up in the 1970s and 1980s. There's 150 per cent more cameras, so why are we getting less from up there?"I think that we all know that we're not alone in the universe. I can't imagine that we are the only intelligent biological life form out there. I'm a little less sure in my fifties that I was in my late twenties whether we're actually ever going to find out."
Psssst. ...Hey Steven: Because they were all fake. And you can't fake 'em with all those video cameras rolling.
posted by BummerDietz @ 8:59 AM 3 comments

Iraq Math, and Those Who Hate Math
Lost among a flood of good observations, Brendan Miniter's article today in the Wall Street Journal reminds us of the following:
"On the military side of the war, U.S. forces have lost fewer than 2,000 people in more than two years of fighting in Iraq--an outcome that would have been dismissed as utopian before the invasion."Query: Is there an overlap between those who (incorrectly) argued that the U.S. forces would sustain heavy casualties in toppling Hussein, and those who now argue that the U.S. should pull out of Iraq?
posted by BummerDietz @ 8:48 AM 8 comments
Monday, June 27, 2005

Supreme Court: No "Benefit of Clergy" for Reporters
The Supreme Court has refused to hear the claim of reporters that they have immunity from the jurisdiction of the courts. Thus, the decisions of 2 lower courts that reporters do not have immunity from courts, stand.The MSM won't report what is really going on. The non-MSM backstory is here.And, on the grab for immunity underlying it all, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.***Reporters and the MSM believe that a NYTimes Staff ID Card should confer benefit of clergy to the anointed holder. "No way," say the courts. History Repeats:
"The Benefit of Clergy was a medieval technicality run amok. It started out as the perfectly sane political arrangement whereby a clergyman could be tried only in church court, and not in the King's court. Clergy proved their status to the King's clerk by reading a verse from the Bible, thus winning their release (i.e., only clergy could read.)
"Later, this immunity applied to anyone who could read. Thereafter, anyone who could recite a 3-word Bible verse was deemed to be "reading," and thus deemed "clergy," and thus was protected by "benefit of clergy," and thus had legal immunity in the courts.
"Memorize a Bible verse and earn immunity from the courts? Literate folks love their immunity. "
posted by BummerDietz @ 8:37 AM 0 comments
Sunday, June 26, 2005

Hollywood Calls For a Blacklist
Some of Bummer's 23 readers think he is being coy, what with all his hiding behind a funny name and a funny picture (that's Milton, the suffering dolt arsonist from Office Space).BummerNoia? Maybe not. See, today the NYTimes ran an expose entitled, "On the Right Side of the Theater Aisle." The piece is nicely laid out as a down-the-middle article.But is it so innocuous? Or, is the intent to "out" and expose those individuals the NYTimes believes are responsible for blueprinting a right wing counteroffensive against the Hollywood Left?:
"THE film producer Stephen K. Bannon isn't just on a crusade... .Though heavier than most on messianic zeal, Mr. Bannon - Roman Catholic filmmaker, conservative-film financier, Washington networker and Hollywood deal-chaser - is emblematic of a new wave in Hollywood, a group that intends to clean those media pipes with pictures that promote godliness, Pax Americana and its own view of family values. Some of these filmmakers, armed with camcorders and Web sites, are pushing overtly political projects... . "BummerNoia, or Code Words? I'll let you decode them.Hint: "Alex, I'll take mid-century fascist Northern European political movements for $100: What rhymes with, 'Let's see.' "But the NYTimes doesn't leave it to chance that its readers might fail to come up with the "Blacklist" idea, as a means of dealing with these incoming Panzer divisions:
"[A] participant who asked not to be named to protect his relationship... . Religiously motivated filmmakers can 'obviously find it difficult enough' working in Hollywood ... . 'it's become such a political liability here.' .... 'the secret underground,' working professionals who prefer to be discreet about their political affiliations in Hollywood. ... a blacklist of Hollywood conservatives 'may ultimately defeat us."Ahhhhhh....maybe it's nothing. But regardless, you can be sure that at every West L.A. birthday party, deli and BBQ today, this article will be a Casus Belli for many on the Hollywood Hard Left.
posted by BummerDietz @ 8:57 AM 1 comments
Saturday, June 25, 2005

Saturday Session
It worries me that I understand exactly what the late poet Steven Jay Bernstein was thinking:
Come Out Tonight
Forecast in chrome and plastic, tyrants breathing out oil, slavery, planet hunger versions of Jackie-O. Sherry, Sherry baby, won't you come out tonight.
And the stars whisper like old blood at the edges of the body of night. She stood with one hand on the phone for four hours, poised as only a few seconds had passed. I watched her through the crack between the shade and the sill. She waited for a forecast in human trembling, together with other important women.
Come, come, come out tonight.
The world suffers for her. The clock hurries like a terrified animal and stops, dribbling saliva. She is eating chicken pie and bubble gum. For a month the Luftewaffe lived on raisins, same with the French after the war. Jackie-O received fresh oranges from John Kennedy. Silly girl!
She cannot put down the telephone reciever. She is waiting to recieve my body of work. She wants to take it into her ear. A modeled flush builds under her cheeks. She eats Christmas candy while she waits. The telephone rings and rings. I am not at home. I am with Jackie-O. We are eating oranges from the President.
We are alone on the roof of a Park Avenue penthouse. Picture of Marilyn Monroe in my back pocket, molded by heat and sweat to the shape of my buttocks. You are gripping the phone, smiling, eating candy, crying, "I am with the important women now." I am secretly an important man.
Hang up the phone, I can't dance with you anymore. Go to your freezer and get a popsicle. Go to your TV. Turn on your TV. You will see me and Jackie-O. She will be taking it in the ear, my body of work.
In the planetarium, you will receive a forecast: "I will always be more important than you. You will never be important enough. You will never be on the repent end of slavery, never be the one to wield hunger against humanity. Heaven will never be an extension of your body. Your body will always belong to someone else."
The picture of Marilyn Monroe flutters across the roof, steaming, shaped like me, shaped like my ass. The sky is filled with oranges during the war. We eat them. The President is alone in a room. He is unimportant. As we eat his oranges the sky grows blacker. The moon ripens and turns red. It rots and is swallowed by the darkness. You are still by the phone. It is ringing and ringing, dead.
Sherry, Sherry baby, won't you come out tonight.
It is completely dark. The earth freezes. You put down the receiver and go to the window.
Come, come, come out tonight.
posted by BummerDietz @ 9:41 AM 1 comments
Thursday, June 23, 2005

Bummer Domain
Missing from all the public discourse about the Kelo case:The Fifth Amendment provides:"...nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation."The 5th Amendment sets forth rights of the individual. The individual is the focus of the 5th: No capital indictment without a Grand Jury; no double jeopardy; right to "plea the 5th;" right of due process of law; and the "no confiscation of property" clause.The pundits are missing the key point of the anti-takings clause (which is true of all 5th Amendment rights): The various local, state and federal governments HATE the 5th Amendment. It is inconvenient.So the Supreme Court has more-or-less always prevented the government from getting to define what the 5th Amendment means. Because governments will, be definition, tend to favor the benefit to the community, to the detriment of the individual. And the 5th Amendment says: You cannot infringe upon these individual rights, no matter how convenient or attractive or profitable it may be.The theory of the Kelo majority is that local politics is where things are best decided - like when and where developers should get to partner with the local government to take public property for public use, and use the fact that the developer has cut a deal with the local government as a substitute for the requirement of a "public use."It is horrific jurisprudence.Imagine the corollary case, where the Court applies similar logic to the 5th Amendment clause stating that "[No person] shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself." Suppose California passed a law that said,
"If any person is subpeona'ed to testify in a Civil Trial, and he shall refuse to do so, he shall be guilty of a felony. A 'Civil Trial' shall mean an matter that involves the state bringing charges in matters of less than one billion dollars in value, or involving less than 100 other persons directly involved in the matter."
"Wait a Minute!" you'd cry. "California just changed the definition - it's simpy changed the name, and is now calling criminal matters "Civil Trials" in order to try to make the 5th Amendment inapplicable. What Bullsh*t!"Now, compare that hypothetical game being played on the definition of a "Criminal Case" under the 5th and the sleight-of-hand to simply call it something else, with Kelo. In Kelo, the fact that a local government cut a deal with a developer is deemed to satisfy, ipso facto, the constitutional requirement of a "public use."Unbelievable crap logic.And as a citizen, what would you think if, in complaining that California had just taken away your 5th Amendment Right Against Self-Incrimination, the Supreme Court reasoned:
"Yes, California did just pass a law taking away your 5th Amendment Rights; but we think that such matters are best handled on the local level, like, out there in California. So...go complain to the California legislature." The whole point of the 5th Amendment is: WE REALIZE THAT THE GOVERNMENT WILL SCREW YOU ON THESE ISSUES, SO AS A MATTER OF CONSTITUTIONAL LAW, THE GOVERNMENT CANNOT DO THESE THINGS.Yet Kelo says, "These things are best decided by local government."This Kelo case is insane.
posted by BummerDietz @ 9:06 PM 2 comments

