Monday, March 20, 2006

Rumsfeld's Iraq-Germany analogy disputed

CNN reported "Turning our backs on postwar Iraq today would be the modern equivalent of handing postwar Germany back to the Nazis," Rumsfeld wrote in an opinion piece published Sunday -- the third anniversary of the beginning of the U.S.-led war in Iraq -- in the Washington Post. The anniversary came as officials from Iraq and the United States differed on whether there is all-out civil war there.

Henry Kissinger, who served with U.S. forces in Germany at the end of World War II and who served as secretary of state under Republican Presidents Nixon and Ford, said the situations are not analogous. "In Germany, the opposition was completely crushed; there was no significant resistance movement," the German-born diplomat told CNN's "Late Edition."
They may not have been able to fight us while we were there, but we could have turned the government over to the remaining Nazis, rather than having a DeNazification process, and if we had, it would have been a mistake, as Rummy said.
Zbigniew Brzezinski, who served as national security adviser under President Carter, a Democrat, was less charitable.
Dems usually are less charitable.
"That is really absolutely crazy to anyone who knows history," he said. "There was no alternative to our presence. The Germans were totally crushed. For Secretary Rumsfeld to be talking this way suggests either he doesn't know history or he's simply demagoguing."
Someone is demagoguing, but I think it is you and Henry, who want your 15 minutes of fame again, and know that CNN would not run what you said if you agreed with Rummy.

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Sunday, March 19, 2006

Afghan Man Faces Execution After Converting to Christianity

VOA News reported An Afghan man who recently admitted he converted to Christianity faces the death penalty under the country's strict Islamic legal system. The trial is a critical test of Afghanistan's new constitution and democratic government. The case is attracting widespread attention in Afghanistan, where local media are closely monitoring the landmark proceedings.

Abdul Rahman, 40, was arrested last month, accused of converting to Christianity. Under Afghanistan's new constitution, minority religious rights are protected but Muslims are still subject to strict Islamic laws. And so, officially, Muslim-born Rahman is charged with rejecting Islam and not for practicing Christianity. Appearing in court earlier this week Rahman insisted he should not be considered an infidel, but admitted he is a Christian. He says he still believes in the almighty Allah, but cannot say for sure who God really is. "I am," he says, "a Christian and I believe in Jesus Christ."
Jesus Christ is mentioned in the Koran. Surat aal-E-Imran, 45 (Qur'an 3:45) says Behold! the angels said: "O Mary! Allah giveth thee glad tidings of a Word from Him: his name will be Christ Jesus, the son of Mary, held in honour in this world and the Hereafter and of (the company of) those nearest to Allah; Surat aal-E-Imran, 3 (Qur'an 3:3) says It is He Who sent down to thee (step by step), in truth, the Book, confirming what went before it; and He sent down the Law (of Moses) and the Gospel (of Jesus) before this, as a guide to mankind, and He sent down the criterion (of judgment between right and wrong).

We are all "People of the Book" (or ahl al Kitâb) Surat Al 'Imran, 64 (Qur'an 3:64) says "O People of the Book! Let us rally to a common formula to be binding on both us and you: That we worship none but God; that we associate no partners with Him; that we erect not, from among ourselves, Lords and patrons other than God." Surat al-Ankaboot, 46 (Qur'an 29:46) says And do not dispute with the followers of the Book except by what is best, except those of them who act unjustly, and say: We believe in that which has been revealed to us and revealed to you, and our God and your God is One, and to Him do we submit.
Rahman reportedly converted more than 16 years ago after spending time working in Germany. Officials say his family, who remain observant Muslims, turned him over to the authorities. On Thursday the prosecution told the court Rahman has rejected numerous offers to embrace Islam. Prosecuting attorney Abdul Wasi told the judge that the punishment should fit the crime. He says Rahman is a traitor to Islam and is like a cancer inside Afghanistan. Under Islamic law and under the Afghan constitution, he says, the defendant should be executed.

The court has ordered a delay in the proceedings to give Rahman time to hire an attorney. Under Afghan law, once a verdict is given, the case can be appealed twice to higher courts. This is the first case in which the defendant has admitted to converting and is refusing to back down, even while facing the death penalty.

