Decision ‘08 » 2006

Archive for August, 2006

Thursday, August 31st, 2006

The Nuclear Clock Is Ticking Again

If you are old enough to remember, during the height of the Cold War, the concept of the ‘nuclear clock’ was popular. The idea was that when it struck midnight, the world would blow up in a nuclear holocaust, and it was always about three seconds until midnight. Then, when the Soviet Union imploded, all […]

No Comments » - Posted in Iran, UN/Oil-For-Food by Mark

Thursday, August 31st, 2006

Lieberman Not Expecting A Warm Welcome

As the Senate prepares to reconvene after the August break, Joe Lieberman is not going to be shocked if he is not Mr. Popularity with his Democratic colleagues:
Sen. Joe Lieberman, whose independent re-election bid has rankled Democrats, says he expects a cold shoulder or two from Senate colleagues when he returns to Washington next week.
“Obviously, […]

8 Comments » - Posted in Election 2006, Joe Lieberman, Donkeys, Democratic Candidates by Mark

Thursday, August 31st, 2006

A Deadline That Cannot Pass Unobserved

The editors of the National Review have it right:
At midnight tonight, the U.N. Security Council’s deadline for Iran to stop enriching uranium will pass, but the centrifuges at Natanz will keep spinning. That Iran has defied the deadline should surprise no one. What does surprise us is that the president who swore he would not […]

1 Comment » - Posted in Iran, POTUS, Iraq, UN/Oil-For-Food by Mark

Thursday, August 31st, 2006

Pajamas Lands A Big Dog (Part Two)

The other notable newcomer to the Pajamas stable is Claudia Rosett, who did absolutely invaluable work on the Oil-For-Food scandal and was the subject of my praise here. Claudia has taken on the U.N. time and time again, and it is no exaggeration to say that Oil-For-Food would have starved for oxygen without her efforts. […]

1 Comment » - Posted in Pajamas Media, UN/Oil-For-Food by Mark

Thursday, August 31st, 2006

Pajamas Lands A Big Dog (Part One)

Kudos to Pajamas Media for landing the blog of Ron Rosenbaum. I have three works by Rosenbaum, two of which are collections: The Secret Parts Of Fortune, a compilation of his magazine pieces, and Those Who Forget The Past: The Question Of Anti-Semitism, a self-described excellent collection of essays that he edited.
Best of all is […]

No Comments » - Posted in Pajamas Media by Mark

Thursday, August 31st, 2006

The Partisanship Of The Wilsons

I’m talking Joseph and Valerie. Byron York asks the obvious question - since we now know it was Richard Armitage who first ‘leaked’ Valerie Plame’s identity, will he be sued? The answer will surprise no one who has paid attention to these attention-seeking partisans:
The new attorney for Joseph and Valerie Wilson says the […]

4 Comments » - Posted in PlameGate by Mark

Thursday, August 31st, 2006

Blogging Vacations

No, I’m not taking another one (I just got back, and after my huge, um, ‘deposit’ in Vegas, I can hardly afford to go anywhere for a while), but there is an interesting piece in the Wall Street Journal about what happens when bloggers go on vacation. The short answer? They lose traffic:
In the […]

3 Comments » - Posted in Navel-Gazing by Mark

Thursday, August 31st, 2006

PlameGate Still On? Keep Dreaming

Jeff Greenfield has a particularly weak story up on PlameGate with the thesis that the revelation of Armitage as the original Plame source doesn’t mean the investigation is over. After reciting the historical backdrop in a cursory fashion, here’s the big finish:
…[D]oes this put an end to the mater[sic]? Liberal bloggers say maybe not. […]

3 Comments » - Posted in PlameGate by Mark

Wednesday, August 30th, 2006

This Is The Anti-Blogging Case?

Bruce Kluger, occasional blogger at Huff’n’Puff, opines in USA Today on the state of the blogosphere, and uses the tired analogy of a child spouting off without the embrace of the editor parent. His take on the month of August is that it was a bad one for bloggers because (a) Joe Lieberman didn’t […]

6 Comments » - Posted in Joe Lieberman, Navel-Gazing, Progressive Nonsense / Nutroots®, NY Times/Media Watch, Celebrities / Pop Culture / Sports, Democratic Candidates by Mark

Wednesday, August 30th, 2006

Well, Live And Learn

Thanks to our good friend fatman for alerting me that my “PlameGate Denouement” post had gone missing (unfortunately, I’m sure quite a few people got error messages, as it was linked by Salon’s Daou Report. Sigh…).
I didn’t know this until now, but WordPress has an option to mark a post “Private”, and apparently I did […]

1 Comment » - Posted in Navel-Gazing by Mark

Wednesday, August 30th, 2006

Is Ted Stevens Our Worst Senator?