Does the AP Realize How Slanted It Is ?
Sloppy syntax? Or something else?The AP slants a story and flunks middle school in the process:"One of Saudi Arabia's most-wanted militants was killed by [sic: "killed in" an airstrike, by the gunner who killed him] a U.S. airstrike in northwestern Iraq, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq said, and four car bombs outside Shiite mosques in Baghdad killed 15 and wounded 28 [sic: terrorists who planted the bombs did the killing and wounding, not the cars] Thursday, police said."The latest violence [sic: false equation of actions by a military and by terrorists together as "violence"] followed a series of car bombs [sic: "series of attacks using car bombings], late Wednesday, including four exploding within minutes of each other [sic: inanimate objects do not blow themselves up; coordinated actions of humans are the cause]. At least 23 people were killed [sic: failure to distinguish military vs. civilian deaths] in western Baghdad's Shula neighborhood and a nearby suburb, bringing the death toll over a 12-hour span to 40."... The Web statement said Abdullah Mohammed Rashid al-Roshoud was killed in fighting near Qaim, on the border with Syria. It was signed [sic: paper is signed, not web pages; accepts disputed fact that Zarkawi is still alive] by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the most notorious terrorist leader in Iraq."The statement did not say when al-Roshoud was killed, but U.S. forces have launched a series of offensives near Qaim in past weeks against militants coming across the border. Al-Roshoud slipped into Iraq in April, according to the posting, the authenticity of which could not be confirmed."The Saudi militant and a group of mujahedeen "killed some of the Crusaders until the enemies of God had to withdraw," it said. [sic: it "claimed," incorrectly, since the US forces did not withdraw.] "When the Crusaders could not enter the area, the only thing they could do was bombard the mujahedeen with warplanes," it said. "Our sheik (al-Roshoud) got what he wished" — martyrdom."...The bombings Wednesday and Thursday served as a chilling reminder [sic: as opposed the the chill on terrorist recruitment caused by another example that the US kills al-Qaida?] of how potent militants remain in the capital despite around-the-clock patrols by American and Iraqi troops [sic: efficacy re: militants in battles with any military or police force, or efficacy of militants murdering unarmed civilians?]"...A young boy, his left leg missing from below the knee, sat on the sidewalk near a mangled bicycle, screaming as a man tried to comfort him [ed: bury the fact that the terrorist attack included intentional targeting of civilians and childred]."A pre-dawn raid led by U.S. troops destroyed a hideout in Baghdad used by extremists associated with al-Zarqawi, the military said. The attack killed at least six insurgents who opened fire on the troops, the military said. [Ed: bury the fact regarding another US rout of terrorists.] Troops seized weapons, ammunition and explosives. [Ed: id.]"Separately, a car bomb detonated by remote control [sic: the bomb was detonated by a terrorist, who used a remote control] hit an Iraqi police patrol in Tuz Khormato, north of Baghdad, killing one policeman and wounding seven civilians, [Ed; bury the fact regarding intentional terorist targeting of civilians] police Brig. Gen. Sarhad Qadr said."... In another incident before dawn Thursday, U.S. troops backed by Iraqi troops and helicopters killed at least seven insurgents who opened fire on the patrol from a home in western Baghdad's Jamiaa neighborhood, said police Maj. Moussa Abdul Karim and 1st Lt. Mohammed al-Heyaali. [Ed: Bury the fact regarding another US rout of terrorists]. The home was reduced to rubble and U.S. troops displayed a weapons cache they had seized, including rocket-propelled grenade launchers, machine guns and ammunition. [Ed: id.]"Iraqi police, meanwhile, detained 50 suspected insurgents in separate raids in southeastern Baghdad and north of the capital Thursday, officials said. [Ed: Bury the fact that the Iraqi forces are competent and actively working effectively against the terrorists.]"In all, at least 19 people were killed Thursday across Iraq, including two brothers and a niece who were shot south of Baghdad in the town of Iskandariyah when gunmen [sic: terrorists in fake uniform] wearing Iraqi army uniforms broke into their house, police said."Insurgents bent on starting a civil war to overthrow Iraq's U.S.-backed government have maintained nearly eight weeks of relentless attacks, killing more than 1,240 people [sic: obfusate the fact that the deaths are overwhlemingly civilian murders by terrorists] since April 28, when Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari announced his Shiite-dominated government."Sunni Arabs, who dominated Iraq for decades, lost power when Saddam, their last patron and a Sunni, was ousted. Their boycott of historic elections in January further sidelined them.But Sunni Arab participation in the political process is essential for Iraq's passage to democracy[sic: political theory presented as fact; why?]. Parliament has until Aug. 15 to draft a new constitution, which will be put to a referendum two months later. If ratified, it will be the basis for a general election in December, giving Iraq its first, full-term elected government in decades."
posted by BummerDietz @ 1:14 PM 2 comments

Emotion + Meltdown = Emeltion
Is the truth a valid point to raise in the presence of an emotional meltdown (that is, an Emeltion)?Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who is certainly liberal (if not Left Wing), perhaps feeling emotionally throttled by public backlash against the pre-meditated but ill-advised "Gitmo = Nazi gulag" verbal stylings of Democratic Senator Dick "Turban" Durbin, engages in yet another public display of Emeltion by a high-level Democrat:
"Karl Rove should immediately and fully apologize for his remarks or he should resign."
*
Reid's demands are in response to Bush's political director Karl Rove's statement:
"Liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers. Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war."Rove is demonstrably at least half-correct. The Left wanted 9/11 to be treated as a "policing action" - thus, indictments, not war.As to the "therapy" quip, that's a little flavoring by Rove, but a fair one. Bummer was alive and well during the month after 9/11, and engaged in hours of discussions with his liberal, and far left, colleagues. If you examine the purported rationale of the anti-war crowd regarding the US attack on Afghanistan in October 2001, you'll find lots of "therapy" talk about "healing," "reaching out," etc.More and more in daily life, Bummer finds that BummerDiscourse over the issues of the day seems to get down to whether "Truth" constitutes a valid response to "Emeltion."
posted by BummerDietz @ 10:35 AM 0 comments
Wednesday, June 22, 2005

He Said, She Said
Senator Joseph Biden: "Disaster in Iraq is a real possibility... The disconnect between the administration's rhetoric and the reality on the ground has opened up...a credibility chasm."Senator Dianne Feinstein: "..Everything seems to be going the wrong way....Support is dropping drastically."Columnist David Brooks: "There are times in the course of war when the outcome is simply unknowable....We're at one of those moments in the war against the insurgency in Iraq."Embedded Journalist:
"[I] returned to Iraq in April and May of 2005 for another embedded period of reporting.... What the establishment media covering Iraq have utterly failed to make clear today is this central reality: With the exception of periodic flare-ups in isolated corners, our struggle in Iraq as warfare is over .... There is now no chance whatever of the U.S. losing this critical guerilla war .... Our [unreported] successes at urban combat ... made it crystal clear to both the terrorists and the millions of moderate Iraqis that the insurgents simply cannot win against today’s U.S. Army and Marines ..... [P]ublic opinion is not on the insurgents’ side, and the battle of Iraq is no longer one of war fighting—but of policing and politics."
posted by BummerDietz @ 8:30 AM 0 comments
Tuesday, June 21, 2005

Kerry's Records, Chapter III
The next few days will include a lot of blogger analysis of Kerry's SF-180 records release.As a non-expert, looking with a lawyer's eye at the SF-180, I liken the matter to someone requesting school records. Middle School was 3 grades (7th-9th) and High School was 3 grades (10th-12th). My Middle School was Acme Junior. My High School was Beta Senior.The question is whether I was expelled from Beta Senior in the 12th grade. My records show that I graduated Middle School in year 3, but that instead of graduating High School in year 6, the diploma date says year 12.Why wasn't my High School diploma issued in year 6?The GED Program - you know, where the burn-outs got their diploma in 5 days - was somewhere down in the 'hood - the "Alternative Learning Center."With that analogy, here are the basic ways that I would play games, if someone was inquiring about my high school records, and I wanted to hide my having been kicked out of Beta:1. Request all my records, but only from Acme Junior. My request letter may appear comprehensive, addressed to the Acme School, except the request is being made to the wrong school. Acme has no records of my years at Beta.2. Request all my records, but only from Beta Senior. My request letter may appear comprehensive, addressed to the Beta School, except the request is being made to the wrong school. Beta has has no records of my 5 days at the Alternative Learning Center.3. Request all my records from the local school board (the umbrella group for all schools), but make the request using my student ID number from Acme Junior, and not include my separate student ID number from Beta Senior, or any separate student number from Alternative Learning Center.4. If the school board decided that a lot of ALC students were unfairly kicked out of Beta and sent to ALC by an evil administrator, the school board may have determined that all the ALC diplomas should be re-issued as Beta School diplomas. Further, all of the proceedings by which diplomas were re-issued 6 years later should be sealed, so that no prejudice to the affected ALC students is inferred. So, a request for records to Beta or the School Board may well (by design) omit any records that dislcose that the diploma was originally issued by ALC, and not Beta.I'm sure the experts will dive into this in the next few days. I'd focus on these questions: (a) was the SF-180 directed to the correct records center, (b) did the "all years" request (rather than 1967-1978 specificity) obfuscate that the records center receiving the request was not the place holding the relevant records from 1972-1978, (c) are records of "discharge rehabilitation" expunged from the files, and (d) why won't the news organizations make public the "relevant files?"
posted by BummerDietz @ 6:32 AM 0 comments
Sunday, June 19, 2005

