Republicanizing Politics

EJ Dionne has been around a while which is why this particular column of his is so curious. He contends that the old Tip O'Neill adage, "All politics are local" is being tipped over this year. By Republicans alone if you read his examples.

The blogosphere has created central repositories of political information — including news of very local developments that would otherwise go unnoticed on the national level — that can speed the flow of intelligence to activists across the nation. And the recruitment of candidates is ever more the job of national party committees, not local officials or organizations.

The result is that the conventional debate about whether congressional elections are primarily local or national in character is both irrelevant and misleading. Even apparently local developments are often orchestrated from afar, and even personal attacks on individual candidates are largely the work of a cadre of Washington-based researchers.

Except for a brief mention of the Maryland Senate race, the examples are Republican. Funny how Lamont in Connecticut doesn't even rate a mention, isn't it?

I'm not buying his line at all here. There has always been national involvement in these kinds of races in modern times. National party support is probably responsible for all but a handful of Washington politicians. It has been everywhere I have lived, anyway. Some of the tools may be different, but the goal is the same as it has ever been. Dionne knows that, I suspect. He just took this as another opportunity to bash Republicans.

Calculus Lesson

Charles Krauthammer offers an exceedingly grim calculus lesson. It really requires serious contemplation. There are certain things which must be taken into consideration about Iran. We are running out of time to consider them before we are forced to act.

In his televised Sept. 11 address, President Bush said that we must not "leave our children to face a Middle East overrun by terrorist states and radical dictators armed with nuclear weapons." There's only one such current candidate: Iran.

The next day, he responded thus (as reported by Rich Lowry and Kate O'Beirne of National Review) to a question on Iran: "It's very important for the American people to see the president try to solve problems diplomatically before resorting to military force."

"Before" implies that the one follows the other. The signal is unmistakable. An aerial attack on Iran's nuclear facilities lies just beyond the horizon of diplomacy. With the crisis advancing and the moment of truth approaching, it is important to begin looking now with unflinching honesty at the military option.

The costs will be terrible:

Krauthammer goes on to describe those terrible costs. They are ones, I assure you, that are grim, indeed. We approach this point because of the wholesale failure of the world to unite and see the approaching danger. The useless attempts to try the same old tired 'dialog' and 'negotiate' without ever acknowledging that those things work only when both sides are trying to achieve a solution. Otherwise, they are a waste of time and give the party acting in bad faith additional time to accomplish what it wants.

In the region, Persian Iran will immediately become the hegemonic power in the Arab Middle East. Today it is deterred from overt aggression against its neighbors by the threat of conventional retaliation. Against a nuclear Iran, such deterrence becomes far less credible. As its weak, nonnuclear Persian Gulf neighbors accommodate to it, jihadist Iran will gain control of the most strategic region on the globe.

Then there is the larger danger of permitting nuclear weapons to be acquired by religious fanatics seized with an eschatological belief in the imminent apocalypse and in their own divine duty to hasten the End of Days. The mullahs are infinitely more likely to use these weapons than anyone in the history of the nuclear age. Every city in the civilized world will live under the specter of instant annihilation delivered either by missile or by terrorist. This from a country that has an official Death to America Day and has declared since Ayatollah Khomeini's ascension that Israel must be wiped off the map.

Be assured of one thing: those countries denouncing American "hegemony" the loudest are complaining because they want hegemony for themselves. A nuclear Iran would be the worst danger this world has ever seen.

This is the grim calculus. Work the answers out.

An Age Of Insanity

We, as a civilization are standing upon dangerous ground. There are people here in the United States who are making a concerted effort to undermine our elected government by accusing them of the most horrible crime imaginable: mass murder of our own citizens for political purposes. Some people, with agendas that include undermining that same elected government for other purposes, have been largely quiet in denouncing that particular insanity. Presumably because it works in their favor in a way.

The problem is, that tactics like that can work in the other direction as well. Spain is now being wracked by a simmering conspiracy theory that the commuter train bombings in Madrid three days before the elections were actually a socialist coup.

Spain's two largest newspapers, El País and El Mundo, have launched into a fierce row over their reporting of investigations into the Islamist train bombings that killed 191 Madrid commuters two and a half years ago.

