PostWatch

I Don't Think This Is What The Post Means

But the homepage headline on tonight's post.com story about John Roberts got it right: Roberts Backed Limits on Bias. That's the headline for the story at washingtonpost.com at around 10 pm; when you click on it you get Charter Member of Reagan Vanguard where we learn, among other things, that he challenged affirmative action. Yep, backed limits on bias, even if it's the kind the Post likes.

Either that or there's a headline writer facing a very long day tomorrow.

By the way, this may be what became of the Amy Goldstein story for which Hugh Hewitt required a live, on-the-air broadcast interview, which Goldstein inexplicably declined.  Goldstein shares a byline on this story with R. Jeffrey Smith and Jo Becker.

UPDATE: Yeah, the intended gist is in a subhed, later in the story: Rein in Bias Remedies.

The remedy for bias? Bias.

Late Hat Tip

"Compelling, and rich."

(Thanks to NRO's Stephen Spruiell for the plug.)

For the Bedridden

Since otherwise you shouldn't be reading blogs on a Saturday.... an interesting discussion, despite my participation in it, on interviewing sources and what should and shouldn't be disclosed at any given time. The genesis is here (concerning Amy Goldstein of the Washington Post and Hugh Hewitt of... Hugh Hewitt.

Slow News Saturday

I hope, anyway, in the Metro section.

PostWatch is primarily a Monday-through-Friday operation, when I have any sense, but I note a very strange story worthy of a posting by Soccer Dad:  Without a Doubt, Ehrlich Has a Way With 1 Word by Matthew Mosk. I think it's supposed to be a harmless little feature, about how Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich uses the word "obviously" all the time, and Mosk quotes a friend of Ehrlich's plus his press secretary. But the framing is a little hostile. Incessant Utterance's Meaning Not So Clear, the subhed reads. Later:

George Lakoff, a University of California Berkeley linguist who has been teaching Democrats how to better harness their words to be more persuasive, said that Ehrlich may well have come by it honestly.

Repetition of such words, he said, are common with certain personalities. "It's a matter of intimidation. It says, 'If this isn't obvious to you, you're an idiot.' "

Well. Now that you mention it.

Got 'Em All

Probably. BBC:

All four failed London bomb suspects are thought to be in custody following armed raids in the UK capital and Rome.

One of two London arrests was the man wanted for an attempt to bomb a bus, the other a suspect in one of the failed Tube attacks.

A third suspect was already being held following his arrest on Wednesday.

Police said a fourth suspect arrested in Rome and named as Somali-born UK citizen Hussain Osman, was "of interest" to the inquiry....

And if you were planning on a certain type of summer in Karachi, forget it. Also BBC:

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf says all foreign students at madrassas, or religious schools, some 1,400 pupils, must leave the country.

"Any (foreigners) in the madrassas - even dual nationality holders - will leave Pakistan," Gen Musharraf said.

This is the latest in a series of measures the president has announced in a renewed clampdown on extremism....

 

The Honeymoon Continues

The White House press room must be such a pleasant place to work:

Q Senator Frist said today that there were supposed to be 78 stem cell lines after the August 9th decision, and there's only 22 available today, and some of those have degraded to the point that they're not useful. So how do you square those numbers?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I just pointed out -- because what you can do from those stem cells that are available is derive additional lines. And that's why I pointed out that there's 600-some lines that are already being used right now. There are an additional 3,000 more that are going to be available for this kind of research. The fact of the matter is, we're still in the early stages of the research.

Now I want to back up, because I do think it's important to talk about the accomplishments. Maybe you don't want to talk about it, because a number of people in the media were saying just two months ago --

Q Don't start with that.

MR. McCLELLAN: No, let's start with that.

Q Don't take me on like I don't want to talk about it. That's ridiculous. You want to make your statement, make your statement. I was asking you a specific question on a specific issue, and don't try to turn this into a screed about the media.

MR. McCLELLAN: Then don't make a broad statement, like you did.

Q I corrected myself. I meant on this issue.

MR. McCLELLAN: Of course you don't want to talk about it, because you don't want the American people to hear about the great progress that we're making on the legislative front.

Q I thought I heard your opening statement pretty clearly.

MR. McCLELLAN: I'm sure you'll be reporting on it later tonight.

Q Watch the broadcast tomorrow.

TIVO'd I'm sure...

