31 May 2004

Headline fun

[source]

Aristide accorded state-of-head welcome in S. Africa

Was this some kind of UN sponsored activity?

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30 May 2004

EU-files: No more giving the dog a bone

[source, source]

Butchers are being threatened with fines if they give bones away to dog owners.

They are being sent letters telling them that a new European directive bans the traditional practice.

[…]

The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs today confirmed the Brussels ban.

It said the bones are now considered “waste” which must be properly disposed of.

A spokesman said: “Customers can take bones away with them when they buy the deboned meat if it is for human consumption.

It’s OK to feed them to people but not to dogs?

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We make the messes, you pay to clean them up

[source, source]

That many Britons could do with losing weight is obvious to anyone who spends five minutes on a High Street. Nevertheless, it is wrong for the Government to target food manufacturers. If our food is high in sugar and saturated fat, it is only because the food industry is doing what the Government - with our money - pays it to do. Under the Common Agricultural Policy, farmers are paid generous subsidies to produce milk, butter and sugar beet. Fruit and vegetable farmers, by contrast, receive nothing. The British taxpayer is paying twice over: once to grow fattening food and again to be told not to eat it.

That’s what government does - create problems that require more government to “solve”.

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28 May 2004

Guerilla advertising

Junkyard Blog has a great political web advertisement that’s worth checking out. It’s a Gore vs. Gore vs. Reality slug fest.

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Of course it's asymmetric - we're better!

[source]

As a Hollywood conservative, Chetwynd has long had a touchy relationship with the press. During a news conference last year for his previous docudrama — Showtime’s DC 9/11, about how the White House handled that terrible day — the murmurs of disapproval I’d been hearing from colleagues about Chetwynd’s pro-Bush sympathies came to a head during one remarkable exchange:

Question: “You did contribute to [Bush’s] campaign?”

Chetwynd: “Yeah, the limit was $1,000… Would it make a better film if I’d given $1,000 to Gore?”

Question: “Yes.”

Chetwynd: “Why?”

Question: “Because it would show less potential bias.”

My fellow hack was absolutely serious; if you’d donated money to Bush, you are therefore biased toward Bush, but if you’d donated money to Gore you are not therefore biased against Bush. Supporting Gore was just the normal default position, as everyone knows. Chaw!

The rules are just different for the other side.

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27 May 2004

Supporting our troops in Olympia

[source, source]

The [Olympia, Washington] City Council on Tuesday voted 4-3 — with Mayor Mark Foutch and members Jeanette Hawkins and Doug Mah dissenting — to draft a resolution opposing the arrival of the USS Olympia and send the message that the vessel is not welcome here. A public hearing to consider the item is set for May 25.

The USS Olympia decided to cancel the visit.

Essentially, the activists robbed the sailors on board the USS Olympia of a chance for shore leave in their namesake city, which they had visited more than once before, with no problems.

Since John Kerry served four months in Vietnam, the “mainstream” media consider illegitimate to say that anyone on the left is unpatriotic or does not support the troops. But some on the left (and a few on the right) are unpatriotic. This action is one example, and I expect to see many others.

Whatever one may think of our foreign policy, there is no reason, in my opinion, not to support the enlisted men and women, who do not make that policy.

Jim Miller

The lefties didn’t mean that they’d support troops who were so gauche as to have weapons.

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Russian to the rescue

[source]

After the malfunctions of two of the three U.S. spacesuits aboard the international space station, a critical spacewalk to repair a broken stabilization system must now be made next month using Russian spacesuits. But the Russian willingness to step in and bail out NASA’s spacewalk comes at a price, outlined in documents obtained by MSNBC.com. “We agree to perform an EVA [extravehicular activity] provided that we receive the appropriate compensation from NASA,” Valeri Ryumin, the Russian head of the space station project, told NASA counterpart William Gerstenmaier in a memo dated Wednesday.

Finally, our nationalized space program is on par with the Russian nationalized space program. Maybe they’ll hold on long enough to be rescued by Space Ship One.

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It's for the children

[source, source]

Atlanta Public Schools misspent or mismanaged nearly $73 million from a national program intended to give poor children access to the Internet, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation has found.

[…]

Now, Atlanta says it needs $14 million a year — three times the district’s textbook budget — just to run and maintain the network. And much of the promised benefit to students has yet to materialize.

[…]

At one elementary school, equipment powerful enough to operate a small school district runs just 20 computers. At another, Atlanta billed the program for electronics for twice as many classrooms as the school has. Millions of dollars were spent at other schools that were closed or demolished within a few years. Elsewhere, boxes of costly computer components, some still wrapped in plastic, gather dust in storage.

At three Atlanta elementary schools, the cost of bringing high-speed Internet access to classrooms reached about $1 million. Suburban Forsyth County, by contrast, paid about $200,000 for the same result at much larger schools.

[…]

The national program that financed Atlanta’s extravagance, called E-rate, won’t pay for computers but helps schools pay for Internet infrastructure they might not otherwise be able to afford. Now, amid charges of waste and fraud around the country, the program faces mounting scrutiny in Washington.

Americans everywhere have picked up the tab for E-rate through a surcharge on their telephone bills.

What, doesn’t the very act of spending money on that equipment improve students?

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26 May 2004

Redirect for effect

[source]

Dr Muzammil Siddiqi, director of the Islamic Society of North America, says “homosexuality is a moral disease, a sin, a corruption… No person is born homosexual, just as nobody is born a thief, a liar or a murderer. People acquire these evil habits due to a lack of proper guidance and education.” Sheikh Sharkhawy, a cleric at the prestigious London Central Mosque in Regent’s Park, compares homosexuality to a “cancer tumour.” He argues “we must burn all gays to prevent paedophilia and the spread of AIDS,” and says gay people “have no hope of a spiritual life.” The Muslim Educational Trust hands out educational material to Muslim teachers – intended for children! – advocating the death penalty for gay people, and advising Muslim pupils to stay away from gay classmates and teachers.

What staggers me is how silent the gay establishment is about these obscenities. If a religious right figure had said them, there would be hell to pay. But the multi-culti left still has a stranglehold on official gay discourse and won’t condemn Islamist bigotry. Why not? These mullahs are fanning the flames of anti-gay violence with literally incendiary rhetoric. Burn gays? Yep, that’s what the cleric said.

Perhaps what the Christians fumilators should do is start quoting these guys - “in speaking on homosexuality, I will be quoting from the noted Islamic scholar Dr Muzammil Siddiqi …”.

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I've got a cunning plan...

[source]

I was initially skeptical of the delayed-acceptance idea myself, thinking it too clever by half. But that was before I realized its diabolical tactical brilliance. You see, Kerry’s handlers have clearly been busy analyzing reams of scientific opinion research—and they’ve reached the same conclusion that pollster Scott Rasmussen reached a couple of weeks ago:

Senator Kerry loses a few points every time the spotlight focuses on him. Kerry’s numbers bounce back when the focus returns to the President.

A couple of weeks ago? I had that a couple of months ago.

Indeed, Kerry has been virtually invisible on the national radar screen lately—and he’s been slowly climbing in the polls.

