Getting Out In Front?

AJ Strata has a very, very interesting take on a revelation published in the Washington Post. In it, the reporters admit that the Foley scandal was being shopped around by Democratic party operatives since at least November, 2005. A number of media outlets had the damaging emails for almost a year and made no effort whatsoever to report the matter to authorities.

It’s about time. Once again the blogosphere is doing the detailed analysis and the antique media is playing catch up. Today the WaPo finally realizes there is more to the story than has been reported, and much is coming from the media themselves:

But there are indications that Democrats spent months circulating five less insidious Foley e-mails to news organizations before they were finally published by ABC News late last month, which prompted the leaking of the more salacious instant messages. Harper’s Magazine said yesterday that it obtained the five e-mails from a Democratic Party operative, albeit in May, long before the election season.

And they sat on them. As did the St Petersburg Times and many other media outlets. All the while none alerted the House leadership or law enforcement. And we are to believe all these media outlets and the democrat operative shopping them were concerned about the Pages?

….

The only reason the WaPo would report on the problems with their sources is to head off some pending news. They are desperately trying to get out in front of some damaging news. Interestingly, the Rep Page decided to come forward to protect the kids, unlike his Democrat counterpart:

If AJ is correct, the WaPo knows something really bad is coming. Bad for them, that is. I expect that there may be a big of an implosion about to start on this whole matter.

I Wish I Could Capture Screen Shots

Before the AP changes this story! They report it completely straight for the first time I can recall. The Federal budget deficit has shrunk to the lowest level in four years due to surging tax revenues that far outpace increases in spending. The tax revenue increase came about because of the rapidly growing economy. Ap actually says all that, no kidding.

The deficit for the budget year that ended Sept. 30 was 22 percent lower than the $318.7 billion imbalance for 2005, handing President Bush an economic bragging point as Republicans go into the final four weeks of a battle for control of Congress.

Both spending and tax revenues climbed to all-time highs. The sharp narrowing of the deficit reflected the fact that revenues climbed by 11.7 percent, outpacing the 7.3 percent increase in spending.

The 2006 deficit was far lower than the $423 billion figure the administration had projected last February and also represented an improvement from a July revised estimate of $295.8 billion.

It was the smallest deficit since a $159 billion imbalance in 2002, a shortfall that came after four straight years of budget surpluses, the longest stretch that the government had finished in seven decades.

Since that time, the government has recorded three of the biggest deficits in history in dollar terms including an all-time record of $413 billion in 2004.

The reason for the improvement this year was the big jump in revenues, propelled by strong economic strongth.

The economy is doing astonishingly well. Somebody take a screen shot.

Brace Yourselves

If you thought the media was being manipulated by Islamists up until now, just wait until this kicks in. Greyhawk discusses a media campaign plan that has been posted on a jihadi website. It is calling for an all-out media war against the US.

But another recent effort from the group won't likely be reported anywhere in the western media - at least not directly. Titled "Working Paper for a Media Invasion of America", the recently translated document was originally posted on a known jihaddist web site, but has received scant public attention from it's target audience. No full translations of the treatise are currently available, but a brief description of some of the content can be seen here.

Najd al-Rawi, the document's author, begins by noting that although they've been successful in many ways, the jihaddists haven't fully exploited the opportunities presented by the US media. Inspired by a video from bin Laden addressing the American people with subtitles in English, the author notes that "It seemed the Shayk wanted to send a clear message to his brother mujahadeen to pay more attention to this part of the mission." He points out that videos from the "Shayks of jihad" are in great demand in the western media.

Such videos are readily available - but for the most part translation to English is left to the media outlets that elect to broadcast them. The plan suggests a remedy for this oversight, and the paper calls for talented professionals to join the jihad - specifically, translators, and people with journalistic or literary talent who can provide a "ringing and powerful style that will have impact on the American people." Other desirable recruits are computer graphics experts, "with experience in Photoshop, 3d Studio Max, and other programs", and finally "Sharia experts" who can review the projects for materials prohibited by Islamic law, "such as pictures of women".

