Jim Lehrer and the Weakness of the Blogosphere

Jim Lehrer just reported the CBS forgery scandal--apparently taking the side of CBS. After quoting Laura Bush saying the documents are probably forgeries, he concluded by saying "the memos" did something or other. But they are NOT memos if they are forgeries. By calling them "memos" rather than "alleged memos", Lehrer sided with Rather--even though they are obvious forgeries; yet Lehrer did not report any evidence that showed that they were forgeries. Plus, he reported the fraudulent claims of the forged memos as fact. Shame, Shame Shame. Jim Lehrer should know better.

UPDATE: Here' the transcript, which I just made from the RealPlayer file on the Newshour Website:

On Monday, First Lady Laura Bush dismissed National Guard memos reported last week by CBS News. She said they probably are altered, and they probably are forgeries, as some experts maintain. The memos said Mr. Bush ignored orders to take a physical exam and keep his pilot statuts.

Note it is only Laura Bush's word and some unnamed experts against CBS News. Lehrer is clearly siding with Rather, coming back to the fraudulent contents of the forged documents, treating them as legitimate.

Pathetic.

This is the type of story that Terence Smith the "media correspondent" would normally cover. He's a former CBS News producer, and should know where the bodies are buried. Let's see how long it takes for him to host a segment...

Frankly, this all shows not the strength, but the weakness of the blogosphere. Keith Olbermann's MSNBC performance, documented by the Media Research Center (scroll down for link), showed that it is possible to ignore the facts and repeat ad hominem insults directed at bloggers, as host of a major news program on a cable network--owned in part by Microsoft, which should in principle be on the side of bloggers, simply because bloggers are more likely to make the purchasing decisions about computer software than CBS anchormen--rather than deal with the facts, that Dan Rather has been defending a crude and unconvincing forgery. Here's the Olbermann quote, from the MRC website: "So the Killian documents come out and are almost immediately questioned by a lawyer with Republican ties and are distributed to other news organizations without comment by the White House and they suddenly have one of their principal endorsers retract his endorsement. How many rats do you smell?"

Well, the only rat I smell is Keith Olbermann. But don't look for any negative consequences to his career for joining in a smear job against the blogosphere. He can see which way the wind is blowing in media land. It was Dan Rather, on CBS, who called characterized bloggers and their supporters as "partisan political operatives," on Monday's CBS Evening News, according to the MRC. And after five days, CBS has still not corrected the record. Of course, PBS has not done any independent reporting on this controversy, either.

So, when Jim Lehrer sides with Dan Rather--and nowadays Lehrer is perhaps the most trusted anchor in America, filling the shoes of Walter Cronkite--what does this mean? Even PBS, which by law must be fair, balanced, and objective in all matters of public controversy, in the most balanced program on PBS, cannot report the truth; namely that Dan Rather peddled forged documents on the evening news to smear President Bush. The major media are able to ignore the facts, and hunker down till it all blows over. That doesn't show the strength of the blogosphere, rather that the major media, including PBS, plan to marginalize "guys in pajamas" as right-wingers who can be ignored.

Will CBS and its supporters in the maintream media succeed? So far,they have. Even the Washington Post today, which basically admitted the facts of the case prove forgery, didn't criticize CBS. The next move will have to take place outside the blogosphere or the media, the issue taken to a higher level...

John Kerry Reaches Out to Business

By John Kerry, from The Wall Street Journal:

"As I travel across this country, I meet store owners, stock traders, factory foremen and optimistic entrepreneurs. Their experiences may be different, but they all agree that America can do better under an administration that is better for business. Business leaders like Warren Buffett, Lee Iacocca and Robert Rubin are joining my campaign because they believe that American businesses will do better if we change our CEO."

German Report Charges Syrians Provide Poison Gas to Sudan

It's in German, somehow appropriate for a story about mass killings with poison gas, this time in the Sudan. Syrien testet chemische Waffen an Sudanern. If the report is true, one might ask: Where did Syria get these Weapons of Mass Destruction? Iraq, perhaps?

Bloggers on TV Talking about Dan Rather's Forgeries

You can read transcripts of Powerline with Brit Hume and Instapundit with Paula Zahn ondoubletoothpicks.com. A very interesting explanation of what blogging is about, from two very big bloggers...

CBS Was Told Documents Were Fake Before Broadcast

From Jim Geraghty:

"Just when you think the story couldn't get any more devastating for CBS, it gets worse. A round of applause to ABC's Brian Ross, who ate his Wheaties today and got the most stunning story of this entire scandal, the revelation that CBS ignored experts who said the documents were fake before the initial broadcast."

AllahPundit on Dan Rather

AllahPundit says it is time for Dan Rather to resign.

Dan Rather's Defense

From the Media Research Center

John Kerry's Vietnam After-Action Report

Via Matt Drudge, from NewsCentral.tv. Note the reference to "spider holes".

Andrew Sullivan on Dan Rather

From The New Republic:

"What's riveting has been the reaction of CBS. Like Howell Raines and the directors of the BBC before him, Dan Rather seems to believe that journalism is some kind of caste profession, a calling that no amateur blogger can aspire to."

Uzbekistan Moves Uranium to Russia

Full story in Mosnews.

Canada Declares War on US (sort of)

From The Diplomad:

"One of our Diplomads attended a Canadian National Day reception, July 1, at a major hotel in a large city in the Far Abroad. It was a standard evening dip reception, to wit, carved ice swan, gummy canapes, warm drinks, and lots of inane banter among several hundred milling guests. Canadians are generally gracious hosts and traditionally hard to distinguish from their southern neighbors -- until they say "out" or "house," that is. But of late, and certainly at this event, they seem determined to ensure that there is no confusion, that the definition of Canada is "We're not the USA." At this reception, our Diplomad got cornered by a slightly tipsy Canadian aid worker (CIDA) who proceeded to give a weird version of US-Canadian relations which involved an apparently widely held Canadian view that Canada has defeated the United States in war, "We are the only the country to have defeated the United States in two declared (sic) wars." Our Diplomad, being a diplomat, held his tongue and didn't get into the details of these wars, such as noting that, yes, the Americans and British on several occasions fought battles in what is now Canada, and, yes, Americans lost some but won others, and in the end the Americans gained their independence (The Revolutionary War) and then successfully kept it (War of 1812.) Our noble Diplomad didn't launch into a description of Perry's victory on the Great Lakes over a "Canadian" invasion fleet or Old Hickory's victory over the "Canadian" army at New Orleans. Our Diplomad -- gracious, as are all our Diplomads -- limited his riposte to the ever polite, "Any time you want a rematch, let us know.""

New York Will Rise Again

Says Vartan Gregorian:

"NEW YORK--When I first arrived in New York City in 1956 (by way of Tabriz, Iran, where I was born, and via Beirut, Lebanon, on my way to Stanford University), the New York I encountered was awesome as well as mind-blowing--even if that term hadn't been invented yet. I wrote to my sister in Tabriz that this city was a gigantic magnet attracting everything and everyone, every idea, every bit of energy, every scrap of power. It still is.

"The past several days have seen many commemorations of the terror attacks of three years ago. These events focused on the grief, the calamity and the slaughter of innocents. This was entirely appropriate, for we should never forget what happened that day.

"But we shouldn't lose sight of the other side of 9/11, either: the tremendous strength, dynamism and resiliency of New York. This is a proud, self-confident, busy, determined and impatient place that simply cannot be cowed or bowed. Within hours of the attacks, there was little question in anyone's mind that soon the city would be back about its business."

Islam Has No Answers for Modern Iraq

From Zeyad, in Healing Iraq:

"Waiting for clerics and leaders of Islam to condemn violence might take forever. The reason is that there is no ONE Islam that all Muslims today adhere to. There is a multitude of sects, cults and groups that constitute what we call Islam, the followers of which can range from tens of millions to a few thousands. Even within the same sect there can be fundamental differences in interpretation of the Quran and the Hadith. Rival clerics from the same sect can hold highly contradicting opinions on a matter as simple as washing yourself before prayers.

"Muslim jurists over the last 14 centuries have gone into every small detail of life that one could imagine without ever attempting to address the fundamental or controversial differences. Hundreds of thick volumes have been written about what is najis (filthy) and what is not, which hand you should use to wipe yourself with after defecating and which one to use when eating, whether it is acceptable or not to kiss a woman when she is menstruating, whether to wash one's hands again after touching the robe of a non-muslim before prayers (there are actually two answers to that depending on whether your hand was wet or not), and so on. Muslims to this day ask these questions, seek answers for them, and fear the consequences of not following them properly. Such a sad waste of time and resources.

"In fact, one can lead a completely normal life without ever learning these irrelevant minor details, probably because they were originally intended for a society that existed centuries ago. One would certainly be regarded with scorn today if he took a few stones and some sand with him to the toilet. So, Islam is NOT a universal religion for all times no matter what Muslims say, neither is Christianity or Judaism by the way. Islam does not have the answers for many things which is why Muslim clerics over the last century were speechless about modern technology and scientific discoveries. Eighty years ago in Iraq it was considered blasphemy to say that rain was originally steam and some people were actually killed for doing so. Mullahs struggled hard to prevent people from sending their children to primary schools or to teach women to read and write. Every new and strange device was considered 'evil' and a work of the devil. Telegraphy, telephones, radios, cameras, televisions. In Saudi Arabia people went to the local telegraph office to ask them where they are hiding the Jinn that brings them news from the other side of the kingdom. They were incredulous to the fact that a message would travel in seconds a distance that took many days or months on camel back."

