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.

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.
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"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.

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?

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.
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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.

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.

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?

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.

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."
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"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.

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.' "
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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.
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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.)

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.