Moral Authority

“Only really the UN can do that job,” whined former International Development Secretary Clare Short. “It is the only body that has the moral authority. But it can only do it well if it is backed up by the authority of the great powers.”

She's angry because President Bush has organized a Southeast Asian relief effort separate from the UN. Ms. Short thinks we should just give our money to the UN and let them do whatever they think best for it.

This, I remind you, from the organization that wastes billions every year in a bloated bureaucracy, admininstered the corrupt Oil-For-Food program, sat idly by during the Rwanda genocide, continues to sit idly by during the Darfur genocide, and has been accused of raping and pillaging in countries where it is supposed to be keeping peace.

Moral authority my ass!

Truly Stupid Bigotry

I remember once when a southern Klansman refused a blood transfusion because the hospital could not guarantee that it was free of "colored blood."
This sounds every bit as stupid to me.

Israel has cancelled plans to send a 150-person rescue mission to Sri Lanka after the devastated island objected to the military composition of the team.
The delegation - including 60 soldiers - had been due to set off on Tuesday to help after Sunday's tsunami disaster.

Calling Terry McAwful

Is Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych a large "D" Democrat? He's acting like it. After trying to win through fraud, now he's trying to steal the election with lawyers.

Hey! Terrorist! Attack This Plane!

Remember when the press was on our side - our own press anyway. Remember the old days when the watch word was "loose lips sink ships?"
Well, those days are gone as the Washington Post blows the cover entirely off a CIA operation, telling all it could learn about an airplane used to transport terrorists. The Post even give the tail number.
Shameful. It reminds me of the time when CNN's Bernard Shaw refused to talk to military intelligence, telling them what he saw in Iraq.

Couldn't Find Their A** With Both Hands

Every close election, we hear the Democrats trying to lower the standard for what constitutes a legal vote, because Democrats have such a hard time following the simple instructions on a ballot.
Now it seems that Democrats cannot follow simple instruction on how to count ballots. King County (WA) keeps "discovering" new ballots that it wrongly failed to count in the election.
Turns out that the poll workers were instructed on how to verify ballots back in May. But, as King County is predominantly Democratic, the workers couldn't follow those simple instructions.

The Russert Effect

John McCain loves being the center of attention. He loves seeing his name on the front page of the Washington Post and the New York Times. And, he loves being on "Meet the Press."
And he knows that the surest way to achieve all three is to align himself with Democrats against this own party.
It's a bit like Pavlov's dogs, but I call it, the "Russert Effect," and he's at it again.

Just two weeks after the election, he renewed his opposition to Bush's policy on global warming and urged action against greenhouse gases. He went to Europe and promoted a harder line against Russian President Vladimir Putin than the administration has voiced, and he returned home to take a harder line against steroid use in baseball than the administration had done.

I don't suppose it's worth mentioning that John McCain voted against the global warming treaty in 1999. But then, he couldn't get his name in the paper by voting against a Democratic president.

They're Begging For It

For four years now, Democrats have been abusing Senate rules to obstruct judicial nominations. It cost their leader his job. But they're threatening to resume their childish misbehavior when the new Senate convenes.
Republicans are conisdering the so-called "nuclear option" that would circumvent Senate rules (not any real law on the Constitution) and bring judicial nominations to a up or down majority vote - which in no way conflicts with the original intent.
Democrats are hopping mad at the prospect. But, they once did exactly the same thing when they were in charge. And somehow, the republic survived.

Boarding Rows 111 through 114!

Air travel is already a pain the butt. It starts in the terminal, where there are never enough seats to accomodate all the passengers on a flight and where it takes forever to board, particularly when overhead space is exhausted and the excess baggage has to be checked. Finally, once the plane lands, you wrestle with a couple of hundred other people trying to extract your carry on baggage and shuffle out of the plane.

How can we possibly make this worse? How about we build a behemothian plane that holds 1000 passengers?

Airbus has done just that. I personally do not look forward to showing up at the airport two hours early, then stand around waiting for the plane to board, then taking a full hour or more to board. Then, imagine taking half an hour to leave the plane. And, can you imagine baggage pickup for a flight that just brought 1000 passengers into an airport simultaneously?

I can't. I won't participate.

The Eternal Election

At least nine different times now, King County has yanked a rabbit out of its had for Democrat gubernatorial candidate Christine Gregoire. Now they're trying to insert hundreds of new votes (the number grows almost daily) into the recount. That's in clear violation of the state constitution.

One just told them to go fly a kite. So the Democrats are to get the state's Supreme Court to follow the example of the Florida State Supreme Court and create new law that suits their purposes.

Now We Know Just How Evil Hitler Really Was

He evaded taxes! Can you believe it!

Will Ewe Dub Be Satisfied With Solid Citizens and Real Student Athletes?

