EdDriscoll.com

Posted 12/12/2003 01:06:02 PM by Edward Driscoll
CHARLES JOHNSON HAS "The Bush Zinger of the Month". Johnson writes, "I can see already that the bastions of correct opinion (i.e. The New York Times, The Washington Post) are going to have twitching fits over this one. But I predict it’s going to play very well with most Americans." I agree.

Posted 12/12/2003 01:00:37 PM by Edward Driscoll
FIGHT ON THE RIGHT: Byron York looks at Grover Norquist, “Muslim outreach” and a feud between activists.

Posted 12/12/2003 12:09:26 PM by Edward Driscoll
I DOUBT JACK WEBB WOULD APPROVE (and I'm not sure I do, either, to be honest), but this sheriff department's decaled slogan is more than a little amusing.

Posted 12/11/2003 11:58:54 PM by Edward Driscoll
GOOD INTERVIEW OF THE LATE ROBERT BARTLEY by Rush Limbaugh, which makes a nice bookend with Bartley's interview from the early '90s with Brian Lamb of CSPAN.

Posted 12/11/2003 11:19:43 PM by Edward Driscoll
ENEMIES OF THE GOOD: Michael Vlahos writes that:

The Administration is missing a strategic opportunity -- if it has not already lost it -- to change the way Muslims understand this war. This change would not move us to the outcome Americans desire, but it could promote what may be the best possible and only practical resolution of this war. The problem is that what is desired -- an all-American "triumph of democracy" -- makes the perfect the enemy of the good.

Read the whole thing.

Posted 12/11/2003 08:04:40 PM by Edward Driscoll
NICHOLAS STIX has a hard-hitting look at racial profiling.

Posted 12/11/2003 07:11:18 PM by Edward Driscoll
MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL, TIMES TWO? The NFL is looking into two Monday night games each week. Rumors that Paul Tagliabue is collecting DNA samples to produce multiple clones of Howard Cosell are unfounded, however.

Posted 12/11/2003 06:54:10 PM by Edward Driscoll
JAMES CARVILLE HAS GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS regarding Howard Dean, in a staggering quote from a fiercely loyal Democratic partisan.

Posted 12/11/2003 02:19:01 PM by Edward Driscoll
NO PAIN, NO GAIN: Robert Ellison, a reader of The New Criterion's Weblog, writes:

The genius of capitalism is that it harnesses the natural force created by the inverse correlation of risk and reward. Risk more (by investing and hiring, for example), and your potential reward rises. Risk nothing, and you can be sure to reap no reward. A year ago, the Bush administration offered a risk/reward game to America's allies over Iraq: make war, and reap the rewards of increased security and Iraqi liberty. Some nations refused the risk. The Bush administration has now announced that non-players will not reap the ancillary reward of American-financed contracts for the re-building of Iraq. The administration's claim that the policy is driven by national security is, of course, a lie. But the policy is nonetheless a sound one that reinforces rather than harms free and fair trade, because it reinforces the capitalist risk/reward calculus. To include France, Russia, and Germany in the contract competition would be to spread risk-free reward.

Of course, expecting the nations who make up the EU to understand risk and reward--or capitalism in general--is asking too much, isn't it? UPDATE: Meanwhile, Bush is asking Europe to forgive Iraq's debt. This sounds like another of Bush's patented "making them an offer they can't accept" deals...

Posted 12/11/2003 01:06:21 PM by Edward Driscoll
KARL ROVE IS QUAKING IN FEAR: Sid Blumenthal endorses Gore endorsing Dean. Curious that Blumenthal mentions JFK, and dredges up the hoary Gore is the "rightfully elected president" canard in the same paragraph, when by some accounts, Nixon actually won the popular vote in '60!

Posted 12/11/2003 12:34:56 PM by Edward Driscoll
MORNING IN AMERICA UPDATE: The Conference Board reports "2004 Will Be the U.S.'s Best Year Economically in Last 20 Years". You heard it here first, folks... UPDATE: The Dow closed at 10,008.16 today, above 10,000 for the first time since about May of 2002.

