Not-remote control

I have lived all my life scrupulously avoiding trying to explain why people do things: I focus on what they are doing.

Trying to figure out what people are actually doing is difficult enough for me. Simple person that I am, if it quacks, waddles, has a flat beak and looks like a duck, I accept that it's a duck and proceed accordingly.

I know people who would analyze whether the duck is an ugly swan, or whether it wants to make you think it's a duck but isn't, or whether it's a duck who's struggling to get its inner sheep to come out to play. While pondering these scenarios might be interesting, for the greater part they are a huge waste of time: you still have a duck.

Beyond a certain point, I stop looking into motivation, psychology or idiosyncrasies and simply try to accept what is there as best I can. Needless to say, mine is a very simplistic approach, as you surely noticed from this post last year.

Having said this, at times I succumb to the temptation of trying to explain why some people do some things. Recently I've been thinking about the issue of control.

A couple of weeks ago I posted the opening to the Kenneth Branagh film of Much Ado About Nothing, which starts with,

Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more,
Men were deceivers ever,
One foot in sea and one on shore,
To one thing constant never:
Then sigh not so, but let them go,
And be you blithe and bonny,
Converting all your sounds of woe
Into Hey nonny, nonny.
Sing no more ditties, sing no moe,
Of dumps so dull and heavy;
The fraud of men was ever so,
Since summer first was leafy:
Then sigh not so, but let them go,
And be you blithe and bonny,
Converting all your sounds of woe
Into Hey nonny, nonny.

At that time a woman friend (an old friend from pre-blogging days) had been watching the movie and we conversed about whether Shakespeare shortchanges men ("Men were deceivers ever… The fraud of men was ever so"), and whether Shakespeare offers valuable advice.

We both agreed that the advice is priceless, and worth living by. She wished she had learned of it earlier.

But we agreed for different reasons: she agreed because she has been treated badly by the men in her life, who indeed were deceivers ever. I have lived a much more protected life and my experience has been much better, and as I am an optimist and have been very independent from a very early age (I graduated high school at age sixteen by completing all the requisite courses because I didn't like my all-girls' school), I'm all for being blithe and bonny and letting go of sighs and woes, and avoiding hanging one’s life on someone else's whims and wishes.

My friend, whose second husband had just left her, also talked about The Rules. The Rules essentially says that women should live the best lives they can and let men chase them.

Sounds good to me. I've been married for decades so I wouldn't know whether The Rules work in today's convoluted courtship capers. The Rules has been accused of being manipulative but I would wager that the fact still remains that men still like to chase women and women still want to be chased.

The problem comes up when one is trying to control the other.

A lot of women want to dominate everyone around them. They are driven mostly by insecurity but also by anger, and sometimes the wish for power. Most men actively resent domineering women and can be driven to all sorts of crazy behavior out of spite. Some men want to dominate, too. While independent women like myself are not interested in domineering men, some domineering men see this as a bull sees a red cape and charge ahead.

Whether it's on a personal relationship, a professional situation, or just general everyday interaction, nothing puts me off more than a guy who’s trying to control me.

It seems to me, however, that the more appealing men are those who allow women to be all they are without trying to control them, which makes the woman more willing to surrender at the right time. The least controlling the guy, the better.

Why do some guys have this urge to control, then? Is it insecurity, anger, the desire for power over others, as it is in women, or is there more to it? Why do some guys seem to charge full speed ahead near independent women?

Yesterday I was talking to a male friend, who explained that independent women sometimes scare and anger men. Frustrated men need to compete and dominate: "some men need to dominate first before they can share. Others, better adjusted, are not threatened by those kinds of things," my friend explained, "It's pretty straightforward."

So I ask you, dear readers, what is your opinion?


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Indoctrination education: your Delaware tax dollars in action

At the University of Delaware, you get treatment for your politically deficient attitudes:

According to the program's materials, the goal of the residence life education program is for students in the university’s residence halls to achieve certain "competencies" that the university has decreed its students must develop in order to achieve the overall educational goal of "citizenship." These competencies include: "Students will recognize that systemic oppression exists in our society," "Students will recognize the benefits of dismantling systems of oppression," and "Students will be able to utilize their knowledge of sustainability to change their daily habits and consumer mentality."

According to their criteria, Puerto Ricans like myself are racists, simply because my grandparents crossed the Atlantic and settled abroad:

"[a] racist is one who is both privileged and socialized on the basis of race by a white supremacist (racist) system. The term applies to all white people (i.e., people of European descent) living in the United States, regardless of class, gender, religion, culture or sexuality."

And it'll cost you $16,098 if you're a Delaware resident, $27,348 if you're from out of state. I guess that part of their "consumer mentality" should not be affected.

Indoctrinate U, for sure.
Flopping Aces has DU's University President Patrick Harker's contact information:

Office of the President
University of Delaware
104 Hullihen Hall
Newark, DE 19716-0101
(302) 831-2111 FAX: (302) 831-1297
E-mail: harker@udel.edu



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MS-13 gang members arrested in Princeton

Last August I posted about the MS-13 gang's connection to the Newark murders of three young college students in Newark.

In yesterday's Princeton Packet (I'm including the full article since the Packet tends to not keep their articles up permanently):
Night of burglaries in Princeton nets arrests
Three gang members are charged

Princeton Borough Police followed silently for more than two hours the night of Oct. 19 as three individuals allegedly cased several homes before being arrested and charged in connection with at least 10 burglaries in the borough, the township and on the campus of Princeton University.

All three suspects are undocumented illegal aliens, and evidence has linked all three with the MS-13 street gang, police said, in announcing the arrests this week.

Saul Eduardo Palma-Chajon, 22, whose last known address was in Princeton, and Byron Diaz, 18, of Princeton, and a 16-year-old male Princeton resident were charged with numerous counts of burglary, theft and criminal mischief as well as conspiracy to commit burglary, receiving stolen property and being armed while committing a burglary.

Mr. Palma-Chajon and Mr. Diaz were also charged with employing a juvenile in a crime, and the juvenile was also charged with juvenile delinquency.

Police said the series of residential burglaries over the last several weeks involved homes being entered with the use of force during the late afternoon or evening hours.
Once inside, the suspects stole merchandise, including jewelry, laptop computers, cameras, iPods and credit cards.

Princeton Borough Chief Anthony Federico said two burglaries in the borough occurred on Gordon Way, and two occurred on Hamilton and Vandeventer avenues, respectively.

At least one of the two burglaries in the township occurred on Deer Path, and at least three more occurred on the university campus, he said.

Although much of the stolen items have been recovered and claimed by the victims, a substantial amount of stolen merchandise has not yet been linked to any victim, and police are still determining how many burglaries occurred, Chief Federico said.

