Bolton Feels The Deal

A mere two days after "moderate" Republicans broke ranks with a certain Senator Frist (who is supposed to be something called a "majority leader," yet commands and deserves neither title), Senate Democrats have already begun to flex the new and invigorated muscles the Republicans inexplicably gave them. They have announced that they plan to filibuster the President's appointment of John Bolton to be our ambassador to the United Nations and, as part of that obstructionism, they are also going to launch into yet another document war with the White House.

The result will be weeks more of humiliation and defeat for the President of the United States, who, along with an even-larger Republican majority in the Senate, was re-elected resoundingly a mere 6 months ago.

By refusing to act like a majority, by refusing the mandate they have been given to govern, the Senate Republicans have undermined both their President and their party. We see no good reason at this time to continue to vote for Republican candidates for the Senate or to support their calls for re-election.

When the President was elected, he was given the power to appoint (among other things) ambassadors and federal judges; this was one of the reasons we voted for him and not his opponent. Now, a faithless majority in the Senate has bought into the MSM and Democratic myths that they not only have a duty but a right to obstruct the President's appointment power whenever they feel like it. The result is nothing less than a willful minority holding the electoral will of the people of the United States hostage. Worse, people from our own party have helped bring about this turn of events.

The Democrats need to be defeated in the Senate, and soundly. They need to have appointment after appointment rightfully confirmed by the majority so that they understand that they are no longer in power.

If the Senate Republicans cannot handle the responsibilities inherent in the majority, they do not deserve that majority. Watch, listen, learn, and vote accordingly.

UPDATE: The Wall Street Journal's lead editorial this morning nails the issue:

Republicans at Bay
May 27, 2005; Page A12

Americans have learned to expect little from Congress, and by that standard the 109th version controlled by Republicans has met expectations. On the other hand, anyone who hoped that the GOP would make something of its historic governing opportunity is bound to be disappointed so far.

Five months in, Congress can point to the following achievements: a bankruptcy bill 10 years in the making, and a class-action reform watered down essentially to a jurisdictional change to federal from state courts. That's about it. Among the 2004 campaign promises that aren't close to being fulfilled are making the Bush tax cuts permanent, reforming Social Security and expanding the market for private health care. Instead of any of those big three, Congress next seems poised to pass a subsidy-laden energy bill and a highway bill with some 4,000 earmarks for individual Members. For this we elected Republicans?

The Democratic/media explanation for this performance is that Republicans are "overreaching" and trying to "govern from the right." We should be so lucky. The fact is that they are governing from nowhere at all. Far from pushing their agenda, they seem cowed by their opposition into playing it safe and attempting too little.

The House lost precious time recovering from its blunder of changing ethics rules to protect Tom DeLay, while the Senate wasted weeks tiptoeing to the edge of changing the filibuster rule only to back down this week as seven Republicans undercut Majority Leader Bill Frist. GOP Senators also created the messy distraction over John Bolton's nomination, preening their ambivalence for media applause rather than confirming their President's man.

It's true that Democrats seem determined to play the role of obstructionists, especially on Social Security and in the Senate where the rules give them leverage. But Republicans have only made it easier for Democrats on Social Security by caviling and whining that President Bush is making them face up to this problem, and declaring private accounts all but dead almost before they were proposed. Individual Democrats are not going to break with their party leadership when they can see that Republicans are divided.

Pre-emptive surrender has also been the order of the day on taxes, despite the manifest economic success of the 2003 tax cuts. It took a heroic, one-man lobbying effort by Arizona's Jon Kyl to persuade his Senate colleagues to extend the 15% dividend and capital-gains tax rate for a mere two years. Too many GOP Members are cowering in fear over "the deficit" -- except when it comes to spending. That they can still do. The Senate blew past Mr. Bush's already generous $284 billion limit on highways, and overall federal spending is growing by 7% this year.
Any majority party is going to have differences, and compromises are inevitable. But an effective majority, and one that hopes to stay around for a while, has to be able to unite around some governing principles and face up to genuine problems. We'd have thought that for Republicans this would mean a philosophy of limited but energetic government when energy is needed, as it is on national defense and law enforcement.

