Occidentality (Blogger)

Saturday, August 05, 2006

Prediction: The Cease Fire Goes Nowhere

The U.S. is happy with the cease fire resolution before the security council, as is the U.K. Lebanon, however, is not happy at all:

Lebanon rejects a draft UN Security Council resolution which aims to brings about a ceasefire with Israel, and wants the text to be amended, a government source told AFP on Saturday.

"The Lebanese government is opposed to the Franco-American draft and has sent Lebanon's representative to the UN, Acting Foreign Minister Tarek Mitri, an amended text which includes Lebanon's demands," the source said.

Rather a profound problem if that amended text removes references to the Lebanese army taking control of the Israeli border, as that is the only part of the resolution that has a chance of ensuring real peace.

Thus far, Israel has only indicated that it would accept UNIFIL as the force initially responsible for overseeing the cease fire. They had previously demanded a multinational force be in place before they would cease hostilities.

Atlas Shrugs is with good reason enraged. Israpundit is contemptuous of the resolution for the gorilla which it ignores. Right Wing Nut House believes Hezbollah is the loser in the agreement. Captain's Quarters is encouraged, but I think he expects too much of the Lebanese.

My own prediction is that little or nothing will come of this resolution.

The ultimate point of failure will be that by indulging Hezbollah's demands for a prisoner release and the return of the Shebaa Farms it presumes to treat radical Islam as a negotiating partner and not an enemy. But the blood lust won't end with a piece of paper. Unless Hezbollah is dismantled, there will be no peace, and anything less than their defeat will only encourage further violence against Israel, Jews, and the West in general. People can talk about containment and stability all they want, but those policies merely signal weakness to the Muslim radical and will only create a fetid pool in which Islamofascism can breed. Since it is founded on a false premise, it cannot hope to succeed, and this will probably become clear to both Israel and the U.S. long before the agreement's provisions are ever implemented, if only because Hezbollah's continued rocket attacks make the truth painfully obvious.

It's a travesty that our leaders so often ignore the evidence that steadily mounts regarding radical Muslim intentions. They firebomb synagogues, undermine legitimate states by fomenting terror within their borders, send girls to blow themselves up in Jewish crowds, randomly murder the innocent they suppose to be their enemies, and violate the most basic civilized norms. And no number of UN resolutions will ever convince such people they are in the wrong, or to lay down their arms.

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More On The Phoenix Snipers

More details about the arrest of the Phoenix snipers, Dale Hausner and Samuel Dieteman. Making the case infinitely more sad is this:

Hausner's daughter, who is terminally ill and requires a feeding tube, was inside the apartment in Mesa that Hausner and Dieteman apparently shared. Because of that, police declined to enter the apartment.

"That weighed heavily on our decision-making on when and how to make the arrest," Louis said.

"We told the SWAT team to effect the arrest but only when the child was taken out of the equation."

The police waited until the suspects emerged from the apartment before making the arrest. The stress of the girl's illness and the breakdown of his relationship with the girl's mother no doubt contributed to his pathology. Hausner also lost two sons in 1994:

From a fatal car crash that claimed the lives of his two boys 12 years ago to accusations of drug abuse and domestic rage, the 33-year-old Mesa resident seemed to teeter between grief and anger.

"For the last 10 years, I have lived with extreme guilt and battled serious depression and many other things," Hausner wrote in a 2004 letter to friends and co-workers. "I now have a chance to do things right this time around."

He's of course referring to the birth of his daughter.

Dieteman's history is less well known beyond a history of compulsive petty crime.

The break in the case came when police tied the pair to two arson cases at west Valley Wal-Marts. At this point, police aren't saying exactly how that information ties in, but I suspect it had something to do with the car the pair drove, which was caught on the tape. The pair implicated themselves in the sniper shootings after they were arrested.

Technorati tags: Phoenix | Scottsdale | Tempe | Arizona | crime

Various Baseball Notes

On television, I'm watching both the Chicago White Sox, playing the Blue Jays in Toronto, and the Chicago Cubs, at home against the Pittsburgh Pirates, take first inning leads. Not a bad way to spend an afternoon in Chicago. Of course, the early lead for the Sox, if it holds, means that they stay in the thick of the wild card race and within shouting distance of the astounding Detroit Tigers in the division. In contrast, the early lead for the Cubs only means that the team is marginally less atrocious now than they had been in the first four months of the season.

In the first inning of the Sox game, Scott Podsednik got caught in a rundown trying to score from third base on an infield grounder (he had walked, reached second on a wild pitch, and stole third). His aggressive running cost the Sox a run, because Tadahito Iguchi reached first on the grounder, went to second when Jim Thome walked, and scored on a Paul Konerko single. What was a single run could have been two.

There's been a lot of talk in Chicagoabout Joey Cora, the third base coach, being too aggressive. This talk reached an apex when the Sox were in the depths of their recent slump. There was even talk that manager Ozzie Guillen should fire Cora, but couldn't because the two are old friends. In truth, Cora is doing exactly what Guillen wants: he's coaching aggressive baseball. What surprised me is that the Sox, despite what seems like a lot of games where runs are lost for overaggressive base running, have actually scored more runs than any other team in the majors. This doesn't dispose of the question of whether the aggressiveness on the base paths helps or hurts the total of 612 runs, but at least it shows the Sox can afford to take risks.

What's also interesting is that the White Sox, at least for stealing bases, have not been especially aggressive. As a team, they have 67 stolen bases on 96 attempts, putting them in the middle of the pack for steals. The New York Mets lead the league in stolen bases, with 103 steals on 127 attempts. However, this does not tell us if the Sox are more or less aggressive at base running than other teams, as there is no stat for how often a player is thrown out trying to make an extra base on a single, or for taking chances on infield grounders.

The Sox pitching staff has mostly come out of their slump. All but Javier Vasquez, today's pitcher, have had good starts recently, and seem to be able to get the strikes and outs they need. The biggest relief is Mark Buehrle, who, after a run of five well-deserved losses, pitched six strong innings against the Kansas City Royals last week. He'll have his next start Monday against the somewhat more formidable Los Angeles Angels. Vasquez today is pitching better than he has in a long time: he's got a no hitter through four innings with five strike outs. But he usually pitches well through five innings. The test if he's still pitching this well in the sixth.

Mark Prior pitches today for the Cubs. He's gone from hope-inspiring phenom to gutless wonder in about two years. Those Cubs fans who take the game seriously, probably a minority of Cubs fans, now view him as a player unwilling to play through pain, who would rather sit out than risk injury. The fans who say this probably have no sound basis for doing so other than he's injured a lot, but that's Prior's reputation anyway. If it bothers him, he can afford to buy some friends to cheer him up. And it doesn't help that he broke down in the playoffs after that idiot Steve Bartman stole one of his outs. Prior could have still won that game, but he got flustered.

