Wednesday, May 26, 2004
I haven’t been posting for awhile but I thought I’d come back and give my thoughts on the President’s speech on Monday night. First off, I listened to the speech on the radio and did not watch it on television. I have heard the speech analyzed to death by some of my favorite talk show hosts. Still, I feel I can be impartial in providing my personal thoughts on the speech. In my view, this speech showed the President at this best, half pragmatist, half visionary.
The visionary half of the President is in regards to his view of what a post 9/11 world needs to look like in order to keep America safe. This was the ultimate and, I think, connecting reason for both Afghanistan and Iraq. All the other reasons given by the President were clear and concise. There is no doubt that Saddam Hussein has supported terrorists and has had a burgeoning weapons program for many years. Even though his power may have been dormant at this time, it is clear that he has sought and continues to seek to gain it back at some future event. Leaving him in power after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington would have been beyond the pale.
But the President’s vision expands beyond this point. The President seems to realize that the only way to stop terrorism is at the source. They need prosperity and freedom. They need democracy. They need what we in America enjoy without question. In fact, they need what we in America take for granted. Many people consider this Pollyannaish but many people felt the goal of total defeat of the Soviet Union was Pollyannaish also and that happened.
This is safe for America specifically because no genuine democracy has ever attacked another one and cutting off state support for terrorism is the best thing the President can do to keep our country safe. Will it work? I don’t know but considering some of the sacrifices in life and treasure our nation has made through the years attempting other far reaching endeavors that have come to fruition, I think the only country who could make it happen is ours.
That being said, the President is also a pragmatist. This is obvious because he has, in effect, begun to move the US towards the semblance of an exit strategy in Iraq. I’m sure that at this point, the President doesn’t know if Democracy will, in fact, work in that nation and he wants to give the country an opportunity to sink or swim. I’m not going to micro-analyze the way the President plans to hand over sovereignty to Iraqi people because I am not someone skilled in the arts of military or diplomacy. I don’t know if this plan will work. I do know that this whole episode has been a learning experience for the United States of America and I hope that we have learned many lessons from it. We are trying to do something that has never been done before. Mistakes have been and will continue to be made. That is the nature of this war which is unlike any we have ever fought before. Good Luck Mr. President! Good Luck America!
posted by Allen 12:09 PM
Thursday, May 20, 2004
Good Morning everyone (on the West Coast that is!). Not much blogging today. I did want to alert you all to a Bill Cosby Speech given to the NAACP. Cosby is a well known leftist but has occasional bouts with common sense. This may have been one of those times! It's worth checking out. Be back later!
posted by Allen 9:25 AM
Wednesday, May 19, 2004
Thanks to James Taranto's Best of the Web column. Here is a fantastic blog listing the Good News in Iraq.
posted by Allen 12:54 PM
Frank Gaffney writes this today:
It is now safe to conclude as well that Saddam bequeathed a frightening legacy to post-liberation Iraq: the Weapons of Mass Destruction still at large in Iraq. The alternative thesis – namely, that the only two WMDs left in the entire country were employed in the (fortunately) failed IED attacks involving sarin and mustard gas conducted in recent days – is preposterous on its face.
Seems pretty obvious to me!
posted by Allen 10:29 AM
Walid Phares has an excellent piece about the reaction in the Arab world to the Prison Scandal. Here is my favorite quote from this column:In Beirut, amazement was mostly about George W. Bush addressing Arab TV. Lebanese were certainly disgusted by the aired images but they were stunned by the fact that a U.S. President was "talking" to Arab citizens. The region is infested with worse ugliness than the prison scandal, yet no one can remember any Arab leader addressing his people about abuse.
