Petrified Truth

The bagel hole

Cunning political gunslinger Dick Morris, veteran of the Clinton administration, was underwhelmed by John Kerry's acceptance speech.

Last time I checked, Sen. John Kerry was 60 years old. But to listen to his speech last night at the Democratic National Convention, you would think he was still in his 20s.

He opened up his talk with a lengthy and evocative description of his childhood and what it was like growing up in divided Berlin. He told us of the "goose bumps" he remembers getting when the band struck up "Stars and Stripes Forever."

Then, after this long rendition of his childhood, he tells us at length what it was like to serve in Vietnam for the four months that he was there. So far, so good.

But then he spent only about one minute talking about what he has done since.

What did this man do as an adult? What happened during his service as Michael Dukakis' lieutenant-governor in Massachusetts and in his 20 years in the United States Senate?

What bills did he introduce? What initiatives did he sponsor? Which investigations did he lead? What amendments bear his name? What great debates did he participate in?

What did he do for his constituents in Massachusetts? What businesses did he persuade to come to the Bay State? Which elderly did he help get their Social Security benefits? What injustices did he correct?

Kerry's biography ends at 24.

Oddly, his absence of biography confirms the impression I formed of him during my White House years: He's a back-bencher. I never can recall a single time that his name came up in any discussion of White House strategy on anything. He was the man who wasn't there. We were always figuring out how to deal with Ted Kennedy or Pat Moynihan or Tom Daschle or Phil Gramm, or Al D'Amato or Bob Dole or Jesse Helms or Orin Hatch or Joe Biden. But nobody ever asked about John Kerry.

He wasn't much there then, and he's not much there now. Only now he wants us to trust him to be president.

And that sums up the Democrats' week pretty well, doesn't it? It was thin gruel in a time of war.

The Arrow strikes

This is an important milestone in strategic defense.

Over a dozen years after the project was launched, the Arrow-2, designed and built by Israel, successfully shot down for the first time a live Scud missile in flight in a test launch Thursday over the California coast.

Israeli defense officials hailed the test as a milestone for the US-funded, one-of-a-kind missile defense system.

But before the champagne came an enormous amount of tension in the mission control room, where about a hundred Israeli and American officials and air force officers sat in near-silence monitoring the incoming Scud rocket. The Scud was launched from a platform at sea at its maximum range, which defense officials refused to divulge.

Two minutes after its launch, the Green Pine radar picked it up and the Citron Tree battle management center relayed the information to the Arrow-2 battery. About three minutes later the Arrow interceptor was launched. It rose for 90 seconds to about 40 kilometers and detonated.

"There was a huge explosion and it destroyed the Scud," Herzog said.

The Scud was reportedly one the Untied States had located and removed from Iraq. But Defense and Israeli industry officials could not confirm this.

The Arrow-2 intercepts an enemy missile as it reenters the earth's atmosphere, far from Israeli territory. The system includes not only the missile, but also the 'Green Pine' tracking system that can detect and track several targets simultaneously. The system is controlled from the 'Golden Citron' command module, from which several Arrow-2 missiles can be operated, and which discerns between real targets and 'fake' ones.

The question remains, though, will the Arrow-2 be able to strike down the faster Iranian Shihab-3 rocket? This is the question that technicians and defense officials have been grappling with since the Iranians developed the Shihab-3, which could soon be armed with an existential, nuclear threat against the Jewish state.

More information:

Israel Aircraft Industries
Israeli-Weapons.com
U.S. Missile Defense Agency

Hot and cold

Former speechwriter Peggy Noonan says she's been watching "all" of the Democratic National Convention. (She must have a strong capacity for enduring inanity.) She enjoyed Barack Obama:

When you first see him he is a plain man of irregular features and jug ears. But when he begins to speak his features blend into harmony and handsomeness. This kind of thing only happens if you have magic. At one point the C-Span cameras went to an unhappy looking Jesse Jackson in the stands. He looked like he was thinking, "I don't remember passing a torch." But it was passed.

HRC, not so much.

Hillary Clinton was in comparison cold, robotic and too heavily botoxed. At a certain point Botox can become a problem for those in public life. Mrs. Clinton now has to pop her eyes out to show excitement. Worry lines are honorable, and in Mr. Clinton's wife they are understandable. She should keep them. She has obviously been practicing public speaking--her voice was lower, more modulated and less screechy than usual. Her speech was full of assertion--"I know a thing or two about health care"--but lacking in wit or grace. As always she seemed full of certitude and lacking in sincerity.

Ouch.

Kerry, round and round

Courtesy of the RNC, watch John Kerry, in his own words, veer into every conceivable policy cul-de-sac on Iraq. He's not been tagged "Flipper" for nothing. This long-rumored, twelve-minute video is simply devastating.

KERRY: "I am way ahead of the commander in chief, and I’m probably way ahead of my colleagues and certainly of much of the country. But I believe this. I believe that he has used these weapons before. He has invaded another country. He views himself as a modern-day Nebuchadnezzar. He wants to continue to play the uniting critical role in that part of the world. And I think we have to stand up to that."

NRO's Jim Geraghty observes:

The point is that there isn't truth or untruth to Kerry's views. There is simply what is needed and what is not needed, and the True North of Kerry's rhetorical and policy compass is whatever he needs politically at that time.

George Clooney's character in Three Kings, a film about the first Gulf War, explains to three soldiers under his command that "the most important thing in life is necessity... As in people do what is most necessary to them at any given moment."

What does Kerry stand for? Whatever is most necessary to him at that particular moment.

One could say that's not unique to Kerry, and may be a common trait among politicians. But what would this mean in a president?

Blow-up?

David Frum is worried about John Kerry's "opportunism," and what will happen if the Democrats lose narrowly in November.

After September 11, it looked for a moment as if America was returning to the foreign-policy consensus of the 1950s and early 1960s. But the Democrats' unexpected defeat in the 2002 congressional elections maddened members and leadership alike. Since then, Democratic opinion has not been led by the party's generally level-headed elected leaders, but by outside groups such as MoveOn.org.

Those groups have incited rage and paranoia in party ranks. (Last week, Democrats were frothing about an imaginary plot by Mr Bush to postpone or cancel the presidential election - this based on a remark by a federal emergency management official that his bureaucracy was preparing contingency plans in case al-Qa'eda attempted to disrupt the vote.) And the Democratic leadership has indulged and even encouraged this incitement.

The true voice of this year's Democratic Party is not the jolly chuckle of Bill Clinton, but the strident ranting of Mr Gore. The mood in Boston will be uglier than the mood at any major party convention since the Democrats met in Chicago in 1968.

Democratic leaders whisper that they will promptly curb the passions they have loosed as soon as they win in November. But if they lose - and especially if they lose narrowly - the party establishment may discover that it has lost control of its increasingly hysterical base. It's a disturbing outlook - both for the Democratic Party, for America and for America's friends around the world.

Imminent threat

Know-nothings in Montgomery County, north of Houston, just can't take their eyes off the local public library, despite their earlier defeats at book-banning. Better to spend time and effort on convincing parents to be involved with their own children's reading lives.

A new group has formed to address the selection and placement of books at the Montgomery County Memorial Library System, and it is targeting 120 works aimed at children and young adults.

Called Library Patrons of Texas Inc., the group wants an age-appropriate policy at the system and targeting books with sexual and gay themes, as well as those with what the group says is offensive language.

Among those are Silly Duck by Harvey Fierstein, The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, Deal With It! by Esther Drill and Rainbow Boys by Alex Sanchez.

In the past five weeks, 16 books, mainly from the young adult collection, have been challenged to a juvenile reconsideration panel made up of library staff members and area residents. To date, four reviews have been completed, and those books were returned to the shelves, said Jerilynn Williams, library director. The others are scheduled to be reviewed during the next several months.

Authenticity

Pundit Mark Steyn on the subject of John "regular guy" Kerry:

He [Kerry] was in Wisconsin the other day, pretending to be a regular guy, and was asked what kind of hunting he preferred. "I'd have to say deer," said the senator. "I go out with my trusty 12-gauge double-barrel, crawl around on my stomach... That's hunting."

This caused huge hilarity among my New Hampshire neighbours. None of us has ever heard of anybody deer hunting by crawling around on his stomach, even in Massachusetts. The trick is to blend in with the woods and, given that John Kerry already looks like a forlorn tree in late fall, it's hard to see why he'd give up his natural advantage in order to hunt horizontally.

Possibly his weird Vietnam nostalgia is getting out of control. Still, if I come across a guy in the woods in deer season inching through the undergrowth with a mouthful of bear scat, at least I'll know who it is.

Conversely, if you're a 14-point buck and get shot in the toe this autumn, you'll know who to sue.

Tip via NRO's The Corner

The Grid

As predicted by the critics, The Grid on TNT was outstanding tonight: a gritty and dramatic mini-series about the War on [Islamic] Terror. Next episodes: Monday nights through August 9.

Darfur confirmed

The deliberate, implacable nature of the tragedy in Darfur is coming into more focus, not thanks to the United Nations, but through the efforts of global watchdog groups -- for example, Human Rights Watch.

A human rights group claimed Monday to have evidence that Sudan has armed, supported and given political cover to Arab militias carrying out what it called "ethnic cleansing" against black Arab tribesmen in the country's western Darfur province.

Sudan's government has denied any involvement in the militia attacks. But Human Rights Watch said it had proof, and it held a news conference to release summaries of four documents, dated between November 2003 and March 2004 and obtained from the civil administration in Darfur.

The documents "incontrovertibly show that government officials directed recruitment, arming and other support to the ethnic militias known as Janjaweed," said Kenneth Roth, director of the New York-based rights group.

He said the documents, which he claimed had instructions for resettling black tribesman, also show that the Sudanese government lied to Secretary of State Colin Powell and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan when it denied recruiting and arming the militias.

Amnesty International has documented the Arab aggressors' use of rape as an instrument of intimidation.

While African women in Darfur were being raped by the Janjaweed militiamen, Arab women stood nearby and sang for joy, according to an Amnesty International report published yesterday. The songs of the Hakama, or the "Janjaweed women" as the refugees call them, encouraged the atrocities committed by the militiamen.

The women singers stirred up racial hatred against black civilians during attacks on villages in Darfur and celebrated the humiliation of their enemies, the human rights group said.

"[They] appear to be the communicators during the attacks. They are reportedly not actively involved in attacks on people, but participate in acts of looting."

Pollyanna Truscott, Amnesty International's Darfur crisis coordinator, said the rape was part of a systematic dehumanisation of women. "It is done to inflict fear, to force them to leave their communities. It also humiliates the men in their communities."

Amnesty International has posted their full report (PDF).

So, when does the diplomatic world call it genocide?

Irrelevance

Sadly, another washed-up entertainer from the 70s tries to lay claim to more relevance than Nostalgia Act, only to find that the crowd in Las Vegas (!) doesn't care. Hijinks ensue. Cries of "censorship" will surely follow.

Aladdin President Bill Timmins ordered security guards to escort pop diva Linda Ronstadt off the property following a concert Saturday night during which she expressed support for controversial documentary filmmaker Michael Moore.

Timmins, who was among the almost 5,000 fans in the audience at the Aladdin Theatre for the Performing Arts, had Ronstadt escorted to her tour bus and her belongings from her hotel room sent to her. Timmins also sent word to Ronstadt that she was no longer welcome at the property for future performances, according Aladdin spokeswoman Tyri Squyres.

Near the close of her performance, Ronstadt dedicated the Eagles hit "Desperado" to Moore, producer of "Fahrenheit 9/11," and the room erupted into equal parts boos and cheers.

She said Moore "is someone who cares about this country deeply and is trying to help."

Ronstadt has been making the dedication at each of her engagements since she began a national tour earlier this summer, but it has never sparked such a reaction.

Hundreds of angry fans streamed from the theater as Ronstadt sang. Some of them reportedly defaced posters of her in the lobby, writing comments and tossing drinks on her pictures.

Timmins told Las Vegas Sun gossip columnist Timothy McDarrah: "We live in a city where people come from all over the world to be entertained. We hired Ms. Ronstadt as an entertainer, not as a political activist.

In Vegas, baby, it's all about business. To top it off, apparently the show wasn't so hot anyway.

Although she still has that powerful, distinctive voice, Ronstadt was merely going through the motions.

The only song she had trouble with was "Blue Bayou." She stumbled over the lyrics, seemed to gasp for breath at one point and ended the song in Spanish, screaming the words rather than singing them.

Her performance was uninspired and generally flat. She lacked stage presence, doing little more than sleepwalk from song to song.

The fiasco at the end was the most exciting part of the show.

Lest we think it was an aberration on her part or the undoubtedly well-lubricated crowd, the audience reaction in Las Vegas was about the same at prestigious WolfTrap near Washington, D.C.

Many folks had left by the time she ended her main set with "Blue Bayou."

The biggest excitement of the night, by a long shot, came when Ronstadt then dedicated her encore of "Desperado" to filmmaker Michael Moore, kick-starting a boo-cheer competition throughout the venue that drowned out her singing and left grown-ups in tuxes and evening gowns yelling at each other on their way to the parking lot.

The monster

Could be good; could be bad. H-wood usually doesn't get it, so we must fear the worst.

Hollywood's never-ending quest for epic material has taken it back to "the first horror story" - Beowulf, the Old English poem of monster versus man.

Two film versions of the eighth-century Saxon work are under way as studios rush to capitalise on the fascination with myth and legend exposed by the success of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. J R R Tolkein, who wrote the Middle Earth series, cited Beowulf as one of his key influences.

Warner Bros is behind the movie Beowulf, which will be written by Matthew Sand, an art historian and former New York art dealer. Meanwhile, a rival project, Beowulf and Grendel, from a Canadian/British/Icelandic team, begins filming next month and stars the Scottish actor Gerard Butler.

Via The Telegraph (UK)

Since one should never judge a book by its movie, read Beowulf for yourself in a fine verse translation by poet Seamus Heaney, published in a Norton Critical Edition that also includes J.R.R. Tolkien's famous essay "The Monster and the Critics."

Home front

Calendar girls cheer the wounded. Nicely done.

Tip via Blogs of War.

Look into the mirror

Read sobering thoughts at Belmont Club about the inevitable costs of appeasement and our collective inability to precisely specify our enemies in the War on [Islamic] Terror.

