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Karl's Weekend Reading

The reading well was dry until Friday. We're trying not to post the primary-related articles, as many good ones as there are, because either you already read them, or like us, you are waiting for the nominations and the real campaign to start. Here is a short list, with two rare links to posts from fellow bloggers.

"Lord help a diplomat who tells the truth" is what the Journal editorial board is saying about Bush's special envoy for human rights in North Korea in Friday's paper.

We are reluctant to jump on the Bush-Bashing-Bandwagon, but when it comes to North Korea, we're riding shotgun. The North Korean Communists continue to strangle their masses while they wait for an American president that will succumb to nuclear blackmail. Eight years with no progress. This is the Bush Administration's black eye.

In this Foggy Bottom version of the vanishing commissar, Mr. Lefkowitz is being written out of the Administration's North Korea policy for a speech he gave last week at the American Enterprise Institute. Noting that it has been more than two years since Pyongyang pledged to abandon its nuclear weapons program, and more than two weeks since it violated the latest deadline to disclose the full extent of that program, Mr. Lefkowitz observed that "it is increasingly clear that North Korea will remain in its present nuclear status when the Administration leaves office in one year."

Ok, so we'll post one primary-related opinion piece from Wednesday's WSJ, "Obama's Clinton Eduction".

The Illinois Senator is still a young man, but not so young as to have missed the 1990s. He nonetheless seems to be awakening slowly to what everyone else already knows about the Clintons, which is that they will say and do whatever they "gotta" say or do to win. Listen closely to Mr. Obama, and you can almost hear the echoes of Bob Dole at the end of the 1996 campaign asking, "Where's the outrage?"

Hugh Hewitt touches on something that bugged us during the Republican debates. While others feel comfortable bashing President Bush, McCain seems to enjoy bad-mouthing Donald Rumsfeld. Thanks Hugh for responding!

Only small-minded people think Rumsfeld is other than a great American and patriot, though of course a contrroversial one. He continues to deserve the respect and thanks of the American people.

I thus wonder whenever Senator McCain snarls out "Rumsfeld"as he does in debate after debate if others beside me find it unsettling and off-putting that there is so much venom there? Rumsfeld was an opponent of McCain's and as a result the contempt the Arizona maverick has for the former SecDef is complete, but it is also unseemly and not in the best traditions of American politics, especially when Rumsfeld has left the field.

DougM at Sonrak.com reports of two Mesa, AZ lawmakers that are proposing a law that will allow concealed weapon permit holders to carry in Arizona's public schools.

We love Pro-Choice when it comes to packing heat!

AMT Survey

Temporary AMT relief was passed, therefore our AMT Survey is now null and void. The results are telling, and we will find ourselves in the shadow of impending AMT doom at the same time next year.

Thanks to all who participated!

DNC Values

Howard Dean came out of hiding this week to say the following:

Undemocratic voter ID laws are just another part of a broad Republican effort to undermine our fundamental right to vote.

Sounds fair, right? Well, the DNC Chairman was arguing AGAINST the Indiana voter ID law that requires a voter to show a government-issued ID card at the polling place.

It will be a lot harder to claim voter fraud in future elections if Indiana's law spreads to other states.

Wanted: LA Times Editor (again)

James O'Shea, the Los Angeles Time's second editor in 14 months is gone. David Hiller, the Times Publisher, had asked for a $7m reduction to the total budget. The MSM editor MR. O'Shea, instead, wanted to increase spending in the newsroom to add to coverage of the 2008 election. As you can see here almost daily at Ushanka.us, that would translate into more headlines like, "The GOP Failures Mount as Time Dwindles", or "We Endorse Senator Clinton because Her Fiscal Discipline is Sound".

Knowing this will fall on deaf ears, we suggest the following: Hire the next editor from the business sector. Someone with proven marketing and finance experience, and with NO journalism experience. It is a business first, a newspaper second, Mr. Hiller. What it is not is rocket science.

Suggested MSM Headlines

Here are some suggested headlines, after the Nevada Caucus and South Carolina Primary, for our Comrades in the US media:

Culinary Union Endorsement Inconsequential
What Cries in Vegas, Wins in Vegas
Romney's 27 delegates vs McCain's 13: When Will Romney Quit?
Clinton Campaign Undeterred by Winning Candidate: Uncommitted
Poll: 1/3 Democrats Undecided at Last Minute. Public Education to Blame.

Sunday Afternoon Cigar

Celebrating Hillary's win in Nevada's caucus with another Rocky Patel Edge. Proletarians Unite!

Russia's Extremism Law is In Effect

Clips from the Chicago Tribune's Alex Rodriguez article, "Beslan Moms Blame Putin, Face Charges":

With Russian President Vladimir Putin's crackdown on opponents showing no signs of relenting, Russian authorities have gradually transformed a controversial "anti-extremism" law initially meant for skinheads and ultra-nationalists into a cudgel against journalists, liberal commentators and opposition leaders, government critics say.

