Economics -- Woot.

GDP isn't the whole story of an economy, but this chart is happiness inducing. So are the new unemployment figures -- 2.2 million jobs created in one year. The jobs don't affect me personally, but it'll be ducky not to have people insult my intelligence with the "Worst economy since Herbert Hoover" thing for awhile, at least until the next recession.

Big thanks to: NRO's BuzzCharts.

Noam Chomsky and Holocaust Denial

Noam Chomsky wrote the preface to a book by French Holocaust denier Robert Faurisson. A book within which Faurisson said:

"The alleged gassing and the alleged genocide of Jews are part of the same historical lie which has been the basis of a huge political and financial swindle of which the principle beneficiaries are the State of Israel and principal victims the German people, not its leaders, and the Palestinian people. . ."

Chomsky also wrote a ringing endorsement for another book, which teaches that Jews worship Satan and justifies the 17th Century Chmeilnitsky pogroms here in Ukraine, which killed thousands of Jews. Chomsky praised the author as: "an outstanding scholar, with remarkable insight and depth of knowledge. His work is informed and penetrating, a contribution of great value."

He also gives consent to anti-Semitic groups to publish his articles, and has even given lucrative publishing-rights to extremist groups.

Can you imagine the frenzy if a normal person did anything similar? It would be a toss-up if the pitchforks or torches would do him in first. But Chomsky gets a pass because he's the darling of the anti-Globalist Left. Pas d'ennemi à gauche, baby.

Check out the full article by Rachel Neuwirth.

Also, don't miss Oliver Kamm's amazing research on Chomsky and holocaust denial. Page down for article after damning article. Chomsky is like a Michael Moore who's been taught to shave and eat with utensils. It's schadenfreudelicious to watch him be exposed for what he is. Hat tip: Windmills on the Hill.

Michael Savage -- Embarrassment to the Right-Wing

A portion of radio-host Michael Savage's commentary on the tsunami disaster:

"I wouldn't call it a tragedy. ... We shouldn't be spending a nickel on this."

Some other quotes: "This is more a UNICEF deal, it's a U.N. deal, it's a Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, George Soros, Bill Clinton bleeding-heart-liberal deal. I don't want to send them any money. . . Many of the countries and the areas in these countries that were hit . . .were hotbeds of radical Islam. Why should we be helping them destroy us? . . . I truthfully don't believe in foreign aid."

This chucklehead is called a conservative. There's nothing conservative about this idiocy. A joyless, hyper-libertarian sect might make such statements, but not conservatism.

After all, it's conserving the mores of the Western, Christian heritage. The sacredness of human life, the duty to help the helpless, the justness of giving to the needy, this healthy humanism is what we're preserving. Find the Good Samaritan ethic anywhere in Savage's comments.

Conservatism shows respect for the collected wisdom that's accrued in custom and tradition over the ages -- what C.S. Lewis calls the Tao. Compassion, aid to the needy and the preservation of life run through the Tao. Savage jettisons this in favor of Ayn Rand's cold-blooded new morality. Fortunately, the rest of the conservative world has been very proactive in supporting tsunami relief.

Conservatism is warmer, deeper and more human than the sterile individualism Savage is selling. Allowing him to be one of our spokesmen both perverts the movement and plays into every false stereotype the critics make about us.

We justly critique the Left for embracing the fabrications and betrayals of Michael Moore. But we need to keep our own house in order as well.

Welcome, Insta-Peeps! Feel free to browse the rest of Le Sabot for first-hand Ukraine updates, conservative politics, and thoughts on gentrifying the Christian ghetto. :-)

Raimondo meets the blogosphere

It's been fascinating, and a little scary, watching my guests go to work on Justin Raimondo.

When people talk about how there's no accountability on blogs, I just roll my eyes. Raimondo, a Yushchenko-basher from antiwar.com, came on and made some accusations about the Orange Revolution which took in Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Russia, Libertarianism, Abkhazia & Moldova and the Cold War.

In no time at all, incredibly knowledgeable people came out of the woodwork. Orange Ukraine, a Kievite, dropped science about Ukraine. The Argus took him to school with first-hand experience about Uzbekistan. Aris Katsaris took a fine scalpel to his points about Putin, ethnic Russians, and obscure breakaway regions.

Ivan Lenin took him to task for intellectual onanism. I answered his "points" about US money in the Orange Revolution. Morgana posted a full-length history of Raimondo's "intellectual" background and work that raises some ugly questions. Then a senior fellow from the Cato Institute piled on.

I tell you, only in the blogosphere. It continues to amaze me.

While I'm rhapsodizing about what Geek hath wrought, I also want to spare a few words of praise for Glenn Reynolds. Instapundit has been remarkably faithful about keeping the Ukrainian democracy movement in front of people. Thanks.

