November 30, 2005

11/30: George Said, "Withdrawal In '06 Is Not The Same As Apathy"

It's a bit too early yet to grab much commentary on Pres. Bush's big Iraq speech, but we've included what we could find by deadline. Beyond the speech, Iraq was still the top subject of debate, owing in part to recent hostage-takings and an 11/29 op-ed by Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT). Other lively debates focus on govs. and the death penalty, a peculiar MoveOn ad, Senate Min. Leader Harry Reid on bin Laden, conflicting Plamegate stories, Jack Abramoff's acquaintances, torture/"torture," and Bill O'Reilly.

BUSH: But Is Withdrawal In Confidence The Same As Victory?

We'll have more tomorrow, but the initial post-speech reax we saw came mostly from the left:

• A handful of Think Progress counts 27 seconds as the time it took President Bush to reference September 11 in this morning's Iraq speech."
• The Mahablog live-blogged the speech, offering this comment: "Bottom line, he may have established some markers to enable some drawdown of troops, on the basis of improved Iraqi security forces, but he's clearly planning on staying until the 'terrorists' are defeated and Iraq is an established and stable democracy. He's trying to remarket the war as it is without actually changing policy."
• Patridiot Watch, sarcastically: "In a stunning move, the Bush administration hyped a speech by the President as a major announcement, held the speech in front of a military crowd, and delivered nothing new in the process."
• NRO's K.J. Lopez was underwhelmed by the speech, a reaction apparently contrary to many e-mails she's received late this a.m. She clarifies: "I said the speech was good and important, made great points about the war and the progress we made. What my depression was about was disappointment re: the speech dynamics, Bush's interaction with the audience -- but that doesn't mean as much to people who don't watch way too many Bush speeches."

Before the speech:

• Along with the speech, the WH put out a NSC report titled "National Strategy for Victory in Iraq" articulating "8 strategic pillars" for victory. Suitably Flip posts a cover shot of the NSC document, adding: "Bush-bashers thumbing through the plan will shortly be miffed to find it without a withdrawal timeline." There's more commentary from Mudville Gazette and TigerHawk, who along with Glenn Reynolds thinks it owes something to the "strategic overview" of the Iraq war by widely-read conservative blogger Steven Den Beste.
• Last p.m., RedState contributor Streiff pronounced the speech a failure in advance: "Tomorrow night Bush will either announce the conditions are being met that will allow a withdrawal of some American forces from Iraq in which case he will finally have bowed to the realism of Biden and Murtha ... or he will not announce anything that can be roughly attributed as laying the groundwork for a US withdrawal in which case Bush is still in the thrall of the neo-cons and is too stubborn to see that his party is deserting him over Iraq... or he will announce something that can be interpreted as portending US troops withdrawals but he will not pose the answer to a raft of thorny issues..."
• Based on a piece by Slate's Fred Kaplan, UC San Diego law prof Thomas Smith predicts "the new Democratic cry. The withdrawal is irresponsible! This would really be ironic, if the Dems and Republicans switch places." Based on the same Kaplan piece, lefty Kevin Drum writes, "given the history of this war, I hope his political team is kept far, far away from both the planning and the timing of the withdrawal. For that matter, I hope Donald Rumsfeld keeps his opinions to himself too. This time, let's set some serious military goals and then let the military figure out the rest, midterms be damned."

IRAQ: Let My People Stay

Sen. Lieberman's Wall Street Journal op-ed was titled "Our Troops Must Stay," and over the next 24 hours, it picked up plenty of comment.

Conservative Betsy Newmark: "Lieberman recognizes that this might be a politically damaging position to take, and it already resulted in damning whatever chance he might have had in the 2004 primaries." The Smoking Room's Greg Piper, a centrist: "As high-minded and principled as Lieberman's article is, it's clearly a direct attack on the line of thinking flogged by Rep. John Murtha (D-PA). Liberal Blah3 calls it "utterly delusional," and points out that the op-ed's "stats about cars and cell phones all come from published reports. ... Lieberman wants us to believe him because he just came back from Iraq, but virtually nothing in his piece depends on actually having been there." In the piece, Lieberman cites an unnamed Iraqi poll showing "a resounding 82% are confident their lives in Iraq will be better a year from now." Meanwhile at lefty Metacomments, Thersites cites a British military poll of Iraqis finding 82% re "'strongly opposed' to the presence of coalition troops" in their country. Roger L. Simon, on the Lieberman poll: "I hope the New York Times, CBS, the LAT and the rest run this poll as prominently as they trumpet the latest debacle on Bush's domestic war numbers."

