The UN dips to new levels of irrelevance

A few days ago the U.S., India, Japan and Australia formed their own coalition to coordinate tsunami relief. While officials stated that this coalition was in no way a rival organization to the UN, I suspect it is a not so suttle expression of these countries' complete lack faith in the UN.

After the UN helped perpetrate the biggest fraud in world history, I don't think I could blame them.

It is interesting to note that Great Britain was not a part of this coalition. I have no idea why, but it seems that they would have the most to lose in terms of international political capital. Joining the new coalition would only hurt them. By not joining, the US and other nations are not offended, but by joining the new coalition, GB has to deal with the French, Germans and Russians who will complain that they are undermining UN power. Simply put, GB had everything to lose by joining the coalition, and nothing to gain, for they are already our strongest ally.

Powerline vs MSM

Many other bloggers have mentioned the feud between Nick Coleman and Powerline. Little Nicky has penned an article which BOTWT calls "ankle-biting." Here's part:

These guys pretend to be family watchdogs but they are Rottweilers in sheep's clothing. They attack the Mainstream Media for not being fair while pursuing a right-wing agenda cooked up in conservative think tanks funded by millionaire power brokers.

Iowahawk has a great satirical "first draft" of Little Nicky's piece:

These guys pretend to be a little litter of adorable watchdogs. In fact they are mangy, rabid, cross-dressing Rottweilers bred in a filthy hillbilly puppy mill behind Roger Ailes' trailer park. Oh sure, they're advertised as "free to good family," but soon these Halliburton hellhounds are attacking the innocent postman of the Mainstream Media, ripping the carpet of fairness, and leaving a big steaming pile of right-wing agenda on the sofa of objectivity. It's time we in the legitimate media take these blog mongrels out back and teach 'em a little lesson in journalism -- Old Yeller style.

Check out Iowahawk. He's a sometimes crude, but his humor beats the other blogs hands down.

Vatican vs Israel

So the GAAC, aka the WOATE, aka the Vatican, appears to be a firmly entrenched bastion of Old Europe. I guess I should have realized that, seeing as how it used to be Europe, but every once in a while they surprise me, like when they came out in defence of Sadam. Now, the Catholic World News reports that Israel has denied help to those suffering from the SE Asia tsunami.

The Vatican newspaper has denounced a decision by the Israeli army to deny
emergency help to disaster victims in Sri Lanka.
Calling for "a radical and dramatic change of perspective" among people "too often preoccupied with making war," L'Osservatore Romano singled out Israeli military leaders for declining a request for emergency medical help. The Vatican paper observed that in what "should be a time for unconditional solidarity," some world leaders seem incapable of escaping a "small-minded approach that restricts their horizons."

What really happened?
An Israeli plane carrying 80 tons of supplies, and 150 medical workers, was turned away by the Sri Lankins!
Only in Lefty-land, can "small-minded" Sri Lankin beurocrats deny help to their people, and the blame falls on Israel.

Good News of 2004

Foxnews has a great article detailing how, even in this time of trouble, we have many reasons to be optimistic.
Not listed: Bush won
Saddam got captured
Elections in Afganistan
Michael Moore disapeared (not a small feat for someone who's not small)

Reggie White

A football great, Reggie White, the minister of defence, died from unknown causes Sunday. The New York Times has an insensitive post-mortem hit piece, detailing the fact that as an ordained minister, White (gasp) "labeled homosexuality a sin. 'It's not a race' that can be compared with being black, [White] added."
More proof with how out of touch with mainstream society the NYT is getting, seeing as how the Times itself reports that thousands of mourners lined up to pay last respects to a great athlete and a great person.

French Appeasement Saves French

Via LGF

Two French journalists were released by their terrorist captors recently to a hero's welcome. While the French government vehemently denied paying a ransom, the two captors admitted playing the "French journalists" card.

"We played the 'French journalists' card," said Malbrunot. They stressed to their captors that they were not Americans and France had not supported the U.S.-led war in Iraq. They were close to bombings by U.S. forces on two occasions, he added.

While I'm glad the journalists were safely released, I think its important to realize that appeasement only works in the short run. In the long run, the beneficiaries of appeasement only get greedier and expect further concessions to be made. Appeasement is particularly dangerous when dealing with irrational, blood-thirsty zeolots (ie. the Nazis in WWII, and terrorists).

Cuba strikes back!

Since the US "embassy" in Cuba has refused to remove its Christams display (featuring the number 75, alluding to the number of dissidents jailed this year) Cuba has set up its own display. Pictures of Abu Ghraib abuse, complete with swastikas and a "fascists made in america" sign.

article here

In addition, this last week Cuba began preparations against a feared US invasion.

"Blog of the Year" goes to powerline

Powerline has been named the first ever "blog of the year," by Time.

The award was well deserved, considering Powerline played a significant role in exposing the
C-BS memo hoax and Kerry's "christmas in Cambodia" fairy tale.

It's notable that the liberal blogs have gained the most noteriety through their inaccurracies. 1) the calculated release of unrealiable polling data showing Kerry with a huge lead (obviously hoping this would change the outcome) and 2) the myth that that bulge in Bush's jacket during the debates was a radio receiver, allowing Karl Rove to whisper in his ear (it turns out that the bulge was actually the President's body armour).

George W. Person of the Year

Time Magazine has named President Bush the 2004 person of the year. Before you get all excited thinking Time has finally seen the light, just realize that their definition of the person of the year is the person who has had the greatest effect on society, good or bad, and that Osama Bin Laden was seriously considered in past years and that Hitler, Stalin and the Aytollay are previous recipients of the title. .

