The Purple Pinata
Thursday, April 29, 2004
Matters Judicial and Memo, as in more evidence of Gorelick's instigation of the "wall."
This important Washington Times article summarizes memos in which Gorelick resists judicial efforts that would aid in catching terrorists.
Matters Judicial and Memo, as in more evidence of Gorelick's instigation of the "wall."
This important Washington Times article summarizes new memos released in which Gorelick resists warnings that her "wall" will damage efforts to catch terrorists.
Matters Critical and International, as in Saddam's WMD and terrorist connections.
This is a quick summary of Kenneth Timmerman's insights into Saddam's WMD and terrorist connections.
Friday, April 23, 2004
Matters Political and Critical, as in the calls for Gorelick to testify.
Eleven U.S. Senators have now called on Jamie Gorelick to testify before the 9/11 Commission. This Washington Times article carries the details.
Thursday, April 22, 2004
Matters Environmental and Annual, as in some useful reading on this Earth Day.
An outstanding website on the wages of environmentalism can be found at eco-imperialism.com. Especially see the article, "Death by Environmentalism."
Tuesday, April 20, 2004
More Matters Critical and Editorial, as in the Gorelick latest.
Andrew McCarthy provides a response to Gorelick's Wash. Post editorial defending herself. McCarthy's response, "The Wall Truth," can be found at his National Review archives (which includes a link to Gorelick's op-ed.)
Friday, April 16, 2004
Matters Political and ... Poetical, as in the Walter Daum attack on Kerry.
Yesterday, Rush Limbaugh, highlighted the confrontation of Walter Daum, former assistant Dean of City College, Harlem, with John Kerry at a campaign town hall event. The entire confrontation and analysis by Rush can be found here. Rush is right. Daum, referring to the war in Iraq as "imperialist," and announcing that everyone "hates" Pres. Bush is representative of the core that drives the Democratic party. A strong part of this core comes from the halls of academia.
I offer this haiku on that confrontation:
Daum screams at Kerry:
'Imperialist like Bush!'
Academic crank.
Thursday, April 15, 2004
Matters Judicial and Critical, more Gorelick latest.
This is an interesting posting from the blog, Priorities & Frivolities, examining Gorelick's actions and words back in the Clinton administration. This is worth reading, because it is a preemptive attack on a potential defense of Gorelick's actions.
Matters Judicial, Critical and Editorial, as in the Gorelick latest.
Yesterday, Congressman James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) called for Jamie Gorelick's resignation from the 9/11 Commission. Sensenbrenner is Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, so his voice is very important in this matter.
The Wall Street Journal (you will have to email register to get it) has called for Gorelick's ouster from the 9/11 Commission. As they point out, she has much more of a conflict of interest than Henry Kissinger had, which caused Kissinger to drop out as the first chairman of the 9/11 Commission.
Hugh Hewitt also has a piece in the Weekly Standard covering the collapse of the 9/11 Commission.
Tuesday, April 13, 2004
Matters Critical and Editorial, as in the coverage of the idiocy of Gorelick on the 9/11 Commission.
This evening World Net Daily is leading with Ashcroft's slam of Jamie Gorelick and the increasing calls for her ouster. National Review has several good articles on Gorelick. Finally, The American Spectator has an excellent editorial titled, "Gorelick Licked."
Matters Legal and Critical, concerning Commissioner Gorelick.
The Landmark Legal Foundation has sent a letter to the 9/11 Commission demanding the ouster of Jamie Gorelick.
Matters Critical and National, as in the outstanding testimony of Attorney General Ashcroft, today, at the 9/11 Commission.
Purple Pinata Alert: Attorney General Ashcroft clearly placed the domestic blame for 9/11 on the Clinton administration. Check Instapundit for links to stories and the Ashcroft testimony.
Most devastating was the Atty. Gen. clearly putting the blame on Clinton's Deputy Atty. Gen. for a legal opinion that made it difficult ("the wall") for the FBI to share critical information internally relevant to terrorists. And who was the author of that opinion? Jamie Gorelick -- who is on the 9/11 Commission!! It is shocking that one of the persons most responsible for the domestic mistakes leading to 9/11 is on the Commission investigating 9/11. I've already contacted my Congressman and Senators calling on them to demand the removal of Gorelick from the Commission.
Thursday, April 08, 2004
Matters Political and National, as in the testimony of Condi Rice before the 9/11 Commission.
Here is a link to Condi Rice's testimony before the 9/11 Commission this morning.
Instapundit provides some good analysis. Namely, Instapundit points out Rice's testimony...
When coupled with Sandy Berger's statement that "there was no war plan that we turned over to the Bush administration during the transition. And the reports of that are just incorrect," this would seem to undercut the claim that Clinton focused like a laser beam on terrorism while Bush was distracted with other pet projects.
