Rebuilding Afghanistan
Afghanistan's Minister of Foreign Affairs writes on the Washington Post's op-ed page of his hope that the Afghan people will not "become victims of neglect and policy shortsightedness again."
« September 2002 | Main | November 2008 »
Afghanistan's Minister of Foreign Affairs writes on the Washington Post's op-ed page of his hope that the Afghan people will not "become victims of neglect and policy shortsightedness again."
The Kremlin continues to censor news accounts of the recent Moscow hostage crisis.
While Russian President Putin has left with no choice but to order special forces to storm the theater in which Chechen rebels held hostages, his secrecy since has been a fatal blunder. Perhaps literally.
Freedom Research Foundation Jack Wheeler is quite certain that the Russians used a "synthetic opiate called etorphine." If that proves true, Putin's problems will grow because there is a quick antidote doctors could have used to save lives had they known.
Of course, that could explain why the Russian government has clamped down on information. But the truth will come out. Which is why it would be wise for Putin to release all of the information he has now.
New leaders have emerged in the Al Qaeda terrorist organization. They are the ones who are behind the recent surge in Al Qaeda activity. The Washington Post's Susan Schmidt and Douglas Farah profile those who have filled Al Qaeda's leadership void.
No, the war with terrorism remains unfinished despite our government's preoccupation with other subjects.
Perhaps we should put to rest the myth that former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) remains a brilliant political thinker.
On Sunday, Gingrich attacked Mondale for supporting Social Security privatization world wide. Now, stop there for a second. Gingrich supports this Social Security reform, so it is just a teensy bit hypocritical. (Aside: This isn't the first time for the former Speaker, of course. See also: promoting a family values agenda while dating a staffer.)
Worse, there is no truth to the charge. Newt, you may want to doublecheck the opposition research you are handed next time. That would be before you make a fool of yourself on Meet the Press.
Taegan Goddard's Political Wire has links to stories worth reading.
The CIA thinks: There's no Saddam/al-Qaida link.Rumsfeld thinks:
We need a new CIA.
This big headline on the Slate web page aptly sums up Fred Kaplan's examination of the vital bureaucratic intelligence battle now underway in Washington.
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Paul Sarbanes (D-Md.) has now decided that Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Harvey Pitt must go. Unlike many of his colleagues, Sarbanes had not previously called for Pitt's resignation.
Now, as Sebastian Mallaby explains, Sarbanes feels he must go public with his dissatisfaction. The last straw was Pitt's capitulation to accounting lobbyists on the appointment of the chairperson of the new audit oversight board.
As Mallaby writes:
The rap against Pitt used to be that he opposed serious audit reform, even though Enron, WorldCom, Adelphia and other scandals made the case for reform obvious. But now the rap has gotten worse. As well as holding damaging but honest views, Pitt's sincerity must be doubted. If Pitt won't take Sarbanes's advice, President Bush needs to replace him.
Nat Hentoff recaps some of Attorney General John Ashcroft's recent rhetorical and substantive excesses.
The Washington Post's Guy Gugliotta and Gary Matsumoto report on the front page that leading scientists and biological weapons experts express doubts about the FBI's theory about last year's anthrax letter terrorism.
The FBI continues to believe that a single American scientist (Dr. Steven Hatfill) is behind the attacks. But, as Gugliotta and Matsumoto note:
These sources say that making a weaponized aerosol of such sophistication and virulence would require scientific knowledge, technical competence, access to expensive equipment and safety know-how that are probably beyond the capabilities of a lone individual.These scientists believe that the FBI may be wise to think about the possibility of state-sponsored terrorism. I would suggest following up on this question for a start.As a result, a consensus has emerged in recent months among experts familiar with the technology needed to turn anthrax spores into the deadly aerosol that was sent to Sens. Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) and Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) that some of the fundamental assumptions driving the FBI's investigation may be flawed.
"In my opinion, there are maybe four or five people in the whole country who might be able to make this stuff, and I'm one of them," said Richard O. Spertzel, chief biological inspector for the U.N. Special Commission from 1994 to 1998. "And even with a good lab and staff to help run it, it might take me a year to come up with a product as good."
Rep. John Sununu (R-N.H.) faces two formidable opponents in his Senate race. First, he's running against popular Gov. Jeanne Shaheen (D). More interestingly, Sen. Bob Smith (R-N.H.) is getting a measure of revenge for Sununu's victory over him in September's primary.
It's not just that Smith is doing absolutely nothing to help Sununu. Smith's grassroots network is also working to stick it to Sununu and the GOP establishment.
