the naked gun lives on

Remember that scene in the naked gun, where frank is taking a leak in the bathroom with his mic on while the queen is giving a speech?  CNN has brought that to real life.  Nice.

katrina - one year later

So today is the anniversary of the worst national disaster in US history.  It remains a stunning reminder of the incompetence of governments at all levels, both in preparation and reaction.  But let's not forget that the incompetence gets worse as you go from local to state to the feds.  I'm convinced that W could have and should have handled this disaster much, much better than he did.  It remains a major blemish on an already spotty record. 

 

Here's what I wrote at the time.

 

You also have to wonder about the people of New Orleans, who voted Ray Nagin back as mayor.  I think that falls under the general heading "you get what you voted for".  If the city hasn't and doesn't rebound miraculously, this will be one of the reasons why.

Emmys 2006

Who knew that the Emmys were worth watching?  This opening act from Conan O'brien is gold.  Of course it's on YouTube, but you wouldn't know it by searching for it - their search blows.

 

But seriously, watch both parts.  Outstanding.

The Middle East

Over 60% of Israelis want PM Olmert to resign over the handling of the recent war, and support is spiking for the right leaning Likud party.  There is also a significant movement among the military reserve, demanding change.  Trrops are slowly being committed to the UN force destined for south lebanon.

 

David Frum outlines Hezbollah's use of propaganda (fake news and photos) in some detail.

 

And here's a shocker: after Iran rejected the west's demands to stop enriching uranium, instead of doing something about it, Russia and China are backing Iran's call for more talks. 

And now for your Liberal Leadership update

Courtesy of Bourque.org

• Rae and Iggy lead fundraising, Dion well back
• Libs admit they're organization is too top heavy, call for streamlining
• The front running Ignatief campaign is under attack from other Liberals

Fun Liberal websites

• stopiggy.com
• libsforhezbollah.com
• hezboliberal.com

Propaganda

Remember that Israeli warship Hizbollah sank?  Uh...not so much. 

Farewell NealeNews

One of my daily sources for Canadian and international news is closing it's virtual doors after today, and will be missed.  Farewell NealeNews. 

 

Not to move on too quickly, but anyone have any ideas on a replacement?  The sites he suggests aren't quite what I'm looking for...

Liberal summer of discontent

According to the Toronto Star anyway...but that's what happens when you are leaderless. 

Sanity on immigration

Catch and release has been terminated and national guard troops are on the border.  The result?  20,000 fewer illegals were captured trying to cross the US- Mexico border this summer over last year.

 

That is a very good start, and long overdue.  If they can get the fence built where it is needed, then Bush will have achieved something serious and they can begin to talk about the solution for the millions of immigrants living illegally in the US already.  Maybe Bush will be ok on this issue.

moral clarity

"There was another political party in the past which had support, democratic support — which provided social services which played an important role in the political life of its country in the 1930s — which was also dedicated to violence against the Jewish people.

"The world was wrong to negotiate with that party then, and it would be wrong to negotiate with Hezbollah today." - Conservative Jason Kenney

new look

I thought it was time to change it up a little, so here we are...

What right wingers see when they read the NYTimes

This is really funny (via David Frum)

Israel looking for answers

To inquire or not to inquire.  I think it is inevitable, and there will be serious political casualties...

Iran to the west: screw you

Iran will ignore the UN and go on enriching uranium according to supreme leader Ayatolla Khamenei. 

 

Fearless prediction: the UN will do...uh...nothing.

It's like CTU only real

The Joint Regional Intelligence Center in Los Angeles gave a tour recently.  How else would they have got all these nice pictures?  It's not like letting a 12 year old kid with no ticket on to an airplane in a state of high emergency or something.

Israelis back in to Lebanon

For a raid to stop Hezbollah being resupplied.  Kofi says that's no good, but the UN can't get very many troops on the ground (hello, France?  Sorry, I must have the wrong number).  Meanwhile the debate in Israel rages - hard to see Olmert lasting the year.

Score another one for the UN (or "I'm going to die from that surprise")

"Hezbollah and the army are united. We are one," the Lebanese military sergeant said, declining to give his name because he was not authorized to speak to the media. "I will tell you the truth. My brother is in Hezbollah, so why would I want to take his weapon?

"We couldn't do it even if we wanted to. Hezbollah is stronger than we are."

 

Virtually nobody in this country thinks the Lebanese army is up to the task assigned to it under UN Resolution 1701. Even the Lebanese government has said its troops will only ask Hezbollah not to carry their weapons around in public. - ottawa citizen

 

How often do you have to be burned when trusting in the UN before you give up all together?  Seriously, I'm asking...how many times, for how many years?

Are the Tories just like the Liberals?

