Distant Early Warning

Well, maybe not so distant. Or early. Or quite a warning.

Blogging will be minimal for Holy Week.

For the duration you can explore The Daily Roll, Featured Columnists, and The Blog from Last Year — at the foot of each day on the main page — and the rest of The Blog from the Core.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 04/01/04 07:50:35 PM
Categorized as Other.

"George Soros, Postmodern Villain"

Vide.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 04/01/04 07:48:03 PM
Categorized as International.

Fallujah and Tolerance

First, the inestimable Peggy Noonan writes at OpinionJournal today:

.... It is not a stretch to imagine the young murderers of Fallujah had this on their minds: Do it again to America, kill them and string up their corpses, because when you do this America leaves.

And so this time the response must be the opposite of the response in Mogadishu.

We know what the men and boys who did the atrocity of Fallujah look like; they posed for the cameras. We know exactly what they did — again, the cameras. We know they massed on a bridge and raised their guns triumphantly. It's all there on film. It would be good not only for elemental justice but for Iraq and its future if a large force of coalition troops led by U.S. Marines would go into Fallujah, find the young men, arrest them or kill them, and, to make sure the point isn't lost on them, blow up the bridge.

Whatever the long-term impact of the charred bodies the short term response must be a message to Fallujah and to all the young men of Iraq: the violent and unlawful will be broken. Savagery is yesterday; it left with Saddam....

Second, French author Jean-Christophe Mounicq writes at WaTi, Mar. 30:

.... I can no longer tolerate the relativism and masochism of a West incapable of recalling its own history other than to denounce it. I can no longer tolerate comparing the Crusades to jihad, when the Crusades were nothing but a parenthesis in the history of Christianity while jihad is an integral part of Islam.

I can no longer tolerate the cowardice, weakness and mediocrity of the majority of Western leaders, or the unwillingness of Westerners to affirm their own values and the superiority of liberty and democracy over all other principles and systems. I can no longer tolerate the inability of Europe to recall its Judeo-Christian heritage....

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 04/01/04 07:16:12 PM
Categorized as International.

Not Exactly Dukakis in a Tank, But Real Close

Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode CCXLIX

First, at the "Best Overall Hip-Hop Site", John Kerry does a good imitation of riding in a tank.

"I'm fascinated by Rap and Hip-Hop" said Democratic presidential candidate, John Kerry during an MTV Choose or Lose forum. Offering up a heavy dose of street credibility, Kerry defended gangsta rap, freedom of speech and the realities of street life.

Kerry spoke with MTV's Gideon Yago and took questions from the audience last night in MTV's annual Choose or Lose forum. The youth voting movement this year endeavors to get 20 million new voters to the polls and impact what is projected to be a tight presidential race.

The Boston-born heir by marriage to the Heinz Ketchup fortune, offered his perspective on rap music as the voice of the streets.

"I'm fascinated by rap and by hip-hop. I think there's a lot of poetry in it. There's a lot of anger, a lot of social energy in it. And I think you'd better listen to it pretty carefully, 'cause it's important."

When questioned about offensive rap lyrics, Kerry said there is a line to be drawn, but defended freedom of speech.

"I think that there is a line you draw between government intervention and the right of speech and the right for people to express themselves, but do I think there are standards of decency in that? Yes, I do. Do I think that sometimes some lyrics in some songs have stepped over what I consider to be a reasonable line? Yeah, I do. I think when you start talking about killing cops or something like that, it bothers me."

Calling rap a "reflection of life", Kerry empathized with the struggles reflected in the music.

"I'm still listening because I know that it's a reflection of the street and it's a reflection of life, and I understand all that. I'm not for the government censoring or stepping in. But I don't think it's inappropriate occasionally to talk about what you think is a standard or what you think is a value that is worth trying to live up to."

Kerry's interns handlers aides should keep him from doing anything like that again — if only to prevent him from saying any more words that rhyme with flip-flop.

Now, if you thought that was funny, have a look at today's NYT article about how Kerry has... dropped out of sight. I guess the writers missed the MTV gig.

At the very moment that President Bush has begun his general election campaign, Senator John Kerry has largely slipped from sight. And Mr. Bush has made the most of Mr. Kerry's absence.

Mr. Kerry's low profile occurs at what would seem to be a particularly opportune time for the senator. Mr. Bush has been struggling with questions about his record on terrorism, and Mr. Kerry had been riding on a wave of excitement after his capture of the Democratic nomination.