One the most most striking things about the Global War on Terror is how closely it's resolution is linked with the longest standing issues of Western society. For that reason the war intrudes directly and insistently on Western domestic politics. The Madrid bombing of March 11, 2004 and the American Presidential elections in November are cases in point. Both are essentially about the War on Terror. The enemy cannot be named because doing so would overturn the 20th century political and economic foundations to its roots. It would tear down the Big Tent of political correctness; put a prosperity heavily dependent on oil supplies at risk; and replace an entire paradigm of international relations. For that reason naming the enemy will avoided for as long as possible; perhaps even after a mushroom or biological cloud darkens an American city.

Excessively pessimistic? No. For an example, consider how the International Court of Justice recently ruled in favor of Palestinian terrorists and against their civilian targets.

Insanely dfficult? Definitely. Read the whole thing.

Surprises

Newsweek is headlining one part of the forthcoming report from the 9-11 Commission.

In its report due next week, the September 11 commission will disclose new evidence suggesting Iranian government officials may have helped facilitate the terror attacks by providing Al Qaeda members with safe passage and “clean” passports as they traveled from Osama bin Laden’s training camps in Afghanistan through Iran, NEWSWEEK has learned.

Citing a recently discovered December 2001 memo buried in the files of the National Security Agency, the commission report states that Iranian border inspectors were instructed not to place stamps in the passports of Al Qaeda fighters from Saudi Arabia who were traveling from bin Laden’s camps through Iran, according to U.S. officials and commission sources familiar with the report.

There will also be another "surprising" disclosure.

Perhaps most surprisingly, the panel found what it called “strong but indirect” evidence that bin Laden’s organization played a role in the 1996 bombing of a U.S. Air Force housing complex at Khobar Towers in Dharan, Saudi Arabia, an attack that killed 19 Americans injured 372 others. That attack had been previously blamed by U.S. officials on a Saudi Shia Hizbullah group that was receiving direct assistance from Iran.

But the 9/11 panel noted that there were reports in the months before the attack that bin Laden was seeking to facilitate a shipment of explosives to Saudi Arabia. On the day of the attack, the interim staff report said, “Bin Laden was congratulated by other members of the Islamic Army.”

The bomb makers

The "deadly game" continues in Iraq.

In a deadly game of technological one-upmanship, insurgents have been adapting their most effective weapon, a concealed and remotely detonated bomb, to increasingly sophisticated American attempts to detect the devices before they explode.

During a morning security sweep of city streets on Thursday, American soldiers based here at Camp Freedom said the modifications suggested that there was a kind of technical elite, sometimes referred to generically as "the bomb makers," who were guiding the changing designs.

"It's this constant chess match," said Capt. J. Philip Ludvigson, a member of the Stryker brigade combat team, named for the nimble armored vehicle that made the sweeps. "They change their techniques around and find out new ways to kill us," he said, "and we figure out new ways to counter it."

The test of wits is important in itself, expressing itself in lives gained and lost. But soldiers involved in detecting and analyzing the devices said the game might also be providing new insight into the mysterious, dedicated and skilled core of people who might be leading the insurgency, with devastating effect across Iraq.

"The education level of the ordinary Iraqi is not sufficient to be able to initiate these things," said Capt. Kenneth Mitchell, commander of the Stryker brigade's engineer company.

"I couldn't build one of these," Captain Mitchell said. "They are smart. There is a training network out there. There is an instructor."

Refusing to pretend

John Kerry made a fool of himself at the NAACP annual convention this week, including an indulgence in 60's nostalgia: a pathetic, white-bread "Black Power" salute.

President Bush, correctly sensing a political trap, chose wisely not to attend. His press secretary was unusually direct about why.

The President believes it's important to have a constructive dialogue that brings Americans together around shared priorities. Unfortunately, the current leadership has just shown that they are not interested in having a constructive dialogue by continuing to engage in harsh political rhetoric.

Black intellectual John McWhorter saw the situation without blinders.

The measure of Bush's commitment to African American issues is disconnected from any gestures he makes to the NAACP. The only reason for him to speak at its annual convention would have been as a token gesture. But beside the fact that black Americans have endured quite enough tokenism, why should Bush court an organization whose national leaders regularly rake him over the coals?

On Sunday night, Bond charged that the Republicans appeal to "the dark underside of American culture" and "preach neutrality and practice racial division." Earlier, Mfume accused Bush of a "lack of concern" for the black community. But when Bush was touting his faith-based initiatives to help poor communities, Bond and Mfume decried it as discriminatory. How progressive was this of leaders representing a deeply Christian race whose communities are typically rooted in the church? And needless to say, the NAACP does not like private school vouchers. Obviously Bush cannot win here.

In fact, Bush ought not court an organization that considers him a racist, despises any race-sensitive proposal he offers and plays no serious role in addressing the problems of the community they purport to represent.

Secretary of Education Rod Paige came out from behind his desk to issue a little corporal punishment to the Bad Boys.

I have a message for the NAACP's Julian Bond and Kweisi Mfume, who have accused black conservatives of being the "puppets" of white people, unable to think for ourselves: You do not own, and you are not the arbiters of, African-American authenticity.

I am a lifelong member of the NAACP. I have a great respect for the organization. Its historical leaders, all visionary thinkers, have been responsible for helping to advance the struggle of African Americans over the past century, making our nation a more equitable and race-blind society. Sadly, the current NAACP leadership has managed to take a proud, effective organization in a totally new direction: naked partisan politics, pure and simple.

The corrosive rhetoric espoused by the NAACP may make headlines and get out the vote in some quarters, but it is counterproductive, damaging and a betrayal of the organization's own origins. I would think our community would be better off looking toward the future, helping our children live up to their potential.

Talking head Bill O'Reilly prostrated himself before Mfume in an embarrassing Fox News "interview." O'Reilly routinely gives a pass to certain guests, but this was just an exercise in open fawning.

The IRS helpfully explains how non-profits must meet certain requirements to avoid paying taxes:

To be tax-exempt as an organization described in IRC Section 501(c)(3) of the Code, an organization must be organized and operated exclusively for one or more of the purposes set forth in IRC Section 501(c)(3) and none of the earnings of the organization may inure to any private shareholder or individual. In addition, it may not attempt to influence legislation as a substantial part of its activities and it may not participate at all in campaign activity for or against political candidates.

But at the convention this week, Julian Bond wasn't exactly hands-off in terms of the presidential and congressional campaigns.

NAACP Chairman Julian Bond called on members of the nation's largest and oldest civil rights organization to boost voter turnout to help oust President Bush.

During his keynote speech at the group's 95th annual convention Sunday night in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Bond also assailed the Bush administration and the Republican Party, accusing the GOP of "playing the race card in election after election."

The party appeals "to the dark underside of American culture, to the minority of Americans who reject democracy and equality," Bond said. "They preach neutrality and practice racial division."

Many black people are "ready to turn anger into action, to work for regime change here at home," Bond said. "But they have to be asked. They have to be registered, organized and mobilized."

In the address, posted on the group's Web site, Bond took aim at virtually all the administration's top domestic and foreign policies.

Not an isolated outburst, Bond's speech repeated the same themes sounded at a June conference in Indiana.

NAACP Chairman Julian Bond told Indiana lawmakers and business leaders Wednesday that President Bush and other Republicans appeal to a racist "dark underside of American culture."

In a wide-ranging speech at the annual Indiana Economic Development Conference, Bond attacked Bush's record on civil rights and criticized the war in Iraq.

"They preach racial equality but practice racial division," he told an audience gathered at the Westin Hotel in Downtown Indianapolis.

"Their idea of equal rights is the American flag and Confederate swastika flying side by side."

He never specifically used the term Republican, but referred to leaders who control the White House and Congress, where Republicans outnumber Democrats.

Too bad the political culture in our country will not allow an honest appraisal that the NAACP is not only absurdly and openly partisan, and that it should be stripped of its tax-exempt status as well.

They are coming

There's this Reuters report via Wired.

Western diplomats say recent intelligence reports show Iran has been attempting to buy items that could be used to build nuclear weapons -- a charge Tehran dismisses as baseless.

The diplomats cited European customs information and intelligence gathered in the Middle East showing Tehran had tried to buy, among other things, high-speed switches that could potentially be used in a nuclear weapon and high-speed cameras the Iranians might use to test a nuclear explosion.

"They appear to be working on the planning for a high-speed nuclear implosion device," the diplomat said, adding that Iran had also been experimenting with "high explosive that would be appropriate for the core of a nuclear weapon."

"There is a recognition here that time is a very critical factor," said a non-Western diplomatic source. "The red line is not when they (the Iranians) get the bomb, but when they don't need any more external assistance."

And then there's this, via Pakistan's Daily Times.

Hundreds of alleged members of Al Qaeda, including 18 of its top leaders, and other terror groups are living in Iran, some under tight security, Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper reported on Thursday. “More than 384 members of Al Qaeda and other terrorist organisations are present in Iran, including 18 senior leaders of Osama bin Laden’s network,” the London-based daily said, citing a senior source in the Iranian presidency.

The Saudi-owned newspaper said the terrorist leaders were living under tight protection, some of them in villas in the Namak Abrud region, near the town of Chalous on the Caspian coast, 100 kilometres (60 miles) north of Tehran. Others are living in Lavizan, in the north-west of the capital, and which also houses a large military complex, it added. The report could not be verified in Tehran.

According to the source, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad convinced Tehran, during his visit to Iran early this month, of the “seriousness” of using Al Qaeda elements in Iran as a card in its policy with the United States.

Can it all wait until after Election Day?

The Grid

This could be good: Turner Network Television and BBC have a new mini-series premiering Monday night.

THE GRID involves a terrorist cell operating on a global level and a team of American and British counter-terrorists who are tasked with stopping it. It focuses on the emotional cost of war on victims, as well as the emotional cost on those fighting terrorism. The story opens with a deadly sarin attack in London.

The Houston Chronicle TV critic says it looks good.

The series, which bows at 8 p.m. Monday, has the look and feel of today's reality. Executive producer Tracey Alexander, relying on input from retired Navy captain and Pentagon consultant Larry Seaquist, gives the six-hour The Grid scenarios and locations — Washington, London, Morocco — that reek of authenticity.

And the cast includes Bernard Hill, last seen as King Theoden in The Lord of the Rings. We'll be watching.

The China threat

Another "intelligence failure" as China makes further preparations for war with democratic Taiwan. What will we do? What would John Kerry do?

China's naval buildup has produced a new type of attack submarine that U.S. intelligence did not know was under construction, according to U.S. defense and intelligence officials.

The submarine was spotted several weeks ago for the first time and has been designated by the Pentagon as the first Yuan-class of submarine.

One official said the new submarine was a "technical surprise" to U.S. intelligence, which was unaware that Beijing was building a new non-nuclear powered attack submarine. U.S. intelligence agencies have few details about the new submarine but believe it is diesel-powered rather than nuclear-powered, said officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The new boat, which appears to be a combination of indigenous Chinese hardware and Russian weapons, suggests that China is building up its submarine forces in preparation for a conflict over Taiwan, defense analysts say.

"China has decided submarines are its first-line warships now, their best shot at beating carriers," said Sid Trevethan, an Alaska-based specialist on the Chinese military. "And China is right."

K-dog?

John Kerry transforms from white bread to cornbread. Blogs of War is there.

The sensationalism premium

Karl Zinsmeister of the American Enterprise Institute completed his second tour of embedded journalism with the U.S. military in Iraq this year, and he has some thoughts on why press coverage of the war is so incomplete and often skewed.

There is a premium on sensationalism that overemphasizes bad news and problems. Deadline pressures, laziness, and a lack of imagination push coverage in the same gloomy direction. The easiest story to tell in war is to simply point the camera at something that has blown up. It takes more time to write about the 99 counterparts that are NOT in flames.

I had to spend months in Iraq walking the streets with patrols, observing lots of humble happenings, every day all day, to get the fuller picture of daily accomplishments, shifting public opinion, rising competence, etc. You can’t get this story if you’re staying in the Palestine Hotel in the Green Zone and charging out only to describe the bombing aftermaths. And even if you could, your newspaper or TV network might not run it, because they want today’s drama, not the slower, subtler changes that historians will look back at and notice.

Ideological imbalance in the press corps also is a problem. A whole string of studies dating back a quarter century show that elite reporters are Democratic over Republican, liberal over conservative, dovish over hawkish by about ten to one. Don’t tell me that doesn’t matter (as some journalists will claim), particularly in a war which has taken on strong partisan colorations as this one has.

Another problem that interferes with full and accurate reporting is the cultural distance that separates most journalists from military men and military work. Few journalists have any friends or relatives in the military. They often know little about weapons or tactics or the physical and mental demands of fighting. They are often very different kinds of people from typical soldiers. I don’t think it’s healthy that there is such a sharp cultural divide between those who fight our wars and those who get to interpret them for the public. More reporters with military experience, or at least an appreciation of military rigors, ought to be recruited into our newsrooms.

Iran stirs the pot again

Another challenge looms for Iraq's nascent security forces and the Coalition. Guess who is behind it.

Hundreds of militiamen loyal to rebel cleric Moqtada al-Sadr are rearming in their sanctuary in the Shiite holy city of Najaf in possible preparation for a new offensive, say US and Iraqi officials here.

As many as 80 Iranian agents are working with an estimated 500 Sadr militiamen, known as the Mahdi Army, providing training and nine 57-mm Russian antiaircraft guns to add to stocks of mortars, antitank weapons, and other armaments, according to Iraqi and US intelligence reports.

"They are preparing for something, gathering weapons; people are coming in buses from other parts of Iraq," says Michael al-Zurufi, the Iraqi security adviser of Najaf Province. "The most important are the Iranians. The Iranian people are trying to reorganize Sadr's militia so they can fight again."

At the same time, heavily armed Sadr militiamen are waging fear tactics, kidnapping local Iraqi police and family members, occupying buildings, and arresting Iraqis deemed critical of Sadr or in violation of Islamic law, residents and officials say.

Flushed

Damn, my significant other gets results, and fast. First, she sends me this.

I have just sent the following comment to Slim-Fast.com:

Wed, 14 Jul 2004 13:52:41 -0700 (CDT)
Subject: Whoopi Goldberg

Your spokesperson uses vulgar language and crude references. Using a celebrity spokesperson is always a gamble. I know Slim-Fast is not responsible for her comments but the offensiveness of Goldberg's comments at a recent political fundraiser would make her a better spokesman for products like 2000 Flushes. Lysol, Vanish or Scrubbing Bubbles. I will not be using Slim-Fast products as long as Ms. Goldberg speaks for your company. The association between toilets and your products is just too strong.

