Crosblog

Is Annan perfect? No. In my opinion, he concedes too much to Ariel Sharon and kowtows too much to Beijing, and there are indeed many people in the United Nations whom he should have fired long ago.

Looks reasonably successful so far, no mass casualties, turnout low only in a few trouble spots. It's time to prepare for three weeks of gloating from the hawks before they realize that nothing has really changed and they return to previous hawk practice of not mentioning Iraq.

Antolos said Rodriguez purchased his meal and then went into the restroom, where he took a bite of the sandwich, spat it into the garbage, and then placed a row of staples and a paper clip in the other part of the sandwich. After rewrapping the sandwich, Rodriguez used a razor blade to slash the inside of his mouth.


He reportedly returned to the restaurant's eating area, pretended to take a bite out of his sandwich, and then screamed that he had been cut.

"So why does capital punishment remain popular? One big reason is that many Americans don't believe life without parole really means life without parole. They fear that some way or another, by hook or by crook, some vicious killers will be allowed to walk the streets as free men."

That commitment is all the more critical now because a growing number of Europe's young Muslims are resisting, even rejecting, efforts to teach them about the Holocaust, arguing that there is not enough attention paid to the killing of innocent Muslims by Israel or the United States-led coalitions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Teachers are reluctant to teach about the Holocaust in some schools, particularly in France, Belgium and Denmark. Mr. Shalev said that most of his organization's educational exchanges with France are now with the country's private Jewish institutions.

"If the memorializing of Auschwitz is to have a goal, it has to be to warn us about the dangers of totalitarianism. It is good that now there is a monument to the murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin. The victims don't need it -- we do."

Defense attorney Joseph A. Gabay said legislators should study the issue before enacting laws to keep people in prison past their sentences.

"I think you go down a dangerous road when you start locking up people beyond their sentence," Gabay said. "If they serve their time, that's the price they paid."

Bush has no desire to get rid of Annan; Annan is actually quite useful to the administration. In the minds of many Americans now, Annan is the corrupt, incompetent face of a corrupt, incompetent institution, and this is precisely how the Bushies want the United Nations to be seen.

It seems to me that the smart approach would be to call Bush’s bluff. The president has repeatedly said that he supports the United Nations and wishes to work with it. Clearly, though, the administration doesn’t want to work with Annan, and the secretary-general is obviously in no position at this point to wield any influence in Washington. If Annan quit or was forced to resign, the United States would have a great deal of say over the choice of a replacement, and I believe Bush would find it much harder to stiff the United Nations if it were his man or woman at the helm of the organization.

The only people who have called for his resignation (presumably, with the honorable exception of yourself) are a small but vociferous coterie in the United States, not one of whom has ever had a good word to say for the organization or for multilateralism. In effect, for Annan to go at their behest would be to hand over the choice of his successor to this same crowd whose sole aim is to see a United Nations totally subservient to fervent neoconservative dreams of empire -- or destroyed.

...the ad features a picture of a Hispanic woman and two young children with the caption, "Nominated: Best Nanny in a Supporting Role," and reads:

"I am trusted every day to use my hands and my heart to nurture and care for children who are not my own. ... I am welcomed into the most personal parts of people's lives, but I'm not trusted with a license to drive a car."

"A lot of us in the entertainment business are terribly spoiled, and we live in a world where we are overprotected and overpaid," Haggis said. "At the same time, I think we have a duty to give voice to those who perhaps haven't the same access. It's about basic fairness."

"I think it's another example of how rich Hollywood elites are out of touch with what's going on in California," Spence said. "They don't see the impact of immigration unless it's hiring someone to help out with chores around their mansions ... and they're not in competition with illegal immigrants for jobs."

Mashaal said Hamas, which has called for Israel to be replaced by an Islamic state, would agree to stop attacks if Israel ends "aggression, invasion, assassination, killings" and agrees to release all Palestinian prisoners. (emphasis added)

Defending Annan is not the same thing as defending the United Nations; indeed, to defend Annan at this point is to defend someone whose mismanagement has done grievous harm to the United Nations and to the cause of liberal internationalism.

A.) A right-wing shill, or

B.) Trying to placate right-wing shills.

They are not attacking Annan; they are attacking any form of multilateralism, whether the Land Mine Treaty, non-proliferation, the International Criminal Court, or even the Geneva Conventions (all of which he has publicly supported). They were not even attacking the oil-for-food program; they were attacking an organization that dared to say no -- or, at least, refused to say yes -- to Bush's war on Iraq.

Clarence Thomas: Why is everyone looking at me all of a sudden?

