Democrats: No Vision, No Plan

Has the mainstream media left you feeling demoralized about this year's election? Well, buck up and get in the game!

The Democrat Party Today: No Vision. No Plan.


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The Decline and Fall of Western Civ for 27 Oct.

After reading: wash, rinse and repeat.

• When the folks down at CNN post a headline about politics that includes the words "Fictional Sex" you would be mistaken to think the writer is referring to former Congressman Mark Foley. Nope, for CNN this fictional sex deserves a dressing down because it comes straight out of the Democratic Virginia Senate candidate Jim Webb's mind and published in his fictional works. While CNN tries to spin the facts, AP and Reuters seemingly ignore the news. The Washington Post, who have been brutal to Webb's opponent George Allen, says Webb's books show bad character.
  
  

  With 11 days remaining before election day, the allegations about sex-laced passages in Webb's writings injected a new question into a campaign that has largely centered on character issues: Should the author of a fictional work who runs for office be personally held to account for the scenes in his books?

  Allen campaign officials provided sentences from Webb's novels -- some of them depicting acts of incest and graphic sexuality -- to the Drudge Report Web site Thursday night. Matt Drudge's online report often breaks or promotes stories with a sensational angle, most recently the scandal involving former Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.)

  Leave it to Matt Drudge to break the story of George Allen's macaca revenge.
  
  In an interview on Washington Post Radio Friday morning, Jim Webb, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Virginia, said excerpts of his novels are "a little bit inappropriate" to be read on news radio, reports CNS. See Fox News for additional details.

• Speaking of CNN, B&C reports Lynne Cheney, wife of Vice President Dick Cheney, strongly criticized CNN Friday for its "Broken Government" series of specials in the run-up to the November mid-term elections and for its airing of tapes of snipers shooting American soldiers in Iraq.
  
  In an interview with Situation Room anchor Wolf Blitzer, Cheney said the network's Vote 2006 specials contained "terrible distortions of the president's and vice president's positions on many issues." Cheney turned the tables on Blitzer, becoming the questioner: "what is CNN doing running tapes of terrorists shooting Americans," she asked more than once, repeating a question CNN had been asked:
  
  

  "Do you want us to win?"

  CNN can't catch a break. Since they seem to act with complicity with America's enemies, some folks would argue CNN really doesn't deserve a break. Transcript.

Lynn Cheney at CNN

• If we were to believe that President Bush and current American foreign policy are to blame for all the Muslim unrest in the world, it would be hard to accept that 4,000 police have been drafted into French suburbs on the anniversary of the 2005 riots caused when two Muslim teenagers were killed when returning home to end their Ramadan feast. It's interesting to note that most Western news outlets do not identify the protests as having Islamic roots. Look deeper.
  
  AFP reports hundreds of people marched in a silent tribute to two teenagers whose death exactly one year ago sent a wave of urban riots surging through France (who didn't support or join in the invasion of Iraq), sparking the country's most serious social crisis in 30 years.
  
  French authorities were on alert for a new flare-up of violence after youth gangs, some carrying handguns, torched -- and in one case hijacked -- three buses near Paris on Wednesday, but police reported no major trouble overnight.
  
  WorldTribune.com reports the ongoing 'intifada' in France that injured 2,500 police in 2006 might have dropped below the radar, but Al Qaida and its allies are literally battling the Crusaders every day in Europe. And so far, Europe isn't doing so well.
  
  

  "We are in a state of civil war, orchestrated by radical Islamists," said Michel Thoomis, secretary general of the Action Police trade union. "This is not a question of urban violence any more. It is an intifada, with stones and firebombs."

• In more news about those terrorists around the world that the U.S. didn't rile up, Reuters reports top world oil exporter Saudi Arabia said on Friday it was taking measures to protect its oil and economic installations from a "terrorist threat."
  
  

  "The terrorist threat to the kingdom's economic installation exists and it is a declared goal of the straying faction to affect the interests of the Saudi citizen," an Interior Ministry spokesman said.

  It is interesting to note that AP reports crude oil futures fell Friday, backing off gains they made following reports of a terror alert in the Gulf region.

