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Cindy Sheehan Watch: Wow – What A FAST?
Michelle Malkin: HOW MOONBATS FASTRemember Cindy Sheehan’s “hunger strike?” Remember I asked whether she would last longer than Saddam Hussein?
Kristinn Taylor at F/R points to Cindy’s latest blog entry on her, uh, progress (also posted at the Crawford Peace House site):
I find traveling out of the country very challenging being on a fast. When I was on a layover in Madrid on my way to Venice, Italy yesterday, the closest thing I could find to a smoothie to get a little protein was a coffee with vanilla ice cream in it. Traveling for 22 hours is very taxing under normal circumstances–but then again, when have we had normal circumstances since the 2000 and 2004 successful coup attempts that have brought BushCo into power?
I traveled from Venice to the frontier of Italy to the province of Udine which is right at the foot of the pre-Alps. I am here for a huge youth festival which includes many elements of social justice and peace work. It is beautiful and the air feels different from other places that I have travelled. It is strangely soft and gentle as is the natural light. However, there is not a Jamba Juice on every corner, so blended juice drinks with protein powder are impossible to find.
Smoothies. Coffee. Vanilla Ice Cream. How much weight does she plan on gaining during this deprivation campaign?
Yes, Cindy is REALLY putting her body on the line. And isn’t Hollywood (featuring Danny Glover and Susan Sarandon) doing a rotational or “take turns” hunger strike?
“Everything we do is to get the troops to come home,” Sheehan told People magazine. “We want to show the world that there are Americans who are committed to peace. Fasting is such a time-honored way of protest.”
Cindy is a pseudo-juice faster. Code Pink has fast tips here.
Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjiman, center, sits with Cindy Sheehan, center right, and others who are taking part in the ‘Bring the Troops Home Fast’ hunger strike at Layafette Park in front of the White House, Tuesday, July 4, 2006, in Washington.Good Grief……what committment…….?Previous:Cindy Sheehan Watch: Lefty Celebrities Join Cindy in July 4 Hunger Strike
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Mark Steyn on Malloch Brown, George Soros and the United Nations
Mark Steyn at the Claremont Institute Dinner, December 5, 2005MISTER REFORMA couple of years ago, I was asked a question about the United Nations and replied that it was a good basic axiom that if you took a quart of ice cream and mixed it with a quart of dog feces the result would taste more like the latter than the former. There was a useful example of that the other day from a leading Turtle Bay honcho. Now I confess I have a sneaking admiration for the more shameless transnational apparatchiks: Two years ago, you may recall, Sudan was elected to the UN Human Rights Commission at a time when the government’s proxies were busy slaughtering and gang-raping their way round Darfur. The last thing one needs when one’s got a hectic schedule of mass murder on one’s plate is a lot of tedious paper-shuffling committee meetings in New York, but Sudan’s ambassador, Elfatih Mohammed Ahmed Erwa, gamely rose to the occasion by announcing, upon joining the Commission, that he was very concerned about human rights abuses at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib.
I gotta hand it to the guy. For the emissary of a blood-soaked genocidal psycho state, that’s pretty funny. But the danger, when you enroll the free nations and the thug states in the same club, isn’t that they meet each other halfway but that the free world winds up going two-thirds, three-quarters, seven-eighths of the way. Consider the speech the other day by Kofi Annan’s deputy. Who is he? Some bespoke apologist for some banana republic or Islamist basket-case? Not at all. He’s called Mark Malloch Brown and he’s one of those smooth-talking Brits. The bit in the speech that got everyone’s attention was when he argued that the reason the UN was so unpopular in America was that the moronic hayseeds in flyover country had fallen for the right-wing blowhards – or, as he put it, “much of the public discourse that reaches the U.S. heartland has been largely abandoned to its loudest detractors such as Rush Limbaugh and Fox News.†He didn’t, in fact, say “Limbaugh†but “Lim-bowâ€, as in “Daddy Wouldn’t Buy Me A Bow-Wowâ€. A chap as important as Mr Malloch Brown can’t be expected to tune in a radio and actually listen to Rush in order to get his name correct: after all, he’s a lot busier than those dimwit yokels in the “heartlandâ€.
