Fourteen Pages And Run For Cover

UPDATED: Now with illustration! (Another update. Notice anything over at Memeorandum? Not one, not a single one, of the lefty blogs that pooh poohed the right for questioning TNR has posted a thing on this as of this update. Not one.)

(Click for full size)

The New Republic has, at last, retracted the Scott Thomas Beauchamp stories. It takes Franklin Foer fourteen long pages to do so, waffling and tapdancing the whole time.

When I last spoke with Beauchamp in early November, he continued to stand by his stories. Unfortunately, the standards of this magazine require more than that. And, in light of the evidence available to us, after months of intensive re-reporting, we cannot be confident that the events in his pieces occurred in exactly the manner that he described them. Without that essential confidence, we cannot stand by these stories.

He blames a lot of people, including Beauchamp's wife (does she still work there, one wonders). But in the end he has tried to shuffle blame away to no avail. How long until Foer "leaves to pursue other opportunities?"

Others: Patterico: I don’t think we’ve seen the last of the fallout. In fact, I think it may be just beginning.

Glenn Reynolds: AMIDST A CLOUD OF INK, TNR RETRACTS AND FLEES THE SCENE. (Winner: Best One Liner) (And inspiration for the illustration.)

Bob Owens: Stay tuned. I'll have much more later, including why Franklin Foer said nothing to justify keeping his job. (Ed Note: Yeah, I bet he will have. Get the asbestos underwear, Foer.)

Michelle Malkin: Buh-bye, Franklin Foer.

I'm quite sure there will be many, many more as word spreads.

UPDATE: Bob Owens, as expected, delivers a scorching analysis of Foer's "explanation" over at Pajamas Media. Need any burn ointment, Franklin?

Captain's Quarters: Iraq and a hard place.

Redstate sings a little song.

I'm just going to go to links here instead of quoting each. The post is getting too long. The Jawa Report, protein wisdom, Riehl World View, Sweetness & Light, The American Pundit, Winds of Change, Right Voices, Macsmind, BitsBlog, AMERICAN DIGEST, QandO, BLACKFIVE, The Van Der Galiën Gazette, Power Line, A Blog For All, Dean's World, Jules Crittenden, GINA COBB, Six Meat Buffet, Right Wing Nut House, 4 Borders Pundit: The Fog of Foer. (Funny)

Corrupt News Network

Tim Rutten, writing in the Los Angeles Times, is by far and away one of the harshest critics yet about the CNN/YouTube debate. And his beef with the, as he calls it, Corrupt News Network is does not even have to do with plant life. Simply put, he strips away the fiction that this was the people's debate and calls the process what it was: corrupt.

Corruption is a strong word. But consider these facts: The gimmick behind Wednesday's debate was that the questions would be selected from those that ordinary Americans submitted to the video sharing Internet website YouTube, which is owned by Google. According to CNN, its staff culled through 5,000 submissions to select the handful that were put to the candidates. That process essentially puts the lie to the vox populi aura the association with YouTube was meant to create. When producers exercise that level of selectivity, the questions — whoever initially formulated and recorded them — actually are theirs.

That's where things begin to get troubling, because CNN chose to devote the first 35 minutes of this critical debate to a single issue — immigration. Now, if that leaves you scratching your head, it's probably because you're included in the 96% of Americans who do not think immigration is the most important issue confronting this country. We've got a pretty good fix concerning what's on the American mind right now, because the nonpartisan and highly reliable Pew Center has been regularly polling people since January on the issues that matter most to them. In fact, the center's most recent survey was conducted in the days leading up to Wednesday's debate.

HERE'S what Pew found: By an overwhelming margin, Americans think the war in Iraq is the most important issue facing the United States, followed by the economy, healthcare and energy prices. In fact, if you lump the war into a category with terrorism and other foreign policy issues, 40% of Americans say foreign affairs are their biggest concern in this election cycle. If you do something similar with all issues related to the economy, 31% list those questions as their most worrisome issue. As anybody who has looked at their 401(k) or visited a gas pump would expect, that aggregate figure has increased dramatically since Pew started polling in January. Back then, for example, concerns over the war outpaced economic anxieties by fully 8 to 1. By contrast, just 6% of the survey's national sample said that immigration was the most important electoral issue. Moreover, that number hasn't changed in a statistically meaningful way since the first of the year. In other words, more than nine out of 10 Americans think something matters more than immigration in this presidential election.

