The Eagles fan is the most optimistic and the most pessimistic at the same time. Weve seen it all. It's an interesting juxtaposition. We can be bitter and happy at the same moment. We hate the Cowboys and Giants more than the Libs hate Bush, and that's saying something. The playoffs are upon us and the birds have to do it, posssibly, without Brian Westbrook. Let's get it on and go birds. By the way they have some hot cheerleaders, and I didn't even get past the a names.

I've said before that I am not against homosexual unions, just don't call them marriage, and if they break up, child support and alimony rules apply just like in hetero relationships. This poll shows that most people may agree with part of my thinking. The AFA must be horrified.

The USA Today writes up bloggers:

They used to be known as the boys on the bus: the big-name columnists, network TV producers and reporters for large-circulation newspapers who had the power to make or break a presidential candidate's reputation. Now they've got competition.

In the 2004 election, the boys (and girls) on the bus have been joined by a new class of political arbiters: the geeks on their laptops. They call themselves bloggers. Their mission: to remake political journalism and, quite possibly, democracy itself. The plan: to make an end run around big media by becoming publishers on the Internet.

The freewheeling, gossipy Internet sites they operate can be controversial: Matt Drudge, the wired news and gossip hound who broke the story about Monica Lewinsky's affair with Bill Clinton, is a blogger. Many bloggers are not professional journalists. Few have editors. Most make no pretense of objectivity.

Damn right we're not objective. If pro reporters were as open with their beliefs as bloggers are, we would be able to see the truth a lot easier. I would tend to disagree that Drudge is blogger though.

Robert Scheer reminds us that we were once friendly with Hussein. Really, I'm friggin' shocked. Of course we allied with Hussein, the Iranian government was complicit in holding American hostages for 444 days. The old saying "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" is always true. We also sided with Stalin to fight a greater enemy. We sided with bin-Laden when it was in our best interest. So what? We chose to rectify the situation now. It's funny how the left always scolds us for bringing up Clinton in an argument, but they have no qualms about bringing up Hussein, Iran-Contra, Nixon, and anything Reagan was involved in. Scheer is over the edge as are alot of lefty opinion writers and it's getting the best of them.

Mark Steyn is a must read all the time:

Oh, well. In Hollywood, purveyors of despised American culture to the world's cretins, they at least wait a decade before following Dumb And Dumber with Dumb And Dumberer. Jenkins held off barely a month before filing his own Dumb And Dumberer, in which he predicted that 2003 would go down in history as the year of "the destruction of the greatest treasure from the oldest age of Western civilisation, the greatest heritage catastrophe since the Second World War". This was a reference to the alleged destruction of the Iraqi National Museum, which yours truly said at the time was this year's "Jenin massacre" - that's to say, a complete fiction. And so it proved.

Seven months ago, there was so much hooey in the papers about Iraq that I decided to see for myself and had a grand time motoring round the Sunni Triangle. Lovely place, friendly people, property very reasonable. Why were my impressions so different from the doom-mongers at CNN or the New York Times? Well, it seems most media types holed up at the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad are still using their old Ba'athist minders as translators when they venture out. That would, at the very minimum, tend to give one a somewhat skewed perspective of the new Iraq.

Ha.

Indymedia, unlike other liberal Democratic organizations, pulls no punches or "yes, buts" with this picture of Time magazine photoshopped to show the soldiers as Nazis. They should feel real proud.

Is Law and Order predicting economic trends?

Lileks:

I wonder if this disaster might be the Iranian Chernobyl. (Or the 21st century equivalent of the Lisbon earthquake, if you remember your Voltaire.) Just as that catastrophe laid bare the lies and the failures of the Soviet system, so might a horrible earthquake call into question the Mullahs’ claim to rule at the behest of the Almighty. It’s hard to insist that Allah wants Israel destroyed but never gets around to leveling Tel Aviv with natural disasters.

Do I think that all Iranians believes the Mullah’s claims? No. Neither do I think that the contributions of America will change public attitudes - because I don’t think they’ll come as a surprise to most, and certainly not to the classes who can change the nature of the government. But the adminstration's aid effort is a surprise to certain domestic elements. I heard a network news feed on the radio say that the US was sending aid despite having branded Iran as a member of the Axis of Evil. Oy. Did the author of that dispatch believe that the administration regarded the Iranian people as a seething mass indistinguishable from the calculated madness of the ruling clerics?

If US aid to Iran comes as a surprise to anyone, then they don’t understand the US.

Read the whole thing.

This is funny:

Being an American trapped in a Canadian's body means always having to say, "You're stupid."

When my hometown of Toronto awakened to the news that Saddam Hussein was in custody, we reflexively switched on CNN in my house. Why? Because Fox News still isn't available up here (although, in the spirit of "multiculturalism," Al-Jazeera's broadcast application proceeds apace).

At our only other option, the state-owned Canadian Broadcasting Corp., commentators repeatedly hoped Saddam Hussein would receive "a fair trial" through "an international tribunal" that "reflected Canadian values" – presumably the same "Canadian values" former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien invoked when refusing to send our troops (such as they are) to Iraq in the first place.

Such smug, pseudo-sophisticated "insights" would be only slightly less offensive if they weren't being paid for by my tax dollars.

Here's her blog if you're interested.

Wall Street is kicking ass lately:

A late rally sent stocks sharply higher -- with the Dow ending at a 21-month high and the Nasdaq Composite closing above the 2000 mark for the first time in almost two years -- as the traditional Santa Claus rally continued into the last trading week of the year.

According to early tallies, the Dow gained about 125 points to 10,450; the Nasdaq added 33 points to 2006; and the S&P 500 rose more than 13 points to 1109.

And the "Mad Cow Scare" doesn't seem to be effecting the fast food places:

CHICAGO (Reuters) - McDonald's Corp., Burger King and Wendy's International Inc. said on Monday hamburger sales have held steady since the first case of mad cow disease in the United States surfaced last Tuesday.

The continuity of sales at the three largest U.S. hamburger chains suggests American consumers' willingness to shrug off the mad cow incident as an isolated case they believe will have little bearing on food safety.

Shares of McDonald's and Wendy's continued their recent recovery Monday, rising more than 1 percent on the New York Stock Exchange in afternoon trade. Burger King is privately held.

I'll take mine rare.

This is pretty cool. NASA is great agency that needs to rethink its approch in the coming five years:

Almost 390 million kilometres away, a NASA space probe, Stardust, will dive inside a cloud of dust and gas spewing from the comet Wild 2.

Travelling at 21,000 kmh, it will use a tennis racquet-shaped collector to scoop up more than 1000 dust particles from the cloud (or coma), possibly providing clues to the birth of life on Earth.

Over at the Wes Clark blog, which gets about as much traffic as this site, the Clark campaign is apparently a resounding success with the functionally illiterate:

this is so stupid. dean often implies he will take his ball to a third party. why is he making statemant like this? we keep hearing he running away with the nomination.he must have some internal poll's that are not favorable.
it's about time that dean and his camp realize that it's ABB not dean is the king, clark number will start raising. dean is receiving so much media coverage all his warts are showing. just when the public is starting to pay attention.
the deanic want bush gone.
more than want dean to be president.they will leave in droves if he tries to split the party.
it's funny how dean is so much like bush,''either your with me or i take my people and leave the party'' is this blackmail?


Posted by: joanne h at December 29, 2003 01:52 PM | Link

Hey Joanne, that button that says "shift" on it is the one that lets you type the uppercase, er, big letters.

Bush hate at Slate:

I would vote for Osama if he were running against Bush. I would vote for a monkey instead of Bush. A monkey would probably have more intelligence

Profile:
Subject: Osama for President?
From: JATE34
Date: Dec 29 2003 1:47PM

And at Dean's blog:

Recently, in The Washington Post, Al From, who heads the DLC, credited Howard Dean with running a successful campaign, but questioned whether Dean can effectively lead the party as its nominee. “We need to lay out a reason to replace Bush.” From said. Al From should take a break from his efforts to create the Republican-lite a.k.a. Loser Party and LISTEN TO HOWARD DEAN, for he has been laying out reasons to replace Bush for months, now. The following are just a few reasons why most Democrats and many Independents think another four years of a Bush administration will be a global tragedy in the making.

Reason Number One: The greatest disaster to ever happen in our country, September 11, 2001, could have been prevented by George W. Bush.

Reason Number Two: Bush LIED about his reasons for invading Iraq.

Reason Number Three: Under Bush, at the expense of necessary programs such as Social Security and Medicare, the giant corporations who contributed so lavishly to his campaign, are being rewarded.

Reason Number Four: Bush has transfigured a healthy budget surplus created by Democrats into an endless sea of red ink - in the form of massive federal deficits of over $500 billion.

Posted by I Want My Country Back! at December 29, 2003 05:33 PM

he world is full of sick people:

woman who had convinced her husband she was pregnant -- and was even thrown a baby shower -- killed a pregnant acquaintance and cut the fetus from her womb, authorities said Monday.

