I've posted a permanent link to the sinktrap on the main page, if you feel the urge to revel in Boris' wit and wisdom. The trap catches all of the posts that don't get through, and those that are deleted simply have a notation they were there. Boris can get together with all his friends now and they can both have a chuckle as he dumps on my site three or four times a day, every time his bowel fills.
Anonymous posters now get a 1-up number. If a new poster lacks imagination, he/she/it can retain the anonymous tag forever and still retain a distinct, if numerical, personality. It has other uses for me, too...
Page 1 and Page 2 have been renamed to All WoT" and "Politix 'n' Stuff" with corresponding content. If you prefer the open comments version, as I do, use these, as they both have separate counts and usually won't close up like the main page does. Usually the contents of the pages will correspond to the labels.
A reminder: Rantburg is a hard news site. Pieces from other people's blogs that are of interest may be posted as headlines. The bloggers appreciate the click thru to read the article and it leaves space here for corpse counts and order of battle information.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2004 6:06:00 PM ||
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Uh . . . I'm seeing mostly the same stuff over and over again. I like the idea of archiving his "wit and wisdom" so we can laugh at it; I just wish there was more of it.
Posted by: The Doctor ||
03/28/2004 19:53 Comments ||
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Yes, I'm afraid he's not very imaginative. I asked for another troll, but the good ones are all taken.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2004 21:14 Comments ||
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Fred:
Perhaps there is scope for implementing the Rantburg version of the "miserable user hack". If nothing else, simply reading the description of the hack may make you fell better.
#3
Are y'all talking about the ads for phone calls to Afghanistan? I don't see any other ads that could be connected to Islamists.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/28/2004 17:59 Comments ||
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They appear when Google thinks the site content has something to do with eye-rolling and AK-47s. Google Ads tries to adjust the ad content to the page content to maximize click-thrus and make us all rich. So far I've got about $6 coming from them.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2004 18:03 Comments ||
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The ads "rotate" apparently - and what is displayed is grouped by topic / interest, it seems. Anywhere from 1 to 4 or 5 on each display cycle. It also seems they get a minimum time of exposure before rollover, so a couple of quick refreshes will prolly show the same ads. But they'll roll by - I hit 2 of them about 30x each earlier today.
#6
Sorry I can't help Fred. I downloaded a Google add-on that block all ads several weeks ago. This does explain why the # of blocked ads keep going up here though.
Posted by: Charles ||
03/28/2004 18:53 Comments ||
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I was an early user of Google ads nearly 3 years ago now. I assume they are using a similar mechanism for these blogs ads, which is entirely keyword based. So you might specify your ad pops if the words 'jihad' or 'zionist entity' appears on a page. You can specify an unlimited combination of such keywords. Of course Google can't tell if the page is for or agin the topic.
BTW From a business perspective this is an extremely good and cheap way of finding people who may be interested in a particular specialized product.
Also Google were using a charging mechanism based on the frequency a word was used in Google searches combine with click through rates. I just checked here and they have now added the amount you offer to pay per page view or click through into the formula as well.
So clicking on the ads not only means the advertiser pays it also means their ads are more likely to be displayed to others. Devilishly clever business model.
ALGERIA: Multiparty state with elected parliament and president. National Liberation Front, dominant party since independence from France 40 years ago, won 2002 parliamentary elections marred by violence. In 1991, fearing fundamentalist Islamic Salvation Front would be elected, army aborted final round of election and sparked bloody insurgency.
The machinery of modern terrorism was perfected during the Algerian war for independence, and it's colored Algerian political life ever since. Can't get your way? Go underground and start slitting throats.
BAHRAIN: Declared constitutional monarchy in 2002 as part of reforms that paved way for first legislative elections in 30 years. Women voted and ran in October election, which secularists narrowly won. Final authority on all matters still resides with king, Sheik Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.
A glorified sheikhdom that's got oil money and is trying to modernize without letting the rabble get too uppity. A strong strain of Islamism can always be found to slow any attempts at liberalization.
EGYPT: President Hosni Mubarak took over from assassinated President Anwar Sadat in 1981. His security apparatus and National Democratic Party have almost absolute control over elected parliament. Mubarak stands every five years as only presidential candidate in yes-no referendums that always produce yes vote of more than 90 percent. Speculation persists Mubarak is grooming his son to replace him.
A hereditary authoritarian presidency runs an unruly nation that has a strong Muslim Brotherhood presence. Egypt has no oil so it is called upon to actually produce something. To date that includes cotton and Islamists. The Islamists pooped in the national punchbowl by slaughtering tourists a few years ago, which further made matters worse by depressing the tourist industry. Home of al-Azhar University, AKA Fatwah Central. The Coptic minority is persecuted routinely.
IRAQ: U.S.-led coalition to run country through June 30, when new Iraqi-run government replaces Saddam Hussein's 35-year dictatorship. Washington promises Iraq will be democracy, but history of repression and deep divisions in society will make that difficult.
I don't think enough has been done to set up guarantees of personal liberty. Iraq is a good candidate for splintering into its historic north-south components, with possibly a central Sunni state if they can avoid causing their neighbors to slaughter them for their bad behavior and arrogance.
JORDAN:King Abdullah II, who succeeded late father, King Hussein, has virtually absolute power but has pledged to transform kingdom into the "model of a democratic Arab Islamic state" that can serve as an example to other Middle East nations. He has abolished the Information Ministry that enforced censorship and put more women into government, but broader public freedoms are lacking. Political elite, conservative tribal leaders, would-be reformers and Islamic fundamentalists argue over direction of reform.
A strong Islamist presence and plenty of resident Paleostinians impede Jordan's efforts toward modernity, as do its dependencies on trade with its neighbors. King Hussein was always trotted out at the "moderate, pro-Western" exemplar, until he threw in his lot with Sammy during GWI. Jordan has an historical claim to rule large parts of Arabia.
KUWAIT: Politics controlled by emir, Sheik Jaber Al Ahmed Al Sabah, and family. Kuwait pioneer among Arabs in electing parliament, in 1963, but emir regularly dismisses national assemblies. Women barred from voting or running for office.
Strong Islamist presence tries to counterbalance the Kuwaiti experience of actually having had demonstrated who their real friends are. When the country was occupied and looted in GWI the Arab League wrung its hands and dithered while the U.S. actually stepped in and did something.
LEBANON: Elections regular and lively, but not open because of power-sharing agreement meant to prevent resurgence of 1975-90 sectarian civil war. Legislative seats apportioned equally to Christians and Muslims; prime minister must be Sunni Muslim, president Christian. Syria, dictatorship, wields great influence over Lebanese politics.
A Syrian colony with no real independence. Large and unruly Paleostinian presence endangers the country's existence if the Syrians do go away. The native (non-Arab) Nabataean population is being suppressed and displaced by the Arabs.
LIBYA:Muammar Gadhafi in absolute power since 1969 military coup.
Muammar's an old-fashioned dictator, given to splashy uniforms and all-girl bodyguard squads. Libya should have lots of oil money, but Muammar wasted it on international adventurism. Claims not to be an hereditary autocracy, but Muammar hasn't yet died to prove it. He's smart enough to realize which way the wind is blowing and has changed sides. Whether the side-changing will extend to instituting personal liberties for Libyans remains to be seen. Has withdrawn from the Arab League and decided that Libya's an African country, rather than Arab.
MOROCCO:King Mohammed VI appoints prime minister and members of government following legislative elections; can fire any minister, dissolve parliament, call for new elections, or rule by decree. Incumbent socialist party won September 2002 parliamentary elections praised as clean and fair. Conservative Islamic parties did well.
Pretty liberal, as far as Arab countries go. Econmy has close ties with Spain. Targeted for an Islamist movement by al-Qaeda, but seemingly still in the formative stages.
OMAN:Sultan Qaboos became ruler by overthrowing father in 1970. Family has ruled for about 250 years. In October, 2003, the country held its first elections open to all citizens for an advisory council. No political parties or elected legislature.
Maintains a low profile and tries to avoid getting embroiled in controversy. No idea how strong the Islamist presence actually is.
PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY: Yasser Arafat, under growing pressure to share power, appointed a prime minister in 2003 but Mahmoud Abbas' government collapsed in a dispute with Arafat over security control. The same disagreement nearly sank Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia's government, appointed in September, until Qureia gave in. Arafat essentially retains indirect control in many areas, including security.
The Paleo Authority is a textbook kleptocracy, modeled on Baathism, but without the efficiency of Saddam Hussein or Syria's Assad. The PLO is secular and kinda-sorta Marxist, though they don't mention that part anymore. Real power in the PA rests with neighborhood Mister Bigs and with Hamas, which is the same thing but with religion.
QATAR: Promising parliamentary elections after holding first municipal elections in 1999, with women fully participating. Famous as home of al-Jazeera satellite TV station, lambasted by Arab and Western governments for shows critical of governments. Qataris overwhelmingly voted in April 2003 for a new constitution that guarantees freedom of expression, religion, assembly and association. It also provides for a 45-member parliament, two-thirds of which will be elected and the rest appointed by the emir.
Possibly the best model for Gulf liberalization, if the Islamists don't get it first. Jazeera's a pain in the nether regions, but that often happens with a free press. Qatar went so far as to pick a side in GWI, and is home to CENTCOM's regional HQ now that we've shaken the Soddy dust from our feet.
SAUDI ARABIA: Crown Prince Abdullah rules on behalf of ailing King Fahd; no elected legislature. In sign royal family feeling pressure to reform, the Cabinet announced in October that Saudis will be able to vote in municipal elections. Government also recently set up a national human rights commission and let international rights monitors visit for first time.
