Happy New Year From the Embarcadero in San Francisco!
May you be healthy, wealthy, wise, and a Daily Pundit reader in 2006!
all posts from December 2005
Goodbye Stone Age
A strange thought just hit me: I last turned on my VCR over three years ago. My DVD player, now that gets some mileage, but VHS? I’d no more watch a movie on cassette than I’d listen to a song on a wax cylinder.
The Man They Can’t Get Rid Of
Chalabi Named Iraq Oil Minister
BAGHDAD, Dec. 30 — As a fuel crisis deepened in Iraq, the government replaced its oil minister with controversial Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed Chalabi, whose poor performance in the Dec. 15 elections was a setback in his recent attempt at political rehabilitation.
The oil minister, Ibrahim Bahr Uloom, was put on a […]
And They Want Us To Entrust the Security of America To Them?
Dalglish: Justice Dept. Probe of ‘NYT’ Shows Need for Shield Law
NEW YORK Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, expressed outrage at the Justice Department investigation into who leaked classified information to The New York Times about the Bush administration’s controversial domestic spying program, saying it is even more […]
This Isn’t Your Father’s Spying Technology
Article by Suelette Dreyfus - TheIndependent-1999-11-15-NSA-Patent
15 November 1999 The US National Security Agency has designed and patented a new technology that could aid it in spying on international telephone calls. The NSA patent, granted on 10 August, is for a system of automatic topic spotting and labelling of data. The patent officially confirms for the […]
I Think the NYT is Running Scared - As It Should Be
Criminal Inquiry Opens Into Spying Leak - New York Times
WASHINGTON, Dec. 30 - The Justice Department said on Friday that it had opened a criminal investigation into the disclosure of classified information about a secret National Security Agency program under which President Bush authorized eavesdropping on people in the United States without court warrants.
…Privacy advocates […]
Sonic Boombahs
ABC News: Israel’s Sonic Booms Terrifies Gaza Children
Dec. 29, 2005 %u2014 It’s Israel’s latest weapon: Without notice, an Israeli jet fighter flies low over the densely populated Gaza Strip, breaking the sound barrier.
The massive sonic boom often breaks windows, shakes entire apartment buildings and terrifies the people of Gaza.
Yeah. And subhuman Palestinian Arab mad […]
Lift Her British Passport, Dump Her In Gaza, and Let Her Continue Her “Work” There Permanently
BBC NEWS | Middle East | Kidnapped Britons freed in Gaza
Ms Burton told BBC correspondent Alan Johnston the family had been moved three times in two days by their captors, who remained masked throughout.
She spoke of her sadness that her parents had had such a “desperate experience” during their visit to Gaza, but said she […]
There Must Be A Way
I wonder if we could introduce this elephant to Bobby Mugabe, boy commie?
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It’s Probably Not The Right Kind of Talk For Them
Dialoguing for Dollars
The program, which was announced earlier this month, actually pays colleges to hold “conversations” on such subjects as race, sexual identification and religion. The talk does not come cheap. Twenty-seven institutions of higher learning have been awarded $100,000 each, and 16 others are receiving smaller grants of $10,000.
Hey, we talk about those […]
They Aren’t The Only Options
You choose: Civil liberties or safety?
Interesting question, but I’m pretty certain it is an example of the logical fallacy called “False Dilemma.”
Looks Good To Me
Immigration bill outrages activists — Newsday.com
A tough new illegal immigration bill that just cleared the U.S. House of Representatives this month has outraged advocate groups and church relief agencies who fear their work with new immigrants could become illegal if the measure passes the Senate and becomes law.
Good. If you’re known by the enemies […]
Free Afghanistan
European muzzlers - Editorials/Op-Ed - The Washington Times, America’s Newspaper
Take our old friend (making his third appearance in this column) Ali Mohaqeq Nasab, the Afghan editor sentenced in October to two years hard labor. His crime, you may recall, was “blasphemy” - i.e., publishing articles that criticized Islamic law. The magazine he edited questioned the […]
Fun With Numbers
Politics News Article | Reuters.com
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow warned lawmakers on Thursday that a legally set limit on the government’s ability to borrow will be hit in mid-February and urged Congress to raise it quickly.
Failure to do so potentially risks throwing the country into its first default in history, Snow warned […]
New York Trumped?
New York Daily News - Regional - Well, would you hire this man to be gov?
ALBANY - Could New York’s state capitol building become the next Trump Tower?
Republican sources said The Donald - who in 1999 toyed with the idea of running for the White House on the Reform Party line - is mulling a […]
Was It Too Good To Be True?
The cloning scandal: how did it happen?
An in-depth look from the blogosphere at all the ugly details.