Move over, Miss Cleo -- My 2004 Predictions

Okay, let's see how I did with my Dec 31, 2003 predictions. . .

1. Republicans will gain 3 seats in the Senate and ten in the House.

We picked up 4 Senate and 11 House seats.

2. Bush will get 52% of the vote, and it will be closer than analysts predicted because of heavy GOTV work by unions and liberal fear-mongering among minorities and the elderly.

Well, I was close on the number and the fear-mongering, anyway. Bush got 51%.

3. President Musharraff of Pakistan will be killed by former clients of his regime.

Well, better luck this year, militants. . .

4. The frequency of attacks in Iraq will be halved over the next year as the Ba'athist and Fedayeen survivors are attrited.

Well, worse luck this year, militants. . .

5. Someone will publish a very cheesy Christian equivalent to Harry Potter, which will sell like hotcakes.

I'm not in a position to know. Has this one happened yet?

6. Al Sharpton will definitively eclipse Jesse Jackson as the leading voice of "Civil Rights" activism.

Done. The Reverend (and how I revere him) Sharpton has actually been rehabilitated, in the Soviet meaning of the term.

7. In spite of Dean's loss, his wing of the party will remain in ascendancy. . .

Done, big time. The Dems nominated the 1st and 4th most liberal Senators in the country as their candidates, have Pelosi in charge in the House, and the moderate farm team was decimated in both houses of Congress.

8. Michael Jackson will be acquited after a circus trial that makes OJ's look sedate. . .

The jury's still out on this one. So to speak.

China -- Strategic Competitor

The Weekly Standard reminds us that America's "strategic competitor" China hasn't been idle. I don't know why people like Chirac throw conniptions about the unipolarity of the world situation -- the rise of China will soon stake out a new pole. Do some reading on the growth of the still-unnamed megalopolis growing out of the fishing village of Shenzen. From 30,000 people in 1982, it will likely have 40 million inhabitants in ten years. It is a sea of modern skyscraping buildings.

Along with economic growth, the Chinese military is also eating its Wheaties, snatching any military tech it can and copying it. They're also fielding a blue-water navy for the first time.

The nationalistic autocrats of China will be the 800-pound gorillas of the Pacific Rim. Witness the situation with the Philipines over the Spratleys, or their constant bullying of Taiwan.

The world will soon be multipolar again, and the United States had better prepare itself for that. I'm not saying that they should seek to make an enemy of China. But they do need to recognize that the Chinese see themselves as aggressive competitors, and that these competitors take a very dim views of human rights and democracy.

the final chapter of the CIA-Crack Cocaine story writes itself

The American Spectator (quite literally) eulogizes the old "The CIA sold crack in Compton" story. The reporter who broke invented the story is dead of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound. No doubt something else for the tin-foil hat brigade to construct a conspiracy theory around.

Elitism, Immigration and Turkish Accession

According to the latest reports, Europe won't drink the Kool-Aid of Turkish accession for another ten years or so. Not that it makes any difference. Europe will continue to drift toward Muslim majorities with or without Turkey in the EU, both due to low European birthrates, and continued mass immigration from Muslim countries.

This is strange, given that these are ostensibly democratic countries, and every poll I've seen on the subject shows large majorities favoring reduced immigration levels. Just as polls show the same in the United States.

However, the elites of both continents have decided that the immigration issue can only be read through the prism of race, not culture or economics. This allows them to demonize as racist anyone who objects to a mass transformation of their society on Islamic lines. The actions of both European and American governments on immigration can only be called elitist.

A foundational premise of a democratic system is that the people have a right to decide what sort of society they choose to live in. But the rapid Islamization of Europe constitutes a massive social transformation done completely contrary to the will of the people. The Latinization of the United States is a more benign, but equally elitist hijacking.

For an example, see this Pew Trust poll where 77% of Americans "mostly agree" with the statement that "we should restrict and control the number of people coming into our country more than we do now." Then square that with any of the actions of the Bush or Clinton administrations.

Another Gender-Based Double Standard

The Egalitarianism Uber Alles types abandoned social justice in favor of social power ages ago. Which is why the demands of these aggrieved groups are so rife with double standards. It is less about equality, and more about securing social or economic advantage at the expense of other groups.

Example #14,965 came recently when Well's College went co-ed. Women in comfortable shoes lined up to protest the decision. They even took the college to court.

I'm curious if they feel the same sense of injustice whenever an all-male social club or organization is forcibly opened to women by the power of the state?

Given that even one dollar of federal student aid makes a Uni answerable to all Federal anti-discrimination laws, how do these discriminatory all-female colleges even exist? And given that such places DO exist, on what grounds did they hound VMI into admitting women?

But don't try asking them -- this isn't about fairness.

(Middle) Eastern Logic?

