Best of the Web Today - January 26, 2005
By JAMES TARANTO
Cable News Nazis?
"Ted Turner called Fox a propaganda tool of the Bush administration and indirectly compared Fox News Channel's popularity to Adolf Hitler's popular election to run Germany before World War II," reports Broadcasting & Cable magazine:
Fox wasn't laughing, however. "Ted is understandably bitter having lost his ratings, his network, and now his mind," said a Fox News spokesperson. "We wish him well."
Sounds to us as though Fox was laughing. In any case, one is inclined to dismiss this as mere Angry Left bombast--but it's worth noting that unlike Fox, CNN, the network Turner founded, has a record of collaboration with genocidal dictatorship. In April 2003, just after the liberation of Baghdad, CNN's Eason Jordan described the network's relationship with Saddam Hussein's regime:
I knew that CNN could not report that Saddam Hussein's eldest son, Uday, told me in 1995 that he intended to assassinate two of his brothers-in-law who had defected and also the man giving them asylum, King Hussein of Jordan. If we had gone with the story, I was sure he would have responded by killing the Iraqi translator who was the only other participant in the meeting. After all, secret police thugs brutalized even senior officials of the Information Ministry, just to keep them in line (one such official has long been missing all his fingernails). . . .
I came to know several Iraqi officials well enough that they confided in me that Saddam Hussein was a maniac who had to be removed. One Foreign Ministry officer told me of a colleague who, finding out his brother had been executed by the regime, was forced, as a test of loyalty, to write a letter of congratulations on the act to Saddam Hussein. An aide to Uday once told me why he had no front teeth: henchmen had ripped them out with pliers and told him never to wear dentures, so he would always remember the price to be paid for upsetting his boss. Again, we could not broadcast anything these men said to us.
In October 2002, The New Republic's Franklin Foer reported on the same subject:
When I asked CNN's Jordan to explain why his network is so devoted to maintaining a perpetual Baghdad presence, he listed two reasons: "First, because it's newsworthy; second, because there's an expectation that if anybody is in Iraq, it will be CNN." His answer reveals the fundamental attitude of most Western media: Access to Baghdad is an end in itself, regardless of the intellectual or moral caliber of the journalism such access produces. An old journalistic aphorism holds "access is a curse." The Iraqi experience proves it can be much worse than that.
This is not to say CNN is, or was, pro-Saddam; the question of access versus truth poses genuine moral dilemmas. But given the degree to which his own network covered up the atrocities of a fascist dictator, Turner ought to be more restrained in throwing around the H-word.
Angry Left Telethon
What was that all about? The Senate has confirmed Condoleezza Rice as secretary of state by a vote of 85-13. But a small group of Democrats, led by Angry Left heartthrob Barbara Boxer, insisted on staging a mock kerfuffle first. Even though the Senate Foreign Relations Committee had already approved Rice 16-2, with only Boxer and John Kerry* dissenting, the Dems insisted on delaying her confirmation for a week and holding a nine-hour "debate," which took place yesterday.
"My vote against this nominee is my statement that this administration's lies must stop now," said Sen. Mark Dayton of Minnesota. This is the same Mark Dayton who fled the capital in October, citing terrorism fears, but returned as soon as George W. Bush was safely re-elected.
Ted Kennedy said that the liberation of Iraq was "a catastrophic failure, a continuing quagmire." Mary Jo Kopechne could not be reached for comment.
Another Rice foe, Robert Byrd, denounced "the Administration's unconstitutional doctrine of pre-emptive war, its bullying policies of unilateralism, and its callous rejection of our long-standing allies." Byrd also accused Rice of employing "overblown rhetoric." Mark Steyn has a nice riff on Byrd:
Byrd, the former Klu [sic] Klux Klan Kleagle, is taking a stand over states' rights, or his rights over State, or some such. Whatever the reason, the sight of an old Klansman blocking a little colored girl from Birmingham from getting into her office contributed to the general retro vibe that hangs around the Democratic Party these days.
Also voting against Rice: Daniel Akaka (Hawaii), Evan Bayh (Ind.), Dick Durbin (Ill.), Tom Harkin (Iowa), Jim Jeffords (Vt.), Frank Lautenberg (N.J.), Carl Levin (Mich.) and Jack Reed (R.I.). Of these, Harkin and Bayh actually voted for the liberation of Iraq. So did Kerry, though he later claimed he thought he was voting for something else.
