...If we're going to undermine the War on Terror, here's our chance, Jack told his troops. Who's against sending peacekeepers to Sudan?

"...I think that Canadians would want us to be in Darfur. That sentiment is found right across the country.'' he told the pliant press. None of whom asked: sez who?

Because The Black Rod can't find a single opinion poll that's asked: Overall, would you support or oppose a decision to send Canadian troops to Sudan? Not one. No poll that says Canadians would prefer Canadian soldiers to be killed in Sudan rather than Afghanistan. Maybe they are internal NDP polls. Or maybe, like Supreme Court judges, Layton is channelling the "ethos" of Canadian voters.

Certainly, the press has certainly been sugarcoating the story. No reporter has linked Layton's call "On to Darfur" with what happened this week. In fact, there's hardly been any reporting anywhere of what happened in Darfur this week. We mean, specifically, that incident on Monday where refugees drove out a UN representative, tried to kill his translator, attacked a peacekeepers compound, killed a translator there, and looted communications equipment.

Their complaint? The 7000 African Union peacekeeprs aren't doing enough to protect them from the Arab militias.

In other words, they want peacemakers. Not peacekeepers. That's something General Jack Layton would like kept hush hush.

http://blackrod.blogspot.com/2006/05/general-jack-layton-leads-march-to.html

Dear Prime Minister,
Since you are going to be looking into the defence budget for a black helicopter to fly the honorable member from Ajax-Pickering about, do you think that it could be a really BIG black helicopter with room for a couple dozen of his friends. If it is not too much trouble, could you instruct the pilot to fly the lot of them far, far away to some distant land full of exotic wonders and adventure, like Afghanastan!
Thank-you Mr. Prime Minister
Daniel

If we had recognized and removed the rot infesting the UN.

If we had applied the honesty and principle of nipping genocide in the bud. The principle that ensures freedom and democracy.

Then world problems would be fewer at a time when we must concentrate on a wealthy and fully equipped power-crazed opponent.

Iran vows to blow away Israel and almost certainly has the weaponry to do that.

History shows that Chamberlain*s delay in hitting Hitler cost thousands of additional losses.

Precision bombing of Mullah controlled nuke plant is logical for two basic reasons.

[1] Lessons of History dictate the need.

[2] Dealing with Jihadist terrorists results in loss. 32 years of loss to Arafat and Hamas is proof of that.

Brookings

Sorry, but the truth is sometimes stark and bitter. If there is a flaw to this logic, then my mind is open and accepting of your stronger reason. TG

So, Black Rod, your deliberate misrepresentations continue here as on your on website, eh?

Wonderful.

Your feeble attempt to justify Vellacott's hallucinations was sad enough, but now you're claiming there was hardly any reporting anywhere about the incident in the refugee camp?

What's the matter, won't the nurses let you operate a television, a radio, a computer or a newspaper? All of these outlets, for your information, have kept Canadians (and others) well informed about the events you describe.

By the way, how do you know about these events, anyway, if there's been (to quote you) 'hardly any reporting anywhere' of them? You're not possessed of some kind of mystical, divine power, are you? One that lets you know what the news is, even when news outlets aren't reporting it?

As for opinion polls, it may be true that Layton didn't cite one when he made his claim about peacekeeping, but then, I doubt Harper or McKay or O'Connor would be able to point to a poll favouring an indefinite commitment to an ill-defined counterinsurgency effort to back up the collective lies those three have been telling the Canadian people.

Shouldn't our high priestess in the SCC be 'interpreting' Jacko's bias here? It sounds to me like Jacko does not like Arabs - he likes the people of the Darfur region better. And the Bloc prefers Palestinians to Afghan people . Where is our own 'oracle of ottawafi' when mortals have questions? Back in her cave looking for shadows maybe? And the final answer to the question is Plato never really believed that the Oracle at Delphi was infallible or even credible. Ah the mystery of it all.

So adding a clickable link will kick in the spam filter?

While I understand the need to stop malicious coding, my experience is few cut and paste an addy to see what is there.

I agree, backhoe. I wonder if TypePad has a plug-in that provides the same functionality as AndrewCoyne.com used - basically, the first comment by a given person is held until the person answers the automatic email sent to them to verify that it's a real person.

Then, they can comment forever unimpeded using that email address unless the site owner blocks them. This should prevent bots.

I don't know if this is possible using a TypePad plug-in.

***

Speaking of reader tips, not only did Bob Rae use the anology of the Hitler-Chamberlain Munich Pact to describe the softwood lumber deal, but former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Liberal Party leader Bill Graham did as well.

To learn more including uncovering links to the relevant CTV video and outraged reactions, see this Jason Cherniak blog discussion (in the comments starting with "The Tiger's" comment at 12:26 AM):

http://jasoncherniak.blogspot.com/2006/05/come-on-warren.html

***

It's worth the effort to cut and paste it!

* Movable Type plug-in, I meant.

Canadian voters are pussies. We can barely get a heterosexual able-bodied male elected anymore unless he's wearing a dozen wristbands, ribons, and other miscellaneous victim paraphrenalia and pledged to wear a thong to the Gay Pride parade. The leaders of the NDP and Liberal party tell us that we need more women in parliament because men aren't as civilized as women.

And then there is Mexico:

"MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Among the crowing, slurs and insults being flung around in Mexico's election race, campaign ads in this country are even competing over which candidate has the greatest manhood.

From television spots to interviews with presidential hopefuls, you could be forgiven for wondering if the only thing that counts in this election race is size.

"We know why we are with Roberto. It's because he has big ones," says a farmer in a TV spot to promote Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, candidate Roberto Madrazo, running in third place in opinion polls.

A radio ad for ruling party candidate Felipe Calderon, ranked second in polls, says the conservative is the one who could spur job creation because "he's got balls."
...
The taunt chimes with criticism among many Mexicans of the way First Lady Marta Sahagun appears to dominate gentle-natured President
Vicente Fox, whose term ends in December.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060425/od_nm/election_manhood_dc;_ylt=A86.I1OsqlRE60cBNiUSH9EA;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--

What a joke, the NDP asking for us to go into Dafur! I can't believe they don't see the similarities of Dafur to Iraq - i.e. a bunch of government sanctioned (Arab) muslims going around killing and raping other innocent (African)muslims in an oil-rich country. We send troops over there and we will be in exactly the same situation as Iraq, fighting an insurgency propped up by Al-Queda, Iran, Syria etc!! Osama Bin Laden has already called for his followers to "help" in Dafur! The only country that can truly help Dafur is the U.S. and with the continuing Bush-bashing and anti Iraq war rhetoric, I don't think he will be rushing to do so any time soon!! Hundreds of thousands of people have died and will continue to die horribly in Dafur, at least many, many in Iraq have been saved!

