The House late Tuesday evening adopted an amendment offered by Rep. Vito Fossella to withdraw American aid to any United Nations commission chaired by a country that has sponsored international terrorism. Mr. Fossella, a Republican, cited such absurdities as Iraq chairing a commission on disarmament as a reason to adopt his amendment. The State Department submitted a letter opposing the Fossella proposal to a House appropriator.
It's about time.
Trapeze artists with one of the world's most famous circuses have been told to start wearing hard hats to comply with new EU safety rules. Jugglers, tightrope walkers and other acrobats with the Moscow State Circus, which is currently touring Britain, have also been instructed to don safety head wear because of European regulations covering workers employed at heights greater than the average stepladder.
...Goussein Khamdouleav, 48, who performs somersaults - without a safety net - as part of the highest indoor tightrope act in Europe, scoffed at the idea that a safety hat would be much use to him if he fell 45ft to the ring below.
...Mr Archer added: "The hats could be more of a liability than anything else. They could slip over the artists' eyes or throw the performers off balance. "This is just another loony law from Brussels and we are the only country stupid enough to pay any attention." [UK Telegraph, "Circus acts told to wear hard hats under new EU law", July 23, 2003]
Allen Forkum also writes:
The New York Post has an excellent article by Amir Taheri about The Real Iraq (Hat tip Jena Trammell). Excerpts:
"The daily Al Quds, another pro-Saddam paper, quotes from The Washington Post in support of its claim that 'a popular war of resistance' is growing in Iraq. Some newspapers in the United States, Britain and 'old Europe' go further by claiming that Iraq has become a 'quagmire' or 'another Vietnam.' [...] This chorus wants us to believe that most Iraqis regret the ancien regime, and are ready to kill and die to expel their liberators. ... Sorry, guys, this is not the case. [...] There are two Iraqs today: One as portrayed by those in America and Europe who wish to use it as a means of damaging Bush and Blair, and the other as it really exists, home to 24 million people with many hopes and aspirations and, naturally, some anxiety about the future."The Australian has an op-ed by James Morrow that puts the "it's another Vietnam" bleating into perspective: US critics sink in mire of denial (Via LGF). Excerpt:
"Those who continue to try to play the quagmire card should look at, and recall, the facts. US involvement in Vietnam lasted a decade and cost more than 50,000 US lives. So far, it has been barely four months since US troops first crossed into Iraq, and since the end of major combat on May 2, just 33 US soldiers have been killed by the so-called 'Iraqi resistance' [as of July 24]. ... While every soldier's death is tragic (and it is touching to see so many on the Left suddenly concerned about the welfare of American men and women in uniform), it doesn't take a Stephen Hawking to figure out that these losses are nothing like those inflicted by the Vietcong."A Voice of America News article (among others) quoted the head of coalition ground forces, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, as saying the reconstruction efforts "are way ahead of schedule".
Fox News ran the DoD's Timeline of Reconstruction Progress in Iraq as well as a general overview article: Despite Setbacks, Iraq Reconstruction Moves Ahead. Excerpt:
"Right now, we're in the process of rebuilding the country," Sgt. J.J. Johnson, of the Coalition Press Information Center in Baghdad, said recently. "A lot of these problems were not problems we caused or the Iraqis caused themselves but they're issues we have to deal with. [...] We've got 20 years of neglect to make up for" that occurred during Saddam's regime. "A lot of that we can't do overnight."And Scrappleface has this hilarious satirical take: Quagmire Index Revised to Reflect Death of Saddam Sons.
The U.S. government has committed a monstrous act: it sent back to Cuba the twelve escapees who managed, last week, to get within 40 miles of Florida's coast in a boat fashioned out of a 1951 Chevy pickup truck.
These courageous escapees, who risked their lives to be free in America, will no doubt be thrown in prison and tortured--if not executed like the three men who hijacked a ferryboat to flee Cuba in April--by the murderous Castro regime.
It is highly hypocritical for President Bush--and other American politicians--to talk about bringing freedom to the world while sending freedom-seeking refugees back to a totalitarian dictatorship.
Suggested reading:
Cuba's Cruel Joke
The once-muscular Cuban economy is in tatters and its much lauded social safety net a cruel joke. In Cuba, the poor are bled to support the lifestyles of the government elite, which lives in luxury - the driveways of the Havana honchos sport Mercedes - while its populace goes hungry.
Fidel Batista! Fidel Castro Out-Thugs Fulgencio Batista
Forty-four years into the Revolution, Fidel Castro will have achieved all the failings, real and perceived, that Cuba had under Batista, and it will have retained few of the virtues.