Anyway, Steyn isn't kidding about the "retro" Dems. Check out this e-mail we got yesterday from Tom Matzzie of MoveOn.org:
No one in the country, except perhaps President Bush, is more responsible for pushing the pre-war lie that Iraq was developing weapons of mass destruction. . . . If there was ever a moment for Democrats to hold someone accountable for the disastrous war in Iraq, it's today.
Here we have a group that calls itself "MoveOn" but is obsessing over ancient history. The decision to liberate Iraq was made in October 2002, and we've had two elections since then, both won by the pro-liberation party. Iraq itself will have its first-ever free election in four days. MoveOn's attitude seems to be that because Saddam Hussein's weapons capabilities turned out to be less impressive than everyone thought, Iraqis don't deserve to vote.
Everyone knew Rice was going to be confirmed, so what was the point of this whole exercise? The Drudge Report suggests it has to do with that adage about a fool and his money:
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) took her opposition to Condoleezza Rice to a new front: She has used it in a fundraising pitch to Democratic donors.
The pitch went out Tuesday evening. On behalf of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Boxer referred to Rice's "misleading statements leading up to the war in Iraq and beyond," and implored donors to "put the brakes on four more years of misdirection in Iraq and reckless policies at home" by helping elect more Democrats next year.
Well, the Angry Left has been a fund-raising bonanza for the Democrats. Howard Dean and then John Kerry raked in the bucks last year, as did MoveOn.org and other 527s. But the bottom line in politics is votes, not profits--and a party that is relentlessly negative and reactionary is likely to keep losing the former.
* The haughty, French-looking Massachusetts Democrat, who by the way served in Vietnam.
12 Angry Men
Finally, the scandal that's going to bring down the Bush administration! Check out this press release from an outfit called Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington:
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a complaint with the Office of Disciplinary Counsel of the State Bar of Texas requesting an investigation into misrepresentations White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales made in a written response to a question posed to him by the Senate Judiciary Committee which is considering Gonzales's nomination for Attorney General.
The complaint alleges that Gonzales inaccurately portrayed his role in appearing before a Texas court when President Bush, then Governor of Texas, was summoned for jury duty.
That's right, BUSH LIED!!!! to get out of jury duty! This may turn out to be even bigger than the Ed Meese jaywalking scandal of 1985!
Judicial Activism, Legislative Laziness
In a New York Times op-ed, Paul Starr, an editor of the left-liberal American Prospect, echoes a point we've made before:
Liberal Democrats, in particular, have been inviting political oblivion--not by advocating the wrong causes, but by letting their political instincts atrophy and relying on the legal system.
To be sure, Democrats were right to challenge segregation and racism, support the revolution in women's roles in society, to protect rights to abortion and to back the civil rights of gays. But a party can make only so many enemies before it loses the ability to do anything for the people who depend on it. For decades, many liberals thought they could ignore the elementary demand of politics--winning elections--because they could go to court to achieve these goals on constitutional grounds. The great thing about legal victories like Roe v. Wade is that you don't have to compromise with your opponents, or even win over majority opinion. But that is also the trouble. An unreconciled losing side and unconvinced public may eventually change the judges.
It's always good to see signs of intelligent life on the left, though Starr makes a common liberal error in likening the fight against segregation to the battle to deregulate abortion. Putting aside the question of whether there's any moral equivalence, the two cases are legally and politically distinct.
Legally, because when the Supreme Court held in 1954 that segregation was unconstitutional, it had support in the text of the Constitution, namely the 14th Amendment. By contrast the 1973 finding that the Constitution guarantees the right to abortion was based on "penumbras" and "emanations" rather than the law.
Politically, because liberal Democrats (and Republicans) did not forsake politics in pursuing civil rights. Arguably the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was an even more significant landmark than Brown v. Board of Education. Today there is near-universal consensus in favor of racial equality, whereas abortion is even more controversial than it was when the Supreme Court imposed a "consensus" on the nation.
Starr also seems a bit flummoxed by the idea of racial equality. Get a load of this statement: "And if a new Supreme Court overturns affirmative-action laws, Democrats will need to pursue equality in ways that avoid treating whites and blacks differently."
Illness or Conspiracy?
A survey on black Americans' attitudes toward AIDS, conducted by the Rand Corp. and Oregon State University, finds that "a significant proportion of African Americans embrace the theory that government scientists created the disease to control or wipe out their communities," reports the Washington Post (in a story by the delightfully named Darryl Fears):
Nearly half of the 500 African Americans surveyed said that HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is man-made. . . . More than one-quarter said they believed that AIDS was produced in a government laboratory, and 12 percent believed it was created and spread by the CIA.
