EdDriscoll.com

Posted 2/12/2004 10:10:16 PM by Edward Driscoll
"THE MEDIA IS THE ENEMY": Heard Rep. Peter King (R-NY) utter that phrase on the Laura Ingraham show while I was in the car just now, and he's certainly got a point. Thank God there's information available on the War on Terror from sources other than the traditional media. On the other hand, as Ingraham noted, this was the same media that was out to bury Reagan, and he managed to do a pretty good job of going around them to get his message out. But when you look at stories like this and this and this and this and this, (and numerous other examples), unless you're a full-on Tranzi, it's hard not to disagree with King's statement. UPDATE: No sooner had I posted this, than I read Hugh Hewitt's take on the disparity between the new and old media's coverage of the current Kerry scandal. Hewitt writes, "In the age of the internet, blogging and Fox News, however, the glaring inconsistencies of the media's coverage of its favorites and its foes are quickly noted and absorbed by the public." ANOTHER UPDATE: Glenn Reynolds adds, "if this infidelity story were about Bush, with the woman in question out of the country, they'd be running with it in a big way already". But of course.

Posted 2/12/2004 08:56:06 PM by Edward Driscoll
LIBERALS AND THE LEFT: Porphyrogenitus does a pretty good explaining the difference between the two (be sure to read his previous post on the subject). It helps to explain why we mostly use the term "leftists" around here, rather than the more common--and usually misapplied--"liberal". (And of course, there's classical liberalism, but that's actually the forerunner to today's conservatism--not the FDR New Dealer-style liberalism that dominated the country prior to the new left of the Vietnam-era late-'60s and '70s. Google some of Jonah Goldberg's previous G-Files--he's written extensively about this sort of terminology.) UPDATE: Speaking of the left, Edward Feser has some thoughts on why universities are so dominated by them, in Tech Central Station.

Posted 2/12/2004 08:30:07 PM by Edward Driscoll
"ONE SCREWY JUDGE": Skip Bayless writes on Ohio State running back Maurice Clarett, who sued to be allowed to enter the NFL draft before he had been out of high school for the required three years, and has been granted just that by Judge Shira Scheindlin:

Scheindlin wouldn't even waste time and taxpayers' money on a full trial. She all but laughed at what a blatant violation of antitrust laws the NFL draft policy is and all but told the NFL to forget about appealing because it had no chance. Maybe I'm as ``screwy'' as Scheindlin, but that's what I've written for 30 years. Forcing gifted football players to risk their bodies and NFL earning power playing college football without pay has for decades been the biggest injustice in sports. How this system has beaten the legal system this long has been even more extraordinary than 41-year-old Jerry Rice's longevity. What an un-American racket pro and college football have gotten away with since pro football became America's favorite game. All it took to bring it crashing down was one kid just screwy enough to challenge it in court. It doesn't take a judge or lawyer to see that it should have no chance on appeal. All you need to know is that baseball has always drafted players out of high school and that in 1971 Spencer Haywood opened the legal door for high school players to enter the NBA draft. But until now no teenager has dared to take on the NFL in court and to risk becoming a marked man on campus, on draft day and on an NFL field. So the NFL has long benefited from a sensational minor league system for which it pays not a penny. What better way to prepare a young man for pro football than by having him play in nationally televised college games before huge crowds against the country's best young players? And what a sweet deal for the NCAA, which can make hundreds of millions in TV revenue while merely having to feed and house its stars. For pro and college football it has been: I'll fill your vault if you'll fill mine. The lone losers were the 18- to 21-year-old players who wrecked knees or necks for Dear Old U. Many aren't quite physically mature enough for the NFL. Yet many ruin their pro careers, or at least take years off them, while being forced to play the equally violent game of college football.

Just as last season began with the Lions' controversial hiring of Steve Mariucci as head coach, it looks like this year's football season is starting early as well----and just as controversially.

Posted 2/12/2004 08:06:59 PM by Edward Driscoll
WAS CHRIS LEHANE THE MAN WHO LEAKED THE KERRY/INTERN STORY? Glenn Reynolds seems to think so. Lehane was apparently fired by Kerry and is now working for Clark, and Clark--and his Weblog--leaked the story first. And, perhaps administering the final coup de grace, Clark endorsed Kerry today. And for what it's worth, Rush Limbaugh also seems to think it's Lehane. Of course, the obvious question is what happens next. Drudge, in another heart-palpatating Exclusive! says that Kerry and his team are preparing their media response.

Posted 2/12/2004 08:00:05 PM by Edward Driscoll
DANIEL PIPES SPOKE AT BERKELEY THIS WEEK: The results were not pretty. UPDATE: The same could be said for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's lecture at Amherst. UPDATE TO THE PIPES STORY: Charles Johnson writes that the crowd that attended his lecture was so upset, "they broke out the doomsday weapon of the left, usually reserved only for the biggest International ANSWER rallies�the dreaded giant papier mache Palestinian puppet heads!"

