August 31, 2004

Off Night at the Garden

The Bush Twins say that they "are not very political." No kidding. The less said about them the better, except that I hope they did their own writing, because it's hard to believe anyone got paid for that adolescent patter that sounded like outtakes from a bad awards ceremony. Jokes are fine, indeed needed, but these are serious times and these are young college graduates, not teenyboppers. Next time a little more gravitas, please. Their mother was much better

But first a note of surrealism. I watched Arnold on a television set next to Pat Buchanan. This happened because I was getting agoraphobia/claustrophobia on the convention floor. A few of us bloggers had been escorted down into that terra interdita by the nice volunteer who is helping us. I visited with a friend in the California delegation. I had intended to watch the Governator from there, but I didn't have a seat and the crush was getting too much for me. I retreated to a media area when, earlier than I had expected, Arnold began speaking. I headed for the nearest TV to watch. Suddenly I realized someone was standing behind me. It was Pat. He had a scowl on his face. As we know, Schwarzenegger does not represent Buchanan's Republican Party. Nothing seems to make Pat happy these days. As Arnold began to lead the chant of "four more years," Buchanan spun on his heels as if repelled and stalked off, heading for the nearest microphone.

Unfortunately, Schwarzenegger, the first Republican I ever voted for, was not as inspiring as I had hoped. Maybe my own expectation game was too high. He hit the notes but that was about it. And the girlie men joke, even delivered in self-mockery, is getting a little tiresome. Still, I think Arnold's doing a good job as governor -- and that's more important than how great a speech he delivers at a convention. And I'm sure others reacted differently. I'm still thinking about McCain and, even more, Giuliani. He gave the speech of the year so far.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:55 PM
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Celebrity Snaps - GOP Style (What? No Arnold?)

Karen

Sean and Karl

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 3:49 PM
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The Kerry Shake-Up

Kaus is skeptical that Joe Lockhart can help the faltering Kerry Campaign. So am I. I'm skeptical anyone can help Kerry now (short of force majeure in the economy or Iraq). In fact, his campaign must be in deeper trouble than I thought because a shake-up at this time is a tremendous admission of weakness. The reason, no matter what anyone says, is the Swifties. Despite whatever cover the media is giving, they are winning because they have the (majority) of the facts on their side. And their attack has not really gone away. Other events may push them off the front page, but the damage is done. No one is looking at Kerry the same way anymore. And they shouldn't.

Part of the reason I am looking at Bush with more suspicion than some of the other bloggers here at that convention is that I am beginning to think he is a sure winner. I don't have buyer's remorse, but I'm nervous, especially on the social issues. Also, I am writing across the way from Sean Hannity, currently interviewing General Tommy Franks, author, according to Sean "of one of the greatest books I have ever read." [I guess he never read "Bonjour Tristesse.-ed.] We're in the land of hyperbole here.

But every time I get the slightest bit worried about Bush, I know as long as things like this are going on in the subway (Moscow again), I sure don't want Kerry in the White House. And they don't look as if they are about to stop.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 2:45 PM
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Which Party Is This?

Listening to Giuliani and McCain last night, I was starting to think, well, this Republican thing ain't so bad. Just like when I listen to Lieberman or Evan Bayh I think the same thing about Democrats - hey, these folks make sense. But then, in the middle of the night, or in the dim, subterranean light of the bowels of Madison Square Garden, I wonder if there will ever be a political party for me anymore. While the Democrats thrill to a "disingenuous filmmaker," the ideologues of the Republican world rock on with their special version of intolerance, making their own justifiably crazy:

Christopher Barron of the Log Cabin Republicans, a GOP gay-rights group, was livid after the panel endorsed the first-ever call for a constitutional gay-marriage ban in a GOP platform and went beyond that to oppose legal recognition of any same-sex unions.

``You can't craft a vicious, mean-spirited platform and then try to put lipstick on the pig by putting Rudy Giuliani and Arnold Schwarzenegger on in prime time,'' he said in an interview.

But you can, evidently. We live in a strange world where hypocrisy piles on hypocrisy. [You're sounding rather ornery this morning.-ed. Are you in a bad mood? Yup. Sleep deprivation. I guess I'm feeling a little like a flak for the Republican Party. I don't particularly enjoy that feeling. I don't like being a flak for anybody. Yes, we're in a war that's important.Terribly important. And, yes, I think John Kerry is a straw man who should not lead us in such a situation. But there's nothing that makes me more angry than masked or unmasked homophobia. It's deeply reactionary and immoral.]

UPDATE: I just had coffee with one of New York's finest(bloggers)Jeff Jarvis - a man with whom I have been exchanging email for about a year and a half and had not met face-to-face. It was a pleasure to meet him. Ditto Jay Rosen who stopped by earlier today. Jeff had an interesting proposal regarding political parties and conventions -- that party platforms be abandoned. There are obvious arguments against this, but it sounds like an idea whose time has come, expecially given our present parties whose tents are so big ideology becomes meaningless.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 12:14 PM
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August 30, 2004

Last Blog of the Night

John Kerry should take speech-making lessons from John McCain. And if McCain is busy, he should try Giuliani.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:37 PM
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One of the sad things about being at a convention...

... is that you can't keep up with the booze... I mean news. There I was knocking down gin & tonics at the National Review Party... a mob scene of mob scenes... [Why is it that political magaziness have no-host bars but Hollywood studios comp magnums of Dom Perignon?--ed. Do I have to answer that question?]... that the interesting political news of the day went right by me until I was live on Hugh Hewitt's show from MSG fifteen minutes ago and Hugh asked... "Whaddya think of Edwards?" Actually Hugh said "What did you think of Edwards?" (he has excellent enunciation, unlike your genial host).

Apparently Mr. Edwards, the man I voted for in the California Democratic Primary, is telling us, according to Reuters that

If elected U.S. president, Sen. John Kerry would offer Iran a deal allowing it to keep its nuclear power plants if it gave up the right to retain bomb-making nuclear fuel, said Kerry's vice presidential running mate in an interview published on Monday.

Well, for all you 911 Democrats sitting on the fence, that's about as good a reason as I could think of not to vote for Kerry and Edwards. In fact, I'll go further. The idea that Iranian mullahs would tell the truth to the US government or anybody else in the West is an absurd joke. Edwards, I would imagine, is an historical illiterate when it comes to Iran. Somebody in the press should ask him a few questions. [Not that most of them know.-ed. No they don't.] It's an absolute affront to the Iranian students who dearly seek freedom that they would propose such a thing. Shame, shame on Kerry and Edwards. This is a country where there are public hangings of sixteen-year old girls yet they act as if their leaders can be trusted. Huh?

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 5:19 PM
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Is Convention Blogging Worth It?

As far as I am concerned the jury is still out. From what I can see, thus far, this is more of a Convention (capital C) in the conventional Vegazoid sense than I expected. Also, as at most conventions, people spend most of their time trying to figure out what's going on, getting lost on elevators and chasing skirts or pants, depending on preference. Also, there's a lot of consumption of unhealthy food and celebrity gawking. It has already been reported in many quarters that the Repub celebrity quotient is decidedly lower than the Democrat. What passes for a celeb around here is Sean Hannity who would have trouble getting a table a restaurant back in LA. [That's a compliment, isn't it?--ed. More or less.] As I type this, he's directly across from me, blabbing away. [Is he ever off the air?--ed. I think he broadcasts in his sleep.]

Anyway, I'm off to the National Review party where Milton Friedman would probably be the equivalent of Jack Nicholson. Maybe that's an improvement, depending on your point of view. Mine own self, I'm hoping for an open bar. Politics? What's that and who cares?

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 12:45 PM
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Republicans with Hats... an ungoing series...

...as a man who wears hats... shall we say... takes one to know one...

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 12:26 PM
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Live Blogging from the Convention

As I type this, the 80-year old former NY Mayor Koch, who just addressed the convention, is sitting three feet away from me, talking to a group of bloggers. Koch is my man. He is pro War on Terror and pro same sex marriage. He is a moral man of guts who, as a lifetime Democrat, was willing to speak in favor of Bush. His great enemy as he says is "hypocrisy." When asked why more New Yorkers didn't agree with him, he said, well, this is an ultra-liberal town... "but I love it!"

When I asked him if he would favor a new centrist party, he said he was born a Democrat and would die a Democrat. Then when I asked whether he thought people were becoming amnesiac about 9/11, he dismissed it. I'm not sure he's right.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:33 AM
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Swiftie Traction

Conventional wisdom is now that the Swift Boat Veterans ads and book (I think the book is particularly important here) have gained more traction than anticipated and have seriously wounded Kerry. The ever-popular political pros are complaining.

Among Democrats, high and low, there is considerable grumbling about how and why all this was, in the words of one Kerry consultant, “allowed to get this far”.

Maybe the answer is simpler and more devastating than questions of alacrity. The accusations couldn't be stopped because they are... for the most part... true. Or at least they have not been contradicted, except by casting personal aspersions on the Swifties. That doesn't work. And Kerry's Cambodia lie was so blatant, it made everything else look bad -- just as similar prevarications do in court. And this was followed up by the Winter Soldier ad -- Kerry speaking in his own words. Hard to contradict or spin that. No, Kerry's in trouble. Maybe he can dig himself out of it... the press will want to... if only to make this a horse race... but it may be a race with a lame horse.