Then Drudge reports this within hours.

Details here. Way to go, dear.

John Kerry has been resisting calls to release the tape of Whoopi and her friends on stage. Lindsey Graham even called him out on the question. If it was only a case of artists doing what they "needed to do," there shouldn't be such reluctance.

What is France good for?

Zut alors! Today is Bastille Day. I know, I know... I don't care either. But Mark Steyn says we should give the French their due.

There are many idiotic incoherent leaders in the world, but Jacques Chirac is not among them. Say what you like about M. le President - call him irresponsible, call him unreliable, throw in shifty, devious, corrupt, and almost absurdly conceited. But he’s not stupid. The issue for the French is very straightforward: What’s in it for us?

The answer to that may vary, but frame the question as a negative and the reply is always the same: What’s not in it for France is that America should emerge with its present pre-eminence even more enhanced.

Meanwhile, the peacenik predisposition of the other Continentals – the Paavo Lipponens and Chris Pattens - is a useful cover for French ambition. You can’t beat the Americans on the battlefield, but you can tie them down limb by limb in the UN and other supranational bodies. If you make sure the embryo institutions of world government are built in France’s image, America’s strength will be as irrelevant as that of the class freak or the town misfit.

In other words, this is the war, this is the real battlefield, not the sands of Mesopotamia or the Hindu Kush. And, on this terrain, Paris figures, Americans always lose. Either they win but get no credit, as in Afghanistan. Or they win a temporary constrained victory to be subverted by subsequent French machinations, as in the first Gulf War.

Through it all France is admirably upfront in its unilateralism: It reserves the right to treat French Africa as its colonies, Middle Eastern dictators as its clients, the European Union as a Greater France and the UN as a kind of global condom to prevent the spread of Americanization. All this it does shamelessly and relatively effectively. It’s time the rest of us were so clear-sighted.

Tip via Tim Blair.

Twisted

As noted last week, Sen. Jay Rockefeller has behaved like a partisan ass since the release of the Senate's report on Iraq intelligence. Now the DoD is standing its ground on one of Rockefeller's carefully orchestrated innuendos.

The Pentagon is accusing Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV of distorting the intelligence work of its No. 3 civilian official, and calling on the Democrat to prove his charges or retract them.

It is unusual for the Pentagon to formally take on a sitting senator. In this case, the challenge came in a letter to Mr. Rockefeller on Friday from Powell A. Moore, the assistant secretary of defense for legislative affairs.

"On behalf of the department, I request that, if you have any evidence supporting the serious charge you floated during your press conference, you provide it to the department," Mr. Moore wrote to Mr. Rockefeller of West Virginia, ranking Democrat on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence,who has emerged as one of the Senate's fiercest critics of President Bush.

"If there is not evidence, then a retraction and apology would be appropriate," said the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Times.

The unanimous committee report made a brief mention of the intelligence work of the No. 3 official, Douglas Feith, undersecretary of defense for policy. But the report did not criticize Mr. Feith or accuse him of wrongdoing. The bipartisan report, which Mr. Rockefeller approved, said there was no evidence that any policy-maker had pressured CIA analysts to conform intelligence findings to the Pentagon's point of view.

At his post-report press conference, Mr. Rockefeller charged the opposite.

The Washington Times article reminds us that Rockefeller is sticking to the Democratic battle plan.

In November, an internal memo from Mr. Rockefeller's staff leaked to conservative radio host Sean Hannity. It detailed a strategy whereby committee Democrats would cooperate with Republicans to produce a report as critical as possible of the Bush administration. Once the report came out, the strategy paper said, Democrats would then push for more investigations no matter what the first investigation said.

If you doubt it, read the full text of the Democratic strategy memo, prepared in 2003. Next step: demand an independent counsel before Election Day.

Prepare to launch an independent investigation when it becomes clear we have exhausted the opportunity to usefully collaborate with the majority. We can pull the trigger on an independent investigation at any time-- but we can only do so once. The best time to do so will probably be next year.

Posted by Alan at 12:12 PM

Interrogation

Interesting new details from Sec. of Defense Donald Rumsfeld about the supposed use of "torture" in prisoner interrogations at Guantanamo, from an interview with David Frost.

Q: Coming on for a moment to the awesome subject really, of the abuse of prisoners and so on. The headlines about that probably in every country in the world have been there all this week, of course, because of the administration's release of the documents regarding prisoner abuse and so on.

And reading through them, Mr. Secretary, there's one that says about how in December 2002 you approved a list of new interrogation techniques to be used at Guantanamo Bay, which included dogs, nudity, hooding of prisoners, fear of dogs, use of stress positions, isolation of up to 30 days, 20-hour interrogations, forced shaving and so on. Now, instantly one would say that six weeks later you retracted that. But what changed your mind?

SEC. RUMSFELD: Well, the sequence went like this. I received a proposal from the commander in charge of Guantanamo Bay, to permit a series of techniques to be used for interrogation. They were checked with the lawyers, they were determined to be within the President's order that the treatment be humane and I ended up looking at the list and rejected a number of them, and accepted some and approved it. Shortly after I approved it, in a matter of weeks, there was some discussion that took place among some lawyers, that they were concerned about some of those techniques.

So I said, fine, I orally discontinued the use of those techniques, said get the lawyers grouped together, let's have another discussion over this and come back and tell me what we think is the appropriate way consistent with Geneva Conventions and consistent with humane treatment, that they ought to be treated.

So that first tranche of techniques were in place, I believe, for a matter of five or six weeks, and then they were discontinued, and about a month later we issued a new order indicating what the procedures and techniques would be permitted.

You asked how it happened. It happened because there was a single detainee that was being interrogated. His name was Katani -- Al Katani -- who was considered to be the 20th hijacker in connection with the 9-11 attack on the United States where 3,000 people were killed -- men women and children from dozens of different countries. And he was not being cooperative and the request came up in connection with that person. The techniques that you described were not used, I'm told, on anyone one other than Katani. We may find out that's not correct at some point in the future, but at least my information thus far is that that's the case. And that's kind of the background for that.

This was a very bad person, a person who clearly had information about attacks against the United States and the techniques had all been approved by the legal community and the joint staff and in the Department of Defense and at the combatant command. And it was after some concern came up that we decided to rescind them and re-look at them.

Filipino fear

Belmont Club analyzes the "abject" capitulation of the Phillipines government to terrorist kidnappers in Iraq here and here. Sadly, the price of appeasement is always the same.

Dostoevsky once observed that the suffering of children was the greatest argument against the existence of God. He should have realized that, on the contrary, God has to exist if men like Angelo de la Cruz, who accepted a job in Iraq to pay for an eye operation for his son, are ever to be recompensed for the misfortune of having been born under the Philipine elite. Whatever his fate, the catastrophe that has overtaken the Arroyo administration for its spineless shilly-shallying is shatteringly complete. Churchill knew that cowardice, no less than bravery had its price. Addressing his words to the men of Munich, he said:

"You were given the choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor and you will have war."

Michelle Malkin is "deeply, mortifyingly ashamed of my parents' native land."

The island nation has gone and pulled a Spain (and a France and a Germany). Philippine president Gloria Macagapal-Arroyo has crumbled like a fried lumpia wrapper under pressure from radical Muslim terrorists.

The Battling Bastards of Bataan have given way to the Mollycoddling Milksops of Manila. And ultimately, we -- not just Filipinos, but all Americans and our allies battling Islamofascism -- will pay a grisly price for this disgraceful capitulation.

Tenet (and Casey) were wrong

Former CIA researcher Reuel Marc Gerecht, now a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, says the conventional wisdom about what's wrong with the CIA is way off the mark. His conclusion:

Successful espionage operations against al Qaeda and other Islamic terrorist organizations would be defined by the efforts of a small group of men who seed themselves into these organizations. Some, probably most, of these men would need to be actual case officers--CIA employees--not foreign agents the CIA has recruited. The complexity of the task, target, and culture demands a level and reliability of information that would come much more easily from case officers acting as jihadists. The CIA will be a serious espionage organization ready for the twenty-first century only when its professional ranks are dominated in numbers and influence by such officers, who operate far away from U.S. embassies and consulates.

The entire system for finding, training, and deploying overseas case officers of this type needs to be completely overhauled. The "farm," the legendary training ground for case officers in the woody swamps of Virginia, ought to be abandoned. It has never had much relevance to the practice of espionage overseas. It is a symbol of the Agency's lack of seriousness. This new cadre needs to be a breed apart. Their operational half-life in the field might be at most ten years. It is hard to imagine them married and with kids. It is also hard to imagine their coming into being unless these jihadist moles are well paid. A starting salary of a quarter of a million dollars a year would be reasonable. Outsiders will know such a change is afoot when there are rumors of case officers' regularly dying abroad.

This is not likely to happen, of course. Tenet, like Casey, will be damned for the wrong things. And if another 9/11 happens, we will start all over again, with more committees, investigations, recriminations, and blue-ribbon recommendations. Another director will come, and the Agency--in the press at least--will again be reborn. We can all be thankful, of course, that bin Ladenism will in the end be defeated not by the prowess of American intelligence, but by the democratization of the Middle East. Otherwise, we would be effectively defenseless against a small, tightly knit platoon of holy warriors who live to kill and die.

There's a lot more. Read the whole thing.

Elie Wiesel on America

Elie Wiesel -- holocaust survivor, human rights activist, and Nobel Prize winner -- knows a thing or two about the world. He wrote about America's role, warts and all, for Parade Magazine on July 4th.

As a great power, America has always seemed concerned with other people’s welfare, especially in Europe. Twice in the 20th century, it saved the “Old World” from dictatorship and tyranny.

America understands that a nation is great not because its economy is flourishing or its army invincible but because its ideals are loftier. Hence America’s desire to help those who have lost their freedom to conquer it again. America’s credo might read as follows: For an individual, as for a nation, to be free is an admirable duty—but to help others become free is even more admirable.

Some skeptics may object: But what about Vietnam? And Cambodia? And the support some administrations gave to corrupt regimes in Africa or the Middle East? And the occupation of Iraq? Did we go wrong—and if so, where?

And what are we to make of the despicable, abominable “interrogation methods” used on Iraqi prisoners of war by a few soldiers (but even a few are too many) in Iraqi military prisons?

Well, one could say that no nation is composed of saints alone. None is sheltered from mistakes or misdeeds. All have their Cain and Abel. It takes vision and courage to undergo serious soul-searching and to favor moral conscience over political expediency. And America, in extreme situations, is endowed with both. America is always ready to learn from its mishaps. Self-criticism remains its second nature.

Not surprising, some Europeans do not share such views. In extreme left-wing political and intellectual circles, suspicion and distrust toward America is the order of the day. They deride America’s motives for its military interventions, particularly in Iraq. They say: It’s just money. As if America went to war only to please the oil-rich capitalists.

They are wrong. America went to war to liberate a population too long subjected to terror and death.

We see in newspapers and magazines and on television screens the mass graves and torture chambers imposed by Saddam Hussein and his accomplices. One cannot but feel grateful to the young Americans who leave their families, some to lose their lives, in order to bring to Iraq the first rays of hope—without which no people can imagine the happiness of welcoming freedom.

Hope is a key word in the vocabulary of men and women like myself and so many others who discovered in America the strength to overcome cynicism and despair. Remember the legendary Pandora’s box? It is filled with implacable, terrifying curses. But underneath, at the very bottom, there is hope. Now as before, now more than ever, it is waiting for us.

Mistaken ululation

Clear-thinking British liberal Oliver Kamm makes "the liberal case for returning Bush to the White House."

Senator Kerry’s line of attack against the Administration’s foreign policy is misconceived. Sceptical of the malleability of the international order, it echoes the traditional conservative incantation against “nation-building”. But America is not trying to build nations, which take generations to evolve. It has the more limited aim of replacing failed states and tyrannies with institutional arrangements that protect people from capricious rule and violence.

No more facile remark has been uttered about the Iraq war than John Kerry’s lament that it diverted the focus of the War on Terror. Overthrowing Baathist totalitarianism was a humanitarian cause, but it also buttressed Western security. Recent academic research suggests that — contrary to numerous confident episcopal assertions — the “root cause” of terrorism is not poverty but political repression. Societies where dissent is confined to religious absolutism are incubators of violent anti-Western fanaticism.

Democrats had the chance to avoid the type of embittered and personalised partisanship that characterised Republican attacks on President Clinton’s Kosovo intervention. They could have offered a thoughtful critique of the flawed execution of Bush’s foreign policy. Instead Kerry ululates about the President’s perfidy in exaggerating Saddam’s military threat. But European liberals should have scant reason to wish for this obscurantist reactionary Democrat in the White House.

Tanning

This is more than just "weird but true"...

If you just can't stay away from your neighborhood tanning salon, new research suggests that you may have developed a dangerous habit you can't break.

You could be fighting ultraviolet light addiction.

You read correctly. Habitual patrons of tanning parlors may be drawn to the ultraviolet exposure for its mood-boosting ability, says a study in the July issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.

It's this mood-boosting effect, not just the bronzed skin, that brings tanning salon fans back for more, said study author Dr. Steven Feldman, a professor of dermatology, pathology and public health sciences at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

When tanners were offered a choice at one point in the study between tanning beds with UV lights and impostor beds, most chose the UV bed every time, even though the two versions looked identical. "Like Pavlov's dog, they chose more UV light," Feldman said.

The next time you hear a little voice telling you to find the UV light, just say "No." Tanning beds are stupid. Why? It's spelled C-A-N-C-E-R.

Spyjudge

Now, this is an entirely different kind of moonlighting.

CONRAD, MONT. - By day, she’s the municipal judge of this tiny town, a wife and mother of three, but by moonlight Shannen Rossmiller is a spy.

Then, Rossmiller — petite, blond and 34 — assumes one of several unlikely false identities, all angry, violent, Muslim men, nurturing hatred of the United States. In that guise, she combs the Internet through the late evening and early morning and sifts through the messages and declarations on extremist Islamic Web sites.

During those hours, Rossmiller is on a quest that consumes hours of each day, days of each week. It’s one that will place her on the stand Thursday as the government’s primary witness against a National Guardsman accused of offering information to help Muslim extremists kill U.S. troops.

