Best of the Web Today - October 13, 2004
By JAMES TARANTO
Divide and Conquer
John Kerry has been doing better in the polls since the debates began two weeks ago; no doubt the captain of the al Qaeda debate team is losing sleep over the prospect of a Kerry presidency. It's looking again like a close election, and President Bush could sure use some good news from Iraq. Well, here's some, from the Washington Post:
Local insurgents in the city of Fallujah are turning against the foreign fighters who have been their allies in the rebellion that has held the U.S. military at bay in parts of Iraq's Sunni Muslim heartland, according to Fallujah residents, insurgent leaders and Iraqi and U.S. officials.
Relations are deteriorating as local fighters negotiate to avoid a U.S.-led military offensive against Fallujah, while foreign fighters press to attack Americans and their Iraqi supporters. The disputes have spilled over into harsh words and sporadic violence, with Fallujans killing at least five foreign Arabs in recent weeks, according to witnesses.
"If the Arabs will not leave willingly, we will make them leave by force," said Jamal Adnan, a taxi driver who left his house in Fallujah's Shurta neighborhood a month ago after the house next door was bombed by U.S. aircraft targeting foreign insurgents. . . .
Several local leaders of the insurgency say they, too, want to expel the foreigners, whom they scorn as terrorists. They heap particular contempt on Abu Musab Zarqawi, the Jordanian whose Monotheism and Jihad group has asserted responsibility for many of the deadliest attacks across Iraq, including videotaped beheadings.
"He is mentally deranged, has distorted the image of the resistance and defamed it. I believe his end is near," Abu Abdalla Dulaimy, military commander of the First Army of Mohammad, said.
The Post reports that Abu Abdallah Suri, a Syrian Zarqawi follower, was fatally shot "while being chased by a carload of tribesmen." Let's hope Zarqawi himself meets a similar fate--soon.
Saddam Murders Babies; Weasels Bug Out
Wrong war, wrong place, wrong time? "A mass grave being excavated in a north Iraqi village has yielded evidence that Iraqi forces executed women and children under Saddam Hussein," reports the BBC:
The skeletons of unborn babies and toddlers clutching toys are being unearthed, the investigators said. They are seeking evidence to try Saddam Hussein for crimes against humanity. . . .
One trench contains only women and children while another contains only men. The body of one woman was found still clutching a baby. The infant had been shot in the back of the head and the woman in the face.
"The youngest foetus we have was 18 to 20 foetal weeks," said US investigating anthropologist P Willey. "Tiny bones, femurs--thighbones the size of a matchstick."
The investigation is proceeding slowly because Europeans--experienced in examining mass graves in Bosnia--are refusing to participate "as the evidence might be used eventually to put Saddam Hussein to death." Oh no, that wouldn't pass the global test!
If He Were Republican, This Would Be Hate Speech
A Tennessee state House member is distributing a flyer with the slogan "Voting for Bush is like running in the Special Olympics: Even if you win, you're still retarded," reports the Traditional Values Coalition. Republican challenger Dave Dahl says opponent, Democratic incumbent Chris Fitzhugh, has been passing out the flyers for two weeks from the Fitzhugh campaign office in Ripley, which also serves as the local headquarters for the Kedwards campaign, according to the coalition.
"At first, I really did not believe that Fitzhugh and the Democrats would stoop to such gutter politics, but then people started bringing the flyer to me at the end of last week," Dahl says. "I was shocked and disgusted." Click on the image nearby to see a larger version.
Honorable Discharge?
In today's New York Sun, Thomas Lipscomb reports on the latest mystery involving the Vietnam service of John Kerry, who by the way served in Vietnam:
An official Navy document on Senator Kerry's campaign Web site listed as Mr. Kerry's "Honorable Discharge from the Reserves" opens a door on a well-kept secret about his military service.
The document is a form cover letter in the name of the Carter administration's secretary of the Navy, W. Graham Claytor. It describes Mr. Kerry's discharge as being subsequent to the review of "a board of officers." This in itself is unusual. There is nothing about an ordinary honorable discharge action in the Navy that requires a review by a board of officers.
According to the secretary of the Navy's document, the "authority of reference" this board was using in considering Mr. Kerry's record was "Title 10, U.S. Code Section 1162 and 1163." This section refers to the grounds for involuntary separation from the service. What was being reviewed, then, was Mr. Kerry's involuntary separation from the service. And it couldn't have been an honorable discharge, or there would have been no point in any review at all. The review was likely held to improve Mr. Kerry's status of discharge from a less than honorable discharge to an honorable discharge.
