Honestly I've tried to enjoy soccer, especially the World Cup. It's been difficult as I watch grown men wail and wimper and flop on the ground in a dishonest attempt to get other players banned from the game, but I've come to accept that it is a scummy underbelly to the world's most popular sport. Hearing that Zidane was awarded MVP after he deliberately attacked another player during a break in the match just makes it very hard. How can I have any respect for an organization that awards its greatest individual honor to a thug? I might completely give up on international soccer and only care about the MLS from now on.

http://www.dailynews.com/sports/ci_4034942

http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_4034817

I saw the documentary on the Beslan massacre. I sobbed my way through most of it. The death of Basayev doesn't rate an instant's sorrow or remorse. I'm not a pacifist.

CBS talks about tanks rolling into Gaza and how Abbas is spending $50 mil received from other Arab states while Israel withhold Hamas money and then decides to inform the reader this

"A 15-month-old Palestinian boy injured in an Israeli missile strike last month died of his wounds at an Israeli hospital."
http://cbs2.com/topstories/topstories_story_192084704.html

That's it. No clarification of what incident is discussed or who made the statement or if anyone corroborated that an Israeli missle strike was responsible. While it might be true since the terrorists like to hide around children, the mainstream media has lost any right to assume that the reader should believe whatever they write.

 

http://www.memri.org/bin/opener_latest.cgi?ID=IA28606

No response yet from George Cattan, a Syrian opinion writer and my wife's uncle, who has been arrested on previous occasions by the government, but who holds no grudge. I sent an e-mail inquiry on July 10, 2006, at 10:30am Pacific time.

Update 7/12/2006: George is fine and never heard from any of the Syrian authorities.

Not a recent story, but something that caught my eye. China is signing with Nigeria for oil.

http://independent-bangladesh.com/news/may/21/21052006bs.htm#A16

May 20: Nigeria handed a state-owned Chinese group licences to explore four oil blocks yesterday, underlining Beijing's increasing drive for energy resources.

Not surprising considering the previous understandings between the two countries.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=3419

The Chinese government builds its influence in Africa by using its state-owned companies to underbid competitors—including Western companies—for government projects.

In essence, China and its African partners have figured out a way to circumvent the patchwork system of accountability for foreign aid.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5114980.stm

But sceptics fear that Beijing's interest in Africa is driven by self-interest and that it is prepared to ignore political, environmental and humanitarian considerations in its search for new markets.

I guess all those years of American foreign aid and debt-relief are really paying off now, eh?

What's up with the blogging portion of townhall running slower than a speeding turtle? This is the third time I'm trying to post this tiny blog entry.

http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=2819

July 7, 2006, 10:49 PM (GMT+02:00)

Up to Friday mid-afternoon, 17 Palestinian missiles struck Israeli locations

Is it a war yet?

 http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=local&id=4344335 

Many Hispanic activists in Southern California supported Lopez Obrador as a champion of the poor and were also organizing protests.

"We need to do what we can on this side of the border to make sure this stolen election doesn't go unchallenged," said Armando Navarro, coordinator of the National Alliance for Human Rights, which had organized caravans to Tijuana for Mexicans to vote.

This is rich. Mexicans who abandoned their country and may be living in America illegally want to have protests against the Mexican election regarding the candidate they didn't bother to vote for. One thing we all need to watch out for: America doesn't need to get the reputation for trying to interfere in the elections of Mexico or hosting those who do.

http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP115006


"The Fundamentalists Have Defined Their Adversaries: Modern Society, Women, and Non-Muslims"

This is my wife's uncle. He's a lovely man. A sweeter person you could never meet. He's also a Palestinian living in Syria (although he considers himself a Syrian the government refuses to recognize him as anything but Palestinian).

Despite the Use of the Extermination of the Jews as Justification for Establishing the State of Israel, It Was Still a Crime Against Humanity

http://www.metransparent.net/texts/george_catan_on_arab_holocaust_denial_memri.htm

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/06/AR2006070600762.html

GOP leaders want another Republican to replace DeLay on the ballot and say state election law allows them to select one because DeLay has moved out of Texas. Democrats sued the Republicans to try to block them from picking a replacement nominee.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,64644,00.html

Late Tuesday, Democrats settled on the 78-year-old Lautenberg as their substitute candidate.

Republicans say it is too close to Election Day to replace Torricelli and that Democrats shouldn't be allowed to dump a candidate who was trailing in the polls. The GOP also said state law bars replacement candidates less than 51 days before an election; Torricelli withdrew 36 days before Election Day.

"I believe the statute should be enforced as it presently reads," Forrester's lawyer, Peter Sheridan, told the state justices.

