Refusing To Rise

As I pointed out in the previous post, I think the Republicans need to stay focused on a local level rather than trying to combat a nationalized election strategy the Democrats and their blatant supporters in the media are trying to foster. Robert Novak has a glimpse of how that strategy is working out on the micro level. Rather well, it would seem.

FLORENCE, Ky. — Democratic candidate Ken Lucas looked like he would rather be any place other than Kentucky's public television studios Monday night as he debated freshman Republican Rep. Geoff Davis. A moderate conservative, Lucas was not going deep into the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) liberal playbook that is intended to nationalize midterm Congressional elections.

Lucas had been coaxed out of political retirement at age 73 to run for the northern Kentucky congressional seat he held three terms. That put Davis, a conservative 25 years Lucas's junior and highly regarded among House Republicans, on the endangered list, trailing in early polls. But Lucas showed Monday night this has not been a happy campaign for him. While Democratic candidates nationwide pillory George W. Bush, Lucas did not mention the president's name and appeared uncomfortable with the DCCC attack litany.

Democrats must win seats like this to achieve a substantial working majority in the House. But Republicans have limited the election in Kentucky's 4th congressional district to a "choice" between two candidates instead of a "referendum" on an unpopular Republican president and Congress. That demonstrates that the struggle for Congress is not really a national election but is about 50 hotly contested local ones.

If the Republicans refuse to rise to a referendum and keep it at a local choice level, they are going to stop the so-called wave right in its tracks. I think that is why the picture is so muddy right now. The Dems are already taking victory laps based on national polls that are meaningless on a local level. Novak's point is that as the 4th district goes, so goes the election. If the wave doesn't rise in Kentucky, the Dems lose. He may well have that called right.

Drowning In The (Non)Wave?

Jed Babbin has a question over at Real Clear Politics that is worth contemplating. If the "wave" that the mainstream media is cheerleading for fails to materialize and the Democrats don't sweep into power, will it forever damage the "old" media?  

Like sportscasters, political pundits resort to clichés when the game isn't going according to their predictions. If the expected Democratic "wave" fails to materialize - or if, against the odds, an electoral wave breaks to the Republicans' advantage - the punditry will be flooding the airwaves with clichés, backpedaling like a French army. But pundits, like weathermen, recover easily from wrong predictions. After this election, those I call the 527 Media may not, because they're doing their best to win it for the Democrats.

It's still not clear what's going to happen. With less than two weeks to go, the polls in many crucial contests - especially the Tennessee, Ohio, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey and Virginia senate races - are either too close to call or within reach of possible turnovers. As a result, some of the pundits are hedging their bets. Two weeks ago, Dick Morris was predicting a tidal wave of Democratic wins. Two days ago, he backed off. What's going on?

Two things. First, the Republicans have finally deployed their ad onslaught, but on a local level that aims only at individual races. Second, the 527 Media — realizing that the flood of October surprises they engineered hasn't yet delivered Congress to the Dems — has dropped any pretense of impartiality. These two forces - combining like non-concentric physical forces that make planets wobble while they revolve - have prevented the 2006 election from becoming predictable to this point.

Babbin does not think the Republican ads are quite right and should be targeting more of the Democratic and media attempts to nationalize the election. (We disagree on that one). It is an interesting look at what is going on this election cycle, though. This is actually the flip side of an issue I posted about yesterday regarding the "new" media. That question was what will be the outcome of the struggle between "blog time" and "media time" and was asked by John Podhoretz. Babbin is predicting damage, possibly fatal damage, to the MSM if the wave doesn't happen.

 In the last days of the campaign, the 527 Media will continue producing October surprises right up to election day. And, if the Republicans counter it as they still can organize to do, it will fail because the media's credibility is now at what may be an all-time low. They've proven that they, not the Democrats, are the opposition party. It remains for the Republicans to seize the advantage they offer. And it appears that, again, the Republicans will fail to do so. If the Dem wave doesn't break, it will be no fault of the 527 Media. Or of the Republicans who leave them immune from response. The pundits can retreat into clichés. But what will the 527 Media tell their shareholders to explain devalued stock and ruined brand names?

