small dead animals

Iraqi Bloggers

After tense reporting from Baghdad followed by a two week absence, Alaa checks in to assure everyone he's safe and well. Hopefully, there will be news soon from Zeyad.

Five Finger Wave

I watched the landing of Air Force One today while on a break. It's not anti-Americanism that has Canadians so uptight. It's planus envy. The CBC couldn't stop reminding viewers of the "armour plated limousine" and "snipers on the rooftops". As the entourage made their way down the red carpet on the tarmac, was it just me -- or did George W. Bush glance at the yattering Prince Adrienne like a dog who wouldn't stop licking himself in public?

It all seems to have been too much excitement for Pierre Berton. He was 84, doddering beloved old lefty historian. The non-fiction railway track genre mourns a giant.

Peaktalk has a good roundup of more useful Canadian reaction and commentary.

For the most part, I spent the day up to my elbows in automotive base coat, and haven't caught on my own reading. (Or bathing, to be unnecessarily honest....) Some links of interest I've spotted here and there:

Chair of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Senator Norm Coleman calls for Kofi Annan's head in the WSJ.

Websters announces "A four-letter term that came to symbolize the difference between old and new media during this year's presidential campaign tops U.S. dictionary publisher Merriam- Webster's list of the 10 words of the year."

Related: Dan Rather, still crazy after all these years. Brian Williams - because his parents didn't know how to spell "brain".

And, in local news: best. agribition. party. ever.

"Not All Beer And Donuts"

With four years as a Canadian resident behind her, Norma Jacobson has some advice fo Americans considering a move to the Great White North - don't.

Although I enjoy my work and have made good friends here, I've found life as an American expatriate in Canada difficult, frustrating and even painful in ways that have surprised me. As attractive as living here may be in theory, the reality's something else. For me, it's been one of almost daily confrontation with a powerful anti-Americanism that pervades many aspects of life. When I've mentioned this phenomenon to Canadian friends, they've furrowed their brows sympathetically and said, "Yes, Canadian anti-Americanism can be very subtle." My response is, there's nothing subtle about it.

The anti-Americanism I experience generally takes this form: Canadians bring up "the States" or "Americans" to make comparisons or evaluations that mix a kind of smug contempt with a wariness that alternates between the paranoid and the absurd.

Thus, Canadian media discussion of President Bush's upcoming official visit on Tuesday focuses on the snub implied by his not having visited earlier. It's reported that when he does come, he will not speak to a Parliament that's so hostile it can't be trusted to receive him politely. Coverage of a Canadian athlete caught doping devolves into complaints about how Americans always get away with cheating. The "Blame Canada" song from the "South Park" movie is taken as documentary evidence of Americans' real attitudes toward this country. The ongoing U.S. ban on importing Canadian cattle (after a case of mad cow disease was traced to Alberta) is interpreted as a form of political persecution. A six o'clock news show introduces a group of parents and children who are convinced that the reason Canadian textbooks give short shrift to America's failed attempts to invade the Canadian territories in the War of 1812 is to avoid antagonizing the Americans -- who are just waiting for an excuse to give it another try.

[...]

Part of what's irksome about Canadian anti-Americanism and the obsession with the United States is that it seems so corrosive to Canada. Any country that defines itself through a negative ("Canada: We're not the United States") is doomed to an endless and repetitive cycle of hand-wringing and angst. For example, Canadians often point to their system of universal health care as the best example of what it means to be Canadian (because the United States doesn't provide it), but this means that any effort to adjust or reform that system (which is not perfect) precipitates a national identity crisis: To wit, instituting co-payments or private MRI clinics will make Canada too much like the United States.

hat tip - Cosh.

Beaujolais Wisdom

On the eve of his first official visit to this country, A Canadian Bush Backer Speaks Out. The letter is featured at Pieter Dorsman's Peaktalk.

Recently I got into a discussion with a few Canadian friends about the Bush victory in the 2004 Presidential election and the ongoing war in Iraq. These friends are well educated and cultured people with a preference for European wine and movies with sub-titles. I suppose they could be described as middle-of-the-road liberals and made for pleasant company at dinner over a bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau ... at least until the subject of George W. Bush came up.

Their reaction to the re-election of the President was unequivocal. Choice of language included adjectives such as "dreadful", "shocking", "appalling" and even "bizarre". Their self-righteousness was more akin to arch inquisitors passing judgement on a proven devil worshiper, rather than dinner companions airing views on a President of the United States.

When I offered a contrary opinion, there was a hush and eyes widened with genuine horror - as though the late hour had induced the first physical evidence of my 'werewolf within'. One of them even said - "are you feeling alright Aidan?"

Or, maybe they just thought they were being cool.

I've seen a little of this myself. When the subject was raised a month ago at a family gathering, my aunt expressed unspecified outrage at the US President, put her hands over her ears and left the room. She didn't elaborate beyond that. But then, I suspect she spends more time in Beaujolais-sipping circles than I do.

Obesity Tourism

Times Online reports on efforts to solve Zimbabwe's food crisis;

The so-called Obesity Tourism Strategy was reported last week in The Herald, a government organ whose contents are approved by President Robert Mugabe's powerful information minister, Jonathan Moyo.

Pointing out that more than 1.2 billion people worldwide are officially deemed to be overweight, the article exhorted Zimbabweans to "tap this potential".

"Tourists can provide labour for farms in the hope of shedding weight while enjoying the tourism experience," it said, adding that Americans spent $6 billion a year on "useless" dieting aids. "Tour organisers may promote this programme internationally and bring in tourists, while agriculturalists can employ the tourists as free farm labour. "

"The tourists can then top it all by flaunting their slim bodies on a sun-downer cruise on the Zambezi or surveying the majestic Great Zimbabwe ruins."

A Pretoria, By Any Other Name

The government of South Africa is casting a reformist eye to country's place names. They are too white.

Residents of Pretoria, named after an early war hero of the white Afrikaners who later invented apartheid, won a battle last year to keep the capital city's name on the map, albeit as part of a broader metropolitan area called Tshwane.

Next year those towns celebrating British royalty and other figures will be under scrutiny, and several may face the chop.

Two that look set to go are the industrial city of Port Elizabeth, named after the wife of a Cape Colony governor, and George, a sleepy town on the south coast, more famous for its lush golf courses than the English king to whom it pays homage.

National Geographical Names Council chairman Tommy Ntsewa said: "Personally, I would support such a move, because why should we be honouring King George? For what? For colonising us?"

On the practical side, though, ad hoc renaming of cities, towns and rivers is likely to be a cumbersome and contentious process. To address this, we should apply a sunset clause to all place names, so that they will automatically expire at set intervals. This way, each new political generation can respond more efficiently to those most recently insulted by the historical fact of their choosing.

They Don't Make 'Em Like They Used To

In the basement laundry room of the family farm home is a refrigerator like the one pictured above. The International-Harvester deepfreeze is a few feet away, under the stairwell. A farm equipment company, IH began making refrigeration appliances in 1947, but only manufactured them for a few years before selling the division off. At $700 for a freezer, the price was out of reach for most households.

Both are at least 50 years old. My grandparents purchased the freezer used in the mid 1950's and sold it to my dad in 1965. Its colourful history includes rescue from a house fire through timely intervention with a chainsaw through an exterior wall. Both appliances continue to function as well as the day they were built.

It is nearly impossible for a woman of my size to move an IH refrigerator by herself. The new Sears Kenmore I bought a couple of years ago (to replace the leaky harvest gold 70's model that came with the house) weighs about as much as a styrofoam box. Then again - nobody ever had to move an International freezer because it quit working. Five decades of hard-won technological advances have cut the weight, energy consumption and functioning lifespan of kitchen appliances like these by two-thirds.

I don't know that this is progress.

"Lawyers Against The War" Sheltered Workshop

Proof postiive that the legal profession is robbing the recycling industry of its best and brightest.

Via Instapundit

More here.

Blogpulse Data

Blogpulse has a comprehensive roundup on the rankings and "buzz" of blogs during the US election campaign. (It might be worth noting that links to Oliver Willis blogs for the purpose of ridicule will produce an equal "link value" to one intended for thoughtful reflection or endorsement.
 

Maybe It's Just Me, But...

If I must subject myself to anything resembling this view, I had better be standing behind someone who's working hard to resolve an urgent household drainage problem. And, to be honest, that's a cliche'd cheap shot and completely unfair to the plumbers I know - all of whom are prompt, efficient, reasonably priced, and professional in their attire.

So, then, if it is within the capacity of a plumber to select a wardrobe that covers the equatorial realms of his anatomy, is it too much to expect of a waitress?

I didn't have my camera at brunch today. But, to the young woman who seated us at our table, and swished by on too frequent a basis, may I offer the following observations:

1. Jewelry located anywhere between the collarbone and ankle is not intended for public consumption.

2. The protrusion of post-pubescent lardy tissue between the upper lip of your low rise pants and the lower edge of that shrunken t-shirt resembles a uncooked roll of pork sausage. This may not have occured to you, but with a breakfast menu in my hand, it certainly occured to me.

3. The only women thin enough to expose a midrift forcibly confined in such away are in a hospital bed and subject to medically supervised feedings.

4. People are trying to eat, dammit.

There. I feel better already. Next time, I will bring a camera, and I will make you famous.

Sgroed Over

Well, think about this way - just maybe, after these east European prostitutes fresh faced bright young girls have worked a few years, and have a little nest egg built up, they'll use it to pay their way through medical school and help to offset the doctor shortage in Canada.

It could happen!

And, just maybe, when she's canned completed her work as Immigration Minister, Judy Sgro can apply her talents in a field she's equally qualifed for. After all, she's made all the right connections.

It could happen!

Letter from Fallujah

Mike is an Army officer serving in Task Force 2-7 CAV.

After 12 hours of massive air strikes, Task Force 2-7 got the green light and was the first unit to enter the city. There is a big train station on the city's northern limit, so the engineers cleared a path with some serious explosives and our tanks led the way. While this was happening, my intelligence shop was flying our own UAV to determine where the enemy was. It is a very small plane that is launched by being thrown into the air. We flew it for 6 hours and reported grids to the tanks and bradleys of where we saw insurgents on the roof and moving in the street---so our soldiers knew where the enemy was, before they even got to the location.

We crossed the train station just before midnight and led the way for the Marines by killing everything we could in our way. It took our tanks and brads until 10 am the next day to get 2 miles into the city. They killed about 200 insurgents in the process and softened the enemy for the Marines. 5 of our soldiers were wounded in this first 10 hours, but we accomplished our part of the plan.

The Marines' mission was to follow TF 2-7 and fight the enemy by clearing from building to building. A lot of the insurgents saw the armored vehicles and hid. They waited for the Marines to come and took their chances by fighting them since the Marines weren't protected by armor like we were. In that first day of fighting, the Marines took 5 x KIA and many more wounded, but they also did their job very well. Along the way, they found HUGE caches of weapons, suicide vests, and many foreign fighters. They also found unbelievable amounts of drugs, mostly heroin, speed, and cocaine. It turns out, the enemy drugged themselves up to give them the "courage" and stupidity to stay and fight.

The enemy tried to fight us in "the city of mosques" as dirty as they could. They fired from the steeples of the mosques and the mosques themselves. They faked being hurt and then threw grenades at soldiers when they approached to give medical treatment. They waived surrender flags, only to shoot at our forces 20 seconds later when they approached to accept their surrender.

[...]

In Fallujah, the enemy had a military-type planning system going on. Some of the fighters were wearing body armor and kevlars, just like we do. Soldiers took fire from heavy machine guns (.50 cal) and came across the dead bodies of fighters from Chechnya, Syria, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Afghanistan, and so on...no, this was not just a city of pissed off Iraqis, mad at the Coalition for forcing Saddam out of power. It was a city full of people from all over the Middle East whose sole mission in life was to kill Americans. Problem for them is that they were in the wrong city in November 2004.

The intelligence value alone is already paying huge dividends. Some of the 900 detainees are telling everything they know about other insurgents. And the enemy never expected such a large or powerful attack and they were so overwhelmed that they left behind all kinds of things, including books with names of other foreign fighters, where their money and weapons come from, etc.

That's A Relief

Finally, I can get a good nights sleep. It's not my fault, after all.

It was all because of those Cro-Magnan SUV's.

Kim Jong Gone?

First it was the great works of art.... time to start hoarding the Kim Jong-Il trading cards...?

C'Mon Kid, Just Give Me The Gun

"What are you going to do? Shoot us all?"

"No, Ace - just you."

Calvert's Cuba - A Theme Park

As Eastern Europe struggles out from under the economic policies of Marxism, and China races towards free market capitalism, while old Europe staggers towards reform under the increasing burden of welfare state entitlements and "red state" voter blocks in the US grow with increasing middle-class prosperity... Saskatchewan finds itself presented with a unique opportunity.

We can become a world leader in Econo Tourism. Think theme park.

First, we must request our status as a Canadian province be revoked, and ask for new designation as a World Heritage Park - a "living museum" for failed political experiments. With fewer and fewer regimes to use as educational tools for the business and political leaders of the future, .Saskatchewan can fill a need.

For $15 a head, "econo-tourists" can board authentic government-owned STC buses and delight in the province's features ... "to your left, ladies and gentlemen, is a defunct government potato company, and scene of a multi-million dollar lawsuit and settlement ... the remnants of a small shovel mark the spot of an ethanol plant never built ... there, on the horizon, is an oil "pump jack". The government demonstrated for decades - against all odds - how to keep this commodity from being pumped to the surface. There is more uranium than any other jurisdiction on the planet, but the NDP have successfully prevented its transformation into electrical energy.. the cars that are meeting us on this trail are heading to Alberta. Saskatchewan's top export are future business leaders and educated young professionals."

With the leadership of Lorne Calvert and the Saskatchewan Government Employees Union, Saskatchewan can play a unique role in the world. Benign, well behaved, absent a military - we pose no threat to our neighbors - the ideal political science exhibit for others to study and learn from.

The latest step in this eventual transformation - the Calvert government is considering a prohibition on hiring of new part time employees, through forced implementation of seniority rules for all private business. This really shouldn't come a surprise. The NDP is not a party in the usual sense of the word - it's the political wing of organized labour.

