Bloodthirsty Liberal

Hillel Neuer at UN Watch put a question to the United Nations and got an answer even I coldn’t make up:

At the initiative of the Cuban government, the UN Human Rights Council will convene on May 23, 2008 for an emergency “special session” to address rising food prices. Several EU states also added their names to the Cuban request.

The world food crisis is certainly an urgent issue, but few expect this meeting to achieve anything other than provide a platform for attacks against the West and free markets. All of which will distract the council from matters it could more suitably address, starting with violations that have a clear victim, perpetrator and remedy. But the countries that lock people up without fair trials prefer to change the subject.

And if “the right to food” were really their concern, why are council members failing to hold an emergency session on Myanmar’s unconscionable denial of that right for millions of its starving, post-cyclone citizens?

When this question was posed yesterday to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the reply was that “the Council had a very full programme. . .so it was a pretty packed schedule at the moment and it would be difficult to fit it in.”

Let them eat corpse, in other words.

Do you detect the least bit of shame or discomfort in that answer? The UN is not populated by good people, slightly misguided; rather it is infested with vermin to such an extent that I can’t see how the building still stands.

So what did President Bush actually say that prompted Joe Biden’s intemperate response?

“Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along,” Bush said at Israel’s 60th anniversary celebration in Jerusalem.

“We have heard this foolish delusion before,” Bush said in remarks to Israel’s parliament, the Knesset.

“As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: ‘Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.’ We have an obligation to call this what it is — the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.”

…

“That is why the founding charter of Hamas calls for the ‘elimination’ of Israel,” Bush said. “That is why the followers of Hezbollah chant ‘Death to Israel, Death to America!’ That is why Osama bin Laden teaches that ‘the killing of Jews and Americans is one of the biggest duties.’ And that is why the president of Iran dreams of returning the Middle East to the Middle Ages and calls for Israel to be wiped off the map.”

…

“There are good and decent people who cannot fathom the darkness in these men and try to explain their words away,” said Bush. “This is natural. But it is deadly wrong.

“As witnesses to evil in the past, we carry a solemn responsibility to take these words seriously. Jews and Americans have seen the consequences of disregarding the words of leaders who espouse hatred. And that is a mistake the world must not repeat in the 21st century,” the president said.

No names mentioned. Yet listen to the touchy reactions:

“It is sad that President Bush would use a speech to the Knesset on the 60th anniversary of Israel’s independence to launch a false political attack,” Obama said in a statement released to CNN by his campaign.

…

Pelosi, who leaves later Thursday on a bipartisan congressional trip to Israel, said there is a “protocol” of not criticizing the president when he is abroad, but then declared, “I think what the president did in that regard is beneath the dignity of the office of president and unworthy of our representation at that observance in Israel.”

…

Howard Dean, the Democratic Party chairman, also called on McCain to denounce the comment.

And this special moment from Biden:

“This is bullshit. This is malarkey. This is outrageous. Outrageous for the president of the United States to go to a foreign country, sit in the Knesset…and make this kind of ridiculous statement.”

Sounds like somebody has been hanging around Dick Cheney a little too much. And it sounds like somebody’s awfully defensive.

You’ll never guess who blew up Jaipur the other day:

A little-known group called Indian Mujahideen has claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s near-simultaneous bomb attacks that killed 63 people in the northwest Indian city of Jaipur. It also warned of more attacks in the country.

The group sent an e-mail and video clips, claiming responsibility, to a Hindi cable news channel, Jaipur police Inspector General Pankaj Kumar Singh told CNN Thursday.

…

In the e-mail, Indian Mujahideen declared an “open war” against India — retaliation, it said, for 60 years of Muslim persecution and for the country’s support of U.S. policies.

“This letter is an open warning to you that if you continue to arrest the innocent Muslims then those days are not far away when we will slaughter you on the streets of DELHI, MUMBAI, KOLKATA, CHENNAI and other states of India,” it said.

The group said it targeted Jaipur “to blow your tourism structure and to demolish your faith in” Hindu gods.

That sounds like my boys.

By the way, India may be only 14% Muslim, but that still means that its Muslim population tops 144 million. After Indonesia, India is the most populous Muslim nation in the world, even ahead of Pakistan. Pick whatever miniscule percentage of the Muslim population you believe supports terrorism against fellow (non-Muslim) Indians, and you still have a hell of a lot of violent Mohammedan kooks on the loose.

Maybe Christiane Amanpour feels good about this—but I don’t.

Do you?

Iphigenia Mukantabana, a master weaver, sits in front of her house in Gitarama — an hour from the capital Kigali — making beautiful baskets with her friend, Epiphania Mukanyndwi.

