« April 2004 | Main | June 2004 »
May 24, 2004
Sweet Deal
What is it with European world organizations? First the U.N. oil-for-cash scandal and now this:
Although many Europeans cannot name their representative, for the 732 MPs, life is 'really like gravy train gone mad', one MP from England said privately.For example, a Finnish MP can fly round trip to Brussels for meetings for about US$240 (S$410).
But under Parliament rules, members are reimbursed at the highest economy price, meaning that the MP could receive about 10 times the cost of the trip.
And any MP over age 60 with at least five years of service can get a monthly pension of US$1,500. MPs can also employ relatives as aides, with at least two dozen MPs doing so.
There are taxi allowances, free language lessons and daily expense stipends, even on days when no official business is conducted. Most benefits are tax free.
Posted by bubba138 at 04:58 PM | Comments (0) |
U.S. Occupation Saves Lives
Morgue Records Show 5,500 Iraqis Killed...but that's only because Saddam didn't run his victims through the morgues. He processed those bodies himself:More than 5,500 Iraqis died violently in just Baghdad and three provinces in the first 12 months of the occupation, an Associated Press survey found. The toll from both criminal and political violence ran dramatically higher than violent deaths before the war, according to statistics from morgues.
That doesn't mean Iraq is a more dangerous place than during Saddam Hussein's regime. At least 300,000 people were murdered by security forces and buried in mass graves during the dictator's 23-year rule, U.S. officials say, and human rights workers put the number closer to 500,000.Let's do the math. Under Saddam Hussein 13,000 to 21,000 were brutally murdered each year. These numbers would have gone on unchecked but for the U.S. occupation which has reduced the body count by 7,500 to 15,000 per annum.
One can hardly call this a failure.
Posted by bubba138 at 04:47 PM | Comments (0) |
The Difference
Pardon My English perfectly captures the difference between Kerry and Bush in microcosm:
The difference between how Senator Kerry handled his fall from the bike versus the President’s fall is quite telling. Kerry (who looks so out of his element on a bike) says he hit a sand patch on the road. After he fell, he took the bike to the shop and went home. President Bush, after his fall while mountain biking—which many would have to agree is a bit more challenging and not as “smooth sailing” as a casual bike ride—got cleaned up and declined to a ride back to house, and finished the last mile of his 17-mile ride. Beyond that, he gets ridiculed by a a guy who fell on his own bike because he hit some sand on the road, and then, in an attempt to portray himself as the macho man he isn’t, he brings the bike to the shop, since, after all, it wasn’t really his fault.. it must have been a problem with the bike–so John Kerry thinks.Plain language? Kerry is an efite snob. Bush is a man.
NRO's Jennifer Graham points out another key difference, Bush is real while Kerry is all show:
Conversely, George W. Bush is an athlete, albeit an adult-onset one. He runs 6-minute miles, bench-press 200 pounds, chops wood out on the ranch. Heck, he's been on the cover of "Runner's World." Unlike Kerry's, the president's workouts are actual periods of elevated heart rate and significant exertion, not orchestrated photo ops. The president doesn't exercise for the benefit of the press corps.Kerry said as much himself over the weekend when he heard the president fell off his bike. "I hope he's OK.... I didn't know the president rode a bike."
Posted by bubba138 at 03:21 PM | Comments (0) |
Can't. Get. Message. Out.
I keep hearing chatter on talk radio and on the blogs that Bush isn't doing enough to get his message out. Yet, even though he's personally meeting with financial journalists, if the story isn't widely reported, it will never get into the average voter's home.
And then there's this:
The broadcast networks are not expected to carry President Bush's primetime speech tonight, in which he will lay out a "clear strategy" for the future of Iraq. The Bush administration has not requested the Big Four to air live the president's address to an audience at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Penn., scheduled for 8 p.m. EDT on the last Monday of the crucial for the network's ad rates May sweep period. NBC, Fox and ABC will proceed with their scheduled programming for the 8-9 p.m. hour -- an episode of "Fear Factor," the finale of "The Swan" and the broadcast premiere of Oscar-winning "A Beautiful Mind," respectively. NBC and Fox's sibling cable channels, MSNBC and Fox News, will carry the speech.To be fair, the president hasn't specifically requested that the networks carry his speech live. One would think that a public address on Iraq from the leader of the free world would be fairly important.
Not important enough, I guess.
Here's more.
Posted by bubba138 at 02:19 PM | Comments (0) |
Tinfoil Hat Alert
Someone really believes this:
I believe President Bush and Donald Rumsfeld's thinking goes along these lines:Hat tip: Best of the WebThe American population is growing about 0.92 percent a year; 66.7 percent of that very same population is between the ages of 15 and 64 and these same people are having about 14 babies a year per 1,000. At this rate, we need to greatly reduce the male half of the population.