CAP's Think Progress rolls out a series of talking points rebutting Bush's claim that there is "good progress" in Iraq, with headers such as "Approximately 100 Attacks Per Day; All-Time High," "Water, Electricity, Health Networks Are Below Prewar Levels," and "Insurgents in Iraq Have Kidnapped More Than 225 Foreigners." Left-libertarian Arthur Silber: "[N]o one doubts that many Americans in Iraq have done and are doing wonderful work, or that they have sometimes made a huge and positive difference in the lives of individual Iraqis. ... But that isn't the issue with regard to the strategic advisability of this war and occupation, or as to whether it was moral or just to invade a country that didn't threaten us, or with regard to the much more significant and longer-range results for Iraq itself."

The Jawa Report's Rusty Shackleford: "A hostage video has been released of the four Western peace activists taken hostage in Iraq. The Jawa Report has obtained a copy of the video." Shackleford posts them, as well as their names; only 1 had been known previously (see 11/29 Blogometer) Protein Wisdom asks: "Are we seeing a redoubling of efforts to recruit jihadists to fight the infidels? Or is something else happening here (say, for instance, the hostages are soon released with much fanfare as a sign of 'mercy' to those who don't wish to 'wage war with Islam') as part of a PR campaign?"

Los Angeles Times reports: "As part of an information offensive in Iraq, the U.S. military is secretly paying Iraqi newspapers to publish stories written by American troops in an effort to burnish the image of the U.S. mission in Iraq." The Mahablog: "Every day we do get more and more like the old Soviet Union, don't we?"

REID: Bin Laden Death Comment Greatly Exaggerated

On 11/29, WSJ's John Fund reported in the subscriber-only "Political Diary" that Senate Min. Leader Reid said on 11/23 to a NV NBC affil. about the recent Pakistan earthquake: "I heard that Osama bin Laden died in the earthquake, and if that's the case, I certainly wouldn't wish anyone harm, but if that's the case, that's good for the world." Local NBC affil. KRNV has the video. That section was reprinted at the RNC's GOP.com (as linked above) and conservative bloggers went with it, asking questions like this reader letter at Power Line: "What does Harry Reid know that we don't? If there is something to this, why is Harry Reid leaking sensitive national security information before our intelligence agencies have anything to say? If there isn't, why is Harry Reid spreading falsehoods and hearsay?" Conservative Varifrank posts a few "loose lips sink ships" type WWII-era posters. Betsy Newmark asks: "If senators can't be trusted with top secret information, they won't be able to perform their Constitutional obligations to oversight of the Executive branch. They must be trusted to keep their big yaps shut. And this guy goes off blabbing to the local news station!" Michelle Malkin has a roundup of reax, as does Pajamas Media.

Fact check: NV columnist Jon Ralston notes in his subscriber-only Flash: "By the way, all the senator said was that NPR had been reporting that Bin Laden may be dead and if so..." (11/29). Among the few liberal bloggers checking in with the story, Dave Weigel came closest: "Am I missing something? A lot of people were speculating that bin Laden died in the Pakistan earthquake. If you hear Reid's entire quote, it sounds like he was going off those speculations -- he actually said 'I heard today' that he may have died, which is a little less loaded than the 'had been informed just that day' James Bond spin John Fund takes on it."

DEATH PENALTY: He May Not Be Pro-Life, But Isn't Pro-Death Either

The death penalty is rarely discussed on political blogs. But right now, the topic has been brought closer to the front (if not all the way) by outgoing VA Gov. Mark Warner's (D) decision to commute 1 sentence on account of destroyed DNA evidence, and the pressure being applied to CA Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) to commute the sentence of Crips fonder Stanley "Tookie" Williams.

Washington Monthly's Amy Sullivan, on Warner: "Seems someone else will be the lucky one to oversee the 1000th execution since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976. This could be seen as Warner's last significant action as governor or first as presidential candidate. Compare with Bill Clinton and the execution of mentally ill Ricky Ray Rector. Something may be changing in American politics." VA resident James Joyner sees it as empty posturing: "While it's a shame that the evidence was destroyed, DNA testing was done on the implements before the trial a mere six years ago. The man has subsequently exhausted his appeals. The purpose of appellate review is to ensure due process was observed, not to retry the basic facts of a case. ... One wonders whether this decision would have been made had Lovitt been the 1003rd man slated for execution or Warner weren't running for president." Warner also gets thumbs-up from a TV exec. writing for Huffington Post. Offering a "dose of perspective," RedState's Leon H counters with facts and statistics related to abortion: "There are no stories for milestone abortion numbers, because they pile up so quickly that it's impossible to keep accurate track."