In other news, Lou Dobbs is still on the warpath.

I think the guy is a bit of a demagogue, but he has a legitimate point - the two American political parties have no interest in ending illegal immigration because they don't want to shut down the businesses that hire this cheap labour. And any debate about the issue is just window-dressing. This is the one issue that regular citizens all across the spectrum think is a problem, but politicians all across the spectrum will do nothing about. It has nothing to do with compassion or Hispanic votes - it's about the corporations, where the real political money comes from.

Darfur: excerpts from a brilliant column by Margaret Wente in the Globe today (full text not online):
'...
...Jack Layton wants to help Darfur, especially if it means we get to pull our troops out of Afghanistan to do it. "Let there be no doubt," he said in an emotional speech this week. "What we are seeing in Darfur is genocide in slow motion."

Mr. Layton wants to bring back the glory days of peacekeeping under the umbrella of the United Nations. The blue helmets will protect the innocent (if there are any left alive by then) from being raped and slaughtered, just the way they protected those 800,000 people in Rwanda. Even Roméo Dallaire now says the UN is the answer...

If sentiment were deeds and talk were action, Canada would be a hero...

Let no one say Canada hasn't seized the moral high ground on Darfur. Even if we don't have any troops to send, we can help in other ways. We can get Mr. Rock to talk sternly to Russia and China, who are stubbornly refusing to come around. And after the militias peacefully lay down their arms, we can send our experts to help write a constitution.

Unfortunately, I doubt Sudan's Omar Hassan Bashir is too worried yet. He knows his pals will stick up for him. China gets 7 per cent of its oil from Sudan, and in turn sells it weapons to arm its militias...

The Arab nations have been curiously mum about the Muslims dying in Darfur. Is it because they're the wrong kind of Muslims? Or is it because they're being slaughtered by other Muslims, instead of by Americans and Jews? The African Union isn't enthusiastic about Western meddling either. They're insulted that people think their own 7,000-man security force can't do the job -- even though it has been totally ineffectual. The Europeans, meantime, have mostly got out of the peacekeeping business. They'd rather stand back and denounce American imperialism...'

Meanwhile, a piece by Jim Travers in the Toronto Star in which he claims that former PM Martin got a promise in March 2005 from Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Hillier that there would be troops for both Afstan and Darfur. The title says it all: Peacekeeping pledge broken. The media's agenda marches on.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1147297813034&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154&t=TS_Home

Mark
Ottawa

Conservatives wait for big guns

By GREG WESTON - Ottawa Sun - May 11, 2006

Next week, Stephen Harper's government will finally take aim at the one federal agency Conservatives most love to hate -- the national long gun registry.

Many diehard party faithful had expected that this giant of Liberal waste and mismanagement would have taken a bullet by sundown the day after the ballots were counted.

Instead, Harper and his strategists sized up the opposition to killing the gun registry -- the NDP, the Bloc, most Liberals, and a majority of Quebec voters, to name a few -- and wisely decided to leave the shootout to that most feared and revered of all parliamentary gunslingers, Auditor General Sheila Fraser.

At 2 p.m. next Tuesday, Fraser is scheduled to release her latest report to Parliament, another guaranteed compendium of squander and stupidity in high places, including the federal firearms program.

While the AG does not have the authority to send the agency to its grave, her revelations will likely provide ample ammunition for the Conservatives to put the registry on life support.

If a recent press teaser from Fraser's shop is any indication, her report will not be flattering.
http://www.voy.com/178771/10595.html

Muslim girls allowed private swim test
MONTREAL—The decision to close a high school pool to give three Muslim girls a private swimming class is stoking debate over the place of faith in Quebec's public institutions...

...The board argues it is simply respecting provisions of a recent Supreme Court judgment on wearing Sikh kirpans (ceremonial daggers) in classrooms that set limits on restricting religious rights...

...Several Toronto public school pools offer weekly all-girl swim periods for Muslim girls whose religion prohibits them from wearing bathing suits in front of boys...
http://tinyurl.com/o7fpj

Charley, there's no problem in Darfur, it's been taken to the UN!

That wonderful, august, all-wise, multilateral global body no doubt has pulled out all the stops to end the genocide, call to account the Sudanese government criminals responsible and to assist the survivors in rebuilding their lives, with effecive help and protection from the UN.

Weren't we all deeply moved by all those stirring speeches in the General Assembly and Security Council?

Those impassioned, eloquent Muslim and Arab Ambassadors, called Sudan to account, saying that Islam is humiliated, not by the US and Britain, but by Islamofascist criminals claiming to be Islamic defenders but in reality criminals against humanity.

Weren't we also moved by the Russian and Chinese Ambassadors, apologizing to the world for their putting oil and trade interests at the top of their agenda, along with US-bashing opportunities? And their setting up a fund with billions of dollars for the survivors and their solemn vows to now work to protect and help the survivor victims of Sudanese genocide?

And weren't we moved by the standing ovation that US Ambassador John Bolton received on entering the Security Council chamber, with chants of "Bolton was right! Bush was right!"

Who says the UN doesn't change the world, protect the weak and defenseless and effect great good for all humanity?

/sarcasm

Arranged marriages becoming more common, officials say

..."We are trying very hard to clamp down on fraudulent marriages," she said, noting that officials review marriage documents, photographs, e-mails, love letters and may even make house visits. Warning signs include a history of marriages....

.."Unlike in the U.S., in Canada there is no requirement to live together for a minimum period of two or three years until permanent residency is granted. In Canada, the spouse gets landed status right away," noted Sergio Karas, an immigration lawyer...

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060511.wxmarry10/BNStory/National/home

The CBC....AKA the central broadcasting committee has a piece about the Harper government suing the Liberals for money received from the sponsorship program. ( available on their website ) I sent them this E mail in response but expect little from them.

I would like to point out two errors in your piece.
The first is that the sponsorship program was really about maintaining the Liberals in power not increasing their exposure in Quebec.( It was only made to look to the easily conned that this was the purpose)... The second error is your constantly stated perception that little work was done.......Little government work was done but that does not mean that the advertizing agencies were not working hard for the Liberal party of Canada. Guite asked the question.... "Who do you think runs election campaigns?" His answer was advertizing agencies.
It is very obvious that they were paid to work for the Liberal election campaigns but were paid by the taxpayer.
If you compare the level of quality of the Liberal's election campaigns with the quality of all the other's campaigns it become very obvious that the Liberals had a much more eaxpensive one. A fact that barely showes up in the Elections Canada expense forms. This was very suspicious until we found out about the sponsorship program which like a lightning flash exposed and explained how the Liberals had gotted so much bang for their bucks.... Which of course should have brought up the question of election fraud with the media but miraculously it did not. Given the billions of dollars the media had received from the governing Liberals this is really no surprise is it?