"Our dictators never showed up on any media, at anytime, for any picture" said many Syrians, "despite 28 years of horrors in their detention centers." Thousands of citizens were tortured in al Mazza, the Syrian equivalent of Abu Ghraib, yet no one lifted a finger. Many in the region have their own horror pictures, but who will publish them as long as no Americans were involved?Dr. Phares ends the column with this thought:
Maybe the evil done to prisoners in Iraq, will uncover the wider evil in the whole region?
posted by Allen 10:13 AM
The Scandal coming out of Iraq continues to expand. Why, pray tell, isn't the UN Oil for Food scandal making more Arabs angry than the Iraqi prison scandal? Could it be that this scandal does not involve Americans and people who report directly to George W. Bush? Could it be that this scandal serves as a very real reason why the French and the Russians didn't go along with us on this war? Cladia Rosset has been a one woman recking ball on this one and will probably write a book about it. Here is her latest column.
posted by Allen 9:50 AM
Tech Central Station has a pretty great article by James Pinkerton today. Pinkerton isn't always as solid a "conservative" as many people would like. It seems like he may have sold his soul to be a part of the Washington and New York City cocktail parties. He finds a similarity between 1988 (Bush-41 v Dukakis) and this year. It's an excellent article and makes many good points. By the way, Tech Central Station is worth looking at from time to time.
posted by Allen 9:46 AM
Well, all. I'm new at this blogging thing so please bear with me until I get my feet wet here. Let me know what you think (or even that you are reading!) by emailing me at GmbyMan@aol.com! Thanks!
posted by Allen 1:01 AM
The Washington Post has an article today entitled US Faces Growing Fears of Failure. Is the American press rooting agains the US in the war on terror? I'm serious about this. There have been enough signs of good news in this fight in Iraq and elsewhere that this title could easily be written another way. I am certain that the less savvy of Americans looks at this every day and just wishes we would give up and get out. That is exactly the wrong way to look at this situation but it is exactly what the Washington Post and others would like us to do.Look, I have no problem with people reporting on the facts as they see them and there are negative signs coming out of Iraq. Clearly, the prison scandals are negative but that isn't reason to abandon the country to civil war, is it?
I am convinced that THIS war in Iraq IS the war on terror. We are not just fighting Iraqi insurgents but we also fighting the Iranian, the Syrians, al Q'aida and other terrorist types. We are in this and we need to win. Even suggesting facing failure does nothing to help the cause.
posted by Allen 12:55 AM
President Bush's biggest fan, John Podhoretz of the New York Post suggests that President Bush make the bold move of expanding the number of troops in the military and in Iraq. I'm inclined to agree with him. I believe our country has the capacity to increase the size of troop strength in the military by 25-35%. I don't think a draft is a good idea but they could increase their recruitment goals. Do it!
posted by Allen 12:45 AM
This man is Manmohan Singh.According to the AP, he is the new Prime Minister of India. Based on the story, he seems far better than Sonia Ghandi, who was slated to take the post but decided against it. India is the model in the under developed world for moving towards Democracy. It is always a good idea to watch what's going on there.
posted by Allen 12:35 AM
The New York Times keeps up their attempt to keep the public interested in Abu Ghraib today in this article today. Maybe it's just me but why, exactly, is the Red Cross the major authority on the Iraqi prison scandal? That seems somewhat odd to me. If someone could let me in on this, I'd appreciate it!
posted by Allen 12:32 AM
Bill Safire can be a grumpy old man. Today, however, he has written with his usual high level of credibility about Iraq in the New York Times. Here is the whole column and copyright below:
May 19, 2004
OP-ED COLUMNIST
Sarin? What Sarin?
By WILLIAM SAFIRE
You probably missed the news because it didn't get much play, but a small, crude weapon of mass destruction may have been used by Saddam's terrorists in Iraq this week.
The apparent weapon was sarin gas, a highly toxic nerve agent that causes victims to choke to death. Developed by the Nazis, it has been used in the past by terrorists in Japan to kill a dozen subway riders and panic thousands, and by Saddam Hussein, who produced tons of it to kill Iraqi Kurds.
Rigged as an "improvised explosive device," or roadside bomb, the 155-millimeter howitzer shell was accidentally detonated by a U.S. ordnance team. Two men were treated for what an Army spokesman called "minor exposure" to the nerve gas.
You never saw such a rush to dismiss this as not news. U.N. weapons inspectors whose reputations rest on denial of Saddam's W.M.D. pooh-poohed the report. "It doesn't strike me as a big deal," said David Kay.
