simonson says

Clinton emotional (about losing)

2008-01-08T08:12:00.000-08:00

Boo hooo.

"It's not easy, and I couldn't do it if I didn't passionately believe it was the right thing to do," she said. Her voice cracked, and her eyes appeared to well with tears. "You know, this is very personal for me. It's not just political. It's not just public. I see what's happening, and we have to reverse it."
She continued: "Some people think elections are a game, lots of who's up or who's down. It's about our country. It's about our kids' futures. And it's really about all of us together." ~wapo

2008-01-07T08:45:00.000-08:00

First

Hegemonic Blog

2007-04-10T13:42:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted here in awhile. Maybe I should figure out an automated way to post here from my other blog so that this acts as a backup or archive.

Anyway, more recent posts can be found here: hegemonic.org

Return of the Conservatives: NY Post calls it correctly: RATs guilty of treason

2007-02-17T16:17:00.000-08:00

Return of the Conservatives: NY Post calls it correctly: RATs guilty of treason

Amen brother.

Constitutional showdown

2007-01-30T21:41:00.000-08:00

Democrats appear to be confused about which branch of government is invested with the commander-in-chief powers.

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee began laying the constitutional groundwork today for an effort to block President Bush’s plan to send more troops to Iraq and place new limits on the conduct of the war there, perhaps forcing a withdrawal of American forces from Iraq. ~nytimes.com

Seems a bit like a coup to me.

“I would respectfully suggest to the president that he is not the sole decider,” Mr. Specter said. “The decider is a joint and shared responsibility.”
Mr. Specter said he considered a clash over constitutional powers to be “imminent.” The Senate next week will take up competing proposals that would express disapproval of Mr. Bush’s plan.
Senator Russell Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat who acted as chairman for the hearing, said he would soon introduce a resolution that would go much further. It would end all financing for the deployment of American military forces in Iraq after six months, other than a limited number working on counterterrorism operations or training the Iraqi army and police. In effect, it would call for all other American forces to be withdrawn by the six-month deadline.
“Since the President is adamant about pursuing his failed policy in Iraq, Congress has a duty to stand up and prevent him,” Mr. Feingold said. ~nytimes.com

Linkage option

2007-01-22T17:49:00.000-08:00

The following are links that I'd like to follow up on and blog a full post about, but may not have the time to do but one or two...

Climate scientists feeling the heat
As public debate deals in absolutes, some experts fear predictions 'have created a monster'

Ramping Up the Pressure on al-Sadr

The Taliban’s ‘Bloody Spring’
Afghanistan’s ambassador to the U.S. expects fresh American funds to help fight a resurgent enemy.

We Can Win the White House
To build on our midterm gains, Dems should follow my '50 Percent Solution.'
(Half witted plan!)

Sen. Bernie Sanders: If You Are Concerned About Health Care, Iraq, the Economy, Global Warming You Must Be Concerned About Corporate Control of the Media

Al-Qaeda deputy 'mocks Bush plan'

A New Christendom from the ‘Two Thirds World’ is Arising

Confidence in Bush Leadership at All-Time Low, Poll Finds

Liberals or Al Qaeda?

2007-01-22T17:41:00.000-08:00

It's honestly hard to tell when Zawahiri says, "Why not send 50 or 100 thousand?" if it's not a statement from Biden or another democrat. Or it could be Murtha saying that our troops will be massacred by the blood thirsty shock troops of Islamist terror. Or it could be Kerry who says that our troops are weak and easily defeated.

(CNN) -- In a video released Monday, al Qaeda's second in command ridicules President Bush's plan to send more U.S. troops to Iraq and predicts a fate "worse than anything you have yet seen."
"Security is a shared destiny," says Ayman al-Zawahiri, the chief aide to Osama bin Laden, on the video, which was tracked by lauramansfield.com, a Web site that analyzes terrorism.
The video, released on the eve of Bush's planned State of the Union address, lasts about 14 minutes.
"If we are secure, you might be secure, and if we are safe, you might be safe. And if we are struck and killed, you will definitely -- with Allah's permission -- be struck and killed." (Watch a soundbite from the video )
Al-Zawahiri cites Bush's plan to send more than 20,000 U.S. troops to Iraq, and asks, "Why not send 50,000 or 100,000?
"Aren't you aware that the dogs of Iraq are pining for your troops' dead bodies? Send your entire army to be annihilated at the hands of the mujahedeen to free the world from your evil and theirs because Iraq, the land of the caliphate and jihad, is able to bury 10 armies like yours, with God's help and power."
Bush, in a speech on Iraq policy changes January 11, said he will increase American forces by more than 20,000, the vast majority of them coming from "five brigades [that] will be deployed to Baghdad." ~cnn

Honestly, it's hard to tell.

Should we talk to South Korea too?

2006-12-16T19:30:00.000-08:00

Just a neighborly propaganda poster from North Korea. The red North Korean soldier smashing the white house.

South Carolina

2006-12-16T19:25:00.000-08:00

One thing I loved about South Carolina is the spanish moss and the wonderful green everywhere you look.

Comment response

2006-10-04T18:05:00.000-07:00

kevin23,

What a crock.

He’s a scumbag who has been protected by immoral and incompetentfellow republicans for years now. There’s no debate about those facts.But I’m loving the fact that this gets turned on dems because they areon the attack. Why on earth shouldn’t they be?

What on earth are you talking about? Or are you in fact proving my point entirely?

Are you saying that all the homosexual 'scumbags' should be turned out of congress?

Most importantly, Eric, how is it that you can actually feel goodabout taking a strategic political approach to such a universallyunconscionable act? Just because your overly partisan and underly moral“leadership” in congress takes that reprehensible approach doesn’tjustify it coming from you, who doesn’t even have power to lose.

I always feel good about telling the truth. I'm not sure if you actually read my post-- I'm glad Foley resigned. If he didn't resign he should be expelled from office. That said, I think that it's interesting that Democrats suddenly feel that what Foley did was unconsciounable. They keep electing representatives who actually HAVE SEX with pages. All Foley did, as far as we know so far, is send email and instant messages.

But you and I both know that anyone sending these kinds of messages would likely also have sex with pages.

The entire point of my rant is that IT IS the Republicans who punish for this behaviour, and that IT IS Democrats who excuse it.

I’m not calling for resignations quite yet. BUT, I think it would benice to actually see a genuine response rather than seeing congessionalleaders trying to be strategic. Morality should NEVER be strategic.Right, Eric?

That's the whole point. Which response is more genuine? Republicans who punish this behaviour, or Democrats who do not?

Once the congressional “investigation” is complete, the facts willbe so distorted that no one will learn anything from it.

No, you're right. These are judgments which are far too important to make with the facts. We must demonize Hastert before we have any facts which might contradict our chosen disgust at what we want to assume that he did or did not do.

The IM’s wereclearly sicko. First hand reports are coming in from politicians andformer pages about this guy’s reputation for exactly this kind ofthing. How is this defensible?

Who is defending Foley? I'd like to know what Republicans you know of who are making any excuses for Foley's actions, his IM's, or his reputation as a homosexual who like young boys.

Even for you, Eric, this should clearlybe a non-partisan issue that has obvious partisan consequences. Demshave absolutely nothing to do with it. ANY individual who knewsomething and didn’t report it is a scumbag. ANY individual who didn’tthink it was a big deal is a scumbag. Eric?

That's my question to you. You seem to say that someone is defending Foley. I am not aware of anyone who is, but your argument is based on this strawman that he is being defended.

And I think that any individual who points to past acts by dems totake the edge off this set of facts is a scumbag too. That’s just alittle pre-emptive attack, since I know you love them so.

Just so I have your position correct... you're saying that we should judge each scandal as a separate incident taken entirely on it's own without looking to other scandals like this in order to make comparisons.

But then isn't this what Hastert is being accused of doing? Of not taking into account the implication of hints that there could be more evidence?

The argument demonizing Hastert seems to be that Hastert shouldn't have given anyone the benefit of the doubt. In fact, he should have realized that any hint of homosexual or deviant behaviour should be enough to possibly expell Foley from congress.

"Fatal Attraction"

2006-09-28T15:06:00.000-07:00

This is a great title for this post. Austin Bay Blog has it right on target...

Fatal Attraction: 4000 Al Qaeda dead in Iraq

A release from CBS News and the Associated Press in Cairo.

The lede:

The new leader of al Qaeda in Iraq said in an audiotape posted on the Internet Thursday that more than 4,000 foreign insurgent fighters have been killed in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

“The blood has been spilled in Iraq of more than 4,000 foreigners who came to fight,” said the man, who identified himself as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir - also known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri - the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, though the voice could not be independently identified.
Austin Bay Blog » Fatal Attraction: 4000 Al Qaeda dead in Iraq

technorati tags:islam, violent, fatal-attraction

Speaking out against violent Islam

2006-09-25T13:29:00.000-07:00

Former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey of Clifton, has spoken out against “violent” Islam during a lecture in which he defended Pope Benedict’s “extraordinarily effective and lucid” speech, The Times has reported.

“Great urgency” is needed for Muslims to address the religion’s association with violence, said Lord Carey. He said the “clash of civilisations” that many say is endangering the world, was not between Islamic extremists and the West but rather it was with Islam as a whole.

Lord Carey said, “We are living in dangerous and potentially cataclysmic times. There will be no significant material and economic progress [in Muslim communities] until the Muslim mind is allowed to challenge the status quo of Muslim conventions and even their most cherished shibboleths.”

It was also reported this week that the man who shot and wounded the last Pope, John Paul II, had now written to Pope Benedict XVI to warn him that he was in danger. There will be no significant material and economic progress [in Muslim communities] until the Muslim mind is allowed to challenge the status quo of Muslim conventions and even their most cherished shibboleths. Lord Carey of Clifton

Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish gunman who tried to murder John Paul II in 1981 and is now in prison in Turkey, urged the Pope not to visit the country in November, according to The Times.

Christian Today – Christian News > Lord Carey Calls for Islam to Urgently Address its Violent Image

technorati tags:violent-islam, islam

Because terrorism didn't exist before the Iraq War

2006-09-25T13:26:00.000-07:00

Saying that the Iraq war is fueling terrorism is like saying the Pope is fuleing muslim violence.

The U.S. war in Iraq has increased, not decreased, the threat of terrorism, according to a top-level, classified intelligence summary.

Findings of that National Intelligence Estimate on "Trends in Global Terrorism" were first reported over the weekend by The New York Times.

The intellegence report finds the war in Iraq has fueled a new generation of Islamic radicalism, which has spread around the globe.

U.S. intelligence chief John Negroponte disputes that characterization of the report, saying published accounts reflect only "a small handful" of the study's conclusions.

Robert Hutchings was the chairman of the National Intelligence Council in 2004 when the Council wrote a similarly critical, but unclassified, review. Hutchings speaks with Renee Montagne about the news.

NPR : Iraq War Fuels Terrorism Threat, U.S. Report Says

technorati tags:terror, defeat

Allen outing absolutely bizarro

2006-09-23T00:39:00.000-07:00

Sen. Allen has been "outed" as jewish. Huge faux pas. Allen has made a great mistake here by not already knowing that some of his ancestors were jewish and that he should have been embracing his jewishness for years already.

It's too bad too, since he had Presidential ambitions at one time...

“I think his national political future is over,” says Kati Marton, author of the forthcoming “Nine Jews Who Fled Hitler and Changed the World,” who has written extensively about her own discovery, as an adult, that her parents were Jewish and that her grandparents died at Auschwitz. “Because he doesn’t seem to know how to deal with some of the most sensitive issues that speak to his fundamental character … Allen obviously hasn’t assimilated too many of history’s lessons and the lessons of American politics, which is that you can’t hide anything—you have to embrace it, you have to own it.” Sixty years since the Holocaust, with politicians from Gen. Wesley Clark to Sen. John Kerry “owning” their Jewish roots in public, she adds, a revelation of Jewishness should be anything but shameful.

But as the case of Madeleine Albright shows, coming to grips with hidden Jewish ancestry isn’t always easy. Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, offered to be Allen’s counselor in his new search for identity. Foxman, who was born Jewish in Poland but was raised Roman Catholic by a nanny who protected him during World War II, suggests that Allen has yet to make peace with his own Jewish roots. “He needs to work it out within himself, and he needs to sit down with me [or the media] and share the depths of his anger, confusion and embarrassment.” Will George Allen’s Jewish Moment Help or Hurt? - Newsweek Society - MSNBC.com

Does this all seem out of proportion to anyone else? I mean c'mon!

“Because he doesn’t seem to know how to deal with some of the mostsensitive issues that speak to his fundamental character … Allenobviously hasn’t assimilated too many of history’s lessons and thelessons of American politics, which is that you can’t hide anything—youhave to embrace it, you have to own it.”

The lessons of history? If someone came to me and told me that I had english ancestry would I have been "hiding" something? Something is wrong with these people that makes them think that this is a big deal.

The quote from Foxman is even more perplexing.

[he] suggests that Allen has yet to make peace with his own Jewish roots.“He needs to work it out within himself, and he needs to sit down withme [or the media] and share the depths of his anger, confusion andembarrassment.

technorati tags:george-allen, jewish, jewishness, jewish-ancestry

Today is talk like a pirate day! Yaaaarrrrr!

2006-09-19T13:57:00.000-07:00

Avast, me hearties!

Welcome to the one and only, official, accept-no-substitutes Talk Like A Pirate Day Web site.

You've read about it in Dave Barry's blog. Maybe you caught one of our radio or TV interviews. Or maybe you just stumbled on to our site while googling around for sites your mother probably wouldn't approve of. Perhaps you're one of the millions of people from South Africa to Australia, from New York to the Pacific Northwest, who party like pirates every September 19th.

However you got here, stick around an' learn all about September 19 - International Talk Like A Pirate Day!

Talk Like A Pirate Day - September 19

Iranian leader urges more papal protests?

2006-09-18T22:53:00.000-07:00

CAIRO, Egypt - Al-Qaida inIraq warned Pope Benedict XVI on Monday that its war against Christianity and the West will go on until Islam takes over the world, and Iran's supreme leader called for more protests over the pontiff's remarks on Islam.

Protests broke out in South Asia and Indonesia, with angry Muslims saying Benedict's statement of regret a day earlier did not go far enough. In southern Iraq, demonstrators carrying black flags burned an effigy of the pope.

Islamic leaders around the world issued more condemnations of the pope's comments, but some moderates in the Middle East appeared to be trying to put a damper on the outrage, fearing it could spiral into attacks on Christians in the region. ~Iranian leader urges more papal protests - Yahoo! News

oh yeah, it's on. er, I mean, "Bring it on."

technorati tags:iran, urging-riots, religion, islam

Researchers promoting Socialist Party in Survey

2006-09-18T20:39:00.000-07:00

I'm not actually seeing any real difference between these researchers and what the Democratic party does every election...

The researchers looked at how many voters in the two sections they could persuade to vote for the Socialist Party, rather than the Republicans or Democrats. (The Socialist Party was chosen because it had no chance of winning the elections.)

What the researchers wanted to study was the contrast between rational and emotional appeals in political persuasion. The questionnaire's appeal was rational. It asked people who wanted a more egalitarian society to vote their views on policy matters. The letter's appeal was emotional: "We beg you in the name of those early memories and spring-time hopes to support the Socialist ticket in the coming elections!" it said. When the election was over, the Socialist vote increased by 35 percent over the previous election in the sections of the city that received the rational appeal. In the sections that received the emotional appeal, the Socialist vote increased by 50 percent. In Politics, Aim for the Heart, Not the Head - washingtonpost.com

Incredibly, this little experiment proves that existing campaign consultants are obviously worthless when compared to these researchers. Increasing the Socialist vote by 35% with a dry rational appeal for socialism is a downright miracle! Increasing it 50% -- Damn!

