UN Oil-For-Terrorism Program
American officials believe that millions of dollars Saddam Hussein skimmed from the scandal-plagued U.N. oil-for-food program are now being used to help fund the bloody rebel campaign against U.S. forces and the new Iraqi government, The Post has learned.
U.S. intelligence officials and congressional investigators said last night that the “oil-for-insurgency link” has been recently unearthed in the numerous probes now under way into the giant U.N. humanitarian program, in which Saddam is believed to have pocketed $10.1 billion through oil smuggling and kickbacks from suppliers.
[…]
Investigators have traced some of these accounts to banks in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Belarus, where money was either laundered or converted into gold and routed back to Iraq or into other accounts.
The network of bankers, front companies, couriers and money-launderers involved in handling Saddam’s oil-for-food kickback schemes still appears to be active, investigators say.
U.S. intelligence officials believe a portion of the funds in these hidden accounts � possibly millions� is now being used to fund the Ba’athist guerrillas responsible for much of the postwar violence against coalition troops, sources said.
Yet another justification to charge Kofi Annan with war crimes.
hat tip – James Joyner
Of Botox And Girly Men
As I’ve noted in the past, Matt Drudge is so funny.
And so is the Governator.
“If they don’t have the guts to come up here in front of you and say, ‘I don’t want to represent you, I want to represent those special interests, the unions, the trial lawyers … if they don’t have the guts, I call them girlie men,” Schwarzenegger said to the cheering crowd at a mall food court in Ontario.
The governor lifted the term from a long-running “Saturday Night Live” skit in which two pompous, Schwarzenegger-worshipping weightlifters repeatedly use it to mock those who don’t meet their standards of physical perfection.
Democrats said Schwarzenegger’s remarks were insulting to women and gays and distracted from budget negotiations. State Sen. Sheila Kuehl said the governor had resorted to “blatant homophobia.”
“It uses an image that is associated with gay men in an insulting way, and it was supposed to be an insult. That’s very troubling that he would use such a homophobic way of trying to put down legislative leadership,” said Kuehl, one of five members of the Legislature’s five-member Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Caucus.
Oh, boo hoo, ya whiney bunch of pansies.
Hamas Pats NZ On The Back
Via the NZ blog, Silent Running;
New Zealand has an unexpected friend in Hamas, a militant Islamic group feared in the Western world, which has thanked this country for its diplomatic slap to Israel over the spy passport scandal.
Word of Hamas’ endorsement will spread quickly throughout the Islamic world and will bolster the safety of Kiwi troops working in Iraq, according to Victoria University religious terrorism expert Jim Veitch.
Citing a statement from the Hamas stronghold of Gaza, the Islamic resistance movement’s website says Hamas “has highly appreciated the daring position of the New Zealand Government against the Zionist entity”.
Professor Veitch said: “To do something like that almost offers (Kiwi troops) protection. Groups inside Iraq are really picking off the partners the United States has… Maybe New Zealand has offered itself some sort of protection.”
Yeow.
Perhaps NZ prime minister Helen Clark is hoping for a few more Jewish grave desecrations to strengthen this fledgling relationship. Apparently, official condemnation from her office has been a little slow in coming.
Summer Pulse 04
The reason I sleep better at night knowing Bush-Rumsfeld are at the helm.
As a seafaring friend of mine once remarked, an aircraft carrier is not really listed on the books as a “ship,” but as a “strategic asset.” And when a country starts to move 7 out of 12 of these assets around on the global chessboard, it might betoken something more than just a summer ‘exercise.’
Indeed, if this were wartime (What? It is? Who knew?) moving this much killing power out onto the seas would be thought of as a fleet surge.
Truman, Enterprise, Stennis, Washington, Kennedy, Reagan, Kitty Hawk. It could all be, of course, just prudent planning and practice. On the other hand, given the various signals being sent by Homeland Security, the nearness of the Olympics, and the advent of the elections, it may be a case of “Fortune favors the forward deployed.”
Oh, did I mention that another carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln is listed by the Navy as underway as well?
It’s also interesting that the same page: U.S. Navy – Status of the Navy tells us that 92% of our surface ships are currently underway or deployed, and that 91% of our submarine fleet is either underway or deployed.
This is a lot of activity.
hat tip- Stephen Green who has this too.
update – By way of contrast, this item courtesy Pol:Spy
The Canadian navy will sit out the war on terrorism for one year in an effort to give exhausted sailors a chance to recuperate. HMCS Toronto left the Arabian Sea and the American George Washington Carrier Strike Group July 4 with a broken Sea King helicopter on deck.
And the navy has quietly decided against dispatching a replacement ship until spring 2005 at the earliest.
The Sea King on HMCS Toronto has been grounded since June 25 after particles were discovered in its gearbox.
Naval Capt. Bruce Belliveau, Toronto’s commanding officer, said the Sea King was available to hail foreign ships during 80% of the six-month deployment. It broke down during the frigate’s preparations to leave.
Urgh.
