Why Didn't Live 8 Bring This Up?

James Shikwati knows who is too blame for persistent African poverty and recurring famines - Western philanthropy and greedy African governments.

"When aid money keeps coming, all our policy-makers do is strategize on how to get more," said the Kenya-based director of the Inter Region Economic Network, an African think tank.

"They forget about getting their own people working to solve these very basic problems. In Africa, we look to outsiders to solve our problems, making the victim not take responsibility to change."

Allah's Got To Be Running Low On Virgins

According to General Jack Keane, 50,000 Iraqi insurgents have been killed or captured in the last 7 months.

Ouch!

Don't you just hate it when this happens?

Sandy And The Supremes - Supreme Arrogance

Just days after the court ruled that the government possesses the authority to take land from one private citizen and give it to another, richer citizen, retiring Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O’Connor complained on a visit to Spokane about the tense relations that have developed between the legislative and judicial branches of the federal government.
"In all of the years of my life, I don't think I have ever seen relations as strained as they are now between the judiciary and some members of Congress,” she said, “It makes me very sad to see it.”
What she fails to understand is that the people and their representatives should be unhappy with a court that, since Marbury versus Madison, has accreted to itself ever more unchecked power. Today, the Supreme Court occupies a place in our government not unlike the councils of Iranian mullahs who have the final authority over anything the “elected” government in that Islamic republic passes. Heck, they even dress the same.
During Sandra Day O’Connor’s tenure, the Supreme Court has taken it upon itself to change the Constitution from a set of laws to a “living, breathing document,” meaning that it can be modified as seen fit by whomever wears the black robes. Never mind that the Constitution has within it a mechanism by which elected representatives can modify it as needed, the Supremes seem to believe that the process is too cumbersome and that our elected representatives lack the intellectual wherewithal to do it right. So, they have taken it upon themselves to discover new governmental powers when government decides that it needs them, and new rights, such as abortion, within the penumbra of the Constitution. Meanwhile, they have all but dismissed existing amendments, such as the First, Second and Fifth.
In recent years, the Supremes have declared laws passed by local yokels inferior to those of more enlightened counties. During this last session, the court overturned several states’ capital punishment laws citing, not the Constitution, but the laws of European nations.
I for one, have never voted for a member of any European parliament and resent the notion that laws passed by representatives that no American voted into office possess greater wisdom than those enacted within our borders.
Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg dismissed the notion that the Supreme Court should limit itself to the Constitution and homegrown laws. As for the criticism that the court relied too heavily on foreign laws, she said such narrow mindedness “should not lead us to abandon the effort to learn what we can from the experience and good thinking foreign sources may convey. The notion that it is improper to look beyond the borders of the United States in grappling with hard questions has a certain kinship to the view that the U.S. Constitution is a document essentially frozen in time as of the date of its ratification.”
So, with two sentences, Ruth Bader Ginsburg dismissed the Constitution and U.S. laws as inferior to the accumulated wisdom of the Supreme Court justices and foreign elites.
Sandra Day O’Connor also bristles at any suggestions that The Court simply restrict itself to interpreting laws written within the borders of this nation. She declared that the Supreme Court had some sort of obligation to elevate world opinion toward the United States by bringing U.S. law up to international standards.
"The impressions we create in this world are important, and they can leave their mark," she said recently. The United States is held in low regard by our European betters, "when it comes to the impression created by the treatment of foreign and international law and the United States court.”
Certainly one of the restrictions that Sandra Day O’Connor finds threatening is a resolution introduced by House Republicans that says, in part, that the, "meaning of the Constitution of the United States should not be based on judgments, laws or pronouncements of foreign institutions unless such foreign judgments, laws or pronouncements inform an understanding of the original meaning of the Constitution of the United States."
If Sandra Day O’Connor is distressed that respect for the court has declined during her tenure, she might look at herself as a contributor. After all, she has not shown much respect for the judgment of the citizens of this country or the laws enacted by their elected representatives.

Are You Now, Or Have You Ever Been.....?

Democrats briefly thought they had something on Supreme Court nominee, John G. Roberts. It had gotten out that he was a member of the Federalist Society, a completely harmless group of lawyers who, among other things, oppose judicial activism.

But, it turned out that the report was erroneous.

Bird Shit, Not George W. Bush Pollutes Arctic

Turns out that environmentalists were wrong again. It's not humans who are contaminating the arctic. It's birds.

"If you fly overhead you can see green mosses growing under the cliffs," Blais said. "What is particularly striking is that these contaminants are getting concentrated at oases of biological productivity in the north."

A concentrated oasis of biological productivity is another word for "bird colony."