Prosecutor Linda Evans said she planned to file two murder charges against Effie Goodson, 37, in the slaying of Carolyn Simpson, 21, (pictured, left and below, right, respectively) who was six months pregnant, and the fetus.

A hunter found Simpson's body in a field near Lamar, about 100 miles from Oklahoma City, on Friday. She had been shot in the head, authorities said.

I sure hope there's a hell.

Go here.

The Eagles are the #1 seed and people are responding:

McNabb Mea Culpa: It is time for those of us who believed Philadelphia Eagles QB Donovan McNabb is overrated to eat a little crow. After walloping the Washington Redskins, the Eagles are the No. 1 seed in the NFC - and McNabb is much of the reason why.

Anything less than the Superbowl (TM) will be a losing season in most Philadelphians eyes.

Back to Howie Dean's blog:

This campaign is not only our hope, it's our future.

We MUST do this. I cannot imagine my 4 year old granddaughter living in a world where the only value is money, where our country means nothing but intimidation and fear to everyone outside it.

Taking to heart the message of peace and hope our Gov gave us yesterday should be our task.

No matter what other campaigns think of us-- or more correctly, what other people who call themselves supporters of other candidates-- we know we are the voice of hope for the future. We stand for the dignity of workers, for healthcare for all Americans, for peace in the world, and justice at home, for a clean environment, and
honesty in government.

We must preserve the dignity of our effort, avoiding name-calling and mean-spiritedness, no matter what others say about us.

If we are to be an example, we must follow rules analogous to those set out in the NY Times by Paul Krugman for journalists covering campaigns.

You know what has to be done, you know how little time there is to do it.

Peace on your houses and your hearts.

NOW GET OUT THERE AND JUST DO IT !

Posted by murphy at December 26, 2003 02:01 AM

Paul Krugman as a pillar of virtue. Shudder. Here's Krugger's latest concerning the next election and how reporters should act and cover it:

• Beware of personal anecdotes. Anecdotes that supposedly reveal a candidate's character are a staple of political reporting, but they should carry warning labels.

For one thing, there are lots of anecdotes, and it's much too easy to report only those that reinforce the reporter's prejudices. The approved story line about Mr. Bush is that he's a bluff, honest, plain-spoken guy, and anecdotes that fit that story get reported. But if the conventional wisdom were instead that he's a phony, a silver-spoon baby who pretends to be a cowboy, journalists would have plenty of material to work with.

If a reporter must use anecdotes, they'd better be true. After the Dean endorsement, innumerable reporters cracked jokes about Al Gore's inventing the Internet. Guys, he never said that: it's a malicious distortion of a true statement, and no self-respecting journalist would repeat it.

• Look at the candidates' records. A close look at Mr. Bush's record as governor would have revealed that, the approved story line notwithstanding, he was no moderate. A close look at Mr. Dean's record in Vermont reveals that, the emerging story line notwithstanding, he is no radical: he was a fiscally conservative leader whose biggest policy achievement — nearly universal health insurance for children — was the result of incremental steps.

Krugman has made his editorial career by printing falsehoods and misconceptions, He is the one telling journalists what and how to report, please. As to the fact that Bush is a far right whacko and Dean is a moderate, maybe in your book "Enron Paul", Dean will break yours and everyone elses heart wen he plays down anything he did in Vermont.

Tony Auth has such a hatred of Bush that he seems cunsumed by it.

Musharraf seems to have been a bit lucky over the last few weeks:

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan - Suicide attackers detonated two massive bombs as President Pervez Musharraf's convoy passed on a congested road Thursday, killing 14 people and getting close enough to crack the windshield on his limousine in the second attempt on his life in 11 days.

Musharraf, 60, was unhurt, but the attack — just a few hundred yards from the site of the previous bombing — raised troubling questions about the Pakistani leader's ability to hold on to power and keep an Islamic radical movement at bay. It came a day after Musharraf made a deal with hard-line Islamic political parties to step down as army chief by the end of next year.

Musharraf is in a bad situation. A situation of his own making, but a bad situation none the less. He is fighting the islamofascist fight against his own leadership, in a country that is a breeding ground for islamic fundamentalism. It's important to us to ensure this guy keeps power, and their nukes in control, and is not overthrown by a zealot. Should a fundamentalist take power, India may have no other options then gear up for nuclear war.

I am shocked I tell you, just shocked!

Ruling on race in admissions gets wider use

"It's a very strong endorsement of the diversity argument, and that matters," Selmi said. "Even though the justices probably didn't intend for the Michigan ruling to have a broad application beyond education, that doesn't mean it will have no application beyond education."

The decision could be appealed to the full Seventh Circuit or to the Supreme Court.

Curt Levy, director of legal and public affairs for the Center for Individual Rights, which initiated the challenge to Michigan's policies, said the Seventh Circuit ruling should be expected when the high court issues what he called a "fuzzy" opinion such as Grutter.

The language in the opinion might have seemed to be solely about education, Levy said, but its strong endorsement of a nebulous concept such as the value of diversity made it amorphous.

"I think it's fair to say that, under legal precedent, diversity is not a compelling interest in employment," he said. "I think it's really a stretch to say it applies in this case. But the Michigan ruling was unclear enough to let lower courts do what they want to do."

Levy said that his organization was keeping track of how lower courts applied the Grutter ruling but that he was not encouraged by what might come of it.

"The law is in one place," he said, "and political correctness and what people do is in another."

Scalia voiced similar concerns in his November dissent from the court's decision not to hear Concrete Works of Colorado v. City and County of Denver.

Following the Michigan decision, he said, the court's denial of the case suggests the justices have replaced earlier rulings on affirmative action in contracting with the Grutter ruling.

I can't believe nobody saw this coming.

America ia gearing up. I still find people who are happily uninformed or apathetic about what is going on. Perhaps they feel that Sept. 11 was an anomaly and couldn't happen again. Perhaps these issues are too upsetting to contemplate. Whatever the reason, rest assured that there are good men and women working day and night to try to stop the next al-Qaeda attack:

WASHINGTON - Disaster teams are ready to respond to any terrorist strike by al-Qaeda, and special equipment is monitoring the air for biological agents in 30 cities, the Bush administration said yesterday.

Four days after the nation raised its terror alert to orange, or high, "credible reporting suggests al-Qaeda continues to desire to attack American interests," said Brian Roehrkasse of the Homeland Security Department. "People have their antennas up," he said.

President Bush spent Christmas at Camp David, Md., where he received updates from senior advisers and military aides, White House spokesman Jim Morrell said.

The raised threat level triggered activation of the disaster teams, composed of government experts from different agencies.

The DHS is a new and growing department. They definitely have there share of "this is how we've always done it" types who are living in a Sept 10 world. That world is gone and not all of us know it.

Krauthammer:

Unlike Howard Dean, Kerry is not a foreign policy ignoramus. Does he really believe that the Libyan surrender is a triumph of multilateralism? Does he really think that Libya's capitulation -- coinciding precisely with a preemptive war that destroyed Saddam Hussein -- is a contradiction of the "rigid doctrine of military preemption"?

What kind of naif thinks that this is a triumph for "diplomacy," as if, say, Bill Clinton had sent Warren Christopher to Tripoli, and he chatted Gaddafi into surrendering his WMDs?

The Democrats seem congenitally incapable of understanding that force has not just the effect of disarming the immediate enemy but a deterrent effect on others similarly situated. Iraq was not attacked randomly. It was attacked as part of a clearly enunciated policy -- now known as the Bush Doctrine -- of targeting, by preemptive war if necessary, hostile regimes engaged in terror and/or refusing to come clean on WMDs.

Mullah Omar did not get the message and is now hiding in a cave somewhere. Saddam Hussein did not get the message and ended up in a hole. Gaddafi got the message.

Precisley. The Arab world understands two things, force and power. Thy are not the same. Israel has survived to this day because of it's use of force. America is using it's power to get dictators to capitulate on WMD's.

I also found this at Deans blogsite:

This is my Christmas letter to President Bush....

Dear Mr. Bush,
With this being Christmas eve, and myself a Christian I have a problem with wishing you a Merry Christmas. I know this is of my personal failing, but I have thought about this long and hard.
You see Mr. Bush, to me you do NOT represent what a true Christian is....instead you represent the same kind of perverted, warped thinking that many tyrants in human history possesed....you claim to have been "born again"- a phrase and term I will never fully comprehend. You issue orders to murder fellow human beings, yes fellow human beings all in the name of what and for what?

What makes us and in particular you better than anyone else on this planet? What gives you the right to say a people or country is better off with democracy as opposed to their own form of Government, for as bad as it may be?

Mr Bush I will not wish you a Merry Christmas as you have divided my country as you promised you would not. Today, neighbors that we were once friends with we no longer see...we do not go to their house anymore, they dont come here.....our political differances were always something we just laughed at before you came into office......