It’s a quest that has already placed her in danger.

Rossmiller works with an exclusive group, a coalition of seven civilians, international "cyber spies" who chase terrorists on the Internet.

They call themselves the "7-Seas."

Until recently they were a largely unknown, almost clandestine bunch. Named for its global scope, the group consists of Rossmiller; a nuclear physicist/software designer in Canada; a corporate security consultant in Houston; a former private detective in Singapore; an Australian; and two other Americans.

They might have remained unknown. That is, if some of Rossmiller’s efforts hadn’t paid off, if she hadn’t run across Ryan Anderson, a National Guardsman accused of attempting to defect to al-Qaida and offering information on troop strength and vulnerable points on a Bradley Fighting Vehicle.

Rossmiller never planned to be a witness. But then, she’d never planned to become a spy.

Columnist Michelle Malkin takes note, adds Rossmiller to the "list of Moms Who Rock," but then ponders whether or not it's a good idea for us to even know about this.

Multi-media terrorism

National Public Radio had an interesting report on the use of multi-media propaganda by Iraqi insurgents.

Both sides in the Iraq war use propaganda, but the insurgencies are becoming more and more sophisticated - broadcast quality videos of actual attacks, and the like. U.S. commanders sometimes use the videos to show their troops how the other side fights.

Slam

Vice President Dick Cheney is unimpressed with claims that John Kerry and other Democrats were duped into voting for war with Iraq.

These are not times for leaders who shift with the political winds, saying one thing one day and another, the next. That brings to mind our opponents in this campaign. Sometimes their position on a big issue depends on when you ask them.

When Congress voted to authorize force against Saddam Hussein, Senator Kerry and Senator Edwards both voted yes. Now it seems they've both developed a convenient case of campaign amnesia. Many times prior to the war in Iraq, Senator Kerry described Saddam Hussein as a threat to the United States, and said that this was, "always his position on Iraq." And Senator Edwards, in an interview on television, called Iraq, "the most serious and imminent threat to our country."

For those reasons, John Kerry and John Edwards voted to authorize force. There was widespread agreement on the nature of the threat from Iraq's former dictator. Our administration, the Congress, members of the U.N. Security Council, members of the previous administration -- all reviewed the intelligence and all concluded Saddam Hussein was a threat.

Senator Kerry and Senator Edwards are criticizing the President for looking at the same information they did and coming to the same conclusion they did. The President made the right decision, and John Kerry is simply trying to rewrite history for his own political purposes.

WFB in NYT

As an era closes, conservative godfather William F. Buckley is interviewed by The New York Times. Snarky questions generate appropriately ascerbic replies.

You have made so many offensive comments over the years. Do you regret any of them?

I regret all spontaneous exchanges, because they aren't as concise as you can make them deliberately. Charles de Gaulle used to memorize replies to anticipated questions from the press.

Do you regret saying that patients with AIDS should be tattooed on their backsides to identify them to potential bedmates?

If the protocol had been accepted, many who caught the infection unguardedly would be alive. Probably over a million.

You seem indifferent to suffering. Have you ever suffered yourself?

I do not advertise adversity and would certainly not talk about visits with psychiatrists or proctologists.

How is your health?

Infirm. Though nothing either terminal or unique.

Bad dogs

S.C. Republican Lindsey Graham is calling out John Kerry and his puppy...

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): "The label game is a result of how you behave. Call me a conservative."

ABC'S GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: "You're a conservative."

GRAHAM: "Thank you very much. I am. I'm proud of it. I vote that way. John Edwards is the fourth most liberal member of the Senate. John Kerry is -- who is liberal? Is there anybody in the Senate who will admit to being liberal. There's nothing wrong with being an American liberal. I want the tape from New York. I want to see the standing ovation they got in New York when Hollywood –"

STEPHANOPOULOS: "Now what are you talking about there? Explain the story for our viewers."

GRAHAM: "I'm talking about the hate fest in New York where people who don't mind being called liberal got up and ran President Bush into the ground and applauded these two gentlemen. I want that tape. And let's see people in Louisiana and South Carolina. Let's hear what was said in New York and let's look at the reactions of Edwards and Kerry and let's see if these people really are liberal or they've got values based on the crowd in front of them."

Tip via Backcountry Conservative

... over their multi-million dollar stylin' evening last week in New York City.

NEW YORK - Hollywood stars at a Democratic fundraiser here late Thursday night ripped President Bush as a liar, "another cheap thug" and a killer in a night of Bush bashing that put the Kerry team on the defensive and provoked widespread criticism.

Both Sens. John Kerry and John Edwards were on stage at Radio City Music Hall as the stars uttered their remarks. Neither one rebuked them. Kerry, in fact, said that every performer "conveyed the heart and soul of America."

At the gala concert Thursday, attended by 6,000 people, many of the stars of political Hollywood savaged Bush and his administration.

Actress Meryl Streep attacked Bush's frequent references to his religious faith.

"I wondered to myself through the shock and awe, I wondered which of the mega-ton bombs Jesus, our president's personal savior, would have personally dropped on the sleeping families in Baghdad," Streep said.

Comedian Whoopi Goldberg caused nervous laughter, and uncomfortable looks from Kerry and Edwards, when she repeatedly referred to the new vice presidential candidate as "kid" -- and made off-color sexual puns on the president's name.

"They just want to kill"

Kofi Annan is free to think and speak in high-minded abstractions about Israel's security decisions.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Sunday called on Israel to respect the ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that the barrier being built by Israel along its border with Palestine is illegal and should be dismantled.

"I think the decision of the court is clear," Annan, who is here to open the International AIDS Conference, told reporters.

"While we accept that the government of Israel has a responsibility and duty to protect its citizens, any action it takes has to be in conformity with international law and has to respect the interests of the Palestinians," Annan said.

Others do not have the benefits of comfort and distance from the blast zone.

The images from the explosion kept running through Sammi Masrawa's mind as he lay in his hospital bed - a young female soldier with the back of her head missing, a heavily pregnant woman lying on the sidewalk, legs mangled legs, screaming "my baby, my baby.'

Sunday's blast at a Tel Aviv bus stop had changed his world view.

The 29-year-old Arab Israeli from Tel Aviv was the head of a local committee calling for coexistence between Israelis and the Palestinians.

Now he wants them kept apart.

"A month ago I went to protest the fence," he said, referring to the barrier Israel is building in the West Bank. "Now I believe it can only strengthen us."

The bombing came just two days after the world court ruled that the barrier is illegal. Israel says the structure keeps bombers out, while Palestinians says it encroaches on their land and disrupts the lives of thousands of people.

Nearly 1,000 Israelis have been killed, many of them in bombings, since fighting broke out four years ago. Just over 3,000 Palestinians were killed in the same period, most by Israeli army fire.

Masrawa thinks there is no choice but to build the barrier.

"These terrorists don't differentiate between Jews and Arabs, they just want to kill," he said, glass shards embedded in his leg, as his wife shook her head in disbelief at his political transformation.

Masrawa had just descended from a bus on his way to work as a chef in nearby restaurant when a bomb hidden in the shrubs behind the bus stop went off.

Bus driver Eyal Gazit said he initially thought the bomb was on his bus.

"Suddenly a large boom, a cloud of black and all the bus was covered ... the windows blew out," he told Israel's Army Radio. "There were screams...the passengers were jumping over each other trying to escape from the bus."

At the bus stop, cigarette butts floated in a pool of blood next to a black, high-heel shoe. A rescue worker carried off a bloodstained bag as others methodically searched the road for body parts.

Amazingly, in the face of such depravity, hope still clings to life -- but grounded in bloodied reality, not floating from the salons of cushioned diplomats.

Masrawa has not given up entirely on Arab Israeli coexistence.

"I want to say that I am an Israeli Arab and I'm proud to be an Arab who tried to save a soldier," he said.

Diana Krall in Houston

Enjoyed the concert last night at Houston's Jones Hall by jazz pianist and chanteuse Diana Krall. Although she was apparently suffering from mouth pain and is scheduled for a root canal (ouch) on Monday, her performance was first-rate. As expected, her jazz chops were in fine form, but the show was also funkier and more soulful than expected.

The Houston Chronicle filed a positive, if unfocused, concert review this morning.

It took 11 years, seven albums and a renewed appreciation for torchy female piano chanteuses by the mainstream audience, but Diana Krall has finally become the piano diva she was destined to be.

She is a bit more blue-collar than [Alicia] Keys or [Norah] Jones and not quite as dashing as Harry Connick, but her sultry delivery and intensity while vamping convinces the listener that sound is more important to her than style. Her formal training versus denim appearance may soon define her.

This Knight-Ridder feature story served as a preview yesterday.

And thanks to our daughters for the gift of last night's tickets!

Animal cruelty

Columnist Robert Novak reports that John Kerry may send his puppy on a photo-op junket to Iraq.

Tentative plans are being discussed inside the Kerry-Edwards campaign to send vice-presidential candidate John Edwards to Iraq as soon as possible. Edwards has not gone to Iraq since the U.S. invasion last year. His visit there would be designed to try to fill the senator's lack of experience in national security policy. It also would provide the campaign with photo opportunities showing Edwards in close contact with U.S. troops in Iraq.

Tip via James Joyner at Outside the Beltway, who correctly observes that this is "laughable." Not the last such decision we will see.

Not fooled again

Musician Pete Townshend, not exactly a right-winger, has a bone to pick with bloated poseur Michael Moore. Townshend is acting gentlemanly; Moore, naturally, is not.

Michael Moore has been making some claims – mentioning me by name - which I believe distort the truth.

He says – among other things – that I refused to allow him to use my song WON’T GET FOOLED AGAIN in his latest film, because I support the war, and that at the last minute I recanted, but he turned me down. I have never hidden the fact that at the beginning of the war in Iraq I was a supporter. But now, like millions of others, I am less sure we did the right thing.

I had not really been convinced by BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE, and had been worried about its accuracy; it felt to me like a bullying film. Out of courtesy to Harvey [Weinstein] I suggested that if he and Moore were determined to have me reconsider, I should at least get a chance to see a copy of the new film. I knew that with Cannes on the horizon, time was running short for them, and this might not be possible. I never received a copy of the film to view. At no time did I ask Moore or Miramax to reconsider anything. Once I had an idea what the film was about I was 90% certain my song was not right for them.

I have nothing against Michael Moore personally, and I know Roger Daltrey is a friend and fan of his, but I greatly resent being bullied and slurred by him in interviews just because he didn’t get what he wanted from me.

Moore is incapable of honesty, even with those whom he claims to admire, like author Ray Bradbury. He's just a scavenger.

Cold truth

So, Joe Wilson is a liar, according to the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Not a surprise.

Former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, dispatched by the CIA in February 2002 to investigate reports that Iraq sought to reconstitute its nuclear weapons program with uranium from Africa, was specifically recommended for the mission by his wife, a CIA employee, contrary to what he has said publicly.

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.

Wilson's assertions -- both about what he found in Niger and what the Bush administration did with the information -- were undermined yesterday in a bipartisan Senate intelligence committee report.

The panel found that Wilson's report, rather than debunking intelligence about purported uranium sales to Iraq, as he has said, bolstered the case for most intelligence analysts. And contrary to Wilson's assertions and even the government's previous statements, the CIA did not tell the White House it had qualms about the reliability of the Africa intelligence that made its way into 16 fateful words in President Bush's January 2003 State of the Union address.

The report turns a harsh spotlight on what Wilson has said about his role in gathering prewar intelligence, most pointedly by asserting that his wife, CIA employee Valerie Plame, recommended him.

Mindless smugness

John Kerry and his puppy had their fun with their Hollywood friends, and now have to pay a price.

Sens. John Kerry and John Edwards boasted about the positive tone of their presidential campaign Friday, hours after celebrities at one of their fund-raisers unleashed a stream of invective against President Bush that sparked outrage from Republicans and calls by Bush supporters for Kerry to make public a tape of the event.

Comedian Whoopi Goldberg's monologue included a sexual pun on Bush's name. Bush was called a "thug," and other performers on the stage Thursday night at Radio City Music Hall accused him of leading the nation to war for political gain.

A crowd of more than 6,000 people, who donated an estimated $7.5 million to the Kerry-Edwards campaign and the Democratic National Committee, responded with a mixture of laughter and incredulity.

"Someone was waging war in the name of Bush. Someone misled the country in the name of Bush. Someone attempted to amend the Constitution in the name of Bush," Goldberg said in part of her monologue as she swung an unopened bottle of wine.

John Mellencamp sang that Bush was "another cheap thug who sacrifices our young." And comedian Chevy Chase poked fun at Bush's pronunciation of "nuclear" and "terrorist," before accusing him of going to war in Iraq "just so he could be called a wartime president." He also said Bush "is as bright as an egg timer."

Monitors showed Kerry, the likely Democratic presidential nominee, laughing through much of the concert.

On Friday, Kerry touted his campaign's positive tone, telling a crowd at another fund-raiser, "John and I didn't run one negative ad against each other or any of our opponents all through the primaries, and we haven't done a negative ad against George Bush, because we think Americans want real solutions for real problems."

The Radio City event prompted a sharp rebuke from the Bush-Cheney re- election committee, which noted that Kerry had attended the concert despite saying earlier on CNN's "Larry King Live" that he had not had enough time to get an intelligence briefing. The administration warned Thursday of al Qaeda plans to attack the United States and offered to brief Kerry. Kerry's campaign said he had scheduled the briefing for Sunday.

"It is a great example of John Kerry's priorities that on the day he said he did not have time to receive his intelligence briefing on threats to America, he found time to attend a Hollywood fund-raiser, filled with enough hate and vitriol to make Michael Moore blush," Bush-Cheney campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt said.

The Kerry campaign's response evolved as the day went on -- from refusing to criticize the remarks to distancing the candidate from them.

"There's a difference between our campaign and what others say," communications director Stephanie Cutter said Friday morning. "Our campaign is fighting to make America strong. What others say is up to them."

Later, during a conference call with reporters, campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill said of Kerry, "He does not approve of some of the remarks that were made last night, and he has made that clear." When asked how he had done so, because Kerry had not commented on the speechmaking, she said, "He has made clear what he thinks American values are."

Mindless complacency

Charles Krauthammer observes that the Left is in a state of denial about the War on[Islamic] Terror, to the peril of us all.

