Maybe Not A Good Hero

The more left part of the blogosphere made a very big deal about Ray McGovern and his heckling of Donald Rumsfeld. I asked at the time whether he was really someone they wanted to embrace given his notably anti-Semitic stance. Even some on the right questioned Rumsfeld's answer to one of McGovern's questions.

Wretchard at The Belmont Club has a very thorough analysis of the whole episode, including some extremely telling details about Mr. McGovern. Now I ask the intellectually honest people out there to judge whether McGovern is really much of a hero. Or is he an agenda-driven person with very few scruples.

(Trying a blogger link here http://fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com/2006/05/rummy-lied.html - I'm not sure that will get a trackback to Belmont or not)

United 93

There was a bunch of smug pooh-poohing on Monday saying that United 93 was not "living up to it's hype" at the box office.

It turned a profit on May 3rd according to Box Office Mojo and as of today is 1.3 million dollars into profit-land. 80% of viewers rate it an A.

Incidentally, Mission Impossible 3 appears to be heading for the tank. Rapidly.

Heroes

Cheerfully stolen from GM's Corner (I will bet he won't mind one little bit, either). Turn the volume up and click the link to see one of the best slideshows I have ever seen. This is powerful. And very moving.

UPDATE: Many thanks to Done With Mirrors for linking this (even if I did misspell my own name in the comment section!). Please, please spread this around. This is a wonderful slide show and needs to be seen.

Blog Of The Day

Continuing my project to visit at least one member of the 101st Fighting Keyboardists per day, today I visited GM's Corner. He has a great post up on the term "reality based" and similar words and phrases used to "reframe" issues. Having take a run at reality based things myself, I know where he's coming from.

Capitol Police Discipline Watch Commander

The Capitol Police announced it has taken "significant" disciplinary action against the Watch Commander on duty when Representative Patrick Kennedy had his automobile accident. Others may be disciplined as well.

McGaffin said the incident was improperly delayed due to "poor judgment" on the part of police managers and that a field sobriety test should have been administered to Kennedy after his car hit a barrier near the Capitol at 2:45 a.m. on Thursday.

I think this is a good development. The perception that the law is not enforced equally for members of congress is bad for everyone. Especially the members themselves. I expect my representatives in congress to obey the same laws that the rest of us have to. I suspect most people do.

With approval for congress even lower than Bush, the last thing politicians need is something that builds even more anger and resentment. This is one of the reasons I think a "throw the bums out" strategy could backfire on the Democrats (although one commenter says that is wishful thinking). I don't think it is. This is a bad year for politicians in general with public anger over immigration and pork barrel spending reaching new heights. Having a different way of being treated by law enforcement will make people even more angry.

Not All See Media’s Defense Of Zarqawi As Good Strategy

Yesterday CNN, today the New York Times. Rushing to defend the good name of a terrorist killer who saws the heads off bound victims.

An effort by the American military to discredit the terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi by showing video outtakes of him fumbling with a machine gun — suggesting that he lacks real fighting skill — was questioned yesterday by retired and active American military officers.

Because, you know, we wouldn't want to hurt his feelings. The officers quoted in the story actually seem to be arguing that Zarqawi's ineptitude with the gun is not a big deal – which, strictly speaking, is true. The article also quotes J. Michael Waller:

"In Arab and Muslim societies, pride and shame are felt much more profoundly than they are in Western culture," said J. Michael Waller, a professor at the Institute of World Politics, a graduate school in Washington. "To find video like this that can cut him down to size and discredit him is a real way of fighting terrorism." A paper written by Professor Waller advocating the use of ridicule against the insurgents has been circulating at the Pentagon and among military commanders with experience in Iraq recently, according to several military officers.

I rather think that's a good approach. There are indications that the blooper tape is already getting airplay on Arab television. If it helps diminish Zarqawi's reputation, that's a good thing.

UPDATE: Very strong evidence that the Zarqawi video is backfiring on him – badly – from Mohammed at Iraq the Model. Zarqawi's "plumpness" is working against him, too. The additional video released by the US will likely do enormous damage.

Call For Terror

Spiegel is reporting that an online magazine run by an Islamic terror group is calling for freelance hits against journalists and newspapers that printed any of the Mohammed cartoons. The magazine published lists of newspapers that published the cartoons.

At the end of the article, the authors formulate a call to violence that may seem roundabout at first, but which is unlikely to be misinterpreted by the online journal's readership. It's not a matter of a single newspaper, the authors write, but rather one "of international significance." The gist of the article is this: Something needs to be done, the prophet must be avenged.

The publication of cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad by the Danish newspaper in September eventually sparked violent demonstration in the Islamic world, where millions were offended by the caricatures. European consulates were set on fire in Damascus and Beirut, people were killed at demonstrations in Afghanistan, and Danish products were boycotted for weeks in the Middle East. Then things quieted down again and the crisis seemed to have passed. But has it?