A Kerry campaign spokesman, David Wade, was asked whether Mr. Kerry had ever been a victim of an attempt to deny him an honorable discharge. There has been no response to that inquiry.
In the absence of an explanation from the Kerry camp, Lipscomb offers some speculation:
There are a number of categories of discharges besides honorable. There are general discharges, medical discharges, bad conduct discharges, as well as other than honorable and dishonorable discharges. There is one odd coincidence that gives some weight to the possibility that Mr. Kerry was dishonorably discharged. Mr. Kerry has claimed that he lost his medal certificates and that is why he asked that they be reissued. But when a dishonorable discharge is issued, all pay benefits, and allowances, and all medals and honors are revoked as well. And five months after Mr. Kerry joined the U.S. Senate in 1985, on one single day, June 4, all of Mr. Kerry's medals were reissued.
We're not sure what to make of all this, but certainly the story of John Kerry and Vietnam is more nuanced than the simple tale of heroism he sold his party and is trying to sell the country.
Dems vs. Free Speech--II
In an item yesterday, we noted that the Democratic National Committee was planning to file a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission against Sinclair Broadcasting, alleging that the company's airing of "Stolen Honor," a documentary critical of John Kerry, is "an in-kind contribution to the Bush campaign." We asked:
If this is an in-kind contribution, what is "Fahrenheit 9/11"? How about Bruce Springsteen's pro-Kerry concerts, or for that matter newspaper editorials endorsing one candidate or another?
Several readers took issue with our analogy, among them Chuck Gitles:
None of those use the public airwaves. Sinclair is using my airwaves. If AMC Theaters wants to use their privately owned screens to show Moore's films, I just won't go see it.
Talk of the "public airwaves" seems somewhat quaint in our multimedia age, but it is true that the regulatory scheme for broadcast television and radio remains based on the assumption that the airwaves are public property and broadcasters therefore have an obligation to act in the "public interest." That, however, is irrelevant to the DNC's complaint, which is about campaign finance, not broadcast regulation.
An "in-kind contribution" means a donation of something of value other than cash. If, for example, a TV network (broadcast or cable) were to offer free advertising airtime to President Bush, the DNC would have a legitimate complaint. Yet networks air political ads free of charge all the time--as part of their news coverage. This is an editorial decision, one that is plainly protected by the First Amendment, even if under current case law that amendment does not give full protection to political ads per se.
Likewise, Sinclair's decision to run the documentary is an editorial decision. Democrats are of course within their rights to cry foul, complain of bias, etc. But CNN notes that the company did offer Kerry "an opportunity to appear on its stations to respond to the program. The Kerry campaign says it's not taking the offer seriously."
Rather than answer the criticism, then, the Kerry camp seems intent on using the government to shut down criticism.
The Onion Imitates Edwards
"We will stop juvenile diabetes, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and other debilitating diseases. . . . People like Chris Reeve will get out of their wheelchairs and walk again with stem cell research."--John Edwards, Oct. 11
"If you put John Kerry and me in the White House, we'll have each one of you in the driver's seat of a brand-new SUV. Your bosses will be less cranky, your children will be kept in trucker hats and iPods, and your TV screens will grow even wider. Those who are bald will wake up one morning and magically find themselves with thick heads of luxurious, silky hair. You'll open your refrigerators and 15-pound hams will tumble out. Your dog might even start to talk, and the first thing he'll say is 'I love you.' It'll be that good."--"John Edwards," the Onion, Oct. 13
The Critics Rave
"Team America: World Police," the new movie by "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, opens Friday, and the In DC Journal blog has compiled a list of comments from folks on the Angry Left site Democratic Underground, some of whom have seen advance screenings (quoting verbatim):
"I can't wait for everyone to get pissed off at US... When its seen around the world"
"Okay, I laughed in some of it but overall this is a Freepers wet dream. They poke fun at liberals BIG TIME!!!Nothing against ANY rightwingers, ONLY LIBERALS!!! Liberals are the butt of the joke & are even the villians in this.Oh, & all the liberals Die a horrific death in this. TOTALLY bias! I mean, c'mon. How can they NOT have Bush puppet? I mean, he so much a charachter that needs to be mocked. This film was very mean spirited IMO. My firned said I didn't get it. That it was an extreme right wing edge to it & that was the joke. Well, I didn't get that when I saw it. TRUST ME, Freepers will call this film their own & Trey Parker & Matt Stone have sold out BIG TIME!"
