Month: December 2005

Here he goes again.

AP – Senator John Kerry says US needs to reduce its forces in Iraq by at least 100,000 by the end of 2006.

He says such a move will send a message to the Middle East that Americans aren’t interested in maintaining a permanent military presence in that country.

In a speech before the Council on Foreign Relations, Kerry said the goal should be to have a force of 30-to-40,000 in Iraq by the end of next year.

However, he said any troop withdrawal should be linked to a timetable set by what he calls “a series of benchmarks of accomplishment.”

In a speech sometimes reminiscent of his 2004 run for the White House, Kerry focused most of his criticism at the Bush administration.

So, let me get this straight. To take 100,000 of our troops out of Iraq, all we need to do is set a timetable with benchmarks of accomplishment. OK, let’s pretend that Bush agrees to Kerry’s plan. First we need to determine what constitutes accomplishment. Oops, plan failure. The Democrats will never agree with Republicans on a practical definition of ‘accomplishment’, so we’re back to square one.

Nice try John.

I can’t wait to see this. Too bad it’s only going to be released to the web and not broadcast television. Although, now that I think about it, the Swifties sure didn’t need much TV time to be effective.

UPDATE: Video

FOXNews, on Yoko today, and her first appearance with the Beatles in the movie ‘Let It Be’:

“She looked like the specter of death itself.”

This is good news.

AP – House and Senate negotiators reached an agreement Thursday to extend the USA Patriot Act, the government’s premier anti-terrorism law, before it expires at the end of the month.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., announced Thursday that a House-Senate negotiating committee had reached an agreement that would extend for four years two of the Patriot Act’s most controversial provisions — authorizing roving wiretaps and permitting secret warrants for books, records and other items from businesses, hospitals and organizations such as libraries. Those provisions would expire in four years unless Congress acts on them again.

“All factors considered it’s reasonably good, not perfect, but it’s acceptable,” Specter said of the agreement.

Meanwhile, members of the party of NO! stood up to object, as expected.

“I will do everything I can, including a filibuster, to stop this Patriot Act conference report, which does not include adequate safeguards to protect our constitutional freedoms,” said Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., who was the only senator to vote against the original version of the Patriot Act.

The American Civil Liberties Union immediately denounced the deal, calling on lawmakers to reject the legislation because it intrudes too far into the privacy of innocent Americans.

“This sham compromise agreement fails to address the primary substantive concern raised by millions of Americans, as well as civil liberties, privacy and business organizations and lawmakers from both sides of the aisle and in both chambers,” said Caroline Fredrickson, the ACLU’s Washington legislative office director.

The vote is expected next week.

Is this really the way it’s going to be? Seems a little heavy in the ‘paranoia’ category to me.

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday expressed doubt that the Holocaust occurred and suggested Israel be moved to Europe.

This guy is going to be trouble. He’s even more of wacko than I thought.

Hands down, this is the most amazing, creative and well executed Christmas lighting display I’ve ever seen. Prepare to be amazed. I wouldn’t want to see the electricity bill though…

Video here.

Another show here.

UPDATE: The Party’s Over, but you can relive the magic yourself. After you buy your way to the magic, here’s the setup instructions.

UPDATE II: Radio interview with Carson Williams, owner of the home. (mp3) | Today Show interview (video) | 26,000 Christmas Lights |

UPDATE III: Think you’re serious about Christmas lights? Then go visit the Lights! Lights! Lights! bulletin board, where there are plenty more people like you, talking about…lights.

FINAL UPDATE: If you’re tired of Christmas Lights, why not try Bunnies? Oh, and this is great too.

Via AP: Shots were fired on board an American Airlines flight that had landed at Miami International Airport, according to broadcast reports. At least one person was wounded, the reports said. The plane had just arrived from Colombia and was headed to Orlando. Television showed police SWAT officers surrounding the plane. Airport and Miami-Dade County police officials said they had no immediate comment.

CNN is reporting that the shots were fired by a Federal Air Marshall.

