Morning Report: April 19, 2005

Analysis of Mada'en "crisis". The Fadhil brothers weigh in on the apparently fabricated hostage crisis in Mada'en, Iraq, in which a number of Shi'ite hostages were allegedly captured and threatened by Sunni insurgents. Mohammed at Iraq the Model writes: 'The American government denied the story but a She'at figure stressed that the American government is intervening to stop certain She'at parties from controlling the security systems for reasons he considered unconvincing. That's why the crisis was fabricated in Mada'en and that's why it got mentioned by prominent Assembly members and the PM and other senior politicians even before they had certain news about the situation. I think the motive was to put pressure on America and other members form the Iraqia list and the Kurdish alliance by submitting a new security formula that rescues the Shea't from an imminent genocide on the hands of the extremist Sunnis so they demand a greater active control over the security systems to confront the challenges threatening the She'at leaders and people. It's true that She'at were threatened many times and sustained many atrocities but so did the other segments of the people here and faking such crisis is not in the interest of the country; especially after we've seen many signs of unity among all Iraqis against terrorism. Someone comes now and ruins this by faking sectarian troubles ignoring everything about the higher national interest and the critical nature of the moment. ...' Ali at Free Iraqi notes that Muqtada al-Sadr and certain ex-Ba'athist elements were quick to contradict the Iraqi government's (erroneous) early reports - a risk to their own credibility they would have been unlikely to take unless they had inside information on the manufactured "crisis". Ali concludes that 'it must be done by those who want a civil war to occur; Iranians, Syrians and their agents in Iraq, the Sadrists and the "Association of Sunni scholars". The confident tone in which the latter two parties denied the incident supports such conclusion ...' Read the full articles at the links. (ITM, Free Iraqi)

Morning Report: April 18, 2005

SMCCDI needs your help. The Iranian activist organization "Student Movement Coordination Committee
for Democracy in Iran" (SMCCDI) is facing a budget shortfall which has forced them to take their website offline. 'The SMCCDI website gets 45,000 to 65,000 visits each day with [peaks] of 183,000 hits on key dates such as July 9th (anniversary of Students' Uprising of 1999). SMCCDI also sends its Reports, Statements and Urgent Calls to Action via its well developed mailing lists (peyk@daneshjoo.org or list@daneshjoo.org) with several thousands of subscribers.' Visit this post at Regime Change Iran to find out what you can do. (SMCCDI via RCI)

Scandal threatens Canada's ruling Liberal Party. Newsmax reports that Canadian public outrage over a scandal involving Prime Minister Paul Martin's Liberal Party may result in a gain for the Conservative party. 'Martin reiterated that he had nothing to do with the ethics fiasco, in which Liberal Party members are accused of having taken kickbacks from advertising agencies hired to promote federalism in the rebellious French-speaking province of Quebec. ... The scandal, based on a secret program that dates back to the 1990s and the Liberal Party leadership of former Prime Minister Jean Chretien, erupted anew last Thursday when a judge probing the alleged misuse of public funds lifted a publication ban on testimony by a Montreal ad executive. The executive, Jean Brault, who faces fraud charges stemming from the now-defunct program, told the federal inquiry that senior Liberals forced him to secretly divert more than $818,000 to the party's Quebec wing in exchange for sponsorship contracts. During his six days of testimony, Brault spoke of hushed-up payments to Liberals in restaurants, money being given to a brother of Chretien, and reluctant contributions strong-armed out of employees.' While the domestic dispute does not directly affect Canada's foreign policy, a poster at Free Iran wonders whether this will translate into a more aggressive policy toward the Iranian regime, which is known to have been responsible for the brutal killing of Canadian journalist Zahra Kazemi. (Newsmax, Free Iran)

And Don't You Forget It

The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler has some choice words for the peace movement:

Not in your name, though, and you're fooling yourselves if you think that we're ever going to let you run away from that. We'll be there to remind you, every last step of the way.

A country was liberated from the claws of a sadistic dictator and his psychotic sons - BUT IT WAS NOT IN YOUR NAME.

That country recently held democratic elections and now have, for the first time, a government that they themselves have chosen - BUT IT WAS NOT IN YOUR NAME.

