NYT Sympathy For Criminal? Absolutely, If He Tried Avoiding Military Duty

Nearly two years ago, Jonathan Aponte left the Bronx for Iraq, a private with the First Cavalry of the United States Army.

And on Friday, he was, at long last, home for keeps — but not from the war. He was just back from an eight-month stay on Rikers Island.

Mr. Aponte went to jail because he arranged to get himself shot in the leg on a Bronx street corner in a staged robbery, hoping for an injury that would be just bad enough to keep him from going back to Iraq. That part worked. But it was just one act in a Bronx soap opera that in many respects seemed to be a scaled-down version of the delusional ambitions of the Iraq war itself.

So, Aponte did his first stint in Iraq without any problems, but after coming back to the States and getting married during a 10 day leave, decided the night before to stage an incident where he'd be shot and therefore unable to deploy back to Iraq.

The whole plot collapsed, and he admitted to staging a robbery in order to get shot to avoid returning to Iraq to complete his service.

And yet, the New York Times wants people to think that this is somehow connected to how or why we're in Iraq today?

The Times would like you to think that US ambitions for Iraq are delusional. Interesting. They apparently think that denying al Qaeda a base of operations is delusional. They apparently think that giving Iraqis a shot at democracy is delusional. Curious.

They haven't exactly been paying attention to the news in their own paper, which has been forced to admit that the experiment with democracy has been working there as political benchmarks have been reached, the Iraqis are standing up and dealing with the insurgency themselves in greater numbers, and al Qaeda is on the run and unable to find safe havens in the country where they'd be free from repercussions from either the Iraqi people or the US military.

Mr. Aponte escaped indictment by telling the grand jury of the horrors that he said he had witnessed in Iraq. Because no kind deed — especially a bullet to the leg — goes unpunished, Ms. Gonzalez and Mr. Padilla were indicted on charges of felony assault. They are awaiting trial.

That's right - the reporter Jim Dwyer thinks that committing criminal acts should go unpunished because the ultimate goal - keeping Aponte from going back to Iraq was the okay. Gotcha. He certainly is held up as a hero by the delusional left. Or, they're calling him a victim of the Bush Administration's war.

Either way, this man failed his fellow soldiers by attempting to cut and run from his service. That was a dishonorable thing to do, and his arrest, admission of guilt, and prison time all attest to the stupidity involved. He is no hero for trying to avoid returning to service in Iraq.

I will leave it to others to determine whether Aponte actually saw what he claimed to have seen in Iraq. It is certainly plausible that he saw all manner of horror in Iraq. I'm sure the military will mete out an appropriate judgment on Aponte's capacity to remain in the service. At best, he failed his fellow soldiers in his unit.

Robert Mondavi Passes Away at 94

Robert Mondavi helped establish California wine country on the world stage and helped bring California wines to tables around the country.

Robert Mondavi, the pioneering vintner who helped put California wine country on the map, died at his Napa Valley home yesterday. He was 94. Mondavi died peacefully at his home in Yountville, Robert Mondavi Winery spokeswoman Mia Malm said.

He was 52 and a winemaking veteran in 1966, when he opened the winery that would help turn the Napa Valley into a world centre of the industry. Clashes with a brother that included a fistfight led him to break from the family business to carry out his ambitious plans with borrowed money.

At the time, California was still primarily known for cheap jug wines. But he set out to change that, championing use of cold fermentation, stainless steel tanks and French oak barrels, all commonplace in the industry today. He introduced blind tastings in Napa Valley, putting his wines up against French vintages, a bold move.

Always convinced that California wines could compete with the European greats, Mondavi engaged in the first French-American wine venture when he formed a limited partnership with the legendary French vintner Baron Philippe de Rothschild to grow and make the ultra-premium Opus One at Oakville. The venture's first vintage was in 1979.

The success of the Mondavi winery allowed him to donate tens of millions of dollars to charity, but a wine glut and intense competition gradually cost his family control of the business. In 2004, the company accepted a buyout worth $1.3 billion from Fairport, N.Y.-based Constellation Brands.

We had the opportunity to visit Napa Valley on our honeymoon and visited the Mondavi winery. It's an impressive operation, and much of the success of the region's wineries is owed to Mondavi and his vision for California wines. He showed that California wines could stand up to the best of what Europe had to offer, and that this country could produce more than simply jug wine.

Photo of the Day

 

This photo of Sedona's beautiful scenery taken at dusk was shot by Mrs. Lawhawk from our rental car as we were driving into Sedona. Snoopy Rock can be found at the center.

New Chinese Nuclear Missile Base Discovered

I came across this item at Hot Air, and was intrigued by a passage in the post:

The region has long been rumored to house nuclear missiles and I have previously described some of the facilities in a report and a blog. But the new analysis reveals a significantly larger deployment area than previously known, different types of launch pads, command and control facilities, and missile deployment equipment at a large facility in downtown Delingha.

The Chinese located a missile base in the middle of a city? Here's a photo that accompanies the article.

Still, that photo doesn't quite tell the full story, so with a little Google-fu, I found the coordinates:


View Larger Map

The photo accompanying the story is an oblique angle of the same items in the map. Just zoom in several times to get the area in to clear focus.

So, why would the Chinese locate this base in this location? Well, it would put Chinese missiles in range of Russian missiles, and the two countries are rivals with a long border and longstanding grudges over access to mineral and oil deposits, to say nothing of influence over events in Asia.

The Obama Foreign Policy Follies

These aren't merely unforced errors or rookie mistakes, but clear enunciations of what Obama intends to do should he ever be elected President of the United States. He wants to engage in direct talks with Iran, and he repeats it for good measure all while trying to claim that President Bush's speech before the Israeli Knesset applied to him.

Here's the thing.

So, not only is he whining about Bush calling out appeasers - a statement not aimed solely at Obama, but at the appeasers around the world - but he goes ahead and reiterates his statement that he'd meet with the Iranians without preconditions.

Idiot. From a purely political breakdown, Obama's playing right into GOP hands (or Hillary if you're still on the fence), because he's showing that he is indeed an appeaser.

Even bigger idiots? Those who think that Obama knows the first thing about foreign policy.

Those who nonchalantly think that the US will survive four years of an Obama administration aren't paying attention. This isn't mere hyperbole, but consider what we're facing - a regime in Iran that isn't deterred by force, and instead would welcome a nuclear attack on its own soil after lobbing nukes at its enemies because of the fulfillment of an apocalyptic religious vision. Iran wants nukes, and is clearly doing everything imaginable to obtain them.

We're giving nuclear materials to Saudi Arabia because we'd rather see the Saudis go toe to toe with teh Iranians than the Israelis, but the sad truth is that Israel and the US will likely have to go deal with the mad mullahs in Iran before long. Obama wont do it. Bill Clinton wouldn't go toe to toe with al Qaeda, so what makes you think that Obama would go after Iran should it engage in acts of war against the US directly or via Hamas, Hizbullah, or any other proxy?

Obama will come home after one of those meetings declaring peace in our time and that we've got peace. The cost? Well, probably Iraq, Kuwait, access to the Gulf, and Israel for good measure. But hey, we wont have the US in a war. Never mind that oil prices would probably double again what our current prices are.

And another thing; Obama wants us to believe that cowboy diplomacy (aka Bush foreign policy) is the wrong tact? How is it then that the Europeans, who supposedly disdained American foreign policy, have now elected pro-US leaders who are predisposed to the US foreign policy? It would appear that the Europeans have come full circle and realized that appeasement, such as the Spanish case following the Madrid bombings, did not lead to peace, but rather more violence spurred on by the same terrorist groups, whose demands never change - submission to their version of Islam. In other words, President Bush's foreign policy visions have gained traction, even while the Congressional Democrats and presidential candidates do everything in their power to undermine the Administration's foreign policy at every turn.

There is one further thing to consider. It's a thought experiment for Obama and his fanatics:

Who attacked the US on 9/11, USS Cole, Khobar Towers, African Embassies?

If you said al Qaeda, you haven't completely drunk the kool aid and can continue [after all, not only does the US, UN and pretty much everyone else say al Qaeda was behind those attacks, but al Qaeda itself takes credit for them].

Where is al Qaeda operating now? [Note: this isn't a difficult question, and isn't asking where al Qaeda was operating on March 1, 2003 aka pre invasion of Iraq, but where one can find al Qaeda in any significant numbers.]

If you answered countries including Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, you've been paying attention.

So, if al Qaeda is currently operating in Iraq, how come Barack Obama wants to withdraw from Iraq immediately when we've got US forces there killing al Qaeda on a regular and ongoing basis all while denying them safe havens there?