Dan Rather: Destroying CBS News to Save John Kerry

That's the thrust of this article by Stanley Kurtz in National Review:

"Why were we so wrong? Why did Dan Rather and CBS News, against all expectations, impeach their own credibility to defend the authenticity of memos that are almost certainly forgeries? The obvious answer is that they did it to save the faltering Kerry campaign from a final and decisive blow. If CBS were to admit that the documents were forgeries, it would have no grounds for protecting its sources. In fact, CBS would have a positive obligation to do everything in its power to expose the malefactors behind the forgeries. If the trail led back to the Kerry campaign, president Bush's reelection would be assured. Dan Rather has been at pains to derogate those who are interested in where the documents came from. This sounds suspiciously like Rather is concerned about what a revelation of his sources might mean. Certainly, if Rather personally received the forgeries from a Kerry operative, it would be a disaster for Rather. That alone might seem to be sufficient to explain CBS's refusal to admit its error. (It now appears that CBS News may well have received the documents from a partisan and highly questionable source.)

"And even if the trail leading back to the forgers does not pass through the Kerry camp, an admission by CBS that the documents are bogus would be a huge embarrassment for the senator's campaign, which has so aggressively seized upon the story to attack the president. It would also be a fiasco for Dan Rather and CBS, whose credulity on a story harmful to the president would be exposed, and pointedly contrasted to their treatment of the Swift-boat veterans.

"But surely it would have been better for Rather and CBS to cut their losses and admit their error. Yes, they would have taken a hit, but they would also have won kudos for honesty and professionalism. Americans are forgiving of those who admit error. By standing behind a story that is so obviously flawed, Rather and CBS News are setting themselves up to become laughing stocks. That is why the reasonable assumption I -- and many other folks -- made was that CBS would attempt to salvage its reputation by repudiating the memos. And that is why many now assume Dan Rather and CBS News have sacrificed their reputations in order to protect the Kerry campaign."

John LeBoutillier on the Presidential Debates

They are Kerry's last chance, according to John LeBoutillier:

"Kerry has to tread a fine line: respectful of the office of the Presidency but hard on the Bush record. And he has to attack that record concisely, coherently and quickly; if he drags it out in his normal boring manner, viewers are going to head to other shows and games. Kerry’s biggest problem? He is 'un-likeable.' He is Lurch who flip-flops, dissembles and connives. That image has to be changed by his debate performances. He has to have voters walk away from these debates saying something like this: 'Boy, Bush made some big mistakes and that Kerry...well, he is not as bad as I had heard he was.' If Kerry can do that - then this race is going to tighten up right away. And then the Passion Differential (the anti-Bush sentiment outweighs the pro-Bush feeling in intensity that will manifest itself in dispropportionate turnout on Election Day)."

Roger Simon on Pajamas and Bloggers

From RogerLSimon.com:

"Full Pajama Disclosure: I have noticed that some are casting aspersion on bloggers for working in their pajamas. I cannot tell a lie. I often do it. I also wrote screenplays for Warner Brothers, Universal and Twentieth Century Fox in my pajamas (do I have to give the money back?) and books for Simon & Schuster and Random House. I could go on... but I think you get the point. All together now:

'The pajama game
That's the game we're in
And we'll always be
In the pajama game
We love it!'"

ETYMOLOGICAL NOTE: According to the American Heritage online dictionary, the word "pajama" comes from the Hindi "pijma," for baggy pants, which in turn is based on the Middle Persian words "p" for leg plus "jmah" for garment.

Mark Steyn on the Anniversary of 9/11

From The Spectator:

"Three years after September 11, the Islamist death cult is the love whose name no one dare speak. And, if you can't even bring yourself to identify your enemy, are you likely to defeat him? Can you even know him? He seems to know us pretty well. He understands the pressures he can bring to bear on Spain, and the Philippines, and France, too. He's come to appreciate the self-imposed constraints under which his enemy fights-- the legalisms, the political correctness, the deference to ineffectual multilateralism. He's revolted by the infidels' decadence but he has to admit it's enormously helpful: the useful idiots of the pro-gay, pro-feminist Left are far more idiotic and far more useful to him than they ever were to Stalin. He's figured out that while pluralistic open democracy might be a debased system of government next to Sharia, it has its moments: he had no idea that quite so many Westerners so loathed their own governments and, if not their own, then certainly America's. And he never thought that, even in America, while one party is at war, the other party is at war with the very idea that there is a war. And even the party committed to war presides over a lethargic unreformed bureaucracy, large chunks of which are determined to obstruct it. So, despite the loss of the Afghan training camps and Saddam and the Taleban and three quarters of al-Qaeda's leadership, it hasn't been a bad three years: the enemy has learnt the limits of the West's resolve, and all he has to do is put a bit of thought into exploiting it in the years ahead. A nuclear Iran will certainly help. "

Steamroller and Violin

The other night we viewed a DVD of this, Andrei Tarkovsky's first film, completed as his student thesis project at Moscow's famous VGIK film school, shot at the Mosfilm Studios. Tarkovsky went on to become one of the great lights of the Russian art film, making Andrei Rublev, Solaris, The Mirror, and Stalker, among other pictures. This first effort is easier to understand than some of the later works, and a good introduction to his personal style. It is a 46-minute children's fable, about the friendship between a beleagured and insecure child musician and a heavy machinery operator paving the square in front of his apartment house, sort of like the French classic The Red Balloon. But it is also very different.

The themes of art and labor are Soviet, but the human drama, of personal fulfilment, bullying, testing, studying suffering, frustration, friendship, and the power of love, are universal. For anyone interested in the art of Tarkovsky, this early work is a real gem. It is full of symbolism, artistic cinematography--a raindrop falling into a puddle is almost like a human tear--and human moments. In a way, it presages his later themes, of a sensitive person caught in an insensitive world. We got our copy from Netflix. You can buy a copy at Amazon.com. And there is an excellent critical analysis online at Nostalghia.com. If you are interested in Russian films, especially Tarkovsky, you won't want to miss Steamroller and Violin.

Is Bush Soft on Terror?

The Guardian's Craig Unger says despite the hype, in fact, he is:

"A poll just after the Republican convention showed that 27% of the voters preferred Bush to Kerry when it came to national security. Increasingly, it is becoming clear that if Bush wins in November it will be because of the fear factor. Yet the truth is that Bush is actually soft on terror. When it comes to going after the men who were behind 9/11 and who continue to wage a jihad against the US, Bush has repeatedly turned a blind eye to the forces behind terrorism, shielded the people who funded al-Qaida, obstructed investigations and diverted resources from the battle against it."

Kamal Nawash on 9/11

Via Matt Drudge Kamal Nawah's interesting essay:

"This September 11 marks the third unforgettable anniversary of the worst mass murder in American history. After September 11, many in the Muslim world chose denial and hallucination rather than face up to the sad fact that Muslims perpetrated the 9-11 terrorist acts and that we have an enormous problem with extremism and support for terrorism. Many Muslims, including religious leaders, and �intellectuals� blamed 9-11 on a Jewish conspiracy and went as far as fabricating a tale that 4000 Jews did not show up for work in the World Trade Center on 9-11. Yet others blamed 9-11 on an American right wing conspiracy or the U.S. Government which allegedly wanted an excuse to invade Iraq and 'steal' Iraqi oil."

Glenn Reynolds Remembers 9/11

On GlennReynolds.com:

"September 11, 2001 wasn't the beginning of this war. In fact, fundamentalist Islamists had been making war on the United States for years, with the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole, the attacks on our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993 (which was intended to topple both towers, but failed), all the way back, in some sense, to the seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran back when Jimmy Carter was president. For all those years, they were at war with us, but we largely ignored it. But September 11, 2001 was when we woke up, and realized what was going on. When people talk about the 1,000th casualty in Iraq, it's worth remembering that we had 3,000 casualties in a single day, in America, and that terrorists want to do much, much worse."

Mira Nair's Unknown 9/11 Film

Viewer's of Vanity Fair might be interested to track down a copy of Mira Nair's short docudrama about 9/11, one episode in an anthology film, which according to Tom Plate in the Straits Times, is not being shown in the US:

"Grieving Americans, shocked to discover that not everyone reacted to the World Trade Center massacre the same way, might want to see 11'09'01 September 11. It's an anthology, of sorts, from directors in 11 countries. The Egyptian contribution, by director Youssef Chahine, contains dialogue making the case for terrorist attacks against the US and Israel. India's Mira Nair tells the story of a Pakistani-American who died helping firefighters at the World Trade Center and who, posthumously, became the target of an anti-terrorist probe simply because, as his mother puts it, 'his name wasn't Jesus'- or David or Cary. Curtains go up on the controversial film in France on Sept 11. Americans who want to see it, at this point, will have to go there. It has yet to find a US distributor. Might this be a foretaste of US cultural protectionism? What an unwanted surprise ending that would prove. "

Here are some more details on the film, from ApunKaChoice.Com:

"Mira Nair's vignette dramatises the real life story of Salman Hamdani, an American Muslim medical student who went missing in New York City after the attack and later became a terrorist suspect. The all-American upbringing of the boy came to naught as his family saw neighbours and friends turn against them. Finally, it turned out that Salman had died helping people out of the World Trade Center tower that day. The members of the youth's family took part in the film.

"Nair was later quoted as saying that she wanted to make a film about the reality of life for South Asians in New York City after September 11. 'Life has changed irrevocably, and I think forever. From New York to Jenin to Gujarat, the Islamophobia that has taken over the world disturbs me immensely. As a filmmaker, I thought it was about time we spoke up,' the director of such popularly acclaimed films as 'Salaam Bombay' and 'Monsoon Wedding', told an ethnic Indian newspaper in the US."

