F9/11 Film Fan Detained
On the eve of Michael Moore’s Crawford, Texas screening of his blockbuster documentary, Farenheit 9/11, federal officials have begun to arrest his Texas bound movie fans.
Zahra Kazemi Still Dead
Court TV, Tehran;
“Counsel for the defense most strenuously objects to the charges, your Honour.”
“We have rock solid evidence that my client had no part in the misfortune that befell this woman. He had no knowledge of her detainment, took no part in her interrogation, did not lift a hand in the beating, promptly delivered her to medical authorities upon the first that her hunger strike had resulted in low blood pressure and death by old age.”
“In her sleep, I hasten to add.”
Canadian officlals responded by threatening to hold breath until blue in the face.
The Belmont Club weighs in. His verdict on the Canadian response …. (I know the suspense is killing you.)
Martin’s Law Of Inertia
(Click on the pic to see more fabulous Pol:Spy stuff.)
Blogging The Convention
Tim Blair is in the US blogging the DNC convention.
“I’m heading into town now to set a trap for Michael Moore. I can’t reveal too much, but it involves a long piece of string, an empty cardboard box (extra large), a stick, and a cheeseburger.”
So is another one of my favourites, talk radio host Hugh Hewitt.
And this sobering convention analysis from Reason’s Matt Welch.
(Larry King) doesn’t walk, he sashays — left hand on hip, pinkie and ring-finger sticking out at dramatic angles, as he swivel-shoulders down the hallway with his jacket collar half flipped up. Looks like a 70-year-old former Teddy Boy who is very comfortable with his feminine side.
Small wonder nobody is watching the networks. The bloggers are providing the real entertainment.
A list of the rest.
Snap Peas
A few years ago I ripped up a patch of lawn with the intention of turning it into garden. Success has been well…. uneven. I’ve actually given much of it over to a tangle of wild flowers, the most successful of which are the volunteer descendants of Brown-eyed Susan seeds I plucked from a roadside several years ago. Otherwise, things have not been worth writing home about. My corn grows to 16″ in height. I have had failed potato crops. Failed potato crops. Imagine.
(Yes, I grabbed a tire iron to stake some flowers. Deal with it.)
But this year, a turnaround. I have romaine and spinach on my plate every night, there is celery and purple, green and yellow beans that will be ready in about a week. The beets are actually growing, I may get carrots and I’ve had my first feed of baby red gourmet style potatoes.
The tomatoes will still be a while yet, but they’re healthy and flowering. There’s even hope for the corn.
And snap peas! Peas with edible pods.. who knew? I’m cooking more of them tonight. Delicious little things raw or steamed. Why would anybody grow the labour intensive inedible pod varieties at all?
This wasn’t so hard, after all. All it took was some rain and a bit of planning to take better advantage of sun exposure. My thumb may be showing a hint of green after all.
I’m hooked.
Next year, I’m planting chickens.
O’Reilly Corners Moore
Matt Drudge has a leaked transcript up. It’s not pretty. One would think that with all that time to think about his accusations, Moore would have a more skilled response ready. OTOH, I think O’Reilly missed the boat by not dismissing Moore’s “send your children” faux question.
Nobody is sending “children” to Iraq. They are adults, professional soldiers and all are volunteers.
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It’s the Palestinians who send their children to war. |
Polls Sagging
This has to be a bit of a downer for convention celebrants. Kerry’s polls are sagging faster than his debotoxified face …
hmmmm….
Considering the fact that average voting Americans are only beginning to pay attention to the choices before them, maybe the DNC should rethink giving Michael “Would you say that to Bush or Kerry?” Moore a chair in the presidential box.
New Kids On The Block
A couple of articles on the bloggers who have been accredited to cover the Democratic National Convention. The NYT is not very enthusiastic, referring to them as “diaries”, as if they haven’t stumbled across the word “weblog”.
The Opinion Journal has a less dismissive take.
(If anyone spots any other stories, send them along and I’ll include them in updates.)
The Republicans will be accrediting bloggers as well – no word yet as to who, so far as I can tell. The DNC committed the faux pas of formally inviting a few right of center bloggers, only to disinvite them for unexplained reasons a few days later.
Hat tip to Glenn Reynolds, who pointed the way to this Corante post.
Sask Labour Updates Anthem
Based on an old classic;
“Take your 65,000 jobs and shove it…”
Offensive Driving
DNC “Politburo”
Brokaw, on the DNC network coverage;
“Any entrepreneurship that we show on booking guests or unilaterally calling up people and trying to get them to come to our booth, we get a call 15 minutes later from the Kerry operation saying ‘No, no, that’s not part of our booking procedure,’ ” Mr. Brokaw said. “There is a politburo running this convention.” (Stephanie Cutter, a spokeswoman for Mr. Kerry, said the campaign’s booking operation was set up to facilitate interviews, not restrict them.)
The campaign went so far as to try to limit the kind of questions Mr. Brokaw and Mr. Rather were to ask Mr. Kerry here on Wednesday afternoon. The staff wanted the questions to concern Mr. Kerry’s expectations for the convention, nothing more, according to people at both networks. It was the sort of terms-setting that few have dared to ask of network anchors. The request was swiftly denied.
Mr. Kerry did not help matters when he failed to appear until nearly an hour before the evening newscasts, leaving the anchors to wait at Faneuil Hall with increasing anxiety. (Mr. Kerry was not running late in returning from a campaign stop but rather from his vacation home in Nantucket.)
“What that said to me was that either they don’t have their stuff together, or he’s ultimately responsible, or he just took it lightly,” Mr. Rather complained.
All that, and a Jennings-Brokaw pissing match, too.
Heh.
