Aw, Gee… Michael Moore Not Nominated for an Oscar

McQ over at QandO comments on the Oscars… posts a link to the list of nominations, in fact… and notes Michael Moore isn’t on them.

EURSOC this morning, as noted by Glenn Reynolds.

The article by Canadian Collin May, brings new light to the discussion about was Jan Egeland attacking the US, specificly regarding being ‘stingy’.

Egeland’s comment also reflects a certain European view that contends that the state, and in this case a universal state, should be responsible for the welfare of humanity. Not surprisingly, this view is not shared by the United States, which looks far more to private and community-based actions to resolve social problems. Given this context, Egeland’s complaint was seen as most directly attacking the United States. And if you’ve worked in the UN/NGO community you’d know that this sort of assumption would not be wholly off the mark.

He also makes some mention of China being the dominant player in word affairs on the Pacific Rim:

China remains a dictatorship with a highly centralized authority. Now, this fact isn’t simply a function of the continuing communist regime. China has tended to strong central authority on the imperial model for centuries. This is unlikely to change, and though it can be drawn upon to fuel impressive economic growth, it can also hinder entrepreneurial innovation. Moreover, China remains unable to solve the Taiwan problem. A nation that is unable to control what it considers its own territory still has some work to do before it can rival America. And finally, China knows that a no-holds-barred approach to challenging the US would also mean a loss of access to lucrative American markets. To date, China is in no position to continue its economic miracle without that access.

I’d take that a step farther, by suggesting that clamping down on Taiwan, the way they would certainly like to, would, I think also cause problems for the US/China relations and thereby affect the trading relationship that so much of the Chinese economy is based upon. They’re not likely to do anything to upset that balance.

May also point out tthat the UN may be getting the message.

The United Nations, which has long been a forum for anti-American, as well as anti-Israeli rhetoric, was being told to shape up or it would simply become as irrelevant in humanitarian affairs as it was in military ones. Apparently this is a message that was communicated to Annan by some high-profile friends of the UN, who have been warning him that the UN without American goodwill is nothing, and that the UN had better make some changes to get that good will back. So even this organization, one the French thought they might be able to use against the US during the Iraq war, was now finding itself having to adapt to the new realities of international affairs.

Amen. It’s about time that happened and a well done tothe President and his team for managing that situation as they did.

In any event, RTWT. A good read.

The State is reporting from Berlin that

“BERLIN — German police Sunday arrested two suspected al Qaeda terrorists — one attempting to buy enriched uranium for a nuclear bomb, the other allegedly planning a suicide attack in Iraq. German Federal Prosecutor Kay Nehm described one of the suspects, identified as Ibrahim Mohamed K., a 29-year-old German citizen with an Iraqi background, as a high-ranking member of al Qaeda in charge of recruiting suicide bombers and planning attacks from Europe. It is not clear if the uranium Mohamed K. was allegedly attempting to buy actually exists.

The other suspect, identified as Yasser Abu S., is suspected of planning a suicide attack in Iraq, the precise details of which were not known.”

The Financial Times weighs in with the information that

“… the detainees may have smuggled hundreds of suicide bombers into Iraq. “

So, run this up against those who have been screaming that there is no connection between AlQuieda and Iraq, and watch the dancing. If they want more proof that the war on terrorism goes through IRaq, and that alQueida is what’s behind the terrorism there today, I can help, there, on both those points; I’m aware of several hundred more such links. The bottom line is these enemies of freedom are operating in Iraq. They’re still trying to obtain nuclear weapons. It’s what this has always been about.

The denials of the left not withstanding.

DRUDGE is reporting: “

“Thr four Britons still held in Guantanamo Bay are due to fly home today as their lawyers prepare to launch a record 30million compensation claim over their ‘illegal’ detention”

(Shrug) Personally, I don’t want them to lose such a suit.
I’m serious; think about it. What better method of exposing them could there be in terms of proving we were right about them, than tracing their movements and tracking where that money goes?  $30 million’s a fair bit of change, but it seems to me that kind of intel would be cheap at the price.