It Doesn’t Add Up
Voodoo mathematics from the Wharton School.
Anybody Notice the Difference?
BBC NEWS | Middle East | Monitors to study Iraq poll claim
A team of international monitors has said it is ready to visit Iraq to review complaints that parliamentary elections held this month were unfair.
The monitors’ offer has been welcomed by leading Sunni Arab and secular Shia parties, who have alleged that the vote was […]
And Little Green Men In Black Helicopters, Too
CNN.com - Al Qaeda claims Israel attack link - Dec 29, 2005
(CNN) — In what may be a sign that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s terror group is expanding its operations, Al Qaeda in Iraq has posted a statement claiming responsibility for firing missiles from Lebanon into northern Israel earlier this week.
The statement, posted Thursday on Web […]
Oh, Grow Up
Covert CIA Program Withstands New Furor
The effort President Bush authorized shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, to fight al Qaeda has grown into the largest CIA covert action program since the height of the Cold War, expanding in size and ambition despite a growing outcry at home and abroad over its clandestine tactics, according to former […]
Go For It!
Townhall.com :: Columns :: Time for the President to call their bluff by Tony Snow
Given these statements of the obvious, the president ought to open his State of the Union Address by asking Congress to give him official authority to approve warrantless searches of known and identified terrorists, or of people in regular contact with […]
Is That A Rhetorical Question?
Investor’s Business Daily: Bolton Comes Out Swinging
Some countries - among them Egypt, India and Jamaica - deny the emergency budget was tied to any reforms. But Bolton, calling the vote a victory for the U.S., said the resolution implies the General Assembly must approve, according to Reuters, “a new human rights body, new international accounting […]
Well, Maybe
KRT Wire | 12/29/2005 | Assumptions about Katrina victims may be incorrect, data reveal
NEW ORLEANS - Four months after Hurricane Katrina, analyses of data suggest that some widely reported assumptions about the storm’s victims were incorrect.
For example, a comparison of locations where 874 bodies were recovered with U.S. Census tract data indicates that the victims […]
Hello There - Welcome To Your Worst Nightmare
Hugh Hewitt: December 25, 2005 - December 31, 2005 Archives
With Michael Yon, Michael Totten, Bill Roggio, Iraq the Model, and Robert Kaplan writing, why bother with MSM’s coverage of the Middle East at all?
Exactly. You reading this, CBSNBCABCCNNPBSNYTLATWAPO?
Give Spielberg’s “Munich” A Miss - It’s Lefty Moral-Equivalence Trash
Movie Review > Munich”>Box Office Mojo > Movie Review > Munich
Instead, Mr. Spielberg, using father-to-be Avner as the focal point, runs out the clock on nearly three hours of equivocation over a seminal act of war. Like the overpraised Schindler’s List, Munich ultimately evades mass murder and promotes Jewish tribalism.
How else to explain the […]
He’s Lucky To Be Able To Talk About It
I dunno. I give this knucklehead points for bravery, but subtract considerably more for ignorance, stupidity, and naivete.
Actually, if he really wants to immerse himself, it would probably be easier - and safer - to get his parents’ permission and enlist.
Mike Totten on Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi’s Libya
LA Weekly: Features: In the Land of the Brother Leader
Don’t miss blogger Michael Totten’s on-the-scene report about Libya. You know, the sort of original reporting that (supposedly) only the mainstream media can do? Say - when was the last time you saw something like this from a NYT staff reporter?
Probably never, actually. […]
Indict That Kid!
Politics News Article | Reuters.com
HOUSTON (Reuters) - The Washington couple at the heart of the CIA leak investigation had their cover blown by their small son as they tried to sneak away on vacation on Thursday.
“My daddy’s famous, my mommy’s a secret spy,” declared the 5-year-old of his parents, former diplomat Joe Wilson and retired […]
The Islamic Silent Majority Is Really, Really Silent - Perhaps With Good Reason
FrontPage magazine.com :: A New Year’s Jihad Retreat by Joe Kaufman
The majority of Islamic organizations within the United States have, at one time or another, been cited for their connections to terrorism, whether by support of terror groups or through actual terrorist activity carried out by its members. Two of those organizations, the Islamic Circle […]
Off Topic and General Interest
Please post your off topic and general interest items here.
Slicing and Dicing
This thing is addictive. And it’s about time CraigsList had some competition.
