Zimbabwe has been re-elected to the United Nations Human Rights Commission for a 3-year term in another U.N. travesty.

Hat tip to Normblog.

The selective indignation of the Sydney Morning Herald focused on U.S., Canadian, and Austrialian objections, not once mentioning Mugabe's encouragement of the murderous rampages where white farmers were hacked to death. So little is written in the MSM about the rampages, they almost have the feel of urban legends, primarily because the black-on-white violence and Mugabe's Marxism does not lead to close media examination.

Do a search at BBC and you find 1,426 stories on Zimbabwe and the violence. Here Here Here Here

Terry Ford was the tenth white farmer to be slaughtered.

Where is the media indignation, the campaigns to right the wrong? Where is the fervor for the battle for what is right? And then ask yourself where is the indignation of the media when human rights violations happen in Cuba? Or where is media indignation over Chavez in Venezuela who is following the script of Mad Marxists Empowered by Meglomanic Media??

Let's face it. As Howard Rosenberg says, "The media doesn't tell you what to think. They tell you what to think about." And they don't want you to think about their role in empowering murdering despots like Pol Pot or Robert Mugabe or the madmen of the Sudan.

HEH

Michelle Malkin: THE WASHINGTON POST'S HEADLINE HYPE

I thought this was good for a laugh.

Rallying the troops

The Globe and Mail in Canada rallying the troops. They report a new poll that purports to show the Liberals barely in the lead, with -- get this 30 percent of Canadians, compared with 28 percent for Conservatives and 18 percent for the New Democrats. The 3.1 per cent margin of error for the poll (last paragraph) means the Liberals could be 27 and the Conservatives could be 31 percent. Naturally, the Globe wouldn't see it that way. Or they could view it as a statistical tie as does the CBC, but that wouldn't serve the purpose.

WAY at the bottom is the fact that 3% (or with the eror margin 0%) of Canadians say the government is doing an "excellent job" while some 24% say it is doing a 'very poor job". No mention what the vast majority think. And no link to the poll either to see the questions or the demographics.

These are the methods that the MSM use to influence voters. The headline from the first page of the Globe and Mail shouts Poll puts Liberals in front. No mention of the crowds who booed PM Martin at the U2 concert for his empty promises to give more foreign aid. Bono had a stirring endorsement though as he urged the crowd not to give up on blackmailing Martin.

“I think we’re going to figure this thing out. I think he’s a great leader for Canada and that he can do what we want him to do, to lead the world out of despair and poverty, this year.”

Only the star-struck Toronto (publisher of Harlequin romance books) Star ("She panted, her breasts heaving, as he tore her chemise.") would think the Bono story worth covering. But it does illustrate the give-away mentality of the desperate Martin, his weakness perceived even by an aging rocker.

We done wrong

We violated your trust, says the Tampa Tribune. They asked for a resignation from a reporter for writing a story that involved friends and making up the reaction of someone else as a lead-in to the story.

The mea culpa though was hysterical.

This ethical breach does not represent who we are as journalists at The Tampa Tribune. We recognize that we have a covenant with our readers: to be truthful, to be fair, to be credible. I am sorry that we've failed you in this case. We will rededicate ourselves to earning and keeping your trust.

The reason why, one suspects, is because the compainant was a former ABC reporter featured in the fabricated story. It turns out that the disgraced reporter wrote the story to promote pending legislation to impose stricter regulation of tow truck operators. No apology for that though. It was creative writing at it's best, and you have to wonder if a reader had complained, if the email or letter or phone call would have evinced the same self examination at the newspaper. Readers, of course, being less reliable than former reporters.

Liberals worry

The Charleston Gazette frets about the drift of West Virginia to the Red State column, so much so that they turn to Le Monde to explain the shift.

Le Monde said the GOP, Fox News and other right-wing voices stirred working-class resentment against superior-acting left-wingers - the liberal elite, a horde of quibbling lawyers, haughty academics, depraved journalists and know-it-all actors.- It added: "This con trick is possible only because the smugness of those in the know is even more insufferable than the insolence of the rich.

There is something laughable about a West Virginia newspaper looking to a French newspaper to explain West Virginians to them. And it explains more than they would like us to know about the antecedents of the Liberal mindset, the haughty eliteism, the cronyism of the Left, the faux-intellectual superiority, the corruption and pettiness, the outright fraud when necessitated by the prospect of loss, and the unmitigated class warfare that is so French as to be patentable.

Le Monde got a lot of it right. More so than the Charleston Gazette who opine:

Since the Democratic Party represents working families, and the Mountain State consists mainly of them, we hope the pendulum swings back, and the state’s electoral votes cease going to the party of the rich.

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the lefty Liberals have not been able to update their handbooks.

Russian envoy looks to Canada, with love

When the Russian ambassador tells you ""Yes, we're more conservative than Canadians in terms of social values, like progressive conservatives," you know Canadian Liberals have moved off the morals reservation. While Russia is freeing itself from totalitarianism, Canada is moving closer daily with the tyranny of judicial activists imposing their non-values on the population, wholesale corruption from the top of government, and the collaboration of a willing but equally corrupt media. Russians, apparently, still have some pride in themselves.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel circulation, ah, scandal scam fraud

A new newspaper circulation twist was alleged in a lawsuit against the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Aside from the free distributions to schools, businesses, homes that never subscribed, the papers were thrown into trash. Those are the usual methods to commit fraud. The lawsuit, however, alleges a new and enterprising scam: "newspapers distributed to apartment tenants as part of a scheme in which the subscription cost was included in the rent then kicked back to the apartment complex manager."

