Don’t Let The Door Hit You, Kofi

Roadkill 11 Comments

Kofi Annan is depressed.

KOFI ANNAN, the United Nations secretary-general, is said to be struggling with depression and considering his future. Colleagues have reported concerns about Annan ahead of an official report this week that will examine his son Kojo�s connection to the controversial Iraqi oil for food scheme.
Depending on the findings of the report, by a team led by the former US Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, Annan may have to choose between the secretary-generalship and loyalty to his son.
[…]
American congressional critics of the UN are already pressing him to resign over the mismanagement of the oil for food programme, and even his supporters have been dismayed by the scandals on his watch, including the sexual abuse of children by UN peacekeepers in Congo.
One close observer at the UN said Annan�s moods were like a �sine curve� and that he appeared near the bottom of the trough.

What the hell. Time to insert a feeding tube.
Just so it can be pulled later.
More on the report out tomorrow. Also – don’t bother looking for this report on either the CBC or CTV websites…
(Don’t forget Friends Of Saddam – your one stop shopping center for Oil-For-Food updates.)

Michael Mandela in “Intense Pain”

Insufferable Twits 1 Comment

[H]e said he believes he is just the latest of several “black luminaries” to be unjustly accused, citing former South African President Nelson Mandela and former heavyweight boxing champions Muhammad Ali and Jack Johnson as others.
[…]
Jackson also said he is in “intense pain” since falling in the shower earlier this month, although he said at another point that his health was perfect. He arrived late to court on March 10, wearing pajama bottoms, a T-shirt and walking stiffly, and his representatives said at the time he had been treated at a hospital for a serious back injury.
“I was coming out of the shower and I fell and all my body weight – I’m pretty fragile – all my body weight fell against my rib cage,” Jackson said. “And I bruised my lung very badly.”
He said the injury has caused him to cough up blood and was so painful that it brought him to tears in court one day when he was seen wiping his eyes with a tissue. He said he remains under a doctor’s care.
When Jesse Jackson noted how thin he is, the pop star replied that he has never been a big eater, something he said has always concerned his mother and others, including actress Elizabeth Taylor, a friend.
“Elizabeth Taylor used to feed me, to hand-feed me, at times,” he said.

Time to yank his feeding tube.

Southern “Frahed” Food

Little Known Facts 8 Comments

Here in North Carolina, even the vegetables serve as saturated fat delivery systems.
On the buffet menu today were deep fried green beans. They accompanied the deep fried chicken, and were topped off with deep fried pastry desserts with fillings, which I was told are called “Frahed Pah”.
I’m going to need a plunger to unclog my arteries.

Cable News On Blogs

Blogging 6 Comments

Patrick Ruffini doesn’t think much of CNN’s Inside The Blogs segment of Inside Politics. Hugh Hewitt had similar comments about the clueless nature of their coverage when I was listening in Denver last month.

How do they report on the fun, exciting, technologically-savvy world of blogging? By having two on-air reporters read printouts from selected blogs to each other. Bloggers’ opinions are treated as a world onto themselves. No critical comment is ever made. The worst part is that it’s disturbingly similar to way viewer e-mail is presented on air: uncritically, as just another voice in a loud cacophony, and oh! — aren’t we special for airing our viewers’ e-mail and blogs?

That’s about right.

Busting Their Ass

Military 2 Comments

Operation Iraqi Freedom meets South Park.
kyle_iraq.gif
Related: Insurgents Seeking Exit Strategy

Sharif Ali Bin al-Hussein, who heads Iraq’s main monarchist movement and is in contact with guerrilla leaders, said many insurgents including former officials of the ruling Ba’ath party, army officers, and Islamists have been searching for a way to end their campaign against US troops and Iraqi government forces since the January 30 election.
[…]
Unlike Mr Zarqawi’s followers, who are thought to be responsible for the big suicide bomb attacks on Iraqi civilian targets, the other Sunni insurgents are more likely to plant bombs and carry out ambushes against security forces and US troops active near their homes.
Sharif Ali said the success of Iraq’s elections dealt the insurgents a demoralising blow, prompting them to consider the need to enter the political process.

Terry Schiavo: Where Is Hillary?

Political Animal 6 Comments

David Frum is noticing how quiet prominent Democrats are on the Terri Schiavo case.

