CIA leak summary

Solid analysis from Christopher Hitchens

 

Mr. Fitzgerald, therefore, seems to have decided to act "as if." He conducts himself as if Ms. Plame's identity was not widely known, as if she were working under "non official cover" (NOC), as if national security had been compromised, and as if one or even two catch-all laws had been broken. By this merely hypothetical standard, he has performed exceedingly well, even if rather long-windedly, before pulling up his essentially empty net.

Fantastic Pick

I've said for a while that whoever Bush picks to replace the Miers nomination will be a pretty good indicator if he has learned anything from what happened.  Thankfully, he has.

 

So consistently conservative, [Samuel] Alito has been dubbed "Scalito" or "Scalia-lite" by some lawyers because his judicial philosophy invites comparisons to conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. But while Scalia is outspoken and is known to badger lawyers, Alito is polite, reserved and even-tempered.

Frum likes the choice, and he was high on almost everyone's list.  Conservatives I mean.  The Democrats are already rumbling about extremism, so it should be a good fight.

indictment

Once again, it's not the original charge but the attempted coverup.  Chief of Staff to the VP Scooter Libby was indicted today.

 

Fitzgerald suggested that proving Libby lied to the grand jury would be an easier case to make than showing he intentionally revealed a secret officer's cover. Specifically, the prosecutors alleged Libby concocted a false story that he got Plame's name from reporters and passed it on to others when in fact he got the information from classified sources.

unhinged celebrities

The list is here.  How did Cameron Diaz beat out Michael Moore and Sean Penn for #`1?

Sweet, sweet victory

Harriet Miers has withdrawn, citing the tension between protecting the Executive branch and her confirmation:

 

I have steadfastly maintained that the independence of the Executive Branch be preserved and its confidential documents and information not be released to further a confirmation process. I feel compelled to adhere to this position, especially related to my own nomination. Protection of the prerogatives of the Executive Branch and continued pursuit of my confirmation are in tension. I have decided that seeking my confirmation should yield.

 

Bush has "reluctantly accepted", reteurning Miers to White House Counsel.  A good face saver, and a spectacular outcome.

 

Lots of analysis in the Corner

 

Iraqi constitution adopted

Good news from Iraq, as Iraqis voted 79-21 in favour of adopting the constitution.  Sunnis opposed it to some extent, but as Christopher Hitchens points out, we don't know what we are talking about when it comes to Iraqi divisions and particulars.

 

When it comes to Iraq, one of the most boring and philistine habits of our media is the insistence on using partitionist and segregationist language that most journalists would (I hope) scorn to employ if they were discussing a society they actually knew...To be a Sunni or a Shiite is to follow one or another Muslim obedience, but to be a Kurd is to be a member of a large non-Arab ethnicity as well as to be, in the vast majority of cases, a Sunni. Thus, by any measure of accuracy, the "Sunni" turnout in the weekend's referendum on the constitution was impressively large, very well-organized, and quite strongly in favor of a "yes" vote. Is that the way you remember it being reported? I thought not.

No longer peacekeepers

Canada has abandoned the blue helmets, in favour of NATO or US led initiatives.  It would be great, and frankly appropriate, if we could do both.  But considering the state of our forces, we've made the right choice.

Squandered opportunity

Lorne Gunter has a very, very good post on the Liberals tax cut announcement and the squandered opportunity of the last decade.

So the Liberals are contemplating giving you and me some of our money back. Yeehaw!  ...  But let me put this well-meaning, well thought out, economic stimulus into perspective. The Libs' last big tax cut was on the eve of the 2000 election...Those cuts worked out to about $200 per family per year, but the cuts being proposed now, we are told, will be less than that. Since the 2000 cuts amounted to about one one-topping pizza per family per month, what will these cover, the breadsticks? The dipping sauce? ...

And here's another interesting little fact I came across today: Since it balanced the budget in 1997-98, the Liberal government has taken in an extra $500 billion -- with a "b" -- in revenues. If it had held revenues steady at '97-'98 levels, Canadians would have kept half a trillion -- with a "t" -- more dollars in their pockets than they did over the past decade. That's about five months worth of the nation's GDP. What a difference that would have made in the economy.

In the hands of the feds, though, that half a trillion has had no discernable impact at all. Are waiting times shorter for health care? No they are not. Since the Liberals took office, waits have increased from an average of 9.3 weeks to 17.7. Are fewer Canadians poor (as a result of better social programs rather than a booming economy)? No. Are there fewer homeless, more contributing immigrants, fewer crimes, richer aboriginals? No, no, no and no.