But the Kerry camp faced what might seem to be an insurmountable challenge: the July Democratic convention in Boston, when the nation’s press surely plans to focus on the Democratic nominee, beaming his every word into the nation’s living rooms, allowing voters to get to know him and take the measure of his character and personality. Kerry’s highly-paid strategists instantly recognized that this would be a disaster for their client. So they have crafted a cunning plan designed to get the TV networks to avoid covering the convention entirely, while the reporters who might otherwise be exposing Kerry to the world are convinced to stay at home. (Give up ‘tons of free publicity’? Nothing’s more threatening to Kerry than tons of free publicity.)

But there’s more to the complex plan than just keeping Kerry off the air. By delaying acceptance of the nomination, Kerry can encourage speculation that he might just turn it down! Why, he may not be the nominee at all! This will result in wild journalistic scenarios about possible “Torricelli options,” distracting public attention from Kerry’s spirit-sapping persona much as chaff dropped from an airplane causes anti-aircraft missiles to veer off-target. Kerry’s vice-presidential pick, in particular, will get star treatment from the press—another plus, since he or she will almost certainly be more appealing than Kerry himself. Perhaps Kerry’s lawyers can even figure out a way for his vice-presidential choice to formally accept the #2 slot while Kerry delays—making the vice presidential candidate, in effect, the top standard-bearer and spokesman of the Democrats for a few precious weeks.

The “non-acceptance” gambit is not about campaign money. That’s just the cover story! (As if money spent in August made that much difference—a point Simon makes rather forcefully.) Nor is Kerry’s seemingly suicidal plan to draw attention to himself by giving a series of high-profile national security speeches over the next 11 days anything but another clever feint. The proof: Just see if he actually says anything memorable! According to ABC’s The Note, Kerry plans “town-hall meetings and discussions with military families, veterans, and fire and police personnel.” Heh, heh. No network news producer is going to bump Iraq off the air for those proven coma-inducers! If it seems like the Kerry planners are trying to put Mark Halperin to sleep, maybe that’s because they are.

A convention without an acceptance speech. “Who would tune in to watch such a thing?” Exactly! The Democratic wizards have tipped their hand. Their secret is out.Their game plan has been revealed to the world! It’s to keep the American public from realizing until the last possible moment the grim reality that Kerry really is the Democratic alternative.

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Semi-polite thieves

[source, source]

A Royal Mail worker left an abusive message on a thank-you card sent to an elderly couple after opening it and finding that it did not contain money.

William and Grace Kill, of Bicester, Oxon, found the message stuck inside a card thanking them for giving a talk to a group of church goers.

The note said: “Dear customer, We had to open this letter to check for money or credit cards, there were none, so you can have the f***** back!!!

“Next time, make sure there is some money!! Love, Royal Mail.”

It’s better grammar and spelling than I’d expect.

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What was that name again?

[source]

The “wedding singer” killed in the attack on a “wedding party” in the middle of the Iraqi desert apparently had two completely different names.

From the New York Times:

Among the dead, by several accounts, was Nazar al-Khalid, a well-known Iraqi wedding singer who often traveled to Syria.

From the Washington Post:

Among the dead was Hussein Ali, a popular wedding singer.

(Hat tip: M. Simon, via Stockholm Spectator.)

Yet another example of just how clumsy at propagandathese people are.

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Mossad plot revealed!

[source, source]

An official IDF source confirmed Amir Orens’ 21 May story this afternoon to IMRA that two Palestinian children who died in the Rafah procession incident were murdered by Palestinian gunmen and that the IDF photographed the shooting.

The official IDF source explained that the pictures have not been released to the media because information derived from the photographs would compromise security in the field at this time.

The following is a repeat of the excerpts from Oren’s original article:

Inside Track / Rafah is a nightmare.

By Amir Oren Haaretz 21 May 2004

… When the procession with armed men in its midst set out in the direction of the forces, (the commander of the Gaza Division, Brigadier General Shmuel) Zakaii tried to speak with the community leaders in Rafah. The head of the Liaison and Coordination Administration, Colonel Poli Mordecai, phoned Nasser Saraj, the head of the Civil Committee in the city. Had the Liaison and Coordination Administration sufficed, they would not have needed the tank commander. Saraj, a respected individual, formerly the director-general of the Ministry of Trade and Industry in the Palestinian Authority, listened to Colonel Mordecai’s pleas, but took no steps to prevent the disaster.

When men obeyed the calls over the loudspeakers to turn themselves in to the IDF authorities (and to the intelligence people who wanted to question them), they were confronted by members of the terror organizations, who opened fire on them and killed two children. A senior officer in Gaza reported yesterday that the IDF have in their possession pictures of this incident, of Palestinians killing their children. He expressed amazement as to why the army has refrained from publishing them.

Well, obviously because the shooters were really Mossad agents! As everyone knows, Hamas and the PA are Israeli front organizations who are creating this war to kill off the Palestinians. Arafat has been siphoning off PA funds not for personal benefit but to keep the movement on the edge of starvation. The ZOG controlled news media provide this biased fodder in order to keep the war going.

Not.

Posted by orbital at 8:02 AM | View 0 TrackBacks | Trackback URL

It's facts that are dirty, not bias

[source, source]

In an attempt to get the foreign media to report what is actually happening on the ground in Gaza, the IDF’s spokesman’s unit pleaded with foreign news agencies to join IDF forces in their operations and see for themselves. By mid-week, the IDF had to admit that the attempt was an abject failure. Almost no one took them up on the offer. The foreign media is not interested in showing the truth.

Well, what’s the point of writing non-anti-Israel stories since they won’t get published?

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25 May 2004

UN-criminal

[source, source]

Teenage rape victims fleeing war in the Democratic Republic of Congo are being sexually exploited by the United Nations peace-keeping troops sent to the stop their suffering.

The Independent has found that mothers as young as 13 - the victims of multiple rape by militiamen - can only secure enough food to survive in the sprawling refugee camp by routinely sleeping with UN peace-keepers.

Testimony from girls and aid workers in the Internally Displaced People (IDP) camp in Bunia, in the north-east corner of Congo, claims that every night teenage girls crawl through a wire fence to an adjoining UN compound to sell their bodies to Moroccan and Uruguayan soldiers.

[…]

Dominique McAdams, the head of the UN in Bunia, said she believed that there was sexual violence in the camp, but said she had yet to see any evidence.

Because, you know, even if that kind of thing is going on there’s no point in doing something about it until McAdams has personally seen the evidence. Maybe she should tag along with The Independent reporters?

P.S. Does anyone know of a UN deployment in the last, say, twenty years that didn’t end up involving systematic sex crimes?

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Panty-wasted protestors

[source, source, source]

“There is something so liberating and exciting about it, you’ve got to try it out,” she [a 33 year old history professor] said recently as she fidgeted, fully clothed, on the couch in her friend Tasha’s Manhattan apartment. “I was teaching a class on imperialism, ” she continued, “and I was delivering all this material that was kind of new and upsetting, and everyone was getting all worked up and upset, and I was getting all worked up and upset, and all of a sudden, all I wanted to do was flash my underwear! It was crazy,” she said with a throaty giggle.

There’s the kind of relentless logic that’s made the anti-war protestors the intellectual force they are today.

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24 May 2004

I say we nuke the place

[source, source]

Global warming is now advancing so swiftly that only a massive expansion of nuclear power as the world’s main energy source can prevent it overwhelming civilisation, the scientist and celebrated Green guru, James Lovelock, says.