LGF has an interesting portion of the article, recounting an episode of George Senior dissing Michael Moore:

Michael Moore’s got to be the worst for me. I mean, he’s such a slimeball and so atrocious. But I love the fact now that the Democrats are not embracing him as theirs anymore. He might not get invited to sit in Jimmy Carter’s box [at the Democratic Convention] again. I wanted to get up my nerve to ask Jimmy Carter at the Clinton thing [the opening of Bill Clinton’s library], “How did it feel being there with that marvelous friend of yours, Michael Moore?” and I didn’t dare do it.

I haven't read the article since it is subscription based so it will be interesting to see how W is portrayed.

Professional Wrestler Knocks Kofi

Here's a great post from oxblog:

People are always asking me, "How can you like something as stupid as professional wrestling?" Well, here's one reason: On tonight's edition of Smackdown!, heavyweight champ JBL insulted another character by accusing him of being as corrupt as Kofi Annan.

So you know, part of JBL's shtick is to be as offensively conservative as possible. He's an arrogant millionaire cowboy who is supposed to resemble a certain other arrogant millionaire cowboy. . . . After dissing Annan, JBL paused for a moment, apparently to check for the negative reaction from the audience he wanted to provoke. But maybe JBL forgot he was in Nashville and that a whole bunch of folks from the 101st Airborne were in the house. Or maybe the whole thing just went over people's heads.

Anyhow, there were plenty of other clever bits in the show. At one point, two henchmen are arguing about which of their bad guy bosses is better. The trump card in their debate turns out to be the fact that one of the bosses -- JBL, in fact -- gives his henchmen full healthcare and dental benefits. Priceless.

UN photo-op ruined by pescy militants

Via LGF: So there you are at a nice UN party for the Palestinians, the kids have all been set up with their little flowers for the photographers, everyone’s having a lovely time, when suddenly ... oh no! Here come the militants!

AP reports:

JENIN REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank - Dozens of gun-toting Palestinian militants on Thursday marched into a U.N. ceremony to dedicate new homes for families whose houses were destroyed by the Israeli military — a sign of the authority gunmen still hold in this West Bank town.

The sudden appearance of Zakaria Zubeidi, the 29-year-old militant leader, and at least 20 of his armed men embarrassed the head of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, the body that administers Palestinian refugee camps.
Weapons are banned in the camps, but during four years of violence, armed gangs have taken control, building their reputations through deadly attacks on Israelis. The unarmed Palestinian police have been shunted aside.

Zubeidi, West Bank head of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a violent group linked to the ruling Fatah (news - web sites) party, strode to the gate of the compound housing U.N. agency offices, passing signs on a fence showing the silhouette of a gun with a red line through it. After a brief argument with a guard, he checked in his M-16 assault rifle with telescopic sight and walked in — a pistol clearly visible on his hip.

"Of course I don't condone it, but it's a fact of life," UNRWA head Peter Hansen told The Associated Press, referring to the violation of the no-arms rule. "Look around the camp. We can't stop it — we don't have guns."

Editorial versus Front Page: you make the call

Well, I've decided to start a new, recurring category featuring the infusion of leftist opinions in most major news publications. I'll post a few lines from the column and let you decide if it was lifted from the Opinion Page, or News Page.

Here's the first sample, talking about Bill Moyer's retirement from PBS and his show "Now":

One example of typically good journalism on "Now" not long ago: an in-depth look at the record of President Bush's nominee for secretary of state, Condoleeza Rice, who in her post as national security adviser "dreadfully misjudged the terrorist threat leading up to 9/11, and then misled America and the world about the case for invading Iraq," Moyers concluded.

Have you guessed?
It comes from an Associated Press "news" column.

More News from Academia

News from a California courtroom, where a former profesor at Claremont McKenna College was found guilty of filling a false police report. She claimed that her rental car had been vandalized with racists statements, and led a campus wide protest. Turns out she did the vandalizing. Student reactions are mixed.

Since the link is to a subscriber site, I will post the article in comments.

The Heart of America

Blackfive has a letter from a Sgt. in Iraq, with a story about how donating toys protects our troops. Check it out, it's pretty amazing.

Feliz Navidad Castro

The US "embassy" in Cuba has refused to take down its christmas decorations. Part of the decorations include the number "75" -the number of dissidents jailed last year for the opposition to communism.
Link Here

The Feeling Might be Mutual

A new poll shows that Old Europe has an unfavorable view of Americans.

International resentment of the United States has spilled over to include bad feelings for the American people, too - at least in three European countries that opposed U.S. policies in Iraq.

People in France, Germany and Spain are more likely to have an unfavorable than favorable view of Americans, Associated Press polling found.

Just over half in France and Germany said they viewed Americans unfavorably. Almost half in Spain felt that way, while a third of Spaniards viewed Americans favorably.

I guess I'll have to buy some Freedom Fries, Freedom Chocolate Cake, and Freedom Rice to make myself feel better.

Hunger Strike!!!

"really, the food stinks"

ABC news reports that Saddam and eleven of his thugs have apparently began a hunger strike to protest the "ill treatment" they have received. Their lawyer began calling on the Red Cross to intervene to check on their condition.

The "ill treatment" included a bath, deodorant, and a forced stint as a Santa at a local mini mall.

