They Just Don't Get It

This is the second best story ever showing how all the assorted tyrants, kleptogarchs, presidents for life and Grand High Poobahs that run most of the planet just don't get how western (in the sense of democracy plus free market plus rule of law equals civilisation) societies work. Bush gives Vladimir some minor aggro over lack of freedom of the press in the new Russia and Vladi, obviously carefully but incompetently briefed, starts taking up for Dan Rather.

Great stuff, but even better was the time back about 1998 when some Chinese mandarin asked a US official in all seriousness, "Who owns the Internet?" That one could be apocyphal, but I spent 5 years in China and it certainly has the ring of truth about it.

Free Arash Sigachi

Iranian blogger and freedom frighter Arash Sigachi --remember the name--has been jailed for 14 years for speaking the truth about the Mad Mullahs. Tuesday is a global action day in support of Arash. To arms.

Hunter Thompson, R.I.P

Hunter S. Thompson has left us. He may have been half mad, but he could damn sure write. He had no truck with bozo politicians, pretentious movie stars, or new age psychobabble, and for that we shall all miss him. For those my age, the quote "It was the time of Nixon, it was a time to keep your head down." summed up a decade.

I think I'll have a Jack Daniels, straight up.

Root and Branch

This story shows once again what a deeply corrupt and sleazy organisation the UN has become. Why would anyone trust these clowns with their country? It is high time that the nations which pay most of the bills to start cleaning house. The UN needs complete reformation and the place to start is the bizarre assumption that statehood alone is a sufficient qualification for having a vote. Why should anyone give a toss what Robert Mugabe thinks about anything? Why is Taiwan, with 23 million free souls, a booming economy, the most free press between Delhi and Tokyo and genuine democracy denied even observer status? The Westphalian model of states as the only legal actors in international affairs needs to be consigned to the history books as an idea past its use-by date.

Gee, Thanks Don.

What was he thinking? Maybe he wasn't thinking. Just as the Nats succeed once again in forcing Labour ever so slightly to the right, old Don goes and stuffs it up. Katherine Rich was a star in a party that could use a few. Maybe she'll join ACT. In the meantime we're almost certainly stuck with Nanny Helen for the foreseeable future.

Cold Mountain

Cold Mountain

A few thoughts on the Iraqi election. If I'm not mistaken, this the first free election in any Arab country ever. And, no, don't even think about mentioning those periodic shams where 99.99% turnout and 99.99% of those endorse wholeheartedly what ever Grand Poobah for Life happens to be at the top of he body pile at the moment.

Thw left typically, blew a fuse. Ted "I Sweat Chivas" Kennedy and his sidekick, whatshisname, the other guy from Massachusetts, both stumbled all over themselves trying to disparage the courage of the 60 odd per cent of Iraqi voters who turned out. Think about that percentage..it's a hell of sight better than we ever manage here in Godzone, and we can vote from bed.

Hillary, bless her, may be a little lefty Lenin in waiting, but she is not stupid. You didn't hear Hils dissing the election. Of cousre that all adds up to a republican wet dream for 2008--Hils as candidate and Howard Dean as Demo part chief. It's as if Labour made Tandor Nanczos chairman and ran Margaret Wilson as Party Leader.

Cold Mountain

Cold Mountain

I've been gone for awhile. But I'm baaaaack now. Merry Christmas.

Colin Powell Resigns

I guess we all knew this was coming. I think it was time , too. Powell did his absolute best, most of the time, to serve the President and hold onto his principles as well. The probelem was that those principles were forged by a military career which taught him that no soldier ever got criticized for avoiding casualties. Powell's worldview was forged by by Vietnam, when after all the blood and smoke were cleared, Hollywood, the media and academia turned on the military with savage libels and blatant dishonesty. Though there is plenty of blame to go around, Powell's excessive caution in Gulf War was the biggest factor in leaving in leaving Saddam Hussein in power the first time.

Bring on Condi rice.

Arafat, Rot In Hell.

Not many evil thugs get to die in peacefully in bed the way Arafat did. The list of his crimes will reach from here to hell, so he can start at the bottom reviewing them all. Let's leave aside the vicious murders, hijacking and assorted mayhem and thuggery for the moment.

The fact that this low rent gangster stalked the great halls of Europe, the Carter White House and the United Nations like an elder statesman when he should have been in the deepest hole that civilization could dig says much about those places. The fact that he lined his pockets like every other third world satrap while posing as some kind of martyr says much about the political sensibilities of Arabs.

The fact that his closest associates spent the last week in gay Paris dickering with his high-living wife, Suha, over just how now much they had to pay her to pull the plug on his quivering corpse says much about the French.

And now, let us reckon with CNN.

It's all been said, it's all worth saying again. No one, no one in the history of the American presidency has ever dominated the popular vote like George W. Bush did on Tuesday. On the matters that really count: national security and cultural security, there are no deep divisions.

The Federal Election Commission should look long and hard at CNN. The failure to call Virginia and the Carolinas early in the election, and later the refusal to call Iowa, New Mexico and most impotantly Ohio, when the mathematics were inescapable, were a gross and probably illegal attempt to influence voters. Wolf Blitzer was practically screaming for the Democrats to send in the lawyers. The so-called exit polls were even more blatantly and deliberately trumped up. Thanks to the pajamahadeen and the talk-radio warriors, the fraud neven had a chance of succeeding.

Now a word about John Kerry. He would have been a lousy President. But I will give him credit for peering into the abyss of lawsuits and taking a step back. Well done, John.

Beginning of the End

They should have called South Carolina for Bush by now...why haven't they? Indiana and Virginia will also fall to Bush within the hour. Ohio is in play...which is not good news.