Boston Globe columnist Thomas Oliphant explains:
Someone must have told Junior that if Smith got rolled in the primary he would submit meekly, perhaps take a patronage job and get with the program. That someone was wrong.Observers expect that this will be a close race. A couple thousand write-in votes for Smith may make the ultimate difference.Last week, Smith was in San Francisco rooting for the Giants in the World Series. He had nothing political scheduled over the weekend. He has nothing political scheduled next week, when President Bush may make one final attempt to gin up turnout for Junior. And that is only the tip of an unusual, typically New Hampshire iceberg. In addition to Smith's deft distance from the Junior juggernaut (he ''endorsed'' Sununu and then took a powder), there are three, separate operations underway to promote a write-in effort on Smith's behalf.
These are not committees that exist only on letterheads. They have raised money, put up signs, bought advertisements, and made a case that the cabal promoting Sununu should not be rewarded. Their efforts are not being taken lightly by the establishment.
Cynthia Tucker thinks people should be concerned about the White House disinformation campaign about Saddam Hussein supposed ties to the September 11 terrorist attacks. She explains the problem:
Do you believe that Saddam Hussein had a hand in the terrorist atrocities of Sept. 11? If you do, you have a lot of company: About two-thirds of Americans, according to a recent Pew Research poll, believe Saddam is linked to the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.That's not surprising. The Bush administration has worked very hard over the last several months to convince Americans that Saddam is linked to the assault that killed more than 3,000 people last year. They've succeeded despite what ought to be a very difficult obstacle:
There's absolutely no proof that it's true.
Retired San Jose Police Chief Joseph D. McNamara argues that the recent sniper case illustrates why officials should give the public more information about such investigations.
After all, as the Washington Post reported, the key piece of information that led to the capture of the snipers -- the vehicle and license plate tag -- was made public through a leak and not an official announcement. McNamara writes:
Yet the basic lesson remains: The public has a right to know. The old police mythology of withholding information is more likely to impede than aid in solving crimes. An informed, law-abiding citizenry is policing's most valuable asset.Yes, secrecy is sometimes necessary. But there is also a need for our law enforcement and government officials to provide information that can help the public assess risks -- and help crack a case.
Thomas Friedman sees hope for the Arab world in Bahrain's election, the first in the Arab gulf region where women were allowed to run and vote.
David Broder memorializes the late Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.) with a story that illustrates why so many people from all political parties respected him. Broder writes:
The diminutive Minnesota Democrat, dressed in a rumpled suit he had brought from his old life as a Carleton College professor, and I were seated opposite a tourist family also headed from the Hart Senate Office Building to the Capitol. "Hi," he said to them, "I'm Paul Wellstone," omitting the title almost any of his colleagues would have used. "Where are you from?"They gave their home town and asked, "Do you work here?" He laughed, and said, "Yes, but not as hard as most people. I'm a senator."
The White House is continuing to stonewall over the release of documents to Congress. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman James M. Jeffords (I-Vt.) continues to demand the background information the Bush Administration used to justify easing pollution rules on older coal-fired power plants.
This is just one of many examples of this White House's penchant for secrecy and dismissal of the necessary legislative oversight functions.
The Washington Post reports that former Vice President Walter Mondale is leaning toward running for the Senate. Mondale would replace the late Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.), who died in a plane crash on Friday.
Minnesota election law allows a replacement at this late date. I think, however, that state legislatures throughout the nation should look closely at their election statutes. Many remain confusing or contradictory.
It would also be better if, in the event of death or incapacitation of a candidate, the election were postponed for a month. Election reform is about more than ballots or machines. It is time to make sure that the laws which govern our elections make sense and have clear contingency plans.
We've ignored their warnings before. Now former Sens. Gary Hart (D-Colo.) and Warren Rudman (R-N.H.) are leading another commission that is warning us again about the danger we face from terrorism.
From the press release issued yesterday by the Council on Foreign Relations:
A year after 9/11, America remains dangerously unprepared to prevent and respond to a catastrophic attack on U.S. soil, concludes a blue-ribbon panel led by former Senators Warren Rudman and Gary Hart-co-chairs of the now famous Commission on National Security that warned of such a terrorist attack three years ago.You can read the new report by following this link.The Independent Task Force, which came to this sober conclusion and which makes recommendations for emergency action, included two former secretaries of state, two Nobel laureates, two former chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a former director of the CIA and FBI, and some of the nation's most distinguished financial, legal, and medical experts. One of the country's leading authorities on homeland security, Council Senior Fellow Stephen Flynn, directed the Task Force.
If the nation does not respond more urgently to address its vulnerabilities, the Task Force warns, the next attack could result in even greater casualties and widespread disruption to our lives and economy.