"Sarin Bomb Is Likely a Leftover From the 80's" was USA Today's Page 10 brushoff; maybe the terrorists didn't know their shell was loaded with sarin. Besides, say our lionized apostles of defeat, a poison-gas bomb does not a "stockpile" make. Even the Defense Department, on the defensive, strained not to appear alarmist, saying confirmation was needed for the field tests.
In this rush to misjudgment, we can see an example of the "Four Noes" that have become the defeatists' platform.
The first "no" is no stockpiles of W.M.D., used to justify the war, were found. With the qualifier "so far" left out, the absence of evidence is taken to be evidence of absence. In weeks or years to come — when the pendulum has swung, and it becomes newsworthy to show how cut-and-runners in 2004 were mistaken — logic suggests we will see a rash of articles and blockbuster books to that end.
These may well reveal the successful concealment of W.M.D., as well as prewar shipments thereof to Syria and plans for production and missile delivery, by Saddam's Special Republican Guard and fedayeen, as part of his planned guerrilla war — the grandmother of all battles. The present story line of "Saddam was stupid, fooled by his generals" would then be replaced by "Saddam was shrewder than we thought."
This will be especially true for bacteriological weapons, which are small and easier to hide. In a sovereign and free Iraq, when germ-warfare scientists are fearful of being tried as prewar criminals, their impetus will be to sing — and point to caches of anthrax and other mass killers.
Defeatism's second "no" is no connection was made between Saddam and Al Qaeda or any of its terrorist affiliates. This is asserted as revealed truth with great fervor, despite an extensive listing of communications and meetings between Iraqi officials and terrorists submitted to Congress months ago.
Most damning is the rise to terror's top rank of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who escaped Afghanistan to receive medical treatment in Baghdad. He joined Ansar al-Islam, a Qaeda offshoot whose presence in Iraq to murder Kurds at Saddam's behest was noted in this space in the weeks after 9/11. His activity in Iraq was cited by President Bush six months before our invasion. Osama's disciple Zarqawi is now thought to be the televised beheader of a captive American.
The third "no" is no human-rights high ground can be claimed by us regarding Saddam's torture chambers because we mistreated Iraqi prisoners. This equates sleep deprivation with life deprivation, illegal individual humiliation with official mass murder. We flagellate ourselves for mistreatment by a few of our guards, who will be punished; he delightedly oversaw the shoveling of 300,000 innocent Iraqis into unmarked graves. Iraqis know the difference.
The fourth "no" is no Arab nation is culturally ready for political freedom and our attempt to impose democracy in Iraq is arrogant Wilsonian idealism.
In coming years, this will be blasted by revisionist reportage as an ignoble ethnic-racist slur. Iraqis will gain the power, with our help, to put down the terrorists and find their own brand of political equilibrium.
Will today's defeatists then admit they were wrong? That's a fifth "no."
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company | Home | Privacy Policy | Search | Corrections | Help | Back to Top
posted by Allen 12:27 AM
Looks like it's sarin gas! Wonder what the "Bush Lied!!!!!" People will come up with now.
posted by Allen 12:17 AM
Lately, I have been bugged. I'm not really sure if the President can do anything about it, but his critics have been teeing off on him. There is a bevy of good economic news. The economy was bound to return to form at some point and I am happy that we saw massive job increases in both March and April (and will again in May). Still, no one talks about this massively booming economy in a positive manner. Instead, it’s all doom and gloom about gas prices. I have to drive up and down the hill to work myself so I can relate. I hate having to spend $35.00 to fill up my tank; but the high gas prices are, in part, a side effect of growing economy. I have more to say but it is late now. I’ll try to blog first thing in the morning!
posted by Allen 12:08 AM
Hello All. I am back again and will once again attempt to begin updating this more often. Sorry for the long pause between posts. I have a busy life and am trying to work through it. I'll try to post at least one thing a day (or at least, four or five things a week) to this blog as I find interesting facts while perusing the 'net. Thanks for your patience. All zero of you who read.
posted by Allen 12:04 AM
Monday, February 02, 2004
Hi everyone. My latest college class is coming to an end and I will have time in the next coming days to post something new to the blog. BTW, anybody else find it interesting that Howard Dean has self destructed so thouroughly in the Democrat race for President? Didn't think so. While I still see George W. Bush as a winner in November, I have to admit that I am more scared of Kerry (for a variety of different reasons) than I was of Dean. Not only does Kerry make for a better candidate. He'd also be a worse President. He is little more than a Massachusetts Socialist. More on this as time goes on.
