Bill’s Blog

“Not for the politically correct.”

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DrudgeReport.com

• Saddam Mining Oil Fields in Northern Iraq

• State Dept Pours Water on Democratic Domino Theory

• Ambitious Chinese Space Program

• Flight Attendant Drugs Crying Infant

• Dixie Chicks Ashamed of Bush

• Elizabeth Smart Coverage

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If this is a classified report someone must have leaked it.

Washington -- A classified State Department report expresses deep skepticism that installing a new regime in Iraq will foster the spread of democracy in the Middle East, a claim President Bush has made in trying to build support for a war, according to intelligence officials familiar with the document.

The report exposes significant divisions within the Bush administration over the so-called democratic domino theory, one of the arguments that underpins the case for invading Iraq.

The report, which has been distributed to a small group of top government officials but not publicly disclosed, says that daunting economic and social problems are likely to undermine basic stability in the region for years, let alone prospects for democratic reform.

Even if some version of democracy took root -- an event the report casts as unlikely -- anti-American sentiment is so pervasive that elections in the short term could lead to the rise of Islamic-controlled governments hostile to the United States.

If China continues with its military buildup and putting money into money pit state socialist enterprises how will it be able to afford this ambitious space program?

One wonders if the Chinese Communist Party wants to pursue the space program in order to justify its control of the country.

Authorities charged a former Northwest Airlines flight attendant with assault for allegedly putting a prescription depressant in 19-month-old girl's apple juice to stop her crying during an international flight.

Daniel Reed Cunningham, 33, also was charged Thursday with distributing a controlled substance on the Aug. 25 flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.

The Dixie Chicks are stirring up controversy with a recent negative comment about President Bush while overseas promoting their current album, Home.

The trio performed a live show in London on Monday (March 10th) night, and Natalie Maines (news) told the crowd, "Just so you know, we're ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas."

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 OpinionJournal.com

• Pope Was Wrong On Gulf War, Too

• Questions for the Peaceniks

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du Pont, Pete. “Getting Serious: Questions for the peaceniks.” OpinionJournal.com. March 14, 2003.

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FrontPageMag.com

• Symposium on Left–wing Anti–Semitism

• “Anti-war” Tactics a Form of Secession

• The “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” and Arab Anti-Semitism

• “Peace Process” Diplomat Knew It Was Bogus

• University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Faculty Urges Noncooperation in Terrorist Investigations

• Obituary of Leftist Spanish Anti-Stalinist

• New York City Council Subordinates Security to Political Correctness

• A Grateful Briton

• Iraq May Strike First

• Powell Scoffs at “Jewish Conspiracy” to Start Iraq Operation

• US Rep David Bonior Hampered Terror Investigation in Detroit

• 5 “Human Shields” Kicked Out of Iraq

• House Minority Whip Support Iraq Operation

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My recollection is that Palestine “Liberation” became a “progressive” cause circa 1967, when Yasser Arafat became a Soviet client.

One suspects that Leftists see poverty in America as the result of capitalist exploitation as well. This allows them to ignore the possibility that the high taxes to fund the welfare state may be keeping people poor by suppressing economic growth.

Contemporary empirical realities demonstrate one undeniable fact: anti-Semitism is no longer associated prominently with the Right. Instead, the primary source of the hatred of Jews now emanates from the Left. In fact, anti-Semitism has evolved into a cultural code and even a rallying cry for progressive radicals throughout the world. This reality is perfectly illustrated by contemporary efforts to pressure Western universities and institutions to divest from financial holdings in Israel.

[Jonathan] Kay: Anti-Semitism is, without doubt, an old phenomenon. Nonetheless, it has definitely found many new converts thanks to the rise of the New Left.

…

Kay: The fact that Lerner chooses to say that the United States "consumes 25% of the world's wealth" instead of, more accurately, "produces 25% of the world's wealth" unwittingly exposes how outdated Marxist theories of class struggle remain central to the left's view of the Jewish question. (Similarly, Jews do not "take" a larger portion than other groups, except to the extent they "earn" a larger portion.)

