Jim

[quote I think that one of the biggest obstacles to political reform in the Middle East is the fact that most of the countries there still adhere to the old, discredited, pan-Arab socialist model cooked up by Nasser. The staggering failures of this model played a huge role in generating both the popular discontent, and the political repression in the middle East. What you blithely choose to ignore is our role in continually proping up of these regimes. Ya gotta love Cheney's quote in James Mann's excellent group biography - Rise of the Vulcans. When a Pentagon official told Cheney towards the end of the first Gulf War"You know we could change the government and put in a democracy" Cheney's reply was that the Saudis would object. And the Iraqi intifada was allowed to be crushed. But don't let the facts get in your way.

By any measure the Bush foreign policy has been a failure. A mid-east strategy started by a group of neocons with no military experience and only the ring-around-Washington rotating chair syndrome of think tanks and bureaucratic positions on their resume have pushed an agenda eagerly picked up by our fern-brained president. Rather than the “move over one” theory, where Iraq would fall, the exiled monarchy of Iran would be returned via popular support, the Palestinians would move to Jordan, and Israel would fulfill the promise of greater Israel, we now have a growing insurgency in Iraq (with an unaccounted for $8 billion and counting), a hard line theocracy in Iran, a stiffened Jordan, and a democratically elected Hamas. We couldn’t have dreamed of such a foreign policy screw-up if we had to 6 years ago. Where exactly is freedom on the march? Bush has no leadership capability and the neocon cabal headed by Cheney was there to hand him their off-the-shelf world view on September 12th. On September 17, Bush said to his war council “I believe Iraq was involved here” – nodding behind him were Wolfiwitz, Pearl, Chaney, Rumsfield, Kristol, and gang. Meanwhile on the domestic side the corporate shills are raiding the treasury from oil lease give aways to Medicare drug benefits that favor only the drug companies, to wealthy tax breaks. The mental gymnastics needed to explain how this fits into a conservative agenda are astounding.

They're bad, we're good. Let's bomb them.

Whoa. Turn down the dial bro. Maybe it's the lack of skiing back there.

You're using unethical events to justify another. And you forgot the

Oh. The ends justifies the means. How orginal.

The distinction between 1 and 2 still has you stumped, eh? Do you find yourself immersed in the depths of an equally unfathomable conundrum when you have to distinguish the person that accosts you on the street and asks you for a donation, and the person that demands it at knifepoint? Try and hop aboard the logic train here instead of straining for analogies. If they can publish one, why not hte other. Should be equal opportunity insults. Better yet, they made the correct choice the first time and should have done the same the second time. Your caught in your usual trap of linking amoral results (the riots) with equally amoral sparks (publishing the cartoons). Because of the intolerant reaction this somehow justifies the publication of the cartoons. Certainly they had the right to publish the cartoons, but at the very least it was insensitive and in poor taste. They seemed to have no problem in making that decision regarding Christian values.

If you manage to read and listen to sources other than the WSJ and Rush, you'll see the following series of events: Danish paper refuses to publish Christ cartoons because they are in "poor taste and not funny" OK, I can go along with that. Same paper solicits Mohemmed cartoons as an exercise in free speech. Hmmmm...see above. Muslim clerics in Denmark as for audience with Danish paper editors - get snubbed. Given one and two above this seems odd. Muslim clerics meet with Danish government and are diplomatically told to take a hike. At a minimum this is a bad political decision. Handful of disgruntled Muslims put together a package that includes the published cartoons and others that were not published and go to the mideast to raise support and outrage. That they do. In their binder they note the distinction between what is publish and what is not - but the nonpublished cartoons were clearly included to aid their cause. Clerics get word out to an ever-growing radical element that charges up the masses. Repressive regimes, war in Iraq, lack of political and economic progress, stifiling poverty, an religous fervor all feed together to make this an easy pitch. The result - violence rather than protest is not an acceptable outcome. Understandable and maybe predictable, but unacceptable.

