a running commentary by our trusted contributors...

[10/1/04 Wednesday]

[Carol Platt Liebau - editorial director CaliforniaRepublic.org] 2:20 pm [link]
Democrats don't get it. Their bloggers are howling over a new video the party has put out called the "faces of frustration." They think they can make President Bush in '04 look like the jerk that Gore was in '02.

Nice try. But for all the confused Dems out there (how's THAT for some Kerryan condescension?) here's the difference: Gore was sighing to imply that then candidate-Bush's responses were ignorant and stupid. The move played fine at the time among the pundits, but regular people found it arrogant and nasty.

Last night, President Bush was irritated and frustrated by a man who has two positions on every issue -- but worse than that, one who slanders our allies (the "coalition of the coerced and the bribed") and our mission ("the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time") even as fighting rages on and our troops' lives are at stake.

Frustrated? You bet. Angry? Absolutely. President Bush doesn't appreciate Kerry making a difficult mission more difficult by emboldening our allies and disheartening our troops. THAT's what The White House should be making clear this morning.

[Carol Platt Liebau - editorial director CaliforniaRepublic.org] 9:20 am [link]
Debate Round 1.1: It does occur to me that all the crowing about how well Kerry did is premature. After all, what was his big achievement? A month before the election, he has managed to articulate a coherent -- though dishonest -- critique about current policy in Iraq. Big deal. What would HE do there? He can't "outsource" (a word he likes to use) since his allies in France and Germany have already said they won't help no matter who's president. Will he just withdraw? He says not, but he makes it clear that he has no stomach for "going it alone" (with the 30 other counties that are there). The only place he wants to "go it alone" is in talks with North Korea . . . as John McCain pointed out, he's adopted a policy that no other US President has shared -- that we should be engaged in bilateral negotiations with a country that wants to blackmail us.

All we do know is that he doesn't see America as any different than our adversaries -- or at least not different enough that we can be trusted with "bunker buster" nuclear missiles. What is THAT? We were the only country who had a nuclear bomb after WWII -- but I guess Kerry thinks something's changed, and if Iran can't have it, neither should we.

In a larger sense, he doesn't see anything exceptional about America. We shouldn't be in Iraq unless Germany and France are with us. We shouldn't be contributing more money to rebuild Iraq (and spread democracy in the region) than any other country. His would have been a nice approach in the days of the Marshall Plan . . . I guess the only exception is bribing North Korea and Iran for a temporary "halt" of their nuclear ambitions -- exactly the kind of approach that hornswaggled Jimmy Carter et al back in 1994 in N Korea.

Give me a break. We learned nothing from Kerry last night -- except that he's a good debater. That's nice, but it won't keep our families safe.

[Carol Platt Liebau - editorial director CaliforniaRepublic.org] 12:01 am [link]
Debate Round 1.0: A lot of ink is always spilled talking about "the advantages of incumbency." But there is also an advantage to being a challenger: No accountability. You can tell everyone that "we can do better" or that "I would have done that differently" or "this would not happen on my watch." You can redirect the "tax cuts for the rich" to homeland security, or health care, or whatever sounds good at the moment. And you don't have to defend the tough choices that come with leadership.

Did Bush put away the election last night? I don't think so. For an hour and a half, Kerry reined in his condescension and did a credible job of sounding like he had some clue about foreign policy -- at least today. There are at least two good ads that could come out of this, though. One is the line where he says, "I have been consistent on this policy" [on Iraq]. All an ad would have to do is say, "Really?" and then show his long history of flip flops. The other is when Kerry started to talk about "global tests." The President made it clear that the only test he's interested in is protecting the American people. That pretty much puts it in a nutshell.

The debate was close to a draw, which is good for the President. But Kerry did well enough to give his spinners some talking points for the next couple days, and to keep people like Josh Marshall from taking cyanide.

But there is one acid test, and it came, actually, from Chris Matthews. He said, "Can you explain Senator Kerry's position on Iraq in a couple of sentences?" And the answer is still no. The takeaway seems to be that he voted for a war that he has deemed to be the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time, and that with this opinion, through the sheer force of personality, he will convince others to join us in the debacle.