UPDATE: Airline Passenger Who Made Threat Killed

A passenger who claimed to have a bomb in a carry-on bag was shot and killed by a federal air marshal Wednesday on a jetway to an American Airlines plane that had arrived from Colombia, officials said. No bomb was found in the bag, a U.S. official said. Homeland Security Department spokesman Brian Doyle said the dead man was a 44-year-old U.S. citizen. It was the first time since the Sept. 11 attacks that an air marshal had shot at anyone, he said.

According to a witness, the man frantically ran down the aisle of the Boeing 757 while his wife tried to explain that he was mentally ill and had not taken his medication.

The passenger indicated there was a bomb in his bag and was confronted by air marshals but ran off the aircraft, Doyle said. The marshals went after him and ordered him to get down on the ground, but he did not comply and was shot when he apparently reached into the bag, Doyle said.

The shooting occurred shortly after 2 p.m. as the plane was about to take off for Orlando after about two hours on the ground in Miami. “I don’t know yet if the passenger had been on the plane and was getting off, or was starting to board the aircraft,” airline spokesman Tim Wagner said.

Obviously, this is a tragedy, but I hope no one decides that we should disarm federal air marshals or worse, that we should remove them from passenger airplanes. That would be another tragedy. 

More over at The Counterterrorism Blog

UPDATE: Desperation

The Bush administration is mounting a counter attack against Knight Ridder for describing Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito as a conservative. The offensive came after Senate Democrats circulated the story to constituents in the hopes that the analysis of opinions written by Alito could be used against him to derail his upcoming confirmation hearing.

The administration’s response – delivered separately Tuesday by the White House and the Justice Department – reflects its determination to defend Alito and its sensitivity to the “conservative” label for him.

The 2,500-word Knight Ridder analysis, based on 311 opinions by Alito during his service on the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, concluded that he “has worked quietly but resolutely” to advance his conservative philosophy on a host of legal issues.

“Although Alito’s opinions are rarely written with obvious ideology, he’s seldom sided with a criminal defendant, a foreign national facing deportation, an employee alleging discrimination or consumers suing big business,” reporters Stephen Henderson and Howard Mintz wrote.

Administration officials said the story unfairly cast the Supreme Court nominee as a conservative ideologue.

“His 15-year record on the 3rd Circuit shows him to be a mainstream, fair, thorough judge,” Assistant Attorney General Rachel Brand said in a C-SPAN interview devoted to her critique of the Knight Ridder analysis.

Brand, whose duties include shepherding judicial nominations through the Senate, rejected the conservative label for Alito.

“The term conservative means different things to different people. A judge is supposed to apply the law, not make it,” she said.

I have no argument with Assistant Attorney General Brand. Of course we want our Supreme Court Justices to interpret the constitution and apply the law as a result of that interpretation. I understand the reasons why the Bush administration would not want Alito to be pinned into an ideological corner as a less than competent extremist. It’s important for the administration to avoid any unnecessary bumps in the confirmation road. But, I’m afraid this avoidance of the ‘C’ word – the so-called conservative label, is an over-reaction that Republicans should generally avoid. 

This hypersensitivity doesn’t lend itself well to the party. We expect Democrats to run from the ‘L’ word, because liberalism has taken on a negative caricature that the Democratic party hasn’t been able to redress. And as a weapon, it works. Wearing a big sign with the phrase “I’m a Liberal” simply won’t win you an election, and so you have individuals like Hillary Clinton who will do everything possible to avoid the label. Unfortunately for Democrats, Republicans know about this weak spot, and we’ll jab it with a fork every time.

Now, when a Republican reacts to the ‘C’ word in the same way Democrats react to the ‘L’ word, alarms should go off. It’s a false fear that must be shaken immediately. It’s illegitimate. By giving the impression that Republicans fear being called conservative, we adopt a negative issue that has become the exclusive domain of the Democratic party. This is something we simply don’t need to do.

The Bush administration has to use all of the necessary tools to ensure an Alito confirmation, but they need to be careful to avoid reacting negatively to conservatism. Let’s not delete the “C” word from our vocabulary.

Related: Congressional Black Caucus to Oppose Alito | Hollywood People Rally Against Alito |