As part of the investigation, a team of officers engaged in a burglary surveillance detail on the east end of the borough on Oct. 19, a Friday night.

At 8:30 p.m., officers began to observe the group of three males acting suspiciously near Hamilton Avenue, before they entered yards on a number of properties and walked around to allegedly “case” the homes, police said.

For the next two hours, the surveillance unit followed the group while they continued to enter yards in the northeast and southeast sections of town and occasionally split up, police said.

Although they did not attempt to break into a house, the group was stopped by police at 10:30 p.m.

Two of the three individuals gave police fake names and identification, police said.

Further investigation revealed that all three individuals possessed property that had been reported stolen from recent burglaries, police said.

Subsequent residential searches in the borough yielded stolen items from at least eight different recently reported burglaries and thefts in the borough, the township and on the university campus.

Borough police have notified Immigration Customs Enforcement to advise the agency of the arrests of the individuals, all of whom are from Guatemala.

Charges are also pending within Princeton Township and within the Princeton University Campus.

Mr. Palma-Chajon's bail has been set at $1,000,000 cash, and Mr. Diaz' bail has been set at $500,000 cash.

The juvenile is being held at the Mercer County Youth Detention Center.
Chief Federico said it was unusual that most of the stolen property was recovered.

"Most burglars will get rid of the stuff really quickly," he said. "It's unusual when we get back this amount of property."

Any victim of a recent burglary or theft in the Princeton area should call the Princeton Borough Police Detective Bureau at 609-924-4141 to view the recovered property to see if it belongs to them.

More posts and links here. Background: Nationwide crackdown on vicious gang nets 10 in N.J.



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The insane "Mother of All Tax Bills"

Kevin Hassett discusses at Bloomberg

For those of you wondering what the details of taxing the rich to pay for Democratic spending proposals might look like, Rangel, a close ally of Hillary Clinton, has provided a tour of the abyss. If the ``mother of all reforms,'' as he calls his tax plan, had a name, it would be Mrs. Bates. But, unlike Norman's mother in the Alfred Hitchcock classic ``Psycho,'' this lady is very much alive.

In terms of revenue, Rangel's reform would be the biggest tax increase in history. Compared to a baseline where President George W. Bush's tax cuts are extended and the dreaded alternative minimum tax isn't allowed to swallow millions of taxpayers whole, the bill raises taxes by a whopping $3.5 trillion over the next 10 years, according to the office of Representative Jim McCrery of Louisiana, the top Republican on the Ways and Means Committee.

To put that in perspective, that's about $2 trillion more than the 10-year cost of the Bush tax cuts enacted back in 2001.

But the revenue grab isn't the scariest part. That honor belongs to the increase in marginal tax rates, which is almost unfathomable in its scale. Rangel's main objective is to repeal the alternative minimum tax, which was originally designed to capture taxes from wealthy individuals but over the years has taken in more and more middle-income families.

48% Tax Rate

To accomplish that, and still collect the AMT revenue, he would enact a surtax on the adjusted gross incomes of wealthy taxpayers. If your family's income is above $200,000, then your surtax is 4 percent. If it's above $500,000, it's 4.6 percent.

But the tax increase on the wealthy doesn't stop there. When the Bush tax cuts expire in 2010, the top marginal rate goes back to 39.6 percent. In addition, Rangel would restore the phase-out of itemized deductions and personal exemptions that was repealed in Bush's 2001 bill.

The accountants' lobby must have been knocking at Rangel's door.

Tom Blumer was saying,

This is why you will almost never, if ever, hear the Charlie Rangel/Hillary Clinton crowd, whom I am tentatively naming "Team Chillary" (in honor of what they will do to the economy if they get their way), actually say that they want to raise the highest federal bracket to 39% or so with their MOAT, and then to 44% or so if the tax system in place since 2003 otherwise goes back to where it was in 2000 (this is usually referred to as "repealing the Bush tax cuts," but should be seen as a big tax increase over what we've been used to now for many years). Instead they speak of tiny-sounding 4% surtaxes and the like.

As the old psychiatrist said to Carmela, "You've been told. Now you can't say nobody warned you."

ore from Betsy.


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The first CARNIVAL OF LATIN AMERICA and the CARIBBEAN

Welcome to the first Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Today's top Latin American news is that Argentina's first lady, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, is now its president.
Here's the BBC video report

The campaign has been colorful, to put it mildly, between those auctioning their votes on line to that suitcase with $800,000 that Chavez (allegedly) sent the Kirchners last August

Argentina To Elect New Evita - Or Is It Hillary?

From The Heritage Foundation: Argentina: Implications for the U.S. If First Lady Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner Becomes President. One thing for sure: expect more populism.

This week's Spanish-language roundup: Martha Colmenares's roundup on the Argentinian elections
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BAHAMAS:
Road Rage in the Bahamas

BOLIVIA:
The women's civic committee of Santa Cruz, Bolivia, shows how the police have tried to repress protestors. Bolivia Confidencial posts their video here (Such is Evo's repression) in Spanish.

BRAZIL:
Learn To Surf In Floripa

CHILE
Subjective Lens photoblog Chile

CUBA:
Leonard Weinglass' seditious activism on the Cuba 5

Cuba, Bush, and The Lives of Others

El che lives at the UN

ECUADOR:
ECrisis posts on International terrorist rings in Spain and Latin America, and links to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps

Also at ECrisis, Banco del Sur is a Slush Fund for Sponsors of Terror, Drug Running, Criminals, Mafias, Racketeers and Propagandists

MEXICO:
The Rehabilitation of Miguel Hidalgo

AfroMexico - Mexicans of African descent (via Mexico in English)

Anything but no, when it comes to travelling with the dog.

NICARAGUA:
Ortega's Nicaragua: Another Tropical, Socialist Paradise?

PERU:
Alvaro Vargas Llosa on Fujimori's Shadow

PUERTO RICO:
La Casa's Leticia Rodriguez Continues Legacy

VENEZUELA:
The Venezuelan bloggers are doing a line-by-line review of Chavez's proposed constitutional reforms. You can read it all here: Venezuela's Constitutional Reform.
Veneuela-USA looks at
Constitutional reform - Article 100

Alive and blood thirsty (comments on the Che influence over chavismo)

Another shameful day in Venezuela's democracy

The hunt for the liter of milk

Chavez is Adored by His Subjects - NOT!

The dope from Venezuela

The Prophetic Scent of repression.

The Human Rights Foundation: Artists Reunite for Human Rights in Latin America; Concert Tour in New York to Stress the Plight of the Caracas Nine

The Venezuela Connection: exhibit F, as a Royal Navy warship seizes 3 tons of cocaine from Venezuelan vessel
More at the Royal Navy website.