Mr. Bush you are NOT a Christian...if my parents and Grandparents were alive today...and trust me they were all a far better example of
humanitarians than you and your followers are....my family survived WW2-bombing, starvation,rationing,death and destruction and they would easily pair you up with the likes of Adolph Hitler himself.

Mr Bush I close with me dedicating the next 11 months to ridding you by our political process from the White House.....I will go door to door,table,flyer,drive,stand in the sleet with a Dean sign,talk to people,host MeetUps,write letters..anything just so you do not regain the Presidency.

Mr Bush you should sometime read about the teachings of Christ.....you will soon find that you are nothing like him....so please stop using HIS name in your speeches, please. And for those fellow countrymen of mine that are drunk with support for you all in Gods name I hope that they wake up and realize just what kind of human being you really are.......

Lastly please refrain from killing my fellow man all for my protection and my families protection.."I" will decide if my family and my person needs defending thank you very much. In the name of God I hope a distorted, twisted, idealogue like you NEVER holds political office again.......someday you will recieve your judgement in a higher court than on this planet....tonight, when you are asleep,comfy in your warm bed and full tummy, please dont be awakened by the thousands of innocent people you have murdered..the families,children, and other innocents. You are a despicable human being.

Posted by Mike in Raleigh, NC at December 24, 2003 01:48 PM

That's the type of person who is supporting Dean. Sounds closer to Indymedia than mainstream democratic discourse. That is the Democratic party today. By the way, get spellcheck Dude. Now the bloggers are trying to come up with a religion scam to help the candidate:

I hope that Dean and staff are working on countering the 'lack of religion' image:

http://www.prospect.org/weblog/archives/2003/12/index.html#002181

I've seen a few columns reviewing the fact that everyone who has been elected president during the last two or three decades has talked the 'religion talk' (cynically or not).

I hope that Dean is preparing to emphasize his religiosity to the extent his personal history can support it. I know that he rarely attends church and that he (appropriately) believes that religion has no place in policy-making. This doesn't mean that he shouldn't make the most of what he's got:

---- Hypothetical Press Conference -----

Reporter: Governor, President Bush often speaks of the role of faith in his life and work. Are you religious man?

Dean: I've been a devout Christian, Congregationalist denomination, all my life [or 'for the past x years']. I pray every day, and though I look to my faith for guidance and comfort, I believe that we must govern impartially, respecting the rights of Americans of all faiths.

Reporter: You claim to be a religious man, but you don't attend church. How can you say that you're a devout Christian?

Dean: Christians have a direct, personal relationship with God. Our prayers don't require intermediaries. Now, for a lot of people, church is a wonderful place to focus their hearts and minds on God, and to enjoy fellowship and gain wisdom. I understand that. But church attendance isn't what makes a person a Christian. My relationship with God and my religious practices have been an intensely personal part of my life. My prayers and readings of the Bible have usually satisfied my spiritually needs. Does that answer your question?

Reporter: Governor, would you share with us a favorite verse from the Bible?

Dean: Sure. In [book chapter:verse], Jesus says: xxxx. That's a reminder to me of why I'm in politics. We have a moral duty to care for those less fortunate... [blah blah blah]

---- END Hypothetical Press Conference -----

Are you all following me? I'm as irreligious as a person can be, but I don't want Dean to lose votes just because middle America doesn't see him as a God-fearing man. Dean says he's a Congregationalist. Great. Don't hide it. America votes for religious men.

Dean staff: are you listening?

To the regulars here: Does anyone know where I should write to be sure that the staff receives my idea?

Posted by BW in Berkeley at December 24, 2003 01:51 PM

The Dean Blog, where bad ideas are furthered, and good ideas die.

Over at Howie Deans blog, I found this post:

Know any lesbian or bi women who support Dean?

Dykes for Dean has set a Dec. 31 goal of having every state represented by members.

We currently have 41 states & D.C. represented.

That leaves us needing to outreach to only 9 states:
Alaska
Idaho
Mississippi
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
North Dakota
South Dakota
Wyoming

Please, if you have any friends in any of the above states who might want to join us, invite them! The URL is http://www.dykesfordean.org

Also, if you know women in ANY states who might be interested to "Join & Be Counted", please pass this info on.

Thanks in advance.

Posted by Jan / Dykes for Dean at December 24, 2003 12:46 PM

You would think they'd like Bush.

A British Maj. General takes a nice shot at reporters:

He took a jab at the press. Western reporters, he implied, had come to an early conclusion that the allied undertaking in Iraq would not succeed, and had failed to adjust. He compared this with criticism that greeted allied forces in the first stages of the spring invasion, when resistance stalled the drive to Baghdad.

The plan provided for 125 days to take Baghdad, and it was accomplished in 23 days, he noted. But, he told reporters, "you had us dead and buried in seven days."

So true. As to the reports that services are worse than under the rule of Saddam:

He said civic leaders had approached him claiming that "before the war, everybody in Basra had running water," and that many had lost it as a result of allied bombing. But he said he had produced Water Department charts showing that a third of the city never had pipes to carry water in the first place, typical in areas not favored by Mr. Hussein. Pipes were being installed, he said.

Imagine that.

Tim Blair has a roundup of the years best quotes. Among my favorites are:

• "I hope you die you c---. I notice you daily blather of bile and shite gob right wing evil crap has disappeared. I hope it is because you are terminally ill with a painful debilitating disease which will kill you slowly and spread to all those dear to you." -- a contented reader

• "WHO the F-CK is that man? He's a f-cking traitor. Get his ass off the stage. Oh, F-CK him. Who IS that fat f-ck anyway?" -- Joan Collins critiques Michael Moore's Academy Award speech

• "Dickhead. Next question?" -- The Mirror’s Sue Carroll, asked for her opinion on fellow Mirror columnist John Pilger

• "When a rock-tossing amateur athlete can spend less than 15 minutes on the web confirming a writer's humiliating legacy of bias, after reading one of his stories for the first time, then ya gotta know the jig is up." -- Olympic curler George Karrys

• "He can roll up his sleeves all he wants at public events, but as long as we see that heart tattoo with Neville Chamberlain's name on his right forearms, he's never going anywhere." -- Dennis Miller on Howard Dean

• "Might I offer a couple of small suggestions to those British citizens who would prefer not to stand trial in military tribunals where the punishment for some crimes can be execution? Don’t join terrorist organisations that fly planes at skyscrapers, and don’t dedicate your life to mass murder." -- Stephen Pollard

• "They are all very gifted storytellers, or full of crap. Depends on how you look at it." -- my sister, on the Irish

• "You'd need some DNA. There’s a good way to do it. Take a machete, and whack off his head, and you'll get a bucketful of DNA, so you can see it and test it." -- CIA veteran Cofer Black explains how Osama bin Laden might be identified

• "In Iraq, we can just kill the bastards." -- Ralph Peters explains the benefits of fighting terrorism abroad, rather than at home

• "I've known Wes for a long time ... Wes won't get my vote.” -- a ringing unendorsement for the Clark campaign from Retired General H. Hugh Shelton

• "Schwarzenegger, who, like Hitler, is a native of Austria ..." -- CNN

• "CNN? Oh, that's that network with Larry King, who, like the Son of Sam, is a native of Brooklyn. Used to be owned by Ted Turner, who, like the Cincinnati Strangler, is a native of Cincinnati. Now part of Time Warner, founded by the Warner Brothers, the oldest of whom, Harry Warner, like many Auschwitz guards, was a native of Poland." -- Mark Steyn

• "The key, I believe, to Iran is pressure through the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union is supplying much of the equipment that Iran, I believe, most likely is using to set itself along the path of developing nuclear weapons. We need to use that leverage with the Soviet Union and it may require us to buying the equipment the Soviet Union was ultimately going to sell to Iran." -- cold warrior Howard Dean

• "I'd better call my lawyer." -- George W. Bush, following suggestions that banning Germany, France, Russia and Canada from bidding for Iraqi contracts might violate international law

• "Until the outbreak of the war against Iraq, the strongman sent millions of dollars to Palestinians killed in the conflict with Israel." -- the ABC’s Jane Hutcheon is referring to suicide bombers

• "President Bush sends his regards." -- US soldiers answer Saddam Hussein’s request: "I am the president of Iraq and I want to negotiate."

• "Saddam is in our jail." -- a US soldier answers chants of "Saddam is our hearts!" and "Saddam is in our blood!"