So, why did CNN make immigration the keystone of this debate? What standard dictated the decision to give that much time to an issue so remote from the majority of voters' concerns? The answer is that CNN's most popular news-oriented personality, Lou Dobbs, has made opposition to illegal immigration and free trade the centerpiece of his neonativist/neopopulist platform. In fact, Dobbs led into Wednesday's debate with a good solid dose of immigrant bashing. His network is in a desperate ratings battle with Fox News and, in a critical prime-time slot, with MSNBC's Keith Olbermann. So, what's good for Dobbs is good for CNN.

There is quite a lot more, well worth clicking over to read it all. Rutten is merciless here. He flat out hammers CNN for venality. The fiction that the debate was by and for the people is only one of the things he exposes here. He charges that CNN's injection of its own agenda – and a twisted, cartoonish view of Republicans – tainted the entire "debate" from start to finish.

He's right, too. It was more than just the unjustifiable failure to vet the questioners. It was about how the questions got selected and how much CNN intruded their own viewpoints into the selection process. They failed utterly as a neutral, non-partisan organization, descending into agenda-driven, partisan hackery.  

Bullwinkle Goes On A Bender

It happens about this time every year. Bullwinkle gets in another fight with Rocky over who gets more time on camera. The arguments escalate into blows and Rocky ends up in the hospital. (A five ounce squirrel is no match for a 1,000 pound moose.) Bullwinkle, stricken with remorse, hits the bottle too hard and ends up in the gutter with Christmas lights tangled up in his antlers.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – What do you call a bull moose tangled in Christmas lights and drunk on fermented crab apples, standing glassy-eyed and dizzy in the front yard of a downtown bar?

Buzzwinkle?

But seriously, the juiced moose had certainly seen better days than Tuesday, when he became a bewildered tourist attraction, parked in the courtyard of Bernie's Bungalow Lounge as shoppers clicked by with their Nordstrom bags.

"He just has this goofy look on his face," said Rick Sinnott, a Fish and Game biologist who came to check on him and guessed he'd probably eaten too many crab apples from an old tree in Bernie's yard.

"He's either drunk or in gastric distress."

Even before his crab-apple bender, the downtown moose was something of a seasonal celebrity, making the television news after he spent the weekend clumping along the avenues with his big rack, thrilling the holiday shopping throngs.

But Tuesday was a banner day for moose hijinks. It started when he stopped to nibble the trees in Town Square Park, which had recently been strung with expensive LED Christmas lights. They snagged in his antlers, and he seemed roped to a tree for a while, generating numerous calls to Sinnott's office from passers-by. After some effort, the moose freed himself, but took the light string with him, dragging it through traffic.

(They have a picture). Bullwinkle was last seen sleeping it off in the yard of the bar. Next year it will happen again.

First, Give No Offense

The phrase "First, do no harm," is not actually in the Hippocratic oath. Rather, it is a maxim widely taught to doctors that is actually a Hippocratic aphorism. But the title of this post could best be described as the Hypocritical Oath. Mark Steyn is in rare form today, pointing out that new supreme human right – that to be free from being offended – is destroying real rights that we hold dear.

The holiday season is here, and that means it's time to engage in the time-honored Christmas tradition of objecting to every time-honored Christmas tradition. Australia is a gazillion time zones ahead of the United States – it may even be Boxing Day there already – so they got in first this year with a truly fantastic headline:

"Santas Warned 'Ho Ho Ho' Offensive To Women."