His call will cause huge disquiet for the environmental movement. It has long considered the 84-year-old radical thinker among its greatest heroes, and sees climate change as the most important issue facing the world, but it has always regarded opposition to nuclear power as an article of faith. Last night the leaders of both Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth rejected his call.

Note carefully that the opposition to nuclear power is an article of faith. It’s rare to see that kind of admission in Big Media.

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Well, according to the press release it didn't happen

[source]

NY Times reporter James Bennet makes his living presenting Israeli vs. Palestinian claims on the truth. Now everyone will have to weigh Bennet’s vs. the Palestinians’ account of what happened to him outside a Gaza hospital on Thursday:

Palestinian Authority officials and journalists denied over the weekend that Palestinians in Rafah had tried to kidnap New York Times correspondent James Bennet.

Bennet said he was talking on a cell phone at about 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday night when a stranger approached him, smiled, offered a handshake and said, “Welcome.” The stranger then grabbed Bennet’s hand, while another man tried to force him into a Mercedes Benz that appeared at the curb. The men did not appear to be armed, he said.

Bennet said he tried to fight off the assailants and screamed for help. PA policemen stationed at the hospital arrived almost immediately and attempted to pull him away from the abductors. “It turned into a big scrum,” he said. The assailants got into the car and fled. Bennet said his shirt was ripped, but that he was not hurt…

Zakariya Talmas, a senior member of the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate in the Gaza Strip, described Bennet’s claim as “baseless.” He said that the syndicate looked into the case and discovered that there had been no attempt to kidnap the journalist. The gunmen only wanted to check his identity, Talmas added.

As you always insisted, Mr. Bennet, there are two sides to every story. ‘One man’s kidnapper is another man’s ID-checker’?

This episode should serve as an object lesson to foreign correspondents, who routinely quote dubious Palestinian sources to ‘balance out’ their reports. It will be interesting to see if Mr. Bennet, in future stories, grants legitimacy to the very PA figures who are now telling him his own harrowing ordeal was ‘baseless.’

Frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised if Bennet accepts the PA version of the story, granting legitimacy to these PA spokemen over his own reporting and personal experience.

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It wouldn't be fair if we helped

[source]

The WaPo provides an update to the Valerie Plame Wilson investigation. Here is a link to the TIME story in question.

Intruiging excerpt:

The request to interview reporters may suggest that the probe is nearing a conclusion, because Justice Department guidelines require that prosecutors exhaust all other avenues before calling reporters before a grand jury. Attorneys for several grand jury witnesses and news organizations said it is not clear whether Fitzgerald is moving toward seeking indictments in the case or whether he is preparing to complete it without bringing criminal charges.

And apparently news organizations are fighting the subpoenas - this ghastly national security breach must be investigated, but not with their help. The schizophrenic quality of this scandal - the Administration must determine the identity of a leaker already known to the Big Media - has long been part of its charm. Maybe a network can bring back “I’ve Got A Secret”.

What more evidence is needed that this is a “gotcha” exercise, not actual indignation?

Posted by orbital at 8:08 AM | View 0 TrackBacks | Trackback URL

23 May 2004

Patience and persistence (and a big stick) pay off

[source, source]

American commanders said early Sunday that insurgents loyal to a rebel cleric appeared to have given up control of central Karbala, where they had been shielding themselves at two shrines. According to the commanders, there were several strong signs that the armed supporters of Moktada al-Sadr, the maverick Shiite cleric, have abandoned the area and ceded authority to the Americans and their allies after nearly three weeks of urban combat.

A large overnight raid met no resistance coming from a group of buildings where insurgents had been firing at American tanks with rocket-propelled grenades. Civilians were seen returning to homes in central Karbala that they had abandoned during fierce fighting. And in the afternoon on Saturday, tribal sheiks approached American commanders offering to persuade the militia, the Mahdi Army, to lay down its arms and leave the city.

“It looks like they just packed up and went home,” Col. Peter Mansoor, commander of the First Brigade of the First Armored Division, said in an operations tent on the city outskirts where he monitored field reports. Referring to Mr. Sadr, Colonel Mansoor said, “I think his days are numbered.”

Maybe the Marine knew what they were doing all along. This kind of slow motion collapse will be more discrediting than a battlefield defeat and much less likely to generate a matyr. It seems that Iraqis are smart enough to figure out that claims of victory don’t mean much when the enemy is intact and steadily advancing while killing the “victors” in job lot quantities.

Posted by orbital at 6:03 PM | View 0 TrackBacks | Trackback URL

21 May 2004

Does this mean I'm a geek now?

[source, source]

In a speech to an audience of chief executives, Mr Gates said the regularly updated journals, or blogs, could be a good way for firms to tell customers, staff and partners what they are doing. […]

Mr Gates made a point of dwelling on blogs and said that although they started in the technical community and have come to be a broader social phenomenon, businesses can use them too.

Bummer. Now people will think that having a weblog is geeky.

Posted by orbital at 8:37 PM | View 0 TrackBacks | Trackback URL

Finally, a design for a real war game

[source, source]

I want a War Sim

  1. where I spend two hours pushing across a map to destroy a “nuclear missile silo,” only to find out after the fact that it was just a missile-themed orphanage. I want little celebrities to show up on the scene and do interviews over video of charred teddy bears, decrying my unilateral attack. I want congressional hearings demanding answers to these atrocities.
  2. On the very next level I want to lose half of my units because another “orphanage” turned out to be a NOD ambush site. I want another round of hearings asking why I didn’t level that orphanage as soon as I saw it, including tearful testimony from a slain soldier’s daughter who is now, ironically, an orphan.

A very thorough design.

Posted by orbital at 8:34 PM | View 0 TrackBacks | Trackback URL

Graphic is in the eye of the journalist

[source, source]

Abortion protesters have commonly publicized photographs of aborted fetuses, and one famous short film (The Silent Scream) even shows ultrasound images of an actual abortion. Yet these tactics typically result in criticism aimed not at the abortion providers, but at the protesters themselves.

Typically, these protesters are accused of sensationalism and exploitation. And it’s not always just criticism: Two political candidates were even arrested in Britain last year simply for peacefully displaying a picture of an aborted fetus.

In a sense, this is understandable. Pictures of abortion are gory and upsetting. No one finds them pleasant. As a result, the reality shown in the pictures is ignored, while displaying the pictures is treated as an offense against good taste.

But how does this square with the reaction to the pictures of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib? Recall that a few American soldiers forced prisoners to pose for sexually explicit pictures, images that were graphic and distressing.

Yet, disturbing as the photos were, opponents were adamant that they should be made public. Democratic Sen. Carl Levin said the photos “absolutely” should be released, and that “any effort to hide this kind of material will not work.”

What’s sad is that these people aren’t even embarrased by these flagrant lack of principles.

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As long as I'm hurting myself, I'll get you too

[source]

The Israeli Court found the leader of the most recent Palestinian intifada, Marwan Barghouti, guilty of the murder of five Israelis.

[…]

Following the conviction, Barghouti issued a statement. He said that the Palestinians would keep fighting as long as Israel maintains its occupation of Palestine. “As long as Palestinian mothers cry,” declared Barghouti, “so too will Israeli mothers cry.”