Yet Mr. Kerry was off the campaign trail yet again on Wednesday, this time for shoulder surgery in Boston, an operation expected to sideline him through Sunday. The surgery followed his weeklong disappearance to the slopes of Sun Valley.

Some Democrats said that should Mr. Kerry lose in November, he might well remember this month as the time when he seriously undermined his hopes of defeating Mr. Bush. A few invoked one of Mr. Kerry's least-liked comparisons, noting how another Massachusetts Democrat who ran for president, Michael S. Dukakis, stuck close to home in August 1988, in what turned out to be a foolish strategic move in his campaign against Mr. Bush's father.

"The Bush people have seized the vacuum," said Carter Eskew, a senior adviser to Al Gore in the 2000 presidential campaign.

Referring to the Kerry campaign, Mr. Eskew said, "It's a fair criticism to say they've been a little slow to do the same." Mr. Eskew said the Gore campaign drifted through the spring before finally settling on a theme to use against George Bush.

"For some people, they have a little déjà vu, and they're a little worried that's what's happening again," he said. "There is some familiarity here that hopefully can be avoided, which is that in 2000 we did not have a good spring, and we weren't ready for Bush. We weren't tooled up on our side on our positive and our comparative message. We paid a price for that."

Mr. Kerry's aides said they were not worried, arguing that now is opportune to raise money and devise a strategy, as they struggled with the inevitable growing pains of changing from a primary campaign to a general election campaign. They argued that voters were more likely to focus on the hearings into Mr. Bush's handling of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and testimony of his former counterterrorism chief, Richard A. Clarke, than on an election in November.

Mr. Kerry's campaign manager, Mary Beth Cahill, said on Wednesday said that her operation was far from idle. She said Mr. Kerry would report this week that he had raised more than $40 million in the first quarter of the year — a figure that would shatter the $14.8 million record set by Howard Dean, who raised that much in three months — more than any other Democratic presidential candidate. Mr. Kerry's aides said the senator was about to embark on an aggressive schedule of speeches and a national wave of television advertisements challenging Mr. Bush on the economy, job creation and health care.

"We learned in the primary that we are going to run a race on our own terms and on our own schedule and carry out the plan that we put together," Ms. Cahill said. "You're watching it executed in front of you. The Bush people have been laying back a year and half and amassing money to launch a campaign. O.K., but the country still thinks we're on the wrong track."

Still, Democrats said they were concerned by polls in recent days showing that voter perceptions of Mr. Kerry had soured somewhat under the press of Mr. Bush's attacks on him and what even Mr. Kerry's advisers acknowledge have been a series of missteps by the candidate this past month.

A USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll this week found the number of voters who view Mr. Kerry unfavorably had increased to 36 percent from 26 percent over the past five weeks, while the number of votes who called him "too liberal" jumped to 41 percent from 29 percent. A New York Times/CBS News Poll this month found that about 6 out of 10 registered voters believed that Mr. Kerry said what he wanted people to hear, rather than what he believed, suggesting some success by Mr. Bush in portraying Mr. Kerry as a flip-floppers.

Mr. Kerry himself has showed signs of concern about the image that he is a slacker on the trail, fitting in a campaign appearance in Boston on Wednesday morning before heading to the hospital.

Ms. Cahill's remarks underline what has emerged as a stark strategic difference between the Bush and Kerry campaigns.

Mr. Bush, after studying his father's experience in 1988 and the success with which Bill Clinton undermined Bob Dole by attacking him in the spring of 1996, has set out to define Mr. Kerry now, in the hope that perceptions created today will be difficult to change in the fall.

As Mr. Kerry has stayed on the slopes and the sidelines, the president has pressed forward with a meticulously planned and lavishly financed campaign to undercut him with a barrage of speeches and television advertisements intended to portray him as a liberal, unprincipled, big-spending Democrat.

By contrast, even Mr. Kerry's supporters say he has yet to offer a concise case against Mr. Bush or one for his own presidency.

"Here's what concerns me in the long term: I can tell you what George Bush's definition of John Kerry is: He is a flip-flopping liberal who wants to raise your taxes," said a Democratic strategist who did not want to be quoted by name. "But I'm not sure I can tell you what John Kerry's definition of George Bush is."

By contrast, in a sign that the White House has figured out what to say about Mr. Kerry, the senator was greeted on Tuesday in California by Bush supporters who held up black plastic flip-flops and clapped them together as Mr. Kerry tried to speak.

Aides to Mr. Bush said their efforts had been successful.