Europe has a big problem on it's hands. Officials know there are terrorist organizations with troops already on the ground in most, if not all, European countries. The call to arms by the magazine, along with similar calls from bin Laden and Zwahiri is not a good sign.

Steinberg points out that Ansar al-Sunna has a network of militants already on the ground in Germany, Scandinavia and Italy. The founder of Ansar al-Islam, the organization out of which Ansar al-Sunna developed, lives in Norway. In recent years, Ansar followers have been caught trafficking militants in and out of Iraq from Italy and Germany. The Iraqi exiles thought to have planned an assassination attempt on Iraqi Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi in Berlin last year come from the same network. For a time, it is also believed that the Ansar al-Sunna Web site was run from Germany. And it can't be coincidence that so many newspapers from these countries have been listed — it seems likely that followers residing from these countries contributed information. According to Germany's domestic intelligence service, there are roughly 100 Ansar al-Sunna followers here.

People have to start realizing that there is a war on and ignoring it will not make it go away.

Crossroads

There's an interesting opinion piece in the Asia Times Online from Kaveh L. Afrasiabi that helps explain some of the internal political conflicts going on inside Iran. He argues that Iran has two choices, either go back to the international isolation it experienced in the 1980's or go back to a more measured stance as it did in the 1990's.

Iran is fairly well equipped to deal with the rather toothless sanctions posed by the US that date back to the hostage crisis of 1979. Short of an oil embargo, Iran can financially withstand any lesser sanctions such as travel bans, a freeze on assets of leaders and the like.

On the other hand, the Iranian economy will suffer grievously should foreign investors stay away, foreign contracts be canceled or put in indefinite limbo, and the bills for foreign imports skyrocket, translating into higher unemployment and economic stagnation. That would come on top of a war economy where more and more of the government's budget is swallowed up by defense spending. At a minimum, it will slow Iran's economic growth, about which Ahmadinejad boasted recently.

Thus, looking ahead, a year or so from now, with Iran under international isolation, the picture that emerges is rather bleak – an Iran turned into a Middle Eastern version of isolated North Korea. That is hardly what Iran's foreign-policy establishment aimed to achieve during the past two decades.

There appears to be a growing rift between the foreign policy insiders and the more revolutionary elements.

This might explain why Iran rebutted the recent statement by a military leader, regarding Iran's intention to attack Israel in case of an assault by the US, saying it was not "valid". The pendulum had swung too far in the direction of bellicose rhetoric supplanting diplomacy, and as Dr Hassan Rowhani, the former chief nuclear negotiator, has candidly stated, Iran welcomes dialogue and diplomacy.

Of course, this may all be misinformation, too. The Iranian President's  most inflammatory rhetoric has been, if anything, growing worse recently. While there may very well be elements that wish to ratchet the situation down a bit, it remains to be seen which group comes out on top in the debate. Right now the face Iran is presenting is one of a bellicose nation looking to pick a fight.

Digging Up History

Archaeologists are racing the clock to finish excavating the ruins of a Roman city lying under a construction site in Paris. Roads, houses and baths have been found where the town of Lutetia once stood.

Remnants of private houses rigged with baths and ingeniously heated floors were among the findings, now on view in a stunning dig. Over the next few weeks, however, archaeologists will rip up the ruins to make way for a research center.

The archeologists gradually remove every layer of ruins until they reach the geological stratum — the original ground — and eventually draw a chronological diagram.

"Excavating is destroying. We dig into historic layer after historic layer," said Didier Busson, scientific supervisor of the archaeological site.

The discovery, during construction work on the Pierre and Marie Curie University near the famed Sorbonne, offers a window onto one of the many layers of history underpinning this bustling capital.

They have to be finished by June 30th when construction is set to resume. It's always fascinated me that the ruins of whole cities could end up buried deep beneath a still inhabited place.

Photo Op “Recovery”

Dan over at Riehl World View reviews Patrick Kennedy's performance at the press conference yesterday. He's not real impressed.

Now Let’s Not Lose Our Heads

Some commenters here have said Colbert was "brave" to have said the things he said during his performance last week. Of course, Colbert knew he'd suffer no consequences for his unfunny routine, so it wasn't at all brave.

This would be brave. So brave, in fact, that we'd all be praising him.

Posthumously.

Just Call Me Your Lordship

Police may have discovered the real identity of the man they have been holding in jail for the past year. Arrested while trying to cross the channel into France, the man's identity papers showed the name Christopher Buckingham. Unfortunately, the real Christopher Buckingham died as an infant. The man had been living in England and passing himself off as "Lord Buckingham" for more than 20 years. He had even married and had two children.

For the past year, he has refused to give any other name than Christopher Buckingham. Recently, though, a family in Orlando, Florida has come forward and claims the man is actually Charlie Stopford who disappeared 23 years ago. By all accounts a huge Beatles fan and Anglophile, Stopford disappeared after getting in a bit of legal trouble. It seems he tried to blow up his supervisor's car while working at a Burger King.

Authorities are trying to get a DNA match to confirm the man's identity.