Rusted Sky

I know you've got problems with your eyes at work - I wonder if this might help? Get a small lamp, put in a small FS light...

Dr. Melissa Clouthier: Wal-Mart Changing the World One Lightbulb at a Time

What the heck - read this, and thought about you...

J.

I know you've got problems with your eyes at work - I wonder if this might help? Get a small lamp, put in a small FS light...

Dr. Melissa Clouthier: Wal-Mart Changing the World One Lightbulb at a Time

What the heck - read this, and thought about you...

J.

I know you've got problems with your eyes at work - I wonder if this might help? Get a small lamp, put in a small FS light...

Dr. Melissa Clouthier: Wal-Mart Changing the World One Lightbulb at a Time

What the heck - read this, and thought about you...

J.

Anyone know the magic number that will validate pre-war claims that Saddam DID have WMDs? Because if it isn't a binary solution (either he did or he didn't) then there has to be some specific quantity at which it becomes undeniable.

Pajamas Media: EXCLUSIVE Secret Iraq WMD Report -- Partially Unclassified & Available @ PJM

This now unclassified portion of the National Ground Intelligence Center (NGIC) report on pre-1991 Iraqi Chemical Weapons Recovered in Iraq reveals some chilling points concerning weapons not recovered but assessed to exist.
* Munitions recovered - 500.
* Some contained degraded mustard or sarin nerve agent.
* Pre-Gulf War munitions are assessed to still exist outside of coalition control.
* Remaining uncontrolled weapons could be sold on the black market.
* Terrorist and Insurgent groups inside and outside of Iraq desire to acquire and use chemical weapons.
* Condition of weapons uncertain. Some stilll potentially lethal. Many degraded.

The full 34-page NGIC Report was initially published on April 4 of this year, but partially declassified (The 7 pages available HERE.) on July 31.

Subsequent to the publication of the NGIC report, PJM has learned the following. In early August on a patrol north of baghdad, us soldiers made another startling and important discovery. Searching near an Iraqi construction site, the troops uncovered at least 240 chemical weapon shells. Although they had not been filled with any agents, they were still more remnants from Saddam’s WMD stockpiles.

J.

Anyone know the magic number that will validate pre-war claims that Saddam DID have WMDs? Because if it isn't a binary solution (either he did or he didn't) then there has to be some specific quantity at which it becomes undeniable.

Pajamas Media: EXCLUSIVE Secret Iraq WMD Report -- Partially Unclassified & Available @ PJM

This now unclassified portion of the National Ground Intelligence Center (NGIC) report on pre-1991 Iraqi Chemical Weapons Recovered in Iraq reveals some chilling points concerning weapons not recovered but assessed to exist.
* Munitions recovered - 500.
* Some contained degraded mustard or sarin nerve agent.
* Pre-Gulf War munitions are assessed to still exist outside of coalition control.
* Remaining uncontrolled weapons could be sold on the black market.
* Terrorist and Insurgent groups inside and outside of Iraq desire to acquire and use chemical weapons.
* Condition of weapons uncertain. Some stilll potentially lethal. Many degraded.

The full 34-page NGIC Report was initially published on April 4 of this year, but partially declassified (The 7 pages available HERE.) on July 31.

Subsequent to the publication of the NGIC report, PJM has learned the following. In early August on a patrol north of baghdad, us soldiers made another startling and important discovery. Searching near an Iraqi construction site, the troops uncovered at least 240 chemical weapon shells. Although they had not been filled with any agents, they were still more remnants from Saddam’s WMD stockpiles.

J.

Anyone know the magic number that will validate pre-war claims that Saddam DID have WMDs? Because if it isn't a binary solution (either he did or he didn't) then there has to be some specific quantity at which it becomes undeniable.

Pajamas Media: EXCLUSIVE Secret Iraq WMD Report -- Partially Unclassified & Available @ PJM

This now unclassified portion of the National Ground Intelligence Center (NGIC) report on pre-1991 Iraqi Chemical Weapons Recovered in Iraq reveals some chilling points concerning weapons not recovered but assessed to exist.
* Munitions recovered - 500.
* Some contained degraded mustard or sarin nerve agent.
* Pre-Gulf War munitions are assessed to still exist outside of coalition control.
* Remaining uncontrolled weapons could be sold on the black market.
* Terrorist and Insurgent groups inside and outside of Iraq desire to acquire and use chemical weapons.
* Condition of weapons uncertain. Some stilll potentially lethal. Many degraded.

The full 34-page NGIC Report was initially published on April 4 of this year, but partially declassified (The 7 pages available HERE.) on July 31.

Subsequent to the publication of the NGIC report, PJM has learned the following. In early August on a patrol north of baghdad, us soldiers made another startling and important discovery. Searching near an Iraqi construction site, the troops uncovered at least 240 chemical weapon shells. Although they had not been filled with any agents, they were still more remnants from Saddam’s WMD stockpiles.

J.

When guests are coming, you want your house to be as clean as possible. In this case, I think they need a new maid service... one with geiger counters to get out those last little bits...

Highly Enriched Uranium Found at Iranian Plant - New York Times

VIENNA, Aug. 31 — The global nuclear monitoring agency deepened suspicions on Thursday about Iran’s nuclear program, reporting that inspectors had discovered new traces of highly enriched uranium at an Iranian facility.

Inspectors have found such uranium, which at extreme enrichment levels can fuel bombs, twice in the past. The International Atomic Energy Agency concluded that at least some of those samples came from contaminated equipment that Iran had obtained from Pakistan.

But in this case, the nuclear fingerprint of the particles did not match the other samples, an official familiar with the inspections said, raising questions about their origin.

Oh, you mean a raised middle finger DOESN'T signal assent in Iran? Dang. Missed that one...

J.

When guests are coming, you want your house to be as clean as possible. In this case, I think they need a new maid service... one with geiger counters to get out those last little bits...

Highly Enriched Uranium Found at Iranian Plant - New York Times

VIENNA, Aug. 31 — The global nuclear monitoring agency deepened suspicions on Thursday about Iran’s nuclear program, reporting that inspectors had discovered new traces of highly enriched uranium at an Iranian facility.

Inspectors have found such uranium, which at extreme enrichment levels can fuel bombs, twice in the past. The International Atomic Energy Agency concluded that at least some of those samples came from contaminated equipment that Iran had obtained from Pakistan.

But in this case, the nuclear fingerprint of the particles did not match the other samples, an official familiar with the inspections said, raising questions about their origin.

Oh, you mean a raised middle finger DOESN'T signal assent in Iran? Dang. Missed that one...

J.

When guests are coming, you want your house to be as clean as possible. In this case, I think they need a new maid service... one with geiger counters to get out those last little bits...

Highly Enriched Uranium Found at Iranian Plant - New York Times

VIENNA, Aug. 31 — The global nuclear monitoring agency deepened suspicions on Thursday about Iran’s nuclear program, reporting that inspectors had discovered new traces of highly enriched uranium at an Iranian facility.

Inspectors have found such uranium, which at extreme enrichment levels can fuel bombs, twice in the past. The International Atomic Energy Agency concluded that at least some of those samples came from contaminated equipment that Iran had obtained from Pakistan.