Michael Smith Strikes Again
Captain's Quarters has the story that the authenticity of the "Downing Street Memos" is being questioned.Seems that reporter Michael Smith can't authenticate the originals; in fact, it looks like he may have faked the memos.HEY ! A reporter hired by Mary Mapes as a CBS assistant producer, "Michael Smith," was the guy that BummerDietz fingered as the true culprit of MemoGate. Can there be two "Michael Smiths" who are leftish military stringers?Rawstory indicates that Michael Smith admits that he "destroyed the original copies" before September 17, 2004. So, this timeline would be that Smith is destroying memos, around September 2004....The faked Killian memos appear to have been forged in mid-August, 2004, and a story was told by Burkett that he had "destroyed the originals."Now we have Michael Smith (again, same Mapes team guy?) admitting that he was typing up old memo copies the same 30-day period?Is that the same Michael Smith - the one emailed Mapes in Memogate, trying to arrange a publishing advance/bribe for Burkett, asking if it could be arranged: "What if there was a person who might have some information that could possibly change the momentum of an election?"One or more Michael Smiths were very busy in August and September 2004 with not one, but TWO SETS of faked memos that were highly critical of George Bush.....
posted by BummerDietz @ 7:55 PM 29 comments
Friday, June 17, 2005

A Jury of My Peers
[Update 2: OH-MY-GOD it's on tape right here !]I honestly thought this was a spoof until I got it directly from the Washington Post:It seems some in the brain trust of the House Democrats decided to hold a little inquisition in the basement, at which - !!! - Bush was found guilty of lying.African-American Representatives John Conyers Jr. (Far Left - MI) and Maxine Waters (Far Left - California) proposed various conspiracy theories about the Iraq War, and one "witness" pressed the case that the Iraq War was a Zionist conspiracy, with Bush as Sharon's puppet.I wonder if the "witness" wore a white hood while he testified to the secret nefarious conversations between Sharon and Bush?Let me get this straight: This week, while the U.S. Senate apologized for decades of filibustering* laws against lynching of blacks, the highest profile blacks in the House staged a little basement kangaroo court/political theatre, complete with Jew-baiting?Update: Howard Dean disavows any anti-Semitism involved in the incident.___* - Opps; banned word.
posted by BummerDietz @ 2:02 PM 0 comments

I Wanna Be an Astronaut....A Tranny Astronaut..
George Bush is a lousy public speaker. On the rare occasion that I hear him deliver a speech, I feel like a spectator at the Special Olympics, wracked with angst about whether my favorite will make it to the finish line, or instead have to be helped off the field. It wears me out. The Left takes great pleasure in compiling and circulating the Bush malapropisms, as evidence that GW is stupid. So be it.So it's fair game to turn the tables on those who delight in skewering GW, especially when the gaffer is unaware that I am laughing at him, not with him.So the prize this quarter goes to the Los Angeles Times, via today's Theater Review (OK, a bit like shooting fish in a barrel...). Here's the subheadline, from page E1:
'I Am My Own Wife' makes a gay German transvestite a role model for us all.It's impossible to make this stuff up.
posted by BummerDietz @ 8:00 AM 1 comments
Monday, June 13, 2005

Checking the Wrong Box on the Pulitzer Application
Bummer Dietz remains a bit obsessed by the potential that John Kerry and the Democratic Party might have come within inches of pulling off a P.T. Barnum scenario by creating a "Citizen Soldier" persona for Kerry, complete with a Stephen Spielberg film about the brave warrior Kerry...all about a guy who was dishonorably booted from the Navy."You can fool all of the people, some of the time."But, did Kerry in fact get dishonorably discharged?Thomas Lipscomb continues to smell a rat, and has FOIA'ed the underlying Form SF180 used by the Kerry-apologist MSM newspaper the Boston Globe. You see, Kerry purports to have released to the Globe his "complete record," and in turn for the exclusivity, the Globe declared the only thing hidden in Kerry's file was that Bush had a better Yale gradepoint that Kerry. To wit, that's what Kerry was hiding.But, without ever making his files public, wasn't this just too nicely a constructed piece of bait to end all discussion of the matter, with the "embarassing" disclosure by Kerry? Said Kerry's PR Agent, David Wade: ‘The issue is over.’"No, it's not.I'll be succinct about the BummerObssession: This is about exposing an overwhelmingly important instance of the MSM being a functional wing of the Democratic Party. And where there is exposure, good things result.The common man understood that CBS ran bogus documents in order to hurt Bush before the election. No amount of nuance will change his basic understanding. Similarly, the common man understood that Berger was caught destroying documents at the Archives, although the MSM was somewhat successful in obfuscating the Watergate-esque election-related reasons for his doing so.With the Kerry Records Affair - IF the details play out as I obsessively believe they will - the common man will know that the DNC tried to play a filthy trick, and that the MSM cooperated by looking the other way. Toss in a little Spielberg aid to create a fictional movie - a coverup? - and you've got one helluva story.Kudos to Thomas Lipscomb for his continued dogged pursuit of the matter. If they didn't restrict Pulitzers to Lefties, he'd surely get one for this. But he isn't, so he won't.nb: An indicator that Lipscomb is close to breaking this DNC-MSM-Kerry Records DischargeGate story?: DNC Dean says, "Fox News is a propaganda outlet for the Republican Party."
posted by BummerDietz @ 10:31 AM 4 comments

EmotionBots
Is there a common thread between Al Franken's teen-like refusal to give up the mike at an awards banquet, and a similar refusal last week by Amnesty-Only-For-Bandits activists at a Congressional hearing (who decided that the stated Patriot Act topic was too narrow and took it upon themselves to change the topic of the US Congressional hearing)?EmotionBot partisans (they exist on the Right, too) are ruled by an emotional timeline that extends to -- oh, maybe 30 minutes on a good day. The logic and discipline required to undertake longer-range analysis (under whatever utilitarian or other theory you'd prefer) just isn't part of their hardwiring.*____* - To understand the compelling nature of a war to save millions of people, but in which thousands will necessarily die, one must be able to think in the abstract, over long periods. EmotionBots are not capable of that. Instead, the emotional centers of their brains intercede and send flashing red neon signals that say: "You are murdering thousands!" And thus, the EmotionBot understands the situation only as "Thousands are being murdered."Perhaps it's like dilexia - the brain wiring is just different. Like that gradeschool fascination with the question of whether my perception of the color green is what you perceive as the color red.For fun - kinda like picking on the class retard - ask the EmotionBot to compare and contrast the "dead millions" versus the "dead thousands," and watch cognitive dissonance at work.For what it is worth, EmotionBots HATE Professor Hardin and the horse he rode in on.EmotionBots are not limited to the Left wing. I'll wait for a good example and blog about it in the future.
posted by BummerDietz @ 8:32 AM 0 comments
Sunday, June 12, 2005

NY Times Buries Year's Top Story: Too Pro-Bush
The Left-of-Center Los Angeles Times, which loathes the Bush administration, nonetheless recognizes the HUGE story and runs with this lead front-page Sunday item today: "Debtor Nations Freed of Burdens." Basically, the U.S and Britain have caused (and will pay for the lion's share of) $40 billion of World Bank and IMF debt owed by poor African countries to be written off.That's $40 billion of aid to the poorest countries of Africa. $40 billion. The B-Word. Forty. Thirty + Ten.Yet, the New York Times simply will not run a lead story that is favorable to George Bush or his administration. Accordingly, this whopper of a story -- and a Left-of-Center Top 10 Policy Objective, to boot -- appears in the Sunday Times on page 12, buried under the headline, "Finance Chiefs Cancel Debt of 18 Nations."Let this article jog your memory -- U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary and Iraq War architect Paul Wolfowitz just took over as World Bank chief; he was nominated by Bush .God forbid that the New York Times even hint at the obvious connections among Bush, Wolfowitz, Tony Blair and the world capital funds, and (a) the spreading of democracy and (b) the eradication of world poverty.Bush and Blair lead the G-8 into giving a $40 billion aid package to Africa, and it's Page 12 News?The New York Times is in complete and open war with the Republican Party and the Bush administration. The Times maintains a coy pretense, but the veil is diaphanously thin.Update: Some have noted that the NYTimes did run a lead story on Friday about the US and Britain having agreed an allocation of $16.7 billion between them. But the US and Britain had not gotten the G-8 to agree to the package. More importantly, the $40 billion had not been approved by the G-8 on Friday, and the Friday article does NOT mention $40 billion dollars of total aid to Africa.$40 Billion.
posted by BummerDietz @ 2:49 PM 8 comments
Friday, June 10, 2005