Shahid Nahim reported that Nair's 9/11 docudrama was banned in the USA, in Pakistan's Daily Times:

"In the discussion that followed, Mira Nair revealed that the American film distribution association refused to distribute the film. According to them, the film is controversial and political. Hence the Columbia screening might be the only screening in the US. This effective banning of the film has come from Hollywood, which is notorious for making films about disasters and tragedies that have taken place all over the world. The film has been shown in Europe and other parts of the world and has been well received. It is a shame that the US public is unable to see the film � they need to see films of this kind more than any other nation. It is the US public that needs to learn how the rest of the world looks at them and their government. It is they who need to find out that there are other perspectives, other prisms through which events like 9/11 look very different indeed. 9/11, the film, does not present things as black and white or good and evil, unlike the US version of 9/11, where all good lies on one side and all evil on the other. "

Michael Wilmington Talks to Mira Nair

He interviewed the director of Vanity Fair for The Chicago Tribune:

"Movie director Mira Nair has a great, warming, infectious laugh and a mind that works like a steel trap. And, much like Becky Sharp, the seductive but smart, nice but naughty anti-heroine of Nair's latest movie, 'Vanity Fair,' she seemingly never lets life get her down. Nair, 46, the Indian-born, Harvard-educated, internationally admired director of 'Salaam Bombay!' and 'Monsoon Wedding,' might seem an odd match for 'Vanity Fair': the lavishly produced new movie adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray's classic 19th Century British novel. Similarly, her film's star -- lively 'Legally Blonde' ingenue Reese Witherspoon -- might seem too Hollywood-ish a choice for 'Fair's' classically unscrupulous, seductive Becky, one of English literature's juiciest, most provocative females. Yet, as Nair points out, 'Vanity Fair' -- which she first read as a schoolgirl in India -- is a book she has read and loved for most of her life. And Witherspoon was Nair's first choice and, as it turns out, a memorable Becky -- winning us over equally or more than Miriam Hopkins in the trailblazing 1935 Hollywood Technicolor 'Becky Sharp' (directed by Rouben Mamoulian) or Natasha Little (star of the deservedly praised 1998 BBC TV-film, and a supporting player, as Lady Jane Sheepshanks, in Nair's all-star cast)."

How the Internet Saved the Book Business

Again via Artsjournal.com from The Guardian:

"They might not be ditching the traditional shop, but the suggestion that booksellers would crumble under the challenge of the internet has been utterly refuted. Instead of becoming a footnote in bookselling history, the industry has used the web to secure its future. And the resulting competition between the main players means that, right now at least, the second-hand book field really is a buyer's market."

(I know it's bad form to say "told you so," but just am unable to resist noting that in 1998 I published a magazine article analyzing charges that Amazon.com would put bookshops out of business, called "Turmoil in the Book World." It concluded the internet was good for the publishing industry, and that Amazon.com would stimulate book sales. Unfortunately, the full text is not available free online, so I can't link to it.)

The Disappearing Cultural Exchange

Via Artsjournal.com this linkfrom Backstage on the collapse of cultural diplomacy:

"And the bottom line: 'The annual number of academic and cultural exchanges has dropped from 45,000 in 1995 to 29,000 in 2001.' This means that far fewer American artists, including performing artists, are being given chances to ply their crafts on foreign soil. The study presumes that those figures have decreased even further in recent years."

Putin's Resolve

It's the beginning of the end for the terrorists, saysMansoor Ijaz in National Review Online

"Like him or not, Vladimir Putin's resolve to stare down Beslan's terrorists--about whom he understood nothing--will (if by accident) be seen one day as a turning point in the war against extremism, because the depravity of Beslan's architects has turned the silent majority in the Muslim world on its ear. Editors, political leaders, and mullahs from Jeddah to Istanbul to Jakarta are decrying the insanity of the Beslan murders. And they are beginning to realize that always blaming others for their woes won't help elevate their disaffected people or spread the word of their failed vision any faster or better.

"We Muslims (I am an American whose faith remains that of the humane and dignified Islam) have no legs to stand on anymore when those who proclaim our religion are willing to put a gun to a child's head, pull the trigger, and call it an act of martyrdom. Islam no longer carries a message of hope, only the indelible impressions of cruelty. Its purveyors are bankrupt of ideas that inspire, and have failed in an ideology that in its very heart today has become hypocritical. To top it all off, America's Muslims--whose freedom to craft and convey an opposition to the terrorist cancer is protected by the very people those terrorists seek to destroy, sit silent-- stone cold silent.

"Islam's 'vanguard,' as Zawahiri called it, has an opportunity to redefine the message and turn away from the extremists. America will win the war against extremism because America's values are righteous, and because God, whatever you conceive Him to be, is at our side. But Islam will surely lose its credibility as a great religion if its benefactors don't stand now and drive the final nail into the coffin of the terrorists who have hijacked a noble faith."

Word Wrap on 60 Minutes Forgery Scandal

For those of you not tired of the document details, Little Green Footballs has a very complete analysis of why the 60 Minutes story is a hoax.

Blogs v. 60 Minutes

The Blogger dashboard carried this link to an interesting story by Jay Currie:

"One day. That was all it took for the ranks of citizen journalists to swarm and then thoroughly discredit a story which ran in the New York Times, the Boston Globe and on a network news magazine. From the Kerry perspective a scandal involving forged documents is a disaster. Kerry had yesterday to get in front of the story and he missed that boat. Instead of being able to stay on message and trying to beat down the post convention pulse which has sent Bush several points ahead in various  opinion polls, Kerry is likely to face questions about who was responsible for the forgeries. While it would be astonishing if anyone inside the Kerry organization had a hand in them, it is a question that will be asked. Moreover, the spectacle of Kerry announcing that his campaign organization and the Democratic Party had nothing to do with issuing those documents will occupy several critical news cycles and focus attention on character -- exactly where Kerry does not want to be.

"From the perspective of the establishment media, this, too, is a disaster. CBS will have to explain: where did the documents come from? What were the bona fides of the source? Who was the source? Which expert looked at the documents? How closely? Those are the starter questions. The more basic question is how could a rabble of bloggers, in one day, provide hard core proof of forgery when major news organizations took those documents at face value? Most fundamental of all, why did the New York Times, the Boston Globe and CBS allow themselves to be used for such a transparent attempt to slander President Bush? Out in the blogosphere there are a swarm of people rooting for the answers."

Victor Davis Hanson on Beslan

He calls it the straw that broke the camel's back:

"The recent slaughters in Russia were the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back of excusing or explaining away radical Islamic terror. If the Estonians can break away from post-Soviet oppression and free themselves from Russian authoritarianism without slaughtering schoolchildren and blowing up airplanes, then the Chechens can as well -- but only if they wish to create democracy rather than an Islamic fascist state."

CYA

As the most intelligent person I know pointed out regarding the 60 Minutes Forgery Scandal, the documents must surely be forged -- since no one who really wanted to cover his backside would put the term "CYA" on a memo designed for that purpose. As any bureaucrat knows, the only way one can properly cover one's backside is by not announcing that is the purpose of the document...

Here's some backup from a posting in the comments section of Roger L. Simon's blog:

Posted by: Terrye at September 10, 2004 07:28 PM
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rick B

No officer would ever use it on a memo. It would be dispositive proof of failure to perform or at minimum to report undue influence. Wouldn't look too hot in a court martial. "I knew it was wrong but I wrote this memo - see."

Thank you!

The "CYA" jumped out at me for exactly that reason.

I have to say this part of it is as shocking to me as anything, since presumably the staff members dealing with these memos are writers, at least some of them.

Seriously: I probably would only have noticed the problems with the type subliminally, but the "CYA" just smacked me between the eyes.

The entire point of a CYA memo is to CYA.
==============================================

Mark Helprin on America's Mistakes in Iraq

From the Wall Street Journal: "

"We have followed a confusion of war aims that seem to report after the fact what we have done rather than to direct what we do. We could, by threatening the existence of Middle Eastern regimes, which live to hold power, enforce our insistence that the Arab world eradicate the terrorists within its midst. Instead, we have embarked upon the messianic transformation of an entire region, indeed an entire civilization, in response to our inability to pacify even a single one of its countries. As long as our war aims stray from the disciplined, justifiable, and attainable objective of self-defense, we will be courting failure.

"Our strategy has been deeply inadequate especially in light of the fact that we have refused to build up our forces even as our aims have expanded to the point of absurdity. We might have based in northern Saudi Arabia within easy range of the key regimes that succor terrorism, free to coerce their cooperation by putting their survival in question. Our remounted infantry would have been refreshed, reinforced, properly supported, unaffected by insurgency, and ready to strike. The paradigm would have shifted from conquer, occupy, fail, and withdraw--to strike, return, and re-energize. At the same time, we would not have solicited challenges, as we do now, from anyone who sees that although we may be occupying Iraq, Iraq is also occupying us."

"60 Minutes is Toast"

Via Matt Drudge, here's the source for reporting on the 60 Minutes Forgery ScandalPower Line: The sixty-first minute.

Lileks on the 60 Minutes Forgery Scandal

Thanks to a link from Instapundit, from The Bleat:

"I can't add a thing to the forgery controversy, even in my capacity as a lily-gilder. The efforts of the Powerline guys and Charles Johnson speak for themselves, and you ought to read them before you make up your mind. Is there anyone out there who doesn't know what I mean? Possible. It's the old non-contiguous information stream issue again. I mentioned the story to someone today--a friend who has his ideas about politics, of course, but doesn't follow the braided strands of intrigue that thread through the blogosphere. He's an independent. Ventura voter. He'd heard about the latest round of National Guard stories, and he couldn't care less. I told him about the forgery rumors; he was amused. Did it change his opinion of CBS? Not really, because he didn't care for them one way or the other. Dan Rather's news was the Daily Show without the laughs."

Tim Blair on the Jakarta Bombing

Tim Blair has some updates from Australia on the bombing in Indonesia that targeted the Australian embassy.