If convicted, the case could ultimately force President Hamid Karzai's direct intervention. The president would have to sign the papers authorizing Rahman's execution, a move that could jeopardize Mr. Karzai's standing with human rights groups and Western governments.
If he signs them, we should pull our forces out of Afganistan.
So far, President Karzai has not commented on the case. But political analysts here in Kabul say he will be under significant pressure from the country's hard-line religious groups to make an example of Rahman.

Michelle Malkin blogged This story deserves much more attention than it's getting.

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Gore vs. Hillary

Robert Novak wrote in Townhall.com Democratic insiders take seriously a possible new try for the presidency by Al Gore and say he is capable of raising more money than the presumptive front-runner, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Kerry also thinks he should have been elected, and will probably make a run at it too. The Democratic Primary season should be interesting.
Clinton's team has attempted to foreclose conventional Democratic money sources, drying up funding for her potential presidential rivals. She has $17.1 million cash on hand, more than any other possible candidate. Her current fund-raising tour is aimed at an additional $40 million.
She probably thinks she can drain some of it off for personal use.
However, party operatives believe former Vice President Gore can outdo Clinton through unconventional fund-raising on the Internet. By campaigning left of Clinton, Gore appeals to ardent anti-war Democrats. Gore's first presidential run in 1988 positioned him as the centrist candidate, to the right of eventual nominee Michael Dukakis.
Dems always pretend to be centrists, but with the growth of the extreme left wing of the blogosphere, they are going to find it harder and harder to do it, and not lose their base

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Saturday, March 18, 2006

'South Park' feeling some celeb heat?

Variety reported The battle between "South Park""South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone and Scientology is escalating. The dust-up gained steam last week when Isaac Hayes, a practicing Scientologist who has long been the voice of the character Chef, quit after objecting to a "South Park" episode called "Trapped in the Closet," which lampooned both the religion and Tom CruiseTom Cruise.

He did not mind when they lampoon Christianity, Judism, or Islam, but he can't stand it when they blast his "religion"
The skirmish continued this week, when Comedy CentralComedy Central abruptly pulled a repeat of that episode that was scheduled to air Wednesday evening.
Maybe the next time they take a shot at Christianity we should complain.
Showing instead was another memorable segseg which featured Hayes's character, called "Chef's Chocolate Salty Balls."

Blog reports pegged the mysterious episode switch to objections raised by Cruise, who, the reports stated, threatened to not promote "Mission: Impossible 3," the summer tentpole for ViacomViacom-owned Paramount.
We we certainly dont want to tick Tom off, do we? <tongue in cheek>

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Betsy's Page is back

Yesterday we asked "Where's Betsy's Page". It had disappeared a few days earlier, and I emailed her at that time, and when it did not reappear I offerred to set up a WordPress blog for her on my server (I may move over there myself sometime).

Well Blogger finally restored her page. As she said I seem to exist again. It's been a long, strange trip. On Tuesday, my blog disappeared completely and my dashboard page on Blogger showed that my blog did not exist. It was Kafkaesque. I didn't feel any different, but, apparently, my four years of blogging had vanished with just a few traces left in Google Cache.... Then, today, I got a message from Blogger saying that they had recovered my blog and that somehow I had gotten caught up in some massive “automated spam prevention system" action that had thought that my blog was spam. Huh?!

Sister Toldjah blogged After reading the experience Betsy Newmark went through after her blog went down for four days, and after reading that something similar happened to Jason at Generation Why? (who has his own domain now), I encourage anyone with a blog at Blogger/Blogspot to do a backup of their site and get a domain with hosting services.

CQ blogged Apparently the folks at Blogger have done a pretty horrible job of supporting their customers. Betsy Newmark had her entire site wiped out mysteriously by their system, and then experienced a boatload of frustration when she tried to correct the situation. Her URL also appeared to have been hijacked as well, but now seems like it's back on line.