Want this badge?

Blog Carnival

If you are a Latin America or Caribbean blogger who wants your post featured in next week's Carnival, please send me your link: faustaw "at" yahoo "dot" com.
One link per blog, please.

Special thanks to Lady Godiva for her kind words and support.

Don't miss also the resources at the Hispanic Center for Economic Research for more information on Latin America.
--------------------------------------------------------
Others blogging on this:
The Astute Bloggers
Doug Ross@Journal
Dr. Sanity
GM's Corner
Obi's Sister
Sigmund, Carl and Alfred



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Sarko walks out on 60 minutes, 70,000 walk out on NHS

Sarkozy walks out of TV interview: Sarko wasn't going to talk about his divorce, and he didn't:

"If I had something to say about Cecilia, I would not do so here," he said before cutting off further questions.

I like that.

No Pasaran has the link to 60 Minutes

Update, Friday November 2:
Kyle-Anne Shiver:

So, to all our American men, who have been cowed by the unisex armies of overbearing loud-mouthed gossips, I say it's high time you throw off the shackles of politically-correct indulgence and join the Sarkozy revolution. You too can be real men again, and all the real women will love you for it. Catty gossip has no place in the public discourse, and simply standing your ground and saying so, in no way makes you a "Male Chauvinist Pig," or even a borderline "sexist." It simply makes you a self-respecting gentleman of the highest order.

Amen to that!
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The latest trend in outsourcing:
Record numbers go abroad for health treatment with 70,000 escaping NHS

Record numbers of Britons are travelling abroad for medical treatment to escape the NHS - with 70,000 patients expected to fly out this year.

And by the end of the decade 200,000 "health tourists" will fly as far as Malaysa and South Africa for major surgery to avoid long waiting lists and the rising threat of superbugs, according to a new report.

The first survey of Britons opting for treatment overseas shows that fears of hospital infections and frustration of often waiting months for operations are fuelling the increasing trend.

Meanwhile at the Times of London, Quack Michael Moore has mad view of the NHS.

I expect Michael Moore will be rewarded with an Oscar and a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts.

Update:
Welcome, Blog Report visitors.
Please read this week's Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean, and please visit often.


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Special podcast today at 1PM Eastern: Matt Sanchez calls from Germany

While the WaPo proclaims, 'I Don't Think This Place Is Worth Another Soldier's Life' bloggers like Jim Hoft are taking the time to check and verify. Frequently their findings are contrary to those of the MSM.

Then there are the independent journalists and bloggers that go to Iraq and report from the war zone.

Jeff Emanuel asks, Does independent journalism from Iraq really make a difference?

Clearly it does:

The bottom line is, though, we do have outlets (though none better than our own websites, which is why we try to flush traffic there at every opportunity), and we risk our lives to make the information available. It's up to the American people to decide to use that information. As far as media competition goes, that's a large part of what Bill Roggio and his PMI (an organization I've done a lot of work to help out with) are trying to do -- to set up a news-reporting version of the AP, AFP, Reuters, etc. that makes its living (inasmuch as a 501(c)3 can "make a living") filing reports from the front lines in the war on terror, through the use of embedded reporters. Is it possible? Yes. Is it sustainable? To this point, the conservatives and unaffiliateds who have been approached -- some people who spend an inordinate amount of time griping about the media we (Americans) have vs. the media they want us to have -- have proven unwilling to actually do anything about the problems they are so vocal about; therefore, PMI is behind the power curve as far as funding goes. If and when a conservative (or non-liberal) with actual vision to go along with his or her deep pockets steps forward and decides to back the frontline reporting project, then this, I believe, can and will become a powerhouse of journalism that more and more people will see and become affected by.

Today Matt Sanchez, who's been embedded in Iraq for four months and will be returning there after a break in Germany, will be calling for a special podcast at 1PM Eastern.

We will continue the conversation we started three weeks ago when Matt called from Iraq.

The call-in number is (646) 652-2639. Please join us!


------------------------------------------------------
In other, unrelated war news,
The Iraqi Army has collected money to aid the families whose homes burned down in California.


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Sunday books, shoes, and Carnival

This week's "Five Best" from the WSJ, business books:


The only book I haven't read of these five is the Email book. I highly recommend Twyla Tharpe's book: entertaining, insightful, and very enjoyable.
---------------------------------------------------
This week's shoes, Ugg's Tie Bow:
Yes, I know they're ugly, but these will keep your toes warm

A slipper with a sheepskin insole and driving shoe treads on the outside. Make sure to change into dress shoes when you get to the office!
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The Carnival of the Insanities is up.


If that's not enough insanity for you, read about what happened when Bill Richardson started wathing the X-Files.

Saturday evening periodic table

What were you expecting, more tango?
Well, in that case,

Give me six months of intensive training and those shoes, & I'll be dancing like that.

Facebook, demographics and the Beeb

Updated
Facebook reveals the BBC as a liberal hotbed

The BBC has frequently been accused of having a liberal bias.

But now the corporation's own staff appear to have confirmed this by revealing their political views on the networking website Facebook.

A survey of BBC employees with profiles on the site showed that 11 times more of them class themselves as "liberal" than "conservative".
...
Research by the conservativehome. com website showed that 1,340 staff put themselves in the "liberal" or "very liberal" category, compared with just 120 who were "conservative" or "very conservative". Some 340 regard themselves as "moderate".

Regular readers of my blog certainly know that. A quick survey of my posts can tell you of their love of Che, their conveing al-Qaeda propaganda, and on and on.

Ed Driscoll has some observations on the Beeb's 'Powerfully Corrosive Internal Culture'

Also don't miss this:


Biased BBC has more.

Update:
On the subject of Facebook,
Over at Newsbusters, Matthew Sheffield links to Patrick Ruffini's excellent article, The Early Adopter Effect

It was after I started reached the mid-20s that I stumbled upon something that may help quantify the early adopter bias. High school and college users were pretty consistently about 4-8 points more liberal than conservative. That’s sort of where you’d expect them to be given the 18-29 year old vote. And Facebook’s market penetration with this cohort is such that this is likely to be a highly representative sample of Americans that age.

But the older you got, through users in their 20s, the more liberal the user base became. It was inexorable. Each year, liberals picked up a couple of points on conservatives. My fellow 29-year olds on Facebook are +25.3% liberal. The 20-year old bracket is +4.5% liberal.

Given how stable the numbers were for college/high school users, with much higher numbers, this seemed unlikely to suggest an actual demographic shift in Generation Y.