In 1994 Mukantabana’s husband and five of her children were hacked and clubbed to death by marauding Hutu militias. Among her family’s killers was Jean-Bosco Bizimana, Mukanyndwi’s husband.

…

“Women and girls were raped and I saw it all,” she told CNN. “The men and boys were beaten and then slaughtered. They told others to dig a hole get in, then they piled earth on top of them, while they were still alive.”

…

“In my heart the dead are dead and they cannot come back again,” Mukantabana said of those she lost. “So I have to get on with the others and forget what has happened.”

This is not exactly what I call reconciliation.

Bizimana did spend seven years in jail. He then went before a tribal gathering, part of a return to traditional ways by the new government in 2002 with Rwanda’s justice system unable to cope and process hundreds of thousands of imprisoned perpetrators.

The government decided that the master planners and worst perpetrators would face formal justice. But lower-level killers were allowed to publicly confess and apologize to the families of their victims at gacaca courts, where elders would hear grievances and decide on the punishments.

“In the gacaca court, I told them how we killed our fellow men and I asked for forgiveness in front of the court and the whole district was there,” Bizimana said.

“The people who died in this very area — I knew all of them because they were our neighbors.”

“But hey, sorry. Still friends?”

This is where my Western sensibilities collide with African customs. I just don’t find “my bad” sufficient enough punishment for the hacking to death or burying alive of an entire family.

Call me a bastard.

But then taking responsibility does not seem to be among Africa’s customs:

The international project is a far cry from 1994, when the United States, Europe, the United Nations and the rest of the world turned away while the genocide went unchecked in Rwanda.

“They didn’t care, they were totally indifferent,” Rwandan President Paul Kagame told CNN in an interview in his office in Kigali.

He said the world thought Rwanda “was just another bloody African situation where people just kill each other and that’s it.”

Wasn’t it? While I take his point that the world shrugged collectively at their butchery, it was after all their butchery. And if the butchers can get off with a “upsy daisy”, why can’t we?

David Warren takes a long look at Israel at 60, and doesn’t think the old girl looks too good

On the present leadership performance of Israel’s complacent, incompetent, and probably corrupt prime minister — and in view of the assembling forces dedicated to the country’s annihilation — one might reasonably say that Israel will be lucky to reach three score and ten.

…

[T]he reader must consider almost any contemporary university campus, in which the radical political causes are quite various, but there is general agreement among radicals on each other’s agendas. That one must attack Zionist Israel, and conversely champion Oppressed Palestinians, is something every little half-educated campus ideologue knows he can take for granted.

What has this got to do with the future of Israel? Everything.

For while Israel’s proximate enemies are Hamas and Hezbollah, and the unspeakable regimes in Iran, Syria, and elsewhere that control and supply these frontline terrorists, and are themselves pledged to Israel’s physical annihilation, and are assiduously building missile stockpiles for the task — they have no chance of prevailing so long as the West remains united behind Israel. But for various reasons, the will to defend Israel is crumbling, and Israel’s enemies know this.

…

And this is where I feel least hopeful about the future. The desire to defend Israel is being sapped, across the West, by causes ranging from exhaustion with endless trouble in the Middle East, to the thirst for oil, to the rapid growth of Muslim immigration, and thus of an electoral constituency that tends to be extremely unsympathetic to Israel.

But more profoundly, the Left-Islamist alliance — forged in common opposition to everything the West stands for — has made the abandonment of Israel a common priority across the spectrum of people who take their politics from fashion.

Alas, most of the West’s internal enemies, demanding the abandonment of Israel as first step, do not even know what they are doing. They are like parasites upon a host organism, and do not understand that when the host organism dies, they too will die.

The only antidote I see to the gloom he sees is that somebody actually sees it! Obviously that’s not enough—a lone voice crying in the wilderness—but you can bet that Aggie and I won’t shut up about it either.

Aunt Agatha writes in from the road to ask Barack Obama to kindly refrain from calling her—or any professional woman—“sweetie”.

The comment came earlier Wednesday when WXYZ reporter Peggy Agar asked Obama at a campaign stop, “How are you going to help the American auto workers?”

Obama told Agar to “hold on, sweetie,” and said he would address that issue with her later. Agar said she never got an answer to her question.

Which makes her no different from the rest of us.

But I would counsel Aggie to relax (”honey”) and see the big picture. At least he didn’t call her “sugar t*ts”.

“Sweetie”, the return of the flag pin (probably just to remind him how many states there are), the Edwards endorsement—this is all part of Obama’s effort to re-brand himself in an effort to make his candidacy more palatable to white voters. Look for him to start ordering tuna casserole in Kentucky diners and to drop references to Lawrence Welk and Hee Haw at Oregon rallies.