Blaming their woes on talk radio isn’t all the UN’s learned from the Democrats. The Deputy Secretary General’s fellow speakers at this meeting included George Soros, who happens to be Mr Malloch Brown’s next-door neighbor and landlord. Mr Malloch Brown earns $125,000 a year, $120,000 of which he gives to Mr Soros as rent for his home, next to the gazillionaire’s own in Westchester County. When they entered into this relationship, Mr Malloch Brown was head of the UN Development Program, which works with Mr Soros on many multi-million dollar projects. The Deputy Secretary General insists there’s nothing “improper†in his mixing of his professional and personal lives and, indeed, by the ethical standards of the UN – which is to say the Oil-for-Fraud program, the Child-Sex-for-Food program, etc – there isn’t. Mr Malloch Brown is an international civil servant. Were he merely a national civil servant at Britain’s Department of Health or Transport, it would have been unthinkable for him to have rented a home for 96% of his salary from the chairman of Glaxo Smith Kline or Virgin Airways. But at the UN it’s not just thinkable but doable: when in Turtle Bay, do as the Ghanaians do. And Mr Malloch Brown is widely regarded as the agent of reform. Or, at any rate, “reformâ€.
The Deputy Secretary General’s speech was an artful one, arguing that, in a world where “new national security challenges basically thumb their noses at old notions of national sovereigntyâ€, the US needs the UN. On closer inspection, what he means is that the UN needs the US – to supply money, troops, money, equipment, money, technology and money. In a complicated world, the US isn’t big enough to go it alone, but it is big enough to give everything it’s got to the UN, and in return the UN will hold meetings explaining why the US can’t go it alone or with anyone else. In a nicely Sudanese touch, Mr Malloch Brown announced that “my kids were on the Mall in Washington, demanding President Bush to do more to end the genocide in Darfur†but that the President couldn’t do more in Darfur without the UN.
Er, hang on. On Darfur, Bush has been impeccably transnational. He agreed to go the UN route and, as always happens, everybody’s dead.
Forget Darfur, and Iraq and Iran. We’re all men of the world here, we can all understand why certain powers might feel it was in their interest to be pro-Saddam or pro-genocide or pro-nuking Israel. Instead, take an issue on which the permanent members of the Security Council were in perfect harmony: the tsunami. Even the French aren’t pro-tsunami. And yet Malloch Brown’s permanent 24/7 lavishly funded humanitarian bureaucracy was useless. The only actual relief effort – you know, saving lives, restoring the water supply, providing shelter – was done by the US, Australia and a handful of others.
The United Nations is a September 10th organization. Five years on, to leave Iran or even Darfur in its hands is as ludicrous as Churchill and Roosevelt fretting over whether they had the League of Nations’ approval to launch D-Day. The urbane cynicism of Malloch Brown is very revealing: the problem with transnationalism is not what it does to the Sudanese and Ghanaians; it’s what it does to us.
National Review, June 26th 2006
Technorati Tags: JohnBolton, MarkMallochBrown, UnitedNations, KofiAnnan
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Michael Ramirez on Canada’s Vietnam Draft Dodger Memorial Statue
Vietnam draft dodgers to hold reunion in B.C.
Technorati Tags: MichaelRamirez, Canada, Vietnam, VietnamDraftDodger
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Representative William Jefferson Watch: FBI Raid on Jefferson’s House Office Legal
Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe (3rd L) and Washington Mayor AnthonyWilliams (2nd R) applaud after the unveiling of the statue of the third US president Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) in Paris. A statue of Jefferson who was the main author of his country’s Declaration of Independence has been unveiled in Paris in a ceremony coinciding with US Independence Day celebrations.
AP: Judge: FBI Raid on Lawmaker’s Office Legal
An FBI raid on a Louisiana congressman’s Capitol Hill office was legal, a federal judge ruled Monday.
Chief U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan said members of Congress are not above the law. He rejected requests from lawmakers and Democratic Rep. William Jefferson to return material seized by the FBI in a May 20-21 search of Jefferson’s office.