But in this case, the nuclear fingerprint of the particles did not match the other samples, an official familiar with the inspections said, raising questions about their origin.

Oh, you mean a raised middle finger DOESN'T signal assent in Iran? Dang. Missed that one...

J.

We took our bikes out to the Silver Comet Trail for a ride. We started at Trailhead 12, and went west 10 miles. There's an old railroad tunnel at Milemarker 31, and that's where we had lunch.

The trail is remarkable - clean, quiet, and very well maintained. It felt kind of odd to be just pedaling along, listening to the wind in the trees and hearing the occasional insect and bird.

Yeah, it was a bit of a grind. Neither Sue or I are in particularly good shape, so we took our time. The little guy was busy figuring out how the gears on his new (used) bike work, and had a blast. (Thanks, John C! A good cleaning, some gear lube, a new seat and some air in the tires and it was good to go.) About mile 16 or so my legs just kind of turned to rubber - had to walk a bit to recover and then the little guy and I did one final dash to the car. He beat me, but it was close!

20 miles on a bike. Damn. I still can't hardly believe we did it. And then I feel the sore spots... (Man, I've GOT to get a different seat! Ever have a certain, sensitive part of your anatomy fall asleep from unaccustomed pressure... and then WAKE UP again? Yaagh! Tingly!) and think... we did!

Update: Something I forgot to mention - there was what looked like a blackened area on one side of a cutout that the trail passes through. I stopped on the way back and took a look at it - the stuff was kind of blackish/gray, and felt kind of greasy to the touch. It left a mark on paper, looking an awful lot like a pencil mark. We figure it was most likely graphite, though it could be molybdenite. (The two are very similar.) I'm thinking it's graphite, though.

J.

We took our bikes out to the Silver Comet Trail for a ride. We started at Trailhead 12, and went west 10 miles. There's an old railroad tunnel at Milemarker 31, and that's where we had lunch.

The trail is remarkable - clean, quiet, and very well maintained. It felt kind of odd to be just pedaling along, listening to the wind in the trees and hearing the occasional insect and bird.

Yeah, it was a bit of a grind. Neither Sue or I are in particularly good shape, so we took our time. The little guy was busy figuring out how the gears on his new (used) bike work, and had a blast. (Thanks, John C! A good cleaning, some gear lube, a new seat and some air in the tires and it was good to go.) About mile 16 or so my legs just kind of turned to rubber - had to walk a bit to recover and then the little guy and I did one final dash to the car. He beat me, but it was close!

20 miles on a bike. Damn. I still can't hardly believe we did it. And then I feel the sore spots... (Man, I've GOT to get a different seat! Ever have a certain, sensitive part of your anatomy fall asleep from unaccustomed pressure... and then WAKE UP again? Yaagh! Tingly!) and think... we did!

Update: Something I forgot to mention - there was what looked like a blackened area on one side of a cutout that the trail passes through. I stopped on the way back and took a look at it - the stuff was kind of blackish/gray, and felt kind of greasy to the touch. It left a mark on paper, looking an awful lot like a pencil mark. We figure it was most likely graphite, though it could be molybdenite. (The two are very similar.) I'm thinking it's graphite, though.

J.

We took our bikes out to the Silver Comet Trail for a ride. We started at Trailhead 12, and went west 10 miles. There's an old railroad tunnel at Milemarker 31, and that's where we had lunch.

The trail is remarkable - clean, quiet, and very well maintained. It felt kind of odd to be just pedaling along, listening to the wind in the trees and hearing the occasional insect and bird.

Yeah, it was a bit of a grind. Neither Sue or I are in particularly good shape, so we took our time. The little guy was busy figuring out how the gears on his new (used) bike work, and had a blast. (Thanks, John C! A good cleaning, some gear lube, a new seat and some air in the tires and it was good to go.) About mile 16 or so my legs just kind of turned to rubber - had to walk a bit to recover and then the little guy and I did one final dash to the car. He beat me, but it was close!

20 miles on a bike. Damn. I still can't hardly believe we did it. And then I feel the sore spots... (Man, I've GOT to get a different seat! Ever have a certain, sensitive part of your anatomy fall asleep from unaccustomed pressure... and then WAKE UP again? Yaagh! Tingly!) and think... we did!

Update: Something I forgot to mention - there was what looked like a blackened area on one side of a cutout that the trail passes through. I stopped on the way back and took a look at it - the stuff was kind of blackish/gray, and felt kind of greasy to the touch. It left a mark on paper, looking an awful lot like a pencil mark. We figure it was most likely graphite, though it could be molybdenite. (The two are very similar.) I'm thinking it's graphite, though.

J.

To draw terror.

Did cartoons spark Germany terror plot? - International Terrorism - MSNBC.com

BERLIN - The prime suspects in the failed attempt to blow up two German trains were partially motivated by anger over the recent publication of Prophet Muhammad cartoons, a leading investigator said in an interview released Saturday.

The Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten first published the 12 cartoons in September 2005, including one showing Muhammad wearing a turban shaped like a bomb.

But instead of laughing at the cartoons, these guys decided that it was too much - that the only response was bombing innocents.

Islam. The more I see of the nutcases, the less I respect the entire religion.

J.

To draw terror.

Did cartoons spark Germany terror plot? - International Terrorism - MSNBC.com

BERLIN - The prime suspects in the failed attempt to blow up two German trains were partially motivated by anger over the recent publication of Prophet Muhammad cartoons, a leading investigator said in an interview released Saturday.

The Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten first published the 12 cartoons in September 2005, including one showing Muhammad wearing a turban shaped like a bomb.

But instead of laughing at the cartoons, these guys decided that it was too much - that the only response was bombing innocents.

Islam. The more I see of the nutcases, the less I respect the entire religion.

J.

To draw terror.

Did cartoons spark Germany terror plot? - International Terrorism - MSNBC.com

BERLIN - The prime suspects in the failed attempt to blow up two German trains were partially motivated by anger over the recent publication of Prophet Muhammad cartoons, a leading investigator said in an interview released Saturday.

The Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten first published the 12 cartoons in September 2005, including one showing Muhammad wearing a turban shaped like a bomb.

But instead of laughing at the cartoons, these guys decided that it was too much - that the only response was bombing innocents.

Islam. The more I see of the nutcases, the less I respect the entire religion.

J.

Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin dead | NEWS.com.au

He was killed in a freak accident in Cairns, police sources said today.
It is understood he was killed by a stingray barb that went through his chest and reportedly into his heart .

He was swimming off the Low Isles at Port Douglas filming an underwater documentary when the tragedy occured.

The Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) was called about 11am (AEST) and an emergency services helicopter was flown to the crew's boat on Batt Reef, off the coast near Cairns, with a doctor and emergency services paramedic on board.

Irwin had a puncture wound to the left side of his chest and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Man. Fate works in some suck-ass ways.

Farewell, Steve Irwin - you made a lot of friends you never met, and may God put you in charge of the Celestial Zoo. Just think of the things you'll see THERE...

J.

Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin dead | NEWS.com.au

He was killed in a freak accident in Cairns, police sources said today.
It is understood he was killed by a stingray barb that went through his chest and reportedly into his heart .

