Sharia Law is Dead in Canada

The politically correct police have lost...thank God......the stupidest idea in recent times is dead. Ontario wanted to introduce Sharia law for family arbitration. The former attorney general (a woman) actually recommended that it be used in the Province but thankfully the politicos heard the voice of the people (and of reason) and quashed this idea once and for all.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4236762.stm

Close call....I am sure some Canadian Muslim men are crushed....

Miscellaneous....

Fareed Zakaria...."The Indian Tom Friedman": Another superb column.....He has my vote for the first Indo-American Secretary of State......preferrably in a John McCain cabinet with Powell at Defense.

In his column "Leaders Who Wont Choose" he outlines how this irresponsible and feckless President continues to thumb his nose at reason and logic and continues with his idiotic tax cuts in the face of continuing national adversity.

One could conclude since Americans are the only people on the planet who actually have a negative savings rate and believe in their constsitutional right to live off plastic they certainly deserve a President who also runs the country on a charge card.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9379241/site/newsweek/

Here is another missive from the lunatic right.....Katrina was Gods punishment for

a. College girls showing their titties on Girls Gone Wild videos
b. The three abortion clinics in the Big Easy
c. Electing a Democrat as Mayor and Mary Landrieu as Senator
d. None of the above

Well the correct answer is "d".....According the Don Feder - a "reputed Theologian" - Katrina is Gods punishment on America for supporting General Sharons withdrawl from Gaza.

"Katrina hit New Orleans one week to the day after the Sharon government carried out the forced removal of some 9,500 Jewish residents of Gaza and parts of Samaria. This was done under pressure from Washington. (“I will curse those who curse you.”) On the day Katrina made landfall, bodies were being removed from Jewish cemeteries in Gaza, to prevent Palestinians from desecrating the remains. Israeli bodies were disinterred; American bodies floated in the streets of New Orleans.
· 9,500 Jews were driven from Gaza. Most are still homeless. Roughly half-a-million Americans were displaced by Katrina. Based on America’s population ratio with Israel (about 50-to-1) this is roughly equivalent."

http://www.grasstopsusa.com/091405.html

CRONYISM WATCH: Governor Bush has barely recovered from his last boondoggle with FEMA director Michael Brown but here he goes again. He has nominated Julie Myers as head of the INS.

"The Bush administration is seeking to appoint a lawyer with little immigration or customs experience to head the troubled law enforcement agency that handles those issues, prompting sharp criticism from some employee groups, immigration advocates and homeland security experts."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/19/AR2005091901930.html

Does this guy ever learn?

America's Shame - New Allegations of Prisoner Abuse by US Armed Forces

Human Rights watch has just published a report on alleged abuses at Camp Mercury - a forward operating location outside of Fallujah staffed by the 82nd Airborne. This is horrendous and makes Abu Gharaib pale in comparison.

I dont believe this is enemy propoganda out to embarass America....this is testimony from American Soldiers who were so disgusted with the behavior of their comrades in arms that they reported this abuse to HRW. Most of this happened in 2003 and 2004.

With the rest of the nation focused on Katrina and Rita its likely this story wont get the publicity it deserves. If this doesnt cause Bush to ask for Rumsie's resignation then nothing will.

http://hrw.org/reports/2005/us0905/1.htm#_Toc115161399

Left wing bias or an accident?

Look at the picture that the Guardian chose for Angela Merkel, the Christian Democrat Leader who just won 225 seats in the Bundestag. (Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder won 222 seats).

http://www.guardian.co.uk/germany/article/0,2763,1573570,00.html

Is this bias by a left wing British daily against a Conservative Politicican or is it just an accident?

I would posit that this is a clear case of bias to paint a conservative politician as unflatteringly as possible.

I'm back

Ok lots to report...I have been away dealing with personal shit and attending training in Beantown. This was some seriously intensive training.....12 hrs a day and mandatory attendance at dinner......glad to be back!!!

So a lot has happened. Governor George W Bush's poll numbers are in free fall after Katrina. (42% Approve, 57% Disapprove, 1% No opinion - Source Washington Post-ABC News)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/graphic/2005/04/25/GR2005042500945.html (Need to Register to view)

Since the really bad stuff that should have stuck to him has not stuck (WMD, him going AWOL during his service, his coke habit, his horrible treatment of John MCCain in the 2000 primary, his mishandling of the post war effort, the leaking of Valerie Plame's name) one hopes that the sky high price of gas (something I really dont think is his fault) will stick and bring this man down a couple of notches.

On another note apparently Blair thinks that BBC coverage of Katrina is "full of hate for America" http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4257190.stm strong words indeed especially if he actually said that.

I dont think he is right. Whats really full of hate is the FOX NEws network. I dont think Hannity, Shepard, Britt, Tony and O'Reilly have said even one positive thing about the Europeans. I dont listen to Rush but God only knows what he has been saying. I dont think the Beeb comes even close to the kind of invective that we are capapble of.

Brownie gets to go home

ok - Brownie got "Garnered" just as I predicted he would...after doing one helluva job Bush thanks FFEMA Director Michael Brown by calling him home....