Without the males, females will slow down and, in some cases, stop breeding. This will move us in the direction of a more controllable number of people, mostly weak women. By sending large quantities of men to fight this war in Iraq that we've cooked up, we can eliminate many of the stronger ones.
The children who lose fathers in this war, especially the boys who won't have a father's guidance, will succumb to depression and have possible suicidal tendencies. The surviving female children will be hardened by losses and by their mothers who turn bitter and tough. We'll give these children one great thing to hold onto and strive toward, an absolute sense of patriotism; not just faith in our country, but unshakable faith in our president and other leaders since we are in fact guided by God himself.
We will make machines out of these children, willing to die for any course we decide to lay out for them. We will keep some of the weaker ones in the factories to build our weapons and machines for our continued plan of world domination.
Posted by bubba138 at 01:31 PM | Comments (0) |
The New Battleground
The fight for freedom is being fought on a new battleground: the internet.
When Wu Wei's Web site was shut down for the 23rd time, police in the western Chinese city of Chengdu replaced it with one of their own. For a few days last summer, people trying to reach his Democracy and Freedom discussion forum instead found an odd message in large red characters on their computer screens.Information is power. The reason oppressive regimes can rule is because they control access to information.The authorities have shut down, blocked, hacked or otherwise incapacitated Wu's Web site 38 times in the past three years, repeatedly disrupting the discussions it hosts on political reform, human rights and other subjects the ruling Chinese Communist Party considers taboo. Each time the site has been closed, though, Wu and the friends who help him run it have found a way to open it again.
This is the reason we blog. Without us, news media, politicians, and despots will rule without accountability. Ours is not only a hobby, but a mission.
Posted by bubba138 at 10:11 AM | Comments (0) |
Record Gas Prices...In Germany
Kerry and camp are doing their best to pin high gas prices on Bush, but the reality is that prices are up all over the world. How's this for twisted logic:
"If (ecology taxes were raised) in a concerted effort among many industrial nations, it would lead to greater energy efficiency and would take pressure off the world oil markets," IfW natural resources expert Gernot Klepper told the Berliner Zeitung newspaper.In the long term, Klepper said, such a tax increase could have a positive effect on the economy.
That's the kind of thinking we get from Germany, and the same kind of thinking we'll get from a Kerry presidency:
Because he never actually voted to raise the gas tax by 50 cents, Mr. Kerry likes to portray his support for the idea as an inconsequential flirtation that occurred long ago under circumstances different from today. Nothing could be farther from the truth. As co-chairman of the Concord Coalition, a bipartisan deficit-fighting group, Paul Tsongas issued a report in 1994 giving a failing grade to Mr. Kerry for his 1993 votes on several deficit-cutting bills...The Boston Globe reported that Mr. Kerry himself called the group's scorecard "irresponsible." What was Mr. Kerry's principal complaint? The Concord Coalition report failed to account for "my support for a 50-cent increase in the gas tax," Mr. Kerry angrily complained.
Posted by bubba138 at 09:48 AM | Comments (0) |
Kerry v. Nader: Let the Smackdown Commence
A pro-Kerry group is running anti-Nader ads and Ralphie doesn't like it:
"We would like to see a clear message from Mr. Kerry that he opposes this effort against Ralph Nader," said Nader campaign spokesman Kevin Zeese. "If we don't get it, we will feel that he deserves credit for it."What's Ralphie's problem? I thought he was running for President against GW Bush and John Kerry. Is it a surprize to him that his opponentMr. Kerry's campaign did not return calls.
Posted by bubba138 at 09:23 AM | Comments (0) |
Jobless Recovery? Not Any More
The latest Labor Department figures on state jobs show that 10 of the 17 states expected to be the most tightly contested this campaign season were among the fastest-growing job markets in the country in April.The report, out Friday, showed a marked acceleration in job gains in industrial states in and around the Midwest defying the expectations of economists who predicted last year that those states would lag the national recovery.
This, of course, will only help Bush if the news gets out. It's not as if the President isn't trying.
Posted by bubba138 at 09:09 AM | Comments (0) |
Kerry: I'll Accept the Nomination after I Don't Accept the Nomination
Here are some choice excerpts from the draft version of Kerry's non-acceptance speech:
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, delegates. Thank you, you suckers from ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and FOX, for attending our nominating -- pardon me, our four-day "unity conference."Go read it all.But just because I can't accept that thing I can't accept here in my hometown, just because there's a traffic jam outside from Lowell to the Sagamore Bridge, just because you're being picketed by dozens of unions without contracts, doesn't mean that we haven't accomplished a great thing together.
Thank you, mayor, for this wonderful showcase for my campaign's stunning indecision and ineptitude. Teresa and I will never forget it.