IMAO

I was surfing between finals and came across a really funny site. They won 2nd or 3rd in the latest best humor blog award.
http://www.imao.us/
Here's a taste:
The United Nations has shown itself to be increasingly corrupt and an impediment to the United States of America (the best United States of all). Thus, I sent my crack research team to find out all they could about the U.N.
FUN FACTS ABOUT THE UNITED NATIONS
* The U.S. created the United Nations in 1945 in an effort to centralize pointless squabbling.
* The job of the U.N. is to make other nations feel like they have a say in things while the U.S. goes ahead and does whatever the hell it feels like.
* The U.N. has expanded its job to getting kickbacks for their members and hating Israel.
* Most of the voting in the U.N. is for non-binding resolutions that hold no weight. It's like internet polls with more Jew-hating.
* The main power in the U.N is held by the few members of the Security Council who can vote and have vetoes. For some strange reason, France has a permanent seat at that council. It's their last semblance of having any influence whatsoever in this world, and they guard it as protectively as Frenchmen can.
* The main job for the U.N. is "peacekeeping" which usually means "whining at the U.S."
* While the U.N. never actually stops massacres and genocide, it does have endless debate about them. And isn't that better than nothing?
* No, it is not.
* The U.N. is full of dictatorships who get to vote on issues. Voting for them is new, but they realize how much better hating the Jews is when you pass a full resolution.
* The U.N. headquarters is in N.Y. and is technically not U.S. property. If you beat up some U.N. guy, the U.N. police would be the ones to try and arrest you. All you would have to do is then step out of the building and they wouldn't have jurisdiction over you. Then you could tell a NY cop, "I just beat up a U.N. guy!" and he'd be like, "Cool!" Then the U.N. police would yell from their front door, "He beat up some guy here. You extradite him back into this building!" And the cop would answer, "No." Heh, that's funny.
* U.N. people have silly names like Boutros Boutros, Kofi, and Kojo to reinforce how useless they are. It's sad that some countries are so backwards they don't know those names are silly.
* Well, I guess it's not technically "sad" since I'm laughing.
* The U.N. sometimes holds councils in other countries on topics such as women's rights or the environment. Whatever the original topic is supposed to be, the main order of the day is always U.S. and Israel bashing.
* The U.N. has had some of the worst human rights offenders head their council on human rights. If they were told to guard a henhouse, they'd probably appoint a fox.
* U.N peacekeepers have blue helmets. While not strategic for camouflage, U.N. peacekeepers never do anything anyway, so they might as well have colorful helmets.
* If attacked by U.N. peacekeepers, find the portal out of the strange dimension you got yourself trapped in.
* When dealing with U.N. members, remember that their greediness is only matched by their cowardice. Try shaking them to get what you want.
* With such scandals as the Oil for Food program, the U.N. shows itself to be both inept and corrupt. On the other hand, its building is shiny.
* In a fight between U.N. and Aquaman, the U.N. would endlessly talk about deploying peacekeepers against Aquaman but never actually do it. Thus Aquaman would win by default. Yes, there is at least one entity in this world more impotent than Aquaman.
* While the U.S. dropping out of the U.N. would cripple the corrupt organization and save the U.S. money, it would make lots of whiny nations angry at us... which, come to think of it, isn't really a change.
* Plans for turning the U.N. headquarters into an IHOP are on the table, but nothing has been finalized.

'Pardongate' and UNSCAM

The NY Post reports that Mark Rich, the Billionare who was pardoned by Bill Clinton in 2001 is a key figure in the Oil-for-food scandal, probably the worlds biggest ripp-off. Rich, who fled to Switzerland in 1983 to escape an indictment for racketeering and tax evasion, also had ties to Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini. Clinton, in the final hours of his presidency pardoned Rich after being lobbyed by the Israeli prime minister and Rich's Wife, who donated more than $1 million to the dems.

PEST claims a life?

LGF shows a clipping of an actual obituary that is odd. Has Post Election Selection Trauma (PEST) claimed its first victim? The obituary form the Chicago-Sun Times reads:

Herbert M. Hazelkorn, DDS, PhD Herbert M. Hazelkorn, of Glencoe, Illinois, left us on December 7, 2004, of a broken heart at the recent passing of his wife of 35 years, Bobby, exacerbated by a broken spirit arising from the results of the Presidential election.

Reporting For Duty!!!!!

Where's that darn Bill?

Peggy Noonan has a must read column on all the moves that Hillary is currently making, and will make to set her self up as the perfect canditate in '08'. Here's a few excerpts:


She is [the] presumptive presidential nominee in the 2008 cycle. Her daughter is grown and launched; her husband is recovering from recent surgery and is not likely to cause her future embarrassment because he is (a) not in office, and (b) the happy recipient of low expectations regarding his personal behavior. Beyond that any unfortunate actions on his part will only make her look more sympathetic and, in comparison, more mature and stable.

How is Mrs. Clinton positioning herself in terms of the issues?

She is taking care of her liberal base while cherry-picking key issues on which she can get to the right of the Republican party. This is most astute and quite effective. For the liberals she produces a steady stream of base-friendly efforts (Special Committee on the Aging, education funding, help for the emotionally disturbed, extended unemployment insurance) and classic pork barrel. To get to the right of the president she talks homeland security and immigration.

Why does she want to get to Mr. Bush's right on these issues?

Three reasons. The first is that she knows another attack on American soil is inevitable and wants to position herself politically as The Wise One Who Warned Us.

