Buy Danish

(not "danishes", but Danish products)

Michelle Malkin has a nice roundup of the problems created for Denmark by allowing freedom of speech there. At the bottom she has this link which will take you to images of Muhammad throughout history sorted neatly into convenient areas of interest.

Book Illustrations
Medieval Paintings, Miniatures and Illuminations
Dante's Inferno
Modern Iranian Icons
French Book Covers
Various Eras
Contemporary Christian Drawings
Animated TV Parodies
Satirical Modern Cartoons
The Jyllands-Posten Cartoons

The Religious Policeman has a VERY helpful chart to help all of us read what the "Offense Level" is for Muslims. It has been raised to orange. I'm not going to quote him because it's well worth a read yourself! Enjoy but don't take offense!

Technorati tag: buydanish

Speaking of lobbying

These ladies sound like they'd like a little quid pro quo.
from Captain Ed:

A group of rich New Orleans residents, irritated that most of Congress has not yet come to the devastated city to see the destruction for themselves, passed out bonbons and offered all-expenses-paid trips to the Crescent City to get more money for reconstruction:

Howard Dean vs Harry Reid

Howard has been adamant that no Democrat has received lobbying money from Abramoff. I suspect he has a secret plan, based on this.
(rumors from the DNC)

"Basically, we were looking at three- or four-page documents that made Jack Abramoff's lobbying work look like that of a rank amateur," says the DNC source. "Between the minority leader's past in Nevada and here in Washington, and the activities of his sons and son-in-law, there probably isn't anyone in this town with more conflicts. The Reid family is the symbol of what's wrong with Washington; it's their behavior that enabled the culture that spawned people like Abramoff."

Dean then went public over the weekend, saying that Democrats with an Abramoff problem would be in trouble, not only with voters, but with the Democrat Party. But why attack a senior member of his own party?

Lies, damn lies, statistics

I don't doubt for a second that this, from the Washington Post is true. "That study found that supporters of President Bush and other conservatives had stronger self-admitted and implicit biases against blacks than liberals did."

But what does it mean? Think about it - if you're a bigot, or homophobic or even anti-abortion or a born again Christian how welcome would you feel in today's Democratic party? By default you would vote GOP simply because no Democrat would ever let you even speak, let alone attempt ajustments to platforms that agree with you.

Funny, funny, funny

The big google filter doesn't work against bad spellers when there is enough information out there badly spelled! Paul Boutin has the story and pictures.
I tried it myself and sure enough....
Tiananmen vs Tienanmen will give you different image results!
Too tired to try the other two (yahoo, msn). Someone else?

(ht Instapundit)

Steyn

on the election in Canada. via the WSJ.

Dem Reality

see Watership Down.

I remember loving that book, hence the link. Plus it was funny imaging.

(ht instapundit

Afghanistan

Firepower Forward gives a nice update on the place while answering a letter from Arianna Huffington.

(ht Officer's Club

Palestinian Election Aftermath

But wait...... via Barcepundit

"But this is a game that went too far. Nobody thought Hamas would win - even them. I know lots of people who voted Hamas, who regret it now. If I could vote again, I would vote for Fatah."

The title says it all.

Iraqi tribes in Anbar arrest 270 Arab and foreign al-Qaeda members!
From Dar al-Hayat (Arabic):

Excellant!

WMD

I'll say it again - everyone knew that Bush did not know exactly where these were in the steps up to war. If he did, he could have pointed on a map and Blix could have found them. The fact that we didn't find them when we went in, while a surprise was not a condemnation on the war. Don't look now, Sadaam's number 2 in the airforce, is putting his finger on them.

Now here's a good plan. Not

Direct flights from Iran to the US. (need to go clean up the coffee I spit all over after reading this)

What coulda been....

President Gore: Please Mr. President, the elections here are over and you won, you really won. Maybe you should leave other countries to elect who they want.

or
President Kerry: Mr. President, can you count to 60?

but then remember when:
President Carter: Mr. President, it's probably not a good idea to send money to people who want our allies dead.

I'm with Jane on this one.

Sometimes I really, really like this man:
"Bush suggests Ford and GM make "a product that's relevant" instead of contemplating a bailout."

If you get to the WSJ story - he's even suggesting vehicles with alternative fuels.

The other Election

Captain Ed has the frightening view:

Unless someone can show widespread voter fraud on behalf of Hamas, the Palestinians should be judged by the choices they have made this week. They have chosen war and the annihilation of Israel over the two-state solution favored publicly (if not fervently) by Fatah. Europe and the United States need to wake up from their delusional dreamland of a situation where both sides in this conflict want a peaceful conclusion and a world without hatred for their children and grandchildren. Clearly, the Palestinians want war, and they have made no secret of using their children and grandchildren as bomb fuses in order to perpetuate it.

while Tim Blair also has the frightening view:

Elections in the US are sometimes won in the Bible belt. This may the first election on earth to be won by the suicide belt:

The Islamic militant group Hamas swept to victory over the long-dominant Fatah faction on Thursday in the Palestinian parliamentary election, a political earthquake that could bury chances for peacemaking with Israel.

Good People

standing up against evil.
No, not Buffy the Vampire Slayer's scooby gang, but:

Arlington, Va.—BB&T, the nation’s ninth largest financial holdings company with $109.2 billion in assets, announced today that it “will not lend to commercial developers that plan to build condominiums, shopping malls and other private projects on land taken from private citizens by government entities using eminent domain.”

Good for them!!

(ht Vodkapundit)

"Troops stretched thin"

I'm with this guy. (who has a great blog by the way)

"If I Get This Stupid, I'll Be A Government Contractor Too"

Our open borders

Michelle is watching. Mexican troops moving dope across the border....no, it's not a sieve, really.

Amen to Glen

Can you imagine?

