August 24, 2004
BUT IF A REPUBLICAN DID IT, IT WOULD BE CALLED "SUPPRESSING DEMOCRACY"
Guest-blogging for the vacationing Kevin Drum, Paul Glastris notes this story about Ralph Nader's efforts to get on state ballots--and Democratic efforts to obstruct Nader. Glastris notes the following passage from the story:
In Oregon last month, Nader attempted to round up 1,000 supporters in a day to sign a petition -- one way to get on the ballot in that state. But Democratic activists packed the hall and then declined to sign on, leaving his petition a few hundred names short. His campaign must collect 15,300 signatures by today, and it has accused local Democrats and union officials of threatening petition gatherers with jail time if they turn in names that prove fraudulent.
And Glastris approves:
Could it be that at least some Democrats are getting back at least some of their political toughness mojo? I’d be interested to know of any other examples.
You see, when a Democrat pulls this kind of thing off, it's called "toughness mojo." When Republicans do it, it's called "anti-democratic."
The disparity in the descriptions shouldn't surprise me. But somehow, it does.
PUTTING THE BLAME WHERE IT BELONGS
Tired of the Swift Boat controversy? Sick of Moveon.org? Looking for someone to blame for all of the 527 organizations cropping up all over the place and issuing more charges and countercharges than people are able to keep track of?
Then look no further.
D.C. CONNECTIONS
Much of the critique against the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth is that they are funded or supported by the Republican Party/the Bush-Cheney campaign/the White House/insert your favorite evil Republican-leaning organization here. While it should never be forgotten that coordination with a 527 organization can be illegal, the nature of connections in the Beltway should also be understood in order to be able to separate true collusion from false flags.
To that end, I recommend this post as a way to understand how Washington, D.C. really works.
SITTING ON THE BAD NEWS
The Democrat-dominated California state legislature commissioned a study on outsourcing, hoping to show it as the modern day equivalent to the auto da fé that Democrats think it is. Instead, the study shows that outsourcing creates jobs, and that outsourcing would increase living standards at home.
So what does the California legislature do in response to this? They stifle an unfriendly story, of course. Because God forbid that scary stories about outsourcing should be debunked with inconvenient things like facts.
OF "CHICKENHAWKS" AND MORONS
Tom Harkin thought that he was being tough by attacking Dick Cheney as a "chickenhawk." But it may be that his own constituents wouldn't mind if Harkin would just shut up.
NEW DIGS
At long last, Jessica Harbour has doffed the old-school digs of her barebones blog, and has a snazzy new site up. Be sure to go over and say hello.
And behold the woman with whom I am besotted. Sigh.
NOT AGAIN
I've seen this before. It doesn't end well. For now this story is being classified under "Foreign Affairs," but that classification may change shortly.
Let's hope it does not have to.
JUSTICE IN THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC
How many times have you read a story like this one?
Amnesty International today (24 August 2004) expressed its outrage at the reported execution of a girl believed to be 16 years old for “acts incompatible with chastity”. Ateqeh Rajabi was reportedly publicly hanged on a street in the city centre of Neka, northern Iran, on 15 August 2004.Amnesty International is alarmed that this execution was carried out despite reports that Ateqeh Rajabi was not believed to be mentally competent, and that she reportedly did not have access to a lawyer at any stage.
During the trial the judge allegedly severely criticised her dress, harshly reprimanding her. It is alleged that Ateqeh Rajabi was mentally ill both at the time of her crime (having sexual relations outside of wedlock) and during her trial proceedings.
It is also reported that although her national ID card stated that she was 16 years old, the Judiciary announced at her execution that her age was 22. Ateqeh Rajabi’s co-defendant, an unnamed man, was reportedly sentenced to 100 lashes. He was released after this sentence was carried out.
"OH, THAT LIBERAL MEDIA!"
I'm really not holding my breath waiting for the denizens of the Fourth Estate to throw George W. Bush and Dick Cheney these kinds of encomiums. For whatever reason, such adulation is never reserved for Republican presidential candidates.
But the media as a whole is unbiased! Honest! Tell yourself that enough and maybe you will believe it.
REACH OUT AND TOUCH SOMEONE
I have no idea if this conversation actually occurred, but it would be most interesting if it did.
August 23, 2004
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
On the mountains of truth you can never climb in vain: either you will reach a point higher up today, or you will be training your powers so that you will be able to climb higher tomorrow.