Michelle Malkin posts an appeal… and I’m happy to use this space to take up the cry:

Jordan Zane Trimarchi was born last Tuesday with a 3.5 centimeter tumor in his lower left ventricle. Surgeons at Columbia Presbyterian Children’s Hospital in New York City were able to remove some of the tumor, but not all of it.  At this point, Jordan’s only chance is a heart transplant–but that won’t happen unless a suitable donor is found.

Jordan’s father, Jeff Trimarchi, a regular reader of this blog, is asking the blogosphere to help get the word out.  Jeff’s e-mail address is [email protected]. More details are available at www.jordanzane.com.

The Milwaulkee Journal Sentinel is reporting about how Democrats wanted to make sure all the votes got to the polls and got counted….

Milwaukee County District Attorney E. Michael McCann announced this morning that five of the seven men arrested in the election-day slashing of Republican vehicles’ tires – including the sons of two prominent Milwaukee Democratic politicians – have been charged with felonies and will appear in court this afternoon.

Recent Coverage

1/22/05: Expect tire-slashing charges Monday
1/18/05: Spivak & Bice: Charges imminent in election day tire slashing
11/11/04: Police arrest ex-mayor’s son in tire-slashing
11/10/04: FBI starts own probe of vandalism of GOP vehicles
11/4/04: Spivak & Bice: Tire-slashing questions await Democrats’ sons
11/2/04: Republican rental vehicles vandalized

The five who were charged with felony criminal damage to property for slashing 40 tires on 25 vehicles are:

* Michael Pratt, 32, of the 400 block of N. 16th St., Milwaukee. Pratt is the son of former acting mayor Marvin Pratt.

* Sowande A. Omokunde, 25, of the 4000 block of N. 19th Place, Milwaukee. Omokunde is the son of U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore.

* Lewis G. Caldwell, 28, of the 2900 block of N. Summit Ave., Milwaukee.

* Lavelle Mohammad, 35, of the 4700 block of W. Lloyd St., Milwaukee.

* Justin Howell, 20, of the 2400 block of N. Olive St., Racine.

The vans had been rented by the state Republican Party to transport voters to the polls on election day Nov. 2.

I left the prior stories in the clip because of the link to the former Mayor’s son.
Very interesting, this. Why is this not all over the New York Times?

Oh, never mind.

This story about Boxer claming that SHE was the victim at the has been all over, of course.

She called Dr. Rice a liar, and she got her hand slapped for it. Now SHE’S the ‘victim’? Sure.

I’ve only one question: Why is someone who has so little regard for the truth still a member of the Senate?

Just when you think CBS has hit rock bottom on credibility, they keep digging…

Austin Bay notes today that

“Yup- a week before the Iraqi election Zarqawi has come out in public for imperialism, in his case Islamo-fascist imperialism.”

It’s a good read.
But, I can’t help but think that for all that Zarqawi has come out for Imperialism, he has an awful lot of freinds among the Democratic party.

Reynolds this morning, makes note of a story in the Examiner, which reports, basicly, that were it not for humans and their greenhouse gasses, the earth would have been in another ice age.

That’s amusing an idea enough. I’m still aiting for reaction from the usual suspcts.

But for me, the real amusment is the idea that I already noted this story 12 days ago, back on 1/12/05.

Implications! Get your implications, here.
Hot, fresh, implications!

Newsday is reporting what is the costliest day in terms of life lost for the NYFD, since the 9/11 attacks…. three firefighters were killed, and four more on the critical list.

We speak a lot of those serving in the greens and greys and blues of the various military services. And it’s right we do so. I’ve done it here, repeatedly. But it is no less right that we should also pay homage to those who serve us here at home, risking their lives so we might be safer.