I think Kerry probably already has the nomination sewn up but what occurs on Tuesday will go a long way towards determing this for sure. Kerry is supposedly winning in at least four of the states. I think a Kerry clean sweep on Tuesday, ends the nomination process. If Kerry wins, outright, at least five, Edwards will probably hand around for a short time before conceding. If Kerry only wins four (or less), the race is still on.
posted by Allen 1:27 AM
Friday, November 21, 2003
OK. Here goes. Earlier this year there was a big time hubbub over whether President Bush lied to get us into the war.Now, I'm not completely convinced that the President and his advisors didn't believe the somewhat more sketchy information about uranium in Africa simply because they were personally convinced that we needed to go into Iraq and depose of Saddam Hussein (something which I agree with and can't say I wouldn't have done the same thing as the President did).
Now, in the end, it turns that the statement wasn't a lie but it was, perhaps, a slight stretching of the truth. I think that, in retrospect, the President and his advisors should have been more diligent in removing this from the speech.
That stated, the complete and idiotic eruption by the mainstream press (and by mainstream, I mean Tom Brokaw, Tim Russert, Chris Matthews, George Stephanapolous and all others who are not related to FOX and) was complete overkill and telling considering the lack of a story that the recent leaked memo from the CIA to Stephen Hayes of the Weekley Standard. The article states that the CIA found evidence of a working arrangement between Bin Laden's Al Q'aeda and Hussein's Baathist regime dating all the way back to 1990! Now, there are a couple of interesting things of note about this leaked memo.
For starters, the administration has been very cautious not to make a big deal out of it.... yet. Secondly, the press hasn't really mentioned it as of yet, though Newsweek did a big write up on it in an effort to dismiss the whole report as junk (to which Hayes has responded)
But for now, all I recommend is that people go and read the article. It makes a compelling case that there was a very real connection between Bin Laden and Hussein that should be looked into a lot closer than it has so far. The press is missing the boat on this one. The smoking gun may have just arrived.
posted by Allen 3:20 PM
Hi all. I haven't been around for awhile as I have been attending school and moving into my new house. I am going to try to post at least one thing a day from here on out.
posted by Allen 2:53 PM
Saturday, August 02, 2003
I'll try to post something tomorrow evening but I can't guarantee anything. Life events take precedence!
posted by Allen 11:59 PM
Hello all! Well, I suppose there's a possibility someone's reading this. Who knows! Who cares! I mean, blogging is kind of a sycophantic thing for a person to do anyway! Anyhow, I'm in the middle of a long stretch of working right now. Believe it or not, this is the weekend I work both Saturday and Sunday... which means..... CHA CHING!!!!! Woo Hoo.... $$$$$$. Ok, now that that's done (I am a greedy Republican, right, I'm supposed to get happy when I start rolling in dough, no?), let me just point out that the economy is starting it's upward descent.... As the tax cuts begin to kick in this Summer (followed by very large ones starting next year) it is going to take off like a rocket. 2.4% growth in the second quarter isn't bad and we are going to see the job market respond. I'll admit that this isn't the first time I've predicted this and I've been wrong before but there never has been a time in our nations history where rather large tax cuts (like the ones put into place by President Bush) haven't resulted in a booming economy for longer than the business cycle would normally allow it to boom. The economy has been on strong footing ever since Ronald Reagan cut taxes in 1981 and the President's tax cuts will probably extend that through 2010 or beyond. Thank God the people have had the foresight to elect Republicans!
posted by Allen 11:57 PM
Thursday, July 31, 2003
Speaking of the freedom hating People for the American Way (link below, I'm not going to post another way for these slimes, what a name, BTW), according to the Wall Street Journal Washington DC mayor, Anthony Williams, who favors vouchers in the district, is being slapped down by Ralph Neas. Neas wrote a letter to Mayor Williams when Mayor Williams agreed to meet with the pro-voucher American Legislative Exchage Council. Neas' letter to Williams, who is a democrat, states that "The Real Impact of School Choice" would lend a "veneer of bipartisan respectability to a group whose goals are destructive to the public interest and the people you serve."
