Right in Raleigh

How the Left Viewed (or Views) Bin Laden's Killers

2011-05-03T18:55:00.000-07:00

Real Clear Politics reminds us what the Left was saying about the units that killed Bin Laden. From Seymour Hersh:

"It's an executive assassination ring essentially, and it's been going on and on and on," Hersh stated. "Under President Bush's authority, they've been going into countries, not talking to the ambassador or the CIA station chief, and finding people on a list and executing them and leaving. That's been going on, in the name of all of us."

In the name of all of us, except those like Hersh, thanks to those "executive assassination rings" for a job well done.
Politics

Bin Laden Dead

2011-05-03T12:28:00.000-07:00

As more of the details of the Bin Laden killing come out it looks like we need to extend our congratulations backwards to any of our classmates in particular, and our military, intelligence and political community more broadly, who set the conditions to make the operation successful. Anyone who played a part in the capture and interrogation of KSM that led to the identification of the courier that proved the vital piece of evidence to get Bin Laden deserves our thanks, as well as those who made the difficult decisions to authorize the success of that intelligence-gathering effort in spite of vicious criticism.

It also appears from public accounts of those in the know that some of the changes in procedure made by officers like Stan McChrystal in the early-to-mid 2000s paid dividends long after his departure. I suspect he is the type of guy who doesn't really care whether we thank him or not, and I doubt he gets the call of thanks from this administration, but I believe we should remember his efforts and those of his proteges.

And even those of us who have not been supporters of our current president should be wise enough to extend our congratulations and realize that even though he was given the full plate, he had to make the tough decision. Obama was surely aware that the last time we knew exactly where Bin Laden was (1998) we could not muster the political courage to order his death and the result was Sept. 11th. He most likely did not want to repeat that failure in leadership and while we will learn over time how long he dithered or what conditions were put on the raid, for the time being we owe him a well-done.

Politics

Back in Town

2011-01-15T09:13:00.000-08:00

After a nearly 5 year hiatus that involved reentry into the bond trading business to become a first-hand witness to the financial crisis, we have returned to Raleigh with some thoughts and experiences that might be worth sharing. Prior to our departure in 2006 NC was a solid red state, but apparently was swept up in the Hope and Change mantra for a few years before discovering that joining the blue state lineup of bankrupt states IL, CA and NY was an unwise move. Let's see where we can take it from here.
Politics

Closing Up

2006-01-29T11:54:00.000-08:00

Due to our recent decision to reenter the bond trading business in New York, I am closing down this site as it will be difficult to be Right in Raleigh when we are not in Raleigh anymore. I have really enjoyed posting and receiving your comments, and for those of you running blogs and keeping an eye on the untrustworthy media, please keep up the good work.

Holiday Break

2005-12-20T05:11:00.000-08:00

Traveling for the holidays. Enjoy a Merry Christmas season.

HSAs

2005-12-20T05:06:00.000-08:00

The John Locke Foundation examines Health Savings Accounts and finds in favor of these plans. I opened one in 2004 and have been happy with the low premiums and sense that I actually control my health care decisions and can monitor the cost. If any program can lower our health care costs, these HSAs can.
Health Savings Accounts

Truth

2005-12-19T09:44:00.000-08:00

For true pictures of the Iraqi election, not what you were offered by the Pandering Pundits of Pessimism, see video at Michael Yon's site here.
Iraqi Election

Keep Talking to Us

2005-12-19T09:18:00.000-08:00

I saw most of the president's speech last night (the wife was pissed that it preempted Desperate Housewives), and I agree with the comments of Mary Katherine Hamm at Hugh Hewitt I (HT Mike Williams):

I didn't see it. I read it. It was a good one. I'm not usually wild about presidential speeches because presidents rarely sound like they're just talking to us (and that's what I want to hear) -- just the nature of presidential speech-writing and the fact that they're talking to millions of people at once. Bush is particularly vulnerable to this. He's great when he's just talking to folks; not so great on the soaring speeches of nobleness. Being a war President, however, usually requires the soaring speeches of nobleness.

This one read a little differently. It seemed to strike a balance between the conversational, comfortable Bush we need to assure us and the hard-as-nails, resolved Bush we need to lead a nation at war. Did someone at the White House hear the phrase "fireside chat" as much as I have in the past couple months and take heed?

And I especially like her last bit of advice: I say keep talking to us, President Bush. You're good at it.

Whenever we don't see the president for a while, it seems the news vacuum is filled by the Kennedys and Sharptons and Pelosis of the world. Stay in front of these folks Mr. President, or we are doomed for defeat.
President Bush

Headlines Revisited

2005-12-18T07:58:00.000-08:00

After running a number of misleading headlines, the public editor of the N&O, Ted Vaden, decided to address the issue in his Sunday column. He specifically mentioned one of my complaints from earlier in the week, but his explanation was that the headline matched the story, so all is well.

He doesn't note that the story itself was lousy, so matching the headline to the story doesn't really deserve kudos. My request is that the N&O match the headline to the news. The news that day was that the president made a major foreign policy speech in which he commented on a number of important issues regarding Iraq. The headline did not reflect the news, but rather put a negative spin on one minor comment in a multi-paragraph speech.

Politics

Not a Sunshine Patriot

2005-12-16T11:45:00.000-08:00

Want to know why a WSJ writer would sign up for the Marines and go to Iraq? Read here about a man who Paine would never call a "summer soldier" or a "sunshine patriot."
Iraq

Job Well Done

2005-12-15T09:19:00.000-08:00

I have been back and forth with the N&O news editor, Melanie Sill, regarding what I felt was unfair coverage of the president's speech in Philadelphia earlier this week. So today, when I saw the coverage in the N&O of the president's speech in D.C. (the final in the series of 4), I sent the following note of congratulations:

I would like to compliment your 1A coverage and headlines today, especially in comparison to what I felt was unfair coverage earlier in the week. I think the difference in how a similar event (a speech by President Bush) was reported would serve as a great study for journalists.

In today's edition the headline accurately reported the news of the day without editorializing or providing negative spin: Bush: War will bring a free Iraq, a secure U.S. That is what the president said, and you reported it. The story was also much better in terms of focusing on the main points the president conveyed rather then focusing on the minor comments that might reflect badly on the administration. The story fairly provided quotes from critics of the president's policy, but the news was the speech and that was featured, not the critics response to the speech.

I would have preferred that this "news headline and story" receive the same top center coverage as the previous "negative spin headline and story," but at least it was on the front page.

I have charged David Westphal with editorializing his reporting in the past, but in this case his story was so much better than what you receive from the NYT or AP that I suggest you use his copy more often. Please pass along my compliments to Mr. Westphal on his work.

Regards,
Scott Pierce

I am not going soft on the N&O, but they clearly got it right this time, and if our goal is to improve, rather than destroy the paper (and it is for me), then we have to recognize good reporting (as we do often with military reporter Jay Price).
Politics

Remarkable event in the Arab world

2005-12-13T06:38:00.000-08:00

President Bush gave a speech yesterday focusing on the upcoming vote in Iraq. He pointed out that this is a remarkable event in the Arab world. He emphasized the importance of the vote on Iraq's path to democracy. He noted that unlike votes in the past, many Sunnis will participate. We also know that Iraqi security forces will provide the majority of the security at the polling stations. We know that Sunni clerics are calling on the terrorists to not disrupt the vote.

So what headline does the N&O choose to run at the top of 1A?

Bush: Vote won't end violence.

Another sad display of journalistic bias and incompetence.
Liberal Media Bias

Blanco's Wardrobe

2005-12-12T17:14:00.000-08:00

Looks like Louisiana Gov. Blanco's folks were worried about her wardrobe during Katrina. Now I really don't care, and I concede that part of the role of a politician is to look the part and project the idea that they are working hard and are in charge during a crisis (think Rudy), but the interesting angle of the story is how the MSM reports it after repeatedly running stories about FEMA Director Brown's wardrobe communications. My prediction for the N&O tomorrow is at most a sidebar throwaway item so they can claim they covered the story.
Kathleen Blanco

Tax Cuts, Even Temporary, Are Always a Good Idea

2005-12-12T16:33:00.000-08:00

Remember when the Bush administration provided tax relief to tens of millions of Americans during the first administration, but to get the bill passed they agreed to make some of the tax cuts temporary? They caught some heat for that, but I think it is always better from a political view (though not from an economic one) to pass temporary cuts for one reason - you can vote again and again on the cuts.

Dems who may have voted for the cuts the first time are forced to vote again, but in an even bigger pickle are Dems who voted against the cuts. Now that Americans are benefiting from the dividend and capital gains cuts, and now that millions have opened 529s, they are aware of the benefits of these cuts and have no interest in having the government take their money away in the future. So let's vote every year on the cuts and see how those votes carry through to election day. Let's see more headlines like this from the WSJ: Democrats Face Tax Dilemma.
Tax Cuts

None of the Above

2005-12-11T16:38:00.000-08:00

If you want to paint a negative picture of a problem, one method is to provide a series of poor potential solutions. The N&O tackles the Iraq problem by providing these four "choices:" Stay the Course, Set a Timetable, Add Troops, Leave Now.

They try to shoehorn the Bush administration position into Stay the Course and imply that means no change to the current situation. Given that most Americans are unsatisfied with the current situation, the paper effectively paints a negative view of the administration.

The mistake the paper makes is to view the Stay the Course option as a static one, when in fact it is a strategy dependent upon its flexibility. The Stay the Course strategy has an endpoint of a stable and free Iraq with security provided by Iraqis and U.S. forces playing a minimal role.

The other 3 options presented are potentially parts of the Stay the Course strategy, but they are not a strategy in and of themselves. We have completed, and are currently in the middle of the Add Troops segment because we have plussed up for the election. We eventually will reach the Leave Now option once Iraqis can provide for their own security. And we are constantly shifting our numbers and timing of Set a Timetable as we plan for a drawdown based on various contingencies.

So the proper analysis would be to concede that the Bush administration strategy is the only feasible one at present, and the critics are just trying to get ahead of the future moves (in order to claim that their advocacy had something to do with a pullout) or gain political points by acting like one of their statements is an alternative to what we are doing.
Iraq

Retreat and Defeat

2005-12-09T14:35:00.000-08:00

Watch the new GOP "Retreat and Defeat" video here.
Politics

Polls

2005-12-09T13:06:00.000-08:00

I always point out when W gets a bounce in the polls, so to be fair must note that he is back down a few points in the last few Rasmussens. When the numbers are rising, it is a turning point due to wise policies and successful execution. When they are going down it is statistical noise.
Politics

GEN Abizaid Speaks

2005-12-08T08:44:00.000-08:00

GEN Abizaid recently spoke at the Naval War College, and these notes were forwarded by a West Point classmate:

General Abizaid (Commander, U. S. Central Command whose responsibilities include Iraq and Afghanistan) spoke to the Naval War College last week. The audience comprised primarily War College students who are mid-grade/senior military officers. The majority of these officers have served in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, so there was a real understanding of the dynamics of the region... BS would not sell to this audience. Here is a short summary of General Abizaid's comments, from contemporaneous notes:

He is amazed as he goes around the country and testifies before the Congress how many of our countrymen do not know or understand what we are doing or how we are doing. There are very few members of Congress who have ever worn the uniform (of our Armed Forces).
He said that the questions he gets from some in Congress convince him that they have the idea that we are about to pushed out of Iraq and Afghanistan. There is no relation between this and the reality on the ground.