I am reminded of Dennis Smith’s great work… “Report from Engine Company 82”
Said Smith in his book:

“Signal 5-5-5-5 has a special meaning for us.  Put the flag at half-mast and listen to the department radio for the message.There is a five by five cubicle at the front of the firehouse. Inside the small partition, there is a man writing the signal in the department company journal He turns up the volume of the department radio as we gather around it. This is the man assigned the housewatch duty, and he knows what he has to do. After recording the signal, he moves to the outside of the firehouse and brings the colors to half-mast. He returns to the watch- desk and prepares to write the message in the company journal His face is pensive, and he is asking himself the same question we all ask ourselves: I wonder if I know the guy? The radio beings to squawk the message and the housewatchman begins to write: “The signal 5-5-5-5 has been transmitted and the message is as follows: It is with deep regret that the department announces the death of Fireman 1st grade Edward Tuite which occurred while operating at box 583 at 11:25 hours this date”.

In the same chapter Smith wrote what is possibly the best way to end this post:

…(most other people)… have a high degree of assurance that they will return home from work in the evening. A little tired, perhaps… but on their feet. When a fireman’s wife kisses him as he leaves for work she makes a conscious wish that he will return to her. She hopes that she will not have to make those fast, desperate arrangements for a baby-sitter so that she can visit him in the hospital, and each time the doorbell rings, she hopes that there will not be a chief a chaplain, and a union official there, all coming to say kind things about her husband, how good he was, how dedicated, how brave.

Thus are the heroic sacrifices of Lt. Curtis Meyran, 46, of Battalion 26 Firefighter John Bellew, 37, of Ladder 27, and Firefighter Richard Sclafani of Bayside, Queens paid honor in this blogger’s notes.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=

PS and update: I note with some interest that Dennis Smith has a more recent work out regarding 9/11 you may want to check out.

If you’re interested in the signal boxes and the signaling system, check this out.

(Update:Repaired links)

DETROIT (AP) – With his city teetering above a financial abyss, Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick went before television viewers this month and delivered some grave news: He had no choice but to lay off nearly 700 city workers and cut services. This was no time for wanton spending, he said.

Days later, Kilpatrick found his own spending under attack when a local television station reported that the city just signed a $25,000 lease for a Lincoln Navigator for Kilpatrick’s wife — a fact the mayor at first denied but eventually confirmed.

The Navigator story snowballed after Kilpatrick’s bodyguard shoved a TV reporter against a wall. It was just the latest in a series of allegations that the 34-year-old former college football player has used city resources to enhance his personal life.

Well, at what point do we see some admission this is part and parcel of the Democrat party?

Mona Charen apparently agrees with my take on President Bush’s speech on Thursday.:

Impossibly grandiose? Impractical? Wilsonian? Perhaps. And yet, the president made clear in a speech that was also an argument that his is no ivory-tower idealism. “America’s vital interests and our deepest beliefs are now one.” We are faced with a world made frighteningly smaller by modern technology. Our enemies, nurtured in the bitter backwaters of repression and religious bigotry, can do incalculable harm with modern weapons. And though we may prepare, we cannot possibly defend ourselves against every terrorist with a grudge.

Freedom, the president argues, is the only solution to this grim threat. The more places liberty takes root, the safer the world, and we ourselves will be.

This kind of thing is exactly why she’s on my “must read” list.

TBTN reports that former Late Night TalkShow host Johnny Carson died this morning, at age 79.

The Globe and Mail says:

Durham Regional Police are refusing to say much about a 31-year-old Pickering woman who alleges that well-known entertainer Bill Cosby sexually assaulted her at his home near Philadelphia almost one year ago.

At a press conference yesterdayPolice Chief Kevin McAlpine would say only that the woman gave them “information regarding a historical sex assault that took place in Philadelphia.”

“It is not our place to discuss any of the particulars of the matter in any way, shape or form, as we are not conducting the investigation,” he said.

So, let me see, here. Cosby becomes something of a problem for the usual racebaiting suspects such as Jesse Jackson, Julian Bond, et al, by loudly suggesting that blacks create their own problems…

As a result of the support for Cosby among blacks, He’s being offered as the next head of the NAACP.. a move which would seriously shift the group away from it’s hard left angle, and now, suddenly charges of a supposed attack of over a year ago, and of very questionable authenticity with no proof, surfaces.

Gee… ya think there’s a connection, here?
Forgive me, I smell a fish.