A $24 million dollar report?  Someone better be fired, and soon.

summer polls

via bourque:  Decima: Con 36% Lib 29% Ndp 15%

Scary title warning: Abortion survivors

This is a compelling read by a women who was supposed to have been aborted, along with her husband, father, and a few others in her family.  I highly recommend it.

The Web site of Ms. Magazine--yes, it still exists--is calling on readers to sign a petition: "I have had an abortion. I publicly join the millions of women in the United States who have had an abortion in demanding a repeal of laws that restrict women's reproductive freedom."

Well, so much for the right to privacy. If Ms. readers hadn't had so many abortions, there might be more Ms. readers. As for the rest of us, here's a petition we could all sign: "I wasn't aborted."

Having narrowly escaped being aborted, I'd be the first in line.

Not everyone in HollyWood is retarded!

A number of Hollywood heavyweights have taken out a full page ad in the LATimes condeming...wait for it...terrorism.  I know - I can't believe it either.

 

We the undersigned are pained and devastated by the civilian casualties in Israel and Lebanon caused by terrorist actions initiated by terrorist organisations such as Hezbollah and Hamas," the ad reads.  "If we do not succeed in stopping terrorism around the world, chaos will rule and innocent people will continue to die."We need to support democratic societies and stop terrorism at all costs."

 

Bush has many faults, but one of his biggest successes is steering the debate where it needed to go decades ago - we are in a war with terrorists (islamic radicals really) and the best way to fight that is by promoting democracy.  This language and focus was certainly not inevvitable.

 

gel bras and a history of women suicide bombers

This really is a brave new world.  Maybe depraved new world is more apt...

Stats Canada - oops were sorry

Apparently our stats agency is quite falable - they've admitted to underestimating inflation for at least the past 5 years .  Oh, and back in April they announced that productivity in Canada last year was twice the level previously reported.

 

Now we can just sit back and enjoy all the conspiracy theories... 

The news is full of the obvious

Or at least what should be obvious:

 

Evacuees who escaped Hurricane Katrina's flooding on their own are faring better almost a year later than the thousands rescued and dumped in cities saturated with evacuees, according to a report released Monday.  The study...also found nonprofit and faith-based groups and local and state governments acted more quickly and efficiently than the federal government.

A tipping point

A new study says there are more overweight people in the world now than malnourished.

 

"Obesity is the norm globally and under nutrition, while still important in a few countries and in targeted populations in many others, is no longer the dominant disease."

 

And you'll never guess what the solution is - taxing high calorie, unhealthy food!  Clearly what we need here is more government intervention, because our politicians and scientists know better.  Look how healthy they all are!

 

newsflash: Richard Gere is an idiot

Actor Richard Gere took centre-stage at the International AIDS Conference in Toronto Monday, calling HIV/AIDS the "true terrorist on the planet today."

The Israeli reaction

By all indications, Israelis are not very happy with the outcome of this conflict - as of course they should not be.  The ceasefire is being hailed by Hezbollah as a victory, and no one really knows how much damage Israel was able to do.  A month of bombing, and what does the Israel have to show for it?

 

With the ceasefire in place now, the Israelis are having a debate - as any democracy should.  Let's hope it brings about the required changes and the necessary moral clarity.

 

There were failures in identifying the threat, in managing the war, in dealing with the homefront…There is no doubt that we must learn our lesson and correct our mistakes. We were asleep and we received a wake-up call."

"In 2000, we withdrew from Lebanon without guarantees and without security agreements, and this action brought about Hizbullah's speech about spider webs, which was adopted by Hamas. The resulting Intifada made us decide, out of pain and out of good will, to withdraw unilaterally once more," Netanyahu declared. 

"These unilateral withdrawals deteriorate our deterrence, and lend credence to our enemies, a credence that improves their ability to bombard our cities and towns. This concept (of unilateral withdrawals) is now disappearing, and rightly so," he added.

Canadians with moral clarity

An overwhelming number of Canadians support Prime Minister Stephen Harper's assertion that Israel's attacks on Lebanon are justified because Israel has a right to self defence and say Iran and Syria are wrong to have armed Hezbollah, according to a new poll to be released today.

The poll, which was conducted by public opinion researcher COMPAS Inc., will appear today in the news magazine Western Standard. The poll states that 82 per cent of Canadians asked believe that Israel has a right to self defence.

Trudeau and Castro

I'm not sure what to make of this article written by our former prime minister's son about the special relationship between Castro and his family.  But I do know that I'm ashamed.

 

His intellect is one of the most broad and complete that can be found. He is an expert on genetics, on automobile combustion engines, on stock markets. On everything.

Combined with a Herculean physique and extraordinary personal courage, this monumental intellect makes Fidel the giant that he is. He is something of a superman...

