Heritage Quote

"A free people [claim] their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate."

-- Thomas Jefferson (Rights of British America, 1774)

A case for torture

An interesting opinion piece by Charles Krauthammer about when torture is justified.

Torture is not always impermissible. However rare the cases, there are circumstances in which, by any rational moral calculus, torture not only would be permissible but would be required (to acquire life-saving information). And once you've established the principle, to paraphrase George Bernard Shaw, all that's left to haggle about is the price. In the case of torture, that means that the argument is not whether torture is ever permissible, but when . . .

I'm not sure how I weigh in on this one.

It's worth reading.

GM's problems

Michael Barone points out some basic economics relative to General Motors' current financial woes.

General Motors' layoffs of 30,000 workers and the bankruptcy last month of the GM spinoff Delphi are widely taken as proof that the days of high-wage, high-benefit manufacturing jobs in the United States are over. But that's not quite the case. An editorial in yesterday's Wall Street Journal (available to subscribers only) pointed out that Japanese and German auto companies employ 60,000 workers in American plants with payroll costs per employee only 8 percent lower than those of the Big Three. But there is one big difference: Few of these 60,000 workers are represented by unions.

Mr. Barone also wrote an op-ed piece for OpinionJournal that I've put in the extended entry.

Once Upon a Time in America
Why GM and the UAW's postwar economic vision failed.

BY MICHAEL BARONE
Sunday, November 27, 2005 12:01 a.m. EST

The end, or the beginning of the end, of a familiar and comfortable world: That's how General Motors' announcement last week of massive layoffs and plant closings, following the bankruptcy of Delphi last month, strikes one who grew up in the Detroit area in the two decades immediately after World War II. In that world, it was easy to imagine you were at the center of the economy. Detroit was then the fifth-largest metropolitan area, the home of the Big Three auto companies and the United Auto Workers--national institutions of the greatest importance. The news media followed the negotiations between the UAW and the Big Three company it picked as a target every few years, and it was assumed that the wages and benefits agreed to would set a pattern for the whole economy.

And a very good economy it seemed to be. Left behind were the Depression and the anxious years of World War II. The UAW was able to negotiate big hourly pay increases and generous medical and pension benefits as well. With no effective competition, the Big Three could pass along the cost of UAW contracts to consumers who seemed willing to pay more for dramatically restyled and heavily advertised cars. General Motors' president, Harlow Curtice, was Time's Man of the Year for 1955. This was a recognition not just of an individual (I wonder how able an executive Curtice was) but of a system; Time might have honored UAW's longtime president, Walter Reuther.

The success of the Big Three and the UAW seemed a fit symbol of America's postwar economic dynamism. In fact, this was an economy characterized not by dynamism but by stasis, to use Virginia Postrel's term in "The Future and Its Enemies." New Deal legislation had been designed not for economic growth but for protection from the downward spiral of deflation. Those laws, not least by encouraging unions, strove to prop up wages and prices and to provide security to workers and existing firms. Keynesian economics was employed to flatten out the business cycle as much as possible and to reduce unemployment.

By the mid-1960s, it was generally agreed that this system worked and would continue indefinitely. The Big Three could always make money by rolling out the big cars families needed to go up north each summer. As John Kenneth Galbraith then argued, auto makers could induce consumers to buy as many cars as they wanted to sell by clever advertising. UAW workers could always look forward to ever-increasing wages and benefits. The big demand in the 1970 contract negotiations was retirement for auto workers in their early 50s. The confrontational labor-management politics of the 1940s and 1950s was replaced by consensus, as Henry Ford II joined Reuther in endorsing LBJ in 1964.

Reuther, a man of great energy and ability, wanted to use the UAW as an entering wedge to transform America into a Scandinavian-style welfare state. His contracts would set the pattern for national wages; the union movement would expand into new industries and unionize most of the economy; growth would enable workers to enjoy not only high wages, but job security, medical benefits, generous pensions. They would be protected against competition by large corporations. Reuther employed a Scandinavian architect to build Solidarity House, the union's headquarters on the Detroit River, and Black Lake, its educational center in northern Michigan. Reuther, like Marx, and like so many other social democrats, envisioned workers devoting their increasing leisure hours to pursuing the culture that seemed so inaccessible to workers earlier in the century.

---

The problem was that the default character of the economy, after the shocks of depression and war, turned out to be not stasis but dynamism. Private-sector unionization peaked in the mid-1950s; employment in unionized firms grew less than in nonunion firms. Union leaders believed that Section 14(b) of the Taft-Hartley Act, which allowed state right-to-work laws, was preventing unionization in the South, the Great Plains and much of the West. But the attempt to repeal 14(b) was one of the few defeats for LBJ's Democrats in the 1965-66 Congress.

The Big Three auto firms--and the UAW--would soon face competition from foreign firms and an unforeseen demand for cars not large enough to take the family up north every summer. Attempts to wall themselves off from foreign competition either failed legislatively or produced perverse results. Faced with domestic-content laws, Japanese and European firms built large plants in the U.S. with nonunion work forces. That has left the Big Three and their spinoffs, like Delphi, with redundant work forces and huge legacy costs in the form of generous pensions and open-ended retiree health benefits.

Union-driven legacy costs have already forced many steel companies and airlines into bankruptcy, with pension obligations fobbed off on the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. The Big Three auto companies might as well do the same. At least there aren't that many big unionized private industries left to fall. Besides, taxpayers and politicians angry at costs imposed by unions--particularly in the public sector--can always change the rules and reduce unions' bargaining leverage. Just as the economic marketplace eventually reduced the power of the old industrial unions, the political marketplace could, in time, reduce the power of the "post-industrial" unions.

The attempt to protect workers from all risk has turned out to be very risky indeed, since in a dynamic economy large corporations are subject to competition from firms with lower costs. In the auto industry the result is significant pain for those who relied on the Big Three and the UAW; but the result is also a vastly faster growing economy and many more opportunities than provided by the European welfare states.

A broader result has also been the consolidation of a more demotic, market-based culture. On the Michigan freeways going up north, the big attractions are not the UAW's cultural haven of Black Lake but Indian casinos and outlet malls, places where people throng to win sudden riches or to take advantage of low prices on brand-name goods. The attempt, made when the economy seemed static, to promise security and leisure and restrained good taste, has failed. We remain, as we have been in most of our history, a nation of hustlers (as historian Walter A. McDougall so strikingly put it)--a people who strive mightily to get ahead and advance their interests, enjoying the sometimes vulgar opportunities a dynamic economy provides.

Mr. Barone is a senior writer at U.S. News & World Report and a contributor to the Fox News Channel.

[Used with permission from OpinionJournal.com, a web site from Dow Jones & Company, Inc.]

Heritage Quote

"A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. As enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself."

—Marcus Tullius Cicero

Our man Bolton

I am so glad that Mr. Bolton made it to the UN so he can properly and firmly represent U.S. interests.

Following intense US pressure, the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday issued an unprecedented condemnation of Monday's Hizbullah attacks on northern Israel.

This condemnation - slamming Hizbullah by name for "acts of hatred" - marked the first time the Security Council has ever reprimanded Hizbullah for cross-border attacks on Israel. The condemnation followed by two days a failed attempt to get a condemnation issued on Monday, the day of the attack, when Algeria came out against any mention of Hizbullah in the statement.

When asked what changed from Monday to Wednesday, one diplomatic official replied: "John Bolton," a reference to the US ambassador to the UN. Bolton lobbied vigorously for the passage of the statement.

'Freedom fighters?'

This is what our troops are fighting against in Iraq.

A suicide attacker steered a car packed with explosives toward U.S. soldiers giving away toys to children outside a hospital in central Iraq on Thursday, killing at least 31 people. Almost all of the victims were women and children, police said.

And there are people in this country that want us to pull out and leave the Iraqis to suffer these kind of consequences?

The deaths reported Thursday included five people killed in a suicide car bombing at a market in Hilla, an overwhelmingly Shiite town about 60 miles south of Baghdad. "There were no police or army at the scene when the car exploded, so all the casualties were Shiite civilians," said Ahmed, the provincial police spokesman. News agencies reported that the car exploded outside a soft-drink stand on Thursday evening, when many fathers take their families out for snacks and a stroll at the beginning of the Muslim weekend.

The Islamofascist murderers aren't even pretending to fight for the people of Iraq anymore. In fact, they are murdering them without compunction.

Yet they are being glorified by the likes of Michael Moore and Cindy Sheehan.

I am outraged and disgusted.

Bruce Willis and Deuce Four

It looks like there is at least one person in the news/entertainment industry that supports our troops in Iraq.

Heritage Quote

"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Law of Nature and Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation."

The Declaration of Independence, 4 July 1776

On the road

Blogging will be light or non-existent today as I am traveling back home with my family.

Heritage Quote

"The greatest good we can do our country is to heal its party divisions and make them one people."

-- Thomas Jefferson (letter to John Dickinson, 1801)

Timeline - Iraq

Just for the record, Greyhawk over at the Mudville Gazette has posted the historical timeline of Iraq.

It's good reference material, and has a lot of links. Recommended for those who want to refresh their memories and look at Iraq from a historical perspective.

Wanted: Statesmen

OpinionJournal has an op-ed up about our Congress of Invertebrates.

I've copied the entire article into the extended entry.