He was swimming off the Low Isles at Port Douglas filming an underwater documentary when the tragedy occured.

The Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) was called about 11am (AEST) and an emergency services helicopter was flown to the crew's boat on Batt Reef, off the coast near Cairns, with a doctor and emergency services paramedic on board.

Irwin had a puncture wound to the left side of his chest and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Man. Fate works in some suck-ass ways.

Farewell, Steve Irwin - you made a lot of friends you never met, and may God put you in charge of the Celestial Zoo. Just think of the things you'll see THERE...

J.

Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin dead | NEWS.com.au

He was killed in a freak accident in Cairns, police sources said today.
It is understood he was killed by a stingray barb that went through his chest and reportedly into his heart .

He was swimming off the Low Isles at Port Douglas filming an underwater documentary when the tragedy occured.

The Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) was called about 11am (AEST) and an emergency services helicopter was flown to the crew's boat on Batt Reef, off the coast near Cairns, with a doctor and emergency services paramedic on board.

Irwin had a puncture wound to the left side of his chest and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Man. Fate works in some suck-ass ways.

Farewell, Steve Irwin - you made a lot of friends you never met, and may God put you in charge of the Celestial Zoo. Just think of the things you'll see THERE...

J.

And what has that labor bought? Lot of folks think it's good.

TCS Daily - Got to Admit It's Getting Better...

Take home ownership. In the first quarter of 1965, the first date I could find quickly, 62.9 percent of American households owned their homes. That was during Meyerson's golden era. In the second quarter of this year, the "dead middle-class era," it was 68.7 percent, an all-time high. Cars? What's relevant, as with homeownership, is the percent of the population that owns cars. And this has boomed. In 1970, presumably near the peak of Meyerson's golden era, there were 108.4 million vehicles registered in the United States; by 2003, this had soared to 231.4 million, an increase of 113.5 percent, while the population had risen by only 42.4 percent. And note that Meyerson doesn't even mention air travel, which, due to deregulation and technological improvement, has become so much cheaper that even poor Americans, let alone middle-class ones, can now afford to fly. How about college? In 1970, only 10.7 percent of the population 25 years old or more had a college degree; by 2004, this was up to an all-time high of 27.7 percent.

The bottom line is that the vast majority of us are doing well by the standard measures. Finally, (like Don Boudreaux) ask yourself this: Would you rather be in the middle 20 percent of the income distribution today or in the top 20 percent 50 years ago? How much do you value cell phones, cars that last 10 years, airline travel to Europe, iPods, and being able to fight cancer and win?

Labor Day, 2006

This Labor Day, workers actually have something to celebrate, though you'll detect precious little of it in the mainstream media coverage today:

-- 1.7 million new jobs have been created over the past year;

-- Employment has increased in 48 of the 50 states;

-- Manufacturing output is at an all-time high and production employment in manufacturing has increased by 117,000 over the past year -- the largest annual increase in over 8 years;

-- The economy has grown at 3.5% over the past year, while productivity has grown at 2.4%;

-- Real per capita disposable income has risen 9.2% since 2001;

-- Real compensation has risen 1.7%.

Labor for its part laments the state of the US economy -- again -- and points in its new study to how great things are in Europe. This is almost comical, considering the per capita US Gross Domestic Product (also known as the standard of living) is almost 50% higher than Europe's. The 3.5% GDP growth noted above is 35% faster than the EU's. The current 4.6% unemployment rate is half Europe's rate. US workers unemployed for over a year account for just 12% of the total, while in Europe, some 43% of all unemployed have been so for over a year. Finally, the percent of people starting new businesses is five times higher in the US than in France. Ask yourself this question: If you open the borders, which way will people flow -- toward Europe or toward the good ol' US of A? We think we know the answer.

So today, as you read all the wistful comparisons with Europe and read all the grim news about the US economy, just remember that this economy has come up off the economic mat from September 11 with a vengeance. We remain the largest economy in the world and the economic envy of the world.

And that gives us all something to celebrate this Labor Day.

Posted by Pat Cleary at September 4, 2006 07:33 AM

Topical Take

Happy Labor Day/Labour Day!
THE MASSES HAVE AMASSED TOO MUCH

This Labour Day, I thought about the working class, the masses.

No, honestly, I did. Okay, I was on the beach, but the folks around me lying on the sand had jobs they'll be getting back to this morning. They worked. They would be classed as workers. But they're not a homogeneous "working class," they're not conscripts in Karl Marx's "masses." The transformation of Labour Day, from a celebration of workers' solidarity to a cook-out, is the perfect precis of the history of Anglo-American capitalism.

If you want to see what "the masses" are meant to look like, buy a DVD of Metropolis, Fritz Lang's 1926 "expressionist masterpiece." As futuristic nightmares go, it's hilarious: The workers are slaves, living underground, chained to the levers, wheels, cranks and cogs of a vast machine, dehumanized by the crushing anonymity of their servitude, etc., etc.

Alas, nothing dates faster than a futuristic vision: Today, the nightmare that beckons is quite the opposite. Instead of a world in which the workers are forced to operate huge, clanking machines below the Earth all day long, the machines are small and silent and so computerized no manpower is required and the masses have to be sedated by shallow distractions like supersized shakes and Wal-Mart and 24-hour lesbian wrestling channels on Premium Cable.

It took the workers' tribunes a while to catch on: Even today, when your average union leader issues his annual Labour Day address, you can tell at heart he still thinks it's 1926 and Metropolis is just around the corner. But the intellectual left has been scrambling for decades to come up with explanations as to why, if everything's so bad, everything's so good: Noam Chomsky's theory of media manipulation - "manufactured consent" - can stand for an entire school of philosophers who believe a subtler breed of capitalist overlords are maintaining the workers in some sort of fools' illusion of content.

But, inevitably, this was only going to be an intermediate stage, given that the shimmering mirage seems to be holding up pretty well. The new received wisdom - forcefully articulated by, among others, Maude Barlow's Council of Canadians at the laugh-a-minute Johannesburg "Earth Summit" - is that the masses themselves are the problem. The oppressed masses refuse to stay oppressed. If they were down in the basement chained to the great turbines, all would be well. But, instead, they insist on moving out of their tenements, getting homes with non-communal bathrooms, giving up the trolley car, putting a deposit down on a Honda Civic and driving to the mall. When it was just medieval dukes swanking about like that, things were fine: That was "sustainable" prosperity. But now, everyone wants in. And, once you do that, there goes the global neighbourhood.

Thus, Simon Fairlie, in his new pamphlet The Prospect Of Cornutopia, ponders the consequence of a 3% "sustainable" growth rate and immediately spots the catch: by the year 2100 we'll be 18 times wealthier than we are today.

That's the problem? Of course! These days, for your serious media pessimist, the good news is the bad news. As Fairlie frets, "Will each home have 10 rooms and a swimming pool and, if so, where are we going to build them?"

Labrador. Next question.

