Libertarian Leanings

Must be time for a scandal

Opinion polls are showing approval of the President is on the upswing, therefore it's time for some bad news, and here it is.  International phone conversations and email have been monitored by the National Security Agency, and President knew!  The mainstream press and the rest of the usual suspects are utterly agast.   

"There is no doubt that this is inappropriate," declared Republican Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He promised hearings early next year...

"I want to know precisely what they did," Specter said. "How NSA utilized their technical equipment, whose conversations they overheard, how many conversations they overheard, what they did with the material, what purported justification there was."

Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., a member of the Judiciary Committee, said, "This shocking revelation ought to send a chill down the spine of every American."

Whatever it was it had to have been awful!  Shocking!  But whatever they expected, opponents were unsuccessful in putting the President on the defensive.  Last night he gave an update on the War on Terror and the War in Iraq from the Oval Office.

President Bush said yesterday that he secretly ordered the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans with suspected ties to terrorists because it was "critical to saving American lives" and "consistent with U.S. law and the Constitution."

Bush said the program has been reviewed regularly by the nation's top legal authorities and targets only those people with "a clear link to these terrorist networks." Noting the failures to detect hijackers already in the country before the strikes on New York and Washington, Bush said the NSA's domestic spying since then has helped thwart other attacks.

In his statement, delivered during a live and unusually long radio address, the president assailed the news media for disclosing the eavesdropping program, and rebuked Senate Democrats for blocking renewal of the USA Patriot Act, which gave the FBI greater surveillance power after Sept. 11, 2001, and which expires Dec. 31.

"The terrorist threat to our country will not expire in two weeks," said Bush, calling a filibuster by Democratic senators opposed to the Patriot Act "irresponsible."

The speech represented a turnaround for a White House that initially refused to discuss the highly classified NSA effort even after it was revealed in news accounts. Advisers said Bush decided to confirm the program's existence -- and combine that with a demand for reauthorization of the Patriot Act -- to put critics on the defensive by framing it as a matter of national security, not civil liberties.

There was a time I might have been outraged myself, but with what passes for a Republican scandal with the mainstream press arm of the Democratic Party these days, I'm inclined to believe the President.

Update:  Isn't it interesting that Democrats are outraged over scrutiny of international terror suspects by security agencies of the Bush Administration, at the same time they accept Clinton Administration mining the IRS records of Republican political opponents as legitimate political strategy.  How strange the things that fail to spark liberal outrage.

First hand observations

Bill Roggio is in Iraq reporting on the election.  The Weekly Standard has his first hand observations.

The women were searched by female Marines brought in specially for the election. Several of the Iraqi women struck up friendly conversations with the Marines, and many photographs were taken with the women of both countries and the children of Iraq...

The male residents of Barwana were subjected to several security searches, which were the exclusive responsibility of the Iraqi soldiers. The Iraqi unit was made up of a newly formed battalion, and the recruits were pretty green. Curious about the interaction of the soldiers and citizens, and potential conflicts between the Sunnis and Shiites or Kurds, I asked the Iraqi soldiers where they were from. The vast majority hailed from Shiite regions.

The Iraqi soldiers patted down voters and scanned them with hand-held metal detectors. I observed some good-natured ribbing between the voters and soldiers, with what appeared to be jokes about checking under the men's headdresses and the need to search a little more closely the bellies of some overweight voters. No Sunni-Shiite hatred surfaced in my presence.

By mid-morning, there was a rush of voters, which caused logistical problems inside the polling center.

Outage

Typepad was down all day yesterday with disk problems.  Posting was impossible and the most recent posts on any of the weblogs were five days old.  Things seem to be back to normal now.

Another cover up

Here's a story that ought to get some exposure, and would if it was about a Republican administration. 

The report is the work of the staff of Independent Counsel David Barrett. He was tapped back in the Clinton days to investigate allegations that then Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros lied to the FBI and committed tax fraud in attempting to conceal money he had paid a mistress. Cisneros pled guilty back in 1999, and that would have been the end of it had Barrett's investigators not found serious misbehavior in Justice and in the IRS related to Cisneros' problems. Cisneros was a very promising Texas Democrat and the Clintons did not want him to come a cropper...