• "I will do whatever the Americans want, because I saw what happened in Iraq, and I was afraid." -- Col. Gaddafi, in phone call to Silvio Berlusconi

Excellent work

Hitchens on the domino effect occurring because of the Bush Doctrine:

When Pan Am 103 went down over Lockerbie in 1988, it took my friend Berndt Carlsson, a Swedish diplomat and former chairman of the Socialist International who had become the United Nations' special rapporteur for Namibia. So active had he been in working to free Namibia from South African apartheid and occupation that some people speculated on a South African role in the atrocity. As so often is the case, this speculation was useless because it was so rational. Those who put bombs on civilian aircraft usually don't much care who is on board; their point is made by the pile of random corpses in the wreckage. (It's amazing to me that one still has to argue this point with those searching for nobler motives: The explosive is just as likely to be on Noam Chomsky's or Michael Moore's flight, and one day they may awaken to this self-evident fact.)

Just as I think that Osama Bin Laden made the greatest conceivable error by demolishing the World Trade Center and thereby retarding the cause of jihad to an incalculable extent, so I think that his followers have repeated the mistake in Indonesia, Turkey, and perhaps above all in Saudi Arabia. Three years ago, sympathizers of al-Qaida controlled the government of Afghanistan, heavily influenced the ruling circle in Saudi Arabia, and were in a good position to take over the Pakistani state from within. They were also being sought out for meetings by the regime in Baghdad. Now they have lost Afghanistan, are being hunted in Saudi Arabia, are being killed in the rat holes of Iraq, and stand little if any chance of seizing power in Islamabad. Their charismatic leader is almost certainly dead or at least incapacitated: Even the pretense that "communiqués" are coming from him has practically dried up. It may sound like a callous thing to say, but Bin Laden did us all a favor by showing his fangs in that way and then neglecting to have a Plan B.

And this closing line:

Not to end on too festive or seasonal a note, but the disarming of three rogue regimes in under one year isn't bad. If Howard Dean really believes that we are no safer than we were on Sept. 11 (and I presume he can't literally mean that the removal of the Taliban made no difference), then it's time he said what he would have done differently.

NABLUS, West Bank, Dec 23, 2003 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- Palestinian children are collecting cards showing gunmen and soldiers the way American kids trade baseball cards, and some educators are concerned that the uprising hobby is helping to breed a new generation of militants.

Do you think. I'll trade you two Abbas' for one Arafat, straight-up.

An anti-war reporter comes clean about correspondence received:

On this eve of the Christian celebration of a baby, I celebrate you. In June, I wrote a column that said our soldiers must be dying for oil, since we found no weapons of mass destruction. I wrote, "Nearly another 50 soldiers have died in nebulous situations that range from justifiable self-defense to dubious overreactions more reminiscent of the shootings of American students and rioters by National Guardsmen in the 1960s."

That column sparked a letter from the father of a 20-year-old soldier who died a month after President Bush declared major combat operations to be over. The father wrote: "The use of the word `nebulous' is insulting to all who do their duty every day and especially to those who lose their lives. My son died doing what he volunteered for, doing something he loved and was exceptional at.

"You insult his intelligence by intimating that he was some sort of dupe in this grand power play for the world's oil. If you have a point, then make it, but do not invoke the memory of my son to justify your political point of view. . . . My son willingly followed the orders of his commander in chief to accomplish a mission.

"During his time in Iraq, he grew to like and respect the people there. On missions (prior to his death) he earned the Bronze Star, the Army Commendation Medal, and the Meritorious Service Medal. All this from a 20-year-old Airborne infantryman. Do not dare to insult his memory by equating him with a barrel of oil."

That is how most former military folks feel. I volunteered, I was not drafted. I joined knowing full well that an incident such as the USS Cole bombing could happen. I served knowing that I could be placed in dangerous situations.

But, alas. he can't hide his liberalism:

If it is of any solace to you, despite my opposition to the war, I salute the fact that you are ready to give your lives for an ideal. Be careful as you patrol the streets. Defend yourselves if you must.

When you can, take a hard look at the Iraqi man, woman, or child your gun is pointed at. You are in Iraq under the orders of the commander in chief. I cannot do anything about that. What I can wish for is that even as many Christians prepare to sing "Peace on earth, goodwill to men," that you find a way, one soldier at a time, to bring it to Iraq. I pray that babies stop killing babies.

More babies have been saved due to us being there than from us being there. The American servicemen (and woman) is allowing the children of Iraq to have a future worth looking forward to.

Though Christ is aware that His birthday is one of Earth's biggest holidays, He said it hasn't been important to Him lately.

"I remember when I turned 1,000, I was really excited," said Christ. "A bunch of the apostles threw a big surprise party for me at the Sea of Galilee, and it was such a great time—I don't even want to tell you how much water we turned into wine that night. But once I turned 1,000, each birthday sort of became less and less of a big deal. It's like, once you're a thousandsomething, you don't even get so excited about birthdays anymore. The past few hundred birthdays, I've generally celebrated by just going out to dinner with a good friend or something mellow like that."

"I am so over the hill," He said. "God, in another 497 years, I'm going to be 2,500. I can't believe it."

Despite Christ's pleading with friends not to "make a whole big production" out of His birthday, some suspect He is secretly hoping for a surprise party.

"Every time I bring up the subject, He says, 'Don't do anything special for Me, don't get me any presents, all I want is peace on Earth, I'm not some kid in his 840s anymore'—blah, blah, blah," St. Matthew said. "That's vintage Jesus for you. Well, I have news for Him: Nobody is going to 'just forget.'"

This and other great stuff at The Onion.

If I don't get the chance later this week, Merry Christmas and Happy Hannukah to everyone who reads this drivel I attempt to write most days. If I entertain you, great. If I irritate you, well I don't care, I irritate my beautiful wife too. If I make you read the links and think...that's the friggin point. Give your mom, dad, wife, girlfriend, boyfriend, sister, brother, significant other, friend, and/or mistress a big ole kiss and enjoy the holidays. Contact me at sswenviron@comcast.net

What kind of wuss do you have to be to get beat up by this guy:

White Stripes lead singer Jack White was charged Monday with aggravated assault after a fight with the lead singer of another band.

White went to a police precinct early Sunday morning and gave a statement saying he struck Von Bondies lead singer Jason Stollsteimer in self-defense.

The Dec. 13 fight between White and Stollsteimer began shortly before midnight at the Majestic Theatre Center, where both men were in the audience for another concert.

Stollsteimer, 25, told police that White had punched him seven times in the face. Police said Stollsteimer's right eye was bruised and swollen and he was bleeding from his nose. He was taken to Detroit Receiving Hospital, where he was treated and released.

That's like getting your ass beat by Michael Jackson. I think I'd just lick my wounds, stuff some tissues up my nose, and not tell anyone.

I can't believe I even have to say this, but how bad was Saddam as a ruler:

Golzareh-Shohadah is lined with marble plaques and tin stands, each containing a small shrine to the dead soldier, giving each a human face and story. Every Friday, mothers come with rose water and small brooms to sweep the headstones before they sit down and cry for their lost sons. "I start with my oldest son," says Zainab M. "My other two are buried on the next block. I lost them all within three days of one another." For Zainab, news of Hussein's capture doesn't mean much. "It won't bring my sons back. The closure must come for the other families, those who never got the bodies back." She motions a few plots away. "That family lost eight sons; only six of them were found. Most without heads, Saddam is to blame. He must answer for our dead."

There is no equivalence with the war we fought and the war Saddam fought with Iran. He sent greater hundreds of thousands of people to their deaths for nothing:

In 1983 Iran launched three major, but unsuccessful, human wave offensives, with huge losses, along the frontier. On February 6, Tehran, using 200,000 "last reserve" Pasdaran troops, attacked along a 40-kilometer stretch near Al Amarah, about 200 kilometers southeast of Baghdad. Backed by air, armor, and artillery support, Iran's six-division thrust was strong enough to break through. In response, Baghdad used massive air attacks, with more than 200 sorties, many flown by attack helicopters. More than 6,000 Iranians were killed that day, while achieving only minute gains. In April 1983, the Mandali-Baghdad northcentral sector witnessed fierce fighting, as repeated Iranian attacks were stopped by Iraqi mechanized and infantry divisions. Casualties were very high, and by the end of 1983, an estimated 120,000 Iranians and 60,000 Iraqis had been killed. Despite these losses, in 1983 Iran held a distinct advantage in the attempt to wage and eventually to win the war of attrition.

Casualty figures are highly uncertain, though estimates suggest more than one and a half million war and war-related casualties -- perhaps as many as a million people died, many more were wounded, and millions were made refugees. Iraq's victory was not without cost. The Iraqis suffered an estimated 375,000 casualties, the equivalent of 5.6 million for a population the size of the United States. Another 60,000 were taken prisoner by the Iranians. Iran's losses may have included more than 1 million people killed or maimed. The war claimed at least 300,000 Iranian lives and injured more than 500,000, out of a total population which by the war's end was nearly 60 million. Without diminishing the horror of either war, Iranian losses in the eight-year Iran-Iraq war appear modest compared with those of the European contestants in the four years of World War I, shedding some light on the limits of the Iranian tolerance for martyrdom. During the Great War, German losses were over 1,700,000 killed and over 4,200,000 wounded [out of a total population of over 65 million]. Germany's losses, relative to total national population, were at least five times higher than Iran. France suffered over 1,300,000 deaths and over 4,200,000 wounded. The percentages of pre-war population killed or wounded were 9% of Germany, 11% of France, and 8% of Great Britain.

