Death to the Patriot Act:

The Chicato Tribune ran an article today in defense of the Patriot act. Unintentionally, they provided quite sufficient justification for revoking the act:

[I]t's a voluminous measure with dozens of provisions, many of which are exceedingly complex and technical. But its impenetrability has made it vulnerable to caricature by critics of the administration who portray it as the monster that ate our privacy and liberty.

Easy to fix, that. Repeal the damn thing, and bring up the laws on a point-by-point basis that isn't impenetrable. Then we can evaluate every point and decide which parts of this 'voluminous monster' we actually want.

A free citizenry ought to be able to understand the laws that apply to it. If it can't, the laws are too complicated. We've been there in America for quite a while, and it's a serious problem.

It's a problem because, if you can't understand the law, you can't do a citizen's duty. You can't perform your duty to obey the law, because you don't understand exactly what the law is; you can't perform your duty to hold the government to the law, because you don't know what the limits are; nor can you perform your duty to serve as a juror, which requires that you judge both the question of whether the law was violated as well as the question of whether the law ought to apply. Every duty you have as a citizen passes beyond your means.

A citizen who does not and can not perform his duties is not a citizen, except in name. Those duties, and the powers that go with them, must still be executed. That power therefore passes to a class other than the class of citizen: to the class of lawyers, perhaps, or political operatives, or jurists. The power to interpret the law is as great as the power to write the law, and in such a society, that power passes away from the citizen jury, and comes to rest in the hands of the mandarins.

The health of the Republic requires us to guard jealously not only our rights, but also our duties. I oppose the Patriot Act, and all similar acts, "merely" because it is too complicated. The consequences of that fact are as great a threat to the Bill of Rights, and to the nature of the Republic, as exists.

Shame!

A certain puppy blender should be ashamed of himself for this. A twinge in the gut is the mark of an effective pun, but this one is a bit too effective.

Ask a Question, Get an Answer:

Two days ago I asked where we could send a check to help out the 80 year old man who defended himself from a mugger. It turns out that, while they aren't taking checks but rather credit, you can follow that link and make your donation there.

Where can we send a check?

A mugger is driven off by an 80-year-old man with a .38 Special, and the cops prosecute--the old man. Lester Campbell, 80, got robbed of his Social Security money, and now has had the gun he used to protect himself confiscated stolen by the cops as well. Plus, he has a court date, all because the Bronx doesn't think an elderly man ought to be able to protect himself without their prior permission.

Is there an address where we can send this fellow some money to replace what was stolen? How about some more money, for a new revolver?

Psychology is Witchdoctory:

Here's an article called "Rorschach Inkblot Test, Fortune Tellers, and Cold Reading". I am always glad to see a respectable publication agreeing with my general assertion that psychology is not a science:

Psychologists have been quarreling over the Rorschach Inkblot Test for half a century. From 1950 to the present, most psychologists in clinical practice have treasured the test as one of their most precious tools. And for nearly that long, their scientific colleagues have been trying to persuade them that the test is well-nigh worthless, a pseudoscientific modern variant on tea leaf reading and Tarot cards.

That is just so.

Zell Miller for President:

It's too much to hope for, alas for our nation. But if you want to know who he thinks should stand at the helm in his place, it is George W. Bush. If you want to know why, today he tells us.

Another Saddam-Qaeda Link:

This one is particularly strange. According to CommonDreams, the Iraqi construction firm Sadoon Al-Bunnia is a founding partner of MIGA (Malaysia-Swiss-Gulf and African) Chamber. MIGA is on the US Treasury Department's list of groups that funneled cash to al Qaeda before 9/11.

Yet, somehow, al-Bunnia didn't get on the same list. To make things even more amazing, al-Bunnia is now doing major contract work in the US-led reconstruction of Iraq. They are apparently subcontracting for Bechtel and others.

Nobody seems particularly bothered by this. Of course, corporations are mercenary by nature. Maybe they just work for whoever is paying the bills--Saddam, who wants them to launder money for al Qaeda, or us, who wants them to build schools and repair power lines.

A Protest of which I Approve:

In Britian, it is High Noon, according to Samizdata.net:

Thousands of people have gathered around England and Wales to protest against moves to outlaw hunting with dogs.

Organisers said 37,000 protesters at 11 rallies on Saturday and one on Friday, to mark the first day of the new hunting season, signed a pledge to ignore any ban.

Does that sound familiar to my British readers? If not, it should:

28 February 1638: The National Covenant is signed, eventually by thousands of Scots. It seeks to preserve distinctive Scots cultural and religious practices against the increasingly arbitrary and Kingdom-wide approach of Charles I.

The Covenant was an oath sworn between men to oppose any "innovations" from London, specifically on the matter of how worship services would be conducted in church. Not taking this as seriously as he might have done, Charles I continued to assert his authority, with the result that the Covenanters hardened into an actual army--one that captured Edinburgh Castle in the Bishop's Wars, and became for a time the de facto government in much of Scotland. The matter was not resolved for fifty years, a period known in Scottish history as the Killing Times.

Attempting to legislate away a people's way of life is a dangerous business. The British MPs would be wise to remember their history.

What is The (Evil) Sage of Knoxville Up To on Hallow's Eve?

I have conclusive proof that he is arranging field trips for slow moving, foolish persons to WalMart. There, they blocked the candy aisles so fully, that honest Halloween bloggers such as myself could barely pass through at all. It was only his obstructionist tactics that kept me from completing this assignment by 6 CST.

Improved Enemy Tactics in Afghanistan?

Overnight a US Special Ops soldier was killed in a clash in Afghanistan. Earlier this week, of course, two two CIA "contractors" were killed while tracking Taliban elements.

On first face, this pair of successes suggests that Talibani forces are improving their insurgency/antireconnaissance tactics. On the other hand, the CIA doesn't publish the names of its dead very often, nor acknowledge their sacrifice in public. It may be that we've been losing men of this quality all along, or that the Taliban got two lucky breaks in a week.

It is something to watch, however, as prolonged conflicts do often result in an improvement of enemy forces' techniques as they learn the weaknesses of your own techniques and equipment. The classic example of this is that the militants in Israel, once cowed by IDF tanks, have learned to take them out. (Cf. with the mysterious destruction of a US M1A1 earlier this month--hat tip on that to the Agonist, who remains an excellent source of war news).

Torture:

I do not cite FOXNews often--indeed, this may be the first time. I warn my lady readers against this video, but others should watch it. Watch it, and arm yourselves. Be sure of your philosophy, ward against despair, and polish your guns. We are at war for the time to come, and--whatever you have heard--it is not a war of option. This is what men are made to do. De Oppresso Liber.

UPDATE: If you have not before read any of the USMC doctrine publications, you ought to do so. They are extremely instructive. WARFIGHTING is the best primer, but GROUND COMBAT OPERATIONS, which I linked above, contains a number of important insights:

The offense alone brings victory; the defense can only avoid defeat.

In taking the offensive, an attacker seizes, retains, and exploits the
initiative and maintains freedom of action. The offense allows the
commander to impose his will on the enemy, to determine the
course of the battle, and to exploit enemy weaknesses. A defensive
posture should be only a temporary expedient until the means are
available to resume the offensive.

That's advice our leaders need to take into consideration.

UPDATE II: If you are not convinced by the FOX video, try this one: the stoning of a man and woman to death in Iran.

Like Hell!

This line of thinking among our jurists must die the death. When a member of the US Supreme Court makes statements like these, you know it is time for the citizenry to reclaim power from the court:

The U.S. judiciary should pay more attention to international court decisions to help enrich our nation's standing abroad, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said Tuesday. . . .

Also influential was a court brief filed by American diplomats who discussed the difficulties confronted in their foreign missions because of U.S. death penalty practices, she said.

Let's examine what is wrong with this.

1) The basis of law in the United States is the Constitution. To the degree that so-called "international law" has a place in our system, that place is limited to signed treaties ratified by the Senate. That is the only way that the Constitution permits the "international community" to participate in legislating for the United States.

2) The reason for this is to preserve the requirement that innovations in government's range and power must be approved by the People. Because all government powers are powers lost by the citizen, there can be no rightful extension of government except through Constitutional means. That is the rule. That is the law. All else is lawless.

What the Supreme Court advocates here is allowing nations outside of the United States to legislate for the United States. If any nation dared to impose such a thing by force, we would resist to the last hundred men:

[F]or, as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under English rule. It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom -- for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself.

Yet the Supreme Court would give in to this in the face of no greater force than public opinion. Foreign public opinion. Are we not a nation, who is the greatest of nations?