There are, I think, signs this is already underway. Greyhawk rightly points out it is hardly necessary for the jihadis to do this, since we have many people right here at home that are already doing the work for them.

The Democratization Of Intellectual Dementia

Jonah Goldberg, writing over at Real Clear Politics has an analysis of the weirdly inflated hyperbolic paranoia which the "intellectual" elite has perpetrated on American politics. Take some minor occurrence, frame it in intellectual terms then select factoids to "prove" the theorem. Apply magnifying glass and spew.

If the Christian base of the GOP gets its way, "All government employees - federal, state and local - would be required to participate in weekly Bible classes in the workplace, as well as compulsory daily prayer sessions." We would all have to carry religious identity cards that "would provide Christocrats with preferential treatment in many areas of life, including home ownership, student loans, employment and education." Non-Christians would be indulged as second-class citizens, "but younger members … would be strongly encouraged to formally convert to the dominant evangelical Christianity." Homosexual sex would be illegalized, while "known homosexuals and lesbians would have to successfully undergo government-sponsored reeducation sessions if they applied for any public-sector jobs." Dissidents would be on the run, the popular culture censored by bureaucratic Cotton Mathers, and "the mainstream press and the electronic media would be beaten into submission."

All of that is according to James Rudin in his book "The Baptizing of America." I learned about it from a brilliant essay in the August-September issue of First Things, in which Ross Douthat surveys the scare literature demonizing "Christianists," "theocons" and "Christocrats" - people who were under the impression that they were actually law-abiding, tax-paying, patriotic American citizens who happen to subscribe to the Christian faith. Little did they know they're actually all about rounding up infidels and torching the Constitution.

Liberal paranoia isn't solely Christophobic. "On the Media," a public radio program that purports to be an objective watchdog of the press, recently interviewed Lawrence Wright, the author of the acclaimed book "The Looming Tower," who also wrote the script for the mediocre 1998 movie "The Siege," starring Denzel Washington. According to "On the Media," the film was "prophetic" in that Wright had successfully "predicted" what would happen if America were attacked by terrorists. In the movie, Muslims are rounded up and put in concentration camps in sports stadiums, while martial law is declared in New York City. I guess I forgot to read the newspapers the day that happened.

The fact that this kind of inflated, nonsensical rhetoric is parroted back by the pseudo-intellectuals on the left puts these ideas into a positive feedback loop, reinforcing the insanity and increasing its amplitude. The whole crazy mess cycles up, higher and higher into the realm of the deranged. As Goldberg puts it:

One is tempted to invoke Orwell's dictum that some things are so stupid, only an intellectual could believe them. But, truth is, lots of otherwise normal people believe this stuff.

They believe it because it is a positive feedback cycle*. Self amplifying and ultimately self-defeating. Instead of debating serious issues, we are left scratching our heads over the outright insanity we see. How do you disabuse someone of an insane idea? True believers dismiss facts and rely instead on factoids analyzed endlessly until they become mammoth structures. That the structures are constructed on a foundation of sand and completely out of playing cards fazes them not at all.

* (For an example of a positive feedback cycle see the Tacoma Narrows Bridge failure).

Can They Fire Him Now?

Kevin Barrett, the 9/11 conspiracy theorist that the University of Wisconsin - Madison chose to employ to teach a course is back in the news. This time he's comparing Bush to Hitler. In an essay to be published in a forthcoming book. Using deliberate distortions in nuance in the same way the conspiracy theorists construct all of their elaborate fantasy worlds, he says he doesn't exactly call Bush Hitler. Oh, and he is requiring his students to buy the book he is publishing his little essay in.

The essay by Kevin Barrett, "Interpreting the Unspeakable: The Myth of 9/11," is part of a $20 book of essays by 15 authors, according to an unedited copy first obtained by WKOW-TV in Madison and later by The Associated Press.

The book's title is "9/11 and American Empire: Muslims, Jews, and Christians Speak Out." It is on the syllabus for Barrett's course at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, "Islam: Religion and Culture," but only three of the essays are required reading, not including Barrett's essay.