 

Will on Miers

In their unseemly eagerness to assure Miers's conservative detractors that she will reach the "right" results, her advocates betray complete incomprehension of this: Thoughtful conservatives' highest aim is not to achieve this or that particular outcome concerning this or that controversy. Rather, their aim for the Supreme Court is to replace semi-legislative reasoning with genuine constitutional reasoning about the Constitution's meaning as derived from close consideration of its text and structure. Such conservatives understand that how you get to a result is as important as the result. Indeed, in an important sense, the path that the Supreme Court takes to the result often is the result.

 

As for Republicans, any who vote for Miers will thereafter be ineligible to argue that it is important to elect Republicans because they are conscientious conservers of the judicial branch's invaluable dignity. Finally, any Republican senator who supinely acquiesces in President Bush's reckless abuse of presidential discretion -- or who does not recognize the Miers nomination as such -- can never be considered presidential material.

Things are looking grim

Strategists working with the White House in support of the Supreme Court nomination of Harriet Miers are becoming increasingly demoralized and pessimistic about the nomination's prospects on Capitol Hill in the wake of Miers's meetings with several Republican and Democratic senators..."Demoralization and pessimism?" the source continues. "That's been a constant. We're in the various stages of grief."

waiting times

The Fraser institute reports on the number one health issue facing our country today

 

The Fraser Institute's fifteenth annual waiting list survey found that Canada-wide waiting times for surgical and other therapeutic treatments fell slightly in 2005, making this the first reduction in the total wait for treatment measured in Canada since 1993...Among the provinces, Ontario achieved the shortest total wait in 2005, 16.3 weeks, with Manitoba (16.6 weeks), and Alberta (16.8 weeks) next shortest. Saskatchewan, despite a dramatic 7.8 week reduction in the total wait time, exhibited the longest total wait, 25.5 weeks; the next longest waits were found in New Brunswick ( 24.5 Weeks) and Newfoundland (22.3 weeks).

Canada slipping

Canada continues to slide down the ranks of the world's top economies and is a "chronic laggard in key areas, notably productivity and investment," according to the Conference Board of Canada's latest global report.  Dropping investment spending and sub-par productivity growth pulled Canada down to the No.12 spot from sixth place last year and third in 2003, the board said Tuesday.

 

Norway and Ireland led the economy rankings while Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom failed to crack the top 12

Iraqis vote again

Media everywhere are disappointed that it went so smoothly.  Imagine - 2 representative, high turnout elections.  And not the farces that Jimmy "History's Greatest Monster" Carter likes to endorse where dictator-for-life is reeleted for a 45th straight term either.  Real elections.  Who would have thunk it?

NewsBreak

Conservative Party  comtemplating middle class tax cut.

Coulter on Myers

The only sexism involved in the Miers nomination is the administration's claim that once they decided they wanted a woman, Miers was the best they could do. Let me just say, if the top male lawyer in the country is John Roberts and the top female lawyer is Harriet Miers, we may as well stop allowing girls to go to law school.

 

The whole thing is funny and serious at the same time.  Well worth reading

PM not a big fan of PM

Paul Wells comes out swinging against Paul Martin in his blog:

You see, Martin has surrounded himself with people who tell him, reassuringly, that a bunch of bank economists represent nothing more than "elite thinking" on questions like the nation's prosperity. They tell him it would be clever to spend nearly all of the surplus on bribes to premiers, then cut cheques for a third of what little remains and mail it to you and me, because you and I are drooling mouth-breathers who don't know what's good for us unless it arrives in the mailbox.

Meanwhile other countries, whose PMOs benefit from adult supervision, are getting on with the serious business of the world. Paul Martin staged a coup to get this job. He made the most successful political party in the Americas toss out a three-time winner so he could have this job. And this is what he's doing with it. One assumes he's proud of himself.

Numbers

Bush's poll numbers aren't really all that bad in historical context.  But they are still pretty crummy.

 

And here's a shocker - media coverage of Iraq has been inordinately gloomy!

Iraq's "hopeful lurch"

An agreement reached yesterday between Iraq's interim leadership and the major Sunni political party is the most positive development yet in the harrowing constitutional process that was rapidly turning into a debacle...

Miers update

• She's not the White House's first choice, apparently.
  
• Judicial committee staffers are rising up against the nomination
  
• I don't know what's sadder: the sappiness of the correspondance between W and Miers or the fact that greeting cards are kept as official records and can be made public
  
• David Frum and National Review have launched a petition to have the nomination withdrawn

polls, polls, polls

Leger Ont: Lib 43% PC 31% NDP 15%
AngusReid: Lib 36% Con 30% Ndp 19% Bq 11% ...

Via Bourque...

Legalized Polygamy

All those kooky folks who think that legalizing gay marriage will lead to, oh, I don't know, polygamy. they're crazy right? 