I've stated my position on this a number of times. I think the best thing the Republicans can do is not to rise to the bait and try to run nationally. Frankly, they are at a horrible disadvantage in a campaign like that precisely because the national media is lined up against them. In a local, one-on-one, state-by-state basis they can stay competitive. So far they are doing so. I think it would be a mistake to change course this late in the game. But I do agree with Babbin on one thing: the media may well cause itself an incredible amount of damage if that wave doesn't appear. 

Under Siege

When you really think about it, at least in a somewhat skewed fashion, South Korea is a bit like the ancient city of Troy. They have been cut off from all land communications with the world for decades by the rogue regime to the North. Of course, they still have communication by sea, but the metaphor would help explain the surge in the population of Trojans in South Korea.

SEOUL (AFP) - North Korea's nuclear test has boosted condom sales and bookings at South Korean "love" hotels," a newspaper has said.

Experts told the Chuson newspaper Thursday that the developments reflect widespread jitters over the October 9 test, with many people seeking solace in sex.

Convenience stores reported that condom sales rose by up to 28 percent in the week after the test, it said.

Family Mart, a leading chain of convenience stores, sold 1,930 condoms every day compared to an daily average of 1,508 before October 9, the newspaper said.

Bookings at pay-by-the-hour "love motels" have also risen sharply.

"The desire to break away from normal life appeared to be increasing in our society in reaction to widespread concerns about North Korea's nuclear program," Dongkuk University professor Lee Yoon-Ho was quoted as saying.

Skewed we can do around here.

South Korea To Enforce Sanctions

South Korea will enforce a travel ban on North Korean officials, despite the North's saber-rattling. They will also control financial transactions between the two countries.

SEOUL, South Korea - South Korea said Thursday it will ban the entry of North Korean officials who fall under a U.N. travel restriction — Seoul's first concrete move to enforce sanctions imposed after the North's nuclear test.

Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok also said Seoul will control transactions and remittances relating to inter-Korean trade and investment with the North Korean officials, Yonhap news agency reported.

A U.N. committee on the sanctions, passed in response to North Korea's Oct. 9 nuclear test, has been working to outline how they will be implemented.

Meanwhile, Japan's foreign ministry on Thursday denied a news report that its government is planning a meeting with the U.S. and South Korea as early as next month to solidify a common stance on the North Korean nuclear standoff.

This is a very significant development, I suspect. There have been reports that China has stopped financial transfers to and from Kim's regime. The additional pressure from South Korea may force North Korea back to the negotiating table. I think this also took a bit of courage on the part of the South Korean government. Frankly, they are the ones who will bear the brunt if Kim goes in the other direction and kicks off a war as his desperation grows.

Ancient Footprints Found

Archaeologists have uncovered what may be the oldest footprints ever discovered in the Western hemisphere. The fossilized footprints were discovered in the Coahuila valley of Cuatro Cienegas, about 190 miles south of Eagle Pass, Texas.

"We believe (the footprints) are between 10,000 and 15,000 years old," De la Rosa said in a news release Wednesday. "We have evidence of the presence of hunter gatherers in the Coahuila desert more than 10,000 years ago."

De la Rosa said there have only been initial tests to find the age of the prints and more tests will be carried out both in Mexico and at a laboratory in Bristol in Great Britain.

The oldest discovered footprints in the Western hemisphere are in Chile, and are believed to be 13,000 years old. There 6,000-year old footprints in the U.S. state of California, in Brazil and in Nicaragua.

The age of the Mexican footprints is dwarfed by those found in Africa. The oldest known hominid foot marks are in Laetoli, in Tanzania, and are believed to have been made 3.5 million years ago.

The Cuatro Cienegas footprints were discovered in May embedded in a white rock called travertine, it said in the news release.

The footprints appear to be heading in a direct line for the Rio Grande and the current US border.

Okay, that last sentence was a joke.  Maybe.

Danish Court Rejects Suit Over Cartoons

A Danish court has thrown out a lawsuit brought by Muslim groups against the newspaper that originally published the Mohammed cartoons. The judge recognized that some people were offended by them, but that there was no evidence that the paper had intended to cause insult.