Saskatoon Star Phoenix:

Province considers part-time seniority rule

Saskatchewan is once again considering regulations that would mandate employers to give any extra hours of work to the part-timer with the highest seniority level.

But Larry Seiferling, a labour lawyer with the Chamber of Commerce, doesn't like the idea. He says if it is adopted, Saskatchewan would be the only jurisdiction in North America to have such a regulation and companies would leave.

Labour Minister Deb Higgins says she hopes to have a set of workable regulations ready for discussion by the end of the year. 

An idea whose time has come.

Are you listening, Lorne Calvert? Let's get Sask Tourism on this project.

And You Thought You Had A Rough Day

VISITS TO DRUDGE 11/23/04 - 009,461,140 IN PAST 24 HOURS

Moore® Oven Bags And Thanksgiving Safety

Which Moore® oven bag for which job?

Oven bags are available in Super Size in addition to the popular Berkeley Big-Mac Weanling size. Use Weanling size (2' 0"x 6' 0") for easy, everyday single-serving meals for socialist filmakers that eat other people's young, Super Size for DNC national conventions.

Why do you add flour to Moore® Oven Bags?

Always shake one tablespoon of flour in a Moore® Oven Bag before cooking. Or granola. This flour should remain in the bag during cooking to blend the fat and juices and to protect against bursting. More than one tablespoon of flour may be added to the bag for recipes with thickened
sauces or gravy. Remove Birkenstocks, or gravy may be slightly gamey.

Can I use Moore® Oven Bags in electric roaster ovens, crock pots or as a "boiling bag"?

Oven bags should not be used under a broiler, on the stovetop, on barbecue grills, in toaster ovens, crock pots, countertop convection ovens, electric roaster ovens, or as boiling bags. The possibility of exposing the bag to the heating elements or to heat extremes makes these cooking methods unacceptable for oven bags.

Or campfires. Goes without saying.

The Diplomad

"A blog by career US Foreign Service officers. They are Republican (most of the time) in an institution (State Department) in which being a Republican can be bad for your career.."

Well, we know the secret of the UN bureaucracy machine. It exists to exist. To do that it has going one of the best scams imaginable. While most media and ordinary folks focus on the occasionally contentious UNSC resolutions and debates on Iraq or Iran, in fact, 99% of UN "work" has nothing to do with such high-visibility issues. No, it deals with scores, hundreds, in fact, of resolutions passed every year in the UN General Assembly, its main Committees, and in bodies such as the Human Rights Commission. It lives off those resolutions.

Slightly simplified, this is how it often works. A UN bureaucrat gets hold of a delegate from a sympathetic country and gets that country's delegation to propose some often innocuous sounding resolution -- let's make up a typical one right here, "The Effect of Deforestation on the Development of Sub-Saharan Africa." It will have a few bland paragraphs expressing concern about deforestation in Africa, note the impact it has on the livelihood of Africans especially the "most vulnerable sectors of the population," and then will have a little paragraph at the end calling on the Secretary General to submit a report to the next General Assembly on the impact of deforestation in Africa.

[...]

So the resolution passes. The UN bureaucracy gets tasked with writing a report. Usually these reports are short, based on pre-existing information that in the age of the internet would take an intern a couple of hours to put together, but, nevertheless, for some odd reason seem to require lots of travel by UN bureaucrats. The report will conclude that there is need for further study of this critical topic and might perhaps recommend the holding of a special conference or meeting on the topic. It goes to the next UNGA which agrees that further work is needed and asks the UN Secretariat to go ahead and provide another report to the next UNGA, and so on and on. The topic is now firmly embedded in the UN agenda -- almost impossible to remove -- and highly paid bureaucrats now have sinecures producing endless reports calling for more reports and conferences that will call for more reports and conferences. The US and a handful of other major donors pay for all this.

The Oil-For-Food scandal provides the perfect opportunity to leverage this argument and bring the legitimacy of the UN into the public debate. Carpe diem.

War Crimes In Fallujah - Photo Evidence

Via Dean's World;

A slide show of war crime evidence from Fallujah, including those our media seems disinterested in showing. The site is likely to come under heavy load, so be patient.

Slide show.

Alexander!

John Podhoretz reviews Alexander...

Oliver Stone's Alexander, which opens today, isn't just bad. It's Springtime for Hitler bad. I haven't guffawed this hard since I saw Airplane for the first time 24 years ago. This is one of the colossal catastrophes of all time. At a screening on Monday night, during the death scene of Alexander's lover Hephaiston, people were screaming with laughter as Alexander made a big speech while, behind him in soft focus, Hephaiston went into a conniption fit and croaked. Plus, Angelina Jolie plays Alexander's mother like she was Natasha from the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons. It's almost worth seeing, but don't, because if you're like me and want to see OliverStone utterly destroyed for his artistic and political crimes, you will make sure not to contribute to the box-office coffers of what is sure to go down in the annals of moviedom as Heaven's Gate with rampaging evil elephants (no, I'm not kidding).

$7.7 Billion Of Anti-Terrorism Initiative

Exerpts from the audit of The 2001 Anti-Terrorism Initiative from the March 2004 Report, Office of The Auditor General.

The government as a whole failed to achieve improvements in the ability of security information systems to communicate with each other. Consequently, needed improvements will be delayed by several years. Moreover, even as the government was launching programs that would create new needs for fingerprint identification, projects that would have helped it to deal with the increased demand were not included in the initiative.

... gaps and inconsistencies in the watch lists used to screen visa applicants, refugee claimants, and travellers seeking to enter Canada. There is no overall quality control of this vital function, which is spread over several departments and agencies. No one monitors delays in the entry or the quality of the data on watch lists.

... criminal intelligence data are not used to screen applicants for clearance to restricted areas at airports, meaning that security clearances are issued without checking applicants for criminal association

We found no evidence that officials of the Privy Council Office, Finance Canada, and the Treasury Board Secretariat had based their review of departmental proposals on a national threat and risk assessment...

... Other projects appeared designed to maintain the government's existing public safety and policing programs, not to respond directly to the increased need for security after September 11. [eg.] Public Security and Anti-Terrorism funds were allocated to the Solicitor General to combat organized crime and the illegal drug trade in First Nations communities, including the cultivation of marijuana...

We expected also to see a lessons-learned study that assessed how the Government of Canada had responded to the attacks in the United States. We found a wide variety of reports. In some cases, extensive analyses were carried out but never endorsed by senior management; lack of support by senior management undermines any effort to implement change. In other cases we were given basic reports that appeared to be summaries but that provided no detailed analysis.

...front-line officers at airports still do not receive passport information.

Terrorist Watch Lists ... In our initial audit work we found significantly fewer terrorist lookouts in the Service's tracking system than in Immigration's database ... Immigration's records were in such disarray that we were unable to complete a full reconciliation during the course of our audit.

Interpol Red Notices... On average, 48 days elapsed from [Interpol] publication to entry in the [RCMP] police system. At the time of our testing, the RCMP had a backlog of 162 notices to be entered in its database that were two months old, on average.

Lost and stolen Canadian passports not on border control watch lists ... the information system used on the primary inspection line cannot distinguish between active and deactivated passports ... delays between the reporting of a lost or stolen passport and the entering of the information into the RCMP database ... took 70 days, on average.

There is no system that transfers information on outstanding warrants to the border watch lists ...

About what you'd expect from a government that at its core, really doesn't believe Canada is a target for terrorism.

The Great Awakening

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all doing direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, apart from living in that stinking hole, which, all things considered, sucked the big black camel dick."

(Hat tip, Head Beeb via Charles Macdonald.)

CAIR vs Frum

David Frum has been served with a notice of libel by the Canadian branch of CAIR -Council on American Islamic Relations. In so doing, he joins a growing club.

Something about having the uncomfortable facts of their association's links to extremists and terrorist organizations brought to light... or in their words, of being "an unscrupulous, Islamist, extremist sympathetic group in Canada supporting terrorism".

Perhaps my wording is clumsy. Oh, well.

Cattlers

Beef farmers launch protest Oh, just stop. They are not "beef farmers". (In fact, if one were to quibble with the details, those critters are Holsteins - dairy cows. Great lean lanky things with bone as heavy as a Budweiser Clydesdale. Holsteins are bred to convert feed to milk. When was the last time you wandered through your meat department and saw a t-bone labelled "Triple A Holstein beef"? There's a clue. And let's be honest - with the quota-controlled protectionist price supports of the dairy industry, dairymen can afford to shoot cull cows.)

Compare:

Angus steer.

Holstein cow.

But back to the original point. As I stated, they are not "beef farmers", for the simple reason that one does not "farm" cattle. Not even guys with mixed grain/beef operations "farm" cattle. They "feed cows", "raise calves", "run a few head". It is no more appropriate to call those who raise beef "cattle farmers" than it is to refer to reporter Ross Marowitz as a news "author" or "non-fiction writer".

I know that a dilemma faces the media when stepping into the dangerous terrain of gender-neutral nomenclature. Unlike the "fishermen", who awoke one day to discover they were now "fishers", the cattle industry is a little tougher to neuter. Really, who can say "cattler" with a straight face?

So, you insufferable fanaticist media twits dear reporters, let's stop pretending that uncomfortable three letter word doesn't exist. It does. The word is "men". M.E.N. Sound it out. "Mmmmmmmm... eeeeeeeeee...nnnnnnnn" . No really - try it. See what happens.

Did your face open up and swallow your tongue? Write it down on that reporter's pad.... "men" .... hold your breath as you wait for the paper to begin to curl in disgust ... Still nothing?

That psychological hurdle cleared, the rest is easy. Append "men" to the word "cattle". Cattle - men. Cattlemen.

See: Canadian Cattlemen's Association. Holy Cow! It's even the correct terminology, as in what they call themselves! Who knew? Don't you feel free? Once you've become comfortable with "cattlemen", the world is your prairie oyster. Push the envelope - try "stockmen".

A newsman only lives once.

Rather Overdue

Drudge breaking

ADDRESSES CBS NEWSROOM AT APPROXIMATELY 1:39PM EST [Partial transcript]: No matter what you hear elsewhere, this was a mutual decision. The timing has to do with (wanting to separate) this decision to leave the anchor chair... from the (investigation) of the 60 MINUTES report. The decision got made the way I described. There is nothing more important (to me) than how honored I am to work with the greatest news organization in the world. Thank you for coming. We're not going to spend much time (on questions) because we have news to cover. (Offered to answer questions, but staff simply gave his signature 'hip hip' three cheers.) Let's get back to work. Thanks everyone.

Maybe there's a hope at CBS that his "retirement" will diffuse criticism over Rathergate. I wouldn't bet on it.

Abu Congo

Brace yourself for the flood of disturbing photographs and film clips from this breaking scandal.

The United Nations is investigating about 150 allegations of sexual abuse by U.N. civilian staff and soldiers in the Congo, some of them recorded on videotape, a senior U.N. official said on Monday.
 
The accusations include pedophilia, rape and prostitution, said Jane Holl Lute, an assistant secretary-general in the peacekeeping department.

Lute, an American, said there was photographic and video evidence for some of the allegations and most of the charges came to light since the spring.

[...]

In May the United Nations reported some 30 cases of abuse among peacekeepers in the northeastern town of Bunia, where half of the more than 10,000 soldiers are stationed.

Last month, one French soldier and two Tunisian soldiers were sent home, U.N. officials said. Three U.N. civilian staff were suspended.

The United Nations has jurisdiction over its civilian staff but troops are contributed by individual nations. Consequently, the world body has only the power to demand a specific country repatriate an accused soldier and punish him or her at home.

Perhaps someone should splice in some footage of US Marines or prison guards, in order to bring this story the coverage it deserves.

Listen To What The Man Says

New signposts on the roadmap. Rick Richman takes notes.

Now here is the first question and answer from the Bush/Blair news conference on Friday, the day after Bush met with Sharansky:

[Q].  With Yasser Arafat's death, what specific steps can Israel take to revive peace negotiations? And do you believe that Israel should implement a freeze on West Bank settlement expansion?

PRESIDENT BUSH: I believe that the responsibility for peace is going to rest with the Palestinian people's desire to build a democracy and Israel's willingness to help them build a democracy. I know we have a responsibility as free nations to set forth a strategy that will help the Palestinian people head toward democracy. I don't think there will ever be lasting peace until there is a free, truly democratic society in the Palestinian territories that becomes a state. And therefore, the responsibility rests with both the Palestinian people and the leadership which emerges, with the Israelis to help that democracy grow, and with the free world to put the strategy in place that will help the democracygrow.

Six references in four sentences to democracy -- in response to a question about a settlement freeze.

Read it all. The agenda of questions from reporters could just as well be transcribed into Charlie Brown adult talk...."blah, blah,blah,blah". And people wonder why W has a fan club?

Heh.

Bowling For 22 Minutes

What does Carrolyn Parrish have in common with Michael Moore, aside from rabid, seething hatred for America?

Michael Donovan - The producer of This Hour Has 22 Minutes was also co-producer of the Canadian location rich Bowling For Columbine. Bowling was produced by the government subsidized and recently defunct Salter Street Films.

Mr. Donovan seems to be gifted with a special kind of cluelessness (which must serve as an advantage when working with Mr. Moore). NYT:

The full sketch, including the five-second stomping, was finally broadcast on Friday night, a day after Ms. Parrish was exiled from her political party. Before that, the show had received about 1,000 e-mail messages, mostly critical.

"There's been an outpouring here I haven't seen for years, although I'm not sure it's good for the show," Mr. Donovan said. "What's caused a lot of this is that there's a tremendous, deep-rooted anxiety now about Canada-U.S. relations. Canadians have lost their famous sense of humor."

Fallujah's Hospitality

An email to Rich Lowry at the Corner;

I am also a professor at a military-related institution, and my little brother is an enlisted Marine (a sniper with 1-3) in Fallujah. This weekend he called for the first time since the battle began. He informed us that a large number of the residents of Fallujah, before fleeing the battle, left blankets and bedding for the Marines and Soldiers along with notes thanking the Americans for liberating their city from the terrorists, as well as invitations to the Marines and Soldiers to sleep in their houses. I've yet to see a report in the media of this. Imagine that.

