The French Deserve it

Eighty six percent of Britons believe that the French deserve their negative stereotype.

"British people should face up to the fact that they have an enormous problem when it comes to the French," said exhibition organiser Richard Kaye, a Brition resident in France.

"The British will make jokes about the French which would, if made to the detriment of other national or ethnic groups, be considered extremely racist and dangerous."

Maybe the French should take a second look at some of the things they say about Americans.

Silence of the Times

New Yorkers who rely upon the New York Times as their sole news source still have no idea that their senior US Senator is embroiled in an identity theft scandal.

And the Times takes itself seriously as the "newspaper of record?"

5 Centuries Until We Run Out

Bad news for environmentalist wackos, but now that he price of oil is so high, it has made oil shale economically exploitable. And we have enough for 500 years.

Kiss My ASS!

Prince Charles is coming to lecture us about our unseemly attitude toward Islam.

"His criticism of America was a general one of the Americans not having the appreciation we have for Islam and its culture," said Khalid Mahmood, a Labor Party member of Parliament who attended the meeting.

I guess we misinterpreted all that dancing in the street after 9/11, using children to carry bombs onto crowded buses, beheading and the like. On the other hand, I'd love to hear his explanation of how, in light of how Islam has presented itself, we could have appreciated Islam true nature any more clearly.

Bloggers Win

For a change, it was clearly the new media that altered the course of history.

The old media admits it.

Bullshit Upon All Of You

Christopher Hitchens chronicles how the Valerie Plame affair reflects poorly on just about everybody who touched it.

Much Better

The first good sign is that the Democrats are unhappy.

"That is not one of the names that I've suggested to the president," Senate Minority leader Harry Reid said. "In fact, I've done the opposite."

Snake Eyes

USA Today hates Condi. Here's proof.

A Great Day For The Democrats!

The breathless and enthusiastic anticipation of the Democratic Party was rewarded this last week. The United States suffered her 2000th combat fatality in Iraq. Within moments, the Democratic National Committee released a statement exploiting the occasion. Of course, it was a tasteless and tactless attack on the president.
"Today, our nation marks one of the saddest days of the war in Iraq, the loss of the 2,000th American soldier there. Each soldier lost on the battlefield leaves behind a family forever marked by tragedy, and scarred with grief. Their loss weighs heavily on the heart of every single American. Today, we are united in reflecting on the suffering and sacrifice of the brave men and women in uniform and their families.
"Sadly, in delivering yet another speech about the war in Iraq that lacked a clear plan for victory, President Bush failed to mention the tragic milestone we mark today. This is not the type of leadership that the brave men and women serving in Iraq and their loved ones here at home expect or deserve from the Commander in Chief. Now, even though we have lost 2,000 servicemen and women and spent more than $218 billion over the last two years, just 800 Iraqi troops have been fully trained. The need for a clear plan for victory in Iraq cound (sic) not be more apparent.”
As they demonstrated during the Paul Wellstone Memorial in 2002, for Democrats, there is no occasion so solemn that it cannot be exploited for partisan political advantage.
Every day during these last few weeks, the press reminded us of the approaching “milestone.” I could easily imagine the press as a bunch of hyperactive 11 year olds in the backseat of a car asking: “Are we there yet? Are we there yet?”
The press could just as easily have honored the sacrifice of our war dead by crediting them for their successes, much as we do for our World War I and II dead. It would have been easy. Only hours before the Democrats’ great moment, it was announced that the Iraqi people had voted by a 4-1 margin to establish their nation as the first Arab democracy. Would it not have made a good story to honor the sacrifice by highlighting the progress being made? For example, the terrorist network trying to thwart democracy could only mount 13 ineffectual election-day attacks. During the January parliamentary election, there were nearly 350. Sounds like success to me.
Winning the war against Islamist terrorism will require draining the cesspools where the contagion thrives. The conditions that gave us Osama Bin Laden are the result of 1000 years of history. If we brought Osama Bin Laden’s head out of Afghanistan on the end of a stick, we would be no less threatened by terrorism. The cesspool would just replace him with another. The founding of a democratic Iraq will establish the necessary tipping point that will steer the Arab world away from the path that created Islamist terrorism. Those who see history slipping away from them are desperate to resist. We should steel ourselves to the inevitability of more deaths and keep in front of us the consequences of failure, or even of doing nothing.
Every death is a tragedy. The first death was a loss. The 138th death was a loss. The 1999th death was just as tragic as the 2000th. But numbers such as those were not as valuable to the left as they lacked the landmark value of the 1000th death, which occurred just before last year’s presidential election, or this week’s 2000th death, which occurred Tuesday, and permitted the press to bury the Iraqi referendum story.
If there is anything that makes the 2000th death more tragic than the others, it’s the way that the left has exploited it. The DNC statement is a lie. The Bush Administration has clearly defined its plan for victory – the establishment of a stable, democratic Iraq. Nobody believed this would be bloodless. No remotely responsible person would have us leave the job undone, as that would condemn Iraqis to civil war with the terrorists as the most likely victors. But, that is precisely what the DNC wishes to achieve by using the sacrifice of the 2000th soldier to undermine the cause for which he gave his life.
Disgusting, just disgusting.

Hire The Lawyers

John Kerry set aside millions of dollars from his presidential bid to pay lawyer fees in case there were states close enough to be challenged in court. Surely, the Democrats could contribute some of that loot to opponents of the Iraqi constitution.

After all, this is another success for Bush's foreign policy and a defeat for the defeatists (aka Democratic Party).

Although, it might be a bit difficult to find enough votes to overturn an election won 79%-21%.

A New Headache For George Galloway

George Galloway has always insisted that he is an honorable man who celebrates brutal dictatorships on the basis of pure principle. But, evidence continues to accumulate that he does it for money.

Maverick British lawmaker George Galloway solicited and received nearly $600,000 in profits for himself and a charity he ran from secret deals under the Iraq oil-for-food program, Senate investigators charged yesterday.
The new charges, released by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs permanent subcommittee on investigations, come five months after Mr. Galloway, a fierce critic of U.S. policy in Iraq, emphatically denied under oath to the panel that he had taken bribes from Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein or participated in any Iraq oil deals.
Subcommittee Chairman Sen. Norm Coleman, Minnesota Republican, said the new findings "clearly demonstrate that the testimony given by Mr. Galloway in May was false and misleading."
"We heard a lot of bombast at that hearing, but Mr. Galloway has been anything but straight with Congress or with the American people," Mr. Coleman told reporters.

Silence of the Times

New Yorkers who rely upon the New York Times as their sole news source still have no idea that their senior US Senator is embroiled in an identity theft scandal in Maryland.

Schumer, who has led campaigns against Wheaties price-gouging and exorbitant ATM fees, recently sponsored legislation to protect corporate consumer data. He's also been pressuring legal publishers to block snoopers from accessing Social Security numbers online.

So imagine the glee of Republicans when they learned last month that two Schumer staffers at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee had hacked into the credit report of Maryland Republican Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, according to committee officials.

"It's an ironic and uncomfortable position for Chuck," said Baruch College politics professor Doug Muzzio.

In July, DSCC research director Katie Barge, 26, and researcher Lauren Weiner, 25, allegedly accessed Steele's report using his Social Security number in preparation for a possible Senate bid by Steele.

Are We There Yet? Are We There Yet?

The left and the mainstream press can hardly wait for the 2000th combat death in Iraq. It's very close now. Al Reuters reports.

Perhaps that 2000th death will happen today, so that Democrtats won't have to suffer too much over this news.

Woohoo! Happy days at DNC Headquarters.

Minutes after the 2000th death was reported, the Democratic National Committee issued a news release calling the announcement a “tragic milestone.”

The Senate scheduled a moment of silence on the Senate floor, led by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., honoring fallen soldiers.

“Today, our nation marks one of the saddest days of the war in Iraq,” committee chairman Howard Dean said in the news release. “Each soldier lost on the battlefield leaves behind a family forever marked by tragedy, and scarred with grief. ...Today, we are united in reflecting on the suffering and sacrifice of the brave men and women in uniform and their families.”

US Troops Slaughter Civilians

Life was much better before the US crusaders invaded.

Silence of the Times

New Yorkers who rely upon the New York Times as their sole news source still have no idea that their senior US Senator is embroiled in a political identity theft scandal in Maryland.

Cat Fight!

Maureen Dowd savages Judy Miller for straying from the Gray Lady's orthodoxy.
Sorry, no direct link. I don't link to pay-per-view sites.

ROP: Baby Used to Conceal Grenade

I am not kidding. A mother actually used her own baby to hide a hand grenade. She insisted that she did not it was there. I presume then that she was also unaware of the 10 kilogram of explosives found in her home after a search.

