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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (8473)	9/18/2003 3:29:27 PM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 793752

Bush is really keeping up the pressure on the Pals with his refusal to deal with Arafat. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- September 18, 2003 Bush Blames Arafat for Undercutting Peace Efforts By DAVID STOUT NEW YORK TIMES WASHINGTON, Sept. 18 — President Bush acknowledged today that efforts toward peace in the Middle East had stalled and he blamed the Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat, whom he branded a failure. But Mr. Bush restated his commitment to a "road map" for peace and said a new Palestinian leadership would ease the way. "I remain committed, solidly committed to the vision of two states living side by side in peace and security," Mr. Bush said, referring to Israel and a future Palestinian state. "Yet that would only happen with new Palestinian leadership committed to fighting terror, not compromised by terror." The president met reporters at Camp David, Md., with King Abdullah II of Jordan by his side. Mr. Bush praised the king as "a reformer who's working to build a country that is tolerant and modern and prosperous" and a man dedicated to peace throughout the Middle East. "I look forward to discussing with His Majesty how we can encourage Palestinian reform; how we can work together to fight off the terrorists who want to destroy the hopes of many; and how we can move forward to peace, peace in a region that needs peace," Mr. Bush said. Mr. Bush recalled that King Abdullah was host at a meeting in June at which Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Mahmoud Abbas, who was then the Palestinian prime minister, condemned terrorism and pledged to work together for a lasting peace. But Mr. Abbas's efforts "were undermined, and that's why we're now stalled," Mr. Bush lamented. "At every turn, he was undercut by the old order." Mr. Bush not only blamed the Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat for undercutting Mr. Abbas, who resigned recently as prime minister, but once again made clear his deep disdain for Mr. Arafat. "Mr. Arafat has failed as a leader," the president said. "Prime Minister Abbas was undermined at all turns by the old order." If the Palestinians truly want peace, Mr. Bush said, "they must have leadership who is absolutely 100 percent committed to fighting off terror." The king, who was at Camp David with his wife, Queen Rania, said he was "particularly honored by the strong, genuine dedication" that Mr. Bush had shown in "trying to make our part of the world a better place." Mr. Bush said he looked forward to hearing the king's suggestions on how best to obtain a United Nations resolution backing international efforts to impose a peace on Iraq. "He's got pretty good antennae," Mr. Bush said. The president described the king as important not just for the prospects of a United Nations resolution but for promoting a free, prosperous Iraq as a neighbor. "A free Iraq will mean this good man will have a partner in peace, somebody with whom he can work to not only establish good trade, but to work for additional peace," Mr. Bush said. "And it's in Europe's interests that that happen. And so we will continue to make the case that reconstruction aid is necessary." The president and the king's meeting at Camp David was moved up a day out of concern that the hurricane bearing down on the Atlantic coast would disrupt arrangements. As the two men spoke at midmorning, Washington was virtually shut down under a slate-gray sky. "All right, get going before it starts raining," Mr. Bush said in closing the question-answer session. nytimes.com

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (8473)	9/19/2003 5:38:28 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793752

