It's Bobby Mugabe again!

Be happy, Mugabe tells the starving: Government begins huge TV and radio propaganda campaign

Zimbabwe's government has begun a huge propaganda campaign to cheer up the country with music, football and sex.

Woohoo!

Their production values are good, and some of the tunes so catchy that even opposition supporters have found themselves humming along. But accompanying one on screen with a traditional dance, the kongonya, has prompted protests from TV viewers appalled at the pelvic grinding of young women and children.

"Pornographic, sexually perverted, disgusting," some of them said.

Mr Mugabe has defended the advert and this week the state-owned Herald newspaper devoted two pages to explaining that the dance epitomised the fight against colonial domination.

"The sexually suggestive connotations of the waist wriggling and the fast rhythmic throwing upwards and downwards of buttocks is again a sign of defiance of the detractors of the land reform," the Herald explained.

Who knew?

Today's Hoot

Julian Sanchez at Reason - Undue Influence: Closing the First Amendment "Loophole"

The British philosopher Bertrand Russell once quipped that philosophy was the art of starting from premises too trivial for anyone to contest and arriving at conclusions too outlandish for anyone to accept. Had he lived to see the Supreme Court's recent ruling upholding core provisions of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, he might have said something similar about jurisprudence—if not for the fact that so many people seem perfectly eager to accept the outlandish conclusions.
...
Of course, the ultimate loophole is the First Amendment itself. As long as "special interests"—that is to say, anyone with a particular issue they're specially concerned with—can broadcast their views to the public, the public may be inclined to vote in accordance with those views. And the threat of depriving politicians of their God-given right to hold office may well give those special interests "undue influence on an officeholder's judgment."

I therefore propose a solution that would, I hope, make Bertrand Russell proud. We must close the First Amendment loophole once and for all, and recognize that constitutional protection of "free expression" should be reserved for copies of Hustler, as the Founders intended, not extended to such dangerous frivolities as the expression of political views.

And, as usual, the laugh's on us.

There's good news - EU summit fails to reach agreement on Constitution

and there's bad news - Don't mention the superstate in Brussels:

There is an elephant in the drawing room. As EU leaders work themselves up about voting weights, numbers of commissioners and other trifles, they are tip-toeing around the enormous fact that the document in front of them will transform the EU, de facto and de jure, into a single state. On the day the constitution enters into force, all previous treaties will be dissolved. The EU will cease to be an association of states bound together by international accords, and instead become a single polity, with its own jurisdiction, legal personality and constitution. It is the most important development in the EU's 47-year history, yet no one wants to discuss it.

It's funny how often that happens when people have made a huge honking mistake.

There are understandable reasons for this. Talking about double majorities and Nice formulae is a way of soothing, if not anaesthetising, the watching electorates. One of the peculiar features of European integration is that it has taken place largely without popular endorsement. National electorates have rarely been asked to approve the successive steps toward closer union; when they have, they have often voted "no". Brussels, accordingly, has tended to agglomerate powers with as little fuss as possible. If the peoples of Europe knew how much had already been conceded - let alone what is proposed in this new constitution - they might shake off the system like a horse shaking off flies.

I have a more graphic illustration involving horse by-products and flies.

Thus, despite more than two years of discussion, there has been almost no public debate about the balance of power between Brussels and the nation states. Few people are aware of the clauses that set out the extent of the EU's power: "The Constitution… shall have primacy over the laws of the Member States" (Article 10); "The Member States shall exercise their competence to the extent that the Union has not exercised, or has decided to cease exercising, its competence" (Article 11); "The Member States shall co-ordinate their economic policies" (Article 14); "Member States shall actively and unreservedly support the Union's common foreign and security policy" (Article 15).

Sounds like a bureaucratic putsch to me.

There was always a danger, of course, that people might tumble to what was being done in their name.

Apparently not much of one. But at least the Sun is on the case.

I can hardly wait for the UN weenies to try the same ploy worldwide with the assistance of the usual suspects. Howard Dean would cream his jeans at the opportunity.

The Wisdom of Howard Dean - part 1

MATTHEWS: Is there any way to reduce the hostility between East and West, the hatred that’s growing toward us from the East?

DEAN: Yes, treat people with respect and they will treat you with respect. And that’s in short commodity.

Howard Dean to Chris Matthews

The efficacy of "respect" in dealing with terrorist fanatics is dubious to all but Howie and his little pals. The only respect they deserve is hollow point ammunition.