If Israel were poor, backwards and repressive — like, say, the Palestinian Authority and all of Israel's Arab neighbours — it would qualify for the left's sympathy under the theory that poverty is a symptom of capitalist exploitation and, therefore, signals moral virtue. It is only because Jews have built a wealthy, technologically advanced and militarily powerful nation that Israel comes in for scrutiny and loathing from the hard left.

…

Kay: I think it's important to understand how recent developments have changed the intellectual terrain. Marxism appealed to Western intellectuals because it purported to legitimize the emotional loathing they felt for their own capitalist societies. Though Marxism has been discredited, hard leftists retain that core societal self-hatred, and so are desperately casting about for some new intellectual framework to legitimize it. Their problem is that the main ideological force opposing the United States is now militant Islam, which is fascistic in its outlook and seeks to oppress women, homosexuals and religious minorities - groups that the left has historically championed. Criticizing Israel is the left's way of squaring the circle: By obsessing over the Palestinians (plus the suffering of Iraqi children), leftists can feel themselves part of the Arab world's anti-imperialist struggle, while at the same time politely ignoring all of the illiberal baggage - be it Koranic or Arabist - that generally comes with it.

This relates to the line between legitimate dissent and treason. Bush’s biggest failure in the war on terrorism is his failure to insist that laws and contractual obligations be enforced.

Antiwar groups in San Francisco planning to create civil disorder on the day war breaks out; a Wisconsin university campus declaring its intention to obstruct the Patriot Act’s civil defense measures; professors at Stanford and other universities canceling classes to facilitate attempts to shut down campuses in protest against the war; teachers leading high school students out of the classroom and onto the demonstration lines; the New York City council (and many other municipal governments) declaring their opposition to the foreign policy of the United States --- all these are in one way or another acts of secession. They are derelictions of institutional responsibility and the rejection of obligations to the community at large. They amount to secessionist challenges to the institutions in question, including the nation itself.

…

Above all, Americans need to take the war at home seriously. Otherwise we will risk losing the wars both at home and abroad.

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is one of history’s most notorious books. It was a fabrication of the Okhrana, the tsarist secret police, and was plagiarized from a Czech novel.

The Protocols weren’t widely known in the West until after the Russian Revolution, when people fleeing the Bolsheviks took it with them.

The most notable case is the Baltic ethnic German Alfred Rosenberg, who personally gave a copy to Adolph Hitler.

Hitler was foolish enough to believe that the Protocols was true.

A few months ago, a great deal of tut-tutting and dignified outrage emanated from much of the civilized world over the broadcast of a series on Egyptian television which sought to dramatize the "truth" of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

…

Critics of administration policy aren't satisfied with putting out lies about oil interests driving the war policy, ignoring Iraqi illegal arms and atrocities, justifying French appeasement or even evoking the anachronistic anti-American tone of Vietnam-era protests.

The road map, like Oslo before it, makes no effort to de-legitimize terror and violence.

In other words the “peace process” was bogus from the start.

He probably made the calculation that he would get credit for a peace treaty signed under his watch, whereas blame for the eventual collapse of the peace process would be assigned to the president then in office.

Sure sounds like our boy.

Ross admits, "At no time during the Oslo process were those who carried out acts of terror against Israelis treated as enemies of the cause by the Palestinian leadership. The road map, like Oslo before it, makes no effort to de-legitimize terror and violence." The very least that Israelis should have been able to expect from a "peace process" was a cessation of Palestinian terrorism. But Ross now acknowledges that throughout nine years of negotiations no attempt was made to achieve even this minimum level of security.

…

What was the Clinton administration's reaction to all this? According to a Washington Post op-ed by Ross, "The prudential issues of compliance were neglected and politicized by the Americans in favor of keeping the peace process afloat. . . . Every time there was a behavior, or an incident, or an event that was inconsistent with what the peace process was about, the impulse was to rationalize it, finesse it, find a way around it, and not allow it to break the process."

