Considerettes

Via Instapundit, we have a “Hoooold Everything!” moment:

It was Saddam Hussein’s information minister, Mohammed Saeed Sahhaf, often referred to in the Western press as “Baghdad Bob,” who approached an official of the African nation of Niger in 1999 to discuss trade — an overture the official saw as a possible effort to buy uranium.

That’s according to a new book Joseph C. Wilson IV, a former ambassador who was sent to Niger by the CIA in 2002 to investigate reports that Iraq had been trying to buy enriched “yellowcake” uranium. Wilson wrote that he did not learn the identity of the Iraqi official until this January, when he talked again with his Niger source.

So Bush didn’t lie about the whole “yellowcake” thing. Well, I’m glad Wilson set that record straight. I imagine he’ll want to apologize now.

That knowledge has not altered Wilson’s much-expressed view that the Bush administration distorted intelligence on Iraq’s weapons capabilities to help make the case for going to war. Wilson maintains that someone in the administration retaliated against him by disclosing to columnist Robert D. Novak that his wife was a CIA operative, a leak now the subject of a grand jury investigation. The revelation about Sahhaf, contained in “The Politics of Truth: Inside the Lies that Led to War and Betrayed My Wife’s CIA Identity,” adds an odd bit of detail to the uranium saga.

Or not. Wilson still thinks Bush lied, just not about his “intelligence”. Given all the inflammatory stuff he’s accused Bush, Rove, et. al. of, based on his own faulty and incomplete intelligence, I daresay the odds that his wife truly was a covert or undercover operative in the CIA when Bob Novak talked about her (as opposed to just an analyst) are getting pretty bad.

So let’s recap, shall we? Wilson got bad intelligence, and he acted on it. Therefore, WILSON LIED!!! (I’m sure Halliburton is involved in this somewhere.)

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Scrappleface nails Ted Koppel.

Koppel to Read Names of Saddam’s Victims
(2004-04-30) — ABC-TV journalist Ted Koppel, who caused a firestorm of controversy with his plan to read the names of U.S. troops killed in Iraq, today announced that in the interest of balance and fairness next week he will read another list on his show, Nightline.

“I would never want anyone to accuse me of bias. After all, I’m a journalist, devoted to accurately portraying world events,” said Mr. Koppel. “So, next week I will read the list of Iraqis who were raped, tortured and killed by Saddam Hussein’s regime after President George H.W. Bush declared victory in the Gulf War on February 28, 1991.”

Mr. Koppel said next week’s Nightline will be a “special extended episode starting Friday and running non-stop until the day I retire from ABC.”

Satire at it’s finest. I heard Rush Limbaugh also wonder why none of the names of those killed in Afghanistan will be read. Didn’t they also pay a high price for their country, equal to those who died in Iraq? The only difference I can see is that the anti-war crowd were far more vocal about Iraq than they were about Afghanistan, and many who were against the war in Iraq were OK with the one in Afghanistan.

Which makes this Nightline show sound like grandstanding at least, and anti-war boosterism at worst.

UPDATE: In case you forgot…

(CNSNews.com) - During a week when Iraqi war coverage has dominated the cable news shows and led the networks’ evening news programs, newsman Ted Koppel said he thinks Americans need to be ‘reminded’ of what is going on in Iraq.

In a Friday morning interview, Koppel said that’s why he plans to read the names of more than 700 American troops killed in Iraq on Friday night’s “Nightline.”

Iraq? Something’s going on there? I thought the war we were fighting was in Vietnam! (Psst, Ted. Even though many people are fleeing from the biased mainstream media in droves, doesn’t mean we don’t know what’s going on.)

Ah, but he clears things up:

“I’m not suggesting that people in this country don’t know what’s happening, but I think that periodically it is not unreasonable to remind everyone of who these young people are and what they look like.”

How about the ones that are still alive, as well? How about all the good they’re doing? The National Center for Public Policy Research put out a press release on that topic

Believing that it is the best way to respond to ABC broadcaster Ted Koppel, The National Center for Public Policy Research today has posted on its website an extensive list of the achievements of just one of the many U.S. units operating in Iraq.

On his April 30 broadcast Koppel will recite the names of all the Americans killed in combat in Iraq.

The list recounts the achievements of the 16th Combat Engineer Battalion, part of the 1st Armored Division, which has been in Iraq since the war started and remains on active duty there at this time. It was provided by Spc. Joe Roche, who serves with the 285-soldier unit.

Just a little perspective.

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It used to be that they just wanted to be left alone. Now it’s this:

The head of a national homosexual organization is vowing to politically “punish,” “terrify” and “torture” activists who oppose his organization’s agenda on “gay” rights – which he says would give him “endless satisfaction.”

Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force in Washington, D.C., made the comments in yesterday’s edition of Between the Lines, a Detroit area homosexual newsmagazine, the American Family Association of Michigan points out.
…
“I’m … interested in going after, politically, local legislators and leaders that have launched these anti-gay initiatives,” he explained. “‘We beat you, now we’re gonna go back and we’re going to affirmatively punish you’ – people who launch this stuff, so that they understand not only that they’re not going to win, but that there are consequences to it.