Since Palestinian mothers are crying over their children killed as suicide bombers, this translates to “As long as we kill Palestinians, we’ll kill Israelis as well”. Seems like there’s a simple escape from that cycle…

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20 May 2004

A matter of perspective

[source, source]

The New York Times is joining the liberal media cabal in doing its level best to downplay the discovery of that artillery shell loaded with sarin gas near the Baghdad airport. The latest? It was only a “very small trace” that was discovered. About one gallon of sarin, in liquid form, is a “very small trace” to the Times. Yesterday on the Neal Boortz Show we learned that there is enough sarin gas in four liters to kill over 60,000 people. That would make just one gallon of this stuff an arsenal. To the Times, though, it was just a small trace.

One wonders if it would still be just traces if it were released in at the New York Times. Some of us still remember the panic in the media over the anthrax attacks.

Posted by orbital at 6:23 PM | View 0 TrackBacks | Trackback URL

There are still some Brits you shouldn't piss off

[source, source, source]

Outnumbered British soldiers killed 35 Iraqi attackers in the Army’s first bayonet charge since the Falklands War 22 years ago.

The fearless Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders stormed rebel positions after being ambushed and pinned down.

Despite being outnumbered five to one, they suffered only three minor wounds in the hand-to-hand fighting near the city of Amara.

The battle erupted after Land Rovers carrying 20 Argylls came under attack on a highway.

After radioing for back-up, they fixed bayonets and charged at 100 rebels using tactics learned in drills.

When the fighting ended bodies lay all over the highway— and more were floating in a nearby river. Nine rebels were captured.

An Army spokesman said: “This was an intense engagement.”

Those guys would be really scary if they were issued some ammunition.

Posted by orbital at 6:18 PM | View 0 TrackBacks | Trackback URL

19 May 2004

French fried

[source, source]

The French government Monday described the 35-hour working week as a financial disaster that was costing the state billions of dollars and promised to reform the system despite fierce union opposition.

The finance minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, said that the 35-hour week had burdened the state with additional social charges and that it had demoralized millions of workers.

I’m stunned that a minister of the French government was willing to get his hands on some facts in public.

Posted by orbital at 12:08 PM | View 1 TrackBacks | Trackback URL

Environmentalist cant, Russian won't

[source]

Russia’s top scientists tell Putin to kill Kyoto, reports Reuters. Note that this is an official report from the Russian Academy of Sciences to the President of the Russian Federation. The reports as yet are slim on the scientific details, but it is clear that the scientists do not believe that the Kyoto Protocol will acheive anything meaningful.

We can assume, therefore, that any talk of there being a scientific consensus that Kyoto is necessary for the planet is mere cant. The representative body of Russian science has rejected this energy suppression plan as a means of mitigating climate change.

Personally, I think we can assume it’s cant if it’s spoken by a self-proclaimed “environmentalist”.

Posted by orbital at 11:24 AM | View 0 TrackBacks | Trackback URL

18 May 2004

Warriors, peace thyselves

[source, source]

[In lectures at Cairo University and the American University in Cairo last week, Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Mohamed] El-Baradei, who since the build-up to the war on Iraq has consistently projected the persona of the impartial technocrat, strongly criticised what he described as the Arab countries’ “emotive and non-realistic approach” to the issue of Israel’s nuclear disarmament.

[…]

He stressed that “Israel sees that it cannot give up its weapons of mass destruction [WMD] in the absence of comprehensive peace, as long as there are countries or individuals that say that it will be ‘thrown into the sea’, and that its existence is not recognised in the region.”

El-Baradei lambasted what he described as the backward “state of development” of the Arab countries, and the prevalent attitudes of constant “self-victimisation” and “always asking the attainment of peace from others instead of working towards achieving it ourselves”. The Arab countries have yet to create a “civilisational project allowing them to attain the necessary balance of interests needed to persuade Israel that it is in its interest to disarm”, El-Baradei said. “We must see how we can convince Israel that it is in its interest to have a Middle East free of WMD. After the events of Libya and Iran, it is time to start this strategic dialogue.”

Oooh, that’s gotta hurt! Note that he didn’t say it in some obscure forum but right in the face of the people he was talking about.

P.S. Yes, I know that El-Baradei has been soft on Iran but this is still a big deal.

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Contradictions of the moderns

[source, source]

Canadian medical clinics are quietly informing American patients they will no longer help them obtain prescription drugs, after stern warnings from a major insurer that doctors who are sued by Americans won’t be covered.

Trade war and empty shelves don’t phase the Canadians, but lawsuits - that’s serious. Here we see another collision of the modern citizen’s world view - free/cheap pharmaceuticals and the ability to sue for massive damages for the slightest imperfection in quality, delivery or use.

Posted by orbital at 8:16 AM | View 0 TrackBacks | Trackback URL

17 May 2004

Watching out for your own interests

[source]

Retired Maj. Gen. Mohammed Abdul-Latif rose to prominence after nearly monthlong battles last month between the Marines monthlong battles in April between the Marines and insurgents hunkered down in Fallujah’s neighborhoods.

“We can make them (Americans) use their rifles against us or we can make them build our country, it’s your choice,” Latif told a gathering of more than 40 sheiks, city council members and imams in an eastern Fallujah suburb.

[…]

The venue offered a rare insight into Latif’s interactions and influence over Fallujah elders. As he spoke, many sheiks nodded in approval and listened with reverence to his words. Later, they clasped his hands and patted Latif on the back.

Latif, speaking in Arabic to the sheiks, defended the Marines and the U.S. occupation of Iraq.

“They were brought here by the acts of one coward who was hunted out of a rathole — Saddam — who disgraced us all,” Latif said. “Let us tell our children that these men (U.S. troops) came here to protect us.

“As President Bush (news - web sites) said, they did not come here to occupy our land but to get rid of Saddam. We can help them leave by helping them do their job, or we can make them stay ten years and more by keeping fighting.”

Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne, the Marine battalion commander, said, “No truer words have been spoken here today than those by General Latif.”

Latif also told the insurgents to “stop doing stupid things.”

“Those bullets that are fired will not get the Americans out, let them finish their job here so that they can return to their country,” Latif said.

“Our country is precious, stop allowing the bad guys to come from outside Iraq to destroy our country.”

This is the right approach. Don’t argue for the world community, or American interests, but for Iraqi interests to the Iraqis.

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Corrupting the culture

Cause

An Egyptian newspaper recently did a public poll to see who are the most popular figures among Egyptian youth. The results of poll showed that Egyptian singer Ruby and soccer player Khaled Beebo are the most popular and most interesting figures.

According to the London based daily, Al Hayat, Ruby is considered to hold more popularity than political and intellectual figures.

Effect

Egyptian singer Ruby is scheduled to stand trial after being accused of practicing the profession of singing without obtaining a permit from the Egyptian Music Syndicate.

Singing without a license! When American culture inspires that kind of degeneracy, no wonder they hate us.

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Powell offers to sell clue to Arab Street

[source]

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell admonished Arab leaders yesterday, saying they should have shown “a higher level of outrage” over the beheading of an American civilian in Iraq after they had expressed furor over the mistreatment of Iraqi detainees at a prison outside Baghdad.

“When you are outraged at what happened at the prison,” Powell said on Fox News Sunday, “you should be equally, doubly outraged” over the execution of Nicholas Berg.

