Do you blame the pimp or the whore?

BOUGHT AND PAID FOR

'Now it's our party," reads the typi cally arrogant e-mail, referring to the Democrats, from MoveOn.org to its supporters: "We bought it, we own it and now we're going to take it back."

Sad to say, the message — sent by the group's political director, Eli Pariser — is largely true.

MoveOn.org and similar so-called "527" groups (named for the section of the campaign-finance law that governs their activities) did all but take control of the Democratic Party this year — for no other reason than that the Democrats offered themselves for sale.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 8:41 AM -

 
Funny how that worked out

Exodus as Dutch middle class seek new life

Escaping the stress of clogged roads, street violence and loss of faith in Holland's once celebrated way of life, the Dutch middle classes are leaving the country in droves for the first time in living memory.

The new wave of educated migrants are quietly voting with their feet against a multicultural experiment long touted as a model for the world, but increasingly a warning of how good intentions can go wrong.

Australia, Canada and New Zealand are the pin-up countries for those craving the great outdoors and old-fashioned civility.
...
"There's a feeling of injustice that if you do things right, if you work hard and pay your taxes, you're punished, and those who don't are rewarded. People can come and live here illegally and get payments. How is that possible?

Hmm, that sounds familiar! But lots of luck with Canada and New Zealand.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 8:37 AM -

 
Everyone loves to talk about the weather!

'Climate Witnesses' Testify About Warming

As scientists debate whether global warming is affecting Earth, "climate witnesses" told a U.N. environmental conference Friday they are already feeling the heat of the changing weather patterns they say are drastically affecting the way of life from the Himalayas to the South Pacific.

"In the past we just accepted it was the will of God," said Penina Moce, a woman from Udu, a fishing village in Fiji. "But now we believe there could be other reasons."

Around here it was real cold early last week, but today it was real warm, but it's supposed to get colder tonight. When do we sacrifice the virgin?

My thanks to the United Nations for maintaining the high standards for which it is justly famous. Why not toss Kofi's kid a few bucks to fly around and investigate?

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 7:42 PM -

 
I love puzzles!

This one is a toughie though:

Suppose that a big corporation headquartered in New York City were the center of the largest embezzlement scheme in world history ($21 billion), which enriched big oil companies, foreign dictators, terrorists, and its own employees. Further, suppose that the corporation's own union had declared its lack of confidence in the corporation's management, because of endemic corruption, and because of senior management's lax attitude towards sexual abuse, including coercive sex with underage girls.

Also suppose that the son of the company president was getting paid by another business that profited from the embezzlement scheme, and the company president had claimed that his son's affiliation ended in 1999, but actually the son continued with the business until 2004. And suppose that the company president and his staff were obstructing government investigations into their own corruption. Oh, and let's also suppose that the corporate president and his underlings had attempted to influence the recent U.S. presidential election.

You can be quite sure that a scandal of this incredible scope would be aggressively covered by the newspapers. And it has been covered by The Wall Street Journal, The New York Sun, and The Times of London, all of which advanced the story last month with major articles. But none of these stories were reprinted in The Denver Post, which has not written a word about the scandal's developments in the last month. The Rocky Mountain News did slightly better, with a nine-paragraph article on page 34A of last Saturday's paper.

Why are the Denver papers so reticent about informing their readers about such a big scandal?

No peeking at the answer. And it isn't just Denver, of course.

Here's another one:

Which of the following recent news stories is the odd one out:

(a) United Nations accused of cover-up of sexual harassment by senior official.

(b) U.N. soldiers in Africa accused of sexual trafficking in minors.

(c) Son of U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan accused of profiting from U.N. Oil-for-Food scandal until early this year.

(d) U.S. Senator urges Kofi Annan to resign after his committee discovers that the U.N.'s Oil-for-Food program transferred $21 billion to Saddam Hussein.

(e) U.N. "High Level Panel" of eminent persons urges greater powers for world body.

Here's a hint:

No one is ever asked to resign for wrongdoing at the United Nations.
...
Kofi Annan is the symbol of the United Nations' lack of accountability. He is never held responsible for what goes wrong, because the United Nations is never held responsible, either. It sails in a cloud of noble idealism over the actual failures, hypocrisy, corruption and outright criminality that attend some U.N. actions on the ground below.

And there is a polite consensus outside the United States not to notice the glaring contradictions between idealism and reality.