And, by the way, President Bush (the supposed moron) caught Senator Kerry (the supposed genius) in at least two mistakes: One is when he forgot that Poland was part of the Coalition of the Willing. Nice oversight from the alleged Master of Diplomacy. The other was when Kerry condemned the US for entering into unilateral sanctions against Iran -- and it turned out that it happened under Clinton.

Pretty much the status quo, I think. Kerry may get a slight bounce, but in time, people will understand that any favorable impression they got of him was the political equivalent of cotton candy: Some of what he said may have seemed sweet, but there's no substance in the end.

[9/29/04 Monday]

[Daniel Pipes - author, activist, CRO contributor] 12:01 am [link]
More Reasons for Brandon Mayfield's Incarceration Brandon Mayfield is the Portland, Oregon lawyer and Muslim convert who spent two weeks in jail as a result of a mis-identified fingerprint seeming to link him to the Madrid bombings on March 11, 2004. I attempted to show in "If You Are Muslim, You Are Suspect," that his "many connections to militant Islam and the global jihad" made it sensible to focus on him as a suspect.

Now, four months after he was released from custody, the U.S. Attorney in Oregon, Karin Immergut, has publicly presented further evidence to explain her office's suspicions about Mayfield. Her 4,700-word "Reply Memorandum in Support of Motion to Amend Order Requiring Destruction of Seized Items," dated Sept. 13, 2004 (and not online), explains how, pursuant to court-authorized searches, the government obtained a variety of evidence (and, the memo argues, that it needs to keep a copy of the evidence to respond to possible future litigation by Mayfield). The memo classifies the evidence against Mayfield into several categories (which I preserve as presented, with the exception of adjusting some faulty numbering):A computer in Mayfield's residence had:

1. been used to research airline schedules for travel from Portland, Oregon to Madrid, Spain, in September and October 2003;
2. accessed websites marketing rental housing in Spain in the fall of 2003;
3. accessed a number of websites based in Spain, including a website apparently sponsored by the Spanish national passenger rail system – the target of the March 11, 2004 bombings;
4. been used to perform a "Google search" regarding the phrase "target practice at home;" and
5. been used to specifically access a FAQ ("frequently-asked question") contained on "expedia.com" relating to the use of a "credit card with a billing address outside the U.S." for payment for travel services.

In addition, during the search of Mayfield's home, agents discovered, among other items:

6. a handwritten notation of a telephone number in Spain;
7. virulently anti-Semitic articles printed from the internet which appeared to blame Jewish people for various world problems;
8. pilot training logs showing Mayfield's experience as a small aircraft pilot in the 1980s; [a footnote here adds that "Al-Qaida has in recent years sought to recruit individuals with piloting skills."]
9. a book chronicling the development of the Al Qaida network;
10. 2 firearms; and
11. classified national defense documents relating to a U.S. weapons system.

In the court-authorized search of Mayfield's office, agents found:

12. a post-September 11, 2001 letter, apparently written by Mayfield, expressing support for the Taliban. [DP addition: It stated, "Who is America to bomb the Taliban because they don't like Afghanistan's law? All I say that Americans should think twice about the example you are setting on the rest of the countries"]

In the court-authorized search of Mayfield's safe deposit box, agents found:13. $10,000 in cash, all in one-hundred dollar denominations, strapped in five two-thousand dollar increments with straps dated November, 2002. This large quantity of cash seemed inconsistent with the apparently limited income generated by Mayfield's law practice (which appeared to be under $25,000 per year adjusted gross income.) Also found in the safe deposit box were current passports for Mayfield's children and an expired passport for his wife.

While "there may be innocent explanations for all of these facts," Immergut concluded in the court filing, "this evidence demonstrates that the government and its agents were acting in good faith when they continued the material witness investigation and sought Mayfield's continued detention after his initial arrest." That makes good sense to me.