But I wouldn’t try outdrinking Hillary if I were he. She can put ‘em away like Karen Allen in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Though Ted Kennedy and Chris Dodd could teach him how to drink.

The senior senator from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts puts pen to cocktail napkin to write a letter:

It was a May 14, 1983 letter from the head of the KGB, Viktor Chebrikov, to the head of the USSR, the odious Yuri Andropov, with the highest level of classification. Chebrikov relayed to Andropov an offer from Senator Ted Kennedy, presented by Kennedy’s old friend and law-school buddy, John Tunney, a former Democratic senator from California, to reach out to the Soviet leadership at the height of a very hot time in the Cold War. According to Chebrikov, Kennedy was deeply troubled by the deteriorating relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union, which he believed was bringing us perilously close to nuclear confrontation. Kennedy, according to Chebrikov, blamed this situation not on the Soviet leadership but on the American president—Ronald Reagan. Not only was the USSR not to blame, but, said Chebrikov, Kennedy was, quite the contrary, “very impressed” with Andropov.

The thrust of the letter is that Reagan had to be stopped, meaning his alleged aggressive defense policies, which then ranged from the Pershing IIs to the MX to SDI, and even his re-election bid, needed to be stopped. It was Ronald Reagan who was the hindrance to peace. That view of Reagan is consistent with things that Kennedy said and wrote at the time, including articles in sources like Rolling Stone (March 1984) and in a speeches like his March 24, 1983 remarks on the Senate floor the day after Reagan’s SDI speech, which he lambasted as “misleading Red-Scare tactics and reckless Star Wars schemes.”

Even more interesting than Kennedy’s diagnosis was the prescription: According to Chebrikov, Kennedy suggested a number of PR moves to help the Soviets in terms of their public image with the American public. He reportedly believed that the Soviet problem was a communication problem, resulting from an inability to counter Reagan’s (not the USSR’s) “propaganda.” If only Americans could get through Reagan’s smokescreen and hear the Soviets’ peaceful intentions.

So, there was a plan, or at least a suggested plan, to hook up Andropov and other senior apparatchiks with the American media, where they could better present their message and make their case. Specifically, the names of Walter Cronkite and Barbara Walters are mentioned in the document. Also, Kennedy himself would travel to Moscow to meet with the dictator.

I don’t think the head of the KGB needed PR lessons from Ted Kennedy (D-Chappaquiddick). It sounds like his message was already well-received—perhaps Ted was worried about that the Soviets might suspend vodka exports.

I would hope that history would reveal who were the true heroes and scoundrels of our age, but if 25 years is not enough time to expose Ted Kennedy for the bloated, treasonous dipso that he was, is, and shall remain, then I am skeptical that historians are any more objective than their idiot-cousins, the journalists.

It turns out to be as easy as the soggy-headed hippies say it is.

In Burma, just re-elect the government:

Myanmar’s government announced that a military-backed constitution was overwhelmingly approved by voters in last week’s referendum, The Associated Press reported.

State radio said Thursday that the draft constitution was approved by more than 92 percent of the 22 million eligible voters. It put turnout at more than 99 percent, AP reported. Human rights groups have denounced the referendum as a way for the junta to solidify military rule.

Turnout was not at 100% because one percent of the eligible voters was floating face down in the Irrawaddy River. The government is considering what punishment might be appropriate for missing a mandatory plebiscite.

Meanwhile, Lebanon followed a tried-and-true method of conflict resolution: craven surrender.

Lebanon’s Cabinet on Wednesday reversed two decisions that triggered violence among anti-government Hezbollah militants last week: the firing of the chief of security at Beirut’s airport and the order that Hezbollah’s telecommunications system come under state control, according to a statement released by Cabinet members.

…

It was not immediately clear how the decision by the Cabinet will affect negotiations aimed at ending the crisis. Several Western and Middle Eastern nations had lined up to support an Arab League effort to intervene. An Arab League delegation is scheduled to arrive in Lebanon this week in hope of negotiating an agreement.

Arab League: give me a break. An oxymoron if I ever heard one. Waiting until one party capitulates unconditionally and then striding in like a peacock with a hard-on is not exactly an intervention.

But hey, at least it’s peace, right?

Correction: Originally the story said that the girl was 8, now she’s 16.

A teenage girl strapped with explosives has blown up and killed an Iraqi army captain.

The bomb was detonated by remote control, injuring four soldiers in addition to the one who died, an Iraqi Army spokesman said.

Local authorities imposed a curfew in the area and American troops launched a search for those responsible.

US soldiers originally said an eight-year-old girl was used in the attack, which took place near Youssifiyah, south of the capital, Baghdad.