Military Is 3X More Trusted Than MSM News
Public trust in newspapers and television news continued to decline in Gallup's annual survey of "public confidence in major institutions" in the United States, reaching an all-time low this year.Summary of Public Confidence Levels:Military: 74%Police: 63%Oranized Religion: 53%Newspaper News: 28%TV News: 28%
posted by BummerDietz @ 9:05 AM 4 comments
Wednesday, June 08, 2005

MemoGate II
Bummer's 23 know that MemoGate, EasonQuiddick and MSM press immunity infuriate The Dietz.This Kerry records thing, if it plays out, is as bad as MemoGate.From an old post:The thrust of John Kerry's campaign, launched at the Democratic Convention, was Citizen Soldier. MSM TV networks ran a film of Kerry in Vietnam. Steven Spielberg helped produce the film. MSM TV carried mini-shows about "Spielberg and the making of Citizen Soldier."Meanwhile, the MSM continued to pursue claims that Bush did not properly fulfill some part of his military reserve obligations. Although the military records were all released and were reasonably convincing that Bush had earned all his hours and not dodged any service, there was some ambiguity, and the MSM deemed that fair game, and a campaign issue.It then came to light in small circles, and the internet, that Kerry had likely received a less-than-honorable, or even dishonorable, discharge from the military, and that it had later been upgraded to an honorable discharge under Carter's Vietnam amnesty pronouncement. The most logical reading of the public records supported that conclusion (E.g., Kerry's discharge occurred years too late, and noted special appeal procedures that had been utilized.) The missing part of Kerry's record - according to the National Archives, over 100 unreleased pages - would presumably have confirmed, or rebutted, the allegation.Kerry not only refused to release his records, he told the media that "all records have been released," which was demonstrably false.
"Although Kerry campaign officials insist that they have published Kerry's full military records on their Web site... they have not permitted independent access to his original Navy records. A Freedom of Information Act request by The Post for Kerry's records produced six pages of information. A spokesman for the Navy Personnel Command, Mike McClellan, said he was not authorized to release the full file, which consists of at least a hundred pages."
The MSM did not run a single item on either the Baby Doc or Papa Doc stories involved here -- to wit, that Citizen Soldier was a guy who wouldn't release his military records to the press; and maybe, just maybe, that was because Citizen Soldier was hiding something.The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth then released a book, challenging details of Kerry's war record, claim by claim. The challenges were by dozens, among hundred of supporting veterans, who served in the flotilla of several boats along with Kerry's boat. The Swift Boat vets signed a petition: "Kerry, Release Your Military Records."The MSM tried to ignore, and then write off, the Swift Boat vets, and then branded them as Republican dirty trick operatives. Not once did the MSM ever address the petition of the Swift Boat vets: "Kerry, release your records."Not the New York Times. Not the Washington Post. Not Newsweek. Not CBS. Not ABC. Not NBC. Not even FOX. Not the Wall Street Journal. Not Time Magazine. Not the Chicago Tribune. Not the Dallas, Seattle, San Francisco, Miami, Atlanta, Boston or Minneapolis papers.Not a single MSM outlet investigated,or event bothered to assign any reporter to investigate, why the "Citizen Soldier" presidential candidate was refusing to release 100 pages of his military records.
The story potential was huge -- a Big Lie story -- the kind that Pulitzers are made of, and the average Joe can and will understand it, without complication.The story was never told, other than via Thomas Lipscomb in the small newspaper The New York Sun.The MSM simply would not address a story that would end badly for Kerry. That is the bias.The hidden records establish that Kerry got a less-than-honorable or dishonorable discharge. In light of Citizen Soldier campaign, that fact might fuel a generation of cynicism against the operatives behind Citizen Soldier. Why would these people try to pass off this guy - kicked out of the US Navy on a dishonorable basis - as a "war hero?" The current Democratic power structure would take a huge hit if that were to come to light. So the MSM would not touch the story.Meanwhile, CBS and 60 Minutes used memos forged by left wing CBS producers to continue an assault upon Bush for his Guard service, the gist of which story was that Bush got into the Texas Air Guard through favors arranged by his dad (read: de facto draft dodger), and then was too cocky to bother to show up for his duties (read: asshole). Although the existing records, and testimony from those involved, do not support this interpretation, the lack of clear documents was used as a reason for the MSM to investigate the story.Pre-broadcast, the impending CBS story was leaked to the Kerry campaign, and the campaign and DNC created a further "Fortunate Son" campaign to focus attention on the false Bush-was AWOL story.The MSM credo: OK to investigate and attack Bush on fake documents; but absolutely forbidden to investigate and attack Kerry on suppressed military records. Forge the Bush memos, and ignore the memos that Kerry refuses to authorize for release.[Update: Spielberg produced Kerry's "Citizen Soldier" propaganda film. Spielberg's cognitive dissonance spills over into blaming Hollywood for not supporting Kerry enough. Oh boy.]Update: Thanks to the internet archive: Even Kerry's website didn't list a discharge date. Kerry accepted his discharge on July 13, 1978. His discharge paperwork is dated February 16, 1978. This official record shows the almost 6-year lag time between his going inactive in 1972, and his discharge in 1978.
posted by BummerDietz @ 3:27 PM 5 comments
Tuesday, June 07, 2005

Scour Those Records
Kerry has purportedly released his military records.Thomas Lipscomb, who detailed the holes in Kerry's record for the New York Sun and showed by a preponderance of evidence that Kerry was less-than-honorably discharged from the Navy, is hopefully scouring the newly-released data. Watch for Lipscomb's opinion... .William Dyer of BeldarBlog also did some outstanding work on the question.Let's see where this goes... .Update: Powerline already points out a possible Kerry Records Ruse - Kerry has not released records from the correct government agency. The Navy Personnel Command is reported to have provided records to the Boston Globe. But it's the Navy Personnel Record Center that is said to contain the missing records, and its website indicates that it is under the auspices of the National Archives and Records Administration ("NARA"). I don't see any "Navy Personnel Command" referenced at the NARA site.Might the U.S. Military have multiple, confusing records bureaus? And might some sleight of hand be involved? Shocking...We'll see where this goes... .Update: Beldar Blog , Malkin, Captain's Quarter's, Tom MacGuire all take up the case.Does this smell like the Boston Globe is laundering the record? Remember any other MSM that recently demanded that the public "trust them" on the underlying documents?Update: Standard Form 180 has a section where the person filling out the form can specify certain years to be omitted from what is released per the request (Section II, Question 1). Am I a cynic for believing that Kerry did not authorize the release of any records AFTER his active tour of duty - i.e., he purposefully did not release his records from the pertinent years 1973-1978?Update: Prowler at American Spectator details the problem:
...."I don't know what everyone expected," says a former Kerry campaign staffer. "We said this was the complete file months ago. The Senator pointedly requested that the grades not be included in the documents released during the campaign."
...But redirecting media and the public away from his full file appears to have been Kerry's plan all along, because he submitted his SF-180 to the wrong entity.
"It doesn't make sense that he is going through the Navy," says [Professional Archives researcher Steve Jones, of Lyons Research]. "Applying through the Navy gives this scenario the appearance of a personnel shuffle. ... By going through the Navy Kerry makes it appear that he is using the Navy to screen his file; he added a layer of bureaucracy when all he needed to do was sign an authorization allowing a third party to look at his record at the NPRC."
....The Navy, which created the documents to begin with, is legally obligated to protect the privacy of the veteran..... If an individual were to have a received a less than honorable discharge, but then gained a full, honorable discharge some years later, only the honorable discharge order might appear in the Navy file, while both discharges might appear in the individual's file at the NPRC in St. Louis, Mo.
Update: From the Lyons Research website (Steve Jones, quoted above):
1) Why did Senator Kerry apply to the Navy for a copy of his record when the National Personnel Record Center is custodian of the file?The National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) is the custodian of records of discharged Navy personnel who served in 60’s and 70’s. All requests for navy personnel records of both officers and enlisted should be made to the NPRC, not the Navy... . When a Veteran wants a copy of his Navy Record he/she must fill out an SF180. The Veteran can apply directly to the NPRC, the custodian of the record, or he can have a third person obtain the record for him/her, in which case he must sign an authorization to allow the third person to act as his agent. It is not enough to fill out an SF 180. There must be a third party authorization, or the record will only be released to the Veteran. We see no reason why Senator Kerry would choose to have the Navy release his record when the NPRC is the custodian of his full record.2) Why was Senator Kerry discharged from the Navy Reserve in 1972 but his discharge is dated 1978?Kerry was discharged from active duty on Jan 3rd 1970. He entered the inactive reserve at that time. In July of 1972 he entered the standby reserve. The standby reserve is a status that only requires the veteran to notify the Military of his/her current address, in case the Military wants to call the Veteran up to active duty. The standby reserve is often referred to as individual ready reserve (IRR). Typically participation in the Standby Reserve is limited to a couple of years. We have never seen a Veteran in any branch of the military that had a 6 year standby reserve obligation, unless it was part of their enlistment contract. Except for Senator Kerry’s 1978 discharge from the Reserve, we have not seen any other records that indicate that the Senators Standby Reserve obligation was that long.3) Why is there a statement of service from a JAG officer in Senator Kerry’s personnel file?The Judge Advocate Generals Office is the legal branch of the military. In the hundreds of personnel files we have reviewed, we have never seen a JAG summary in such a format and have only seen summaries when they are used in sentencing or pretrial investigations. The presence of this statement in Senator Kerry’s file is certainly unusual. This document by itself, however, is not enough to make assumptions about why it was created.In Summary it is impossible to guess what is in Senator Kerry’s Navy personnel file. The ONLY way to obtain a true and complete version of the file is to have Senator Kerry sign a release and an SF180 allowing the bearer of the SF180 to obtain any and all of his Military Service Records from the National Personnel Records Center, a branch of the National Archives. The NPRC is the only Government organization that has and can release a copy of his complete personnel file.Update: Thomas Lipscomb pens a relatively muted article in the Chicago Sun Times. He picks up the pace a bit in a further article in Editor and Publisher.
posted by BummerDietz @ 6:41 AM 1 comments
Monday, June 06, 2005

