Best of the Web Today - January 27, 2005
By JAMES TARANTO
The Shiites Are Coming
London's Guardian notes one of the most important aspects of Sunday's Iraqi elections:
For the first time in centuries, Shias are about to come into their own as the rulers--or at least the politically dominant community--in a key Arab country. . . .
In the Arab world, except for Lebanon with its largely Christian population, the rulers of all 22 states have traditionally hailed from the orthodox Sunni majority. But until now that has included two countries, Iraq and Bahrain, where, against the broader trend, Shias compose the majority. . . .
Arab regimes with Shia citizens, especially in the Gulf, perhaps have most grounds for alarm, because, like Saddam, they have in varying degrees discriminated against them. The quest for equal rights has been common to Shias in every modern Arab state.
One of the strangest arguments coming from the naysayers is that the Iraqi elections will somehow be "illegitimate" if there's a low turnout among Sunni Arabs, who make up some 20% of Iraq's population.
Now, we're all for a big turnout among all Iraq's ethnic and religious groups, and it may turn out that the Sunni boycott is overblown. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reports that although two theocratic Sunni parties are sitting out the vote, "at least a dozen Sunni-led lists are registered on the ballot, representing more mainstream--or more appropriately, more secular--Sunni groups."
The Guardian reports from Tikrit that even some former Baathist generals are enthusiastic about the election. One of them, Abdullah Hussein, predicts a 40% turnout in Saddam Hussein's erstwhile home province.
Still, let's say the worst happens and a combination of terrorism and boycotts succeeds in keeping all but a few Sunni Arabs away from the polls. Would that really make the election illegitimate? Before you answer, consider a thought experiment: Suppose that, when South Africa held its first postapartheid election in 1994, Afrikaner turnout had been depressed by similar measures. Would that have made the enfranchisement of a long-oppressed majority any less a cause for celebration?
What Would We Do Without Reports?
"Saddam Could Vote in Iraqi Elections but Won't for Technical Reasons: Report"--headline, Agence France-Presse, Jan. 26
U.N. on Democracy: Ho Hum!
"The United Nations official charged with election assistance yesterday threw a barb at American troops in Iraq,accusing them of conducting an 'overenthusiastic' campaign to promote this weekend's Iraqi election," reports the New York Sun:
The chief of the U.N. Electoral Assistance Division, Carina Perelli, was asked in a press conference about reports that American troops helped Iraqi officials distribute information on the electoral process to Iraqi citizens, and encouraged them to participate in Sunday's vote.
Ms. Perelli said that U.N. officials spent time "asking, begging military commanders precisely not to do that," but the time has not been well-spent. The Americans were "overenthusiastic in trying to help out with these elections," she said. "We have basically been saying they should try to minimize their participation because this is an Iraqi process."
Perelli later said she "misspoke," but she also offered this less-than-stirring rallying cry: "Iraqis, she said,will have to 'decide by themselves whether they consider that this election is important enough, is valid enough, is legitimate enough in order to risk their lives to go and vote.' "
Sounds as though the U.N. election chief is as enthusiastic about democracy as James Buchanan was about abolishing slavery.
Paranoid Sy-chosis
The New Yorker's Seymour Hersh has been getting a lot of attention of late for his reporting about various aspects of the war on terror, but an interview with the left-wing "Democracy Now!" radio show suggests his politics are quite loony. Here's a sample:
The amazing thing is we are been taken over basically by a cult, eight or nine neoconservatives have somehow grabbed the government. Just how and why and how they did it so efficiently, will have to wait for much later historians and better documentation than we have now, but they managed to overcome the bureaucracy and the Congress, and the press, with the greatest of ease. It does say something about how fragile our democracy is. You do have to wonder what a democracy is when it comes down to a few men in the Pentagon and a few men in the White House having their way.
But Hersh is a glass-is-half-full kind of guy:
Another salvation may be the economy. It's going to go very bad, folks. You know, if you have not sold your stocks and bought property in Italy, you better do it quick.
Meanwhile, in the JoongAng Daily, an English-language South Korean paper, senior columnist Kim Young-hie explains the goal of the neoconspiracy: "One of the hidden purposes with which the neo-conservatives in Washington started a war against Iraq was to democratize the Middle East and build a condominium that the United States and Israel could jointly manage."