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel recently fired three circulation executives. Even with the scams, the circulation of the lefty paper declined from 290,000 to about 240,000.

Your tax dollars

For $4.6 billion of taxpayer money, Paul Martin has bought himself NPD support for his thin-on-the-ice government. For those waiting in line eighteen weeks for treatment by a specialist, you can be happy the money isn't going toward that lump in your breast or MRI for your child, but to the environment and foreign aid.

I bet you feel better already.

Hillary Care

Why Canadians are seeking private care in the U.S.

A study last year found Canadians waited an average of 8.4 weeks from their general practitioner's referral to an appointment with a specialist in 12 different medical specialties, then waited another 9.5 weeks for their treatment. Those wait times are almost double what a similar study found in 1993.

This is what Hillary wanted for us. Four months for treatment by a specialist.

I suspect she was hoping it would be in place in time for delayed treatment for Bubba's heart problems.

Recalling why

There's a reason why I call Canada the "Haiti to the North" aside from the connections to the Food-for-Oil boondoggle and the Canadian connection to Enron and other oil/energy frauds. It's their closeness to the United Nations and their committment to spending billions on aid while Canadian citizens have a waiting list for MRIs and other routine health procedures any other civilized country takes for granted.

Canada was the first country to jump in to promote aid for Haiti.

Big Brother monitors speech.

No to FOX news but yes to Al-Jazeera. They have since allowed FOX, but begrudgingly.

Chretien to mediate the Yugos situation.

Remember the Indian terrorist who was allowed to enter Canada to complete a film? No? (next to last item)

Holocaust Denier worse than homocidal genocide in Sudan.

I am still shaking my head over this. Bending over backwards to be fair.

Take a number and wait in line. Hillary wanted this for us. Maybe the online waiting list, too.

Speaking of energy and twits.

I had forgotten these reasons.

You do the math. I am still reeling.

Ms. Parrish, the Liberal whacko.

Don't leave home without your Muslim cleric. I musta been foaming that day.

U.S. takes fingerprints at the border and whoa! And those were just the Liberals crossing. (Just kidding!)

Talk about judges!

Terrorists in Canada. Gagliano, a Gangster? Never, you say!

Remember that Tamil Tigers fundraising dinner Paul attended? I guess the funds were for him because ...

Of course, it is easy to criticize, less easy to do something about any of this. I know, being a Californian and having a state government riddled with incompetents, perverts, and crooks, and with Los Angeles and Toronto having more in common than just being Third World Cities, it isn't all that easy to kick the bastards out. Canada is no less and no more corrupt than California and the boondoggles are, not suprisingly, quite similar. Pension fund misuse. Enron. School funding abuse. Media market domination that excludes real investigative journalism and might possibly signal collusion.

Add to that unlimited illegal and legal immigration -- imported voters -- that will guarantee there will be no reform anytime soon.

Laughing outloud

The headline is precious. From the Guardian" Progressive Catholics See Hope for Pope I imagine he is greatly relieved. Lest you think the idiot writer is British. It's an AP story.

The BBC is opening a discussion for their readers on "How should the Papacy continue?" Well, let's see, the Pope should call up the BBC and .... I thought that the Globe & Mail had a monopoly on the stupidity polls they regularly conducted to see if their readers were sufficiently brain dead. Such as this one. And "Do you think Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was a good candidate to become the new Pope?" The results.

OUCH

According to Canada Free Press, Sri Lanka is starting to wonder what happened to the $425 million tsunami aid money that was pledged by Canada. The money, supposedly, is being held by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). The bad news?

Kofi Annan's special envoy to Korea Maurice Strong, also a senior advisor to Prime Minister Paul Martin, was the founding president of CIDA.

In a story about the French investigating money from the PLO to Yassir Arafat's widow, there is this lovely tidbit:

The investigation follows a European Union probe that found no mishandling by the PLO of the more than USD 500 million (EUR 384 million) the EU donated to the Palestinian Authority from 2000 to 2003. The French inquiry focuses on the legality of the funds passing through Suha Arafat's Paris account.

First, you have to ask yourself if you wanted to investigate wrongdoing, would you ask a French official to do it? I dont' think so. But in light of what we know about the Food-for-oil scam and the Sponsorship Scam in Canada, you really have to wonder if any "donation" by the EU, France or Canada is a ripoff of their citizens. How much did Arafat receive vs. the amounts donated? How many people received "fees" for the transactions? How much of the amount did the donating country or body really, really send out? And how much did the banks in Tunisia and Paris make on the deals?

And Europeans want a constitution written by these people??? Are they completely nuts?

If you read nothing else about the election of the new Pope and the media reaction, Conservative Commentary nails it perfectly.

And while you're at it, everything he writes is interesting.

David Warren writes for the Ottawa Sun. His web site contains his essays that are always thoughtful and eloquent. To be savored. His Gomery Canada essay concludes:

The Iraqis could, finally, under the oppression of a monstrous tyranny, turn for help to the U.S. Marines. It is sad that they could not liberate themselves. It is sadder that, as tyranny begins to encroach upon the throat of our own Canada, we must turn for help to the U.S. bloggers brigade.

Written before the ban was lifted, there were many Canadian bloggers who risked more than any U.S. blogger to print the truth. It is a triumph of the human spirit that American and Canadians could work together to bring public the disgrace of the ban.

The Left is spinning like a top about now

U.K.'s Independent on purported German dismay at Cardinal Ratzinger's election as Pope.