One hears a lot about the distinction between Western, linear thinking, and the more global thought of the East. This must be an example:

"Arab and Islamic states have rejected a U.S. effort to launch a democracy and reform campaign in the Middle East.

Instead, Arab and Islamic states said reform and democracy in the region would be linked to the Arab-Israeli conflict. They dismissed a U.S. appeal that reform begin without any connection to political disputes in the region."

So. . . The fact that some Arabs are oppressed is a good reason that ALL of them should be oppressed? What is that, some sort of masochistic Solidarity movement?

I think I'll stick with Western logic.

Update from Kiev

I just popped into an internet cafe for a minute to update everybody. . . Things today are moving much more quickly than yesterday.

We've spent the day surrounding the Parliament building. Unfortunately, the Communists have kept on the side, and so there was no quorum to overturn the vote. Nevertheless, the Opposition gave some great speeches on the Parliamentary TV channel that'll be heard all over Ukraine. Needed, needed information, given the blackout the mainstream channels are keeping up.

Reuters is reporting about 200,000 people outside parliament. Add to that about an equal number on main street and a bunch more in other parts of the city, and you begin to get an idea how big this is getting. Yesterday the militia enforced a near-blockade of Kiev, but today a lot of buses were able to get in to support us.

I'm heading down to Independence Square after this. Yuschenko is going to do an unofficial sweatring-in to underscore his legitimacy as the real elective choice of Ukraine. And then it's back to the barricades. Our tent town has grown since this morning, which is encouraging.

The Prime Minister threatened a crackdown this afternoon in a press conference. We'll have to see. I think there are probably too many journalists still paying attention for him to hit us tonight. I did see a column of thugs from Donetsk in pseudo-military garb and Yanukovych banners marching in the Arsenal District on the drive to Parliament, which is not a good sign.

A Dispatch from the Barricades in Kiev!

I'm only home for a few minutes, so this is a quick blog. Check out TulipGirl.com for the latest on the elections here in Ukraine -- she'll be updated regularly.

I'm living in the tent city down on main street here in Kiev. You can see a small part of it on webcams from Independence Square, but the majority of us are farther down the street, extending about half a kilometer. The people are incredible -- everything from earthy-crunchy college types up to a cluster of Ukrainian babushkas. Volunteers bring hot tea or vareniki or old blankets to us at the perimeter.

This election was stolen through forced voting, a murder, acid attacks, ballot stuffing, ballot box theft, and literally thousands of other premeditated acts of fraud or violence. A quick example -- voting in the oligarch candidate's region was at 96%. Can anybody say "North Korea"? Despite millions of stolen votes, the oligarch candidate still only managed to win by 2%.

Anyway, the Opposition has established a tent camp and barricades downtown. The government announced it would send in troops to drive us out at 2 am last night. They gathered special forces troops (and eight buses of thugs from Donetsk) over by the Dneiper River last night, but I guess there were too many witnesses and foreign journalists. So for last night, at least, we were spared.

The Kiev city government has rejected the election as illegitimate, and several other cities are following suit today. I'm heading now to the parliament building, where we're demonstrating for them to also declare the election invalid. That would be a huge victory for a free Ukraine.

It's an amazing thing to be given such a vivid, historic chance to "work for justice." And I've been able to share with a ton of people about Christ and about the Reformation -- the fact that I'm a Protestant at a "protest" (the words are also almost identical in Russian) makes for good conversation. And the color of the Opposition is the same as that of the Reformation -- orange. Ukraine has a sense of history, and this is interesting to people.

Everyone here feels like we're making history -- a real "Chestnut Revolution". I pray that we are.

"Our" Man at Turtle Bay?

It looks like Kofi is finally going to pay a price for the incompetence, partisanship, nepotism and corruption of his regime. The UN staff is set to vote No-Confidence against him.

Considering that Bush is often criticized because the Iraq war lacked the support of France or the imprimatur of the UN, it's useful to reflect on the nature of those two factions. Expecting the UN or France to aid our national interests is about as realistic as PETA asking Ted Nugent to poster-boy a 'Deer Are People, Too' campaign.

Many have probably forgotten this, but Kofi was the guy we backed for Secretary-General last time around, while the French were pushing for the improbably named Boutros Boutros-Ghali. It's indicative of the reflexive anti-American slant of the UN that even the lesser of two evils turned out to be such a headline-mugging hack.

There's no realistic way for us to pull out of the UN. But we should allow and even encourage it to continue to sink into irrelevancy.

2 For 1 Specials in Baghdad

3 Frenchmen killed fighting alongside the insurgents in Iraq.

For Those Rushing to Judgement.

From a Marine on his second tour in Iraq, via National Review's The Corner:

"This is one story of many that people normally don't hear, and one that everyone does.

