PrairiePundit

Kerry is the for-agin candidate William Safire: Too-careful politicians think the best defense is giving no offense. To avoid offending any voters, John Kerry has come down foursquare on both sides of three social issues. 1. He says he opposes the death penalty - except for terrorists. To a principled minority that believes government must never take a human life, this Kerry straddle is untenable. It makes no sense to hold that society has no right to execute a rapist-murderer whose DNA proves guilt, nor a confessed serial killer or genocidal dictator - but if the killer's motive is to terrify, then execution is in order. ... 2. Kerry has long identified himself with a woman's right to choose abortion, but recently revealed to a supporter that he believed "life begins at conception." People who are resolutely pro-choice believe that life begins at birth, and that a woman has a right to abort what is taking place in her own body any...

UN not cooperating in oil for food investigation Judith Miller, NY Times: ongressional committees investigating allegations of corruption and mismanagement in the United Nations oil-for-food program in Iraq are at odds with the organization's own inquiry over access to records and personnel, legislators and United Nations officials said yesterday. The officials and diplomats said that in meetings in Washington on July 13, Paul A. Volcker, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve who is leading the United Nations' internal investigation, rejected requests from members of Congress for access to review documents and to interview United Nations officials being scrutinized by his panel. "He wants us to do nothing now while he does what he can, by persuasion, since his panel can't fire or subpoena anyone," said Representative Christopher Shays, Republican of Connecticut, who attended one of the meetings. "But we will press on."

Defunding Hamas Houston Chronicle: The Holy Land Foundation and seven of its officers were charged Tuesday with funneling millions of dollars to Hamas, a terrorist group responsible for suicide bombings in Israel. The Richardson-based charity, its president, chairman and five other men were named in a 42-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury here. The indictment alleges Holy Land, once the nation's largest Muslim charity, sent at least $12.4 million to individuals and groups linked to Hamas after 1995, the year the United States designated it a terrorist group. After the Sept. 11 attacks, President Bush closed the charity by executive order in December 2001. ... Holy Land had close ties to InfoCom Corp., a computer and Internet-hosting company with an office across the street from Holy Land that was raided a few days before the Sept. 11 attacks. InfoCom and five of its employees, including Elashi, were convicted this month on charges o...

More on Moore and O'Reilly By Michael Moores standard which he uses to judge President Bush a liar, Moore himself is a liar. Moore concedes that the President believed their were WMD in Iraq. But since stock piles of the weapons have not been found, Moore concludes Bush is a liar. While this shows a profound ignorance of the definition of the word liar, all the erronous material in his latest movie should be judged a lie. We now know that Moore was wrong in his description of how bin Laden's extended family was permitted to leave the US. We know that he was wrong about the rationale for making war in Afghanistan. I guess, by Moore's on standard all those mistakes make him a serial liar.

A single hatred in the absence of a single idea Belmont Club: David Frum examines the contradiction at the heart of the Democratic convention. It is the voice of a single hatred in the absence of a single idea. "The Democratic Party arrived in Boston emotionally united and intellectually divided. Democrats are united in their rage against and disdain for President Bush, but they are radically divided in their beliefs and loyalties." Frum goes on the catalogue how the bilocation of ideas has become curiously unimportant. In Boston, the Athens of America of all places, it is possible to believe in two mutually exclusive ideas or better yet, avoid committing to a single one. On foreign policy, Mr Kerry has criticized Mr Bush from every angle, without ever worrying much about consistency. It has been, in a way, an impressive performance: Mr Kerry has criticized Mr Bush both for offending America's traditional allies in the Middle East,...

Moore's creatives "facts" Scott Simon: Michael Moore has won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, and may win an Oscar for the kind of work that got Stephen Glass, Jayson Blair, and Jack Kelly fired. Trying to track the unproven innuendoes and conspiracies in a Michael Moore film or book is as futile as trying to count the flatulence jokes in one by Adam Sandler. Some journalists and critics have acted as if his wrenching of facts is no more serious than a movie continuity problem, like showing a 1963 Chevy in 1956 Santa Monica. A documentary film doesn't have to be fair and balanced, to coin a phrase. But it ought to make an attempt to be accurate. It can certainly be pointed and opinionated. But it should not knowingly misrepresent the truth. Much of Michael Moore's films and books, however entertaining to his fans and enraging to his critics, seems to regard facts as mere nuisances to the story he wants to tell. ... ...

Michael Moore's false choice Appearing on Fox News' O'Reilly Factor Michael Moore presents the false choice of sacrificing ones child for Faluja. This is typical liberal nonsense. I frankly would not want to sacrifice one of my children defending the capitol steps from a barbarian invasion, but that does not mean we should not defend the capitol steps from barbarians. We are engaged in a world wide war on terror. Faluja is now a sanctuary for terrorist. The terrorist in Faluja must be destroyed. Terrorist should not be permitted to have a sanctuary anywhere in the world and Moore is willing to give them one in Faluja and elsewhere. He is the guy who did not want to overthrow the Taliban too. The man is clever and devious, but he is not very smart.