But then how many votes does it take to increase their vote 50%? Maybe ten, perhaps twelve more voters?

technorati tags:socialist-party, rational-v-emotional, idiotic-research

Chirac, "never favorable to sanctions"

2006-09-18T19:53:00.000-07:00

Chamberlain back from the dead. Axis of weasels.

PARIS (AP) — President Jacques Chirac proposed a compromise Monday to kickstart talks between Iran and the international community, suggesting the threat of U.N. sanctions be suspended in exchange for Tehran halting its uranium enrichment program.

"I don't believe in a solution without dialogue," Chirac said in an interview with Europe-1 radio. He suggested the international community suspend the threat of U.N. sanctions and that Iran, in turn, suspend enrichment while the two sides talk.

"I am not pessimistic," Chirac said. "I think that Iran is a great nation, an old culture, an old civilization, and that we can find solutions through dialogue."

Upbeat about the standoff with Iran over its nuclear program, Chirac said in the wide-ranging radio interview that he was pessimistic about the outcomes in Iraq and Sudan's war-ravaged Darfur region.

Chirac spoke before leaving for New York to attend the annual U.N. General Assembly, which opens Tuesday.

Asked about Iran, the French president noted that "Iran for years developed a clandestine nuclear program." However, "I am never favorable to sanctions" and, should they be unavoidable, they should be "moderate and adapted," he said.

In Vienna, Iranian Vice President Reza Aghazadeh said his country was "ready for negotiations and political compromise." However, he coupled that remark with a warning that "any hostile action by the U.N. Security Council would lead to limitation of cooperation" with the International Atomic Energy Agency.
USATODAY.com - French leader proposes Iran compromise

It was not too long ago that Chirac was talking about retaliating with nukes.

technorati tags:chirac, nukes, retaliate, axis-of-weasels

Speed of light computing!

2006-09-18T15:54:00.000-07:00

This is interesting:

A silicon microchip that generates laser beams has been developed by researchers at Intel and the University of California, Santa Barbara, both in the US.The hybrid silicon-laser chip could transfer data between computer components much more quickly by using optical fibres rather than ordinary computer wires, its developers say.Although the chip is several years away from commercialisation, it could kick-start a revolution in computing and communications, by cutting hardware costs and even leading to completely new architectures, the researchers claim. Laser-making chip promises data transfer boost - tech - 18 September 2006 - New Scientist Tech

Yeeh-haw! I can't wait for this to trickle down to commercial applications.

technorati tags:computer, new-technology, lasers, faster-computers

Pope initiates dialogue

2006-09-14T23:29:00.000-07:00

I've already blogged this over at hegemonic headquarters, aka, Hegemonic.org, but I thought it could use a slightly different treatment rather than another post there.

In a provocative speech citing the concept of jihad and referencing the Muslim prophet by name, Benedict sends the world a signal that it's time for hard questions—not hugs and handshakes TIME.com: The Pope Tackles Faith and Terrorism -- Page 1

What I don't understand is why more people aren't already in line with this idea that you don't agree with your enemy when he says that you are evil and they have a right to hate you.

Jeff Israely explores the Pope's speech in a little more detail, including background that I didn't see anywhere else yet.

The Pope makes points about reason and faith and contrasts Islam's apparent irrationality.

His discourse Tuesday sought to delineate what he sees as a fundamental difference between Christianity's view that God is intrinsically linked to reason (the Greek concept of logos) and Islam´s view that "God is absolutely transcendent." Benedict said that Islam teaches that God's "will is not boundup with any of our categories, even that of rationality." The risk he seesimplicit in this concept of the divine is that the irrationality ofviolence can potentially be justified if someone believes it is God's will. "As faras understanding of God and thus the concrete practice of religion isconcerned, we find ourselves faced with a dilemma which nowadays challenges us directly. Is the convictionthat acting unreasonably contradicts God's nature merely a Greek idea, or is italways and intrinsically true?" TIME.com: The Pope Tackles Faith and Terrorism -- Page 1

Apparently, the Pope said a few more things that rung like a bell. Maybe I should try to get the transcript for this speech if there is one out there somewhere.

But Tuesday's university lecture was a watershed. After laying out the historical contrasts with Islam, the Pope used much of the discourse to call on the West, and Europe in particular, to clearly affirm the value of a faith in God —and a God built on reason. "While we rejoice in the new possibilities open to humanity, we also see the dangers arising from these possibilities and we must ask ourselves how we can overcome them," he said. "We will succeed in doing so only if reason and faith come together in a new way, if we overcome the self-imposed limitation of reason to the empirically verifiable, and if we once more disclose its vast horizons."

technorati tags:pope, catholic, islam, terrorism, religion, christianity, europe, the-west

Iraqi leader visits Tehran this week

2006-09-14T23:17:00.000-07:00

"Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki paid his first visit to Tehran this week" ~NPR

Guess I'd have to listen to the NPR sound file to get more info.

Flock blogging features

2006-09-13T22:33:00.000-07:00

I've got to say that the blogging feature on the flock browser is great. I'm using it right now in fact and it streamlines the whole process nicely. Verily.

Kudos to the flock developers.

Feature request: the ability to post one article to multiple blogs.

technorati tags:flock-browser, blogging-tools, blogging, feature-request

Olberman fan says bravo to lies

2006-09-13T21:46:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure why, but anytime a liberal "goes out on a limb" to call Bush a liar and basically tell lies about what he's done theyjust eat it up.

Shame on you Mr. President; Bravo! Mr. Olbermann

technorati tags:olberman, moron, anti-american, anti-bush, Bush, derangment, syndrome

New Blogging digs->

2006-06-07T21:35:00.000-07:00

I've been publishing at watchblog continuously for all this time but have neglected to post here as well. But now I have setup new digs as Hegemonic Pundit here: hegemonic.org

Nihilist In Golf Pants: Top 11 Things That Anti-War Protesters Would Have Said At the Normandy Invasion on D-Day (Had There Been Anti-War Protesters A

2006-06-07T21:31:00.000-07:00

And I thought this blog was defunct?

...Nihilist in golf pants has a list of "Top 11 Things That Anti-War Protesters Would Have Said At the Normandy Invasion on D-Day (Had There Been Anti-War Protesters At Normandy)"

Here's the first four:

11. No blood for French Wine!

10. It’s been two and a half years since Pearl Harbor and they still haven’t brought Admiral Nagumo to justice

9. In 62 years, the date will be 6/6/6. A coincidence? I think not.

8. All this death and destruction is because the neo-cons are in the pocket of Israel

preserving democracy

2005-01-11T01:49:00.000-08:00

A man made the case to me, in a recent conversation, that those who are conservative are so because they have fallen under the sway of corporate owned conservative media. FOX News was singled out in particular for 'regulation' because of its 'egregious' conservative bias.

What's most disturbing about his line of thought is that it hints at a true belief in the efficacy of brainwashing; the idea that political ideology can be created as a result of control of the media. To me, it's a tacit admission of a model the left has been following far too long.

The idea that people could choose and be logically persuaded to be conservative did not seem to enter his mind at all. How could it? Once you have the full truth of liberalism, all opposing ideologies are false by definition.

Enter Mary Mapes and Dan Rather. (You can get a copy of the CBS report here.) How could this document scandal have happened?

In short, as Bernie Goldberg outlines in his book, Bias, mainstream 'professional' journalism is a predominantly liberal population. When all those around you have the same assumptions you do, and are taught that those assumptions are the definition of pure objectivity, it becomes all too easy to produce a slanted political hit piece that is timed for an election, based on forged documents, put forth as unimpeachable, and illogically defended as "fraudulent but true".

Exhibit A, the testimony of Walter Cronkite, as he explains that most journalists naturally lean to the left, but only because of training and their crusading nature.

I believe that most of us reporters are liberal, but not because we consciously have chosen that particular color in the political spectrum.

More likely it is because most of us served our journalistic apprenticeships as reporters covering the seamier side of our cities -- the crimes, the tenement fires, the homeless and the hungry, the underclothed and undereducated.

We reached our intellectual adulthood with daily close-ups of the inequality in a nation that was founded on the commitment to equality for all. So we tend to side with the powerless rather than the powerful. centredaily.com

To be liberal is to side with the victims of the powerful. Even if unconsciously arrived at. It follows then that to not be liberal is to side with the oppressors of the powerless. Even if unconsciously arrived at.

Walter Cronkite goes on to explain why it might seem the evening news has a bias to the left... coincidentally it is the same excuse the CBS report claims led them to air the Guard Memo story with fabricated evidence-- not enough time. Journalists apparently do not have enough time to be fair, or balanced, or objective.

The perceived liberalism of television reporters, I am convinced, is a product of the limited time given for any particular item. The reporter desperately tries to get all the important facts and essential viewpoints into his or her piece but, against a fast-approaching deadline, he or she must summarize in a sentence the complicated story.

That is where the slippage occurs and the summary too frequently, without intention, seems to emphasize one side or the other.

Just as the Democratic Party dominated congress for thirty years from FDR until Newt Gingrich, the media has by and large been predominantly liberal for the last thirty years. It's just a fact. FDR, Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, The New Deal, Camelot, The Great Society, all shaped our society and journalism reflected that political landscape. Today, America is not as liberal as it once was. In fact, it is becoming more conservative. In a free society, it would be expected eventually, that Journalism and the media would begin to reflect that as well.

Yet, some do not see it that way. They see a free market of ideas as another place where competition is ok in theory but not in practice. They see the trend of media and news that challenges their assumptions and does not pass neatly through their world-view filters as, 'endangering democracy itself.'

Howard Dean let this slip in a December 2003 interview on Hardball when asked if he'd like to break up FOX news. He replied yes, he certainly would like to, "on ideological grounds."

Ah, you gotta love free speech to defend it that vigorously.

MATTHEWS: Are you going to break up the giant media enterprises in this country?

DEAN: Yes, we're going to break up giant media enterprises. That doesn't mean we're going to break up all of GE [MSNBC's parent company].

What we're going to do is say that media enterprises can't be as big as they are today. I don't think we actually have to break them up, which Teddy Roosevelt had to do with the leftovers from the McKinley administration.

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEWS: ... regulate them.

DEAN: You have got to say that there has to be a limit as to how-- if the state has an interest, which it does, in preserving democracy, then there has to be a limitation on how deeply the media companies can penetrate every single community. To the extent of even having two or three or four outlets in a single community, that kind of information control is not compatible with democracy.

MATTHEWS: How-- how far would you go in terms of public policy?

(APPLAUSE)

MATTHEWS: This is not-- what you describe is not laissez-faire.

It's not capitalism.

DEAN: It is capitalism.

MATTHEWS: How would you-- what would you call it?

DEAN: I am absolutely a capitalist. Capitalism is the greatest system that people have ever invented, because it takes advantage of bad traits, as well as our good traits, and turns them into productivity.

But the essence of capitalism, which the right-wing never understands-- it always baffles me-- is, you got to have some rules. Imagine a hockey game with no rules. Hardball, Dec. 1, 2003

"...if the state has an interest, which it does, in preserving democracy,..." Well, if Democracy itself is at stake, by all means, do whatever is necessary to control media ownership and enforce your version of free speech 'balance'. How can someone who claims that the first amendment is sacrosanct reconcile the idea of controlling and regulating how many 'media outlets' there are in a given city? Or how popular or successful a media company can be?

This is inevitably where the liberal idea of media regulation leads, to ideas like bringing back the Fairness Doctrine. Essentially enforcing their views through the power of the state-- for the preservation of democracy of course. I believe this stems directly from Walter Cronkite's explanation of how reporters become liberals. Rather than seeing an opportunity to increase freedom for all, they propose measures to decrease it for some (the oppressors) in favor of others (the oppressed). The problem with that being who decides who the oppressor is and who is oppressed? What constitutes 'being downtrodden'? That the cable company charged you too much? That you only have 500 channels and there's nothing on TV? That there's only one pacifica network radio station heard in your town, but there's three that have conservative talk shows?

My view is that political ideology cannot be kept out of political discourse. Inevitably, reporting on politicians and political events becomes a part of the political discourse. (Consider, what news or event, however small or trivial, cannot be seen as political from someone's point of view?) We are all entitled to our points of view, in fact, the very nature of being human means we must have a world view in order to live, to make decisions.

If therefore, the main underlying purpose of journalism is to inform the public, wouldn't more information be better? For instance, wouldn't the fact that a reporter has beliefs which guide his thought process and give him a matrix through which he views the world be additional meta-information you might like to know along with the facts he or she is stringing together in 'objective' fashion?

In a free society, monopolies are like snowmen. The spring always comes. Today, there are more sources of information available than ever before. Reporting and information dissemination is even now being taken out of the hands of the elite and given to the many. Let's keep going in that direction.

challenging decision

2005-01-06T13:13:00.000-08:00

An epidemic is afflicting tens and possibly hundreds of Americans today. Fortunately there is a cure. Members of congress can recover from Bush Derangement Syndrome. Of course, the first step is to admit you have a problem.

In a scene that could be reminiscent of the end of the bitter 2000 presidential race, several members of the House of Representatives plan to challenge Ohio's election results today when Congress meets to confirm President Bush's reelection. sfgate.com

Challenging every Republican election victory is now apparently a basic part of the Democratic and 'Progressive' party playbook. If Democrats don't win it must be because of election fraud and Republican dirty tricks. Rep. John Conyers (D) is claiming that there were, "numerous, serious election irregularities in the Ohio presidential election," all due to the, "intentional misconduct and illegal behavior" of Republican Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell. Essentially the Ohio vote was rigged and we are about to certify a fraudulent election.

The choice of Rep. Stephanie Tubbs-Jones and Sen. Barbara Boxer to contest the election results today is a sad day in Democratic Party history. This is not an effort to 'count every vote', it is merely an attempt to cast doubt and objection on the validity of Bush's reelection.

"I have concluded that objecting to the electoral votes from Ohio is the only immediate way to bring these issues to light by allowing you to have a two-hour debate to let the American people know the facts surrounding Ohio's election," Boxer wrote in a letter to Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, D-Ohio, a leader of the Democratic effort.

...In a statement, Kerry said there are "very troubling questions" about the Ohio voting and he would present a plan later to improve voting procedures. washingtonpost.com

I wonder if it has occurred to some that undermining every election in which they lose might eventually have the effect of erroding democracy itself. Because the vote count is no longer enough to settle the election, only the results they want determine whether it was a fair election. I've got news for you, that's not democracy.

Thankfully there are some democrats who have still not succumbed to such partisan blindness. Will the party listen?

Party leaders are hesitant to get involved in the challenge, since it has no real chance of succeeding and could make Democrats look petty, the staff member said.

''We lost," said the staff member, who refused to be identified by name. ''We need to move on." boston.com

What liberal press?

2004-12-29T11:27:00.000-08:00

It's good to know that our nation's journalists are hard at work being unbiased, apolitical, and neutral purveyors of hard facts. Like this story about how Bush is uncaring and insensitive in the face of a "humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions."

...Bush's decision at first to remain cloistered on his Texas ranch for the Christmas holiday rather than speak in person about the tragedy -- showed scant appreciation for the magnitude of suffering and for the rescue and rebuilding work...