As he goes around the region and talks to troops and junior officers he is very impressed by their morale and their achievements. They are confident that they are capable of defeating the enemy. You will never see a headline in this country about a school opening or a power station being built and coming on line, or a community doing well. Only the negative things will get coverage in the media.

He told the mid-grade/senior officers to go to their local Lions Clubs when they go home and tell the people what they are doing. If they don't get the word out, the American people will not know what is really happening. The insurgency is in four of 18 provinces in Iraq, not all 18. You do not hear about the 14 provinces where there is no insurgency and where things are going well.

The insurgency in Afghanistan is primarily in Kandahar province (home of the Taliban) and in the mountain region on the Pakistani border. The rest of the country is doing well. Iraq now has over 200,000 soldiers/police under arms and growing. They are starting to eclipse the US/coalition forces. Their casualty rate is more than double that of the US. There are more than 70,000 soldiers under the moderate government in Afghanistan and growing.

He predicted that the insurgencies in the four Sunni provinces in northern/central Iraq and in Southwestern Afghanistan will be there for the foreseeable future, but they will be stabilized and become small enough so the moderate governments will be able to keep them under control. 2006 will be a transition year in Iraq and that will see the Iraqi forces take much more of the mission from the US forces. This is necessary to bring stability to Iraq. We need to be fewer in numbers and less in the midst of the people for the moderate Iraqi government to succeed.

Our primary enemy is not the insurgency in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is al Qaida and their ideology. We are at a period now that is similar to the 1920s where Communism and Nazism had not taken hold in Russia and Germany. The ideology of Al Qaida is out there and it has not taken hold in any country in the Middle East. We need to make sure that it does not and we are doing that, but it will be a long problem with a long commitment.

He said that we are focused on the things that we (Americans) have done wrong, like Abu Ghraib, and not talking about this enemy. We need to talk about this enemy. al Qaida is all over the world. Their goal is to get the US out of the region and come to power in the Islamic countries of the region. From there, their goal is to establish a Caliphate (under a single Islamic ruler) that goes from the Atlantic in North Africa to Indonesia in the Pacific. Fifty years after this happens, their goal is to rule the rest of the world.

Since Desert Storm in 1991, US forces have not lost any combat engagement in the region at the platoon-level or above. al Qaida has no beliefs that they can defeat us militarily. They see our center of gravity as being the will of the American People. That is influenced by the media and they are playing to that. They don't need to win any battles. Their plan is keep the casualties in front of the American people in the media for long enough that we become convinced that we cannot win and leave the region. This would be tragic for our country.

The battle against al Qaida will not be primarily military. It will be political, economic, and ideological. It will require the international community to fight too. We must not let al Qaida get hold in any country. It will result in our worst nightmare. Picture life in Afghanistan under the Taliban, that is what Al Qaida's ideology has as a goal. If you look at the geography (of al Qaida), there is no place to put a military solution.

They are networked and they are all over the world. They are a virtual organization connected by the Internet. They use it to proselytize, recruit, raise money, educate and organize. They have many pieces that we must focus on: the propaganda battle in the media, safehouses, front companies, sympathetic members of legitimate governments, human capital, fighters and leaders, technical expertise, weapons suppliers, ideologically sympathetic non-government organizations (charities), financers, smugglers, and facilitators.

A lot of their money comes from drugs. We are winning but we have got to maintain constant pressure over time with the international community and across the US government agencies. No one is afraid that we can't defeat the enemy. Our troops have the confidence, the courage, and the competence. We need the will of the American people to be sustained for the long haul. (thanks for Mudville Gazette for increasing the circulation of these comments)
GEN Abizaid

Truscott Revealed

2005-12-08T07:31:00.000-08:00

I have followed the lead of John in Carolina in watching the development of the Truscott story, and corrections and apologies etc. in the NYT. I just received the note below from a member of Truscott's West Point class (1969) and have his permission to post the note here. It seems like a revealing piece of information about Truscott's early motivations and character. I have done no fact-checking, so you will have to decide for yourself whether you think the story is true.

I have noted your article on L Truscott and the fight with the NYT over Truscott's lying Op-Ed.

I am a member of the Class of '69. I remember Truscott only slightly from the Academy, as we were in different regiments, and did not frequent the same social circles. I have, however, had a bit of "contact/knowledge" of him since graduation. Specifically, the manner in which he left the Army. As far as I know this is little known outside the class. I am sending it for your information, but have no problem with it being passed on.

On graduation I was posted to Fort Carson in Infantry. Truscott was posted to Carson, but in the MPs.

In 1970 [I do not have the specific date, but I think it was in the mid-summer] I was in garrison when I received instructions to report to the CG's office. When I got there there were approximately 18 classmates milling around outside B.G. B. Rogers' office. We were all trying to figure out what we were doing there. General Rogers had been the Commandant when we were cadets, and had left the Academy, to take command at Ft. Carson, at the same time as we had graduated. But why would a bunch of junior Lts be of specific, and immediate, interest to the CG?

After all had assembled we were ushered into the Generals office. The following is a paraphrase of what was said. The conversation is now 35 years old, but the general facts are fresh in my mind.

General Rogers said that he had just released 2Lt L. Truscott from the Army. He had called the meeting so that the true facts surrounding Truscott's release would be known in the event that Truscott attempted to put forth another version [ To my knowledge Truscott has never
personally elaborated on his departure from the Army, but then I have only seen him once since then, at our 10th reunion Unless he or his writing are specifically brought to my attention, I do not seek him out.].

Rogers indicated that while at Carson Truscott had been writing for the Village Voice. Upon learning of this Rogers had called Truscott to his office, presented him with the facts, and had given him an order not to write anything further for the Voice, unless it came across his desk
first. At this point General Rogers was very specific. He said that he had no intentions of prohibiting or censoring anything Truscott wrote. That since it was Truscott's specific intention to cast a negative light on the Army he, Gen. Rogers, needed to know what was written before it was published.

Truscott continued to publish without submitting the text to Rogers first.

Upon learning of Truscotts writing Rogers called Truscott to his office and presented the facts. Truscott then demanded a Courts Martial. Rogers saw this as a further attempt by Truscott to defame the Army with negative publicity. Rogers refused the demand and cashiered Truscott.

Bob Brambila
Class of '69
E-1/H-1

Lucian Truscott

Support the Troops

2005-12-07T07:36:00.000-08:00

Michelle Malkin offers some options to support the troops over the holidays. I can assure you that even the smallest show of support means a lot to any serviceman. They are bombarded with the negative news from the MSM and then they see comments from Dean saying that we can't win, and even those who know better start to have some doubts as to how their countrymen view them. So make sure they know that Howard Dean does not speak for you.

Besides Malkin's links, you can also check our new foundation here. A group of officers who served in the 2nd ACR in Germany in the late 1980s formed the E.E. Mixon Second Dragoons Foundation to provide support for the families of fallen cavalrymen. We just sent checks to 5 families of KIAs from the 3rd ACR in order to help cover their travel costs to the recent memorial services at Ft. Carson. We run the fund ourselves, take no pay and have very low expenses, so consider donating through the site or contacting me via e-mail.
Support the Troops

Polls and a Confused Murtha

2005-12-06T16:31:00.000-08:00

Mickey Kaus picks up our theme of a bounce in the polls for Bush, and also points out a confused John Murtha:

[T]here's a civil war going. We're caught in between a civil war right now. Our troops are the targets of the civil war. They're the only people that could have unified the various factions in Iraq. And they're unified against us. --ABC's This Week, 12/4/05

[W]hy should I believe what the CIA says about what's happening in Iraq, that there's going to be a civil war? First of all, al Qaeda was wrong. It was wrong on the nuclear stuff. It was wrong on everything they have said over there. So why should I believe that there's going to be a civil war? -- same show, a few moments later.

John Murtha

Progress in Iraq

2005-12-06T08:02:00.000-08:00

Peter Brookes (via Mike Williams) provides a good summary of progress in Iraq. An excerpt:

The United States and Iraq still have to navigate dangerous insurgent shoals, and maneuver a course around tricky political, economic and social buoys for a while yet. But we're plotting a course for total victory in Iraq, and as hard as it is for the Nervous Nellies and Henny Pennies to swallow, the bottom line is that the security situation in Iraq is showing a lot of promise. The nattering nabobs of negativism shouldn't be afraid to acknowledge it.

Iraq

Howard Dean: The Gift That Keeps on Giving

2005-12-05T17:13:00.000-08:00

The U.S. will not win in Iraq. That is the latest from Howard Dean, along with some dopey comments about bringing all Reservists and National Guardsmen home but leaving the active duty guys there. This guy never ceases to help us.
Howard Dean

More Than a Blip

2005-12-03T09:05:00.000-08:00

Rasmussen remains a good first stop to get a real sense of polling trends (because they poll daily vs. the MSM infrequent polls) and the trend looks good. President Bush, after being mired in the low 40s during the Miers debacle, has moved back above 45%. I think this is proof positive that he has won some of his base back - and by base I mean people like me who want to see an aggressive administration out there taking on the Reids and Pelosis and Kennedys and Kerrys directly.

An even bigger swing is in the percentage of people who think we are winning the war on terror - now 48% vs. 39% a month ago. Again, I think this is partly a result of the administration getting the word out. Even though the MSM will filter the message, there are enough other outlets - blogs, talk radio, Fox - who will not dilute the truth and will help push these numbers higher as long as the administration gives us something to work with.

Prediction - Iraq continues to improve, strong turnout (including Sunni) on
Dec. 15 kicks into place the military plan for phased U.S. withdrawals, the economy continues to purr and the MSM becomes less able to paint a negative picture, Dems fracture over Alito as he looks great in confirmation hearings, and hopefully the Bush administration presses the accelerator down during the good times to push for reform in the areas that the Dems do not have the courage to tread but that are needed for our national well-being - tax reform and simplification, social security reform, tort reform, reduced govt. regulation, reduced govt. spending, immigration reform and increased school choice.
Politics

Wine Into Vinegar

2005-12-03T08:56:00.000-08:00

I read the passage below from the N&O today, and I had become so used to the lousy reporting and biased presentation and mindless parroting of the MSM-attack-Bush-theme-of-the-day that I just moved along. But Mike Williams got me fired up again about this:

Eager to rescue approval ratings dragged low by the Iraq war, President Bush embraced an upbeat employment report Friday and pronounced the future of the U.S. economy "as bright as it's been in a long time."

A buoyant president strode into the White House Rose Garden where snow flurries swirled to welcome a new Labor Department report showing U.S. jobs rebounding from a beating delivered by the Gulf Coast hurricanes. Nonfarm payrolls grew by 215,000 in November, the strongest increase since July, according to the report.

"This economy is in good shape," Bush said with a smile.