Additionally, he said their spirits are high, but they would certainly appreciate any "care packages" that folks in the States would care to send their way (preferably consisting of non-perishable food items, candy, deodorant, eye-drops, q-tips, toothpaste, toothbrushes, lip balm, hand/feet
warmers, black/dark undershirts, underwear & socks, and non-aerosol bug spray)

It would be great if you could pass this message along to anyone interested in helping out."

Silent America

This exerpt from the Bill Whittle essay entitled "WAR";

There are two images I will never forget, and I expect I will think of them often in the days and weeks to come. For in the front row of this parade of horror and depravity, I have watched a fundamentalist Islamic crowd stone two women to death. They were covered head to toe in shockingly white linen - the better to see the bloodstains. Taken into a field and buried up to their waists, they looked like odd white sails on a sand horizon, until the stones began to fly, leaving red carnations where they landed. One of the women just crumpled, bent at the waist, and I still pray that this person was knocked unconscious within the first minute or so. The other did not go peacefully into that good night. She died fighting and struggling, enduring the most sickening lurches as the unseen stones fell on her, twisting under that now-scarlet hood, trying to protect her face as best she could, as hundreds of her friends and relatives vented their rage, calling out the name of their god as we would cheer on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Allahu Ackbar! Allahu Ackbar! Allahu Ackbar!

I will not forget that image.

And I will not forget another one, either. As long as I draw breath, I swear I will never forget the sight of two people holding hands, and leaping from 108 stories above the hard concrete sidewalks that I myself have walked, gawking skyward at one of the wonders of the world. I will not forget them. I will not forget their fall, the spin that finally tore their hands apart as they fell forever, forever down that quarter-mile. I will never stop wondering what they said to each other in that last moment, or their cries to each other as they launched themselves to their deaths, having watched their friends take the same leap a few moments before. I will never forget what an unimaginable hell that their cozy office, full of coffee mugs and pictures of grandchildren, had become in order for them to make that choice, with the ruins of their friends visible on the streets so far below them.

Fact Checking Juan Cole

Via Jeremy Brown, who's filling in for Michael Totten - Ali at Iraq The Model, discovers he doesn't know as much about his country's history as he thought.

[Juan Cole] also provide a link to another article by a professor of Arab studies in the university of Colombia and use it as a reference to back up his theory. What Dr. Cole was trying to tell us, as you can see in his article, is that Fallujah is celebrated in Iraq's history as a symbol for the large rebellion/revolution against the British back in 1920.

[...]

After reading the two honored professors' articles I scratched my head vigorously (I'm sure I looked stupid because I felt so!) trying to remember my country's history as I read it in school. Well, my memory is not that strong to help me remember all those poets and decorated writings about our ancestor's bravery that I read in the fifth grade, but I sure do remember the only Iraqi movie that was produced about that rebellion. The director of the movie used a huge budget (Iraqi standards) and hired some British actors including Oliver Reed. He (the director) was rewarded generously By Saddam for showing the truth about that historical event.

[...]

Anyway, I don't know which is worse; that the two experts in Arab world didn't know about Dr. Al Wardi and his writings or that they knew but chose Sadam's version of Iraq's history!?

Kevin Sites' Open Letter

Via Wizbang - Kevin Sites, the cameraman who captured the now infamous footage of a Marine shooting a wounded jihadi, has an Open Letter to Devil Dogs of the 3.1 at his blog site.

Addendum:

Now, read this account of the nature of the urban warfare in Fallujah. (Thanks to reader "Reid-O" for the tip)

Farenheit 2008

Hey Mike - just a heads up, you know.

Quote Of The Day

Imagine is "America's alternative national anthem since 9/11”?

Words fail me.

And that's something I have in common with John Lennon at the time he was writing that saccharine totalitarian dirge. - Andrew Stuttaford

Saudization Of The Workplace

ArabNews:

According to stall manager Hassan Saleh Salman Arawiti the serious problems at Alkhobar's produce market began exactly one year and two months back. At that time, as a part of the Kingdom's Saudization efforts, the municipality forced out the Bangladeshis who had worked at the market for more than a decade. Repeated raids involving the police eventually ensured that all the expatriates were permanently driven away.

"The leaseholders of the stalls tried to hire Saudis but it wasn't very successful," Arawiti said. "Those Saudis had no experience in the produce business and couldn't work the long hours the business requires for profitability. Most Saudis stayed just a week or two and they were gone. The labor problems led to some stalls closing at that time."

Customers became dissatisfied with the environment at Alkhobar's halaga. They didn't want to deal with the poor service and variable quality of the produce there. Arawiti explained that many supermarkets had begun offering produce by the carton. Customers, especially women, liked the convenience of buying their fruits and vegetables from the same place they purchased their other groceries. The stall managers found that even after the situation at Alkhobar's halaga stabilized, the customers didn't return. These days only five stalls are functioning.

Hitler's Jesusland

A Belmont Club history review for the modern Nazi distortionist.

If Hitler was altogether more evil than we can conceive, he arose from a time and circumstance which few if any can still remember. Any comparisons between the 1945 and 2004 are likely to be inexact. Those who point to the shooting of Jihadi in Fallujah by a US Marine as evidence that America is drifting into Nazism would do well to remember that in 1945, American troops who arrived in Dachau were so disgusted by what they saw they executed hundreds of SS guards on the spot. This is a link to remarkable photographs of the incident.

"The killing of unarmed POWs did not trouble many of the men in I company that day for to them the SS guards did not deserve the same protected status as enemy soldiers who have been captured after a valiant fight.

To many of the men in I company, the SS were nothing more than wild, vicious animals whose role in this war was to starve, brutalize, torment, torture and murder helpless civilians." Flint Whitlock, The Rock of Anzio, From Sicily to Dachau: A history of the U.S. 45th Infantry Division.

French Troops Fire On Unarmed Civilians

No word on this from the mainstream media, as far as I can tell, but it's burning up the internet.

Via LGF and Flea at the Shotgun

Video downloads available here. Read the Shotgun post first, though, so you are duly warned about the graphic nature of the film.

Freewillblog has a new, downsized version. Still around 15 megs, so dialup users like me are out of luck. His site is getting hit pretty hard though, so be patient if you can't get through.

"To hell they will go."

Iraq link roundup:

Greyhawk: It's a good thing we're communicating by written words now rather than spoken, because there's a helicopter parked about 50 yards from me, still running, an ambulance next to it with a guy on a stretcher in between. It's loud - but it's also dark out right now so I can't see if it's an American on that stretcher or an Iraqi. Whoever it is they're on their way out now. A must read.

Jeremy Brown on the current peril of Iraqi blogger Zayed. (Healing Iraq).

Rising concerns in Europe about the "growing ethnic tensions as EU nations struggle to absorb a steady stream of poor, mostly Muslim immigrants."

James Joyner has the MSM versions, plus good news on debt forgiveness.

Donald Sensing on the Marine shooting, and how it might be viewed under the Geneva Convention.

Powerline sums coverage up succintly today -

Today, the Associated Press reports: "Violent Attacks Sweep Baghdad; GI Killed": [...] Baghdad is, I believe, a city approximately equal to Los Angeles in area and population. One can fairly question whether incidents occurring in six locations constitute "widespread clashes" "sweep[ing] Baghdad." But, as always, the tone of the coverage of the Iraq war reflects the agenda of those who write the news.

Brainwashing 101

A reader passes along this link to the online documentary Brainwashing 101.

Brainwashing 101 is a provocative short film showing how universities use tools such as "speech codes" to force political views upon students. In this cutting exposé, documentary filmmakers Maloney, Browning and Greenberg shine a light on political correctness, academic bias, student censorship--even administrative cover-ups of death threats--at three schools: Bucknell University, the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly).

"Newspapers Should Be Fun"

The Washington Post is coming to grips with a 10% drop off in circulation over the past 2 years, prompting a "self-examination" meeting on the issue. Apparently, newspaper reporters seem to labour under a misconception that readers can see them.

Washington Post Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr. met with hundreds of newsroom staffers yesterday to outline management's latest attempts to combat declining circulation. However, the more intense discussion at the meeting involved diversity at the newspaper, as several minority staff members lamented that a white man recently was chosen over a woman and a black man as the paper's new managing editor.

[...]

"We're crushed," said national reporter Darryl Fears at the meeting. Fears, who is black, organized two meetings of African American staffers in recent days in response to Bennett's promotion. "A lot of our worst suspicions were confirmed about the ability of African Americans and other minorities to rise to the highest level of the best papers in the world," he said.

In an effort to win new readers, Downie said Post reporters will be required to write shorter stories. The paper's design and copy editors will be given more authority to make room for more photographs and graphics.

The paper will undergo a redesign to make it easier for readers to find stories. It is considering filling the left-hand column of the front page with keys to stories elsewhere in the paper and other information readers say they want from the paper, which they often consider "too often too dull," Downie said.

"Newspapers should be fun and it should be fun to work at one," Bennett said.

Trudeau, The Next Generation

"We have a great deal to learn from the Soviet Union . . . a country from which we have a great deal to benefit." - Pierre Elliott Trudeau

So, Alexandre, being stymied in his attempts to convince Russians that communism was actually reallyreallycool, saunters off to find some Russians who need no such convincing... and ends up partying with the National Bolshevik Party:

Polish Hostage Safe

CBC

Teresa Borcz Khalifa is "safe and sound," Prime Minister Marek Belka told reporters in Warsaw Saturday.

''Officials of different services took part in her release in co- operation with institutions from many countries,'' Marek said.

Khalifa has lived in Iraq for 30 years, is married to an Iraqi and holds both Polish and Iraqi citizenship. She was kidnapped on Oct. 27 in Baghdad by a group that demanded Poland withdraw its troops from Iraq. Al-Jazeera television aired two videos showing Khalifa in captivity.

Google Museum: Ipse Dixit Collection

Keyboard - (Dodd Harris circa 2004)

"Hypocricy"

On Nov. 16th, I dashed off the following email to news@ctv.ca, after the airing of the National at 11 pm.

Subject: Film footage hypocrisy
Time : 11/16/04 11:32 pm

No tape of the aid worker's execution. Too disturbing to show the audience the face of the enemy? Or too truthful?

Two plays of the Marine shooting of the wounded prisoner. (whose unit had lost a member the day before when a boobytrapped body exploded)

And you wonder what the mainstream media is struggling with credibility issues and falling audience share?

--
Kate
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com

Ask Us askus@ctv.ca Re: film footage hypocricy Your arguement is specious. Video ot the aid worker being shot in the head was not available in North America. However it was reported on extensively. The marine shooting video -- which on the surface appears in direct contravention of the Geneva Convention -- was frozen before the bullets ripped into the body. I fail to see either a moral equivalency or a moral imbalance. If you think there are credibility issues ... by all means ... check out other forms of media. How many conspiracy theories can you really take. I find it amazing that you think we news producers disucss issues the way you seem to think we do: that masters attend our meetings telling us what and what not to put on air.j News value. It's a concept.

Uncover Your Personal Anthropology!

A Christmas gift idea for the white supremacist who has everything.

Customers recieve a CDROM with their raw genetic data, a bar graph showing the percentages of each group and a specialized representation of their data called a triangle plot, along with a users manual. Ancestry cannot be determined by any genetics test in a black/white litmus test fashion. Instead, the results are reported as statistical estimates, and are qualified with confidence intervals. From over 6,000 tests so far performed, and extensive mathematical simulation, we know that the test is accurate to from 4-8% and sensitive enough to detect, for many customers, a single (100%) African or European great great grandparent, or a single (100%) Native American or East Asian great grandparent. Most customers use the test in an attempt to confirm recent admixture events such as this - where the family tree is primarily European for instance but one or more recent ancestors are of other ancestry, such as Native American.

[...]

High levels of admixture are highly characteristic of recent admixture events and various populations show systematic types of admixtures. The average African American shows 20% European admixture, and Carribean Hispanics tend to show significant European, Native American and African admixture. Non-African Hispanics tend to show relatively even European/Native American admixture with some showing more (even all) European, and others more (even all) Native American.

Lower levels of admixture, particularly in Europeans, require a bit of detective work to interpret. This is because the test does not only report recent admixture events, but we believe, ancient events as well. Because our genetic history is very complex, and interactions between separated populations occurred many times before recorded history, individuals of certain ethnic groups tend to show specific admixture results. Examples include Russians, Scandanavians and Eastern Europeans showing low levels of East Asian admixture (even without a Chinese great grandparent), which possibly arose from widespread interaction between Europeans and Asians during and before the Hun invasions and subsequent ethnic amalgamation. Greeks, Italians, Middle Easterners and Jews reliably and systematically show low levels of Native American admixture (even without an American Indian great grandparent) for anthropological and genetic reasons that are not yet well understood.

Franksbury

Frank J. launches a new comic strip. I smell syndication!

France Sends Troops To Iraq

Fighting alongside their Canadian brethren in the greater war on terrorism.

Fox News Hand Wringing

James Adams exhibits "fair and balanced" reporting at the Globe and Mail.

Fox News, the Canada-baiting house organ of the U.S. right, will come to Canadian digital television next year, the federal broadcast regulator is expected to rule today.

[...]

News Corp. is controlled by the right-wing Australian media tycoon, Rupert Murdoch.

It claims to have more than 80 million subscribers in the United States alone, subscribers who have made it that country's top- rated all-news channel and its commentators Sean Hannity, Greta Van Susteren and Bill O'Reilly full-fledged media personalities.

The abrasive Mr. O'Reilly, in particular, has developed an intense, albeit negative, interest in things Canadian in the past two years.

He used his much-watched The O'Reilly Factor program as a launching pad for feuds with The Globe and Mail's John Doyle and Heather Mallick, and attacked, variously, Canadian teens (for being "ignorant"), the CRTC (for "banning" Fox), former prime minister Jean Chrétien (for being "a bum"), The Globe and Mail ("a far-left newspaper"), Vancouver Mayor Larry Campbell (for being soft on heroin users) and Canadian health care ("socialist").

The Libranos - A New Wrinkle

New York Daily News

Alfonso Gagliano has held titles in Canada that include labor minister, deputy House leader, ambassador to Denmark and minister of public works.

In New York he held a different kind of title, according to secret FBI documents obtained by the Daily News: "made" member of the Bonanno crime family.

Gagliano was identified as a longtime soldier in the Bonanno crime family by Frank Lino, a former Mafia capo-turned-informer.