"those guys lost me years ago, when they trashed rain forest preservation & biodiversity. Call me touchy and humorless but I can't get any chuckles out of human caused mass extinction."
"Alec Baldwin is shot by Kim Jong-Il, for being an ineffective terror supporter. Hans Blix is also killed by Kim. Eaten alive by sharks. Michael Moore is portrayed as a fat socialist double-fisting some hot dogs, with ketchup and mustard running down his face. Of course, he dies. Suicide bomber."
Sounds awesome, doesn't it?
'Let's Perform Heroic Feats in the Building of Hydro-Power Stations!'
Speaking of Kim Jong Il, here's another tragic yet hilarious dispatch from North Korea's official "news" agency, KCNA:
New posters have been issued by the Central Art Studio. Among them is poster "We Will Follow the Leader to the End." Depicted on it are the shining star of marshal, colors of the three services of the Korean People's Army and red flags bearing words "Revolutionary spirit of Mt. Paektu," "Revolutionary soldier spirit," etc. on a ground showing ranks of demonstrators presenting letters " Unity in mind" with torches. It represents the fixed faith and will of the entire army and all the people to accomplish the revolutionary cause of Juche true to the Songun revolutionary leadership of Kim Jong Il.
They included posters "Let officials stand at the head of the ranks just as the commanding officers of the People's Army do!" "Let's fully display on all fronts the fighting spirit demonstrated in the 70s!" "Let's perform heroic feats in the building of hydro-power stations!" "Build more modern stock-breeding bases of our style!" and "Let's turn the whole country into a thick woodland and greenery!"
There are also posters calling for voluntarily observing the revolutionary discipline concerning the labor administration and traffic rule and quitting smoking.
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'Mr. Football' Faces Justice
Sixteen-year-old Lorenzo Hunter of Cleveland was fatally shot in April when he and two high school football teammates, Raymond Williams and Jon Huddleston, allegedly tried to rob a man. The alleged robbers had fake guns, but the would-be victim, armed with a real gun, shot and killed Hunter. Now Williams and Huddleston are charged with murder for having set in motion the events that led to Hunter's death.
Monday's Cleveland Plain Dealer carried an article raising the curtain on Williams's trial:
Raymond Williams should have been welcoming the fall's cooler temperatures.
The wilting heat of late-summer two-a-day football practices should have been weeks behind him.
He should have been adjusting to the melting glare of the spotlight falling on a freshman expected to lift West Virginia University's football program to new heights.
Instead, the heat rises dramatically for Williams, the former star running back for Benedictine High School.
Starting Tuesday, a Cuyahoga County Common Pleas courtroom becomes his playing field, and Williams shifts to play defense against a murder charge.
He racked up staggering numbers at Benedictine High School 2,941 rushing yards, 40 touchdowns and a state championship as a senior, and earned the state's prep MVP award, Mr. Football.
Now the number he faces is far less glorious: 18 years.
Reporter Jim Nichols can't be faulted for trying to give his story a literary twist, but is it really appropriate to treat the death of a teenager as if it were some sort of game?
What Would We Do Without Reports?
"Report Depicts Chaos at Colo. Prison Riot"--headline, Associated Press, Oct. 12
Are You Sure It Wasn't on Purpose?
"Highway 41 Shut Down by Accident"--headline, Daily Citizen (Beaver Dam, Wis.), Oct. 12
Chicken of 10,000 Lakes
"Sen. Mark Dayton said Tuesday he is closing his Washington office because of a classified intelligence report that made him fear for the safety of his staff," reports CBS News. Dayton, a Minnesota Democrat, says the office will be shuttered until after Election Day:
"I take this step out of extreme, but necessary, precaution to protect the lives and safety of my Senate staff and my Minnesota constituents, who might otherwise be visiting my Senate office in the next three weeks," he said on a call with reporters.
"I feel compelled to do so because I will not be here in Washington to share what I consider to be an unacceptably greater risk to their safety," he said.
Dayton doesn't exactly look like a profile in courage, given that no other members of Congress have followed suit--though John Kerry and John Edwards have been avoiding the Capitol for some time now. |
