I wonder if Mike stands on corners in a spandex outfit?

Germany loses big if Iran faces sanctions:

Germany has more to lose from any economic sanctions on Iran than other Western countries as it is the world's biggest exporter to the Islamic republic, a leading German industry group said on Thursday.

"Our exports of goods and services to Iran are worth around 4 billion euros ($4.8 billion)," Michael Pfeiffer, a foreign trade expert at the German Chamber of Industry and Trade (DIHK), told Reuters. That was up from some 3.6 billion euros in 2004.
...
Pfeiffer said a Western embargo would be disastrous for Germany, struggling with a double-digit unemployment rate and sluggish economic growth. "With our unemployment problem and weak economy, this wouldn't be good at all," Pfeiffer said.
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Pfeiffer said sanctions were generally not an effective weapon. "We saw that in Iraq," he said, adding: "One must remain in dialogue with a country like Iran".

There's no slut like a dumb slut.

Shove it, Louise

It's quite the day for rectal insertions at the United Nations. Besides their usual cranial rectal insertions, of course. From The Copenhagen Post - Prophet cartoons worry UN commissioner:

Daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten's twelve cartoons of the Muslim prophet Mohammed are causing ripples across the world and worries at the Office of the United Nations' High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour.

National daily Berlingske Tidende reported on Wednesday that Arbour had written a letter to the Organisation of Islamic Conferences (OIC), an international organisation of 56 Muslim states, which had complained over the cartoons.

In September, Jyllands-Posten called for and printed the cartoons by various Danish illustrators, after reports that artists were refusing to illustrate works about Islam, out of fear of fundamendalist retribution. The newspaper said it printed the cartoons as a test of whether Muslim fundamentalists had begun affecting the freedom of expression in Denmark.

I guess we know the answer to that one.

Muslims in Denmark and abroad have protested against the newspaper, calling the caricatures blasphemous and a deliberate attempt to provoke and insult their religious sensitivities.

Is that the world's tiniest violin I hear playing?

Arbour said she understood their concerns.

I'll bet she's real sensitive.

Berlingske Tidende reported that it held a copy of the letter, which stated that Arbour had appointed t(w)o UN experts in the areas of religious freedom and racism to investigate the matter.

'I'm confident that they will take action in an adequate manner,' Arbour said in her letter to the 56 governments, which have requested the UN to address the issue with Denmark.

United Nations action? There's an oxymoron. You think she was just conning the rubes or is she delusional?

Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he was aware of the letter, but had no comments about it. He has previously refused to meet with the ambassadors of some of the Muslim countries who wanted to discuss the cartoons, saying he had no power over the national media's actions.

Way to go, Anders! All the Christians, Hindus, and Jews being butchered by fundamentalist Islamic nutjobs and she's going to investigate cartoons. Well, I'll do my bit to keep Louise employed - I've got one of the cartoons at the top of this post with an added caption so there won't be any confusion. Hat tip for the story to Newspaperindex which has them all posted.

Shove it, Kofi

STATEMENT BY THE SECRETARY-GENERAL TO THE IRAQI PEOPLE ON THE EVE OF NATIONAL ELECTIONS:

Ultimately, only you as a people can move Iraq forward. I am pleased that the United Nations was able to support you at every step of this process, including through our assistance throughout the year to the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq. Irrespective of the outcome of the election, the United Nations will continue to do all it can to help all Iraqis succeed in building a new Iraq.

Hey, maybe he'll return all the loot stolen by the United Nations bureaucrats and their pals!

Whatever happened to Al TV?

Earlier today, I was getting a laugh out of the blathering associated with Microsoft and MTV announcing an online music service called "URGE."

"With our new service, we will be able to satisfy music lovers' urges for all things music. In many ways, URGE will serve as a 'psychic concierge', introducing fans to new artists and helping them to develop a deeper connection to old favorites," explained Van Toffler, the sun-kissed 46-year old MTV Networks' Music Group president who oversees the world's largest organized frat party.