• The head of the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency on Friday hailed what he described as epochal progress toward putting a high-energy laser aboard a modified Boeing Co. 747 to zap ballistic missiles that could be fired by North Korea and Iran, according to Reuters.

• Former United Nations chief weapons inspector Hans Blix (wav) on Wednesday described the United States-led invasion of Iraq as a "pure failure" that had left the country worse off than under the rule of Saddam Hussein, reports IOL.

• The testosterone-fueled American male may be losing his punch, reports HealthDay News. Over the past two decades, levels of the sex hormone in U.S. men have been falling steadily, a new study finds.

• CNET lists the worst political Websites.

• ROO TV presents News For Blondes video.

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Combat Camera: Fri 27 Oct. 2006

U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Bill Straily, from the Oklahoma Army National Guard and member of the 89th Military Police Brigade Police Transition Team (PTT) at Camp Echo, Iraq, inventories and inspects 100 new uniforms prior to issuing them to the Diwaniyah Iraqi police SWAT team Oct. 22, 2006, in Diwaniyah, Iraq. The U.S. PTT is responsible for assisting in the training of Iraqi police forces so that they can better protect the citizens of Iraq. DoD photo by Tech. Sgt. Dawn M. Price, U.S. Air Force. (Released)

U.S. Army Soldiers from various units prepare their equipment at Baghdad International Airport, Iraq, for redeployment into Iraq Oct. 24, 2006. DoD photo by Master Sgt. Steve Cline, U.S. Air Force. (Released)

U.S. Navy Sailors man the rails aboard the guided-missile cruiser USS Anzio (CG 68) as the ship pulls into Tivat, Montenegro, Oct. 23, 2006. Anzio is the first ship to visit Tivat since 1975, making this visit a significant step in the strengthening of partnerships between the United States and Montenegro. DoD photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Matthew D. Leistikow, U.S. Navy. (Released)

Airman Harold Doe tightens a bolt on a computer-guided inert practice bomb loaded on an F/A-18 Hornet aircraft on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) as the ship operates in the Mediterranean Sea on Oct. 23, 2006. Doe is a Navy aviation ordnanceman attached to Strike Fighter Squadron 131. DoD photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Miguel Angel Contreras, U.S. Navy. (Released)

Iraqi police officers receive new equipment to include shoes, shirts, helmets, handcuffs, and pistol holsters in Baghdaddi, Iraq, Oct. 23, 2006. DoD photo by Gunnery Sgt. Michael Q. Retana, U.S. Marine Corps. (Released)

U.S. Marines of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit wait in a combat rubber raiding craft at the stern gate of the amphibious transport dock ship USS Juneau (LPD 10) as they prepare to head out and perform open-ocean and raiding exercises in Sulu Bay off the coast of the Philippines Oct. 23, 2006. Juneau, part of the Essex Amphibious Ready Group, is participating with the armed forces of the Philippines in exercises Talon Vision '07 and Amphibious Landing Exercise '07. The annual exercises are designed to enhance interoperability and professional relations between the U.S. and Philippine armed forces. DoD photo by Ensign Sarah Thomas, U.S. Navy. (Released)

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The Decline and Fall of Western Civ for 26 Oct.

After reading: wash, rinse and repeat.

• A man ranting about "the blood" burst into a church sanctuary in Salem, Oregon during a service, sloshed fuel onto people and started a fire, police and church officials said Thursday, reports AP.
  
  

  "He ... was yelling things about the blood, and then he began to sprinkle the fluid and light it," Erickson said. "He was making slurs about things that are most precious to us."

• KNBC and AP reports a wind-whipped wildfire started by an arsonist engulfed a fire engine Thursday, killing four firefighters, and stranded up to 400 people in an RV park when flames burned to the edge of the only road out, officials said.

• Matt Drudge reports NBC and The CW Television Network have taken a stand against the Dixie’s Chicks new documentary “Shut Up & Sing” a behind-the-scenes look at the incredible political and media fallout that occurred in 2003 after the Dixie Chicks lead singer Natalie Maines said that she was "ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas." “Shut Up & Sing” opens in theaters in NY and Los Angeles on Friday and in theaters nationwide on November 10th.
  
  NBC and the CW Television Network refuse to air ads for the documentary which focuses on freedom of speech.