In a 28-page opinion, Hogan dismissed arguments that the first-ever raid on a congressman’s office violated the Constitution’s protections against intimidation of elected officials.
“Congress’ capacity to function effectively is not threatened by permitting congressional offices to be searched pursuant to validly issued search warrants,” said Hogan, who had approved the FBI’s request to conduct the overnight search of Jefferson’s office.
Jefferson had sought the return of several computer hard drives, floppy disks and two boxes of paper documents that FBI agents seized during an 18-hour search of his Rayburn Building office.
At issue was a constitutional provision known as the speech and debate clause, which protects elected officials from being questioned by the president, a prosecutor or a plaintiff in a lawsuit about their legislative work.
“No one argues that the warrant executed upon Congressman Jefferson’s office was not properly administered,” Hogan wrote. “Therefore, there was no impermissible intrusion on the Legislature. The fact that some privileged material was incidentally captured by the
search does not constitute an unlawful intrusion.”
The opinion is here.Allah says page 16 says it all.
Captain Ed says look at page 23:
If there is any threat to the separation of powers here, it is not from the execution of a search warrant by one co-equal branch of government upon another, after the independent approval of the third separate, and co-equal branch. Rather, the principle of the separation of powers is threatened by the position that the Legislative Branch enjoys the unilateral and unreviewable power to invoke an absolute privilege, thus making it immune from the ordinary criminal process of a validly issued search warrant. This theory would allow Members of Congress to frustrate investigations into non-legislative criminal activities for which the Speech or Debate Clause clearly provides no protection from prosecution.
Representative Jefferson is NOT above the law.
And what is he doing in Paris on Independence Day?
William Jefferson is NO Thomas Jefferson……make NO mistake about this……..
Previous:
Representative William Jefferson Watch: “Trying to Protect Their Ownâ€
Representative William Jefferson Watch: Jefferson Refuses to Quit Ways and Means Committee
Representative William Jefferson Watch: GOP Challenges FBI Raid of Jefferson’s Office
Representative William Jefferson Watch: “There are Two Sides to Every Storyâ€
Representative William Jefferson Watch: FBI has BRIBES on Tape
Technorati Tags: WilliamJefferson
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Global War on Terror Watch: The New York Times SWIFT Protest
Michelle Malkin and Allah have the details.
Bet, it doesn’t make page one tomorrow……
Update:
Video is now available and more photos here.
Previous:Global War on Terror Watch: New York Times Protest in Washington D.C. Today – The Photos
Global War on Terror Watch: One If By Land…
Global War on Terror Watch: New York Times Protest in Washington D.C. Today
Global War on Terror Watch: Bill Keller on Face the Nation
Technorati Tags: NewYorkTimes, BillKeller
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Senator Joe Lieberman Watch: Senator Hillary Clinton Won’t Back Lieberman If He Loses Democrat Primary – PAYBACK
Carlson: Hillary Still Resents Lieberman Over LewinskyMargaret Carlson writing for Bloomberg.com points out:“You can also interpret Clinton’s swipe at Lieberman as an act of lingering resentment against the man who scolded her husband during impeachment proceedings shortly after his admission in August 1998 that he had been lying to the country for seven months.
“Lieberman took to the Senate floor to slam Clinton ‘for havingext ramarital relations with an employee half his age . . . in the vicinity of the Oval Office. Such behavior is not just inappropriate. It is immoral.’â€
Carlson then opines: “Revenge isn’t an admirable emotion but at least it’s evidence of some emotion from a woman who showed none during one of the most public cases of philandering ever . . . She may have been finally getting back at the Democrat who didn’t stand by her man.â€
Payback or Hillary is afraid of getting the same treatment as Joe from the netroot Kosputins.
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Senator Joe Lieberman Watch: Lieberman Will Run as an Independent if He Loses Democrat Primary
Senator Joe Lieberman Watch: Independent Candidacy this Fall?