The City Court in Aarhus said it could not be ruled out that some Muslims had been offended by the 12 drawings printed in Jyllands-Posten, but said there was no reason to assume that the cartoons were meant to "belittle Muslims."

The newspaper published the cartoons on Sept. 30, 2005 with a text saying it was challenging a perceived self-censorship among artists afraid to offend Islam.

The caricatures were reprinted in European papers in January and February, fueling a fury of protests in the Islamic world. Some turned violent, with protesters killed in Libya and Afghanistan and several European embassies attacked.

Islamic law forbids any depiction of the prophet, even positive ones, to prevent idolatry.

"It cannot be ruled out that the drawings have offended some Muslims' honor, but there is no basis to assume that the drawings are, or were conceived as, insulting or that the purpose of the drawings was to present opinions that can belittle Muslims," the court said.

The seven Muslim groups filed the defamation lawsuit against the paper in March, after Denmark's top prosecutor declined to press criminal charges, saying the drawings did not violate laws against racism or blasphemy.

The plaintiffs, who claimed to have the backing of 20 more Islamic organizations in the Scandinavian country, had sought $16,860 in damages from Jyllands-Posten Editor in Chief Carsten Juste and Culture Editor Flemming Rose, who supervised the cartoon project.

You know, it is probably useless to point this out, but the differences here in the way certain Islamist elements used the occasion of the publication of the cartoons as an excuse to start riots and file lawsuits should be contrasted to the way Sam Harris is treated in the West.

NEW YORK There are really just two possibilities for Sam Harris. Either he is right and millions of Christians, Muslims and Jews are wrong. Or Sam Harris is wrong and he is so going to hell.

This seems obvious whenever Harris opens what he calls "my big mouth," and it is glaringly clear one recent evening at the New York Public Library, where he is debating a former priest before a packed auditorium. In less than an hour, Harris condemns the God of the Old Testament for a host of sins, including support for slavery. He drop-kicks the New Testament, likening the story of Jesus to a fairy tale. He savages the Koran, calling it "a manifesto for religious divisiveness."

Nobody has ever accused the man of being subtle. Harris is straight out of the stun grenade school of public rhetoric, and his arguments are far more likely to offend the faithful than they are to coax them out of their faith. And he doesn't target just the devout. Religious moderates, Harris says in his patient and imperturbable style, have immunized religion from rational discussion by nurturing the idea that faith is so personal and private that it is beyond criticism, even when horrific crimes are committed in its name.

"There is this multicultural, apologetic machinery that keeps telling us that we can't attack people's religious sensibility," Harris says in an interview. "That is so wrong and so suicidal."

This is Harris at full throttle, the Evel Knievel of ideas, a daredevil of the mind. You listen to him and think, "Well, that is going to land him in the hospital."

Instead, it has landed him on the bestseller list…..

Like I said, not that it will make any difference.

Bush To Sign Border Fence Bill

The Associated Press reports that President Bush will be signing the border fence bill. Of course the AP also disapproves and does its level best to Pooh-Pooh it. But it is finally going to get signed.

WASHINGTON - When President Bush signs a bill authorizing 700 miles of new fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border, he'll give GOP candidates a pre-election platform for asserting they're tough on illegal immigration. Yet the centerpiece of his immigration policy, a guest worker program, remains stalled in Congress.

And a handful of House Republican are at the brakes, blocking negotiations with the Senate for a bill that includes the president's proposal.

Still, Bush argues that it would be easier to get his guest worker program passed if Republicans keep their majorities in the House and Senate after the Nov. 7 elections. His proposal would allow legal employment for foreigners and give some of the estimated 11 million to 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States a shot at becoming American citizens.

The measure Bush is putting into law Thursday before heading for campaign stops in Iowa and Michigan offers no money for the fence project covering one-third of the 2,100-mile border.

Its cost is not known, although a homeland security spending measure the president signed earlier this month makes a $1.2 billion down payment on the project. The money also can be used for access roads, vehicle barriers, lighting, high-tech equipment and other tools to secure the border.

It is not perfect by a long shot, but it at least is a start. It is certainly better than that execrable monstrosity the Senate passed. Good on the people blocking that disaster from taking effect.

UPDATE: And the bill has been signed.