An opinion poll last week showed that 36 per cent of Germans opposed his becoming Pope whereas only 29 per cent supported him.

With polls -/+ 3 that's a tie, isn't it? It does make you wonder what the other 35% though.

As for Reuters, Ratzinger is "controversial" and nothing he has done seems worse than this.

Ratzinger had disciplined Latin American priests who backed Marxist-influenced "liberation theology" to fight against social injustice and military regimes in the 1970s and 1980s.

I guess being opposed to heavily armed terrorists funded by communists from Cuba and the Soviet Union is highly suspect. Cuba and the Soviet Union, having, as they do such wonderful regard for human life and freedoms. /sarcasm off

Abe the Fag

I am beginning to think of this as the Andrew Sullivan lens where everything in life is connected with one's sexual views and practices. Now homosexual activists posing as historians are praising a book that claims Abraham Lincoln was homosexual for a Disneyesque style museum that dumbs down history more than any ethnic study at any university. The museum was funded by a Republican Illinois governor (in Illinois there are no honest elections nor honest Republicans electable) whose racketeering career culminated in his last act -- commuting the sentences of all 167 inmates on death row. History by crooks. Isn't that sweet?

President Bush attended the dedication of the museum. Pity he did. I suspect that given the corruption history of Illinois, even Abe Lincoln wouldn't have.

Newspapers and declining readership

Why newspapers are losing readers from a former editor.

You've all seen them, especially around the holidays. Editors seem to think this activity is the essence of American life. Except for the advertising, a newspaper reader from another planet would never know there was a private sector. Editorial content is skewed heavily toward the activities of the welfare state because that's the sector that reporters and editors identify with.

The reason why?

One has only to look at election results and national opinion polls to see how out of phase journalists are in their thinking as compared to the bulk of their readers. It is as if daily newspapers are being produced by people living in an alternative universe, oblivious to what really concerns and interests their dwindling numbers of readers.

There was a time when reporters came from the streets and neighborhoods they covered. They didn’t go to Ivy League schools or even college. Their journalism school was a cigar-chomping city editor who would throw their copy back in their face if it was boring or smelled of elitism. Nowadays this would be called a “hostile working environment.”

A few decades ago reporters began coming out of journalism schools and liberal arts colleges. The job was “professionalized.” Because colleges were where you found journalism talent, most cities and towns soon had newspapers staffed by reporters and editors whose first experience with the town in which they were working was a job interview.

Because most had been immersed in the new culture of professional journalism in college, their worldviews were amazingly similar. They wanted to “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” They wanted to “change the world,” not just report on it.

To that end, newspapers began preaching rather than reporting. They began to promote those programs that they felt were actually helping “change the world.” It is the omnipresent coverage of these multiplying programs, and the concomitant lack of coverage of things that actually matter to most readers, that has turned readers away from daily newspapers.

It might also be noted that newspapers and the government they purport to counterbalance are increasingly interchangeable. The shift from Congressional aide to MSNBC (Chris Matthews) and from Democrat consultant to CNN anchor and contributor (Bob Bechler) and political staffer for Robert Kennedy and John Lindsay to CBS News then ABC reporting (Jeff Greenberg) political advisor to ABC Anchor (George Stephanopoulous).
It goes on an on and on.

Los Angeles Times fake news

Los Angeles Times fires reporter for fabrication.

Editor & Publisher, true to it's committment to monopoly of the presses by, what else, Editors and Publishers, failed to provide a link to a site that served as a watchdog on the story. They did mention it. Good thing they didn't link though. They misspelled it.

Following the March 31 correction, Slater's story had gotten increased scrutiny from numerous observers, ranging from the Enterprise-Record to LAObseved.com, a watchdog site.

Where were the four or five editors who vet every story???

UPDATE: (April 20) Slater wasn't just a reporter. Link

Slater joined the Times in 1994 and formerly served as the paper’s Chicago bureau chief. He shared an Overseas Press Club award for reporting on the U.S. intervention in Afghanistan.

A fine tradition of racketeering

'Koreagate' Figure Tied To Oil-for-Food Scandal (washingtonpost.com)

After the Koreagate scandal, Park continued to cultivate politicians, in the United States and abroad. He also kept in touch with friends such as Edwards, whom federal authorities accused of accepting $10,000 from Park.

With only passing reference to Park attending the Democrat National Convention in Los Angeles, the Washington Post also glosses over former governor Edwin Edwards fate. In a CBS interview from prison, Edwards was unapologetic. CBS noted:

In the 16 years he was Louisiana's governor, he dodged two dozen Grand Jury investigations and was acquitted in two federal trials.

He was convicted of racketeering. The United States Attorney's office notes the conviction of Edwards and adds this about corruption in Lousiana.

In addition, this unit was also involved in successfully convicting, Louisiana Insurance Commissioner James Brown who was the third successive Louisiana Insurance Commissioner to be prosecuted and convicted by this office.

Few newspaper items note that Edwards was Democrat.

Not the Washington Post.
Not the St. Petersburg Times.
Not the networks.
Not CNN where he is described as "fast-talking, sharp-witted governor" but not as a Democrat.
Not the New York Times.

Another Canada corruption connection. This time, with the U.N.

It gets worse and worse in Haiti to the north

The UN Food-for-Oil scam has nothing on the Canadian political chicanery that is being revealed daily. Besides Adscam, there is a $1 billion (with a B) gun registry, and now there is $6.5 billion (with a B) spent on "consultants." Link

Citizen advocacy group Democracy Watch is set to file an ethics complaint suggesting Ottawa lobbyists, Earnscliffe Strategy Group, have ties to the Liberal Party that scream conflict of interest.

