Afternoon World Review

April 24, 2009 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under Afternoon World Review | Leave a Comment 

Photo Courtesy of The AP, people wear surgical masks as they enter a hospital in Mexico City. The country has experienced an outbreak of a swine influenza.

On this Friday, April 24, 2009 the DOW is up 87.05, the NASDAQ is up 35.47, and the S&P is up 18.65.

THE STATES:

Democrats in Congress are putting their finishing touches on a new budget which would allow them to bypass Senate fillibuster through the expeditious tool of “reconciliation.” The budget includes a controversial overhaul of health care in the United States.

In another controversial move,  former Vice President Dick Cheney has issued a FOIA (Freedom Of Information Act) request to the Obama administration to de-classify two documents that could prove legal justification over the Bush Administration’s use of “Enhanced Interrogation Techniques.”

AFPAK:

Reuters is reporting that the Taliban withdrew most of their forces from the Buner Valley on the Afpak border, just days after they took it over. The reason for the withdrawal is unclear, but the Taliban’s presence in the region has grown disproportionately since the terror group took over the neighboring SWAT valley.

UPDATE: The New York Times is reporting that the Taliban still have a hold on most of the region. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that that they retreated on a Pakistani military warning that strikes against the them are imminent.

MIDDLE EAST:

After yesterday’s attacks in Diyala and central Baghdad that killed over 70, 60 more are dead today in the al-Kadhimiya neighborhood of Baghdad after two suicide bombers targeting Shiites and Iranian pilgrims exploded themselves near the shrine of Imam Musa al-Kadhim.

EUROPE:

In a move that could skyrocket his approval rating Italian President Sylvio Berlusconi is planning to re-locate this summer’s G-8 meeting from the scenic Island of La Maddalena to L’Aquila, the medieval city ruined by this month’s earthquake. Such a move would bring in much needed revenue for reconstruction and would thus be a deterrent to globalization protesters.

ASIA:

In  comments to reporters in Seoul, Russian Foreign Minister Seregei Lavrov said that North Korea doesn’t intend to re-start talks about the country’s nuclear program. Lavrov also said that Pyongyang’s detractors shouldn’t take its obstinance as a reason to start an arms race.

AFRICA:

South African President-elect Jacob Zuma will have a lot of promises to keep when inaugurated. During his campaign, the ANC (African National Congress) leader raised expectations by emphasizing his focus on alleviating poverty, while assuring foreign investors that his populist rhetoric doesn’t mean that their stock in the country won’t be unsafe.

LATIN AMERICA:

16 people have died from a swine flu epedemic that is sweeping through Mexico. WHO (World Health Organization) officials are concerned by the potential of a global outbreak. Mexican President Felipe Calderon is reportedly going to order the use of the country’s 500,000 vaccines for primarily at risk health workers.

A Word From Deacon Philip

April 24, 2009 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Bush Administration, Terrorism | 6 Comments 

The world’s leading Sept. 11 expert on the torture debate.

Featured Articles — April 24, 2009

April 24, 2009 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under Featured Articles | Leave a Comment 

Interesting Takes From Home And Abroad:

Taliban Advance: Is Pakistan Nearing Collapse? By Aryn Baker, Time
The move by Taliban-backed militants into the Buner district of northwestern Pakistan, closer than ever to Pakistan’s capital of Islamabad, have prompted concerns both within the country and abroad that the nuclear-armed nation of 165 million is on the verge of inexorable collapse.

Obama: The Grand Strategy By Charles Krauthammer, The Washington Post
In the service of his ultimate mission — the leveling of social inequalities — President Obama offers a tripartite social democratic agenda: nationalized health care, federalized education (ultimately guaranteed through college) and a cash-cow carbon tax (or its equivalent) to subsidize the other two.

What Will the Bank Stress Tests Mean? By Francis Cianfrocca, The New Ledger
Wouldn’t you like to know just how sick U.S. banks really are? So would Tim Geithner. That’s the point of the somewhat mysterious “stress test” exercise going on now. Unfortunately, it’s probably going to stay mysterious to us ordinary people.

Global Warming Overreach By Kimberley Strassel, The Wall Street Journal
Congressman Henry Waxman played to the crowds this week with high-profile hearings designed to boost his climate legislation. To listen to the Energy and Commerce committee chair, a House global warming bill is all but in the recyclable bag.