But in its seven-page ruling, the court said it was more important to have a ballot "bearing the names of candidates of both major political parties" and that state law didn't rule out the possibility of a vacant candidacy within 51 days of the election.

Update with link to another townhall blog on the subject:
'Tom DeLay should change is name and move to New Jersey.'

Why am I not surprised that my children could have been safer if not for obstructionist Democrats?

http://www.examiner.com/a-168837~Editorial__Where_are__Star_Wars__critics_now_.html

they will no doubt protest to high heaven, but “Star Wars” critics must bear the major burden of responsibility for the delays and setbacks that have prevented the missile defense system from becoming fully operational long before the present crisis with North Korea. There have been technological problems, especially in the very early stages, but those were temporary and subject to American technological prowess.

It is a sobering thought to wonder how much more secure the United States and its allies would be today in the face of madness like North Korea’s launches if instead of a limited defense still in development we could depend upon the robust protection first proposed many years ago.

I knew about the shells, but I didn't know about the scant  examination that was done for the Duelfer report.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/07/the_medias_selective_coverage.html

You may not have heard that about 500 artillery shells filled with nerve gas and mustard gas have been found in Iraq, because we've given this story much less attention than the (increasingly fishy) allegations that U.S. Marines committed atrocities in Haditha last November.

The information is contained in a report by the Army's National Ground Intelligence Center, a small portion of which was declassified at the insistence of Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa) and Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich), who announced the findings in a news conference June 21. The munitions date from the 1980s -- the time of the Iran/Iraq war -- and have degraded since then.

The number of weapons found wouldn't have posed much of a threat to protected troops, but could be devastating to civilians. (Saddam used fewer than 20 such munitions to kill an estimated 5,000 Kurds at Halabja in 1988.) The discovery makes it clear Saddam did possess stockpiles of WMD, and that if there were an effort to dispose of them, it was incomplete. Five hundred artillery shells filled with sarin and mustard is a lot to overlook.

There likely are more. Confidence on the left that "Bush lied" when he said Saddam possessed weapons of mass destruction is based on the report of the Iraq Survey Group, which found no stockpiles of WMD. But Charles Duelfer, who headed the ISG, acknowledged his group examined less than one quarter of one percent of the more than 10,000 known weapons storage sites in Iraq.

L.A. City council wants to change the practice of giving money to candidates you support and instead impose a tax so you can equally support candidates you don't like.

 "We're going to say to voters, `We're going to tax some of you so someone can run for office?"' asked West Valley Councilman Dennis Zine. "The San Fernando Valley would go ballistic."

Proponents, however, said voters are so tired of the current system they might be willing to pay up - perhaps with a tax or by adding a surcharge on certain fines.

Yeah, that's what Los Angeles needs to be competitive, more taxes. How about if you're caught speeding you end up giving money to candidates you hate and don't support anything you do. I'm failing to see how this gives us a more representative government.

I've advocated Sharon's plan before I heard of it. Israelis won their land. They need to decide for themselves where the boundaries are and enforce them. They did this in Gaza. They gave the Palestinians what they asked for: contiguous land on which to create a state. In return, the Palestinians elected Hamas, fired explosive rockets at the homes of Israeli civilians, and now launched a raid in which they killed Israeli soldiers on their own soil and kidnapped another soldier. Have the Palestinians in the street reacted in horror and held raucous rallies to decry this event and demand his return? Have they stated their rejection of terrorist violence? No.

Therefore, Palestinians have declared war on Israel. Israel has responded by launching a retaliatory strike on the land that harbors those who are at war with it. There is no surrender. There is no peace treaty. Gaza Palestinians are in a losing war against Israel. It is a war that they cannot hope to win by force. Their defeat should result in annexation of Gaza if the population is recalcitrant. Israel doesn't want Gaza. They have no intention of staying there. Leaving, however, will only result in the same situation that existed before their offensive: daily attacks and the support of terrorism. The only other way out for Gaza is for there to be an unconditional surrender that is approved in a referendum of the population. This could pave the way for negotiations by Israel to withdraw. Any reasonable observer knows that Israel would probably pay to support Gaza if only the inhabitants would agree to live in peace next to Israel.

Sharon's withdrawal from Gaza accomplished its purpose. It gave the Israeli's a chance to prove to the world that land for peace is a solution that is rejected by the Palestinians. Only in an upsidedown world would the world insist that the aggressors and losers of a war should dictate the terms of peace. Gaza declared war on Israel and lost. As soon as they can be made to realize this, Israel can dictate the terms of peace so that the war can end. If Gaza refuses to acknowledge their loss, Israel must do what it most does not want: make Gaza part of Israel and relocate the inhabitants to the west bank.