Further to that article, truthsayer, did you notice this statement: "In addition to recovering funds, the move could have political benefits for the minority Conservatives, keeping the sponsorship scandal in the minds of voters until the next federal election."

Yup, the move is purely politically-driven by those darn Conservatives (sarcasm). The media has been getting particularly nauseating lately.

Bombard Chief Justice McGoddess re MP Vellacott's freedom of speech.

Free Vellacott's Free Speech.

CJ McGoddess: Stay in your chambers: stay tfout of politics. ....

Internet warfare

Free Alaa! is a website dedicated to obtaining justice for Egyptian blogger Alaa, who as Tigerhawk says, was "apparently arrested ... in connection with the ongoing struggle in that country over the independence of the judiciary." Sandmonkey describes the events surrounding his arrest.

As you may have heard by now, Egyptian Blogger Alaa Abdel Fatah has been arrested alongside 10 others while demonstrating in support of the independence of the Judiciary in Egypt and the release of previous demonstrators who were detained 2 weeks earlier. The Police entrapped them, cordoning off their peaceful protest and then proceeded to handpick the demonstrators that they wanted to detain, beat them, and then arrested them. ... This is by no means a co-incidence. Government agents handpicked people to arrest from amongst the protesters. They have been wanting to get Alaa for a long time now, precisely because he is high profile, and because he helps organizes the protests and spread the information through the blog aggregator he runs (www.manalaa.net).

own personal entry in Wikipedia, a guy from Florida started one up: Alaa Abd El-Fatah

The Google Bomb weapon requires a little explanation. It's basically a way of creating links which tricks the Google search engine into giving a certain phrase inordinate importance. Here's how it's done.

A google bomb could be achieved easily, this is a possible scenario :

1. The initiator chooses a word to be searched : "liars"
2. The initiator chooses the target website : "http://example.com/"
3. The initiator creates a link like this : liars
4. The initiator places this code in his website, as his signature in forum, in his blogs etc.
5. The initiator talks to other people about the bomb and tells other people to use the code in their own writings.
6. GoogleBot indexes and ranks, resulting in http://google.com/search?q=liars having the political party's webpage as a first result

Free Alaa! has proposed this Google bombing scheme.

You use the word googlebombingforalaa and link it to this:
http://technorati.com/tag/googlebombingforalaa
so you get this: googlebombingforalaa

Commentary

I think the effectiveness of the Internet campaign would be greatly enhanced if these Internet weapons were targeted by operational intelligence. A perfect example was cited by The Big Pharaoh. Because emails were directed at a particular target -- the Egyptian embassy -- they have had a perceptible impact. If it were scattered the effect would be less. Institutions with which the Egyptian government has dealings can be targeted in the same way -- and Egypt has dealings with companies, governments and cultural establishments -- and the outriders of Mubarak's public diplomacy will start taking palpable hits. Attacks like Google Bombs and Wikis are of a more general nature. They can set a tone, but they ineffective in themselves. So the next thing the Free Alaa! site should create is a targeting cell which can determine against which institutions email campaigns, petitions and the like can be directed.

It would also help if the campaign were pitched in politically neutral terms. Glenn Reynolds is the conservative Godfather of the Free Alaa campaign. If a leftist Godfather could be found then the campaign could be conducted in stereophonic. One last item: the demands to free Alaa should be designed with goal of leaving the Egyptian government an "out": a way in which they can accede to the demands without losing face or suffering undue public humiliation. It's not my idea. It Sun Tzu's.
http://www.fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com/

US Army Troop Build up on Iraq-Iran Borders
Posted by jmc1969
On 05/11/2006 8:13:08 AM PDT · 30 replies · 762+ views

Zaman ^ | March 11 2006
After the Tehran administration conducted operations against the terror network Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) by crossing the Iraqi border, the US Army in Iraq is claimed to have increased the military build up of US troops on the Iranian border. Tehran local radio announced the US stationed army units on the Iraqi border, increased reconnaissance flights in the region, and trained anti-Iran militias in Iraq. Iranian Interior Ministry confirmed the information. Activity on the 450 kilometer long border is gradually increasing. Tehran radio also recorded that the US aircrafts reconnaissance flights could also be seen from villages along the border.
freerepublic.com

Calm down everyone,I'm sure it's all a mistake.Jack Layton would NEVER condone sending troops to fight in another country where innocent people are being murdered.(Just peek at his record)I am confident it was only a slip of the tongue,he actually wants to send PROTESTERS to save these people.Honestly,what other expertise could the NDP offer?

Coronation Today!
All Hail!...Jack Layton,King of the Hyocrites!

Backhoe:
"few cut and paste an addy to see what is there"

If you use Firefox, there are solutions. First you can double click the link to highlight it, then drag and drop it to the tab bar to open a new tab with the link. Pretty simple.

Or if you have Grease Monkey installed, there is a script called Linkify that automatically converts web addresses it finds on a page to clickable links.

leave it to CBCpravda to think that the liberals stealing 40 million dollars is just a political spin for the Tories.

The billion it costs to fund CBCpravda will be spun out ad naseum as killing Canadian culture when its time to pull the plug on this old record player.

Stephen -please kill the CBC , or sell it to the liberal/ndp party for a dollar , they can continue to spin the same story and drain the coffers of two monetarily and morally bankrupt parties.

or keep the CBC, just fire all the marxist leninist NDP socialist wannbe fart-for-brains that work there now, de-certify teh unions and and just hire Don Cherry as the new president.

And Kate gets the gig to replace girly-Mansbridge.

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet.

Hm -- did I just agree with something Warren Kinsella said? He made a pretty damn good point about Nazi comparisons in today's Post.

From canada.com/ottawacitizen/news.

"Canada, U.S. in talks to let teen terror suspect serve time here"

Looks like Khadr may be coming home.

It always tears me up that this American soldier was a young medic, killed in Afghanistan with a grenade thrown by a Canadian who was taught to hate and kill Americans.

http://www.groups.sfahq.com/3rd/speer_kia.htm

Darfur update: PM Harper talks some sense--unlike the Liberals and NDP in the House who seem to think that Canada is absolutely central to how the world deals with Darfur, and that Canada has the international clout to "do something".
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060511.wdarfurs0511/BNStory/National/home

Mark
Otawa

Darfur update: PM Harper talks some sense--unlike the Liberals and NDP in the House who seem to think that Canada is absolutely central to how the world deals with Darfur, and that Canada has the international clout to "do something".
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060511.wdarfurs0511/BNStory/National/home

Mark
Otawa

Darfur: excerpts from a brilliant column by Margaret Wente in the Globe today (full text not online):
'...
...Jack Layton wants to help Darfur, especially if it means we get to pull our troops out of Afghanistan to do it. "Let there be no doubt," he said in an emotional speech this week. "What we are seeing in Darfur is genocide in slow motion."

