January 31, 2004 by s.z.

The Old "It's Not Me, It's the Words" Defense Speaking of Andrew Sullivan, he got busted (again!) for having misread (or failed to read) the item he was criticizing.  His defense (well, he says it's not an excuse, "just an explanation")? I intended "nary" to mean "barely." My original version of the item - on my draft document sheet - says simply 'not.'  Realizing that was technically not true, I changed it to "nary" on the blog, thinking that would cover it.  Not according to the dictionary.  My bad. Here endeth the penance.  My nit is hereby picked. So, since Andrew doesn't know what words mean, we will never speak of this matter again. 10:56:02 PM

Like a Fox Reality Show That Leaves You Feeling Annoyed, Appalled, and Embarassed for the Participants Like I said earlier, I don't consider Frank Gaffney's article about the Islamist Fifth Column to be the most disturbing thing David Horowitz's FrontPage Magazine has ever published.  I found Gaffney's piece charmingly wacky in its conspiracy theories, and so in keeping with the rest of the FrontPage editorial tone. I did, however, find the FrontPage interview of Andrew Sullivan rather unnerving.  Not that Andrew said anything unexpected.  No, revealing that Andrew loves "pop culture, gay culture, and sex," and enjoys "movies and Shakespeare and bodybuilding and his dog" was about as edgy as it got.  Oh, we also learned that Andrew has never really had a place he could call home, a place where someone didn't dispute his right to be there.  So, the usual. No, what I found disturbing is that FrontPage is still letting Jamie Glazov do interviews.  You might remember Jamie from the Christopher Hitchens interview, in which he asked such questions as: When a leftist leaves the ranks, he often loses many, if not all, of his friends. In my own experience with leftists, I have learned that when they “like” people, they do not like them for who the people are as actual human beings, but for how their structure of political ideals conforms to their own.  If you are a leftist in a leftist crowd and you all of a sudden like George W. Bush and love capitalism, chances are you will soon be made into a non-person. You were once close friends with individuals such as Alexander Cockburn, Sidney Blumenthal, etc. But it appears not any more. Did your leftist friends abandon you? Or the other way around? Was this dislocation hurtful to you? Did it surprise you?  And he's still at it!  This is an example of what he asked Andrew: FP: What do you think of the Left’s behaviour in all of this, especially since 9/11? What explains the psychology of people in the West who hope for the victory of Hitlerian figures like bin Laden and Hussein over the United States and the freedom and prosperity it represents? Who in the Western Left "hoped for the victory of Hilterian figures like bin Laden and Hussein over the United States"?  Can anybody name even ONE person?  Okay, there probably is one person, even if I'm not aware of him or her, but what kind of a question is this?  It would be like if I were interviewing a left-leaning blogger, say Jesse of Pandagon, and asked him, "What do you think of the Right's lynching of African-Americans?  What explains the psychology of Republicans and members of the Christian right who secretly meet, don sheets, and string up members of other races?"  (Of course, Jesse would confront me on the unwarranted assumptions included in that question.  As for Andrew, he said, "I despair. For me, it revealed that the primary motivation of the far Left is hatred of the United States. And the soft Left is too cowardly in many instances to expose and oppose this.") Jaime got in more of these "This weird and unfounded scenario is how it is, n'est-ce pas?" questions, such as: FP: What do you think of the tragedy of how leaders of the gay community in San Francisco allowed the deadly virus to spread in the name of “gay liberation”? As you know, David Horowitz was among the first to point out how radical groups exploited the AIDS epidemic for their own political agenda.  When the virus in San Francisco could have been quarantined at a crucial time in the 1980s, gay radicals refused to adopt traditional public health methods to fight the spread of the virus and insisted on keeping the gay bathhouses open etc.  In doing so, they perpetrated a human catastrophe. Horowitz took a lot of flack for pointing this out back then, but now we know that he was 100% right.  What do you think of all this?  We see an analogy here to the leftist romance itself – how humans are sacrificed on the altar of utopian ideals.  Correct? What we need is Hamilton Burger to object, and angrily interject "Interviewer is leading the witness!," and for the stern judge to ask Jaime if he's asking a question or testifying.  