Quote of the day - Frederic Bastiat

Everyone wants to live at the expense of the state. They forget that the state wants to live at the expense of everyone.

Frederic Bastiat

China - military buildup, bomb shelters and a ray of hope

The following report would be alarming for anyone who had no knowledge of the Chinese military buildup and foreign adventures over the past decade. Of course only those who receive their news exclusively from the MSM/DNC would be so ill-informed.

As Bill Gertz reports this week in the Washington Times:

China is building its military forces faster than U.S. intelligence and military analysts expected, prompting fears that Beijing will attack Taiwan in the next two years, according to Pentagon officials.
U.S. defense and intelligence officials say all the signs point in one troubling direction: Beijing then will be forced to go to war with the United States, which has vowed to defend Taiwan against a Chinese attack.

prior to the ongoing buildup

One part of the report is not a surprise:

"There's a growing consensus that at some point in the mid-to-late '90s, there was a fundamental shift in the sophistication, breadth and re-sorting of Chinese defense planning," said Richard Lawless, a senior China-policy maker in the Pentagon. "And what we're seeing now is a manifestation of that change in the number of new systems that are being deployed, the sophistication of those systems and the interoperability of the systems."

emphasis added

Is it a mere coincidence that the "shift in the sophistication. . . " of the buildup occurred simultaneously with the Clinton's most egregious scandal, the trading of military and high technology secrets in exchange for campaign contributions?
The report continues:

Asked about a possible Chinese attack on Taiwan, the official put it bluntly: "In the '07-'08 time frame, a capability will be there that a year ago we would have said was very, very unlikely. We now assess that as being very likely to be there."
Air Force Gen. Paul V. Hester, head of the Pacific Air Forces, said the U.S. military has been watching China's military buildup but has found it difficult to penetrate Beijing's "veil" of secrecy over it.
While military modernization itself is not a major worry, "what does provide you a pause for interest and concern is the amount of modernization, the kind of modernization and the size of the modernization," he said during a recent breakfast meeting with reporters.
China is building capabilities such as aerial refueling and airborne warning and control aircraft that can be used for regional defense and long-range power projection, Gen. Hester said.
It also is developing a maneuverable re-entry vehicle, or MARV, for its nuclear warheads. The weapon is designed to counter U.S. strategic-missile defenses, according to officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The warhead would be used on China's new DF-31 long-range missiles and its new submarine missile, the JL-2.

The Washington Times article is a must read.
The news of China's military buildup comes at the same time that Joseph Farah noticed something odd in a Chinese official news item. Apparently the Chinese built two dozen bomb shelters in the 1960's and 1970's in one city alone:

The bomb shelters, the report said, covered an area of more than 70,000 square meters - or some 17.3 acres - and could accommodate tens of thousands of people.

We don't know how many other shelters exist outside of that city around China, but the Chinese apparently take civil defense very seriously in order to have maintained those shelters for the past three decades.

Are the Chinese signaling that they are more prepared for an ultimate showdown with the United States some day? Are they familiarizing their citizens with the shelters because they expect they will be needed for another purpose some time?

The Chinese remain prepared while there remains virtually no civil defense preparedness in the United States.

At the same time, the Chinese remain as brutal as ever. H/T NY Girl.

The glimmer of hope comes from recent riots near Beijing and elsewhere:

Thousands of Chinese rioted in a dispute sparked by a lopsided roadside brawl, set fire to cars and wounded six police officers in an outburst likely to worry communist leaders in Beijing desperate to cling on to power.

The "desperate to cling on to power" part sounds like optimistic spin from a naive MSM/DNC reporter. While that assessment of the riot situation sounds overly optimistic, there is hope that we can outlast this threat. But if the Clintons return to power in 2008, all bets are off as a far as hope for a peaceful future is concerned.

MSM lie # 31 of 2005

Click here for the entire list.

Yesterday, several observers noted that AP published a report (speaking in the past tense) on President Bush' speech that had not yet been delivered. H/T LGF and Michelle Malkin. In fairness, it is possible that the White House released an advance copy earlier in the day. But it doesn't matter, since AP saw fit to attack and spin the speech before Bush even delivered it.

See ## 6, 18 and 21 for similar instances of MSM/DNC outlets publishing stories in advance of the actual events. Even when AP or CBS does not receive an advance copy (as in the Bolton hearings), they follow their own pre-conceived script.

I would suggest that the Bush White House stop releasing advance copies prior to Bush' delivery, so that the MSM/DNC will have a harder time spinning the speech. Or, the White House could leak copies of a DIFFERENT speech to help MSM/DNC embarrass itself [not that it needs much help].

Quote of the day - Barry Goldwater

The only summit meeting that can succeed is the one that does not take place.

Barry M. Goldwater

Quote of the day - Oriana Fallaci

Europe is no longer Europe, it is 'Eurabia,' a colony of Islam, where the Islamic invasion does not proceed only in a physical sense, but also in a mental and cultural sense. Servility to the invaders has poisoned democracy, with obvious consequences for the freedom of thought, and for the concept itself of liberty.

Oriana Fallaci

Quote of the day - Thomas Sowell

It is fascinating to hear teachers say that having to "teach to the test" reduces their ability to engage in good teaching. What they call "good teaching" is the very reason our students do so badly in international comparisons and why colleges have to have large numbers of remedial courses to teach students what they didn't learn in school.

Thomas Sowell

Hillary Clinton's Wellesley College thesis - The Rosetta Stone

------------------------
update - March 4, 2007 - click here for my response to MSNBC's whitewash of Hillary's thesis. - end update
----------------------------------------

Click here for a previous post regarding Hillary Clinton's college thesis. Peggy Noonan refers to this thesis as the "Rosetta stone of Hillary studies."

For those unfamiliar with the Rosetta Stone, suffice it to say it was the first piece of ancient Egyptian writing that allowed archaeologists to translate the remaining Egyptian writings. By 1799, archaeologists had long known of and been perplexed by Egyptian writings dating back 5,000 years. The Rosetta Stone was the key to translating all of these writings so that the great mysteries of Egypt could be unlocked.



Prior to the Rosetta Stone's discovery in the ruins of a buried Egyptian fort, ancient Egyptian wonders such as the Pyramids and the sphinx stood mute in the desert.

In modern times, we have observed Hillary on the national stage for more than 13 years. We have observed her role in Bill Clinton's scandals, including the one great scandal of our time. We have seen her defend him and pretend to be the last person on Earth to believe him. We have seen her failed health care plan and her double dealings in Arkansas. We have seen her voluminous biography, in which she managed to say absolutely nothing in 562 pages.

as mute as the pyramids

All of these items loom large in the history of the 1990's. Yet none of them make sense without understanding Hillary's core philosophy. That is why we need the thesis. According to Peggy Noonan, Hillary discussed "how to change the American political culture." This discussion occurred in the context of a tribute to a leftist political organizer. Does she reveal her own thoughts on the radicalization and even balkanization of the American political process? It is hard to say, because the thesis has been closely guarded from the moment Hillary entered the national political stage. Jack Anderson could not discover its contents:

Recently syndicated columnist Jack Anderson was doing a story on Hillary Clinton, and in the process his staff requested a copy of her 1969 senior thesis from Wellesley College. It was a seemingly simple request, since normally college theses are public record, available to anyone.

Not, however, in this case. Anderson was told that the current Wellesley president had created a new rule in 1992. The new rule, Anderson says, is that "...the college would seal the senior theses of any Wellesley grads who were either the first lady or the president of the United States." (Perhaps not coincidentally, the president of Wellesley is a long-time friend of Mrs. Clinton's.)

Okay, Anderson asked, can you just tell us the *subject* of the paper? No. Well, was the new policy enacted at Clinton's request? Again, no answer.

Perplexed and intrigued, Anderson contacted Hillary's White House press corps. He was assured it was no big deal, and that he'd be sent a copy of the paper, along with an explanation of why it had been sealed. Several weeks passed, however, and no thesis appeared. Finally he was told that no copy would be coming -- and no explanation would be given.