Mr. Layton wants to bring back the glory days of peacekeeping under the umbrella of the United Nations. The blue helmets will protect the innocent (if there are any left alive by then) from being raped and slaughtered, just the way they protected those 800,000 people in Rwanda. Even Roméo Dallaire now says the UN is the answer...

If sentiment were deeds and talk were action, Canada would be a hero...

Let no one say Canada hasn't seized the moral high ground on Darfur. Even if we don't have any troops to send, we can help in other ways. We can get Mr. Rock to talk sternly to Russia and China, who are stubbornly refusing to come around. And after the militias peacefully lay down their arms, we can send our experts to help write a constitution.

Unfortunately, I doubt Sudan's Omar Hassan Bashir is too worried yet. He knows his pals will stick up for him. China gets 7 per cent of its oil from Sudan, and in turn sells it weapons to arm its militias...

The Arab nations have been curiously mum about the Muslims dying in Darfur. Is it because they're the wrong kind of Muslims? Or is it because they're being slaughtered by other Muslims, instead of by Americans and Jews? The African Union isn't enthusiastic about Western meddling either. They're insulted that people think their own 7,000-man security force can't do the job -- even though it has been totally ineffectual. The Europeans, meantime, have mostly got out of the peacekeeping business. They'd rather stand back and denounce American imperialism...'

Meanwhile, a piece by Jim Travers in the Toronto Star in which he claims that former PM Martin got a promise in March 2005 from Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Hillier that there would be troops for both Afstan and Darfur. The title says it all: Peacekeeping pledge broken. The media's agenda marches on.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1147297813034&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154&t=TS_Home

Mark
Ottawa

Bob Rae said he quit the NDP because they were not sympathetic enough to Israel and Jewish causes.
Of course now he professes the leader of the freeworld is the new Hitler, not, "one bomb country" Ahmadinnerjacket!

I think he swallowed way too much Hallal meat at Oxford.

This is big. Central-government fans worry that the fiscal imbalance argument is about Ottawa surrendering power to the provinces. This is more of a trade: we'll get out of your hair if you act like you deserve it. And all that nice language about the Liberal record? It's not cute, it's crucial. Harper is opening up big new areas of Canadian consensus. Here are the things we won't argue about anymore, he's saying, so we can set the table for the new debates about tomorrow.
paulwells macleans ...

"Restoring Fiscal Balance in Canada - Focusing on Priorities"
http://www.fin.gc.ca/budget06/pdf/fp2006e.pdf

sarge here. funny sarges old mom said it seemed like 1936 a couple years ago, just before the boys went into iraq. the part that is funny is, sarge's old mom was in germany in 1936.

This comment:

"It's interesting to me that very often Conservative governments seem to be more morally responsible than one might imagine.",

by Egoyan, is revealing of the moral stance of Stephen Harper: a conservative.

Actions speak louder than words; judge by what a person does; not by what is said.

Kudos to Egoyan for speaking publicly.

Praise to Prime Minister Harper.

Egoyan praises Harper's stance on genocide
May 10, 2006. 05:50 PM
CANADIAN PRESS

OTTAWA — Celebrated filmmaker Atom Egoyan, perhaps the most famous Canadian of Armenian decent, praised Prime Minister Stephen Harper for his controversial recognition of the Armenian genocide.

"I think the Harper government has taken a courageous stand in its early days, on several issues that could have faded into history but bear scrutiny," Egoyan said in an interview Wednesday.

"It's interesting to me that very often Conservative governments seem to be more morally responsible than one might imagine." ... more
http://www.voy.com/178771/10661.html

Hey Kate: you know how you loathe the CBC and the mainstream media? Well, there's good news. "TV" and "broadcast networks" as we know them are about to become obsolete. Neither McLuhan nor Warhol would've predicted this but not only can people produce their own TV shows; they can create their own freaking broadcast networks! Consider the possibilities of the following:

"DAVE.TV(TM), a global IPTV digital entertainment network, today announced its new Social Broadcast Network(TM) (SBN) featuring user programmed broadcast channels as well as a comprehensive user-generated video content system on its IPTV network, www.dave.tv. Building upon the growing YouTube user-generated content phenomenon and social networking sites such as MySpace, the DAVE.TV SBN, for the first time, will allow consumers to not only publish and broadcast their own user-generated videos but also have program broadcast content from other DAVE.TV members and hundreds of channels of ad-supported content from DAVE.TV's network of content partners. In effect this allows consumers to create their own channels, or MyChannels(TM), where they are now the "Broadcaster" and can create and share playlists.

Pretty cool, eh?

Not to mention hotair.com

This from CTVtass and Dalton himself

"I will ask that the Harper government and the central bank keep in mind, as they drive up interest rates to cool down an overheated Alberta economy, it is not in the interests of the Ontario economy," McGuinty told reporters Tuesday in response to the loonie topping 90 cents US for the first time in nearly 30 years.

they didnt mind the made in ontario policy when the interest rates were stifling the west.

vive l'alberta libre. saw us off from the mcgimpy leg.

An Islamic Declaration of War

Only a few blogs (and almost no mainstream media) have realized the truth about Iranian madman Ahmadinejad’s letter to President Bush. It was not an offer to negotiate, and it was not simply a lunatic’s rant. It was a calculated invitation to convert to Islam, a da’wa—an Islamic requirement (commanded by Mohammed) before waging war against unbelievers.

Speaking in Jakarta, Indonesia, Ahmadinejad himself confirmed this reading today, as reported by the Islamic Republic News Agency:
LGF

Darfurgetaboutit

sarge, how about translating your comment for the rest of us.

Maybe it's me, but I'm totally not understanding it.

Darfurgetaboutit
http://tinyurl.com/agfqx

Canadian troops capture Taliban suspects
Last Updated Thu, 11 May 2006 19:25:44 EDT
CBC News

Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan have captured 10 suspected Taliban fighters. (cbc) via nealenews

CBC Breaking News: Gen. Jack Layton, CMO, HBO, Croix de Tims,and Ass. Willy Grahamm are reportedly on their way, via Omaha, to Afghan, purportedly by Sea Queen helos. Their united front is carrying a petition from GG to lower the flags on PHill in sympathy with the Islamist terrorists. More on the 11 news with Shelagh & Peter. Here is the national time signal... at the starto the long dash, it w.. b...