But something else was going on. As liberals were picking up steam, the number of Facebook users were getting progressively smaller with each age cohort.

It makes perfect sense when you think about it. These users represent early adopters who never used Facebook in college. The people who joined Facebook since it opened up, or finagled a way into it before then using a stray alumni .edu address like I did.

This is pretty strong evidence of a liberal/early adopter correlation. Non-college Facebook users in their late twenties are two to one liberal where their college age counterparts are pretty closely matched.

That two-to-one ratio probably correlates with usage of other high-end web services and even traffic to the candidate sites themselves. It also gives quantifiable backing to the idea that Republicans stand to gain as the universe is widened entering the general election, as I've long suspected.

Here's my facebook page, and I belong to the Newsbusters group, too.
--------------------------------------------
For more Saturday reading, don't miss The Wahington Times's fabulous round-up.


Techorati: BBC
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These new podcasts, and this old New Jersey House

Two dear friends, Siggy and Dr Sanity, are now podcasting.

Yesterday I was Siggy's first guest and Dr. Sanity joined in. I had a wonderful time talking to both of them, and am sure you're going to enjoy listening.

Today Siggy and Pat conversed about defense mechanisms in the new The Sanity Squad podcast.

While you listen, read my latest article at the Star Ledger, This Old New Jersey House.
Update: Those Were The Days, My Friend...


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So you want to trust your health care to the government...

Yet another example of big-government's efficiency:
Aircraft sat as California wildfires took hold

As wildfires were charging across Southern California, nearly two dozen water-dropping helicopters and two massive cargo planes sat idly by, grounded by government rules and bureaucracy.

Yup.

Michael Fumento writes about Hollywood's War on the WOT

Hollywood's War on the War on Terror

Critics have labeled the new movie "Rendition" a "political thriller." Whether it thrills or not is subjective. But "political"? Absolutely. It’s merely the latest in an unbroken series of major films about the war on terror that range from those seeking to assure us that Islamist terrorism isn’t the threat we might think, to those depicting the terrorists as no worse than those who fight them - and by implication the American people as a whole.

Michael mentions The Sum of All Fears:

Consider, too, the odyssey of the conversion of Tom Clancy's massive best-selling 1991 book, "The Sum of All Fears," in which a nuclear bomb destroys an American city, into the 2002 film of the same name. In the book and the original script, the bad guys were Islamist terrorists. Little did Mr. Clancy know how realistic his choices of villains were: Federal court hearings in February 2001 revealed that as early as 1993, Osama bin Laden offered $1.5 million to buy uranium for a nuclear weapon.

But ultimately the Paramount movie depicted the bomber as yet another comic book character villain, an Austrian neo-Nazi. (Though at least he never says, "Vee haff vays uf making you talk!")

Thank goodness for that. The villain was played by Alan Bates, my idol, fresh from his part on off-Broadway's The Unexpected Man.

Michael continues,

Mr. Clancy, who unfortunately had no control over the process, took a swipe at director Phil Alden Robinson on the special features section of the DVD. Mr. Robinson, for his part, made the incredible claim on the DVD extra that the change was in the name of realism.

In reality, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) had lobbied to change the villains and won. "I hope you will be reassured that I have no intention of promoting negative images of Muslims or Arabs," Mr. Robinson wrote to them, "and I wish you the best in your continuing efforts to combat discrimination." Paramount's CEO at the time, Sherry Lansing, also suggested that she would steer clear of movies with Muslim villains.

Ed Driscoll notices Hollywood's nihillism:

I'm not sure when such a worldview developed; though James Piereson would argue this was the flashpoint. But in any case, the mindset that fuels Hollywood's dangerously self-destructive cocktail of nihilism and a punitive blind spot regarding America and its role in the world is surprisingly similiar to the elite news media's long-running sense of aloofness and cosmopolitanism.

As Glenn Reynolds points out,

"THE PROBLEM IS NOT WITH THE PEOPLE THAT STARTED THIS. THE PROBLEM'S WITH US." That's a Robert Redford breakout line from the trailer to his new war-on-terror movie that just appeared on my TV. It certainly sums up a certain worldview.

Indeed.

Audiences aren't buying it.

Michael Fumento was my podcast guest last March, when we talked about his work as an embed in Iraq. You can listen to the podcast here.


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Starting next Monday at Fausta's Blog: THE CARNIVAL OF LATIN AMERICA

Want this badge?

Starting next Monday, I'll be hosting The Carnival of Latin America.

I invite all Latin American bloggers to send me posts you want featured; please send only one post per blog. My email address is faustaw "at" yahoo "dot" com.

All posts should be written in English, as the purpose of the Carnival is to highlight Latin American bloggers to an English-speaking audience.

Add the above badge to your blog, and email me your post!

Jack's back, season vii

Via Jay:

Tony's back, but what about Edgar?

Laura, dhimmi - Correction: I rushed to judgement

Via LGF:

Veil and abaya.

Update
Apparently Mrs Bush was wearing a black suit and the veil was a gift. Please read the comments.
I apologize ... for now.

Military Reports Lower Casualty Rates in Key Iraq Insurgent Strongholds - How low, you ask?

Updated
Military Reports Lower Casualty Rates in Key Iraq Insurgent Strongholds

U.S. combat troop deaths and other violence in Iraq are down significantly in some of the most dangerous places of insurgent activity, including Al Anbar province, military officials in Washington and Baghdad said Wednesday.

How low, you ask?

Maybe most significant was that last week there was not a single military casualty - Iraqi or U.S. - in Anbar, said Maj. Gen. Richard Sherlock, a Joint Chiefs spokesman. It is apparently the first time since March 2003 that could be said.

As you may all recall, Anbar province used to be al-Qaeda's capital in Iraq.

Bill Roggio: "The darkness has become pitch black" - Osama bin Laden on Iraq situation.

Belmont Club:

Osama laments that "the darkness has become pitch black." That's him looking into his soul.

Things must be boring for reporters in Iraq, indeed.

Update:
In today's blogger's call, I had the opportunity of asking Senator McCain if he could comment on the news. His reply was,

I hope Harry Reid and the media get to hear about it.

This success is directly related to the surge - the Sunni sheiks joined in against al-Qaeda, and now the Shia are doing the same thing....
Overall, it's a great success story I look forward to seeing it reported on CNN & other unbiased outlets.

You can read more about the Iraq report here.

James Joyner has more on McCain's bloggers' call.


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The CounterJihad Summit in today's Podcast

In tonight's podcast, Siggy and Gates of Vienna join us to talk about the CounterJihad summit.

The call-in number is (646) 652-2639, and there's also chat.
Join us at 9PM Eastern!

Threats?

