BY JAMES TARANTO
Friday, September 19, 2003 2:45 p.m. EDT
URL:http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110004037
Whose Side Is She On?
Even before the Sept. 11 attacks, John Ashcroft was the Hillary Clinton of the Bush administration: the figure most hated by the president's partisan opponents. Forty-two of the then 50 Democratic senators voted against Ashcroft's confirmation, an unusual level of opposition for any cabinet appointee, let alone a former Senate colleague.
Since Sept. 11, administration foes have portrayed Ashcroft as an enemy of civil liberties. They act as if he, and not overwhelming bipartisan majorities in both houses of Congress, had enacted the USA Patriot Act, which they oppose for reasons they're unable to explain. Now, from Ashcroft's predecessor, comes an even more outrageous attack. A reader calls our attention to this report in Sunday's Miami Herald:
Former Attorney General Janet Reno criticized the White House on Saturday, describing the Bush administration as filled with "secrecy and silence."
At a panel discussion on U.S.-Islamic relations at Nova Southeastern University, Reno said Americans should know the identities of the thousands of Muslims or Arabs detained after the Sept. 11 attacks.
She compared it to the detainment of hundreds of thousands of Japanese-Americans after Pearl Harbor.
"I had the privilege as attorney general to send letters of apology and checks of compensation to Japanese-Americans. When the decision was made to intern them, there was no record that they were a security threat," Reno told the audience of about 100 people. "Fifty years later, I delivered letters of apology. We have got to get it right the first time."
This is a scurrilous comparison. The internment of Japanese-Americans was a genuine injustice--one committed, lest we forget, by Democratic hero Franklin D. Roosevelt. But the Bush administration isn't detaining American citizens who have done nothing wrong; it's detaining foreign nationals who've violated immigration laws, and it is doing so on the basis of laws that long predated the Sept. 11 attacks.
The Herald quotes an audience member, Sahar Ullah: "It was nice to see someone in government outright condemn government policies." It's even nicer to see Janet Reno out of government.
Heads I Win, Tails You Lose
The provision of the Patriot Act that's generated the most hysteria is one that allows investigators in terrorism cases to obtain business records with the permission of a federal judge. In ordinary criminal cases, as a Justice Department fact sheet explains, this isn't a problem; the prosecutor simply asks a grand jury to issue a subpoena. Under the Patriot Act, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which oversees terror investigations, has the same power grand juries have always have.
Among the businesses that could have to give up records under this provision are libraries, and groups like the ACLU and the American Library Association have been trying to stir up a furor by claiming that it is an assault on ordinary Americans' right to read what they want. "This law is dangerous," Emily Sheketoff of the ALA told he Washington Post in April. "I read murder mysteries--does that make me a murderer? I read spy stories--does that mean I'm a spy?"
Now, Knight Ridder reports, a newly released memorandum "shows for the first time the number of times that law enforcement made use of that power: zero." So did Sheketoff apologize for her hysterical overreaction? Of course not. She "said it showed that the power wasn't needed. 'If this number is accurate, then they have demonstrated that there is no need to change the tradition of protecting library patrons' reading records,' she said."
The Jews Killed JFK!
The Arab News is back at it, publishing anti-Semitic crackpottery. This time it's an article by one Michael Collins Piper, who explains that he "was saddened to learn that Saudi writer Saad ibn Salih Al-Sirhan allegedly made disparaging comments about my capabilities as a journalist in . . . Asharq Al-Awsat, a sister publication of Arab News":
It was particularly disturbing to see Al-Sirhan effectively condemn the thesis of my book "Final Judgment," which documents--to the satisfaction of many people worldwide--the strong likelihood of a role by Israel's intelligence service, the Mossad, in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Al-Sirhan's remarks were particularly stinging since, among other things, my book has been published in Arabic by the distinguished Beirut-based firm of Dar El Ilm Lilmalayin, and even more so because I learned some years ago--after my book was published--that Gen. Mustafa Tlass, the highly-regarded longtime Syrian defense minister, had made public statements to the effect that it was his opinion that there was in fact a Zionist role in the JFK assassination.
The Anti-Defamation League describes Piper as "an American extremist and writer for the American Free Press, a conspiracy-oriented, anti-Semitic publication."