My friends, we're gathered here to begin a great journey. Well, not to begin it -- we don't want to give the Federal Elections Commission the wrong idea. Let's just say we're here to take a major step.
The thing is, we can't return politics to the people just yet. We can't stop collecting millions until the Republicans do. We need every dime we can get our hands on, to make sure we can explain to the American people exactly how we're different from our competitors
Posted by bubba138 at 08:50 AM | Comments (0) |
May 23, 2004
Not Really News
We already knew this, but here again the truth is revealed:
At national organizations (which includes print, TV and radio), the numbers break down like this: 34% liberal, 7% conservative. At local outlets: 23% liberal, 12% conservative. At Web sites: 27% call themselves liberals, 13% conservatives.This contrasts with the self-assessment of the general public: 20% liberal, 33% conservative...
...the ranks of self-described liberals have grown in recent years, according to Pew. For example, since 1995, Pew found at national outlets that the liberal segment has climbed from 22% to 34% while conservatives have only inched up from 5% to 7%.
Posted by bubba138 at 06:28 PM | Comments (0) |
May 22, 2004
Nice Play
Kerry hasn't done much that is smart lately, but this was a nice move:
While union members picketed Friday, John Kerry, the likely Democratic nominee for president, sent a letter to Whitacre, questioning SBC's use of lower-paid contract workers, some of them overseas, in its high-speed Internet, wireless data and other sectors. Access to jobs in new technologies is one of the CWA's key issues.The Massachusetts senator said he realizes that telecom competition is sharp, but "given the strength of SBC's financial performance, I am troubled that SBC has not responded more favorably to the union goals of providing job opportunities in future technologies and maintaining hometown employment. ... Communications is an industry that should provide good jobs for America."
Posted by bubba138 at 01:46 PM | Comments (0) |
May 21, 2004
Democratic Amnesia
I am constantly amazed at how the blogosphere seems to always be one step ahead of real events. This morning Glenn pointed to a Goldberg post about generalized liberal amnesia.
As if just to prove the point, Senator Byrd spouted off today decrying the fact that Senator Bill Frist is headed to South Dakota to assist John R. Thune in defeating Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle:
"It used to be unheard of for Senate leaders to seek an active role against each other in campaigns. That time has apparently gone. Has honor gone too? Who cares about honor when a Senate seat might be gained?"
Once Ku Klux Klan member Senator Byrd speaks as if this is an unprecedented action on the part of Senator Frist. Yet, Senator Tom Daschle himself set the precedent almost two years ago.
Update: More here.
Posted by bubba138 at 02:19 PM | Comments (0) |
Kennedy-Pelosi vitriol
Kerry's problem is that he cannot really distance himself from the Kennedy-Pelosi vitriol because that vitriol is genuinely the soul of the party. What you see in Pelosi-Kennedy is what you would get in a Kerry presidency.Yep.
Posted by bubba138 at 10:16 AM | Comments (0) |
Things that make you go, "Hmmm?"
I read this and I was caught between "just plain wierd" and "wow, that's fascinating!"
There are now dozens of these so-called John Frum villages on Tanna.The cult was reinforced during the Second World War, when the US military arrived with huge amounts of cargo, such as tanks, ships, weapons, medicine and food.
Islanders were stunned to see black and white troops working and living together, in contrast with the French and British officials who had treated them as colonial subjects.
Mysterious saviour
The Americans' wealth and racial co-operation seemed to dove-tail perfectly with their own beliefs. So they became convinced that John Frum, their mysterious saviour, was an American.
Since then, the villagers have spent the last six decades dressing up in home-made US army uniforms, drilling with bamboo rifles and parading beneath the Stars and Stripes in the hope of enticing a delivery of cargo once again.
They dream of the arrival of cars and refrigerators, roads and medicines.
They have even hacked air strips out of the jungle and built crude wooden aircraft to tempt the speedy return of American generosity.
A thatched hut in Tanna's main John Frum village contains a shrine with a sign painted on an old school black board. "John Promise America," it reads. "One day, He will be returning."
Posted by bubba138 at 09:21 AM | Comments (0) |
May 20, 2004
Forgotten Facts
From the same piece referenced in the previous post:
Sen. Charles Sumner, an abolitionist from Massachusetts, delivered his fiery "Crimes Against Kansas" speech, in which he decried the efforts of southerners to force slavery into that territory. He singled out Andrew Pickens Butler, a pro-slavery senator from South Carolina, declaring: "Of course he has chosen a mistress to whom he has made his vows, and who, though ugly to others, is always lovely to him; though polluted in the sight of the world, is chaste in his sight. I mean the harlot, Slavery."Butler wasn't present to hear Sumner's screed, but a fellow South Carolinian, Rep. Preston S. Brooks, was. Three days later he took his revenge. Brooks quietly entered the Senate chamber, found Sumner working at his desk, and announced, "I have read your speech twice over carefully. It is a libel on South Carolina and Mr. Butler, who is a relative of mine." Then Brooks started whacking Sumner with a cane until it splintered and his victim fell from his chair in a bloody heap. Sumner's injuries were so severe he was unable to return to the Senate for three years. Brooks resigned from Congress but was promptly reelected to fill his own vacancy.