Barrett, a part-time instructor who holds a doctorate in African languages and literature and folklore from UW-Madison, is active in a group called Scholars for 9/11 Truth. The group's members say U.S. officials, not al-Qaida terrorists, were behind the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.

"Like Bush and the neocons, Hitler and the Nazis inaugurated their new era by destroying an architectural monument and blaming its destruction on their designated enemies," he wrote.

Barrett said Tuesday he was comparing the attacks to the burning of the German parliament building, the Reichstag, in 1933, a key event in the establishment of the Nazi dictatorship.

"That's not comparing them as people, that's comparing the Reichstag fire to the demolition of the World Trade Center, and that's an accurate comparison that I would stand by," he said.

He added: "Hitler had a good 20 to 30 IQ points on Bush, so comparing Bush to Hitler would in many ways be an insult to Hitler."

Ah yes, the old "I'm not comparing them as people, just their actions", nuance. Well, Barrett was warned by the administration to stop seeking publicity. It's about time to send this guy packing. If not, it's time for the Wisconsin state government to start withholding funding from the University. This has gone on long enough. UW-M is having its reputation trashed by this idiot.

More on Barrett here, here, here, here, here, here and here. (He's really not worth this much coverage, but it's like shooting Moby Dick in a 5 gallon pail.)

North Korea Threatens War With US

Illustrating the insane logic of the twisted little man in charge of North Korea, the Rogue regime is threatening war against the US if the US steps up pressure on them. So, let's see, we need nukes to stave of American invasion, but if the US disagrees, we'll start a war. Good thinking, Kim.

North Korea's No. 2 leader threatened to conduct more nuclear tests if the United States continued what he called its "hostile attitude."

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States would not attack North Korea, rejecting a suggestion that Pyongyang may feel it needs nuclear weapons to stave off an Iraq-style U.S. invasion.

In its first formal statement since the test, North Korea said it could respond to U.S. pressure with "physical" measures.

"If the U.S. keeps pestering us and increases pressure, we will regard it as a declaration of war and will take a series of physical corresponding measures," the North's Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. The statement didn't specify what those measures could be.

Japan planned to impose a total ban on North Korean imports and prohibit its ships from entering Japanese ports, a news report said. The sanctions will also expand restrictions on North Korean nationals entering Japan, the country's public broadcaster NHK said.

….

Kim Yong Nam, second to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, told Japan's Kyodo News agency that further nuclear testing would hinge on U.S. policy toward the communist government.

"The issue of future nuclear tests is linked to U.S. policy toward our country," Kim was quoted as saying when asked whether Pyongyang will conduct more nuclear tests.

"If the United States continues to take a hostile attitude and apply pressure on us in various forms, we will have no choice but to take physical steps to deal with that," Kyodo quoted him as saying.

South Korea's defense minister said that Seoul could enlarge its conventional arsenal to deal with a potentially nuclear-armed North Korea.

"If North Korea really has the (nuclear) capabilities, we will improve and enlarge the number of conventional weapons as long as it doesn't violate the principle of denuclearization," Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung told parliament.

"We will supplement (our ability) to conduct precision strikes against storage facilities and intercept delivery means, while also improving the system of having military units and individuals defend themselves," he said.

Scientists and other governments have said Monday's underground test has yet to be confirmed, with some experts saying the blast was significantly smaller than even the first nuclear bombs dropped on Japan during World War II.

North Korea appeared to respond to that Wednesday, saying in its statement that it "successfully conducted an underground nuclear test under secure conditions."

In rare direct criticism of the communist regime from Seoul, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said that the security threat cited by North Korea is exaggerated or nonexistent.

"North Korea says the reason it is pursuing nuclear (weapons) is for its security, but the security threat North Korea speaks of either does not exist in reality, or is very exaggerated," Roh said, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

It will only be a matter of time before South Korea will have to pursue nuclear weapons to stave off the possibility that the insane regime North of the border will use a nuke. That day will inevitably come unless Kim is stopped. Because he will have to continue to ratchet up the rhetoric to be heard. Eventually, people will stop listening to him and he will have to use a nuke to get attention.