A neocondo? Taking over the whole government seems like an awfully complicated way of getting into the real estate business.
Rice and Race
Our item yesterday on the Democrats' bizarre anti-Condoleezza Rice telethon prompted this e-mail from reader Cliff Thier:
I have not read anywhere what seems obvious (to me, anyway) as the real reason why the Democrats expended so much energy trying to defame Condoleeza Rice. Rice is the Democrats' worst nightmare: a highly and obviously intelligent black woman who has freely chosen to be a Republican. If her intellect and achievements, and the respect she receives in Republican policy circles, causes black voters to begin the process of questioning their allegiance to the Democratic Party, that party may lose any chance to win a national election ever again.
Only because Democrats can count on nine out of 10 black voters automatically pulling the lever for a Democratic nominee can the Democrats even fantasize about regaining the White House. Worse still for the Democrats is the possibility that Rice will have a place on the next Republican presidential ticket. An "Anybody and Rice" ticket would likely defeat whatever pairing the Democrats could come up with. Such a ticket could result in an additional 16 years of Republicans in the White House.
There's no doubt some truth to this, and as we've noted, some left-wing commentators (though not politicians, as far as we remember) have insulted Rice in expressly racial terms. But making a show of their opposition to Rice would seem to run counter to the Democrats' political interests. As the New York Post's Deborah Orin reports:
It's not just Republicans who are livid at how Democrats have ripped into Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice--so are plenty of black Democrats, who say their party now risks alienating its most loyal supporters. . . .
"A lot of African-Americans are watching this and they're wondering why [Democrats] are going after her so hard. She has an exemplary record. She's probably better qualified than most secretaries of state that we have had."
CNSNews.com adds that "Andrew Young--the former Atlanta mayor, U.S. congressman and United Nations ambassador in the Carter administration--and C. Delores Tucker, chair of the National Congress of Black Women, agreed to appear with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist on Tuesday, to urge support for Dr. Condoleezza Rice as the next secretary of state."
Great Literature of the 21st Century
Angry Left heartthrob Barbara Boxer is publishing a novel, The Write News reported last month:
The novel will tell a tale of personal friendships and betrayal, political in-fighting and pragmatism. The novel follows Ellen from her days as an idealistic college student, through romantic entanglements, to a difficult marriage to a rising political star. When her husband is killed, she steps into his campaign for the Senate and is elected. On the eve of a crucial senate vote, her personal and political worlds collide when her right-wing adversaries recruit her former lover to sabotage her credibility and career.
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel, meanwhile, reports that "Theresa LePore, arguably the most famous--some would say infamous--political figure in Palm Beach County, said Wednesday she had started work on a book." LePore was the county elections supervisor who designed the "butterfly ballot," which some Al Gore voters reportedly were too inept to figure out.
The headline of the Sun-Sentinel piece is a classic: "LePore Working on Tell-All Book That Includes 2000 Election Debacle." What else could she possibly have to tell?
Zero-Tolerance Watch
The Almaden (Calif.) Times Weekly reports that "The San Jose Unified School District has started a crackdown on truancy in schools, a move that has many parents of truant students confused, frustrated and questioning the district's motives":
The district loses $39.68 [of state taxpayer money] for each day a student misses school, whether the absence is excused or not. But San Jose Unified School District officials insist the crackdown isn't about money, it's about the kids.
"We're being bombarded right now with 'it's about the money,' " said Nancy Danziger-Brock, an attendance improvement programs administrator for elementary schools at the San Jose Unified School District. "Until about two or three years ago, nobody even brought that up. And for me, when I started this program, which has become my passion, it's about kids getting to school, getting fed, getting health care, getting their vision checked, getting their hearing checked, having counseling, getting their two meals a day and getting their education. . . ."
That list of what "it's about" is quite something. We're glad "getting their education" made the list, though its placement at No. 8 makes us wonder about the SJUSD's priorities.
The Associated Press reports that an unnamed 13-year-old girl has been charged with disorderly conduct and suspended for five days from Pointe South Middle School in Jonesboro, Ga.:
The incident began Friday at Pointe South Middle School when some other students reported that the girl had shown them a list of students she said she wanted "eliminated," said Clayton County School Resource Officer Michael Jason Clark.
