Democracy for all: except when it's inconvenient for Washington.

Secretary of State Rice repeats the same tired, mendacious and hypocritical line on Taiwan that successive administrations, their lips planted firmly on Beijing's ass, have trotted out for 30 years. Taiwan wants UN membership. China in it's annual display of truculent revanchism, says no. Washington, in its annual display of spineless pandering says that Taiwan should not hold a referendum on the issue. Let's see, on the one side we have a free market democracy with an unbroken record of friendship for the United States, the freest press in Asia, and a strategically important geographic position. On the other hand we have a one party Communist police state with an unbroken history of hostility to American interests, a state engaged in aggressive espionage, a nuclear weapons buildup and economic warfare. So which side does Washington come down on? American policy toward Taiwan is a disgrace.

Hillary the Nutcracker...Not Funny (Yuk,yuk)

Some people have no sense of humour at all.

Hillary the Nutcracker

This may go down as one of the great political campaign souvenirs of all time. Move over "I Like Ike" buttons,

Hillary's Summer Job

Does anyone believe this? I'm sure my fellow bloggers in the VRWC will be all over this. You just know she's lying.

"Middle class in her youth, Hillary Rodham was already on a promising track when she spent the summer of 1969 working her way across Alaska. The year before, her commencement speech at Wellesley College in defense of war protesters was such a hit she was featured in Life magazine.

In Alaska, she washed dishes in Mount McKinley National Park, the better of two brief menial jobs that financed her travels. "My worst job was sliming fish in a fish cannery in Valdez," she said without hesitation.

The Democratic New York senator elaborated on this in her memoirs: standing in bloody water in knee-high boots on a pier removing salmon guts with a spoon; supervisors yelling when she didn't slime fast enough; switching to the packing line where she reported spoiled fish to the boss, who soon fired her."

Mohammad the Bear

Out at Shelley's Bay, I've run out of livestock to name after Mohammed. Maybe I'll start on the plant life. Mohammed the Manuka has a nice ring to it.

Why We Still Have Kings.

Because the King can tell a pig-eyed moron of a military dictator to shut the fuck up, that's why. The last king of Egypt once said, "At the end of the world, there will still be five kings...the king of spades, the king of clubs, the king of hearts, the king of diamonds, and the king of England. To that list, I add, or perhaps substitute, the king of Spain. Unlike the degenerate Windsors, the Bourbons seem to have maintained some dignity. Perhaps it was the long years of fascism, but somehow the Spanish royal house has retained its...majesty. Can anyone imagine Charles telling Boy Assad or Robert Mugabe to shut up? Long live Juan Carlos el Rey de Espana por gracia del Dios. Perhaps it's time to begin a quiet search for a surviving heir of the Stuarts or the Plantagenets.

Europe wakes, but too late?

In Switzerland of all places, Europe begins to awake to the nature of Islam as an expressly political enterprise. Facile distinctions between "political Islam" and "Islamofascism" and "moderate Islam" are exposed as useless. I'm reminded of the academics of the 60s and 70s who kept trying to parse the difference between Castroism, Maoism and Stalinism. There is no such thing as separation of mosque and state, there is no non-political Islam. Indeed, Islam admits of no politics..all human relations are religious, there is no difference to be found between ideology and religion. There are no doubt Muslims who would have it otherwise, but they speak out on pain of apostasy and death. Sarkozy knows it, Blair knows it, Howard knows it, and the Swiss know it. Read about it here.

Hillary's Tattered Veil

Hillary Clinton's performance (and that's the right word for it) in the debate (and that's not the right word) between Democrat Party candidates reveals two important things.
1. Any of the likely Republican candidates will beat her in the general election like a red-headed step-child. This is related both to Hillary's personal failings and weaknesses and to the Democrat's institutional blindness. Taking last things first, it seems clear to everybody except the Dems themselves that running against George Bush isn't working. Memo to Howard Dean: Bush isn't running this time.
Next, the Party is far to the left of the electorate and are thus on track to another Nixon/McGovern scale defeat. They should change their name to the Lemming Party.