Senator Dorgan has led the campaign to deny the report's contents to the public. Last April he attempted to end Barrett's funding. He was thwarted then, but more recently he tried a new ploy. With Democratic senators Richard Durbin and John Kerry, he bootlegged into an Iraq-war appropriations bill an amendment that would suppress the report completely. Some Republicans defeated this attempt, but Dorgan and his allies are clever. Into a later appropriations bill they got language that would suppress 120 pages of the report relating to Clinton Justice Department and IRS misbehavior. If the butchered report were published in this shape, they promised to do nothing further to delay its appearance. Amazingly key Republicans in these negotiations agreed, Senator Kit Bond and Congressman Joe Knollenberg. As things stand now, the expurgated report will appear and the public will be none the wiser as to how the IRS and Justice Department can be used to obstruct justice and harass private citizens.

The big day is here

Iraqi blogger Omar Fadhil has first hand coverage of parliamentary elections at Iraq the Model.

The Big Day is here!
Good morning everyone, or good evening depending on where you live!

It’s 7:45 am now in Baghdad and the voting centers inside Iraq were open on time 45 minutes ago. The first news clips broadcast on local TV showed people voting as early as 7:05! Also politicians and government officials have started casting their ballots in a special station located inside the Green Zone. The first politician we saw vote on TV were Mithal al-Alusi who leads a list of his own and Dr. Hussein al-Shahristani from the UIA.

The first wave of our special reports from eight Iraqi provinces-in addition to Baghdad-will start coming to you in a few hours so keep an eye on Pajamas for the full coverage.

Now excuse me while I go vote!

Having gotten their purple fingers the brothers Fadhil are back to report on the election and they have pictures.  Expect updates to continue throughout the day.

Iraqi blogger, Hammorabi, shares some thoughts.

Now it is the first hours of the 15 Dec 2005.

In few hours time Iraq will be the Model in Democracy and freedom for the Middle East and the Arab region.

Iraq will lead the changes.

Rarity of rarities, here in the U.S. mainstream press reporting of Iraqi news puts the election in a positive light.  According to the Washington Post Iraqi voters are going to the polls in force. 

People celebrated on the streets of Ramadi, an insurgent stronghold, after insurgent groups said they would forgo attacks on civilians during the election period. Death threats and the fear of violence contributed to keeping Sunni Arabs away from the polls previously.

Dozens of men joined in street gatherings as women handed out fruit juice at their front gates. Residents said they were elated.

The New York Times reports that turnout is expected to be very high.

The elections, which are expected to draw as many as 10 million Iraqis to the polls, will be the last formal milestone in the American-backed political process that was devised to foster a democratic government.

This isn't the kind of news I've come to expect from the Times or the Post.  With the mainstream press it's either bombs and torture or nothing.  This might signal a turn towards more realistic and balanced coverage, but I won't hold my breath.  More likely an all out campaign to rehabilitate the Democratic party image will begin and run all the way to November 2008.  It will describe how the Democrats were really supportive all along.  They're patriots don't you know.

A couple of days ago Strategy Page offered some speculation on post election, post terrorism political climate in Iraq.

While the terrorist violence continues to get most of the media coverage, the terrorist groups are very much on the defensive. For this weeks elections, the majority of Sunni Arabs are expected to turn out to vote...

The elections on December 15th will create a National Assembly that, next year, will create a new government and, demonstrate if a democratic Iraq can govern itself. In the Arab world, elections tend to lead to the winners changing the rules to insure that they stay in power for as long as possible, no matter what the voters want. Will that happen in Iraq? We're about to find out.

Update:  Look for ongoing Iraqi election coverage at Pajamas Media.

Update II:  Joe Biden's 2008 aspirations shine through, as he makes a desperate leap for the Iraqi Victory bandwagon.  Having trashed the Bush Administration non stop since the invasion, he's right there to celebrate success with a visit to the city of Hillah, about 60 miles south of Baghdad.  He went along with Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga.; and Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.  Via Q and O.

Update III:  Even Aunt Najma of Mosul, who considers America an occupation force, celebrates the vote.  It bodes well for the success of democracy in Iraq.

World shaking elections

Mohammed has thoughts on the tomorrow's parliamentary elections in Iraq.

With joy, worry, fear and hope I await tomorrow. Our hearts beat fast hurrying the clock to bring us faster to the other shore.

Tomorrow it’s going to be us who decide and I can feel the greatness of the responsibility because the result will draw the shape of our future and will determine how long it will take till we can announce victory in this war; our war against the past, against the past’s illusions and the past’s mistakes; with our hands we can make this war last shorter… with our own choices.