Mariane Pearl drops lawsuit against al Qaeda in NY

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The widow of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl has dropped a lawsuit against al Qaeda, other radical groups and Pakistan-based Habib Bank Ltd over the abduction, torture and murder of her husband, court records show.

Lawyers on behalf of Mariane Pearl filed the lawsuit in July which sought unspecified damages against "those terrorists, terrorist organizations and the supporting charitable and banking organizations for the senseless kidnapping, torture and murder of Daniel Pearl."

A notice of voluntary dismissal was filed late on Tuesday in federal court in Manhattan that stated Pearl had decided to dismiss the case.

"The withdrawal was done for personal reasons that had nothing to do with the merits of the lawsuit," a spokesperson for Pearl's lawyers Motley Rice told Reuters.

Hat tip Siggy.

Ecuador wants a base in Miami, and the students are protesting in Venezuela

Now that Hugo got his man in Ecuador, and keeping in mind that Venezuela is a major point of transit for drugs smuggled from South America to the United States and Europe, Correa's coming through:

Ecuador wants military base in Miami

Ecuador's leftist President Rafael Correa said Washington must let him open a military base in Miami if the United States wants to keep using an air base on Ecuador's Pacific coast.

Correa has refused to renew Washington's lease on the Manta air base, set to expire in 2009. U.S. officials say it is vital for counter-narcotics surveillance operations on Pacific drug-running routes.

"We'll renew the base on one condition: that they let us put a base in Miami -- an Ecuadorean base," Correa said in an interview during a trip to Italy.

Interesting how he's saying it in Italy, isn't it?

The U.S. embassy to Ecuador says on its Web site that anti-narcotics flights from Manta gathered information behind more than 60 percent of illegal drug seizures on the high seas of the Eastern Pacific last year.

It offers a fact-sheet on the base at: http://ecuador.usembassy.gov/topics_of_interest/manta-fol.html

Correa's learned his soundbites from Hugo:

Correa, a popular leftist economist, had promised to cut off his arm before extending the lease that ends in 2009 and has called U.S. President George W. Bush a "dimwit".

But Correa, an ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, told Reuters he believed relations with the United States were "excellent" despite the base closing.

You would think that by now Chavez and Correa could have paid someone to write them a new script.

Meanwhile in Caracas, the police continue to use force against protestors:

Venezuela protest turns violent

Thousands of students have clashed with police in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, during a protest against proposed constitutional changes.

Police fired tear gas at students angry at plans to let President Hugo Chavez stand for indefinite re-election as bottles and stones were thrown.
...
Among the students' concerns about the erosion of civil liberties is the fear that the authorities will be allowed to detain citizens without charge during a state of emergency.

Mr Chavez has dismissed criticism of the constitutional changes saying they are needed to accelerate Venezuela's transition to socialism.

It was Another shameful day in Venezuela's democracy

To make matters even worse, the pro-Chavez groups blocking the way included a couple of Deputies of the National Assembly, demonstrating that democracy is not alive and well in Venezuela. As the representatives of the students went into the Capitol building, only the pro-Chavez media was allowed in and even more remarkably a group of pro-Chavez "students" who had nothing to do with the march were also allowed in. Deputy Calixto Ortega won the day in terms of shame, when he said he did not understand why these students required "special" treatment, since the reform has been discussed extensively (!!!) and the students were getting "too much coverage" from the press. I guess the right to express yourself has now become a "special right" in Venezuela.

Venezuela News and Views posts:

The news today was the first dissident student march against the ill-called constitutional reform of Chavez. For a first effort it was impressive, and if chavismo thought that they had it made, they must be pondering new strategies tonight. The fact of the day is that the blockade put to the march by chavismo, comprised of Metropolitan Police and the usual red-shirted hordes failed: the students broke through and had to be received by the National Assembly.

Before relating the details of the day it is important to delve on this point: the students threw away their fears, and confronted chavismo in the streets. But also it is important to note that the chavista hordes were less numerous than usual and certainly not numerous enough that even as they were protected by the police, they could not block the passage to the student march. I do not know which is the most important fact, that chavismo is losing its touch or that the opposition is waking up bravely.
...
At any rate, the day is very important for two things:

1) visibly the opposition to the constitutional change is much bigger and determined than what anyone was thinking, including chavismo.

2) the way promises were broken, the way the army and the police acted, illustrate clearly that we are already under a repressive regime and that the objective of the constitutional changes are simply to make legal all that is already taking place.

Here's the Univision report (in Spanish):


The transition to communism is going to roll right along as Chavez consolidates power. That will continue for as long as oil revenuew hold

Venezuela's finances may quickly collapse if international oil prices stabilize, as revenues of state-owned PDVSA are falling while its costs are on the rise, according to the head of Harvard's Center for International Development.

"You don't need to wait for lower oil prices to see Venezuela crash. A stable oil price will do it, you just have to work yourself for 12 months," professor Ricardo Hausmann told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of a seminar organized by Deutsche Bank.

Hausmann, who served as planning minister for Venezuela between 1992 and 1993, argued that while PDVSA's oil production declines, internal oil consumption is increasing rapidly.

But gasoline prices in Venezuela are subsidized by the government of President Hugo Chavez, who allows Venezuelans to fill up the tank of their cars for less than $2. Moreover, the Venezuelan currency is fixed at an official rate of 2,150 to the dollar, well below the parallel market level of 5,800 per greenback.

"So if you are substituting exports for domestic sales, that has a huge impact on PDVSA," the professor said, adding that the production costs of the Venezuelan oil industry is also rising fast.

Early this month, Venezuelans formed long lines to buy gasoline in a major provincial city after outages at a refinery prompted rare worries of supply shortages in the country.

The concert was cancelled, too.

Update: A Colombo-americana's perspective has the timetable.



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Tuesday night passion

And the survey says...

Last night I was sitting in the family room reading St. Augustine for the class I'm auditing and enjoying a glass of wine, nearly dozing off (Augustine's not quite the kind of reading I find exciting), when the phone rang.

It was the folks from the Fairleigh Dickinson University public opinion research center.

Imagine my surprise.

I've been eligible to vote for decades and this is the very first time any of the many surveys has called. I perked up and, seeing a blog post in the making, answered the many questions the lady asked.

First of all, it's amazing that people actually answer. The survey comprised a few dozen questions and took close to an hour. I really was looking for an excuse to not read St. Auggie.

Then there were the questions: everything from Iraq and foreign policy, to Hillary and the Democrats, President Bush's approval, New Jersey politics and tolls, and stem cell research. No stone was left unturned.

The questions were asked by a nice lady, not by a machine. A couple of years ago I got an automated "survey" and hung up immediately, not bothering to find out who had the brilliant idea to want my opinion without bothering with human courtesy and contact.