The model for princely kleptocracy. Soddy Arabia seems to have a phobia against individual liberty. Muslim religious minorities are oppressed, and all other religions are forbidden. Oil money goes into the pockets of the princes, to be pissed away on grandiose plans for world domination, with anything left over tossed as tips to the common folk. Home of the Learned Elders of Islam.
SYRIA: President Bashar Assad wields near-absolute power, disappointing those who expected the young, Western-educated doctor to open up politics. Succeeded father, longtime dictator Hafez Assad, who died in 2000.
Hereditary bloody-handed dictatorship in the hands of a Junior who's not the man his father was. Syria's bellicose stance and its harboring of terrorists makes it an international pariah and a prime candidate for dismantling.
SUDAN: President Omar el-Bashir in power since 1989 coup. Recently moved to lessen influence of fundamentalist Islamic leaders, but democratic reform not on agenda.
An incompetent bloody-handed dictator who spends most of his time on ethnic cleansing and breaking peace agreements with rebel movements. The model for Sudan is more Subsaharan than Arab, despite the influence of Islamists in Khartoum.
TUNISIA: Republic dominated by single party, Constitutional Democratic Assembly, since independence from France in 1956. Opposition parties allowed since 1981.
A secular state that tries to keep its native Islamists in check. No appreciable oil money to loot, so the citizens tend to get jobs.
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: Federation of states, each controlled by own emir and family.
All personality-driven, with Dubai as the development model.
YEMEN: President Ali Abdullah Saleh presides over largely feudal society. Despite constitution, elected parliament and lively press, power rests with military and tribes.
A hopeless dog's breakfast of primitives, approximately as civilized as Pashtunistan. Tribal basis of society prevents progress. Yemen's not swimming in oil, so they actually have to produce something. The primary export is guys with bandoliers.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2004 12:50:18 PM ||
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So, Fred, I think you're telling me that we can't count on this area of the world to put any rovers on Mars in the near future.
Posted by: Matt ||
03/28/2004 15:19 Comments ||
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Oil money goes into the pockets of the princes, to be pissed away on grandiose plans for world domination, with anything left over tossed as tips to the common folk.
And hookers, Fred. Don't forget about the hookers...
#3
Uh, Fred, I don't know if they count as "swimming in oil," but ISTR that Yemen has some oil reserves. I also don't know how much of the country counts as explored.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
03/28/2004 16:13 Comments ||
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I must admit some concern over the recent spike in the use of the verbage "dawg's breakfast"on this Public BBS. I do hope you Freeper Bastards are not confusing this with "Polish Honey"
#6
Damn it tu, you beat me to it. But before we dismiss this whole area outof hand what about the weekly (?) in some country's where Joe Schmoo can present his grievances to the lcal high muckimuck
#7
PLEASE NOTE: Rantburg is a Zionist propaganda BBS spewing hate against Moslems in order to incite wars and sacrifice American lives and resources for the state of Israel.
See who rules America -- due to censorship we inserted "#", delete it. http://AD#LUSA.com
#8
PLEASE NOTE: Rantburg is a Zionist propaganda BBS spewing hate against Moslems in order to incite wars and sacrifice American lives and resources for the state of Israel.
See who rules America -- due to censorship we inserted "#", delete it. http://AD#LUSA.com
The Trojan Horse could have been an alternative title
In the legend of Moorish Spain, the last Muslim king of Granada, Boabdil, surrendered the keys to his city on Jan. 2, 1492, and on one of its hills, paused for a final glance at his lost dominion. The place would henceforth be known as El Ultimo Suspiro del Moro--"the Moorâs Last Sigh." Boabdilâs mother is said to have taunted him, and to have told him to "weep like a woman for the land he could not defend as a man." An Arab poet of our own era gave voice to a historical lament when he wrote that as he walked the streets of Granada, he searched his pockets for the keys to its houses. Al Andalus--Andalusia--would become a deep wound, a reminder of dominions gained by Islam and then squandered. No wonder Muslim chroniclers added "May Allah return it to Islam" as they told and retold Granadaâs fate.
The Balkans aside, modern Islam would develop as a religion of Afro-Asia. True, the Ottomans would contest the Eastern Mediterranean. But their challenge was turned back. Turkey succumbed to a European pretension but would never be European. Europeâs victory over Islam appeared definitive. Even those Muslims in the Balkans touched by Ottoman culture became a marked community, left behind by the Ottoman retreat from Europe like "seaweed on dry land."
Yet Boabdilâs revenge came. It stole upon Europe. Demography--the aging of Europe on the one hand and, on the other, a vast bloat of people in the Middle East and North Africa--did Boabdilâs job for him. Spurred by economic growth in the â60s, which created the need for foreign laborers, a Muslim migration to Europe began. Today, 15 million Muslims make their home in the European Union.
The earliest migrants were eager to hunker down in this new and (at first) alien world. They took Europe on its own terms, and lived with the initial myth of migration that their sojourn would be temporary. But for the overwhelming majority, Algiers and Casablanca and Beirut and Anatolia became irretrievable places. In time, there would be slaughter and upheaval in Lebanon and Iran, sectarian warfare in Syria, and a long era of sorrow and bloodshed in Algeria, just across the sea from Marseilles. Economic destitution would cut a swath of misery through the lands whence they came. Birth rates worked their way like a wrecking ball: It became impossible to transmit culture and civility and the old familiar world to the young. Migration became the only safety valve.
In the 1980s, terrible civil wars were fought in Arab and Islamic countries--with privilege on one side, militant wrath on the other. The despots and the military caste in Algeria and Tunisia and Syria and Egypt won that struggle. Their defeated opponents took to the road: From Hamburg and London and Copenhagen, the battle was now joined. If accounts were to be settled with rulers back home, the work of subversion would be done from Europe. Muslim Brotherhoods sprouted all over the Continent. There were welfare subsidies in the new surroundings, money, constitutional protections and rules of asylum to fight the old struggle.
"The whole Arab world was dangerous for me. I went to London." The words are those of an Egyptian Islamist, Yasser Sirri. In London, Sirri runs an Islamic "observation center" and agitates against the despotism of Hosni Mubarak. But Sirri, a man of 40, is wanted back home. Three sentences have been rendered against him in absentia: One condemns him to 25 years of hard labor for smuggling armed terrorists into Egypt; the second to 15 years for aiding Islamic dissidents; and the third to death for plotting to assassinate a prime minister. Sirri had fled Egypt to Yemen. But trouble trailed him there, so he moved to the Sudan, but it was no better. He turned up in London--there, he would have liberties, and the protections of a liberal culture. There would be no extradition for him, no return to the summary justice of Cairo.
Sirri was not working in a vacuum. The geography of Islam--and of the Islamic imagination--has shifted in recent years. The faith has become portable. Muslims who fled their countries brought Islam with them. Men came into bilad al kufr (the lands of unbelief), but a new breed of Islamists radicalized the faith there, in the midst of the kafir (unbeliever).
The new lands were owed scant loyalty, if any, and political-religious radicals savored the space afforded them by Western civil society. But they resented the logic of assimilation. They denied their sisters and daughters the right to mix with "strangers." You would have thought that the pluralism and tumult of this open European world would spawn a version of the faith to match it. But precisely the opposite happened. In bilad al kufr, the faith became sharpened for battle. We know that life in Hamburg--and the kind of Islam that Hamburg made possible--was decisive in the evolution of Mohammed Atta, who led the "death pilots" of Sept. 11. It was in Hamburg where he conceived a hatred of modernity and of women and of the "McEgypt" that the Mubarak regime had brought into being. And it was in Hamburg, too, that a young "party boy" from a secular family in Lebanon underwent the transformation that would take him from an elite Catholic prep school in Beirut to the controls of a plane on Sept. 11, and its tragic end near the fields of Shanksville, Penn. In its economic deterioration, the Arab world is without cities where young Muslims of different lands can meet. A function that Beirut once provided for an older elite had been undone. European cities now provide that kind of opportunity.
Satellite TV has been crucial in the making of this new radicalism. Preachers take to the air, and reach Muslims wherever they are. From the safety of Western cities, they counsel belligerence and inveigh against assimilation. They forbid shaking hands with women examiners at universities. They warn against offering greetings to "infidels" on their religious holidays, or serving in the armies and police of the new lands. "A Muslim has no nationality except his belief," wrote an intellectual godfather of radical Islamism, the Egyptian Sayyid Qutb, who was executed by Nasser in 1966. While on a visit to Saudi Arabia in 2002, I listened to a caller from Stockholm as he bared his concerns to an immensely popular preacher. He made Qutbâs point: We may carry their nationalities, he said, but we belong to our own religion.
Radical Islamismâs adherents are unapologetic. What is laicite (secularism) to the Muslims in France and their militant leaders? It is but the code of a debauched society that wishes to impose on Islamâs children--its young women in particular--the ways of an infidel culture. What loyalty, at any rate, is owed France? The wrath of Franceâs Muslim youth in the banlieues (suburbs) is seen as revenge on France for its colonial wars. France colonized Algeria in the 1830s; Algerians, along with Tunisians and Moroccans, return the favor in our own time.
France grants its troubled Muslim suburbs everything and nothing. It leaves them to their own devices, and grants them an unstated power over its foreign policy decisions on Islamic and Middle Eastern matters; but it makes no room for them in the mainstream of its life. Trouble has come even to placid Belgium. In Antwerp, Dyab Abu Jahjah, a young Lebanese, only 32, has stepped forth to "empower" the Muslims of that country. Assimilation, he says, is but "cultural rape." He came to Belgium in 1991, and he owns up to inventing a story about persecution back home; it was a "low political trick," he says, and in the nature of things. The constitution of Belgium recognizes Dutch, French, and German as official languages. Abu Jahjah insists that Arabic be added, too.
