military might

I came across this while teaching a seminar for my American history course. It has some figures about the US military that I thought people would be interested in if only because this type of data is not commonly talked about. Here we go.

Steyn's Female Problems

Mark Steyn, the darling of conservatives everywhere, is worried. If you read through the linked piece, you'll see that what he's basically worried about is that Muslims are supposedly reproducing at too fast a rate, and that Western women are not reproducing enough. His rambling article is never explicit on that, but it's clear enough what he is saying. Conservatives like Steyn believe that the West -- Europe, initially -- is going to be overrun by Muslims because of immigration and differences in reproduction rates. In response, Ralph Peters suggests that this fear is misplaced, because Steyn and others underestimate Europeans' tendency to react with "stunning ferocity" when sufficiently threatened. That is, Peters predicts Europeans will eventually deal with the "Muslim threat" by expelling or killing huge numbers. Peter Robinson of The Corner seems to wish that were the case, but counter-argues that when Europe "roused itself in centuries past, it did so as a continent of belief." Post-Christian Europe, the argument goes, has lost its genocidal lust - and Robinson actually seems to be lamenting this. Ah, for the days when Europeans believed in something and knew how to care care of these kinds of messes. Anyway, these are the types of things that fundamentalist Republicans spend their time contemplating.

Inevitable?

I saw something today and thought of that hilariously absurd South Park episode in which different people in the community get so "offended" by the various symbols of Christmas that the school ends up holding this New Age interpretive dance in black leotards set to John Tesh music. Usually the absurd and sad bit of America revolves around some nativity scene where someone tries to acknowledge that Christmas is a Christian holiday (how offensive!). Anyway, that was too cliche this year--so we had to dig a different hole. Enjoy.

Today's Toll

140 killed in Sadr City blasts.

VDH Unhinged

Victor Davis Hanson got into the Thanksgiving grog early:

I hope Bush the father appreciates that millions out there admire his maverick son far more than they do many of his former advisors, and that if Bush II perseveres, history will be kind to his efforts, often solitary, to promote constitutional government at a time when most self-proclaimed liberals had long ago abandoned that effort.

And there really will come a time, believe it or not, when a future American President baffled and paralyzed by the latest insanity from the Middle East—whether an Iranian nuke or a Syrian invasion of Lebanon or another Middle East war or the usual assassination and killing of Americans—will ask former president George Bush II for advice, as a then fawning media will look back to his past "toughness" and "determination" when under fire. That seems unhinged now, but it too will come to pass, as they say.

Memo to Terrorists

Atrios makes a good point: why are terrorists still trying to influence the election:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- More than 140 bodies have been found dumped across Baghdad over the past three days, police said Wednesday.

Police said 52 bullet-riddled bodies were found Wednesday, with 20 of them blindfolded, tied up and possibly tortured.

Police also discovered 29 bodies on Tuesday and 60 on Monday.

The dead are thought to be victims of Sunni-Shiite sectarian revenge killings.

Conservative Debate

When conservatives fracture and argue, it isn't pretty. Hat-tip, Andrew Sullivan.

I wonder if the MSM will give this as much "house divided" treatment as they gave to the Dems during the leadership elections.

Secret Iraq Meeting

I somehow missed this NYT piece relating an anecdote from Woodward's latest book:

In his new book, “State of Denial,” he writes that on Nov. 29, 2001, a dozen policy makers, Middle East experts and members of influential policy research organizations gathered in Virginia at the request of Paul D. Wolfowitz, then the deputy secretary of defense. A report was produced for President Bush and his cabinet outlining a strategy for dealing with Afghanistan and the Middle East in the aftermath of 9/11.

What was more unusual, Mr. Woodward reveals, was the presence of journalists at the meeting. Fareed Zakaria, the editor of Newsweek International and a Newsweek columnist, and Robert D. Kaplan, now a national correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, attended the meeting and, according to Mr. Kaplan, signed confidentiality agreements not to discuss what happened.

When journalists meet secretly with government officials to brainstorm what to do with "Afghanistan and the Middle East," they cease to be journalists. I've always liked Zakaraia, and to his credit he's been critical of the Iraq War more recently, but this incident is just unbelievable.

