Politics1.com is probably the premier site for the campaigns/elections happenings across America and it does it rather objectively, even though the author is a Deaniac. Its recent postings on the future of the Democratic party is interesting, which you can read by clicking on More… but to sumarize basically the Democratic party needs to quit pretending to be centerists, abandon the liberal/conservative labels, and take their talking points on taxes, spending, health care, etc to the people. This has been the mantra of the Dean folks, and I would like to briefly touch upon it.

The basic concept is that due to the nature of politics w/ soundbites and “wedge” issues the Republicans have been able to “fool” the rural, lower-middle class, union, etc demographics into voting Republican in large enough numbers to put them in majority. This is more or less the thesis behind the “What’s Wrong With Kansas” book that talked about how stupid Kansas voters were for electing Republicans on “values” issues and then seeing all their money go to the rich and powerful.

The flaw in this way of thinking comes up if you look at just how the Left has approached this. Look at who the #1 target of hatred for “progressives” has been in this issue: Wal*Mart! Well for the rural, lower-middle class, union, etc demographics Wal*Mart is perhaps the best thing that has happened since welll… I dunno. Its cheap, convenient, and relatively good at customer service. The fact is Dean can talk all he wants about health care, jobs, etc but on the every day economic issue of Wal*Mart their error falls apart. Their policies are built for the urban elites to assauge their guilt for being succesful and ironically this leads them to craft policies that keep the poor folks largely poor. Ask one of these voters, who Dean wants to target, about what they think of Wal*Mart and their answer will be: “Great! Shop their all the time.” The liberals will look at them puzzled, mutter some platitude about “worker rights” and then go home in a huff. That in a simple example is why this “progressive rebranding of the Democratic Party” is bound to meet failure. Republicans are pro-Wal*Mart, Democrats opposed, to the Average Joe that is a big issue.
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According to NRO, McCain’s office released this statement:

Mr. President, the Foreign Relations Committee has spent weeks investigating Mr. Bolton’s background. In his recent report on behalf of the committee majority, Senator Lugar determined that “the end result of all this is that Secretary Bolton emerged looking better than when it began.” Chairman Lugar ultimately concluded that Mr. Bolton “is a highly qualified nominee,” and I agree. Let’s move forward expeditiously to confirm John Bolton as America’s ambassador to the United Nations.

Well then lets git er done!

UPDATE: Several sources say the Bolton vote comes tommorow! Call your SENATORS!!!! To arms!

The forgotten front in the war on off-tha-chain Islam, Afghanistan has recently seen a flare up in activity. We have slaughtered 15-20 Taliban/Al-Qaeda militants in Helmand Province without losing a single soldier. The article AP article expresses fear that this front of the war may be on the upswing again (as if that is a bad thing). Unfortunately the Taliban did score a success elsewhere in Helmand.

Elsewhere in Helmand province, gunmen shot to death three civilians — a judge, an intelligence worker and an employee of the provincial education department, said Haji Mohammed Wali, a spokesman for the governor.

The article doesn’t say if this “intelligence worker” was an American or not. Buried deep in the story is some news that I think would merit its own article, but it was in the 14th paragraph.

Also Sunday, the defense ministry announced that Hazrat Ali, the former Taliban intelligence and information chief, was captured Friday in a national army operation this past week in central Ghazni province. Defense Ministry spokesman Zaher Murat said no soldiers were injured in the operation.

This is big news people. Not only did we catch a big fish, we didn’t lose a man doing so. Why is this stuff not all over the papers? Does this not excite people to read about stuff like this? Oh well, life and the war goes on. Our troops are absolute warriors no two ways about it and they will be remembered and lauded long after this generation is dead and gone.

According to Foxnews Joe Biden is planning on running for President in 2008. Does the senator from Delaware have a snowball’s chance in hell of being president? Survey says . . . name another president from Delaware. [UPDATE: Factoid, Rutherford B. Hayes 19th president was born in Delaware, Ohio. I am not sure what this means, but I thought I would mention it.]

Going after the nomination “is a real possibility,” he said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

“My intention, as I sit here now, is, as I’ve proceeded since last November as if I were going to run. I’m quite frankly going out, seeing whether I can gather the kind of support,” Biden said.

Biden said he was taking his “game on the road, letting people know what I think.”

He added, “If, in fact, I think that I have a clear shot at winning the nomination by this November or December, then I’m going to seek the nomination.”

Biden dropped out of the 1988 presidential race after a series of disclosures that he had liberally borrowed from other politicians in his stump speeches and after questions about his law school records.

So far Joe, it’s June, 2005 and we already have two scandals to talk about. This is not a good sign.

In a not so surprising move apparently Karl Rove, the NRSC (headed by Liddy dole), and Gov Bush are moving to torpedo Katherine Harris, who I have no particular love for. Unfortunately, they seem to be giddy to get anyone besides her. Allan Bense, the speaker of the Flordia house, is one such person, he appears to have solid credentials (A+ from NRA-PVF and 100% from Fl Christian Coalition) but anytime Rove starts hunting like this it usually ends up poor for the conservatives.

I post this interview because I wanted parse the director’s answers and because I like Porter Goss.
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This is a follow-up to my previous post on the tensions that have developed between the US and Israel over Israeli arms sales to nations such as China or India. Since the Israel receives $2 billion annually in defense aid, we tend to get a little cranky when they decide to resell the technology to the Chinese. Good news however, Condi Rice has had a sit-down with our non-pork eating friends and everyone is on the same page now.