Posted 2/12/2004 03:24:23 PM by Edward Driscoll
THE ED DRISCOLL/BURT LANCASTER CONNECTION, REVEALED: Let's all take a timeout from today's bimbo eruption, and hop into the Jacuzzi, shall we? Err, in other words, my latest newsletter for Electronic House magazine is online. It offers some tips on building a high-tech bathroom, using the remodel that my wife and I did on our master bath last year as an example. The editor asked for some photos, and chose to run a shot of the TV I installed above the Jacuzzi. To give you an idea of what the room as a whole looks like, I've uploaded a couple more shots here. Unfortunately, space requirements caused one of my favorite parts of the newsletter to get jettisoned, something that was based on a Blog post from right around this time last year:

<MAP NAME="boxmap-p8"><AREA SHAPE="RECT" COORDS="14, 200, 103, 207" HREF="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm/privacy-policy.html?o=1" ><AREA COORDS="0,0,10000,10000" HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/eddriscollcom-20" ></MAP><img src="http://rcm-images.amazon.com/images/G/01/rcm/120x240.gif" width="120" height="240" border="0" usemap="#boxmap-p8" alt="Shop at Amazon.com"> Did you ever read the John Cheever story, The Swimmer, or see the 1968 movie version, which starred a surprisingly buff Burt Lancaster as a middle-aged man reliving his life by swimming from pool to pool on a hot Sunday afternoon in his suburban neighborhood? If you didn't, I'm not surprised, but it's one of those offbeat 1960s films that Bravo reruns from time to time (the other is the Canadian film version of The Fox, with Keir Dullea, minus Gary Lockwood and HAL 9000). [Since this post was written, it's been released on DVD, hence the Amazon link to the right.] I did my own version of The Swimmer today, and I didn't even get wet. As part of our remodeling project, my wife and I are planning to put in a tub-sized Jacuzzi when we renovate our primary bathroom. Because at 6'2", I'm several inches taller than my wife, and 2/3rds of it are legs, I must have sat in 25 different models in a showroom in Fremont, California today. We think we've found a couple of winners, but we'll need to consult with our plumber. By the way, is this a great country, or what? Anyone making a middle class income can walk into a warehouse-sized operation filled with a hundred or so Jacuzzis, hot tubs, just plain tubs, and showers, and purchase whichever one strikes his fancy. Try doing that in Iraq, Afghanistan, China, or Cuba.

If you're still with me, here are a couple of shots of the Jacuzzi. Click on them to enlarge.

Posted 2/12/2004 03:00:02 PM by Edward Driscoll
IS THE GOP BEHIND KERRY'S BIMBO ERUPTION? Andrew Sullivan implies that they are. Jonah Goldberg "as someone who was pretty deeply involved in the Lewinsky battles" disagrees, and makes several valid points along the way.

Posted 2/12/2004 02:55:24 PM by Edward Driscoll
RICH LOWRY PARSES "The Old Kerry Scandal" And James Lileks adds:

I don�t care what John Kerry said when he was 25. I care about what John Kerry says today . . . about what he said when he was 25.

Exactly.

Posted 2/12/2004 02:42:34 PM by Edward Driscoll
NORA JONES AND GLOBALIZATION: Johnathan Pearce says the chanteuse's success should assuage several fears of a globalized culture. "And she is certainly rather easy on the eye", he adds. Hey, I think this was a Virginia Postrel moment--involving both of her books!

Posted 2/12/2004 01:39:55 PM by Edward Driscoll
57 VARIETIES OF KERRY COVERAGE: Mickey Kaus is wall-to-wall and treetop tall, when it comes to keeping up with the new JFK. UPDATE: Bad choice of words on my part. There's much about John Kennedy I admire. Other than his wartime hitch in the service, I can't say the same about Kerry.

Posted 2/12/2004 01:36:21 PM by Edward Driscoll
LET THE ONE-LINERS BEGIN: Orrin Judd: "And here we'd always heard that Strom Thurmond had the best constituent services operation in the Senate..." Stephen Green (channeling Robin Williams): "JFK Jr Jr" Bill Clinton (via Scott Ott): "I finally see a candidate with whom I can identify. I was withholding my endorsement until I found a candidate who would resonate with mainstream Democrats the way I did. John F. Kerry is the man." Teresa Heinz Kerry:

"I don't think I could have coped so well" with a mate's philandering as Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) has. "I used to say to my husband, my late husband, 'If you ever get something I'll maim you. Not kill you, just maim you.' And we'd laugh, laugh, laugh." Heinz adds that she has never had any reason to suspect either of her husbands. "Not for one day, because what I expect of them, they have a right to expect of me. Maybe I'm into 18-year-olds." At which Heinz's campaign handler, former political journalist Chris Black, cautioned bleakly: "That was a joke."

As Roger L. Simon wrote today, "If [italics and bold mine] it proves out that Kerry could not keep it in his pants in the Post Monica Era, in all probability a strong part of him didn't want the job". UPDATE: These guys are probably bummed about today's events.

Posted 2/12/2004 01:14:41 PM by Edward Driscoll
SOUND ADVICE FROM MICHAEL GRAHAM (especially after the Toricelli and Paul Wellstone episodes in 2002): "Don't assume you know who's on the Democratic ticket until Election Day."