A Bridge Too Far
Coburn beats Stevens by a PR knockout.

Monday, November 21, 2005 12:01 a.m. EST

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

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

---

The bridge had become the poster child for Republican fiscal extravagance and the object of justified ridicule across the political spectrum. Ron Utt, fiscal analyst at the Heritage Foundation, notes that the construction costs were so enormous that it would have been cheaper for taxpayers to purchase a yacht for every Gravina family than to build the bridge. One recent poll found that more Americans know about the Bridge to Nowhere than know who their local Congressman is. Which, given Congress's 30% approval rating, is probably the way most Members prefer it these days.

The one hero of this episode is Senator Tom Coburn (R., Okla.), who sponsored an amendment to block funding for the bridge and use the money to repair vital bridges on the Gulf Coast destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Mr. Stevens erupted on the Senate floor and threatened to quit if the measure passed. The vote failed. However, Mr. Stevens threw in the towel last Tuesday, announcing that he was taking this "drastic action" because his state had been "so unfairly maligned in the national press" in recent weeks.

We readily admit to being one of the leading maligners, though of Congress, not of Alaskans. Mr. Stevens has been in an arms race with Democratic Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia to see whose state could win the distinction of pork capital of the nation.

Mr. Stevens has pulled way ahead, with Alaskans ranking first in the nation in pork at $985 per resident and receiving about $5 of federal highway money for every dollar they pay in gas taxes. So even without the Bridge to Nowhere, Alaskans will do just fine in the return-on-taxes-paid department. In any case, Mr. Stevens isn't redirecting the bridge's $320 million to New Orleans. The deal is that the money stays in Alaska but will be spent on other road projects.

---

It would be nice to think that this bridge humiliation would teach Congress about the folly of spending earmarks. The uproar has done enormous damage to the GOP majority's public image, which is of course why Mr. Stevens blew up his bridge. But, alas, apparently this is merely a symbolic and tactical spending retreat. Late last week, GOP House leaders suffered another defeat on the floor when a health and education spending bill failed to pass. One reason? Twenty or so GOP Members were angry that their special projects had been stripped from the legislation to save money. The bridge that these folks are building is one to being called "Mr. Ranking Member."

Heritage Quote

"It is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favors."

-- George Washington (Thanksgiving Proclamation, 3 October 1789)

Disappointed but proud

The Aggies showed a lot of heart out there versus the #2 college team in the nation (t.u.), and they actually were ahead twice during the game.

Unfortunately, Texas showed us what a powerhouse team they really are by winning 40-29.

But they had to really work for it.

It was a good game all around (except for the officiating).

Just wait until next year though . . .

Terrorists' rights

Thomas Sowell puts the rights of terrorists in proper perspective. He's an excerpt:

There is no penalty for false claims but potentially deadly consequences for letting international terrorists tie up our legal system by exercising rights granted to American citizens and now thoughtlessly extended to people who are not American citizens and who are bent on killing American citizens and destroying American society.

After decades of ignoring the fact that rights and responsibilities go together, it was perhaps inevitable that an under-educated and easily confused generation should include some who do not understand that the rights granted to captured troops by the Geneva Convention apply to those who have accepted the terms of the Geneva Convention. It does not apply to people who are not troops and who have blatantly violated the whole framework of that convention.

For more than two centuries there has been a tendency on the political left, here and overseas, to make wrong-doers look like victims rather than people who are victimizing others. So it was perhaps inevitable that some would extend this attitude from criminals to terrorists.

Highly recommended.

26 April 2004

This CNN article reports that Jordanian authorities recovered 20 tons of chemicals in raids against terrorists.

Jordanian authorities said Monday they have broken up an alleged al Qaeda plot that would have unleashed a deadly cloud of chemicals in the heart of Jordan's capital, Amman.

The plot would have been more deadly than anything al Qaeda has done before, including the September 11 attacks, according to the Jordanian government.

Where did the 20 tons of chemicals (including blistering, choking, and nerve agents) come from? My guess is that they came from Iraq -- before Operation Iraqi Freedom. Saddam Hussein had become proficient at dismantling and moving his WMDs (he had been doing it quite often since Desert Storm in 1991), so it makes sense that that huge quantity of chemical warfare agents could well have originated in Saddam's Iraq.

Another thing to be thankful for.

Thanksgiving Heritage Quote

"Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor...

"Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the Beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted; for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

"And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplication to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations, and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our national government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a government of wise, just and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally, to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.

"Given under my hand, at the city of New York, the 3d day of October, AD 1789."

-- President George Washington, Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, 3 October 1789

Giving thanks

Today is the day that America sets aside to give thanks for all of the blessings we have been showered with. And, no, we don't deserve them more than anyone else on this planet.

However, we have indeed been blessed, so it is our solemn duty to share these blessings with those who are not as fortunate.

The Arab street

Mark Steyn discusses the "Arab street" response to the bombings in Amman, Jordan.

On Friday, the allegedly explosive "Arab street" finally exploded, in the largest demonstration against al-Qa'eda or its affiliates seen in the Middle East. "Zarqawi," shouted 200,000 Jordanians, "from Amman we say to you, you are a coward!" Also "the enemy of Allah" - which, for a jihadist, isn't what they call on Broadway a money review.

It is encouraging to see this happening in the Middle East. Because of the U.S. involvement in Iraq, the people in other Middle Eastern countries are beginning to see that America is not "the Great Satan", but that Islamofascism is.

Another something to be thankful for . . .

What war has wrought

Michael Yon has posted a photo essay of children in Iraq.

I truly believe that is why we fight this war -- and why we should continue. For the future.

Heritage Quote

"It is the duty of every man to render to the Creator such homage, and such only, as he believes to be acceptable to him. This duty is precedent both in order of time and degree of obligation, to the claims of Civil Society. Before any man can be considered as a member of Civil Society, he must be considered as a subject of the Governor of the Universe."

-- James Madison (A Memorial and Remonstrance, 1785)

How do you lose a war?

Ralph Peters, over at theNew York Post has the answer to that question: just quit. And he also goes into some detail about the betrayal of America and Iraq by our Senators and Congressmen.

The irresponsibility of the Democrats on Capitol Hill is breathtaking. (How can an honorable man such as Joe Lieberman stay in that party?) Not one of the critics of our efforts in Iraq -- not one -- has described his or her vision for Iraq and the Middle East in the wake of a troop withdrawal. Not one has offered any analysis of what the terrorists would gain and what they might do. Not one has shown respect for our war dead by arguing that we must put aside our partisan differences and win.

There's plenty I don't like about the Bush administration. Its domestic policies disgust me, and the Bushies got plenty wrong in Iraq. But at least they'll fight. The Dems are ready to betray our troops, our allies and our country's future security for a few House seats.

Surrender is never a winning strategy.

You should read the whole thing.

[Hat tip to Instapundit.]

Suicide bomber problem?

Here is one solution.

Blogiversary

I can't believe that I've been doing this for a year now. It all started mainly as an attempt to counter-balance the tremendously skewed reporting that was (and still is) going on.

I have really come to enjoy blogging. I know I rarely write about myself, or even much about my views, but I enjoy researching and compiling the things that I link to and blog about.

I appreciate the two regular readers that I have even though you rarely (if ever) comment. And that is not a complaint -- it's a free country after all, and I am very comfortable with the way this blog is puttering along.

All of MuNuvia (the blogging 'community' that I am a part of) was moved to new servers recently. The move broke my randomized banners and quick quotes, but Phin has assured me that he'll figure out why the scripts no longer work, and get 'em going again. I really appreciate Phin's willingness to help out -- he and Sadie of Apothegm Designs designed and coded my blog's new look. (Update: It appears that Phin has fixed the scripts. Thank you, Phin!)

I appreciate the host and Great Poobah of MuNuvia, Pixy Misa. He has been working his tail off maintaining this blogging community, siccing the dog on spam, buying and configuring new servers, and then helping us all out with our various bumps, bruises, and technical issues. I suspect rather strongly that Pixy must actually be a corporate conglomerate . . . it's the only way to explain how he gets so much done (in addition to his day job!).

Anyway, thank you all for a good first year. This blogging journey may actually take me along for another year.

And if so, I know it will be in good company. . .

Sporadic Blogging Alert

Today through Sunday will see spotty blogging on my part. My family and I will be visiting parents for the holiday weekend and I don't know when or for how long I will get online. FYI.

Heritage Quote

"It is the duty of all men in society, publicly, and at stated seasons, to worship the SUPREME BEING, the great Creator and Preserver of the universe. And no subject shall be hurt, molested, or restrained, in his person, liberty, or estate, for worshipping GOD in the manner most agreeable to the dictates of his own conscience; or for his religious profession or sentiments; provided he doth not disturb the public peace, or obstruct others in their religious worship."

