Observers Rush to Judgment

Jimmy Carter gets rolled--first by Fidel Castro, now by Hugo Chávez.

Mary Anastasia O'Grady details how our most stupid President, Jimmah "Peanut" Carter was conned by Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. Exit polls by several different polling groups give Chavez the boot by a wide margin, but fraud, deceit and lies are the common currency of all leftists. Thus we find that massive voter fraud was used to rig the vote. The peanut farmer from Georgia should stick to hammering nails as it is the only thing his pint-sized brain seems capable of doing correctly and leave serious matters to the adults.

John Kerry's "New Soldier"

Want a copy of John Kerry's outlawed book "New Soldier?" You can get a pdf copy here.

Editors Grapple With How to Cover Swift Boat Controversy

And speaking of the Elite Media Monoculture, here is an article in Editor and Publisher by Joe Strupp which deals with the subject of swift boat coverage. How well are the elites in the media covering this story and how would they cover it if there were no alternative media? Well we get an answer to that question. And what we find is that according to the mavens in the pressrooms around the country, we would not be hearing about this at all were it not for talk radio and the blogsphere. The Elite Media Monoculture weighs in to say that they would ignore this story if they could get away with it.

Alison Mitchell, deputy national editor for The New York Times, points to the changing media landscape and its impact on what newspapers choose to cover. "I'm not sure that in an era of no-cable television we would even have looked into it," she said. Near the top of a front-page article on Tuesday, the Times referred to the "mostly unsubstantiated accusations" of Kerry's swift boat critics.

But Washington Post Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr. said newspapers can still drive their own agenda. "I don't think we are lessening at all our judgment of the news," he told E&P. "There is much more media, but we still judge for ourselves which facts we report in The Washington Post."

But O'Shea also pointed out that giving the anti-Kerry veterans too much attention, in an attempt to hold them accountable, creates a situation of ignoring other issues. He said this may be an instance of a growing problem for newspapers in the expanding media world -- being forced to follow a story they might not consider worthwhile because other news outlets (in this case, Fox News and talk radio) have made it an issue.

"There are too many places for people to get information," O'Shea said. "I don't think newspapers can be the gatekeepers anymore -- to say this is wrong and we will ignore it. Now we have to say this is wrong, and here is why."

Kerry: strange, stuck-up... and stupid

Mark Steyn always has something funny and informative to write about. In this essay he lets us know just how inept he thinks the John Kerry campaign has been. And indeed, there can be little doubt about just how lacking it has been, and primarily because of the candidate himself. But his supporters have been a great contribution to the madness as well. Watch them on any TV program now and you see the utter desperation and insanity unleashed for all the world to see. It's not a pretty sight.

Disenfranchised Defenders

Avoiding a repeat of 2000.

Jed Babbin writes about how this year the military is determined not to let the Democrats scam them out of their right to vote as they tried to do in 2000. Remember how in Florida the Democratic party tried to throw out military ballots? The same people who put their lives on the line every day in an effort to protect our rights, including the rights of Democrats, to vote in free and fair elections, were thrown in the dumpster by these same oh-so-patriotic and "reporting for duty" Democrats. Well don't for a minute think that they won't try to scam our people in uniform again if they think they can get away with it. And that is why the military is making a special effort to make sure it doesn't happen again. Mr. Babbin lets us know how they are going to get the ballots where the need to be in plenty of time to outrun John Edwards and his trial lawyer goons.

“Get Some!”

A crack Marine force resumes the attack on al Sadr’s Mahdi army.

W. Thomas Smith Jr., a former U.S. Marine, gives us a look at the soldiers on the ground in Iraq and the challenges they find there dealing with enemies such as Moqtada al Sadr.

The Terror Masters Revisited

Let’s go to the videotape.

Michael Ledeen looks at the overall operational structure of the terrorist groups operating out of the Middle East and their relationship with the Iranians. The war we are fighting against the Islamofascists is a regional war, not just against this group or that group. And just as Iraq was not the start, so it will not be the end. What we need to see is change in the entire Middle East before the Islamofascists are defeated. And that is going to mean regime change in Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia and a few others as well. This is a huge project to be sure, but no matter how long it may take, we have no choice if we want to keep our freedom and our open society.

Blogging Brothers (and Sisters)

Pioneers on the Net.

In this article by Dan LeRoy we take a look at bloggers who are not only conservative, but also happen to be black. The Democratic left would like you to think that there are no minority people who are also conservative or libertarian, but it is not so. Yours truly is proof of that. But in this article we get to meet some of the conservative black bloggers out there on the net who are putting out their own brand of opinion and writing which does not tow the leftist party line.

According to some recent studies minority populations are beginning to diverge in their political and cultural leanings. This is to be expected. In time any immigrant population will be affected by "regression to the mean" and tend to reflect the average of society as a whole. For minorities this means that they will tend over time to look just like the majority population in terms of political leanings as well as other social characteristics. This is, of course, bad news for Democrats who have depended on minority voting blocks being solidly Democratic. But this is changing and for the Democrats it means losing control over their most important constituency.

Avery Tooley describes himself simply as "a regular brother with some right-leaning political tendencies." In other words, he's the kind of black American that — if you listen to the Left and our self-proclaimed "black leaders" — doesn't really exist.

Yet not only is Tooley, a University of Maryland grad student, a real person, he's also sharing his conservatism with the world daily via a blog titled "Stereo Describes My Scenario." Taking its title from a lyric by hip-hop legends Public Enemy, it's a wide-ranging discussion of music and politics underlaid by a no-nonsense philosophy: "The right's focus on the individual is the only practical way" to solve the problems of black America.

Tooley isn't alone in propagating this heresy in the blogosphere, either. He's one of several black bloggers who make up The Conservative Brotherhood — a group of writers which also includes some women, like La Shawn Barber, a 37-year-old legal assistant and reformed liberal from Washington, D.C., whose own "Corner" features a Christian conservative's perspective on the issues of the day.

"I didn't really have a lot of ambitions for it. It started out as a semi-personal journal," says Barber. But after nine months of blogging and building her audience, "I almost feel like it's an obligation to stay out in the public eye."

Right-of-center black bloggers, in fact, seem to be entering that public eye almost daily. That shouldn't be a surprise, given statistics on growing Internet usage among black Americans, and the revelation that a quarter of young blacks consider themselves conservative (from an eye-opening study conducted by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies and released last month at the Democratic National Convention.)

