John McCain and Lindsey Graham must have been getting a lot of nasty mail from their constituents, given the rapidity with which they caved in on their stance on the Geneva Accords and Presidential freedom to act against terrorists. Only a week ago the Arizona Senator had stood firm for his ideals, whatever they may be. Big winner in all this: ’08 frontrunner Rudy Giuliani.

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Nancy Pelosi’s taking umbrage at the whacko pronunciamentos of Comandante Chavez is an indication that the Democrats, riding high only a few weeks ago, are suddenly beginning to run scared. They realize they may have overplayed their hands in the Bush bashing department and now, with the Iran/Venezuela International Debating Society enlightening the “cognescenti” in the General Assembly, they are in a rush to disassociate themselves. Even Charlie Rangel, no stranger to demagoguery himself, is telling Hotbreath Hugo “Not in my house!”

Perhaps this has all been a conspiracy to once again elevate the reputation of Karl Rove. I was always something of a skeptic msyelf – I mean what’s the big deal? It’s only politics, not, as they say, rocket science. But I think the Rovester really does have a secret and that is just to do nothing – a kind of Zen meets Hippocrates approach to political game playing. (“First do no harm, Bodhidharma.”) If you wait long enough, all your enemies will come crashing down around you from their own energy. The Plame Affair was an interesting example. Rove just sat there with barely a response as his opponents (great truth-seeking journalistic Children of Watergate) filled nearly every issue of Newsweek with Talmudic analyses of this non-event, projecting the writers’ own paranoid fantasies and agression on an object that clearly did not exist. It is all very reminiscent, I imagine Shrinkwrapped might tell us, of behavior patterns described by the Chicago School of Psychoanalysis. Or maybe it just comes down to the oft-quoted words of old Gretrude: “There’s no there there.” Only now there is. An election once universally handed to the Democrats is again approaching deadlock.

UPDATE: One of my predictions from the post below is alreay proving accurate. [Braggart.-ed.]

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Today’s Hugo Chavez ‘stemwinder’ at the UN – which saw the Venezuelan Mussolini wannabe calling Bush Satan, replete with sulphurous fumes, while waving around a tome by Noam Chomsky – was certainly a plus for both subjects … Bush, already recovering in the polls, gets a further boost from the thug’s almost comical attack (“Live in New York… it’s Hugo Chavez!”) and the the multi-millionaire marxiste gets another goose to his already copious book sales. [Will there be Chomsky t-shirts a la Che?-ed. Nah, not good-looking enough.]

The big loser was, of course, the United Nations, not the least because Chavez was saluted for his efforts by a hearty round of applause. As I have written numerous times on this blog, I am a supporter of the UN. (That is why I was so outraged by Oil-for-Food.) But now I wonder if it’s salvageable as do, no doubt, many Americans whose tax dollars provide the primary support for what looks increasingly like a social club for sociopaths (Chavez, Ahmadinejad) and kleptocrats (Chirac, Kofi and the whole Oil-for-Food crowd.) What started out as a great liberal idea has turned into an almost perfectly reactionary institution – a common metamorphosis, alas. And after this change, as is also often common, an entirely new class has risen up to protect the institution and its perquisites. The question confronting us now is how to break this pattern.

UPDATE: Claudia Rosett – who, as we know, is a close student of the UN – may have found the answer. [Certainly makes sense to me.-ed. For once we agree.]

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As my colleague PJM in Barcelona put it is so pithily on PJM this morning, “First it was fauxtography, now its faux TV guests.” Apparently three Southern women went on Good Morning America Friday to tell us how they were leaving the Republicans to be Democrats. Trouble is, cursory Internet research showed two of them, at least, weren’t really true Repubs in the first place.

The big credit on this story goes to Brent Baker of Newsbusters who does a lot of fine work at the Media Research Center. It’s not surprising, of course. We’re used to this kind of disinfo from the MSM and the reason it happens couldn’t be more obvious. It’s not deliberate in cases like this. Someone comes to them with a story that fits their (the network’s) narrative and they don’t really bother to check. The results are pernicious. I don’t watch GMA or Today – I’m too busy and it’s not my thing anyway – but as we all know their audiences are huge. Let’s see if GMA has the honesty to take a second look at this. Your average blogger would be in serious trouble for this kind of distortion. But we’re supposed to be slapdash.

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… on PJM (definitely worth your time.)