Withdraw

Frum argues convincingly that the Miers nomination should be withdrawn.  That echos Krauthammer, Will, Kristol, and many other heavyweights.  The administration has picked a fight with its own base...and for what?

Belgium takes a page from France

The government wants to raise the retirement age to 60 years from 58 years, saying the country has to pay for its increasing and aging population and has support from its liberal socialist coalition partners for the proposal.

 

And for this, the country gets a general strike.  Unions...

 

The Miers saga continues

David Frum comes out forcefully on the issue in his daily blog.  The Washington Post highlights the rifts among conservatives, and Peggy Noonan doesn't mince any words.

The Dingwall saga

I'm a little johny come lately to this story, but it deserves comment. $500,000 severence? You've got to be kidding! For a guy screwing taxpayers left, right and center. Paul Wells analyzes appropriately. And Lorne Gunter points out that there is no law that requires a severance to someone who resigns in disgrace.

George Radwanski, former privacy commissioner, didn't receive a severance package, either, when he was forced to resign over his expense excesses in 2003. Or Alfonso Gagliano when he was fired as our ambassador to Denmark. The simple fact is, there is no law requiring Ottawa to pay out the Dinger, so it makes one wonder if Stephen Harper is correct when he says a parachute for Dingwall is simply "hush money." Dingwall knows too much about things the government would rather not have known, and so severance is nothing more than a sop to keep him quiet. Could be.

Chavez is ruining Venezuela

A strongly worded commentary on what is happening in one of the last bastiens of socialism.

The objective of eliminating private property in Venezuela is precisely that: to begin the ''stable-ization'' of society, so it can be dominated without pity. Institutions will become stables... Frightened families will crack into hostile segments. Parliament will dictate the laws needed to keep Venezuelans under a tight rein, while the courts -- docile to the executive's authority -- will deal mercilessly with any transgression of their deliberately vague and imprecise standards, so the sanctions imposed may be in accordance with the interim needs of the revolution.

Once the circle of terror has been closed, there will be no free press, and the only voices of protest will be the screams of the victims. Worst of all will be the widespread indifference to such monstruous acts.

It has always been thus.

French cycles

As many as a million people may turn out to protest new government economic plans in the happy land knowns as France. 

 

While the demonstrations follow a familiar cycle in France of new government policies followed by street protests, there are signs that this will not be an ordinary French strike.

Familiar cycle indeed.  Unemployment is in the doubl digits, and labour laws are hurting the economy, not helping.  Yet there must be no change!

Betrayal

The nomination of White House Counsel Harriet Miers is a disaster on several levels, as a good friend pointed out this morning. At 60 she is not the long term nomination conservatives were looking for. She's never been a judge. And she is likely not that conservative. David Frum calls the nomination an unforced error, and he's right.

"You can always count on George W. Bush to get the big ones right." That line or something like it has consoled conservatives during their periodic bursts of unhappiness with this administration. And by and large it has been true. Oh, there were major mistakes, no doubt about that - prescription drugs, steel quotas, and so on - but it was always possible to rationalize those as forced on the president by grim necessity or some prior campaign promise.

The Miers nomination, though, is an unforced error. Unlike the Roberts' nomination, which confirmed the previous balance on the court, the O'Connor resignation offered an opportunity to change the balance. This is the moment for which the conservative legal movement has been waiting for two decades - two decades in which a generation of conservative legal intellects of the highest ability have moved to the most distinguished heights in the legal profession. On the nation's appellate courts, in legal academia, in private practice, there are dozens and dozens of principled conservative jurists in their 40s and 50s unassailably qualified for the nation's highest court. Yes, Democrats might have complained. But if Democrats had gone to war against a Michael Luttig or a Sam Alito or a Michael McConnell, they would have had to fight without weapons...

More later.

UPDATE: The debate rages all over. Best places I've found so far are Bench Memos at NRO and RCP of course. Some conservative groups are opposing, some are supporting. It will all become clearer by days end.

I will say this now though: Boy was I wrong. I thought Bush would pick a clear conservative that the base would love, the Ds would hate, and then slug it out. This is obviously not the case.

UPDATE 2: Dobson supports the nomination. Reaction continues to be mixed...Maybe disaster isn't the right term for this appointment. Disappointing would have been better.

Update 3: George Will says the nomination is a mistake.

Update 4: Time has some examples of her writing, rare as it is.

Media reaction

Interesting commentary on how the media went crazy over over our new Governor General.  It's quite sarcastic at times and a good read.

Still, in our more optimistic moments, we'd like to think that the almost exclusively positive (if slightly overwrought) reaction to Jean's speech last week has demonstrated one thing: Canadians are desperate for a leader who has something - anything - of substance to say about this nation that doesn't involve the usual bromides about how taxpayer-funded social services are the defining characteristic of being Canadian.