2. Hillary's fading aura has lasted this long only because her rivals are so feckless (Obama), dishonest (Edwards), stupid (Richardson) or weird (Kucinich) that they make Hillary look resolute, upright, brilliant and normal by comparison. Unfortunately, she is none of those things and it's becoming increasingly obvious to the public that she's none of those things. She can't give a straight answer to any question because she has no principles at all. Bill could pull that off with a grin and a little triangulation because he's a political genius. Hillary has neither Bill's political skills nor his intelligence and it shows. All she has is his donor list and his briefing book. That may be adequate to see off the likes of Odumbo, the sleazy ambulance chaser Edwards and the space cadet Kucinich, but Giuliani, McCain, Thompson or even Huckabee would eat her alive and spit out the bones.

3. None of her Demo rivals have called her on her long and dishonest career. From a make-work job at the Rose Law firm, to the 100 fold cattle futures deal, to Whitewater, to covering up Bill's sex addiction, to James Riady, Johnny Chung and Norman Hsu, from taking illegal campaign contributions to taking the White House furniture, Hillary's life is one of deep and pervasive mendacity and sleaze.

When the campaign goes to the southern states, all the Republicans have to do is replay that old Nightline interview where she talks about staying at home and baking cookies, her voice sliding into a parody of a Southern accent and dripping with contempt.

Come November, there'll be only two candidates and even the New York Times won't be able to hold its nose then.

No Limit Nannyism

There is truly no limit either to the reach of nannyism or to its hypocrisy. In Blighty, Nanny hopes to ban pregnant women from drinking so as not to harm the unborn child. That would be the same unborn child that may legally be dismembered,extracted from the womb and tossed into an incinerator. These people really do not have any capacity whatsoever for examining their own thoughts and actions.

Tame Iti and Terrorism?

I haven't commented yet on the raids and arrests around New Zealand and the cries of terrorism. That's because no one except the police and the suspects knows what really went on, and they aren't saying. A few things strike me immediately about this:
1. Terrorism? I can't find where anyone in the police actually said anything about terrorism or terrorists or the Suppression of Terrorism Act, nor where anyone in the police has referred to Tame Iti or anyone else as a terrorist. That seems to have come exclusively from the media and politicians responding to something that the police never said.
2. The "Just Minding Our Business" Defense. Sorry, but if you're stockpiling weapons, ammunition and Molotov cocktails, we want to know why.
3. Biculturalism Strikes Again: State mandated biculturalism has never worked anywhere that it's ever been tried and it won't work in New Zealand. Once a "culture" (and just how does one decide what is Maori culture and what is not?)is designated as separate and immiscible, the next logical step is cultural separatism followed by political separatism. That way lies Balkanization in the literal sense of the word.
4. Just how far do Maori want to wind back the clock? Again the logical progression of the grievance culture is that iwi start feuding about who did what to whom in pre-European days. Shall Ngai Tahu be required to pack up and move back north?
5. Pita Sharples (as opposed to many of his colleagues) rarely says anything grossly stupid. However saying that the arrests have set back race relations 100 years is nonsense. Why isn't it Tame Iti's seditious conduct that has set back race relations 100 years? Further, does Dr. Sharples mean to imply that Maori that get a pass on serious criminal conduct because of historical grievances? Again, that way lies real terrorism.

And the Nobel Prize for Hypocrisy goes to... Al Gore

So Al Gore is odds on to win the Nobel Peace Prize. How utterly consistent with the mendacious, trivial, banal and pretentious history of this "prize". Al the Hypocrite can join other fabulists like Rigoberta Menchu, thieves like Kofi Annan, terrorists like Yasser Arafat, retired terrorists like Menachem Begin, enablers and apologists for terrorists like David Trimble, military dictators like Anwar Sadat, war criminals like Le Duc Tho, and enablers of war criminals like Henry Kissinger. In all seriousness, I wouldn't be surprised if the next prize went to Osama bin Laden or Mahmud Ahamdinejad.