But to this future of vast, unstoppable, ever-expanding wealth, the champions of the oppressed have come up with an ingenious solution: global poverty! We need a massive Poverty Expansion Program if we're to save the planet. "I don't think a lot of electricity is a good thing," says Gar Smith of San Francisco's Earth Island Institute. "I have seen villages in Africa that had vibrant culture and great communities that were disrupted and destroyed by the introduction of electricity," he continues, globally warming to his theme and regretting that African peasants "who used to spend their days and evenings in the streets playing music on their own instruments and sewing clothing for their neighbours on foot-pedal powered sewing machines" are now slumped in front of "Dynasty" reruns all day long.

Anyway, Happy Labor Day! Swapped out a circuit breaker in the main panel, with the little guy's help (he held the flashlight) and talked with him about how electricity freed us from a heck of a lot of labor. And in retrospect - I'm just glad folks like Gar Smith don't have any real control of our economy or political system. They're the sort who romanticize poverty and think it would be great for all, yet somehow would never THINK their lives should be so circumscribed.

One of the best things my father ever did was rent a plot of land from a guy out in the country when I was about 13-14. About two acres it was, and he decided we were going to plant a garden in it and grow some vegetables. We tilled it by hand, by shovel, by hoe in the middle of the Midwest summer. I HATED it then, though I'm glad he did it now. THAT was labor, and I respect the guys who do that. I've also unloaded semitrailers by hand, and think the powered Forklift's a gift from God himself. (Pallet jacks come from either Satan or an Archangel, depending on how they've been maintained.) The guys who lionize the worker and think we all should live like that probably haven't done much in the way of the labor they romanticize. If they did, they'd be singing another tune.

J.

And what has that labor bought? Lot of folks think it's good.

TCS Daily - Got to Admit It's Getting Better...

Take home ownership. In the first quarter of 1965, the first date I could find quickly, 62.9 percent of American households owned their homes. That was during Meyerson's golden era. In the second quarter of this year, the "dead middle-class era," it was 68.7 percent, an all-time high. Cars? What's relevant, as with homeownership, is the percent of the population that owns cars. And this has boomed. In 1970, presumably near the peak of Meyerson's golden era, there were 108.4 million vehicles registered in the United States; by 2003, this had soared to 231.4 million, an increase of 113.5 percent, while the population had risen by only 42.4 percent. And note that Meyerson doesn't even mention air travel, which, due to deregulation and technological improvement, has become so much cheaper that even poor Americans, let alone middle-class ones, can now afford to fly. How about college? In 1970, only 10.7 percent of the population 25 years old or more had a college degree; by 2004, this was up to an all-time high of 27.7 percent.

The bottom line is that the vast majority of us are doing well by the standard measures. Finally, (like Don Boudreaux) ask yourself this: Would you rather be in the middle 20 percent of the income distribution today or in the top 20 percent 50 years ago? How much do you value cell phones, cars that last 10 years, airline travel to Europe, iPods, and being able to fight cancer and win?

Labor Day, 2006

This Labor Day, workers actually have something to celebrate, though you'll detect precious little of it in the mainstream media coverage today:

-- 1.7 million new jobs have been created over the past year;

-- Employment has increased in 48 of the 50 states;

-- Manufacturing output is at an all-time high and production employment in manufacturing has increased by 117,000 over the past year -- the largest annual increase in over 8 years;

-- The economy has grown at 3.5% over the past year, while productivity has grown at 2.4%;

-- Real per capita disposable income has risen 9.2% since 2001;

-- Real compensation has risen 1.7%.

Labor for its part laments the state of the US economy -- again -- and points in its new study to how great things are in Europe. This is almost comical, considering the per capita US Gross Domestic Product (also known as the standard of living) is almost 50% higher than Europe's. The 3.5% GDP growth noted above is 35% faster than the EU's. The current 4.6% unemployment rate is half Europe's rate. US workers unemployed for over a year account for just 12% of the total, while in Europe, some 43% of all unemployed have been so for over a year. Finally, the percent of people starting new businesses is five times higher in the US than in France. Ask yourself this question: If you open the borders, which way will people flow -- toward Europe or toward the good ol' US of A? We think we know the answer.

So today, as you read all the wistful comparisons with Europe and read all the grim news about the US economy, just remember that this economy has come up off the economic mat from September 11 with a vengeance. We remain the largest economy in the world and the economic envy of the world.

And that gives us all something to celebrate this Labor Day.

Posted by Pat Cleary at September 4, 2006 07:33 AM

Topical Take

Happy Labor Day/Labour Day!
THE MASSES HAVE AMASSED TOO MUCH

This Labour Day, I thought about the working class, the masses.

No, honestly, I did. Okay, I was on the beach, but the folks around me lying on the sand had jobs they'll be getting back to this morning. They worked. They would be classed as workers. But they're not a homogeneous "working class," they're not conscripts in Karl Marx's "masses." The transformation of Labour Day, from a celebration of workers' solidarity to a cook-out, is the perfect precis of the history of Anglo-American capitalism.

If you want to see what "the masses" are meant to look like, buy a DVD of Metropolis, Fritz Lang's 1926 "expressionist masterpiece." As futuristic nightmares go, it's hilarious: The workers are slaves, living underground, chained to the levers, wheels, cranks and cogs of a vast machine, dehumanized by the crushing anonymity of their servitude, etc., etc.

Alas, nothing dates faster than a futuristic vision: Today, the nightmare that beckons is quite the opposite. Instead of a world in which the workers are forced to operate huge, clanking machines below the Earth all day long, the machines are small and silent and so computerized no manpower is required and the masses have to be sedated by shallow distractions like supersized shakes and Wal-Mart and 24-hour lesbian wrestling channels on Premium Cable.

It took the workers' tribunes a while to catch on: Even today, when your average union leader issues his annual Labour Day address, you can tell at heart he still thinks it's 1926 and Metropolis is just around the corner. But the intellectual left has been scrambling for decades to come up with explanations as to why, if everything's so bad, everything's so good: Noam Chomsky's theory of media manipulation - "manufactured consent" - can stand for an entire school of philosophers who believe a subtler breed of capitalist overlords are maintaining the workers in some sort of fools' illusion of content.

But, inevitably, this was only going to be an intermediate stage, given that the shimmering mirage seems to be holding up pretty well. The new received wisdom - forcefully articulated by, among others, Maude Barlow's Council of Canadians at the laugh-a-minute Johannesburg "Earth Summit" - is that the masses themselves are the problem. The oppressed masses refuse to stay oppressed. If they were down in the basement chained to the great turbines, all would be well. But, instead, they insist on moving out of their tenements, getting homes with non-communal bathrooms, giving up the trolley car, putting a deposit down on a Honda Civic and driving to the mall. When it was just medieval dukes swanking about like that, things were fine: That was "sustainable" prosperity. But now, everyone wants in. And, once you do that, there goes the global neighbourhood.

Thus, Simon Fairlie, in his new pamphlet The Prospect Of Cornutopia, ponders the consequence of a 3% "sustainable" growth rate and immediately spots the catch: by the year 2100 we'll be 18 times wealthier than we are today.

That's the problem? Of course! These days, for your serious media pessimist, the good news is the bad news. As Fairlie frets, "Will each home have 10 rooms and a swimming pool and, if so, where are we going to build them?"

Labrador. Next question.

