...there's a new holiday popping up everyday.

Posted by: Kathy at 05:16 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 11 words, total size 1 kb.

YESYESYESYESYESYES!

{...}Some of us are scratching our heads all right, but we're wondering why Mr. Graham and others believe Dubai Ports World has been insufficiently vetted for the task at hand. So far, none of the critics have provided any evidence that the Administration hasn't done its due diligence. The deal has been blessed by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, a multiagency panel that includes representatives from the departments of Treasury, Defense and Homeland Security.

Yes, some of the 9/11 hijackers were UAE citizens. But then the London subway bombings last year were perpetrated by citizens of Britain, home to the company (P&O) that currently manages the ports that Dubai Ports World would take over. Which tells us three things: First, this work is already being outsourced to "a foreign-based company"; second, discriminating against a Mideast company offers no security guarantees because attacks are sometimes homegrown; and third, Mr. Graham likes to talk first and ask questions later.

Besides, the notion that the Bush Administration is farming out port "security" to hostile Arab nations is alarmist nonsense. Dubai Ports World would be managing the commercial activities of these U.S. ports, not securing them. There's a difference. Port security falls to Coast Guard and U.S. Customs officials. "Nothing changes with respect to security under the contract," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said yesterday. "The Coast Guard is in charge of security, not the corporation."

{...}Critics also forget, or conveniently ignore, that the UAE government has been among the most helpful Arab countries in the war on terror. It was one of the first countries to join the U.S. container security initiative, which seeks to inspect cargo in foreign ports. The UAE has assisted in training security forces in Iraq, and at home it has worked hard to stem terrorist financing and WMD proliferation. UAE leaders are as much an al Qaeda target as Tony Blair.

{...}So the same Democrats who lecture that the war on terror is really a battle for "hearts and minds" now apparently favor bald discrimination against even friendly Arabs investing in the U.S.? Guantanamo must be closed because it's terrible PR, wiretapping al Qaeda in the U.S. is illegal, and the U.S. needs to withdraw from Iraq, but these Democratic superhawks simply will not allow Arabs to be put in charge of American longshoremen. That's all sure to play well on al Jazeera.{...}

{emphasis mine}

While I've quoted liberally from this, please go and read the whole thing anyway.

I tried to pull my thoughts together on this whole deal last night but I couldn't: I was too angry at all the stupidity and grandstanding involved to get everything down in a coherent fashion. I'm glad for that because the Wall Street Journal editorial board did a much better job than I ever could have.

This whole controversy is manufactured. And it's been manufactured by people who are looking after American commercial interests, and then it was picked up by Hillary Clinton's people for the purpose of proving she's a hawk in time for re-election to her senate seat. That's it. And everyone has fallen for it, including Congressional Republicans who have a few electoral hopes and dreams of their own for 2008 and who are now in open rebellion against their president again over an issue that they're bound to lose. Did you hear me or do I need to repeat that again? Bush will win this one. It'll be ugly, but he'll win. This is not another Harriet Miers scenario. How could it be? All the facts are on Bush's side. The worm is already starting to turn on this issue. And this worm has teeth: it will come back to bite anyone who argues against the sale because that's the stupid, uninformed position to take.

None of this, of course, really gets into the first class xenophobia and, in some instances, flat-out bigotry on display here. While most Middle Eastern men do wear dishdashas and ghoutras, and this makes them look all alike, really and truly, you should be able to tell the good guys from the bad guys by now.

Or at least you should be able to if you want to comment on this matter without looking like an idiot.

The UAE is a liberalized country in the Middle East that we want to be associated with. It is in their best interests to foil Al-Qaeda as much as we would. They buy arms from us. They have some of the most innovative examples of free trade going on. Their oil runs out in 2010 and their leaders have done their best to make sure there is an economy for their people when this unhappy event occurs. They did this to make sure radical Islam did not gain a foothold within their country. To lump the UAE in with Saudi Arabia---which has done precisely the opposite in terms of building an infrastructure, liberalizing trade, and encouraging education---or Syria, or any number of repressive Arab countries is the worst of mistakes not only because it's a political boo-boo, but because it threatens our national security down the road by taking chickenhawk potshots at an ally who's done nothing but help us in the War on Terror.

