NY Post Cover Shows Height Gap

John Kerry stands 6'4", Bush officially 6' even (does that include his cowboy boots?). According to the Presidential Height Index, in American politics, the taller candidate in a TV debate usually wins the election. Two exceptions prove the rule: Jimmy Carter beat Gerald Ford, but Ford had not been elected in the first place. Nixon was shorter than McGovern, but there was no TV debate. There's more on the height effect in this Fox News story. Will this affect President Bush's chances? 

2004 Presidential Debate Transcript

You can read the Debate transcript here.

Bush-Kerry Debate A Tie

And that's in Kerry's favor, since he went the distance with the President. Although he didn't score any knockouts, Kerry may end his own slide in public opinion polls...

What Is Going On In Russia?

From Nezavisimaya Gazeta:

"I have already written, and I'll venture to say it again that the power struggle between Gusinsky's empire and the Kremlin is not a conflict between an authoritarian state and a media group opposed to that regime. Nor, so far, has any evidence of the Kremlin's intentions to curb the freedom of speech, or coral Russia's-already obsequious-mass media, been produced. Up to now, all the evidence has been that this is a conflict between two oligarchic clans-the Kremlin's, which includes many top officials, including elected ones-and thus has at least a shred of legitimacy in the eyes of Russians, and that of Gusinsky-which does not."

Have the Palestinians Lost their Intifada?

From Haaretz :

"If, in a political conflict, victory is perception, then in some quarters the war the Palestinians couldn't lose is already over. Some seasoned observers have begun speaking of a Palestinian defeat in the past tense. Remarked Laura King of the Los Angeles Times this week, 'many Palestinians fear that what has been, in effect, their military defeat at the hands of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has left them without leverage to extract political and territorial concessions that would help lay the groundwork for their hoped-for state.' Jackson Diehl of the Washington Post observed in a column this week that it is 'now undeniable that the 'military solution' that so manybelieved could not work has brought Israelis an interlude of relative peace.'"

Absolutely Majnoon

From Athena's Terrorism Unveiled, a blog written by an American student living in Amman, Jordan [link from WindsofChange.net]:

"Out of the blue, my host mother asks, 'Who do you think was behind 9-11?' And of course I knew she was expecting me to say 'Osama bin Laden,' so instead I responded, 'Khalid Sheikh Mohammed had a lot to do with the operational planning.' She gave me a quizzical look so I gave her the, 'of course he was one of the top people in Al-Qaida under Bin Laden.' To this she told me that was all a lie and that 'the Israelis are behind this, it's all the Israeli Mossad who did this.' "

After Hurricanes, Miami Braces for Presidential Debate

From The Miami Herald:

"The first of three debates, tonight's matchup at the University of Miami opens against the backdrop of hurricane-wracked Florida, where politics has been on hold since mid-August in the largest of the up-for-grabs states. Bush's campaign scrapped two post-debate campaign events in Florida on Friday in deference to hurricane recovery efforts. Karl Rove, his chief strategist, told Florida reporters Wednesday that the campaign is making adjustments to deal with the unknown factors of the hurricanes -- which have left Floridians without electricity, homes, and perhaps, voter registration cards.

'''We're flying sort of blind,' Rove told reporters at a briefing at Bush's Miami hotel. 'Since Aug. 13 we've not been able to get consistent polling.' 'Homes and condos are wrecked, we don't know how long it's going to take people to get home,' he added. For the president, however, the hurricanes have given him opportunity to appear as the comforter in chief, a role he relished Wednesday as he walked through a Lake Wales citrus grove hammered by three of the four hurricanes that tore across the state in six weeks.

"Kerry's campaign, which was all but forced to stop campaigning in the state, says it is undaunted by the storms, planning a two-day, post-debate campaign swing in Florida."

