Since we seem to be talking China here…

this seems interesting.

Appeals Court Puts Bush Tribunal Policy …

…back in the driver’s seat.

WASHINGTON – A federal appeals court put the Bush administration’s military commissions for terrorist suspects back on track Friday, saying a detainee at the Guantanamo Bay prison who once was Osama bin-Laden’s driver can stand trial…
…”Congress authorized the military commission that will try Hamdan,” said the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
The protections of the 1949 Geneva Convention do not apply to al-Qaida and its members, so Hamdan does not have a right to enforce its provisions in court, the appeals judges said.

The driver is saying he just needed the job.

The Bottom Line…

Unocal’s shareholders are set to vote August 10 on whether to accept the 18.5-billion-dollar cash bid from CNOOC, or a stock-and-cash offer from Chevron that is worth about 1.5 billion dollars less.

…before anything else.

Gheit said it was unlikely that Unocal would reject CNOOC’s offer out of hand. Institutional investors holding Unocal stock “aren’t going to give up nine percent or 10 percent to be more patriotic“, he said.
The Unocal board had already accepted the Chevron offer before the Chinese state firm entered the fray in late June…

I’m Waiting For The Protest Marches In Europe

The US is prepared to use nuclear weapons against China if it is attacked by Beijing during a confrontation over Taiwan, a Pentagon general said on Thursday.
“If the Chinese draw their missiles and position-guided ammunition on to the target zone on Taiwan’s territory, I think we will have to respond with nuclear weapons,” said General Townsend.

Man, Europe is going to go bat-shit, and rightly so. This is completely unacceptable rhetoric from such a senior official, or even a junior one, for god’s sake.
Oh wait, I got the quotation wrong:

China is prepared to use nuclear weapons against the US if it is attacked by Washington during a confrontation over Taiwan, a Chinese general said on Thursday.
“If the Americans draw their missiles and position-guided ammunition on to the target zone on China’s territory, I think we will have to respond with nuclear weapons,” said General Zhu Chenghu.

I’m sure the French will continue to hold joint invasion practices with them; after all, it’s really Chimpy McBushhitler who is the warmonger.

What Is Your Battle Cry?

From Michele is a tool that will come up with the perfect battle cry for each of us…
(mine, as befits the battlelust-besodded fool that I am, is not PG rated…)

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I’d Rather Have A Bottle In Front Of Me…

Than have to have a frontal lobotomy…
It really is amazing, and frankly somewhat sickening, that this ‘procedure’ was done on some 50,000 people in the US alone.

Other doctors used a more primitive version than Moniz, punching an ice pick into the brain above the eye socket and blindly manipulating it to sever nerve fibers.

Nice, huh?
The truly shocking thing is that the inventor of this “miracle breakthrough” (whose name was not Mengele, btw), a Portuguese neurologist named Egas Moniz, was awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1949. Un-farking believeable.
“First, do no harm” my ass.

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One of These Things Is Not Like The Other

and
Give up? Survey says:

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Southwest Airlines Co. , the top U.S. carrier by market value, on Thursday said quarterly earnings rose 41 percent as fare hikes boosted revenue and hedges eased the impact of record oil prices…
…”This is now the 57th quarter of profitability since 1991, a pretty strong story,” said Rick Applegate, president of First Commonwealth Financial Advisors. “They are doing what they can do keep their unit costs down as much as possible with careful growth.”

I mean, I gotta ask you. Is this any way to run an airline?
You betcha.

The UNOCAL Deal Seems Hugely Unwise…

…and I’ve thought so from the first word of it. Letting them buy a tchotchke retailer is one thing, but something so closely tied to the moving parts of this country and it’s defense is naivety at it’s most dangerous. Everyone doesn’t have a right to scoop up U.S. assets. Last time the Chinese said ‘trust us, it’s okay’, they had barefoot folks in quilted coats massed on the Yangtse. They haven’t changed. Should they make a move on Taiwan, I think we’ll find the flow of oil dissipating the second our warships set sail.
Congress is finally talking. I hope they spike the whole deal.

“The simple fact is that energy is a strategic commodity,” said Rep. Duncan Hunter, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. Hunter, R-Calif., said Unocal’s holdings _ from drilling rights to exploratory capabilities in Asia and elsewhere _ “represent strategic assets that affect U.S. national security.”
CNOOC Ltd., a Hong Kong subsidiary of state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corp., has offered to pay $18.2 billion for Unocal. That is about $2 billion more than a proposal from Chevron Corp.
The House hearing into the Unocal deal turned into a broad attack on China. Both lawmakers and witnesses dismissed CNOOC’s claims that its pursuit of Unocal was simply a commercial business deal, rather than part of a government strategy to gain control of more global oil and natural gas assets.
To accept that it is simply a commercial deal “is extraordinarily naive,” former CIA Director James Woolsey told lawmakers. He said CNOOC is 70 percent owned by the Chinese government and its top executive was appointed by the Communist Party.

Indeed.

Overheard on TNT’s British Open Coverage

“Well, Peter, what do you think of complaints that the grass is too tall on the 17th?”

“They’re crybabies.”

