A Selective Remembering Of The Past

David Broder gives us a history lesson. It must be history week at the Washington Post. This time both Korea and Vietnam are brought up.

If you think there is an echo in the air when officials discuss the twin crises in Iraq and Lebanon, you're not hearing things. In both cases the argument for carrying on the destructive current policy comes down to a claim that "we can't afford to let the other guy win."

President Bush says over and over that cutting short the occupation of Iraq would turn that country over to the terrorists and embolden them to carry their wicked plots ever closer to our shores. He also endorses — implicitly — Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's view that an early cease-fire with Lebanon would strengthen Hezbollah and make its prime sponsor, Iran, even more of a threat to its neighbors. That political support enables Olmert to wage the kind of campaign he has in Lebanon.

Ok, so far, Broder doesn't agree with the policies in either conflict. I happen to think he's wrong - more on that later - but he has an opinion. He criticizes the lack of a massive, overwhelming attack in both conflicts. Implication: if we had hit hard enough we would have won. Here's the part where I think he really loses it:

But once the hope for victory is gone, the issue remains: What do you do? The answer from Bush and from Olmert is: Carry on. Do not waver. And do not question the logic of prolonging the agony.

History suggests that is not always the right answer. The United States has failed to achieve victory in two of its recent wars — with very different results.

In Korea, we settled for a stalemate, a line dividing North and South Korea, after Gen. Douglas MacArthur's rush northward brought the Chinese into the fight and led to a terrifying retreat by American forces. No one would claim that has been an ideal solution. North Korea remains a communist dictatorship, and its nuclear ambitions and missile development are a continuing problem for the United States and North Korea's Asian neighbors.

On the other hand, North Korea has not moved against South Korea for more than 50 years; the peace has held.

The other war was in Vietnam. (I know there are still people who believe it was lost in Washington, on Capitol Hill, when it could have been won in the jungles. But the fact is that we withdrew, and Saigon fell.) It is hard to remember now, but at the time, we were told that if Ho Chi Minh prevailed, communism would roll south through Malaysia and spread to the Philippines and threaten Australia — to say nothing of American influence in the Pacific. We took those warnings seriously, and so it was a bitter moment when the Viet Cong occupied the old American Embassy in Saigon.

And today the embassy is again open — in Hanoi — and the United States is trading freely with a united Vietnam.

The point is that history and economics have their own logic. A military mission that fails to yield a victory does not always presage disaster. Today, virtually no one argues that we should have continued fighting the North Koreans or the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese.

Can we think about the costs of carrying on, without an end in sight, against Hezbollah and the insurgents in Iraq?

Reasoning by analogy is always tricky. In this case, I think he misses one huge, glaring point. In neither Korea or in Vietnam was the country we fought trying to dominate the world. Selective memory is a dangerous thing in trying to use an analogy.

That's the avowed purpose of the Islamists. To dominate the world.

So I would pose a counter-question: Can we think about the costs of not carrying on?

Broder's analogy fails on that point alone.

Israel Admits Mistakes In Qana

Israel has issued the findings of an investigation into what happened at Qana. The report summery says that they did not know there were any civilians in the building. They maintain that they would not have hit the building if the had known that in advance (I believe that, incidentally). But there is a true shocker in the article. Human Rights Watch wants a full and complete impartial investigation into the incident - because the high initial casualty figures have turned out to be untrue.

Israeli planes attacked an apartment house in Qana in the early hours of Sunday. The house collapsed, and rescue workers pulled the bodies of civilians, most of them women and children, out of the rubble. An international outcry led Israel to call a suspension of its airstrikes in Lebanon for 48 hours and increased pressure for a cease-fire in the three-week-old offensive against Hezbollah.

In a statement summarizing the inquiry findings, the military said Israel did not know there were civilians in the building.

"Had the information indicated that civilians were present … the attack would not have been carried out," the statement said.

The bombing followed guidelines regarding attacking "suspicious structures" in villages where civilians have been warned to evacuate, the statement said, adding that Hezbollah forces "use civilian structures inside villages to store weaponry and hide in after launching rocket attacks."

