Category: Networks

Many of the neo-cons are in the curious position of supporting the Intelligent Design silliness while not signing up for belief in a god, for reasons that Ron Bailey explained very well in a classic essay in Reason magazine a few years ago. So it’s heartening to see an outbreak of good sense at NRO on the part of John Derbyshire, especially since NR founder Bill Buckley is soft on creationism himself. Now if somebody can just talk some sense into Hugh Hewitt we might make some real progress. (H/t Instapundit.)

Evolution isn’t a hard issue to understand, and even the Pope is on the right side of the question (he accepts natural selection as “more than an hypothesis”). So how can you trust the political analysis of people who can’t get it right?

Rich Lowry gets the Alberto Gonzales nomination fight right:

The confirmation hearings for Al Gonzales’s nomination as attorney general ostensibly are about his suitability for the job. But the real issue is how we conduct the war on terror. Are terrorists soldiers, just like any other? Do we have a right to pressure them for information upon capture? The Democrats’ answers are, by implication, “yes” and “no” respectively. Which is why the Bush administration should welcome a big, high-profile fight over this nomination.

The endless posturing about torture is clearly beside the point. Gonzales was asked for a legal opinion on the scope of the Geneva Conventions, and he gave a sound legal answer. What’s right isn’t always in line with what’s legal, either. See Andrew McCarthy in NRO:

For hours, the confirmation hearing for the Attorney General designate, Alberto Gonzales, was grueling ? for his detractors. The White House Counsel handled often strident questioning with aplomb. But, as strongly as Judge Gonzales held his ground on such matters as the non-applicability of the Geneva Conventions to alien enemy combatants, his critics provided just as strong a justification for his inevitable confirmation. In a word, they were fatuous.

For a good example of a fatuous reaction to Gonzales, see former Mercury News tech columnist Chris Nolan compare Al Qaeda to the American civil rights movement. No, I’m not kidding, she really does. Good thing for her she doesn’t allow comments on her blog.

Yes, there’s something flaky about a guy with a radio show taking money to push a bill, even if most of the money is for commercials that are obviously commercials. Anytime money changes hands for message there’s something shady. All advertising is suspect.

But why are the complaints limited to conservatives like Williams and the Thune bloggers when it’s obvious to anybody with half a brain that Atrios, Josh Marshall, Markos, and Oliver Willis are absolute and total whores of the Democratic Party?

Josh Marshall’s infamous Strom Thurmond/Trent Lott campaign was a project of the DNC, where Carville carried the orders to Marshall to proceed. Markos and the rest of the lefty blogosphere are paid handsomely (OK, except for Willis who’s probably cost-effective) to shill, tout, spin, lie, or whatever it takes to advance a policy interest and a set of candidates.

So what did Williams do that was so god-awful exciting? Everybody knows he’s conservative who’s worked for Clarence Thomas and Strom Thurmond. Everybody knows he’s black. So he’s obviously an important asset in the Republican consciousness-raising effort on education, where the task is to show blacks that the Democratic Party will never educate their children properly because they’re whores to the Teachers’ Union.

If the issue is the tax money, my god that’s pretty damn lame. Tax money flows into the pockets of advocates every day under such noble causes as the Violence Against Women Act and nobody complains.

I’m trying real hard to honor these complaints, but I’m having a hard time getting over the idea that Democrats are caught in their traditional hatred of black conservatives. Maybe I shouldn’t have read racist Democrat Steve Gilliard:

Brother, them white folks is gonna jump up on your ass like you were a trampoline. You’ll be lucky to avoid jail. The conservative lynching is already starting.

It’s like that line from Trading Places: “Of course I would never let a nigger run our company” Well, of course, if Williams is a crook, they would never defend his lying nigger ass.

Josh Marshall asked who else is taking payments from the White House.

He would, wouldn’t he?

So help me out, outraged liberals, show me the beef.

UPDATE: See Williams’ apology and clarification here. Not surprisingly, the reporting on this fiasco has been biased.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Dan Flynn is not impressed by Williams’ apology, which he finds disingenuous, and neither is LaShawn Barber.

People wishing to make contributions for tsunami victims can check the status of their charities with the charitywatch.org list of Top-Rated Charities According to the American Institute of Philanthropy

Accion International
Africare
American Friends Service Committee
American Near East Refugee Aid
American Refugee Committee
AmeriCares
CARE
Catholic Relief Services
Church World Service
Doctors of the World
Doctors Without Borders USA
FINCA International
International Rescue Committee
Lutheran World Relief
Mennonite Central Committee
Oxfam-America
Save the Children
U.S. Committee for Refugees

If your charity isn’t on this list, it’s not among the best in efficiency. The two highest-rated in International Relief and Development are Lutheran World Relief and the American Refugee Committee.