One year ago we wanted to defeat terror and the shadows of dictatorship and tell them that we are not willing to go backwards and that we’re ready to build a new Iraq where the people choose their representatives…
The choice didn’t matter then as much as voting itself did; all we wanted to do was to go and cast our votes regardless of the choices we made.

Yesterday we were sitting together with our friends talking and discussing our points of view. We found that our ambitions are way bigger than the mere idea of voting or practicing our right to elect, now we feel that our votes are a responsibility and a heavy one.

Big day in world history tomorrow.

Accountability

Michael Rubin sees democracy already at work in Iraq, and says Interim prime minister Iyad Allawi's loss in the January elections serves as evidence of Iraqi will, carried out at the polls.  He also predicts the same fate will befall current Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari this Thursday when Iraqis go to the polls again.  The important thing that's happening, he says, is that people are being held accountable -- something that doesn't ordinarily happen in the Arab world.

Howard Dean and John Murtha may believe that the U.S. military has lost. Brent Scowcroft may think Arab democracy a pipe dream. They are mistaken.

The greatest impediment to progress in the Arab world is not terrorism or Islamism; both are recent phenomena. Rather, it is lack of accountability. Instead of accepting responsibility for lack of progress, many Arab regimes blame outsiders.

You can see it in the status of women in the Arab world.  The practice of putting women under ultimate supervision of a male relative, be it father, brother, or husband, is just another way Arab men insulate themselves from accountability -- their authority must not be questioned.  It's a cultural thing.

But that's no reason to abandon goals of liberalization in the Arab world.  All the more reason, actually.

Adaptation

From the Washington Times,

The Pentagon yesterday announced a landmark change in the use of combat troops, elevating "stability missions" -- commonly called nation-building -- to an equal status with major combat operations.

The evolution in war-planning priorities underscores how the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States by the al Qaeda terror network continue to fundamentally reshape how U.S. military commanders deploy the armed forces.

Not only are U.S. forces becoming more mobile to better counter Islamic terrorists, but the chain of command now will be trained in how to "build" nations by creating indigenous security forces, democratic institutions and free markets.

IIA

IIA (Iowa Intelligence Agency) intercepted another letter from Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi.  It indicates Al Qaeda in Iraq is having serious operational problems.

Those guys are so stupid and horny for Paradise poontang that they're already blowing themselves up before they get their luggage unloaded from the courtesy van. We got a little joke here at the office:

What's the last thing a Saudi says to a Syrian before they met Allah?

"What does this button do?"

I'm telling you, If you were around these felchers 10 minutes you'd be convinced we need to rethink this whole marrying-in-the-clan thing. And, along with the stupid, comes the gullibility. Zawahiri, in all his motivational wisdom, bought a Dish Network subscription for the office so we could get the CNN and MSNBC feeds. "Good for morale," or something like that. Oh yeah, brilliant move there, Ayman. Next time some of my clueless shitheads decide to attack the "demoralized and broken" Team Satan after watching the Chris Matthews Show, maybe you can help stuff the remains into the Ziplocs and write the goddamn thank-you notes.

Williams executed

The execution of Tookie Williams went off nearly on schedule early this morning.  Medical technicians administering the injection had trouble finding his vein, adding a delay of 12 more minutes to the 24 years he spent on death row.

I oppose the death penalty.  It's not that the punishment is too harsh.  There are crimes for which death is an appropriate remedy.  No, my problem is with uneven justice.

At the moment the verdict was read in the OJ Simpson trial I happened to be buying my lunch in an upscale grocery market in Battery Park City in lower Manhattan.  The store was pretty busy with well off white folks shopping and black store employees serving them.  There was a TV near the registers that broadcast the decision.  Reaction was a study in contrast.  Shoppers looked on in stunned silence while cashiers and attendents cheered. 

I couldn't say I was on either side at that moment.  Not being a juror I wasn't about to say whether he was actually guilty or not.  Not being black I didn't have much of an emotional stake in it.  But I believed then and I believe now that OJ got the best justice money could buy.  Had it been a twenty-something black from Watts on trial and not OJ, things would not have gone the way they did.  There would not have been a legal dream team for the defense.  A smaller, less talented defense team with fewer resources at their disposal might not have been so successful.  The outcome would have rested not so much on the facts of the case, as on the quality and talent of the lawyers defending it.  Uneven justice.