The Cubs spotted him four first-inning runs today against the Pirates, and he got himself out of trouble in the top of the second, throwing a strike out and a double play ball after giving up an unearned run. So far he's got four strike outs through four innings with no walks, and this looks to be his best overall start since he returned from injury in June.

UPDATE: Vasquez survived the 6th in a big way: he threw eight pitches, getting two first-pitch outs, and a strike out on the 6th pitch to Frank Catalanotto. He did pretty well in the 7th, get three strike outs swinging. A little shaky to start the 8th, he still got through the inning 1-2-3. He's got 13 strike outs.

Prior didn't end up having a great start, but he pitched well enough to win. 5.2 innings, 5 strike outs, 3 runs, 2 earned. Of the 8 starts he's had this year, this is only his second good one.

UPDATE 2: Cubs win 7-5; Sox win 7-1.

Technorati tags: baseball

No Wage Hike, No Tax Breaks

The bill to raise the minimum wage and make permanent the estate tax has died in the Senate. A sufficient number of Democrats were so upset by the prospect of people receiving their full inheritance that they decided to sacrifice the people who live on minimum wage to their cause.

I think this will hurt Democrats the most. Everybody pays taxes, and there was more in the bill than just the estate tax. Not many people actually live on minimum wage, at least not as many as the left would like to suppose, and even they would probably prefer to have both tax cuts and a minimum wage hike, as opposed to having neither.

I could be wrong, and no doubt the media will portray the political situation as bad for Republicans until an actual vote takes place to disprove their suppositions. But if the Democrats do benefit more politically, it will not be because their stance is meant to bring any practical benefit to the people. Rather, it is because their stance is an exaggerated display of their virtue, and there are many who are impressed by such shallow gestures.

Technorati tags: politics | democrats | republicans

Castro: Maybe Recovering, Probably Not Dead

Fidel Castro is reportedly recovering. Some creatures are just too evil to die.

In the meantime, the Cuban regime distracts attention from Castro's health crisis by declaring the U.S. is about to invade and calling up their military reserves. Castro's brother Raul still has not been seen since he accepted the temporary transfer of power.

The Washington Post carries a puff piece on Castro's Cuba which will likely prove utterly false once the decrepit Cuban regime falls apart, as has every other pro-communist story ever published by the mainstream media. An example of the writer's stupefying, Walter Duranty-like idiocy:

The White House frets over Mariel: The Sequel. The 1980 Mariel boatlift was certainly a spectacle -- a logistics nightmare in both countries. Yet, despite a six-month window of permission to leave Cuba and be received in the United States, only about 125,000 accepted the invitation. That was only about 1 percent of the population at the time. Hardly a mass exodus. Why would now be different?

One-percent in six months doesn't get the writer's attention? That's defining a failed state down. And it's not like the right to leave ended because people decided to stay. It ended because too many had already left.

If Cuba seems a happy place to this writer, it is most likely because Cubans don't trust the leftist Yankee with their true thoughts and feelings. I certainly wouldn't.

UPDATE: Just as I'm writing this post, Aleksander Boyd comes up with this.

Here's the test. My wife, who grew up the Soviet Union, informs me that when Brezhnev, Andropov, and Chernenko died, state television showed ballet day and night for days in a row, usually "Swan Lake". There were no announcements whatever. If Cuban broadcasting suddenly shows hour upon hour of Cuban ballet, then we'll know the old monster is really dead.

Technorati tags: Fidel Castro | Cuba | freedom

Lebanon: Cease Fire, Byzantine Politics, And Bloody Hypocrisy

On Saturday morning, the U.S. and France reached agreement on a UN security council resolution. The resolution calls for a cease fire by both Israel and Hezbollah as a precursor to a larger political settlement.

Christian Lebanese politico Gen. Michael Aoun had allied himself with Hezbollah after Syria's withdrawal last year. He's now talking at least like he means to live up to that alliance:

"This war is bringing us closer together," he said. "We are actually living more tolerantly with each other than ever."

[...]

But doesn't he think Hezbollah's attack on Israel has made things more difficult?

"I admit they made a mistake," he said. But "I can't blame Hezbollah. They launched a pure military action against a military patrol. We are at war with Israel," he said. "There is no treaty [between us]."

He added that "the response by Israel has been so huge that no one in Lebanon thinks Hezbollah is in the wrong."

In London, the moonbats came out to decry Tony Blair's support for Israel. Fortunately, far fewer Londoners showed up for the march than expected.

Israel launched another commando raid, this time against an apartment block in Tyre. They were trying to disrupt a terror cell that had been firing long-range rockets against Israel. The use of commandos appears to be a direct result of the criticism Israel faced in its bombing campaign:

Head of Naval intelligence told Army Radio that an aerial assault on the building was avoided since it was not known whether there were civilians in the building. He also mentioned that the ground operation sent a strong message to the fighters, indicating that the IDF can reach deep into Lebanon.

Hezbollah has blustered that they repelled the attack, with help from the Lebanese army. There is no actual evidence of their claim of having killed an Israeli soldier. Israel claims, with far greater credibility, to have killed 7 Hezbollah fighters and one Lebanese soldier.

It's a tragedy that Israeli soldiers have to risk their lives for sake of appearances, because there is little reason to believe that Hezbollah cares anything for the lives of the Lebanese people:

"Look what they did to this place," Dr. Fatah said, shaking his head. "Why in the world would the Israelis target a hospital?"

The probable answer was found a few hours later in a field nearby. Hidden in the tall grass were the burned remnants of a rocket-launcher.

Confronted with the evidence, Dr. Fatah admitted his hospital could have been used as a site from which to fire rockets into Israel.

"What choice to we have? We need to fight back from somewhere," he said, tapping his foot on the ground.

"This is Hezbollah's heartland."

It's becoming clear that Israel cares more for Lebanese lives than even some Lebanese.

The Shiites of southern Lebanon have seen Hezbollah as their protectors ever since the group first emerged as an Iranian-backed militia during the Lebanese civil war.

There not protectors if they are just setting you up to be killed by Israeli bombs.

Financed, armed and trained by Iran and supported by Syria, Hezbollah was treated by the Lebanese government as a legitimate, arm's-length force patrolling its southern border. Over the years, its social arm has come to provide social services -- schools, medical clinics and charities.

It might have been nice of them, as they plotted war against Israel, if they had found a few extra dollars for some bomb shelters. Apparently, civilians surviving their war wasn't part of the plan.