The outbreak of hostilities between the country's most influential dailies follows the publication in El Mundo of a series of interviews with a small-time Spanish crook accused of supplying the explosives used in the bombings.

In the interviews José Emilio Suárez claims the bombings hid what was effectively a coup d'etat that brought the Socialist government of prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero to power.

Mr Zapatero's Socialists won a national election three days after the Madrid bombings, ousting a People's party that had led in opinion polls published prior to the bombings. "I am the victim of a coup they have tried to hide behind a bunch of muslims," Mr Suárez said.

On Wednesday El País published part of a conversation between Mr Suárez and his parents - apparently recorded by authorities during a prison visit - which it claimed showed El Mundo had paid him.

Socialist-supporting El País accused El Mundo of "yellow" journalism and stirring up conspiracy theories, including the idea that Basque group Eta may have been involved in the attacks. El Mundo yesterday denied paying Mr Suárez and claimed El País had taken his words out of context.

In a widening of the media war, privately owned radio stations have taken sides. The conservative ABC newspaper, the third largest Madrid-based daily, has also attacked El Mundo.

El Mundo has long been a critic of El País's powerful owner, the pro-socialist media magnate Jesús de Polanco, who owns TV, radio and publishing interests.

The spat between the newspapers also reflected a continuing campaign by the People's party to cast doubt on the police investigation into the Madrid bombings.

The campaign has split the People's party itself, as those close to former prime minister José María Aznar keep the conspiracy theories bubbling while other senior figures complain this damages the party's chances of re-election.

"There are more shadows than there is light in this case," the former minister Eduardo Zaplana said in parliament on Wednesday, claiming evidence appeared to have been hidden or falsified.

The People's party mayor of Madrid, Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón, this week called on the party to leave the investigation to the police and courts and concentrate, instead, on criticising government policy.

What is happening in Spain is almost a mirror image of what is happening in this country. I warned a long time ago that the unprincipled and unbridled partisan attacks could cause unwanted consequences. If these tactics bring down the government, then the successor party can expect the exact same behavior in return until its mandate is overturned and its government driven from office. And on and on until the system collapses.

The sickness is spreading. A lust to drive the "enemy" from office has already put Mexico in a bad way. Now Spain is following. But make no mistake. They are following the lead of what they see happening here in the US. They see that hate, vitriol, false accusations and manufacturered scandals work at undermining public trust.

We live in an age of insanity. In the end, as I said a while back, we all fall down. Every one of us.

House Approves Separate Border Fence Bill

The House passed a completely new and completely separate border fencing bill today, by a wider margin than the original border bill they passed made it through with. The bill would authorize 700 miles of double link fence. This is a stand-alone bill with no other provisions.

A new 700 miles of double-layered fencing won approval on a 283-138 vote, a bigger margin than last December when the House passed it as part of a broader bill that also would have made being an illegal immigrant a felony. The nearly 2,000-mile border now has about 75 miles of fencing.

Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., said the separate fence bill was needed to show Americans "we can take meaningful action to secure the border."

The House's bill last December and one passed by the Senate last May are so far apart on issues that Republican leaders haven't even tried to negotiate a compromise.

The main difference is that the Senate bill would provide legal status to millions of illegal immigrants already in the U.S., a concept supported by President Bush but opposed by most House Republicans. The Senate bill calls for 370 miles of fencing along the Mexican border.

Supporters of the new House bill said the new fencing would let Border Patrol agents focus more on apprehending illegal immigrants crossing from Mexico rather than having to man the entire border.

"We have to come to grips with the fact that our Border Patrol agents need a border fence on our southern border … where we're now facing infiltration by members of terrorist organizations like Hezbollah," said Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif.

Note the margin here? A 2:1 ratio. There are a lot of individual candidates who are running on a strong immigration control platform, aren't there? (Another reason not to get to caught up in the results of national polls.)

McCain Is Wrong Here - Again

After the circus today, I promise that I will not - ever - vote for John McCain for president. I further promise that I will do every, single thing I can possibly do to help get him defeated. I have not followed every nuance of the bills that Bush proposed versus the one McCain and pals pushed out of committee, but I have the broad concepts at least.