Second, she knows that a woman perceived as a liberal has no chance at winning the presidency while a woman perceived as a tough, pragmatic moderate does. So she is tough where Mr. Compassionate Conservative is soft (immigration), or is vulnerable, after a coming attack, to charges that he was soft (homeland security). She can't lose on this one. Security can always be better, and after America is attacked again anger and finger pointing will be widespread.

Third, Mrs. Clinton knows the Democratic Party as a whole is to the left of the electorate. She is used to this. It is the story of her life. The electorate in Arkansas were always more moderate than Gov. and Mrs. Clinton, and President and Mrs. Clinton for that matter. She knows how to operate in such conditions.

[What about the big difference between Red and Blue states being values and Religion. Doesn't she know that democrats are often perceived as being hostile to Religion?]

Yes. And she knows it. And she is about to get very spiritual. She knows it's not enough to run around quoting scripture on the stump, as John Kerry did. On the other hand she cannot speak as Bush did of Christ as the center of her life because that would not be credible: She has never spoken that way and strikes no one as born again.

But she can go about it in her own way. She will begin giving interviews in which she speaks of the importance of the teachings of Christ in her thinking about policy issues. She will also begin to emphasize as never before her Methodist youth, and her hometown pastor's emphasis on public service. Something tells me a big black Bible is being put on a coffee table in her office even as I type. And there will also suddenly be more media availabilities after Sunday church service.

Always remember what Bill Clinton did after he lost re-election to the governorship in 1980. He joined the choir in the only local church whose services were broadcast on television throughout Arkansas every Sunday morning. You could turn in every Sunday and see him in his robe, with his music book, singing spirituals.

[Does it matter that she "plays" moderate]

Sure. It's at the heart of things. Americans want to know the deepest beliefs of their president. Mrs. Clinton is no doubt correct that the first woman president will be a conservative or a tough moderate. But maybe the American people would prefer a woman who actually is a conservative or a moderate, such as Sen. Kay Baily Hutchison, as opposed to one who plays one on TV.

But wait a second, she can't win her party's nomination that way. The primary voting base of the Democratic Party is leftist.

Yes, but in her case it doesn't matter. The base of the party will be with her, for two reasons. First, they know her history and know her. They believe she sees the world as they do but does certain things to survive. She was woven into the left and knew everyone on the left for 25 years.

Second and just as important, after the trauma of the Kerry loss, after the morass of doubt and depression in which the party now finds itself, she will seem to be one thing they really want: the person who can win. Because she is a winner. She always has been. The base will make a calculation not unlike the one she has made: We can play moderate to win, no problem.

Moveon.org to Democratic Party: "we own it"

Loony left group, Moveon.org apparantly thinks that the Democratic party isn't left enough and feels that the "professional election losers" of the Democratic party had better listen to its "grassroots" supporters. The associated press reports:

WASHINGTON - Liberal powerhouse MoveOn has a message for the "professional election losers" who run the Democratic Party: "We bought it, we own it, we're going to take it back."

A scathing e-mail from the head of MoveOn's political action committee to the group's supporters on Thursday targets outgoing Democratic National Committee (news - web sites) chairman Terry McAuliffe as a tool of corporate donors who alienated both traditional and progressive Democrats.

"For years, the party has been led by elite Washington insiders who are closer to corporate lobbyists than they are to the Democratic base," said the e-mail from MoveOn PAC's Eli Pariser. "But we can't afford four more years of leadership by a consulting class of professional election losers." Under McAuliffe's leadership, the message said, the party coddled the same corporate donors that fund Republicans to bring in money at the expense of vision and integrity.
"In the last year, grass-roots contributors like us gave more than $300 million to the Kerry campaign and the DNC, and proved that the party doesn't need corporate cash to be competitive," the message continued. "Now it's our party: we bought it, we own it, and we're going to take it back."

Seems to me like Moveon is hoping for a Howard Dean chairmenship of the Democratic party and I don't think rebuplicans mind.

Rumsfield's Arranged Grilling

Everyone else is posting about it, so I thought I should too. I'm going to be lazy though, and just link to LGF.

Summary for those who haven't kept up.

• Rumsfild was asked difficult questions about a perceived lack of equipment for soldiers in Iraq.
• He respnded well (though that is being ignored)
• It turns out that a reporter arranged the soldier's question, even prompting him on what to say.
• The paper employing the reporter issued the apology linked above in LGF.

I'll try to add more as more comes out.

Martyrdom Is Good...but not for me or my family

From the Asman Observer (foxnews):

It’s bad enough to kill innocent life, but when you send others to do it from
the comfort of your mosque or living room, that’s an act of cowardice that
deserves the lowest pit of hell. One of these characters is a Saudi Arabian
preacher named Salman al-Awdah, who signed a declaration making it an obligation
for Muslims to join terror squads in Iraq.
Well it turns out that one of
Salman’s sons took his father’s call seriously and wanted to join up. The Wall
Street Journal reports that he wrote a farewell letter to his father saying,
“God permitting, we have an appointment with Paradise.” Well it seems daddy
wasn’t pleased with the thought of his son being blown to bits in Iraq, so he
called one of his buddies, a prince who’s the number two man at the Saudi
Interior Ministry. The secret police soon found the boy, who’s been kept at home
ever since.

This mans advice to his son... do what I do, not what I say!