Still, Annan expected the session to be linked to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The General Assembly, which dominated the United Nations at its inception, voted in November 1947 to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab states. This led to Israel's creation a year later.

"I think whether I like it or not, it is linked in the minds of many people," Annan said.

Speeches by Islamic countries are to be given by the U.N. ambassadors of Jordan and Afghanistan.

Another would-be juror said he had had alcohol problems and was arrested for soliciting sex from an undercover officer. "I should have known something was up," he said. "She had all her teeth."

Prospective juror (paraphrased): Yeah, about 20 years ago when I was a kid, I was screwing around, and I ran from the cops, and when they caught me, they beat the hell out of me.

Me (already drawing a line through his name): And did this experience give you a poor impression of the police?

Prospective juror (this is a direct quote): No, sir. I had it coming.

"Unfortunately, his crimes have colored the issue," said Kim Harrison, a lobbyist for the Connecticut Conference of the United Church of Christ and a member of the anti-death penalty group.

"We feel this is something that was very far away from our community," Ahmed Sheded, president of the Islamic Center of Jersey City, said after the service. "A real Muslim can't do that."

Hill also said the frenetic transition two weeks ago caused him to stray from the due diligence of hiring staff members

Hill acknowledges vague working conditions and said they, too, stem from the distraction of intense media scrutiny and county intervention in the sheriff's business.

"OK, now, during the campaign there was some concern I would re-institute the draft. I want to take this time to reassure everyone that my committment to the all-volunteer military will continue into my second term. In fact, I'd like to ask for volunteers now. Everyone who wants to volunteer for a stint in the army, please signify by standing up, and turning your back on the parade route."

The lawyer representing the workers, Harlan Miller, said Hill just wants to embarrass his clients.

"This is the most degrading, humiliating move he could have made besides have them sweeping the parking lot," Miller said. "I am astonished."

That civil war was started by the Sunni Baathists, and their Islamist fascist allies from around the region, the minute the U.S. toppled Saddam. And they started that war not because they felt the Iraqi elections were going to be rigged, but because they knew they weren't going to be rigged.

They started the war not to get their fair share of Iraqi power, but in hopes of retaining their unfair share. Under Saddam, Iraq's Sunni minority, with only 20 percent of the population, ruled everyone. These fascist insurgents have never given politics a chance to work in Iraq because they don't want it to work. That's why they have never issued a list of demands. They don't want people to see what they are really after, which is continued minority rule, Saddamism without Saddam. If that was my politics, I'd be wearing a ski mask over my head, too.

Q: What do you have when you have a lawyer buried up to his neck in the sand?
A: Not enough sand.

Q: What's black and looks good on a lawyer?
A: A Rottweiler

Q: What's long and brown and hangs from an asshole?
A: A lawyer's necktie.

"Any of the three proposals constitute a human disaster for the Palestinian people," Erekat said.

Yet I don't recall a single Hollywood feminist expressing gratitude to the U.S. military or its commander in chief for the liberation of Afghan women. No doubt Streisand, Sarandon & Co. were too busy inveighing against the horrors perpetrated by John Ashcroft.
Fortunately, one of the virtues of the Internet age is that you don't need to depend on what Boot recalls. Thanks to the magic of Nexis, I found a December 6, 2001, Guardian article reporting that "Mainstream websites are fairly keen on self-censorship, and include the likes of Barbara Streisand removing anti-Bush remarks in the interests of 'national unity.'" Then there's the Associated Press' coverage of the November 2001 Emmy Awards:
Sunday's show featured a new tribute to entertainers who visit troops during wartime, and included a surprise finale by Barbra Streisand, singing "You'll Never Walk Alone" before a wall decorated with the names of Sept. 11 victims.
That's how much she hates America.

The notion that the Bush administration invaded Afghanistan in order to help Afghan women is, of course, preposterous. Look at his remarks from the time and you'll see that though the Taliban's oppression was certainly mentioned, the war was motivated by the small matter of 9-11 and al-Qaeda. Equally preposterous is the suggestion that feminists are or were unconcerned with the fate of Afghan women. When I heard this stuff in the winter of 2001-2002, I assumed it reflected a kind of ignorance coming from the right. Years after the evident, it's just a kind of malicious slander. Check out the Feminist Majority Foundation's Afghanistan page and take note of the fact that, unlike Boot and his friends, their interest in this topic didn't begin in September of 2001.

Alexander said he hadn't spoken with Holmgren. He said he doesn't feel he must apologize in person to his coach or teammates, saying they know him well enough to realize he puts winning first and statistics second.

A. "All right! Won the game, won the division! Bring on St. Louis!"

B. "We were on the freakin' goal line, and I got stabbed in the back."