OTB blogged I see that several sites on Blogspot, notably Betsy Newmark’s and Eric Lindholm’s, have suddenly disappeared owing to a glitch at Blogger. Some jerk even snagged Betsy’s old URL and is squatting on it. Michelle Malkin gives more insights into Newmark’s situation.

I had this happen to me several months ago, with my original OTB/OTB Backup Site disappearing and numerous niche blogs I had established just going away. Google, which owns Blogspot, never even bothered to respond to my queries. Indeed, my experience was almost identical to Newmark’s.

If you’re going to spend the time to blog, please get yourself a domain and rent your own server space. Unless you’re posting videos or getting big time traffic, you can do it for less than $20 a month–often much less. Frankly, this pathetic level of service is overpriced even at “free.”

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Friday, March 17, 2006

Where's Betsy's Page?

Michelle Malkin Betsy Newmark, one of my favorite bloggers who I've been honored to have guest-blog here, is down. I asked her what happened. She e-mails about her nightmare:

Evil Blogger has lost the page - server problems. They are the most unhelpful organization. You can't reach any human being and all I get are form letters saying that all the problems have been resolved. I'm just hoping that they fix their problem and I get back on. I don't have time to hassle with setting up a new page.
She adds:
All I get are their automated messages that are of no help whatsoever. Then they put up lies on their status page saying that it really was just a tiny problem and it's all fixed now. Maybe if they get some notoriety out there, they'll take more action. Here is their lame help message. Thanks so much. Maybe one of your readers has a suggestion of what I can do to get my blog back other than starting over from scratch.
Even worse, someone else has now poached her URL.

Can someone help?


I offerred to set up and host a Word Press blog for her.

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Prosecute the lawyers

Michelle Malkin blogged You've probably heard that a judge tossed out the most of the prosecution's case for the death penalty against al Qaeda terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui, thanks to a Transportation Security Agency lawyer who provided trial transcripts to and briefed potential witnesses.

Now comes a credible-sounding allegation that the entire incident was orchestrated by lawyers for federal bailout recipients United Airlines and American Airlines, who wanted to undermine the prosecutors' case against Moussaoui in order to bolster their legal defense in a separate civil suit.

Big Lizards explains the whole thing here.


Carla Martin should definitely be prosecuted, and she should be encouraged to testify against the American Airlines' lawyer and the United Airlines lawyer who initiated the conspiracy. If you can't get a conviction, then ask Dick Cheney to invite them on a hunting trip.

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Can Democrats Play This Game?

E. J. Dionne Jr. wrote in WaPo Russ Feingold tossed a political grenade at President Bush this week, but it fell into the middle of the Senate Democratic Caucus. Many Democratic senators ran away.
They were not stupid enough to take Feingold up on his motion, but with the Loony Left in the Blogosphere cheering him on, they may develop the necessary stupidity.
The grenade was the Wisconsin senator's proposal to censure the president for violating the law by ordering electronic surveillance on Americans without explicit congressional or court authorization.
Even though he didn't need it.
While the episode says more about Bush's political frailty than the first-blush accounts have suggested, it also underscored the frictions and tensions between passionate Democratic activists and their cautious leaders. The president has lost so much support and credibility that Republicans were simply grateful Feingold briefly changed the political subject from the Dubai ports controversy, the mess in Iraq and Bush's anemic poll ratings.
No, they just hoped that the Dems would be stupid enough to vote to censure the President for doing something a majority of the public knows needs to be done. That vote would be very useful in the 2006 and 2008 elections.

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Bill Would Allow Warrantless Spying

WaPo The Bush administration could continue its policy of spying on targeted Americans without obtaining warrants, but only if it justifies the action to a small group of lawmakers, under legislation introduced yesterday by key Republican senators.
This is a good solution, but if one of that small group of legislators leeks anything, they need to be held accountable for their actions.
The four senators hope to settle the debate over National Security Agency eavesdropping on international communications involving Americans when one of the parties is suspected of terrorist ties. President Bush prompted a months-long uproar when he said that constitutional powers absolve him of the need to seek warrants in such cases, even though the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act requires warrants for domestic wiretaps.