Now... off to the blogger breakfast.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 4:49 AM
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August 29, 2004

Buenos Noches from the Big Apple

Don't tell my cardiologist, but I just returned from two consecutive meat dinners filled with bloggers (around the table, not on it) -- the second of which was a Brazilian churrascaria. I hoofed it back to my hotel to do what little I could to walk it off.

Happiest faces on the streets of New York tonight -- the police. One word explanation for this -- overtime. Last ones to leave the demonstration -- the Falun Gong again. Go figure. The bad news -- I'm told Internet at the convention are dodgy. Please be patient. Hasta pronto!

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:59 PM
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Hey, Hey, LBJ...

I almost found myself engaging in that familiar cry myself today (oh, how many times I had!) until I shook my head and realized this wasn't 1968, it was 2004... not that the hordes streaming around me down Fifth Avenue this afternoon seemed to know or care. The conflation of Iraq and Vietnam was in high gear, the "masses" urging a regime change (in Washington) that would bring our boys home and stop this immoral attempt to bring democracy to the Middle East. Never mind that Kerry has never made remotely clear what he intends to do or that there is an actual fledgling democratic government in place in Iraq, as there never was in Vietnam. I mean what do we know about democracy -- we're the barbarian Americans? Vietnam bad, Iraq bad. C'est simple, n'est-ce pas?

The Korean proprietor of the sandwich shop on Thirty-fifth and Fifth where I stopped in for an egg salad (still the best sandwiches anywhere are in NY) would seem to have agreed, at least on the surface. "Bush dumb," he grinned, echoing Howell Raines as he banged on the cash register with one hand, while making a thumb's up with the other. Elsewhere, just as at sixties demonstrations, fringe groups were cashing in on the action. The Chinese Falun Gong, of all things, was the most in evidence, passing out literature the way the Hare Krishnas used to (I didn't see any of them... kinda miss 'em.) I wonder what the Falun Gongsters really made of the demonstrators. If I see another, I'm going to ask her (most were female). Back where they come from, demonstrators are frequently shot. (Oh, yeah, I forgot. Kent State. We're bad too. We're worse. We're terrible. America bad. Al Qaeda good. Is that okay?)

Here are a few more rough and ready pix. Note the intrusion of the low carb diet craze into the demonstration. Maybe it's 2004 after all.

Cops were everywhere. It was fun talking to them. One of them said to me, "It's like fuggin' 9/11 never happened." His buddies seemed to agree.

UPDATE: Twilight in the Big City. I've just come back from The New Yorker Hotel where I went for my credentials. To get there, I had to go through a subway tunnel because the demonstration, which has become thicker and thicker, blocked 7th Avenue. They were becoming more raucuous too, chanting "The Whole World Is Watching," the way we did in the old days. The crazy groups were coming out with placards reading "Bush Knew - 911truth.org" and another called "rwor.com"... or something like that... with a huge banner telling us to "Think Revolution!" (in 2004? It is so,if you think so).To say it weirded me out would be an understatement. I was considering designing a new T-shirt to wear: "Don't Shoot Me! I'm a Boomer!"

Fortunately, I ran into my friend Michael Barone, one of America's best and sanest journalists, on the street. He was like a port in the storm. Michael and I swapped stories of our old protest days (Michael was against the Vietnam War, but wasn't a heavey protester), then scratched our heads about the present avatar. Michael, also a boomer, was wryly hoping for the demise of our generation. Then he went on his way for his credentials. I forgot to tell him that I had just read his new book Hard America, Soft America. For those of you who haven't, it's excellent, quite apropos of the current situation.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 12:15 PM
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Time Is Everything

According to Haaretz the supposed Israeli spy in the Pentagon may not be exactly James Bond or even Sean Connery:

Two of those officials raised the possibility the government might not bring espionage charges, but rather lesser ones that could include the mishandling of sensitive government material.

Meanwhile, the Israeli government denies all:

"We deny carrying out any intelligence activity. It is a strange story," said a government official, who declined to be identified. "Israel, for many years, has not carried out intelligence activity in the United States," he said on Saturday.

One wonders why this brouhaha suddenly haha-ed at this precise moment. Anything to do with the same reason your humble scribe is in New York? Nah.

And now off to breakfast so I can be ready for the protests.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 4:54 AM
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August 28, 2004

"Fear of Republicans" or "Fear of Flying"

Airplane Blather - On the Way to the RNC

Most of my life I rarely talked to Republicans -- not seriously anyway. If I did it was without the full knowledge that they were Republicans. I didn't think they would have much to say that would interest me, that they were intellectually bankrupt and probably greedy, possibly even racists. I was that prejudiced. Of course, secretly I read Milton Friedman, realizing that the educated man should be aware of his economic theories. I did admire William F. Buckley's prose. And P. J. O'Rourke did make me laugh - although I didn't want to admit it. But these were the exceptions.

Lately, however, I have been talking to a lot of them and (shock of shocks) many of them are pretty bright, even funny. Also, I have discovered the Weekly Standard, the National Review and Commentary are at least as interesting to read as The Nation and Mother Jones and frequently (in fact I'd say close to invariably) more surprising in their viewpoints. So when I ran my eyes over (quickly, I can promise you) Howell Raines' much talked about column of the other day in which the former Times editor derided the intellectual capacity of George W. Bush, I could only roll those same eyes. Let me put it to you directly, Howell. I got a 780 on the verbal GSATs (not bad, huh? okay, the math wasn't so hot - I'm a writer), but I don't think for a split second that I'm the intellectual superior of Bush 43. Those kind of thoughts are, well, intellectually inferior and [Here you go again.-ed.] reactionary.

Anyway, enough bile. At the convention, I am going to be confronted with something far more significant, my deepest fear about Republicans - that they are really and truly square. As a card-carrying member of the Generation of 68, I have an allergy to square that makes me break out in hives and lose my lunch in dark alleyways. I'm cool. Don't ever forget it. And that lineup of entertainment these Red Staters are advertising, I wouldn't wish it on a … [You like country music.-ed. Shhh… don't tell anyone.]

MEANWHILE... I am now in NY, obviously (no demonstrators so far, but plenty of Republicans)... only to discover that those Kings of Cool ('babacool' in their parlance) the French are in trouble in Iraq. And they were in the ones opposing sending troops. If they don't learn something from this, they will never learn anything.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 4:50 PM
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August 27, 2004

My grandmother used to divide things between...

... good for the Jews/not good for the Jews. This is definitely not good for the Jews.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 5:19 PM
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Adam Bellow...

... a sometime visitor to this blog... tells the story of his political migration from the Zabar's left in New York Magazine. Although Adam is the son of we-all-know-who, his tale is not all that exceptional, which is why it is interesting and pertinent.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 3:17 PM
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Some More Black Comedy...

...from the usual sources.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 12:33 PM
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Fear of Flying w/o Erica Jong

For a mix of business and personal reasons, I will be making my third LA-New York flight of the summer tomorrow, this time to blog at the convention. I'm not prone to it, but for the second time in my life I am experiencing "fear of flying." (The first was on a two a. m. Sudan Air flight from London to Cairo in the midst of a 1979 Israeli invasion of Lebanon.) The latest reports out of Russia are giving me pause. According to the New Scientist, the exact explosive used in at least one of yesterday's crashes has been isolated:

Hexogen, also known as RDX or cyclonite, is a ring-shaped, stable chemical that only becomes explosive with the assistance of a detonator. It was widely used during World War II, where it was mixed with TNT, and is now a common constituent of plastic explosives such as Semtex. It was used in the four Moscow apartment bombings that killed more than 200 people in 1999.

Chechens, of course. But as has been reported, Al Qaeda has been in league with and training Chechen fighters for some time, so it's hard to distinguish between one and the other. (I am having less and less patience for supposed experts and government people who erect firewalls between such groups. I wonder what the motives of these experts are.)

Meanwhile, I am getting to be an old hand at the security lines at LAX. I sure know how to whip that laptop out for inspection. Still, flying close to the convention is not pleasant to contemplate. But fortunately for me, because I procrastinated with my reservations, I am not flying into NYC on a direct flight, but breaking it up in another city. Somehow I feel it's safer that way.

UPDATE: For those (like me) attempting to play dodge 'em cars on the way from the airport to our hotels, and the to the Garden, Kesher Talk has all the latest on the Bakuninite hangouts.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 11:38 AM
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Bringing It On.... and on.. and on... and on...and... (UPDATED)

I didn't think there could be more of this stuff, but there is:

Reporting by the Washington Post's Michael Dobbs points out that although the Kerry campaign insists that it has released Kerry's full military records, the Post was only able to get six pages of records under its Freedom of Information Act request out of the "at least a hundred pages" a Naval Personnel Office spokesman called the "full file."

What could that more than 100 pages contain? Questions have been raised about President Bush's drill attendance in the reserves, but Bush received his honorable discharge on schedule. Kerry, who should have been discharged from the Navy about the same time -- July 1, 1972 -- wasn't given the discharge he has on his campaign Web site until July 13, 1978. What delayed the discharge for six years? This raises serious questions about Kerry's performance while in the reserves that are far more potentially damaging than those raised against Bush.