But the US army now believes the girl was around 16-years-old.

And that changes nothing about what is written below, since 16 is also a child.

Islamic terrorists practice a form of child abuse that I am not sure our world has seen before. Rather than simply murdering children (Hitler) or turning them into soldiers (various African militias), the Islamist terror organizations strap bombs onto young children, retarded people, and others who cannot reasonably decide whether or not to commit murder/suicide. This is not the first example of a child being used in this manner. Palestinian terrorists strapped a suicide vest on a 14 year old boy with the developmental age of about an 8 year old. He was lucky; the Israelis were able to get it off of him and save his life. Another 14 year old was pardoned by Hamid Karzai last year after a failed attempt at a terror attack. And there have been others incidents. But this is pretty ugly.

An eight-year-old girl strapped with explosives has blown up and killed an Iraqi army captain.

The bomb was detonated by remote control, injuring four soldiers in addition to the one who died, an Iraqi Army spokesman said.

I noticed yesterday that BTL posted a piece about how Physicians for Human Rights accused Israel of denying medical care to a cancer patient, causing his death. Only, as it happens, the man is not dead. The whole thing was a lie. I am wondering why Physicians for Human Rights are not denouncing the use of children as suicide terrorists? Why is it ok to use children as weapons, guided weapons, to murder others?

Cat got your tongue?

- Aggie

Palestinian terrorists fired a rocket from Gaza into a mall in Ashkelon, injuring several people, some very seriously.

A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, apparently a Katyusha-type rocket, exploded in a shopping center in the southern city of Ashkelon on Wednesday, wounding at least ten people.

According to preliminary reports, three of the injured were in serious condition, two were in moderate condition and at least five suffered minor wounds.

A woman and her young daughter were seriously wounded, along with another child, said Leah Malul of Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon.

Witnesses told Israeli radio stations that the rocket caused considerable damage. Rescue service director Eli Bean said at least two people were trapped under the rubble.

The Katushya’s were used by the Lebanese terrorist organization, Hezbollah, in the summer of 2006. Apparently, they come from Iran.

I am certainly not an expert in this stuff, but I think that we’re very close to another war. If it happens, I truly hope that the world will permit the Israelis to fight it to its conclusion, rather than just to a stalemate. It is the only hope for an eventual peace settlement, in my opinion.

- Aggie

So not everyone likes books by Jewish authors. What else is new? I always found Leviticus a bit of a bore.

Diplomatic tensions have arised between Israel and Egypt due to a harsh statement made recently by Egyptian Culture Minister Farouk Hosni. In a conference that took place in the Egyptian Parliament last week, the minister said that he “would burn Israeli books himself if found in Egyptian libraries.”

…

The anger in Israel over Hosni’s statement is especially emphasized due to the fact that the Hosni is Egypt’s candidate for the UNESCO position, as the United Nations’ education, science and cultural organization secretary-general, and he has good chances of being chosen.

…

Hosni is considered one of the strongest opposition leaders in the Egyptian government to stand against normalization with Israel. In the past, he accused Israel of trying to steal Egyptian culture, and he adamantly opposes any cooperation with Israel.

Moreover, he opposed an initiative presented by the American-Jewish Committee to establish a museum of Jewish antiquity and culture in Cairo.

Are they kidding? He sounds perfect for UNESCO.

And if he needs a match to set the Jewish books on fire, he need only ask Europe:

Between 3,000 to 4,000 people gathered Saturday to protest against the Turin book fair’s decision to showcase Israeli writers, an AFP photographer at the scene said.

“Free Palestine” organisers put the demonstration’s attendance at 10,000, while police said 1,500 had turned out to criticise the book fair’s choice to highlight 60 years of Israel as its central theme.

“Boycott Israel, support Palestine,” read a banner at the head of a cortege heading for the former Fiat factory which is hosting the prestigious booksellers’ exhibition, due to end on Monday.

People who strap bombs and shrapnel to their body are telling me my library card is a terrorist weapon? That’s chutzpah.

Killed:

[via Jungle Trader]

A Jordanian man drowned his 22-year-old sister in the Dead Sea two weeks after her wedding after hearing reports that she had cheated on her new husband, the Al Watan daily reported.

The man has been charged with premeditated murder, and is being held in custody.

The defendant heard of his sister’s alleged infidelity after her husband’s relatives sent the bride back to her family, saying they had seen an unknown man leave her room.

When the girl arrived back at the family home, she was interrogated and severely beaten. Her parents and one other brother have been ordered to spend 14 days in jail for the abuse.

After the interrogation, the defendant reportedly told his sister he was taking her back to her husband, but instead took her out to sea in a boat, pushed her into the water about 50 km from Jordan’s capital Amman, and left her to drown.