Eventually, Anderson provided a relatively innocuous explanation for the thesis' contents, but the mystery remains.

Apparently, Barbara Olson came into possession of a copy before she died (on 9-11). She did not publish it, but she wrote her own impressions of this 75 page document:

The thesis' title, "There is Only the Fight ... An Analysis of the Alinsky Model," exposes Clinton's strong ideological attachment to her most influential mentor, Saul Alinsky.

Reading this work makes it clear why she had to remove it from public view, for Alinsky, who died in 1972, was a radical social activist who preached grass-roots organizing and intense, confrontational politics.

Alinsky defined "obtaining power" as a key tactic of organizing his "mass jujitsu." His formula for attack: "Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it and polarize it."

Olson's review is helpful, but only a reading of the original thesis will provide the full story.
Richard Poe, citing Olson's book, summarized it this way (while correcting certain anti-Hillary myths):

A series of hard-Left mentors introduced Hillary to the brass-knuckle realities of revolutionary activism. As a Wellesley undergraduate, she met and interviewed radical organizer Saul Alinsky, whose Machiavellian tactics she admired. Hillary's senior thesis supported Alinsky's call for class warfare.

Once the Rosetta stone was translated (after 20 years of painstaking effort), the writings in the Egyptian pyramids and elsewhere made sense. The secrets of the ancient world were secrets no more. If we can unlock Hillary's radical past, we can explain the mystery that was the Clinton White House and all of its seemingly contradictory policies and political wars. We can also explain (and maybe avoid) the balkanized future that awaits this country as a result of a second Clinton presidency and its aftermath.

I really don't know whether a copy of this thesis is available or what Ms. Olson did with her copy. I do believe a good place to start would be with Barbara Olson's book, "Hell to Pay" and the books of Saul Alinsky.




Now is the time to look into these matters. We can do the research now and figure out how we will expose Hillary Clinton's true agenda. If we don't research this subject until the summer of 2008 when Hillary has a 7-10 point lead in most polls, it may be too late.
--------------------------------------
Visit counter added March 26, 2007

Peggy Noonan on the Hillary Book; the Wellesley College thesis

Peggy Noonan's piece on the Ed Klein Hillary book raises some questions about Hillary that are more fundamental than the MSM/DNC is capable of answering:

This is an anti-Hillary book by the MSM. It has been heavily promoted not by a conservative publication but by Vanity Fair magazine, which published a big fat juicy chapter in its famous "Deep Throat" issue. . . . . Mr. Klein's problem is that he assumes the market is conservative and conservatives are stupid. They're not, actually. They want solid sourcing and new information that is true.

The MSM/DNC is incapable of producing a book that exposes Hillary's real crimes and offenses. It is incapable of treating with much more than a whitewash the China scandal because the MSM/DNC reflexively reverts to its cold war sympathies whenever the subject of a remaining communist country arises.

Those same cold war sympathies are even stronger when the issue is Hillary's college thesis:

But he ignores the Rosetta stone of Hillary studies, the senior college thesis she wrote on leftist organizer Saul Alinsky and how to change the American political culture, which her alma mater, Wellesley College, obligingly continues to suppress on her request.

emphasis added

I don't know what this thesis says, but there appears to be much more to the story. I imagine a blueprint for leftist social, political and economic change that would place the last 40 years in perspective. This document would place into perspective Hillary's own attempts to take over the nation's health care industry. I suggest that this document reveals the real Hillary [which we have always suspected, argued and documented by more than circumstantial evidence]. We would finally see it in her own words. Those who would annoint her President cannot legitimately object to revealing a document that would show her true plans and ambitions.

Can you imagine if Dick Cheney had written a senior thesis on the future of Halliburton and its relations to the U.S. government? Or if Bush had written a thesis on how to bring the United States into war? We would hear no end to calls for its exposure.



I suggest that we focus on finding this document and forcing its revelation. I suggest that we forget about John Kerry's form 180. We won that battle. Hillary Clinton's thesis is far more relevant to the future of this nation. We can pressure both Wellesley College and Hillary to release the document. Even if they refuse, the public will know that Hillary is hiding a possible blueprint for a socialist America.
------------
update - more details about the thesis here.

Quote of the day - James Lileks

Gitmo is the gulag equivalent of a Ben Affleck movie: no one's seen it, but everyone has an opinion about it.

James Lileks

Rathergate Anniversary - 75 days and counting - they aren't buying the Gitmo spin.

First of all, I hate polls. Polls are unreliable and are constantly used as a tool by the MSM/DNC. Polls are useful to the MSM/DNC even when the outcome temporarily favors those opposed to the MSM/DNC.

My mistrust of polls notwithstanding, it is interesting to note the recent Rasmussen poll that shows an overwhelming number of Americans [even Democrats] aren't buying the MSM/DNC Gitmo spin:

A Rasmussen Reports survey found that 20% of Americans believe prisoners at Guantanamo Bay have been treated unfairly. Seven-out-of-ten adults believe the prisoners are being treated "better than they deserve" (36%) or "about right" (34%).

The survey also found that just 14% agree with people who say that prisoner treatment at Guantanamo Bay is similar to Nazi tactics. Sixty-nine percent disagree with that comparison. This helps explain why Illinois Senator Dick Durbin apologized for making such a comparison.

I am a little disheartened that only 36% believe the prisoners are being treated better than they deserve. If the poll is accurate, 14% of those polled are beyond the reach of rational discourse. That number, while low, is disturbing. It should be zero.

That the results are as good as they are is attributable to the blogosphere. We have kept the pressure on Durbin, Newsweek and all of the other MSM/DNC outlets. The MSM/DNC attacks have fallen largely on deaf ears over the past few weeks.

Our victory (for the time being) over the anti-Gitmo MSM/DNC is another occasion to celebrate the Rathergate anniversary.

James Lileks has more on Gitmo.

Check out a recent post to help explain the significance of the Rathergate anniversary countdown.

Leftist movie proves Karl Rove's point

As if on cue, the leftists have produced a "documentary" designed to "promote understanding" and prevent prejudice toward Muslims in this country. Debbie Schlussel deconstructs the movie makers' agenda in the Wall Street Journal:

I asked the show's executive producers--all of whom worked on "The Awful Truth With Michael Moore," a cable TV show--how this could be a documentary when they had decided the outcome in advance. Wasn't it possible that Mr. Stacy would come out seeing that there isn't Islamophobia to the extent that the Muslim community claims? Might he see that there is disturbingly strong support in the Detroit-area Islamic community for terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah--a fact regularly documented even in the normally pliant Detroit media?
No, the producers told me. "Morgan wants the show to demonstrate to America that we are Islamophobic and that 9/11's biggest victims are Muslims."

I suppose leftists will claim that the movie makers are secretly in cahoots with Karl Rove, who, no doubt, timed his remarks this week to coincide with the movie's release.

The full length version of Debbie's column is found here.

The long term effects of Islamic immigration and the destructive effects on the host country's culture can be found here:

Quote of the day - Dick Durbin

I call on those who question the motives of the President and his national security advisers to join with the rest of America in presenting a united front to our enemies abroad.

Senator Dick Durbin (1998)

H/T James Lileks

Kelo and MSM/DNC

1. The MSM/DNC provides plenty of coverage of the Kelo decision, but continuously refers to the decision as that of the "Supreme Court", instead of a narrow majority of liberal justices. [But the Bush v. Gore decision of December 2000 is always referred to as the case where "a-Republican-appointed-conservative-narrow-majority-selected-Bush-even-though-Gore-got-more-votes."] The distinction is important, in that those who rely exclusively on the MSM/DNC for news believe that the Court is somehow conservative and that conservative justices are kicking people out of their homes. In fact, the opposite is true.

2. To repeat myself from yesterday, in the brave new world that our activist courts have given us, you can lose your home to a private developer, but you can have all of the abortions you want and you can euthanize your parents when they get old (or even sooner). Without children or the elderly weighing us down, what do we need private houses for? What do we need extra space for? There is no reason not to move in to that nice federally subsidized apartment that the government has waiting for us. Our lives are one step closer to being completely planned from cradle to grave.