But to this future of vast, unstoppable, ever-expanding wealth, the champions of the oppressed have come up with an ingenious solution: global poverty! We need a massive Poverty Expansion Program if we're to save the planet. "I don't think a lot of electricity is a good thing," says Gar Smith of San Francisco's Earth Island Institute. "I have seen villages in Africa that had vibrant culture and great communities that were disrupted and destroyed by the introduction of electricity," he continues, globally warming to his theme and regretting that African peasants "who used to spend their days and evenings in the streets playing music on their own instruments and sewing clothing for their neighbours on foot-pedal powered sewing machines" are now slumped in front of "Dynasty" reruns all day long.

Anyway, Happy Labor Day! Swapped out a circuit breaker in the main panel, with the little guy's help (he held the flashlight) and talked with him about how electricity freed us from a heck of a lot of labor. And in retrospect - I'm just glad folks like Gar Smith don't have any real control of our economy or political system. They're the sort who romanticize poverty and think it would be great for all, yet somehow would never THINK their lives should be so circumscribed.

One of the best things my father ever did was rent a plot of land from a guy out in the country when I was about 13-14. About two acres it was, and he decided we were going to plant a garden in it and grow some vegetables. We tilled it by hand, by shovel, by hoe in the middle of the Midwest summer. I HATED it then, though I'm glad he did it now. THAT was labor, and I respect the guys who do that. I've also unloaded semitrailers by hand, and think the powered Forklift's a gift from God himself. (Pallet jacks come from either Satan or an Archangel, depending on how they've been maintained.) The guys who lionize the worker and think we all should live like that probably haven't done much in the way of the labor they romanticize. If they did, they'd be singing another tune.

J.

And what has that labor bought? Lot of folks think it's good.

TCS Daily - Got to Admit It's Getting Better...

Take home ownership. In the first quarter of 1965, the first date I could find quickly, 62.9 percent of American households owned their homes. That was during Meyerson's golden era. In the second quarter of this year, the "dead middle-class era," it was 68.7 percent, an all-time high. Cars? What's relevant, as with homeownership, is the percent of the population that owns cars. And this has boomed. In 1970, presumably near the peak of Meyerson's golden era, there were 108.4 million vehicles registered in the United States; by 2003, this had soared to 231.4 million, an increase of 113.5 percent, while the population had risen by only 42.4 percent. And note that Meyerson doesn't even mention air travel, which, due to deregulation and technological improvement, has become so much cheaper that even poor Americans, let alone middle-class ones, can now afford to fly. How about college? In 1970, only 10.7 percent of the population 25 years old or more had a college degree; by 2004, this was up to an all-time high of 27.7 percent.

The bottom line is that the vast majority of us are doing well by the standard measures. Finally, (like Don Boudreaux) ask yourself this: Would you rather be in the middle 20 percent of the income distribution today or in the top 20 percent 50 years ago? How much do you value cell phones, cars that last 10 years, airline travel to Europe, iPods, and being able to fight cancer and win?

Labor Day, 2006

This Labor Day, workers actually have something to celebrate, though you'll detect precious little of it in the mainstream media coverage today:

-- 1.7 million new jobs have been created over the past year;

-- Employment has increased in 48 of the 50 states;

-- Manufacturing output is at an all-time high and production employment in manufacturing has increased by 117,000 over the past year -- the largest annual increase in over 8 years;

-- The economy has grown at 3.5% over the past year, while productivity has grown at 2.4%;

-- Real per capita disposable income has risen 9.2% since 2001;

-- Real compensation has risen 1.7%.

Labor for its part laments the state of the US economy -- again -- and points in its new study to how great things are in Europe. This is almost comical, considering the per capita US Gross Domestic Product (also known as the standard of living) is almost 50% higher than Europe's. The 3.5% GDP growth noted above is 35% faster than the EU's. The current 4.6% unemployment rate is half Europe's rate. US workers unemployed for over a year account for just 12% of the total, while in Europe, some 43% of all unemployed have been so for over a year. Finally, the percent of people starting new businesses is five times higher in the US than in France. Ask yourself this question: If you open the borders, which way will people flow -- toward Europe or toward the good ol' US of A? We think we know the answer.

So today, as you read all the wistful comparisons with Europe and read all the grim news about the US economy, just remember that this economy has come up off the economic mat from September 11 with a vengeance. We remain the largest economy in the world and the economic envy of the world.

And that gives us all something to celebrate this Labor Day.

Posted by Pat Cleary at September 4, 2006 07:33 AM

Topical Take

Happy Labor Day/Labour Day!
THE MASSES HAVE AMASSED TOO MUCH

This Labour Day, I thought about the working class, the masses.

No, honestly, I did. Okay, I was on the beach, but the folks around me lying on the sand had jobs they'll be getting back to this morning. They worked. They would be classed as workers. But they're not a homogeneous "working class," they're not conscripts in Karl Marx's "masses." The transformation of Labour Day, from a celebration of workers' solidarity to a cook-out, is the perfect precis of the history of Anglo-American capitalism.

If you want to see what "the masses" are meant to look like, buy a DVD of Metropolis, Fritz Lang's 1926 "expressionist masterpiece." As futuristic nightmares go, it's hilarious: The workers are slaves, living underground, chained to the levers, wheels, cranks and cogs of a vast machine, dehumanized by the crushing anonymity of their servitude, etc., etc.

Alas, nothing dates faster than a futuristic vision: Today, the nightmare that beckons is quite the opposite. Instead of a world in which the workers are forced to operate huge, clanking machines below the Earth all day long, the machines are small and silent and so computerized no manpower is required and the masses have to be sedated by shallow distractions like supersized shakes and Wal-Mart and 24-hour lesbian wrestling channels on Premium Cable.

It took the workers' tribunes a while to catch on: Even today, when your average union leader issues his annual Labour Day address, you can tell at heart he still thinks it's 1926 and Metropolis is just around the corner. But the intellectual left has been scrambling for decades to come up with explanations as to why, if everything's so bad, everything's so good: Noam Chomsky's theory of media manipulation - "manufactured consent" - can stand for an entire school of philosophers who believe a subtler breed of capitalist overlords are maintaining the workers in some sort of fools' illusion of content.

But, inevitably, this was only going to be an intermediate stage, given that the shimmering mirage seems to be holding up pretty well. The new received wisdom - forcefully articulated by, among others, Maude Barlow's Council of Canadians at the laugh-a-minute Johannesburg "Earth Summit" - is that the masses themselves are the problem. The oppressed masses refuse to stay oppressed. If they were down in the basement chained to the great turbines, all would be well. But, instead, they insist on moving out of their tenements, getting homes with non-communal bathrooms, giving up the trolley car, putting a deposit down on a Honda Civic and driving to the mall. When it was just medieval dukes swanking about like that, things were fine: That was "sustainable" prosperity. But now, everyone wants in. And, once you do that, there goes the global neighbourhood.

Thus, Simon Fairlie, in his new pamphlet The Prospect Of Cornutopia, ponders the consequence of a 3% "sustainable" growth rate and immediately spots the catch: by the year 2100 we'll be 18 times wealthier than we are today.