The statement said more than 150 rockets have been launched from Qana and the area around it since July 12, when the current conflict erupted.

As a result of the incident, the statement said, the guidelines would be evaluated and updated.

The chief of staff of the Israeli military. Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, apologized for the loss of civilian life but charged that Hezbollah "uses civilians as human shields and intentionally operates from within civilian villages and infrastructure."

On Wednesday, Human Rights Watch questioned the death toll in the Qana attack. The international group listed the names of 28 known dead from the attack and said that 13 others were missing and might still be buried under the rubble. The discrepancy was attributed to an assumption that only nine of the people who took shelter in the basement of the building survived, but it emerged that at least 22 escaped, the group said.

Human Rights Watch called for an impartial international investigation of the incident.

Ha'aretz is reporting it this way:

Israel Defense Forces' inquiry on the bombing of a building in the south Lebanese village of Qana that killed 56 civilians admits a mistake but charges that Hezbollah guerrillas used civilians as shields for their rocket attacks, according to a statement released early Thursday.

Israel Air Force planes attacked an apartment house in Qana in the early hours of Sunday. The house collapsed, and rescue workers pulled the bodies of civilians, most of them women and children, out of the rubble. An international outcry led Israel to call a halt to its airstrikes in Lebanon for 48 hours and increased pressure on Israel to agree to a cease-fire in its three-week offensive against Hezbollah.

In a statement summarizing the inquiry report, the Israeli military said Israel did not know there were civilians in the building. "Had the information indicated that civilians were present … the attack would not have been carried out," the statement said.

Which appears to be much the same - likely relying heavily on wireservice reports. I still have a lot of questions about this incident and would like to see an investigation as well.

Darth Hamsher

In what can only be described as an exercise in self-immolation at this point, the lovely post with the lovely graphic of Joe Lieberman in blackface put up by Jane Hamsher at Huffington Post has been very, very publicly disavowed  by the Lamont campaign.

And Jane Hamsher has very likely rendered herself completely radioactive to any Democratic campaign, anywhere, anytime, pretty much for eternity.

The over-the-top rhetoric from the Dark Side may play well to the far left, but it is death itself to bringing in the moderates. Lamont may be in serious trouble right now. Judging by the reflexive reaction of Lamont's campaign manager, he knows it, too.

Tom Maguire has the details.

UPDATE: I know Tom linked this, but here's the local news coverage. It's quite harsh on Hamsher and the photo. If this is picked up nationally, Lamont is in deep, deep, deep trouble.  Want to bet whether Ned asks Hamsher to any campaign events?

Oh, Hamsher has apologized. The first paragraph, sounds good. the rest descends into an odd place capped with this:

But perhaps it’s also time people started asking why the Republicans suddenly feel they have a dog in this fight in the first place.  First David Horowitz, then the College Republicans and now the rightwing blogosphere are all championing a particular Democrat in a Democratic primary.  Perhaps they have come to admire what seem to be ever increasing Rovian tactics, such as that flyer accusing Lamont of being a racist (which inspired the satirical graphic in the first place.) Whatever it is, it certainly should give Connecticut voters pause as they consider whether they are really voting for a Democrat in the Democratic primary on August 8th. 

It's funny, because I have been covering the Lieberman-Lamont thing for quite a while now. It's not at all recent. And I'm not a Republican. Or a member of any party whatsoever.

I just happen to think an unelectable party in a two party system is a very, very bad thing for everyone.

The Media And Castro

The Media Reality Check has a roundup of various reports through the years from American reporters about Fidel Castro and his police state in Cuba. When it's all put together like this, it's enough to make you sick. The positively fawning coverage of a brutal dictator from one or two people could be understood as being misguided. But the number of major American media figures who filed glowing reports abut Castro and Cuba more closely resembles mass psychosis.