Not mentioned in the account, and what our society too often forgets, is that Sumner was a Republican (a radical one at that), and Brooks was a Democrat. I guess overlooking the misbehavior of your members is something that's been going on in the Democratic party for a long time.
Posted by bubba138 at 10:12 AM | Comments (0) |
New Clear Thinking
"Ladies and gentlemen, the lower economic people are not holding up their end in this deal," he declared. "These people are not parenting. They are buying things for kids -- $500 sneakers for what? And won't spend $200 for 'Hooked on Phonics.' . . .These politically incorrect, yet lucid, comments are brought to you by none other than Bill Cosby. Jesse Jackson should be taking notes."They're standing on the corner and they can't speak English. I can't even talk the way these people talk: 'Why you ain't,' 'Where you is' . . . And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk. And then I heard the father talk. . . . Everybody knows it's important to speak English except these knuckleheads. . . . You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth!"
"These are not political criminals. These are people going around stealing Coca-Cola. People getting shot in the back of the head over a piece of pound cake and then we run out and we are outraged, [saying] 'The cops shouldn't have shot him.' What the hell was he doing with the pound cake in his hand?"
Posted by bubba138 at 10:01 AM | Comments (0) |
Gas Prices
Are they at record highs? Not really:
Sure, the $2.03 being charged at the pump today seems high. But in actual financial terms, it's a lot less onerous than the $1.25 a gallon motorists were paying in 1980 -- a whopping $2.80 when translated into 2004 dollars. (Adjusted the other way, today's $2.03 pump price is equal to 89 cents in 1980 dollars.) When it comes to historical price comparisons, nominal dollar amounts signify little. It is the inflation-adjusted price that tells you whether the true cost of a product has increased, decreased, or stayed the same.
Posted by bubba138 at 08:58 AM | Comments (0) |
Syndication?
Cool.
Posted by bubba138 at 08:00 AM | Comments (0) |
May 17, 2004
Deaths in Iraq
I'm still on blogging break, but here is a quick thought.
As the press doesn't want us to forget, casualties in Iraq are "mounting." Currently the count is at 775 dead. The relation of that number to the two hundred thousand men and women that have been involved in the conflict means we have a death rate of 3.875.
Compare that to the United States national death rate, which was 8.44 in 2003.
It is safer to be an American soldier in Iraq than a civilian in the U.S.
Posted by bubba138 at 10:35 AM | Comments (0) |
May 12, 2004
Wictory Wednesday
I'm still on break but don't forget that today is Wictory Wednesday. Every Wednesday, I ask my readers to volunteer and/or donate to the Bush 2004 campaign.
If you've already donated and volunteered for the Bush campaign, then talk to your friends and enlist them in this battle for America's very soul.
If you're a blogger, you can join Wictory Wednesdays simply by putting up a post like this one every Wednesday, asking your readers to volunteer and/or donate to the Bush campaign. And do e-mail Poli-Pundit at wictory@blogsforbush.com so that he can add you to the Wictory Wednesday blogroll, which will be part of the Wictory Wednesday post on all participating blogs:
Posted by bubba138 at 08:27 AM | Comments (0) |
May 06, 2004
Supporting the Troops
Yes, I am on a blog fast, but I couldn't let this go...
The House today voted on a resolution that simultaneously condemns the abuse of the Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib and commends our armed forces in Iraq.
It sounds like a slam-dunk, doesn't it? Yet one Independent, one Republican and forty-eight forty nine Democrats voted against it.
As I see it, there can be only one of two reasons to vote "Nay" on this bill. First, the Congressperson is morally OK with how the Iraqis were treated. Such a position is reprehensible. Second, and most likely, the Congressperson cannot find it in his or her heart to commend the the U.S. armed forces.
So much for being against the war but supporting the troops.
Here are the no votes:
| ARIZONA CALIFORNIA FLORIDA GEORGIA HAWAII ILLINOIS MARYLAND MASSACHUSETTS MICHIGAN MINNESOTA | NEW JERSEY NEW YORK NORTH CAROLINA OHIO OREGON PENNSYLVANIA SOUTH CAROLINA TEXAS WASHINGTON WEST VIRGINIA |
Posted by bubba138 at 05:31 PM | Comments (0) |
May 03, 2004
On Hiatus
See you in June...
Posted by bubba138 at 06:32 PM | Comments (0) |