-- John Adams (Thoughts on Government, 1776)

'Exit strategy'

Mark Steyn comments on the Senate's public departure from reality. And he's taking no prisoners:

What does Rockefeller believe, really? I know what Bush believes: He thought Saddam should go in 2002 and today he's glad he's gone, as am I. I know what, say, Michael Moore believes: He wanted to leave Saddam in power in 2002, and today he thinks the "insurgents" are the Iraqi version of America's Minutemen. But what do Rockefeller and Reid and Kerry believe deep down? That voting for the war seemed the politically expedient thing to do in 2002 but that they've since done the math and figured that pandering to the moveon.org crowd is where the big bucks are? If Bush is the new Hitler, these small hollow men are the equivalent of those grubby little Nazis whose whining defense was, "I was only obeying orders. I didn't really mean all that strutting tough-guy stuff." And, before they huff, "How dare you question my patriotism?", well, yes, I am questioning your patriotism -- because you're failing to meet the challenge of the times. Thanks to you, Iraq is a quagmire -- not in the Sunni Triangle, where U.S. armed forces are confident and effective, but on the home front, where soft-spined national legislators have turned the war into one almighty Linguini Triangle.

Recommended reading.

Deuce Four Homecoming

Michael Yon describes the Deuce Four's Homecoming Ball.

Asylum for Bin Laden

How about a CNN report from 1999 that tells us about Saddam Hussein offering Osama Bin Laden sanctuary in Iraq.

Run away! Run away!

I refer you to this link where the Anchoress details compelling reasons for us NOT to pull out of Iraq.

Heritage Quote

"In the formation of our constitution the wisdom of all ages is collected--the legislators of antiquity are consulted, as well as the opinions and interests of the millions who are concerned. It short, it is an empire of reason."

-- Noah Webster (An Examination into the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution, 1787)

Standing up for what's right

Senator John McCain has an opinion piece up about the foolish Senate amendment that was passed this week calling for a drawdown of U.S. forces in Iraq in 2006. Here's an excerpt:

The Senate has responded to the millions who braved bombs and threats to vote, who put their faith and trust in America and their government, by suggesting that our No. 1 priority is to bring our people home.

We have told insurgents that their violence does grind us down, that their horrific acts might be successful. But these are precisely the wrong messages. Our exit strategy in Iraq is not the withdrawal of our troops, it is victory.

Americans may not have been of one mind when it came to the decision to topple Saddam Hussein. But, though some disagreed, I believe that nearly all now wish us to prevail.

Because the stakes there are so high -- higher even than those in Vietnam -- our friends and our enemies need to hear one message: America is committed to success, and we will win this war.

He's got it right.

Recommended (requires free registration).

Heritage Quote

"Liberty is not to be enjoyed, indeed it cannot exist, without the habits of just subordination; it consists, not so much in removing all restraint from the orderly, as in imposing it on the violent."

-- Fisher Ames (Essay on Equality, 15 December 1801)

Win every battle yet lose the war

J.R. Dunn, over at the American Thinker, tells us how we're winning in Iraq, but losing at home.

Every car bomb, every IED, every assassination is a weapon aimed at American public opinion. The same must be made true of Coalition victories. Success is not success if it remains unacknowledged. Progress in Iraq must be brought out of the shadows. Until it is, we're not quite winning, no matter how many emirs we account for.

Our forces in Iraq have performed magnificently, but they cannot win the war at home. That is up to us. Too many of us are content to passively support the troops, and allow the media to sap national morale with a prefabricated story ignoring the facts. We cannot afford to be AWOL. It is time to engage in the combat of words and ideas on the home front. Our victorious forces deserve no less.

It's worth reading.

Nadir

Rick Moran has some pointed things to say about how the war in Iraq is being conducted at home in the USA.

In just a few weeks, the people of Iraq will hold an election under their newly minted constitution that, on paper, is a marvel of compromise and idealism. What kind of government emerges from these elections may not be very satisfying to the United States. But that is not the point. It will be the kind of government that the Iraqi people want. And that is what more than 2,000 American boys and girls have died trying to establish; a democratically elected government set in the heart of jihad territory. The Iraqis are about ready to spit in the eye of Osama bin Laden and all our weak kneed, faint of heart "nervous nellies" can spout about is how much of a failure the war has been and how we should leave these courageous people to the tender mercies of al Zarqawi and his Merry Band of Beheaders.

I sure wish I had said that. Go read the rest. It's well worth it -- even if you disagree.

Heritage Quote

"Next Monday the Convention in Virginia will assemble; we have still good hopes of its adoption here: though by no great plurality of votes. South Carolina has probably decided favourably before this time. The plot thickens fast. A few short weeks will determine the political fate of America for the present generation, and probably produce no small influence on the happiness of society through a long succession of ages to come."

-- George Washington (letter to Marquis de Lafayette, 28 May 1788)

Setting the record straight

The White House is finally refuting the lies.

Thank goodness.

WMDetails

Former military intel officer Bill Tierney talks about his experiences as an UNSCOM inspector and counter-infiltration officer in Iraq.

What he has to say is pretty scary. Where did the WMDs go, anyway?

Homeland Insecurity

Michelle Malkin has a good piece up at Townhall.com about how our borders are not secure.

Do not be fooled by DHS chief Michael Chertoff's tough-sounding rhetoric. While the Washington muckety-mucks pay lip service to reforming the nation's broken detention and deportation system, catch-and-release of immigration lawbreakers remains the order of the day -- not only at the border, but all across the country's interior.

It is definitely scary to see how big this problem really is.

Heritage Quote

"As the cool and deliberate sense of the community ought in all governments, and actually will in all free governments ultimately prevail over the views of its rulers; so there are particular moments in public affairs, when the people stimulated by some irregular passion, or some illicit advantage, or misled by the artful misrepresentations of interested men, may call for measures which they themselves will afterwards be the most ready to lament and condemn. In these critical moments, how salutary will be the interference of some temperate and respectable body of citizens, in order to check the misguided career, and to suspend the blow mediated by the people against themselves, until reason, justice and truth, can regain their authority over the public mind?"

-- James Madison (likely) (Federalist No. 63, 1788)

Price gouging?

No, not price gouging. Rose and Milton Friendman Foundation Senior Fellow Thomas Sowell says that it's just simple supply and demand (basic economics).

What do higher prices do? Force people to restrain their own purchases more so than usual. What do higher profits do? Cause more money to be invested in producing whatever is earning higher profits, and this in turn expands output. Isn't a larger supply of oil and a reduced consumption of it what we want? Whenever there have been sharp rises in gasoline prices, whether nationwide or locally in California, Senator Barbara Boxer has loudly demanded an investigation of the oil companies. These repeated investigations over the years have repeatedly failed to turn up anything other than supply and demand.

The real irony is that it has been precisely liberals like Barbara Boxer who have been the chief obstacles to increasing the supply of oil because they are dead set against drilling for oil in more places and against building more refineries.

When you refuse to let supply rise to meet rising demand, why should you be surprised -- much less outraged -- when prices rise?

So, then, what is all of the wailing about when it comes to gasoline prices?

Polls

Brent Bozell, over at Townhall.com asks a very good question:

Doesn't Bush deserve some measure of credit for how or why the country has not been attacked again on his watch?

You should read the rest . . .

Heritage Quote

"[T]he President, who errs as other men do, but errs with integrity."

-- Thomas Jefferson (on George Washington in a letter to William Branch Giles, 31 December 1795)

Who's lying?

Go ahead and Google "Clinton Iraq 1998". You'll find numerous (3,700,000 on my search) references to speeches by former President Clinton, many past and present Senators (several of whom are calling President Bush a liar), the Iraq Liberation Act -- H.R. 4655, and much more . . .

Here, and here are a couple of other articles you can read, too.

Do the research yourself, and then make up your own mind about whether or not we were lied to -- and by whom . . .

Heritage Quote

"The constitution of the United States is to receive a reasonable interpretation of its language, and its powers, keeping in view the objects and purposes, for which those powers were conferred. By a reasonable interpretation, we mean, that in case the words are susceptible of two different senses, the one strict, the other more enlarged, that should be adopted, which is most consonant with the apparent objects and intent of the Constitution."

-- Joseph Story (Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833)

President Bush's Veterans Day speech

Townhall has provided a transcript of the President's Veterans Day Speech (11/11/05).

Read this before you start believing the Kennedy/Reid/Durbin spin on what he said. Frankly, I think they must be referring to another speech entirely . . .

Recommended.

Heritage Quote

"We fight not to enslave, but to set a country free, and to make room upon the earth for honest men to live in."

-- Thomas Paine, September 11, 1777

Relief efforts in Pakistan

Firepower Forward has been very busy with relief efforts in Pakistan.

Go read the post, and then check out the rest of his blog, too. It is very educational to those of us who have not been deployed to Afghanistan or Iraq.

Lost: L.A. public education

Larry Elder describes how the Los Angeles Unified School District approaches education. And it is not pretty:

World Can't Wait -- an anti-Bush, anti-war group, recently staged nationwide protests. The organization coordinated rallies in Chicago, Seattle, New York, San Francisco -- and Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Unified School District took things a step further. The district helpfully agreed to provide buses -- that's right, buses -- as well as "adult supervision" to the nearly 800 high school students who walked out of 10 high schools. District officials said they thought it best to provide adults and transportation, since, you know, the kids intended to go to the rally, anyway. "Our issue . . . was safety," said the district's chief operating officer, "and I think we fulfilled our mission, frankly."

Really? Forgive some of us for thinking that the district's mission was . . . education. And, given the less-than-superb academic performance of Los Angeles public school students, the educrats, one would have thought, would have frowned on allowing the kids to skip classes.

No wonder the teachers' union was so opposed to the California proposition making it easier to fire teachers! What a waste! What a horrible disservice to all of those kids . . .