I know that Jaime is the mag's managing editor, and presumably muchly loved by whatever right-wing foundation paying the bills, but geez, doesn't FrontPage have a student intern or somebody who could take over the interviewing?  Because this is starting to creep me out. I just read the Orcinus piece about the psychology of those who join groups or  movements which advocate a black/white view of the world.  It's usually so they can feel good about themselves by projecting  all badness they see within themselves onto others.  This scenario seems to fit Jaime's situation all too well.  David quotes Erik Erikson: Social movements with distinctly dualistic worldviews provide psycho-ideological contexts which facilitate attempts to heal the split self by projecting negativity and devalued self-elements onto ideologically devalued contrast symbols.  [snip] Solidarity within the group and the convert's sense of dedication and sacrifice on behalf of group goals may enable him or her to repudiate the dissociated negative (bad, weak or failed) self and the related selfish and exploitative self which they may be aware that others might have perceived. These devalued selves can then be projected on to either scapegoats designated by the group or, more generally, non-believers whose values and behavior allegedly do not attain the exemplary purity and authenticity of that of devotees. And he also mentions what Erikson says about the problems these kinds of people tend to have at work, with family, and in bed (hey, read between the lines).  And frankly, I don't want to know any more than I already do about Jaime's love life.  So, in the name of all that is good and holy, STOP JAIME BEFORE HE INTERVIEWS AGAIN! Thank you. 4:06:35 AM

We Interrupt This Blog For This Important Message: There wus a tottle at school today! There wus a tottle! Its name was Daisy! It was gween, and black, and yewwow, and I got to touch its wock. We now resume regular programming. 2:40:29 AM

The Weekly Team Leader Dear Republican, This week the RNC hosted its annual Winter Meeting in Washington, DC, giving me the opportunity to tell Republicans from all 50 states about the incredible work you and your fellow Team Leaders do every day. I was proud to share stories with our state chairmen, executive directors and national committeemen about your political skill, hard work and dedication. We all realize you are the reason Republicans are the majority party and that you are the reason we’ll still be come Election Day! Sincerely, Whoa, if I'm what you're counting on to stay in power, you're in trouble, dude.  But what's our assignment for this week?   This Week's Action Alert: Call Local Talk Radio Stations Kerry and Dean = Peas and Carrots  Kerry is not the first to dismiss the south. Back on December 10, former Vermont governor Howard Dean told the Today Show, "What I’m going to say to voters everywhere, but particularly Southern voters is, ‘Look, we’re going to have to disagree on some of these issues," drawing the ire of the South Carolina GOP, which called Dean’s ‘Dixie-isms’ "an interesting elitist approach." A mighty charitable assessment indeed. Call your local radio station and remind them of Dean's "Dixie-isms". So, the RNC wants to take out Dean in the South this week.  Interesting.  I don't know exactly what their strategy might be (since Kerry is the front runner and Dean was never supposed to do that well in the North Carolina primary), but I'm sure it's devious. And while reminding my local radio station that Dean isn't in line with the South on all issues isn't going to hurt him much, hey, if Ed commands, I must obey, since I'm the reason the GOP is going to win in 2004. Oh, and by visiting the site, I leared of a way that you can help me to earn 5 GOpoints (good towards cool prizes, such as a hat or a folder)! Submit a Slogan! Calling All Team Leaders - Name That Week! National Voter Registration Week is coming up in March, and the RNC is planning to register voters across the country. All week long we will have events to register new Republicans to help get our GOP candidates elected. The only problem is that we don't have a name for it. Submit in your suggestion below and earn 5 GOPoints! Note you can submit as many ideas as you want, but will only earn GOPoints the first time you fill out this form. If we use your slogan, you will win your choice of Team Leader gear (only 1 though). So, what should "Register Republicans to Vote" week be called?  I will submit the best ideas to the Team Leader Action Center, and if I win the Team Leader gear, I'll let you use it sometimes. 1:38:18 AM