Diversity That Matters

USAToday has a piece on Bush's cabinet, which is diverse, but not in the way that matters to liberals:

Another reason Bush hasn't gotten as much credit as Clinton: The interest groups
most likely to praise diversity of personnel generally disagree with Bush on
policy. Leaders of the NAACP and NOW opposed Bush's re-election and criticize
him for curtailing affirmative action and other programs designed to help women
and minorities.
"There's diversity of color, but it's the policies that one
would be more interested in," says New York Rep. Charles Rangel, a Democrat who
is one of the senior black members of Congress.

The Corner rightly points out the hypocrisy:

Oh, so now the Left thinks that it is really not skin color that is so important;
it is diversity of opinion? Funny, you never hear this when the discussion is
about academia even though it is a lot more reasonable to want diversity of
opinion there than in a unitary Executive Branch.

Osama bin Readin' some Clancy

After 9-11, several reporters pointed out that in the end of Clancy's novel Debt of Honor, a suicide pilot crashes a plane into the capitol, killing most of the government. It was implied that Osama got the idea from the book. There's even some nuts out there that think the idea was planted by the US military.
Now, a report from the Department of Homeland Security warns of dangers from lazers

In certain circumstances, if laser weapons adversely affect the eyesight of both
pilot and co-pilot during a non-instrument approach, there is a risk of airliner
crash.

In other words, by shining a bright light in their eyes so that they can't see when they land. An idea that is used in a Tom Clancy book, in fact the same one with the suicide pilot.

Sounds like the terrorists went out to read the book that inspired the events, and got some more ideas.

I'd pay him NOT to support me

The Associated Press reports that Al Sharpton was actually paid in connection with his support of John Kerry.

WASHINGTON - All of John Kerry (news - web sites)'s one-time rivals in the Democratic presidential primary eventually lined up to support him as the nominee, but only one got paid for it — Al Sharpton (news - web sites).

The Democratic National Committee (news - web sites) paid Sharpton $86,715 in travel and consulting fees to compensate for his campaigning for Kerry and other Democratic candidates, according to reports to the Federal Election Commission (news - web sites).

In an interview with The Associated Press, Sharpton said he was paid for travel and he didn't know how much he had been reimbursed. "They asked me to travel to 20 or 30 cities to campaign, and I did that," Sharpton said. "What am I supposed to do, donate the cost of air fare?"

But records show that while most of the money was to reimburse travel expenses, Sharpton was paid $35,000 as a "political consulting fee" 15 days after the election. The consulting fee was first reported in this week's edition of the Village Voice. Democratic National Committee spokesman Jano Cabrera said the party paid Sharpton at the request of the Kerry campaign.
"After meeting with Kerry's staff, we did agree to pay for Reverend Sharpton's travel and consulting expenses," Cabrera said. "He traveled very extensively to help the nominee and Democrats across the board, encouraging them to get out and vote on November 2." ...

Kerry's eight other former rivals from the Democratic primary also worked to varying degrees to get Kerry elected. In particular, Wesley Clark (news - web sites), Bob Graham, Dick Gephardt (news - web sites) and Dennis Kucinich (news - web sites) often campaigned with Kerry, although the latter three mostly appeared in their home states. But none of the other eight Democrats who were once in the race were paid travel reimbursements or consulting fees, according to a search of federal records collected by tracking service PoliticalMoneyLine.

NYTimes on War

On the homepage of nytimes.com, a sad story about the cost of war. Apparently NY has had an increased number of casualties from the war on terror during the last month. Though how the 19 dead compare to the this list of NY casualties kind of puts it in perspective.

Uhoh!

Look out all you laptop users!
Foxnews has a very alarming story, but looking at the numbers, I'm not sure its all its cracked up to be.

Update: Take a look at opinionjournal's take on the story. (second item from bottom)

Fruits of Desertion

From Citizen Smash, an open letter to deserting "war criminal" Pablo Paredes. I thought all his points were great, but I especially liked this one, since I hadn't thought of it before:

When you were planning your dramatic “statement,” did you think for a minute about how this would affect your shipmates? You are a fire control technician on the Sea Sparrow surface-to-air missile system. The Navy doesn’t have a bunch of spare FCs sitting in cold storage... Your job isn’t one that the Navy can afford to shrug off – somebody else is going to have to do it.
One of two things is going to happen. Either your shipmates are going to have to pull extra shifts to cover for your absence, or – more likely – somebody from another ship is going to get emergency orders to take your place in the coming days. Maybe that person is married; maybe he even has kids.
And you pulled this little stunt just in time for Christmas.

Puts all his self-righteousness in a little more perspective...

Update: Oxblog links to an article on another deserter and his story. Apparently, Canada is the only nation that allows Americans "refugee" status. And speaking of Canada...

Leaning Right

I've added a link to this blog. He specializes in political art. Some good stuff. Here's a piece:

A woman in a hot air balloon realized she was lost. She lowered her altitude and spotted a man in a boat below. She shouted to him, 'Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am.'
The man consulted his portable GPS and replied, 'You're in a hot air balloon approximately 30 feet above a ground elevation of 2346 feet above sea level. You are at 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes west longitude.'
She rolled her eyes and said, 'You must be a Republican.'
'I am,' replied the man. 'How did you know?'
'Well,' answered the balloonist, 'everything you have told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to do with your information, and I'm still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help to me.'
The man smiled and said, 'You must be a Democrat.'
'I am,' replied the balloonist. 'How did you know?
''Well,' said the man, 'you don't know where you are or where you are going. You've risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise that you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem. You're in exactly the same position you were in before we met but, somehow, it's my fault.'