Next: Osama vs. Bush, the Opera

Why us! The Nancy Kerrigan - Tanya Harding knee-capping episode of 11 years ago is now a musical opera.

I sure wish I was kidding.

Silence Of The Times

This is the "newspaper of record?" New Yorkers who rely upon the New York Times as their sole source of news still have no idea that their senior US senator is embroiled in an identity theft scandal involving a potential candidate for the United States Senate in Maryland.

I actually questioned the Times' ombudsman about this and received the blandest promise imginable that the matter would be looked into.

The Silence of the Times

And the New York Times allows yet another issue to pass without informing its readers that the state's senior senator's office is embroiled in an identity theft scandal in Maryland.

Stepping In It

President Bush seems to have done that in a big, big way.
And, the big winner could be - Dan Rather?

Syrian Involved In Assassination?

My Gosh. Who could have imagined such a thing?

"Top Syrian intelligence officials approved the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and their Lebanese counterparts helped organize it, according to a U.N. probe that officially linked Damascus to the slaying for the first time."

Making sure that the UN didn't reach quite up to Syrian dicator Bashier Assad's office might have contributed to this "suicide."

You'd Best Not Commit Bias, Even If I Don't Know What It Is

Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart once said of pornography that, although he could not intelligibly define it, “I know it when I see it.”

The same might be said of bias at Washington State University. Incidents of bias are forbidden at Washington State University. But, are bias incidents easier to identify than they are to define? I am far from certain that forbidden acts of bias are anywhere near as universally recognizable as obscenity. And I doubt that there is anyone in any position of authority at WSU whom I would trust to judge bias crimes.

A poster found all over campus encourages victims of bias to report that crime.
“STOP Discrimination, Harassment, Hate, and Bias at Washington State University!” the poster exhorts its readers. The sign then encourages victims or witnesses to report such incidents and promises that: “The Center for Human Rights will respond to or investigate all such incidents as appropriate.”

Raul Sanchez is the Director for WSU’s Center for Human Rights. He is in charge of enforcing WSU bias prohibition, but he’s not sure he could define the policy in a manner that would allow the university to make good on its threats. “We’re not enforcing a non-existent code, it’s more of a popular description,” he conceded.

When pressed, he decided that bias means favoritism, although I’m reasonably confident he wasn’t referring to affirmative action. But as long as he’s asking, I have an incident of bias to report. The WSU College of Education is clearly biased in favor of America-hating leftwing Democrats and is enforcing its policy of ideological purity.

To earn a teaching certificate, a student must prove that he or she “exhibits an understanding of the complexities of race, power, gender, class, sexual orientation and privilege in American society.”

Observers of the modern ideological cesspool will immediately recognize that “understanding” in this context means conforming without qualification to the entire America-hating platform of the far left wing of the Democratic Party. It means that before one is permitted to teach, one must recite by rote the theories and views of Jesse Jackson and Michael Moore.

If, God forbid, I wanted to be a teacher, my genuine understanding of those complexities would exclude me from the profession. I believe that most racial disparities are self-inflicted, and I can prove it. I believe the same about poverty, and can cite Census Bureau statistics that support my point of view.

But those who enforce WSU’s standards judge understanding not in terms of a grasp of issues, but rather by the facility to repeat clichés as catechisms.

In other words, to qualify as a teacher, one must appreciate and teach what a cruddy country the United States is.

Class, power and privilege? How Marxian can we get?

For that matter, how Stalinist can we get?

Ed Swan, a 42 year old education major was recently threatened with dismissal for failing to recite his catechisms faithfully. He opposes affirmative action when it is manifested as racial or sexual preferences in hiring or college admission. He believes that men and women are constitutionally different and that homosexuals do not make the best parents. His first belief is settled law in Washington, the second provable and the last is far from decided.

But, all Ed Swan’s beliefs contradict the catechisms and until the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education intervened, he faced excommunication. Who says faith is forbidden on campus? You just have to worship the official religion.

Sanchez admitted that, in spite of what WSU’s poster boasts, he really cannot enforce bias crimes. “I think that if we use any terms that are vague or ambiguous we may be sending vague or ambiguous messages and we need to think if that is the right thing to do,” he said.

Ambiguity would seem to describe the College of Educations character crimes as well.
Raul Sanchez, Ed Swan, Judy Mitchell, the Dean of the College of Education and I could probably agree that we had all seen profanity. But, I doubt that we would agree on “the complexities of race, power, gender, class, sexual orientation and privilege in American society.”

Because reasonable people can disagree, the character requirements that WSU enforces for its teaching certificates are vague and ambiguous, unless one adheres to the dogma embodied in those catechisms.

Ted Kennedy Steps On The Slippery Slope

Lifelong totalitarian Ted Kennedy favors school vouchers?

The Massachusetts senator's staff insisted yesterday that the measure is not a voucher but a "pragmatic" way to get much-needed funds to private schools that have taken in many victims of Katrina.

"This bill puts the interests of the children victimized by Katrina ahead of politics and ideological battles," Kennedy said in statement. "It puts in place an efficient and temporary system to get the necessary aid to the schools without further delay."

If only liberals would put the "interest of children" ahead of special interests all the time.

Plus, I'm Incredibly Rich

He spends more on sunglasses than some people earn in an entire year.

"They should be afraid, because they will be held accountable for what happened on their watch. I'm representing the poorest and the most vulnerable people. On a spiritual level, I have that with me. I'm throwing a punch, and the fist belongs to people who can't be in the room, whose rage, whose anger, whose hurt I represent.

"The moral force is way beyond mine, it's an argument that has much more weight than I have. So I'm not feeling nervous."

Silence Of The Times

Still, New Yorkers who rely upon the New York Times as their sole news source have no idea that their senior senator's office is embroiled in an identity theft scandal.

A Delicious Irony

Two of America's most flamboyant critics of captialists are price gougers and death merchants.

"if you can't eat a whole pint . . . in one sitting, you aren't really trying."

What costs $3.99/pint and is loaded with white sugar and saturated fat?

Incidentally, one pint contains well over 1000 calories. Can you say, "supersize me?"

How We Stop Them From Entering In The First Place

Preident Bush says that he intends to expel "every single" illegal alien.

And, he want to institute a very sensible guest worker program.

Of course, that's not good enough for Democrats who want to start importing victims who will someday vote Democratic.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the Bush's guest worker program offers no path toward legalization of immigrants and will create a permanent underclass.

"We need a plan that will allow immigrants who are already here to earn their residency through hard work and that will create legal channels for immigrant workers necessary for our economic growth to enter in the future," Reid said.

Oh, Come On! She's Never Even Read A Book!

Supposedly, California Senator Barbara Boxer has written a book.

The New York Times questioned Mrs. Boxer's portrayal of Republicans as "snakes" and Democrats as "saints" in the book, which chronicles the adventures of a diminutive redhead who assumes her husband's Senate seat after he is killed, then tries to foil the nomination of a conservative woman to the Supreme Court.

Judging by the content of this article, Ms. Boxer didn't exactly pay top dollar for her ghost writer.

Paul Volcker - Right Wing Extremist Weirdo

Volcker thinks that those who pay the UN's bills should have something to say about reforming the incredibly corrupt institution.

The United States and its allies should threaten to cut the budget of the United Nations if it fails to end corruption and adopt badly needed reforms, the man who led the probe into the U.N. oil-for-food scandal said yesterday.
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul A. Volcker told a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing that he opposed a unilateral U.S. withholding of U.N. dues, but that a "de facto alliance" of nations demanding reform could cut through the world body's "culture of inaction."

Let 'em Starve

The Religion of Peace strikes again.

Two truck drivers and two volunteers were delivering water and medicine to the city of Haditha four weeks ago when they were captured by insurgents, said Said Hakki, a neurology professor who returned from Florida last year to take charge of Iraqi relief operations.
"They were seized by a terrorist group who threatened to behead them because they thought the crosses on the water and food containers meant the men were Christian missionaries," said Mr. Hakki, who made his plea during a visit last week to ICRC headquarters in Geneva.

Silence Of The Times

Months after it happened, New Yorkers who rely upon the New York Times as their sole source of news still have no idea that their senior senator's office is embroiled in an identity theft scandal involving a prospective Republican candidate for the US Senate from Maryland.

The Tears Will Be Shed In Hollywood

Saddam Hussein's trial and likely exectution is fast approaching. His crimes will be laid out for all the world to see. Iraqis are looking forward to it.

Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, whose older brother was executed by Saddam Hussein, said yesterday there would be no tears for the former dictator when his trial begins tomorrow.
"I would like to see the trial take place and justice to be done, and be seen done."

What Do You Expect? It's The UN.

It's hardly surprising that a psychpathic dictator like Robert Mugabe would denounce George W. Bush and Tony Blair. What's dissapointing is that representatives of other nations applauded.