Glenn Reynolds on "Southern Strategy"

Instapundit is now writing for The Guardian about the American elections (congratulations Glenn!):

"In my lifetime, only one Democrat who was not from the American south has won the presidency. And the Democrat who did so, John F Kennedy, accomplished this feat when I was two months old. Since then, many have concluded that it's impossible for a Democrat to win the south unless - like Bill Clinton or Jimmy Carter - he has southern roots. (Al Gore, who hails from Carthage, Tennessee but who spent much of his childhood in a posh Washington hotel, apparently wasn't southern enough.) But why would that be? It can't be because southerners won't vote for people from outside the south. After all, they happily voted in droves for Ronald Reagan, a Californian transplanted from the midwest. Nor is it likely to be because of 'traditional values', since southerners also voted for Bill Clinton, a Democrat whose commitment to monogamy was famously shaky...

"...So what is it about the south? I think it's defence. Some time between the election of John F Kennedy, and the ignominious defeat of 1972 Democratic nominee George McGovern, the Democrats lost credibility on national defence. From Kennedy's stirring "bear any burden, pay any price" language, to the "peace at any price" slogans of the anti-war left in 1972, the Democrats lost their traditional stature as the internationalist and interventionist war party. Instead, they became identified with the welfare-state liberalism of the north-east and west coast, and with the anti-military sentiments of the anti-Vietnam war movement."

CBS News' Latest Fake Story

From INDC Journal:

"What is beyond question is that CBS failed to achieve common journalistic standards by failing to disclose Ms. Cocco's position and activism, failing to disclose the Selective Service's explicit statement denying the impending possibility of the draft and failing to disclose that the circulated e-mails in the story contained false and misleading information. These omissions - along with the story's questionable timing and dramatic tone - combine to create a blatantly misleading piece."

Ann Coulter on Bush's Lead

From AnnCoulter.com:

"Amid a solid stream of bad news, the New York Times reported on its own poll -- showing Kerry 8 points behind Bush -- in an article titled: 'Bush Opens Lead Despite Unease Voiced in Survey.' The Times bases its 'unease' conclusion on some secret documents recently given to them by Bill Burkett. This would seem to go against the 80 percent likeability rating among Bush supporters I cited previously -- but hey, it's good to see Jayson Blair working again. In fact, the only 'unease' expressed by voters in the Times poll seems to center on the possibility that Kerry could be elected president. Sixty percent of respondents to the Times poll said they do not have confidence that Kerry could deal wisely with an international crisis. Only 26 percent of respondents said they had 'a lot' of confidence in Kerry's ability to stop another terrorist attack, compared to 51 percent who have a lot of confidence in Bush's ability to do so. How about that for the next Kerry-Edwards bumper sticker? 'Three-quarters of us don't trust him on terror, but only 60 percent of us think he'd be incompetent in any international crisis.' And yet Times reporters Adam Nagourney and Janet Elder reasoned 'there are signs that the election remains competitive ...' Most of these 'signs' can be found posted on the Bushlied.com website.

"After reading the Times' peculiar interpretation of its poll, I thought it might be fun to see how the Times reported on the polls preceding the largest electoral landslide in U.S. history: Ronald Reagan's 1984 a**-whipping of Walter Mondale. For the moveon.org voters and other ignorant teenagers, in the end, Reagan would win that election 59 percent to 40 percent. But in August 1984, the Times wrote about Reagan's massive lead over Mondale after the Republican Convention in an article titled: 'Convention in Dallas: The Republicans, the Dangers Ahead."

"Among the "dangers" for Reagan astutely noted by the Times was "the very fact that he appears so far ahead of Mr. Mondale." (Of course, the principal "danger" as far as the Times was concerned was that Reagan might win the Cold War and dispatch the left's favorite country.)

Is Newsweek Championing Extremists?

FromAllahPundit:

"Whenever you see the mainstream media referring to someone as 'Sheikh', you're duty bound to do a search for that person on MEMRI and LGF. I'll show you why. Tonight in Loseweek [ed. note: Newsweek], Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball warn that the U.S. occupation of Iraq is radicalizing moderate Muslims. Moderate Muslims like 'Sheik' Yusuf al-Qaradawi. To be sure, say M&M, Qaradawi isn't a moderate on every issue. For instance, he doesn't have a big problem with blowing up Jews. He's also suspected of having ties to terrorist financing networks. And yes, sure, he happens to be the 'spiritual leader' of Egypt's most prominent fundamentalist group, the Muslim Brotherhood. But that doesn't mean he's not a moderate at heart..."