[9/28/04 Tuesday]

[Carol Platt Liebau - editorial director CaliforniaRepublic.org] 5:06 pm [link]
Oopa Loopa: Hugh Hewitt is talking about the "Oopa Loopa" factor -- John Kerry's face has turned orange in the midst of debate prep. How 'bout this:

Oopa Loopa doopy dee doo
Listen to this – you’ll swear it’s not true
Oopa loopa doompydah dee
If you are vain, you’re like John Kerry

What do you get when you’re losing the race?
Clinton’s old team – and orange paint on your face.
Why don’t you just put the makeup jar down?
You’ll never win looking like a clown!

People scorn a weathervane . . .

Oopa Loopa Doopydah Dar
With no convictions you’ll not get far
If you win, America’s “screwed”
Orange-faced, botoxed, weak-kneed, silly and rude!

[Carol Platt Liebau - editorial director CaliforniaRepublic.org] 12:01 am [link]
First Dershowitz, then Ogletree, now Tribe. Three Harvard law professors who basically admit to plagiarizing others' work.

In today's Crimson, here's Dershowitz's defense of Tribe (notwithstanding that they weren't the best of buddies when I was there):

"He [Dershowitz] said that judges frequently rely on lawyers’ briefs and clerks’ memoranda in drafting opinions. This results in a 'cultural difference' between sourcing in the legal profession and other academic disciplines, Dershowitz said."

I like Dershowitz (he defended the First Amendment rights of some of my friends when the liberal establishment was on a rampage), but he sure didn't get Claus von Bulow off with arguments like this. Gimme a break. Anyone who was a member of any law review can tell of the countless hours spent subciting, techciting, proofreading, rereading, rechecking etc etc etc -- by large numbers of law journal members, all to make sure that every single source was attributed and quoted correctly. If you don't believe me, take a look at any law review. Whatever's missing, it's NOT citations. Dershowitz can try to argue about the "culture" of the legal profession as a whole, but in truth, the "culture" of legal academia is tedious cite checking to -- no, past -- the point of exhaustion. So save it for Michael Jackson's appeal

Like all third year law students at Harvard, I had to write a third-year paper to graduate. You can bet some silly excuse about "legal culture" wouldn't have cut the mustard if I had lifted some of, say, Tribe's work without attribution. I would have heard about the ethical responsibilities of lawyers -- before, during and after the times they practiced -- and then I would have been out on my ear. And I would have deserved it.

Stuff like this happens, John Edwards is nominated for Vice President -- and they wonder why the legal profession is held in such low regard???

[9/27/04 Monday]

[Carol Platt Liebau - editorial director CaliforniaRepublic.org] 11:52 am am [link]
Over at The American Thinker, there is an excellent article about the fact that John Kerry's older sister, Peggy, is actually campaigning against the Bush Administration while serving as a middle-level member of it (she received the job as a political appointee of the Clinton Administration; it "became permanent" shortly after Bush was inaugurated. How convenient).

What caught my eye is that this gal is apparently a pretty radical feminist. One of the things she's promising that her baby brother will do, if elected, is restore the $34 million to the UN Population Fund that the Bush Administration has been withholding (in the honorable tradition of the Reagan and Bush I Administrations).

Two weeks ago, this little detail wouldn't have meant anything to me. But for my appearance on the PBS show "To the Contrary" a week ago (air date 9/17), one of the originally scheduled topics had been the decision to withhold $34 million from the UN Population Fund, (i.e. is the decision motivated by the President's Evangelical Christianity? Discuss.)

Overcoming the temptation to avert my eyes from the sewer that is the UN, I researched the Fund, and came up with some pretty appalling information. Contrary to its name and what people like the Kerrys would have you believe, it's not an entity that just gives out birth control to struggling families in the Third World -- few, after all, could object to a mission like that (although some could for justifiable religious reasons).

As it turns out, this little outfit, the U.N. Population Fund, is complicit with the Chinese policy of forced abortions and involuntary sterilization. Looks wacko on paper, but it's true. In some Chinese counties, it even shares an office with the Chinese "Office of Family Planning," which is tasked with enforcing China's one-child policy.