I also liked these definitions off of bumper stickers:
Liberal: Someone so open-minded their brain has fallen out.
Bigot: A conservative winning an argument with a liberal.

Dems For Kofi

The Democrats have back-peddled from their earlier position, and now say they only meant for Annan to "step-aside" from the investigations.
Now Fox News reports that House Democrats are coming to Kofi's defense. Particularly humorous is a letter sent by Dennis "the menace" Kucinich to Secretary Powell,

"There has been no hint of impropriety on the part of the secretary-general, who
on numerous occasions has proven his honesty and integrity,"

Apparently corruption on the part of his son, on the part of the Executive Director of the program (an Annan appointee), and Kofi's own interference with these investigations are not enough to hint impropriety to representative Kucinich.

Arab Democracy

From the American Spectator, a great rebuttal to Poot'n's claim that elections don't do well under foreign occupation:

In the West Bank and Gaza Strip, 1.3 million Palestinians are registered to vote in the January 9 election of one of ten presidential candidates seeking to replace the marvelously dead Yasser Arafat. In Iraq, nearly 14 million Iraqis are registered to vote for one of 156 parties running in the January 30th election. As Bill Kristol has pointed out, commentators in the Arab world are starting to wonder aloud why the Arabs with the most significant voting rights are those under American or Israeli occupation.

More on the Guardian

So I decided to look up other cartoons in the Guadian. The cartons have so much depth of thought, they all belong in the gutter.
Particularly telling of the idiocy of these people, is this cartoon, depicting a dead terrorist as a "white dove of peace."
LGF is right...these guys are mentally ill.

Bipolar Guardian

From the British "rag" (and I mean that in every sense of the word) the Guardian, come two opposing views on the upcoming Iraqi elections. One is a well thought-out argument in favor of keeping the election timetable in Iraq. The other is a typical and ugly of the administration as NAZI officers and zombies?
In his pro-election opinion, Charles Krauthammer compares the situation in Iraq to the US Civil War:

In 1864, 11 of the 36 states did not participate in the American presidential election. Was Lincoln's election therefore illegitimate?
In 1868, three years after the security situation had, shall we say, stabilized, three states (and not insignificant ones: Texas, Virginia and Mississippi) did not participate in the election. Was Grant's election illegitimate?
There has been much talk that if the Iraqi election is held and some Sunni Arab provinces (perhaps three of the 18) do not participate, the election will be illegitimate.
Nonsense. The election should be held. It should be open to everyone. If Iraq's Sunni Arabs - barely 20% of the population - decide that they cannot abide giving up their 80 years of minority rule, which ended with 30 years of Saddam Hussein's atrocious tyranny, then tough luck. They forfeit their chance to shape and to participate in the new Iraq.

Maybe the cartoonists at the guardian are just against elections in general.

Dems Against Kofi

kofi's impression of Titanic

By Bear
The Democratic Leadership Council's online community has an article calling for Kofi Annan's resignation. Citing misdeeds that have "steadily eroded" the credibility of the oganization. They join Senator Norm Coleman in calling for the Sectretary General to step down. Now, with bipartisan support, perhaps we will hear a bit more about the UN scandals in the mainstream media. ... But don't hold your breath.

PS On a more personal note, WHO NAMES THEIR KID KOJO? Honestly!

Red Cross Rationalizing

Gitmo

By Bear
A recent leak, followed by an official statement from the ICRC, claimed that prisoners held at Gitmo are in conditions "tantamount to torture."

From the ICRC website:
The ICRC believes that the uncertainty about their fate has been a contributing factor to the mental and emotional health problems among the detainees at Guantanamo Bay observed by its delegates and reported by other sources.

Calling these conditions torture does two things:
It feeds the anti-american propaganda machines such as Al-Jazeera and Arab dictatorships. Just like the Abu Graib stories, this release will enrage the "Arab street" and give credibility to their hatred.
It cheapens the real meaning of the word torture. The fact that this story trumps the actual torture chambers found in Fallujah shows the extent to which this has happened.

Scrappleface has an article that perfectly illustrates the difference between the conditions at Gitmo and real war crimes.
"We've found numerous incidents of Al Qaeda captives who were released," said an unnamed Red Cross source in the Times report. "And for that we applaud Al Qaeda. However, in a footnote to the report, we mention that a disturbing number of these detainees are released without their heads, which we believe may be a violation of the Geneva conventions." The source emphasized that "both sides in the war on terror have transgressed." "Whether it's the apparent videotaped beheading of an innocent civilian contractor, or psychological manipulation of an enemy combattant who may have knowledge of planned attacks on the U.S. citizens--it's all reprehensible," she said. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said, "Sure, we play head games with terrorists to get them to divulge information that will save lives. We can do that at Guantanamo because our detainees have heads. A recent internal study shows that the ratio of detainees to detainee-heads at Gitmo is one-to-one."

Poot'n's View of Democracy

Russian president Vladimir Putin, fresh from denting "his prestige and squandered influence" by backing the winning candidate in the Ukrainian stolen election, weighs in on the upcoming Iraqi elections.

"Honestly speaking, I cannot imagine how it is possible to organize elections under the conditions of occupation by foreign forces," the ITAR-Tass news agency quoted Putin as saying during a Kremlin meeting with Iraqi interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.

I wondered if Putin has trouble understanding democracy because it is so new to his country. Remarks like these...

"Of course we will ... accept the will of any nation in the former Soviet space, and will work with any elected leader," Putin said.