Soon afterwards, he admitted to police that he had killed his sister, saying he was saving the honor of his family.

Honor killings are relatively common in Jordan. Last month, a court in the country sentenced a man to just six months in jail for killing his 16-year-old daughter. The father beat and then electrocuted the girl in late 2006 after hearing she had cheated on her new husband.

Don’t you love the dispassion of the line “honor killings are relatively common in Jordan”? Like trout in Wyoming or red-heads in Ireland, you can come across an honor killing without even looking for one.

It’s an interesting way to kill someone, however: very Godfather II

CUT TO: The boat. FREDO is fishing.

FREDO
Hail Mary — full of grace — the lord is with thee — blessed art thou amongst women — and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary — MOTHER of God — pray for us sinners –

[MICHAEL is looking out at them. A guns hot rings out. MICHAEL puts his head down. NERI stands up in the boat. MICHAEL sits down in the boat house]

Although I guess those were probably not her last words.

So Hillary drubs Obama by forty points, and this is considered good news—for Obama???

Let Michael Graham ground us in a little reality:

The presumptive Democratic nominee, Sen. Obama, just lost to a woman who cannot get the nomination by almost 40%(!); in a state, West Virginia, that every Democrat who made it to the White House has won since 1916; and the relentless, insistent “reporting” from the Mainstream Media is….”Nothing to see here, folks. Move along.”

Question: Are Democrats stinkin’ insane?

MSNBC, Time and the Washington Post can continue to openly insult every white person to the right of Michael Moore if they want, but it won’t change the Natural Truth for Barack Obama: You can’t beat the math.

Forget actually winning white Democrats in a primary. Sen. Obama hasn’t gotten above 40% of his fellow Democrats who are white to vote for him since February 19th. In West Virginia Hillary–the most unlikeable politician this side of Newt Gingrich–trounced Sen. Obama among white voters both with college degress and without.

Among any group of rational people, the question of the day would be “What’s wrong with our candidate?”

As a matter of fact, when you look at the final results, your candidate (Obama) barely outpolled our candidate (McCain, 91,500 - 89,600) when the latter’s race is already decided.

And the results will be repeated in Kentucky next week.

It’s time for me to shut up on this issue before the Democrats get wise—like that’s ever going to happen.

In Turkey you can swat your sweetie, pound your pumpkin, howitzer your honey—as long as you’re an MP:

After his wife’s filing of a legal complaint in 2006, the former AKP MP Halil Urun could not be prosecuted due to his parliamentary immunity. When he failed to get re-elected in July 22, 2007 elections, he was charged for beating and intentionally injuring his wife of 40 years.

The Ankara 2nd district court that heard the case first sentenced him with six months prison term – the minimum time allowed by law, followed by the judge’s decision to apply article 231 of the Turkish Penal Code, generally known as the “hidden amnesty”. Former MP will not serve any time at all and will be on probation instead, for five years. If he does not repeat the crime during that time, he will be considered not prosecuted for any crime at all.

Forty years! You’d think he’d have rotator cuff damage or need Tommy John surgery after forty years of taking a shillelagh to his Sheila.

A pity he couldn’t spend just one night in one of the prisons for which the Turks are so renowned.

Israel is accused of all manner of crimes against humanity. Some of them may even be true—who’s perfect, especially when surrounded by a horde of homicidal maniacs?

It’s best to let the accusations sit for a few days (or weeks or months) until the truth comes out. The Jenin “massacre” was a classic example; the Mohammed Al-Dura “affair” another.

May I offer yet another?

Muhammad al-Harrani, a father of six from Gaza diagnosed with cancer who reportedly died while waiting for a permit to enter Israel, miraculously “came back to life.” This was not the result of a miracle, but rather, just part of the tactics used by al-Harrani’s family in a bid to secure a permit for him.

…

On the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, al-Harrani’s story was published. His family reported to the “Physicians for Human Rights” organization that he died. “The sick man could not withstand the wait for the permit,” claimed Ran Yaron, Director of the Occupied Territories Department who blamed the Shin Bet for adopting cruel policies against cancer patients.

However, the next day, the organization discovered that al-Harrani was still alive. Members of group estimated that his brother, who reported the death, “killed” him so he does not report to the questioning session.

“This is a rare case where a family member knowingly provided false information to the organization,” Physicians for Human Rights said.

…

Meanwhile, the Shin Bet sent the organization an angry response: “We view these harsh accusations on your part with great severity; not even a minimal inquiry into the facts was conducted.” The Shin Bet noted that due to the suspicion of his involvement in terror activities, al-Harrani was indeed called in for a security check, and it was indeed postponed by a week.