McCain is out of line here. This is the same man who cheerfully brought suppression of political speech into law. Now he appears to be intent on securing full legal rights for terrorists. He also wants to codify that it is perfectly ok to kill these people but under no circumstances can you laugh at them or make them feel in any way degraded, embarrassed or upset.

Answer these questions: Should someone who beheads people, uses civilians as shields and detonates terror bombs among civilians be accorded the same legal rights as uniformed soldiers? Should soldiers in uniform be held to the Geneva Conventions while the others get a free pass?

No talking points allowed (I will delete comments that use them). Justify your answer.

Swords Into Plowshares

Or, more precisely, guns into guitars. A Colombian craftsman has been turning old guns into guitars for several years. He sees it as a way to turn negative energy into positive energy.

One of Colombia's top musical instrument makers, (Luis Alberto) Paredes has branched out from traditional methods to fashion electric guitars from shotguns and AK47 rifles once used by fighters caught up in the country's lingering guerilla conflict.

"This used to hit a target at 800 meters (yards)," Paredes said holding up one of the guitars which still has a Kalashnikov rifle's distinctive, banana-shaped magazine. "Now the target will just depend on the concert stage."

In a workshop above his modest family home in Bogota, Paredes has created the "escopetarras" — shotgun guitars in Spanish — since he was approached by local musician Cesar Lopez with the idea about three years ago.

….

A self-taught artisan who made his first guitar in 1959 while still in school, Paredes now works with three of his four children in a family business cluttered with tools and sawdust from partially made guitars, four-string cuatros and violins.

His instruments are sought by musicians worldwide.

As part of a United Nations program to promote peace, Paredes receives the decommissioned rifles with the working parts wielded together for safety.

After stripping the soldering and gutting the trigger mechanism, he crafts a polished wooden handle over the barrel and his son installs microphones in the stock. The process takes a week to ten days.

"At first it was a challenge," he said. "It's a paradox to take something that kills and transform it into something to please people."

Under a peace plan initiated by Uribe, more than 30,000 illegal paramilitary fighters have handed over their weapons and demobilized. But the Marxist rebel group the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia or FARC still has 17,000 fighters.

Authorities say hundreds of demobbed militia combatants have returned to criminal gangs dedicated to cocaine trafficking and extortion.

Well, it's at least a nice idea. At least as a symbolic gesture. The idea isn't exactly new, though. Although I suspect the Motor City Madman would not want a non-firing one.

Poisoning Pigeons In The Part - Part Deux

Texarkana, Texas was the scene of the latest pigeon dive bomber attacks. The last time we wrote about the animal uprising air force pigeon patrol (or squab-ron) was back when they attacked a hospital in Schenectady, New York. This time they went after the Texarkana annual festival.

TEXARKANA, Texas - Poisoned pigeons began nose-diving into pavement and dying on downtown sidewalks, marring the city's annual festival.

Authorities cleaned up more than 25 sick or dead birds that apparently had eaten poisoned corn from the roof of a nearby bank branch.

"The death of these pigeons was more than an unfortunate accident," local CapitalOne Bank President Lacy McMillen said in Tuesday's online edition of Texarkana Gazette. "It was not the intention of the bank to harm any of these birds."

McMillen said the bank hired an exterminator to handle its pigeon problem after a bird entered the bank and defecated on a customer.

The company hired, Anti-Pest Co. Inc. of Shreveport, La., said its goal with the treated corn was to sicken pigeons so they would leave the rooftop. Death was sometimes an unfortunate side effect, company president Jarrod Horton said.

As we said before, this was no accident. Power diving pigeons of perdition are nothing to laugh at.

Porcine Berserker

The term berserker comes from Old Norse berserkr (plural berserkir), meaning "bare of shirt", meaning a warrior fighting without armor, or "bear shirt", alluding to wearing clothing made of bear fur. Some berserks also took names with björn in them in reference to a bear. The pre-battle ritual of the berserker included ritualistic group chants and dances, serving to work the warriors into a fighting rage; the rituals also seemed to give the berserkers the feeling of invulnerability, causing them to fight with a reckless disregard for their own safety. (From Wikipedia).

Green Bay, Wisconsin is the latest front in the animal uprising. Police there met up wit one of the elite. The berserker pig. They can't be stopped by ordinary means. This is one bad hunk of bacon.