That's the problem? Of course! These days, for your serious media pessimist, the good news is the bad news. As Fairlie frets, "Will each home have 10 rooms and a swimming pool and, if so, where are we going to build them?"

Labrador. Next question.

But to this future of vast, unstoppable, ever-expanding wealth, the champions of the oppressed have come up with an ingenious solution: global poverty! We need a massive Poverty Expansion Program if we're to save the planet. "I don't think a lot of electricity is a good thing," says Gar Smith of San Francisco's Earth Island Institute. "I have seen villages in Africa that had vibrant culture and great communities that were disrupted and destroyed by the introduction of electricity," he continues, globally warming to his theme and regretting that African peasants "who used to spend their days and evenings in the streets playing music on their own instruments and sewing clothing for their neighbours on foot-pedal powered sewing machines" are now slumped in front of "Dynasty" reruns all day long.

Anyway, Happy Labor Day! Swapped out a circuit breaker in the main panel, with the little guy's help (he held the flashlight) and talked with him about how electricity freed us from a heck of a lot of labor. And in retrospect - I'm just glad folks like Gar Smith don't have any real control of our economy or political system. They're the sort who romanticize poverty and think it would be great for all, yet somehow would never THINK their lives should be so circumscribed.

One of the best things my father ever did was rent a plot of land from a guy out in the country when I was about 13-14. About two acres it was, and he decided we were going to plant a garden in it and grow some vegetables. We tilled it by hand, by shovel, by hoe in the middle of the Midwest summer. I HATED it then, though I'm glad he did it now. THAT was labor, and I respect the guys who do that. I've also unloaded semitrailers by hand, and think the powered Forklift's a gift from God himself. (Pallet jacks come from either Satan or an Archangel, depending on how they've been maintained.) The guys who lionize the worker and think we all should live like that probably haven't done much in the way of the labor they romanticize. If they did, they'd be singing another tune.

J.

David Limbaugh's put up a rather interesting column with an excerpt from his new book. In it, he points out a few things that I found rather interesting.

The party's decline took firm root in the late 1960s and 1970s, but has accelerated dramatically over the last decade. Today's Democratic Party -- the party of Al Gore, John Kerry, Howard Dean, Harry Reid, Joseph Biden, Edward Kennedy, and Hillary Rodham Clinton -- is the party that sacrificed all moral principle to defend Bill Clinton in the 1990s no matter what the scandal. It is the party that adopted the Clinton mode of conducting politics as an art of personal assassination -- while accusing the other side of doing it.

It is the party that tried to steal the presidential election in 2000, then convinced itself that Republicans did steal it -- and has been paralyzed with bitterness and conducting revenge politics ever since. It is the party that demands bipartisanship and reconciliation, but whips President Bush with the olive branch he extended at their behest.

It is the party whose ex-presidents routinely violate the long-standing tradition against criticizing their successors -- and even do so on foreign soil. (And that's ticked me off no end - J.)

It is the party that falsely claims President Bush is trampling on the Constitution -- while making no secret of its own willingness to subordinate the Constitution to its own political ends, most notably through using the judicial branch to "legislate" policy it cannot achieve through democratic means.

It is the party that isn't honest about its core convictions, knowing that honesty will render it even less electable in a center-right America. It denies its liberalism in favor of the euphemistic "progressivism." But while "progressive" implies "forward-looking," Democrats are mired in the past, reactionary on issues from Social Security (don't change a bankrupt system) to Iraq (don't defeat a hostile dictatorship and try to make it a democracy).

It is the party of elites who look down their noses at red-state America. It is the party that snubs Christians and "values" voters yet claims to be their authentic representatives. It is the party that can't decide whether its electoral difficulties stem from its failure to effectively articulate its message or from the wholesale stupidity of an electorate that's too Christian, too much in favor of traditional family values, and too patriotic.

You might not agree with his thoughts. I'm not sure I agree with them all. I might even buy the book to see what I disagree with. But one thing for sure - the Dems aren't 'progressive' any more, they're static. They aren't going anywhere, preferring a status quo that no longer exists to realistically evaluating what's going on in the world and adjusting path accordingly.

And that's not good.

J.

David Limbaugh's put up a rather interesting column with an excerpt from his new book. In it, he points out a few things that I found rather interesting.

The party's decline took firm root in the late 1960s and 1970s, but has accelerated dramatically over the last decade. Today's Democratic Party -- the party of Al Gore, John Kerry, Howard Dean, Harry Reid, Joseph Biden, Edward Kennedy, and Hillary Rodham Clinton -- is the party that sacrificed all moral principle to defend Bill Clinton in the 1990s no matter what the scandal. It is the party that adopted the Clinton mode of conducting politics as an art of personal assassination -- while accusing the other side of doing it.

It is the party that tried to steal the presidential election in 2000, then convinced itself that Republicans did steal it -- and has been paralyzed with bitterness and conducting revenge politics ever since. It is the party that demands bipartisanship and reconciliation, but whips President Bush with the olive branch he extended at their behest.

It is the party whose ex-presidents routinely violate the long-standing tradition against criticizing their successors -- and even do so on foreign soil. (And that's ticked me off no end - J.)

It is the party that falsely claims President Bush is trampling on the Constitution -- while making no secret of its own willingness to subordinate the Constitution to its own political ends, most notably through using the judicial branch to "legislate" policy it cannot achieve through democratic means.

It is the party that isn't honest about its core convictions, knowing that honesty will render it even less electable in a center-right America. It denies its liberalism in favor of the euphemistic "progressivism." But while "progressive" implies "forward-looking," Democrats are mired in the past, reactionary on issues from Social Security (don't change a bankrupt system) to Iraq (don't defeat a hostile dictatorship and try to make it a democracy).

It is the party of elites who look down their noses at red-state America. It is the party that snubs Christians and "values" voters yet claims to be their authentic representatives. It is the party that can't decide whether its electoral difficulties stem from its failure to effectively articulate its message or from the wholesale stupidity of an electorate that's too Christian, too much in favor of traditional family values, and too patriotic.

You might not agree with his thoughts. I'm not sure I agree with them all. I might even buy the book to see what I disagree with. But one thing for sure - the Dems aren't 'progressive' any more, they're static. They aren't going anywhere, preferring a status quo that no longer exists to realistically evaluating what's going on in the world and adjusting path accordingly.

And that's not good.

J.

David Limbaugh's put up a rather interesting column with an excerpt from his new book. In it, he points out a few things that I found rather interesting.

The party's decline took firm root in the late 1960s and 1970s, but has accelerated dramatically over the last decade. Today's Democratic Party -- the party of Al Gore, John Kerry, Howard Dean, Harry Reid, Joseph Biden, Edward Kennedy, and Hillary Rodham Clinton -- is the party that sacrificed all moral principle to defend Bill Clinton in the 1990s no matter what the scandal. It is the party that adopted the Clinton mode of conducting politics as an art of personal assassination -- while accusing the other side of doing it.

It is the party that tried to steal the presidential election in 2000, then convinced itself that Republicans did steal it -- and has been paralyzed with bitterness and conducting revenge politics ever since. It is the party that demands bipartisanship and reconciliation, but whips President Bush with the olive branch he extended at their behest.