Posted 2/12/2004 01:09:40 PM by Edward Driscoll
GUESS I PICKED THE WRONG WEEK TO STOP SNIFFING GLUE: Geez, wake up early to do an interview for an upcoming article, deal with the cable guy to fix the line to the modem, and then I see...this. Didn't we already go through this a few times in the '90s? Maybe Gary Hart shouldn't have dropped out so quickly.

Posted 2/12/2004 12:46:34 AM by Edward Driscoll
CELEBRATING 9/11 AT THE FBI: As Roger L. Simon writes, "If this article is even partly true, "Houston [and everywhere else in America], we have a problem!" Guess what: we have a problem.

Posted 2/12/2004 12:23:25 AM by Edward Driscoll
FIGHTING THE LAST WAR, AGAIN: The New York Times reports:

A complacent Saddam Hussein was so convinced that war would be averted or that America would mount only a limited bombing campaign that he deployed the Iraqi military to crush domestic uprisings rather than defend against a ground invasion, according to a classified log of interrogations of captured Iraqi leaders and former officers.

Wouldn't be the first time Saddam fought the last war. UPDATE: Orrin Judd, ever the contrarian, writes, "Glancing around the Web and twisting the radio knob you'll see and hear folks saying that this shows how badly Saddam misjudged us. In fact, his judgment was entirely sound as regards nearly everyone in the West, except for George W. Bush. No wonder though that the President's radical departure from our previous pusillanimity is paying such dividends from Libya to Pakistan."

Posted 2/12/2004 12:20:25 AM by Edward Driscoll
HUGH HEWITT WRITES, "There are, it seems, two categories of civilians":

Those who know what they owe to the military, and those who don't. I am in the former category, perhaps because I married into a family of Marines and have heard a more than a few stories of sacrifice and loss. Bloggers who presume to play in these fields should be careful to note where they stand. Feel free to question the president's statements and policies, as I do Kerry's, but it would be wise to leave off on questioning the president's service if you haven't, as they saying goes, walked the walk.

Makes a nice counterbalance to the "chickenhawk" argument, as well.

Posted 2/11/2004 09:36:05 PM by Edward Driscoll
DEMOCRATIC IRAN: The son of the late Shah of Iran says it's foreseeable. "It is just a question of time that the cracks in the regime will widen and the Iranian people will have achieved democracy themselves", according to 43-year old Reva Pahlavi.

Posted 2/11/2004 08:26:37 PM by Edward Driscoll
DON'T LET THE BASTARDS GRIND YOU DOWN DEPARTMENT: Perry de Havilland has a prediction that's sure to come true, one of these days. It's kind of along the lines of a question we asked very shortly after fighting broke out in Iraq.

Posted 2/11/2004 08:12:02 PM by Edward Driscoll
TRADE IS A VERY, VERY GOOD THING. James Glassman (who runs Tech Central Station, to which I frequently contribute) writes that unfortunately, CNN financial anchor Lou Dobbs "and xenophobic politicians are out to kill the goose that lays our golden eggs":

Sen. John Kerry, in his stump speech inveighs against the "Benedict Arnold CEOs [who] send American jobs overseas." By the way, the Kerry family business, H.J. Heinz Co. of Pittsburgh, operates 22 factories in the United States and 57 in foreign countries. I don't think that Kerry should shut down The Heinz 57, but he might drop the rhetoric and talk about trade responsibly. He should support, not trade's contraction, but its expansion, like George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and every president since Herbert Hoover.

I wonder if the words "Smoot-Hawley" mean anything to Kerry. Probably not.

Posted 2/11/2004 08:00:39 PM by Edward Driscoll
THE RESULTS ARE IN: "Kerry Beats Bush in 1972 Presidential Contest"! As the man says...Heh.

Posted 2/11/2004 07:57:47 PM by Edward Driscoll
IF THEY SHOULD BAR WARS, PLEASE LET THESE STAR WARS STAY-AY! The original trilogy of Star Wars films is coming to DVD on September 21st. Well, not the original trilogy--these are the enhanced versions that Lucas prepared for release in 1997, including [geek mode on] the dreadful PC-scene where Greedo shoots at Han first, instead of Han showing what a tough-but-lovable rogue he was by shooting him first. [/geek] In any event, the Digital Bits has all the details, and ongoing updates, for those who want to get their ~~freak~~ Force on.