Bush did not mention the deaths in Iraq of 10 Marines who were killed Thursday by a roadside bomb near Fallujah. White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Bush had been briefed twice about the incident, the deadliest in Iraq in nearly four months, before he spoke to the press. In all, more than 2,100 members of the U.S. military have died since the war began in March 2003.

Now if you can't see the shameful bias in that "reporting" then move along, but if you arae dismayed you can contact News Editor Melanie Sill at msill@newsobserver.com and Public Editor ted.vaden@newsobserver.com. Personally I think you are wasting your time in contacting them, and I guarantee you will get a mealy-mouthed response, but I may be wrong and your efforts may help rescue the paper.
Liberal Media Bias

Gov. Drives Up Your Health Care Costs

2005-12-03T08:44:00.000-08:00

The JLF research team provides a good example of how more, not less, govt. intervention drives up your medical costs.
Health Care

Aggressive Information Operations

2005-12-03T08:20:00.000-08:00

We have long struggled with how to get our message across to the populations of countries, especially in the Middle East, who will certainly benefit from our liberation of their countries. The biggest 2 obstacles to our efforts have been the state-controlled presses of the Middle East (including the pseudo-controlled elements like Al Jazeera) and the Blame-America-First elements of the western MSM, including the major MSM organs like the NYT, LA Times, CNN and 3 networks.

So I am cheered to know that we are starting to conduct aggressive information operations by paying for positive editorials in Middle East papers. It is particularly nice to know that the stories we are pushing are truthful in content though obviously depicting the positive elements of our role in Iraq. The MSM is up in arms about the program because they despise anyone (including the blogs) who speeds the precipitous decline their importance as a filter.

The latest MSM fluster is reported here by Mudville Gazette. Our government is screening speakers before we send them, with taxpayer dollars, overseas to speak on behalf of the U.S. government. Not surprisingly, we want to ensure they are conveying a positive message of the U.S. While the MSM expresses dismay, most of us simply ask, why weren't we doing this all along?
Politics

Pouting Pundits of Pessimism

2005-12-02T07:58:00.000-08:00

The WSJ picks up the theme we have posted on here regarding the ability of the MSM to spin good economic news into bad when a conservative administration is in power. Even if you don't read the article, you have to like the title - Pouting Pundits of Pessimism.Pouting Pundits of Pessimism

Disunity Bolsters Iraqi Rebels

2005-12-02T05:54:00.000-08:00

Yep - that is the headline the N&O runs on page 1 today (from a NYT story). We have already criticized the MSM for not calling those who seek chaos in Iraq terrorists (or in some cases militants or insurgents) rather than rebels. But the issue with the headline is the unproven statement.

Counterterrorist/counterinsurgency experts could argue for a long time over whether it is easier to defeat a unified insurgency (the Mao model) or one marked by many small groups who are not unified. But my guess is that if these terrorist/insurgent groups in Iraq were unified, the NYT would run, and the N&O would publish, a headline reading Unity Bolsters Iraqi Rebels.

The goal of the NYT is not to reveal truth, but rather to take the angle that most damages the administration. I can see the headline now after Iraqis flood to the polls on Dec. 15: Confusion Reigns at Iraqi Polling Stations - and the MSM will depict this as a bad thing.
Iraq

MSM Pushes Agenda

2005-12-01T10:14:00.000-08:00

The MRC reports that the MSM is even pushing their agenda during a tour of the White House with the First Lady:

ABC's Jessica Yellin, live on Wednesday's Good Morning America, exploited First Lady Laura Bush's tour of White House Christmas displays, cards and decorations to hit her with an emotion-laden inquiry about regretting the war in Iraq: "Have you ever met with a mother whose own loss has made you question, even for a moment, whether the U.S. should be in Iraq?" Mrs. Bush replied with how "every loss is too many" and said that "I want to encourage Americans to reach out to our military families who suffer the most." Yellin followed up by continuing her agenda: "And do you hope the U.S. will be out of Iraq by this time next year?" Yellin posed her serious questions about three minutes into Mrs. Bush's descriptions of the cards and ornaments in the East Room.
Politics

Truscott Called onto the Carpet

2005-11-30T07:30:00.000-08:00

Kudos to John in Carolina. We have followed John's battles with the NYT regarding some lies spread by Lucian Truscott and published in the NYT, and we have admired John's doggedness in pursuing the issue (and have tried to link him up with some members of the West Point class of '69).

To get the NYT to admit their mistake in publishing Truscott's false claims (which John has now done), and to get Truscott himself to admit, in so many words, that he shot his mouth off (again) and couldn't back it up when called out on the playground, is certainly satisfying to those who have followed John's efforts and to West Pointers everywhere.
Politics

A Day in the Life of the N&O

2005-11-30T07:11:00.000-08:00

Some real gems in the N&O today:

1. The paper runs an AP story about former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark defending Saddam, but fails to mention Clark's political affiliation (Dem.). Yet all reports of Duke Cunningham's misdeeds carry his political affiliation (Rep.).

2. The main header on the business page is "Nation basks in rosy data," but the subheader reads "Next year is not expected to be better," and the majority of the article (from the NYT) spins the economic situation as negatively as possible.

Now I am all for the "things are good but may go bad" angle of reporting as long as it is backed up by some data. But why didn't the MSM run "things are bad but may turn good" articles about the economy leading up to the 2004 elections? Every day they trumpeted the talking points of the Kerry campaign (x jobs lost in y years - worst than Herbert Hoover, etc.) without mentioning the many economists who saw signs of the rebound that in fact started before the election.

3. The N&O also runs an LA Times piece on a program by the U.S. military to pay the fledging Iraqi press to run articles favorable to the U.S. effort and trumpeting freedom, democracy and prosperity. I think this is a great idea in the short term, but I was amused by this: "Many of the articles are presented in the Iraqi press as unbiased news accounts written and reported by independent journalists." The article goes on to claim that these news accounts are in fact not unbiased.

Well, that description pretty much sums up the state of the MSM as well. They hold to the claim that articles are unbiased when even a casual reader can sniff out liberal bias daily. If you gave me a choice between reading the LA Times/NY Times/N&O to try to find out what is going on in Iraq, vs. reading a small Iraqi paper that runs some articles placed by members of the U.S. military Information Operations units, I would read the latter.

Iraq

Payoff May be End for Black

2005-11-29T14:00:00.000-08:00

NC House leader Jim Black has been under increasing scrutiny for various misdeeds, but the latest charge that he made campaign contributions that look suspiciously like payoffs may be the end for his leadership position in the NC Democratic party:

(RALEIGH) – Ferrell Blount, Chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party, issued a harsh response after learning that Speaker Jim Black gave former Rep. Michael Decker $4,000 one day before Decker drafted a check to himself and closed his campaign account.

In 2003, Rep. Michael Decker switched to the Democrat Party which erased a 61-59 Republican majority in the N.C. House. His switch directly benefited Speaker Jim Black since Black later formed a power-sharing agreement with Richard Morgan. Decker later switched back to the Republican Party and lost in the 2004 primary.

The news of Black’s contribution to Decker came to light in a press release from Joe Sinsheimer, a Democrat who has worked in state and national Democratic politics for 20 years. Sinsheimer is also the creator of the website www.JimBlackMustGo.com, which calls on Speaker Jim Black to resign. Sinsheimer notes that since Decker’s infamous party switch, Speaker Jim Black has rewarded him in several ways.

“First we learn that Jim Black got Michael Decker a sweetheart $48,000-a year state job in return for switching political parties and keeping Jim Black in power,” Sinsheimer said in the release. “Then we learn that Black helped Decker’s son, Michael Decker Jr., get a job as a ‘research associate’ in the General Assembly. Now we learn that Black is rewarding Decker with campaign cash. There seems to be no end to Jim Black’s influence peddling. I am sick of turning my head while Jim Black rewards his political allies with campaign cash.”

The $4,000 contribution to Decker on February 10, 2005 was not Black’s first. Speaker Black also gave Decker $4,000 on August 4, 2004 – two weeks after Decker lost the July 20 primary to Larry Brown.

“The Republican Party defeated Michael Decker in a primary in 2004. Now the Democrat Party should clean up its own House Caucus by defeating Jim Black,” said Blount. “North Carolina can have an honest and open government, but it will take both parties to defeat those who subvert the political process for their own gain. It is no wonder that Democrats like Joe Sinsheimer are angry with Speaker Black. This system of corruption must come to an end.”

Jim Black

Loserman no More

2005-11-29T07:46:00.000-08:00

The MSM has trumpeted every utterance (except the embarrassing ones) of Cindy Sheehan. Our own N&O runs a weekly John Edwards lovefest item and the MSM gobbles up his "I was wrong (and a political opportunist)" columns and speeches. And lately the left has tried to lionize John Murtha after he called for (but did not vote for) the beginning of an immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq.

So let's see how the anti-Bushies report on Joe Lieberman's latest pronouncements and writings, including today's featured OpEd in the WSJ.

I have just returned from my fourth trip to Iraq in the past 17 months and can report real progress there. More work needs to be done, of course, but the Iraqi people are in reach of a watershed transformation from the primitive, killing tyranny of Saddam to modern, self-governing, self-securing nationhood--unless the great American military that has given them and us this unexpected opportunity is prematurely withdrawn.
_____

Here is an ironic finding I brought back from Iraq. While U.S. public opinion polls show serious declines in support for the war and increasing pessimism about how it will end, polls conducted by Iraqis for Iraqi universities show increasing optimism. Two-thirds say they are better off than they were under Saddam, and a resounding 82% are confident their lives in Iraq will be better a year from now than they are today. What a colossal mistake it would be for America's bipartisan political leadership to choose this moment in history to lose its will and, in the famous phrase, to seize defeat from the jaws of the coming victory.

__________

I cannot say enough about the U.S. Army and Marines who are carrying most of the fight for us in Iraq. They are courageous, smart, effective, innovative, very honorable and very proud. After a Thanksgiving meal with a great group of Marines at Camp Fallujah in western Iraq, I asked their commander whether the morale of his troops had been hurt by the growing public dissent in America over the war in Iraq. His answer was insightful, instructive and inspirational: "I would guess that if the opposition and division at home go on a lot longer and get a lot deeper it might have some effect, but, Senator, my Marines are motivated by their devotion to each other and the cause, not by political debates."
Thank you, General. That is a powerful, needed message for the rest of America and its political leadership at this critical moment in our nation's history. Semper Fi.

__________________

Back in 2000 I was one of those outraged at the actions of the Gore-Lieberman team, in particular their attempt to deny the vote to our service members deployed overseas. I laughed along at the Sore-Loserman bumper stickers, but after reading Lieberman's opinions on Iraq, and being aware of his consistent stand on the issue as opposed to the flopping of other leaders of his party, I will call him Loserman no more (especially in comparison to scum like the cartoonist derided by Michelle Malkin here).
Joe Lieberman

Still in Love With Sheehan?

2005-11-27T17:25:00.000-08:00

The N&O had a short lovefest with Sheehan, which included their embarrassing attempt to crop a Sheehan-Sharpton photo to hide the real story. I say let the lovefest continue and show this photo.