"Putin should understand this isn't the Soviet Union," said Vafa Guluzade, a former government foreign policy adviser in Azerbaijan. "The time for appointing Russian marionettes is over."

...make me think I'm right.

Update:
I don't know how I missed this the first time, but look back at Putin's quote. Occupation by foreign forces is the thing impeding elections in Iraq. Historically, both Germany and Japan probably held elections during the occupations after WWII.
Which occupied countries didn't hold elections? The ones held by the USSR. Putin doesn't understand that during real liberation, the occupying forces can help democracy, not repress it.

Harvard Students: "We Suck"

20,000 harvard fans getting duped.

It appears that Yale won this year's prank against Harvard, convincing a few thousand Harvard fans to hold up painted signs that when put together spelled "we suck." The Yale pranksters wore Harvard pep club shirts and distributed the placards thoughout the Harvard student body. The whole story can be read here, and a video of the event seen here.

No Nation Left Behind

From scrappleface:

Just a day after a United Nations commission released a 95-page report calling for the reorganization, and possible expansion, of the 15-member Security Council, U.S. President George Bush unveiled his own sweeping U.N.-reform proposal, which he called 'No Nation Left Behind.' ...

"No nation should be forced to send its money to a petrified, cash-sucking monopoly that has consistently failed to meet its stated goals," said Mr. Bush. "My 'No Nation Left Behind' plan will introduce the accountability mechanism of free markets to the field of international relations. And it will give struggling nations a chance to advance
when their values and behavior produce results that earn respect. Nations that fail to progress in developing liberty and justice for all, will be held back until they show measurable results. This effectively ends the current practice of boosting their self-esteem by granting oppressive regimes a seat on the Human Rights Commission, or allowing them to retain veto power on the Security Council."
Under the provisions of the Bush plan, a regimen of testing would determine whether membership in the U.N. provided "a net benefit" to each of the 191 member nations. If any nation "gives more than it gets" from its association with the U.N. it would be free to either reduce its contribution to match the benefit it receives or request a voucher that it could invest in a more effective international organization. If no such organization exists, nations may band together based on shared values to form so-called "charter alliances" or "coalitions of the willing" to accomplish specific objectives. ...
Privately, a senior administration official said the greatest feature of 'No Nation Left Behind' is that it eliminates the need to ask in every crisis, 'What would France do?'

The best humor always has a bit of truth to it. Having the US fund the UN is like requiring the Democratic party to pay the majority of the budget if the RNC. Who wants to fund an organization that overwelmingly sees itself as your opponent?

So what do you mean by Diversity?

The other day at school I picked up a copy of National Jurist magazine, and noticed that they had ranked the majority of lawschools according to diversity. The rankings looked at the number of racial minorities and women in each school over the past number of years. Schools with more women and minorities that were increasing in number were ranked higher on the scale.

Not suprisingly, BYU, Utah and Geoge Mason were practically last in rankings. However, some schools, which I expected to be at the bottom of the list were praised for their diversity. Most notably, All-Black schools and colleges, where nearly 90% of the faculty and students are black, were ranked at the very top. As to how such schools could be called diverse struck me as odd.

The initial impotus for promoting diversity was to get people from different backgrounds and ideologies together to exchange ideas, and that such interchange provides for a more rich education. However, this doesn't seem to be the reason anymore. It is blatantly clear that the push for diversity, is not to bring in different voices into the classroom, but different races.

In fact, it is typically the administrators and faculty that are praising the merits of diversity are the ones who are stifling the growth of ideological diversity. Study after study has shown that campus faculties are overwhelmingly liberal. In addition, there are numerous reports and documentaries highlighting how consertive students often feel intimidated to share their views, fearing the professors will publicly mock them and privately adjust their grades.

Here's a few lines from a great article in the Economist:

Academia is simultaneously both the part of America that is most obsessed with diversity, and the least diverse part of the country. On the one hand, colleges bend over backwards to hire minority professors and recruit minority students, aided by an ever-burgeoning bureaucracy of “diversity officers”. Yet, when it comes to politics, they are not just indifferent to diversity, but downright allergic to it.

The growth of conservitive think-tanks is partly a result of conservative academics leaving academia because the system was loaded against them.

If administrators where really concerned with diversity as a means of improving education, they would emphasize ideological diversity, not just racial diversity. David Horowitz, a conservative "provacatuer" has proposed an Academic Bill of Rights that would prohibit school administrators from punishing faculty for their ideologies. Whether this is a proper solution remains to be seen, but the system does need some change. Real change might be too much to ask from the liberal, "sybolism over substance" crowd, where admitting left leaning racial minorities solely based on their race lets them use PC words like "diversity" and envelopes the campus into a haven of leftis ideology. "As for the university establishment, leftists are hardly likely to relinquish their grip on one of the few bits of America where they remain in the ascendant."

PEST: The first session of counseling

Boca Raton News reports that Kerry supporters suffering from Post Election Selection Trauma (PEST) have recently had their first meeting with a pyschologist. Part of the counseling involved "screaming epithets at President Bush as they shared their emotions with licensed mental health counselors." Read on for a few more laughs:

“If I had a cardboard cutout of President Bush, and these people wanted to throw darts at it, I would let them do it,” Robert J. Gordon, AHA executive director, told the Boca News after the session. “It’s no joke. People with PEST were traumatized by the election. If you even mention religion, their faces turn blister-red as they shout at Bush.”...