Posted 2/11/2004 02:56:23 PM by Edward Driscoll
COLIN POWELL, HOSS: As Jonah Goldberg wrote, it's "pretty cool to see a witness dress-down a congressman":

[Rep. Robert I Wexler, D-Fla] told Powell he considered him to be "the credible voice in the administration." "When you reached the conclusion that Iraq represented a clear and present danger to the United States, that meant a lot to me," Wexler said. "But the facts suggest there was a part of the story that was not true." Powell fielded the assertions calmly, defending the president's judgment and his own. But when [Rep. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio] contrasted Powell's military experience to Bush's record with the National Guard, saying the president "may have been AWOL" from duty, Powell exploded. "First of all, Mr. Brown, I won't dignify your comments about the president because you don't know what you are talking about," Powell snapped. "I'm sorry I don't know what you mean, Mr. Secretary," Brown replied. "You made reference to the president," Powell shot back. Brown then repeated his understanding that Bush may have been AWOL from guard duty. "Mr. Brown, let's not go there," Powell retorted. "Let's not go there in this hearing. If you want to have a political fight on this matter, that is very controversial, and I think it is being dealt with by the White House, fine, but let's not go there." Powell then went on to defend the Bush administration's assertions on Iraq's pre-war weaponry. "We didn't make it up," Powell said. "It was information that reflected the views of analysts in all the various agencies."

Based on Wexler's comments, I guess Condi Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney--or anyone other than Powell--are no longer credible in the eyes of Democratic congressmen. And since when did Democrats get so concerned about avoiding military service? UPDATE: Glenn Reynolds links to the above article, but also includes contact information for the Democratic congressmen mentioned. ANOTHER UPDATE: Timothy Perry writes: "Funny how this has not made the air on the mainstream media since it happened. You would think this would turn into great television, but then again it was someone defending the president instead of smearing him. " Perhaps the Congressmen should heed the advice of a Democratic senator who stood on the floor of the Senate in 1992 and said:

What saddens me most is that Democrats, above all those who shared the agonies of that generation, should now be re-fighting the many conflicts of Vietnam in order to win the current political conflict of a presidential primary. We do not need to divide America over who served and how. I have personally always believed that many served in many different ways. Someone who was deeply against the war in 1969 or 1970 may well have served their country with equal passion and patriotism by opposing the war as by fighting in it. Are we now, 20 years or 30 years later, to forget the difficulties of that time, of families that were literally torn apart, of brothers who ceased to talk to brothers, of fathers who disowned their sons, of people who felt compelled to leave the country and forget their own future and turn against the will of their own aspirations?

That man? John F. Kerry.

Posted 2/11/2004 02:34:24 PM by Edward Driscoll
CHARLES PAUL FREUND LOOKS AT an interesting new slant in the New York Times' business reporting: since when did the monolithic chain of Tower record/video/book/porn stores become "traditional music stores"? When I was a kid (waaaay back in the prehistoric 1970s), a "traditional music store" was the sort of little mom and pop store that Conrad Janis' character owned in Mork & Mindy, and the Times was railing that chains like Tower were putting stores like that out of business. As Freund writes, "When it comes to reporting business developments, most of whatever is happening is not only bad news, it's a sociological melodrama". Exactly.

Posted 2/11/2004 02:26:07 PM by Edward Driscoll
MORNING IN AMERICA UPDATE: Dow closes up 124, hits 2 1/2-year high.

Posted 2/11/2004 02:21:31 PM by Edward Driscoll
STAGGERING STATISTIC: According to UPI, 75,000 have HIV/AIDS in New York City.

Posted 2/11/2004 02:19:11 PM by Edward Driscoll
JUST ADDED DR. BOB ARNOT to the list of journalists in yesterday's post calling their current or former bosses biased. In this case, NBC.

Posted 2/11/2004 02:00:44 PM by Edward Driscoll
NEW PURITANS WATCH: Live in California? This fellow wants to take away your choices when dining out. If you disagree with him, here's the phone number for his office. UPDATE: Chron Watch writes:

Why do we somehow think liberals are all for protecting individual rights when as it shows here, they want to control what you eat, what you smoke, what you drive, where you live, how you protect your home and family, how much money you can make and keep, and the most important action, freedom of speech? Once again, Burton shows WHY liberal Democrats are in trouble in California, as Arnold's election shows. The Dems are misguided in their goals, and disconnected from the needs of the public. While we are battling a smothering state budget deficit, Burton is preoccupied with duck liver. The Democrats know how to control every aspect of our lives, but they can't do anything we really need.

Posted 2/11/2004 01:46:21 PM by Edward Driscoll
WHO IS NUMBER ONE? Dissatisfied with President Bush's Texas twang, lack of nuance and frequent "Bushisms", Howard Dean raises the level of presidential discourse (not to mention discharge) at a Wisconsin high school. (Via James Taranto.)

Posted 2/11/2004 02:38:57 AM by Edward Driscoll
THE DARK AGES REBORN--at least for Iran: Today is the 25th anniversary of Iran's Khomeinist revolution.