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Thursday, March 16, 2006

Pelosi Hints at Democrats' 'Unified' Agenda

CNS News reported The Republican Party has wondered what's taking Democrats so long to unveil their election-year agenda. Amid press reports that it will happen any day now, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday offered what amounts to a draft version.
They hate George Bush.
Americans who find it hard to make ends meet may like the promises they hear from the Democrats. But the companies that employ such Americans may not like the plan.
There is nothing new there. Dems have always hated business.
In any case, the Republican Party says the Democrats' real agenda involves the censure and possible impeachment of President George W. Bush.

In a speech to the Communications Workers of America on Tuesday, Pelosi mentioned Democrats' opposition to outsourcing. She said Democrats will end tax subsidies for companies that send jobs overseas.
Can they name a single bill that provides tax subsidies for companies to send jobs overseas?
She also said Democrats support the "right of all Americans to organize," a sentiment that goes over well with labor unions such as the CWA.
Unions are rapidly shrinking, because there is little need for them, so they may like that.
To protect workers who want to join unions, Pelosi said Democrats are "fighting" to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, sponsored by Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) in the House and Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) in the Senate. "The bill will guarantee that when a majority of workers in a company want a union, they will get a union," Pelosi said.
What about protecting rights of employees that don't want to join a union, or don't want one in their company.
Democrats also support an increase in the minimum wage. Pelosi, describing the income of corporate American CEOs as "immoral," used Wal-Mart to make her point:
A lot of liberals take pot shots at WalMart, yet they don't seem to have trouble finding people to work for them.
"I was told that an entry level person at Wal-Mart, who works his or her entire career at Wal-Mart, would make as much as the CEO makes in two weeks. A lifetime of work versus two weeks in the executive suite -- this is not America, this is not fairness, this is not the basis of a strong middle class that is essential for our democracy. We must change that in our country," she said.
Robin Hood Democrats will rob from the rich to give to the poor (except most of it they will keep for themselves).
Pelosi also mentioned the Democrats' "Innovation Agenda" to maintain America's leadership role in the global economy.
They want to support the global economy; just don't send any jobs overseas.
America lags behind other countries that have universal broadband deployment, Pelosi said; but the Democrats' agenda "guarantees" that every American will have affordable access to broadband within five years.
I thought Gore invented the internet; why did he invent it with slow access?
"We also believe that the nationwide deployment of high speed, always-on broadband and Internet and mobile communications will fuel the development of millions of new jobs in the United States," Pelosi said.
Unless she is planning on having the government subsidize the broadband, she should be able to get Republicans to join with her in developing technology.
Democrats support "energy independence" within ten years; health care for all American within five years; and "dignified retirement" (no privatization of Social Security) through an "AmeriSave" plan.
Tell us how we can afford to do it.

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Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Online Freedom of Speech Act Vote Tomorrow

Outside The Beltway blogged The House will vote tomorrow on HR 1606 - The Online Freedom of Speech Act, a measure uniting Left and Right in the blogosphere. It got majority support last go-round but was thwarted by procedural tricks.

Extreme Left Wing Markos Moulitsas Zuniga notes that the NYT calls it “Internet Campaign Loophole” even though “this loophole has existed for several years and still hasn’t been exploited.”

Mike Krempasky says, “Seriously folks - it’s gameday. Get on the horn.”.... Here are the relevant points:

  • HR 1606 is a simple bill that simply puts into law the existing status quo. It preserves the system under which we operated for the 2004 elections - WHEN THERE WAS NO CORRUPTION OR SCANDAL. It's supported by bloggers left and right.
  • HR 4900 (also known as the CDT proposal) is NOT an acceptable alternative to HR 1606. It's attractive, and while complicated it has a lot to like - and we can look at it after we pass 1606 - but this is the bottom line: if HR 1606 is not passed TOMORROW, the FEC will issue regulations for politics on the internet.
  • The reformers regulators merely want to delay the process while the Commission will be forced to issue regulations.
  • This is a TINY, TINY law. It does NOT open up a gaping loophole - and you can support BCRA and still believe that this little tiny section of American politics ought to be free. (don't trust me - ask FEC Chairman Michael Toner)


I hope it passes

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George Clooney - Blogger???