After decades of poverty and repression, the media’s enthusiasm remained. Then-NBC reporter Maria Shriver let Castro himself lead her on a tour of Havana. "The level of public services was remarkable: free education, medicine and heavily-subsidized housing," Shriver marveled on the February 28, 1988 Today. In the same broadcast, reporter Ed Rabel dismissed worries about Cuba’s "government intrusion" in citizen’s lives: "On a sunny day in a park in the old city of Havana, it is difficult to see anything sinister."

ABC’s Peter Jennings trumpeted "the revolution’s great success stories." On his April 3, 1989 World News Tonight, Jennings touted how "medical care was once for the privileged few. Today it is available to every Cuban, and it is free. Some of Cuba’s health care is world class….Health and education are the revolution’s great success stories."

Katie Couric was just as upbeat on NBC’s Today on Feb. 13, 1992: "Considered one of the most charismatic leaders of the 20th century….Castro traveled the country cultivating his image and his revolution delivered. Campaigns stamped out illiteracy and even today, Cuba has one of the lowest infant mortality rates in the world."

On the September 4, 1994 CBS Evening News, reporter Giselle Fernandez found Castro’s Cuba "a beacon of success for much of Latin America and the Third World. For decades, Cuba’s health care and education systems were touted as great achievements of the revolution….Some say the [U.S.] trade ban has never given Cuba a chance to see whether or not Castro’s socialism might work."

If you have a strong stomach, go read it all. It says a vast amount about our media.

None of it good.

UPDATE: See Flopping Aces for a good roundup.

Coldest Winter

Oh the snow fell without a break
Buffalo died in the frozen fields you know
Through the coldest winter in almost fourteen years
I couldn't believe you kept a smile
Now I can rest assured knowing that we've seen the worst
And I know I love ya
(Rod Stewart, Mandolin Wind)

Just a bit of perspective. Our media is telling all of us about how sweltering hot it is right now. Every day brings another story of record heat somewhere. The media, almost gleefully, reports on deaths attributed to the heat. Record power usage, terms like 'scorching heat' and 'sweltering July' are tossed around endlessly, it seems.

Meanwhile, in South Africa:

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - Snow. Floods. Icy winds. Maybe even a tornado. South Africans are facing one of their harshest winters in years, with at least four deaths blamed on flooding from heavy rain that has caused travel delays in the south and west of the country.

While north of the equator, much of the United States sweats through a heat wave, Johannesburg saw flurries Wednesday for the first time in at least eight years, the national weather service said. Stunned office workers pressed against windows to savor the spectacle.

Freezing temperatures are not unusual at higher altitudes during the winter, but heavy snow has fallen in some interior towns that rarely experience such weather. More snow and gale force winds were expected Thursday in some areas, Weather SA said.

Torrential rains have caused flooding along the southern coast, including the town of George in the Western Cape province, where a rain-swollen river swept a car from a bridge. Police recovered two men and two children who had been inside the vehicle, but rescuers were looking for a fifth person believed to have been in the car.

Homes were flooded, sending scores of families to seek shelter at a community center and school, local authorities said.

Heavy snow, rain and falling rocks closed mountain roads in parts of the interior, including a border post with Lesotho, according to local news reports.

The George airport was closed Tuesday, disrupting 24 flights before it reopened Wednesday morning, airport officials said. Passenger trains in the Western Cape were running up to 14 hours late, the Spoornet rail company said.

Meteorologists were investigating whether a severe storm that swept through the northern town of Dullstroom on Tuesday night was a tornado. At least six people were injured in the heavy winds and rain, which also ripped roofs off homes, police said.

Well, there's still some good news. The South Africans can keep warm by huddling around the flaming whales!

The Bad Habit Bears

Wasn't that the name of a movie once? With Tatum O'Neal as a baseball playing nun? Well, it should have been.  Anyway, in a sure sign of the animals getting overconfident in their uprising. Some of their shock troops are developing bad habits. Yes, the bears are developing bad habits. And we're not talking about raiding homes for granola or stealing beer and pizza. No, this is serious.

They're gambling.

