Jonah Goldberg: "A Contrary Indicator"

There is a wonderful scene in my old favorite movie Little Big Man where Custer asks Dustin Hoffman about going into Little Big Horn. Custer doesn't trust Hoffman because he is a white man who was captured by the Indians and then once again rejoined the cavalry as a scout.

Hoffman warns Custer not to go into Little Big Horn because he tells Custer, there will be Indians all along the ridges who will swoop down and kill all of the cavalry.

But Custer cannot be swayed by the scout played by Hoffman and assumes that since the scout had been living with the Indians, he should do the opposite. He figured Hoffman was trying to trick him, so he decided the wise thing was to go ahead and go into Little Big Horn. The rest as they say is 'history'.

Jonah Goldberg, the National Review Columnist has been wrong so many times, it is useful to read what he has to say, to find out the truth on matters.

Today, Jonah took the opportunity to throw some more mud at Senator John Kerry. Jonah Goldberg doesn't think Senator Kerry should run for President.

He states:

"The simple fact is that John Kerry never should have gotten the nomination in 2004 anyway. He stumbled into it after tripping over the crater left behind by Howard Dean's self-destruction. Democrats figured Kerry was the most "electable," forgetting that electability is often cover for spinelessness and, in voters, is usually based on the hope that someone else will like the guy even if you don't. Quick: Ask yourself what Kerry has accomplished after more than two decades in the Senate. Kerry himself couldn't even come up with a good answer to that. Even former Democratic National Committee chair Terry McAuliffe labels the Kerry campaign a case of "political malpractice."

In 2008, the election won't be a referendum on President Bush, and without Kerry's advantage of being "not Bush," renominating a dull-witted Boston aristocrat would be malpractice on the order of picking an accountant as your heart surgeon.

Democrats convinced themselves that Kerry was a war hero slandered by the Swift Boat Vets for Truth and Karl Rove. But the basic fact is that Kerry was a unique case. Fine, he served honorably in Vietnam. Good for him. But he returned home to disparage the troops and the United States and build a lifelong political career not on his service abroad but on his protest at home."

John Kerry earned the nomination in 2004.

It is amusing how this right-wing political pundit turns two decades of experience in the Senate as some sort of liability.

Terry McAuliffe attacked John Kerry's campaign strategy. He did not attack Senator Kerry.

Dull-witted? Aristocrat? Democrats convinced he was a war hero? Slandered? Do we need to debunk the lies once again?

But Goldberg has been wrong on so many other things.

Eavesdropping abuse by the President? What did Goldberg have to say?

"At first, I thought this NSA story was a big deal on the merits, and I wrote that Bush should have asked to fix the law rather than work his way around it. I still think that, in a perfect world, the White House would try to get the laws it needs from Congress. Nevertheless, after 9/11, Congress declared that "the president has authority under the Constitution to take action to deter and prevent acts of international terrorism" and authorized "all necessary and appropriate force" against al Qaeda. That strikes me as ample justification for tapping phone calls between al Qaeda associates in Cleveland and Cairo."

Wrong Mr. Goldberg. The President was required to go to the FISA courts. Violation of laws are indeed impeachable offenses when done by the President. In our country nobody is above the law.

And what did Goldberg have to say about Abu Ghraib? Did he condemn the abuse?

No. Jonah was wrong again! The biggest crime he could see was that the press actually released the photos.

"The Abu Ghraib images are so shocking, so offensive, and so sensational they will in all likelihood make America's job in Iraq and the Middle East immeasurably harder for a long time to come. That means more American deaths — such as Berg's — more Iraqi deaths and a diminished future for that country and that region.

I don't support censorship. The government has almost no role in this. But if CBS showed the same self-restraint it did for, say, the Danny Pearl video, it could still have reported the story shedding light instead of heat.

I originally wrote that CBS should be "ashamed" for airing the photos. I now concede that might be too harsh. But, in conceding that, I'm showing more reflection and self-examination than I've seen from the entire media establishment amid the Abu Ghraib hysteria."

And what about Global Warming? Is Jonah alarmed or annoyed at the "liberals"?

Jonah stated, discussing Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth:

"Hence the irony of the title An Inconvenient Truth. It is the green scare that has no patience for inconvenient truths. For example, Gore blames the disappearing snows of Mt. Kilimanjaro on global warming, but a study in Nature magazine identified the clear-cutting of surrounding moisture-rich forests as the culprit. In the famously fact-checked New Yorker, editor David Remnick pens a love letter to Gore in which he laments that Earth will "likely be an uninhabitable planet" if we don't heed Gore's jeremiads. Oh ... come ... on!