It is the party whose ex-presidents routinely violate the long-standing tradition against criticizing their successors -- and even do so on foreign soil. (And that's ticked me off no end - J.)

It is the party that falsely claims President Bush is trampling on the Constitution -- while making no secret of its own willingness to subordinate the Constitution to its own political ends, most notably through using the judicial branch to "legislate" policy it cannot achieve through democratic means.

It is the party that isn't honest about its core convictions, knowing that honesty will render it even less electable in a center-right America. It denies its liberalism in favor of the euphemistic "progressivism." But while "progressive" implies "forward-looking," Democrats are mired in the past, reactionary on issues from Social Security (don't change a bankrupt system) to Iraq (don't defeat a hostile dictatorship and try to make it a democracy).

It is the party of elites who look down their noses at red-state America. It is the party that snubs Christians and "values" voters yet claims to be their authentic representatives. It is the party that can't decide whether its electoral difficulties stem from its failure to effectively articulate its message or from the wholesale stupidity of an electorate that's too Christian, too much in favor of traditional family values, and too patriotic.

You might not agree with his thoughts. I'm not sure I agree with them all. I might even buy the book to see what I disagree with. But one thing for sure - the Dems aren't 'progressive' any more, they're static. They aren't going anywhere, preferring a status quo that no longer exists to realistically evaluating what's going on in the world and adjusting path accordingly.

And that's not good.

J.

Gateway Pundit: Denmark Officials Arrest 9 in Terror Raid

Go there for the latest...

I'm hoping this is a meme that'll run its course. But I'm starting to worry. Using bombs as a means of political discourse is exeedingly open to potential misuse.

J.

Gateway Pundit: Denmark Officials Arrest 9 in Terror Raid

Go there for the latest...

I'm hoping this is a meme that'll run its course. But I'm starting to worry. Using bombs as a means of political discourse is exeedingly open to potential misuse.

J.

Gateway Pundit: Denmark Officials Arrest 9 in Terror Raid

Go there for the latest...

I'm hoping this is a meme that'll run its course. But I'm starting to worry. Using bombs as a means of political discourse is exeedingly open to potential misuse.

J.

And it's got a lot more meat than the amorphous "We'll win by doing everything differently" strategy that the DNC seems to be operating under.

Austin Bay Blog � White House publishes new counter-terror strategy document

Full PDF here.

We will not be able to win through negotiation, without the will to back up the carrot with the stick. Bush realizes this, but I don't think Congress and the Senate have quite gotten it down...

J.

And it's got a lot more meat than the amorphous "We'll win by doing everything differently" strategy that the DNC seems to be operating under.

Austin Bay Blog � White House publishes new counter-terror strategy document

Full PDF here.

We will not be able to win through negotiation, without the will to back up the carrot with the stick. Bush realizes this, but I don't think Congress and the Senate have quite gotten it down...

J.

And it's got a lot more meat than the amorphous "We'll win by doing everything differently" strategy that the DNC seems to be operating under.

Austin Bay Blog � White House publishes new counter-terror strategy document

Full PDF here.

We will not be able to win through negotiation, without the will to back up the carrot with the stick. Bush realizes this, but I don't think Congress and the Senate have quite gotten it down...

J.

You hear that word a lot about Bush. His war plans were incompetent. His economic initiatives incompetent. Hell, anything he does results in screams of rage about his incompetence, and if he did nothing the folks who believe in his incompetence would scream about that.

But I don't think he's incompetent. I believe he's doing the best job he can, in a job that got pretty damn hard on 9/11 and hasn't gotten any easier since. Cal Thomas in an article over at RealClearPolitics - The 'Incompetent' Bush Administration looks at some of the supposed incompetencies, and finds them unpersuasive. His thought is that the Democratic party is so desperate to regain control that nothing else matters. But I don't think Bush even cares much about that. He's got other things - more important things - to worry about than whether Reid or Pelosi are mad at him for one thing or another.

Since Sept. 11, 2001, President Bush has repeatedly stressed that the war with terrorism will be long, difficult and frustrating. It is unlike any war the country has fought and so all comparisons - from the time it is taking, to the number of casualties - are imperfect. It is not a war America chose to begin; it is a war the United States could not escape.

This war was unavoidable, because religious fanatics concluded a new strategy was needed after Arab states lost five wars to Israel. They viewed Israel as strong - until the Lebanon fiasco - and the United States weak. That weakness, they determined, wasn't in military might, but in staying power. They calculated the United States lacks the stomach for a long war, especially one fueled by religious fanaticism.

Seeing America as religiously weak and morally challenged, the islamofascists are determined to strike us where we live. The Clinton administration failed to see this war coming, but Democrats do not regard its minimal response to terrorist attacks as incompetence or weakness. Condemnation is reserved exclusively for President Bush, who they say misjudged the war on terror by attacking Iraq. But the war was coming and would have come with or without the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. If the United States and the rest of the coalition does not defeat the insurgents in Iraq, that country will become a terror state and the price we will pay when future attacks against America are launched from an islamofascist Iraq, allied with Iran, will make 9/11 pale in comparison.

At a symposium last spring on "Islam and the West," which was sponsored by The World Affairs Council of Philadelphia, Walter Russell Mead of the Council on Foreign Relations noted, "The human species is facing a huge historical, cultural problem... For reasons that have very little to do with the U.S., we need to face the fact that we'll be living with this for a very long time." Mead said it isn't just an Arab problem, but an Islamic world problem, which transcends borders and regions. "If you don't understand this, you're deluding yourself," he said.

But anyway... it's been my experience that folks who complain loudly about other people's competence are usually trying to hide their own incompetence. The louder a Democratic politician hollers about Bush's supposed incompetence, the more inclined I am to think they're a jackass. Cynthia McKinney kind of proves that theory out.

J.

You hear that word a lot about Bush. His war plans were incompetent. His economic initiatives incompetent. Hell, anything he does results in screams of rage about his incompetence, and if he did nothing the folks who believe in his incompetence would scream about that.

But I don't think he's incompetent. I believe he's doing the best job he can, in a job that got pretty damn hard on 9/11 and hasn't gotten any easier since. Cal Thomas in an article over at RealClearPolitics - The 'Incompetent' Bush Administration looks at some of the supposed incompetencies, and finds them unpersuasive. His thought is that the Democratic party is so desperate to regain control that nothing else matters. But I don't think Bush even cares much about that. He's got other things - more important things - to worry about than whether Reid or Pelosi are mad at him for one thing or another.

Since Sept. 11, 2001, President Bush has repeatedly stressed that the war with terrorism will be long, difficult and frustrating. It is unlike any war the country has fought and so all comparisons - from the time it is taking, to the number of casualties - are imperfect. It is not a war America chose to begin; it is a war the United States could not escape.

This war was unavoidable, because religious fanatics concluded a new strategy was needed after Arab states lost five wars to Israel. They viewed Israel as strong - until the Lebanon fiasco - and the United States weak. That weakness, they determined, wasn't in military might, but in staying power. They calculated the United States lacks the stomach for a long war, especially one fueled by religious fanaticism.