"This is too much to demand for the delivery of one servant: that your Master should receive in exchange what he must else fight many a war to gain!" So Tolkien wrote. Foreign public opinion is, or could be, a fine servant: but there is far too great a demand here. We must preserve our freedom, and our independence, against jurists even as against armies.

King & Country:

I have a certain fondness for this suggestion from Bernard Lewis and James Woolsey:

Iraq already has a constitution. It was legally adopted in 1925 and Iraq was governed under it until the series of military, then Baathist, coups began in 1958 and brought over four decades of steadily worsening dictatorship. Iraqis never chose to abandon their 1925 constitution--it was taken from them. The document is not ideal, and it is doubtless not the constitution under which a modern democratic Iraq will ultimately be governed. But a quick review indicates that it has some very useful features that would permit it to be used on an interim basis while a new constitution is drafted. Indeed, the latter could be approved as an omnibus amendment to the 1925 document.

This seems possible because the 1925 Iraqi constitution--which establishes that the nation's sovereignty "resides in the people"--provides for an elected lower house of parliament, which has a major role in approving constitutional amendments. It also contains a section on "The Rights of the People" that declares Islam as the official religion, but also provides for freedom of worship for all Islamic sects and indeed for all religions and for "complete freedom of conscience." It further guarantees "freedom of expression of opinion, liberty of publication, of meeting together, and of forming and joining associations." In different words, the essence of much of our own Bill of Rights is reflected therein.

The constitution also establishes a monarchy. The return of the king was advised in Afghanistan as well, but sadly the king did not return, and Karzai has not been able to muster the personal legitimacy a king would have. The Hashemites may be able to do better.

Oil & Gas Journal:

An excellent article on infiltration techniques used by al Qaeda-linked militants appears today in the Oil & Gas Journal. It suggests that Iran is the primary route for mujahedeen from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

This tracks nicely with the USCENTCOM report, via the Agonist, that Syria is not a probable entry point for many fighters.

Artificial Intelligence:

I'm amused to see that the Google banner above apparently thinks this is an anti-war site. I gather the post on "Nazis" below is what's causing it to make that determination.

It's kind of comforting to realize that AIs are still pretty dumb.

More French Missiles in Iraq:

This time they killed a colonel, US Army.

Islamist Moderates:

I suggest this article from TechCentralStation. It is a particularly excellent piece on the problems facing those who are sincere believers in Islam, but political moderates.

The Alliance of Free Blogs:

I have joined the Alliance of Free Blogs. You can find the new links to the right.

But while you listen:

...to the Big Dog, remember this.

As I went a-walking one morning in May
I met a young couple who findly did stray
One was a young maid so sweet and so fair
and the other was a soldier and a brave grenadier....

Now I'm off to India for seven long years
drinking wines and strong whiskey instead of cold beers
and if I ever return again it'll be in the spring
and we'll both sit down together to hear the nightingale sing

Freedom is not free.

Rumsfeld Speaks:

Today we hear from the Big Dog himself, SECDEF Donald H. Rumsfeld. Give an ear to him, lads.

On Unmaking Evil, Worldwide:

Chesterton, added yesterday, says this on the thought of a great national enterprise:

When everything about a people is for the time growing weak and ineffective, it begins to talk about efficiency. So it is that when a man's body is a wreck he begins, for the first time, to talk about health. Vigorous organisms talk not about their processes, but about their aims. There cannot be any better proof of the physical efficiency of a man than that he talks cheerfully of a journey to the end of the world. And there cannot be any better proof of the practical efficiency of a nation than that it talks constantly of a journey to the end of the world, a journey to the Judgment Day and the New Jerusalem. There can be no stronger sign of a coarse material health than the tendency to run after high and wild ideals; it is in the first exuberance of infancy that we cry for the moon.

Compare with Bill Whittle:

To those who doubt our mental sophistication, I would remind you that our grandparents walked upon the moon.

Marching Day:

Today is the day for International ANSWER's big anti-war marches. I'll just take a moment to quote from their new brochure on the Iraq war. Please consider:

Having achieved their victory, however, the occupiers now confront a people who have a long and proud history of resistance. The anti-war movement here and around the world must give its unconditional support to the Iraqi anti-colonial resistance.

Now, that "anti-colonial" resistance is killing American soldiers. So, I feel inclined to ask: just what might "unconditional support" entail? Adhering to their cause? Rendering them, say, aid and comfort? Or perhaps something more? It is unconditional support, is it not?

Bushes are Nazis, Confirmed:

The New Hampsire Gazette is running a story claiming that the Bush family had Nazi party links. The evidence for this is that George W. Bush's grandfather, Prescott Bush, had business dealings in Germany with a leading German banker who was a Hitler supporter. How did this happen? Bush's grandfather married someone whose rich father had business dealings with the banker, and Prescott was made a partner in his father-in-law's business.

The author expresses astonishment that the media has not thought this a huge story. Well, lad, here is why: "Blood washes out dishonor," as Alexandre Dumas wrote. In the Second World War, George W. Bush's father, George H. W. Bush, flew 58 combat missions and won the Distinguished Flying Cross. World War II cannot be a source of shame for a family who offered their son to America's defense. Neither can one claim that the family lacked the proper hate of tyrants, when that son fought with such heroism and power.

New Links, Cont.:

While I'm on the topic, I'm going to include a link I've been meaning to for a while. It's in "Philosophy & Ideas," and is of a similar kind to the "Marine Corps Doctrine" link. It's a link to the collected philosophy of G. K. Chesterton, possibly the most important philosopher of the 20th century.

That is a bold enough claim, you say? Fair enough--it is bold, but valid. Written in the first decade of the 20th century, Chesterton's critique of modernism ("The Suicide of Thought") not only saw through to the flaw in Modern thinking, but anticipated Postmodernism and proceeded to critique that as well. Alas, few listened, and philosophy descended into an irrelevance from which it is only now emerging.

On top of that, Chesterton was quite a good poet. His Ballad of the White Horse is said to have been Tolkien's favorite poem, and is one of the best long poems in English--Old, Middle, or Modern. If you read it, read it aloud.

To have been both a poet and a philosopher of quality is surely glory enough for any man. Yet Chesterton was also kind, beloved of children, always ready to challenge his ideological enemies with humor and wit, and happy. It's hard to think of too many who've done better.

Foul Communists, Cont.:

We are pleased to announce a new addition to our web links, The Politburo Diktat. We're only too glad to reciprocate the Commissar's link, as indeed we do with all who link to our hall. Hospitality is meant to be reciprocal, after all.

The Perils of Moderation:

We will now turn to the writings of a non-Commie-backing liberal, Sovay McKnight. Joe Lieberman comes in for some abuse, being playfully labeled a (literal, in this case) Republican clone. This is Joe's reward for being the only man in the Democratic presidential primary to adopt a serious position on national defense, taxation, and so forth.

Still, Sovay is no Communist--although you wouldn't know it from the company her site keeps over in San Francisco. That's not her fault, though: she didn't ask to be placed there.

More on Communists:

Via Winds of Change, I see that the leading leftist blogger, Atrios, is today citing the World Socialist to argue his position.

If you want to draw your news from Communist publications, well, it's a free country. Still... if you don't mind, as long as you're going to continue drawing your news from Communist publications, could you lay off the topic of how "Fox News" is biased?

International ANSWER:

"Act Now to Stop War and End Racism" is the leading group in all antiwar protests in the United States. A transcript of their recent planning session has been made available by Protest Warrior. Excerpt:

I hate to point out that the Constitution itself sucks; there's a lot wrong with it. There's no right to healthcare, no right to education, no right to jobs, none of that is in there. Racism, anti-gay bigotry, none of that is outlawed by the Constitution. Those are the things that need to be in a real peoples' constitution. It's important to point out because we keep defending the Constitution, but it's a Constitution that's extremely weak and does not represent what people need. And when we defend the Constitution we have to go one step further and say "this is what a real constitution should look like."

Another excerpt:

It really clarified things when the economy starts to you know go sour and I actually picked up a copy of Communist Manifesto and started reading what Marx said, that every ten years there's a boom and bust system, and it's like, "Oh okay, I get it!" You know like I read it before and didn't get it, it didn't apply, you know? And now that I read it again it applies! It's like, "Oh okay, I get it!" You know, I think.

Just so you know what you're marching for. Of course, if you'd rather march against Communists who think the Constitution sucks, you can join these lads.