Really. As the story continued: "Sydney's Santa Clauses have instead been instructed to say 'ha ha ha' instead, the Daily Telegraph reported. One disgruntled Santa told the newspaper a recruitment firm warned him not to use 'ho ho ho' because it could frighten children and was too close to 'ho', a U.S. slang term for prostitute."……

……But the point is that the right not to be offended is now the most sacred right in the world. The right to freedom of speech, freedom of association, freedom of movement, all are as nothing compared with the universal right to freedom from offense. It's surely only a matter of time before "sensitivity training" is matched by equally rigorous "inoffensiveness training" courses. A musician friend of mine once took a gig at an elevator-music session, and, after an hour or two of playing insipid orchestral arrangements of "Moon River" and "Windmills of Your Mind," some of the lads' attention would start to wander, and they'd toot their horns a little too boisterously. The conductor would stop and admonish them to bland things down a bit. In a world in which everyone is ready to take offense, it's hard to keep the mood Muzak evenly modulated.

Steyn has a lot more – and even more egregious – examples of the out-of-control right to be free from being offended. It is a political weapon being used against all of the real basic rights. Those who would manipulate the system have the tools handed to them by the very people who push this political correctness run mad. If the very means to discuss issues is taken away by some screaming that they are offended, necessary dialog is completely throttled. That is a recipe for disaster in the long run.

Perhaps somewhere in Sydney there's a woman who's genuinely offended by hearing Santa say "ho ho ho" just as those New Hampshire atheists claim to be genuinely offended by the Pledge of Allegiance. But their complaints are frivolous and decadent, and more determined groups are using the patterns they've established to shut down debate on things we should be talking about. The ability to give and take offense is what separates free societies from Sudan.

Amen to that.

Getting Up The Vote?

A politician in Thailand has been accused of attempting to buy votes. By handing out Viagra to supporters.

The allegation, made by a campaign worker against a rival party, comes as rules about handing out favours to voters have become stricter than ever.

Candidates are now barred from distributing even free T-shirts and soft drinks.

Sayan Nopcha, a campaigner for the People's Power Party in Pathum Thai province just north of Bangkok, said the drug – used to treat sexual dysfunction in men – was being distributed to elderly male voters at social functions.

Viagra is supposed to be used only on a doctor's advice, but is generally available over the counter in Thailand.

At social functions? Just how friendly is campaigning in Thailand? Or is the right word intimate? I can see why the other candidate objected so much. After all, he faced some stiff competition.

Looking Like An Opportunist

This is probably one of the worst instances of political opportunism in recent memory. In the wake of the deft handling of the hostage situation in New Hampshire yesterday by the state and local authorities, Hillary Clinton is attempting to take credit for resolving the crisis.

Over the ensuing five hours, as a state trooper negotiated with the suspect and hostages were released one-by-one, Clinton continued to call up and down the law enforcement food chain, from local to county to state to federal officials.

"I knew I was bugging a lot of these people, it felt like on a minute-by-minute basis, trying to make sure that I knew everything that was going on so I was in a position to tell the families, to tell my campaign and to be available to do anything that they asked of me," the New York senator said.

At the same time, the woman striving to move from former first lady to the first female president was eager to convey that she knew the traditional lines of command and control in a crisis, even if the events inside the storefront on North Main Street were far short of a world calamity.

"They were the professionals, they were in charge of this situation, whatever they asked me or my campaign to do is what we would do," Clinton said.

Along with taking charge while giving the professionals free rein, Clinton offered up a third dimension to her crisis character: humanity. She said she felt "grave concern" when she first heard the news of the hostage-taking.

"It affected me not only because they were my staff members and volunteers, but as a mother, it was just a horrible sense of bewilderment, confusion, outrage, frustration, anger, everything at the same time," Clinton said.

I'm willing to bet that what the people she was bugging wanted from her campaign was for Hillary to quit pestering them and tying up vital communication links with her political machinations. Other people are also not at all impressed with Hillary's attempted hijacking.

Jim Lynch: Is the AP going to be charged with an in-kind contribution to the Clinton Campaign?

Ed Morrisey: Hillary certainly didn't do anything wrong, but she didn't "take charge" as the AP implies, or look presidential, as Sabato declares. She certainly looks considerably less presidential today in trying to take credit for the professional work done by the Rochester PD yesterday.