This is just one most don't hear:

A young Marine and his cover man cautiously enter a room just recently filled with insurgents armed with Ak-47's and RPG's. There are three dead, another wailing in pain. The insurgent can be heard saying, "Mister, mister! Diktoor, diktoor (doctor)!" He is badly wounded, lying in a pool of his own blood. The Marine and his cover man slowly walk toward the injured man, scanning to make sure no enemies come from behind. In a split second, the pressure in the room greatly exceeds that of the outside, and the concussion seems to be felt before the blast is heard. Marines outside rush to the room, and look in horror as the dust gradually settles. The result is a room filled with the barely recognizable remains of the deceased, caused by an insurgent setting off several pounds of explosives.

The Marines' remains are gathered by teary eyed comrades, brothers in arms, and shipped home in a box. The families can only mourn over a casket and a picture of their loved one, a life cut short by someone who hid behind a white flag. But no one hears these stories, except those who have lived to carry remains of a friend, and the families who loved the dead. No one hears this, so no one cares.

This is the story everyone hears:

A young Marine and his fire team cautiously enter a room just recently filled with insurgents armed with AK-47's and RPG's. There are three dead, another wailing in pain. The insurgent can be heard saying, "Mister, mister! Diktoor, diktoor (doctor)!" He is badly wounded. Suddenly, he pulls from under his bloody clothes a grenade, without the pin. The explosion rocks the room, killing one Marine, wounding the others. The young Marine catches shrapnel in the face.

The next day, same Marine, same type of situation, a different story. The young Marine and his cover man enter a room with two wounded insurgents. One lies on the floor in puddle of blood, another against the wall. A reporter and his camera survey the wreckage inside, and in the background can be heard the voice of a Marine, "He's moving, he's moving!"

The pop of a rifle is heard, and the insurgent against the wall is now dead.

Minutes, hours later, the scene is aired on national television, and the Marine is being held for committing a war crime. Unlawful killing.

And now, another Marine has the possibility of being burned at the stake for protecting the life of his brethren. His family now wrings their hands in grief, tears streaming down their face. Brother, should I have been in your boots, i too would have done the same. . .

For those of you who sit on your couches in front of your television, and choose to condemn this man's actions, I have but one thing to say to you. Get out of you recliner, lace up my boots, pick up a rifle, leave your family behind and join me. . .

I am a Marine currently doing his second tour in Iraq. These are my opinions and mine alone. "

Are You Red State or Blue State?

This is a flashback for some of you, but I thought I'd repost it in the wake of this week's Instalanche. . .

So, take the quiz?

Oil-For-Influence and the UN

Saddam's illegal 'Oil-for-Food' profits are now estimated at $21.3 billion. The UN continues to stonewall the investigation. Which makes sense, since they're complicit in the crimes.

This money was used to buy weapons and influence. Some of the big bribe recipients include French and German politicians, and the Russian Orthodox Church. In other words, the primary critics of the war.

Reviewing this, you can see how hollow Kerry's promise to bring in the UN, France and Germany really was. And what a rigged game it was to criticize Bush for lacking their support. They'd already chosen sides long before.

Bipartisanship? Let the Healing Wait.

Now that the Dems have lost yet another election cycle, they're issuing the same calls for bipartisanship. The wiser heads are also calling for "healing" between the two parties.

But the Dems as they're currently constituted don't DESERVE bipartisanship, except in the most limited and tactical ways. Not so long as respected party leaders are embracing America-haters like Moore. Not so long as the hard Left remains a vital force in their party.

The Republicans long ago jettisoned their own crazy aunts. For instance, the John Birch Society and Pat Buchanan both lie unmourned in unmarked political graves.

Until the Dems perform a similar housecleaning, they've forfeited their place at the grownups' table.

I'm Not Sorry.

Here's MY response to the chuckleheads at SorryEverybody.com.

Update: Be sure also to check out We're Not Sorry for more unrepentant Americans.

Dems as Born-Again Federalists?

One of the memes bouncing around Democratic circles these days is that Blue States are now paying taxes to a federal government under the complete control of the Red States. Now they know how the Red States felt from about 1952-1994. Their sense of grievance is only heightened by the fact that their states pay more to the Feds than the Reds do.

There seems to be a nascent tax revolt brewing. You get lots of comments about not paying for Red "welfare states." And suddenly having an intrusive federal government running roughshod over local preferences is a lot less fun. Social engineering and federal bullying was hunkey-dorey when it was nice limousine liberals running things. But the shine wore off when Texans took over.

Here's a nice solution for our Blue brethren -- tell the federal government to mind its own business! Remind Washington that we were founded as a nation of separate states. That each state is a laboratory of freedom, and that state-level diversity should be celebrated! Tell them you don't want Washington bureaucrats micro-managing things that should be handled from your state or local capitol.

Then hope to God the Republicans listen better than you did when we said the same thing.