Posted 12/11/2003 12:30:19 PM by Edward Driscoll
WILL THE LAST PERSON OUT OF CNN'S financial division please turn off the lights? Stuart Varney joins Fox News. Incidentally, the article adds that Fox is considering adding a business channel to their line-up.

Posted 12/11/2003 11:35:26 AM by Edward Driscoll
THE LATEST SUBSTITUTE FOR THE T-WORD IN REUTERSVILLE: "Civilian Gunmen"! UPDATE: Meanwhile, the Times buries the pro-American Iraqi protests yesterday. ANOTHER UPDATE: Geez, is this true, or what?

Posted 12/10/2003 11:38:49 PM by Edward Driscoll
WHAT'S IN IT FOR AL: The Washington Times' Jack Kelly has a nice round-up of the chessboard that Al Gore examined when he decided to endore Dean:

So what's in it for Al? First, attention. Outside the Dean campaign, the number of Democrats thinking about Mr. Gore these last few months could be counted on fingers and toes. Now Al is back on the evening news. Fame is fleeting, but it is balm to a bruised ego. Second, ambition. Mr. Gore would still very much like to be president. If a Democrat other than Mr. Dean wins the nomination and loses to Mr. Bush, Hillary Clinton will be the odds-on favorite for the nomination in 2008. If Mr. Dean is nominated, he could choose Mr. Gore to replace Clinton apparatchik Terry McAuliffe as chairman of the Democratic National Committee, a post that would give Mr. Gore a platform from which to lay the groundwork for a campaign against Hillary, a campaign in which he, presumably, could have the grateful support of activists supporting Mr. Dean this time. If Mr. Dean is routed, Mr. Gore's near victory in 2000 will look awfully good by comparison. Mr. Gore might enjoy reminding people that he got more votes, and a higher percentage of the vote, than Bill Clinton ever did. And if Mr. Dean should win, Mr. Gore could be secretary of state, a handsome booby prize. Mr. Gore isn't as smart as he imagines himself to be, but he's no dummy. He's no doubt noticed that real power in the Democratic Party has shifted to left-liberal special interest groups like MoveOn.Org, which can accept the big buck donations from fat cats like George Soros that the McCain-Feingold law forbids the Democratic Party from taking.

Scroll down for our previous coverage of Al and Howard.

Posted 12/10/2003 10:34:58 PM by Edward Driscoll
FREEDOM'S BEST FRIEND: A moving tribute to Bob Bartley by Peggy Noonan.

Posted 12/10/2003 10:15:53 PM by Edward Driscoll
THE BUS COULD OVERTAKE FRANCO, and more than likely will this weekend, as Jerome Bettis is 5 yards away from passing Franco Harris (a fellow Steeler) on the NFL career rushing list.

Posted 12/10/2003 10:07:47 PM by Edward Driscoll
OH, THAT LIBERAL MEDIA: This has to be one of the most vile metaphors I've seen yet from the Times.

Posted 12/10/2003 03:50:53 PM by Edward Driscoll
DAN REEVES GETS THE AXE, with 3 games left in the Atlanta Falcons' season.

Posted 12/10/2003 03:44:37 PM by Edward Driscoll
"DUKAKIS AFTER DARK", THE SEQUEL: Yeah, raise taxes, that's the ticket!

Posted 12/10/2003 02:16:52 PM by Edward Driscoll
ANTI-TERRORISM MARCHES IN BAGHDAD: Glenn Reynolds has a thorough roundup of coverage, complete with links and photos.

Posted 12/10/2003 02:12:57 PM by Edward Driscoll
SENATOR BUSYBODY: Hillary Clinton joins fight for national seatbelt law. I love this statistic: "According to the highway safety advocates, about 79 percent of Americans buckle up on a regular basis - not good enough, they say". So naturally, we need more intrusive laws and more motorists pulled over, to get that remaining 21 percent buckled up.