--Friedrich Nietzsche
BOOK REVIEW--AMERICA'S RIGHT TURN
Blogger Mike Krempasky (who is my colleague over at Red State) was kind enough to get Richard Viguerie to send me this book (along with an inscription!), and I'm glad he did--it is one of the better books on political organization and the mechanics of politics that I have read in a while.
The book goes through the history of political communication--starting with the invention of the printing press, the use of pamphlets by Martin Luther to spread his message, a comprehensive history of direct mail, and the effects of talk radio, the Internet and blogs on political communication.
Despite the fact that the book is written from a conservative point of view, liberals should also be interested in what it has to say about political communication, as both Viguerie and co-author David Franks are very good about calling things as they see them. They are more than willing to give liberals credit where credit is due in terms of political organization and getting out their message (example: Viguerie and Franks point out that after a slow start, liberals are doing quite well in the direct mail game, and are better than conservatives at using the Internet for political organization purposes--which is why Red State is such an important vehicle for the Right to use to catch up). While the conservative ideology definitely comes through in the book, it serves as a how-to guide for all sides in terms of communicating their messages and organizing.
So if you are a politics junkie, be sure to buy the book. I get a cut of every purchase, and you get a savvy guide to the evolution of political organization and communication.
Is there a cooler deal in the offing?
No. No there is not.
KEEPING SCORE
Whatever one's feelings about the Swift Boat controversy--and as I have said in the past, I would rather be discussing substantive events of the future--there is no denying the political impact of the back-and-forth that has dominated attention for the past two days. And it may very well be that the Bush campaign has come out on top. Tacitus explains why.
And while we are discussing the issue, here is another post worthy of consideration.
UPDATE: More from Mark Steyn:
According to Francis Harris in Saturday's Telegraph, allegations that John Kerry "lied about his Vietnam record" are "unravelling". Oh, I wouldn't say that. Right now, it looks like the sanity of the Kerry campaign and its pals in the media that's beginning to unravel.Switch on the TV these days and you'll see John O'Neill, principal spokesman for the hundreds of Swift boat veterans who oppose their old comrade Kerry, talking calmly and patiently about the facts, citing chapter and verse and relevant footnotes, while some deranged interviewer is going berserk.
The other day it was CNN host James Carville, former skinhead-in-chief to Bill Clinton, yelling and howling all over O'Neill's answers before brushing him aside with, "I've got no use for this man."
Meanwhile, the grandees at the New York Times, having studiously ignored the story for two weeks, decided that, with the Kerry campaign all but paralysed by the issue, they'd have to sully their lily-white hands with the ghastly business and kill it themselves. Maureen Dowd, the paper's elderly schoolgirl columnist, dismissed the dissenting Swiftees as "creepy-crawly", "stomach-turning", "sleazoids".
Pat Oliphant, who appears in the Washington Post and many other newspapers, offered a cartoon showing the Swiftees as Bush-backing deadbeats sitting round a bar bitching: "I never seen Kerry do nothing hee-roic," says one loser. "Damn right," says another. "You and me was right there in latrine maintenance. We orta know."
The redneck spelling's a nice touch, ain't it? I wonder which of the anti-Kerry campaign's 254 Swift vets, including 17 of Lieutenant Kerry's 23 fellow officers, Oliphant thinks were in latrine maintenance. Maybe he's got in mind fellows like Paul Galanti, who appears in the latest anti-Kerry ad and whose plane went down over North Vietnam in 1966. He was held in the "Hanoi Hilton" Viet Cong POW camp until 1973. That's seven years getting tortured by the gooks, only to be mocked by some lame-o cartoonist as a redneck latrine operator.
I've never quite understood the preferred formulation of big-time Democrats – that "of course" they support our troops even though they oppose this war. But in practice they "support our troop" – singular – just Lieut Kerry and the handful of Swiftees willing to appear in public with him. The rest can go to hell and any of 'em impertinent enough to question the Senator are just "sleazoids" wading through their own backed-up latrine. I wonder if the Kerry campaign and its media cheerleaders have really thought this one through.
Nothing the "sleazoids" say about Kerry is as bad as what he said about them 33 years ago in his testimony to Congress, when he informed the world that his comrades – his "band of brothers" – had "personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads" etc, throughout their time in Vietnam.