To review: a suspected Palestinian terrorist did not in fact die while awaiting treatment in an Israeli hospital, but instead staged his “death” to avoid questioning by the security services.

Other than that the story was completely accurate.

Do we know if he’s even really sick?

And Physicians for Human Rights can kiss my white ass (the half that’s Jewish). Maybe they really don’t routinely play the saps for the Palestinians, but they’d be the “rare case” among human rights organizations that didn’t. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, etc.—they all blindly accept the Palestinian cover story to any incident.

And on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day. Utterly disgusting.

It is no surprise that the most anti-Semitic body since the dissolution of the German High Command is the United Nations’ Human Rights Council.

Better than Monopoly, although the goal is the same: To take it all.

If Barack Obama gets his way, the Oxford English Dictionary will have updated its definition of “distraction” by the end of the campaign: “Diversion of the mind, attention, etc., from any object or course that tends to advance the political interests of Barack Obama.”

After his blowout win in North Carolina last week, Obama turned to framing the rules of the general election ahead, warning in his victory speech of “efforts to distract us.” The chief distracter happens to be the man standing between Obama and the White House, John McCain, who will “use the very same playbook that his side has used time after time in election after election.”

That is the basis of the rules. Can’t say his middle name, can’t point out who his friends are, can’t discuss issues around policy, mustn’t mention embarrassing flip-flops.

This will work as long as the media helps. And they are:

The campaign can succeed in imposing these rules on the race only if the news media cooperate. Newsweek signed up for the effort in a cover story that reads like a 3,400-word elaboration of the “distraction” passage of Obama’s victory speech. “The Republican Party has been successfully scaring voters since 1968,” it says, through “innuendo and code.” McCain “may not be able to resist casting doubt on Obama’s patriotism,” and there’s a question whether he can or wants to “rein in the merchants of slime and sellers of hate.”

Well, as you can see, the media remains fair and balanced. Thank God.

Last words to the author:

We could take Obama’s rules in good faith if he never calls John McCain a “conservative” or labels him in any other way. If he never criticizes him for his association with George Bush. If he doesn’t jump on his gaffes (like McCain’s 100-years-in-Iraq comment that Obama distorted and harped on for weeks). And if he never says anything that would tend to make Americans fearful about the future or divide them (i.e., say things that some people agree with and others don’t).

This is, of course, an impossible standard. Obama doesn’t expect anyone to live up to it except John McCain.

- Aggie

This op-ed piece in the Boston Glob suggests how the Burmese can be saved:

The United Nations can save Burma

Try to contain yourselves.

The United States and Britain should join with the French government and introduce a resolution in the UN Security Council demanding that the Burmese government immediately allow the entry of international relief supplies and personnel into the country and allow the UN to take charge of the relief mission. To make the case, Washington should show detailed imagery of the suffering and the extent of devastation in Burma (as it did so effectively in the cases of Bosnia and Darfur to shock a disbelieving United Nations).

The resolution should hold open the possibility of additional measures - including air drops of relief supplies - if the government did not comply at once. And the Security Council could commit to return to the matter in 24 hours, assess Burma’s response, and consider additional actions.

Skeptics will doubtless say, why bother? China - Burma’s closest patron - and perhaps Russia will block any such efforts. But there are good reasons to believe that China will want to avoid the opprobrium that would inevitably follow obstructionism in New York. Having just overcome the widespread condemnation of its actions in Tibet and the embarrassing arms shipments to Zimbabwe, Beijing cannot afford another global public relations crisis that might, this time, convince countries to pull out of the Beijing Olympics. On the contrary, by taking the high road at the highest body of the UN and being seen to use its influence in Rangoon, China would help restore its tattered image.

More important, China would help the people of Burma.

I can see the authors as film producers, trying to pitch the idea to a studio mogul. I can also see them getting thrown out on their asses. “At least give me something believable!”

Even if China were to act as China has never acted before, and for the first time gave two [bleeps] about either its reputation or the welfare of anybody, how long might this chanson and gavotte take? The cyclone hit a week ago, right? Dead bodies and human waste have been simmering together in the water supply under the tropical sun all that time. The only supplies they’ll need are Caterpillar trench diggers and lots and lots of lime for the mass graves they’ll need to dig.

I try not to laugh at the cruelty of fate, but simple-minded suggestions like this are absolutely hysterical.

If you wanted to understand what was going on in Lebanon (and why would you?), you could do a lot worse than reading Caroline Glick and Claudia Rossett (addendum: Bret Stevens is excellent, too).