STATELINE, Nev. - A Lake Tahoe casino that promotes a "habitat for everything wild" found truth in advertising over the weekend when a wayward bear wandered in through a rear loading dock.

The 150 pound yearling walked around employee hallways at MontBleu Resort Casino and Spa early Saturday and sauntered toward a cafeteria before it scurried out the way it came in, apparently frightened off by several workers, employee Earl Zeller told the Tahoe Daily Tribune.

In one MontBleu television commercial, a cocktail waitress walks past urban-dressed guests in lounge, then throws a fresh fish to a waiting bear.

"Evidently the bears out there heard the story that bears can be fed at the nightclub at MontBleu," Zeller quipped. "I guess we reached our target audience."

And the damn fools are encouraging this behavior with television commercials! What is wrong with you people? Don't you understand how this kind of behavior will bring even worse if it's not nipped in the bud. Just wait until a bear starts hanging around the lounge hitting on waitresses. You'll see.

Qana Update

The Jerusalem Post has noted the questions being raised by a number of right-leaning blogs about what actually happened at Qana. It's interesting to note that the IDF is also aware of the various questions and is looking into them. One of the blogs being cited by the JPost is Confederate Yankee, good friend to Blue Crab Boulevard. (But they mis-named his blog).

The IDF is looking into allegations raised over the past few days by several pro-Israel, Jewish and conservative Weblogs that Hizbullah may have staged aspects of the Kana tragedy on Sunday, in which some 60 Lebanese bodies were removed from a building that collapsed seven hours after being hit in an Israel Air Force strike.

The dead were mainly children, women and elderly people.

The International Committee of the Red Cross Mission in Israel said Tuesday that it would inform its Swiss headquarters about the allegations and seek to clarify the questions raised.

Israel has acknowledged hitting the building, and said 150 Katyushas had been fired from the village in the previous 20 days, with Hizbullah hiding rocket launchers in civilian buildings there. Israel said it did not know civilians were inside the building and expressed sorrow over the tragedy.

In a speech on Monday night, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he deeply regretted the deaths of civilians there. "We did not seek to harm them, we did not want their death," he said. "They were not our enemies, they were not the target of our aircraft."

At a press conference on Sunday night, Air Force Chief of Staff Brig.-Gen. Amir Eshel said the building was struck by IAF missiles a little after midnight, but only collapsed seven hours later, at about 7 a.m.

Eshel said he could not explain what caused the structure to collapse so many hours after it was hit, and speculated, while stressing that he had no conclusive evidence, about whether Hizbullah had played a role in what had transpired, perhaps by firing on the building itself.

Another possibility that has been raised is that the building sustained damage from the original strike, but collapsed only later from structural damage or the impact of further IAF strikes nearby. Alternatively, the building may have contained Hizbullah weaponry that detonated after the strike.

MK Benny Elon (National Union) suggested Tuesday that Hizbullah may have played a role in the building's collapse in an attempt to prevent an international force from entering Lebanon and to place blame on Israel.

"In general, Hizbullah prevents citizens from moving from places that the IDF is attacking. This time it was more," said Elon. "It wasn't just prohibiting citizens from leaving this time, it was bringing refugees that aren't residents of Kafr Kana to areas that they know are going to be attacked. And to be sure it's attacked, Hizbullah fires from the building next door in order to create the crisis and in order to create the pictures."

As I wrote yesterday, these questions are not conspiracy theory, despite the Washington Post deciding to jump on that particular little meme earlier today. These are legitimate questions about inconsistencies. It is not citing the absence of proof as proof, a hallmark of conspiracy theories. It is not attempting to rewrite the laws of physics as the 9/11 deniers are trying to do. I have maintained all along that there is enough appearance of problems to warrant a full and thorough investigation.

As I wrote yesterday, these questions are not conspiracy theory, despite the Washington Post deciding to jump on that particular little meme earlier today. These are legitimate questions about inconsistencies. It is not citing the absence of proof as proof, a hallmark of conspiracy theories. It is not attempting to rewrite the laws of physics as the 9/11 deniers are trying to do. I have maintained all along that there is enough appearance of problems to warrant a full and thorough investigation.