The psychopath responsible for at least the 300,000 victims mentioned in the above has been brought to justice and will murder no more - BUT IT WAS NOT IN YOUR NAME.

The Kurds will no longer have to fear seeing helicopter gunships spreading poison gas over their villages, as a matter of fact one of their own was just elected President - BUT IT WAS NOT IN YOUR NAME.

Iraqi schoolgirls will no longer have to fear being picked up, abducted, raped and fed to dogs by Uday and Qusay - BUT IT WAS NOT IN YOUR NAME.

Plastic shredders in Iraq will no longer be used for anything other than shredding plastic - BUT IT WAS NOT IN YOUR NAME.

And we could go on, as we shall if any of those terror-supporting "peace" freaks ever presume to claw their way to the foothills of the moral high ground.

NOT IN YOUR NAME!

Now That's Class

"A tendency toward vanity, self-absorption and callousness"? You don't say?

I was on assignment in Nicaragua, far from my base in Washington DC. I watched the attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon on a flickering TV. And then I called my wife back home. She was tearful and distraught. Our kids had been rushed out of school in an emergency drill. It felt, she said, like war had broken out.

"God this is awful," I said with feeling. "I know," she replied, "there may be thousands dead".

"I don't mean that", I snapped. "I'm talking about me. I'm missing the biggest story of my life."

- BBC foreign correspondent Stephen Sackur in his farewell broadcast, via Wizbang. (In all fairness, he does admit to this "shameful sentiment.")

Terri Schiavo resources ... and a few final comments.

I'm posting a list of links that have helped me to better understand the Terri Schiavo case. I do not have the time, space, or energy to post a full-length analysis of the case as I see it; and I don't expect to post regularly on it after today. (I will post, however, if something new comes up. So if you're tired of reading about it, don't get your hopes up.)

If you have a constructive, intelligent point to add, whether you agree or disagree with me, you are welcome to do so. If you wish to post a link, please provide some context. Certain readers have taken a page from the Iraqi blog trolls and started pasting "here-look-at-this" links in my comments section. Don't waste your time and mine. If you want to advertise your inability to form your own arguments (or even your own sentences), that's your business. But don't fancy that you have the one bit of information that's suddenly going to change my mind, especially if you're too lazy to explain why you think it's credible and why I (or anyone else) should give a damn.

No two people think alike, and you and I may not assign the same level of credibility to this or that piece of information. You may find one argument more persuasive, and another less so, than I do. That's human nature. It's called having a conversation, and it's what blogging is all about. Please keep this in mind when commenting.

I've come to believe that the Terri Schiavo case represents questions we should all be concerned about: What is the value of human life? Does our society do enough to safeguard the lives of the sick, the elderly, and the vulnerable? Who decides when a life is worth saving? I don't expect that there will be any easy or conclusive answers to these questions, which is why I will continue to address them regularly in this blog in the future.

And now for the Terri links:

Blogs for Terri - Homebase for activists. Now carrying updates on other endangered lives, like Mae Magouirk and Clara Martinez.

Liberals for Terri - "But I'm not gonna go along with a bunch of right-wingers!!!" Oh, please. Haven't we heard that before? After you read the intro, go to their current posts.

In Love With Death - Peggy Noonan's column about the pro-death people. If the link has expired, you can find it here.

Deroy Murdock: Not Just the God Squad and Deroy Murdock: Schiavo's Struggle.

CNS News: "Some Kind of Trauma" - New York forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden on Terri's injuries (2003)

Straight Up With Sherri - Sherri Reese was a tireless activist in this case. Her February and March archives have lots of information.

Kesher Talk - Judith Weiss has been on the Terri case too; this recent post on The Right to Eat connects to the others.

The Redhunter - Tom is a regular reader and commenter here. He wants to know: Are human beings Disposable When Broken?

Keep watching this entry for updates and additions.

Redhunter on Living Wills

I used to think that the purpose of the "Living Will" was to create a class of people who, having expressly made their wishes against certain forms of life support known, would be allowed to live or die according to the dictates set down in these documents; and that, conversely, the rest of us might reasonably be presumed to want to live. Now that that bit of happy folly has been demolished, we might wonder exactly what a living will is for.