What I came away with was not the sense but the certainty that our appeasement and accommodation of Iran (and its junior jihadist partner Syria) will end in an enormous fireball. Can’t say where (Tel Aviv? Tehran?), can’t say when (probably not today), but the situation has the combustibility of a Molotov cocktail on a summer’s day.

Got a match?

When Democrats…

Gov. Steve Beshear, who has remained neutral during the presidential primary and who will serve as a Kentucky superdelegate at the national convention in August, avoided talking about the Democratic candidates by criticizing President Bush.

“When I mention that Democrats are problem solvers, I can think of only one Republican who can be a problem solver — that is Vice President Dick Cheney if he would just take George on a hunting trip.”

… start thinking like cutthroat jihadists…

On May 10, 2008, a member of the Islamist forum Al-Ikhlas (hosted by Piradius Net, Malaysia) posted a message claiming that an “official in the Jihadi Intelligence Organization” has learnt about a plan to assassinate President Bush. According to the posting, members of a pro-Al-Qaeda cell from a Gulf country have undergone sniper training in a Western country, and “will lie in wait during [Bush’s] upcoming visit [to Saudi Arabia].”

—actually the real newsworthy story would be when they didn’t.

Comment seems superfluous to this:

The director of King Sa’ud University in Saudi Arabia today, May 12, kicked off a program to increase awareness of terrorism.

The program will last a week, and will focus on fighting extremist ideas via lectures on the dangers and ramifications of terrorism.

Anything I add would be cheap and obvious (what else is new?).

The Pieceful Pals are at it again.

Today they murdered a 70 year old woman and two rockets landed in a school zone -

Earlier Monday, two rockets hit Ashkelon. One of the rockets struck an area crowded with many schools and kindergartens at 7 A.M., only minutes before children normally flood the area.

The second rocket struck the Ashkelon National Park.

One woman was treated for shock and some homes sustained damage.

On Sunday, Gaza militants fired three rockets at the western Negev, one of which exploded next to a schoolbus carrying children.

Two of the rockets, fired Sunday afternoon, hit populated areas in Sha’ar Hanegev Regional Council.

By the way, all this occurred as Israel and Egypt were discussing “peace” - or, my preferred spelling “piece”. Pieces of Jews all over the country. Check this out:

At least 21 rockets hit the western Negev over the weekend.

Why would any government tolerate this?

- Aggie

John Voight isn’t.

Award-winning American actor Jon Voight has visited Israeli victims of Palestinian militant attacks during a trip to Israel.

In Jerusalem on Monday, Voight played with children whose fathers were killed in suicide bombings. He also chatted with a man who lost his legs in an attack.

Voight was visibly moved by the visit and said Israel shouldn’t negotiate with Palestinian militants. He called the attackers barbarians who spat on Israeli peacemaking attempts.

…Voight is an academy award winner and father of actress Angelina Jolie.

Oh, and I wondered if he was Jewish, but he’s Catholic. Which shows to go you that reasonable people of all faiths can see terrorism for what it is.

- Aggie

Like a lot of you, I was once a waffling, quivering, jello-spined liberal (speak for yourself I hear you shouting). I used to think that with the might of the USA, used in conjunction with the moral authority of the United Nations, the world would be a beautiful place.

Hey, I take no pride in admitting that, but admission is the first step toward recovery.

I think we might have a new convert. Everyone, say “Hi Fred!”

At a summit celebrating the organization’s 60th birthday, 171 nations agreed that they would intervene, forcefully if necessary, if a state failed to protect its own people. The action was seen as both a sign of remorse for the failure to stop genocide in Rwanda and a rebuke to the United States and its unilateral ways.

…

Since then the United Nations has averted its gaze as Sudan’s government continues to ravage the people of Darfur. It has turned away as Zimbabwe’s rulers terrorize their own people. Now it is bowing to Burma’s sovereignty as that nation’s junta allows more than a million victims of Cyclone Nargis to face starvation, dehydration, cholera and other miseries rather than allow outsiders to offer aid on the scale that’s needed.

In light of America’s troubles in Iraq, the pendulum in the United States has swung toward multilateral solutions and international law. All three candidates to replace President Bush have promised to restore alliances and put more faith in allies.

But the stalemate in Burma, also known as Myanmar, shows how difficult it is to translate “responsibility to protect” into action. It’s hard to imagine a government more deserving of losing the national equivalent of its parental rights; yet it seems more likely that hundreds of thousands of people will die needlessly than that the United Nations will act.

Kinda looks that way, doesn’t it?

I note with wry amusement (about all I can manage in discussing hundreds of thousands of deaths) that only initiative that accomplished anything was the coalition in Iraq led by America. It is dishonest to imply that we were unilateral, by the way, just as it is foolish to think that an occupying coalition led by the UN would have had an easier time, or that the UN’s accommodation of Saddam would have ended well for anyone either.