The Instapundit links to a Damian Penny post about tonight's non-coverage of the end of the Moscow hostage crisis. Penny is angry, and he should be. He writes:
So, in the capital of the world's second leading nuclear power, hundreds of people are being held hostage by terrorists who are almost certainly connected to the people who murdered 3,000 civilians on 9/11. As we speak, the final showdown between security forces and the terrorists may be beginning. And what are the 24-hour news channels showing?Sniper coverage. Which should make you angry. The story from Moscow is really important. Too bad Americans once again are failing to pay attention.
Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., was killed along with seven other people, including his wife and daughter, in the Friday crash of a small plane...I extend my condolences to the friends and family of all of those who died in this tragedy.
Update: Minnesota E-Democracy has created a memorial tribute web page to help people share their "prayers, tributes, and stories about Paul, Sheila, and Marcia Wellstone and campaign staff Will McLaughlin, Tom Lapic and Mary McEvoy."
Another Update: As you would imagine, Taegan Goddard's Political Wire is on top of the story. Goodard has links to some of the best memorial comments and some of the early speculation about the political fallout from this tragedy.
The White House announced late yesterday that the federal government ran a $159 billion deficit in the fiscal year that ended on September 30 (the national debt, remember, increased by $420 billion). The brief era of surpluses, as long expected, is now officially over.
Here's the news, though. White House Office of Management and Budget Director Mitch Daniels actually uttered a fiscal truth yesterday. The Washington Post's Dana Milbank quotes him:
"It's now clear that the unexpected surge in revenues toward the end of the last decade was temporary, and that revenues are returning to historic levels for reasons unrelated to legislated changes," he said in a statement. "At the same time, unexpected new defense and homeland security spending is needed to protect America from new threats."Daniels is right. The "surge in revenues" was temporary.
But the White House used that temporary surge in revenues to justify its 10-year tax cut package. Granted, few people were pessimistic at the time. But now we know that the fiscal good times are over.
So, can we now expect the "political adults" in the White House to follow their budget director's logic and seek to review -- and repeal -- the tax cut package that was based on unrealistic assumptions that have proven false?
Of course not. In fact, you can expect the White House to continue to push for making the tax cut package permanent.
That plan, of course, violates one of the most fundamental rules of politics and life: "If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging."
I hope we can find some way to take away the White House's fiscal shovels.
Timothy Noah reports that the Chronicle of Higher Education has purchased the assets of the late Lingua Franca. That means the essential Arts & Letters Daily returns tomorrow...
James Pinkerton explains that this is not the first time North Korea has emerged as a threat but been ignored because our nation's leaders had other priorities.
Steve Chapman does not like lame duck Congressional sessions. He wants to know why we continue to wait until January to seat the new Congress when transportation and communications advances mean that new Representatives and Senators could take office soon after the election.
When the republic was founded, the president wasn't sworn in until March, which was a concession to bad roads and slow travel. In 1933, the Constitution was amended to mandate the installation of the president and Congress in January, reflecting the better transportation of the rail age.It might even give the outgoing Congress the push it needs to get its work done. Chapman is right, it is time to eliminate the two-month gap and get our new Congress seated and working by late November at the latest.By now, though, the two-month interval is as obsolete as a steam locomotive. We know almost all the results of the election within hours of the last poll closing. The winners could be in Washington the following day. Acquainting newcomers with their new responsibilities might take a bit longer, but there is no reason members of Congress should continue wielding power for weeks after their successors have been chosen.
The Arizona Republic argues that Americans need to apologize and take notice of the loss our Australian allies suffered in the terrorist attack in Bali a couple of weeks ago.
The paper notes that, when considering Australia's smaller population, that their loss is comparable to what we suffered on September 11, 2001.
Immediately after the Bali bombing, President Bush sent word to the Australian people that we shared their grief. But our people really weren't paying attention.That is undeniably true. We must do better in the future.An American media obsessed with the Beltway sniper and the impending invasion of Iraq failed to appreciate the import of the Bali bombings or the magnitude of Australia's loss. We Americans did not step forward and show genuine friends the support they deserved.
Australians have proved their loyalty to this nation over and over these past 100 years. They were our allies in World War I, World War II and the Gulf War, among others. They fearlessly declared their support after Sept. 11. They deserved better than they got from us after Bali.
The Boston Globe reports that Clean Elections public campaign financing is working in Maine and Arizona. The paper wishes it had a fair chance to work in Massachusetts.
