Linkmeister

Revisionist history

Hey! A book by Michelle Malkin! I can't wait!

In Defense of Internment.

The book tries to make the case that Japanese internment was just fine, that racial profiling is desirable in times of war, and that we should do more of it. From the review at a proudly conservative book site:

In Defense of Internment proves that everything you've ever learned about the World War II "internment camps" for Japanese in America is wrong: they weren't the product of racism or war hysteria, they weren't only for Japanese, and they were nothing at all like the Nazi death camps to which they are often compared by craven and opportunistic alarmists on the Left. Malkin not only sets the historical record straight -- she also refutes the arguments of pseudo-historians and sanctimonious liberal analysts who use this distorted history to undermine our crying need for national security profiling.

Right. And every historian for the past 60 years has been a dupe of the "left." Go read Eric Muller's remarks about this. Start here and scroll up. So far he's posted about six items refuting this propaganda, and propaganda it is. Out here in Hawai'i we know our history too well to be taken in by this nonsense; some of those internees still live here.

Gee, published just in time for the Republican convention, too. You suppose it will be part of the goodie bag the speakers and delegates get?

Calling Click and Clack

So when the release button on your floor-mounted emergency brake no longer emerges from the little hole at the top of the handle, what sort of auto repair shop should one go to?

No Lollapalooza? Try this...

From ABC's The Note this morning comes the hot musical news of the month:

Vote For Change, a concert series of epic proportions, is officially out from under wraps. In no uncertain terms, some of the biggest bands and most influential musicians in modern American music — we're talking Springsteen, we're talking Vedder, we're talking Raitt — will participate. On the heels of the Republican National Convention, they will embark on an ambitious battleground tour, performing in at least 34 shows, in 28 cities, in nine states: Pennsylvania, Ohio, Missouri, Michigan, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Florida, and North Carolina. Concerts begin Oct. 1 and run over the course of eight to 10 days, in venues varying in size from large indoor arenas to smaller "intimate" theaters.

Tickets go on sale (to the public) through Ticketmaster on Aug. 21.

The roster of more than 20 artists — talent spanning generations, geography and musical genre — will appear on separate bills on the same night in selected cities. While some of the artists' music may inspire the listener to go home and write a letter to your long lost high school love rather than to start a revolution — Move On has managed to line-up an enviable host of talent without a Millie Vanilli in the bunch.

Preliminarily, the tickets may look something like this:

— Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band/REM/Bright Eyes/John Fogerty
— Dixie Chicks/ James Taylor
— Pearl Jam/Death Cab for Cutie
— Dave Matthews Band/Ben Harper/Jurassic 5/My Morning Jacket
— Bonnie Raitt/Jackson Browne/Keb Mo
— John Mellencamp/Babyface

The Note has yet to figure out the Mellencamp/Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds pairing — but the groovin' Matthews/Harper/J-5/MMJ ticket makes such perfect sense — it has to trust.

The tour is being organized by MoveOn's political action committee, MoveOn PAC with all funds fueling the voter education and mobilization efforts of ACT.

Update: Here's the LA Times story. It includes a partial schedule. (Reg. required; try bselig/bselig or search for a Times login at BugMeNot).

Medical news

In the wake of the Ron Reagan speech at the Democrats' convention, the AMA has a comprehensive article about the state of stem cell research, including a breakdown of those famous "lines" Mr. Bush declared were sufficient.

Buchwald on Big Pharma. Buchwald should not be read if you have a full cup of coffee, if you're a shareholder in Merck, Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, or BristolMyersSquibb, or if you're a member of the medical profession.

Here's a little more Big Pharma bashing. Public Citizen warns local tv stations about those "video news releases" masquerading as news. The primary example was the one sent out to drum up support for the Medicare bill last year, but there are others.

Yo, Osama, want some nukes?

Nuclear proliferation is a huge problem; one of al-Qaeda's goals is to acquire nuclear weapons, so why is the Administration doing this?

In a significant shift in U.S. policy, the Bush administration announced this week that it will oppose provisions for inspections and verification as part of an international treaty that would ban production of nuclear weapons materials.

[snip]

For several years the United States and other nations have pursued the treaty, which would ban new production by any state of highly enriched uranium and plutonium for weapons. At an arms-control meeting this week in Geneva, the Bush administration told other nations it still supported a treaty, but not verification.

[snip]

The announcement at the U.N.-sponsored Conference on Disarmament comes several months after President Bush declared it a top priority of his administration to prevent the production and trafficking in nuclear materials, and as the administration works to blunt criticism by Democrats and others that it has failed to work effectively with the United Nations and other international bodies on such vital global concerns.