The sputtering response will likely resort to some riff on the following: "they wouldn't be in Iraq unless we didn't invade Iraq". It completely misses the point - a regular theme among Obama folks and the left in general. The terrorists are there now, and we're killing them there now. If the US leaves Iraq, that means that our ability to kill al Qaeda, the same terrorist group responsible for all those attacks on the US, including 9/11, would have free run in Iraq and use it as a potential safe haven from which to plot additional attacks against US interests.

Obama wants to withdraw from Iraq, which undermines US national security. It is really that cut and dry. I'm sure he'll mutter something along the politics of fear pablum he spouts off every so often when someone has the audacity to question his politics, but the sad fact is that he doesn't have clue 1 about foreign policy, national security (ours), and what it takes to defeat our enemies. It means denying battlespace to our enemies, and staying in those locations to continue killing and defeating those enemies.

UPDATE:
So, we now have Obama on the record considering that some of Hamas and Hizbullah claims are legitimate. Which claims is Obama referring to? Hamas and Hizbullah both seek Israel's destruction. It's their core tenet, so what exactly does Obama consider legitimate claims? This is from David Brooks' interview of Obama:

The U.S. needs a foreign policy that “looks at the root causes of problems and dangers.” Obama compared Hezbollah to Hamas. Both need to be compelled to understand that “they’re going down a blind alley with violence that weakens their legitimate claims.” He knows these movements aren’t going away anytime soon (“Those missiles aren’t going to dissolve”), but “if they decide to shift, we’re going to recognize that. That’s an evolution that should be recognized.”

I want someone to actually ask Obama what exactly are those legitimate claims that these two terrorist groups have that Obama thinks are being weakened by their ongoing war against Israel.

Burmese Death Toll Skyrockets to 78,000

The official death toll from Cyclone Nargis in Burma is now 78,000, and is likely to climb even higher.

This most recent figure is nearly double the last official tally. All the while, the junta claims that it has the situation under control.

British officials suggest that the ultimate death toll may be as high as 200,000. We may never know the full scope of the disaster in Burma because the junta simply isn't allowing access to Western humanitarian aid agencies.

[T]hugo's Latest Trouble

Well, [T]hugo Chavez is going to have a hard time trying to repudiate this.

The onus is now on Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to explain evidence of his apparently intimate ties to Colombia's main guerrilla army.

Interpol on Thursday endorsed the authenticity of computer files seized in a rebel camp, announcing that Colombia did not tamper with documents indicating Chavez sought to finance and arm the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

Venezuelan officials set up contacts with Australian arms dealers and arranged for missile training in the Middle East, according to the documents, which were on computer hard drives seized by Colombia and obtained by the Washington Post.

Yet Chavez responded sarcastically to Interpol's conclusions.

"Do you think we should waste time here on something so ridiculous?" he told reporters in Caracas.

Yes, let Chavez try to laugh it off. He's been in cahoots with FARC terrorists who are trying to undermine the Colombian government and the terrorists now appear to be little more than a proxy for Venezuela's top thug. His fingerprints are all over this, and the linkages between the terrorists and Venezuela's policies are not mere coincidences. They are tightly bound and the computer records are damning.

The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 31

Things continue to slog along at the Deutsche Bank building, as yet another piece of equipment fell off the building and slammed into the ground 20+ stories below. This time, it was a four pound disc that fell from a hoist 22 stories. Work at the site was halted once again.

Meanwhile, the Port Authority is trying to weasel its way out of having to pay Larry Silverstein millions of dollars owed to Silverstein for delays in getting the site prepared for Silverstein to build upon.

It is unlikely the Port Authority will be able to meet the June 30 deadline to turn over a building site at ground zero to Silverstein Properties, which controls a lease on the property. When a development deal was signed in September 2006, the Port Authority agreed to pay the developer a late fee of $300,000 a day until it could hand over cleared building sites.

In February, six weeks after a similar deadline, the Port Authority owed Silverstein Properties about $14 million in late fees because it failed to prepare another building site by the agreed-upon deadline. Now, the Port Authority is said to be negotiating with Silverstein Properties to waive the late fees in exchange for several possible concessions, including altering the floor plates of the future office building known as Tower 3. Enlarging the floor plates would make the office space more amenable to major financial service companies, which need open space to accommodate trading floors. Mr. Silverstein is said to be attempting to lure Merrill Lynch to be an anchor tenant in one of its towers.

One possible use that is being negotiated, according to a source with knowledge of the talks, is an expanded or even multilevel trading floor — an idea that had been floated by Mr. Silverstein in the past. It would be in keeping with his stated goal of turning the World Trade Center site into a new financial center that would rival Midtown.

The Port Authority continues to run behind in its construction schedules, and each delay has a cumulative effect, both in terms of time and cost. Construction costs continue climbing, which makes every delay more costly. It's a vicious cycle, and the Port Authority appears incapable of getting the work prepared on time.

The Port Authority is running into a similar problem with Goldman Sachs, which is building an office building across from Ground Zero, and was promised that certain infrastructure would be in place so that its workforce would not be inconvenienced. Well, the work isn't done, and Goldman Sachs is looking to cash in on those penalties - some $320 million worth.

The hefty fines would include free rent - 64 years of it - as well as other subsidies.

Gov. George Pataki and the Bloomberg administration agreed to the penalties in 2005 because they were desperate to prevent Goldman from moving to New Jersey.

Now, it looks like major components of the World Trade Center won't be ready by the end of next year, as originally agreed.

But, sources close to the deal say the city and state are asking Goldman to either push back the deadline, or lower the penalties. Mayor Michael Bloomberg thinks the issue will eventually be resolved without any cost to the city.

If I were Goldman Sachs, I wouldn't settle for anything less than the penalties under the original contract. Even though Sachs got a sweetheart deal, it is a contract, and it is enforceable. The city, state, and Port Authority are responsible for the delays and failures to have site work done, and should be held accountable for their delays. It's an expensive lesson, but one that must be imposed.

I suspect, however, that there will be some accommodation and the city and state wont be hit up for all those costs, but there will likely be a further abatement of taxes or fees paid by Sachs.

Osama Calls For Unending Holy War

And we're supposed to be impressed by this? He's not saying anything that the jihadis in Hamas haven't been saying since they were established decades ago, or the Muslim Brotherhood has been saying, or even the Arab countries ever since 1947. He's not breaking any new ground here- and he's competing with Iran's Ahmadinejad for who gets the most press on calls to destroy Israel.

Osama calls for a Holy War to destroy Israel.

Bin Laden said the fight for the Palestinian cause was the most important factor driving al-Qaida's war with the West and fueled 19 Muslims to carry out the suicide attacks against the US on September 11.

"To Western nations ... this speech is to understand the core reason of the war between our civilization and your civilizations. I mean the Palestinian cause," said bin Laden in the close to 10 minute message.

Once again, it's the disembodied voice. No actual video showing Osama speaking, but rather still shots with an audio overlay, and no tangible evidence that he's still alive. The propaganda wizards at al Qaeda could have easily recycled old messages to create this latest one; that's how original his statements are.

The biggest laugh, however, appears to be a serious case of projection, where he thinks that Israel gets way too much positive news from the media. Apparently, he hasn't been paying attention.

New York Enacts Noose Display Crime Law

Governor David Paterson signed a noose display crime bill into law. The text of the bill can be found here, and it would make it the etching, painting, drawing or otherwise placing or
displaying a noose, a symbol of racism and intimidation, on real
property the crime of aggravated harassment in the first degree - a felony.

Nooses were found last year on a black professor’s door at Columbia University, outside a post office near ground zero in Lower Manhattan and in locations on Long Island.

Surprisingly, no one has been charged in connection with the crime at Columbia University, and there have been suggestions that the Columbia University incident was a hoax perpetrated by the professor on whose door the noose was hung,Professor Madonna Constantine, to get another professor in trouble.

There are no suspects in the case, and apparently there's no further interest in trying to find out who committed that act either. However, Professor Constantine found herself in hot water over committing multiple acts of plagiarism. Academic misconduct such as that by a professor ought to be grounds for dismissal, but the university simply provided a slap on the wrist. It's nice to see the university take academic misconduct seriously.

Anniversaries and Appeasement

President Bush gave an impassioned and thoughtful speech in the Israeli Knesset today celebrating the 60th anniversary of our longstanding ally in the Middle East.

He celebrated Israel's anniversary in the face of adversity, tremendous challenges, and existential threats, and he further issued a warning about the folly of appeasement.