“We would set up a [political action committee] and go in and terrify them with a credible challenge. … So we go in, for a modest investment of money and torture these people, which would give me endless satisfaction. And the word would go out very quickly, ‘You know what, this really isn’t worth it.’”

It’s no longer a case of reasoning, they’re now going to use fear and intimidation to get their way. Ah, it’s that the highly touted liberal “tolerance” again.

And Mr. Foreman tips his hand on the same-sex marriage.

Foreman was asked: “Is getting the right to marriage for same-sex couples something the Task Force is interested in?”

He responded: “We want full equality under the law, which, right now, means the freedom to marry. But we’re also hopeful that we create different ways in which people can form relationships and families that don’t come with all the baggage and the downsides of marriage. One of the great things about where we’re going is that we are creating new ways for people to relate, new ways for people to obtain rights and benefits.”

Just call it “The Roadmap of the Slippery Slope”.

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Good News Watch:

There were 190 acts of international terrorism in 2003, a slight decrease from the 198 attacks that occurred in 2002, and a drop of 45 percent from the level in 2001 of 346 attacks. The figure in 2003 represents the lowest annual total of international terrorist attacks since 1969.

The war on terrorism is working. Remember that in November.

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The new editor of USA Today is getting right into things.

NEW YORK Newly appointed USA Today Editor Kenneth A. Paulson vows to cure the paper’s purported “virus of fear” with an open policy for staffers that will focus on positive feedback from the newsroom and the free exchange of ideas.

“The first priority is to eliminate that fear and open up lines of communication,” said Paulson, who leaves his seven-year post as First Amendment Center executive director to run the troubled Gannett Co. Inc. flagship. “I want to bring a spirit of openness and fun.”

Sounds good. Next, hopefully, the virus of credibility should be dealt with. Depends on how free the “free exchange of ideas” goes, eh?

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Those who are concerned about the incarceration of terrorists at Guantanamo Bay are getting their way; prisoners are being released.

The Bush administration’s detention of hundreds of foreign fighters in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, got dissected last week by the Supreme Court, with some justices questioning the government’s right to incarcerate aliens indefinitely without judicial review. But the court arguments may have obscured a potentially bigger embarrassment for the Pentagon: some of the more than 100 Gitmo prisoners who have been released have since turned up back in Afghanistan—fighting with Taliban forces against the U.S. military.

Newsweek magazine, I have a question for you; how exactly is this an embarrassment for the Pentagon? Has Mr. Isikoff not been around when liberal activist group have pleaded for these guy to be released?

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Just noticed this over at Sensing’s site. It’s what’s waiting for us once same-sex marriage is fully legalized. It won’t stop there, and this is proof.

WASHINGTON, March 12 (UPI) — For Jennifer Hoes, a Dutch student, May 28 will be a doubly exciting day. She’ll turn 30, and she’ll be a blushing bride — plus her own groom. In the Trouwzaal, or wedding room, of the City Hall of Haarlem in the Netherlands, Jennifer will marry herself.

Bedecked in a wedding gown studded with 200 perfect latex copies of her own nipples, Jennifer will appear before Ruud Grondel, Haarlem’s registrar, and promise to “love, respect and honor” herself in good times and in bad, according to Dutch and German newspaper reports. …

To be sure, Jennifer’s auto-marriage will be a secular event. But, rest assured, it won’t be long before some churches and synagogues will give such unions their blessing. To paraphrase Malcolm Muggeridge, there is no cause mad enough not to enlist the services of demented clergymen strumming their guitars.

It will happen here, if same-sex marriage gets the governmental nod. As much as “gay marriage” advocates would insist this isn’t their intent, it’s the inevitable result. It’s the same with those wanting to legalize marijuana and nothing more. The “nothing more” line in both cases has plenty of people waiting in the wings, ready to push for crossing it once you’ve pushed us across this one.

We know the destination we’re heading for, if we continue to indulge some of this line-crossing; it’s not a matter of speculation. And I’m not against line-crossing in general. What I’m pointing out is that many of the same-sex marriage advocates themselves don’t even want to wind up at the destination we’ll inevitably arrive at, and they’re still pushing that direction. That attitude is either supremely naive, incredibly selfish, or knowingly destructive.

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From Tim over at “CPT Patti” comes this stellar example of liberal media bias, noted by none other than Sec. Rumsfeld.

There are two ways, I suppose, one could inform readers of the Geneva Convention stipulation against using places of worship to conduct military attacks.

One might be to headline saying that Terrorists Attack Coalition Forces From Mosques. That would be one way to present the information.

Another might be to say: Mosques Targeted in Fallujah. That was the Los Angeles Times headline this morning.

As Tim notes, “We aren’t imagining the bias, we are highlighting it.” When I hear major media editors and new anchors claim to be even-handed, it’s both funny and appalling.