(Follow-up note: The news editor of the N&O, Melanie Sill, took issue with my claim that the paper cropped the Sheehan-Sharpton photo. Her claim is that the paper did not crop the photo but instead chose to use a photo from the AP that was either taken or cropped in order to not show the throng of photographers around the teary Sheehan-Sharpton "moment." She acknowledges that the N&O did have access to the AP photo [that showed the real story of the manufactured photo-op] but chose not to run it.)
Cindy Sheehan

Dems Hurt Troop Morale

2005-11-27T17:14:00.000-08:00

My experience suggests that without a doubt the anti-war left is despised by members of the military and the section of the Democratic party that has joined forces with that left hurts troop morale.

WaPo reports that most Americans have formed the same conclusion, which may give Dems pause in their relentless attempt to gain partisan political points at the expense of national security (HT Instapundit):

Seventy percent of people surveyed said that criticism of the war by Democratic senators hurts troop morale -- with 44 percent saying morale is hurt "a lot," according to a poll taken by RT Strategies. Even self-identified Democrats agree: 55 percent believe criticism hurts morale, while 21 percent say it helps morale.

Their poll also indicates many Americans are skeptical of Democratic complaints about the war. Just three of 10 adults accept that Democrats are leveling criticism because they believe this will help U.S. efforts in Iraq. A majority believes the motive is really to "gain a partisan political advantage."

Politics

Taking the Battle to the Terrorists

2005-11-27T08:33:00.000-08:00

This sounds like good news:

BAGHDAD -- The leader of Iraq's most powerful political party has called on the United States to let Iraqi fighters take a more aggressive role against insurgents, saying his country will only be able to defeat the insurgency when the United States lets Iraqis get tough.
"The more freedom given to Iraqis, the more chance for further progress there would be, particularly in fighting terror," said Abdul Aziz Hakim, head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the Shiite Muslim religious party that leads the transitional government and whose armed wing is the most feared of Iraq's many factional forces.

Any time host nation forces want to play a bigger role, you can count on progress in tracking down and killing terrorists.
Iraq

Lara Logan

2005-11-26T06:27:00.000-08:00

Rantingprofs exposes the sometimes incestuous relationship among the MSM. In this case the NYT runs a fawning article about CBS's next "It Girl," Lara Logan, without mentioning that one of Logan's biggest stories was in fact more story than fact.

The NYT piece does suggest that former swimwear model Logan has used her looks on occasion to get the story, and I do remember the enthusiastic willingness some of our special operators in Afghanistan exhibited when it came time to host Logan on a visit to the Afgh.-Pak. border.
Lara Logan

Bad Ideas Catch up with Reality

2005-11-26T06:01:00.000-08:00

Michael Barone is one of our best political and social commentators, and his latest on the decline of GM and the unions is valuable because it does not focus on what is happening right now, but rather on how these problems were created in the first place.

To expand on Barone's theme (trying to create a socialist nirvana on earth through government may sound good, and may get some votes, but will lead to tragedy), most of the major issues our country faces have roots in the attempt to sell a socialist scheme to (sometimes) willing Americans.

Social Security proposals helped vault the Democrats to national power for years, and as long as there were more people working than retired the Ponzi scheme would work. So now reformers in the Republican party (I haven't heard anything substantial from the Dems) have to correct the errors made decades ago.

The initial proposals for Medicare and Medicaid projected low costs and much smaller enrollment levels than we are seeing today. Voters flocked to the Democrats for providing these "free" programs to the elderly and the needy because it was difficult to understand how years later these programs would weigh heavily on the economic health of the nation.

And as we have discussed before, the current insolvency of the PBGC (the next bailout of a govt. entity by the American taxpayer) has not been caused by the bankruptcy of companies in the last few years, but rather by the creation of a program by the govt. that shifted the decisions of private individuals and corporations engaged in the free market onto the govt.

Barone effectively outlines how the "visionaries" at GM, the UAW and the govt. schemed to create a socialist version of society. Their scheme actually "worked" for years. Half of my family worked in the auto industry around Flint and I remember tales from childhood about their workdays filled with sleeping in back rooms or sitting around waiting for a delivery or some instructions. Yet despite their lack of production they were paid well and had the opportunity to live good lives. I can't begrudge them their work habits and attitudes, but those who led the auto industry and the unions and failed to reform their institutions until it was too late should be ashamed.
General Motors

Where Did McCain Go?

2005-11-22T11:59:00.000-08:00

The MSM is always front and center when John McCain dissents from the Bush administration, so why aren't they trumpeting his call for more troops in Iraq vs. the Dem. demand for beginning an immediate withdrawal?

And here is an example from Winds of Change of media bias against the military in the LA Times.
John McCain

Iraq Update With Lots of Weapons Talk

2005-11-22T09:18:00.000-08:00

Just received this update from Iraq via the father of a Marine (forwarded by a West Point classmate). Pretty comprehensive summary of the view of the battle from the company perspective, and if you like an analysis of weapons you will want to read the whole thing. Some excerpts below:

The M24 sniper rifle: Thumbs up. Mostly in .308 but some in 300 win mag. Heavily modified Remington 700s. Great performance. Snipers have been used heavily to great effect. Rumor has it that a marine sniper on his third tour in Anbar province has actually exceeded Carlos Hathcocks record for confirmed kills with OVER 100.
_______

The insurgent tactic most frustrating is their use of civilian non-combatants as cover. They know we do all we can to avoid civilian casualties and therefore schools, hospitals and (especially) Mosques are locations where they meet, stage for attacks, cache weapons and ammo and flee to when engaged. They have absolutely no regard whatsoever for civilian casualties. They will terrorize locals and murder without hesitation anyone believed to be sympathetic to the Americans or the new Iraqi govt. Kidnapping of family members (especially children) is common to influence people they are trying to influence but can't reach, such as local govt. officials, clerics, tribal leaders, etc.).
________

According to Jordan, morale among our guys is very high. They not only believe they are winning, but that they are winning decisively. They are stunned and dismayed by what they see in the American press, whom they almost universally view as against them. The embedded reporters are despised and distrusted. They are inflicting casualties at a rate of 20-1 and then see shit like Are we losing in Iraq on TV and the print media.
Iraq

More on Mongolia

2005-11-21T07:59:00.000-08:00

Long before the president's recent visit brought attention to Mongolia, our favorite writer Robert Kaplan traveled there and made some remarkable observations on the strategic importance of the place, and also on the impact one man with a vision (in this case LTC Tom Wilhelm) can have. The linked article, from Atlantic Monthly, is also in Kaplan's newest book Imperial Grunts. Two good excerpts:

The morning I arrived at the American embassy in Ulan Bator, Wilhelm, newly promoted to colonel, greeted me wearing a gray suit, a white shirt, a tie, and suspenders. Born in 1959, raised in Orlando, Florida, and given formative military training at West Point and the Army Ranger school, in Fort Benning, Georgia, Wilhelm had risen through the ranks of the military as the Cold War order was falling apart. On the ground in several theaters of military operation, he had witnessed the messy collapse of communism in Eurasia. Known to warlords in Bosnia as "Mean Mr. Tom," and to colleagues in Tajikistan as "Aga Tom," he became the ultimate area expert on the former Soviet empire and its shadow zones, from Yugoslavia all the way to Mongolia.

____________________

Wherever he is, the mission is everything for Tom Wilhelm. In his eyes, to avoid taking bureaucratic risks, or to shade the truth for the sake of a diplomatic advantage, is unmanly, the worst of offenses. "I'm the guy who gutted the [Department of Defense] environmental program for Mongolia, because it was unimplementable, and I didn't see what DOD was getting out of it," he told me almost as soon as we had met. One of Wilhelm's early moves in Ulan Bator was to scrap many existing military-assistance programs and replace them with new ones—including a humanitarian dental project in a key Mongolian-Chinese border area—that would support the three-pillars strategy. "I chose to come here and not to work at the JSTAFF [Joint Staff] at the Pentagon, because in Mongolia I knew that I could make a difference," Wilhelm told me. Even as a military officer he was a policymaker by another name.

Thanks to the always informative Mudville Gazette for helping distribute this info.
Mongolia

Withdraw When?

2005-11-21T05:20:00.000-08:00

MSM spin has already started on the Murtha controversy. The AP is claiming, and the N&O is dutifully printing, that Murtha "called for troops to leave Iraq within six months." But what Murtha really called for is for troops to leave Iraq immediately, and that is what the Republicans pushed to a vote. Logistically and realistically it might take six months to get everyone out, but the Murtha surrender would have to start now, and honest reporting would make that clear so voters could understand the choice presented to them by the 2 parties.
Politics

Zarqawi Dead?

2005-11-20T15:31:00.000-08:00

We have hoped before, so hoping again that the scumbag is dead.
Zarqawi

Troops Need Your Help

2005-11-19T11:56:00.000-08:00

I am going to tout our foundation again here. Five officers who served together in the 2nd ACR in Germany in the late 80s recently formed the E. E. Mixon Second Dragoons Foundation. We are pledged to help the families of fallen cavalrymen and to do so with minimal administrative costs, and for no pay, in order to ensure your donations go directly to the families in need.

We recently flew 9 members of the family of CPL Jeffrey Williams to Ft. Carson for his memorial service. Since then the 3rd ACR has suffered additional losses and we are raising money for travel for services likely to occur in Dec. The foundation web site has information on how to donate. Thanks for whatever help you can give, and thanks to the Mudville Gazette for letting me add this info to the open post.
Military Foundations

Don't Bring a Knife to a Gun Fight

2005-11-19T07:14:00.000-08:00

The Democrats, while failing to offer viable alternatives to any of the challenges facing the nation, have managed to smear the Bush administration with false or trumped-up charges. We have long been calling for a relentless counterattack, and we are seeing some signs of our willingness to put the knives away and use the right ammo.

The vote yesterday was a perfect counterattack and struck a deep blow at Dems who were loud enough to call for immediate withdrawal of our troops, but apparently did not have the courage to vote for such a bill. Keep these votes coming boys. Every time a liberal mouths off and the Dem. leadership does not distance themselves from the idiotic comments, hold a vote.

One interesting observation on the MSM reporting of the vote yesterday. Much was made of Murtha's service in Vietnam (sounds like one less Purple Heart than Kerry), but I heard nothing of the 7 years that Sam Johnson, R-TX, fierce critic of Murtha and keynote Republican speaker on the bill, served in a POW camp in Vietnam.

A good one here on the Dem. plan for Iraq, and read a summary of Dem. comments about Iraq at Mudville Gazette.
Sam Johnson

Coming Home

2005-11-18T18:11:00.000-08:00

Go here if you want to get a little lump in the throat reading about the return of Michael Yon's unit - and God bless Bruce Willis for attending the homecoming and showing more backbone than most Dem Senators.
Politics

MSM Pumps the Theme

2005-11-18T05:12:00.000-08:00

One thing I admire about the MSM is their ability to stay on message day after day. The theme they are pumping may be completely false, but until they move along to another topic they can find some new angle to keep an issue alive. Of course the "issues" they choose to pump seem to focus on conservatives, so "stories" like how many judges will be removed from the Delay case can be used to keep that one alive.

