Month: November 2006

Example of Reporting by Idealogues

Posted on by Amir

11/25/2006: When conservatives complain of left-wing bias in mainstream media, they are correct. The examples of such bias are so voluminous that it is pointless to defend MSM.

However, both sides have been investigated on suspicion of intellectual honesty, and found innocent.

From the right, we have this example of what can happen when right-wing idealogues report news the way their left-wing counterparts do.

Now don’t get me wrong: any time someone gets nailed with child pornography to the extent that Andrew Douglas Reed did–he faced up to 81 years in prison–and is let off with a pat on the butt, it is legitimate cause for outrage.

On the other hand, the fact that he is a Democrat activist (WorldNetDaily reports this in the first sentence of the article) has nothing to do with this. I have already established that coddling pedophiles is a long-standing bipartisan tradition, as both parties have done it. (And it is one more reason why I refuse to answer to any particular party label. My leanings are libertarian, but I am not a member of the Libertarian party.)

Ergo, the folks at WorldNetDaily are hardly raising the level of play by harping on the political leanings of sex offenders. In effect, they are trying to play the same game that MSM is playing, and by doing so they risk irrelevance.

When you report like a tabloid, you will eventually find that few people will take you seriously.

Litvinenko Murder Tied to Yukos Case?

Posted on by Amir

11/25/2006: Teressa Monroe-Hamilton of NoisyRoom.net has this story. According to a former Russian CEO, Litvinenko had information regarding the Yukos case that could seriously impact officials within the Russian government.

At this point, I don’t put anything past Putin and/or the government infrastructure over which he presides. The Russian military-industrial complex makes ours look like a troop of Boy Scouts.

Russians Arming Iran

Posted on by Amir

11/24/2006: Now that the Russians have showed the world that they give not a crap what anyone in the West thinks–brazenly poisoning Alexander Litvinenko with Polonium 210–they are going about their fundamental business of waging the new World War against the West.

Today, we learn that they are arming Iran.

Any word from Bush or Condi or any of their neocon advisors about this new threat that has been under our radar for at least a decade?

Litvinenko Died of Radiation Poisoning

Posted on by Amir

11/24/2006: Alexander Litvinenko, the former KGB colonel who defected and became a very outspoken critic of the Russian government and Vladimir Putin in particular, died of radiation poisoning. The British government is reporting that a “major dose” of Polonium 210 was found in his body. According to Pat Troop of the Health Protection Agency, “he would have had to [have] eaten it, inhaled it, or taken it in through a wound.”

He didn’t get that Polonium 210 at BALCO or GNC.

Make no mistake: this is a Russian hit job, and it is their way of sending an unmistakable message to the world, and to dissidents in foreign lands, that they are back to fighting dirty. The KGB of old is back with a devastating vengeance.

Before he died, Litvinenko left the following message–through a friend of his (Alex Goldfarb)–for Putin:

You have shown yourself to have no respect for life, liberty or any civilized value. You have shown yourself to be unworthy of your office, to be unworthy of the trust of civilized men and women…You may succeed in silencing one man but the howl of protest from around the world will reverberate, Mr. Putin, in your ears for the rest of your life.

THAT is the message that Bush should have given Putin. The real question is whether Bush has a clue about the man with whom he is dealing in the Kremlin.

Molher, Jesus, John Lennon, and Elton John

Posted on by Amir

11/24/2006: On Wednesday, Al Mohler had this to say regarding Elton John’s recent remarks on organized religion:

The late John Lennon, basking in the glow of fame, once remarked of the Beatles –“We’re more popular than Jesus now.” In more recent days, pop star Elton John gave an interview to a gay-themed magazine related to The Observer [London]. Perhaps Sir Elton is picking up where John Lennon left off.

In the course of the interview, the singer called for religion to be abolished. Note this section of the interview transcript:

From my point of view I would ban religion completely, even though there are some wonderful things about it. I love the idea of the teachings of Jesus Christ and the beautiful stories about it, which I loved in Sunday school and I collected all the little stickers and put them in my book. But the reality is that organised religion doesn’t seem to work. It turns people into hateful lemmings and it’s not really compassionate.

That’s a pretty straightforward statement. Sir Elton would simply ban all religion. It was a response to an interview question, of course. He offered no suggested public policy or means of enforcing the ban. The statement is merely revealing. Nevertheless, it was widely reported in the international press.

I found another section of the interview similarly revealing. Popular culture exerts a massive influence on society, no doubt. But do pop artists have an inflated concept of their own importance? Consider this paragraph from the Elton John interview:

We are all God’s people; we have to get along and the [religious leaders] have to lead the way. If they don’t do it, who else is going to do it? They’re not going to do it and it’s left to musicians or to someone else to deal with it. It’s like the peace movement in the Sixties – musicians got through [to people] by getting out there and doing peace concerts but we don’t seem to do them any more. We seem to be doing fundraisers for Africa and everything like that but I think peace is really important. If John Lennon were alive today he’d be leading it with a vengeance.

This paragraph points to the fact that many celebrities really believe that their art is the driving engine of social change. Need a movement for world peace? “If John Lennon were alive today he’d be leading it with a vengeance.” Well, maybe. After all, he did think the Beatles were more popular than Jesus.

Why does Al Mohler waste his breath worrying about what Elton John has to say? I used to listen to him quite a bit during my teen years, and his music was good enough. As for his personal views, well…he’s paid the big bucks for his singing, not his thinking.

On another note, with respect to his views on religion in general and Christianity in particular, Sir Elton might wish to reconsider his thinking on the matter, as his wish to ban religion–which involves personal expression of thought and belief–could also lead to the banning of music, which also involves personal expression of thought and belief.