• Salon interviews Camille Paglia:
  
  

  It's been a while since Salon last heard from our favorite intellectual and one of our founding contributors, Camille Paglia. But with so much tumult in the air, we felt the need to ask her to survey the strange tectonic shifts in our political and cultural landscape, and interpret as much as she could. As usual she didn't disappoint, sounding off to Salon's Kerry Lauerman about the Foley follies, the Bill Clinton blitzkrieg, the amazing Republican meltdown and a most consistent object of her love and scorn: the Democrats.

• On the same track, a Muslim cleric's claim that women who do not wear the veil are like 'uncovered meat' who attract sexual predators sparked outrage around Australia yesterday, reports the Daily Mail.
  
  

  Addressing 500 worshippers on the topic of adultery, Sheik al-Hilali added: "If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden or in the park, or in the backyard without a cover, and the cats come and eat it..whose fault is it - the cats or the uncovered meat?

• AP reports Mexico's president sharply criticized President Bush's signing Thursday of a bill to build 700 miles of additional fencing on its southern border, calling the move an "embarrassment."
  
  

  "It is an embarrassment for the United States," Fox said. "It is proof, perhaps, that the United States does not see immigration as a subject that corresponds to both countries."

• Prices for newly built American homes have suffered their largest drop year-on-year since 1970, according to data released yesterday, highlighting the dramatic nature of the downturn of the US housing sector. However, growing sales offered homebuilders some hope of recovery, reports FT.com.

• Exxon Mobil Corp. on Thursday said its profit rose to $10.49 billion in the third quarter, making it the second-largest quarterly profit ever recorded by a publicly traded U.S. company, according to AP.
  
  Bloomberg reports Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell Plc, the world's two biggest oil companies, posted higher third-quarter earnings than analysts expected after crude prices soared to a record and production increased.
  
  FT.com reports the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) on Thursday night agreed to cut production by 1.2m barrels a day, showing its determination to defend $60 as its new minimum international price.

• And finally, ROO TV presents Elephans Smashing Pumpkins video.

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Counterbalance for Thu 26 Oct.

The buzz inside the Beltway outside the mainstream:

• Victor Davis Hanson writes, if you want to see the reenactment of the Dark Ages, you only have to look at the Middle East, where pre-Enlightenment brutality and repression lives daily.
  
  

  Who would have thought centuries after the Enlightenment that sophisticated Europeans - in fear of radical Islamists - would be afraid to write a novel, put on an opera, draw a cartoon, film a documentary or have their pope discuss comparative theology?

  The astonishing fact is not just that millions of women worldwide in 2006 are still veiled from head-to-toe, trapped in arranged marriages, subject to polygamy, honor killings and forced circumcision, or are without the right to vote or appear alone in public. What is more baffling is that in the West, liberal Europeans are often wary of protecting female citizens from the excesses of Sharia law - sometimes even fearful of asking women to unveil their faces for purposes of simple identification and official conversation.

  Since Sept. 11, the West has fought enemies who are determined to bring back the nightmarish world that we thought was long past. And there are lessons Westerners can learn from radical Islamists' ghastly efforts.

• The National Journal has seven reasons why Karl Rove is optimistic. Here are seven reasons cited by people who also read “THE polls” and who are in regular commerce with Rove, RNC chairman Ken Mehlman and White House political director Sara Taylor.
  
  Let’s define our term, first. “Optimism” doesn’t mean that these Republicans are convinced that they’ll pick up seats. The White House knows that its majorities in both chambers will be reduced. Optimism also doesn’t imply that these Republicans are blind to the probability of a Dem House takeover and the possibility of a Dem Senate takeover.
  
  What optimism means is that these Republicans believe that there are enough reasons to believe that Republicans can hang on to enough seats in the House and enough in the Senate to barely miss the guillotine. Read the seven reasons.

• Byron York, writing in The National Review, says everybody knows George W. Bush is determined to win the war in Iraq. What came through in a meeting with conservative journalists in the Oval Office Wednesday afternoon, though, was the president’s frustration in not being able to find more meaningful ways to measure progress in the war, and in not being able to make the case more effectively to the American people that progress is, in fact, being made.
  