The current theme is dual-headed. The first angle is "Bush lied" and the MSM is in concert with Dems seeking political gain in slandering or libeling the Bush administration. The second angle is that "the tide is turning" in Iraq (and despite evidence on the ground to the contrary, the MSM is depicting the tide as turning against the U.S.).

So when John Murtha, D-PA, made some strong statements yesterday claiming that our military could not win in Iraq (and implying that he knew this because he was an expert due to his service in Vietnam), the MSM, including our own N&O, put it on the front pages. But how much "reporting" research would it have taken to find that Murtha had made similar comments over a year ago? Yet every MSM story presented this as recent news because it fit the "tide is turning" theme. The great Americans at the Mudville Gazette have a broader roundup of this theme.

John Murtha

Jim Black Must Go

2005-11-17T13:59:00.000-08:00

A former operative for the Democrats here in NC is finally fed up with the performance of Jim Black and has started this site to distribute information and formalize the protests against Black. Jim Black

Nobody Can Blame...

2005-11-17T09:43:00.000-08:00

We rarely take on the N&O editorial writers as the target is too easy and the quality too low to justify the time, but while flying to NY on Tuesday I saw this lead editorial:

Nobody should blame advocates of black and Hispanic youth for using strong language to rivet the communities attention.

Having the N&O start any sentence with "Nobody should blame" makes me want to start blaming someone, so I read on to find out that a Raleigh minister called the situation of black and Hispanic youths in N.C. "tantamount to genocide."

Well, yes, someone should could cast blame when a speaker uses the word genocide where it clearly does not apply, and who better to cast the blame than the "paper of record" in the Triangle? But the liberal impulse is to grant that anything goes when commenting on their pet issues. Accuracy is no longer important when Hurricane Katrina stories can be exaggerated in order to attempt to damage the administration, or when the MSM can repeat lies that the Bush administration manipulated intel and provide no proof for their claims.

So to be clear, genocide is defined as the deliberate extermination of a people or a nation. If I have missed something and genocide is going on in this region, then I hope the N&O will provide the details on who is committing the genocide as the definition mentions a deliberate act. Otherwise, please find someone to use in the lead editorial who has something useful, and not needlessly inflammatory, to say about the problem.
Politics

Dems on Tape

2005-11-17T09:11:00.000-08:00

Now that the Dems on waffling on whether they want to fight the war to victory, check out some of their past statements on the topic here. It sure is easy to talk tough and be bold when popular support is behind you, but it takes a real coward to bail out mid-course just because the public has developed doubts and wants to see more concrete progress.

Lorie Byrd at Michelle Malkin's site has more, including this cogent point:

Here is my take on this strategy. The more I think about it, the more I believe this is just a way to diminish any political goodwill that will accrue to the Bush administration when troops do begin leaving Iraq. I think the same can be said for the timetable Democrats wanted to impose in the Congress. With upcoming elections and the trial of Saddam, and more and more Iraqi troops and police being trained daily, it is likely, and I think the President has even stated, that the American military presence will start being scaled back within the next 6 - 12 months. When that happens, Democrats will try to claim it was the pressure they exerted that caused it. We all know that is what the President has said all along -- that we will leave when the Iraqis no longer need us there. The public, however, has heard a constant drumbeat from Democrats and the media that there is no exit strategy
Politics

Weathervane Edwards

2005-11-14T09:55:00.000-08:00

HT to Mike Williams for pointing us to Jim Geraghty's NRO article on John Edwards. The former liability lawyer has changed his position so often on Iraq that he may bypass John Kerry's record for waffling on the issue based on which way the political winds are blowing. Geraghty gives us plenty of quotes from Edwards to make the pretty boy look pretty bad.
John Edwards

Attack, Don't Defend

2005-11-14T07:47:00.000-08:00

The Bush administration, as well as Republicans like John McCain, are on the attack against the "Bush lied" idiots. But the N&O, in choosing the headline for an AP story, made 2 interesting decisions.

First, they titled the piece "Advisor defends Bush." The advisor in question is Steven Hadley, and he was not defending Bush. He was attacking the critics, like Jay Rockefeller in our earlier post, who have proven to be political opportunists. The headline should have read "Bush advisor attacks critics," but that would have been out of line with the MSM theme that the Bush administration is on the defensive and in disarray.

The second interesting choice, though here the fault lies more with the AP than the N&O, is relegating the comments of John McCain to a late paragraph and not the headline. McCain is a much more popular and well-known figure than Steven Hadley, and he has also spoken harshly of the "Bush lied" critics and has called them disingenuous (which means they are liars, but also colleagues of his). Why wouldn't the headline read "McCain attacks critics of Bush"? That lead would pack a nice punch and would put the critics of Bush on the defensive in the minds of readers. (More McCain comments here via Mudville Gazette)
Politics

Will the Truth Win Out?

2005-11-13T15:26:00.000-08:00

Will the vile liars who are repeating the "Bush lied" theme finally be called out by the MSM? I doubt it, but I am glad to see the President blasting away, and in at least one case, as reported by Powerline, a prominent Dem is embarrassed by the MSM when his "Bush lied" theme is completed discredited and he is revealed as a partisan hack who, like the majority of his party, is willing to try to gain political points at the expense of the national security of the country and the truth.
Politics

Trend, or Statistical Noise

2005-11-12T18:41:00.000-08:00

Check out the latest Rasmussen. Trend, based on Alito nomination and the administration finally deciding to go after the disloyal opposition hard, or statistical noise?
Politics

NC Global Warming Commission

2005-11-11T15:56:00.000-08:00

The John Locke boys run another good piece on the genius of the Dem-led govt. here in NC. Responding in solid PC fashion, the state decided to name a NC Global Warming Commission. Except when the 16 members of the commission were named, we learned that only one was a climate scientist, and none of the members were economists.
North Carolina Global Warming Commission

Recruiting Goals Met

2005-11-11T08:37:00.000-08:00

Why does the N&O carry AP stories when the Army misses recruiting goals, but not carry these stories when we hit our targets for five months in a row!
Military Recruiting

Is the Right Wing Howler Representative?

2005-11-11T06:19:00.000-08:00

We have talked a lot here about losing your base (and why you shouldn't do it under any circumstances), and how the Alito nomination was step one in reinvigorating that base. But we do check out some sites of strong conservatives, like Right Wing Howler, to see how the base is feeling. After yesterday's vote on ANWR and budget cuts, Howler was howling. I won't support all of the strong language, but the post does help measure the anger out there when Republicans fail to live up to their conservative principles.

On a another note, plenty of great salutes to veterans out there, so instead of reproducing will direct you to Mudville.
Politics

Finally, an Apology

2005-11-10T09:40:00.000-08:00

Jason VS posts an apology letter from newspaper editor Rex Smith regarding the Jimmy Massey debacle. Massey, you may remember, is a former Marine who has been making exaggerated claims of U.S. atrocities in Iraq. A number of players in the MSM printed these claims (I do not believe the N&O did so), and not many of them have apologized now that the stories have been proven to be lies. Congratulations to Jason for calling Smith out, and congratulations to Smith for admitting that the press has a problem with investigating and printing the truth, especially if the truth does not fit into the "blame America first" mentality many in the MSM carry.
Rex Smith

Watch the Market

2005-11-10T07:16:00.000-08:00

If you want to track the importance of Tuesdays election results as a harbinger of the 2006 elections, watch the markets. The MSM, as predicted, will claim that because the Dems held onto 2 governorships, and lost one lt. gov. post (in VA) that they previously held, they are well positioned for 2006.

But if the markets agree, and if participants foresee either the Dems taking the Senate or picking up more than a handful of seats in the House, the markets will start a steady slide downward. The bull market in U.S. equities coincided with the Republican House sweep in 1994 as businessmen and investors bet on lower taxes, less regulation and a reduction in frivolous lawsuits (all promises delivered in the last 10 years). Only the bursting of the tech stock bubble and the attacks of 2001 have prevented the bull market from continuing.

The markets correctly shrugged off yesterday's election as disappointing but a small and noisy MSM blip. They will give a clearer signal later this year if the tables start to turn nationally on the GOP.
Politics

Eliminate the MSM Filter

2005-11-09T09:06:00.000-08:00

We posted an press briefing with one of our commanders in Iraq, H.R. McMaster, and another briefing, via Mike Williams and Bill Roggio, has come to our attention and is worth the read. The value of reading comments directly from battlefield commanders is that we can avoid the customary filtering and spin and editing applied by the MSM on stories about Iraq. Mudville Gazette usually has a sampling of briefings as well.

This afternoon I conducted an interview with Colonel Stephen W. Davis, the Commander of Marine Regimental Combat Team - 2 currently operating in western Iraq and engaged in Operation Steel Curtain in the border town of Husaybah.

Bill Roggio: What is the current status of Operation Steel Curtain?

Col Davis: Husaybah has been cleared and secured. Coalition forces are now conducting combat patrols. Construction is underway for basing of Iraqi and U.S. troops to maintain a permanent presence in the city, and provide security. We had a real good plan, but the execution was even better. I am pleased with the results of Operation Steel Curtain.

Bill: MNF-West states there were 1,000 Iraqi troops involved, while CNN and other news outlets reports 550. Is there an explanation for this discrepancy?

Col Davis: The number is just a hair short of 1,000. There is one full battalion of Iraqi Army soldiers, one brigade headquarters unit, units from the Desert Protection Force, and a Special Operations Forces unit, which was trained by [U.S.] Army Green Berets. These SOF units are high caliber units with a great deal of expertise and bring it to the battlefield. (my emphasis)

Bill: How is the Desert Protection Force organized and trained?

Col Davis: These are platoon sized units recruited locally and trained in reconnaissance and scout techniques. They add a level of granularity due to their experience and local knowledge of the region. They have been very, very helpful during Operation Steel Curtain.

Bill: Last time we spoke, we discussed the morale of the Americans serving under your command. Can you give us a feel for the morale of the Iraqi troops?

Col Davis: The morale of the Iraqi troops is high. We are very fortunate to work with these soldiers and to watch them grow. The 2nd Brigade, 7th Division of the Iraqi Army is operating in the Hit/Haditha region, and the 1st Brigade, 1st Division is operating out west on the Syrian border. One of the battalions was engaged in Fallujah and Ramadi. There are some tough and battle hardened soldiers in these units. I am fortunate to have these two brigades directly under my command.

I dine nightly with [Iraqi Army] Colonel Razak, and we discuss the progress of the Iraqi troops and their ability to conduct combat operations. These units operating out here have good morale and show a high degree of proficiency in combat. They are in need of logistics assistance from us. These guys fight hard; I’ve lost six Iraqi soldiers since they have been operating out here.

These are just some excerpts, but Roggio carries the whole interview.

Iraq

Guns and Money

2005-11-09T07:09:00.000-08:00

I live a few miles from where Wake County Sheriff's Investigator Mark Tucker was murdered and drove by the scene not long after his body was discovered, so I have followed the case pretty closely and admired the quick work Wake County Sheriff Donnie Harrison and his team did in quickly tracking down the killer.

