Kurdistan Is a Model for Iraq? [Michael Rubin]
THE CORNER
So writes Kurdish leader Masud Barzani in today's Wall Street Journal.
The rhetoric of democracy wears thin, however, when his administration is as intolerant of free press as neighboring Syria and Iran. The Kurds have had an excellent opportunity to become a democratic model; alas, they have gone backwards since 2003.
And the demand for entitlement wears thin after the Kurdistan Regional Government's office in Washington endorsed the most virulent anti-war smears about "Bush's lies," something for which Kurdish representative Qubad Talabani refuses apology.
All Over Again [John Derbyshire]
I'm getting a really bad case of déjà vu.
Democratic Congressional leaders said Tuesday that they were ready to push emergency legislation to aid the imperiled auto industry when lawmakers return to Washington next week … "Next week … we are determined to pass legislation that will save the jobs of millions of workers …" the majority leader, Harry Reid … said … — Int. Herald Tribune
It's all a bit too creepily similar to the travails of the British auto industry in the 1960s. That ended with nationalization, which was of course a horrible failure, the debris eventually being sold off to Chinese and Indian firms.
This is on top of the on-rolling debate between save-the-world "great nation" conservatives and "fortress America" Buchananites, which is even more creepily similar to the "Great Britain" vs. "Little England" controversy that raged over there all through my formative years.
At this point, I'm in the market for a cyclical theory of history.
Paglin! [Andrew Stuttaford]
I don't agree with all she has to say (but so what?), here's the latest great read from Camille Paglia. Note, in particular, this:
>>>>>>>> Liberal Democrats are going to wake up from their sadomasochistic, anti-Palin orgy with a very big hangover. The evil genie released during this sorry episode will not so easily go back into its bottle. A shocking level of irrational emotionalism and at times infantile rage was exposed at the heart of current Democratic ideology... One would have to look back to the Eisenhower 1950s for parallels to this grotesque lock-step parade of bourgeois provincialism, shallow groupthink and blind prejudice...
As for the Democrats who sneered and howled that Palin was unprepared to be a vice-presidential nominee — what navel-gazing hypocrisy! What protests were raised in the party or mainstream media when John Edwards, with vastly less political experience than Palin, got John Kerry's nod for veep four years ago? And Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, for whom I lobbied to be Obama's pick and who was on everyone's short list for months, has a record indistinguishable from Palin's. Whatever knowledge deficit Palin has about the federal bureaucracy or international affairs (outside the normal purview of governors) will hopefully be remedied during the next eight years of the Obama presidencies.
The U.S. Senate as a career option? What a claustrophobic, nitpicking comedown for an energetic Alaskan — nothing but droning committees and incestuous back-scratching. No, Sarah Palin should stick to her governorship and just hit the rubber-chicken circuit, as Richard Nixon did in his long haul back from political limbo following his California gubernatorial defeat in 1962. Step by step, the mainstream media will come around, wipe its own mud out of its eyes, and see Palin for the populist phenomenon that she is.<<<<<<<<
I have yet to come to any sort of final conclusion about Gov. Palin. The very real revulsion I feel at the way she has been treated by some in politics and the media (on both sides of the aisle, alas) is not in itself a reason to be for her, and there were aspects of her performance as vice presidential candidate that were indeed deeply unimpressive. At the same time, there is undoubtedly something there. Paglia's advice is good. Palin should avoid the Senate, a dreary place at the best of times, and concentrate on proving her detractors wrong (if she can) by governing well in Alaska, preparing herself properly for the wider stage and, sure, hitting the circuit for rubber chicken and the cheers of the faithful.
Immigration as Social Engineering [Mark Krikorian]
From the Boston Globe:
There is no question that Obama owes a debt to the Kennedys - but it may be far greater than he or they realize. Yes, Senator Edward M. Kennedy offered a crucial early endorsement, comparing the Obama of 2008 to the Jack Kennedy of 1960. And certainly Caroline and others in the Kennedy family worked hard on the campaign trail. But the greatest Kennedy legacy to Obama isn't Ted or Caroline or Bobby Jr., but rather the Immigration Act of 1965, which created the diverse country that is already being called Obama's America.
That act is rarely mentioned when recounting the high points of 1960s liberalism, but its impact arguably rivals the Voting Rights Act, the creation of Medicare, or other legislative landmarks of the era. It transformed a nation 85 percent white in 1965 into one that's one-third minority today, and on track for a nonwhite majority by 2042.
Let me get this straight — the 1920s national-origins quotas were bad because they were pro-white social engineering, but the 1965 act was good because it was anti-white social engineering? How about we just skip the social engineering altogether by limiting immigration of all kinds, and just let today's American moms and dads decide who tomorrow's Americans will be?
We'll Be Greeted As Liberators [Byron York]
The Washington Post reports that Barack Obama really, really wants to close Guantanamo:
>>>>>>> Announcing the closure of the controversial detention facility would be among the most potent signals the incoming administration could send of its sharp break with the Bush era, according to the advisers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak for the president-elect. They believe the move would create a global wave of diplomatic and popular goodwill that could accelerate the transfer of some detainees to other countries.<<<<<<
The article concedes that there will be problems involved. And not too long ago, the New York Times did a front-page story upon discovering that Guantanamo is filled with bad people who are both difficult to deport and house in the United States. But the goodwill!
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