Unlike John O'Neill's book, he didn't bother to give specifics: the US Army in general was rife with ear-severers. If you want to know why Paul Galanti is appearing in an anti-Kerry ad, it's because he first heard about this speech from his Viet Cong captors who cited it to try to persuade him and his fellow prisoners that resistance was now futile and they might as well cross over to the other side.
I said a couple of weeks back that John Kerry was too strange to be President, and a week or two earlier that he was too stuck-up to be President. Since I'm on an alliterative roll, let me add that he's too stupid to be President. What sort of idiot would make the centrepiece of his presidential campaign four months of proud service in a war he's best known for opposing?
ANOTHER UPDATE: The dog days of August are upon John Kerry.
A THIRD UPDATE: Stephen Green has also been keeping score.
A FOURTH UPDATE: Bird Dog has also been keeping a tally.
A FIFTH UPDATE: In response to a commenter, I should say that I find the use of a derogatory word for Vietnamese people in Steyn's article totally and completely beyond the pale, and Steyn risks having ruined a good piece with the use of the word. My apologies for not having caught the use of the word myself.
BETTER LATE THAN NEVER
It may be eight years too late, but we should still be outraged when a Presidential candidate's heroic wartime service is questioned, right?
. . . Dole's first wound, in the night patrol, was self-inflicted (a story the candidate once told himself), but that fact does not appear in an extremely laudatory profile the G.O.P. distributes with a cover letter by Dole. And the factoid that Dole got two Bronze Stars for heroism is circulated without evidence of dates and citations. All this is not to suggest that Dole failed to perform his duties honorably, or that he does not deserve respect and sympathy for the terrible wounds he suffered and his courage in living a productive life in spite of the resultant damage. But as a veteran of the 10th Mountain Division and the 85th Mountain Infantry Regiment in which Dole served, I have grown increasingly uncomfortable with efforts to cast him as a wartime hero.
Was there any outrage over the scurrilousness of this article eight years ago?
No?
Well then, was the lack of outrage due to the fact that the target of the article was and is a Republican?
UPDATE: While we are asking the question, was there any outrage over the scurrilousness of the article discussed here and first issued twelve years ago? If not, was the lack of outrage there also due to the fact that the target of the article was and is a Republican?
August 22, 2004
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
There is surely a piece of divinity in us, something that was before the elements, and owes no homage unto the sun.
--Sir Thomas Browne
CARILLONATHON! (PART DEUX AND FINALE)
The last Sunday evening Carillon concert at Rockefeller Chapel was played this evening. The program included the following:
Menuet by Johannes Thomas Baustetter; Gigue by Francois Couperin; Prelude on "A King's Majesty", arr. M. Myhre; Seek Ye First, arr. J. Maassen; Morning Song, arr. D. Cooke; Suite No. 1 for Carillon (movements include the Fantasia Octatonica, Sonorities, and the Toccata Festevole) by John Courter; A medley of love songs by Richard Rodgers (People Will Say We're In Love (Oklahoma!), If I Loved You (Carousel), Hello, Young Lovers (The King And I) and Lover (Love Me Tonight), all arr. John Courter); Barcarolle Opus 37, No. 6 (June), by Tchaikovsky and arr. U Haagen; Anitra's Dance, Edvard Grieg and arr. L. 't Hart; Rondo--Toccata, Dmitri Kabalevsky, arr. G. Köppl
Needless to say, the experience was heavenly. And despite the fact that there will be no further Sunday evening concerts, there will be concerts during the school year, Sunday through Friday, starting at 6:00 pm. On Sundays, at noon, there will be a concert as well.
It should be noted that a major fundraising effort is presently underway to help bring about some overdue repairs for the carillon. I'm sure that your help and assistance will be appreciated. You can contact Lorraine C. Brochu at (773) 702-7059 to lend a helping hand.
It should also be noted that yet another visit was made to the Gastronomic Valhalla, which served up a wonderful helping of retro music from the 1990s. It also served up a wonderful helping of spinach and mushroom pizza along with a cup of chili that made me sweat as if I was in the Sahara. I'm certain that other patrons wondered whether I would soon melt into a puddle, or something.
Finally, it should be noted that in listening to the carillon concert, I struck up a conversation with a very nice lady who I temporarily left with the impression that I was a teacher at Chicago. When I cleared the air by noting that I am a lawyer and not a teacher, and that as a result, I corrupt young minds instead of enlightening them, she gave me the appreciative laugh. Nevertheless, I am certain I saw her countenance darken at my comment.