Thank God for Hans Blix. Whenever we become lax and forgetful about how the world changed on 9/11, former chief inspector Blix is there to make the case for mindless complacency.

In a recent speech in Vienna he warned that one should be wary of the claim that "the risk that reckless groups and governments might acquire weapons of mass destruction is the greatest problem facing our world today." Why? Because "to hundreds of millions of people around the world, the big existential issue is hunger, and also that wherever you live on this planet, the risk of global warming and other environmental threats are existential."

Here we are at the crux of a debate over America's aggressive interventionism of the last few years. Is Islamic radicalism in potential alliance with WMD-bearing terrorist states a threat to the very existence (hence: "existential") of America and of civilization itself?

On Sept. 12, 2001, and for many months afterward, that proposition was so self-evident that it commanded near unanimous support. With time — three years in which, contrary to every expectation and prediction, the second shoe never dropped — that consensus has evaporated.

The new idea, expressed by Blix representing the decadent European left, and recently amplified by Michael Moore representing the paranoid American left, is that this existential threat is vastly overblown. Indeed, deliberately overblown by a corrupt/clueless (take your pick) President Bush to justify American aggression for reasons of ... and here is where the left gets a little fuzzy, not quite being able to decide whether American aggression is intended simply to enrich multinational corporations (or maybe just Halliburton alone) with fat war contracts, distract from alleged failure in Afghanistan, satisfy some primal masculine urge, or boost poll ratings.

We have come a long way in three years.

There is no gradualness and there are no countermeasures to a dozen nuclear warheads detonating simultaneously in American cities. Think of what just two envelopes of anthrax did to paralyze the capital of the world's greatest superpower. A serious, coordinated attack on the United States using WMDs could so shatter the United States as a functioning advanced industrialized society that it would take generations to rebuild.

What is so dismaying is that such an obvious truth needs repeating. The passage of time, the propaganda of the anti-American left, and the setbacks in Iraq have changed nothing of that truth. This is the first time in history the knowledge of how to make society-destroying weapons has been democratized. Today, small radical groups allied with small radical states can do the kind of damage to the world that in the past only a great, strategically located industrialized power like Germany or Japan could do.

It is a new world and exceedingly dangerous. Everything is at stake. We are now deeply engaged in a breast-beating exercise for not having connected the dots before 9/11. And yet here we are three years after 9/11, the dots already connected themselves, and we are under a powerful urge to ignore them completely.

Spooks, shadows and penumbras

So, the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has released its long-awaited report on the quality and quantity of prewar intelligence assessments of Iraq.

Committee co-chairman Sen. Jay Rockefeller showed himself to be a partisan ass during his press conference with Sen. Pat Roberts this morning. Among other things, despite this statement in the report (to which he signed his name)...

Conclusion 83. The Committee did not find any evidence that Administration officials attempted to coerce, influence or pressure analysts to change their judgments related to Iraq's weapons of mass destruction capabilities.

Conclusion 84. The Committee found no evidence that the Vice President's visits to the Central Intelligence Agency were attempts to pressure analysts, were perceived as intended to pressure analysts by those who participated in the briefings on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs, or did pressure analysts to change their assessments.

... Rockefeller stated this in the press conference:

The committee’s report fails to fully explain the environment of intense pressure in which the intelligence community officials were asked to render judgments on matters relating to Iraq when the most senior officials in the Bush administration had already forcefully and repeatedly stated their conclusions publicly.

I felt that the definition of pressure was very narrowly drawn in the final report. And that is that, sort of, that if somebody came up to you and you were one of the analysts who had been working on WMD, and they said, "Did anybody tell you that you had to change your point of view?" and the answer was, "No," well that was the description of pressure.

That’s not my description of pressure. That’s a description of pressure. But another description of pressure is the total ambience of this cascade of ominous statements, which continued really up to the present, about what was going to happen or the relationship between Al Qaida and Iraq, Mohammed Atta and the rest of it.

So, to me, pressure also can be defined by what else is in our additional views.

So, 200 CIA analysts said they did not feel pressured, but Sen. Rockefeller finds an "environment" and an "ambience" of pressure. Next, he'll cite "the emanations of a penumbra" of pressure. Seems like someone hunting for evidence of a foregone conclusion.

Homeland threat

Here's more information about the possible gathering threat from [Islamic] terrorists. Credible, but still from unnamed sources. Why is it OK to talk about this anonymously but not on the record?

Osama bin Laden and his chief lieutenants, operating from hideouts suspected to be along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, are directing a Qaeda effort to launch an attack in the United States sometime this year, senior Bush administration officials said on Thursday.

"What we know about this most recent information is that it is being directed from the seniormost levels of the Al Qaeda organization," said a senior official at a briefing for reporters. He added, "We know that this leadership continues to operate along the border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan."

Counterterrorism officials have said for weeks that they are increasingly worried by a continuing stream of intelligence suggesting that Al Qaeda wanted to carry out a significant terror attack on United States soil this year. But until the comments of the senior administration officials on Thursday, it was not clear that Mr. bin Laden and top deputies like Ayman Zawahiri were responsible for the concern.

Another senior administration official said on Thursday that the intelligence reports - apparently drawn partly from interviews with captured Qaeda members and partly from other intelligence - referred to efforts "to inflict catastrophic effects" before the election.

This official said that the reports did not refer specifically to Mr. bin Laden's instructions or desires, but did make clear that instructions were coming from Qaeda leaders. "It sounds like a corporate effort," the official said.

Some things never change

Those who believe human nature has evolved beyond the medieval had yet another wake-up call yesterday, including evidence from right here in Texas.

Texas has become a national center for trafficking in human slaves from Mexico and Central America, two federal prosecutors testified Wednesday.

Texas-based U.S. attorneys Michael Shelby and Johnny Sutton told a Senate Judiciary subcommittee of several recent convictions in which people were smuggled across the border and forced to work without pay as laborers and prostitutes.

Despite increased focus on the problem of human trafficking since 2001, only a fraction of the estimated 17,000 people forced into slavery in the United States is found and freed each year, witnesses told the Senate panel.

"Human traffickers peddle in human misery," said Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican who chaired the hearing. "They smuggle innocent human beings into the country and condemn them to lives of forced labor or sexual slavery. The American dream quickly turns into an American nightmare."

Experts told the panel that people forced into unpaid servitude are afraid of retaliation by their abusers and deportation by the federal government, fears that inhibit efforts to crack human trafficking rings.

Michelle Malkin says our "open door" policies are misguided...

What is desperately needed in the United States is not an open door, but a sturdy screen door--a door that keeps out slave-traders, murderers, terrorists, and other undesirables, while letting in hard-working folks who yearn to live the American Dream.

... and notes evidence of connections between the slave trade and terrorism in places like the Phillipines. One depravity feeds another.

Fashionistas

The bureaucratic mind at work, with only our lives at risk:

The Homeland Security Department's sense of fashion is endangering the lives of federal air marshals by making them conspicuous to terrorists, says the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association.

Marshals, they say, must follow a strict dress code and military grooming that is enforced by the Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS).

According to memos obtained by The Washington Times, marshals must wear a suit, or a coat and tie, when flying from all cities, even traditionally casual locations such as Orlando, Fla. Their hair must be worn in a conservative style. No beards are allowed, and dress shoes are required for both men and women.

Marshals have nicknamed their neckties the "hangman's noose" because they say it allows an attacker from behind to incapacitate them.

"The bottom line is these guys are supposed to blend in a crowd on a plane, and no one should be able to pick these guys out from the rest of the people on a flight," said John Amat, spokesman for the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association (FLEOA). "There have been many instances where air marshals have been picked out by travelers; people give them the thumbs up and thank them."

The strict dress code is a response to complaints from the airline industry that marshals were inappropriately dressed in jeans and T-shirts or sweat shirts, said Dave Adams, spokesman for FAMS in the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the Homeland Security Department.

"We deem it appropriate when traveling on mission status to be dressed appropriately," he said.

The Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) said air marshals "look like FBI or Secret Service agents straight out of central casting," and the Allied Pilots Association said changes are needed immediately to protect the officials' identities.

Fiefdoms

Once again, the U.S. State Department has some explaining to do. Why exactly are State bureaucrats being allowed to block progress in the War on [Islamic] Terror?

The State Department is restricting the roles of some special operations troops who have been assigned secretly to U.S. embassies to gather intelligence on al Qaeda and other Islamist terror groups, defense sources say.

The Pentagon has been placing Green Berets and other special operations forces in embassies, under diplomatic cover, to enhance the United States' ability to locate al Qaeda cells and prepare to attack them. The undercover troops are referred to as operational command elements (OCE).

The mission is generally called "operational preparation of the battle space." It is basic spy work — setting up a network of sources and identifying safe houses and landing zones.

But according to the two defense sources in the special operations community, State Department embassy personnel, in some instances, are placing restrictions on what the undercover commandos can do. In one case, said a source, a Green Beret is not allowed to work outside the embassy.

The source declined to specify the embassy. But another source said the OCE program has run into problems in Africa, where al Qaeda is striving to set up cells and overthrow secular governments.

"There are certain ambassadors who don't want them there," this second source said. The officials described a culture within the State Department's Foreign Service that is opposed to non-State officials working out of embassies.

"It's the 'you're not one of us' kind of thing," the official said.

Ask the puppy

Tom Ridge and the Department of Homeland Security issued a serious warning today, still maddeningly unspecific.

The United States is tightening security in the face of a steady stream of intelligence indicating al-Qaida may seek to mount an attack aimed at disrupting elections, the White House and Homeland Security officials said today.

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said the Bush administration based its decision to bolster security on "credible" reports about al-Qaida's plans, coupled with the pre-election terror attack in Spain earlier this year and recent arrests in England, Jordan and Italy.

"Credible reporting now indicates that al-Qaida is moving forward with its plans to carry out a large-scale attack in the United States in an effort to disrupt our democratic process," Ridge said.

Unnamed officials provided a bit more supporting detail.

A continuing stream of intelligence, including nuggets of information gleaned from sources including militant-linked Web sites, indicates an attack is being planned, said a senior intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity. Plans for such an attack are believed to be near completion, the official said, echoing what officials said earlier in the summer before the Memorial Day weekend.

When asked if the threat is considered higher at the political conventions this summer or as the nation gets closer to the presidential election in early November, the official said concerns are high from this point in time forward.

Two thoughts come to mind.

Second, does anyone in the press corps have the nerve to ask John Kerry (or his puppy) exactly why al Qaeda would want to influence "our democratic process?" Since al Qaeda presumably would not want to see President Bush re-elected, one can only wonder why they might want to tip the election towards the Democrats. Is bin Laden really the type of "foreign leader" from whom John Kerry wants an endorsement?

Tom Ridge's statement and press Q&A via the Dept. of Homeland Security.

Red moon rising

While NASA twists slowly in the wind about the future of American manned space flight, others are proceeding with new-found confidence.

China aims to send a spacecraft to the Moon in three years' time, the head of the country's space agency, Sun Laiyan, has confirmed to the BBC. In a wide-ranging interview, Mr Sun outlined the next steps China would take in expanding its space efforts.

These included unmanned missions from 2007 to orbit and land on the Moon, and to build a Chinese space station.

Mr Sun said China was happy to work with other nations, including the US, in space but only on an equal footing.

In the discussion, Mr Sun made no secret of China's ambition to become the next space superpower.

The Moon was a major target, he said, and the first mission should take place before Beijing hosts the Olympic Games in four years' time.

No books please, we're American

This is a warning sign, although one of the root causes is supply, not demand: a paucity of good literature to read.

Literary reading is in dramatic decline with fewer than half of American adults now reading literature, according to a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) survey released today. Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America reports drops in all groups studied, with the steepest rate of decline - 28 percent - occurring in the youngest age groups.

The study also documents an overall decline of 10 percentage points in literary readers from 1982 to 2002, representing a loss of 20 million potential readers. The rate of decline is increasing and, according to the survey, has nearly tripled in the last decade. The findings were announced today by NEA Chairman Dana Gioia during a news conference at the New York Public Library.

"This report documents a national crisis," Gioia said. "Reading develops a capacity for focused attention and imaginative growth that enriches both private and public life. The decline in reading among every segment of the adult population reflects a general collapse in advanced literacy. To lose this human capacity - and all the diverse benefits it fosters - impoverishes both cultural and civic life."

While all demographic groups showed declines in literary reading between 1982 and 2002, the survey shows some are dropping more rapidly than others. The overall rate of decline has accelerated from 5 to 14 percent since 1992.

According to the survey, the most popular types of literature are novels or short stories, which were read by 45 percent or 93 million adults in the previous year. Poetry was read by 12 percent or 25 million people, while just 4 percent or seven million people reported having read a play.

Contrary to the overall decline in literary reading, the number of people doing creative writing increased by 30 percent, from 11 million in 1982 to more than 14 million in 2002. However, the number of people who reported having taken a creative writing class or lesson decreased by 2.2 million during the same time period.

Outside of specific genres, such as children's literature, science fiction, and mysteries, most "literary" works are now unreadable and therefore unread. The literary class -- elitist, self-referential, Leftist, and often focused only on the most degenerate aspects of human nature -- has clearly outsmarted itself.

Still, the competition for mindshare from electronic media like TV, the Internet, and video games is ferocious; it can and will drive out an interest in reading. We see it every day in youngsters, especially boys.

UPDATE: Author J.K. Rowling has done her part, and been recognized for it this week.

Harry Potter author JK Rowling picked up an honorary degree today in recognition of her hugely popular tales and her outstanding contribution to children’s literature.

Ms Rowling was praised for making reading “cool” as she received the award during an enthusiastic graduation ceremony at Edinburgh University.

Professor Pamela Munn, delivered a short speech about Ms Rowling before the author received her award below a huge mural depicting the deity Literature with the book of fame on her knee.

The professor said: “Joanne Kathleen Rowling is the premier children’s author in the UK although her impact is truly international.

“She is a publishing phenomenon and the Harry Potter series has been a worldwide success. The impact on children, and their parents, has been substantial.

“Reading has become cool with even the most reluctant readers, in the shape of teenage boys, being caught up in the world inhabited by Harry Potter.”

Prof Munn drew laughter from the crowd and a smile from Ms Rowling by suggesting that she could detect some of the writer’s teacher training past in her novels, with themes such as bullying, friendship and the role of teachers.

Then the university’s vice-chancellor, Professor Timothy O’Shea, presented the author with the degree of doctor honoris causa, one of the university’s highest accolades.