Hugh Hewitt is wrong on Specter

Hugh Hewitt has staked out a brave, if lonely position on the Specter-Judiciary Chairman kerfuffle. While the rest of conservatism is lobbying to have Specter sidelined, Hewitt is practically the sole conservative voice supporting him. He's wrong on this, but he isn't out to lunch.

Read the column -- he makes some good points. But his premises don't necessitate his conclusion. I think we should recognize that the Republican Party is a coalition, and not monolithically conservative. And it's better to keep our moderates in the fold with some concessions than have them pull a Jeffords.

That doesn't mean we're required to put a knife to our own throat. Two of the key fights of the next session will likely be tort reform and a Supreme Court nomination. Specter has a 43% approval rating from the ACU. He has proven time and again that we can't trust him. He's the Republican most beholden to trial lawyers. We want HIM on point for tort reform?

Hewitt ends with: Jeffords. Jeffords. Jeffords.

My response: Bork. Bork. Bork.

Prayer in Schools? Are You Insane?

Is it just me, or is the movement for prayer in schools the most quixotic group since the Anti-Masonic Party fell apart? Let me get this straight.

The National Education Association is openly adversarial towards conservative Christians. While there are many Christians in the Democratic Party, its hierarchy is aggressively secular and certainly opposed to anything religious in school (unless it's an apologetic for Islam or something involving tree spirits.) NEA educrats comprise about 1/3 of all Democratic Convention delegates.

And THESE are the people you want leading your kids in prayer?

Great idea. And once we get that through, we can appoint Ralph Nader as Commerce Secretary. Or better yet, Arlen Specter as Chair of the Judic -- wait, bad example.

Several Nickels Worth of Free Advice for Dems

If you read only one advice column for Dems, let it be Take That Advice and Shove It at TechCentralStation. It features a 'reasoned' dialogue between the author and the soul of the Democratic Party.

"Look, this whole make-nice-with-the-fundies thing is hard for us, okay? Half the reason we became Democrats was to get away from small-town Babbitt-flavored bible-thumpin' bigotry."

Which leads to my next point: "If you don't want religious Americans to think that you hate them and their beliefs, maybe you should stop hating them and their beliefs."

Some other sound advice:

Tips for a New Democratic Majority at Gweilo Diaries.

Soros-sponsored Lefty Uber-blog DailyKos.com has advised his minions to Ride the backlash.

"Second, gut any Bush hopes for legitimacy. Find the places in Florida and Ohio and every other state where a plausible argument for Republican vote fraud can be made. It doesn't matter whether it did happen or not. What matters is if it can be plausibly alleged to marginal Bush supporters and to the media."

Also check out Fat Steve, Young Curmudgeon and Moderate Voice.

"Guests for an opening night screening of Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11” last week included Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, Montana Sen. Max Baucus, South Carolina Sen. Ernest Hollings, Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow, Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, New York Rep. Charles Rangel, Washington Rep. Jim McDermott, & Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe.

Afterwards, McAuliffe raved about the movie, replied in the affirmative when asked if it “was essentially fair and factually based,” and seemed to sign on to Moore’s bizarre claim that we invaded Afghanistan after 9/11 in order to put in an oil pipeline."

Hat tip: The Command Post

Who decided that Maureen Dowd was clever?

The woman is a one-string guitar, and her jokes and allusions are consistently hokey. Post-election, the hard Left has been making a lot of snarky remarks about philistinous Red Staters. But I just think to myself, "Yeah, but your people actually think Maureen Dowd is a national treasure." It's as incomprehensible, and pathetic, as the French infatuation with Jerry Lewis.

Read her post-election screed and ask yourself if any halfway smart liberal blogger couldn't have done just as well, and with half the hysteria. She's another sign of decline at the Times.

We CAN Stop Specter.

And we need to. Okay, he was a pitbull for Clarence Thomas. And I'm thankful for that. But he's also part of the reason that Robert Bork's last name is now a verb. (Hat tip: The Spoons Experience.)

Bork could have been one of the great Supremes in our history, if not for Specter's opposition to his nomination. In other words, Specter is 50-50 on this issue. Which almost matches the 42% approval rating the American Conservative Union gives him.

With federal judges aggrandizing the people's powers to themselves, we NEED Supreme Court judges who will stick with the Constitution. But Specter is in line to be the next Chair of the Judiciary Committee. We can't trust him there.

Here are the numbers for the Republican Senate Judiciary Committee:

Hatch (202) 224-5251
Grassley (202)224.3744
Kyl (202) 224-4521
DeWine (202) 224-2315
Sessions (202) 224-4124
Graham (202) 224-5972
Craig 202/224-2752
Chambliss (202) 224-3521
Cornyn 202-224-2934

Call your senator, too. You can find the number at: Senate.gov.

Hope in Ukraine!