I really should pose as a teacher from now on. I can't afford to make too many enemies.
VICTORY
This story encompasses all of the reasons that conservatives and libertarians are so suspicious about government.
It is also a wonderful love story and a a tale of the good that can be done with a law degree. Go read.
(Thanks to Orin Kerr for the link.)
THE SPORTS GAGGLE
Consider this post an open thread on the following topics:
What to do about the U.S. Men's Basketball Team, now that it has been revealed to be the joke that it is. The Chicago Bears' decision to trade Marty Booker for Adewale Ogunleye. The preseason performance of the Bears in last night's game against the San Francisco 49ers. The torture to which Chicago Cubs fans are being subjected.
Comments are below. Use them.
FELICITATIONS ALL AROUND
A very happy birthday to Jessica Harbour. Send her your birthday wishes--and remind her that you were prompted by me to do so. It will do wonders for my status and standing.
FULL DISCLOSURE IS REQUIRED . . .
But full disclosure from the Kerry campaign regarding their fundraising efforts is more than a little bit lacking.
COLLUSION
McQ has an excellent post regarding what could possibly be illegal coordination efforts between Moveon.org and the Kerry campaign. In light of allegations that the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth are coordinated with the Bush campaign, I await to see whether the media will give equal time to the potential collusion found in the Democratic camp.
Collusion on all sides is against the law, of course, and therefore should stop--even though one can certainly point out that the McCain-Feingold Act has failed to stop such collusion despite the fact that it was designed to do just that, and as such, is a lousy law. But whether or not McCain-Feingold works is not as important at this point as is the need for consistency in denouncing all sorts of illegal coordination efforts.
Another reader notes that [Tom] Oliphant's high journalistic standards probably should have led him to disclose that his daughter works for the Kerry/Edwards campaign. Hmm. Maybe -- though in the world of journalism, I think such connections are assumed, and thus aren't regarded as requiring disclosure.
Disgusting. Did Tom Oliphant really believe that this story would not come out?
UPDATE: Jay Caruso has a complete rundown of illegal coordination between 527 organizations and the Kerry campaign.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Please don't give me the excuse that the Kerry campaign condemned Moveon.org's own smear against President Bush's service record. It's just not so.
"ANTI-SEMITISM SCARCELY EXISTS IN THE WEST"
You would think that after enough of these reports, Noam Chomsky would be afraid to show his face in public ever again--lest the embarrassment overwhelm him and drive him mad:
Arsonists destroyed a Jewish community center in eastern Paris in a pre-dawn attack Sunday and left behind anti-Semitic graffiti, police said.No one was hurt as flames tore through the center located on the first floor of a six-story building. The center, which served as a meeting place and cafeteria for the elderly and disadvantaged, was gutted, rescue officials said.
Firefighters were called to the scene at about 3:30 a.m. and extinguished the flames by early morning.
Authorities immediately suspected the fire was set deliberately. Inside the building, investigators found anti-Semitic graffiti and swastikas scrawled in red marker. One message read, "Without the Jews, the world is happy,'' while another said, "Jews get out.''
Visiting the site, rabbi Claude Zaffran said he was "deeply pained and distraught.''
"We're very worried,'' he told The Associated Press. "The justice system must do all that's necessary so that there are convictions and real, effective sanctions.''
France has suffered a long wave of anti-Semitic violence since 2000, coinciding with worsening tensions in the Middle East between Israel and the Palestinians.
August 21, 2004
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
The wise determine from the gravity of the case; the irritable, from sensibility to oppression; the high minded, from disdain and indignation at abusive power in unworthy hands.
--Edmund Burke
AND NOW, FOR A DISCUSSION OF THE CURRENT WAR--AND A PRESIDENTIAL ASPIRANT'S APPROACH (OR LACK THEREOF) TO IT
One of the downsides of doing the Vietnam Memorial Tour during the current Presidential race is that it distracts attention from what must be done in the present war on terrorism. The latter war is, after all, much more pressing than the war in Vietnam was.
Of course, Vietnam is front and center in this campaign because John Kerry made it so as an inseparable part of his campaign biography. As mentioned before, Kerry is determined to keep attention on his war record instead of on his nearly 20 years in the Senate, and on his vision (such as it is) for the Presidency. As I have said before, I am perfectly willing to honor John Kerry for his service to the country as a Vietnam veteran, but that service is no excuse for the Kerry campaign's relentless attempts to whitewash their candidate's Senate record and what he would bring to the table as President.
