Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
by John Cole| 21 Comments
This post is in: General Stupidity
From the drooling ninnies at the NY Times:
Let’s hope that this week will mark both the beginning and the end of the use of Osama bin Laden as a prop in political campaign commercials. The current TV ad starring the most infamous face in terrorism is part of a “stop Howard Dean” movement from his fellow Democrats. Perhaps the true originators
This post is in: Domestic Politics
Your daily dose of Steyn.
This post is in: Foreign Affairs
Let’s cross our fingers.
by John Cole| 44 Comments
This post is in: Politics
Looks like Oliver has another Democrat to excommunicate. This time, Orson Scott Card has dared to wander off the plantation. Some excerpts:
In one of Patrick O’Brian’s novels about the British navy during the Napoleonic wars, he dismisses a particularly foolish politician by saying that his political platform was “death to the Whigs.” Watching the primary campaigns among this year’s pathetic crop of Democratic candidates, I can’t help but think that their campaigns would be vastly improved if they would only rise to the level of “Death to the Republicans.”
Instead, their platforms range from Howard Dean’s “Bush is the devil” to everybody else’s “I’ll make you rich, and Bush is quite similar to the devil.” Since President Bush is quite plainly not the devil, one wonders why anyone in the Democratic Party thinks this ploy will play with the general public.
There are Democrats, like me, who think it will not play, and should not play, and who are waiting in the wings until after the coming electoral debacle in order to try to remake the party into something more resembling America…
…Iraq is not Vietnam. Nor is the Iraq campaign even the whole war. Of course there’s still fighting going on. Our war is against terrorist-sponsoring states, and just because we toppled the governments of two of them doesn’t mean that the others aren’t still sponsoring terrorism. Also, there is a substantial region in Iraq where Saddam’s forces are still finding support for a diehard guerrilla campaign.
In other words, the Iraq campaign isn’t over–and President Bush has explicitly said so all along. So the continuation of combat and casualties isn’t a “failure” or a “quagmire,” it’s a “war.” And during a war, patriotic Americans don’t blame the deaths on our government. We blame them on the enemy that persists in trying to kill our soldiers.
He’s a witch! Burn him! Run him out of the party! Maybe if Orson had read Howard Dean’s collected works on national defense. It may not be to late, Mr. Card- I hear he is still giving lessons.
by John Cole| 12 Comments
This post is in: Foreign Affairs
This is something I feel very strongly about (I remember going almost nuclear about this earlier his year), and it appears we are making progress:
France and Germany agreed to work toward a “substantial reduction” of Iraq’s towering foreign debt next year, marking a significant step forward in the United States’ effort to rebuild the devastated country as well as progress in mending ties with the two countries most opposed to the American-led war there.
“Debt reduction is critical if the Iraqi people are to have a chance to build a free and prosperous Iraq,” said the statement released by French President Jacques Chirac’s office following language agreed upon by the three countries. “Therefore, France, Germany and the United States agree that there should be substantial debt reduction for Iraq in the Paris Club in 2004, and will work closely with each other to achieve this objective.”
What remains to be seen is whether or not they will put their money where their collective mouths are (I refer you back to Sebastian’s piece discussing the difference between words and deeds), but this is a positive first step.
If only Howard Dean had taken the time to teach former Secretary Baker and President Bush about foreign affairs, instead of just teaching them about defense, perhaps that could have been negotiated today. Howie will soon save us all, I guess.
*** Updates ***
Great minds, and all that.
This post is in: Foreign Affairs
This is positive:
“We are standing
by John Cole| 3 Comments
This post is in: Foreign Affairs
The truth hurts:
Iraq’s foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, accused the United Nations Security Council today of having failed to help rescue his country from Saddam Hussein, and he chided member states for bickering over his beleaguered country’s future.
“Settling scores with the United States-led coalition should not be at the cost of helping to bring stability to the Iraqi people,” Mr. Zebari said in language unusually scolding for an occupant of the guest seat at the end of the curving Security Council table.
“Squabbling over political differences takes a back seat to the daily struggle for security, jobs, basic freedoms and all the rights the U.N. is chartered to uphold,” he said.
Taking a harsh view of the inability of quarreling members of the Security Council to endorse military action in Iraq, Mr. Zebari said, “One year ago, the Security Council was divided between those who wanted to appease Saddam Hussein and those who wanted to hold him accountable.
“The United Nations as an organization failed to help rescue the Iraqi people from a murderous tyranny that lasted over 35 years, and today we are unearthing thousands of victims in horrifying testament to that failure.”
He declared, “The U.N. must not fail the Iraqi people again.”
Bitchslapping the Axis of Weasels. Of course, everyone will declare, Mr. Zebari is just a puppet for that tyrant George Bush.