You should read the rest.

Heritage Quote

"I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death."

-- Thomas Paine, December 19, 1776

Kepp up the good work in the war on Islamofascism, Mr. President!

History Quote

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse. A man who has nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety is a miserable creature who has no chance at being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."

--John Stuart Mill

Friedman & vouchers

Here's another call for the widespread use of vouchers in education.

While Friedman has wanted the poor to have a choice, he foresees vouchers as improving education nationwide. He would give all parents vouchers, thus establishing a market in education. In commerce markets provide improved and diversified products at lower costs. In education a market would do the same. Writing in the November issue of The American Spectator, Friedman notes the evolution of cars and TVs in our market economy. At first they were only purchasable by the well-off "at high prices [that] thereby supported production while the cost was being brought down, until what started out as a luxury good for the rich became a necessity for the poor." By introducing competition among schools, vouchers would create educational curricula for different needs and at a lower cost.

I honestly think it would be worth a try. I have firsthand knowledge of what can happen to the quality of education when a school district loses sight of their mission. Read it and tell me what you think . . .

Heritage Quote

"Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for, I have grown not only gray, but almost blind in the service of my country."

-- George Washington (upon fumbling for his glasses before delivering the Newburgh Address, 15 March 1783)

Veteran's Day

"Let us solemnly remember the sacrifices of all those who fought so valiantly, on the seas, in the air, and on foreign shores, to preserve our heritage of freedom, and let us reconsecrate ourselves to the task of promoting an enduring peace so that their efforts shall not have been in vain."

-- Dwight D. Eisenhower

"Honor to the soldier, and Sailor everywhere, who bravely bears his country's cause. Honor also to the citizen who cares for his brother in the field, and serves, as he best can, the same cause."

-- President Abraham Lincoln

Many of our veterans paid for our freedom and safety with their lives. Many more of them bear the scars of their service -- physically and emotionally.

Please honor our veterans today (especially), but also honor and thank them every single day you enjoy the liberty and freedom that we have so abundantly here in America. Because without our veterans, those individuals who fought and died for us, we would not be a free people.

To every man and woman who wore our country's uniform, who trained and prepared for battle, who stood guard in our defense, who put his or her life in harm's way: Thank you for your service, and for your suffering. You have my respect, my honor, my prayers, and my gratitude. God bless you and keep you.

Heritage Quote

"The house of representatives...can make no law which will not have its full operation on themselves and their friends, as well as the great mass of society. This has always been deemed one of the strongest bonds by which human policy can connect the rulers and the people together. It creates between them that communion of interest, and sympathy of sentiments, of which few governments have furnished examples; but without which every government degenerates into tyranny."

-- James Madison (Federalist No. 57, 19 February 1788)

An open letter to the Dems

Senator John Cornyn has some good points to make in this letter to his Democrat friends. Here is a taste:

Democrats, in the Senate and elsewhere, believe they’ve hit upon a winning political strategy: Telling anyone who will listen that the administration has manipulated intelligence and has exaggerated the threat. But that line of attack itself is the manipulation of facts; a complete revision of recent history: Recall that only a few years ago Democrats joined Republicans in a bipartisan acknowledgment that Saddam Hussein posed a grave threat to the world.

In fact, it was the Senate that unanimously passed the Iraq Liberation Act in 1998 which called for supporting efforts to overthrow Saddam Hussein. And it was President Clinton who so eloquently described the threat posed by Hussein and the consequences of inaction when he said:

“Heavy as they are, the costs of action must be weighed against the price of inaction. If Saddam defies the world and we fail to respond, we will face a far greater threat in the future. Saddam will strike again at his neighbors; he will make war against his own people. And mark my words, he will develop weapons of mass destruction. He will deploy them, and he will use them.”

The rest is worth reading.

Marine Corp's 230th Birthday

Today marks the 230th birthday of the U.S. Marine Corps. Col. Jeff Bearor (USMC) talks about the Corps and the Marines, past and present, that make up that fine Service.

There really is a tie between Marines, our history and our Corps that is, in some sense, mystical. It starts in boot camp and Officer Candidates School with Drill Instructors regaling recruits and officer candidates with the stories that make up our history and with a few chosen stories of their own detailing their small part of the whole. They talk about the first "Continental Marines," the Barbary pirates, Archibald Henderson (who was Commandant for 30-plus years), landings across the globe, the Boxer Rebellion, Dan Daley, the Philippine Insurrection, Smedley Butler, Belleau Wood, "Chesty" Puller, Nicaragua, "Manila" John Basilone, Wake Island, the Montford Point Marines, Iwo Jima, the Chosin Reservoir, Lebanon, Viet Nam and -- from their own experience -- Kuwait, Somalia, the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Semper Fidelis, Marines. Thank you for your service to our country. And happy 230th birthday!

Heritage Quote

"Be in general virtuous, and you will be happy."

-- Benjamin Franklin (letter to John Alleyne, 9 August 1768)

Operation Enduring Service

Operation Enduring Service proposes to converty old WWII era military vessels into Fast Attack Emergency Ships that would be used for emergency relief following disasters such as Katrina or Rita.

Phin tipped me off to this, so I've put his email describing the program in the extended entry. This is a worthwhile cause. Recommended.

I apologize for the spamish nature of this e-mail, I typically don't resort to mass e-mail and I wouldn't now if this message weren't so important. There is a project underway that will reduce the amount of dependence placed on the government when a natural disaster strikes one of the coastal states (Atlantic, Gulf or Pacific). The projects name is Operation Enduring Service and was created by Beauchamp Tower Corporation.

Posted on my site phin's blog and cross-posted at Confederate Yankee are calls to press Senators to insert a rider that will allow this to happen. Due to time constraints the legislation required to make this happen is dangerously close to falling by the wayside-in fact it has to pass before Congress ends this Session (less than 14 days).

The project calls for the transfer of decommisioned and obsolete military ships to an established award-winning nonprofit organization that will convert them into powerful and 100% volunteer-funded floating rescue and recovery vessels to assist those in need in the wake of natural and manmade disasters.

Via Operation Enduring Service:

So, you want to see what these old girls will be able to do? Here's a list of only a few things we can provide during a Coastal State disaster (such as flooding or a hurricane)

----Service a disaster area of up to 10,000 square miles (up to 100 miles inland) with minimal (if any) outside support

----Provide complete berthing facilities for up to 400 emergency responders "on scene" at a disaster site

----Fully integrated communications system serving all local, state, and federal agencies, as well as cell phone coverage and military band frequencies--allowing for seamless communications between all disaster scene personnel, no matter what radio frequency or cell phone is being used.

----Daily provide 110 tons of bagged and palletized ice to the disaster region

----Daily generate, bottle, and palletize up to 50,000 gallons of fresh water

----Provide refueling station and loading platform for helicopters operating in the disaster area

----Carry over 7,000 tons of food and supplies for a disaster area

----Store (and provide delivery of) 700,000 gallons of diesel, gasoline, and aviation fuel for use in the disaster area on emergency vehicles and critical needs generators (hospitals, emergency operation centers, etc)

.......and that's just one ship.

They're talking about fielding two ships, not one... a regular "Salvation Navy." We have a chance to make a great deal of difference in future disasters (these ships may be ready for the '06 hurricane season) but we must act now. Think of the number of lives saved and the peace of mind that can be brought, while saving the government and tax payers money.

Any help you can give in the form of summoning your readerships to help press the key senators listed (and their own) would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
phin
http://phin.mu.nu

Good news about Iraq

Bill Crawford, at National Review Online, has a lot to say about the tremendous progress that is being made in Iraq. Here's an excerpt:

A similarly impressive effort to rebuild Iraq’s infrastructure is also underway. Opponents of our efforts in Iraq often point out that prior to the invasion Baghdad had a continuous supply of electricity, but that today supplies are intermittent. What they don’t say is that Saddam achieved steady supplies of electricity in Baghdad by poaching it from other areas of the country. The truth is that Iraq’s electrical grid, roads, bridges, health system, water systems, and oil infrastructure had been neglected for more than a decade. Not since the Marshall Plan rebuilt Europe has the world seen an effort as massive as the one now underway in Iraq, and many signs of success go unreported in the MSM: Iraq’s power output is now higher than pre-war levels, and oil revenues in September of this year were the highest in Iraqi history.

He discusses progress in the Iraqi economy, infrastructure, security, and education, among other things. Recommended.

Why not in America?

Joel Kotkin, author and Irvine Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation, has an op-ed up at OpinionJournal about why we don't have immigrants rioting in the USA. He starts with this:

The French political response to the continuing riots has focused most on the need for more multicultural "understanding" of, and public spending on, the disenchanted mass in the country's grim banlieues (suburbs). What has been largely ignored has been the role of France's economic system in contributing to the current crisis. State-directed capitalism may seem ideal for American admirers such as Jeremy Rifkin, author of "The European Dream," and others on the left. Yet it is precisely this highly structured and increasingly infracted economic system that has so limited opportunities for immigrants and their children. In a country where short workweeks and early retirement are sacred, there is little emphasis on creating new jobs and even less on grass-roots entrepreneurial activity.

Since the rioting began in France, I have been concerned about something similar here in America. I wasn't worried so much about Muslim/African immigrants as I was about Hispanic ones. However, this article has eased my concern a bit -- Mr. Kotkin has some convincing points. I'm still not completely at peace about it though.

