Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

Archives for March 2007

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Pork in today’s items

List that pork, Dana. As Betsy said,

Not only does this bill send the message to our enemies in Iraq that all they have to do is wait us out until the congressional deadline and then they can move in to wreak their terror on Iraq. But concerns about what would happen in Iraq or the rest of the Middle East after this pullout was secondary to posturing before the public and squeezing out more taxpayer money for their pet projects.

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Today California will become the first state to decide whether or not it will continue to do business with the Islamic Republic of Iran.
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Calories, not Chemicals, Make us Fat. Michael knows: he wrote a book about it:

Michael also has a post about the best Combat Video of 2006.
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Cliff May writes about A Dangerous Woman: Why Islamists want to kill Ayaan Hirsi Ali
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In a lighter mode,
You know what I’ll be reading when it comes out:
UK Final “Harry Potter” book cover revealed. The American cover looks different,

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Send the Elephant to Baghdad!

It’s been a busy day here at Fausta’s blog, but I have a request for my readers,

RedState has been invited by the Pentagon to go to Iraq, and they are raising funds to send Jeff and Academic Elephant. Long-term readers of Fausta’s blog know that Elephants in Academia has been a most valuable source of information and insightful commentary on Venezuela. I regard her as one of my friends I haven’t met yet.

Go support their trip, and if you’re a blogger, ask your readers, too.

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Bloggers’ call with Sen. John McCain

I just had the pleasure of participating in a blogger’s call sponsored by Patrick Hynes of American spectator with Sen. John McCain, who’s also been in the media this morning explaining to the American public the consequences of the Democrat’s horrible bill by which they are bribing their own members through pork to limit funding for the troops in Iraq and setting time limits for troop withdrawals.

Sen McCain suggested that Pres. Bush read the list of pork to the American people.

He also stated, “Yes, we lost in Viet Nam, but they didn’t follow us home. Is there anybody who doesn’t believe that this [war] is not part of the gigantic struggle between ourselves and radical Islamic extremism? That’s the huge difference.”

As to the 15 British troops held hostage by the Iranians, the Senator didn’t mince words,

“This kidnapping has upped the ante. It should serve as a cautionary tale, particularly with Israel. It should send a wake-up call to our friends in Europe, the UN… this is a radical group of very dangerous people. Weakness in Iraq reflects all around the world, particularly in the Middle East.

The US should do an examination of all options, and also make clear that we will not allow Iran to destroy Israel.”

More at The Corner

Update: Others blogging on the call:
Granite Grok
David All Group
Ooutside the beltway
Eye on 08
Matt Lewis from Townhall Blog
NY Sun Politics, who asked,

McCain-Feingold having had its five-year anniversary yesterday, and with so much campaign activity on YouTube and elsewhere on the Web these days, do we need new regulations to ensure transparency?

The senator’s answer fell short of unequivocal, but he essentially said he’d be quite skeptical of the need for any new Internet-related campaign-finance controls.

“I’d be very reluctant,” Mr. McCain said. “I think, clearly, it’s added a whole new dimension to informing the American people. … This is what we want to happen.”

“Young Americans are really profiting by this,” Mr. McCain added, as the Internet is aiding their getting more involved in politics. “I think it’s a marvelous change.”

He reiterated, the short answer to my question: “No.”

While this is certainly the answer conservative bloggers — including this one — would want to hear, the issue will bear close observation

American Spectator

Update 2 Sen. McCain has an on-line petition
(h/t Cassandra

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The "youths" are still rioting, but now at one of the main train stations

This morning’s top story in the France2 8AM newscast was the rioting in the Gare du Nord, one of the largest train and subway terminals in Paris. The Gare du Nord is also a terminus for the Eurostar trains.
In French:

Clashes erupt at Paris’ Gare du Nord

Riot police firing tear gas and brandishing batons clashed Tuesday with bands of youths who shattered windows and looted shops at a major Paris train station, and officials said seven people were arrested.