Lino is now cooperating with the FBI and federal prosecutors as they slowly take apart the mob family to which he once swore allegiance.

Gagliano's name surfaced as Lino described the Bonanno family's operations in Montreal, which has served as an outpost for the Brooklyn-based group for decades.

He said he and a group of top Bonanno gangsters traveled to Montreal in the 1990s to let the northern branch office know the family had a new boss, Joseph Massino.

The group met at a catering hall, and during the meeting, a Bonanno gangster, Joseph Lopresti, introduced Gagliano to Lino as a made man in the family, FBI documents state.

Lino made a point of telling the FBI that only actual members of the Bonanno family were allowed to attend the meeting at the catering hall. Associates were banned.

Gagliano attorney Pierre Fournier did not return calls seeking comment yesterday.

For years, Gagliano was a fixture in Canada's national politics, rising through the ranks of the Liberal Party.

But his most powerful position was undoubtedly Canada's minister of public works and government services, the office that oversees the Canadian mint and awards most of Canada's government contracts.

In that capacity, Gagliano found himself embroiled in a growing scandal over potential corruption in the awarding of contracts for government advertising.

In February, he was dismissed as ambassador.

There is an ongoing investigation into allegations that government funds were funneled to large contributors to the Liberal Party for no-work contracts.

Lino was shown an array of photographs and identified Gagliano, the FBI documents state.

When he began cooperating with the FBI, Lino admitted he was involved in six murders, several attempted murders, loansharking, extortion and gambling.

update Western Standard staff writer, Kevin Steel has written to the Daily News asking if any Canadian news agency has asked for copies of the FBI documents. Heh.

Carolyn Parrish, Comedian

At least one Liberal MP will find it difficult to hide her distaste for the recently re- elected U.S. president. Carolyn Parrish didn't even try on Monday, playing along with CBC-TV's This Hour Has 22 Minutes by stomping on a George Bush action figure.

Parrish has been outspoken in the past, calling Americans "bastards" and mocking Bush's efforts to gather allies in the war on Iraq by calling countries that follow the U.S. a "coalition of idiots."

"Come on guys, this is humour ... I am not a monster lady. I'm not an angry wet hen. I am actually a pretty funny person and humour is one of those tonics in life."

1 pm. update - Prime Minister Paul Martin has announced Parrish has been expelled from caucus.

Deja Graihb, All Over Again

A Marine writes;

A young Marine and his cover man cautiously enter a room just recently filled with insurgents armed with Ak-47's and RPG's. There are three dead, another wailing in pain. The insurgent can be heard saying, "Mister, mister! Diktoor, diktoor(doctor)!" He is badly wounded, lying in a pool of his own blood. The Marine and his cover man slowly walk toward the injured man, scanning to make sure no enemies come from behind. In a split second, the pressure in the room greatly exceeds that of the outside, and the concussion seems to be felt before the blast is heard. Marines outside rush to the room, and look in horror as the dust gradually settles. The result is a room filled with the barely recognizable remains of the deceased, caused by an insurgent setting off several pounds of explosives.

The Marines' remains are gathered by teary eyed comrades, brothers in arms, and shipped home in a box. The families can only mourn over a casket and a picture of their loved one, a life cut short by someone who hid behind a white flag.

But no one hears these stories, except those who have lived to carry remains of a friend, and the families who loved the dead. No one hears this, so no one cares.

This time the "shocking" pictures are of a Marine shooting a "wounded Iraqi", replaying on every channel, stills on every front page - while Margaret Hussan plays the part of Arni Berg, the bullets to her head too "disturbing" to view, the details of her weeks of torture too graphic to describe. The technicolor evidence of the scene of the crime is nowhere to be found.

Blackhawk pilot "2Slick";

Call this an official warning to the MSM- keep it fair, or the blogosphere will activate the Bat Signal.

Where Are The Slaughterhouse Photos?

Good question.

Attention Freedom Of Religion: Lubricate Liberally

... and prepare for the slide.

Ont. minister urges Muslims to stay in gay-ed classes

Controversy erupted after students at Market Lane Public School were shown videos that depicted the feelings of children who get taunted at school because their own parents are homosexuals.

Angry Muslim parents complained that their religious beliefs were getting less respect from the board than gay rights and demanded that their children be excluded on religious grounds from similar presentations in the future.

The board rejected their request Tuesday night on the grounds that allowing some students to be excluded from discussions about gay families would violate the rights of those children with same-sex parents.

Ontario's New Democrats echoed the government's position.

"I believe that human rights come above religious rights," said NDP critic Michael Prue.

15. (1) Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination and, in particular, without discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability.

Breaking News!

Newsfeed.... Nov 17, 2004

Marine shoots wounded Iraqi ... War crime ... Abu Graihb ... Goss bullies CIA ... UN Human Rights commissioner criticizes coalition ... Starr Jones' eye for queer guy ... Insurgency grows ... warmonger Condi Rice black ... Iraq police abducted...

(More here)

update

Louise Arbour, Insufferable Twit

Via The Command Post:

Top United Nations human rights official Louise Arbour has called for investigation of alleged abuses in Fallujah, Iraq, including disproportionate use of force and the targeting of civilians.

Those responsible for any violations - US and multinational forces, Iraqi government troops or insurgents - should be brought to justice, the former UN war crimes prosecutor said in a statement.

"There have been a number of reports during the current confrontation alleging violations of the rules of war designed to protect civilians and combatants," the UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights said.

[...]

All violations of international humanitarian and human rights law must be investigated, including "the deliberate targeting of civilians, indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks, the killing of injured persons and the use of human shields", Ms Arbour said.

Mutilated bodies dumped on Fallujah's bombed out streets today painted a harrowing picture of eight months of rebel rule.

As US and Iraqi troops mopped up the last vestiges of resistance in the city after a week of bombardment and fighting, residents who stayed on through last week's offensive were emerging and telling harrowing tales of the brutality they endured.

Flyposters still litter the walls bearing all manner of decrees from insurgent commanders, to be heeded on pain of death. Amid the rubble of the main shopping street, one decree bearing the insurgents' insignia - two Kalashnikovs propped together - and dated November 1 gives vendors three days to remove nine market stalls from outside the city's library or face execution.

The pretext given is that the rebels wanted to convert the building into a headquarters for the "Mujahidin Advisory Council" through which they ran the city.

Another poster in the ruins of the souk bears testament to the strict brand of Sunni Islam imposed by the council, fronted by hardline cleric Abdullah Junabi. The decree warns all women that they must cover up from head to toe outdoors, or face execution by the armed militants who controlled the streets.

Two female bodies found yesterday suggest such threats were far from idle. An Arab woman, in a violet nightdress, lay in a post-mortem embrace with a male corpse in the middle of the street. Both bodies had died from bullets to the head.

Just six metres away on the same street lay the decomposing corpse of a blonde-haired white woman, too disfigured for swift identification but presumed to be the body of one of the many foreign hostages kidnapped by the rebels.

Such is the fear that the heavily armed militants held over Fallujah that many of the residents who emerged from the ruins welcomed the US marines, despite the massive destruction their firepower had inflicted on their city.

A man in his sixties, half-naked and his underwear stained with blood from shrapnel wounds from a US munition, cursed the insurgents as he greeted the advancing marines on Saturday night.

"I wish the Americans had come here the very first day and not waited eight months," he said, trembling.

Clinton Presidential Library

Artists rendition of the new Clinton Library opening in Little Rock tomorrow.

(Not shown: presidential limousine up on blocks in the driveway.)

I'm So Ronrey... So Ronery And Sadry Arone...

What is happening to the great masterpieces of North Korea?

hat tip - Captain Ed

Quote Of The Day

From whom else?

Yay Condi Rice. I want her to go to Saudi Arabia, and I want her first words upon getting off the plane to be "I'll drive."

Crouzon Syndrome

A photo essay- by the Seattle Times on Brenna Johnston, who was born with a rare genetic condition called Crouzon Syndrome . I'm not sure what purpose the article serves, but this is one brave little kid.

al-Zarqawi TOSsed

Rusty Shackleford is reporting that Hosting Anime has shut down all terrorist related sites on their servers, including several linked to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

The website had been previously hacked on several occasions by a group calling itself Teamz USA. The story was first reported here (and then ripped off by MSNBC) and a second hacking was reported by Chad Evans (also ripped by MSM). Might I just add that a certain Star Wars themed website gave out the URL for Zarqawi to well over a hundred people promising to take down the site again....Perhaps the new owners just got sick of all the hackers?

Life Imitates Scrappleface

BocaNews.com

Mental health officials in South Florida blasted Rush Limbaugh on Monday, saying the conservative talk show host's offer of "free therapy" for traumatized John Kerry voters has made a mockery of a valid psychological problem.

"Rush Limbaugh has a way of back-handedly slamming people," said Sheila Cooperman, a licensed clinician with the American Health Association (AHA) who listened Friday as Limbaugh offered to personally treat her patients. "He's trying to ridicule the emotional state this presidential election produced in many of us here in Palm Beach County. Who is he to offer therapy?"

Physician, heal thyself.

Cooperman, whose professional practice is based in Delray Beach, said the election-related symptoms she sees in the Kerry supporters more than quality PEST as "a legitimate syndrome or disorder within the trauma spectrum," according to the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

"Rush Limbaugh has no clinical qualifications to counsel anyone," Cooperman said. "He's not only minimizing PEST, but he's bastardizing the entire psychological field and our clinical expertise."

(crossposted to Outside The Beltway where I'm doing a little guest blogging these days.)

Poodles

Greg Staples thinks the British press is incredibly bold.

Q Mr. President, first. The Prime Minister is sometimes, perhaps unfairly, characterized in Britain as your "poodle." I was wondering if that's the way you may see your relationship? And perhaps, more seriously, do you feel for the --".

Here is a questioner calling the Prime Minister of the UK a poodle to his face.

"PRESIDENT BUSH: The Prime Minister made the decision he did because he wanted to do his duty to secure the people of Great Britain. That's why he made the decision. Plenty capable of making his own mind. He's a strong, capable man. I admire him a lot. You know why? When he tells you something, he means it. You spend much time with politics, you'll know there's some people around this part of the -- this kind of line of work where they tell you something, they don't mean it..."

Times Online

JACQUES CHIRAC dealt a blow to Tony Blair's attempt to heal the wounds between the US and Europe last night by saying that the Prime Minister had won nothing for supporting the war against Iraq.

[...]

M Chirac, speaking to British journalists, including The Times, soon after General Powell's announcement, revealed that he had urged Mr Blair to demand the relaunch of the Middle East peace process in return for backing the war.

"Well, Britain gave its support but I did not see anything in return. I'm not sure it is in the nature of our American friends at the moment to return favours systematically."

[...]

M Chirac, whose visit to Britain concludes the Entente Cordiale anniversary celebrations, said: "I am not sure, with America as it is these days, that it would be easy for someone, even the British, to be an honest broker."

Fairuz Yamulky

Fairuz Yamulky, a 38 year old Iraqi-Canadian, was taken hostage in Iraq on Sept. 7 and held for 16 days. She was tortured, beaten and threatened with death. She escaped with the assistance of one of her captors.

U.S. forces diverted a Blackhawk helicopter to pick up her and her protector in the desert, they provided medical tests and trauma counselling and gave her a place to stay in a general's apartment.

Her treatment by Canadian government officials?

Once in Amman, Yamulky said Canadian officials never offered any followup medical help. She eventually saw her own doctor in Dubai, where her family lived while she worked in Iraq.
 
Yamulky said she could afford to pay what Canadian officials required and despite feeling traumatized was able to make some decisions.
 
But others in similar situations might not have her financial resources nor be able mentally to cope with such demands, she said.
 
"Some people come out of these traumas and they're totally distorted," said Yamulky.
 
"I do thank the Canadian government for keeping in contact with my family. But I do at the same time want them to have something in place when things like this go wrong."
 
Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Marie-Christine Kilkoff said officials followed Yamulky's plight very closely and worked with local Iraqi authorities and "other countries with a presence in Baghdad."
 
Once Yamulky was free, they obtained an emergency passport for her and arranged travel to Jordan, though the flight was paid for by relatives and friends, said Kilkoff.
 
"While in Amman, Canadian officials advised Mrs. Yamulky that we could assist her with hotel and flight arrangements, which she declined," she said.
 
The department has been warning Canadians since 1995 not to travel to Iraq, said Kilkoff, and its travel advisory states it has no consular services in that country.
 
Canada has one foreign service officer as a liaison with the Iraqi interim government and an RCMP officer looking into ways of aiding the country's police forces.
 
Dining with Canadian embassy officials in Amman, Yamulky said one left the table to take a telephone call from Ottawa. She returned to ask if Yamulky would make a statement that the Canadian government had helped her.
 
"I refused," she said. "I said I do not know how much you guys have done in my case."

Travesty International

A reader at Powerline passes along this flyer being passed around at Penn State and ponders,

" You always wonder why groups like Amnesty International always seem to hold War Criminal Tribunals for Bush, but somehow missed holding one for Kim Jong Il or Hussein."

Amnesty International has become a caricature of its former self. Today, the organization just another donation pit for the anti-American, anti-semitic left.

Spaghetti Logic

Reminiscent of enviro-leftist warnings about the "devastating flooding created by not enough water to fill the dam" Rafferty-Alameda project here in Saskatchewan in the 1980's, Kevin Libin wonders if the Missile Defense Shield Antis might refine their message.

" [T]hey, on one hand, argue that the technology will lead to a new global arms race as nations build increasingly sophisticated weapons to evade the missile shield, and on the other, that the missile shield will never work anyway."

No wonder the left clings so tightly to relativism and its associated realms. You need to set aside that objective truth bullshit to like, cut through the crap that comes with thinking really, really hard about stuff you wish wasn't true and everything.

UNScam Updates

The figures for the UN Oil-For-Food rip-off scheme have been revised from the previous 10 - 11 billion estimates. Doubled, actually.

William Safire at the NYT (registration may be necessary).

Annan's obstruction of outside investigations has strong support within the U.N. members whose citizens are most likely to be embarrassed by revelations of payoffs: Russia, France and China lead all the rest. He has dutifully continued to align himself with their interests by declaring the overthrow of Saddam "illegal" and recently denouncing our attack on the insurgents in Falluja. Perhaps he thinks that this confluence of national interest in cover-up - along with the unwillingness of most media to dig into a complicated story - will let his stonewalling succeed. He reckons not with an insulted Congress.