This editorial ends with the hope that Bush means it when he says he's going to veto any legislation that would prevent this sale: I hope he means it too, and if he doesn't follow through on it, I will, again, wonder why I voted for him.

Posted by: Kathy at 09:01 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 925 words, total size 6 kb.

"DON'T SUE PEOPLE WHO DON'T HAVE ANY MONEY"

This is, apparently, a rule which Mike Hatch, the Minnesota AG follows to the letter. Otherwise why would he be suing Pfizer and Merck on behalf of the great State of Minnesota to recoup the costs of cleaning up meth labs?

{...}Hatch said he plans to sue giant international drugmakers such as Pfizer and Merck on grounds that they long have known that large quantities of their legal products have been diverted to illegal meth labs, spurring an epidemic of addiction, crime and shattered lives across America.

It is a step likely to stir opposition, especially in an election year when the DFL attorney general is a leading candidate to challenge Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty. Drugmakers say Hatch's plan would penalize makers of valued medicines for others' misuse of their products.

"I'm sure it's controversial," Hatch said. "But we've got to be serious about this. This industry essentially lied to the American public. They're clearly dumping [meth ingredients] in a way that allows creation of this illegal substance."

{...}Hatch noted, however, that the companies "strenuously opposed legislation that would have made their products more difficult to obtain."

Hatch said he will seek enabling legislation to assist the courtroom assault -- including extending the drugmakers' liability six years into the past -- an idea that got a chilly reception from Republican leaders.

Hatch suggested, however, that he could move ahead without legislation, adding that "current law already provides legal theories for recovery of costs caused by meth from the manufacturers and suppliers of pseudoephedrine and ephedrine."{...}

{my emphasis}

Is this sounding vaguely familiar to you all?

{Insert the sound of Kath repeatedly slamming her head on her desk here}

Of course you know what's coming, don't you?

In a related move, the legislature, under prompting from Governor Pawlenty, decided to institute a seventy-five-cent per box "fee" on cold medicine because the cost of cleaning up meth labs is apparently as good an excuse as any for the legislature to raise some moolah for some other arm of government to spend.

When Pawlenty was called on his behavior, he scoffed, "Well, you know, I don't, I'm not a big fan of growing revenues through new mechanisms like this as I hope I've proven as governor but the bottom line was we had a historic government shutdown we had to find common ground and compared to the alternatives of the Democrats wanting to tax everything including income and business taxes and a variety of other things. This was the least offensive. And the good news is other states have done it and meth making has decreased dramatically, and so this has a health benefit as well."

Just you wait.

Posted by: Kathy at 10:28 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 466 words, total size 3 kb.

...as in Martini Boy's bartender has a good question for the mainstream media in light of their apparent decision to keep beating the Cheney SHOT someone drum.

It's better than good, really. I'd say it's an absolutely crucial question that needs answering toute suite.

Posted by: Kathy at 09:24 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 56 words, total size 1 kb.

It Could Only Happen in Russia!

{...}Perhaps nothing symbolises quite so potently the gulf between Russia's uber classes and the rest of the country as the flashing blue siren, or migalka, affixed to the top of the elite's chauffeur-driven luxury cars.

A hangover from Soviet times, the migalka confers on its owner the right to roar down the wrong side of the road at high speed, often disregarding traffic lights and careering on to pavements.

{...}Protests were also held over the weekend in 17 other cities, one of the most co-ordinated exhibitions of public anger seen in Russia in recent years.

"The blue light should be the preserve of the emergency services, not a badge of immunity for the elite and their relatives and friends," said Katya Zhitkovskaya, a manager who took part in one of the Moscow demonstrations.

The Kremlin claims it has started to clamp down on the issue, awarding migalkas only to the emergency services, senior government officials, judges and members of the Russian parliament.

But Vyacheslav Lysakov, head of the Free Choice Motorist's Movement that organised the protests, said the migalka was still freely available to those prepared to pay a £30,000 bribe for one - or for those with political connections.

Migalka owners are blamed for adding to Russia's horrific death toll on the roads - 95 people are killed in road accidents every day in Russia and 700 more are injured.

Giving the campaign a political tinge the protesters highlighted two cases.

In the first, a Siberian railway worker, Oleg Shcherbinsky, was jailed for four years last week after a judge ruled he was to blame for the death of a regional governor in a car accident because he did not get out of the way quickly enough.

