Best blog comment from an anti-war lefty on the deplorable Kerry is at Lenin’s Tomb. “Kerry is the neocon dream. Pro-war, pro-Israel, pro-Plan Colombia. And also, not to miss the finer points, loaded.” Lenin points out that not only is Kerry a hawk on Iraq, but he may well be a worse Drug Warrior than Bush.
Tim Dunlop comments on Powell’s condescending nanny-lecture to the Hungarians (excerpt):
The nice thing about the Bush administration is that just because you’re an ally and helped them out on occasion that doesn’t mean that they’re going to play nice with you. Colin Powell is in Europe at the moment and is heavying one of the key members of the “new ” bit, his good friends in Hungary:
Secretary of State Colin Powell said Tuesday that countries assisting post-war Iraq must “not get weak in the knees” and yield to guerrillas waging a campaign of hostage-taking and bombing against the interim government installed by the American-led coalition.
“Democracy is hard,” Powell said at a gathering of Hungarian ambassadors in Budapest on the first stop on a six-nation tour of Europe and the Middle East. “Democracy is dangerous. This is the time for us to be steadfast, not get weak in the knees and say, ‘Oh, gosh, this may be too hard; let’s leave these poor people alone so the tyrants can return.’ We’re not going to do that.”
At another point, he said, “We must not allow insurgents, those who will use bombs and kidnapping and beheading, to triumph.”
You see, when you want international cooperation, it’s always a good idea to suggest that you’re allies are either directly or indirectly on the side of terrorists, that they are a bit soft and are scaredy pants. People love being lectured about their lack of moral fibre by moral giants like Colin Powell and other representatives of the Bush administration.
TalkLeft, blogging from the Dem convention, has pictures of the riot police sent out when protesters actually protested in the Protest Pen. Apparently a few escaped the Pen and actually protested in the street, where they could be seen! The horror!
RT at The Decadent West actually manages to eke some entertainment out of the Dem convention by sending Jim “Tron Dork” Maynard as DW’s correspondent.
The Poorman on Night Of 1,000 Hacks:
Wouldn’t it be funny if someone told a few thousand journalists and pundits and all-purpose blowhards that there was this really interesting event going on and that they just had to go and cover it because it was going to be just the most interesting thing ever? And then it was just this enormous, week-long Guthy-Renker seminar? Good one, DNC!
Swopa has a good post up on the death of Zaydun Hassoun at the hands of American soldiers. Zaydun was the Iraqi who was pushed off the Tharthar dam into the icy Tigris river last January and drowned. The defense lawyers at the court martial are now claiming that there is no evidence that Zaydun drowned even though the family is offering to exhume Zaydun’s body. From the AP story:
An uncle, Nizar Fadhel al-Samarrai, told the AP that Army investigators never showed up to confirm the death of his nephew, though the family was prepared to exhume the body to prove it.
Army investigator Sgt. Irene Cintron testified that it was too dangerous to exhume the body, and she relied on the word of family members and members of the Iraqi Civil Defense Force.
That should tell you all you need to know about how well the occupation is going in Samarra.
Antiwar Libertarianism: Principled or Pragmatic? Don’t miss Roderick Long’s reply to Volokh liberventionist Randy Barnett. Long concludes by saying he speaks only for himself, not other antiwar libertarians, but he’s welcome to speak for me on this subject. Interestingly, liberal blogger Mark Kleiman nails the flaw in Barnett’s post also, and issues a challenge, “But presumably Barnett has convinced himself that it’s possible to wage war without violating rights, and I’d really like to know how that miracle is supposed to be performed. I’d hate to imagine that Libertarians don’t mind violating rights as long as the people whose rights are violated don’t look like them.” which Barnett fails to answer.
Stephan Kinsella says Kerry is going to win.