  But in the end, there is still that frustration with a level of violence that U.S. forces don’t seem able to control. The consequences tear at Bush every day, but he remains convinced that the war will ultimately succeed. “If we can’t win, I’ll pull us out,” the president said. “If I didn’t think it was noble and just and we can win, we’re gone. I can’t — I’m not going to keep those kids in there and have to deal with their loved ones. I can’t cover it up when I meet with a family who’s lost a child. I cry, I weep, I hug. And I’ve got to be able to look them in the eye and say, we’re going to win. I have to be able to do that. And I’m not a good faker.”
  
  

  “And so what I’m telling you is — we’ll win this.”

• The New York Times reports a liberal gay rights group said Wednesday that one of its employees, acting anonymously, had created the Web site that first published copies of unusually solicitous e-mail messages to teenagers from former Representative Mark Foley, which led to his resignation.
  
  A spokesman for the group, the Human Rights Campaign, said it first learned of its employee’s role this week and immediately fired him for misusing the group’s resources. The scandal surrounding Mr. Foley, a Florida Republican, has been a burdensome distraction for members of his party in the month before the midterm elections, and some Republicans have speculated that the e-mail messages were planted by a Democrat.
  
  After the messages appeared on the Web, at stopsexpredators.blogspot.com, the Web site of ABC News followed with its own independent report. The ABC News report resulted in the disclosure of more sexually explicit electronic messages that Mr. Foley sent to other former Congressional pages.

• Also from The New York Times, Tom Zeller Jr. writes, if things go as planned for liberal bloggers in the next few weeks, searching Google for “Jon Kyl,” the Republican senator from Arizona now running for re-election, will produce high among the returns a link to an April 13 article from The Phoenix New Times, an alternative weekly.
  
  

  Fifty or so other Republican candidates have also been made targets in a sophisticated “Google bombing” campaign intended to game the search engine’s ranking algorithms. By flooding the Web with references to the candidates and repeatedly cross-linking to specific articles and sites on the Web, it is possible to take advantage of Google’s formula and force those articles to the top of the list of search results.

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Combat Camera: Troops Perform Vehicle Maintenance

U.S. Army Spc. Jon Erikson, a driver assigned to the 1744th Transportation Company, cleans the window of an Armored Security Vehicle during a scheduled maintenance day, Oct. 21, 2006. The 1744th Transportation Company, is an Illinois Army National Guard medium-truck transportation unit based in Streator, Ill. Although based in Streator, the company is made up of soldiers throughout Illinois. The company now provides convoy security for a variety of logistical missions supporting the 13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) mission on Logistical Support Area Anaconda, located near Balad, Iraq. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Mark Bell

U.S. Army Spc. Kevin Grieve, assigned to the 1744th Transportation Company, works on the wheel assembly of a 2.5 ton truck during scheduled maintenance day, Oct. 21, 2006. The company has been mobilized since late June and arrived in Iraq at the beginning of October. Soldiers work around-the-clock maintaining the Armored Security Vehicles and M1114 up-armored Humvees. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Mark Bell

Soldiers, assigned to the 1744th Transportation Company, spend their Saturday working on vehicle maintenance. The 1744th Transportation Company, is an Illinois Army National Guard medium-truck transportation unit based in Streator, Ill. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Mark Bell

U.S. Army Spc. Ryan Schnied fills out the proper paperwork after looking over the Armored Security Vehicle during preventive maintenance checks and services during a routine scheduled maintenance day, Oct. 21, 2006. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Mark Bell

U.S. Army Spc. Justin Smeja and U.S. Army Sgt. Matt Andres both Armored Security Vehicle crew members assigned to the 1744th Transportation Company, work together on going through the hand receipt for their equipment during a scheduled maintenance day for the company, Oct. 21, 2006. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Mark Bell

U.S. Army Spc. Roy Allen, performs preventive maintenance checks and services during scheduled maintenance of the Armored Security Vehicle, Oct. 21, 2006. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Mark Bell

U.S. Army Sgt. Matt Summerfield and U.S. Army Spc Ryon Mullin,s both assigned to the 1744th Transportation Company, take a short break after performing maintenance on Armored Security Vehicles, Oct. 21, 2006. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Mark Bell

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The Decline and Fall of Western Civ for 25 Oct.