Climate change in Washington By Todd Purdum, The Politico
Every Sunday morning, in Anglican churches across the capital (and, indeed, around the country), congregations that used to pray for presidents named George and William now pray for one called Barack, a Swahili derivative of an Arabic name that means “blessed.” The spring catalog of Brooks Brothers, the venerable clothing company that made the last suit Abraham Lincoln ever wore, arrived in our mailbox with a cover photo featuring an elegant African-American couple holding hands, the woman in a sleek, sleeveless cream-colored sheath.

Man’s Best Friend (But Don’t Dig Up The Rose Garden)

April 23, 2009 by Robert Nedelkoff | Filed Under Barack Obama, Presidents, Richard Nixon | Leave a Comment 

Barry H. Landau, who was Assistant Chief of Protocol in the Ford White House, is a longtime student and historian of the Presidency who, in the last half-century, has met almost every pet kept at the White House. In this Associated Press article (from the Fort Collins Coloradan) he talks about the White House’s canine residents of the last half-century, right up to Bo, the Portuguese water dog who arrived this month. Among the animals discussed is a dog who, though he never lived at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, is inseparably linked to the 37th President, and that celebrated cocker spaniel’s successor:

Landau met [Checkers] during [Richard Nixon's] vice presidential campaign. But it was another Nixon dog, King Timahoe, who was Landau’s true friend.

RN’s First Hundred Days

April 23, 2009 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under American Politics, History, Nixon Administration, Richard Nixon | 2 Comments 

 

20 January 1969: RN and PN in the Inaugural Parade after the swearing in at the Capitol.  H. R. Haldeman noted in his Diary: “Expression on his face was unforgettable, this was his time!  He had arrived, he was in full command, someone said he felt he saw rays coming from his eyes.”

The Washington Post has marked the First Hundred Days of the Obama administration by producing brief video accounts of the similar periods in other modern presidencies. Bob Woodward is tasked with Ford and Nixon; he views the latter through the pages of H. R. Haldeman’s fascinating and invaluable diary.

Alas, Mr. Woodward’s re-reading of the material is either cursory or tendentiously selective (or, I suppose, both).

In fact, RN’s First Hundred Days were filled with momentous decisions, important events, and vivid personalities — things that could be of interest in a comparison of those times with these, which is, ostensibly, a purpose of the series.

The new 37th POTUS and his new White House staff were feeling their way to establishing an efficient and effective modus operandi that could work at the many levels —international, national, political, personal, managerial, inspirational— on which a White House operates.  

As it is widely acknowledged that the Nixon White House was among the most smoothly and efficiently managed executives offices, Mr. Woodward might have paid more attention to Haldeman’s interesting descriptions of the trials and errors that characterized those early days of settling in.

RN launched his administration with the highly innovative and significant appointments of Henry Kissinger to head the NSC and Daniel Patrick Moynihan to devise domestic policy.  Haldeman had to deal with —and attempt to smooth down— the various bureaucratic and institutional feathers that were ruffled by the appointment of two such mercurial and charismatic men (not to mention the fact that one had supported Nelson Rockefeller in ’68 and the other was a Democrat who had served in the Kennedy Administration).  None of this merits mention by Mr. Woodward.

Mr. Woodward rightly covers the secret bombing of the Cambodian sanctuaries, which was an important part of the record of that time.  But he implies that RN’s only action —and only intention— during this period was to escalate the fighting. 

He neglects the many clear mentions of the strategy of which the bombing was only a tactical part.  The bombing (which was provoked by an increase of enemy activity bringing arms down the Ho Chi Minh trail)) was meant to protect our fighting forces and make the new administration’s new carrot-based Vietnam policy credible. 

And Haldeman gives several examples of RN’s determination to end the war post haste via negotiations.  He describes the back channel opened with Soviet Ambassador Dobrynin.  He describes RN’s remarks to a meeting of dissident conservative Republican congressman:

P opened with 35 minute oration on the office, emphasized priorities, first, settle the war; second, establish law and order; third, stop inflation and settle the economy.  Said P must concentrate on these, can’t worry about all the little side issues.  Pointed out that if these settled, all else will be well, if not, nothing will be well.

Mr. Woodward opens by quoting from Haldeman’s moving description of RN in the moment before he took the oath of office at the Capitol:

Most outstanding moment: fanfare, Nixon and Pat Nixon come to top of steps, stand at attention for musical salute.  Expression on his face was unforgettable, this was his time!  He had arrived, he was in full command, someone said he felt he saw rays coming from his eyes.  Great ovation.  The, slowly, dignified, down the steps to the front of the platform.