UPDATE 1:06 pm CDT: The cease fire accord before the security council calls for a full cessation of hostilities by both Hezbollah and Israel. Specifically, it calls for Hezbollah to stop all attacks and for Israel to stop all offensive attacks. The ambiguity of the word "offensive" is the problem. Is the raid on the Tyre apartment block offensive or defensive? I would say the latter, but the Muslims with the guns would call it the former, and they'll take any excuse available to start firing at Jews.

The resolution mentions the Chebaa farms twice, and calls for the UNIFIL force to assist the Lebanese government to establish a buffer zone between the Litani River and the Israeli border. It ultimately calls for a military force in place of UNIFIL though it does not define that force, and for negotiations on the various disputes between Israel and Lebanon, including the Hezbollah prisoners detained by Israel.

The resolution will be discussed on Saturday afternoon, and could be voted on as early as Sunday.

I have to think the Muslim world will consider this a victory for Hezbollah. It requires Israel to stop defending itself, allows Hezbollah to recede back into the civilian population until foreign troops leave Lebanon, and offers the possibility of an Israeli prisoner release. Depressing.

UPDATE 2:08 pm CDT: Hezbollah fired a barrage of up to 130 rockets in a single hour at Israel. A total of over 170 rockets hit the north, killing a 60-year-old Bedouin mother and her two daughters. Unlike Qana or South Beirut, there is no question whatever that the building they were in was not a military target.

A good point on the UN resolution at ~~Israpundit~~. The post disappeared, but the gist was that the resolution calls for a "full cessation" of hostilities, not an "immediate cessation", a point made at Belmont Club and Right Wing Nut House.

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Midnight News -- 8/5/06

A Canadian reporter discovers that sometimes when Americans say a country is a brutal police state, that country really is a brutal police state.

Kossack favorite Ned Lamont, soaring above rival Joe Lieberman in the polls, sharply criticized the evil that is Wal-Mart. It was later revealed that Lamont held shares in the evil that is Wal-Mart. As much $31,000 in stock, as a matter of fact, a sum I would be happy to take off his hands, should the hypocrisy be too much for him to bear.

Tour de France "winner" Floyd Landis will learn in the early morning whether he passed the "B" sample doping test. Should he fail that test then the process will be turned over to U.S. anti-doping authorities. Landis could very well win an appeal of their findings: many athletes who have challenged the testosterone-epitestosterone tests have succeeded.

George Bush, following a yearly tradition, begins a vacation at his Crawford ranch. Crawford is hot, dry, dusty, and seems to me thoroughly unpleasant as a vacation spot. He must really love Texas.

Chicago police shut down two large drug markets on Friday, arresting 21 people in the culmination of a months long sting. They should have just applied the big box ordinance if they wanted to drive the business out. It worked on Target.

In Russia, the cosmetics industry is crippled by oppressive regulations and high licensing fees. The reason: Russia imposes strict controls on any product that contains even tiny amounts of alcohol, as most cosmetics do.

Sri Lanka, a nation on the brink of collapse, defeated South Africa in cricket. Apparently,

Muttiah Muralitharan claimed his 55th five-wicket haul in Test cricket as Sri Lanka dismissed South Africa for 361 on day one of the second Test.

Muralitharan bowled 33.5 overs on Friday, capturing five for 128 after the seamers had set up the game for Sri Lanka with early breakthroughs.

When the veteran offspinner claimed his fifth wicket with the penultimate ball of the day he also became only the second bowler in the world to complete 650 Test wickets after Australia'’s Shane Warne.

It boggles my mind that those paragraphs might actually make sense to somebody.

Technorati tags: news | politics | current events

Friday, August 04, 2006

Phoenix Snipers Caught

Phoenix police have arrested two men for a spree of serial sniper killings in metropolitan Phoenix. Some of the murders took place near where I used to live, in Scottsdale, but the pair made all of the Valley their target, an area that is far larger than most people imagine.

Samuel J. Dieteman, 31, and Dale S. Hausner, 33, were taken into custody Thursday night after a raid at an apartment building in Mesa, Ariz., a Phoenix suburb. The men will face charges of murder and aggravated assault but have not been formally charged, authorities said.

The AP describes the apartment building as gated, perhaps to make it all sound more decadent. But lots of apartment complexes in Phoenix are gated, and it's really nothing special.

The two men were roommates, and some weird relationship between them is no doubt at the heart of the crime: Leopold and Loeb brought forward to the hot, sprawling 21st century southwest. From the AP:

Jill O'Donnell, 20, who lives in the complex near Hausner's apartment, said she spent considerable time chatting with Hausner, but added that during the last month, he wouldn't say hello or wave when she passed by.

He "seemed like a really nice person, but he gave off a vibe of someone you didn't want to be too social with," O'Donnell said.

Hausner appears to have been the stronger of the two, functioning in the world while Dietman brooded silently. Hausner was a janitor at Sky Harbor (he was fired when arrested), but also dabbled in sports photography.

Jawa Report has tracked down some of the traces the pair have left on the internet, as well as some of Hausner's photos. AZCentral tells the story of one of the victims, and has many links to further details about the crimes.

The trouble for Phoenix is that it still has a killer left on the loose. The Baseline Killer is still at large. Like the snipers, he strikes in areas where I used to live, both in Scottsdale and in Tempe.

Technorati tags: Phoenix | Scottsdale | Tempe | Arizona | crime

Divergent Scholarship

Below is the conclusion of an argument by two Middle East professors at the University of Toronto:

Beyond the Siniora Plan, Hezbollah and Israel both need to pay for the destruction they have wreaked on civilian infrastructure including investigating their leaderships' culpability for war crimes.

The Bush administration would do well to support the Siniora government diplomatically. Against the enormous political, humanitarian and environmental crisis, it trumps appeasement of Israel if the ceasefire is to heal Lebanon's war wounds and give U.S. diplomacy back some modicum of credibility and manoeuvrability in the region.

Continued failure to act in a decisive, comprehensive and just manner could haunt the world for decades to come.

Basically, the gist of the argument is that Israel is equally as evil as the Islamofascists they fight, and if we don't treat them as such and indulge the Islamofascist demands, Muslims will come to kill us.

Despicable for its implications, despicable for its stupefying lack of moral imagination, despicable for being so cowardly before a grave threat to Western, liberal culture.

Here is the argument of Victor Davis Hansen:

Our present generation too is on the brink of moral insanity. That has never been more evident than in the last three weeks, as the West has proven utterly unable to distinguish between an attacked democracy that seeks to strike back at terrorist combatants, and terrorist aggressors who seek to kill civilians.

It's remarkable that Hansen would so quickly and deftly diagnose the ailment from which our two Canadian professors suffer.

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Mexico Waits For AMLO To Shut The Whole Country Down

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has already shut down Mexico City by filling the streets with his supported in protests against his election loss. Now the Mexican government is moving to protect the Mexico City's airport and oil refineries.