Officers and police dogs charged at groups of marauding youths, some of them wearing hoods, who mingled with commuters and travelers at the Gare du Nord — one of Paris’ most important transport hubs.

Clashes erupt at Paris train station

Officials from Paris’ RATP public transport authority said the violence started after a man without a Metro ticket punched two inspectors during a routine ticket check. Youths also attacked the inspectors and later turned on police patrolling the station, officials said.

“The inspectors were hit with projectiles, as were the officers who came to assist them,” said Luc Poignant, an official for the Force Ouvriere police union.

But youths at the station said Tuesday’s clashes started when police manhandled a young person of North African origin. Some claimed that the youth’s arm was broken in the confrontation.

Surely, “some” could actually show on the spot to the reporting media that it had been?

Reuters has a slide show of the rioting at the train station.

The BBC, however, shows that Violence spilled out of the station and on to nearby streets

The youths who gathered in the Gare du Nord on Tuesday shouted insults about Mr Sarkozy.

They also chanted slogans of “police are everywhere, justice is nowhere” and “down with the state, police and bosses”.

Police took several hours to clear rioters from the station’s main hall.

The violence was sparked when a 33-year-old man without a ticket jumped over a barrier.

Transport officials said the man punched two ticket inspectors who asked for his ticket as part of a routine inspection. He was eventually arrested by police.

But a growing crowd felt that the police had used excessive force to arrest the man, and their protest turned violent.

The riots spilled out into nearby streets, where rubbish bins and street signs were set on fire.

It took the police eight hours to control the area.

In the fashion we’ve grown accustomed to expect from the Left, the Socialists say the hostility between police and young people is a direct result of the hardline policies of Mr Sarkozy, the Interior Minister.

Never mind that on the day before the rioting, March 26, Sarko had resigned his post as Interior Minister in order to concentrate in campaigning for the presidency.

Upon hearing that he was being blamed, Sarkozy replied (link in French),

“We are the only country where it’s considered that it’s not normal to stop somebody because he doesn’t pay for his ticket”.

Via Atlas, The Astute Blogger posts on the Sarkozy intifada. Indeed, France2’s 1PM news/talk show (link in French) speculated on how this riot might affect the election.

Others blogging on this:
Feisty
LGF reminds us of the law banning citizen journalists from reporting violence
Nidra Poller

Update: L’Ombre de l’Olivier (emphasis added):

In other words the “youths” felt that their fare dodging mate should not have been arrested. This is not noticeably different from the spark for the previous riots when the two kids got electrocuted under disputed circumstances. However that is not what I found most interesting. What is interesting is the identity of the various witnesses quoted by AP.

Firstly there is “Commuter Cyril Zidou, a 24-year-old electrician”, then there is “Another commuter, Guy Elkoun” and thirdly there is “Shopkeeper Mohamed Mamouni”. All three of these names are distinctly non-French, i.e. it seems highly likely that all three are of immigrant background. At least two, and probably all three, of them are apparently gainfully employed and therefore not the stereotypical unemployed immigrant that some sections of the media and the blogosphere would have you believe is the entire population of the Parisian suburbs. These people are in fact the ones most affected by the lawless “youths” and they are the ones that the rest of France needs to ensure stays loyal to France for the state to continue to rule the entire nation.

As Roger says, the article makes it clear that the “youths” have never really stopped rioting, the news media stopped covering it when the worst rioting stopped but nothing much else has changed. This means that the divide between the unemployed (and frequently unemployable) youths and the rest remains. And this in turn means that even though the riot isn’t directly related to the elections if unrest continues it is likely to have an effect on the polls. What effect is unclear.

Sarko can probably do a slopey shoulders trich to weasel his way out of responsibility for the continuing problems but he may be better advised to not do so. Part of his appeal is that he is willing to act and take responsibility for his acts so in this case he may want to take responsibility for failure to act completely as interior minister and then promsie to do better as president. While he has not yet done that, so far he seems to be the only candidate willing to stand up and say something .

