Pedal To The Metal, Grasshopper

The head of the Shaolin monastery in China has received a $125,000 sports car for his efforts to promote local tourism. People who have been around for a while may remember that the Shaolin monastery was the place Kwai Chang Caine trained. Ok, it was a TV show and David Carradine isn't really a kung fu hero. But hey, it's an interesting tidbit of information!

Shi Yongxin, the abbot of Shaolin Temple in central Dengfeng, received the $125,000 car at a tourism promotion conference in the city at the beginning of last week, Xinhua news agency said.

"I will try my best to promote martial arts to the world in an attempt to boost local tourism," the abbot, in charge of the temple, the training ground for Kwai Chang Caine in the 1970s "Kung Fu" television series, was quoted as saying.

"I dream of getting a bigger prize next year."

Following the award ceremony, tens of thousands of Chinese posted their opinions on Internet forums or surveys conducted by China's major Web portals.

"Shaolin monks are renowned for their austerity, transcriptions of religious classics and marvellous martial arts, but now, luxury goods have entered their lives, proving that the religious world has been violated by worldly concepts," an anonymous netizen wrote.

Xinhua said about three-quarters of the respondents to the polls considered giving a luxury car to a monk inappropriate.

Drive like the wind, Grasshopper.

I Rest My Case

Want proof that my last post was on target? That sworn enemies can easily cooperate when they want to for a common goal? The proof comes from the self-same media outlet that provided the fodder for the last post, the Washington Post.

But there was more. Hamas mobilized candidates and popular campaigns to win a plurality in Palestinian legislative elections and form a new government. Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt achieved similar electoral successes. And with these developments, a sudden chill fell over Washington and other Western capitals.

Instead of welcoming these particular elected officials into the newly emerging democratic fold, Washington began a cold war on Muslim democrats. Even the tepid pressure on autocratic allies of the United States to democratize in 2005 had all but disappeared by 2006. In fact, tottering Arab autocrats felt they had a new lease on life with the West conveniently cowed by an emerging Islamist political force.

Now the cold war on Islamists has escalated into a shooting war, first against Hamas in Gaza and then against Hezbollah in Lebanon. Israel is perceived in the region, rightly or wrongly, to be an agent acting on behalf of U.S. interests. Some will admit that there was provocation for Israel to strike at Hamas and Hezbollah following the abduction of three soldiers and attacks on military and civilian targets. But destroying Lebanon with an overkill approach born of a desire for vengeance cannot be morally tolerated or politically justified — and it will not work.

On July 30 Arab, Muslim and world outrage reached an unprecedented level with the Israeli bombing of a residential building in the Lebanese village of Qana, which killed dozens and wounded hundreds of civilians, most of them children. A similar massacre in Qana in 1996, which Arabs remember painfully well, proved to be the political undoing of then-Prime Minister Shimon Peres. It is too early to predict whether Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will survive Qana II and the recent war. But Hezbollah will survive, just as it has already outlasted five Israeli prime ministers and three American presidents.

Born in the thick of an earlier Israeli invasion, in 1982, Hezbollah is at once a resistance movement against foreign occupation, a social service provider for the needy of the rural south and the slum-dwellers of Beirut, and a model actor in Lebanese and Middle Eastern politics. Despite access to millions of dollars in resources from within and from regional allies Syria and Iran, its three successive leaders have projected an image of clean governance and a pious personal lifestyle.

In more than four weeks of fighting against the strongest military machine in the region, Hezbollah held its own and won the admiration of millions of Arabs and Muslims. People in the region have compared its steadfastness with the swift defeat of three large Arab armies in the Six-Day War of 1967. Hasan Nasrallah, its current leader, spoke several times to a wide regional audience through his own al-Manar network as well as the more popular al-Jazeera. Nasrallah has become a household name in my own country, Egypt.

According to the preliminary results of a recent public opinion survey of 1,700 Egyptians by the Cairo-based Ibn Khaldun Center, Hezbollah's action garnered 75 percent approval, and Nasrallah led a list of 30 regional public figures ranked by perceived importance. He appears on 82 percent of responses, followed by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (73 percent), Khaled Meshal of Hamas (60 percent), Osama bin Laden (52 percent) and Mohammed Mahdi Akef of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood (45 percent).

The pattern here is clear, and it is Islamic. And among the few secular public figures who made it into the top 10 are Palestinian Marwan Barghouti (31 percent) and Egypt's Ayman Nour (29 percent), both of whom are prisoners of conscience in Israeli and Egyptian jails, respectively.