It's hard to imagine such an opinion piece being passed off as straight news, but there it is. Blatant political slant in virtually every sentence. Every word calculated for maximum negative effect. This is what I would expect from the DNC or the Blue column of Watchblog, not a story purporting to be news. Who knows, maybe the core of this piece did come from a DNC memo.

...vacationing President Bush has been insensitive to a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions.

...domestic criticism of Bush continued to rise.

...Bush's decision at first to remain cloistered on his Texas ranch

...showed scant appreciation for the magnitude of suffering

After a day of repeated inquiries from reporters about his public absence...

Bush's actions and words both communicated a lack of urgency...

...they were surprised that Bush had not appeared personally..."It's kind of freaky," a senior career official said.

...Bush was missing an opportunity to demonstrate American benevolence.

In Germany, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder cut short his vacation...

The last two paragraphs are by far the most misleading by repeating a statistic intended to 'prove' that the United States is a stingy country.

Still, the United Nations' Egeland complained on Monday that each of the richest nations gives less than 1 percent of its gross national product for foreign assistance, and many give 0.1 percent. "It is beyond me why we are so stingy, really," he told reporters.

Among the world's two dozen wealthiest countries, the United States often is among the lowest in donors per capita for official development assistance worldwide, even though the totals are larger. According to the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development of 30 wealthy nations, the United States gives the least -- at 0.14 percent of its gross national product, compared with Norway, which gives the most at 0.92 percent.

Never mind that these reporters don't have time to check to see what these numbers are based on. The mindset that accepts this as truth naturally would not want to take into account any giving that is not governmental in nature. Because as we all know government dollars are all that counts, private money is tainted by the stink of commerce.

Mark Twain said that there are lies, damn lies, and then there are statistics. The predominantly liberal press has mastered the art of lying with statistics. Let's examine the claim that the US gave the least out of among two dozen wealthy countries. First of all, according to the source cited, the US gave more, in dollar amounts, than any other country except Japan. Second of all, these figures are only, and I repeat only official government aid.

The total amount of all two dozen wealthy countries, "Net Official Development Assistance Flows In 2000" was $53.1 billion. The Official US Governments portion of that was $9.5 billion. By my calculations that's about 18% of the total.

Total US private donations to international charity is harder to measure because charity is an individual matter, but estimates range from $17.5 billion to $35 billion. Much more, in fact than just our government. Here's another article directly addressing this subject.

Let's see a revised OECD chart adding the total private international donations of their respective countries and then calculate it as a percentage of GDP. That would be a more accurate measure of stinginess.

Some even estimate the total charitable contributions of Americans equals $240 billion per year. Put that in your statistical pipe and smoke it, Mr. Egeland.

Agency of mercy or worthless fraud?

2004-12-28T14:02:00.000-08:00

Pedophilia... Yes, child rape on tape. In just one country, 150 allegations of sexual misconduct, murder, prostitution, and, "sexually abusing the local inhabitants in exchange for food and other necessities." Billions skimmed out of humanitarian relief funds. Kickbacks. Bribery. Genocide.

The UN is utterly corrupt. Yet there is no outrage. No media blitz. No media attention at all as far as I can see. Not even one counterfeit document for a CBS news story.

The UN is just another colossal waste of approximately $3 billion dollars of taxpayers money. Enough to finish retrofitting every last US military humvee.

In the past decade, increasing numbers of accounts have surfaced of violations committed by peacekeepers against civilians, in a particular women and girls, during UN peacekeeping operations. To date, violations by peacekeepers have been documented in Angola, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, East Timor, Kosovo, Liberia, Mozambique, Sierra Leone and Somalia (UNIFEM'S Independent Experts' Assessment). Currently, the UN is carrying out investigations of sexual abuse by peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. peacewomen.org

Congo
Within a French UN logistics expert's home in the Congo, a pornographic studio was setup to tape the rape of little girls. Odds are that this man will not get the punishment he deserves. Nor will the UN.

When the police arrived, the man was allegedly about to rape a 12-year-old girl sent to him in a sting operation. Three home-made pornographic videos and more than 50 photographs were found in his home. theaustralian.news.com

Just one single isolated pervert? Sorry. There is more. More that the UN does not want you to know.

A book by three current and former U.N. employees about peacekeeping operations portrays wild parties with alcohol and drugs, and convicts and mental-asylum inmates passing as soldiers.

Embarrassed U.N. officials have threatened firing or other disciplinary action against two of the authors, Heidi Postlewait and Andrew Thomson. U.N. rules bar employees from writing about their work without approval, which had been denied in this case.
washingtontimes

What is it that liberals champion above all? The whistleblower. But apparently they only trumpet whistleblowers in the Bush Administration. Had Richard Clark wrote a book about the UN, he would not have gotten any press. But in the Congo there has been real damage to world peace, and perpetrator is the UN.

''I don't know whether they are normal or not," said Aziza, who did not want to use her full name out of shame. ''I wonder whether all white people are like that."

Certainly some, even many, UN peacekeepers and civilian officers in this war-plagued region were. Aziza's story and at least 150 others tales of sexual abuse in Congo have come to light in recent months, shocking an institution that considers itself an agency of mercy.

The shock has inspired action toward an overhaul of the UN's 16 peacekeeping missions around the world. In Congo, home to the largest operation -- with about 11,000 soldiers and 1,200 civilians -- the allegations point to nearly all of the major peacekeeping contingents. But they also involve senior civilian officials, including a top security officer, a chief on the UN special envoy's staff, and an internal oversight investigator.

The charges range from rape to exploitation -- sex for a bottle of water or a military ration -- to ''relationships" or solicitations that are marked by a severe imbalance in power. One case, involving a French UN staffer who took digital pictures of underage girls, has caused concern that it could become ''the UN's Abu Ghraib" if the photos get out.

Charges of sexual abuse have haunted UN peacekeepers for years, most notably during operations in Cambodia, the Balkans, and Liberia in the 1990s. But the cases in Congo may mark a tipping point. Two years after the first charges were made, top UN officials have finally denounced the problem openly and vowed to punish those involved.

Last month, Secretary General Kofi Annan addressed the issue publicly for the first time.

Somalia, 1997
Belgian UN troops admit to 'roasting' Somali boy. Don't worry though, the two UN soldiers were fined £200 and jailed for a month.

Italian, Canadian, and Belgian UN troopers were all found to have murdered, tortured, and humiliated Somali's, (mostly children), during Operation Hope.

"...forcing a young Somali to eat pork, drink salt water, and then eat his vomit."

"...[UN soldier] murdered a Somali whom he was photographed urinating on."

"...[another] boy, who had been caught trying to steal food, died after being locked in a container for 48 hours.

"Fifteen members of the regiment were investigated in 1995 for "acts of sadism and torture" against Somalian civilians."

"Canadian paratroopers were investigated for torturing a Somali to death and killing three others."

"...gruesome photographs ... of Italian soldiers torturing a young Somali youth, and abusing and raping a young Somali girl."

"Last week an Italian paratrooper said: "What's the big deal? They are just niggers anyway."

Kosovo

In Kosovo, some of these women "are threatened, beaten, raped, and effectively imprisoned by their owners," Amnesty International reported in May. "With clients including international police and troops, the girls and women are often too afraid to escape, and the authorities are failing to help them. It is outrageous that the very same people who are there to protect these women and girls are using their position and exploiting them instead - and they are getting away with it."

But the problem goes beyond Kosovo and sex trafficking. Wherever the UN has established operations in recent years, various violations of women seem to follow: csmonitor.com

Lax oversight. No real authority. Effort to cover up as much as possible. The UN is essentially an empty promise or worse, making a lie out of peace and mercy. The damage that follows in the UN's wake is worse than abu graib when you calculate the perversion of what they are supposed to stand for and the corrupt way they refuse to stop these acts by UN soldiers and employees.

Rwanda
The UN, with troops on the ground, failed to act in Rwanda and at least 800,000 people died. Most of them hacked to death with machetes over several months. The US and the UN stood by and did nothing.

The report highlights the role of Mr Annan, who was head of UN peacekeeping at the time, sharply criticizing his failure to act on a warning of the risk of genocide sent by the head of the UN peacekeepers in Rwanda.

It also criticizes Belgium for unilaterally withdrawing its peacekeepers after the murder of 10 of its soldiers.

The decision of peacekeepers to retreat from a school, leaving civilians inside to be butchered, is described as "disgraceful". bbc

Darfur
At least 70,000 people have been killed in Darfur already. Possibly 1.8 million homeless. Is there any reason to believe that the UN can keep that number from growing?

Oil for Food
We've been talking about the evils of corporations, the dangers of monopoly, and how much regulation should be applied to the business sector in order to avoid scandals and corruption. Enron et al pales in comparison to the oil for food scandal, yet I cannot find a single liberal voice calling for stricter controls and greater openness for the UN. What gives?

The oil for food program was constructed to restrict Saddam's freedom to reconstruct his weapons program. Yet, the UN allowed Saddam to profit off of the program by bribing UN officials and hundreds of affiliated business and government contacts. The purpose of the program was essentially thwarted. We might as well have not had the program. The UN not only proved itself incapable, it proved itself all too corruptable.

I find it highly ironic that the UN resisted the Bush administration's call to hold Saddam accountable in the run up to war by moralizing about how the US was flouting international law, when the UN overseers were complicit in trading Iraqi blood for oil so that they could pocket bribes and kickbacks.

Please note that this is not an exhaustive list by any means, merely a topical search of google. Given time, I'm sure that the full details available in press accounts alone would be sufficient to chill the heart, not to mention what full first person accounts might reveal about the depth of depravity done by UN officials and soldiers.

In short the UN is a gutless, immoral, hypocritical organization that should be dissolved. It no longer serves the purpose for which it was created. We need to revise our rationale for dealing with international crises. The UN as it is currently constructed must not continue. End it don't mend it.

transformational freedom

2004-12-27T18:47:00.000-08:00

I can't pretend to know all the who's who or the totality of what's going on politically in all the former soviet block countries, including Russia, but despite Putin's turn towards tyranny, the elections in the Ukraine are a sign of hope and victory for the forces of freedom.

Especially when you consider the vision of Mrs. Yushchenko who worked in both the Reagan and Bush administrations.

The challenge will be to move Ukraine towards a free-market economy. Mrs. Yushchenko makes clear that her husband makes all of his own political decisions, but she will no doubt be a valuable asset to him. "She is one of the brightest, most dedicated conservatives I have ever known," says Bruce Bartlett, a former official in the Treasury Department under the first President Bush. "Anyone who met Kathy quickly discovered that creating a free, successful Ukraine was her primary mission in life, to the exclusion of almost everything else."

Now the challenge facing Ukraine is to make the leap towards becoming a democratic society truly governed by the rule of law. Mrs. Yushchenko is realistic about the obstacles facing her husband and his team. "[Some] people are making a lot of money off the current system," she told ABC News. "The last thing they want is for the system to change and for the economy to be a free market economy where the general population benefits rather than a small group of people at the top." Wall Street Journal

Freedom is on the march. Afghanistan is now a free country that just held their first democratic election. Iraq, despite all of its problems, will soon have its own elections as well. Even though some still say that it's none of our business 'forcing' democracy upon them, I am convinced that most Americans left and right agree that supporting democracy and freedom in these countries and the inevitable drive toward more freedom in the world is a good thing.

I believe in the transformational power of liberty: The wisest use of American strength is to advance freedom. As the citizens of Afghanistan and Iraq seize the moment, their example will send a message of hope throughout a vital region. Palestinians will hear the message that democracy and reform are within their reach, and so is peace with our good friend, Israel. (Applause.) Young women across the Middle East will hear the message that their day of equality and justice is coming. Young men will hear the message that national progress and dignity are found in liberty, not tyranny and terror. Reformers, and political prisoners, and exiles will hear the message that their dream of freedom cannot be denied forever. And as freedom advances -- heart by heart, and nation by nation -- America will be more secure and the world more peaceful. (Applause.) whitehouse.gov

It is my prayer this Christmas and New Year that this next century will be the century of freedom.

Making a killing?

2004-12-23T19:22:00.000-08:00

"This country is controlled by corporations and that is the root of all our problems." -Bill Maher, Oct. 22, 2004

Do corporations need to be 'reined in' or eradicated for the good of the world? It's no secret that some view corporations as the root of all evil and profit as a cardinal sin. The problem I have with those who believe corporations are the root of our problems is that their solutions embrace more government economic control at the expense of individual freedom and that is not a prescription for something better, but something worse.

From the Gracchus brothers to Karl Marx there have always been self-proclaimed revolutionaries who use the rich as a scapegoat to advance their agenda. The truth is throughout history the rich have generally been a pretty oppressive lot. But then 'the rich' and 'the government' were mostly one and the same. Meaning that he who had the reigns of government had total control of the economy too, and guess what, they always got the largest slice of the pie. This is precisely what I am against. The more economic control is separated from government the better.

The very definition of capitalism requires a government to safeguard private property, enforce contracts, and be a fair arbiter for criminal and civil affairs. What opponents so often characterize as capitalism is just anarchy and lawlessness. Sometimes they can't even explain their opposition except in nebulous terms of feelings and reflexive opposition.

Corporations are stifling our lives. Not only economically, where they can claim, arguably, that they bring prosperity (and, frankly, I'm certainly not schooled enough in economics to argue that point pro or con), but aesthetically speaking, culturally speaking, spiritually speaking. They flatten everything. They are the Big Empty.

...The war against the corporations is profound. They are deadening human existence. That, I think, is the buried core of the outrage people feel most generally. There is, after all, a profound difference between corporations and capitalism itself, at least so long as capitalism remains small business.

...To win this war will take, at least, 50 years and a profound revolution in America. Norman Mailer

That's Norman Mailer's contribution to why corporations must be fought-- in a war no less. But what is ironic to me is that this issue of 'aesthetics' is put in such stark terms of black and white, good and evil by those who claim in all other things that there is no such thing. Then on top of it point out that the enemy who is 'endangering our moral, cultural, aesthetic, and spiritual lives' is the one following a Nazi example of demonizing its foes to lead people to 'war'.

..."Naturally, the common people don't want war, but after all, it is the leaders of a country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag people along whether it is a democracy, or a fascist government, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. This is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country."

That was Hermann Goering speaking at the Nuremberg trials after World War II. It is one thing to be forewarned. Will we ever be forearmed?

So even though corporations arguably bring prosperity, they are at the same time 'destroying our minds, hearts, and souls'. I can't help but think that the real passion is not being fully disclosed.

"...at least so long as capitalism remains small business." So then the solution to the 'corporate problem' is to keep the business interest small and controllable. This issue is more one of rival economic control in the mind of progressives. Progressives do not want economic freedom, they want total economic control according to 'progressive' principles.

According to progressive ideology corporations should have no say in the political process. They would then be at the complete mercy of whatever arbitrary law progressives can dream up. They should not be allowed to advertise or make campaign contributions. In fact, the law giving corporations the legal right to do business and exist at all should be repealed. They should be prohibited from donating any money to anyone, including charities and schools. Should not be allowed to own stock of other corporations. Should not be able to go out of business without it and stockholders being made liable for any debts of the company, including vaguely defined 'environmental debts'.

Since they are essentially criminal by their very nature, proposing their abolition is no great stretch. Corporations like Clear Channel, Walmart, Monsanto, and McDonalds are considered some of the most criminal and in fact are the top four in this list of the most criminal corporations of the world. (American companies all. I guess Clear Channel is guilty of being conservative? Is that why it heads the list?)

As even Normal Mailer cannot argue that they've made us poorer, they are only 'spiritually' impoverishing us. I submit that they are guilty of competing with the progressive view of spirituality and therefore must be eradicated. Substitute any other spirituality for corporate and what you have is religious bigotry. If one says radical Islam must be abolished you are a religious bigot. Say corporations must be abolished, and well, you are enlightened.