Mr. Mugabe departed from his text at a ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to accuse Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair of illegally invading Iraq and looking to unseat governments elsewhere.
"Must we allow these men, the two unholy men of our millennium, who, in the same way as Hitler and Mussolini formed [an] unholy alliance, formed an alliance to attack an innocent country?" he asked rhetorically.
"The voice of Mr. Bush and the voice of Mr. Blair can't decide who shall rule in Zimbabwe, who shall rule in Africa, who shall rule in Asia, who shall rule in Venezuela, who shall rule in Iran, who shall rule in Iraq," he said.
Mr. Mugabe accused Britain and the United States of working to unseat him because of his forcible redistribution of white-owned farms among blacks, helping plunge his country into its worst economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1980.

Some FAO delegates applauded several times during Mr. Mugabe's fiery speech yesterday.

Proof That John Kerry Is A Has Been

Ebay has quite a collection of political Halloween masks. Al Gore, George Bush, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Abe Lincoln, etc, etc.

But, not one John Kerry mask.

Suspended for Inaccuracy?

Now this is rich!

"Alex Jones, a former Times reporter who heads the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University, noted the paper's disclosure that Executive Editor Bill Keller had told Miller in 2003 she could no longer cover Iraq and weapons of mass destruction after some of her stories turned out to be wrong."

Since when are reporters suspended for inaccuracy? I'm sure I don't have to compile a list of errors by mainstream press reporters that seem not to have bothered anyone. Although the inaccurate story about "Koran desecration" in Newsweek that got people killed didn't result in any sanctions.

Our Patience Is At An End

Democrats are gleeful over the internicene squabble among Republicans that Harriet Miers nomination has initiated.
Rush Limbaugh explains in today's Wall Street Journal why they are all wrong and why Republicans will emerge from this even stronger, even if George W. Bush does not.

"Some liberal commentators mistakenly view the passionate debate among conservatives over the Miers nomination as a "crackup" on the right. They are giddy about "splits" in the conservative base of the GOP. They are predicting doom for the rest of the president's term and gloom for Republican electoral chances in 2006. As usual, liberals don't understand conservatives and never will.

The Miers nomination shows the strength of the conservative movement. This is no "crackup." It's a crackdown. We conservatives are unified in our objectives. And we are organized to advance them. The purpose of the Miers debate is to ensure that we are doing the very best we can to move the nation in the right direction. And when all is said and done, we will be even stronger and more focused on our agenda and defeating those who obstruct it, just in time for 2006 and 2008. Lest anyone forget, for several years before the 1980 election, we had knockdown battles within the GOP. The result: Ronald Reagan won two massive landslides."

The Silence of the Times

New Yorkers who rely upon the New York Times as their sole news source are still unaware that their senior senator is entangled in an indentity theft scandal.
Amazing.

More Bad News For Democrats

Again, we can get stem cells without killing unborn babies.

Currently, scientists must sacrifice human embryos to harvest such cells, which can form any tissue type and are seen as valuable for studying and treating illnesses like diabetes and Parkinson's disease.

Objections to the embryo destruction have led to a ban on federal funding for such work, which scientists say hampers research.

The new methods, detailed Sunday in the online edition of the journal Nature, seek to obtain the cells without destroying embryos.

Iran Takes A Great Step Forward

Iran no longer executes adultresses by stoning.

Judiciary officials say no woman has been executed by stoning for several years and that stoning sentences are routinely changed to other forms of execution, such as hanging, or lighter sentences.

"The Islamic code obliges the judge to issue the stoning sentence in adultery cases, however the head of the judiciary may change the final sentence," a judiciary official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters.

"He might even use his jurisdiction to change execution to lashes," he said.

To Win, Democrats Must Become Republicans

Democrats cannot win elections. If they hope to win, then they have to stop being Democrats.

The 70-page report, "The Politics of Polarization," by two veteran Democratic strategists who worked in the Clinton White House, takes the party and former presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat, to task for being weak on national security and cultural issues. It also criticizes them for championing a liberal agenda that has driven centrist, married and religious voters into the Republican column.
The most controversial indictment of the party's failures is the study's assertion that Democrats cannot hope to win the next presidential election by energizing the party's base but instead must reach out to swing voters with a less-polarizing message.

Can they do it? Well, as Al Gore famously said, "A tiger doesn't change its spots."
And, considering that their moneybags are all leftist extremist who will not open their wallets for "Republicans light," I don't think they can do it.

.001 Million Man March

Well, when things don't work out quite the way you want, then "the success of the day cannot be measured by numbers."

Will The New York Times Call This Progress?

Will they even report it?
Last January election in Iraq saw 347 terrorist attacks. Today, the terrorists could only manage 13.

More Bad News For Democrats

Turnout for the Iraqi constitutional referendum is very high and violence was minimal.

Nobody Died. The UN Lied!

United Nation moonbat Jean Ziegler accused the United States of intentionally starving Iraqi children.
TigerHawk pronounces BS and has the data to prove it.

Can anybody really doubt the value of the blogosphere anymore?

That is, aside from Al Gore, John Kerry, Dan Rather etc.

Can You Imagine Reciprocity?

Even though she suffered 1300 earthquake fatalities herself, Pakistan's longtime adversary India has sent tons of relief supplies to the ROP nation.

Meanwhile, ROP terrorists have continued their attacks against India.

Early Saturday in Indian-controlled Kashmir, militants killed two Indian army soldiers and wounded six others when they threw grenades and opened fire on soldiers after entering an Indian army camp in the town of Kathua, according to state police sources.

I have no doubt though that the recipients of the relief supplies will have their hearts changed. The Religion of Hate will have no fuel if the west demonstrates just how wrong the Bin Ladens of thew world are.

Such Magnanimity!

Muslim Pakistan has generously consented to accept earthquake assistance from Israel.

"There is absolutely no problem. We are accepting assistance from American Jews," Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said.

Last Weasal Standing

Jacques Chirac and Gerhardt Schroeder enjoyed their last supper together as the Axis of Weasels.

""Let's not be too sentimental or else we'll have to get out our handkerchiefs," Schroeder said before dinner at the Elysee Palace.

Schroeder is to step down after Chancellor-designate Angela Merkel formally takes office."

Weasels have been losing elections around the world, while America's staunchest allies have been winning elections.

John Kerry Opposes California Proposition 75

Even though the United States Supreme Court has declared that it is illegal for unions to use dues for political purposes, many still do. California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is pushing a proposition that would make it state law that unions could not do that without written permmission.
Now, John Kerry has announced his opposition to Prop 75, calling it a "power grab" by Republicans. I guess he prefers the money and power grab by Democrats that currently exists.
After reading this, Californians should ask, "Who is John Kerry?"

Times Watch - Still Nothing

New Yorkers who get their news exclusively from the New York Times still have no idea that their senior US senator's office is entangled in an identity theft scandal.

The US, Where the World Seeks Charity

$s Costello<
What’s wrong with this picture? For that matter, what was wrong with all the similar signs you might have seen in photographs and television pictures from Banda Aceh, Indonesia, after the Christmas, 2004 tsunami? I found myself wondering then, as I wonder now, why weren’t those signs lettered in French, or German, or Arabic?
Arabic would certainly have made sense in both cases. Pakistan and the Banda Aceh region of Indonesia are predominately Muslim. Arab oil sheiks are drowning in petrodollars these days. Korans around the world are supposed to be in Arabic to protect against translation errors. So wouldn’t it make more sense for Pakistani and Indonesian victims to petition their Muslim brothers, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia or Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmed al-Sabah, for assistance in their native tongue?
It would. But, around the world, it seems that the universal language of pleading is always English. Why?
The reason is that, people in need know that, contrary to popular leftist stereotypes, the epicenters of generosity in the world are to be found in the English speaking countries. The United States, Great Britain, Australia and Canada are always first on the scene whenever there is suffering as a consequence of a natural or man-made disaster, wherever it happens.
The oil producing states around the Persian Gulf amassed embarrassing wealth when crude old sold at $20 per barrel. Imagine how their bank accounts have swollen since the price of a barrel climbed to $60 or $70 per barrel. Each barrel only takes about $4 to extract. The rest is pure profit.
And yet, after the tsunami washed lives out to sea, it was the United States and other western powers, along with Japan, that committed treasure and logistical support to provide the area with succor. The Gulf States, which probably could have found $20 billion under sofa cushions, could only find it within their hearts to give a fraction of what they have recently squeezed out of the west.
So far, the United States has donated over $1.98 billion. Australia contributed $1.4 billion. Great Britain has given $800 million and Canada provided $555 million. Japan has been good for at least half a billion dollars.
Oil and cash rich Saudi Arabia could only find $30 million for their Muslim brothers. The United Arab Emirates scrounged up $20 million and the United Nations records nothing from Iran.
France, which would never hesitate to lecture us all on such matters, was only moved by the misery to the tune of $55 million.
Is it any wonder that, when a disaster overwhelms the local governments’ capacity to assist it citizens, signs lettered in English appear for the international press? The press would have us believe that we are universally hated throughout the world. But the world knows where the world’s biggest, kindest and most generous hearts reside and what language they speak.
Of course, it could all be staged. The press is frequently busted for staging news. In 1980 the major television broadcast news networks were caught orchestrating Iranian anti-American demonstrations for their cameras. More recently, the press has choreographed Cindy Sheehan’s anti-war activities. So it’s entirely possible that the poor Pakistani man holding that sign was handed the sign by the very photographer who took the picture. I don’t think that cardboard or Sharpies are very common in that corner of Pakistan. But even so, doesn’t that mean that the media that usually disparages the United States is admitting that even they know where mercy can be found?
We should live up to our real image in the world. Certainly Americans are suffering a bit of compassion fatigue. In the last year we’ve had the tsunami, the Darfur genocide, and hurricanes Katrina and Rita. And now, within the last two weeks, Pakistan suffered its earthquake and Central America endured terrible flooding and mudslides that, in normal times, would have garnered front page headlines. But we’re Americans. We don’t disappoint. We can always dig deeper. And the world knows it.