3. We need a meme. Here are some samples:

(a) If you liked the Kelo decision, you'll want another moderate wishy-washy judge on the Supreme Court.

(b) Kelo - brought to you by compromises like those of the gang of 14.

(c) Kelo is what happens when moderates choose our Supreme Court justices.

Those aren't great, but you get the idea. If we let this issue drop, we will see more Justices like Kennedy and Souter on the bench.

Quote of the day - Charles Johnson

"The Media Are the Enemy"

Charles Johnson a/k/a Little Green Footballs

Karl Rove gets it right on 9-11

In the immediate aftermath of 9-11, the MSM/DNC leapt into action. They declared war - - on our soldiers, on George Bush, on American efforts to defend itself, etc.

Howard Dean gave credence (although less than an explicit endorsement) of the theory that George Bush knew in advance of the 9-11 attacks. The Democratic party lent the remainder of its dwindling credibility to Michael Moore's silly movie. John Kerry, while offering no solutions, described our efforts as the "wrong war, in the wrong place at the wrong time."

The MSM/DNC war on America reached a hysterical crescendo with Turban Durbin's attack on American soldiers last week. The rest of the Democratic leadership could not bring themselves to repudiate Durbin, Dean or even Michael Moore. But now, they are offended that Karl Rove has pointed out the MSM/DNC strategy of dividing this country and hampering our defenses.

I propose a compromise. [Maybe we can enlist John McCain to help]. We will repudiate Karl Rove's statements if the MSM/DNC will repudiate everything that it has said since 9-11. [And for good measure it will have to repudiate everything it did to show weakness in the face of terrorism since the first bombing of the WTC in 1993]. Maybe if they issue a real apology like the ones proposed at Scrappleface or Cheatseeking Missiles, Karl Rove would not have to point out the obvious.
------------
update - Michelle Malkin presents a good summary.
---------------
update II
Someone should remind the MSM/DNC of the article that Hillary ghostwrote for Chelsea in the days after 9-11, where "Chelsea" tried to blame the attack on the Bush tax cuts (or some similarly forgettable and reprehensible spin). I don't have a link or remember where it was published.
"Hello, Kettle? This is Hillary Clinton calling. You're black!"

Cities may seize homes; tenth amendment, anyone?

The Supreme Court (at least the liberal majority thereof) has suddenly discovered the tenth amendment, but only for the purpose of allowing cities to seize private homes and give them to developers.

It is understandable that many observers have become totally confused about the role of the courts and the meaning of limited government. According to narrow majorities of the Supreme Court over the past few decades (and/or their leftist allies), state and local governments may:

1) seize homes

2) order the death of innocent sick people based on the word of a spouse

3) impose confiscatory taxation and regulation

4) invert the definition of marriage and force other states to recognize such
inversions

5) violate the second amendment

6) violate the first amendment with so-called hate crimes legislation

But, state and local governments may not:

1) Prohibit or regulate abortion, even for those babies whose birth is imminent

2) permit or recognize the practice of religion on state property

3) avoid the requirements of the Federal labor laws for municipal employees

Clear enough? State and local governments are free to pursue the leftist agenda, especially if it violates property rights, speech rights and gun rights. But the state cannot take any action that hinders the federal government's march to the brave new world into which it is taking us.

Maybe it is time for a national discussion on the Tenth Amendment. It is time that we rediscover that part of the Constitution. The issue may seem arcane and quaint, but the concept of limited government may depend on just such a discussion.

Quote of the day - G. K. Chesterton

A stiff apology is a second insult... The injured party does not want to be compensated because he has been wronged; he wants to be healed because he has been hurt.

Gilbert K. Chesterton

Rathergate anniversary - 78 days and counting - Blogfather's day

As evidence of the growing power of the blogosphere, I discovered this past weekend the concept of the blogfather and Blogfather's Day. Check it out at Third World County.

And please accept my apologies for being late on this item. I may not be first with the news, but I always try to put it in context. Click here for the context of Rathergate and the significance of the countdown.

Florida Democratic party, bankruptcy, IRS and 1754 Blog

1754 Blog has the story of the bankrupt Florida Democratic party. He means literally bankrupt, not merely morally and intellectually.

Quote of the day - Ronald Reagan

The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would hire them away.

Ronald Reagan

Rathergate anniversary - 79 days and counting - a new "fake but accurate" scandal.

With 79 days to go before the Rathergate anniversary on September 8th, we can celebrate the countdown by marking a new scandal involving the MSM/DNC and a new memo. [Actually, the story is starting to get old, but sometimes I don't notice things until they get rancid].

This time, the subject is the Downing Street memo. The memo that says nothing, yet was forged on a typewriter anyway. Others can debate whether this one was a true forgery. I note only Scylla and Charybdis' post, which calls to light the connection between this scandal and Rathergate:

A reporter hired by Mary Mapes as a CBS assistant producer, "Michael Smith," was the guy that BummerDietz fingered as the true culprit of MemoGate. Can there be two "Michael Smiths" who are leftish military stringers?

Rawstory indicates that Michael Smith admits that he "destroyed the original copies" before September 17, 2004. So, this timeline would be that Smith is destroying memos, around September 2004....The faked Killian memos appear to have been forged in mid-August, 2004, and a story was told by Burkett that he had "destroyed the originals."

Now we have Michael Smith (again, same Mapes team guy?) admitting that he was typing up old memo copies the same 30-day period?

Is that the same Michael Smith - the one emailed Mapes in Memogate, trying to arrange a publishing advance/bribe for Burkett, asking if it could be arranged: "What if there was a person who might have some information that could possibly change the momentum of an election?"

One or more Michael Smiths were very busy in August and September 2004 with not one, but TWO SETS of faked memos that were highly critical of George Bush.....

Click here for earlier posts and links to the Rathergate countdown.
-------------
update - Leftists deny that Michael Smith of the DSM is the same Michael Smith from Rathergate. They base this denial on the word of CBS. CBS apparently took a 5 minute break from their ongoing attempts to authenticate the Rathergate memos in order to deny affiliation with DSM's Michael Smith. The MSM/DNC will never relent in its attempt to locate the "real forgers."

Mark Steyn - new term for the Hive, Berlin Wall Orphans, MSM/DNC

Mark Steyn's most recent column uses the following phrase:

. . . the hermetically sealed echo chamber between the Dem leadership, the mainstream US media, Hollywood, Ivy League “intellectuals” and European sophisticates

Click here for an explanation of the various terms for the thing that we fight. The more we talk and write about it, the better we will be at defining and confronting it.

Classics of Conservatism - part viii - Mainspring of Human Progress - Henry Grady Weaver

Click here for previous editions of "Classics of Conservatism."

7th printing - 1965


This month's "Classic of Conservatism" answers some questions central to the nature of civilization itself:

For 60 known centuries, this planet that we call Earth has been inhabited by human beings not much different from ourselves. Their desire to live has been just as strong as ours. They have had at least as much physical strength as the average person of today, and among them have been men and women of great intelligence. But down through the ages, most human beings have gone hungry, and many have always starved.

In "Mainspring of Human Progress," Henry Grady Weaver contrasts the vast majority of human history with the modern western world - and in a way that may surprise you. Weaver weaves today's economic and political questions into their proper historical framework. And he does it all in a pocket paperback that originally cost 95 cents.

Weaver writes about socialism and statist government. But mostly he writes in depth on the "revolution" that is the American way of life. And by revolution, he does not mean the war that was fought in 1776. He means an entire way of thinking that places the individual at the forefront. He describes how individualism leads to industry and economic growth - how the inventions of Jacob Newton, John Deere and Benjamin Franklin flowed from this country's emphasis on individualism. Prosperity does not just happen. It certainly is not inevitable with the passage of time. It happens only when the individual is free to pursue his own ideas and keep the fruits of his labor.