He wishes. Anyhow, it occurred to me that I hadn't heard such purple prose about TV since Al Gore dreamed up his TV channel. Well the big launch was July 31 and I don't know about you, but I haven't heard a peep since. Doing a little Googling, I was shocked to discover that the Wall Street Journal is running a series on "Do It Yourself Media" and today scooped AL TV into the bag:

Today's article describes Al Gore's Current TV, which is helping to fill its 24 hours of daily programming with films made by viewers. Subsequent articles will look at how advertisers are soliciting ad ideas from their consumers, how cable operators are asking viewers to contribute material for dating services and real-estate channels and how phone companies are encouraging contributions to video logs.

I guess December is a slow news month at the WSJ.

"The Internet is a welcome breath of fresh air which re-establishes a highly interactive participatory medium that has even lower barriers to entry than the print medium," said Mr. Gore in an interview. He added that a "growing number of talented young people in their 20s...have videocameras and laptop editing systems and are increasingly conversant with how to express themselves in the television medium."

See, what did I tell you! When you parse Al's prose though, you have to wonder why he didn't start up on the Internet instead of regular TV. And how's Al TV really doing?

They are now working to make it widely available: Current can be seen in only about 20 million homes, whereas most major cable channels are available in 80 million.

The channel isn't yet rated by Nielsen Media Research, which makes it a tougher sell for advertisers.

It'll be even tougher when they find out only Al and Tipper are watching.

While Current has had some luck getting distribution with Time Warner Inc. and satellite-TV company DirecTV Group Inc., it hasn't yet won over Comcast Corp., the biggest cable operator. To put pressure on Comcast, Current held a rally outside Comcast headquarters in Philadelphia.

Sheesh. What Al needs to do is to recruit some MSM cheerleaders like Air America's stable of luscious lovelies.

Today's Hoot!

Got a whiney liberal on your "holiday" gift list? Head on over to Six Meat Buffet and check out Stratego for Democrats.

Well, we’ve got the new Stratego for Democrats - fight the War on Terror in the Dim-O-Crack tradition of undercutting, faux “supporting the troops” and a turncoat mainstream press! It worked in Vietnam, it can work in the War on Terror!

Of course, it's not too much fun unless you play the Terrorists' side, but good "progressives" won't mind a bit! Of course, you could always get them a lump of coal instead.

Dog dreams of biting men

Instapundit:

IN THE MAIL: Ana Marie Cox's new novel, Dog Days. I'm expecting it to contain a lot of sex.

Sounds more like an autobiography detailing her rich full fantasy life complete with, er, a number of approaches from the rear.

Look who just volunteered for camp follower!

One of the many reasons why Salon Media is on life support, nominal sex advice columnist Cary Trainer says it's time for a revolution. What's not clear is whether he plans to serve in the kitchen or the brothel.

Nice neon!

Let's see if I have this right. MSNBC has made the biggest ever buy of BlogAds featuring the neon outline of an apparently "clothes challenged" woman and when you click on the ad, it takes you to the usual MSNBC TV homepage. Ace had an even more festive version with the neon caption, "WELCOME TO PORN VALLEY MSNBC 12-14-05." It's a joke right? I guess when you're the least watched cable news network, you have to do something to rope in the marks. Keith Olbermann biting the heads off chickens was getting kind of old.

Today's Hoot!

Looks like Weasel Boy got taken to the woodshed for saying what the Donk leadership really believes - Dean: Did I Say The War Was Unwinnable? That's Just Crazy-Talk, That's What That Is:

Howard Dean, the Sage of Montpelier, now reverses himself and decides heck, maybe this war is winnable after all.

We just need a "new plan." That's all we need. That's what he meant to say when he deemed it a crazy notion that the war was winnable -- just that we needed a "new plan" and everything would then go just swimmingly.
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The "plan" consists of two parts: Stage One, "tell the truth," and Stage Two, "don't be a bully."

Stage Three? "Always bring enough cup-cakes to share with the Sunni insurgents."

No joke! Other than Howie and the Democrat party.