The Redhunter wonders, too:

If you think a living will will take care of you in a Terri Schaivo-type situation think again:

For decades, we have deluded ourselves into believing that living wills would solve our caregiving problems; that healthy individuals could provide advance instructions for what to do if they became incompetent; that such a system would ensure that no one is mistreated and that everyone defines the meaning of life for himself until the very end. But it is now clear that living wills have failed, both practically and morally.

Tom recalls an earlier post in which he argued that "Studies by University of Michigan Professor Carl Schneider and others have shown that living wills rarely make any difference. People with them are likely to get exactly the same treatment as people without them, possibly because doctors and family members ignore the wills. And ignoring them is often the right thing to do ..."
RTWT.

Media's Double Standard on Lethal Injections

Hyscience delivers this account from A Mom and her Blog:

The Death with Dignity Act would allow Vermonters with six months to live to take a lethal dose of prescribed medications. There must be two physicians who sign off on the illness as terminal, and the patient must voluntarily make a written request for the medication.

"It scares me to think I might have taken that option," said Maureen Kelly, who is opposed to the legislation. Twenty years ago, Kelly suffered severe brain damage in a car accident that left in her in the hospital for three years -- including nine months in a coma. While she may have considered using lethal medication, she's glad she did not. ...

Read the whole thing at the link(s). And ponder this observation from Hyscience:

It is ironic that at the same time the Daily Telegraph and other media outlets are reporting that execution by lethal injection is "cruel".

Allegations of Husband's Intimidation

Allegations of intimidation by Michael Schiavo ignored.

The judge presiding over the life of Terri Schiavo has ignored potentially explosive claims detailing what those making them believe is a pattern of unusual and allegedly perhaps even violent behavior by her husband, behavior they fear may have factored into the demise of the Florida woman to begin with.

The allegations are just that: assertions by a number of people who are on the opposite side of the debate over the fate of Michael Schiavo's wife -- who has languished in a severely disabled but hardly vegetative state since February 25, 1990, when she was found in a collapsed state between a hall and bathroom during the early morning hours. As allegations, they should be held with a degree of circumspection that provides a presumption of innocence until more evidence is brought to the table.

Moreover, it must be remembered at each turn that there is a bitter dispute at the heart of the issue.

But they are serious allegations, and it was apparently these assertions that caused the state's Department of Children and Families to ask for a 60-day delay in the March 18 date for removal of Terri's feeding and hydrations tubes, saying it wanted time to investigate allegations of "abuse" and "neglect" against Michael, who has since taken up with another woman with whom he has two children.

The judge, George W. Greer of the Sixth Circuit in Pinellas County, has denied that request for a delay, as he has denied virtually all substantive motions by her parents, the Schindlers -- who are desperately fighting to keep their daughter alive and who have now called for the judge's impeachment on the grounds of partiality. ...

Read the whole thing. Source: Spirit Daily via Blogs for Terri. See also Liberals for Terri.

A Few More Thoughts on Terri Schiavo

Terri Schiavo is dead but the questions surrounding her killing remain. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that, more than any other news event since 9/11 (and perhaps even more than that), this has caused me to re-examine some of my basic assumptions. As I've said here before, I am not a pro-life absolutist; at least, not yet. I believe in the importance quality of human life, not just the fact of its existence.

But even as I write these words, something in me grows uneasy with this facile formulation. Who decides what is a desirable "quality" of life? How do these decisions get made, and for whom? We can all agree that a patient writhing in pain on a hospital bed, with no hope of relief from their pain and a certainty of imminent death, does not have a good quality of life. Perhaps one could even reasonably argue that a patient, having explicitly enunciated his or her wishes, might be allowed an early death - either passively (through the withdrawal of artificial life support) or even actively (through a lethal dose of painkiller).

But none of this applies to Terri Schiavo. She was not in discomfort - at least, not until she was sentenced to a slow death by the Florida courts. She had not left a living will. She was killed solely as a result of the determination of her so-called "husband", over the agonized objections of her blood relatives. If there was any doubt in my mind as to the reality of the "slippery slope" principle, this atrocity has removed all trace of it.