IF KANYE WEST HAD BALLS, he'd pose as Mohammed, instead of Jesus. But he doesn't. Efforts to be controversial have become so predictable. Yawn.

UN Map of "Palestine"

The lying liers of the UN are caught in the act by John at Powerline.

Something is fishy here.

Let me see if I have this story right: (it's short, read it yourself and let me know)

A woman who retired from the FBI last February is suing her exboss for discrimination., true

She found out about an ilicit affair(s) he was having and told a friend in 2000. Word got back to him and he suspended her. true

She made an official complaint to the inspection team in 2000 warning them about her boss's behavior. true

She believes it was ignored.

In December 2004 she was suspended again but we don't know why.
In 2005 she filed a discrimination lawsuit which was rejected. Now she is appealling that.

The boss was given a 14day suspension and allowed to transfer but we don't know when this happened.
Someone from the judiciary committe is planning on seeing if all of this caused a compromise of national security.

Is this a story????? What part is the discrimination part? When was the boss suspended? Why did she expect that you could tell a friend about a boss's affair with a foreigner and not have him have a problem with that. (isn't that a bit of compromised security?)

I am not excusing the boss's behavior here. I am pointing out this story that is now on Drudge is not news. Certainly not complete news. This woman doesn't sound like she took any kind of appropriate action until she was suspended. Then she was suspended again years later. But based on her first actions she's got some incompetent thought processes going on that may easily lead to suspensions. Why the second one? And what was the written reason for the first one? Maybe this is one of those fishing stories where you throw something out and hope it gets spread so that someone else can do the research......

Polls

As long as Bin Laden is watching the polls, do you suppose he'll have something to say about this latest one?

Iraqis and Afghans are the among most optimistic people in the world when it comes to their economic future, a new survey for the BBC suggests.

The Democrats' problem(s)

by Captain Ed and Dionne.

Dionne has a good start on the problem, but misses the cause. Until the Democrats start coming up with a coherent plan for national security, they will remain locked out of power no matter how many "themes" they dream up.

They might notice the juvenile tactics displayed by their followers too and maybe clean that up.
On Amazon,

Conservative titles have been systematically targeted for "egraffiti" including phony cover pictures and scurrilous "reviews".

President Bush's English

I agree with the Officer's Club who asks: What other President could tell the people of a foreign country that "we have no beef with you" in the middle of a major policy speech and get away with it?

Also the California Conservative who quotes this simple sentance: “If I wanted to break the law, why was I briefing Congress?”

"You wanna buy some wood?" lol Seriously the guy is painful to listen to sometimes but he does get his point across very plainly and you have to appreciate that vs living with a President Kerry. Ugh - now that would have been painful.

Iraq

Very of nice of Muqtada al Sadr to offer up his army should any of his neighbors need help. Iraq the Model has the scoop.

Poor Jacques Chirac, he didn’t put in his calculations that Mehdi Army would stand by Iran’s side! Now Mr. Chirac’s nukes which he spoke smugly about will be totally useless before the holy tide and heaven’s forces.

Poor Europe and poor America! For they didn’t put in their consideration when they challenged Iran that the army of the light will be defending the Islamic republic…

Quick links because that's what I do....

Powerline notes that the recently released German kidnapping victim in Iraq, Susanne Osthoff, somehow was found with ransom money in her pockets......

Captain Ed notes that now that Hillary is into preemptive strikes vs using the UN Security Council, the NYTimes is too.

Iraq the Model gives us an update on Iraqi democracy and notes that six militant groups have decided to join forces and fight Al qaeda. While they'd prefer to see the new govt do this, they realize this might well be a solution to the problem.

The Officer's Club can start you on the links leading you to the hilarious story of how Code Pink ever so inefficiently lost their permits to protest on any of the 4 corners at Walter Reed. Time's man of the week ought to be Concrete Bob!!!

Very Cool

The Jawa Report "helps nab a would-be terrorist".
(ht Mudville Gazette)

Response to BinLaden and Zawahiri

From Euphoricreality via...Officer's club, and mudvillegazette

Enjoy - and have a good weekend!

Fun with Osama

You have to love the picture of upside down Osama on Drudge. That must really rankle him. Varifrank fisks the whole speech. I tell you what that speech said to me - if everyone got on board for say 1 lousy month, and I mean everyone. The NYtimes, Michael Moore, Murtha and Pelosi, everyone - this war would be over. They do give comfort and encouragement to the enemy quite clearly. And just as clearly, that's what he's living on.

A taste:

Osama: The wise ones know that Bush has no plan to achieve his alleged victory in Iraq.

Varifrank: You mean the plan where he takes an Army of 150,000 men 400 miles across a desert and two rivers in hostile enemy country, captures intact a "Key Capital City of the Arab Muslim" world; which immediately causes Libya to give up its Nuclear programs out of fear of the same thing happening to them and also allows Lebanon to overthrow its Syrian overlords, then goes on to helps the Iraqis create a secular modern Democracy all without the help of the UN and then he manages to gets re-elected afterwards, all while having the fastest expanding American economy since 1945?

Yeah, that all happened by accident. Happenstance. Kismet. Karma even.

Saddam was on his way out anyway and would have gone fast if we had only left him alone. Democracy in the middle east was well under way until Bush came in and muddied the water with all this talk of "victory". The Taliban?, poorly understood young men of society who are actually very similar to our own Jaycees. They only wanted what was best for Muslims. Their methods might have been poor, but they "meant well". Feh...

Blackfive's inspirational message

via Vodkapundit.

Iraq Election Results

Are in!

Violence is expected from folks who don't like the results but increased security is in place (enough for Omar to not make it to work). It sounds like these good people are working through it. Iraq is going to be awesome. Iraq the Model gives a great psych 101 rundown, ending with the ever so accurate "democracy is a process, not an event."