One More Thing You Won't Learn In the New York Times

A great paper should be adequate as a sole news source. Of course, that's not the case with the Times, which prints only the news that fits their ideology.
Yesterday's news story about the Zawahiri letter is a fine example. Zawahiri recognizes the stakes involved in Iraq and specifically cites the role that he expects America's left wing press to play in an American defeat. So, New York Times readers who need to fill in their information void should open their Wall Street Journals to today's editorial page, where an honest summary and analysis can be found.

"Those who want a premature U.S. withdrawal from Iraq will now have to explain why that won't play into the hands--and plans--of the enemy. Zawahiri makes it quite clear that al Qaeda's ambitions extend well beyond the borders of any one country. The goal is a fundamentalist Islamic regime that begins in Iraq, extends into the neighboring secular nations of the region, assaults Israel and moves on from there. And yes, he uses the word "caliphate."

But let Zawahiri speak for himself. The jihadists, he writes, "must not have their mission end with the expulsion of the Americans from Iraq, and then lay down their weapons, and silence the fighting zeal." Plainly said, these boys are in it for the long haul. Just because the U.S. might decide to pull out of Iraq hardly means that al Qaeda will stop trying to kill Americans."

Still Nothing In The Times

Another day goes by leaving New York Times readers ignorance of the political scandal developing in their senior senator's office.

Meanwhile, Schumer's target is gaining popularity.

"If Steele launches a widely anticipated bid for U.S. Senate in coming weeks, his candidacy will test one of the most deeply rooted certainties in Maryland politics: that no matter the contest, the vast majority of African American voters will cast their ballots for the Democrat.

Steele, 44, a Prince George's County lawyer who became the first African American elected statewide in Maryland, said in an interview that he intends to court the black vote aggressively, part of a concerted push by the GOP nationally to bridge a chasm that opened 50 years ago during the modern civil rights era. Already, the Republican National Committee has pledged significant campaign support and money to a Steele campaign.

Republicans say his historic status and his use of state office to open a dialogue with minority business executives and church leaders could help draw votes from what is arguably the Democratic Party's most loyal constituency. Another factor is the bitterness that many black leaders have felt since 2002, when Democrats passed up a chance to put a black candidate on the statewide ticket and left it to Republican Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. to end the tradition of all-white slates."

Domino Theory

Nir Boms, vice president of the Center for Freedom in the Middle East, thinks that Bashar Assad's Ba'athist dictatorship is in its death throes.

"Since the beginning of his tenure in June 2000, Mr. Assad has little to show to his credit. Following the collapse of Iraq, Syria lost not only its remaining Ba'athist ally, but also a significant source of income that came, partly, due to its involvement with the oil-for-food scheme. Mr. Assad's perceived lack of ability to curb international pressures has caused Syria to unilaterally withdraw and lose much of his grip over Lebanon, creating a severe financial and prestige crisis in the ranks of the Syrian army. But that withdrawal, unlike the Israeli withdrawal of Ariel Sharon from Gaza, has brought little international credit to Mr. Assad."

The defeating terrorism requires draining the swamp, and that swamp is fed by tryanny and backwardness. It is drained by freedom and democracy.

Inside Kerry's Bursting Bubble

I'm really looking forward to this movie.
I'm reasonably certain that Hillary Clinton will be handing out free copies in time for the Iowa caucuses.
I'm sure she has video of a few of Al Gore's recent speeches too, for the same reason.

Palesinian Family Counseling

After he had an argument with his father, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade recruited him to become a suicide bomber.

"In another raid, the army arrested a 14-year-old Palestinian boy who told his interrogators that militants from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades — which has ties to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas'
Fatah movement — pressured him to carry out a suicide bombing after he quarreled with his father.

Militant groups have increasingly turned to youths to carry out attacks in recent years, hoping the army would be less suspicious of them. The boy, identified by militants and his parents as Salah al Jitan, would have been one of the youngest Palestinian suicide bombers.

Salah's parents, who confirmed their son is 14, said that after they quarreled with him about a month ago, five armed Al-Aqsa militants came to their house to tell them to leave the boy alone. Last week, they came again, this time to take him away for a suicide bombing, said his father, Moussa al Jitan.

The father said Salah did not want to go, adding that he would not let them take him. The teenager did not leave the house until Israeli forces arrested him Monday, a move his parents welcomed.

"Good, he will be in jail. That's better than dying," said Sariel al Jitan, his mother.

The teenager said the militants threatened to kill him and tell everyone he was a collaborator with Israel if he didn't carry out the attack, the army said."

Life Imitates Scott Ott

Scrappleface headline: Al Qaeda Leads Relief Effort to Quake Victims

Usama bin Laden, the wealthy Islamic theologian, today dispatched hundreds of trained social workers to earthquake-stricken regions in Pakistan and Kashmir, and promised to match U.S. aid contributions "dollar for dollar."

The Al Qaeda rapid reaction disaster force and financial commitment, came as critics attacked the United States for its "typically slow and inadequate response."

News Headline: Terrorists announce 'temporary suspension' of operations

"In the wake of the killer quake, the Jehad Council, an amalgam of 14 terrorist outfits based in Pakistan occupied Kashmir, has announced temporary suspension of its operations in the ravaged areas of Jammu and Kashmir.

The decision to suspend temporarily the operations in the state was taken at a meeting convened by the chairman of Council and supreme commander of Hizbul Mujahideen Syed Salahuddin at Muzaffarabad on Sunday, a local news agency quoting a fax from the organisation said in the state capital on Monday.

Salahuddin asked all the constituents of the council to direct the terrorist cadres across the state to halt their operations in the affected areas and extend possible relief to the victims."

Suicide, My Ass!

Syria's Interior minister supposedly committed suicide.

"Interior Minister Brig. Gen. Ghazi Kenaan committed suicide in his office before noon," the Syrian Arab News Agency reported. "Authorities are carrying out the necessary investigation into the incident."

You don't suppose it had anything to do with the fact that he had been directly linked to the assassination by bombing of Lebanon's former Prime Minister, Rafik Hariri. Hariri was organizing opposition to the decades-old Syrian occupation of Lebanon at the time of his death.

It seems highly unlikely that Kenaan did that without direction from above. What better way to protect Syrian dictator Bashir Assad than for his minion to conveniently commit suicide?

At Last, I Believe Environmentalists Are Sincere

I'm not saying they're honest. I just saying that they believe their own propoganda. My evidence is that environmentalists are showing a grudging tolerance of our cleanest and most environmentally friendly source of electrical energy, nuclear power.

"[N]uclear power is set to rise again. Against all odds, more and more public figures are calling for its revival. There are several reasons, among them the rising price of oil and natural gas; the realization that windmills and solar are unable to provide anything more than piddle-power; and the reluctance of policymakers to keep sending billions to Saudi Arabia. But most importantly, we have seen a replay of the environmental concern that launched nuclear power in 1954. Anything other than nuclear energy causes too much pollution."

Of course, hydroelectric generates pollution free electricity too, but environmentalists have decided that they hate dams even more than reactors.

Are They Sure This Letter Wasn't Written By Ted Kennedy?

Or perhaps Michael Moore, Cindy Sheehan or Howard Dean?

"I say to you: that we are in a battle, and that more than half of this battle is taking place in the battlefield of the media." Bin Laden's sidekick Ayman al-Zawahiri is supposed to have written in a letter to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq.