Ed Koch: "Russia is America's Ally Against Terrorism"

From Newsmax:

"The Times editorial denounces the Russians for responding to Chechen efforts to secede, 'mainly with force and intransigence.' In the days of the Civil War and the South's efforts to secede from the Union, did The Times propose to President Lincoln that he 'reach for compromise' and let the South go? Lincoln's refusal to allow the secession, despite the knowledge that it would result in a tragic civil war, was nevertheless the right thing to do. Will Putin follow in Lincoln's footsteps? I hope so...The tragic events in Russia should be another wake-up call to the civilized world. As we grieve with the Russian people, we should remember that we are allies in a common war against international terrorism."

A "New Russian" Love Story

From MosNews:

"A 23-year-old former Miss Moscow contestant has avoided a prison sentence for ordering a contract hit by marrying her intended victim, Ananova web-site reports. After a bust up with boyfriend Igor Lantsov, a wealthy Moscow businessman, Anastasia Nasinovskaya contacted an old friend and offered $15,000, of Lantsov’s money, to make their separation permanent. The relationship reached breaking point in December of last year when Lantsov demanded Nasinovskaya return a brand new BMW.

“I spent a half a million dollars on her in the six months we lived together,” Lantsov told a police investigator, Izvestia reported. “It’s pure impudence: ordering a hit on me with my own money!”

"She offered Ivan Sentyurin $10,000 up front, with an extra $5,000 after he produced evidence of the contract killing. Sentyurin, however, went straight to the police who set up a ‘sting’ when the would-be hitman went to collect his second payment. In an apparent change of heart by Lantsov, however, the businessman hired a top lawyer to defend his ex and even proposed.

“Apparently his feelings were stronger than the insult of having a contract put on his life,” the police spokesman said. As a result of their wedding the court gave Nasinovskaya a five-year suspended sentence at the end of August, the Moskovsky Komsomolets tabloid wrote."

Blogging Hurricane Ivan

Thanks to Instapundit for the tip, here's a Hurricane Ivan Blog.

Russian Foreign Minister Blasts US, UK

For giving aid and shelter to Chechen separatists, according to MosNews:

"Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said on Thursday that the United States and the UK were employing double standards in sheltering Chechen separatists. Speaking to the Vremya Novostei (Time of News) newspaper, he said that rendering asylum to 'persons involved in terrorism, and Russia has documentary witnesses of it, not only rouses our regret but really undermines the unity of the anti-terrorist coalition.' The minister expressed discontent with the facts that Chechen separatist spokesman Akhmed Zakayev lives in London, and their foreign envoy Ilyas Akhmadov has received asylum in the United States. Lavrov called for the executive authorities in those countries to 'take measures not to let those people propagandize terrorism.' In this connection, he recalled that Zakayev had blamed the Russian authorities for the school siege in Beslan."

What Putin Wants

BBC correspondent Paul Reynolds explains the Russian leader's concerns in Chechnya:

"His insistence that there can be no surrender to demands for independence for Chechnya is based on a number of factors which include:

* a fear of further chaos on Russia's borders in the region

* a feeling that Russia must not make any further territorial concessions anywhere

* a belief that the Chechens were offered and threw away the chance of responsible independence before.

"Mr Putin has also added into this complex mix the spectre of international (by which he means Islamic) terrorism and an accusation that unnamed foreign countries want to break bits off Russia. It must also not be forgotten that he has staked his own reputation on his policy and that therefore he is reluctant to change it."

"Now that we are the target ..."

From The Sydney Morning Herald:

"The bombing outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta delivered an unequivocal message. Australia is, for the first time, the clear and specific target of Indonesian-based terrorists. The Bali bombings of 2002, which killed 88 Australians, and the later attack on the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta were directed at 'Western interests' in general. However, the car bomb which exploded outside the gate of the heavily fortified embassy struck at the very symbol of Australia's interests and policies. Suspicion has immediately fallen on the regional extremist network, Jemaah Islamiah (JI), despite the huge security operation which netted more than 200 senior JI operatives after the Bali bombings. The attack suggests the Indonesia-based JI, or a similar splinter group, is still active and dangerous, creating real cause for alarm over the security of Australia's large expatriate community."

Last year, we visited some Australian diplomats in New Delhi, and every time our car stopped at the front gate of the residential compound, a guard would look under the vehicle with a mirror on a stick. Each time, it was a reminder of the Bali bombing tragedy, evidence that Americans are not the only terrorist targets...

Toby Gati on Vladimir Putin

Toby Gati, a former Clinton administration aide, was among those who met with the Russian president after the Beslan massacre. Gwen Ifill interviewed her on The NewsHour:

"GWEN IFILL: But not mistakes, to be clear, about the handling of the situation at the school in particular, and the way that Russian forces acted or didn't act?

TOBY GATI: No, he went out of his way to praise Russian forces and say they put their lives on the line to save the children. And you can see in the photographs that was actually true at times. He's very convinced that his policy on Chechnya is the right one, a Chechenization handing over security eventually that you can't negotiate with these people.

I think it's interesting, if he could listen to this broadcast he would be profoundly upset to hear people talking about rebels and hostage-takers.

GWEN IFILL: What's wrong with that?

TOBY GATI: The word they use is 'terrorist.' They don't regard these as people who have any cause other than -- it's not Chechen independence. He said, 'We tried to do that. I did everything I could.' And the years between the first and second Chechen war were chaotic. And he would not acknowledge that he should continue with negotiations with terrorists."

Big Trouble for John Kerry

Says the BBC:

"A year ago, John Kerry was dreaming of a presidential debate in which George Bush wilted under Mr Kerry's encyclopaedic knowledge of the world. But the Yale frat boys have given him a severe awakening. Like Al Gore, John Kerry appears to have badly underestimated George Bush's raw talent for the campaign fight. John Kerry was lulled into making Vietnam the centrepiece of his character, only to find himself running for cover under withering sniper fire from the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Then along came the Republican Party, and with all the grace of an abattoir, sliced and diced his character at their Convention and spat him out 10 points behind in the polls."

Leon Aron on Russia's Plans

In March testimony to the Committee on International Relations, U.S. House of Representatives:

"In developing Russia’s strategic posture toward the United States, President Putin is likely to mediate between the national consensus and the “restorationists” agenda. In end, the resultant policies are likely to be closer to the former rather than the latter. The anti-American impulse is likely to be constrained both by the over-arching mutual strategic agenda and by the cost of neo-globalism and massive re-armament that such an impulse would dictate. While increasing Russian assertiveness on the territory of the former Soviet Union, Russia is not likely to undermine the U.S. strategic interests—provided such interests are clearly demarcated and communicated to Russia in no uncertain terms."

Russia Endorses Pre-emption

According to Mosnews, Russia will now act to pre-empt terrorists, in what sounds like a parallel to the "Bush doctrine."

America's Chechen Lobby

From The Guardian:

"Although the White House issued a condemnation of the Beslan hostage-takers, its official view remains that the Chechen conflict must be solved politically. According to ACPC member Charles Fairbanks of Johns Hopkins University, US pressure will now increase on Moscow to achieve a political, rather than military, solution - in other words to negotiate with terrorists, a policy the US resolutely rejects elsewhere. Allegations are even being made in Russia that the west itself is somehow behind the Chechen rebellion, and that the purpose of such support is to weaken Russia, and to drive her out of the Caucasus. The fact that the Chechens are believed to use as a base the Pankisi gorge in neighbouring Georgia - a country which aspires to join Nato, has an extremely pro-American government, and where the US already has a significant military presence - only encourages such speculation. Putin himself even seemed to lend credence to the idea in his interview with foreign journalists on Monday. Proof of any such western involvement would be difficult to obtain, but is it any wonder Russians are asking themselves such questions when the same people in Washington who demand the deployment of overwhelming military force against the US's so-called terrorist enemies also insist that Russia capitulate to hers?"

The Disappearing International Student

USA Today reports fewer international students are coming to study in America:

"U.S. graduate schools this year saw a 28% decline in applications from international students and an 18% drop in admissions, a finding that some experts say threatens higher education's ability to maintain its reputation for offering high-quality programs. The sharp declines, based on responses from 126 institutions, were reported in a study released Tuesday by the Council of Graduate Schools, a Washington-based nonprofit. About 88% of those schools reported a decline in international applications; 12% saw an increase. Several factors contribute to the drops, council president Debra Stewart says. Those include changes to the visa application process after 9/11, a perception that the USA has grown less welcoming of foreigners and increased competition from universities abroad. Secretary of State Colin Powell, speaking in May, acknowledged that 'procedural frustrations' could prevent more foreign students from enrolling in U.S. programs. 'We have to do a better job of attracting them here.'"

I can attest to the "procedural frustrations." Unless they are in a government program, it is almost impossible for students from Uzbekistan, for example, to get a student visa for study in the United States, even if they have the money to pay tuition, and have been accepted by an American school. Curiously, the odds are much better for getting an immigration visa through the green card lottery...

Mark Steyn on Why Bush Will Win

In The Telegraph:

"The Kerry campaign is a bore that's degenerating into a laughing stock. 'Bush-despising' is no doubt very comforting to McCrum's beleaguered literati but in the end it's little more than snobbery - fine for cocktail condescension but utterly inadequate for an election campaign. You can't beat something with nothing, and Kerry is about as spectacular a nothing as you could devise - a thin-skinned whiny vanity candidate who persists in deluding himself that Bush's advantage is all down to 'smears' and 'lies' and 'mean' 'attacks'. It's not. Bush's something is very simple: his view of the war on terror resonates with a majority of the American people; when he talks about 9/11 and the aftermath, they recognise themselves in his words; they trust his strategy on this issue. For an inarticulate man, he communicates a lot more effectively than Senator Nuancy Boy.

