ABBAS DELAYS ELECTIONS

BBC:

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has announced that parliamentary elections set for 17 July will be postponed. In a public decree, he said he wanted to allow more time to resolve a dispute over changes to the election law. Mr Abbas said a new date would be set after talks with the Palestinian factions and law makers. The move has been condemned by militant group Hamas, which correspondents say had been poised to do well in its first run at a legislative poll. ... Mr Abbas did not set a new date for the election, but Palestinian officials have talked about a delay of several months. ... The postponement will please many in Mr Abbas' Fatah party because they want more time to prepare for the poll, the BBC's Barbara Plett reports from Jerusalem. The [FATAH] movement is in disarray and tarnished by a reputation for corruption and inefficiency, our correspondent says.

DELAYED BY DECREE! OF COURSE ELECTIONS ARE DELAYED BY DECREE, BY FIAT!

Peace will reign in the Middle East only AFTER "Arab democracy" is no longer an oxymoron! And because of George W. Bush, IRAQ will lead the way!

POWERLINE VERSUS SID VICIOUS. POWERLINE WINS BY A KNOCKOUT!

Check out this post over at POWERLINE on Clinton attack dog Sid Blumenthal and the anti-constitutional and elitist Democrat filibustering of judicial nominees. The post includes parts on an email exchange bewtween POWERLINE and Sid Vicious.

I have also had an email correspondance with Sid - I emailed him after reading an article by him in the Guardian. The exchange was about Vietnam; he denies that the SVG fell because of the Dems in Congress abandoned them by cutting off all financing, and saw no similarity between that abandonment and the one called for by The Left in Iraq - as when they say we should withdraw AT ONCE or by a date certain/announced.

The exchange proved to me - once again - that either the folks still on The Left are still living in the past, or they're living in DENIAL.

I KNOW: I was a member of the anti-war Left in the 1970's, but steadily drifited rightward after becuase of things like McGovern's HUMONGOUS loss and Kael's famous comment, and the obvious and undeniable victories of Reagan on ALL fronts (against the USSR, and on taxes & the economy).

W is governing like Reagan: unafraid of the political attacks from the Left - here and in Europe, while courageously pursuing policies to defeat our enemies, and to empower individuals, and to restrain the power of the state. In additon, W has also done more to protect Life than Reagan.

The Left liked to believe that Clinton stood as a rebuke of Reaganism, but in fact, in 1992 Clinton RAN as a healthy repsonse to Reaganism: he ran as a moderate/centrist Democrat - he was for middle class TAX CUTS and for the death penalty and for welfare reform. (How he governed is another matter!)

W's election - and re-election - proves that Reaganism is in fact the dominant meme and that Clinton was an aberration or a phony who did nearly nothing of lasting import in his 8 years at the helm.

When the Left is forced to confront the fact that W is a successful president (the W is winning the GWOT and that the economy is growing, and that Clinton's numerous foreign policy failures - in Serbia, Rwanda. North Korea, against al Qaeda [there was ZERO effective respnse to the 1993 WTC attack or to Somalia or to the USS Cole, etc.] - and that W has steadily enlarged the GOP) the Left reverts to vicious name-calling and obstructionism.

Which GUARANTEES their continued demise.Thank God.

IRRELEVANT AND ANTI-DEMOCRATIC: Chirac and Schroeder Ignore the People

BBC: "French President Jacques Chirac flies to Berlin later today to dine with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. The two leaders, who are due to discuss the future of the EU Constitution, have already called for the ratification process to continue across Europe."

Jacques and Gerhard have the support of ONLY 1-in-5 of their fellow countrymen - but they don't seem to care. Why should they? Elitists never do! Eltiists think they know better. Which is why the EU constitution has failed: it enshrines elitism and this makes the voters of Europe feel less empowered. IOW: the voters of France and Holland GOT IT RIGHT; voters - like free-markets pricing things - usually do.

After Chirac and Schroeder are thrown out of office their respective nations can begin the process of reform AT HOME. IMHO: Only after that job is done can Europe successfully federalize under a continental constitution.

POP QUIZ: WHICH "ISM" IS GOOD AND WHICH "ISM" IS EVIL?

Israelis develop and deploy a NON-LETHAL WEAPON to use against violent Arabs.