In the letter he predicts that the US will soon be exiting Iraq and leaving the country to the tender mercies of the terrorists. "the Americans will exit soon ... things may develop faster than we imagine."

The story is here and the translated text of the entire letter is here.

Play this game as your read it. How much of this letter could have been written by the aforementioned Democratic Party deep thinkers?

Still Nothing In The Times

In the weeks since the scandal erupted over New York Senator Chuck Schumer's office obtaining the credit records of Maryland Lt. Governor Michael Steele's credit records, the New York Times has published precisely one article on the affair, and nowhere in it is there mention of Schumer's role.

French Get Busted

France's former ambassador to the United Nations was arrested today in connection with the Oil For Food Scandal. It's not a surprise that a high ranking Frenchman was involved, only surprising that he was busted.

Merimee, 68, was being questioned over allegations he may have benefited from oil allocations granted under the programme by former Iraqi president
Saddam Hussein between 1996 and 2003.

Merimee was France's UN ambassador from 1991 to 1995. He was then named ambassador to Italy, and from 1999 to 2002 he was a special adviser to UN secretary-general
Kofi Annan on European issues.

Five people have already been placed under judicial investigation by judge Philippe Courroye in connection with the "oil-for-food" affair.

They are Serge Boidevaix, former secretary-general at the French foreign ministry; businessman Claude Kaspereit; Bernard Guillet, an adviser to former French interior minister Charles Pasqua; Gilles Munier, head of an Iraqi-French friendship society; and Palestinian journalist Hamida Nana.

It only remains to be seen if he exhibits traditional French courage by singing like a bird.

HOBBITS!!!!!!!!

Really! See here.

"Scientists digging in a remote Indonesian cave have uncovered a jaw bone that they say adds more evidence that a tiny prehistoric Hobbit-like species once existed.

The jaw is from the ninth individual believed to have lived as recently as 12,000 years ago. The bones are in a wet cave on the on the island of Flores in the eastern limb of the Indonesian archipelago, near Australia.

The research team which reported the original, sensational finding nearly a year ago strongly believes that the skeletons belong to a separate species of early human that shared Earth with modern humans far more recently than anyone thought.

The bones have enchanted many anthropologists who have come to accept the interpretation of these diminutive skeletons marooned on Flores with dwarf elephants and other miniaturized animals, giving the discovery a kind of fairy tale quality."

I won't be convinced until scientists discover the pipes.

Taking The Credit Card Away From Drunken Sailors

Sadly, the drunken sailors are now the Republican leadership whose spending would have shamed Democrats.
It took Katrina, but Denny Hastert et al might finally be embracing budget cuts to pay for Katrina relief. It shouldn't be hard. Pork is at an all time high.

Hooray for Pork Busters.

Slow And Inadequte

Normally, I am quite impatient with those who complain that we in the west are too slow providing aid to victims of natural disasters in less developed countries. But, in the case of the Pakistani earthquake, I have to agree with the complainers. The Pakistani government has put its balls on the chopping block by assisting us in the pursuit of Al Quaida. President Pervez Musharef has survived several assasination attempts as a result. So, when the United States initially offered $500,000 in assistance, the Pakistanis were correct in disparaging the offer as "dersory."
Thankfully, the United States has raised its pledge to $50 million, which I would regard as a good start. Winning the war on terrorism will have as much to do with winning hearts as winning battles. We made a lot of headway after the Indonesian tsunami. We should not let this opportunity slip away.

Evironmentalist Wackos Attack The Boy Scouts

As part of the service requirements, Boy Scouts have done a number of projects in Natinal Forest, including trail repair and cleanup. Thanks to the environmentalist wackos, those projects are now forbidden.

"A federal court ruling in favor of environmentalists is forcing the Forest Service to suspend more than 1,500 permits for activities ranging from fire prevention to Boy Scout meetings and also is threatening to delay cutting of the Capitol's Christmas tree until after the new year.
A Forest Service regulation that allowed projects determined as having minimal environmental impact to be exempt from environmental studies and reviews was challenged by the Earth Island Institute.
Judge James K. Singleton of the Eastern District Court of California ruled in July against a project to remove charred and damaged trees, which could kindle a future fire, in the Sequoia National Forest.
The court said last month in a follow-up ruling that its decision in Earth Island Institute v. Ruthenbeck applies nationwide, rather than just to the local dispute.
As a result, the Forest Service immediately suspended all "categorical exclusions," which approved the Sequoia project and had been used since 2002 to allow permits of numerous other activities, including trail upkeep at ski resorts and issuing outdoor guide permits."

And Another Weasel Bits The Dust

He wasn't quite as sore a loser as Al Gore in 2000, but Germany's Gerhard Schroeder finally admitted that he was beaten in the last election.

And so, another weasel bites the dust. One main platforms in his opponent's platform was improved relations with the United States.

"[Angela] Merkel, 51, has promised to revive the once-mighty German economy by paring the country's extensive but increasingly unaffordable social safety net. The jobless rate in Germany, the world's largest exporter and third-largest economy, hit a record high of 12 percent this year, and growth has been weak for years.

Merkel has also pledged unspecified steps to improve relations with the United States, traditionally Germany's closest ally, and put behind the tensions of the Schroeder years."

Partners In Peace

Egypt is certainly living down to its reputation.

Al-Qaeda has built at least one base in Sinai, from where terrorists are sent to Gaza and from there to Israel. Egypt has done nothing to stop it, says IDF Intelligence Chief Gen. Ze'evi-Farkash.

Gen. Aharon Ze'evi-Farkash told the Cabinet ministers at their weekly meeting on Sunday that a gang of the international terrorist organization Al-Qaeda recently took over a large area in the Sinai Peninsula. After banishing the residents, they placed mines around their new base - signaling Egyptian police and army forces not to come near.

Considering that Al Quaida has attempted to overthrow the Egyptian government, it would appear that Hosni Mubarak has made this deal with the expectation that the alligator will eat them last.

The Intelligence Chief said that Egypt is refraining from taking action against the new terrorists. He said Egypt fears that a direct clash with Al-Qaeda will lead to terror attacks against Egypt itself. Other reports are that Egypt cannot take massive military action in the demilitarized desert without Israeli permission - something it does not wish to request.

American Cultural Imperialism

No doubt about it. American culture is spreading throughout the world. When help gets to Indian earthquake victims, they're not grateful. Instead, they bitch that it didn't get there fast enough.

How To Become A Force In The Democratic Party

A must read in today's Washington Post. This rather lengthly article tells the story of how Aaron Tonken, a con man, rose to prominence in Democratic circles by, in his own words, "taking from the needy to feed the greedy."

"When I saw that, I said, this kid has talent." noted Peter Paul, big time fundraiser for Hillary Clinton.

While living in a homeless shelter, Tonken arranged cons like this one: While lunching with Natalie Cole in New York City in 1998, Tonken and the singer landed an invitation to a cocktail party at the Fifth Avenue penthouse of Denise Rich, a wealthy pal of the Clintons. Rich later figured prominently in the scandal over the last-minute pardon President Bill Clinton granted to her ex-husband, felonious financier Marc Rich. Soon Tonken was invited back to Rich's for an exclusive Democratic National Committee fundraising luncheon with the Clintons. To get in, Tonken said, he wrote a check for a $50,000 donation. Tonken didn't have the cash, so he stopped the check right after lunch, he said. A Democratic fundraiser phoned a few times to collect, then gave up, Tonken said.

Apparently, being a deadbeat didn't hurt Tonken's political prospects. Before long, Tonken was helping Rich and others throw Democratic fundraising events. He was on a first-name basis with then-DNC Chairman Ed Rendell, who once penned a note saying, "Aaron . . . You're the best!"

Tonken was a high school dropout who made his way as a con man and ended up as a big wheel in Clinton political machine. His biography has that in common with David Rosen. Although Rosen managed to stay out of homeless shelters by selling books door-to-door. His pushy salemanship eventually earned him an introduction and a job raising money for the Clinton machine in 1995.

The Post has this to say about the third character in this drama: Peter Paul's life had spooled out like a B-movie, complete with the usual cliches: double crosses and death threats. So he was a natural to land in Hollywood. How he came within a Tinseltown air kiss of the leader of the free world is a little harder to fathom.

In the late 1970s, Paul was convicted both of possessing cocaine with intent to distribute and conspiring to defraud the Cuban government of $8.75 million in a bogus coffee sale, court records show. Paul and his co-conspirators tricked the Cuban government into buying 3,000 metric tons of coffee beans from them, even though the conspirators didn't have the beans. They bought a freighter, allegedly to ship the beans, all the while planning to sink it -- holds empty -- and claim that the beans were lost at sea.