Coleman said this week's hearings will show that ''the scope of the ripoff'' at the U.N. is substantially more than the widely reported $10 billion to $11 billion in graft. But more than money is involved. These hearings also should expose the arrogance of the secretary-general and his bureaucracy. At the same time that he has refused to honor the Senate committee's request for documents, Annan has inveighed against the Fallujah offensive sanctioned by the new Iraqi government while ignoring the terrorism of insurgents. This is an unprecedented showdown between a branch of the U.S. government and the U.N.

The scandal is not complicated. Money from Iraqi oil sales permitted by the Saddam Hussein regime under U.N. auspices, supposedly to provide food for Iraqis, was siphoned off to middlemen. Billions intended to purchase food wound up in Saddam's hands for the purpose of buying conventional weapons. The complicity of U.N. member states France and Russia is pointed to by the Senate investigation. The web of corruption deepened when it was revealed that Annan's son, Kojo, was on the payroll of a contractor in the oil- for-food program.

[...]

The reaction by the U.N. bureaucracy has been an intransigent defense of its stone wall. Edward Mortimer, Annan's director of communications, publicly sneered at the Coleman-Levin letter as ''very awkward and troubling.'' Privately, Annan's aides told reporters that they were not about to hand over confidential documents to the Russian Duma and every other parliamentary body in the world.

But the U.S. Senate is not the Russian Duma. These are not just a few right- wing voices in the wilderness who are confronting Kofi Annan. ''In seeing what is happening at the U.N.,'' Coleman told me, ''I am more troubled today than ever. I see a sinkhole of corruption.'' The United Nations and its secretary-general are in a world of trouble.

Bridge Over Troubled Fallujah

Blackwater murders avenged. Blackfive has more.

Blogroll Updates

I have created a new category on the blogroll, as a warning to others. (Scroll down... way down...)

udate on the McCallum home vandalization - Regina City police spokesperson Elizabeth Popowich tells CKOM's John Gormley this morning that "arrests are imminent". Let's hope so.

On The Other Side

A blogging Black Hawk pilot asks "are these reporters in the now-infamous MSM really that determined to see us fail in Iraq?"

His answer comes by way of an email from NBC "award winning" reporter, John Hockenberry.

With an attention to detail befitting his profession, Hockenberry had missed the letters CPT in front of his nick.

CPT 2Slick ;

I ask you- whose side are these people on? I'm on my second tour in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, and I won't even pretend to know the answer. But I don't like what I'm seeing.

White Flag Update - Hockenberry extends an olive branch. And 2Slick marvels at the power of the blogosphere.

Goldstein, Stop Doing That

You're such a prick, sometimes.

Empress Of Kateinthia

The Commissar has a new map up of The Empire

I think I'll use my new authorities to outlaw cats.

Tune-in, Turn-on, Chug-up

It can be triggered by something as innocent as a John Deere baseball cap.

"I'm not sure where we went wrong," says Ellen McCormack, nervously fondling the recycled paper cup holding her organic Kona soy latte. "It seems like only yesterday Rain was a carefree little boy at the Montessori school, playing non-competitive musical chairs with the other children and his care facilitators."

"But now..." she pauses, staring out the window of her postmodern Palo Alto home. The words are hesitant, measured, bearing a tale of family heartbreak almost too painful for her to recount. "But now, Rain insists that I call him Bobby Ray."

Even as her voice is choked with emotion, she summons an inner courage -- a mother's courage -- and leads me down the hall to "Bobby Ray's" bedroom, for a firsthand glimpse at the psychic devastation that claimed her son.

Some say the craze threatens even the nation's most exclusive prep schools. At Exeter, Andover and St. Albans, rumors abound of secret societies where initiates are steeped in the black arts of restrictor plate cheating and satellite descramblers. Washington's elite Sidwell Friends School was nearly forced to close after scandalized parents learned that several students were openly touting Sams Club cards.

The Art Of The Metaphor

Yager has a side-splittingly funny post up, like a watermelon with a cow standing on it.

Herd Behavior At Institutions Of Higher Leftism

Mark Bauerlein, a professor of English at Emory University writes on the effects of left wing groupthink at universities, and the effect it has on career advancement and curriculum.

Yet while the lack of conservative minds on college campuses is increasingly indisputable, the question remains: Why?

The obvious answer, at least in the humanities and social sciences, is that academics shun conservative values and traditions, so their curricula and hiring practices discourage non-leftists from pursuing academic careers. What allows them to do that, while at the same time they deny it, is that the bias takes a subtle form. Although I've met several conservative intellectuals in the last year who would love an academic post but have given up after years of trying, outright blackballing is rare. The disparate outcome emerges through an indirect filtering process that runs from graduate school to tenure and beyond.

Some fields' very constitutions rest on progressive politics and make it clear from the start that conservative outlooks will not do. Schools of education, for instance, take constructivist theories of learning as definitive, excluding realists (in matters of knowledge) on principle, while the quasi-Marxist outlook of cultural studies rules out those who espouse capitalism. If you disapprove of affirmative action, forget pursuing a degree in African-American studies. If you think that the nuclear family proves the best unit of social well-being, stay away from women's studies.

Other fields allow the possibility of studying conservative authors and ideas, but narrow the avenues of advancement. Mentors are disinclined to support your topic, conference announcements rarely appeal to your work, and few job descriptions match your profile. A fledgling literary scholar who studies anti-communist writing and concludes that its worth surpasses that of counterculture discourse in terms of the cogency of its ideas and morality of its implications won't go far in the application process.

[...]

The first protocol of academic society might be called the Common Assumption. The assumption is that all the strangers in the room at professional gatherings are liberals. Liberalism at humanities meetings serves the same purpose that scientific method does at science assemblies. It provides a base of accord. The Assumption proves correct often enough for it to join other forms of trust that enable collegial events. A fellowship is intimated, and members may speak their minds without worrying about justifying basic beliefs or curbing emotions.

[...]

After Nixon crushed McGovern in the 1972 election, the film critic Pauline Kael made a remark that has become a touchstone among conservatives. "I don't know how Richard Nixon could have won," she marveled. "I don't know anybody who voted for him." While the second sentence indicates the sheltered habitat of the Manhattan intellectual, the first signifies what social scientists call the False Consensus Effect. That effect occurs when people think that the collective opinion of their own group matches that of the larger population. If the members of a group reach a consensus and rarely encounter those who dispute it, they tend to believe that everybody thinks the same way.

[...]

The final social pattern is the Law of Group Polarization. That law, as Cass R. Sunstein, a professor of political science and of jurisprudence at the University of Chicago, has described, predicts that when like-minded people deliberate as an organized group, the general opinion shifts toward extreme versions of their common beliefs. In a product-liability trial, for example, if nine jurors believe the manufacturer is somewhat guilty and three believe it is entirely guilty, the latter will draw the former toward a larger award than the nine would allow on their own. If people who object in varying degrees to the war in Iraq convene to debate methods of protest, all will emerge from the discussion more resolved against the war.

Unpleasant Spin

At the Toronto Star, Rosie Dimanno reveals something we already know.

The latitude routinely extended to columnists - who, let's face it, deal largely in the realm of opinion - shrinks when the subject is Islam or Palestine. Editors huddle and debate the potential repercussions from all possible angles.

I can think of no other constituency that is more respectfully - or hyper-obsequiously - treated. And it doesn't matter how carefully I qualify anything I say, or recount the kindnesses extended to me in Muslim countries (especially Afghanistan, my favourite place on earth) or how often I include all the deferential acknowledgments about Islam - a great religion of peace, its tenets hijacked in recent years by some extremists that commit barbarous acts in its name - it's never enough to satisfy those who accuse others of promoting hatred while never examining the hostile bitterness in their own hearts. In this paper, commentators can bluntly equate President George W. Bush to Osama bin Laden, Israel be endlessly vilified as a terrorist state, the United States broadly demonized and caricaturized as a superpower gone nuts - and nobody bats an eye. That's all free speech, which I defend without reservation. But the goalposts shift when the subject is Islamist terrorism or the conflict in the Middle East.

"Bring the Troops Home Now!"

A couple of marines on their way to a veterans parade take the wrong off-ramp...

"We stopped to ask them (the protestors) directions, but they weren't very nice."

hat tip - Wizbang

It's Too Quiet Out There

On the eve of the CFL Western Final, the Saskatchewan Roughriders have gone mute. So much so, that their silence has become the sports story of the week.

"Whad'sa matter with you guys? Where's the trash talk? Whad'ya expect us to write about? "

The other news? The volume has been maxed out on the audio system at BC Place to try to prepare their team for a stadium full of the noisiest out-of-town fans on the planet.

Taylor Field, Regina, SK.

Saskatchewan fans have been known to make it impossible for visiting teams to hear calls at home games at Taylor Field. They are likely to be in abundance at BC Place.

Too quiet, or too noisy? Make up your mind, people.

Heh.

News You Haven't Heard

Senator Norm Coleman's letter to Kofi Annan on behalf of the Senate Subcommittee on Investigations;

As you know, there are allegations of misconduct and mismanagement by the U.N. and/or its agents, including allegations of bribery, conflict of interest and fraud. The recently published report by Charles Duelfer...revealed additional evidence that Benon Sevan, Executive Director of the U.N. Office of the Iraq program, may have received oil allocations from the government of Iraq. Accordingly, these allegations have raised serious questions concerning the management of the U.N. OFF program and the U.N.'s capacity to enforce a similar sanctions regime in the future.

In light of those concerns, we requested your consent to interview key U.N. personnel and review related documents.... In your response of September 29th, you declined to produce the requested documents and U.N. personnel.

We are troubled by your response for a number of reasons...

Related:

Via Powerline.

Saving Kathy Tomlinson

Daniel Henninger of the Wall Street Journal.

Large media institutions, such as CBS or the New York Times, have been regarded as nothing if not authoritative. In the Information Age, authority is a priceless franchise. But it is this franchise that Big Media, incredibly, has just thrown away. It did so by choosing to go into overt opposition to one party's candidate, a sitting president. It stooped to conquer.

The prominent case studies here are Dan Rather's failed National Guard story on CBS and the front page the past year of the New York Times (a proxy for many large dailies). Add in as well Big Media's handling of Abu Ghraib, a real story that got blown into a monthlong bonfire that obviously was intended to burn down the legitimacy of the war in Iraq. I think many people thought the over-the-top Abu Ghraib coverage, amid a war, was the media shouting fire in a crowded theater.

Heavily paraphrased, her report evolved in the following manner;

"Voters in the US recently indicated "moral values" were behind the re-election of President Bush, and now there is a climate of fear that airing the Spielberg movie Saving Private Ryan (which has bad words and violence that Spielberg won't allow cut) could result in FCC fines (like they did for Janet Jackson's tit) because Bush is sending soldiers to Iraq where there is real fighting and killing and he doesn't want Americans to see what that looks like"

Henninger has cautionary words for the likes of Ms. Tomlinson.

Authority can be a function of raw power, but among free people it is sustained by esteem and trust. Should esteem and trust falter, the public will start to contest an institution's authority. It happens all the time to political figures. It happened here to the American Catholic Church and to the legal profession, thanks to plaintiff-bar abuse. And now the public is beginning to contest the decades-old authority of the mainstream media.

Two months ago, Gallup reported that public belief in the media's ability to report news accurately and fairly had fallen to 44%--what Gallup called a significant drop from 54% just a year ago. The larger media outlets have been pushing the edge of the partisanship envelope for a long time. People have kvetched about "spin" for years but then largely internalized it. Not in 2004. Big Media chose precisely the wrong moment to give itself over to an apparent compulsion to overthrow the Bush presidency.

Liberal friendly Candian media has had the luxury of a huge ideological cushion provided by the Liberal appointed CRTC - but as the influence of online news and opinion sources continues to grow, the blocking of sources like Foxnews will no longer protect them.

I sent an email last night to complain about the segment, something I rarely do anymore. For 20 years I was a nightly viewer of CTV National News. Today, I'd estimate I catch the broadcast only once every week or two. They've become "CBC light", and with so many other games in town, I can't be bothered.

Stonechild Questions

The Saskatoon Police Service finds itself in another crisis, courtesy of a recently released review of a 14 year old case involving the freezing death of 17 year old Neil Stonechild. The CBC bio paints a picture of a artistic, enthusiastic, "popular" young man who attended his AA meetings faithfully, was well loved by social workers, who painted murals on the walls at the detention center. Absence and political correctness make the heart grow fonder. A friend whose son went to school with him remarked that their first reaction to news of Stonechild's demise was "good riddence". The AA member was found with a blood alcohol level of 1.5.

Riding the media frenzy, U of Sask business professor Colin Boyd has called, through a piece in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix, for the dissolution of the Saskatoon Police Service, suggesting the force be replaced by the RCMP. Quite apart from the logistics and costs in firing over 370 city police, the problems incorporating the RCMP's different operational paradigm, is the wonderment that someone in academia would make such a bold suggestion without surrendering himself to the troubling inconvenience of fact checking. The Police Act requires Saskatchewan communities of over 20.000 to provide their own policing.

This CBC report summarizes the current crisis, while this covers the accusations and chain of events.

Justice David Wright's final report concluded Bradley Senger and Lawrence Hartwig had Stonechild in their custody 4 days before his frozen body was found in a field on the north end of Saskatoon. Senger and Hartwig maintain they were called to investigate a complaint about Stonechild causing a disturbance, but that he was gone by the time they arrived. Justice Wright was suspicious that the two officers did not seem to have any recollection of having looked for Stonechild, despite the discovery of his body a few days later.

From the report;

I cannot accept that Cst. Hartwig simply forgot about the search for Stonechild when he learned of the death, or that he failed to recognize the complaint might have some significance to the investigation into Stonechild's death. In all of the circumstances, his assertion that he did not recall what happened is simply not credible. I conclude that he recalled what happened, and his assertions are a deliberate deception designed to conceal his involvement.

And why might they forget? Earlier in the report, Justice Wright mentions that these two officers - one with 3 years experience, the other a rookie, had performed the task of informing a woman her husband had taken the lives of himself and their sons earlier in that same evening.