But it's not all bad news - Annan's one virtue: He weakens the U.N.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 10:29 AM -

 
Wake up and smell Kofi

We're not supposed to notice the aroma

Kofi Annan is the perfect expression of the United Nations: soft, suave, urbane, and a magnet for incompetence and corruption.

The apologists for the U.N. are fond of saying that if the U.N. didn't exist we would have to invent it. Just what this means is not meant to be clear. If Kofi Annan didn't exist someone would have to invent him, too.

Mr. Annan, in fact, was invented, and by the very Americans the apologists loathe, when the stink of the Boutrous-Boutrous Ghali administration finally became so overpowering that nearly everyone agreed that he had to go. His replacement had to satisfy the requirements of the Lilliputians of the Third World who are forever fantasizing about how to tie down Gulliver, and the Americans scrounged through what was available and came up with Mr. Annan, fresh from mismanaging the U.N. "peacekeeping" operations in Rwanda and Bosnia. Wherever Mr. Annan went, massacres followed. But he apologized nicely and that was that. The man and the hour had met.

And he didn't break his sting of failure, incompetence, and mendacity.

The usual suspects are closing ranks behind Mr. Annan. The 191 ambassadors to the U.N., terrified at the thought that any Lilliputian should be deprived of his sweet life in America on someone else's dime, gave Mr. Annan a standing ovation this week when he presented his "blueprint for U.N. reform" to the General Assembly. There was no appreciation of the irony of the moment, with the presentation of institutional reform by the man who may be in desperate need of personal reform himself.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 9:59 AM -

 
Nothing like the party of the people

In Washington State, Democrats dust off old rule

Even if Republican Dino Rossi wins the hand recount of the state’s extraordinary governor’s race, a never-before-used provision in the state constitution could allow the Democrat-controlled Legislature to hand the election to Democrat Christine Gregoire.

Experts are unsure how to interpret the provision. But the state Democratic Party says it gives Democrats the ability to contest the results of the election before the Legislature.

The Legislature would hold a trial of sorts, like an impeachment hearing, with lawmakers voting on the final outcome, according to a Democratic Party lawyer.

That scenario would seem to favor Gregoire, because Democrats will hold a 26-23 advantage in the Senate and a 55-43 edge in the House when the Legislature convenes Jan. 10.

Why bother even letting the proles vote for governor?

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 7:45 AM -

 
If there is anything more ridiculous than the United Nations ...

It's the weenies at Ted Turner's United Nations Foundation. Hey Ted, have you come up with the billion bucks yet?

That ought to get their banner ad to pop up above a few more times.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 8:30 PM -

 
More gas from the fever swamp

MoveOn to Democratic Party: 'We Own It'

WASHINGTON - Liberal powerhouse MoveOn has a message for the "professional election losers" who run the Democratic Party: "We bought it, we own it, we're going to take it back."
...
"In the last year, grass-roots contributors like us gave more than $300 million to the Kerry campaign and the DNC, and proved that the party doesn't need corporate cash to be competitive," the message continued. "Now it's our party: we bought it, we own it, and we're going to take it back."

I'm sure it was just an oversight that they forgot to mention George Soros.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 8:11 PM -

 
Today's Hoot!



TED KENNEDY GIVES FREE DRIVING LESSONS TO POOR TEENS!

Super-compassionate liberal Senator Ted Kennedy is one of the richest politicians in America, but he's quietly giving back -- by teaching poor inner-city teens to drive, free of charge!

That's the surprising revelation of a clergyman who coordinates the program, based in a community center in Washington, D.C.

"Teddy doesn't charge these kids a dime and doesn't take any credit," reveals Father Bryan MacKelly. "He volunteers his time on the down-low -- he doesn't really want the media to make a big deal about his personal generosity.

"He told me, 'Safe driving is a skill every young American deserves to have -- not just the rich.' "
...
When the roly-poly, silver-haired politician first showed up and was introduced as the new driving instructor, the high-schoolers -- ages 16 to 18 -- were shocked.

"Who's the weird fat dude?" one youth asked.
...
At first, I was real nervous, 'cause pulling out from the curb, Mr. Ted knocked over two garbage cans and scraped the fender on a fire hydrant," she recalls. "He laughed and apologized and told me it had been a while since he did his own driving.

"But once he put me behind the wheel, he was real cool. He kept telling stories about the old days and famous people he'd met, like Bob Dylan and Fidel Castro.