"There is no other solution than a vote recount. Faced with any other scenario we will expand our civil resistance campaign," Lopez Obrador spokesman Gerardo Fernandez said.

"We want to warn that we will not agree with a partial recount nor with a sample."

The supreme arrogance of that statement is astounding. By all accounts, the Mexican election was exemplary, and there appears to be no reasonable likelihood that a recount would shift even a marginal number of votes. All these protests merely punish the Mexican people for having the gall to elect somebody else. That they would put the country through so much turmoil based on the flimisest of allegations says much about the true heart of a socialist.

Of course, shutting down a nation's capital is not the best way to win friends. Obrador's party made significant gains in other places in the election, but their party's credibility decreases with every day they pursue the downfall of the election's winning presidential candidate.

Technorati tags: Mexico | socialism | freedom

Toronto Baseball Hotties

I'm thinking I need to get to Toronto for a ball game.

The Chicago White Sox are there tonight, and I noticed that two hotties in slinky black dresses are waiting on the folks sitting behind home plate. A tall blonde and curvey brunette, if your keeping score at home. Baseball as cocktail party: what a great way to watch a game. I wonder if they know how to make a Manhattan.

The Sox gave up three runs in the bottom of the first. John Garland hung a changeup over the plate and Troy Glaus launched it to deep center for a home run. Garland has to hold the Blue Jays back from here on out, because it's going to be a while before the Sox have a chance to get those runs back. Roy Halladay is pitching, and pitching very, very well. Everything he throws is curvey, much like the hotties serving drinks behind home plate.

UPDATE: The Sox pulled out a win 6-3. Garland settled down after the three-run homer he gave up in the first, and two runs trickled through for the Sox over the next few innings. Both teams had baserunners, but both pitchers got out of trouble and were backed up by strong defense.

With the game at 3-2 Blue Jays, the Sox broke through in the fifth. A.J. Pierzynski, after throwing out a runner attempting to steal second in the bottom of the fourth, hit his own three-run homer, this one to left field, driving in Paul Konerko and Jim Thome.

After the Sox got a sixth run in the top of the ninth, Glaus got a solo homer off closer Bobby Jenks in the bottom of the ninth. Since it came after two strikeouts and before a third, it didn't really matter much.

I was a little surprised that Halladay lost like that, but that's baseball.

Technorati tags: baseball

1914 Alert: Iran Admits Sending Missiles Trough Syria

Iran has admitted its role in supplying Hezbollah with the missiles hurl into Israeli cities and towns:

Mohtashami Pur, a one-time ambassador to Lebanon who currently holds the title of secretary-general of the "Intifada conference," told an Iranian newspaper that Iran transferred the missiles to the Shi'ite militia, adding that the organization has his country's blessing to use the weapons in defense of Lebanon.

Pur's statements are thought to be unusual given that Tehran has thus far been reluctant to comment on the extent of its aid which it has extended to Hezbollah.

It's the stated policy of the Iranian government that Israel must be destroyed. It's hard to see why they bother to be coy about it.

Hassan Nasrallah bellowed that should Israel bomb Beirut again, he would send his rockets at Tel Aviv. Israel called his bluff, and the best he could manage, over a day later, was to fire one of his long-range missiles at the town of Hadera, about 30 miles of the mark. Of course, it was probably not aim that kept Nasrallah from following through on his threat, but the instructions of Hezbollah's Iranian sponsors.

Hezbollah claimed that the missiles which hit Hadera were in retaliation for the supposed Israeli bombing of two towns near the border, which supposedly left over 50 people dead. I say supposed because it the IAF claims not to have made any bombing runs at that area, and because the claims of the number of dead at Qana were greatly exaggerated. At the moment, all we can be certain of is that Hezbollah has a new story for their propaganda broadcasts. Their writers have hit the jackpot twice in one week. More no doubt will be revealed in the next few days.

Regardless of the proximate cause of the deaths in the Lebanese towns, Hezbollah is responsible for having started the war, for using civilian areas for staging their rocket attacks, and for preventing civilians from leaving the area, as those civilians had been warned to do by Israel. At the very least, given Hezbollah is the effective government of south Lebanon, they could have built a few bomb shelters for their citizens. Instead, Hezbollah leaves the civilian population to take their chances inside of their own houses.

Since Hezbollah doesn't seem to care about the lives of its own population, why should I? This is what Hezbollah has brought to its people. Below is a satellite photo of south Beirut before Hezbollah killed eight Israel soldiers and kidnapped two more, juxtaposed against a more recent photo:

Israel has extended the bombing campaign north of Beirut. The strategy seems to be to further isolate Lebanon from Syria. The Lebanese president calls this an attempt to starve his country.

While the most likely scenario is that a cease fire is established in the next week or so, there is also a reasonable chance that this war won't end any time soon. Hezbollah is rejecting any talk of a cease fire before Israel pulls out of the south (via Big Pharaoh), and of course Israel would never pull out unless it could be certain that Hezbollah were no longer a threat.

As the fighting continues in Lebanon, the Muslim world becomes steadily more agitated. Thousands of Iraqi Shiites took to the streets to proclaim their willingness to kill Jews for Hezbollah. Similar demonstrations of support have taken place in Indonesia and Egypt.

They may not be necessary. One report suggests that Hezbollah has not yet committed its elite troops.

UPDATE 7:04 pm CDT: Lebanon.Profile provides possible reasons why Israel bombed bridges north of Beirut.

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Midnight News -- 8/4/06

Fidel Castro is still not dead. The stake must have just missed his heart. Cuban dissidents wisely remained subdued.

Dhimmitude in Morocco: a group of Moroccon Jews are seeking to have Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz tried for war crimes.

The Islamic courts that now control Mogadishu have made the planes run on time. They also kill people for watching soccer on TV.

Korean evangelicals are causing trouble in Afghanistan.

Technorati tags: news | politics | current events

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Defraud Different

Apple Corp. may be in trouble with the law and with its own stockholders:

Without providing specifics, the Cupertino, Calif.-based maker of Macintosh computer and iPod music players said it had uncovered enough evidence of mishandled stock options to raise doubts about the accuracy of financial statements dating back to Sept. 29, 2002.

Apple actually seems to have handled the issue as well as any company could, hiring a lawyer to investigate the options problems and to help the company get ahead of any legal troubles. But having suffered the pretensions of Mac owners for about ten years, it always warms my heart to see them reminded that Apple is just another company. Cults aren't my favorite thing, even little mini-cults like that of Mac users. It's not that Macs are bad, its just that they're not half as special as users claim, and neither is the company.

It's probably good for Apple executives that they've been proactive about dealing with potential stock problems:

While Apple hasn't explained exactly how it mishandled stock options, most of the problems at other companies so far have revolved around "backdating."