I'm getting so bored with John Kerry's conflicting military record... or lack thereof... that I'm thinking of proposing my own Constitutional Amendment banning all politicians who begin a speech with a military salute from seeking higher office. The way things are going, it might just pass. One thing we do know - Michael Dukakis is no longer the most inept Democratic Party candidate to run for president in our lifetimes.

UPDATE: At the risk of beating the proverbially dead horse, here's why I think Kerry is getting so little support outside the mainstream media (often motivated by self-preservation). Back in Vietnam days, most of us on the then-Left realized the war was being fought by a largely working-class army with a great percentage of people of color. Few of us wanted to attack them because we were running around fancy universities protesting while the less economically fortunate were getting blown up.

When John Kerry came back from that war, having gone over for whatever reasons, he personally accused, with little or no evidence, those same working-class soldiers of excessive numbers of atrocities. What kind of a Lefty does that? What kind of a man does that? There were dozens of other ways to oppose the Vietnam War, many of them far more substantive. But he chose the low road. Well, the Law of Karma was the operative law in those days and it has come back to haunt him.

SECOND UPDATE: I have been corrected by several commenters here on my assumptions about race and class in Vietnam. It seems I was completely wrong about race and not as right as I thought I was about class. Thanks for the update and the facts. That's at least one mistake I won't make again and I apologize for the inaccuracy. Still, as far as Kerry is concerned, the Law of Karma applies.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:42 AM
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Debut of the Fall Season?

While the New Reactionaries continue to ignore or deny that we are at war, Debkafile's original assertion that the Russian plane crashes were the work of Al Qaeda or related groups appears increasingly likely... although the FSB is not quite admitting it yet. [They're not in the "admitting" business.-ed. Neither were their predecessors at Drezhinsky Square.] Nevertheless, according to CNN:

Based on the findings, the FSB says it believes terrorism is to blame for the crash of the Siberian Airlines Tupolev 154, bound for the Black Sea resort of Sochi, killing all 46 on board.

Siberia Airlines said on its Web site that its air traffic control center notified it that the Tu-154 had activated a hijack alert.

Meanwhile, a newspaper in Moscow is headlining that "Russia now has a Sept. 11." More ominously, the Debka report says the Al Qaeda website claiming responsibility is promising more of the same soon, this is the first salvo in their new round of attacks, the Fall Season, as it were. [Are you starting to believe Debka?-ed. As much as The New York Times.]

It's hard not to relate this to the American election. While the media, eager to put to rest the subject that has made them look so hopelessly biased, quickly buys into a game of "John [McCain]Knows Best," the people themselves seem more concerned. This hardly seems the time to hand over the government to the putative hero of a war we lost, especially since the present one is even more dangerous and historically important.

UPDATE: Of course, the game of "John Knows Best" may have its Johns mixed up. In the words of the Second John:

Mr. Kerry, we ask you not to repeat the same mistake you made when you returned from war: Please stop maligning your fellow veterans. Dealing with us should be easy. Just answer our charges. Produce your Vietnam journal and notes, and execute Standard Form 180 so the American people can see your complete military record--not just the few forms you put on your website or show to campaign biographers.

Fair enough.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 2:50 AM
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August 26, 2004

I didn't believe John Kerry...

...when he testified in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1971, although I certainly didn't say so at the time, not to anybody, not even to friends and family. I didn't want to do anything to undermine the antiwar causa, even though I sensed the Winter Soldiers were exaggerating their claims of atrocities more than a little bit. You just didn't want to criticize. It was not done in what I considered to be polite society. So in order not to have a guilty conscience or to have my mindset disrupted, I didn't listen to what Kerry said very closely, lumping it together with general (and positive) antiwar propaganda and filtering out the allegations of ears being cut off and the like. I heard them, but I didn't hear them, if you know what I mean.

Tonight I and I suspect many others will get a second chance to review that testimony on CSPAN. I am not looking forward to it and regard the experience as an obligation. And, yes, I've already read it. I have the sensation that Kerry is imploding, at least for now, and I get no pleasure from it. I can't understand why the Democratic Party didn't see this coming. Their "paid political consultants" (talk about strange occupations) should all resign and do something useful for humanity, like taking care of cancer patients.

The old me also would have branded people like John O'Neill a reactionary. (I didn't use the word "pig." Even then it made my stomach crawl.) But evidently O'Neill aquits himself pretty well in the Washington Post. Kerry, on the other hand, is not answering many questions. What could he really say?

At the risk of repeating myself, I'd like to emphasize that I'm not really angry at John Kerry. He was a child of his times, like we all are. He just never grew out of it. I'm angry at the Democratic Party for running him for President. (And for those who are still asking that banal question -- will I support him if he's elected? Of course, I will. And I'll hope like Hell I was wrong in everything I said. We're at a point in history where none of us could do otherwise.)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 3:30 PM
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Those Pesky Anarchists

According to the New York Daily News:

Fifty of the country's leading anarchists are expected to be in the city for the Republican National Convention, and a handful of them are hard-core extremists with histories of violent and disruptive tactics, according to police intelligence sources.

Police said each of the 50 have up to 50 followers who are willing to be arrested during disturbances at the convention. This group, police say, is expected to engage for the most part in civil disobedience, including sit-ins in front of delegates' buses. They also may stage more direct-action tactics, such as vandalizing McDonald's and Starbucks.

Now if I were an anarchist and looking to disrupt the Republican Convention, I'd be hanging out at Le Cirque, not McDonald's or Starbucks. [They'd probably find the Kerrys there too! -ed. No doubt. But, hey, these are anarchists. They don't have any use for Republicans or Democrats. I'm doing them a favor. Right.] But apropos of black flags and revolution, I have been asked if I attended the Chicago Convention. Short answer: no. But I did come to know some of the better known participants, like Abbie Hoffman. He even came to visit me while "underground" on the Universal lot back in 1979 because he was pissed I'd parodied him in the film version of The Big Fix. Actually he had another, probably more important, clandestine mission on the lot that day -- flogging screen rights to his Steal This Book. Hey, this is America. Everything's for sale. One of the anarchists in New York next week will probably be making a book deal. [You'll be carrying your D70. Maybe you can do the cover snap.-ed. Maybe.]

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 10:23 AM
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Unconventional Convention Blogging?

I have been wondering what the Hell I will be doing at the Republican Convention. [Besides going to parties? -ed. Right, besides that.] Though I've been known to wear a fedora, I don't particularly have an affinity for people running around in funny hats. And I'm not a Republican... or a Democrat, these days, for that matter. But that may be the point - and my assignment. I am going to investigate whether the two-party system actually works anymore.

Yes, I know that's biting off more than I can chew. [I advise you to stick to the parties. -ed. We know you love martinis.] And, yes, this is only one convention with a predetermined conclusion. But it gives me something to think about. The conventional wisdom is that the two big tents find a way to keep America going forward in a healthy manner that parliamentary systems don't. Yet somehow I and I think a number of others who post here are feeling disenfranchised by both parties, aliens in both. And, ironically, those people are of the political center. The middle has been pushed to the fringe by our system. Perhaps that is why I am looking forward to Schwarzenegger's speech more than any other event at the convention. [Didn't you used to think he was a dumb actor? -ed. Actually not, I thought he was a shrewd real estate investor. He bought up half of Main Street in Santa Monica years ago. I wish I'd bought a measly storefront.] More to come, obviously. Don't expect it to be consistent.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:00 AM
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August 25, 2004

The Public Hanging of a Sixteen Year Old Girl in Iran

More news is emerging of the sad public hanging of the 16-year old girl in Iran. To recap:

On Sunday August 15, 2004, a 16 year old girl by the name of Atefe Rajabi, daughter of Ghassem Rajabi, was executed in the town of Neka, located in the province of Mazandaran, for "engaging in acts incompatible with chastity". The execution was carried out by the order of Neka's "judicial administrator" and was approved by both the Supreme Court of the Islamic Republic and the chief of the nation's "judiciary branch."

Three months ago, during her appearance before the local court, fiercely angry the young girl hurled insults at the local judge, Haji Reza, who is also the chief judicial administrator of the city, and it is said as another expression of protest took off some of her clothes in the courtroom. This act by the young girl made the administrator so furious that he evaluated her file personally and in less than three months received a go-ahead from the Islamic Republic's Supreme Court for her execution. The animosity and anger of Haji Reza was so strong that he personally put the rope around the girl's delicate neck and personally gave the signal to the crane operator, by raising his hand, to begin pulling the rope.

There's more at the link above, if you can stomach it. Meanwhile, an Iranian doctor named Ramin Etabar posted this plea to all of us:

The murderous mullahs of Iran have executed another minor. The interviews of locals in the city of Neka conducted by Radio Farda revealed that this child was either mentally retarded or was suffering from a psychiatric illness.
As a physician and human right's activist I can not express my outrage enough.
The terrorist regime in Iran has been killing children for the past twenty five years. The virgin girls are raped by these Islamic hooligans the night before their execution in order to "prevent them from going to heaven".
We the Iranian people hold the E.U. and corporate sponsors of the terror regime responsible for continuation of tyrannies in Iran.
Please do your humanitarian share of responsibility and forward this content to the press, multinational corporations and government officials of your country of residence.
May god bless the souls of the genocide victims of the I.R.I.

It would be interesting if our media confronted the presidential candidates with questions about Iran. As most of us realize, the Islamic Republic which practices this barbarism is on the edge of nuclear weapons, if not already over it. What issue could be more important?

By the way, those who are unaware of the public hangings sponsored by the Iranian mullahs, if you have the stomach for it, images can be found here.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 10:33 PM
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I Was a Vietnam Protester, but...

...these two posts by Peter Robinson greatly disturb me. One contains Kerry's famous testimony about American servicemen cutting off the enemies' ears and shooting them like "dogs for fun" in Vietnam [Didn't you say some pretty extreme stuff back then?-ed. Yeah, but not that bad and not under oath.]. The other has more recent remarks (just the other day) from a Marine who served in Vietnam then and wishes Kerry would simply apologize. As Robinson himself writes of the current impasse:

At any time over the past year, John Kerry could have issued a statement that would have made the present, frenzied controversy all but inconceivable. "I am still proud of opposing the Vietnam War," he might have said, "but I recognize that after returning from combat, and while still in my twenties, I made statements that were misjudged and intemperate. For any offense I may have caused--especially to my fellow veterans--I now wish to apologize." Kerry wouldn't do it. And he still won't. What is he thinking?

Well, I guess that's what makes politicians. They don't apologize. [Unlike writers. You guys apologize when you get up in the morning.-ed. Hey, I snore.]

UPDATE: On a similar note.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 5:30 PM
Comments (86)

I'll buy you a diamond ring my friend

If it makes you feel all right
I'll get you anything my friend
If it makes you feel all right
'Cause I don't care too much for money
For money can't buy me love.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 4:15 PM
Comments (15)

Mazeltov or "Party On, Dude"?

Israel wins its first ever gold medal in windsurfing!

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:50 AM
Comments (4)

A Timely Piece

Jonah Goldberg stands up for free speech during elections. When better?

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:28 AM
Comments (6)

Why We Are In Iraq - Part 307

Read this article on Darfur by Salim Mansur in the London Free Press. (hat tip: Sheryl)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:19 AM
Comments (3)

Tourist Travel Alert

New Zealand has signed a trade and political deal with Iran's mullahs. Shame on them. That puts Auckland off my itinerary for now. I'm sure others will feel the same.

UPDATE: I wonder what percentage of the New Zealand public knows that they are trading with a country where the government hangs minors in public squares for having had extra-marital sex. I wonder if the Prime Minister herself knows.

MORE: This oped from London Arabic daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsa regarding Iran's nuclear threat is probably not widely read in New Zealand either.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:21 AM
Comments (13)

The (Media) Struggle Continues

When the history of the current American... scratch that... world media revolution is written, the Summer of 2004 will occupy an interesting chapter. We are in what might seem to be but an early phase of monumental change, but we are within only a five-letter word of everything going topsy-turvy. That word is, of course, money. The mainstream media, whether it knows it or not (and I think it does), lives in mortal fear of a serious income stream heading toward blogs, even worse being redirected towards them.

After that, who knows what would happen? The one advantage held by the MSM, the ability to pay for research, would be vitiated. Already blogs, working for nothing or next to nothing, provide information unavailable elsewhere (from Iraq, for one obvious and crucial example). Taken together, they have a raw research capability beyond what any newspaper or television network could conceive. Not only that, they have the potential for more sophisticated and original analysis of those events because there are no gatekeepers between commentators and readers.

Which is a way of segueing into why this summer will be seen as important. If there is a more interesting commentator on world events today in any medium than Wretchard of the Belmont Club, I do not know him or her. He wrote yesterday:

The undercard in the Kerry vs Swiftvets bout is Mainstream Media vs Kid Internet, two distinctly different fights, but both over information. The first is really the struggle over the way Vietnam will be remembered by posterity; whether its amanuensis will be John Kerry for the antiwar movement or those who felt betrayed by them. The victor in that struggle will get to inscribe the authoritative account of that mythical conflict in Southeast Asia: not in its events, but in its meaning. The fight will be as bitter as men for whom only memory remains can be bitter. But the undercard holds a fascination of its own. The reigning champion, the Mainstream Media, has been forced against all odds to accept the challenge of an upstart over the coverage of the Swiftvets controversy.

I am one of those who is skeptical that the overcard in this double bill will ever be resolved. I can't even resolve it for myself. For the moment, the undercard interests me more becuase it is about our world going forward. In a sense, the overcard can be read as a stalking horse for the undercard. A power struggle is under way. John Kerry says he is a hero of Vietnam. The blogosphere says let's examine that. The mainstream media says no, no, no. The blogosphere counters. And so far the blogosphere has won. Why? Not to reach any final conclusions about Vietnam. They may be, alas, lost in the jungle. But to look at the character of the man who wishes to lead us. This is the isse the mainstream media seems to want to evade. The blogosphere won't let them

The MSM tried again last night when John Kerry appeared on Jon Stewart's The Daily Show, another foray into "The Philosophy of As If." Jon Stewart was undoubtedly chosen because he has the affect of a rebel--he's a cool. But he is a card-carrying member of the mainstream media, working for Comedy Central. It should come as no surprise, as Instapundit points out, that Stewart did not follow up, as many bloggers would, on Kerry's non-response to his Cambodia question. Stewart's part of the club, after all. He doesn't have an interest in rocking the boat. But the boat's rocking, everyone. Hang on. We may be going over the falls soon... or sooner or later.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 6:39 AM
Comments (228)

August 24, 2004

Russian Plane Crashes

Itar-Tass is now reporting the two missing Russian Tupolev aircraft have crashed and that terrorism may be involved:

The incidents may have been the result of terrorist attacks, Itar-Tass cited unidentified air traffic controllers as saying in Moscow. Yevegeniy Khorishko, a spokesman for the Russian embassy in Washington, said in a telephone interview Russian reports said the aircraft left Moscow's Demodedovo airport within three minutes of each other.

I flew out of Demodedovo (Moscow's second airport) a year and a half ago on my way to Khanty-Mansisk, Siberia (yes, you read that correctly). I remember thinking the airport was on the disorganized side at the time.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 5:26 PM
Comments (19)

The Cheney Household Gets Its Act Together

Not much more than a month ago, the media was reporting a rift in the Cheney household on the gay marriage issue:

Lynne Cheney, the vice president's wife and mother of a lesbian, said Sunday that states should have the final say over the legal status of personal relationships.

That stand puts her at odds with the vice president on the need for the constitutional amendment now under debate in the Senate that effectively would ban gay marriage.

Well, not anymore, apparently, if we're to believe this "developing" Drudge Report. Evidently the Vice President said the following when asked "What do you think of homosexual marriage?" out on the hustings today:

"Lynne and I have a gay daughter, so it's an issue our family is very familiar with. With the respect to the question of relationships, my general view is freedom means freedom for everyone... People ought to be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want to.

"The question that comes up with the issue of marriage is what kind of official sanction or approval is going to be granted by government? Historically, that's been a relationship that has been handled by the states. The states have made that fundamental decision of what constitutes a marriage."

Doesn't sound too far from his wife. What does this add up to? The obvious - gay rights in our society, even among supposed conservatives, are rocketing ahead as well they should. Sure ups and downs will occur, but the barriers in this last battle of the civil rights movement are coming down. The Cheney are acting like good parents of an obviously terrific daughter. [But what about Halliburton? -ed. Oh, gimme a break!]

UPDATE: The more complete coverage on CNN is very interesting. It pits Cheney against Bush on the issue, to some extent. I, of course, am on Cheney's side here.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 2:16 PM
Comments (87)

The Good Life in Baghdad

Omar writes a restaurant review. Definitely sounds vaut le detour, as they say in the Guide Miche. I wouldn't mind an order of that grilled maskoof myself. Omar adds:

You sit in a restaurant like this one and see families relaxing with their children playing and having fun late at night and you feel that there's 'something' wrong in the way MSM is dealing with the Iraqi issue. I watch TV and I see hell breaking around me then I go outside and see enough normalcy AND progress to make me believe that the people in the media are not here to report how's life going but rather they are here reporting pre-prepared stories and to be faced with something that contradicts the picture they have in their minds would be really annoying and will mean more hard work to try to find the truth or something close to it.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:52 AM
Comments (8)

The Hits Keep on Coming!

Because of the Kerry/Swiftie conflagration, to a surprising extent the blogs may end up driving this election. Instapundit is not the only blog with his stats at new highs. This one too. And I imagine there are a number of others.

We are on Internet Time and the mainstream media and cable television, although they may pretend otherwise, will be watching us like the proverbial hawks. Heady as this is, it is incumbent on us to be responsible and to fact check others and ourselves. Partisanship will reign as it always does, here and elsewhere, but we must set an example by being up front about our biases. Bloggers are human and therefore not impartial. MSM may act as if they are, but everyone knows better. We must set an example too in correcting our mistakes. Don't bury them the way the major newspapers often do. Put them on top for all to see. And remember this above all - we are all going to have to live with each other on November 3.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:27 AM
Comments (55)

The Wall Street Journal Scores a Perfect Ten

...and gets the gold on the floor exercises and the parallel bars today with its featured editorial on Kerry's Vietnam Boomerang:

The irony here is that a main reason Mr. Kerry has focused so much on Vietnam is to avoid debating Iraq and the rest of his long record in the Senate. He wants Americans to believe that a four-month wartime biography is credential enough to be commander-in-chief. But a candidate who runs on biography can't merely pick the months of his life that he likes--any more than a candidate who makes Vietnam the heart of his campaign can confine the resulting debate to his personal home video.