More fabrications at the New York Times

I guess those four or five editors David Shaw insists check every journalist's story screwed up again. A Boston Globe ran a story by Barbara Stewart on a Canadian seal hunt that wasn't. The story ran on Wednesday. The seal hunt was delayed until Friday, but it didn't deter Ms. Stewart or her four or five editors. The Boston Globe retracted the story and noted she had fabricated details. What a shocker!

Ms. Stewart is not without credentials. She worked for the New York Times for a decade, according to a Newsday story, something the Boston Globe neglects to mention at all in the retraction. Now how could they forget that???? Hmmmm?

UPDATE: Boston Herald reports that Barbara Stewart worked as a reporter on the Times' metro desk where, among other things, Stewart worked on ``Portraits of Grief'' vignettes about 9/11 victims.

Haiti to the North

And you thought our politicians were bad. Try this one.

A website critical of Calgary's police chief and his senior managers has been shut down, after the chief used a rare legal tactic to seize a computer from a private home. Chief Jack Beaton obtained a civil court order this month to enter the home of a civilian police employee and seize the computer.

A police commissioner was supportive.

"I think any time you go after the morale of a service or the morale of a city that takes pride in its service, the chief has a right to act," Burrows said.

Uncivil media

If you want to know why the MSM is so leftwing and blatant about it, Editor & Publisher is the publication to read. President Bush recently visited the American Society of Newspaper Editors conference. This is how Joe Strupp, Senior Editor of E & P and frequent guest on NPR, began the article.

President Bush might have thought he would get a kind, welcoming introduction for his appearance Thursday at the American Society of Newspaper Editors conference. After all, he was introduced for the lunchtime address by Rich Oppel, editor of the Austin American-Statesman, which Bush termed his “hometown paper” during his eight years as Texas governor.

That was a smarmy way to start the attack. Hometown doesn't necessary equate to friendly, but Strupp knew that. From there, Strupp quoted Oppel extensively, including this:

“Mr. President,” Oppel concluded, “seeing as we may have differences over access to government information, in our discussion today perhaps you may speak about the resolution between national security and an open society.”

How come an "open society" does not include Howard Dean's records while he was governor of Vermont? How come an "open society" does not include John Kerry's complete military records that were promised? How come an "open society" doesn't include a serious examination of the circulation fraud perpetuated by newspapers? How come an "open society" has such an uncivil Society of newspaper editors?

France passes right-to-die law

This is a wonderful distinction. A new law in France isn't euthanasia.

The new law will enable the terminally ill or those with no hope of recovery to refuse treatment in favor of death. Doctors will be allowed to administer painkillers even if their secondary effects include shortening patients' lives. But the law does not allow mercy killings.

Only the French could parse truth without any evidence of shame.

From the CBC:

"The ban on giving death remains," Health Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said Wednesday, after the overnight debate. "Allowing death is not the same as giving death."

The thin rationale?

Under the new law, people with terminal diseases or those with no hope of recovery from serious medical conditions can refuse treatment without fear of state intervention or prosecution.

As though thousands are prosecuted for their refusal of treatment.

Looks like the game is up

The headline at Editor & Publisher is "Circ Drops at 'The Boston Globe,' Some Gains at 'NY Times' and McClatchy" but the real story is several paragraphs down.

Janet Robinson, president and CEO, New York Times Co., warned the declines would continue for the second half of the year ,especially as the company migrates away from bulk sales. "Advertisers are becoming better informed of circulation analysis," she said while adding that the Times is in the process of converting to a readership model.

Translation: Newspapers have been routinely covering up their circulation decline by giving away papers in bulk, some paid for by a single advertiser, most of them dropped at deeply discount rates on hotels, restaurants, and airports. Or newspapers that were dumped into the trash. But advertisers got wise. They pay advertising rates based upon circulation to actual subscribers, people who supposedly read the paper, not 5-cent-a-copy bulk rate drops or throwaways.

Had any other business been so deceitful the MSM would crucify them. This is another example of their unwillingness to hold themselves to standards they demand of others.

I have often had my reservations about the Kyoto Accords. Even before Al Gore signed the agreement the U.S. Senate voted 95-0 on a motion to go on record saying the U.S. would never implement the accord. The resolution was introduced by Robert Byrd, senior Democrat senator, which made the hue and cry over G.W. Bush's announcement that the Kyoto plan was D.O.A. an exercise in political chicanery. The Democrats, including John Kerry and Ted Kennedy, among others, voted against even bringing the treaty to a vote in the Senate, and president Bush was just announcing the reality.

Apparently the Dems knew something they aren't sharing with us. But as time goes on, I am beginning to think that the whole thing is a giant scam not unlike Adscam. The Martin government in Canada announced a $10 Billion (with a B) plan to meet Kyoto targets. Matthew Branley, director of climate change for the Pembina Institute, is quoted.

"Because Canada really has wasted so much time since the Kyoto conference — more than seven years now, our emissions are still rising. We're going to have to make substantial use of purchases of international credits to meet our targets as well.