At the end, virtually none of the issues which are usually blamed for the war had been resolved. When it was over, the conditions which existed at the beginning of the war remained virtually unchanged. Although Iraq won the war militarily, and possessed a significant military advantage over Iran in 1989, the 1991 Persian Gulf War reduced Iraq's capabilities to a point where a rough parity existed between Iran and Iraq-conditions similar to those found in 1980. The UN-arranged cease-fire merely put an end to the fighting, leaving two isolated states to pursue an arms race with each other, and with the other countries in the region. The Iraqi military machine -- numbering more than a million men with an extensive arsenal of CW, extended range Scud missiles, a large air force and one of the world's larger armies -- emerged as the premier armed force in the Persian Gulf region. In the Middle East, only the Israel Defense Force had superior capability.

A few things to make you think about Dean and his ability to be President:

Q: How did you get the bug to do this and enter politics?

A: Jimmy Carter. I was a big fan of Jimmy Carter’s and I worked in his 1980 re-election campaign and got to know a lot of people in politics in Vermont. Politics in Vermont until you get to the most senior levels is a part-time profession, so I was county chairman for a while I was practicing medicine ... I was in the legislature.

If I was running for high office, Jimmy Carter wouldn't come up in any sentence that didn't start with "I'd do everything different..."

What would PETA say?

JEDDAH, 22 December 2003 — Pilgrims at this year’s Haj will slaughter as many as 700,000 heads of sheep and several thousand heads of camels and cows, with much of the sacrificial meat then distributed among the poor.

The animals will be sacrificed under a special project initiated by the Kingdom two decades ago. Known as Saudi Arabia’s Sacrificial Meat Utilization Project, it is designed to make use of the meat by distributing it to the poor and needy in the Kingdom and abroad.

Around two million Muslims from all over the world, half of them from Saudi Arabia, are expected to perform the annual pilgrimage this time.

MMM, Camel.

The nation is at Orange and we're vigilant:


WASHINGTON (AP) - The head of the Department of Homeland Security on Monday urged people to "just go about your business" despite the decision to raise the national terror-attack warning to its second-highest level.

"I think it's very, very important to send a message to the terrorists of goodwill and resolve," said Tom Ridge, making the rounds of nationally broadcast morning news shows. He said the Bush administration wants people to "be vigilant and have a good communications plan under way."

After briefing President Bush on Monday, Ridge reiterated to reporters that the intelligence community considered the new threat "the most significant threat" to the country since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

"We've never quite seen it at this level before," Ridge said.

We will be attacked again, sooner, rather than later I fear. The next five years are going to be a trying time that we must endure. We've been lucky since Sept. 11, but our luck will end and we will have to deal with terrorism on a smaller, yet much more personal level.

I heard this as it was happening:

It was a football sideline interview -- complete with a pass.

ESPN cut short an interview with Joe Namath during Saturday's Jets-Patriots game -- after some curious answers from the Hall of Fame quarterback.

When reporter Suzy Kolber asked Namath what the Jets' struggles this season mean to him personally, he leaned in and said: "I want to kiss you."

Kolber's reply: "Thanks, Joe. A huge compliment."

Namath later repeated: "I want to kiss you." Kolber sent it back to the announcers in the booth.

The network said Namath also "made some relevant football points" -- but adds it wouldn't have done the interview if it had known what Namath was going to say.

The Jets aren't commenting on the exchange.

Joe sounded as though two or 10vmartinis had been imbibed prior to the game. Suzy handled it as a pro and Mike Patrick went on with the game.

Lileks is back, and with a bonus cute picture of dancer Gnat.

It couldn't have been the Bush Doctrine that forced Moammar to come clean, it just couldn't have been. The Dems are fighting like little girls against the thought that it could work:

The White House portrayed Libya's promise to abandon its plans for weapons of mass destruction as affirmation of President Bush's hard-line strategy on arms proliferation and suggested the Iraq war helped convince Moammar Gadhafi that he should act.

Some experts on arms control, however, pointed to what is known about how and when the agreement came about and said Libya's turnaround offered proof the United States should shift tactics in dealing with North Korea, Syria and other nations. A greater commitment is needed, they said, to the kind of patient but firm diplomacy that worked with Libya.

"The President is trying hard to portray this as a victory for his strategy," said Joseph Cirincione, director of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's nonproliferation project. "But when you look at this, it's almost the opposite of the Bush doctrine."

Imagine that. A liberal not understanding that force can bring about peaceful resolutions of tense issues. Inconceivable.

The Inquirer Letters Page never leaves me wanting for material. Here's this:

Neutrality needed

Recently, letters and columns have been published advocating support for both the Israelis and the Palestinians. The writers fail to see that the only way for peace to be achieved is for the United States to disengage completely from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Our government should end any diplomatic, financial, commercial, or military support for either side.

Doing so would weaken the infrastructures of both groups to such an extent that they would be forced to either come to terms or watch as their dreams of statehood crumbled under economic and military collapse. In this case, neutrality is the best policy.

Michael P. Gallen

Philadelphia

No Mike, if we stopped supporting Israel, their economy would collapse and they'd have no one to trade with. On the Palestinian side, the dictators of the mid-east would throw so much money and arms at Arafat that Israel would cease to exist within ten years. I'll tell you Mike, can I call you Mike, oh never mind, I'll just refer to you as Moron. Listen Moron, Israel is the only democracy in the mid-east, at least until Iraq holds elections. Are you saying that democracy is bad or that Israel is bad? I'd guess the latter. Now this:

Strong argument

Re: "War's progress may doom Dems," Commentary Page, Dec. 17:

Robert Stewart misses the whole point. He argues in a circular fashion that we were justified in invading a sovereign nation not at war with us because the postwar occupation is going better than expected. He sees Saddam Hussein's capture as confirmation that our cause was just. The Democratic candidates who supported the war but not the postwar planning may indeed have little more to say, but the candidates who opposed the war from the beginning do not have to change a word of their argument.

The invasion of Iraq was based on deception, and nothing that happens now can change that.

Gloria C. Endres

Philadelphia
sisglo@aol.com

Ah Gloria, we were at war with Iraq. At the cessation of hostilities in the original Gulf War, a cease fire was signed, holding Iraq accountable for certain actions, which they didn't comply with. As for the candidates who didn't support the war, watch how fast Howard Dean rushes to the center if he gets the nomination. The anti-war liberals are but a small fraction of the electorate and he'll drop you like an unshaven, feminist chick that he woke up with after a drunken bender.

And on that happy note, we'll leave the rest for another day.

The annual (at least when a Republican is the President) former middle-class, now out of work at Christmas story. If I lost my job tomorrow morning, by the afternoon I'd be working at Home Depot or Target. I feel bad he lost his job, but suck it up and get something to keep paying the mortgage, it'll get better. The Inquirer is good for this every year.

The VNS polls from the 2002 mid-terms are finally released and they indicate what was evident to everyone but the Democrats, America since Sept. 11 is edging to the right:

The Voter News Service, a media consortium that interviewed thousands of voters as they left the polls, didn't deliver its results on Election Night last year because of computer errors and other glitches. After some scrubbing for suspect numbers in individual states, the surveys paint a picture of a country that is not nearly as divided on a political knife-edge as conventional wisdom has it. In the 2000 presidential and House races, America may have been split exactly down the middle. But in 2002, Republicans opened up a gap. The GOP won the national vote for House seats by 51% to 46% and voters who identified themselves as "conservative" increased to 34% from 30%.

Even more importantly, the number of self-identified "liberals" shrank in 2002 despite all the frantic efforts of Michael Moore and Al Franken to whip up the troops. GOP pollster David Winston notes that, in 2002, the number of self-identified liberals dipped to the lowest level in the past four elections -- 17%. "Moderates" continued to dominate the electorate, representing 49% of all votes cast.

If the 2002 exit poll numbers were duplicated in next year's presidential electorate, the sledding would be rough for a liberal candidate. He or she would have to carry the Democratic base plus pick up "moderate" voters by a 2 to 1 margin. That's why if Howard Dean becomes the Democratic nominee, you can expect he will madly dash to the center, spewing rhetoric about balanced budgets and the need to leave social issues out of the campaign. But Democratic consultants wonder if a man who has called for repealing all the Bush tax cuts and signed a bill legalizing civil unions for gays in Vermont can pull off that trick.

Howard Dean has got so much press and said so many things on the record, Bush and Rove are sure to cram every word down his throat during the general election.