LA Times reported Oscar winner George Clooney may make politically provocative films like "Syriana." But he doesn't write politically provocative blogs. So imagine his ire when Arianna Huffington used some of his recent answers to political questions in a way that makes it look as if he wrote one for her Huffington Post blog site. "He doesn't object to the quotes," says Stan Rosenfield, Clooney's rep. "He said those things and those are his views. Arianna asked for permission to use the quotes and he gave it to her. What he didn't give permission for was the use of his quotes without source attributions to make it appear that he wrote a blog for her site. Which he did not. When he saw the posting Monday, we called and asked her to make the change, to simply attribute the quotes and make it clear that he did not write a blog. But she refused. And it's now Wednesday." Rather than keep waiting, Clooney got proactive and issued this statement: "Miss Huffington's blog is purposefully misleading and I have asked her to clarify the facts. I stand by my statements but I did not write this blog

Arianna Huffington blogged The George Clooney blog that was posted on the Huffington Post Sunday was published only after we received written approval from his representative to do so. Here's the story:

When I first invited George Clooney to blog after a screening of Good Night, and Good Luck in New York a few months ago, he said he wasn't sure how a blog worked.
Why didn't you teach him.
So we put together a sample blog from answers he had given on Larry King Live and an interview with the Guardian in London, and sent it to him to rework in any way he wanted.
If you wanted to send it to him as a suggested post, that would have been ok, but to then post it and pretend he had done it was dishonest. Is that the way all of the "bloggers" on The Huffington Post work? Are they all posted by you, pretending to be the celebrities?
A publicist who was working on the promotion of Good Night, and Good Luck, emailed back saying, "I will get it to him and get back to you as soon as I hear anything." Three days later, she emailed again, approving, without any changes, what we had sent: "Of course this is fine, Arianna!" And once we had the approval, that's what we ran: George Clooney's words put into blog form.
Then why did you call it George Clooney's Blog. Why did you not say you were pretending to be him?

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New Blog Tool

I really like the Performancing blogging addition to the Firefox browser, which I use to post to multiple blogs. Well they have now come up with Performancing Metric, a professional grade blog statistics service aimed at professional bloggers, available to all, for FREE, in public beta.

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Google News Credibility Foiled By 15-Year Old

The SEO Blog: reported Sometimes the most well thought out practical jokes trigger an uneven brand of justice that falls under the laws of unintended consequences. While not formally codified and ill defined, the law of unintended consequences is very real, as a Google-focused prank pulled by 15-year old Tom Vandetta amply illustrates.

Reading through SEO focused blog entries, Vandetta found an article that explained how to fool Google's news system by writing fake press releases. Sensing an opportunity to experiment and play a joke on his friends, the self-described "Google fanboy" decided to see what would happen if he submitted a fake Google press release claiming the 15-year old New Jersey student was Google's youngest employee. The prank has made Vandetta temporarily famous. His Gmail account received almost 400 emails in the first few hours. Vandetta has since had to open new Gmail and MySpace accounts. His parents are changing their phone number and he is working to re-establish a workable online identity.
I bet his parents were not amused.
On the brighter side, he has received a few emails from Google employees assuring him he has not dashed his dreams of one day working for Google, as he thought he might have.

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Myths of Iraq

RealClearPolitics reported During a recent visit to Baghdad, I saw an enormous failure. On the part of our media. The reality in the streets, day after day, bore little resemblance to the sensational claims of civil war and disaster in the headlines.

The MSM would rather lie to the American Public than to do their job as journalism because they hate Bush so much.
No one with first-hand experience of Iraq would claim the country's in rosy condition, but the situation on the ground is considerably more promising than the American public has been led to believe. Lurid exaggerations and instant myths obscure real, if difficult, progress.

I left Baghdad more optimistic than I was before this visit. While cynicism, political bias and the pressure of a 24/7 news cycle accelerate a race to the bottom in reporting, there are good reasons to be soberly hopeful about Iraq's future.

Much could still go wrong. The Arab genius for failure could still spoil everything. We've made grave mistakes. Still, it's difficult to understand how any first-hand observer could declare that Iraq's been irrevocably "lost."