Not exactly a Burka:

This alone justifies the invasion of Afghanistan.

Bebop:

Cowboy Bebop, explained. You have to read well into it to get to the good part--the part about a Ronin epic.

Glorious Knoxville:

Via the Sage of Knoxville, we have this: the winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics is a resident of Knoxville, TN.

Glorious Dixie:

John Derbyshire writes of his trip to Dixie: Alabama Diary, Part I.

Al-Sadr to be Arrested?

The Guardian reports that the Coalition and the Iraqi Governing Council are preparing to arrest Muqtada al-Sadr. This is because of the murder of a rival cleric in the Shrine of Ali, which is where the "Najaf bombing" took place, in which the highly respected Baqir al-Hakim was killed. I wrote about the bombings at the time, and you can see the reports: here and here.

Hat tip: the Agonist.

Georgia does right:

Proving once again the commitment of the Great State of Georgia to Individual liberty, Gov. Perdue has refused to partake in the "Matrix" spy-on-the-citizenry program:

Amid cost and privacy concerns, state officials backed away from an anti-terrorism database that officials initially considered joining -- a decision that makes Georgia the sixth state to abandon the Matrix project. The move also casts doubt on the future of a database that tracks personal details of all citizens, not just those accused of a crime.

"I have held serious concerns about the privacy issues involved with this project all along, and have decided it is in the best interest of the people of Georgia that our state have no further participation," Gov. Sonny Perdue said in a statement Tuesday.

[P]rivacy rights advocates questioned the sweeping database, noting that it would contain credit histories, marriages and divorces, even fingerprints and Social Security numbers.

Thanks, but no thanks. Georgians have no need for government spies to protect us from terrorists. We have revolvers and rifles for that.

"Tiger Force":

The Toledo Blade has published a startling series on American brutality in Vietnam. The report details intentional massacres of civilians by members of the 101st Airborne's "Tiger Force" unit. American soldiers slaughtered civilians, mutilated bodies, cut off ears to make necklaces. Witnesses describe digging dozens of mass graves.

The Pentagon has said it will not investigate these charges.

THE US Defence Department has refused to reopen an investigation into suspected atrocities committed in Vietnam by a special US Army reconnaissance unit, despite new allegations of war crimes, including ghastly killings and torture of Vietnamese civilians.

"Absent new and compelling evidence, there are no plans to reopen the case," a Pentagon spokesman told AFP. "The case is more than 30 years old."

The Pentagon had damn well better reconsider. Just this weekend, Human Rights Watch issued a report on American soldiers' use of force in Iraq. They charge that our soldiers--including the 101st Airborne, who have on 5 October announced that they will be using "Tiger Force" teams to act as airborne snipers to protect pipelines--have used "indiscriminate" force, and that the Pentagon is not investigating criminal charges.

No deliberate slaughter of civilians is alleged by HRW, whose report is respectful in tone. I have no doubt that our boys are acting valiantly. However, the brass should be emphatic about enforcing military law in a transparent fashion. It is the argument of the American government that the American military can be counted upon to use force in a just way, and that the viciousness of Saddam made it right to depose him.

Now we have credible reports that members of the American army behaved in much the same fashion during Vietnam, down to the mass graves. The HRW report, with its attendant pictures, brings this history forward and ties it to Iraq. The same units are involved. The Pentagon's refusal to investigate either set of charges give the appearance of a pattern of behavior. The appearance is unfair: today's Army is a magnificent thing. To make certain that distinction is not lost, we ought to put these charges to the test. If there has been wrongdoing, let it be punished. If not, let us clear the air. The honor of the US Army must be defended. This can be done only by showing the world that it holds to its high standards with rigor.

"That Old Time Religion"

Scotland on Sunday has an article on the revival of Greek paganism in Greece itself. The Volokh Conspiracy is against it:

Sure, take the "world view, concepts, ideas, . . . and values" of the ancient Greeks -- or, more likely, a select subset of that world view, for instance eliminating slavery, and the subordination of women -- but why the "religion," even with "each god represent[ing] a natural phenomena or human value" rather than a person who was screwing around and fighting with other people? If you want "a scientific society," do you really need Zeus, whether you think he's real or metaphorical, to do it?

Do you need Zeus? The question ought to be, should it not, "Do you believe in Zeus?" It doesn't look like they do: "Buschbeck explained that Hellenes do not worship the pantheon of 12 gods as deities. Rather, each god represents a natural phenomena or human value[.]"

Ah, gods as metaphors. I've heard that before:

For Wagner, as for the Greeks, a myth was not a decorative fairy tale, but the elaboration of a secret, a way of both hiding and revealing mysteries that can be understood only in religious terms, through the ideas of sanctity, holiness and redemption....

The gods come about because we idealise our passions, and we do this not by sentimentalising them but by sacrificing ourselves to the vision on which they depend. It is by accepting the need for sacrifice that we begin to live under divine jurisdiction, surrounded by sacred things, and finding meaning through love. Seeing things that way, we recognise that we are not condemned to mortality but consecrated to it.

There is something to be said for that position, I suppose. Certainly I can't agree with the Conspiracy's alternative, which is to reject myth altogether. Nothing could be less wise, or reasonable, than that. It is a denial of human nature, and that always ends in sorrow.

But I do have a challenge to the boys at Volokh: it may be that you can do without Zeus. But don't you need Woden?

Global Crossing:

Today, The Agonist has a story on Global Crossing. Alert readers will remember that the China e-lobby was working hard to prevent the sale of the US Defense Dept's telecommunications to a firm with ties to the Chinese People's Liberation Army. This space celebrated their success back in May.

As GC moves through bankruptcy, some interesting news may emerge. It's worth watching.

Idiot Senators:

Once again proving his value to the US Senate, the (frequently mentioned today) Honorable Zell Miller was one of the few Democrats to break the party line and vote against making Iraq pay us back for reconstruction.

Why is this a bad idea? The question came up weeks ago at FreeSpeech:

Here's a reason: we have no authority to impose the demand.

International agreements like this require a treaty. Even in the case of war reparations, which are enforced upon a successor government (e.g. those required of the Weimar Republic by the Treaty of Versailles), have to be agreed upon by treaty. Congress has no authority to legislate for the Iraqi government.

A law passed by the US Congress requiring a future Iraqi government to pay us money is an empty law. It would be like Congress passing a law requiring France to disband--it has no authority, no standing to make the law. Congress could make a law requiring the President to pursue negotiations with the future Iraqi government toward getting our money back, but the Iraqi government--when it is constituted--shall be sovereign and may negotiate or not as it wills.

Of course, in the real world, we could use the presence of troops and the threat of sanctions to force them to sign. That isn't how you build a free society, though, or a friendly one. If Iraq is to be free, it must be free. If it is to be an ally, it must be treated as a friend.

-Grim

That still stands. On whom are we imposing this demand? Who in Iraq has the authority to indebt the Iraqi people? The Coalition Provisional Authority? Are we promising ourselves to pay back the money out of their revenue? That is called theft, not debt repayment.

Or is it the Iraqi Governing Council? Are we giving them that kind of authority, before there is a constitution, before there have been elections? Why then have we been fighting the French at the UN over the issue of who is in charge?

This plan is dishonorable, illegal, and ill-considered. Shame on the Senate.

An Outrage:

This story is from UPI:

FORT STEWART, Ga., Oct. 17 (UPI) -- Hundreds of sick and wounded U.S. soldiers including many who served in the Iraq war are languishing in hot cement barracks here while they wait -- sometimes for months -- to see doctors.

The National Guard and Army Reserve soldiers' living conditions are so substandard, and the medical care so poor, that many of them believe the Army is trying push them out with reduced benefits for their ailments. One document shown to UPI states that no more doctor appointments are available from Oct. 14 through Nov. 11 -- Veterans Day. . . .

Most soldiers in medical hold at Fort Stewart stay in rows of rectangular, gray, single-story cinder block barracks without bathrooms or air conditioning. They are dark and sweltering in the southern Georgia heat and humidity. Around 60 soldiers cram in the bunk beds in each barrack.

The Sage of Knoxville has posted this fellow:

Dr. William Winkenwerder, Jr., M.D.
Assistant Secretary for Health Affairs
Office of the Secretary of Defense
1200 Defense Pentagon
Room 3E1082
Washington, D.C. 20301

More on Sen. Miller's Book:

From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Hat tip: Southern Conservatives.

Zell!

The Honorable Zell Miller, who really should be our next president, has a new book:

The book, entitled "A National Party No More: The Conscience of a Conservative Democrat," takes few prisoners and is unsparing in its criticism. . . .