"Wallace Shawn, by contrast, is a writer, a man who makes his living by words and yet devalues his own currency. Is the Bush-Cheney tyranny truly a 'scary' time for him? Is he really 'scared'? Of course not. He's having a convivial drink with a fawning Brit interviewer; what could be more agreeable? 'Scary' is - to pluck at random - being held hostage in a school gym and the kid next to you is parched and asks for water and the terrorist stabs him in the belly in front of your eyes. 'Scary' cannot encompass both that situation and Wallace Shawn's vague distaste for Bush without losing all meaning."

Your Tax Dollars At Work

Laura Rozen tipped us off to this story in The Washington Times on how the CIA Counter Terrorism Center has been giving millions of dollars to Democrats:

"The CIA's Counterterrorist Center has spent more than $15 million in the past three years funding studies, reports and conferences produced by former Democratic administration officials and other critics of the Bush administration. The latest effort was a $300,000 grant by the CIA to the Atlantic Council for a study co-authored by Richard A. Clarke, the former counterterrorism official who wrote a best seller accusing the Bush administration of failing in the war on terrorism by invading Iraq."

A Hero of Beslan

In this article, Allison Kaplan Sommer tells the story of a heroic Beslan schoolteacher who tried to protect his students at the cost of his life--Yanis (Ivan) Kanidis, age 74. [link from Roger L. Simon]

Putin Talks to The Guardian's Moscow Correspondent

Jonathan Steele's account of his meeting with the Russian President:

"'No one has a moral right to tell us to talk to childkillers,' he added. 'Correct me if I'm wrong, but Margaret Thatcher, whom I've met more than once said: 'A man who comes out into the street to kill other people must himself be killed',' he told the Guardian. At times grim-faced, but always calm, Mr Putin's comments came in the midst of an extraordinary three-and-a-half-hour meeting with a group of foreign journalists and academics with long experience of Russia, invited for a special conference."

How We Cover Russian News

In a very interesting explanation of the difficulties of being a reporter or editor in Russia--the editor of Izvestia just resigned, apparently under pressure from the Kremlin for his aggressive Beslan massacre reporting--the Moscow Times has published a long article called The Changing Nature of Covering the News:

"In the 1990s, calls to ministries and other government bodies, if answered at all, usually resulted in a 'no comment' at best. Now, they all have web sites, some of which contain reams of useful information. The Economic Development and Trade Ministry quickly posts all of Minister German Gref's speeches and presentations, including those at Cabinet meetings. The Finance Ministry site contains all the annual federal budgets. Many ministries also have extensive telephone directories on their sites. The use of the Internet is new under Putin. A government resolution signed in February 2003 by Kasyanov, who was still prime minister then, requires all ministries and other government bodies to publish information not regarded as a state secret on their web sites. Government decisions can now be printed from the web. Before, reporters would have to send a request and wait for days in the hope that somebody would respond. Many ministries, particularly those that handle economic and social issues, have become much more open. They have press officers with some idea about the news and the people who make it."

What Russia Can Learn From Israel

Says The Moscow Times:

"Another lesson we can learn from Israel is that democracy can triumph in conflicts with authoritarian regimes -- even without cracking down on criticism of the government and the security services..."

Background to the Beslan Tragedy

From Winds of Change [linkfrom Instapundit]:

"First of all, claims that this has to do with the Russian military presence in Chechnya completely misunderstand the situation. The problem with Chechnya, more or less, is that the Russians tried to surrender after their failure to bring the rebellious republic back into the fold in the first Chechen war and it didn't work. The country was taken over by a mixture of international terrorist organizations, Wahhabi theocrats, drug cartels, and other criminal organizations that subsided more or less on generous funding from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states. This funding helped the Wahhabis to finalize control over the institutional infrastructure of the de facto independent state and led for calls for the imposition of sha'riah even though most Chechens (and Caucasus Muslims in general) are Sufis. The al-Qaeda presence in Chechnya was headed up by bin Laden's protege Amir ibn al-Khattab, a Saudi national who had previously assisted Islamic fighters in the Tajik Civil War and the Armenia-Azerbaijan War over Nagorno-Karabakh. In 1999, Khattab and his 'Islamic International Brigade' used Chechnya as a base from which to invade the neighboring Russian republic of Dagestan (summarized here by GlobalSecurity) as part of a long-term al-Qaeda strategy to export the Chechen political culture to the rest of the Caucasus. That failed invasion of Dagestan marks the proper beginning of the current fighting in Chechnya."

Russia Tilts Towards Israel

After the Beslan massacre, Russia has signed an agreement to fight terrorism in cooperation with Israel, according to The Washington Times:

"JERUSALEM — Russia is turning for help against terrorism to a country with long experience, signing a memorandum with Israel yesterday pledging the two countries will work more closely in fighting the scourge. The increased sophistication of the terrorists in Chechnya and growing signs of an Arab role in last week's school attack in Beslan, Russia — where 120 victims were buried yesterday — appear to have overcome Moscow's concerns about offending its Arab allies by cooperating with Israel."

Putin Criticizes American Support for Chechen Terrorists

In a Moscow talk, Vladimir Putin lashed out at US support for Chechen terrorism:

"Speaking to western policy experts and journalists just days after hundreds of children died in the Beslan school siege, the Russian president said mid-level officials in the U.S. government were supporting Chechen separatists, whom he compared to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, CNN reported. "You find it possible to set some limitations in your dealings with these bastards, so why should we talk to people who are child-killers?" Reuters quoted Putin as saying. The president said that each time Russia complained to the Bush administration about meetings held between U.S. officials and Chechen separatist representatives, the U.S. response has been "we'lll get back to you" or "we reserve the right to talk with anyone we want," CNN quoted him as saying. Putin blamed what he called a 'Cold War mentality' on the part of some U.S. officials, but likened their demands that Russia negotiate with the Chechen separatists to the U.S. talking to al Qaeda."

Putin is right, on this point at least. There are a lot of Chechen supporters in America, not just in the mid-level offices of the State Department. I saw Richard Holbrooke and Zbignew Brzezinski attacking Russia on behalf of the Chechens at a Library of Congress symposium a few months ago. The only one who appeared to have any sympathy for Russia's dilemmas was James Billington. And anti-Russian views domintate the major media, as well. For example, the New York Times editorial on the day after the school massacre in Beslan blamed Russia, not the terrorists, for the killings. Despite Peter Baker's superb reporting from Beslan, editorials and op-eds in the Washington Post have tended to be anti-Russian. As has NPR, which made the Chechen terrorists sound like they were in a guerrilla insurgency against a military target. I still haven't seen a major newspaper investigation that clearly connects the Chechen terrorism to 9/11--despite a great deal of evidence that both fronts are part of a worldwide jihad against the West (see the link below about Mohammed Atta being on his way to Chechnya before he decided to attack the World Trade Center). It is pretty clear that the terrorists see Russia, the US, the UK, and Israel in much the same way that the Nazis saw the Allies during World War II (of course, these countries are allies from World War II). Most experts in Washington think-tanks also hew to an anti-Russian line. In fact, evenhanded analysis of the Chechen conflict from people like Leon Aron at the American Enterprise Institute (scroll down for the link),is a rarity as far as I am aware. Aron, a biographer of Yeltsin, appears to be alone even in Republican policy circles right now. Of course, blogs like Winds of Change and Little Green Footballs have connected the dots between the Chechen terrorists and those who attacked the US.

Burt Herman on the Beslan Massacre

I met Burt Herman when I was in Tashkent two years ago. Now he is in Beslan, covering the recent school massacre for the Associated Press:

"BESLAN, Russia - Funeral processions filled the rainy streets of this southern Russian city Monday, carrying coffins large and small, as townspeople buried scores of victims of a carefully planned school siege that prosecutors linked to a Chechen rebel leader.Desperate families searched for those still missing from the siege at School No. 1, while others buried 120 victims during the first of two days of national mourning across Russia, which has seen more than 400 people killed in violence linked to terrorism in the past two weeks. Reports emerged that the attackers apparently planned the school seizure months ago, sneaking weapons into the building in advance. There also were signs that some of the militants did not know they were to take children hostage and may have been killed by their comrades when they objected."

BBC's "State of the Union"

Here's the program the BBC is running to replace Alistair Cooke's "Letter from America." It's called State Of The Union.

Jan Morris on the New South

A fascinating account of the British author's recent return visit to Charleston, South Carolina in OpinionJournal - Extra.

An Uzbek Arts Blog

One of my students from Uzbekistan has created this new blog dedicated to the arts, in English, Russian, and French:ART, Entertainement, Interesting Facts and Ideas.

Abdel Rahman al-Rashed on Terrorism

In an article in the Telegraph, reprinted from Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, entitled 'Innocent religion is now a message of hate' Abdel Rahman al-Rashed, general manager of the Al-Arabiya channel, writes about terrorism and Islam [link from DanielPipes.com]:

"Bin Laden is a Muslim. The majority of those who manned the suicide bombings against buses, vehicles, schools, houses and buildings, all over the world, were Muslim. What a pathetic record. What an abominable 'achievement'. Does all this tell us anything about ourselves, our societies and our culture? These images, when put together, or taken separately, are shameful and degrading. But let us start with putting an end to a history of denial. Let us acknowledge their reality, instead of denying them and seeking to justify them with sound and fury signifying nothing. For it would be easy to cure ourselves if we realise the seriousness of our sickness. Self-cure starts with self-realisation and confession. We should then run after our terrorist sons, in the full knowledge that they are the sour grapes of a deformed culture."

There They Go Again...

The Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center, which is funded by the Ohio Arts Council, which is in turn funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, is having a retrospective celebrating the "Culture Wars" of the 1990s, including the famous NEA 4 and Robert Mapplethorpe. From the Contemporary Arts Center website:

"The following is a partial list of artists to be represented: Artist and Homeless Collaborative, Ross Bleckner, Karen Finley, Gran Fury, Group Material, Guerilla Girls, Hans Haacke, Keith Haring, Lynn Hershman, Deborah Kass, Mike Kelley, Jeff Koons, Barbara Kruger, Louise Lawler, Sherrie Levine, Robert Longo, Robert Mapplethorpe, Allan McCollum, Richard Prince, Tim Rollins + KOS, Martha Rosler, David Salle, Julian Schnabel, Cindy Sherman, Haim Steinbach, David Wojnarowicz, and Krystof Wodiczko."

