Mark A. Kilmer (the weblog)

He can afford to think along those lines. Herseth has run for that seat before, while Diedrich was unknown Statewide. This race is getting his name active in the State’s political mind, in preparation for the rematch in November for a full term.

However any moves would most likely come to nothing as the United States would oppose the move and could even block European nations which sell arms to China from having access to US military technology.

France is looking for potential allies to assist them in forming a global “counterweight” to the United States, and this may behind the French drive to sell weapons to the People’s Republic.

It is possible that Tony Blair is attempting to repair relations with France and Germany so as to assist him when he calls for an election. It is doubtful that Britain truly wants to help arm Beijing. Or maybe he is following the old Clinton example. If you’ll remember, President Clinton signed a waiver allowing the sale of proscribed satellite technology to the PRC in 1998.

Badnarik (pronounced bad-NOR-ik) was considered by many Libertarians to be trailing the two other leading candidates when the convention got under way Friday at the Marriott Marquis downtown. He faced Cleveland radio show host Gary Nolan and Hollywood producer Aaron Russo, rivals with more money and experience in front of microphones.

Suspense, unlike what will happen in Boston and in New York.

Also unlike what will happen in New York and in Boston, the delegate did not select a candidate who might be our next President. He knows it, the Party knows it, and so does everyone else.

That is not what this is about. Members of the Libertarian Party, those with whom I speak, are disgusted with the government and with both major parties which dominate. At their level of benevolent ideological extremism, there barely a white of discernable difference between the Republicans and the Democrats. They are not stealing significant votes from Republican President Bush because: a, most Libertarian voters would not vote for the President in any case, and b, their candidate does not receive significant votes.

I conjure angry reactions when I note that I think that they are tilting at windmills, but that is honestly what I see happening. There is nothing wrong with it, and somebody has to go after those windmills.

I shan’t make a cute comment, as it would be lame.

We will never be like Saudi Arabia. They are a hereditary dictatorship with a fuel economy, a welfare state in which people even distantly related to the House of Saud collect government checks while foreigners come in to be treated like non-entities while doing all the work.

The foundation of Saudi Arabia was a partnership between the House of Saud and Mohammed bin Abdul Wahhab, the founder of Wahhabism. The two are inextricably linked, so when a politician discusses separating the two, he is… well, confused.

For Memorial Day, Bob Dole will be on Fox News Sunday (FNS), NBC’s Meet the Press (MTP), and CNN’s Late Edition (LE). George McGovern will join him on FNS, with Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Dick Lugar (R-Indiana) opening the show. It will be interesting to see if Lugar goes off on the Administraiton for not consulting him frequently enough. He’s made those noises in the past.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-California) is up first on MTP, and I have to question Russert’s judgment on this one. He has to know that she’ll be entirely venal with nothing of merit to say.

California Representatives Chris Cox (R) and Jane Harmon (D) will be Steph’s guests on ABC’s This Week (TW), which could make for a good segment. Iraqi Governing Council member Adnan Pachachi; General Anthony Zinnii; and Richard N. Perle will also be guests, Perle no doubt to defend Ahmed Chalabi.

CBS’s Face the Nation has the makings of a rout, with former National Security Advisor Lawrence Eagleburger facing off against former Clinton National Security Advisor Sandy Berger. Berger’s out of his league.

On LE, host Blitzer will talk to reserve General Jane Karpinski, the woman who ran Abu Ghraib but swears she knew nothing, saw nothing, and was responsible for nothing. Dole will be on, of course, as will Zinni; and Harman will sit with Representative David Dreier (R-California). Both TW and LE have a California thing going. I’d mention also MTP, but Pelosi’s doubtless doing something different.

“We are working together, and we will take all necessary actions to protect the American people, including raising the threat level or alerting the public to be on the lookout for possible terrorist suspects, whenever warranted by the information we receive,” the statement by Ridge and Ashcroft said.

This is after some in certain circles fumed because Ashcroft had signaled a heightened threat of terror without involving Ridge. (I discuss this earlier.)

Are we looking for a government within a government here? I’m hearing music from another time.

It’s starting again. France will arrogantly dither this way perhaps with Russia. The PRC is so far providing a new dynamic of actually become vocally involved. One had hoped they would abstain.

If this resolution is blocked and nothing passes, the coalition is still going to turn over the reigns of power to the Iraqi interim government on June 30. The problem will be, with no UNSC resolution, the US will again be go-it-alone, arrogant, etc. It would be the same dynamic as we saw last year.