Some People Disturb More Easily Than Others Possibly because they have a head start at being disturbed?  I don't know.  But let's find out! Why We Are Publishing This Article by David Horowitz The article you are about to read is the most disturbing that we at FrontPageMag.com have ever published.  As an Internet magazine, with a wide circulation, we have been in the forefront of the effort to expose the radical Fifth Column in this country, whose agendas are at odds with the nation’s security, and whose purposes are hostile to its own.  In his first address to Congress after 9/11, the President noted that we are facing the same totalitarian enemies we faced in the preceding century.  It is not surprising that their domestic supporters in the American Left should have continued their efforts to weaken this nation and tarnish its image.  Just as there was a prominent internal Fifth Column during the Cold War, so there has been a prominent Fifth Column during the war on terror.   A Fifth Column working to destroy this country?  The American Left helping the same totalitarian enemies as we faced in the last century (i.e., commies and Nazis) to weaken this nation during the War on Terror?  What the hell is going on?  And just what is this most disturbing article ever? Well, it's "A Troubling Influence," a piece by Frank Gaffney exposing Grover Norquist as agent of the Islamist Fifth Column.  And it's LONG!  So, seeing as we are not a serious person, we tried to find a short cut to decide what to make of it. So, based on what we already knew about these people (David Horowitz = a conspiracy-minded crank; Frank Gaffney = a Reagan-era crank; Grover Norquist = a sleazeball), our conclusion without having read it was that Norquist probably is involved in something suspect, but it's nowhere near as bad as what Horowitz and Gaffney were claiming. But we decided that wasn't very responsible of us, so we actually read it.  Like we said, it was long, and it has endnotes, but I think this passage from near the beginning will show you Gaffney's M.O. The association between Grover Norquist and Islamists appears to have started about five years ago, in 1998, when he became the founding chairman of an organization called the Islamic Free Market Institute, better known as the Islamic Institute.1  The Institute’s stated purpose was to cultivate Muslim-Americans and Arab-Americans whose attachment to conservative family values and capitalism made them potential allies for the Republican Party in advance of the 2000 presidential election. If successful, such an outreach effort could theoretically produce a windfall in votes and campaign contributions. Consequently, it enjoyed the early support of Karl Rove, when he was then-Governor Bush’s political advisor, and who knew Norquist from their days in the College Republicans. Unfortunately, some associated with the Islamic Institute evidently had another agenda.  Abdurahman Alamoudi, for one, a self-described “supporter of Hamas and Hezbollah,”2 the prime-mover behind the American Muslim Council (AMC) and a number of other U.S.-based Islamist-sympathizing/supporting organizations, saw in the Islamic Institute a golden opportunity to hedge his bets. For years, Alamoudi had cultivated ties with the Democratic Party and its partisans, and contributed significant amounts to its candidates. These donations had given Alamoudi access to the Clinton White House and enabled him and his associates to secure the right to select, train and certify Muslim chaplains for the U.S. military.3  By the end of the 1990s, an AMC spin-off called the American Muslim Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Council and a like-minded organization, the Islamic Society of North America, were responsible for selecting all U.S. Muslim chaplains. 4  One of these appointees – Army Captain Yousef Yee – has lately been in the news.  Yee has been removed from his duties ministering to Taliban and al-Qaeda detainees at Guantanamo pending military judicial proceedings for, among other alleged misconduct, mishandling classified material. So, to summarize the above if I may, Grover Norquist founded the Islamic Institute, which is some kind of vehicle for him to co-opt Muslims for the Republican cause,make money, and pick up chicks.  But joining his Institute was one Abdurahman Alamoud, "a self-described 'supporter of Hamas and Hezbollah'"! (In that, per the end note, a Customs Officer reviewed a tape of a rally at which Alamoud spoke, presumably in Arabic, during which, per the customs officer, Alamoud said, context unknown, "we are all supporters of Hamas! Allah Akbar.  I wish to add here I am also a supporter of Hezbollah.”) This guy Alamoud had in the past donated money to the Democrats, which allowed him and his associates (whomever they might be) to train and certify Muslim chaplains for the U.S. Military.  