The Central Election office is still refusing to announce who won last week's election, but everyone knows it was the Reformist, Yuschenko. The Opposition is fired up, as this photo shows. Even the government admits that over 100,000 people turned out to support Yuschenko.

On the street, the mood has shifted, too. A month ago everyone said, "I support Yuschenko, but the oligarchs will steal the election." People are much more positive now. The myth of invincibility has been broken.

Discoshaman vs. Bambi Zogby!

And Discoshaman drops him like a bad habit. . . Examine the record:

Zogby called the race at 5pm ON ELECTION DAY. Here was his best guess:

311 KERRY
203 BUSH

AS OF NOV 2ND 5pm

Discoshaman, a full day earlier, thusly prognosticated:

Bush 282
Kerry 256

Final Tally:

Bush 286
Kerry 252

Humility almost keeps me from pointing out that I totally called the bogusness of the "Youth Vote". I also had Bush taking the popular vote, though I was 1.5% off on the total. I called Daschle, and every single Senate race correctly, with the happy exception of Alaska. I misunderestimated the Republican tide in the House a little, giving them only +2.

Still though, I took Zogby out like the trash. Discoshaman -- the name you can trust.

One More Reason We Won. . .

The main page of ABCNews.com has a section entitled:

"Has the Election Made You an Emotional Wreck?"

The news that President Bush defeated Sen. John Kerry has left people grappling with a range of emotions from relief to despair. Do you know how to cope?

Can you imagine something similar if Kerry had won? Of course not. Because Republicans don't cope. We deal with it.

Which is why Bush got re-elected. The American people aren't going to trust a group of people who have panic attacks and hysterical fits over an election.

They don't want a President who will cope with terrorism. They want one who will deal with it.

Monsieur Kerry. . .

. . .pourquoi le visage allongé?

Kerry's Math Skills. . .

. . .seem to be even weaker than Bush's powers of pronunciation. Unless I'm missing a step.

So far as my own feeble math skills allow, Kerry seems to be setting us up for another Florida debacle (and four more years of howling, gnashing bitter Lefties) because of the following scenario:

BEST CASE SCENARIO -- there are 250,000 provisional ballots in Ohio.

Then. . .

BEST CASE SCENARIO -- every single one is accepted, which is quite magical, given that a 20% acceptance rate is considered high.

Then. . .

BEST CASE SCENARIO -- these votes split 210,000 Kerry vs. 65,000 Bush. This despite the fact that many of the ballots came from Republican precincts.

Having accomplished all of this, he'll have just managed to TIE Bush's 145,000 vote lead.

Either Kerry believes in Santa Claus and sugarplum fairies, or this is a stalling tactic to avoid a concession speech and buy his lawyers time. This move shows us two things:

1. Kerry underestimates how much regular Americans want this campaign to be done and buried, and how much they loathe the idea of another Florida-style dogfight.

2. Marrying up brings money, but it doesn't buy you class.

Update-

Kerry made the right decision for the country as a whole, despite the pressure from his base to reenact the siege of Petersburg. He deserves a lot of credit for that.

In Praise of Low Voter Turnout

One thing people of a certain sort (think snotty Canadians) like to ding America for is low voter turnout. They rhapsodize about the high numbers in Europe, and call Americans apathetic. Well, they should be happy with the turnout this year, which seems to be in overdrive. But is this a good thing?

Before the New Deal, the average American could live his whole life only seeing one federal employee – the postman. The federal government was a faraway irrelevance to daily life. So there was no real urgency to vote.

In Sweden, 70% of the people might come to the polls. Which makes sense. The choice you make that day has big consequences – for example, which slate of bureaucrats is going to be spending 80% of your income that year.

As our own Leviathan encroaches ever further into daily life, we can be expected to Rock the Vote, too. But don’t pretend that’s a boon to liberty. It’s a symptom of freedom’s decline.

Ukrainian Elections: The Best Money Can Buy

Well, the first round of voting is done. It's been done for a long time, but we still haven't heard the official results. They were supposed to be released at noon today. I stood in Independence Square with a group of good government activist types for 2 hours, and then we finally went home.

The independent exit polling gave Yuschenko a solid 8 point lead. But when the tally came out from the government election committee, the oligarch candidate is up about a point, with 94% of the vote in. The problem for the oligarchs is that a LOT of the remaining votes are from Kiev, the Zakarpattia region, and other Yuschenko strongholds. Which means the one point margin will probably flip over to a Yuschenko lead.

In other words, even with the incredible levels of fraud and corruption, the oligarchs haven't "encouraged" quite enough votes their direction. So it seems they're trying to remedy that.

Regardless of which candidate gets the plurality, neither will garner the 50% needed to avoided a run-off. But the momentum of winning the first round will be huge, and they'll move heaven and earth to deny Yuschenko that Mo.