Knife to a Gunfight

David Frum is about to debate Michael Moore on BBC World. Should be interesting. A smarmy. cynical Hollywood hypocrite with a reputation for deep dishonesty vs. a Reagan Whitehouse speechwriter.

Well Said

See NZ Pundit on the US election. Wish I'd said that.

The Guardian's Freudian Slip Apology

The Guardian sort of, kind of apologised in a Clintonian-Ratherian way.

"The final sentence of a column in The Guide on Saturday caused offence to some readers. The Guardian associates itself with the following statement from the writer. "Charlie Brooker apologises for any offence caused by his comments relating to President Bush in his TV column, Screen Burn. The views expressed in this column are not those of the Guardian. Although flippant and tasteless, his closing comments were intended as an ironic joke, not as a call to action - an intention he believed regular readers of his humorous column would understand. He deplores violence of any kind."

Maybe they meant "disassociates"

An ironic joke, huh, Charlie? Why don't you try making a few ironic jokes about bombs or hijacking next time you're in the check-in line at Heathrow, or better yet, Kennedy.

What a moron.

The Guardian Calls for Bush's Assassination

Bush hatred among the foaming-mouth left has reached its logical end with Guardian "writer" Charlie Brooker's fatwa against President Bush.

That right, a columnist in a serious, if somewhat deluded publication, one that has editors and sub-editors and other people whose job is control the rantings of its more feverish employees, has called for the murder of the President of the United States. We're all used to the sweating screeds against Bush, but murder is normally limited to pet media in Tehran and Damascus. This is far beyond the pale.

It's time for a boycott of Guardian advertisers.

And lets hope that a couple of serious gentlemen from the Secret Service and their friends at Scotland Yard pay a call on Mr. Brooks. It's a crime in both the United States and Britain to call for the assassination of public figure or to incite to murder.

The Golden Handshake

Ackbar over at New Zealand Pundit has this on the Tamihere kiss goodbye. The Waipeirera Trust will pay IRD their pound of flesh. remember folks, that was once your money. So let me get this straight, the Government collects taxes which they hand over as treaty settlement dosh, which various iwi shovel back at politicians--earned or not. If we did that, it would be illegal.

Well, that should certainly do it.

Now I know for certain that Kerry is not man who is firmly grounded in reality as most of us understand it. He's asked Al Gore to campaign for him in Florida. Now whose stupid idea was this? Karl Rove's? Gore is a delusional bi-polar, a switch with only two settings: crushing, drool inducing, pedant or gibbering paranoid wildman. Gore reminds me of those old East European royals forever plotting to regain the throne of Lower Blowmevia

What is with Kerry? I never thought he was much except an old lefty blowhard, but I can't figure out who keeps giving him lame advice. Could be Karl Rove, that Evil Genius; could be Bubba throwing a spanner into the works to give Hilary a clear shot in 2008; could be Ter-ay-za "Let Them Get a Real Job" .

Bush must be chortling in his sleep over this.

John Tamihere

Cold Mountain
Poor old John Tamihere, he was a bit of a blowhard, but you had to like the guy, kind of like Winston Peters with attitude. Unfortunately, he forgot that Nanny doesn't like Maori with attitude who look they might stray off the Labour plantation, especially if they stray in a government car. Nanny saves up secrets and she'll tell them if you make her angry.

OK, he took the money after he said he wouldn't, but that's not the first time a politician said something on the hustings and then did something else, right Nanny? Further, it looks like he earned it.

I hope he joins the Maori Party and kicks Labour's smug ass in a byelection.

PC Idiocy Watch

Things like this make me wish that were somebody authorised to take officious, supercilious bueaucrats out of their cubicles and administer stern warnings, followed by a sound beating. Can this wanker possibly be serious? I'm afraid so, and that ladies and gentlemen, is why I am a refugee from the land of my birth. Recent visitors, I beg you, tell me is everybody in the United States this precious?

Granted Washington state is very near the great center of PC lalaland. But banning Halloween because it's offensive to Wiccans? What is a Wiccan anyway? And don't send me any self important crap about how it's serious business.

Circling the Drain

As the Kedwards campaign begins the final slog of its journey to oblivion, David Brooks explains why. Read the whole thing, but this pretty well sums it up:

But there is a deeper assumption, which has marred Democratic politics for
years. Some Democrats have been unable to face the reality that people have
been voting for Republicans because they agree with them. So these Democrats
have invented the comforting theory that they've been losing because they
are too virtuous for the country.

I said a long time ago that W was easily beatable given a credible Democratic candidate I don't know who that would be, but there must be some Democrat out there somewhere who doesn't feel compelled to take policy advice from Scotch soaked old dinosaurs like Kennedy or airheaded Hollywood types. There's lots of noise coming from Greenpeace or NOW or Moveon.org or the teachers' unions or the Hobbit Vegans Against Bad Thoughts, but the fact is there aren't enough of them to elect the party's candidate. Clinton understood that. He took their money, squeezed a little ass, then tacked right and beat Bob Dole like a red headed stepchild.....badda-bing, into the White House.

A lot of conservatives are not happy with Bush's domestic agenda, but whether one is so-called neocon, or a paleocon, or an angry white male, or gun toting, Bible banging redneck, or a Wall Street suit, national security at the moment trumps all all domestic issues. One can debate whether that should or not be so, but there it is.

Read Roy Jenkin's biography of Churchill. Nobody liked him, nobody liked what was happening domestically, but the UK needed a wartime leader and the opposition failed to offer a credible one. As soon as the war was won, Winston was out out on his ass.

I suppose finally I return to my case that the active core of the Democratic Party is far to the left of the electorate's consensus, and more importantly, the Party doesn't even realise it. I put this down to the self-referential relationship between the party and the coastal media. They just don't listen anyone who says they might be wrong.