October 07, 2004

Chirac calls for lifting arms ban on China

French President Jacques Chirac is calling on the European Union to lift a long-standing arms embargo against China.

[...]
The European Union imposed the weapons' ban following China's 1989 crackdown against pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square, in Beijing.

Today, European countries are divided over lifting the embargo, with Sweden and the Netherlands opposed to doing so. The United States is also against it.

If their past behavior is anything to go by--and I'm sure that it is--the frogs are already doing arms deals under the table with the ChiComs and are just looking to the EU for "permission" to do so after the fact to make it all "legal" in the EU/UN sense.
Meantime, they're busing denying their illicit relationship with Saddam:
France says US claims over Iraqi bribes 'unverified'

France dismissed accusations made in an official US report that French businessmen and politicians received bribes from Saddam Hussein in order to influence government policy on Iraq, with the foreign ministry describing them as "unverified."

The study by the Iraq Survey Group said that the former Iraqi president paid millions of dollars in cash and petrol export vouchers to elicit help in his bid to end the UN sanctions regime on his country. France and Russia were the main targets because of their seats on the UN Security Council.

So, not only was France getting cheap gas, but they were making very lucrative arms deals with Saddam--key to the viabilty of the French economy.
And part of the huge bribe from Saddam was their vow to veto any moves towards resuming the war on Iraq on the UN Security Council:
Saddam and the French Connection

[...] SADDAM HUSSEIN believed he could avoid the Iraq war with a bribery strategy targeting Jacques Chirac, the President of France, according to devastating documents released last night.

Memos from Iraqi intelligence officials, recovered by American and British inspectors, show the dictator was told as early as May 2002 that France - having been granted oil contracts - would veto any American plans for war.

And yet De VILEpin gave his "word" to Secretary of State Colin Powell that France would NOT veto the use of force against Iraq in the UNSC, even interrupting him in the middle of his daughter's own wedding to do so!
The swine! (which is an insult to pigs!)
And not content with dressing down President Bush in the world forum, as he's done at the D-Day commemoration in Normandy, the G8 talks in Georgia and at the NATO conference in Turkey (as well as not bothering to attend President Reagan's funeral), Chirac engaged in some trash talking of American culture in the capital of France's former colony, Vietnam:
US culture 'choking' the world

French President Jacques Chirac warned on Thursday of a "catastrophe" for global diversity if the United States' cultural hegemony goes unchallenged.
[...]
The outspoken French president warned that the world's different cultures could be "choked" by US values.

This, he said, would lead to a "general world sub-culture" based around the English language, which would be "a real ecological catastrophe".

I'm afraid Jacques's a little late to the party--English is already the universal language and last time I looked, French wasn't the main language of Vietnam, either.
(Guess Chirac decided to forgive and forget the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu in 1954 which began their end as the colonial power in Vietnam.)
Even attempts by the French to ban "Franglais," the mixture of French and English which everyone in France actually speaks, were quite unsuccessful!
No one forces anyone to buy American cars, American McDonald's burgers or American Hollywood films in other countries, Jacques!
They choose them because they like them.
But be it our military or our cultural "hegemony," old Jacques and most of his countrymen seem to be quite against the United States and our role as its only superpower.
Fine.
But let's stop calling them our "ally," how's about it?

Pakistan Bombing Prompts Ban on Gatherings

Pakistan announced a ban on religious and political gatherings nationwide after a bomb attack against Sunni Muslim radicals in a central city early Thursday killed at least 39 people and wounded about 100 others.

Police suspected it was a sectarian attack, and army troops were deployed to keep order in Multan, where about 2,000 angry Sunnis gathered outside a hospital where victims were taken, shouting "Shiites are infidels!" and slogans against the government.

The bombing came less than a week after a suicide attack left 31 dead at a Shiite mosque in an eastern city.
[...]
Sunni Muslims make up about 80 percent of the 150 million people in Pakistan, and most of the rest are Shiites. The vast majority of both sects live in harmony but radical elements on both sides carry out attacks.

"Sectarian," huh? Get used to this, people!
It has the ring about it that feels as if the MSM will be using it for a long time...anything but call them what they are--Islamofascist terrorists.