Unfortunately the lady asking the questions also offered unwanted feedback.

At one point the conversation went like,
"Is progress being made in Iraq?"
I answered, "Very definitely, yes."
"It is?"
"Oh, yes."
"Are you sure?"
"Most definitely. I've been talking to people who are actually in Iraq right now."

It's a good thing I passed Assertiveness Training class with flying colors.

Well, that didn't take long

U.S. Prosecution of Muslim Group Ends in Mistrial.

The Beeb didn't take long in declaring them innocent: Their report started with "A mistrial has been declared in the case against an innocent Muslim charity..."

I'll add a link to the video report if the Beeb posts it.

From the H-Bomb to the Human Bomb

City Journal consistently publishes some of the most interesting articles to be found on the internet. This morning I was reading From the H-Bomb to the Human Bomb by Andre Glucksmann:

What threatens Iraqi society is not Vietnamization but Somalization. Recall Operation Restore Hope, in which an international force, led by Americans, disembarked in Mogadishu in 1993, seeking to ensure the survival of a population that was starving and being massacred by rival clans. After losing 19 in a horrific trap, the GIs left. The rest is well known. An angry President Clinton swore “never again,” and a year later refused to intervene in Rwanda, where 5,000 blue helmets would have been enough to interrupt the genocide that wiped out as many as 1 million Tutsi in three months.

The Somalian model has spread across the planet, from the Congo to chaotic East Timor to Afghanistan, where the Taliban have violently resurfaced, to Iraq. Populations are taken hostage, terrorized, and sacrificed, the spoils of wars by local gangsters. Under various pretexts—religion, ethnicity, makeshift racist or nationalist ideology—commandos contend for power at the point of AK-47s. They fight against unarmed populations; most of their victims are women and children. Terrorism is not the prerogative of Islamists alone: the targeting of civilians has been used by a regular army and by militias under the command of the Kremlin in Chechnya, where the capital city of Grozny was razed to the ground. Where the killers appeal to the Koran, it is still primarily Muslim passersby who suffer. Algeria, Somalia, and Darfur (at least 200,000 dead and millions of refugees in just a few years, with the Sudanese government, protected by China and Russia, acting with impunity) are live laboratories of the abomination of abominations: war against civilians.

This is a must-read, and two paragraphs don't do it justice; as Glenn says, read the whole thing.



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Last night's debate, and Fred en espanol

For the first time, the candidates actually got to debate each others' points. The WaPo says, Attacks Sharpen Among Party's Principal Rivals. Fred Thompson's running as a conservative, and he's not keeping quiet about it:

Former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney were quickly put on the defensive, fending off criticism leveled by former senator Fred D. Thompson (Tenn.), who questioned their conservative credentials.

While the debate played on TV I was keeping an eye on Carlos Curbelo's liveblogging in Spanish at the Fred Thompson site.

As I mentioned last night, I was skeptical over the bilingual experiment. The Democrat instant-translation effort at Univision was ghastly not only because of the pandering but also because the translation was awful. Carlos did an excellent job translating but also bringing out Fred's points at the same time as the other candidates.

While the average Spanish-speaking voter probably won't need the liveblogging because they already know English, the liveblogging in Spanish apprears to be a useful tool to inform newly arrived residents to the US on the campaign's positions. Currently, as Florida residents are well aware, there's a significant influx of new (legal) residents coming in from Venezuela and other South American countries. The Thompson campaign has an innovative approach, and it's starting to show.

John McCain got a Standing O:


Fox News did a woefully inadecuate job of allotting time to the candidates. Ed Morrissey noticed, too. I wish the media would pay more attention to Duncan Hunter, who is well informed on national security, immigration and the role of government.

But at least we finally got a debate.

Meanwhile, while the debate was on, our boys (and girls) in Iraq were busy smashing a big Iranian backed militia base in Sadr City

Memeorandum, however, only sees the debate through the Hillary prism.
Theo Spark has this:



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Cheating husbands and all that

Language alert:
While I consistently strive to maintain a certain leve of discourse in this blog, the quotes in this post are unedited for cursing and coarse language
Rep. Charles Rangel Apparently Refers to Giuliani as a 'Cheating Goddamn Husband'

Apparently? Did he, or didn't he say it?

Well, let's take a look: Rudy's Doin[' It!
Battle Stations! Shocked Cacophony Among New York Democrats That Rudy They Know May Actually Become Republican Candidate; 'Romney Is Entitled to Three Wives,' Says Charlie Rangel

Referring to Andrew Giuliani's reportedly distant relationship with his father since the ugly bust-up of Mr. Giuliani's marriage with Donna Hanover, Mr. Rangel said it was because "sons respect and admire their fathers, but they love their mothers against cheating goddamn husbands."

And touching on another of Mr. Giuliani's public difficulties - Mr. Giuliani's close association with Bernard Kerik, the disgraced former police commissioner - Mr. Rangel said he regretted that all the personal problems surfaced so soon in the electoral process. "I'm sorry this damned thing turned out so early because, really, just like Kerik, it would have bombed his ass out," said Mr. Rangel.

But Mr. Rangel said he still looked forward to Mr. Giuliani's Republican opponents making an issue of his infidelity - "Romney could say, 'I'm entitled to three wives,'" Mr. Rangel said - and said that when it came to abortion, "The church will take care of his ass all alone."

Such is Charlie Rangel's concern for the public morals and the high level of political discourse that he can not restrain his opprobrium.

Thanks, Charlie; where were you in '98?

Pejman's asking a similar question.


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A death in the neighborhood

My latest article is up at the Star Ledger's New Jersey Voices section.

Fred en español

After watching the Democrat Univision debate that was so awful, I was rather skeptical of Fred's campaign liveblogging in Spanish.

So I talked to Carlos Curbelo, who'll be doing the liveblogging in Spanish. Carlos, a Florida resident, is very enthusiastic about this new approach to liveblogging a debate. He joined the Thompson campaign when Fred announced his candidacy.

While Carlos is not currently blogging on his own, he's part of the Thompson campaign blog. The Thompson team came up with the idea for the liveblogging in Spanish when they saw the opportunity to be the first campaign to offer this service.

The Friends of Fred Thompson blog will liveblog in both English and Spanish.

It's going to be interesting to watch!

Pajamas Media and The Real Sporer are also liveblogging. Andrea King is in Orlando for the debate.


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WaPo favors day-before news to real news from Iraq

Last Friday I posted on a press conference and bloggers' call held from Iraq by three members of the Provincial Reconstruction team. The State Department had formally announced the press conference on Thursday. The video conference was later transcribed and posted, and the video is on line.