"I didn't know who they were, but I liked that he was so friendly."

(Hat tip to FR where some "greatest hits" are recalled.)

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 7:38 PM -

 
Always nice to know

Rodger alerts us how not to have a Blue Christmas, only he doesn't quite phrase it that way. If I may suggest a personal nonfavorite, the executives at Price Club/Costco are a particularly obnoxious crew of leftoids and well deserving of your nonsupport.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 7:06 PM -

 
Her Heinous better be careful with that centrism stuff

Hillary, you've got some 'fessing up to do:

Activists in the bluest district in the bluest city of probably the bluest state in the nation believe they've earned the right to deliver a blunt message to Hillary Clinton: Senator, we in this liberal enclave see red every time we hear that you are the Democrats' main hope to reclaim the White House in 2008.

Why? We see you as a female equivalent of John Kerry, taking safe, centrist positions in general and, most glaringly, a wimpy stance on the war in Iraq.

Mark Green, who was Kerry's campaign manager in New York City and who supports your national ambitions, found himself on the defensive during a recent appearance in our district. Addressing members of an Upper West Side political club, he chose to speak positively about your presidential prospects at a particularly untimely moment: You had just been quoted in the media as backing the recent invasion of Fallujah on the grounds that it would "bring stability to Iraq."

The uproar over that Fallujah comment - "Panderer!" said one member; "She'll jump on any bandwagon," complained another - had barely subsided when Green arrived. He came to lead an election post-mortem but was asked about a key figure in the party's future: you. What was his rationale for supporting you, given your tepid policy positions?

"She's doing what she has to do to be a credible national candidate," Green said. "When was the last time an Upper West Sider ran for president?"

When was the last time an Upper West Sider found his/her/its butt without a roadmap? On the other hand - Give her hell, moonbats!

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 12:23 PM -

 
The Rev. Al does the Hanky Panky

And the Village Voice has the details. Frankly, there's too much dysfunction to summarize easily, but you'll get the idea from this:

Ironically, with all of this intrigue circulating just beneath the surface, Sharpton has made himself into some sort of national religious figure, asking on Meet the Press just a week ago: "All of us are talking about whether God is on our side. Are we really on God's side?" He and Jerry Falwell have squared off four times on national television—immediately before and after the election—as the embodiment of the moral values of their respective parties.

Indeed, after collecting a puny fraction of the delegates that Jesse Jackson and Shirley Chisholm won in their presidential campaigns, Sharpton has miraculously repackaged himself as a combination Spike TV reality star, supposed candidate for the helm of the NAACP, kingmaker within the Democratic National Committee, and telegenic conscience of the left. For New Yorkers who know our most famous reverend well, watching him on display as a post-election ethical compass, representing Democratic values, is the final sick joke in a year when we thought Karl Rove already had the last laugh.
...
Strangely enough, it was Falwell in the TV debate who boasted that he operated a home for unwed mothers, an AIDS hospice, an adoption program, and a clinic for drug addicts, all in tiny Lynchburg, Virginia. When he asked if Sharpton was "involved" in even one similar effort, the reverend who's never had a church, or run a substantive social program, changed the subject.

As the rest of the article reveals, Rev. Al does have a favorite charity - himself.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 11:16 AM -

 
Chinese farmers don't have to worry about the goverment seizing their land for development

Because they don't own it

SANCHAWAN, China - For five months, Gao Lading and other angry farmers had occupied the walled compound of the Communist Party's village office. They had pitched tents, eaten rice and sweet potatoes, and waited.

It was a sit-in born of desperation. Officials from the nearby city of Yulin had seized land that had been part of the village since imperial times. The farmers had protested for nearly two years before finally seizing the village government's seat of power.

Early on Oct. 4, the government struck back. Witnesses say truckloads of paramilitary police surrounded the sleeping village. Hundreds of people inside the office compound were injured as the police fired tear gas and rubber bullets.
...
In real estate terms, the crackdown amounted to closing day. Like other land transactions in rural China, negotiations had been one-sided: Yulin officials, citing an obscure legal clause, ordered farmers to leave and offered them $60 per parcel of land. The farmers had screamed robbery.

But farmers in China cannot be robbed of land because they are not allowed to own it. The same economic reforms that have made China the world's fastest growing economy have created a two-tiered property system that favors city dwellers while handicapping the farmers once at the core of this society.