In fact most us are worse terrorists than Abu Zarqawi for supporting our corporate led overconsuptive, unsustainable, culturally genocidal culture!

Most terrorists have mundane, apparently peaceful lives, but are just as cruel as those who behead for an internet audience. They are you and me, ordinary people consuming much too much, leading an unsustainable lifestyle, committing cultural genocide on the vast majority of humanity, plundering non-western economies in the name of free trade, and imposing our lifestyle and morality on the rest of humanity. Yes, terrorists r (also) us! adbusters.org

If it is wrong for corporations to have too much economic control why isn't it wrong for government, a true monopoly, to have too much economic control? Democrats and progressives rarely see any limit or principle of limitation to what kind of economic laws should be passed. In fact anything that detracts from the government from feeding the poor is by definition an attempt to starve people.

The truth is that corporations like Wal-Mart are enriching our world not destroying it. Making life easier for the masses, not more restricted. Perhaps if you wanted to get corporate money out of politics you should consider getting the politicians out of the business of meddling with business. Microsoft is a good example of a company that made no real political contributions until the government began it's shakedown. Bill gates got the message and Microsoft now contributes massive amounts of money to political causes, out of self-protection.

Watchblog

2004-12-20T09:39:00.000-08:00

I can't emphasize what a great blog Watchblog is. If you haven't checked it out, please do. There is literally something for everyone there. Imagine left, right, center, and 'other' argueing about the current topics of the day and you can throw your 2 cents in as well! What more could you ask for?

The fact that I am a contributing author is no doubt part of it's success. Ha ha.

Here's a post with a few of my comments thrown in.

Dogpile, by 'AmericanPundit' is a post about Rumsfeld and the Armor controversy.

Bush selling SS same as Iraq war, by David Remer is a post about Social Security, of course.

#1 goal: defeat America, by Eric Simonson (that's me) is about the left's desire to see the US lose in Iraq.

Armor for Humvees

2004-12-16T23:21:00.000-08:00

World's defense budget.

It is an expensive program, though, the general admitted. "As you look at our forecast both of what we have already spent and what we're immediately forecasting to spend here over the next six or eight months or so, it's several billion dollars."

According to Speakes, "several" is exactly $4.1 billion dollars. defenselink.mil

I'm calling a bluff on this 'Rumsfeld must resign' because 'there is no armor protecting our troops'. I want to see the left stand up and ask congress for more money in next year's budget for defense.

Historically it is the left saying our troops can do with less.

I feel certain that before too long I will be able to point out Democrats once again calling for budget cuts for one sector, and one sector only, of the Federal Budget to be cut. That being the military.

Should christians divest from Israel?

2004-12-15T15:49:00.000-08:00

The Christian Science Monitor has this POLL asking if christians should divest (and boycott) Israel for it's 'oppressive' policies.

The Presbyterians' decision to consider divesting such businesses from its $8 billion portfolio, coupled with the prospect that the Episcopal Church and other churches might do the same, is adding to tensions that have risen over recent years between mainline Protestant churches and the American Jewish community over their differing views of the Israeli- Palestinian conflict.

It is also stirring Jewish groups to try to head off divestment - and to rebuild a rapport with these churches, with whom they have long worked to further civil rights and social justice.

"To call for divestment played into all the language of boycott, from earlier periods in Jewish history to the Arab boycott of Israel. It caused an explosion in the Jewish community," says David Elcott, director of interreligious affairs for the American Jewish Committee (AJC).

Insanity. There is a definition of evil that defines evil as calling evil good and good evil. This is basically what Presbyterians are considering.

#1 goal: defeat America

2004-12-11T19:58:00.000-08:00

So, as a U.S. citizen, I welcome the U.S. defeat for a simple reason: It isn't the defeat of the United States -- its people or their ideals -- but of that empire. And it's essential that the American empire be defeated and dismantled. Journalism professor, Robert Jensen

No doubt the manipulative reporter Edward Pitts, "I just had one of my best days as a journalist today," also learned from his Journalism professors that American defeat is always good and necessary for world peace.

When we admit defeat and pull out -- not if, but when -- the fate of Iraqis will depend in part on whether the United States makes good on legal and moral obligations to pay reparations and allows international institutions to aid in creating a truly sovereign Iraq.

We shouldn't expect politicians to do either without pressure. An anti-empire movement -- the joining of anti-war forces with the movement to reject corporate globalization -- must create that pressure. Journalism professor, Robert Jensen

This comes very close to treason in my book. At the very least this professor has a full-on case of 'Michael Moore's disease,' a debilitating and virulent strain of anti-americanism that quickly destroys its victim’s credibility, honor, and honesty. Something the predominantly liberal press corps seems to be epidemic with. Edward Pitts joins the likes of Dan Rather in manufacturing the news in order to advance their political agenda. The fact that this Professor Jensen instructs would-be journalists in the technical and moral aspects of how to practice 'journalism' says as much to me as the memo-gate scandal itself, that the left has no problems lying as long as it serves the higher purpose of "getting their truth out".

Is it a coincidence that so many on the left equate Bush with Hitler and America as the Fourth Reich? No, it's indicative of a suspension of critical judgment and reasoning that tells me we can no longer trust those who call for the resignation of Rumsfeld because every Humvee hasn't yet been upgraded with the new higher grade armor when a liberal like John Kerry actually voted against the money to 'up-armor' them.

To hear those like Howard Dean and Prof. Jensen American military action is always malevolent and selfish, never mind the philosophical implications of non-action in the face of tyranny.

...We must look at the reality, no matter how painful. The people of Iraq are better off without Saddam Hussein's despised regime, but that does not prove our benevolent intentions or guarantee that the United States will work to bring meaningful democracy to Iraq.

In Iraq, the Bush administration invaded not to liberate but to extend and deepen U.S. domination. When Bush said, "We have no territorial ambitions; we don't seek an empire," on Nov. 11, 2002, he told a half-truth.

To seek to overthrow the American 'empire' is part and parcel of the entire stream of leftist culture from Democrat to Green party, anti-globalist to anarchist, neo-liberal to classic anti-capitalist, the enemy is America and capitalism. As long as America is capitalist and free it will be opposed, slandered, and obstructed by the left as an evil influence in the world with the Vietnam War as a template.

...The Bush administration has invested money and lives in making Iraq a platform from which the United States can project power.

That requires not the liberation of Iraq but its subordination. But most Iraqis don't want to be subordinated, which is why the United States in some sense lost the war on the day it invaded. One lesson of contemporary history is that occupying armies generate resistance that, inevitably, prevails over imperial power.

When we admit defeat and pull out -- not if, but when -- the fate of Iraqis will depend in part on whether the United States makes good on legal and moral obligations to pay reparations and allows international institutions to aid in creating a truly sovereign Iraq.

We shouldn't expect politicians to do either without pressure. An anti-empire movement -- the joining of anti-war forces with the movement to reject corporate globalization -- must create that pressure. Journalism professor, Robert Jensen

I guess some ideology, however mistaken or misguided, is too deeply ingrained to be let go of so easily.

Our men

2004-12-11T14:23:00.000-08:00

If you haven't already seen this you should consider watching it now.

If you've ever wondered where the heroes are in our society, whether or not there is such a thing as dedication, service, and integrity in our country, you need look no further than our men and women of our Armed Forces. My heroes.

Until Then

Silver Star awarded

2004-12-03T15:02:00.000-08:00

What do you have to do to get a Silver Star? U.S. Army Command Sgt. Maj. Ron Riling was awarded the Silver Star for this battle in April of 2004.

Riling quickly organized his forces and began moving to the embattled Marines. When they entered the main town of Rammadi, they immediately came under direct fire coming from every direction, he said.

"The insurgents were in all different types of buildings waiting for us with (rocket-propelled grenades) and small arms," he said.

The Marine squad had been pinned down by snipers and was in terrible shape when Riling, Connor and their physical-security detachment arrived on the scene. The squad leader was dead, lying in the middle of the street, and three of the seven Marines were seriously wounded. The senior remaining Marine was a corporal.

...The group fought its way through withering enemy fire and linked up with the Marines. Riling said he then absorbed the Marines into his team, and they fought their way out. "Some of the guys were laying there wounded. They had gunshot wounds to their legs, and some of them were hurt bad," he said. "One guy was dead and lying out in the middle of the street. They didn't want to leave him. I respected that about the squad."

Rescued marines. Check.

After Riling, Connor and their team evacuated the injured Marines and recovered the Marine squad leader's body, another Marine platoon in the area came under attack by insurgents. Riling and Connor witnessed Marine vehicles being fired on by an Iraqi insurgent armed with rocket-propelled grenades. Riling directed two Bradley Fighting Vehicles from the brigade's reserve into the fight to squelch the attacks.

They saw the insurgent run into a building and had one of the Bradleys knock down a fence surrounding the house. The building was heavily reinforced and had high brick and metal walls. Riling said he knew it was important to act fast, because his colonel and his troops were in a precarious position.

"I thought for sure that someone was going to come out of that house and just start spraying (AK-47 rifle fire)," he said. "I didn't want someone to come out and kill my commander and kill any of our soldiers."

The lead soldier on the door was Sgt. 1st Class Gibson, who was in charge of the colonel's physical-security detachment. Gibson was attempting to kick the door down but couldn't get it to budge. Riling said he was worried -- it was taking too much time. So the 6-feet, 2-inch Riling yelled at Gibson to move out of the way.

"As he moved out of the way, I just crashed through that door. I remember barreling through the door with my left shoulder, and I just knocked the door right off the hinges," said Riling, who weighs 198 pounds.

As a result, the insurgent hiding behind the door was mortally wounded and died.

Kill insurgent with door. Check.

"I felt bad; I mean, we lost 12 Marines that day," he said. "It's very depressing, and it makes you think. You always say to yourself, 'What could you have done better?' In my mind, we did everything we could."

Riling said his actions that day were just those of a soldier doing his job.

"I don't claim to be a hero for getting this award. I don't want to be labeled as a hero. I felt I was just another soldier on the battlefield, doing my job, helping other soldiers and helping Marines," Riling explained.defenselink.mil

True soldier modesty. Check.

That's why they're called the best.

killing infants

2004-12-02T14:03:00.000-08:00

Partial birth abortion? How about after birth abortion?

Four times in recent months, Dutch doctors have pumped lethal doses of drugs into newborns they believe are terminally ill,

...Under the protocol, assisted infant deaths are investigated, but so far all of them have been determined to have been in the patients' best interests.

Euthanasia has been legal in the Netherlands since 1994. Under the law, any critically ill patient older than 12 can request an assisted death, including adults in the early stages of dementia. grandforks.com

This Dutch protocol is an attempt to 'provide guidelines' for applying euthanasia to those who cannot decide for themselves that they want to die.

What does death by doctor say about the concept of human rights, not to mention the Hippocratic oath? When we move responsibility from the person whose life is at stake to an impersonal third person in the form of a 'healthcare providers' judgment, aren't we creating the conditions for error, or the demented to seek out such positions because they want to have such power?

Dutch doctors have some intentional role in 3.4 percent of all deaths, according to statistics published in the medical journal The Lancet. About 0.6 percent are patients who didn't ask to be euthanized, the journal said.

Dutch courts often treat those cases leniently if an investigation determines that the doctor acted out of concern for the patient's well-being.

Opponents of expanding euthanasia to the young cite a recent Dutch court ruling against punishment for a doctor who injected fatal drugs into an elderly woman after she told him she didn't want to die.

The court determined that he'd made "an error of judgment," but had acted "honorably and according to conscience." grandforks.com

I don't believe this practice would ever be legal in the United States; unless there were some radical shift in the population of 'JesusLand'. But I think the issue does relate to the abortion issue, in that, I don't see any difference between infanticide and partial birth abortion. Certainly not for the child. In the instance where a mother's life is at stake there is certainly an argument to make that an abortion procedure might possibly be necessary. But I suspect that such instances are not the norm in cases of partial birth abortion.

When my wife was pregnant with our second daughter a sonogram prompted the hospital to call us to a meeting about the results. The sonogram showed evidence of brain cysts, we were told. At the meeting we were offered genetic counseling and invited to explore 'all the options' including information about abortion. Yet the risk, they admitted, was not certain. It was not terminal. They admitted that they couldn't even be sure that the brain cysts would persist. Maybe they would clear up.

I talked to another healthcare worker I know and it turns out that because of sonogram technology improvement such cysts are visible now where they were not previously. The consensus is growing that the appearance of such cysts are a normal part of some percentage of fetal development.

Eleanor was born healthy and whole I'm glad to say. My point is that the framing of such warnings and the viewpoint of a meeting like that might lead some percentage of patients to seek an abortion. How tragic for such a thing to happen if there were no real danger?

Worse than that, there doesn't have to be any danger to get an abortion procedure. Inconvenience is enough. What does it say about us as human beings when our solution to those among us who are 'inconvenient' is to eliminate them? Especially when animal rights groups are agitating for fish rights, and removing a mass murdering dictator is viewed as immoral.

Think nothing day...

2004-11-27T10:57:00.000-08:00

Buy nothing day is brought to you by those who think nothing. Ha.

Adbusters is really all about anti-capitalism, plain and simple.

How much more moronic and ironic can you get when you organize a 'buy nothing day' to protest advertising and marketing by-- creating a buy nothing marketing campaign!!!

For 24 hours, millions of people around the world do not participate -- in the doomsday economy, the marketing mind-games, and the frantic consumer-binge that's become our culture. We pause. We make a small choice not to shop. We shrink our footprint and gain some calm. Together we say to Exxon, Nike, Coke and the rest: enough is enough. And we help build this movement to rethink our unsustainable course.

In its 13 years, BND has become a flashpoint, a day when people of all stripes come together in symbolic protest. Visit the new BND Action Pyramid for a sample of great ways to celebrate.

Need posters, clip-art, web banners, handbills, radio-clips or stickers? No problem. 2004 BND promotional goods are ready for download.

We've put together a radical new tool to keep Jammers connected: JammerGroups, city-based email networks. Join now.

We've also got news and reports from previous BNDs in our archive. Be in touch as your plans come together,

Happy jamming.

Ancient intensive fishing

2004-11-24T21:40:00.000-08:00

Intensive fishing was an ancient practice

As usual, it was those wealthy landowners who caused the environmental destruction.

Intensive fishing by humans may be more ancient than previously thought, suggests a new archaeological study, which shows that significant marine fishing may have started in the UK in the 9th century.

...“I suspect what happened was that over-fishing of freshwater stocks meant that they became a rarity and only for the wealthy landowners. As a result, marine fishing and trade in salt cod and dried herring became much more intensive and supplied the common market,” he suggests.

A Rather nixonian exit

2004-11-24T21:34:00.000-08:00

Goodbye Dan. Don't let the false documents hit you on the way out.

Mandatory pedestrianism

2004-11-23T23:27:00.000-08:00

In the Sixties, Paul Ehrlich, the author of Population Bomb, and Lester Brown, the founder of the Worldwatch Institute, predicted that the "dramatic consequences" of our "throwaway lifestyle" were only a McDonald's carton away.

In 1968, Ehrlich said food shortages in India would kill 200 million people by 1980. In fact, by 1980, India was exporting surplus grain to Russia. thescotsman

Let's face it, death sells. Over and over the doomsday prophets pronounce that we are over consuming, overproducing, and using up our scarce and dwindling resources, such that if we don't start rationing now there will be nothing left and/or that mass starvations and environmental cataclysms will result.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news for those of you who subscribe to this secular doomsday theology, but we're all going to die anyway. Besides which, the earth is surprisingly resilient and apparently has already survived a mass extinction or two, as well as numerous climate changes, completely without the help or hindrance of mankind whatsoever.