If recently hired University of Washington head football coach Ty Willlingham is to fulfill his promise to restore Husky football to the good old days, then he’ll have to lower his standards quite dramatically. Willingham has earned a reputation as a coach who will not compromise academics or off the field discipline for a win. This has not been the Husky way for some time.
My first thought upon hearing that Ty Willingham was descending to the head coaching position at Ewe Dub was that it will be a little bit harder for me to hate the Huskies from now on. Willingham is renowned for keeping priorities straight – classes first. And that could make Ewe Dub a model for college athletics – assuming of course that he isn’t quickly fired for not winning enough games fast enough.
Huskies are accustomed to winning, but neither academics nor discipline have any place in Husky football tradition. The Huskies used to field a pretty good football team, but at the cost of corrupting the university.
This is the university at which the legendary and still revered coach Don James once enticed a convicted felon to sign a letter of intent while he still sat in his jail cell. But even that wasn’t enough to get James fired. No, the university regretfully asked him to resign because of a multitude of indiscretions that earned Ewe Dub NCAA punishment.
And as bad as that was, Husky sports managed to find room to go downhill since James’s departure.
I confess to having a distaste for college sports in general as I believe that they are corrosive to a university’s core purpose. Nobody should be admitted to any college or university unless they satisfy that college’s academic standards – and that doesn’t mean a 38-inch vertical leap. Once in school, all students, whether they can bench press 350 pounds or run a 4.3 40 should be held to the same academic standards. That’s just not the case in big time college athletics anymore.
College coaches often recruit kids who are ill suited to college life, either temperamentally or academically. Then the university pampers them through their terms of eligibility without placing too many demands upon them to learn either coursework or good citizenship. As one member of the WSU athletic program once told me, football players and the general population do not mix well.
Willingham has a reputation for attracting quality student-athletes to his program and sending them out as solid, well-educated citizens. Will this sit well with the alumni? If he wins it will. Otherwise, they’ll be calling for his head.
If forced to choose between a 7 win, 5 loss season with scholarly linebackers, and a bush league version of the Oakland Raiders or Baltimore Ravens that challenges for the national title, Dawg fans will choose the latter.
I sincerely hope that Dawg Town under Willingham will not repeat the shabby days of Don James. And if he can win without the sleaze of Rick New Weasel, I could imagine myself wishing Ewe Dub success.
Ignorant of Ewe Dub’s sordid athletic history, Willingham vowed to restore the Huskies to their former glory. Curiously speaking of himself in the third person, Willingham said, “Tyrone Willingham is a great fit for the University of Washington. It has been noted that he has integrity, is straightforward, intelligent, has the best interest of the players at heart, has been successful, developed young people. All that says he is a great fit for this university and I hope a great fit for any university.”
Quick somebody find me evidence that any of this (other than winning games) has any tradition at Ewe Dub. Integrity? Is straightforward? Please recall the aforementioned Don James and Rick NewWeasel. Has the best interest of his players at heart? Isn’t this the school that drugged members of its women’s softball team as though they were racehorses, so that they could play through injuries?
No, Ty Willingham will not bring anything back to Ewe Dub. If he succeeds in creating a culture of academic excellence and good citizenship, he’ll be bringing something new and fresh to the Ewe.
On the other hand, if he doesn’t win fast enough, I fear that high graduation rates won’t save him.

Come On In, The Water's Warm

Peggy Noonan invites Democrats to join the Christian faith. Or, at least stop their jihad against Christianity.

"Stop the war on religious expression in America. Have Terry McAuliffe come forward and announce that the Democratic Party knows that a small group of radicals continue to try to "scrub" such holidays as Christmas from the public square. They do this while citing the Constitution, but the Constitution does not say it is wrong or impolite to say "Merry Christmas" or illegal to have a crèche in the public square. The Constitution says we have freedom of religion, not from religion. Have Terry McAuliffe announce that from here on in the Democratic Party is on the side of those who want religion in the public square, and the Ten Commandments on the courthouse wall for that matter. Then he should put up a big sign that says "Merry Christmas" on the sidewalk in front of the Democratic National Committee Headquarters on South Capitol Street. The Democratic Party should put itself on the side of Christmas, and Hanukkah, and the fact of transcendent faith."

Stupid Democrat Tricks

Every election we hear stories about how Democratic voters spoiled their own ballots and the Democratic Party sues to get those spoiled ballots counted.

Now we learn that, not only are Democrats to dumb to follow simple instructions on the ballots, but Democratically run voting districts are a mess too.

In Seattle, Democratic officials in that heavily Democratic city keep "discovering" new votes for Democrat Chistine Gregoire. They want us to believe that they failed to count the ballots originally because they were just too stupid to count them in the first place.

Vaporize 'Em

Syria seems not to have noticed that John Kerry lost the election and if flagrantly supporting the insurgency in Iraq.

Much of the problem here is that the Syrians don't take U.S. threats seriously. "Congressional delegations continue to come," Mr. Assad said earlier this year, "and there are negative declarations and positive declarations. But to date, nothing is clear." The speculation in the Arab media is that U.S. sanctions were deliberately toothless--a sop, as one Lebanese columnist put it, to "the Jewish lobby and a few hard-liners in the U.S. administration." Mr. Assad's calculation is that the U.S. is too tied down in Iraq to entertain any action against Syria.

Clearly, John Kerry's diplomatic methods don't carry much weight in the Arab world. It might be time to send Syria a reminder of the Bush Doctrine.

I'm Back

I hadn't intended to take a month off after the election. It just worked out that way. I made a trip to El Salvador and my hotel did not have the high speed internet access I was promised and so I could not administer this site from there. And besides, I worked like a slave when I was down there.

When I got back I had a huge backlog of work to catch up on, so I focused on that. Now I have malaria and really don't have much energy.

But, excuses aside, I'm going to start posting again. Sorry liberals!