Under this practice, insiders try to make the rewards more lucrative by retroactively pinning the option's exercise price to a low point in the stock's value. Usually, a stock option's exercise price coincides with the market value at the time of a grant to give the recipient an incentive to drive the price higher.

If companies backdate options without accounting for the move, it can cause profits to be overstated and taxes to be underpaid.

The financial manipulation also exposes companies to possible fraud charges that could trigger civil fines and even criminal cases.

The U.S. Justice Department has already brought criminal charges against Brocade Communications Systems Inc.'s former CEO, Gregory Reyes, and is actively investigating other cases. Reyes, who hasn't yet entered a plea in the case, is free on a $2 million bond.

That's a lot of iTunes sales to cover that bond. College kids, get to buyin' those songs, you've got executives to bail out of jail.

Technorati tags: Apple

Yes, Of Course, Tom DeLay Is The Loser Here

A federal appeals court has ruled that Texas Republicans cannot replace Tom DeLay's name on this November's Congressional ballot. Republicans still want to pursue the matter, and will bring the case before the U.S. Supreme Court. The Election Law blog explains, well, the election law underlying the decision.

What interests me more than the law or the Republican desire to replace DeLay, is the notion that anybody but the Democrats are actually hurt by seeing DeLay on the ballot.

Tom DeLay managed first to rise from the mundane beginnings of the pest removal industry to become one of the most powerful and effective Congressmen of the 20th century. Then he managed to push through a redistricting in Texas that if left unmolested by the courts ensures his party's dominance in that state for many years. Yet this is the person that Democrats want to face in the next election.

Having spent many years deriding DeLay's background and accusing him of all manner of corruption, the Democrats appear to have convinced themselves that DeLay is a weak candidate. They might consider that a person powerful enough to generate so much hatred and contempt from their side of the aisle may in fact have real talent as a politician. The Democrats seem to have forgotten that their adversaries will not necessarily subjugate themselves to the image Democrats have of them.

Stop The ACLU reminds us that just weeks before an election the Democrats successfully replaced Frank Lautenberg on the New Jersey Senate ballot few years ago. The courts didn't seem to mind ballot changes then, so its worth asking what's so horrible about a ballot change now. Of course, there might be a solution to the Democrats' persistence in that story: perhaps they are just protecting the monopoly on ballot shenanigans.

UPDATE: Rhymes With Right explains why he would vote for DeLay in November. The Democrats have no idea what they're doing down there, keeping DeLay on the ballot. Republicans just don't easily give up a nominee, no matter how much that nominee irritates them.

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Technorati tags: Tom DeLay | politics | democrats | republicans | Texas

Thank You Michael Moore

This is despicable: One In 3 Americans Say U.S. Aided 9/11.

I'm quite literally speechless.

UPDATE: Here's the original Scripps Howard story.

Technorati tags: 9/11 | New York | terrorism

The Last Week In Lebanon?

The Washington Post's World Opinion Roundup has a petulant post which deliberately mischaracterizes the motive behind those who have raised questions about Qana:

The Qana conspiracy theory not only underscores how the Internet can misinform (an old story), it also reveals a popular demand for online content that attempts to explain away news reports that Israel (and by proxy, its closest ally and arms supplier, the United States) was responsible for the deaths of dozens of women and children in a Hezbollah stronghold.

Yes, of course. That's why the questions. We're trying to "explain away" the deaths.

Sorry, Jefferson, but that's BS, at least for my part. I'm not trying to explain away anything. I know what country's missile hit that building. I know what country did the bombing. I also know that the true responsibility for the deaths in Qana falls squarely on Hezbollah, which fires rockets that deliberately try to kill civilians, which fires them from civilian areas, and which traps women and children in war zones. Israel at least has the decency to attempt to avoid civilian casualties, and to recognize that an error that causes such casualties is a wrong. Hezbollah has no such capacity.

We have nearly a century's worth of experience with totalitarian propaganda operations. We have specific experience with Hezbollah's propaganda machine. We have dubious photos and a dubious timeline. Those aren't made up. Applying the lessons learned from those experiences to the "news" from Qana is not some desperate attempt to exonerate Israel, it's applying the wisdom of experience. It's not like the Muslims who are making war against Israel haven't lied before. Morely ends his post with this:

[EU Referendum's Richard] North says he is just trying to "raise questions," which is certainly a legitimate goal. My question is: What is it about the photos from Qana that made Israel's supporters prefer fantasy to fact?

What is it about our friend Jefferson that he prefers the first headlines from reporters censored and controlled by Hezbollah to the analysis from uncensored outsiders that follows? It's a fantasy to think that the strike was not a jackpot in the mind of Hezbollah, and that at the very least they ruthlessly exploited the deaths they did so much to bring about.

The comments provide all the insight into the value of Morely's critique that one would need. The first reads: "No surprises here....the Israeli/Zionist propaganda machine takes very little time to get its wheels turning..." Most of the comments are similarly paranoid.

Meanwhile, back in the world of fact, history, and logic, Israel is pressing several battles in south Lebanon. They are trying to create a buffer similar to the one they had up until 2000 (via Israellycool). The direction of the latest diplomacy is that Israel has about another week to finish its operations in Lebanon before a cease fire is imposed, though that could change in the next few days.

And in Israel, there is great pride in the strike against Baalbek, though it appears the strike is not a precursor to larger plans for the Bekaa Valley.

UPDATE 10:08 am CDT: Hezbollah launched a massive rocket atack against Israel. 100 rockets landed in Israel in a matter of minutes, killing 6, including two people in Acre and three in Maalot.

UPDATE 10:57 am CDT: Haaretz reports that 7 people were killed by Hezbollah rockets, 4 in Acre and 3 in Maalot, and that of 150 rockets fired at northern Israel on Thursday, 120 landed between 4 pm and 5 pm.

UPDATE 12:08 pm CDT: Ehud Olmert wants 15,000 international troops for south Lebanon. For the benefit of the international community, he has defined "robust":

"It has to be made up of armies, not of retirees, of real soldiers, not of pensioners who have come to spend leisurely months in south Lebanon, but, rather, an army with combat units that is prepared to implement the UN resolution. I think it has to have about 15,000 soldiers. I think that's more or less what the international community understands," Olmert told the Times and the Telegraph.

Some Islamic countries wish to join the force. Whether they would accede to Olmert's definition of robust is debatable, especially the part about implementing the resolutions against Hezbollah.

Haaretz describes Hezbollah's "news" services. For those unclear on the matter, Hezbollah has what is truly a "well-oiled propaganda machine." Please use their example for future reference.

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Moonbats On The Web

At Pirate Ballerina, news that Ward Churchill's supporters have created a new website: the "Ward Churchill Solidarity Network".