This is just a small taste of the millenarian battiness running through the green scare. Sure, a one- or two-degree-per-century rise in average global temperatures may have unpleasant consequences — with some pleasant ones as well — but in what study did The New Yorker's fact-checkers verify that Earth will become uninhabitable? Moreover, the greens' proposed solutions to global warming are even more otherworldly. Reducing global carbon-dioxide emissions to 60 percent of 1990 levels before 2050, while China, India, and (hopefully) Africa modernize, is inconceivable, ill-conceived and also immoral because it would consign generations to poverty."

Well wrong again Mr. Goldberg! Global warming is real and the Arctic ice is melting!

How about torture? Goldberg is wrong again! He uses 'double-speak' to justify torture by Americans.

He writes:

"Sullivan complains that calling torture “aggressive interrogation techniques” doesn’t make torture any better. Fair enough. But calling aggressive interrogation techniques “torture” when they’re not doesn’t make such techniques any worse.

Still, there is a danger that over time we may not be able to tell the difference.

Taboos are the glue of civilization because they define what is beyond the pale in ways mere reason cannot. A nation that frets about violating the rights of murder-plotters when the bomb is ticking is unlikely to violate the rights of decent citizens when the bomb is defused.

I suspect this is what motivates so many human-rights activists to exaggerate the abuses and minimize their effectiveness. Slippery-slope arguments aren’t as powerful as moral bullying. Still, their fears aren’t unfounded. Once taboos have been broken, a chaotic search ensues for where to draw the new line, and that line, burdened with precedent and manufactured by politics, rarely holds as firmly as the last. But that is where history has brought us."

How about a "little dunk" Jonah?

Or Katrina? Was it really the biggest failure of the Press as you suggest or perhaps the disaster that still remains of New Orleans is a disaster that should be put at the feet of our own government? Particular Mr. Bush in Washington!

Goldberg writes:

"On a recent edition of Larry King Live, liberal Republican Congressman Christopher Shays, eager to put some distance between himself and the president, explained what he thinks is George Bush’s real albatross. “Let me just say that I think the thing that has hurt the president most is not Iraq. It’s Katrina,” Shays said. “People saw an arrogant but confident administration, but when they saw Katrina, they saw arrogance and frankly incompetence, and that was very unsettling.”

This sentiment is pervasive among Democrats and the press. Time writes matter-of-factly that “the government’s inept response to Hurricane Katrina” is a major liability for Republicans in ‘06. Howard Dean and other Democrats mention Katrina as a staple talking point. That’s certainly fair, given that the bar is set pretty low for what constitutes fair in American politics these days. But it is worth reminding people that the Katrina they think they remember wasn’t the Katrina that actually took place. In fact, it is difficult to think of a bigger media scandal in my lifetime than the fraudulently inaccurate coverage of Hurricane Katrina."

Fraudulently inaccurate coverage? Have you been to New Orleans recently? While media mistakes were made, it is easy to attack the messenger rather than the underlying failure of President Bush. Sort of like attacking the poor fellow who used his cell phone to record the botched hanging of Saddam rather than criticizing the event itself.

Goldberg is even opposed to the government negotiating with drug companies for lower prices for seniors. What is wrong with a little negotiation like Wal-Mart does with its own suppliers. Jonah is wrong again and writes:

"The subtlety of mind behind the Democratic push to have the government “negotiate” — i.e. dictate — drug prices can be summarized in a statement by Robert M. Hayes, president of something called the Medicare Rights Center: “It only makes sense that if the industries do less well, the taxpayers and the consumers will do better.”

By all means then, let us burn these industries down and salt the earth where they stood, for then we will live in consumer nirvana!"

No Jonah. Not destroying drug companies. How about just asking them to give American seniors the best price they can? Why must Canadians have better prices and the 'free-traders' are all in a twit trying to prevent 're-importation' of drugs?

So when Jonah Goldberg says John Kerry shouldn't run, I fee confident knowing his prior track record, that this is a positive endorsement of Senator John Kerry!

Kerry is indeed a true war hero who has spent twenty years in the Senate in service to America! Senator Kerry understands what it is like to be sent into war for a mistake and will be working to correct our mistaken foreign policy. He understands the importance of healthcare for all Americans, he understands the need to have an environmental policy that addresses Global Warming! He is prepared to meet the needs of cities like New Orleans when they face national disasters. He will be appointing qualified people not cronies to higher office.

And above all he shall be following the dictates of the Constitution!

"Run John, Run!" We have got your back!

Bob