So here's how it goes: the UN Population Fund gives China money for things like portable ultrasound machines. Sounds okay . . . but then it turns out that the Chinese government is ultrasounding women without their consent, and if they are carrying an "unauthorized" baby, i.e. they already have a child, they get an abortion -- whether they want one or not. And they are often sterilized without their consent. Kind of turns the euphemism for abortion "Choice" on its head, doesn't it?

According to congressional testimony from entities like Amnesty International, journalists, even Chinese women themselves, babies may be delivered, then their skulls injected with poison, and the bodies thrown in trash cans. Congressman Chris Smith, who convened some of these hearings, has written on their substance. See: The United Nations Population Fund Helps China Persecute Women and Kill Children Any wonder that China has the highest female suicide rate in the world (56% of women's suicide take place there)?

People of good faith can certainly differ on the abortion issue -- but who can condone this kind of brutality, or be willing to subsidize a UN fund which, although it doesn't participate, is certainly complicit? Peggy and her brother John Kerry.

[Carol Platt Liebau - editorial director CaliforniaRepublic.org] 12:02 am [link]
Lefty Blog: What do you expect from the New York Times, or its Sunday Magazine? The long article Fear and Laptops on the Campaign Trail touts only the left-wing bloggers (with one passing reference to "conservative" InstaPundit) while ignoring the big conservative blogs that actually succeeded in facing Dan Rather --blogs like Powerlineblog.com, LittleGreenFootballs and HughHewitt.com. There's nothing more to be said when the author reveals that he offered Joshua Micah Marshall a place to sleep for one night of the Democratic Convention. The author's a liberal, and he's desperately trying to prop up some of the liberal blogs. But aside from organizing a jihad against Trent Lott, what in the way of important or original contributions have the left-wing blogs provided? In their defense, it's hard when you've got the national media already dominating all the turf west of the line.

[Cliff Kincaid columnist & Don Irvine] 12:01 am [link]
Hewitt, Rather and Congress: Writing in the Weekly Standard, Hugh Hewitt has urged congressional investigations and hearings into the Rathergate memo scandal. While the subject of “sources” would be a touchy one, he says, an official federal investigation “could provide some information on the workings of a major broadcast network confronted with a juicy story that has been discovered to have been cooked.” Fortunately, Rep. Joe Barton of the House Commerce Committee has rejected such a probe.

A congressional investigation would play into the hands of Dan Rather and CBS News. Rather would be able to change the subject from his own malicious behavior to the propriety of Congress targeting an American news organization. The ACLU and other news organizations would immediately rally to the side of CBS.

One pleasant outcome of the current controversy is that media organizations have subjected CBS News to scrutiny. News organizations that have investigated the conduct of CBS News include the Washington Post, CNN, Fox News and ABC News. That’s something that was rarely done in the past, when the three broadcast networks dominated the television news business. At that time they didn’t want to report on each other’s mistakes and scandals.

Congressional hearings were justified when CBS aired that offensive half-time football show. In that case, Congress had every right to examine whether CBS had violated federal laws against airing indecency, and whether the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was doing its job enforcing the law. In rejecting the call by Congressman Chris Cox for a congressional probe of Rathergate, Rep. Barton said, “A news organization’s responsibility is to facts and truth, but the oversight of network news generally is a matter best sorted out by the viewing public and the news media. I do not personally believe these documents are legitimate, and it seems clear that the press and the two presidential campaigns are properly dealing with that issue.”

Hugh Hewitt said that congressional hearings “would benefit the Bush campaign, just as the forgery scandal has, because it brings into sharp focus the ethics of the Bush opponents and the anti-Bush bias of the mainstream media.” But that’s precisely why Republicans should reject such hearings. Using the Congress against the news media would surely backfire against the Republicans.

The liberals have already shown their preference for the use of Big Government against their enemies in the media. The George Soros-funded MoveOn.org asked the Federal Trade Commission to halt Fox News’ use of the allegedly misleading “fair and balanced” slogan. If they controlled Congress, they might even urge hearings into Fox News. The Republicans should not make that mistake in regard to CBS. This is a matter for the FBI, not Congress. The use of forged documents to defraud the U.S. can result in ten years in prison. CBS should welcome such a probe, since it believes it was misled and it wanted the White House to investigate and expose the documents in the first place. CBS should welcome an FBI probe into its “sources.”