Will we run out of petroleum? Perhaps. Someday. Why not ask whether we've run out of coal yet? Coal is what the British fleet used in the early days of the industrial revolution before they switched to petroleum. Strange how inventive we humans can be; yet we continually refuse to take our own resourcefulness into account when making predictions about how doomed we are if this or that happens.

In light of the fact that those who champion this picture of doom make predictions that are so often wrong, one must come to the conclusion that it's more an article of faith than fact that we are headed for an environmental Armageddon. People like Paul Erlich should be entirely without any credence whatsoever, yet his arguments are repeated here and there and echoed in environmentalist literature everywhere. But at least PBS has figured out that he's been thoroughly discredited.

Civilization as we know it will come to an end sometime this century when the fuel runs out.

Such is the grim prediction author and California Institute of Technology professor and vice provost David Goodstein concluded his lecture with Monday night.

...He said the world is headed toward a global oil shortage that could cause warfare, economic depression and the crumbling of institutions.

"There will be a crisis," he said. "It will be painful. We have just invaded Iraq. If anybody thinks that war was not about oil, you should think again. I call that 'oil war two.' The first Gulf War was 'oil war one.'" Nov. 9, 2004, U of New Mexico,

...and in predictions of disaster that can only be averted by--surprise!!--implementing radical progressive agendas such as the Kyoto protocol, slowing down economic growth, advocating a different system of economic control that is 'more sustainable', in order to stop 'urban sprawl', which is to say cordoning people into higher density areas in order to get them to stop driving. Conveniently high density urban areas also seem to render high Democratic voting percentages.

Malthus, way back in 1798, believed that overpopulation and competition over scarce resources would create wars and conflict in society as well as famine, pestilence, and the like, that in essence brought 'balance' to the overpopulation equation. Shouldn't we be willing to implement extreme measures to avoid these horrors? Sure, but are the dire predictions true? Hardly.

Despite the fact that higher development lowers birth rates, many of the same predictors of doom decry development as worse than overpopulation.

We've already had too much economic growth in the US. Economic growth in rich countries like ours is the disease, not the cure.
- Paul Ehrlich, author of Population Bomb and Population Explosion.

In essence this brand of environmentalism is a dead end. It offers stop signs instead of solutions and pessimistic predictions instead of facts. No one can predict the future but I think it's far more likely that doom would follow the implementation of Paul Ehrlich 'solutions' to the problems he says faces us.

In nature there's a word for the kind of 'sustainability' these prophets advocate: stagnation. Death. The opposite of movement and 'animation' if you will. It's certainly not progressive in any sense. It's regressive.

So let me just reiterate: there's too much pollution from automobiles, but the good news is that we will run out of fuel for those vehicles shortly thereby eliminating that source of pollution. But we should probably stop driving now anyway just to be safe. Mandatory pedestrianism! Also, there are too many people on the planet, but don't stop having profligate sexual relations--uh, just wear a condom. If that fails there's always abortion. (For the good of the planet of course.)

Bush to the rescue

2004-11-21T01:04:00.000-08:00

Unbelievable sequence of events.

Secret Service agent detained by Chilean police, Bush sees it and steps in.

Superman bad for volunteerism

2004-11-20T15:50:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure of the efficacy of this kind of study. I'm not sure I even want to ask where the funding comes from, but apparently thinking of Superman makes people think they suck, and that's bad for volunteerism.

Superman is too good a role model. Fans of the man from Krypton unwittingly compare themselves to the superhero, and realise they do not measure up. And as a result, they are less likely to help other people.

The one paragraph that struck me is the following:

Students who thought of Superman volunteered much less of their time than those who thought about other superheroes. Furthermore, Superman-primed subjects were significantly less likely to show up at a meeting for volunteers held three months after they were initially asked to participate.

Are you thinking about superheroes day to day? Hmm.

The reason, believes Nelson, is that asking people to compare themselves to an exceptional individual makes them realise their shortcomings. Whereas thinking about a general category encourages people to identify the strengths they have in common.

Shields up!

2004-11-20T15:47:00.000-08:00

A new project to investigate the possibility of fitting spacecraft with a “magnetosphere” of their own, underway at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US, recently received a cash boost from the NASA-funded Institute for Advanced Concepts.

Jeffrey Hoffman, an ex-astronaut who leads the project, envisages generating a magnetic shield using a superconducting magnet installed aboard a ship.

Astronauts are currently protected from cosmic radiation during a spaceflight by materials coating the outside of a craft which absorb the rays. But this material is typically extremely heavy, so a portable magnetic field could be a more efficient solution.

"Calculations show that using magnets would have benefits," Hoffman told New Scientist. A magnetic shell could protect a craft from cosmic radiation by deflecting away harmful cosmic particles. newscientist.com

"new enlightenment" Bush=Hitler

2004-11-18T11:36:00.000-08:00

Yes, Michael Moore is not alone.

The 2004 election revealed that American citizens are as intellectually and morally incompetent as the Germans in 1930. Such incompetence and ignorance always lead to tyranny. The United States is exactly at the same point in national degradation as the German nation in the 1930s when Hitler assumed absolute power and began his regime of mass murder and war crimes against the people of the world.

We've been conditioned to see Germany under Hitler as an unquestionably horrible example of dictatorial tyranny and inhuman barbarity--and to see our present American culture as completely opposite to that of Nazi Germany. And we like to think that if a tyranny such as that in Germany under the Nazi regime were present and growing in America we'd unquestionably be able to see it.

So it's a shock when we realize: most people living in Nazi Germany didn't see the tyranny! They thought it was the best time of their lives! new-enlightenment

The royalty connection

2004-11-18T09:47:00.000-08:00

I've asked myself why it is that so many of the super rich are socialist and liberal, now I see the connection. It's about station, about "knowing your place." They're royalty.

Prince Charles draws back the curtain so that we can see the outlook of the super rich.

"What is wrong with everyone nowadays?

"Why do they all seem to think they are qualified to do things far beyond their technical capabilities?

"This is to do with the learning culture in schools as a consequence of a child-centred system which admits no failure.

"People think they can all be pop stars, high court judges, brilliant TV personalities or infinitely more competent heads of state without ever putting in the necessary work or having natural ability.

"This is the result of social utopianism which believes humanity can be genetically and socially engineered to contradict the lessons of history."

...latest pronouncement on British society - that its schools are imbued with a culture of "social utopianism" responsible for people getting ideas above their station - was laid bare at an employment tribunal yesterday. uk.news

Well this actually mirrors the views of those with billions that the government is best equipped to take care of the uneducated, unwashed masses. Those who otherwise would no doubt be unable to feed themselves. They become the providers, the planners of a more just society. They are the wise ones who are best able to decide the important decisions about who gets what in our society.

The super rich socialists begin to see themselves as Prince Charles no doubt does. As royalty.

jesusland

2004-11-16T01:57:00.000-08:00

Liberal bigotry. Pure and simple.

Not one to shy away from speaking his mind, Keillor proposed a solution to what he deemed a fundamental problem with U.S. elections. "I'm trying to organize support for a constitutional amendment to deny voting rights to born-again Christians," Keillor smirked. "I feel if your citizenship is in Heaven-like a born again Christian's is-you should give up your citizenship. Sorry, but this is my new cause. If born again Christians are allowed to vote in this country, then why not Canadians?" chicago.edu

Am I offended? Not really. I think it says a lot about the moral superiority of the left. The casting of all those who oppose you as inferior and unfit is a well-worn path. One that the left never seems to see itself as engaging in. Nevertheless, I'm much more offended by the accusations that I am stupid, a fascist, a rascist, against democracy, or just plain evil.

We could argue about how such a comment about taking away anyone's citizenship based on their group identification would normally be received by the left, even if it were in jest, but I'm really not into group victim hood at any level. (Boring.) Suffice it to say that I point it out for the sake of pointing out liberal hypocrisy. Replace Christian with Black, Jew, Women, or Communist, take your pick of protected groups, and such a statement would be hate speech.

But let's think about this whole 'jesusland' angle many liberals have latched onto post-election to soothe their wounded ideology. It's as if Karl Rove actually did possess Emperor Palpatine magnitude powers and performed a massive jedi mind trick on the partisans of the left. Because in flailing about for a scapegoat (note: almost imperceptible religious reference) Democrats not only confirm an image of secular animosity to religion, but risk cementing their role as anti-religious and being an enemy to people of faith and how would that ever help win another election?

Which begs the question: are Democrats for protection of religious liberty or eradication of it? I ask the question knowing that it is almost rhetorical. Many Democrats are Christians. I know quite a few, and they have varying views on what separation of church and state means. But when I read some of the more strident voices of the left I wonder. Such as the following:

The greatest threat to democracy is not militant Islamic fundamentalists who dwell as terrorists in foreign lands waiting to destabilize the free west; the greatest threat is religious fundamentalism within our own shores.

Democracy and fundamentalism are simply incompatible. That has always been the case. We are witnessing it now in Iraq--a state of affairs totally miscalculated by the Bush administration due to its utter ignorance regarding the true mandates for democracy; and that is what we are witnessing in the rhetoric of the religious right in America--itself barely able to sustain the core values of a liberal democracy. dailykos

My working theory about why American Christians are viewed by the left as if they were the Taliban, is that Liberalism itself at some point can become (for some) a fundamentalist religion. One that has all the same characteristics they decry of all fundamentalisms; a stark view of good and evil, every issue seen in black and white terms, good guys, bad guys, etc.

Today's breed of Republicans have nothing to do with the values they used to espouse, and that I myself espouse - the values of personal liberty and conservatism. Yes, I am a "classical conservative", or "neo-progressive" if you will.

Today's breed of Republicans, mi gordito, as you will read about in your history books when you get older, are a breed world history has seen before. Except earlier, in the mid-twentieth century, they were called Fascists. Today's Republicans in the USA are Republican Fascists. And anyone who doesn't see that, dearest, have problems and issues in which I am not, and am no longer, willing to entangle myself. There just isn't any justification anymore for support of this "party" of bigoted, fascist thugs. dailykos

Just food for thought, I guess.

Chomsky's Law Enforcement 'War on Terror'

2004-11-13T14:11:00.000-08:00

Noam Chomsky, the Anarcho-Syndicalist (I'm still not sure what that means, except that it looks alot like communism to me), blogs on, "How to fight terrorists."

Not surprisingly it is exactly like the Kerry doctrine of the war on terror.

In the case of crimes, the first steps are (1) determining who was probably guilty, apprehending them, and bringing them to a fair trial; and (2) attending to the background circumstances, [no doubt background circumstances means the oppressive American Imperialism that prompted the terrorists to hate us. -es] and where there are legitimate grievances in the background, addressing them, as should be done quite apart from the crimes.

It’s the same whether the crime is a street robbery or large-scale international terrorism. In the latter case, there is a virtual consensus on this among specialists and intelligence agencies (including former heads of Israeli intelligence). Furthermore, the evidence shows that these are the most effective courses to take, including contemporary Islamic terrorism (the only case we are allowed to talk about). In contrast, Cheney’s preferred method has consistently increased the threat of terrorism, which is quite natural: violence tends to increase violence and support for it in response. The current Iraq war is an illustration. It was undertaken with the expectation that it would probably lead to an increase in terrorism, as it did. That’s just another of the many indications that reducing the threat of terror is not a high priority for planners, and another reason…

Hysterical intellectuals who prefer to shriek rather than reduce the threat of terror choose to interpret (2) as “appeasement” or “submission to terror” or “rationalization of terror,” etc. In sharp contrast, specialists in terror and intelligence agencies typically take the opposite stand. Comment is hardly necessary, apart from questions of intellectual history.

Police investigation and action might, under some circumstances, involve military force. There cannot be any general answer to the question.

Hmm. Very similiar to what Kerry said on Meet the Press in April of 2004:

"The war on terror is...occasionally military. ... But it's primarily an intelligence and law enforcement operation that requires cooperation around the world." Meet the Press.

Chomsky turns next to the preemption doctrine and again reiterates a key component of Kerry's philosophy --use of force only with UN approval, i.e. the global test.

As for “pre-emptive strike,” there has been a formal consensus on this since the UN Charter and the Nuremberg Tribunal. The formal consensus, the supreme law of the land in the US, bans the resort to force with narrow exceptions: when authorized by the Security Council, or in response to armed attack until the Security Council acts, in the latter case when “the necessity for action is instant, overwhelming, and leaving no choice of means, and no moment of deliberation.” These principles were established because of explicit international rejection, led by the US, of doctrine that now prevails: that resort to force is legitimate if we “know”—that is, have some reason to believe—that someone has the intention of attacking us.

I don't see anywhere in the constitution any mention of the UN Security Council. Perhaps Mr. Chomsky could provide a reference for his claim?

Surprisingly lucid so far, (Chomsky usually explains his convoluted ideas with elaborate twists and turns of seemingly random vocabulary), we next come to the key component of Chomsky's anti-americanism: moral equivalency. Under Bush's doctrine of preemption Japan would have been justified in attacking Pearl Harbor for the perceived threat the US posed to the dictatoral regime. After all, America is a global hegemon with a history of barbaric Imperial conquests.

That doctrine would, for example, justify Japan’s attack on US military bases in Pearl Harbor and Manila. The Japanese could read the US press, with its lurid discussion of how US bombing could exterminate this inferior and vicious race by burning down Japan’s wooden cities, and they knew that flying fortresses capable of bombing Japan from Pearl Harbor and Manila were coming off the Boeing Assembly line, so they “knew” that there was a serious threat of extermination, not just terror. Therefore, according to the “Bush doctrine,” shared by Kerry and elites generally, Japan had every right to bomb Pearl Harbor and Manila. In fact, they had a far stronger case than the one enunciated by Colin Powell, etc.: that “intent and ability” suffice to allow the US to attack a country, committing the “supreme crime” of Nuremberg, which encompasses all the evil that follows—the crime for which any participants, such as the German foreign minister, were hanged.

Ah well. Chomsky's always good for a laugh. He's something of a curiosity, in a perverted sense like a carnival freak show. Well actually, his ideas would not be so scary if so many of them hadn't just been articulated by the Democratic nominee for President.

Eternal life

2004-11-12T20:48:00.000-08:00

"A government agency is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth."

-Ronald Reagan, February 6, 1984

3.4 million vote mandate

2004-11-12T16:58:00.000-08:00

Bush received 60,393,205 popular votes, and Kerry received 56,974,703 popular votes. That's a difference of 3,418,502

Yahoo news... via drudge

Where's the outrage?

2004-11-12T10:57:00.000-08:00

Can you imagine the scandal if this happened at the Reagan funeral for instance?

Minister of foreign affairs Joschka Fischer was never treated this disrespectfully abroad: not only that his plane had to fly loops for a very long time. He also had to push his way through a crowd. In the end the Europeans missed the funeral service for Yassir Arafat.

...The french minister of foreign affairs michel barnier was violently pushed against journalists. Wischnewski, who is in a wheelchair, had to be shielded by german security forces to protect him. The european minister of foreign affairs Javier Solanar was also stuck in the crowd.

Since there were many guests missing after the beginning of the main ceremony, a second ceremony was held close to the cairo airport. Like many others, Fischer was not allowed to participate in this ceremony either. lgf

Dhimmitude is the status of infidels under Arab rule. I can't imagine Fischer being so accomodating for the Bush Administration.