Islamism is rapidly replacing Arabism. It is not the fault of the US or Israel, either, but ultimately the fault of the failure of that doctrine. People seek new ideals when one set of beliefs fail. People cooperate when they see the need.

The Newest Meme

This one has been floated here in comments. The newest meme, as far as I can tell, is this: the Sunni Muslims are too different from the Shi'ite Muslims to actually be able to work together. David Ignatius at the Washington Post is now promoting this idea. You see, he tells us, al Jazeera has to walk a tightrope to provide their news coverage. Because Sunni and Shi'ite are so very different.

Sheikh fears that Iraq is headed toward a calamitous civil war that will spill over to other countries with mixed Shiite-Sunni populations, such as Kuwait, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. "If the Americans can prevent civil war from happening, their presence would be useful," he says. But after three years of American failure to stabilize the country, he is doubtful.

The al-Jazeera editor remains militant about Arab causes. "What doesn't change for our viewers is indignation against U.S. and Israeli policies," he says. But with the exception of the Palestinian struggle and the Iraqi resistance to American occupation, he says, most of the so-called jihadist battles have actually produced what the Arabs call fitna , or self-destructive internal strife.

Sheikh works out of a small office just off the main newsroom. He joined al-Jazeera when it was founded in 1996 after working for the BBC and other TV news channels. Dressed in shirtsleeves, just back from the morning story conference with his editors, he looks a bit like an Arab version of Lou Grant.

Al-Jazeera has been attacked by American officials as a propaganda tool for Osama bin Laden and other Muslim radicals. And as a journalist, I have often found its coverage unbalanced. It tries too hard to present the Arab news, rather than just the news. That said, I was struck, in talking to Sheikh, by how complicated it has become for al-Jazeera to cover this part of the world.

Take coverage of Iran. Al-Jazeera recently reopened its bureau there after it was closed by the Iranian authorities for 18 months. The network's crime was that it had sent a camera crew into southwestern Iran and reported complaints of the Arab minority there that they were treated unfairly by the central government. After the broadcast aired, there were protests and civil unrest in the region — and the Iranians decided to pull the plug.

Iraq poses a worse problem. Because al-Jazeera reported from behind the lines of the Sunni insurgency, Iraqi Shiites became indignant about its coverage. The network was expelled by the Shiite-led government in September 2004, but Sheikh says he would be reluctant to go back now. Relations with the U.S. military are better, but because of Shiite anger, it would be "very, very dangerous" for al-Jazeera.

Funny thing about this kind of argument. It is complete and utter nonsense. History is replete with examples of sworn enemies working together against a mutual foe. Groups with wildly different goals, objectives and mindsets work together all the time and always have. You can see it in the "peace" movement in the West on a regular basis. It is a huge mistake to take this line.

Baby Teeth

Well, it would appear that the UNIFIL peacekeeping force will at least have baby teeth. The 21 page Rules Of Engagement (ROE) will at least let the troops fire back in self defense. They are far from "robust", however.

The 21 pages of rules, obtained by Reuters on Tuesday, adhere to the mandate laid down by the U.N. Security Council in an August 11 resolution and drafted by France and the United States. That did not call on the U.N. force, known as UNIFIL, to carry out large-scale disarmament of Hizbollah guerrillas in a southern Lebanon buffer zone.

The rules, given to potential troop contributors last week for approval, have been generally accepted, said Vijay Nambiar, a special adviser to Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

"We have not received any major requests for any change," Nambiar told a news conference in Jerusalem on Tuesday, "We assume that we will be able to finalize them imminently."

In an attempt to enforce a fragile cease-fire after Hizbollah's monthlong war with Israel, the United Nations wants 3,500 new peacekeepers in Lebanon by September 2 and up to 15,000 there by November, including the 2,000 on the ground now in UNIFIL.

The current UNIFIL, the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon, established in 1978, also had the right to self-defense but was mainly an observer mission.

Specifically, the new rules of engagement, marked "U.N. Restricted," permit the right of self-defense and "preemptive self-defense" against an anticipated attack. But in many cases, a senior officer has to approve force if U.N. troops are not under attack.

The soldiers can also use force against anyone preventing UNIFIL from carrying out its duties and to ensure the security and freedom of movement of U.N. personnel and humanitarian workers and to protect civilians under imminent threat, the rules say.

The use of force, "including deadly force," is also authorized to defend the Lebanese armed forces that a U.N. unit may be assigned to accompany, providing the threatening group or person is armed.

Force must be commensurate with the level of the threat. But the level of response may have to be higher in order to minimize U.N. or civilian casualties, the rules say.