From the veteran's perspective of Baldilocks to the playful philosophizing of Ambra Nykol, the Internet is suddenly full of great black writers whose views aren't monolithic — you'll find almost-daily disagreements about affirmative action, President Bush or the morality of gangsta rap — but instead offer a vibrant, hip-hop generation alternative to the broken record of the civil-rights establishment.

One of the most recent additions is also one of the most comprehensive: Booker Rising, a daily news clearinghouse that targets black moderates and conservatives and "seeks to counteract negativity, victimology and defeatism" in the name of the much-maligned Booker T. Washington.

An Evening With Caveman Chris Matthews

Another reason why MSNBC is in the ratings basement

Author and commentator Michelle Malkin was invited to go on "Hardball" with Chris Matthews the other night but what should have been an interesting interview on the subject of immigration and profiling turned into a shouting match with Chris Matthews in the role of lead prosecutor and Jacobin. Matthews was incensed over the ongoing story of the swift boat vets and the story's implications for the Kerry campaign.

Mr. Kerry has made the subject of Vietnam the centerpiece of his push for the White House. At the same time he as avoided the many years he has spent in the Senate. Not a surprise really considering he has the most liberal record on record. One of the logical results of this approach is that his service record, and what he did in the anti-war movement after he came back from Vietnam, has become a major issue in the campaign. The book "Unfit for Command" has driven The Elite Media Monoculture mad with rage and hysteria and they are pulling out all the stops in order to silence it. The book is currently near the top of Amazon's list of best sellers.

Michelle Malkin writes about the "Hardball" incident on her blog and tells us the whole remarkable story. Later she had a chance to appear on Rush Limbaugh's radio show and in that interview she had an opportunity to cover the subjects which Matthews should have covered but did not.

I think the lesson here is a simple one. The Elite Media Monoculture is heavily invested in the idea of a Kerry victory because of their rage and hatred of George Bush. The elites cannot stand the thought of him for four more years. But Kerry is not doing so well, and in fact there is every reason to think that President Bush will win a another term in the White House by a three to five point margin. The Kerry supporters are starting to realize that they could lose and they are going into full desperation mode. Journalists such as Matthews no longer feel constrained by any system of ethics whatsoever. They have become propagandists for the Democratic left and will do, and are doing, anything and everything to get Bush out and Kerry in. But it's not working no matter how hard they try. The more they fail in their attempt to change the outcome, the more enraged they become until we see performances such as the one with Mr. Matthews shouting down a guest and lying about what she said, and did not say, on the air. And they wonder why their network is in the ratings basement.

Misusing Hayek

Jonathan Rauch’s formulation doesn’t work.

Here is an interesting essay by Jonah Goldberg on Hayek, gay marriage and traffic lights that is humorous and informative. In it we take a look at what Hayek called "spontaneous order" and how it affects the rate of change in social custom and organization. Radicals always want their change NOW, but Hayek showed how dangerous this kind of social engineering can be given that for any particular system we cannot know all of the effects of changing it until long after the change has been made, even if it is a change for the better. Very interesting reading.

Welcome Back, Europe

Reentering history’s arena.

In yet another brilliant essay by historian Victor Davis Hanson we pause to reflect on the effects which will result from the pullout of American troops from the heart of Old Europe. Hanson argues that for Old Europe their long "holiday from history" is about to come to a close. For generations Anglo-American power has protected them from their own folly and the dangers posed by other, greater forces such as the Soviets. Thus they have grown weak and decadent yet confident that no matter how much they insulted us, they would still have our protection and we would look the other way at their weakness and indolence. No longer. With the change in the needs of American defense and the war against the Islamofascists comes a new reality. And in this universe, Old Europe will now have to fend for itself for the first time since the years of Weimar. Will they learn the old lessons and take up the responsibilities of serious nations, or will they forget and repeat their past errors, this time without us to come to their rescue? We shall see.

A Beginning

Afghans take it one step at a time.

Rich Lowry reports on the situation in Afghanistan in this article from National Review. While the country is still in need of help to clean up the mess left by thirty years of wars and invasion, the people there are making good progress towards a more free and democratic country. Doubtless the progress will be bumpy and uneven and there is much work to do. But it is encouraging to hear about the changes which are underway there and that for the first time in many years the people there have hope for the future.

Jobs for Germany's Unemployed?

And speaking of social programs, here is one which the Germans are thinking about. Deutch Welle reports that the German government is considering the idea of making the long term uneployed work for local community organizations as a means of earning at least some of their benefits. Sounds like a good idea to me, but whether the Germans will like it is another matter.

U.S. Troop Pullout Would Hit Germany Hard

Please don't go Mr. Warmonger

In this article in Duetch Welle we find that the Germans are just now coming to realize that a troop pullout from their "Warmonger Free Zone" will mean the loss of quite a bit of hard currency from us warmongers. It seems that some people who depend on that money are a bit worried about the financial impact of losing those US dollars which get pumped into the German economy. Perhaps they will be able to make up the difference with more social programs.

U.S. soldiers and their families pump billions of dollars into Germany's economy. Base closures would have a massive impact on local communities.

While the Pentagon is downplaying media reports that the United States could withdraw up to half of its troops in Germany, local regions who would be affected by this move are worried.

Across Germany, the United States has stationed some 71,000 soldiers. Some of the most significant bases are located in structurally weak regions, which are dependent on the purchasing power of the troops.

The Kaiserlautern Military Community (KMC), for example, is home to over 20,000 army and airforce troops, civilians and retirees, plus the same number of U.S. dependents. According to the most recent annual economic impact report at the 435th Comptroller Squadron at Ramstein Air Base, KMC last year pumped nearly $1.29 billion into the area’s economy.

That factors in everything from housing expenditures to construction to getting a haircut. It also includes the 6,190 German employees who draw their salaries from the military community.

Kerry’s Energy Agenda

Higher prices, more foreign dependency.

Cesar V. Conda reports in The National Review how the Democrats and John F_ing Kerry are standing in the way of our energy policy. Republicans and the President want to develop more sources of energy and promote new technology, but the Angry Left has adopted the luddite position that all progress is bad and that we need to depend more on foreign sources like the Saudis as well as chicken droppings, windmills and cars which run on renewable plankton oil, because we all know just how many advanced technological societies have adopted these methods.

Librarians For Terror

Lee Kaplan details in this article how radical leftists, Marxists and PLO sympathizers have infiltrated the American Library Association and are using it as a means to advance their agenda through selective use of reading and multi-media materials. What we get is lots of anti-American and pro-Islamofascist materials and at the same time a focus on the evils of capitalism and "Zionism." Books and documentaries which might view America, Israel, conservatives and capitalism in a positive light need not apply.