The animal reportedly went into traffic several times, creating a hazard, he said.

Officers located the pig about 7 p.m. and made two attempts to subdue it with a stun gun, he said, but it fled both times after pulling out the Taser probes.

A passerby who described himself as a former pig farmer tried to wrestle the animal, but the animal pulled away from him as well, LePine said.

Three tranquilizer darts were finally used to bring the pig under control, and it was placed in blanket and lifted into an animal control van, LePine said.

Here's the worst part: The pig has a mouthpiece! A lawyer contacted the police to claim the pig for its "owner". We're doomed, the animal uprising has lawyers.

UPDATE: The pig belonged to a lawyer, too. H/T The Rising Jurist who has some sage advice: Obtain a bacon vest when going on a mayhem run!

Mexico Arrests Dog

Reality television star Duane "Dog" Chapman has been arrested by US Marshals on a Mexican warrant. Apparently the charges stem from Chapman's capture of Max Factor heir and serial rapist Andrew Luster three years ago. Mexican authorities say Chapman kidnapped the fugitive rape suspect.

The news channel said Mexico issued a warrant for Chapman's arrest for his alleged kidnapping of Max Factor heir Andrew Luster three years ago.

Chapman's capture of Luster — a serial rapist — in Mexico catapulted the bounty hunter to fame and led to the reality series on the A&E channel.

Wood says this is obviously a very upsetting time for the Chapman family. She says Chapman is a true modern-day hero.

"He arrests the bad guys — and he is definitely not one of them," she said, adding he would be vindicated.

I have never watched his show but I have seen endless promos for it.

Wearing Thin

Well, it has been all over the news lately about Spain's plan to ban fashion models that are deemed "too thin". Afraid that too thin models will send the wrong message to women and girls, bureaucrats will enforce height to weight ratios and bar models who do not meet standards from the runways. Now fashion designers in Milan are worried that the mayor may enact this same ban, then that these rules will become the next wave sweeping through the mindless bureaucracy enlightened corridors of the EU.

MILAN (Reuters) - Italy's fashion capital is in a tizzy over a ban on overly thin models at Madrid's fashion week, fearing it could be next with its own catwalk extravaganza less than two weeks away.

Milan's mayor, Letizia Moratti, told a newspaper this week that she may bring the Spanish ban on underweight models to Italian shows.

Madrid is turning away models whose body mass index, based on weight and height, falls below a certain level.

"With those kind of rules, we'd have to turn away 80 percent of models. Naomi Campbell wouldn't be able to walk down the catwalk, she'd be too thin," said Riccardo Gay, head of the model agency of the same name that used to represent Campbell in Milan.

He also said Madrid had exaggerated the issue.

"Some designers have used extremely thin models, but we haven't. We tell models to exercise, eat well, go to bed early — sensible rules," he added.

We here at Blue Crab Boulevard, ever vigilant to new trends in the world, have managed to obtain the draft regulations and sent our agents out to find an example of who can meet the new EU standards. Our operative from Magic 8-Ball Confidential Inquiries and Snack Bar, Inc. obtained a photo for us. Since it is well known that an elephant is a mouse built to government specifications, this really should come as no surprise to anyone.

(Photo from the invaluable James G. Mundie, artist and collector of sideshow ephemera.)

Something Stinks About This Deal

It's kind of a given that if somebody offers to sell you goods out of the back of a car or something that "fell off a truck" that the merchandise is actually stolen. So if you got a really good deal on a cell phone in Southern China from some guy like those I mentioned, you might have gotten into a smelly deal. Authorities in China have busted a smuggling ring that was bringing cell phones into China from Hong Kong.

Through a sewer pipe.

Seven gang members were arrested, including the ringleader, a truck driver and five couriers who carried goods through the pipe, the official China Daily said.

Three more suspects, including two Hong Kong residents, were still being sought, it said.

The gang had dug a hole in an apartment they'd rented on the Chinese side which they then linked up to the 66-foot-long sewage pipe, the report said, citing comments by Shenzhen customs deputy director of anti-smuggling, Song Min, at a news conference Wednesday.

Police recovered about 900 mobile phones and other devices worth about $200,000, including $33,750 in unpaid taxes, Song said.