Aussies blast Spain and Philippine cowardice Telegraph: Australia aggravated a diplomatic row with Spain yesterday by accusing the socialist government of encouraging terrorists. Brushing aside the furious response to earlier comments pointing the finger at Madrid, Alexander Downer, the foreign minister, said he would not apologise. He said that Spain and the Philippines needed "to face up to the truth" that by withdrawing their contingents from Iraq they had allowed themselves to be exploited by terrorists. "There is no point in trying to scurry away from the truth," Mr Downer said. "I am sensitive about the fact that terrorists use the examples of Spain and the Philippines to put pressure on Australia. "If you accede to the demands of terrorists, they will exploit the acceding to their demand . . . We are not going to apologise. We shall let bygones be bygones." ... The rift began last weekend when t...

Sudan says it will take the side of those engaged in genocide BBC: Sudanese soldiers will fight back if foreign troops are sent to end the conflict in the Darfur region, the country's foreign minister has warned. "If we are attacked, we will not sit silent," Mustafa Osman Ismail said during a visit to Turkey. Sudan is under heavy international pressure to rein in pro-government Arab militias blamed for killings and rape.

Dropping Kerry from speakers list Scrappleface parody: In an effort to halt his decline in the polls , presumptive Democrat presidential nominee John Forbes Kerry has been dropped from the speaker list at the Democrat National Convention. "We can't afford to let 30 million Americans actually see and hear John Kerry speak on primetime television," said an unnamed DNC official. "His recent increase in public appearances has dragged his polling numbers down far enough. We're dropping him to stop the bleeding." The polls show that Americans have doubts about John Forbes Kerry's positions on the issues and don't realize that he has served in the U.S. Senate for 16 years, as an actual senator. "Most people think that he's still overseas, fighting in Vietnam," the anonymous DNC source said....

The choice Belmont Club: ... Although the exigencies of politics and the need to attract away the conservative fringe (by playing Amazing Grace for example) may keep John Kerry from being forthright it cannot obscure the fact that two opposing, and therefore contradictory visions, are contending for the electorate this November. The first argues that despite the shortcomings of multilateralism, diplomacy and concession, it is still the best way to settle accounts with radical Islam. It will concede that more might have been done to prevent September 11 but it will maintain steadfastly that the alternative, which was to strike at enemies the way they have struck at us is fundamentally wrong and dangerous. And by exclusion it will maintain that whatever the dangers of Clintonian policy the world was safer then than it is today. Ths second point of view will argue that eight years of wilfull blindness; supporting Bosnian Muslims; ignorning the A. Q. Khan net...

Dems’ Dilemma James Robbins: T he Democrats are on the horns of a dilemma. The war on terrorism, particularly the campaign in Iraq, is one of the most passionate issues on the American left. Yet while generating strident opinions among those who consider Michael Moore to be the country's leading liberal intellectual ( and who am I to argue with that ?), Middle America still gives George Bush high marks for his conduct of the war. So Kerry's supporters have to find a way to triangulate between the two and alienate neither. Within the party, the Democrats are papering over the cleavage. The Democratic platform asserts, "People of good will disagree about whether America should have gone to war in Iraq." The party leadership hopes that they will have the decency to disagree silently. They are trying very hard to ignore the 600-lb. gorilla in the room, fearing that should the issue flare up it will send the genuine antiwar voters to their more natural ...

Kerry losing ground Washington Post: majority of voters say they know little about John F. Kerry's positions on key issues and want the Democratic presidential candidate to detail specific plans for handling the economy, Iraq and the war on terrorism when he addresses the Democratic National Convention and a nationally televised audience on Thursday, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. The survey suggests that the stakes for Kerry and the Democrats as they began their convention in Boston could not be higher. In barely a month, Kerry has lost ground to President Bush on every top voting issue in this year's election. A growing proportion of voters say Bush and not Kerry is the candidate who most closely shares their values, and four in 10 believe the Democrat is "too liberal." Bush has even narrowed the gap on which candidate better understands their problems, an area in which Kerry has led. The poll s...

Unions and Dems better off with Kerry loss David Broder: Breaking sharply with the enforced harmony of the Democratic National Convention, the president of the largest AFL-CIO union said Monday that both organized labor and the Democratic Party might be better off in the long run if Sen. John F. Kerry loses the election. Andrew L. Stern, the head of the 1.6 million-member Service Employees International Union (SEIU), said in an interview with The Washington Post that both the party and its longtime ally, the labor movement, are "in deep crisis," devoid of new ideas and working with archaic structures. Stern argued that Kerry's election might stifle needed reform within the party and the labor movement.... ... "It is a hollow party," Stern said, adding that "if John Kerry becomes president, it hurts" chances of reforming the Democrats and organized labor. There are other reasons why losing would in th...

