I just can't believe that things aren't worse than they are with this woman in charge of the State Department for so long:
Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright told a crowd at the Yale Divinity School Tuesday that she is concerned President Bush is fueling the hate of terrorist organizations.
Whatever we do, let's not piss them off! Well, there's always her dancing partner in North Korea to liven things up if they start to calm down in the Middle East.
Kerry Blames Bush for High Gas Prices
What's scary about this is that, if he is to be taken seriously, John Kerry thinks he is going to control gas prices if he becomes president. Heaven help us.
Just when you think politicians can't be any more craven:
In a sign that he has more than one eye on Italian domestic politics, European Commission President Romano Prodi has pledged to withdraw Italian troops from Iraq if his centre-left coalition is elected.
If I were a talented cartoonist, I'd draw a picture of a personification of Italy with Romano Prodi taping a sign to its back that says "Bomb Me!".
French lawyer 'to defend Saddam'
I always knew that Duke got special treatment, but this is ridiculous:
Pope John Paul on Friday said Sunday should be a day for God, not for secular diversions like entertainment and sports.
I guess Xavier doesn't stand a chance now, as if they did before.
Oh, and I love to be pedantic so shouldn't that be John Paul II?
Thanks to Prime Minister John Howard and Australia for sticking with the US and the UK to fight the War on Terrorism on all fronts:
SYRIA has appealed to Australia to use its close ties with Washington to help the Arab nation shake off its reputation as a terrorist haven and repair its relations with the US.
Secret talks between the two nations have been under way for months but have become more urgent as rogue nations reconsider their role in allowing terrorists to thrive, in light of the US determination to take pre-emptive military action.
A Syrian embassy will be opened in Canberra in weeks and Australia is considering reopening its mission in Damascus.
Australia's close relationship with Washington, and its much higher profile in the Middle East, have prompted Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara'a and parliamentary speaker Mahmoud Al-Ibrache to appeal to Canberra to help bring their country back in from a US-imposed diplomatic freeze.
Syria has sent a delegation to Australia and has hosted a series of visits by Australian parliamentarians.
Drawing on the British-sponsored return of Libya to the international fold, Australia is demanding that Syria take a tougher role against terrorists, particularly those using the nation as a base for operations into Iraq.
Australia also has called on the former Soviet client state to abandon any pursuit of weapons of mass destruction before it returns to the fold.
As Professor Reynolds says, it's working. Does this mean that PM Howard isn't one of the foreign leaders hoping John Kerry wins in November?
Professor Reynolds characterizes this as a lack of accountability:
Senior BBC staff are threatening to take some flagship programmes off the air rather than face criticisms from an internal inquiry launched in the aftermath of Hutton.
A remarkable series of internal battles, which has pitched some of Britain's most senior broadcasting figures against one another, has led to the threats. The inquiry, chaired by the BBC's director of policy, Caroline Thomson, has been described as a 'kangaroo court'.
Executives and presenters complained that the inquiry went against natural justice, was trying to find scapegoats for the Hutton debacle and had poisoned relations. The strength of feeling among senior BBC figures comes at a difficult time for Acting Director-General Mark Byford, who has been attacked for agreeing to the inquiry.
Byford hopes to become the next Director-General to succeed Greg Dyke, who resigned after Hutton. But staff said he could be presiding over 'mass walkouts' if individuals are attacked by the inquiry.
Stars such as political editor Andrew Marr, Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman, and Today's John Humphrys and Jim Naughtie have all raised concerns at the process that has been likened to 'the BBC's own Guantanamo'.
While Professor Reynolds is correct, we should do as our betters instruct and look for the root causes of the problem, rather than just it's symptoms. It would seem to me that the BBC, or more correctly, some at the BBC now regard themselves as some version of an absolute monarchy, ruling the realm of the airwaves through their royal will, placing themselves above us commoners and merchants, chafing at any challenge to their divine right to pontificate, extracting taxes from the populace to support their palaces and wars, issuing rhetorical bills of attainder for their political enemies, and expecting everyone to admire and celebrate the pomp and circumstance of their court. How dare these rustics presume to pronounce judgment on their betters, without so much as a "by your leave?" One can easily imagine the response to this challenge to their authority by Mr. Paxman, Mr. Marr, and Mr. Humphrys echoing Charles I, "I lyke this not."