Mr. Miller ran the Democratic Party in Georgia when Jimmy Carter was governor. He himself was elected governor in 1990, and two years later nominated his friend Bill Clinton for president at the Democratic convention in New York. In 1999, he heeded his party's pleas to come out of retirement and be appointed to the Senate seat vacated by the death of Republican Paul Coverdell.

Once he got to Washington he quickly discovered that most of his Senate colleagues were out of touch with the values of the folks he knew back home in Georgia. As he pungently puts it in his book, "Today our national Democratic leaders look south and say, 'I see one third of a nation and it can go to hell.' "

Senator Miller even goes after his party's leader in the Senate, Tom Daschle. He notes that Mr. Daschle's refusal to pass President Bush's request to create a Department of Homeland Security before the 2002 elections came back to haunt Mr. Miller's colleague, Senator Max Cleland, who was defeated largely on the issue. In fact, he blames Mr. Daschle directly for the Cleland defeat, saying the Minority Leader's actions made it possible to hang a "personal albatross of partisan wrangling on homeland security" around Senator Cleland's neck.

Mr. Miller says he wrote his book because he "just couldn't help taking one more whack at trying to talk a little sense into the party I've been part of since birth." His fellow Democrats will no doubt wish he had resisted the temptation, but they'd improve their own long-term electoral prospects by taking some his criticism to heart.

It is a terrible shame that the Senator is retiring. I doubt we'll find anyone of his character to replace him.

Psychology is Poison:

By coincidence, Arts & Letters Daily linked both to the Mother Jones bit below, and to this review of a new book that supports my contention: Psychology is poison.

Mother Jones Hates NASCAR:

'Why do those NASCAR dads back George Bush?' asks socialist rag Mother Jones. 'Don't they know that his economic policies have been worse for them than anyone else?'

Mother answers the question like this:

1) NASCAR dads aren't well informed.
2) Also, the Bush administration is 'hiding economic news that would interest them'... as if somehow blue-collar workers turn to newspapers to find out if they're doing all right or not.
3) NASCAR dads have a psychological need for a father figure who will punish them and tell them what's right and wrong.

Let's set this straight right now. Even if it were all true about the economics--and, frankly, I'll start taking socialist advice about economics right after I start taking medical advice from cigarette manufacturers--that really isn't the point. Economics don't matter in wartime. If things are tough, you make do. You get by on less. You take a second job, or work extra hours.

NASCAR dads back Bush because they are patriots. They don't care what the federal government does for them: They want to know WHAT IT WILL DO FOR THEIR COUNTRY.

Not well informed? Any man knows well enough what his own situation is. A man knows whether his folk have enough, or not enough. He knows if his business is doing well or badly. He knows if his kids have new shoes. Nobody can hide any of the things he needs to know to see where he stands.

Needs a father figure? Psychology is poison, as I've always said. Psychology does nothing but give people an excuse--an excuse for why they aren't responsible for their actions, or their problems, or their inability to grasp that other people don't like them.

Well, socialists: We don't like you. We don't like you because even in wartime you can't bring yourselves to root for America. We love America. We love the America that exists right now, even though she is not perfect. Do you think we are swayed by spin from the White House about the dangers of terrorists? Our minds were made up on 9/11. It's only you who still thinks the issue is up in the air. We don't like you because you think we're ignorant for feeling that way.

Every time you say, "How can we explain ourselves better?" you miss the point. We don't like you exactly because we heard you loud and clear. I know just where you stand and why you chose that spot, and it is because you stand there that I don't care for you.

Mother Jones, take your attitude and shove it. I'll vote for a pro-war, strong-on-defense Democrat in preference to Bush. It would help if you would run one--Lieberman looks to be the best, maybe the only, card in that deck. I won't vote for a socialist, though, or anyone who doesn't look to have the stones to fight this war to the finish, wherever it leads, and win it. We can disagree on methods, but we ought not to disagree about whether there is a war, or whether victory is what we should be seeking. I don't need or want anyone to tell me what I ought to do or how I ought to feel--and least of all do I need Mother Jones.

Too Much Secrecy:

It is hard to argue with these recommendations:

George W. Bush's White House has pushed like few before it to put government information out of the public's grasp. Moves to classify documents are up 400 percent from a decade ago, to more than 23 million such actions in 2002, according to the Information Security Oversight Office, a division of the National Archives.

But despite their cloak-and-dagger reputation, several of the country's leading spies, past and present, aren't happy about the rush to make things secret. To counter far-reaching, stealthy terrorist cabals, the country needs more openness, not less, they said Wednesday at Geo-Intel 2003, a first-of-its-kind conference here on the use of satellites in war, intelligence and homeland security.

"Our secrecy system is all about protecting secrecy officers, and has nothing to do with protecting secrets. It's a self-licking ice-cream cone," said Rich Haver, until recently Donald Rumsfeld's special assistant for intelligence, now with Northrop Grumman. "We're compartmentalizing the shit out of things. It's causing a total meltdown of our intelligence processes."

Case in point: The Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, prepared a report last year for firefighters and other so-called "first responders" on how to react to a chemical weapons attack. But when the paper was completed, the Defense Department classified it, CSIS analyst Jim Lewis noted. Now, the firefighters will never get the benefit of that information.

In July, a George Mason University graduate student mapped out in his dissertation (registration required) the details of the country's fiber optic network. Using information publicly available online, he spotted vulnerable spots where terrorists might strike. The paper could have been used to shore up weak links in the country's infrastructure. Instead, the government immediately suppressed it.

"He should turn it in to his professor, get his grade -- and then they both should burn it," former White House cyberterror czar Richard Clarke told The Washington Post.

That kind of approach is all wrong, Thomas Behling, the deputy undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence, told a group of nearly 1,400 spooks, geeks and defense contractors gathered in a ballroom at the New Orleans Marriott, on the edge of the French Quarter.

"Rather than putting data into separate partitions, where only a few people have access to it," he noted, authorities need to make information available "by job" to whoever needs it -- regardless of their security clearance.

"We have to change the way we classify information," added Jim Caverly, who heads the Homeland Security Department's Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection division. The old system may have "worked against the Soviet Union." But, today, the federal government "needs to make information available to law enforcement, to EMTs and to the security staff guarding the power plant."

There have been some improvements -- some -- in sharing data, satellite imagery in particular. That's partially driven by the spread of such eyes in the sky.

"Pictures that only nation-states used to have are now commercially available with a credit card," Lt. Gen. Thomas Goslin, deputy commander of U.S. Strategic Command, said. "So the rules (of classification) need to be reviewed."

Syria:

This has been an odd week for the US and Syria. Syria is currently the "head" of the UN Security Council, although it is not of course a permanent member. That has put Syria in a position to condemn the Israeli/Palestine fence, and seek redress against Israel for last week's attack by Israeli warplanes, as well as future threatened attacks.

The US response has come from both her citizens, who have begun to fume over rumored Syrian assistance to our enemies; and also from Congress, which has voted sanctions on Syria. Tony Blair in the UK has added weight by saying that he understood Israel's actions, although the British were not planning a war with Syria just now. Syria, smart enough to recognize that Israel doesn't need the help, has gone on alert.

This morning, Syria announced that it would support the US resolution before the UN on the question of Iraq. At the same time, however, Syria's leader, Assad, gave a speech before the Organization of the Islamic Conference (a meeting of the leaders of Muslim nations and groups) which could escalate problems:

Those fanatics [Bush & his allies] revealed their brutal vision of human society and started to market the principle of force instead of dialogue, oppression instead of justice, and racism instead of tolerance. . . . They even began to create an ugly illusionary enemy which they called 'Islam.'

Is this a Syrian carrot and stick to move the US? If so, it's the same treatment they are getting from us. While the Congress moves to smite them, the President and his State Department must be cutting deals to get this kind of Syrian cooperation on the UN resolution. Altogether an interesting thing to watch.

Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0.:

Scientists in North Carolina(!) have built a brain implant that lets monkeys control a cyberarm. The transition of nervous-system impulses to instructions for electronics is the greatest problem for cybertechnology. If it's being licked, we'll have everything that William Gibson said... soon.

Sigh...

I give up. I'm going to link to the Nice Doggie after all, and Allah both. They deserve it--cleverness on this order deserves to be brought front and center.

The Doggie has linked to one of those personality tests I find so amusing. Psychology is witch-doctory, as I've said many times. Still, if you're curious:

INTP - "Architect". Greatest precision in thought and language. Can readily discern contradictions and inconsistencies. The world exists primarily to be understood. 1% of the total population.