Dana Milbank typed this out with clenched teeth and probably broke his keyboard afterward:

It has been a week of sweet vindication for those who promulgated what they call the Bush Doctrine.

Beginning with the capture of Saddam Hussein a week ago and ending Friday with an agreement by Libya's Moammar Gaddafi to surrender his unconventional weapons, one after another international problem has eased.

On Tuesday, the leaders of France and Germany set aside their long-standing opposition to the war in Iraq and agreed to forgive an unspecified amount of that country's debt. On Thursday, Iran signed an agreement allowing surprise inspections of its nuclear facilities after European governments applied intense pressure on the U.S. foe. On Friday, Libya agreed to disarm under the watch of international inspectors, just as administration officials were learning that Syria had seized $23.5 million believed to be for al Qaeda.

To foreign policy hard-liners inside and outside the administration, the gestures by Libya, Iran and Syria, and the softening by France and Germany, all have the same cause: a show of American might.

Those who developed the Bush Doctrine -- a policy of taking preemptive, unprovoked action against emerging threats -- predicted that an impressive U.S. victory in Iraq would intimidate allies and foes alike, making them yield to U.S. interests in other areas. Though that notion floundered with the occupation in Iraq, the capture of Hussein may have served as the decisive blow needed to make others respect U.S. wishes, they say.

The Bush Doctrine is working. Watching Saddam being poked and prodded, and seeing where he was hiding, probably put the fear of Allah in them. It's simple, toe the line and get terrorist elements out of your country, or the possibility of the US ousting you. Sounds pretty easy. Not to John Kerry, however:

Bush's domestic adversaries have had some trouble responding to the administration's diplomatic successes. Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), a presidential aspirant, portrayed the success with Libya as an exception to the Bush Doctrine. "Ironically, this significant advance represents a complete U-turn in the Bush administration's overall foreign policy," he said in a statement Saturday. "An administration that scorns multilateralism and boasts about a rigid doctrine of military preemption has almost in spite of itself demonstrated the enormous potential for improving our national security through diplomacy."

As the article goes on to say, John, unilateralism is the reason this works, the US can, and will go it alone if need be. No wonder this guy is trailing everyone but Kucinich and Mosely-Braun in the polls. He sounds so damned mealy-mouthed and whiny when he says anything, that no one takes him seriously.

If I had to listen to Al Gore my entire life, I'd be a pothead too:

The son of former vice president and 2000 Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore has been charged with marijuana possession.

Albert A. Gore III, 21, was arrested Friday night after he was stopped for driving a vehicle without its headlights on.

Number one rule, Dude. If your going to blow a spliff, turn the headlights on when you drive. It's a sure tip-off to the cops.

Finally, a leader with the huevos to say the truth:

US President George W. Bush told an Israeli journalist that "we must get rid of" Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, the mass-circulation Yediot Aharonot daily has reported.

Bush's comments came in a brief exchange with the paper's correspondent during a Christmas drinks party in Washington, several hours after a keynote speech by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon Thursday in which he outlined plans for unilateral disengagement from peace negotiations with the Palestinians.

The US government has boycotted Arafat with Bush accusing the veteran leader of failing the Palestinian people. Israel has also shunned the 74-year-old, branding him an absolute obstacle to peace and confining him to his West Bank headquarters for more than two years.

Arafat is a terrorist who has had a hand in numerous murders. He further is a dictator. Dictators should be arrested in tried for those murders ordered. Sounds simple.

Like the BBC, are PBS and NPR about to get some heat? I hope so.

I thought Howard Dean was the radical who was going to revolutionize the Democratic Party. Turns out He's not even man enough to stand up to Slick Willy:

CLINTON, Iowa, Dec. 19 — Howard Dean and his aides scrambled on Friday to show off their ties to the Clinton administration. They were trying to undo any damage done on Thursday, when Dr. Dean, in a speech on domestic policy, offended party moderates who thought they saw an implicit slap at the Democratic Party's most recent occupant of the White House.

Campaign aides circulated a two-page memorandum that outlined the history of the relationship between Bill Clinton and Dr. Dean, including quotations from each laying garlands of good will upon the other.

Clintonites-turned-Deaniacs called reporters to explain what their new standard-bearer had meant.

The candidate himself, after calling the former president to clear up things, made sure to mention him at a town hall meeting in Burlington, saying, "We're going to take back the country of Harry Truman, the country of Franklin Roosevelt, the country of Bill Clinton."

What a friggin' wuss.

Socialist Germany realizes that a welfare state may not work:

German lawmakers yesterday approved a program to boost Europe's biggest economy by pruning cherished welfare-state programs and cutting taxes, reforms championed by Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

Schroeder appeared relieved after the series of votes in both houses of parliament, which capped nine months of intense debate about Germany's future since he unveiled his plans in March with the country limping through its third year of economic stagnation.

"One of the most important and biggest reform projects in the history of the country has been carried through," said Schroeder, who had pinned his political future to passing the package by Christmas.

Cutting spending and cutting taxes, what a novel idea.

The deal moves $11 billion in income tax cuts forward by a year to Jan. 1, adding to $7.6 billion previously slated for 2004. To help offset lost revenue, lawmakers cut a popular subsidy for first-time homeowners and pushed up tobacco taxes.

Yet economists cautioned that the tax cuts would have a limited impact on growth with a jobless rate stuck around 10 percent.

A 10% jobless rate? That's almost Jimmy Carteresque.

The design for the WTC site is nice. I like the fact that it'll be 1,776 feet, the worlds tallest.

Meryl Yourish smacks the AP for biased reporting on deaths in the three year Intifada:

Emphasis, of course, is mine. Rachel effing Corrie is included on the palestinian side. European journalists are included as "palestinian deaths." Excuse me, but when did Britain and Italy become part of the palestinian state? What kind of bullshit is this, to take deaths in a battle zone and attribute them to the Israeli side, while quantifying dozens of Israeli deaths by saying that the victims also were U.S. citizens with dual citizenship? They had emigrated. They were Israelis.

Also included in the death rates for palestinians: "Suspected collaborators: 60." As if the Israelis are responsible for the murder (without trial) of sixty supposed collaborators. No, the pals are the ones who executed this mother of seven. Yet she is included in the statistics, which are then inflated and Israel is blamed for deaths which were not her responsibility.

Hat tip the indispensible LGF.

Austin Bay on the "cascading effect":

The short and long term significance of these "cascading effects" depend on many things, including American diplomatic skill and the emerging effectiveness of Iraq’s Governing Council, but here’s a list of interesting "could-bes":

Immediate security effects in Iraq: Saddam’s capture provided immediate operational intelligence, with the names of financiers, bomb-makers, and resistance leaders among his papers. His documents fingered another dozen terror cells in Baghdad.

Damage to fascist morale: Though Baath and Al Qaeda terror attacks continue, Saddam’s arrest saps the morale of even the most hard-core thugs. Chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff General Richard Myers said it well: "When you take this leader ...and find him in a hole in the ground, that is a powerful signal that you maybe on the wrong team and maybe should be thinking about some other line of work."

Strategic intelligence: Pumping Saddam for details on his Weapons of Mass Destruction programs will take time, but the long-term pay-off will be an improved US and UN capability to counter the proliferation of nuclear and chemical weapons. Likewise, the evidence that Saddam facilitated both secular and religious terrorists is mounting, Our ability to counter terror networks will improve.

It appears as though it's starting to work outside Iraq:

Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy, ostracized for decades by Western nations for his role in supporting terrorism, agreed yesterday to dismantle the country's weapons of mass destruction as part of a deal with Britain and the United States that would bring Libya slowly back into the international community.

I guess Khadafy didn't like the idea of being pulled out of a hole.

Glenn Reynolds has more.

Sgt. Stryker reminisces about the military and Saddam:

I won't bore you with all stuff that happened during the 90's, since most of you have at least a passing knowledge of the "Peace Dividend", the drawdown, the restructurings, the RIFs, doing more with less, the humanitarian missions, the relief missions and the peacekeeping operations. While all this was going on, 90-day rotations to Saudi became the norm. The light of liberty to the world debased itself before a King. Every so often, we'd play whack-a-mole with Saddam when he'd decided the world had forgotten about him. We'd lob a few Tomahawks his way and we'd forget about him until he poked his head up again or the President faced a political crisis at home. I often wondered what went through Saddam's mind when he watched CNN and saw that President was in trouble. "Oh *@#!, here it comes. Batten the hatches, boys, we've got incoming!"

I distinctly remember one occasion a few months after I joined the Air Force when a few buddies and I were eating at the chow hall and talking about the Gulf War. I'd said something to the effect that we'd stopped to soon, we left the guy in power and now we're going to pay for it until he dies, just like Castro in Cuba. Some TSgt at another table turned around and gave us the party line about why we couldn't take out Saddam. Our allies wouldn't go for it, the American people wouldn't want to see a bunch of people dying in Baghdad, it would be too hard and we had no idea if the guy who took over after Saddam would be worse. Like I said, that was the Party Line and you never found a shortage of people in the military to tow it, but that's just the way things are in the military. "We're at war with Oceania. We've always been at war with Oceania." That sort of thing. Well, I'm still here, that Tsgt's gone and I guess I ended up being right after all. I guess if you wait long enough, that eventually happens.