And I do hope that Freedom of Assembly, which we've enjoyed in the U.S. from our founding, isn't a right that's held too dearly in Pakistan.
This "ban on public gatherings" sounds like another name for martial law but maybe it's just me.

Russia to continue nuclear cooperation with Iran

Russia will continue its nuclear energy cooperation with Iran, a senior Russian official said Thursday, despite international concern that Teheran might be trying to develop atomic weapons.

"We have been cooperating and will continue to cooperate with Iran in the peaceful
[HA!--Jen]
usage of nuclear energy," Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Alexeyev said, according to the Interfax news agency. "It does not matter if there is pressure or not, but it does matter that we will comply with all legal commitments in cooperation with Iran."

Russia is completing a US$800 million deal to build a nuclear reactor at Bushehr in southern Iran, a project that has drawn concern from the United States and Israel.

Bushehr is just the one they'll talk about...it's thought that there are at least 14 more nuke facilities in Iran.

As long as Russia and Putin continue to support states who sponsor Islamist terrorism like Iran, they will continue to suffer under attacks by "Chechen freedom fighters" like the Beslan school massacre.
Putin--and dare I add John Kerry and his supporters?-- doesn't get it--Bush, along with Blair of the UK, Australia's John Howard, Kwasniewski of Poland and Koziumi Of Japan do.
Thank God!

October 06, 2004

Protestors Ransack Bush/Cheney Headquarters In Orlando

A group of protestors stormed and then ransacked a Bush-Cheney headquarters building in Orlando, Fla., Tuesday, according to Local 6 News.

Local 6 News reported that several people from the group of 100 Orlando protestors face possible assault charges after the group forced their way inside the Republican headquarters office.
[...]
"We want to send a clear message to Bush, we want him to take his hands off our overtime pay," protestor Esmeralda Heuilar said.

Local 6 News learned that most of the protestors were from the AFL-CIO and were taking part in one of 20 other coordinated protests around the country.

A spokesperson with the AFL-CIO told Local 6 News that the Orlando protest did not go as planned.

Charming.
Here are these union thugs acting out when Florida has "open shop" and "right to work" laws, too!
Meanwhile, also yesterday in Algore's home state, the real life "brownshirts" got a little restless, also:
Shots fired at Bush Tenn. headquarters

An unknown gunman fired several shots into the Bearden, Tenn., Bush-Cheney campaign office Tuesday, WBIR-TV in Knoxville reported.

[...]...One shot shattered the glass in one front door and the other cracked the glass in another of the front doors.

One month ago, GOP headquarters in Huntington, WV. were shot up.
Mercifully, no-one was seriously hurt in any of these incidents, although a couple of people had minor wounds in the Orlando attack.
These are the people (or their representatives) who call Republicans "Nazis" and "digital brownshirts" and who dub President Bush "Hitler" yet whose folks are acting like real Storm Troopers?
Rush Limbaugh chalks it up to their desperation and after John Edwards's pitiful comportment last night in the VP debates, I'd be a little frazzled too, if he and sKerry were my candidates, but this is a free, civilized and civil country--can we please act as if it is? (and that means you, Democrats!)
You're setting a poor example for the people in Afghanistan and Iraq who are getting ready to have their first free elections in their history and on days like yesterday, these wild men make America look less peaceful than the war zones!
Dems need to get a grip!
With these incidents of violence plus the freak show we were given at the RNC in NYC, where there were several clashes with police and hundreds of arrests, the more anarchical members of the radical Left threaten to become home-grown terrorists and there's still almost a month to go until the election...and that ain't right. Not right at all.
I can only worry if they'll get worse as October wears on, not to mention when they lose in November...
I'm afraid to put a Bush/Cheney sign in my yard, for fear of what may happen (Say something like this yard swastika in Wisconsin or the campaign vandalism in Duluth) and we've already had a Bush and an American flag magnet taken off our car, but I worry about it getting "keyed" in a parking lot all the time, because we have a "I support Bush and Our Troops" sticker still there.)
Half of the war is over here, my friends and don't let anyone call you a "chicken hawk" for supporting the war--
Those of who support President Bush (and the troops and the war) are soldiers here, too but I guess we have to keep remembering that our cause is just and right and the Left's is not, nor is the way they conduct their un-civil political discourse!