Honest Reporting

2004-11-11T21:33:00.000-08:00

Honest Reporting has a montage of Arafat's real legacy. Great site too by the way.

2004-11-11T17:39:00.002-08:00

Downtown is packed!

2004-11-11T17:39:00.001-08:00

Lots of marchers

2004-11-11T17:39:00.000-08:00

Veterans Parade

"We are all Palestinians"

2004-11-11T11:01:00.000-08:00

The insanity is that France loves and honors the terrorist Arafat more than it does George Bush.

His coffin, draped in the Palestinian flag, was taken to a military airport, where a ceremony attended by members of the French government was held.

The plane carrying his body then took off for Cairo, where his funeral will be held on Friday.

The Palestinian Authority has declared 40 days of mourning.

Mr Arafat's widow Suha wept openly with her head bowed during the ceremony at the Villacoublay airport.

She was accompanied by French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin and Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath.

As a military band played a funeral march, Mr Arafat's coffin was carried by a guard of honour to an Airbus plane bearing the livery of the French republic.

The BBC's Caroline Wyatt in Paris described the ceremony as simple but dignified - a send-off fit for a head of state, as many in France saw Mr Arafat.

No members of the public were present at the airport. Earlier, crowds of Arafat supporters at Percy hospital, chanting, "We are all Palestinians", had waved candles and flags as Mr Arafat's body began its journey home.

Somewhat sickening. Of course, "We are all Palestinians," means solidarity against the evil oppressor jew.

Some militants accused Israel of causing his death and a leader of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Raid al-Aidi, swore to avenge it:

"We hold Israel fully responsible for the assassination of our mentor and father... It was caused by the siege imposed on him."

Speaking truth to JesusLand?

2004-11-11T10:50:00.000-08:00

Chronicling the new liberal past time: Speaking truth to JesusLand. Here's a nice list of what America will look like in four years from now:

"Divided We Stand, United We Fall into Fascism: What a Red State-Only America Would Look Like"

In the same vein we have:

"The American people have decided to reelect George Bush. And so a great darkness has fallen upon our land and perhaps the whole earth, a darkness which may not be relieved by light for many decades if ever."

Hee hee. I love it. Next here's some of the ultimate left-speak to be found anywhere. It doesn't differ too much from the previous examples but it is more forthright about it's real goals.

"Organizing All the Oppressed To End All Our Oppressions"

Buh Bye.

2004-11-11T10:41:00.000-08:00

Leora Dowling and her husband thought returning from deep in "red" America to her native New England would make them feel more comfortable, more like the people around them shared their values. Since the election, she's been contemplating another move. To Italy. abcnews

Cheer up Lefties

2004-11-10T21:53:00.000-08:00

Cheer up Liberals. The possibility that we live in a multiverse makes it likely that somewhere, somehow, the election results in 2004 were different.

The consequences are remarkable. A universe must exist for every physical possibility. There are Earths where the Nazis prevailed in the Second World War, where Marilyn Monroe married Einstein, and where the dinosaurs survived and evolved into intelligent beings who read New Scientist.

So it is possible, theoretically, that in at least one of the multitudinal universes of possibility that John Kerry isn't merely the biggest loser of 2004 but a huge, landslide, seachange, over-the-top, history-making winner!

In this hypothetical universe John Kerry is even now pronouncing the mandate of the voters: restoring integrity to America so that he can formally return the US to it's rightful place at the feet of the United Nations.

There Michael Moore is on TV everyday, on every channel, shaking his fist at the inverted 'states of red' who dared vote against peace and for the, by now, impeached George W. Bush, awaiting a criminal trial at the Hague.

John Kerry will begin bringing troops home from Iraq and embarking on a radical reversal of the crazy Bush doctrine.

A new, more intelligent, more effective War on Terror will begin. In cooperation with our allies, the democratic socialist countries of Europe, and the corrupt countries at the UN, some of whom are dictators and terrorists themselves, John Kerry will announce a new global effort to rid the world of injustice: "Operation Infinite Appeasement".

Good luck multilateral Kerry universe. You're gonna need it.

Thank God, uh sorry... I meant Jesus, that 59,834,725 Americans in this universe called Jesusland, that we don't have to see Operation Infinite Appeasement play out over the next four years.

Terrorist leader finally declared

2004-11-10T20:30:00.000-08:00

Dead.

The terrorist leader beloved by so many Europeans, the UN, and terrorist organizations everywhere died today. Finally.

From 1920 through 1999, a total of 2,580 residents of Mandatory Palestine and, since 1948, the State of Israel fell victims to hostile enemy action; in most cases, terrorist attacks.

The last terror-related death in 1999 was recorded on August 30, 1999. The first death in 2000 was recorded on September 27, 2000, with the outbreak of the current wave of Palestinian violence and terror.

...1,032 people have been killed by Palestinian violence and terrorism since September 2000.

It's about time. Make no mistake this man was not a statesman he was a terrorist. A thug. A gangster. A dictator. A murderer. A thief.

His passing should be marked by a single line of news buried somewhere in the back pages along with how many local burglaries and incidents of jay walking there were last week: "Terrorist leader dead at age 75. Good bye and Good riddance."

So where's the money? Arafat controlled a vast amount of money, almost all of it from aid to Palestine. He plundered 'the treasury of palestine' and treated it as his own personal wealth. In fact, Forbes estimated his personal net worth at $300 million dollars.

As Yasir Arafat lies dying in Paris, the battle over his legacy involves an unstated but widely acknowledged concern: He personally controls several billion dollars, and no one else knows where it all is.

The extent and whereabouts of this fortune, which relies on different aides and advisers as co-signers, have been a hidden part of the disputes at his bedside, Israeli and Palestinian officials say, giving the imminent death of this revolutionary figure the elements of a Victorian novel.

Mr. Arafat has kept knowledge of the accounts compartmentalized, and only he knows all the details, well-informed Israeli officials say, in assertions confirmed reluctantly by Palestinian officials who do not want to harm Mr. Arafat's legacy.

Much about the financing of the Palestinian movement in the last four decades has been shrouded in secrecy, and its details are hard to pin down. But Palestinians say Mr. Arafat used the money to finance the Palestinian movement and administration, to pay salaries, bestow gifts, ensure loyalty, establish embassies, buy arms and pay groups ranging from charities to young fighters like Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades.

There's nothing to see here. Let's just move on.

Is Holland on Red terror alert?

2004-11-10T09:26:00.000-08:00

Police action, blocks cordoned off near Holland, police wounded by grenade.

Terrorists surrounded?

Rising Dutch anger.

Fallujah hostage slaughterhouse

2004-11-10T09:22:00.000-08:00

NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq — Iraqi troops have found "hostage slaughterhouses" in Fallujah (search) where foreign captives were held and killed, the commander of Iraqi forces in the city said Wednesday. foxnews

Michael Moore, a look back

2004-11-09T23:44:00.000-08:00

Gee, liberals were saying the same thing about the stupid American voters before the election.

Michael Moore continues to have unkind words for his fellow countrymen. On his international book tour, the author of “Dude, Where’s My Country?” was asked what he thought of Americans. “They are possibly the dumbest people on the planet ... in thrall to conniving, thieving, smug pricks,” he replied. “We Americans suffer from an enforced ignorance. We don’t know about anything that’s happening outside our country. Our stupidity is embarrassing.” (Dec. 8, 2003) msnbc

Maddona... err, Esther says just leave Iraq-- now.

2004-11-09T23:09:00.000-08:00

This is the kind of talk that lost Kerry the election. I hope it never stops.

LONDON (AFP) - US pop star Madonna made a rare foray into politics, calling for her home country to withdraw its troops from Iraq during an interview with British radio.

"I just don't want American troops to be in Iraq, period," she said on BBC Radio.

"My feelings are 'can we just all get out?'," said the 46-year-old star, who lives mainly in London with British film director husband Guy Ritchie, who said she believes the US-led war will not help in the fight against terrorism.

"Global terror is everywhere. Global terror is down the street, around the block," she said.

"Global terror is in California. There's global terror everywhere and it's absurd to think you can get it by going to one country and dropping tons of bombs on innocent people."

Madonna's best known belief is her adherence to the Kabbalah, a faith based on the study of Hebrew texts which has become increasingly popular in recent years, notably among music and film stars.

On other subjects, the singer said the recent US presidential election had illustrated how US society was "becoming very divided".

"People are becoming very polarized," she said. "We have people who don't want to think, and who just want to guard what is theirs, and they're selfish and limited in their thinking and they're very fearful in their choices."

Madonna said that her personal choice for the presidency would have been Wesley Clark, the former four star general who was well beaten to the Democratic nomination by John Kerry.

"I thought very carefully about it. I thought Wesley Clark had the best leadership qualities," she said.

"If he had the same political experience as Kerry he could have bridged that gap." yahoo

*Sigh* After these inspiring comments I feel some remorse about voting for Bush. I just didn't realize that I was being selfish and limited in my thinking. Not to mention fearful in my choices. I was wrong, Madonna, I mean, Esther, you have taught me the meaning of wisdom, of unselfishness, of making brave choices like making our soldiers drop everything and leave Iraq now. Thank you Esther.

Oh, the irony, the hypocrisy of Madonna demanding political conformity and labeling those who disagree with her as unthinking. What if I want to rebel against your choices Esther?

She said: "The stance of a rebel is 'I don't care what you think'. But if it's just for the sake of upsetting the apple cart, you're not really helping people.

"You turn the apple cart over and then what? Then everyone's looking at an apple cart that's turned over and they're like, well, now what do I do?"

The 45-year-old mother-of-two said her days of shedding her clothes on stage or in front of the camera are also over.

Madonna wants to shed her old image

"I thought I was liberating mankind but, like I said, I wasn't really offering an alternative.

"To a certain extent I was saying 'Look, you know, why do men only get the job of objectifying women in a sexual way? I want to do it too.'

"There was an element of that, but there was also an element of being an exhibitionist and saying 'look at me'. It wasn't that altruistic. I can admit that."

Madonna - who was named after her mother - said she now wanted to be called Esther as part of her following of the Kabbalah religious teachings.

"My mother died when she was very young of cancer, and I wanted to attach myself to another name," she said.

"This is in no way a negation of who my mother is. I wanted to attach myself to the energy of a different name." bbc

I'm sure everything would be ok if everyone converted to Kabballah?

Tonight's links of interest

2004-11-09T22:41:00.000-08:00

Stolen election rebutal

More stolen election rebutal.

Non-jesus voters

Good advice Dems, I'd listen.

Voting is compulsory in Belgium?

An RDF visualizer, hmm.

Kick the oil habit in 50 years?

Oil prices drop.

Sore loser laundry list.

Seymore Hersh: hard left ideologue. So what else is new?

Bush voters are stupid, ignorant and hypocritical... Classic liberal condescension. I hope they keep it up.

Powerful Hitchens

2004-11-09T22:35:00.000-08:00

Many are the cheap and easy laughs in which one could indulge at the extraordinary, pitiful hysteria of the defeated Democrats. slate

God will kill Bush...

2004-11-09T22:33:00.000-08:00

Acts of God

SFSU intifada

2004-11-09T22:30:00.000-08:00

San Francisco State University, Finarelli showed up at the student union building that morning to help table and distribute literature to solicit new club members after President Bush’s victory the previous election day. What he found was a noisy and menacing mob of over 300 Palestinian, Arab, Muslim and radical leftist students surrounding his club’s table being held back by 13 San Francisco State police officers. The police officers were forced to surround the CR’s table both in front and in back in order to protect the conservative students’ safety.

It gets better...

UAV's battle tested

2004-11-09T13:13:00.000-08:00

In Iraq, UAVs provide situational awareness for troops guarding garrisons and high-value targets, support mobile troops during scouting missions, and watch over convoy movements, among other missions, Weatherington said.

"They're a real advantage," he said. "If a convoy is going down the road and sees something up ahead that looks unusual, they can literally stop, put one of these things together and launch it, fly down the road and see what's down there — without endangering the convoy." defenselink.mil

Capitalism's global war on poverty

2004-11-08T20:03:00.000-08:00

A US research group wants a war on poverty and pollution to match the war on terrorism. The group, the Worldwatch Institute, says the division between rich and poor amounts to global apartheid. bbc

It might surprise some to know that I basically agree with the above statement. However, I wouldn't agree with any of the policies the Worldwatch institute advocates in order to 'fix' this state of affairs.

We have one goal but two visions. We are divided not so much by what kind of world we want but by how we get there.

For instance, Worldwatch points out that governments and semi-government forces in many third world countries war for control of national resources, but NGO's like Worldwatch also oppose any efforts to bring private industry and capitalism into these same countries, which is likely the only thing that will really improve life in the long term for these poverty stricken nations, i.e. foreign investment.

My main disagreement with the worldview of many of these NGO's is that the solutions they promote are really just warmed over international welfare programs based on the same old half-baked marxist blather.

Daniel Bitler from the World Wildlife Fund made it clear what sustainable development really means to committed political environmentalists. "Sustainable development is setting the necessary social and ecological limits to economic growth," he declared. In other words, poor people like Issac and his children should not aspire to the opportunities and wealth enjoyed by the citizens of developed countries. This vision is based on the false Malthusian notion that the world's resources are limited, condemning a large portion of the world's people to misery and poverty in perpetuity. reason.com

As I outlined in a previous post, there are a variety of factors that keep some countries poor. Lack of free markets, property rights, and individual freedom is usually number one on the list. The answer to global poverty is not redistribution of global wealth in the name of equality, which would in fact result in untold misery to both rich and poor as the economic engines of western countries are plunged into depression, but capitalism and free markets. It took 200 years for the United States to 'get rich' as it were, and it wasn't part of a central plan. It was a convergence of historical precedents carried down through western civilization: secure property rights and rule of law.

What's intriguing to me is the time warp, ideologically, that liberal activists seem to be stuck in. Bemoaning American over-consumption, demanding that the poorest countries be given our wealth, while insisting that trade is exploitation. Their proposals defy common sense and nature. They also sound more like the low level communist literature of the thirties than of modern think tanks and politicians.

The people of the third world deserve freedom and prosperity. There is in fact no good reason that Zimbabwe or Haiti cannot be a rich country except for the type of burdens created by their own governments. Which are in fact political obstacles, not economic ones. Do we help them to develop the tools to create wealth or do we keep them in an apartheid state of welfare subservience by insisting that the only solution to poverty is international socialism?

Destroy poverty: let capitalism do its job.

BBC Reporter cries for Arafat

2004-11-08T10:06:00.000-08:00

Not improbable at all.

The BBC has received some 500 complaints about Plett's broadcast, which was broadcast on its Radio 4 program, "From Our Own Correspondent."

In her report, Plett said: "When the helicopter carrying the frail old man rose above his ruined compound, I started to cry . . . without warning."

She went on to reflect that, "in quieter moments since I have asked myself, why the sudden surge of emotion? I suppose there was a pathos about the strong contrast between this and other journeys Yasser Arafat has made."

In her report, entitled "Yasser Arafat's unrelenting journey," Plett noted that "foreign journalists seemed much more excited about Mr. Arafat's fate than anyone in Ramallah We hovered around the gate to his compound, swarming around the Palestinian officials who drove by, poking our microphones through their dark, half-open windows."

She lamented that amid all the media activity just a few hundred loyalists turned out to see him off from Ramallah, "waving and calling out one of his favorite sayings: 'The mountain cannot be shaken by the wind'."