Now, in a bizarre twist, a local prosecutor in southern Russia is applying the law to the unlikeliest of targets -- mothers of children who died in the 2004 siege on a school in Beslan, the worst terrorist act in modern Russian history.

Their alleged crime? Slandering Putin in their request to the U.S. for an independent investigation into the siege.
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Many experts believe changes made to the law in July 2006 were meant to muzzle government critics. The amended law's strength is in its vagueness, experts say. It includes under the umbrella of extremist activity any act that incites "social hatred."

"With the new changes that were made, any criticism can be considered extremism," said Vladimir Pribylovsky, head of the Moscow-based Panorama think tank. "Under the new law, any entity -- the Kremlin, the police, Russian intelligence agencies -- can be considered a social group vulnerable to acts of 'social hatred.'"

No comment yet from Cindy Sheehan...

Thursday Cigar

Breaking News: Arson was suspected after a suspicious fire burned all but 2cm of a Rocky Patel Sun Grown.

Karl's Weekend Reading

Many bloggers and writers are coming out for their candidates now - all with convincing arguments and passion. While we are leaning toward a decision personally, we're on the record here to support the Republican nominee while we wear our attractive Ushanka.us hat. So instead of linking to a number of candidate-specific articles that, chances are, you have already read, we'll link to some others.

Charles Krauthammer pens "The Dreamer and the Doer?" at Townhall.com. He analyzes the recent HRC remark about MLK, and exposes the repulsive analogy within.

In my view, the real problem with Clinton's statement was the implied historical analogy -- that the subordinate position King held in relation to Johnson, a function of the discrimination and disenfranchisement of the time, somehow needs recapitulation today when none of those conditions apply.
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The King-Johnson analogy is dead because the times are radically different. Today an African-American can be in a position to wield the emancipation pen -- and everything else that goes along with the presidency: from making foreign policy to renting out the Lincoln Bedroom (if one is so inclined). Why should African-American dreams still have to go through white liberals?

The WSJ Opinion Page reviews the Republicans' tax pledges against the coming 'inevitable showdown in 2009':

With Democrats insisting on a giant tax increase, taxes will be a major issue this fall no matter who wins the GOP nod. And if a Republican does win the White House, a tax reform showdown is inevitable in 2009. The AMT continues to swallow more taxpayers, the death tax is due to expire for a single year in 2010 and then rise back to 55%, and the Bush tax cuts expire after 2010. This is a perfect storm that means the next President will have no choice but to make taxes a political priority.

And Larry Elder offers us a fun review for why we vote the way we do in his Townhall.com article, "A Democrat or a Republican?, summarizing with:

Republicans believe what they see, and Democrats see what they believe.

Surrender in Las Vegas

It was nice to see all three Democrat candidates follow the debate footsteps of Algore in tonight's Presidential debate in Las Vegas.

Algore surrendered the gun issue in a 2000 debate when he worried his union voters would vote elsewhere.

Tonight, Barack Hussein Obama, Hillary, and John Edwards all shelved any meaningful gun-control positions, including national registration. Empty rhetoric about bringing back the assault weapons ban was all they had.

We know they will wait for a Virginia Tech-type event to use emotion to pursue gun-control. But, it is refreshing to see the the white flag crowd surrender en-mass on this core issue.

Karl's Weekend Reading

Our long holiday from posting Weekend Reading suggestions is over. Here are some picks from the past weeks:

John Bolton suggests the US pull out of the February 13, 2006 nuclear agreement with North Korea after their "umpteenth violation". We concur, but for another reason. President Bush is the only one that will drive change in the N. Korea regime. If he doesn't reset the standard to full compliance, something always lacking in this agreement, we are confident his predecessor will not either. Reagan was uncomfortable knowing masses lived behind a wall, and he led with this core frustration while declining offers other presidents would have jumped at. That focus and discipline is absent today.

The criticisms of B. Hussein Obama are rolling in, and quite a few minutes too late. Kimberly Strassel dedicates two columns to this: December 28, 2007 - Change Agent? (link), and January 11, 2008 - Barack or Hillary (link). No critical comments here. We agree with her on every point, and HOPE she is right.

Charles Krauthammer reacts to Obama in his January 11 Townhall.com article, Finding the Unscripted Turning Point:

It is fitting that New Hampshire should have turned on a tear or an aside. The Democratic primary campaign has been breathtakingly empty. What passes for substance is an absurd contest of hopeful change (Obama) vs. experienced change (Clinton) vs. angry change (John Edwards playing Hugo Chavez in English).
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The freest of all passes to Obama is the general neglect of the obvious central contradiction of his candidacy -- the bipartisan uniter who would bring us together by transcending ideology is at every turn on every policy an unwavering, down-the-line, unreconstructed, uninteresting, liberal Democrat.

Thursday Cigar

Ushanka.us Caucus results: 100% agree another Rocky Patel Edge should burn!