But he clearly finds the idea of Nixon inspiring such adulation —much less shooting off rays— incredible, and he quickly moves on to other topics.  To wit, interior decoration (to which Haldeman makes only a few references en passant), pets (a couple of humorous attempts to make King Timahoe, the new First Dog, feel at home), and the president’s purported temper tantrums.

There are two Haldeman diary entries in which RN is described as being a tad testy because of some serious foul ups.  One is when he discovers that, as a result of a scheduling snafu, he will be attending two consecutive prayer breakfasts.  The other is when the briefing book for his first press conference, which was to have been delivered to him the night before, sat on Haldeman’s desk until mid-morning of the next day.   

Over against these two incidents that elicited RN’s stated ire, are several (including Haldeman’s oversleeping and holding up the take off of Air Force One on RN’s first trip to Europe!) with which RN deals unfazed.  A fair reading of these pages indicates an even-tempered chief executive.

Mr. Woodward completely finesses the pages (five out of thirty-five, more than devoted to any other single topic, and filled with colorful details) that deal with RN’s trip to Europe.    

Similarly, he ignores the four moving pages dealing with President Eisenhower’s death.  As Haldeman makes clear, this was one of the events of greatest importance to RN during the First Hundred Days.

Ditto no  mention of the major policy decision to fight for the ABM; the determination to hold various feet to the fire regarding student unrest; the successful introduction of Sunday morning White House church services; and the harrowing brink-of-war moments precipitated by North Korea’s shooting down of an American EC-121 intelligence plane.

It’s a disappointing phoned-in performance from a man who can do better.  You can see it (along with Mr. Woodward’s analytical assessment of President Ford’s and Ben Bradlee’s hagiographic paean to President Kennedy’s, First Hundred Days) here.

RN’s Aides Kept Bugging Him About UFOs

April 23, 2009 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Richard Nixon | Leave a Comment 

Frank Gannon just wrote about asking 37 about Area 51. So too did Kathy O’Connor, his last chief of staff.

RN Call Home

April 23, 2009 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under Nixon Administration, Richard Nixon, Science | 1 Comment 

The headline in the Daily Telegraph was intriguing —

“Are UFO’s real?  Famous people who believed”

— and the sub-head was promising —

The former NASA astronaut Edgar Mitchell has claimed that aliens exist and their visits are being covered up by the United States government. Mitchell is in good company in his beliefs. Here we highlight 12 other public figures who believe that extraterrestrials may have been visiting our planet over the last 100 years.

Admittedly, some of the “examples” adduced were more convincing than others.

Jimmy Carter led off the list of twelve:

Jimmy Carter, US President from 1976 to 1980, promised while on the campaign trail that he would make public all documents on UFOs if elected. He said: “I don’t laugh at people any more when they say they’ve seen UFOs. I’ve seen one myself.”

Ronald Reagan was also there:

Ronald Reagan, US President from 1980 to 1988, “I looked out the window and saw this white light.It was zigzagging around. I went up to the pilot and said, ‘Have you ever seen anything like that?’ He was shocked and he said, ‘nope.’ And I said to him: ‘Let’s follow it!’ We followed it for several minutes. It was a bright white light.We followed it to Bakersfield, and all of a sudden to our utter amazement it went straight up into the heavens. When I got off the plane I told Nancy all about it.”

Mikhail Gorbochov was cited:

Mikhail Gorbachev, the USSR’s last head of state: “The phenomenon of UFOs does exist, and it must be treated seriously.”

But the few shreds of cred that still remained were blown away by the list’s penultimate name and quote:

Richard Nixon, US President from 1969 to 1974: “I’m not at liberty to discuss the government’s knowledge of extraterrestrial UFO’s at this time. I am still personally being briefed on the subject.”

Let’s assume for the moment that the quote is accurate (there are no citations).  It was likely in reference to the impending decision to shut down Project Blue Book —the Air Force’s inquiry into the existence of UFOs and their potential threat to national security.  There is a conspiratorial substratum that considers 17 December 1969 —the day that decision was publicly announced— as among the darkest days of official government suppression of evidence of extraterrestrial existence and visitations.

But the idea that this statement ranks RN as someone who believed “that extraterrestrials may have been visiting our planet over the last 100 years” indicates that there may be too much space dust in the air ducts at the Telegraph building.