So the name of the game is not alienating those voters who are losing trust in the president but who are still finding it hard to entrust the country’s security in the hands of a Democrat.

He misses the difference, albeit it is not blatant, that I called the Kerry Doctrine below.

I had been considering that I’d had a pretty good day of blogging, too…

“Raising his voice to a yell, he drew early applause by angrily denouncing the administration. … President Bush ‘has exposed Americans abroad and Americans in every town and city to a greater danger of attacks by terrorists because of his arrogance, willfulness, and bungling at stirring up hornets nests that pose no threat whatsoever to us,’ Gore said.”

And here is Al Gore on Larry King Live, December 16, 1988:

“We need national resolve and unity, not weakness and division when we’re involved engaged in an action against someone like Saddam Hussein, who is trying to get weapons of mass destruction and threaten his neighbors. … [I]f you allow someone like Saddam Hussein to get nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles, chemical weapons, biological weapons, how many people is he going to kill with such weapons? He’s already demonstrated a willingness to use these weapons; he poison gassed his own people. He used poison gas and other weapons of mass destruction against his neighbors. This man has no compunctions about killing lots and lots of people. So this is a way to save lives and to save the stability and peace of a region of the world that is important to the peace and security of the entire world.”

“The President laid out general principles tonight, most of which we’ve heard before. What’s most important now is to turn these words into action by offering presidential leadership to the nation and to the world. That’s going to require the President to genuinely reach out to our allies so the United States doesn’t have to continue to go it alone and to create the stability necessary to allow the people of Iraq to move forward. That’s what our troops deserve, and that’s what our country and the world need at this moment.”

A popular theme in the press today was that the President did not explain how he was changing the direction of our policy in Iraq, with the assumption being that “the Bush policy has failed.” Candidate JF did not go even that far.

He admonished the President to do what he said he was going to do (Step #4): reach out to our allies.

His statement was a mistake for his campaign, but that doesn’t matter. He has until election day to nuance it and change his mind.

Very little is spoken of this in the media, relative to its import. Remember when al Sadr was the big, bad problem who was throwing plans off kilter, who was living proof that the “Bush strategy” didn’t work.

The US Army handled this one perfectly. Put it in the playbook and let the recruits learn from what happened.

‘’We want to do something visible so they can see that things are changing,'’ said Lt. Col. John Kem, the commander of the 16th Engineer Battalion, 1st Armored Division. Kem said that their intention is to pump some money into the local economy by providing work on the repairs and the reconstruction projects, worth some $400,000. The plan is to get local contractors who would start working on rebuilding schools, water pumps, hospitals and sewer systems in this city of 600,000 inhabitants.

Progress. And the best the opposition has is that this is a pipe-dream, it will never work? The Iraqis want it to work, the American forces want it to work, the Bush Administration and all associated with it want it to work I want it to work. You want it to work.

JF Kerry cannot afford to have it work.

But my initial reaction was: “Bring back Tommy Frank.”

That’s not diplomacy, though, and Lugar tells us that’s how to win wars.

Seriously, the Pentagon says that this is part of the “normal rotation” of troops, and that he has “done everything right” with Abu Ghraib.

Let’s see who’s next. CNN reports that speculation centers on Army vice Chief of Staff General George Casey, but that the Pentagon isn’t talking yet. Whomever is in next is the man who has to deal with the Iraqis learning to crawl in self-governance.

At a press conference:

As Bowles called him the “next vice president,” Edwards stood quietly at his side and showed no facial expression. He clasped his hands and looked at the ground.

Sounds like a plan.

“Steel yourselves. Your generation must repair this damage, and it will not be easy,” Burns told the seniors.

What damage? We’ll have replaced a terroristic despot with a democracy and taken the mutants down a peg. We are now repairing the damage done prior to 9-11.

Burns quoted famed jurist Learned Hand as saying, “Liberty is never being too sure you’re right.”

“Somehow recently, though, we have replaced our usual and healthy doubt with an arrogance and belligerence that resembles more the ancient and now fallen empires of our history books than a modern compassionate democracy,” Burns said, to applause from the 1,300 graduates and their families and friends.

Our usual and healthy doubt? That is a damnably misleading statement, to phrase the sentiment politely.

To wit:

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Burns likened the present war to the Civil War, in that it threatened to tear the country apart. He had the wrong war.

This country was not founded on uncertainty, we didn’t win the two World Wars with a healthy dose of self-doubt, and I’m not certain how seriously burns wanted to be taken.