He want to bootcamp at the same time I did. We should've finished it in '91.

Hitchens on Saddams capture and the repercussions:

Throwing off all secular disguise, they have adopted the rhetoric and method of jihad and this will be their selling point for some time.

However, they have lost their rallying point. And a number of Iraqis who have been hesitant and fearful until now can be expected to straighten up and look people in the eye.

In Baghdad and Basra in the summer, I met several people who could not be convinced Saddam wasn't coming back. It was the same in Ceausescu's Romania, where it took a while before citizens would believe the local Dracula was really dead. A diet of fear is bad for the system and has pernicious long-term effects.

An Iraqi religious leader allowed to see Saddam after his capture found the tyrant defiant and unrepentant. Those cheering his fall were "mobs" and those who were found in mass graves were "thieves".

I can't wait to see him repeat this in the dock. Meanwhile, the whole enterprise of re-making Iraq is greatly clarified by the certain knowledge that there's no going back.

I can't wait to see Saddam, on trial, in front of his victims and the world.

Let's revisit the letter writers of the Philly metro area:

One of the time-honored principles governing human behavior that I learned as a child was that "the end never justifies the means."

As I have watched and listened to the propaganda hype over the capture of Saddam Hussein, my thoughts have been that this sacred principle is now being totally disemboweled.

I suspect that the image of the disheveled, filthy Hussein is being successfully employed to dupe the public into forgetting the death, disruption, lies, deception and billions of dollars that have allowed the Bush administration to arrive at this point.

My expectation is that this public relations spin will have its desired effect overall. But I for one will have none of it as justification for the geopolitical philosophy of a few ideologues in Washington.

I think in quite a few cases Joe, the end does justify the means. I guess you were taught all the other important lessons like; "don't piss into the wind" or "where clean underwear in case you're in an accident". Will you feel the same way when we get Osama? Would you prefer we return Saddam to all of his 57 palaces? Joe is a great example of the unraveling left. They can't support the capture of a murderous despot. You're pathetic Joe.

The token right gets a play today:

Yearly, at the anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, some citizens or officials from Japan criticize the United States. Several are now protesting the Smithsonian Institution's display of the plane, the Enola Gay, that dropped that bomb, because no mention is made of the 140,000 Japanese civilians who were killed by that bomb and the thousands of others who were maimed.

The Smithsonian should mention this. It is part of fact, part of history, part of the truth. Dropping the bomb was an atrocity during a war that saw many, many atrocities.

The rationale for using the first atomic weapon was that it would hasten the end of the war and save the lives of countless U.S. troops who most likely would have had to invade Japan. Though seldom mentioned, it saved the lives of thousands of Asians whose countries were occupied by the Japanese.

In contrast to Germany, Japan has never admitted its own atrocities or made reparations. After the protesters leave the Smithsonian, perhaps, in the interest of full disclosure, they can protest in Japan against their government's policy.
S. Reid Warren III

Amen Mr. Warren.

Women are waiting longer to have kids then ever before:

The average age at which American women are having their first child has climbed to an all-time high of 25.1, the government said yesterday.

The rise reflects a drop in teen births and an increase in the number of women who are putting off motherhood until their 30s and 40s.

The age of first-time American mothers has risen steadily during the last three decades, from an average of 21.4 in 1970. The latest figure, for 2002, was released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Women contemplating motherhood "are more likely to wait," CDC statistician Joyce Martin said. "It's good overall for infant health, because birth outcomes for teen moms are problematic."

The teen birthrate fell 30 percent in the last decade to a historic low of 43 births per 1,000 females in 2002. The CDC also said births among women ages 20 to 24 had dropped to 104 per 1,000 women, from a high of 109.7 in 2000.

The government attributed the drop in the teen birthrate to health campaigns by public and private agencies that discourage teen pregnancies and promote abstinence.

Maybe it has to do with parents teaching kids not to have sex, or more likely not to have sex without protection.

For the first time in months, the Inquirer has nothing about Iraq on the front page.

How bad of a campaign are you running when you are behind Sharpton? Ask Kerry and Edwards.

Tim Blair is blogging up a storm. Just click and start scrolling.

How big was getting Saddam? It starting to add up:

BAGHDAD, Dec. 16 -- A document discovered during the capture of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein has enabled U.S. military authorities to assemble detailed knowledge of a key network behind as many as 14 clandestine insurgent cells, a senior U.S. military officer said Tuesday.

"I think this network that sits over the cells was clearly responsible for financing of the cells, and we think we're into that network," said Army Brig. Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, commander of the 1st Armored Division.

Acting quickly after realizing the significance of the document, which Dempsey likened to minutes of a meeting, troops of the 1st Armored Division conducted raids Sunday and Monday that netted three former Iraqi generals suspected of financing and guiding insurgent operations in the Baghdad area.

Dempsey declined to name the three officers who were detained. He said none was on the Pentagon's list of the 55 most wanted Iraqis but said their family names were familiar to U.S. authorities, suggesting that relatives of the men had come under suspicion.

Let's see how fanatical they are without funding.

Nine straight:

So here we are at 2269 Dan Marino Blvd., at the midpoint between Miami and Fort Lauderdale, where the windchill is about, oh, say, 73, and where thousands of Eagles fans have parachuted in, bringing their passion and their own unique brand of antifreeze with them. In flasks.

Christmas has indeed come early for local bail bondsmen.

The Eagles haven't lost in two months and have that runaway-locomotive look about them. The Dolphins, who score 40 one week and get shut out the next, are in a desperate way, the playoffs slipping from their frantic grasp.

It is a game freighted with significance and consequence for both teams, the Eagles needing to keep pace in the home-field-forever race.

Though we don't know it at the time, they are about to luck up in a reprise of Gunfight at the OK Corral. They will play a wildly entertaining, back-and-forth, fire-in-the-hole game.

The Eagles will win, and it is huge, and now there is no reason to think that they will lose again. Not only have they generated momentum. They are getting better each game.

Bill Lyon rules.

The Enola Gay carried a weapon so devastating that it wiped out thousands of Japanese. It also saved thousands of American Marines. How is this plane, that's now on display treated?

Monday's opening of the National Air and Space Museum's new Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center was marred by a protester who damaged one of the museum's historic aircraft.
The B-29 Enola Gay's fragile aluminum-alloy skin was damaged when a glass bottle filled with red paint was thrown at the aircraft from a walkway above it. The bottle hit the plane's left side, denting an area just below the third row of windows and then shattered on the floor.
``There was a pop, then a splat, then I turned around and saw that there was some damage to the airframe,'' said an employee at the museum, located at Dulles International Airport.
Museum security detained Thomas K. Siemer, 73, of Columbus, Ohio, around 11:15 a.m. until police from the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority arrested him and charged him with felony damage to property and loitering.
Siemer was taken to the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center after his arrest. Bond information was not available Monday afternoon.
He was part of a contingent of 40 to 50 protesters who objected to the Smithsonian's refusal to include information in the plane's exhibit about the 103,000 deaths it caused when it dropped a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, said museum spokesman Peter Golkin.

The Japanese attacked us you moron. We were finishing a battle they started and they weren't giving up on lightly.

Reuters, the "News Organization" wins an award that should be named for them:

With over 200 news bureaus worldwide, Reuters stakes its claim as "the largest international multi-media news agency." Though Reuters' own editorial policy claims the agency's reporters "do not offer subjective opinion," and intend merely "to enable readers and viewers to form their own judgement," in fact Reuters' coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is flagrantly biased against Israel. Some examples from 2003:

* In January, Reuters blamed Israel for "killing" Palestinian suicide bombers:

Iraq has paid millions of dollars to families of Palestinians, including those of suicide bombers, killed by Israeli forces since the start of the uprising in September 2000.

* As Israel prepared to build a wall to protect worshippers at Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem, Reuters published this headline:

"Israel to Split Christ's Birthplace with Barrier"

To emphasize its (completely external) point, Reuters repeated the word "Christ" or "Christian" in each of the article's first four sentences.

Read the whole thing. Reuters is so anti-Israel and anti-American that it's a friggin disgrace that anyone would use what the publish.

And to punctuate that point, MSNBC publishes this drivel.

The Inquirer has blogger response to the capture of Saddam:

Right-leaning bloggers could barely contain themselves.

"Holy Fashizzle!" wrote Matt Welch, associate editor of Reason magazine, coining a word for fascist that Snoop Dogg might have used on Doggy Fizzle Televizzle. On mattwelch.com, he wrote: "Still would rather have the monster who blew up our buildings, but any day a murderous dictator is captured is a very good day."