But enough of that: how does our sobered-up realist see things now?

[W]hen France reminded the United Nations of its “responsibility to protect,” China, Russia and their ever-reliable voting partner, Thabo Mbeki’s South Africa, slammed the door. So tons of aid float just offshore as Burma’s generals sleep comfortably in their remote jungle capital and China’s rulers can proudly, once again, take credit for defending the principle of national sovereignty.

Yes, yes, we know. And?

And nothing. Just some embarrassingly lame pap about the indomitable spirit of the Burmese people, which I’ll do the author and my reader the favor of not repeating.

If all we intend to do is show our concern and do nothing, then I’d rather not bother with the concern and go straight to the nothing.

But if we ever intend to do something, it will have to be without the United Nations, which is constitutionally incapable of doing anything.

And if Fred Hiatt wants to get right, he’ll have to do a hell of a lot better than this.

UPDATE
Moved by the specters of hundreds of thousands dead Burmese, the United Nations is moved to UNprecedented words, if not deeds:

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has expressed his “immense frustration” at Burma’s slow response to the cyclone that hit the country nine days ago.

…

“I therefore call in the most strenuous terms on the government of Myanmar to put its people’s lives first.”

At this rate, an “acute crisis” can’t be far away.

By the way, if you want to know “immense frustration”, try getting into a staring contest with Jessica Alba.

This is America. We have The Americans With Disability Act of 1990 to protect citizens such as Tyler Hurd. Mr. Hurd is studying to become a special ed. teacher and also suffers from epilepsy. He has a specially trained dog to assist others in helping him if he should have a seizure. Think guide dog for the blind, that kind of thing.

But some students in the classroom where Mr. Hurd was being trained threatened to kill his dog. Why? Can you guess?

…The threat came from a Somali student who is Muslim, according to Hurd, St. Cloud State and school district officials.

The Muslim faith, which is the dominant faith of Somali immigrants, forbids the touching of dogs.

Hurd trained at Talahi Community School and Tech. He said his experience at Talahi was good. The Somali students there warmed to the dog and eventually petted him using paper to keep their hands off his fur, Hurd said.

Things didn’t go as well at Tech, Hurd said. Students there taunted his dog, and he finally felt he had to leave after he was told a student made a threat. Hurd met with Lockhart but said he did not feel comfortable continuing.

Julia Espe, director of curriculum, instruction and assessment for St. Cloud school district, said the school needed to do a better job communicating.

“I think it was a misunderstanding where we didn’t really prepare either side for possible implications,” Espe said.

There have been other problems in Minnesota. Cab drivers refusing rides to blind people with dogs, or refusing to carry people who are carrying bottles of wine. This is a violation of our laws, our country and our sanity.

It has to stop.

- Aggie

Boy, cyclones in Burma, earthquakes in China—it’s getting so that you can’t tell the masses of dead without a scorecard.

Via Town Hall, the AP offers a list of the deadliest in recent years—with one curious addition:

May 2008: Earthquake (magnitude 7.8) hits Sichuan province in central China. Thousands are killed.

May 2008: Cyclone Nargis strikes Myanmar, killing more than 30,000 and leaving an additional 30,000 missing.

October 2005: Northern Pakistan earthquake (magnitude 7.6) kills about 78,000 people.

August 2005: U.S. Gulf Coast Hurricane Katrina kills at least 1,600 people in Louisiana and Mississippi.

December 2004: Indian Ocean tsunami (triggered by magnitude 9.0 earthquake) kills 230,000 in a dozen countries.

December 2003: Southeastern Iran earthquake (magnitude 6.5) kills 26,000.

August 1999: Western Turkey earthquake (magnitude 7.4) kills 17,000.

October 1998: Central America Hurricane Mitch kills 9,000.

April 1991: Bangladesh cyclone kills 140,000.

June 1990: Northwestern Iran earthquake (magnitude 7.7) kills 50,000.

July 1976: Northeastern China earthquake (magnitude 8.2) kills 240,000.

November 1970: Bangladesh cyclone kills 300,000. World’s deadliest cyclone on record.

No offense, Gulf Coasters, but Katrina belongs on this list less than an overturned plumber’s van on Route 128. Plucky little Bangladesh alone has suffered two cyclones to your one and a death toll almost 300 times Katrina’s. The next lowest toll (Hurricane Mitch) is still almost six times Katrina’s.

How dehumanizing is it to leave off the Armenian earthquake of 1988, in which 45,000 died, in favor of a hurricane death toll 1/28th the size?

For what, scoring political points? Shameful.