Call It A Comeback
Conason allows Russert to respond to reader criticism (subscription friday). I think Conason has got it about right. Russert tries to nail everyone, and while he may slip up, but he pretty much gets under everyone’s skin.
Of course, he hates Hillary Clinton, but I’m not to fond of her myself. He could try to hide the visceral reaction though.
Paul Wellstone’s death is horrible, but the death of his wife and daughter is horrifying. I know several people who have worked with him in different ways and by all he was regarded as honest and humble-much in the same vein as Mel Carnahan.
There has been an upturn in traffic in the last couple days largely due to MY DD, Daily Kos, Thinking it Through, and William Burton. I highly recommend all four as worthy of at least daily reading.
Willam Burton posted to one of my favorite stories recently: Praying for a Judicial Revival. I believe this came out before the episode of West Wing in which CJ is told she is being prayed for by a group of evangelicals. It appears Aaron Sorkin is ahead of the curve.
Using dead kids to win the election when neither did a damn thing before. Oh where, oh where, is Paul Vallas. Worse, they are lying about education. My endorsements this weekend will cover this issue.
Perverse incentives are a problem, but the South Dakota case is not a cabal of conspirators.
Update: Brendan Nyhan covers the story at Spinsanity.
While listening to Diane Rehm (something I try to avoid) Bill Kristol just indicated that Jim Leach was the chair of an important committee. Unfortunately, this is not true. Jim Leach was the head of what is now the Financial Services Committee. The United States is the better for that tenure since he stopped both Phil Gramm and Bill Clinton from jumping off the edge of a cliff over Banking deregulation. Leach forced the continued separation of banking and commerce to avoid the problems Germany and Japan face with relationships between the two sectors being too close.
Who is now the head of Financial Services? Michael Oxley. Term Limits Suck.
The Nation of Islam is considered a cult by most Muslims. The link points to significant doctrinal differences.
Trying to tie them together to any of the more traditional (it is my view orthodox Islam is a poor choice of terms) is a mistake. It could well be that Muhammed went from the NOI to some traditional form, but we have no information indicating that. Beyond that, he appears deeply disturbed with the NY Times reporting that he claimed he was God.
From what we know so far, it seems more likely that the NOI was attractive to him because he was disturbed, and not the cause of the violence as many warbloggers are trying to insinuate. Islam is a diverse religion and NOI is a very small offshoot that is not Islamist nor is it representative of any of the significant sects. NOI has little if any connection to traditional Islam, though Farrakhan has made some overtures in recent years. Islamists consider the NOI heretical and minus any specific connection, this is a weak argument. We don’t tar Christianity with the Aryan Nation fruitcakes, Islam deserves the same respect.
Islamists are a different story. They are tied to traditional Islam and they are a force Islam must come to terms with both politically and from faith. Maybe some tie will be found, but it seems less likely the more that is reported. Hearing the word Islam and going into full scale babble about Islamists sheds a lot of heat, but not much light.
For all the whining about how the press isn’t connecting this to Islamic violence, there is little understanding of these issues. This shouldn’t be surprising since much of the echo chamber is ignorant of the more scholarly works, such as Huntington, that argues for a “Clash of Civilizations.” Hell, a copy of the Autobiography of Malcolm X would do most of them some good.
A more productive critique made by several was the emphasis on the individual being white. It turns out that only 55% of serial killers are white. Apparently being a sick bastard is an equal opportunity issue.
One of the more amusing (in a very non-amusing story) is they tried to have the $10 million sent to a credit card that was stolen. Perhaps this is a Richard Reid operation, but I doubt it. I think we have a couple kooks who apparently are pretty damn stupid to think that $10 million on a credit card is going to get them far.
Then again, maybe that is what THEY TM want us to believe muhahahahahahahahahahhahah…..
Take it away Glen….
UPDATE: It wasn’t a credit card, but a *stolen* ATM card that had been reported stolen.
The Pantagraph is reporting only 6 points separting J-Ry and Blago. Perhaps, but I want to see some more numbers. J-Ry’s campaign has been flailing and while narrowing should occur, this seems like a bit much. It does make sense that downstate is breaking towards J-Ry. If it is accruate, the breakdown of the Rs might not be as serious.
So we get a fruitcake who is Islamic and is anti-American, but no clear evidence this is tied to a larger group of Islamists. But Instapundit has this to say:
is Jim Henley, who is calling former Gulf War soldier Muhammad the “black Tim McVeigh.” Though that would be the black, Islamic, Tim McVeigh. Does this add to the credibility of claims that McVeigh’s anti-Americanism had Iraqi connections?
Now maybe this is Glen’s ‘dry sense of humor’. Or maybe it is pure sloppy bullshit. The evidence for an Iraqi connection to Oklahoma City is weak and based on weird associations that Jerry Falwell might pass around. McVeigh and Nicoll’s anti-Americanism didn’t come from Iraq, it came from twisted white supremacy. What would add to the credibility of claims is some evidence not based on the degrees of separation. This has no known connection to Oklahoma City, Al Qaeda, or Iraq for now. Because Glen and the echo chamber wants it to be connected doesn’t make it so. Trying to fit every incident into a simple single story line is nonsense. The world is a dangerous place with many different dangers out there. Trying to only claim there is one, misses a majority of those threats. But it is easy if you like things simple.
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