The gang used the route only three times before the cops sniffed out the scheme.(I had to do it. I couldn't help myself.)

Lebanon Says It Will Disarm Hezbollah

Sort of. If the terrorists show their weapons, Lebanon says they will be seized. But Lebanese forces will not hunt for the weapons, either. Hezbollah, meanwhile, is bragging that it has fighters in towns and villages throughout the South. There appears to be some friction between Hezbollah and the Lebanese government right now.

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Lebanon's prime minister vowed Thursday that his army will confiscate any weapons it encounters in southern Lebanon, while the Islamic militant group Hezbollah accused Israel of "flagrant violations" of the month-old cease-fire. Israel denied it was violating the truce.

The comments reflected the tensions underneath a truce that has survived longer than many expected. The United Nations said the cease-fire was holding up well.

Hezbollah boasts its fighters remain in towns and villages near the border with Israel, highlighting the challenge faced by the Lebanese army and U.N. peacekeepers who are to patrol a buffer zone between the militants and Israel.

"I intend for the Lebanese army to prove its presence in the area south of the Litani River," Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said after talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo.

"We want this area to be under the army's and the Lebanese state's control. The army has all the authority to ban any armed appearances and confiscate those weapons," Saniora said.

Some 15,000 Lebanese soldiers, backed by an equal number of U.N. peacekeepers, are deploying in a zone between the Israeli border and the Litani River, about 18 miles to the north, to enforce a ban on Hezbollah weapons.

Saniora said the troops would not actively hunt for hidden Hezbollah arsenals, but he made clear his Western-backed government would no longer allow the Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah to dominate the south.

I wonder how Nasrallah like living in constant fear? It may be that his prestige is suffering a bit from not being able to get out and about. That would be a good thing. Hezbollah rejects the Amnesty International report that says Hezbollah committed war crimes. No surprise there.

Byron York Points Out The Obvious

Byron York points out, quite correctly, that there is literally nothing whatsoever that the President could have done that would not bring criticism from Democrats in an election year. Nature of the beast and all that.

 Ask yourself this question: What actions, or series of actions, could President Bush and GOP leaders in Congress have taken in the war on terror that would cause Democratic leaders to say, seven weeks before mid-term elections, “We are all united in a common effort to defeat the enemy. President Bush and Republicans in the House and Senate have brought us together like never before. We see no need to change leadership.”

Can you argue, with a straight face, that there is there any set of circumstances imaginable today, five years after September 11, that would lead to such a statement?

I didn’t think so.

So why do so many people accuse George W. Bush of “politicizing” the war on terror? That war is just the biggest issue facing the United States today, and has been for five years. How could it not be — how should it not be — an issue for intense debate by, well, politicians?

….

But now, Democrats say, we are bogged down in a giant distraction in Iraq.  We should have kept our focus on Afghanistan.

But imagine this.

Imagine that George W. Bush had remained focused like a laser beam on the war in Afghanistan.

Not content with toppling the Taliban, he sent 130,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan in a determined effort to kill or capture every single member of al Qaeda.

He accomplished much, but Osama bin Laden remained in hiding, somewhere in the world’s most inhospitable territory in Afghanistan or Pakistan.

Meanwhile, resentment against the American presence built. 

An insurgency rose up, using improvised explosive devices and suicide bombers to kill U.S. soldiers. The American death toll mounted.

Now, do you believe that, if that had happened, Democrats would still be supporting the president’s policy in Afghanistan?

To imagine that Reid and Pelosi would not be attacking politically given that scenario is pretty silly. What does bother me is the intensity and the level of sheer vitriol that is accompanying this election cycle. This is not a good time to make attacks this nasty when we are facing coordinated problems in so many areas at once.

To imagine that Reid and Pelosi would not be attacking politically given that scenario is pretty silly. What does bother me is the intensity and the level of sheer vitriol that is accompanying this election cycle. This is not a good time to make attacks this nasty when we are facing coordinated problems in so many areas at once.

Pretty Small Revolution

I noticed today that Segway has issued a product recall for its "revolutionary" product that was going to "change the world", if I recall the vast hype correctly. How many of the "Personal Transporters" are included in the recall?