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We get movies, we get shows,
We get speeches from our skipper
And advice from Tokyo Rose … ”

UPDATE: Actually, he’s not Tokyo Rose, according to an article in Al-Jazeerah. He’s a double agent! [Are they off their meds?-ed. I don't know if they ever got any.]

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That’s an old (and fairly dumb) college song, for those of you who (justifiably) don’t recognize it. But I put it up just to amuse myself while I publicly announce my vote, as a Dartmouth alumnus, in the latest round of college alumni voting. Not long after some of us Green alums online waged a minor insurrection against the moribund manner in which Ivy League trustee “elections” are conducted and, to our surprise, won… the inevitable thermidor began. Today, I voted “no” on thermidor (an amendment not-so-cleverly designed to keep “wild men” like Peter Robinson and Todd Zywicki out of the hen house – or so it seems.) I have no idea how the results will go.

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This video, recommended by one of our commenters, is a must watch on YouTube. After everything that has happened, the son of Theo Van Gogh is now being threatened … without support from the Dutch police, according to this video. Where is the film industry in all this?…. Hello! … Hello!

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Yes, the author puts his foot in his mouth again (well, not really – he was witty and brilliant and on the nose, as he often is) in front of a packed house in the banquet room of Los Angeles’ Four Seasons. I was sitting there, listening to him do it (opine), scribbling down some other things he said, including, re: Islam, “It wasn’t always like this – this religion of permanent outrage. This isn’t the religion I grew up with…” and “I am tired of hearing how Islamic [thinkers] invented algebra. That was a long time ago. A lot of things happened since.”

The event where Rushdie was letting his thinning hair down was the annual banquet of the American Jewish Congress. This year it was SRO because its LA leadership – Gary Ratner and Allyson Taylor – had the progressive (in the real sense) foresight to center the dinner (“Profiles in Courage -Voices of Muslim Reformers in the Modern World” ) on honoring Muslim moderates.

And some pretty incredible and courageous reformers they were: Besides, Rushdie… Wafa Sultan, Nonie Darwish, Tashbih Sayyed and Salim Mansur. These people have more guts than just about anybody in the world right now -and are more necessary. Sultan, a psychologist, may have had the most poignant line: “Get to know your enemy. He might turn out to be your best friend.”

Also in attendance, the parents of Daniel Pearl. I asked Judea Pearl what he knew about rumors that the murderers of his son have been released in Pakistan. He told me that our government has told him nothing. He knows no more than you or I. Go figure.

Because I am busy, I can’t go further with my description of this moving event, but I will come back later in the day and amplify (with links). Look for many of the above to appear on Pajamas Media in coming days – also Cyrus Nowrasteh, the screenwriter of The Path to 9-11, who was at the dinner as well.

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In a BBC News article concerning the current crisis over the Pope’s words about Islam, we find the following:

The BBC’s David Willey in Rome says Pope Benedict, a theologian who has led a sheltered life in the Vatican for more than two decades, may not have understood the potential implications of his remarks.

Oh, really? The sheltered life here may be Wiley’s, as it seems to be often with his Beeb cronies. [Is everything "projection" to you?-ed. Well, not everything, but close.] I think Ratzinger knew perfectly well what he was saying and what he was saying is true. Violence is structured into Islam, because Islam dictates scripturally that the world must be Islamic via jihad (as opposed to Christianity, which says “Render unto Caesar… etc.”) and has never reformed on any level that is remotely permanent.

When this is pointed out, the Edward Said crowd says we materialistic Westerners just don’t understand what jihad means. But when we ask for it to be explained, we come out with … jihad. No wonder the Pope’s remarks engender brainless riots. There is no logical response. One can only applaud his honesty as opposed to our politicians who endlessly repeat the polite lie about a “great religion being hijacked” (by Wahabis, Salafists, Shiites … pick your hijacker). I question the efficacy of this lie. I prefer the Fallaci approach – direct and not dictated by fear (pace Tunku Varadarajan of the WSJ who seems to think the late Oriana was “afraid” of Islam). What we are dealing with here is a malignant belief system – and I say this not just because I am an agnostic. I recognize value in a whole host of religions, even in parts of Islam. But it is clear that this religious belief has oppressed its people (women particularly), kept masses of them in poverty and backwardness while enriching their rulers, and fomented deranged violence across the world from New York to Bali. What is an honest Pope supposed to say? Good on you?

In this post-cartoon universe, I guess he is. In Europe especially panic about Islam has set in. I for one applaud the Pope’s non-apology apology. I hope he sticks to it.

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