CP, aka CanPravda, spins it as follows: via cnews...

Update on Gen Jack and Ass. Grahamm: suppression has been added to the petition as directed by GG and Lafond, the spirit-maker of the bloqseparatistes. Sea Queens are bumpy, giggles Ass. Willy.... (CBC not).

Canadian troops capture Taliban suspects
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP) - Military officials have advised a photographer to suppress his pictures of the largest group of suspected Taliban prisoners yet captured by Canadian soldiers

Upper date: Reports say Gen. Jack and his asst. are now on a secret mission to Indo, with Dosanjh and MP Algebra as rear gunners. Those NDPs are up to no good. Imajihad is exuberant/jubilating at the audacity of the Can's..... via SDA

Ahmadinejad is Big in Indonesia

With his talk of genocide and destroying Israel, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has captivated the hearts of students in the “moderate” Islamic state of Indonesia, at two of the country’s most prestigious universities: Iran’s leader a new hero among Indonesians. (Hat tip: Allahpundit.)

HE’S tiny, wears a perfectly groomed beard and waves to his supporters with both hands clasped high in the air, prize-fighter-style - and now Jakarta’s university students have declared Mahmoud Ahmadinejad “the world’s most charismatic leader” via LGF

Maz2, Is it only LGF and I who see *MadMuds* manifesto to Bush as a * Declaration of war*?

Who is LGF, I often fail to recognize the short form. A commenter or a group?

I admit the liberal practice of viewing reality as a pink tinted fiction has it*s attractions, but this is a time when seeing things as they actually are, though unpleasant, is absolutly required. TG

Letter from the front (Afghanistan)

Posted on 05/02/2006 7:06:19 AM PDT by Sutrut

This is a email from my bro who is stationed at an undisclosed location near Kandahar.

"Greetings all.

Just a quick update from Afghanistan as it begins to warm up. Weather so far has been great, but it has taken a turn for the warmer in the past 3 days, so it won’t be long before it gets really hot. We have a new contractor bringing in food, so the quality has improved from “excremental” to “occasionally edible.” Ah, the small improvements in life.

We had another ramp ceremony tonight. For those of you who don’t know, a ramp ceremony takes place when a coalition soldier is killed. As his casket is carried onto the plane for his final voyage home, all the military personnel here line the way on the ramp where the aircraft is parked, and render final honors. Let me talk about this in a bit more detail, since its not anything that ever gets reported on. ...
I can’t tell you how many troops are in these formations, but it is a good number. Anyone familiar with a military formation that is “at ease” recalls that talking, laughing, and joking are commonplace. That is what makes the silence of these formations so jarring. Other than a few embarrassed and suppressed coughs, no one speaks. For in this place with so many soldiers, it is lonely as we all prepare to say good bye to a comrade most of us never met.

Each nation does things a little different. The US takes their fallen on the plane with the pall bearers at a slow half step, with the unit commander and first sergeant following. The Canadians have a brief eulogy, then their padre leads the procession while the regimental piper pipes “amazing grace” (Since the Canadians have been here, they have graciously lent their piper to the US for the same purpose) and then they dip the national and regimental colors to the ground. The French have the unit commander eulogize the dead more fully, and he does so alternating in French and English so all can understand.

As the procession goes down between the formations, everyone salutes until they are loaded on the airplane for their final trip home. It is a long salute, but there are no complaints. It is the last honor to a fallen comrade.

Another thing to remember is that everyone here, from all the coalition forces, is a volunteer. ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1625244/posts

Maz2, Is it only LGF and I who see *MadMuds* manifesto to Bush as a * Declaration of war*?

Who is LGF, I often fail to recognize the short form. A commenter or a group?

I admit the liberal practice of viewing reality as a pink tinted fiction has it*s attractions, but this is a time when seeing things as they actually are, though unpleasant, is absolutly required. TG

Maz2, Is it only LGF and I who see *MadMuds* manifesto to Bush as a * Declaration of war*?

Who is LGF, I often fail to recognize the short form. A commenter or a group?

I admit the liberal practice of viewing reality as a pink tinted fiction has it*s attractions, but this is a time when seeing things as they actually are, though unpleasant, is absolutly required. TG

Damian Penny of "Daimnation!"
http://www.damianpenny.com/

on Rob Breakenridge's World Tonight show, CHQR Calgary, at 1005 Eastern Time.
http://www.qr77.com/station/blog_the_world_tonight.cfm

Mark
Ottawa

Maz2, Is it only LGF and I who see *MadMuds* manifesto to Bush as a * Declaration of war*?

Who is LGF, I often fail to recognize the short form. A commenter or a group?

I admit the liberal practice of viewing reality as a pink tinted fiction has it*s attractions, but this is a time when seeing things as they actually are, though unpleasant, is absolutly required. TG

TG, here is the URL for LGF: It is the creation of Charles Johnston. It's one of the "big" blogs; hated by the moonbats and jihadists.

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/

Chomsky is a reincarnation of Ezra Pound (search). Chomsky is a traitor; a perfect model of the "Treason of the Intellectuals"..
www.newcriterion.com/archive/11/dec92/treason.htm -

Noam Chomsky Supports Hizballah, Iran

In a lifetime filled with despicable statements and support for history’s worst regimes, MIT professor Noam Chomsky has finally hit absolute bottom as he visits the leader of the Hizballah terror gang, calls the United States a “leading terrorist state,” and supports Iran’s quest for nuclear weapons—to deter “Israeli aggression.” From Drudge Report. (Hat tip: LGF readers.)

Something was *stuck*.. sorry about the stuttering. Maybe a combination of Shaw and the latest *Opera* browser.TG

Maz, Thank-you. Things were stuck in a time warp on my end. Just seeing the refresh now.

Of course ... I*m sooo ashamed.

It*s just criminal when one is missing one of the *essential basics*. Thanks, TG

Dear Tony,
In the last few weeks, hundreds of thousands of Internet users sent letters asking Congress to prevent big telephone and cable companies from blocking or slowing your access to Internet services offered by their competitors.

Consumers Union activists alone sent nearly 100,000 letters!
And yet, Congress has refused to include any provisions to save the Internet in the massive telecommunication bill--the COPE Act--it continues to push forward. This could be a disaster for the Internet as we know it.

