Best of the Web Today - October 28, 2004
By JAMES TARANTO
Reverse the Curse--I
By Election Day, the world may have one less terrorist--and we don't mean Osama bin Laden. (Though we did hear a rumor--take with grain of salt--that bin Laden's capture is scheduled for 4:15 this afternoon.) Yasser Arafat is sick, and some accounts have him at death's door, though Palestinian Arab officials are being very vague about his condition. The BBC reports:
Mr Arafat's long-time personal doctor, Jordanian neurologist Ashraf Kurdi, said he had been summoned urgently.
"I am taking a team to assess his condition and do whatever is possible that can be done. They refused to tell me what his condition was."
Think about that for a second. If you were ailing, wouldn't you want your doctor to be fully informed of your condition? Palestinian politicians' paranoia--or perhaps their passion for power--may help to kill Arafat. The Associated Press reports that Arafat will be treated at a hospital in Paris; the accompanying photo shows him looking quite frail.
As James Lileks notes, "All you need to know about Arafat was that he insisted on wearing a pistol when he addressed the UN General Assembly. And all you need to know about the UN, I suppose, is that they let him."
Arafat won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1994.
Old Gray Lady Makes Potency Boast
The New York Times is increasingly shameless about its desire to help John Kerry win the election. This passage appears in a news story by David Stout on the reaction to the Times' Monday story about purportedly missing weapons in Iraq:
The very fact that Mr. Bush mentioned the missing explosives, after two days of silence since their disappearance was first reported, signaled that his campaign strategists recognized the issue's political potency in the final week of a presidential race that both sides agree could be exceedingly close.
People in the Kerry campaign clearly think too that the missing explosives may be a powerful issue, as the senator himself illustrated today by again emphasizing it at a rally in Sioux City, Iowa, whose seven electoral votes are up for grabs.
Funny how Stout and "people in the Kerry campaign" happen to find themselves in agreement on the "political potency" of this story.
Today's Times also carries a piece whining about online media criticism:
Practicing cheap and dirty politics, playing fast and loose with the facts and even lying: Accusations like these, and worse, have been slung nonstop this year.
The accused in this case are not the candidates, but the mainstream news media. And the accusers are an ever-growing army of Internet writers, many of them partisans, who reach hundreds of thousands of people a day.
Journalists covering the campaign believe the intent is often to bully them into caving to a particular point of view. They insist the efforts have not swayed them in any significant way, though others worry the criticism could eventually have a chilling effect.
"Chilling effect" is a term from First Amendment law; this page at the University of Houston defines it as "a situation where speech is stifled or limited by an individual's or group's fear of punishment." An example would be Sinclair Broadcasting's decision not to air "Stolen Honor" in the face of threatened lawsuits, boycotts and regulatory actions.
Journalists who worry about bloggers, on the other hand, fear not punishment but criticism. And if that criticism "chills" news organizations' tendency to be unfair, partisan and loose with facts, wouldn't that be a good thing?
Besides, it's not just bloggers: Plenty of mainstream media outlets, notably the Washington Post and ABC, aggressively pursued the story of CBS's fabricated National Guard documents. And today other news organizations are raising questions about the Times/CBS Iraq explosives story, quite possibly defusing it as an election issue (or perhaps even aiding President Bush by provoking ire at the media among his base).
"Iraqi officials may be overstating the amount of explosives reported to have disappeared from a weapons depot," ABC News reports. Iraq has claimed 377 tons of explosives are missing, but confidential International Atomic Energy Agency documents "show that on Jan. 14, 2003, the agency's inspectors recorded that just over three tons of RDX were stored at the facility--a considerable discrepancy from what the Iraqis reported." The Financial Times and Washington Times both report on another possible explanation: that Russia helped Saddam Hussein's regime move the weapons from the site and into Syria.
The Times/CBS October surprise plainly was supposed to give John Kerry a boost by bolstering his homestretch campaign theme that the Bush administration is "incompetent." Instead, thanks to the increasingly competitive nature of the media, it raised more questions than it answered.
