Libertarian Leanings

Support for the troops - Kerry style

At a Pasadena City College political rally in support of the Democratic candidate for California governor, John Kerry spoke up in support of the troops.  Not really.  In fact he really slammed the troops.

“You know education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well, and if you don’t you get stuck in Iraq.” (John Kerry, October 30, 2006)

Oddly enough... well, no not really... There's nothing odd in the way the Whittier Daily News would downplay what he actually said.  Whittier staff writer Cortney Fielding chose to report it this way.

Kerry charmed the crowd with tales of surfing at Mission Beach and got laughs for a series of one liners, including telling the crowd he had just returned from Texas, "Where the president used to live - now he lives in a state of denial."

Kerry then told the students that if they were able to navigate the education system, they could get comfortable jobs - "If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq," he said to a mixture of laughter and gasps.

And when he's called on it, he responds by criticizing the White House.

"I apologize to no one for my criticism of the president and his broken policy," Kerry told reporters in a press conference in Seattle. "My statement yesterday, and the White House knows this full-well, was a botched joke about the president and the president's people and not about the troops."

You know, I believe the guy.  It's not about the troops.  The troops barely cross his mind, except as fodder for a blast at the White House.  It's all about Kerry. 

Update:  Senator John McCain really hammered him:

FLASH: McCain Calls On Kerry To Apologize
Tue Oct 31 2006 11:43:14 ET

Senator Kerry owes an apology to the many thousands of Americans serving in Iraq, who answered their country's call because they are patriots and not because of any deficiencies in their education. Americans from all backgrounds, well off and less fortunate, with high school diplomas and graduate degrees, take seriously their duty to our country, and risk their lives today to defend the rest of us in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere.

They all deserve our respect and deepest gratitude for their service. The suggestion that only the least educated Americans would agree to serve in the military and fight in Iraq, is an insult to every soldier serving in combat, and should deeply offend any American with an ounce of appreciation for what they suffer and risk so that the rest of us can sleep more comfortably at night. Without them, we wouldn't live in a country where people securely possess all their God-given rights, including the right to express insensitive, ill-considered and uninformed remarks.

END

I almost feel sorry for the guy. 

Update via JustOneMinute.

New York Post takes another victory lap

The New York Post used this morning's lead editorial to thank New Yorkers for making the paper the nation's fifth largest in circulation, surpassing the Washington Post and the New York Daily News.

October 31, 2006 -- Thank you, New York!

Yesterday was a red-letter day in the history of this newspaper. Our daily circulation reached 704,011 - which means that, for the first time, The Post sells more copies than the Daily News, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

The rise in popularity of Rupert Murdoch's New York Post would come as no surprise if the Post were competing somewhere besides the most liberal-oriented news market on the planet.  But like Fox News, another Murdoch venture, its conservative stance hasn't hurt the Post at all.  In fact it may be the thing that drives those numbers.

While pundits and pollsters predict a Democratic takeover in the November, Post circulation numbers suggest something else may be going on.  If Republicans hold on in both Houses of congress or if they make gains, Post circulation will have been the more accurate weather vane.

You heard it first, at Libertarian Leanings.

Black Democrats endorse Republican Steele

From this morning's Washington Times:

Former Prince George's County Executive Wayne K. Curry and five fellow black Democrats on the county council excoriated their party yesterday and endorsed Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele, a Republican, for U.S. Senate.

"The [Democratic] Party acts as though when they want our opinion, they'll give it to us. It's not going to be like that anymore," said Mr. Curry, who in 1994 became the county's first black executive and remains influential in the mostly black and heavily Democratic county.

According to this morning's Washington Post, Democrat Ben Cardin has the edge over Steele in their race for the Maryland Senate seat.  Wishful thinking maybe.

Election poll to watch

Over the past few years the Washington Post has waged an intense campaign to discredit the war in Iraq and discourage us from continuing the fight.  It has not gone unnoticed.

October 30, 2006 -- The New York Post today surpassed the Daily News and The Washington Post to become the 5th largest newspaper in America after bucking the national trend and chalking up a whopping 5.1 percent jump in circulation.

[...]

The Washington Post fell to 7th place with a circulation of 656,297, down 3.3 percent, from 678,780 the previous year.