Shcherbinsky said he did not see the governor's migalka limousine, which was allegedly travelling down the wrong side of the road at over 100mph, as he attempted a left turn.

The second involved the eldest son of Sergei Ivanov, the defence minister, who was travelling in a car last year that killed a 68-year-old woman on a zebra crossing. Charges against Alexander Ivanov were quietly dropped.{...}

I'm surprised. Really. Not about the extent of the corruption in supposedly democratic Russia, but rather that the people actually protested about it. In the middle of February no less.

Way to get off your collective ass, people!

Posted by: Kathy at 04:42 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 406 words, total size 3 kb.

So, last week at the Cake Eater Pad we got a survey from our state representative about the upcoming legislative session. Now, because I'm all about the power of the people, I wanted to fill it out and send it in.

Until I realized that my duly elected state representative, Ron Erhardt---whom I voted for---decided that if I wanted to have my say, I was going to have to shell out $0.39 for postage. As you might expect, my devoted Cake Eater readers, that irked me.

So, because I don't feel I should have to pay for postage to let my duly elected state representative know how I feel on issues he thinks should be raised this legislative session, I filled out the survey and posted it here.

Clicket for larger.

Don't you just love representative government? I do. Because I get blogging material out of it!

Posted by: Kathy at 10:59 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 151 words, total size 1 kb.

The renowned French shower-of-chest-hair and intellectual, Bernard-Henri Levy, in today's Opinion Journal:

{...}And, faced with this triangulation in progress, faced with this formidable hate-and-death machine, faced with this "moral atomic bomb," we have no other solution than to counter with another triangle--a triangle of life and reason, which more than ever must unite the United States, Europe and Israel in a rejection of any clash of civilizations of the kind desired by the extremists of the Arab-Muslim world and by them alone.

The heart of this second triangle? First, the affirmation of principles. The affirmation of the press's right to the expression of idiocies of its choosing--rather than the acts of repentance that too many leaders have resorted to, and which merely encourages in the Arab street the false and counterproductive illusion that a democratic state may exert power over its press.

And second, in the same breath, the reaffirmation of our support for those enlightened moderate Muslims who know that the honor of Islam is far more insulted, and trampled under foot, when Iraqi terrorists bomb a mosque in Baghdad, when Pakistani jihadists decapitate Daniel Pearl in the name of God and film their crime, or when an Algerian fundamentalist emir disembowels, while reciting the Quran, an Algerian woman whose only crime was to have dared show her beautiful face. Moderate Muslims are alone these days, and in their solitude they more than ever need to be acknowledged and hailed.

If you subscribe to Christopher Hitchens' notion, as I do, that there is a civil war occuring in Islam between the moderates and the fascists, and that the jihad against Western interests, aka The United States of America, is only an offshoot of that battle, then it really becomes very important to know precisely where the moderate Muslims are, because they're not showing up to the battle. In fact, I have yet to see that they even realize they're at war with those in their religion who would have them brought over to their particular brand of orthodoxy by threat of dismemberment or death---whichever is easier. However, we do hear an awful lot from moderate Muslims when they're afraid they're going to be attacked by westerners. Then they're all about showing that they come in peace.

I am more than willing to support moderate Muslims, but here's the question that really needs answering: where are they right now? This is more their battle than it is mine, yet they are nowhere to be found---except on the internet, posting anonymous apologies.

We talk a good game about getting the Europeans to ante up and realize their civilization is about to collapse under the weight of Islamofascism, but we never hold the moderate Muslims to the same standard, do we?

{Hat Tip on the "We Are Sorry" thing to Pious Rob}

UPDATE: Dorkafork over at INDC sez "the silence is deafening." Make sure you read the comments section.

I'm not sure this does it for me, though.

Posted by: Kathy at 11:18 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
Post contains 504 words, total size 3 kb.

The Los Angeles Times on Coretta Scott King's funeral: "Bush Gets an Earful at Coretta King's Funeral"

LITHONIA, Ga. -- A day of eulogizing Coretta Scott King turned into a rare, in-person rebuke of President Bush, with a succession of civil rights and political leaders assailing White House policies as evidence that the dream of social and racial equality pursued by King and her slain husband is far from reality.

