University Blog 2.0 |
|
|
Intellectual Conservative PoliticsIowa.com Weekly Weblog No Runny Eggs
This is the personal weblog of Aakash Raut, established Sept. 2002. It will cover current affairs, worldwide & national topics, local & university events, and provide insight and commentary on contemporary issues and the news from his perspective. Enjoy! --------------- ARCHIVES Sept 2002 - Now -------------
Archives
E-mail - uisconservative-at-yahoo About Aakash 
Help me out by shopping at Amazon.com!  My Wish List My Amazon.com Store SUPPORT OUR TROOPS! Operation Home Front Any Soldier Soldier's Angels Wounded Warrior Project Adopt a Platoon Operation Military Pride Operation Dear Abby Operation Prayer Shield Operation Homefront Operation Uplink Operation AC Operation Gratitude Operation Hero Miles USO Care Packages Virtual 'Thank You' Card Locate VA Facilities - Volunteer! Presidential Prayer Team Pray for President Bush Hometown Hero:  Maj. Harry Schmidt Spc. Michael New Operation Truth Iraq War Veterans Gulf War Vets NGWRC CNSI SFTT Military.com MilitaryWorld.com The Military Coalition CitizenSoldier.org Veterans Help Network Disabled American Veterans VNIS Take a Soldier to the Movies Best of the Blog On War 
DR. SAM FRANCIS (1947 - 2005) Save the Chief! UIS College Republicans Christian Student Fellowship Good List Congressman Coble (R-NC) Bad List Mark Foley Sacco + Vanzetti My Fellow Bloggists  Blogs for Terri Pro-Life Blogs  US out! of the UN Blogroll Save the GOP Don Bendell - new! Sounding the Trumpet* Google Adsense Referral News Campus Nonsense* Campus Conservatives Airstrip One* Stand Down Spartan Spectator Hoosier Review Illini Girl* Izzy Lyman* John Rabe* Jon Swift - new! Scott Tibbs Old Right Pundits Cory Burnell* Rebel Alliance* Arklahomboy* Right Ho! Allison Kasic* Samantha Burns* Paul Cella* In the Agora   Deux Ego Owen Courreges* Patrick Carver* Conservative Observer Spoons Experience* The Boileryard* Blue State Conservatives Coalition Against Illegal Immigration Dan Flynn Students Against Durbin* Peoria Pundit* Downstate Pundit IlliniPundit ILLINOIZE John C. Bambenek Acton Gorton Belligerent Bunny* eTalkingHead* Adrianne Truett* Angela Wittman The American Mind* Argghhh!!! * The Rattler* Res Ipsa Loquitur Daryl Cobranchi* Twenty Something* Adam's Thoughts* Drew Hibbard Matt + Heather* Tom Roeser Tom Gillespie Child of Reagan Glaivester* Stop the ACLU Radical Cowboys* The Red Pill Right Wing Conspirator* Absit Invidia* Southern Loyalist* Black Confederate States' Rights Review League of the South North of Center To Whom it May Concern* Beautiful Feet Belief Seeking Understanding* Religious Left Watch After Abortion Breaking All the Rules EtherZone blog ESR blog Chronicles blog Mises blog Antiwar.com blog* Mike Ewens* STR blog Liberty & Power PaleoBlog* Sounding the Shallows* Thrasymachus Online Steve Sturm Right & Wrong Kevin Michael Grace Read JDM HARD RIGHT Back Home Again The Flagship Log Lonewacko View from the Right Independent Country* A Republic, if you can keep it Right Wing News Midwest Conservative Journal ConservativeHQ.com Conservative Booknotes Libertarian Rant Live Free or Die Samizdata Adam Smith Institute IHS LibertyGuide Rational Review Wendy McElroy Gene Healy Serfdom Times Jeff Trigg* Bruno Behrend* Greg Griffith John Tabin Champaign Media Watch* David Weigel John LeBoutiller Rolling Barrage* GOP Bloggers* Nat'l Review Corner TG's Political Wire Angry Clam Jason Wall John Wentz Josiah Mackenzie Vessel of Honour* Greg Pulver* Eric McErlain* Baseball Crank Liam Moran* Matthew Edgar* Andrew Olmsted Jacob Grier* Dave Munger* John Norris Brown* John Adams Chris Burgwald Washington Republicans Reductio Ad Absurdum* Fuzzy Couch Thinklings Carmon Friedrich* LadyDusk The BadgerMum* Cassandra Page* Dead Yet Living Bloggedy Blog* Darrell Dow Dr. George Grant Birch Blog ParaPundit Michelle Malkin Smallest Minority This Classical Life Chrome Duck Overdrive Mark Byron Mark Horne Radley Balko Steve Sailer Lyn Nofziger Howard Phillips John R. Lott Stephen Bainbridge Richard Poe Bad Eagle Vox Day Gray Falcon Oscar Jr.* Robert Prather Dizzy Girl* Medic Mom The Patriette* Electric Venom Amy Ridenour American Kernel Right on the Right Heretical Ideas Six Meat Buffet Right-Wing & Right Minded* Stephan Kinsella Western Mercury Gutless Pacifist The Art of Peace* Alina Stefanescu Franklin Harris* Jesse Walker Jeremy Lott Honest to Blog* Conservative Rebel* California Conservative Louisiana Conservative Oklahoma Conservative Oregon Commentator Brothers Judd Dissecting Leftism Catallaxy Files Catallarchy.net* Atlantic Blog Tim Swanson* CoolParty.us Michael O'Shea Kevin Holtsberry Right Minded Man Sized Target Interested Participant* Bush Blog Insignificant Thoughts Signifying Nothing* Jaws Blog Republican Voices The O'Hara Factor* Flaming Duck* Outside the Beltway* Parkway Rest Stop Accidental Jedi* Jen's History and Stuff Military Sound-Off Mudville Gazette* Stryker Brigade News Baldilocks* David MSC Chapomatic Arimus Diary of the Blue Ridge Acid Ink Daniel Root Christian Bowman Seamole's Log* Erick Erickson* Eric Langborgh Boots and Sabers Pardon My English Right on Race McGehee Zone ConservaThink* Sobering Thoughts No Watermelons Ben Kaminar* Ben Shapiro* View from 1776 Broken Masterpieces* Reagan's Children Liberty Zone Lead and Gold John Ellis Joyful Christian Junkyard Blog Saddam Hussein Talking Points Memo WeltansBlog The American Scene Nel Mezzo Why Liberals Suck Republican Research Council RightNation.us Huffington Post VodkaPundit LiarPundit Best of the Web (WSJ) Overlawyered Online Learning Update Matthew Muller  
