Shot In The Dark - Politics and Current Events in Minnesota and Beyond

Friday, September 06, 2002

Hussein, Summarized - The standard bleat from the left is that "we don't have any evidence" that Hussein has Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs).

I guess it figures that this summary doesn't come from any American paper. This is from "The Scotsman".

And, Speaking of Scotsmen... - Scottish news anchor Gavin Esler has figured out something that eludes most of America's nattering classes.

"If It's Nae Scots..." - I have three years to either finish learning the pipes, or just save up to attend, this event.

OK. Enough Scottish news for today.
posted by Mitch Berg 9/6/2002 04:24:31 PM

Drivel Policy Institute - The Violence Policy Center continues its descent into hilarious irrelevance with it's annual "Alexander Hamilton Second Amendment Student Writing Competition". Students (graduate and law,mostly) are to write "the best article, essay, or law review note critically examining the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in United States v. Emerson, No. 99-10331, 2001 U.S. App. LEXIS 22386 (October 16, 2001), in light of judicial precedent and historical and legal scholarship on the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution"

Why Hamilton? Because he was a "victim of handgun violence", says the VPC.

It was, of course, a duel - a purely consensual form of violence. Barbaric, to be sure, but hardly the sort of thing that's germane to the VPC's gun control agenda.

Uberblogger Volokh says (scroll down - it was posted Friday morning):
Wow, a victim of handgun violence. In some sense, I suppose, it's true -- he was killed in a violent act with a handgun. But surely if the NRA wanted to have a poster child for its "Guns don't kill people, people kill people" campaign, Hamilton would be top of the list! First, what Hamilton did was already illegal -- dueling was and is attempted murder (or, in Burr's case, actual murder). Can you imagine the scenario? "Mr. Burr, I would fight a duel with you, notwithstanding that dueling is a crime -- but because handguns are illegal, I cannot."
Volokh goes on to note:
Whatever one may say about Hamilton's death, it most assuredly provides zero support for gun control proposals. Blaming the gun -- as opposed to blaming Hamilton himself, blaming Burr, blaming social attitudes that tolerated or encouraged dueling, or whatever else -- in this case is almost self-parody. If the NRA were trying to mock the anti-gun forces by putting ridiculous words in their mouths, it would be hard for them to beat "Hamilton was himself a victim of handgun violence."
In any case - I can't wait to read the winning paper...
posted by Mitch Berg 9/6/2002 02:55:38 PM

At Least They Remembered There's a War On - Congress resolved not only to mourn - but to prosecute the war, in a special session in New York.
posted by Mitch Berg 9/6/2002 12:13:37 PM

Hussein's War on the US - Honestly, I'm never quite sure when to suspend my disbelief.

Jason Lewis was all over a story last night which has been making the rounds of the conservative samizdat media (talkradio and the Internet) for months, now - the alleged connections between the Oklahoma City bombing, the first WTC bombing in 1993, and Saddam Hussein. The story has bubbled up from the "right-wing" media to the rightward edge of the mainstream, with its publication in the Wall Street Journal yesterday.

It doesn't all add up. And the fact that it was broken on WorldNet Daily - a conservative outlet which is about 15% excellent reportage and 50% hysteria - doesn't help. While WND has broken some great stories, they also contended for a while that Bill Clinton was responsible for the sale of transfusable blood from Arkansas prison inmates that led to a large number of AIDS deaths.

You see what we're dealing with, right? The conservative alternative media has some credibility issues, not only among the "mainstream" liberal media (who'll doubt everything not issued under their imprimatur) but among a lot of regular people who remember the Blue Dress and the Mid-Fellatio Phone Calls (both broken by conservative outlets), but also the AIDS scandal and the Clinton Love Child.

Do I want it to be true? It's irrelevant. If it is, it's a smoking gun leading to Hussein, and also perhaps the most egregious coverup in American history.

So my jury is out. For now.

Times Bias...again - Coulter, on the NY Times' endless bias on reporting terrorist incidents.

Unless they're "right wing..."
posted by Mitch Berg 9/6/2002 11:48:27 AM

Much Ado about a 'Do - Hillary! Clinton's new hairdo - "in the style of Susan B. Anthony"...

...makes her look like Barney Fife.
posted by Mitch Berg 9/6/2002 11:12:45 AM

Thursday, September 05, 2002

The Races - Lots of Minnesota political news today.