Neojihadists use terrorism and suicide-bombers to commit mass murder and genocide - kiling mostly other Muslims.

So tell me... which "ism" - Zionism or Neojihadism - is good and which is evil?

CAN SCIENCE MAKE ABORTION OBSOLETE?

CAN SCIENCE MAKE ABORTION OBSOLETE? CAN SCIENCE FIND A WAY TO ALLOW WOMEN TO TERMINATE UNWANTED PREGNANCIES WITHOUT TERMINATING THE BABY/FETUS/EMBRYO?

IF SCIENCE COULD MAKE ABORTION A VESTIGIAL OPERATION, IT WOULD SAVE LIVES, ("POTENTIAL LIVES" FOR YOU PRO-CHOICE FOLKS), AND "TAKE OFF THE TABLE" - ONCE AND FOR ALL TIME - THIS BITTER AND DIVISIVE ISSUE, AND IT WOULD LIBERATE OUR BODY POLITIC OF THIS ANNOYING SORE THAT DOESN'T SEEM TO EVER HEAL. (CAN YOU IMAGINE HOW MUCH MORE SIMPLE JUDICIAL APPOINTMENTS WOULD BE ONCE FREED FROM THIS CONTROVERSY!?)

HOW MIGHT SCIENCE DO THIS?

EASY. IT'S ALREADY IS DOING IT. IT'S CALLED EMBRYONIC ADOPTION.

A FEW EEKS AGO, BUSH APPEARED WITH 21 CHILDREN WHO WERE ONCE FROZEN EMBRYOS IN "LIMBO" BUT WHO WERE ADOPTED BY PARENTS WHO WANTED A CHILD BUT COULD NOT CONCEIVE ONE OF THEIR OWN. ONE CHILD HAD BEEN AN EMBRYO FROZENS FOR OVER A DECADE! HE AND THE OTHER 21 CHILDREN WERE ONCE FROZEN EMBRYOS WHICH WERE "MADE" IN FERTUILITY CLINICS.

TO EXTEND THIS BIOMEDICAL PROCEDURE IN A WAY WHICH WOULD MAKE ABOPRTION OBSOLETE, ALL SCIENCE MUST DISCOVER IS: (1) HOW TO REMOVE AND FREEZE AND EMBRYOS FROM THE WOMB OF A WOMAN WHO IS PREGNANT (BUT WHO DOESN'T WANT TO CARRY THE CHILD TO TERM); AND (2) HOW LATE IN A PREGNANCY THIS EXTRACTION AND FREEZING CAN SAFELY BE DONE.

THEN, LEFT-WING AND RIGHT-WING AND RED-STATERS AND BLUE-STATERS MIGHT UNITE AND TOGETHER TRANSFORM ABORTION CLINICS INTO EXTRACTION/FREEZING/ADOPTION CENTERS.

THIS WOULD TRANSFORM A DIVISIVE ISSUE INTO A WIN-WIN-WIN: ONE WOMAN ENDS AN UN-WANTED PREGNANCY (WITHOUT TERMINATING THE FETUS); ANOTHER WOMAN WHO OTHERWISE COULDN'T GET PREGNANT GETS PREGNANT; AND A BABY THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN ABORTED IS BORN.

MAKE THAT WIN-WIN-WIN-WIN - BECAUSE THE PUBLIC WINS, TOO.

"THE FELT CONNECTION:" WAS WATERGATE AN FBI COUP?

This morning on IMUS (I watched it on replay on MSNBC-TV), Bob Woodward said that Deep Throat's/Felt's FIRST TIP to him - EVER - was that Spiro T. Agnew was on the take before he was Veep.

There can be ONLY ONE REASON for this action by Felt:

he - and anybody allied with him - knew that to get the DEMOCRAT CONTROLLED CONGRESS to move on IMPEACHMENT AGAINST NIXON that Agnew would FIRST have to be shelved, because NO DEMOCRAT WOULD MOVE AGAINST NIXON IF IT MEANT THAT AGNEW WOULD ASCEND TO THE WHITE HOUSE.

I always felt that the Agnew resignation was a preamble to a move against Nixon - THIS ADMISSION BY WOODWARD PROVES MY INSTINCTS WERE CORRECT! And I suspected this - at the time - even though I was a very politically engaged anti-Nixon anti-war Leftist teenager in 1973.