Like the millions given to the U.N. for "peacekeeping" or for "humanitarian aid", not a penny of which is ever audited by any agency or firm, these credits will be "purchased" from suspect countries where the income will, not suprisingly, not be audited by any agency or firm. Nor, for the most part will the expenditures be verified in the donating country. The beauty of it is that one suspects that less than one-third of the donated money ever actually leaves the donating country. It's anyone's guess how the other two-thirds is laundered. Or maybe the "donation" or the "international credit" IS the vehicle to launder the money for both parties. But, for sure, any country that has a 7 month waiting list for a non-emergency MRI has no business spending $10 BILLION on "international emission credits." It's obscene.

It's called the Groningen Protocol. You decide what it really is.

Cal Thomas on the wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles.

The wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles laid bare our obsession with externals. The invective hurled at the newly-to-each-other-weds may be unprecedented. Casting to the winds all pretense of "reporting," several network anchors and commentators unmercifully trashed the couple. Had the bunker wedding of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun been televised, it might have received better coverage.

For a reason, including this observation.

Beauty has replaced character. It is the goddess of narcissism. The late Diana, princess of Wales (a title she keeps, even in death), behaved badly, but she mostly gets a pass from the self-absorbed and worshipful public because she was beautiful on the outside.

Pathetic

A son of the late Tribune columnist Mike Royko was arrested Friday after he allegedly attempted to rob a Northwest Side bank while claiming to be armed with a bomb that turned out to be phony, authorities said.

UPDATE: Royko's son is still in jail, but he has an attorney, Patrick O'Byrne.

But O'Byrne said it's "extremely unlikely" Royko will go to trial because he's likely try to strike a deal with prosecutors. O'Byrne and family members say Royko has long battled addiction problems, was taking medication and had money problems.

Although no one seems to be aware of any medicines.

"Apparently he was on some very serious, heavy-duty anti-depressant, anti-psychotic medication that I certainly wasn't aware of and a lot of members of the family weren't aware of," O'Byrne said.

At least no one was aware until he needed an excuse.

KLM

The U.S. refused to allow a KLM flight to pass over American airspace because of two passengers on the plane who were enroute to Mexico were on the U.S. "no-fly list." KLM's response was telling.

An indignant KLM later demanded the US explain how it gained access to passenger details, asserting that American authorities are only given restricted access to passenger details on US-bound flights.

It turns out that the Mexican authorities supplied the passenger list. The question is why didn't KLM screen the suspects adequately? What excuse is there for allowing such people on board? It doesn't say much for KLM that they have such indifference to the safety of their passengers.

The vague claim is that the European list of terrorist suspects is different from the U.S. list. Upon their return, the two suspects were not detained in Amsterdam, nor in Saudi Arabia where they returned. Whether it is posturing or not, Expatica says that after a television report Dutch MPs were alarmed and wanted to know why the suspects were not arrested.

Libya, terrorist state. Still.

I never knew it was a condition of Libya's admission of guilt over the downing of flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, that, after payment of money to the families of the victims, the U.S. would remove Libya from a list of states that sponsor terrorism as Libyaclaims . And if you look at the agreement, you find out it isn't so.

In recognition of these steps, and to allow the families' settlement to go forward, the United States has notified the United Nations Security Council that it will not oppose the lifting of UN sanctions on Libya, which were suspended in 1999.

The Libyan regime's behavior -- including its poor human rights record and lack of democratic institutions, its destructive role in perpetuating regional conflicts in Africa, and its continued and worrisome pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and their related delivery systems -- remains a cause for serious concern. The United States will intensify its efforts to end threatening elements of Libya's behavior, and U.S. bilateral sanctions on Libya will remain in full force until Libya addresses these concerns. Libya must also continue to take definitive action to assist in the fight against international terrorism.

Sloppy journalism?

The CBC report of the wedding of Charles and Camilla is a lot more balanced than the CNN onair coverage this morning that featured a smirky trash Brit and a smirky trash CNN anchor who smarmed their way through a vicious assault on the couple. At the end of the report a real journalist summed up the story and condemned the viciousness of the media treatment of the couple. When the camera came back to the on air twits standing in front of Windsor castle, they seemed completely indifferent to the fact that he was talking about people like them.

Succinct letter to the editor found at the National Post.

Isn't it ironic that the Liberals may be implicated in manipulating the electoral process in Canada. How are they a more legitimate government than those in other countries that they have demonized? How can Canada claim to be an international moral authority when our 'democracy' appears to be as corrupt as any country to which we send electoral observers to?

Same might be said of the United Nations.

Liberals distancing themselves from Chretien

I don't know about you, but I don't find this reassuring. [Bolding mine]

"I have absolutely no doubt that these activities were being concealed from Mr. Martin and virtually anyone else of significance in the Liberal party," [Liberal party national director] MacKinnon said. The Prime Minister (Martin) cancelled the [sponsorship] program on his first day in office and I think that says a lot," MacKinnon added.

Actually it seems to speak volumes. Why would he cancel it his first day in office if he didn't have a clue what was going on? Just wondering.

In all of this, too, you have to wonder what the Canadian media knew and when they knew it. Surely there was one whistleblower in all those years. One rumor. One disgruntled employee who knew what was going on. A bit of gossip at one of those cocktail parties where the media likes to play Insider.

The Beeb

Melanie Phillips on the Bent Broadcasting Corporation. Quoting former BBC journalist Tim Luckhurst.

While the BBC would never endorse one political party, its dominant attitudes are rigidly social democratic. Those values are so dominant that they are treated as virtues not opinions. It is why a BBC correspondent cried when Yassir Arafat died and a Today presenter referred to the Labour Party as “we”.'

It's a good read. [Bolding mine]

It's not a slippey slope anymore

It isn't enought that in Belgium "in one year, over half of the critically ill babies and infants who died in Belgium's Flanders region had their lives ended by euthanasia," as a recent study revealed. Now they're working on the next step.