I've reprinted the entire article in the extended entry.

Why Immigrants Don't Riot Here
France's rigid economic system sustains privilege and inspires resentment.

BY JOEL KOTKIN
Tuesday, November 8, 2005 12:01 a.m. EST

The French political response to the continuing riots has focused most on the need for more multicultural "understanding" of, and public spending on, the disenchanted mass in the country's grim banlieues (suburbs). What has been largely ignored has been the role of France's economic system in contributing to the current crisis. State-directed capitalism may seem ideal for American admirers such as Jeremy Rifkin, author of "The European Dream," and others on the left. Yet it is precisely this highly structured and increasingly infracted economic system that has so limited opportunities for immigrants and their children. In a country where short workweeks and early retirement are sacred, there is little emphasis on creating new jobs and even less on grass-roots entrepreneurial activity.

Since the '70s, America has created 57 million new jobs, compared with just four million in Europe (with most of those jobs in government). In France and much of Western Europe, the economic system is weighted toward the already employed (the overwhelming majority native-born whites) and the growing mass of retirees. Those ensconced in state and corporate employment enjoy short weeks, early and well-funded retirement and first dibs on the public purse. So although the retirement of large numbers of workers should be opening up new job opportunities, unemployment among the young has been rising: In France, joblessness among workers in their 20s exceeds 20%, twice the overall national rate. In immigrant banlieues, where the population is much younger, average unemployment reaches 40%, and higher among the young.

To make matters worse, the elaborate French welfare state--government spending accounts for roughly half of GDP compared with 36% in the U.S.--also forces high tax burdens on younger workers lucky enough to have a job, largely to pay for an escalating number of pensioners and benefit recipients. In this system, the incentives are to take it easy, live well and then retire. The bloat of privileged aging blocks out opportunity for the young.

Luckily, better-educated young Frenchmen and other Continental Europeans can opt out of the system by emigrating to more open economies in Ireland, the U.K. and, particularly, the U.S. This is clearly true in technological fields, where Europe's best brains leave in droves. Some 400,000 European Union science graduates currently reside in the U.S. Barely one in seven, according to a recent poll, intends to return. Driven by the ambitious young, European immigration to the U.S. jumped by 16% during the '90s. Visa applications dropped after 9/11, but then increased last year by 10%. The total number of Europe-born immigrants increased by roughly 700,000 during the last three years, with a heavy inflow from the former Soviet Union, the former Yugoslavia, and Romania--as well as France. These new immigrants have been particularly drawn to the metropolitan centers of California, Florida and New York.

The Big Apple offers a lesson for France. An analysis of recent census numbers indicates that immigrants to New York are the biggest contributors to the net growth of educated young people in the city. Without the disproportionate contributions of young European immigrants, New York would have suffered a net outflow of educated people under 35 in the late '90s. Overall, there are now 500,000 New York residents who were born in Europe (not to mention the numerous non-European immigrants who live, and prosper, in the city).

Contrast this with Paris, where the central city is largely off-limits to immigrants, in some ways due to the dirigiste planning that so many professional American urbanists find appealing. Since Napoleon III rebuilt Paris, uprooting many existing working-class communities, the intention of the French elites has been to preserve the central parts of the city--often with massive public investment--for the affluent. This has consigned the proletariat, first white and now increasingly Muslim, to the proximate suburbs--into what some French sociologists call "territorial stigma." In these communities, immigrants are effectively isolated from the overpriced, elegant central core and the ever-expanding outer suburban grand couronne. The outer suburbs, usually not on the maps of tourists and new urbanist sojourners, now are home to a growing percentage of French middle-class families, and are the locale for many high-tech companies and business service firms.

The contrast with America's immigrants, including those from developing countries, could not be more dramatic, both in geographic and economic terms. The U.S. still faces great problems with a portion of blacks and American Indians. But for the most part immigrants, white and nonwhite, have been making considerable progress. Particularly telling, immigrant business ownership has been surging far faster than among native-born Americans. Ironically, some of the highest rates for ethnic entrepreneurship in the U.S. belong to Muslim immigrants, along with Russians, Indians, Israelis and Koreans.

Perhaps nothing confirms immigrant upward mobility more than the fact that the majority have joined the white middle class in the suburbs--a geography properly associated here mostly with upward mobility. These newcomers and their businesses have carved out a powerful presence in suburban areas that now count among the nation's most diverse regions. Prime examples include what demographer Bill Frey calls "melting pot suburbs": the San Gabriel Valley east of Los Angeles; Arlington County, Va.; Essex County, N.J.; and Fort Bend County in suburban Houston. The connection between this spreading geography and immigrant opportunity is not coincidental. Like other Americans, immigrants often dramatically improve their quality of life and economic prospects by moving out to less dense, faster growing areas. They can also take advantage of more business-friendly government. Perhaps the most extreme case is Houston, a low-cost, low-tax haven where immigrant entrepreneurship has exploded in recent decades. Much of this has taken place in the city itself. Looser regulations and a lack of zoning lower land and rental costs, providing opportunities to build businesses and acquire property.

It is almost inconceivable to see such flowerings of ethnic entrepreneurship in Continental Europe. Economic and regulatory policy plays a central role in stifling enterprise. Heavy-handed central planning tends to make property markets expensive and difficult to penetrate. Add to this an overall regulatory regime that makes it hard for small business to start or expand, and you have a recipe for economic stagnation and social turmoil. What would help France most now would be to stimulate economic growth and lessen onerous regulation. Most critically, this would also open up entrepreneurial and employment opportunity for those now suffering more of a nightmare of closed options than anything resembling a European dream.

Mr. Kotkin, Irvine Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation, is the author of "The City: A Global History" (Modern Library, 2005).

[Used with permission from OpinionJournal.com, a web site from Dow Jones & Company, Inc.]

Heritage Quote

"If individuals be not influenced by moral principles; it is in vain to look for public virtue; it is, therefore, the duty of legislators to enforce, both by precept and example, the utility, as well as the necessity of a strict adherence to the rules of distributive justice."

-- James Madison (in response to Washington's first Inaugural address, 18 May 1789)

A sane response to terrorism

How about a massive Muslim demonstration against Al Qaida!!?

U.S. intel and Saddam's Iraq

Stephan F. Hayes has an op-ed at the Weekly Standard about the case for war in Iraq and how it has become publicly distorted. He discusses the Democrat party politics about this, but also talks about the Bush administration's failure to get the real story out to the nation.

Recommended.

Heritage Quote

"The citizens of America have too much discernment to be argued into anarchy. and I am much mistaken if experience has not wrought a deep and solemn conviction in the public mind that greater energy of government is essential to the welfare and prosperity of the community."

-- Alexander Hamilton (Federalist No. 26)

Gas prices

Captain Ed talks about the price of gas.

In the Upper Midwest, the price of a gallon of gas has fallen by almost a third from its peak just a month or so ago. We had seen regular unleaded go as high as $2.99/gallon in October, but this weekend, Minneapolis pricing had dropped to the $2.05/gallon range. With more of the Gulf refining capacity coming back on line and action taken this week in Congress to expand exploration and refining capacity in the next few years, expect the pricing to drop even further.

Sometimes good government happens . . .

City of Lights

Dr. Demarche, of our State Department, does not mince words as he discusses the fallacy that some folks are entertaining about the insurrection going on in France.

He has more here, and here.

He has some good discussion points. Recommended.

French intifada

Mark Steyn says, "Wake up, Europe, you've a war on your hands".

The U.N. at 60

The L.A. Times provides a summary of the high points from a new movie : "Broken Promises, The United Nations at 60."

The rogues and terrorist and despots and dictators who run the show are not going to give up control. And they outvote us, they can veto things. You can't fix the U.N. because its members don't want it to be fixed.

-- Jed Babbin, former deputy undersecretary of Defense under George H.W. Bush, on the UN

It is interesting reading.

Heritage Quote

"Born in other countries, yet believing you could be happy in this, our laws acknowledge, as they should do, your right to join us in society, conforming, as I doubt not you will do, to our established rules. That these rules shall be as equal as prudential considerations will admit, will certainly be the aim of our legislatures, general and particular."

-- Thomas Jefferson, 1801, letter to Hugh White

Heritage Quote

"As our president bears no resemblance to a king so we shall see the Senate has no similitude to nobles."

—Tench Coxe

France's intifada?

Things are not going well in France. I think America could very well have the same kind of problem in a decade or two if we don't come up with a rational, forward-looking immigration policy.

Enemy broadcasting

Dorrance Smith has an interesting perspective about our broadcast media's reporting in Iraq. This article is a reprint of his 25 April op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal.

I've reprinted the whole article into the extended entry. It is well worth reading.

The Enemy on Our Airwaves
What is the relationship between al-Jazeera, al Qaeda and America's TV networks?

BY DORRANCE SMITH
Friday, November 4, 2005 12:01 a.m. EST

(Editor's note: Sen. Carl Levin is opposing Mr. Smith's confirmation as assistant secretary of defense for public affairs because of the senator's objections to this article, which appeared in The Wall Street Journal, April 25. A related editorial appears here.)