Signs And Portents

While the Cuban goverment continues to say all is well, and Cuba's official newspaper prints statements purportedly from Fidel Castro, there are a few interesting tidbits of information coming out.

As speculation swirled that his rule might be nearing an end, state-run newspaper Granma published a message from the 79-year-old president saying details of his health were secret but that he was stable and in good spirits.

"The most I can say is that the situation will remain stable for many days before a verdict can be given," said the message from Castro, which was first read out on state television late on Tuesday.

"The situation is stable but real progress on health needs time," said the message, mentioning Cuba's "specific situation" — a reference to long-running U.S. government hostility to the communist outpost on its doorstep.

Castro, who last appeared in public on July 26, handed over power to his 75-year-old defense minister brother, Raul, on Monday after surgery to halt stomach bleeding.

The news ignited raucous celebrations among Cuban-Americans in Miami hoping for an end to Cuban communism.

But residents of the Caribbean island's picturesque but scruffy capital have largely gone about their business as usual. Many said they are worried about their "comandante"'s health but that the revolution he started in the hills of the Sierra Maestra would go on without him.

There appeared to be a slight increase in police presence in some of Havana's more run-down neighborhoods, where street protests over power cuts broke out last summer. Some Cubans with relatives in the security forces said military and other uniformed personnel had also been mobilized in barracks and police stations as a precaution.

Some residents also reported that rapid deployment brigades used to quell riots in the past were on standby. (Emphasis added)

"Everything is calm and people are not talking about it in the street, but they are worried. What is going to happen?" said Manuel, chauffeur of a battered Russian-made Lada car.

One deploys police and rapid-response units when one expects something to stir up. What would that be in a dictatorship with a massive cult of personality based government? Hmmm? If Castro isn't already dead, I'm guessing he will be within days.

Deadly Rain

Well, after a couple of days of relative quiet, Hezbollah hit Israel with a record 210 rockets on Wednesday. An Israeli-American man was killed.

NAHARIYA, Israel - Hezbollah rockets struck Israel in record numbers and deeper than ever Wednesday, pushing the three-week total over the 2,000 mark and killing a Boston-born man fleeing on his bicycle toward shelter.

The barrage, which followed a two-day lull, came despite the Israeli army chief's claim that the offensive in south Lebanon had eroded Hezbollah's firepower. Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz also threatened to resume air raids against the Lebanese capital.

One missile fell near the Palestinian town of Jenin, leaving a 6-foot crater in a rural area of the West Bank. It caused no casualties, and Palestinians said the mistake would not change their support for Hezbollah.

Rockets also landed near the town of Beit Shean, about 45 miles from the border — the deepest penetration so far. Hezbollah's satellite TV network, Al-Manar, reported the guerrilla group used its longer-range Khaibar-1 missiles, which Israel says were supplied by Iran. The Khaibar rocket debuted last week when the town of Afula was targeted.

Police said at least 210 rockets hit Israel by Wednesday evening. The highest previous daily total was 157 on Sunday.

The relative quiet of Monday and Tuesday brought civilians onto the streets and beaches of northern Israel for the first time in weeks. But it ended hours after helicopter-borne commandos snatched what Israel said were five guerrillas from the Hezbollah stronghold of Baalbek deep in eastern Lebanon.

The rocket fire killed a 52-year-old Israeli American in Kibbutz Saar, a communal farm near the coastal resort of Nahariya. It brought the Israeli death toll in the fighting to 55, including 19 civilians. The attacks Wednesday also wounded 21 people.

A very bad day, indeed.

This Crosses A Line

Michelle Malkin links to a despicable, and I use that word advisedly, photoshop being used by Jane Hamsher in her latest hit piece on Joe Lieberman.

Joe Lieberman in blackface.

This is beyond the pale. Period. This is not politics this is character assassination. This is also beneath contempt. Anyone on the left care to slam this?

Damn, loud crickets again.