*The companies hope, for instance, to charge Yahoo! so that its site loads faster than Google's, or to make rival Net-phone firms like Vonage pay to use their broadband pipes. The first idea is akin to a gas station charging a Chevy driver more than a Honda driver. The latter is like AT&T putting static on your line when a Verizon customer calls. Neither is exactly competitive.* --The Peoria (Ill.) Journal Star (full article below)

We can't let that happen. Tell Congress, any bill that passes must protect the open Internet!

http://tinyurl.com/mh3mq

The COPE Act passed out of committee and will go to the full House of Representative for a final vote next week with nothing in it to protect the Internet from the tactics of telecommunications giants. Meanwhile, a recently introduced Senate bill likewise fails to protect your right to unfettered Internet access.

But there is good news. An alternative bill that would keep the Internet open and free, the *Network Neutrality Act of 2006,* was recently introduced in the House. Lawmakers need to know that you expect them to keep the Internet, neutral, open and free.

Send a letter right now to tell Congress that you don’t want cable and telephone companies to put tollbooths and speed bumps on the Internet!

http://tinyurl.com/qu2ww

This will only take a few moments, and when you finish please forward this message to all your friends and acquaintances who use the Internet so that they can take action, too.

The Internet is too precious to turn over to the telephone and cable companies.
Sincerely,
Morgan Jindrich
HearUsNow.org
A project of Consumers Union //TG

I leave the TV on after the game, I'm surfing the web, and then I hear Alison Smith say "the so-called War on Terror."

So-called War on Terror? What is she, some Islamic jihadist?

Regarding improvement in Iraq. Some slam dunk!
Into 4th year in Iraq and 5th year in Afganistan. Is it over yet?? No. Will it be over anytime soon? No. But hey! Cheer up! Things are getting better all the time. Right? Right?

http://www.airforcetimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-1764639.php

Canadian troops can't take Taliban prisoners because the Taliban were defeated in 2002 by the Americans. G.W.Bush himself said so right on TV. Now that was reality.
Canada is a signatory of the International Human Rights Tribunal. Under this agreement if signatories hold or hand over prisoners who are tortured then they are responsible and can be charged. Both the Afgans and Americans torture prisoners. Neither one is a member of the IHRT but we are. That too is reality.
ATOMIC reality. In the 61 years since the Atom bomb was invented it has only been used by one country. Twice. Of all the countries and governments, some of them evil communist, only the Americas have used it. If Japan had owned a bomb the Americans wouldn't have used it either. To think that a country like Iran would drop an Atom bomb on Israel is just naive. The unwritten rule is that you don't attack unless you think you can win. How is it possible to win an Atomic war?? It isn't. Assured mutual destruction is just not going to happen.

Tony Guitar, did anyone answer your question? LGF stands for Little Green Footballs, a Web site.

I'd like to collect all of the acronyms we use in the blogosphere and put together a Blog Dictionary. I'm still deciphering a whole bunch of them. IMO, we need something like this.

Steve D:

Was that you I heard barking at the moon last night?

"Right-Of-Center Bloggers Select Their Favorite Columnists"
http://www.rightwingnews.com/archives/week_2006_05_07.PHP#005694

SDA was a voter. Guess who won?

Mark
Ottawa

I am quite concerned about the deliberate, specific and relentless attacks against Harper by the MSM in Canada.
We have the CBC, CTV, Global, the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail etc - providing Canadians with daily attacks. Their content is often hyperbole, the contents are suggestions and guesses raised to certainty, are outright speculation, misinterpretations, made-up realities...and all attack Harper.

Example: Jeffrey Simpson in today's G&M: 'Harper's gang doesn't let facts get in the way of votes".
So- now, our elected representatives are 'Harper's Gang'? And they dismiss facts? We know that Simpson is a die-hard Liberal (he certainly didn't criticize the Liberals for their hiding of facts).

Example: the uproar over Vellacourt's accurate description of McLachlin as 'activist'. The Toronto Star, the G&M all screamed - how dare we criticize our noble judges.
But, she IS activist; her speeches and actions show this. Our supreme court IS activist. But, the MSM do not permit dissent and criticism of Liberal actions.

Mike Duffy's show, Don Newman's show- each an hour long, are pure Liberal propaganda. So, we taxpayers are paying to be brainwashed. If that isn't akin to communist China - then, what is?

I think blogs and bloggers have to work very hard in confronting this open MSM bias.

Steve D,
Once again you assume rationale leadership in countries like Iran. History is full of irrational acts by irrational leaders. I suggest you do some research before making such sweeping statements. You may trust countries like Iran with nuclear weapons but fortunately the rest of the world is not so naive.

Americans OK with having their phones bugged: Poll

Americans by nearly a 2-1 ratio call the surveillance of telephone records an acceptable way for the federal government to investigate possible terrorist threats, expressing broad unconcern even if their own calling patterns are scrutinized.
nealenews

Afstan: Babbling Brooks replies at the Torch
http://toyoufromfailinghands.blogspot.com/2006/05/one-simple-answer-in-sea-of.html

to an article by Sen. Colin Kenny asking about exit strategies and such.
http://server09.densan.ca/archivenews/060512/cit/060512bp.htm

I wonder what the NDP and Liberal exit strategies for Darfur would be.

Regarding Darfur, an excellent analysis in an Army.ca editorial. The conclusion:
http://forums.army.ca/forums/index.php/topic,43205.0.html
'...
The Ruxted Group agrees with an Army.ca member who said, recently, ”… the primary utility of armed forces is to give the government of the day options. To do that the armed forces must be capable of doing a certain range of tasks – decades, nearly four of them, of neglect and, occasionally, actual destruction of military capabilities have deprived the Government of Canada of many of its options. Delaying the rebuilding of our military capabilities, even to help others to deal with a real crime against humanity, would a grave strategic error.” It may be that Canada will, indeed must ‘sit this one out’ while it rebuilds the military so that when the inevitable next crises arise we can respond, efficiently and effectively.'

Mark
Ottawa

BuubaBill had one. Nix just about had one. Jackson had one. Why not Carter? Chimpy doesn't rate?

Angry Left to Get Angrier

Are they shrieking with outrage at Daily Kos yet? Democrats Won’t Try To Impeach President.

Seeking to choke off a Republican rallying cry, the House’s top Democrat has told colleagues that the party will not seek to impeach President Bush even if it gains control of the House in November’s elections, her office said last night.

Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) told her caucus members during their weekly closed meeting Wednesday “that impeachment is off the table; she is not interested in pursuing it,” spokesman Brendan Daly said
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/

Good idea, New Kid,
With a printed out sheet of two, three and four letter acronyms as a handy reference, one could quickly ease forward when cranial synaps fail to spark as they should.

LGF is no stranger, yet it didn*t click. Must do more jogs with the dog. Too lazy lately. TG

Latest at Nealnews:
Cindy Sheehan says that Harper is wildly unpoular!!
LMAO
What a complete Dope

He is only unpopular in the big empty she calls her mind.