Senator Joe Lieberman Watch: MoveOn.org Endorses Challenger Ned Lamont
Technorati Tags: JoeLieberman, NedLamont, MarkosMoulitsasZuniga, HillaryClinton
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North Korea Watch: United Nations Security Council Vote on North Korea Postponed
John Bolton, US ambassador to the United Nations answers questions outside the Security Council’s chambers at the U.N., in New York after the five permanent members of the council met with the ambassador to Japan to discuss North Korea, Monday, July 10, 2006.AP: U.N. vote on N. Korea resolution delayed
The U.N. Security Council’s five permanent members and Japan agreed Monday to postpone a vote on possible sanctions against North Korea for its missile test that rattled the region last week.
France’s U.N. Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere, the current council president, said there would be no vote Monday. China’s U.N. ambassador said that council members have agreed to continue discussions on the Tokyo-sponsored resolution.
Ambassador Wang Guangya told reporters after a meeting with envoys from Russia, the United States, Britain, France and Japan that the resolution would have to be altered for the council to approve it.
“If they wish to have a resolution, they should have a modified one, not this one,” he said.
China’s consideration of any resolution was considered significant, since Wang had been pressing for a weaker Security Council statement, which would not be legally binding.
U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said Washington would look at any Chinese suggestions for changes, and the council would reevaluate “on a daily basis” whether to proceed with a vote.
The United States and Japan should force China to veto the tough, binding Chapter 7 resolution, including economic sanctions. Russia will abstain.
The Kyodo News agency, citing unidentified Japanese officials, reported that Japan and the United States were seeking a renewed moratorium by North Korea on missile testing, and its unconditional return to six-party talks on its nuclear program, in exchange for no sanctions.
Force the issue and vote.
North Korea has a few days to “save face”and accept Japan’s terms.
Stay tuned……
Previous:
North Korea Watch: China Asks Japan to Postpone United Nations ResolutionNorth Korea Watch: Japan Considers Pre-emptive Strike Against North Korea
Cox & Forkum: North Korea and the United Nations
North Korea Watch: United States Supports Bilateral Talks with North Korea
North Korea Watch: North Korea Threatens “Stronger Physical Actionsâ€
North Korea Watch: Japan Proposes United Nations Sanctions on North Korea
North Korea Watch: North Korea Launches Taepodong-2 at Area off Hawaii
Technorati Tags: NorthKorea, KimJongIl, MissileDefenseAgency
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Senator Joe Lieberman Watch: Democrats Would Be Weaker
July 3: Incumbent U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., with his wife, Hadassah, by his side, laughs while announcing outside the state Capitol in Hartford, Conn., that if he should lose the upcoming Democratic primary against challenger Ned Lamont, he will collect signatures for an independent campaign.But Mark, Markos doesn’t care……..
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Senator Joe Lieberman Watch: The Debate – Lieberman – Lamont is a “SINGLE ISSUE†CandidateSenator Joe Lieberman Watch: Lieberman Will Run as an Independent if He Loses Democrat Primary
Technorati Tags: JoeLieberman, NedLamont
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Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran is CORNERED
Nicholas Burns, U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs, speaks during a remote interview on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ July 9, 2006
Iran is cornered on nuclear issue – USThe US State Department’s number three diplomat Nicholas Burns on Sunday said Iran “miscalculated” by trying to drive a wedge between the United States and its allies, and threatened United Nations action if Tehran fails to heed international concerns over its nuclear programme.
“The Iranians miscalculated. They thought they could divide the United States from our European allies and Russia and China, but we’ve been able to craft a united coalition of all those countries,” Burns told NBC television.
“They have to choose – negotiations with us, or further action in the security council,” Burns said.
He added: “Frankly, I think they’re rather cornered and isolated. There are very few countries defending them and they’re running out of options.”
There have been ample opportunities for Iran to “save face.” For now, stalling is their only option to postpone the inevitable – cessation of uranium enrichment.
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Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran Will NOT Respond Tuesday to P-5-Plus- 1 Proposal
The Natanz uranium enrichment complex in Natanz is pictured in this January 2, 2006 satellite image.
Technorati Tags: Iran, MahmoudAhmadinejad
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Protein Wisdom Watch: DOS’d Again?
Patterico has JG’s response to the Inside High Education piece in case Protein Wisdom is down.
Technorati Tags: DebbieFrisch, Frisch, ProteinWisdom