Without verification how is one to know where the material is, who's doing what with it, and whether it's going places we'd prefer it not go?

Also, does this count as a flip-flop?

Spare change, Mr. Bush?

From Mr. Bush yesterday in Ohio:

After four more years, there will be better paying jobs in America. After four more years, there will be more small businesses. After four more years, the American economy will continue to be the strongest in the world.

So, I might get a decent job in four more years? There will be more small businesses then? Gosh, that gives me great confidence. What do I do in the meantime, Mr. President?

Is the voter dumb?

Here's an interesting interview with Phillip Gourevitch, who wrote the Rwanda book I wrote about a while back. He also recently wrote a profile of John Kerry for the New Yorker. He's talking about the campaign and the press, and he says this:

Then there's always this kind of presumption of the incredible stupidity of American voter, which I don't think is fair by the way -- it's a fault of the press. There's always this sort of notion that people aren't paying attention, they won't pay attention. Of course people won't pay attention if you give them stupid reporting. It seems to be a very strange equation: people aren't interested in foreign policy, therefore we will talk about it in extremely simplistic, boiled-down ways that make it absolutely useless to pay attention. And then people say, "see, they don't want to hear about it." There's an assumption about where America's attention is. When you go out on the campaign trail, whether they're highly informed or modestly informed, people are really, really engaged and wanting to talk about foreign policy this time. Foreign policy, war making, how to respond to the age of terror as it's called, all these things are rather front and center on the minds of not just guys at the Council on Foreign Relations, but the guys in swing states and in blue collar jobs. That's interesting.

Now if only he could persuade the nabobs at the networks and on our local tv stations that politics deserves more time on air.

Sign up to listen

From the WaPo's White House Briefing today:

Vice President Cheney speaks at campaign rallies in Yakima, Wash., and Central Point, Ore., today. On Saturday, he speaks at a Disabled American Veterans convention in Reno, Nev., and then at campaign rallies in Tucson, Ariz., and Rio Rancho, N.M.

Jeff Jones writes in the Albuquerque Journal: "Some would-be spectators hoping to attend Vice President Dick Cheney's rally in Rio Rancho this weekend walked out of a Republican campaign office miffed and ticketless Thursday after getting this news:

"Unless you sign an endorsement for President George W. Bush, you're not getting any passes."

Jones writes that Republicans said they were trying to thwart Democratic operatives, but that "some who left the office . . . without tickets on Thursday said they're not affiliated with an operative group and should have a right to see their vice president without pledging their allegiance to Bush."

Noted without further comment, except that I recommend you read the entire article from Albuquerque.

Kerry

In his speech Senator Kerry said this:

We have it in our power to change the world. But only if we're true to our ideals - and that starts by telling the truth to the American people. As president, that is my first pledge to you tonight. As president, I will restore trust and credibility to the White House.

That would be damned refreshing, after nearly four years of secrecy and lies.

And he said this:

For four years we've heard a lot of talk about values. But values spoken without actions taken are just slogans. Values are not just words. Values are what we live by. They're about the causes that we champion and the people that we fight for. And it's time for those who talk about family values to start valuing families.

You don't value families by kicking kids out of after-school programs and taking cops off the streets so that Enron can get another tax break.

We believe in the family value of caring for our children and protecting the neighborhoods where they walk and they play.

And that is the choice in this election.

You don't value families by denying real prescription-drug coverage to seniors so big drug companies can get another windfall profit.

We believe in the family value expressed in one of the oldest commandments: "Honor thy father and thy mother." As president, I will not privatize Social Security. I will not cut benefits. And together we will make sure that senior citizens never have to cut their pills in half because they can't afford life-saving medicine.

And that is the choice in this election.

You don't value families if you force them to take up a collection to buy body armor for a son or daughter in the service, if you deny veterans health care or if you tell middle-class families to wait for a tax cut so the wealthiest among us can get even more.

We believe in the value of doing what's right for everyone in the American family.

And that is the choice in this election.

I thought it was a very good speech.

The NYT has put up a useful page of links to the texts of most of the major speeches at the Convention, including Senator Kerry's.

Miserable Failure watch

Here's Michael Bérubé on USA Today & Ann Coulter, Cal Thomas, and wingnut-skulls-a-poppin'.

Here's Jon Stewart on Bush vs. Bush, in case you haven't seen it.

And for another use of media as featured on Fresh Air today, here's an exhibition of campaign ads from 1952-2004.