Madrid logic

Amir Taheri in the New York Post:

Most Americans are unfamiliar with Iraq's complex political, ethnic, religious and cultural realities. So, when television presents a charred vehicle left by a suicide bomber and experts pronouncing Iraq a failure, many decide that it is a lost cause - and the sooner the Americans extricate themselves, the better.

This is precisely why the Saddamite desperados and the jihadists keep fighting a war in Iraq that they cannot win.

Their strategy is based on a simple assumption: Americans will be so shocked and disheartened by the daily carnage that they'll force their government to "cut and run" - or, if it refuses, replace it with one that will.

In Jihadist circles, that strategy is known as "the Madrid Logic" (mantaq al-Madrid), after the deadly terrorist operation in the Spanish capital that succeeded in changing that country's government and its foreign policy.

Isn't it also the real lesson of Vietnam?

It is largely the hope of breaking the will of the American people that keeps the insurgency alive.

I marvel that the insurgency is able to find so much support in the U.S. mainstream press.  But it would appear the Washington Post, at least, is paying a price for it. 

News? You call that news?

Maryland U.S. Senate candidates, Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele and Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin, appeared on Meet the Press yesterday where Tim Russert asked each about the Iraq war, the Republican Party, and stem-cell research.  But Russert avoided mention of race and the prospects for Steele, a black Republican, to grab votes from the typically Democratic black voters.

"I would have liked to spent a little more time on ... an attitude in this campaign, where race has come into play," Mr. Steele, a Republican, said after appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press," the country's top-ranked Sunday morning political show.

Mr. Steele, who in 2002 became the first black person elected to a statewide office in Maryland, must win over black Democratic voters to overcome the Democrats' 2-to-1 advantage in registered voters. That's possible, say the state's black leaders, because Democrats have taken their vote for granted.

"Meet the Press" host Tim Russert asked pointed, detailed questions about plans for U.S. troops in Iraq, stem-cell research, abortion, judicial nominees and whether Mr. Steele was a "proud Bush Republican."

But Mr. Russert did not ask about the prospect of black Democrats, who make up about 40 percent of the state party, crossing party lines to vote for Mr. Steele.

"I don't do horse-race questions," Mr. Russert told The Washington Times. "Black voters have the same concerns as white voters, when it comes to the war in Iraq, stem-cell research, abortion, Supreme Court."

Nothing newsworthy in this.  Right, Tim?

Changes

Is the mainstream press indulging in a bit of premature gloating, claiming victory in the battle over who controls American foreign policy -- the press or the administration?  Thomas Ricks and Peter Baker of the Washington Post have teamed up in an article that speculates on the possibility of a major change in our policy towards Iraq.  The headline reads Tipping Point for War's Supporters?  Are we now looking for a way out, as Ricks and Baker seem to hope?

Searching for a way out, Washington has focused new attention on the work of the Iraq Study Group, a panel of well-connected luminaries led by former secretary of state James A. Baker III and former representative Lee H. Hamilton (D-Ind.). Recommendations from the group, once seen as a sop to Congress, are expected in late December or early January and promise to be the first major subject tackled by the members of the next Congress.

People familiar with the group's option papers expect it to recommend either a scaling back of U.S. ambitions in Iraq, making stability rather than democracy the top priority, or, less likely, a slow but steady withdrawal of U.S. forces.

For years the mainstream press, Thomas Ricks in particular, have been working the angle that Iraq is Vietnam.  Unfortunately for America, Iraq is like Vietnam only in the way press has worked so mightily to destroy support for military action there.  According to the press, for America only defeat is possible, and they go to great lengths to find every bit of news that supports their argument while ignoring everything else.

For three online pages Ricks and Baker capture quotes from various Republicans, and unidentified Marine colonel, and administration officials all to create the perception that big changes are in the offing and that means a change in our objective. 

As congressional Republicans peeled away from the president, the White House grew more isolated.

Democrats who have never had a coherent policy on the Iraq war, or on any other issue, have found unity -- as the election nears.  A phased withdrawal sounds good, let's run with that one.

Democrats, once deeply divided over the war, coalesced around the idea of a phased withdrawal and aired television ads on Iraq in most of the competitive races around the country.