The full text of the speech is here, but this is the part that has got Democrats all up in a full-bore snit, though I'll get to them in a minute.

The fight against terror and extremism is the defining challenge of our time. It is more than a clash of arms. It is a clash of visions, a great ideological struggle. On the one side are those who defend the ideals of justice and dignity with the power of reason and truth. On the other side are those who pursue a narrow vision of cruelty and control by committing murder, inciting fear, and spreading lies.

This struggle is waged with the technology of the 21st century, but at its core it is an ancient battle between good and evil. The killers claim the mantle of Islam, but they are not religious men. No one who prays to the God of Abraham could strap a suicide vest to an innocent child, or blow up guiltless guests at a Passover Seder, or fly planes into office buildings filled with unsuspecting workers. In truth, the men who carry out these savage acts serve no higher goal than their own desire for power. They accept no God before themselves. And they reserve a special hatred for the most ardent defenders of liberty, including Americans and Israelis.

And that is why the founding charter of Hamas calls for the "elimination" of Israel. And that is why the followers of Hezbollah chant "Death to Israel, Death to America!" That is why Osama bin Laden teaches that "the killing of Jews and Americans is one of the biggest duties." And that is why the President of Iran dreams of returning the Middle East to the Middle Ages and calls for Israel to be wiped off the map.

There are good and decent people who cannot fathom the darkness in these men and try to explain away their words. It's natural, but it is deadly wrong. As witnesses to evil in the past, we carry a solemn responsibility to take these words seriously. Jews and Americans have seen the consequences of disregarding the words of leaders who espouse hatred. And that is a mistake the world must not repeat in the 21st century.

Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: "Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided." We have an obligation to call this what it is -- the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history. (Applause.)

Some people suggest if the United States would just break ties with Israel, all our problems in the Middle East would go away. This is a tired argument that buys into the propaganda of the enemies of peace, and America utterly rejects it. Israel's population may be just over 7 million. But when you confront terror and evil, you are 307 million strong, because the United States of America stands with you. (Applause.)

America stands with you in breaking up terrorist networks and denying the extremists sanctuary. America stands with you in firmly opposing Iran's nuclear weapons ambitions. Permitting the world's leading sponsor of terror to possess the world's deadliest weapons would be an unforgivable betrayal for future generations. For the sake of peace, the world must not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon. (Applause.)

The section in bold is the part that got the dim bulbs in the Democrat party thinking that it applied to Barack Obama. Sen. Joe Biden suggested that the President's comments were b***s**t and malarkey. Funny, but Biden didn't exactly express any opinion over repeated visits by former President Carter when he met with Hamas terrorists on multiple occasions last month, engaging in renegade foreign diplomacy.

I didn't hear him complain about Rep. Nancy Pelosi's trip to Syria where she feted Bashar Assad, whose regime is behind much of the ongoing turmoil and violence in Lebanon. All that talking and appeasement didn't get very far either. Heck, Pelosi must have a short memory given that she panned the President's speech despite her clear attempts at diplomacy with Syria and attacking the President while outside the US.

Indeed, President Carter's talking with Hamas didn't accomplish anything, except a higher body count as Hamas and the other terrorists continue firing rockets on Israel on a daily basis.

Of course, Barack Obama thought that President Bush was talking about him. Thank you for expressing those views Obama - you very succinctly made the President's point for him (to say nothing of what Hillary has been saying about you for some time now). Obama also has a penchant for using Marxist phrasing, including the repeated quote "politics of fear" to describe what President Bush said today.

"George Bush knows that I have never supported engagement with terrorists, and the president's extraordinary politicization of foreign policy and the politics of fear do nothing to secure the American people or our stalwart ally Israel."

Indeed, Obama is a bald-faced-liar, as his website indicates that Obama would negotiate with Iran without any preconditions. Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism, aids and abets Hizbullah and Hamas, and whose leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly called for the annihilation of Israel.

Michelle Malkin suggests that Obama should calm down, but if the shoe fits. (it does - all too well). Bob Owens notes that it would be a whole lot more believable if Obama's political career wasn't launched in the homes of Weather Underground terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn. Ed Morrissey also weighs in.

Joe Lieberman knows what's what, and applauded the President's speech.

Appeasement is a tremendous folly, and no matter who tries it and no matter their good intentions, terrorists, thugs, dictators, and evil regimes will take advantage of such measures and the violence hoped to be avoided will come, but at a greater cost. Just ask Elie Wiesel. He was at the Knesset today, and he applauded the speech as well.

The costs of appeasement are too high.

Rick Moran takes the Democrats to task for being so thin skinned and further wonders whether there are any grownups in the Party.

Then, you have completely indescribable nonsensical ravings such as this from pundits who wouldn't know treason if the Logan Act hit them upside the head.

And before you think that the speech about appeasement was directly solely at Obama, consider that it too was directed at Israeli Prime Minister Olmert and other leftists in Israel who are more than willing to make all manner of concessions without getting anything concrete in return.

Meanwhile, the media has run stories not about the celebration of Israel's 60th anniversary in a very bad part of the world despite repeated attempts to eliminate it from the world, but has instead focused on the lies and agitprop proffered by the Palestinians. They refer to this as the naqba (nakba) or catastrophe. The media is all too willing to run these stories to the exclusion of positive stories about Israel, to say nothing of the fact that many of the stories included are bald-faced lies.

California Supreme Court Strikes Down Same Sex Marriage Ban

It's a 172 page decision, so don't expect all those reports posted thus far to have the real meat and potatoes of the case.

The Court has decided that state laws establishing that marriage is defined as between a man and a woman, violated the state constitution. There's already a move afoot in California to amend the state constitution to explicitly state that marriage is between only a man and a woman.

New York's Latest Internet Tax Grab Costs Businesses and the State

There were two predictable fallouts from New York State’s move to force online companies to collect state sales tax: There would be a lawsuit. And some online merchants would cut off their affiliates in the state.

Amazon filed suit against the state late last month. Now Overstock.com has become the first major Internet retailer to cancel its relationship with affiliates in New York. Affiliates are Web site owners who get commissions for referring customers to an online store. They are important because New York State is requiring any company that has an affiliate in the state to collect sales taxes on its behalf. Until now, companies had to collect taxes only if they had a physical presence, such as an office or factory, in the state.

“We believe the law is unconstitutional and won’t stand the test of the courts, but in the meantime we have been very careful to keep our footprint just in Utah,” said Jonathan Johnson, Overstock’s senior vice president for corporate affairs. “We can’t afford to have our New York affiliates up online if it subjects us to New York sales taxes.”

Overstock has dropped its New York affiliates so as to avoid New York tax obligations. That's roughly 3,400 entities affected. Some are substantial in size, but many are small businesses that rely on an affiliate system to operate. So far, Amazon.com will not drop its New York affiliates.

It's a question of what the state will consider nexus with the state for applying sales tax.

The new law is based on a novel definition of what constitutes a presence in the state: It includes any Web site based in the state that earns a referral fee for sending customers to an online retailer. Amazon has hundreds of thousands of affiliates—from big publishers to tiny blogs—that feature links to its products. It says thousands of those have given an address in New York State, although it does not verify the addresses.

The state law says that if even one of those affiliates is in New York, Amazon must collect sales tax on everything sold in the state, even if it is not sold through the affiliate. This is an extension of an existing rule that companies that employ independent agents or representatives to solicit business must collect sales taxes for the state.

By that definition, a single sale through ads posted on my blog could result in Cafepress, PJ Media, or Google, respectively being obligated to collect tax for New York if I lived there. It's also an issue that flies in the face of the Streamlined Sales Tax Project, which tries to harmonize state sales tax so that it's easier for businesses to comply with state laws by using consistent definitions. New York is definitely pushing the envelope, and I suspect it will backfire badly.

How much tax revenue is the state going to lose because those affiliates are no longer bringing in sales and the hoped for sales tax revenues? How many jobs could be lost as a result of lower sales? How will that affect New York personal income tax revenues?

In the quest to obtain more taxes from more sources, New York is driving away businesses that do business here. That means that the state will end up with a net loss on trying to impose taxes on Internet sales.

So, why did the state pursuing this course of action? The state hoped the new legal interpretation would bring in $50 million a year to help close New York’s budget gap.

Here's a novel idea for the state to try - cutting spending instead of raising taxes or imposing taxes on services. They might actually find that revenues will increase among businesses because a more favorable tax climate will encourage more people to live, work, and spend their hard earned money in the state.

Israel Prepping For New Gaza Offensive?