At one point during our labors in San Clemente, I asked RN if he believed in UFOs and if there was anything to the whole Roswell Area 51 business.  He raised his eyebrows and rolled his eyes and I moved right on to the next subject.

Next Time You Think You’ve Had A Bad Day

April 23, 2009 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under Next Time You Think You've Had A Bad Day | Leave a Comment 

There appear to be some serious problems with the magnificent new Yankee Stadium.   The place seems to be home run happy.  As of last week, there had been five games played and twenty-five homers hit.

At this rate —with an average of five home runs per game— there would be some 400 homers hit this year.  In the old Stadium (which now looms empty just across the street) only 160 were hit in all of 2008, the last season played there.  That represents an increase of 250% in a year.

As Buster Olney reports for ESPN.com:

The New York Yankees might have a serious problem on their hands: Beautiful new Yankee Stadium appears to be a veritable wind tunnel that is rocketing balls over the fences.

This was in evidence again on Saturday, when the Indians posted six homers, including 14 runs in the second inning. Cleveland eventually won 22-4 — and the Yankees and Indians have combined for 14 homers in the last two days.

“With the way the wind has been the last couple of days, right field is a joke,” one official said. “I would say at least three or four home runs in this series would be routine outs in nearly every park.”

The new Yankee Stadium is just across the street from the old park, but it’s not aligned quite the same way as the old Yankee Stadium. In the late-afternoon shadows in the old park, the sun was in the eyes of the left fielder. Now the sun sets into the eyes of the center field and right fielder. Whether or not that’s a factor is not known, and it’s also possible that the number of home runs hit is directly related to the poor pitching of the likes of Chien-Ming Wang.

But already there have been a number of fly balls that seemed to be routine outs, before almost leaping out of the park. Mark Teixeira lifted a pop to right field off the end of his bat in the first inning Saturday, and players on both teams appeared to be completely surprised when it carried over the wall.

Even if the Yankees wanted to make an adjustment, there is nothing they could do structurally to alter the park this season. They would have to petition for a change going into the next offseason, before doing any reconstruction.

National Poetry Month

April 23, 2009 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under American Politics | 2 Comments 

It’s National Poetry Month (in fact, it’s almost the end of National Poetry Month), and here is a poem from Endpoint — the just- and posthumously published book of John Updike’s poetry.

This was, apparently, the last work the late writer saw through the final editing process.  Many of the poems reflect the intimations (more like sledgehammers) of mortality of which he had become all too aware.  Some describe diagnoses delivered and tests undergone and treatments endured.

But other poems reflect his facility with light verse.  Among them is this lyric about the 42nd POTUS.

Country Music
February 1999

Oh Monica, you Monica
In your little black beret,
You beguiled our saintly Billy
And led that creep astray.

He’d never seen thong underpants
Or met a Valley girl;
He was used to Southern women,
Like good old Minnie Pearl.

You vamped him with your lingo,
Your notes in purple ink,
And fed him Vox and bagels
Until he couldn’t think.

You were our Bill’s Delilah
Until Acquittal Day;
You’re his-tor-y now, Monica,
In your little black beret.

Typically, even Updike’s jokes were erudite. Monica Lewinsky’s purple presidential prose was, in fact, written in a distinctive purple ink. And one of the erotic gifts she is supposed to have sent to the White House was Nicholson Baker’s cyber-epistolary novel Vox.

Let’s At Least Avoid The Political Torture

April 23, 2009 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Bush Administration, Obama administration, Terrorism | Leave a Comment 

Dick Cheney and Hillary Clinton show us what Nancy Pelosi’s torture investigation would look like.

Relax — You Got The Gig

April 23, 2009 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under American Politics, Barack Obama, Vice President Biden | Leave a Comment 

The Big Issue is a London-based street paper that has attracted some attention thanks to an interview in the Scottish edition with former Opposition Leader and current British Council Chairman Neil Kinnock.

Joe Biden’s 1988 presidential bid was derailed when he was caught plagiarizing one of Lord Kinnock’s speeches, and the two have been friends ever since.

Biden predicted Obama – “a genius” – would win the Democrats’ nomination as far back as October 2007, according to his old friend Neil Kinnock.

Kinnock told The Big Issue in Scotland about a conversation in Washington D.C. when Biden was still in the Presidential race. “I remember speaking to Joe and him saying it was going to be Barack Obama up against John McCain. He said: “You can put money on it – Obama’s a genius.” 