The UN force will not be tasked with actually disarming Hezbollah. Or doing anything much of any use, it would seem. So much for the French solution.

If This Is True

The Judge who rendered the very much talked about decision in the NSA case may well be in serious trouble. Judicial Watch is reporting what appears to be a conflict of interest of potentially biblical proportions. It would seem that judge Anna Diggs Taylor serves as Secretary and Trustee for a group that funds the local ACLU. Who happens to have been the plaintiff in the case she decided.

According to her 2003 and 2004 financial disclosure statements, Judge Diggs Taylor served as Secretary and Trustee for the Community Foundation for Southeastern Michigan (CFSEM).  She was reelected to this position in June 2005.  The official CFSEM website states that the foundation made a “recent grant” of $45,000 over two years to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Michigan, a plaintiff in the wiretapping case.  Judge Diggs Taylor sided with the ACLU of Michigan in her recent decision.

 

According to the CFSEM website, “The Foundation’s trustees make all funding decisions at meetings held on a quarterly basis.”

 

“This potential conflict of interest merits serious investigation,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.  “If Judge Diggs Taylor failed to disclose this link to a plaintiff in a case before her court, it would certainly call into question her judgment.”

(Judge Diggs Taylor is also the presiding judge in another case where she may have a conflict of interest.  The Arab Community Center for Social and Economic Services (ACCESS) is a defendant in another case now before Judge Diggs Taylor’s court [Case No. 06-10968 (Mich. E.D.)].  In 2003, the CFSEM donated $180,000 to ACCESS.)

This could be a very bad thing indeed for the judge. This really crosses a line if the allegation is true. Her financial forms indicate that it is.

‘Suspicion’ Update

I posted about the incident where passengers on a British charter flight refused to let the airplane take off until two men were removed. The BBC has an update to the story, and there was even more to the passenger's disquiet than just the inappropriate behavior.

David Wearden, 42, from Chester, said it was reports that the pair had been overheard claiming they had 30 minutes left to live which led to concerns.

He denied passengers had "mutinied" and demanded the men's removal, saying the atmosphere onboard had been "quiet".

The men, who reportedly looked Arabic, were later cleared to travel.

They were allowed to fly back to the UK on another flight.

'Quiet unease'

Mr Wearden, who was returning from a nine-day holiday with his wife and three children, said the first he became aware anything unusual was happening was as the plane was due to take off and "the family in front of us just got off".

"We were all very puzzled by what was going on. There was no announcement," he said.

The financial services lawyer said there was a feeling of "quiet unease" and children began panicking.

"There wasn't any collective action. There was no shouting or demands for those people to be taken off at all. It was very calm.

"Most people were still very much on the plane, but people were upset by what was going on."

Pilot's actions

The captain then spoke to the two men and returned to the cockpit with their passports, said Mr Wearden.

"We were then asked to get off the plane and go back to the airport where they did a full security check."

It was then, he said, that his wife Susanne began talking to another passenger who said she had sat next to the two men.

"She said she had heard them saying it was the last 30 minutes of their lives," said Mr Wearden.

Were the two men joking? Who knows at this point. Let me just tell a little anecdote here. I once took a training course from a guy who had worked for years in the area of engineering change documentation. One of the very important documents in any engineering design is a Bill Of Materials, commonly called a BOM. The instructor told me he had once been traveling through an airport discussing how to document and track changes to the BOM when he suddenly was stopped, detained and searched. Because, of course, people heard "bomb" not "BOM".

That was long before 9/11.

I have a pretty off-beat sense of humor, but I'm not stupid enough to joke about things like that in today's climate.

Clamping Down

This is the third report I have seen today that says the security situation is improving in Baghdad. Is it perfect? Hell, no. But is the violence level dropping in response to the increased presence of troops? Cautiously, the answer seems to be yes.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Violence in Baghdad has declined in the past two weeks and all but ended in some formerly deadly neighborhoods, the U.S. military said in a cautiously upbeat report on Tuesday on a major security clampdown in the city.

As Iraqis look to an anxious future, the court trying Saddam Hussein heard voices from the past — Kurdish villagers accused the ousted president of genocide in poison gas attacks. Another court detained a former minister in the first cabinet after the U.S. invasion as part of a probe into massive corruption.

A day after President George W. Bush said he was concerned about civil war and was not about to withdraw U.S. troops, the chief military spokesman in Iraq said he saw no sign of such a conflict but U.S. forces were focusing on breaking sectarian "death squads" from both Shi'ite and Sunni Muslim communities.