{...}But it also included pointed political commentary, much of it aimed at Bush. The president and his wife watched as the sanctuary at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church near Atlanta filled with raucous cheers for their White House predecessors, Bill and Hillary Clinton -- a reminder that five years into his term, Bush and the Republican Party he leads have not found the acceptance across black America that GOP strategists had hoped.

"This commemorative ceremony this morning and this afternoon is not only to acknowledge the great contributions of Coretta and Martin, but to remind us that the struggle for equal rights is not over," said former President Carter, a Democrat and former Georgia governor, to rising applause. "We only have to recall the color of the faces of those in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi, those who were most devastated by Katrina, to know that there are not yet equal opportunities for all Americans."

Carter, who has had a strained relationship with Bush, drew cheers when he used the Kings' struggle as a reminder of the recent debate over whether Bush violated civil liberties protections when he ordered warrantless surveillance of some domestic phone calls and e-mails.

Noting that the Kings' work was "not appreciated even at the highest level of the government," Carter said: "It was difficult for them personally -- with the civil liberties of both husband and wife violated as they became the target of secret government wiretapping, other surveillance, and as you know, harassment from the FBI." Bush has said his own program of warrantless wiretapping is aimed at stopping terrorists.

The most overtly partisan remarks came from the Rev. Joseph Lowery, a King protege and longtime Bush critic, who noted Coretta King's opposition to the war in Iraq and criticized Bush's commitment to boosting the poor.

"She deplored the terror inflicted by our smart bombs on missions way afar," he said. "We know now there were no weapons of mass destruction over there. But Coretta knew and we knew that there are weapons of misdirection right down here. Millions without health insurance. Poverty abounds. For war, billions more, but no more for the poor."{...}

Compare this to the WaPo's "Coretta Scott King's Legacy Celebrated in Final Farewell."

{...}The six-hour service, held in a lavish black church in the wealthy, majority-black Atlanta suburb of DeKalb County, seemed to strive mightily to project a theme of inclusion and the setting aside of political differences. Among the speakers were four of the five living U.S. presidents; several lawmakers; the Georgia governor, who is locked in a pitched battle with black lawmakers over voting rights; and a television evangelist.

Several high-profile -- and politically charged -- black figures, such at the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson and the Rev. Al Sharpton, were not accorded a place onstage.

Still, political tensions occasionally burst through the veneer of reconciliation. At one point, the Rev. Joseph E. Lowery, a former head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), the group Martin Luther King Jr. helped found, made a reference to not finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The well-heeled, mostly black crowd erupted in a standing ovation.

In his speech, former president George H.W. Bush noted that Lowery's address was all in rhyme. "Maya Angelou has nothing to worry about," he said, looking at Lowery. "Don't quit your day job."

Former president Bill Clinton, whose popularity among black people has not waned, was greeted like a returning hero, his remarks peppered with wild ovations and his one-liners greeted by raucous laughter. He dedicated his speech to the King children: Yolanda, Martin Luther III, Dexter and Bernice.

"Her children, we know they have to bear the burden of their mother and father's legacy," Clinton told the crowd. "We clap for that, but they have to go home and live it." He challenged the mourners. "You want to treat our friend Coretta like a role model? Then model her behavior."{...}

I'm assuming that each of these stories will be their respective newspaper's front page story for this morning's editions.

Now, do tell, my devoted Cake Eater Readers, which one actually reports on the funeral?

No matter how many times you see it, the bias can---and will---take your breath away.

Posted by: Kathy at 12:35 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 783 words, total size 5 kb.

A fancy, mainstream media follow-up on this post can be found here.

Go read the whole thing.

Posted by: Kathy at 11:56 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 21 words, total size 1 kb.

Finally someone pegs Greenspan correctly.

One of the knocks I’ve heard on Bernanke is that he is, ironically, too plainspoken—that is, too easily understood. Much of Greenspan’s success can be attributed to his foggy, quasi-Zen-like pronouncements which, to me at least, often recalled Peter Sellers’ Chauncey Gardiner in Being There. There was a soothing potentially deep confusion to them—as if Yoda had taken a dose of LSD and suddenly whipped out an abacus.

Oh, Alan, we will miss thee.

You can go read the rest if you want. Me? I've just been visited by Mr. Chesterfield: I'm satisfied.

Posted by: Kathy at 09:51 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 104 words, total size 1 kb.