Between Google's Blogspot host servers hosing up whenever I wanted to post . . . and battling with Internet Explorer 7's annoying quirks, I was able to compile the collection of stories offered below:

• With a combative and negative pre-election press running emotional stories about the Iraq war daily, President Bush conceded Wednesday that the United States is taking heavy casualties in Iraq and said, "I know many Americans are not satisfied with the situation" there, reports AP.
  
  Bush said that as those fighting American and Iraqi forces change their strategies, the United States is also adjusting its military tactics.
  
  

  "There has been heavy fighting, many enemy fighters have been killed or captured and we've suffered casualties of our own," he said. "This month we've lost 93 American service members in Iraq, the most since October of 2005. During roughly the same period, more than 300 Iraqi security personnel have given their lives in battle. Iraqi civilians have suffered unspeakable violence at the hands of the terrorists, insurgents, illegal militias, armed groups and criminals."

• AP reports U.S. and Iraqi forces raided the stronghold of a Shiite militia led by a radical anti-American cleric in search of a death squad leader in an operation disavowed by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

• New Jersey's Supreme Court opened the door to gay marriage Wednesday, ruling that homosexuals are entitled to the same rights as heterosexuals, but leaving it to lawmakers to legalize same-sex unions, according to AP. The high court gave lawmakers 180 days to rewrite marriage laws to either include same-sex couples or create a new system of civil unions for them.

• The Seattle Times reports environmental policy took center stage in this year's congressional races on Tuesday, with candidates for U.S. Senate holding dueling news conferences across the state and former Vice President Al Gore expressing incredulity at Republican Rep. Dave Reichert's views on global warming. It's important to note that scientists who study the environment are not at all in agreement about global warming.

• Speaking of the environment, hybrid cars are all the rage in Hollywood. Celebrities drive them like they're a badge of honor. You save a few gallons of gas, you save the planet. Right? Well, not when you hop on a private jet and burn enough fuel to propel NASCAR through 2050, reports TMZ.
  
  Of course, the stars need to go here and there. The location shoots, the fabulous vacations, etc. But that's why God created United Airlines. G-IV's, on the other hand, were created in the image of precious celebs. Check out the list. Maybe the stars who claim they are green are really talking about their envy.

• About that envy thing, envy this: transgender men are free to legally use women's rest rooms in New York's transit system under an unprecedented deal revealed yesterday, reports the Daily News.

• LiveScience reports a researcher has come up with some simple math that sucks the life out of the vampire myth, proving that these highly popular creatures can't exist.
  
  University of Central Florida physics professor Costas Efthimiou's work debunks pseudoscientific ideas, such as vampires and zombies, in an attempt to enhance public literacy. Not only does the public believe in such topics, but the percentages are at dangerously high level, Efthimiou told LiveScience.
  
  What this story proves to me is that Florida has a lot of cash to throw at their state university system, even without state income taxes. Keep that in mind on your next trip to Disney World.

• A new generation of ultra-powerful radio telescopes designed to peer into the origins of the Universe could reportedly also be used to look for any radio or TV emissions by extraterrestrial civilisations, according to AFP.

• Last and truly least, ROO TV presents News for Blondes video.

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Combat Camera: Iraqi Checkpoint

Iraqi National Police from the 7th Brigade, 2nd National Police Division, man a traffic checkpoint near Baghdad's Risala neighborhood, Oct. 16, 2006. Iraqi Security Forces continue to run checkpoints throughout rural and urban communities in southern and central Baghdad. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Brent Williams

Citizens of Baghdad's Risala neighborhood approach a soldier from the 2nd Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment, attached to the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, to discuss quality of life conditions within their communities, Oct. 16, 2006. Iraqi Security Forces and Multi-National Division – Baghdad soldiers are working to improve security and living conditions in Baghdad. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Brent Williams

Iraqi National Police from the 7th Brigade, 2nd National Police Division, conduct a routine search of an Iraqi citizen's car, Oct. 16, 2006, at a vehicle traffic checkpoint in Baghdad's Risala neighborhood. The security measures are part of the ongoing Operation Together Forward, a combined mission between Iraqi Security Forces and Multi-National Division – Baghdad soldiers to secure Baghdad from sectarian violence and acts of terrorism. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Brent Williams

Soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment, attached to the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, observe local Iraqis working to remove trash, Oct. 16, 2006. The Iraqi laborers were hired by a local contractor in conjunction with Iraqi Security Forces and Multi-National Division – Baghdad soldiers in an ongoing efforts in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The Multi-National Division soldiers working with Iraqi National Police from the 7th Brigade, 2nd National Police Division, are engaged in efforts to secure and rebuild neighborhoods throughout central and southern Baghdad. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Brent Williams

Local Iraqi youths hired by an Iraqi contractor clean the streets around an Iraqi National Police checkpoint in Baghdad's Risala neighborhood, Oct. 16, 2006. The trash removal is part of the ongoing efforts between Iraqi Security Forces and Multi-National Division – Baghdad soldiers to secure and improve several neighborhoods throughout Baghdad in support of Operation Together Forward. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Brent Williams

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The Decline and Fall of Western Civ for 24 Oct.

After reading: wash, rinse and repeat.

• A Taliban commander has told Sky News that the militants are for the first time plotting to attack Westerners in Britain and the rest of Europe. In a rare interview, the commander insisted the militants had stockpiles of weapons and would never give-up exacting revenge from what he called "the foreign invaders."
  
  

  "The ordinary people of these countries are behind this - so we will not spare them. We will kill them and laugh over them like they are killing us and laughing at us."

• CNN recently defended the network's effort to present the "unvarnished truth," which led it to televise portions of a video that shows insurgent snipers targeting U.S. military personnel. It comes as some surprise, then, CNN's decision to restrict an on-air discussion covering a new book dealing with the Iraq war because peace activist Cindy Sheehan threatened to sue over provocative claims about her in the book, says a report from CNS.
  
  "American Mourning" examines how the death of two U.S. soldiers in Iraq affected their families. One of the two is the Sheehan family.
  
  

  "I'm not really going to get into what the conversation was between the booker and Melanie," Iamunno said, "but I will tell you that Glenn felt that there were plenty of other issues with Cindy Sheehan to discuss that weren't hearsay, which is what he felt this element of the book was."

  However, Kristen Schremp, a publicist for Morgan and Moy, told Cybercast News Service that the authors "thoroughly researched and documented each and every fact in this book. There are over 600 phone records, emails, instant messages and FEC documents that back up these facts."
  
  

  "We hope for the sake of Ms. Sheehan's loved ones that we are not forced into litigation," Morgan and Moy said Monday. "But, if the documents are subpoenaed, we will have no choice but to act in accordance with the court's requests, therefore making the documents public."

  It interesting that more people are talking about CNN than actually tune in to CNN. It's no wonder Fox News rules cable.

• Anti-war groups are trying to rally active troops to speak out against the war in Iraq _ a political tactic they hope will sway voters Nov. 7, reports AP. A small group of active-duty members opposed to the war created a Web site last month intended to collect thousands of signatures of other service members. People can submit their name, rank and duty station if they support statements denouncing the U.S. invasion.
  
• Michael J. Fox's campaign ads have caused quite a stir. Fox has thrown his support behind a ballot item called the Missouri Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative. In all, Fox has become the campaign pitchman for five Democrats who support stem cell research.

Michael J. Fox

The truth of the matter is, as Jim Caviezel and friends say in this video, the Missouri bill would make cloning a constitutional right, authorize research using embryonic stem cells (other forms of stem cell research are already funded), be very costly, not provide anything that current research hasn't already explored, and cross ethical bounds. The Republicans who this attack targets support stem cell research. In the case of Maryland's Democratic Senatorial candidate Ben Cardin, the ad fails to note that Cardin actually voted against stem cell research before he wanted to vote for it.

Response Ad to Michael J. Fox

• The WCF Courier reports Republican Iowa House District 20 candidate David Wieland and Iowa House Speaker Christopher Rants of Sioux City have denounced a political advertisement released this weekend against Wieland showing what appears to be a covered cadaver on a gurney, assailing his position on stem-cell research.