Knowing what the Americans already knew about Arafat's unwillingness to conclude a conflict-ending treaty with Israel, and with bombs going off in Israel's streets, what was the point of the frenzied diplomacy to negotiate a peace treaty in Bill Clinton's last days in office? Clinton was more interested in his image of a peacemaker than actual peace, and it is likely that he expected the "peace process" to collapse. He probably made the calculation that he would get credit for a peace treaty signed under his watch, whereas blame for the eventual collapse of the peace process would be assigned to the president then in office.

If the Oshkosh faculty believe the Patriot Act is unconstitutional they should challenge it in court and obey it if they lose. To do otherwise is a form of secession.

The Faculty Senate at the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh is urging faculty members not to cooperate with investigations of students, professors, or staff members made under the USA Patriot Act. The senate voted last week following unconfirmed reports that a professor at Oshkosh has been investigated, but cleared, under the act.

Passed in October 2001, the Patriot Act greatly expands law-enforcement officials' ability and authority to gather information secretly and conduct surveillance. Concern and fear about the act are increasing at colleges, where many people worry that the law will sacrifice privacy and academic freedom for security.

Stalinism as “counterrevolutionary.” Note that Ho Chi Minh was an agent of Stalin’s Comintern.

… When it became clear that Stalin, the monster of the Kremlin, had turned the Comintern to the path of counter-revolution, the generous and courageous sons of the Barcelona proletarian milieu left the PCE.

…

But the struggle of the Spanish working class was doomed. The cowardly French left blocked the shipment of military supplies to its Spanish comrades; fascist-lining Britain assisted in the blockade. Worst of all, the Stalinist USSR sent police cadres to Barcelona to subvert the revolution. …

Among other incidents in his work with La Batalla, Víctor met George Orwell, and conducted him around Barcelona. Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia stands as an imperishable record of everything in which Víctor and his comrades believed.

… He earned a living as a crime reporter for Excelsior, the biggest Mexico City daily, and played a crucial role in positively identifying the Barcelona Stalinist who murdered Trotsky. …

Later he went to the U.S., writing numerous books on Latin America, including the definitive Historia del comunismo en America Latina, which included many gems – such as the disclosure that the Comintern had denounced the Nicaraguan revolutionary Sandino as a sellout, not long before his death. He taught political science at Kent State University in Ohio, retiring in 1974 and returning to Catalunya.

Even after being attacked by terrorists the NYC politicians stick with phony Left-wing policies. Obvious conclusion: safety of NYC citizens is subordinated to political correctness.

In a vote that elicited a range of emotional responses, the City Council approved a resolution Wednesday opposing war with Iraq except as a last resort.

The 31-17 vote in the city hardest hit by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks came after months of behind-the-scenes debate about whether the council should take a position, particularly given the city's position as a symbol in the war on terrorism.

"If we're going to be looking for a fight, let's fight poverty, let's fight firehouse closures, let's fight racism and sexism," said Yvette Clarke, a Brooklyn Democrat who supported the resolution.

In a MTV appearance Colin Powell responded to Norwegian viewer’s question on “why Europeans consider the U.S. to be the ‘Satan of contemporary politics’” by responding that America is the Great Protector and refuting the claim that America is “imperialist.”

It has been whispered around Washington for some time that is it not a coincidence that the three largest European countries with the longest, most well-documented history of government-condoned anti-Semitism in the 19th and 20th centuries have been France, Russia, and Germany. And those are the three countries which are leading the charge against President Bush's Iraq policy.

The pogroms of Tsarist Russia then the Soviet Union were sanctioned and organized efforts to attack Jewish communities in the 1800s and 1900s.

The infamous Dreyfus case in the 1890s is the most well-reported case of French-sponsored anti-Semitism.

And, the Holocaust needs no explanation.

…

One would have expected, in the 21st Century, that a politician with the experience of James Moran who has been in public office for 24 years - the last 12 as a Member of Congress. He said, in his own defense, "Nobody could berate me more than I do when I see my words in print compared to what I intended to say," which is Moran-speak for "If I had known it was going to end up in the Washington Post I never would have said it."