One result is that a booming, private real estate market has emerged in cities, where residents can now buy and sell apartments or suburban villas as investments toward joining the fledgling urban middle class. Farmers still fall under a village collective system that forbids them to own, buy or sell the land they till - and that often leaves them powerless to keep it.

The Sanchawan case is one example among thousands in which city officials pushing lucrative development projects have confiscated rural land by guile, fiat or force. Experts estimate that as many as 70 million farmers have lost their land in the past decade - a number expected to rise above 100 million.

Good thing they don't get to vote or icky stuff like that.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 10:33 AM -

 
Biscuits and Gravy - Dec. 8, 2004

Marines saved 'em from Qaeda

When the Jihadis burst into the U.S. Consulate in Saudi Arabia, guns blazing and screaming, "Where are the Americans!," the diplomats quickly fled to a panic room.
"I certainly was worried," Consul-General Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley said yesterday, a day after the daring daylight Al Qaeda raid that left two Americans wounded and five consular workers dead.

"It's not good to hear gunfire outside but I did have complete faith in the security of the building."

That's because the five militants who managed to shoot past the Saudi guards at the gate were no match for the Marines manning the main chancery building - where the American staff had sought sanctuary.

Meanwhile there's another battle zone around Washington D.C.

Prince George's County fire officials said yesterday that two Marine Corps cars recently were set on fire, which makes at least 10 vehicles set ablaze near military recruiting stations during the past 15 days.

Unfortunately you can't shoot 'em if you catch 'em.

Michael Moore: Democrats need to embrace Hollywood

"Democrats need to embrace Hollywood because this is where they need to come to learn how to tell a story."

That's a shock - they've been spinning tall tales for years.

Ding Dong, the Witch is Gone! And all we have is a crappy AP report that makes it seem Mary Frances Berry was "even handed."

Who says they're stupid bureaucrats at the United Nations?

Congressional investigators are examining whether the former head of the U.N. oil-for-food program laundered profits from shady oil deals with Saddam Hussein through family businesses in Cyprus to make it look as if his newfound wealth was coming from an "inheritance."

A spokesman for the House International Relations Committee told The Post yesterday the panel is investigating new information that ex-oil-for-food chief Benon Sevan concocted an elaborate scheme to hide profits he received from sweetheart oil deals by diverting money to family members in his native Cyprus.

"The information we received is that he diverted the money [from the deals] to family members in Cyprus," the spokesman said.

"We have been informed that it was set up so that if he were to be put in a room and asked where his money came from, he would say it came from inheritance from his grandmother or an aunt."

Here's another United Nations poser

Most people would say countries that tolerate slavery should be ineligible for membership on the U.N. Commission on Human Rights. Same goes for those guilty of crimes against humanity.

The presumption is that egregious rights violators have no business on a commission whose prime purpose is supposed to be to protect rights.

But in a report last week, a U.N. panel established by Secretary-General Kofi Annan rejected the notion that there should be any standards at all for membership on the Human Rights Commission. That means Sudan need not worry about losing its seat on the 53-member commission even though the country stands accused by the United States of committing genocide in its western Darfur province.

At the State Department, frustration over the commission is accelerating, and officials wonder how long the United States can justify its continued membership on the panel if current trends continue.

Same goes for the UN as a whole, but the folks at Foggy Bottom don't seem to realize it.

But not to worry, Kofi Annan is on the case! - Annan Opens First Islamophobia Seminar

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 8:53 AM -

 
It's a tautology

French Offensive

We always knew that we would strike a few nerves with Our Oldest Enemy: A History of America's Disastrous Relationship with France. We certainly never expected anything but a negative review from the New York Times let alone from a hotshot French intellectual like Bernard-Henri Levy.

But judging from Levy's fulminations in the Times on Sunday, we didn't just strike a few nerves — we're actually pushing people over the edge.

In his one-page critique, Levy hurls just about every hysterical epithet he can find in our direction. He accuses us of "racism" and "Francophobia." He calls our book "nauseating," "fantastical," "grotesque," and in competition for the "grand prize in stupidity." He even compares what we've written to "the fascist French literature of the 1930s."

Now that's a curious putdown, comparing us to the French.

The only thing more curious may be the fact that before Levy goes diving off the deep end, he concedes so much of our argument. He readily admits that French anti-Americanism is "lodged in the heart of my country's culture." He even calls our historical account of Franco-American diplomatic relations — which is to say, the vast majority of our book — "a more or less fair re-evaluation."