Take Free Myers-Briggs Personality Test

A Patriot's Tale:

From Sharp Knife.

UPDATE: Sharp Knife has put this Hall on the blogroll there. We're glad to add a fellow patriot.

France: Please, Please Buy Our Tanks.

The Middle East Newsline has this story:

France has offered its Leclerc tank to Saudi Arabia at below cost as part of a last-ditch effort to save the main battle tank project.

Industry sources said the government in Paris has decided to violate a directive to the state-owned defense industry and offer Riyad 150 Leclercs at $3.4 billion. The sources said the price was below that of the cut-rate Leclerc deal reached with the United Arab Emirates in 1993.

Why wouldn't anyone want French tanks? It could be they're bothered by the transmission. You have heard about the transmission in French tanks, right?

It's a six speed--one speed forward, five speed reverse.

Solidarity, Baby:

Workers of the world, etc. When Solidarity isn't.

Bear Stories:

Reader S.D. sends this, apropos of the bear post:

The Colorado State Department of Fish and Wildlife is advising
hikers, hunters, fishermen, and golfers to take extra precautions
and be on the alert for bears while in the Dillon, Breckenridge,
and Keystone area.

They advise people to wear noise-producing devices such as little
bells on their clothing to alert but not startle the bears
unexpectedly.

They also advise you to carry pepper spray in case of an
encounter with a bear. It is also a good idea to watch for signs
of bear activity.

People should be able to recognize the difference between black
bear and grizzly bear droppings.

Black bear droppings are smaller and contain berries and possibly
squirrel fur.

Grizzly bear droppings have bells in them and smell like pepper
spray.

James Jackson:

It is, again, time to celebrate the greatest Georgian, and perhaps the greatest American: James Jackson.

James Jackson was a hero of the Revolution; a delegate to the First Congress; a U.S. Senator, State Senator, Governor of the State of Georgia, U.S. Senator again, and is buried in a place of honor in the congressional cemetery. His monument in Jackson, Georgia, names him "Prince of Duellists."

In the days after the Revolution, an early corporation called the Yazoo Land Company bought up almost all the land in the state of Georgia. Jackson, who had been elected Governor by a grateful populace, but had declined the office on account of being too young, was serving instead in the (honestly, in those days) less important capacity of U.S. Senator. An advocate of the Jeffersonian "yeoman farmer" tradition, he was outraged.

Because in those days people understood Federalism, he did not attempt to override the Georgia Legislature with a Federal decree. Rather, he resigned his U.S. Senate seat, and ran for a seat in the State Senate. Having won it, he carried the fight against the corporation's right to the land.

Duelling was not only legal in that age, but obligatory when questions of honor arose. The corporation hired four different professional killers to find a pretext on which to challenge Jackson to fight them in duels. All this was to remove him, so that their ownership of most of Georgia would be unchallenged. Jackson accepted all four duels, and slew the killers each and all.

At last he won the revocation of the bill allowing the Yazoo Company to buy the land. He had all the copies of the bill gathered up on the lawn of the State House, where an old man with a prism came forth an focused sunlight on them until they smouldered and caught flame. Thus it is still said today that this unjust law was "consumed by the fires of Heaven."

Instead of corporate ownership, Jackson's party had the land distributed by lottery to the people of Georgia. In that way, he created a whole state of small, independent, yeoman farmers.

In my opinion, he was the greatest American, only perhaps excepting Washington. Certainly his is my model for right politics: an activity of personal courage, in defense of individual liberty.

Foggy Bottom:

I'll thank Pat Robertson not to set off any nuclear devices at Foggy Bottom. I work within the 12-mile limit.

Of course it's just rhetoric, since Mr. Robertson has no nukes. But really--could we tone down the wrath a bit? Between Chuck 'Save this Goddamn nation' Rangel and Mr. Robertson, you'd think we didn't have real enemies. We do, mates. There's a war on--pull yourselves together, and start acting like countrymen, or at least allies.

Guns in America:

A good article by Dave Kopel, on the history of guns in America. Hat tip: Kim du Toit.

Amnesty, Accidentally:

AI's new report on the arms trade is available now. You can tell that this is going to be an unbiased and careful study by the title, "Shattered Lives." (Warning! This is a 3.2 meg .pdf file. If your computer can't handle that, you can get the report in small pieces from the Amnesty website.)

Nevertheless, buried in this report was some excellent news:

There are approximately 639 million small arms in the world today, produced by more than 1,135 companies in at least 98 countries. Eight million new weapons are produced every year. Nearly 60 per cent of small arms are in civilian hands.

"Small Arms" for AI's purpose is any kind of weapon that you can use yourself. The next category up is "light arms," which is that category of weapons the military calls "Crew-served," because you need a crew to operate them. AI reserves "heavy weapons" for tanks and such.

Sixty percent of these weapons are in civilan hands, they say--that will be about 383 million weapons. Now, I believe that the US accounts for most of those--about 223 million, according to the US Dept. of Justice (US Dept. of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Guns Used in Crime, 7/95, from ATF data. I rush to add that the report is titled "Guns Used In Crime," but 223 million is only the estimated total number of guns in America).

The US is demonstrably more stable than the regions to which Amnesty devotes its attention. There are no large bands of roving brigands in the US, excepting of course in those areas (South Central LA, parts of downtown Washington D.C., etc.) in which we have strict gun control. So, AI's report shows that the secret to stability apparently includes guns in civilian hands, does it not? 'A rifle and revolver in every house' should be our motto, and see how quickly that puts paid to brigands in Africa and Ba'athists in Iraq.

Up the militia!

Up the Militia!:

Thanks to reader S.D., an official US Army flyer on how the 82nd Airborne helps build the militia. It's good to be on the right side of things, eh?

Defender of the Faith:

My Catholic readers will perhaps be interested in this exchange. I'm not sure why I am always defending the Vatican, however, instead of you guys doing it. Catholicism is a huge religion--there must be some of you out there who'd like to pick up the old sword.

Or, maybe not. I was thinking about it the other night. Having been raised a Protestant, I find Catholicism to be fascinating but impossibly complex and full of endless symbols and rituals that I don't understand. On the other hand, even though I am kindly disposed to the faith, not one of you has ever tried to convert me. No one has ever offered to explain the rituals or the symbols. Why not? Aren't you supposed to be fishers of Men?

Not that I'm planning to convert, mind you. But aren't you supposed to try?

All Blessings on the United States Marine Corps:

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: We are lucky to have United States Marines.

It is, in fact, the people that have stayed with the young Marine, the faces of waving children peering from behind a mother's dress or hefted onto a father's shoulders as the American motorcade passed. Strange enjoyed handing out the small gifts he and his fellow soldiers carried with them. "You realize pretty quickly that all kids, regardless of their language or the country in which they live, love candy."

Has there ever been an army like these Marines? Has there ever been a unit, sworn to war, so decent even to the children of the foe?

Putin, KGB:

The New York Times has an article today about how much trouble Vladimir Putin is having getting people to forget that he was a long-time KGB agent.

Here's a hint: Take a look at the picture that ran with this article, Mr. Putin. If I wanted to draw you a picture of what I thought a KGB agent should look like, that would be it. Maybe you should consider a change of wardrobe.

Reality, if you please:

No one is a bigger advocate of grizzly-bear protection than I am. However, if you're going to advocate any cause, you need to be extremely responsible about the truth.

The truth about grizzly bears is that they are highly intelligent animals who, if they decide you even might be a danger, will take the precaution of killing you. Their cousins the brown bears are almost as ruthless. What to make of this story?

Treadwell was the founder of Grizzly People, an organization devoted to the protection of grizzly bears and their habitat. According to the group's Web site, Treadwell's practice was to travel to bear country without weapons.

First impression: Treadwell is a dope.

Treadwell, a former drug addict, was featured on the Web site of actor and environmental activist Leonardo DiCaprio. According to a biography on the site, Treadwell beat his addiction by spending time in the Alaskan wilderness, where he developed his fondness for bears.

Second impression: blame the dope. I am as fond of bears as anyone, but you don't go hiking in Grizzly country without a .460 Weatherby Magnum (although I notice Kim du Toit suggests a lighter caliber). I'd carry my .44 Remington Magnum revolver along as a backup, too.