 

Cubans remain very proud of Castro, even those who don't share his vision. They know that, among the world's many peoples, they have the most audacious and brilliant of leaders. They respect his intellectual machismo and rigour.

 

But wait, this report is fair and balanced...
 

But Castro's leadership can be something of a burden, too. They do occasionally complain, often as an adolescent might complain about a too strict and demanding father.

Never mind.  Read it yourself if you have the time, and remember that PET was our PM for a long, long time.

 

 

 

a brief history of Islamic terrorism

On the advice of a good friend, I've been reading this excellent but very lengthy article by Norman Podhoretz.  This section crystalized in my mind current events.  It's too depressing to even comment on, given the west's anemic reaction to terrorism until 2001. 

 

A brief history if Islamic Terrorism (adapted from the section "Paper Tiger", and only focusing on Americans killed or injured)

1979 - Iranian students break into the American embassy in Tehran and seize 52 Americans as hostages (they are not returned until Reagan's inauguration)

April 1983 – Hizbullah suicide bomber kills 63 Americans and another 120 were wounded at the US Embassy

October 1983 -  Hizbullah suicide bomber kills 241 U.S. Marines in their sleep, wounding another 81 at the American barracks in the Beirut airport.  (Reagan then withdrew the Marines)

December 1983 - American embassy in Kuwait was bombed.    Hizbullah kidnaps and kills Beirut CIA station chief William Buckley, the fourth American to be kidnapped in Beirut, and many more suffered the same fate between 1982 and 1992 (though not all died or were killed in captivity).

Iran Contra begins

September 1984 -  the U.S. embassy annex near Beirut was hit by yet another truck bomb

December 1984 - a Kuwaiti airliner was hijacked and two American passengers employed by the U.S. Agency for International Development were murdered.

June 1985 - Hizbullah operatives hijacked American airline (TWA flight 847), held in Beruit for more than two weeks. During those weeks, an American naval officer aboard the plane was shot, and his body was ignominiously hurled onto the tarmac. For this the hijackers were rewarded with the freeing of hundreds of terrorists held by Israel in exchange for the release of the other passengers.

October 1985, the Achille Lauro, an Italian cruise ship, was hijacked by the PLO working with the support of Libya. One of the hijackers threw an elderly wheelchair-bound American passenger, Leon Klinghoffer, overboard

December 1985, five Americans were among the 20 people killed when the Rome and Vienna airports were bombed

April 1986 - a bomb exploded in a discotheque in West Berlin that was a hangout for American servicemen.   Palestinian terrorist Abu Nidal executed three U.S. citizens who worked at the American University in Beirut.

December 1988 - the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in which a total of 270 people lost their lives.

February 26, 1993 – first WTC bombing, 6 people killed, 1000 injured

April 1993 – Iraqi agents attempt to assassinate George H W Bush

In the years immediately ahead, there were many Islamic terrorist operations (in Turkey, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Yemen, and Israel) that were not specifically aimed at the United States but in which Americans were nevertheless murdered or kidnapped.

March 1995 – 2 US diplomats killed and one injured in Karachi, Pakistan

November 1995 - five Americans died when a car bomb exploded in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, near a building in which a U.S. military advisory group lived.

June 1996 - the Khobar Towers in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia attacked by a suicide bomber; 19 airmen killed, and 240 other Americans on the premises were wounded.

August 7, 1998 - car bombs detonated at the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania killing more than 200 people including twelve were Americans.

October 12, 2000 - USS Cole hit by suicide bombers, damaging the ship and killing 17 sailors (wounding 39)

Sept 11, 2001 – suicide attacks on NY and Washington that killing almost 3000 people and changed the way we look at the world (well, at least some of us...)

 

fun google

lebanon revised death toll

 

Makes you wonder why any of us even pay attention to the mainstream media...

combat video via the TorStar

Videos shot by U.S. freelance journalist Scott Kesterson and posted to the Internet video sharing site YouTube.com show Canadian troops from Edmonton's Alpha Company, 2nd Platoon, known as the "Red Devils," in close combat with purported Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan. Caution: The videos linked to below contain violent images and language that may be offensive.

Canadian troops ambushed in southern Afghanistan, July 15, 2006

Dawn raid in southern Afghanistan, July 13, 2006

Canadian troops in firefight, July 8, 2006

why we fight

So maybe you think this whole "radical islam" thing is overblown.  No big deal, nothing to it, it's not that bad, let them live the way they want to, etc.  Sure. 

 

Taleban execute Mother and son, 13, for delivering laundry

 

And maybe you think the media is impartial, or better yet, on our side.  Sure!

 

Mike Wallace gushes over Iranian President

 

Headlines courtesy of NealeNews.  Read'em and weep.