Posted 12/10/2003 02:07:31 PM by Edward Driscoll
STEVEN DEN BESTE HAS SOME THOUGHTS on the nations that opposed Iraq's liberation being excluded from the Iraqi rebuilding contracts.

Posted 12/10/2003 01:53:02 PM by Edward Driscoll
THE BALTIMORE SNIPERS: Charles Johnson and Michelle Malkin take the PC-obsessed media to task for ignoring the snipers' jihad motivations. Having read Bernard Goldberg's Arrogance over the weekend, I'm not at all surprised at the media's omissions in this story.

Posted 12/10/2003 01:42:31 PM by Edward Driscoll
ROBERT BARTLEY, RIP: The great editor of The Wall Street Journal passes away at 66, after being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. James Taranto has a brief tribute.

Posted 12/9/2003 11:59:34 PM by Edward Driscoll
ANTI-SEMITISM IN EUROPE: Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse...

Posted 12/9/2003 11:52:08 PM by Edward Driscoll
CHANGING MOTIVES: In his syndicated column, Jonah Goldberg looks at Al Gore's sell out of Joe Lieberman for Howard Dean:

In 2000 Al Gore insisted that Joe Lieberman was the most qualified man to fill his shoes should a President Gore be unable to complete his term. Obviously, politics were a consideration, but Gore nonetheless made the plausible and necessary case that Lieberman was the best man to take his place. Since then we've been brutally attacked on our own soil, we've fought two conventional wars and we are continuing to fight a third on global terrorism. In the time since then, Joe Lieberman has been at the forefront of the war on terrorism in the Senate. He was pretty much the original drafter of the Department of Homeland Security, and in 2001 and 2002 he was the chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs committee. In short, not only is Lieberman more qualified than he was in 2000, but the things that made him qualified to be Al Gore's stand-in back then are all the more important after 9/11. Meanwhile, Howard Dean was still an ex-governor of the second smallest state in 2000 and nothing he's done since then has made him any more qualified to be president. Like many of his fellow contenders, he sees the war on terrorism as a law enforcement issue. He sees nation-building (once an important issue for Gore) in Iraq to be so much imperial folly. Dean ridicules pretty much all of the centrist positions on defense and domestic policy that both Gore and Lieberman used to be synonymous with. I understand Gore sees in Dean one qualification Lieberman doesn't have: the potential to win. But when you think about all that has happened since 9/11, for Gore to say that the post-9/11 world makes Howard Dean more, not less, qualified to be president than Joe Lieberman really shows how unserious Al Gore and his party have become.

Read the whole thing.

Posted 12/9/2003 11:46:31 PM by Edward Driscoll
THE WRIGHT STUFF: Thomas Sowell uses the upcoming 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers' first flight as a jumping off point for an essay on the dangers of "diversity" in education:

This mania for "diversity" has spread far and wide. When I looked through my nieces' high school math book, I saw many pictures of noted mathematicians but -- judging by those pictures -- you would never dream that anything worth noting had ever been done in mathematics by any white males. This petty-minded falsification of history is less disturbing than the indoctrination-minded "educators" who are twisting reality to fit their vision. Those who cannot tell the difference between education and brainwashing do not belong in our schools. History is what happened, not what we wish had happened or what a theory says should have happened. One of the reasons for the great value of history is that it allows us to check our current beliefs against hard facts from around the world and across the centuries. But history cannot be a reality check for today's fashionable visions when history is itself shaped by those visions. When that happens, we are sealing ourselves up in a closed world of assumptions. There is no evidence that the Wright brothers intended the airplane to be flown, or ridden in, only by white people. Many of the great breakthroughs in science and technology were gifts to the whole human race. Those whose efforts created these breakthroughs were exalted because of their contributions to mankind, not to their particular tribe or sex.

Sowell concludes, "In trying to cheapen those people as 'dead white males', we only cheapen ourselves and do nothing to promote similar achievements by people of every description. When the Wright brothers rose off the ground, we all rose off the ground."