Actually one of our biggest problems is the lack of trust between the different parties and more dangerous is the little trust the parties have in democracy.
This trust crisis is what causes those irrational reactions.
The Shia politicians, although they are the biggest winners in the elections are still behaving like victims and they worry about whether this or that Sunni candidate was part of the Ba’ath party. And the same applies to the Sunni who are afraid of Shia domination despite the fact that their (the Sunni) parties will control nearly 30% of the parliament and there’s no chance they can be marginalized again.
Not only that, both sides say they’re being conspired upon by the others. This lack of trust will keep being a problem for Iraq…I’m not expecting politicians to trust each other but I hope they mature to trust democracy.

Iraqis-whether politicians or ordinary citizens-are yet to fully understand democracy but to be fair, one should not put all the blame on them; democracy takes time…democracy is a process, not an event.

Lefty Wackos

I am guessing that tomorrow Michelle Malkin will have something to say about this story regarding the Washington Post blog.

The Washington Post shut down one of its blogs Thursday after the newspaper's ombudsman raised the ire of readers by writing that lobbyist Jack Abramoff gave money to the Democrats as well as to Republicans.
..........
In her Sunday column, ombudsman Deborah Howell wrote that Abramoff "had made substantial campaign contributions to both major parties," prompting a wave of nasty reader postings on post.blog.

There were so many personal attacks that the newspaper's staff could not "keep the board clean, there was some pretty filthy stuff," and so the Post shut down comments on the blog, or Web log, said Jim Brady, executive editor of washingtonpost.com.

Actually, it's not clear if the posts were from left or right so my title may be out there....but I have a pretty good guess it's left. Michelle has had to put up with some of the most outrageous insults and once in a while shares them with her audience. Of course I can't quickly locate such a post - however, here's a link to her post in regards to her book.

The Bomb in Pakistan

You'd think we'd learn to wait for the story during war, but we are a bunch of media freaks. Anyway it's getting clearer. I like Captain Ed's take yet understand the full story is still out there.

It seems that the nice family dinner that the media attempted to portray more resembled the Corleones than the Bradys. Pakistan now admits that the dinner was instead a summit for al-Qaeda leadership, perhaps a planning session, demonstrating that American intel in the Damadola region may outstrip that of the Pakistanis themselves.

Kyoto Math

From the Wall Street Journal. You may need a subscription, but there's the link and here is the gist:

Let's go to the latest numbers from the European Environment Agency in Copenhagen. Most European countries have seen an increase in greenhouse gas emissions since signing onto Kyoto with great fanfare in 1997. As the table nearby shows, 13 out of the 15 original signatories from the EU are on track to miss their 2010 treaty targets -- by as much as 33 percentage points, in the case of Spain.
..............
The Bush Administration has continued a longstanding U.S. policy of pushing states, municipalities and private industry to reduce emissions that actually lower the quality of air and water. The U.S. saw a modest decline in greenhouse emissions of 0.8% between 2000 and 2002, according to data from the Department of Energy. Overall since 1990, greenhouse emissions are up 15.8% but this still puts the U.S. far ahead of many of its European critics. And the U.S., a booming economy, would seem to be at a disadvantage in any emissions comparison with Europe, which has recorded far less buoyant growth numbers.
................
Alas, no one is talking about reducing the amount of hot air produced by politicians. At the U.N.'s environmental summit in Montreal last year, EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas of Greece spoke grandly of Europe's continuing leadership in the reduction of greenhouse gases. Prime Minister Paul Martin of Canada, another Kyoto diehard, chimed in that America lacked a "global conscience." For the record, Greece and Canada saw emissions rise 23% and 24%, respectively, since 1990, far above the U.S. rate.

Hilarious

Kind of like Drudge. Where did he come from? Who listens to him? What threat?

One more Steyn

that I missed the other day. This one on the confirmation hearings.

Steyn

On Iran, or rather giving Iran a taste of its own medicine.

Iran

The Religious Policeman has a take on the Saudi experts giving their opinions on Iran.

Saudi scholars and security experts have echoed comments by Prince Saud Al-Faisal in a BBC radio interview that the West must be held partially responsible for the tension between Western nations and Iran over nuclear proliferation.

Wow! Scholars and security experts! What a tasty treat! I can't wait. Who is first up?

Iran specifically and the Muslim Arab countries in general are considered a threat to the USA, said Sheikh Muhammed Ayoub of Riyadh. They can t stand to see any of these countries doing huge programs, especially when it come to nuclear weapons; but on the other side its OK if they used it because they have the power to do so.

Now I've never got the impression that the US feels threatened by Jordan or Bahrain or Abu Dhabi or Dubai or the other Emirates or Oman or Lebanon or even by Saudi Arabia, militarily. And when I last looked, they were all "Muslim Arab countries". So I'm curious as to whether Sheikh Muhammed Ayoub of Riyadh is a scholar or a military expert. Let's Google him.

Iraq Update

From Iraq the Model. Expect results on Thursday of this week.

I think that now it seems that the greatest danger facing Iraq is not al-Qaeda because this rejecting this organization by the Iraqi people was just a matter of time; the greatest danger right now is the possible interference of the neighbors in Iraq’s internal affairs to destabilize the country and impede the political process in the effort to escape the pressure applied by the international community on those neighbors and I think the interference this time will focus more on recruiting certain political powers in Iraq to implement the plans of those countries rather than using old allies like al-Qaeda or other terror groups.

The reason why I’m expecting this to happen is because lately we’ve been hearing Syrian and Iranian officials repeatedly saying that America wouldn’t dare escalate the situation with them as long as America is stuck in the Iraqi swarm.