[ASIDE: Now, I see that Nixon accomplished many MANY HUGELY IMPORTANT and beneficial things for the nation and the world - (detente, China, ending the draft, ending the Vietnam War, starting the EPA & passing the Clean Air/Clean Water Act), and that he also boldy tried some things that turned out badly (like Wage and price Controls) - and was one of our most importyant presidents. In fact, I think Nixon did more IMPORTANT GOOD THINGS in his 5 years (things we are still benefitting from) than Clinton did in 8!]

The now undeniable FELT/FBI CONNECTION to the outting of the Watergate Scandal may just be the tip of the iceberg.

HERE'S ANOTHER POSSIBLE MYSTERIOUS CONNECTION: Woodward - a proven dissembler who on many occassions denied that Felt was Deep Throat - now claims that he and Felt met by accident on a plane and that as a result of this chance-meeting, Felt became his "mentor." At the time they met, Woodward was in NAVY INTELLIGENCE - some have even suggested he was an undercover operator for the CIA. WHAT'S MY POINT!? Well, perhaps Woodward's story about how he met Felt is just more dissembling and the connection between Woodward and Felt and the FBI was DEEPER, PROFESSIONAL, and perhaps more sinister?

I think the "Felt Connection" fails to answer every question about Watergate - and I think that it evens raises a few more. IOW: the full story has yet to come out.

WHY THE E.U. IS "D.O.A."

There are TWO countervaling tendencies in the EU: (1) DEVOLUTION, as nations devolve more power to more local governments, and as more nations come into existence (prinicipally in Eastern Europe, but also in the UK and Spain and Italy and Belgium); (2) FEDERALIZATION, as the continient tries to unify across the traditional nation-state boundaries (which in Europe are more defined, distinctive and divergent than almost anywhere else).

One of these trends tends to give people a sense of greater control. The other tends to give people a sense of loss of control. SO... of course a majority of people will reject the trend which they think reduces the control they have over their government and their lives.

For the EU to succeed as a federation - and to do that they MUST pass a constitution - the EU leaders must come up with a TRANSPARENTLY DEMOCRATIC EU FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, and one with TRANSPARENT TAXES AND BUDGETS. Only a transparently democratic, responsive, and transparently fair (on the tax & spend side) federal government will make a majority of Europeans unafraid of adding another layer of bureaucracy to their lives.

If they fail to REFORM their nation states - FIRST - and then to reform the EU bureacracy, then they will NEVER have a true "Continental Congress" (pun intended) and they will never have a continental federation.

I'm an optimist. I believe they will eventually succeed - circa 2015.

SUV'S KILLED OFF THE MAMMOTHS... not!

According to this news item from the BBC, climate change - and not hunting - led to the extinction of the mammoth, and other huge beasts at the end of the Pleistocene epoch.

Since there were NO SUV'S around then - or factories or coal-burning power generating plants or captalists or Republicans - I wonder who the Leftists blame for that change in global climate?

Will Leftist environazis ever admit that periodic global climate change is NATURAL!?

I doubt it; I think Leftists will go extinct first - may the day come soon!

WHAT'S NEXT FOR EUROPE

The rejection of the EU constitution by the French electorate means that the EUssr is kaput - Thank God!

This is an important detour OFF the road to serfdom, and perhaps the first step on the road to reform.

And the much needed and long overdue reforms will now occur exactly where they must: on the national front, not on the continental front. After the nations of Old Europe reform then they can restart the federalization process again; IOW, the socialistic welfare states of Europe must reform FIRST, BEFORE any transnational/federal EU can be brought into existence.

This may happen sooner than you think: Germany and France will elect Reaganesque/Thatcherite PM's who will dismantle their nation's welfare states - Germany will elect Merkel this fall, and France will elect Sarkozy in a couple of years.

After France and Germany REFORM - and become more Anglo-American in their policies - their economies will rebound and their people will not be so frightened by pan-European federalism. The a EU constitution would likely succeed.

Ironically, the reform policies which Reagan and Thatcher enacted, (which worked so well, and still work so well) - policies which are derided by the anti-Americans of Old Europe as crass Anglo-Americanism - were actually developed by a European - HAYEK! Perhaps if they were "sold" that way, the Old Europeans might follow them more enthusiastically!