The state of things

I'll admit it, I'm depressed about the state of the world right now. 

• I just finished listening to an interview with Thomas Ricks author of a new book Fiasco on the US military in Iraq. 
  
• In Connecticut, JoeMentum wasn't enought and Leiberman was defeated in the democratic primary for senate.
  
• The only headlines I seem to be able to find on the war against Hizbollah are how many "civilians" Israel killed in targeted strikes.  Where is the outrage that Hizbollah hides among civilians with the express purpose of causing civilian casualties?

Unfortunately I think that the biggest problem we have is not the violence in the middle east, or the number of military mistakes the US has made, or the number of our own soldiers killed in afghanistan. 

 

The biggest problem we have is that 

  a) we do not realize that the west is in a war with radical Islam, a war that started even before the end of the cold war, and that

  b) we therefore are not really committed to winning - to doing what it takes to completely defeat the enemy

 

Every death is treated as a reason to re-evaluate our committment and our decisions.  We hope that if we just pull out of the madness - and it is madness - that maybe we can go back to our dreamy little pre 9/11 world. 

 

The west is unbeatable militarily.  We have the best trained and equiped soldiers, with the strongest economies behind them.  But we will be defeated as the Americans were in Vietnam and Somalia because we are so weak, because we have no real concept of war and the horrible alternatives.  As Mark Steyn wrote in the recent National Review, so many are willing to simply manage the what they see as our inevitable decline.

 

Israel doesn't have that luxury.  They are on the front line of the war against radical Islam, but they are only one front.  Hizbollah has killed Americans and other westerners  for over 20 years, and yet some think this is just Israel's fight. 

 

I'm sick because of all of this.  We should be clear minded about who we are fighting and what it will take to win.  We have to defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan, we have to defeat the insurgency in Iraq and enable the democracy to stand up on its own, and we have to support our allies when they fight Islamic terrorists.  Some of this is being done, or at least attempted. 

 

But most of all we have to be steadfast at home.  We have to be committed to winning, to defeating an enemy that surely wants to to defeat us.  This isn't a war of our choosing, but it is our war none the less.

A rational man in an irrational world

A judge is ordering an end to negotiations between the province and aboriginal protesters over a contentious tract of land until the occupiers move off the property.   Superior Court Justice David Marshall says the talks must be suspended until the barricades come down at the Caledonia, Ont., housing development.-- the TorStar

Media Trust

News organizations are not disinterested bystanders with golden objectivity.  Surprise!  Reuters has fired a photographer and pulled at least 2 pictures.

And now for a Liberal Leadership campaign update

I guess Iggy has had a rough week, but I don't anyone except for a few journalists and political junkies is paying attention.  There seems to be general consensus that the guy who's barely lived here and is essentially Harper-lite is the man to beat.  Hmmm.

 

On that topic, this blog posting highlights who should stay and who should drop out.  Fun stuff.

No kidding

Iran admits it has supplied Hizbollah with long range missiles, but wont let them use them.  Surprise!

Deadly day

Four Canadian soldiers killed and ten injured in a Taliban ambush - our worst day in Afghanistan so far, by far. 

 

Despite the losses we have suffered so far, we will remain steadfast and we will prevail.  We are Canadians and we won't cut and run. 

open question

Do opinion polls taken during July or August even matter?  If so, the Cs are in a dead heat with the Ls .  Huh?

On our present struggle

At the same time that terrorist insurgents around the world are spectacularly demonstrating their depravity, the West has acted to give them more rights and to tie its own hands with unrealistic expectations of strictly limiting collateral damage. The Supreme Court has granted Geneva Convention protections to al Qaeda, part of a push to wipe out any moral and legal differences between civilized armies and terrorist bands. The outcry over Qana is directed entirely toward Israel by the "international community," rewarding Hezbollah for deliberately endangering civilians.

Down this road is defeat for the West, and victory for the only people in the world hoping for more Qanas.  -- National Review's Rich Lowry

Negotiation is not an option with Iran

Iran must not be allowed to get a nuclear weapon, not when the leader thinks like this:

 

Although the main solution is for the elimination of the Zionist regime, at this stage an immediate cease-fire must be implemented," Ahmadinejad said, according to state-run television in a report posted on its Web site.

Even the French condemned the remark, which I suppose is a very welcome development.  But will they do anything about it?

US deficits in the trillions, not billions

If the US government followed standard accounting practices, the proper way to report the annual deficit would be in the trillions.  I thought it was bad before I knew that.  Now it's just a disaster.  Future costs are going to absolutely sink a US president at some point in the next 10 years if nothing is done.

missing boy found

Police found him on an abandoned farm, and apparently he's safe.  Still looking for the pedophile and the 14 year old.  Police are on site.