Posted 2/11/2004 01:51:20 AM by Edward Driscoll
<MAP NAME="boxmap-p8"><AREA SHAPE="RECT" COORDS="14, 200, 103, 207" HREF="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm/privacy-policy.html?o=1" ><AREA COORDS="0,0,10000,10000" HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/eddriscollcom-20" ></MAP><img src="http://rcm-images.amazon.com/images/G/01/rcm/120x240.gif" width="120" height="240" border="0" usemap="#boxmap-p8" alt="Shop at Amazon.com">LOST IN TRANSLATION: We watched Lost in Translation Monday night, the "It" film of 2003. The cinematography was stunning, Bill Murray did a tremendous job of playing...Bill Murray (although a very subdued, world-weary Bill Murray; this film would make a nifty double-feature with Groundhog Day) and the first two thirds of the film were amazing. I've always liked somewhat open-ended movies that create a world and allow the viewer to get lost in it. In a way, Lost in Translation is vaguely reminiscent of Kubrick's more open-ended films, as well as oddly enough, Antonioni's Blowup (although minus the murder mystery plot of course--they still bothered with some nuance of a plot back in the Jurassic pre-postmodern days of 1966.) Sophia Coppola, with the help of Lance Acord, her cinematographer, create a beautiful, surrealistic Tokyo as the backdrop--heck, maybe even the frontdrop--of her film. But anybody who's ever traveled (even if they've never left the country) knows that feeling of being awake at 2:00 in the morning in a strange hotel in a strange city, in a strange timezone--all of which your body is unaccustomed to. That's the essential feel this film initially creates, and Coppola gives plenty of room for her stars (Murray and newcomer Scarlett Johanssen) to wander around in. It's gotten very mixed reviews--it seems like one of those films that critics either love or hate. Thomas Hibbs (the author of Shows About Nothing) is in the former camp, and wrote:

Whatever note of hope there is in the film comes not from a clear affirmation of renewed purpose, but from the negative but potentially liberating judgment that all is not lost, that it is entirely too soon to write off these lives. Lost in Translation offers more than a glimpse of what it might mean for Hollywood to recover a sense of film making as a craft.

On the other hand, James Bowman hated it, deriding it as a film too driven by its feelings, and its characters' feelings, to count for much. I can see Bowman's point, and the film's lack of plot causes it to peter out in its final act. But in a year when, (other than the titanic Lord of the Rings films) Hollywood could do little but blow things up and indulge in verbal scatalogy, this little gem of a film is well worth renting, particularly its widescreen DVD, especially if you've got a 16X9 TV set to view its dazzling cinematography.

Posted 2/11/2004 12:31:11 AM by Edward Driscoll
A MODEST PROPOSAL: Speaking of President Reagan, Claudia Rosett has a terrific idea: Just as we did with the Soviet Union, let's negotiate North Korea's dictatorship right out of existence.

Posted 2/11/2004 12:16:33 AM by Edward Driscoll
OPEN MOUTH, INSERT CROW: Roger L. Simon is prepared to make amends for his faltering presidential primary predictions.

Posted 2/10/2004 11:21:18 PM by Edward Driscoll
SUPPLY-SIDE COMMUNISTS? Larry Kudlow says that the Chinese government's embrace of Reaganomics was an amazing birthday gift to the Gipper--and Reaganomics are working in Russia, too.

Posted 2/10/2004 09:38:39 PM by Edward Driscoll
OLD SOLDIERS NEVER DIE, they just drop out of primary races.

Posted 2/10/2004 04:21:52 PM by Edward Driscoll
THE TERRIBLE TWOS: Pejman Yousefzadeh is celebrating the second anniversary of his Blog. (Ours is coming up soon as well.)

Posted 2/10/2004 02:40:06 PM by Edward Driscoll
"SHARING THE HUNGER": Joanne Jacobs writes that schools are still doing variations on the same tired shtick of giving every third kid in the lunch line a Third World bowl of rice. My school did this late one afternoon 25 years ago, after a lecture on Third World poverty. I drew the short straw, and was handed a bowl of unfortunate-looking soggy rice. I simply skipped the meal, my father picked me up a half hour later, and we went to Burger King. Somehow, I think Sam Kinison would have been proud.

Posted 2/10/2004 02:22:14 PM by Edward Driscoll
ADAM SHRUGGED: Vinatieri's not just a Patriot, he's an Ayn Rand fan, as well.

Posted 2/10/2004 01:31:35 PM by Edward Driscoll
RED MEAT: Maybe President Bush is finally throwing some to conservatives, and taking aim at shutting down a Nixon-era big government program.

Posted 2/10/2004 01:07:57 PM by Edward Driscoll
WELL, THIS IS NEW: After decades of trying to claim impartiality, there have been several admissions lately by the media that they are indeed, biased. Last August, Walter Cronkite said, "I believe that most of us reporters are liberal". In May of 2003, according to CNSNews.com, Bob Zelnick, who spent 21 years at ABC News, "confirmed fellow former ABC News correspondent Peter Collins' contention that anchor Peter Jennings routinely attempted to insert his left of center editorial slant into correspondents' news copy". In June of 2002, Andy Rooney told Larry King, "I'm consistently liberal in my opinions," and that he considers Dan Rather to be "transparently liberal." And of course, former CBS reporter Bernard Goldberg has written two best-selling books on the subject. But the latest topper is this post by ABC News in their Weblog called "The Note". It completely jettisons any impartiality, and admits that it, and most reporters covering Washington have an agenda, and will slant their stories to fit it. Hey, whatever happened to the conservative media bias mantra from November of 2002? UPDATE: Speaking of which, Pejman Yousefzadeh writes, "You don't suppose that Eric Alterman might acknowledge all of this at some point, do you? Perhaps not--after all, God forbid that Alterman might have to confront and argue against any information that might interfere with book sales". ANOTHER UPDATE (2/11/04): Dr. Bob Arnot has left NBC. The reason, according to the New York Observer? "Dr. Arnot called NBC News� coverage of Iraq biased."