Peter Paul eventually tried to purchase, with the assistance of DNC party chairman Ed Rendell, a pardon for his crime. The price, and Rendell was very direct about this, was a $200,000 donation to the National Constitutional Center in Philadelphia. But, the shit hit the fan before it could be finalized and Paul had to flee to Brazil.

James Levin was another heavyweight in the Clinton machine: Levin, the presidential pal asked to watch out for the Clintons' interests, later entered an agreement with prosecutors to plead guilty to defrauding the Chicago Public Schools in a bribery, minority-contracting fraud and bid-rigging scheme, court records show. At the time he was assessing Tonken's character, Levin was cheating schoolchildren by overbilling the public school hundreds of thousands of dollars for snow removal. President Clinton so relied on Levin's judgment, Levin later testified, that he asked the businessman to fly to Los Angeles and be his eyes and ears as gala plans unfolded.

The story tells you much about the company the Clintons keep. And, it tells you a great deal about what their loyalty. You can buy their love, but they'll sell your ass down the river the moment you need something in return.

What has become of these people?

Aaron Tonken, now almost famous, pleaded guilty to stealing from several charities and is serving more than five years in a California prison. "I'm very happy," Tonken said in an interview from Taft Correctional Institution. Prison is blissfully stress-free compared with ducking loan sharks, catering to spoiled stars and trying to please all those insistent government investigators, he said. Tonken's weight has dropped from nearly 300 pounds to 165 since he went to prison. He said he runs four miles daily. A prison psychiatrist and psychologist are even helping him try to get rid of his facial tics, he said. Tonken is still a celebrity buff, though. "I met Anthony Pellicano," the famed Hollywood private eye turned felon, Tonken said breathlessly. "The guy they wrote 'Blow' about is here, too."

Peter Paul pleaded guilty in March to one felony in connection with his Stan Lee Media stock transactions (another scam). While awaiting sentencing, Paul is living in North Carolina on welfare, he said. His family receives food stamps. He suffers from chronic bronchitis and arthritis, the legacy of his time in rough Brazilian prisons, he said.

Rosen is still bringing in money for Democrats, who seem willin to overlook anthing in exchange for money.

Rosen, now 38, is left with $1.4 million in legal bills. His defense cost even more than prosecutors say the gala did. Rosen's company, which had 11 employees before he was indicted, now has just two. He has two clients. The gala, one night of a thousand egos, took five years from his life. Some people say Rosen has been ruined. Those people never sold books door to door.

Rosen lives these days in a simply furnished space above his Chicago headquarters. Upstairs, his guitar rests alongside sheet music for the folk songs he and his bride sing together: Rosebud duets. Downstairs, the "money pit," the nerve center for frenetic fundraising calls, is silent for now.

People ask Rosen if he's quitting the fundraising business. He's proud to tell them that he just opened a second office, this one in Washington. In some ways, Rosen said in a recent interview in his home, it seems as if he is in a familiar place. He feels as if he's way out on a country road. It's 4 p.m., and he hasn't sold a book all day. His bags are heavy, but he knows his strength. And he knows that there's nothing wrong with a fellow wanting to quit -- just as long as he doesn't quit.

Update: Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton was inducted into the Women's Hall of Fame yesterday.

It's Not Nice To Fool With Mother Greenspan

We don't always need our military to put the hurt on evil doers. Investors can put the hurt on.

"Investors are bailing out of Iran's stock market, preferring gold and foreign bourses while international pressure ratchets up against Tehran's disputed atomic programme, traders said on Sunday.

The total bourse capitalisation had dropped to $38.2 billion dollars on Sunday, down from $45 billion in late June when conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won a landslide presidential election victory.

The TEPIX all-share index stood at 10,151 points on Sunday, down 27 percent in the 14 months from August 2004, when it stood at 13,880.

"Everything depends on the nuclear negotiations, and the market really craves good news," said Akbar Zarganinejad, the head of a leading brokerage.

Iran stands on the brink of referral to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions after failing to convince the world its atomic ambitions are peaceful. Iran insists it needs atomic technology to fuel power stations."

Liberal Wishful Thinking

Are conservatives really losing their talk radio edge? Knight-Ridder thinks (read hopes) so.

"There are signs that the Republicans could be losing some of their overwhelming edge, however. Ratings for Limbaugh and Hannity slipped this spring in some markets. Liberals such as Ed Schultz, Stephanie Miller and Al Franken are carving out their own radio niche. And Democrats argue that they have an edge on the Internet, where explosive growth could dwarf the political impact of radio."

Definitely wishful thinking. First of all, liberal talk radio attracts only a miniscule share of the market and surives only because rich pinkos subsidize them to insulate them against their inability to attract advertisers. And, conservative radio still has not had to steal money from children's charities to meet payroll.

What About The French?

This somewhat interesting article claims that national stereotypes are mostly untrue.
Among the busted myths:
Canadians are not submissive.
Czechs are not antagonistic.
Italians are not passionate.
Germans aren't all that efficient.
I notice that one nation is missing from the list of inaccurate stereotypes. Nowhere in the article does anybody try to defend the French.
I suppose that means they really are lying, cynical, treacherous cowards.

And, The Ignorance Of Times Readers On The Left Coast

Must be something about newspapers called "Times." Mickey Kaus notes something interesting about the Los Angeles Times' coverage of the foiled terror plot story the other day.

"Too interesting! One major metropolitan newspaper story on the administration's alleged success in foiling Al Qaeda tells us, in its second paragraph, that

The reported plots aimed to strike a wide variety of targets, including the Library Tower in Los Angeles, ships in international waters and a tourist site overseas, the White House said last night. [Emph. added]

Another major metropolitan newspaper doesn't mention the possible targeting of L.A.'s tallest building. The paper that doesn't bother to mention the gripping Los Angeles angle would be the major newspaper of:

a) Los Angeles

b) Washington, D.C.

Time's up! Brendan Loy has the answer. .... P.S.: New L.A. Times editor Dean Baquet is quoted in Ken Auletta's New Yorker piece saying "we haven't mastered making the paper feel like it is edited in Los Angeles." Uh ... yeah! But how hard is that? Here's another pop quiz:

The L.A. Times doesn't report an allegedly foiled Al Qaeda plot against a Los Angeles landmark because of:

a) mid-level editors imbued with a numbing, pompous, fake-newspaper sensibility that instinctively sneers at any story that might rouse local animal spirits; or

b) budget cuts

Bonus question: Which of those two choices--(a) or (b)--do Times editors spend most of Auletta's piece whining about?"

New York Times - Schumer Coverup Watch

If the New York Times were your sole source of news, just how ignorant would you be? For one thing, you'd know next to nothing about the malfeasance of your home state's senior senator, Chuckie Schumer.
The most outstanding recent example would be the Times reluctance to inform its readers about the scandal in Maryland involving Schumer's office. As just about every, except New York Times readers know, two members of Schumer's staff were conducting opposition research on Maryland lt. governor Michael Steele, who is considering a run for the United States Senate next year.
These staffers illegally obtained Michael Steele's credit report, a felony and especially noteworthy as Chuckie Schumer has pressed for stiffer identity theft laws. The credit report was destroyed (evidence destruction?) and the matter was reported to the proper authorities, but it was all kept hush hush and the staffers were kept on the payroll. Now that the affair is out in the open, the staffers are off the payroll, but the Democratic Party is providing the staffers with $400/hour lawyers.
So far, one story (weeks late) has appeared in the Times. And from it you will learn nothing about what I just told you.
To New York Times readers, tired of living in the dark, Michelle Malkin has a good series on "Chuckaquiddick." Here too.
If ignorance is bliss, then Times readers must be ecstatic.

Six Times As Much Oil As Saudi Arabia

With oil at $60 per barrel or so, alternative sources are suddenly looking better. One of them is shale oil. It's more expensive to extract, but economically feasible at current prices.
Plus, we have a lot of it. The Green River shale deposits in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming contain 6 times a much oil as all the proven reserves in Saudi Arabia.
That's a lot damned oil. And our reserves of natural gas are similarly generous. In the end, the Arabs are going to regret these high prices. Once we get our engine going, we can steamroll those jerks.
They won't be able to afford explosive vests.

It's Easy To Repeat The Truth

I found this story intriguing.

Presidential aide Karl Rove's upcoming fourth appearance before a federal grand jury investigating the leak of a CIA officer's identity is a risky legal move because it opens him up to making statements that are inconsistent with what he previously has said, legal experts say.

It's only risky if he lied in his first appearance and plans to lie at this one. It's quite a bit easier to remember and retell the truth. It's in the telling of lies that one gets confused.

Look up Bill Clinton, Joseph Wilson and John Kerry for examples of the latter.

Do The Democrats Need To Execute A Couple Of Retards?

Two pointed headed intellectuals are arguing that, to regain power, Democrats will have to break with their intellectual liberal base and move toward the political center.