Cleanup on Aisle 7!

Here's how the big illegal alien protest day turned out - Hundreds of Hispanics Protest in Calif.

LOS ANGELES - Hundreds of Hispanics protested the repeal of a law allowing illegal immigrants to get driver's licenses, taking to the streets Friday in a statewide boycott of schools and businesses.

The daylong boycott was intended to highlight the economic contribution of California's Hispanic community, the nation's largest.

About 400 people marched into East Los Angeles, waving signs that read, in Spanish, "Yes, we can" and "We want licenses now."

How selfish - we won't even give 'em a bus trip to the border.

"People come to this country for opportunity. That's what we're fighting for," said Pablo Lopez, 44. Lopez said he was an illegal immigrant for 12 years and drove without a license, but was always afraid of getting stopped and deported.

"We come here to work hard and we have family that we have to protect. If we don't have a license, we won't be able to do that," he said.

I wonder if they let Pablo drive back in his native land? And I also wonder what happened to end his 12 years of being an illegal alien.

Jesse Castaneda, 38, said Friday's strike is just a start.

"It's kind of awakening a sleeping giant," said Castaneda, who is Mexican-American. "They talk about illegal immigration, and they want to get rid of all the illegal immigrants. What would happen at a state level if that were to happen? They'll realize that we are needed here."

Hmmm, I'm willing to suffer.

But here's the best initiative from the "professional educators":

At least one school system tried to pre-empt a student walkout. The Santa Ana district offered to raffle off a color TV for those who came to school, and sent home a note to parents urging them not to keep their children home.

A raffle for going to school? They didn't have stuff like this when I was a kid!

My social calendar is just so full!

This week was the blowout Geneva bash for United Nations Internet Weenies and last week was the big Milan fest for UN climate wankers, as I've mentioned previously. There were 13,000 "delegates" in Geneva, but I didn't realize how big the Milan party was until I read The Kyoto Protocol Creeps Along:

"The Parties conducted a fruitful and rich dialog in a good working atmosphere," declared Miklos Persanyi, the Hungarian Environment Minister who served as president of the ninth Conference of the Parties (COP9) to the UN's Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) at the closing press conference here in Milan. Which is to say that the 5000 delegates and 95 ministers who attended the meeting didn't end up yelling and calling one another names. But was anything -- other than civil discussions over canapés and the opportunity for delegates to browse Milan's posh shops -- accomplished at COP9?

In a word, no, but follow the link for the details. But here's good news:

Whether the Kyoto Protocol collapses or not, COP10 will meet in Buenos Aires next December where the Parties will no doubt once again conduct "a fruitful and rich dialog in a good working atmosphere."

Ah, Buenos Aires in December!

Merry Christmas!

The day that Christmas carols fell foul of the PC brigade

A church has been told that it cannot publicise its Christmas services on a community notice board to avoid offending other religions.

The Church of England may be the established faith of the United Kingdom. But Buckinghamshire county council regards it as a "religious preference group" and the ban was upheld yesterday.

Officials from All Saints, High Wycombe, Bucks, hoped to promote the service of nine lessons and carols and midnight mass by displaying an A4 size poster on a board in the town's public library.

The poster contained no message or religious exhortation, simply the dates and times of the services.

A4 is Euro letter sized - more like a flyer than a poster. OK, I'll bite - what's the problem?

Peter Mussett, the council's community development librarian, said his member of staff was right not to display the poster.

"We have a multi-faith community and passions can be inflamed by religious issues," he said. "We don't want to cause offence to anyone."

Woohoo - inflamed passions! They should have advertised a whole body massage workshop.

The Supremes

George Neumayr provides Soft-Brained Supremes:

The Supreme Court is finally discovering forms of free speech it considers "corrupting." Pornographers and flag-burners don't corrupt our politics and culture; "sham issue ads" do. Mapplethorpe-style exhibits don't corrupt the public square. No, what erodes it are nativity scenes.

Basically the only form of speech the Supreme Court considers dangerous is the very political and religious speech the constitutional framers designed the First Amendment to protect. The more vital the speech is to the preservation of a republic, the more likely the justices are to ban it from public life. The more worthless the speech and destructive to a republic, the more likely the justices will carve out a precious constitutional public space for it.