Victor Davis Hanson on Bush Hatred

From VDH's Private Papers:

"The 2002 winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, Nicholson Baker, just published Checkpoint. It is an extended dialogue about killing (in a variety of strange ways) George Bush. Jay, the protagonist of the novel, characterizes the potential targeted President as a “drunken oilman. "Vice President Cheney and Defense Secretary Rumsfeld are portrayed as 'bog creatures' with 'grubs scurrying out of their noses.' Such venom filters down. Sue Niederer, the mother of a soldier recently killed in Iraq, recently scoffed in an interview: 'I think if I had him in front of me I would shoot him in the groined area. Let him suffer. And just continue shooting him there.'"

A Hollywood Happy Ending

We saw Vanity Fair at the recently restored Avalon Theatre. When we left a couple of years ago, there were fears that it would be closed down after the Loew's lease expired. But the neighborhood rallied, we signed a petition, and amazingly, developer Douglas Jemal agreed to restore the theatre as an art house. Now it is much fancier than it ever was, at least in the 13 years we've been in the area. Beautiful wood carvings, murals, indirect lighting, an excellent projection and sound system. Better than a home entertainment center! If you are ever in Washington, you can see what a little neighborhood can do to preserve a landmark.

Vanity Fair

Last weekend, we finally saw Mira Nair's version of Vanity Fair. It wasn't bad. A little long, a little trouble telling the story in places, some problems with the actors, but overall, well worth seeing. Nair lays on the "India is England" subtext with a trowel. Lots of saris, peacocks, hot and spicy food. Not quite the Britain we remember from Stanley Kubrick's version of Thackeray's Barry Lyndon. But why not? The opening credit, "London 1812," the clip-clop of horses hooves on the soundtrack, the carriage riding down the cobblestone street, it's all right out of Masterpiece Theatre.

Unlike Bettye Davis' Becky Sharp in Rouben Mamoulian's 1935 version, Reese Witherspoon somehow avoids coming across as a conniving, calculating, immoral climber. Things seem to happen to her almost by accident, perhaps because she is blonde, while Davis was a brunette? Nair's storyline resonates with Gone with the Wind, Becky Sharp like Scarlett O'Hara; Amelia, Melanie. You can tell us who is Rhett Butler and who is Ashley Wilkes, after you've seen it. The battle of Waterloo parallels Sherman's burning of Atlanta.

In real life, according to our handy companion Who Was Really Who In Fiction Thackeray was Dobbin, and Amelia was Jane Brookfield, the wife of his best friend, for whom he burned an unrequited torch. Lord Steyne was Lord Hertford. And there was a real Becky Sharp, too, but her name escapes us, at the moment...She also came to a bad end.

The CIA v. Bush

From The Wall Street Journal:

"Congratulations to Porter Goss for being confirmed last week as the new Director of Central Intelligence. We hope he appreciates that he now has two insurgencies to defeat: the one that the CIA is struggling to help put down in Iraq, and the other inside Langley against the Bush Administration. We wish we were exaggerating. It's become obvious over the past couple of years that large swaths of the CIA oppose U.S. anti-terror policy, especially toward Iraq. But rather than keep this dispute in-house, the dissenters have taken their objections to the public, albeit usually through calculated and anonymous leaks that are always spun to make the agency look good and the Bush Administration look bad. Their latest improvised explosive political device blew up yesterday on the front page of the New York Times, in a story proclaiming that the agency had warned back in January 2003 of a possible insurgency in Iraq. This highly selective leak (more on that below) was conveniently timed for two days before the first Presidential debate."

Bush Bounce Now Solid Lead

From Charlie Cook:

"The irony, of course, is that while the war in Iraq may either re-elect or defeat Bush, Kerry has not handled the topic well. Whoever coined the joke about Kerry's having 57 varieties of answers on Iraq should be earning substantial royalty payments, because it is continually repeated -- and all too true. My hunch is that Kerry cast his vote in support of giving Bush authority to go to war for reasons of political expedience, not principle, and that he has been having a devil of a time defending that position because it is not one he truly believed -- or believes -- in."