But that's the kind of man James Moran is.

I will never forget or dishonor the amazing and courageous sacrifice of the people of the United States in coming to the aid of the world over the past ten decades. The men and women who left peace and prosperity in a land of plenty to face bullet and shrapnel on the beaches of Normandy and around the World.

I will honor the debt my small island nation owes for your unswerving devotion to aiding our continued freedom. Your help when we stood small and alone against the plague of Nazi aggression. Your assistance in making us strong when the battle was finished and the peace began, and your protection from a colder enemy in the decades that followed.

WASHINGTON — Saddam Hussein may be considering pre-emptive strikes on American and British troops, Israeli targets and his own people if he feels war is inevitable, Pentagon officials have told Fox News.

"We have to assume that if he feels he has been backed into a corner, he may believe his only real shot comes from trying something first," one official said Thursday night.

Defense surveillance has revealed movements of Iraqi troops and heavy artillery toward the southern border, from which they could take up positions to shell U.S. troops dug in inside Kuwait, Fox News learned Thursday.

U.S. officials also said they have seen Iraqi surface-to-surface Scud missiles moved into parts of western Iraq that would put them within striking distance of Israel.

Striking first could backfire for Saddam, since it would be obvious that he is initiating hostilities. Since the bulk of our forces are already in place, we could start the operation to depose him instantly.

WASHINGTON — Secretary of state Colin Powell flatly rejected on Thursday any suggestion that the Bush administration's confrontation with Iraq was engineered by Israel or American Jews.

Powell told a House Appropriations Subcommittee that the drive to compel Iraq to disarm stretches back over two administrations and 12 years of United Nations resolutions.

"It is driven by our own national interest," Powell said under questioning by the subcommittee chairman, Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., who said he wanted to clear up media suggestions that American supporters of Israel — and Israel itself — were driving U.S. strategy.

WASHINGTON – A former Democratic congressman years ago hampered FBI efforts to investigate terrorist suspects in Detroit, which is now a hotbed for al-Qaida sympathizers and cells, former FBI officials say.

Former Rep. David Bonior, D-Mich., led a campaign on Capitol Hill to pressure the FBI to back off an intelligence-gathering operation in Detroit aimed at deterring terrorism during the last Gulf war.

They were kicked out of Iraq because they didn’t like the locations they were assigned to “shield.” The only name and residence in this article is Ken O'Keefe, 33, of Haleiwa, Hawaii.

It’s hard to see how being a “human shield” for Saddam isn’t providing him aid and comfort.

House Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer yesterday announced his support for a war to disarm Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, saying that the United States must act if the United Nations won't.

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Jewish World Review.com

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JWR

 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
 (Subscription Site)

• Legislative Panel Votes to Deny Convicts FOI

• Bill to Lower DWI Threshold Fails in Committee

• Jacksonville Jr High Blamed for Outing Gay 14–Year–Old

• LR School Board Gives Away Tax Money for Developers

• Grady Speed Trap Copy Sentenced for Extortion

• Patriotic Rally at War Memorial Stadium

• Democrat–Gazette Lauds Phony Tort Reform

• Columnist Derides French Perfidy

• Arkansas Politicians’ Tax Increases Scam

• Thomas Jefferson’s Views on American Education

A legislative committee recommended Thursday a bill to change the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act so that any prison inmate who has pleaded guilty or been convicted of a felony would not be allowed to inspect and copy public records.

Senate Bill 742 by Sen. Sue Madison, D-Fayetteville, also would deny access to public records to any representative of any prison inmate unless the representative is the inmate’s attorney.

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ArkDemocrat

The level was set at .10% because any person would be drunk at that level. Reducing the level to .08% makes it possible to prosecute people who aren’t really drunk.

Rep. Lamoureux apparently sees the DWI statutes as a means of imposing prohibition. See Joe Bob Briggs’ “Too Drunk to Drive, or Just Too Drunk?”