So here's to Al. I wonder if he can find room in his mansion for the...what do they give you? A gold plated mirror? I wonder if he'll take the Lear or fly first class? There is little better symptom of the decline of civilization than that this bloated, lying rent seeker has somehow become an "intellectual".

If there's one good thing to come out of this, it will be that Al's already etiolated moral sense, fueled by his swollen ego will lead him to challenge Billary for the presidency, thereby ensuring the final demise of the Democratic Party. Maybe he'll launch a 3rd party. I'd give him a Nobel for that.

Green Hypocrisy

AWOL Civilization's post on truth inspired me to another rant about green hypocrisy and the general tendency of the left to indulge in groupthink. Remember Dan Rather’s “wrong, but true” libel of the President? Dan-o has since veered off into full fledged conspiracy theory loondom, but the best exemplars are of course the environmental hypocrites.

Al Gore is of course the poster boy for environmental hypocrisy with his private jet, his 5000 square foot mansion, and his habit of purchasing carbon indulgences from a company owned by….Al Gore. Then there is the Learjet left who assuage their guilt over the latest trip to Exuma or Biarritz by getting peasants in India to give up their irrigation pumps for the treadmill. The hyperwealthy blowhards like Mike Bloomberg with his three palatial homes who are happy to send the price of food soaring by subsidising “biofuels”. Even W, in thrall to the fram lobby has signed on to this one. And the story is much older than that. Let millions of poor Africans die of malaria because DDT is banned, let Mexican peasants go without tortillas because the corn crop is diverted to biodiesel projects. We need to start calling these people on their disgusting hypocrisy, but their moral obtuseness will probably make that a futile effort.

MIT Department of Cluelessness

What an idiot.
Do people who are smart enough to get into MIT really wake one morning and say to themselves, "I think I'll wear a fake bomb to an airport and see what happens."

And not just any airport, but the Boston airport from whence Mohammad Atta and his band of Islamofascists launched their murder campaign. There are several possibilities here. She could be stupid, clueless, careless or another "Don't Tase Me Bro" jackass.

Maybe she was a diversity admission.

We Are All Lars Vilks

Yet another cheeky Scandinavian cartoonist has gotten up the snoots of Muslims. Lars Vilks' line drawings of Mohammad as a dog have resulted in a Rushdie-like price on his head from al-Qaeda thug Omar al-Baghdadi. As with the earlier Danish cartoons, it's our patriotic duty here on the mountain to publish these. Woof.

All Blacks v Portugal

Contrary to my original expectations, this game was pretty good. Although the final score was one sided, Os Lobos played with great spirit and were well supported by their fans. They never gave up, unlike the Italians who stood like stunned sheep as the AB's walked all over them. The 'Portagees' left the stadium with their heads held high. They faced the mighty All Blacks and played full on until the final whistle. Well done.

Gone Fishing (I Wish)

Trying to finish my last semester of law school and I am swamped with work. Postings will intermittent until after finals. I'll be back though. Check out the excellent folks named right in the meantime.

Meanwhile:
Europe-grow some balls.
Al Gore-you bloated hypocrite, I saw you on that antique fuel-sucking Learjet.
Nanny Helen-just call the bloody election and get it over with.
Osama-mate, you look like Rasputin with a bad hangover. Must be that diet of rats.
Britney-you looked like a dancing pig.
Ron Paul-go home, OK?
Portuguese Rugby Team-sucks to be you. Give the haka some respect and maybe we'll keep it in double digits.
Brit Rugby Team-if you think the Yanks spear-tackle, wait until you're looking Jerry Collins straight in the jockstrap.

"Your ideas are absurd"

I take it back about Tony Blair. Here he is. A little earlier would have been nice, but I'll take what I can get.

The reason we are finding it hard to win this battle is that we're not actually fighting it properly. We're not actually standing up to these people and saying, "It's not just your methods that are wrong, your ideas are absurd. Nobody is oppressing you. Your sense of grievance isn't justified."'

Ken Livingstone Begins to Understand.