The girl, a gifted student, created the list of 12 or 13 names of students, said something about the list to other students and then tore it up and throw [sic] it away, Clayton County schools spokesman Charles White said.
But after members of the school administration learned of the incident, they conducted interviews and reassembled the list before turning it over to Clayton County police, White said.
If Santa Claus were a schoolboy in America today, he'd probably go to prison for life. After all, he not only makes lists, he checks them twice. (Hat tip: ZeroIntelligence.net.)
That's a Relief
"Murdered Schoolboy 'Was Not Being Bullied' "--headline, Guardian (London), Jan. 27
Total Coelo
"Rich Countries Poach Doctors From Africa"--headline, Associated Press, Jan. 27
Makes Scents to Us
"A mystery chemical signal that young women give off appears to work for post-menopausal women too," reports the BBC:
A Harvard University researcher added the pheromone to the perfume of older women and found it had a positive effect on their romantic lives.
New Scientist magazine reports they had more dates or affection from their partners if they used the treated scent rather than an untreated version. . . .
The study, also published in the Journal of Sex Behaviour, said 41% of pheromone users reported more kissing and affection from their partners, compared with 14% who had the dummy perfume.
Dummy perfume? Is that what Maureen Dowd has been wearing?
Million Dollar Pullet
Oklahoma banned cockfighting three years ago, but now a state senator is trying to bring it back--sort of. In a regular cockfight, as Reuters notes, roosters outfitted with razors slash and peck each other to death. But Sen. Frank Shurden "has proposed that roosters wear little boxing gloves attached to their spurs, as well as lightweight, chicken-sized vests configured with electronic sensors to record hits and help keep score."
They probably ought to have face masks too, in case a Tyson chicken ends up in the ring.
Shaggy Dog Disclosure
The latest conflict-of-interest kerfuffle involves an erstwhile colleague of ours, Maggie Gallagher (we worked together at the Manhattan Institute during 1991). Gallagher, a syndicated columnist and author who specializes in traditional marriage (she's for it), turns out to have done some work in 2001 for the Department of Health and Human Services.
HHS, she writes, "approached me to do some work on marriage issues for the government, including a presentation of the social science evidence on the benefits of marriage for HHS regional managers, to draft an essay for Wade Horn, assistant secretary of HHS, on how government can strengthen marriage, and to prepare drafts of community brochures: 'The Top Ten Reasons Marriage Matters,' stuff like that." She got $21,500 for her efforts.
"On reflection," she adds, "I should have disclosed a government contract when I later wrote about the Bush marriage initiative. I would have, if I had remembered it. My apologies to my readers."
This is pretty small beer; unlike in the Armstrong Williams case, no one has claimed that Gallagher was paid for anything other than the actual work she did for the government. We weren't going to bother commenting on this, until left-wing blogger Eric Alterman yesterday came forward with a shocking and disturbing allegation (second item):
I love the defense of "I forgot" and "Nobody ever asked me." Nobody never asked her if she has sexual relations with animals, either.
Alterman offers no evidence of this accusation, and we're pretty sure there's no truth to it. But just to be on the safe side, we thought we'd better disclose the faunal element of our own relationship with Gallagher.
In 1991-95, we rented rooms on the second floor of a house Gallagher owned. For the first part of that time, Maggie herself lived on the lower floor; she subsequently moved to a different house after getting married (to a male human, we hasten to add).
When Gallagher lived downstairs, her household included what the Census Bureau calls a CASSLQ*, a female feline-American. Maggie's CASSLQ became pregnant and in due course delivered six postfetal feline-Americans. We adopted one of them, a female Maggie had named Blaze, and to this day Blaze remains a proud member of the Best of the Web Today household. Lest Eric Alterman get any funny ideas, our relationship with Blaze is strictly petonic.
Again, we want to stress: We never saw any evidence of monkey business between Maggie and her CASSLQ. We're pretty sure Blaze's father was a neighborhood tomcat who was known on occasion to make a beeline for Maggie's feline. If Alterman thinks otherwise, he should put his money where his mouse is. We're happy to submit a sample of Blaze's DNA for testing, provided Alterman picks up the tab.
* Creature of another species sharing living quarters. |