More Gallic hilarity by following the link. But Mark Twain gets the last word.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 8:08 PM -

 
Good news is breaking out all over!

Dead in toilet for 2 days. No it isn't the moonbats at Democrat Underbelly, it's the UK's National Health Service:

A WOMAN died in a hospital toilet — and was not found for TWO DAYS.

The patient — a mum of two — lay undiscovered in the casualty ward loo until a workman spotted her as he fixed a cubicle.

Last night the gruesome find sparked a storm at Solihull Hospital in the West Midlands.

Michael Summers, chairman of the Patients Association, said: “It’s disgraceful this could happen without the knowledge of the hospital authorities.

“The first question that should be asked is, ‘How often are the toilets cleaned?’ One would hope toilets and washing areas in hospitals are cleaned at least once, hopefully twice, a day.”

I want some of that there HillaryCare!

On a more spiritual note:

"A Buddhist monk decided to break his lifelong vow of celibacy with a prostitute - but picked up an undercover police officer instead."

I'm sure he was just looking for someone to relieve his Karmic burden.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 10:55 AM -

 
Fun with technology!

Tired of looking through your webcam at piles of steaming volcanic rock?



You could always hit the bar instead! (Mildly NSFW).

That's a horrible joke - wrong in so many ways, and I absolutely can't condone that sort of humor. I was reminded of it when I stumbled across this horrible, horrible, website that a lot of the guys deployed over here seem to get a kick out of. Whatever you do, don't visit it! From what I've heard it's just wrong. In fact, that's why I've never visited that site, honest Mrs. G!

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 8:50 AM -

 
Everybody's doing it!

House Republicans say Annan should resign over oil-for-food scandal and, brace yourself, the Democratic Leadership Council agrees:

The secretary general should place this critical mission ahead of his personal interests, and step aside. Given his own lack of credibility on the oil-for-food program, this step is the price Annan must pay to help restore the U.N.'s credibility, and to salvage his legacy as secretary general.

In case you aren't familiar with the DLC, it's the organization of "moderate" Democrats. We haven't heard from them much since Bubba took off for the big city and left the moonbats in charge.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 8:48 AM -

 
Iranian Hijinks Alert!


(Via Best of the Web) Al-Jazeera’s Psyops

The Al-Jazeera network’s recent insult of the Iranian nation was totally unacceptable.

The Arabic network, which broadcasts its programs from the little Arab country Qatar, has recently posted an insulting cartoon about the Islamic Republic of Iran on its English site.

Yadda, yadda

But the actions of the network gradually revealed the fact that Al-Jazeera officials, on the orders of Zionist agents, are trying to divide Islamic countries and tarnish the image of Islam.

When jihadist wingnuts fall out, we all have fun! Which reminds me, I wonder if this was the cartoon in question?



Nah, probably not. Hmm, how about this one?



That's funny too, but the laugh's on us. For now.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 7:54 PM -

 
The United Nations is the gift that keeps on giving

Turn your head and Kofi:

The United Nations' "Oil-for-Food" program, which began in 1996, permitted Saddam Hussein to sell oil, provided that the revenue went for food, medicine and other necessities. It was a deal between the world's largest bureaucracy and one of the planet's most crooked and ruthless dictators. What could possibly go wrong?

So now we find out, with a shock value equal to the one that hit us this morning when the sun rose in the east, that Hussein was skimming money off the top, and bottom for that matter. Skimming? More like building a dam. The General Accounting Office estimates that Hussein's regime netted over $10 billion. The psychotic-yet-most-entrepreneurial mustachioed one who had a destiny with a spider hole was, with a lot of help, inflating prices on humanitarian imports, which allowed him to sell that much more oil and keep the extra for himself and whoever else was involved. High markups, high profits and skimming – Iraq had become a 172,000 square mile jewelry store run by Jimmy Hoffa.

Lots more by following the link including fun with the Minneapolis (Red) Star Tribune:

The Tribune assigns an air of untouchable altruism to the United Nations, which, to them, is a noble body working toward the betterment of mankind, so they've earned the right to the occasional colossal blunder or not-so-accidental dereliction. In other words, they're a lot like the newspaper business.

By the way, the author, Doug Powers, now has his own blog.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 4:43 PM -

 
Be still my heart!