The headline reads, "London Mayor defends Muslims as bomb plot foiled." This might lead the innocent reader into believing that the Mayor had delivered yet another clueless, PC, apologia for Islam. In this instance though, Livingstone offers only a pro forma plea for understanding, and then goes on to say what George Bush, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown will not. The root of the problem is Saudi Arabia and its relentless funding of Wahabi death cult cells around the world. The sooner Britain, Europe, America and the Muslim countries of SE Asia wrap this package up and return to sender in Riyadh, the better. The two poles of Islamic fascism are Saudi Arabia and Pakistan where the shock troops are financed and trained. Perhaps deporting a few thousand homicidal maniacs back to the homeland would send a better message than either Foreign Office sweetness and light or large exploding objects.

"Allah, Allah!"

The NYT is not known for even attempting the truth much these days, but is it too much expect that the "Newspaper of Record" at least acknowledge the bleeding obvious?

Man wearing suicide belt leaps from burning car and struggles with the police while shouting "Allah, Allah." "Hmmm", say the brilliant reporters of the Times, "What do we have here?" Radical vegans? Oppressed Wiccans? Wait, maybe they're M-M-M-M-Muslims?

Nope, as it turns out, what we have here are just two more members of Britain's "South Asian" population struggling because they're "disenfranchised". Glad we cleared that up.

Will Gordon Brown Be Churchill or Chamberlain?

Britain's Islamofascists have welcomed Gordon Brown to Number 10 with a right kick in the balls and a spit in the eye as well. Two large carbombs in London, mercifully discovered and disarmed, and a firebombing at Glasgow airport. And what's missing from the MSM reporting? Any suggestion whatsoever that the obvious suspects could be responsible. "Everything is on the table" said the Independent. Yep, could be the Irish, animal rights activists, fox hunters, disgruntled Anglicans, anti-monarchists. Why, it could have been YOU, citizen. Bollocks.

Two "Asian" men are in custody in Glasgow. I'll wager large sums that they're not Korean, Japanese or Sri Lankan. I'll wager still larger sums that they're not Hindu, Christian, Buddhist, or Zoroastrian. I'll wager pretty much everything I've got or hope to have that one or both has some variant of the word "Mohammed" in their name.

Rudy Gets It.

A few politicians actually get it. In truth, I suspect a lot of them do, but they're too PC, or morally obtuse, or just plain scared to say what they know to be true. John Howard gets it, Helen Clark doesn't. Nicolas Sarkozy gets it, Luis Zapatero doesn't.

And Rudy Guliani gets it. Here he is, courtesy of the NRO.

“I’ve had to watch two Democratic debates in order to prepare for mine, and I noticed something: All those hours of debating, and not once did they mention Islamic terrorism…. Did they think it wouldn’t be p.c.? Did they think it would be insulting? When you say ‘Islamic terrorists,’ the only people you’re insulting are … Islamic terrorists. And, really, we don’t care if we insult them.”

Exactly. Now imaging Billary or Odumbo saying that.

How About an Anti Skull Fracture Bill

This poor child was certainly saved by the Anti-smacking Bill, what a relief. Oops, I meant to say

Barbarian not deterred from murdering a toddler by Sue Bradford's Bill

No one who would do this gives a rat's ass about Nanny's disapproval or whether section 87Z of the Nannny Will Get Extremely Cross Bill outlaws bashing in the brains of kid who's barely old enough to walk.

There, I said it.

I've supported GW Bush over the last several years because I believe both John Kerry and Al Gore are bloviating non-entities. I still think that, and I think the country would be worse off if either of them had been elected. I've put up with a lot of insults, derision and general anti-Yank sentiment in my new home because of my support for the president. I supported Bush while holding down my bile over his Nixonite domestic policy and his incessant ass kissing of his worst enemies because of one thing--there's an existential threat to civilization in the form of the latest variant of fascism. There's a war on, and I trusted him to get the job done. Instead, he's let himself get tied in knots by politcal correctness, less-than-half measures, inconsistency and an inexplicable willingness to let the incompetents at State and CIA run this war.