Pickup Lines; The Winners
I promised this on Friday, but I was indisposed. So, belatedly – the speed dating winners;
First: Jeff Goldstein –“Are you beansprout toward the walkway antelope? Or is it? Because it’s hard for me to sleep trunk ebony, you know?”
Runnerup: Lisa – Walk up to him. Look him straight in the eye and say, to no one in particular, “Have him washed and brought to my tent.”
(I’d offer a week of guest blogging to the winner, but I think I”ll just link him profusely instead. )
The Incredible Shrinking Budget Deficit
There’s a pattern in the mainstream Democrat-cheering media these days. Just like the poll numbers that go unreported when Bush is ahead of Kerry, they remain curiously muffled on economic good news.
Larry Kudlow, at NRO;
If it’s not bad enough that rapid economic recovery has neutered Sen. Kerry’s principal domestic criticism of President Bush, now comes even worse news for the Democratic campaign: The budget deficit is starting to substantially shrink.
The latest budget numbers show a $19.1 billion surplus for June, $3 billion higher than the $16 billion Wall Street expectation. It seems that a flood of new tax collections, spurred by fatter employment payrolls and corporate profits, is rapidly reducing the federal budget gap. Tax receipts from businesses rose an astonishing 38 percent over the past twelve months and personal income-tax collections increased almost 9 percent. What’s happening? Could it be that stronger economic growth from lower tax rates is producing more tax receipts? I believe it’s called supply-side economics.
Just as the 1.5 million new jobs created since last August has terminated talk of a jobless recovery, the chatter over widening budget deficits will end. The fiscal-year 2004 budget deficit now looks to come in around $435 billion, less than 4 percent of GDP. This would be almost $100 billion below early-year estimates from the Office of Management and Budget and about $50 billion less than Congressional Budget Office forecasts. The administration is also getting its arms around federal spending. Fiscal year to date, domestic discretionary program spending has slowed to 2.7 percent from 6.8 percent a year ago.
This will come as surprising news to Canadians, who have been sold on the notion that tax cuts undermine revenue. Or, at least it would if there was a snowball’s chance in Hell that they’ll hear about it.
hat tip – The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler
Referrers
For reasons unknown, my top referrer this month is Bourque.
Anyone have a clue as to why?
Storm Warning
I just caught the taill end of the *beep beep beep* of a weather warning, and got to the TV in time to read “DO NOT WAIT FOR FURTHER WARNINGS. TAKE COVER IMMEDIATELY”.
Unfortunately, the station covers a warning area a few thousand square miles in area, so I don’t know who they’re talking to. Not us at the moment – the sky is clear overhead. But it sure isn’t clear to the north and east. The skies over Saskatoon, 25 miles to the northeast, are a million dollar light show at the moment.
(A photo I took a couple of years ago)
Methinks some grain bins are going to be rolling cross the prairies like bowling balls tonight.
ooops… as I finish this, another warning. Caught it this time. It’s for us as well as most of the area surrounding. Too bad it’s so dark – there are sure to be some freaky photo opportunities.
The Dignified Antonia Zerbisias
Toronto star writer, Antonio Zerbisias, pops in to comment on Bob Tarantino’s blog. With her favorite pet troll at her side. A snippet;
(And Bob, don’t cum all over your keyboard because I am posting here. Marc Weisblott suggested I pop over here into your little playpen for a laugh.)
I can see why they pay her the big bucks.
blah
I’ve been sick all day. Migraine.
Update. Saturday. Still sick. Went to the city and got some medication and a couple litres of fluids by IV. I feel a little better, but not up to staring at a screen and thinking coherent thoughts.
Not too sick to delete a troll, though.
*Cackle*
Please, let it be true, let it be true….
Elections Canada to Charge Moore
Elections Canada will lay charges against shockumentary filmmaker Michael Moore.
Officially, Elections Canada will neither confirm nor deny plans to lay formal charges against Moore. However, Canadafreepress.com has learned through sources that charges are imminent and expected by the end of next week.
The anti-Bush Moore, who often lets his mouth get ahead of him, may think he got away with the boner of the Canadian release of Fahrenheit 9/11 just days ahead of the June 28 federal election, but there is the little matter of election law infringement.
Two birds with one stone. Bitchslapping Michael Moore with Canadian anti-speech laws. How delicious.
Dear Alan Fryer
I sent an email to CTV news today. I asked them where their coverage is on Joe Wilson’s exposure as a liar and fraud. Considering the breathless reporting they gave to the infamous “16 words” in the State Of The Union address, and the “Iraq trying to buy uranium from Africa” contraversy, one would think they’d be over this complete vindication of the Bush administration like white on rice.
A search for the words “Joe Wilson” produced only this year old item on the initial contraversy.
The 16 words in the State of The Union Address last year in which Bush stated that British Intelligence had reported that Iraq had attempted to buy uranium in Africa have been upheld by the Senate Intelligence Report.
Did you know that?
The same report quite clearly exposes Joe Wilson, husband of the infamous “outed” cia agent Valerie Plame, as an out and out liar.