It looks like the regimes in Syria and Iran have their eyes focused on the “Iraqi swarm” and forgetting the swarms forming beneath their feet…

Emphasis mine. They sound like they are a lot closer to those Syrian and Iranian officials than we are, don't they? What they don't get is that we aren't stuck in a swarm. The election is over soon. That doesn't mean we up and leave but that does mean that life goes on. If "normal" becomes car bombs every once in awhile, then that's what'll be normal. We're not stuck. Iraq will make it. They-the Iraqis- want it too bad to not make it happen.

Read Vodkapundit today too.

Unless you'd rather have a nonnews day. Then read more of Mayor Nagin, or Hillary or Al Gore.

The Future

of TV. In Ipods!

I've been Tagged

By this guy! (who, by the way, has a great animal blog)

Four jobs I've had in my life: Nurses aide, yaht cleaner, veterinary technician, database manager


Four movies I could (and do) watch over and over:
Monty Python and the Holy Grail, The Princess Bride (EP, I was impressed when you mentioned it!), Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Terminator (the first one)

Four places I've lived: Binghamton, NY, San Diego, Redding, CA and Longmont, CO

Four fiction books I can't live without: The Meadow, The Chaneysville Incident, The Silmarillian, and God on a Harley

Four non-fiction books I consider essential: Deep Survival, Mammal Tracks and Signs, There are No Problem Horses, and of course Blog by Hugh Hewitt

Four TV shows I love to watch: Lost, Dancing with the Stars, CSI (in Vegas), House

Four places I've been on vacation: New Zealand, Washington DC, Merida, Elko

Four Favorite Foods: Chips/salsa, bacon, ice cream, avocados

Four Websites I visit daily: www.powerlineblog.com, www.opinionjournal.com/best, captainsquartersblog.com, iraqthemodel.blogspot.com

Four places I'd rather be: timberline, horsebackriding, a beach, yellowstone

Four albums I can't live without: The Road to Ensenada (Lyle Lovett), Awaiting Redemption (Hal Ketchum), Great american Songbook, (Rod Stewart) and Hot August Nights (Neil Diamond- yes, him)

I tag, M Meyn and Dangerstein

Iran-Venezuela Link

Remember back in December my post on Loony Leaders?

Well nevermind - other people like The Wall Street Journal and Varifrank have caught up.

From the WSJ

Details on the Iranian "factories"--beyond a high-profile tractor producer and a widely publicized cement factory--remain sketchy. But what is clear is that the importation of state agents from Hugo-friendly dictatorships hasn't been a positive experience for Venezuelans. Imported Cubans are now applying their "skills" in intelligence and state security networks to the detriment of Venezuelan liberty. It is doubtful that the growing presence of Iranians in "factories" across Venezuela is about boosting plastic widget output. The U.S. intelligence agencies would do well to make a greater effort to find out exactly what projects the Chávez-Ahmadinejad duo really have in mind. Almost certainly, they are up to no good.

From Varifrank

Venezuela and Iran are now close allies, in both name and action. Any action we take against Iran will now very likely cause a reaction by Venezuela in the form of “boycott”. Venezuela and Iran have now decided to use the time honored tool of “trade war” to influence the world and its policies.

There are a lot of possible outcomes to this, but this is not going to end well no matter how it goes.

Loony leaders.
As of today I have updated my position on ANWR. My old position was that until the price of oil became high enough to change people's habits (smaller cars, smaller houses, less travel) then we should not be exploiting our own resources and leave Alaska for later. Once the price went high enough to make other forms of energy worth researching, and conservation a daily practice, all AK would do for us is allow more waste. It's not like we would exploit it and save it for a rainy day. Well that rainy day came before the price went up. Now we need leverage. Exploit away.

Moderate Islam

Misunderestimated Germans found the quote of the day from the comments section about a report of a 17 year old girl who is to be hanged for accidently killing her attacker.

Volcano

Mt. Augustine's activity can be seen here. It's pretty awesome looking.
(ht/SOB)

Victor Davis Hanson

This week's must read is VDH's take on the options offered to the world on Iran. The quick version:

1) head in the sand

I doubt that many serious planners any longer entertain this passive fantasy, especially after the latest rantings of Ahmadinejad.

2) years of sanctions, condemnation etc etc while hoping for regime change:

It is a long-term therapy and therefore suffers the obvious defect that Iran might become nuclear in the meantime. Then the regime’s resulting braggadocio might well deflate the dissident opposition, as the mullahs boast that they alone have restored Iranian national prestige with an Achaemenid bomb.

3) Give Israel the green like to do like they did to Iraq's nuclear ambitions.

But 2006 is not 1981. We are in war with Islamic radicalism, at the moment largely near the Iranian border in Iraq and Afghanistan. The resulting furor over a “Zionist” strike on Shia Iran might galvanize Iraqi Shiites to break with us, rather than bring them relief that the Jewish state had eliminated a nearby nuclear threat and had humiliated an age-old rival nation and bitter former enemy. Thousands of Americans are in range of Iranian artillery and short-term missile salvoes, and, in theory, we could face in Iraq a conventional enemy at the front and a fifth column at the rear.

4) U.S. airstrike

The Silver Star

Awarded to Master Sgt Suran Sar. Amazing story via the Army Times via Varifrank.

Hugo Chavez

This will crack you up. Ok, it cracked me up anyway.

Remember this story about Spain selling weapons to Venezuela?

Apparently we are requiring Spain to get rid of the US parts before the sale. Chavez seems to think that this block on the

Spanish military deal with his government as "horrific imperialism" and an attack against his socialist revolution.

The Hajj

Done with Mirros knows Omar who went last year if you are interested in a quick look at a first hand account.
This was funny regarding Americans:

Crowds were an issue everywhere, it seems. He told us how the pilgrims camped in groups, as they had traveled, based on ethnicity. And the best strategy was to perform the rituals in the same group, for the sake of strength in numbers and protection. Keep the women in the middle, the strong men on the leading edge. Don't be afraid to use your elbows.