But what is "limited" about a House Financial Services Committee that wants to increase the moral hazard to taxpayers by raising federal deposit insurance to $130,000 from $100,000? Or that finds itself united with liberal Barney Frank on a bill to let Fannie Mae continue to rake in private profit while exploiting an implicit taxpayer bailout guarantee? Or a House that can't pass a free trade agreement with Central America, while the Senate votes by two-to-one to start a trade war with China? None of this is "radical" reform; it's Beltway business as usual.
The Congressional year has its natural rhythms, and there is still time for Republicans to recover. If Democrats won't budge on Social Security, a decision will have to be made on an exit strategy that defines the issue for 2006. Mr. Bush's tax reform commission report in July will be an opportunity to lead once again on economic policy. There are also smaller but still significant victories to be had on extending welfare reform, allowing the states more policy latitude on Medicaid and letting health insurance be sold nationwide on the Internet to reduce the number of uninsured.

Above all, the fight over Mr. Bush's Supreme Court nominations will determine whether the GOP's Senate majority counts for anything at all. The voters don't expect miracles, but they do expect better than what Republicans have so far been able to produce.

Aujourd'hui Nous Sommes Tous Quebecois

From the Globe and Mail:

Quebec — Quebec has rejected the use of Islamic tribunals, which can be used to settle family disputes, in the province.

In a unanimous vote Thursday, the Quebec legislature passed a motion against allowing sharia to be used in the legal system. (Emphasis added).

“The application of sharia in Canada is part of a strategy to isolate the Muslim community, so it will submit to an archaic vision of Islam,” Fatima Houda-Pepin, a Liberal member of the legislature, said as she introduced the motion against use of the Islamic law.

“These demands are being pushed by groups in the minority that are using the Charter of Rights to attack the foundation of our democratic institutions.”

Why We Love Ramesh Ponnuru, Part 64

Because he can write paragraphs like this:

He [Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen] thinks that the president's event with families who had adopted "unused" embryos and raised them as children was emotionally manipulative. I suppose we should go back to the sober, rational debate we were having with pictures of disease-stricken celebrities.

A Tale of Two Continents, Two Worlds

From this morning's Wall Street Journal Online:

Item One: U.S. GDP grew at a rate of 3.5% in the first quarter, better than first thought, in a new sign of a strong springtime business expansion.

Item Two: There are many reasons why some in France are souring on the [European Union] bloc -- not all of them directly related to the document itself. Opponents have argued that the constitution is too complicated and needs to be revised. They also have warned that if it takes effect, France will lose jobs to countries with lower wages, such as Hungary and Poland. That's a sensitive subject in France, where unemployment has reached a five-year high of 10.2% and more than one in five people under the age of 25 are unemployed.

Item Three: Germany's Ifo index for May, released yesterday, fell to its lowest level since August 2003. It declined for the fourth straight month to 92.9 from 93.3 in April, and came in well below economists' forecasts for a May reading of 93.5. "An improvement in the economic situation in the next months is not to be expected," said Hans-Werner Sinn, president of the Munich-based institute, calling for the euro area's central bank to consider a rate cut.

Item Four: Meanwhile, Italian business confidence fell to its lowest level in 3½ years, data from Italian think tank ISAE showed. The ISEA survey "suggests that the manufacturing sector is some way off from exiting its current recession," said Phyllis Papadavid, an economist at Lehman Brothers.

Filibusters, the MSM and Vicious Punk Rock

A few thoughts on an ordinary Wednesday:

The Filibuster-Buster Deal

There has been a ton of ink spilled over the rise of the Senate “moderates” and their much-heralded plan to save what is in effect merely a rule of procedure that exists at the sufferance of the majority. We have read and digested the two main streams of thought in conservative circles on the Deal and we have to say that we’re more persuaded by the “Republicans wimp out again” wing at this moment.

Yes, as both John Podhoretz and David Frum have argued, the Deal doesn’t leave the Republicans in any different situation except up three judges should the Democrats renege, but that line ignores what is most important in politics: power. The fact is that the Democrats took judicial nominations into battle as a main campaign issue and were soundly rejected on that basis. The defeat of their leader, Daschle, was only the most obvious sign of the public’s wholesale rejection of the Democratic stance on obstruction of the President’s agenda in the Senate.