Mark Steyn at marksteyn.com marveled, "A captured Saddam with a tongue depressor in his mouth. His tongue can't be half as depressed as the French, John Kerry, Howard Dean, The Guardian et al."

I highly doubt that the reporter read Mark Steyns column as the connection between Mark Steyn who is published everywhere and Steyn the blogger wasn't made.

And now from the left:

Self-described soccer dad Tbogg (tbogg.blogspot.com) argued that just because we got the bad guy "doesn't mean that the unprovoked invasion was the right thing to do, nor is the occupation." Iraq won't be happy once U.S. corporations "finish acquiring all the Iraqi assets" and "have their own little colonial empire to bleed dry," he warned.

TBogg is an idiot by the way. You can click the link but I've saved you the trouble by reading his drivel.

For that Jew on your Hanukkah/Christmas list who has everything:

Tell the world, "I'm all about the PEACE motherf***rs!!"

A great unisex cut...JEWCY logo on the front and SHALOM on the back....you'll be chillin' like Dylan in this limited edition Tee.

100% combed cotton with a softer, smoother feel and an old-skool 80's tailored cut. Buy a size larger than usual if you want it loose.

As our Bubbe says, "Wear it in good health!"

And it doesn't cost alot of gelt.

I don't have time to comment on this, but here's a speech by Michael Crichton on the environment.

My Birds have a big one tonight. Shut down Ricky Williams and a pick or two and they'll win it.

Bush says what we all feel at his press conference today:

QUESTION: You say this is not personal, but you've also pointed out this was a man who tried to murder your father. What is your greeting today?
BUSH: "Good riddance. The world is better off without you, Mr. Saddam Hussein. And I find it very interesting that when the heat got on you dug yourself a hole and you crawled in it. And our brave troops, combined with good intelligence, found you. And you'll be brought to justice, something you did not afford the people you brutalized in your own country."

Emphasis mine.

Strom Thurmond was getting busy in his younger years:

The late Sen. Strom Thurmond's family on Monday said it acknowledges a California woman's claim that she is his illegitimate mixed-race daughter. Her lawyer said the statement brought her "a sigh of relief."

"As J. Strom Thurmond has passed away and cannot speak for himself, the Thurmond family acknowledges Ms. Essie Mae Washington-Williams' claim to her heritage. We hope this acknowledgment will bring closure for Ms. Williams," the family's lawyer, J. Mark Taylor, said in a brief statement.

I hate the word illegitimate when describing a child. I guess the Strom is racist rhetoric wasn't exactly true.

A true "Fisking" in the Telegraph.

I guess Khatami doesn't want to live in a spider hole. Iran is "Doing it's Best":

This sounds like a soldier who is at the low end of the morale measurement:

When the soldiers first found Saddam, he raised his hands above his head, military officials said.


"I am Saddam Hussein," he said, according to the officials. "I am the president of Iraq and I want to negotiate."


The U.S. soldiers reportedly responded: "President Bush sends his regards."

Sounds to me as though he hates the President.

Andrew Sullivan has amassed the written words of a Left that is in full melt-down mode. My personal favorites are this:

"I can't believe this. I'm crying here. I feel that we now don't have a chance in this election." - poster Carrie B. on Howard Dean's campaign blog.

And this:

does how does this help someone facing a bleak Christmas because they lost their job? How does this help someone with an illness who just lost their insurance coverage? How does this help someone who's underemployed, working several jobs and struggling to pay the mortgage?
It just don't make me any money.

I can't wait until we get Osama, they will become 100% unhinged.

How many people did Saddam kill and bulldoxe into mass graves like so much refuse? Go here and see for yourself.

Peggy Noonan, for no other reason than she is the best writer I've read.

One last link:

In Yemen, Mohammed Abdel Qader Mohammadi, 50, said he was surprised Saddam didn't fight his capture. "I expected him to resist or commit suicide before falling into American hands. He disappointed a lot of us, he's a coward."

Of course he's a coward. Typical Mid-East dictator, send their people to die, but afraid to die themselves.

"It's a major event that should strongly contribute to democracy and stability in Iraq and allow the Iraqis to master their destiny," French President Jacques Chirac said in a statement.

Nice sentiment, you're still not getting contracts weasel.

And lastly, words from a man in my former hometowns:

In San Diego, Alan Zangana, a 48-year-old Kurd who fled Iraq in 1981, said the phone at his Chula Vista home started ringing early Sunday with people sharing the reports that Saddam had been captured.

"I have been waiting for this for the last 35 years," said Zangana, director of Kurdish Human Rights Watch in the San Diego suburb of El Cajon.

Saddam instituted a policy of genocide against the Kurds and Zangana said oppression in his oil-rich hometown of Kirkuk was severe.

"Nobody is going to be happy today like the Kurds," Zangana said. "He killed a lot of us."

I actually lived in Chula Vista and El Cajon. They have a large Iraqi population in the area. That last line kinda says it all.

To read more about Saddams capture, go here, here, and here.

The Palestinians aren't happy:

Disbelief and gloom seized many Palestinians Sunday at news of Saddam Hussein's capture as Israel fired off a telegram of congratulations to Washington.

The former Iraqi ruler was a hero to many Palestinians for his stand against Israel and its U.S. ally, as well as for helping families of Palestinians dead in an uprising.

For Israel, he was a menace over the horizon who long bankrolled the enemy.

"It's a black day in history," said Sadiq Husam, 33, a taxi driver in Ramallah, West Bank seat of the Palestinian Authority.

"I am saying so not because Saddam is an Arab, but because he is the only man who said no to American injustice in the Middle East," he said.

There was no immediate reaction from Palestinian President Yasser Arafat or his government.

But Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz hailed Saddam's capture in a telegram to Washington as proof of patience and determination in a war "against the rulers of darkness."

Saddam paid over $35 million to the kin of Palestinian suicide bombers, militants and bystanders who died in an uprising that began in 2000.

My hearts pumping piss for them. No more money to bankroll murder.

(Hat tip: Stephen Green, who's blogging on a Sunday)

More reaction:

Clinton:

"I am glad he was captured alive so he can be brought before the bar of justice for decades of tyranny and murder. I hope his capture will speed Iraq's transformation to a secure and self-governing nation."

McCain:

"It's a fantastic day. It's a great tribute to the military and the intelligence and the young men and women who are over there. ... This has a tremendous psychological effect. ... And I hope, once the trial begins and the exposition of the extent of this despot's crimes are known to our European friends and people around the world, it will further justify our actions in Iraq."

Of course Jay Rockefeller is pissing on the parade because another Dem issue is off the table:

"Given the location and circumstances of his capture, it makes it clear that Saddam was not managing the insurgency, and that he had very little control or influence. That is significant and disturbing because it means the insurgents are not fighting for Saddam, they're fighting against the United States."

Dean handles it as any good American should:

"I think the first order of business is to say this is a great day - I congratulate the Iraqi people - and to say that this is a great day for both the American military and the American people and for the Iraqi people."

Update: Here's the rest of the Dean quote:

"This development provides an enormous opportunity to set a new course and take the American label off the war. We must do everything possible to bring the UN, NATO, and other members of the international community back into this effort.

"Now that the dictator is captured, we must also accelerate the transition from occupation to full Iraqi sovereignty."

He couldn't resist adding the UN/NATO/International community BS.

And of course the craziest candidate, Kucinich:

"The United States must reach out to the world community with a new plan to stabilize Iraq, bring U.N. peacekeepers in, and bring U.S. troops home."

OK Dennis. Take your medicine and take a nap.

The Defense Dept website has more details:

With three words – “We got him” – Ambassador L. Paul Bremer III announced at a press briefing in Baghdad today that U.S. forces had captured Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein near his hometown of Tikrit.

Saddam was taken into custody at a small mud-walled compound outside the village of Adwar at 8:30 p.m. Dec. 13.

About 600 members of the 1st Brigade, 4 th Infantry Division, along with special operations forces, launched Operation Red Dawn after receiving intelligence that Saddam was in the area, said Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, commander of coalition forces in the country.

Bremer, the coalition administrator, said it was a “great day” in Iraq's history. “For decades, hundreds of thousands of you suffered at the hands of this cruel man,” he said. “For decades, Saddam Hussein divided citizens against each other. For decades, he threatened and attacked your neighbors. Those days are over forever.”

The ambassador called on Iraqis to look to the future. He urged those who supported Saddam to reexamine their views and cooperate to build a new Iraq. “Your future has never been more full of hope,” he said.

Sanchez described the operation that captured Saddam. The general said it was a cordon-and-search operation, and coalition forces sustained no casualties. In fact, he said, coalition forces never fired a shot.

“For the last several months, a combination of human intelligence tips, exceptional intelligence analytical efforts and detainee interrogations narrowed down the activities of Saddam Hussein,” Sanchez said.