Gwladys Fouché Monday February 6, 2006 Jyllands-Posten, the Danish newspaper that first published the cartoons of the prophet Muhammad that have caused a storm of protest throughout the Islamic world, refused to run drawings lampooning Jesus Christ, it has emerged today. The Danish daily turned down the cartoons of Christ three years ago, on the grounds that they could be offensive to readers and were not funny http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1703501,00.html#article_continue

Yea right. That's if you don't count the off-the-books 5 billion a month we're spending on the wars and the Katrina funding. Gimme a break. http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0126/p01s03-usec.html

Grim. I was up at Snoqualmie this morning helping a school group out and it was the worst conditions I've ever skied on. The snow was frozen, and groommed or freshies was swept clean by the 45 mph winds. It was nice and sunny but grim for skiing. Gotta hunt out those powder stashes in the backcountry this weekend.

Agreed. The biggest problem is that the southeast US has very little land use planning regulations. So folks are just allowed to build in susceptible places. Good idea to place floating casinos there eh? Flood insurance is a whole different animal, generally only available through the feds (with some expensive exceptions). Lott chose not to pay it - too bad, so sad.

Thing is - he didn't have any flood insurance while living in a mapped V Zone - tidal flooding area, which would have cost a whopping $500 a year or so. Oh well.

Gotta love this. Want some cheese with that whine. Senator now just an upset homeowner It's a battle of titans. Mississippi Republican Senator Trent Lott is suing State Farm insurance to get them to pay for his hurricane-damaged home. Hurricane Katrina leveled Lott's 154-year-old waterfront home in Pascagoula, Mississippi, last August. The insurance giant says the storm surge destroyed the home, and since Lott didn't have flood insurance, he isn't entitled to a big payout. The house was worth $750,000. Lott got on the Senate floor in December, pounded his fist and said homeowners along the Gulf Coast are fed up, warning that insurance companies better do the right thing or there will be "hell to pay..." One of Lott's more colorful neighbors, Pete Floyd, is still finding some of Lott's personal effects in debris strewn throughout the neighborhood, including a Christmas photo of Lott and a silver plate Lott's daughter received as a wedding present. Floyd paid about $300 a year for flood insurance and received $130,000 dollars from his insurance company. We chased after both parties for interviews, but Lott's office says he isn't talking about this "personal" issue. State Farm isn't talking either, saying it is a matter of "litigation." In court filings, State Farm says precedent is on their side. It's a familiar scene being played out in courtrooms across the Gulf Coast.

Or you could just pull the plug on funding if you don't like the answer given by research. http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/113937091617440.xml&coll=7

I wonder if Bush knew who CSK was.

You have just joined Dave_Shuldt as the only poster to achieve a negative score in my "Reflexive Western Self Loathing Sweepstakes." Very dissapointing so far, as Sexual_Chocolate and others who had potential scored goose-eggs with their entries. There are two clear frontrunners at the moment, but seeing as how Jim has yet to submit his entry, any final judgement would be premature. Seems simple. If you don't like the cartoon, don't read it or send a letter to the editor, or protest peacefully. Unfortunately I think this is another case of political oportunitism by a minority. Though I'm not sure of the orginal point of the contest: draw cartoons of Mohammed to test boundaries - I didn't think they were so provacative, but I'm not Muslim. Bottom line - protest, boycott, but threatening life and property is quite out of line.

Sataire is a sort of glass, wherin beholders do generally disscover everybody's face but their own - Johanthan Swift

Ouch!!!

There's some consolation. Our guys come home to Seattle, they have to go back to Pittsburg.

My kid can beat up your honor student Earth First - We'll log the other planets later

Interesting that Hamas has been elected, Iran has gone hard right, Chile and Argentina have gone more lefty, and other middle east monarchies have back-stepped from more democratic forums since our invasion of Iraq. So just where is freedom on the march?

Gets my vote as it's in walking distance. Got to finally get the scene behind the scenes.

A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public debt. If the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at stake." Thomas Jefferson, following the passage of the Sedition Act. Sounds familar eh?

I was volunteering with a group of middle-schoolers at Snoqualmie on Friday when a couple of us stopped in the middle of a blue run to wait for others. We watched this dude-boarder for about 150 yds, come off the top, make a whobbily bee-line for us, and then head-first divot about ten feet upslope from us. Kinda like that buffalo scene in Dances with Wolves where the huge animal dies at the kid's feet.