I am unsure whether the United Kingdom and the BBC are headed for a showdown that was closer to that of King John and the nobles that produced the Magna Carta (which accomplished much less than commonly believed, but set a powerful precedent), or for a cataclysmic overthrow of the self-professed monarchy more akin to the execution of Charles I by Parliament. My money would be on the latter day Oliver Cromwells with the blogospere acting as the New Model Army. Of course, if this historical analogy carries on much further the leaders of the revolution should all expect to be gibbeted after the restoration.
Tim Blair steps on the toes of a sensitive Lefty:
The leftish magazine Overland turns 50 this week. When Stephen Murray-Smith started the magazine, we still thought that argument could persuade and even change. But this week in his anniversary lecture and article, writer Barry Hill despairs: "The point is, everyone knows about it, and most of us feel - realistically - that we can do nothing as the Iron Heel of Corporate America treads where it wants." Exactly.
You know, if it's not the Iron Heel of Corporate America, it's John Ashcoft's Jackbooted Dissent Crushing Brigades stomping on the toes of the people to keep them down. But fear not! The Left will fight back with the Birkenstocks of Ex-Hippie Boomer Utopia and the Flip-Flops of John Kerry to counter the corns of compassionate conservatism and to apply a blissful balm to the bunions of brutality that result from Amerikkkan imperialism!
Personally, I think we should get into a shin-kicking contest with our friends on the left.
Roger Ebert reviews Goodbye, Lenin!:
"Goodbye, Lenin!" is a movie that must have resonated loudly in Germany when it was released; it is no doubt filled with references and in-jokes we do not quite understand. But the central idea travels well: Imagine an American Rip Van Winkle who is told that President Gore has led a United Nations coalition in liberating Afghanistan while cutting taxes for working people, attacking polluters and forcing the drug companies to cut their bloated profits. Sorry, something came over me for a second ...
Just for a second. Uh huh.
I swear, as soon as I saw this story this morning about President George W. Bush poking fun at himself in a humorously self-deprecating manner about not finding the WMDs, that some humorless idiot would take offense to it.
Lo and behold, guess which humorless idiot stepped up to the plate:
Kerry Knocks Bush Over WMD Jokes
I'm still waiting for Karl Rove to have President George W. Bush come out on consecutive days for motherhood, baseball, apple pie, little league soccer, reading to children, puppies, kittens, sunshine, volunteer service, and everything else good and right in the world through election day just so John Kerry's automatic gainsaying of anything President George W. Bush says or does will make even yellow dog Democrat partisans realize what a completely empty suit this moron is.
Reading about Richard Clarke of late, with his firm positioning on both sides of the WoT issues of the day, I was wondering whom his mentor for that particular skill might be? Would it be fair to say he supported the Bush administration's approach to fighting terrorism before he opposed it.
It has been strange watching Big Media swallow Dick's recent assertions hook, line, and sinker, while there is abundant evidence that he is little more than an embittered civil servant with a selective memory, an axe to grind, and a book to sell. Frankly, I don't know which should be considered worse, sacrificing his credibility in a partisan effort to hurt President George W. Bush or inhibiting an effort to investigate and learn from the past for personal financial gain. Of course, it could be both, but I'm trying really hard not to impugn motives and limit my commentary to looking at the evidence objectively. Unfortunately, even discounting any partisan or financial motivations, there is so much contradictory information in Mr. Clarke's statements over the last few years that it is unequivocally true that he has been a bald-faced liar now or in the past, or both. Rather than try and sort out when he was being truthful, it is easier to just dismiss everything he says and hope the commission, and Big Media, will drop the partisanship and try to find out something that will be useful in the future for the WoT. You may say I'm a dreamer...
Taking that snippet from a song that is otherwise utopian tripe reminded me of its hauntingly successful use at the end of The Killing Fields, which I saw again recently. Compare Richard Clarke's apology to the TV cameras, I mean the 9/11 families, with Sydney Schanberg's apology to Dith Pran at the end of that movie. Then contrast Dith Pran's response with the response of some of the 9/11 family members. Incidentally, I wonder if any of these 9/11 family members are the same ones who reacted with such hostility to a couple of seconds of 9/11 footage in the Bush campaign videos. And I wonder if anyone in Big Media even cares to ask that question.
Regular readers, skip by this quick summary of recent seach engine hits.
Ok, you sad, pathetic bastards, is this what you were looking for?
