Category: Internet

Craig links the Frisco Chronicle story in the number at Saturday’s Anti-Bush rally:

CraigSchamp.org: Counting Leftists

The crowd measured 65,000 malcontents, not 200,000, as reported earlier. Not everyone’s happy with the facts, though.

65,000 people represents a whopping one percent of the 6.5 million living in the Frisco Bay Area. Granted that this part of the country is most likely the hottest hotbed of opposition to the Bush Administration, what does it say that only 1 percent feel strongly enough to come to a warm-weather protest? Not much.

Protesters are demanding a recount, of course, on the basis that many of them are named “Chad”, and they should have been counted multiple times. Al Gore agrees, and has instructed lawyers to prepare motions overturning laws of physics.

The LA Times ran an unusually harsh editorial on the city council’s decision to spend hours considering an anti-Iraq resolution while a gang war rages across the city:

Council: Fix Local ‘War’

The Los Angeles City Council deadlocked Tuesday on a proclamation opposing war in Iraq without United Nations backing. Meanwhile, the “war” here at home claimed another casualty. A 17-year-old girl shooting hoops at a city park in South Los Angeles caught a bullet in the head when three people in a gold Chevrolet fired at another car. She’s in critical condition. The council takes up Iraq again today.

It’s all about priorities, isn’t it? The first being the primacy of looking good over doing good.

UPDATE: Lonewacko reports that the idiots finally got their way and voted to give Iraq the finger.

The massive protests against Iraqi liberation are having a good efffect. The Wasington Post reports that they’ve jazzed-up Saddam so much that he no longer feels he has to even pretend to cooperate with the inspections, and this new recalcitrance should make the final resolution easier to obtain:

Iraqi defiance on rise, say U.N. officials / Inspectors sense less cooperation in past few days

Baghdad — President Saddam Hussein’s government, apparently emboldened by anti- war sentiment at the Security Council and in worldwide street protests, has not followed through on its promises of increased cooperation with the U.N. arms inspectors in Iraq, the inspectors say.

Thanks to the hippies who made this possible.

Evan Coyne Maloney went to New York and interviewed protesters on camera. The resulting movie is, like, hilarious, man, especially when he asked them why the US didn’t seize the Iraqi oil fields after the 1991 Gulf War.

The LA Times reports that the text of the next Security Council Resolution on the disarmament of Iraq is taking shape:

U.S., Britain to Set Deadlines for U.N., Iraq

UNITED NATIONS — The United States and Britain will present a resolution to the Security Council “in the next few working days” authorizing the use of military force to disarm Iraq and imposing a deadline for the council to vote on it, U.S. and British officials said Wednesday.

Key elements include deadlines for Security Council action, and Iraqi full compliance with UNSCR 1441, and as we might expect, Russia, France, and Germany maintain that the “last chance” spelled out in 1441 should go on forever.

I listened to some of the Non-Aligned Nations speaking to the Security Council this week, and there was a lot of equivocation, with most speakers saying “yes, Iraq’s out of compliance,” and “no, we shouldn’t enforce the resolutions yet, 12 years isn’t near enough time.”

But the underlying message, made clear by India, was the fear that warfare will spike crude oil prices, limiting poor nations’ ability to import fuel, and consequent damage to their economies and transportation systems, especially where food is concerned. They aren’t coming on board until something can be done to protect oil markets during the fighting, and their concerns are well-founded in hard experience for them after the Gulf War.

I don’t know that the US and the UK can solve this problem, but they should try to get pledges from oil exporters outside the Mid-East to boost production and hold prices steady if there’s any interruption in oil production from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Iran.

Happy Fun Pundit reports that Iraqis are preparing for liberation by investing in land:

For those of us that lean strongly towards ‘liberator’, there is some new evidence: Iraq’s real estate market is booming. There is a surge of investment in commercial construction, home prices are skyrocketing, the Iraqi stock exchange is rising, and real estate speculators are making a killing. According to Newsweek, “there is an air of undeniable optimism in the marketplace”.

They know something the protesters don’t, apparently.

Moira’s not real impressed by Chirac’s recurring case of the vapors:

Did he gather up his petticoats and flounce out of the room after this Scarlett impersonation? Is it proper that the leader of a great democratic nation conduct himself like the cheese of some inconsequential satrapy, touchy about his gold braid and ritual deference?

Some of the reader comments are classic.

Ahmad Chalabi, the head of the Iraqi National Congress, has a sharp Op-Ed in OpinionJournal on the nature of liberated Iraq’s government:

SULEIMANIYAH, Iraq–We the Iraqis are ready to embark on a final journey to fulfill our destiny as a dignified and free nation. Here in northern Iraq, I am surrounded by fellow Iraqi patriots, many of whom are now gathering in this liberated zone. We have long been united around the goal of claiming our country from the hands of tyranny. Our struggle for freedom has been a long epic, but our hour of liberation is now beginning.

While the day of Iraq’s freedom is at hand, a day of reckoning for U.S.-Iraqi relations is also close by. After decades of struggle the Iraqi people, with the assistance of the U.S., have a chance finally to construct a free and democratic society at peace with itself and with the world. This cooperation between the Iraqi people and the U.S. also has the potential of being a historical watershed between the Arab and Muslim world and America.

There’s a huge debate going on right now as to whether liberated Iraq will be governed by the US military, only to make the transition to self-rule over a two year period, or, as the INC wishes, the transition to an indigenous democracy is more immediate.

This struggle, as I’ve mentioned, reflects a split within the Administration, with the CIA and State Department favoring gradualism, and the White House and the Pentagon favoring a quicker transition. The INC is probably jumping the gun a bit, as the final decision will probably depend on how the fighting goes, and whether the Iraqi resistance plays a significant role. It’s one thing to sit outside the country and talk about your popular support, and another to prove it on the battlefield.

Chalabi is showing a tin ear to the politics of the liberation, as there is still significant opposition to any military action not sanctioned by the collection of ne’er do wells we call the UN, especially among the European left. The liberation forces need to show unity until the fighting actually finishes, and I can’t say I’m at all impressed by the INC’s behavior these past days.

Link via Dean Esmay, who also has a great link to a letter from Northern Iraq.

LA newspaper mogul Ken Layne puts attendance figures on the weekend protests against the liberation of Iraq in perspective:

More than 200,000 people showed up for the Daytona race on Sunday, despite the rain. (29 million watched it on teevee.) The car race and the war protest in New York had about the same turnout. I’d say the protest got more news coverage than Daytona, but that’s okay. If nobody went to the car race, that would be big news.

I wonder how many of the folks who turned out for the Daytona 500 are pro-Saddam? My guess is it would be somewhere close to negative numbers.

The AP reports that the 18th resolution in the 12-year-old rush to war is ready for action:

Officials in London and Washington were moving ahead, toning down what was supposed to be a very tough resolution. Diplomats said the final text will place Iraq in material breach of its obligations and reiterate that Saddam now faces serious consequences, but it likely will not make an explicit call to arms.

“Serious consequences” is just the kind of wiggly phrasing that can let both sides claim victory. Apparently some 40 smaller countries intend to deliver speeches for a couple of days before the votes are tallied, which should allow for all countries that might become targets of Aql Qaeda to claim innocence. It sure is great we have this multinational body standing ready to duck any and all tough issues that might come its way.