When the Plan Comes Together

The mainstream media must be awfully proud of themselves these days. They've laid the groundwork for stories like this.

A group of senators including a Republican war critic announced agreement Wednesday on a resolution opposing President Bush's 21,500 troop build up in Iraq, setting their marker for a major clash between the White House and Congress over the unpopular war.

The non-binding resolution, which was also gaining interest from a second key Republican, would symbolically put the Senate on record as saying the U.S. commitment in Iraq "can only be sustained" with popular support among the American public and in Congress.

"I will do everything I can to stop the president's policy as he outlined it Wednesday night," said Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican and potential 2008 presidential candidate, who joined Democrats at a press conference on the resolution.

No, things in Iraq haven't always gone according to plan and no, the media isn't to blame for everything, but isn't it nifty how the media shapes public opinion and then writes stories about the "unpopular war" and erosion of "popular support," something they've had a hand in flipping? Jerry Springer-like, me thinks....

Legal Profession's Collective Integrity Remains Intact

Whew, thank goodness. For a second I was worried people might start to have a bad impression of lawyers.

Official 'sorry' for lawyers jibe

A Pentagon official who criticised US law firms for representing detainees at the Guantanamo Bay US base in Cuba has apologised for his remarks.

In a radio interview, Charles Stimson said he found it shocking that US law firms would represent inmates at the detention centre free of charge.

He also said the firms might suffer financially when corporate clients found they were involved in the cases.

Mr Stimson now says he did not intend to question the lawyers' integrity.

Neal Sonnett, the head of the American Judicature Society [ed: you ever heard of em? Me neither], a non-partisan group, said Mr Stimson's remarks had been "shameful and irresponsible".

He had made a "blatant attempt to intimidate lawyers and their firms who are rendering important public service in upholding the rule of law and our democratic ideals", he said.

How Stimson's comments constituted intimidation or a threat is beyond me. At last check, the government employs its own attorneys and doesn't farm out legal work to BigFirms(tm). And unless I missed something, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Affairs lacks legislative authority.

Iran isn't bothering much today - really

Russia 2015-2022 is what is giving me fits as of late.

There are ten million people in Moscow. Do you know how many of them are Muslim? Two and a half million. Or about a quarter of the population. The ethnic Russians are older; the Muslims are younger. The ethnic Russians are already in net population decline; the Muslim population in the country has increased by 40% in the last 15 years. Seven out of ten Russian pregnancies (according to some surveys) are aborted; in some Muslim communities, the fertility rate is ten babies per woman. Russian men have record rates of heart disease, liver disease, drug addiction and Aids; Muslims are the only guys in the country who aren’t face down in the vodka.

Faced with these trends, most experts extrapolate: thus, it’s generally accepted that by mid-century the Russian Federation will be majority Muslim. But you don’t really need to extrapolate when the future’s already checking in at reception. The Toronto Star (which is Canada’s biggest-selling newspaper and impeccably liberal) recently noted that by 2015 Muslims will make up a majority of Russia’s army.

What a train wreck coming around the bend. Don't forget all that Russian you learned as a JO yet....

Re: The Wayback Machine

The Washington Post, May 17, 2003; Page A01:

No Political Fallout for Bush on Weapons

Few Democrats are challenging Bush on the forbidden weapons, preferring to put the war behind them and focus attention on the economy, health care and other domestic issues.
<...>
This week, Pelosi said it is "difficult to understand" why the weapons can't be found. Yet she did not seem concerned about whether any are found. "I am sort of agnostic on it; that is to say, maybe they are there," Pelosi said. "I salute the president for the goal of removing weapons of mass destruction."

Similarly, Senate Democratic Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.), who on the eve of war accused Bush of failing "miserably" to win international backing, now talks of giving the president "great credit" for winning the war.

Why the reticence to remind Bush of the rationale for the war? Public opinion may be one reason.

According to a May 1 Gallup poll for CNN and USA Today, 79 percent of Americans said the war with Iraq was justified even without conclusive evidence of the illegal weapons, while 19 percent said discoveries of the weapons were needed to justify the war. An April Washington Post-ABC News poll found that 72 percent supported the war even without a finding of chemical or biological weapons. Similarly, a CBS News poll found that 60 percent said the war was worth the blood and other costs even if weapons are never found.
<...>
"If I were a Democratic candidate, I don't think I would be pushing this issue,' said Andrew Kohut, of the nonpartisan Pew Research Center for the People and the Press...

"Inasmuch as we've already done the deed, the need for that as a rationale is less," he said.

Re: The Curse

Ooooh... pretty.

Who did the design?