All 23,500 units that have been sold since the company began shipping in 2002.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, which is cooperating with Segway on the voluntary recall announced Thursday, said consumers should stop using the vehicles immediately.

Segway has received six reports of problems with the Personal Transporter, resulting in head and wrist injuries. The vehicles were previously known as the Human Transporter.

Segway is offering a free software upgrade that will fix the problem. The upgrades will be done at Segway's 100 dealerships and service centers around the world, according to Segway spokeswoman Carla Vallone, and the company based in Bedford, N.H., will pay to ship the devices to the appropriate center if need be.

It is the second time the scooters, which sell for about $4,000 to $5,500, have been recalled since they first went on sale in 2002. The 2003 recall involved the first 6,000 of the devices sold, and involved a problem that could cause riders to fall off the device when its battery ran out of juice.

Segway Chief Technology Officer Doug Field, who has been involved with the development of the device since its earliest days, said the problem that sparked the latest recall was found while the company was testing its new model. He said a very unusual and specific set of conditions can cause the problem.

The scooter's speed is determined by how far forward the user leans, and if the rider leans too far forward, a "speed limiter" pushes them back to keep the device at its maximum speed of 12.5 mph. The problem happens after the speed limiter tilts back, the rider steps off the device and then gets back on it quickly.

I think the company is acting in an extremely responsible and ethical manner here, despite the low probability of an accident of this type, they are the ones who identified it and initiated the recall. I remember the insane level of hype that surrounded the announcement of this product, though. I caught several promos about it on ABC news and so tuned in when it made a debut on Good Morning America. (Remember, this was shortly after 9/11 and the TV was on pretty much all the time).

When they unveiled the machine, I just stared and remember thinking, "That's it? That is going to change the world?" Judging by the number sold to date, a lot of people are thinking that way.

Montreal Shooter Identified

The gunman who opened fire at Dawson College in Montreal yesterday has been identified as 25 year old Kimveer Gill. The report on him here makes it seem that he was a disturbed psycho more than anything else. I'm sure more detail will emerge as the days go by.

The gunman who opened fire at Dawson College on Wednesday was Kimveer Gill, 25, of Laval, near Montreal, a police official said Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity because authorities were not ready to announce it publicly yet.

Six victims remained in critical condition, including two in extremely critical condition.

The official said police had searched Gill's home.

In postings on a Web site called VampireFreaks.com, blogs in Gill's name show more than 50 photos depicting the young man in various poses holding a rifle and donning a long black trench coat and combat boots.

One photo has a tombstone with his name printed on it — below it the phrase: "Lived fast died young. Left a mangled corpse."

The last of six journal entries Wednesday was posted at 10:41 a.m, about two hours before the gunmen was shot to death after the college shooting.

He said on the site that he liked to play "Super Columbine Massacre," an Internet-based computer game that simulated the April 20, 1999, shootings at the Colorado high school by two of its students that left 13 people dead.

"His name is Trench. you will come to know him as the Angel of Death," he wrote on his vampirefreaks.com profile. "He is not a people person."

He wrote that he hates jocks, preppies, country music and hip-hop.

"I think I have an obsession with guns … muahahaha," is the inscription below another picture of Gill aiming the barrel of the gun at the camera.

"Anger and hatred simmers within me," said another caption below a picture of Gill grimacing.

He wrote that he is 6-foot-1, was born in Montreal and is of Indian heritage. He said his weakness is laziness and that he fears nothing. Responding to the question, "How do you want to die?" Gill replied "like Romeo and Juliet — or in a hail of gunfire."

Montreal Police Chief Yvan Delorme said the lessons learned from other mass shootings had taught police to try to stop such assaults as quickly as possible.

"Before our technique was to establish a perimeter around the place and wait for the SWAT team. Now the first police officers go right inside. The way they acted saved lives," he said.

Witnesses said Gill started shooting outside the college, then entered the second-floor cafeteria and opened fire without uttering a word. At times, he hid behind vending machines before emerging to take aim — at one point at a teenager who tried to photograph him with his cell phone.

It sounds like the police techniques have evolved with the times. I'd say their immediate entry instead of forming a perimeter did, indeed, save lives.

UPDATE: Ace worked some serious overtime on this one. He's got a LOT of detail and links up.