Read it all.

More
Eurosoc
No Pasaran
You Tube, in French,

A blog for all
Tel-Chai Nation
Andrew Bolt
Jihad Watch

Welcome, Instapundit and Red State readers. I invite you to listen to my podcasts, and please visit often.

UPDATE, Thursday, 29 March IBD editorial:

But rioters sought to shift the debate, saying it was all about Sarko, not their unwillingness to obey the law, get a job or assimilate into French society.

It’s unlikely the political shading of the act will be lost on French voters. The rioting amounted to a low-level intimidation effort, different only in degree, not kind, from the psychology of the al-Qaida terror attacks that hit Spain before its last election in 2004.

It worked in Spain. Voters there caved, giving the terrorists the weak leaders they wanted. Clearly Sarko, with his tough law-and-order stance, is someone the rioters would like to take down.

But there are signs political coercion in France might not work. Sarkozy remains a strong front-runner in the French race because voters seem to like his willingness to stand up for Western civilization, and he’s made no conciliatory statements to rioters so far.

If that holds, French voters may react as Americans did when Osama bin Laden threatened new terror attacks on any U.S. state that voted for George Bush — voting as hard against the threats as they can. Sarkozy is no U.S.-style conservative, but he thinks some things are worth defending. Let’s hope the French do, too.

More links,
Growth Matters
The Wide Awake Cafe
Obi’s Sister
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A Jacksonian posts on Syrian WMD capability

Syrian WMD Sites – The Basic List:

First, and most importantly, is that the phosphate deposits in Syria are a multi-part threat. Phosphates, of course, are used in agriculture for fertilizer and in the steel and glass-making businesses, along with standard chemical industry. Phosphate is one of the basic building blocks of life and a necessary element for life to continue. As such it also serves as the dual basis for the chemical and biological weapons development going on in Syria. The prime mover in this is that Syria has not signed on to the Chemical Weapon’s Convention and feels free to develop such weapons. On the biological weapons side, things are a bit more nebulous: even though a treaty signatory, Syria has been putting together a multi-use pharmaceutical industry which would also serve as the basis for a bioweapons industry.
…
On the chemical weapons side, however, there is no doubt of Syrian manufacture of same, especially VX nerve gas and Sarin. These are both dependent upon the phosphate industry and the steep ramping up of that industry does not bode well for those trying to limit Syrian manufacture of chemical weapons.

This is a must-read.

If you can’t believe this will affect you because it’s clear across the world, bear in mind that Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez said during a visit to Damascus in August that he and Syria

will “build a new world” free of US domination, vowing eventually to “dig the grave of US imperialism.”

and that Iran Air launches weekly flights to Venezuela through Syria.

More on Syria and WMDs from A Jacksonian,
Syrian WMD facilities: Palymra and Homs
Fun with GIS and INTEL Analysis
Your own All Source Exploitation organization

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Children kidnapped are now released

32 kids are taken hostage by the owner of a day-care center in downtown Manila.

I turned on the TV as I started making breakfast, and they were showing a man holding a grenade in his hand, inside the bus where the kids were being held. As it turned out, it was the governor, and he had taken one of the grenades that the kidnapper had removed the pins. The governor then managed to talk the kidnapper into replacing the pins in both grenades, and turning himself into the authorities who were waiting just outside the bus.

What struck me was, all the adults waiting for the kids stayed right there, no matter that the grenades could have exploded.

I thank God that these children were saved.

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Porch blogging

It’s 80F, and the porch is the place to be:

The new earphones/microphone just arrived, too.

Life is good.

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Later,
I haven’t watched a lot of Rome, but I love Pullo.
Hugh Hewitt had this,

Let’s hear it for the big guy!