Wassoun picked up

The strange tale of a "kidnapped" U.S. Marine continues.

A U.S. Marine missing from Iraq for more than two weeks is safe and being questioned at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, ABC News has learned.

Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun, 24, of West Jordan, Utah, was picked up with his brothers at an undisclosed location in Lebanon, sources said.

A senior U.S. State Department official confirmed Hassoun was at the embassy, where he would first be given any medical help he might need and then be debriefed.

"Dying for airtime"

Scholar Mamoun Fandy has a lengthy and important article about the state of affairs in the Arab media and the deadly consequences if nothing is done to change it. Read the whole thing.

Last month I traveled to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Lebanon and saw for myself the effect on the young of the Arab media's tendency, particularly on satellite television, to portray terrorists as resistance fighters and to broadcast in their entirety the videotaped messages of al-Qaida.

One Egyptian student told me the Americans "deserve (killing) for their support to Israel and their occupation of Iraq." A Kuwaiti who recently graduated from a Pennsylvania university said of Americans, "Don't believe them when they say it is al-Qaida that is slaying Americans. It is Americans who are killing Americans to justify their presence in the Arab world and to control Arab oil."

In each country, I was struck that al-Qaida and its ideas are no longer perceived as extreme. Indeed, being part of the movement is "cool" in the eyes of young people. Why? Arab culture is being corrupted by the media that glorify violence, but also by schoolbooks that present only one role model for Arab children: the Jihadists and those who excelled at battling non-Muslims.

This trend must be reversed — and the responsibility for doing so lies not just with the media. Unless Arabs themselves muster the courage to speak out against these heinous acts and those who perpetrate them, very little success can be made in the war on terrorism.

The imam of the grand mosque in Mecca has condemned the beheadings, as has the sheik of Egypt's Azhar Mosque. These are important voices, but Arab heads of state must do the same. And if governments condemned these acts, the media would change.

Arabs should stop deceiving themselves by confusing the suffering of Arabs in Iraq and the occupied territories in Israel with the beheading of innocent people in Iraq and elsewhere.

Thinking ahead

Top Ten places where you don't want to go on your next trip abroad, according to business travel experts:

• COLOMBIA Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia has recently expanded its targets to include urban areas and civilians.
• INDONESIA Terrorist cells located here have led several Western governments to warn against nonessential travel.
• ISRAEL Known for Palestinian terrorist groups and suicide bombers.
• KENYA Desirable al-Qaida target for terrorism. Close proximity to countries with little or no security.
• PAKISTAN Ample supply of terrorist recruits. Popular hideout for Taliban and al-Qaida fugitives.
• PHILIPPINES Terrorist training camps recently discovered in southern Philippines.
• RUSSIA Threat of terrorist bombings to major urban centers, especially Moscow and St. Petersburg.
• SAUDI ARABIA Islamic militants-in plentiful supply among disgruntled youth-have demonstrated their ability to stage large-scale attacks.
• TURKEY Domestic extremist groups share common interests with al-Qaida.
• YEMEN Easy access to weapons and explosives in the black market. Terrorists known to hide in remote regions out of government reach.

Sense from the Left

Paul Berman, man of the Left, says the war in Iraq is "a liberation war... even a left-wing war" and quotes Iraq's new deputy prime minister to explain why.

The new deputy prime minister is Barham Salih, a Kurd. Salih is, by all accounts, hugely popular in the Kurdish provinces — the kind of person who, in a truly democratic Iraq, would rise to a lofty position of power. But something else: He is one of the heroes of the democratic left in the Middle East.

Five months ago, in Madrid, Salih addressed another meeting of the Socialist International. What follows are excerpts from his speech:

"Most Iraqis see the moral and political imperative for the war of liberation as overwhelming. For many of us inside Iraq, who experienced firsthand Saddam's WMDs, the debate about lack of evidence of WMDs is difficult to understand.

"For us in Iraq, weapons of mass destruction are not about dry accounting. They have been conventional tools of repression by Saddam.

"Ethnic cleansing began in Iraq in 1963, when the Baath Party sized power. Around a million people have been displaced, mostly Kurds but also Turkmens and Assyrian Christians. The fascist regime of Saddam has cost the lives of at least 2 million Iraqis. Four million more have been forced to become refugees. So far, more than 170 mass graves have been uncovered throughout Iraq. These mass graves should vindicate the morality of this war of liberation.

"I, as a Kurd and as an Iraqi, I know, perhaps better than others, that war is devastating and should be questioned. However, for us, this war was to end the brutal war that has been waged against the people of Iraq ….

"Despite images on Western television screens depicting Iraq as a brutal calamity, most Iraqis, who have known nothing but the murder and mayhem of Saddam's rule, the last 10 months have seen astonishing progress toward the creation of a free society. This is the first time in their history, possibly in the entire history of the Islamic Middle East, that people are able to engage in a wide-ranging political debate over the future of their country."

This is a war for democracy, not for oil. An anti-fascist war. It is a war that, for the moment at least, has brought to power, as deputy prime minister, a genuinely admirable figure in the struggle for liberty in the Middle East. That man asks for our solidarity. He deserves to have it.

The verdict

Air Force pilot Maj. Harry Schmidt received his formal reprimand after being found guilty by Lt. Gen. Bruce Carlson of dereliction of duty for his role in an April 17, 2002, bombing incident in Afghanistan which resulted in the deaths of four Canadian soldiers and the serious injury of eight others.

The Toronto Star printed the full text of the letter of reprimand. Harsh, but true.

"You are hereby reprimanded. You flagrantly disregarded a direct order from the controlling agency, exercised a total lack of basic flight discipline over your aircraft, and blatantly ignored the applicable rules of engagement and special instructions. Your wilful misconduct directly caused the most egregious consequences imaginable, the deaths of four coalition soldiers and injury to eight others. The victims of your callous misbehaviour were from one of our staunch allies in Operation Enduring Freedom and were your comrades-in-arms.

"You acted shamefully on 17 April 2002 over Tarnak Farms, Afghanistan, exhibiting arrogance and a lack of flight discipline. When your flight lead warned you to "make sure it's not friendlies" and the Airborne Warning and Control System aircraft controller directed you to "stand by" and later to "hold fire," you should have marked the location with your targeting pod. Thereafter, if you believed, as you stated, you and your leader were threatened, you should have taken a series of evasive actions and remained at a safe distance to await further instructions from AWACS. Instead, you closed on the target and blatantly disobeyed the direction to "hold fire." Your failure to follow that order is inexcusable. I do not believe you acted in defence of Maj. Umbach or yourself. Your actions indicate that you used your self-defence declaration as a pretext to strike a target, which you rashly decided was an enemy firing position, and about which you had exhausted your patience in waiting for clearance from the Combined Air Operations Center to engage. You used the inherent right of self-defence as an excuse to wage your own war.

"In your personal presentation before me on 1 July 2004, I was astounded that you portrayed yourself as a victim of the disciplinary process without expressing heartfelt remorse over the deaths and injuries you caused to the members of the Canadian Forces. In fact, you were obviously angry that the United States Air Force had dared to question your actions during the 17 April 2002 tragedy. Far from providing any defence for your actions, the written materials you presented to me at the hearing only served to illustrate the degree to which you lacked flight discipline as a wingman of COFFEE Flight on 17 April 2002.

"Through your arrogance, you undermined one of the most sophisticated weapons systems in the world, consisting of the Combined Air Operations Center, the Airborne Warning and Control System, and highly disciplined pilots, all of whom must work together in an integrated fashion to achieve combat goals. The United States Air Force is a major contributor to military victories over our nation's enemies because our pilots possess superior flight discipline. However, your actions on the night of 17 April 2002 demonstrate an astonishing lack of flight discipline. You were blessed with an aptitude for aviation, your nation provided you the best aviation training on the planet, and you acquired combat expertise in previous armed conflicts. However, by your gross poor judgment, you ignored your training and your duty to exercise flight discipline, and the result was tragic. I have no faith in your abilities to perform in a combat environment.

"I am concerned about more than your poor airmanship; I am also greatly concerned about your officership and judgment. Our Air Force core values stress "integrity first." Following the engagement in question, you lied about the reasons why you engaged the target after you were directed to hold fire and then you sought to blame others. You had the right to remain silent, but not the right to lie. In short, the final casualty of the engagement over Kandahar on 17 April 2002 was your integrity."

Cheney in or out?

Now that John Kerry has decided against a Kerry-Kerry ticket or a Kerry-McCain ticket, and picked the third-rate John Edwards as his running mate, inquiring minds are asking: should President Bush dump Dick Cheney?

Bruce Bartlett tries to make the case in today's Washington Times.

By the time the Republican Convention meets in New York, Mr. Bush may need to do something dramatic to narrow the lead Mr. Kerry is likely to enjoy after the Democratic Convention.

Personally, I like Mr. Cheney. But there is no question he is a polarizing figure. A recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found 17 percent of Americans have a very positive view of him, but 27 percent have a very negative view. His overall job approval rating consistently runs about 10 percentage points below Mr. Bush's.

A mini-boomlet is building around Condoleeza Rice as a bold-stroke replacement. Bartlett doesn't buy it.

My main reservation against Miss Rice is that she is untested electorally, having spent most of her career as a Stanford political science professor. Also, we know nothing about her views on issues outside her area of expertise, foreign policy. What is her position on abortion, tax cuts or Medicare?

Who then? Why, the ubiquitous John McCain.

A more realistic choice for Mr. Bush should he decide to make a change is Sen. John McCain of Arizona. He clearly would strengthen the ticket and lately has been making nice with Mr. Bush and his fellow Republicans, with whom he has often feuded in the past. Mr. McCain may also be the only Republican who can beat Hillary Clinton in 2008.

Last week, think-tanker Arnold Beichman -- apparently fretting when Cheney dropped a well-deserved F-bomb on underhanded Sen. Patrick Leahy -- made the same case against Cheney, but spoke strongly on behalf of Condi Rice.

Mr. Bush could ensure a re-election victory by making a switch in executive positions. National Security Adviser Rice, 50, should get the vice-presidential nomination and Vice President Cheney, 63, should succeed her as national security adviser.

Thus Mr. Cheney, one of the nation's brainiest officeholders would still be in a position of advice-giver to the chief executive. Perhaps he would by then have learned the meaning of the old saying: Revenge is a dish best eaten cold.

The great advantage of Miss Rice on the 2004 ticket is she could four years later make a splendid opponent to Sen. Hillary Clinton, 57, New York Democrat and the most renowned former first lady since Eleanor Roosevelt.

A Bush-Cheney ticket against a powerful opponent like John Kerry is certain to win a smaller percentage of the women's and African-American vote. With Condi Rice on the ticket, there is every chance the African-American vote would be split, especially when a Bush victory in 2004 could surely mean a Rice presidential nomination in 2008.

Dan Froomkin in the Washington Post brought it up yesterday as well.

Officially, administration officials say there is no chance that Vice President Cheney will leave the campaign. But the "Dump Cheney" rumors continue to swirl in the press, fueled by a steady infusion of feeble poll results, poor reviews from the campaign trail, Cheney's own foul mouth, persistent Halliburton scandals and his continued and unsupported insistence on strong links between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda.

And then there was this weekend's revelation that the doctor who has repeatedly assured us all that Cheney is fit to serve was allegedly illegally using narcotics. (Don't forget that the "Dump Cheney" conspiracy theorists predict that it all begins with an announcement that Cheney's heart problems have suddenly gotten much worse.)

Most of this speculation emanates from scared Republicans looking for a lifeline, starry-eyed dreamers who yearn to see John McCain on the national ticket, or stealth opponents of the Bush Administration who find carping about Dick Cheney a good way to jab at the President.

All in all, this will be better theater than the Democratic sideshow.

UPDATE: Former senator Alfonse D'Amato jumped on the dump-Cheney bandwagon today. His pick? Colin Powell.

We should make no mistake, we are a nation at war with a vicious terrorist foe, and in war hard decisions must be made."

"As an observer of politics, I believe the president can guarantee his essential re-election by looking to several other notable individuals who would add a great dimension to his ticket as a running mate," the New York Republican added.

Placing Powell "first and foremost" on his wish list to replace Cheney, D'Amato said the retired general "would help galvanize the nation and offer a truly historic opportunity for American unity and pride."

Linked to today's Beltway Traffic Jam.

Booming

Millionaires Kerry & Edwards won't be happy about this report. If such a rate continues, economic performance will be minimized as an election issue in November and the stage will cleared for an election contest about the strategic issue of our time: the War on [Islamic] Terror.

The economy appears headed for a banner year despite a springtime spike in energy prices and a recent increase in interest rates.

In fact, many analysts are forecasting that the overall economy, as measured by the gross domestic product, will grow by 4.6 percent or better this year, the fastest in two decades.

There were strong 4.5 percent growth rates in 1997 and 1999, when Bill Clinton was president and the country was in the midst of a record 10-year expansion.

But if this year's growth ends up a bit faster than that, it will be the best since the economy roared ahead at a 7.2 percent rate in 1984, a year when another Republican president - Ronald Reagan - was running for re-election.

"We are moving into a sweet spot for the economy with interest rates not too high, jobs coming back and business investment providing strength," said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Bank One in Chicago, who is predicting GDP growth of 4.8 percent this year.

Rudyball moves west?

Coach K is out; Rudy T. is in with the L.A. Lakers -- at least according to today's rumor-mill. One Californian, who wants to see Shaq stick around, is optimistic:

It's hard to imagine Los Angeles being a perfect fit for Rudy Tomjanovich, seeing as the coach recovering from bladder cancer no longer smokes, drinks, carouses late at night or imagines that the world revolves around his every next move.

But Rudy T. as a perfect fit for the Lakers, that's different.

John Lopez in the Houston Chronicle also likes Rudy T.'s prospects, both for his coaching savvy and for his chances of rebuilding around Kobe Bryant.

As great an X's and O's man as he has been at Duke, Krzyzewski would have been a bad choice for Los Angeles. He might not have failed with the Lakers, but he certainly wouldn't have been a better choice or quicker fix than Tomjanovich.

In the college game, coaches always have the upper hand and the last word. In the NBA, players do.

That it was Bryant who initiated talks with Coach K instead of Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak should have been enough to convince Krzyzewski to stay in Durham.

It is a world to which even Krzyzewski would have had a difficult and long time adjusting, especially with the egomaniacal Lakers.