[9/24/04 Friday]

[Cliff Kincaid columnist & Don Irvine] 5:25 am [link]
Schieffer and Soros: CBS News chief Washington correspondent Bob Schieffer acted concerned, in a September 13th commentary, that rich people were abusing the campaign laws by funneling money to so-called 527 groups. Schieffer complained that, “One of the President’s strongest supporters, Texas oil man Boone Pickens, had given the Swift Boat group a half million dollars” and “two other Bush supporters” chipped in more than $200,000 each. Then Schieffer added in passing that George Soros is a billionaire “financing millions of dollars of attack ads against President Bush…” Schieffer called these examples of “how the big money boys on both sides can find ways around the campaign laws and do it with the blessings of Congress.”

It is apparent that what prompted Schieffer’s concern was the less than one million dollars he identified as going to the Swift Boat ads against Kerry. But based on his own rather vague figure of “millions,” the Soros money dwarfs anything spent by the Swift Boat vets. Indeed, it’s much worse than he indicated. The members of the CBS News political unit had already done a compilation, based on a report in the Boston Phoenix, of what was called the “Dems’ Dirty Dozen,” who were using the 527s against Bush. At that time, according to this account, Soros alone had spent more than $12 million on 527s. Soros associate Peter Lewis had spent over $14 million on pro-Democrat 527s. Stephen Bing, linked by ABC News reporter Brian Ross to a mob figure, had spent over $8 million.

The Boston Phoenix article by David S. Bernstein noted that “more than $15 million of political advertising has run in the past three months, most of it bashing Bush, most of it in key battleground states—without costing the Kerry campaign a dime…it’s probably a big reason why John Kerry entered July in a dead heat in the polls despite the tens of millions of dollars spent on negative advertising against him—and one of the reasons why Bush’s favorability ratings are at an all-time low.”

Bernstein said that today’s “527 fever” is “predominantly liberal” and reflects what one political figure calls a “privatization of political activity.” Washington Post columnist Harold Meyerson also wrote about this phenomenon, saying that the privatization of the Democratic Party was a positive development. And he thanked Soros for doing it.

Meyerson rejected suggestions from Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert that Soros was getting money from mysterious foreign sources possibly connected to the illegal drug cartels. Soros, who favors legalization of hard drugs, strongly denied that connection and threatened to sue Hastert for suggesting it.

We don’t know where Soros gets his money. We do know he runs an unregulated hedge fund that is based outside the jurisdiction of the Securities and Exchange Commission. We do know that Soros is reported to have invested in the narco-state of Colombia when the Drug Enforcement Administration was warning of drug money being laundered in the banks down there. We also know he was convicted of insider trading in France. Bob Schieffer should do a commentary on that.

[9/23/04 Thursday]

[Carol Platt Liebau - editorial director CaliforniaRepublic.org] 12:25 am [link]
Thank you, America: What a morning in Washington, D.C. In contrast to the doomsayers and those who, like John Kerry, called Iraq "the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time", Iraq's Interim Prime Minister Allawi put it all in perspective -- FOXNews.com - Politics - Transcript: Allawi Thanks America. Among all the other statistics he quoted about Iraq's progress, he noted that elections could be held today in 15 of the 18 provinces. People are living in freedom, not fear. And he said, "Thank you, America." The difficulties are many, the price is high -- but mornings like this remind America of why it is America. The big battles are left to the strong and the blessed; America would not be the country it is if we shirked that duty. President Bush sees a noble cause and the importance of protecting the U.S.; Kerry sees a "quagmire" that's supposedly taking money from fireshouses in America, where troops can't be pulled out soon enough, whatever the chaos that results. Whose vision for the future do YOU support?

[Carol Platt Liebau - editorial director CaliforniaRepublic.org] 7:22 am [link]
Education with a union label: An interesting article from the Washington Times today: Public schools no place for teachers' kids - The Washington Times: Nation/Politics - September 22, 2004 - highlights the fact that public school teachers actually send their own children to PRIVATE schools in disproportionate numbers -- often more than 1 in 4.