October 05, 2004

Cheney, Edwards Take Center Stage in Debate

Vice President Dick Cheney and Sen. John Edwards take center stage in the White House campaign on Tuesday in a televised debate that gained new significance after a series of polls showed the race tightening.

If all goes well, Cheney should make pretty short work of pretty boy and empty suit Edwards!
Cheney's not tired from touring hot hurricane-ravaged places and comforting Jeanne victims, as President Bush was, and he's looking for a little payback for all that nasty Halliburton trash talk!
Go get this Clymer, VP Cheney...Big Time!

Lost in Space
Kerry dismisses criticism of 'global test' remark as 'pathetic'

John Kerry yesterday clarified his debate gaffe about America needing to "pass the global test" before acting militarily in self-defense. Here is what he said, according to CNN:

"I can do a better job of protecting America's security because the test that I was talking about was a test of legitimacy, not just in the globe, but elsewhere."

Elsewhere? Maybe Kerry is angling for the endorsement of the Weekly World News space alien, who seems to have last weighed in on American politics in May 2001:

The mysterious space alien whose endorsement of George W. Bush helped him win the election has issued a candid assessment of Bush's first 150 days in office--and he gives our new commander in chief a humiliating D-minus!

The E.T. says that President Bush has already made a series of catastrophic blunders that "threaten the long-term survival of the human species" and warns that if he keeps going the way he has been, his presidency will spell disaster for "not only the United States and the planet Earth, but possibly the entire galaxy as well."

Among the space alien's specific complaints is Bush's decision to withdraw America's signature on the Kyoto accords.

Now, we're not sure we believe this; the Weekly World News has a reputation for publishing stories that are both fake and inaccurate. For example, the latest issue claims that Laura Bush is supporting Kerry for president. It "quotes" the first lady: "I'm voting for John Kerry for President because sooner or later, when it becomes politically expedient, he shares my views on everything. He's not hard-headed like my husband. And he's not always saying, 'I answer to a Higher Power! It is the Lord's will!' when I fuss at him for forgetting to put the toilet seat down, either."

It turns out the paper doesn't even claim Mrs. Bush said these things. Rather, the quotes are provided by a "psychic" who claims to have read the first lady's mind. Well, whatever. But the Laura Bush "story" does suggest one more reason for Kerry's new interplanetary test: Perhaps he heard he was slipping with female voters and someone told him women are from Venus.

What can you say to all this but "Hilarious?!"
The idea of GWB replying "I answer to a Higher Power!" when Laura fusses at him about not putting the toilet seat up is a hoot and a half!
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
And if there are space aliens, would they please beam Kerry up now, before he drives us all to drink!

October 03, 2004

DRUDGE REPORT DEBATE MYSTERY: DID KERRY HAVE CHEAT SHEET?

"No props, notes, charts, diagrams, or other writings or other tangible things may be brought into the debate by either candidate.... Each candidate must submit to the staff of the Commission prior to the debate all such paper and any pens or pencils with which a candidate may wish to take notes during the debate, and the staff or commission will place such paper, pens and pencils on the podium..."
So what did Dem presidential contender John Kerry take out of his jacket as he approached the stage [with his back to the auditorium's audience]?

What did Kerry place on the podium?

Video replays of the Kerry maneuver played all weekend long on the internet.

[A tight zoom analysis of the Boston.Com feed shows Kerry pulling a mysterious item his jacket [14 seconds into video, after commerical]. Kerry appears to unfold some sort of paper seconds later, at his podium.]

A top Kerry campaign source explained to the DRUDGE REPORT late Sunday how Bush supporters were once again trying to distract.
"Kerry did not cheat," said the Kerry insider. "This is more lies from Republicans, who are hoping for a quick change of subject away from the president's performance, and the new polls."

When pressed on the fact that even brandishing a pen from his jacket would have violated debate rules, the Kerry staffer laughed, adding, "See you at the inauguration, Drudge."

I don't encourage you to go to the Boston.com site because Drudge has stirred up the Pajamahadeen and the server's jammed.
Go to the Daily Recyler site instead, where there's a video player also.

Kerry's such a scumbag!
I knew he was given the questions Lehrer asked beforehand and he'd clearly rehearsed the answer, but the fact that he had "crib notes" makes it all that much more enfuriating!
And to think some criticized President Bush's answers because he "er-d" and ah-d" a bit, fumbled for the right words to address those very important issues and wasn't as glib as Senator Pumpkin Head (Dig the lipstick, too!).
Republicans play by the rules, Democrats cheat and lie.
WORD.

