Sulzberger

From the WSJ

"Our children, we vowed, would never know that. So, well, sorry. It wasn't supposed to be this way," [Sulzberger] continued. "You weren't supposed to be graduating into an America fighting a misbegotten war in a foreign land. You weren't supposed to be graduating into a world where we are still fighting for fundamental human rights," and so on. Forgive us if we conclude that a newspaper led by someone who speaks this way to college seniors has as a major goal not winning the war on terror but obstructing it.

USA Today

A story about USA Today's contribution to the NYT's terrorist assistance program:

USA Today acknowledged in a "note to our readers" Friday that it could not establish that BellSouth or Verizon contracted with the National Security Agency to provide it with customer calling records, as it previously reported.

But spokesman Steve Anderson said "this is an important story that holds up well. At the heart of our report is the fact that NSA is collecting phone call records of millions of Americans."

Why would you want to call attention to this just now? Are they nuts? Truth is, no NSA computer ever looked into who I called and who called me. The NSA looked into who contacted suspected terrorists. And, like it or not, that was a good thing.

Hunger Strike!

Though I suspect that Cindy Sheehan is going on a hunger strike for the same reason Michael Moore needs to go on a hunger strike, what if I'm wrong? What if hunger strikes can somehow alter reality?
Just to be safe, I'm going to have an extra banana split on July 4th, and I urge anyone who has an interest in the future of Iraq to do the same. In fact, have two. Plus a big slice of Oreo pie. Remember, you're making up for Cindy.

Find and Destroy

From a BBC story:

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered special services to "find and destroy" the killers of four Russian diplomats taken hostage in Iraq. The head of Russia's security services immediately pledged to see Putin's order carried out.

The Russian government confirmed the four men's deaths this week, after an insurgent group released a video showing two of them being killed.

The group had demanded Russia leave Chechnya and release Muslim prisoners.

"The President gave the order to Russian special services to take all measures for finding and eliminating the criminals who carried out the murder of Russian diplomats in Iraq", the Interfax news agency quoted the Kremlin's press service as saying.

"Finding and eliminating them" makes it sound like a fair trial is not going to be part of the process. Course, that's Putin's business. At least there will be no Russian ACLU nipping at his heels, claiming beheadist abuse. Also:

Separately, the lower house of the Russian parliament approved a statement condemning the killings, and appearing to blame Iraq's "occupying powers".

"The whole responsibility for the situation in Iraq, including guaranteeing the security of its citizens, and also foreign specialists, as before lies on the occupying powers," the statement said

Russia has strongly opposed the US-led military campaign from the beginning.

About Russian opposition to the US military campaign, I'd note: fat lot of good it did them. The horror at Beslan was in 2004, their diplomats are not safe, and I haven't heard anything about the Chechen situation cooling.

Personally, I hope that justice is done in the case of the Russian diplomats. And I hope that we assist the Russians in finding the bad guys. Watch though, if we help deliver the bad guys, and the Russians kill them, and the New York Times finds out about it..... The headlines will be "War Criminal". So, let's not let the NYT find out about it. It seems the only way you can keep information secret these days, I mean really secret, so that nobody hears about it, is to advertise it on Air America.

Age of Aquariums

(CNSNews.com) - America is about to revisit one of the most turbulent decades in its history, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean told a religious conference in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. "We're about to enter the '60s again," Dean said, but he was not referring to the Vietnam War or racial tensions.

Dean said he is looking for "the age of enlightenment led by religious figures who want to greet Americans with a moral, uplifting vision."

"The problem is when we hit that '60s spot again, which I am optimistic we're about to hit, we have to make sure that we don't make the same mistakes," Dean added.

Yeah, how bout we all don't get stuck in them this time, Howard.

EU Headquarters

Belgian Journal points out who really rules the streets in Belgium.

From the desk of Paul Belien on Mon, 2006-06-26 21:38
The Belgian state is no longer able to guarantee the security of its citizens. On Saturday afternoon Guido Demoor, a 54-year old Flemish train conductor on his way to work, was kicked to death by six “youths” on a crowded bus near Antwerp’s Central Station. The incident recalls the rush-hour murder ten weeks ago of Joe Van Holsbeeck, 17 years of age, in a crowded Brussels Central Station on 12 April.