Pussy Galore
Goldfinger
James Bond
Dick Cheney
George Bush
Point shaving
Ice cream
Soil sample
2x4 studs
Hole in one
Teen angst
Goldenrod
Deep blue sea
His hair was perfect
Spanky and Our Gang
Boob tube
All wet
Sliding into third base
Honeybee
To the showers
Put the biscuit in the basket
Hummers, Jeeps, and Mack Trucks
Naked ambition
Passion is no ordinary word
Matriculating with thespians
Julia Roberts is overrated
Shock the monkey
Barely adequate
Moral isn't the same as legal
Picture this
Free bird, yeah
Cockamamie ideas
Pixels
Magic Johnson
JohnKerryVille
Nibblin' on cheesesteak,
With Swiss for Pete's sake,
Protestors screaming, "No blood for oil."
Strummin' my six string,
On my own jet, schwing!
Mental shrimps, they're beginning to spoil.
Wasted away again listening to James Carville,
Searching for my lost sense of gestalt.
Some people claim that I've got no sense of shame,
But I know, it's all George Bush's fault.
Here's a campaign bomb!
I served in Vietnam,
Committing atrocities, but just a few.
My wife's a rich beauty,
A Portuguese cutie.
Wonder if Mahathir knows I'm a Jew?
Wasted away again prostrate 'fore Bill and Hill,
Searching for my lost sense of gestalt.
Some people claim there's always George Bush to blame,
Now I think, hell it could be my fault.
Tried out my flip flops,
Fell and blew my top,
At my private ski slope back home.
But there's booze in the blender,
So Teddy can render,
The spin with Tim Russert that helps me hang on.
Wasted away again here in JohnKerryVille,
Searching for my lost sense of gestalt.
Some people claim I'll lose 'cause my campaign's lame,
And I know, it's my own damn fault.
This blog has become like a broken pencil.
Pointless.
Short may face Labour discipline:
Chief Whip Hilary Armstrong is to meet with Ms Short for a talk as a result of the feelings expressed by some of her fellow MPs, it has been confirmed.
British politicians, whips, and discipline. Same old, same old.
Edwards Bows Out of Race with Praise for Kerry
Hmmm, long drawl Johnny didn't have a kind word to say about long tall Johnny while he was still hot in pursuit of the Democratic nomination. Now that he's quit, well, it seems that Mr. Kerry has been the right man all along to challenge George W. Bush. Cynical, I mean, funny how that works.
Alright, I dropped all the snarky commentary, but I'd bet that no one on the Kenowa Hills Public School Board has ever actually worn a uniform.
Kennedy Gives Kerry His ‘Best and Brightest’: Dude, “Kennedy” and “Best and Brightest” remind me of …, um… , well…, let me think…, uh …, Robert McNamara! Fog of War! Rabbit Hole! Quagmire! Miserable Failure! and … wait for it … VIET NAM! What a coincidence that “Kerry” pops up here as well.
In other news, from Yahoo’s Political News from AP Section:
Kerry Begins to Select Running Mate: “Get me the Justice Department, Entertainment Division.” Remember the original, "I'll be back"? Now you really can only see it in reruns. May I suggest Ralph Nader?
Edwards Ends Pursuit of White House Bid: Back to snipe hunting.
Bush Re-Election Ads Focus on Past 3 Years: Whoa, that’s amazing. Of course Kerry election ads will focus on the past 3 years too, well, technically the past 3 years beginning 30 years ago.
Colorado Sen. Campbell Won’t Run Again: “Ben, now you're not running here nor there…,” I guess Kerry can take him off his list (see story above).
A local woman with psychological problems purposely drove her car into the water at A.W. Stanley Quarter Park in an attempt to re-enact a scene from the blockbuster film, "The Passion of the Christ," police said.
There are cars in The Passion of the Christ?
Kerry and Bush Kick Off 8-Month Battle
If Kerry wins the battle, we lose the war.
This sounds like good news:
Haitian Rebel Says His Forces Will Disarm
Unless you remember what rebels in Sierra Leone meant by disarming.
I may be on thin theological ice here, but I think a lot of folks have really misunderstood the necessity of the Passion. It isn't just the fact that Christ died, but that he suffered terribly and died, all the while rejecting the opportunity to call it all off. Had he died very quickly, I'm quite sure Christianity wouldn't have developed as it did. And this goes way beyond just the loss of the cross iconography. Remember, it is called the passion of the Christ, not the death of the Christ.