Europeâs leaders know Europeâs dilemmas. In ways both intended and subliminal, the escape into anti-Americanism is an attempt at false bonding with the peoples of Islam. Give the Arabs--and the Muslim communities implanted in Europe--anti-Americanism, give them an identification with the Palestinians, and you shall be spared their wrath. Beat the drums of opposition to Americaâs war in Iraq, and the furies of this radical Islamism will pass you by. This is seen as a way around the troubles. But there is no exit that way. It is true that Spain supported the American campaign in Iraq, but that aside, Spainâs identification with Arab aims has a long history. Of all the larger countries of the EU, Spain has been most sympathetic to Palestinian claims. It was only in 1986 that Spain recognized Israel and established diplomatic ties. With the sole exception of Greece, Spain has shown the deepest reserve toward Israel. Yet this history offered no shelter from the bombers of March 11.
Whatever political architecture Europe seeks, it will have to be built in proximity to the Other World, just across the Straits of Gibraltar and in the grip of terminal crisis. There is no prospect that the rulers of Arab lands will offer their people a decent social contract, or the opportunities for freedom. It is a sad fact that the Arab peoples no longer make claims on their rulers. Instead the "drifters," such as the embittered terrorists who blew into Madrid, now seek satisfaction almost solely in foreign lands.
You canât agitate against Mubarak in Cairo, but you can do it from the safety of Finsbury Park in London. The ferocity of the debate in the Arab world about Franceâs decision to limit Islamic headgear in public schools is a measure of this displaced rage. Spain may attribute the cruelty visited on it to its association with Americaâs expedition into Iraq. But the truth is darker. Jacques Chirac may believe that he has spared France Spainâs terror by sitting out the Iraq war. But he is deluded. The Islamists do not make fine distinctions in the bilad al kufr.
Europe is host to a war between order and its enemies, fuelled by demography: 40% of the Arab world is under 14. Demographers tell us that the fertility replacement rate is 2.1 children per woman. Europe is frightfully below this level; in Germany it is 1.3, Italy 1.2, Spain 1.1, France 1.7 (this higher rate is a factor of its Muslim population). Fertility rates in the Islamic world are altogether different: they are 3.2 in Algeria, 3.4 in Egypt and Morocco, 5.2 in Iraq and 6.1 in Saudi Arabia. This is Europeâs neighborhood, and its contemporary fate. You can tell the neighbors across the Straits, (and within the gates of Europe) that you share their dread of Pax Americana. But nemesis is near.
Five centuries ago, the Castilians took Granada from Boabdil. They were a hardy breed of sheep-herders driven by a Malthusian logic, outgrowing their grazing lands, pushing southward--and into the New World from Seville--to answer Castileâs needs. Today there is great turmoil in Islamic lands, and a Malthusian crisis. Were it only true that those in harmâs way in Europe are solely the friends of the Americans. The New World is a demon of this Islamism, it is true. But that old border between Europe and Islam has furies all its own.
Mr. Ajami, a professor at Johns Hopkins, is author of "The Dream Palace of the Arabs" (Vintage, 1999).
"Jen, only when and if he is ever properly elected will I then be grudgingly obliged to address him as you wish I would. His intentional blurring of the separation between church and state while simultaneously attempting to constitutionalize discrimination gets nothing but scorn from me.
Thank goodness we live in a country where we can disagree on this matter. Please know that you indeed have the privilege to dislike me for what I say, that is entirely your right. Understand one thing though, I don't do this to intentionally anger or offend you or anybody else.
As a proud American I cannot abide the White House's ham-fisted tampering with both the duties of executive office or our beloved constitution. Whatever proper intransigence might be shown for terrorism (as is demanded of all worthy commander in chiefs) still in no way confers any right to enshrine religious commandment as constitutional law, especially not in a nation wholly founded upon secular ideals. This is what he's attempting and my own ethicality demands that I consider it to be nothing less than malfeasance of office. Hence my scorn."
Oh, Dumpster, you're a treasure.
What a load of juicy bullshit.
He IS the duly elected President of the United States, fucktard. Proof that all else you may say is at the every least suspect, if not outright total fucking bullshit. You're full of shit.
Your notion that he is "constitutionalizing discrimination" is truly insane. Proof? You're full of shit.
You provide no proof of any "ham-fisted" actions - or anything even remotely associated. You're full of shit.
As an atheist, I know he has not done anything that hasn't been done before for the last 30 years to "enshrine religious commandment as constitutional law". I most certainly would've noticed. You're full of shit.
The phrase "my own ethicality demands that I consider it to be nothing less than malfeasance of office" is so utterly asinine and disingenuous as to be breathtaking. You couldn't prove any aspect of that charge if your worthless life depended upon it. You're full of shit.
It is clear that you're one thoroughly conflicted and fucked up induhvidual - and given your comments, so anti-Bush that you'd remove him from office if you could. You obviously think President Gore is being denied his constitutional rights. You're fucking insane. It is not unreasonable to presume you will vote against Bush, therefore, so you are in league with the enemy - there is no sane RBer who could possibly
believe Skeery would be worth warm spit in the Wot - your pathetic little aside about Commanders in Chief notwithstanding. You are unbelievably amazingly self-defeatingly massively full of shit.
French voters delivered a stinging defeat to President Jacques Chirac's government and its program of painful economic reforms in regional elections Sunday that turned into a national vote of censure, exit polls showed. The stunning rebuke, with victories by the opposition left in many regions, will increase pressure on Chirac to reshuffle his conservative government, and perhaps even ditch his prime minister, the unpopular Jean-Pierre Raffarin.
Yes. It's probably time for a Jean-Claude or a Jean-Louis...
Exit polls showed the opposition left getting nearly half of the votes, compared with about 37 percent for the right. Turnout was high, with approximately two-thirds of the country's nearly 42 million voters casting ballots, exit polls showed. Raffarin acknowledged the defeat but said reforms are inevitable. "Reforms must continue simply because they are necessary," the somber-looking prime minister said.
For him, the defeat was personal. One of at least eight regions that exit polls estimated were lost by the government included Poitou-Charentes in western France, once Raffarin's fiefdom. The right suffered another high-profile defeat in the central Auvergne region, where former President Valery Giscard d'Estaing was washed away by the wave of wins for the left that swept much of France. The midterm bruising, Chirac's first national test since he and his party swept presidential and legislative elections in 2002, could make it difficult for the government to pursue its promised but unpopular economic reforms. They include trimming spending on the heavily indebted health system. Chirac's European Union partners want his government to rein in France's budget deficit to within EU limits. But French voters showed they are having trouble stomaching the bitter pill of cuts to public services and slimmed down pensions.
The leader of the triumphant Socialists, Francois Hollande, said a mere ministerial shuffle would not be enough to assuage voters, "no matter how big it is." Instead, he said the government must keep its hands off France's treasured public sector.
Former Socialist Prime Minister Laurent Fabius called the results "very, very spectacular." "They represent an extremely strong sanction with regard to the president's politics and the current government," he said. Nearly 10 percent unemployment and the stagnant economy fueled voter discontent. Although voters Sunday were choosing regional councils that handle transport, school-building and other local issues, many cast their ballots to show disapproval of the government in Paris. "I feel like France's public sector is being sabotaged," said Elsa Quinette, a theater worker who voted for the left at a polling station in Paris' Montmartre district. "What the government is doing is so serious, I just had to speak out."
For the opposition left, the vote was a triumph, marking its comeback from the political wilderness after Chirac's victories two years ago. "Two years ago, the left was censured in a historic fashion. Today, we've been censured in the same way," said Social Affairs Minister Francois Fillon. Fillon acknowledged that a government shake-up may now be needed. Chirac must "take a new political situation into consideration," he said. But Fillon also said reforms must continue. "Clearly today, we have a problem with the people," he said. But "the consequence must not be immobility and the halting of reforms." By rejuvenating the left, the vote could weaken Chirac's prospects of winning a third presidential term in 2007 should he chose to run again. At the least, the left's new strength in the regions provides platforms from which to mount presidential and legislative campaigns in 2007. "For two years, the president has not responded to French people's expectations," Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a former Socialist finance minister, told France-3 television. "From that point of view, it's his failure."
Nothing to get excited about. They're just fighting over who gets the boodle to manage the economy.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2004 2:56:42 PM ||
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Instead, he said the government must keep its hands off France's treasured public sector.
That's going to be tough to do when your government is slowly bankrupting itself...
#2
If Chretien's the conservative, I'm not sure if I want to find out what the liberals are like.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
03/28/2004 16:01 Comments ||
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*Shrug* Guess what they're going to have to cut in order to keep their social welfare system in place?
So much for further naval exercises with the People's Republic of China, quasi-imperialism in Africa, and delusions of a serious pan-European military force.
The decline of France -- started over a century ago -- continues steadily and without pause. There are some who feel that France has become our enemy and must be treated as such. I say, "Who cares?"
Posted by: Patrick Phillips ||
03/28/2004 17:13 Comments ||
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Shall we man le Barricades?
Hey Chris! Be home before August.
(sorry for that personal note)
#7
This is SWEET! Imagine a place where Chiraq is the conservative!?!
I figure the harder Eurosocialism falls, the better the lesson will be. Thank you to the spoiled, circle jerking, self serving, aloof, boring electorate of France for ensuring a nice big splat.
#8
So the French have a shouting match to change who re-arranges the deck chairs on the Titanic. How appropriate. Keep going, guys - at this rate, not even your MUSLIM population will want what's left. Let me know when the bankruptcy sales begin - I could use a good set of Sevres china at bargain-basement prices.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/28/2004 22:01 Comments ||
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#9
M. Hollande also promised that French troops would be 'immediately withdrawn' from Iraq the moment the Socialists gained control of the government. However, after a quick and hurried tete a tete with his staff, he returned to the podium and said "never mind"....