In other words, you've lost me, Mr. President and if you've lost me, I hate to think how many others are gone. You, sir, have proven yourself a knave and a fool, and I sincerely regret my support for you. If there is one consolation, and it would be a weak one, it's that the alternatives were worse,

It's Not Nice to Fool the Judge

Judges aren't known for for their sense of humour, and the one who sentenced Parisite to to the cooler obviously intended her to stay there. Back she goes, screaming for Mommy. One can only hope that he's also issued an order forbidding her to profit from her little stay by selling the story to the media. I wonder how much the sheriff got paid. Somebody ought to have a close look at his bank account.

There's a First Time for Everything

It's safe to say that Al Sharpton and I don't agree about much. But he's square on with this. It sound's so Leninist that I hate to say it, but this woman is truly a parasite. Paris Hilton is the mirror image of OJ Simpson. It's not about race, it's about money and if you have enough money in America, the law doesn't apply to you. Does anybody believe that a poor person with a DUI who showed up late for court wouldn't be staring at a cell wall for at least 30 days? This vicious, parasitical hag is laughing at you.

Goodbye and Good Luck to Clarity and Resolve

Clarity and Resolve is taking leave of the fight,hopefully temporarily. Patrick al-Kafir and the Hounds of Hell are heroes. Let's hope we see them again soon.

France Gets Real.

For those who mistook the French media and the left commentariat for the French people, the election of Nicholas Sarkozy is one of those surprises that periodically break upon the unobservant. Let those who mistake the views of the biacoastal American media for the views of Americans consider themselves warned.

Never mind that on an American political spectrum, Sarkozy would be slightly left of center. The point to grab here is, as Fred Thompson points out in the National Review, that French voters went to the polls under an unambiguous threat of violence by Islamists should they dare to vote for Sarkozy. To which the French gave a collective two-fingered salute and then did the right thing.

This is the latest of several signs that perhaps Europe is awakening from its socialist torpor, its post-modern ennui, and facing the existential threat represented by Islamist ideology. Denmark, the Netherlands, and now France have all had their had their multi-culti dreams rudely shattered by the cold reality of Islamist violence. Perhaps it isn't too late. After all, this is the nation of Charles Martel.

Not all MP's are flaming idiots, but this one is.

Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia said that while a lot of gangs were involved in bad behaviour, not all of them were criminals.

"I'm not excusing any of the behaviour, it is totally unacceptable, but just like I'm not prepared to say that the police are all rapists I am also not prepared to say that all gangs are criminals."

Nope, some gangs are nice to puppies and old people, never walk on the daffodils, work nights at Starbucks and go to church on Sundays.

A Tui billboard in the making.

The Bloody Streets of Christchurch

Well, another bloody night in Christchurch. A combination of police incompetence and an obsession with softly, softly, gently handling the drunken thugs and psychopaths that own the city at night have led to dead and many injured.

Incompetence is a hard word, so let's look at it. First, the police should have cleared that party at the very first sign that there was underage drinking going on. They'd have had every right to so. Clearly, there were multiple criminal offenses committed before those two girls were murdered...disturbing the peace, obstructing traffic, drink driving, supplying alcohol to minors, assaulting police officers, unlawful assembly, at least. Anyone of these would have been enough for the police to clear that party an hour before. But no, they waited until murder was committed.

Second (and it'll be interesting to see whose account is true), the occupants of the house have told the Press that they asked police to disperse the outdoor crowd, having barricaded themselves inside with the invited guests. They also claim that the police then told them to send away the crowd. If this is true, it's outrageous.

Garry Moore can spread all the bullshit that he wants...Christchurch isn't safe after 9:00 PM on weekends and everybody knows it.

Blowhard of the Week

The hyperwealthy blowhard of the week is NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg. The mayor, whose personal net worth is in the near neighborhood of $10 billion, has some dandy ideas for helping the rest of us live righteously green lives. As the New York Post tells us, the Mayor wants the good people of Gotham to pay a $30 a year surcharge on their electric bills, be forced to switch to those expensive, dim, ugly fluorescent bulbs, and bear the cost of building code modifications. As Mayor Orwell puts it, the city will be "expanding programs to manage demand."