In the Area Illinois ReviewRFFM News Extreme Wisdom* Capitol Fax IL Policy Institute Illinois Forum ICRC IL Church Action Family Taxpayers Network GunsSaveLife.com Immigration Reform IFRL IL GOP Assembly IL RLC IL YRs IL RYP United Republican Fund My Church Living Word Fellowship Ministries LINKS Intellectual Conservative*World Net Daily AntiWar.com LewRockwell.com EtherZone Ever Vigilant TownHall.com NewsMax CNS News American Reformation Project Sierra Times News with Views Conservative Battleline Conservative Voice* Conservative Nest Conservatarian.org Republicans for Humility Free Republic Washington Dispatch Virtue Magazine Conservative Truth For the Cause Charles Goyette Dave Black Online Lady Liberty Strike the Root INTL-NEWS.com Liberty Vault Liberty Coalition Breaking All the Rules Original Dissent VDare Men's News Daily American Daily* Starr Journal Capitol Hill Journal Capitol Hill CoffeeHouse Rightgrrl! Share the Truth Fountain of Truth Price of Liberty Citizens' Lobby DixieInternet.com* Dixie Daily News Aw, Shucks* Silverback Standard  The Conservative Caucus The American Conservative Chronicles Magazine Human Events Insight Magazine The New American The American Enterprise The American Partisan In the National Interest The National Interest The Dissident City Journal Policy Review Empire Journal College Conservative Campus Magazine The Last Ditch TheRant.us RightNation.us RightSided In Liberty & Freedom Rational Review Liberty for All Friends of Liberty NonInterventionist.com Neocons Bad Occupation Watch Downing Street Memo PokerFace Michael Savage Mark Dankof David Salder Rip Rense Devvy Kidd Tom Flocco Jacques Tucker Roy Moore Reed Heustis Ezola Foster Terry Anderson Jewish Dude with a Conservative Attitude Ross Perot Charts Chuck Muth Allan Wall Frosty Wooldrige Bob Barr Linda Tripp! Carolyn Gargaro Ilana Mercer Bill Sardi Jason Vickers Maurice's BBQ Sam Francis Pete Celano Dave Kopel John Lott Tom McClintock Brooke Adams Bill O'Reilly Rabbi Spero J.M. Wallace Taki Vermont Guardian Dixie Outfitters Huntsville Chronicle Conservative Brotherhood Issues & Views Lincoln Review BlackElectorate.com Human Life Review America's Voices Free Conservatives Conservatives Against Bush Republicans Against Bush Bush Revealed Your Christian President the New Pantagruel Boundless Relevant Credenda Chasing Hats Vision Forum American Vision Christian Underground Good News, etc. Trumpet America* Where the Truth Hurts Christian WebSite True.Origin Archive Jews for Morality Islam Review Islam Commentaries RenewAmerica.us Banner of Liberty GrassFire.org Supressed News World Affairs Brief Capitol Hill Blue Spinsanity Campus Activist Citizens for a Constitutional Republic Junto Society Bush Country ToTheSource News TruthNews Talon News Page One Daily Duke's Global Links* Conservative Camp ConservativeNews.us JanicekOnline.us* Underground Notes American Daughter Beltway Blitz Collegiate Patriot Patriot Post Wake Up America! The Compass RightTurns.com You Don't Say TYSK News Freedom Writer Freedom Site Freedom Forever HundredPercenterNews Suppressed News Jefferson Review Republic Broadcasting Network America First Radio American Destiny Premier Speakers Bureaucrash Cultureshock TV The Backlash! Angry Harry  GOA JPFO EnviroTruth Crafted with Pride Amer. Economic Alert How to Buy American Today's American Dream American Patrol The American Resistance Numbers USA  Project USA Balance.org Desert Invasion Stein Report Latino Americans Fair Immigration Asian-American Politics Outsource Congress Not Dead Yet Euthanasia.com Project 33 BlackGenocide.org March Together GOP USA Stop Democrats Nat'l Republican Assemblies GOP Liberty Caucus Republican Issues Campaign Vote Republican Net Republican Research America First Party American Founding Fathers Party Constitution Party of IL Drudge Report Hush Bimbo Capitol Fax Illinois Issues ILSenate.com Politics1.com Real Clear Politics Roll Call Larry Sabato Political Oddsmaker Political Graveyard Congressional BadBoys Yahoo! | Ask.com Yahoo Mail | GMail Facebook | MySpace eBay | craigslist Search Engine Watch 
Watchers Left Watch Court Watch PC Watch Green Watch MarxWatch UN Watch Genocide Watch Warblogger Watch Occupation Watch Patriot Act Watch Marriage Watch Sully Watch Hillary Watch Hillary Watch Bush Watch GOP Betrayal CAGW FactCheck.org Truth in Media Accuracy in Media Presidential Candidates COLUMNISTS Chris AdamoJeff Adams Dr. Mike Adams Diane Alden W. James Antle III Rev. Chuck Baldwin Doug Bandow J. Matt Barber Bill Barnwell Dave Barry Bruce Bartlett Michael Bates Bryanna Bevens Dave Black Burton S. Blumert Alan Bock Boortz Trevor Bothwell James Atticus Bowden Peter Brimelow John Norris Brown Harry Browne Pat Buchanan William F. Buckley Tucker Carlson Phil Carter Alan Caruba Doug Casey Steve Chapman Jane Chastain Alexander Cockburn Ann Coulter Judson Cox Paul Crespo Vox Day Arnaud de Borchgrave John Derbyshire Lou Dobbs John Doggett Jon Dougherty Steve Dunleavy Pete DuPont Bobby Eberle Larry Elder Robert Klein Engler Bonnie Erbe Jerry Falwell Joseph Farah Steve Farrell Don Feder Robert Fisk Thomas Fleming Tom Flocco Sam Francis R. Freedman Dan Frisa Michael Fumento Maggie Gallagher Joe Galloway Bill Gertz Georgie Anne Geyer James Glaser Julia Gorin Paul Gottfried Michael Graham Joe Guzzardi Colonel Hackworth Froma Harrop J.D. Hauser Dustin Hawkins William R. Hawkins Nat Hentoff Donald Hoffmann Ron Holland James Holmes Arianna Huffington David M. Huntworth Paul Ibrahim Terence Jeffrey Robert Jensen Barney Keller Thomas Kilgannon Michael Kinsley Henry Kissinger Dave Kopel Charles Krauthammer Karen Kwiatkowski Henry Lamb William S. Lind Thomas Lindaman T. J. Litafik Heather MacDonald Nebojsa Malic Michelle Malkin Ralph Marston Chris Matthews Nathan McClintock Tom McClintock Wendy McElroy Michael John McCrae Ryan Merryman John David Morris Mary Mostert