In Maine and Arizona, Republicans and Democrats running as Clean Money candidates are enjoying not having to spend more than half of their time dailing for dollars. As the Boston Globe notes:
While there are dissenters in both states, the system is endorsed heavily by those who know it best - the candidates. In Arizona, the proportion of all candidates choosing to run under Clean Elections has grown from 26 percent in 2000 to 59 percent this year. The corresponding figures for Maine have also doubled, from 33 percent to 66.Clean elections works. It is a systemic reform that can have a major positive impact not only on elections but on how we are governed. It is time for the movement to spread. (Californians can learn about an effort in this state by following this link.)
The Washington Post suggests that President Bush might want to get serious about auditing reform by seeing that a reformer gets named to head the new audit oversight board.
President Bush, who signed the reform law in July saying that "the era of low standards and false profits is over," should pick up the phone and urge those Republican commissioners to back Mr. Biggs's candidacy. Otherwise he will be siding with the vested interests that aim to prolong the sickness in our system of capital allocation. Does he really want this country to emulate Japan?This is a test that the White House must pass.
White House advisor Karl Rove would like Sen. Bob Smith (R-N.H.) to do some joint appearances with the man who defeated him in the primary earlier this year, Rep. John Sununu (R-N.H.).
Smith, however, is not playing along. He even declined one of politics ultimate perks: a ride on Air Force One.
Worse, he isn't doing anything to stop a write-in campaign on his behalf. If that effort costs Sununu only a couple thousand votes, that could provide the winning margin to Gov. Jeanne Shaheen (D) in a tight race.
While I cheer the arrest of suspects in the Beltway Sniper case, a much larger story is brewing in Moscow today. (Not that you'd know it from watching the wall-to-wall sniper coverage on television today.)
The hostage situation in Moscow appears to be deteriorating. This is a shocking event that will force Russian President Vladimir Putin to retaliate with overwhelming force.
The impact will reverberate well beyond Chechnya and Russia. Perhaps our media could find a few moments to squeeze in some coverage of what is happening in this Moscow theater.
Jules Witcover reports on the very close New Hampshire Senate race between Gov. Jeanne Shaheen (D) and Rep. John Sununu (R). Both Shaheen and Sununu are competing to associate themselves with some of President Bush's policies. (Shaheen says she would have voted for Bush's tax cut and the Iraq use of force resolution.)
Witcover notes that after all of the jockeying:
In the most recent poll by the University of New Hampshire, Ms. Shaheen had a narrow 47 percent to 44 percent lead over Mr. Sununu among all voters, but she led decisively among political independents, 49 percent to 34 percent. That strength, and her organization after six years as the state's chief executive, counters Mr. Sununu's association with Mr. Bush and makes this race a toss-up going down to the wire.
Larry Eichel says that control of the Senate remains the election's main event. For example, Eichel notes that Supreme Court Justices William Rehnquist and Sandra Day O'Connor would like to step down when Republicans have control over who replaces them.
That is one of the reasons why both parties will fight hard over the final 13 days of this campaign for each of the toss-up races.
The San Jose Mercury News never really believed President Bush was serious about dealing with corporate corruption. So, the paper does think it is suprising that:
...Bush now is trying to chip away at that law. He's using the oldest trick in the politician's book: cutting from the budget money needed to enforce the law.The photo op was great, Mr. President. Now we need some substantive follow through. If investors cannot trust corporate financial numbers, the markets and our economy will continue to suffer.
Congress made sure "under God" stayed in the Pledge of Allegiance before it left town to campaign. But it did not pass 11 of the 13 required annual appropriations bills needed to fund the government. David Broder is unimpressed.
Tony Blankley tries to figure out what is behind the different talking points about Iraq policy emanating from the White House.
Over the last few days, Colin Powell, Ari Fleisher and President Bush have been telling our dear friends and constant allies at the United Nations that we were giving diplomacy a chance, while simultaneously suggesting to Americans that surely we would soon be going to war. But unlike the politicians prior to 1837 who took the precaution of riding down the road a few miles before contradicting themselves, Team Bush is saying different things right here in Washington. They are hoping only part of what they are saying will be heard up in New York, and the other part only in the rest of America. Given the lunacy of the times, it just may work.Given how little attention the American people are paying to the details, I fear Blankley is correct.
Taegan Goddard has created a new political Blog Scan feature for his Political Wire blog. Political blogs (including this one) will be pinging this new site with our political stories. As Taegan notes, this will prove to be "one of the fastest ways to see what the political blogosphere is writing about."
According to the latest Public Policy Institute of California poll, Gov. Gray Davis (D) leads Republican Bill Simon by a 41-31 margin. Seventeen percent are undecided.
The fact that Davis remains in the low 40s means that Simon still (unbelievably) has a shot to win this race.