Posted 2/10/2004 12:44:01 AM by Edward Driscoll
THE PRISONER: Meet Muhsin Khadr al-Khafaji, number six on our Iraqi wanted list, and most recently captured. Meanwhile, as Glen Reynolds notes, Al Qaeda is losing in Iraq, despite CNN's best efforts to prop them up.

Posted 2/10/2004 12:31:36 AM by Edward Driscoll
RUMMEL'S LAW: "The less freedom a people have, the more likely their rulers are to murder them."

Posted 2/9/2004 07:35:49 PM by Edward Driscoll
SCOTT OTT, the very, very funny humorist of Scrappleface fame (see post below) has started a serious Website called BoycottMTV. I can't say I blame him after February 1st. But what's sad is just how far MTV has fallen. As I wrote last Monday:

MTV is played out. It used to be fun in the mid-80s, back when it actually showed videos. If you've got VH-1 Classics on your cable or satellite system, you can actually see how tame much of those videos from the mid-80s were, and often how much fun. Then, perhaps with Madonna's success in mind, MTV decided it needed to shock--really shock--people. Instead, ultimately, it merely anesthezied them. And once Madonna released her Sex book, shocking the masses was pretty much passe, anyhow.

I don't grimace a whole lot when I turn on my radio and listen to classic rock, alternative rock, hard rock and new rock stations. And other than the cheese-factor, I don't gnash my teeth when I watch VH-1 Classic. But MTV, which started it all, is seriously past its freshness dating. Which is probably the biggest reason why so many people boycott it today. Just ask that other arbiter of hip youth culture, Bart Simpson. UPDATE: On the other hand, let's not be too hasty here...

Posted 2/9/2004 06:02:41 PM by Edward Driscoll
WHILE KERRY MAY BE SURGING IN THE PRIMARIES, Howard Dean picked up a key endorsement today.

Posted 2/9/2004 05:58:03 PM by Edward Driscoll
MAKING HIS APOLOGIES TO PEGGY NOONAN, Fraser Seitel, (who looks exceedingly well-dressed in his Tech Central Station photo) has some thoughts on "Why Bush Held His Own with Russert".

Posted 2/9/2004 05:24:32 PM by Edward Driscoll
LET 'EM LAPSE: James Lileks is dropping his New Yorker subscription, if only for a little while. Thanks to my wife's mother, who passed away last March, we still receive the New Yorker, but we're letting our subscription drop as well. My mother-in-law, who lived all her life in Manhattan, thought that we, the pioneers forging a new lifestyle out here in the rough and tumble hinterlands, needed some kind of lifeline to the high culture that is Manhattan. (She probably thought that the Pony Express brought each issue out to us.)

Posted 2/9/2004 05:10:24 PM by Edward Driscoll
WELL SO MUCH FOR TRUTH IN ADVERTISING: Ronald Bailey almost does a Danny Thomas spit-take over Cisco's latest ad.

Posted 2/9/2004 04:44:44 PM by Edward Driscoll
I'M GONNA ADD SOME BOTTOM, SO THE DANCERS JUST WON'T HIDE: I have an article on the bass-ics of bass and drums in the current issue of England's Computer Music magazine, including quotes from an interview with Jim Roberts, the former editor of Bass Player magazine and the author of How The Fender Bass Changed The World. It should be available this month or next at your local Barnes and Noble and Borders. Or click here to subscribe via Amazon.

Posted 2/9/2004 04:00:24 PM by Edward Driscoll
"LEFTISTS WIN: MINORITIES AND THE POOR HIT HARDEST", at least in Berkeley, writes Thomas Lifson of The American Thinker, a fascinating new (at least to me!) Blog.

Posted 2/9/2004 03:51:26 PM by Edward Driscoll
ONE MORE ON GORE: Ann Coulter was widely attacked by leftists and thoughtful conservatives, for her wide-angle attack on Cold War liberals, Treason. While there were many Democrats who did look the other way when it came to the Soviet Union, there were plenty of thoughtful liberal cold warriors, not the least of which were Harry Truman, JFK, RFK, LBJ, "Scoop" Jackson, Sam Nunn and Jeanne Kirkpatrick. But Gore's speech today--which has already been called "awfully close to a charge of treason" by at least one person who heard it, will no doubt bring a "see, I told you so" response from Coulter, and quite rightly so. Incidentally, has anybody written any articles comparing Gore with FDR's first WWII veep, Henry Wallace? I've only skimmed Thomas Fleming's The New Dealers' War a few times since buying it a few weeks ago, but Flemings' portrait of Wallace make he and Gore seem like remarkably similar fellows.