Naming the Enemy

In this short essay by Daniel Pipes we find that President Bush has finally used the term "Islamic Extremists." And it's about time. The whole notion of a "war on terror" makes about as much sense as the Bears launching a "war against the field goal." We are not at war against a tactic. We are at war against an evil political and religious ideology which uses terror as one of its tactics. To fight it effectively we need to name it by its proper name. And we need to look at it with open eyes and identify both its goals and strategy clearly and without sentimentality. Only by doing so can we be properly prepared to fight against an enemy which is both ruthless and completely evil.

Bush Bashers

George Shadroui takes a look at the psychotic ramblings of the literary Bush Haters in this long and detailed article at FrontPageMagazine. He pulls apart the usual list of lies and deceits of the left and shoots them down with skill and confidence. And he provides a list of all the books which future historians will consider to be the rantings of raving moonbats who deserve no place of respect in serious political history other than as a footnote to the demise of Democratic leftism.

The Key to Jihadist Ideology and Strategy

In this short article by Lawrence Auster we take a look at some of the internal beliefs of the primitive tribal savages of Islamofascism. How they look at the world is important to us as a means of understanding their tactics and strategy. And in order to defeat them it is important to know how they see themselves and their fight against civilization.

Where Iraq's WMDs Went

Rowan Scarborough informs us of some interesting activity on the Iraq-Syrian border just before American forces came in. It seems that Saddam had his top security forces man the border positions instead of the regular border guards while big trucks went back and forth. Gee, I wonder what they could have been carrying?

A Litany of Leftist Lies

Jacob Laksin shoots down some of the most odious of the propaganda talking points used by The Angry Left in this article in FrontPageMagazine. One by one he refutes the various partisan arguments made by the hate America left and the Democrats who seem to think that the best way to be safe from Islamofascism is to make no effort whatsoever to protect ourselves.

Symposium: The Islamic Reformation?

Jamie Glazov hosts this symposium on the subject of Islamic Reformation. Personally I'm not holding my breath waiting for one. I don't think we will see any movement in that direction until the Islamofascists have been soundly defeated and subjected to complete and utter humiliation and scorn from the winners, namely us. As Rush would say, there can be no peace without first achieving victory. The Islamofascists must come to understand that they can never, ever defeat the west but they they can be defeated and destroyed by us. Only when they know this will there be a chance for change and not before.

"Arabizing" Black Africa

David G. Littman delivered a statement on the floor of the UN before the Human Rights Commission on the subject of the ongoing rape of Sudan by the Islamofascist government there. The Arabs, who by the way sit on the UN Human Rights Commission, are engaged in the buying and selling of black African slaves. They go into these areas in the south of Sudan and capture the black Africans and ship them off to destinations where they become chattel slaves. But don't expect Michael Moore or Janeane Garofalo to protest this government sponsored ethnic cleansing or the rape and murder of women and children in Sudan. They are too busy stuffing their faces and calling George Bush "Hitler."

The Left's Numbers Charade

Ralph Peters asks The Angry Left, who will shortly be protesting against the Republicans, freedom, capitalism and liberty when they show up in New York, a few pointed questions. Like why The Angry Left doesn't protest against Iran's quest for atomic weapons or the rape of Sudan or the subjugation of women under Islam or the starving masses under the brutal North Korean dictatorship? But, of course, we already know the answer to these questions. The Angry Left loves totalitarians as long as they are the kind who hate America, because The Angry Left hates America too and will do anything it can to bring it down to defeat. And if millions have to die from torture and starvation in the death camps of Saddam or people like him, then so be it.

Just Say "Nein" To Internal Terror

Val MacQueen reports on the manner in which the Germans are dealing with the immigration of Muslims to their country. It seems that they are quite a bit more picky than we are. Just because you show up on their doorstep doesn't mean you get German citizenship. Personally I would like to see America get tougher on the immigration problem as well. We cannot afford to take in the numbers of people we currently are and security along the US-Mexican border is a joke. And our northern border is not much better. Why should American citizens have to provide unlimited money and services to people who just show up?

International Intrigue at the Ballot Box

Don Feder reports on the desire of the stooges in the Democratic party to bring in foreigners to "monitor" our elections. The same international community that has been so upstanding and honest lately is coming here to "help" us with out own democratic process. This means that nations like France and Germany, who are implicated in the Oil for Palaces scandal, and others such as Russia and Albania, always bastions of democracy, will be monitoring our elections. The truth is, of course, that the party of lies, fraud and deceit otherwise knows as the Democratic party, is looking for yet another way to undermine the election with the purpose of rigging the vote. Lest we forget, we should not allow the attempts in the past by Democrats to steal, cheat and defraud their way to power to go unmentioned:

• In 2000, Gore campaign workers in Milwaukee were caught on camera giving packs of cigarettes to homeless people they’d lured to the polls.

• In 1995-1996, then-Vice President Gore ordered the INS to expedite citizenship applications for 1.2 million aliens. The agency was told not to be too particular about criminal background checks. New voters were needed for Clinton’s re-election.

• In 2002, Democratic county officials in Arizona helped illegal aliens to vote.

• In the same year, workers for Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle (a Democrat, naturally) gave pastries, soft drinks and quarters to the mentally disabled at bingo games, then directed them to absentee ballots in the next room.

• Also in 1992, the NAACP (virtually an auxiliary of the Democratic Party) tried to register felons at the Duvall County, Florida, jail – in violation of state law. In Maryland, workers at a federally funded adult daycare center told elderly clients to vote Democratic, because Republicans wanted to take away their Social Security. In a heavily Democratic county in Arkansas, party workers registered names in the phone book – some deceased – on the grounds that those who are err, vertically challenged, shouldn’t be denied the right to vote.

• In 2001, Republicans turned over to the Justice Department the names of 3,273 individuals who apparently voted more than once in the 2000 election. Sen. Chris Dodd, D-CT, called this challenge to election fraud a partisan effort "that could make it harder for law-abiding citizens to vote on election day."

Hating America

Jamie Glazov interviews Paul Hollander, editor of a new collection of essays by America’s foremost scholars and thinkers, "Understanding Anti-Americanism: Its Origins and Impact at Home and Abroad." Mr. Hollander makes some interesting points in his interview on the subject of anti-Americanism and identifies some well known factors. One of the interesting things brought up here is the difference between the hate of the western intellectuals and the hate of the Arab Islamofascists.