MUGGER Bill Murchison Steve Myers Peggy Noonan Gary North Oliver North Bob Novak J. R. Nyquist Brendan O'Neill Bill O'Reilly Star Parker US Rep. Ron Paul John L. Perry Gordon Prather Larry Pratt David T. Pyne, Esq. Fred Reed Charley Reese Cokie Roberts Paul Craig Roberts Lew Rockwell Jr. Thomas Roeser Christopher Ruddy Joe Sabia Steve Sailer P. Andrew Sandlin Phyllis Schlafly Bill Schneider Otto Scott Dorothy Anne Seese Cindy Sheehan Martin Sieff Harry Silvergate Charles R. Smith Tony Snow Joe Sobran Paul Sperry Rabbi Spero Jill Stanek Bill Steigerwald Joseph Stromberg Vin Suprinowitz Nathan Tabor Taki's Top Drawer Linda Schrock Taylor Abigail Thernstrom Alan Tonelson Srdja Trifkovic Gore Vidal Norah Vincent Allan Wall Jude Wanniski George Will J. B. Williams Kyle Williams Walter Williams James Leroy Wilson David Yeagley Hans Zeiger OpinioNet Reference Sources The Free DictionaryBartleby.com RefDesk.com Answers.com Education World Free Databases Internet Public Library Electronic Texts Archive Merriam-Webster Dictionary Thesaurus Acronym Finder 1911 Britannica Britannica Concise Information Please Almanac Statistical Resources American FactFinder CountryWatch CIA World Factbook Stratfor History Channel Biography.com The Straight Dope Snopes Truth or Fiction Logical Fallacies Bartlett's Quotations Gray's Anatomy WebElements Periodic Table Harvard Classics Free Books Online Barron's Booknotes Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy Internet Movie Database LimeWire Boogie Jack's search engine optimization Wordtracker: Top Keywords Open Directory Project Directory: Free articles Free Articles directory FindArticles.com World Newspapers Newspaper Obituaries White Pages Yellow Pages Zip Code look up Worldwide Phone Directories Worldwide E-mail Directories Pizza Coupons Donate a Car Kelley Blue Book Consumer Info Ctr. Consumer Reports U.S. Code U.S. Tax Code Mortgage Calculator Loan Calculator Loan Comparison Savings Calculator currency converter Stock Quotes Federal Register U.C.M.J. USA Patriot Act Supreme Court decisions Find Law Government Guide Contact your Rep! Politics1.com Useful Resources Bible GatewayBlue Letter Bible Christian Answers Network SermonAudio.com Sermon Cloud WallBuilders Christian America Religious Liberty Archive Chick Publications Spurgeon Archives Magna Carta Federalist Papers Anti-Federalist Papers Dec. of Independence Articles of Confederation U.S. Constitution C.S.A. Constitution State Constitutions Documents of Freedom Early America American Heritage Library Online Museums - new! Euro-Amer. History U.S. Anti-Imperialism First World War The Roosevelt Myth Harry S Truman Korean War Project USS Liberty Memorial NGWRC Venona National Security Archive The Memory Hole Big Eye Trivia Library National Debt Clock The 'Right' Links Military Links Ultimate Pro-Life List Liberty Online Tobacco Institute Docs CSMonitor: Neocons Museum of Communism Murray Rothbard Antiwar Archives Starr Report Cox Report The Clinton Calendar Even More Blogs Hit and Run (Reason Mag)rfburn hertz Antioch Road Earth-Shattering Distinctives* Theognome's Thoughts Naddy Museum of Left Wing Lunacy Chicago Boyz Kevin McCullough Cornfield Commentary* Publicola* Fly Over Country Greatest Jeneration* Backcountry Conservative* Conservative Eyes Wizbang!* Daniel Drezner Jonathan Grubbs Republican Except for Bush Number 2 Pencil Claire Wolfe Anthony R. Karnowski College Basketball Right-Wing Vegetarian Alex Singleton Christian Patriot* Alan K. Henderson Zonitics Spot On Unqualified Offerings Libertarians Against Bush Libertarians for Dean Rossnordeen.com Phil Carter How Appealing Ex Parte Modulator* VRWC Mark from Colorado Marc Cenedella John Moore Jared Keller La Shawn Barber* Adrian Warnock Bushwhacker Blog Jeremy Petersen Ryan's Head The Great Separation Christian Conservative Uncle Sam's Cabin Weapons of Mass Distraction Booker Rising Red State Liberating Iraq Lissa Kay Melanie Phillips Buscando Un Oasis* Blog Day Afternoon Josh Matthews Ray Schroeder Chelsea Rulz! Benjamin Kepple Blame India Watch Steven Chapman Conservative Commentary Right We Are! Amidst the War... Iraq NowFront Line Voices Boots on the Ground Training for Eternity A Soldier's Blog Fight to Survive ...turning tables... Colby Buzzell Mustang23 Iraqi Agora Baghdad Burning Salam Pax Healing Iraq Hammorabi Diary from Baghdad A Family in Baghdad Secrets in Baghdad Raed in the Middle A Glimpse of Iraq A star from Mosul Baghdad Skies Baghdad Girl Iraqi4Ever Iraq and Iraqis Kevin Sites Iraq Photos And from the Left... Mickey KausMarc Cooper Dohiyi Mir* Brian Balta* Right Democrat* Gun Toting Liberal Lucas Wiman Democratic Veteran* Back to Iraq 3.0 Max Speak* People Migrate Angry Bear The Poor Man Hesiod Neocon Leftist The Ben File Who Knew? Veterans for Dean High Desert Skeptic Morons for Bush Charles Murtaugh Atrios Lorazapam & Lipitor Guardian Watchblog Pinko Flamingo Debbie Schlussel < ? ameriBLOGs # > Watch television episodes online for free! What I'm Watching 24 Law and Order Monk The People's Court Recommended Reading     
Blogsearch | DayPop Yahoo! Mail | GMail America Online Search Engine Optimization Wordtracker: Top Search Terms Most Popular Keywords AOL Hot Searches | AOL Search Blog MapQuest | Google Maps Travelocity | Expedia Southwest Airlines Facebook.com | MySpace.com Walmart.com | Best Buy Home Depot | Circuit City Bank of Springfield Bank of America document scanning answering services Cingular Wireless conference calling Lexapro Mortgage Calculator Loan Repayment Calculator Loan Comparison Calculator Savings Calculator 
|
Sunday, February 29, 2004
Note (3/9/04): The entries dated for Sun., February 29 were actually published shortly after midnight yesterday, Mon., March 8, 2004.