Perhaps - certainly I think he’s the worst Republican senator (I should note that I know little about him - but every time I hear his name, it’s associated with a colossal waste of our money). It’s not often I find myself linking to a prominent lefty site without a measure of snark, but […]

10 Comments » - Posted in Domestic Affairs, Elephants by Mark

Wednesday, August 30th, 2006

Iran Calls The U.N.’s Bluff

In the most serious way imaginable, it is put up or shut up time at the United Nations:
Iranian nuclear specialists have begun enriching a new batch of uranium in an apparent act of defiance just days ahead of a U.N. Security Council deadline for Tehran to stop such work or face the prospect of economic […]

2 Comments » - Posted in Iran, UN/Oil-For-Food by Mark

Wednesday, August 30th, 2006

Ditch The Electoral College? Not On Your Life

It rears its ugly head from time to time, this idea that the Electoral College is old, outdated, and ready for the dust heap. The irony (if you can call it that - perhaps the willful ignorance) is that the very aspect of its ‘outdatedness’ is the self-same aspect that caused the founders to […]

21 Comments » - Posted in Domestic Affairs by Mark

Wednesday, August 30th, 2006

Seeing A Lot Of Trees, But No Forest

Writing in Slate, Amy Sullivan manages to bemoan the perception of Democrats as hostile to religion, while simultaneously embodying the hostility:
The Pew Research Center’s annual poll on religion and politics, released last week, shows that while 85 percent of voters say religion is important to them, only 26 percent of Americans think the Democratic Party […]

26 Comments » - Posted in Donkeys by Mark

Wednesday, August 30th, 2006

Most Anti-Climactic Revelation Of The Day

Richard Armitage admits, finally, to being Novak’s source, days after anyone cares:
The identification of Mr. Armitage as the original leaker to Mr. Novak ends what has been a tantalizing mystery. In recent months, however, Mr. Armitage’s role had become clear to many, and it was recently reported by Newsweek magazine and The Washington Post.
In the […]

4 Comments » - Posted in PlameGate by Mark

Tuesday, August 29th, 2006

The Salad Days Of Air America: Ratings Not Eroding Significantly!

The good news for Air America is that their ratings didn’t really decline in the spring Arbitron period. The bad news is that they held steady in their suckage:
Overall, these ratings provide a good indication that AAR’s ratings are flat across its major local markets, neither showing significant erosion nor significant growth. We anticipate this […]

1 Comment » - Posted in Progressive Nonsense / Nutroots® by Mark

Tuesday, August 29th, 2006

PlameGate’s End: Denouement Of A Farce

Contra Kevin Drum, with his ridiculous assertion that “this case is far from closed“, Christopher Hitchens argues it should have never been open:
…[N]ow we have the final word on who did disclose the name and occupation of Valerie Plame, and it turns out to be someone whose opposition to the Bush policy in Iraq has—like […]

12 Comments » - Posted in Hitchens the Great, PlameGate, Iraq by Mark

Tuesday, August 29th, 2006

Ahmadinejad Denies The Holocaust (Part Twenty-Three)

In the odd, depressing world of Holocaust denial, there exists a substratum of people who deny the Holocaust while denying they denied it, and there are even those apologists who deny the denials of the deniers.
Lest there be any doubt where the Iranian president stands, and for the benefit of those who still claim that […]

No Comments » - Posted in Israel, Iran by Mark

Tuesday, August 29th, 2006

If John Kerry Is The Answer…

…thank God I don’t know the question:
Sen. John Kerry didn’t contest the results at the time, but now that he’s considering another run for the White House, he’s alleging election improprieties by the Ohio Republican who oversaw the deciding vote in 2004.
An e-mail will be sent to 100,000 Democratic donors Tuesday asking them to support […]

17 Comments » - Posted in John Kerry, POTUS, Democratic Candidates by Mark

Tuesday, August 29th, 2006

Dionne Misses The Diagnosis

E.J. Dionne thinks he sees a Republican stampede for the exits in Iraq:
By Election Day, how many Republican candidates will have come out against the Iraq War or distanced themselves from the administration’s policies?
August of 2006 will be remembered as a watershed in the politics of Iraq. It is the month in which a […]