Ann Althouse: Oh, good lord, she was not facing disorder. The hostage-taking was over, and even when it was going on, she was not facing it. She was waiting for law enforcement authorities to deal with a troubled man, which they did, without anyone suffering a physical injury. 

Years back, a major ice storm knocked literally half of the electrical distribution system of Rochester Gas and Electric onto the ground. A huge area was without power. RG&E pulled crews in from all over the country and was working around the clock to get power restored. But the damage was absolutely incredible and things simply took time to fix. The then county manager of Monroe county made a famously stupid statement at the time, telling RG&E to "get the power back on or else." He didn't look like a powerful, in charge person. He looked like a rank opportunist. People remembered his ridiculously empty threat at the next election.

He lost.

UPDATE: Others: Newsbusters: So in the end, this author has propped up Hillary Clinton as: 1) being presidential, 2) looking the part, 3) having a unique perspective as a woman, and 4) not being contrived, all because she travelled to New Hampshire and made a couple statements. 

Bits Blog: She knows full well that the press is going to be speaking of her actions , whatever they were, in reverent tones , and her loyalists outside the press were going to be lapping that message up.

Mac's Mind: So the “mini crisis” just happen to hand her what she needed, specifically the validity of her ability to handle crisis?

Rightwing Nuthouse: And would someone please tell me how it is possible for someone to know the “traditional lines of command and control in a crisis” while at exactly the same time ” taking charge” of the situation? Johnson was so eager to put the candidate at the center of the action (taking charge) he temporarily forgot that a paragraph earlier he had her deferring to “traditional lines of authority.”

Carpetbagger Report: But “the picture of calm in the face of crisis”? Isn’t this overdoing it a bit? ….I’m at a loss.

Urban Grounds: Hell, I was just as calm and strong during the crisis as Hillary was. Maybe the AP can come over here and give me a good slobbering, too.

Hot Air: She managed to refrain from screaming and crying. Then she flew to New Hampshire and gave a couple of perfunctory statements.

The Van Der Galiën Gazette: She reacted well. ‘Nough said.

Riehl World View: Video!

The Sheep Who Walks Through Walls

Ok, it isn't walls exactly. It's actually gates. Lottie the sheep is an escape artist who is able to pick the lock on her pen's gate with her tongue.

A sheep called Lottie has proved that not all of her kind are stupid by regularly letting herself out of her locked pen… with her tongue.

Staff at Swansea Community Farm, south Wales, were baffled when Lottie and her three pen-mates started escaping every night.

CCTV cameras installed to watch over the sheep – now dubbed Ewe-dini – showed the rare Llanwennog breed was unbolting the gate using her tongue.

Animal keeper at the farm Chris Jones said the sheep's bid for freedom began a couple of months ago. "We just dismissed it at first, thinking one of us was leaving it open," he said.

"But we put CCTV in there for the lambing time and watched her using her mouth and tongue to grab the bolt, lift it up and slide it over.

This isn't really all that amazing or unusual, though. My wife had a horse that could open gate latches and did so regularly until he was caught in the act. After he was busted, the latches got changed to a different type that he couldn't work. And of course, there's Oliver. He's opened locks again and again.

The Lies Of Socialism

Raul Baduel, former defense minister and head of the army in Venezuela, was a longtime supporter of Hugo Chavez. That has changed. Baduel is denouncing the constitutional "reforms" that Chavez is trying to put in place for what they are: the imposition of a dictatorship. He is also pointing out the massive failures of Chavez and the lies of socialism. Oh, he points out how all the politicians have failed the people, but his scorn is especially harsh for Chavez. It is some pretty powerful stuff.

How is it that we, the people of Venezuela, have reached such a bizarre crossroads that we now ask ourselves if it is democratic to establish the indefinite re-election of the president, to declare that we are a socialist nation and to thwart civic participation?

The answer is that all Venezuelans, from every social stratum, are responsible for the institutional decay that we are witnessing. The elite never understood — and still fail to understand — the need to include, in every sense, the millions who have been kept at the margins of the decision-making process because of their poverty. At the same time, President Chávez led the poor to believe that they are finally being included in a governmental model that will reduce poverty and inequality. In reality, the very opposite is true.