The LaRouche Democrats
Democrat Richard Morrison is challenging House Majority Leader Tom DeLay for Delay's Texas congressional seat. Morrison's Web site features an ad for an event that took place Oct. 12, "town meeting on the crimes of Tom DeLay:
Isn't it time we rid the U.S. Congress of that embarrassment to Texas, Tom DeLay? Admonished by the Republican-controlled House Ethics Committee on September 30, and again on separate charges on October 6, the man who hides behind his so-called "Christian" values seems to be more than a little ethically-challenged. Add to that, 32 felony indictments for fundraising fraud of his closest associates, and an ongoing investigation into his attempt to turn Texas into his own little Banana Republic, his days as a thuggish enforcer are numbered. It is fair to ask, "Is the Hammer heading to the slammer?"
What's interesting about this is the sponsor: the LaRouche PAC--that is, the political action committee of Lyndon LaRouche, the perennial Democratic fringe candidate and felon. LaRouche is no harmless nut; Sunday's Washington Post magazine carries a long and chilling article on LaRouche's cultlike tactics.
What does Morrison say when asked about his campaign's cooperation with LaRouche? "Mudslinging for Tom DeLay," he tells the Citizen, a local newspaper. "This is a clear sign of DeLay's desperation. . . . He knows he's slipping in the polls so he's asked his buddies in Washington to do the dirty work for him."
Vain Man
Seymour Hersh of The New Yorker showed up at the University of Michigan the other day and explained President Bush's popularity this way, according to the Ann Arbor News: "I think one thing you have to face up to is the fact there are roughly 70 million people in America who do not believe in evolution--and those are Bush supporters," said Hersh." Then there was this delightful exchange:
Perhaps the biggest laugh of the afternoon came when a woman asked what it would take to change the country from being "jaded, dumbed-down, with 50 percent of the people still loving George Bush, right or wrong."
"What would make the change in America that would stop all this descent into darkness?" she asked.
"The Easter Bunny!" Hersh said.
Once again, we see that the Democrats are the party of intellectual vanity. Anyone who supports Bush, Hersh is suggesting, is an idiot, especially those foolish enough to favor a religious explanation for the origins of life.
The Scotsman looks at John Kerry's rhetorical style, noting examples in which he has larded up his speeches with excess verbiage:
During one speech, Mr Kerry's script writers had crafted the concise pledge: "I will work with Republicans and Democrats on this healthcare plan, and we will pass it."
In the candidate's hands it became: "I will work with Republicans and Democrats across the aisle, openly, not with an ideological, driven, fixed, rigid concept, but much like Franklin Roosevelt said, I don't care whether a good idea is a Republican idea or a Democrat idea. I just care whether or not it's gonna' work for Americans and help make our country stronger.
"And we will pass this bill. I'll tell you a little bit about it in a minute, and I'll tell you why we'll pass it, because it's different from anything we've ever done before, despite what the Republicans want to try to tell you."
Kerry's convoluted speaking style, as we've argued before, appeals to the intellectually vain. It takes brains to follow all the twists and turns in Kerry's disordered thoughts, but that doesn't mean Kerry is a genius. Indeed, a surer sign of intelligence is the ability to take complicated ideas and make them simple.
Caroline Whine
The Drudge Report picks up a statement from Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, who says she's outraged that President Bush is contrasting her father, John F. Kennedy, with John Kerry:
It's hard for me to listen to President Bush invoking my father's memory to attack John Kerry. Senator Kerry has demonstrated his courage and commitment to a stronger America throughout his entire career. President Kennedy inspired and united the country and so will John Kerry. President Bush is doing just the opposite. All of us who revere the strength and resolve of President Kennedy will be supporting John Kerry on Election Day.
The Dems have a strange sense of propriety, don't they? Mary Cheney's private life is "fair game," but the public pronouncements of an American president are off limits--though of course that hasn't stopped Kerry from invoking such Republican past presidents as Ronald Reagan and even George H.W. Bush. It's sort of sad, though, to see Schlossberg try to drag her own father down to the level of a haughty, French-looking Massachusetts Democrat who by the way served in Vietnam.