Prime Minister Iggy, aka Mikhail Ignatieff, PET II, Order of the NEP, puts the law down for Alberta.

Clean up your act, or else it's the Gulag for youse rednecks.

By order, Mikhail Iggy, Member of the Socialist Power Corp. Liberal Party of Toronto.

CALGARY (CP) - Federal Liberal leadership hopeful Michael Ignatieff says Alberta's booming oilpatch should focus on becoming a world leader in clean energy. cnews

TonyGuitar et al,

The have a pretty good list at LGF (little green footballs) at least it's a start.

Paul from Vancouver
I just don't think they are irrational to the point of suicide. Think about what happens if Iran A-bombs Israel. The Israelis would A-bomb them twice. Then I would expect the Americans to at the very least disarm the Iranians completely before sending in the troops to "free" Iran.
You think Iran doesn't know this?? You think Iranian leaders are tired of ruling and want instead to die? Just for once think about the reality of the situation and not just accept the propaganda.

Steve D,
That is exactly the problem. You just don't think. They are blinded by their theology and their hatred. They have this irrational hate on for jews.

It is another one of those sad instances of you will be proven wrong. Unfortunately many more people will have to die for that to happen.

You and the Cindy Sheehans of the world. Read her writeup on her visit to Canada. Either she lies or she is just as blinded by her hate and ideology as you are.
enough

Enough
Cindy was way ahead of the curve on indicting the Bush administration. The people have caught up and two-thirds now agree with her. It is the ever shrinking group of Bushkovites that are seen as irrational and liars.
His administration has more incompetence and crooks than any other in American history.
Bush has divided America so that it is as close to another civil war as it has been since the last one. They are divided red states against blue states, rich against poor, mexicans and latinos against whites. The hate is fostered by the Republican Right. They put their ideology ahead of America. Talk about blind. Cindy was one of the first to stand up and speak the truth.
The Palestinians are Arabs. They have been living in camps for sixty years. The other Arabs in the Middle East take exception to the treatment of the Palestinians. This isn't irrational but understandable. I think it is irrational to think Palestinians should accept their lot passively without rancor. As for people dying they are already dying by the hundreds every day in the Middle East without any end in sight.
So I do think, I think of all sides. I see Nationalism. I see lust for oil. I see lust for power. I see weaponry sold by the billions. I see many countries vying for influence and profit. I see a decades of misery and frustration. I see fear, anger and death. I see much manipulation.
Everyone wants to simplify everything, make it black and white, good and bad, the right against the wrong, Arab against Jew, but it is not so simple.

Steve d, We must speculate...

Iran has a new sub fleet and via Pakistan, long range pointy things and nukes.

*MadMud* issues a manifesto to Bush.
What does the logic of that say?

It says he has weapons in order and he would like to test them!

Does US military GPS have Iran*s subs in the cross hairs? Very likely, but you don*t know and neither do I.

Does the US have cross hairs drawn on enough of the underground Iranian nuke plant?

Can the US manage an effective pre-emtive strike? Is *MadMud* prone to calm if concessions are won as North Korea always seems to do? [I doubt it somehow.]

That*s just scratching the surface.

Very few could speak with any certainty, and I detect a lot of fear in your comments.

Well fear is reasonable, but don*t bother to worry at all. That just burns calories for nothing.

It*s more fun to plot the possible outcomes. TG

"Everyone wants to simplify everything, make it black and white, good and bad, the right against the wrong, Arab against Jew, but it is not so simple."
Posted by: steve d. at May 13, 2006 01:05 AM

Steve d...beautifully said,too bad it is a completely hypocritical sentiment based on reading your tired rants.You demonstrate NO ability to analyze a situation without approaching it from a purely partisan bias.
You seem to judge all input with the same simplistic formula;
liberal=good...conservative=bad.
Talk about black and white,YOU are pretty much the most predictable poster on this site.
Case in point,tell me one redeeming character George W. has.Come on,you can do it,after all he managed to become leader of the free world,he must have AT LEAST one redeeming quality.Well...of course you can't(or rather won't)because you CAN'T see him as anything but an evil bad man.If that prejudice changed,your arguments on a variety of international events would fall like a house of cards.
So keep posting your myopic views if you must,but lay off the sanctimonious"I think of all sides"BS!
Have a good night!

TimR?

Backhoe: "few cut and paste an addy to see what is there" If you use Firefox, there are solutions. First you can double click the link to highlight it, then drag and drop it to the tab bar to open a new tab with the link. Pretty simple. Or if you have Grease Monkey installed, there is a script called Linkify that automatically converts web addresses it finds on a page to clickable links.
Posted by: TimR

Tip's appreciated- thank you.

Canadian Observer

Some day I hope to be as fair and balanced as you. What's that old expression,"the pot is calling the kettle black"? Yeah, I noticed there is a wide variance of opinion about almost nothing. Agreement is pretty much the norm.

Bush is a nice guy, affable, a loving husband and father. He can stay on message very well too. Harper learned to do that and it served him well in the last election. Bush is a good and tireless campaigner. You need a lot of energy if you are going to be leader of the free world.
He takes care of himself physically so that he can maintain his tireless efforts. He managed to keep his party solidly behind him for six years. This is hard to do, especially when you consider the problems he has had. He managed to keep the MSM on-side for almost six years as well. That is a true skill.

He somehow got passes on almost everything he did. No inquiry, no hard questions, incredible really. I will read his book. He really took charge of every possible weakness and covered it.
He expanded the authority of the president. Taking more power into the executive branch than perhaps any other president. He managed to do this after getting Congress to give him their authority! That is an awesome feat! Just think, the only branch with oversight on you gives away their oversight responsibilities. What other president has been able to do that?
He has done amazingly well at controlling the agenda. He has never even had to refuse to sign a piece of legislation. I think that is unprecedented.
Even if there was some part of a Bill he didn't like he just added an addendum saying he wasn't going to follow that part of the Bill. I think that is very clever and again, unprecedented.
When you think of the free reign he has managed to garner it is really something to behold.
He just may have redefined the office of the President. It has become much more powerful under his Presidency.

TonyGuitar
Yeah Iran is arming itself and so is North Korea, China,Venezuala and now Russia. Sounds like fun to me.
The U.S. is watching Iran closely. They have a very good idea of the positions of all Irans Atomic and military resources. So does Israel.

The American pattern is to demonize then strike. I don't think they have finished the demonization process yet. A few more months perhaps.
There have been CIA inside Iran. They have sent in small military types from Iraq. So they are active in a quiet way.
Fearful? Naw just a little sad at the stupidity that passes for leadership.
China and Russia can't fight the U.S. directly because of mutual assured destruction but they can fight through other countries such as Iran.
Just like the U.S. fought the Russians through the Afgans in the 80's. Besides, on the practical side selling Armaments to Iran helps the Chinese pay for the oil they buy.