Posted 12/9/2003 09:35:16 PM by Edward Driscoll
HILLARY IN '08? Dean Esmay has some thoughts.

Posted 12/9/2003 05:02:02 PM by Edward Driscoll
SOON TO BE A NEW BOOK BY JONAH GOLDBERG: CPO Sparkey takes a look at what the Socialism in National Socialism meant.

Posted 12/9/2003 03:51:49 PM by Edward Driscoll
THE ULTIMATE DIFFERENTIAL THEORY OF US ARMED FORCES, as discovered by Sgt. Stryker.

Posted 12/9/2003 03:17:33 PM by Edward Driscoll
WHAT IS IT WITH BLACK CIVIL RIGHTS LEADERS AND COMMUNISM? Last week, I linked to a couple of jaw-dropping quotes from the 1940s and early '50s by Paul Robeson. When I was going through my archives, I found this recent classic about Communist Cuba, from Al Sharpton. And of course, Nelson Mandela and Harry Belafonte have paid a fair amount of lip-service to Castro as well. Ayn Rand once said that "The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities". So why do men such as Mandela, and the late Robeson, who hold themselves out as seeking civil rights, admire leaders who crush them?

Posted 12/9/2003 02:43:36 PM by Edward Driscoll
U.S. BARS IRAQ CONTRACTS FOR NATIONS THAT OPPOSED WAR: Payback time, for nations that opposed the liberation of Iraq. The New York Times reports:

The Pentagon has barred French, German and Russian companies from competing for $18.6 billion in contracts for the reconstruction of Iraq, saying the step "is necessary for the protection of the essential security interests of the United States." The directive, which was issued by the deputy defense secretary, Paul D. Wolfowitz, represents perhaps the most substantive retaliation to date by the Bush administration against American allies who opposed its decision to go to war in Iraq. The administration had warned before the war that countries that did not join an American-led coalition would not have a voice in decisions about the rebuilding of Iraq. But the administration had not previously made clear that French, German and Russian companies would be excluded from competing for the lucrative reconstruction contracts, which include the rebuilding of Iraq's infrastructure and equipping its army. Under the guidelines, which were issued on Friday but became public knowledge today, only companies from the United States, Iraq and 61 other countries designated as "coalition partners" will be allowed to bid on the contracts, which are financed by American taxpayers.

61 other countries? But I thought we acted unilaterally!

Posted 12/9/2003 02:20:12 PM by Edward Driscoll
MUGGERIDGE'S LAW* IN ACTION: Colin Powell appoints James Brown as "secretary of soul and foreign minister of funk", a a new and unusual, but apparently fictitious, senior diplomatic position, according to the State Department. Hey, at least he didn't pick George Clinton.

Posted 12/9/2003 02:16:19 PM by Edward Driscoll
LOTS OF THOUGHTS ON GORE AND DEAN, on James Taranto's "Best of the Web Today" column. Taranto's first post is a hoot.

Posted 12/9/2003 02:01:08 PM by Edward Driscoll
I BLAME GLOBAL WARMING: "Earthquake rumbles across Virginia".

Posted 12/9/2003 01:37:37 PM by Edward Driscoll
THERE'S NO MEDIA BIAS. And when I say there is none, I do mean that there is a certain amount...

Posted 12/9/2003 01:25:10 PM by Edward Driscoll
NOT THE SINGER: Former Democratic senator Paul Simon died after undergoing heart surgery yesterday. He was 75.

Posted 12/9/2003 12:56:22 PM by Edward Driscoll
CAN'T SAY I LIKE THIS HEADLINE: "Bush Opposes Taiwan Bid for Independence".

Posted 12/9/2003 12:10:41 PM by Edward Driscoll
"I WAS CAUGHT COMPLETLY OFF-GUARD", says Joe Lieberman, about Gore supporting Dean. Andrew Sullivan says he shouldn't have been--and I agree. UPDATE: Rick Brookhiser has some thoughts on Gore's decision. "Politics is a harsh mistress; following her in youth makes her even harsher", Brookhiser writes. "After decades of self-discipline and deprivations, the experience of being repudiated by the voters, especially in a presidential run, has powerful and disturbing effects."