Posted 2/9/2004 01:24:25 PM by Edward Driscoll
FLASHBACK: The day the vote was made to impeach President Clinton, Gore delivered a speech in front of a massed group of applauding Democrats at the White House, in which he said that Clinton "will be regarded in the history books as one of our greatest presidents". That was on December 19, 1998. Three days earlier, as CNN wrote, Clinton launched "new military strikes against Iraq":

The president said Iraq's refusal to cooperate with U.N. weapons inspectors presented a threat to the entire world. "Saddam (Hussein) must not be allowed to threaten his neighbors or the world with nuclear arms, poison gas or biological weapons," Clinton said. Operation Desert Fox, a strong, sustained series of attacks, will be carried out over several days by U.S. and British forces, Clinton said. "Earlier today I ordered America's armed forces to strike military and security targets in Iraq. They are joined by British forces," Clinton said. "Their mission is to attack Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs and its military capacity to threaten its neighbors," said Clinton. Clinton also stated that, while other countries also had weapons of mass destruction, Hussein is in a different category because he has used such weapons against his own people and against his neighbors.

So here's my question to Vice President Gore: Knowing what we now know about Iraq's weakened capacity to make WMDs, does Gore still feel that his boss was "one of our greatest presidents", or does he feel that Clinton, to borrow the language that Power Line used, "betrayed" the United States by ordering a war against Saddam Hussein that had been "preordained and planned before 9-11 ever took place"?

Posted 2/9/2004 01:02:17 PM by Edward Driscoll
WAIT A SECOND--BACK IN '92, wasn't Al Gore picked to be the nominal moderate to offset Bill Clinton's more liberal past? So much for that idea: former President Clinton is defending President Bush's liberation of Iraq. The New York Times is reporting "Gore says Bush betrayed the U.S. by using 9/11 as a reason for war in Iraq." As the Power Line blog writes, this is "far worse than the kind of foul accusations Lindbergh used to make to those adoring America First audiences before Pearl Harbor." (And of course, after Pear Harbor, Lindbergh seemed to have gotten his head screwed on straight again, and flew fighters and bombers in the Pacific. And this story of Thomas Dewey, running for election against President Roosevelt in '44 is also telling in comparison with Gore's current escapades.)

Posted 2/9/2004 01:59:08 AM by Edward Driscoll
MONDALE BEATS REAGAN! DUKAKIS BEATS BUSH! DOLE BEATS CLINTON! That's what you'd conclude based on their poll numbers at this point in the election cycle, writes Betsy Newmark, "for those moaning about the poll numbers of Bush v. Kerry".

Posted 2/9/2004 12:51:30 AM by Edward Driscoll
CHECK THE WEATHER CHANNEL to see if snowboots are needed in Hades: John Leo says that college campus censors are in retreat. UPDATE: It's official--Hell has frozen over:

Thursday night�s Hardball on MSNBC marked Ronald Reagan�s 93rd birthday with a look at his legacy. ABC�s Sam Donaldson declared: �I think he deserves credit for accelerating the fall of communism.� And CBS�s Bill Plante agreed: �What he did absolutely hastened the end of the Cold War.�

Sam Donaldson praising Reagan. Well, I'll be leaving the Internet now; I've seen everything.

Posted 2/9/2004 12:48:03 AM by Edward Driscoll
JOEL MOWBRAY ASKS, what if, in the summer of 2001, al Qaeda had been hit pre-emptively, before they had a chance to commit their atrocities on America on 9/11? Mowbray concludes that sadly, the resulting outrage wouldn't be that much different than what the Bush administration is experiencing over Iraq. (Or the furor the Gipper received over how he--ultimately successfully--handled the Cold War, come to think of it).

Posted 2/8/2004 09:22:19 PM by Edward Driscoll
SHOOTOUT AT THE ALOHA CORRAL: The score of this year's NFL Pro Bowl was an incredible NFC 55, AFC 52.

Posted 2/8/2004 07:18:45 PM by Edward Driscoll
<MAP NAME="boxmap-p6"><AREA SHAPE="RECT" COORDS="1, 140, 83, 150" HREF="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm/privacy-policy.html?o=1" ><AREA COORDS="0,0,10000,10000" HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/eddriscollcom-20" ></MAP><img src="http://rcm-images.amazon.com/images/G/01/rcm/120x150.gif" width="120" height="150" border="0" usemap="#boxmap-p6" alt="Shop at Amazon.com"> B-BENDING AWAY THE BLUES: My article on the Stringbender, an electric guitar modifcation designed by Gene Parsons and the late Clarence White of the Byrds, is the cover story for the February issue of Vintage Guitar magazine, along with a sidebar by veteran music journalist Dan Forte. If you've ever heard the bent note, pedal steel-like guitar solos on "All of My Love" by Led Zeppelin, or "Peaceful, Easy Feeling" by the Eagles, you've heard the Stringbender in action. To get you in the mood while you're warming up the car before you head out to your local Borders or Barnes & Noble, here's a post I wrote for Blogcritics last April built around some of the research I did on the Stringbender, as well as photos of my own B-Bender equipped guitar.