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Filed Under: TV

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Israel in the foreign media: JP’s Gil Hoffman at Princeton University

UPDATE: I completed the post and the lecture is now posted in full

Gil Hoffman, chief political correspondent and analyst for the Jerusalem Post, was on campus yesterday afternoon and the subject of his lecture was Israel in the eyes of the foreign media.

The lecture, which coincided with Hans Blix’s, was not promoted heavily and I wasn’t the only person in the audience to learn about it at the last minute. Unlike the al-Jazeera lecture of April 13, 2005, this one was sparsely attended, with an audience of only 40 or so. He’s a most interesting guy, and I decided to post nearly all my notes on the lecture.

Hoffman’s main contact at his job is giving interviews with foreign media, such as CNN, BBC. Of them, mostly al-Jazeera is tremendously interested in what’s going on in the country. When the Prime Minister gave a 45-minute long press conference regarding rape accusations, the local TV stations stopped after the first 20 minutes, but al-Jazeera carried the whole press conference. Having the al-Jazeera coverage not only in the conflict but in cultural and social events in the country shows the Arab world that Israel has more to offer than the conflict.

During the Barak years there was no foreign media spokesman, and the only on who spoke English detested Barak.

The Israeli military studied what happened in Jenin – where the fighting was reported as a massacre against the Palestinians, something that couldn’t have been further from the truth. In fact, the troops had gone house-to-house to minimize casualties while trying to find terrorists. As there was no foreign media to do the reporting, the Palestinians got out a blood libel. From then on, the Israeli mililitary have made very effort possible to make sure the media go everywhere they go. No doubt this has improved how Israel comes across in the foreign media.

In contrast, last Summer there was a lot of media based in Jerusalem – and the media understood that it was Israel’s international border that was being defended.

Israel faces four major threats:

Iran
Syria/Lebanon
Palestinians
Internal rifts inside Isr society that threaten to tear from within: Divides between rich poor, Askenazi/Spahardic, Right/Left, all thses issues divide israelis.

The most scary? Iran.
Nuclear weapons: having them at all because if Iran has them the entire country of Israel would be the way Northern Israel was last country within range last Summer: The whole country would have to go down south or underground. Who would want to live in such a country? Iran is also developing longer range missiles to reach Europe; the US has established an antimissile base in Poland. Additionally, Iran supports Chavez; Iran then talks about the Jewish state from Israel and in Florida.

However, Hoffman genuinely thinks things will be alright, as the issue’s being handled discreetly at the highest levels. Olmert has been helping the country by networking with foreign powers ever since he was mayor of Jerusalem, and continues to this day, travelling to Russia China, Egypt London, US, and France, returning more optimistic after each visit.

A second reason for optimism: what is going on in American politcs. A lame duck President has to worry only about his place in history; if he saves the wold from nuclear destruction that will certainly earn him a place. The Democrat oposition now they alreay have the blue states and a way to gain red states is to prove they are tough. There’s a stream of Dem candidates visiting Israel, plus they want the Republicans to deal with Iran before they go the White House.
Additionally, the previous UN Secretary General never understood the fundamentalism threat. Now Ban Ki-moon’s trying to prevent North Korea from developing atomic weapons, but Iran is also a top priority.
Politics inside Iran: Ahmadinejad is losing the support of his people and there’s anger against him. As mayor, he improved the conditions of Tehran but has now brought the world against Iran. The Iranians need outside assistance to feed their people. Israel is hopeful that sanctions will prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

What matters most is the politics in Israel. Used to be that generals were in charge, now Olmert is in charge but Israelis trust generals more. Hoffman said that in 62 days, Peretz (Minister of Defense) will be replaced, and the 2 leading candidates are miliary men. Israel needs a ough guy as Min of Def, as Nassralla head of Hizbollah, said last Summer that he wanted to test the weak leadership.