There's an article about the show in the Sunday New York Times. Just one way the "arts community" shows gratitude to President Bush and Congressman Ralph Regula (R-OH) for increasing the budget of the National Endowment for the Arts...

Mark Steyn on the Beslan Massacre

Thanks to Instapundit for this link to Mark Steyn in The Australian:

"So the particular character of this "insurgency" does not derive from the requirements of "asymmetrical warfare" but from . . . well, let's see, what was the word missing from those three analyses of the Beslan massacre? Here's a clue: half the dead "Chechen separatists" were not Chechens at all, but Arabs. And yet, tastefully tiptoeing round the subject, The New York Times couldn't bring itself to use the words Muslim or Islamist, for fear presumably of offending multicultural sensibilities. In the 1990s, while the world's leaders slept – or in Bill Clinton's case slept around – thousands of volunteers from across the globe passed through terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and were then dispatched to Indonesia, Kosovo, Sudan . . . and Chechnya. Wealthy Saudis – including members of the royal family – invested millions in setting up mosques and madrassas in what were traditionally spheres of a more accommodationist Islam, from the Balkans to South Asia, and successfully radicalised a generation of young Muslim men. It's the jihadist component – not the asymmetrical one, not the secessionist one – that accounts for the mound of undersized corpses, for the scale of the depravity."

Arianna on Bernard Levin

In Arianna Online, a relationship recalled:

"I first met Bernard Levin on a 'Face the Music' panel. I was there as a curiosity -- a woman with a foreign accent, elected president of the Cambridge Union. He was there as a celebrated columnist for the London Times, an intellectual with an encyclopedic knowledge of music. It was 1971. I was 21, he was 42. He knew nothing about me. I had had a major intellectual crush on him ever since I discovered his writings while at Girton. I had devoured his book 'The Pendulum Years,' and would meticulously cut his columns, underline them, and save them in a file (no, I did not put pressed flowers in the file, but might as well have). So when I found out that he was on the panel, I was reduced to a bundle of inarticulateness. I'm still amazed that in my fog, I actually managed to recognize Schuman's Fourth Symphony. "

Fire at Weimar Library

From the BBC , an account of the fire at the Duchess Anna Amalia Library last Thursday:

"Among the works saved were the travel papers of naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt, rescued by people forming a chain to get the books out of the building. "

The Economist's Top Universities

Thanks to ArtsJournal for this item on The Economist's ranking of the world'sbest universities. It's kind of interesting. The Top Twenty are not terribly surprising. In order, they are: Harvard, Stanford, Cambridge, Berkeley, MIT, Cal Tech, Princeton, Oxford, Columbia, University of Chicago, Yale, Cornell, UC San Diego, Tokyo University, University of Pennsylvania, UCLA, UC San Francisco, University of Wisconsin, and the University of Michigan.

The Economist's source is Chinese: a study from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. A footnote states the rankings are "biased against universities focusing on the humanities and social sciences."

Art World Mobilizes Against Bush

This article in The Art Newspaper indicates the art world doesn't seem particularly grateful that President Bush increased funding for the National Endowment for the Arts:

"Art dealers are typically cautious not to offend their clientele by taking strong positions on controversial topics. This year, however, the rules have changed. Dealers and artists in New York have become visibly politicised and have been actively raising funds and campaigning for Democratic candidate John Kerry in the run up to the US presidential election on 2 November."

More on the Beslan Massacre

From Harry's Place:

"We have been here before. Then, as now, there were some who were unable or unwilling to face the hard choices but some knew then - and we all know now -that the struggle had to be carried out. When it was all finished, the world vowed 'Never Again'. The analogy with the enemy that faced Europe and the world in the 1930's is not an exact one but it remains valid. Ask yourselves when was the last time gunmen filled with hate fired into the backs of fleeing children? When was the last time that women and children were herded into buildings, treated with callous inhumanity and then slaughtered?"

My Brother Assassins

This review of Mohamed Sifaoui's expose of life inside an Al Qaeda cell, by Camille Pecastaing in Foreign Affairs, provides some international context for Russia's tragedy:

"Sifaoui warns, nonetheless, that European cities still harbor many who could contract the Islamist fever and take up arms in Chechnya, Kashmir, or Iraq. Having probed the world of al Qaeda sympathizers in Paris and in London's Finsbury Park mosque, he sounds the alarm in defense of democracy and liberalism -- perhaps too violently. Sifaoui's book leaves no hope of ever narrowing the fault line that separates Muslims who reject the West from those, like him, who embrace it."

Sifaoui's book has been translated into English by George Miller, as Inside Al Qaeda: How I Infiltrated the World's Deadliest Terrorist Organization.

A Chechnya- 9/11 Connection

From a 2002 story on the BBC :

"Mr Motassadek is the first man to stand trial over the 11 September attacks. He is accused of being an accessory to more than 3,000 murders in New York and Washington, and of belonging to an al-Qaeda cell in Hamburg. He told the court that four alleged al-Qaeda men - hijackers Mohammed Atta, Marwan al-Shehi, Ziad Jarrah and suspect Ramzi bin al Shaibah - had all wanted to go to Chechnya..."

"...To rebuff them or to begin obeying their orders..."

You can read the full text of Vladimir Putin's speech here:

"We winked at our own weakness, and it is the weak who are always beaten up. Some want to tear away [some] piece of our wealth, while others help these aspirants in so doing. They still believe that Russia poses a threat to them as a nuclear power. That is why this threat must be eliminated, and terrorism is just another instrument in implementing their designs. As I said, we encountered crises, revolts, and terrorist acts on many occasions, but what happened this time is a terrorist crime, the cruelty of which stands beyond precedence. This is not a challenge to the President, Parliament, or cabinet of ministers; this is a challenge to the entire Russian state and its people. This is aggression against us. The terrorists believe they are stronger than ourselves, that their cruelty will intimidate us, paralyze our will and degenerate our society. Here we have a seeming alternative -- to rebuff them or to begin obeying their orders. The second means to give in and to let them partition Russia in a hope that they will somehow let us alone. As President of the Russian state, a person who gave an oath to defend the nation and its territorial integrity, and last but not least, as a Russian citizen, I am confident that we have no such alternative. "

Michael J. Totten on Bush's Bounce

At MichaelTotten.com.

Bloggers and the Election

In the Wall Street Journal, Glenn Harlan Reynolds (aka Instapundit) says bloggers are making a difference in this election campaign:

"With accredited bloggers at both conventions, this can fairly be called the first presidential election to be blogged. And that just might matter--though if it does, it will be as much because of big-media vices as it is of bloggers' virtues."

One interesting angle not mentioned in the Wall Street Journal: Reynolds wrote in his own blog that he skipped President Bush's convention speech to play poker with friends.

Of course, I'm not criticizing Glenn for his decision. Poker was the wiser choice, I'm sure. I missed Bush's speech too. We were watching the 1959 Russian film classic based on Nobel prize-winner Mikhail Sholokhov's tragic novel, Destiny of a Man (Sudba Cheloveka).

Build A Wall Around Chechnya

First published in the aftermath of the Nord-Ost hostage crisis in Moscow, this analysis in Russian Outlook is among the most interesting overviews of the Russian-Chechen situation. In his essay, Leon Aron ties the conflict to a number of factors, including the Israeli-Palestinian situation, noting that in Russia there is also sentiment for a physical separation:

"Immediately after the Nord-Ost hostage takeover, most of the friends in Moscow whom I spoke with over the phone advocated stena, a wall along the border with Chechnya. Interviewed several days later by an American reporter, a middle-class Muscovite, too, 'believed [that] the possible solution ... may well be 'to build a Chinese wall' around Chechnya, trapping the people and the problem inside, where it can't infect the rest of Russia.' [32] But the Russian stena for Chechnya is hardly more practical than a similar plan in Israel: an estimated 800,000 Chechens live in Russia outside Chechnya (40,000- 400,000 in Moscow). "

Clueless About Chechnya

Nikolai Zlobin says America does not have a Chechnya policy:

"...the American political elite has no clue about how to resolve the Chechen problem, and no desire to deal with it. One could say without exaggeration that the United States has no policy toward the North Caucasus as a whole, excepting general political stances on the war against terrorism and the relationship with Russia

Putin Visits Survivors

The Chinese News Service has some photos of Vladimir Putin visiting children in the hospital, along with a roundup of the latest news on the Chechen hostage crisis.

Synetic Theater

We saw "Host and Guest" last night, another energetic production by our local Synetic Theater, recently returned from New York's "Fringe Festival."

The play--actually, more than a play, it is a sort of pantomime or quasi-ballet, with very few words --is based on verses by Georgian poet Vazha Pshavela. The production had a Caucasian feeling, flashes of frightening violence and passion. As the horrifying news arrived from the Russian school hostage crisis, the action on stage seemed particularly poignant, that tragedy is inevitable, which is something we Americans find very difficult to accept.

The story of "Host and Guest" is simple. A Christian and Muslim are deer-hunting in a forest on a mountainside. Rather than kill one another, they shoot the deer and the Mulsim invites the Christian into his home to butcher and share the spoils. This is in keeping with their tradition of hospitality to visitors.

However, the village Imam discovers what is going on and denounces an infidel in their midst, as a killer of their brothers. That night, the guest is dragged out and put to death, his throat slit as a sacrifice, after his host, who had defended his guest, has been thrown off a mountain.