Herald Sun: The fight for our future

SAVAGES bent on killing us, our children and our way of life have cast a shadow over the early years of the 21st century.
They flew planes of innocents into the World Trade Centre and Pentagon.

They bombed a nightclub of equally innocent holidaymakers in Bali, killing 88 Australians.

Islamic extremists want us dead. They love death, they say, as much as we love life.

Last week they hacked off the head of American Jack Hensley, recording the event on video so that it could entertain their equally determined brothers and sisters in other countries. Sadly, some of those live among us, perversely - but only for convenience sake - calling themselves Australians.

Of course, they are not. They are not even human.

But those of us who must deal with them, the consequences of their unquenchable hate and the threat they pose to us, have a task at hand.

It is intellectually lazy to say we should withdraw from the Coalition of the Willing, bring the troops home and safeguard our back door. If only our wicked enemies were as simple.
[This goes double for John Kerry here in the States as much as it does for their "Liberal" candidate Mark Latham in Oz!--Jen]

They may have failed to kill thousands of Australians in their thwarted attempt to attack the Olympic stadium in 2000.
[I missed news about this one, but given the way the IslamoNazis operate, it sounds about "right."--J.T.]

But the Islamic terrorists so determined we should die because we are free knocked on our door on September 11. They killed 10 Australians thousands of miles from their homeland.

They knocked on our door again at Bali a year later. Those Australians who needed to - perhaps Mark Latham was among them - might have heard that a little more clearly.

And they knocked once more outside our very own embassy in Jakarta last month, killing nine - probably all of them Muslims, but that will hardly bother these brothers and sisters of the devil.

Last month in Beslan, in southern Russia, they peaked, shooting schoolchildren in the back as they fled the school siege in which 360 died, 150 of them harmless, defenceless and much loved children.

The terrorists will be disappointed this was not captured on video for their comrades.

The rest of the world simply felt sick.

This is what the war on terror is about. It is the greatest challenge to our futures since the height of the cold war.

To misunderstand it is to misread the bold signs of what will be the great historical markers our time.

Mistakes have been made and the coalition partners clearly overestimated the enthusiasm for democracy in a region cruelly denied that right for so long.
[This may be a bit of an overstatement on everyone's part; to call the current situation in Iraq "bad" or to say that it's "not going well" is to make a comparison, but to what I don't know.
The U.S. and her allies like Australia have never been in this place before and Germany and Japan in 1945 don't count because they'd been so thoroughly bombed into submission that they *knew* resistance was futile, whereas we kept our bombing--even "Shock and Awe"--to a minimum and have adopted a "hearts and minds" strategy to a country in which the enemy wasn't truly conquered because they literally disappeared back into the civilian population.]

But that does not make the fight for our security wrong.

Mark Latham, an ill-disciplined man, who as Labor leader is still to fully take shape,
[Sounds just like Kerry: most of us still don't know who he is and what we do know about him isn't good.--Jen]
heedlessly said he wanted the troops "home by Christmas".

Every Australian wishes for that.
[As does every American and every Brit and every Pole and every Japanese, etc.....]

Just like the mums and dads of the boys at Normandy and Tobruk and Ypres and Villers-Bretonneux and Gallipoli and Inchon wished their kids could be home for Christmas.

But they had a job to do, which they did and which our nation proudly celebrates every November 11 and April 25.

That generation won then and we must win again. Once more we are on the right side of history.

To rashly bring the troops home by Christmas might mean somewhat fewer Christmases for many of us.

The Sunday Herald Sun believes all Australians need to keep that in mind as we cast our vote for our future next Saturday.

Come on, Australia--Keep John Howard!
He's terrific!
And thank you, Australia, for standing shoulder-to-shoulder with your good friend and ally the United States of America in every war we've had to fight for the last 100 years!
We love you and we love PM John Howard (whom God and Fate put in Washington, D.C. on 9/11 so that he witnessed the carnage first-hand).
God bless the Land Down Under!

*Every good blogger wears a gorgeous pair of Aussie-made Ugg shearling slippers with their blogging pajamas!