A view from the right Disaster DAVID WARREN I used to put mottoes at the heads of my columns, and need one today, from Goethe. This is from his novel, Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship: "There is nothing that the Menschenpack (human rabble) so much fears as reason. Stupidity is what they should fear, if they knew what is fearful. But the former is embarrassing and therefore brushed aside; the latter is only disastrous, and permits of an attitude of wait and see." I become more and more convinced with the passage of months that the democratic Menschenpack throughout the Western world, including in America, have lost their minds. Perhaps I should call it the Mediapack, for the attitudes we see are tutored. A mere two years after terror attacks on New York and Washington, we are no longer discussing what must be done to prevent that kind of thing from ever happening again. We find ourselves instead compelled to discuss the Bush administration, as if it were the cause of the events to which it has responded. And all kinds of political pressure has been brought to bear on that administration, for the opposite of the right reasons. Its obvious successes are presented as failures. Its obvious failures are also presented as failures. And finally it seems that President Bush himself has decided, that failure is the only available course. This became clear, at least to me, over the weekend, when Secretary of State Colin Powell was allowed to deliver perhaps the stupidest speech even in the recent history of the U.S. State Department. And to deliver it right where it counted -- in the middle of Baghdad, Iraq. Since then I've been checking with my usual sources, and confirming my first impression: that Mr. Powell has now created the conditions for a power struggle between the U.S. occupation forces, and the provisional government of Iraq. The mainstream, "liberal" media have been determined to present Iraq as a "quagmire like Vietnam", when the Iraqi circumstances do not even slightly resemble those of Vietnam. (There is no North Vietnam left to fight, only hit-and-run artists.) A more thoughtful minority present the analogy of the post-War occupations of Germany and Japan. This is also nonsense, for Iraq has not been thoroughly defeated and destroyed, the way Germany and Japan had to be to bring them to their senses. Only the regime in Iraq has been defeated, and the people of Iraq are overwhelmingly pleased with this. They have been, until now, natural allies of the American occupation forces; and have been on balance remarkably co-operative and helpful. However, Iraq is Iraq, not America. The people want security courtesy USA; but not to be governed by foreigners. They already have a provisional government dominated by Ahmed Chalabi and the Iraqi National Congress that is more representative of the country's diverse communities than is any government in the Arab world. It has proven itself politically adept, and is chafing for the opportunity to deal directly with huge problems created by decades of totalitarian and vicious Ba'athist rule. Mr. Powell arrives to tell them they can wait longer; that, in effect, the U.S. is determined to create the quagmire that it has so far avoided. He wants to micromanage the Iraqi recovery. He wants to continue the unbelievably destructive State Department policy of putting obstacles in the way of Iraqi self-government, by undermining in Mr. Chalabi and friends the only leadership Iraq has that is sincerely determined to pursue democracy. Mr. Powell, a man who is notoriously the "doubting Thomas" within the Bush administration, about the prospects for democratic self-rule anywhere in the Arab world, is put in charge of building what he thinks can't be built -- and which most certainly can't be built, by foreigners. And it must now be assumed -- as it is being assumed in Washington -- that Mr. Powell enjoys President Bush's full support. This is the surest indication of a loss of nerve at the centre. The Donald Rumsfeld, new Pentagon, or "neo-conservative" (a misnomer, but they live with it) approach is out. This is the approach that has got results, in both Afghanistan and Iraq, while learning quickly from mistakes; which has looked upon the oppressed Afghan and Iraqi peoples as allies rather than clients. Which has instinctively turned to the adaptable Marines rather than to the habit-ridden Army for its model of how to proceed. They took the view that Iraq must rebuild itself with U.S. help, as opposed to being rebuilt by the U.S. to American specifications. It is a view that grasps that the perfect is the enemy of the good. What now emerges is a triumph of the bureaucrats, empowered by wave after wave of highly selective and misleadingly reported bad news from media that are out to get Bush regardless of consequences. We have a resumption of the attitudes that dragged the U.S. through the quagmire of the United Nations, and has dragged her back again; which provided the disastrous "Roadmap" to peace between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, after failing to learn from the "Oslo process". Reason has proved unpopular, and I am now convinced that stupidity has been adopted as the U.S. course. davidwarrenonline.com

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (8473)	9/19/2003 5:42:56 AM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 793752

Interesting survey. I normally read eight of the top ten, and fourteen of the nineteen. Steyn, of course, is my favorite. Right-Of-Center Bloggers Select Their Favorite Editorial Columnists by John Hawkins Right Wing News emailed more than 125 right-of-center bloggers and asked them to send us a list of who they considered to be their "favorite editorial columnists". Representatives from the following 37 blogs responded... 4ranters, Abode Of Amritas, Amish Tech Support, Balloon Juice, Betsy's Page, The Blog Of The Century Of The Week, Sasha Castel, Colby Cosh, Common Sense & Wonder, D-42, Curmudgeonly & Skeptical, DANEgerus Weblog, dcthornton.blog, Ed Driscoll, Kim Du Toit, Fraters Libertas, Ghost of a Flea, The Greatest Jeneration, Gut Rumbles, Hud's Blog-O-Rama, Insults Unpunished, Jessica's Well, Lead And Gold, Joyful Christian, Patio Pundit, Peaktalk, Daily Pundit, Damian Penny, Poliblog, Powerline, Right Wing News, Sine Qua Non, Tacitus, The Ville, Whacking Day, The Yale Diva, Zogby Blog All bloggers were allowed to make anywhere from 1-15 ranked selections. The selections were scored based on a weighted scale. A rank of 1-5 was worth (3) points, 6-10 was worth (2) points, & 11-15 was worth (1) point. So for example, a 1st (3) & 13th (1) place selection would be worth 4 points wheras having three bloggers rank a columnist at 11th (1), 12th (1), and 15th (1) place would be worth 3 points total. Got it? Good. Also, as an added bonus, I included the number of first place selections each columnist had. The columnists who were picked first on someone's list have the number of #1 votes they received following a "--". Note that some of the columnists who received a #1 vote did not get enough other votes to qualify. Without further adieu, the "favorite editorial columnists" of the right side of the blogosphere are as follows (with the number of points following each selection) are as follows... 19) Bob Novak (9) -- 1 19) John Podhoretz (9) 17) John Leo (10) 17) William F. Buckley (10) 16) Larry Miller (11) 15) Andrew Sullivan (14) 13) David Warren (17) 13) Larry Elder (17) 12) David Horowitz (21) -- 1 11) James Lileks (23) 10) Ann Coulter (24) -- 2 9) Christopher Hitchens (25) 8) Victor Davis Hanson (27) -- 2 7) Walter Williams (31) -- 1 6) Michelle Malkin (32) 5) George Will (34) -- 3 4) Jonah Goldberg (43) -- 1 3) Thomas Sowell (44) -- 3 2) Charles Krauthammer (48) -- 1 1) Mark Steyn (82) -- 15 rightwingnews.com