• Here's proof that making great music doesn't automatically make you an idiot. NNE reports The Killers' Brandon Flowers has criticised Green Day for what he sees as their calculated anti-Americanism. The Killers' frontman said he believed that his band's new album 'Sam's Town' is a much better representation of America.
  
  

  "You have Green Day and 'American Idiot'. Where do they film their DVD? In England," The Killers' frontman told The Word. "A bunch of kids screaming 'I don't want to be an American idiot' I saw it as a very negative thing towards Americans. It really lit a fire in me."

  "I just thought it was really cheap," he explained. "To go to a place like England or Germany and sing that song - those kids aren't taking it the same way that he meant it. And he [Billie Joe Armstrong] knew it."

  "People need to see that, really, there are the nicest people in the world here!" he declared. "I don't know if our album makes you realise that. But I hope it's from a more positive place."

• Wall Street wobbled through a listless session and closed mixed Tuesday as investors awaited the results of this week's Federal Reserve meeting. Modest gains in the Dow Jones industrial average were enough for the index to set new trading and closing records, reports AP.

• According to AP, trailing in the polls, Democrat Ned Lamont called the Iraq conflict Sen. Joe Lieberman's "war of choice" and compared his rival to former Republican President Nixon.
  
  Lamont recalled that during the Vietnam War, former President Nixon voiced support for bringing the troops home even as he continued to pursue the war at a cost of 9,000 lives. He noted Lieberman has spoke recently of wanting to end the war as soon as possible.
  
  

  "That's about as credible as Richard Nixon was almost 40 years ago," he said.

  Lamont, like Democrats in general, has offered no plan for Iraq. President Nixon cleaned up the mess left by Democrat presidents Kennedy and Johnson, the latter of whom also had no plan, which set events in motion that would insure America could never prevail in Indochina. (Edits for typos.)

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Counterbalance for Tue 24 Oct.

The buzz inside the Beltway outside the mainstream.

• Republican Senate candidates have fought back to regain an edge in two key races, pivotal battlegrounds that could determine which party controls the Senate, according to a series of new McClatchy-MSNBC polls. Republicans hold narrow leads in Tennessee and Virginia, two must-win states where the party hopes to build a Southern bulwark against a Democratic tide that's threatening their Senate seats elsewhere across the country.

• Jubiland Democrats should reconsider their order for confetti and noisemakers. The Democrats, as widely reported, are expecting GOP-weary voters to flock to the polls in two weeks and hand them control of the House for the first time in 12 years -- and perhaps the Senate, as well. Even some Republicans privately confess that they are anticipating the election-day equivalent of Little Big Horn. Pardon our hubris, but we just don't see it, writes Jim McTague in Barrons.
  
  

  Our analysis -- based on a race-by-race examination of campaign-finance data -- suggests that the GOP will hang on to both chambers, at least nominally. We expect the Republican majority in the House to fall by eight seats, to 224 of the chamber's 435. At the very worst, our analysis suggests, the party's loss could be as large as 14 seats, leaving a one-seat majority. But that is still a far cry from the 20-seat loss some are predicting. In the Senate, with 100 seats, we see the GOP winding up with 52, down three.

• Mario Loyola, writing in the National Review, says democracy is succeeding in Iraq.
  
  

  Even conservatives are now starting to become almost irretrievably saturnine in their pessimism on Iraq. On National Review Online last week, Jonah Goldberg wrote that “the Iraq war was a mistake by the most obvious criteria: If we had known then what we know now, we would never have gone to war with Iraq in 2003.” Across the political spectrum, people have come to a similar conclusion, but the judgment contains several propositions worth examining closely.

  As General Douglas Macarthur said about Japan, “occupation is a wasting asset.” We will soon hit a point of rapidly diminishing returns in our effort to help the government of Iraq stand on its own. But those returns are not diminishing yet, even with Baghdad caught in a paroxysm of violence. In the meantime, let’s give the Iraqi government a chance. Two years ago they had no forces of their own. Now they have 300,000 troops. Those are real numbers, and they are taking real casualties -- now many more than we are. They need our help, and are proving worthy of it. And the benefit of having a democratic ally in the heart of the Middle East will prove priceless long into the future -- which is why al Qaeda has made this the centralfront in the War on Terror.