Wow. I didn’t expect that kind of back bone out of Powell.

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Beat them until they're peaceful

[source]

Find what strength you have to terrorize your enemy and the enemy of God. And if they want peace, then let’s have peace.

Yassir Arafat

This seems clear to me - terrorize your enemy until they’re willing to accept peace on any terms. What was that about negotiating in good faith again?

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16 May 2004

Rationalizing resource usage

[source]

The United States plans to withdraw an army brigade based in South Korea and deploy the 4,000 troops in Iraq, the JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reported on Monday.

Washington had recently notified Seoul of the plan, which left open the possibility that the brigade would not return to South Korea after its mission in Iraq, the paper quoted a South Korean government official as saying.

About time. South Korea is easily capable of defending against any conventional attack by the North and in any nuclear attack our troops won’t help anyway. Does anyone seriously believe we wouldn’t defend South Korea even if none of our troops were killed? Oh wait - there’s that South Vietnam in 1975 thing … is that why successive South Korean governments want boots on the ground?

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Economist with a clue

[source, source]

If Daniel Sumner’s actions be treason, as some of his critics contend, then he is glad the most has been made of it.

Sumner, an agricultural economist at the University of California at Davis, played a key role in an international trade case that is shaping up as one of the most significant defeats the United States has ever suffered on the trade front. An analysis that he wrote helped frame a preliminary decision issued two weeks ago by a World Trade Organization panel, which held that the federal subsidies paid to U.S. cotton farmers violate WTO rules because they cause overproduction, drive down world prices and impoverish farmers in developing countries.

What’s clear from the article is that the objection is about Sumner speaking up and not much about his being wrong.

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Single sourcing is always a risk

[source, source]

The U.S.-backed investigation into alleged abuses of the United Nations’ Oil for Food program in Iraq has already collected more than 20,000 files from Saddam Hussein’s old regime and hired an American accounting firm to conduct the review. Documents obtained by The Associated Press show the U.S.-backed, Iraqi-run Board of Supreme Audit selected the Ernst & Young firm this week to oversee the audit of the documents gathered from at least 16 former ministries of Saddam’s government.

The U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority also is trying to head off a separate investigation launched by former Iraqi dissident Ahmad Chalabi, now an influential member of the Iraqi Governing Council, in hopes that a single, independent investigation will have more credibility.

Chalabi took an early lead in exposing alleged abuses by the U.N.-backed program and has been trying to force the coalition government to give him the $5 million in Iraqi funds set aside for the probe to pay for his effort. The move was strongly resisted by L. Paul Bremer III, who runs the governing Coalition Provisional Authority, or CPA.

While it’s good that this is being investigated, I have to agree with some of the commentators about the need to have a single investigation and that might well be an indication of the data getting buried.

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Mocking the mullahs

[source, source]

Flirting with young women and breaking into houses, Reza is not the sort of figure Iran’s clerical regime would like to celebrate. But he’s rapidly turning into a folk hero.

The Lizard is a comic film that tells the story of Reza, a thief who escapes prison by posing as a cleric. Well on the way to becoming the most popular movie in Iranian history, The Lizard is shown at 2am to meet demand, and cinemas are still having to turn away customers.

[…]

“The movie is part of a series of efforts to weaken the Islamic system and the clerical establishment, and the judiciary must confront such measures,” wrote the daily Jomhuri Islami, an ultra-conservative newspaper.

It’s not the mocking as much as the openness of the mocking. That’s never a good sign for an oppressive regime.

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14 May 2004

SpaceShip One Rock(et)s

[source, source]

Scaled Composites of Mojave, Calif., is the builder of SpaceShipOne, an effort led by aviation innovator Burt Rutan. The financial backer of the project is Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. (MSNBC is a Microsoft-NBC joint venture.)

In a post-flight statement from the company, the SpaceShipOne team reported that their space plane flew to 212,000 feet altitude, almost 41 miles.

The official report:

Launch conditions were 46,000 feet and 120 knots. Motor light off occurred 10 seconds after release and the vehicle boosted smoothly to 150,000 feet and Mach 2.5. Subsequent coast to apogee of 211,400 feet. During a portion of the boost, the flight director display was inoperative, however the pilot continued the planned trajectory referencing the external horizon. Reaction control authority was as predicted and the vehicle recovered in feather experiencing 1.9M and 3.5G?s. Feather oscillations were actively damped by the pilot and the wing was de-feathered starting at 55,000 feet. The onboard avionics was re-booted and a smooth and uneventful landing made to Mojave.

Mach 2.5! Yow.

Does anyone think NASA could form a comittee to study this for less than Rutan’s spent to build & fly it?

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Oh, Canada!

[source]

Canada is officially beyond parody. The latest development in Flagscam is that those Sheila Copps Maple Leafs – the flags needed to keep Quebec in Confederation, the flags only a $6 million Government program could organize, the flags whose $6 million Government program ballooned to $45 million, the flags whose free distribution wiped out the profits of Canadian flag retailers, the flags that no-one in Canada could make fast enough and so wound up being secretly imported from overseas, the flags for which millions of dollars were paid to well-connected Liberal Party middle-men for doing nothing, the flags for which the luckier Grit cronies got paid twice over for doing nothing – it turns out these flags don’t even fly.

On the CBC the other night, Doreen Braverman, who runs Canada’s biggest flag retailer, held up one of the Sheila Maple Leafs. No eyelets, no sleeve, no halyard line for your rope and toggle, no nothing. The Canadian taxpayers paid $45 per “flag” for a “flag” that can’t be flown.

Well, the military forces can’t fly either so what’s the problem?

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I didn't think you'd MRInd!

A Saskatchewan native band, the Muskeg Lake Cree Nation, has recruited European investors to open a private, for-profit MRI clinic on their land. And the Toronto Star, not known for its opposition to aboriginal self-government, is demanding that Ottawa step in and put dem Injuns in their place:

The Saskatchewan government objects because it sees this scheme for what it is: An attempt to breach the Canada Health Act by introducing two-tier medicine in the province.

But the province fears it is powerless to stop it. First Nations, such as the Muskeg Lake Cree, are exempt from provincial rules. Aboriginal-run medical facilities do not have to live by the health act, which forbids queue-jumping for those who can afford to pay for medical service.

So, it’s over to Ottawa. Health Minister Pierre Pettigrew and the rest of the federal cabinet should put a stop to this immediately.

The Saskatchewan proposal is viewed as a test case for bands across the country. Already, in Alberta, the Siksika First Nation is prepared to start its own health-care clinic that may also offer for-profit services.

In recent years, Ottawa has moved toward granting native bands the right to self-government, including control of their health-care systems.

But surely the intent was to give bands the ability to tailor programs for their members, not to undermine the health system for others.

When the courts have exempted aboriginals from certain hunting and fishing regulations, as we’ve seen in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and British Columbia, I don’t remember the Toronto Star getting too upset about it. I must say, I’m shocked by how shallow their enthusiasm for aboriginal self-government has turned out to be.

I gotta admit, I kind of hope we see a major court battle over this, complete with native activists accusing the Star’s editorial board of “patriarchy” and “racism”. I wonder if Joseph Atkinson foresaw anything like this?

See, this is what’s wrong with letting people decide things for themselves. Soon enough they start deciding on issues that are too important to leave to the grubby demos.

