Posted on 12/01/2002 11:24:02 AM PST by ex-Texan
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December 01, 2002
MULLAHS RUNNING SCARED? Tom Holsinger emails two interesting articles. This one announces a letup on religious-policing efforts aimed at young lovers:
TEHRAN, Nov 29 (AFP) - Iran's police is not authorised to arrest young unmarried couples seen in the streets anymore, the government-run Iran newspaper reported Saturday.
"The police forces are not allowed to stop and question young boys and girls seen together in the streets, as in the past, unless there is a private complaint filed against them", a Tehran judge was quoted as saying by the government daily Iran.
He also points out this Jeff Jacoby column, which points out that, like the Iranian mullahs, the State Department appears to be finally recognizing the unpopularity of the current regime in Iran. "What prompted the change I don't know. But if the Department of State is finally prepared to support President Bush's policy on Iran, it can only be good news for the war against radical Islamist terrorism." I think it means that the State Department now sees regime change as inevitable.
posted at 01:17 PM by Glenn Reynolds
MORE "RIGHT WING BIAS" AT THE NEW YORK TIMES? Check out this story about FoxNews:
LESLIE H. GELB, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, watches international news obsessively, skipping from channel to channel. "I never watch a commercial," he said.
He now considers Fox News Channel often to be a more reliable news source for international reporting than CNN or the nightly network news. Fox, he said, provides a "fairer picture, a fuller version of the different parts of the arguments" over world affairs.
Mr. Gelb said he makes a distinction between Fox's news coverage and its opinion programs, like "The O'Reilly Factor," which he considers biased. But even here, he finds himself drawn to Fox. "CNN's commentary tends to be less biased and less interesting," he said.
A lot of other people who do not fit comfortably into the right-wing stereotype of Fox viewers apparently agree.
Of course, in the listing of right-wing hosts, the Times omits the decidedly non-right-wing Greta von Susteren. But still, it's obvious that Howell Raines has been bought off by the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy. And I'm sure we'll be hearing that from some quarters, shortly. . . .
posted at 12:39 PM by Glenn Reynolds
JOHN ASHCROFT -- NOT-SO-SUPER GENIUS: This sounds like a dreadful idea to me:
The Bush administration is developing a parallel legal system in which terrorism suspects -- U.S. citizens and noncitizens alike -- may be investigated, jailed, interrogated, tried and punished without legal protections guaranteed by the ordinary system, lawyers inside and outside the government say.
It is sadly true that there's some legal authority for such an approach, stemming from the Civil War and World War II. But it's still a terrible idea, and in particular anything that breaks down the protections of American citizens is a terrible idea because it raises the potential for politically-motivated abuse of power in a way that a system aimed at non-citizens does not.
posted at 12:32 PM by Glenn Reynolds
KARL ROVE -- SUPER GENIUS? Looks like it. At least, I just turned on This Week and George Stephanopoulos is characterizing the "Is Islam Evil?" debate as one between a tolerant George Bush and an intolerant Pat Robertson. Heh. Looks like triangulation to me. I mean, I think both Bush and Robertson are sincere in their positions, but casting the debate this way has got to help Bush, both at home and abroad. And I kind of doubt it's an accident.
posted at 12:04 PM by Glenn Reynolds
CRAZED ANTI-AMERICANISM: Mark Steyn is taking the term literally:
I was in the Gulf six months ago, and I came to the conclusion that a majority of the people I met - somewhere between 55 and 70 per cent - were, to use the technical term, nuts. That's to say, they believed things that no rational person could believe. You'd be talking to an attractive, westernised, educated Bahraini lady doctor and she'd suddenly start babbling on about how there was no plane that crashed into the Pentagon on September 11, all the footage had been faked by the government. "But I know someone who saw it from his office window," I said. "He just thinks he saw it," she replied. "The Americans know how to do these things." . . .
Well, about halfway through this last week in Canada, I realized I was beginning to feel about my homeland exactly the way I'd felt in Araby: these guys are nuts. . . . Most Canadians and most Europeans are kind, gentle people but, Bush-wise, they're the ones who are mentally challenged. The "moron" line is simply inadequate: no rational person can believe a twice-elected Texas Governor, successful US President and overthrower of the Taliban is a moron unless a majority of Americans are morons, too. And in that case how come the morons have a global dominance unparalleled in history? As with those wacky Arabs and their Zionist conspiracies, Euro-Canadian anti-Americanism is a psychosis.
Actually, it's an example of successful propaganda. Recognizing that these folks care more about feeling good about themselves than about actual accomplishments in the real world, Bush has given them a way to do just that, while he occupies himself with, well, the real world. It's brilliant: Everybody's happy. Sure, American dominance over the world continues to grow, but the Euros secretly like that -- it's certainly better than taking responsibility for the world themselves, and it allows the luxury of sounding dire warnings from the sidelines that no one is expected to take seriously or actually act upon. Like any shrewd negotiator, Bush has figured out how to give the other guy what he really wants, while still getting his way.
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