This is not a hate crime.

Racially motivated crimes against whites are not conidered "hate crimes" in New York. As many as 30 young people beat up four girls, calling them "white crackers", yet somehow it wasn't a hate crime:

Invoking the name “Martin Luther King” and screaming “Black Power!” a gang of up to 30 black teens attacked four white girls in Marine Park in what police are saying is not a bias crime.

The March 30 attack was a hot topic at state Senator Marty Golden’s recent public safety forum.

According to witnesses and parents of the victims, four young girls from St. Edmund’s had the day off from school due to Easter recess. They were playing basketball during dismissal from nearby Marine Park Junior High School, when several Marine Park students demanded to use the court.

After adults intervened and asked them to wait their turn, the teens left - but returned in a pack of up to 30, both boys and girls, and stormed into the park.

Witnesses say the attackers were all black and called their victims “white crackers” during the bloody melee, which raged for almost 20 minutes.

“This is not being looked at as a bias crime,” NYPD Deputy Inspector Kevin McGinn said at the meeting.

Read the rest at the link. Hat tip: LaShawn Barber.

Morning Report: April 17, 2005

Three held in plot to kill Shas leader. Three Israeli Arabs have been arrested on charges of conspiring to assassinate Ovadia Yosef, the spiritual leader of Israel's religious Shas Party and former Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel. Arutz Sheva: 'It was released for publication that the General Security Service (GSS) arrested three Israeli Arabs on suspicion that they were planning to assassinate former Sephardic Chief Rabbi and spiritual leader of the Shas party Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. The three, residents of northern Jerusalem, are members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror group. It is suspected that aside from the plan to murder the rabbi, they were planning other terror attacks in the capital as well.' Debka: 'Shin Beit is holding three PFLP members from E. Jerusalem in plot to murder ultra-religious Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. Two still under questioning. Same terror group assassinated Israeli tourism minister Zeevi three years ago.' Jerusalem Post: 'Members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, who established a cell in northern Jerusalem and planned to assassinate Shas mentor Rabbi Ovadia Yosef while leaving his Jerusalem home, as well as other attacks in the capital, were recently arrested by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and Israel Police. In January cell members studied the route leading to and from Yosef's home, the security arrangements and monitored his movements. Their arrests prevented them from carrying out the attacks. Details released by the Shin Bet on Sunday revealed that the cell members are all residents of neighborhoods in northern Jerusalem, received funds and instructions from a senior PFLP member in Jerusalem and maintained close contacts with PFLP members incarcerated in Jericho for their involvement in the assassination of former government minister Rehavam Ze'evi. The identities of three of the members revealed by security officials are Salah Hassan Hamori, 20; of Dahiat Al Barid in north Jerusalem is the holder of a Jerusalem identity card and French citizenship. Hamori was incarcerated in the past for PFLP activities. Matsem Dieb Sheikh, 25, of Anata and Mussa Darwish, 22, also the holder of a Jerusalem identity card lived in Issawiyah. ... ' Further details in Jerusalem Post article at the link. (A7, Debka, JPost)

State hiring Iran freedom activists? Regime Change Iran reports that the US Department of State is soliciting applications for grants to promote human rights and democratization initiatives in Iran. The State Department website announces: 'The Office for the Promotion of Human Rights and Democracy of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL/PHD) announces an open competition for assistance awards. DRL seeks to provide grants to educational institutions, humanitarian groups, nongovernmental organizations, and individuals inside Iran to support the advancement of democracy and human rights. Due to current sanctions on Iran, United States Government funds may not be used for activities involving the Government of Iran. Organizations may submit grant proposals that focus on promotion of democracy and human rights in Iran. While this RFP does not solicit proposals targeting concerns in other countries, DRL will consider proposals that include other countries when 1) for security or other reasons it is necessary to invite Iranians to neighboring countries, or 2) exposure of Iranians to individuals or groups in other countries is of direct benefit to Iranians. In this later regard, while DRL prefers new program ideas, the Bureau would consider ideas to expand current successful human rights and democracy programs to include Iranians.' (State Dept. via RCI)