In recent years, the country’s traditional political parties have come to see the Venezuelan people as clients who can be bought off.

During the economic boom years, ushered in by a sustained increase in oil prices, the parties dispensed favors, subsidies and alms. In the end, they taught the people about rights rather than obligations, thus establishing the myth that Venezuela is a rich country, and that the sole duty of a good government is to distribute its wealth evenly. President Chávez has been buying and selling against this idea, continuing to practice the kind of neopopulism that will reach its limit only when the country receives what economists call an “external shock.”

Exorbitant public expenditures, the recurrence of government deficits even at times of record-high oil prices, the extreme vulnerability of foreign investments, exceedingly high import tariffs, and our increased domestic consumption of fuel at laughably low prices are all signs of what lurks on the horizon. It now seems that, even without an appreciable dip in global oil prices, our economy may well come to a crashing halt. When it does, it will bring an end to the populism that the government practices and has tried to export to neighboring countries.

Venezuela's economy is already in trouble. Baduel sees the trainwreck coming quite clearly. The redistribution of wealth is a poor governing principle. As I wrote last week:

That insight is probably one of the best one-line descriptions of the left yet. Because economic egalitarianism does appear to be the main driver for many, if not the vast majority on the far left. No other issue comes close to it and it trumps everything else. Literally any behavior can be excused so long as the economic misery is spread evenly. (And it is misery under the socialist system.) Excusing dictatorial behavior because the dictator promises to spread wealth around until everyone gets a pittance is a horrible standard to use…..

Baduel knows that. Too bad so many just don't get it.

US Army Sails Into Navy Turf

The US Army is sailing one of its ships into Baltimore to send a message to the US Navy. You read that right. The Logistics Support Vessel Maj. Gen. Robert Smalls (LSV-8) a 314 foot ship operated by the 203rd Transportation Detachment of the United States Army Reserve is sailing into port to support the Army during the annual Army Navy football game. In case you weren't aware of it, the US Army has a substantial fleet of its own. The Smalls is named for a naval hero you have probably never heard of, either.

The Maj. Gen. Robert Smalls, a logistics support vessel, was commissioned Sept. 15 as the first Army watercraft to be named for an African American. Smalls was a slave who escaped and became a Civil War hero and eventually a U.S. congressman. His story, the Army hopes, will inspire more than its football team.

Smalls worked as a pilot on a Confederate transport steamer based in Charleston that delivered supplies to forces up and down the South Carolina coast. Late one night in May 1862, Smalls, then 23, commandeered the ship, which was loaded with armaments, while the white crew was ashore.

With 15 other slaves, including his wife and two children, he navigated the ship out of Fort Sumter, giving the correct whistle signal as he passed Confederate forts. He surrendered the steamer, known as the Planter, to the nearest Union ship, and was heralded as a hero.

"One of the most daring and heroic adventures since the war commenced was undertaken and successfully accomplished by a party of Negroes in Charleston on Monday night last," wrote the New York Herald. The New York Daily Tribune called the ship "the first trophy from Fort Sumter." "What white man has made a bolder dash, or won a richer prize in the teeth of such perils during the war?" the Daily Tribune asked.

Smalls later met with President Abraham Lincoln and went on a speaking tour in New York to drum up support for the Union. In 1863, he became the first black captain of a U.S. vessel. He returned to South Carolina and in 1866 bought the house in which he had served as a slave. He went on to become a major general in the South Carolina militia, a state legislator and a five-term congressman.

Although the Daily Tribune predicted that "history will delight to honor" him, Smalls has remained a largely unknown figure — something Kitt Alexander has been trying to change since she met Smalls's great-granddaughter Dolly Nash nearly 12 years ago and heard his story.

Here is a listing of all the vessels operated by the US Army Reserve (pdf file). Here is the website devoted to Maj. Gen. Robert Smalls. I had found out about the US Army fleet a while back when I stumbled across it looking for something else. I knew the Army had operated a huge fleet during the Second World War; my father received his career-ending injuries aboard one of the ships in that fleet. I don't recall ever reading about Smalls before today, though.

Oh. and about that football game: Go Army!