A Muslim preacher in eastern Turkey says he is being boycotted for telling local men to help their wives with the housework, Turkish media reported. "Women do all the work in this village. All I said was men should at least carry the water (from the local well)," Mustafa Platin told Sabah newspaper.
His angry flock, who stopped attending the mosque, have asked authorities to remove the preacher. .... Mr Karsli of Kotanduzu village, near Erzurum, accused the imam of frequently insulting village men in traditional Friday sermons. "Instead of teaching us about Islam, he talks nonsense," he said. "The men donât want to pray with him any more, they go to mosques in neighbouring towns."
Imam Mustafa Platin confirmed no more than three villagers joined him, even on the usually busy Friday prayers, in Turkeyâs traditionally conservative east. Mr Platin, a 27-year-old father of three, said he meant well. "Women do the washing, they look after the livestock, they cook. And they carry the water. When I told men to help them, they have reacted very harshly."
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
03/28/2004 10:45:53 AM ||
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#3
I lived in a commune (yes, I did!) for 8 months. What I found was approx 6 people dedicated to making it work - and 40 "Sharing the experience" types. This is possibly a reasonably consistent percentage of leaders to followers in American society at large - and possibly folds into an answer to Dave D's question in the Canadian Prison PC thread.
Anyway, the reason I'm posting on this thread is that I carried water and chopped / carried firewood... so I know a bit about the topic. These Moozlums are typically lazy no-account lamers sharing the experience. Eventually I tired of working my ass off while most around me stayed perpetually stoned to the point of being useless. They weren't even good lays - the typical "bribe" offered to the worker bees. Mebbe these Turkish wymyn will do the same - and leave the lamers to fend for themselves. I'll bet these Turk men are lousy lays, too.
I'm still not sure who posited the idea that Islam will change when the wymyns decide to take control and force change. No one responded to it when I asked OP if it was him the other day.
More and more I'm coming to believe that, once there IS some reform and they begin to have enough freedom to caucus with each other - then the wymyns will be at that tipping point where they CAN change things. While completely isolated and deprived, they have little chance... But give them some air and it strikes me as possible they can do the rest. THEN, perhaps, we will see a true moderate Islam begin to emerge from the swamp it is today.
#5
11A5S - Thanx! It has begun to feel real to me, since the myn of Islam continually prove to be dedicated and adamant losers -- yet are actually very dependent upon the wymyn to hold everything together while they prance about posturing and car-swarming...
#7
Russian Society used to have similar traditions. Maybe that is why many mail-order brides come from Russia. There are also many that come from the Philippines - are the women there similarly liberated?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/28/2004 22:01 Comments ||
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I kid you not.
Corrections Canada wonât let guards at maximum security prisons wear stab-proof vests because it sends a confrontational "signal" to prisoners. "If you have that kind of presence symbolized by (a stab-proof vest), youâre sending a signal to the prisoner that you consider him to be a dangerous person," said Tim Krause. "It interferes with what we call âdynamic security. We want staff to talk to prisoners, to see how theyâre doing." Last month, Sun Media reported a guard at the Edmonton Institution was threatened with disciplinary action several times by prison brass for wearing a self-purchased stab-proof vest on the job. The guard, who asked not to be named, said he intends to keep wearing the Kevlar vest. "Yes, Iâm violating the rules. But management is stepping on my right to defend myself," he said. Kevin Grabowsky, of the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers, said the notion that inmates might be "offended" is a "complete crock." We better not catch any guards teasing the prisonersâ baby ducks, or interfering with their aromatherapy sessions either, eh?
Posted by: Seafarious ||
03/28/2004 2:29:29 AM ||
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#1
What did the gaurd miss the "Hugs and Kissis
seminar"
#2
I have a theory: that it is possible for a country to become "over-civilized". And being over-civilized is, in its own way, just as bad as being uncivilized. And if the condition isn't corrected, it will become fatal.
Canada prohibiting protective vests for prison guards who have a high probability of being assaulted by violent prisoners is one symptom of overcivilization. Britain prosecuting victims of home break-ins for acting in self-defense against their violent intruders is another.
There is something deeply, profoundly wrong about all this, and I have to wonder if some of the source for Canadians' and Euros' resentment of the U.S. is our refusal to join them in their politically-correct perversion of morality.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
03/28/2004 7:43 Comments ||
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#3
Dave, your theory has long and deep roots - the usual words for 'over-civilized' are 'efete' or 'decadent'.
Note that some think decadence has to do with slimy sex or similar practices. It really means "in decay", as with an overly-ripe piece of fruit. While public flaunting of sex, drugs and ostentatious wealth are common symptoms, the underlying cause is just what you've articulated.
And yes, I do think that is one cause of their resentment.
Whoa. You mean sex, drugs, and ostentatious wealth are right out for us non-effete, anti-decadence types ? Damn. Do I have to pay for my own monk habit, or will one be provided ?
Posted by: Carl in NH ||
03/28/2004 8:52 Comments ||
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#7
Yes, I considered "effete" and "decadent" both when writing that comment, but rejected each because of connotations that were not really relevant--like the ones you cited.
I also struggled for several minutes before coming up with the final phrase, "politically-correct perversion of morality;" originally it was "politically-correct delusions."
The particular delusion that sometimes seems to be at the core of much loony-left-liberal thinking is this: if only we would be nice enough, pleasant enough, and tolerant enough of the uncivilized, then they will reciprocate in kind. They act like murderous, subhuman savages ONLY because we don't smile enough.
I sometimes get the feeling these people have spent too much time watching Sesame Street or Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, and are unable, out of fear, to shake the infantile belief in a world which is universally warm, fuzzy, nurturing, and benign.
The world is not benign. Fred Rogers lied. And preventing Canadian prison guards, or British home-owners, from protecting themselves is evil.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
03/28/2004 9:49 Comments ||
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#8
I sometimes get the feeling these people have spent too much time watching Sesame Street or Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, and are unable, out of fear, to shake the infantile belief in a world which is universally warm, fuzzy, nurturing, and benign
I think you're on to something. Perhaps a Sesame Street reality show is in order. Perhaps Big Bird will describe how he preys on defenselss robins or some such.
#9
I can just picture Big Bird batting those enormous eyelashes of his and saying, "Oh, look! It's a little robin! It must be Springtime!"
And then down the hatch it goes...
Posted by: Dave D. ||
03/28/2004 10:54 Comments ||
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#10
I can just picture Big Bird batting those enormous eyelashes of his and saying, "Oh, look! It's a little robin! It must be Springtime!" And then down the hatch it goes...
Actually, Dave, that's not a bad idea. In the springtime you will oftentime see dead baby birds the mother has rejected and therefore killed. I guess it would make the kid upset but it would also be a demonstration that human beings do not treat their offspring in that manner. Could help instill some values in the kid's life.
#12
I can just picture Big Bird batting those enormous eyelashes of his and saying, "Oh, look! It's a little robin! It must be Springtime!" And then down the hatch it goes Yumm!
#13
CF - Hey, you're "Bert is Evil" link is better 'n mine! I loved the closer on the main page: "This Website has been brought to you by the letter H and the CIA."
Re topic: Canada is, simply put, fucked. Until "PC-run-amok" is cornered and eradicated, good decent innocent people will be put unnecessarily at risk. I know the do-gooder jerkoffs sleep like babies, believing their "good works" bring good results, but it would be so very appropos to exchange a few of these upstanding morons for the prison guard hostages during the next (inevitable) riot. Most people in prison are not there because they're misunderstood victims, they're there because they are predators - and they certainly won't miss any opportunity to create an uprising / riot. After all, the twits are in charge and negotiating with them will undoubtedly be a win for the predators.
#14
Thanks one helluva lot, CrazyFool; I had a mouthful of food when I clicked on that link and read the line, "This Website has been brought to you by the letter H and the CIA."
.com, I have doubts that even throwing the idiots into the lions' den to give them a first-hand demonstration of their foolishness would have any effect at all; this naive belief of theirs that "everybody's beautiful in their own way" seems almost impossible to dislodge.
This really does bother me, a LOT: how the hell do so many people manage to get so freaking stupid??
Posted by: Dave D. ||
03/28/2004 12:29 Comments ||
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#15
DaveD - "...how the hell do so many people manage to get so freaking stupid??"
Brother you've nailed the question dead solid perfect. Sadly - the entire social spectrum is at stake because of them, too. And I figure there are hundreds of tiny little things, from the movie plots which paint Gov't as the evil bogeyman to the 60's-Radicals-turned-Professors to just plain gullibility primarily from laziness. I know you've captured it, but it prolly requires a book to answer that one question - and I can only see the mountain tops - there's bound to be a hundred contributing bits and pieces.
BTW, your posts on this thread are truly great - thoughtful and insightful - thanx! The backbone of the commentary. 8^)
I don't know about you, but before 9/11 I had been thinking that this politically-correct rot was most likely what would do us in; that it, more than any other factor, would probably be the cause of our ultimate downfall from a once-thriving, viable constitutional republic.
Briefly, after 9/11, I thought I had overestimated the threat: suddenly, in the aftermath of the attacks, there seemed to be a near-universal outbreak of clear-headed common sense as well as a shared sense of community. The only exceptions were the clearly insane, out there on the extreme fringes of the left and right.
And then came the 2002 congressional elections, and the Democratic Party leadership unleashed the hounds of hell in their quest for contrived "issues". And ever since then, the DNC has been throwing its most rabid followers huge helpings of raw meat. It has been nonstop since then, and now it seems as if even the previously sane have been drawn into the feeding frenzy. The way it's going, it wouldn't even surprise me very much to see "Bush = Hitler" signs being waved around at the Democratic National Convention this summer. That's the direction they're going, and they're getting there at an alarming clip.