The House Judiciary Committee rejected a bill Thursday that would have given Arkansas the nation’s lowest threshold for driving while intoxicated.

"It would send a message that Arkansas is... going to be a leader," Rep. Michael Lamoureux said of his effort to lower the blood-alcohol level.

The Russellville Republican sponsored House Bill 1201, which would have lowered that level from 0.08 percent, which the state adopted in 2001, to 0.07. No state has a threshold lower than 0.08.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the national advocacy group, champions 0.08 as the level that states should adopt.

Lamoureux said the threshold probably should be a bloodalcohol level of 0.04 and that the state should work toward that number.

Any drinking before a traffic accident usually casts doubt on the driver’s abilities, regardless of the blood-alcohol level, he said.

He argued that he has known people who have been seriously injured in accidents when a driver had a 0.07 bloodalcohol level.

But Montine McNulty, executive director of the Arkansas Hospitality Association, told the committee that the bill would target the wrong people.

"It doesn’t solve the real problem of chronic drunk drivers, and it makes criminals of those it should not," McNulty said.

The word “active” isn’t in this article, so we’re having to guess if McLaughlin is sexually active.

Given that AIDS is spread by homosexual behavior, this raises the question of whether 14-year-olds are able to make good decisions on life-threatening behavior.

Given the protective trend in family law, shouldn’t parents who allow their children to engage in homosexual behavior be said to endanger them?

The word “consent” isn’t in this article either, so we don’t know if this state has an age of consent for homosexual relations.

If McGlaughlin is making advances toward other children at his school it’s small wonder that the parents are concerned.

Fourteen-year-old Thomas McLaughlin says friends and family members were supportive when they learned he is gay, but he claims his teachers and principals at Jacksonville Junior High School had a different reaction.

One teacher sent Thomas to the principal’s office after hearing him tell a friend he thought he was cute, he said. …

The city fathers give away tax money again to advance real estate deals. No wonder they’re constantly whining about needing more revenue.

There is a possible silver lining in this cloud threatening our pocketbooks—this could mean that the Otter Creek Mall project and the abusive improvement district that accompany it may bite the dust.

The Little Rock School Board tentatively endorsed tax incentives Thursday to attract an $18 million Bass Pro Shops outdoor megastore to southwest Little Rock.

With a 5-0 vote, the board gave initial approval to a proposed redevelopment district that would use tax-increment financing. Little Rock city leaders want to use the financing method to help the company pay its debt on the project.

Approval of the district by the School Board is not needed, but city leaders say it would help them make their case for the project.

"This helps immensely," Little Rock Mayor Jim Dailey said. "They are a key partner in this."

A public hearing on the district is to go before the Little Rock City Board of Directors on April 1. The Otter Creek Land Co. has offered Bass Pro Shops 30 acres west of the Interstate 30-430 interchange for an Outdoor World Store.

Six months is pretty light for corrupt law enforcement. If he was prosecuted for four victims there are probably numerous others. Being a law enforcement officer should be an aggravating circumstance under the law.

Grady, a town on US 65 south of Pine Bluff has had a reputation for being a speed trap for decades. The Highway Department should have put a bypass around it years ago.

A federal judge said Thursday that he might have considered a more lenient sentence for a first offender with a clean record, community support and a remorseful attitude, except for one thing — the offender was a police officer.

"The public gave you a gun and a badge, and you abused the authority given to you," U.S. District Judge G. Thomas Eisele told former Grady police officer Edwin Donnell Moore, 30.

Although Moore could have been given probation for extorting money from four motorists last spring, Eisele ordered a nine-month prison sentence followed by two years of probation and full restitution of $1,024.

Note that the Democrat-Gazette says that the crowd numbered 1,500 and KATV says that the crowd numbered 3,000.

Air Force Col. David Scott asked about 1,500 people gathered Thursday night in support of U.S. troops why anyone would want to burn the American flag.