Health Minister Rudy Demotte has already set up a working group to see whether pharmacies should be able to stock lethal drugs used in euthanasia.

Those Soyent Green Death Pavilions are looming larger every year. The study. These are the people who want to run a World Court to trump any law of sovereign nations. God help us if they ever do succeed.

Not surprisingly, only some 200 people turned out to pay their last respects for the Pope at a Belgium's Sts. Michel and Gudule Cathedral.

Fairness

I have in the past been critical of Canadian media. Having followed their media for years I know they are in-step followers of the Washington Post and, to a lesser extent, the New York Times. That's pretty much the same for our media as well, from the Los Angeles times to the Miami Herald. So I do not think less of the Canadians for their government. Living in California with our Third World Democrat one-party rule for 30 years, I know corruption first hand and I sympathize with Canadians who feel helpless to change things. Even when Republicans had a majority here, one turncoat Republican, like Jim Jeffords later did in the Senate, denied the Republicans leadership.

One thing I have great respect for and I wish we had is an independent auditor like Shiela Fraser who brought the Adscam scandal to the public attention. She should be commended for her integrity.

Explosive testimony

The publication ban on the Adscam inquiry has been partially lifted and the details are even worse than anyone could imagine. Envelopes full of cash, skim money from contracts for which no work was performed sent to the Liberal Party, meetings in restaurants with what sounds like thugs, and it goes on and on.

During his time on the stand, Brault calmly and methodically explained how top party brass browbeat him into writing cheques, handing over cash in unmarked envelopes and paying salaries and expenses of Liberal campaign workers from 1993 to 2002.

Disingeniously, the Liberals claim that there was no record of the kickbacks as such transactions would be meticulously maintained. No self-respecting mob would be that stupid.

James Travers, writing in the Toronto Star, must have spent the last three days crafting this exhoneration of the Canadian media.

Time has been ticking on the Liberal meter for years, slowed only by the absence of a unified right-wing opposition and by the skill of backroom tacticians in trumping growing public anger at the governing party with fear of the alternative.

AND

While this newspaper has reported since 2002 that the sponsorship scheme's true horror is the systemic looting of the public purse to pay Liberal bills, most Canadians are still behind the info curve.

The reason Canadians are still behind the info curve is that The Toronto Star, like the Globe & Mail, like the Liberal party owned- CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corp.) had no desire to keep Canadians informed of the small details that included Adscam and a $1 billion (with a B) gun registry that still isn't working. The same newspapers and the CBC did their part: they hammered the opposition to death. I call that collusion.

NOTEWORTHY

Powerline notes: The New York Times featured a story about Captain's Quarters (Ed Morrissey) about the publication ban in Canada. "A blog written from Minneapolis rattles Canada's Liberal Party."

The media is quick to note any infringement of their freedom to report and print but that indignation seems to be notably lacking both here and in Canada in the case of the Adscam inquiry publication ban. The oddity is that it is an open inquiry -- open to the press and to the public who can find seats daily. It took a blog in Minneapolis to focus national attention on the issue. But then, isn't that why the MSM, here and in Canada, resent bloggers? Howard Rosenberg, L.A. Times media critic: "The media doesn't tell you what to think; they tell you what to think about." The ability to set the national agenda is a powerful tool that has been too long abused by the MSM.

THE ABSURDITY

Andrew Coyne on the absurdity posed by the publication ban that makes truth unmentionable:

And suppose the government falls.
We would then be treated to a sight I venture to say has never before been witnessed anywhere in the world: an entire election devoted to an issue that no one is allowed to say anything about.

HOME TRUTHS

A Blogger from Pas-Ceci writes about tribal elites, plebiscitary dictatorship, and corruption in the Third World banana republic of Pas-Ceci.

This shows the difference between a country like the U.S., where liberty and democracy are the warp and woof of public life, and one like Pas-Ceci, where they are mere slogans used by a grasping and cynical elite to justify its domination of a sullen and cynical populace.

SANDY BERGER

Dick Morris writes on Sandy Berger's admission that he stole documents from the National Archives. What Morris didn't explain clearly was that each of the documents was unique. Berger stole them and destroyed them for their uniqueness - the comments in the margins. But don't you wonder what those comments were? Or how Berger got away with taking not one, or two, but three documents? On different occasions?

You probably don't remember that the head of the National Archives, when told by his staff of the theft, did not call the FBI to report the theft but called Clinton attorney Bruce Lindsay. That was a story that went away as quick as the National Archivist. Story here.

WAR ON WORDS CONTINUES

More War on Words. The leader of the British National party was charged with, gasp, four offenses of "using words or behavior intended to or likely to stir up racial hatred." All carefully documented and shown on the BBC, of course. (Big Brother media informants.)

It is the third "C" of politics: Coercion includes the search for public virtue by virtueless politicians and serves up a public indecency, an assault on freedom that is an insult to western values.

The BNP is, no doubt, thuggish and boorish and despicable. But when have words become a crime? Not advocacy of a crime, nor conspiracy to commit a crime, but a crime itself? It becomes a crime when Liberals are unable to educate the public on moral issues because the Liberal credo does not recognize any external moral authority. To do so would be to empower any number of so-called religious groups, and the very last thing Liberals and Socialists want is oversight of any kind. Hence, the pseudo-morality of "hate crimes," the demonstration of Liberal Public Virtue. The only thing missing is the Public Confessional where the guilty can recant and affirm their persecutors and take vows of repentence, which, naturally, will not be accepted, which, after all, is the object lesson to begin with: People are not educable. That is the province of the Rulers Elites who, after all, know better.