I also found puzzling the judge's contention that he cannot believe that some details of that evening would be remembered clearly by the officers, while others were not. Memory doesn't function in the way that a tape recorder does - rather, it's better described as a process of re-creation, the brain drawing on stored information and incorporating it with global knowledge. It's the reason that "false memory syndrome" exists, memory recovery through hypnosis is virtually useless and eyewitness reports notoriously unreliable.

Wright's decision to discount their testimony seems to be solely based on this forgetfulness and the testimony of a friend of Stonechild, one Jason Roy;

"A police car pulled in front of me and Neil was in the back, and the moment he saw me he was very irate, he was freaking out he was saying, 'J[ason] help me. Just help me. These guys are going to kill me.'

In addition to believing that Roy was more credible than the police officers, Wright discounted the testimony of two trained forensic pathologists who expressed doubt that marks photographed on Stonechild's body were caused by handcuffs. He suggested that the testimony of Dr. Lew - a forensic pathologist for Dade County, FL - wasn't credible and that she was "enhancing her opinion".

"I shared the same experience as other observers at the Inquiry: I could not see any striations of the sort described by Dr. Lew. If I stood alone in this failure I might feel differently."

I wasn't aware that Justice Wright had company on the bench. Considering that his final report recommends a review of the coroner system, Wright seems unpreturbed about his own lack of expertise before discounting the opinion of trained pathologists.

Justice Wright doesn't seem to take as much issue with the coroner - a retired general practitioner with no forensic background, whose original report bears little resemblance to the story of the body being "beaten and dragged" he told a reporter 12 years later. (Coroners require no training at all in Saskatchewan - a hangover from the exodus of doctors during the early days of medicare.)

Today, Chief Russ Sabo is to announce his decision on the future of the two officers accused.

Those who have been calling for their heads caution that Wright has "not accused Bradley Senger and Lawrence Hartwig of causing Stonechild's death". Justice officials have stated that there isn't enough evidence to sustain formal charges. (The Wright inquiry was not conducted under the normal rules of evidence.)

Well, I'm afraid this "they had him, not saying they killed him" disclaimer falls right through the middle of the logic gap.

If the two officers did have Stonechild in their custody, then we know they not record his arrest at the time the apprehended him, indicating that they intended to discharge of Stonechild in a manner beyond the normal police protocols the moment they spotted him.

That's pre-mediitation.

The media and Justice Wright need to be pushed off the fence on this one. If one is to accept that Senger and Hartwig had Stonechild in their custody, then criminal charges should be laid. Why? Because, their current position is unsustainable and grossly unfair. They stand "convicted" at arms length, of causing Neil Stonechild's death - without the benefit of a bona fide court of law and the normal rules of evidence - while the public has been encouraged to connect the dots.

To those calling for the dissolution of the service because of the very real possibility of a police "mutiny" - put yourselves in the position of every police officer in Saskatoon, facing the profound realization that the day could come when they are called to the stand to account for the whereabouts of a suspect they never located, on a night in which they answered over 50 calls, based on the late-breaking memory of a convicted felon, 10 years after taking a complaint.

A great many people have suggested that had Neil Stonechild been a white kid from a "good" family, without a criminal record, the investigation into his freezing death would have been much more enthusiastic - and I agree. I suspect police investigate violence against the innocent with more zeal than they do the deaths of drunk drivers, too.

But if Neil Stonechild had been a white kid with no criminal record, found frozen with alcohol in his system, we wouldn't have seen a racially charged public inquiry into it 14 years after the fact, either. It would have remained on the books as just another case of death by misadventure.

Stonechild report

update - Officers Hartwig and Senger have been dismissed. They are expected to appeal the decision. Stay tuned.

A sample of Jason Roy's testimony:

Q Okay. And in terms of Neil, do you remember what Neil was wearing? And I'll break it down. For example, do you remember what kind of jacket he was wearing?

A Well, obviously I've -- I had -- he was wearing a blue and white
jacket, bomber-style jacket.

Q Okay. And do you recall he was wearing that or is it just the
situation where you -- you knew he had a blue and white bomber-style
jacket and -- and assumed that's what he was wearing that night?

A I'm sorry?

Q Okay. What I'm asking you, you knew Neil had a blue and white
bomber-style jacket? That's normally what he would be wearing?

A Yes.

Q Okay. And so what I'm asking you if you recall if he was
specifically wearing that jacket that night or you just, that's
normally that's what he wouldbe wearing?

A That's what he was wearing.

Q The reason why I ask you that, and I'm -- I'm just going to refer to
-- I'm just going to refer you. Do you still have a copy of the
interview statement in front of you? Okay. I'll show you the page
that I'm going to refer to. It's just, you remember being interviewed
by Mr. Hesje?

A Yes

Q Okay. And I understand your counsel, Mr. Winegarden, was present
with you at that time?

A That's right.

Q Okay. And this is the same interview we've talked about before.
I'm going to just read this question to you and I'll show it to you
then and I'll ask you a question. Mr. Hesje asked you at page 8, right
at the top of page 8, "Do you have any recollection, and I appreciate
it's a long time ago, but as to what he was wearing for a jacket or --"
And you answered, "But, um," sorry. "Um, now I remember him owning a
couple, like a few different jackets. Now, the jacket that he was
wearing on exactly that night, you know like, I know that at some
points in time he'd wear a jean jacket with a lumber jacket. He also
had like a blue and white jacket that he also wore."

Q Okay. It looks like, to me -- first of all, do you remember giving
that answer at your interview, Jason?

A I remember giving that answer.

Q Okay. And was that answer correct at the time?

A Yes.

Q Okay.

Their Names Live On

Bush pilot Doug Chisholm is one cool guy.

In World War II, some 91,000 Saskatchewan men nearly 10% of the total provincial population joined various branches of the armed forces. Of these, more than 3,800 never returned. Following the end of the war, the government of Saskatchewan designated geographic features, such as lakes, islands, and bays, as a permanent testimonial to those who had made the supreme sacrifice.

Since 1997, pilot and photographer Doug Chisholm has undertaken the task of photographing from the air the thousands of sites named for these fallen young men. A selection of his photographs is presented in this volume, together with stories by Gerald Hill based on interviews conducted with friends and family members who remember the lives of these men. Also included in this volume is a comprehensive list of Saskatchewan's fallen and the sites named in honour of them.

If Ye Break Faith

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Delisle Cenotaph The procession to lay the wreaths is led each year by bagpipers, and an RCMP honour guard. The small red plastic poppies scattered at the base are worn on lapels across Canada to honour the fallen in the days leading up to Nov.11.

Coffee, Tea or Mach 10?

Via OTB;

They call it a "scramjet," an engine so blindingly fast that it could carry an airplane from San Francisco to Washington, D.C., in about 20 minutes

Next week, NASA plans to break the aircraft speed record for the second time in 7 1/2 months by flying its rocket-assisted X-43A scramjet craft 110,000 feet above the Pacific Ocean at speeds close to Mach 10 -- about 7,200 mph, or 10 times the speed of sound. The flight will last perhaps 10 seconds and end with the pilotless aircraft plunging to a watery grave 850 miles off the California coast.

More Dutch Arrests In Van Gough Murder

This time the suspects had grenades.

In The Service Of The Queen

CBFTW publishes an email from his battalion commander.

This war on terrorism will be with us for some time, so I offer an open letter to the generation I will pass this burden on to.

I believe that we are making progress in Iraq and in Afghanistan. Despite the ravings of pundits and uninformed ambulance chasers, this fight doesn't hinge on oil or payback. It isn't about religion or race. And it damn sure is not about any innate desire to rule the world. These people will succeed or fail on their own merits. The task is daunting. You can release a person from bondage. You can remove a tyrant from power. You can create the conditions for liberty. But, you cannot simply grant or proclaim freedom. Freedom without honest action is a whisper in a storm just as change without vision and purpose is the illusion of progress. For ages these people were literally beaten to the point of submission by oppression, censure, murder, torture, and rape - regardless of age or gender. I have asked myself why they let it happen. The only answer I can fathom is that evil flourished because good people refused to pay the price required to oppose it. Sure, it's easy now to pontificate and blame the poor and down trodden for their collective indifference, but forgive my sarcasm - I think we owe them more than a couple of days to realize that their hopes and dreams have a chance to grow and one day flourish.

[...]

The threat we face is like nothing we've seen before. I've been in the streets with this enemy, fought him face to face, and have been lucky enough to kill him and come out alive. I have seen what he is capable of doing and the zeal with which he will do it. This threat won't fit neatly into "the box" or be governed by any paradigm. It is a cancer within our collective body as the human race. We are all threatened by this evil, and evil it is. This enemy has twisted and distorted things both sacred and profane to guide as well as justify its means and its stated end. Nothing is beyond the realm of the possible when it comes to the depths to which it will sink, the horror it is willing to commit, or the suffering it is willing to inflict. This enemy has no concept of mercy nor does it recognize combatants. Innocence is not a factor. You need only look at the headlines of the day to confirm that children, teachers, and doctors are murdered everyday by these villains. What makes them evil? I submit that it is not the act that earns them the epithet of evil - it is the intent to commit and the pride theydraw from the act. These animals revel in the post act announcements that they are responsible. They feel vindicated by the proclamations that they perpetrated these horrors in the name of God and that having committed the seacts some how elevates them. Make no mistake, this enemy is formidable but by no means invincible. To defeat this cancer requires the one thing that civilized people all over the world possess in absolute abundance - The will. The will to be free can only be surrendered by the person that has it - it cannot be murdered, raped, tortured, or stolen. It's not about being a martyr or a saint, it's about being a decent human being. And, the unvarnished truth is that the killing and the horror will continue until those with the will to endure prevail.

100,000 Dead. Give or Take.

In late October, the New York Times reported that a study by a survey team from Johns Hopkins University found that 100,000 Iraqi civilians have died as a result of the war. Unsurprisingly, this figure has been added to the rhetoric of the finger pointing sect. Don't expect it to fade away any time soon.

In Slate, Fred Kaplan fills in the absent explanation of the "mathology" employed.

The report's authors derive this figure by estimating how many Iraqis died in a 14-month period before the U.S. invasion, conducting surveys on how many died in a similar period after the invasion began (more on those surveys later), and subtracting the difference. That difference—the number of "extra" deaths in the post-invasion period - signifies the war's toll. That number is 98,000. But read the passage that cites the calculation more fully:

We estimate there were 98,000 extra deaths (95% CI 8000-194 000) during the post-war period.

Readers who are accustomed to perusing statistical documents know what the set of numbers in the parentheses means. For the other 99.9 percent of you, I'll spell it out in plain English - which, disturbingly, the study never does. It means that the authors are 95 percent confident that the war-caused deaths totaled some number between 8,000 and 194,000. (The number cited in plain language 98,000 is roughly at the halfway point in this absurdly vast range.)

The Collapse

Once again, Wretchard is providing riveting analysis of events in Fallujah (and the peripheral skirmishes), piecing together reports from imbedded journalists and placing them against a background of coherent military analysis and context.

The enemy withdrawals have sometimes been explained by suggesting that the enemy is suckering in US forces into a trap. But this is impossible. Their backs are to the river and the Marines are across that. Every retrograde movement compresses the enemy into a smaller area and forces them to leave behind prepared positions painstakingly stockpiled with food, batteries and ammo. Running backward with wounded, they can't carry much ammunition and won't find any unless a prepared position is already available. And how does anyone stand fast in the face of the otherworldly violence of the American onslaught?

Addendum This observation from Lileks;

Paul Harvey, of all people, noted that the hard phase of the battle would involve house-to-house combat, "just like Vietnam." Sigh. It's now the all-purpose metaphor. There could be a war on the moon with armies on dune buggies launching crossbows at each other, and someone would pronounce it a repeat of a disastrous battle in the Mekong Delta. But he'd be 108 years old, the last boomer, a brittle old survivor - not the Greatest Generation but the Generation that Grates, determined that any conflict should be seen through the prism of his youth with "White Rabbit" playing in the background. Times have changed. It's FLIR and Kid
Rock now, I think. Stay tuned, and keep them in your thoughts.

The Marines, I mean.

Breed Specific Legislation

Discuss.

The Sore-Loser Party

Jonah Goldberg;

Take the two leading liberal columnists at the New York Times, Maureen Dowd and Paul Krugman. As we all know, one's a whining self-parody of a hysterical liberal who lets feminine emotion and fear defeat reason and fact in almost every column. The other used to date Michael Douglas.

"I Just Love My Job"

A snapshot of modern warfare. The Belmont Club exerpts a DailyTelegraph report.

"I got myself a real juicy target," shouted Sgt James Anyett, peering through the thermal sight of a Long Range Acquisition System (LRAS) mounted on one of Phantom's Humvees. "Prepare to copy that 89089226. Direction 202 degrees. Range 950 metres. I got five motherf****** in a building with weapons." A dozen loud booms rattle the sky and smoke rose as mortars rained down on the co-ordinates the sergeant had given. "Yeah," he yelled. "Battle Damage Assessment - nothing. Building's gone. I got my kills, I'm coming down.

"I just love my job."

... The insurgents, not understanding the capabilities of the LRAS, crept along rooftops and poked their heads out of windows. Even when they were more than a mile away, the soldiers of Phantom Troop had their eyes on them. Lt Jack Farley, a US Marines officer, sauntered over to compare notes with the Phantoms. "You guys get to do all the fun stuff," he said. "It's like a video game. We've taken small arms fire here all day. It just sounds like popcorn going off."

This engagement is all the more chilling because it probably happened at night. Five enemy soldiers died simply because they could not comprehend how destruction could flow from an observer a mile away networked to mortars that could fire for effect without ranging. All over Fallujah virtual teams of snipers and fire-control observers are jockeying for lines of sight to deal death to the enemy. For many jihadis that one peek over a sill could be their last.

[...]

Capabilities which didn't exist on September 11 have now been deployed in combat. It isn't that American forces have become inconceivably lethal that is scary; it is that the process has just started.

(Crossposted to the Shotgun)

Locomotive Lottery II or "Sorry, Play Again!"

More Darwinian trainspotting, this time with more substantive results!

A French antinuclear protester was killed yesterday in eastern France when his leg was severed by a train carrying radioactive waste to Germany, officials said.

