A New Disgrace at HuffPo

They come so frequently, it's hard to get worked up, but there's a dead giveaway this time. The teaser for the piece reads, "At the risk of sounding like an apologist for the Islamic Republic..." The author is Hooman Majd, who accuses the Pentagon of manufacturing the incident with Iran in the Gulf this week.

[yeah, he's (intending to be, anyway) serious]

http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2008/01/a_new_disgrace_at_huffpo.asp

Iranian TV airs video of Gulf encounter

Cairo, Egypt - Iran aired video Thursday of its boats and U.S. naval ships in the Persian Gulf in an apparent attempt to show that there was no confrontation between the vessels. The grainy 5-minute, 20-second video showed a man speaking into a handheld radio, with three U.S. ships floating in the distance. (Snip) But the short clip likely did not show Sunday's entire encounter, which U.S. Navy officials described as threatening, and said lasted about 20 minutes.

[smooth - not only did the US fabricate the entire incident, it even convinced Iranian TV assist. Impressive.]

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1107ap_iran_us_navy.html

How The News Is Made

Ring, ring, goes the telephone. And of course I answer it. The voice on the other end says that he is “Joseph” of Reuters. I get many calls from journalists and wire services but never has someone I don’t know introduced himself by first name only. He tells me that he is working on a story about how Israel is strangling the Palestinian economy...

In such circumstances, I have taken to arguing back with correspondents. By framing the story that way, I explain, Reuters is building in a bias. After all, the story should be: What’s wrong with the Palestinian economy, how to fix it, and will the massive infusion of aid--$7.4 billion just promised for three years by mostly Western donors--help?

Aren’t wire services, and the media in general, supposed to be somewhat balanced? They ask an open question, collect viewpoints, and let the reader conclude what the factors are, or at least wait until they have gathered some evidence. This is supposed to be especially true of wire services, which supply newspapers and other media with the basic facts on which they can build their own stories.

What is going on here, then, is not reporting but propaganda, as evidenced by the predictable dramatic headline of the resulting story:

“Analysis-Aid can't save Palestinian economy in Israeli grip.”

No doubt is to be left that it is Israel’s fault that the Palestinian economy is in shambles. And so pervasive is this evil that even the whole world cannot save them. So after that $7.4 billion is all gone with no result everyone will know who to blame, right?

http://www.globalpolitician.com/articledes.asp?ID=3962&cid=1&sid=112

Sweden, Norway drop out of UN's Darfur mission

Sweden and Norway have dropped plans to send about 400 troops to the UN peacekeeping force in Darfur because of opposition from Sudan's government, a Swedish Foreign Ministry official said Wednesday. The two Scandinavian countries had planned to send a joint engineering unit to the peacekeeping force in the troubled region, but the Swedish and Norwegian foreign ministers said in a joint statement that ''Sudan's opposition makes it impossible to maintain the offer of a Norwegian-Swedish contribution."

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/01/09/darfur-peacekeeping.html

Bush and the damage to America

ON June 27, Sen. Hillary Clinton spoke at the Center for a New American Security.

"We can repair the damage that has been done to our security and our standing over these past six years. We can rebuild our alliances and restore our moral authority, and reestablish our leadership in the world. And by doing so, we can forge a new American security for this new century,"

What in the devil was the woman talking about? The idea that our allies abandoned us is more Clintonian spin.

Let's look at the facts. In the past year, Canada elected a conservative prime minister, who of course is pro-American. Britain replaced the pro-American Tony Blair with the pro-American Gordon Brown. And South Korea, which had an anti-American streak a mile wide in 2002, elected the retired head of Hyundai, Lee Myung-bak, as its president. He's pro-American as well. Mrs. Clinton's ridiculous statement came less than six weeks after France elected as its president Nicolas Sarkozy, who calls himself - unabashedly - L'Americain.
[snip]
The reason for Democratic minority votes is Democrats continue to fail the security test. Bush gets it. So do the allies.

True, except for England and Australia, no major ally signed on for Iraq. Instead, they eased the burden in Afghanistan instead. Roughly half the allied troops in Afghanistan are from our NATO allies. NATO was set up to protect Europe. Under George Bush's leadership, it ventured into Asia. The new Australian government just re-upped for another two years, as have the Dutch and the Canadians.
[smip]
To be sure, many are the countries that liked the Clinton administration and who now despise the Bush administration. Some of their names are Iran, North Korea, Venezuela and Cuba.

Everyone says in public that they don't like having America as the lone superpower and that America should not be the world's cop. But in their hearts, they thank God for America. The world President Bush inherited from Mrs. Clinton's husband was far less secure, as we learned on Sept. 11, 2001. There has been no successful attack on us since. Maybe it is luck. Likely not.

Thanks to a surge that she did not support, Iraq likely will be on its own on Jan. 20, 2009. Overthrowing Saddam Hussein had many benefits. It ended once and for all the threats from Iraq. It convinced Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions in 2003 (although Iran may have resumed). It ended sponsorship of terrorist attacks on Israel. It convinced Libya that maybe now is not a good time to develop weapons of mass destruction.

The world still has its problems. But compared to the mess Bush received from the first President Clinton, things are better. Much better.

http://dailymail.com/Opinion/DonSurber/200801100392

'Patients to lose weight before NHS treatment'

Patients could be required to lose weight before they can be treated on the National Health Service, Gordon Brown has suggested. In a New Year message to NHS staff, the Prime Minister indicates people may have to fulfil new "responsibilities" in order to establish their entitlement to care. The new conditions could be set out in a formal NHS "constitution", Mr Brown says. (Snip) Despite the NHS commitment to provide free universal care, it is already common for doctors to set conditions on patients seeking treatment.
[the inevitable evolution of government run health'care']
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=EL3VVI3Y3LYOFQFIQMFSFFOAVCBQ0IV0?xml=/news/2008/01/01/nhealth201.xml

New U.K. nuclear plants approved

[there...]