"They suggest that Democratic presidential candidates replicate Clinton's tactics in 1992, when he broke with the party's liberal base by approving the execution of a semi-retarded prisoner."

Is that really what got Clinton elected? Is that what stood between John Kerry and the Whitehouse?

Something To Hide?

Obviously. Hillary Clinton is spending much of the wealth she acquired from the sale of her silly memoirs on lawyers so that she can prevent release of the special prosecutor's report on the Henry Cisneros investigation. Why?

In April we reported that Williams & Connolly--which represents many prominent Democrats, including Mr. Cisneros--had filed more than 190 motions and appeals, one of which alone took 18 months to deal with. Now we are told that yet another secret delay order has been granted by the court. What's more, Williams & Connolly's Mr. Kendall--who as far as anyone knows represents not Mr. Cisneros but Mrs. Clinton--has been among those spotted at the courthouse reviewing the IC's report.

One possible motivation isn't hard to imagine: Senator Clinton is running for re-election next year (never mind any possible Presidential ambitions), and she can't be excited about the possible release of a report that might reflect poorly on the Clinton Administration's IRS and Justice Department, especially with the IRS having been run by her friend, Peggy Richardson. Our calls this week to Mr. Kendall and Williams & Connolly for comment on the delays were not returned.

Will Freeh Get As Much Air Time As Kitty Kelly?

When Kitty Kelly published her salacious "biography" of George Bush, she was on the Today Show just about every day for a week. How often do you think that the perky Katie Couric will invite Louis Freeh to talk about Bill Clinton?

Freeh: "The problem was with Bill Clinton -- the scandals and the rumored scandals, the incubating ones and the dying ones never ended. Whatever moral compass the president was consulting was leading him in the wrong direction. His closets were full of skeletons just waiting to burst out."

In his book -- "My FBI: Bringing Down the Mafia, Investigating Bill Clinton, and Fighting the War on Terror" (St. Martin's Press) -- Freeh is scathing toward Clinton's handling of the 1996 bombing at Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia. He says Clinton refused to ask Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah to let the FBI question bombing suspects being held by the kingdom.

"Bill Clinton raised the subject only to tell the crown prince that he understood the Saudis' reluctance to cooperate and then he hit Abdullah up for a contribution to the Clinton Presidential Library," Freeh wrote.

Baradei Wins The Peace Prize?

Let's see now. Under his watch, India and Pakistan became nuclear powers, without his noticing. Libya was well on its way to a bomb when the US frightend Qadafi into giving it up. Iran is nuking up with little interference from the IAEA. And so for all that, the head of the International Atomic Energy Commission wins the Nobel Peach Prize?

The Nobel Committee has simply become a caricature of itself.

Just another thumb in the eye for the George Bush I think. The Bush Administration has been trying to oust the ineffectual Baradei.

The Tyranny Of The Doodoo Heads

Are judges doodoo heads? I’ve often thought so, but I need firm evidence. I know that I cannot rely on standard journalistic methods to discover the truth here. For one thing, I am not even a journalist, although I play one weekly in this corner. As such, I’m not about to ask for the expert opinion of ill informed, well dressed and properly coiffed spokespeople from both sides of the issue. I need evidence. At heart, I am a scientist. And as such, I prefer to design experiments that test my hypotheses. And so, I would like to conduct the following experiment. But, it would require the cooperation of the Lewiston City Council, or any other city council for that matter. I propose that Lewiston pass an ordinance that forbids burning flags that exceed 2 square inches in area. Once that is done, the ACLU and the courts will do the rest.
My thesis is not frivolous or without foundation. Judges have issued a number of rulings lately that are entirely inconsistent with the opposing hypothesis - that judges have brains. For example, just the other day the Oregon State Supreme Court held that live sex shows violated the free speech protections of the Oregon Constitution. The justices argued that the constitution’s operative clause, "No law shall be passed restraining the free expression of opinion, or restricting the right to speak, write or print freely on any subject whatever," protected the right of two people (more or less) to have sex in public.
I guess this is what is meant when liberals refer to constitutions as “living, (heavy) breathing” documents. I cannot find in any legal penumbra where two people having sex are speaking, writing, printing or in any way expressing an opinion on any subject whatsoever. But the justices imagined that they do. I wish they could have told us what opinion was being expressed. That would have made interesting reading.
On the other hand, 2nd District Court judge Jeff M. Brudie in Idaho decided that Lewiston definitely could limit Cliff Wasem’s freedom of speech by forcing him to reduce by about 90% the size of a political opinion painted on a building he owned. Cliff Wasem believes that we should get out of the United Nations. True, it’s not quite as flamboyant as ardorous Oregonian’s opinions, but it’s certainly less ambiguous.
Political speech has not done well lately. The United States Supreme Court upheld McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform, which most certainly does restrict freedom of political expression. But the court has a long track record of defending any form of obscenity as protected free speech.
The man who wishes he were in his second term as president just this last Wednesday expressed his opinion that too darned many of us were expressing opinions these days. He declared that democracy was at risk because too many people like me are keeping an eye on the mainstream press these days and have created a climate of fear in newsrooms around the country. He calls bloggers, “digital brownshirts.” He must really regret having invented the internet, just as the 16th century Catholic church would have preferred that Guttenberg had not invented moveable type.
When a former vice president and near president expresses such disdain for the First Amendment, you know things are bad. He generally treats the Second Amendment more respectfully.
At Washington State University, free speech has been taking a beating of late. Last spring the university purchased tickets for 40 hecklers to attend a play for the precise purpose of disrupting the performance. This autumn, a student in the College of Education was threatened with dismissal for disagreeing with the concept of affirmative action when that takes the form of racial preferences, and because he wore a camouflage hat to class one day.
His opposition to racial preferences is in accordance with Washington state law. He owns a camouflage hat because he is a hunter. But one of his instructors equates hunters with white supremacists.
If judges will accept a law that permits a city to restrict the size of a sign that Cliff Wasem uses to express his opinion, then shouldn’t they also accept a law that restricts the size of flags that may be legally burned? How judges handle that exploding cigar should reveal the contents of their skulls.

Too Much Free Speech Going On Out There

Al Gore thinks that there are too many voices on the internet and on the radio. Those who disagree with him are "digital brownshirts."

"[E}very day they unleash squadrons of digital brownshirts to harass and hector any journalist who is critical of the President."

And while most other observers agreed that news coverage of Katrina was scandalously bad, Al Gore liked it, and worse, he misses it.

"In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, there was - at least for a short time - a quality of vividness and clarity of focus in our public discourse that reminded some Americans - including some journalists - that vividness and clarity used to be more common in the way we talk with one another about the problems and choices that we face. But then, like a passing summer storm, the moment faded."

God was looking out for us when he helped George Bush win in 2000.

Global Warming

Food poisoning on a cruise ship caused by global warming?
Unseasonable blizzard caused by global warming too?
I could certainly use a little global warming. It's been down right cold here in the Great Northwest.

Breakthrough!!!!!!!!!!

Well, not entirely.
Until today, those who rely upon the New York Times would have had no idea that the Democratic Party was involved in an identity theft case, as part of opposition research, in Maryland.
The New York Times has finally mentioned the case in a very short article in today's edition.
However, nowhere in the article is there any mention of the fact that the crime was allegedly committed by two Schumer staffers. Schumer is chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and his staffers were doing their dirty work in that capacity. Readers of the Times still don't know a thing about that.

Ronnie Earle Fails The Aroma Test

I'm no fan of Tom Delay. If he's a crook, he should be treated as a criminal. But, if he's a citizen of the United States, he should be treated as one. Prosecutor Ronnie Earle's tactics are better suited to some other country - perhaps Zimbabwe.

If The KKK Organized An Antiwar Rally, Would You Attend?

Leftists of all stripes continue to embrace anti-war rallies organized by International ANSWER.

Does it matter who organizes the rallies, or what they believe? Not as long as the media keeps it a secret who these people are.

The Media Lied, People Died

How many deaths can be laid at the feet of the Mainstream Press? We know that at least 15 deaths resulted from Newsweak's bogus story about Koran desecration. Now, we learn that others likely died as a direct consequence of lazy, inaccurate and exaggerated news coverage of Katrina's aftermath.

Five weeks after Hurricane Katrina laid waste to New Orleans, some local, state and federal officials have come to believe that exaggerations of mayhem by officials and rumors repeated uncritically in the news media helped slow the response to the disaster and tarnish the image of many of its victims.

Claims of widespread looting, gunfire directed at helicopters and rescuers, homicides, and rapes, including those of "babies" at the Louisiana Superdome, frequently turned out to be overblown, if not completely untrue, officials now say.

No Stiffies for Lifers

Henceforth, encarcerated criminal will no longer have California buying their Viagra or Cialis for them.