Artem Tarasov's Russian Expose

From Mosnews.com:

"Artem Tarasov, a Russian entrepreneur, oligarch, and participant of some of the most dubious chapters of Russian history, has done something that in the West would have been done ages ago -- he has aired the dirty laundry of some of Russia's most public figures, including those still in a position of power. His book, The Millionaire, has gone on sale in Russia. Tarasov isn't the first name that springs to mind when you think of Russian billionaires. Many of them gained permanent public attention after being jailed, exiled, or announced wanted, while Tarasov made his escape to England far in advance of the Kremlin's war on the oligarchs. In the late 80s, he was among the first people to take advantage of the door to opportunity, offered by Gorbachev's perestroika, which was just beginning to crack open. In 1989, Tarasov, a card-carrying Communist, handed over 90,000 rubles in party dues. Knowing that the party asked for 3% of member incomes, the math is simple: Tarasov had made at least 3 million rubles that year. Money took Tarasov places -- high and low. He was friends with government officials and bandits alike. A businessman, he specialized in transactions and negotiations and was partially responsible for the coming to power of first Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov. Now the stories of how swing voters were lured by free beer and how much less Margaret Thatcher charged per personal visit than Russian PM Victor Chernomyrdin are available in hard cover. MosNews is publishing some of the excerpts from The Millionaire."

Chechen Gunmen Killed Russian Forbes Editor

From Mosnews.com:

"Moscow policemen have solved the murder of the chief editor of the Russian edition of the Forbes magazine Paul Klebnikov, the head of the Russian Interior Ministry's Main Directorate for Moscow City, Lieutenant-General Vladimir Pronin told the Interfax news agency on Tuesday. The general said that on Monday night Moscow policemen detained two Chechens who were involved in Klebnikov's killing. Three pistols were seized from the detained suspects, Pronin said. He also added that the same two Chechens had been holding a man hostage some time earlier. The RIA-Novosti news agency quoted a police source close as saying that the detained Chechens had kidnapped two men for ransom. After the kidnappers were detained on Monday night, a pistol was seized from them and the initial ballistic expertise has shown that this is the gun with which Paul Klebnikov was shot, the source said. "

Palestinian Captors Free CNN Producer

From Haaretz:

"Palestinian gunmen freed an Israeli Druze producer for CNN television unharmed yesterday, a day after kidnapping him in the Gaza Strip. Riad Ali said his captors told him they were members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, which is linked to Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement. But the Brigades issued a statement saying they had no connection to the abduction and condemning it as an act of chaos that hurt the Palestinian cause."

Cited in Holland!

Very excited to see my article on the Blogosphere has been cited in Weblog: een doe-het-zelf medium— Ordening in de informatiechaos? —Albert Benschop, in Dutch:

"Internet is een informatie- en communicatiemedium met een enorm bereik dat door honderden miljoenen mensen wordt gebruikt. Wie informatie op het internet wil plaatsen moest aanvankelijk eerst speciale hypertekstuele taal leren (de HyperText Markup Language: HTML) om vervolgens zijn producten met een programma voor bestandsoverdracht op een server te plaatsen (het File Transport Protocol: FTP). Later werd het publiceren op internet vergemakkelijkt door de opkomst van speciale webeditors. Sinds de opkomst van de weblog-technologie is publiceren op internet kinderwerk geworden. In weblogs kan iedereen die dat wil een chronologisch verslag doen van zijn persoonlijke besognes of interesses in bepaalde onderwerpen. Een weblog is een laagdrempelige publicatievorm met een maximaal bereik. En het is gratis. Geen wonder dat miljoenen mensen inmiddels via een weblog hun eigen plekje op het internet hebben ingericht.

"Wat is een weblog? Hoe gaan webloggers te werk? Wat voor soorten weblogs bestaan er? Welke functies kunnen weblogs vervullen? Waarom zijn weblogs zo populair geworden? En wat dragen weblogs bij aan de informatie- en communicatievoorziening via het internet?"