"Mainspring" is an easy read and a refreshing break from the partisan nastiness and memorized talking points that permeate today's politics.

Quote of the day - Ayn Rand

A desire presupposes the possibility of action to achieve it; action presupposes a goal which is worth achieving.

Ayn Rand

Quote of the day - Joe Sobran

A prude used to be someone who squirmed about sex even in private; now it's anyone who merely wishes sex were still private. Private means, among other things, special. Only a prostitute or a lecher considers sexual partners interchangeable; normal people think sexual intimacy should exist only between people whose lives are properly intertwined.

Joe Sobran

Rathergate anniversary - 81 days and counting - another blogiversary

Yesterday was the two year anniversary of Black Five's blog. While that blog preceded Rathergate, it experienced a notable upswing in traffic following the scandal. While I am sure that the election also played a major role in that upswing, Black Five's traffic has never receded to pre-Rathergate levels. Examine Black Five's traffic, read the posts and draw your own conclusions.

Click here for my explanation of the significance of Rathergate and the explanation of the countdown:

Perhaps most importantly, the blogosphere grew by leaps and bounds as a result of that scandal. While I had begun to follow certain blogs as the election campaign wore on last summer, Rathergate was the hook that reeled me in. My own blog began at the end of September, 2004, as I joined in the wave that carries us to the new media future.

.............................

So, why am I writing about this now? Why not wait until September? I consider the anniversary to be such a momentous event that it merits a long runup - especially since it will be ignored by the MSM/DNC. Rathergate was the watershed event that brought not only the blogosphere, but the entire new media into the public spotlight. ...................................

Rathergate (and the long term significance of Rathergate) deserve numerous posts. Over the next three months I hope to focus on Rathergate and the new media in an effort to foster greater appreciation of how far we have come and where we are going next. I hope also to generate sufficient buzz to insure that this event will not be ignored or lost in a sea of the MSM/DNC's usual white noise.

Other countdown links here.

Quote of the day - Thomas Sowell

Why do some people use a fancy mathematical term like "parameters" when all that they really mean is boundaries?

Thomas Sowell

Rathergate anniversary - 82 days and counting

Click here, here and here for previous posts on the Rathergate anniversary countdown.

The new media and the freedom that it brings kicked into high gear on September 8, 2004, but there were always plenty of commentators who foresaw the liberating possibilities that the new media could bring. Joe Sobran wrote the following on March 4, 1997:

The mass media have spread the assumption that fads can be moral imperatives. They create an illusory world in which the past hardly exists, especially the Christian past.

Those media are less useful for communication, in the sense of conversational give-and-take, than for propaganda. The rise of mass media has proved especially useful for tyrants who are determined to obliterate historical memory and create masses of manipulable people, as Stalin used his media monopoly to rewrite history and science.

Just as freedom depends on keeping political power carefully divided, it requires media that are not only independent but diverse. In the recent era of media giants -- when three networks dominated the airwaves -- ideological diversity was minimal. We're now moving into an era of media fragmentation, for which we should be deeply grateful. It means the end of the liberal opinion cartel.
CBS' "60 Minutes" recently ran a short piece about alarming myths propagated on the Internet. But the great virtue of the Internet, as opposed to the big networks, is that anyone can get a piece of the action. You can actually talk back, contradict, argue, without buying your own network. There is far more interaction -- real communication -- than was ever possible on the big networks. On the Internet, falsehood is harder to spread, and easier to correct, than on the centralized media of the recent past.

John Henry Newman, a 19th-century Anglican who converted to Catholicism (and eventually became a cardinal), observed that during the Arian heresy of the fourth century, the church's elite, including most bishops, had largely embraced Arianism. It was the laity who defended orthodoxy and finally prevailed.

In the same way, the grassroots media are now rising up against the elite media. Of course the new media have their own absurd fads, but because of the actual diversity of those media -- and we all want "diversity," don't we? -- absurdity can't get a monopoly. Just as important, it can't create the illusion of consensus. To listen to some of the network talk shows, you'd think America was populated exclusively by liberals (and "responsible" conservatives who might as well be liberals).

The real trouble with the media age is that there haven't been enough media. Fortunately, that's no longer true. And liberal fads are no longer likely to pass for "official" truths.

March 4, 1997

Quote of the day - C.S. Lewis

A man who is eating or lying with his wife or preparing to go to sleep in humility, thankfulness and temperance, is, by Christian standards, in an infinitely higher state than one who is listening to Bach or reading Plato in a state of pride.

C. S. Lewis

Terri Schiavo and Guantanamo

It seems that Terri Schiavo's great misfortune was that she was not a muslim terrorist housed at Guantanamo. Had she possessed the foresight to blow up some schoolchildren with a car bomb instead of marrying Michael Schiavo, she would right now be receiving far better treatment from the courts and the justice system than she actually received (and would be allowed to eat also).

The best summaries of the Schiavo autopsy and the questions it raises are provided by Michelle Malkin and Sue Bob (attorney Jerri Lynn Ward).

Quote of the day - Ann Coulter

American soldiers make do with C-rations. Dinner on an America West flight from New York to Las Vegas consists of one small bag of peanuts. Meanwhile, one recent menu for suspected terrorists at Guantanamo consisted of orange-glazed chicken, fresh fruit crepe, steamed peas and mushrooms, and rice pilaf. Sounds like the sort of thing you'd get at Windows on the World – if it still existed.

Ann Coulter



Windows on the World

Chinese military advances - Rand Corporation study

A Rand Corporation study provides further details on China's military catching up with the U.S. Thank you Bill Clinton.

TWA flight 847 anniversary

Kudos to Debbie Schlussel for remembering the 20 year anniversary of TWA flight 847. I can recall the scenes on television day after day as western negotiators tried to "resolve" the situation. This hijacking occurred before anyone had the idea of resolving the problem by going into the Middle East and removing governments. We spent nearly thirty years attempting to deal with terrorism by negotiation, pressuring Israel, ignoring the problem, surgical strikes, working with our "allies", endless truces and treaties, nobel prizes for terrorists, etc.

This was the result:





20 years ago this week

While W's solution seems dangerous, costly (in terms of lives and money), naive and time consuming, no one has a better idea. Returning to the days of June, 1985 (or any other pre - 9-11 period) is out of the question. At least now we have something to show for our efforts. Compared to W's liberation of 2 countries and the opportunity to liberate others, what results did we achieve prior to 9-11?

Quote of the day - Joe Sobran

-- Excessive laws are worse than useless. Many new laws confer legitimacy on what common sense would recognize as crimes.

Joe Sobran

A WNBA ass't coach distinguishes herself - Julie Brase e-mails Debbie Schlussel

Click here to read Phoenix Mercury Assistant Head Coach Julie Brase's two word e-mail to Debbie Schlussel. Did she need to consult a thesaurus before she typed her e-mail?


A role model for fans (if WNBA ever gets any).


P.S. Ms. Brase's e-mail address is jbrase@phoenixmercury.com

A cheat sheet for members of the MSM/DNC

Dr. Sanity has posted the following chart to show the difference between the items that the MSM/DNC is fixated on (the left side of the chart) and items that MSM/DNC is incapable of acknowledging (the right side of the chart):


click to enlarge

Dr. Sanity explains this disparity in psychological terms, with an interesting case study from her days practicing medicine.

I explain it with reference to # 18 from the bias category list, plus a generous helping of ## 1, 3, 5, 7, 11 etc. for those items on the left side of the chart and ## 2 and sometimes 8 for the items on the right side of the chart.

[Actually, the MSM/DNC uses the whole list (plus others I haven't thought of) sooner or later.]

Quote of the day - Barry Goldwater

To insist on strength is not war-mongering. It is peace-mongering.

Barry M. Goldwater

Rick Monday and the U.S. flag

Check out this story as we commemmorate flag day. It appears that former Cub Rick Monday took part in some interesting heroics on the field one day in 1976. I have no memory of this event despite being old enough to follow baseball at the time.