The World Is A Big Place

It's always useful to be reminded that there really are people who think the entire Muslim world can be divided into the following categories: terrorists,collaborators, sympathizers, cowards, or MINOs (murderers in name only); as shown by some of the commenters in this lively thread over at Little Green Footballs.

Michael Graham, if you left immediately it would not be soon enough.

Not in the Post Watch: Nukes & Taiwan

Bearing in mind there are different factions in China. I hope:

China stocks nuke as anti-U.S. tactic by the Washington Times' Bill Gertz--

China is building up its nuclear forces as part of a secret strategy targeting the United States, according to a former Chinese diplomat.
    China's strategy calls for "proactive defense," and senior Chinese Communist Party leaders think that building nuclear arms is the key to countering U.S. power in Asia and other parts of the world, said Chen Yonglin, a diplomat who defected to Australia two months ago.
    A recent comment by a Chinese general shows that Beijing's leaders are prepared to launch "a pre-emptive attack on the country considered a huge threat to China," Mr. Chen said.
    Chinese Maj. Gen. Zhu Chenghu told reporters two weeks ago that China is prepared to use nuclear weapons against "hundreds" of U.S. cities if a conflict breaks out over Taiwan....

Mr. Chen, who is visiting the United States and testified before a House committee last week, said that during internal discussions among Communist Party and government leaders and military commanders, military leaders often have urged going to war against Taiwan, a self-governing island -- also known as the Republic of China -- that broke with the mainland in 1949.

"I've heard a lot about the results of those meetings, and most of the military forces leaders advocate the use of force the earlier the better to solve the Taiwan issue," Mr. Chen said.

About That Michael Graham Fellow

Michelle Malkin notes that Michael Islam=Terrorism Graham has been suspended without pay from local radio station WMAL for, and this is delicately put, "bluntly challenging Islam last week." Malkin:

For the record, I do not consider all Muslims terrorists and would not call Islam a "terror organization." But in his own clumsy way, Graham (like Tom Tancredo before him) raises fundamental issues that need to be tackled head on, and he is certainly not alone in raising them.

Clumsy is spilling coffee on your boss. No, what Graham said is, "Islam is a terror organization," which makes it impossible to raise fundamental issues with the people who matter here, namely non-terroristic Muslims.

Malkin quotes Steve Emerson on a "bogus" anti-terror fatwa issued by American imams this week:

Nowhere does it condemn the Islamic extremism ideology that has spawned Islamic terrorism. It does not renounce nor even acknowledge the existence of an Islamic jihadist culture that has permeated mosques and young Muslims around the world. It does not renounce Jihad let alone admit that it has been used to justify Islamic terrorist acts. It does not condemn by name any Islamic group or leader. In short, it is a fake fatwa designed merely to deceive the American public into believing that these groups are moderate. In fact, officials of both organizations have been directly linked to and associated with Islamic terrorist groups and Islamic extremist organizations. One of them is an unindicted co-conspirator in a current terrorist case; another previous member was a financier to Al-Qaeda.

Emerson is the gold standard among experts on Islamist terrorism, and one of the reasons we take him seriously is that he doesn't run around saying one billion Muslims belong to a terror organization called Islam. He's a little more specific.

Chrenkoff Today: Double Super-Secret Schoolkids

From Arthur Chrenkoff's Good News from Iraq, Part 31,  also carried by The Opinion Journal and Winds of Change:

Task Force Baghdad Soldiers said they have been overwhelmed and overjoyed by donations Americans have been sending to a program designed to provide school supplies, clothes and toys to Iraqi children.

The Iraqi Schools Program, founded by Maj. Greg Softy in August 2003, is currently being managed by the Soldiers of 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd infantry Division. Softy was the squadron operations officer with 1st Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment, 1st Armored Division.

Iraqi Schools is a widely-successful program that links the American people at home with an actual neighborhood of Iraqis who need help. The enormous generosity of Americans has allowed 3rd Bn., 7th Inf. Reg., known as the Cottonbalers, to distribute vital school supplies, medical supplies and clothing to local Iraqis in need.

As of May 25, 42,682 packages had been received with 1,013,274 pounds of school supplies, clothing, and toys distributed in the West Rashid area of Baghdad.

A million pounds in supplies. Not bad. The website associated with this effort is IraqiSchools.com (not IraqSchools.com--note the missing "i"--which is one of those scamming typo sites, really inexcusable).