Torture in Castro's Cuba
Surprise! Surprise! Wolves are once again slaughtering ranchers' cattle, but this time it's the overtaxed Canadian who is forced to compensate the rancher (albeit at 80% of the value).
An America President in Communist Cuba
Carter's historic visit to Cuba, the first by an American president, current or past, since totalitarian rule was first instituted in 1959, will never provide Cubans -- including Elian Gonzalez -- with what they need most: Freedom.
Short, dismissive shrift to Cheney. CNN's NewsNight, which two weeks ago relayed a false Internet story about how a CIA "consultant directly told the President that this African uranium deal was bogus," a fraudulent tale the show has yet to correct, on Thursday night skipped Vice President Cheney's address about how the pre-war National Intelligence Estimate warned that "if left unchecked, it [Iraq] probably will have a nuclear weapon during this decade." But anchor Anderson Cooper did make time for a look at how Times Square now has a Red Lobster restaurant.
ABC, CBS and NBC all reported on Cheney's July 24 address to a group at the American Enterprise Institute in which he outlined how the consensus of the intelligence community was that Iraq had chemical and biological weapons, but all three denigrated and dismissed Cheney's assessment of the late 2002 intelligence report.
CBS's John Roberts, for instance, gave Cheney a sentence before contending that "Cheney avoided other intelligence in that same paper, the now discredited reference to Iraq's desires for uranium." Roberts added that former CIA Director John Deutch "said the entire case about Iraq's weapons is beginning to look like a 'massive intelligence failure.'"
Over on the NBC Nightly News, David Gregory scolded the Vice President: "But Cheney failed to mention doubts within the intelligence community about" claims Iraq was pursuing nuclear weapons, noting how the State Department "dissented." But, Gregory did not note, that dissent only appeared in an appendix.
ABC's Peter Jennings didn't even give Cheney a syllable of a soundbite, holding World News Tonight coverage to this short item in which Jennings undermined Cheney's credibility by highlighting how he "has been accused" of "pressuring agencies to come up with information that would justify an attack on Iraq." ...
...NewsNight has yet to correct regular anchor Aaron Brown's picking up of a rumor on July 9. He asked reporter David Ensor to comment on "a story that's been circulating on the Web today that there was at some point a conversation between the President and a CIA consultant where the consultant directly told the President that this African uranium deal was bogus." Brown's raising of such an uncorroborated story befuddled Ensor, who speaking slowly as he fumbled for words, told Brown: "I have no way to confirm that story and it is somewhat suspect I would say..."
Brown didn't cite his source, but he was quoting from a posting on CapitolHillBlue.com. But they, it turns out, retracted their one-source story at about 6pm EDT, four hours before Brown went on the air. CapitolHillBlue.com Publisher Doug Thompson discovered that his source, one Terrance Wilkinson, who identified himself as a CIA and FBI consultant, was a fraud.
Tehran stepped up the war of words with Ottawa on Thursday, accusing Canadian police of killing an Iranian man in Vancouver and demanding that the Canadian government bring those responsible to justice.
...The accusation appears to be escalating a heated dispute sparked by the death of Montreal photojournalist Zahra Kazemi, who was beaten and died while in Iranian custody. [Related item: Canadian Journalist 'Beaten to Death' Iran.] She was buried in Iran this week against the wishes of her son, leading Ottawa to recall its ambassador to Tehran and threaten further action.
Wire services cited Iranian state radio accusations that police in Vancouver had "attacked" three young Iranians on Tuesday, and killed one of them identified as Keyvan Tabesh. A young Iranian émigré was, indeed, killed in Vancouver -- although it occurred several weeks ago. Port Moody police say that a young man identified as Mr. Tabesh was shot dead by an out-of-uniform police officer as he ran at the officer waving a machete.
...A Foreign Ministry spokesman in Tehran suggested that there is a lack of freedom in the Canadian media, saying that controls are imposed by the Canadian government and that "the strong censorship of this story creates more ambiguities."
The spokesman called for "an explicit and transparent and satisfactory explanation" and the punishment of those responsible, a near-echo of Ottawa's demands in the Kazemi case. ["Iran accuses Canadian police of killing Iranian", Globe and Mail, Jul. 24, 2003]
Considering the irrational standards many Canadians use to label the U.S., the label is appropriate. Rationally, there is no story here. Iran is just trying to play the same moral equivalentalism with Canada, that American intellectuals play against the Bush administration. Truth is, with its "hate crimes" legislation Canada does impose strong censorship on its own people.