No, he can't.

UPDATE: JPod with another take on "Christmas in Cambodia." This one particularly jibes with my memory of that time.

MORE: OOPS... from Drudge (yes, I know, but so far he seems to have been relatively accurate on this story... More accurate than the NYT):

Kerry's campaign now says is possible first Purple Heart was awarded for unintentional self-inflicted wound...

# In Kerry's own journal written 9 days later, he writes he and his crew, quote, 'hadn't been shot at yet'... Developing...

MORE: Fred Kaplan's embarrassing blather on Slate is completely decimated here and here. I have some unsolicited advice for people like Kaplan. They should think twice about what they're writing now. It doesn't matter if their candidate loses, but if he wins, their propaganda will not easily be forgiven. It will contribute to a truly ugly America driven by lies from quarters that claim to be "responsible." I, for one, am being pushed further into the Bush camp by them. That is also my reaction to people who comment on here, particularly anonymously, without reference to facts. They truly hurt their own cause. I'm sure others feel that way.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 12:42 AM
Comments (122)

August 23, 2004

A Fascinating Exchange...

... here between Bob Dole and John Kerry, another indication to me why this election is about character. Apropos of which, I just watched Paul Galanti on Hannity & Colmes. Galanti is the ex-POW (six years in a North Vietnamese prison) who worked on the McCain Campaign and now finds Kerry dishonest and "unfit to command." What interested me about Galanti, who seemed entirely credible whether you agree with him or not, is that he recognized the Senator from hearing the young Kerry's testimony in Congress broadcast inside Galanti's Vietnamese prison. Kerry was the only person Galanti ever heard pronounce Ghengis Khan with the pretentious locution Djenn-jus Khan. I haven't heard this elsewhere either. It made me think of the old marxist term "Class Privilege." That's what Kerry carries with him. It may be why he was able to forget about all the POWs and swallow the Winter Soldiers' rhetoric whole while testifying.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 6:58 PM
Comments (87)

Which Side Are You On? ... New Jersey Division

Turns out NJ Governor James McGreevey, who just came out as gay, trumpeting his "courage" as a step forward in gay rights, does not support Gay Marriage. According to the New York Daily News, he made that clear last March when the first gay couple got married in Asbury Park, NJ:

McGreevey supports domestic partnership measures but not gay marriage. "The governor believes that the domestic partnership law is the best way to protect people's basic human rights," Rasmussen said. "We're working hard to implement that law now. The issue of marriage is one that is before the courts."

I apologize for blogging about McGreevey again, because he's so creepy and reprehensible he's scarcely worth the bandwidth. But sadly he's all too typical of American politics today. And we deserve better. People ask what I mean about the New Reactionaries. Well, this is an example. (hat tip: Fausta)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 3:24 PM
Comments (15)

I've been practicing...

... holding my ears since I read this report on what to expect at the Republican Convention -- N.Y. readies acoustic device to control protests of GOP:

Forget the megaphones. Police will have a much more high-tech - and louder - option to make themselves heard over the din of Manhattan traffic and noisy protesters outside the Republican National Convention.

The sound machines are being tested at an airfield in a remote section of Brooklyn along with other devices such as hand-held radiation detectors - for a possible "dirty bomb" - and mechanical barriers strong enough to stop a moving vehicle in its tracks.

Now doesn't that make you feel better? (via Tim Blair, who will be holding his ears too.)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 12:49 PM
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Bringing It On.... and on... and on...

Some people, including a few commenters on here, have welcomed the Kerry/Swiftie controversy as an opportunity finally to exorcise the demon of Vietnam. Good luck to them - that's not going to happen. The Vietnam War is far too complex and murky a phenomenon ever to brook an easy answer, involving as it does the French at Dienbienphu, the Kennedys and the Diem regime, Papa Ho and Country Joe, Boat People and the zeitgeist of a generation. Very few have the guts to revise or even modulate their opinions about all this, even if they wanted to. Some wouldn't dare because it might cost them friends or a paycheck. Vietnam is a sleeping dog that should have been left to lie.

Only John Kerry wouldn't leave it alone because he wanted to get elected. One man's overweening ambition is now exacerbating the polarization in an already polarized nation. I guess we should have seen it coming. Kerry is the kind of man for whom self-regard is a lifestyle. What other "anti-war" undergraduate would enlist in the very war he was condemning because, according to one of his own explanations anyway, he had been unable to get a deferment for foreign study in France? Talk about courage of your convictions! Then this same "war hero" comes back to join the most intemperate and logically impaired part of the anti-war movement. And this is the man the Democrats want us to back for President?

Well, here's the sad thing. He may win. And in that case, the wounds will only widen. The endless internecine culture war of our society will continue and possibly worsen. Had the Democrats nominated some traditional apparatchik like Dick Gephardt... who might have won more easily anyway... most likely no such thing would have occurred. Power would have been transferred in the traditional manner and government would have gone about its compromising business with far less vitriol, Vietnam left as fodder for historians' doorstoppers, as it should be. But instead we are left with Kerry's coiffure. It is far too expensive for me.

UPDATE: Hitchens, nor surprisingly, rolls his eyes at Kerry's strange Vietnamese obsession as well:

I have no idea whether John Kerry is or is not telling the unvarnished truth about his service in Vietnam. (I am pretty sure, though, that he was unwise to prompt the release of the photograph of himself with his latest long-silent defender, William Rood of the Chicago Tribune. The shot of Kerry awkwardly shouldering a rocket launcher for the camera makes him look like a complete poseur.) It's obviously ridiculous for either side to accuse the other of using their recollections for "partisan" purposes. What else? Kerry himself didn't make a fetish of this until he sought a party's nomination (which is what "partisan" means) and his nemesis John O'Neill has been silent since the last time this all came up, which was in the Nixon era. Did Kerry imagine that if he dressed up in his old uniform again, his former critics would decide to keep quiet? What, if anything, was he thinking?

On that previous occasion, though, Kerry was using his service as a warrior to acquire credentials as an antiwarrior. Now, he is cashing in the same credentials to propose himself as alliance-builder and commander in chief. This is not a distinction without a difference.

He goes on here.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 11:38 AM
Comments (108)

"It Was Only a Flesh Wound, Kemosabe!"

Americans over fifty (and most others in reruns) grew up on those immortal words from Tonto to the Lone Ranger -- and they may come back to haunt John Kerry, especially now that Bob Dole, whose wounds were most obviously not of the "flesh" variety, entered the fray:

"One day he's saying that we were shooting civilians, cutting off their ears, cutting off their heads, throwing away his medals or his ribbons," Dole said. "The next day he's standing there, 'I want to be president because I'm a Vietnam veteran.' Maybe he should apologize to all the other 2.5 million veterans who served. He wasn't the only one in Vietnam," said Dole, whose World War II wounds left him without the use of his right arm.

Dole added: "And here's, you know, a good guy, a good friend. I respect his record. But three Purple Hearts and never bled that I know of. I mean, they're all superficial wounds. Three Purple Hearts and you're out."

I think Dole gets to the heart of it. Kerry sounds like a man who acts as if he were the only one who served in Vietnam. And for that matter, the only one who protested the war.

In the same AP report, the man I voted for in the primary and well might have supported were he nominated, John Edwards, ends up carrying water for a cause I suspect he strongly doubts -- that is that Swiftie's ads should be taken off the air.

"This is the moment of truth for President Bush," Edwards said in North Carolina. "The American people have to hear directly that these ads need to come off the air." Kerry also fought back in another new ad.

It's certainly odd to see a former trial lawyer calling for suppression of speech. (Well, maybe it's not.) But I wish he had stuck to the arguments, such as they are, although thus far there has been no response to the Swiftie's most susbstantial charge, the "Christmas in Cambodia" issue. And of course the second ad is mostly Kerry's own words. Does Edwards want to suppress that? Well, trial lawyers have tried time and again, but somehow I suspect the North Carolina Senator is thinking.... I didn't bargain on this.

UPDATE: I didn't think the Kerry Campaign was going to implode over all this, but reading this report from the Boston Globe on Command Post, I'm beginning to wonder. I guess this is what happens when somebody finally questions The Braggart Soldier in the ale house.

MORE: One last thing for the moment, it strikes me that Kerry is one of those who inadvertently subscribes to Hans Vaihinger's fascinating "Philosophy of As If." As a personal survival strategy, it has it points. But in the White House... whoa!

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:02 AM
Comments (140)

August 22, 2004

Live in Jersey, It's Saturday Night!

Am I the only one to see New Jersey Governor McGreevey as just another reactionary wolf in progressive sheep's clothes? He has an oped today in the NYT in which he again wraps his personal angst and political activites in the mantle of the Gay Rights Struggle.