For decades the goal of stability in the Middle East has been pursued with the result that terrorist organizations have now grown to the point where they are able to make war on sovereign nations.  Witness Hezbollah's war with Israel.  Democrats and the press hope to pursue that objective once again.  Let the Arabs solve their own problems.  We're oceans away from them, right?

"Personally," said James Burk, a military expert at Texas A&M University, "I think the 'experiment' . . . is over."

But if we abandon the goal of democracy in Iraq, the terrorists will have won, and they will have done it by simply killing random people.  It hasn't mattered at all, who they kill.  Anybody will do.  And the press, always seeming so happy to accommodate them, go with the perception that as long as terrorists, sectarian militias, and Sunni insurgents demonstrate a willingness to kill whoever happens to be handy, they're victorious.  Over which the press and the Democrats seem to rejoice, since it means the Bush Administration faces defeat.  But it's America and the western world that face defeat.  If we abandon our goal of democracy in Iraq, we can expect the terrorists to show up on our shores, and no oceans will keep them away. 

So at the end of their article, Ricks and Baker offer a small dose of reality.

But Dov S. Zakheim, who was a senior Pentagon official under Rumsfeld, said he thinks this is simply the beginning of a new phase in the U.S. effort in Iraq.

"Everyone knows that if we leave Iraq, not only will that country have little hope of regaining any form of stability, we will likely destabilize the entire region," he said. So the current turmoil reflects the "recognition in all policy circles that we are about to enter a new phase."

With everything that's at stake, the Bush Administration isn't about to abandon our goals for Iraq.  The only thing that's going to change is our approach to achieving them.  And anybody that's been paying attention knows the approach has been changing all the time.

Bass under attack

Liz Mair points out a You Tube election campaign attack ad that targets Charlie Bass.  You can see at GOPProgress.com. It was created by a Georgetown college student, and I suppose I ought to cut the kid a little slack, except that the ad is representative of what passes for logic in the liberal mind.

Major Premise:  Tom Delay, Dennis Hastert, and George Bush are Republicans.
Minor Premise:  Republican Charlie Bass votes with his party most of the time.
Conclusion:  Charlie Bass is evil.

The ad closes imploring us vote Democratic, thus handing the reins of government to folks with a similar grasp of logic.  Scary thought!

No reply

From Strategy Page come news of a the Department of Defense website, For the Record, where you can read letters the Pentagon has sent to mainstream press outlets.  The letters helpfully point out those instances where the press didn't get their stories quite right, and they ask that the stories corrected. 

Generals involved in troop-level decisions have been very clear on this matter, making numerous statements that are not new—or difficult—to find, such as extensive commentary in General Franks’s book, American Soldier.  The implication is that the New York Times either believes these generals are not being truthful, or that they are too intimidated to tell the truth. The Pentagon would vigorously dispute both characterizations.

Read what generals themselves have to say about the subject, in a Pentagon letter to the editor.

UPDATE: The New York Times has declined the Pentagon’s request to correct its editorial.

No luck.

Comma

Gerard Baker's TimesOnline column argues that rumors of America's demise are greatly exaggerated. 

The real question about American power is whether the realities that underpin it are shifting. There, I’m afraid, the news for Americaphobes is grim. The US economy continues to grow at a pace that far outstrips its rivals in the industrialised world. Though China is growing at three times the pace of the US, America’s economy is so large — $12 trillion annually — that , even in the unlikely event that China will continue to grow at its current rate, it will take 30 to 40 years to catch up with America.

Despite the heated rhetoric, the US is not going bankrupt — its fiscal deficit is falling and its accumulated debt is easily manageable. Compared with most other advanced economies, its demographics look indecently healthy. This month the US population passed 300 million; it will be 400 million in less than 50 years, and still relatively youthful.

If you want to understand the real enduring strength of America as a nation, look at the Dow Jones industrial average. Not the record 12,000 level reached this month — that may last no longer than a day or a week. Look instead at the 30 companies that make up the Dow index. Only two of the original 30 companies in the index in 1930 — General Electric and General Motors — are still there today. Most of today’s Dow components — the Microsofts and Intels — weren’t even around 50 years ago.

If you look at the relevant stock market indices for Germany, France or even Britain, you will find them dominated by companies that have been around for generations.

Via RCP.