Ethnic Arabs clash with Iranian security forces in Ahwaz, Iran. From Iran Focus, via Free Iran: 'Tehran, Apr. 16 - Anti-government protests erupted yesterday through the night in the city of Ahwaz, southwest Khuzestan province in Iran, leaving at least six people dead and hundreds injured or arrested. Ahwaz, close to the Iraqi border, is a major hub of Iranian ethnic minority groups, and its largely Arab population has faced brutal repression undere clerical rule. Fierce fighting occurred when Iran’s State Security Forces were dispatched to quell angry residents who were complaining of government plans to redefine the ethnic make-up of the province. Some 3,000 residents gathered in Kurdvani Square on Friday morning and thousands more in Sheling-Abad, Malashiya, Ameri, and Kut Abdollah districts of the city of Ahwaz, demanding the authorities stop what they called “ethnic cleansing”.' (Iran Focus via Free Iran)

The Shul I Don't Go To

There's an old joke about a Jew who's shipwrecked on a desert island. Finally he's rescued, and they find he's built not just one but two synagogues on the island. They ask him why. "One is the shul I pray in," he says, "and the other is the one I never step foot in!"

There's a liberal synagogue just a few blocks from where I live, which I'll call, arbitrarily, Beth Emeth. The atmosphere is nice, the people are friendly, the services are pleasant. But it's not right for me.

Why? Lots of reasons. I guess part of the problem is liberal Judaism itself. (By "liberal Judaism" I mean the Reform, Conservative, and Reconstructionist movements collectively, as opposed to Orthodox Judaism.) In many ways my issues with liberal Judaism mirror my difficulties with American liberalism generally: it's become smug and self-satisfied, it has reduced the spirit of true inquiry and idealism to a set of political dogmas, and it has embraced reform for its own sake - to the point where the reforms themselves take on more importance than that which is being reformed.

Beth Emeth is in many ways a typical liberal Jewish synagogue. There's a lot of emphasis on social action - which is all to the good - but not much real dialog about important issues. As you've probably already guessed, I was the lone voice of dissent when the rest of the congregation were voicing their anti-war and anti-Bush sentiments. That by itself wasn't the problem - I mean, I could live with it. What bothered me was the realization that religious issues - even basic things like the divinity of the Torah - were open to debate, while political issues were not. The Torah was less sacred than liberal doctine.

(Were there other people who agreed with me? Well, sort of. Occasionally someone would come up to me after services and tell me privately that he agreed with me, or knew someone else who did. But no one else wanted to say so in public.)

The rabbi, whom I'll call Rabbi X, is nothing if not a scholar. And he won't let you forget it. It's hard to catch him on a Shabbat when he won't begin his talk by mentioning the famous philosophers he's read or the famous rabbis he's schmoozed with. He doesn't take kindly to being challenged; in the first part of 2003, I had an e-mail discussion with him about Iraq, which went smoothly until it became clear that my opinions weren't exactly the same as his. Then - suddenly - the conversation ended. His messages became terse and abrupt, and he soon stopped answering my e-mails altogether. Rabbi X had, in fact, originally leaned towards supporting the war, but then reversed himself; in fact, he gave a talk on the High Holy Days in which he publicly did "teshuvah" (repentance) for having supported the war in Iraq.

Liberal intellectuals like Rabbi X are very fond of speaking grandly about "dialog" and "competing narratives" and (my favorite) "the encounter with the Other". And who is the Other? There's the beauty of it - the Other is whoever you want him to be. For Rabbi X, as for so many Jewish intellectuals, Palestinians are the quinetessential Other. But Iraqis are not the Other; and American conservatives are most definitely, emphatically, not the Other. Why? Because when you designate someone as "the Other", you are obligating yourself to enter into a dialog with them. And many, many so-called "liberals" are afraid of that dialog.

I could tell you a lot more stories about Rabbi X, but I think you get the idea. I am not writing this post to single out a particular congregation or a particular Rabbi. The problem is not with this or that rabbi, or this or that congregation; it's with liberalism generally. It's with a political and cultural movement that has barricaded itself in ideology and has closed itself off from any ideas it finds challenging.

The problem, in short, is that American liberalism has isolated itself - to such a degree that liberals might as well be living on a desert island.