WTF is wrong with these people, anyway??? Keep in mind, I'm not very much of a Republican partisan: until about this time last year, I was a registered Democrat; and I had been one for ALL of my 31 voting years. There is something profoundly ugly going on here, and I can't figure out what it is. And it really bothers me.
It's as if the Democratic Party has been taken over by space aliens, pod-people from the planet Anus and they've been secretly converting the rank and file into Anusians. And now almost all of them are Anus people- i.e., assholes.
BTW, thanks for the kind words. I'll try to live up to them.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
03/28/2004 13:35 Comments ||
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#18
Dave D - I'm with you -- and I think this general election will be a watershed - and only when the dust settles will we know just how good or bad our situation actually is.
If the idiotarians win this time, we are doomed to a period of severe pain - Madrid-style, I believe. I do believe, however, that we would wake up - and become as mad as hornets. But the grief would have been unnecessary had the non-idiotarians prevailed.
Looking back at our history we're damned slow to anger. It's righteous and nasty when we finally do come together, but it seems we have to be cornered and slapped around before that happens. For you and me, 9/11 was enough. For the others, this election will tell the tale.
I think we just have it too good - so the default isolationism (and this actually makes a joke of the multiculti crowd when you think about it - they're just jetset iso's) tendencies make some sense. The sad thing is that this isn't 1941 (for example only) - the toll demanded by the trolls of terror will be much higher due to weapon lethality. So if we are forced to "learn the lesson" yet again, it will be a mofo of a lesson, I fear.
For the closest match to the current campaign atmosphere I know of, look back to Civil War times and Lincoln's re-election bid. Check out the political cartoons of that day. Lincoln was viciously reviled in exactly the same way that Bush is wildly vilified today. And Lincoln was assassinated by clear-eyed loonies who thought they would cheered and praised by the public. They thought they would be heroes. Remind you of anyone?
Keep up the good work, bro - you've been posting Grade A stuff since the first day you came to live in RB. I'm happy as hell you're here - and on the same side! I'd hate to have to field your points and try to parry them! No thanks! ;-)
#19
This idea that we're supposed to be nice to criminals applies to our police forces here in Canada as well. The effect, of course, is that you get more and more of FIDO and NCNC among officers, especially the older ones. FIDO="fuck it, drive on" and NCNC="no contact, no complaint". The criminals know this, and take advantage.
What amazes me is that there are people elected to municipal government who make it their mission to attack the police, in a time when criminals are getting bolder. WTF is going on? It could be that what you guys talked about is true. Now it seems to have reached the prison guards. God help us.
Posted by: Rafael ||
03/28/2004 14:18 Comments ||
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#20
"For the closest match to the current campaign atmosphere I know of, look back to Civil War times and Lincoln's re-election bid. Check out the political cartoons of that day."
Hmmm. That hadn't occurred to me. Thanks, I'll dig around and check it out.
With regard to what it would take to get us REALLY riled up as a nation and force us to put aside partisan differences for an extended period of time, I shudder to think. A massive chemical attack on the NY subway system during rush hour? A suitcase nuke devastating downtown LA? Who knows? I thought at first, after 9/11, that we'd be able to pull together as a team for at least the next five to ten years until the job was done; but it's now obvious that we cannot. I'm amazed at how fast it all fell apart.
If the United States of America cannot hang on to its collective national will and sense of community long enough to deal effectively with a long-term threat such as that from Islamist totalitarianism, then that would have extremely serious implications.
Imagine this scenario:
It is September 11, 2009. You are the President of the United States, a Republican elected by a slim margin over his Democratic predecessor. President John F. Kerry had made a complete balls-up of his first term (he really shouldn't have proposed a Federal "Fairness Enforcement Administration" during his campaign, nor should he have made such ludicrous promises about how it would "make everything, everywhere, fair to ALL Americans in every way, forever and ever. Everybody will now have the same rewards in life, no matter what they do."), to the point where enough Democrats stayed home on election day to give you your unexpected victory.
And now you're into your eighth month in office, facing this special day with solemnity and some trepidation.
At precisely 8:48 in the morning, Islamist jihadis detonate a 1300-kiloton stolen Ukranian nuclear warhead, smuggled on board a cargo freighter, in the middle of the Delaware River between Philadelphia and Camden. In a blinding flash dedicated to the greater glory of Allah, everything between Valley Forge in the West to around Marlton, NJ in the East, is instantly vaporized. In the Oval Office, you can see the flash yourself despite the bright morning sunlight and the intervening distance. Before you can finish muttering, "What the hell was THAT?" the phones start going nuts.
Twelve million people are dead, and you are in the Mother Of All Binds. Kerry's 2004 landslide victory over Bush, on an anti-war platform, had made it very clear to all political pundits that the American people no longer have either the attention span nor the sense of political unity required to sustain a protracted "War On Terror". And Kerry's abandonment of Bush's "Middle East Democracy Initiative" (which he publicly attributed to Iraq's so-called "failure" to wholeheartedly adopt democracy, but had actually done so he could pay for his latest round of Federal social programs and thrill his Democratic base by "bringing the boys home") had left most Americans with the firm conviction that de-fusing the root causes of terrorism by liberalizing Arab regimes was an utter waste of time.
So here you are. You know the American political climate won't allow you to wage a long campaign to defeat whatever forces brought this atrocity upon us. You also know, given how Iraq turned out (or was portrayed as turning out, by the Democrats), America won't support yet another quixotic quest to democratize whatever Arab dictatorship(s) sponsored the attack.
What do you do? You conclude there's only one thing you can do: an immediate, total fix that will cure the problem and cure it forever.
That night, in a titanic flash so bright it startles the Explorer astronauts on the surface of Mars, the matter is settled; and Paradise runs out of virgins.
I don't know about you, but I don't want that scenario to happen. And the best way I can think of to prevent it is to vote for Bush this fall.
(Sorry about the bandwidth thing, Fred...)
Posted by: Dave D. ||
03/28/2004 15:40 Comments ||
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#21
What amazes me is that there are people elected to municipal government who make it their mission to attack the police, in a time when criminals are getting bolder.
It's an old leftist tactic dating back at least to Stalin, Rafael. Stalin labelled criminals as "class allies." In the prison camps, they were given greater priviledges than the "politicals" and could prey on them at will as long as they didn't attack the guards or administration. I don't think that today's leftist want to open camps and start putting us away, but they do believe and act on the Stalinist line of criminals being the product of an exploiting capitalist society. Since the criminals are the victims, they need protection from exploiters like police and businesses (since these are representative of the worst in capitalist excess). The whole mindset is incredibly illogical and naive (especialy when you consider how machiavellian Stalin's original calculations in this regard were), but after reading posts here from antiwar and other far left posters, I think that you might have some apppreciation of just how naive and illogical some of these folks are. (Go to Kos or Atrios if you really want to witness an addled soup sandwich of bad reasoning!) Memes are hard to kill when the people who embrace them have closed minds.
#22
That night, in a titanic flash so bright it startles the Explorer astronauts on the surface of Mars, the matter is settled; and Paradise runs out of virgins.
Dang! That's good. Leave us hope the colonists brought enuf O2 to get through the break even period.
Posted by: Harry The Hose Seldon ||
03/28/2004 17:31 Comments ||
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#23
Dave D. The only implausible part of your scenario is the Mars thing. Frankly, whether Bush is relected or not I believe that we will have to incinerate at least half the Muslim world before this is all over. Sad, but they will leave us no choice. And after that is done it will also be necessary to completely eradicate Islam as a religion.
-AR
Posted by: Analog Roam ||
03/28/2004 17:51 Comments ||
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#24
Dave - den Beste and Wretchard both went that direction. They quibbled about some aspects regards what would trigger it, but both ended up concluding that (and they did suppose there was a President with head on shoulders, not up his ass) a genocidal situation could result. And personally I don't find your scenario impossible at all, either. Almost anything could transpire, given the purely political nature of Skeery & Co. The only item that is a little far fetched and prolly out of the range of possibilities, IMHO, is the Mars base. The nuke exchange is far more likely, infortunately, IMHO. Thx for the analysis and thoughts... it's appropriately chilling - and motivating.
#25
"The only implausible part of your scenario is the Mars thing."
Wow. Not much optimism, there.
Well, I don't have much myself, either; in fact, I'd give that scenario a better than 50-50 chance of coming to pass. But before we allow it to come to that, I hope we make every possible effort to succeed in the more liberal approach we've been trying.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
03/28/2004 18:12 Comments ||
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#26
Dave D. Allow me to expand my comment a bit. I believe that we will eventually get to Mars. But, your timeline has it in 2008. And I just don't see that. In fact, I don't see it before 2028.
-AR
Posted by: Analog Roam ||
03/28/2004 19:20 Comments ||
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Posted by: Bill Nelson ||
03/28/2004 19:19 ||
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#1
Somehow I'm not surprised by this. Not only do we need to make sure that Kerry is not elected, but we need to make sure that more Republican senators are elected and end this filibustering nonsense.
Posted by: AF Lady ||
03/28/2004 21:04 Comments ||
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Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2004 22:05 Comments ||
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#7
I think it's pretty obvious to everyone that the Democrats will pull out all the stops this year to ensure a Democratic win at any level. We need to be especially vigilant against voter fraud and any other shenanigans they try to pull, and to call them on each and every attempt at dubious or plain unlawful tactics. One major mistake Bush made last election season was NOT following up on known voter fraud cases and prosecuting them vigorously. The Dems got away with it, and feel secure in doing the same thing again. I hope, after the smoke clears this time, there's enough courage left over to roast some tail feathers - all the way up to the beak of these traitorous turkeys.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/28/2004 22:18 Comments ||
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#8
[Off-topic or abusive comments deleted]
Posted by: John Doe TROLL ||
03/28/2004 23:00 Comments ||
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#2
âThey personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam," says John F'er Kerry. Probably because that's what HE did. He disgusts me. No doubt a good buddy of John McCain: "POW's? What POW's?? I didn't see any, uh-hem, POW's."