Schwarzenegger then asked state agencies to stop prescribing the drugs to sex offenders and asked lawmakers to pass a bill that would outlaw the coverage.

Why does it require a Republican to even consider such obvious, common sense reforms?

Other reforms just signed into law by the Governator will:

• Permit children to testify in sexual assault cases via closed circuit television, allowing them to face the assailants but from outside the courtroom.

• Prohibit parents from having custody of their children if the parent lives with a registered sex offender.

• Block the state's Department of Mental Health from placing sexually violent patients near schools after release from treatment.

• Allow state and local officials to use global positioning systems to monitor parolees.

Truth Squads Sue John Kerry

It will be interesting to see where this leads.

On October 3, 2005, Carlton Sherwood, Red, White and Blue, and the VVLF filed suit in Federal court against Sen. John Kerry and Anthony Podesta for events relating to the suppression of the documentary film Stolen Honor.

Men (Or Women) Of Courage Need Not Apply

Only closet conservatives have a chance for for appointment to the Supreme Court.

This week's nomination of White House Counsel Harriet E. Miers, following Bush's earlier selection of John G. Roberts Jr. as chief justice, means that the president has chosen two Supreme Court nominees with limited — or virtually no — public records on the key constitutional controversies dividing the parties. In the process, he's bypassed a long list of judges with consistent conservative records on state and federal courts.

"I don't know that there is a deliberate message — I think he is just trying to avoid trouble — but the message comes through: Do not be controversial, do not express strong opinions that arouse opposition," said Robert H. Bork, the conservative legal scholar and former federal judge. Bork's extensive writings keyed an explosive confirmation battle that culminated in his rejection by the Senate when President Reagan nominated him to the Supreme Court in 1987.

Done In By Their Own Fat Asses

The latest theory for why that ferry sank in New York is outdated capacity charts. The Coast Guard failed to consider that people have gotten a lot fatter.

At the time it flipped over, the 38-foot Ethan Allen was just under its capacity of 48 passengers — a figure that was arrived at by using a New York standard that assumes a 150-pound average for each man, woman and child, authorities said. The U.S. Coast Guard standard assumes a 140-pound average for each person.

Falling Short of Goals

The US Army fell short of its recruiting goals.
The news media fell short of their New Orleans death toll goal - about 9036 short.

Even Richard Cohen Has Had Enough?

I never thought I'd see the day. Richard Cohen of the Washington Post has finally picked up on the obvious - there is absolutely, positively nothing to the Democratic Party.
He still loathes Republicans. But, he wishes that there were some principled opposition. The "Democrats ain't got no culture at all."

The Criminalization of Politics

Robert Novak neatly dissects Ronnie Earle's defense (quickly parrotted by the MSM) that the rogue Texas prosecutor is untainted by politics as he indicts more Democrats than Republicans.

That most of Earle's prosecutorial targets have been Democrats does not mean he is a straight shooter. A majority consisted of routine cases, but the big ones were tainted by politics. Earle lost a 1985 case against state Attorney General Jim Mattox, a political rival who accused the DA of using the case as a ''steppingstone.'' His 1992 prosecution that drove Texas House Speaker Gib Lewis out of public life was viewed in political circles as a hit job influenced by Gov. Ann Richards. Earle investigated but never brought an indictment against Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock, who called the prosecutor ''a little boy playing with matches.''

Could I Be More Underwhelmed?

George Bush will nominate Harriet Miers to replace Sandra Day O'Connor to the Supreme Court.

Who? The problem exactly.

There were so many glittering jewels out there he could have chosen from. Janice Rogers Brown, Viet Dinh, or Miguel Estrada. Each would have represented conservatism ably and their confirmation would have tied the Democrats into knots.
This choice not not smacks of the cronyism that placed Michael Brown in charge of FEMA, but gives the clear impression of a sneaking a "stealth" candidate past both conservatives and Democrats spoiling for a fight.

I say, "fight 'em." The Democrats could only have lost had Bush nominated one of the above three candidates.

We Need a New Prize

According to bookmakers, two rock stars are the leading candidates for this year's Nobel Peace Prize.

"Irish rock stars Bob Geldof and Bono are among the bookmakers' tips to win the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, alongside more orthodox candidates like campaigners against nuclear arms or a peace broker for Indonesia."

Well, we shouldn't be too surprised if it happens. Last year the Peace Prize went to a woman who - I am not making this up - planted trees.

And, the year before, the prize went to Jimmy Carter who has been a friend of despots dating back to his term as president.

If either Bono or Geldof wins the award, and in the process denies recognition to real peacemakers, then the Nobel Committee should create a new prize that recognizes the true talents of this crew, self-congratulation.

Life Without Meaning It

Opponents of the death penalty have pushed "life without parole" as an alternative. Those of us on the other side knew they were playing slight of hand all along and now they've shed their facade. They really never meant it in the first place.

The Times relies upon the sad story of Jackie Lee Thompson who, when his girlfriend informed him that she was pregant, shot her threes times with a shotgun, then when she failed to die promptly enough, drowned her.

How unfair. I weep for the poor son of a bitch.

Salvadoran Volcano

The Santa Ana volcano in El Salvador erupted violently yesterday, killing at least two and forcing the evacuation of thousands. The flanks of the volcano are one of El Salvadors' prime coffee growing regions.

Here is a good nexus of links regarding the eruption, with informmation (en Espanol) and photos. I'll say this about Salvadorans, they've got sack. The media and the vulcanologists are already upon on the rim of the crater taking measurements and pictures. Nuts! Pure nuts!

Volcanoes generally don't just burp and go back to sleep. The first eruption is usually a herald of more, often stronger eruptions. I wouldn't consider the rim of that crater a safe place for quite some time.

Like Catching A Greased Pig

New York Times Editor Gail Collins has been under criticism lately for failing to enforce her own accuracy policy, particularly in regards to her paper's most strident lefists, who have been permitted to get away with telling outright lies.
Today, she announcing her thinking and latest interpretation of what her definition of "accuracy" is, and her definition of what a "correction" is.

After reading it, I'm sure you'll conclude that she has her own definition of what the meaning of "is" is.

"The Op-Ed columnists, most of whom are limited to just over 700 words twice a week, have a particular problem with the Moby Dick genre of corrections since they eat up so much of their space. Nevertheless, in the four years that I've edited these pages I've never had a columnist refuse to make a correction, no matter how complicated. (To set yet another record straight, Frank Rich made a good faith effort to correct his FEMA-friendship error within a subsequent column but was castigated for failing to follow procedure and put the fix at the bottom of his piece, following the word CORRECTION. Frank, who never hesitates to amend errors, was writing for another part of the paper when we clarified, publicized and chiseled into stone the current policy. He should have been briefed when he returned. He wasn't.)

A classic case of correction run amok involved a column that Paul Krugman wrote on Aug. 19 about the Florida recount in 2000 in which he said that two different news media groups reviewed the ballots and found that "a full manual recount would have given the election to Mr. Gore." That was incorrect. Paul tried to clarify things in his next column, but the public editor, Byron Calame, objected that since nothing in the second column was labeled a correction, the original error would survive in the permanent record.

Paul published a correction in his next column. Unfortunately, the correction was based on information published in The Miami Herald that was wrong and had never been formally fixed. Paul appended another correction to the Web version of his column, but asked if he could refrain from revisiting the subject yet again in print.

I agreed, feeling we had reached the point of cruelty to readers. But I was wrong. The correction should have run in the same newspaper where the original error and all its little offspring had appeared. Here it is:

CORRECTION

In describing the results of the ballot study by the group led by The Miami Herald in his column of Aug. 26, Paul Krugman relied on the Herald report, which listed only three hypothetical statewide recounts, two of which went to Al Gore. There was, however, a fourth recount, which would have gone to George W. Bush. In this case, the two stricter-standard recounts went to Mr. Bush. A later study, by a group that included The New York Times, used two methods to count ballots: relying on the judgment of a majority of those examining each ballot, or requiring unanimity. Mr. Gore lost one hypothetical recount on the unanimity basis."

Clearly, if Paul Krugman (and Gail Collins) were capable of simply admitting error and did not descend into such weaselisms, this probably would have blown over. But, now that Gail Collins has joined her own Rich and Krugman in slippery language, the readers are faced with a challenge similar to that experienced by contestants in a greased pig contest at the local fair.

Volcano Erupts Near Sonsonate, El Salvador

I fear this could be bad. I know this area well, having spent quite a bit of time in El Salvador recently. The volcano is about 15-20 miles from Sonsonate, El Salvador's second largest city and is just north of the country's main east-west highway.
As one drives between the two cities, one sees huge volcanic boulders and lava flows on both sides of the road, so it's entirely within the volcano's power to destroy that road.