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When you’re a Democrat, and even the Village Voice is dissing you, you know you’re in trouble.

WASHINGTON, D.C.— With the air gushing out of John Kerry’s balloon, it may be only a matter of time until political insiders in Washington face the dread reality that the junior senator from Massachusetts doesn’t have what it takes to win and has got to go. As arrogant and out of it as the Democratic political establishment is, even these pols know the party’s got to have someone to run against George Bush. They can’t exactly expect the president to self-destruct into thin air.

With growing issues over his wealth (which makes fellow plutocrat Bush seem a charity case by comparison), the miasma over his medals and ribbons (or ribbons and medals), his uninspiring record in the Senate (yes war, no war), and wishy-washy efforts to mimic Bill Clinton’s triangulation gimmickry (the protractor factor), Kerry sinks day by day. The pros all know that the candidate who starts each morning by having to explain himself is a goner.

What to do? Look for the Dem biggies, whoever they are these days, to sit down with the rich and arrogant presumptive nominee and try to persuade him to take a hike. Then they can return to business as usual—resurrecting John Edwards, who is still hanging around, or staging an open convention in Boston, or both.

If things proceed as they are, the dim-bulb Dem leaders are going to be very sorry they screwed Howard Dean.

Hugh Hewitt has been saying for quite some time now that the Democrats may yet exercise The Torricelli Option (i.e. what they did in New Jersey; swap out a doomed candidate at the last minute). Maybe it’s not so farfetched after all.

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Never mind 2 years, the CEO for Air America Radio is stepping down less that 1 month after the network barely got off the ground. (And it’s still flying pretty low these days.)

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Did you know that as early as 889 AD, Muslims had sailed across the Atlantic and married into the Algonquin tribe, some becoming chiefs? No? Well, that’s what the Middle East Policy Council would like to teach our children, even though the tribe’s oral and written history doesn’t support it. Yeah, they took that false information out of the curriculum, but won’t explain how it got in there.

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A remarkably personal and moving story “On Abortion in America” over at American Digest. No vitriol, no “in your face” attitude, just real thoughts and experiences. Be there.

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Wow. Great editorial over the weekend by Peter Bart on how The New York Times has really had to eat crow over their coverage of Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ”.

As predictions go, the Times’ entire litany could stand major “correction.” Despite the fact that Frank Rich compared it to “a porn movie,” by the end of its run “The Passion” could rank second only to “Titanic” as the highest-grossing movie ever made. Further, there have been no signs of anti-Semitic outbreaks tied to the film’s release — not even in places like France and Argentina.

And oh yes, there’s a lot more, including how the Time’s bias has seeped even into their coverage of culture and the arts.

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There’s one thing that occurred to me over the weekend regarding the Iraqi move to democracy, and it’s something to keep in mind as that process goes forward. I’ve occasionally referred to the history of the United States and it’s move from the colony of a monarchy to a government of the people and by the people, and have noted that our own history shows that a move like this can take some time. Some Bush haters will no doubt delight every time another Falujah-type attack occurs, believing it somehow proves their assertion that the Iraqis hate us and want us out. Things like this will indeed slow down progress, but this doesn’t mean that progress should be stopped.

However, one thing I wondered about over the weekend was that a big difference between our Revolutionary War and the war that freed Iraq from a murderous dictator is that in our revolution, we were the instigators and the majority of the fighters. True, we did have allies (give the French their due on this one), but the thinkers, the generals, the politicians and the solders that, for the most part, made up our war for independence were home-grown. We were not liberated from a monarch by a third party; we did the lion’s share ourselves. Therefore, there was more of our own blood, sweat, tears and sense of purpose invested in our own freedom than for those in Iraq. By no means do I intend to diminish the deaths of Iraqi civilians in the war–each is a tragedy–but few occurred in any sort of home-grown uprising that contributed to the fall of the Ba’athists. Thus I’m left wondering, to what degree are the Iraqi people invested in the future of freedom in their nation?

Understandably, as I’ve mentioned before, there are differences in the two wars, and the period prior to each, that would make this transition for the Iraqi people more difficult. They have spent decades afraid of their government and unlearning this will take quite some time. American colonists weren’t being gassed, and there were no mass graves in New England after the Boston Tea Party. Still, just by virtue of not being the ones that had the biggest hand in freeing their country, there will most likely be something missing in their spirits that was present in the post-revolution American people. I’m not laying blame, just noticing a difference in how history played out, and wondering about how the future will look. And I’m certainly not trying to make predictions.

Anyway, just thought I’d toss that out. Someone with a better familiarity with historical examples of this kind of situation could do a better job of analyzing and/or predicting than I can. Have at it.

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John Hawkins of RightWing News has a great article on The Command Post’s op-ed section called Get Your Antennae Up!. John points out some things to watch out for when reading the news (anonymous sources, scientists, budget numbers, etc.) He doesn’t mention polling results, one of my pet peeves, but he does mention Internet polls, which are pure entertainment (vs. newsworthy). Required reading.

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