At that time I did the Friday post I wondered what the MSM would report on the information from that press conference. Mind you, this was the second press conference on PRTs this week. The first one (which was held on Monday) went mostly ignored.

Well, this morning I did a search and here's all there was at the Washington Post as of this morning: Reconstruction In Iraq at a Crawl, Auditor Reports, which was a summary of an audit released on Thursday. This was the case with all the American newspapers.

One has to go to new Zealand to find any reporting on either of the PRT press conferences from this week: Provincial Reconstruction Teams Progress In Iraq, which refers to the Monday press conference.

What all the people who spoke at the press conferences emphasize is that the Iraqis are taking charge of a much larger role in their own governance and security. This doesn't match the MSM's meme that Iraq is a quandary, civil war, Shia-vs-Sunni, loser's game. The media are doing this meme without actually visiting the country.

As Matt Sanchez said in our podcast, the progress taking place is remarkable. Michael Totten is in Commentary Magazine reports,

In the parts of Iraq where the locals turn against the insurgents en masse, it is only a matter of time before the insurgents are finished. Civilians phone in actionable intelligence on the locations of safe houses, weapons caches, IED's, and everything else.

Michael Yon reports on America's best ambassadors.

Matt and both Michaels are in the very areas they are writing about. They are there.

Any firsthand reporting that Iraq is not what the MSM wants it to be ("another Viet Nam"), is being ignored. For instance, Anbar Province Team Leader Kristin Hagerstrom specifically talked about Ramadi. As you may remember, last year al-Qaeda declared Ramadi the capital of the Califate in Iraq. Next week, Ms Hagerstorm stated, the people of Ramadi are planning an enormous rally in memory of Sheik Shatar and against al-Qaeda.

But a few newspapers are starting to report on what really is going on in Iraq now. This morning Michael Ledeen writing in the WSJ makes the bold statement that Victory Is Within Reach in Iraq

As evidence of success mounts, skeptics often say that while military operations have gone well, there is still no sign of political movement to bind up the bloody wounds in the Iraqi body politic. Recent events suggest otherwise. Just a few days ago, Ammar al-Hakim, the son of and presumed successor to the country's most important Shiite political leader, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, went to Anbar's capital, Ramadi, to meet with Sunni sheikhs. The act, and his words, were amazing. "Iraq does not belong to the Sunnis or the Shiites alone; nor does it belong to the Arabs or the Kurds and Turkomen," he said. "Today, we must stand up and declare that Iraq is for all Iraqis."

Mr. Hakim's call for national unity mirrors last month's pilgrimage to Najaf, the epicenter of Iraqi Shiism, by Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, a Sunni. There he visited Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the top Shiite cleric. The visit symbolically endorsed Mr. Sistani's role as the most authoritative religious figure in Iraq. Mr. Hashemi has also been working closely with Mr. Hakim's people, as well as with the Kurds. Elsewhere, similar efforts at ecumenical healing proceed rapidly. As Robert McFarlane reported in these pages, Baghdad's Anglican Canon, Andrew White, has organized meetings of leading Iraqi Christian, Sunni and Shiite clerics, all of whom called for nation-wide reconciliation.

The Iraqi people seem to be turning against the terrorists, even against those who have been in cahoots with the terror masters in Tehran. As Col. Sanders puts it, "while we were down in Basra, an awful lot of the violence against us was enabled, sponsored and equipped by. . . Iran. [But] what has united a lot of the militias was a sense of Iraqi nationalism, and they resent interference by Iran."

The propaganda war here in the US continues. But the real reporting is being done by 33 independent embeds in Iraq.



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Shallow Sunday items

Mark Steyn takes on the shallow children in Congress:

Last Thursday, Nancy Pelosi, as is the fashion, used the phrase "the children" like some twitchy verbal tic, a kind of Democrat Tourette's syndrome: "This is a discussion about America's children … We could establish ourselves as the children's Congress … Come forward on behalf of the children ... I tried to do that when I was sworn in as speaker surrounded by children. It was a spontaneous moment, but it was one that was clear in its message: we are gaveling this House to order on behalf of the children."

Etc. So what is the best thing America could do "for the children"? Well, it could try not to make the same mistake as most of the rest of the Western world and avoid bequeathing the next generation a system of unsustainable entitlements that turns the entire nation into a giant Ponzi scheme.

Blue Crab Boulevard:

That is the real danger of the "for the children" mantra. It really is "sticking it to the children."

Update, Monday 22 October: Betsy has more----------------------------------------------------------------
The beautiful RightWingSparkle shares some Shallow Political Thoughts

Update 8PM: The Republican debate started. It looks like Mitt listened to Kathleen.
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Via Beth,
Shallow Man's Guide to the 2008 Republican Presidential Candidates
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Panty power!
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David Kennedy critiques a shallow book.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Not shallow but a lot of fun, this week's Carnival of the Insanities

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This week's shoes, via The Manolo, who, for a change featured a pair of shoes under $100:

The Manolo shows them in black, I prefer them in red. ----------------------------------------------------------------
Amazon is now carrying Rolex:

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Last but not least, this week's WSJ's Five Best, picked by Brian Williams,

Che's dead & his monument's shot

Via Maria,

Glass Monument to Che in Venezuela Shot

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - A glass monument to revolutionary icon Ernesto "Che" Guevara was shot up and destroyed less than two weeks after it was unveiled by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's government.
Images of the 8-foot-tall glass plate bearing Guevara's image, now toppled and shattered, were shown Friday on state television, which said the entire country "repudiated" the vandalism.

The monument on an Andean mountain highway near the city of Merida was unveiled Oct. 8 by Vice President Jorge Rodriguez and Cuba's ambassador to Venezuela to mark the 40th anniversary of Guevara's death.

Will the locals turn in whoever did it? I doubt it. Notice who inagurated the monument.

Che gets a bullet between the eyes.


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Press Conference from Iraq: "Doing Good is Our Best Weapon"

Bloggers' conference call with PRT staff in Iraq:

The Provincial Reconstruction Team program in Iraq is the civilian component to the military surge the President announced with his New Way Forward.

Paul O'Friel is a career State officer who has successfully led one of these joint civilian military teams. Paul’s team serves the very first province, Muthanna in southern Iraq, where control has been turned back over to Iraqis. In spite of that, his Iraqi counterparts have continued to welcome engagement… in fact work with local leader has increased since the province has returned to local control.