Faced with a Democratic Party that refuses to believe it has ever lost an election on actual ideas or issues, and faced with unprecedented demands from what is, in effect, a small and ineffectual opposition party that in no branch or office of the Federal Government is in power, the Republican Party decided to stretch out its hands and deny itself the platform upon which it was resoundingly elected.

Only the clubbish ways of the Senate can explain why a party would turn electoral victory into procedural defeat. Frankly, we simply do not believe that the Democratic Party and Ralph Neas would be as receptive to our concerns had they the overwhelming majority the R’s now enjoy.

The best thing for the nation and the Democratic Party right now would be a solid realization of the fact that they are out of power. By giving up what they need not, the Senate Republicans have further built up the myth of continuing power and given the opposition a much needed morale boost and status increase. One we think the Republicans will come to despair of later.

Moran’s Interview

The interview last week with Terry Moran with Hugh Hewitt, transcribed by the invaluable Radioblogger, was intensely fascinating. It began very tense, as the two men faced off in their corners, each feeling aggrieved by the other. However, by the second segment it was clear that some underbrush had been cleared and that they had found common ground on which to converse on the wider subject of the MSM and its role in American society and the world.

Moran’s statements were nothing less than revelatory and should be mandatory reading for any who still deny—in the face of overwhelming evidence—that the MSM is cynical, anti-American and very, very liberal.

We thought that Moran was a pretty stand-up guy, both for agreeing to come on the Hugh’s show and for agreeing to stay on for three segments. He also sounded and came across like a typical journalist: intelligent, but with an over sensitivity about the press’ prerogatives. He also had a truly bizarre, if typical, view of what is permissible for a President to say. The neutral President, who has no opinions and can never say anything like a normal human being, is a relatively new phenomena. One wonders what Teddy Roosevelt would have made of Moran’s insistence that the President cannot criticize the press without it being demagogy.

Moran has been the White House correspondent for ABC News for 5 years now. He is, in other words, in a position to know what he is talking about. So, let’s let him tell his own story in his own words:

On the anti-military mentality in the MSM:

It comes from, I think, a huge gulf of misunderstanding, for which I lay plenty of blame on the media itself. There is, Hugh, I agree with you, a deep anti-military bias in the media. One that begins from the premise that the military must be lying, and that American projection of power around the world must be wrong. I think that that is a hangover from Vietnam, and I think it's very dangerous. That's different from the media doing it's job of challenging the exercise of power without fear or favor.

On whether or not the White House Press Corps hates President Bush:

I would say the answer to that is yes.

On what percentage of the White House Press Corps voted for Sen. Kerry:

But I would certainly say, you know, it's hard for me, but I'd guess it's in...upwards of 70, maybe higher. You know, it's hard for me to say, but I would say very, very high.

On whether CBS used fake documents in a hit-piece aimed at President Bush:

Absolutely.

On the web sites he reads regularly:

I always start out at Instapundit, I take a look at LGF, I look at Kos, on the other side, and Joshua Micah Marshall. I'm not a frequenter of your blog, but every once in a while, I'll get linked to it. My brother has a blog, Right Wing Nut House.

Keep up the good work, Charles! You’re reaching people!

The candor and intelligence of this discussion makes it a must read. You can access the entire interview here.

The Indispensability of Rhino Records

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away there was an arty punk scene in Los Angeles. And the record label of that arty scene was Dangerhouse Records. Thanks to the good folks at Rhino Records, some of the early singles on that legendary brand are now available on compilation.

The Weirdos, The Avengers, The Bags, The Alleycats, X, The Randoms, The Dils (okay, they were Maoists, but still…) and, our personal favorite, the Deadbeats. Hell, it even has the long-lost, but not forgotten, Black Randy and the Metrosquad.

It’s the soundtrack to our long-lost youth and we loved every minute of it. Available (both parts one and two) on I-Tunes or by order direct from Rhino.