Where Is the MSM Outrage?
In the '04 Washington state governor's race where the math didn't add up, there is strong evidence - and perhaps overwhelmingly strong evidence, let's see what the judge says - that voter fraud in favor of the Democratic governor actually threw the race.For my 23 regular readers, don't get too upset that the MSM will refuse to cover this until after a verdict, and in case the election is thrown out, such coverage will be used only as an entry point for the MSM to continue its farce that somehow Gore was robbed of Florida in '00, or that Kerry was robbed of Ohio in '04.For my 23 regular readers, also realize that the Loony Left (whose denizens will of course respond because by their nature they have no self control over their emotions), will characterize any finding of pro-Democratic fraud with their usual warnings of the "disenfranchisement of people of color," etc.2 things:1 - Since when did engaging in election fraud become a protected activity under the Constitution?2- You can still get away with stuffing voting boxes with dead people's ballots in the year 2004?
posted by BummerDietz @ 7:39 AM 2 comments
Friday, June 03, 2005

A Midway Point
Saturday morning, June 4 -- at 10:22 a.m., if you want to be precise -- deserves to be the most hallowed anniversary date in an American's lifetime.BummerDietz isn't kidding.Please read it all, here.
posted by BummerDietz @ 3:18 PM 1 comments

Shorting Howard Dean
If Howard Dean's tenure as DNC Chairman was a traded security, I would short it.In fact, I'd buy a September 05 put on his chairmanship. That's a hard stop expiry date of September 16, 2005.
posted by BummerDietz @ 3:13 PM 1 comments
Wednesday, June 01, 2005

Deep Throat at the Archives .. and in the Blogosphere
Why isn't that National Archives employee who fingered Sandy Berger being treated as a national hero in the manner bestowed on Deep Throat Mark Felt?Why aren't the LGF, INDCJournal, Powerline and Allahpundit (RIP) guys being treated like the Deep Throat hero?Watergate at its core was a felony burglary by members of a [Republican] candidate's re-election committee, to steal documents that might affect the upcoming election.Bergergate at its core was a felony burglary by a member of a [Democratic] candidate's re-election committee, to steal documents that might affect the upcoming election.Memogate at its core was a felony forgery by official and unofficial members of a [Democratic] candidate's re-election committee, to create forged documents that might affect the upcoming election.***All of them got busted. Watergate took 2 years to unravel. Bergergate, about 2 months. Memogate, about 2 hours (or days, depending upon your cairn.)nb - John Kerry was anything but a "Citizen Soldier," but seems to have gotten away with having faked his military records file by omitting 100 pages detailing his having been kicked out of the Navy. Sometimes, you get away with scrubbing document files!
posted by BummerDietz @ 9:45 AM 3 comments