LONDON - The British government today announced support for the construction of new nuclear power plants, backing atomic energy as a clean source of power. Business Secretary John Hutton told legislators that nuclear power "should have a role to play in this country's future energy mix", saying nuclear energy was a "tried and tested, safe and secure" source of power.

http://www.thestar.com/News/article/292806

[here...]

Forget oil, the new global crisis is food

A new crisis is emerging, a global food catastrophe that will reach further and be more crippling than anything the world has ever seen. The credit crunch and the reverberations of soaring oil prices around the world will pale in comparison to what is about to transpire, Donald Coxe, global portfolio strategist at BMO Financial Group said at the Empire Club's 14th annual investment outlook in Toronto on Thursday.

"The greatest challenge to the world is not US$100 oil; it's getting enough food so that the new middle class can eat the way our middle class does, and that means we've got to expand food output dramatically,"

At the centre of the imminent food catastrophe is corn - the main staple of the ethanol industry. The price of corn has risen about 44% over the past 15 months, closing at US$4.66 a bushel on the CBOT yesterday. This not only impacts the price of food products made using grains, but also the price of meat, with feed prices for livestock also increasing.

"You're going to have real problems in countries that are food short, because we're already getting embargoes on food exports from countries, who were trying desperately to sell their stuff before, but now they're embargoing exports," he said, citing Russia and India as examples.

Mr. Coxe warned U.S. corn exports were in danger of seizing up in about three years if the country continues to subsidize ethanol production. Biofuels are expected to eat up about a third of America's grain harvest in 2007.

[bad science leading to bad policy leads to bad consequences - who'd of thunk]

http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=213343

Report: Border Patrol Confirms Incursions by Mexican Officials Into U.S.

The U.S. Border Patrol confirmed 29 recorded incursions into the U.S. by Mexican military or other government agents in the last 12 months, according to a report made public Wednesday by Judicial Watch, a U.S.-based public interest group. The group obtained the information through a request under the Freedom of Information Act.

The report includes a description of a January 2006 confrontation between Texas officials and several armed men in military uniforms who were seen in a military Humvee near Fort Hancock, Texas. No shots were fired and the suspects fled back into Mexico. [snip]

"These documents not only show the dangerous and chaotic situation at the Mexican border, but also the complicity of some Mexican government agents in violating U.S. law."

[snip]
Between 1996 and 2006, there were 253 confirmed incursions into the U.S by Mexican government officials, according to figures supplied by the Border Patrol.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,321547,00.html

FBI Wiretaps Dropped Due to Unpaid Bills

Telephone companies have cut off FBI wiretaps used to eavesdrop on suspected criminals because of the bureau's repeated failures to pay phone bills on time. A Justice Department audit released Thursday blamed the lost connections on the FBI's lax oversight of money used in undercover investigations. Poor supervision of the program also allowed one agent to steal $25,000, the audit said. (Snip) The FBI did not have an immediate comment. [their phone was disconnected...]

http://apnews.myway.com//article/20080110/D8U35C500.html

The Washington Monument Strategy...

California

The Washington Monument Strategy is so named for a predictable bureaucratic reaction to any suggestion that a government budget should be reduced. Whenever a Congressman suggested that the National Parks Service budget could be trimmed, the standard bureaucratic response was always, “Well, then we’ll just have to close the Washington Monument.” [aka; 'fire house strategy' at the local level]
[snip]
“Across-the-board” cuts are the most stupid conceivable way to make budget reductions, because they treat the highest of state priorities the same as the lowest. Thus, instead of making 100 percent cuts in utterly indefensible expenditures like tuition subsidies for illegal aliens and a vast array of duplicative or obsolete state programs, the governor proposes throwing the prison doors open. The governor is obviously employing the Washington Monument Strategy when he proposes releasing 20,000 dangerous felons – including burglars – onto California streets and closing the most popular beaches in Southern California.

Yet he refuses even to consider the obvious question: why should it cost California $42,000 per year to house a prisoner when Florida does it for just $18,000? (When we recalled Davis, California’s cost was $32,000 per year). Last year, the governor had the opportunity to save $7 billion in construction costs and $1 billion in annual operating expenses by contracting out 50,000 prison beds – as many states already do. Instead, he approved a law that makes it impossible to do so. (Click here for my speech to the Senate last April)

So who does he think he’s kidding?

[A: all those who get their news from TV, which undoubtedly will focus on the pain and suffering such un-compassionate across-the-board-cuts will cause without ever mentioning the lunacy of the concept in the first place {unless your goal is to incite as many as possible against cuts... and toward increasing taxes - then it's brilliant...}]

[more, recommended > http://www.carepublic.com/blog.html?blog_id=214&frompage=latestblog&domain=tom_mcclintock

Sleeper awakes with freight train on top

A man had a miraculous escape yesterday, sustaining only minor injuries when a freight train rolled over the top of him while he slept between the tracks. The Bendigo man, 20, whose name has not been released, was sleeping at a level crossing in Port Augusta, 300km northwest of Adelaide, when the train approached about 3.40am. (Snip) The train rolled over the man, still lying between the tracks, and stopped just ahead of him. It is believed the man hit his head on the train while trying to sit up. It is understood he may have been intoxicated.

[may]

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23035691-29677,00.html