Democrats have long prided themselves on their superior compassion. And yet it is impossible to avoid hearing contempt, disdain, and cruelty in the comments of many of those who want to terminate Terri Schiavo’s life. Laura Ingraham is airing battery of troubling quotations on her radio show every day. Did Maureen Dowd of the New York Times really compare Terri Schiavo to the corpse in the weird-teen comedy, “Weekend with Bernie?” Did Jonathan Alter of Newsweek actually describe people in vegatative states as “drooling idiots”? American society is evolving toward ever higher degrees of protection of the vulnerable and the disabled. It is odd to see the self-describedly compassionate endorse death by starvation for this highly vulnerable and extremely disabled woman. That attitude is bound to lead to doubts about the moral integrity of everything else that such people say and do. No wonder that shrewd Democrats are ducking and hiding.

(Heart of Canada has been following the story closely for weeks, for those interested in more in depth material and discussion on the Schiavo case.)

Looking For JR

Media 4 Comments

“Bush’s spread lacks Southfork flash”
An actual headline, from the Globe and Mail – a proud member of the Canadian media establishment that is far too sophisticated to view the world through the distorted lens of American TV.

This may be Texas and President George W. Bush may like to walk with a bit of a regional swagger but his new house is no Southfork, the over-the-top pile of the Ewings on TV’s Dallas. Instead, it is a low-slung building with a large wraparound porch that appears to fit effortlessly into the landscape.

None of the rest is worth bothering with. Waste of electrons.

James Roszko’s “Twenty Plants”

Media 14 Comments

Sean at Pol:Spy has done a bang up job of unravelling the James Roszko grow-op story. For all of the “my illegal pot smoking didn’t kill those police officers – someone else’s stolen trucks did” defensiveness in the media and punditry in the confusing days following the murders, it seems the initial report was closer to the truth. The quonset was outfitted with water tanks, a $30,000 generator and close to 300 plants – with nary an engine puller to be seen.
Once the “only twenty plants” meme took hold, it appears that the major media outlets simply did their investigative journalism while reading someone else’s paper over the morning coffee. Quite the little echo chamber they turned out to be.

Citizen Journalist Radio

Blogging 2 Comments

Call.
A child’s life hangs in the balance.
Well, maybe not a child. But someone really, really immature.
cjfinal250.jpg
Right Talk Radio
Thursday Mar 24th at 3pm EST
1-866-884-8355 (866-884-TALK)
I’m going to be busy in the ring around then – but if someone with a low, breathy voice, sounding slightly drunk but fantastically funny and brilliant could just call in and pretend to be me, I’d very much appreciate that.

Updating

Blogging 8 Comments

Skimming some of the comments sections today, it seems that my readers have taken it upon themselves to declare war on the US. Or is it just Arizona? I’m not certain, but combines[1] may be involved. That’s thinking outside the box.
The dog show went well enough – if you can call helping train a competitor’s puppy to walk much, much better than it did before, only to go reserve to it with my own dog well enough. A five point major, too. Urgh.
I’m such a moron.
footnote
[1] The latest in Canadian military psi ops

Reader Links

Reader Tips 11 Comments

Well! If I had known this was so easy, I’d have stopped blogging a long time ago and just let the readers take over.
Spent today mostly resting up, a little shopping and getting very, very lost here in Raleigh, where the street system was designed by graduates of the Throw A Plate Of Spaghetti On the Floor School of Engineering.
News here seems to be wall to wall Terri Schiavo, (though my host just walked into the room and told me about the school shooting in Minnesota).
You folks know the drill by now – if you run across interesting links, post them in the comments. I’ll try to get online in the evenings, but it’s going to be 12 hour days at the shows for the next week, as I’m working for a handler friend to help offset the expenses and give myself something to do.
Unless I get fired, which is a distinct possibility.

Reader Links

Reader Tips 54 Comments

Hey folks. Kate writing from sunny North Carolina. There are daffodils here. Considering the snowplows we had to wait clear the runway in the stop in Regina, it’s an improvement.
No time to surf or blog, (or watch the news) so again, I’ll invite my readers to post any links to good news items or blog posts in the comments. And keep beating up on poor old Joe Green. He’s resilient, if nothing else!
My lucky seminar attendees are starting to congregate and I’m getting ready for the powerpoint presentation. (Topic is breeding, evaluating, training and grooming Miniature Schnauzers.)
Let the indoctrination begin!
And Kathy K. … if you’re surfing through. I’ve been trying to get hold of you!

Reader Suggestions

Reader Tips 32 Comments

I’m the one who usually does most of the work here, so while I’m away, I’m going to invite readers to pick up the slack. Just submit links to any blog post or news item you find that you think others may be interested in, in the comments of this post. A simple cut and paste URL and brief description should do it.
(To keep things clean and easy to follow, try not to use this post for other comments.)

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