But then, there is a reason for Kerry's ambivalance in addressing current events. He doesn't have a clue how to do so, as Matt Welch points out:
Ever since the Democratic Convention in Boston last month, the John-John ticket has been grumbling about having to fend off accusations that would-be president John Kerry previously fudged vivid details of his war record in Vietnam and (most controversially) Cambodia. There is indeed considerable merit to the notion that a nation at war should be focusing on 2004 instead of 1968, but if Kerry's convention performance was any guide, his go-to selling point for taking the reigns of the "war on terror" is the fact that he was piloting swift-boats up the Mekong back when Osama bin Laden was busy trying to grow his first beard.Those of us anxious to hear some actual specifics about what a Kerry foreign policy would be for, especially in the Middle East and Central Asia, were instead treated to a smorgasbord of what Democrats these days are against: alienating allies, manipulating intelligence, cutting benefits for military veterans and going to war against Saddam Hussein's regime in the precise way that President George W. Bush went to war against Saddam Hussein's regime.
"Republicans have sent our troops into battle in Iraq without a plan and have cut veterans' benefits without remorse," said perma-grinning House of Representatives Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, in a speech that - like the majority of those delivered during the four-day Democratic Party infomercial - did not once mention the phrases "terrorism," "Middle East," "Islam," "democracy," "Israel," "Palestinian" or "Saudi Arabia." So what's the winning counter-proposal? "Democrats have it right: Protect our troops and honor our veterans!" And change the subject as soon as possible to healthcare.
The Democrats' slogan for the convention - "Stronger at home, respected in the world" - was little more than a mirror image of perceived Republican mismanagement, as was hammered home in speech after speech differentiating the administration's actions with, well, Kerry's Vietnam service, which was presented as a contrast to Bush's war-avoiding stint in the Texas Air National Guard.
"Our forces have been dangerously overstretched," said former Clinton Defense Secretary William Perry, in one of the handful of foreign policy addresses among the 80-plus speeches. "Against sound military advice, the administration believed that Iraqis would welcome US forces as liberators. Our soldiers and our Marines have had to bear the brunt of this stunning miscalculation."
So what would Kerry do? Perry's next words sounded a familiar note and provided nary a clue: "Based on his own service, John Kerry understands what our troops need. With John Kerry as president, help really will be on the way!"
At least Perry had the taste to mention American foreign policy. Most other Democrats, unbelievably, did not. San Francisco Chamber of Commerce Vice-President Roberta Achtenberg told us she was "a lawyer, a mother and a lesbian," but refrained from commenting on countries where such a combination is not only impossible, but also dangerous. New Jersey Congressman Bobby Menendez spoke of how his "family fled Cuba for this, the greatest democracy in the world," but he shed no light on how the US should deal with belligerent, murderous dictators, let alone those in violation of multiple weapons-related UN resolutions.
Howard Dean, the onetime candidate whose rabid following energized the Democratic primary campaign and provided what pulse was evident in Boston, managed to speed through his prime-time speech without even once mentioning the Iraq war - his opposition to which was the sole reason why the word "Deaniac" is now in the lexicon.
Make no mistake: John Kerry is the closest thing we have to a Cassius of the American political scene--except that while Kerry certainly has a lean and hungry look, he does not have any kind of overriding cause driving him and his actions, a cause to which Kerry will subsume, or has subsumed his ambitions. Cassius worked and labored to free Rome from what he saw as the impending imperial dictatorship of Caesar. While he was ambitious and grasping, he also had a cause in which he believed.
John Kerry, on the other hand, believes in nothing but himself. That is why his campaign is so egocentric instead of actually focusing on policy, vision and substance. Contrary to the popular belief, Kerry is indeed quite without substance. His boasts about being able to grasp subtlety and nuance are--as alleged previously--a fig leaf designed to cover up the scattershot manner in which Kerry approaches issues on an intellectual level. This is a man who has taken all sides of an issue, not just because he believes it to be politically expedient to do so, but because he hasn't the slightest idea where he stands or how to be the master of his own mind.