Israel publicly apologized to the United States on Sunday over arms exports to China that have drawn criticism from Washington and strained U.S.-Israeli security ties.

“It is impossible to hide the crisis between Israel and the United States with regard to the security industries. We are doing everything possible to put it behind us,” Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said on Israel Radio.

The dispute centers on Israel’s sale of Harpy attack drones and other advanced technology to China that the Pentagon fears could tilt the balance of power and make it difficult to defend Taiwan, which Beijing deems a renegade province.

“If things were done that were not acceptable to the Americans then we are sorry but these things were done with the utmost innocence,” Shalom said in comments that coincided with a visit by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

“The United States is our biggest ally and none of the things that were done were done with the intention of harming U.S. interests,” Shalom added.

Good now we can be friends again.

Jeff Medcalf at Caerdroia has a must-read post on the war around the world against Islamic terrorists. This is some of the best stuff I have read on this topic since Sept. 11th. Again, this is a must-read.

We are coming to a dangerous crossroads. In America in particular, increasing numbers of people have tired of being at war. The steady dribble of casualties - small in historical terms - has been blown all out of proportion by the domestic forces of defeatism - particularly odious are those who would be fine with America winning, so long as the Republicans didn’t get credit. The normal, slow course of counter-insurgency, the whining of the domestic Left, the self-seeking politicians, and the receding sense of direct threat to America combine to weary those who simply don’t focus much on anything except direct threats to them. Much of the American public is being lulled. This QandO analysis of a Victor Davis Hansen essay makes the essential dichotomy clear.

The ever brilliant and witty Mark Steyn has written an excellent piece highlighting Dick Durbin’s insane comparisons and even goes so far to (gasp!) question his patriotism! God forbid.

One measure of a civilized society is that words mean something: “Soviet” and “Nazi” and “Pol Pot” cannot equate to Guantanamo unless you’ve become utterly unmoored from reality. Spot the odd one out: 1) mass starvation; 2) gas chambers; 3) mountains of skulls; 4) lousy infidel pop music turned up to full volume. One of these is not the same as the others, and Durbin doesn’t have the excuse that he’s some airhead celeb or an Ivy League professor. He’s the second-ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Don’t they have an insanity clause?

Hat-tip: the musings of Brandon Jaynes

I like Bob Novak, even though he was wrong about the war in Iraq, I still like him because he writes good articles about interesting issues.
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Sorry for the Durbin over-kill, but I don’t think we should let go of this until Durbin is punished for his words. In the New York Post Podhoretz writes:

Well, as the White House finally recognized yesterday, it’s time to take the gloves off. It’s time for Republican politicians to put Democratic politicians on the spot.

On Wednesday, the second highest-ranking Democrat in the U.S. Senate compared American soldiers engaged in the punishing and difficult task of interrogating known terrorists to Nazis.

Sen. Dick Durbin isn’t some loudmouth caller to Air America Radio or some psycho poster on loony-Left Web sites like democraticunderground.com. He is a machine-cog pol from the state of Illinois. And he’s a big, big cheese.

In other news, Dick Durbin attempted to apologize without seeming to understand what he has said or even the definition of what an apology is.

“More than 1,700 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq and our country’s standing in the world community has been badly damaged by the prison abuses at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo,” Durbin said. “I will continue to speak out when I disagree with this administration.”

Now Abu Ghraib is being brought up again, despite the fact that it has been proven in court that the actions therein were the result of individual solidiers who disobeyed orders and took liberties with the POWs that they knew to be wrong at the time.

“I sincerely regret if what I said caused anyone to misunderstand my true feelings: Our soldiers around the world and their families at home deserve our respect, admiration and total support,” he said. “My statement in the Senate was critical of the policies of this administration, which add to the risk our soldiers face.”

You regret that we made a mistake and didn’t understand what you really meant? You are sorry that the American people are so stupid that they can’t figure out that you really respect, admire and totally support our troops? Well how statesman like of you Senator Durbin! Do you know what an apology even is? Are you such an arrogant prick that the only way you can deflect heat off of yourself is to blame the American people?

“If this indeed occurred, it does not represent American values. It does not represent what our country stands for, it is not the sort of conduct we would ever condone … and that is the point I was making. Now, sadly, we have a situation here where some in the right-wing media have said that I have been insulting men and women in uniform. Nothing could be further from truth,” Durbin said.

No, the right-wing media isn’t fueling this situation, people who are angry at you are fueling this situation and the “right-wing” media is covering it. The things you described from the FBI report are not the actions of the Nazis, Communists, or Khemer Rouge. They are mild forms of interrogation that I am thrilled to death we employing against scum like the 20th hijacker. Furthermore, they are working, they have produced valuable, actionable intelligence from these techniques! I can’t think of a good reason to stop using these methods. This is why people are upset Senator Durbin, because it is obvious that you don’t take this war very seriously.

UPDATE:

In re-reading the Foxnews article, I saw this portion that I had missed the first time:

Questioned by Sen. John Warner, R-Va., Durbin said that he does not know if the interrogators cited in the FBI report were Americans.

So it might be possible that these actions were not even done by US servicemen? Either way it makes little difference, but what it does tell me is that Senator Durbin knows very little about what goes on at Gitmo and has shot from the hip on this one. Bad move senator.