The Arabs are, of course, primitive tribal savages and modernity is a threat to their whole way of life, including their misogynistic subjugation of women as their apartheid system for"unbelievers." While there is no doubt that they must be fought and destroyed, one can at least understand why primitive savages might react as they do before the spread of the modern world; a world which must inevitably replace the collectivist tribalism which they have known and which has made theirs the most backwards part of the world. Their dark-ages culture will be overthrown in time for the simple reason that it cannot compete with the modern world in any area of achievement and because history has shown over and over again that in a conflict between the modern and the primitive, it is the modern which has the advantage.

But the western intellectual class is anti-American because they have rejected the discipline of reason and logic. The entire edifice of modern academic leftism has at its core the rejection of objectivity and logic as a core belief. The view for many generations in academic circles has been that reality is subjective, that there is no objective truth, that reason is limited and logic is a fallacy. And while academic fashions like subjectivism, existentialism, behaviorism and post-modernism may come and go, they all have at their root the rejection of the objective reality which we live in with the wishful thinking that must invariably take its place. Thus the academics give themselves permission to come up with all manner of fantasies which can have no basis in the real world. And since the real world is the only one which does in fact exist, the fantasies of the academics can only have the most horrible of real world consequences when they are actually applied. The deaths of millions at the hands of social engineers in the 20th century is mute testimony to the fact that, as Aristotle would have said, "existence exists."

The War On College Conservatives

Katherine Hutt Scott brings us some news from the front lines of the college campus where conservatives are under assault by the teachers of The Angry Left. These leftist ideologues are using their positions of privilege to indoctrinate their students rather than educate them. Students are paying massive amounts of tuition and getting little or no real education in many areas. But legislation is in the works which is aimed at correcting this situation. It is high time that sanity be brought back to the college campus. The purpose of the university is to teach students how, rather that what, to think about subjects such as philosophy, politics and history. There is no excuse for the political indoctrination which students in today's academic environment have to put up with. A college should focus on its main purpose, which is the education of its students and preparing them for the tasks of critical thinking and problem solving which they will need when they join the adult world. The current practice of one-sided political propagandizing is a fraud perpetrated on students at their own expense and it must be stopped.

Democrats Sell Apocalypse Now To Hollywood

Is there any room left in the VIP lounge for the little guy?

Daniell Henninger writes in this very entertaining column about the symbiotic relationship between Hollywood and The Angry Left Democratic party. More and more we see that the Democrats have made rich elite and pampered stars vital to the party. And Hollywood pours tons of cash into the coffers of the Democrats along with big unions and trial lawyers. But the regular little people, as played by rich Hollywood stars, are nowhere to be found. What we do find is lots and lots of angry rhetoric from people who are paid millions of dollars to say lines which other people have written in between liposuction treatments. Needless to say, the intellectual pool from which the Democrats are finding their talent these days is getting more and more shallow.

Homeland Security in Partisan Peril

Dick Morris argues in this article that the left wing moonbats have gone off of the deep end in their belief that the terror alert level was raised by the Bush administration as a result of partisan politics. And there is little reason to think that the danger to our nation is less real because The Angry Left is consumed with hate and rage. The threat is real and the Bush administration had to give up valuable intelligence in order to placate the left, which never works anyway, while undermining our ability to get more information. We have only so many sources to squander on the likes of Michael Moore.

Dick Morris blames this on the Republicans who, he says, set the standard in the 90's with their suspicions of Bill Clinton. There is, however, an obvious flaw in his line of reasoning. President Bush is not a liar. Bill Clinton is. The sheer number and frequency of lies which were the normal state of affairs during the Clinton administration were the fault and responsibility of Bill Clinton himself. President Clinton put himself into the position in which no one could rely on his word or anything he said. Thus when people thought he was using foreign policy to distract us from Monica there was objective reason to think so. If he had been a trustworthy President who said what he meant and did not lie, there would have been no reason to be suspicious of his actions.

S. Korea Warns of Possible Terror Threat

The AP is reporting that the Wonderful Socialist Utopian Workers Paradise of North Korea wants is property back. It seems that some 460 slaves managed to run away from the slave plantations in the north and make their way to the south where they are now free. But the massas in the North have been making threatening noises about getting the bodies back so they can get back to work. We need to keep pickin' that cotton don't you know.

France Uncorks Wine Offensive

Andrew Borowiec of The Washington Times informs us that the French don't seem to be selling as much wine as they used to and at home they consume it less. I would imagine that an American boycott has had some effect. But there is also the issue of competition. The French have thought for years that they simply owned the wine market because they were, well, French. But they have failed to update their methods of production. Meanwhile, winemakers in other parts of the world have adopted new techniques and technologies to make their wines better and better. Italy, California, Australia and even South America are producing world class wines which are as good or better than anything the French make and at a cheaper price too. I'll be having an Italian Bardolino this evening and laughing in the general direction of the cheese eating surrender monkeys.

A Regime Built on Terror

Michael Ledeen reports on the ongoing situation in Iran. There is little doubt that Iran is doing its best to destabilize Iraq. The mad mullahs in Iran know that a democratic Iran is a threat to their own illegitimate rule. The people of Iran are now overwhelmingly against their own government and would throw them out in heartbeat if they could. But tyrants don't care about their own people and certainly never give up power willingly. Moreover we must not forget that the mullahs are trying to get their hands on atomic weapons. The administration should be doing all it can to overthrow the mad mullahs in Tehran. Not only for our benefit, but for the benefit of the imprisoned population of Iran and the stability of the Middle East.

The Anti-Strength Candidate

Frank J Gaffney writes that in order to believe that John F_ing Kerry was telling us the truth at the Democratic convention, you have to ignore his entire record in the Senate. The ostensible theme of the Democratic convention was that of "strength." The Democrats would like us to believe that they mean it when they say that they are ready to defend the country. But if you look past the words you get a very different picture. The left has been consistently against every use of military force for the last thirty years. And Senator Kerry has voted against virtually every use of force as well as against every funding bill for the military which has come up. There is not a weapon system which is in use today which John F_ing Kerry did not vote against. So what does the Frenchurian candidate mean when he says that he will make America strong? He means that the French will like us again and that we will have peace through surrender to our enemies.

The Intellectuals' Michael Moore

Peter Collier and David Horowitz have written a new book on the leftist hatemonger Noam Chomsky. Here we get to read the introduction to that new book which gives us a look at the left's favorite psuedo-intellectual and some of his crackpot theories, not to mention his failure to learn from history.

The Rape of Sudan

Terrorism against women and girls.

