Saturday, January 28, 2006
Jimmy Carter: Circumvent US law to keep supporting Palestinians
Buried in a FoxNews report on post-election palestinian demonstrations is the news that Jimmy Carter is advocating that the US government circumvent US law in order to continue financially propping up the palestinian pseudo-state:
Former President Carter said the United States, by law, would have to cut off direct funding to the Palestinian Authority as soon as Hamas takes control, but it should look for other ways to give money to the Palestinians, such as through the United Nations. Hamas has been branded a terrorist group by the U.S. and Europe.
"United States law would require that the money would be cut off if Hamas is in the government, so that's a foregone conclusion," Carter told The Associated Press.
***
Carter said the United States should increase its donations to U.N. and other aid groups earmarked for the Palestinians to make up for the cut in direct aid "so that the people can still continue to have food and shelter and health care and education."
The U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem said the United States gave the Palestinian Authority $400 million in direct aid last year.
Carter met Friday with Abbas, who told him that the Palestinian Authority did not even have enough money to pay salaries at the end of the month, even with foreign aid.If the aid is cut off, "it would create an element of chaos unless the money is made up by other sources," he said. "If the Arab countries come through and the European countries continue to help and maybe Japan, they could continue to operate."
Hey! I just found a $400,000,000.00 budget cut!
As usual, Carter's naive view of world events keeps him from seeing reality. The palestinian pseudo-state (created largely as a result of Carter's embrace of Yassir Arafat as a de-facto "head of state" instead of the terrorist thug he was) is a horror show. Arafat and his cronies stole hundreds of millions in aid and stashed it in European bank accounts. Health care consists of trying to get into Israeli hospitals for free treatment (sometimes with a bomb strapped around your waist) or "palestinian" facilities rendered inadequate by the ramapant graft and corruption. Education involves a "kill the Jews" curriculum, complete with class pictures in masked suicide bomber attire and indoctrination into violent street demonstrations and suicide bombing as "holy martyrdom". The fastest-growing and most profitable segment of the economy is digging arms-smuggling tunnels. And a recent UN-sposored "palestinian cultural celebration" included maps of the region with Israel gone and the area labeled as "Palestine".
This is not stuff I'm making up, or even exaggerating. This is all from recent news reports. Don't believe it? Go do your own research, and here's your first hint: don't rely on the NY Times. You have to dig a bit to find the truth.
These are the people who danced in the streets on 9/11.
These are the people who elected a terrorist gang to run their government.
Elections have consequences. By electing a terrorist gang to be their government, they have now chosen to become a terrorist pseudo-state.
Not one dime.
Not one friggin' dime for the palestinians until their new "government" recognizes the State of Israel and outlaws terrorism, or "martyrdom", or suicide bombing or homicide bombing or "resistance" or whatever they want to call it. A "truce" or "cease fire" can not be considered sufficient. A terrorist state offering a truce is still a terrorist state.
Not one dime.
And any nation that continues to support that goverment, whether European, Arab, Asian or Martian, must be considered as supporting terrorism.
The true legacy of Jimmy Carter and his pal Arafat is the legitimization of terrorism as a diplomatic tool in the middle east. Time to start wiping out that legacy.
The Hamas terrorists wanted to run the palestinian "state". The palestinians have chosen to let them. Until they renounce terrorism - completely, including not just the streets but the schools and the mosques - they must be treated as the terrorist "state" they have chosen to be.
Not one dime.
Former President Carter said the United States, by law, would have to cut off direct funding to the Palestinian Authority as soon as Hamas takes control, but it should look for other ways to give money to the Palestinians, such as through the United Nations. Hamas has been branded a terrorist group by the U.S. and Europe.
"United States law would require that the money would be cut off if Hamas is in the government, so that's a foregone conclusion," Carter told The Associated Press.
***
Carter said the United States should increase its donations to U.N. and other aid groups earmarked for the Palestinians to make up for the cut in direct aid "so that the people can still continue to have food and shelter and health care and education."
The U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem said the United States gave the Palestinian Authority $400 million in direct aid last year.
Carter met Friday with Abbas, who told him that the Palestinian Authority did not even have enough money to pay salaries at the end of the month, even with foreign aid.If the aid is cut off, "it would create an element of chaos unless the money is made up by other sources," he said. "If the Arab countries come through and the European countries continue to help and maybe Japan, they could continue to operate."
Hey! I just found a $400,000,000.00 budget cut!
As usual, Carter's naive view of world events keeps him from seeing reality. The palestinian pseudo-state (created largely as a result of Carter's embrace of Yassir Arafat as a de-facto "head of state" instead of the terrorist thug he was) is a horror show. Arafat and his cronies stole hundreds of millions in aid and stashed it in European bank accounts. Health care consists of trying to get into Israeli hospitals for free treatment (sometimes with a bomb strapped around your waist) or "palestinian" facilities rendered inadequate by the ramapant graft and corruption. Education involves a "kill the Jews" curriculum, complete with class pictures in masked suicide bomber attire and indoctrination into violent street demonstrations and suicide bombing as "holy martyrdom". The fastest-growing and most profitable segment of the economy is digging arms-smuggling tunnels. And a recent UN-sposored "palestinian cultural celebration" included maps of the region with Israel gone and the area labeled as "Palestine".
This is not stuff I'm making up, or even exaggerating. This is all from recent news reports. Don't believe it? Go do your own research, and here's your first hint: don't rely on the NY Times. You have to dig a bit to find the truth.
These are the people who danced in the streets on 9/11.
These are the people who elected a terrorist gang to run their government.
Elections have consequences. By electing a terrorist gang to be their government, they have now chosen to become a terrorist pseudo-state.
Not one dime.
Not one friggin' dime for the palestinians until their new "government" recognizes the State of Israel and outlaws terrorism, or "martyrdom", or suicide bombing or homicide bombing or "resistance" or whatever they want to call it. A "truce" or "cease fire" can not be considered sufficient. A terrorist state offering a truce is still a terrorist state.
Not one dime.
And any nation that continues to support that goverment, whether European, Arab, Asian or Martian, must be considered as supporting terrorism.
The true legacy of Jimmy Carter and his pal Arafat is the legitimization of terrorism as a diplomatic tool in the middle east. Time to start wiping out that legacy.
The Hamas terrorists wanted to run the palestinian "state". The palestinians have chosen to let them. Until they renounce terrorism - completely, including not just the streets but the schools and the mosques - they must be treated as the terrorist "state" they have chosen to be.
Not one dime.
Sites Worth Seeing
Here are links to a few interesting sites I've come across recently.
No editorial comment this time, just stop by and check them out.
Malott’s Blog
Business for Your Health
The Flying-Monkey Right Blog
Enjoy.
No editorial comment this time, just stop by and check them out.
Malott’s Blog
Business for Your Health
The Flying-Monkey Right Blog
Enjoy.
Thursday, January 26, 2006
Recent polling shows bad news for Hillary
The most recent "if the election were today" poll regarding the 2008 Presidential election has more bad news for former First Lady and Presidential wannabe Hillary Clinton. In addition to polling that repeatedly shows Rudi Giuliani clobbering Clinton, the latest McCain-Clinton poll, conducted by Diageo/Hotline, shows the Republican Arizona Senator decisively leading Clinton 52 to 36 percent, a huge 16-point advantage.
It would be easy to dismiss this as a poll by a minor, relatively unknown agency, except that it is entirely consistent with virtually all other polls.
According to a January 25 NewsMax report, there's even worse news for Hillary:
By a margin of three to one, Americans say they would "definitely" vote against Hillary Clinton for president, a CNN/Gallup poll released Tuesday [Jan.24, 2006] has found.
While just 16 percent say they had made up their minds to back Clinton when she seeks the presidency in 2008, 51 percent say there's no way they want to see the former first lady back in the White House.
Men are the most vehement when it comes to the prospect of another Clinton presidency, with 60 percent telling Gallup they would vote against Hillary for sure.
Reporting on the Gallup survey in today's edition, the New York Post notes that women are slightly less repulsed by the notion of Mrs. Clinton running the country, with just 43 percent saying they definitely don't want to see her in the Oval Office.
Even Mrs. Clinton's liberal base isn't solidly behind her, with a full one-third of self described liberals telling Gallup/CNN they have no intention of supporting her in 2008.
The 2008 election is a long way off, and much can and will change before then. But those Democrats who have anointed Hillary as a sure thing may want to start hedging their bets. By the way, in the Diageo/Hotline poll, McCain beats "other democrat" by only 8 points.
[also posted at BabbleFest]
It would be easy to dismiss this as a poll by a minor, relatively unknown agency, except that it is entirely consistent with virtually all other polls.
According to a January 25 NewsMax report, there's even worse news for Hillary:
By a margin of three to one, Americans say they would "definitely" vote against Hillary Clinton for president, a CNN/Gallup poll released Tuesday [Jan.24, 2006] has found.
While just 16 percent say they had made up their minds to back Clinton when she seeks the presidency in 2008, 51 percent say there's no way they want to see the former first lady back in the White House.
Men are the most vehement when it comes to the prospect of another Clinton presidency, with 60 percent telling Gallup they would vote against Hillary for sure.
Reporting on the Gallup survey in today's edition, the New York Post notes that women are slightly less repulsed by the notion of Mrs. Clinton running the country, with just 43 percent saying they definitely don't want to see her in the Oval Office.
Even Mrs. Clinton's liberal base isn't solidly behind her, with a full one-third of self described liberals telling Gallup/CNN they have no intention of supporting her in 2008.
The 2008 election is a long way off, and much can and will change before then. But those Democrats who have anointed Hillary as a sure thing may want to start hedging their bets. By the way, in the Diageo/Hotline poll, McCain beats "other democrat" by only 8 points.
[also posted at BabbleFest]
Canada turns right... or does it?
Many are discussing the Canadian election results as if it were the equivalent of the Reagan Revolution in this country. I think there's a lot less to it than that.
Paul Martin's liberal government dripped scandal and corruption, leading to a no-confidence vote in Parliament and the resulting election, won by Conservative Stephen Harper. The liberal government had become so bad that during the campaign it was revealed that yet another investigation was underway: government officials were alleged to have leaked information that effected the Canadian stock market.
Wearied of one scandal after another, much of it looking like intentional graft and corruption, Canadian voters opted to do what people in democratic societies can do: throw the bums out.
I don't think there's any real doubt that the election represented a vote against the corruption of the liberals more than a shift in public opinion to the conservative viewpoint. Consider, for example, the way Harper toned down his anti-abortion and other socially conservative stances and drifted toward the center somewhat.
On the other hand, Harper has made no bones about his intention to increase defense spending and broaden Canada's role in Nato, reconsider the strategic defense umbrella, and improve relations with the US. He has also pledged to overhaul Canada's socialized medical system, which is at this point a real mess, and cut taxes.
One lesson should be learned from the Canadian election, and the election in Germany which saw Gerhard Schroeder tossed out: governments which make a mess of things at home can't save themselves by relentlessly bashing President Bush and the US.
Perhaps the anti-Bush and anti-US sentiment these guys were banking on doesn't run quite as deep as they, and the mainstream media, would like us all to believe.
[also posted at BabbleFest]
Paul Martin's liberal government dripped scandal and corruption, leading to a no-confidence vote in Parliament and the resulting election, won by Conservative Stephen Harper. The liberal government had become so bad that during the campaign it was revealed that yet another investigation was underway: government officials were alleged to have leaked information that effected the Canadian stock market.
Wearied of one scandal after another, much of it looking like intentional graft and corruption, Canadian voters opted to do what people in democratic societies can do: throw the bums out.
I don't think there's any real doubt that the election represented a vote against the corruption of the liberals more than a shift in public opinion to the conservative viewpoint. Consider, for example, the way Harper toned down his anti-abortion and other socially conservative stances and drifted toward the center somewhat.
On the other hand, Harper has made no bones about his intention to increase defense spending and broaden Canada's role in Nato, reconsider the strategic defense umbrella, and improve relations with the US. He has also pledged to overhaul Canada's socialized medical system, which is at this point a real mess, and cut taxes.
One lesson should be learned from the Canadian election, and the election in Germany which saw Gerhard Schroeder tossed out: governments which make a mess of things at home can't save themselves by relentlessly bashing President Bush and the US.
Perhaps the anti-Bush and anti-US sentiment these guys were banking on doesn't run quite as deep as they, and the mainstream media, would like us all to believe.
[also posted at BabbleFest]
Leading Democrats denounce Palestinian results as fraudulent
Pointing to the wide discrepancy between exit poll results and the purported actual count of votes in the Palestinian election, Democrats Al Gore, John Kerry, Jimmy Carter and Howard Dean declared the outcome "obviously fraudulent" and raced off to file a series of lawsuits.
Oh, wait, sorry. None of them said anything like that. My mistake. It's only when a Republican beats a Democrat that the exit polls reflect the "real" outcome. When Venezuelan socialists or palestinian terrorists pull out the surprise win, the exit polls were only exit polls, you know, which aren't intended to predict the outcome. And don't accurately predict the outcome. And democracy triumphs, as shown by the actual vote count.
Oh, wait, sorry. None of them said anything like that. My mistake. It's only when a Republican beats a Democrat that the exit polls reflect the "real" outcome. When Venezuelan socialists or palestinian terrorists pull out the surprise win, the exit polls were only exit polls, you know, which aren't intended to predict the outcome. And don't accurately predict the outcome. And democracy triumphs, as shown by the actual vote count.
Thursday, January 19, 2006
Phone tax imposed to support War Effort
Every phone bill in America now carries a 3% federal excise tax, imposed in large part to finance the war effort.
The Spanish-American War, that is. The tax began as a luxury tax on telephones around the turn of the cenutry, and continues to be collected today.
Even on cellular phones. Which weren't invented until over 100 years later.
Some groups are now trying to get the tax repealed, and some federal courts have ruled the tax illegal. Of course the truth is, if the tax is eliminated, it will reappear someplace under a new identity. Taxes never really go away, you know.
You can visit www.mywireless.org for more on this topic.
The Spanish-American War, that is. The tax began as a luxury tax on telephones around the turn of the cenutry, and continues to be collected today.
Even on cellular phones. Which weren't invented until over 100 years later.
Some groups are now trying to get the tax repealed, and some federal courts have ruled the tax illegal. Of course the truth is, if the tax is eliminated, it will reappear someplace under a new identity. Taxes never really go away, you know.
You can visit www.mywireless.org for more on this topic.
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
Starbuck's wins landmark copyright case in China
The BBC is reporting that after a two-year legal fight, Starbuck’s has won a copyright/intellectual property case against a Chinese competitor using a similar name and logo in 38 coffee shops in the Shanghai area.
Enforcing laws adopted in 2001, a Chinese court found the Chinese company in violation, and ordered it to both stop using the name and logo, and pay damages amounting to about $62,000.00.
Starbucks uses the name Xingbake in China. In Chinese, Xing means star while bake sounds like bucks.
Xingbake [the Chinese competitor – ed.] argued that it had registered its name in 2000, before Starbucks had secured its trademark in China.
However, Starbucks insisted that it had registered its name and logo in 1996 and claimed that the use of the Xingbake name in 38 Shanghai outlets violated its intellectual property rights.
The court concluded that Xingbake's name and logo was similar to Starbucks' and that the US firm was entitled to have the sole right to use its name in both English and Chinese.
Starbuck’s has operated in China since 1999.
China, along with India, has long been notorious for simply looking the other way while indigenous companies blatantly infringe on foreign copyrights and other intellectual property rights, often simply using a virtual duplicate of the foreign name and logo. The international community has complained in vain about copyright piracy and the export of what amount to counterfeit goods deliberately intended to look like the genuine article.
This case represents a landmark enforcement of foreign commercial rights against a local company. China, as it seeks to expand its international economic presence, will likely find itself more and more forced to play by international rules. The likely effect, over time, will be the erosion of Chinese protectionist policies and a lessening of the economic advantage those policies hve afforded Chinese companies.
[originally posted at BabbleFest]
Enforcing laws adopted in 2001, a Chinese court found the Chinese company in violation, and ordered it to both stop using the name and logo, and pay damages amounting to about $62,000.00.
Starbucks uses the name Xingbake in China. In Chinese, Xing means star while bake sounds like bucks.
Xingbake [the Chinese competitor – ed.] argued that it had registered its name in 2000, before Starbucks had secured its trademark in China.
However, Starbucks insisted that it had registered its name and logo in 1996 and claimed that the use of the Xingbake name in 38 Shanghai outlets violated its intellectual property rights.
The court concluded that Xingbake's name and logo was similar to Starbucks' and that the US firm was entitled to have the sole right to use its name in both English and Chinese.
Starbuck’s has operated in China since 1999.
China, along with India, has long been notorious for simply looking the other way while indigenous companies blatantly infringe on foreign copyrights and other intellectual property rights, often simply using a virtual duplicate of the foreign name and logo. The international community has complained in vain about copyright piracy and the export of what amount to counterfeit goods deliberately intended to look like the genuine article.
This case represents a landmark enforcement of foreign commercial rights against a local company. China, as it seeks to expand its international economic presence, will likely find itself more and more forced to play by international rules. The likely effect, over time, will be the erosion of Chinese protectionist policies and a lessening of the economic advantage those policies hve afforded Chinese companies.
[originally posted at BabbleFest]
Monday, January 02, 2006
First woman minister named to Egyptian Cabinet
Egypt’s cabinet, newly reorganized following the December parliamentary elections, includes the first woman cabinet minister in the country’s history:
Aisha Abdul Hadi was appointed labour and immigration minister in the government of Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif that was sworn in on Saturday.
The elections saw four women voted into the 454-member parliament, and President Hosni Mubarak, exercising a Constitutional provision that calls for the President to appoint ten members to Parliament, appointed five more. Egypt’s first woman cabinet minister has been a major figure in Egypt’s trade union organizations:
Abdul Hadi, a member of the ruling National Democratic Party, is a veteran trade unionist who began her career in 1959 as a representative for workers in state-owned pharmaceutical company.
She rose through the ranks, becoming vice chairperson of the Egyptian Trade Union Federation, a position she held until her appointment to the cabinet.
While the Agence France Presse report curiously referred to Abdul Hadi as a “veiled woman” rather than “a woman”, she in fact eschews the face veil or full body covering worn by many muslim women. Apparently, she does wear a headscarf to cover her hair, facts which for some reason seemed to be of major concern to the news agency’s writers.
Aisha Abdul Hadi was appointed labour and immigration minister in the government of Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif that was sworn in on Saturday.
The elections saw four women voted into the 454-member parliament, and President Hosni Mubarak, exercising a Constitutional provision that calls for the President to appoint ten members to Parliament, appointed five more. Egypt’s first woman cabinet minister has been a major figure in Egypt’s trade union organizations:
Abdul Hadi, a member of the ruling National Democratic Party, is a veteran trade unionist who began her career in 1959 as a representative for workers in state-owned pharmaceutical company.
She rose through the ranks, becoming vice chairperson of the Egyptian Trade Union Federation, a position she held until her appointment to the cabinet.
While the Agence France Presse report curiously referred to Abdul Hadi as a “veiled woman” rather than “a woman”, she in fact eschews the face veil or full body covering worn by many muslim women. Apparently, she does wear a headscarf to cover her hair, facts which for some reason seemed to be of major concern to the news agency’s writers.
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