Some other "liked-minded" groups did the same thing.  One of those groups certified Yousef Yee as a chaplain, and Yee has been in the news!  For for, among other things, mishandling classified information!  (Oh, and downloading porn and committing adultery.  But he is no longer charged with, as was "in the news" a few months ago, espionage.) What does all of this mean?  Who the heck knows!  But somehow it all leads to mishandling classified information!  Or even worse, downloading porn!  So clearly, it's bad, and Norquist is in the middle of it all. That's basically the technique used throughout the whole article.  And while one does get the feeling that Norquist's accepting funding from the Saudis in exchange for political access to the White House isn't a good thing, this article is hardly the most disturbing thing that FrontPage has ever published. IMHO.  That interview with Christopher Hitchens in which he confessed to feeling "exhilaration" after watching the planes hit the Twin Towers was way more disturbing.  Even the Andrew Sullivan interview (I'll get to that a little later) was more disturbing than the reading this piece from Gaffney alleging that because somebody associated with Norquist's Institution had a father who was the founder of a Wahhabi mosque, it means something sinister about how "Islamists" are out to call Dr. Laura a bitch.  (Note: only the first part of this allegation actually came from Gaffney's article, which shows its limitations) .  And once you read that there is an ongoing feud between Gaffney and Norquist (Gaffney thinks that Norquist is consorting with terrorists! Norquist thinks that Gaffney is a racist jerk!), then the whole thing becomes even less worthy of serious study.   Here, I'll show you what I mean: In the days and months that followed, Grover Norquist followed a strategy more typical of the hard-Left than of a fellow conservative. He made repeated ad hominem attacks on Fox TV and elsewhere against me and anyone else (including noted experts like Daniel Pipes and Steve Emerson) who dared to warn about the dangers of Islamism. Still need convincing about whether or not to be up in arms about this whole Norquist/Islamist threat?  Read this: My beef has never been a personal one with Grover Norquist, as should be obvious from the data assembled in this article which comes from many sources, all of them reputable and unchallenged on the facts.  Rather, my concern is with a far larger, Islamist enterprise in this country that has achieved, particularly over the past ten years, considerable success in creating the makings of a Saudi-funded Fifth Column in America.  This point has been recognized by a number of the most thoughtful and influential conservative commentators of our day, including Cal Thomas, Mona Charen, Michelle Malkin, Kenneth Timmerman; David Frum and David Keene.71  Yes, Gaffney considers Cal Thomas, Mona Charen, Michelle Malkin, et. al. to be among the most "thoughtful and influential conservative commentators of our day."  Well, sure, if you throw in that "conservative" adjective, maybe they are, but I still wouldn't cite THEM if I was trying for credibility. So, my bottom line (yours may vary; like I said previously, I am not a serious person), is that Gaffney is a crank and Norquist is a sleazeball.  I advocate not buying anything from either of them. But as a parting gift, here's a footnote showing the fervor of Gaffney's investigative zeal: 24  [snip] As it happened, on my way to the men’s room that afternoon, I observed al-Arian standing in the elevator after leaving Norquist’s offices.  Moments later, I ran into Saffuri, who had seen al-Arian out then proceeded to the bathroom.  As we stood at adjacent urinals, I asked him whether that was Sami al-Arian I had just seen getting onto the elevator.  He responded by choking.  Not having gotten an intelligible answer, I asked again.  He then lied, saying, “I don’t think so.”  When subsequently queried about the al-Arian visit by a reporter, he acknowledged that it had occurred, then offered a different falsehood – claiming that the professor had merely stopped by to drop off some literature, an action that generally does not take two-and-a-half hours to perform.  After they make the movie of this column (suggested titles: A Troubling Influence of COMMIE ARAB TERRORISTS!  or The Hunt for Crescent Moon Grover Norquist), I think the urinal scene will be the clip they show at the Academy Awards ceremony. So, read Gaffney's article and make up your own mind.  Or don't.  Whatever.  Just don't let David Horowitz be on the Dennis Miller show anymore, because THAT was really troubling. 12:52:36 AM