Monday, May 30, 2005

Ode to Midway
READ THIS !!Annual Ode to the US Navy and the Battle of Midwayby BummerDietzJune 4-6, 1942During Memorial Day and the first week of June, we pay respect to our fallen military heroes. The week is also full of 20th Century warfare anniversaries. Tantamount will be commemoration of the Allied D-Day assault against the Nazis on the beaches of Normandy, France, on June 6, 1944. The Israeli-Arab 6-Day War began on June 5, 1967. The Marshall Plan was introduced on June 5, 1947. And Israeli jet pilots destroyed Saddam Hussein’s Osirak nuclear reactor on June 7, 1981.Yet a US Navy battle this same week, just 6 months after Pearl Harbor and a full 2 years before D-Day, is often forgotten, yet it certainly represents the greatest naval victory in history, and perhaps the pivotal event in world military history since the Battle of Little Round Top at Gettysburg in July 1863. It is the Battle of Midway, which, like Gettysburg, occurred over a three-day period, June 4-6, 1942.The Background.The Japanese WWII strategy was to destroy the U.S. Navy quickly, parallel with the successful tactics of the German infantry blitzkriegs in Europe. The December 1941 surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor destroyed or damaged 8 American battleships - then the core of US Naval groups.Pearl Harbor was the first attack. The Battle of Midway, just 6 months later, was to be Japan’s coup de grace.New warfare paradigms had shattered the Old Guard military structure that had existed more-or-less since medieval times. Germany coupled a new military strategy – the Blitzkrieg -- with an advanced new weapon – the Panzer tank brigade. The result was that German armies over-ran countries in mere days or weeks.Similarly, Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor was an equally revolutionary development, in effect a strategic equivalent and precursor to intercontinental missiles. Japan had built a dozen aircraft carriers, and with them the Zero fighter, vastly superior to any fighter plane in the world. This combination, along with highly-trained pilots, resulted in Japan having mobile military airfields which could roam the oceans and attack unannounced from a hundred miles beyond the horizon. In an age before advanced radar, these carriers could launch the equivalent of one-sided, un-announced intercontinental missile attack.At the outset of WWII, the Japanese Navy was vastly more powerful than the US Navy. The US had only 6 aircraft carriers worldwide, of various classes, compared to Japan's 10 carriers (with 3 more emerging from Imperial shipyards in the ensuing weeks). In addition, Japan had developed a naval fighter plane, the Zero fighter, in a class of its own, complete with a large trained pilot corps.Even more stunning, after the devastation of the U.S. Navy at Pearl Harbor, the Japanese superiority in battleships was 11-to-0. In short, Japan had an overwhelmingly strong navy.The Japanese Plan.The Japanese Midway strategy was two-fold: To take over the U.S.-controlled island of Midway, which would deny the U.S. the ability to stage any operations in the Western Pacific; and, to destroy the remaining US Pacific Fleet. Without the US Navy to defend the West Coast, or to stop Japan’s empire building in the far east, Japan intended Midway to be the decisive, take-out blow against the US.Japan's tactics were to attack Midway, which would draw the remaining U.S. fleet out of Pearl Harbor to defend the important island. The lurking Japanese armada lying-in-wait off Midway would then destroy the U.S. fleet.Coincident with the Midway attack, a small Japanese carrier group first launched an attack on Alaska, a feint – second-guessed over the ensuing decades – perhaps designed to split the U.S. Fleet into smaller groups, one responding to the Alaskan attack, the other to Midway.Off the western horizon of Midway, out of sight of the US Midway scout planes, Japan had amassed an overwhelming carrier and battleship attack force, laying in wait to surprise and destroy the US forces. The combined Japanese Alaskan and Midway forces, including those in support role, involved 200 ships, including 8 carriers, 11 battleships, 22 cruisers, 65 destroyers, 21 submarines and approximately 700 aircraft.The US Naval forces were tiny, in comparison.Had the Japanese achieved their objective of a quick knock-out of the US Pacific Fleet at Midway (following the devastation at Pearl Harbor), the US West Coast would have been substantially defenseless against the Japanese Navy just 6 months into the war. Although the US had authorized a naval shipbuilding program the prior year, the launch of those boats was months away. It is entirely possible – and the subject of much Monday morning quarterbacking by military thinkers – that threatened or actual Japanese naval attacks on the US West Coast would have caused the US to agree to a ceasefire with Japan. It could have also forced the U.S. to divert scarce naval assets away from Europe, thereby allowing Germany to prevail over England and thus win the war.
"Midway was far more than a decisive naval victory. It was far more than the turning of the tide in the Pacific war. In a strategic sense, Midway represents one of the turning points of world history--and in that role it remains under-appreciated."-- James R. Schlesinger, former US Secretary of Defense
The Surprise Counter-Attack.Unknown to the Japanese, their military codes had been broken by the US codebreakers just weeks before the Midway attack. With solid warning that the Japanese were amassing their forces for a surprise assault on Midway and any US Naval ships that came to Midway’s defense, the US neither split its fleet nor held any carriers in reserve.
Rather, the U.S. gambled and sent all three American carriers - the entire US carrier fleet in the Pacific - to lay in wait for the Japanese flotilla at Midway.In short, it was a surprise counterattack on a surprise attack.The Battle.Japanese Attack the Island. As the Japanese launched their attack on Midway Island, they had no idea that the US carrier forces lay off the horizon a couple hundred miles to the east. On June 4, 1942, four Japanese aircraft carriers launched a strike with over 100 combat planes against the Naval Air Base at Midway. The US Midway base and its airplanes were damaged, but not completely destroyed.Annihilation of U.S. Torpedo Bombers. As the Japanese attacked Midway Island, squadrons of US torpedo planes from the USS Hornet, the USS Enterprise and the USS Yorktown, launched their surprise counter-attacks on the Japanese carrier fleet.The US torpedo bombers came in "low and slow" over the water to drop their torpedoes. One by one, they were blown from the sky by the superior Japanese Zero fighters. Not a single US torpedo bomber scored a hit on the 4 Japanese carriers.Almost every US pilot and crew was killed, including by Japanese patrols that pulled American fliers out of the water and executed them. Only 2 of 42 torpedo bomber squadrons survived.But the men of those 40 doomed squadrons from the Hornet, Enterprise and Yorktown had not died in vain. The Japanese Zero fighter cover normally would have flown high above the Japanese carriers, forming a protective bubble. But in order to repel the torpedo bombers on their “low and slow” approach, the Zeros had been brought down to low altitude, all while the Japanese flotilla scrambled in evasive maneuvering.The Japanese mistakenly believed that the doomed torpedo bombers from the Hornet, Enterprise and Yorktown had been launched from Midway Island. In response, the Japanese Admiral Nagumo decided to strike Midway again. Returning Japanese fighters were re-armed with bombs for the attack on Midway’s airfields. But as the Japanese were preparing their fighters, they received a delayed report from one of their scouting planes, warning of a sighting of a US carrier. Nagumo reversed himself, and ordered that his fighter planes be re-armed with torpedoes. Thus, the decks of the Japanese carriers – painted yellow, with a red sun signifying the Japanese imperial war regime - were strewn with bombs, torpedoes and fuel tanks.Nagumo's 5-Minutes of Glory. A few moments after 10:00 a.m., June 4th, 1942, the Japanese Admiral Nagumo and his staff believed that they had just annihilated all of the U.S. air cover for Midway, and in addition, their massive armada including 4 aircraft carriers with vastly superior planes and pilots was ready to attack the just-sighted U.S. carrier. Surely, the U.S. carrier group would be similarly destroyed.Thus, at 10:15 a.m., June 4, 1942, Admiral Nagumo believed that Japan was moments away from defeating the United States. The War of the Pacific was about end in glorious victory for the Empire of the Rising Sun.The Dive Bombers Arrive. Yet, at this critical moment, the so-called "lost squadron" of US planes from the USS Enterprise arrived at high altitude over the Japanese carrier group. Lt. Cmdr.Wade McCluskey’s dive bomber group had failed earlier to locate the Japanese fleet, and rather than turn his fighters back to his carrier, he changed course to search out the Japanese ships. They were located by trailing a Japanese destroyer trying to catch up to its flotilla.McCluskey’s squadron of 32 dive bombers was then joined by two other U.S. dive bomber squadrons, and they came upon an extraordinary situation: Four sitting duck Japanese carriers, with their protective shield of Zero fighter planes either thousands of feet below (having shot down the US torpedo bombers) or sitting on the carrier decks being refueled:
“If they’d looked up they coulda seen us, but they were too busy trying to destroy the torpedo planes that had gotten there first.”-- Wilbur Roberts, U.S. Dive Bomber The Japanese carrier decks were painted yellow, with the empire’s huge “Rising Sun” red circle painted on the bow of each carrier. This was a further gift to the U.S. dive bombers -- a red targeting ball on a yellow deck, set against a dark gray ocean:
“Here are the arrogant Japanese with their bright yellow decks with a meatball up on the bow.”--Lt. Richard Best, U.S. Dive Bomber
Apogee of the Japanese Empire. At 10:22 a.m., June 4, 1942, the U.S. dive bombers - armed with bombs, not torpedoes - attacked the Japanese carrier fleet from high altitude in classic dive-bomber style. The Japanese had only a few minutes to savor what they thought had been a victory over the United States; it all evaporated within 5 minutes, courtesy of the dive bombers.
There were 4 Japanese carriers at Midway. The U.S. dive bombers immediately scored hits on 2 of those carriers (the Akagi and the Kaga) by precision dropping the bombs onto the carriers' loaded decks. There was no Japanese fighter cover in place at higher altitude to repel the attacks. A couple of bombs from US dive bombers, aided by the re-fueling tanks, torpedoes and bombs stacked on the decks of the Japanese carriers, turned into an inferno. Akagi and Kaga were destroyed.Shortly thereafter, a dive bomber squadron from the USS Yorktown attacked and destroyed the third Japanese aircraft carrier, the Soryu. Notably, these Yorktown dive bombers attacked with only a dozen working bombs.Later, a small squadron of dive bombers from the USS Enterprise attacked and burnt the fourth and last Japanese carrier, the Hiryu, but not before Hiryu was able to launch an attack that disabled the USS Yorktown.All four Japanese carriers at Midway – the Akagi, the Kaga, the Soryu and the Hiryu, burned and sank to the bottom of the Pacific.The ailing Yorktown was later sunk by a Japanese submarine while limping back to Pearl Harbor.Minor skirmishes between the retreating US and Japanese naval groups continued through June 6th.The Result.When various other skirmishes ended by June 6, Japan had lost 4 carriers, 332 aircraft, and hundreds of its best pilots and crew. The US had lost only one carrier, 144 planes and scores of pilots.Japan had 9 aircraft carriers when Midway began. One day later, it had only 5.The U.S. had only 3 carriers going into the Battle of Midway. After Midway, it still had 3 carriers, as the USS Saratoga came out of dry-dock and replaced the sunken Yorktown.Japan had planned to seize Midway, and emerge from the battle with a 9-0 carrier advantage, giving the mobile airfields and its Zero fighters free reign of the Pacific (including over Pearl Harbor and even the US West Coast). Instead, Midway remained in U.S. hands, and the overwhelming Japanese carrier dominance was reduced to a basic parity. The Battle of Midway was nothing short of a complete rout of the vastly superior Japanese Navy.With the US war shipyards already producing at full capacity, Japan had lost at Midway its one chance to defeat the US via an early take-out. Instead, it was a matter of time before the massive US industrial war machine would overwhelm the imperial militarized Japanese.10:15 a.m., June 4, 1942, turned out to be the height of the fascist Imperial Japanese Empire. Unscathed and convinced of victory over the US after destroying almost every U.S. torpedo bomber in the initial engagements of June 4th, Japan's war effectively became a lost cause by 10:30 a.m.The US Navy - outnumbered in carriers, ships, technology, planes and pilots - had achieved the greatest naval victory in modern history.The near total destruction of the first wave of U.S. pilots and crew on board the “low and slow” torpedo bombers was not in vain; it alone made possible the exact conditions that allowed the U.S. dive bombers to send the Japanese armada to the bottom of the ocean just minutes later. And as the Japanese aramada sank, so too sank any realistic chance of Japan prevailing over the U.S. in WWII.***So during this Memorial Day remembrance, member the Battle of Midway, its codebreakers, and the dozens of torpedo-bombers and dive-bombers of the U.S. Navy who may well have changed the course of history.
posted by BummerDietz @ 8:50 AM 3 comments
Sunday, May 29, 2005

