Orange Revolution Part III

AP

What a beautiful picture! Just gives me chills!

Discoshaman over at Le Sabot Post-Moderne is feeling a little tired today after all the celebration. But if you want some first hand reportage of the events in the square, just go to Le Sabot's main page and scroll through. Great stuff!

Orange Revolution PartII

AP

Sweet!

Great News From The Orange Revolution

"KIEV, Ukraine - The Supreme Court declared the results of Ukraine's disputed presidential run-off election invalid Friday and ordered a new run-off be held on Dec. 26, sparking a burst of cheers and fireworks from tens of thousands of opposition supporters rejoicing in Kiev's main square." AP

Cool!

Why The French Prefer Diplomacy To Military Action

AP
Well, if you had to wear hats like that, you wouldn't be able to fight either!

Why The French Prefer Diplomacy to Military Action, Part Deux

AP

Can't we just talk things through?

(I know that part 2 is coming before part one but if a person is scrolling through my main page, it makes more sense this way. If your not on the main page, see part 1 here.)

(A desperate cry for help. Does anybody with more knowledge and/or skill with Bloggerbot know of a way to post mutiple pictures to one post. I have tried and tried to send more than one picture at a time but can't seem to get it done. As you can see, I had to do this and the linked post above seperately. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm hooked to this photoblogging! Thanks.)

Tomatoes Or Tomahtoes in Afghanistan

Abdul Saboor, 37, an Afgan traffic police officer, regulates the vehicles circulation at the rushed hours in downtown Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday Dec.2, 2004. For 12 years Saboor does his duty as a traffic police officer in Kabul where he has experienced a few regimes in the past as like, Najibullah's regime, Mujahedeen's and Taliban's regimes too. But he says ' In the past regimes there wasn't so traffic jam as it is now.' Since the ousting of the Taliban over two years ago, the number of vehicles on Kabul roads increased to 350,000 in a city designed for 40,000 vehicles resulting in traffic chaos and air pollution. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)(Emphasis mine)


The above caption is word-for-word, letter-for-letter taken from the AP. Now I look at this picture and see a delightful scene. I see a man, hard at work and apparently having a rather jolly time. I see progress and economic advancement coming to a war torn country with a very chaotic history. I see a country which is desperately trying to join the 21st century.

Unfortunately, the AP does not have as optimistic a take on the scene. Instead, they see chaos and air pollution. I'm curious:

How long will it be before the moonbat environmentalists and the MSM start haranguing that Bush is destroying the environment in Afghanistan?

Pecksniffian Alert Part II

A Chinese worker cleans the street in heavy smog on the outskirts of Beijing early December 2, 2004. Thick smog blanketed Beijing triggering flight delays and traffic snarls and spotlighting the city's uphill battle to curb pollution before it hosts the 2008 Olympic Games. REUTERS

I'm sure that somehow, China's smog problems are Bush's fault for not signing on to the Kyoto Protocols.

Am I the only one who has missed all the protest marches, newspaper articles, magazine spreads, and TV news reports decrying China's destruction of the environment? Why the double standard? Could it be that the environment is not really their true cause? Hmmmmm!

The Left Can Be Such Pecksniffians!

A Bosnian girl stands next to a billboard advertising the change from the NATO-led Stabilization Forces (SFOR) to a new EU peacekeeping force (EUFOR). AFP

My first snide comment is God help them! I mean, aren't "EU" and "force" oxymoronic?

And second:

Let's see, Bosnia; mid 1990's; Clinton in the White House; civil unrest in a far-away country; no real national interest other than humanitarian; screw the U.N.; send American troops.......................................Fast forward and is now almost 2005; American troops still in Bosnia; area still in need of peacekeeping troops; could be many years before the area is thoroughly subdued.

My questions: where have the cries for an exit strategy been? Where are the denunciations for not going to the U.N.? Where are the protests for the dispossessed and/or dead civilians? on and on and on and on...........

What a bunch of hypocrites!

(P.S. Just in case you were wondering, a pecksniffian is a hypocrite. It comes from a character in Dickens' Martin Chuzzlewit.)