Partisanship Is Good
What’s wrong with partisan politics? - Los Angeles Times
OF COURSE, there’s nothing wrong with people being more polite to one another. But the belief that a healthy liberal democracy is one in which partisanship has disappeared is not merely ignorant, it’s dangerous. Liberal democracy ceases to exist when partisanship vanishes. Democracy is about disagreement before […]
Ugly Women
Kate O’Beirne on Women Who Make the World Worse on National Review Online
“They talk “freedom of choice,” but feminists are too contemptuous of dissenting women to allow them to choose freely how to live their lives without ridicule and disdain,” Kate O’Beirne writes in her new book, Women Who Make the World Worse: and How […]
Another One Bites the Dust
Berghoff restaurant bowing out
Ach du lieber! The Berghoff restaurant is closing!
So it’s auf wiedersehen to the melt-in-your mouth sauerbraten, the red cabbage and decadent creamed spinach, the rushed and old-worldly waiters and a place that bespeaks Chicago down to the creaks of its checkered floors.
Holey moley! I lived in Chicago for a year back […]
Isn’t “Boys Choir” Discriminatory?
CNN.com - Harlem Boys Choir saved from eviction - Dec 29, 2005
NEW YORK (CNN) — New York’s public school system has reached a deal with the historic Boys Choir of Harlem to save the beleaguered institution from eviction while it grapples with a $5 million cash shortfall.
I wonder if, had it had been named the […]
Fine French Whine
France Urges Kidnappers to Free Frenchman In Iraq
PARIS (Reuters) - France on Thursday urged a militant group holding a French engineer hostage in Iraq to release him and reminded the kidnappers that it had no military presence in the Arab country.
Why are you doing this to us? We already surrendered, damn it!
Your Laugh of the Day
Would-be suicide bombers blown up in Afghan blast. 30/12/2005. ABC News Online
Two would-be suicide bombers have blown themselves up while strapping on explosives in an Afghan town bordering Pakistan, police said.
There’s nothing funny about suicide bombers per se. But the death of these two incompetent clowns in hilarious. Do I feel sorry for […]
They Want A “Do Nothing” (To Defend the United States) President
NSA surveillance and the contrapositive
President Bush receives information from the NSA or the CIA or the FBI or some other source that a conversation is very likely to be carried on between a suspected terrorist and a foreign source. Suppose the President does not approve this wiretap, or, what amounts to the same thing, […]
They Weren’t Eighty Year Old Midwestern Grannies, Either
U.S. Says It Didn’t Target Muslims
Faced with angry complaints, U.S. officials defended an anti-terrorism program yesterday that secretly tested radiation levels around the country — including at more than 100 Muslim sites in the Washington area — and insisted that no one was targeted because of his or her faith.
One official knowledgeable about the program […]
Kiss of Death
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Delivers Thanks to the Troops - New York Times
DOHA, Qatar, Dec. 28 - Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, praised American troops on Wednesday at an air base here in the Persian Gulf for their efforts in fighting terror, as he opened a weeklong tour […]
The Gold Standard of Dishonesty
Townhall.com :: Columns :: Leak double-standards by Linda Chavez
Within days of the leak of former CIA agent Valerie Plame’s identity, Sen. Chuck Schumer was demanding a full-scale investigation into the incident, and others soon followed suit. So where are Sen. Schumer and his fellow Democrats in demanding a similar investigation and prosecution of a far […]
Didn’t We Already Do That?
CIA renditions began under Clinton: agent. 29/12/2005. ABC News Online
The US Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) controversial “rendition” program was launched under US president Bill Clinton, a former US counter-terrorism agent has told a German newspaper.
Michael Scheuer, a 22-year veteran of the CIA who resigned from the agency in 2004, has told Die Zeit that the […]
Such A Mystery
lgf: Sleeping French Suburb Rage
BONDY, France “Burn!” A knot of young men join their voices in a battle cry as they edge closer to the silhouette of a parked Mercedes, some of them aiming what look like handguns, others reaching for lighters.
In the harsh light of an underground parking lot in this grim suburb northwest […]
They’re Movies, Folks….
Life & Leisure News Article | Reuters.com
That is just one of a list of complaints made about “Munich” by those with direct knowledge of the Israeli reprisal campaign.
Spielberg’s version paints a grim picture of what befell five men sent by Israel to track and kill members of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) blamed for the […]
Hysteria
BREITBART.COM - NSA Web Site Puts ‘Cookies’ on Computers
NEW YORK - The National Security Agency’s Internet site has been placing files on visitors’ computers that can track their Web surfing activity despite strict federal rules banning most of them. These files, known as “cookies,” disappeared after a privacy activist complained and The Associated Press made […]
I Love This Stuff
Chico and the Man - What Los Angeles Times press pundit David Shaw could learn from reading his own paper. By Jack Shafer
Los Angeles Times press pundit David Shaw asserted on March 27 that “mainstream” journalism is inherently superior to the pitiful scrivenings produced by bloggers because 1) bloggers have no “journalistic experience” (any fool […]
Not Only Are Newspapers Under Siege, Paper Itself Is
Here’s an excellent discussion of e-publishing that fits in well with my own experience in the arena. Of course, it will be interesting to see how something like this will affect things, if it does.