Les Francaises Dit "Non"
The French voters have voted down the proposed European Constitution, by about 56% to 44%.I have three reactions, all applauding:1. One the one hand, Chirac is an enemy of the U.S. What he is for, I am against. His retirement cannot come soon enough; if this accelerates his demise, that is good.*2. On the other, I generally like the French, as silly as they often are. I respect their vote. "Keep France French."3. Finally, a unified Europe is a zero-sum winner vs. the U.S. in things economique.____* -- Kraut Chancellor Schroeder had the early election door hit him in the posterior a few days ago, too. Yet Blair prevailed. Despite the propaganda of the MSM, the pro-U.S. leaders continue in office; and I'm short on the length-of-service of the anti-U.S. leaders.
posted by BummerDietz @ 3:24 PM 1 comments
Friday, May 27, 2005

MSM's Asian Dry Lake Fetish
May 27, 2005: The day that both the L.A. Times and the New York Times ran front-page stories about Asian dry lakes.Has the MSM has caught an Asian dry lake virus?The New York Times' front page picture and story focuses on the drying Crescent Lake in the Chinese Gobi desert. Kudos to the Times for a brilliant, artistic front page photo, the best to grace the Times in years. As good as Life Magazine at its cynosure.The Los Angeles Times' front page story focuses on the Russian Gulag, where the peasants in the town of Bolotnikovo awoke to find their cherished White Lake had disappeared into a sink hole.***nb: Is it that Charles at LGF might be setting the pace here for the NYTimes, via his periodic atavistic and plein-air digital photo renditions?
posted by BummerDietz @ 9:07 AM 0 comments
Thursday, May 26, 2005

This Transcript Belongs in the Evidence Locker
I spent an hour trying to find a complete transcript of George Galloway's performance piece in front of the U.S. Senate. Some ballin' blog Simply Appalling did the yeoman's work, and transcribed one. Find it here.Nothing pisses off government people - and particularly Republicans - more than lying to them, under oath. Ask Clinton how that worked out for him.The issue is whether Galloway received payments, directly or indirectly, from Iraq, through any type of Oil-for-Food vouchers. The allegation against Galloway is precisely that these were given as bribes, and not in the ordinary course of the oil trade. (Ipso facto, if Galloway was a professional oil trader, then his receipt of oil vouchers wouldn't be bribes.)In Clintonian style, never once does Galloway deny receiving money from Iraq. Instead, he denies the obvious. It fools idiots, but not lawyers:
SEN. COLEMAN: Mr. Galloway...The evidence clearly indicates you as an allocation beneficiary, who transferred the allocations to Fawaz Zureikat, who became chairman of your organization Mariam's Appeal....Senior Iraqi officials have confirmed that you in fact received oil allocations and that the documents that identify you as an allocation recipient are valid....If you can help provide any evidence that challenges the veracity of these documents or the statements of former Iraqi officials, we'd welcome that input.GALLOWAY: Senator, I am not now, nor have I ever been, an oil trader, and neither has anyone on my behalf. I have never seen a barrel of oil, owned one, bought one, sold one - and neither has anyone on my behalf.OK, George, you weren't an "oil trader." But that isn't the question. The question is, "Did you, directly or indirectly, receive any payments that were derived from the Iraqi Oil-for-Food program?"
posted by BummerDietz @ 6:09 PM 1 comments
Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Hidden Fact: Dems Didn't Have Enough Votes
Advance notice: Be sure to check in here on June 1st for the read of the year....******Re the Filibuster Affair, I must say this, as no one else (to my knowledge) has: The Democrats simply did not have the votes to prevent an up-or-down vote on the nominees.Almost all the commentary on filibuster showdown comes from (a) the Right, (b) the Left, and (c) the MSM.The Right wanted to use the nuke option, and its analysis follows, to wit: Why fold a winning hand? There is also vitriol towards “defecting GOP Senators.”The Left says…well, Bush is evil, etc.The MSM focused heavily on a Bush power grab, and the “defecting GOP Senators.” Of course; they want this to be a defeat for Bush.**All of this is fine analysis, per se, but it all misses the reality of the timeline.The short analysis is that this was a classic game of chicken, with one twist that no one has analyzed: The cloture vote was the first of a 2-part act. Cloture vote first, followed by vote on changing the filibuster protocol. The Right, Left and MSM all focused on the second part – the filibuster vote, and end up with the analysis cited above.They all miss the reality that the cloture vote was the key, and the Democrats did not have the votes.Here’s why:You are a moderate Democrat Senator from East Dakota – John Jones. Your leadership – Harry Reid – isn’t your ideal guy. Reid reacts emotionally to the bait laid by the Republicans – the nomination of an African American female conservative, and a second female, both anti-abortion. (This, after the Republican hispanic nominee has been filibustered.) Reid reacts emotionally – he draws the line with these minor appellate nominations. “Minority appointments are the province of the Democrats, not the Republicans. You cannot have our high ground,” or something like that.So Reid makes an error: He gambles the last weapon of the Democrats – the filibuster – over a bunch of appellate court nominations that no one outside of the elite cares about. A strategic blunder.Now, you, the moderate John Jones, see this blunder. Your opinion is to save the filibuster for a Supreme Court nomination, when it really matters and when the country will be paying attention. They simply are not paying attention to the appellate court nominees; they just don’t care.And here’s the rub: John Jones knows that he must vote first, on cloture. There is no way that he can reverse the order of the vote. Cloture first, followed by a vote to eliminate the filibuster.So what does John Jones do? He believes that Frist will, in fact, hold a filibuster elimination vote -- Frist is not bluffing.So for John Jones, there is a almost certainty that the cloture vote is the key vote, because if debate is not curtailed, the filibuster vote kills the filibuster 12 hours later. That is what the analysts have all missed, or (in the case of the MSM) obfuscated. “It was the cloture vote, stupid.”What does John Jones do? John Jones decides that he will vote to end debate.But…doing so will mean civil war in the Democratic Party. Jones knows this. And John Jones may well lose his committee ranking member status for defying Reid - Reid will punish him. So, if Jones votes to end debate, the Democratic party in the Senate will have effectively devolved into civil war, between the Dem Left and the Dem Middle.So John Jones needs cover, to avoid the spectacle of picking a fight within his own party. And to prevent the MSM from having to report the foregoing.John Jones smartly decides that an exactly-matched coalition of Dems and Republicans is the perfect device to provide some smoke to cover up what is really going on – under the cover of ‘bipartisanship.” The MSM will play along - MSM loves the "bipartisan" storyline. And the Left will say -- well, who cares what they say, it's all emotional, not strategic. And the Right will continue to focus on the (irrelevant) filbuster vote, not the cloture vote. So John Jones surrenders first – he reveals to one or more moderate Republicans:
“I will vote for cloture and to end the debate, so you won’t have to use the nuke option. And I’ll round up enough in the anti-Reid wing, to get you at least 5 votes. What I need is an exact match – 5 Republicans – to agree with us, so that our votes are viewed as a compromise, not a defection. We need covering fire.”There it is, folks. It was all in the cloture vote occuring first. The Democrats didn’t have the votes to continue the filibuster.It was the cloture vote, stupid !***Post script: The cloture vote ended the debate, 81-18. Although this doesn't prove that my analysis is correct, it certainly supports my thesis. Instead of a 62-38 vote (the straight math outcome without "the deal" in place), 20 Senators who were "supposed to be voting to continue the debate," in fact voted to end the debate. Some of that cross-over may be due to the desire to respect the compromise. But methinks not all.....
posted by BummerDietz @ 8:14 AM 2 comments
Tuesday, May 24, 2005