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People on the NY Times street

[source]

Another reason I hate stories with ‘real people’ in them: An Editor’s Note reveals the dirty little secret about where the New York Times finds those ordinary citizens sprinkled throughout public policy pieces to complain in homespun fashion about the dire effect of this budget cut or that government initiative: they are handed to the Times on a platter by (liberal) advocacy groups. Gee, no wonder they act like trained seals! … And of course Times reporters would never feel they owe anything to the groups for doing their legwork for them. (But accept a theater ticket from a similar group and you get fired.)

[…]

Here’s a productivity-sapping measure: How about a newsroom rule that Times reporters have to actually go out and find their own men-on-the-street?

Mix with the hoi polloi? That’s asking a bit much of the Times staff.

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It looks good on us

[source, source]

The other day, while taking a break by the Al-Hamra Hotel pool, fringed with the usual cast of tattooed defence contractors, I was accosted by an American magazine journalist of serious accomplishment and impeccable liberal credentials.

She had been disturbed by my argument that Iraqis were better off than they had been under Saddam and I was now — there was no choice about this — going to have to justify my bizarre and dangerous views. I’ll spare you most of the details because you know the script — no WMD, no ‘imminent threat’ (though the point was to deal with Saddam before such a threat could emerge), a diversion from the hunt for bin Laden, enraging the Arab world. Etcetera.

But then she came to the point. Not only had she ‘known’ the Iraq war would fail but she considered it essential that it did so because this would ensure that the ‘evil’ George W. Bush would no longer be running her country. Her editors back on the East Coast were giggling, she said, over what a disaster Iraq had turned out to be. ‘Lots of us talk about how awful it would be if this worked out.’ Startled by her candour, I asked whether thousands more dead Iraqis would be a good thing.

She nodded and mumbled something about Bush needing to go. By this logic, I ventured, another September 11 on, say, September 11 would be perfect for pushing up John Kerry’s poll numbers. ‘Well, that’s different — that would be Americans,’ she said, haltingly. ‘I guess I’m a bit of an isolationist.’ That’s one way of putting it.

How are these giggling editors really different from the abusive prison guards at Abu Ghraib, laughing at the hurting Iraqis?

Posted by orbital at 7:47 AM | View 0 TrackBacks | Trackback URL

13 May 2004

Have you at long last no shame, sir?

[source, source]

“On March 19, 2004, President Bush asked, ‘Who would prefer that Saddam’s torture chambers still be open?’” said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. “Shamefully, we now learn that Saddam’s torture chambers reopened under new management: U.S. management.”

Isn’t that a bit simplismé? Where’s the nuance?

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It's not porn if it's anti-American

[source, source]

Boston residents got more than they bargained for this morning when their copy of the Globe came complete with graphic photos depicting U.S. troops gang-raping Iraqi women.

Problem is the photos are fake. They were taken from pornographic websites and disseminated by anti-American propagandists, as first reported by WND a week ago.

There goes the argument that Big Media is holding back images because they’re too graphic.

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12 May 2004

Have you seen these headlines?

[source, source]

The IraqNow News Service is issuing an Amber Alert for the following headlines reported missing from today’s media outlets:
  1. General Taguba: No Evidence Abusive Techniques Were Part of Policy.
  2. Red Cross Says US Officials Were Making Progress on Prison Concerns.

If you have any information as to the whereabouts of these headlines, please contact the ombudsmen of the media outlets who are missing them.

Do not attempt to apprehend the copy editors yourself, as they are highly volatile, and subject to wild hormonal swings when “in heat” over a story.

They’re probably just semantic wreckage on the mental roadblocks of Big Media.

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Writing the fifth column

[source]

Note that I’m not necessarily complaining that they’re not showing the video [of Nicholas Berg’s decapitation]. But some of those same media outlets should be asking themselves to what degree showing all of the Abu Ghraib photos may have resulted in this, and why they considered that necessary. After all, couldn’t the viewers have understood what went on in the prison without the graphic images?

Given that Big Media will show anything that’s the result of American actions but not things which reflect badly on America’s enemies, how are they funtionally different from a foreign propaganda organization?

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Meanwhile, over at the State Department...

[source, source]

To achieve its vital war aims, in other words, America must abandon its dream of victory and accept the appearance of defeat. What does this mean in practice? Quite simply, the United States must take a cold, analytical look at the forces arrayed against us in Iraq and decide which leader should be allowed the glorious destiny of redeeming his country from foreign occupation. Once the United States has fixed on a credible resistance leader, our goal should be to cede him tactical, positional victories while denying them to his competitors. The U.S. military might be able to find and disable any resistance large enough to be a military threat, but this leader’s movement we should allow to grow. We should open a communications channel, and enforce a set of rules to limit the battlefield and minimize casualties.

This is the kind of idea so stupid that only a 20-year veteran of the U.S. Foreign Service could believe it.

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11 May 2004

It's not like there's fighting going on

Junkyard Blog points out one of the secondary effects of the call for Donald Rumsfeld to resign - the Senate would have to confirm a new Secretary of Defense. Does anyone believe that wouldn’t turn in to a months long circus? Yet I suspect that those calling for the resignation will consider such a turn of events the fault of the Bush administration for nominating a “radical”.

Posted by orbital at 3:15 PM | View 0 TrackBacks | Trackback URL

10 May 2004

Kerry - on the edge of a constructed reality

[source]

One of the first things Kerry did at the meeting was to blame his aides for the mention of Carter and Baker as possible envoys in his December speech—a claim that several participants double-checked as soon as they walked out the door. The names, Kerry said, had been inserted by mistake, and he had even asked that they be removed. The problem is, in the speech itself, Kerry said, “There are a number of uniquely qualified Americans among whom I would consider appointing, including President Carter. . . . And, I might add, I have had conversations with both President Clinton and President Carter about their willingness to do this.” Kerry spokesperson Stephanie Cutter even confirmed to The Boston Globe in December that he had spoken with Carter. Today, the campaign offers this explanation: The candidate eventually did speak with Carter—but only after noticing that a draft of his speech said that he spoke with Carter.

Now there is logo-realism in all its glory. Senator Kerry lives in a such a verbally constructed reality that not only does he do things because he reads about them in his speeches but sees nothing wrong with stating this in public. Even worse might be the admission that someone who aspires to be the chief executive office of the most powerful nation in history has a bozo filter so weak it lets the lunatic fringe idea of asking Jimmy “What dictator butt can I kiss next?” Carter about diplomacy.

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05 May 2004

Satellite servicing

I’ll be in orbit, working on the satellites, until Wednesday or so. I may be in sporadic contact before then. In the mean time, keep visiting this page to keep my traffic numbers up. Thanks!

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Let's try just a bit harder

[source]

INTERESTING STORY ON WOMEN’S HEALTHCARE IN AFGHANISTAN, in this Dept. of Veterans’ Affairs employee magazine. (It’s a PDF, so scroll to page 8). My question: Why is this story buried in this relatively obscure magazine? It seems like it would be worthy of more attention. I guess it’s another example of the Administration’s PR program dropping the ball. Or maybe the mainstream press wasn’t interested.