Rick Monday

H/T Michelle Malkin

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Update - April 25, 2006. Pardon the broken link above. Here is a new link to the Washington Post:

The Baseball Hall of Fame recently named Monday's quick-thinking act as one of the 100 Classic Moments in the history of the game.

Random thoughts on Ed Klein's "Bill raped Hillary" stormlet

Now that I have discussed what I consider to be the

real scandal

of the Clinton administration, I would like to comment briefly as the dust settles on the Ed Klein book matter.

1) Many conservative bloggers spent the day yesterday defending the Clintons from the Ed Klein book. The bloggers received no credit for this defense, as the book has been and will be labeled a "right wing attack." I am not criticizing the bloggers, but it is important to know how we will be treated even when we take the high road.

2) The best quote regarding yesterday's stormlet is from Hard Starboard:

If maintaining our "credibility" were to henceforth require stridently proactive defense of our political foes against personal attacks and innuendo from their own side, then that would consign one more word to the dustbin of etymological incoherence.

Conservative bloggers don't need to defend the Clintons from the latest "attack."

3) Yesterday's unpleasantness brought out of the woodwork the "I used to be conservative" brigade. There were several commenters at various blogs who claimed that they usually-vote-Republican-but-were-now-going-to-support-Hillary-because-of-the-book. Anyone who could be swayed so easily, has already been swayed. We can only hope that Bush' first Supreme Court nominee is sufficiently conservative that the "I used to be conservative" brigade will make a similar declaration when the nominee's name is announced.

4) Kitty Kelley's anti-Bush book, so often invoked yesterday as a parallel to the Klein book, was reenacted on Saturday Night Live on the eve of the election last fall. No doubt the Klein book will not receive the same attention.

5) Had Bill Clinton been a conservative Republican, the MSM/DNC would undoubtedly have asked Juanita Broadrick to provide her thoughts on Ed Klein's book.

6) Where was the outrage when John McCain publicly joked (while Chelsea was still a minor) that Chelsea Clinton's physical appearance could be attributed to her being the product of a union between Hillary and Janet Reno? (McCain later apologized, and then began his "straight talk express.") For that matter, where was the outrage when Chelsea wrote her famous article in the wake of 9-11 that used the terrorist attacks as a basis for partisan sniping at the Bush tax cuts?

7) Yesterday's funniest line:

. . . Hillary was one of the most liberated women of her generation and would be about as likely to accept forcible assault as step out of a moving plane sans-parachute . . .

We know from experience that there is little that Hillary will not accept for the sake of her political ambitions. We don't need to know exactly how much she will accept - such as whether she would accept the events depicted in Klein's book. She has tolerated from her "husband"(and defended) the worst public humiliation of any first lady in history. She has attacked her husband's accusers, much the same way that the fabled "trailer trash" women (of which James Carville speaks) attack the police when the police come to arrest the drunken husband in the middle of a domestic smackdown. She makes her attacks all behind the protective cover of the MSM/DNC.

Maybe the above blogger was thinking of Paula Jones instead of Hillary. Paula Jones, if the MSM/DNC permits you to recall, was the brave "trailer trash" woman that nearly brought down the Clinton administration. The woman who suddenly found herself harrassed and marginalized at her state job after rebuffing the good Governor's advances. The woman who found herself the subject of IRS audits after going public with her story. The woman whose physical appearance became the target of MSM/DNC attacks.

If we are going to deep six Klein's book, that's fine. It won't be the first book to be ignored and/or castigated. But please don't use it as an excuse to impute heroic attributes to our lamp-throwing junior Senator from New York.

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn

But, you know, we've been told ever since 9/11 that the allegedly seething ''Muslim street'' was about to explode, and for four years it's remained as somnolent as a suburban cul-de-sac on a weekday afternoon. Invade their countries, topple their rulers, bomb their infrastructure from the first day of Ramadan to the last, arrest their terrorists, hold them at Gitmo for half a decade, initiate reforms setting the Arab world on the first rung of the ladder to political and economic liberty, and the seething Muslim street gives one almighty shrug.

Mark Steyn

The Clintons, China and the scandal that we ignore at our peril.

As I promised Monday, here is the biggest reason to oppose the Clintons. For those of you that claim to be offended because of the scandalous nature of the Ed Klein "attack", here is a test. If these facts don't cause you to take up your sword and oppose the Clintons, then your feigned "offense" at the Klein book was a mere "feel good" exercise.

I will not repeat the entire history of the Clinton years, but it is important to remember 1994 - the year that Newt Gingrich and the Republicans took control of Congress for the first time in 40 years. This event was a true political earthquake. Commentators spoke of nothing else for months (while MSM/DNC mouthpieces would plot to reverse that result for the next . . . . Oh wait, they're still trying to do that). Clinton appeared to be doomed. With the presidential election only 2 years away, his presidency a disaster, his party in disarray and out of power everywhere but the White House - the prospects seemed hopeless for a second term.

We all know what happened. I won't bore you with the details of how he reshaped his image or outsmarted Bob Dole. The most important element in Clinton's revival was CASH, and lots of it. Clinton spent and spent and spent again. He bought airtime and used that airtime long before he even had an opponent. He became a fundraising machine. He sold access to the White House in various forms - coffees, nights in the Lincoln bedroom, etc. Among his main money suppliers were the Chinese.

We all know that it is illegal for foreign governments to spend money to influence American elections. Foreign governments cannot contribute to Presidential campaigns. (If you don't understand the reason for this law, you have spent too much time listening to John Kerry and his "global test.") But that law didn't stop Clinton. It only slowed him down. Before the race even ended, reports began to surface of shadowy Asian figures making huge contributions to Clinton that those individuals could not afford. Individuals whose names appeared on the contribution reports were reimbursed by China or by corporations seeking to sell ICBM or satellite technology to China.

The links are now old and broken, but here are references to articles from that era:

AP reported on May 2, 2000 regarding a Justice Department memo that was ultimately lost in the spin:

U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter and former federal prosecutor Charles Labella today outlined parts of LaBella's still-confidential memo from 1998 that urges appointment of an independent counsel to investigate President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore for possibly illegal campaign fund-raising practices in the 1996 election.

Specter, R-Pa., who read the LaBella memo Monday night after the Justice Department gave him access to it, disclosed that the document seeks an investigation of the president and the head of Loral Corp. because of $1.5 million in donations by the business executive to the Democratic National Committee. Loral obtained a waiver from the Clinton administration allowing the company to do satellite business with China.
LaBella said the question would be whether the money, in such situations, was given in exchange for the benefit to a business.

emphasis added

The scandal did not involve merely the outright sale of technology. It is involved spying and lax enforcement by the Clinton Justice Department:

A New York Post article from 1999 contained the following excerpts:

The chief suspect in revealing top U.S. nuclear secrets to China, Wen Ho Lee, flunked a lie-detector test last February, a new congressional report says.

The probe "was not a comedy of errors but a tragedy of errors," said Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.), the panel's ranking Democrat. "There was a shocking lack of thoroughness, competency and urgency in the government's investigation."

Possibly for the first time ever, the report says, the Justice Department refused to help the FBI get a wiretap - agents were seeking to eavesdrop on Lee.

Critics have also questioned when President Clinton was informed of possible Chinese spying and why his administration was so slow to react.

During Clinton's 1996 re-election campaign, Democrats got - and later returned - megabucks in illegal campaign cash with Chinese links.

I have the complete article in my computer, but I don't have the date. There were many stories of this kind at that time.
William Safire chimed in many times, including January 15, 2001 in the New York Times:

As he rages against the dying of the spotlight, Bill Clinton can breathe one final sigh of relief: the man with whom he established the illegal "Asian Connection" that heavily financed his 1992 and 1996 campaigns has been given a walk by Reno Justice.

James Riady, the Indonesian billionaire with close ties to Beijing's leaders, was allowed to plead guilty to conspiring to defraud the U.S. One of his banks will pay a fine of $8 million, to him a painless penalty. Because no threat of jail hangs over the Clinton money man who evaded subpoenas for almost five years, he is not induced to tell the whole truth about his hugely successful purchase of White House influence.

