I Wonder What Happened To Change Mike's Mind?

Dirka, Dirka to Boaza at KisP

Oh, But He Really, Really Tried...

According to the BBC regarding the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize:

"Mr ElBaradei, who shares the award with the IAEA, described it as a recognition of the agency's efforts to make the world a safer place." (emp. mine)

Hmmmmm, efforts. Efforts? Did he say efforts? Yep, he said efforts. Now, it seems to me that results would be a little bit better as qualifications for a "peace" prize, but what do I know? But since we are going with "efforts," let's take a quick little look at how effective the IAEA's "efforts" have been.

*Before the 1991 Gulf War (before Dr ElBaradei’s appointment), the IAEA failed to detect Saddam’s nuclear programme. After the war, it was startled by the scale of his work to make fissile material.

* India announced it officially possessed nuclear weapons.

* Pakistan announced it had nuclear weapons.

* Under Dr ElBaradei, the IAEA missed the Libyan nuclear programme, which Libya chose to reveal after the 2003 Iraq war. Libya announced that it had a highly-developed nuclear weapons program, and turned it over -- lock, stock, and barrel -- to the United States.

* It was slow to sound the alarm about North Korea’s conversion of its civil nuclear power into a weapons programme. The US accused North Korea of weapons ambitions in 2002. North Korea has continued violations of the treaty and is unabashedly seeking nuclear weapons.

* Iran has repeatedly violated the treaty and is unabashedly seeking nuclear weapons. It failed to detect the “nuclear supermarket” run by A. Q. Khan, the Pakistani scientist who sold plans and components to Libya, North Korea and Iran.

* It failed to detect the “nuclear supermarket” run by A. Q. Khan, the Pakistani scientist who sold plans and components to Libya, North Korea and Iran. Pakistan has helped spread what it has learned about nuclear weapons throughout the Muslim world.

Info courtesy of the The Times and Wizbang


It's a good thing that the qualifications for winning the Nobel Peace Prize are "efforts" and not results because otherwise, Mr. ElBaradei would now be stuck in his boring old IAEA office instead of partying down with the "we-are-the-world" crowd in Oslo.


...And to give credit where credit is due, I give you Greenpeace. (I wonder if they got their costumes from these guys?)

















I realize that Greenpeaces's motives for protesting this event are completely different from my reasons for being glad to see them protesting this event. This is just one of those infrequent occurrences when through some bizarre discombobulation of time, space and matter, a radical leftist organization actually gets something right!

Another Out Of Tune Voice

"My words to Howard Dean are simple - shut up," Pomeroy told WDAY Radio in North Dakota on Thursday.

Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D, ND)

Rep. Pomeroy speaking on Howard Dean:

"He is not hired to make major policy announcements on behalf of all the Democrats," Pomeroy said. "As our party chairman I believe he needs to focus on the nuts and bolts of winning elections."

Don't worry Rep. Pomeroy, Howard Deans has been all over the "nuts" thing for quite some time!

Once again. I will not hold my breath waiting for the media feeding frenzy to cover Rep. Pomeroy's pronouncements. (you can read his stance here.)

Previous out of tune.

Someone in the choir is a bit out of tune

“Dean’s take on Iraq makes even less sense than the
scream in Iowa: Both are uninformed and unhelpful,” said Rep. Jim Marshall (D-Ga.) (emp mine)

Ouchhhh!

More Marshall here about his trip to Iraq. A sampling:

"...my professional colleagues, political leaders
and activists who are carelessly using words and phrases such as "quagmire," "our failure in Iraq," "this is just another Vietnam," or "the Bush administration has no plan."

and:

"I went to Iraq a couple of weeks ago to resolve for
myself the recent contrast between gloomy news coverage and optimistic Pentagon reports of our progress. My trip left no doubt that the Pentagon's version is far closer to reality."

and:

"Falsely bleak Iraq news circulating in the United States
is a serious problem for coalition forces because it discourages Iraqi
cooperation, the key to our ultimate success or failure, a daily determinant of life or death for American soldiers."

Those last ones come from a piece published in WAPO in early October and available on the Congressman's website.

Now let's see: Murtha...Marshall, Murtha...Marshall. What on earth could possibly explain the disparate press coverage of these two hitherto unknown Congressmen? Or should I say one still unknown Congressman and one now much ballyhooed Congressman?

NO MORE CALLS FOR BUSES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

"They (Blanco & Nagin) jumped all right, but not into action. They jumped into the blame game." Junkyard Blog

We Are The World.....

Dirka, dirka Sondra K.