Donna M. Hughes brings us this story about The Religion of Raping and Enslaving Women and its latest atrocities in Sudan. As we have come to expect from the Islamofascists, where you find Arab Islamists you also find death, murder, misery, killing and wanton chaos. And what do we hear from The Angry Left about this ongoing ethnic cleansing? That's right; a deafening silence.

Protest City

Shawn Macomber should get hazard pay for going into the protest cage with The Angry Left at the Democratic convention. But fortunately for us, he lives to tell us about it and all of the strange life-forms he encountered while doing so.

Bush’s Blunders

Economic mistakes have left the president with little room for error.

David Hogberg argues in this short article from The National Review that President Bush has made his own re-election more difficult by trying to be more like a Democrat in areas of domestic spending and the economy. And indeed, many conservatives have argued that "the new tone" has been a failure in terms of domestic policy. It is clear that Democrats will always hate a conservative Republican. So if they are going to hate you anyway, why not let them hate you for something worthwhile rather than trying to offer plums and bribes to the population in the form of higher government spending? These schemes never work as they are intended to and they always end up costing far more than their proponents originally claimed they would, so what's the point? Instead, fight for lower taxes and lower spending on domestic issues to keep the private sector running smoothly. Don't try to be a Democrat because Democrats are on the losing side anyway.

On Loathing Bush

It’s not about what he does.

Victor Davis Hanson provides this analysis of why the Angry Left hates George Bush as much as they do. There are a number of traditional reasons: Bush is from Texas, he doesn't care what the elites think; he speaks plainly and without "nuance"; he is a conservative who rejects the Northeastern Establishment. But there is one other reason for the volcanic hate and resentment of the Angry Left and the Democratic party I think. They know they are losing. In the long trend of history, the Marxist ideas which have been the base of the Democratic party and the Angry Left for generations have finally run their course. The Soviet Union has collapsed and countries around the globe have adopted more or less capitalist methods of economic and social organization. As an intellectual model, leftism is out of gas.

In the United States the left has been beaten back more and more so that today their power is at its weakest point in decades. They have lost the House, the Senate and the White House. They now control only a minority of state legislatures and have only a minority of state Governors. They can still make their voice heard through the courts, but without control of the other branches of government, that power will inevitability slip away as more and more judges are appointed by Republicans.

And even in areas of culture their message is being rejected by a population which, more and more, is able to get around the liberal bias in the media. The emergence of talk radio, FoxNews and the Internet have had a profound effect on the ability of the regular American public to gain access to information which they previously could not get. And this further pushes the ideas of conservatives and libertarians into the mainstream as more and more people get to hear them unfiltered by The Elite Media Monoculture. Americans can now go around the elite media and talk directly to each other on message boards, in chat rooms and on Internet blogs. The regular people can make their voice heard and they are doing just that. And the message they are sending is not one which The Angry Left or the elites want to hear. Rather, the silent majority is pushing back against the leftist agenda and pushing hard. The left knows this. And it is driving them mad. They are losing the intellectual battle bit by bit; inch by inch and they know it.

The long term trend of political philosophy in America is in the direction of freedom and liberty and away from the discredited ideas of leftism. Come what may, leftism is a dying ideology and The Angry Left is on the wrong side of history. And at some level they know this. And this knowledge is, I believe, at the root of their inchoate rage and anger. Their time is past and they are left standing at the station as the train of history pulls out of the station headed for the future. And they are shouting in rage in the vain attempt to hold it back as it leaves them forever behind.

Democratic Bigotry

Have you noticed the bigotry of the Angry Left? When you disagree with them you will be met, not with any kind of intellectual argument. Not with reasons intended for rational debate. No, what you get instead is the most vicious assault of name-calling and personal smears that they can think up. We have all heard the vast array of insults and epithets which the Angry Left falls back on so easily. How easy and simple to dismiss a group of people who you oppose. No need to find a reason, no need to offer a better set of ideas, no need to refute arguments you may disagree with. One need only continue to have blind and unswerving faith in The Great Socialist Utopia which will one day materialize in the future if only we can get rid of those pesky people who still talk about those passe and quaint ideas such as liberty and freedom and limited government and rule of law and personal responsibility.

But we don't really want to debate them on the issues. Better to offer a smear. Better to find a neat and simple term to use to avoid any debate. Just call them a name and make sure it sounds good on TV so Dan Rather can use it. "Radical Right Wing" or "Right Wing Extremists" or even "Right Wing Cabal." Yeah, that will scare the rubes out in fly-over-country. We'll just say that Republicans want to poison the air and water, starve old people, kill their babies and put them all in bread lines. Yeah, they're too stupid not to buy that. And when we get in they won't notice when we raise their taxes and give their money to all of our favorite groups who can go right on scaring the hell out of them so they vote for us some more. Yeah, that will work.

And if they don't vote for us we'll just call them stupid and selfish and fascist and racist and homophobic and any other names we can think up. And when we do, we'll work on making them all feel good and guilty for what they have because guilty people can be manipulated to vote for us too. Just make them feel like if they don't vote Democratic then, why they're some kind of fiend or something. Yeah, that will work.

And if it doesn't, why we can pretend to be like them. We'll have a convention where we don't mention any of the ideas we talk about the rest of the time. We'll get a candidate who say's he's "Reporting for Duty" even if he is three years late. The sheeple will buy that. They like flags and stuff so we'll have a lot of those. And balloons too. Red, white and blue balloons. Just make sure the guy running the thing doesn't have his mike on when they don't come down right away, he might say something that the rubes in fly-over-country don't like. Just wave a lot of flags and stuff so the corn-fed masses will think we're patriotic and that we bathe as often as they do.
And for God's sake Keep Michael Moore and Janeane Garofalo off camera, they could mess everything up. And keep those people from Democratic Underground off camera too. We'll just put them is a special area outside the convention hall to keep them quiet while they burn their flags and chant "Hey hey ho ho, Western culture's got to go." And we have to keep all of their Bush=Hitler posters off of the TV too. Just keep the cameras away from that whole area and we'll be fine.

Europe's Choice

Why the American election is seen as a referendum on the continent's future.

Victor Davis Hanson always brings us trenchant observations about the world around us and reminds us that history is an important guide to the future. And so in this essay we take a look at the manner in which Old Europe has invested itself in the notion of a Kerry victory and a Bush defeat. The Europeans, like our own Angry Leftist Elites, do not understand or much care for the view from fly over country. To them we are a bunch of hicks and rubes who are too dumb to know what's good for us. And because George Bush is from fly over country, that evaluation applies to him as well. So much better to have the Frenchurian candidate and his elitist wife in charge of the champagne and caviar at the White House.