But reading the latest from Confederate Yankee leaves a bitter taste about the aftermath. The Brady Center, as a liberal group, believes that laws don't matter, but lawsuits do. It's not what you can prove, but what you can settle for that is important to these people (and Eliot Spitzer may become Gov. of NY on that principle). But now the Brady Center has now been caught in two fabrications surrounding the murder of Mark Tucker, and they are doing neither their Center nor the men who enforce our laws any favors with these errors/lies.

Michelle Malkin has some good coverage of another gun issue, this one surrounding the San Fran ban on handguns.
Brady Center

Perfect Timing

2005-11-08T17:35:00.000-08:00

James Taranto's timing is perfect in bringing us this excerpt from a Krugman column on July 29th extolling the French economic system vs. the U.S.:

Americans are doing a lot of strutting these days, but a head-to-head comparison between the economies of the United States and Europe--France, in particular--shows that the big difference is in priorities, not performance. We're talking about two highly productive societies that have made a different tradeoff between work and family time. And there's a lot to be said for the French choice. . . .

Let's ask how the situation of a typical middle-class family in France compares with that of its American counterpart. The French family, without question, has lower disposable income. This translates into lower personal consumption: a smaller car, a smaller house, less eating out.

But there are compensations for this lower level of consumption. Because French schools are good across the country, the French family doesn't have to worry as much about getting its children into a good school district. Nor does the French family, with guaranteed access to excellent health care, have to worry about losing health insurance or being driven into bankruptcy by medical bills.
Paul Krugman

Election Day Themes

2005-11-08T05:13:00.000-08:00

Interesting how the MSM depicts the main issues on election day. At the national level, if Dems win the gubernatorial seats in NJ and VA (seats they already hold), the focus will be on the Republican losses and what it means for the Bush presidency and the war in Iraq etc. etc.

But if the Dems lose these states (2 pickups for the Republicans), the focus will be on the dirty campaigns (with implications that Republicans play dirtier). The MSM will completely avoid the conclusion, should the Dems lose both, that the Democratic party has nothing to offer in terms of fresh ideas and that this withering at the top damages state candidates as well.

In local elections here in Wake County, the most important races are at the school board level. Two runoffs feature candidates who support the education establishment and the idea that school bureaucrats know what is best for our kids vs. candidates who desire more choice for parents and less meddling by the school board.

The pro-establishment candidates, and the N&O, have started to use the segregation word to try to label their opponents. But segregation is defined as enforced racial separation. The candidates supporting parental and student choice in schooling are not doing so to segregate schools, they are doing so to improve schools through greater competition. Most parents are primarily concerned with the quality of school their child attends, not the racial makeup, but the pro-establishment/anti-choice candidates take the exact opposite view. Should be interesting.
Politics

New U.S. and Iraqi Operation

2005-11-06T18:37:00.000-08:00

Rantingprofs offers another example of lousy, and also biased, reporting by the MSM on Iraq.
Iraq

Good News Not Reported

2005-11-06T08:06:00.000-08:00

Craig Newmark brings another example of the MSM not reporting good economic news, this time with the strong productivity numbers. Here we are post Clinton recession, post 9/11, post Katrina and Rita, post multiple Fed raises, and we are still churning out great numbers and holding the unemployment rate at 5%. You would think we would see glowing reports in the press but almost every report on the economy picks one potential trouble spot and focuses only on that area.
Economics

Foundation On-line

2005-11-06T07:50:00.000-08:00

I introduced our new foundation in this post, and wanted to announce that we are now up and running for on-line donations here.
Second Dragoons Foundation

More Jimmy Carter

2005-11-05T16:15:00.000-08:00

Powerline, via Mike Williams, has more on Jimmy Carter:

His history is a sorry one: he started out as a Midshipman and served honorably in the Navy. But at some point, his leftist politics took hold and he started aligning himself with America's enemies. The turning point, I think, came here:

Soviet diplomatic accounts and material from the archives show that in January 1984 former President Jimmy Carter dropped by Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin's residence for a private meeting.

Carter expressed his concern about and opposition to Reagan's defense buildup. He boldly told Dobrynin that Moscow would be better off with someone else in the White House. If Reagan won, he warned, "There would not be a single agreement on arms control, especially on nuclear arms, as long as Reagan remained in power."

Using the Russians to influence the presidential election was nothing new for Carter.
Schweizer reveals Russian documents that show that in the waning days of the 1980 campaign, the Carter White House dispatched businessman Armand Hammer to the Soviet Embassy.
Hammer was a longtime Soviet-phile, and he explained to the Soviet ambassador that Carter was "clearly alarmed" at the prospect of losing to Reagan.

Hammer pleaded with the Russians for help. He asked if the Kremlin could expand Jewish emigration to bolster Carter's standing in the polls.

"Carter won't forget that service if he is elected," Hammer told Dobrynin.

Conspiring with our chief enemy to try to influence an American Presidential election: We could have called that treason, but we didn't. You can form your own opinion.
Jimmy Carter

Laptops for WIAs

2005-11-04T12:01:00.000-08:00

Blackfive has more progress on what sounds like a pretty good idea - buying voice-activated laptops for soldiers who have been wounded.
Politics

Useful Idiots

2005-11-03T08:36:00.000-08:00

HT to Mike Williams for bringing this informative info on the guy who has become one of the "useful idiots" to the blame-America-first crowd:

Jason at the Texas Rainmaker blog quotes former President Carter:

November 2, 2005

"The Bush Administration's prewar claims that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction were manipulated, at least to mislead the American people."

February 18, 2003

"We want Saddam Hussein to disarm but we want to achieve this through peaceful means. He obviously has the capability and desire to build prohibited weapons and probably has some hidden in his country."

Politics

Scandal a Brewin'

2005-11-03T05:31:00.000-08:00

The N&O is digging in hard on the lottery scandal story here in N.C. and doing some good investigative work. As expected, the editorial writers weighed in today, and as expected the piece reveals little new information and offers up few useful opinions. The theme of the editorial writers is that this is a problem with the influence of lobbyists on government. But get this - not once in the long editorial do Steve Ford and his folks mention that the real scandal is with the Democratic party in N.C. In fact, they don't mention the party affiliation of the accused (Easley, Black and Basnight) even once in the article.

Now their argument will be that readers know these men are Democrats, but as the Civitas Institute has demonstrated in their polls, a majority of N.C. residents in fact do not know that the state is controlled by Democrats.

The same editorial writers, when commenting on the relationship of lobbyists with Tom Delay, repeatedly noted that Delay was a Republican and framed the problem as one for the Republican party. So why is this lobbying scandal in N.C. different? How long can the N&O get away with supporting their favored party in light of the continuing series of revelations about improper behavior (slush fund, transportation dept. failures, the lottery)?
Jim Black

Looking out for the troops

2005-11-02T06:02:00.000-08:00

While the MSM focuses on the negative aspects of U.S. involvement overseas, and while liberals look to the government to solve all problems, an overwhelming number of Americans have decided to support our troops through private efforts. Some send cards or care packages and others have formed foundations to help out.

A small group of us who served together in Germany in the Second Armored Cavalry Regiment recently formed just such a foundation and last week we made our first distribution. The foundation is called the E. E. Mixon Second Dragoons Foundation (MSG Mixon was an outstanding and influential NCO when we were all young LTs, and he has now passed away).

Our first act was to pay for the travel costs for 9 members of the family of CPL Jeffrey Williams to attend the memorial service for him at Ft. Carson. The military pays for the service but not for family travel, and in this case the family was spread throughout the country. CPL Williams had served the 3rd ACR and died from an IED attack during the recent battle for Tal Afar.

By all accounts the memorial service was a moving event and the family was deeply grateful for the outpouring of support from our foundation and others. We hope to ramp up the foundation operations and expand our website to include on-line payment options, but for now if you would like to contribute you can mail a check to the E.E. Mixon Second Dragoons Foundation at 3405 Spartina Ct., Raleigh, NC, 27606. If you would like to donate appreciated stock you can e-mail me using the link at the right. We would also like to thank the Mudville Gazette for letting us use their open post to publicize the foundation.
Support the Troops

Filibuster Deal Looking Better

2005-11-01T17:44:00.000-08:00

We pointed out several months ago that the filibuster deal set up by the "Gang of 14", while hard to stomach, gave the Reps more room to maneuver than the Dems. The Alito nomination will demonstrate that claim as the 7 Dems who signed onto the Gang of 14 (I think former KKK member Robert Byrd - D-VA- claimed they had "saved the Republic") will have a hard time not voting for cloture.

We also claimed the Lindsey Graham and Mike Dewine (the two most surprising names on the Republican list of the Gang of 14) were not turncoats. Indeed, they were the first 2 to announce that Alito merited a vote in the Senate and that the failure to provide such a vote will lead to the Constitutional Option.
Filibuster

Photo Manipulation

2005-11-01T11:13:00.000-08:00

Confederate Yankee has the latest example of photo doctoring by the MSM, this one of Judge Alito. The point of the recent rash of photo doctoring cases, from the Condi Rice shot here to the less sinister but still manipulative Sheehan/Sharpton lovefest here, is not that the MSM would do such things - we take for granted that they will, but rather that they can no longer get away with it thanks to the bloggers and some simple uses of technology.

Samuel Alito

The Hard Right, or the Harder Right?

2005-10-31T13:33:00.000-08:00

You will hear this theme from the MSM over and over, so get used to (HT to MRC):

In picking a Supreme Court nominee, CBS's Bob Schieffer fretted on Sunday's Face the Nation, President Bush is caught between "Democrats" and "the hard right."

Samuel Alito

Alito

2005-10-31T07:40:00.000-08:00

Step one in the Bush recovery plan - Alito. Watch approval ratings bump combined with renewed conservative vigor as we take the fight to the far left. Dems will find themselves only slighthly less divided than over Roberts as any moderates left in their party will be feeling heat from the far left to fight the nomination, but any attempt to filibuster will make average voters believe even more strongly that the only thing Dems have to offer to the national debate is whining. Malkin has a good roundup, and Mudville Gazette has plenty of info.

Alito

A Wise Corporal

2005-10-28T13:05:00.000-07:00

From Malkin, via David Boyd, another heroic Marine Corporal:

Jeffrey Starr, a Marine corporal, was killed on April 30. He was profiled this week in the NYT as part of the coverage of 2000 Americans who have died in Iraq. A letter to his girlfriend was found on his laptop. Here is part of his letter that didn't make the NYT:

Obviously if you are reading this then I have died in Iraq. I kind of predicted this, that is why I'm writing this in November. A third time just seemed like I'm pushing my chances. I don't regret going, everybody dies but few get to do it for something as important as freedom. It may seem confusing why we are in Iraq, it's not to me. I'm here helping these people, so that they can live the way we live. Not have to worry about tyrants or vicious dictators. To do what they want with their lives. To me that is why I died. Others have died for my freedom, now this is my mark.

Jeffrey Starr

Still Negligent on Wilson

2005-10-28T11:24:00.000-07:00

Can't remember where I noticed the complaint about coverage of the Joe Wilson report, so not sure who to credit, but I notice the omission of relevant info in the N&O today so will extend the complaint here.