As they say, stay tuned.
Tax cuts for the rich are apparently a higher priority for the Bush Administration than providing health care and proper benefits to our veterans. More misguided budget thinking from this hawkish White House.
Arianna Huffington thinks it is time to use the government's drug war advertising techniques to bring attention to how our national gasoline addiction financies terrorism and despotism around the world. She writes:
Scott Burns, co-creator of the "Got Milk?" campaign, already has two ad scripts ready to go.If our government were truly serious about fighting terror and improving our national and economic security, it would initiate a Apollo Program type effort to create alternative energies technologies.The first one feels like an old Slim-Fast commercial. Instead of "I lost 50 pounds in two weeks," the ad cuts to different people in their sport utility vehicles: "I gassed 40,000 Kurds," "I helped hijack an airplane," "I helped blow up a nightclub," and then in unison: "We did it all by driving to work in our SUVs."
The second ad, which opens on a man at a gas station, features a child's voice-over throughout: "This is George." Then we see a close-up of a gas pump. "This is the gas George buys for his car." Next we see a guy in a suit. "This is the oil company executive who makes money on the gas George buys." Close-up on Al Qaeda training film footage: "This is the terrorist organization supported by money from the country where the oil company does business." It's followed by footage of 9/11: "We all know what this is." And it closes on a wide shot of bumper-to-bumper traffic: "The biggest weapon of mass destruction is parked in your driveway."
There are 14 days until the election. Ask your candidates about it.
Paul Krugman notes that the Bush Administration has already given the business lobby a huge early Christmas gift. The White House has decided not to fund the Securities and Exchange Commission at the level promised with the passage of the corporate reform bill in July. Krugman concludes:
The bottom line is that you shouldn't worry about those TV images of men in suits doing the perp walk. That was for public consumption; now that the public is focused on other things, it's back to business — insider business — as usual.
Richard Cohen is rightly upset that the Bush Administration conspired to keep the news about North Korea's nuclear program a secret until after Congress had voted on its Iraq use of force resolutions. This outrage is just a thread in a larger White House pattern of secrecy.
Undoubtedly, other governments also knew that North Korea was cheating on the agreement it had reached in 1994 with the Clinton administration. It was supposed to abandon its nuclear weapons program -- which, in a way, it did. But it started up another one -- and this is the one that Washington started to substantiate last summer. Washington and Pyongyang had at least one thing in common: They were both keeping a secret from the American people.These, and other, examples of Bush Administration abuses are intolerable. One wonders just how long Congress will continue to meekly accept the Bush Administration's plans to fundamentally alter the relationship between executive branch agencies and Congress.In too many respects, the Bush administration operates as if it -- and not Congress or, for that matter, the American people -- owns this entity called "the government." It has told Congress to buzz off when it asked for documents telling whom Vice President Cheney met with in formulating the administration's energy policy. Enron, perhaps?
It has been downright uncooperative in granting Freedom of Information Act requests from the news media and other interested parties. It fought a proposal to create an independent commission to investigate what went wrong before Sept. 11, 2001, then reluctantly agreed to one -- and now has reneged on that agreement. The intelligence community, it seems, did just a swell job -- the hole in Lower Manhattan notwithstanding.
Paul Craig Roberts has lately argued that President Bush needs to spend some of his political capital to get a tax cut enacted.
Now, there is certainly a case to be made for tax cuts today. In fact, I've mentioned that before (see here and here).
But, in order to enact needed tax cuts today, we must revist last year's 10-year tax cut travesty that even some candid (alas, unnamed) Bush advisors admit was passed under false pretense.
But the House Republicans, instead of revisiting it, want to make that tax package permanent. They do not care about the ocean of red ink that idea would cause just as the baby boomers start reaching Social Security's various eligibility ages en masse.
Yes, last year's tax cut is full of gimmicks that make little sense. But there is a reason those gimmicks exist...because even under the idiotic belief that we would have $5.6 trillion in surpluses this decade (sold to us by (sarcasm on) the adult corporate heroes in the White House (sarcasm off)), the sunsets and other gimmicks were the only way to make this broad tax cut package seem affordable.
We will know when a person is serious about our nation's economic and fiscal health when he or she offers a program of tax cuts today in exchange for cancelling the damaging and utterly unsustainable tax cuts passed last year.
And I swear...trading tax cuts *today* for cancelling the future ones is not just smart policy, it's a winning political strategy. Alas, only a few lonely voices in the wilderness seem to agree.
In the fiscal year that just ended, we added $420 billion to the national debt. That's nothing compared to what's coming if we fail to grow up and get our fiscal house in order.