While there are many different and sometimes competing influences, it is my humble hope that my "coming out" could, in some small way, help those gay Americans who have yet to become open with their sexuality. To be gay, for me, was not a choice, but simply stating a reality. Now at peace with arguably one of the most important truths of my life, it is my prayer that I will now be free to live openly and integrate my sexuality with my daily life. This integration will hopefully help my actions, my thoughts and my heart to be in alignment going forward, keeping me from the pitfalls of a divided self or secret truths.

Let's leave aside for the moment that this is about the governor of the state with the second largest number of citizens killed on 9/11 choosing his paramour for Home Security Advisor... that might be enough to charge a man with treason whether the paramour was man, woman or zebra... and examine whether McGreevey is a help or hindrance to the gay rights movement.

Well, we are in the year 2004. That is already thirty-five years since gays courageously fought off cops trying to bust the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, thus launching the modern American gay rights movement. It is thirty-one years since the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders. Out Magazine itself is decades old. We have reached a point where in polite society, anti-gay is deemed Neanderthal, as it should be. Equal legal rights for gays are recognized in many and increasing areas. There are openly gay members of Congress and more sure to come. Gay marriage is in the air and seems inevitable in some form, again as it should be.

Yet, Governor McGreevey chose to hide his gayness. Ah, but it was New Jersey, you say, land of The Sopranos. He couldn't have run for office as an "out" homosexual and have won. Really? Well, maybe, maybe not, although I'd wager five to ten years from now hardly anyone in Joisy would give an RA, assuming they do now. No, what we are dealing with here is ambition in its most naked form (no pun intended). In reality, Jim McGreevey set back gay rights by choosing to live, and therefore ratifying, a white picket fence lifestyle as the road to the governor's office. The Gay Community and therefore gay rights was the last thing on his mind. The only thing on his mind was power -- and continues to be.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:42 AM
Comments (39)

Encore Une Fois

Commenter Mark Moore alerted me to more sad news from La Douce France again today. Arsonists have destroyed a Jewish center in Paris, leaving behind anti-Semitic graffiti. From another report, Paris police chief Jean-Paul Proust, who visited the scene, vowed: "We will find those responsible and take them before the courts." [You couldn't resist that name, could you?--ed. Eh, bien.]

UPDATE: Make that deux fois. (via Instapundit)

For the francophone, Le Monde coverage of the "social center" burning is here. In truth, it seems French authorities are quite concerned about the recent rise in anti-Semitism and taking it seriously. How much they can do is another question. Incidents have skewed way up in the first half of 2004 and they weren't that low to begin with.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:50 AM
Comments (29)

Out of a Movie

Munch's famous "The Scream" stolen in Olso. Countless screenplays and novels have been written about stealing the "Mona Lisa." Maybe that's why they went for this one first.... Actually the ML was stolen back in 1911. (hat tip: Matthew W. Sheffield)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:25 AM
Comments (10)

August 21, 2004

Another Public Hanging in Iran (UPDATED)

This time it's a 16 year old girl. What century are we in?

UPDATE: Today's Iranian outrage here.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:13 PM
Comments (23)

Lifson Takes On Nagourney

Some of you may have noticed that Adam Nagourney had some nasty things to say about blogs this morning. Thomas Lifson demurs:

The dogmatic insistence by Nagourney in the unreliability of the new media is sour grapes, indeed. The newspaper which brought Jayson Blair to national attention is in no position to look down its nose on anyone. Even today, a peer of the Times, The Washington Post has been outed by this websitem for repeating misinformation.

The public has caught on to the false pretensions in number sufficient to counter-balance the bias of the large establishment media outlets. Read the rest.

UPDATE: Beldar addresses the latest press salvo from the Chicago Trib.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 12:48 PM
Comments (73)

You're welcome, Omar

Boy, do you all deserve it!

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 12:08 PM
Comments (1)

From the Irrepressible N. Z. Bear

Some notes on campaign finance disclosure -- or the lack thereof -- in light of recent complaints about who is paying for what (ads, etc.).

UPDATE: More financial information here.

MORE on money here. [There always is.-ed.]

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 11:36 AM
Comments (3)

Dept. of Realpolitik

This blog [Are you going to brag now?-ed. After what you said about John Kerry? Okay, okay]... This blog, which has made some minor, completely unnoticed and insubstantial contributions [Now you're talking.-ed.] to the Free Iran movement, was suprised to see that that same movement has some friends in surprising places. (via the always interesting and modest Imshin).

UPDATE: Be sure to scroll down on Imshin to the "Affaire du lycee Montaigne." This is an fascinating case I was going to fictionalize for a novel (I even visited the school last December), but decided against because my knowledge of French culture, despite many trips, didn't feel sufficient when I began writing. [Hey, you'll write about anything on this blog.-ed. For three pargraphs.]

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 10:55 AM
Comments (1)

The Why of it all so far...

...(Iraq, etc.)... is expressed here by Erik Svane as well as I have seen it anywhere -- with extensive corroborating links. (via: Prairie Fire)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:54 AM
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Don't Go for the Gold

Those who have been following the Kerry/Swift Boat controversy on this blog know that I agree with Glenn and am not especially concerned with the medals argument. It's not that I don't think the Swifties are right. In the end, I just think it's an unwinnable argument. To put it in a context many of us have been watching of late, the medals controversy is not like the 100-meter butterfly where there is (usually) one discernible winner. It is like the 10-meter dive where there are too many judges handing out conflicting and biased 6.7s, 7.2s, etc. (at least the East Germans are gone!).

The crux of this discussion is what it reveals of the character of a man aspiring to be President of the United States who used his Vietnam service as the basis of his campaign. Two problems have been revealed.

1. Kerry's so far unexplained braggadocio about being under fire in Cambodia (based on several assertions, including one on the Senate floor) is highly disturbing because it indicates either a liar or someone out of touch with reality.

2. His willingness to testify before Congress on behalf of the Winter Soldiers, likening his former comrades to "Ghengis Khan" without seeming to question whether his sources (those same Winter Soldiers) had gone off the deep end (boy, had they ever!)raises significant questions about Kerry's ambitiousness, values and loyalty. Speaking personally on that one, I was completely anti-war at that time, but thought the Winter Soldiers were nuts (to put it bluntly). And I wasn't the only one on the anti-war side who felt that way. I can assure you.

UPDATE: Mickey K. is predicting "a big Sunday paper** pro-Kerry eyewitness hit (on the Silver Star incident--that's the one with the beached boat and the fleeing VC)" --- the double stars, I take it, are from the Chicago Trib. To me that is all spin, whatever it is, and a perfect example of why the medal issue is beside the point. No one can prove whether someone really deserved a medal under fire thirty-five years ago or whether he didn't. That is subjective in the end. Who cares? [Don't you have a framed Academy Award nomination on the wall of your office?--ed. Yes, and I'm just showing off, still am by mentioning it.]

What is genuinely important is that Kerry appears (at least so far)to have lied on the floor of the Senate during a foreign policy debate. He also repeated that self-congratulatory lie (Cambodia) on several other occasions. It is also important that he hugely over-stated the supposed war crimes of his comrades in front of Congress. He can have all the medals he wants. Il Capitano always has.

UPDATE: Mathew Continetti appears to strike the right balance so far.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:16 AM
Comments (249)

August 20, 2004

"And the wildest dreams of Kew...

...are the facts of Kathmandu," Kipling famously wrote in 1895, but I suspect even the great adventure writer would have been disenchanted by the new facts on the ground in Nepal. According to The Guardian "Maoists tightened their grip on Kathmandu yesterday when two powerful bombs were detonated and a policeman seriously wounded by suspected guerrillas who have blockaded Nepal's capital for a third day."

Maoists in 2004, who'd have thought it? But who'd have thought our election would be revolving around Vietnam? All the world's a flashback.

I visited Kathmandu in 1989 on the way to go trekking in the Himalayas with some friends, but I found the city itself relatively uninteresting compared to the mountains and the Sherpa/Tibetan Buddhist culture of the high country (and I do mean high). Kathmandu itself suffered from a retro sixties feel (still does in another way, obviously) with a neighborhood of backpackers dealing hash. I won't say whether I indulged, but if I did, I promise you I inhaled (but did not bogart). I did have a great trip and always wanted to go back with my family, have Sheryl and Madeleine see Annapurna, just as I wanted them to see Luxor and Abu Simbel, the nubian villages of the Sudan, all places I got to visit. I wonder now if that is meant to be? What's happening to the world?

But one place we know not to ask for help is the UN.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:14 PM
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They Were All William Calley

Not surprisingly, the new ad from the Swift Boat Veterans gets to the heart of the controversy and takes us back to the days of Vietnam in ways that I never dreamed would happen in 2004. These veterans are furious with Kerry for implying, essentially, that they were all William Calleys. I am really conflicted about the war itself, but I certainly don't blame the veterans for feeling this way. Some of them evidently had declined to say the very things Kerry did, although they were tortured by the North Vietnamese to do so. Kerry's words in the ad are extremely harsh. Now I wonder... even more than I previously did... why the Senator chose to base his campaign on his Vietnam service. Why would he want to do that, other than the obvious innoculation against Bush's anti-terror record? (There are other ways to handle that.) It seems particularly odd for a man who once compared American servicemen to Genghis Khan to call attention to this. The only explanation I can offer is he is wrestling with private demons and has secret wishes only his analyst could know. Unfortunately, there is no way to tell if this analysis is "terminable or interminable," as Freud would say. And we are left picking up the bill.