The article today says of Wilson's trip: After traveling to Africa in 2002 to look into claims that Iraq had sought to acquire material there for its nuclear weapons program, Joseph Wilson wrote in an op-ed article in The New York Times on July 6, 2003 that the White House had "twisted" the intelligence ...

Well, a factual and complete statement, if you did not have a lefty bias like the N&O, would be: After traveling to Africa and confirming that Iraq had sought to acquire material there for its nuclear weapons program, Joseph Wilson wrote....

You could add the relevant details that the final reports of the Senate Intelligence Committee and Butler commission comfirmed that Wilson's report from Africa and his statements later did not correspond (or, you could call him the liar he is), but to ignore the facts is a shameful display of journalistic ethics.
Joe Wilson

Black and White?

2005-10-28T11:13:00.000-07:00

Kudos to the N&O for staying on the Jim Black scandal story, but I can't help lodging one complaint by comparison.

At the state level Black is similar to Tom Delay at the national level. Both led their parties to a majority and maintained party discipline during tough votes.

But when the N&O reports on Delay the lead is always that he is a Republican and the story reviews his relationship with the President and his importance as a leader of the party. In the Black articles, however, the paper barely (and sometimes not at all) mentions that Black is a Democrat. And I have yet to see any mention of the ties between Black and Easley or any repetitive commentary or analysis of the damage the Black fiasco will have on the NC Democratic party.
Jim Black

Libby Indicted

2005-10-28T11:12:00.000-07:00

Libby indicted - second indictment of Bush administration official. HT to Mike Williams for pointing out that the administration has 59 indictments to go to equal the Clinton record.
I. Lewis Libby

Marines and SOCOM

2005-10-27T13:40:00.000-07:00

The idea of adding the Marines to SOCOM, or folding SOCOM into the Marines, has been discussed for years. Now National Review is reporting on some progress. HT Chaotic.
Marines

Will They Come Back?

2005-10-27T12:00:00.000-07:00

I was willing to give the president the benefit of the doubt on the Miers nomination, but given the number of conservative bloggers who lined up against her, I am glad she has withdrawn. I think this will be a turning point in bringing conservatives back into the fold who have withheld support recently.

The best sign that a conservative mending is coming is the MSM's continual squawking about the conservative crack-up. Over the last 5 years every time the MSM has grasped a theme that they think will be damaging to the president, the tide has turned and they have been proven wrong.

So this time Bush will nominate a strong conservative to the Court and allow his base to rain fire upon the obstructionist left rather than upon the administration. Meanwhile, Congress will continue to push through spending cuts to demonstrate conservative fiscal restraint. They will also pass bills related to tort reform, tax simplification and continued tax relief - all music to the ears of conservatives.

And in Iraq we will see successful parliamentary elections in December and a continued improved security posture, which will allow us to draw down troops not as a political gesture (which is why NC reps David Price and Brad Miller are calling for withdrawal), but as a recognition of the reality on the ground.

Conservatives will not only come home, but they will assemble for the 2006 elections and once again disappoint the MSM by winning. Bush will not move above 50% approval ratings, but he doesn't have to, and he shouldn't care. Presidents can leave office with strong approval ratings if they do nothing substantive, witness Clinton, but bold steps lead to anger and a split electorate. Don't worry about healing that void Mr. President, just win your side back and then keep the ball in conservative hands.
Politics

Why they stay

2005-10-26T04:34:00.000-07:00

Mudville Gazette provides some info on reenlistment rates and adds the reasons why soldiers are staying or leaving. Here is the best one:

..."because as I look around at the state of this nation and see all of the weak little pampered candy-asses that are whining about this or protesting that, I'd be afraid to leave the fate of this nation entirely up to them."

From my time as a young LT to my current reserve association with the military, I have found that our young American soldiers want good leadership and tough challenges. Some will talk about money or being away from their families or spartan conditions, but the soldiers we want to keep do not want to be pampered. They need a test to prove who they are inside, and they need to look up to their leaders and know that those in command are just as brave and dedicated and tough as they are. Then they will reenlist.

If the view of the anti-war left was true (our soldiers all want to come home now because conditions are tough), then we would not be seeing the overwhelming number of volunteers for areas like Special Forces. The problem in perceptions is that the guy who couldn't make it as a soldier will return and quickly find a sympathetic reporter and an even more willing editor to put his story on the front page.

The young hero going through Special Forces training, on the other hand, is focused on building his technical competence so he can deploy and work as an integral part of his team. That young man doesn't have time for the majority of the MSM, and probably feels some disdain for the institution. But he does have faith that the American people will overcome the daily prattle they are hearing and support the soldier as he brings freedom to yet another corner of the world and brings safety to the American people.
Army Reenlistment

Gripe with the sports page

2005-10-25T13:56:00.000-07:00

We have gone after almost every section of the N&O on this blog, so I see no reason why the sports page should be immune. I specifically want to call the paper (and writer Luke DeCock - yes, that is really his name) to task for predicting that the hometown Carolina Hurricanes would not make the playoffs.

Now while I criticize the news people for cheering too loudly for homeboy John Edwards, I think the sports section is authorized to support the home team. The Hurricanes performance the year prior to the strike may not have justified a lot of enthusiasm, but with the addition of the best young coach in hockey, Peter Laviolette, the emergence of young stars Eric Stahl and Cam Ward, and the signings of talented team players like Ray Whitney and Cory Stillman, you would think the paper could have at least predicted an 8 seed in the playoffs.

Still early, but the Canes lead the division, beat the undefeated Ottawa Senators last night after being down 2-0, and have been playing some of the most exciting hockey we can remember. Laviolette has trained his team to understand and execute under the new rules and they are one of the least penalized teams in the league. He has also built a team rather then a squad centered around one or two stars, and he has a deep bench to help as the season goes into the later stages. He also has 2 fine goalies and some great kids still in the minors, so this season may be the start of something big here in NC.

Peter Laviolette

Where was the MSM when Hillary lied?

2005-10-25T12:52:00.000-07:00

The Media Research Center folks rightly ask why the MSM is so concerned about the possibility a current member of the administration misled a grand jury, but did not appear as concerned in 2000 when it was proven that Hillary Clinton had lied to a grand jury:

In a report released October 18, 2000, independent counsel Robert Ray determined Hillary had given false testimony when questioned about the travel office firings, a crime that Ray declined to prosecute. FNC reporter David Shuster (now with MSNBC) explained on that night's Special Report with Brit Hume:

"The investigation began in the administration's first term when seven members of the Travel Office staff were terminated and replaced by a company run by Clinton friends. The issue for prosecutors was whether anybody in the White House tried to cover up alleged mismanagement of the firings.

"Under oath, Mrs. Clinton flatly denied any role and denied that she had any input, but later a memo surfaced from administration chief David Watkins suggesting Mrs. Clinton wanted the travel staff fired. Watkins said there would be hell to pay if swift action was not taken in conformity with the First Lady's wishes. A friend of Watkins also alleged that Watkins was told to quote, 'fire the sons of bitches.'

"While that claim could not be substantiated, Independent Counsel Robert Ray cited eight separate conversations between the First Lady and senior staff and concluded: â€˜Mrs. Clinton's input into the process was significant, if not the significant factor influencing the pace of events in the Travel Office firings and the ultimate decision to fire the employees.'"

Shuster then showed George Washington University professor Jonathan Turley: "It essentially says that she satisfies all of the components of an indictment and is ultimately safe from trial simply by the discretion of the prosecutor. That's pretty damning."

So what did the three networks do that night? The CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News didn't utter a word about it, while ABC's World News Tonight gave it just 20 seconds, less than one-sixth the time allocated to a story on the "subway series" between the New York Yankees and Mets. The October 18 Inside Politics on CNN gave the development 21 seconds.

The short item read by ABC anchor Peter Jennings: "The independent counsel investigating various activities of Mr. and Mrs. Clinton said today that Mrs. Clinton gave false testimony about her role in the firing of White House travel workers seven years ago. But Robert Ray concluded she should not be prosecuted because there was insufficient evidence that she intended to influence the decision."

If the current special prosecutor offers a similar bottom line verdict on Rove or Libby, it's not a stretch to suggest the networks would be at the front of the liberal lynch mob insisting that they lose their jobs. But five years ago they snoozed when they learned about Hillary Clinton's false testimony.

Politics

NPR Now Officially Advising Dems

2005-10-24T05:36:00.000-07:00

For those still out there defending NPR as an unbiased source of news, here are NPR commentators cheering on the Democrats and offering advice in the upcoming elections (from the Media Research Center):

When, on this past weekend's Inside Washington, host Gordon Peterson recited a list of issues Democratic congressional candidates could use against Republican incumbents -- "you've got Iraq, you've got Harriet Miers, you've got Katrina, you got Tom DeLay being indicted. You've got a lot of ammunition" -- NPR reporter Nina Totenberg jumped in to shout: "And you've got the tax cuts!" She soon offered her recommendation on how Democrats should campaign: "One of the other things is you say, 'look, we're in this mess fiscally and they want to increase the tax cuts for the most wealthy people in the United States,' the top one half of one percent would get a hundred thousand dollars, people who make over a million dollars or something like that."
NPR

Credit Where Due

2005-10-23T11:42:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to the N&O for running a story at least somewhat critical of the comments of Kamau Kambon. Not sure whether they were beaten to the story by the blogs because they were trying to ignore it, or simply because the MSM is falling father and farther behind the blogosphere.

Kudos as well for the coverage of the death of Marine Sgt. Mark P. Adams. Jay Price again has done a wonderful job of capturing the spirit of one of our finest, and Melanie Sill hails Price's coverage in the paper today. By reporting the facts on the story rather than making Adams' death into a political commentary, the N&O has avoided the error of much of the MSM. I think this link will get you to the story on the Adams funeral written by Leah Friedman. If you can't get in, here is the end of the story:

Phillip Adams said his son believed in the U.S. mission in Iraq.

The family said they are deriving strength from their faith and knowing their son died doing what he loved. Phillip Adams said they have also enjoyed reading the letters from Mark's friends.

Just before the service ended with a slide show of Adams' life and a rifle salute and playing of Taps, Phillip Adams walked around the stage's podium and looked down at his son's casket.
"Sgt. Mark Phillip Adams, I salute you, my son, my Marine, my hero," he said and broke into tears.

Thanks to Mudville Gazette for letting me add this to their great open post.
Kamau Kambon

Exterminate the White People?

2005-10-21T17:05:00.000-07:00

HT to Mike Williams for this story, and this challenge to the N&O to cover it:

"WE HAVE TO EXTERMINATE WHITE PEOPLE" is the title of this Michelle Malkin posting:

Mike Adams blows the whistle on a murder-minded liberal racist in academia. His name is Dr. Kamau Kambon, an affiliated faculty instructor at NC State University.

E-mail the school's Africana Studies department at afs@social.chass.ncsu.edu.

Jon Sanders at Carolina Journal has more:

Prior to his call for genocide against white people, Kambon, who owns Blacknific[e]nt Books in Raleigh, told the panel that “we are at war.” He said that white people had set up an "international plantation" for blacks, which made “every white person on earth a plantation master.” He said that, “You’re either supporting white people in their process of death, or you're for African liberation.”