“I said: “What kind of genius? Like who?” He said: “Well, there isn’t one person I could compare him to, but he’s like a cross between Denzel Washington and Franklin Roosevelt.”

Annals Of The Obama Administration

April 23, 2009 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under Annals of the Obama Administration | Leave a Comment 

Obama administration Auto Czar Steven Steven Rattner suddenly finds himself the focus of some very unwelcome attention.

Mr. Rattner has —along with his power wife, former DNC fundraising chair Maureen White— cut a very wide swath through New York and American finance, politics, and society for the last few decades.

His rise was stylishly profiled by Michael Wolff In his 2003 book Autumn of the Moguls.

In the latest Spectator (London), the Czar is given a serious grilling by no less a connoisseur of pretension and corruption than Taki Theodorocopulos.

After the usual ad hominem digression, Taki gets down to business — in this case of the financial and monkey kinds.

The reason I’m writing about this social climber is because of his involvement in a scandal of gigantic proportions, yet as recently as last Friday a White House spokesman said President Obama had full confidence in the Rat. I find this very strange. I know a man is innocent until proved guilty, but I also know about Caesar’s wife. A new administration that is printing trillions of dollars and taxing everyone to the limit cannot afford types like Steve Rattner cutting corners. After leaving journalism, the Rat joined Lazard Freres and became Felix (the Fixer) Rohatyn’s minion. He angled for the top spot after Felix’s departure, but the big boss, Michel David-Weill, told him it was no go. Rattner quit and began a fund of his own, Quadrangle, around the year 2000. It invested in media properties, including semi-porn magazines. Some of these investments proved to be duds, and the Quadrangle Group had to call upon other investors, drawing on Rattner’s social and political connections. One of the investors was Cerberus, a giant private equity firm which had bought Chrysler some time back. When the porn business faltered, Rattner played hard ball with Cerberus, which had loaned Quadrangle 120 million big ones.

Then, out of the blue, Rattner was named Obama’s front man to deal with the auto mess. How can Chrysler get a fair deal — not that it should after the lousy cars it’s made these past 75 years — from a man that owes it a fortune? Rattner, of course, left Quadrangle once he got the Washington job, not that it means much. He still has his equity in the group and knows which side his bread is buttered on.

Now for the big one: in a 123-count indictment issued last month, two people were accused of selling access to investment firms in the New York state — get this — $122 billion pension fund. In other words, two men working for the comptroller are said to have taken kickbacks in the millions for giving access to the pension fund. Among the firms given access was — yes, you guessed it — Quadrangle Capital. Quadrangle won $100 million worth of business from the pension fund. Rattner is supposedly co-operating fully and is not accused of breaking any laws or paying kickbacks. Before accepting the Obama offer Rattner was angling for Treasury, but wiser heads prevailed.

Mind you, the bigger the corner cut, the less people are likely to resign…. Rattner should never have gotten the job of car-tsar, and the new administration should have appointed someone with no questions to answer and with less access to billionaires who became billionaires on the back of Wall Street and Washington insiders. It goes to the heart of public integrity, but integrity is a word few know how to spell nowadays. The Rat should resign and go back to social climbing in New York.

Personally —and barring further revelations— I think that this this Rattner flap is probably just the latest example of the problems of appointing anybody who had anything to do with Wall Street.  The outrageously privileged Rattners are clearly people that many find easy to hate, and the schadenfreude is already knee deep.  But just because a wide leeway is in order doesn’t mean that close scrutiny isn’t required.

Mao Tie

April 23, 2009 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under China, New Media, Richard Nixon | Leave a Comment 

Bill O’Reilly is being subjected to severe interrogation techniques (it’s up to him to say if it’s actually torture) for saying that Richard Nixon never met with Mao Zedong, which, of course, he did, in February 1972. Here’s the lashing by the “Economist.”

The Airport To Nowhere

April 23, 2009 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under Congress | Leave a Comment 

CNN has finally caught up with Carol D. Leonnig’s story in Sunday’s WaPo about the egregious porkfest that is the John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.

In addition to the wasted millions that can be seen, there are the less visible millions of benefits to Congressman Murtha’s incumbency (not to mention his convenience) represented by his ability to fly directly from DCA to JST.

A Responsible Anti-Jihadism?