GOP VixenBridget Johnson reads Williams' "Protocol for Peace" and decides: "After reading these and other Tookie writings -- and reading between lines -- it leaves little doubt that he's used the same skills of manipulation that made him a successful gang leader to rally liberal activists to his cause." Black libertarian Michael Bowen: "The real problem here is how the most egregious of this reactionary nonsense, with a whiff of ideology perverts the judgement of otherwise reputable and solid citizens. And I'm not talking about Snoop Dogg. ... Every man's death diminishes me, but for Tookie, not much at all. God forgive me but some days I wish he could take his supporters with him."

Meanwhile, Harry Hutton offers up this "killer fact": "The annual execution rate for prisoners on death row in the US is 2%. The death rate for street-level drug sellers is 7%, so they would be safer on death row."

PENTAGON: Unlike Kerry, McCain Gets Others To Talk About His Service For Him

On 11/29, conservative news/commentary site Newsmax published an editorial arguing that where as Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) opposes "so-called 'torture' techniques allegedly used" by the U.S. gov't, "Nearly forty years ago, however -- when McCain was held captive in a North Vietnamese prison camp -- some of the same techniques were used on him. And -- as McCain has publicly admitted at least twice -- the torture worked!" The response was pretty much one of outrage, from Daimnation on the right and Middle Earth Journal on the left.

Andrew Sullivan makes it a "Malkin Award Nominee," his category for hysterical conservative commentary. Balloon Juice asks: "What kind of moral cretins are these Newsmax folks?" On the left, the issue gets linked at Eschaton, and Echidne of the Snakes writes: "If there is such a thing as true evil in the human beings then this is where it emerges. Osama bin Laden's greatest victory may well be in the fact that articles like the Newsmax one are now being seriously discussed." Among the few backing up the Newsmax piece is Ace of Ace of Spades HQ, who writes: "The fact that McCain broke under torture is no knock against him, and Newsmax didn't mean it as such. ... Almost everyone breaks, eventually. A soldier can consider himself to have survived torture with honor if he is merely successful in delaying giving up operational intelligence until the point at which it becomes stale, or mixing in enough lies with the truth to render his 'intelligence' all but useless."

WSJ's James Taranto reports, a U.S. Army captain known to him returned from Iraq recently, and caught the latest anti-war MoveOn ad, depicting U.S. soldiers in Iraq, separated from their families at Thanksgiving. But the captain notices: "These are not your normal everyday U.S. soldiers though. If you look at the frame they are actually British soldiers." He adds, MoveOn "pretend[s] to argue on my behalf and bash the president in the name of my crying wife, and they don't even know what an American soldier looks like!" GOP and College points out that MoveOn has since changed the ad on the website; in the original (and in the ad) one soldier wears shorts; on the website, the image has now been doctored to show him wearing long pants. Mark in Mexico: "How much does do the MoveOn people pay for these ads? Too much at any price, I'd say."

PLAMEGATE: A New Mitchell Effect?

Jane Hamsher at Firedoglake and John Amato at Crooks and Liars both noticed that NBC's Andrea Mitchell, MSNBC's Tucker Carlson and Washington Post's Bob Woodward all giving somewhat different accounts of a supposed CIA investigation into what kind of damage the Plame leak caused; C&L posts video and audio of all 3, and asks: "I mean really, what the hell are these people talking about? Didn't they read in the [10/28] Washington Post that the CIA never did an investigation? I understand that you guys are carrying so much water for the administration that you need an oxygen tank to breath, but give me a break. ... Each time Mitchell talks about her role in the Plame case, she falls back in deeper and heaven only knows when she'll see the light of day." Hamsher highlights this quote from the 10/28 story: "Intelligence officials said they would never reveal the true extent of her contacts to protect the agency and its work." She adds: "Except, we are to believe, to a bunch of blabby right wing journalists.

ABRAMOFF: The Continuing Adventures Of Rubber And Glue

At No Agenda, conservative Matt Margolis writes: "Anytime a Republican's name is mentioned in connection to embattled lobbyist Jack Abramoff it becomes a story for the liberal media, and fodder for Democrats' smear campaign against the Republican Party." Margolis puts together a simple chart showing 10 current and former House Dems, including House Min. Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Min. Harry Reid, who have received Abramoff or Abramoff-related funds.