"The equilibrium point of the race right now is roughly event," a senior Bush adviser, Matthew Dowd, said. "I thought Senator Kerry would carry his strong showing from the primaries longer. But that has dissipated quickly. His negatives have gone up fairly quickly."

There are abundant signs that Mr. Kerry's campaign remains a work in formation. Mr. Kerry has flown across the country the past few days accompanied by Bob Shrum, a senior adviser and prominent speech writer, constantly updating and tweaking Mr. Kerry's stump speech.

After two weeks in which Mr. Kerry arguably hurt himself with ill-chosen remarks, his campaign has tried to keep him from reporters. In one seven-day stretch, he met with national reporters once, in a session that lasted nine minutes.

Mr. Kerry's aides said they thought that any advantage that Mr. Bush might be gaining with his attacks would be fleeting because the senator was about to embark in a noticeable step-up of his campaign.

"Their negative ads have gotten some traction, but not any lasting traction that is going to impact us in the long run" Mr. Kerry's communications director, Stephanie Cutter, said. "For us, this campaign has just started."

The Blog from the Core asserts Fair Use for non-commercial, non-profit educational purposes.

And it's only April.

P.S. Here is what James Taranto thinks about the NYT piece: The election is still seven months away, and already Democrats are coming up with rationalizations for John Kerry's defeat. Good call, that.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 04/01/04 06:09:02 PM
Categorized as Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode & John Kerry.

"Clarke: Bar 'My' Ad"

Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode CCXLVIII

"Clarke: Bar"? "Clark: Bar"? "Clark Bar"? Somebody has a tin ear at the New York Post.

Oops.

Former counter-terrorism chief Richard Clarke wants an anti-Bush group to stop using his words in their new TV commercial, which label the president a "failure."

But the group, MoveOn.org, says it's going to keep running the spot — which was made with images from Bush's own re-election campaign commercial and from a CBS interview.

Clarke, who charged that the Bush White House ignored terror warnings in the months before 9/11, said he doesn't want his remarks from a CBS "60 Minutes" interview to be turned into a political attack ad.

"I just don't want to be used," said Clarke, who has sought to erase doubts that he's a Democratic sympathizer by noting that he's a registered Republican and voted for Sen. John McCain.

"I don't want to be part of what looks like a political ad. I'm trying hard to make this not a partisan thing but a discussion of how we stop terrorism in the future, keep this on a policy issue."

The little-noticed MoveOn.org spot offers a blistering attack on Bush's record in the war against terrorism.

The Blog from the Core asserts Fair Use for non-commercial, non-profit educational purposes.

I wonder if it's as "blistering" as "Bush = Hitler".

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 04/01/04 05:46:18 PM
Categorized as Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode.

"A Changed World"

Or, "An Essential War".

George P. Shultz gave the third annual Kissinger Lecture, Feb. 11, at the Library of Congress.

A condensed version was published at Foreign Policy Research Institute, Mar. 22:

We are at one of those special moments in history: the topic of the day is Iraq and weapons not accounted for; but our action in Iraq has implications that go far beyond this in areas including Israeli-Palestinian issues and our own dangerous dependence on imported oil....

An adaptation was published at OpinionJournal, Mar. 29:

We have struggled with terrorism for a long time. In the Reagan administration, I was a hawk on the subject. I said terrorism is a big problem, a different problem, and we have to take forceful action against it. Fortunately, Ronald Reagan agreed with me, but not many others did. (Don Rumsfeld was an outspoken exception.) ....

I haven't been able to find an un-condensed, un-adapted version.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 04/01/04 06:36:31 AM
Categorized as International & Speeches and Suchlike.

"A House Divided Cannot Stand"

Zell Miller invokes the memory, and words, of Abraham Lincoln.

"It's obvious to me that this country is rapidly dividing itself into two camps: the wimps and the warriors. The ones who want to argue and assess and appease, and the ones who want to carry this fight to our enemies and kill them before they kill us. And, in case you haven't figured it out, I proudly belong to the latter."

A monumental speech by Sen. Zell Miller, Democrat of Georgia, on the floor of the Senate, Mar. 30.

After watching the harsh acrimony generated by the September 11 Commission – which, let me say at the outset, is made up of good and able members – I’ve come to seriously question this panel’s usefulness.

I believe it will ultimately play a role in doing great harm to this country, for its unintended consequences, I fear, will be to energize our enemies and demoralize our troops.

After being drowned in a tidal wave of all who didn’t do enough before 9/11, I have come to believe that the Commission should issue a report that says: “No one did enough in the past. No one did near enough.”