• Thomas Sowell asks if we should give Democrats (and the cut and run Republicans who feel it is time to set this election out) a blank check to act like ostriches with their heads in the sand when the fate of 300 million Americans is held in the balance.
  
  

  It is now clear to all that this year's Democrats are deliberately avoiding spelling out any coherent policy program of their own.

  Their strategy is to second-guess, denigrate and undermine Republicans instead of offering an agenda of their own. Rather than having a contract with America, they are seeking a blank check from America. Moreover, they may get it.

  It is obscene that our media should be obsessed with some jerk in Congress who wrote dirty e-mails to Congressional pages -- and was forced out of Congress for it -- when this nation faces dangers of this magnitude.

  It would be worse than obscene for some voters to cut off their nose to spite their face by either staying home on election day or actually voting a blank check from America for a party with a decades-long history of irresponsibility on national defense.

  This is no longer about hawks and doves. It is about ostriches who bury their heads in the sand -- and about those voters who are prepared to give a blank check to ostriches.

• Pete DuPont, writing in The Wall Street Journal, answers the question: Just what WILL happen if Democrats win?
  
  

  First, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has promised that election of a Democratic House would insure "a rollback of the [Bush] tax cuts." Rep. Charles Rangel of New York, who would be chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, would make sure no tax cut extension bill would ever get to the floor. He voted against the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts and the bill that later extended the tax cuts until 2010 (as did all but seven of the 205 Democratic House members). In September Mr. Rangel said that he "cannot think of one" Bush tax cut he would agree to renew.

  Second, President Bush will not be able to re-energize his effort for individually owned Social Security accounts, for "preventing the privatization of social security" is in the Democratic National Committee's "6-Point Plan for 2006." Democrats don't trust people to own or invest their own retirement funds--better to let a wise government do that, for as socialist Noam Chomsky says, "putting people in charge of their own assets breaks down the solidarity that comes from doing something together." And since Congress gets to spend Social Security tax receipts that aren't needed to pay benefits, letting people invest their payments in their own retirement accounts would be a costly revenue reduction that the new, bigger-spending Congress won't allow to happen.

  "Reducing dependence on foreign oil" is a good Democratic goal, and there are a number of ways to accomplish it. Building more nuclear power plants is one. Offshore drilling for oil and natural gas is another. Oil reserves in the Outer Continental Shelf and Alaska could replace foreign oil imports for 25 years, and there is a known 19-year OCS supply of natural gas.

  But liberal Democrats are opposed to all of these solutions. Hillary Clinton is opposed to the construction of nuclear plants and offshore drilling. Every Democratic senator on the Environment and Public Works Committee voted against allowing the building of new oil refineries on closed military bases. When the House voted 232-187 in June to allow and encourage OCS oil and natural-gas drilling, 155 of 195 Democrats voted to block it. The Democratic alternative is to eliminate the $18 billion the oil companies now get in various business tax deductions and thereby impose a higher income tax on them.

  As for the war in Iraq, Mr. Rangel observed that "You've got to be able to pay for the war, don't you?" In other words, end it by simply defunding it. Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania calls for "immediate redeployment of U.S. troops" and intends to run for majority leader if the Democrats take control of the House. Ninety percent of House Democrats opposed the terrorist surveillance program, and 80% voted against the recent terrorist interrogation legislation.

  Finally, when we see what the new leaders of a Democratic House are likely to do, their views are--well--very different from most Americans. Rep Henry Waxman of California would become the Government Reform Committee chairman, and believes domestic terrorist surveillance is "illegal." He would use his subpoena power to launch investigations to try and limit the president's anti-terrorism powers.

  Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, who would become chairman of the Judiciary Committee, has talked about subpoenaing "Bush administration officials to answer questions and face the consequences for their abuses of power." In other words, impeachment.

  Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi has indicated she would like to put Rep. Alcee Hastings of Florida in charge of the House Intelligence Committee. As a federal judge, he was impeached in the House by a 413-3 vote, and removed from the bench by the Senate for bribery, corruption, and perjury. Rep. Hastings would lead the oversight of America's antiterrorism policies.

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