Well, some reports are suggesting as much. I predicted as much a couple of days ago, given the murder of two Israelis in rocket attacks this past week, and that was before the rocket attack on Ashkelon that injured 15 people when an Iranian-made Grad rocket slammed into a health clinic at a shopping center.

President Bush, in his speech before the Knesset today, spoke of a Middle East free of oppression. Fine words, but unless you're willing to fight for it and stave off the likes of Hizbullah with more than rhetoric, it simply will not happen. That article, courtesy of the AP's Jennifer Loven, couldn't help but show its disgust with Israel's very existence at every turn - throwing heaping scorn on the fact that President Bush chose not to speak about the Palestinians at length and instead focused on Israel and its achievements.

Considering that the Palestinians have been hellbent on war with Israel, and have been carrying out a rocket war against Israel since 2005, that they refuse to recognize Israel's right to exist, seek to carve up Jerusalem, and whose end game is to destroy Israel, President Bush was more than justified to ignore the Palestinians in his speech - especially in light of yesterday's terror attack that injured 15 Israelis at a health clinic.

Where's the outrage over the incessant rocket attacks? Where's the daily count of rockets slamming into Israel, along with the running tally of Israelis injured or killed by those kassams, mortars, and now Iranian grad missiles?

You want scorn? I'll give you scorn. When you openly shill for terrorists, you get nothing but. The Palestinians have repeatedly passed up chances for peace, and have engaged in war thereafter. Today is no different. It's time that Israel and the US respond in kind, instead of offering up still more concessions that are seen as nothing but weakness.

Even as President Bush was speaking at the Knesset, more rockets slammed into Israel. No matter how much Israeli leaders say that they strive for peace, they simply lack a partner in peace who sees the same goal - the Palestinians say they want peace, but not with Israel's existence at the end of the day. Abbas and Hamas both reaffirmed their unending desire to overwhelm Israel with the demand for a right of return.

Meanwhile, US presidential candidate Barack Obama complains that Bush suggested that Obama's policies would be nothing more than appeasement. The truth hurts, and Obama's policies are nothing more than appeasement. When you have no problem taking endorsements from Hamas, have no problem sitting down to talk with genocidal thugs who seek Armageddon and the destruction of Israel, and while offering up platitudes about bonds with Israel put staffers on the payroll who are openly hostile to Israel, I'd say that President Bush characterized your position just right.

UPDATE:
To press home the fact that concessions by Israel, including the unilateral disengagement from Gaza have real world consequences, the Grad rocket that slammed into Ashkelon was fired from the abandoned Israeli settlement of Dugit in Gaza.

The Iranian-supplied Grad-type rocket fired at an Ashkelon mall Wednesday was launched from the former Gaza Jewish fishing village of Dugit, which was evacuated and destroyed by Israel in the 2005 Disengagement for the stated purpose of strengthening Israel's security.

Hamas-affiliated Popular Resistance Committees Spokesman Muhammad Abdel-Al told World Net Daily Wednesday that the attack, which wounded dozens, including children, was launched from Dugit, located along the coast in northern Gaza.

Dugit’s residents, mostly secular Jews who made a living fishing in the Mediterranean, left reluctantly, but without a struggle in 2005, when then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced his diplomatic plan to unilaterally withdraw the IDF from Gaza and destroy all the Jewish towns there. More than 9,000 residents were evicted from their homes in the operation.

Israelis withdrew from Gaza in 2005, and it has been used as a terrorist launching pad ever since. Israel has not had a day of peace since 2005's withdrawal. You cannot claim that Israel occupies Gaza - there are no Israelis living there. It is completely free of any Jews. Hamas operates in Gaza with impunity. They are the controlling faction, and nothing goes on there without Hamas approval.

It also highlights the nonsensical ravings about how settlements are the obstacle to peace. Israel withdrew from Gaza, and it wasn't enough; and the Palestinians aren't using the settlement housing for themselves, but rather as terrorist bases of operation. It will never be enough for the Palestinians until Israel is destroyed.

UPDATE:
Michelle Malkin suggests that Obama should calm down, but if the shoe fits... Bob Owens notes that it would be a whole lot more believable if Obama's political career wasn't launched in the homes of Weather Underground terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn. Ed Morrissey also weighs in.

Junta Claims Victory in Referendum

As the bodies were piling up all around them, the junta went ahead with a referendum that would cement its power. It comes as no surprise that the referendum passed.

State radio said 92.4% of the 22 million eligible voters approved the constitution, dismissed by critics as a sham designed to solidify the military's rule. It gave voter turnout as more than 99%.

All this comes as the junta still plays games with disbursing aid to those Burmese in need of assistance. The junta warns individuals not to hoard or trade aid, but that isn't stopping the junta itself from engaging in those tactics to punish those who it perceives as opponents and threats to its continued rule.

The Red Cross estimated that up to 128,000 people were killed in Burma. The junta admits only a fraction of that total were killed:

Myanmar's government issued a revised casualty toll Wednesday night, saying 38,491 were known dead and 27,838 were missing.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, however, said its estimate put the number of dead between 68,833 and 127,990. The Geneva-based body said the range came from a compilation based on other estimates from 22 different organizations, including the Myanmar Red Cross Society, and on media reports.

The junta is finally allowing more foreign workers to provide assistance, but only from four countries: India, China, Bangladesh and Thailand.

The military regime in Myanmar has invited immediate neighbours India, China, Bangladesh and Thailand to send aid workers to join relief operations in the cyclone-hit country, in what UN described as "selective opening up to international staff."

The Junta was apparently still not giving visas to western aid workers congregating in Thailand.

The military regime's decision to allow the four countries to send 160 international aid workers followed an intense pressure to allow experienced personnel to help in the distribution of relief supplies.

That's an improvement, but it's a pittance in comparison to the need.

Photo of the Day

 

If you look carefully, you'll see the rocks on the right forming Snoopy lying on his back. And if you look up the mountain the the left, you'll see Lucy sitting there, as if she's waiting for Charlie Brown to come by.

Chinese Authorities Admit Death Toll Could Climb Above 50,000

It's absolutely tragic, but there isn't anything the central government can do about it now except to hasten the relief and recovery efforts. They're still reliant on winding roads that are barely passable to get aid into the region.

The Chinese government admits that the death toll from the quake could top 50,000. That's still low-balling the figures based on the number of people in the affected region, and the totality of damage in some areas hardest hit, but gives you some sense of what the Chinese are facing in Sichuan province.

MSNBC also questions whether the building boom led to shortcuts and paying short shrift to safety in new construction.

Other infrastructure old and new suffered as well. Nearly 400 dams, most of them small, were damaged across Sichuan, the government's economic planning agency said on its Web site. One of the two bigger ones, Zipingpu, had cracks four inches across its top; and though the government said the dam was safe, its reservoir was drained.

China is jolted by thousands of earthquakes every year, at least several of them major ones that cause significant damage and loss of life. Since the 1976 quake in Tangshan near Beijing killed at least 240,000 people, the communist government has tried to improve building standards.

"China has been taking earthquake safety very seriously in the past 10 to 20 years," said Susan Tubbesing, head of the California-based Earthquake Engineering Research Institute. "From what I understand, the codes China has adopted in the past 20 years have been good, solid, seismic codes."

Enforcement varies
Enforcement, however, varies. The building boom that has underpinned much of the stunning growth has also been an invitation for corruption, with officials and developers colluding. Profit margins are thinner on smaller projects in less prosperous places, encouraging developers to cut corners.

Older structures might not meet current codes, and there are newer construction that might not have been built to those codes because builders took shortcuts. Either way, the Chinese government will have to deal with the reality that so much infrastructure was devastated and reassess their building codes and rapid pace of construction.

There was serious concern about Zipingpu Dam, located above one of the cities hardest hit by the quake, Dujiangyan. 2,000 soldiers were forced to respond to make immediate repairs and to lower the reservoir levels after 4-inch cracks appeared in the top of the dam. This will clearly have to force a reassessment of building codes and makes one wonder about the safety of dams and other structures throughout the rest of China, much of which is seismically active.

Damage to the two-year-old Zipingpu Dam threatened downstream communities still digging out from the quake. Some 2,000 soldiers were sent to the dam, the official Xinhua News Agency said. Four-inch cracks scarred the top of the dam, and landslides had poured down the surrounding hills, the business news magazine Caijing said on its Web site in a report from the scene.

Although the government pronounced the dam safe late Tuesday after an inspection, Caijing said its waters were being emptied to relieve pressure. The Ministry of Water Resources issued a notice to check reservoirs nationwide, while the economic planning agency said nearly 400 dams, most of them small, were damaged by the quake.