Posted 12/9/2003 11:51:29 AM by Edward Driscoll
HOW THE SECURALIST GRINCHES stole Christmas at Ground Zero is the subject of this WSJ "OpinionJournal" piece.

Posted 12/9/2003 11:33:48 AM by Edward Driscoll
THE JAY GATSBY/HOWARD DEAN CONNECTION, explored by Kevin Patrick. Hey, at least Gatsby served his country during the war, unlike Dean.

Posted 12/8/2003 11:03:11 PM by Edward Driscoll
GORE SUPPORTS DEAN, screwing the candidate backed by his former bosses (Clark) and his own running mate in 2000 (Lieberman) in the process. Orrin Judd writes, "Say what you will about the Clintons, but they seem concerned about the Party, while Mr. Gore would seem to have picked the most anti-Bush candidate for that reason alone." Andrew Sullivan's take? Sullivan writes:

You have to remember that just because almost everyone else on the planet thinks Al Gore's political career is over, Al Gore doesn't. By endorsing Dean now, he stands to get a major job in a potential Dean administration. Secretary of State? Supreme Court Justice? Who knows what elaborate scenarios Gore has been contemplating in his own mind. And if Dean goes down in flames (which must surely be the likeliest eventuality), Gore has allied himself with the energized, leftist Democratic base, and could position himself in 2008 as the real soul of the party - unlike that centrist opportunist, Senator Clinton. In fact, the minute after a Bush re-election, the Gore-Clinton struggle for control of the party begins again in earnest.

RTWT. UPDATE: And be sure to read Stephen Green's post on the subject, as well as the comments to it.

Posted 12/8/2003 04:09:10 PM by Edward Driscoll
THE ULTIMATE STRAWMAN: Fred Barnes writes that President Bush "has never used the words 'Democrat' and 'unpatriotic' in the same sentence or in nearby sentences. In fact, he's never uttered the word 'unpatriotic' in public in any context." That hasn't stopped Democrats complaining about it, however.

Posted 12/8/2003 01:36:58 PM by Edward Driscoll
UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES: Silicon Valley, which has some of the most expensive property values on the planet, has an affordable housing glut, because developers can't find seniors and other low-income tenants to rent them out to. Meanwhile, a wind-turbine energy production complex in the Altamont pass east of San Francisco--the type of power that the Greens love--has killed an estimated 22,000 birds. (Maybe PETA really will go nuclear!)

Posted 12/8/2003 01:16:07 PM by Edward Driscoll
ANTI-SEMITIC ATTACKS IN NEW YORK more than tripled since last year, according to the New York Post:

The statistics are chilling to even those who don't want to believe them: The number of anti-Semitic attacks in the city last month was more than triple that of a year ago - an ominous sign of "global anti-Semitism coming home," Jewish leaders warn. The vast majority of the attacks occurred in Brooklyn and mostly on the fringes of Jewish neighborhoods like Borough Park.

Meanwhile, when asked if anti-Semitism is on the increase, Noam Chomsky replies, "In the West, fortunately, it scarcely exists now". Of course, as Andrew Sullivan writes, "Chomsky has to deny it. Or else he would have to answer for consorting with those who practice it." UPDATE: Here's another Chomsky whopper. ANOTHER UPDATE: New York magazine has more, on anti-Semitism worldwide. They refer to "the new p.c. anti-Semitism". Parse the words in that sentence for a few moments--it's now politically correct for the left to be reflexively against Jews. Roger L. Simon's right: it feels very much like 1938.

Posted 12/8/2003 01:08:31 PM by Edward Driscoll
RUN RALPH, RUN! Nader to test waters with fund raiser. I wouldn't be surprised to see Al Sharpton run as an third party (fourth party?) candidate, as well.