The perfect fit for the Lakers was, and is, Tomjanovich. The survivor. The perfect fit is not the coaches' coach but the players' coach — Tomjanovich, who one source said Monday will take the job, bringing in former Rockets assistant Larry Smith and keeping Lakers assistant Frank Hamblen.

Tomjanovich faces juggling personalities and keeping at least one centerpiece superstar in a Lakers uniform. Don't be surprised if the one Tomjanovich sways is the same one who made the call to Krzyzewski.

Don't be surprised if the best thing that ever happened to Bryant is the same best thing that ever happened to Hakeem Olajuwon.

Whatever happens, Tomjanovich deserves the best. But here's hoping that the Rockets and Yao Ming will always, always, always have the Lakers' number.

Crumpled

Pundit Mark Steyn says Tony Blair and Jack Straw blinked in their face-off with Iran over the seizure of British patrol boats and crewmen. That's bad for Blair, and bodes ill for all our futures.

Washington's position is clear: Iran is a charter member of the axis of evil. (Well, it's clear-ish: State Department types are prone to Jack Straw moments.) But London opted for "engagement" on the usual grounds that if you pretend these fellows are respectable they're more likely to behave respectably. In return, Britain's boys got hijacked and taken on a classic Rogue State bender. And the version being broadcast throughout the Muslim world is that Teheran swatted the infidel and got away with it.

That's what matters: getting away with it. Do you think Mr Straw, fretting over the "complications" of Anglo-Iranian relations, will make the mullahs pay any price for what they did? And, if he doesn't, what conclusions do you think the Islamic Republic will draw from its artful test of Western - or, at any rate, European - resolve? Right now, the British, French and Germans are making a show of getting tough on Iran's nuclear ambitions. Is that "tough" as in "Go ahead, imam, make my day"? Or is it "tough" as in that official's "one-way conversation"? Just a bit of diplo-bluster. If you were the mullahs, you might well conclude that the Europeans don't mean it, that they've decided they can live with a nuclear Iran, and you might as well go full speed ahead.

One difficulty in dealing with the Islamic Republic is that the fellows out in front are sock puppets. Jack Straw is the real British Foreign Secretary. His Iranian counterpart is a man playing the role of foreign minister for international consumption. The big decisions are taken elsewhere. A couple of years ago, there was a lively speech by Hashemi Rafsanjani, the former president and now head of the Expediency Council, which sounds like a committee of EU foreign ministers but is actually Iran's highest religious body. Rafsanjani was looking forward to the big day when his side got nukes and settled the Zionist question for ever "since a single atomic bomb has the power to completely destroy Israel, while an Israeli counter-strike can only cause partial damage to the Islamic world."

I'm inclined to take these fellows at their word. Next to Mr Straw and his "complications", these dudes are admirably plain-spoken. But let's suppose Rafsanjani is more cunning, and he understands that perhaps he won't have to use his bomb - that the mere fact of it will enable the country to get its way, in the region and beyond. Wouldn't the events of recent days have confirmed this view? And, if this is what he can get away with now, what might he try to pull when Iran is the first nuclear theocracy?

We Bush warmongers have grown fond of Mr Blair: often, he's a better salesman for American policy than the President. But in the Shatt al-Arab incident for once he was on his own, and Britain's Number One seed was unable to return a single volley. Iran is emboldened, and that's bad news for everyone else.

Veepstakes

John Kerry has picked his running mate.

The presidential hopeful said his VP pick "not only sees eye-to-eye with me on most issues, but also opposes me on most issues. No matter how a voter stands on any issue, he'll find what he's looking for...."

Victor's justice

Law professor and pundit Alan Dershowitz ponders the question of how to give Saddam Hussein a "fair" trial, and what that could mean.

Can the trial of Saddam Hussein be conducted with sufficient fairness to meet the demanding criteria for real justice? Whatever the process, a verdict of guilty will be deemed by many--especially, though not exclusively, in the Arab world--to be "victor's justice," as Hermann Göring characterized the 1946 trial of captured Nazi leaders at Nuremberg.

It would have been much easier had Saddam suffered the fate of his sons--death in combat. But once he emerged from that spider hole with his hands in the air, we had no choice but to accept his surrender, because we are a nation of law and international law prohibits the killing of a captured enemy. Now, we have little choice but to submit him to the rule of law, no matter how problematic that may turn out to be.

Nuremberg taught us that even victor's justice can be relatively fair. There is a vast difference between imperfect justice, which is what Nuremberg was, and perfect injustice, which is what Stalin inflicted on those Nazi prisoners he simply had shot.

The Baghdad tribunal is incapable of administering perfect justice to Saddam during an ongoing war and occupation that continues to cause casualties on all sides. The best we can expect is a relatively fair trial that is transparent. For the trial of Saddam to be fair, as well as to appear fair, the tribunal must be allowed to act independently of the occupying authorities and of the current Iraqi government. It will be frustrating for the American government to take a hands-off approach if the Baghdad tribunal makes any decisions that are perceived as undercutting our short-term interests. But the best course of conduct will be to let imperfect justice--as administered by the Iraqi judges--run its course without an American thumb on the scales.

In a place of safety?

Kidnapped U.S. Marine Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun, who was beheaded and then not beheaded over the weekend, is now said by his jihadist captors to be "in a place of safety."

Outside the Beltway has the story and links. Watch this development unfold around the world via Google News.

It was 50 years ago today

Today a thousand radio stations around the world played a single recording to mark an important anniversary in the history of rock & roll and global popular culture.

Why is "That's All Right, Mama" by Elvis Presley so important?

They're paying this tribute because that recording, the happy child of absentminded noodling between Elvis and bass player Bill Black, is widely credited with launching rock 'n' roll as we know it.

Nailing down the "first rock 'n' roll record" is like trying to perform an appendectomy with an eggbeater, but "That's All Right, Mama" gets a spot in any discussion. Even though it was only a modest regional hit, it launched Elvis, who in turn brought this new rock 'n' roll critter to the masses.

Rock 'n' roll's components were all teed up. Elvis put them together in a way, and in a package, that went where his predecessors could not have taken them. For a variety of reasons, some of them frustrating, Willie Mae Thornton's "Hound Dog" was never going to get out of the rhythm-and-blues room. Once Elvis got hold of it - with Black, guitarist Scotty Moore and drummer D.J. Fontana behind him - he not only opened the door, he kicked it clean off the hinges.

Nor was Elvis - who on July 5, 1954, was a $1-an-hour electrician - simply the messenger. His voice had both power and an almost ethereal lightness. He had a deep appreciation for R&B, country, gospel, pop and blues. He didn't just sing the music, he helped shape it.

"He listened," says Fontana. "He was open to ideas. And when he got what he wanted, he knew it. He wasn't looking for perfection. He wanted the right feel."

That's why there's no need to intellectualize too much about Elvis -- it was always about the feeling.

• MemphisWeb has some really good articles here, here, and here.
• Elvis.com should not be missed.
• Sun Studio is holding a party
• The single is being released in Great Britain for the first time.

The Battle for Danny Boy

It was bayonet work again for the Brits in Iraq, this time the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment. The Sun has a stirring account (although the editors seem to have forgotten their earlier account of another "first bayonet charge since the Falklands War"). No matter -- good work, lads.

After a bloody battle which raged for four hours at least 28 of the enemy lay dead. Fleeing cohorts are thought to have dragged away at least the same number of bodies.

Just two of Our Boys were slightly wounded. Last night the brave troops — members of the same regiment as the private tipped for a Victoria Cross — told of the desperate fight.

Private Anthony Rushforth, 23, said: “We were pumped up on adrenaline — proper angry. It’s only afterwards you think, ‘Jesus, I actually did that’.”

The terrifying bayonet charge by the members of the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment — nicknamed The Tigers — saw trench after trench taken from the enemy.

It was led by Sgt Major Dave Falconer, 36. He said of his men: “I am very proud of them.”

The other heroes were Sgt Chris Broome, 35, and privates John-Claude Fowler, 19 and Matthew Tatawaqa, 23. The men, from C Company, raced to the rescue in Warrior armoured vehicles after an ambush by rebels loyal to rogue Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

Two Land Rovers transporting Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders had been pinned down by heavy fire south of Al Amarah, 150 miles from Basra.

As the Warriors arrived, they too were targeted by machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and small arms.

Sgt Major Falconer, from Portsmouth, said: “Our Warriors were vulnerable to attack from the side by the enemy hiding in ditches.

“The only way you can hold ground in that situation is by having boots on it — so that’s what we did.”

That is military-speak for sending in infantry. Private Rushforth, from Southampton, said: “When the order came to dismount and attack, it was just like what we’ve done dozens of times in training.

“We sprinted in ten-metre bursts, then hit the ground to put down some rounds, and then carried on again for the last 30 metres. We broke into pairs and finished off the trench.”

The fight was dubbed the Battle for Danny Boy — after the name of the remote checkpoint where it took place.

First Sgt Maj Falconer’s men defied enemy fire to charge 200 metres across open land.

They leapt into the first trench, killing three enemy with SA80 rifle bullets and “cold steel”. Four were taken prisoner.

Then they took two further trenches as the Warriors provided covering fire from chain guns and 30mm cannon.

Eight more enemy were killed and four surrendered.

Diehard rebels continued to hold out. Finally a Challenger II tank was summoned to blitz their bunker. The five were hailed heroes along with a sixth soldier Lance Corporal Brian Wood. He has since been posted back in Britain.

The fortitude to sustain a nasty fight

Author, editor, and former embedded war reporter Karl Zinsmeister says we should use history to help us comprehend where we stand in Iraq. A useful reminder.

We are now 16 months into the Iraq war. At a similar stage in earlier American wars, how were our forces faring?

Well, at about this point in the French and Indian Wars George Washington had been defeated and forced to surrender at Fort Necessity (he was released after being disarmed), and then disastrously beaten in a fight where his unit of 1,400 men took 900 casualties and ended up running away. (Washington himself was not injured but had two horses shot from under him, and took four bullets through his coat.)

Washington's next experience of war, in the American Revolution, began with equal tribulation. Sixteen months into his command, the American army was suffering through a series of traumatic defeats. They'd lost every single battle since the Declaration of Independence, and had depleted 90 percent of their military strength in heavy fighting. Most of the remaining soldiers declared they were going to go home when their enlistments expired, and in many parts of the new nation citizens were pledging fresh oaths of allegiance to the tyrant King George.

Sixteen months into the Civil War, a permanent breakaway of the southern states looked like imminent reality. The Union army that marched on Richmond had been beaten with tens of thousands of casualties. Robert E. Lee had launched an invasion of the north, and Washington, D.C. was on the brink of being overrun.

Sixteen months into U.S. involvement in World War II, the Japanese had taken control of all of the Pacific and Southeast Asia. Our British allies had suffered the most catastrophic defeat in their history when they lost 130,000 fighting men in Singapore. The Japanese had just as thumpingly ejected the U.S. from the Philippines, and were actually in their tenth month of occupying American soil in Alaska. It would take 1,000 American dead (far more than our total losses in Iraq to date) merely to eject the enemy from this Aleutian Island foothold over the course of a few days in the seventeenth month of the war.

At month 16 of the war in Europe, meanwhile, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Greece, Yugoslavia, and other countries had all been lost. German submarines were in the process of wiping out Atlantic shipping. And death camps like Treblinka had been opened and were in the process of killing millions. By the end of that year, 40 percent of the world's Jews, for instance, would be dead.

We have had some tough moments in Iraq this year. But we must remember that every war has tough stages and low points that victorious nations must grind through. The difference between civilizations that triumph and civilizations that surrender is often simply a matter of keeping your determination and fighting spirit intact through the down days.

Head shot

Who would've guessed there would be a "pop-up" in the new Bill Clinton presidential portrait?

Bullied

So, this is what (some of) your children's teachers do on their summer vacation.

The head of the National Education Association opened the largest school union's annual convention yesterday with a call for public school teachers and employees to mobilize politically to help defeat President Bush this fall.

The convention votes tomorrow on the NEA's endorsement of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. The Massachusetts senator is scheduled to address the convention tomorrow.

Yesterday, union officials distributed 10,000 fliers to individual state caucuses informing them that filmmaker Michael Moore's anti-Bush film, "Fahrenheit 9/11," would be shown to delegates in the convention hall tomorrow immediately after Mr. Kerry's speech.

Some weren't happy, but apparently took no real action in opposition.

The announcement of the showing and the strongly anti-Bush tone of the convention brought grumbling from Republican members, who make up more than one-fourth of the union's total membership.

One such member, Sissy Jochmann from the Pennsylvania delegation, called the Moore film "vicious" and said she would publicly call for "a timeout" if union leaders and members continued "bullying us with all their anti-Bush and anti-Republican rhetoric."

Talking doesn't impress bullies. "Republicans" in the NEA are doomed to irrelevance. Just quit, or at least move to the AFT, which is not so openly Stalinist.

Happy 4th of July

Today is Independence Day. On this day in 1776, fifty-six courageous patriots affixed their names to Thomas Jefferson's bold Declaration of Independence, an obviously treasonous document under British colonial rule. We still owe them a debt of thanks.

John Adams was wary, but hopeful, in letters written to his wife Abigail after the decision was taken on July 2nd.

I am well aware of the toil, and blood, and treasure, that it will cost us to maintain this declaration, and support and defend these states. Yet, through all the gloom, I can see the rays of light and glory; I can see that the end is more than worth all the means, and that posterity will triumph, although you and I may rue, which I hope we shall not.

Everyone should read the full text of the Declaration at least once per year; there's no better day than today. Note, among other things, the numerous references to God.

PBS has a nice website to accompany its A Capitol Fourth program, broadcast live tonight from Washington, D.C. Included are remarks from several American Presidents, among them Franklin D. Roosevelt in the dark days of 1942:

"For 166 years this Fourth Day of July has been a symbol to the people of our country of the democratic freedom which our citizens claim as their precious birthright. On this grim anniversary its meaning has spread over the entire globe--focusing the attention of the world upon the modern freedoms for which all the United Nations are now engaged in deadly war.

"On the desert sands of Africa, along the thousands of miles of battle lines in Russia, in New Zealand and Australia, and the islands of the Pacific, in war-torn China and all over the seven seas, free men are fighting desperately--and dying--to preserve the liberties and the decencies of modern civilization. And in the overrun and occupied nations of the world, this day is filled with added significance, coming at a time when freedom and religion have been attacked and trampled upon by tyrannies unequaled in human history.