UPDATE: Amateur Kerry analysts (who, moi?) might want to have a look at this. Much of it makes sense.

MORE: I notice some debate on here whether the Swift Vets are getting traction with voters. I certainly don't know... and I don't think the story is written yet, El 'Awrence... but this report would from the AP would indicate they are beginning to. But speaking of Lawrence of Arabia, I would just like to remind everybody of the corny truth from that movie: "Nothing is written."

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 10:10 AM
Comments (204)

The Which Blair Project II

It's time for bloggers to watch our backs. I'm not kidding. If the Jayson Blair Scandal resulted in a wholesale reshuffling at The New York Times, where will the Kerry/Swift Boat Vets Scandal lead? One of the most important elections of modern times hangs in the balance and we are in the middle of it.

Who'd a thunk it? Certainly not me. But consider this: the Blair Affair was about some extreme neurotic making up stories in a newspaper and getting away with it. Pathetic, but oddly excusable if you think about the nightmare of trying to get a giant paper to bed every night. The partisan obscurantist reaction to the Kerry/Swift Boat affair is completely different because it is deliberate. The mask is off the "impartiality" of the mainstream media as never before. The meetings in the editorial rooms of NYT, WaPo and LAT are not hard to imagine, the coded discussions. A war is on, ladies and gentlemen, and as with most semi-normal people involved in a war, I don't feel particularly comfortable in it - and not, obviously in this case, because I might get shot. I have friends and colleagues at those institutions. I wish them to remain so. But that cannot stop me from telling the truth. They are wrong. Their avoidance of this story was unconscionable. Their treatment of it now... as if the messenger were more important than the message... is worse.

If it turns out the Swift Boat Veterans were right in many of their accusations... and there probably will be more, stronger ones, to come... and Kerry does get elected anyway because the truth was blunted... that same truth will come out eventually and we all (on every side of the tetrahedon-like political spectrum)will pay for it.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:50 AM
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Something You Don't Want to Read if You're Jewish...

The Saudi Armed Forces Journal.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:38 AM
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August 19, 2004

Spin Doctors of Times Square

Who can be shocked anymore by the oddly defensive partisanship of The New York Times? When the accusations by the Swift Boat Veterans were first made several weeks ago, one issue above all stood out, not just with the blogosphere, but with large numbers of concerned citizens from both parties, that is John Kerry's statment before the US Senate -- "seared" in his memory, as he said -- that he had spent Christmas Eve of 1968 under fire in Cambodia. He made this assertion during an important policy debate on War in Nicaragua -- a serious matter indeed. It wasn't a question of mere medals (who cares?). It was national security, life and death. (He also made similar statements in print, as we know.)

But The New York Times, writing for the first time on this scandal they have so assiduously avoided, buries what surely deserves to be the lede in the fourth to last paragraph of a 3500 word article!

This week, as its leaders spoke with reporters, they have focused primarily on the one allegation in the book that Mr. Kerry's campaign has not been able to put to rest: that he was not in Cambodia on Christmas Eve in 1968, as he declared in a statement to the Senate in 1986. Even Mr. Brinkley, who has emerged as a defender of Mr. Kerry, said in an interview that it was unlikely that Mr. Kerry's Swift boat ventured into Cambodia on Christmas or Christmas Eve, though he said he believed that Mr. Kerry was probably there shortly afterward.

One wonders why they even bothered to print the measly paragraph (CYA perhaps?). One thing is certain, few will read it because the article itself is a tedious recitation of the obvious -- that the Swift Boat Veterans are heavily backed by Bush supporters. (Talk about dog bites man.) You would think a newspaper with Times' aspirations would be interested in why a man running for the most powerful position on Earth would find it necessary to trumpet-- up until quite recently -- seemingly bogus involvments with Cambodia and the CIA. It wouldn't take Freud, Jung or Adler to tell them that this might speak to the man's personality. Surely the Times people must know that. In fact, I wouldn't doubt they do. And that's the problem.

UPDATE: More on the Cambodia story from The Augusta Free Press. Also, don't miss Patterico's chart in which he lays bare his own nefarious connections. [Don't you dare do that.-ed. Don't worry.]

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:02 PM
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The Media Is The (Non) Message

Instapundit has it just right this morning when he writes that mainstream media coverage and accuracy is a bigger issue than the election itself.

Elections come and go, politicians come and go, and pretty much all of them turn out to be disappointments one way or another. But the "Fourth Estate" is a big part of the unelected Permanent Government that in many ways does more to run the country than the politicians. And it's unravelling before our very eyes, which I think is the biggest story of the election so far.

Is this blogger triumphalism? Maybe, but a chink in the armor of information control has been created -- and it's growing. "Information control?" you ask. Isn't that a bit of an exaggeration? Well, consider this: the major television networks (ABC, NBC and CBS) and The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times (not to mention others less important) all work from substantially the same world view with only the most minor variations. Some would call this "liberal." I don't at all, but never mind. It is nigh onto monolithic (with obvious exceptions) and it is protecting jobs, status, etc. as much as ideology. In fact, more than ideology, which seems to shift from day to day for pragmatic reasons. In that sense, these groups reflect the major political parties, which also appear more intent on winning, creating jobs for themselves, etc., than projecting specific policy.

This makes John Kerry the perfect modern candidate for the media because he is willing to switch views at the drop of the hat to preserve victory and his "culture." The most recent example is his attack yesterday on Bush's troop withdrawal plan, an idea which Kerry himself was backing less than a month ago. One wonders if he even remembers. Meanwhile, the major media continue to ignore the substance of the Swift Boat veterans accusations about Kerry's "grade inflation" in Vietnam. They do this despite the almost universal belief that a presidential election is greatly about the candidate's character and this speaks to that question in the most specific manner. Which makes the mainstream media propagandists, essentially, if you think about it.

So that leaves us renegades on the Internet. We're propagandists too. Big time. But at least we admit it. Judge us how you will. But judge the mainstream media the same way. And, yes, there is probably a war on between us of sorts. Let's hope it stays non-violent.

UPDATE: Hugh Hewitt has more on press malfeasance here.

MORE: Just for the record, the WaPo and others are casting aspersions on one of the Swift Boat Vets Larry Thurlow. They may be right. But frankly I don't care. That's about medals, arguably a pompous and silly side issue. (In warfare, they're given out by the bucketful anyway). What is not pompous and silly is a Senator lying on the floor of that institution in order to advance his foreign policy position. Cambodia, Mon Amour... Until the WaPo et al deal with that, they remain reified. And if they don't know what that means, they can look it up.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:06 AM
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From Iran

Student Movement Coordination Committee for Democracy in Iran reports:

Several political and student activists and family members of some of the imprisoned dissidents, such as the maverick Behrooz Javid-Tehrani, were brutalized and arrested, this afternoon, in front and around the UN offices located in NE of the Iranian Capital.

The brutal attack of the regime's militiamen and plain clothes officers, against the peaceful demonstrators, happened after a formal request for the UN's immediate intervention for making respect the human rights, in Iran, was remitted to a UN official.

Which side is the UN on?... Oh, never mind.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:26 AM
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August 18, 2004

Kobe no OJ

I was fascinated by the OJ Case... even braved the lines to attend a court session. Watching it was like watching the train wreck of train wrecks. You couldn't believe a defendant so obviously guilty of multiple murder.. with blood evidence everywhere but up his nostrils (maybe it was).. was going to get off. And he did! The Kobe Case is just the opposite. Almost all the evidence available so far points to his innocence, remarkably so, but who knows what will happen?

The best anaylsis of the case I have read so far is by attorney Joanna Spilbor who writes on her excellent site The Kobe Bryant Case Why Prosecutors Should Dismiss It. She even urges the prosecutors to apologize to Bryant. But she doesn't expect that. That would be, as she says, a "Hollywood ending." And she even sees a downside in dismissal (which many are now predicting) for Kobe:

For one thing, he has invested a year of his life - and probably immense sums of money - in the hope of vindicating himself. Odds are, at trial, he would get that vindication. Granted, juries are unpredictable - but he could always waive his right to a jury trial and request that he be tried in front the judge. And there is just too much evidence for Bryant's innocence, I believe, to convince twelve jurors he is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

There's another advantage, too, to going to trial: The accuser would have to take the stand, reluctantly or otherwise, and tell her story -- thereby preserving her testimony for all eternity. Every discrepancy, every misstatement would be recorded for use against her in her civil trial. If her testimony was weak enough, the civil suit might disappear - or be settled for a pittance.

Will Kobe be on trial in Colorado on August 27? (People like me think he's more needed in Athens.) The clock is ticking.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 11:44 AM
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A Little Bit Pregnant

Mirabile dictu! Yasir Arafat has finally admitted to 'Some corruption' in the Palestinian Authority. But don't get too excited. The Red Sea is not about to open again or green gila monsters to descend from Mars. According to the Guardian...

Mr Arafat, who has been resisting intense pressure to halt official corruption, reform the security services and relinquish some of his near-absolute powers, did not outline what the mistakes had been or how he planned to correct them.