Posted 12/8/2003 09:23:34 AM by Edward Driscoll
"IF IT'S FROM MATTEL, IT'S SWELL", went the line about M-14s in The Short-Timers, one of the two books (along with Michael Herr's Dispatches) that Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket was based on. Charles Johnson is keeping track of the number of Palestinian boys carrying what AP and Reuters are dubbing "toy guns". But as Johnson points out, in several cases, those guns are anything but toys. And even in the cases that they probably are, what sort of parents allows their kids to carry toy guns in a war zone?

Posted 12/8/2003 09:03:46 AM by Edward Driscoll
"THE AGE OF HILARIOUS": England's Samizdata.net looks at San Francisco's mayoral election, (which is occurring tomorrow). Be sure to read the comments.

Posted 12/8/2003 08:49:45 AM by Edward Driscoll
CALIFORNIA'S FRANCHISE TAX BOARD: Worse than the IRS?

Posted 12/8/2003 01:20:14 AM by Edward Driscoll
DR. EVIL'S FAVORITE NUMBER: Why is Lyndon LaRouche raking in nearly one million dollars from taxpayers?

Posted 12/8/2003 01:15:21 AM by Edward Driscoll
PETA BEATER: A consumer group is taking on the animal 'rights' activists.

Posted 12/8/2003 01:11:40 AM by Edward Driscoll
JOHN KERRY FINALLY REVEALS what his middle initial stands for.

Posted 12/8/2003 01:10:14 AM by Edward Driscoll
THE PEACE-LOVING NEW YORK TIMES: Did one of the Times' bodyguards threaten to shoot an Iraqi citizen?

Posted 12/8/2003 01:05:58 AM by Edward Driscoll
AS HEADS IS TAILS: James Taranto writes that while we won't know until next November whether the Republican Party has achieved a durable governing majority, "Democrats and liberals are beginning to sound like a beleaguered minority. They are employing many of the same complaints and tropes that Republicans and conservatives used during their decades in the political wilderness". And he's got lots of examples to make his point.

Posted 12/8/2003 12:48:13 AM by Edward Driscoll
FROM THE HOME OFFICE IN PARIS, FRANCE: John Hawkins ranks "Twenty Most Annoying Liberals In The United States".

Posted 12/8/2003 12:37:42 AM by Edward Driscoll
BACK FROM A WEEKEND JAUNT TO SEATTLE, to see, among other things, the Funk Brothers in concert. They sounded fabulous. And Allan Slutsky did a great job of conducting the band, their supporting musicians, and vocalists.

Posted 12/8/2003 12:33:17 AM by Edward Driscoll
MORE ON ROBESON, this time from Dave Kopel, who writes in the Rocky Mountain News:

"The U.S. Postal Service has announced a new stamp honoring black entertainer Paul Robeson. According to an Associated Press article by Jennifer C. Kerr (Post, Nov. 24), Robeson 'was labeled a subversive for his mid-century activism against racism and anti-Semitism.' Nonsense. Sen. Hubert Humphrey and former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt were mid-century activists against racism and anti-Semitism, and they were not labeled as subversives. Robeson was labeled as a subversive because he was one. Robeson was a card-carrying member of the Communist Party USA, which was under the direct control of the Soviet Union. Robeson was a fervent admirer of Josef Stalin, even after Stalin's genocidal tyranny became well-known. When Stalin died in 1953, Robeson eulogized the 'Beloved Comrade' for his 'deep humanity' and 'his wise understanding,' which left 'us a rich and monumental heritage.' Robeson supported the Soviet invasions of Finland and Poland in 1939, and until Hitler violated the Hitler-Stalin Pact, Robeson urged Americans to refuse to support the democracies that were under fascist attack. It is also disgusting for the AP to call Robeson an activist against anti- Semitism even though Robeson traveled to Moscow in 1949 to support Stalin at the height of Stalin's anti-Jewish pogrom.

Or to paraphrase something Mark Steyn recently wrote:

Though [AP] won't tell you the answer to that famous question "Are you now or have you ever...?"--the answer is: yes, he was. The more interesting question is: How do you feel about getting one of the great moral questions of the century wrong?