Twenty-two raids in the past week against such groups in the capital had led to 37 arrests, Major General William Caldwell told a news conference. He presented statistics showing a 16 percent drop in the daily average of attacks in Baghdad since August 7, at 21 compared to 25 in the preceding two months.

"What we have seen in August is a downturn," Caldwell said, two weeks after beefed up U.S. forces and thousands of Iraqi troops and police launched a new phase of what Iraqi and U.S. leaders have called a make-or-break operation to pacify Baghdad.

In three particularly violent areas where intensive raids to root out militants have been completed this month, life was returning to normal and attacks were rare, Caldwell said — a sentiment endorsed by a number of residents in the mainly Sunni areas of Ghazaliya and Amriya and the mixed district of Dora.

"There are positive things occurring and people are seeing it," Caldwell said. "This is not something that's going to happen overnight. But all the signs are very positive."

Centcom has an ongoing series of press releases that detail the progress. There actually has been quite a lot as much as the media wants to downplay it. If you're interested in actually reading some of the positive developments instead of the doom and gloom from the media go over to Centcom.

Snakes In A Theater

In a potentially lethal prank, someone release two live diamondback rattlesnakes into a movie theater showing the movie Snakes on a Plane.

Movie chain AMC Entertainment Inc. said pranksters at one of its Phoenix theaters released two live diamondback rattlesnakes during a showing of the film "Snakes on a Plane" last Friday. No one was injured.

AMC spokeswoman Melanie Bell said, "One was found in the parking lot during the show, and the other in the movie theatre. They were both removed, and no one was harmed."

The snakes were later released in the desert.

Bell had no further details.

The movie stars Samuel L. Jackson, and spins a yarn about a crate-load of escaped snakes that run amok on an airline flight, attacking passengers and crew.

"There were kids at the show, and it was actually very reckless," Russ Johnson, the president of the Phoenix Herpetological Society told Reuters.

Never underestimate the power of human stupidity. The 'pranksters' are very lucky someone wasn't killed or seriously injured.

Plame Considers Suing Everyone On Earth!

Well, not really, but she's considering adding Richard Armitage to the lawsuit she already filed against Cheney, Rove and Libby. And her attorney is talking about a "widening conspiracy". Lord, aren't those 15 minutes over yet?

The calendar released to the AP is the first confirmation that Woodward and Armitage met during the key time in the CIA leak case.

Plame attorney Heidi Sloan said she was considering adding Armitage's name to the suit. Based on the calendar entry, Sloan said, "it sure sounds like" he was Woodward's source.

The real question, Sloan said, is whether Armitage revealed Plame's identity to columnist Robert Novak, who was the first to get the information into print. If so, she said that doesn't get Libby or others off the hook in the civil case, but it widens the conspiracy.

"Then I think maybe Armitage was in on it," Sloan said. "The question is just what was Armitage's role?"

Neither Woodward nor Armitage would discuss the meeting.

Plame's attorneys plan to seek depositions from the defendants and others, including Armitage, about the leak.

Tom Maguire has more on Armitage.

Still No Sign Of Fidel Castro

Fidel's older brother is now giving updates on his condition, but there still have been no public appearances.

"He is better. The problem was resolved quickly," Ramon Castro told Reuters. "He is relaxed, resting."

Ramon Castro, the farmer in the family who has kept out of politics, said Fidel Castro was enjoying some downtime since ceding the presidency provisionally to his younger brother.

"He is happy because he is free. For the first time in his life he has handed over the job to Raul," Ramon Castro said.

Castro's illness has forced him to abandon his legendary pace of activity that included lengthy speeches, all-night meetings and the overseeing of most aspects of Cuban government and society.

Details of Castro's illness and the operation he underwent are a closely guarded state secret and rumors had been rife he might even have died until Cuba released photographs and video of Castro around his 80th birthday on August 13.

….

Asked whether his brother would attend the summit of the Nonaligned Movement that Cuba will host from September 11 to 16, Ramon Castro, who will be 82 in October, said, "Sure, he is already feeling like a lion."

So there you have a date certain. If Castro does not appear at the summit, he's either dead or dying.

Escaped Convict Recaptured

After a month on the lam, Willy has been captured and returned to his cell. Leading pursuers on an exceedingly low speed chase, the escapee was finally brought to bay about five miles from home. Tortoises aren't known for their blistering speed, after all.

Kellie Copeland-Burnup reported the tortoise escaped about July 1.

A local emergency medical services technician spotted Willy on Sunday along a rural road about five miles away. During six weeks on the run, Willy averaged .005 mph, well short of a new land speed record.