The little wife suggests that the Rangers sue Grizzly People (and any associated groups) for the loss of the two bears shot. I frankly think that's a fine idea. As these organizations feel we ought to be protecting the bears, they'll have no problem with a precedent for suing idiots who do dumb things that result in bears having to be destroyed. It's one thing to shoot in self-defense against a bear you've tried to avoid; it's another thing to force a confrontation, knowing that the law requires the bear be killed if you get hurt.

Misha I:

I don't normally link to the Nice Doggie, for the same reason I don't normally link to Allah: I have readers from a fair number of different faiths, including Muslims, and I don't want them to feel unwelcome here.

Nevertheless, this time I have to. It doesn't touch on religion, but California. This is the best Fisking I've seen in ages. If you're new to the art, and you want a good example of how the Masters do it, here you go.

Arafat Dead?

Over at FreeSpeech I've posted a roundup of the news from Palestine, and reasons to think Arafat may be dead. Evidence is sadly inconclusive.

Bad Eagle:

My sense of community with this site has jumped, as I see that it has a Scottish forum! Outstanding!

Most Boring Blog Ever:

A new winner: GeorgeWBush.com. Here's the thing, guys--to be interesting, a blog has to have a voice. A committee is not a voice. Get your candidate to blog, if he has time (I doubt the President has any such time), or give it up.

New Link:

I've just added a new link, Bad Eagle. I salute a fellow patriot.

Bravery:

What's the bravest thing you've ever seen?

I've seen, and done, a lot of reckless things, the kind of stuff Aristotle in the Nicomachean Ethics condemned as a vice that consisted in an excess of bravery. I've been witness to a fair amount of real bravery. At length, though, I think this is it:

My father was a Captain of our county's Volunteer Fire Department. I remember once when one of their men fell through a floor into a basement and had his leg pinned. They tried to get him out, tried hard, but he burned alive. His radio worked until the end, so they all got to hear it. Then, on top of that, the state didn't pay his pension--he was a professional firefighter in another county, but since he was acting there as a volunteer, his kids and wife got nothing. All those firefighters saw all that. They heard the radio, they saw the State saving money on the backs of his kids.

The next fire, they were back on the line. That, I think, is the bravest thing I've ever seen or known.

French perfidy:

The Polish government is pressuring its military to keep quiet about those missiles, while issuing a statement through its civilian leadership that their military officers were mistaken. Well, that's a relief. Who would believe the French would sell top weapons to our enemies?

The Federation of American Scientists believes it. FAS was founded by scientists who had worked on the Manhattan project, and wanted to make sure their work was not misused or allowed to proliferate wildly. Here's what they have to say on the subject of the Syrian biological weapons program:

France has played the key role in building up Syria's very well developed pharmaceuticals industry. With the active encouragement of the French embassy in Damascus and French government export credits, the biggest names in the French pharmaceuticals industry flocked to Damascus in the 1980s. Many of them opened branch offices and built production facilities in Syria, to make French pharmaceuticals under license. As a result, the French increased their share from 13.11% of Syria's pharmaceuticals imports in 1982 to 23% by 1986. This was all the more unusual since Syria was expanding its domestic production and therefore importing less during this same period.

The French government screens exports to determine whether goods proposed for sale to Syria, Iran, Libya (and other countries) merit review because of proliferation concerns. While France has been applying the guidelines of the Nuclear Suppliers Group and the Missile Technology Control Regime for several years, she only began applying controls on production equipment that could go into a chemical weapons plant in early 1992. "Only in the past six months has there been a universal will to impose this type of controls," a senior French foreign ministry official said in May 1992. "Before then, CW production equipment was freely available."

Like Britain and Italy, France has been unwilling to impose unilateral export controls on CW production equipment without an internationally-accepted control regime, so French companies could not accuse the government of putting them at a disadvantage on lucrative Third World markets. The Australia Group, which oversees the control of CW precursors, only finalized a list of production equipment that should also be subjected to international controls in late 1991. It was only adopted (after stiff opposition from France and Great Britain) in June 1992.

"Every day I sign off on export licenses," another senior French licensing official present at the same forum said, "and I wonder whether I have not just signed my resignation. In the area of chemical weapons manufacturing equipment, it is totally impossible to distinguish between civilian and military end-use," he admitted. "The equipment is strictly identical."

How about the Egyptian ballistic missile program?

Egypt is believed to have produced the Scud-B indigenously - perhaps modifying them to extend their range - with some North Korean assistance. An enhanced Scud-C (called "Project T"), with range/payload of 450 km/985 kg, is reported to have been developed and may be in service. In cooperation with the French Soci�t� Nationale des Poudres et Explosifs (SNPE), Egypt has developed, produced, and deployed the Sakr-80 rocket as a replacement for the aging Frog missiles. The Sakr factory is responsible for producing the warheads, launchers and fire control systems for the Sakr-80.

Perhaps you'd like to know who helped to design China's premier attack helicopter?

The new WZ-9 helicopter gunship, the WZ-9 [export model code-named Z-9G] is a gunship converted from the French-designed Z-9 helicopter produced under license in China.

The Chinese military considers its mission the ability to defeat the U.S. military. That implies that they are at least a potential enemy, and certainly there have been high tensions over Taiwan. If the U.S. Navy has to fight for Taiwan, it will do so in the face of a few goodies China bought from France:

China has used French helicopters to reinforce its weak antisubmarine
warfare capabilities. According to open sources, China has imported or built under license between 65 and 105 modern French turbine-powered helicopters, including about 40 after 1989.

According to experts, China's only effective ship-to-air missile is the French Crotale missile system. China has deployed the Crotale on four ships, including its two most modern destroyers. Also, China has reverse-engineered the Crotale--reducing China's dependence on foreign suppliers.

Other French equipment on the Luhu destroyers includes the Sea Tiger naval surveillance radar, the Dauphin-2 (Z-9) helicopter (described later), and the TAVITAC combat data system (which is used to integrate the Luhus' various onboard systems).

Those Chinese helicopters, by the way, were delivered to China after a 1990 embargo on giving the Chinese such technology; and of course the Syrian program is playing fast and loose with import/export controls on biochemical weapons.

National Ammo Day:

This sounds like a great idea, from Mr. Du Toit: National Ammo Day. The folk of Grim's Hall will certainly participate.

Rule of Law:

There are those among you, my old friends, who are wondering where I of all people get off defending the Rule of Law. It's a fair complaint.

I am an outlaw at heart, and all of you know it. I believe that a free man has, by right, a final appeal:

An appeal to arms, and to the God of hosts!

But we are not talking about the rights of men. We are talking here about two governments--ours (breaking its own laws, in the Plame case) and the French (breaking international laws, about which I normally care nothing, but of which France is the prime exponent).

A government ought to be bound by its laws, even if men may at the last extremity set them aside. By the same token, men who choose to bind themselves to the service of the state, whether from patriotism or for power, have an extra duty to the rule of law that lies not upon the rest.

This is the proper understanding of liberty. Governments are not people. They are our creatures. Men have freedoms, but governments are created by the yielding up of certain enumerated freedoms. Those liberties--those powers--are all that the government has. We have others, which we reserve.

Amendment IX

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.


Amendment X

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

Because the Government's freedom is a freedom we lay down, freedom for Government from the law can only come by stealing liberties that we did not gladly give. If freedom for men is to be preserved, Law must bind the state.

The French Reply:

Well, we have a French response, now:

France strongly denied having sold any such missiles to Iraq for nearly two decades, and said it was impossible that its newest missiles should turn up in Iraq.

There we are. It's impossible. Case closed. :)

It'll be fun to track these, eh? By the way, take a look at the stats on the Roland. This isn't a shoulder-fired job--it's part of a full scale antiaircraft battery. It's NATO standard issue--as good as anything in the French or German arsenal, and probably roughly on the same order as the British Rapier or the American Avenger system.

Moving into the Negative Range:

Since my last ounce of sympathy for Novak died yesterday, The Agonist's report of today pushes us into the negative range of sympathy:

ed: i was teetering on the fence about novak before this article. note the following sentences, and note them good.

The name of the CIA front company was broadcast yesterday by Novak, the syndicated journalist who originally identified Plame. Novak, highlighting Wilson's ties to Democrats, said on CNN that Wilson's "wife, the CIA employee, gave $1,000 to Gore and she listed herself as an employee of Brewster-Jennings & Associates. There is no such firm, I'm convinced," he continued. "CIA people are not supposed to list themselves with fictitious firms if they're under a deep cover -- they're supposed to be real firms, or so I'm told. Sort of adds to the little mystery."

Another mystery: why aren't you in court, Bob?