Wade Weems leads one of the newest teams in a predominately Shi'a Moslem portion of southern Iraq. Sited along the Tigris River near the provincial capital of al-Kut, Weems’ team has been pivotal in helping local governance take a foothold. The surge in military forces has empowered this civilian led team to re-establish an American presence in this important province on the Iranian border. The team’s military partners are varied and includes: US Forces, Salvadorans and soldiers from the nation of Georgia. Primarily an agricultural province, the Team is working with their military and Iraqi partners to launch a work corps that takes its inspiration from the Civilian Conservation Corps started by President Roosevelt to alleviate joblessness.

Kristin Hagerstrom leads a embedded PRT based in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar Province. Formerly one of the most volatile areas of the country with a virtually non-existent local government, the last year has represented a sea-change in this Sunni Province. As an embedded team, Ms. Hagerstrom is actually part of the 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division. She and her 15-person team of civilian and military development experts and their partners in the Brigade are perfectly poised to facilitate the transition to political accommodation and economic progress.

Weems, O'Riel and Hagerstorm reported from the provinces where they are currently stationed. Each of them are involved in day-to-day project that not only involve the Iraqis in deciding what needs to be done, but in actively participating in, and focused on, their priorities and needs, and in solving them.

For instance, Muthanna province is focused on budgeting, planning, and executing a budget: What their needs are now, where the province wants to be in 3 to 5 years, and what progress needs to be made in order to get there. The PRT team is encouraging them to open up planning to non-government officials, like NGOs and the USAID office.

The projects vary from infrastructure, such as water and trash collection, to crafts fairs. to meeting basic human needs, to rebuilding a school in southern Iraq. The school's principal spoke on Iraqi TV about this project - which will have a sister school in the USA.

Each province has its own identity and the work is tailored for each situation.

Mr. Weems and the other speakers emphasized:

• Creating a hope is extremely important
• Security has improved dramatically from a year ago
• "Doing good is our best weapon... our shield and our protection", as people who support ous do what needs to be done.

Their aim is to engage directly with Iraqis at the local level to understand what people really need and how is the government meeting those needs.

The point of the PRT teams is to develop strong, long term relationships that will withstand whatever shock may come.

Ms Hagerstorm compared the improvement in Ramadi during Ramadan in 2006 and 2007: Last year there were 70 IEDs during Ramadan, this year, none. Last year there were no weapons caches found; this year, 30, which were turned in by the locals.

One of the questions asked about the murder of Sheil Shatar. Al-Qaeda miscalculated by murdering Sheik Shatar: the Iraqis feel that "we're all in it together, and killing one man didn't kill the momentum on what Iraqis are doing".

The conferees invited the media to visit them in Iraq so they could see for themselves.

I'm interested in seeing what the MSM reports on this press conference, if they get around to reporting on it. This kind of reporting isi not about to start another moral bonfire to discredit the cause in Iraq.


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Money for moving

My article's up at the Star Ledger.

Thank you, John Mc Combs

Le Divorce

Maverick French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his beautiful wife Cecilia are doing a most American thing: something so American the Americans themselves haven't caught up yet.

They are divorcing while he is in office.

Rather than remain in a marriage of convenience for the sake of Appereances, the way Bill and Hillary, and Mitterand, and Chirac, and so many others in power have, when their marriage ended, the Sarkos are ending it "by mutual consent."

Sarko has a reputation as a ladies' man, and Cecilia ran off with her boyfriend two years ago. For a while there they did the French thing and got back together. Now they are divorcing.

The French are indignant that the Sarkos are being honest with themselves and with the public:

Noël Mamère, France's other bushy mustached American hating globophobe (who spends his time arranging illegal marriages for criminals), declares that "It's time to close the book on the Americanisation of French public life".

How French.


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CNN whitewashes the DC Snipers

Investor's Business Daily examines the CNN "investigation":

Muhammad and Malvo, now in prison in Virginia, still managed to kill 10 and wound three — including an elementary school kid shot in the back — while paralyzing the nation's capital for three full weeks.

The jailhouse drawings of the younger sniper, Malvo, tell it all:

- One sketch of Osama bin Laden exalts him as a "Servant of Allah."

- A self-portrait of him and Muhammad is captioned: "We will kill them all. Jihad . . . Allah Akbar!"

- A sketch of the burning Twin Towers has as its caption: "America did this. You were warned."

- A poem scribbled alongside an American flag and star of David drawn in cross hairs reads: "Our minarets are our bayonets, Our mosques are our baracks, Our believers are our soldiers."

- The Quran (Surah 2:190) is quoted as follows: "Fight in the cause of Allah those who fight you and slay them wherever ye catch them." Also: "Islam the only true guidance."

- The White House is drawn in cross hairs, surrounded by missiles, with the warning: "Sep. 11 we will ensure will look like a picnic to you," and "you will bleed to death little by little."

- Another warning reads: "Islam. We will Resist. We will conquer. We will win."

Somehow CNN's "special investigations unit" managed to overlook this pile of courtroom evidence. It showed only one drawing — a self portrait of Malvo shedding tears.

CNN maintains that Malvo, an alleged victim of negligent parents, now has remorse for his victims — even though he wrote in one notebook: "They all died and they all deserved it. We will not stop. This war will not end until you are all destroyed utterly."

CNN also omitted the fact that while Muhammad and Malvo were in county jail awaiting trial, their lawyers insisted they be fed Islamic "halal" meals, such as veggie burgers, instead of ham sandwiches. They also got copies of the Quran.

According to Knight Ridder and others reporting at the time, the director of a shelter where the two men stayed for a spell in Washington state tipped off the FBI that Muhammad "might be a terrorist."

That incident mysteriously disappeared from an interview that CNN host Soledad O'Brien conducted with the same source for the special.

As with the CNN excercise in moral equivalence in its God's Warriors series, CNN continues to show which side they're on.



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Bolivian Myths at TNR

The New Republic (who disgraced itself with the Scott Thomas Beauchamp story) has an excellent article by Alvaro Vargas Llosa, Bolivian Myths: What Do the Bolivian People Really Want:

After talking to Bolivians from all walks of life in areas ranging from the rural outskirts of Santa Cruz, in the east, to Cochabamba, in the highlands, and from the jungles of Chapare to Tiwanaku, the site of an ancient citadel peopled by indigenous Bolivians, I am persuaded that Morales' government is ruling based on myths. Those myths need to be exposed before other Andean countries where ethnic and social divisions are also abrasive follow suit.

• The greatest myth is that Bolivia's population is alien to Western culture imposed by 300 years of colonial rule and two centuries of republican life.
• The second myth pursued by Morales is that Bolivians want communal property.
• Another myth is that the regions calling for local autonomy want to break away from Bolivia.
• One last myth is that the nationalization of natural gas in the southeastern lowlands will liberate the indigenous population.

As they say, read the whole thing.

Update

What would Bill Cosby say?


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