Two set for civil rights panel

President Bush will appoint two new members to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights this week, possibly as early as today, and replace panel Chairman Mary Frances Berry.

He finally got rid of the odious Mary Frances Berry, wingnut extraordinaire! Don't let the garage door hit your wide load on the way out, Mary!

The White House has insisted over the past two weeks that those terms expired last night at midnight, and that the new commissioners would be appointed promptly. Ms. Berry and Mr. Reynoso have said that their terms end Jan. 21.
...
Some commissioners and officials close to the commission fear the appointments will create a legal showdown between Ms. Berry and the White House over the date of her term's end.

That's par for the course with ole Mary. Send in the U.S. Marshals and evict her! (More details here.)

On the other hand, maybe she has a lot of shredding to catch up on:

The move comes as the commission, formed in 1957 and operating with a $9 million annual budget, is the subject of an investigation by the House Judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution. The review is seeking information on, among other things, the financial operations of the commission.

Forget the eviction. How about a "perp walk"?

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 11:31 AM -

 
This will have the usual suspects twitching

Fox Will Become Main News Source For Clear Channel:

News Corp.'s Fox News has reached an agreement to become the primary news provider to radio giant Clear Channel Communications Inc.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 11:08 AM -

 
Nobody told me it was Kofi Annan Appreciation Day!

But the all the usual suspects chimed in to make it a festive occasion. The New York Times allows as how "Oil for Food" was a big rip-off, but there were other big Saddam frauds going on because it was "the responsibility of member nations to adhere to sanctions imposed by the Security Council" and they didn't do it. Somehow that doesn't strike me as an affirmative defense.

The Minneapolis (Red) Star Tribune chimed in and attacked Sen. Norm Coleman in a juvenile rant that demonstrates why they are the envy of the other high school newspapers in Minnesota. Then there's the Boston Globe's Thomas Oliphant:

NOW THAT virtually all of official conservatism and the Republican legislative juggernaut have opened up on UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, with President Bush's winking acquiescence, it's time to explore a simple question: Just what is it that the guy has done? The answer is nada. It turns out there is no evidence that he did anything while the notorious and corrupted oil-for-food humanitarian program was operating in Iraq during the 1990s and beyond.

Er, Tom, that's exactly the problem. Kofi Annan presided over the biggest financial fraud in human history. And he did nada.

There was also more sad news for Kofi fans today - Annan's son used UN link to lobby for business:

The son of Kofi Annan, the United Nations Secretary-General, lobbied for business contacts at gatherings of UN officials on behalf of a company in the same year as it won an oil-for-food programme deal, it has emerged.

The second disclosure in a week about Kojo Annan's role with the Swiss company Cotecna Inspection Services, which secured the $4.8 million (£2.46 million) UN contract to monitor goods entering and leaving Iraq in 1998, has raised embarrassing questions for his father. The details were revealed in Cotecna company documents handed over under subpoena to US congressional scrutineers who are investigating the oil-for-food scandal in which Saddam Hussein is thought to have creamed off more than $20 billion.

In one billing memo, a US investigator told The Telegraph, Kojo Annan, 29, claimed fees and expenses for eight days' work in July 1998, including six days in Abuja "during my father's visit to Nigeria". On another, he claimed expenses and $500 a day for a 15-day trip to New York and the UN General Assembly in September 1998 for meetings on "special projects".

$500 per day? Ole Kojo doesn't travel light, I guess.

Not to worry, though. The bureaucrats at the UN have a secret plan!

THE United Nations — desperately in need of some positive spin — is considering a ploy to steal some of the Norwegian Nobel thunder by launching its own annual peace prize. It doesn't hurt that the highly politicized Nobel Peace Prize has been bestowed to such unpeaceful types as Yasser Arafat and appeasers like Jimmy Carter.

The UN is going to do better? Bwahahaha!

"The United Nations peace prize would be announced each year with the fanfare of a Live Aid-like concert, to be broadcast on a youth channel like MTV," said one source.

Sure, that'll help!

In the face of widespread corruption in Iraq's oil-for-food program, weapons proliferation and terrorism, it strikes one as both tone-deaf and feckless of them even to have that on the table."

They haven't got even a whiff of a clue. But then we knew that.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 8:34 AM -

 
A hot time in the Great White North!