Please check out the home page of the newest student organization at UIS, the Society of Conservative Students (SCS): www.scsrightwing.com I am writing this entry on Saturday night, March 6, 2004, even though text was initially posted here (but not published) on Sunday, Feb. 29. On that day, the SCS Poker Tournament took place. The turnout was great, and we raised a good amount of funds for our organization. Photos from the tournament have been posted at our website. The following day, SCS co-sponsored a bake sale with the UIS Cooking Club. We didn't make very much from that, but our presence was hopefully noted by those who came. (The Cooking Club had food available for free, and many people came for that - it was an "Atkins-friendly" event... There were chicken and hamburgers there, with sandwich condiments, but no buns or bread. Our club sold some cookies and brownies.) On Saturday, March 13th - one week from now - members of SCS, along with a few others, will be taking a trip to Decatur, to see Sean Hannity Update (3/9/04): It seems that Mr. Hannity may not be giving an actual speech there, but rather just doing photos, book signings, and autographs. Well, I may not be able to do the 'fisking' then, but at least that might save me some heartburn. Update (3/11/04): As I mentioned above, I saw part of that Ann Coulter speech on C-Span. I think I probably didn't like a lot of it, and Radley does a good job in that entry of 'fisking' Ann's points (though Radley's wrong on some things as well, like in concurring with the liberals and the neoconservatives with regard to Nixon's "Southern Strategy"). However, there was at least one thing that Ann said that I do kind of like... Radley includes this statement of Ann's in his entry:
Update (3/13/04): That Hannity event was this morning, and as it turns out, he did give a speech there after all. As I indicated above, I will be doing the reaction blog entry to this event, but also - on Thursday, I came across this article from last week by Lee Harris at the great Tech Central Station site. Mr. Harris is a conservative columnist who, by the way, also had a book published very recently... :-) That article from last week by Mr. Harris is about Sean Hannity, and from that column, I found out that there have been some confrontational situations that've arisen out of the "Hannitization" book tour. - Latest news items on Mr. Hannity I also wanted to point out, regarding Ann Coulter, who is mentioned in this entry above, that my first blog entry on the issue of war and foreign policy was about her. It seems that while they're right on many issues, on some stuff, Sean and Ann just don't get it... especially Sean. He is too apologetic for President Bush, and is also way too supportive of the neoconservative/neoliberal foreign policy agenda. I will post my reaction to this morning's event in a new entry soon. A few weeks ago, there was a story circulating in the Blogsphere, and in the news and opinion pages and websites, about an alleged infidelity claim about Senator John Kerry. Many people pointed out that the Drudge Report featured this story on Feb. 12. However, one of the bloggers at the great site WatchBlog was actually the one who scooped this news, in this entry, six days before Drudge posted it. (http://www.watchblog.com/thirdparty/archives/000780.html) Update: I just saw this Feb. 12th entry by Josh Claybourn... He had updated that entry after posting it, saying:
I am happy to be a contributor at WatchBlog (in the Republican column). Here are my past WatchBlog entries: Jan. 27, 2004: Primary Challenges - This summarizes the conservative frustration with the policies of the Bush administration, over social, fiscal, and foreign policy-related issues. It also provides an overview of some of the other Republican presidential candidates. Jan. 20, 2004: State of the Union 2004 - My hopes about what Mr. Bush would say Dec. 30, 2003: Christmas Wishes - Reflections and thoughts about Christmas, Christmases past, and war Dec. 19, 2003: Today in History - What happened five years ago, on December 19th? Nov. 26, 2003: Happy Thanksgiving! - My first entry at WatchBlog... It links to some good material for Thanksgiving [entry goes here...] I have a lot of entries that I have planned, and/or have jotted down some notes for, but have yet to post. This space is reserved for the future posting of one of those entries, or for something else that I decide to publish here. Please check back soon. While it will be a little past February by the time these entries - the ones dated for Sunday, Feb. 29 - are published, I saved some posts as drafts on that Leap Day, the last day of Black History Month. The entries below contain some links to website about important African-American leaders, columnists, publications, and organizations. Also, check out the weblogs of La Shawn Barber, Michael Bowen, and Baldilocks, and even The Black Republican (note: the latter is not what one would think) Baldilocks is Juliette Ochieng, a military veteran, and a conservative Republican. I recently saw [via a link from this post of Citizen Smash] what happens when an African-American woman in South-Central L.A. asks for a Republican primary ballot. And speaking of the ballot in the 2004 California Republican primary, here are recommendations from the great conservative blogger Rory Miller. I'm here in Illinois, so I didn't vote in that primary, but I like how he recommended the great U.S. Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-CO) as a write-in candidate for President, rather than Bush. I've been thinking along the same lines. Columnists Alan Keyes [home page] [column archives] Armstrong Williams [home page] [column archives] Walter Williams [home page] [column archives] Thomas Sowell [home page] [column archives] Elizabeth Wright [columns] J. J. Johnson [columns] Larry Elder [home page] [column archives] Deroy Murdock [bio] [column archives] Leaders Rev. Jesse Peterson [ Brotherhood Organization for a New Destiny ] James Meredith Former Lt. Governor Joe Rogers (R-CO) Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell (R-OH) Lt. Governor Jennette Bradley (R-OH) Ezola Foster [Update (4/3/04): Via Reed Heustis' site, I found that Mrs. Foster has a home page: EzolaFoster.com.] Terry from South Central (Terry Anderson) Alan Keyes Reginald Jones Mason Weaver Black Man With A Gun (Kenneth Vincent Ford Blanchard) J. J. Johnson H. K. Edgerton Honorable mentions: U.S. Congressman Harold Ford, Jr. (D-TN), Former U.S. Congressman Rev. Walter Faunteroy (D-D.C.), former U.S. Congressman Rev. Floyd Flake (D-NY), former U.S. Congresswoman Barbara Jordan (D-TX), Lousiana House of Representatives Speaker Pro-Tempore Sharon Weston Broome, Cedric Muhammad ... State Senator Rev. James T. Meeks (D-IL) Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, James Farmer Websites and Organizations C.U.R.E. C.O.R.E. B.O.N.D. Black America's Political Action Committee Issues and Views The Black Conservative Project 21 BlackGOP.com Black Electorate Wednesday, February 25, 2004
------------------ On The Passion: Discussion thread by Jamie Doe (at 'Deux Ego'): Will you be seeing The Passion? Why or why not? Carmon Friedrich: Be Careful, Little Eyes Law Shawn Barber's entries: Feb. 18th, Feb. 19th, Feb. 26th. Nick Queen: We Crucified Jesus Christ Your thoughts on seeing The Passion: At Jen's blog, an open thread where people who've seen the movie can comment. Reactions from bloggers who've seen it: Craig Tanner, Feb. 21 Julie Neidlinger, Feb. 25 (found via Bobby A-G) Rev. Donald Sensing, Feb. 26 Christopher S. Johnson: Feb. 27 Via Josh Claybourn's latest blog entry, I find the latest entry at blogs4God, which contains reviews of the movie by people in the Blogosphere. Here is Josh's reaction to the film, although his blog entry has to do more with the events pertinent to the subject of the movie than with the movie itself. Updates: More blogger reactions: Jared (of 'Thinkings'): Feb. 26: here and here Jared Bridges: Feb. 29 locdog: March 7 Also, here is famed film critic Roger Ebert's review of The Passion... And here is blogger Jared's review of that review. And from Dan Zanoza's excellent column on The Passion, I find Richard Roeper's review. ------ - Official Movie Site: www.thepassionofthechrist.com - Hollywood Jesus: www.hollywoodjesus.com/passion.htm - "The Premier International Fan Website" - Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ: www.passion-movie.com - www.ThePassionMovie.tk - Information on The Passion: www.passionmovieinfo.freeservers.com - See the Passion: SeeThePassion.com Resources: NewsMax.com: Mel Gibson's The Passion World Net Daily: Coverage of Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ Jews for Jesus: Special section on The Passion Updates: I got one or two hits from this Blogdex page, which lists some weblogs, including mine, which have linked to the home page of this move. Those other sites include Jason Steffens' and Jen's weblogs, both of which I've commented at before. (An entry of Jen's is linked to in this entry - see above.) Also see this recent entry of Josh Claybourn's, and this post of Le Renard Subtil's. Note: I have now published the two additional Feb. 15 blog entries that I mentioned in the italicized note below. The 3rd entry currently at this blog is about the anniversary of a tragic event that occurred in 1945. The 5th entry has a few thoughts about Abraham Lincoln, but also notes that, right now, I have an overdue essay that I need to be working on. I'll try to have some more new material up here soon. Also: After finding and enjoying "Hey Ya!" (mentioned in that 5th post below), I found a neat parody of it ("Hey Allah!"), featuring, in place of OutKast, everyone's favorite tin-pot dictator (who by the way, also has a blog). Sunday, February 15, 2004