WW 4
A little essay from 2 months after 9/11:WW 4Start exercising your brain the way your Grandfather did. The Cult of the Gray wants to censor you from a critical historical analysis.WWI: 1914-1918WWII: 1939-1945WWIII: The Cold War: 1947 – 1989WW IV: The Islamo Fascist War 2001 - ?Don’t submit to the historical censors.The Japanese Fascist/Nazi.The Japanese military took over the Japanese government in the decades prior to WWII. The militarized regime indoctrinated a generation of Japanese with militarized schooling as to the need of Japanese youth the give their lives for their god-on-earth Emperor. They were brainwashed in a false perversion of vague Samarai code, that death in service of the god-emperor ensured honor to family. Martyrdom, as a religion. Genocide as an objective.The brainwashing centered on the teaching that the Japanese were the superior race, and that other races were inferior. The Japanese military warlords sought the twin objectives of building a military empire, and controlling raw materials. The Japanese invaded and overran various countries in Southeast Asia. After invading, the Japanese killed millions in a war of genocide – the systematic mass murder of others because they are not of your race or religion or tribe. Distinctions between civilians and military were only in the mind of western apologists. Atrocities were numbing; soldiers’ wagers on the sex of fetuses hacked out of pregnant women, etc. The Japanese used what fledgling bioterrorism was available, such as breeding and spreading diseased rats in order to cause a pandemic. The Chinese city of Nanking was one target. A few months after invading, the Japanese had exterminated 350,000 civilians in that city, alone. Any living being not Japanese was worthy of slaughter, somehow in the name of the Emperor god, and the purity of a Japanese military empire.The Japanese sought to control their entire side of the globe, as a vast empire to further their race and control raw materials – oil and other necessities.The Japanese were taught that Westerners were weak and immoral and stood for nothing.WWII Japanese soldiers were trained to ignore any semblance of “just war” theory or treaties, including the slaughter of prisoners of war. Battlefield medics were particularly targeted by Japanese snipers. Allied medical workers did not wear the “Red Cross”, as it simply ensured special targeting by snipers. (Even the Nazis gave lip service to respect of the Red Cross….).The Japanese commenced WWII with a peacetime Sunday morning sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. 2400 were killed.A few years later, the Japanese military concluded that they could not win the war with the U.S. They decided that inflicting massive casualties on the U.S. – military or civilian – during the eventual U.S. push to counterattack Japan, was needed in order to cause the U.S. public to withdraw support for attacking Japan. Thus, a peace treaty could be arranged without Japan bearing retaliation.A year later, U.S. carpet bombing and firebombing of 60 Japanese cities, in which ½ to 2/3 of the cities were destroyed, did not cause either the Japanese military to capitulate, nor did the Japanese population rise up to stop the war.The U.S. issued an ultimatum, which was ignored by the Japanese, and then the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Japan. Then another. At that point, the Japanese surrendered. Perhaps the only way the fascist military dictatorship would surrender was to witness the ruthless resolve needed to drop an atomic bomb.The Japanese people suffered their military overlords, U.S. firebombing and U.S. atomic strikes.Yet a generation after the atomic bombings, the two countries and its peoples, despite racial, cultural and religious dissimilarity, are close economic partners who interact freely with each other and interlink their cultures and peoples by wholesale adoption of ideas and customs from the other. They have a lasting peace, and a lasting interdependent linkage of the two groups.The Islamo FascistSince the success of the radical takeover in Iran in 1979, other militant racist islamo-fascist cults have been trying to take over Middle East and Muslim countries. Coming out of a Soviet war and civil war, the Taliban cult, sponsored by a Pakistani fundamentalist regime and Saudi money, took over Afghanistan. The Taliban and its islamo-fascist allies are indoctrinating a generation or Muslims with militarized schooling as to the need of Muslim youth to strike the Great Satan (currently the U.S.) and give their lives for their cult religion. The brainwashing includes that the Muslim religion dictates a radical authoritarian racist regime ruthlessly suppressing the population, as necessary to support the dogma that radical Islam is the superior race/religion, and that other races and religions, particularly Jews and Christians, are inferior and need to be exterminated.The islamo-fascists teach and dictate that a war of genocide – the systematic mass murder of infidel Jews and Christians and others – is one’s duty. Any living being not of the radical islamo-fascist cult is worthy only of slaughter, somehow in the name of the religion and the purity of a radical cult regime. The islamo-fascists seek the twin objectives of building a fascist Islamist empire of the Mideast, and controlling all Mideast raw materials --oil. Various Islamist factions continue to attack Mideast countries under various names – Hamas, Jihad, Martyr’s Brigade, PLO, Taliban, etc. The islamo-fascists in particular target the killing of civilians in a war of terror. The islamo-fascists and their supporters actively seek biological and nuclear weaponry.The radical islamo-fascists teach that Westerners are weak and immoral and stand for nothing.Islamist “jihad” warriors, or terrorists, are trained to ignore any semblance of “just war” theory or treaties. They are brainwashed that a heaven is waiting to reward their martyrdom, complete with scores of virgins there for their pleasure. Martrydom is the cost of entry. When such is accepted, it then a small matter to accept slaughter of civilians. Suicide bombings of school buses and retail stores is of particular interest to them.The islamo-fascists commenced the war in America with a peacetime morning sneak attack on civilians in New York and Washington. Over 3000 civilians were killed.The islamo-fascists, in their quest for a Mideast empire and control of oil, know that they cannot win any conventional war with the U.S., or any other nation state. Instead, their strategy is to inflict massive civilian terror casualties on the U.S., in order to cause the U.S. public to withdraw support for a) preventing Islamist dictatorial hi-jacking of Mideast countries in order to turn them into cultist death camp regimes, like Afghanistan, and b) any US resistance to the islamo-fascists blitzkrieg, since the US is the only remaining international policeman.In the near future, after U.S. carpet bombing and firebombing of Taliban strongholds and perhaps other terrorist camps, cities, countries, etc., it is unlikely that all the islamo-fascists will be eradicated, and unlikely that the islamo-fascists will call off their genocide jihad. It is also unlikely that the vast moderate yet brainwashed populations of the Mideast countries will rise in anger to stop the islamo-fascists.The Average Joe in the U.S., just like the Average Joe in 1945, needs to jolt himself from the decade of Pax Americana and begin to address in his own mind that there is a war going on, not a “police action”, but a war. Jihad soldiers across the planet would without hesitation drop genocidal biochemical or nuclear weapons on any America city at the first opportunity. Our words or ultimatum will likely be ignored.Tens of thousands, and perhaps hundreds of thousands, of civilians will eventually die in this US – islamo-fascist war. Just as the Japanese suffered under their warlords 5 decades ago.Yet a generation later, despite racial, cultural and religious dissimilarity, history shows that a lasting peace, and a lasting interdependent linkage, can nonetheless follow between the US and the Muslim side of the globe.
posted by BummerDietz @ 11:00 AM 2 comments

One Battle of the IslamoFascist War
From the Associated Press:
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A car bomb exploded Tuesday near a Baghdad junior high school for girls, killing six people.
Is your political psychographic even capable of considering the following?:
Denver, Colorado - Members of the Whig party exploded a bomb near a Denver junior high school for girls, killing six people. A caller to Denver radio station claimed that the bombing was in response to yesterday's Senate actions related to the filibuster vote.
Questions for the table:Are islamofascists moral monsters? Are islamofascists to be treated in a manner that differs from the philosophy to which they ascribe? It really does test the nature of Western thinking.The Golden Rule - "Treat others as you would have them treat you." Is this Western-centric and naive? In fact, is such thinking a crime against humanity?WWII Japanese fascist soldiers are said to have believed that to be captured was a fate worse than death. A high form of humilitation, for self and family. To the West, we thought we were treating the captured Japanese soldier with dignity. To the Japanese - at least some component thereof - running prison camps where soldiers were kept alive, rather than starved or shot to death (pretty much the norm, worldwide, throughout history), was an humilitation less honorable than death.So were we torturing the Japanese soldier, or treating him with dignity? In so deciding, then, we choose as our guide our own "Western" conception of law and philosophy; the Japanese; or some ephemeral "natural law" that transcends these?If one has sympathy for the cause of the proletariat, then one views the islamo-fascist war as just another capitalist or colonial war. Perhaps one's view of Gitmo and Abu Garaib should be to honor these captured foreign soldiers. To make something of their brief lives on earth. Perhaps putting them on trial would be the greatest and most inhumane treatment imagineable in the MidEast. Torture.Maybe we should just execute them. Their sense of honor is kept, and their families get the provenance of having a martyr in the family.And, we get rid of an islamofascist.***Can you imagine if any of the cluckleheads who have been pretend-debating issues in the Senate, were to make the foregoing speech? Wow, the MSM would have a helluva field day with that.
posted by BummerDietz @ 10:32 AM 0 comments
Sunday, May 22, 2005

Another Writer Named Thompson ...
A stunningly insightful essay by writer Keith Thompson about his decision to end a 40-year bus ride:
Nightfall, Jan. 30. Eight-million Iraqi voters have finished risking their lives to endorse freedom and defy fascism. Three things happen in rapid succession. The right cheers. The left demurs. I walk away from ... a cause... .I'm leaving the left -- more precisely, the American cultural left and what it has become during our time together. I choose this day for my departure because I can no longer abide the simpering voices of self-styled progressives -- people who once championed solidarity with oppressed populations everywhere -- reciting all the ways Iraq's democratic experiment might yet implode....I departed with new clarity about the brilliance of liberal democracy and the value system it entails; the quest for freedom as an intrinsically human affair; and the dangers of demands for conformity and adherence to any point of view through silence, fear, or coercion....Leftists who no longer speak of the duties of citizens, but only of the rights of clients, cannot be expected to grasp the importance (not least to our survival) of fostering in the Middle East the crucial developmental advances that gave rise to our own capacity for pluralism, self-reflection, and equality.
A left averse to making common cause with competent, self- determining individuals -- people who guide their lives on the basis of received values, everyday moral understandings, traditional wisdom, and plain common sense -- is a faction that deserves the marginalization it has pursued with such tenacity for so many years.All of which is why I have come to believe, and gladly join with others who have discovered for themselves, that the single most important thing a genuinely liberal person can do now is walk away from the house the left has built. The renewal of any tradition that deserves the name "progressive" becomes more likely with each step in a better direction.Bravo. There's a new Thompson from the Bay.posted by BummerDietz @ 8:49 AM 0 comments