Having Never Actually Read The Label…

…on a Coke bottle and, assuming from personal experience that one else really has, it follows that this is another huge change-my-diapers-and-save-me-from-myself waste of time.

Soft drinks ‘should carry health warnings’
A US consumer group has called for cigarette-style health warnings on soft drinks, to alert people to the harmful effects of too many sugary beverages…
…In a petition to the US Food and Drug Administration, the CSPI said people–especially young people–needed warning about the risks of obesity, diabetes and tooth decay associated with excessive consumption of sugary drinks.
Suggested warnings included: “To help protect your waistline and your teeth, consider switching to diet sodas or water.”

Would He Be Britain’s…

…Ted Rall?

From the Times U.K. Cartoon Gallery.

Say Again?

Peculiar brand of tap-dancing while hair-splitting here:

…On Sunday afternoon he went to a shop in Nottingham to buy cigarettes and was first called “Taliban” by the youths and then set upon.
Nottinghamshire police described the incident as racially aggravated, not as Islamophobic, angering Muslim groups and surprising some senior officers.

But I’m pretty sure your average Brit could give a hoot-mon if Muslim groups are angry.

Couldn’t Happen to a Nicer Guy

Islamic cleric gets life for inciting war
Virginia-based scholar says he ‘will not admit guilt’
ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A prominent U.S.-based Islamic scholar who exhorted his followers after the Sept. 11 attacks to join the Taliban and fight U.S. troops was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison…
…But he was accused of telling a group of young Muslim men just days after the attack that an apocalyptic battle between Muslims and nonbelievers was at hand and that Muslims were obligated to engage in holy war. He told the group that defense of the Taliban was a requirement and that U.S. troops were a legitimate target, according to court testimony.

I notice he didn’t hotfoot his own little butt over there to throw bombs.

Damn That Bushchimphitler…Again!!!

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House on Wednesday slashed its forecast for the fiscal 2005 budget deficit by nearly $100 billion after the government raked in unexpectedly large tax revenues in recent months.

And…

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. trade deficit narrowed unexpectedly in May to $55.3 billion as exports set another new record and a short-lived drop in oil prices kept imports from reaching a new high, a government report showed on Wednesday.

Sucks to be rollin’ right along.

This Certainly Isn’t Helpful

Home Secretary Charles Clarke has had to address reports that the bombing suspects had been rounded up and released last year. So where’d this ‘news’ come from to begin with? The French.

The claims were made by France’s Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy in a news conference.
“It seems that part of this team had been subject to partial arrest … in Spring 2004,” Mr Sarkozy said.

Not so fast, says a bemused Home Secretary.

“It’s completely and utterly untrue,” he said.
“I have not even discussed the situation with Mr Sarkozy,” he said.
“I find it amazing he had made this statement to journalists. I do not know where he had got this from.
“He is simply wrong in making this assertion.”

What’s up with that?

Another Pop Quiz

Since Tim has a quiz up, I thought I’d add my own:
You’re an ordinary Iraqi muslim trying to go about your life. The greatest threat to your life comes from…
A) Global Warming
B) US soldiers
C) The Air Supply Reunion Tour
D) Other Muslims

He Ain’t Heavy…

AS ZIMBABWE COLLAPSES, AFRICAN LEADERS LOOK THE OTHER WAY
God bless Bono. He has done more to put Africa back on the map than all the usual advocates — African heads of state, the Congressional Black Caucus and international aid organizations — combined.

Isn’t that one of the saddest lead-in sentences you’ve ever read? Cynthia Tucker’s column today addresses Africa ~ specifically the ruin that is Zimbabwe ~ with refreshing frankness. I don’t understand the Cong. Black Caucus or, for that matter, the leading lady liberal lights of the left, who refuse to speak out against these most heinous of injustices (i.e. Mugabe, the Taliban, etc.) because it would undermine their ‘we’re all black brothers’ or anti-war stance. Where’s the moral authority in that? Wrong is wrong is wrong. Ms. Tucker speaks to the hypocritical nature of it:

Indeed, if Mugabe were a white colonial oppressor, black African heads of state would be demanding international intervention, and American civil rights activists would be burning him in effigy. Instead, Mugabe’s most ardent defenders are African heads of state. When G-8 leaders — joined by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, a native of Ghana — asked African leaders to condemn Mugabe’s relocations, they refused.

I’m sure we’re expected to dump another hundred billion bucks into the black holes of their countries’ coffers before they’ll reconsider.

The Real Pleasures Of Life

Lileks has a wonderful Bleat up today on life, and taking the time to enjoy and appreciate it.

Because I’m young and stupid and the wrong things matter?
Not today. Today my daughter ran to me with open arms when I picked her up from school, and my dog barked when we both came home. Today was an ordinary day in the middle of an ordinary summer, and I have every reason to expect tomorrow will be the same. You don’t think that’s what happiness will be – you imagine the awards banquent, the press notices, the flattering faces in a Manhattan claque – but that’s the shape it takes. You can even chose an ordinary noisy moment – child leaping through the sprinkler while you stand over the grill making burgers, listening to some stranger on the radio name you the 10th best guest on the Hewitt show (tied with JPod!) and shouting SHUSH as Jasper runs for the gate because he’s heard your wife’s car pull up. That’s as good as it gets. You didn’t know how happy you were? Maybe you weren’t paying attention. So pay it.