If this guy were merely thousands of times wealthier than the rest of us, I might be willing to lend an ear. But the Mayor lives, pretty much alone, in a 5 story 7,000 sq.ft. mansion. He also has houses in Bermuda, Vail and Connecticut when the strains of command get to be too much. Oh, and did I mention the TWO private jets? Look, he made his pile and he has every right to spend it any way he wants...divorce settlements, buying elections, whatever. But when comes to making economic decisions for everyone else, decisions that won't cost him the spare change from the sales tax on his dry cleaning bill, he should just stick his face in the same trough as Prince Charlie and Algore, and STFU.

Well, finally.

At last a politician somewhere who'll make the greenies choose between religions. What's it going to be oh green robed ones? Globalwarmenism or Antinuclearism? Good old John Howard. There are really only three choices, Green Ones, either we burn carbon, we split atoms or we turn off the lights.

Virginia Tech

A whacked out Korean kills 32 people then eats his own lead. The MSM has the predictable response---gun control. This of course begs the usual questions. First, psychopaths don't care about gun control laws. Second, if one of the victims had been armed, the whole affair likely would have ended very differently.

The BBC is Confused (Again).

Some times I think the BBC's site has been secretly hacked by The Onion. Or maybe they're just stupid, or maybe like most of the MSM, the BBC long ago gave up any pretence of professional journalism. Have a look at this story entitled "Confusion Over Iran's Intentions".

Right. There's a confession of complete journalistic incompetence. Iran, daily and in no certain terms, advises the world of its intentions. The confusion results from the refusal to take the mullahs and their squinting tool of a President at the plain meaning of their words.

Here's the Supreme Grand Poobah:""In case the enemies of Iran intend to use force and violence and act illegally, without a doubt the Iranian nation and officials will use all their capabilities to strike the invading enemies."

Now what exactly was confusing about the intentions expressed in that remark?

Here's the BBC:"It was an oddly defiant and hostile tone to strike for a new year speech." Well, no. Actually, that's the voice of sweet reason compared to the usual fire-and-blood. Perhaps the BBC is just indulging in a bit of British understatement.

Iran

What's this about? My own opinion is that when you add Ahmadi-Nejad's cancellation,the developingdust-up with the Brits, and the Iranians' continuous softening up of public opinion since last May for the inevitable withdrawal from the Non Proliferation Treaty and you come to the conclusion that Tehran has already decided that war is inevitable and probably imminent.

"Leaders" (and whacked out millenarian fanatics) like Ahmadi-Nejad don't lightly give up a chance to beard the Great Satan in his own living room. Think Khrushchev with his shoe pounding, Arafat with his pistol, Castro in his fatigues and Chavez with his comedy act.

Things could start going bang in the night very, very soon. This won't end well.

Autumn reruns

I was back over some old posts and found this one. I quite like it and I think it's still true. Those who defend Islamic racism need to consider just how much they personally are prepared to alter their behaviour in order to accomodate Muslim sensibilities.

"As some of my dissembling commentators know perfectly well, I'm not in the least concerned with private behavior. To clarify for the morally clueless: Are you, personally, prepared to give up drinking alcohol,eating pork or keeping a pet dog; if a woman, are you prepared to cover yourself from neck to ankle in public; if you are gay,are you prepared to go WAY back in the closet; or, if unmarried, to give up public displays of affection? Well, are you?

And those are just the things that offend moderate Muslims.

Why is it that people who have insisted on making a human rights issue out of the public display and public acceptance of their lifestyle at all times and in all places regardless of the offense caused are suddenly so reticent when it comes to Islamist sensibilities? Just a coincidence, I'm sure.