Consider just a few of the inaccuracies served up by the media


This is a very good article, and I urge everyone to read it.

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Tuesday, March 14, 2006

2008 GOP Primary Straw Poll

GOP Bloggers is running a 2008 Straw Poll. This is a unique 2008 primary straw poll, you get to pick all the candidates you like and don't like, and it'll tally who has the largest net positive or net negative support. Feel free to vote for as many or as few candidates as you'd like. If you have no strong feelings towards a candidate, you don't need to vote either way.

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Democrats Beat Quick Retreat on Call to Censure President

NYT reported Senate Democrats on Monday blocked an immediate vote on a call by one of their own to censure President Bush for his eavesdropping program. They acted after Republicans said they were eager to pass judgment on a proposal that they portrayed as baseless and disruptive to the antiterror effort.

At least they were halfway intelligent. A roll call vote would have been very useful for the 2006 and 2008 elections.
.... Though polls on surveillance are mixed, Republicans say the public generally backs the idea of eavesdropping on people suspected of being in contact with terror suspects.... Mr. Feingold said he viewed his censure resolution as a reasonable way to hold the president accountable.... "This is certainly more serious than anything President Clinton was accused of doing,"
Well having oral sex with an intern in the Oval Office might be legal, rapeing another woman is not, nor is telling lies while under oath.
said Mr. Feingold, who added that the grass-roots response to his proposal was strong after he announced his intention on Sunday.
Certainly the rabid left side of the blogosphere was happy, but they are the ones that are pressing all of the Dems to stay so far on the left that they dont stand a chance of taking over the House, the Senate, or the White House.
"It is reminiscent of what President Nixon was not only accused of doing,
Not exactly. Nixon participated in the coverup of a breakin to the Democratic Headquarters Office in the Watergate Hotel; that is not the same as listening to international phone calls involving a group of Islamofascists that killed 3,000 people on 9/11
but was basically removed from office for doing."

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Dangerously Incompetent

Kathryn Jean Lopez wrote on The Corner on National Review Online Senator Stabenow is on the Senate floor right now speaking next to a sign that says “dangerously incompetent.” Will make for a cheap commerical later this election year.


ROF, LMAO. And notice the color of the sign matches her outfit

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Chinese Bloggers Cry Wolf

WSJ. reported Some well-known bloggers in China used an unlikely tool last week to make a point that Western news media and politicians misunderstand Chinese censorship. They shut themselves down.

Notices posted on the Chinese-language blogs Massage Milk and Milk Pig announced that "Due to unavoidable reasons with which everyone is familiar, this blog is temporarily closed."
Their hoax got everyone's attention, but I hope they don't try it too often, or they will be considered like the boy that cried wolf. Finally people did not believe him when he cried wolf, and when a wolf really came .....
Within hours, English-language bloggers and Western news media spread the word that the Chinese government had closed the sites. The BBC news service reported that Massage Milk was "closed down by the authorities," adding that the act had coincided with the annual session of the Chinese legislature. Picking up on that report and others from news services, French free-press group Reporters Without Borders issued a statement condemning the closure of the blogs..... But in this case, it appears the Chinese government wasn't involved. By Thursday, a day after the shut-downs, the blogs were back up and running.

In an interview, Beijing-based journalist Wang Xiaofeng of Massage Milk says he shut his blog down to make a point about freedom of speech -- just one directed at the West instead of at Beijing. He calls the Western press "irresponsible" and says that the hoax was designed "to give foreign media a lesson that Chinese affairs are not always the way you think."
We now realize that. And when the Chinese government really does shut you down, I hope you remember this.
"They are not just supposed to report based on their own perceptions, without understanding the circumstances in China," he says, noting that the BBC's report was exactly what he expected. The BBC didn't call him to discuss the issue before publishing its stories, he says.
Check to see whether the story is true or not before publishing? What a strange journalistic practice (at least these days)

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Celebrity gossip

Memeorandum is a very useful tool for bloggers both its political and technical versions.

Today they released a third version WeSmirch: Automatic Dirt Digger for Celebrity Gossip

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