Where were the people, she asked, "the mass demonstrations of solidarity, the frantic expressions of concern?" Then she answered her own question: "I think this history explains Palestinian emotions better than mine.

"For me, it was probably the siege. I remember well when the Israelis re-conquered the West Bank more than two years ago, how they drove their tanks and bulldozers into Mr. Arafat's headquarters, trapping him in a few rooms, and throwing a military curtain around Ramallah. jpost.com

Incredible Hubris

2004-11-08T09:20:00.000-08:00

The left is completely transparent. This article title says it all: Global View: Four years to reap

The words might well apply to U.S. President George W. Bush. After much sowing he has reaped what he sought: a second term. But what he and the United States will reap during it will not all be healthy. An economy and stock markets that are, as I predicted two weeks ago in the column, likely to rally in the near term, are unlikely to have a good four years. washingtontimes.com

I hope this election failure causes the the liberal press to come out of the closet for good. No more hiding folks.

All the right people

2004-11-08T09:13:00.000-08:00

All the right people are concerned about our assault on Fallujah. This is a sure sign that we are doing the right thing.

Arab League Secretary General Amr Mousa said Sunday he was concerned over U.S.-Iraqi plans to launch a massive military attack on the Iraqi city of Fallujah.

Concerned. As is Kofi Annan. It's even gratifying to hear the right phrases as well, "be patient in dealing with insurgents," and, "dialogue and agreement are essential for a secure Iraq."

He said he supported U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan's warning of the dangerous repercussions of using military force.

Last week, Annan sent messages to the leaders of Iraq, the United States and Britain warning a full-scale attack on Fallujah would threatened the security and stability of the entire Iraqi nation. He called for including Iraqi groups not represented in the interim Iraqi government in the political process as a solution to the crisis.

Mousa called on the Iraqi government to be patient in dealing with the situation in Fallujah, which is controlled by armed insurgents, saying "dialogue and agreement are essential for a secure Iraq." washingtontimes.com

We really dodged a bullet when the American people defeated the UN candidacy of John Kerry.

Hope has triumphed.

2004-11-07T22:10:00.000-08:00

President Bush's re-election gives the free world a second chance.
BY JOSE MARIA AZNAR

Many took for granted that Mr. Bush would be defeated. They were wrong. The mistake committed by those who create caricatures is that they believe that normal people are going to substitute reality with caricature. The American people have decided that the best option is to offer a new mandate to Mr. Bush. If not, the achievement of these elections would be inexplicable: an extensive margin between the two candidates, in favor of President Bush, in favor of the popular vote; an increase in the number of his senators; a comfortable majority in the House of Representatives. Mr. Bush has managed to consolidate a movement that has been emerging for some years. He has managed to consolidate a natural conservative majority in his country. Aznar

UN Appeasement

2004-11-06T21:04:00.000-08:00

This is the genius organization that Kerry wanted to hand over our foreign policy to. Kofi: "Killing terrorists only makes things worse."

Annan wrote to leaders in Britain, the United States and Iraq's interim government warning a strike on Fallujah risked further alienating Iraqis and disrupting January's elections, diplomats in New York said.

Blunkett said the US-led coalition had to listen to Annan's concerns but added: "I think on this occasion he is entirely wrong.

"If the elections are to take place, if they are to be adjudged to be democratic and if there is to be security and stability and a democratic Iraq in the future, then the terrorists have to be rooted out, both for the Iraqis and for the rest of us," he said.

"If they got their hands on Iraq, they would do what the Taliban did in Afghanistan; they would act as the hosts for the encampments, for the training, for the launch point for those who would kill anybody in our country," he said. yahoo

or Burns 2008?

2004-11-06T19:36:00.000-08:00

Mr. Burns how do you feel about possibly running against Senator Clinton in the 2008 election?

"I could crush her like an ant. But it would be too easy. No, revenge is a dish best served cold. I'll bide my time until.... Oh, what the hell. I'll just crush her like an ant."

Vader in 2008

2004-11-06T18:38:00.000-08:00

"I find your lack of faith in the GOP disturbing."

(Hit the play button to hear mood enhancing music.)

French quagmire: Ivory Coast

2004-11-06T11:44:00.000-08:00

ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Ivory Coast's military killed eight French soldiers in a bombing raid on the rebel-held stronghold of Bouake on Saturday and opened fire on troops from the former colonial power in the main city of Abidjan.

French President Jacques Chirac ordered the West African country's warplanes involved in violating a cease-fire to be destroyed after the assault on Bouake in which 23 French soldiers were injured. news.yahoo

These yahoo news stories disappear after awhile... see here: bbc, iht, wsws, bbc, radio netherlands

Arab news roundup

2004-11-06T11:08:00.000-08:00

'Exploited' Bedouin teen treads Israeli catwalk.

Zionist Starbucks opening branch Jordanian capital of Amman.

Saudi Clerics urge Michael Moore's minutemen to fight US forces as their duty and right.

Kuwait gives $60 million in aid to Najaf to build up infrastructure.

Arab investment up. albawaba.com

Jordnian prince encourages election participation in Iraq.

Iraqi ambassador to Syria named. Writer Hassan al-Alawi, former press secretary for Saddam Hussein returned from exile after US liberation.

The seige and assault on Fallujah is under way.

Trans-Sahara Counter Terrorism Initiative

2004-11-06T11:04:00.000-08:00

Fearing that huge tracts of largely deserted African territory could become a safe haven for terrorist groups, the US is poised to increase efforts to assist governments on the continent to better control their territory.

According to Gen Charles Wald, Deputy Commander of US European Command (EUCOM), there is a lack of government control in and around the Sahara region and “we can’t allow areas like that to be ungoverned, to become a haven for terrorists”.

A new US security assistance programme, called the Trans-Sahara Counter-Terrorism Initiative (TSCTI) and costing as much as $100 million, aims to address these concerns. The programme would be an expanded follow-on to the Pan Sahel Initiative (PSI), which helped train and equip one rapid-reaction company, about 150 soldiers, in each of the four Saharan states: Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Chad.

The follow-on programme is needed, US officials say, because increasing the capability of friendly governments in the region to better control their territory is a long-term process and one that Gen Wald said Washington was committed to maintaining. One US defence official added that, given the vast swaths of territory involved, 150 soldiers per country “is not nearly enough”. The TSCTI would train additional forces, include more countries and help foster better information sharing and operational planning between regional states, considered as important as creating new units.

The problem, Gen Wald said, is that the Sahel has a history of being a centre through which arms and other illicit trade have flowed. Now, terrorists could seek to use those traditional routes as a safe haven, a recruiting ground, or for fund raising. Explaining US concerns, Gen Wald said the problem was “a combination of some [current] terrorism activity and the potential for a lot more if we don’t watch it”.

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Saddam's illegal weapons

2004-11-06T11:00:00.000-08:00

Saddam working on three long range ballistic missiles with ranges of 500 km or more.

Iran's Military

2004-11-06T10:55:00.000-08:00

I'm not a subscriber so I haven't read the full article...

The IRGC leadership is widely viewed in Iran to be employing the nuclear stand-off as a vehicle to encroach further into the political sphere. As the constitution prohibits serving IRGC staff from running for office, a number of retired officials from its ranks have recently been appointed to senior positions or elected to the Majlis. There has even been speculation that IRGC could field its own candidate for the 2005 presidential elections. Further political influence, combined with its full control over Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programmes, could make the IRGC the most formidable obstacle to a transformation of Iran's foreign policy. janes.com

US French cooperation War on Terror...

2004-11-06T10:51:00.000-08:00

Cooperation is possible, as well as necessary.

In recent months, the United States and France have put considerable pressure on Syrian President Bashar Assad not to interfere in Lebanon's presidential election this fall, while encouraging Lebanese politicians to exert control over the political process. This unusual display of trans-Atlantic coordination in Middle East policy has begun to reshape political alignments in Lebanon and encourage the growth of a broad-based pro-democracy movement. meib.org

Vote or Die?

2004-11-05T20:56:00.000-08:00

How did I miss this? Too much going on in the election I guess.

"I was a little reckless with my comments, to be honest," Diddy said on Tuesday (November 2). "I realized I relinquished my power too early after I educated myself. I shouldn't have said that until I felt that there was somebody that could be better for my people. ... I learned a lot in this process. I learned that my power could be used better. Instead of attacking Bush, it would be better to light a flame under young Americans and let them make the decisions."

A more informed Diddy has been sticking to a bipartisan approach in telling people to register and get out to the polls. The objective of his Citizen Change organization has been simple: They want to educate, motivate and empower, and in the process they've made the phrase "Vote or Die" a household slogan. mtv

Zarqawi better run

2004-11-05T17:33:00.000-08:00

Almost makes one sad for Michael Moore's minute men. Almost.

NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) — U.S. warplanes pounded Fallujah late Friday in what residents called the strongest attacks in months, as more than 10,000 American soldiers and Marines massed for an expected assault. Iraq's prime minister warned the "window is closing" to avert an offensive.

For the past three nights, long convoys of American soldiers from Baghdad and Baqouba have rolled onto a dust-blown base on the outskirts of Fallujah, a city that has become the symbol of Iraqi resistance. U.S. commanders here have been coordinating plans either to fight their way into the city or isolate it from the rest of Iraq's Sunni Muslim heartland.

If they fight, American troops will face an estimated 3,000 insurgents dug in behind defenses and booby traps. Military planners believe there are about 1,200 hardcore insurgents in Fallujah — at least half of them Iraqis. They are bolstered by insurgent cells with up to 2,000 fighters in the surrounding towns and countryside. usatoday

Unteachable Ignorance

2004-11-05T09:18:00.000-08:00

The election results reflect the decision of the right wing to cultivate and exploit ignorance in the citizenry. ...my relatives [who voted for Bush] are not ignorant, they are just greedy and full of classic Republican feelings of superiority.)

Ignorance and bloodlust have a long tradition in the United States, especially in the red states. slate

That's the way to win the election the next time around, call everyone who voted for your opponent idiotic, ignorant, and bloody savages. The red states are murderers who are willfully ignorant. I must say this is offensive, but not very surprising. It's also a little gratifying to know that your hunch is right--the left, or at least those represented by Jane Smiley, have fully closed their minds to reality--confirming the death of liberalism.

The red forces, known then as the slave-power, pulled 265 unarmed men from their beds on a Sunday morning and slaughtered them in front of their wives and children. The error that progressives have consistently committed over the years is to underestimate the vitality of ignorance in America. slate

Yes, we Red folks are a bloodthirsty lot. Ready to kill Democrats at a moments notice. What I find most disturbing about this period of 'self-examination' by the left is that they are not doing any self-examination. It's all about what's wrong with the right and all those who were persuaded to vote for them. I find this disturbing because it speaks of a deeply seated arrogance that cannot even question, for even a moment, whether or not their prejudices are actually factual.

They know no boundaries or rules. They are predatory and resentful, amoral, avaricious, and arrogant. Lots of Americans like and admire them because lots of Americans, even those who don't share those same qualities, don't know which end is up. Can the Democrats appeal to such voters? Do they want to? The Republicans have sold their souls for power. Must everyone? slate

I find it amusing that in 2000 the Democrats claimed George Bush was an 'illegitimate President' and therefore had to govern as if Gore had won. Now that Bush is apparently 'legitimately' elected, he doesn't have 'a mandate' and so should govern this deeply divided nation by not enacting any conservative agenda. Somehow I think that if Kerry had won by the same margin it would have been considered a mandate and the left woud not be talking about moderation and healing the divide.

Could it be that the real reason we will not see any bipartisan coming together, bridging the divide, or healing the division is that when democrats call for such they mean that Republicans must compromise? I suspect that Democrats never think supporting some actual cuts in spending programs might go a long way toward creating a bipartisan atmosphere rather than putting out press releases about Republicans starving children and killing seniors for suggesting smaller increases.

In the end I think Paul Krugman outlined what the actual Democratic strategy will be: increase the partisanship and increase the opposition. Judging by Jane and Paul, I don't think it will take too long before we are back to Bush is a Nazi.

President Bush isn't a conservative. He's a radical - the leader of a coalition that deeply dislikes America as it is.
...thanks to a heavy turnout by evangelical Christians, Mr. Bush has four more years to advance that radical agenda.

...But Democrats are not going to get the support of people whose votes are motivated... by their opposition to abortion and gay rights ....All they will do if they try to cater to intolerance is alienate their own base.

...Rather than catering to voters who will never support them, the Democrats - who are doing pretty well at getting the votes of moderates and independents - need to become equally effective at mobilizing their own base.

In fact, they have made good strides, showing much more unity and intensity than anyone thought possible a year ago. But for the lingering aura of 9/11, they would have won.

What they need to do now is develop a political program aimed at maintaining and increasing the intensity. That means setting some realistic but critical goals for the next year.

Democrats shouldn't cave in to Mr. Bush when he tries to appoint highly partisan judges - even when the effort to block a bad appointment fails, it will show supporters that the party stands for something. They should gear up for a bid to retake the Senate or at least make a major dent in the Republican lead. They should keep the pressure on Mr. Bush when he makes terrible policy decisions, which he will. nytimes

From my perspective George Bush has already allowed the spending to continue on autopilot for far too long. Let's not forget that budget increases are programmed into every years budget automagically so that any proposed reduction in the increase can be fought as a cut.

I don't have any hope that there will be any bipartisanship in our near future. Democrats are too bitter and too wrapped up in their own 'fantasy world of spin' to be able to bend on any issue that matters to them-- that is to say, every issue matters to them equally, so that no matter what the Republicans plan to do it will be fought as any ignorant Red State desire to kill and destroy should be fought.

Communist Party of France

2004-11-04T21:32:00.000-08:00

See what an ignorant American I am? I didn't know there was a Communist Party of France. Much less that it had any real history of involvement in politics.

In the 1945 elections the Communist Party became the strongest political group in France when it won 25 per cent of the vote. The following year the party entered the government with Maurice Thorez as deputy prime minister. spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk

They currently hold 21 seats in the French National Assembly.

The National Assembly consists of 577 members known as députés (deputies), each elected by a single-member constituency. It is presided over by a President (currently Jean-Louis Debré. The term of the National Assembly is at most five years. The President of France may dissolve the Assembly (ie: call new election), except if he already dissolved it in the preceding year.

The official seat of the National Assembly is the Palais Bourbon on the banks of the river Seine. It is guarded by Republican Guards.

The last legislative elections, held in June 2002 resulted in the following distribution of seats:

357 Union for a Presidential Majority
140 Socialist Party
29 Union for a Democratic France
21 Communist Party of France
7 Left Radical Party
23 other
wikipedia.org

Bush Wins!

2004-11-04T21:12:00.000-08:00

I couldn't resist.

Democratic Underground Roundup

2004-11-04T20:54:00.000-08:00

'Finding' Kerry votes in Ohio

http://www.butlercountyelections.org/pdf/canvas.pdf

Page 7

The correct count for Bush is 1389. They list it as 3,399.
The correct count for Kerry is 3321. They list it as 1,401.

So... we see what should be a 2,010 vote decrease for Bush, and what should be a 1,920 vote increase for Kerry.

on top of this: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

We may have uncovered something... D.U.M.B.

Who are you going to believe? My exit polls and pollsters or your lying eyes?

To believe that Bush won the election, you must also believe...

To believe that Bush won the election, you must also believe:

1- That the exit polls were WRONG...

2- That Zogby's 5pm election day calls for Kerry winning OH, FL were WRONG. He was exactly RIGHT in his 2000 final poll. D.U.M.B.

Yes, another fraudulent election.