It's an amazing statistic, and tells you all you need to know about the real state of public education. Can you imagine the outcry if nurses refused to permit their own children to be treated in the hospitals where they work -- or if GM factory workers were found to be more likely than the average person NOT to buy GM cars?

But dominated as it is by teachers' unions, many of whom are only tangentially concerned with the quality of the actual education that is provided, the status quo remains. Apparently quite all right that hte people who know public school the best are abandoning it. Quite sad -- because, though it's become a cliche, education really is the means for achieving the American dream.

While I was in Washington last weekend, I had an interesting chat with a taxi driver who won the immigration lottery to move to the US from Ethiopa. He's an entrepreneur -- having taken my mother and me from our hotel to the WWII monument Monday morning (it's magnificent, by the way), he volunteered to return later in the afternoon to our hotel in order to have the fare when I went to BWI. Though he makes comparatively little, he and his family are scrimping so that they can live in Montgomery County, where the schools are much better than in the District. He's proud that even his two daughters have the chance to get educated -- an opportunity he tells me he was denied in Ethiopia, and of which his children (especially the girls) would also have been deprived. "You can do anything here," he told me. "Anybody can get an education." Well, yes, unless they live in an unfortunate school district -- and don't have a dad with the immigrant's perserverance and patriotism.

The NEA and AFT and that gang owe our children more.

[9/22/04 Wednesday]

[Nick Winter-CRO administrative editor] 12:39 am [link]
Big Media for Kerry: You know, the thing that bothers me – as I’m sure it bothers you – in all this CBS forged document stuff is that the self righteous Dan Rather trying to turn the vague possibility of President Bush maybe missing a National Guard physical is something so reprehensible it should bring down his bid for reelection. Wringing tortured statements from three partisans... Awful... And Dan breathlessly hanging on to that Knox lady’s every word... Please...

It’s so unseemly to watch Dan Rather nakedly throwing a life vest to the sinking John Kerry by killing this gnat of an issue with the mighty hammer of 60 Minutes.

It is maddening that the Rathers, Brokaws and Jennings of BIG MEDIA — these elite “investigative journalists” - can jump all over the President... Tear down the President... Sneer at the President.. but on the other hand give John Kerry a complete pass. Where is their “investigation” of John Kerry? Does the Senator have nothing but a pristinge record? It doesn’t seem important to the media elite that he lied to Congress in his testimony on his return from Vietnam. They shrug off that he secretly met with North Vietnamese officials in Paris – undermining the negotiations of the United States government. Meeting with the Chief Sandinista Daniel Ortega to help Ortega to keep the people of Nicaragua from being free... Voting against the first Gulf War... The most radical, liberal voting record in the Senate... Come on!

Oh, yeah, I forgot. What could I be thinking? BIG MEDIA believes that having the most liberal, most radical voting record in the Senate is a good thing. A really good thing... Mainstream, actually. Why it’s so mainstream Kerry's record a non-issue for BIG MEDIA... He's their perfect kind of Robert Redford (The Candidate) Michael Douglas (The American President) Martin Sheen (The West Wing) nuanced Chief Executive... Disturbing.

You know, with almost all of BIG MEDIA - the three big broadcast networks, the major magazines and the largest metro newspapers - ALL lined up against President Bush it is an absolute miracle that George W. Bush leads in the polls!

[9/21/04 Tuesday]

[Carol Platt Liebau - editorial director CaliforniaRepublic.org] 5:02 am [link]
Hard to believe -- even if you've always known that the "old media" leans left. Apparently, according to the AP, CBS struck a "corrupt bargain" with Bill Burkett and persuaded Joe Lockhart of the Kerry campaign to telephone the disgruntled Bush-hater. To borrow a phrase from John Dean, to me, this sounds "worse than Watergate." A supposedly impartial news organization serving as the pimp between Burkett and Kerry's minions? How low the "Tiffany network" has fallen. Heads must roll.

[Daniel Pipes - author, activist, CRO contributor] 5:01 am