It was quite a spectacular launch party they had. All the biggest names in moonbattery were there, though at first they wore bags over their heads to protect themselves from the man. They've since relaxed -- Mel Gibson brought Tequila -- and have posted some missives and proclamations in support of their hero.

Pirate Ballerina also has been watching the not unrelated saga of the Teachers For A Democratic Society petition to have the University of Colorado "unfire" Ward Churchill. My favorite post is this one. See the last entry, which breaks down the backgrounds of some of the signers.

Technorati tags: free speech | academic freedom | Ward Churchill

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Not Quite Midnight News -- 8/3/06

Though Israel has been scrupulous about restricting its military campaign to Hezbollah controlled areas, the effects of its blockade are slowly press the rest of Lebanon. Restaurants are running out of supplies, and the country is about to run out of fuel.

The cabinet members of the legitimate Somali government have decided that when facing Islamofascism, flight is the better part of valor. The rapid collapse of the Somali government leaves the Muslim courts in control of most of the country.

The 20-year-old granddaughter of the New York state Senate Majority Leader had been missing for nearly a week, but called home to her mother on Tuesday. The next day, it was announced that she had come under the influence of mysterious figure named John Savage, and travelled with him to New York City. She is now in a treatment facility for substance abuse and anorexia.

Technorati tags: news | politics | current events

Chicago Beach Turns Evil

Killer files attack nubile teens on a beach in Glencoe, one of Chicago's glitzier northern suburbs, forcing the young girls into the icy depths of Lake Michigan.

They sought refuge from the heat at the beach, and found none. The flies attacked by land, and bitter cold by water.

"It's like a million needles in your face," groaned 14-year-old Sarah Rustman at a beach in Glencoe, where in 24 hours water temperatures fell from the 70s to the 50s Wednesday.

Her friend Lexi Assimos likened a dip in the lake to plunging into an instant ice cream headache.

"It was so cold, my neck was stinging," said Assimos, also 14.

But it beat languishing on a shore that hummed with a bumper crop of stable flies—officially Stomoxys calcitrans, and identical to the housefly except for its piercing mouth, slashing mandibles and lust for blood.

And the heat has brought swarms of them.

Basically, the heat wave we've suffered in the last few days has helped the flies breed prodigiously. And the southwest winds which have brought all the hot air have also blown all the warm water off the surface of the lake, drawing up much colder water from below.

The lake-flipping phenomenon happens every time the wind blows from the southwest. The flies come every summer.

But a combination of factors contrived to magnify both.

Long periods of hot, humid weather bred generations of fly larvae in shoreline algae, wriggling in sumptuous numbers to emerge hale, refreshed and thirsty for blood protein drawn from the backs of human legs.

Swarms chased visitors in Highland Park up the beach, down wooded paths and back to their cars. A man with a can of bug repellant declared it useless. At Glencoe's beach, summer camp counselors were reduced to ridiculous contortions as they slapped at the nettlesome, biting flies. In Evanston, the flies were a low cloud stalking across the beach.

Ankles grew puffy. Tempers grew short.

[...]

But people do just fine too, and over time, the fly has evolved the habit of biting low—out of swatting range—said entomologist Donald Webb of the Illinois Natural History Survey.

The result is a bug so irritating even insect researchers dread it.

"Now I'm not going down to the beach. In such huge numbers? Forget it," said Summers, sullen as a jilted lover. "It'll just keep coming back and coming back—the same one-until it gets what it wants. It's like somebody sticking you with a pin."

I hate bugs. One of my favorite days of the year is the first freeze, because it kills the lot of them.

Technorati tags: Chicago | Glencoe

God Bless Mike Lowell

Mike Lowell, Boston Red Sox third baseman, sees Castro for what he is:

Charging Fidel Castro with the deaths of his relatives, Cuban-American Red Sox third baseman Mike Lowell declared last night: "I hope he does die."

Lowell was born in Puerto Rico and attended college in Florida. He played for the Florida Marlins for several years but was traded to Boston in the off season.

Originally at Babalu, who describes an encounter Lowell.

Technorati tags: Fidel Castro | Cuba | freedom | Mike Lowell | Boston Red Sox

On To The Bekaa

The fraud that is Qana continues to unravel. Michelle Malkin now has a syndicated column about it, and the truth may in fact winnow its way further into regular news coverage (via Israpundit). Some of the photographers at Qana have issued denials of the charge that they were duped (via lgf). Methinks the puppets doth protest too much.

The Hezbollah propaganda machine has also travelled to Bint Jbeil, allowing reporters to bemoan the destruction caused by Israel. Bint Jbeil was a staging area for the war against Israel, and hosted Hassan Nasrallah's victory rally after Israel's withdrawl from Lebanon six years ago, but that doesn't need to be mentioned.

The IDF has pushed into Baalbek in the Bekaa Valley. It looks like Wretchard was right. They have 10,000 troops in Lebanon now, and claim to have captured senior Hezbollah officials at a hospital.

Hezbollah was giddy at the destruction of that hospital. Really. They claimed that the attack on the hospital was a set up. To lure Israel to attack, they spread rumors that Hezbollah commanders were hiding there. This begs the question, if the whole point was to lure Israel into attacking a particular spot in Baalbek, why did Hezbollah choose the hospital? They couldn't find an empty warehouse or apartment block, something less valuable than a hospital? It's not possible that they wanted to create footage of a hospital destroyed by Israel, regardless of the loss to their own people, is it?

The Counterterrorism Blog explains the strategy behind attacking the Bekaa Valley. Riehl World View has the details of Baalbek. More updates here through the day.

UPDATE 4:52 pm CDT: Hezbollah fired 210 rockets at Israel on Wednesday, perhaps disproving the claims by various Israeli officials that Hezbollah's operational capabilites had been severely depleted. One of the rockets killed an American father of two.

The IDF blames an intelligence failure for the strike against the Qana apartment block.

The Israeli Golani brigade troops engaged in a fierce battle "...near the village of Mahabib, north of the Israeli community of Manara, and in the village of Ayta a-Shab."

UPDATE 6:08 pm CDT: The U.S., France, and Britain are working on a security council resolution that would "call for a truce and perhaps beef up U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon until a more robust force can be formed, diplomats and U.N. officials said on Wednesday."

Kofi Annan took a break from counting his money to criticize a weak security council statement on Qana.

UPDATE 8:24 pm CDT: An Israel soldier was killed in the fighting near Ayta a-Shab. Israeli generals are talking baout regaining the security zone they held in southern Lebanon until 2000.

An Islamic Jihad terrorist was killed by an Israeli air strike. Jets fired into a group of "gunmen" near the town of Dahiniye in the Gaza Strip. The IDF is carrying out a major operatin in Gaza. According to Palestinian witnesses, they've sent about 50 tanks into Gaza near Rafiah in support of an engineering brigade.

The war in Lebanon may not topple any government in the Middle East, yet may send Tony Blair into private life.

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The Devil's Advocate Advocates

Greg at Rhymes With Right tipped me to this story:

The Jordan-based Arab Bank yesterday asked a federal judge in Brooklyn to dismiss a lawsuit brought by thousands of Israelis who claim the bank fueled terrorism by providing payments to the relatives of suicide bombers.

Lawyers for the bank said that the 4,000 foreign citizens who are plaintiffs should not be allowed to have their case heard in the American court system. They argued that terrorism against Israel does not violate any "international norm." Lawyers for the bank said that some 80 countries, most Islamic or African, do not consider Palestinian Arab suicide bombers to be terrorists.

"One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter -- that holding is binding on this court," said an attorney for the bank, Kevin Walsh of LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene and MacRae.

The plaintiffs who are suing Arab Bank in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn are the victims of terrorist attacks during the second intifada and the relatives of victims. While the overwhelming majority are citizens of Israel, some plaintiffs are from Afghanistan, Moldova, and several other countries.

Ugly, unconscionable, but I see the strategy.

Basically, the plaintiffs are using the Alien Tort Claims Act, a statute from 1789 that allows non-citizens to bring actions in U.S. federal courts against those who violate international laws recognized by the U.S. Its purpose was to establish jurisdiction over such cases with the federal courts, to prevent a U.S. state from ruling on a case touching on international relations. Mostly dormant for 200 years, in 1980 the applicability of the statute was expanded to allow victims of human rights violations to bring cases in U.S. courts.

The most recent Alien Torts case defined the issues that the Arab Bank lawyers are responding to. Basically, in Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain, the court ruled that individuals could bring a case under Alein Torts provided the case touched on violations of international law that were recognized in 1789. (Talk about originalism.) That means, the Alien Tort Claims Act applies to "violation of safe conducts, infringement of the rights of ambassadors, and piracy". However, the court also added that claims could be brought in other cases provided the allegation was that the defendant had violated an international law as well established today as the three standard violations mentioned above were in 1789.

So basically, to proceed, the plaintiffs have to show that the terrorism financed by Arab Bank is as much a violation of international law today as piracy was in 1789. To prevent them from going forward, the defendants attorneys are arguing that in the case of Israel, terrorism is not necessarily defined as illegal, and is therefore not the unambiguous violation of international law that Sosa requires.

The defendant's lawyers will trouble making that case, but as awful as the argument is, they have a slight chance of prevailing.

The phrase "international law" is a noun but people use it as an adjective. If I set up a male friend on a blind date with a woman I describe using the adjective "pretty", he'll get a picture of the woman in his head based entirely on how he understands that word. Not dissimilar is the way people throw around the phrase "international law"; it's a noun with a specific meaning, but people use it hoping that others will understand the phrase as an adjective, and interpret it to mean legality in whatever conventional sense they have of that word. But conventional law is not at all like international law.

Conventional law is understood to be a set of rules decided on in a somewhat coherent and structured way, as when Congress passes a law or a court determines what a law or Constitutional principle means. If the law passed becomes understood to be unjust, mechanisms exist to correct or overturn the statute. Unlike conventional law, international law is inherently unstructured and incoherent, and is simply the agreed upon customs of sovereign states. It is backed up only by the brute force of other states, and there is no Court of Appeals. A treaty may codify a custom, or clarify obligations between states, but no treaty is greater that the willingness of sovereign states, whether or not they are signatories, to see the treaty followed. One nation can unilaterally back out of a treaty without repercussion provided other states do not apply brute measures to penalize them. International law is merely the consensus of nations, however ugly that consensus may be.

The Arab Bank's lawyers note that dozens of countries recognize the "right" of Palestinians to blow up Israeli civilians. Their argument hinges on that being sufficient to show the Alien Torts act should not be invoked. In a sense, that kind of consensus is all that is necessary to commence the "veto" process of international law.

The problem for the defendants is that the rhetoric of Islamic states is probably insufficient to show that international law on the matter of terrorism against Israel is ambiguous, the standard under Sosa for a court to reject jurisdiction. In order to counter the defendants claims, the plaintiffs can argue that the suicide bombing in particular is a violation of international law even if war against Israel is not, that Israel's right to exist is recognized by authorities superior to the general consensus of Islamic states, and that the Palestinians, however just their cause, are obliged by international law to use methods other than mass murder to achieve their goals. I think all of those arguments will be persuasive to the courts, though I'm not free at the moment to cite chapter and verse on each one.

Further, there is much ambiguity in Sosa's demand that the law invoked in an Alien Torts case be unambiguous. The "big three" claims cited from 1789 are safe conducts, the rights of ambassadors, and piracy. The last has a well established legal history that itself is somewhat ambiguous. Reading some of those old cases, one could argue "one man's pirate is another man's irregular navy." Yet a claim of piracy is sufficient to bring a case under Alien Torts. I think the claims against the Arab Bank for funding terrorism will proceed quite happily, despite the abominable claims made the Arab Bank's lawyers.

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Israeli High Tech Pays Off

I think this is pretty awesome:

Israel hacks into Hezbollah TV

ISRAEL today hacked into the television station of Hezbollah, emblazoning images on the screen showing pictures of corpses and claiming the Shiite militant group's leader Hassan Nasrallah was a liar.
One of the images shown on Al-Manar television portrayed the body of a fighter lying face-down, wearing khaki trousers with a text beneath in Arabic reading: "This is the photograph of a body of a member of Hezbollah's special forces".

"Nasrallah lies: it is not us that is hiding our losses," continued the text, which appeared during the evening news and stayed on the screen for several minutes.

[...]

Israel has used a variety of technological weapons to wage a psychological war in Lebanon, also sending text messages to mobile phones and voice messages saying their war was against Hezbollah and not the Lebanese people.

Finally, a free press serves Hezbollah supporters.

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Qana Unravels

The truth about Qana is slowly unfolding, as are the repercussions.

Via Airborne Combat Engineer, EU Referendum has three posts that expose the cynicism and mendacity of Hezbollah's claims about the attack. Two -- here and here -- follow the exploits of a shadowy figure who seems to appear whenever photographers need a shot of a dead child staged. They also breakdown the photos coming out of Qana to show the elaborate lengths to which Hezbollah went to present the destruction to the media. All links are extremely graphic.

To me, all this points to one conclusion: Hezbollah hoped this would happen eventually. Once it occurred, they followed a plan. There is even a blog devoted to the attack. There was nothing spontaneous in the media coverage, which lends credence to the suggestions -- described at Confederate Yankee here and here -- that the IDF was responsible for the missile strike, but Hezbollah was responsible for the civilian deaths and the coverage they received (also via A-C-E). The allegations against only grow more ghastly:

A French language Lebanese publication, citing an unnamed source in Hezbollah, has claimed that the organization placed a rocket launcher on the roof of the notorious building in Qana to provoke an Israeli attack and brought invalid children inside to serve as victims and blacken Israel's name.