He said the Iranians and the "Chinese" (I'm guessing he meant Turkmens from western China) were particularly effective at this tactic. His group was all American Muslims, of course.

"We tried it, moving in a pack like that, but after a while everyone went his own way."

Yep. Americans. God love us. Or Allah.

Iran

The BBC through Roger Simon has the update.

Speaking afterwards, they said talks with Iran had reached a "dead end" and called for an emergency session of the UN's nuclear watchdog, which could refer Iran to the council and lead to possible sanctions.

Ms Rice backed the EU move, saying: "These provocative actions by the Iranian regime have shattered the basis for negotiation."

Kelos

All this talk about how Alito feels about a group he belonged to 30 years ago. I want to know what he thinks about government taking your property for private purposes. From Michelle Malkin the new line in the sand.

Great News

from Iraq, via Captain Ed.

The German magazine Der Spiegel reports today on the developing factional rift between the different insurgent groups in Iraq. Increasingly, the native insurgents have concentrated their efforts not against the Americans but against the foreign-based terrorists of al-Qaeda, having belatedly come to the conclusion that the true danger of long-term foreign domination comes from Zarqawi's lunatics:

Global Warming

From Steyn
My caveat - we should keep studying. No one wants to live in a cesspool so we should avoid things such as excess emissions that make it hard to breath but basically the earth will rule in the end and Steyn has very good points. ie.

That being so, the next best thing is the Asia-Pacific Partnership, or the "coalition of the emitting": Australia, the US, India, China, Japan, and South Korea. These nations are responsible for about half of greenhouse gas emissions and, by 2050, will account for roughly 75 per cent of global gross domestic product. In other words, these are the players that matter. And, unlike the Kyotophiles, their strategy isn't a form of cultural self-flagellation. America and Australia will be making Western technology available to developing nations to accelerate their development, so they don't have to spend a century and a half with belching smokestacks glowering over grimy cities the way the first industrialised nations did.

And from Tim Blair. Read the quotes at the end of the Tim Blair piece. They're priceless.

Steyn

On Bush

His column includes this hilarious interview with Rumsfield. That guy cracks me up:

There was a hilarious interview in Der Spiegel a few weeks back with Don Rumsfeld, in which the Germans seemed to have forgotten that they’re supposed to be running the show on Iran’s nuclear ambitions. The US defence secretary observed that ‘all of us have to be concerned when a country that important, large and wealthy is disconnected from the normal interactions with the rest of the world’.‘The US is trying to make the case in the United Nations Security Council?’ inquired the chap from Der Spiegel.

‘I would not say that,’ said Rumsfeld, mischievously. ‘I thought France, Germany and the UK were working on that problem.’




‘What kind of sanctions are we talking about?’

‘I’m not talking about sanctions. I thought you and the UK and France were.’

‘You aren’t?’

‘I’m not talking about sanctions,’ repeated Rumsfeld. ‘You’ve got the lead. Well, lead!’

‘You mean the Europeans?’ said the bewildered German, still not getting it.

‘Sure. My goodness, Iran is your neighbour,’ said Rumsfeld. ‘We don’t have to do everything!’

‘We are in the middle of regime change in Germany,’ spluttered the Spiegel editor.

‘That’s hardly the phrase I would have selected,’ remarked Rummy.

UPDATE:
(ps here's the link to the interview if you want to catch the whole thing)

The Algerian Terrorists

As Powerline (the sellers of a great coffee mug by the way) note:

Meanwhile There's A War On

Iran

We must prepare ourselves to rule the world and the only way to do that is to put forth views on the basis of the Expectation of the Return. If we work on the basis of the Expectation of the Return, all the affairs of our nation will be streamlined and the administration of the country will become easier. Some politicians think we had a revolution so that some could hit others in the head and have one party ruling for some time and another party in opposition for some time. But we had a revolution to achieve a lofty goal, on the basis on the Expectation of the Return. Our interpretation is that the hand of the Almighty is putting every piece of the jigsaw puzzle of the future of the world in place in line with the goals of Islam.

Now imagine Iran with nukes.....
eww - let's not.

Afghanistan

They like us! They really like us!


"Eight-one percent Afghans polled think Al-Qaeda is a negative influence in the world, with only six percent saying Osama bin Laden’s terror network has a positive impact.

Osama bin Laden himself, once sheltered by the Taliban militia ousted with the help of a US-led coalition in 2001, has even lower ratings, with 90 percent of those polled saying they had an unfavourable view of him.

Eighty-eight percent said they had an unfavorable view of the Taliban.

The poll, conducted across ethnic groups including Pashtuns, Tajiks, Uzbek and Hazara communities, also found large support for the US military presence in Afghanistan.

Eighty-three percent said they had a favorable view of “US military forces in our country.""

Syria

Jeff Goldstein notes a story in the Telegraph today regarding Paul Bremer's book out.

"President Bashar al-Assad of Syria secretly incited Iraq’s top Shia leader to declare holy war against US and British forces, according to Washington’s former administrator in the country.

In his new book, My Year in Iraq, Paul Bremer said he heard the explosive intelligence in October 2003 as sectarian tensions soared across the country following the fall of Saddam Hussein.

The report came from an extremely senior source, the supreme leader of Iraq’s majority Shia community, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani."

Venezuela

Hugo Chavez is learning about natural market forces these days. He doubled the price of coffee from farmers without raising the price of coffee from roasters/distributers/retailers. They are now refusing to sell at such low margins.

Mr Chávez said he would not tolerate the situation. "I've instructed the National Guard to look for the missing coffee and to find every single kilogram of it," he said in his weekly TV and radio show, Hello Mr President. "The army has the permission to seize the coffee with the power of attorneys and judges. We will sell the coffee at prices set by us."