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050909/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/katrina_brown

Well this great loss for Disaster Recovery is a boon for the International Arabian Horse world...

Bush declares War on God

Crawford, Texas: President Bush called a meeting of his war cabinet today to discuss what "options" he could take to punish God for Hurricane Katrina. Bush said "My Administration has been very good to God, we have been promoting Intelligent Design, traditional family values, the Ten Commandments and faith based initiatives. This attack was unprovoked and uncalled for. Just last month during one of my frequent conversations with God I had told him that my poll numbers were shit and he promised that he would take care of it and now this."

Mr Bush also added that he had "misunderestimated" God and "all options including the nuclear option are now on the table"

Secretary of Defense, Don Rumsfeld stated that the Pentagon was considering adding Heaven to the axis of evil. Mr Rumsfeld also added that "There are known knowns, known unknowns and unknown unknowns but the known known is that God is a Republican and for Him to allow this to happen during the Presidents much needed seven week summer vacation is unpardonable"

Condoleeza Rice who was not at the ranch interrupted her shoe shopping on 5th Avenue to say that the next time she saw God she was "gonna put some caps in his ass"

Dick Cheney was on a hunting trip with Justice Scalia and was unavailable for comment.

Compassionate Conservatism at its best...

Compassionate Conservatism is alive and well....our former first lady, that silver haired, octogenarian with the balls of steel is on record as saying the following on NPR, "Almost everyone I’ve talked to says we're going to move toHouston."Then she added: "What I’m hearing which is sort ofscary is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality."And so many of the people in the arena here, youknow, were underprivileged anyway, so this--this (she chuckles slightly) is working very well for them."

See this for the full story http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001054719

Will the Democrats make hay of this just as the GOP did with Kerrys "I voted for the 87 billion before I voted against it" quip....remains to be seen

Will LA will go blue in the 2006 mid terms.....maybe.....unless Bush invades Iran

Brownie you're doing a helluva job

Jon Stewart "President Bush is probably the healthiest chief executive in the history of the United States...how does he do it? A punishing physical regimen and a complete disconnect with reality"

Today the complete disconnect with reality was in full evidence. After the New Orleans debacle he actually had the stones to lean over to Michael Brown, the grossly incomptent FEMA director and tell him in full sight of the worlds press "Brownie you're doing one helluva job"

As the good ol boys would say in Texas steer country......"Dubbya yoh one dumb sumbitch"

I'm predicting that Michael Brown, formely of the International Arabian Horse Association, will be "Garnered" pretty shortly......ie he is gonna get tossed just like Lt. General Jay Garner, "Iraq's McArthur", was tossed after he made some inopportune public statements.

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Cheap Gas

So the day has finally arrived. My SUV is too expensive to drive. I filled the 21 gallon tank last night and the bill was $63 bucks. This is after I spent 30 minutes driving around Detroit trying to find the cheapest gas station.

Those of you who know me well (i.e. a global warming believer, Kyoto Accord endorser, who recycles most of the time :) will know that the decision to SUV was made at a weak moment. An offer of employee pricing (20% off MSRP!!!) from my auto client and the appeal of barreling down the interstate sitting on almost 300 horsepower (after 10 years of driving my anemic, asthmatic 130 hp Mazda 626) conspired to making me say yes.

My one saving grace was that I only signed a 2 year lease; a contract that I will gladly look forward to ending next August when I trade in U.S.S SUV for a Japanese hybrid.

I think the high price of gas is because of a fundamental shift outward of the oil Demand curve to recognize the arrival of India and China on the global economic scene. For the first time ever there are two strategic competitors to the voracious US appetite for oil and this demand is the basis for the high prices. Adding to this are the temporary spikes caused by the market shocks of the Presidents misadventures in Iraq and Hurricane Katrina.

The one potential upside to all of this bad news (which brings slight joy to me here in the summer of my gasoline discontent) is that this is going to seriously hurt President Bush and the GOP in the mid term elections next year. I think the enduring and real hit in the pocket book of the high price of gas has the potential to stick in the voters memories far more than something as abstract as the outing of a CIA officer or the Downing Street memos. This is also something that is generally very hard to pin on Liberals and on the Clintons in particular although I am sure Karl Rove will try.

The other unintended consequence of all of this is that our enemies (both perceived and real) grow richer and richer at our expense. Saudi Arabia will likely not have a budget deficit for the first time in a decade and enough loot from the $70 / bbl price of crude to keep the 5000 princes of the House of Saud in Rolls Royce’s for another generation. Iran’s mullahs have enough money to hand out subsidized tidbits to the poor and thereby continue to stave of discontent and delay reform and of course Hugo Chavez (our supposed latest bete noire according to the rabid right) is smiling all the way to his Swiss bank account.

I expect gas to go to about $4.00 a gallon in the next quarter – it will eventually stabilize back down to a new equilibrium price of about $3.00 a gallon. I am personally glad that gas prices are finally high enough to force the citizens of this country to change their behavior. For too long we have believed that we have a God given right to consume without thinking. The honeymoon is over. Detroit has no choice but to change and start producing Eurocars and hybrids. The American consumer will force them to do so.

Le SUV est mort – vive le hybrid.