Then thank everyone for serving, send them home and let’s get on with the job of protecting this country in the future.

Tragically, these hearings have proved to be a very divisive diversion for this country. Tragically, they have devoured valuable time, looking backwards when we should be looking forward.

Can you imagine handling the attack on Pearl Harbor this way? Can you imagine Congress, the media and the public standing for this kind of political gamesmanship and finger pointing after that “day of infamy” in 1941?

Some partisans tried that ploy, but they were soon quieted by the patriots who understood how important it was to get on with the war and take the battle to America’s enemies, and not dwell on what FDR knew when.

You see, back then the highest priority was to win a war, not win an election. That’s what made them “The Greatest Generation.”

I realize that many well-meaning Americans see the hearings as “democracy in action.” Years ago, when I was teaching political science, I probably would have had my class watching it live on television and using that very phrase with them.

There are also the not-so-well-meaning political operatives who see these hearings as an opportunity to “score cheap points.”

Then, there are the Media Meddlers who see this as “great theater” that can be played out on the evening news and on endless talk shows for a week or more.

Congressional hearings have long been one of Washington’s most entertaining pastimes. Joe McCarthy. Watergate. Iran Contra. They all kept us glued to the TV, and made for conversation around the water coolers and arguments over a beer at the corner pub.

A Congressional hearing in Washington, D.C. is the ultimate aphrodisiac for political groupies and partisan punks.

But, it’s not the groupies, punks and television-sotted American public that I’m worried about. This latter crowd can get excited and divided over just about anything. Whether it’s some off-key wanna-be dreaming of being the American Idol, or what brainless bimbo The Bachelor or Average Joe will choose or who will Donald Trump fire next week.

No, it is the real enemies of America that I’m concerned about.

These evil killers who right now, right now are gleefully watching the shrill partisan finger pointing of these hearings and grinning like a mule eating briars.

They see this as a major split within the Great Satan America. They see anger, they see division, instability, bickering, peevishness and dissension.

They see the President of the United States hammered unmercifully. They see all this and they are greatly, greatly encouraged.

We should not be doing anything to encourage our enemies in this battle between good and evil. Yet, these hearings, in my opinion, are doing just that.

We are playing with fire. We’re playing directly into the hands of our enemy by allowing these hearings to become the great divider they have become.

Dick Clarke’s book and its release coinciding with these hearings have done this country a tremendous disservice, and someday we will reap its whirlwind.

Long ago, Sir Walter Scott observed that revenge is “the sweetest morsel that ever was cooked in hell.”

The vindictive Clarke has now had his revenge, but what kind of hell has he, his CBS publisher and his axe-to-grind advocates unleashed?

These hearings, coming on the heels of the election the terrorists influenced in Spain, bolster and energize our evil enemies as they have not been energized since 9/11.

Chances are very good that these evil enemies of America will attempt to influence our 2004 election in a similar dramatic way as they did Spain’s. And to think that could never be in this country is to stick your head in the sand.

That is why the sooner we stop this endless bickering over the past and join together to prepare for the future, the better off this country will be. There are some things – whether this city believes it or not – that are just more important than political campaigns.

The recent past is so ripe for political second-guessing “gotcha” and Monday morning quarter-backing. And it is so tempting in an election year. We should not allow ourselves to indulge that temptation. We should put our country first.

Every administration from Jimmy Carter to George W. Bush bears some of the blame. Dick Clarke bears a big heap of it because it was he who was in the catbird’s seat to do something about it for more than a decade. Tragically, it was the decade in which we did the least.

We did nothing after terrorists attacked the World Trade Center in 1993, killing six and injuring more than 1,000 Americans.

We did nothing in 1996 when sixteen U.S. servicemen were killed in the bombing of the Khobar Towers.

When our embassies were attacked in 1998, killing 263 people, our only response was to fire a few missiles on an empty tent.

Is it any wonder? Is it any wonder that after that decade of weak-willed responses to that murderous terror, our enemies thought we would never fight back?

In the 1990's is when Dick Clarke should have resigned. In the 1990's is when he should have apologized. That is when he should have written his book. That is, if he really had America’s best interest at heart.

Some will say, “We owe it to the families” to get more information about what happened in the past and I can understand that. But no amount of finger-pointing will bring our victims back.

So, now we owe it to future families and all of America now in jeopardy not to encourage more terrorists, resulting in even more grieving families, perhaps many more over the ones of 9/11.

It’s obvious to me that this country is rapidly dividing itself into two camps: the wimps and the warriors.