American Democracy may be on its Deathbed. The exit Polls Worked in Non-Electronic Voting Sites. But in the sites where un-recountable electronic voting took place the exit polls were off and in Bush's favor. This is the smoking gun. This is the clear sign that the failure of the republicans in the house and senate to support paper ballot legislation was intended to enable the theft of the presidency and further congressional seats. This election has zero credibility and must be overturned. D.U.M.B.

Sounds like the Democratic party to me.

2004-11-04T20:22:00.000-08:00

"An end to the rule of profit, for a socialist society to meet the needs of all."

Oh, looks like they're supporting Ralph Nader. Probably Green Party members moonlighting.

The Democratic Underground Horde, or D.U.H., is busy in their 'fantasy world of spin' delegitimizing the Bush victory with conspiracy theories. Hee, hee.

First of all, this election was definitely rigged. I have no doubt about it. It's a statistical impossibility that Bush got 8 million more votes than he got last time. In 2000, he got 15 million votes from right-wing Christians, and there are approximately 19 million of them in the country. They were eager to get the other 4 million. That was pretty much Karl Rove's strategy to get Bush elected. D.U.H.

Chirac snubs Allawi

2004-11-04T20:09:00.000-08:00

But French President Jacques Chirac — dubbed Le Worm — was doing his best to scupper bridge-building.

He will snub a meeting with Iraqi PM Iyad Allawi in Brussels today. It is a sleight aimed at Mr Bush and Tony Blair, who back Mr Allawi.

Chirac — who tried to stop the war to topple Saddam Hussein — will leave Brussels before the new Iraqi leader arrives.

However Chirac DID find time to visit Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in hospital yesterday.

Meanwhile, Mr Blair was working to heal rifts over Iraq, and flew to Brussels to rally EU leaders.

Last night he called on Europe’s leaders to end their “state of denial” over Mr Bush’s election win.

He told The Times countries against the war must now work with the US.

The PM said: “The election has happened. America has spoken. The rest of the world should listen.

“It is important that America listens to the rest of the world too.

“The fact is that President Bush is there for four years. Some people are in a sort of state of denial.” thesun.co.uk

Iraqi's NATO training in Norway

2004-11-04T16:30:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON, Nov. 4, 2004 — Key Iraqi civilian and military leaders arrived at the NATO Joint Warfare Centre in Norway this week to attend an eight-day pilot training course designed to teach them how to promote civil-military cooperation as they build their security institutions.

...The center staff offers this instruction through lectures, simulations and exercises that give participants the opportunity to "walk through" possible real-life scenarios under the guidance of NATO instructors, they said.

The Iraqi participants range from senior military officers to civilian staff with Iraq's defense and interior ministries. Iraqi authorities selected them as key leaders from within the country's security forces.

A senior Iraqi representative at today's news conference said the training offered valuable insights into coordination between military and civil forces — a significant part of establishing a stable security environment in Iraq. He thanked the coalition for its support and expressed appreciation to NATO for hosting the session. defenselink.mil

The real stupidity

2004-11-04T15:02:00.000-08:00

Yeah, the daily mirror is dumb. But I consider this even dumber.

How could Bush possibly get elected? After all the Great Depression is ongoing there in America isn't it? Sounds like someone is believing election lies.

Tens of millions of ordinary Americans live in more economic insecurity and enjoy less opportunity as a result of the America he is building. Abroad he is leading his country into a dangerous and unwinnable confrontation with Islamic fundamentalism that obstructs the rooting out of terrorism, whose crassness is exposed daily in the flow of news from Iraq. A grass roots revolt should throw him out of office as an incompetent. guardian.co.uk

The Voice of the American people

2004-11-03T21:29:00.000-08:00

In an election with the highest voter turnout in history, George W. Bush received the highest number of votes of any President in history. The Senate Minority Leader, Tom Daschle has been defeated, and the GOP has gained seats in the House and in the Senate. Yesterday was not merely a defeat for Democrats, I believe it was a repudiation of a party that gave free reign to its most divisive and partisan impulses.

To give you an idea of how and why George W. Bush won, I spent most of the day on Tuesday getting out the vote in my precinct. At 6:00pm, when the poll workers updated the list of all who had voted up to that time, my precinct had reached a 60% Republican voter turnout. Virtually all of the remaining voters I was able to reach by phone before 8:00pm said they had either just voted or were heading out the door. So I expect that the Republican voter turn out in my district could have easily reached 70%! (The registrar will release precinct level stats later this week.)

I've read a few of the comments made by disheartened Kerry supporters. I'm not sure they even represent the average Democratic voter, but may be more reflective of an understandable emotional response to the election. Comments like:

...Even if Ohio is litigated, it shouldn't be this close. We're telling the world that we endorse the last four years, and give thumbs up to more evil.

...Okay, we won't blame it on Rove. We'll blame it on the overwhelming intolerance and bigotry of the American public.

...This "election" proves a few things that I've long known and hated about this country:...

...Feudalism disguised as Fundamentalism has won. Osama has won today.

...This election has shown how stupid majority of Americans are. They are ignorant and stupid. They are stupid and they elected their president. Let them enjoy another 4 years of fear, war,and terror. It is their choice.

...The "moral majority" has won. They will read their bibles and insist that the nation was founded by Christians as rabid as themselves - not realizing their ignorance. And we who know better will have to stand by and watch while they destroy our Constitution and all it has stood for since 1787.

They have elected a diabolical administration that has made the most disastrous and irresponsible decisions in the history of the country, as well as the most diplomatically inept, inarticulate, and moronic president that has ever lived on Pennsylvania Avenue.

I hope they will enjoy the self-fullfilling prophesy of their Armageddon - and I hope they rot in Hell for wanting to "bring it on" while dragging the rest of us with them.

...Congratulations to all Americans who have helped push the world further into the abyss.

...To each and every person who voted to re-elect George W Bush, a warm congratulations. You slack-jawed, gun toting, mindless fools.

You have dug your own grave, and brought any attack that happens on your soil in the next four years upon yourselves.

The world washes its hands of you.

For Democrats who are disheartened today, I sympathize, but I have no message of solace. The lesson of this election is not that Americans are stupid, deluded, or duped, the lesson is that America is an exceptional nation with unique role in history. Bill Clinton won two terms as President by running as an optimistic 'new democrat'. Not as a prophet of doom condemning American Imperialism. Still, during Clinton's first term Republicans took control of the House. Then in Bush's first term they also took control of the Senate. Even after all of the harshest charges of war profiteering, treason, idiocy, and fascism were hurled at this President, he won, and Republicans gained more seats in both the House and Senate.

My take is that Michael Moore's position of honor at the Democratic convention and the full adoption and endorsement of Fahrenheit 9/11 by the Kerry campaign as its anti-Bush message is what lost him the election. I believe that if Kerry hadn't aligned himself with the most anti-war and easily perceived anti-American rhetoric of the left he could have had a shot at winning the Presidency. A majority of Americans just do not agree that America is an oppressive, imperialistic, racist, bigoted, and evil nation. It's not just that they don't believe it. It's just not true.

As I have said before, the left and the right both basically agree on ultimate ends. We all agree that we love our children, that we want peace, prosperity, safety, health, clean air, to live productively, to see beauty around us-- in short: we all want life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for ourselves and our world. Unfortunately we disagree on how we get there. What's more, we regularly confuse those who disagree with us as disagreeing with those ultimate ends.

How we come to an agreement on how we achieve those ends is an open question. But my hope is that Democrats will choose to join us where they see a common goal and some possibility of some agreement knowing that we are not out to destroy civilization but are trying to do what we can to make it better.

If not, I promise to visit some of you in the soon to be built gulags to the north. (After the invasion of Canada.) Heh. Heh.

Michael Moore's relevance...

2004-11-03T21:19:00.000-08:00

I love it.

Michael Moore's relevance after the election.

What French media bias?

2004-11-03T19:32:00.000-08:00

3 November 2004: Le Monde French Newspaper
Headline: Baghdad under the occupation
Purpose: Paint as grim a picture of Iraqi hatred against America as possible.
Mission: Accomplished

Nobody had considered these nineteen months like that. For the Iraqis, delivered to violence, with paranoia and the depression, Bush, it is the enemy, Kerry, it is the unknown.

Baghdad is an occupied city. It is a not easily describable state. And yet, there is always something in the air to point out it.

The American occupation, it is Abou Ghraib and torture, they are the systematic prisons and blows, humiliation.

Granted the translation is imperfect, but the meaning is clear. Bush is the enemy to Iraqis and Kerry an unknown.

Rare are these Iraqis who do not describe themselves like angels struck down by a foreign and diabolic force. Rare are those which do not recall all the day, as to entreat the fate, than this country is that of the "kindness" and L ' "hospitality" . The enemy of Iraq, it is inevitably the foreigner. The first marked ones are the United States, Al-Qaida, Iran and other neighbors.

"We will not however be free, known as the student, as long as Saddam will be in our heads." He speaks about mentalities, good manners, and especially about "values" . For him, the enemy of Iraq, it is initially the Iraqi.

"Under the dictatorship of Saddam, the Iraqis were wolves for the Iraqis. It there deaths, disappearances, of had tortured many, remembers Mona, an academic. However it was nothing compared to today. Under this occupation, with this war, solidarity and confidence do not exist any more. We are not only any more afraid of the moukhabarat - secret service of Saddam Hussein -, but of the our neighbor, man in the street. The danger is everywhere." "people do not think any more that to survive and gain dollars , known as Ammar, even if it means to trample the others."

...Because there are today at least two dictatorships in Iraq, that of the occupant and that of the rebellion. The occupation, which brought, by eliminating Saddam, a freedom of unanimously greeted word, a political freedom, a religious freedom, is however a dictatorship in oneself. "There cannot be democracy under occupation" , hears one everywhere. As for the rebellion, it makes reign terror, it refuses the freedom of found word, it imposes its order political and religious, it judges and it condemns. "It there has a multitude of dictatorships, thinks Ali, a writer. That of the Americans, that of the government of Iyad Allaoui, that of the nationalist guerrilla sunnite, that of the guerrilla sunnite islamist, that of Al-Qaida and the foreign djihadists, that of the guerrilla Shiite of Moqtada Al-Sadr, that of the gangsters, that of the jerk of my street with his kalachnikov... " It speaks, like Ammar, of the Iraqis become of " small Saddam ".

"The insane American night of the bloggers"

2004-11-03T19:19:00.000-08:00

I'm almost accustomed to the backwards english translation of google but here's an interesting article at Le Monde about the 'unreliability' of those 'crazy' bloggers.

With a reference to Little Green Footballs!

For the bloggers, it is an insane night, the test of the fire of the policy on line. What imports prudence that the great media can adopt: on the blogs, rumours, surveys and information with half reliable circulated. But they seem credible, so much so that Wall Street wavers and that brokers, influenced by rumours of victory of the democratic candidate, are agitated and sell. Later, in the night, Matt Drudge retrogresses and delivers high and strong its opinion, photograph of the president to the support: "victorious Bush" . Site headlight of the anti-Bush fight, MoveOn.org, remains quiet with a simple call to the participation of the voters, without offering of follow-up of the evening. Another icon of the dispute, Michael Moore, realizer of documentary Farenheit 9/11 , gold Palm to the last Festival of Cannes, accomodates the messages and comments of the voters who could not vote or who were pilot irregularities.

Some tell their mishaps or those their friends, prevented from voting, because ever registered on the electoral roll of their county in spite of their administrative steps. Lastly, comes time from the comments, rejoicings or concerns. Little Green Footballs , a preserving blog, is delighted in advance by the head that Chirac and Kerry will make when they will learn the victory from Bush and that they will realize that "their post-modern ideologies, morally devaluated were rejected by the Americans" . As for the blog Daylikos , it releases at 6. 47 GMT its last post and its irritation: "More I think of it, more I am irritated that the TVS give results for Ohio whereas they are still clearly undecided. Let us leave these whores votes be counted."

No enthusiasm in France

2004-11-03T18:58:00.000-08:00

Can google get any more useful? French newspaper translations? Yes.

The French newspaper Le Monde has this story about French reaction to the Bush victory.

It is only at the end of the day, after Mr. Kerry recognized the victory of his adversary, that the French president, Jacques Chirac, reacted to the re-election of Mr. Bush. It congratulated it and said to hope that this second mandate "will be the occasion to reinforce the Franco-American friendship", indicated the Elysium.

"In the name of France and on my personal behalf, I wish to express you my more sharp congratulations for your re-election with the presidency of the United States of America", wrote Mr. Chirac in a letter addressed to his counterpart that it
describe as "dear George".

"It is in a spirit of dialogue, of regard and of respect mutual that must continue to develop our co-operation, our common combat against terrorism and the action which we carry out together to promote freedom and the democracy ", affirmed Mr. Chirac.
"We will not be able to find answers satisfactory to the many challenges with which we are confronted today without a narrow transatlantic partnership. France and the United States have to play an essential role there ", added the French president.

That's the official response, (at the end of the day). The unguarded opinions are less charitable. Even considering that the worst is from the communist party of France!

The first secretary of the socialist Party, François Holland, and chair it UDF, François Bayrou, for their part preached the construction of " stronger" Europe, making re-election of George Bush an argument of countryside for "yes" to the referendum on the European Constitution.

"Europe must be strong compared to America, which, in any case, will try to impose its vision of the world" , François Holland declared.

"If Europe wants to exist, to make hear its voice, it is necessary that it gathers. That will require many efforts ", increased François Bayrou.

Like Hubert Védrine, the president of the UDF admitted that "incomprehension" between two banks of the Atlantic did not concern the only responsibility for George Bush. "It is checked today that actually this orientation was supported by a majority of the American people" , it underlined.

For Henri Emmanuelli, one of the heads of file of the left wing of the PS, the vote in favour of George Bush also corresponds "to a major slip of the United States on the ideological level ", which it considered to be catastrophic " (...) for the world" .

The VOICES Pro-bush MUCH Less AUDIBLE

For the Communist Party, the re-election of George Bush is a "very bad news for all the people of the world ", because "it is the candidate of the warlike higher bid, the unilateralism and American hegemony" .

"Bush is a dangerous man for his country and its country became dangerous for the whole of the world" , estimated the deputy Vert Noël Mamère. "the mode of Bush is an authoritative mode which exploits (...) the fear of the war and terrorism ". Yves Contassot, spokesman national of the movement ecologist, had spoken before about "black Tuesday" and a "day of mourning for the democracy, peace and the environment ".

Deputy UMP Herve Mariton, in favour of the intervention in Iraq, estimated that the re-election of the outgoing president was "a good news, not only for the United States but for France and the world ", while wishing that the Bush administration have "in heart to correct" a "certain number of faults and made errors these last years" .

"Obviously I delighted by this result" , his/her liberal colleague Alain Madelin increased. "Vis-a-vis the hyperterrorism and with the threat of Islamic Fascism, one needs the engagement of the American power (...). I that the world has need of a gendarme and fear of the gendarme" it added.

Bush victory not good enough...

2004-11-02T23:10:00.000-08:00

Boy that didn't take long.

...international monitors at a polling station in southern Florida said Tuesday that voting procedures being used in the extremely close contest fell short in many ways of the best global practices.

The observers said they had less access to polls than in Kazakhstan, that the electronic voting had fewer fail-safes than in Venezuela, that the ballots were not so simple as in the Republic of Georgia and that no other country had such a complex national election system.

"To be honest, monitoring elections in Serbia a few months ago was much simpler," said Konrad Olszewski, an election observer stationed in Miami by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

"They have one national election law and use the paper ballots I really prefer over any other system," Olszewski said. iht, (via drudge)