News of the killing reaches the Christian village, who raid the Muslims in a bloody battle that leaves everything destroyed. It is not a happy ending.

Director Paata Tsikurishvili and choreographer Irina Tsikurishivili (his wife) have a gift for dramatic staging and movement. The wild ride by enraged Christian horsemen--staged in pantomime by actors wearing only black leotards--is both cinematic and terrifying. No doubt their experience in the Rustaveli theatre in Tblisi provides some special insight into the Georgian mentality, which they are able to convey even in suburban Washington, DC.

Strange, powerful, affecting, tragic, and sadly relevant to today's headlines, "Host and Guest" is a must-see production. It runs until October 16th, at the Rosslyn Spectrum. Tickets are available online from the Synetic Theater box office.

Classic Arts Showcase

Speaking of music, Classic Arts Showcase is one of my favorite cable channels...

Pop Stars Should Not Write Classical Music!

That's the view of composer Daniel Felsenfeld, who objects to Elvis Costello's latest symphonic ballet. Writing in New Music Box, Felsenfeld throws down the gauntlet:

"And all of us need to consider this: perhaps walls are important. Maybe it is how people differentiate, and when everything is 'classical' music, nothing is. As for Elvis: he deserves to be taken as seriously as anyone is, no less (and no more). Yes, his rock star status got him to Lincoln Center, but at some point the lights dimmed, the orchestra began to play, and Elvis or not, something musical happened. If we are going to judge it, it is by those standards alone. We owe him that�and I hope that one day, when Mr. Costello is sitting in an audience waiting to hear one of my pieces, he does me the same courtesy. "

[Link from Artsjournal.com]

BBC Coverage of Russian Hostage Shootout

At BBC NEWS | Europe |

Andrew Sullivan Gives Bush an "A"

On AndrewSullivan.com :

"A SUPERB SPEECH: It was the second best speech I have ever heard George W. Bush give - intelligently packaged, deftly structured, strong and yet also revealing of the president's obviously big heart. The speech writers deserve very high grades for pulling it off, to find a way to get the president to deal substantively with the domestic issues he is weak on and to soar once again on the imperatives of freedom in the Middle East... "

Bush Gets a "Gentleman's C"

John LeBoutillier liked half of it:

"Last night's speech by the President was actually two speeches melded into one: A) A State of the Union type laundry list of new initiatives; and B) a rousing and patriotic political speech to end the convention.The laundry list was a bit too long and included too many new ideas to expand the role of the federal government. That old 'compassionate conservatism' was back; I wish it wasn't. When the GOP thinks the Federal Government can help people, we have already lost.

"The patriotic speech was excellent and invoked the selfless heroism of our troops overseas.The result of this speech and the four-day Republican National Convention? A two-point lead for Bush/Cheney in the new Zogby poll: 46%-44% with 9% undecided."

A Letter from New York City

Our New York correspondent, a, Democrat for Kerry, has this report on protests outside the Republican National Convention:

Friday dawns glorious--the day of our liberation from the Republicans and it is not even that hot.

For those without the time to read through the reams of text I seem to be producing, this is the executive summary: in the 17 hours I spent on the street in the last week, ending last night at 11:00, I have an unbroken record of never being around when there was trouble (and with 1800 arrests over the week that took some luck).

When we left this saga on Sunday night, I was sunburned and tired, had a notebook full of drawings of streets with police locations, badge numbers, police car license plates etc.

Monday, to my amazement, I was still able to walk and showed up at 3:00 pm for my next shift. By now all of midtown was blocked and the Civil Liberties Union storefront was in the heart of the lock-down area. I passed the National Guard at the Port Authority Bus Terminal. These guys were in fatigues and armed to the hilt. It reminded me of Guatemala in the early 80's.

A couple of girls in their early 20's were manning a table for Bush/Cheney outside the Protecting Protest Storefront. They had the sweetly glazed look of cult members as they offered me literature. I wanted to ask if their parents had signed them up for de-programming yet.

Then, join the Civil Liberties Union and see New York-off to the the "March for Life" Rally at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza at 47th and First Avenue (right near the UN). This time I am paired with Jenny, who has a law degree from Golden Gate Law School in California but never practiced and became a graphic artist. She has a video camera and goes right to work checking access to the park--now surrounded by barricades and a flotilla of police. I go to work drawing the scene and wandering past police officers to record names etc. At 4:00 there are about 100 demonstrators and about 400 police. There are police in vans, shoulder to shoulder at the barricades, walking around in groups of 2 or 3, police on scooters at the end of the block (47th and Second Avenue, undercover police--these would be the guys with the very clipped haircuts, the chinos, the gray or gray green golf shirts worn outside their pants to cover their guns (this does not always work). And when one of the captains bounds up to say hello and shake hands all round, this definitely blows their cover.

I leave Jenny videotaping as protesters drift in and ajourn to a convenient spot to sit across the street (for that longer perspective). I am not the only one.
Dozens are lounging on the granite barriers surrounding the Trump World Towers, an apartment building with apartments that must sell for at least
$1 million. The rally is a protest against poverty.

Hours tick by, more protestors, more police, more civil liberties types. The protesters are negotiating a deal with the police to march without a permit. The weather is good --nice and cool. I hop up from my seat from time to time to check on police car movements. I study police uniforms. I never get the system with stars/hierarchy down and am now noting the police as "wniforms, white shirts, and undercover".

Finally the organizers get permission to move--they are to stay on one side of the street and move down 2d Avenue to 23rd street, then over to 8th Avenue and up to Madison Square Garden. We start to trail them downtown and my shift ends. The later group has shown up and I peel off. Later I learn that there was considerable trouble as the group approached MSG and that the police have been netting and arresting protesters. This was the case at other protests around the City, including one of the Veterans groups against the war, who thought they had a deal with the police to march.

Thursday morning and the news reports 1800 protesters being held in the piers at the Hudson River. The newspapers are reporting that the sweeps around the Public Library have netted a number of pedestrians. Protesters are all over the City heckling the convention delegates --who are a conspicuous lot. For example, the Texans all were walking around with red white and blue shirts in a graphic combination of color blocks and stars that would be equally appropriate for those who still support the Confederacy. And of course, cowboy hats.

Thursday afternoon and I show up for my shift with the uneasy conviction that my smooth ride as a monitor is over. Now I am reading the instructions on what to do if arrested. So far none of the Civil Union monitors have been arrested but at least a dozen of the National Lawyers Guild members have gone been picked up.

I get sent with my new group to 29th and 8th Avenue, where there will be a rally for some hours as the Convention winds down with the Bush speech. We get into position early and check access in and out of the rally pens. The police are audibly counting down the time before this is all over. The press are out in force on the west side of 29th and a couple are commenting that they thought that tonight would not be quiet. The police are pouring into the area and their are police on all the surrounding rooftops (except the housing complex on the west side of the street that was established by the Garment Workers Union--the elderly leftists in the building are on the sidewalk in lawnchairs).

The word comes through that a New York City judge has threatened the City with a large fine and a payment to each protester of $1000 if the City does not either charge or release the people being held in violation of the time limits for prosecutorial action. Protesters start to move into the pens. One of the best signs--"The Last Time We Listened to a Burning Bush We Spent 40 Years in the Desert." The police begin to close off sidewalk access to the space around pens 1 and 2 and Pen 3 begins to fill--this time with infiltrating Republicans--who have suspiciously professional looking signs--the others are mostly a handlettered lot. The newcomers are aggressive and the police quickly put them in a pen of their own, setting up some barricades to separate them from the rest of the group.

The protesters are chanting--"March, march, march, march and straining the barricades and more riot troops move into position. A firetruck arrives and the firemen leap out in fire-fighting mode. The press surges forward. Then, the police start moving the barricades so that the people in pen 2 can move into pen 1 and vice versa. The firemen are reported to have made some comments on not enough access.
Tension dissipates as the groups start to mingle.

At 10 o'clock the organizers pack up their soundstage and move their protesters peaceably south.

My fellow monitors, none of whom is older than 30, are eager to continue to monitor the protesters as they disperse, one of them suggesting ( a little hopefully) that there could be trouble later.

I go home--my record as a pacifying influence is intact.

Fasten Your Seatbelts

It's going to be a rocky election season, says Victor Davis Hanson:

"Almost every day, al Qaeda suspects or affiliated terrorists are arrested somewhere in the world. Islamic fascists blow up Israelis, behead Nepalese, murder Russians children in schools and on the street, and kidnap French journalists (so much for appeasement). They want to destroy trains in New York as they did in Madrid. They seek to ruin democracy in Kabul and Baghdad and take down Russian airliners. Nearly each week they are caught forming cells in Europe and the United States--all akin in their desire for theocracy, incoherent demands, partiality for barbarous methods of killing civilians, and hatred of Western-style liberalism and freedom. Now we learn that they may well turn their attention to targeted assassinations here at home--in the manner in which Osama bin Laden took out General Massoud of the Northern Alliance on the eve of the September 11 attacks, and like the various efforts to incinerate General Musharraf in Pakistan. The problem is not only that such efforts would be aimed at short-circuiting the nerve center of the United States, but also that previous reckless talk on the part of some cultural elites at home would only accentuate the turmoil. "

Russians Storm School Ending Chechen Hostage Crisis

From Reuters:

"Russian troops stormed a school Friday in a chaotic battle to free hundreds of parents, teachers and children who had been held hostage for two days by Chechen separatists. Naked and screaming children ran for safety amid machinegun fire and explosions while attack helicopters clattered overhead. The Tass and Interfax news agencies spoke of over 300 wounded, mostly children. Rebels fled with soldiers in pursuit. Witnesses at the scene in Beslan, in the North Ossetia region near Chechnya, saw several bodies on stretchers and Russian news agencies said at least seven people had been dead on arrival at hospital. Half- or fully naked children gulped from bottles of water after two days without drink in a stiflingly hot and crowded school. Some lay on stretchers. There was no definite toll, although Tass quoted an unidentified official as saying most of the hostages were alive."