Note: This entry, and the two below, despite their dates, are being published on the afternoon of Friday, Feb. 20, 2004. One thing that I sometimes do is save entries with not much text in them as drafts, and then add to them, and then publish them, while keeping the original date & time stamp from when they were initially saved. Below the previous two entries (the ones on Valentine's Day and the "American Minute"), I will later be publishing two additional ones - one about Lincoln, and one about an anniversary of something that occurred around this time in 1945. Also, several of my already-published entries still need to be updated. Today, February 15th, is my brother's birthday... He is now 20. Happy birthday to him! Catching Up Within the past few days, there have been several holidays and anniversaries. My posts below, which are late, are about the topics relating to those dates. I still have several entries below those that need to be updated and amended. I will try to do that soon... Thanks. For yesterday... Happy Valentine's Day! Baldilocks has a neat entry for this day. (We love you too, Juliette!) The Patriette has a great entry for Valentine's Day, about remembering our American heroes, many of whom are away from their loved ones at this time. I think I found out about her entry via Frank's entry, but I've been to Kelly's blog before, and my blog is thankfully blogrolled there (and hers is blogrolled here as well). Best wishes to Kelly and her husband, and to all those who have family members who are serving overseas right now. God bless you, and Gob bless our soldiers. In an entry below, I noted that I was a juror in a mock trial that we were having in my class on the Law of Military Conflict. While that trial is over, I did say that I might be doing, in future blog entries, a series of case studies on events that have happened in U.S. and world history, especially occurrences of wartime. There are many controversies that arise during the fog of war, and it can become very difficult to assess the responsibility for acts committed in those incidents, and to discern what exactly happened, and who did what to whom. I can think of some specific wartime controversies to do case examinations for, and will possibily do so some time in the future. But regarding the events of the past couple of days, the day before yesterday marks the anniversary of a very controversial and unfortunate event in 1945. (via this entry at the Antiwar.com blog) If I had more time and energy, I might have done this for my first case study on this blog. But that is not the case right now. I will link to some background information and reference material on this case, though. Update (2/29/04): I went to Riverbend's blog after seeing it featured in this Feb. 16th post at the Antiwar.com blog. (I have been to Riverbend's blog before, though, and it has been blogrolled at the lower section of my sidebar for some time. Riverbend is a 24-year-old Iraqi woman, blogging from Baghdad.) That entry at the Antiwar.com blog is about this post of Riverbend's, in which she writes about the anniversary of the bombing of the Amirya shelter in Baghdad during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Riverbend also discussed this incident in an entry from Sept. 3rd: Have you forgotten? (Entry found from this page at TomDispatch, while doing a web search)
Despite being a liberal, Riverbend seems to be a good writer, and her insights into the war situation have been prolific and powerful. Someone tried to decrease her effectiveness by putting up an imposter blog; that shows that she must be effective, and is having an impact on people throughout the world. Note: Thinking about what I wrote above, I am not sure about the "being a liberal" part... Though River does have liberal sites on her blog's sidebar, perhaps the ideological standards for judging leftishness (if that's a word) are different with respect to the people of a place such as Iraq. Also, perhaps she is not aware of, or doesn't know much about, the many conservative and libertarian anti-war, anti-nation-building websites and organizations. (Though some of them know about her.) Here is another perspective on the Amiryah bombing, from the official White House website. Here is Iraqi blogger Salam Pax's response (scroll down some in that entry) to that White House web page. (Hat tip to Alan Cook and Rajan) Here is John Moore's response to Riverbend's above-mentioned Sept. 3rd entry, in which he rebuts her statements. A couple of months later, Mr. Moore did this entry on Iraqi bloggers (it was at that entry, by the way, that I posted my first comments at his site; we got into a discussion about foreign policy and the Iraq war). In that entry, Mr. Moore criticizes Riverbend, and the famous Iraqi blogger Salam Pax as well. Salam [latest news pieces on him] has long been regarded as a leading Iraqi blogger, and has been liked by supporters of the Iraq war (he supports the war, unlike Riverbend), but more recently, some war supporters have gotten upset due to Salam's views and attitude regarding the occupation. In that entry, Mr. Moore features other Iraqi bloggers, who are more-liked by supporters of our government's Iraq policy. The first 'good' blog that Mr. Moore lists is the widely-read 'Healing Iraq' blog, written by Zeyad, a 24-year-old Iraqi dentist. Zeyad has been well-liked by supporters of our government's Iraq policy; some anti-war folks may not have liked Zeyad's blog that much, though, and some criticized him for a somewhat-controversial post he did in November. However, more recently, Zeyad has been facing criticism from some supporters of our government's Iraq policy for his statements about a certain incident that he claims occurred to his family members in Iraq. There are many questionable stories that have been coming out from the ongoing Iraq situation, and some bloggers reacted with surprise and strong skepticism when reading Zeyad's blog posts on this alleged incident; many were surprised, because his blog is one that they had previously trusted, promoted, and supported. Zeyad contacted the prolific Chief Wiggles about the incident, who agreed to look into the matter. Here is an excellent entry on Riverbend's recent (February) post, mentioned above, by the excellent blogger Jason Van Steenwyk, a U.S. Army officer in Iraq. I added Jason's blog to my sidebar awhile ago as well; both his and Riverbend's blog are listed at the bottom part of the sidebar, in the section with blogs from Iraq. This is perhaps the first major war (with the possible exception of Afghanistan and Operation Enduring Freedom) in which weblogs from the war zone have become a helpful source of wartime reporting and first-hand insight. Blogging has the potential to change the face of journalism, commentary, and information gathering, and I am happy to be a part of this new phenomenon. Our state's premier conservative web publication, the Illinois Leader, featured, as their Quote of the Day, the American Minute with Bill Federer for Feb. 12th. American Minute with Bill Federer
Note: Hyperlinks within the above "American Minute" were added by me, not by Mr. Federer. [Past "American Minutes" are available here.] Note: This entry was written around 1:30 AM CST on Wednesday, February 25th. There are a lot things that I could say about President Lincoln, as we observe his birthday during this time period. A lot of that will have to wait however... I right now have to do an essay for my history course on the cause of the U.S. Civil War, or perhaps I should say - the War between the States... Or perhaps, the War of Northern Agression. Anyway, some time after I started this blog, I was IMing with a southern blogger, and I think I mentioned that, though I liked the South, I am required - since I live here in Springfield, Illinois - to like Lincoln, at least somewhat. But that was then. I think I was already moving away from the standard, pro-Lincoln viewpoint, and into the viewpoint that is shared more by the conservatives in the southern United States, as well as by many paleo-conservatives and paleo-libertarians across the country. The class I took this summer, on The American Presidency, which I blogged about at that time, was also helpful in allowing me to learn more about the man who is so revered... Our professor fortunately did not like Lincoln, and he seemed different from many of the liberal faculty on campus. 