Guido Demoor, a father of two, intervened when six “youths” got on bus 23 in Antwerp and began to intimidate passengers. There were some forty people on the bus. Demoor asked the “youths” to calm down, whereupon they turned on him, savagely beating and kicking the man. At the next stop thirty passengers fled the bus. The thugs kept beating Demoor. They then pulled the emergency brake and jumped from the bus leaving their victim to die.

Seems like a stiff price to pay for asking the thugs to settle down.

.....“You see what happens if you intervene,” one of Guido Demoor’s colleagues at Belgian Rail is quoted in the newspaper De Morgen today. “If Guido had not opened his mouth he would still be alive. [...] He was a good man. I would not have dared to do what Guido did. I was beaten up once and since then I have become very careful.”

....Problems occur not only in major Belgian cities, such as Antwerp and Brussels, but also in provincial towns, such as Sint-Niklaas. Last week bus drivers in Sint-Niklaas refused to drive out in protest against the aggressive behaviour of immigrant youths on the buses. In today’s De Morgen drivers, who have all asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals, relate experiences of “buses being demolished while en route” and of “youths harassing girls, who beg the driver to protect them.” One of the drivers said: “If they refuse to buy a ticket I leave it. I do not want to be beaten up for one and a half euros.”

Is the whole EU headed this direction? Towards daily intimidation by the immigrants they've allowed into their countries? Maybe someone should look for a common thread. Perhaps these thugs are all video-game players, or perhaps they're all techno-rock devotees....

Joe, Joe, Joe...

I'm sure you've seen it by now. Joe Biden, his words:

“I’d rather be at home making love to my wife while my children are asleep,” he said.

Joe, Joe, Joe, Joe, Joe. If you're doing it properly you'll wake-up the kids. I'm fact, I get kind of sheepish if I haven't scared the dogs as well. Causing the neighbors to call the police is always flattering but it's absence isn't necessarily a sign of failure. Still, "while my children are asleep"? Joe, it's well, creepy. Sleep-overs are the thing. Get the kids out of the county if possible. And have a cover-story about breaking wild horses in the house ready in case the neighbors get curious.

Yahoo

So who decides which news pictures get put on the Yahoo site? Whoever it is, I've noticed they have a fondness for catching the president's most bizarre facial expressions. You know the ones, the shutter opens and closes just when he is saying the "fuh" in "fine," and the result is an image that looks for all the world like Gomer Pile during the plunge phase of a prostate exam. So ok. Fine, I say.

But who decides which unflattering pictures make it? I wonder because I ran across the following picture when I was photoshopping blood onto the hands of the ACLU folks. Then, the next day, the picture had disappeared. 404 gone.





And you can see why. The angle makes her look like a little kid. An oddly dressed little kid, stretching to make it to the microphones. Cute, kinda. And that's why I saved the picture even though I didn't photoshop it. It's the contrast between the image and the event; look at the little girl, doing her best to facilitate innocents dying at the hands of terrorists. Awwww, isn't she precious?

Anyway, why is the picture gone now? because she requested it maybe? It's hard to imagine Yahoo honoring requests to take down images. Remember the image of Bush at the lectern, only the top half of his head showing? seems like that was a Yahoo picture for weeks. Or what about this guy:



You can't tell me he's not calling the Yahoo offices every ten minutes, begging them to 404 that image.

Bill Keller

Sorry Mr. Keller, you get cheap photoshop blood on your hands too. I know it's cheesy but it will have to do. I know you'll never be honest enough to admit that you've done a bad thing here. A year from now, when someone dies in an act of terror, I know you won't wonder if your exposure of the financial tracking operation played any part in the death. So cheesy or not, it's photoshopped blood for you, Bill. And a promise of an e-mail reminder when your actions bear (real) bloody fruit.

ACLU Outreach

The one on the left is the real ACLU poster. It's updated for the 21st century on the right. And maybe it's true; eventually everyone will need the ACLU. They just haven't gotten around to Christians yet, or families, or the law abiding.




ACLU marches into the future: