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According to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, Microsoft has a cash problem. Actually, the company has "too much cash" — about $35 billion of the dirty stuff, give or take a few million.

Why is this a problem? Because Microsoft's investors understandably want some of that cash, and of late, Microsoft shares have been sagging.

But today, speaking to a group of investors, Ballmer did his best imitation of the thunk you hear when you try to do something that Microsoft's software doesn't want you to do — he said No:

"It is likely I will continue to have to discuss with you for many years why we have as much cash as we do," Ballmer said on a Web cast. "At the same time, I think it's fair to say we want to return cash to shareholders.

After his talk, Ballmer was heard laughing all the way to the bank.

Posted on 05/31/06 by Anthony Ioven | Link | Comments? | Read Comments (3)

Meet the Rock — Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahhar. When asked his opinion of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' threat to hold a referendum on the recognition of Israel, Zahhar just laughed:

Nobody can trust Israel... Nobody will recognise Israel.

Abbas is trying to broker a deal where Hamas will agree to recognize Israel in return for Israel's withdrawing to its pre-1967 borders. But Zahhar dismissed the plan as "unrealistic."

And now meet the Hard Place — Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Olmert is threatening to unilaterally draw borders for the State of Israel if the Palestinians won't negotiate on borders.

According to a former Palestinian security chief, "Olmert's plan is the most dangerous plan proposed in 10 years." Writer Robert Dreyfuss agrees:

If implemented, Olmert’s "convergence" plan will realize the Israeli right’s fondest wish: the formal establishment of a Greater Israel and the neutering of Palestinian statehood. By denying the Palestinians any part of Jerusalem, by creating a patchwork of Bantustans in Gaza and the West Bank, by preempting any Palestinian claim to their refugees’ "right of return," Israel will plant the seeds for future conflicts, as no Palestinians will accept such a solution.

And between this rock and hard place is any chance for peace — not just in Israel/Palestine, but in the entire Middle East.

Posted on 05/31/06 by Anthony Ioven | Link | Comments?

It isn't often I sympathize with President Bush on issues. So when I do, it's worth mentioning.

Yesterday, on Memorial Day, President Bush signed into law a bill that makes protesting at military funerals illegal.

The law is the government's response to that first-class nutjob and homophobe par excellence, the good Reverend Fred Phelps, and his merry band of far-out followers. Apparently, these loony tunes believe that the families of soldiers killed in action haven't suffered quite enough, so they hold protests at soldiers' funerals, waving charming signs such as "Thank God for dead soldiers" and "God sent the IED."

The rationale behind voicing their hatred of gays by dishonoring war dead is tenuous and besides the point. These protests are vile and reprehensible.

But although I sympathize with Congress and the president on this law, I disagree with it. Free speech — even reprehensible speech — has to be protected. Once we agree to segregate acceptable speech from unacceptable speech, we're putting far too much faith in the decider.

Posted on 05/30/06 by Anthony Ioven | Link | Comments? | Read Comments (4)

In the early days of the Korean War, US forces deliberately attacked and killed hundreds of South Korean civilians, mostly women and children, in the town of No Gun Ri.

The massacre was kept quiet for almost 50 years, until a series of Pulitzer-prize-winning reports by the AP — reports which themselves came under attack by some media outlets.

But once the story of No Gun Ri broke, the Pentagon was pressured to look into it. To no one's surprise (except the victims' families and the soldiers who participated in the killings) the 16-month investigation found no evidence of wrongdoing:

The Pentagon concluded that the No Gun Ri shootings, which lasted three days, were "an unfortunate tragedy" — "not a deliberate killing." It suggested panicky soldiers, acting without orders, opened fire because they feared that an approaching line of families, baggage, and farm animals concealed enemy troops.

It was a lie.

A letter has just surfaced that proves not only that the killings were deliberate, as some of the US soldiers involved have claimed, but that the soldiers were acting under orders:

"If refugees do appear from north of US lines they will receive warning shots, and if they then persist in advancing they will be shot," wrote Ambassador John J. Muccio, in his message to Assistant Secretary of State Dean Rusk.

The letter reported on decisions made at a high-level meeting in South Korea on July 25, 1950, the night before the 7th US Cavalry Regiment shot the refugees at No Gun Ri.

My Lai. Wounded Knee. Haditha. No Gun Ri. Americans can no longer claim we are above the cold-blooded brutality that we accuse our enemies of. Only one question remains: How many other of these war crimes are still being covered up?

Posted on 05/30/06 by Anthony Ioven | Link | Comments? | Read Comments (4)

Bertrand Russell said, "War does not determine who is right – only who is left."

On this one day of the year, at least, those of us who are left pay tribute to those who sacrificed everything, everything, in the service of their country.

Estimated US combat fatalities in wars from the American Revolution to the present, and in other combat operations since the Vietnam war:

How many more are about to be sacrificed between now and next Memorial Day?

Posted on 05/29/06 by Anthony Ioven | Link | Comments? | Read Comments (5)

In today's Boston Globe, Jeff Jacoby claims there was "something missing" from an ACLU ad about the NSA's giant database that tracks the phone calls of millions of Americans:

You would never know from all this heavy breathing that the data supplied to the NSA consisted of phone numbers only, stripped of any identifying names or addresses.

Jacoby seems to be suggesting that the government's massive data-mining of anonymous telephone records is pointless, an exercise in data collection for its own sake.

The government isn't quite that incompetent. And when the dots are connected between a particular phone number and other, flagged, numbers, an ordinary American citizen can easily become a "person of interest" — guilt by association.

Jacoby argues that the purpose of the data mining effort is to protect American lives. But here is where the competency of this administration does come into question. Can we really expect this government to protect us with a complex set anonymous phone records, when it could not protect us after being presented with an intelligence memo not-so-subtly entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States," one month before 9/11?

Posted on 05/28/06 by Anthony Ioven | Link | Comments?

On Friday, President Bush played the apologetic little boy for using provocative, cowboy talk such as "Bring 'em on" in the early days of the Iraqi insurgency: He said the remark was the "kind of tough talk, you know, that sent the wrong message to people."

But yesterday, speaking at graduation ceremonies at West Point, Bush sent another wrong message to friend and foe alike — abandon all hope for peace in the Middle East for years and probably decades to come:

This is only the beginning...

The war began on my watch, but it's going to end on your watch...

We will extend freedom to millions who have not known it...

We will not rest until the promise of liberty reaches every people in every nation...

So long as the Middle East remains a place where freedom does not flourish, it will remain a place where terrorists foment resentment and threaten American security...So we are pursuing a forward strategy of freedom in the Middle East...

So when do we invade Saudi Arabia?

Posted on 05/28/06 by Anthony Ioven | Link | Comments? | Read Comments (4)

Sometimes, American hypocrisy in foreign policy is so blatant that even the most stubborn America-Right-Or-Wrongers must see it. (And yes, that hypocrisy is one of the reasons why they hate us.)

Yesterday, the US urged Russia not to fulfill its commitment to sell Iran its Tor-M1 air defense missile system.

This is a purely defensive system that "ensures effective protection from cruise missiles, guided bombs, warplanes, helicopters, and pilotless and remotely controlled attack aircraft."

Gee, why would the US not want Iran to be able to defend itself from air attack? And particularly, defend itself against weapons which, by the greatest of coincidences, all happen to be in the US arsenal?

At the same time, the US is looking for a suitable site in Europe for an anti-ballistic missile base. Sites in Poland and the Czech Republic are under consideration. Great Britain has already turned us down.

The base would be "designed to stop attacks from the Middle East" — particularly from Iran.

Iran?

Iran's known ballistic missile capability is limited to the Shahab-3. With a range of about 1,000 miles, this missile couldn't even reach these Eastern European bases, let alone the United States. But that's apparently besides the point. American has the right to defend itself from real and imagined threats, by God — even if Iran has no such right.

Oh, by the way, there is still no proof that this missile defense system actually works. This is a scaled-down version of Ronald Reagan's fanciful "Star Wars" missile defense system — SDI (which, by the way, actually stands for Strategic Defense Initiative and not that Silly Damned Idea).

Fact is, President Bush's "Son of Star Wars" missile defense system is a very poor performer in tests. Do we really want to deploy such an inferior system against a potential nuclear attack? Let's put it another way: Who in his right mind would entrust the defense of the United States to a Commander-in-Chief with C-minus capabilities?

Ok, bad example.

Posted on 05/27/06 by Anthony Ioven | Link | Comments? | Read Comments (7)

It looks like we can learn something about democracy from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Abbas, trying to break the deadlock between his moderate Fatah party and the hard-line Hamas government over the recognition of the State of Israel, is threatening to hold a national referendum on the matter:

It is my intention to bring the results of the negotiations (with Israel), if and when they end, to the Palestinian people in the form of a referendum and to give the Palestinian people the right to decide.

What a concept — let the people determine policy when the politicians can't or won't.

Maybe we should start with a referendum on national health insurance for all. In October, 2003, an ABC News-Washington Post poll found that Americans overwhelmingly favor such a government-sponsored system, by a margin of 2 to 1.

But not to worry, me-firsters. The people who control the power in this country aren't about to let mere voters decide an issue like this anytime soon.

Posted on 05/25/06 by Anthony Ioven | Link | Comments? | Read Comments (8)

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert recently told a joint session of Congress that Israel is prepared to draw its own borders in the West Bank if it has no "genuine Palestinian partner for peace" to negotiate the border. "We cannot wait for the Palestinians forever."

In fact, it is the world that has been waiting forever — for Israel to respect UN Resolution 242, a binding resolution that defines the borders of the state of Israel by their pre-1967 configuration.

Earlier this year, Jimmy Carter reminded Israel and the world that Israel "reconfirmed" Resolution 242 in 1978 and 1993.

And just this week, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh signaled that he is ready and willing to be a "partner for peace" with Israel:

If Israel withdraws to the 1967 borders, peace will prevail and we will implement a cease-fire [hudna] for many years.

You would think Israel would be more respectful of UN resolutions, given that Israel was carved out of Palestine by UN Resolution 181 in 1947.

On May 14, 1948, David Ben-Gurion declared the independent State of Israel. In the following days, Arab countries invaded the new Israeli state. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian citizens, caught between armies, either fled their homes to safety in Jordan, Lebanon, and other Middle East countries, or were driven out by soldiers.

Thus began what Palestinians call al Naqba, the catastrophe. Today, there are about 4 million Palestinian refugees.

Since the birth of the State of Israel, Israel's borders have expanded, due to a phenomenon that a recent op-ed headline in the Los Angeles Times called "The incredible shrinking Palestine." And al Naqba is in its 58th year.

The world is waiting, Mr. Olmert.

Posted on 05/25/06 by Anthony Ioven | Link | Comments? | Read Comments (3)

If President Bush and Prime Minister Blair are to be believed (no snickering, please), things are going well in Iraq — so well, in fact, that Britain plans to withdraw 3,000 of its 8,000 troops, and the US plans to withdraw 33,000 of its 133,000 troops, by the end of this year . Troop reductions should begin in July.

Meanwhile, here on Earth:

• 40 more people were killed by bomb attacks in Iraq today.

• The insurgency is "out of control" in Ramadi, according to US Army Sgt. 1st Class Britt Ruble. "[W]e just don't have enough boots on the ground." (Are you listening, Commander-In-Chief?)

• The situation in the once-peaceful Basra is also spinning out of control. Sectarian violence has claimed 100 lives since April, and clashes with the British occupation force are becoming more common.

• Throughout Iraq, the sectarian violence (don't call it a civil war) is becoming so bloody that it is being compared to Bosnia in the 90s, as "ethnic cleansing takes hold on a massive scale."

• In the three years of occupation and insurgency, "malnutrition among Iraqi children has reached alarming levels." "[A]lmost one child in every 10 aged between six months and five years, suffered acute malnourishment."

• Electricity, clean water, and general living standards are "below pre-invasion levels." There are daily power outages in Baghdad, and hospitals are short on supplies.

• The insurgency and the deteriorating living conditions are responsible for a major middle-class exodus from Iraq.

• In spite of the president's optimistic happy talk about "incremental" progress in Iraq, the US is no longer hoping for "victory" in Iraq, but simply to keep the insurgency "contained."

The simple fact is this: we will be in Iraq forever. Or until the Rapture, whichever comes first...

Posted on 05/23/06 by Anthony Ioven | Link | Comments? | Read Comments (9)

In March, 604, among many other blogs, posted on My Lai-like atrocities in Iraq — a story largely ignored by the US media. Recently, Rep. John Murtha confirmed those reports.

This weekend, Jesus' General took a walk on the wild side, surfing Far-Out Right blogs for their reactions to these atrocities. As you might expect, the bloggers were outraged. But not by the cold-blooded killing of women and children. By Murtha's speaking out on it.

These bloggers have zero understanding of the American values they claim to champion. Clearly, Rush, Ann Coulter, Michael Savage, Michelle Malkin, Sean Hannity and other shepherds of these rabid, mutant sheep are earning their money.

Take a look.

Posted on 05/22/06 by Anthony Ioven | Link | Comments? | Read Comments (7)

Last night, retired General Tommy Franks told a friendly audience at the annual NRA banquet that the number of American lives lost in Iraq isn't the issue. Security is the issue:

What we're talking about is neither 2,400, 24,000 or 240,000 lives. Terrorism is a thing that threatens our way of life.

That might be true, General, except that Iraq had nothing to do with the terrorism that so provoked America's fear and wrath.

The invasion and occupation of Iraq was and is utterly unjustified, no matter how many times President Bush and his minions stamp their feet and insist otherwise.

At the end of his talk, the 3,000 NSA members in attendance gave Franks warm ovations. He later joked that such an enthusiastic response from an audience "makes me think about going into politics," but that fortunately, "the great blessing is that thought doesn't last long."

Too bad. He certainly has what it takes.

Posted on 05/21/06 by Anthony Ioven | Link | Comments? | Read Comments (3)

Americans who are angry with the direction in which the Bush Administration and the Republican Congress have led the nation have a chance this November to voice their objections in a meaningful way — by throwing the Republican bums out of Congress.

But some Democrats want to go further, by applying pressure on incumbent Democrats who have sided with the Republicans, and defeating these incumbents in the primaries if necessary. For example, in Connecticut, Senator Joseph Lieberman is being challenged in the August primary by a political newcomer, Democrat Ned Lamont, who has criticized Lieberman for his position on the Iraq war.

I couldn't agree more with this approach. If the Dems really want to shed their "Republican Lite" image, they need to rid themselves of the spineless faction whose number one priority is hanging on to their seat with both hands. Lieberman is one such pseudo-Democrat. Hillary Clinton is another.

In my opinion, no incumbent who voted for the Iraq war resolution in 2002 should be re-elected. Here are the vote tallies for the 2002 war resolution in Senate and the House.

This November, all 435 members of the House are up for re-election. Here are the 33 Senate seats that are up for grabs.

Let's throw all the bums out.

Posted on 05/21/06 by Anthony Ioven | Link | Comments? | Read Comments (2)

In today's Boston Globe, Derek Jackson spells out a few compelling reasons why "it is nuts to entrust a phone call database of millions of Americans" to this administration.

Posted on 05/20/06 by Anthony Ioven | Link | Comments? | Read Comments (1)

The unholy grail?

When the president sees the need to collect data on phone calls made by millions of US citizens, and then look for patterns in those calls, only traitors question it. In fact, the majority of Americans support this data mining. No doubt, these are good and patriotic citizens with nothing to hide.

And when a so-called "journalist" reveals information about secret jails, giving aid and comfort to the enemy, she deserves jail time, not a Pulitzer Prize.

There are too many traitors and communists and terrorist-sympathizers in the media. I have a list of their names right here in my pocket.

That's why a journalist who truly loves America and is not afraid to say so stands so tall — a journalist like Michael Savage.

Here is what that great American recently had to say about our most un-American of presidents — Jimmy Carter:

On the May 16 edition of his nationally syndicated radio program, Michael Savage declared that former President Jimmy Carter is a "Jew-hater" and a "war criminal" who "is like Hitler" because of his criticism of Israeli policies in the West Bank. Savage added that Carter is a "communist, anti-American, anti-Semitic bastard" who has "caused worldwide Islamic terrorism to proliferate around the globe."

Michael, if you, and of course, my gal Ann, were around in my day watching my back, this would be a very different nation.

Posted on 05/20/06 by Tail Gunner Joe | Link | Comments?

The good news: the Iraqi parliament has approved a new government.

Well, almost. And that's the bad news. They can't agree on three important cabinet appointments: interior, national security, and defense.

These ministers would control the army and the police. Clearly, the factions still don't trust each other. Nevertheless, we'll be hearing lots of happy talk about this new government, holes and all, in the days ahead.

Posted on 05/20/06 by Anthony Ioven | Link | Comments?

A movie about 9/11, made by Oliver Stone, isn't likely to be a box-office embarrassment.

But that isn't stopping the movie's producers from shamelessly hyping — the movie? No. The trailer.

The movie comes to theaters August 9th. But the trailer(!) premiers today. The producers claim to be concerned that the trailer might so upset American audiences that it issued a warning about the trailer to theaters:

The images are so graphic, so potentially upsetting that even the trailer to the movie could be difficult to watch. The producers sent warning letters to the movie chains putting them on notice the trailer would begin airing Friday.

As it happens, I went to the movies this afternoon for the first showing of The DaVinci Code. At the box office counter was a large sign warning theater viewers about the trailer — essentially, advising that you watch this excruciating two-and-a-half-minute trailer at your own risk.

Oh, man. Did I want to expose my wife to this? But we ventured in anyway, and held our breath when the trailer began.

It wasn't excruciating. It wasn't even difficult to watch. The hoopla was just so much shameless hype, and exactly what the producers were hoping for.

By the way, ignore the scoffing of the critics about The DaVinci Code. The movie follows the book — God forgive me — religiously. If you enjoyed the book, you'll enjoy the movie.

Posted on 05/19/06 by Anthony Ioven | Link | Comments? | Read Comments (2)

At his confirmation hearing today, the president's nominee to head the CIA, General Michael Hayden, suggested that the controversial wide-net phone-tapping program in use today might have prevented 9/11:

Had this been in place prior to the attacks, the two hijackers who were in San Diego, Khalid Almihdhar and Nawaf Alhazmi, almost certainly would have been identified as who they were, what they were and, most importantly, where they were.

Right, General. Because after all, "Bin Laden determined to attack inside the U.S." just wasn't enough of a tipoff.

Posted on 05/18/06 by Anthony Ioven | Link | Comments?

The other day, when President Bush declared himself the decider, it appears he was having another of his all-too-frequent scatterbrained moments. What he meant to say was, I'm the divider, because what our "I'm-a-uniter-not-a-divider" president is best at is dividing things — America, Iraq, and now the Republican party.

It's not entirely his fault. The Republican party has a deeply split personality:

• There's Georgie, the well-intentioned but badly misguided and manipulated idealist. A man of unshakable faith who believes God smiles on all things American. A crusader for Christianity, and a champion of a rigidly conservative ideology, democracy, and the rule of law.

• And then there's Big Dick, a cynical, manipulative crusader for corporate self-interest, and completely devoid of both ideology and social conscience.

So far, the president has managed to keep these two antagonistic personalities working together in harmony — until his Monday-night speech on immigration.

Georgie, who knows an amnesty program when he hears one, feels betrayed by this president's intention to grant amnesty to twelve million illegal immigrants, in violation of the rule of law. Outrageous — outsiders taking American jobs and displacing American workers.

Big Dick couldn't care less about the rule of law or American workers — he just covets the vast pool of cheap labor.

So today, Georgie and Big Dick are taking very public swipes at each other, threatening to tear each other and the Republican party apart.

Have at it, boys...

Posted on 05/18/06 by Anthony Ioven | Link | Comments?

Earth to Black Jack — get a life, and keep your damn nose out of the lives of others.

Posted on 05/17/06 by Anthony Ioven | Link | Comments? | Read Comments (3)

In Baghdad these days, it's hard out there for a pimp. Or a professor, for that matter, thanks to the re-emergence of religious extremism:

What scares the city’s residents is how the fanatics’ list of enemies is growing. It includes girls who refuse to cover their hair, boys who wear theirs too long, booksellers, liberal professors and prostitutes. Three shops known to sell alcohol were bombed yesterday in the Karrada shopping district.

And if you're gay, or a family member of someone who's gay, your life is in danger:

A 34-year-old theatre actor, who would only give his name as Bashar, has gone into hiding after a death threat. Two close members of his family have been murdered by militants, who say they will carry on killing his relatives until he turns himself in.

Heckuva job, Georgie.

Posted on 05/17/06 by Anthony Ioven | Link | Comments?

Now that the democratic government in Iraq is finally taking shape, or so we're told, maybe it's time for The Decider to start spreadin' a little liberty in Saudi Arabia.

Not that that's likely to happen anytime soon. President Bush and Saudi Arabian King Abdullah are — well, close, as you can tell from this photo of the two of them strolling hand-in-hand among the flowers, back when Abdullah was just an innocent Crown Prince.

It turns out that Bush's special friend doesn't have as enlightened a view of women as we have here in America, or even as Saddam Hussein had in Iraq before we smashed the place to pieces. Recently, King Abdullah "asked" Saudi newspaper editors to stop publishing pictures of women because they could lead Saudi youth "astray."

Mind you, we're not talking about a Saudi version of Page 3 cheesecake photos in Rupert Murdoch's The Sun, but photos of women who are "always wearing the traditional Muslim headscarf - to illustrate stories. The stories usually have had to do with women's issues."

And speaking of women's issues, if the Saudis allow photos of women to appear in newspapers, what's next — the right to vote? To drive?

Our freedom-loving, liberty-spreading president has no trouble overlooking all of that, along with the King's other recent "requests" to the state-run press:

• Stop printing negative stories about the country.

• Ignore stories in the foreign press, especially stories that are "against Islam or against Arabs."

You know, it's not hard to see why Bush and Abdullah are so attracted to one another.

Posted on 05/16/06 by Anthony Ioven | Link | Comments? | Read Comments (2)

Der Fuhrer would be so proud.

In 21st-century America, a renowned writer — and MENSA member, no less! — had the honesty and courage to pay tribute to the thankless work we had done over sixty years ago, by proclaiming, admiringly, that "it took the Germans less than four years to rid themselves of 6 million Jews."

Danke, Vox Day.

Vox was making a simple mathematical extrapolation: if it took the highly efficient German ethnic cleansing machine four years to "rid themselves" of 6 million Jews, then "it couldn't possibly" take the equally efficient Americans more than eight years to rid themselves of 12 million illegal immigrants.

Vox is mad as hell that America has been overrun with "low-skill, low-income Mexicans" and proposes a simple but final solution — get rid of them all. Deport every last man, woman and child of them.

In fact, in addition to the usual methods of rounding them up, Vox proposes something that I so wish I had thought of — "bounty programs." No wonder Vox is a MENSA member — he proposes to help solve the Mexican question by creating jobs for Americans that Mexicans don't want to do. Simply brilliant.

I only regret I was born too soon. What a team Vox and I would have made. Cool haircut, too.

Posted on 05/16/06 by Heinrich Himmler | Link | Comments? | Read Comments (2)

So tonight I'm doing some channel surfing before the two-hour finale of Grey's Anatomy when who do I see but President Bush giving a speech about immigration and even sounding more or less lucid for a change so I figured what the hell I'll see what he has to say and guess what he made some pretty decent points for the most part.

But I'm not sure about the "temporary workers" thing. I mean, if we're going to let people work in this country, why not let them take their families here, become citizens, live here permanently? But guest workers come here, leave their families behind in Mexico or wherever, work for low wages for a couple of years, and then go home. I don't know, it sounds a little elitist to me. Our businesses get the cheap labor, and we don't have the burden of providing services like education and medical to the workers' families. I mean, it's like building our own permanent underclass right here in America.

But if the president says it's ok, well, it must be ok . . . right?

Oh well gotta run . . .

Posted on 05/15/06 by Faith Hope | Link | Comments? | Read Comments (3)

You're very welcome, George.

Posted on 05/14/06 by God | Link | Comments? | Read Comments (1)

Do you hear it? The distant rumbling? That's the sound of a sleeping giant stirring:

China has been trying to boost its presence in the U.S. "backyard", sealing deals with the left-wing governments of Venezuela and Bolivia, and buying up oil concessions in Ecuador. It has also sought closer cooperation with Brazil in the field of oil exploration.

China is also trying to lock up exclusive rights to drill for the large reserves of oil and natural gas that a US Geological Survey report in 2005 says are just off the coast of Cuba.

American companies would love to negotiate with Cuba for the right to drill for these resources, which are just 50 miles off the coast of Florida, but they are prohibited from doing so by the 43-year-old Cuban embargo.

The once-sleeping giant is gaining a firm foothold in what we like to believe is our own backyard, and we have no one to blame but ourselves.

Posted on 05/14/06 by Anthony Ioven | Link | Comments? | Read Comments (2)

The US Code of Federal Regulations defines terrorism like this:

Terrorism includes the unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.

Hasn't that been the purpose of the Cuban embargo for over forty years — to make the lives of ordinary Cubans as miserable as possible so that they overthrow the Castro government for us?

The fact that our Cuba strategy is a complete failure doesn't mean that we've learned anything from it. Today we're leading a similar act of subtle violence against the Palestinian people by banning financial transactions with the democratically elected government.

It would be nice to believe that denying funds to the Palestinian Authority has no greater impact than making life a little less comfortable for a few government bureaucrats, but that simply isn't true.

Today's Boston Globe reports of a growing health care crisis as a result of the funding freeze. Hospitals are running out of supplies. Medical staff are working without pay. Patients have died.

The US and other countries have pledged humanitarian aid — although if we were truly humanitarian, we wouldn't have frozen the fund transfers in the first place. And Arab governments have offered to make up the lost funding. But there is an additional problem:

[I]nternational banks have been unwilling to transfer the funds to Palestinian organizations for fear of being accused of violating the ban.

Fear? What do these banks have to fear?

Oh, that's right — retribution from the great humanitarian government of America.

Posted on 05/07/06 by Anthony Ioven | Link | Comments? | Read Comments (7)

I've had it in the back of my mind to post on Patrick Kennedy's dead-of-night encounter with a concrete barrier in Washington DC, and how the Far Out Right must be whipping themselves up into a frenzy of delicious self-righteous indignation over it.

And then I read this.

It don't get no better than that. Props to The Rude Pundit — and caution, the emphasis is on rude.

Teaser: Upon hearing about the incident, Michelle Malkin broke the window on the box for the emergency vibrator in her house...

Ok, the post a little raw. (Ok, so it's extremely raw.) But c'mon, the Far Out has been waiting for an opportunity like this for so...long. They're bound to get a little moist over it.

Ok, a lot moist.

Posted on 05/06/06 by Anthony Ioven | Link | Comments? | Read Comments (2)

What's Iraqi for Hell no, we won't go?

If you want to find out, click here and then click one of the movie links (Windows Media Player or Quicktime), courtesy of Crooks and Liars.

On Thursday, as family and friends watched proudly, 978 Sunni military recruits from the Anbar Province graduated into the new Iraqi Army — you know, the one we're waiting for to stand up so we can stand down.

And stand up they did — so they could better tear off their uniforms in a rage, after the announcement that they would not be stationed in their hometowns.

Apparently, the term "serving your country" suggests a much smaller geographical area to Iraqis than it probably should.

About half of the soldiers deserted, and efforts to get them back have not been successful:

In an extraordinary and tense meeting, the generals tried to convince Fallujah's town leaders to get the AWOL soldiers back on the job.

Gen. Nasir Abadi, the deputy commander of the Iraqi army, said recruits must go where the army tells them they are stationed.

But Fallujah Mayor Sheikh Dhari Abdul Hadi refused and said the soldiers from Fallujah should join a Sunni brigade in the region.

Wonderful. Each town with its own army. Maybe they could start a league.

Posted on 05/06/06 by Anthony Ioven | Link | Comments?

On April 30, 1970, President Nixon announced to a stunned nation that US and South Vietnamese troops had launched an "incursion" into Cambodia — an apparent widening of a war that was supposed to be winding down.

Spontaneous protests broke out at hundreds of college campuses all across America, including at Kent State University in Ohio. On May 4, 1970, the protests at Kent State resulted in the shooting deaths of four students by the Ohio National Guard.

In those days, before home computers, before VCRs, I preserved the event the only way I could — with newspaper clippings. I thought I'd share some of the photos from those clippings with you.

Guardsmen shooting at Kent State. Sixty-seven shots were fired in thirteen seconds:

Boston Globe, May 13, 1970. Life Magazine photo via UPI.

When the shooting stopped, four students were dead. From left to right, William Schroeder, Jeffrey G. Miller, Allison Krause, and Sandy Lee Scheuer:

Boston Globe, May 5, 1970. AP.

Nine others were wounded. One of them was paralyzed:

Boston Globe, May 5, 1970. UPI.

Who can forget this Pulitzer-Prize winning photo of Mary Ann Vecchio kneeling over the body of Jeffrey Miller:

Boston Globe, May 5, 1970. AP.

The Guardsmen managed to hold their fire during this confrontation:

Boston Globe, May 5, 1970. AP.

A defiant President Nixon at a press conference on the Cambodian situation and its aftermath, several days after Kent State:

Boston Sunday Advertiser, May 10, 1970.

On May 9, 1970, 100,000 gathered at the White House to protest Cambodia and the Kent State killings. Jane Fonda drew cheers from the crowd when she addressed them with "Greetings, fellow bums," a sardonic reference to Nixon's infamous characterization of campus protesters as "bums."

But to give Nixon credit, at sunrise on the morning of May 9th, with thousands of protesters already in Washington, Nixon ventured outside the White House to the Lincoln Memorial to talk to the protesters who were camping out there. He was accompanied by a handful of Secret Service agents and his valet. Given the tumultuous events of the past week, that was an extraordinary act of courage. He was no less clueless after his give-and-take with the "bums," but I grudgingly admire him for it.

Boston Sunday Advertiser, May 10, 1970.

A few days after Kent State, a young woman reflects the mood of the nation:

Boston Globe, May 8, 1970.

More photos. Links.

Posted on 05/04/06 by Anthony Ioven | Link | Comments? | Read Comments (4)

George Bush must figure that God is one dumb sonovabitch.

The Hypocrite in Chief may have fooled millions of folks in this country about the bloodletting in Iraq, the cuts in social programs, the tax cuts for the wealthy, torture, rendition, the unlawful spying on US citizens, and whatever the scandal du jour happens to be today.

But Mr. President, God is no fool. Not that you care about what God thinks. Not really.

So today, while Iraqi citizens and American soldiers continue to be blown apart in Iraq, our unChrist-like president was paying lip service to the National Day of Prayer:

"America is a nation of prayer. It's impossible to tell the story of our nation without telling the story of people who pray...

"In my travels across the great land, a comment that I hear often from our fellow citizens is, 'Mr. President, I pray for you and your family.' It's amazing how many times a total stranger walks up and says that to me," Bush said. "You'd think they'd say, 'How about the bridge?' Or, 'How about filling the potholes?' No, they say, 'I've come to tell you I pray for you, Mr. President.'

Now I know why the potholes don't get fixed, and the bridges and the rest of our infrastructure are in such bad shape. And why we're in Iraq.

Too much prayer. Not enough practical thought.

Well, God may not be fooled, Mr. President. But what do you care what God thinks?

Just as long as prayer keeps saving your sorry ass.

Posted on 05/04/06 by Anthony Ioven | Link | Comments? | Read Comments (2)

Ho hum . . . another day, another scandal.

Army documents obtained by the ACLU show that Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez ordered interrogators to "go to the outer limits" to drag, scare, and beat information out of detainees.

The documents also indicate that upper-level government officials were aware of prisoner abuse before the Abu Ghraib scandal broke:

The [released government document] outlined the status of 62 investigations of detainee abuse and detainee deaths. Cases include assaults, punching, kicking and beatings, mock executions, sexual assault of a female detainee, threatening to kill an Iraqi child to "send a message to other Iraqis," stripping detainees, beating them and shocking them with a blasting device, throwing rocks at handcuffed Iraqi children, choking detainees with knots of their scarves and interrogations at gunpoint.

So what? Just throw it on the pile with the other abuses of this administration. Stop pretending anyone cares.

Just keep praising Jesus and the American Way, keep taxes low, and keep gas prices from getting completely out of hand. No one pays much attention to anything else.

And whatever you do, don't invite Steven Colbert to any more state functions.

Posted on 05/03/06 by Anthony Ioven | Link | Comments? | Read Comments (3)