Political Races
Under a California law, columnist Jill Stewart reports, citizens registering to vote are asked to check "a box asking your skin color." A relic of the pre-civil-rights era? No, a brand new law, signed two days ago by Gov. Gray Davis. "It's voluntary---but expect a move next to make it required." (Hat tip: Mickey Kaus.)
Where's the Beef?
From a Washington Post account of yesterday's Wesley Clark campaign appearance in Hollywood, Fla. (bolding ours):
Retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark said today that he "probably" would have voted for the congressional resolution last fall authorizing war, as he charged out into the presidential campaign field with vague plans to fix the economy and the situation in Iraq.
Clark said his views on the war resemble those of Democratic Sens. Joseph I. Lieberman (Conn.) and John F. Kerry (Mass.), both of whom voted for the war but now question President Bush's stewardship of the Iraqi occupation. "That having been said, I was against the war as it emerged because there was no reason to start it when we did. We could have waited," Clark said during a 75-minute session with four reporters.
En route to his first campaign stop as a candidate, a high-energy rally at a local restaurant, Clark said he has few specific policy ideas to offer voters right now and offered a few thoughts that might surprise Democrats flocking to his campaign. As recently as Sunday night, he was unsure if he should run for president, so Clark said voters need to give him time to think things through. . . .
In the interview, Clark did not offer any new ideas or solutions for Iraq that other candidates have not already proposed. . . . Clark said he wants more troops in Iraq, but was unsure who best can provide them--the United States, Iraqis or other countries. He would consider cutting defense spending if elected, he said. . . . He said he "probably" voted for Richard M. Nixon in 1972 and backed Ronald Reagan. . . .
He sounded a bit like former presidential candidate H. Ross Perot as he talked about focusing on "context" and not specifics and his yearning to work "with people of all sides and all parts of the political spectrum." . . .
Still, it is domestic issues that often dominate presidential elections, and Clark remains largely undefined in this arena. He may be put to the test next week, when he is likely to participate in a Democratic debate in New York. Clark said he did not watch the last two debates. . . .
Clark said he supports a ban on assault weapons and was uncertain of precisely what the Brady gun law does--and if any changes to it are needed. . . .
Clark, who said he does not consider homosexuality a sin, said the military needs to reconsider the "don't ask, don't tell" policy for gay service members. He suggested the military should consider the "don't ask, don't misbehave" policy the British use. "It depends how you define misbehave. That's what has to be looked at," he said.
Wow, is this guy principled and decisive or what?
No Comment Needed
The New York Times reports that establishment Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark "met Hillary Clinton in 1983 in France at a conference of French-American Young Leaders."
Clark's Giveaway to the Rich
The Times' Maureen Dowd quotes Clark as telling CNN: "It must be $150, $160 billion of the American people's money that's being taken from us, from these children on this playground. It's being put into Iraq." Since it's Dowd, we can't be sure the quote is accurate, but assuming it is, it would seem that Clark is advocating tax cuts for the rich that go beyond anything the rightest-wing Republican has ever proposed. If these children are rich enough to pay $160 billion in taxes, is it too much to ask that they make some sacrifice for the security of their nation?
We Demand a Recount!
Carl Miner of Blytheville, Ark., lost an election for a school-board seat. What makes this remarkable is that he was the only candidate. "No one voted for him--and the candidate didn't even cast a ballot for himself," reports KPOM-TV. "Officials say Tuesday was the first time in Mississippi County an entire precinct didn't vote. . . . Miner says he tried to vote but the polling place near his zone was closed. He says he thinks he gets the seat because no one else was on the ballot."
Stale Screeds
Has anyone else noticed that The Washington Monthly isn't exactly on the cutting edge anymore? Here's an excerpt of a piece by Joshua Micah Marshall that appears in the current issue:
The president and his aides don't speak untruths because they are necessarily people of bad character. They do so because their politics and policies demand it. . . . George W. Bush campaigned as a moderate, but has governed with the most radical agenda of any president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Indeed, the aim of most of Bush's policies has been to overturn what FDR created three generations ago. On the domestic front, that has meant major tax cuts forcing sharp reductions in resources for future government activism, combined with privatization of as many government functions as possible. Abroad, Bush has pursued an expansive and militarized unilateralism aimed at cutting the U.S. free from entangling alliances and international treaty obligations so as to maximize freedom of maneuver for American power in a Hobbesian world.