"Never since it first was created in Philadelphia, has this anniversary come in times so dangerous to everything for which it stands. We celebrate it this year, not in the fireworks of make-believe but in the death-dealing reality of tanks and planes and guns and ships. We celebrate it also by running without interruption the assembly lines which turn out these weapons to be shipped to all the embattled points of the globe. Not to waste one hour, not to stop one shot, not to hold back one blow--that is the way to mark our great national holiday in this year of 1942.

"To the weary, hungry, unequipped Army of the American Revolution, the Fourth of July was a tonic of hope and inspiration. So is it now. The tough, grim men who fight for freedom in this dark hour take heart in its message--the assurance of the right to liberty under God--for all peoples and races and groups and nations, everywhere in the world."

At the National Archives, you can learn more about the Declaration, including a Flash section that lets you see your name join those of the Signers onscreen.

If you want to indulge your inner pyrotechnic child, there seem to be plenty of Exploding Bin Laden Noggins and such. Enjoy -- just keep all your fingers.

Killed

Fox News is reporting that an Islamic website says Marine Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun, who disappeared in Iraq under unclear circumstances, has been executed by his terrorist kidnappers.

Press coverage will follow apace, and links to the inevitable video.

UPDATE: Here's the first AP dispatch.

An Iraqi militant group claimed on a Web site Saturday that it has beheaded a captive U.S. Marine.

The group, called the Ansar al-Sunna Army, posted a written statement on an Islamic web site claiming that it had killed Lebanese-born Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun.

"We would like to inform you that the Marine of Lebanese descent has been killed, and you will soon see the movie with your own eyes," said the statement, signed in the name of the group's leader, Abu Abdullah al-Hassan bin Mahmoud.

The U.S. military in Baghdad said they were checking into the report of Hassoun's death but had no comment or confirmation for the moment.

The Reuters story includes a quote with perhaps new information.

"Your soldier had romantic relations with an Arab girl and he was lured away from his base," the statement said.

Perhaps this unfortunate AWOL Marine wasn't a deserter, but was in fact caught in a ruthless honey trap.

Jeff at Backcountry Conservative is watching the story closely.

UPDATE: Now the evildoers are arguing among themselves and the fate of Cpl. Hassoun is uncertain.

An Islamic extremist group denied in a statement posted on its Web site Sunday that it had killed a U.S. Marine taken hostage last month.

The denial by the Ansar al-Sunna Army left the fate of Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun unclear. The group said it had no connection to a statement in its name put out on other Web sites claiming Hassoun's slaying -- leaving open the possibility that the Marine was killed by another group or that he was still alive.

Brutal honesty?

Tough ideas about the U.S. economy and American workers from the Boston Consulting Group:

A report by an influential consulting firm is exhorting U.S. companies to speed up "offshoring" operations to China and India, including high-powered functions such as research and development.

In blunt terms, the report by the Boston Consulting Group warns American firms that they risk extinction if they hesitate in shifting facilities to countries with low costs. That is partly because the potential savings are so vast, but the report also cites a view among U.S. executives that the quality of American workers is deteriorating.

"The largest competitive advantage will lie with those companies that move soonest," the report states. "Companies that wait will be caught in a vicious cycle of uncompetitive costs, lost business, underutilized capacity, and the irreversible destruction of value."

Boston Consulting, which counts among its clients many of the biggest corporations in the United States, admonishes them that they have been too reluctant rather than too eager to outsource production to "LCC's," or low-cost countries.

"Successful companies ask themselves, 'What must I keep at home?' rather than 'What can I shift to LCC's?'" states the report. "Their question is not 'Why outsource to LCC's?' but 'Why not?' "

Particularly troubling is the report's information about confidential discussions with executives at Boston Consulting's client companies, many of whom conveyed low opinions of their American employees compared with labor available abroad. Not only are factory workers in low-cost countries much cheaper -- well below $1 per hour in China, compared with $15 to $30 per hour in the United States and Europe -- but they quickly achieve quality levels that are "equivalent to or even higher than . . . [the] best plants in the West," according to the report.

"More than 40 percent of the companies we talked with expressed significant concerns about the erosion of skills in the work force," the report states. "They cited machine operators who are unable to handle specialized equipment properly or to make the transition to new work materials. In contrast, LCC's provide large pools of skilled workers who are eager to apply their 'craftsman' talents."

Midlevel engineers in low-cost countries, the report adds, "tend to be more motivated than midlevel engineers in the West."

Scotty ill

This is a shame.

The actor who played Scotty in TV's Star Trek has Alzheimer's disease.

James Doohan, 84, also has Parkinson's disease, diabetes, lung fibrosis and suffered a bout of pneumonia.

His Wife Wende, 47, said: "With Jimmy it's the loss of words. He is not so sick yet that he doesn't know people. And there are times when he is as sharp as a tack. But it's the older memories that stick. What he had for breakfast might be an iffy thing, but golly he could tell you all about how he got the part in Star Trek."

Star Trek fans were glad to hear recently that James Doohan is going to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Bang

Ready for the 4th of July? Some alert citizens are: they've got The Exploding Bin Laden Noggin.

Americans with a taste for vengeance this Fourth of July can take their aggressions out with a bang.

No. No. No. No. No," said Steve Nebel as he walked through the Bob’s Fireworks tent on Highway 763 last night combing the tables for a specific fountain. The object of his search? The Exploding Bin Laden Noggin.

"Aha! A must-have," Nebel said when he finally found the device. "You get to blow his head off. That’s great! What red-blooded American wouldn’t want to blow his head off?"

The Bin Laden Noggin, a cone-shaped firework decorated like a gun-wielding, green-skinned Osama bin Laden, is the hottest firework of the summer, tent manager Jack Slaughter said. He expects to sell 2,500 of the diminutive terrorists this summer.

"Every American needs one of these!" reads the description of the firecracker in the Bob’s Fireworks catalog. "Light up ol’ BL and he will cackle not unlike a chicken, erupt in blood red flowers and scream loudly as if his cave’s roof was meeting the floor.

"The finale is complete when a dual charge blows Bin’s head far from his neck. Too much fun for only $1.95."

"Yippee ki ay..."

Heads up

The Houston Chronicle reports heightened security at the giant Baytown refinery. What a good idea.

The nation's largest refinery is increasing security measures this holiday weekend based on a vague warning from the FBI.

The Exxon Mobil refinery in Baytown, set on the Houston Ship Channel, said a weekly security bulletin released to local law enforcement agencies "expressed concern about the threat of terrorist attack within the (United States) during the July 4th weekend. Intelligence reporting indicates a wide range of possible infrastructure targets, including refineries. Law enforcement agencies were asked to remain vigilant."

The Baytown Sun received a copy of an internal Exxon Mobil warning that said the company "elected to take more aggressive action in its security profile" after talking to the Department of Homeland Security.

Extra security means more vehicle searches, gate closures, more guards, restriction of non-employee visitors and an increased presence of Baytown police at entrances and around the perimeter, the company notice said.

The Baytown Sun reports that Exxon Mobil doesn't anyone to overreact.

Exxon Mobil sites are closed today through Monday for some contractors and all non-employees as a general safety precaution and not because of any direct threat to the Baytown complex, which is the largest refinery in the United States.

An email memo about heightened security measures distributed by the company on Thursday apparently was misunderstood and caused concern inside the plant and in the community.

Friday morning, Exxon Mobil Baytown operations spokeswoman Tricia Thompson debunked rumors of a bomb threat or any other direct threat to the sprawling complex.

"If there was (a threat) we would not have people here today," Thompson said.

Exxon Mobil announced Thursday it would take extra safety measures after officials received a general warning about the threat of terrorist attacks within the United States during the July Fourth weekend.

Refineries were among a wide range of possible infrastructure targets in this week's regular notice from the FBI and department of Homeland Security.

"We decided that to be prudent and precautions we would take extra security precautions that are going in to place this weekend," Thompson said. "There has been no specific threat."

Exxon Mobil officials wanted to reduce the personnel head count to a number that would maintain safe operations. There was no need to have a full staff of employees on a holiday weekend, Thompson said.

Reality TV

We are indeed dealing with devils.

Sick footage of Muslim children re-enacting the barbaric beheading of hostages in Iraq has been put on Abu Hamza’s website.

The film starts with a masked boy of about nine menacingly brandishing a wooden sword as he screams demands into the camera. In front of him kneels a younger lad, posing as a helpless hostage, who is roughly gripped by the neck.

The young executioner then slowly drags his wooden blade across the throat of the small child. Another boy and a girl pretending to guard the hostage yell in delight as he is slaughtered.

The re-enactment is so accurate that it suggests the youngsters, whose faces are hidden by traditional Arab head-dresses, were shown the grisly footage to make sure they got it right.

The hate-filled kids laugh with glee as they act out the execution in the style of their al-Qaeda heroes.

It is unclear in which country the film is set — but it was screened on Supporters Of Shariah — a website run in the name of hook-handed extremist Abu Hamza. He is currently in South London’s Belmarsh Prison awaiting extradition to America on terrorism charges.

Don't want to believe it? Watch it here.

Truth hurts, again

Bill Cosby has found his theme, and expanded on it again this week. It seems to me this is more thoughtful than just "another tirade."

Bill Cosby went off on another tirade against the black community Thursday, telling a room full of activists that too many black men are beating their wives while their children run around not knowing how to read or write.

Cosby made headlines in May when he upbraided poor blacks for their grammar and accused them of squandering opportunities the civil rights movement gave them. He shot back Thursday, saying his detractors were trying in vain to hide the black community's "dirty laundry."

"Let me tell you something: Your dirty laundry gets out of school at 2:30 every day; it's cursing and calling each othern----- as they're walking up and down the street," Cosby said during an appearance at the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition & Citizenship Education Fund's annual conference.

"They think they're hip," the entertainer said. "They can't read; they can't write. They're laughing and giggling, and they're going nowhere."

He also had harsh words for black men who don't have jobs and are angry about their lives.

"You've got to stop beating up your women because you can't find a job, because you didn't want to get an education and now you're (earning) minimum wage," Cosby said. "You should have thought more of yourself when you were in high school, when you had an opportunity."

In his remarks in May at a commemoration of the anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education desegregation decision, Cosby denounced some blacks' grammar and said those who commit crimes and wind up behind bars "are not political prisoners."

"I can't even talk the way these people talk, `Why you ain't,' `Where you is' ... and I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk," Cosby said then. "And then I heard the father talk ... Everybody knows it's important to speak English except these knuckleheads. You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth."

Cosby elaborated Thursday on his previous comments in a talk interrupted several times by applause. He castigated some blacks, saying that they cannot simply blame whites for problems such as teen pregnancy and high school dropout rates.

"For me there is a time ... when we have to turn the mirror around," he said. "Because for me it is almost analgesic to talk about what the white man is doing against us. And it keeps a person frozen in their seat, it keeps you frozen in your hole you're sitting in."

Cosby lamented that the racial slurs once used by those who lynched blacks are now a favorite expression of black children. And he blamed parents.

"When you put on a record and that record is yelling `N-----!' and you've got your little 6-year-old, 7-year-old sitting in the back seat of the car, those children hear that," he said.

Laker time

This would be interesting, but doesn't it seem creepy that a former Tarheel all-star would want to hire the brains behind Duke's modern basketball dynasty?

The Los Angeles Lakers are in talks with Duke University's Mike Krzyzewski over the vacant job as head coach at the high-profile NBA team.

The Lakers said in a statement Thursday that general manager Mitch Kupchak had "contacted and had discussions with Mike Krzyzewski" about the position but declined to provide further details.

Duke University (in Durham, North Carolina) also confirmed talks had taken place with its college basketball coach, more popularly known as "Coach K," who has led the Blue Devils to three national championships in his 24-year tenure.

"Coach K has informed us the Los Angeles Lakers have contacted him and entered into serious discussions to fill their vacant head coach position," said Duke University's director of athletics Joe Alleva.

Personally, I think Rudy Tomjanovich would do a great job. But... he's more than L.A. deserves.

Deluded

Saddam Hussein today, still intent on winning hearts and minds:

"I am surprised that you charged me with this, being that you are Iraqi and everyone knows Kuwait is part of Iraq... In Kuwait, I was protecting the Iraqi people from those mad dogs, who wanted to turn Iraqi women into 10-dinar prostitutes.''

Send out the message

The people of Hong Kong are still chafing under the broken promises of totalitarian China.

In stifling heat and humidity, tens of thousands of protesters swarmed through the streets of Hong Kong today to send a defiant call for democracy to communist rulers in China.

On a day when city officials marked the seventh anniversary of Hong Kong's return to China from British colonial rule, citizens took advantage of the public holiday to demand their right to choose their leaders.
Amid scenes reminiscent of an unprecedented march last year when 500,000 rallied against an unpopular anti-subversion law, a sea of protesters filled the streets below downtown high-rises more used to the bustle of shoppers.

"Universal suffrage now," many cried and "protect freedom of speech".

Early tallies were difficult to gauge, but organisers said they believed more than 350,000 had joined - in excess of the 300,000 predicted. Police could not confirm the figure but said the march was peaceful.

The new new thing

Drifting -- the newest import from Japan, and another way for young Americans to put themselves in danger. Swell.

In the midst of sliding sideways, as the world spins around like an action-movie carousel, the outer wall comes rushing up to the 240's hood. Kevin breaks, with room to spare, and cruises back around for another try. "It's just, these walls scare the crap out of me," he says. "This is my daily driver, so I can't afford to mess it up."

On the next run, he guns it.

The 240 starts out rolling into the skid in the same way -- wheel-jerk, e-brake, slide -- but this time he's countersteered too far and the inner wall comes at him, a waist-high concrete barrier looking to slice open the bumper and split the hood of the Nissan.

"We have burn complete"

Nicely done.

The international Cassini spacecraft threaded a gap between two of Saturn's dazzling rings late Wednesday and entered orbit around the giant planet, completing one of the mission's most critical maneuvers more than 900 million miles from Earth.

Mission control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory erupted in cheers shortly before 9 p.m. PDT when a radio signal indicated Cassini had been captured by Saturn.

"It was kind of a nail-biter throughout but what you saw here was the result of a lot of work on the part of a lot of people and it all paid off just perfect," said Robert Mitchell, the Cassini program manager at JPL.