If speech that sirs up hatred is a crime, why hasn't Al Sharpton been tried for his inflammatory rhethoric during the Twanya Brawley case? If hate speech is a crime, why haven't gays been arrested for inspiring hatred with their claims that everyone from the Pope to the President to the CIA is responsible for AIDS? Or any speech by Maxine Waters for that matter? Or Muslim Immans who advocate murder in their mosques in London?

It is because hate crimes are selective political persecutions that are intended to validate the virtue of the persecutor, not educate the public, establish a standard of behavior, or even to protect the public safety. They enforce rules that cannot legitimately pass public scrutiny to become consensus. They manufacture consensus by lack of opposition. It's a War on Words. Because after the acceptance that "hate speech" is unacceptable, the Left has precendent to curb speech in general with a publication ban when they want to hide political criminality or an assault on bloggers for exercising their free speech. You cannot have some speech that is "hate" and some that is not. All speech is free or none is.

UN URGED TO TRY FRENCH FOR RWANDA GENOCIDE

Rwanda's envoy to the UN-backed court trying suspects in the country's 1994 genocide has called for the world body to prosecute French officials and soldiers allegedly complicit in the slaughter.

The envoy alleges that witnesses had testified that French soldiers trained the Hutu militia and that several genocide suspects were hiding in France.

"There is still complicity even after the crimes have been committed," Mutabingwa said, adding that it is "time to put diplomacy aside" and seek true justice for the victims of the genocide.

It'll happen, oh, about the time that the Khmer Rouge are brought to justice. That is, never.

WAR ON WORDS

If you doubt for a minute that Canada would prosecute and persecute bloggers for posting information despite a publication ban on details of the Adscam testimony, consider the case of Former aboriginal leader David Ahenakew.

Former aboriginal leader David Ahenakew told his hate trial Tuesday he still believes Jews were the cause of the Second World War.

Did you read that right? Hate trial? Yes. He is charged with "promoting hatred against an identifiable group." For planting bombs? For conspiracy in gathering followers to harass and injure an "identifiable group?"

In a Big Brother trial where members in the public gallery shouted "racist," Ashenakew appeared before a judge who will determine his guilt or innocence. No jury will hear his case. Just a judge. And the crime? Ashenakew spoke to Saskatoon StarPhoenix reporter James Parker who gleefully reported the interview.

"How do you get rid of a disease like that, that's going to take over, that's going to dominate?" Ahenakew told the reporter. "The Jews damn near owned all of Germany prior to the war. That's how Hitler came in. He was going to make damn sure that the Jews didn't take over Germany or Europe.

"That's why he fried six million of those guys, you know. Jews would have owned the God-damned world. And look what they're doing. They're killing people in Arab countries."

The Globe & Mail were ecstatic with this headline: "Ahenakew admits anti-Semitic words" He's guilty of using words.

This is a great example of the three "C's" of politics. First, corruption when the undeserved steal public office through fraud or trickery, then coercion when they run out of ideas and discontent sets in with the electorate, then Communism when totalitarianism is the only way to continue in power. Coercion includes the search for public virtue by virtueless politicians and serves up a public indecency, an assault on freedom that is an insult to western values. That Liberalism has come to that is a tragedy. That it should be tolerated for one minute by free people is despicable.

I suspect that even the most outrageous stories of corruption on the part of the Liberals may not be enough to bring them down. Like Bill Clinton south of the border, Jean Chretien was extremely successful in lowering people's expectations of politicians.

Comment found at the Monger ("No one is fit to be a master, and no one deserves to be a slave." [Pres. George W. Bush, 2nd Inaugural, 20/01/05])

CHUTZPAH

WE ARE ALL VICTIMS, ESPECIALLY WHEN WE ARE CAUGHT. OUR LAWYER SAYS SO.
It gets better and better in Canada. In a move that a New Jersey mob boss would admire, the Liberal Party is now .... but, read this.

On top of all of that, according to the Toronto Star (publisher of Harlequin soft porn Romance book)s,

Gomery also ruled that the Treasury Board will pay for the Liberals' lawyers at the commission.

So the taxpayers will pay for the Liberal party hack lawyer. Go figure.

HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSIONS, RELIGION, AND POLITICAL CORRECTNESS
While PM Martin plans to attend the funeral in the Vatican, consider this story on how Canadian Human Rights Commissions are attacking Christianity.

It seems almost fitting that the next major step in the gradual outlawing of Christianity in Canada should be taken by one of our so-called "human rights" commissions.

For, if the Alberta commission in fact hails Calgary's Catholic bishop before it to answer charges that, by proclaiming church doctrine and the teaching of the Bible he is preaching "hate," then surely an important milestone will have been reached.

It will mean that wherever Christian teaching contradicts the moral certitudes of the New Canada, then Christians -- clergy and laymen alike -- will be ordered to shut up.

And, you can count on it, Christian clergy will be ordered to conduct marriages and any self-defense will be considered "hate speech." That's how things work in Third World Canada.

Winds of Change has a great post on "Canada's Scandal: The Government vs. The Blogosphere." It's a primer on the politics in Canada. I do think the issue is more straight forward than that. It's Canada's scandal that the truth is subservient to politics and the ridiculous ban on publication of the testimony is an attempt to stifle free speech and contain the damage.