Hundreds of rivers snake through the mountainous Tibetan plateau before descending into the fertile Sichuan basin where they provide critical irrigation.

The activist group International Rivers Network was involved in a campaign in 2001 and 2002 to protest funding for the Zipingpu Dam because of its proximity to a fault line, said Aviva Imhoff, the group’s campaigns director.

Imhoff said the group obtained transcripts of a 2000 internal government meeting in which seismologists warned officials of the dangers of constructing the dam and the potential for it to be damaged in an earthquake, Imhoff said.

Video has also surfaced showing the moments that the quake struck. There are still moments of joy, as a survivor is pulled from the rubble, even 60+ hours after the quake, but those are few and far between. All too often, the scene is one of recovering the remains of those who lived, worked, played, and went to school in the affected region.

UPDATE:
YNet is reporting that the Chinese government is appealing for emergency equipment to assist in the relief and recovery efforts. That's a far cry from past natural disasters in the country, and suggests that the Chinese government is starting to realize its very real shortcomings.

Photo of the Day

 

Always on the lookout for lizards, this one scampered by at Montezuma's Castle National Monument in Arizona.

Why Should Anyone Believe This Man?

This man is Rev. James Daniel Manning. He's the person who took over for Rev. Jeremiah Wright at the church presidential hopeful Barack Obama attended.

What he had to say is downright shocking and astounding. And very likely pure unadulterated BS.



I call BS on him. Without proof, this is nothing but slander. He claims that he'll present proof at a later date. Why wait? Let's see it now.

What kind of axe does he have to grind against both Obama and Wright to pull this kind of stunt. Has Hillary Clinton taken out the nuclear option on Obama?

Or would it be racist of me to ignore what he has to say or call BS on him?

Frankly, I don't think politics has any room for this kind of crap, and kudos to Sean Hannity for giving Manning a public spanking when he interviewed him.

As my readers know, I can't stand Obama or his politics or those he associates with, but this kind of personal attack just boggles. I think this guy is a complete loon, but even if what he says is 100% true, it doesn't change my opinion of Obama or Wright - both are odious and Obama doesn't have the character or fitness to be President of the United States.

UPDATE 5/15/2008:
As noted in the comments, Rev. James Daniel Manning did not take over for Rev. Wright at Obama's church. Rev. Manning is pastor of the ATLAH World Missionary Church in Harlem, New York. Apologies.

Predator Hellfire Strikes Again; Al Qaeda and Taliban Most Affected

The US launched another Hellfire airstrike against targets inside Pakistan from a Predator UAV. They successfully targeted a big fish in the Taliban, who also happens to be a high level liason with al Qaeda.

The attacked killed 12 people at a not-so-safe house in Pakistan. Among the 12 were foreign fighters, which is a key word used to describe al Qaeda, who are not indigenous to the region.

It's amazing how quickly Taliban thugs will rush to the microphone to claim that women and children were killed in the airstrikes. I'm surprised that they didn't mention that it was a wedding celebration as they sometimes do.

PESHAWAR: At least a dozen militants, including foreign fighters, were killed on Wednesday in a suspected United States missile strike on two houses in the Damadola area of Bajaur Agency, a senior security official said. Two missiles, apparently fired by a US drone aircraft, demolished a house and a compound used by suspected Al Qaeda militants, the official, requesting anonymity, told AFP. Two large blasts were heard around 8pm. Residents said they saw drones flying in the area beforehand, AP reported. They said that Taliban militants cordoned off the site soon after the attack. Taliban spokesman Maulvi Omar told Daily Times by phone that Taliban commander Maulvi Obaidullah’s house had been targeted. He said most of the house’s residents, including women and children, were killed.

The airstikes came on the heels of a prisoner swap between Pakistan and the Taliban/terrorists in the NWFP.

The local Taliban aren't going to let anyone near the house, lest they find out just exactly who got dispatched by Hellfire.

Others blogging: Hot Air, Ace,

Fire Causes Collapse of Delft University of Technology Architecture Building

HT: Ben Hur of LGF

The fire completely destroyed the building.

A “catastrophic” fire has caused serious damage to the architecture faculty at Delft University in the Netherlands, endangering first edition books by Rem Koolhaas and MVRDV and Gerrit Rietveld furniture.

Although no-one was injured in the blaze, much of the 14-storey building has been completely destroyed, BD understands.

Tony Fretton, a visiting professor at the department, said the fire -- which broke out on a mid-level floor around 9am local time and rapidly spread upwards - is believed to have been started by a short circuit in a coffee machine caused by a faulty water pipe.

“The faculty building caught alight, then spread to the library and the historic chair collection - which includes Rietveld's Red and Blue chair,” Fretton said. “The fire brigade couldn't get close to it and decided to stand back and let the fire burn itself out. The whole building is gutted. The effect will be enormous - there are 3,000 students. It's a complete calamity.”

Junta Claims Things Peachy As Another Cyclone Forms Off Coast

UN meteorologists have announced that another cyclone is forming in the vicinity of Burma, which means bad news not only for the Burmese people, but for the sputtering relief efforts. The track for this storm appears to be similar to that of Cyclone Nargis, which has likely killed upwards of 100,000 in the country.

The junta claims that not only are things under control, but that there are no outbreaks of disease or starvation among the survivors.

The U.S. military's Joint Typhoon Warning Centre said there was a good chance "a significant tropical cyclone" would form within the next 24 hours and head across the Irrawaddy delta area.

The threat comes as Thailand's Prime Minister, Samak Sundaravej, returned from Burma last night to report that the country believes its cyclone relief operations are under control and it doesn't need foreign experts.

Mr Sundaravej said Myanmar's ruling junta gave him its "guarantee" that there were no disease outbreaks and no starvation among survivors of devastating Cyclone Nargis. Cyclone Nargis pulverised the delta on May 3, leaving at least 34,270 dead and 27,830 missing, according to the government.

Let's just say that no one other than the junta is buying that nonsense.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown wants to hold a UN summit on Burma aid. Good luck with that - not only will the UN be incapable of reaching consensus on what to do, but if they do, they still have to deal with a junta that could care less about what happens to the citizens of its country. Brown isn't alone in appealing to the UN to do something. Canadian leaders are also pushing the UN to force Burma's junta to allow greater humanitarian relief efforts to occur. That's on top of France's efforts to try and get the Security Council to act:

France last week urged the Security Council to invoke the responsibility to protect doctrine, known as R2P, to force the delivery of aid over the objections of Burma's ruling generals. Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, a man Mr. Bernier regularly refers to as a friend and with whom he recently travelled to Afghanistan, put forth the proposal.

But other countries, led by Britain, argued that the doctrine was inappropriate and was meant to prevent genocide, not for use in times of natural disasters.

France has now reportedly considered asking the council to endorse a non-binding resolution that would ask the country's rulers to allow more foreign aid workers entry. The opening of such a humanitarian corridor for aid would not be as invasive as invoking the responsibility to protect doctrine.

In Ottawa, Mr. Bernier said he has had discussions with "my Chinese counterpart, my French counterpart and also with other members of the international community to see that Canadian aid can get there, to help the people in Burma."

France's position is an interesting one - in that one could argue that the junta is engaging in genocide by failing to provide humanitarian aid to those in need. The junta figures that the cyclone is doing more to eliminate its opponents than they could have done with their usual repressive tactics.

While it would appear to most people that the junta is acting irrationally, they are most rational about the one thing that matters most to them - holding on to power at all costs.

UPDATE:
Aid groups are claiming that the junta is now stealing, diverting or otherwise preventing aid going to those who need it.

The aid directors in Myanmar declined to be quoted directly on their concerns about the stolen relief supplies for fear of angering the ruling junta and jeopardizing their operations, although Marcel Wagner, country director of the Adventist Development and Relief Agency, confirmed that aid was being diverted by the army. He said the issue would become an increasing problem, although he declined to give further details because of the sensitivity of the situation.

International aid shipments continued to arrive Wednesday, including five new air deliveries of relief supplies from the United States. Western diplomats said their representatives at the airport were making sure the cargo was unloaded efficiently and then trucked to staging areas.

The fate of the supplies after that, however, remained unknown, because the junta has barred all foreigners, including credentialed diplomats and aid workers, from accompanying any donated aid, tracking its distribution or following up on its delivery.

UPDATE:
The International Red Cross reports that the death toll in Burma could top 127,000.