You can read more at Yahoo News.

The Economist Remembers Dr. Kubler-Ross

In this obituary:

"Though poets and philosophers might write ardently of the soul and of immortality, doctors could not possibly describe these as fact. Plato, Plotinus and Shelley might describe the winged spirit struggling from the body, and 'the abode where the Eternal are'; but scientists, however hazy their understanding of human consciousness, could have no truck with theories based neither on reason nor on observable evidence. Her colleagues increasingly murmured about Dr Kubler-Ross, and edged away. Disastrously, she then went much further. She began to fill her lectures with tales of her out-of-the body experiences, including travelling through space at the speed of light. She fell in with Jay Barham, a charlatan from Arkansas who practised 'channelling', 'spiritual cloning' and batty sorts of religio-sexual therapy. Four 'spooks' from the spirit world called Salem, Ankh, Mario and Willie became her guides and mentors. Her husband, horrified by her antics, divorced her. By the 1980s her healing centres in Virginia and California were being shot at and burned down. Although the best parts of her work had taken hold--there are now more than 2,500 hospices in America--her reputation was in ruins."

The End of Classical Music

Norman Lebrecht announces the death of the classical musice business [thanks to ArtsJournal.com for the link]:

A Columbia boss signing himself “God”' (his name was Goddard Lieberson) gave Leonard Bernstein carte blanche to record anything he liked. God also got Stravinsky to preside over the recording of every note he ever wrote - 20 volumes of it. Herbert von Karajan convinced two labels to let him record the Beethoven symphonies five times over. Beethoven was a brand. Buy him in a box. By the 1980, the record business was making more boxes than the match industry. I recently cleared my Brahms shelf, unsentimentally throwing out sets by Böhm, Haitink, Solti, Bernstein, Karajan (two boxes) and Sawallisch - and that still left me with three indispensable cycles (Furtwängler, Abbado, Jansons) plus six working copies of every single symphony. Madness. It had to end. At the start of 2004 I predicted that this would be the industry's last year. Well, I was over-cautious. No need to wait for Christmas: it's over now.

FBI v. AIPAC

So says Laura Rozen:

"Both of these articles would seem to indicate that not Franklin but AIPAC is more the center of this larger investigation; and that Franklin, who apparently has been cooperating with the Bureau for several weeks, may have been used by the FBI to gather further evidence in that case. The political implications of the allegation that AIPAC was the real target of the FBI investigation would seem to be very serious."

Gennady Gudkov Analyzes Hostage Standoff

FSB reserve general and Russian Duma deputy Gennady Gudkov has strong views on the current crisis:

"Today they pose as Chechen separatists; tomorrow they support al-Qaeda; the day after tomorrow they assume some other guise. Yet, they all belong to the same group. "

Russia's Hostage Crisis: What Next?

An analysis from The Moscow Times:

"The hostage-taking drama evolving in North Ossetia has put forth a deadly serious dilemma for President Vladimir Putin, of whether to continue his policy of refusing to negotiate with radical groups in the North Caucasus, or to soften his line and meet some of the hostage-takers' demands, given that the lives of more than 100 children are at stake in this standoff.
The tactic that Russian police and security agencies have pursued in similar situations is to try to negotiate the release of as many hostages as possible, while giving commandos time to prepare for a storming."

Zell Miller, Music Lover

He introduced Beethoven for Babies in Georgia:

"In January 1998, then-Gov. Zell Miller went to the Georgia Legislature armed with a tape player and a new idea. Miller told lawmakers he wanted $105,000 to pay for a CD of classical music that would be distributed to parents of newborns across Georgia. Miller cited early childhood research touting the benefits of music in developing babies' brains and the link between music and math. To hit home his point, Miller pulled out his tape player and let lawmakers listen to a few minutes of Beethoven's 'Ode to Joy.' Now don't you feel smarter already? Smart enough to vote for this budget item, I hope,' Miller told them. But before lawmakers could decide whether to pay for the 'Beethoven for Babies' program, Sony Music announced that it would provide the CDs for free. And in July 1998, Georgia hospitals began distributing the CD to new parents. "

Mama and the Marines

They made Zell Miller who he is, according to an official biography:

"Throughout his career, Senator Miller has credited two major influences for his success: his strong mother and the U.S. Marine Corps.

Born Feb. 24, 1932, in Young Harris, Georgia, Miller followed his parents' footsteps into the teaching profession and into politics. He was raised by his single mother after his father died when Miller was only 17 days old.

Miller gets his work ethic and his appreciation for the arts from Birdie Miller, an art teacher and one of Georgia's first female mayors. She hauled stones from a mountain creek to build the family home that Miller still lives in today. Though he never knew his father, Stephen Grady Miller, Senator Miller followed in his father's footsteps by becoming a University of Georgia graduate, a history professor at Young Harris College and a state senator.

Governor Miller accepts a check for $1.1 billion from Georgia Lottery Director Rebecca Paul. Miller used the lottery to pay for HOPE scholarships and his Pre-K program. (1996)
Miller's passions are history, baseball and music. He is a walking baseball encyclopedia who is equally at home at the Grand Ole Opry or Symphony Hall. He has written six books, including 'A National Party No More: The Conscience of A Conservative Democrat' and 'Corps Values: Everything You Need To Know I Learned in the Marines.'"

Tolstoy on Chechnya

You can read his 1911 novella, Hadji Murad, about Russia's earlier Chechen war, online:

"'What vitality!' I thought. 'Man has conquered everything and destroyed millions of plants, yet this one won't submit.' And I remembered a Caucasian episode of years ago, which I had partly seen myself, partly heard of from eye-witnesses, and in part imagined. The episode, as it has taken shape in my memory and imagination, was as follows."

Lileks on Schwarzenegger

From The Bleat:

"Now, Arnold. Odd. Either the audience is undermiked or they're 88% thrilled to see him. He's beaming, waiting for the applause to die down. It seems forced. 'This is like winning the Oscar.'

Like I would know, I say in an Ahnold voice.

'As if I would know,' he said. Or something like that. Joke two: 'True Lies' movie reference. Lame, but we have to get these out of the way. Making reference to his movies is for Arnie what referencing cheapness or violin-playing was to Jack Benny. It simply must be done. Joke three: a man said he was as good a governor as he was an actor. What a cheap shot. The delivery lacked, but it's the sort of self-deprecating thing we like from the ol' brute. Is this going to work? He can connect with millions through the lens uf de cahmera, and he's good on the stump, but maybe he's not the kind of speaker who scales well to an arena.

I love the accent: 'Medicine Square Godden.'

Okay, he gets better. A good Arnold speech is not full of subtle rhetoric, cozening shifts in vocal tone, facial nuance. It's like watching a strong man chop an oak tree: the last blow will be just like the first. (Except that after the last one, something falls on someone's head.) Very simple cadences; you could actually read this speech in a Kennedy voice, and it would sound Kennedyesque. Paging Vaughn Meader; Mr. Meader to the desk.

'Fear of the Soviet Boot.' Yep.

Holy Crow, he's just endorsed DICK FRICKIN' NIXON. Only Arnie can go to China. "

What is Enlightenment?

The Wall Street Journal reviews Gertrude Himmelfarb's comparison of French, British, and American Enlightenment thinkers:

"Ever since Immanuel Kant posed his famous question in 1784--'What is Enlightenment?'--critics and commentators have searched for an answer, and they still do. For it is to the Enlightenment--a particular set of 18th-century ideas--that many thinkers trace the political and intellectual origins of the modern world. To pose Kant's question is to ask nothing less than who we are."

Are Blogs Better than Newspapers?

Glenn Reynolds seems to think so [link from Instapundit]:

"With accredited bloggers at both conventions, this can fairly be called the first presidential election to be blogged. And that just might matter -- though if it does, it will be as much because of big-media vices as it is of bloggers' virtues."

Is Bush a Wimp?

FromThe Jerusalem Post :

"Arguably, any gain in the 'fear factor' brought about by the US overthrow of Saddam is being eroded. Those who argue, in the words of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini two decades ago, that the US cannot do a 'damn thing' are having that feeling reinforced today. The Iraq war's outcome has undermined the credibility of US power no matter how long American forces remain in Iraq. Indeed, one could argue that the longer they remain, the worse the problem will become."

Roger L. Simon on Arnold Schwarzenegger and Pat Buchanan

Roger L. Simon from his convention blog:

"But first a note of surrealism. I watched Arnold on a television set next to Pat Buchanan. This happened because I was getting agoraphobia/claustrophobia on the convention floor. A few of us bloggers had been escorted down into that terra interdita by the nice volunteer who is helping us. I visited with a friend in the California delegation. I had intended to watch the Governator from there, but I didn't have a seat and the crush was getting too much for me. I retreated to a media area when, earlier than I had expected, Arnold began speaking. I headed for the nearest TV to watch. Suddenly I realized someone was standing behind me. It was Pat. He had a scowl on his face. As we know, Schwarzenegger does not represent Buchanan's Republican Party. Nothing seems to make Pat happy these days. As Arnold began to lead the chant of 'four more years,' Buchanan spun on his heels as if repelled and stalked off, heading for the nearest microphone.

Unfortunately, Schwarzenegger, the first Republican I ever voted for, was not as inspiring as I had hoped. Maybe my own expectation game was too high. He hit the notes but that was about it. And the girlie men joke, even delivered in self-mockery, is getting a little tiresome. Still, I think Arnold's doing a good job as governor -- and that's more important than how great a speech he delivers at a convention. And I'm sure others reacted differently. I'm still thinking about McCain and, even more, Giuliani. He gave the speech of the year so far."