But the Old Europeans, and the Angry Left in America, are going to find themselves on the outside looking in this November when George Bush is re-elected. Elitists have never gone down well here, a fact which the Angry Left continues to ignore. And the policies of the elites are growing more and more stale by the day. John F_ing Kerry can only win if he can convince us that it is September 10 and that we have nothing to worry about. I don't think he will be able to pull that one off. And neither will the Europeans, who will then have to figure out, like The Angry Left, whether they still want to be on the losing side of history.

Rock of Hatred

Marc Levin brings us this short essay in which he points out some of the paranoia, arrogance and hypocrisy which we find among those musicians who are touring under the banner of "Vote for Change" which is, of course, dedicated to defeating George Bush. What upsets these mavens of popular culture? Well things like the flag, patriotism and anyone who has the temerity to criticize rich musicians as being out of touch with the vast majority of Americans. But you won't be able to tell them that you disagree with them directly; you'll have to go through their publicity managers, agents and personal assistants first.

9/11: A Failure of Academia

Dr. Walid Phares argues that the attacks on 9-11 reflect our failure to educate ourselves about the growing threat of Islamofascism. The 9-11 commission called it a failure of imagination. But imagination requires a basic foundation of knowledge from which to operate. What we lacked in the 1990's was the knowledge of the growing insanity in the Arab world and the understanding that it would continue to grow into a serious threat unless it was dealt with in a serious way. But political leaders and academics in education were unable, or unwilling, to keep us up to date with the rapidly changing world. And on 9-11 that world made itself known to us in the most horrific of ways.

Michael Moore Rocks the Convention

Jonathan Last follows The Angry Left to a rally where we get to see Michael "Hindenburg" Moore wow the Democratic party with his usual antics. What is amazing is, of course, that so many Democrats are now members of The Angry Left and that they think that the rest of America agrees with them that "Bush is Hitler" even if their candidate, Howard Dean, failed to get the nomination. Of course there are still moderate Democrats out there, but their numbers are dwindling as they leave the party and head for Republican territory. As that continues the Democratic party shrinks while the Republican party grows.

The Angry Left is certainly loud and organized, but they are not the majority of Americans even if they say otherwise. The fact of the matter is that in poll after poll the Democrats are now a minority party in America and The Angry Left refuses to recognize that it is on a downward spiral. They are now in control of the levers of power within the party structure and will hold on with a death grip until they have been removed or until they can no longer hold on to them. What this portends is, I think, the death knell for the Democratic party as we have known it. The Angry Left is not willing or able to see that their own hate dooms the party to irrelevance in the eyes of most middle of the road Americans who aren't interested in the Great Socialist Utopian Revolution. It leaves the Republicans as the logical and common sense alternative to the insanity of the people who think George Bush is more dangerous than Osama Bin Laden.

Confessions of an Ex-Union Man

FrontPageMagazine brings us this inside account of Big Labor from a former true-believer. Chalk this up as another example of a liberal mugged by reality and turning away from the dark side towards the sun-filled embrace of the conservative, free market end of the political spectrum.

Five Reasons to Fear the Democratic Party

Michelle Malkin breaks down the reasons we should be very skeptical of John F_ing Kerry and the Democratic party as they try to convince us that they are not what they really are. Ultimately the real problem for the Democrats is that the really don't like American all that much. And in keeping with this underlying emotion, they do everything they can to keep America from defending itself against real world threats and attacks. Forget the Democrats' attempts to now claim that they are the party that can better defend America. They don't mean it. They just want us to think it for long enough that we vote them into office. After than, they can go back to their old ways of preventing any practical means of stopping the people who want to come here to destroy our country and our freedom. As I have said before, the Democrats are the "Surrender Party." If you value your liberty and want the country defended effectively, vote for George Bush and the Republican party.

Put the Speakers in a Cage

Ann Coulter had some fun at the Democratic convention. Not so much in listening to the speakers as in observing the strange life forms which now make up the bulk of the party, some of which they put outside in the protester's cage. Of course when USA Today found out what Ann had written, they spiked this story. But never fear; if you didn't get a chance to read it before, you can do so now.

The 9/11 Report's Straight Shooting on Islamist Terror

Daniel Pipes gives us his take on the 9-11 commission report and finds it to be surprisingly good. In fact, he says, it makes some interesting and very relevant statements which need to be made and which have not yet become common in the lexicon of most of our political figures. The "War on Terror" is, after all, really a war against Islamofascism. And that means fighting not just the various Islamic terrorist groups, but also fighting the dictatorial ideology behind them which has much currency in the Muslim world. The fight against the guys with the guns and bombs has so far been going pretty well. But the second is a somewhat more complicated matter. As Americans who value our freedom and traditions we need to defend them philosophically first against those at home who are on the side of the Islamofascists. And second we need to do what we can to promote and help those in the Muslim world who do want reform and change from the insanity which currently rules in that part of the world. Only when the political ideology of Islamofascism from both the American left as well as from the Middle East is discredited, will we be safe again.

The Patriot Act

Why John Kerry's acceptance speech could cost him the election.

Paul Gigot reminds us in this article that the upcoming election is not going to rest on what John F_ing Kerry did, or did not do, in Vietnam. The more important and relevant question is what John F_ing Kerry stands for today and what his record in the senate tells us about his political and foreign policy ideas. Personally I would say that the two are not mutually exclusive. Rather, one might make the argument that the actions of John Kerry in Vietnam and those of John Kerry in the US Senate follow from the same basic philosophy. But Gigot has a point. The record of John F_ing Kerry in the Senate is one which is anti-defense, anti-military and anti-capitalist. John F_ing Kerry is yet another example of the east coast establishment liberalism which has been consistently on the wrong side of the issues and of history. And regardless of their claims, they have not had a new idea since the 1960's where they seem to be permanently stuck

Patriotic Liberalism

Will all the flag waving work for Democrats this year?

John Fund writes about the lack of a bounce from the recent Democratic convention. As he points out, since World War II, every challenger who has unseated a president has led after his convention. Kerry not only did not get a "bounce" but, in fact, lost ground. This is not good news for the Kerry campaign, but it is good news for the country. The Democrats tried very hard at their recent convention to put on a patriotic and fiscally conservative face. But the voters seem to know that it's just stage make-up to be taken off at the earliest opportunity. I don't think Kerry will be getting the lead role after this audition.

Passions on High

We need two parties. Many Democrats don’t seem to realize this.