The ones who want to argue and assess and appease, and the ones who want to carry this fight to our enemies and kill them before they kill us. And, in case you haven’t figured it out, I proudly belong to the latter.

This is a time like no other in the history of this country, and this country is being crippled with petty partisan politics of the worst possible kind. In time of war, it is not just unpatriotic; it is stupid, and it is criminal.

So, I pray that all this time, all this energy, all this talk and all this attention could be focused on the future instead of the past.

I pray we would stop pointing fingers, assigning blame and wringing our hands about what happened on that day David McCullogh has called “the worst day in our history” more than two years ago.

And instead, pour all of our energy into how we can kill these terrorists before they kill us – again.

For make no mistake about it. They watch these hearings. They are scheming and smiling about the distraction and the divisiveness they see in America. And while they may not know who said it years ago in America, they know instinctively that a house divided cannot stand.

There is one other group that we should remember is listening to all of this – our troops.

I was in Iraq in January and one day when I was meeting with the 1st Armored Division, a unit with a proud history known as Old Ironsides, we were discussing troop morale, and the Commanding General said it was top notch.

And I turned to the Division’s Sergeant Major, the top enlisted man in the division, a big, burly, 6-foot-3, 240 pound African American and I said, “That’s good, but how do you sustain that kind of morale?”

Without hesitation he narrowed his eyes, and he looked at me and said “The morale will stay high just as long as these troops know the people back home support us.”

Just as long as the people back home support us. What kind of message are these hearings and the outrageously political speeches on the floor of the Senate yesterday sending to those marvelous young Americans in the uniform of our country?

I say Unite America! Before it is too late! Put aside these petty partisan differences when it comes to the protection of our people.

Argue and argue and argue and debate and debate and debate over all the other things – jobs and education and the deficit and the environment – but please, please do not use the lives of Americans and the security of this country as a cheap-shot political talking point.

Source. Confer.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 04/01/04 06:08:35 AM
Categorized as Speeches and Suchlike.

A Little Bouquet of April Poetry II

Home-thoughts, from Abroad

O, to be in England
Now that April 's there,
And whoever wakes in England
Sees, some morning, unaware,
That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf
Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,
While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough
In England—now!

And after April, when May follows,
And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows!
Hark, where my blossom'd pear-tree in the hedge
Leans to the field and scatters on the clover
Blossoms and dewdrops—at the bent spray's edge—
That 's the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over,
Lest you should think he never could recapture
The first fine careless rapture!
And though the fields look rough with hoary dew,
All will be gay when noontide wakes anew
The buttercups, the little children's dower
—Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower!

Robert Browning (1812-1889)
The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse (1913) # 207
ed. Arthur Quiller-Couch

Song
Inviting the Influence of a Young Lady Upon the Opening Year

You wear the morning like your dress
And are with mastery crown'd;
When as you walk your loveliness
Goes shining all around:
Upon your secret, smiling way
Such new contents were found,
The Dancing Loves made holiday
On that delightful ground.
Then summon April forth, and send
Commandment through the flowers;
About our woods your grace extend,
A queen of careless hours.
For O! not Vera veil'd in rain,
Nor Dian's sacred Ring,
With all her royal nymphs in train
Could so lead on the Spring.

Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953)
The Oxford Book of English Verse (1939) # 924
ed. Arthur Quiller-Couch

On a Nightingale in April

The yellow moon is a dancing phantom
   Down secret ways of the flowing shade;
And the waveless stream has a murmuring whisper
      Where the alders wave.

Not a breath, not a sigh, save the slow stream's whisper:
   Only the moon is a dancing blade
That leads a host of the Crescent warriors
      To a phantom raid.

Out of the Lands of Faerie a summons,
   A long, strange cry that thrills thro' the glade:—
The grey-green glooms of the elm are stirring,
      Newly afraid.

Last heard, white music, under the olives
   Where once Theocritus sang and play'd—
Thy Thracian song is the old new wonder—
      O moon-white maid!

William Sharp (1856-1902)
OBVV # 576

Song

April, April,
Laugh thy girlish laughter;
Then, the moment after,
Weep thy girlish tears!
April, that mine ears
Like a lover greetest,
If I tell thee, sweetest,
All my hopes and fears,
April, April,
Laugh thy golden laughter,
But, the moment after,
Weep thy golden tears!

Sir William Watson (1858-1935)
OBEV # 870

See also A Little Bouquet of April Poetry.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 04/01/04 05:52:17 AM
Categorized as Literary.