Posers, Pissants and Poisseurs

Rarely does an event, such as Live 8, accomplish 100% of its goals. But the series of Live 8 concerts held around the globe recently certainly did. Now, all the participants and all those who listened in can go back to their comfortable homes aglow in the knowledge that they have conspicuously demonstrated to the world that they really, really care about poor people. Now they can all feel better about themselves for having raised western awareness about worldwide poverty. Mission accomplished!
The whole show reminded me of a 1970’s era National Lampoon skit in which a typical college aged philosopher tried to impress his girlfriend by explaining to her how inflicting pain on himself helped him feel a closer kinship with all the starving millions in Bangladesh. I’m sure his self-flagellation left Bangladeshi stomachs much fuller. And, I’m sure that all the poor in Africa and elsewhere feel less impoverished just knowing that Pink Floyd and U2 care enough about their plight to play guitars for them.
The message of Live 8 was really the message we have come to expect from these charlatans: Somebody (else) really ought to do something about this problem. Somebody (else) really needs to sacrifice for poor people.
After the G-8 summit announced $50 billion in debt relief, the Live 8 organizers heaped credit upon themselves, obviously unaware that President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced the package weeks earlier. I guess the only papers they are interested in are Zig Zag.
The fact of the matter is that most poverty around the world is the direct result of the despotic kleptocracies and western do-gooders. The G-8 nations are not destroying Zimbabwean farms. The dictator Robert Mugabe is. Nigerians see little benefit from their nation’s oil wealth because the money is stolen by their leaders. Black Christian Sudanese suffer due to an ethnic cleansing program administered by the Muslim Arabs. And African children are dying of preventable diseases.
The Live 8 organizers completely overlooked a huge chance to make a real dent in poverty, but were too self-absorbed to even be aware of the issue. The United States Congress has before it an opportunity to bring real growth and opportunity to an economically depressed region of the world, but it probably won’t happen because Democrats oppose it.
The Central America Free Trade Agreement would lower trade barriers and permit Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica more access to United States markets. But, Democrats see in this treaty an opportunity to grandstand against “outsourcing” of US jobs. Another, even uglier motivation is that many Democrats, frustrated by their political weakness in both houses of Congress, simply want to deal a defeat to a Republican president.
Why anyone in their right mind would want to press a pillow over the faces of these nascent democracies for such pettiness is mind boggling – particularly as the Democrats portray themselves as the party of compassion. Undoubtedly, if any of the performers and organizers of the Live 8 concerts were to express an opinion, all would probably point to the Democrats as the party most inclined to do something about world poverty.
Also missing from the leftist anti-poverty agenda was DDT. Comfortable westerners like Geldof don’t think much about malaria. But according to economic estimates, treating malaria costs Africa up to 4% of its gross domestic product. Two million tropical residents will die this year from malaria. And that number is predicted to double as the drug-resistant strains spread. We could kill the mosquitoes that carry the disease, but that might harm birds. Ask a mother whose baby is dying how much she cares about a thin shelled bird’s egg.
It would never occur to Live 8 organizers that the biggest impediment to ending poverty derives from leftists like themselves who wring their hands over the exploitation of inexpensive overseas labor and who impose their luxury derived environmental ethics upon people who can’t afford them. And of course, the most loathsome of all are those who would smother Central American economies in the crib for the simple joy of handing George Bush a political defeat.
Will Paul McCartney croon for free trade agreements or mosquito abatement programs? I doubt it. Such things are merely substantive, requiring thought, and do not stroke the vanity.

Dick Durbin, Documented Liar

The evidence is clear, the United States is not operating a torture facility at Gitmo.

"We looked at this very, very carefully -- no torture occurred," Air Force Lt. Gen. Randall M. Schmidt testified yesterday before the Senate Armed Services Committee. "Detention and interrogation operations across the board ... looking through all the evidence that we could, were safe, secure and humane."

Jacques Chirac's Dipolomacy

The Democrats admire French diplomacy. It shows. Just before the G-8 summit, Jacques Chirac went out of his way to insult his hosts.

French President Jacques Chirac, already in a pot of British hot water, was accused yesterday of "a tasteless blunder" by opening a "cheap and thoroughly schoolboyish attack" on British food, calling it the second-worst in the world, behind only Finland's.
He even took a shot at haggis, the most famous Scottish dish, on the eve of the Group of Eight summit at Gleneagles, the Scottish resort.
As Mr. Chirac, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Russian President Vladimir Putin traded belly laughs at a cafe in the Russian city of Kaliningrad -- where they met to mark the city's 750th anniversary -- Mr. Chirac said, "the only thing [the British] have given European agriculture is the mad cow."
"You can't trust people who cook as badly as that," he said of the British. "After Finland, it's the country with the worst food."
At that point, Mr. Putin suggested that American hamburgers might rank the worst of bad food. "No, no," Mr. Chirac replied, "the hamburgers -- that's nothing in comparison."
The French president recalled how former British Defense Secretary George Robertson, a Scotsman who later became NATO secretary-general, once offered him an "unappetizing" Scottish dish -- apparently haggis, a concoction of minced heart, lungs and liver boiled in a sheep's stomach.

Way to go, you cheese-eating surrender monkey.

Never Trust a Democrat

Proving that their signature is as good as their word, the Democratic half of the gang of seven is backing out of the deal they signed with Republicans over the fillibustering of judges.
Go nuclear!

More Bad News For Democrats

American patriotism continues to soar.

"The poll, conducted by the Roper Reports unit of NOP World, is based on personal and telephone interviews over several years. It found that 81 percent of Americans believed patriotism is “in,” meaning it is an important factor in their individual identities, compared with 14 percent of Americans who believed patriotism is “out.”

The Roper/NOP poll found the gap was the widest since 1991, after the first Persian Gulf War, and far wider than during the mid- to late 1990s.

“That [patriotism] appears so long after the period of frenzied flag-waving following 9/11 suggests that it is settling in as a fixture of American perceptions,” according to Roper Reports."

This Is Important

The United States Senate passed the CAFTA last night, and that's a damned good thing. Why anyone would opposed this is beyond me. It would do miracles for Central America and would do us no harm at all.
These are new democracies down there and they are still fragile. They need growth and prosperity to survive. This will help them do that.
Yes, I know this is rather boring. But if you've even been down there, you know how desperately poor much of the country is.