UPDATE:
The UN considers more than 2.5 million people at risk due to the cyclone and resulting damage in Burma, an increase of 1 million over earlier estimates. I wouldn't be surprised if the junta wouldn't be sorry if they died - less opposition to deal with.

Low Expectations

President Bush is now in Israel to celebrate Israel's 60th anniversary. President Bush will speak before the Knesset later this week, which will be yet another first for an American President.

Still, the diplomatic angle of the visit isn't likely to produce any results. It's a visit between lame ducks, though legacy building is always a burning desire among such individuals to try and push through a deal that cements their place in history. As such, President Bush thinks that a deal is possible before the end of his term. I put the prospects of a deal at somewhere between slim and none.

Israeli Prime Minister Olmert is saddled with a corruption scandal that might finally do what failings in the Hizbullah war and the complete inability to deal with the rocket war in Gaza couldn't - force/remove him from office. Few have any confidence in the guy, and the ongoing fighting in both Gaza and the West Bank is a sign that he's not up to the challenge of defending Israel's national security interests.

At the same time, the so-called partner in peace, Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah thugs, are watching their popularity slip even further. Their popularity is slipping and guess who benefits? Hamas. The other terrorist group that seeks nothing less than Israel's destruction and who is behind turning Gaza into a rocket and mortar launching pad from which thousands of rockets and mortars have been fired into Israel in the hopes of killing and maiming as many Israelis as possible.

After leaving Israel, President Bush will visit Egypt and Saudi Arabia and will meet with King Abdullah II of Jordan and Abbas as well before delivering a speech at the World Economic Forum.

UPDATE:
Welcome to Israel President Bush - Palestinian terrorists wound dozens in a rocket attack that slammed into a shopping center in Ashkelon.

Dozens of people were wounded on Wednesday evening, including a baby girl, when a rocket fired from Gaza hit the Hutzot Shopping Center in Ashkelon.

The rocket hit the top floor of the building.

Several people were reportedly trapped in the rubble.

The attack came as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and US President George W. Bush concluded their meeting in Jerusalem.

And you still think that Israel has a partner in peace when Hamas controls Gaza and seeks nothing less than Israel's destruction?

UPDATE:
Number of days since last Israeli injured by rocket/mortar fire: 0
Number of days since last Israeli killed by rocket/mortar fire: pending updates.

China's Sorrow Continues UPDATE: Concerns About Dam Failures

The death toll from the massive 7.9 quake in Sichuan continues rising, as more than 15,000 have been reported dead, with several times that number still buried in the rubble.

The Chinese military has finally made it into the heart of the affected area and begun relief and recovery operations. Many of those who survived were badly injured, which means that the longer that it takes for relief efforts to reach them, the more likely people will die of their injuries.

The soldiers who reached Wenchuan County, the epicenter of the 7.9-magnitude quake that struck China on Monday, began ferrying survivors across rivers on plastic skiffs. But in the first township that the soldiers reached, Yingxiu, only 2,300 of 10,000 residents could be confirmed alive, according to Xinhua, the state news agency.

A poor farming region that is home to a famous panda reserve, Wenchuan is believed to be one of the worst-hit areas.

“There is an urgent need for medical staff, medicine, food and drinking water,” said He Biao, the deputy secretary-general of the Aba prefectural government, which includes Wenchuan.

The fact that aid was finally able to reach Wenchuan was a minor triumph in the aftermath of the worst earthquake to hit China in more than 30 years. Until Wednesday, Wenchuan had been completely cut off from the outside world, and the longer it remained completely isolated, the more people would suffer and ultimately die. Half of the survivors had severe injuries, Chinese officials said.

But the threat of further earthquakes and aftershocks remained high across the entire region. A small tremor could be felt here in Chengdu, the provincial capital of Sichuan Province, around 11 a.m. Wednesday. Hours later, workers in at least one high-rise hotel asked guests to move to lower floors because of a heightened earthquake alert.

While hope grows dim for many still trapped in the rubble, there was one bright spot as a pregnant woman trapped in the rubble for 50 hours was pulled alive:

Some rare moments of good news emerged on Wednesday. A woman who was eight-months pregnant and trapped in rubble for 50 hours was pulled to safety in the town of Dujiangyan, The Associated Press reported. Another woman was also rescued shortly afterward.

MSNBC reports that the death toll is likely far higher than the figures bandied about thus far - that 26,000 remain buried in the rubble and another 14,000 remain unaccounted for. That's on top of the nearly 15,000 people killed according to official tallies.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao continues his tour of the region, and met with the pregnant woman:

Premier Wen Jiabao looked over her wounds, part of his highly publicized tour of the disaster area aimed at reassuring the public about the government's response and to show the world that the country is ready to host the Beijing Olympics in August.

Wednesday's leg of the Olympic torch relay in the southeastern city of Ruijin began with a minute of silence.

Wen said some 100,000 troops and police had been dispatched to the disaster zone. He also visited a school Wednesday in Beichuan where two classroom buildings collapsed in the earthquake, including a school with 2,000 students that state TV said sustained "heavy casualties."

UPDATE:
This already dangerous situation might become even more so - a dam upstream from Dujiangyan has serious structural problems and the Chinese government has rushed 2,000 troops to try and deal with the situation. They're trying to reduce the level of the reservoir behind it to prevent a breach or collapse. The Chinese authorities aren't exactly doing their best to inform those downstream by the looks of it though:

The state-run news agency Xinhua said that 2,000 troops had been sent to work on the Zipingku Dam in Sichuan province.

Speaking from Dujiangyan, Sky's China correspondent Peter Sharp said many local people seemed unaware of the threat.

"It (the dam) is only five kilometres away, we are downstream of it," he said.

"We understand that some of the People's Liberation Army troops that are deployed here helping with the rescue operation... 2,000 of them [have been moved] upriver to seal some serious cracks in the dam wall."

There's a solitary report that suggests damage to the Three Gorges Dam, but no corroboration. If that dam complex were to fail, tens of millions of people along the Yangtze River could be killed by the wall of water rushing downstream.

UPDATE:
Treehugger posted a related report on the situation with the dams yesterday - noting that there was serious concern about the hydroelectric infrastructure in the region and that there were concerns about dams above Dujiangyan.

UPDATE:
CNN reports that the situation at the dam is pretty grim - the hydroelectric station and related structures are in ruins and partly sunk. That suggests that water is seeping through the structures and it could be only a matter of time before a full-scale breach occurs. 655,000 people live in Dujiangyan.

UPDATE:
MSNBC reports that hundreds of dams were damaged:

The National Development Reform Commission, China's top economic planning body, said on its Web site Wednesday that the earthquake had damaged 391 dams. It said two of the dams were large ones, 28 were medium-sized and the rest were small ones. It did not give any other details or say if Zipingpu was one of the dams.

With rains expected in the region, structural problems at the dams will be further complicated as the problems cascade from dams upstream to those downstream.

UPDATE:
There are a series of dams above Dujiangyan, including the historic water works depicted here:

View Larger Map

It's hard to tell which of these dams is the one that causes the most concern for officials. There is another dam just upstream that holds back a considerable reservoir, which could be the dam in question. If anyone else has any more information, please provide them in the comments.

Proving the Point?

This New York Times piece shows the lengths to which Saudi men will go to come into contact with that most rare creature - women.

The men fear the religious police, and with good reason. What they are doing could get them arrested or worse.

And NY Times reporter Kathrine Zoepf went undercover to report on the escapades, complete with putting on a disguise over her abaya.

I hadn’t met the boys before, but it was easy to pick them out: a half-dozen Saudi 18- and 19-year-olds shifting uncomfortably on two brocade sofas in the lobby of one of Riyadh’s grandest hotels, Al Faisaliah. The boys looked ill at ease among the marble pillars and elaborate flower arrangements, yet they’d insisted on meeting here. The Saudi religious police were unlikely to raid a luxury hotel, the boys felt, and since the evening activity we’d planned was illegal, it seemed best to take precautions.

Saudi society is strictly segregated along gender lines, and after several weeks spent interviewing Saudi teenage girls, I’d become very curious about life on the other side of the gender divide. I’d seen groups of young Saudi men out “numbering” - chasing cars containing young girls and trying to give the girls their phone numbers via Bluetooth, or by holding written phone numbers up to their car windows. When a Saudi girl I knew told me that her friend’s older brother would be willing to take me out numbering with his friends, I leaped at the chance.

The boys had brought clothes for me to wear over my abaya, and in a secluded corner of the hotel parking lot, we experimented with my disguise. Thamer, a 19-year-old political science student, handed me a knitted cap, and I stuffed my ponytail up underneath it. I zipped a hooded sweatshirt belonging to Mohamed, another of the boys, up over my billowing black cloak, and peered at my reflection in the tinted glass of Thamer’s S.U.V.