Update:

I loved this comment from Blog de Connard --

"International Observers from OSCE are saying that the vote was riddled with irregularities. In other news, the Pope is catholic, a bear does s*** in the woods, the sky is blue. . .

Tomorrow -- Europe's Most Important Election

Ukraine goes to the polls tomorrow. This will likely decide their near future -- will they finally move towards real reform, or default into an Axis of Backwaters alongside Russia and Belarus?

Please be in prayer, that the people will make the right choice, and that their choice will be honored. Given the rampant corruption, it's too late for fair elections. But I'd settle for a happy ending.

Oh, par for the course, the Orthodox Church is planning an election-day procession for the oligarch candidate -- a twice-jailed thug running the ugliest power grab since the Revolution. Apparently, Ukraine received both her religion AND her politics from the Byzantines.

More on Rathergate!

It's possible to interpret Rathergate as a mere journalistic fumble, but it requires a childlike faith. A more rational interpretation is this: it's a clear-cut example of what conservatives face every election cycle -- a constant headwind from the blowhards of the Fourth Estate.

Let's break it down:

1. This isn't Tom Brokaw or Peter Jennings. It's Dan Rather, the most openly partisan of the three, working for the most openly partisan of the Big 3.

2. Rather has a history not only of partisanship, but of "breaking" dubious but damaging stories late in the election cycle. Example: he's the one who gave a national airing to Ross Perot's paranoid rantings about George Bush plotting to ruin his daughter's wedding.

3. Mary Mapes, CBS's chosen fall-girl, is an ardent, outspoken liberal who loathes Bush. "Liberal" is the one universal tag her colleagues have applied to her in interviews. As per USA Today: "Mapes, 48, was described by colleagues on Tuesday as a dogged and talented journalist who made no secret of her liberal political beliefs. . ."

4. These two chuckleheads accepted a mentally-unstable political gadfly with a known vendetta against George Bush as an unimpeachable source. Tell me the same would have happened if the party affiliations were reversed. Tell me in what alternate universe this guy is an unimpeachable source.

5. In their eagerness to run a damaging anti-Bush story, Rather and Mapes ignored the reservations their own experts had about the memos.

5. Mapes colluded with the Kerry campaign in connection with these memos.

Rather knew his hand was in the cookie jar. Which is why he violated CBS's own internal regs on how to handle an anonymous source. SOP there is to give as much information as one can about the source, such as "an administration official" or "a road safety expert". I can understand Rather's reluctance though -- the phrase "an imbalanced partisan hack was quoted as saying" might have detracted from the scoop.

Beatifying Victimhood

The great thing about timeless literature is that it's, well, timeless. I came across this depiction today in Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd:

"This child was one of the Coggans. . . He always had a loosened tooth or a cut finger to show particular friends, which he did with an air of being elevated above the common herd of afflictionless humanity -- to which exhibition people were expected to say "Poor child" with a dash of congratulation as well as pity."

What a perfect glimpse of our present day Cult of the Victim -- and the Democratic Grievance Coalition in particular.

Over 30,000 Rally for Yushchenko

We hit the big Yushchenko rally yesterday in European Square. He had been poisoned, and spent last week in a Vienna hospital recovering. His opposition is suspected in the attack. His voice was still weak and his jaw seemed tight as he spoke. It was in Ukrainian, so I didn't perfectly understand, but it was awesome when he called out to the crowd, "But they can't poison all of us!"

You don't need a weatherman. . .

While conservatism in the last decade seems less grounded than in years past, it's amazing to reflect on the progress we've made. From a handful of books and newsletters in the early 50's, we've built an entire counter-establishment -- a political nation within a nation. From being an almost pejorative term in the post-WWII era, conservative is now a label to embrace, while no one wants to be a liberal. Even French-looking Democratic presidential candidates officially stand for "conservative values."

It's encouraging to compare two studies of student opinion -- one from National Review in 1969-70, and the other from UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute's 2004 survey of college students.

In 1971, 3/5ths of students self-described "liberal", with a full 17% preferring the term "radical." At the time, over half believed that organized religion was harmful or worse.

Today, 24% are Libs, another 21% claim conservatism, and 50% are "middle of the road."

Dems are also giving way among campus activists. Critical Mass points out:

"While College Democrats of America has disappeared altogether from 20 states, its chapters dwindling from 500 in 1992 to fewer than 300 now, the College Republican National Committee has 1,148 campus chapters, and its membership has tripled since 1999.

Conservatism is a condition normally contracted upon the birth of ones first child, or the payment of one's first income tax, so the fact that so many students are prematurely conservative is a very hopeful sign.

The Government They Deserve

The Ukrainian people are facing an incredibly decisive election in a few weeks. Unlike in Russia, they've actually been blessed with a clear choice between an oligarch-supported thug (Yanukovych) and a genuine, if flawed, reformer with a proven record (Yuschenko.) And I really think they're going to elect the thug.