Wittmann's New Job

Well, now we know why Marshall Wittmann was so embarrassingly keen on Lieberman in the election and so quick to call any of Lieberman's critics "the nutroots." He was in position to become Lieberman's spokesman. And so the Bull Moose fades into obscurity, to be missed by few indeed.

Disaster

Blair:

During the interview, Frost suggested that the West's intervention in Iraq had "so far been pretty much of a disaster."

Blair replied: "It has, but you see what I say to people is why is it difficult in Iraq? It's not difficult because of some accident in planning, it's difficult because there's a deliberate strategy -- al Qaeda with Sunni insurgents on one hand, Iranian-backed elements with Shia militias on the other -- to create a situation in which the will of the majority for peace is displaced by the will of the minority for war."

No, it couldn't possibly have to do with bad planning, or that it was a terrible idea to begin with.

Steny

Hoyer it is. I don't get all the comments about this being embarrassing for Pelosi. Lots of folks have been saying since the beginning that Murtha was a purely symbolic choice on Pelosi's part.

ActBlue

This seems like a pretty interesting fundraising idea. The idea is to help raise money for prospective candidates who otherwise might not have the hefty funds required to run for president. Even if they've not thrown their hats in the race yet, you can begin raising funds for them - if a given individual hasn't entered the race by the time of the convention, the funds for that candidate go to the DNC.

Whip

A lot of jokes like this going around the blogosphere the past day or so.

Lott

And what does it say about the Republican Party that, during a time of identity crisis for them, when they're trying to find the heart and soul of their movement again, they reach back to their racist, far-right grandfather, Lott?

Malkin on Lott

Malkin:

Just when the MSM focus had fixed on the Democrats' culture of corruption and business-as-usual, along come Beltway Republicans to remind us of how lame the GOP leadership is.

I'm not sure what Malkin is talking about, given that Democrats aren't even in power yet - but supposedly the MSM has been focusing on their business-as-usual culture of corruption? If the MSM has been focusing on anything, it's been this phony "house divided" story during the leadership struggle, which is really a non-story completely. But I agree that bringing Lott back has completely put the lameness of the GOP back in focus for everyone. Thank you.

More, Please

Well well, they're bringing Trent Lott back. And yes, I think that Josh Marshall and Matthew Yglesias are on to something: the GOP is giving up on the black vote.

From my point of view, having Lott back as a GOP leader is just great. And please make your 2008 ticket a Giuliani-Santorum one. If these are the ones that Republicans want to have as leaders, let them shoot themselves, by all means.

Committees

Via The Washington Note, here's the new committee assignments:

Issued today by Senator Harry Reid's office:

AGRICULTURE -- Tom Harkin

APPROPRIATIONS -- Robert Byrd

ARMED SERVICES -- Carl Levin

BANKING -- Chris Dodd

COMMERCE -- Daniel Inouye

ENERGY -- Jeff Bingaman

ENVIRONMENT & PUBLIC WORKS -- Barbara Boxer

FINANCE -- Max Baucus

FOREIGN RELATIONS -- Joseph Biden

HEALTH, EDUCATION, LABOR & PENSIONS -- Edward Kennedy

HOMELAND & GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS -- Joseph Lieberman

JUDICIARY -- Patrick Leahy

INTELLIGENCE -- John D. Rockefeller IV

BUDGET -- Kent Conrad

AGING -- Herb Kohl

VETERANS -- Daniel Akaka

SMALL BUSINESS -- John Kerry

RULES -- Dianne Feinstein

JOINT ECONOMIC -- Chuck Schumer

INDIAN AFFAIRS -- Byron Dorgan

More from the nuclear M.E.

This is just the kind of reply that stabilises the world, I guess. Unfortunately, Lebanon is also having some problems of the regional sort. The region needs some good news at the moment.
And what happens to people who are responsible in part for these things? The Germans chase them down.
And for the final bit of wisdom from today, the story with the headline, "Politics blamed for Mid-East divisions". Hot damn, that is some good reporting.

Iran Plans a Celebration

This won't go over well.

Reichert Wins

Burner concedes to Reichert.