A slight majority said they believe that a cure for AIDS is being withheld from the poor. Forty-four percent said people who take the new medicines for HIV are government guinea pigs, and 15 percent said AIDS is a form of genocide against black people.
A word of caution is in order: It appears that the survey included only blacks, and it would be useful to know how prevalent these beliefs are among nonblacks for the sake of comparison.
Assuming that blacks are more prone than others to believe in AIDS conspiracies, a partial explanation lies in history. As Na'im Akbar, a Florida State University psychologist, says, the belief in conspiracies "comes from the reality of 300 years of slavery and 100 years of post-slavery exploitation."
But part of the blame for keeping alive the fears of conspiracies that no longer exist has to rest with political leaders who see an advantage in stoking racial resentment. As we noted last week, John Kerry used the occasion of Martin Luther King Day to promote myths about black voter suppression. This sort of nonsense feeds the paranoia that shows up in the results of the Rand Corp. study.
A Baghdad Sweathog
Reader Max Newman offers a hilarious addendum to Tim Blair's fisking of an inane Washington Post story about an Iraqi man's grievances against the U.S.:
Blair missed my favorite part of that article. Specifically, he missed the translation of "Um Imaad," which means "Imaad's mother" (similarly, Abu Ammar means "Ammar's father"). So the start of one of Jackie Spinner's sentences redundantly reads: On the night of Jan. 5, Imaad and his mother, Imaad's Mother . . .
This reminds Newman of a 1970s TV show: "On 'Welcome Back, Kotter,' Juan Epstein, one of the Sweathogs, was known for presenting notes excusing his absences signed 'Epstein's Mother.' "
Summer's Time Blues
The Boston Globe weighs in on the Larry Summers kerfuffle. Here's the penultimate paragraph:
There is also pressing work for Summers. He should continue to raise controversial issues and tough questions. But he must do so with greater diplomacy and a keener knowledge of current issues. Future queries might ask both about individuals--why are few women in science?--and institutions--why doesn't science attract more women?
Apparently the Globe editors are unaware that asking just those questions are what started the kerfuffle in the first place.
Zero-Tolerance Watch
Two special-education students at Wyomina Park Elementary School in Ocala, Fla., "face felony charges for something they allegedly drew during phonics class," reports the Ocala Star-Banner:
Police say the boys--ages 9 and 10--used pencil and red crayon to draw primitive stick-figure scenes on scrap paper that showed another 10-year-old boy in their class being stabbed and hung. An Ocala Police Department report said one stick-figure drawing showed the two charged boys standing on either side of the other boy and "holding knives pointed through" his body. The report stated names or initials near each stick figure identified them as the boys involved. Another drawing showed a stick figure hanging, tears falling from his eyes, with two other stick figures standing below him. Other pieces of scrap paper listed misspelled profanities and the initials of the boy who was allegedly threatened. . . .
In light of violent incidents at schools across the country over the last several years, police felt they had to act as a safety precaution
ZeroIntelligence.net has a couple of other good ones: In Pennsylvania, the Carmichaels School District requires that elementary school students be silent while waiting for lunch. The Uniontown Herald Standard reports:
The Carmichaels board of directors heard from Carmichaels resident Victor Frye about improvements that could be made to speed up the time it takes for students to be served in the grade school cafeteria.
Frye noted that his daughter, who is in third grade, and other elementary school students, are not permitted to talk in the lunch line until all children are served, which takes a good portion of the lunch period. If children do talk in the lunch line, he said, they have to sit at the "bad table," which takes one minute off the 10 minutes the students are allowed to talk.
And in Washington state, the Puyallup School District--famous for banning Halloween as a sop to "Wiccans"--put the kibosh on a tsunami fund-raiser, reports Seattle's KOMO-TV:
Students in Puyallup hoped to use a video game tournament to raise money for tsunami victims. Parents signed off on the idea, but the school district suddenly said, "game over!"
The controversy surrounds the students' choice for the video game: Halo 2. . . .
As a precaution, the boys even got parents to sign waivers acknowledging the graphic nature of the game.
But the Puyallup School District canceled the fundraiser, saying the game goes against its anti-violence policy.
The story includes the ritual invocation: "When you look at what happened with Columbine, when you look at acts of violence against young people, I think anything we do that even looks like we're endorsing violence is not appropriate," says the district's Karen Hanson.