The essay that I have to write now is actually for another history class taught by this same professor. My position, in this essay, will be that the Anyway, when they showed a clip of OutKast's music video (I think that they showed a clip of the official music video of their hit song, not a clip from his Grammy performance of it, which was the one with the American Indian theme), I thought to myself about that song. I think that that was the same song that I had seen on one of those late night television shows (perhaps the Tonight Show), and I had kind of liked the sound of it. I thought I might like hearing that song, so I went and found it online (I found the music video of it at RollingStone.com, where I am assuming it can be legally viewed). And it is excellent... I was playing it all day that day, and have played it many times since. So, while Mr. Nice is nice, for now at least, OutKast is tops. Hey Ya! Right now, I am at a pool tournament here at UIS, sponsored by our new organization, The Society of Conservative Students (for which I am the Treasurer). I was, alas, the first one eliminated, but at least I got my money back. There are six prizes for those who are in this tournament (we have ten people in it). SCS is a great new organization, and this is possibily the first time that there is a conservative student organization (other than College Republicans) at this university. Both CRs and SCS have many ideas and plans for the future, and it will be exciting to be a part of these events here in the capital city. I'll likely post some stuff about our activities in future blog entries. Update: Congratulations to Philip Reinhardt for winning first place in the tournament. The UIS Journal will likely be printing the results in the next issue. Saturday, February 07, 2004
Last year, I was two days late. This year, I thought I would cut that in half. So here it is, one day afterwards: 
Happy Birthday Ronnie!! Check out www.reaganranch.com... So that's why it was "Ronald Reagan Day" yesterday! (I found out it was President Reagan's birthday yesterday [latest news & views] from Joe Farah's great column for that day, in which he mentioned this. I had previously seen something about it being Ronald Reagan Day on February 6th, but I didn't make the connection between that, and it being his birthday that day also, until I went to the Reagan Ranch site.) As I said last year: A hearty congratulations and best wishes for the greatest president of our time. The Feb. 7th World magazine cover image was here, but due to the large size of this web page, I needed to remove it. [Link to Image - magazine cover] That image linked to the Feb. 7th issue of World, which features Ronald Reagan. Send President Reagan birthday wishes... Updates: A Gift for the Gipper, Lawrence Kudlow Illinois: The roots of Ronald Reagan and modern day conservatism, Fran Eaton Reagan Museum to reopen: Eureka College rallies after arson to give the ex-president a gift for his 93rd birthday, Chicago Tribune Reagan Museum Opens, Bloomington Pantagraph Illinois towns abuzz on Reagan's 93rd birthday, Chicago Sun-Times Happy Ronald Reagan Day: 25 Governors Issue Proclamation Honoring America's 40th President on His 93rd Birthday I have been communicating with Miss Jennifer Brower over the past couple of years... She is a conservative Illinoisian, and a Reagan Republican. Jennifer has been active in the Illinois Republican Liberty Caucus. She is also an expert web designer, and maintains several websites, including the great ReaganRepublican.com. As Jennifer has pointed out, we are the REAGAN GENERATION... I'll add links to some good Reagan sites to this entry soon. Some of the entries that I've saved as drafts are on Reagan-related subjects, and they will be published below this one. Updates: RonaldReagan.com ~ The Reagan Information Page ~ Reagan Library and Museum ~ Reagan Foundation ~ Ronald Reagan Legacy Project ~ TheReaganLegacy.com ~ Christian's Reagan Tribute Ronald "Dutch" Reagan and Eureka College More Reagan websites... Note: This is one of the above-mentioned entries that was saved as a draft. Despite its date, it was published on Saturday, Feb. 14th (Happy Valentine's Day! :-) When I debated two pro-war bloggers, who questioned my assertion that much of the opposition to the recent Iraq war came from the Right, not just the Left, and I provided a great deal of reference material regarding this, they both responded by pointing out that some of my material was about members of the Bush 41 administration who opposed this war, and George Herbert Walker Bush's administration was regarded as not being conservative. In reality, the material that I provided linked to many groups and individuals from the Right who opposed the war, not just those from the Bush 41 administration. Check out the pertinent comment threads, at John Moore's blog (scroll down to my 3rd and 4th comments posted there) and at Pietro's blog. I recently started a list of Reagan administration officials who opposed the recent Iraq war, and since I am doing a series of Reagan-related posts, I thought that I could publish here what I have so far. Keep in mind that there might be more than just these people; however, this is what I could list quickly when making that list, based upon my previous research. (Update: Since my original list was made, I added two more individuals to it - Edward Peck and Thomas Gale Moore. I may update this entry if I find more names that would pertain to this listing.) [Note: Also, I already have a partial compilation of conservative organizations and conservative columnists who opposed this war. That is available at this past blog entry (scroll down some in it for the relevant info). That is a not a complete enumeration, but listed there are over 75 regularly-published conservative columnists, and more than 20 national conservative organizations, policy institutes, and think tanks, that took a stance against the Iraq war.] But aside from that, since the claim was made that much of the opposition came from the Bush 41 administration members (which it did), I am going to list here some of the members of President Reagan's administration who also opposed this war. Reagan administration members who opposed the Iraq war  Colonel James Webb [JamesWebb.com] Renowned naval hero, military expert, and writer; Served as U.S. Secretary of the Navy and as an Assistant Secretary of Defense - War in Iraq Turns Ugly... That's what wars do, March 30, 2003 - Heading for Trouble... Do we really want to occupy Iraq for the next 30 years?, Sept. 4, 2002 ~ A prescient piece - *NEW* ~ Veterans face conundrum: Kerry or Bush?, Feb. 18, 2004 (Hat tip to Micah Holmquist) News articles on Colonel Webb: - Webb: Don't Attack Iraq - War Hero Urges Restraint, Nov. 8, 2002 - At Navy School in Monterey, voices of skepticism about Iraq war, Nov. 10, 2002 - Former Navy Secretary Blasts Bush on Iraq, Aug. 30, 2003 (Hat tip to Ara Rubyan)  Lawrence Korb Foreign policy analyst and commentator; Expert on national security and U.S. defense budget; Served as an Assistant Secretary of Defense; Former professor at the U.S. Naval War College and U.S. Coast Guard Academy - Six Steps to a Safer America, Jan. 29, 2004 - A War of Choice or of Necessity?, Dec. 7, 2003 - Council on Foreign Relations: Lawrence J. Korb - Roundtable on Homeland Security (Project directed by Dr. Korb) NEW! ~ After a Crisis, Bush is no Reagan, Dr. Lawrence Korb, Feb. 11, 2004 (via Antiwar.com) News articles on Dr. Korb: - Stemming Flow of Nuclear Weapons Technology No Easy Task, say Analysts, VOA News, Feb. 12, 2004 - Rumsfeld to bolster overtasked military, Chicago Tribune, Feb. 5, 2004 - New research group urges revamped defense spending, Reuters, Jan. 29, 2004  Ambassador Edward Peck Leading expert on Iraq and foreign policy issues; Former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, under President Carter; Former Foreign Service Officer in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt; Served as Deputy Director of President Reagan's Terrorism Task Force, and as Deputy Director of Covert Intelligence Programs, as well as Director of the Office of Egyptian Affairs, and as Special Assistant to the Under Secretary for Political Affairs (served in both Democratic & Republican administrations). - NPR Interview: Edward Peck Discusses The Possible U.S. Involvement In Iraq; Should The U.S. Launch A Pre-Emptive Strike?, Oct. 21, 2002 - CNN's Crossfire ~ Ambassador Edward Peck vs. Lt. Col. Robert McGinnis, Oct. 8, 2001: Excellent show! See transcript here or here. News articles on Ambassador Peck: - Iraq: Pandora's Box Wide Open?, KSFY, Feb. 2, 2004 - Military maneuvers into Mideast will cost U.S., former ambassador says, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, April 15, 2003 - A 'terrible, bloody' miscalculation, OC Register, Apr. 2, 2003 - Iraq -- Standard Operating Procedure?, L. Reichard White, Oct. 7, 2002 - Iraqi Phase Debate Continues, UPI, Dec. 10, 2001  Patrick J. Buchanan Conservative commentator and movement leader, popular columnist and author; Former presidential candidate; Served as White House Communications Director and senior advisor to the President (Served in the Nixon and Ford administrations as well)  News articles on Mr. Buchanan: - Conservatives' Uncivil War Over Iraq, Washington Post, Mar. 23, 2003 - Conservatives Against the War, R. Cort Kirkwood, Agape Press, Feb. 19, 2003 - Antiwar Conservatives Bash Hawks on Iraq, Pacific News Service, Feb. 12, 2003 - Conservative Fissures, Kelley Beaucar Vlahos, Fox News, Sept. 28, 2002 - Buchanan's new magazine aims to rescue 'highjacked' right, Jennifer Harper, Washington Times, Sept. 25, 2002  Angela "Bay" Buchanan Conservative leader, popular orator and campus speaker, and television commentator; President of The American Cause; Served as national treasurer for Ronald Reagan's presidential campaigns, including the Reagan-Bush campaign committee, and as the Treasurer of the United States (her signature was on our currency), and then as the Chair of the Commission on Women Business Owners  Jude Wanniski [Wanniski.com] Leading American political economist, renowned conservative leader, and supply side guru; Served as unofficial advisor to the President, and was close ally of Jack Kemp as well. Invited to Camp David in April of 1989 to advise President George Herbert Walker Bush [Mr. Wanniski is the founder of Polyconomics.]  News articles on Mr. Wanniski: - Encyclopedia entry: Jude Wanniski - Neocons vs. Supply Siders: The coming war over Iraq, Timothy Noah, Slate, Sept. 9, 2003 - Supply side hero, arguing against war with Iraq, asserts Saddam didn't commit Halabja gassing, Barron's, Sept. 3, 2002 - Myths Happen, Jack Kemp, May 1, 2000 - How Reaganomics Made the World Work - We are all supply siders now, Bob Bartley, April 21, 1989 (Note: I should have included this last article in my entry below, about the recent passing of Mr. Bartley.) Update (2/26/04): There are some who are claiming, due to the current WMD controversy, that everybody believed that Iraq had the banned weapons. But this is not true. Aside from Colonel Ritter, Mr. Wanniski also got it right about this issue.  Paul Craig Roberts Leading American economist and commentator, and nationally-syndicated columnist; Served as an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury. - Watching Propaganda Become Truth, Feb. 10, 2004 - Is Bush Doomed?, Jan. 17, 2004 - Hold the Neocons Accountable, Nov. 17, 2003 - Wisdom of the Father; Folly of the Son, Oct. 11, 2003 - Iraq: The Last Republican Hurrah, Jan. 26, 2003 - A Leap into the Dark, Nov. 15, 2002 - Iraq is not the Problem, Sept. 11, 2002 Doug Bandow Conservative columnist and Cato Insitute senior fellow; Served as Special Assistant to the President - A Half Century of Military Committment and Counting, Aug. 4, 2003 - Recasting the Constitution, Jan. 13, 2003 - National Review Debate: Doug Bandow vs. Jed Babbin on Iraq - Round I, Round II - Bring the Troops Home From Korea, CATO Institute Policy Analysis, May 7, 2003 - Doug Bandow on Pakistan on National Review Online, Jan. 8, 2003 - Don't Start the Second Gulf War, August 20, 2002 - Axis of Hubris, March 6, 2002 William A. Niskanen CATO Institute chairman, political theorist, and expert on defense, finance, and trade issues; Served as member of the Council of Economic Advisors, and then as acting chairman of the Council; Served as personal advisor to Ronald Reagan before he became President as well. - U.S. Should Refrain from Attacking Iraq, Dec. 13, 2001 - One Last Time: The Case Against a War with Iraq, Feb. 25, 2003 News articles on Mr. Niskanen: - Iraq Next U.S. Target? Lawmakers, policy analysts, debate Saddam's role in terror war, Jon Dougherty, World Net Daily, Dec. 15, 2001 - Experts Consider U.S. Attack on Iraq, Judith Latham, VOA News, March 3, 2002 - Not all Conservatives on Board with Iraq War, Ralph Z. Hallow, Washington Times, Feb. 12, 2003 Thomas Gale Moore [ www.stanford.edu/~moore ] Hoover Institution senior fellow; Competitive Enterprise Institute Board of Directors member; Served as member of the Council of Economic Advisors, and as a member, and then as acting chairman, of the President's National Critical Materials Council and, as a member of the President's National Commission on Superconductivity. - How to Reduce Terrorism, June 11, 2002 - A Humbler Foreign Policy, Feb. 18, 2003 - Learning from History, June 25, 2003  William Bradford Reynolds Conservative law expert; Served as Counselor to the Attorney General, Assistant Solicitor General, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights; Nominated to be Associate Attorney General (nomination defeated) Clyde Prestowitz Economist and foreign policy expert; Prolific book writer; Served as counselor to the Secretary of Commerce Update (5/15/04): Here are two more Reagan administration officials who I recently found out about, who opposed this war: Lt. General William Odom Director of National Security Studies at Hudson Institute; Military analyst and foreign policy expert; Former Director of National Security Agency. Interview - Odom: Bush Should Admit Iraq Is a 'Mess' And Make Plans for a U.S. Troop Pullout by Next Year PBS NewsHour - Winning and Losing: Experts Analyze Coalition Progress in Iraq War, May 10, 2004 Stand Down blog - NSA chief under Reagan speaks, Matthew Hogan, May 13, 2004 News articles on Lt. Gen. Odom: - Latest news on Lt. Gen. Odom - Former NSA Director: War Weariness Growing, Alan Bock, May 14, 2004 - Where the U.S. goes after Abu Ghraib, Christian Science Monitor, May 12, 2004 Stefan Halper Senior Fellow at Cambridge University's Centre of International Studies; Served in Nixon, Ford, and Reagan administrations; Former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State; National Policy Director of George H. W. Bush's 1980 presidential campaign; Director of Policy Coordination for Reagan-Bush 1980; Senior foreign policy advisor to Republican National Committee. Note: I think that Dr. Halper may be a supporter of the Iraq war, but recently, he has been very critical of the way that the Bush administration has managed it, and I do not know if he still believes that it was the right thing to do. Great article! - What Would Reagan Do?: Reagan's foreign policy not consistant with neoconservatism, May 9, 2004, Stefan Halper & Jonathan Clarke - Twilight of the Neocons, March 2004 News articles on Dr. Halper: - Interview: Republican insider admits Administration's diplomacy failure - Conservatives rebelling against the war (see pg. 2), The Nation, May 13, 2004 - Update: Conservative roasts Bush on war, Associated Press, July 12, 2004 Update (9/15/07): Not long after I published that entry, I became aware of even more members of the Ronald Reagan administration who opposed the war against Iraq. I am not going to go through and list all of them [there are just too many], but here are few other notable ones: Adm. William J. Crowe, U.S. Navy, Ret. Appointed by President Reagan to be Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1985 [thereby becoming the first person in history to serve in that capacity as the senior ranking member of the U.S. Armed Forces], and served in same position in the George Herbert Walker Bush administration, until his retirement from the U.S. Navy in 1989. Also appointed by President Reagan to serve on the Board of Governors for the American Red Cross. Amb. Arthur Hartman, U.S. Air Force, Ret. Appointed by President Reagan to be U.S. Ambassador to the U.S.S.R. in 1981, and served in that position again, in the second term, until he retired from public service in 1987 (after nearly 40 years of diplomatic service to the United States government). Amb. Jack F. Matlock, Jr. After Ambassador Art Hartman's retirement (as noted above), President Reagan appointed Jack Matlock, Jr. to serve as U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union. Ambassador Matlock had been serving in the Reagan administration since its beginning, first as U.S. Ambassador to Czeckoslovakia and a member of the National Security Council, and was then appointed Special Assistance to the President for National Security Affairs. Amb. William C. Harrop After having served as U.S. Ambassador to Kenya, William Caldwell Harrop was appointed by President Reagan in 1983 to serve as Inspector General of the Department of State and the Foreign Service, a position in which he served until 1986, when he rose to the position of Program Inspector General of that Department. Also appointed in 1987 to be U.S. Ambassador to Zaire. President Reagan's successor, President George Herbert Walker Bush, appointed William Harrop to serve as U.S. Ambassador to Israel. Amb. H. Allen Holmes, USMC, Capt., Ret. Retired U.S. Marine Corps Captain and career diplomat Henry Allen Holmes served as U.S. Ambassador to Portugal from 