Staring us in the face is this stunning assertion now harder than ever to controvert: An American president's foreign policy decisions were substantially influenced by unlawful campaign contributions at critical times from a foreign source. In my view, that inescapable judgment will be more damning in history's eyes than Whitewater cover-ups or any abuses for which Clinton was impeached.
His defense is an artful denial that his decisions were influenced "solely" by contributions. Not solely. Other considerations, such as the avid advocacy of some business executives, muddied his motives so that a charge of outright bribery cannot be brought.

But the election law was broken and the reluctant Justice Department had to be hounded by a vigilant press and frustrated Congress into doing even part of its duty. Riady's much-needed money passed and Clinton's favors were done and America's Asian policies were changed. No nostalgic spinning or pleas to move on will ameliorate that betrayal of trust.

Even though the links no longer work, I have the entire articles in my hard drive for anyone that might be interested.

Insight Magazine wrote the following in early 2000:

Clinton friend and fund-raiser Charles Trie was a conduit for illegal donations from Chinese military and intelligence operatives to the Democratic National Committee and the president’s campaign committees. But Insight has learned that Trie also was involved — and used Clinton connections — in facilitating a 1993 sale of dual-use medical technology to China that poses a significant national-security threat.
In the course of 17 secret Trie interviews with the FBI in 1999 the Clinton confidant revealed an elaborate and illegal scheme to funnel large sums into Clinton-Gore campaign coffers and the president’s legal-defense fund. He also confessed to orchestrating the sale of a 500-liter (130-gallon) medical fermentation device to a pharmaceutical plant in China suspected of manufacturing chemical and biological agents for military purposes.

For those who might be tempted to ask, "so what?", look at this excerpt from Bill Gertz on October 15, 1999:

China is building up its missile forces in preparation for possible attacks against Taiwan - and the United States if the U.S. military comes to the island's aid. The large number of regional offensive missile systems, backed by space-based spying systems, will be the "cornerstone of People's Liberation Army warfighting early in the 21st century" and a "devastating weapon of military utility," according to a Pentagon report.

"Beijing's drift toward a force dominated by offensive theater missiles could have significant implications for regional stability," the report said. "In the most likely scenario for their use, the PLA's growing arsenal of highly accurate and lethal theater missiles, and a preemptive doctrine could give Beijing a decisive edge in any future conflict with Taiwan."

Regarding U.S. involvement in a war between China and Taiwan, the report makes clear that Beijing won't hesitate to attack.

"The PLA has indicated a willingness to use highly accurate short-range ballistic missiles, medium-range ballistic missiles and land attack cruise missiles against U.S. assets, to include key bases in Japan and aircraft carriers operating in the Western Pacific," the report said, noting that Chinese weapons planners are working hard at preparing missiles to attack U.S. carriers.

Clinton's illegal policies brought us closer to facing the choice between war or ignoring a Chinese attack on its neighbors.
A congressional report concurs (as reported by Gertz in November 1999):

A newly declassified House committee report says China stole secrets on every deployed U.S. nuclear missile warhead in recent years and now has 20 long-range missiles aimed at the United States.
The report, obtained yesterday by The Washington Times, is a sweeping analysis of Chinese efforts to steal U.S. military and defense secrets and technology.
"The world is a lot less safe today as a consequence of these thefts," said Rep. Christopher Cox, California Republican and chairman of the special House committee.
. . . . . . . .
The report also said China supplies assistance to the nuclear weapons programs of Iran and Pakistan.
That finding contradicts President Clinton's recent certification to Congress that China was not supplying nuclear weapons-related goods to rogue states.
The report identified two Chinese officials, Wang Jun and Liu Chaoying, as being directly involved in illegal activities in the United States.
Mr. Wang is the son of the late Chinese President Wang Zhen and is head of a Chinese company that tried to smuggle 2,000 AK-47 assault rifles into the United States. He also attended a White House "coffee" with Mr. Clinton in 1996 and is connected to more than $600,000 in illegal campaign contributions made by Charles Yah Lin Trie to the Democratic National Committee.

Jeff Gerth of the New York Times had reported similar findings (with the usual MSM/DNC spin included) on March 17, 1999:

In late 1996, months earlier than previously acknowledged, a senior Clinton Administration official ordered that security measures at the nation's nuclear weapons laboratories be quickly strengthened, but his orders were largely ignored or delayed, Administration officials said on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, China moves troops into the Sudan and Haiti and takes operational control of the Panama Canal.

These items are only part of the story. I have barely scratched the surface. But there is enough here to paint a clear picture of Bill Clinton selling out our security to a country bent on some degree of world domination on a scale rivaling the totalitarian powers of the 20th century. Hillary remained a willing partner with her husband during his administration. She cannot escape responsibility and does not deserve sympathy. As her husband always said, we got two for the price of one.


you know who

If this scandal bears fruit in the form of some future disaster, at least those of us that blogged it can claim to have warned the rest of us of the coming danger. It is a virtual guarantee that China will grow in power and influence in the coming years. It is also a guarantee that repression, threats, bluster and the risk of war will accompany China's rise for the foreseeable future. It has yet to be seen whether we can avoid the worst potential consequences of the Clintons' sellout. Keeping our heads buried in the sand is no way to achieve that goal.


you know where
---------------------
visit counter added March 29, 2007

Rathergate anniversary - 87 days and counting - Michelle Malkin's 1 year anniversary

For previous posts on the Rathergate anniversary countdown, click here.

Michelle Malkin's 1 year anniversary post today provides excellent links and insight into the history of blogging over the past year. Anyone looking to examine the rise of the blogosphere - both immediately before and in the aftermath of Rathergate - would do well to check out today's post.




She is a daily read for me, (even though I haven't been able to get her to add me to her blogroll).

Hmmm . . . (mustache twirl, chin rub, other stereotypical indicia of clever plotting . . . . ) maybe if I include an ad for one of her books, she might add me to her blogroll. . .

Quote of the day - Ronald Reagan

If the bloodbath must come, then let's get on with it!

Gov. Ronald W. Reagan to the U.C. Board of Regents

Ed Klein, Hillary Clinton - The Truth About Hillary

Do I believe the accusations that Drudge has excerpted from Ed Klein's new book? I don't know, but even Clinton supporters have to realize that nothing is impossible, unthinkable or unspeakable when it comes to the Clintons.



Just remember, Klein has impeccable mainstream media credentials:

But Hillary and her camp may have a hard time typecasting Ed Klein as a Clinton-crazed right-winger. Klein is the former foreign editor of NEWSWEEK and former editor in chief of the NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE. He is a frequent contributor to VANITY FAIR and PARADE.

He is also the author of THE KENNEDY CURSE; FAREWELL, JACKIE; and several other NEW YORK TIMES bestsellers.

VANITY FAIR has already commissioned an excerpt of the embargoed Hillary book, exploring Hillary's senate runs.

----------

Earlier post about "The Truth About Hillary."

The real reason to oppose Hillary.
------------------

Update - Monday morning

Upon further reflection, there are some reasons not to believe this story:

1) This was not Bill Clinton's usual method of raping women. When he raped Juanita Broadrick, he subdued her by biting her lip ("Better put some ice on that"). But in this case, the attack reportedly destroyed the hotel room. (I don't remember whether his rape of Eileen Wellstone involved a destructive struggle or not).

2) A Captain's Quarters commenter has suggested the following:

I get the feeling Klein has some part in the 'Hillary for President' strategy by deliberately putting this garbage out, then including some other authentic charges of unethical or even criminal behavior by her and Bill. The result: When the other charges are brought up in 2008 (or even 2006) Hillary can cite this book as being 'discredited'. The MSM then shuts down any story relating to her ethical 'lapses' because they are given the same weight as the 'rape' charge.

As I wrote yesterday, "nothing is impossible, unthinkable or unspeakable when it comes to the Clintons." That includes inventing a story for the purpose of generating sympathy and covering up real crimes.