Michael Novak writes about the response he has received from his recent article, "Why the Dems Will Lose, and why they’ll be disconsolate." Based on the e-mail he has gotten it would seem that his original argument is correct. The Democrats have fallen and they can't get up. They are a party bound up in fantasy, delusion, hate, envy and resentment. This emotional tantrum has become the basis for their very existence and will doom them to minority party status for some time to come, unless they can wake themselves up from their ideological coma. And in some respects Republicans need them. When we don't have any real competition, we tend to get soft and lose our edge. I don't think this has happened yet, but it could if Republicans become convinced that they have nothing to worry about when it comes to the Democratic party. And I would like to continue to see a vibrant and competitive Republican party that remembers what is stands for.

See Y'All in New York

Why I skipped the Boston convention.

Democratic Senator Zell Miller explains in this essay why he did not go to the recent Democratic party convention in Boston. But he will be going to the Republican convention in New York and will speak to the delegates there. It is a pity he is leaving the Senate. His party would do well to listen to his advice.

Beantown Becomes Blogtown

At the Democratic convention, online journalism arrives.

In this essay John Fund writes about how blogging is changing the face of news journalism. And indeed it is. The blogsphere is analogous to the world of open source computing. In the world of open source the minds of many thousands or even millions of people are brought together to solve computing problems. Individuals acting on their own become part of a larger collective intellectual structure which can bring tremendous numbers of people and man hours to bear on a problem. The Internet works in the same way. The blogsphere is much bigger and certainly much more intellectually diverse than The Elite Media Monoculture. Where a newspaper may employ a few hundred, the blogsphere is made up of millions of people, many of whom are experts in their respective fields. Journalists simply don't have this level of knowledge of fields other than their own to fall back on, nor do they exhibit intellectual diversity. This is why blogging is here to stay and why it will continue to grow and develop as part of the country's new alternative media.

No Doctored DRE

Democrats use computer hysteria to get out the vote.

John Fund writes about the ongoing issues with electronic voting machines in this article from The Wall Street Journal. What I find most interesting about this is that liberals and loony moonbat leftists are against it. Now I have not had any strong views on this issue one way or another except that I am a big fan of leaving a paper trail in an election. You need to be able to go back and do a recount if need be. So I would like to see a checkable paper ballot produced by any method of electronic voting a safeguard against fraud. But if the Angry Left is so dead set against electronic voting there can be only one reason for it; they think that the vote tally will be accurate and they don't want it to be.

The Dead Zone

Krugman is squashed in a debate with O’Reilly.

Donald Luskin writes about this weekend's slugfest between Bill O'Reilly and Paul Krugman. I saw this program myself and I could not believe that Krugman wandered into this arena so ill -prepared. On the other hand, it was one of the most entertaining shows I have seen in some time and O'Reilly wiped the floor with the little weasel and rightly so. Check out Donald Luskin's blog where he has the full transcript of the massacre.

A Recession to Remember

Business-investment hemorrhaged in 2000-01 — don’t forget it.

Larry Kudlow is one of my favorite living economists, and in this item from The National Review he explains why the recent recession was a serious one indeed. He also takes Alan Greenspan to task for failing to see the deflationary period as the danger it was and how it affected capital investment and thus job creation. The seed corn of an economy is the cash it can put back into the improvement of productive activity, and it dried up for several years due to deflation. Only now is it coming back again. Will the fed repeat its mistakes? Stay tuned.

Unreality Activists

For the ACLU, Bush and Ashcroft have created a climate of fear, not terrorists.

Heather Mac Donald writes in this article on how the ACLU has somehow come to the conclusion that terrorism does not exist. It seems that as a group they can get loads of government cash but they have to abide by the law which states that you can't donate said money to known terrorist groups. The ACLU's solution to this problem is to close their eyes and pretend that such groups are just in the imagination of evil Republicans. Problem solved.

Dubya Niceties

On the spot, some Dems managed some nice words about President Bush last week.

Andrew Cline wandered into the Democratic convention to ask the delegates if there was anything that they actually liked about George W. Bush. Their answers prove that the Democrats are still a party which can invoke unintended amusement for all.

Questionable Strategy

The Democrats’ “un-American” charge.

Rich Lowry points out in this article that the Democrats have adopted a tactic of calling Republicans un-patriotic. John Ray has argued that this is a form of psychological projection in which the Democrats accuse others of what they themselves actually are. But leaving aside this analysis, one can also say that this is an attempt by the Democrats to change the subject. After all, they don't really want to discuss their record on national defense, because it is not a very good one. The Democrats don't really believe in the use of the military and would rather gut it to pay for social re-distribution than to have to go fight in far off places where they have no voters. And when bad things happen, as they always do when you let things go for a long time, they can always blame those nasty, un-patriotic Republicans.

The Book on 9/11

The usefulness of the 9/11 Commission’s report.

Aaron Mannes takes an in-depth look at the 9-11 commission report and finds that it is not only full of useful information, but that it is actually well written. Of course it also illustrates the fact that America was blissfully unaware of the growing aggression of the Middle East for a very long time, even though there was plenty of opportunity to see the problem. But the long holiday from history would not allow us to pay attention to the growing clouds on the horizon. We were too busy passing the tanning lotion.

How Europe Became Eurabia

Bat Ye’or writes for us concerning the continuing implosion of Europe into Eurabia and the resulting implications for America and the rest of the civilized world. This process has been ongoing for many decades, but only recently has it come to the attention of a larger audience. As Old Europe collapses we can expect the same kinds of economic and military problems from them that we once had dealing with the Communist Eastern Block. Europe will become more Arabian and thus will become more and more hostile and aggressive towards the west. At the same time, we can also expect that Eurabia will decline as an economic power. Fortunately this lack of economic strength will also mean a limited ability to wage conventional war, a capability which is already limited by European dependence on socialist economic structure. But their tendency to assist Islamofascist style terrorism will almost certainly increase for the same reason; because terrorism is the tactic of the weak. If trends continue, we can expect an Arabian Europe with all of the economic and social chaos that we see today in the Middle East.

Iran's Growing Threat

Rachel Ehrenfeld looks at the terrorist state of Iran and asks why The Angry Left and the Democrat's Inaction Faction are so resistant to doing anything about the mad mullah's rush to develop atomic weapons. The answer, as always, is that at the bottom of everything is the fact that the left, which is now at home in the Democratic party, hates America and all that it stands for and wants it to fail. John F_ing Kerry has already announced his intention to wait for hostile nations to attack us. That is, he wants Americans to die first before he does anything. And realistically, what can we expect from a candidate who has openly expressed his desire to toady to the French? The Democrats do not want to defend the country and loath the military. They will do nothing to protect us. Indeed, John F_ing Kerry has voted against the military and defense spending every chance he has had to do so. The Democrats are the "surrender party." Don't hold your breath waiting for them to protect you; because they won't.