Seeing America as religiously weak and morally challenged, the islamofascists are determined to strike us where we live. The Clinton administration failed to see this war coming, but Democrats do not regard its minimal response to terrorist attacks as incompetence or weakness. Condemnation is reserved exclusively for President Bush, who they say misjudged the war on terror by attacking Iraq. But the war was coming and would have come with or without the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. If the United States and the rest of the coalition does not defeat the insurgents in Iraq, that country will become a terror state and the price we will pay when future attacks against America are launched from an islamofascist Iraq, allied with Iran, will make 9/11 pale in comparison.

At a symposium last spring on "Islam and the West," which was sponsored by The World Affairs Council of Philadelphia, Walter Russell Mead of the Council on Foreign Relations noted, "The human species is facing a huge historical, cultural problem... For reasons that have very little to do with the U.S., we need to face the fact that we'll be living with this for a very long time." Mead said it isn't just an Arab problem, but an Islamic world problem, which transcends borders and regions. "If you don't understand this, you're deluding yourself," he said.

But anyway... it's been my experience that folks who complain loudly about other people's competence are usually trying to hide their own incompetence. The louder a Democratic politician hollers about Bush's supposed incompetence, the more inclined I am to think they're a jackass. Cynthia McKinney kind of proves that theory out.

J.

You hear that word a lot about Bush. His war plans were incompetent. His economic initiatives incompetent. Hell, anything he does results in screams of rage about his incompetence, and if he did nothing the folks who believe in his incompetence would scream about that.

But I don't think he's incompetent. I believe he's doing the best job he can, in a job that got pretty damn hard on 9/11 and hasn't gotten any easier since. Cal Thomas in an article over at RealClearPolitics - The 'Incompetent' Bush Administration looks at some of the supposed incompetencies, and finds them unpersuasive. His thought is that the Democratic party is so desperate to regain control that nothing else matters. But I don't think Bush even cares much about that. He's got other things - more important things - to worry about than whether Reid or Pelosi are mad at him for one thing or another.

Since Sept. 11, 2001, President Bush has repeatedly stressed that the war with terrorism will be long, difficult and frustrating. It is unlike any war the country has fought and so all comparisons - from the time it is taking, to the number of casualties - are imperfect. It is not a war America chose to begin; it is a war the United States could not escape.

This war was unavoidable, because religious fanatics concluded a new strategy was needed after Arab states lost five wars to Israel. They viewed Israel as strong - until the Lebanon fiasco - and the United States weak. That weakness, they determined, wasn't in military might, but in staying power. They calculated the United States lacks the stomach for a long war, especially one fueled by religious fanaticism.

Seeing America as religiously weak and morally challenged, the islamofascists are determined to strike us where we live. The Clinton administration failed to see this war coming, but Democrats do not regard its minimal response to terrorist attacks as incompetence or weakness. Condemnation is reserved exclusively for President Bush, who they say misjudged the war on terror by attacking Iraq. But the war was coming and would have come with or without the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. If the United States and the rest of the coalition does not defeat the insurgents in Iraq, that country will become a terror state and the price we will pay when future attacks against America are launched from an islamofascist Iraq, allied with Iran, will make 9/11 pale in comparison.

At a symposium last spring on "Islam and the West," which was sponsored by The World Affairs Council of Philadelphia, Walter Russell Mead of the Council on Foreign Relations noted, "The human species is facing a huge historical, cultural problem... For reasons that have very little to do with the U.S., we need to face the fact that we'll be living with this for a very long time." Mead said it isn't just an Arab problem, but an Islamic world problem, which transcends borders and regions. "If you don't understand this, you're deluding yourself," he said.

But anyway... it's been my experience that folks who complain loudly about other people's competence are usually trying to hide their own incompetence. The louder a Democratic politician hollers about Bush's supposed incompetence, the more inclined I am to think they're a jackass. Cynthia McKinney kind of proves that theory out.

J.

The AP takes the President's speech today (which you can read for yourself here), and morphs it into a supposed admission of guilt.

Power Line: Misreporting the News, Again

So the AP's headline and lead paragraph, suggesting that the President made some sort of guilty admission, are misleading at best. The President's endorsement of the CIA's program was aggressive and effective, but few Americans will learn about it beyond the handful who watched the speech as it was delivered.

The real news that came out of the speech was that the 14 high-ranking terrorists now in CIA custody will be transferred to Guantanamo for criminal prosecution, and that the administration is asking Congress to pass comprehensive legislation authorizing military tribunals and protecting American servicemen and CIA employees from prosecution or lawsuits arising out of their interrogations of captured terrorists.

This is, in large part, a response to the unfortunate Hamdan decision. From a political standpoint, though, the Left won't be happy about the return of Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, Zubaydah, et al. to the front pages; nor will Democrats in Congress relish having to vote on a vital issue of national security between now and November.

I've got no problems with the bad guys being put in jail. Or interrogated. Or held in 'secret' prisons. And I doubt the AP does either - but their idea of who the bad guys are and mine don't seem to mesh.

J.

The AP takes the President's speech today (which you can read for yourself here), and morphs it into a supposed admission of guilt.

Power Line: Misreporting the News, Again

So the AP's headline and lead paragraph, suggesting that the President made some sort of guilty admission, are misleading at best. The President's endorsement of the CIA's program was aggressive and effective, but few Americans will learn about it beyond the handful who watched the speech as it was delivered.

The real news that came out of the speech was that the 14 high-ranking terrorists now in CIA custody will be transferred to Guantanamo for criminal prosecution, and that the administration is asking Congress to pass comprehensive legislation authorizing military tribunals and protecting American servicemen and CIA employees from prosecution or lawsuits arising out of their interrogations of captured terrorists.

This is, in large part, a response to the unfortunate Hamdan decision. From a political standpoint, though, the Left won't be happy about the return of Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, Zubaydah, et al. to the front pages; nor will Democrats in Congress relish having to vote on a vital issue of national security between now and November.

I've got no problems with the bad guys being put in jail. Or interrogated. Or held in 'secret' prisons. And I doubt the AP does either - but their idea of who the bad guys are and mine don't seem to mesh.

J.

The AP takes the President's speech today (which you can read for yourself here), and morphs it into a supposed admission of guilt.

Power Line: Misreporting the News, Again

So the AP's headline and lead paragraph, suggesting that the President made some sort of guilty admission, are misleading at best. The President's endorsement of the CIA's program was aggressive and effective, but few Americans will learn about it beyond the handful who watched the speech as it was delivered.

The real news that came out of the speech was that the 14 high-ranking terrorists now in CIA custody will be transferred to Guantanamo for criminal prosecution, and that the administration is asking Congress to pass comprehensive legislation authorizing military tribunals and protecting American servicemen and CIA employees from prosecution or lawsuits arising out of their interrogations of captured terrorists.

This is, in large part, a response to the unfortunate Hamdan decision. From a political standpoint, though, the Left won't be happy about the return of Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, Zubaydah, et al. to the front pages; nor will Democrats in Congress relish having to vote on a vital issue of national security between now and November.

I've got no problems with the bad guys being put in jail. Or interrogated. Or held in 'secret' prisons. And I doubt the AP does either - but their idea of who the bad guys are and mine don't seem to mesh.

J.