KARN News Radio organized the rally outside War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock for residents to show their support for the more than 2,000 Arkansas troops who have deployed since Sept. 11, 2001, said Neal Gladner, an employee of KARN-AM, 920.

Scott, commander of the 314th Airlift Wing at Little Rock Air Force Base, said his own feelings about the flag have been deepened by events such as President Kennedy’s assassination, Neil Armstrong’s walk on the moon, the Vietnam War, the Persian Gulf War, the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and last month’s Columbia space shuttle disaster.

"This flag represents the character of the nation and everything that’s good about it. And I don’t see any reason to burn it, especially when so many of us are willing to die for it," he said.

The crowd cheered and waved American flags being sold nearby.

If plaintiffs with “frivolous” claims are getting judgments it means that the courts are “broken.” The legislature is essentially stripping the injured of the right to sue. For the legislature this is far easier than acting as a check and balance on the courts.

Arkansas has taken a big step toward taking that Kick Me sign off its back.

The Arkansas Senate overwhelmingly approved a tort reform bill this week. Now the bill goes to the House, which has already passed a tougher bill. Which means the reps will likely pass this version, too. Maybe even with more votes.

COMMENTARY : Great wine, delightful cheese, rotten ally
Now we know for sure: France is the sort of ally who will always be there when she needs us. When America needs France, by contrast, we’re about as welcome as a McDonald’s at Versailles. BY CLIFFORD D. MAY SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE

COLUMNISTS : Blame tax bills on ‘the people’
Lately we’ve been hearing an awful lot about how the people would support higher taxes if they knew where the money was going and that it would be spent wisely. MEREDITH OAKLEY

The current Arkansas constitution requires that when taxes are increased by the legislature they must people they must be approved by the people in a general election. The courts have nullified this provision with case law.

Without approval in a general election the politicians are dishonest when they claim that the people want higher taxes.

The politicians have been telling the people of Arkansas how the next tax increase will make us better off, but they never do.

COLUMNISTS : On education : More Jefferson
In mentioning Thomas Jefferson’s three-tiered public education theory last week, it occurred to me that many of those now wrestling with the 21 st century version of that subject may not have read his Elementary School Act of 1817. I propose that it should be required reading for every legislator, along with several of his letters to youthful descendants seeking his advice on schooling. DANA D. KELLEY

• Pro-America Rally in Little Rock

• Jimmy Carter’s Twisted View of War

Little Rock - We have seen several anti-war rallies across the country. Thursday night there was a different kind of rally at War Memorial Stadium. Thousands of Arkansans participated in a Rally for America. Many wore patriotic shirts, grabbed their flags, and came to show their support for President Bush and the American troops. KARN News Radio 920 AM and Country 102.9 co-sponsored the rally. If you didn't bring you're own flag students from the American Red Cross' Youth Council had some for sale. Local country musician Ricky Tripp performed for the crowds. And a life size postcard was available for all to sign. Organizers tell me this postcard will be sent to the Middle East where it will go on display. Students from Joe T. Robinson wanted to make sure their support for the troops was also felt and heard.

Note that KATV reported the crowd at 3,000 while the Democrat-Gazette reported it at 1,500.

Former president Jimmy Carter condemned President Bush's foreign policy as "a violation" of "basic religious principles." In an op-ed in Sunday's New York Times, Carter said that opposition to war was "an almost universal conviction of religious leaders," except for a few Southern Baptists with creepy views about Israel and the end times. (Carter does not go into the theological underpinnings of religious opposition to military action.)

Carter's op-ed has already been subjected to withering criticism by Josh Chafetz. I will therefore ignore some of the peculiarities of Carter's rhetoric to focus on one point: the former's president attempt to draw on the authority of the Christian tradition of just-war thinking while twisting that tradition to suit his antiwar ends.

Carter leads with his strongest bad point: that the just-war tradition insists that war "can [licitly] be waged only as a last resort, with all nonviolent options exhausted." Here Carter profits from a genuine weakness in the just-war tradition. George Weigel has explained the problem in a recent issue of First Things:

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