…and happy new year.

Marc Cooper reports that Hugo Chavez will receive the presigious Ghadafy Human Rights Award for his efforts in media censorship:

Venezuelan con man, Bolivarian Revolutionary, Great-Thinker and sitting President Hugo Chavez has just returned home from a tour of showcase democratic countries including Cuba, Iran and Libya. Chavez dropped in on Colonel Ghadafy, by the way, to pick up his prize as this year?s winner of the Ghadafy Human Rights Award. No, I?m not making this up. Seems that Chavez had to rush home to enact a new press censorship law. This one?s no laughing matter?drawing a rebuke from Reporters Without Borders and Human Rights Watch among others. Randy Paul, as usual, has all the dope.

No question that the Bushies don?t like Chavez. Hardly reason, though, for the rest of us to like this clown or, worse, apologize for his continuing thuggish deportment. Nice going, Randy.

Link via Dr. Frank.

Tomorrow’s your last chance to give to the Spirit of America blogger challenge.

A number of anti-war people are holding up an alleged Iraqi blogger who goes by the pseudonym “Riverbend” as the authentic voice of the Iraqi people. Martini Republic, David Isenberg, and the pretentious Juan Cole are examples. But it’s unlikely that Riverbend is what she claims to be.

On MR’s comments, USA Today writer Cesar Soriano, who’s done four tours in Iraq says he’s tried to meet her and been ignored (scroll down):

I’m Cesar G. Soriano, the USA TODAY reporter who wrote the feature story you’re questioning.

In between fits of laughter, I’ve been reading comments that suggest, among other things, that Iraq the Model is written by CIA agents at Langley who planted stories about the web site into the mainstream media.

For the record:

1. I can vouch that the Fadhil brothers are real, they are Iraqis and they do live in Iraq. During four tours in Iraq, I’ve met the brothers several times, in person, in Baghdad. Their photographs appeared in our newspaper and website.

2. My story was not the first written about the Fadhil brothers, but it was one of the earlier ones. The story was about Iraqi bloggers in general. I interviewed different bloggers, some ?pro-American? and some ?anti-American.? Here’s the link to the original story:
http://www.usatoday.com/new…

3. I first heard about the web site from a work colleague who happens to be an Iraqi-American. I have never had any contact with the CIA regarding the blog story.

4. As for Riverbend, I have attempted on numerous occasions to contact the author of that blog. ?Riverbend? has never responded to my queries and, as far as I know, has never given media interviews.

Soriano has met the brothers who write “Iraq the Model” and can at least vouch for the fact that they’re Iraqis blogging in Iraq, as can hundreds of Americans now that they’ve paid us a visit. Riverbend claims to be personally familiar with the situations in both Baghdad and Fallujah, which is unlikely.

There are certainly a number of real Iraqis blogging who have very different perspectives on current events than this Riverbend character (see the Blog Awards,) who’s either a Saddamite shill angry about loss of privilege or a Western leftist writing from somewhere outside Iraq with the typical Anti-American Sophisticate Attitude(tm). There is certainly zero evidence that she is who she says she is or that she speaks for the Iraqi people.

Juan Cole, the pretentious history professor from Michigan, made some especially idiotic remarks about Iraqi bloggers recently, and Jeff Jarvis had to set him straight:

The man is pond scum. I know no other way to say it. This guy Cole (supported by your tax dollars in Michigan) decides that if he disagrees with someone, he should imply that that someone must be backed by the CIA or other nefarious forces. Prof. Cole is too deaf, dumb, and blind to see the liberal irony in that; back in the day, when people disagreed with those on his side of the political spectrum, people on the other side implied that they must be backed by the Soviet Union, by Commies. It’s an old trick, Prof. I’m ashamed of you for using it.

It’s delightful rant, and spot-on. Cole is no more informed about the reality of Iraq than you or I, dear reader, but he pretends to be.

Just so there’s no confusion, I’d like to make it crystal clear that I endorse protein wisdom for Best Humor Blog in your Weblog Awards competition this year. I don’t have anything against IMAO and Scrappleface, mind you, and I’m sure they’re patriotic Americans, but nobody can hold a candle to protein. So vote early and vote often.

When you vote, you’ll notice you have to type in 5 numbers and letters to prove you’re not a script on account of the Daily Kos’ trying to steal even this election.

Have they no shame?