He stressed one point in particular. “White people want to kill us. I want you to understand that. They want to kill you,” he said. “They want to kill you because that is part of their plan.”

Kambon closed his remarks by urging participants and C-SPAN viewers to "get very serious and not be diverted from coming up with a solution to the problem, and the problem on the planet is white people."

Before teaching at NCSU, Kambon was a professor of education at St. Augustine's College in Raleigh, a historically black institution. He was given a Citizen's Award in 1999 by the Triangle’s left-wing newspaper, The Independent Weekly. Ironically, Kambon is also an opponent of the death penalty.

Excerpts of Kambon's address may be heard online at the John Locke Foundation's blog site The Locker Room. The full remarks may be found at C-SPAN online (www.cspan.com) by searching the recent programs for "Black Media Forum on Image of Black Americans in Mainstream Media."

***

Mike Adams, by the way, is a professor at UNC-Wilmington. Follow this link to his Townhall column. Check this Kamau Kambon comment out:

Now how do I know that the white people know that we are going to come up with a solution to the problem? I know it because they have retina scans, they have what they call racial profiling, DNA banks, and they’re monitoring our people to try to prevent the one person from coming up with the one idea. And the one idea is, how we are going to exterminate white people because that in my estimation is the only conclusion I have come to. We have to exterminate white people off the face of the planet to solve this problem. Now I don’t care whether you clap or not, but I’m saying to you that we need to solve this problem because they are going to kill us. And I will leave on that. So we just have to just set up our own system and stop playing and get very serious and not be diverted from coming up with a solution to the problem and the problem on the planet is white people.

So what will the N&O do?
Kamau Kambon

More Dem Fraud

2005-10-20T15:10:00.000-07:00

More convictions for voter fraud in St. Louis, but not a peep from the MSM.
Voter Fraud

Toledo Gang Member = Boston Tea Party

2005-10-20T13:45:00.000-07:00

Confederate Yankee carries the exchange of Hannity and Colmes where a lefty Syracuse professor compares the rioting of Toledo gang members with the actions of the leaders of the Boston Tea Party.
Toledo Riots

U.S. Military for the Nobel

2005-10-20T13:28:00.000-07:00

Go to David Boyd for his link to a great suggestion from Jay Nordlinger: As the greatest guarantor of peace throughout the world, why not award the Nobel to the U.S. military (and I add in, rather then Arafat or Jimmy Carter)
Nobel Peace Prize

No News? Make something up

2005-10-19T09:09:00.000-07:00

The AP and the N&O had no real news today on Karl Rove, so they decided to make a story. The story reported that Rove canceled some planned appearances due to scheduling conflicts. The story also noted that Rove has appeared before Fitzgerald's grand jury. Good solid reporting, though not exactly groundbreaking stuff.

So to spice things up, and with absolutely no evidence to support the theory, the N&O ran the story claiming that Rove canceled the appearances because of the Fitzgerald inquiry. Hack partisan journalism from the paper "committed to accuracy."
Karl Rove

Louisiana Not Dysfunctional

2005-10-18T06:51:00.000-07:00

The MSM will continue to print stories from various angles claiming that the Bush administration (Republicans) and not the Louisiana Gov. and N.O. Mayor (Democrats) were at fault for the chaos of Katrina.

The folks at the N&O, "committed to accuracy," go along with the ploy by choosing this headline today: E-mail suggests FEMA, not Louisiana, was dysfunctional. The article correctly points out that the bureaucracy created (at the demand of Democrats) after 9/11 was unwieldy and dysfunctional. The article also makes clear (though perhaps without realizing that the point harms the big-government lovers) that we should not rely on the federal govt. to be the first responder to local or regional problems.

But what the article does not do is mention how Louisiana was not dysfunctional. Read the headline again. It says Louisiana was not dysfunctional, which is a laughable assertion given all of the evidence to the contrary. So why wouldn't the paper just take their daily shot at the Bushies with E-mail suggests FEMA confusion. That header would be reporting, which is, oddly enough, the job of a reporter. The header the paper chose demonstrates shameless bias and a good dose of incompetence.
Politics

E-Mail Trail

2005-10-14T16:09:00.000-07:00

I will include the whole e-mail trail of this remarkable exchange with the public editor of the regional paper here in Raleigh, the N&O. Remember, this guy is hired to represent the readers and root out problems at the paper like political bias. The public editor's email is ted.vaden@newsobserver.com. The news editor is m.sill@newsobserver.com. Let's just render an F to their work on the following:

Mr. Vaden and Ms. Sill,

I am still waiting for the promised explanation for the lack of coverage in the N&O of the FBI investigation into the actions of the staffers of Sen. Schumer.

I am also interested in the lack of coverage of Louis Freeh's remarkable revelations (from MSNBC): Freeh charges that, rather than pressure Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah for access to the (Khobar) bombing suspects, Mr. Clinton asked the kingdom for a contribution to his presidential library.

Finally, I read today's story about Frank Ballance but found no reference to his party affiliation. You always seem able to slip in the party affiliation of a Republican (see your Carrington stories) convicted of misdeeds, so why not label Ballance?

Regards,
Scott Pierce

Reply from Ted Vaden:

Dear Mr. Pierce:

Our news editor has not been able to find any stories regarding Shumer's staff.

As regards the Freeh allegations, the only reference he can find is a Washington Post column (not a story) last week by media columnist Howard Kurtz. In it, Kurtz quoted a Clinton spokesman as saying that Freeh was not present for any meeting between Clinton and Crown Prince Abdullah, and a former Clinton counterterrorism official, Daniel Benjamin, as saying that Freeh is “factually wrong” and that the former president “pushed the crown prince quite hard,” and eventually won Saudi cooperation that led to indictments in the Khobar Towers case.

I agree with you that we should have included Ballance's party affiliation.

Thanks for inquiring.

Ted Vaden

And my reply to Vaden:

Mr. Vaden,

It took me 5 minutes to find a story on Schumer's staff here from a Baltimore paper, and here from Newsday and here from The Hill "The Newspaper for and about the U.S. Congress". There is a difference between "not being able to find any stories" and not wanting to find any stories.

Two more minutes on Freeh took me here to CNN and here to the NY Sun. If your editors do not think it is newsworthy that the former head of the FBI is claiming the president of the U.S. failed to ask the Saudis for access to the Khobar bombers but did ask for a financial contribution for his library, then they should be fired. It would certainly be appropriate to run an article quoting Freeh's allegations and also including refutations from the Clinton associates you note, but failing to report anything is negligent.

Also, I would like to ask your permission to post your response to my last question on a blog.

Regards,
Scott Pierce

Feel free to fire away at this if you have the time.
Politics

Two Americas?

2005-10-13T11:45:00.000-07:00

Having worked on Wall Street myself, I am supporter of the center of dynamic capitalism, but if I had gone around for the last 2 years playing class politics by talking about the "Two Americas," I might hesitate to head to Wall Street after losing an election. But not John Edwards:

BusinessWeek has learned that Edwards has signed up to work for the New York-based private investment concern Fortress Investment Group as a part-time senior advisor. As such, he will be "providing support in developing investment opportunities worldwide and strategic advice on global economic issues," says Edwards spokesperson Kim Rubey. Fortress declined to comment about hiring Edwards, who teamed up with Massachusetts Senator John Kerry in a losing bid against President George Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney last year.

DEM LEANINGS. Fortress apparently has had its eye on Democratic politics and Edwards for some time. During the 2004 Presidential campaign cycle, the employees political action committee of the company contributed $143,650 to Democratic candidates for Congress and the White House, including $4,000 to Edwards. They gave just $10,500 to Republicans running for federal office.

The N&O has printed more puff pieces on Edwards than we can count, so let's see how much coverage they give to his latest move to support the poor, and let's see whether they are willing to investigate the future political givings of Fortress.
John Edwards

Shumer? Freeh? Ballance?

2005-10-13T05:38:00.000-07:00

Still nothing back from Ted Vaden or Melanie Sill explaining why they have failed to cover the FBI investigation into the misdeeds of Shumer's office (despite their assurance that they would get back to me).

Still no coverage in the N&O about the Louis Freeh book despite the importance of the book in understanding the history of the GWOT.

And the N&O completes the trifecta of incompetence by running a whole article on disgraced NC pol Frank Ballance and not once mentioning he is a Democrat.
Louis Freeh

Teacher Certification Myths

2005-10-10T11:53:00.000-07:00

The John Locke Foundation again does a nice job of researching and dispelling myths, this time surrounding teacher certification. Read the whole piece for details, but my take on the issue is that states impose minimum levels of certification with 2 results. First, by imposing minimum standards you attract people who can just exceed those standards. Second, by making the certification process painful, you discourage potential teachers who have talent in other fields (business, engineering etc.) from spending their valuable time on a certification process that does not make them a better teacher.

Now if we had school choice and merit based pay, then the market (parental and student school and class selection) would determine teacher value and we wouldn't need state certification.
Teacher Certification

Selective "Commitment to Accuracy"

2005-10-07T09:19:00.000-07:00

Our own N&O - "committed to accuracy" - has chosen to run front page stories on Tom Delay twice (and bury the story about the need for the Dem. partisan prosecutor to use 3 grand juries to get what he wanted), and yesterday ran a front page piece associating VP Cheney with a man who misused classified govt. info.

But they don't seem to have the time to investigate or run the facts about the FBI investigation into the actions of some of Chuck Shumer's staffers (HT Mike Williams and Michelle Malkin).
Charles Shumer

Freeh Speaks

2005-10-07T06:11:00.000-07:00

Haven't seen much coverage in the MSM (and nothing in the N&O) about Louis Freeh's book. Maybe this is why:

In another revelation, Freeh says the former president let down the American people and the families of victims of the Khobar Towers terror attack in Saudi Arabia. After promising to bring to justice those responsible for the bombing that killed 19 and injured hundreds, Freeh says Clinton refused to personally ask Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah to allow the FBI to question bombing suspects the kingdom had in custody – the only way the bureau could secure the interviews, according to Freeh. Freeh writes in the book, “Bill Clinton raised the subject only to tell the crown prince that he understood the Saudis’ reluctance to cooperate and then he hit Abdullah up for a contribution to the Clinton Presidential Library.” Says Freeh, “That’s a fact that I am reporting.”
Louis Freeh

Headline Distortion

2005-10-06T10:08:00.000-07:00

I sent this note to the paper in the morning, and was glad to see Mike Williams pick up on the same problem this afternoon:

If I remember correctly from my week on the Front Page meetings, your staff is often constrained by the standard fare of biased wire service stories, but you do choose the headlines.

So I question your headline choice in the story today of a military aide who was hired by Al Gore's office in 1999 and was retained briefly by Vice President Cheney's office during the transition of staffs in 2001. Any objective headline writer would have penned Ex-aide to Gore accused in spy case. So isn't it interesting in the paper "committed to accuracy" to read Ex-aide to Cheney accused in spy case?

You also control article placement, so don't you find it interesting that you would run a story on Tom Delay's indictment on the front page two days in a row, but run the story on the failure of the first grand jury to indict Delay on page 6?

Mr. Vaden, you have your hands full.

Regards - Scott Pierce
Politics