#1
After all the hoopla regarding this smug know-it-all, it all seems to boil down to the Iraqi battle in the WoT. His claim is that after 911 we had a chance to have radical Islam think more about their Fuck@#-up ways. But NOW they really hate us. I don't buy it. His book will sell well. I suspect SA cash will find it's way into that figure.
#4
Hey Shipman, Nothing going on there yet. I'm still in recovery mode. That prick acts like he had all the answers. Hey Dick, the horse is already out of the barn. You came in with one complaint then morph into another.
Presidentâs Remarks at Correspondentsâ Dinner
(Editorâs note: What follows is a transcript of remarks by President Bush at the Radio and Television Correspondents Association dinner in Washington on March 24, 2004, provided by the White House Press Office.)
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all. Thank you. Thanks for inviting me -- finally. (Laughter.) And thank you for honoring David Bloom. It was a fantastic speech you gave for a man you loved. no comment required
I am sorry Laura couldnât be here. And Iâm sorry Secretary Rumsfeld is not here, either. The guy constantly surprises me. Do you know what Rummyâs favorite TV show is? "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy." (Laughter.) My Cabinet could take some pointers from watching that show. In fact, Iâm going to have the Fab Five do a make over on Ashcroft. (Laughter.)
Anyway, itâs nice to be with you. A couple of years ago when I was here, I read from my book of "Misarticalations." (Laughter.) Fortunately, my verbal phonation and electricution -- (laughter) -- have improved. So tonight Iâm going to do one of my slide shows. These are actual, unstaged photos pulled from the files of the White House Photo Office. So, ladies and gentlemen, I present a White House Election-Year Album. (Applause.)
As you know, the contest with my opponent is going to be a slugfest. Iâm feeling good. (Laughter.) Iâm feeling ready. (Laughter.) Iâm psyching myself up for the fight. (Laughter.) I knew it was going to be a tough campaign when Karl Rove started dressing like this. (Laughter.) And this is Condi Rice, of course. Here I am trying to explain John Kerryâs foreign policy. (Laughter.)
I have to admit it really ticked me off when Democrats questioned my National Guard service in Alabama. Hereâs a photo proving that I was in Alabama fulfilling my duties. (Laughter.) Political campaigns always have their unexpected moments. This next photo is when I heard that Senator McCain said he was considering being Kerryâs running mate. (Laughter.) The next one was taken a couple of months ago. I had just gotten word that Howard Dean had lost Iowa. (Laughter and applause.)
In addition to campaign calls, I also spend a lot of time on the phone listening to our European allies. (Laughter.) The conversation went like this: "Hey, John, Kim Jung-il here." (Laughter.) "Just wanted to call and let you know youâre my guy." (Laughter.)
Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere. (Laughter and applause.)
As you can tell from the look on Andy Cardâs face, weâve become a little concerned about the Vice President lately. (Laughter.) Whenever you ask him a question, he replies, "Letâs see what my little friend says." (Laughter.) But we get along well. Here I am saying, "Dick, if the Hunan Palace doesnât get lunch here in four minutes, weâre going out." (Laughter.)
Nope, no weapons over there. (Laughter and applause.) Maybe under here. (Laughter.) Oops, this photo wasnât supposed to be in here. This is the Skull and Bones secret signal. (Laughter.)
Iâm not paranoid. (Laughter.) But it was at this point in my presidency that I had a strange feeling somebody was following me. (Laughter.)
One thing about being President is you get lots of advice. Yes, Mother. (Laughter.) Yes, Mother. (Laughter.) Mother, would you just listen to us for once. (Laughter.)
I like this next picture a lot. Itâs hard to get Rumsfeld to laugh, but when he does, boy, it is worth it. (Laughter.) This photo was taken down at the ranch, and as you can tell, Barney is not very happy with me. This is the day I told him heâd been neutered. (Laughter.) And this is the day that Barney got his revenge. (Laughter.)
Now, on long flights, the staff and I often play cards. The key to playing Poker is keeping a straight face and never letting your opponent know what youâre thinking. (Laughter.) Actually, this is on the way to the G8 summit. Once I got these trading cards, itâs easy to remember the names of the foreign leaders. (Laughter and applause.)
All Presidents have dreams and aspirations of what their legacy will be. Here they are measuring me for Mt. Rushmore. (Laughter.)
But I do have a few serious photos to show you, in closing. Itâs photos like these that mean the most to me. Some of our Special Forces sent me this last picture. The faces are blurred in the slide because they remain in harmâs way. The photo hangs in my private study next to the Oval Office.
To honor those who died on September the 11th, and to make a statement of their own commitment to this countryâs security, these Americans buried a piece of the World Trade Center in a place in Afghanistan where the al Qaeda once ran free. They wrote that they held a ceremony, which was far more emotional than they had expected. The team leader wrote a prayer and a dedication. Let me read you one sentence from that dedication.
"We consecrate this spot as an everlasting memorial to the brave Americans who died on September the 11th, so that all who would seek to do her harm will know that America will not stand by and watch terror prevail."
We will not stand by. The greatest honor being President is leading such men and women. We have the freedom we enjoy tonight because they protect that freedom. And may God protect them.
#1
Heard on NPR a Nation guy whining about how outrageous it was that the president was joking about the reasons to send our young men to die. He went on and on about how it showed how arrogant, callous and indifferent they were.
Of course, he seems to have forgotten Bill Clinton's phone call regarding sending troops - where he asked Monica to sit under his desk give him a BJ.
I guess in Clinton's case, it just shows what a "stand up" guy he is.
These guys lose more and more credibility every day.
Posted by: B ||
03/28/2004 10:55 Comments ||
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#2
The Nation has never had any credibility with me. :)
I'm having a hard time coming up with the right-hand equivalent to the left-leaning Nation. Some publication of the John Birch Society, maybe?
In October 2000, Clarke and Special Forces Colonel Mike Sheehan leave the White House after a meeting to discuss al-Qaâedaâs attack on the USS Cole: "âWhatâs it gonna take, Dick?â Sheehan demanded. âWho the s*** do they think attacked the Cole, f****** Martians? The Pentagon brass wonât let Delta go get bin Laden. Does al-Qaâeda have to attack the Pentagon to get their attention?â"
Apparently so. The attack, on the Cole, which killed 17 US sailors, was deemed by Clintonâs Defence Secretary Bill Cohen as "not sufficiently provocative" to warrant a response. Youâll have to do better than that, Osama! So he did. And now the same people who claim Bush had no right to be "pre-emptive" about Iraq insist he should have been about September 11.
As for Clarkeâs beef with Bush, thatâs simple. For eight years, he had pottered away on the terrorism brief undisturbed. The new President took it away from him and adopted the strategy outlined by Condoleezza Rice in that Detroit radio interview, months before the self-regarding Mr Clarke claims he brought her up to speed on who bin Laden was: "We really need a stronger policy of holding the states accountable that support him," Dr Rice told WJR. "Terrorists who are just operating out there without basis and without state support are a lot less dangerous than ones that find safe haven, as bin Laden does sometimes in places like Afghanistan or Sudan."
Just so. In the 1990s when al-Qaâeda blew up American targets abroad, the FBI would fly in and work it as a "crime scene" - like a liquor-store hold-up in Cleveland. It doesnât address the problem. Sure, there are millions of disaffected young Muslim men, but, if they get the urge to blow up infidels, they need training and organisation. Somehow all those British Taliban knew that if you wanted a quick course in jihad studies Afghanistan was the place to go. Bush got it right: go to where the terrorists are, overthrow their sponsoring regimes, destroy their camps, kill their leaders.
Instead, all the Islamists who went to Afghanistan in the 1990s graduated from Camp Osama and were dispersed throughout Europe, Asia, Australia and North America, where they lurk to this day. Thatâs the Clarke-Clinton legacy. And, if it were mine, I wouldnât be going around boasting about it.
Leave to one of the best, Steyn here, to rip the inane LLL Jackass "logic" a brand-new asshole. Obviously, the one they were born with has been obstructed for some time - they're full of shit.
Sadly, it won't change the minds of idiotarians. Either your mind is open enough to get it - or not. Many don't. Get out and vote. Drag others out to vote. Everyone you know. Imagine people too blind, willfully or otherwise, to see Clark's duplicity running this country. Imagine the grief and damage they could cause in 4 years. Nothing less than our survival is at stake, in the end.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
03/28/2004 08:22 ||
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#1
See who rules America at http://A DLUSA.com -- due to censorship of truth while Americans die on basis of Jewish lies we inserted spaces in the address, delete them.
PLEASE NOTE: Rantburg is a Zionist propaganda BBS spewing hate against Moslems in order to incite wars and sacrifice American lives and resources for the state of Israel.
#2
See who rules America at http://A DLUSA.com -- due to censorship of truth while Americans die on basis of Jewish lies we inserted spaces in the address, delete them.
PLEASE NOTE: Rantburg is a Zionist propaganda BBS spewing hate against Moslems in order to incite wars and sacrifice American lives and resources for the state of Israel.
#3
See who rules America at http://A DLUSA.com -- due to censorship of truth while Americans die on basis of Jewish lies we inserted spaces in the address, delete them.
PLEASE NOTE: Rantburg is a Zionist propaganda BBS spewing hate against Moslems in order to incite wars and sacrifice American lives and resources for the state of Israel.
#4
See who rules America at http://A DLUSA.com -- due to censorship of truth while Americans die on basis of Jewish lies we inserted spaces in the address, delete them.