The Baltimore Sun explains why rebuilding Afghanistan and helping Hamid Karzai gain some control of the country outside the capital is vital to our national interest.
Following the recent elections in Pakistan, there is now a large region to the southeast of Kabul, straddling two countries, where the local population and to varying degrees the local power structures are hostile to Mr. Karzai, hostile to the United States, and -- by the way -- sympathetic not only to the remnants of the Taliban but to al-Qaida as well. The west and north of Afghanistan are restless, the south resentful. If Afghanistan goes, everything that has been accomplished in the war on terrorism will have been fruitless..
Jeff Jacoby writes about the diplomatic heroes who violated orders to help save some Jewish people from the Nazis.
If you thought that California politics could not possibly get more weird, take a look at the final note in Robert Novak's column today.
Do we really need an Arnold Schwarzenegger vs. Rob Reiner race for governor in four years?
Steve Chapman explains that North Korea's admission that it has a nuclear weapons program presents a real complication for the White House's foreign policy plans. He writes:
The Bush administration has big plans for remaking the world to suit its preferences. We shouldn't be surprised if some countries will do everything they can to resist those plans, and we shouldn't be surprised if some succeed.
Thomas Friedman makes the excellent point that democracy will never take root in the Arab world "without the Mideast states kicking their oil dependency and without us kicking ours."
Yet another reason for the United States to kick its fossil fuel habit. It is well past time for us to take the global lead in creating a post-fossil fuel economy.
The New York Times editorial board seeks action to fix a looming corporate pension accounting scandal.
Mark Shields suggests that President Bush create a new Paul Douglas Brigade so all of today's middle-aged hawks who skipped military service when they were young could fight in the war they are demanding.
At the top of my own list of personal heroes is the late Paul H. Douglas, who served three terms in the U.S. Senate from Illinois and, if anything, was more of a maverick than McCain, infuriating his own Democratic Party leadership and his home state's most powerful interests as he tirelessly championed civil rights, tax reform, conservation and economic justice.Full disclosure: Douglas is an alumnus of Bowdoin College. I learned about him while I was earning my degree there. He's a hero of mine as well.But what makes Douglas interesting was that after Pearl Harbor -- when he was already a professor at the University of Chicago and an elected Chicago alderman -- he, a Quaker, enlisted as a private in the U.S. Marine Corps. After Parris Island boot camp, Douglas was assigned to the First Marine Division, which meant for him heavy combat against the Japanese in Pacific landings at Peleliu and Okinawa, where Douglas for "heroic achievement in action" won the Bronze Star. He was wounded twice, so severely that he permanently lost the use of his left arm.
What makes Douglas my hero is that when he enlisted in the Marines, he was 50 years old, which means that when he was wounded in combat on Okinawa, he was 52.
David Broder loves governors. So, it is not surprising when he focuses upon them before election time.
He explains today what's at stake in the nation's upcoming 36 gubernatorial elections. It's not just trying to run state governments in a troubling economy. The result of these races will have an impact on the 2004 presidential campaign...and beyond.
And politically, governors are the heavyweights -- far closer to the battle for the White House than the senators who hog the Washington stage. Four of the past five presidents have come from the ranks of governors. And it was the Republican governors who were the force behind President Bush's victory -- from the early endorsements Engler helped to engineer right down to the Florida recount victory stage-managed by Gov. Jeb Bush.
What should a government that ran up $420.8 billion in new debt in the just ended fiscal year do?
Perhaps find a way to stop the torrent of red ink? Impose some fiscal discipline?
Hah! If the Republicans take control of the Senate and hold on to the House, they plan more tax cuts.
Fuzzy math strikes again.
Why did the Bush Administration wait 12 days before making public North Korea's nuclear weapons program admission?
Of course it had nothing to do with the Iraq use of force resolution debate that the White House desperately wanted to win. How convenient that the information comes out after that debate was concluded.
The White House bill signing ceremony is easy. As President Bush proves, however, the real sign of commitment comes when the Office of Management and Budget decides how much funding it wants for some initiative.
Remember how serious the president was about bringing corporate crooks to justice and cleaning up the financial system? Well, the Bush Administration now wants to scale back funding for the Security and Exchange Commission's corporate oversight and policing efforts.
Even embattled SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt admits that the new funding request will, as reporter Stephen Labaton writes, "not allow [the SEC] to undertake important initiatives."
Of course, this story is running on a Saturday. The White House hopes the American people are not paying attention.
The Philadelphia Inquirer urges people to remember Holly Maddux today now that her "ex-hippie guru" killer has finally been found guilty after 25 years.