UPDATE: Well, isn't this amusing? Huff-n-Post has taken the lovely graphic down. As if that will keep it from being seen by a lot of people you would rather didn't see it.

Like Connecticut voters who will be completely repulsed by the left on this one.

Iron Outlaw

The Australian government has announced that it will be providing $30,000 (Australian, around $23,000 US) to provide signs and brochures for the small town of Glenrowan. The purpose of the grant is to keep the memory of Ned Kelly alive.

Who?

Well, if you were Australian, you'd have likely heard of him. He's sort of Oz's equivalent of Jessie James. A legendary outlaw, or bushranger, who stayed on the run from police for two years or so after killing several policement while robbing banks. He and his gang made a last stand in the town of Glenrowan in 1880. Wearing homemade iron armor made out of plowshares.

Federal Heritage Minister Ian Campbell said Wednesday that the money would pay for signs and brochures to mark the small town of Glenrowan, where the bushranger and his gang made their last stand.

"In his day Ned Kelly was more likely to relieve governments of money rather than receive support," Campbell quipped as he announced the funding package.

Kelly, a bank robber who had killed three policemen, evaded capture for nearly two years before he and his gang faced a final showdown with the law in Glenrowan on June 28, 1880.

Three of the four gang members — wearing heavy armour made out of ploughshares — were killed and Kelly was wounded and captured. He was later hanged for the murder of the policemen.

For those who want to spend a bit of time on a diversion from the usual politics and war, here's a really excellent site that is dedicated to Ned of the iron underwear. They have pictures of all four sets of armor and a lot of background and history.

Down Mexico Way - Part Deux

The Mexican national government has appealed to officials in Mexico City to disband the street protests that have crippled the capitol city and are causing economic damage to the country.

MEXICO CITY - The national government urged Mexico City officials Wednesday to clear the streets of protest camps supporting leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's battle to be declared winner of last month's disputed presidential election.

The camps put up Sunday have blocked the main avenues in the capital's financial and cultural heart, snarling traffic, hurting business and causing Mexico's stock market and currency to falter.

President Vicente Fox's administration has said it will not intervene with federal forces unless the city government requests help. That is unlikely since the local government is controlled by Lopez Obrador's Democratic Revolution Party.

At a morning news conference, Fox spokesman Ruben Aguilar called on city officials to find a legal and peaceful way to end the street protests. He said the demonstrations were costing the capital commerce and keeping people from their jobs.

"The city of Mexico is for everyone," Aguilar said, reading a statement from Fox's office. "Democracy should be defended by respecting it."

Mexican stocks and the peso recovered slightly Wednesday after two days of declines that analysts blamed in part on the street blockades.

Fox has taken a hands-off approach to the election dispute to avoid inflaming tensions over the tight July 2 election. The candidate of Fox's conservative party, Felipe Calderon, ended up with a 240,000-vote lead, or less than 0.6 percent of an official count.

Lopez Obrador argues the election was marred by fraud and has asked the country's top electoral court to order a recount that he says will prove he was the race's true winner.

Well, there's no doubt. AMLO doesn't care if he crashes the economy of Mexico in his blind ambition to be president. I would be a good idea to get started on that fence along the Mexican border. Because if the economy collapses, the flood of illegals we have experienced up until now will look like a trickle.

Interesting Thoughts From Lebanon

Michael Totten writes about some interesting developments inside Lebanon. Totten has lived in Lebanon and admits he is somewhat biased toward that country, but he's also intellectually honest about it and about developments. He's also one of the best citizen journalists working at the moment.

I’m already on record in opposition to Israel expanding its war against Hezbollah to the rest of the country. But that’s neither here nor there at this point. The consequences I warned about have already come to pass, more or less, so that’s that. I have no more advice. Hopefully the damage done can be rolled back somewhat in the future.