The tortoise is now inside a chain-link dog kennel in Copeland-Burnup's back yard although she knows he is capable of digging under a fence.

"I'll be keeping an eye on him," Copeland-Burnup said.

No indication of what kind of tortoise devilry he was up to, though. It shouldn't have taken him more than 28 days to cover five miles.

Fox News Journalists Still Missing

Fox News reporter Steve Centanni and cameraman Olaf Wiig, kidnapped by unknown terrorists in Gaza a week ago, are still missing. Frankly, the silence by the other media outlets is deafening. Michelle Malkin points out one simply sickening post by TV critic Bob Laurence:

Fox has deliberately set itself apart from other news media. Starting at the top with Roger Ailes, the Fox sales pitch has been to deride other media, to declare itself the one source of the real truth, the sole source of 'fair and accurate' news reporting. As a result, there's not a reservoir of kinship or good will with Fox on the part of the rest of the news media. You can't keep insulting people and then expect friendship when you need it.

They've made it a policy to keep a distance between themselves and the rest of the media, far beyond the usual competitive spirit, so that's where they are: at a distance.

That is contemptible. Put your politics and competitiveness aside and at least support these two men.

A Bloody Shirt Or A False Flag?

The Dixie Chicks continue their self-inflicted attempts at commercial martyrdom. Now they have penned a distribution deal for their "documentary" detailing all their problems after shooting themselves in the foot. The film will be distributed by Harvey Weinstein, a longtime Democratic party supporter (and reputedly ethically challenged per the Wikipedia entry).

A release is tentatively scheduled for the fall, possibly right before the November elections.

The film revolves around the aftermath of singer Natalie Maines' statement at a 2003 London concert, where she said, "Just so you know, we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas."

It chronicles death threats, political attacks and radio boycotts against the country trio, and that could make the film a political hot potato as well as potential ammo should longtime Democratic party supporter Harvey Weinstein become involved in the fall political campaigns.

….

"I am extremely proud to be associated with this film because it's not only an outstanding and creative piece of work, but it also exposes our responsibility as Americans to confront our fundamental right to freedom of speech," Weinstein said.

Kopple said plans for a grassroots promotional campaign are still being discussed, and Peck said the film is likely to be a hot topic in the approaching elections. "It deals with freedom of speech, censorship and other important issues," Kopple said. "It looks at the cost of standing up for what you believe in."

Only in the Dixie Chicks' little world is there any issue whatsoever of freedom of speech or censorship. What they suffered is economic consequences for alienating a very large chunk of their core audience. They have continued to inflict damage on themselves by not being sensible and shutting up. Instead they continue to promote themselves as martyrs. Weinstein is completely misrepresenting what they did and the consequences of their actions in a cynical attempt to manipulate an election. But then, he was involved in Michael Moore's last hack job, too. So he has a track record of attempting cynical manipulation.

So, a bloody shirt or a false flag, you decide.

Impressive Pictures!

Dr. Rusty Shackleford has the scoop on a faked claim by Hezbollah. They are passing off a picture of an Australian ship being torpedoed upon decommissioning as a Hezbollah missile attack on an Israeli warship. Fauxtography at its finest!

Here's the shots Jawa Report had, the first is the Hezbollah website, the second from Australian Navy archives:

But think of the opportunities Hezbollah is missing by being so uncreative! Why they could claim attacking the Greek navy!

Or the British navy!

Or to be really creative, the Confederate navy!

Boy, those guys have such limited imaginations!

North Korea Threatens Attack

North Korea has announced that it has the right to launch an attack on South Korea, claiming regular annual US-South Korean military exercises as an excuse. The exercises have been held since 1975 without incident.

U.S. and South Korean troops began military exercises on Monday dubbed Ulchi Focus Lens that are aimed at testing command structures and communications.

The annual exercises have been held without incident since they began in 1975 and the North usually brands them as a prelude to invasion and nuclear war.

But the drills this year are being held with tensions high on the peninsula after North Korea test-fired a barrage of missiles on July 5 and reports last week it may preparing to test a nuclear weapon.

In its KCNA news agency, North Korea said the drills were "an undisguised military threat and blackmail against the DPRK (North Korea) and a war action."

"The Korean Peoples' Army side, therefore, reserves the right to undertake a pre-emptive action for self-defense against the enemy at a crucial time it deems necessary to defend itself," the agency cited an army spokesman as saying.

The article also mentions the suspicious activities at a suspected North Korean nuclear test site, but does not provide any new details on that. Now we have to see if Venezuela rattles it's saber.