Now, Mr. Fryer et al – why have you not revisited this information to correct it for Canadian viewers? The SOTU address recieved tremendous coverage at the time.
Or, does anyone at CTV actually READ the reports you “report” on?
Over at Instapundit, Glenn Reynolds is gloating.
LIKE MILLI VANILLI’S GRAMMY AWARD, this “Restore Honesty” website by the now-discredited Joe Wilson is mostly of comedic value now. But wait, there’s more — scroll to the bottom and you’ll see that it’s “Paid for by John Kerry for President, Inc.” Quite an embarrassment.
Indeed.
Now, I think it’s time for an experment, fellow Canabloggers – Join me in emailing CTV. (I don’t watch CBC tv at all, so email them too if it’s appropriate). Ask them where the “Joe Wilson lied and Iraq did try to buy uranium from Niger” story is.
Let’s see if we can get a reply.
Al-Libzeera
Coming to a cable channel near you – the Official News Service Of The Islamic Jihad;
Globe & Mail;
The federal broadcast regulator is expected to announce today that it will permit Canadians to subscribe to the Arabic Al-Jazeera network but is turning down an application to offer Italy’s RAI International as a digital specialty service through cable or satellite. The decision, more than a year in the making, will be announced by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission in Ottawa.
Brought to you by the federal licencing body that protects Canadians from the propogandist FoxNews.
Tough Toke
Evidence that extended use of marijuana can turn you into a whiney tit.
Well, nobody should be surprised. The whole “I want my medical marijuana legalized” campaign has been one long activist whine-fest, long on outrageous claims and short on fact. Hoping they’d metamorphize into grateful recipients by giving them what they want is expecting too much.
No, I have no special sympathy for their suffering. There are too many other suffering people out there who will never recieve bona fide drugs and new treatment protocols because they must first pass rigid safety and effectiveness standards. They will wait, in sickness and pain, and many will not live long enough to recieve them.
Marijuana got a free pass. If you’re using it for medicinal purposes, and think it helps, great. I’m happy for you. But you didn’t want to wait for marijuana to jump through the testing and development hoops that all other drugs must clear, so stop complaining about the quality.
Stupid Darwin Tricks
On the scale of stupidity where a “one” is walking out the door with your shoelaces untied… and “ten” is lobbing oxyacetelene-filled party balloons into a bonfire – this is a twelve.
hat tip Flea
Bowling For Sarnia
Mike Bradley, the mayor of Sarnia, wants to make Michael Moore an honorary Canadian citizen.
Bob Tarantino wants to kick his ass.
Over at the Shotgun, commentor Rick McGinnis speculates…
It’s interesting to think what would have happened to Moore, had he been born Canadian.
He’d have been born in Oshawa, the son of a middle management worker at GM. His dad would get him a job, but he’d quit the line after a day. He’d have dropped out of York University, and gotten a job at NOW magazine, where he’d experience a meteoric rise but would suddenly be fired after one too many personality conflicts with publisher Michael Hollett.
He’d turn to filmmaking, parlaying his connections into a short documentary that would get programmed at Images or the Perspectives Canada section at the Toronto International Film Festival, but would never see commercial release, and take several years before getting video release with an independent distributor who went bankrupt with most of the copies still in boxes in their warehouse. (Copies of the DVD of Moore’s film, “49th Paral-hell”, would turn up in sell- off bins for years.)
Moore’s best hope would have been to be Rick Mercer, except that he’s nowhere near as charming as Mercer, and we already have one, so he’d basically be relegated to the occasional underpaid rant in This Magazine and sporadic work as a production assistant on American TV movies being shot in Toronto.
Frustrated by the lack of opportunities for a (straight, white, but overweight) cinematic propagandist in this country, he’d move south, where so many other Canadians have found not only opportunity, but the mysterious freedom to dissent publicly in “facist Amerikkka”.
About right.
Paging Howard Stern
For those who are making a career of being outraged over the FCC fines directed at Howard Stern’s behavior – The CRTC has pulled the broadcast license for Quebec City’s most popular radio station, because of offensive comments by a couple of radio personalities. They recieved 47 complaints.
We should all complain more about the CBC, methinks.
This is the same CRTC that will not allow Fox News on Canadian cable, but has no problem with CBC’s “it’s not porn if there are subtitles” or with CTV scheduling the Sopranos uncut and Nip/*uck-fests on prime time.
Science Reinventing The Window
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Translucent concrete |
Hat tip Jim Jeffers
Speed Dating Pt II
A cold, windy spring, interrupted by travel and a fairly heavy work schedule. Then, rain and more rain. But the wind has stopped, the streets have dried and the sun has broken out.
Tonight I pushed her out of the corner of the garage, rinsed and filled the tank, reinstalled the battery and cleaned and tightened down the plugs…
“Alive, she cried.”
I positively reek of gasoline. It’s better than perfume.
Come to think of it … I don’t own any perfume.
Now, this is my idea of a speed date.