Outfoxing the Truth

Eric Pfeiffer goes into the snake pit to watch the new agitprop "documentary" film by Robert Greenwald titled "Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War On Journalism." In this documentary we learn the awful truth about FoxNews, such as the fact that sometimes Bill O'Reilly shouts, or that Fox actually allows conservatives to put forth their point of view along with socialist-liberals or, worst of all, that some of the anchors actually wear American Flag Pins!! Oh the horrors!!

George Soros Teaches the FBI Tolerance

Daniel Pipes and Sharon Chadha bring us this article in which we get to see some of the insane political correctness which is infecting the FBI and will help to undermine the war against the Islamofascists if it becomes widespread. Yes dear friends, we wouldn't want to upset the people who shoot women in the head for wearing nail polish and blow up people in pizza parlors, because that would be impolite and would probably hurt their feelings.

What Would Kerry Say?

Looking into the future.

Byron York takes a look into the not-too-distant future in which John F_ing Kerry gets to pontificate on what would happen if we all acted as though the threat of terrorism was "exaggerated."

Less Thrilling the Second Time Around

Redoing an campaign, Hollywood-style.

Frederica Mathewes-Green tells us in this movie review that we would be better off renting the original version of "The Manchurian Candidate" rather than wasting money and time on this new politically correct whitewashed and morally neutered version. Hollywood could have updated this film to reflect current events and made it worth seeing. Instead they drag out their favorite bad guys: evil businessmen. That's right; according to the mavens of Hollywood you should be more afraid of the people who bring you soap, corn flakes and running shoes than of the people who crash planes into buildings and are trying to get their hands on atomic weapons.

InstaDNC

Hugh Hewitt on the Dems, the Net & more.

Hugh Hewitt was at the Democratic National Convention to get the lowdown and is interviewed here by Kathryn Jean Lopez of National Review. In this interview we get his take on the loony left, Michael Moore and John F_ing Kerry's unwillingness to defend the country while trying to appear otherwise.

If the Dead Could Talk

They’d teach us a thing or two about war.

Victor Davis Hanson takes the elites to task in this essay in which he contrasts the political correctness of today with the clear and unambiguous moral clarity of yesteryear. In that far away time we did not ask if Hitler needed to better "understand" us or if Kamikazies had bad childhood experiences or if SS goons who put Jews into ovens were a threat which had been "exaggerated." No, in that time we had not yet been brainwashed into believing in the doctrine of moral equivalence. We knew right from wrong, black from white and we were not afraid to be on the side of the good. And those who sided with the bad guys were considered to be little better. We chose sides and were un-apologetic about it. And it was obvious to all that moral clarity was as necessary to victory as military hardware

DNC Lawyers Work To Muzzle Swift Boat Vets' Ad

A group of Vietnam veterans have produced an ad which questions many of John F_ing Kerry's claims about his service in Vietnam and his fitness to be the President. This is, of course, protected political speech in accordance with the First Amendment to the Constitution. But this is unimportant to The Angry Left and the Democratic party. They have decided to do what they always do when they are unwilling to debate in the arena of ideas. They have called out the lawyers to silence their critics with threats and intimidation. Human Events Online has a copy of the Soprano's style fax which they are sending, not to the veterans, but to TV stations threatening them with legal action if they run the ad. You can see the swiftboat veterans' ad here.

Burning Bridges

"Love me, love my country" didn't work for Bill Clinton. It won't work for John Kerry.

Claudia Rosett reminds us of just how inept and immature the Clinton administration actually was. Forget all of the speeches at the Democratic convention about their so-called good intentions. What matters in the end is what you actually achieve in the real world. And on Bill Clinton's watch a lot of things went very wrong. I sometimes think it is a pity that AlGore didn't get to inherit all of George W. Bush had land on his plate, if only to finally finish off the fantasy of liberal Democratic wishful thinking for good. But somehow the Democrats always manage to kick the can down the road thus requiring someone else to clean up the mess.

Mr. Clinton finished, of course, in January, 2001, by which time al Qaeda's training camps, on Mr. Clinton's watch, had already churned out thousands of terrorists we've been trying to catch ever since. By that time, the Sept. 11 plot was just eight months from completion; our intelligence community was if possible even dumber than it is now; Iran had already been working for at least half a decade toward its nuclear bomb; North Korea had already been cheating for years on Mr. Clinton's "Agreed Framework" nuclear freeze; Arafat's intifada had crowned the Clinton photo-op forays into the Middle East; and Saddam Hussein, having kicked out the United Nations weapons inspectors in 1998, was busy cashing in bigtime on the Clinton-launched United Nations Oil-for-Food program, buying influence and blackmail opportunities among our allies, some of them the very same allies Mr. Bush has alienated, pushed away, burned his bridges to . . .

Caught in the Web

How Democrats mobilized online and other campaign tales.

John Fund takes a look at the new book by Joe Trippi regarding the campaign of Howard Dean on the Internet. Leaving aside screaming Dean's strange viewpoints on political issues, the account of how his campaign used the Internet is probably quite interesting. More interesting is Hugh Hewitt's view that the life of the mind is now found on the net. The Elite Media Monoculture and the calcified halls of academia can no longer accept or process new ideas and information. They are stuck. But there is lots of interesting intellectual heavy lifting available in the blogsphere, which is the democratization of the media. For a minimal investment anyone can put up their own site and expound on any subject of interest. The Internet allows all sorts of regular people, such as this author for example, to enter the world of intellectual debate and discussion with other like minded people and to bypass the liberal filters which would screen out all of the ideas that they find inconvenient.

That '90s Show

A return to Clintonism wouldn't be a return to peace and prosperity.

The editors at The Wall Street Journal give us a more accurate look at the economic history of the 90's than we are likely to get from any member of the Democratic party or Kerry's re-election campaign. Clinton was lucky enough to get a continuation of the Reagan era prosperity for most of his term, but was able to avoid the blame for the tech bubble which burst at the end of his term and which took a considerable amount of wealth with it. Those of you who have market investments, like I do, should know this already. The markets reached their high in March of 2000 and went south from their. But Clinton was out of office by the time everyone realized that the bubble had burst.