What Would the Electoral College Do Without Experts?
"Experts: Electoral College Good and Bad"--headline, Parkersburg (W.Va.) News and Sentinel, Oct. 28
In With the New
One of John Kerry's secret weapons on Election Day is supposed to be "new voters"--those who registered for the first time after 2000, especially young people. We've long been skeptical about this, especially because the Roe effect suggests young people would trend Republican. A new poll (link in PDF) from Pace University, conducted for MTV's "Rock the Vote" effort, bears out our suspicion. "The president leads Kerry among new voters, 48% to 44%," the survey finds. More Roe effect evidence: 38% of the new voters in its survey "consider themselves 'born-again' or 'evangelicals,' " vs. just 23% of the general public in a Gallup poll.
Of course, since these people have never voted in a presidential election before, it's even harder than usual to gauge who is a "likely" voter. It's possible that the pro-Kerry segment of the new-voter demographic will turn out in greater numbers, though there's no particular reason to think this is the case. In any case, the poll report opens with a quote from Democratic attack dog James Carville: "You know what they call a candidate who's counting on a lot of new voters? A loser."
Speaking of the Roe Effect . . .
A brief report in BusinessWeek bolsters one of the premises of the Roe effect--that children tend to adopt their parents' political views: "An Oct. 12 Harris Poll found only 15% of Republicans come from Democratic families and just 12% of Democrats have Republican relatives."
The Oregonian, meanwhile, reports that conservatism is now cool on college campuses:
When it comes to young people and politics, the days of easy clues in fashion, music and other cultural tastes are over. Young conservatives, once rare enough to invite mockery and stereotypes (a la Michael J. Fox as Alex P. Keaton in the '80s sitcom "Family Ties"), are now part of the mainstream in American life and even on college campuses.
College-age conservatives today "wear the same cultural garb as hipsters of a more left-leaning stripe," says University of Oregon assistant professor Joseph Lowndes. "They don't have the same kind of clean-cut 1980s or even '90s look they may have once had." . . .
"To be a Republican actually is reactionary and kind of revolutionary," says [Luke] Sheahan, 20. "People of my age tend to rebel against the status quo, and the status quo on campuses is liberal. It's almost innate rebellion against, y'know, the establishment."
The paper notes that "undeniably, parents influence young people's early political leanings," but it doesn't cite the possibility that greater fertility among conservatives may contribute to this generation's rightward shift.
The article observes that "some professors worry that such strong family influence and career focus, as well as the availability of media that caters to specific ideological tastes, might limit the level of exploration students are willing to try." Didn't left-wing baby boomers use to be in favor of questioning authority?
The Apathetic Vote May Be Big This Year
"Voter Apathy Shuts Down Special Town Meeting"--headline, Westford (Mass.) Eagle, Oct. 28
"High Voter Turnout Expected"--headline, Westford Eagle, Oct. 28
The Squirrels Won on Points
"Chester Officials Debate Squirrels"--headline, Chester (S.C.) News & Reporter, Oct. 27
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Not Too Brite--CLXXI
"A Florida motorist was arrested on Wednesday on charges of trying to run down U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris at an intersection where the controversial former state elections chief was campaigning for re-election to Congress," Reuters reports from Miami.
Oddly Enough!
(For an explanation of the "Not Too Brite" series, click here.)
Wrong-Way Koreagan
Chungang Ilbo, a South Korean newspaper (translated by the BBC) reports on a South Korean man who tried to defect to the communist North:
According to the authorities, the man harangued his friends about "South Korea's subordination to the United States" and the unfairness of capitalism as a social system. . . .
The investigation by the National Intelligence Service, officials said, showed that the man dropped out of high school and then worked at a garment factory. After he entered North Korea, he told a women working in the fields, "I am from South Korea. I want to live in an equal society like the North." North Korean authorities welcomed him with a banquet but interrogated him the next day about his motives for defecting and was sent to a detention camp for foreigners. For 40 days, until 9 October, he was interrogated by the military and Pyongyang's Immigration authorities. Eventually, he was expelled to China. On 21 October, the Chinese government deported him to South Korea.