Democrats are eager to make intelligence a major part of the Presidential campaign. Republicans should welcome that debate, for it is increasingly clear that the makeup of John Kerry's own mind allows for a powerful critique to be written against Kerry. To blunt that critique, Kerry will have to show that he can connect dots, that he can present a coherent set of policies and arguments, and that he will be able to adapt when current events undermine his campaign bromides.
Thus far, he has utterly failed at those tasks. Barring a miracle, he will continue to fail all the way until November. And even if Bush-hatred is enough to overcome Kerry's policy incoherence, it won't help him govern. Last I heard, the ability to govern was--and is--an important aspect to be considered in electing a President.
APPARENTLY, SOME VIETNAM VETERANS CAN BE DENIGRATED
Pat Oliphant has joined Ted Rall and Michael Moore in the fever swamps. Both the cartoon--and the person who drew it--are loathsome beyond measure as a result.
BOOK REVIEW--QUICKSILVER
I approached Quicksilver with some trepidation, given the fact that a number of people were rather ambivalent about it.
I have to say, however, that I liked the book. Maybe it is not as good as Cryptonomicon was, but it was quite good nonetheless. And I am willing to give it allowances since it is building up to increasingly fascinating stories in The Confusion and probably The System Of The World as well.
To read on, you may be exposed to plot spoilers. Fair warning has thus been given.
Continue reading "BOOK REVIEW--QUICKSILVER"ON EXPLOITATION AND MONOPOLY POWER
Russell Roberts has an excellent discussion on whether monopoly power allows for economic exploitation. The short answer is "no." Here is an excerpt from the longer answer:
When I give lectures outside of the university, I often ask my audience to guess the percentage of the work force that earns the minimum wage or less. The median answer, across a wide array of educated audiences (journalists, congressional staffers, law professors) is very stable. The median answer that I get in these surveys is between 20% and 25%. That's the median. So half of the audience thinks it's higher. A substantial number answer 50%. The actual number is about 3%.I once asked a group of law students why America's standard of living is higher than Mexico's. A common answer was that we had a minimum wage, Mexico did not. I suspect Mexico has a minimum wage, but never mind. The real problem is that when 97% of the American work force earns more than the minimum wage, it's hard to make the case that regulations keep wages high. Competition keeps wages high. Your world view may be that employers always have the upper hand, that employees always bargain from weakness, but if that's true, it sure is hard to explain that 97% number. Why do those rapacious employers pay so much more than they have to? (As for the argument that it's labor unions, another common answer from the law students to explain our standard of living being higher than Mexico's, unions are about 10% of the private work force. That proportion has been falling steadily for decades as compensation has risen steadily. And see the previous post by Don [Boudreaux] on the issue of whether labor immobility allows workers to be exploited.)
Do read the entire post. It is highly recommended, and very well-written.
BIBLIOHOLICS REVISITED
Returning to Will Baude's most recent confession, consider the following statement he makes regarding one aspect of his addiction to books:
If I recall correctly, I think Professor Leitzel finally outed me when he caught me in the basement of the Seminary Co-op one morning a few years ago, buying my third copy of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. (You know, sometimes the library copy is out, you've left one copy at home, lent one copy to a friend, and you really need it . . . )
But of course, a true biblioholic would never lend out books. There is, after all, a difference between being an addict and a pusher, is there not?
HMMM . . .
Maybe Kerry supporters have finally learned their lesson, and are actually advocating for their candidate instead of simply agitating against George W. Bush:
. . . In recent weeks downtown Washington (and parts of suburban Virginia) have been clotted with young DNC volunteers. They stand on street corners in red t-shirts with clipboards asking every passer-by, "Want to help beat Bush?"I've always politely declined. I'm happy to sign petitions to get someone on the ballot (I did so in Virginia for Wes Clark), but being asked to help "beat Bush" seemed a little off-putting. Plus, the volunteers were slightly annoying: If I had to walk, say, from my office to the ATM to Au Bon Pain and back, I'd get hit up 3 times in the span of 15 minutes. You know, in most cities, they have laws saying that pan-handlers can only ask once.
But yesterday there was a change: The begging DNC volunteers asked, "Would you like to help elect John Kerry?"
I wonder what brought on the change. And for the record, some DNC advocates came to my home yesterday, asking for donations. They started out by saying that they wanted to beat George W. Bush, but also that they wanted to get John Kerry elected President.
Needless to say, I politely declined to donate to their cause.