On April 11, Jeffrey Ake, an American, was taken hostage in Iraq. Video of him in captivity was shown on al-Jazeera on April 13. A short time later six American networks--ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, CNN and MSNBC--aired the same video, a vivid example of the ongoing relationship between terrorists, al-Jazeera and the networks. Last week, al-Jazeera showed video of a helicopter being shot, bursting into flames and trailing smoke as it fell to the ground. It also aired video of the lone survivor being forced to walk on a broken leg and then being shot by the terrorists, one of whom said, "We are applying God's law."

As the war continues, more hostages will be taken and acts of murderous violence committed--leading to more videos for al-Jazeera and the networks. Isn't it time to scrutinize the relationship among al-Jazeera, American networks and the terrorists? What role should the U.S. government be playing?

Osama bin Laden, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and al Qaeda have a partner in al-Jazeera and, by extension, most networks in the U.S. This partnership is a powerful tool for the terrorists in the war in Iraq. Figures show that 77% of Iraqis cite TV as their main source of information; 15% cite newspapers. Current estimates are that close to 100% of Iraqis have access to satellite TV, 18% to cell phones, and 8% to the Internet. The battle for Iraqi hearts and minds is being fought over satellite TV. It is a battle today that we are losing badly.

---

The collaboration between the terrorists and al-Jazeera is stronger than ever. While the precise terms of that relationship are virtually unknown, we do know this: al-Jazeera and the terrorists have a working arrangement that extends beyond a modus vivendi. When the terrorists want to broadcast something that helps their cause, they have immediate and reliable access to al-Jazeera. This relationship--in a time of war--raises some important questions:

• What does Al-Jazeera promise the terrorist organizations in order to get consistent access to their video?

• Does it pay for material?

• Is it promised safety and protection if it continues to air unedited tapes? (No Al-Jazeera employee has been killed or taken hostage by the terrorists. When I ran the Iraqi Television Network, seven employees were killed by terrorists.)

• Does Al-Jazeera promise the terrorists that it won't reveal their whereabouts and techniques as a quid pro quo for doing business? Is this bargain in the guise of journalism a defensible practice?

While I was in Iraq in 2004, Al-Jazeera was expelled from the country by the Iraqi Governing Council for violating international law. Numerous times they had advance knowledge of military actions against coalition forces. Instead of reporting to the authorities that it had been tipped off, Al-Jazeera would pre-position a crew at the event site and wait for the attack, record it and rush it on air. This happened time after time, to the point where Al-Jazeera was expelled from Iraq. The airing of the Ake video, however, demonstrates that it can still operate on behalf of the terrorists even from outside the country.

Al-Jazeera continues to broadcast because it reportedly receives $100 million a year from the government of Qatar. Without this subsidy it would be off the air, off the Internet and out of business. So, does Qatar's funding of Al-Jazeera constitute state sponsorship of terrorism? As long as Al-Jazeera continues to practice in cahoots with terrorists while we are at war, should the U.S. government maintain normal relations with Qatar? As long as Al-Jazeera continues to aid and abet the enemy, as long as we are fighting a war on the ground and in the airwaves, why are we not fighting back against Al-Jazeera and Qatar, the nation that makes possible the network's existence? Should the U.S. not adopt a hard-line position about doing business with Qatar as long as Al-Jazeera is doing business with terrorists?

In addition to being subsidized by Qatar, Al-Jazeera has very strong partners in the U.S.--ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, CNN and MSNBC. Video aired by Al-Jazeera ends up on these networks, sometimes within minutes. The terrorists are aware of this access and use it--as in the Ake case--to further their aims. They want to reach the American audience and influence public opinion.

The arrangement between the U.S. networks and Al-Jazeera raises questions of journalistic ethics. Do the U.S. networks know the terms of the relationship that Al-Jazeera has with the terrorists? Do they want to know?

There has been no in-depth reporting about Al-Jazeera in the U.S. and virtually no scrutiny of Qatar and its relationship with the network. Why not? Is it that the American networks don't want to give up their tainted video? And since they all get the same material and all air it at the same time, do they feel a certain safety being in bed together? The cable networks have become addicted to the latest B-roll video. If that video was obtained by means that violated their own standards and practices, would they air it? Would they even know?

---

What if one of the networks had taken a stand and refused to air the Ake video on the grounds that it was aiding and abetting the enemy, and that from this point forward it would not be a tool of terrorist propaganda? The terrorists know that the airing of such video creates pressure on the government to negotiate a release. It also sends a signal to Americans about the perils of being an American working in Iraq. If the Ake video had never aired in the U.S., the position of the hostage-takers would have been severely impaired. Had it never aired, terrorists would have had no incentive to continue making the tapes.

Is it fanciful to think that network news executives would have the fortitude not to air any video shot by terrorists? They already stop short of airing everything, so why not refuse to touch the stuff altogether? At the very least, is it not reasonable to raise questions about the sources and methods used to obtain this material? The war in Iraq will likely drag on for some time. More lives will be lost and more hostages will be taken and more videos will be made. Now we should engage the terrorists on the airwaves as we do on the ground.

Mr. Smith spent nine months in Iraq as a senior media adviser to Ambassador Paul Bremer

[Used with permission from OpinionJournal.com, a web site from Dow Jones & Company, Inc.]

Heritage Quote

"The bosom of America is open to receive not only the Opulent and respectable Stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all Nations and Religions; whom we shall welcome to a participation of all our rights and privileges, if by decency and propriety of conduct they appear to merit the enjoyment."

-- George Washington (Address to the Members of the Volunteer Association of Ireland, 2 December 1783)

Rioting in Europe

The Brussels Journal has a troubling post up about the rioting in Europe. Not just in France, either. But in Sweden and Denmark and Belgium as well.

Dalrymple

Theodore Dalrymple has a sobering perspective on suicide bombers in the Autumn 2005 issue of City Journal.

It's a long article, but worth your time.

Heritage Quote

"In a general sense, all contributions imposed by the government upon individuals for the service of the state, are called taxes, by whatever name they may be known, whether by the name of tribute, tythe, tallage, impost, duty, gabel, custom, subsidy, aid, supply, excise, or other name."

-- Joseph Story (Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833)

Judge Alito

Jonathan Adler, over at OpinionJournal has a good column about what qualifies Samual Alito for the Supreme Court. Here's an excerpt:

There being no question about Judge Alito's accomplishments and credentials, the debate over this nomination will focus squarely on his jurisprudence. Already at least one Democratic aide reportedly called Judge Alito a "right-wing wacko." Such epithets grossly distort his record. He is not a dogmatic conservative; his record shows a man more interested in getting the law right and faithfully applying applicable precedents than scoring rhetorical points or advancing an ideological agenda. As he commented in an interview earlier this year, "Judges should be judges. They shouldn't be legislators, they shouldn't be administrators."

The whole article is in the extended entry.

A Brilliant Judicial Mind
Alito isn't "pro-life" or "pro-choice" but "pro-law."

BY JONATHAN H. ADLER
Tuesday, November 1, 2005 12:01 a.m. EST

With the nomination of Samuel Alito to replace Sandra Day O'Connor, President Bush has returned to the approach that served him so well when he nominated John Roberts to the Supreme Court--that of picking the best available candidate irrespective of diversity concerns. Judge Alito's credentials are more like those we have come to expect from Supreme Court nominees, including an Ivy League education and substantial judicial experience--more than any Supreme Court nominee since before World War II. Yet he also has significant executive branch and prosecutorial experience that could add a unique perspective to the court.

There is nothing "stealth" about this choice, no need to fight over documents or trust that the president knows Judge Alito's "heart," for a brilliant judicial mind is clearly on display in his public record. Over the past 15 years he has shown himself as a thoughtful, serious conservative with impressive intellectual chops. This is not meant to denigrate the accomplishments or integrity of Ms. Miers, an accomplished attorney who has dedicated much of her life to public service. Indeed, it is to Ms. Miers's profound credit that after her withdrawal, she immediately turned to helping pick the next nominee.

Judge Alito is a supremely qualified nominee who should (though he may not) win a quick and easy confirmation. Some Senate Democrats will find reasons to oppose him, but he once held their support. He was confirmed unanimously by a Democratic Senate in 1990 only two months after he was first nominated by George H.W. Bush.

There being no question about Judge Alito's accomplishments and credentials, the debate over this nomination will focus squarely on his jurisprudence. Already at least one Democratic aide reportedly called Judge Alito a "right-wing wacko." Such epithets grossly distort his record. He is not a dogmatic conservative; his record shows a man more interested in getting the law right and faithfully applying applicable precedents than scoring rhetorical points or advancing an ideological agenda. As he commented in an interview earlier this year, "Judges should be judges. They shouldn't be legislators, they shouldn't be administrators."

---

Judge Alito is most often compared to Antonin Scalia. Years ago one journalist even dubbed him "Scalito," and the name stuck. While the two share an ethnic heritage and a constitutionalist judicial philosophy, it would be easy to overstate the comparison. Judge Alito's opinions are rarely adorned with zingers or verbal barbs at his colleagues. What he may lack in rhetorical flair, however, he more than makes up for with analytical rigor. Whereas Justice Scalia's caustic wit and penchant for tweaking his colleagues (particularly Justice O'Connor) might have cost him in building court majorities, Judge Alito's subtle charm and cooler approach could make him a powerful intellectual force on the court.

