Category: Networks

Matt Welch explores the subtle moral distinctions that led prominent leftists to support the liberation of Kosovo and oppose similar action in Iraq in this piece for Reason:

Since Clark was one of the top four Democratic candidates for president, and Soros has redirected his considerable energy and at least $15 million to effect “regime change” in the United States, their distinction between Kosovo and Iraq arguably looms as the defining foreign policy difference between Democrats and Republicans in 2004. And for those of us who supported Clinton’s Wilsonianism but not Bush’s, these books should help answer two questions we really ought to be asking ourselves: Is our support for America’s activist role dependent on high moral principle, or is it tethered to partisan politics? And did we lower the bar for military intervention?

Seems to me that it’s a matter of trust. Bob Dylan said: “if you’re gonna live outside the law, you better be honest.” Partisan Democrats trust Democratic presidents to engage in technically illegal foreign wars in the service of high moral principles, but not Republican presidents; and vice versa.

Which shows us that the system of international law that made the interventions in Kosovo and Iraq (and the non-intervention in Rwanda) technically illegal needs to change, but how? Certainly, we can’t trust the UN to sanction the removal of despots from power; but who can we trust to authorize and direct the use of American and British military power?

Only the elected representatives in each country, unfortunately.

Since you can’t smoke on airplanes any more, we don’t need “No-smoking” lights. Why not make them ready to roll lights, for situations like this one:

A plane carrying sexy Broadway star Rachel York back to New York was forced down in Salt Lake City Tuesday after an agitated Egyptian man started flicking a butane lighter.

Quick-thinking flight attendants had passengers ready to roll against the man when he refused to move a suspicious-looking bag beneath his seat on Delta Air Lines Flight 1986.

“I said, `I’ll keep an eye on him,'” said Errol Goott, a 6-foot-1 South African, who said he was approached “in case (the passenger) needed to be stopped.”

The captain has illuminated the ready to roll light, so please return your seat backs and tray tables to their fully locked and upright positions, and kindly turn your attention to the swarthy dudes with the box-cutters near row 26. Rolling will commence as soon as our heroes are in position. Thank you for flying American and have a pleasant time at your final destination, which is gonna be a short trip for these swarthy dudes.

Anaheim’s slow-witted right-fielder faced Tim Hudson for the first time Friday, and here’s what happened:

Facing Guerrero with two out in the first inning Friday, Hudson delivered his first pitch high, hard and tight, sending Guerrero spinning out of the way. Five pitches later, Guerrero answered with a smash right to second baseman Marco Scutaro for the third out, but the tone that Hudson so relishes in setting had indeed been set.

Oakland pitchers shut out the most expensive baseball team west of New York, 3-0. Welcome to the Big Leagues, boys.

I was deeply impressed by the quality of the reasoning in Author RBPosted on April 16, 2004Categories Internet2 Comments on Breath-takingly stupid

While the Mariners may well be the suckiest team in Major League Baseball, Seattle residents needn’t be forlorn, as they have in their midst America’s hottest Curling team, headed for the World Championships in Sweden:

“I think we have a good chance,” said Jason Larway, whose rink upset the defending U.S. champions from Minnesota last month. “We’re definitely excited, but this is one of the most competitive years in a long time.”

You don’t need a pitching staff to excel at Curling, dontcha know.

In related news, Barry Bonds finally hit no. 660 to tie Willie Mays for third on the career homers list.

Lots of ink’s been spilt over the Dodgers’ aquisition of Moneyball genius Paul DePodesta, but their secret weapon is William Hung:

LOS ANGELES — He might not be an American Idol, but William Hung has quickly become a folk legend in the Dodgers clubhouse and might be the club’s answer to Anaheim’s Rally Monkey.

Shawn Green brought in a CD by the “American Idol” reject the second day of the season and played it in the clubhouse during pregame stretching. The painfully comical songs had the players rolling on the floor in laughter.

I’d take Hung over the monkey any day.

Among Condoleezza Rice’s opening remarks are several mentions of Pakistan’s support of the Taliban and efforts to neutralize it:

More importantly, we recognized that no counterterrorism strategy could succeed in isolation. As you know from the Pakistan and Afghanistan strategy documents that we made available to the Commission, our counterterrorism strategy was part of a broader package of strategies that addressed the complexities of the region.

Integrating our counterterrorism and regional strategies was the most difficult and the most important aspect of the new strategy to get right. Al-Qaida was both client of and patron to the Taliban, which in turn was supported by Pakistan. Those relationships provided al-Qaida with a powerful umbrella of protection, and we had to sever them. This was not easy.

Not that we hadn’t tried. Within a month of taking office, President Bush sent a strong, private message to President Musharraf urging him to use his influence with the Taliban to bring Bin Laden to justice and to close down al-Qaida training camps. Secretary Powell actively urged the Pakistanis, including Musharraf himself, to abandon support for the Taliban. I met with Pakistan’s Foreign Minister in my office in June of 2001. I delivered a very tough message, which was met with a rote, expressionless response.

America’s al-Qaida policy wasn’t working because our Afghanistan policy wasn’t working. And our Afghanistan policy wasn’t working because our Pakistan policy wasn’t working. We recognized that America’s counterterrorism policy had to be connected to our regional strategies and to our overall foreign policy.

To address these problems, I made sure to involve key regional experts. I brought in Zalmay Khalilzad, an expert on Afghanistan who, as a senior diplomat in the 1980s, had worked closely with the Afghan Mujahedeen, helping them to turn back the Soviet invasion. I also ensured the participation of the NSC experts on South Asia, as well as the Secretary of State and his regional specialists. Together, we developed a new strategic approach to Afghanistan. Instead of the intense focus on the Northern Alliance, we emphasized the importance of the south ? the social and political heartland of the country. Our new approach to Pakistan combined the use of carrots and sticks to persuade Pakistan to drop its support for the Taliban. And we began to change our approach to India, to preserve stability on the subcontinent.

This is about as clued-in as it gets. The overall opening statement is a knock-out blow to Dick Clarke’s claims of Bush Administration laxity. I’m not convinced that Clarke was actually lying, however, as much as he was out-of-the-loop as a mid-level holdover from the Clinton Administration whose grasp of the overall terrorism plan was limited by his need to know. Clarke’s role in the White House wasn’t even as large as he thought it was, let alone as large as he wished it were. So even if Clarke’s criticisms were perfectly valid from his point of view, his knowledge of the overall plan was extremely limited.

Here’s a full transcript of Condoleezza Rice’s testimony to the grandstanding 9/11 Commission. Read for yourself and draw your own conclusions.

The locals tell me that a lot of people enjoyed last summer in Portland on account of its falling on a Sunday.

I’m gonna have to revise my baseball predictions based on opening-day action. The Astros are pretenders and they’re not going anywhere. They have a nice baseball park and some shiny new pitchers from the Yankees cast-off collection, but it’s hard to play ball with all those wheelchairs parked all over the field and Jeff Kent’s attitude stinking the place up.

The Angels are pretty darned impressive. I never knew that George Steinbrenner had a twin brother, but he does and he now owns the Angels. They could very well win the division, but if they do the A’s will take the wildcard spot and beat them in the playoffs. The A’s have taken to folding under post-season pressure the past few years, and going in as a wildcard will help to reduce it.

The Mariners play like a not-very-talented minor league team, and thanks to them the Rangers will finally climb out of the cellar.

That’s all for now.