They go on to troll areas of Riyahd for the chance to meet girls.

Mostly, they end up driving around and palling around with friends.

In some respects, this isn't all that different than what kids did growing up in Brooklyn - driving around Bay Ridge and other parts of Brooklyn looking for an opportunity to chat up with girls their age. But kids in Brooklyn also knew that they could talk to girls at school without worrying about being arrested for that all too ordinary occurrence. So, the pressure to chase after cars with girls in them wasn't one that would result in police charges unless they were caught speeding or drag racing on major thoroughfares or other craziness.

In Saudi Arabia, those are mere slaps on the wrist compared to what could happen if the religious police caught these boys in action, to say nothing of a reporter engaging in such activities. She was putting her life in harm's way to get this story.

I don't quite think that readers in the US quite understand those risks involved since they don't live in a society where misogyny and forced separation of the sexes is not only mandatory but rigorously enforced.

The reporter could have found her in the clutches of the religious police and faced serious charges as a result of being found in the presence of men who were unrelated to her.

Terror Strikes Jaipur India

At least 35 people were killed in Jaipur in a series of bomb blasts:

At least 35 people were killed and nearly 100 injured as terrorists blew off seven powerful bomb blasts at crowded markets including one near a temple in Jaipur, Rajastha on Tuesday evening.

The serial bomb blast triggered panic amongst the worshippers, shoppers and ran helter-skelter for safety, which triggered a stampede in the affected areas in the walled city.

Six women have also been reportedly killed in this blast. It is for the first time that the Pink City is coming under terror radar.

Scores of wounded people have been shifted to several hospitals soon after the low-intensity blasts hit at Tripolia Bazar, where large number of devotees turned up at a Hanuman temple, Johari Bazar, Manas Chowk, Badi Choupal and Choti Choupal in the walled part of the city.

Hot Air is covering the story and suggests that this might have al Qaeda fingerprints on it.

UPDATE:
60+ dead 150+ injured, and the number of blasts has increased to seven. An eighth bomb was diffused before it could detonate. The blasts all occurred within 12 minutes of each other.

UPDATE:
A banned terror group, the Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islamia (HuJI), operating from Bangladesh, is believed to be behind the attacks. Hot Air also updates and notes that the city and state have been sealed by the military.

UPDATE:
The BBC has video of the scene at one of the bomb blasts. It also reports that this is the deadliest terror attack in India since August 2007. One of the blasts occurred near the historic Hawa Mahal, or palace of winds.

A Brutally Expensive Cup of Coffee

As I reported back in February, fraternization between the sexes at a Starbucks in Saudi Arabia can have dire consequences.

Just how dire?

Try on 150 lashes for size:

A Saudi Arabian man has been sentenced to eight months in prison and 150 lashes after he was caught meeting a woman without a chaperone in a coffee shop.

Muhammad Ali Abu Raziza, a psychology professor in Mecca, was arrested by the Kingdom’s feared religious police, the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. He was accused of breaking the Islamic injunctions under the Khilwa code, which restricts the independence of women. It stipulates that women must not meet men alone, other than relatives.

However the professor has alleged police entrapment. He claimed a history of personality disputes with the arresting officers, who were once his students. In his defence, Abu Raziza had said he had called the woman to ensure she had a chaperone but despite her assurances, she was alone when he arrived. No information has emerged about the fate of the woman since the incident.

West Virginia Goes to the Polls

It's expected that Sen. Hillary Clinton will win West Virginia in convincing fashion, but the pundits are already claiming that she has no chance of winning the nomination or overcoming the insurmountable lead in the popular vote held by Obama.

Scott Rassmussen is no longer providing daily updates to the polls between Obama and Clinton, as he's declared things over.

Clinton might not be able to win things unless Obama commits a huge gaffe between now and the convention, but her continued presence showcases Obama's faults - he can't win in many parts of the country based on the demographics. He can't even get a majority of Democrats to vote for him in major states across the country.

Obama will be lucky to be within 15 points of Clinton in West Virginia. Of course, that wont matter, as the media continues to promote the Obama nomination.

Then again, would you want Whiplash Ray Nagin to throw his support behind your campaign? He's a superdelegate from Louisiana, and he's going to be supporting Obama. That's the same Mayor Nagin who is immortalized with the Ray Nagin Memorial Motor Pool, joking with firearms, and whose whiplash moniker comes from his flip flopping on providing direction in reconstruction and recovery efforts following Hurricane Katrina. He's also known for calling New Orleans a "chocolate city" and whose views on race are odious and reprehensible (which makes it a perfect fit for the Obama campaign given Obama's penchant for hanging with such people).

UPDATE:
Quite a few Democrats want to see the campaign continue, and it looks like they'll get their wish through at least June 3.

UPDATE:
Hillary wins handily. 2-1 margin in fact and won across all demographic groups. Obama fans in the media are going to try and ignore this race, and all the rest to come as though Obama has sown up the nomination and that his electability is all but assured. Hillary's showing continues to provide plenty of evidence that Obama isn't quite the candidate the left thinks he is, and that come the general election, they will be in for quite a rude awakening.

Talks, Terrorists, and a Rocket War

Talks between Israel and the Palestinian terrorists continue, even as the rockets continue slamming into Israeli towns near Gaza. Those residents are fed up with the lack of appropriate response to the attacks, even as Israeli airstrikes killed the terrorist cell responsible for the attack yesterday that killed a 70 year old Israeli grandmother, Shula Katz at Moshav Yesha.

Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the latest kassam attacks. So did the PRC.

Israel has agreed to close down one of its checkpoints in the West Bank, as though that will do anything to stop the incessant attacks against Israel from Gaza? Fatah may stand to gain from that move, but they are no more interested in peace with Israel than Hamas. They're only more circumspect in their goals and are more likely to use diplomacy than terrorism to carve up Israel.

Hamas says that Gilad Shalit will not be part of any truce between it and Israel. Why not? Let's see Hamas engage in a good faith measure for once in its existence. That's certainly too much to ask for, and the terrorist group continues to stand by its demands for the Israelis to release hundreds of its terrorists from Israeli jails as part of any deal. Good faith gestures work both ways - Israel shouldn't have to bear the burden of engaging in concessions and good faith gestures while the terrorists in Hamas and Fatah get to issue platitudes that they quickly ignore as they resume their fight against Israel.

Meanwhile, President Bush is likely to be made to eat these words shortly, as he calls Prime Minister an honest man, and Abbas is a true peace partner. I don't think Bush could have gotten that any more wrong if he tried. Olmert is likely to get indicted for corruption any day now, especially as the Israeli authorities continue digging into his actions at Industry, Trade and Labor Ministry in Jerusalem, and have seized documents related to illicit funding case.

Abbas has never been a partner in peace, and has never wavered from the position taken by Arafat in his years of stonewalling on peace with Israel - the Palestinian position has not changed one iota regarding Israel's right to exist, a two-state solution, or the right of return, to say nothing of the status of Jerusalem. Again, this may be Bush's attempt to prop up Abbas and Fatah, but there's no good reason to do so when Fatah has not shown itself to be a partner in peace. That Fatah is only marginally less violent than Hamas is not a reason to prop it up and provide it with hundreds of millions of dollars in aid, especially when Fatah could fall to Hamas should Hamas restart the Palestinian civil war and get its hands on all the weapons and equipment provided to the Palestinian Authority and Fatah.

UPDATE:
Palestinian propaganda and their sympathetic human rights groups strike again. A Gazan claimed by the Palestinians to have died waiting for health care in Israel was quite alive and well. His own family claimed him as dead so that he wouldn't have to go through a screening process required for entry into Israel:

On the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, al-Harrani’s story was published. His family reported to the “Physicians for Human Rights” organization that he died. “The sick man could not withstand the wait for the permit,” claimed Ran Yaron, Director of the Occupied Territories Department who blamed the Shin Bet for adopting cruel policies against cancer patients.

However, the next day, the organization discovered that al-Harrani was still alive. Members of group estimated that his brother, who reported the death, “killed” him so he does not report to the questioning session.

“This is a rare case where a family member knowingly provided false information to the organization,” Physicians for Human Rights said. “Usually, the organization receives information from the families and from the hospitals, but in this case the information was received from the family and was not confirmed by the hospital."

UPDATE:
I can't wait to see what understanding was reached between the Israelis and Fatah.