PLEASE NOTE: Rantburg is a Zionist propaganda BBS spewing hate against Moslems in order to incite wars and sacrifice American lives and resources for the state of Israel.
"Nobody ever tells me anything!"
KUNA
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Maher said on Sunday he did not know why the summit in Tunis was postponed and emphasized his country was keen on bypassing the Tunisian hurdle. He told reporters here, returning from Tunis, that Egypt stood by its suggestion that the summit should be held in this country and that Tunisia's announcement that it wanted to host the summit was inconsequential at this time given the Tunisian postponement.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2004 7:29:06 PM ||
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Arab foreign ministers were heading toward agreement yesterday on a formula for political reform in the Middle East, despite âstormyâ discussions in the run-up to their summit here, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said. âWe are in the process of formulating a common Arab position about the future of the Middle East, which is neither great nor small,â Moussa told a press conference on the sidelines of ministerial talks aimed at preparing for the summit on Monday and Tuesday.
"It's neither wide nor narrow. It's neither tall nor short. It's neither red nor blue, black nor white. It's not solid, nor is it liquid, nor is it — quite — gas..."
Moussa was supporting remarks by Arab governments that they had begun political reform before Washington mentioned its âGreater Middle East Initiativeâ for democratic change, which they say could amount to interference in their domestic affairs. The Arab League chief said the foreign ministers have been studying a document drafted by a committee formed overnight Friday based on Egyptian, Jordanian, Tunisian, Qatari and Yemeni ideas, but more work was needed. âWe asked for improvements and we will approve (the draft) later today,â Moussa said after admitting the discussions had been âstormy.â
"Many of us were holding out for gas..."
The foreign ministers do not want an Arab reform plan derailed by anger over Israelâs killing of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin last Monday. Earlier, a senior official said the Arab proposal for reform includes plans to set up a committee â composed of two representatives from each country â which will have six months to draft a formula for implementing the objectives and âlend credibility to this reform plan.â
"Forming a committee is what tiggers we do best!"
The leaders are expected to discuss not just the reform plan, but also the Arab-Israeli conflict, Iraq and reform of the 22-member Arab League. Syria does not want the summit to discuss offering Israel any more peace proposals. Damascus insists that Israel be punished for assassinating the quadriplegic Palestinian leader. At his press conference, Moussa said the Arab quest for peace was a strategic position that will not change despite what he said was the lack of a peace partner in Israel. âIt is wrong to withdraw the Arab initiative,â he said. âThere is no amendment. The stance is solid, unshakable and we will not back off from it. But we donât see a partner in Israel that is ready for peace,â Moussa said.
"That's why we haven't made them an offer. That's why we don't negotiate with them. That's why we give money to people who try to kill them."
Arab governments have accused Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his right-wing government of not seriously seeking peace. Algerian Foreign Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem said Arabs still insisted on peace and that it was Israel which was blocking attempts to reach a settlement. âWe want to reaffirm our commitment for a comprehensive, just and lasting peace through the Arab peace initiative,â he said. âIsrael doesnât want peace.â Tunisian Foreign Minister Habib Ben Yahia told the same news conference that Presidents Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Bashar Assad of Syria had informed Tunis they will take part in the summit.
Posted by: tipper ||
03/28/2004 9:10:51 AM ||
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The link is missing. I was looking for some details about proposed political reforms in the Arab countries. All I see here is Arab criticism of Israel.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
03/28/2004 9:26 Comments ||
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I put it in...
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2004 9:27 Comments ||
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OK, I looked at the orginal article, but there are still no details about proposed political reforms in the Arab countries.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
03/28/2004 9:52 Comments ||
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Fred, when Moussa said which is neither great nor small,was he speaking of the common Arab position or the Middle East? LOL on your take on the quote.
Mike, the detail is they formed a committee.(Most of here at RB know that a camel is a horse designed by a F*****g committee.)
An Arab League summit collapsed Saturday two days before it was to start because of differences over peace overtures to Israel and a U.S.-backed plan to bring more democracy to the Middle East. The derailing of the summit, slated to open Monday, reflected the turmoil in Arab ranks after Monday's Israeli assassination of Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin. Arab leaders had hoped to use the conference, which was to begin Monday, to relaunch the Saudi-crafted phony peace initiative and to submit their own proposals for political reforms. The Saudi plan of two years ago offered a phony peace to Israel in return for a withdrawal from all lands overrun in the 1967 war.
And surrendering East Jerusalem, and caving on the right of return, and permitting an "international" commission comprised of Israel's enemies to settle all disputes.
However, Israel's killing of Yassin provoked widespread fear outrage in the Arab world, making it politically risky for some states to pursue a peace initiative. No new date for the summit was announced. Diplomats said Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali made the decision to call off the summit. A number of Arab leaders said earlier they would not attend. In preliminary talks by Arab foreign ministers, Syria sought to block proposals for political reform and for endorsing Libya's move to abandon its weapons of mass destruction programs, Arab diplomats said.
Since they feel Libya reneged on the grand plan.
Syria also wanted to block a summit declaration advancing the 2002 Saudi initiative, they said. "The Syrians acted as if they want to upset turn the tables on the whole summit," one Arab diplomat said on condition he not be named.
Syrians, acting tough is about all they can do.
Arab leaders had also planned to unveil a political reform package in response to the U.S. "Greater Middle East Initiative" to promote more freedom in a region where change could threaten many regimes. Foreign ministers who met in Cairo earlier this month also failed to reach consensus on a response to the Greater Middle East Initiative. Arab governments, led by Egypt and Saudi Arabia, have criticized the initiative for failing to take account of Arab culture and tradition.
"It doesn't permit us to kill and suppress our people any longer. That ain't Arab culture!"
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/28/2004 12:45:04 PM ||
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making it politically risky for some states to pursue a peace initiative
Yeah, yeah - excuse #4,287.
What a bunch of losers.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/28/2004 0:18 Comments ||
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Anybody else getting flashbacks to the "Damascus" scene in Lawrence of Arabia?
Tehranâs mayor has warned he might put up a plaque denouncing Germany as a key supplier of chemical weapons to Saddam Husseinâs Iraq if Berlin unveils a plaque accusing Iran of a 1992 assassination. ... A Berlin district council intends to unveil a plaque at the scene of the Mykonos restaurant, where four Iranian Kurdish dissidents were gunned down in a hail of bullets. A German court ruled in 1997 the killers had acted on orders from Tehran. Tehran mayor Mahmoud Ahmadi Nejad told the official IRNA news agency he had written to his Berlin counterpart, asking him not to put up such an "offensive" and "baseless" plaque.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
03/28/2004 9:38:13 AM ||
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Hat tip: Drudge.
Itâs a groundbreaking court decision that legal experts say will affect everyone: Police officers in Louisiana no longer need a search or arrest warrant to conduct a brief search of your home or business. Leaders in law enforcement say it will provide safety to officers, but others argue itâs a privilege that could be abused. The decision was made by the New Orleans-based 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. Two dissenting judges called it the "road to Hell." The ruiling stems from a lawsuit filed in Denham Springs in 2000. New Orleans Police Department spokesman Capt. Marlon Defillo said the new power will go into effect immediately and wonât be abused. "We have to have a legitimate problem to be there in the first place, and if we donât, we canât conduct the search," Defillo said. But former U.S. Attorney Julian Murray has big problems with the ruling. "I think it goes way too far," Murray said, noting that the searches can be performed if an officer fears for his safety -- a subjective condition. Defillo said he doesnât envision any problems in New Orleans, but if there are, they will be handled. "There are checks and balances to make sure the criminal justce system works in an effective manor," Defillo said. Um... Fourth Amendment, anyone? Hello?
Amendment IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Now, while Iâm not a lawyer, that seems pretty damn clear...
Posted by: Dar ||
03/28/2004 4:40:37 PM ||
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Fred, you saved me the trouble of digging out Amendment IV. Someone suggested a while back that instead of Iraq going to all the trouble of writing a new constitution they should just take ours - - we're not using it anyway.
#3
This looks like a Circuit Court decision just waiting for the Supreme Court to crush it. The Search and Seizure laws of the United States are very well developed, and don't need to be tinkered with. Safety searches have always been permitted, but the officer has to have had probable cause in the first place to get into a situation that requires a safety search. To be able to comment more meaningfully, I'd have to read the actual decision (which sounds like work on a weekend), but the decision seems pretty stupid on the face of it.
#4
Ahhhhhh! cingold's stuck in the sink trap! Get him out! Somebody . . . get him OUT!!! A troll he is not. What he meant to post was:
"This looks like a Circuit Court decision just waiting for the Supreme Court to crush it. The Search and Seizure laws of the United States are very well developed, and don't need to be tinkered with. Safety searches have always been permitted, but the officer has to have had probable cause in the first place to get into a situation that requires a safety search. To be able to comment more meaningfully, I'd have to read the actual decision (which sounds like work on a weekend), but the decision seems pretty stupid on the face of it."
U.S. Copts Association received numerous disturbing reports of the cooperation of various Egyptian supermarkets in the systematic forced conversion and abduction of Coptic girls. Reports reveal that Christian Coptic girls who resist conversion have been physically abused and raped at the time of their abduction.
These deeply troubling reports indicate that supermarkets publicizing shopping contests are in fact singling out Coptic girls for conversion to Islam. Once alerted to the girlâs religion, store employees notify the young Christian woman that she has won a contest. To claim her prize, she is asked to proceed to the upper levels of the store where her reward awaits. Once upstairs, the girl is asked to sign documentation confirming receipt of her reward. However, the paperwork is documentation for the conversion of an individual to Islam; and the young girl is unaware that her signature is in fact official confirmation of her conversion to Islam.
