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Going through the blogosphere this morning, there's great analysis as to why the GOP lost in yesterday's elections. Some of the key points, with examples of those who discussed them:
I'll add another item to this list, which I haven't seen discussed much yet elsewhere: the absence of communication with the voters. Democrat leaders like Pelosi, Dean, Kennedy, Gore, the Clintons, etc., appeared almost daily in high-visibility mainstream media, hammering on the GOP with serious criticisms. But the GOP leadership was almost invisible. They did not hammer back, and they did not shout good news about the GOP from the rooftops.
The GOP had a good story to tell:
The top GOP leaders should have been in the media every day, pounding home this message, and hammering on the Democrats the way the Democrats were hammering on them. When the GOP abandoned the public debate to the degree that it did - leaving it, to such an extent, up to Conservative bloggers and pundits to carry the GOP message to the public - it made yesterday's election results almost inevitable.
Today we have reports that Saddam - now that he has been sentenced to death - suddenly supports peace, love and understanding.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Two days after being condemned to death, Saddam Hussein was back in court on Tuesday urging Iraqis "to forgive ... and shake hands" as sectarian tensions over his sentence hampered U.S. efforts to stabilize Iraq.
..."I call on all Iraqis, Arabs and Kurds, to forgive, reconcile and shake hands," Saddam, in relatively subdued mood compared to the defiance he showed on Sunday, told the court.
If he'd supported this view during all the rest of his life leading up to this time, Iraq would be a far better place.
Here's an example of the principals by which he ruled, reported by Bob Woodward. Via BBC News:
The American journalist Bob Woodward, in his third book about the Bush administration at war, State of Denial, relates a story told by Prince Bandar Bin Sultan, who was the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States.
Prince Bandar recalls a conversation that Saddam Hussein had with King Fahd of Saudi Arabia after a group of extremists took over the Grand Mosque in Mecca in 1979.
The rebels had been caught and thrown into jail, and this was the Iraqi leader's advice: "In my mind, there is no question that you are going to kill all 500, that's a given.
"Listen to me carefully, Fahd. Every man who in this group who has a brother or father - kill them. If they have a cousin who you think is man enough to go for revenge, kill them.
"Those 500 people are a given. But you must spread the fear of God in everything that belongs to them, and that's the only way you can sleep at night."
That seems to have been the tactic that Saddam Hussein used at Dujail in 1982, when - after an attempt to assassinate him - 148 people were killed. It is the crime for which he has been sentenced to hang.
Perhaps Saddam Hussein will accept his fate on the gallows as an occupational hazard of being a despot. Or maybe he never intended his own rules to apply to himself.
Per USA Today:
As U.S. gasoline prices hit a 2006 low, OPEC President Edmund Daukoru said Monday that the oil cartel may need to cut crude oil production further this year to deal with an oversupply in the market.
From the Washington Post:
Unemployment fell last month to the lowest level in more than five years, to 4.4 percent -- a drum-tight labor market that shows the economy remains fundamentally strong despite weak spots such as housing and manufacturing.
It seems unlikely, but it can't be ruled out. A September 28th post on this site about South Park, which had been linked by Pajamas Media, began with the words, "So it begins." And this week's episode of South Park ended with the same words.
It was a really funny episode. There's a line in it along the lines of "If only there were no religion, there would be so much less violence in the world. No Muslims killing Jews. No Christians picketing abortion clinics." That is so great.
Then they get to the future, and everyone's an atheist, and the United Science League is having a war with the United Science Association. It was hysterical.
Yesterday I spoke to a local business owner, a man who was born in France, and came to the U.S. in the mid-70's. I haven't yet gotten his permission to identify him here, so I'll call him Curtis.
I asked him what was up with the riots in France. Why don't the French just expel those guys from the country?
I don't yet have corroboration for his statements. Take this as the verbal testimony of one man.
Curtis said that over 80% of the French population would like to expel the radical Islamists, but the government refuses to.
He said that government approval is required to build a house of worship - and that 20 mosques are approved for every 1 non-Muslim temple.
He said that in the airport (he may have been referring to the one that serves Paris), there is a mosque - but there is no non-Islamic house of worship.
He said that Muslims reproduce every 17 years, and that they have over four children for every 1.8 non-Muslim children. (I referred him to Mark Steyn's new book on this subject, America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It.)
He said that the Muslim population in France is constantly going to the government asking for help. The government - that is, the French taxpayer - gives them free housing.
I asked how the French can tolerate 100+ cars being burned every day all this year. He said police have no power to break up crowds of Muslims who come and "dance" threateningly in front of homes and businesses. The police are only able to act when they see a crime being committed in front of them. It's illegal to hold a teenager in jail for more than 2 days. If a citizen asks for a teenaged Muslim who is attacking his property to be arrested, in two days the same criminal will return to threaten or harm him again. Store owners are afraid to call the police when a crowd of Muslims "dance" (Curtis used the word repeatedly) threateningly in front of their business, because he knows the result will be that his business will be burnt. Such store owners often let the Muslims steal whatever they want.
Curtis said that with the huge difference in birthrates, France was doomed.
I said, I thought Socialism was responsible for the poor birthrate, because it literally makes life unrewarding - it takes away the rewards for living your life well and achieving things for yourself and those around you. Curtis responded with great interest to this suggestion.
He said that many French people live in small houses he compared to a U.S. trailer home. He said that for many Frenchmen, permits are required from the government if they want to move, and that such permits are so difficult to get that people often don't try. He said that visitors to France often see how good the social life is there, with friends often getting together - "I'll bring the bread, you bring the wine, you bring the cheese" - but that what visitors don't see is that government regulations strangle any attempts at work so much that beyond social life, there is nothing else. The social life is so good because nothing else is permitted.
And if all that wasn't enough, here's the real shocker.
He said that for 30 years, Muslims and non-Muslims worked side-by-side in French factories and businesses. Everyone thought the Muslims had assimilated. But when the Islamic riots started in France last year, these Muslims "flipped in a second" -- they immediately supported the riots. Their non-Muslim friends said to them, "We thought we knew you - this is wrong, what they are doing, burning cars and rioting." But the supposedly-assimilated Muslims supported the rioters.