(h/t(s) Publius Pundit and Instapundit)

Tajikistan

I don't know why people think we're always the bad guys. We are currently airlifting winter supplies to Tajikistan boarder guards.

"The supplies are being delivered at the request of the Tajik government to assist border guard units during the winter months."

Howard Dean

Got an email from Howard Dean today asking for money.
Sadly for him all he got was laugh from me.

"Here is why your donation means so much.

With your support, we can recruit strong Democratic candidates to challenge the increasing number of vulnerable Republican incumbents.

With your support, we can stand behind Democratic candidates who are taking strong stands on the issues and giving powerful voice to our values.

I'm talking about Democrats who understand, like you and I do, the one principle that should guide everything we do in 2006:

We cannot let Republicans off the hook - in 2006 Democrats will not back down."

What's that he said - the ONE principle that should guide EVERYTHING we do in 2006. Was it "keep America safe" or "Be compassionate" or "Save the Earth" or even "share the wealth" no, it's

"We cannot let Republicans off the hook - in 2006 Democrats will not back down."

Quite a rallying call if I do say so myself. ROFL They are bound for glory.

Iraq Elections

Seem to be settling in. No final results yets but Iraq the Model continues to keep us updated. Two developments overnight.
1) re the Zarqawi message for the Sunni's to get out of politics and back onto the "right path" gave us
"The Islamic Party didn’t need much time to voice their rejection for Zarqawi’s message and his ideology that recognizes only violence as a way to reach goals.
The 2nd man in the Islamic Party Ayad al-Samarra’i stressed that the Party has no intention to abandon the political process.
Salih al-Mutlaq is another Sunni politician who apparently feels that Zarqawi was addressing him as well. Al-Mutlaq has also condemned violence again today and stressed that “ending violence is the key to stability in Iraq”."

2) "The second important development in Iraq today was the Kurdish decision to nominate Jalal Talabani for presidency after a period of hesitation."

Free Speech

It's good that this blog is not annonymous or I might annoy someone and get into trouble!

" Last Thursday, President Bush signed into law a prohibition on posting annoying Web messages or sending annoying e-mail messages without disclosing your true identity.

In other words, it's OK to flame someone on a mailing list or in a blog as long as you do it under your real name. Thank Congress for small favors, I guess.

This ridiculous prohibition, which would likely imperil much of Usenet, is buried in the so-called Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act. Criminal penalties include stiff fines and two years in prison."

The War

With who? Ragged Thots links to an interesting article about the NSA spying and Presidential powers. We're at war, but when do we win so that all the extra powers go away? When Al-qaeda no longer exists? When they surrender? When Bin Laden is dead or locked up? Good questions all. I'm going with Bin Laden dead or locked up along with his top 5 or 10 - whoever they may be. At that point, then it's threat levels and keeping them down and deciding what we're willing to put up civil liberty wise, vs those threats. That all needs legislation. After we win.
That would be when I closed Guantanamo too, not before.

Information

California Conservative continues to look at the article from Stephen Hayes and the 50,000 out of 2million documents from Saddam's regime reviewed.

"Democrats will soon be running for the hills because Stephen Hayes, author of the great book “The Connection: How al Qaeda’s Collaboration with Saddam Hussein Has Endangered America”, is about to get the secret documents unsealed that show Saddam’s terrorist training grounds. Let’s look at some of the most explosive information:"

While Varifrank reviews James Risens 'State of War' book.

"This is a book written on the backs of angry intelligence officers who have been passed over for promotion, lost prestige and who feel just a little bit guilty at once again failing to deliver results for their country. By their own inaction and incompetence caused the very war they now see happening all around them. It stinks of the flop sweat of the failed career and begs for revenge at the hands of public indignation for the actions taken by the President, which resulted in the loss of prestige for former “big time operators” in the Intelligence community.

But the book fails to deliver on that idea. In fact, the book makes a surprisingly clear case for the Bush Administration and why they have taken the steps they have in the War against Al-Qaeda. The PR on the book makes it out that this book into a testimonial against the Bush Administration, but the real villain in this book is former CIA director George Tenet, who is savaged in nearly every chapter of the book. President Bush’s greatest crime seems to be allowing Tenet to stay in his job."

John Kerry

The Hunter making fun of another Hunter. While he should be getting 0 attention, if you're going to pick on others, then you get to get picked on yourself.
(ht Tim Blair)

Terrorist Training Camps

in Iraq during Saddam's time. Steve Hayes has been looking into documents from Afghanistan and Iraq as best he can these past years. He's had a hard time getting even unclassified documents, but it looks like he's found enough to write a story for the Weekly Standard.

EXCERPTS: (actually I recommend you just read the article, but if you're not a 'clicker' here are some good excerpts)

THE FORMER IRAQI REGIME OF Saddam Hussein trained thousands of radical Islamic terrorists from the region at camps in Iraq over the four years immediately preceding the U.S. invasion, according to documents and photographs recovered by the U.S. military in postwar Iraq. The existence and character of these documents has been confirmed to THE WEEKLY STANDARD by eleven U.S. government officials.

AND
The discovery of the information on jihadist training camps in Iraq would seem to have two major consequences: It exposes the flawed assumptions of the experts and U.S. intelligence officials who told us for years that a secularist like Saddam Hussein would never work with Islamic radicals, any more than such jihadists would work with an infidel like the Iraqi dictator. It also reminds us that valuable information remains buried in the mountain of documents recovered in Afghanistan and Iraq over the past four years.

AND
Other officials familiar with the captured documents were less cautious. "As much as we overestimated WMD, it appears we underestimated [Saddam Hussein's] support for transregional terrorists," says one intelligence official.