Sticks and Stones--II
MediaMatters.org--tirelessly exposing conservative bias by conservative commentators for over 1/129th of a century--apparently finds fault with one of yesterday's items:
Responding to a Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network initiative for middle school students called "No Name-Calling Week" in his January 25 online "Best of the Web" column, Wall Street Journal OpinionJournal.com editor James Taranto claimed that Senator John Kerry and former Senator John Edwards "call[ed] Dick Cheney's daughter names, and many in the gay-rights crowd thought it was just peachy." During the 2004 presidential campaign, Senators Kerry and Edwards referred to Cheney's daughter, Mary Cheney, who is a lesbian, as "a lesbian" and "gay."
Taranto did not provide examples of the "names" he claimed Kerry and Edwards called Mary Cheney, but presumably he was referring to two instances.
Wow, nothing gets past these guys. MediaMatters implies--and some of our readers echo the point (as do a whole bunch of MediaMatters-incited spammers, some of whom call us names)--that we were wrong to characterize this as "name-calling."
Maybe they're right, but we suspect that if a schoolkid called a classmate "gay" or "a lesbian," the folks at the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network would not approve.
We Get Results
"Rolling Stone magazine has reversed itself and agreed to accept an advertisement for a new translation of the Bible," the Associated Press reports. We noted the refusal Friday.
What Would We Do Without Dog Studies?
"Dog Study Shows Value of Diet, Exercise"--headline, Associated Press, Jan. 25
Daltrey Says They're Too Strict, Townshend Says Too Lenient
"WHO Argues Over Bird Blue Drug Rules"--headline, Associated Press, Jan. 24
That Would Make It Harder to Escape
"Suit Would Bar Small Cells in Ind. Prisons"--headline, Associated Press, Jan. 25
Does Anyone Do It More Than Once?
"People who commit suicide frequently have a message."--Robert Roberts of San Francisco, San Francisco Chronicle (ninth letter), Jan. 21
Talk About Revisionist History!
"Shot Saves Lincoln"--headline, Argus Leader (Sioux Falls, S.D.), Jan. 26
It's the Eponymy, Stupid
The Institute, published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, reports on an IEEE fellow in Singapore who founded a think tank called the Data Storage Institute and a technical school called Republic Polytechnic. The name of this accomplished technologist? Low Teck Seng.
It's a Long Way to Tipperaray, Too
Blogger Bill Polhemus has another example of why men don't ask for directions:
Ask Mappoint on MSN.Com for driving directions from Haugesund, Norway to Trondheim, Norway, and it whimsically suggests that you cross the North Sea from Haugesund to the north of England, then south to London and Canterbury and Chatham, then through the Channel Tunnel to France, thence to the Low Countries and through the north of Germany, across the Baltic Sea to Sweden and finally north to your destination, a total of over 1,600 miles.
Total driving time is 47 hours, 31 minutes. But if you go from Haugesund to Bergen and then Bergen to Trondheim, you can do the whole trip in 485 miles and 11 hours, 49 minutes. Polhemus adds:
Note the "disclaimer" at the bottom of the Mappoint web page: "Your right to use maps and routes generated on the MSN service is subject at all times to the MSN Terms of Use." Are they really suggesting that Microsoft Network has some say over what highways you may drive on?
And we thought MS' arrogance had been diminished by all that antitrust litigation.
Higher Education
New York magazine reports on a new educational book for kids called "It's Just a Plant":
It's the story of Jackie, a young girl who walks in on her parents smoking marijuana. The rest of the book follows a fact-finding mission Jackie and her mom take to learn more about pot. They visit Farmer Bob, who grows it, and Dr. Eden, her mom's groovy physician (who warns the child not to use the drug till she's an adult). Then they run into some guys passing around a spliff in front of a Chinese takeout joint, who are promptly busted. That's when she learns that "a small but powerful group decided to make a law against marijuana" from one of the cops, who lets the tokers go with a warning. And Jackie decides she's going to "vote to make the laws fair" when she grows up.
Meanwhile, the Associated Press reports that Education Secretary Margaret Spellings "denounced PBS on Tuesday for spending public money on a cartoon with lesbian characters, saying many parents would not want children exposed to such lifestyles":
The not-yet-aired episode of "Postcards From Buster" shows the title character, an animated bunny named Buster, on a trip to Vermont--a state known for recognizing same-sex civil unions. The episode features two lesbian couples, although the focus is on farm life and maple sugaring.
But although the program will air on Boston's WGBH, PBS says the network won't carry it. Apparently rabbits are welcome on PBS only if they breed like themselves. |