The diplomatic efforts towards a cease fire have broken down. The President of the EU has absorbed Hezbollah's propaganda. Efforts by the European Union to make a joint call for a cease fire failed, however.

The French and Iranian foreign ministers met in Beirut, a curious location given the widespread destruction we've seen on the news, unless of course the media has been exaggerating. French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said something that indicates including the French in any peacekeeping force would be a disaster for Israel: "In the region there is of course a country such as Iran - a great country, a great people and a great civilization which is respected and which plays a stabilizing role in the region." Apparently, in France, starting a war is stabilizing, defending yourself is de-stabilizing. The French should stick to cookery.

Meanwhile, an influential Iranian cleric is calling on the Muslim world to arm Hezbollah.

Israel is taking precisely the opposite tack as they did in 1996, when a similar event in Qana effectively ended Operation Grapes of Wrath. Rather than pull back, they have expanded operations. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert even believes that Israel is winning this war.

Lebanon.Profile has an extended essay about the complexity of Lebanese politics. The gist, and it deserves a full read, is that a Lebanese may simultaneously support Hezbollah and yet still want peace with Israel. See also Michael Totten.

Unfortunately, I've reached the point where I just don't care how complex Lebanon is, since that complexity harbors the Nazi-esque monstrosity that is Hezbollah. No doubt, many friendly, modern Germans were grateful to the Nazi party only because it revitalized the economy and brought the country out of the doldrums of the depression. No doubt, support for Hitler's party did not only take the form of blind goose-stepping fanaticism. No doubt, many Germans had complex reasons for supporting the National Socialists, reasons that had nothing to do with killing Jews. The Nazi party still had to go; its civilian support was not and should not have been treated as a shield. A cancer is a cancer, and it does not become more acceptable because it has successfully permeated political life. Hezbollah's success at buying off the population it controls is no reason to tolerate its continued existence.

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You Can't Kill Ghouls

Fidel Castro underwent surgery yesterday and handed power over to his brother temporarily. Earlier last month, there was much speculation about whether Castro had died, and one piece of information feeding the rumors was that brother Raul had suddenly become a featured personality in the Cuban press. Much is made of the fact that this is the first time he handed power over to anybody, so perhaps there's reason to believe that Castro's health really is in a dire state, and that this announcement is one more example of an attempt to build up Raul. Biographical features on the brother have recently appeared.

There is much celebrating in Miami, but my thought is that Castro isn't dying anytime soon. As one of the richest men in the world, he has access to the kind of health care that most Americans would envy, including many rich Americans. For now, the U.S. is watching the situation cautiously. Babalu is probably the best place for updates, both on the Miami celebrations and Castro's latest status. UPDATE: Fausta's Blog has a ton of links and updates.

Technically, the surgery is to stop internal bleeding, and of course, we all know what really caused this problem. For once, the French come through for freedom:
(Picture via Babalu, who got the original from deco_20 at Noticiero Digital, via Miguel Octavio.)

Technorati tags: Fidel Castro | Cuba | freedom | Zinedine Zidane

Baseball Trade Deadline Notes

Greg Maddux is traded away from the Chicago Cubs. It had been hoped by some in Chicago that he would end his career here. He's still attractive enough to get a shortstop in return, however, so he unsentimentally goes to L.A. He'll probably do alright there, but he's not as in control of hitters as he once was. He'll benefit from being in a pitcher's park.

The New York Yankees get Bobby Abreu, and he'll probably help them more than it might at first appear. He's basically heading to right field in place of a platoon of Bernie Williams and Aaron Guiel, and his numbers look about the same as those players combined. But he also provides the kind of hitting patience and on-base percentage that characterized the Yankees dynasty of the late '90s. They also got Cory Lidle for their bullpen.

The Pittsburgh Pirates have turned over a huge part of their roster. The Chicago White Sox did that a few years ago and they eventually reached the World Series with much of what they got from trading away the strong team they had. We'll know if the Pirates did the right thing in about 5 years. The key difference is that the Sox were pretty good when they traded away their core; the Pirates are horrible, and perhaps didn't get the same value for the players that they gave up.

One of the players they traded away was Sean Casey. He went to the Detroit Tigers, and now I have little doubt that the Tigers will win the division. He's the kind of veteran that will be consistent through the end of the season. My thought about the Tigers is that they're so young they'll either run out of steam or lose their heads, or both. Now they have a player at first base and in the middle of the lineup that is unlikely to do either.

Of course, having said that, the Tigers will probably collapse starting tomorrow. Whenever a baseball trend seems unstoppable, it reverses.

I don't expect the remainder of the trades to have a meaningful effect, except perhaps for the trade that sent Cubs second baseman Todd Walker to the San Diego Padres. He's thought of now in Chicago as clubhouse poison, and he may send the Padres out of the playoff hunt in the weak National League West.

Technorati tags: baseball

Midnight News -- 8/1/06

Castro has given up power temporarily while he undergoes surgery. Much joy is reported and expressed -- see also Boli-Nica, Babalu, and Abajo Fidel.

Odious former President Jimmy Carter editorializes in the Washington Post:

It is inarguable that Israel has a right to defend itself against attacks on its citizens, but it is inhumane and counterproductive to punish civilian populations in the illogical hope that somehow they will blame Hamas and Hezbollah for provoking the devastating response.

The civilians are being punished because Hezbollah launches rockets from their apartment buildings, not because Israel has some strategic interest in harming civilians. Mr. Carter's ignorance of this fact is alone justification to ignore him. He continues:

A major impediment to progress is Washington's strange policy that dialogue on controversial issues will be extended only as a reward for subservient behavior and will be withheld from those who reject U.S. assertions.

"Subserviance" in this context is agreeing to disarm an illegal, private army. It is only strange to a serial appeaser who doesn't much mind civilian casualties provided they are Jewish.

Israel had suspended air attacks as a result of the deaths at Qana, deaths that occurred when a building collapsed 8 hours after it was hit by Israeli missiles. They have decided instead to use ground attacks.

Having held their first election in decades, the Congolese decided they enjoyed the experience so much that they extended the election for an extra day. Early returns showed deep geographic divisions, and the incumbent president in the lead.

Fire was exchanged along the DMZ between North and South Korea.

It has been very hot in America the last few days.

Technorati tags: news | politics | current events

Chicago	Tokyo
New Delhi	Baghdad
Tel Aviv	London

Saturday, August 05, 2006

Friday, August 04, 2006

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

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