Gaming Sunday

Dungeon Lords

All it takes is one spectacularly bad game to ruin even the best of reputations. And the best of reputations is exactly what D.W. Bradley had. The creative force behind Wizardry VI and Wizardry VII—thought by many CRPG purists to be the height of old school gaming goodness—has tossed his good name and the name of his development company, Heuristic Park, into the trash.

Bradley’s new and widely-anticipated game, Dungeon Lords, was released earlier this month. It became apparent within hours, in this age of the Internet, that the game was released both untried and unready. In the words of the Gamer’s Hell reviewer:

A forum member on Dungeon Lord's official website posted a subject “I have only one suggestion for the game” that when clicked on gave the message “Finish it before shipping it.” So simple, yet so true. Dungeon Lords is probably the least finished game to ever be shipped for PC, excepting Battlecruiser 3000 AD, a title that will probably hold the honour for as long as PC gaming exists. Very few features in Dungeon Lords work, and the few that do, work poorly. It's quite sad, too, because underneath the ancient technology, thousands of bugs, flawed combat system, long load times, pathetic AI, poor performance, dated graphics, promised features that have gone missing, and a complete, total, and savage disregard for PC gamers as a group, there is a fun game in here, simply because it's an RPG designed by someone who loves a good dungeon crawl. I'll give him one thing: D.W. Bradley's games have been consistent. They've been consistently buggy headache machines built on dated tech that possess great character customization and tons of extended dungeon crawling for the dice tossing dragon slayer. Dungeon Lords is no different, it's just got better character customization, more dungeon crawling, and more bugs and missing features than you've ever seen in your life. I'm a huge fan of Bradley's past work, but this is just too much: After this travesty, his reputation is gone.

What is going on here? Nothing less than a dynamic that threatens to kill computer gaming if business as usual continues like this. Publishers sign contracts with developers for delivery of a game by a certain date. Due to the demands of their business, the publisher has got to have that game. Due to the uncertainty of development, and a nasty tendency to underestimate how long it will take to finish a product in today’s intensely high-tech environment, that delivery date is always a bit fuzzy. But, at some point, the publisher demands the game and, apparently, everyone seems to think that patching is some magic solution.

One simply cannot sell at retail an unfinished product and hope to survive in today’s competitive environment. Troika—a repeat offender at the above syndrome—shut down due to this, and now it looks like Heuristic Park will be the next victim.

We also noted wryly this morning that publisher DreamCatcher’s Dungeon Lords forum is down, for “maintenance,” and this after it had been wiped of content a few times. That’s not going to stop the word getting out, guys. Here’s hoping both suffer a well-deserved financial disaster, if only to provide a cautionary tale to the others.

E3

Good gamers everywhere know that this is E3 season, where just about everyone who is everyone in the industry goes to Los Angeles to preview their upcoming titles. Here is a quick run-through of the titles that have caught our eye this year:

-- Lord of the Rings Online: Formerly known as Middle Earth Online (a name we vastly preferred, though we understand the marketing strategy behind the name change), this MMORPG will be set (at least to start) in the region around Bree in a time before the decisive struggle of the Third Age. Turbine, the driving force behind Asheron’s Call, is the developer and so far, so good. We have a feeling this game is going to be pure gold, and we only wish Turbine’s stock was publicly traded. Expect an opportunity to run through the hills of Bree as a Ranger or an Elven warrior sometime later this year or early 2006.

-- Oblivion: Bethesda Softwork’s much-anticipated next step in the classic Elder Scrolls series (Daggerfall, Morrowind) looks like a marriage between Morrowind and the latest technology. Bethesda has quietly become one of the most successful development houses in the modern era and there is no reason to expect that this title won’t continue that trend. And speaking of Bethesda, they are also showcasing….

-- Fallout 3: Need we say more?

We Finally Say Something Good About Germans

They gave us both Gothic and Gothic II, which we've been re-exploring lately. All current CRPG developers should be forced to play both of these and try to figure out why they are so stunningly popular despite the unfamiliar controls and the aged graphics.

Here's a hint: story, character development, and a realistic-looking world.

Come to think of it, it appears George Lucas could have used the same lesson a few years back.