Kerry has more positions than the Kama Sutra David Brooks: Over the last few days I have spoken to Democrats who are firmly convinced he is a hawkish free-trading fiscal conservative who believes that life begins at conception, that marriage is between a man and a woman, and that the U.S. should bulk up its forces in Iraq. I've also spoken to other Democrats just as convinced the Kerry is really a protectionist, socially liberal dove who actually opposes the war and supports gay marriage and nationalized health care. Kerry has been talking for years, and yet such is the thicket of his verbiage that he has achieved almost complete strategic ambiguity. All this may work. But there is still more to learn. Is Kerry a little dull because he is steady and sensible, or is he just incapable of making up his mind? Is he prudential because in times of crisis the nation needs a steady hand, or is he cautious because he simply doesn't grasp that we're in a new worl...

Can antiwar Dems do a better job of fighting it? The other day Kerry admitted that he opposed the war in Iraq now. Fox News reported that over 90 percent of the delegates to the Democrat convention opposed the war. Yet Kerry is trying to say he could do a better job of fighting it. He is putting himself in the same position that Lyndon Johnson did in 1964. Johnson had been told by the Joint Chiefs that the way he wanted to proceed in Vietnam would not lead to victory. Given the choice of doing it right or walking away he chose neither. He knew that if he did what he and his party wanted, i.e. walk away it would lead not only to defeat in Southeast Asia but defeat for the Democrats at home. Kerry also knows that if he did what he and his party want to do in Iraq, cut and run, he cannot get elected. So, he offers instead a neutered war stragy involving "allies" who also do not want to fight it. Putting Democrats who do not want to fight and Euro weenies who d...

Poll shows Kerry weakness Kate O'Beirne: The convention eve USA Today /CNN poll provides a preview of how the Democrats hope to boost their guy this week in Boston. Though tied in the match-up, the poll reveals that President Bush enjoys a persistent advantage in the virtues that will be pounded on from the podium at the Fleet Center beginning tonight. Bush is seen as the stronger leader by a margin of 17 points. He bests Kerry as having the strength of his convictions by 22 points, and is seen as better in handling terrorism by 18 points. Bush even enjoys a 5-point advantage on handling Iraq. Kerry is seen as a liberal by 46 percent (only 20 percent of those polled identified themselves the same way), while Bush is seen as conservative by 67 percent (as were 39 percent of the respondents). A Kerry adviser explained that they also hope to add "smart" to the "strength" the candidate will pledge to bring to the war on terrorism. So, it's ...

Saddam's support for terrorism DEBKA files : ... At the very same time that al Qaeda was setting up the attacks on the United States, Mughniyeh, on Iran’s behalf, engineered a campaign of terror against Israel and other parts of the Middle East through the Hizballah and the Palestinians. The Lebanese Hizballah and Syrians recruited by him were the very first foreign elements to terrorize American forces in Iraq. After they lit the bonfire, Baathist guerrillas jumped in, followed later by former Iraqi military men. Up until the late 1990s, Awali was engaged in setting up the logistical infrastructure for the Palestinian confrontation which erupted in September 2000, exactly one year before 9/11. He organized weapons supplies to the Palestinians and personally arranged arms shipments aboard three of the Iranian-Palestinian freighters captured by Israel between 2001 and 2003 – the Santorini, the Karen-A and the Abu Hassan. With regard to Karin-A...

Bush the real liberal in the race Melanie Phillips: ... Where Sullivan is absolutely right is to call Bush a liberal. For in repudiating the corrupted values of both the post-moral left and the reactionary appeasers of the right, Bush has indeed exhibited the classic liberal desire to build a better society, along with the characteristic liberal optimism that such a project can and must succeed. And this is surely why Bush is so hated by the left. For this hatred wildly exceeds the normal dislike of a political opponent. It is as visceral and obsessive as it is irrational. At root, this is surely because Bush has got under the skin of the post-moral left in a way no true conservative ever would. And this is because he has stolen their own clothes and revealed them to be morally naked. He has exposed the falseness of their own claim to be liberal. He has revealed them instead to be reactionaries, who want both to preserve the despotic and terrorist status quo a...

Police work in Iraq Strategy Page: The Iraqi government is taking their new powers seriously, and so are the Iraqi police and security forces. No one expected that such an administrative event, the declaration of Iraqi sovereignty, would have such a dramatic impact. But the large number (over 200,000) of trained Iraqi police, troops and security forces, the continued street crime and kidnappings, and growing public anger over the lack of public safety, combined to produce an energetic Iraqi crackdown on the source of the problem. The number of tips about who is attacking Iraqis, and Americans, has skyrocketed. And most of the information is real, with the subsequent raids are yielding dramatic results. Criminal, Baath Party and al Qaeda leaders and key members are being picked up, or killed in shoot outs. Records, cash and records are being seized. The records are often interesting, for the Baath Party groups, which hire a lot of the men who plant the roadside bombs or fir...