A Justice Alito may vote with Justice Scalia on many issues, but they would hardly march in lockstep--and when they disagree we would be treated to an intellectual debate of the highest order. One area we may expect to see differences between the two is on the First Amendment. Judge Alito's record suggests that he is more sympathetic to religious liberty claims, and more willing to hold that purportedly neutral government regulations unnecessarily impede upon the right to live in accord with one's religious ideals. He has ruled favorably in challenges by Muslims and Native Americans who argued that local laws impermissibly burdened the exercise of their faiths. There are also indications a Justice Alito could take a more expansive view of constitutional protection for free speech, including religious expression. In several cases he has voted to protect public school students' rights to express their own religious views.

Judge Alito's most controversial opinion may be his partial dissent in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, in which he voted to uphold the constitutionality of a spousal notification requirement for abortions. The three-judge panel in Casey unanimously upheld several abortion restrictions adopted by the Pennsylvania Legislature, including a parental-notification requirement and a 24-hour waiting period before a woman could obtain an abortion. While both policies may restrict the availability of abortion, neither constituted an "undue burden" on a woman's right to abort her fetus, as the Supreme Court subsequently held. Where Judge Alito differed with his colleagues was on whether it was an "undue burden" to require married women to notify their husbands prior to obtaining an abortion. This requirement was subject to several exceptions and was easily circumvented.

After a careful reading of the available Supreme Court precedent, Judge Alito concluded that this spousal notification was a constitutionally permissible limitation on a woman's right to an abortion. His opinion gives no hint as to whether he would personally support spousal notification, or other regulations. This is not a judge's role, he explained: "Whether the legislature's approach represents sound public policy is not a question for us to decide. Our task here is simply to decide whether [the law] meets constitutional standards." This is the hallmark of judicial restraint.

Placing Judge Alito's Casey dissent in the context of his other abortion-related decisions further demonstrates his commitment to law over predetermined policy outcomes. In Planned Parenthood v. Farmer (2000), he joined the court in striking down New Jersey's ban on partial-birth abortion as inconsistent with prevailing Supreme Court precedent. Five years earlier, he joined a majority opinion that deferred to an executive branch agency's interpretations of federal law, even though doing so meant blocking a state from limiting government funding of abortions. In short, his record is neither that of a "pro-life" or "pro-choice" judge, but of a "pro-law" judge.

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It is often said that judicial appointments are perhaps the most important part of a president's legacy. If so, this part of the Bush legacy should be secure. In nominating Chief Justice Roberts and now Judge Alito, President Bush has nominated two jurists with powerful intellects who could shape the law for years to come.

We may not all agree with all of their decisions, but we will respect their judgment, appreciate their analyses, and admire their commitment to the law. As a law professor, I look forward to the opportunity to study Justice Alito's future opinions with my students, as I am confident a Justice Alito would contribute well to a Supreme Court of which we can all be proud.

Mr. Adler teaches law at Case Western Reserve University and is a visiting professor at the George Mason University School of Law.

[Used with permission from OpinionJournal.com, a web site from Dow Jones & Company, Inc.]

Iraqi women moving forward

Carrie Lukas & Michelle D. Bernard have an article posted at National Review Online that talks about Iraqi women going to great lengths to attend a conference.

The Iraqi women wanted to attend this conference because they want the things embodied in the conference agenda. They want democracy and a government beholden to its people. They want a limited government, a free press, and economic liberty. The women who attended represented almost every ethnic and religious group in Iraq. Some dressed in western garb, while others wore headscarves. Some were dressed in black abayas, and still others wore the brightly colored dress of Kurdistan. But they shared a common vision of a free and democratic Iraq.

I think things are looking up for our Iraqi friends since the womenfolk feel this conference is important enough to brave the dangers of traveling across the country.

Liar!

The L.A. Times has a succinct op-ed out about who was really lying about WMD in the Plame case. Here's an excerpt:

Making the best of a weak hand, Democrats argued that the case was not about petty-ante perjury but, as Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid put it, "about how the Bush White House manufactured and manipulated intelligence in order to bolster its case for the war in Iraq and to discredit anyone who dared to challenge the president." The problem here is that the one undisputed liar in this whole sordid affair doesn't work for the administration. In his attempts to turn his wife into an antiwar martyr, Joseph C. Wilson IV has retailed more whoppers than Burger King.

The Senate Intelligence Committee did come to some conclusions concerning WMD in Iraq -- and Wilson's trip report, in fact, did nothing to refute other intelligence regarding Iraq's quest for uranium.

The panel's report found that, far from discrediting the Iraq-Niger uranium link, Wilson actually provided fresh details about a 1999 meeting between Niger's prime minister and an Iraqi delegation. Beyond that, he had not supplied new information. According to the panel, intelligence analysts "did not think" that his findings "clarified the story on the reported Iraq-Niger uranium deal." In other words, Wilson had hardly exposed as fraudulent the "16 words" included in the 2003 State of the Union address: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." In fact, the British government, in its own post-invasion review of intelligence, found that this claim was "well founded."

It's a short article, but it makes some good points. Recommended.

Heritage Quote

"It is the duty of every man to render to the Creator such homage, and such only, as he believes to be acceptable to him. This duty is precedent both in order of time and degree of obligation, to the claims of Civil Society. Before any man can be considered as a member of Civil Society, he must be considered as a subject of the Governor of the Universe."

-- James Madison, 1785 - A Memorial and Remonstrance

News out of Iraq

Jeff Jacoby asks: What was the most important news out of Iraq last week?

That depends on what you consider ''important." Do you see the war against radical Islam and Ba'athist fascism as the most urgent conflict of our time? Do you believe that replacing tyranny with democratic self-government is ultimately the only antidote to the poison that has made the Middle East so dangerous and violent? If so, you'll have no trouble identifying the most significant development in Iraq last week: the landslide victory of the new Iraqi Constitution.

And there's more.

Radical jihadism rooted in Europe?

Francis Fukuyama has an interesting op-ed up at OpinionJournal wherein he postulates on the origins of jihadist terrorism. Here's an excerpt:

We have tended to see jihadist terrorism as something produced in dysfunctional parts of the world, such as Afghanistan, Pakistan or the Middle East, and exported to Western countries. Protecting ourselves is a matter either of walling ourselves off, or, for the Bush administration, going "over there" and trying to fix the problem at its source by promoting democracy. There is good reason for thinking, however, that a critical source of contemporary radical Islamism lies not in the Middle East, but in Western Europe. In addition to Bouyeri and the London bombers, the March 11 Madrid bombers and ringleaders of the September 11 attacks such as Mohamed Atta were radicalized in Europe. In the Netherlands, where upwards of 6% of the population is Muslim, there is plenty of radicalism despite the fact that Holland is both modern and democratic. And there exists no option for walling the Netherlands off from this problem.

And it is reprinted in its entirety in the extended entry.

A Year of Living Dangerously
Remember Theo van Gogh, and shudder for the future.

BY FRANCIS FUKUYAMA
Wednesday, November 2, 2005 12:01 a.m. EST

One year ago today, the Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh had his throat ritually slit by Mohamed Bouyeri, a Muslim born in Holland who spoke fluent Dutch. This event has totally transformed Dutch politics, leading to stepped-up police controls that have now virtually shut off new immigration there. Together with the July 7 bombings in London (also perpetrated by second generation Muslims who were British citizens), this event should also change dramatically our view of the nature of the threat from radical Islamism.

We have tended to see jihadist terrorism as something produced in dysfunctional parts of the world, such as Afghanistan, Pakistan or the Middle East, and exported to Western countries. Protecting ourselves is a matter either of walling ourselves off, or, for the Bush administration, going "over there" and trying to fix the problem at its source by promoting democracy.

There is good reason for thinking, however, that a critical source of contemporary radical Islamism lies not in the Middle East, but in Western Europe. In addition to Bouyeri and the London bombers, the March 11 Madrid bombers and ringleaders of the September 11 attacks such as Mohamed Atta were radicalized in Europe. In the Netherlands, where upwards of 6% of the population is Muslim, there is plenty of radicalism despite the fact that Holland is both modern and democratic. And there exists no option for walling the Netherlands off from this problem.

---

We profoundly misunderstand contemporary Islamist ideology when we see it as an assertion of traditional Muslim values or culture. In a traditional Muslim country, your religious identity is not a matter of choice; you receive it, along with your social status, customs and habits, even your future marriage partner, from your social environment. In such a society there is no confusion as to who you are, since your identity is given to you and sanctioned by all of the society's institutions, from the family to the mosque to the state.

The same is not true for a Muslim who lives as an immigrant in a suburb of Amsterdam or Paris. All of a sudden, your identity is up for grabs; you have seemingly infinite choices in deciding how far you want to try to integrate into the surrounding, non-Muslim society. In his book "Globalized Islam" (2004), the French scholar Olivier Roy argues persuasively that contemporary radicalism is precisely the product of the "deterritorialization" of Islam, which strips Muslim identity of all of the social supports it receives in a traditional Muslim society.

The identity problem is particularly severe for second- and third-generation children of immigrants. They grow up outside the traditional culture of their parents, but unlike most newcomers to the United States, few feel truly accepted by the surrounding society.