AND
The official continued: "[Saddam] used these groups because he was interested in extending his influence and extending the influence of Iraq. There are definite and absolute ties to terrorism. The evidence is there, especially at the network level. How high up in the government was it sanctioned? I can't tell you. I don't know whether it was run by Qusay [Hussein] or [Izzat Ibrahim] al-Duri or someone else. I'm just not sure. But to say Iraq wasn't involved in terrorism is flat wrong."

AND
Throughout the 1980s, including the eight years of the Iran-Iraq war, Saddam cast himself as a holy warrior in his public rhetoric to counter the claims from Iran that he was an infidel. This posturing continued during and after the first Gulf war in 1990-91. Saddam famously ordered "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great) added to the Iraqi flag. Internally, he launched "The Faith Campaign," which according to leading Saddam Hussein scholar Amatzia Baram included the imposition of sharia (Islamic law). According to Baram, "The Iraqi president initiated laws forbidding the public consumption of alcohol and introduced enhanced compulsory study of the Koran at all educational levels, including Baath Party branches."

Patterico and the LA Times

I fixed the link to the original Patterico's Year end roundup of the LA Times that's been so popular. On the 4th, Patterico responded to being called a dishonest, totalitarian Stalinist apparatchik by an LA Times columnist.

(ht today, from Michelle Malkin)

Syria

Captain Ed

"The tipping point for Syrian tyranny may have come yesterday as former regime vice-president Abdul Halim Khaddam announced publicly that he wants to lead a popular revolution to oust the Bashar Assad dictatorship and to see the former opthalmologist in prison for the murder of Rafik Hariri. Meanwhile, he made clear, he remains available to the UN if it really wants to investigate Syrian crimes:"

From the BBC:
Former Syrian Vice-President Abdul Halim Khaddam wants to oust President Bashar al-Assad through a popular uprising, he told an Arabic newspaper.

Iran

The Officer's Club has a post that must have been written before the famous I hope he's dead quote from President Ahmadinejad or I'm sure that would have been included. Anyway - Iran didn't show up to a scheduled meeting at the UN yesterday concerning their nuclear developments.

"By playing hooky, the Iranians have sent a crystal-clear message to the Western governments and the UN: we don't take you seriously, we want the bomb, and we'll continue to play games with you as long as you continue to accommodate."

John's advice.....
Go read his blog.

Iraq

January 10th the final election results will be in. In the meantime, after the large amount of killing over the last couple of days, Iraq the Model has some insight.

"All this comes while commanders in the defense ministry are busy refusing the American commanders’ candidate for leading the brigade that is planned to assume security tasks in the heart of Baghdad. The only apparent reason for refusing this candidate-who succeeded in elevating the readiness level of his brigade from class 3 to class 1 according to an American military adviser-the only apparent reason is his Sunni background.
Mohammed al-Askari, spokesman of the defense ministry said they ministry is preparing an emergency security plan to implement incase there’s a sudden withdrawal of American troops."

That 2nd point is sad. President Bush guaranteed they won't be abandoned on his watch. So while we can hope that our troops will be coming home, it isn't going to happen before Iraq is ready, before 2008 unless something beyond imagination happens. I trust him on this one.

Here's the current general feel there:
"I think this is the darkest image we have conveyed from Iraq in more than two years but it is a fact that it hasn’t been this bad in Iraq ever since the 9th of April 2003.
The general sense of the public opinion in Iraq is that our politicians who we trusted proved to be unqualified for the responsibility.
Everyone I meet says he feels betrayed by the politicians who keep frustrating us with their incompetence and internal fighting over power.
Iraqis expressed optimism before the election and you read that on opinion polls and we could feel it here in the streets but I’m sure that if those opinion polls are repeated, we’ll see that a great deal of that optimism is gone now."

Go over to Iraq the Model and leave them a nice comment. Actually - if you have any scoop and that scoop is hopeful, leave me one too!

Sharon

Vodkapundit is worried that Sharon's policy's are doomed to failure.

"Now Sharon is incapacitated, almost certainly permanently. His successor is Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who is an unknown quantity outside Israel. Only two months old, the rest of Kadima's roster is uncertain at best. Can Sharon's new party survive without the Bulldozer to plow through the entrenched opposition? It's hard enough to create a new party out of thin air, even with as active and energetic leader as Sharon. Without Sharon, I worry Kadima – and the policies it represents – is doomed to failure."

Frankly - his new party was getting support. While there are rough times ahead, the optimist in me believes people "step up" in times of crises.

Of course that hasn't happened with the Palestinians after Arafat died.
From Captain Ed:
"It now looks like Ariel Sharon may have struck the most devastating blow against Palestinian statehood by allowing them to have Gaza all to themselves. Sharon, who may be dying at this very moment, gave the world a fishbowl for the Palestinians to demonstrate the endgame of their nihilism."

Either way - you have to laugh at this headline by Reuters:

"Bush Faces Crises if Sharon Doesn't Recover"

They keep hoping don't they?
Read the article from the NZ herald - it talks about prayer for recovery, it talks about Sharon leaving giant shoes to fill and it talks about Bush staying the course. No where does it say what exactly Bush's crises would be. lol

Frankly - my worry is that now it's probably up to us alone to be in charge of making certain that Iranian nuclear ambitions don't come to fruition.

Steyn

Unhinged on odd coalitions who area getting together in order to kiss Syria's ***.

"Ever since September 11th, there’s been a grand harmonic convergence of all the world’s loser ideologies, from Islamic fundamentalism to Gallic condescension. By rights, a coalition that embraces hardline British socialists, American white supremacists, sophisticated European secularists, neanderthal European fascists, misogynist Muslim theocrats, militant gay Canadians (really – he’s a guy called Svend Robinson, who for years has been the gay mascot of the Palestinian Authority), by rights this crowd should be as fractious as a Thanksgiving reunion at the Assad home, with Bashar, the uncle who tried to topple his dad, the uncle who had his brother murdered, etc. But apparently they all get along swimmingly."