April 23, 2009 by Joshua Treviño | Filed Under Islam, Islam and the West | 2 Comments 

Better late than never:

“I don’t think there is an anti-jihadist movement anymore,” Johnson said. “It’s all a bunch of kooks. I’ve watch some people who I thought were reputable, and who I trusted, hook up with racists and Nazis. I see a lot of them promoting stories and causes that I think are completely nuts.”

Charles Johnson’s disenchantment with a movement he did much to create is more likely a function of his contrary nature than his active conscience, but it would be ungracious to pry overmuch. The sad truth is that the self-proclaimed anti-jihadists, as a group, have done a great deal to discredit themselves in the past decade.

The list of major sins looks something like this:

Enthusiastic and uncritical identification with right-wing politics and policies.

Inability to distinguish critiques of Islam from critiques of Muslims.

Willingness to associate with racists.

Credulity in subscribing to conspiracy theories. (Viz.)

Inability to formulate and advocate meaningful public policy.

In this light, the anti-jihad movement is something far less than a considered intellectual tendency. Instead, it is an attitude of inchoate belligerence, with its only consistent focal point being hatred of the Muslim. “The Muslim,” depending on what that means, may give one much to hate; but to hate him (and her) per se is to commit a grave error. The first and most compelling reason for this is, of course, that each individual (of any stripe) deserves to be judged as such. On a broader level, post-9/11 rhetoric and sentiment may be as they are — and I’ve indulged in both in full measure — but we are not in fact at actual war with Islam or Muslims at large. As such, to adopt a stance of conscious and deliberate hate is to indulge in the mental precursor of genuine and terrible crimes.

Whether we are at metaphorical war with Islam is a different question, and even an arguable one; but the effect of the war metaphor is, I believe, generally toxic — and even causative of the basic frivolity of the anti-jihadists. It should be enough to acknowledge that Islam in nearly every form contains within it certain doctrines and traditions inimical to our classical liberal traditions, our concepts of rights, and our assumed freedoms. (Indeed, I have reported on this threat firsthand.) This said, there are a number of things that do not follow from this understanding, including:

That any given Muslim is inimical to the same.

That Islam cannot exist within the context of the same.

That Islam must necessarily threaten the same.

That only Islam poses this manner of threat.

The anti-jihadist movement generally believes all of these propositions, and it is difficult to see that belief as anything but a lazy intellectual shortcut. From a plain movement standpoint, this is understandable: who wants to rally to the banner of, “Islam is deeply problematic, but not necessarily fatal?” Far better to guard the gates of Vienna, or shrug like Atlas, or stoke the fires of 9/12, or whatever last-stand-of-the-West rhetoric strikes one’s inner Charles Martel. This is the stuff of a short-term movement, and perhaps a stirring read, but it is not, to borrow a phrase, reality-based.

Lost in the shrill din of the anti-jihadists is the woeful truth that there is such a thing as jihad, and it does demand a policy response. What would responsible anti-jihadism look like? The wish list flows from the indictments:

It would embrace the whole of the political mainstream, as anti-Communism once did.

It would hold no animus for the individual Muslim.

It would reject all trafficking with racists.

It would reject conspiracy theories and anything too easily sliced by Occam’s razor.

It would seek the implementation of meaningful and realistic public policy.

The last point is perhaps the most important, from the pragmatic (though not the moral) standpoint. As a rule of thumb, the policy preferences of the anti-jihadists range from thoughtless support of neoconservatism at best, to strange and unworkable schemes of Muslim exclusion at worst. A basket of responsible anti-jihadist policy preferences might encompass human-rights advocacy in the Muslim world, support for liberal education, support for religious minorities, and similar measures. (I personally favor the conceptual approach of Georgetown’s Thomas Farr.) My intent here is not to imagine or present a full list of idealized preferences, but to illustrate possible alternatives, and to make a point: that responsible anti-jihadism requires more engagement with the Muslim world, not less.

If and when this responsible alternative emerges, it almost certainly won’t be called an anti-jihad movement. For now, that label is sullied by the “bunch of kooks” who took the notion and ran it into the ground. The irony is that in seeking to defend the West — or their idea of it — they have managed to discredit, with their immoderation and insensibility, what should be a given in our politics. That’s real damage that will be difficult to fix, and impossible to forgive.