People who need to purchase lives are complaining about Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) missing yesterday's vote on the Defense Appropriations bill.
A bill that passed by a razor-thin 93-1 margin.
I would think that people could -- and should -- find something far more important about which to complain.
This Los Angeles Times editorial makes what should be an obvious -- but in these times it is necessary to make -- point about the federal budget:
As Nov. 5 approaches, lawmakers won't touch the issue of rolling back tax cuts. However, until Congress revisits the trillion-dollar issue, it can rearrange the furniture all it wants but a real housecleaning will never take place.
Nicholas Kristof thinks the idea of establishing a flourishing democracy in Iraq after we remove Saddam from power is "a pipe dream, a marketing ploy to sell a war."
No, not about 2004. More like 2012 or 2016.
The New York Observer peers into New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's future and sees a potential run for the White House. He does have the early resume of a contender. File this one away for later in the decade.
Robert Novak discusses the speculation that Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.) might be tempted to switch parties. Novak does not think so in the short-term, but "in time, a caucus where he does not seem to belong could prove intolerable."
Richard Cohen wants the government to institute some common sense gun control measures.
Look, gun nuts, this is not about taking away your weapons. Increasingly, I have become less and less convinced of the efficacy of strict gun control -- the English experience has been just awful -- and at times, such as the night a burglar broke into my house, I hanker for a gun myself. All that I and others like me want right now is to make it harder to kill and harder to escape apprehension.Of course, as Cohen notes, this Justice Department under Attorney General John Ashcroft is more likely to require all people are fingerprinted before it makes the same requirement of guns.
Drew Richardson, a former supervisory special agent of the FBI, weighs in on the recent National Academy of Sciences report on polygraphs:
The jury is in and the evidence is clear and compelling. The American people should insist and our executive and legislative branches of government should ensure that the technological and sociological embarrassment we have come to know as polygraph screening should be immediately stopped. Not one more innocent applicant or employee should be falsely accused and not one more spy should be given cover through having passed a polygraph exam. The notion (as will be suggested by some in government agencies using polygraph screening) that this is just one tool among many being used to address problems is wrong and dangerous mumbo-jumbo. The results of polygraph screening examinations are either believed or they are not. If they are believed, they are acted upon and, furthermore, these actions, if based upon erroneous polygraph results, will continue to lead to the sorts of grave injury to country and citizens as previously noted.
Talkleft reports that the United States government has deported a Canadian citizen to...Syria. Talkleft asks:
Where is Maher Arar? Canada doesn't know what happened to its citizen after the U.S. deported him to Syria, a country he hasn't lived in since he was a teenager.The Immigration and Naturalization Service "isn't talking about" this case.
They better start. Now.
This is an unconscionable error in judgment. The people who made the decision to send Arar -- who was traveling on a Canadian passport -- to Syria must be dismissed. If Arar needed deporting, then he should have been sent to his home: Canada.
As the story notes:
"Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham admitted yesterday that Canada has no idea where Mr. Arar is being held. And in a statement yesterday, Syrian Ambassador Ahmad Arnous denied any knowledge of Mr. Arar's whereabouts. "We have no information regarding Mr. Arar, only what we know from the Canadian press," said Mr. Arnous. "It's a matter between the Canadian government and the American government."Seems reasonable to me. Our government needs to fix this problem."In a speech yesterday, Mr. Graham said Canada has "registered our protest to the United States. Our position is that a person travelling on a Canadian passport is a Canadian citizen and has a right to be treated as a Canadian citizen."
Outgoing House Majority Leader Richard Armey (R-Texas) believes the Department of Justice under Attorney General John Ashcroft is out of control and displays a "lack of regard for personal civil liberties in America.''
If Armey can say it, then many others should follow.
Slate's Timothy Noah reveals that Vice President Dick Cheney was until recently a dove on Iraq.
One wonders if the Vice President has an answer today for the dilemma he outlined as a mere Secretary of Defense in April 1991?
If you're going to go in and try to topple Saddam Hussein, you have to go to Baghdad. Once you've got Baghdad, it's not clear what you do with it. It's not clear what kind of government you would put in place of the one that's currently there now. Is it going to be a Shia regime, a Sunni regime or a Kurdish regime? Or one that tilts toward the Baathists, or one that tilts toward the Islamic fundamentalists? How much credibility is that government going to have if it's set up by the United States military when it's there? How long does the United States military have to stay to protect the people that sign on for that government, and what happens to it once we leave?There are more questions about what will happen after we defeat Iraq. James Fallows outlines them in a must-read article in this month's Atlantic Monthly.
The New York Press' Michelangelo Signorile has coverted and now supports Attorney General John Ashcroft.