People Come in All Shapes and Sizes
The Associated Press reports that a "Nebraska man who once weighed more than half a ton has lost 321 pounds in a Sioux Falls [S.D.] hospital, with a goal of losing another 450 pounds":
Patrick Deuel, 42, of Valentine, weighed 1,072 pounds when he was admitted to Avera McKennan Hospital eight weeks ago. Deuel, who is just under 6 feet tall, is on a 1,200 calorie-a-day diet.
He wants to lose at least another 450 pounds or more in the next year and a half to two years. He is being supervised by a team of eight doctors. . . .
Deuel said he knew he had to act. The former restaurant manager has been bedridden since last fall and hadn't been out of his Nebraska home for social reasons in seven years.
Heart failure, thyroid problems, diabetes, pulmonary hypertension and arthritis--the physical effects of obesity--were robbing him of life. Deuel needed an oxygen machine to breathe and help just to roll over in bed.
A group known as the League of Human Dignity helped arrange for Deuel to be driven to a local livestock scale, where he could be weighed.
Boy, those guys at the League of Human Dignity sure know how to make a guy feel good about himself.
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times reports that "on an isolated islet of Indonesia, scientists have discovered skeletons of a previously unknown human species--tiny, hobbit-sized figures who lived among dwarf elephants and giant lizards as recently as 12,000 years ago when modern humans already thrived worldwide":
Startled experts in human origins called the discovery--made public today--of a contemporary human species barely 3 feet tall the most important--and surprising--human find in the past 50 years.
"It is probably the most significant thing that has happened in my professional lifetime," said George Washington University paleoanthropologist Bernard Wood. "It comes out of nowhere."
The Associated Press says the find "could rewrite the history of human evolution." In case it does, let us be the first to thank all the little people who helped us get where we are today.
Clinton 1, Redskins 0
On Tuesday we discussed the "Redskins rule," according to which if the Washington NFL team wins its last game before a presidential election, the incumbent party prevails; otherwise, it goes down to defeat. ""As in sports," we noted, quoting an earlier article of ours, "streaks and slumps in politics go on only until they end."
Well, it turns out this particular streak already ended, eight years ago. According to blogger Justin Taylor, on whose posting we relied, the Redskins beat the Indianapolis Colts in 1996's last pre-election game, and the incumbent, Bill Clinton, was re-elected.
It's true of course that Clinton won, and the Redskins did beat the Colts, 31-16--but that game took place Oct. 27, eight years ago yesterday. On Nov. 3, the 7-1 Skins lost to the 5-3 Buffalo Bills, 38-13--and the incumbent president won two days later.
Reverse the Curse--II
Congratulations to the Boston Red Sox, who swept the St. Louis Cardinals and won their first World Series since 1918. The Associated Press reports the presidential candidates congratulated the Sox:
The president watched part of the final game Wednesday night as the Red Sox defeated the St. Louis Cardinals, completing a four-game sweep to win their first World Series title since 1918, said spokesman Scott McClellan. "This is a long time coming and he shares in their excitement at winning the World Series," McClellan said.
Kerry said, "I've been rooting for this day since I was a kid. . . . This Red Sox team came back against all odds and showed America what heart is. In 2004, the Red Sox are America's team."
In the second presidential debate, Kerry said, "The president, I don't think, is living in a world of reality with respect to the environment. Now, if you're a Red Sox fan, that's OK. But if you're a president, it's not." Now that the Sox have won the Series, it's fair to say the president is right on environmental issues.
Back in August, Kerry had this to say (link in MP3): "We've been waiting since 1918 for the Boston Red Sox to win the World Series, and . . . if I had a choice between the White House and the World Series this year, I'm going to take the White House."
Sox pitcher Curt Schilling disagrees. "Tell everybody to vote," he said today on ABC. "And vote Bush next week." |