The Little Man Who Wasn’t There
Centrist Democrats hit anti-Bush tactics - Nation/Politics - The Washington Times, America’s Newspaper
Some centrist Democrats say attacks by their party leaders on the Bush administration’s eavesdropping on suspected terrorist conversations will further weaken the party’s credibility on national security.
Note that this article could not come up with a single “centrist Democrat” politician who thought […]
Listing
All Things Beautiful needs your help in naming The Ten Worst Americans.
Can’t Touch This
Jeremy Hermanns dot org ” Alaska Flight #536 - Rapid De-Pressurization and Panic at 30K Feet
This is an amazing, on the scene account of an emergency in the air, complete with real-time photos. This is the sort of reporting that terrifies the mainstream media, because there is no way they can match it as […]
Specter Does Understand the Path to a Television Camera, Though
FOXNews.com - Politics - Specter Wants Domestic Spying Hearings Next Month
WASHINGTON - Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter said Wednesday he remains skeptical about a government surveillance program despite an explanation from Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
The two met for an hour Sunday to discuss the rationale for the warrantless eavesdropping by the National Security Agency that […]
The Loathesome Fred Phelps
Randy Thomas approves of the Patriot Guards. So do I.
If You Can’t Beat Them, Join Them?
Chicago Tribune | Judging the case for war
After reassessing the administration’s nine arguments for war, we do not see the conspiracy to mislead that many critics allege.
Odd. First the NYT runs an editorial supporting GWB’s use of the NSA to tap phone calls with possible terror connections. Then the Trib decides that Bush […]
I Really Like Blogs That Kiss My Rear
Townhall.com :: Columns :: Lord of the blogs by Kathleen Parker
Although I’ve been a blog fan since the beginning, and have written favorably about the value added to journalism and public knowledge thanks to the new “citizen journalist,” I’m also wary of power untempered by restraint and accountability.
I think I’m going to start calling these […]
Cowardice and Insanity
Unwarranted Complaints - New York Times
The president has the constitutional authority to acquire foreign intelligence without a warrant or any other type of judicial blessing. The courts have acknowledged this authority, and numerous administrations, both Republican and Democrat, have espoused the same view. The purpose here is not to detect crime, or to build criminal […]
Hypocrisy, Thy Name Is Europe
The Scotsman - Top Stories - EU states that berated Bush on Kyoto fail to hit emissions targets
MANY of the European nations responsible for coercing the United States to remain committed to combating climate change are named and shamed today as major polluters of the environment.
…However, he added: “We are not surprised to see the […]
But What Will This Mean For Property Values?
Guess who’s moving into my neighborhood?
WaPo Smear Attempt Deliberate, Calculated, Dishonest Effort To Discredit Competition
In an error-riddled article that appeared recently in the Washington Post headlined Bloggers, Money Now Weapons in Information War, reporters Jonathan Finer and Doug Struck intimated rather bluntly that well-known blogger Bill Roggio was acting as an agent for a US information warfare operation.
In the interests of full disclosure I should note that Roggio and […]
Gaza Beaches Weapons Smuggling Paradise
There’s still a catch for Gaza’s boatmen - World - theage.com.au
Fishermen from the nearby Khan Yunis refugee camp and the town of Rafah had been unable to set foot on the beaches since the beginning of the second intifada in 2000. The Israeli Army had sealed off and occupied the dazzling Mediterranean’s shore.
They were not […]
The Big Apple
Apple juggernaut shows no sign of waning says this report on CNN (how does a juggernaut wane, I wonder?)
My prediction: there are people out there (mentioning no names) who are still clinging to the ‘imminent death of Apple’ line, despite having been proven gloriously, spectacularly wrong for some twenty years now. I’d also say it’s […]
Pointing Out the Obvious
News coverage losers
Most recently, we have word from the National Hurricane Center that Katrina was not a category 4 storm at all, but rather, a category 3 when it slammed into the Gulf Coast Aug. 29. So much for the notion the levees were built to withstand anything less than a category 4.
[…]
Nice Stitch Work!
Townhall.com :: Columns :: Cheap politicians by Thomas Sowell
You could pay every member of Congress a million dollars a year for a century for less money than it costs to run the Department of Agriculture for one year.
And more fascinating factoids about the Hogs of Summer (and Fall, Winter, and Spring) from Dr. Sowell.
I didn’t […]