Well, kinda.
Thomas Friedman today criticizes campus activists calling for their colleges to stop investing in Israel, the Bush Administration, and Israeli hawks.
Here's a sampling of this gem of a column. He writes of the divestiture campus activists:
How is it that Egypt imprisons the leading democracy advocate in the Arab world, after a phony trial, and not a single student group in America calls for divestiture from Egypt? (I'm not calling for it, but the silence is telling.) How is it that Syria occupies Lebanon for 25 years, chokes the life out of its democracy, and not a single student group calls for divestiture from Syria? How is it that Saudi Arabia denies its women the most basic human rights, and bans any other religion from being practiced publicly on its soil, and not a single student group calls for divestiture from Saudi Arabia?
Cal Thomas writes that the Beltway Shooter proves that there are no safe neighborhoods anymore.
Tony Blankley today writes an excellent column looking to the fatal impact of the Rev. Jerry Falwell's recent slur against Islam.
On CBS' 60 Minutes program a few weeks ago, the Rev. Falwell said:
"I think Mohammed was a terrorist. I read enough of the history of his life. He was a violent man, a man of war. Jesus set the example for love, as did Moses. And I think Mohammed set an opposite example."So far five people have died in rioting directly attributable to this heinous statement.
Blankley explains why Falwell's declaration is a misreading of biblical history, hypocritical, and simply bad politics. He also notes:
President Bush has spent the last year desperately trying to limit our war on terror to the terrorists, and not letting it slide into a war of civilizations: Judeo-Christian vs. Muslim. That strikes me as a bloody good idea.It is well worth reading.And just as many of us have pointedly observed how few Muslims came out to condemn Osama bin Laden after his murderous attacks on America, I feel obliged to point out how few American conservatives have come out to condemn Mr. Falwell's statement (not that their acts were morally equivalent, of course — one killed 3,000, the other insulted the religion of a fifth of mankind). As a longtime conservative and strong supporter of Mr. Bush's war on terrorism and Iraq, and as one who has fought on the same side of the political barricade as Mr. Falwell for the past quarter-century, permit me to proffer my condemnation.
Here's the Presidential Press Secretary Ari Fleischer Quote of the Day. Responding to a question about the D.C. sniper and new proposals for ballistic fingerprinting to help future law enforcement investigation efforts, the Press Secretary said:
"How many laws can we really have to stop crime, if people are determined in their heart to violate them no matter how many there are or what they say?"Do you really mean to imply that laws are worthless, Ari?
Okay, I'll stop. Of course he does not mean that. But it is interesting that this White House feels laws have little value only when it comes to anything related to guns.
A letter including anthrax was opened by an intern in Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's office one year ago today.
There has been another shooting in the Washington, D.C., area tonight. A woman was shot dead in the parking lot in the "Seven Corners" area of Falls Church, Va.
This shopping center is near several major interstates and highways.
While it is not official yet, this killing obviously looks like the latest attack by the D.C.-area sniper.
Cathy Young outlines some of Attorney General John Ashcroft's abuses of federal power. I remember a time when conservatives believed in limits on federal power. The Attorney General seems to have forgotten.
This Robert Novak report hardly inspires confidence.
However, the officers who thought that happy days were here again on the day that George W. Bush became president have been disappointed.Newt Gingrich? The former Speaker of the House is a smart gentleman. But there are thousands of people who are better qualified to plan any U.S. attack on another nation.Their disappointment stems from Rumsfeld's inclination, born of a turbulent lifetime in governmental and corporate affairs, to make decisions within a restricted circle. That includes war planning. According to Pentagon sources, the secretary does not consult the uniformed service chiefs. Participating in the immediate planning are Gen. Tommy Franks, commander in chief of the Central Command, and a few officers from the Pentagon's Joint Staff.
What most bothers the generals, however, is Rumsfeld's preference for outside advice. For example, sources say a frequent consultant with the secretary is former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, an amateur military expert and member of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board. There is no distribution through the Pentagon of such advice.
Richard Preston explains how easy it is to create a variant of the smallpox virus that is resistant to the vaccine used to protect against the natural strain. He writes:
The United States government has begun a crash effort to create a national stockpile of vaccine for use in a smallpox emergency, at a cost of around $1 billion. Though the vaccine is being made with modern methods, it is designed to work against the natural form of the smallpox virus. This vaccine was developed in 1796. Would it work against a 21st-century biologically engineered smallpox? Probably not. And given rapid advances in molecular biology, genetic engineering of the smallpox virus is now feasible, not by amateurs or terrorist groups but by professional scientists in countries that have biowarfare programs.