In the Governor's Race - A well-placed source in the Republican Party tells me Tim Pawlenty and the Minnesota Republican Party are both having money trouble. Fundraising this past week has picked up, with some big contributions - but Pawlenty will need it. Polls show Pawlenty anywhere between "slightly behind Penny" and "a close third" - my source notes "If the election were today, Tim Penny would be the next governor. The insiders are very concerned.".

The party is scheduled to start running a million dollars' worth of TV ads statewide on Pawlenty's behalf in about a month (early October) and Pawlenty's campaign will follow up with a similar-sized TV ad campaign.

Pawlenty's campaign management has also come under fire from insiders. Says my source: "Reportedly Tim Commers is not up to the job. This is not a knock on Tim. He has a family and a job...Pawlenty has been reduced to running his own campaign". My source also hears that
staffers do a lot of sitting around doing not much of anything since Commers is unwilling to crack the whip. This news is surprising. Tim has access to some very gifted staffers, particularly Chas Anderson. Talk has been that Dwight Tostenson may be called upon to move into that office. This would be a good thing. Dwight has no problem at all being the heavy.
That should change, though - longtime RPM finance manager Dwight Tostenson has come over to crack the whip. "The staff who had been coming in at 10-11am and leaving at 4pm is now reporting to work at 830am and leaving at 9-10pm and everybody worked thru the Labor Day weekend", my source says.

It's going to be a hairy race, in any case. But we knew that, right?
.
In the Senate Race - Rumors have it that Coleman is down in the latest polls by significant amount. Coleman's campaign has apparently brought in a consultant - the one that helped Asa Hutchinson rebound from a 15 point deficit late in that campaign. They've also brough in, apparently, another heavy-hitter to work with campaign manager Ben Whitney.

Says my source:
I heard 2 days ago that the White House is not satisfied and that Norm is a basket case. He has a nasty temper and is taking Karl Rove's criticism out on the staff. To be fair to Norm (which is difficult for me to do) he is in a close race and believe me, until you experience it, you can't imagine the pressure. The word is that the White House is arranging for 100 field workers to come into the state and situate themselves in every CD in order to push Norm over the top.
The report on the field workers is unconfirmed.

This is obviously an important race - to everyone. Says my source: "The White House is calling the shots and it is really going to be expensive."

The Kline Race - The Kline campaign is suffering from internecine strife among the campaign staff - but the race is still Kline's to lose. "Kline's operation is dysfunctional. Joe Weber (Vin's brother) is the Campaign Manager and has not been working full time until recently", says the source, who adds "Apparently there is a lot of back biting in the office, particularly between the professional staff and volunteers from John's previous races.".

In good news for the Kline campaign, there are reports that George Bush the elder (the current President's father, or "George 41") will be visiting to raise funds for Kline.

Paging Oprah Winfrey- The LAX shooter - an Egyptian who constantly spouted hatred for Israel, and who bypassed a score of other terminals and gates to go specifically to the El Al counter to shoot two people on July 4, was not acting as a terrorist, says the FBI.

It was the "personal demons", says the report.

In related news, US and British Special Forces killed four personal demons as they tried to shoot at an American convoy in Afghanistan...

Anniversary Coverage - The first anniversary of the date 19 other personal demons killed 3,116 people is less than a week away. And the networks are all getting into full pretentious lather.

Here's a look ahead to the coverage.

Upset - Where's the anger over the attacks last year?

Lileks' Bleat today, for starters.

Hollywood Self-Absorption Alert - The great crimes facing this nation include murder, rape, child-abduction/murder, corporate malfeasance, and ageism against older hollywood actresses.

Doris Roberts, of "Everybody Loves Raymond", says
"When my grandchildren say I rock, they're not talking about a rocking chair," she told the Senate Special Committee on Aging. "Yet society considers me discardable, my opinions irrelevant, my needs comical and my tastes not worth attention in the marketplace. My peers and I are portrayed as dependent, helpless, unproductive and demanding rather than deserving. In reality, the majority of seniors are self-sufficient, middle-class consumers with more assets than most young couples and substantial time and talent to offer society. This is not just a sad situation, Mr. Chairman. This is a crime."

posted by Mitch Berg 9/5/2002 07:37:26 AM

Wednesday, September 04, 2002

Bloggers Blogging about...Blogging - Andrew Sullivan goes among the unbelievers.
posted by Mitch Berg 9/4/2002 09:08:50 PM

Outflanking to the Middle - the President today pledged to consult Congress before invading Iraq.