Different Disasters, Different Responses

With the Chengdu earthquake occurring in Central China just 10 days after Cyclone Nargis slammed into Burma, it's worth looking at the immediate response from those countries to the disaster and needs of the people.

However, before we get to analyzing the response, one needs to keep in mind that the junta in Burma had advance warning of an impending landfall of a major cyclone. They had several days to prepare for the landfall, and yet it's become all too apparent that the junta did little to warn people along the coastline to prepare for the storm, or to prepare an emergency response to deal with the aftermath.

From the moment the cyclone came ashore, the junta has done everything imaginable to control the process of disbursing aid to survivors, even to the point of seizing aid shipments so that humanitarian groups could not deliver the aid directly. Aid is slowly trickling in, but it is a pittance compared to the need. The junta wanted to control every aspect of the response, and in the process more than 1 million people will suffer.

The situation in Burma is so bad, that you've got people suggesting invasion of Burma to dislodge the junta so as to provide relief that the junta clearly is unwilling to direct to the more than 1 million people affected. It's quite likely that without further intervention, the death toll from the cyclone in Burma will be greater than 100,000, if not significantly higher. A good portion of that toll could be avoidable had the junta taken a single affirmative step to provide assistance to the people of Burma instead of doing everything imaginable to protect their own interests.

Meanwhile, on May 12, 2008, a major earthquake hit in Sichuan province, near the city of Chengdu. It was a magnitude 7.8 (some reports post it as 7.9). A wide area was devastated and reduced to rubble. Compare that to the response from the Chinese government to the Chengdu earthquake. The government had no warning that such a quake would happen - nor could they know the severity of such a quake.

That, however, did not stop the leadership from issuing notifications that the government will do everything within its power to bring assistance to those in need. The devastation in the area central to the quake is total - huge areas reduced to rubble, including schools and hospitals. At last count, more than 10,000 were reported dead, with many thousands still unaccounted for and later updates report that the toll is now 12,000. At least 18,000 others are believed to be buried in the rubble. The toll will be much more than one could bear as entire schools crumbled into piles of debris, killing hundreds of students at schools throughout the affected region:

Just east of the epicenter, 1,000 students and teachers were killed or missing at a collapsed high school in Beichuan county — a more than six-story building reduced to a pile of rubble about two yards high, according to Xinhua. The deaths were separate from another leveled school in Dujiangyan where 900 students are feared dead.

The Chinese government may have good reason to underreport the death toll so as to show that they have instituted improvements in infrastructure and building codes not to mention that their emergency response is more than adequate to handle emergencies of this scale, but they have to show the world that they're doing everything possible to bring a swift response to the region, especially with the Olympics in Beijing in three months' time. That's why you're seeing responses from Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao that call on swift and vigorous response. Jiabao is in the region to help direct the response and to reassure the local population that the central government is doing all it can.

The Chinese government called on the authorities to get roads and rail links reopened to the affected areas so that aid can begin pouring into the region in earnest. Already, 16,000+ soldiers have been dispatched to the region, and 20 military planes have been dispatched as well. Expect the number of Chinese mobilized in the response to climb swiftly. As the Chinese have more people to call upon in such incidents, they'll be able to handle an emergency of this scale better than the Burmese junta could, which makes the junta's failure to accept foreign assistance all the more troubling.

At the same time, weather is hampering the relief efforts as rain is preventing helicopters from flying into parts of the affected region. Still, the BBC reports that the Chinese military can mobilize thousands of soldiers rapidly, and that this is the fastest and most open response to a natural disaster it has seen:

The BBC's Quentin Somerville says this is probably the most significant natural disaster to hit China in recent memory, but that the Chinese army has a good record of mobilising and getting people to safety.

He also says it is one of the most open and speedy responses to an emergency he has ever seen from Chinese state media.

It's a far cry from other recent disasters in China, including the environmental disaster on the Songhua River when a factory explosion dumped tons of benzene into the water and millions were forced to find other water sources even as the Chinese government minimized the damage and disruptions.

Still, some of the Chinese coverage borders on hyperbole and reminds me of propaganda films made by the communist regimes about how they heroically saved people from floods and disasters - even as tens of millions perished. They're doing a far better job thus far than they've done in the past, and are doing a whole world better than the Burmese, but they too have a long way to go.

Things will be difficult for a long time to come for both Burma and China.

UPDATE:
One can also point to the fact that the junta would not be in a position to refuse aid at all if China leaned on the junta to allow aid to flow in to the country unconditionally. China has long had a relationship with odious regimes, including the junta in Burma, North Korea, and Sudan, sheltering them from international condemnation in the UN and thwarting efforts to open those countries up to more rigorous examination.

Meanwhile, the death toll in China continues to mount, as hope appears lost for those buried in schools. An entire generation of kids will be lost in towns across the affected region.

“There’s no hope for them,” said Lu Zhiqing, 58, as she watched uniformed rescue workers trudge through mud and rain toward the mound of bricks and concrete that had once been a school. “There’s no way anyone’s still alive in there.”

Little remained of the original structure of the school. No standing beams, no fragments of walls. The rubble lay low against the wet earth. Dozens of people gathered around in the schoolyard, clawing at the debris, kicking it, screaming at it. Soldiers kept others from entering.

A man and woman walked away from the rubble together. He sheltered her under an umbrella as she wailed, “My child is dead! Dead!”

As dawn crept across this shattered town on Tuesday, it illuminated rows and rows of apartment blocks collapsed into piles, bodies wedged among the debris, homeless families and their neighbors clustered on the roadside, shielding themselves from the downpour with plastic tarps.

I wouldn't give up complete hope, as we saw reports out of the Mexico City quake that found survivors more than a week after a strong quake collapsed buildings there. But, with each passing day, the likelihood of finding survivors diminishes greatly.

UPDATE:
The Australian reports on the willful acts taken by the junta to restrict aid and to project a sense of normalcy as millions suffer. In the process, it suggests that the death toll in Burma is as high as 80,000, if not more and millions are threatened with disease and starvation.

THE soothsayers surrounding Than Shwe, the paranoid general at the apex of Burma's monstrous military regime, are in high favour.

Their prophecies of civil unrest followed by a great natural disaster swayed his decision three years ago to move the capital north to Naypyidaw, an isolated eyrie remote from storm-blasted Rangoon and the fetid sea of devastated or obliterated townships, bloated corpses and destitute survivors that the fertile Irrawaddy Delta has become.

Naypyidaw was untouched by Cyclone Nargis. The only "damage" was to the telephone, on which Than Shwe was said to be unable to take calls all week, not even from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

A good omen in the generals' eyes, this immunity is an awful omen for the stricken Burmese. Naypyidaw's lucky escape can only reinforce the regime's determination to put self-preservation first, even if this means that up to a million more people die, needlessly, denied access to readily available international relief.

The junta is not, of its own volition, going to let in anything like the volume of aid required, at the speed required, to prevent a natural disaster turning into a monstrous - and man-made - humanitarian catastrophe.

It does not admit, perhaps not even to itself, the deadly truth. The official and implausibly precise toll has inched upwards to 28,458 dead and 33,416 missing. Yet according to the army's Irrawaddy divisional headquarters, the cyclone killed about 50,000 in or near Bogalay, where 142 villages were submerged, a further 20,000 in Labutta and at least 10,000 in Pyapon.

Four out of 400 survived in Khaing Shwe Wa village; in hundreds more villages, not a trace of life remains. Remoter areas cannot yet be reached, but in these three districts alone more than 700,000 are without shelter, food or corpse-free water; untreated wounds are turning septic, infant dysentery is rife and cholera, already reported, could rapidly become epidemic.

The generals don't want to know. At Thilawa port, rice for Bangladesh was loaded on to a container ship late last week and the regime insists that it will meet all its export commitments. The only rice released to victims, in handfuls from the port's warehouse, was rotted by flood damage. The state media, parroting the lie that Burma is returning to normal, has switched to "reporting" massive turnout in Saturday's constitutional referendum, which Than Shwe unconscionably refused to postpone.

And yet, aid will not reach those who need it because the junta deems it so. It's easier to eliminate the opposition this way, and they can claim (not justifiably so, in my opinion) that they didn't have anything to do with it either.

UPDATE:
Some Chinese are getting angry with the government, claiming that the widespread building collapses were due to shoddy construction and/or lax building codes. Popular Mechanics has more on that angle, including the fact that even if the government builds new structures to stringent building codes, grandfathered structures will be unimproved and therefore remain vulnerable to quakes. It remains to be seen the pattern and type of structures most likely to have collapsed and when they were built.