ON "THE SHRILL"
William Sjostrom is very, very good:
What depresses some of us about Krugman is that he has become a one trick pony. He has become so unhealthily obsessive about George Bush that he cannot seem to think about anything else. George Bush has become his great white whale. Robert Solow once took this shot at Milton Friedman: "Everything reminds Milton of the money supply. Well, everything reminds me of sex, but I keep it out of the paper." Krugman is determined to blame George Bush for everything, which keeps reminding me of Joseph Schumpeter's remark that the most remarkable thing about the Japanese earthquake of 1924 was that it was not blamed on capitalism. Sometime this fanatical urge to believe that the Bush administration is alway, always wrong leads him to say things that should embarrass a professional economist.The man has a regular column in the New York Times. Can't he think of anything else to write about? If Kerry wins, is Krugman going to give up his column because he has nothing to say?
Granted, Krugman is hardly unique. Kieran Healy should know better than to tell us that Krugman's nerdy style is somehow inconsistent with being shrill. Einstein was an apologist for Stalin, and William Shockley's views on eugenics and Noam Chomsky's politics are bizarre. But all of them are (or were) hugely talented in their own area of expertise, and none of them were particularly worldly.
UPDATE: More evidence that Krugman is off his medication can be found here.
OF SWIFT BOATS AND NOT-SO-SWIFT CAMPAIGNS
While the substance of arguments about the candidates' respective military careers matters a lot less to me than does their records as President and Senator, and their respective visions for the next four years, it is interesting to see how the mechanics of charge and countercharge will play themselves out in this election year. In other words, how the Swift Boat controversy affects and influences the race for the Presidency (and whether I want it too or not, this issue will receive more attention than will issues like democracy promotion in Iran) is quite fascinating.
To that end, I recommend this post discussing whether or not the Swift Boat controversy is a trap that the Kerry campaign walked right into. And to show my bipartisan bona fides (at least with regard to this post) Democratic readers can perhaps take some comfort in the suggestion that Karl Rove may be Palpatine.
DIRTY POOL, INDEED
The next time our friends on the other side of the partisan divide bleat on about their devotion to democracy, perhaps they should be reminded about the subject of this post.
"GIVE ME YOUR TIRED, YOUR POOR . . ."
My family benefited tremendously from having been able to immigrate to the United States, and be accepted here. Many of us have been able to become wealthy beyond the wildest dreams of anyone born and raised in Iran. More importantly, we have been able to take on meaningful careers, and those with children have seen those children become the beneficiaries of first-class educations and opportunities of their own.
It goes without saying, of course, that we can never repay the debt we owe to America and the opportunities that it provides. But at the same time, it should be pointed out that America benefits as well from increased immigration. Many of my family members are doctors and engineers, and contributed to the "brain gain" that America enjoys from immigration. Other immigrant families can make similar claims.
That is why Dominic Basulto's article on the issue of immigration is so important and timely. Be sure to read it.
AGAIN . . .
It bears asking once more whether the busybody mullahs in Iran can't find something more important with which to occupy their time:
Iran's mullah-run conservative parliament is preparing designs for national Islamic costumes to combat the corrupting influence of Western fashion, a prominent MP said Wednesday."We have to design new trends within the framework of an Islamic dress code. Both men and women need a national costume," Emad Afroogh, head of the parliamentary cultural commission, told student news agency ISNA.
He added that a national fashion reform bill had been put before the parliament's research centre for approval.The move comes after the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned the nation in July about a "cultural invasion" and the dangers of imitating foreigners, asserting that Iranians needed to design their own styles.
In recent weeks state television has dedicated part of its main news programme to the question of "What is fashion?" a series of interviews with residents, clerics and "experts" aimed at defining what can and cannot be worn.
It's amazing that these people actually get paid a salary for obsessing over this nonsense.
August 20, 2004
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
The great majority of us are required to live a life of constant, systematic duplicity. Your health is bound to be affected if, day after day, you say the opposite of what you feel, if you grovel before what you dislike and rejoice at what bring you nothing but misfortune. Our nervous system isn't just a fiction, it's part of our physical body, and our soul exists in space and is inside us, like teeth in our mouth. It can't be forever violated with impunity.
--Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago
VINDICATION
Permit me a small measure of boasting.
This morning, when my radio alarm went off and jolted my exhausted brain from its pleasant slumber, I heard this NPR report featuring German reporter Josef Joffe discussing the possibility of a Kerry Presidency. While Joffe said that 9 Germans in 10 wanted Kerry to win, the prospect that suddenly, relations between America and Old Europe would improve was farfetched at best.