The story is of American doctors who, by instituting some basic rules, dramatically reduced the infection and maternal mortality rates at a hospital in Afghanistan. One is left to ask of the Bush Administration, who did they hire for communications, the Isreali’s PR team? On the other hand, it might well be that President Bush and most of his top officials could talk about this non-stop 24×7 and it still wouldn’t be reported. On the other hand, Bush should have a set of these at the ready to fire back at hostile questioners.

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Agenda Press

Spot On! [via Instapundit] points out that while Big Media isn’t covering the anti-Sadr protests in Najaf, the Associated Press is willing to cover a single anti-President Bush protestor. Could the AP have a bit of an agenda?

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It's not about America's interests, but Iraqis'

[source, source]

Representatives of Iraq’s most influential Shiite leaders met here on Tuesday and demanded that Moktada al-Sadr, a rebel Shiite cleric, withdraw militia units from the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala, stop turning the mosques there into weapons arsenals and return power to Iraqi police and civil defense units that operate under American control.

The Shiite leaders also called, in speeches and in interviews after the meeting, for a rapid return to the American-led negotiations on Iraq’s political future. The negotiations have been sidelined for weeks by the upsurge in violence associated with Mr. Sadr’s uprising across central and southern Iraq and the simultaneous fighting in Falluja, the Sunni Muslim city west of Baghdad.

On Tuesday, the Shiite leaders, including a representative of a Shiite clerical group that has close ties to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, effectively did what the Americans have urged them to do since Mr. Sadr, a 31-year-old firebrand, began his attacks in April: they tied Iraq’s future, and that of Shiites in particular, to a renunciation of violence and a return to negotiations.

Unlike our own dead-enders, the Shia leaders have figured out that the end point of any negotiations with the USA will be an independent Iraq with most of the power in the hands of Iraqi Shia. The results of either of the insurgents succeeding will be either a new blood-Ba’ath or Iranian control of Iraq.

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Cuba Libre

[source, source]

Mexico’s ambassador to Cuba returned home Monday amid a diplomatic rift with Havana that widened significantly, with Peru announcing that it too would recall its ambassador on the island. […]

The moves followed weekend criticism of Mexico and Peru by President Fidel Castro for recently voting in support of a U.S.-backed U.N. condemnation of Cuba’s human rights record.

Maybe Mexico and Peru were afraid that their ambassadors would get beat up for saying things like this:

”A democratic government in Mexico could not continue with the Institutional Revolutionary Party’s complicity with the Cuban dictatorship,” former foreign minister José Castañeda told a Mexico City radio station Monday.

Ooooh, that’s gotta hurt.

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El Salvador kicks butt and takes names

[source, source]

NAJAF, Iraq — One of his friends was dead, 12 others lay wounded and the four soldiers still left standing were surrounded and out of ammunition. So Salvadoran Cpl. Samuel Toloza said a prayer, whipped out his knife and charged the Iraqi gunmen.

In one of the only known instances of hand-to-hand combat in the Iraq conflict, Cpl. Toloza stabbed several attackers swarming around a comrade. The stunned assailants backed away momentarily, just as a relief column came to the unit’s rescue. […]

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said recently that the Central American unit has “gained a fantastic reputation among the coalition” and expressed hope that the Salvadorans will stay beyond their scheduled departure.

Phil Kosnett, who leads the Coalition Provisional Authority office in this holy Shi’ite city, says he owes his life to Salvadorans who repelled a well-executed insurgent attack on his three-car convoy in March. He has nominated six of them for the U.S. Army’s Bronze Star medal.

“You hear this snotty phrase ‘coalition of the billing’ for some of the smaller contingents,” said Mr. Kosnett, referring to the apparent eagerness of some nations to charge their Iraq operations to Washington. “The El Sals? No way. These guys are punching way above their weight. They’re probably the bravest and most professional troops I’ve every worked with.”

[…]

“Our country came out of a similar situation as in Iraq 12 years ago, so people in El Salvador can understand what is happening here,” said Col. Calidonio

Interesting, isn’t it, that people who have a better understanding of what’s at stake are more pro-Coalition than the pampered sods who populate the Western intelligentsia?

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04 May 2004

UN-forthcoming

[source, source]

UNITED NATIONS (CNN) — The United Nations has defended a letter sent by the head of its Iraq oil-for-food program telling a contractor not to release any documents related to the program without first consulting it. The letter, sent April 14 by an aide on behalf of U.N. oil-for-food head Benon Sevan to the manager of the Dutch company Saybolt, asks the company “to maintain the confidentiality of documentation and information relating to its services in connection with the program.” Saybolt was the independent inspection agency hired by the United Nations to monitor the loading of Iraq’s crude oil at the two locations sanctioned by the program.

Note the date - Sevan was alledgedly “on vacation” at that point. UNSCAM also points out that the requesting party is almost certainly the Iraqi Governing Council. It would normally seem to be stupid to piss them off and agitate for control of the country at the same time, but the UN has never been concerned with the opinion of the hoi polloi.

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UN-rightable

[source, source]

Sudan won an uncontested election on Tuesday to the United Nations’ main human rights watchdog, prompting the United States to walk out because of alleged ethnic cleansing in the country’s Darfur region.

Sudan’s delegate immediately shot back that the U.S. delegation was “shedding crocodile tears” and turning a blind eye to atrocities committed by U.S. soldiers in Iraq against civilians as well as against prisoners.

Apparently our delegation wasn’t informed of the rule that human rights can only be infringed by countries that are allies of the USA.

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Wrong friends, wrong enemies

[source, source]

“We have 19 of 23 officers who served with [Kerry]. We have every commanding officer he ever had in Vietnam. They all signed a letter that says he is unfit to be commander-in-chief,” O’Neill said. [emphasis added]

I can’t wait for the backspin on this -

  • “Trust Kerry because he’s a vet, but don’t trust these vets”
  • “The military shouldn’t get involved with politics, except for Kerry”
  • “That was thirty years ago - why bring it up now?”
  • “Kerry admitted to being a war criminal, unlike these guys”
Posted by orbital at 2:14 PM | View 0 TrackBacks | Trackback URL

A hard nation to love

[source]

If you’ve wondered lately what’s wrong with Israel, just look at the recent winner of the prestigious 2004 Israel Prize for sculpture. It was the proverbial “bad boy” of the Israeli art world, Yigal Tumarkin. […] Some of his most famous or should I say infamous pieces, include a pig wearing “Tefilin” (phylacteries worn by Jewish men during prayer) […]

As for the “praying pig,” back in January 1998, Israeli artist Tatiana Susskin received a two-year prison sentence for drawing a picture depicting the founder of Islam, Muhammad, as a pig. The court considered it an act of racial incitement against Islam and the Arabs. But in Israel, putting a pig — the most disgusting animal by Jewish standards — in “Tefilin” — Jewish ritual objects — isn’t incitement, it isn’t criminal, it’s “art,” and worthy of a prize.

The lesson here seems to be, as with Amiri Baraka, that the real problem is government awards for “art”.

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03 May 2004

Welcome to command! What was your name again?

[source, source]

The general selected by the US marines to command a new Iraqi force in Fallujah has been abruptly replaced after he denied that there were foreign fighters in the insurgent city and blamed America for fomenting the bloody rebellion there.

Who vetted this guy, the State Department?