Contemporary Europeans downplay national identity in favor of an open, tolerant, "post-national" Europeanness. But the Dutch, Germans, French and others all retain a strong sense of their national identity, and, to differing degrees, it is one that is not accessible to people coming from Turkey, Morocco or Pakistan. Integration is further inhibited by the fact that rigid European labor laws have made low-skill jobs hard to find for recent immigrants or their children. A significant proportion of immigrants are on welfare, meaning that they do not have the dignity of contributing through their labor to the surrounding society. They and their children understand themselves as outsiders.

It is in this context that someone like Osama bin Laden appears, offering young converts a universalistic, pure version of Islam that has been stripped of its local saints, customs and traditions. Radical Islamism tells them exactly who they are--respected members of a global Muslim umma to which they can belong despite their lives in lands of unbelief. Religion is no longer supported, as in a true Muslim society, through conformity to a host of external social customs and observances; rather it is more a question of inward belief. Hence Mr. Roy's comparison of modern Islamism to the Protestant Reformation, which similarly turned religion inward and stripped it of its external rituals and social supports.

If this is in fact an accurate description of an important source of radicalism, several conclusions follow. First, the challenge that Islamism represents is not a strange and unfamiliar one. Rapid transition to modernity has long spawned radicalization; we have seen the exact same forms of alienation among those young people who in earlier generations became anarchists, Bolsheviks, fascists or members of the Bader-Meinhof gang. The ideology changes but the underlying psychology does not.

Further, radical Islamism is as much a product of modernization and globalization as it is a religious phenomenon; it would not be nearly as intense if Muslims could not travel, surf the Web, or become otherwise disconnected from their culture. This means that "fixing" the Middle East by bringing modernization and democracy to countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia will not solve the terrorism problem, but may in the short run make the problem worse. Democracy and modernization in the Muslim world are desirable for their own sake, but we will continue to have a big problem with terrorism in Europe regardless of what happens there.

The real challenge for democracy lies in Europe, where the problem is an internal one of integrating large numbers of angry young Muslims and doing so in a way that does not provoke an even angrier backlash from right-wing populists. Two things need to happen: First, countries like Holland and Britain need to reverse the counterproductive multiculturalist policies that sheltered radicalism, and crack down on extremists. But second, they also need to reformulate their definitions of national identity to be more accepting of people from non-Western backgrounds.

The first has already begun to happen. In recent months, both the Dutch and British have in fact come to an overdue recognition that the old version of multiculturalism they formerly practiced was dangerous and counterproductive. Liberal tolerance was interpreted as respect not for the rights of individuals, but of groups, some of whom were themselves intolerant (by, for example, dictating whom their daughters could befriend or marry). Out of a misplaced sense of respect for other cultures, Muslims minorities were left to regulate their own behavior, an attitude which dovetailed with a traditional European corporatist approaches to social organization. In Holland, where the state supports separate Catholic, Protestant and socialist schools, it was easy enough to add a Muslim "pillar" that quickly turned into a ghetto disconnected from the surrounding society.

New policies to reduce the separateness of the Muslim community, like laws discouraging the importation of brides from the Middle East, have been put in place in the Netherlands. The Dutch and British police have been given new powers to monitor, detain and expel inflammatory clerics. But the much more difficult problem remains of fashioning a national identity that will connect citizens of all religions and ethnicities in a common democratic culture, as the American creed has served to unite new immigrants to the United States.

---

Since van Gogh's murder, the Dutch have embarked on a vigorous and often impolitic debate on what it means to be Dutch, with some demanding of immigrants not just an ability to speak Dutch, but a detailed knowledge of Dutch history and culture that many Dutch people do not have themselves. But national identity has to be a source of inclusion, not exclusion; nor can it be based, contrary to the assertion of the gay Dutch politician Pym Fortuyn who was assassinated in 2003, on endless tolerance and valuelessness. The Dutch have at least broken through the stifling barrier of political correctness that has prevented most other European countries from even beginning a discussion of the interconnected issues of identity, culture and immigration. But getting the national identity question right is a delicate and elusive task.

Many Europeans assert that the American melting pot cannot be transported to European soil. Identity there remains rooted in blood, soil and ancient shared memory. This may be true, but if so, democracy in Europe will be in big trouble in the future as Muslims become an ever larger percentage of the population. And since Europe is today one of the main battlegrounds of the war on terrorism, this reality will matter for the rest of us as well.

Mr. Fukuyama is professor of international political economy at Johns Hopkins and chairman of the editorial board of The American Interest.

[Used with permission from OpinionJournal.com, a web site from Dow Jones & Company, Inc.]

What she said

The Anchoress takes us all by the hand and reminds us about the origins of the WMD intel on Iraq.

"If Saddam rejects peace and we have to use force, our purpose is clear. We want to seriously diminish the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program." - President Bill Clinton, Feb. 17, 1998

She does a thorough job of it, too. Highly recommended for those who seek the true history of the Iraqi WMD threat.

Heritage Quote

"It is a singular advantage of taxes on articles of consumption that they contain in their own nature a security against excess. They prescribe their own limit, which cannot be exceeded without defeating the end purposed - that is, an extension of the revenue."

-- Alexander Hamilton (Federalist No. 21)

On Iraq

Michael Rubin, over at National Review Online, has some interesting things to say about Iraq -- and who is qualified to talk about what is going on there. Here's an excerpt:

Washington has always been an arrogant town. Whatever the issue, pundits use the crisis of the day to score partisan points. Sure, there should be accountability for intelligence failures not only about overestimating Iraq's weapons program in 2003, but also for underestimating them in 1991. Nor should policymakers feel comfortable about previous Central Intelligence Agency misanalysis of nuclear programs in India, Pakistan, and Libya. But the Iraqi people should not be sacrificed upon the altar of Bush hatred, Clinton hatred, or Kerry hatred.

I found it a fairly balanced commentary. Recommended.

Porkbusters

There is a movement afoot to help our federal congressional representatives to return to a more fiscally conservative approach to legislation. In the blogosphere, an aspect of this effort is to point out to Senators and Congressmen the pork that they have inserted into legislation like the recently passed transportation bill, and urge them to pull it. Thus, the effort earned the moniker "porkbusters".

Last week, Senator Tom Coburn and six other Senators (Sam Brownback, Jim DeMint, John Ensign, Lindsey Graham, John McCain, and John Sununu), styling themselves as the "Fiscal Watch Team", released an "offset package" aimed at identifying budget cuts to pay for hurricane relief. The key provision in the bill for our purposes is that it would elminate all "offsets" ( i.e., pork) in the highway bill --- wiping away a vast chunk of pork in a single stroke.

You can read more about this effort at the Truth Laid Bear.

I support the Fiscal Watch Team Offset Package. And I urge you to do the same. We have got to reign in the dangerously irresponsible spending that has taken hold in Washington, D.C.

Oh, one last thing. It is safe to come out now . . . my 'political activism moment' is over . . .

Heritage Quote

"A morsel of genuine history is a thing so rare as to be always valuable."

-- Thomas Jefferson (letter to John Adams, 8 September 1817)

Low point

Michael Barone sums up President Bush's week last week -- and it wasn't as bad as we thought it would be. Here's an excerpt:

So on the whole, it was a successful week -- successful in that it gives Bush' administration the opportunity to rise above the low point that it has hit since Katrina's waters smashed through the levees in New Orleans two months ago.

But people must still perform. Conditions in Iraq need to continue to improve. Bernanke may be tested in a financial crisis in his first months, as Greenspan was when the stock market crashed in October 1987. Bush must pick a Supreme Court nominee who seems to fulfill his campaign promises and who can be confirmed by the Senate. And Bush, Rove and others in the administration need to come up with some fresh domestic policies by State of the Union time next year.

There's more.

Democracy-in-the-making

Diana West, over at Townhall, has an interesting op-ed about Condoleeza Rice's approach to explaining democracy. Here's a taste:

If Condoleezza Rice ever does run for president, the following line may become very familiar:

"The only problem, of course, was that when the Founding Fathers said, `We the people,' they didn't mean me."

For the past few years, the most powerful woman on Earth has been delivering this clincher. And it gets a gasp every time. I first read it in a speech Ms. Rice gave last week in Birmingham, Ala. Of course, it's a dramatic, even melodramatic, statement -- a testament to the continuing expansion of liberty provided by our 218-year-old Constitution. But Ms. Rice drops it in by way of illustrating the historic flaws of democracy, American-style; and this she drops in by way of dismissing the current flaws of democracy-building in the Muslim world.

It'll make you think . . .

TABOR for Texas!

The Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TABOR) sounds like a good idea for Texas, too. Here's a taste:

For example, during the boom years of the 1990s, when many states nearly doubled their spending, Colorado's TABOR spending limitation kept government growth to reasonable limits, and forced politicians to return over $3 billion dollars to taxpayers. When the recession hit at the end of the '90s, Colorado escaped the tax increases and budget cuts seen in California and other states that had over-spent in the good years.

In fact, since TABOR was enacted in Colorado, the state has regularly outpaced the rest of the country in economic growth. Advocates for limited government across the nation are beginning to demand this brand of spending cap. Citizens in Maine just turned in 55,000 signatures to put a TABOR-like measure on the 2006 ballot and a group in Oklahoma has launched a petition drive to establish a similar state spending cap there.

You should read the rest, though, because it's not all sweetness and light. The link within the quote was of particular interest to me.

Maybe we should press for a federal TABOR, as well!