This sounds awfully similar to the observations of Joelle Fishman:
As the seemingly endless lies and betrayals of the Bush administration come into the light of day, the insidious nature of the right-wing agenda is becoming more widely understood. Many national leaders now speak of the intent of the Bushites to bankrupt government; dismantle every public entity from education to Medicare; destroy union representation, civil rights and civil liberties; appropriate the spoils of the earth and dominate the entire world.
Marshall's article was published Sept. 1. Fishman delivered her report to the National Committee of the Communist Party USA on June 28--more than two months earlier. We know magazines have long production cycles and all, but c'mon, guys, get the lead out!
No Wonder Their Economies Are Basket Cases
KCNA, the official "news" outlet of North Korea's communist regime, "reports" that "a ceremony of laying a floral basket before a portrait of President Kim Il Sung was held at Kim Il Sung Economic College in Cuba."
Kim Il Sung Economic College in Cuba? Sounds almost as left-wing as American colleges.
South Korea Imitates 'South Park'
"Kenny dies at the very beginning of this Halloween special, but is revived as a zombie when he is filled with Worcestershire sauce instead of embalming fluid. The doctor diagnoses his condition as the dreaded Pink Eye, which Kenny passes around by biting other townspeople."--"South Park" episode description, "Pink Eye," aired Oct. 29, 1997
"As conjunctivitis, or pinkeye, spread across schools nationwide, 10 out of the 36 students of a middle school class in Daegu were absent yesterday due to the disease."--photo caption, JoongAng Daily (Seoul), Sept. 9, 2003
What Would We Do Without Experts?
"Experts Warn Against Driving in Flooded Areas"--headline, KYW Newsradio (Philadelphia) Web site, Sept. 18
What Was the First Clue?
"Man Who Took Hostages Called Troubled"--headline, State Gazette (Dyersberg, Tenn.), Sept. 18
Losing Our Sol?
"Sun's latest plan to convince the world that it has a future"--subheadline, The Economist, Sept. 18
Killing It Took a Cat the Size of Detroit
"Fossil Shows Rodent Was Size of Buffalo"--headline, Associated Press, Sept. 19
Your Tax Dollars at Work
Popular Science magazine has a fascinating list of "the worst jobs in science." Many of them are too gross to describe here (among the categories are "olfactory overload" and "involves digestive product"), but No. 11 caught our eye. It's "metric system advocate":
The Metric Program of the National Institute of Standards and Technology has a bold, if Napoleonic, motto: "Toward a Metric America." That is, a fanciful future in which we'll buy decagrams of hamburger and liters of gas. Problem is, the Metric Program employs just two evangelists--hail, ye lone voices in the wilderness!--to convert 281 million recalcitrant American imperial-unit holdouts. Launched with much hope by the Federal Metric Conversion Act of 1975, the Metric Program 28 years later meekly soldiers on, advising federal bureaucracies and trying to pitch the system to--well, to anyone who will listen. The dynamic decimal duo, who declined interview requests, did say that they really work only part-time on metric salesmanship. So it would seem: A spokesman for the program, when queried, didn't know his own height in meters.
The metric system, lest we forget, was used by both Nazi Germany and Communist Russia, and it remains the dominant regime of measurement throughout the axis of evil and in various other terror-sponsoring states, not to mention in France. It's absolutely outrageous that our tax dollars are paying to promote metric propaganda. Granted, it's only two part-time guys, and their efforts seem desultory to say the least, but still, there's a principle at stake here.
(Elizabeth Crowley helps compile Best of the Web Today. Thanks to Rick Marsh, Kyle Stedman, Judie Amsel, Sam Wasilewsky, Barak Moore, Benjamin Lynch, Edward Baer, Steve Baus, Bob Glover, Don Beeth, Lawrence Peck, George Geddes, Phil Buckleman, Joe Hancock, Bruce Campbell, Mark Saunders, Rick Black, Mary Pinkowish, Robert LeChevalier, Scott Jordan and Jim Ely. If you have a tip, write us at opinionjournal@wsj.com, and please include the URL.) |