Posted by orbital at 8:14 PM | View 0 TrackBacks | Trackback URL

Appeasement in our time

[source, source]

The Domestic Terrorists broke into an historic building which housed an, as yet, unopened restaurant rumored to be selling foie gras when it opened. They did the usual vandalism spray painting, tearing things up and cement in the drains, which caused flooding throughout the building, damaging unrelated businesses and the building itself. $50,000 right there.

They also took records of employees of the restaurant from the office. Which may not seem like much until you consider their other related action: they broke into the homes of the two owners of the restaurant, vandalizing and tearing up — and left behind a secretly taken video of the men’s children. Terrorists.

They also repeatedly broke into the Gonzalez business,once taking along a LAT reporter, and stealing ducks. The ducks died in their “care.” Pro-animal — can’t even keep a duck alive. Real competent.

The response of the California legislature? A bill was introduced to outlaw foie gras.

Posted by orbital at 7:19 PM | View 0 TrackBacks | Trackback URL

It's the threats, stupid

[source]

Khaled Abu Toameh knows all about “the Israeli occupation.” He was born in the West Bank city of Tulkarem in 1963, when it was still under Jordanian occupation. Four years later, Tulkarem, along with the rest of Judea, Samaria, the Golan Heights and the Sinai peninsula, changed hands. And much later, in 1994, Tulkarem fell under the quasi-jurisdiction of Yasser Arafat through the grace of the Oslo Accords.

[…]

He’s quick to point out, without being asked, that the palestinians did indeed celebrate on 9-11. Why wasn’t that better publicized? Threats. The PA Minister of Information announced without nuance that he “could not be responsible for the safety” of journalists in the territories if the celebrations were broadcast. Why, then, not at least report verbally on them? Abu Toameh says that it’s a pattern. The journalists want to stay in the good graces of their sources, and they don’t want to make waves. Criticism of Arafat’s regime is prohibited absolutely, and no one wants to pay the price. In fact, the first thing Arafat did when he “returned” to the West Bank in 1994 was to clamp down on all free expression — close newspapers, fire reporters who wouldn’t toe the line, take over the media with an iron fist.

This points out the mockery of claiming that Arafat was “elected”. Let’s give President Bush 4 years to shut down newspapers, exile, kill or imprison his opponent and see how well anybody else does in the next election.

It’s also important to remember how the Palestinians reacted to the 11 Sep attacks.

Posted by orbital at 7:16 PM | View 0 TrackBacks | Trackback URL

Respect for the environment by the EUlite

[source, source]

A majestic Irish oak tree has paid the ultimate price for EU enlargement, and for the betterment of TV reception no less.

A pair of the 350-year-old hardwood trees used to stand 200 meters from Farmleigh state guest house in Dublin, where leaders of the now 25-nation European Union feted enlargement with a champagne dinner.

But that was until last week, when one of the oaks was felled so that live TV images from the dinner could be beamed clearly to nearby press centre.

What else could they do with an obviously Euro-sceptic tree?

Posted by orbital at 7:13 PM | View 0 TrackBacks | Trackback URL

Present not accounted for

[source, source]

These are the crucial months in Iraq. The events in Najaf and Falluja will largely determine whether Iraq will move toward normalcy or slide into chaos.

So how is Washington responding during this pivotal time? Well, for about three weeks the political class was obsessed by Richard Clarke and the hearings of the 9/11 commission, and, therefore, events that occurred between 1992 and 2001. […]

And for the past 10 days, all of Washington has been kibitzing over the contents of Bob Woodward’s latest opus, which largely concerns events that happened between 2001 and 2003. […]

What’s going on is obvious. The first duty of proper Washingtonians is to demonstrate that they are smarter than whomever they happen to be talking about. It’s quite easy to fulfill this mission when you are talking about the past. It’s child’s play for a salad-course solon who spent the entire 1990’s ignoring foreign affairs to condemn the administration piously for not focusing like a laser beam on Al Qaeda on Aug. 6, 2001.

[…]

Over the next weeks, U.S. forces are going to jump from the fires of unilateralism to the frying pan of multilateralism. What’s going to happen when our generals want to take on some insurgents but Brahimi and the sovereign Iraqi appointees say no? We here in Washington will have a considered opinion. Our opinion will be that Joseph Wilson really nailed Karl Rove in his forthcoming book.

It’s probably for the best that these people look behind them, considering where their heads are at…

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Judenhass down under

The city of Melbourne, Australia, is now paying for public signs that blame Israel for Jordan and Egypt annexing the West Bank and Gaza strip. If only the Jews had fought harder, they could have put a stop to that! Oh wait, they did, in 1967. Maybe the sign is blaming Israel for waiting so long to correct that injustice?

P.S. I’m also a bit confused about the claim that “100+ WMDs have been manufactured since 1948”. I thought the USA and USSR both had thousands of warheads in their nuclear inventories. Is this yet another rip off, where taxpayers have spent hundreds of billions for a measly 100+ weapons? Can’t you put that many on a single boomer? If so, why do we need 48 of them? I demand an investigation!

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Why do they like me?

[source, source]

Celebrating the 29th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, the North Vietnamese general who led his forces to victory said Friday he was grateful to leaders of the U.S. anti-war movement, one of whom was presidential candidate John Kerry.

“I would like to thank them,” said Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap, now 93, without mentioning Kerry by name.

The saddest part is that these people can openly say this without concern for whether it will prevent similar events in the future.

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Excuse or ignorance?

[source]

It is a bit worrisome when the commander of the 1st Division says

it was “very difficult” to convince [Iraqi] security forces that the insurgents they are fighting are “killing fellow Iraqis and fellow Muslims”

I thought that only Americans were supposed to blindly blame foreigners for their problems.

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02 May 2004

Oh, if only I were hip!

[source, source]

Apparently Micah Wright is a well known artist who makes anti-military posters who has defended himself from criticism by claiming to have been a US Ranger in combat. Turns out he just made it up. Completely. Whole cloth. If only I knew who he was, I’m sure this would be hilarious.

The moral is, kids, being politically correct means never having your credentials checked!

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Is everyone on the take?

[source, source]

In a letter published last week, 52 former British diplomats condemned the invasion of Iraq and the Government’s support for Israel.

The letter failed to disclose, however, that several of the key signatories, including Oliver Miles, the former British ambassador to Libya who instigated the letter, are paid by pro-Arab organisations.

Some of the others hold positions in companies seeking lucrative Middle East contracts, while others have unpaid positions with pro-Arab organisations.

[…] Andrew Dismore, the Labour MP for Hendon, said: “If an MP had made statements like these without declaring an interest in the subject they would have been before the standards and privileges committee [where] we would have had their guts for garters.”

Shouldn’t the anti-Western groups vet their leaders / spokemen just a wee bit better? Imagine the scandal if some corporation did this badly.

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01 May 2004

We don't need no stinking churches

[source, source]

Governor Ahmed Sani of Zamfara State [in Nigeria], has ordered the demolition of all churches in the state, as he launched the second phase of his Sharia project yesterday.

Speaking at the launch in Gusau, the state capital, Governor Sani disclosed that time was ripe for full implementation of the programme as enshrined in the Holy Quran.

He added that his government would soon embark on demolition of all places of worship of unbelievers in the state, in line with Islamic injunction to fight them wherever they are found.

I wonder if this will get as much mention as a single church burning in the West.

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