Be Sure To Wash Your Hands
The most disturbing aspect of this latestrevelation is the possibility that there are articles in the National Archives that may have spent time in Sandy Berger’s pants.
Progress In Afghanistan
More good news that the mainstream media deems unfit to print. Aussie blogger Arthur Chrenkoff in the WSJ Opinion Journal;
For all the fashionable talk about Iraq distracting the Bush Administration from the war on terror, it’s largely been the media that have ignored Afghanistan except for the occasional story about another skirmish with the Taliban remnants or the explosion in opium cultivation.
CBS’s veteran journalist Tom Fenton recently had this to say about the work of his media colleagues: “You know the old saying: No news is good news. But in the news business, it is just the opposite: Good news is no news–which is why you have been hearing so little from Afghanistan recently.”
Some of that good news: the status of women has improved dramatically, with 2.1 million now registered to vote. Afghan refugees continue to return. Polls indicate that the US is favoured over the Taliban by a margin of six to one. Two thirds of the population believe the country is moving in the right direction, and the interim government enjoys solid support. 81% intend to vote in the elections in October.
“And for the first time, female athletes will represent Afghanistan at the Olympic Games in Athens. Robina Muqimyar will run in the 100 meters, and Friba Rezihi will compete in judo. “
The full article is worth a read.
While they Afghans will continue to be dogged by setbacks, and certainly face the prospect of opposition attacks as they near their elections. it is hard to believe that this much progress has been achieved in only two years time – and at such a low cost in human life.
No word yet of a rebuttal from Noam Chomsky.
hat tip – the excellent Pejmanesque
Joe Who?
Ed Morrisey charts the media coverage of the Joe Wilson before (Bush lied about Iraq seeking uranium in the SOTU address) and the Joe Wilson after (Joe Wilson lied about what he found in Niger and who recommended him for the job) media coverage;
Outlet………Wilson Before….Wilson After
CBS………………..30……………0
NBC………………..40……………1
ABC………………..18……………1
Washington Post…..96………….2
New York Times……70………….3
Los Angeles Times…48………….2
Using “uranium niger” and “Joe Wilson” as search terms:
CBC.ca…………………..7……………0
CTV.ca……………………1……………0
(It appears that CTV preserves stories for a shorter period of time)
“Off A Tich”
Reuters:
Three weeks of imaging data by the agency’s satellites from early 2001 showed more than 10 individual giant waves around the globe of more than 25 metres in height. Previously, scientists believed that such large waves occurred only once every 10,000 years.
Coming Clean
Former New York Times Executive Editor, Howell Raines, February 20, 2003:
“Our greatest accomplishment as a profession is the development since World War II of a news reporting craft that is truly non-partisan, and non-ideological, and that strives to be independent of undue commercial or governmental influence….But we don’t wear the political collar of our owners or the government or any political party. It is that legacy we must protect with our diligent stewardship. To do so means we must be aware of the energetic effort that is now underway to convince our readers that we are ideologues. It is an exercise of, in disinformation, of alarming proportions, this attempt to convince the audience of the world’s most ideology-free newspapers that they’re being subjected to agenda-driven news reflecting a liberal bias.”
New York Times Public Editor Daniel Okrent, July 25, 2004:
Is The New York Times a Liberal Newspaper?
Of course it is.
Ed Driscoll asks, “What does that do to the folks who claim that because Fox sometimes tilts to the right (don’t tell Geraldo and Greta, though) that they shouldn’t be using “fair and balanced”? Read the rest of his post.
I agree with the critics, though. Until there are about a dozen more networks and media outlets like Fox, media fairness and balance is still just a idealistic fantasy. But the success of Fox vs the declining share values and circulation figures for organizations like the Times, does bring some hope that the marketplace may eventually force change where basic journalistic integrity has failed.
via Instapundit
The Incredible Shrinking Website
Bring Our Terrorists Home!
Bill Graham has been out combing the world to repatriate stranded Canadian terrorists citizens. National Post –
A Foreign Affairs official and an immigration officer visited the MEK’s massive complex on May 31 and June 1. Thirteen of the detainees said they were Canadian citizens, while 24 said they were permanent residents and 44 said they had relatives in Canada.
Some of the landed immigrants may no longer be eligible to return to Canada since they have been out of the country for so long. Those with status in Canada are free to return, an official said.
“They have been told that they are totally at liberty to come back to Canada if it is their wish,” said Reynald Doiron, a Foreign Affairs spokesman.
The MEK is designated a terrorist organization by both the US and Britain, though the Liberals haven’t been as judgemental. (Marxism x Islamism, how can you lose?)
The Iranians are none too happy.
Tehran Times – Canada on the Wrong Track
Recent reports indicate that two Canadian officials met with members of the terrorist Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) in Iraq from May 31 to June 1.
The Canadian daily the National Post recently confirmed the news in an official report.
Over the past year, the Canadian government, which enjoyed an appropriate relationship with Iran during the years after the Islamic Revolution due to its reasonable and balanced policies, was influenced by the media propaganda about the death of Zahra Kazemi. Canada immediately abandoned its logical and realistic approach in favor of impulsive reactions.
It seems that Canada’s diplomacy toward Iran is currently moving swiftly downhill and has also influenced the country’s internal affairs and has caused certain changes in the cabinet. This has led the Canadian government to choose the wrong course of action, namely playing with dead pieces like the MKO. Due to the two countries’ good relationship in the past, the Canadian government should take the following issues into consideration:
Perhaps now that Iran is crying foul, they’ll review the MEK status…
Attention Protestors:
Please make your way to one of the officially designated Free Speech Zones. Security will be searching bags. Alcoholic bevarages, weapons and wirecutters expressly forbidden.
Courtesy: Democratic National Convention
hat tip = Drudgereport