3) This story hurts Bill and makes Hillary the victim/hero. A struggle that destroyed the hotel room [the room "looked like World War III"] makes Hillary look better than Bill's other victims because she supposedly fought back.

4) Does anyone doubt for a second that Hillary would have aborted her child if she got pregnant from a rape?

The bottom line is that none of this should matter after all of the Clintons' crimes and history. Research the items that the Clintons sold to China in exchange for the campaign contributions that saved their Presidency, then review photos of nuclear attack victims for a peak at our own possible future. See how much sympathy you feel for the Clintons then.
--------------------------
Monday afternoon update -
For all of those who claim to be offended by the Hillary rape story, I have thought of a test. I will shortly dig out my Clinton/China research from the 1990's and post it at this blog. If you truly are offended by the Ed Klein allegations, but would be receptive to a relevant story of actual Clinton harm and corruption, you will want to see what I will post here in the next day or two. You will not only want to see it, but blog it yourself.
----------------------------
Monday night update
Here is the link. If you still have any inkling that you might vote for a Clinton after reading this, then you are more partisan than you admit and you have no basis to claim sudden outrage over some book that came out this month.

Mark Steyn and China

Mark Steyn writes today that this century shall not be "The Chinese Century." I can only hope that he is correct.

Steyn cites numerous examples of backwardness and oppression in the Chinese government. He correctly points out that no people with such a government can enjoy true prosperity for long:

China is (to borrow the formulation they used when they swallowed Hong Kong) "One Country, Two Systems". On the one hand, there's the China the world gushes over - the economic powerhouse that makes just about everything in your house. On the other, there's the largely unreconstructed official China - a regime that, while no longer as zealously ideological as it once was, nevertheless clings to the old techniques beloved of paranoid totalitarianism: lie and bluster in public, arrest and torture in private. China is the Security Council member most actively promoting inaction on Darfur, where (in the most significant long-range military deployment in five centuries), it has 4,000 troops protecting its oil interests. Kim Jong-Il of North Korea is an international threat only because Beijing licenses him as a provocateur with which to torment Washington and Tokyo, in the way that a mob boss will send round a mentally unstable heavy. This is not the behaviour of a psychologically healthy state.

What scares me is the prospect that China's oppressiveness, instead of simply holding China back, will (combined with Western decay) lead to Chinese expansionism and war. We have already provided China with the means to initiate such war.

What also scares me is that China has 4,000 troops in Darfur. Combined with the Chinese military presence in Haiti and the Panama Canal, we see the beginnings of true imperialism, the likes of which the left routinely accuses President Bush.

Apparently, leftist affinity for U.S. enemies is not limited to terrorists:

I said a while back that China was a better bet for the future than Russia or the European Union. Which is damning with faint praise: trapped in a demographic death spiral, Russia and Europe have no future at all. But that doesn't mean China will bestride the scene as a geopolitical colossus. When European analysts coo about a "Chinese century", all they mean is "Oh, God, please, anything other than a second American century". But wishing won't make it so.

Leftists don't seem to realize (or care) that a "Chinese century" instead of a "second American century" would entail a series of disasters, upheaval and displacement on a scale that we have not yet imagined. Nations do not decline peacefully. Sould America suffer in the way that leftists hope, the consequences would be far reaching, permanent and would effect leftists also.

Steyn presents an alternative scenario:

China won't advance to the First World with its present borders intact. In a billion-strong state with an 80 per cent rural population cut off from the coastal boom and prevented from participating in it, "One country, two systems" will lead to two or three countries, three or four systems.

We may yet avoid disaster at the hands of the Chinese Communists, but it will take greater awareness and effort than we have shown so far. At the very least, we need to show the determination that we displayed (toward the Soviets) at the start of Ronald Reagan's first term.

Previous posts linked here.

Rathergate anniversary - 88 days and counting - the future of MSM/DNC weekly periodicals.

Click here for my explanation of the Rathergate anniversary countdown.

One tends to forget, even over a short period of time, how much the world changes right before our eyes. This amnesia sets in even when the world experiences rapid changes within a few months or years.

We have gotten used to the blogosphere and the new media. Many of us rely on the new media for instant updates and for news that we can get from no other source. We are accustomed to knowing the "story" long before the evening news broadcast chimes in with its own 30 second version. We are certainly well-informed long before we receive our daily newspaper. Weekly magazines have been relegated to the status of the pony express. Not only do we know the news before we receive our copy of Time, Newsweek, etc., we have access to voluminous commentary and analysis within a day or two of the story's first appearance. The traditional MSM/DNC news magazines have little to add.

This reality hit home yesterday as I stood in line at a bookstore yesterday. I noticed a copy of Time Magazine near the checkout counter. One of the cover stories involved "Deep Throat". It occurred to me that Deep Throat had been so thoroughly discussed and analyzed over the past two weeks that I was actually tired of the subject. The Time story could be useful only to those who were willfully cut off from the rest of the world since the end of May. Rathergate and the new media revolution had rendered Time as obsolete as the rotary phone.

The point I am making requires each of us to contemplate our own experiences with various news stories in recent years and how we, as individuals, receive and received news. If you reflect on your own experiences, I would bet that you find yourself relying less and less on MSM/DNC sources, particularly weekly periodicals. You can probably recall early instances in which you received particular news from a new media source and never bothered to check with an MSM/DNC source.

Even so, weekly MSM/DNC sources do continue to exist for a reason. They continue to be quoted and to create waves in situations such as the Newsweek-Koran-toilet story. I think we will find that MSM/DNC weekly news items have impact only to the extent that they veer from the truth.

(1) If a weekly publication seeks to reveal a previously unknown true item, that fact will likely leak out in another form long before the time of publication. The Deep Throat reporter did not wait for the normal periodical publication cycle to break Mark Felt's story. Vanity Fair doomed its own article to irrelevance by issuing a press release and igniting a feeding frenzy more than one week prior to publication.

But falsehoods are known only to the liar. When Newsweek lied about the Koran, no other news outlet could scoop Newsweek on the story because there was no story in the first place. When 60 minutes broadcast its forged documents story, they were in no danger of being scooped because no other network was about to go to press over a different set of forged documents. [While all MSM/DNC outlets do lie, it is highly unlikely that two MSM/DNC outlets will initiate the same lie at the same time. Most MSM/DNC outlets are merely following the lead of whatever MSM/DNC outlet originated the lie in the first place.] In short, weekly MSM/DNC outlets have impact mainly when they lie.

(2) A second purpose served by the MSM/DNC weekly outlets is to pile on and rehash the MSM/DNC official line on any subject. This week, for example, Time breaks the story that Gitmo detainees were "tortured" with music from Christina Aguilera.

Any news source is valuable only if it provides (1) previously unknown news or (2) analysis of existing stories. A MSM/DNC weekly outlet cannot provide #1 (unless such items are false). To the extent that it attempts to provide #2, such attempt will be stale and repetitive.

The weekly MSM/DNC outlets are useful only if the readers prefer being lied to or having the previously aired MSM/DNC spin reinforced in their minds.

[The same probably can be said for MSM/DNC books also, but that is the subject for another post.]

The same cannot be said for conservative weeklies because the conservative weeklies are still battling the MSM/DNC memory hole, white noise and other MSM/DNC bias techniques. Conservative weeklies' analysis still retains value. At some point, as the MSM/DNC withers on the vine, the conservative weeklies will become obsolete also.

The post-Rathergate world is still taking shape. The changes we experience today will seem commonplace in one year.

Quote of the day - Ann Coulter

Rathergate anniversary - the 90 day countdown

By my calculation, yesterday was exactly 90 days prior to the one year anniversary of the beginning of Rathergate. September 8, 2004 was the date on which 60 minutes broadcast its report based on forged documents. CBS would stonewall for 12 desparate days, hoping somehow to prove that the documents were accurate or that the old MSM/DNC dominance could make the controversary go away.