Your brain is just a-poppin* there. Putting these pieces on the table is the fun part.

They may not be the exact senario, but the picture is there for the well informed to adjust or correct. TG

No need to demonize. Rolling heads in the street pretty well assumes the demon label.
TG

Att: Moonbats, left liberal trolls: all paranoiacs; all demented.

You are accomplices of the the "Hidden Hand". Pipes has you down pat. There are Joooos under your beds, too. ...

Pipes includes links to all the relevant items in the linked version of the column at his Daniel Pipes site. It should be noted that Pipes is a serious scholar of demented conspiracy theories, among other things, having devoted his excellent books The Hidden Hand: Middle East Fears of Conspiracy and Conspiracy: How the Paranoid Style Flourishes and Where it Comes From.
Posted by Scott at 07:29 AM | Permalink
powerlineblog

maz2
It is always a little sad when you have to drag someone kicking and screaming out of his Disneyland life. Hey, if you still need facade just hold on.

I don't talk about theory or conspiracy but rather simple history.
You can find dozens of examples of American meddling.
You can google lots of information from various sources. In the Middle East you can find out about how Iran was a democracy until the CIA took it down and installed the Shah of Iran as a puppet.
You can read how Saddam Hussein was a good and true friend of America in the 1980's. How America got Saddam to fight Iran. Sold lots of military hardware too. This was all done while Saddam was poisoning Kurds. So I kind of smile at the irony of the US now talking about how aweful Saddam was to do that. In fact, they aided and abetted.
In the Americas, there is lots to read about too. Allende in Chile, the Contras in central america.
There are many more but those could be a start if you were ready to leave your warm and comfortable ignorance for a taste of how the US really does business.

Just think of the adventure of finding out information that goes against your bias. Its hard to do for some and impossible for others. If you want to know where the Americans are going you might get hints from finding out where they have been.

Steve D.
At some point Bush will no longer be the President. Who will you blame for all the world's woes then? Tony Blair? Stephen Harper? There are real threats to our security out there. We can't simply ignore them and we can't simply blame the US for everything (unless of course you are a Liberal). The UN is a completely toothless organization that has lost its moral authority. How do you recommend we deal with country's like Iran? Sit them in the corner and give them a time out.

Paul from Vancouver
Bush has exposed America to the world. Many had never seen this side of the American Empire, this is especially true for Americans. They have now seen first hand how damaging their foreign policy can be.
In truth American foreign policy has always been an extension of America's corporate policy. So in the end it really doesn't make too much difference who the president is. The president responds to corporate influence. Corporate influence is everywhere. It is the 68,000 lobbyists. It is the campaign contributions. It is at private functions were concerns are discussed. It is through seconding executives to the White House(most cabinet appointees have come from big business and will go back after they have "served") to lobby from within. It is to lobby through the media. It is to lobby through foreign governments. This small elite of about 1% of the population owns about half of all wealth. With great wealth comes great influence. That influence has kept governments corporate friendly or if not friendly then isolated or destabilized.
So Bush is not much different from any other President in reality. However, he is more openly bold and aggressive than most. He is also more incompetent than most. He is more Imperial than most. That is why his policies are easier to dislike.

How do we deal with Iran?
If I were President I would send the Secretary of State to talk to Iranian leaders. I would offer to end the trade embargo on Iran. I would offer ongoing dialogue and respect. In return I would ask them to hold off on developing nuclear capabilities until we see how well this new relationship works.
Once both sides get to know each other each becomes less suspicious, paranoid and is more open to suggestion and reason.
Historically, trade has opened up cultures and made them more open to outside ideas as well as goods. If it is change we want then it is more surely developed by dialogue than by the big freeze or worse, attack.

I must say, details aside, I like the tone of Dave d*s civilized manner of moving towards a settlement of extreme tensions. TG

...i say old chap - nuke them all!

(modern day version of "off with their heads")

Shortlist of Iran related tensions
[distilled mostly from the May 6th/06 Economist]

[1] Shia vs. Suni vs. Kurd [May 14, 2006]

[2] Israel vs. Hizbullah and Hamas

[3] Iran, Syria support Hizbullah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad

[4] Qatar and Saudi Arabia fund Hamas

[5] Iran, Syria and Turkey fear Kurd nationalism.

[6] Turkey profits from Iranian trade

[7] 74% of Turks polled say USA main peace threat.

[8] Nuke Power, Pakistan depending upon Iranian Nat gas
pipeline to perk up Pakistan*s dragging economy.

[9] UAE squabbles with Iran over three Gulf islands.

[10] Iran is a big investor in Dubai*s booming market.

[11] Many Gulf nations quietly support squeeze of Iran

[12] Saudi officials have grave doubts about Iran

[13] Iran stirring up troubles in Kuwait and Bahrain where
suni are in the minority.

[14] Iran active in Iraq and Lebanon.

[15] Senior military source: Iran to act against Arab
countries who side with the West.

[16] With Wahhabist Suni vs. Shia, Saudia Arabia has ties
& cover under Pakistan.

[17] Egypt*s Mubarak angered Arab Shia, implying, *They
are more loyal to Iran than to their own countries.*

[18] Egypt and Iran have had rocky relations since 1979.

[19] More tensions arise from Iran causing disruption,
annoying Gulf nations who seek stability and peace

[20] The Iran supporting Muslim Brotherhood is the main opposition in ME countries. Much resented by Governments.

[21] Jordan*s King Abdullah: *A US strike to Iran would
cause the whole region to explode. Debate and
diplomacy are the only solution* == TG

Maz2 post about 2/3rds back.. May11, 12:32pm

Mentions our reconnisance flights over Iran
border and a US buildup there. [FreeRepublic.com]

Drones operated by Hizbullah are searching out targets over Israel from Lebanon*s S. border. Hizbullah is Iran*s front line, so to speak.
www.MichaelTotten.com

2nd post, if I recall correctly. TG

TonyGuitar
Looks to me like the American policy of disconnecting from Iran hasn't been positive for any American allies or America.
Whether we are speaking of countries or people we always do much better in the end if we keep communicating and working through our problems. This perhaps more important for countries because it affects so many millions of lives. The Europeans today said they will make Iran an offer they cannot refuse.

If the Euros do make an offer Iran can*t refuse, then it would seem Iran may have been rattling thier sabers in a similar way that North Korea does from time to time.

That would be a far more acceptable reason for all the recent posturing and flying of intel gathering drones. TG