Here's the part I love: Tom "Very Concerned" Daschle said:
``We're hoping for more information and greater clarity in the days and weeks ahead,'' said Daschle, D-S.D.
Read: Daschle is going to obfuscate, sling mud like a South Dakota cow-chip tosser, and try to make the proceedings anything but clear. Clarity will lead to the obvious conclusion - Hussein must go. Daschle knows that Hussein will fall in plenty of time to give the GOP a big boost in '04. He'd rather have a dictator with nukes and gas on the loose, and terrorist friends ready to use them on us, than have peace.
posted by Mitch Berg 9/4/2002 11:25:55 AM

Here at Home - While the rumors of war and the fallout from last year's attacks have been dominating this space, there is plenty of local news. In the next installment - disarray in the MN GOP's campaigns.
posted by Mitch Berg 9/4/2002 07:08:12 AM

Life is Rich - Regarding the New York Times' anti-war movement, check out this quote from Frank Rich, which seems to equate low public opinion polls with the likelihood of military success:
"Like politicians' assertions that terrorism at home can be deflected by cheap fixes and oratorical optimism, disingenuous official claims of our allies' strengths and our enemies' weaknesses will come back to haunt the administration if all does not go smoothly. Already a Newsweek poll shows that only 56 percent of the country believes 'the war in Afghanistan is going as well as American officials say.'"
The quote, of course, was from last November, regarding attacking Afghanistan.

Bush and the War - Andrew Sullivan picked up on something I'd wondered myself - not necessarily attributing it to Lao Tzu, but
Okay, it's a long shot. But Bush's long silence, the contradictory messages from his administration, and mysterious arms buildups around the world leads one reader to wonder whether the president has been boning up on the art of war. Two [of Lao Tzu's] maxims stand out: "When near, make it appear that you are far away, when far away that you are near." And: "Offer the enemy a bait to lure him; feign disorder and strike him." Wishful thinking no doubt. But then this president is often under-estimated.
Often, indeed. It's become another left-wing sacrament.
posted by Mitch Berg 9/4/2002 06:28:01 AM

Profile in Courage - Tony Blair bucks his own party's anti-American bigotry to support the potential invasion of Iraq.

Ministry of Truth - while the New York Times, in trying to discredit Bush, demands we take action on Saudi Arabia...

...they apparently think Iran is just fine.
posted by Mitch Berg 9/4/2002 06:21:01 AM

Tuesday, September 03, 2002

Cry Screed...- I'm working on my 9/11 edition of this blog. It could be one of my best screeds, or it could be a mawkish mess.

Either way, it'll be on this site, a week from Wednesday.
posted by Mitch Berg 9/3/2002 11:28:40 PM

Let Slip the Dogs of Inaction - Victor Davis Hanson on the wisdom - and price - of playing it very safe - as well as on how the proponents of inaction keep recycling the same arguments.

Death with No Parole - I'm that rarest of critters - a conservative who opposes the death penalty. I oppose it rather mildly and without a lot of conviction - I wouldn't mind seeing child-murderers or Osama Bin Laden strapped to a gurney, honestly. But the chances of a wrongful execution are too great. On the average, someone is released from death row, somewhere, once a year, for a wrongful conviction. And there have been executions of the wrong person.

The death penalty is also given disproportionately - a black man killing a black man is unlikely to get it, while one killing a white women stands a pretty fair chance.

John Sullivan points out some of the arguments in the evolving debate. I don't entirely agree with him - and he doesn't touch on all the objections. But it's an interesting read.
posted by Mitch Berg 9/3/2002 10:50:09 PM

Fundamental Inability to Communicate - We share the same planet with Europe. But little else.

They think we're to blame for 9/11
posted by Mitch Berg 9/3/2002 09:57:28 PM

Where's Waldo? - Some senior leaders within Joint Special Operations Command - the little-known fifth arm of service, gathering all special forces units on the same level as the Army, Navy or Air Force - contend that Bin Laden was killed in the bombing of Tora Bora.

The belief is far from universal.
posted by Mitch Berg 9/3/2002 11:20:46 AM

"No Evidence..." - the standard bleat of those who don't want to pre-emptively attack Iraq is that "we have no evidence" Hussein has weapons of mass destruction.

But apparently he does, and we do...
posted by Mitch Berg 9/3/2002 11:11:08 AM

Monday, September 02, 2002

Sign O The Times - More on the decline of the New York Times into a slanted liberal broadsheet, courtesy Andrew Sullivan.
posted by Mitch Berg 9/2/2002 08:12:37 PM

Berg's Law of Liberal Iraq Commentary:

In attacking the reasons for war, no liberal commentator is capable of addressing more than one of the justifications at a time; to do so would introduce a context in which their argument can not survive