Ofense and defense
Defense: Israel has the Arrow Missile Defense System, which was tested again yesterday.
Ofense: Israel won’t be acting alone but with the countries that Olmert visited this last year acting together. When an Israeli general said last year, “Sometimes the last resort is the only resort”, it was the first time anyone had hinted at military option. In Iran they are scared of Israel, and the enemies are still scared of the Jewish state.

I’ll continue on this post later today. Continuing:
The threat from Syria and Lebanon:
Hoffman went to the north during the bombing last Summer. Dodging missiles and living in shelters was terrible for Israel to endure. However, the media didn’t get to see any of the damage because Iraelis don’t dwell in their victimhood. After suicide bombings they clean up immediately, and everything had been rebuilt immediately after the bombings from Lebanon. Israelis have resilience and morbid sense of humor.
They have to prepare for another war next Summer: those 4000 missiles that Hezbollah shot at Israel last year have already been replenished by Assad/Syria. Everybody in the military’s been recalled for retraining. There will be pressure on Olmert to quit after results of investigation on what went wrong comes out.

Assad has three pictures in his office: his father’s, Ahmadinejad’s, and Nassarallah’s.

The other threat are the Palestinians:
In the 14 months since they elected Hamas, Irsael had elected the government most willing to make accommodations that could have ended the conflict. Israel gave them two conditions: disarmament, and accepting the existence of Israel. Not a country in the world was supporting the Hamas government until last week, when Norway broke the boycott to spite Europe. At that time a suicide bomber was caught and a sniper attacked; Hamas claimed credit for that sniper, signaling that it’s not very smart to join Norway.

The Q&A Session:
My question was, what is being done with reporters like Charles Enderlin, who uses stringers that make up reports out of whole cloth?
Israel has a problem with foreign reporters having to rely on stringers. While Israelis speak freely in a divided kind of way, on the Palestenian street people won’t say anything out of fear from their lives. An organization in Israel has offered Arabic speakers to translate in the Palestinian areas.

2. How about the BBC’s fairness?
BBC sometimes is not very fair to Israel.
Al-Jazeera has never interviewed him three-against-one, the Israeli against the Arab, the Palestinian and the Lebanese.
When they interviewed him in London, the first question was “is this a land-grab?”, after the withdrawal from Gaza.
Israel is not given the benefit of the doubt. He tells them that the people of Israel want peace.

3. How important is the issue of recognition?
For Israel, it’s very important that its enemies allow it to exist. “Don’t kill us.”

4. What is the difference between al-Jazeera, al-Arabiya, and the new all-Arabic BBC?
By allowing Israel’s Arab-language spokespeople on Arab media, it is good for Israel because they see more Israelis as people and not enemies. As far as actual news, foreigneers and rich Arabs tend to watch al-Jazeera, but al-Arabiya’s on TV screens throughtot arab world.

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Update, Wednesday March 28
On a related subject, BBC pays £200,000 to ‘cover up report on anti-Israel bias’

The BBC has been accused of “shameful hypocrisy” over its decision to spend £200,000 blocking a freedom of information request about its reporting in the Middle East.
…
The corporation is fighting a landmark High Court action, which starts next week, in a bid to prevent the public finding out what is in the review, which is believed to be critical of the BBC’s coverage in the region.

BBC bosses have faced repeated claims that is coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict has been skewed by a pro-Palestianian bias.

The corporation famously came under fire after middle-east correspondent Barbara Plett revealed that she had cried at the death of Yasser Arafat in 2004.

The BBC’s decision to carry on pursuing the case, despite the fact than the Information Tribunal said it should make the report public, has sparked fury as it flies in the face of claims by BBC chiefs that it is trying to make the corporation more open and transparent.

Politicians have branded the BBC’s decision to carry on spending money, hiring the one of the country’s top public law barrister in the process, as “absolutely indefensible”.

They claim its publication is clearly in the public interest.

The BBC’s determination to bury the report has led to speculation that the report was damning in its assessment of the BBC’s coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict that the BBC wants to keep it under wraps at all costs.

h/t The Anchoress
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