By the time CBS issued its half-hearted apology on September 20, 2004, the entire world had changed.

Terms like "blogosphere", "pajamas" and "fake, but accurate" would become commonplace for anyone who hoped to discuss media issues intelligently. CBS would suffer a near fatal blow to its credibility - to be followed within months by CNN and Newsweek, as those institutions became embroiled in similar falsehoods that would be exposed by the blogosphere.

Perhaps most importantly, the blogosphere grew by leaps and bounds as a result of that scandal. While I had begun to follow certain blogs as the election campaign wore on last summer, Rathergate was the hook that reeled me in. My own blog began at the end of September, 2004, as I joined in the wave that carries us to the new media future.

While I can take no credit for the blogburst that brought down Rather and CBS, I do claim to be a child of Rathergate. I suspect that all of those political blogs whose archives go back only to September and October, 2004 were similarly Rathergate generated.

So, why am I writing about this now? Why not wait until September? I consider the anniversary to be such a momentous event that it merits a long runup - especially since it will be ignored by the MSM/DNC. Rathergate was the watershed event that brought not only the blogosphere, but the entire new media into the public spotlight. The new media had been growing since 1988, when Rush Limbaugh put conservative talk radio on the map. Matt Drudge's Lewinsky story made the internet an integral part of the new media revolution in 1998. But these events were only cracks in the dam. With Rathergate, the dam burst and a river of new information and opposing viewpoints poured forth. Ever since, we have been awash in information, the likes of which had previously been confined to the MSM/DNC's memory hole.

Rathergate (and the long term significance of Rathergate) deserve numerous posts. Over the next three months I hope to focus on Rathergate and the new media in an effort to foster greater appreciation of how far we have come and where we are going next. I hope also to generate sufficient buzz to insure that this event will not be ignored or lost in a sea of the MSM/DNC's usual white noise.

Quote of the day - Thomas Sowell

This must be the golden age of euphemisms. When people deliberately violate our laws by crossing our borders illegally, they are called "undocumented workers." When people steal copyrighted material and exchange it among themselves, it is called "file swapping" instead of fencing stolen goods.

Thomas Sowell

And speaking of the Chinese . . . . .

Someone should inform the authorities in Michigan [both state and federal] that the danger from China results from the Chinese military buildup [thanks to Bill Clinton], not from Chinese restaurants and their employees.

While we are at it, someone should tell the Michigan State Police that the terrorists in Michigan can be found at the local mosques, not cooking Moo Goo Gai Pan at Ho Lee Kow restaurant:

In the State of Michigan, with the most concentrated Islamic population outside the Middle East, you'd think illegal aliens and undocumented workers could be found at falafel joints all over the place. But what kind of restaurants do they raid? That's right -- Chinese restaurants. Michigan State Police raided 17 Chinese restaurants, looking for illegal and undocumented workers. It would be unfair to target Arabs and Muslims. But, at a time when Islamic terrorism is at an all time high, no problem raiding places like Ho Lee Kow and Give Me Chow. Political Incorrectness is okay, so long as it has nothing to do with the protected classes of radical Islam and fattoush consumers.

H/T Debbie Schlussel.

We cannot survive another Clinton presidency

While it may seem a little early to post the above headline, it is, in fact, a little late for the Chinese military buildup to be coming to light. The Chinese government has built its military capability over the past decade and a half, to the point where they are a definite threat to the U.S.

Bill Clinton authorized the transfer of advanced ICBM technology to the Chinese in exchange for the illegal campaign contributions that nearly caused a scandal following the 1996 election. It is still unclear whether we can repair the damage he did to our national security. We won't know that for decades, after we have either endured an unthinkable disaster or have somehow resolved the situation with China in the same way that we won the cold war with Russia.

We barely survived Bill Clinton's two terms in office. We won't be so lucky if we have to endure another Clinton administration.

-----------------
Previous posts.
1996 Chinese fundraising scandal
Chinese troops in Haiti

Quote of the day - Sheik Ibrahim Mudeiris

We have ruled the world before, and by Allah, the day will come when we will rule the entire world again. The day will come when we will rule America. The day will come when we will rule Britain and the entire world – except for the Jews. The Jews will not enjoy a life of tranquility under our rule, because they are treacherous by nature, as they have been throughout history. The day will come when everything will be relieved of the Jews - even the stones and trees which were harmed by them. Listen to the Prophet Muhammad, who tells you about the evil end that awaits Jews. The stones and trees will want the Muslims to finish off every Jew.

Sheik Ibrahim Mudeiris

H/T Freedom's Zone

Ed Klein, The Truth About Hillary: What She Knew, When She Knew It, and How Far She’ll Go to Become President - new Hillary Clinton book

There is a new book due to be released later this month about Hillary Clinton.



H/T Newsmax via Blogs Against Hillary. Blogs Against Hillary contains the following tidbit:

But a new report about the book confirms what was first revealed exclusively in NewsMax’s Insider Report this past weekend: The late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan and his wife, Liz, despised Hillary.

The author has many "mainstream" credentials, and Vanity Fair plans to include excerpts later this month. Despite the mainstream credentials and attention, Hillary has denounced the book as a "work of fiction". So it can't be a total whitewash and it may even live up to its title.

Ann Coulter, Bob Woodward and an archeology mission

I hate to keep dwelling on the MSM/DNC's favorite subject, but Ann Coulter's column today brings to light many facts:

1) of which I had never heard; and

2) which reveal more MSM/DNC lies:

Woodward claimed he signaled Deep Throat by moving a red flag in a flowerpot to the back of his balcony and that Deep Throat signaled him by drawing the hands of a clock in Woodward's New York Times.

But in his 1993 book, Deep Truth: The Lives of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein Adrian Havill did something it had occurred to no one else to do: He looked at Woodward's old apartment!

Havill found that Woodward had a sixth-floor interior apartment that could not be seen from the street. Even from the back of the apartment complex, the balcony was too high for any flowerpot to be seen. So unless there was a "second flowerpot," visible from a nearby grassy knoll, the red flag in the flowerpot story is ... well, full of red flags.

In addition, newspapers were not delivered door-to-door in Woodward's apartment building but were left in a stack in the lobby. Deep Throat could not have known which newspaper Woodward would pick up.

We might have known all this before 1993 if America's ever-vigilant watchdog media had been, say, half as skeptical of Bob Woodward's claims as they were of Juanita Broaddrick's.

The fictional Deep Throat knew things Felt could not possibly have known, such as the 18 1/2-minute gap on one of the White House tapes. Only six people knew about the gap when Woodward reported it. All of them worked at the White House. Felt not only didn't work at the White House, but when the story broke, he also didn't even work at the FBI anymore.

Woodward and Bernstein's former literary agent, David Obst, has always said Deep Throat was a fictional device added to later drafts of "All the President's Men" to spice it up (kind of like everything in a Michael Moore film).

Obst scoffs at the notion that the No. 2 man at the FBI would have time to be skulking around parking lots spying for red flags on a reporter's balcony. "There's not a chance one person was Deep Throat," he told The New York Times.

Also check out this 1974 article that downplay's the Washington Post's and "Deep Throat's" role in Watergate. H/T La Shawn Barber.

I include these quotes and references because it is fascinating to watch MSM/DNC's version of history slowly unravel on so many topics, including Watergate. Watergate remains the MSM/DNC's favorite subject only because so much of the truth remains hidden under MSM/DNC mythology. Conservatives always had the ability to uncover the truth and write about it. But now that we can talk to each other using the internet and talk radio, the truth has a chance to see the light of day.

So much of what we think we know about recent history is false. The truth awaits only our own efforts to reveal it. Think of the new media as one giant archeological mission. The artifacts, bones and ruins are buried in the sand. We need only keep digging to find out where they are and place them on display in our blogosphere museums.

Just as the Dead Sea Scrolls remained hidden and unknown in a clay pot in a mideast cave for almost 2,000 years, the truth behind Woodward's falsehoods remained buried under the MSM/DNC sands for thirty years.

What hidden treasures will we find next?