A hockey mom allegedly displays her 'assets' at an 11-year old hockey game:

The president of the Greater Toronto Hockey League says he's "aghast" over an alleged incident at a hockey game in Mississauga where an irate mother of an 11-year-old minor hockey player apparently taunted parents and fans of opposing players by lifting her blouse, revealing her bra and shaking her breasts "from side to side."

Cabin fever started early this year.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 7:30 AM -

 
Hmm, that's a new one!

Fund-Raiser Said Motive for Flu Shot Sale

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - A woman who allegedly sold flu shots then fled when her credentials were questioned was giving people the real vaccine, and was trying to raise money for her daughter's school fund-raiser, her ex-husband said.

Back to peddling candy bars, I guess.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 7:49 PM -

 
Biscuits and Gravy - Dec. 5, 2004

Belmont Club

The Franco-American alliance is quite robust and likely to last a long time. The French have always been there when they needed us.

Steve Martin

It does strike me as ironic that the song has become the standard reference work on the subject of King Tut. Many of the lines in the song are now believed to be fact. In this article I should - as a serious scholar - set the record straight:

King Tut was not "born in Arizona."

He did not live in a "condo made of stone-a."

King Tut did not "do the monkey," nor did he "move to Babylonia."

King Tut was not a honky.

He was not "buried in his jammies."

The song does, however, make a valid assertion that scholars still regard as a breakthrough: King Tut was, as explained in the song, "an Egyptian."

Maureen Dowd's Holiday Blues - Modo is cranky for all the usual reasons including Michael Douglas:

It might be exacerbated by the stress I feel when I think of all the money I've spent on lavishing boyfriends with presents over the years, guys who are now living with other women who are enjoying my lovingly picked out presents which I'm no doubt still paying for in credit card interest charges.

But here's something to cheer her up

In certain lucky locales, America's marketers and shock jocks are ministering to this spiritual deficit with an innovative enhancement program called "The Breast Christmas Ever." Female seekers enter radio promotion contests and the winners get free breast augmentations. Banish Scrooge with a boob job. Is this a great country or what?

The Democrats' Marketing Mistake

Next to President Bush, few things anger liberals more than Wal-Mart and Detroit's Big Three automakers. The liberal intelligentsia views Wal-Mart as the most frightening force in corporate America because it maintains a non-union workforce. The Big Three are scorned because they make trucks and SUVs that consume copious amounts of gasoline. Liberals believe America would be a much better country if more of us drove Toyota Priuses to Whole Foods each week instead of hopping into Ford F-150s to get our groceries at Wal-Mart.

The problem for the left is that the majority of middle class America disagrees. Wal-Mart is the world's largest corporation for a reason. One hundred million Americans shop at its stores to benefit from its everyday low prices. A working family can save more than $500 a year at Wal-Mart on groceries alone. This is latte money for liberals, but it makes a real difference to middle-class families who have to stretch each paycheck to make ends meet. Americans also like to drive big trucks and SUVs. The top three selling vehicles in the United States through October 2004 were the Ford F-150, the Chevy Silverado, and the Dodge Ram--all pick-up trucks. Despite the best efforts of Tim Robbins, the Prius is a mere blip on the automotive radar screen.

Actually the leftoids want the proles to live in towering big-city apartment complexes where they won't need cars as they'll be able to pick up everything they need from little shoppes and the weekly Gaia ceremony in the courtyard. But I digress.

But there will be "culture"

And then the crowning moment: Vanity Fair's Youngest Hollywood issue, which displayed on its cover nine underaged vixens in various states of get-up-and-go, along with a headline proclaiming: "It's TOTALLY Raining Teens: And it's, like, so a major moment in pop culture."

And they get cranky when the proles ignore the cultural pearls strewn before them

It's terribly unfair to draw conclusions from one story in a foreign newspaper, but it's so much fun. The London Independent is warning Britons that Americans are really as value-crazed as they fear. Why, it's gotten to the point where they're refusing to pay money to see interminable movies about bisexual military leaders!
...
Just because people don't want to see a movie about an omnisexual world-beater from the smocks-and-sandals era doesn't mean they're homophobic, any more than the dud status of "The Polar Express" means conservative America is deeply conflicted about rail travel.

And it's not as though the movie has no hetero appeal; it has great dollops of Angelina Jolie, America's favorite demonstrably unhinged sex bomb. A great many red-state-blooded American males would sit through a six-hour documentary about the Gay Men's Chorus if they knew Angelina showed up naked in the final reel.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 8:24 AM -