UPDATE: Perhaps this amusing (unless youre a poor Palestinian) account of Suha's Travels will explain some of Yasir's recent travails. What interests me is that only now are the Europeans beginning to investigate this massive fraud, which was evident to the casual observer for years. (hat tip: Fausta... in the comments)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 10:36 AM
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Comic Relief from Haaretz

Haaretz Flash News

13:54 Leaders of Palestinian security prisoners` strike, among them Marwan Barghouti, seen eating in secret in their cells

UPDATE: More (and I do mean more) details here.

SECOND UPDATE: Visual evidence here. (warning: high cholesterol)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:03 AM
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The Blowhard's Lieutenant

I'm getting mighty sick of this subject... Kerry in Cambodia (or not)... and the idea that a man could base a Presidential Campaign in 2004 around four months' participation in the Vietnam War in 1968, no matter what he did, is absurd and pathetic... maybe we should call it the Boar War (or rather the Bore War)... but this latest salvo from sometime Kerry supporter Michael Kranish in The Boston Globe deserves some comment.

Now I had never heard of Kranish before this dustup began. So I have no knowledge of the journalist's previous work or reputation, nor any opinion of his introduction (if any) to Kerry's campaign bio, a genre of literature I find slightly less inspiring than supermarket giveaways (it contains no stamps). But if this article is the best Kranish can do in the support of Kerry, the Senator is in deeper trouble on the issue than I thought. Capitalisation alert: KERRY'S DEFENSE CONTAINS ABSOLUTELY NO FACTS, ONLY ASSERTIONS. [I thought you swore off capitalisation on your blog.-ed. I also swore off camembert too.] But it seems, not too far from the surface, that Kranish is actually reputation salvaging here (his), not Kerry excusing, distancing himself from the statements of the Senator's supporters, which he carefully encloses in quotes.

Carrying the water in this article... and in the world... for the Senator on this matter is longtime Kerry associate Michael Meehan found here in the aptly-named Disinfopedia. This is the man whose recent response to attacks on Kerry is "no longer found" -- not a hopeful state of affairs. In Kranish's piece, Mr. Meehan tells us:

"During John Kerry's service in Vietnam, many times he was on or near the Cambodian border and on one occasion crossed into Cambodia at the request of members of a special operations group operating out of Ha Tien," Kerry spokesman Michael Meehan said in a statement. The statement did not say when the cross-border mission took place.

No mention of "Christmas in Cambodia" yet. But Meehan's wooden nose keeps growing:

"On December 24, 1968, Lieutenant John Kerry and his crew were on patrol in the watery borders between Vietnam and Cambodia deep in enemy territory. In the early afternoon, Kerry's boat, PCF-44, was at Sa Dec and then headed north to the Cambodian border. There, Kerry and his crew along with two other boats were ambushed, taking fire from both sides of the river, and after the firefight were fired upon again. Later that evening during their night patrol they came under friendly fire."

Oh, really? We could call this Meehan's Pirandello Defense... "It Is So If You Think So." Kranish's article goes on, however:

James Wasser, who accompanied Kerry on that mission aboard patrol boat No. 44 and who supports Kerry's candidacy, said that while he believes they were "very, very close" to Cambodia, he did not think they entered Cambodia on that mission. Yet he added: "It is very hard to tell. There are no signs."

Separately, according to Meehan's statement, Kerry crossed into Cambodia on a covert mission to drop off special operations forces. In an interview, Meehan said there was no paperwork for such missions and he could not supply a date. That makes it hard to ascertain or confirm what happened. Kerry served on two swift boats, the No. 44 in December 1968 and January 1969, and the No. 94, from February to March 1969.

No paperwork? No date? I'm shocked. Frankly, this is embarrassing. Why don't we admit the truth - Kerry Lied - and move on? He won't be the first politician to pad his resumé, even if it is in phony blood.

The New York Times still has no report on this controversy, branding it, I suppose, as peripheral. Instapundit's Dad, a Democrat, takes it more seriously, seeing in what I call Kerry's "braggart soldier"-like behavior the roots of more dangerous LBJ-like military overcompensation. Who knows? But what I do know is the most risible aspect of today's Boston Globe article is its headline: "Kerry Disputes Allegations on Cambodia." Talk about desperation in the copy editing department! It should have read: "Kerry Hack Offers No Facts!" or some such.

UPDATE: Donald Sensing reports that Sen. Tom Harkin, who recently attacked VP Cheney as a coward, trumps Kerry in the whopper department: Harkin himself claimed to have battled Mig fighters over North Vietnam while a Navy pilot. He was a pilot, but never went to Vietnam.

If this is true, we're back in the schoolyard with infant politicians. As Sensing accurately puts it:

When I was a kid I learned that the only kids who always talked tough were either bullies or were in reality just chicken. The real war heroes I have known hardly ever talked about it and certainly didn't want to be heroic again.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 6:51 AM
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August 17, 2004

A Dinosaur Lumbers In... Excuse Me, a Mammoth!

People like me who have raised children in Los Angeles are usually familiar with the La Brea Tar Pits, the excavation behind the Los Angeles County Museum where the bones of saber tooth tigers and wooly mammoths have floated up in the muck like the ghosts of dead producers. They put to lie the cliché that nothing much happened hereabouts until DW Griffiths et al pushed aside the Indians with their windup movie cameras. Of course, it can become a little stultifying. Those bones hardly move and, even if you've been here as long as I have (thirty plus years), you don't get to see much change.

I was reminded of those pits this ayem when I saw the LA Times has finally lumbered forth like a dinosaur to report on the Kerry/Veterans controversy. Don't expect much. It's a dull and superficial article, more place holding than reporting, which, as Instapundit points out, doesn't even acknowledge that the Kerry campaign has already backtracked on the Senator's peculiar Cambodia claims. Perhaps the Times' reporters weren't aware of this, but more likely I have the wrong "animal analogy." The Times is not a dinosaur or a mammoth, but a camel... as in a camel is a horse designed by a committee ... because this article, which emphasizes the Swift Veterans ad even though a full foot-noted book is available, reads as if it were rewritten and hacked over by a group of editors until all the life was beaten out of it.

Meanwhile, we are left with the question of why the mainstream media is giving this subject such short shrift. The conventional wisdom is that they are "liberal." I say no. That term has gone the way of the dinosaur and the mammoth and completely lost its meaning. They are the holographic image of liberal, something that pretends to be there, but really isn't. It is preserved in its own tar in a manner for which I offer my final "animal analogy" (I promise! I promise!) from (where else?) Orwell's Animal Farm. What you read in the LA Times and similar periodicals has nothing to do with real political thought and is simply a modern version of the great satirist's famous incantation: "Four legs good! Two legs bad!"

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:17 AM
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August 16, 2004

I don't much care for blog contests...

... or contests of any kind [That's because you always lose.-ed. I did win my junior high school vice presidency. Exactly.]... but the Washington Post is running a Best Political Blog contest.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:13 PM
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Like most good parodies...

... this is almost completely accurate. In fact it is accurate.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 5:33 PM
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Not the First Time

The depressing news (via LGF) that Notre Dame has been "Hit With Anti-Semitic Graffiti" created a sad echo for me:

Anti-Semitic graffiti, including a sign saying "death to Jews," was found Saturday scrawled on the grounds of the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris.

From Toni Kamins' excellent Jewish Guide to France:

Other than the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame is Paris' most identifiable landmark. This symbol of French Catholicism also is emblematic of the centuries old conflict between Christianity and Judaism. On either side of the central portal, in tall niches, are two female figures, Ecclesia and Synagoga. On the left as you face it is Ecclesia, a beautiful woman wearing a crown. She represents the Roman Church. On the right is Synagoga, a woman blinded by a serpent around her eyes, with her head bowed, and her staff shattered; the tablets of the law slip from her hand. She represents Judaism. Variations of these figures are common in church architecture all over Europe and in medieval art as well.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:54 AM
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Long Live Lying!

As many recall, one of the great fascist slogans was "Long Live Death!" Hereabouts I am proposing a new slogan for our politics - "Long Live Lying!" Lying is so endemic to our society that we are inured to it. On the level of the pathetic we have the recent spectacle of the Governor of New Jersey installing his lover as director of Homeland Security in that state (and now being sued by him) as a "gay rights" issue. Talk about "left in form but right in essence." It would almost be a farce, if there weren't innocent parties involved, like the governor's two-year old daughter.

But on the more serious level, we have the continued absence of coverage of the Kerry/Cambodia affair in that great purveyor of "truth" The New York Times. Now perhaps they are engaged in a serious study of this issue, which will arrive as (conveniently) late as their analysis of the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Or perhaps they don't think this lie is important, a mere misstatement, as the saying goes. Robert Pollock in the WSJ gives lie to that lie:

In 1986 Mr. Kerry argued on the Senate floor against U.S. support for the Nicaraguan contras, again citing the 1968 Christmas in Cambodia and "the president of the United States telling the American people I was not there; the troops were not in Cambodia. I have that memory which is seared--seared--in me." In a 1992 interview with the Associated Press the story came back: "By Christmas 1968, part of Kerry's patrol extended across the border of South Vietnam into Cambodia."

Now, trying to be honest myself, I was opposed to the Contras in those da