Here are a few positive nuggets:

1. Hassan Nasrallah is a free man no more. Yesterday I talked to my Lebanese friend Tony Badran (who once guest-blogged for me here and who has his own blog Across the Bay). He pointed out that "Nasrallah is stuck in his bunker – or some other undisclosed location – and may remain stuck there forever." He's right. Hezbollah’s secretary general is a marked man now, and if he comes out of hiding the Israelis will put one in his forehead. Short of some kind of miracle, Nasrallah will be reduced to releasing Jihad TV videos from exile or from the urban equivalent of a cave in Afghanistan. No more boozing and chasing girls in Gemmayze for him! The problem with an attempted Hezbollah coup d’etat is not that they might succeed, but that they could start another war trying.

2. While Lebanese public opinion is overwhelmingly hostile to both Israel and the United States right now (and believe me, it wasn’t this way a few weeks ago), the opinions of the political leadership are what matter most in the short run. If the leaders of the Christian, Sunni, and Druze communities can be brought around to the international consensus (which is where they already were before the war started, sigh) the view on the “street” will have little or no effect on ceasefire negotiations.

By all means, please read the rest. It's not all bleak at the moment. Also, his later post here is also very interesting.

But it's telling, I think, that the Lebanese army, the fighting institution that represents democratic Lebanon and not just one totalitarian-sponsored political party, has chosen to sit this one out.

Yes, it is when you think of it, isn't it?

Stephen King: “Don’t kill Harry Potter”

Two famous American authors, Stephen King and John Irving, begged famous British author JK Rowling to not kill Harry Potter in the final installment of the wildly popular series.

"My fingers are crossed for Harry," Irving said at a joint news conference before a charity reading by the three writers at New York's Radio City Music Hall.

The author of "The World According to Garp" and a string of other bestsellers said he and King felt like "warm-up bands" for Rowling, who is working on the seventh and last book in the Harry Potter series, and who has said two characters will die.

King, who shot to fame in 1974 with "Carrie," said he had confidence that Rowling would be "fair" to her hero.

"I don't want him to go over the Reichenbach Falls," King said in a reference to Arthur Conan Doyle's effort to kill off the character of fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. Pressure from fans eventually led Conan Doyle to resurrect Holmes, who was found in a later story to have survived.

Rowling, a Briton whose books have sold 300 million copies worldwide according to her publishers, said she was well into the process of writing the final book.

"I feel quite liberated," she said.

"I can resolve the story now and it's fun in a way it wasn't before because finally I've reached my resolution, and I think some people will loathe it and some people will love it, but that's how it should be."

"We're working toward the end I always planned but a couple of characters I expected to survive have died and one character got a reprieve," she said, declining to elaborate.

Asked about the wisdom of killing off fictional characters, Rowling said she didn't enjoy killing the major character who died in book six — for the sake of those who haven't read it yet she avoided naming the victim — but she said the conventions of the genre demanded the hero go on alone.

When asked why he didn't want Rowling to kill Potter, King replied, "Because I want to do it myself. I have 7,584 pages written already just this week. Potter will wish he'd never been born."

Ok, we made that last bit up. But it's a lot funnier that way.

Another Reason To Vote Republican!

Charles Rangel, Democratic representative from New York has promised that he will resign his seat if the Democrats fail to take control of the House in November.

"I'm a poker player and I've had good hands all night long. This is all in," Rangel said in an interview. "I would not put everything on the table if I thought for one minute we would lose."

Rangel, ranking Democrat on the House Ways & Means Committee, is 76 years old and has spent 35 years in Congress. The Democrats need to gain 15 seats in the 2006 midterm election to retake control of the House — a victory that would return Rangel to the chairmanship of the powerful committee.

"Hell, if we don't take back the House, then the Democrats would go down in history, saying that there's no group in the world that can grab defeat from the jaws of victory," Rangel said in an interview Wednesday. "It just seems like America is so frustrated and fed up like I am and if she's not, then I may have to say maybe it's me."

The Washington Post reported in Wednesday's editions that Rangel would leave Congress if the GOP retained control of the House.

That alone will bring out Republican voters in droves!

(By the way, I'm originally from New York State and Charles Rangel has always been a jerk for as long as I can remember. It's not his party affiliation either. The guys just abrasive as heck).