Meanwhile, liberal Bradford Plumer considers the $5K Abramoff had tribal clients send to Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND): "Dorgan was paid to write the letter -- but it might just be that Dorgan was going to write the letter anyway, seeing as how he's always done a lot of work for Native Americans, and Abramoff knew this, and so he had the tribe send some money to make it look like his lobbying efforts were worthwhile, even though Abramoff had done nothing." Previously, Mark Schmitt made a similar point at The Decembrist, calling it a "smear." Conservative ND-based Say Anything wants this angle investigated, and wants Dorgan to step down from his role in the Abramoff investigation.

BLOGS VS. THE MSM: Jane Fonda, Daniel Schorr, Jack Anderson... Hey, This Is Richard Nixon's Enemies List! You Just Crossed Out His Name And Put Yours!

A few weeks back we noted an ongoing feud between FNC's Bill O'Reilly and a number of liberal websites and blogs; at the time, O'Reilly promised to post a list of the "smear sites" (see 11/15 Blogometer); now he has posted to BillOReilly.com something a bit different -- a list of media orgs. who have "regularly helped distribute defamation and false information supplied by far left websites." He lists just the New York Daily News, St. Petersburg Times and MSNBC. More O'Reilly: "These are the worst offenders. In the months to come, we expect to add more names to this list. We recommend that you do not patronize these operations and that advertisers do the same. They are dishonest and not worth your time and money." As of this a.m., the list made the top headlines at liberal Huffington Post. Lefty Brad Friedman "regrets not making O'Reilly's list, but promises readers that we will endeavor to continue our accurate reporting on well-paid media character assassins like O'Reilly in hopes of some day rating the honor of being on such a list."

DEMOCRATS: The Dean Of The DNC

On 11/28, Markos Moulitsas noted the approx. 1-year anniv. of the DNC chair race, and declares that the "[Howard] Dean Doomsday Scenario" -- "the notion that Dean would be a boon to Republican propaganda efforts has completely fallen flat." He notes that GOPers don't attack Dean so much anymore: "And while those early attacks on Dean fell flat with the general American public, Dean supporters responded with cash. Every attack on Dean suddenly became an impromptu DNC fundraiser worth tens of thousands in the bank."

BLOGGERS VS. BLOGGERS: Whoa, Amyloid Plaque? Now You've Gone Too Far!

Steve at Hog on Ice: "The thing the PJM defenders don't realize -- one of many things -- is that the Blogosphere worked well not in spite of being disorganized, but because it was disorganized." More specifically, the blogosphere "organizes itself in response to stories, in a very natural way. It organizes itself just fine, sort of like independent white corpuscles attacking an infection. What it doesn't do is make Glenn Reynolds, Charles Johnson, and Roger Simon into serious media players. So they're trying to force it to do that, and they are damaging the system in the process." For the medically-inclined: "The Internet is almost a common consciousness. And PJM is an amyloid plaque."

The 11/30 edition of the Christian Science Monitor covers the PJM launch and the controversy after; the piece quotes the founders as well as critics.

Law prof Daniel Solove writes at Concurring Opinions: "Pajamas Media needs to tap into the wisdom of the blogosphere in order to reform itself. In other words, instead of a top-down model of editors picking things, perhaps it should work more in wiki fashion, with folks appending to the site various snippets and links from blogs across the blogosphere. Editors can help keep the wiki running smoothly, but a bottom-up approach is more in the spirit of the blogosphere."

On 11/27, The Jawa Report accused Running Scared of hating conservatives. Now on 11/29, Running Scared accuses The Jawa Report (or at least the commenters there) of hating liberals.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: From Raed To Jack

Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) may not be the 1st U.S. rep. to blog, as he does on a page at his House website, but he may be the 1st to blog from Iraq. He has been writing there as well as cross-posting to RedState. From his latest: "In Baghdad, General Webster tells me that 50 percent of the security is being done by the Iraqi people, and in Mozul they tell me that 25 percent of the security is being done by the Iraqi's. These numbers are significant. In the coming year I think we will reduce the number of troops in Iraq. And in the next six months, rather than leave, I think our soldiers will be able to take a step-back and let the Iraqi troops stand forward to defend their country with our help."

LEST WE FORGET: Nothing Wrong With A Little Healthy Competition

In the latest of several Pajamas Media parodies, The Commissar of The Politburo Diktat announces he is creating "Flannels Media," aka, "FLM" -- and offers a number of ways to get involved. The 1st "flogjam" -- taking off on a PJM's "blogjam" feature and in particular a much-criticized installment where PJM bloggers considered the project's direction -- is up at Wuzzadem.

Posted by at November 30, 2005 12:37 PM