Paramedics quickly cared for protester Sebastien Briat, 21, after the accident near the town of Avricourt, but he died on the way to a hospital, officials said. He had been surprised by the train while trying to chain himself to the tracks as part of a protest.

Babspotting

The entertainment industry has never been more... entertaining!.

Waiting for word of sightings of Baldwin, Penn and Sheen.....

Locomotive Lottery

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

A Jeannette woman who was slightly injured after being struck by a train while walking along railroad tracks sued Norfolk Southern Corp. Thursday for failing to warn pedestrians that trains travel on tracks.

Patricia M. Frankhouser, of 910 Scott Ave., is seeking an unspecified amount inexcess of $30,000 from the Norfolk, Va., rail transport company for the Jan. 6 incident that left her with a broken finger, cuts on her hand and pain, according to the suit.

Greensburg attorney Harry F. Smail Jr., who represents Frankhouser, didn't return a call seeking comment.

Within the filing, he argues that the railroad was negligent for failing to post signs warning "of the dangers of walking near train tracks and that the tracks wereactively in use."

hat tip - King of Fools

Breaking Blatantly Obvious News

Broadcasting & Cable

Players involved in the notorious 60 Minutes II story, reported by Dan Rather, which employed dubious documents regarding President Bush’s National Guard service, may have been rooting for a John Kerry victory.

No, it wasn't that old bugaboo liberal media bias as much as it was a bias toward saving their own skins. The report from an internal investigation into the documents mess was purposely being held until after the election.

Pre-election, the feeling in some quarters at CBS was that if Kerry triumphed, fallout from the investigation would be relatively minimal. The controversial piece’s producer, Mary Mapes, would likely be suspended or fired, but a long list of others up the chain of command - from 60 Minutes II executive producer Josh Howard, to Rather and all the way up to news division President Andrew Heyward - would escape more or less unscathed.

But now, faced with four more years of President Bush, executives at CBS parent Viacom could take a harder line on the executives involved.

On a related topic, Eric Engbert a retired correspondant for CBS criticizes the "blogosphere" for publishing leaked exit polls.

"The public is now assaulted by news and pretend-news from many directions, thanks to the now infamous "information superhighway." But the ability to transmit words, we learned during the Citizens Band radio fad of the 70's, does not mean that any knowledge is being passed along. One of the verdicts rendered by election night 2004 is that, given their lack of expertise, standards and, yes, humility, the chances of the bloggers replacing mainstream journalism are about as good as the parasite replacing the dog it fastens on."

Only the most obtuse observers of human nature would believe that "Rathergate" was an isolated incident. It is only after long history of success in not getting caught that professional liars become so sloppy. Add another period.

Bitching about the leaking of exit polls is so much irrelevant smoke by Mr Engbert, though it does make one wonder how he can argue that the MSM knows better than to release exit polls because they are known to be unreliable, and "responsible" journalists know better. If this is indeed the case, one should ask him to explain why they commission the polls in the first place. If exit polls require a full day of sampling to provide meaningful results, then why not just wait for the ballot counting to start?

Of course, we should give Mr. Engbert the benefit of the doubt. It could well be that he is basing his opinion on information recieved anonymously from a Kinkos in Texas that has been authenticated by experts contacted by CBS.

With several pithy observations about the fact-checking failures by Eric Engberg, James Joyner weighs in.

Paul, at Wizbang reviews events and calls 'em as he sees 'em. "The whole right side of the blogosphere knew the numbers were bogus long before CBS and the MSM knew"

Fact checking The "Bad" American Economy

In the lead up to, and wake of, the US Presidential election, Canadians have had no shortage of opinions about the state of affairs of our southern neighbors. Judging by the comments to phone-in shows from local talk radio to the CBC's nationally broadcast Cross Country Checkup yesterday, many are rather smug.

The assumption that our economy is stronger is based on some valid arguments - running consecutive surpluses at the federal level is one of them, the "strengthening" Canadian dollar is another. However, Canadians seem blissfully unaware of what the falling US dollar means for our trade based economy. Many seem to believe that the most important consequence is less costly vacations in the US.

In reality, the huge competitive advantage a 65 cent dollar gave exporters is beginning to change. Canadians are going to have to become more productive and efficient to make up the difference. We're already about 25% less productive than the average American - with a 25% lower standard of living to show for it. Unless you're one of those vacationing civil servants, you're probably going to feel the effects.

The most common misconception is that the USA is suffering from high unemployment and a crushing national debt. It's not really our fault - this been the steady mantra of ill-informed news media too lazy or unmotivated to do a little fact checking. In fact, unemployment rates in the US today are around the same level as during the Clinton years. It helps to place US data up against our own.

Most industrialized countries have debts hovering around the 100% of GDP mark. Historically, the US federal debt was at an alltime high during WWII when it reached 125% of GDP.

Is the current deficit and military spending high? Yes and no. There is cause for concern in any deficit spending, but then again - the US is at war and we're not. And as military spending goes, the US is currently a far cry from their peak (1945), when they spent 38.5% of GNP on the military. Today, the US spends 3.6% of GDP on the military, lower than the average of 5.7% spent during the post-war years of 1940- 2000. *

Cosh, On Football

Colby Cosh

"[blahblahblahblah, blahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblah, blahblah, blahblahblahblah] Overconfidence is inadvisable, particularly in a public forum like this, but just between us, Saskatchewan already lost this game"

Loving Them To Death

I originally heard about this case from friends who helped in grooming the dogs from the Trinidad, CO seizure. Read it all, but park your stomach at the door.

Some advice to follow up:

If you have to surrender a pet for adoption, be extremely careful about where you are sending it. Many of the animals seized in these disasters were "saved" by hoarders who offer "private rescue". Legitimate private and club rescue organizations exist, and in most cases, they are highly preferable to even government-supported humane societies and dog pounds - but they will be recognized and endorsed by a national breed club or local kennel club. Spend an extra few days and check them out, before you surrender your animal to them. With the availability of information on the internet, there are plenty of resources out there.

Some hoarders breed the animals (or more accurately, collect the puppies that are accidentally produced and lucky enough to survive) to support their compulsion. If you are purchasing any purebred or "designer mix" puppy, you should be able to visit and see the conditions that all the dogs live in. Don't buy the excuse that kennels are off limits for fear of introducing disease. Large breeders bring dogs in and out all the time - this is where disease risk is high, and it certainly doesn't stop them from buying or attending auctions. (Though home visits are not always a guarantee - some puppymills actually meet buyers at a different "home" location, where a few clean and cared for animals serve as surrogates for the factory breeders in the barn down the road. )

Finally, it helps reduce the risk of buying a puppy or dog from such conditions if you ensure that rescuers or breeders are members of a national or local breed club. A disclaimer, though - clubs can be large and members scattered, meeting only on occassion at dog shows. Or they may have lost control with age and formerly good conditions and policies degenerate without the knowledge of those who know them. Many hoarders are quite competent in their "real life" - and do a very good job of creating a false impression to their peers.

Bottom line - do your homework, trust your instincts, and be prepared to say "no".

17 Reasons Why You Should, Michael

17 Reasons Why You Should, Michael

1. For every disgruntled American Democrat moving here, 6 disgruntled Canadian Conservatives move south.

2. It will take a little of the load off your clogging coronary arteries.

3. Thanks to the mustard splatter down the left side of his favourite suit, Jimmy Carter voted for Bush.

4. Your Academy Awards invite wil be found in a locked drawer in a desk from the set of "Team America - World Police". In 2006.

5. Your penis is still extremely small.

6. Not that it matters.

7. In 2008 the 527's will feature anti-Moore ads by Moveon.gorge

8. Hemorroids. You're at high risk, Michael.

9. Whoopi Goldberg is about to ring your doorbell, Michael. She's looking for a pity fuck.

10. Roger Ebert is standing in line behind her.

11. [See 5.]

12. Jon Stewart has contracted Ed Gillespie as regular guest host.

13. There's a bill in Congress to institute a military draft of unemployed, obese, middle-aged men with annual incomes of over 1 million. No, really, there is.

14. The West Wing opens the 2005 season with Fred Thompson taking over the role of Josiah "Jed" Bartlet.

15. Matt Drudge has been sent your "My Pet Goat" photo collection.

16. He has the tapes, too.

17. The best politically positioned Kennedy descendants today carry Arnold Schwarzenegger's genes.

Post Mortem, Ad Nauseum

The post mortems are piling up. Blame Massachusetts. Blame Hollywood. Well, duh.

Don't blame homophobe evangelicals.

Here's an eight point argument I find far more persuasive [though they don't say so in so many words] - John Kerry wasn't the man for the job.

The Primaries Dean's buses are empty
Bush's Inner Circle Karl to press: "Weenies!"
Cranky Kerry Get me my hairbrush!
Prison Scandal and "lovin' Bob Woodward to death."
The Families ewww... Teresa
Swifties and the bloggers!
The Debates
Endgame

And if that doesn't convince you, try this best explanation yet. From a voter.

Oily Goodness

I followed a link left by a commentor and came on his blog and this very useful information on oil production. Go read the whole thing. A great overview on production and cost breakdowns.
Country Rank & Production1999-- Early 2002 Rank and Production

1. Saudi Arabia 7.7 million barrels/day-- 3. 7.7 mb/d
2. Former Soviet Union 7.1 million barrels/day-- 1. 8.6 mb/d
3. USA 5.9 million barrels/day-- 2. 8.1 mb/d
4. Iran 3.6 million barrels/day-- 4. 3.7 mb/d
5. China 3.2 million barrels/day-- 7. 3.3 mb/d
6. Norway 3.0 million barrels/day-- 6. 3.4 mb/d
7. Mexico 3.0 million barrels/day-- 5. 3.6 mb/d
8. Venezuela 2.8 million barrels/day-- 8. 2.8 mb/d
9. United Kingdom 2.7 million barrels/day-- 10. 2.6 mb/d
10. Iraq 2.5 million barrels/day-- 11. 2.4 mb/d

The larger chart is here.

update - Roo has pointed out in the comments that he's now put a piece on refinery facts.

Dear Kofi,

related.

The Green Side

As news of the assault beginning on Fallujah begins to trickle in, take a moment and read a Marine's blog, and send your prayers their way.

Thanks to reader Charles MacDonald for sending the link

So Long, Centerville

Looking for a solution to high local property taxes? Ungovernment your town.

Going out of business appeals to small places like Cooper, where only 145 people live. With no jobs and an aging population, the tax base is shrinking even though the costs of government keep rising. "It just got to be more than we could handle," says Sue Dorsey. Dorsey says that's why the 26 residents of Centerville let the state take over their affairs - everything from education to snow removal. "There was more to do and less people that wanted to do it," says Dorsey. Centerville not only locked the door to city hall, it sold it for $3,500.

Hat tip - Dr.Joyner

Bush's Win Margin Increasing

David Limbaugh (If that surname sounds familiar, your hunch is correct) has a new blog. I'll welcome him with this link to revised election results showing Bush's win was slightly larger than originally reported. (Counting of absentees, military votes, would be my guess.)

"The Small Guy"

"Vote Or Die" P Diddy,

"Don't underestimate the small guy. Nobody really respected us. Nobody really thought we would come out and vote. It really taught me that if you speak to young people, speak to minorities, they could change the world. The future's ours. It's our turn now. We've been left out of the game for too long. Time for y'all to let us in now."

"After the polling, I came to MTV..."

How He Did It

I was in the shop painting all day, so I'm still catching up on my own blog reading. In the meantime, if you've not already, I recommend this Newsweek story 'How He Did It. An insiders' account of the evolution of the Kerry and Bush campaigns, written by reporters who were "imbedded" for the past year or so, it's fascinating reading. (The page I've linked to is just the intro - the meat is at the link at the bottom.)

So far, only half is online. First impressions? My relief in the defeat of John Kerry is solidified. And I don't mean that in any meanspirited way. But go check it out for yourself, and be sure to stop back and let me know if you agree.

(link fixed)

Maps Maps Maps

Velociman assists his readers in interpreting the election maps;

For those of you who keep pointing me to red state/blue state maps and telling me Bush won Hawaii: the "big island" you keep directing me to is fucking Alaska! They just put it next to Hawaii for purposes of convenience! I will admit the Aleutian Islands did go Bush. "Look at the big red island" indeed.

Reports From Fallujah

A link from Wretchard a few days ago alerted me to this very good site for background info from Iraq -

So to sum up, if I am Joe Insurgent in Fallujah, and have news access (probably via shortwave radio), I know that:

Bush has won a resounding victory

the British are united behind him and will participate in the attack against me

the Arab media will mainly be embedded with the Americans, and will give accurate stories of their prowess, not the dreck I feed them

All of these things have a psychological effect on the enemy combatants. If there is any chance at all for a peace settlement, the US' blatant unity behind the president will further deepen existing discord between the sheiks and the foreign fighters.

I would put all of these events, together with the unrelenting airstrikes, under the battle phase of "shaping the battlefield," wherein we have not yet committed ground troops, but it's the next step, and we are doing all possible right down to the wire to make them successful.

Read the rest of the post at Adventures Of Chester if you have any intentions of watching/reading news about Fallujah in the coming days.

Exile Map

Kevin Steel has provided a handy map, along with advice for disillusioned Democrats.

First of all, you'll notice that you should probably best stay out of Western Canada, lots of red there. Ontario (just to the right of the red blob) is your best bet, though you certainly can check out the eastern seaboard, which is much like your northeastern seaboard. New Yorkers in particular should feel right at home in, say, Labrador. That's what I would recommend.

Air Pollution, American Style

EPA: Looking at Growth and Emissions
Each year EPA looks at emissions that impact the ambient concentrations of these pollutants. These annual emissions estimates are used as one indicator of the effectiveness of our programs. The graph below shows that between 1970 and 2003, gross domestic product increased 176 percent, vehicle miles traveled increased 155 percent, energy consumption increased 45 percent, and U.S. population grew by 39 percent. During the same time period, total emissions of the six principal air pollutants dropped by 51 percent.

Feel free to email this graph to David Suzuki and every Kyoto supporter you know...

"Score One for the Little Guys"

CBC's Ira Basen has an excellent summary on the role of blogging in correcting the crumbling standards of "old media".

