Break

I'm taking a break from blogging. I'll be back.
- posted by total @ 3/19/2005 06:44:00 AM .

 

Democratic Indonesia turning a corner?

Interesting:

For the first time ever in a major Muslim nation, more people favor US-led efforts to fight terrorism than oppose them (40% to 36%). Importantly, those who oppose US efforts against terrorism have declined by half, from 72% in 2003 to just 36% today.

For the first time ever in a Muslim nation since 9/11, support for Osama Bin Laden has dropped significantly (58% favorable to just 23%).

65% of Indonesians now are more favorable to the United States because of the American response to the tsunami, with the highest percentage among people under 30.

Via Tim Blair.
- posted by total @ 3/10/2005 05:14:00 AM .

 

Definitely not suspicious

Ukraine's Security Chief Says Ex-Official Killed Himself

The chief of Ukraine's security service said Saturday that the country's former interior minister, Yuri F. Kravchenko, had shot himself twice in the head on Friday, refuting speculation that he had been killed by someone else.

The official announcement and a note found in Mr. Kravchenko's pocket, the security chief added, left little doubt that Mr. Kravchenko had committed suicide.

Yes. Little doubt.

And just in case someone wnats to argue that it was a suicide with a weapon on full automatic, the rest of the story includes this tidbit:

Mr. Kravchenko went into a shed and fired two shots with a pistol registered to him. The first shot went through his chin and out his mouth, Mr. Turchinov said. The second bullet entered his right temple.

Yes, those crack Ukranian police are looking an obvious suicide.

(Article pointed to on Best of the Web)
- posted by total @ 3/09/2005 11:38:00 AM .

 

Hannibal Lector monkeys

Really bad monkeys:

Two people were seriously injured and two chimpanzees were shot dead Thursday after several chimps broke from their cages at an animal sanctuary and attacked some visitors, authorities said.
One of the injured people was airlifted to Kern Medical Center and was in critical condition after the chimps attacked the pair at Animal Haven Ranch (search), a sanctuary about 20 miles southeast of Bakersfield, said Kern County Sheriff's Sgt. Jeff Hunt...

...Dr. Maureen Martin, of Kern Medical Center, told the television station that the monkeys that attacked Davis chewed most his face off and that he would require extensive surgery in an attempt to reattach his nose. He was transported to Loma Linda Medical Center University.

- posted by total @ 3/04/2005 07:39:00 AM .

 

Foreign precedent

Court Backs 3-Oxen Dowries:

WASHINGTON, DC - In a far-reaching decision that will likely create complicated consequences for the American livestock and wedding-planning industries, the Supreme Court this morning ruled 5-4 that all US marriage dowries 'must include three non-diseased oxen.'

Writing for the majority, Justice Anthony Kennedy cited 'the weight of the expansive penumbra surrounding the historically emerging and prevailing opinions of tribal shamans from Lesotho to Myanamar' in issuing the historic ruling in American Cattleman Association vs. Modern Bride, Helverson, et al.

In a scathing and sometimes caustic dissent, Judge Antonin Scalia wrote that 'Holy. Freakin'. Shit.'

The American Civil Liberties Union, which had filed an amicus brief in the case, praised the decision as 'an important first step in insuring that American grooms will eventually share the same access to bovine property rights as the rest of the international community.' "

- posted by total @ 3/03/2005 04:10:00 AM .

 

Gannongate

Come on people!The "Gannon-Guckert" affair (i.e. Gannongate)???!

In a conciliatory move, I will concede all of the breathless accusations currently being made by hyperventilating moonbats.

I will assume that each of these is solid gold truth:

1. Bush personally knew Mr. Gannon-Guckert, and knew his work. Bush's friends - at Bush's behest - funded Talon News, Gannon's former employer.

2. Bush personally got Mr. Gannon-Guckert the credentials he needed to get into the White House press room. (Although, for a man with the president's "pull," a few one-day passes seems a little skimpy - I mean, he is the friggin' President!)

3. Bush personally wrote the softball question that Gannon-Guckert asked. (That is a stretch - I mean, everyone knows that Bush is illiterate!)

4. Bush knew that Gannon was running a gay porn website under a pseudonym, and he looked the other way.(Why he should have exposed the faggo..t...I mean, gay weirdo!)

I will concede every one of these and I will consider them to be facts.

Now, where is the CRIME?

At the worst, you have Bush exposed as a guy who was not above a cheap trick to get his message out, and that - if those accusations could be proven - makes him look a little slimy.

A slimy politician? Who knew?

But chances are good that those accusations will not proven.(...Bummer, Dude...)

I'll be the first to acknowledge that the Republicans went INSANE in Clinton's second term.

There were the standard accusations of philandering and hush money.

But - in addition - the Clintons also stood accused of: insider trading, murder (Ron Brown, Vince Foster), influence peddling, conspiracy ...even treason!

Nothing came of (most of) those accusations because there was little evidence for them.

But at least they were CRIMES.

The pathetic thing about so-called "Gannongate" is that we know nothing will come of it even before we know the details.

That qualifies it as a waste of time.

And energy.
- posted by total @ 3/02/2005 05:31:00 PM .

 

Is the wall about to fall?

Interesting times:

Four-time Egyptian election winner - and with 90 per cent of the vote! - President Mubarak announced that next polling day he wouldn't mind an opponent. Ordering his stenographer to change the constitution to permit the first multi-choice presidential elections in Egyptian history, His Excellency said the country would benefit from "more freedom and democracy". The state-run TV network hailed the president's speech as a "historical decision in the nation's 7,000-year-old march toward democracy". After 7,000 years on the march, they're barely out of the parking lot, so Mubarak's move is, as they say, a step in the right direction.

Meanwhile in Damascus, Boy Assad, having badly overplayed his hand in Lebanon and after months of denying that he was harbouring any refugee Saddamites, suddenly discovered that - wouldja believe it? - Saddam's brother and 29 other bigshot Baghdad Baathists were holed up in north-eastern Syria, and promptly handed them over to the Iraqi government.

And, for perhaps the most remarkable development, consider this report from Mohammed Ballas of Associated Press: "Palestinians expressed anger on Saturday at an overnight suicide bombing in Tel Aviv that killed four Israelis and threatened a fragile truce, a departure from former times when they welcomed attacks on their Israeli foes.

- posted by total @ 3/02/2005 05:12:00 AM .