A Coincidence?

Michelle Malkin has a great piece today about the "open-borders lobby." I really do suggest you read it but that is not the main reason I am making this post. In her post, she creates (at least I've never seen it before) an acronym for her least favorite activist category. She dubs the "open-borders lobby":

OBL.

Now is it just me, or was that just tooooooo appropriate? Did she do it on purpose or was this one of those "no- pun- intended" moments? Using the initials of the world's number one terroist to denote the "immigration- at-any-cost" moonbats is a perfect example of effective writing. Great work Michelle!


UPDATE: I would be remiss if I did not include the very important point of Michelle's blog post and her most recent column:

Pro-enforcement is not anti-immigrant!

Let Freedom Ring!

Reuters
My thoughts and prayers for the brave people of the Ukraine!

Finally, some protesters I can relate to. Now compare and contrast these Ukrainians with the charming "freedom fighters" in Canada in the post below.

(Rest assured that the Commissar will be adding these maddog reactionaries to his Lubyanka guest list.)

Oh, Grow Up!

Reuters
I see Canada has the same socialized dental plan as Britain.

I am glad to see Canadians exercising their freedoms; freedoms which are brought to them in large part by the country that the "terrorist" on their placard represents. I just wish that they were a tad bit more appreciative of that fact.

UPDATE: Florida Cracker has found a Canadian columnist who has a somewhat cynical yet very pragmatic attitude towards the U.S.A. In a column on CBC News Online, Tom Velk has this to say about why Canadians should be thankful for and welcoming to POTUS Bush:

"...all he will want is Canadian hot air - "support" for a missile defense program that we couldn't stop no matter how hard we tried, and which won't cost us a cent. He'll want more hot air by way of "support" in Iraq - he won't ask for, since we don't have them to give, any front line troops. He'll be quite happy to get a few Canadian folks way back in the supply line, offering medical care or what have you, just so there can be another nation in the coalition of the willing.

In exchange, we get real stuff - reasonable consideration of our problems with cows, fish and lumber. Something for nothing is a deal we should grab with both hands - or at least with one hand, using the other to wave that (American) flag."

He goes on to say:

"The American commander-in-chief is riding high. We have no chance of knocking him off his horse. On the other hand, it is a time he can easily afford to be generous, to forget past (and present) insults from Canadian backbenchers. All that Martin needs to do is be civil, agreeable and accommodating."

Nice use of quotation marks Mr. Velk. The (American) was mine. Now I would much rather have agreement; but I will settle for realism from Canada. Unfortunately, as evidenced by the above picture, I will not hold my breath for either.

Wheel Of Good Sense

Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak has an interesting opinion on the Hush Over Hollywood pertaining to the terrorist murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh. The salient points below.


"Picture this:

Somewhere in the world, a filmmaker creates a short documentary that chronicles what he perceives as the excesses of anti-abortion activists. An anti-abortion zealot reacts to the film by killing the filmmaker in broad daylight and stabbing anti-abortion tracts onto his body. How does the Hollywood community react to this atrocity? Would there be angry protests? Candlelight vigils? Outraged letters and columns and articles? Awards named in honor of their fallen comrade? Demands for justice? Calls for protection of artistic freedom? Itâ??s a pretty safe bet that there would be all of the above and much more. And all of the anger would be absolutely justified."

Sajak poses a possible (and I think very probable) explanation for the lack of outrage emanating from tinseltown:

"There's another possibility; one that seems crazy on the surface, but does provide an explanation for the silence, and is also in keeping with the political climate in Hollywood. Is it just possible that there are those who are reluctant to criticize an act of terror because that might somehow align them with President Bush, who stubbornly clings to the notion that these are evil people who need to be defeated? Could the level of hatred for this President be so great that some people are against anything he is for, and for anything he is against? " Makes sense to me. Shame on them!

Another in the "Chill Wind" series. Or, more appropriately, the "Lack Of A Chill Wind" series.

UPDATE: Cranky Neocon has some great "quotes" from the left about the terrorist murder of Theo Van Gogh.