[...] this time, the agents of change are not high-priced media experts or expensive new technologies. No, this time the revolution is being brought to us by a large and mostly disorganized group of men and women who spend much of their days and nights pounding away at their keyboards. They are the people who produce political web logs. Some are read only by friends and relatives, others have numbers and influence that rival those of older, more established magazines. And in this campaign, the "bloggers," as they call themselves, have been all the rage. And their presence really does seem destined to change the course of campaign reporting, just as much as the introduction of radio, TV and spin doctors did in the last century.

[...]

There is a greater need than ever before for Big Media outlets to be at the top of their game when it comes to breaking important stories, dissecting spin, and highlighting the issues that matter to voters. But it has been a long time since Big Media has been at the top of its game. It has been riding on its reputation for too long.

The most important development to come out of the coverage of this campaign is that bloggers, and others such as the intrepid "reporters" at The Daily Show, have pulled back the curtain and revealed Big Media to be a shrunken skeleton of its former self.

Now is the time to begin rebuilding. And the mainstream would be wise to see the blogosphere not as an enemy, but as an ally in the process.

Well, this doesn't happen often - The Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan in agreement with the CBC....

Every time the big networks and big broadsheet national newspapers tried to pull off a bit of pro-liberal mischief--CBS and the fabricated Bush National Guard documents, the New York Times and bombgate, CBS's "60 Minutes" the election--the yeomen of the blogosphere and AM radio and the Internet took them down. It was to me a great historical development in the history of politics in America. It was Agincourt. It was the yeomen of King Harry taking down the French aristocracy with new technology and rough guts. God bless the pajama-clad yeomen of America. Some day, when America is hit again, and lines go down, and media are hard to get, these bloggers and site runners and independent Internetters of all sorts will find a way to file, and get their word out, and it will be part of the saving of our country.

Jeff Jarvis has a useful observation.

Last night, blogs (other than this one) got bombarded with traffic (shutting down this host) for a simple reason: Bloggers were telling the public what they knew. Big media was not.
How absurd is that? When did journalists get into the business of not telling their public what they know?

Then, of course, there remain a few slow learners.

Red/Blue

Before people get too carried away with the "blue state vs red state" debate...

Via James Joyner who also has the 2000 county map. Strikingly similar, the 2000 pockets of blue are only slightly larger.

Glass 48% Full

It seems like a distant memory now - Howard Dean's headline grabbing ascent to Democratic frontrunner - the internet fund-raising rock star of the Grassroots. If only they had known that the chorus of voices that bustled on the Dean blog forum were in fact, the only ones who would actually show up to vote for him in the primaries. But the Blog For America soldiers on. Today, this astute observation in a message signed by the good doctor himself.

"And a record number of us voted to change course - more Americans voted against George Bush than any sitting president in history."

Thar He Blows!

The Graceless Luser theme continued....

Michael Moore has come up for air, last sighted shortly before submerging in his private misery pool. (Goldstein contends it's filled with guacamole, and he simply ate his way out.)

His contribution to the post-election discussion? A mosaic of US war dead, arranged to create a portrait of George Bush. I'll spare you the link.

But today is a day to be magnaminous  towards those with whom we disagree. We should be generous and forgive Michael Moore his urge to lash out, for he has been dealt a double blow - for, with the re-election of George Bush, he saw a bigger prize snatched from his grasp last night.

Reminding all of the timeless wisdom of Al Gore - "If you can't be a graceful loser, then just aim for loser."

I'm pretty sure that qualifies as magnaminous. Megamagnaminous, even.

update - This was inevitable.

Graceless Lusers, Con't

From Kevin Drum's comments section the post-loss analysis is beginning...

But, when all is said and done, Bush's very convincing popular vote has one unmistakable cause: Kerry lost because more Americans indisputably like, trust, and feel more comfortable and safer with Bush than with Kerry.

Why? The unavoidably obvious explanation is that Americans are by-and-large morons. Simpleminded, uninformed and undereducated, intellectually lazy and proud in their ignorance to boot, self-important and self- righteous, arrogant and benighted idiots. They are a reflection of George W. Bush, and in him they saw themselves. That's why they love him and trust him so. Their reality is the faith-based myth that America is blessed and always right and great and perfect and freedom is handed down by God and not manmade constitutional governments and cultures of tolerance and inquiry. The are certain that the "real" America is in the unpleasant, xenophobic, homophobic, red states in the middle, where everybody has a white picket fence in the brain and they don't seem aware of their own squalor and the fact that they make ends meet only because the far more prosperous blue states continue to subsidize their light beer guzzling.

More people voted for this idiot than for Kerry. This is what we have to come to grips with. The majority of the American electorate voted for Bush; voting for an idiot is idiocy, which is something usually practiced by idiots; ergo... What other conclusion can there be?

Americans chose Bush. They deserve him.

update - listening to John Edwards preamble to Kerry's concession speech, I went to the TV and turned on the CBC. What are they running? A Bush bashing re-run of their faux comedy show This Hour Has 22 Minutes

Quote Of The Morning

"I actually did vote for John Kerry, before I voted against him"
- 58,309,946 American Voters, Nov 2, 2004

Graceless Losers

I suppose it was bound to happen. As Powerline notes, the Democrats are now trying to "redefine the meaning of close" in a last gasp attempt to avoid conceding defeat. In so doing, they risk convincing a good percentage of fair-minded Americans who had given them the benefit of the doubt over the Florida fiasco, that they might well be renamed the Lawyer Party Of Losers. At the core of this party is a group of people who are intellectually corrupt and emotionally immature. Little is going to change in Democratic Party fortunes until they are purged.

Hugh Hewitt has been unwavering in his optimism during the campaign, and as it turned out, he was closer to being right than nearly anyone else. Hewitt's blog should be an example for our local talk radio hosts - he has done a marvellous job of connecting his show to the voices on the internet, and it has made him all the more influencial. He writes;

Pete Coors is a gentleman.  Trailing by less than 50,000 votes out of nearly 1.8 million and with 12% of Colorado's precincts yet to be tallied, Pete nevertheless took a calm look at the numbers and called Ken Salazar to concede. Classy.
 
Contrast that with Tom Daschle, Tony Knowles and Betty Castor, and of course John Kerry.  No reasonable interpretation of the data in any of these races can give any of these candidates a win, but they are hanging on.
 
This is not the conduct of a great party, but it is also not surprising for the party of Michael Moore. What an example for the new democracies in Afghanistan and Iraq. Perhaps sleep will bring wisdom to this group.  Sleep, and a good hard look at what Al Gore has become.

Other big losers are the mainstream media - how badly and how permanently their credibility has been harmed is too soon to tell, but the results - the highest all-time popular vote total, the first majority won since Bush Sr's 1988 win - are a repudiation to the attempts to sway the election. The American public is "onto them".

update: Saner heads prevail .... but as we are still awaiting the speech, there's still time for one last flip-flop!

In A Nutshell

Steyn:

Who's having a worse night? Me or Michael Moore?

To which I can only add -

Who's having a worse night? Me or the Arab Street?

update - or the CBC. At 12:45am Mountain Time, they're "still holding back on the Ohio situation"

Election Poll Discrepencies - Mirror Of Ontario?

I commented at James Joyners Outside The Beltway a week or two ago (two lazy to dig up the direct link) that the tight race between Kerry and Bush in polls leading up to tonight may have been reflecting a phenomenon that occured here in Canada.

Typically, Ontario voters lean towards the Liberal "natural governing party", but the party was being rocked by the Adscam scandal. They were recieving a battering from some of their own, as well as the Opposition, and the usually friendly Canadian media was relentless in publicizing the details.

During the election, the polls were very tight, and at one time the Conservatives held a slim lead. They were reported to be making inroads in Ontario - a breakthrough for the party that had its roots in the western Reform/Alliance party.

On election night, the expected support in Ontario never materialized. While they did make gains, and we are in a Liberal minority government because of it - they didn't pass the threshold needed to govern. In the post mortem, it became evident that a number of those voters polled who stated they were voting Conservative were lying. They were embarrassed to admit they were supporting a party ridden with corruption. But in the privacy of the voting booth, they returned to mother.

There are parallels. The pummelling that the Bush administration has taken in the mainstream press, with legions of critics flogging tell-all's, the "success" of the Moore movie... how many Bush supporters felt intimidated, even embarrassed to admit their preference when polled?

My guess - enough to skew the data to give Kerry a few false points.

Foreign Monitors Report

Global monitors find faults like:

...less access to polls than in Kazakhstan ... fewer fail-safes than in Venezuela... [not as] simple as in the Republic of Georgia

Oh! Oh! Oh! It's a game! My turn:

Fewer AK-47's than Brazil, more women than Saudi Arabia and more eh... ballots than China.

Feel free to join in the fun in the comments section.

Internet Stumbling Under Election Traffic

As I type this, my site just coming back up as are any others I've checked who are parked at Hosting Matters. That includes Instapundit, Vodkapundit, Command Post, Outside The Beltway.... the restoration may be temporary, though.

INDC Journal is speculating about a Denial Of Service attack, but it's more likely to be the result of heavy traffic. Internet Health Report shows some networks slowing badly - with latency severe from time to time. So, when you go to a site, give it time to load. It's transferring data as fast as it can....

National Review Online is still up and has some interesting info on the early exit polls skewing for Kerry - which they did for Gore in 2000 as well. Short form - ignore them.

Update - The Corner is more active and looks to be a better source than network news. Listening to ABC feed on Rawlco. Most amusing moment - Sam Donaldson reminding people of the 50-something electoral votes in California, so "don't lose hope"!

Don't forget Megapundit is charting the results. The page updates ever 6 minutes, so if you just keep a window open, it will do so automatically as results come in.

Dead Tree Blogging

Several bloggers cite their most important event or moment of the campaign for the New York Times.

The question remaining unanswered is how overrated airheadAnna Marie Cox continues to be asked to participate in these things.

Arafat - AIDS?

You heard it here third.

Election Links

If you check over at the sidebar, there are links to both Stephen Green's Map and to MegaPundit's chart. Both will be following the Electoral College results as they come in. (They are presently at "zero", so don't bother checking until the polls close tomorrow.)

The Command Post is already posting non-stop updates as they scan the media outlets for breaking coverage.

Pictures From Home

A few photographs I took when I was back in Arcola. Quite a few of my family read this blog, so I thought I'd share them, in no particular order. There are more in the extended entry.

Arcola was pretty quiet, and the skies overcast.

After the funeral tea, we got together for a couple at the "High House". A fairly bland looking building in the center of a small prairie town - one of a handful of "opera houses" built around the turn of the last century, and a provincial historic building.

Inside the best kept secret in Saskatchewan...

On Saturday, after having lunch, we spent some time at the museum, then went out to the airstrip to see my brother Ken's pride and joy.

1968 Cessna 150, only crashed once! It cost him less than a new Arctic Cat. Though, an Arctic Cat probably weighs more.

My cousin Ian, and Ken's friend Kevin at the High House.

Grampa playing croqinole with the kids.

Flower bouquets. There were several (some of which were donated to Arcola hospital afterwards), as well as hundreds of cards.

My aunt Gwen and cousin Thorunn.

It was nice seeing so many people, some of whom I've hardly talked to since I left after high school.
My mom would have been very, very pleased. (Well, maybe not so much about Aunt Gwen re-arranging the cupboards....)

Fort Benning War Dog Memorial

A few weeks ago I did artwork to assist fund-raising for the Fort Benning War Dog Memorial Help them out - go buy a t-shirt

Kerry In Another Lie?

Via Drudge: this MTV interview;

Yago: Last time we talked, in March, you said that it's important to listen to hip-hop because it gives you a sense of what's going on in the street. Have you heard the new Eminem song that's been out?

Kerry: You know, I heard Eminem on "Saturday Night Live" last night. I heard the song that he did. I don't know if that's part of his new [album] or not. I liked it. But that's the only thing that I've heard in the last weeks. I'm on the trail. I'm campaigning every day.

...
Rebel with a rebel yell, raise hell we gonna let em know
Stomp, push, shove, mush, Fuck Bush, until they bring our troops home (c'mon)
[Chorus]
Imagine it pouring, it's raining down on us
Mosh pits outside the oval office
Someone's tryina tell us something,
Maybe this is god just sayin' we're responsible
For this monster, this coward,
That we have empowered
This is Bin Laden, look at his head noddin'
How could we allow something like this without pumping our fists
Now this is our final hour
Let me be the voice in your strength and your choice
Let me simplify the rhyme just to amplify the noise
Try to amplify the times it, and multiply by six...
Teen million people, Are equal at this high pitch
Maybe we can reach alqueda through my speech
Let the president answer a higher anarchy
Strap him with an Ak-47, let him go, fight his own war
Let him impress daddy that way
No more blood for oil, we got our own battles to fight on our own soil
No more psychological warfare, to trick us to thinking that we ain't loyal
If we don't serve our own country, we're patronizing a hero
Look in his eyes its all lies
The stars and stripes, they've been swiped, washed out and wiped
And replaced with his own face, Mosh now or die
If I get sniped tonight you know why,
Cause I told you to fight.
[Chorus]
And as we proceed,
To Mosh through this desert storm,
In these closing statements, if they should argue
Let us beg to differ
As we set aside our differences
And assemble our own army
To disarm this Weapon of Mass Destruction
That we call our President, for the present
And Mosh for the future of our next generation
To speak and be heard
Mr. President, Mr. Senator
Do you guy's hear us...hear us...[laughing] (Hailie)

I have my doubts.

Added to Wizbang linkfest

Enright Vs Hitchens

On Oct.24th, the CBC's Michael Enright * took on Christopher Hitchens about the nihilism of the left, his support for George Bush and the war on terror .

Audio here.

I should clarify that, despite the quality of the comments offered by Enright, the CBC's Sunday Edition is not actually registered as a Canadian Abilities Council Sheltered Workshop.

Canadian Propoganda Schools

Meatriarchy has a good piece up this morning about the pervasive socialist ideology invading our media, our schools.....

Via the Shotgun, where Paul Tuns has more. None of this is altogether new. In the early 70's, I remember a teacher telling us that the US was in Vietnam for the oil.

Prediction Roundup

James Joyner predicts Bush 286, Kerry252. He's got a round-up of others, which he's been updating, so I won't repeat his efforts here. Just check it out.

Go read Mark Steyn, too.

Related:
Powerline looks at poll internals in the latest NYT-CBS effort.