Ok, that's a lot of Steyn in one sitting! Enjoy

Steyn

On feminism and terrorism. I know I for one was surprised that feminists everywhere didn't jump on the bandwagon of ousting the Taliban. Those guys were horrible. Now there is that mideast "culture" thing going on where it's ok to murder your womenfolk or there is that fareast "culture" thing where just disappearing them seems to be working and the world doesn't seem to mind.

While I am not at all a believer in "the world would be a much more peaceful harmonious place if only more women were involved in running it", I do believe we deserve not to be killed for some dude's honor. So do let's make ousting terrorism a "womens issue". Do you suppose Mrs. Sheehan would get on that bus?

Power Corrupts

In Re Abramoff. What are people thinking? I have a hard time believing that people put enough thought process into these types of actions to realize how corrupt they are. The quid pro is not quite quo, so it's not specific, it's not a payoff, it's not wrong because I probably would have voted that way anyway. etc, etc. But doesn't anyone care what it looks like? Why not think that part of the process through and come to the conclusion that maybe that particular money doesn't look all that good after all.

From Professor Bainbridge:

"The solution to Washington corruption thus is not to change drivers. The solution is to slay the beast. “That government is best which governs least.” -- Thomas Paine

Today

We've got Abramoff, and Iranian ambitions in Europe and mental health in the country. However the most important thing is that I am downloading season 1 of Battlestar Gallactica from Itunes right now and it's using up memory. Will have to blog later! I've got my priorities.
(should've have bought the dvd's vs downloading....live and learn)

So go see the Environmental Republican and then visit his blog roll. It's fun just to cruise it. Or see Steyn Online for anything new he's got.

UN

Preparing to deal with extraterrestrials while not dealing with intraterrestrials.

The links to the actual press release has disappeared, but:
"For the first time in 27 years, the United Nations General Assembly will be debating the issue of establishing diplomatic relations with advanced Extraterrestrial Civilizations that may now be visiting Earth."

Meanwhile here on earth......

Lebanon

Michael Totten reminds everyone of the first Arab democracy.

Russia

Vodkapundit has a child now and waxes philosophical on Russia's childlike behavior recently.

"PJ O'Rourke once described Russia as "the ugly stepsister of Western Civilization." Thanks to high energy prices, today the ugly stepsister has step-daddy's Platinum Amex card to go along with that great big chip on her shoulder. Russia has a line of credit big enough to put all the pretty people in their place - and she's determined to make them suffer without worrying about the bill.

Is this how a grown-up nation behaves?"

Hollywood

and the movies. Uncorrelated says "its a Cabela's/NASCAR country, but the media is sure its really Sex in the City." Frankly I like them both. I really enjoyed The Chronicles of Narnia and I imagine I'm going to like King Kong too when I get around to seeing it. The point being that its a big country. You have to crack up about Hollywood because they could make money so easily if they listened to their audience vs listened to their peers. But then - if that were fully the case we could end up with all reality shows all the time. And no chance at all for a great show like Firefly!

Blogs

Apparently scare the mighty NYTimes! Ace of Spades has the story.

The LA times

Patterico has the best year end roundup I've ever seen. He links to all the errors/lie etc of the LA times that he's caught over the year.

ie under Iraq:
"Perhaps the most critical issue facing the nation is the war in Iraq. The paper consistently takes a negative view of the war, reporting polls showing sagging support for the mission, and ignoring polls that show the opposite."

Great Fun.

UPDATE: The link has been fixed. Sorry about that.

The End of the World

Not sure how to link to a specific page of the Drudge Report, but his headlines for January 1, 2006 was:
2006 DAY ONE: FLOODS, FIRES, RECORD HEAT, COLD

Michael Crichton has a lecture up Fear, Complexity, & Environmental Management in the 21st Century that was interesting reading this morning. If you've read State of Fear (which I thought was a horrible novel but a great list of citations) then this is kind of an update. Pictures etc.
Nobody gets money unless they are in a crisis - so the world always has to be ending. And while I believe we should watch what we do and how it effects the world, he includes this:

"We are unanimously convinced that rapid, radical redressment of the present unbalanced and dangerously detiorating world situation is the primary task facing mankind....."

written about Global Cooling in 1972. That wasn't that long ago.
also included:
"As Mark Twain said, “I’ve seen a heap of trouble in my life, and most of it never came to pass.”'

UPDATE: The piece by Crichton also discusses the end of the world due to overpopulation. Steyn, though thinking that the end of the world is nie due to the lack of population increase in the western world, also mentions the "scare" of the 70s due to overpopulation. It looks like it's going to be that kind of year folks!

NY Times

Michelle Malkin continues to take on the MSM with a New Years Day hit piece.
After reading an article entitled:
Justice Deputy Resisted Parts of Spy Program

A reader could easily come to this conclusion:
"So, "King George" went to extraordinary lengths to seek the DOJ's approval, suspended parts of the program to address civil liberties concerns, subjected the program to more stringent NSA requirements, and submitted to an audit that is not known to have found any instances of documented abuses."

vs what the times was looking for: (they don't tell you what to conclude, and see if you can tell me where they're headed)

WASHINGTON, Dec. 31 - The top deputy to then-Attorney General John Ashcroft refused two years ago to approve important parts of the secret program that allows domestic eavesdropping without warrants, prompting two leading White House aides to try to win the needed approval from Mr. Ashcroft himself while he was hospitalized after a gall bladder operation, according to officials knowledgeable about the episode.

Other People's resolutions

from the Officer's Club

from Dr. Helen

Have a Happy New Year.
I vow to get my blog thing back in order.
(you know, like a groove thing only different)