French Weapons:

Polish troops have found brand-new French antiaircraft missiles in Iraq. Year of manufacture: 2003.

UPDATE: Could these weapons have been bought elsewhere and then shipped to Iraq in violation of end-user license? It's possible, but these weapons are pretty new to have made much of a turnaround--they will have had to have been manufactured not earlier than January 1st to have a 2003 date, and of course the war was over by April. Still, I'm sure there will be a good explanation.

There had better be, as the sale of weapons to Iraq is illegal and prosecuted as a war crime under UNSC resolutions.

...and, of course, as several EU countries sent aircraft and pilots to serve in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Their complaint against France, should a good explanation not be forthcoming, will be far angrier than ours. France to the US is a separate power with whom we're theoretically allied; but to EU nations, this would be a stab in the back from a sworn brother.

Still, as I said, I'm sure an excellent explanation is forthcoming.

Hmm.

The last, tiny bit of sympathy I have had for Novak just evaporated. Get him in court today, please? It's time to put an end to the slander that's being tossed at everyone in the White House, and time to put an end to the career of the guilty.

Burnt Njal said of a worse case:

"That is no breach of settlement," says Njal, "that any man should take the law against another; for with law shall our land be built up and settled, and with lawlessness wasted and spoiled."

I have been considering this case this morning, and I fear it is another example of the failure of law--that is, of lawlessness--in our country. This has been brewing for a long time. The Constitution is no longer routinely considered when writing a law; in addition to the example Del gives, we have "Campaign Finance Reform," which was approved in spite of the fact that the parties to it admitted it was unconstitutional. Nor were these lawless men merely the usual suspects:

�President Bush acknowledged the measure had �flaws� when he signed the bill into law,� said Sekulow. �He admitted that certain provisions �present serious constitutional concerns� and we are committed to ensuring that those provisions never see the light of day.�

We remember that the 2nd Amendment is ignored by every branch of government, state, Federal, and local. The 4th Amendment is suffering not much better a fate, with government "property seizure" laws that require you to prove you are not a criminal to recover your property--the burden of proof, usually on the accuser, is reversed because your right to your things is not as great as your right to freedom. You are guilty until you can prove yourself innocent.

We remember, but will not bother to rehearse, the dealings of the Janet Reno DOJ, and the Clinton administration. We remember the O.J. Simpson trial, which is but emblematic of a thousand such cases, when the rich and the powerful are excepted from the law.

We remember that the courts have allowed themselves to become havens for lawsuits designed to prevent people from executing their rights. There are lawsuits designed to punish people for selling you something in good faith. There are laws designed for an express purpose intentionally misused by public officials in pursuit of other goals.

It is time for a broad retrenchment. Here is the address to reach the DOJ. Here you can find a link to your Senators' web pages. Here is one for your representatives in the House. Your state representatives I leave to you. I propose the following as a joint plan of action:

1) For the DOJ: that Novak be brought before a magistrate immediately and forced to testify.

2) For Legislators: That they form a committee in every lawmaking body whose sole purpose shall be to seek out and revoke unconstitutional legislation. There is no reason to leave this to the courts: it is the responsibility of everyone in government, and every citizen, to see that the Constitution is respected.

3) That certain acts--RICO, Patriot, and so forth--which have been passed to address a particular evil (organized crime, terrorism) be amended to require that the government prove it is addressing that particular evil in order to use the powers thereby granted.

4) That tort reform becomes a priority of all legislators.

What say you?

New Links:

I've added two new halls to the links section, CommieWatch, and Anticipatory Retaliation. You might enjoy either or both.

More on Plame:

Cold Fury's Light of Reason has some thoughts on the Plame business, and more here. As a couple of days have passed, a few people have become willing to stand up and put their names on the line. When we were dealing with unnamed accusers and secret sources, I was willing to write this off as an unknowable business that was obviously being played by both sides.

Now, though, we have a few people brave enough to stand up and say what they know. OK--it's time to start taking depositions. Volokh speaks to why the DOJ hasn't done what I'd like them to do, which is send a US Deputy Marshal to haul Novak into court. Internal guidelines, indeed. We could know the truth about this business tomorrow if they would set these things aside and require Novak, under oath, to testify.

Meanwhile, the push seems to be for an independent "special prosecutor." No doubt as to why certain people want that--it would take time to hire one, and time to hire his staff, apportion money for his investigation, get papers in order, and start. By then, election season would be on us... how convenient.

What is needed is not an independent counsel. What is needed is a US Attorney to do his job. Send the Marshals. Let's find out who did what today, not in six or nine months, and get whoever it was safely behind bars.

It would be satisfying, would it not, to see the law enforced on the powerful for a change? Whoever they are?

The Scottish Enlightenment:

Southern Appeal has a roundup of recent stories and commentary on this most important of times.

More Letters to a Communist:

The Debate continues, afresh, for those interested. It makes an interesting counterpoint to the new Whittle essay, I think.

Eject!

There's a new essay on B. Whittle's blog. Don't miss POWER.

UGA:

Glory to old Georgia! I happened today across the University of Georgia: Points of Pride webpage. Oddly, it leaves out what I considered to be two of the key points of pride: the alumni status of Little Alec Stevens, and Doc Holliday.

Woot!

More damned unnamed sources, but this time there's something important at stake. The Kuwaiti press is reporting the seizure of biological and chemical weapons being smuggled from Iraq.

The Bush League:

So the first installment of the much awaited Bush League is up. I can't help but notice that a certain Dr. Rice is portrayed as reacting to scandal by hiding under her desk "again." Would that be because she's black, Sovay, or because she's a woman? Looks like the rest of your, ah, heroes are able to deal with the stress.

CIA Unmasked:

Who, besides Bob Novak, would be so evil as to reveal the name of an undercover CIA officer? How about liberal stalwart The New Republic? They didn't just blow the cover of someone they'd been told was an "analyst," living in D.C.--they blew the cover of a COS for the DO.

Again:

Gina wasn't satisfied with the first take, so after re-positioning the camera slightly -


Gina Wilkinson: Mr Saadi, could you ask them to do that one more time for me?
- (trans): This time in reverse?
- (trans): No no no.

Gina Wilkinson: Excellent.

I am not a vicious man, least of all toward women: but I am a father. After reading this through a second time, I can only say:

Let this woman hang.

UPDATE: "In Christian morals, in short, it is wicked to call a man "damned": but it is strictly religious and philosophic to call him damnable." So held Chesterton. I will hold with him, for he is braver than I am. It is hard not to think this woman cursed by all creation, but I will think so.

No Mercy:

Here, brothers and sisters, is a journalist urging children to climb on a missile in order to get a good shot of it for the TV News. There is no excuse, and no adequate punishment.

Via InstaPundit.

The Times Finally Turns Up:

Today's NY Times has a piece on the tribal nature of Iraqi families, which they say will complicate the reconstruction tremendously.

My readers, of course, dealt with this fully two weeks ago, and came to a far more positive conclusion. If you're curious, see "The Black Mail."

Link to the NYT via Arts & Letters Daily.

Wilson, II:

The social factor appears to be real in the Wilson case, reports Clifford May in the National Review. He reports from first hand experience, having been told informally himself that Wilson was an undercover officer:

On July 14, Robert Novak wrote a column in the Post and other newspapers naming Mr. Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, as a CIA operative.

That wasn't news to me. I had been told that � but not by anyone working in the White House. Rather, I learned it from someone who formerly worked in the government and he mentioned it in an offhanded manner, leading me to infer it was something that insiders were well aware of.

Meanwhile, Atrios is finding that the "senior" official may have been something rather different. Damn journalistic ethics, eh, lad? He chides the press:

Look, words mean things. While "administration aide" might be technically true, it doesn't mean the same thing as "senior administration official."

"Words mean things." Now where have I heard that before? Oh, yes, I remember now.

Wilson:

OK, I'm going to comment on this a little bit after all.

First, here is today's story from the Washington Post. Here is the Novak column. And here is a roundup from when this story broke in July.

You can see that, even in July, people went for the jugular. 'Maybe the VP himself.' Huge 'felony'. 'Almost a confession.' And yet, the story died. Why is that?

I wrote the story off because it was based entirely on unnamed sources. Journalistic ethics haven't been especially impressive lately, but that's not what I'm talking about. Let's say Novak was fully ethical--I don't know the fellow, so it's only fair to give him the benefit of those charges we can't evaluate (it was obviously unethical by my standards to print the story outing a CIA agent--which is why we learn today that 5 of 6 journalists didn't print it). Nevertheless, let's say Novak was 100% ethical in all other points.