Posted 2/8/2004 04:58:37 PM by Edward Driscoll
CHARLES JOHNSON LOOKS AT A HORRIFIC ATTACK on a Pakistani boy who refused sex with a Muslim cleric:

On his hospital bed last week, 16-year-old Abid Tanoli sat listless and alone, half of his body covered by burns that all but destroyed both his eyes and left his face horribly disfigured. The teenager talked, with difficulty, of how his life had been destroyed since the fateful day in June 2002 when he refused to have sex with his teacher at a religious school in Pakistan.

As one of Johnson's commenters wrote, "I would love to see this story on a major American news program. Of course, I also would love to win the lottery." You'd have better odds with the latter.

Posted 2/8/2004 03:26:01 PM by Edward Driscoll
QUOTE OF THE DAY comes from (surprise!) Jay Nordlinger, who writes:

this one was circulated to me via the Internet--perhaps you've seen it too: "An officer in the U.S. Naval reserve was attending a conference that included admirals from both the U.S. Navy and the French Navy. At a cocktail reception, he found himself in a small group that included personnel from both navies. The French admiral started complaining that whereas Europeans learned many languages, Americans learned only English. He then asked: 'Why is it that we have to speak English in these conferences rather than you speak French?' Without hesitating, the American admiral replied: 'Maybe it's because the Brits, Canadians, Aussies, and Americans arranged it so you would not have to speak German.' The group became silent." I don't know whether this is true, and I'm not necessarily endorsing the cheek. But it's kind of fun, huh?

Qui, monsieur--it certainly is. UPDATE: Speaking of Jay Nordlinger, Michael J. Totten and the folks posting comments to his blog have some thoughts on Nordlinger's latest column as well, specifically on Nordlinger's thoughts regarding the "Free Tibet" movement. I've long thought a better movement would be "Free China"--you'd be getting two for the price of one. Three, if you include Hong Kong. Four, if you include Taiwan. Five if you include... (Try that argument on your favorite leftwinger, if you've got a half hour or so to kill.)

Posted 2/8/2004 03:21:35 PM by Edward Driscoll
THE BLIND ALLEY OF NIHILISM: John O'Sullivan looks at how Germany's courts gave its cannibal a slap on the wrist--and what such a sentence portends for the future.

Posted 2/8/2004 03:16:20 PM by Edward Driscoll
IS IT ME, FOR A MOMENT? Power Line blog writes that "John Kerry is nearly every Democratic candidate since 1960 rolled into one", and has examples to prove it.

Posted 2/8/2004 01:09:23 PM by Edward Driscoll
AFTER 14 YEARS OF CONSISTENCY, John Kerry changes his story on WMDs.

Posted 2/8/2004 11:32:47 AM by Edward Driscoll
IT WAS 40 YEARS AGO TODAY: Actually yesterday to be precise, when the Beatles' Pan Am jet landed at JFK. Joshua Claybourn has some thoughts. And be sure to read my looks at the Fab Four, on Blogcritics.

Posted 2/8/2004 11:07:01 AM by Edward Driscoll
MEET THE ASSOCIATED PRESS: AP doesn't just manipulate photos, they manipulate words as well. The InstaPundit looks at how they're spinning what President Bush said during his Meet The Press appearance this morning.

Posted 2/8/2004 10:59:10 AM by Edward Driscoll
INTO THE BLUE AGAIN, AFTER THE MONEY'S GONE: "Dean paid $7.2 million to aide's company", the LA Times reports:

As Howard Dean's presidential campaign tore through the millions it raised last year, nearly a quarter of it went to the company owned in part by his former campaign manager. The campaign paid $7.2 million to Trippi, McMahon and Squier, the Virginia-based consulting and media firm - 23 percent of the $31 million it spent through Dec. 31, according to PoliticalMoneyLine, which tracks political spending. Joe Trippi, one of the company's partners, was Dean's campaign manager for a year - until he was ousted last month and replaced by Roy Neel as chief executive. Dean asked Trippi to stay with the campaign as an adviser, but Trippi quit. Instead of a salary, Trippi's company had been paid a commission of the campaign's television advertising buys - a percentage he and his company's partners said he never knew. "I didn't want to know. I didn't do this for the money," Trippi said. "I was interested in beating [President] Bush. I was interested in building a campaign that could get Howard Dean in position. I'm proud of what I did. Anyone who knows me knows my personal money was never, ever on my mind, and it was nothing that motivated me." * * * But Anthony Corrado, a professor of government at Colby College who is an expert in campaign spending, said the television spending was "extraordinary" because it was so much and so early. "It's certainly out of scale in what you see in other presidential campaigns in other election cycles," he said. Corrado also said that Trippi's dual roles - as campaign manager and as a principal in the media company - "at least raises questions about conflicts." Trippi angrily dismissed such criticism. "I had no conflict of interest because I wasn't interested in money," he said. "If I was doing it to get rich, I would have done a better job than this. I didn't have control of the checkbook."

If Trippi worked for Enron, the LA Times and their counterparts in Manhattan would be endlessly "flooding the zone" over this story, wouldn't they? UPDATE: Roger L. Simon has similar thoughts.