1982 to 1985, when he was appointed by President Reagan to be Assistant Secretary of State for Politico-Military Affairs. Also appointed to serve as the first Director of President Reagan's United States Nuclear Risk Reduction Center. "Not So Fast?" Ben Domenech, who used to work in one of the departments in the Bush administration, says that "the paleocons and antiwar folks" in the Blogosphere are now claiming that "every silly caricature" that they drew of the Bush administration before and during the Iraq war was accurate, due to the revelations surrounding David Kay's testimony regarding the weapons of mass destruction issue. By the way, I have pointed out before that much of the opposition to this war has come from the Right (and not just "the paleocons") and from the military community, and current and retired U.S. military leaders. In the Blogosphere, several of the bloggers who are expressing frustration and dismay over the troubling reality regarding the WMD issue have been non-liberals and non-paleocons, including some who supported the Iraq war. But aside from that issue, this entry of Ben's is claiming that the war was still justified, even though it should have had a lower priority than it did. At least Ben is now focusing completely on the national security aspect of justifying this war, unlike before. Check out the discussion in the comments section at that entry. The first commenter writes that "the media and the Bush-haters" have been "acting like WMDs were the only reason for the war." But some research on the web would show that even supporters of the Iraq war have acknowledged that the Bush administration made clear that this was a conditional war, a war that would not be necessary if the Iraqi regime complied with U.S. and U.N. demands that it disarm. The leading conservative collegiate blogger Josh Claybourn, a supporter of the Iraq war, has done many entries on this matter. Here is a comment post of mine, which I wrote in response to an entry at another blog, which provides resources that show that President Bush, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, and Secretary of State Powell all made clear, in the months prior to the commencement of the war, that the war could be averted if Iraq were to comply with our disarmament demands. After some of his commenters at that entry thread criticize his position, Ben posts comments in response. (I just noticed that his first comment at his entry does, unfortunately, revert to a certain type of argument that I've gotten so immensely angry and frustrated about seeing made recently [even by people claiming to be conservatives] to retrospectively justify the war. Fortunately, as you can see here, many war supporters have acknowledged that that type of left-wing, statist, Jesse Jackson-type logic is illegitimate, and a poll taken three months after the major combat was declared over revealed that only about 10% of Americans subscribe to it.) A commenter at that entry of Ben's points out that the Iraq war did not correspond to our nation's self-defense, and that the threat from Iraq was not imminent. That commenter also correctly points out that Ben has created a false dichotomy between liberal interventionism and complete isolationism... This, by the way, is the typical tactic used by statists and neoliberals to justify state action, government expansion, and liberal spending - Bill Clinton did this same thing (the Clintonistas and the neoconservatives both did this during his administration), and Al Gore tried to do it against George W. Bush in the 2000 elections. Ironically, Ben seems to be advocating preemptive warfare in cases in which threats are not clearly imminent, and then, in another comment in that thread, links to an item about how John Kerry plans to "return" to Clinton's terrorism policies. That NewMax.com piece is about a specific aspect of the Clinton's terrorism policy (his emphasis on treating terrorist acts as law enforcement problems rather than acts of war). But that article that Ben links to, with the purpose of comparing that Clintonian position to the position of his critical commenter, is not directly relevant to this debate. It is ironic however, that Ben seems to be advocating warfare in cases in which threats are not immediate, and then brings up the issue of "returning" to Clinton's policies. I did a lengthy blog entry, some posts below (permalink here) about liberals and the doctrine of pre-emptive war. If you follow some of the links within that entry, you can see that even some supporters of the Iraq war (both conservative and liberal) have pointed out that support for pre-emptive war is a liberal, Democratic policy. If you haven't already done so, please look through that entry at: http://uis.blogspot.com/#107455604648659084 Especially check out the links provided within it, with respect to the issue of pre-emptive war. I will be updating that entry with some additional background material about this topic. Wednesday, February 04, 2004
Jury Duty I will be in court today. It won't be an actual, legally-binding trial, though - This afternoon, I will be participating in a mock trial, for my class on "The Law of Military Conflict." The case that will be tried today is the Malmedy case, which deals with crimes that occurred during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II. Examinations Studying the events of the past - such as those pertaining to military conflict and warfare, and the controversies that arise from these occurrences - this is a major academic matter. There are methods of examination of these cases, and different aspects of the case that must be studied and delineated. When attempting to ascertain the truth about any incident, there are going to be some difficulties. Oftentimes, there are conflicting accounts about what happened, and eyewitness testimony can be tricky to deal with, as anyone familiar with criminal law should know. When dealing with a wartime situation, things can also be very difficult to determine, and to prove. In the fog of war, there are going to be conflicting accounts about what happened, and who did what, and how many people were affected by this, or by that... and things like that. I am not saying that the Malmedy case was like this (I do not know much about this case), but from what we learned in class, there are some uncertainties about the specific aspects of this case. I have the role as serving on the panel hearing the case. After both sides present their case today, we will have until Monday to reach a verdict. I am glad that the case chosen for our mock trial in this class is one that I did not already have previous knowledge and information about. I did not know anything about the Malmedy affair before this class... Yesterday, though, I did a little research on the internet. (We are allowed to do that as jurors... While it could create a bias, our professor also said that it could be realistic, since in a trial such as this, the jurors probably knew something about the case before the trial.) Case Studies One thing that I have been thinking of doing on this blog, is to compose entries with case studies of different controversial events that have occurred in world history - especially events that happened during wartime, and for which there are multiple theories about what actually occurred. Controversies like this arise out of occurrence in most major wars, and some of them are very controversial, because they are later used to justify additional military actions, as preventative or retaliatory actions due to what is believed to have occurred. This is a phenomenon that has been occurring, probably since the beginning of warfare in world history... And studying these matters, and examining the different theories and points of view, is essential to being able to determine the truth about what occurred. In many of these cases, there are several possible theories, and experts are going to disagree as to the facts of the case. Nevertheless, performing case examinations of these occurrences is a good learning experience, and it can be insightful, and can help us better understand the complex issues of history, geography, anthropology, and political science. By learning as much as possible about particular subjects, we are able to form well-substantiated positions and viewpoints about these matters, and about the issues and parties involved. A well-informed public is essential to a successful society and polity, and can help us to better understand what is going on in the present time period in which we live. Tuesday, February 03, 2004
Super Tuesday Check out Command Post for the latest... --------- Note: I had to remove the image that was previously here, due to the fact that my blog's front page is so large in size. The image source, and the page to which it was linked, are below. image for this entry link to candidate site (Endorsement not necessarily implied) |