If the Gomery Commission wanted the testimony to be privileged, it should have been given in secret. The fact that it wasn't suggests that the the Gomery Commission did not anticipate the accused would implicate the Liberal party so thoroughly and convincingly. Because if they did have foreknowledge of the testimony they could have justified the secrecy under the same grounds as they gave for the publication ban, ostensibly to provide the defendants a fair trial.

The real issue isn't whether public testimony of the three men is self-incriminating and disclosure would be "fair" to them, but whether the Liberal Party should be the one who ought to be on trial. The ban is a cover for the Liberal Party hack media in Canada to be excused from publishing the details.

Unlike France, Canada doesn't have an independent Judiciary that can conduct an investigation free from the taint of politics and in the interest of justice. Unlike Jacques Chirac who will, undoubtedly, be tried when he leaves office, PM Chretien will never be tried for corruption, and the Liberal Party will never suffer investigation of their criminality. Pure Third World, huh?

Give the Liberals in Canada another ten years in power and like Zimbabwe, non-Liberal voters won't even be allowed to wait in line for health services.

Advice for the Catholic church from the Associated Press' Rachel Zoll: BOLDING is mine.

For all of his inspiring qualities - personal charm, deep spirituality, acceptance of other faiths - Pope John Paul II's tight grip on church leadership and unwillingness to change unpopular teachings clashed with the more democratic approach that many of the 65 million U.S. Catholics favor.

At the end of his pontificate, John Paul leaves behind an American church uplifted by his piety, yet struggling with several of the same problems that preceded him: a dramatically shrinking U.S. priesthood, disagreement over the proper role for lay leaders, and a growing conservative-liberal divide over sexuality, women's ordination and celibacy for clergy

Let's see, religion should be democratic, a product of consensus. You would think after the scandals of the homosexuals in the priesthood, the talk of sex for the clergy would be anathma to our liberal press. But really, the thing that stings the media is this.

He emboldened conservative Catholics, who now have a greater voice through publications such as Crisis magazine and Eternal World Television Network.

AND

John Paul, through prayer and public statements, tried to preserve the special role of the priesthood and defend its all-male status...

Ya think the Liberal media will ever forgive him?

Robert Mugabe has an Enabler, and, surprise, it isn't the mainstream media types at the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and USA Today and the rest of our MSM for their lack of focus on the issue. Their readers know more about the state of Madonna's marriage than the Marxist nutcase that rules Zimbabwe. (Howard Rosenberg, media critic at the Los Angeles Times: "The media doesn't tell you what to think. They tell you what to think about.")

No. It is the fault of Thabo Mbeki, South Africa's president, according to Sebastian Mallaby, writing in the Washington Post. But Mbeki is not all bad.

Mbeki is undoubtedly an able man -- thoughtful in conversation, workaholic in habit, a wizard in the dark arts of backroom politics. But he is a tragic figure: He personifies the flaw that his own New Partnership is intended to inhibit. Open and accountable government is desirable because it exposes leaders to criticism, obliges them to listen and so reduces the risk of blatantly bad policy. But Mbeki, who leads a democratic government but one without electable opponents, is no more willing to accept criticism than to dish it out.

BOLDING MINE. Let's see, a democratic government without electable opponents. Sounds a lot like, ah, Canada until recently. And California.

Truth of the day from The Astute Blogger.

Yasser Arafat won it. PJPII never did. That says all you need to know about the meaninglessness of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Canada is far too corrupt to let the Liberals steal truth too.

Comment found on Angry in the Great White North about the ban on testimony at the Gomery inquiry on the Sponsorship scandal. A Canadian judge ruled that the testimony could not be published as it might be "prejudicial" to the trials of the trio of men at the heart of the scandal. The testimony has been leaked by an American blogger and Canadian bloggers are following the lead and printing the story themselves, but not without reservation. They know the corruption of their government and the corruption of their judiciary. You might expect something like this from a former satellite country just finding the sweet air of freedom. But from Canada?

If you have followed Canadian politics at all in the last ten years, you know it was there all along. From the $1.5 billion (with a B) gun registry boondoggle to the Sponsorship Scandal to the hijinks of the Liberal-appointed Supreme Court, the involvement of Canada under the Liberals in the Food for Oil theft (call it what it is) Canada has, under the Liberals, joined the ranks of Third World Corrupt countries that ought to be on some Mafia-friendly list.

Why doesn't this surprise me?

Quebec has the most highly unionized work force in North America and is home to the only two unionized Wal-Mart stores on the continent.

Talk about interference in the sovereignty of a nation. The U.N. is directing peace talks and negotiating with Hutu "rebels" (read: terrorists and murderers) so they can return to Rwanda.

In New York, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan was encouraged by the FDLR statement and called for the Congolese and Rwandan governments to do everything necessary to ensure the rebels' voluntary disarmament and return to Rwanda, chief spokesman Fred Eckhard said.

Only one catch. Rwanda wasn't invited to the peace talks.

The peace talks started in Rome two months ago, but were kept secret amid fears that Rwandan authorities might undermine them, officials in Congo said.

Annan's history in Rwanda is a case study in how the U.N. facilitates dictators and despots.

More nitpicking by the Globe & Mail. Now we know the assault rifle used to kill four Mounties was a semi-automatic (gasp) and hadn't been modified to be fully automatic.

Naturally, the Globe is not asking: "What good is a $1.5 billion (with a B) gun registry when even a known criminal who had been specifically prohibited from owning rifles had three guns and was able, apparently, to outfire the Mounties?"