Why? Because of realpolitik and machtpolitik. No matter who is President, there would remain a vast difference between America and Europe in terms of power. As a result, the Europeans would continue to have problems with the American exercise of power even under a Kerry Presidency, and the commensurate tensions would remain.
Now, who made this exact argument? Ah yes, I remember now. And it is worth noting as well that Joffe brought up "New Europe" and its preferences for the next four years. Unlike their "Old European" counterparts, the New Europeans--who were part of the former Warsaw Pact--rather like George W. Bush and appreciate his style of leadership. Perhaps that is not a surprise, given the fact that they are less likely than the Old Europeans to take the concepts of freedom and liberty for granted.
Oh, one more thing: You will find a related link to the NPR page linked above, leading you here for an interview with French reporter Christian Malard. M. Malard informs us that even if John Kerry is elected President, France will not send troops to Iraq.
Of course, we already know that. And we are quite cognizant of the attendant consequences as well.
A SECOND AMENDMENT PRIMER
Courtesy of Eugene Volokh--who apparently had quite the interesting time during a radio debate on the subject.
DEBATE COACH
Will Collier has quite the effective line for George W. Bush to use against John Kerry:
"Senator, you say we need to repair relations with our allies, but you've spent your own campaign insulting America’s best friends in the world. You may think we really need the help of people who wouldn’t join us when we asked them to, but I'll take allies like Australia and Italy and Great Britain any day of the week. You seem to think we ought to throw our truest friends overboard in favor of governments and organizations that'd rather pursue pacifism and appeasement, or who've made corrupt deals with our adversaries. I think that's a poor choice."I also think you owe our real allies, the ones who've fought and bled right alongside our own troops, an apology. It does not befit a United States Senator, much less a president, to refer to the British and Poles and Australians and Japanese and South Koreans and all our other truest friends as 'fraudulent' or 'coerced.' They are free people who have honorably fought at our side, and they deserve our deepest thanks, not your insults."
MY NAME IS PEJMAN . . .
And I am a biblioholic.
(Thanks to Dan Drezner for both the link, and the idea for a title.)
"I WAS IN FAVOR OF TROOP REDUCTION BEFORE I CAME OUT AGAINST IT"
Really, is anyone surprised to read stories like this one anymore? John Kerry makes it a habit to straddle the fence on just about every policy issue--and he is more addicted to fence-straddling than any politician I have ever seen. Bill Clinton may have left himself clever ways out of a particular stance, but at least he took that stance. John Kerry puts any effort Clinton made at being all things to all people to shame.
SO NOW WE KNOW . . .
That there are alleged perverts on both sides of the fence.
May we get back to the issues, please?
THE GLORY OF DEMOCRACY . . .
Is that it gives people the freedom to like and dislike as they wish. And I hardly think that the opinion issued by certain members of the Iraqi soccer team (a team I am rooting for should the US fail to get the gold) is the only opinion in Iraq. Far from it.
UPDATE: This is well worth reading.
CARRYING WATER FOR JOHN KERRY
Let me say as plainly as possible what I have said before on this blog--what George W. Bush and John Kerry did in their 20's is nowhere near as important as what they are currently doing as President and Senator. I honor John Kerry for his service to the country as a Navy lieutenant, and I am more than happy to give him the benefit of the doubt in any controversy over his military record, so long as that benefit can be given in good faith. I won't spend much time digging around to see if it cannot be given--the investigation of the candidates' military records will be left to those more obsessed with interested in the matter.
That having been said, it is clear that the New York Times is now engaged in providing John Kerry with (pardon the military pun) covering fire. And as with many Times reports, this latest one is found wanting.
Arthur Chrenkoff, C.D. Harris, Hugh Hewitt, Roger Simon, James Joyner, John Cole, Powerline and Patterico and Glenn Reynolds fill in a number of the details the Times has missed. Read their posts along with the Times story--if that's what floats your boat.
Here's what floats mine: Why is John Kerry less interested in talking about his time in the Senate? And will the Times do an in-depth analysis of his Senate record?
August 19, 2004
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
The kind of situation which economists are prone to consider as requiring corrective Government action is, in fact, often the result of Government action.
--Ronald H. Coase (Thanks--and Godspeed--to The Technology Liberation Front, which supplied the pointer.)