Note that one week before 9/11 the Bush administration had settled on a comprehensive plan to deal with Al-Qaeda. From Rice's testimony today:
This new strategy was developed over the spring and summer of 2001 and was approved by the president's senior national security officials on September 4th. It was the very first major national security policy directive of the Bush administration -- not Russia, not missile defense, not Iraq, but the elimination of Al Qaeda.
and bit later, she continued,
This was a change from the prior strategy -- Presidential Decision Directive 62, signed in 1998 -- which ordered the secretary of defense to provide transportation to bring individual terrorists to the U.S. for trial, to protect DOD forces overseas, and to be prepared to respond to terrorist and weapons-of-mass-destruction incidents
But Rice really got to the heart of the matter, which the 9/11 Commission should focus on, and that really is a domestic issue:
In hindsight, if anything might have helped stop 9/11, it would have been better information about threats inside the United States -- something made very difficult by structural and legal impediments that prevented the collection and sharing of information by our law enforcement and intelligence agencies
Secretary Lehman, commission member, was really getting to the heart of the domestic issue with the following, kind of rhetorical question:
Were you aware that it was the U.S. government established policy not to question or oppose the sanctuary policies of New York, Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago, San Diego for political reasons, which policy in those cities prohibited the local police from cooperating at all with federal immigration authorities?
See, for example, my most recent posting, of Wed. April 7, on the illegal immigration issue.
In the final analysis, it, indeed, is a domestic problem that is at issue. The function of government, and most especially the federal government is to prevent and prosecute force and fraud and not much else. But when we have a federal government that is doing what it is not supposed to be doing: running Departments of Commerce, Energy, Education, Housing and Urban Development, Health and Human Services and much, much more not having to do with preventing and prosecuting force and fraud, it cannot but dilute its real purpose to prevent and prosecute the acts of Al-Qaeda and any one else attempting to attack the U.S.
Wednesday, April 07, 2004
Matters Illegal, Financial and Local, as in the cost and continuing invasion by illegal aliens.
In recent months, CA State Senator Tom McClintock has stated that illegal aliens cost government in California 4 billion dollars a year in education, incarceration and medication. One can begin to get an idea why CA has such a large budget deficit.
In recent weeks, Dennis Prager interviewed Victor Davis Hanson (author of Mexifornia) on immigration issues, with the focus on the cultural problems brought by many illegal and legal immigrants from Mexico. Hanson pointed out that 40% of Mexican immigrants don't graduate from high school in the U.S., making it difficult for them to become part of the common American culture. Hanson also pointed out that many times the Mexican immigrant will begin to idealize and romanticize Mexico while living here, forgetting about the corrupt police and bad health care south of the border.
Maybe most alarming to me has been the large number of illegal immigrants that have been coming to Escondido, even since 9/11. (I moved to Escondido one week before 9/11). Consider the following: In just the past year, for example, I have had a chance to ask a number of illegal immigrants (I chat with them in the grocery store in Spanish) how long they have been in the U.S. Here are typical answers: 3 months, 3 weeks, 8 days! Again these are all arrivals since 9/11, when supposedly we have had very tight border enforcement. Most of the illegals in Escondido are from the state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico or from Guatemala.
Tuesday, April 06, 2004
Matters Political and Historical, as in Clinton's final security paper did not mention Al-Qaeda.
See this Washington Times story pointing out that Clinton's final national security report did not mention Al-Qaeda. A copy of the report can be found at this link.
Saturday, April 03, 2004
Matters Critical, Political and International, as in Laurie Mylroie's and Richard Miniter's critiques of Richard Clarke and his book and their discussion of the al-Qaeda-Iraq connection.
This Laurie Mylroie article and Richard Miniter's article, both in the Wall Street Journal are important critiques of Richard Clarke and his book and also points us to the al-Qaeda-Iraq connection.
Thursday, April 01, 2004
Matters International and Political, as in France and Iraq.
On Tuesday March 30, Dennis Prager had two great segments concerning France. The first (in the second hour) focused on an article in March 2004 Commentary magazine featuring an American who immigrated to France in the 1970s and now writes of the anti-Semitism and lies that permeate much of France and some parts of its media.
The second segment (in the third hour) was an interview with Kenneth Timmerman, author of The French Betrayal of America. Dennis asked Timmerman about the WMDs in Iraq. Timmerman noted that all parts of the WMD programs had been found except for one, the stockpiles. Timmerman noted that satellite photos had shown in 2002 large convoys of trucks crossing the border from Iraq into Syria. These satellites then had spotted bulldozers operating in the middle of the Syrian desert. Timmerman's implication is that much of the Iraqi WMD stockpiles have been buried in the Syrian desert.
An Australian publication, The Age, published, today an article about an Iraqi refugee scientist who reveals where WMD stockpiles were stored in Iraq up until 1998.
Finally, this article by Douglas Hanson in The American Thinker, makes the case, that, indeed, stockpiles of WMD have been found in Iraq.