As a journalist, he knew that printing that story would bring questions about his sources. He also knew that, if he ever gave up his sources, he would never work again. And, further, as a journalist he is protected by the First Amendment--he can't be forced to yield his sources. So, the reader of the July piece can reasonably expect that the claims Novak makes will have to be evaluated on faith alone. You can't really judge whether you ought to take the word of an anonymous person.

Of course, Watergate was broken open by an anonymous. So, the sensible person does what we all did--we shrug, and wait to see if anything comes of it that can be evaluated.

Today, we have a new story--which is also based entirely on anonymous sources. A "Senior Administration official," two unnamed "Top White House officials," this is of no use whatever. We are left scrabbling after what "Top" and "Senior" normally mean in this context, and pulling feathers and thin reeds out of the air. Yet there is still not a name to hold onto.

But already we're having a field day of calls for impeaching Bush. "Rule of Law!" yells Atrios, citing two laws that he asserts must have been broken by the President. Well, sure--if the President is guilty, let's have the rule of law. Impeachment followed by a trial in the Senate is fine, an actual trial by jury to proceed once he's out of office.

But first let's be clear on one or two things:

1) There is no evidence at all that an actual pair of "top officials" existed as such. We don't know what Novak was calling a top official because we don't know--and will never know from Novak--who the sources were. These "top" officials could have been deputy undersecretaries for agriculture. Just because "top" normally means something in journalism doesn't mean it always means that thing. The fact that Novak expected his sources to remain secret means that we can't evaluate these sorts of charges with the surgical precision some seem to feel is possible. I've seen lists of suspects with as few as eight people on them. Get a grip.

2) There is no information at all on what GWB may or may not have done about this internally. The fact that Town Hall runs a column citing an unnamed source claiming that someone in your office committed a crime is not evidence that a crime has been committed of the sort that compels you to report it to a judge. If GWB actually knew that the charge was true--well, that's another story, of course. But if he simply had it mentioned at his news briefing, there's nothing de jure that requires him to respond to an anonymous allegation with, "Quick! Call a judge!" An informal internal inquiry--which might well have netted nothing if the two jokers had realized how much trouble they were in and clammed up--would be sufficient. Hell, doing nothing would suffice as far as the law was concerned.

3) Again from Atrios, we have an excellent overview of internal security policies that are designed to prevent intelligence leaks. The conclusions drawn are out of line, however. The simple fact is that the biggest danger to a CIA officer's cover is not from professional matters, but social matters.

There is simply no telling who knew that this woman was an undercover officer. We don't know who she told, for example--certainly her husband, maybe a friend. There are other ways that this kind of information gets around besides code-word communications. "So and so is a secret agent" is gossip of the most irresistible sort--anyone who dealt with her on an everyday basis probably knew, at least informally, that it was the case. If they knew informally, they hadn't signed the tons of nondisclosure agreements. It is still illegal, but having not signed the papers, they probably didn't think much about sharing a secret. Gossip is, I have found since moving to D.C., a Washingtonian favorite passtime.

So: these "Top" officials, even if they were in fact Top Officials, may not be associated with national security at all. That's just something to keep in mind.

Ultimately, I think all we can do is let the inquiry sort things out. I'm sure the CIA will take this quite seriously, and should have no trouble persuading the other involved agencies to do so as well. Still, I honestly don't expect major bloodshed over this. That's not to say the guilty parties aren't deserving of justice under the law. It is only to say that they may prove quite difficult to find. When you consider in the social factor, it becomes very difficult to draw lines around who might have known that she was an officer, and who might have wanted to share it.

As for that impeachment--it may have to wait a bit. I can't see anything here that would have required the president, or anyone especially close to him, to have been involved. Even if all the charges in the Post piece are perfectly true, these Top officials may prove to be far smaller fish than expected; and getting the kind of proof required by a court of law, when most of those in the know are going to invoke Journalistic immunity, may be difficult indeed.

Of course, it may prove that it really was Dick Cheney, based on information he read right out of a codeworded report. I wouldn't give odds on it if I were you.

Bloggerfun:

Blogger's having an issue today where it's transmitting blogs as-they-publish onto random (all?) addresses. If you're seeing this and you didn't expect to, hit refresh--that should fix the problem.

Of course, you're welcome to stick around, too. If you're not into Southern issues, skip down about two days, as I've been on that this weekend. The more regular issues are below.

Heroes & Volunteers:

This was not the first man from Tennessee to fight and fall for freedom. Sergeant First Class William Bennett, U.S. Special Forces, is one in a tradition of Volunteers as long as it is proud.

De oppresso liber.

CIA:

I often treat intelligence matters here, but I am not going to speak to the Wilson affair at this time. However, since others are apparently annoyed that it isn't getting more attention, I'll certainly post a couple of links for interested parties. My own thoughts largely echo those of that other Bear: namely, that it's early yet, and that the legal processes appear to be working on it.

I read about the rumors of this back when J. M. Marshall had it early. My thoughts at that time were that it was probably true, but likely some amateur functionary who didn't know it was illegal--the Bush administration has employed a number of folks who haven't worked previously in national government. That's good on the whole, as it brings a fresh perspective; but the price is that you get people who don't really understand the law or what the limits of their office are. The new claim makes it sound like it was multiple people at work, though, so it may not have been as simple as a mistake.

Of course, it's possible that it's not true; or that it's true, and that it touches the highest levels in a sorry conspiracy to destroy their political opposition. Neither extreme seems terribly likely to me, but who knows? It's early.

Ah, my people:

I feel a certain instant kinship with this fellow. Given his prolific nature, who knows but what we might even be related?

Psalms sat on Papa Pilgrim's right knee and Lamb perched on his left. Thirteen more of his children -- all of them with names from the Bible, several of them packing pistols -- crowded around. . . .

The Lord, Pilgrim said, told him that clearing a derelict mining road through the park was a loving thing to do.

"In order for me to love my children, I have to be a provider," Pilgrim said. "With great reluctance, I took the bulldozer and used the road. I had no idea what was in store."

Pilgrim's passage on the Caterpillar D4 has resulted in an edgy standoff between his well-armed family and the federal government. The National Park Service has shut down the bulldozed road to his property, dispatched armed rangers to assess park damage and is pursuing criminal and civil cases against him and members of his family.

The brouhaha over the bulldozer -- a drama still unfolding inside the largest U.S. park -- has made the Pilgrims actors in a national dispute over private access to federal land. National environmental groups are demanding that the Park Service prosecute the Pilgrims to the fullest extent of the law, while land-rights activists have embraced them as heroic victims of overzealous federal bureaucrats.

Overzealous federal bureaucrats, you say? Well, let's see what the bureaucrats in question have to say for themselves:

Park Service rangers admit that they are fed up with the Pilgrims, especially with the boys who carry revolvers and rifles.

"What they tend to do is surround you," said Hunter Sharp, chief ranger in the park. "When they do that, cops get nervous. We have had it. We are not going to back off. We represent the people of the United States."

So you do, although this person of the United States would warn you to leave well-armed backcountry people alone if you know what's good for you. They certainly aren't bothering me. What were you doing bringing riflemen out onto their land anyway?

Besides, what they are doing is legal:

In a sense, Pilgrim drove the bulldozer through a bureaucratic gap opened by the Bush administration. Over objections from environmentalists, the Interior Department published a rule in January that opened federal land to motorized access in places where roads once existed.

The rule -- a reassertion of an obscure 1866 mining law known as RS-2477 -- has since inspired right-of-way claims on old roads across federal land in the red rock country of southern Utah and across the Mojave National Preserve in California.

So let's see--during the Alaska winter, a fellow with 15 children decided to make legal use of an abandoned road in order to feed his family. This is of course exactly the kind of thing the Federal government is meant to prevent.

By act of Congress, national parks in Alaska are supposed to be different from those in the Lower 48. The 1980 law that created 104 million acres of parks and refuges in the state guaranteed that in-holders, meaning people who own property in the parks, could pursue traditional livelihoods while having "reasonable and feasible" access to their land.

For most of the past 23 years, however, a group of highly vocal Alaskan in-holders has complained that the Park Service has been flouting the will of Congress and trying to squeeze them off their land. They see a conspiracy of city people from the Lower 48, environmental zealots and narrow-minded federal bureaucrats who are trying to strip Alaska of its rural culture and replace it with a depopulated wilderness.

It's certainly true that people love trees. But if a tree stands in a forest and nobody can get close enough to enjoy it, what good is a park?