Go read all of it. Yeah, I’m feeling sappy. Tough.
UPDATE: As Ken points out in the comments, I’m brutishly flaunting my joy in life. Heh.

Name One Thing…

Tim Blair has a good post up about Hollywood’s ‘selective’ memory when it comes to Fidel Castro:

Cathy Seipp’s actress friend Leah asks a bunch of Hollywood types why they’re so hot for Castro:

“Name one pro-Castro movie that’s come out of Hollywood,” Gelbart demanded.
“Comandante!” Leah snapped back, referring to Oliver Stone’s recent paean to Castro.
“OK, that’s one …” Gelbart said.
“Motorcycle Diaries!” Leah immediately added. Gelbart was beginning to look exasperated at that point, so she shut up. “But there’s also Havana,” she whispered to me, “by Robert Redford, another lyrical poem to Castro.”

Don’t these people even watch their own movies?

All I can think of when I read this is the scene from Life of Brian…

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Those’re Some Serious Plátano Chips

Panama Canal expansion may force toll rise
Tolls on the Panama Canal may have to increase nearly four-fold to fund the canal’s planned expansion – a move that could reduce the waterway’s competitiveness against alternatives…
…It currently costs a container ship capable of carrying 4,200 twenty-foot containers about$170,000 for each transit of the six-lock canal…
…Under the worst financing conditions and if less traffic than expected used the canal, the report says, tolls might have to rise by 272 per cent to nearly four times the present level. They are more likely to rise 128 per cent to a level more than twice the current toll, however.

Bet it’s not looking like such a great deal to the Panamanians now. Supertankers have blossomed immensely in size, to the point that some current ones are too large and draft too deep to pass through the Canal at all. One disasterous slip by a Canal pilot and a lock could be taken out. They’re just squeaking through as it is.

Word of the Day

turophile \TOOR-uh-fyle\ noun
: a connoisseur of cheese : a cheese fancier

Drudge Is Reporting

EXPLOSIVES FOUND IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.
Holy shit. No link yet. I’m looking.
UPDATE: Okay, it seems as if they evacuated as a precaution.

The Serjeant At Arms Office said the alert had been a “precautionary measure related to an incident elsewhere in Westminster”.

This has to be excrutiating, bless their hearts.

This Lays It Out There Nicely

In all the breaking news surrounding the bombings in London and our own brand of wet and wild down here, this admission seems to have escaped notice. If these words don’t scare the beejeebus out of the ‘word terrorist is a barrier’ crowd, there is no hope, nor any understanding for it and we need to carry on without them. Protecting their right to be clueless.

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — The man on trial in the slaying of filmmaker Theo van Gogh (search) admitted his guilt in court Tuesday, declaring he acted out of religious conviction and would do it again if given the chance.
Mohammed Bouyeri (search) also turned to Van Gogh’s mother, Anneke, in court and told her: “I don’t feel your pain.”
“I can’t feel for you because I think you’re a nonbeliever,” he said…
“…I did it out of conviction,” Bouyeri said. “If I ever get free, I would do it again.”

This is what we’re dealing with. There should be no more understanding anything. We understand PERFECTLY. The world needs to respond.

We don’t feel your pain, because your beliefs are are a twisted sham. You are monsters and we will crush you. To defend and remain ever free, we will do it again. And again. Until the black stain of your unholy existence is wiped clean from this world.

Karl Rove Has a Lot of ‘Splainin’ to Do…

…as I’m sure he’s responsible for this too.
(UPDATE: As Emily seems intent on a Mexican vacation, we have redacted the forecast tracking map until our lives are again in jeopardy.)
Meet Emily. You probably thought it was the Dennis graphic below and no wonder. It’s like identical.

They Are Now Refered To As “People Whose Mom’s Did Not Buy Them Puppies”

Were you shocked and stunned when the BBC refered to the bastards who murdered 50+ folks in London as ‘terrorists’? Well, don’t despair! Because in the cold, hard, safe light of socialist reflection the editors of the Beeb have gone back and changed what they wrote. Yes, no longer must those poor dirt-eating bastards suffer under the cruel weight of oprobrium brought about by the cavalier slinging of such a hateful term, no, indeed. For let us not forget that, as the BBC’s guidelines state

“the word ‘terrorist’ itself can be a barrier rather than an aid to understanding” and its use should be “avoided”

You see, it’s all about understanding. Oh sure, it’s awfully inconvenient to some folks that their child or spouse got blown up, but, really, since I’m sure that some of them might work (worked – ed.) for zionists; hell, some of those folks who got blown up might even have been zionists, or even jews, for gosh sakes. I mean, everyone knows they had it coming. When you act, in the immortal words of Tim Robbins in Team America, “all corporationally,” well, then we really know where the blame lies, don’t we?
And remember:

The BBC’s guidelines state that its credibility is undermined by the “careless use of words which carry emotional or value judgments”

Goodness, we can’t have that.
I feel sick.