Blowhard Fatigue

First Al Gore, now Prince Charlie. It must be the week for hyperwealthy blowhards to tell the rest of us how to be virtuous. I've always known that underneath the liar (invented the Internet, inspired Eric Segal to write Love Story) and the lunatic (remember ALpha Male and Tipper's televised tonsil massage)lay gross hypocrisy.

Prince Charles, product of centuries of careful inbreeding, says why not just ban McDonald's? Very regal of you Chuck, shall we have them drawn and quartered as well?

This all began, at least in its modern, media friendly form with the arch-hypocrite John Lennon. I never liked the idea of some zillionaire stoner with a pink Rolls Royce and a nice piece of Manhattan real estate telling anyone else to "imagine no possessions".

Bush sounds retreat.

It's official. The neo-cons are out and Daddy's realists are in...and we all know what a great job they did..remember the "New World Order". Demoralised by the mid-term elections, the President has allowed himself and the country to get rolled by a sick alliance of cynical realists like Robert Gates and congentital idiots like Nancy Pelosi.

First, he cuts yet another deal with Kim Jong-il (Bouffant Boy really means it this time, then he decides he'll discuss Iraq with Boy Assad and the Mad Mullahs after all. We all know what's going to happen with the surge as well. They'll lay down enough firepower to pacify Baghdad for six months or so, declare mission accomplished, and slink home.

We'll live to regret this...at least those of us who don't get killed in the next wave of 9/11s.

Tariana Turia, Racist or Merely Stupid.

Never the sharpest tool in the shed, Tariana shows that she's either fundamentally racist or has the IQ of a penguin. Calling for limitations on immigration to New Zealand from "traditional sources" such as Canada and England (that would be white people for the subtext challenged), TT said this:

"No, we aren't playing the race card, because we are not talking about Asian immigration."

Nope, no racists in the Maori Party. And just when more than a few socially conservative voters were toying with giving them a party vote. Somehow, I don't think Pita Sharples would have said that.

Iraqi Prostitutes, NZ Sex Workers

TV One aired this CBS news report last night on Iraqi regugee women in Syria forced into prostituion through economic necessity. The report says that turning to prostitution is a "mark of desperation". Just so. Then why isn't it a mark of desperation when New Zealand women stand outside on Manchester Street every night? Why is it a lifestyle choice in Christchurch, but a humanitarian crisis in Damascus? Tim Barnett and all his enablers need to take a deep look inside their rotten souls.

Say goodnight, Joe.

Was that Joe Biden whistling past on his way to political oblivion? No one, and I mean no one, can sink a presidential candidacy faster than Joe Biden. Even pointy hat man David Duke and eco-nut Ralph Nader managed to stay in the race longer than Biden. Here he is on Barack Obama (see link to the Observer story above):

"Mr. Biden is equally skeptical—albeit in a slightly more backhanded way—about Mr. Obama. “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” he said. “I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”

And I bet he's one of your best friends, too.

Dance, Hillary, Dance.

It's kind of fun watching Hillary dance around as she tries to figure out which the way wind is going to blow on the war. If she goes full tilt angry-left, she risks losing every vote that's more than 50 miles from either coast and not permanently resident on a university campus. If she backs the President, and he cocks up his last chance (something that's at least even money), BO and Edwards will outflank her on the left. If she does the "more in sadness than in anger" routine and starts voting to pull out, and there's another terrorist attack (something which also seems likely), she gets to follow John Kerry down the memory hole. I suppose there's always Option D-be a leader, just tell us what you really think and see if the people will follow you.

That of course would require a very un-Clintonian elevation of principle over ambition.

God Bless Barack Obama.

You gotta love Barack Obama. His initials are BO, his name sounds vaguely Muslim and his last name rhymes with Osama, his ears are a cartoonist's dream, he has less political experience than my cat, he's too black for the rednecks and not black enough for the race hustlers, but by Jove he's going for it. After BO announced his candidacy, Hilary looked like she swallowed something slimy. He can't win, but he can give the Angry Left somewhere to go besides Hil's place. They'll follow him off the cliff just like they followed McGovern and Humphrey and Nader and Gore and Dean and Kerry....