"Who could have imagined that the same Court which, within the past four years, has sternly disapproved of restrictions upon such inconsequential forms of expression as virtual child pornography, tobacco advertising, dissemination of illegally intercepted communications and sexually explicit cable programming would smile with favor upon a law that cuts to the heart of what the First Amendment is meant to protect: the right to criticize government," writes Antonin Scalia in his dissent from the Court's ruling on "campaign finance reform."

The Court can so casually contradict itself because it has no principles. No ruling at this point bears any relation to the Constitution. The justices simply identify the Constitution with their will. What they consider "troubling to a functioning democracy" -- the phrase used in the ruling -- is unconstitutional, even if it wouldn't have troubled the constitutional framers one whit. Issue ads trouble the O'Connors. So ipso facto they are unconstitutional. No good can come from them apparently. But virtual child pornography? Well, the Court can find some value in that.

And then there's the big money boys completing their takeover of the Democrat party - The games those Dems play:

Now seeing that that is not the case, Republicans have a real dilemma. Do they abide by the rule of law in both letter and spirit, or do the gloves come off and follow the Democrats lead in the art of "new soft money"?

The dilemma is a very real one given the fact that "Independent Political Groups" are now being established by Democratic operatives whose goal is nothing more than to usurp current campaign finance restrictions. For example, according to University of Miami public policy analyst Paul Crespo, George Soros (currency trader), Peter Lewis (insurance tycoon) and Steve Kirsch (Internet mogul) have each either donated or pledged to donate $10,000,000 to one such group. Crespo believes these donations to be the largest single gifts to presidential campaign efforts in the history of America.

What few people do know, however, is that Soros spent close to $15,000,000 dollars to help get McCain-Feingold passed.

His goal?

"To dramatically reduce the role of big special-interest money in American politics."

Even though he apparently has few issues with now breaking the law he helped pass, Soros now sees himself as someone who must bypass the system for the "good of defeating Bush in 2004." In other words, the "free speech" of this one ultra-wealthy extremist is now allowed, compared to the average donor to the pro-life cause who sends $30 a month to the Pro-Life Action League. This isn't "free speech," this is "favored speech," and the Democrats have little gumption to do anything about it.

And now – counting on Republicans to follow the rule of law that they fought hard against but have followed since its passage – Democrats intend to raise cash hand over fist in methods they agreed they would not. Proving once again that Democratic leadership will play games with truth – as long as they are the ones who benefit in the end.

It's all SPECTRE's doing!

A modest suggestion

Boycott by immigrants urged. I'll add in a few illegal's so the following makes sense:

The message to illegal Latino immigrants in the Bay Area and around California is sweeping: Keep your kids home from school Friday, don't go to work and stay away from stores.

The unprecedented request, made by illegal immigrant advocates to protest the repeal of a law that would have allowed illegal immigrants to apply for driver's licenses, is intended to show state leaders the collective economic and social clout of California's growing immigrant population.

While it's impossible to measure the success or failure of the daylong economic strike, organizers said they are encouraged that dozens of advocacy groups are rallying thousands of people to participate.

Translation: as long as they can get some of the usual wingnuts on camera, they can call it a success.

The advocates hope most of California's 11 million Latinos support the strike, though the effort is heavily focused toward illegal immigrants.

Analysts who pay close attention to the saga of the license law say the strike is an expression of frustration for undocumented (i.e. illegal) immigrants who feel their needs are being ignored by policy-makers.

The needs of illegal aliens? How about a bus back to the border?

Nativo Lopez, the leader of a group promoting the strike, the statewide Mexican American Political Association, suggests that parents keep their children out of school because education ``represents big bucks, financed by our taxes.''

Schools are unofficially protesting the boycott because they stand to lose state funding for unexcused absences.

Not the illegal aliens' taxes, of course.

Here's an idea, Nativo. Why don't the illegal aliens really teach 'em a lesson and just head back across the border?

And while I'm on the subject of the United Nations

There's not much news from the big UN Internet conclave in Geneva, which must mean the shopping is good. But here's one of the highlights - Mugabe attacks 'Western media' at Geneva summit:

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe launched a virulent attack on Western media Wednesday at a world summit on making better use of information technology such as the Internet to help poorer nations.

In his first foreign excursion since quitting the 54-nation Commonwealth, Mugabe railed against new technologies, saying they were used for espionage and to weaken the Third World in the face of "a dangerous imperial world order led by warrior states and kingdoms."

No mention of CIA mind rays.