In other words, "Mister Mayor, we are Democrats and as such as committed to large government solutions to problems and job security for teacher's unions. By suggesting a movement towards free market solutions to the school crisis in Washington DC instead of bitching and moaning about the 'lack of educational funding' and 'class size', you have left the Democrat plantation."The Republican Party should really look at this voucher situation in Washington DC as an oppurtunity that we, unlike the Sociocrats, are more interested in teaching kids in inner schools than making sure certain incompetent teachers are able to travel to Bermuda every year on their three month vacations!!!
posted by Allen 9:53 AM
For the purposes of those who do not know me, let me express my personal opinion on abortion. I believe abortion should be illegal except when the woman's life is in danger but I also think the legality of the procedure should be left up to the states. When nine un-elected clowns in robes on the Supreme Court usurped the legislative process by making abortion legal in all 50 states under Roe V Wade, they performed a bit of judicial activism which it is a shame has been allowed to stay on the books now for 30 years. I do not want the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v Wade so that abortion is illegal in all 50 states either. I believe there are places (the bible belt south, for instance) where abortion is an abomination and the largest sector of the electorate will vote to keep it illegal. On the other hand, it will probably always be legal in New York, California and many other states in the nation. I really don't have a problem with this though I will continue to support those that wish to fight to change people's minds on this process and make it an illegal procedure. I also think each state should make it's own laws regarding things like:
- 2nd and 3rd trimester (so called partial birth abortion) rules.
- Parental Notification
- Waiting periods
- Education
We have seen a genocide for the last 30 years and it didn't have to be that way. This could have been handled on a state by state basis, such as the death penalty has been decided. When Roe V Wade is overturned, it will be a great day for justice in our nation!
posted by Allen 8:11 AM
Hello all (all two or three of your that read this site!). I wish to bring your attention to this article from National Review's Byron York on the continuing judicial fight. It appears that the Democrats have added a third judge to their filibuster file in William Pryor the present Attorney General from Alabama and a nominee for the circuit court of appeals. He follows Pricilla Owens and Miguel Estrada in not being allowed a vote on the floor of the whole house by the obstructionist Democrats in the U.S. Senate. York, who is a conservative and in favor of these justices being confirmed, believes that the Republicans in the Senate, buoyed by a new campaign from the right wing Committee for Justice to portray the Senators on the judicial committee as anti-catholic for voting against AG Pryor, have crossed a line and are now playing the same games played by the Democrats.If you read the article, you'll see what I mean and it is worth reading. York is a fantastic writer but in my view he is wrong on this. It is, in fact, true that if a person is a pentinent catholic, such as is AG Pryor, they are likely to be voted against by the Democrats who are in the back pocket of the abortion industry. The fact is that AG Pryor believes abortion is wrong. He believes this is the case on religious grounds but he also believes that Roe v Wade is wrong on constitutional grounds. People like Senator Charles Schumer seem to imply that he only believes the second thing above because of his belief in the first thing above. That is, he only believes it is unconstitutional because his religion tells him that the procedure in wrong. It is thinking like this that makes me believe that, whether intended or not, the Democrats on the Senate judicial committee have installed a religious test on the nominees.
I am happy that the committee for justice have taken this tact. It is a tact employeed regularly by the terrible, left wing People for the American Way and it is effective. Republicans are too damn nice to do things like this but they need to understand that this is the only way they are going to win this fight. They need to get down in the mud and fight for that in which they believe. The ends (getting strong conservative, scrict constructionist judges confirmed) DOES justify the means. Time to stand up and fight, boys (and girls!).
posted by Allen 8:00 AM