Noon Open

April 23, 2009 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under Noon Open | Leave a Comment 

The minute you start talking about what you’re going to do if you lose, you have lost. — George Schultz

Featured Articles — April 23, 2009

April 23, 2009 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under Featured Articles | Leave a Comment 

Interesting Takes From Home And Abroad:

Fundamentally Different By John B. Judis, The New Republic
My colleagues Frank Foer and Noam Scheiber have written a compelling account of the Obama administration’s approach to economic policy. And although I don’t pretend to know the president’s mind, I might agree with their summary statement that “Obama has no intention of changing the nature of capitalism.

The Reeducation of Tim Geithner By Gary Weiss, Condé Nast Portfolio
Growing up is hard to do—especially in public. After his disastrous start, the Treasury secretary is scrambling to learn on the job. But how long can we afford to wait?

My Father’s Stand on Cuba Travel By Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, The Washington Post
“The present travel restrictions are inconsistent with traditional American liberties,” the then-U.S. attorney general argued in a behind-the-scenes debate over the ban on U.S. citizens traveling to Cuba.

Obama Among the Dictators By Daniel Henninger, The Wall Street Journal
The now-famous photograph of Barack Obama sharing a handshake and mile-wide smile with happy Hugo Chávez recalled to mind a visit years ago of Philippine strong man Ferdinand Marcos to The Wall Street Journal’s offices in lower Manhattan.

Orange progress is going to waste By Aleksander Kwasniewski, European Voice
Ukraine’s constitutional set-up has left its politicians semi-paralysed in the face of the economic crisis, writes former president of Poland.

Pacifying Iraq with the Weapons of Capitalism By Ullrich Fichtner, Der Spiegel
Paul Brinkley is the head of a special American task force that aims to bring lasting peace to Iraq using the tools of capitalism. He represents a new approach to waging war, where the economic experts come in with the ground troops. And it’s working.

Richard Nixon Helps The First “Millionaire”

April 22, 2009 by David Emig | Filed Under Entertainment | 2 Comments 

Who wants to be a millionaire (First $1,000,000 winner)

Afternoon World Review

April 22, 2009 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under Afternoon World Review | Leave a Comment 

Photo courtesy of The Wall Street Journal. Taliban leaders hold a rally in the Swat Valley of Pakistan.

On this Wednesday, April 22, 2009 the DOW is down 85.70, the NASDAQ is up 2, and the S&P is down .20.

THE STATES:

In an apparent suicide, Freddie Mac interim CFO David Kellerman was found dead hanging in his basement in Reston, Virginia. Kellerman rose fast after the government takeover of the corporation and reportedly received $800,000 in bonuses. His neighbors say that he hired private investegators after reporters came to his door to ask about the compensation package.

AFPAK:

Holding “talks” with the Taliban have yet to prove their meddle. Weeks after the Pakistani military ceded territory to militants in the Swat Valley in exchange for a commitment to lay down arms, nothing of the sort has come to fruition. The Taliban have today, seized by force the Bruner district just 70 miles out of Islamabad.

MIDDLE EAST:

In a turn of events in the Middle East, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman will be received by Egyptian Foreign Minister Omar Suleiman for talks about joint security. Lieberman was previously forbidden from traveling to Egypt after criticizing President Hosni Mubarak.

An internal inquiry into Israel’s action during last winter’s Gaza War concluded that the military’s conduct was lawful.

EUROPE:

Now that President Obama released the infamous CIA torture memos, European prosecutors now find it easier to investegate and try U.S. officials under the pretext of universal jurisdiction. U.N. special investegator Martin Shenin said that if figures like former Vice President Dick Cheney avoid prosecution in the United States they will likely face charges in Europe.

AFRICA:

South Africans are going to the polls today to vote in the country’s general elections. Voter turnout is expected to be as high as 80 percent. The African National Congress (ANC) is poised for its fourth straight victory with leader Jacob Zuma likely to take the reigns as president.

THE AMERICAS:

Colombian paramilitary leader Diego Fernando Murillo Bejarano was sentenced to 31 years in Manhattan Federal Court today. Bejerano was convicted of smuggling drugs to the United States, in his role as inspector general of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC)

ASIA:

In Sri Lanka, thousands of civilians remained trapped in the territory held by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam. Thousands have been killed or wounded since the country’s army launched their operation against the rebel group earlier this month.

9 JANUARY 1913 – 22 APRIL 1994

April 22, 2009 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under In Memoriam, Richard Nixon | 1 Comment 

“The greatest honor history can bestow is the title of peacemaker.”

« Previous Page — Next Page »