“I’m scared,” said one man. “Democracy is at stake and nobody is rising to protest this president.” “I want to be a patriot, but it’s impossible to be a patriot in an immoral war,” said another participant, a woman. “Bush is breaking up marriages and dividing families by keeping our troops in Iraq.” ... “The media outlets, especially Rush Limbaugh and his ilk on talk radio, scare our patients to death,” said Gordon, facilitator for the meetings. “More than anything else, people with PEST tremble physically.” ...“We mostly let them vent during the first session,” Gordon said. “By the third session, we’ll be doing some meditation exercises to aid some of their symptoms. We may use visualization and some techniques designed for bipolar disease and other mental disorders. That might help them adjust to reality.” ...

“There’s an overall sense of emotional helplessness and abandonment,” said Sheila Cooperman, a licensed AHA psychotherapist from Delray Beach. “In psychology, we call it ‘learned helplessness.’ After you zap a caged dog twice, he stops moving because he knows there is no place to go. That’s what happened with these Kerry voters. They’ve been zapped so many times that they’re on the verge of giving up on politics.”

Cooperman, also a practicing psychic, added, “One person today said he thinks the country is now run by fascists. Another felt personally threatened by the president’s love for big business. Many believe Bush is going to draft their grandchildren. The anxiety may not affect them every day, but it affects their energy level.” ... Gordon said his patients’ emotional problems typically started with the “hanging chad” debacle of 2000. “First, they need to realize they’re not going to overturn the 2004 election,” Gordon said. “They have to live with it. The problem is they have no faith because they think the religious right has hijacked the political system. We try to tell them there is still an election in 2008. You can’t just give up and be apathetic.” ... “These people talk about the 2000 election being stolen,” Gordon said. “They talk about Theresa LePore and the Ohio recount. They feel it’s the ‘Right House,’ not the White House. They feel the world is not safe with George W. Bush as president. They spewed out a lot of anger. They are angry at the Democratic Party for being aimless and leaderless. They have a right to these feelings.”

Fake Communists

From instapundit:

The WSJ has a story (subscription only) on a phony Maoist group set up by Dutch intelligence, which has recently come out of the cold. Not everyone is happy:
Set up and run by spooks in 1969, his party, the MLPN, had its own newspaper, De Kommunist, written and edited by the secret service. As well as Mr. Boevé playing Chris Petersen, the secretary-general, it had a chairman (another fraud) and a Central Committee stacked with secret agents. To add authenticity, the party let Mr. Wartena and a handful of other true believers join its otherwise nonexistent ranks,
telling them that they were part of a network of underground cells. . .

"I totally wasted 12 years of my life," says Paul Wartena, an ex-MLPN member who was so dedicated to the cause he used to donate 20% of his salary to the fake party. He says he "had some doubts now and then" about the MLPN but stayed loyal because "I was very naive and Mr. Boevé was such a good actor." Now a researcher at a university in Utrecht, Mr. Wartena wants Dutch intelligence to pay him back for
all his donations.
Mr. Boevé, now 74, scoffs at his acolyte: "He was an idiot."

Is anyone surprised that someone this naive ended up in academia?

A Slave to the IRS

Evan Maloney has an interesting article on his brainterminal site. He makes the point that while we turn over money to the IRS, we are essentially turning over our time. In essence, for a little less than half the day, most of us are working for the government, just to pay taxes.

To further stress the point he likens it to if, instead of handing over cash to the government, we were required to show up and work on a chain-gang for about half the day. In fact, he argues that some would have to work most of the day for the government, while others would work alot less, depending on how much they could make while off the chain gang. We don't look at life this way because we don't leave work or change our work to pay the government, it gets blended together.

I think from now on, while I'm at work, everytime it hits about noon, I'll declare to my co-workers that I've just finished working for the government that day and can start working for myself.

Evan also has an article on the Fair Tax, which is kind of consumption tax where you are taxed on what you spend, not what you earn. To counter arguments that consuption taxes hurt the poor more than the rich, the Fair Tax proposes to eliminate the tax for spending below the poverty level. I don't know all the ramififications of the tax, but thought it sounded interesting.

Post-Birth Abortion?

Euthanasia has been a hot topic for a number of years, and the main tenent of the pro-mercy killing crowd was that we should help those who wanted to die if they were suffering from severe pain. Once that gained acceptance in Europe, it was only a matter of time before they would take the next step--mercy killings of those who couldn't communicate whether they wanted to live or die.

Doctors in the Netherlands have already started to kill new born babies setting forth the guidelines of when and how to kill terminally ill infants.

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - A hospital in the Netherlands — the first nation to permit euthanasia — recently proposed guidelines for mercy killings of terminally ill newborns, and then made a startling revelation: It has already begun carrying out such procedures, which include administering a lethal dose of sedatives....

In August, the main Dutch doctors' association KNMG urged the Health Ministry to create an independent board to review euthanasia cases for terminally ill people "with no free will," including children, the severely mentally retarded and people left in an irreversible coma after an accident....

The guideline says euthanasia is acceptable when the child's medical team and independent doctors agree the pain cannot be eased and there is no prospect for improvement, and when parents think it's best.

This reminds me of a Robert Bork chapter entitled "Killing for Convenience" in one of his books. He basically predicts how once the basic tenents of Euthanasia are accepted, then there is virtually no stopping point.

It is only a matter of time before the same proponents are using this logic to argue that they should kill infants for other reasons (ie. burden on the parents, financial strain, and even inconvenience) in essence, de facto abortion.