Yanukovych's people have hired criminal gangs to beat Yuschenko supporters. They have attacked pro-Yuschenko journalists and arsoned their offices. They own most of the TV stations, and issue Soviet-style temniki to tell their pet journalists exactly what to report. They've hired Nazi groups to march in support of Yuschenko. It looks now like they organized a fatal bombing in a local market in order to discredit Yuschenko. They have used the organs of government to arrest, harrass and investigate Yuschenko's major supporters. And then there are the "accidents" involving Yuschenko people and Kamaz trucks.

The Ukrainian people by and large know that there is a massive disinformation campaign going on. They know that Yanukovych's oligarch friends are stealing the election. The outrage factor? About two on a ten scale.

I've always admired the fatalistic endurance of the Ukrainian people. They made it through Mongols, Turks, Russians, two Great Famines, Nazi occupation and the Soviet Union.

But lately I've realized something. Maybe that same fatalistic endurance explains WHY every surrounding nation has found it so easy to subjugate them. If an individual or nation craves victimhood, there will always be someone willing to oblige.

Remembering Reagan. . .

Ronald Reagan is dead, and with him goes one of the brightest, most sentimental parts of my childhood. His presidency spanned the time between my earliest memories and my entry to high school. While other kids looked to Arnold Schwartzenegger or Joe Montana to see what a man should look like, I had Reagan. I gathered impressions and anecdotes about him the way other kids collected baseball cards. This has never changed. During our last months in the States we made a trip to Tampico, IL, and I was able to show my son Reagan where his namesake had grown up.

While it's no longer fashionable to have heroes, Reagan was mine -- both as a person and as a symbol of a country that I love. People called him the Great Communicator, and his detractors like to pretend that his success came merely through a facility with speeches. But they miss something vital -- it was his message that made him a great communicator. He transmitted to the American people a vision of the basic goodness and optimism that animates our country. And I was listening.

Reagan's list of accomplishments is a long one. He defeated the Soviets, cowed Ghadaffi, freed the hostages, brought the economy back to life, rebuilt our hollowed military and intelligence services and restored America's confidence in herself. One more accomplishment can be added to this list, one almost inconsiderably small in the grand scheme, but great to me -- he passed on to me an undying affection and loyalty for our country that has nothing to do with politics or party; a love for our way of life that forms a basic part of who I am. I'm going to miss that man.

Some Needed Common Sense on Iraq

Charles Krauthammer has written a must-read column on the situation in Iraq. Not only does he quote from John Keegan, in my opinion possibly the world's greatest military historian, but he punctures some of the key myths of the anti-war crowd and those who forsee or desire our failure there. It's a timely bit of common-sense.

He also pointedly demonstrates the bêtise and hypocrisy of those who declaim the Iraqi transitional government because it contains a large number of former exiles.

"Then comes my favorite: The new government has no legitimacy because it is composed of so many exiles. What kind of political leadership does one expect in a country that endured three decades of Stalinist tyranny in which any expression of opposition met with torture and death?

Strange. I do not remember any of these critics complaining about the universally hailed Oslo peace accords that imposed upon the Palestinians a PLO government flown in from Tunisia composed nearly entirely of political exiles.

Ah, but Yasser Arafat, thug and terrorist, instantly wins legitimacy in the eyes of Western intelligentsia . . .

Who better than these exiles -- some rather heroic, many of whom created and sustained organized political opposition for decades -- to run a transitional government? Note: Transitional. Unlike the Palestinian Authority, a tyrannous kleptocracy that grabbed power and has not relinquished it for 10 years, this Iraqi government will be out of business in seven months. Its major function is to prepare elections, which will ratify the rise of indigenous leaders who have emerged in the (by then) year and a half since the fall of Hussein."

South Korea, Part II

Foxnews.com echoes a lot of my own thinking on South Korea. The article fills in some relevant statistics as well. For instance, that the South Korean economy is 25 times larger than the North's. There are about 11,000 Norhern artillery pieces in range of Seoul, yet the South devotes less than 3% of its GDP to defense. Why should they, with 37,000 Americans functioning as human speedbumps for North Korean tanks?

While the older generation has been consistently pro-US, the younger people are like spoiled, long-pampered children who could use a sharp dose of reality. These days, the South is constantly verbally sniping at us while romancing the North. The article makes a good point:

"Where’s the outrage in South Korea of one million, or even two million, fellow Koreans being starved to death by the North’s unbending brutal system? Where’s the outrage at the North’s extensive gulag, a series of Stalinist prison camps holding some 100,000 or more Koreans in subhuman subjugation?"

I don't wish anything ill on the people of Korea. My sister is Korean, and any country with such an enormous number of Presbyterians can't be all bad. But why continue to sacrifice when our sacrifices aren't honored? Get US out of South Korea.