That’s why I am a libertarian and welcome everyone–even the intellectually-challenged like Elton John–into the ideological free market. 😉

This is Humor?

Posted on by Amir

11/24/2006: Jay Leno has this little tidbit:

Long-time congressional leader Charles Rangel has announced he wants to bring back the draft. Bring back the draft. Well this could get a lot more guys signing up for ROTC. I was in that. I was in ROTC. ‘Run Off To Canada.’

Does he think that is funny? Pardon me, but there’s nothing amusing about draft-dodgers who ran off to Canada (or England) or applied for draft deferments when their “Greetings” letters came in the mail.

It’s not like every American who reported for duty supported the war in Vietnam. Draft-dodgers–like Howard Dean–enjoyed snow-skiing (after feigning a spondylolisthesis) while their brothers fought, bled, and died.

Now don’t get me wrong: I have no qualms with conscientious objectors–like the Mennonite/Amish friends whom I knew during my high school days in suburban Philly–avoiding military service. I have no beef with legitimate pacifists.

But people who avoid their country’s call so they can live the easy life–then brag about it–are reprehensible.

I’m not going to defend everything America has ever done; for many actions, there is no defense. As an American of Kurdish-Iranian ancestry, I can list a littany of misguided policies by our leaders (from both parties, and even by my favorite Presidents).

We have–at times in our history–embarked on wars in which our vital interests were not at stake, and innocent Americans–and citizens of other countries–suffered horribly and even died as a result. In those instances, our country’s leaders–in a proverbial sexfest with large investment banks and the military-industrial complex–flat-ass lied to us to get us into conflicts in which we had no legitimate interest fighting.

On that front, the left gets it right, and the right needs to be skeptical of their “leaders”, who are as corruptible as anyone on the left. And we must hold our leaders (irrespective of party) accountable for such squandering of human life, impeaching them or even trying them for treason or genocide if need be.

As far as I am concerned, every member of Congress and the Senate–who allowed Bush to prosecute this war without us having formally declared war–should be prosecuted for treason, as should Bush.

That said, if my country calls, I’m reporting for duty. Arthritis-racked body and all.

On one hand, if the war is not just, then we ought to hold our Congressmen and Senators and President accountable and put them on notice that we will not tolerate such sacrifice of American and foreign lives for a war that is not ours to fight.

On the other hand, this country’s ability to defend herself depends on Americans answering the call for duty.

To date, that has happened in the absence of a draft. And while I do not believe we need a draft, I would have no objection if I were called (even though I am very medically ineligible).

Former KGB Spy Litvinenko Dies

Posted on by Amir

11/23/2006: The Russkies are back in business of playing for keeps. Former KGB agent and political dissident Alexander Litvinenko has died under very mysterious circumstances. He was apparently poisoned–his hair fell out and his immune system shut down–in what would have seemed like a reaction to chemotherapy. Only he didn’t have cancer!

This comes in the wake of the murder of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who–like Litvinenko–was a hard critic of the Russian government, and Putin in particular.

This is a Russian hit job. And it is their way of saying they are back in the business of hardball.

Again, I ask: does the Bush Administration have a clue what is happening before our eyes?

That’s Okay, Putin is Our Friend, Saith Bush

Posted on by Amir

11/23/2006: One of President Bush’s worst foreign policy blunders was his coddling of Russian President Vladimir Putin. In 2001, he told Peggy Noonan he felt Putin was “shooting straight” with him.

Putin, a former KGB man, is in fact one of the most conniving scumbags in the world. I trust him as far as I can throw him. And–given that he is a black belt and I have two herniated disks in my back–that isn’t very far.

And it didn’t take long for the world to learn of Putin’s propensity for backstabbing and dirty tactics.

In the early portion of our war in Iraq, we learned that Putin had sold Saddam Hussein six electronic jamming devices with which to counter our electronic warfare.

We learned that Putin–among our other “allies”–were complicit in the oil-for-food scandal. Russia’s receipt of billions of dollars in bribes, in the form of oil vouchers, played a significant role in their UN vote regarding the war in Iraq. (War critics will contend that Bush “started this war for oil.” In fact, it’s the other way around: many of our so-called allies were taking bribes from Saddam that were kickbacks from a program that we helped fund in good faith. This scandal enriched Putin but starved the Iraqi people.)

In the 2004 Ukraine elections, the Russians poisoned Viktor Yuschenko, a candidate who advocated stronger ties with the West, a greater crackdown on corruption, and prosecution for crimes committed by Stalin’s remaining disciples.

This year, Putin’s thugs murdered investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya.

Now, we have the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, a former colonel in the KGB who defected and blew the whistle on voluminous abuses by the KGB. He had been investigating the death of Politkovskaya, and had met with a Russian agent regarding the matter, after which he became ill.

At first, doctors suspected thallium poisoning, but now they are suspecting that he may have been given something radioactive. His white cell count is close to zero and his hair has fallen out. And no…he’s not on chemotherapy.

The KGB of old has repackaged itself in new wineskins–the SVR–and is back to its not-so-good-old days.

The real issue is whether the Bush Administration has a clue.

Where’s John Kelly When You Need Him?

Posted on by Amir

11/23/2006: Given the recent murders of four women in Atlantic City–in a section imfamous for drugs and prostitution–there may be a way to track the perpetrators down. We need someone like Tom Clancy’s fictional character John Kelly, who later became John Clark. Without Remorse–the story of John Clark–remains one of my all-time favorite books.

Of course, that brings up a larger issue: when is Clancy going to release his next book? I’ve been waiting for a couple years now.