Coptic women who resist are accused with theft and strip-searched. There are several reports of the rape of these young Christian women. Despite their familiesâ desperate attempts to rescue their daughters, the girls are not returned to their families.
Police intervention has been minimal. In fact, in a recent statement, His Holiness Pope Shenouda III drew attention to the gravity of the situation. âI urge that police officials take a decisive position because I am getting countless letters in regards to this issue,â stated the Pope, spiritual leader of the approximately 11 million Copts of Egypt. In his March 16th, statement, the Pope pointed out the danger posed by these repugnant events and indicated a determination to bring this barbaric practice to a halt. âWe donât want any more catastrophes to happen to us, what has happened in the past is enough,â the Pope continued.
In his speech, the Pope also alluded to the recent arrest of the young Coptic Christian college students in Sinai. The four students, ages 19-20, had in their possession a number of Bibles and Christian material. They were arrested on January 26th for âdisturbing the national unityâ and have just received another 49-day extension to their imprisonment with no court date in sight.
These disturbing conditions in Egypt reveal a growing culture of intolerance in the midst of the governmentâs lofty rhetoric of socio-political reform. President of the U.S. Copts Association, Michael Meunier has repeatedly condemned the inaction of the Egyptian police in matters pertaining to violence against the Coptic community. âThe absence of governmental intervention in the rape, abduction, and forced conversion of these girls is completely unacceptable,â stated Meunier. âWhat is equally alarming is the systematic nature of these assaults â the widespread cooperation of the various supermarkets reveals a methodical and organized effort aimed at the Coptic community,â he continued. Coptic girls, the most vulnerable targets of Islamist violence, have been victims of other various forms of violence and forced conversion.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
03/28/2004 9:50:51 AM ||
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This is cultural/religious cleansing in its baldest form. If these muslims could rid their land of Copts, they would. Imagine how threatened these muslims are by the free flow of ideas. Is it any wonder that muslim nations are stuck down at the bottom with sub saharan africa?
#2
F*** f*** f*** ... as if we didn't need another casus belli besides the hypocrisy and counterproductivity of that $2B/year ...
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
03/28/2004 12:00 Comments ||
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#3
You Freeper Bastards still don't get it. It's a different society. Stop trying to impose your post-enlightenment crapola on people who still understand the nutritional value of clay. I am ashamed to be seen with you "people".
#4
You Freeper Bastards still don't get it. It's a different society. Stop trying to impose your post-enlightenment crapola on people who still understand the nutritional value of clay. I am ashamed to be seen with you "people".
We will, just as soon as they stop boarding our airplanes and stop using guns and bombs to kill our people.
#6
I am ashamed to be seen with you "people".
You are free to leave at any time. No one is restraining you. There is no demand that you be here.
Being a "different society" does not justify kidnap, rape, or slavery. It does not not justify forced conversion to a religion totally different to what these young girls have been raised to believe. It does not justify genital mutilation, or other harmful actions taken against them against their will. YOU are the one out of line, "AntiGum". You are a sick, twisted troll. You deserve what you will receive here. You have stepped into something far, far worse than the Twilight Zone. This is the TRUTH ZONE, and we spotlight cockroaches.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/28/2004 12:20 Comments ||
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I think AntiGum's tongue was firmly in cheek - reread it with (/sarcasm) on. Nutritional value of clay?
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/28/2004 13:18 Comments ||
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My BS detector is redlining. This sounds very much like the urban legend legend where kid-stealing fiends are frequenting Wal-Mart / Target / Disneyland and they are only foiled when the parent spots the child's shoes. And conspiracy theories take hold faster and deeper in that part of the world than they do here.
Once alerted to the girlâs religion...
Is this that obvious in Egypt? Or is that any girl shopping on her own can't be Muslim? Are Coptic girls generally unable to read the fake prize papers? Why girls and not boys? Is Blue Star acid next?
#10
You can't play that"It's a different society"game
here.Take it somewhere else,dumb-ass.Wrong is wrong I don't care where your from.
By your stupid ass reasoning:
Cutting off the arms of Christians and Animists in the Sudan is just peachy-dandee.Not to mention enslaveing and rapeing the Christian/Animist children is ok to.After all they do live in "different society".
What about those Islamist youth gangs running around rapeing kafir women in France, England, Canada.If we listen to your ignorant,apolligist ass then we shold do no more than give them a good talking to.After all they were raised in a "different society".
What a Dumb F#%&k!
If that be the case then I appologise,Frank.If not my statement stands.
#13
Time to apply the Golden rule metarule: do the Muslims Permit copts or Christians to deceive MUSLIM girls, make them sign fake documents, then strip search or rape the resisters? They'd think that was bad, so obviously they KNOW its bad if they themselves do it to others.
Liberal moral power is derived from their victim's adherance to the Golden Rule and other aspects of Christian morality. Absent that, the liberals find themselves helpless and unable to influence those who do not adhere to that morality. Liberals are stupider than parisitic worms that seem to have enough sense not to totally destroy the host they feed off of...
#14
Mr. Yee has it. They can do whatever twisted, sniffing the baggy of glue, and molesting Mr. Ed type of stuff they want. We don't have to fund their dementia. In reality we have a moral obligation not to financially sponsor oppression. That is, as Angie has pointed out, if the story is true.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/28/2004 21:34 Comments ||
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The economically-crippled Zimbabwean government has nearly quadrupled President Robert Mugabe's salary to 73.7 million Zimbabwe dollars from Z$20.2 million, the state newspaper reported. His living expenses were doubled. His new salary is equivalent to the average yearly wage of nearly 230 people in a country where 70 per cent of the population live in poverty.
Bob's going to take everything that isn't nailed down. If it's nailed down he'll get a pry bar, loosen it up, and then take it.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/28/2004 12:48:39 AM ||
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I'll bet he wishes Zimbabwe has oil. Like, say, Venezuela-- the "poor oil producing nation".
#4
So what is the Zim/US exchange rate these days?
Official______________
Black Market__________
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/28/2004 11:47 Comments ||
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#5
AP, I tried to fill in the blanks but My #8 character wouldn't turn on it's side.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/28/2004 17:04 Comments ||
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SH---LOL! I googled a couple of currency exchange sites and found nothing. Maybe Thomas Cooke does not go there.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/28/2004 17:23 Comments ||
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What's the big surprise? Nigeria and Angola both take in US$ 100 million a day and still remain on a list of the 30 poorest nations. The only thing Mugabe wants for is a bullet in the brain.
There is also a lingering cultural element of how many African leaders regard the entire country's assets as their own personal possession. To that I say, nothing a bullet can't cure. These corrupt pigs need to be exterminated like the vermin they are.
If you want the real winner, it's Suharto. That slime bag made off with between US$ 15 - 35 billion during his tenure. Somehow, he has been judged too feeble to stand trial. Who needs a trial? Just let 100 of Indonesia's poor people scrape the flesh from his body while he's still alive.
JERUSALEM (AP) - Israel's state prosecutor has recommended charges against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for allegedly taking bribes from a local businessman, Israel's Channel Two TV reported Saturday.
The station said prosecutor Edna Arbel would present a draft charge sheet to Attorney General Meni Mazuz, who would then decide if prosecution was warranted. The report said his decision would probably be released in about a month. Justice ministry officials could not be reached Saturday night and an aide to Sharon refused to comment.
The focus of the scandal is the so-called "Greek Island Affair," in which businessman David Appel allegedly paid Sharon's son Gilad large sums of money so Sharon, then foreign minister, would use his influence to help Appel promote a tourism project in Greece in 1999.
On Jan. 21, Appel, an activist in Sharon's Likud Party, was charged with bribing the Israeli leader with $690,000 to push the idea and to help rezone urban land near Tel Aviv before and during Sharon's term as prime minister. Neither project came to pass. Appel's lawyer, Moshe Israel, denied the charges.
If indicted, legal precedent says Sharon would have to suspend himself from office until the end of proceedings.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/28/2004 12:25:04 AM ||
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I disagree. Sharon isn't irreplaceable.
There are plenty of Likud party members that would have no problem picking up the cudgel.
If there's something to these charges, it might be better to lose him. You don't want the message being confused with the messenger.
Posted by: Scott ||
03/28/2004 5:40 Comments ||
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The Left will go into a frenzy over this. Not realizing they he will be likely replaced by someone more hawkish.
#4
From all that I can see, Sharon has been one of Israel's greatest PMs, among many outstanding ones.
But he has provided invaluable leadership at one of the most crucial times in Israel's history.
He is to Israel what President Bush is to America.
Both have their political enemies who would manufacture a scandal to bring them down.
If this should happen, Bibi Netanyahu will be waiting.
Whereas if Lurch unseats Bush, I'm moving to Costa Rica!
Posted by: Jen ||
03/28/2004 5:59 Comments ||
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#6
You wish, Auntie!
While you'll be ducking and covering, waiting for the next terror attack...
Kerry ain't gonna win and I'm not that fond of the tropics.
Viva Bush!
Posted by: Jen ||
03/28/2004 7:11 Comments ||
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Oh, and can we get the Lib Dims to promise that they'll move to France when Lurch doesn't win, too?
That would be great, thanks!
Posted by: Jen ||
03/28/2004 7:15 Comments ||
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If Israel loses Sharon now, Israel loses!
It's not a done deal, yet.
If Sharon does resign, the most likely successor, assuming no new elections are called, will be Netanyahu.
Hamas, Hezbollah and Al Aqsa would much rather prefer to listen to Jerry Falwell preach about the saving grace of Jesus Christ, than to have Netanyahu run the show.
Not that he is a miltary fella, but he is a free marketer, a business conservative who could well come up with the ultimate trump card to the Islamist's favorite fantasy of an Islamic socialist state.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
