Chavez Plays Mini-Me To Iran

Hugo Chavez followed up the performance by his good buddy and fellow whack job, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, by figuratively urinating on the UN. Oh, and he also called George Bush "the Devil".

The leftist leader, who joined Iran last week in an alliance against U.S. influence, accused Washington of "domination, exploitation and pillage of peoples of the world."

"We appeal to the people of the United States and the world to halt this threat, which is like a sword hanging over our head," he said.

He also said the U.N. in its current system "doesn't work" and is "antidemocratic."

Chavez called for reform, saying the U.S. government's "immoral veto" had allowed recent Israeli bombings of Lebanon to continue unabated for more than a month.

"Venezuela once again proposes today that we reform the United Nations," he said.

The UN has become a cartoon show. A really bad one.

UPDATE: The Anchoress on the other hand notes something that may be very, very important about the appearances of Mad Mahmoud and Mini-Me Chavez:

What I noticed was the body language of the UN assembly. They looked at Bush; they listened. Ahmadinejad had them squirming and darting their eyes.

Like Varifrank, I had a sense that Ahmadinejad’s rambling discourse was a turning point, that Ahmadinejad’s rant following President Bush’s passionate call-out for liberty, made to one ME country after another, and to the UN, the whole world got a chance to see its choices very clearly.

And on Chavez's public display of stupidity:

Meanwhile, today Hugo Chavez displays symptoms of distemper, calling President Bush “the devil” and claiming he can still smell the sulfur. Michelle Malkin has more but THINKING folks on the left cannot be liking this right now. It’s not going to be much help for them. Even my left-of-center Li’l Bro Thom is saying, “he’s nuts!”

Has there been a shift of momentum? The Anchoress wonders if at least some on the left had their eyes opened a bit by watching the contrast between an optimistic Bush and the vitriolic hatred of Mad Mahmoud (and the positively insane rambling of Chavez). She's hopeful at least that maybe the left will stop screeching hatred at Bush and if not exactly support him, will at least stop trying to trash him.

One also wonders if Chavez just torpedoed any chance of Venezuela getting a seat on the Security Council. I think that may be a leading indicator to watch. If Chavez fails to gain the open seat, then maybe, just maybe things are turning around a little.

NJ Democrats Begin Warming Up

Quinnipiac puts Republican Tom Kean, Jr. in the lead over New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez among likely voters. The lead is within the margin of error, but it is, I believe, the first time the challenger has taken a lead. It also shows that corruption allegations against Menendez are beginning to really take a toll.

New Jersey State Sen. Tom Kean, Jr., the Republican challenger, leads Democratic incumbent U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez 48 - 45 percent among New Jersey likely voters, including leaners, in the U.S. Senate race, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today. Another 6 percent remain undecided.

Among registered voters, Sen. Menendez leads 41 - 38 percent each, compared to a slim 40 - 38 Kean lead in a July 17 poll by the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe- ack) University.

In this latest survey, Republican likely voters back Kean 92 - 5 percent, while Democrats back Menendez 85 - 9 percent and independent voters split, with 46 percent for Kean and 44 percent for Menendez.

That last number should be worrying the Democrats. This was supposed to be a safe seat and it is now very, very much in play. Time for the NJ Dems to begin warming up for another lautenberg! Heck, they have the perfect candidate.

Abe Set To Be Japanese PM

Shinzo Abe, a strongly conservative proponent of a tougher Japanese foreign policy won the leadership of his party, ensuring he will become the next Prime Minister of Japan. Abe has promised to rewrite Japan's pacifist constitution and promote even closer ties with the US on defense matters.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Shinzo Abe, a conservative advocate of a more muscular Japanese foreign policy, was overwhelmingly elected ruling party leader on Wednesday, setting the stage for him to be chosen as prime minister next week.

Abe, who will become Japan's first prime minister born after World War Two, has pledged to rewrite Japan's pacifist constitution, forge even tighter security ties with close ally Washington and put more patriotism into Japanese classrooms.

He has also promised to seek a thaw in ties with China and South Korea, chilled by outgoing Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to Tokyo's Yasukuni war shrine. But he has stressed that better relations require efforts on all sides.

"It's important that leaders meet each other periodically for talks," he told public broadcaster NHK.

"I hope to make efforts toward that end."

But he said he did not know if such a meeting could be held with China this year. There is speculation he may meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao after becoming prime minister.

Abe is one to watch right now. He has promised to create a cabinet level position with the sole mission of freeing the Japanese citizens kidnapped by the North Koreans. I don't imagine that the lilliputian lunatic of Pyongyang is really happy about Abe's victory. Abe appears ready to take a harder line with the North Koreans.

A Spectrum Of Stupidity

Pat Santy, aka Dr. Sanity, discusses the speech the president and whack job in chief of Iran gave to the United Nations and the willfully stupid people who swallowed the sewage he spewed.

The stupidity of which Wretchard speaks comes in all shapes and sizes, a veritable spectrum that extends from the willful blindness on the part of Western leadership and media; to the passive, uncritical and morally bankrupt minions who nod sagely at any idiocy as they desperately try to maintain a world view that ignores reality as its founding principle.

Both ends of this spectrum of stupidity are incapable of responding in any appropriate manner to the deeply despicable and nauseatingly hypocritical speech the lying President of Iran delivered at the UN last night.

It was so breathtakingly duplicitous, that I could barely listen to the translation and 45 minutes into it had to turn it off. I would have sooner looked at a piece of vile pornography than continue to listen to him.

Only in a world that values nothing would there not be instantaneous outrage at the lies, deceptions and self-serving tripe offered for world consumption by a man who clearly has no conscience and enjoys lying and distorting for the fun of it. How could such a man be given the world stage to spew forth his lies, let alone be feted and honored for them? How could most–if not all–of the rest of the world swallow whole the protestations of sincerity and victimhood? How could it be conveniently forgotten what his real intentions and attitudes are even for a moment as he coyly presents himself as a simple man of peace and brotherhood?

One of my favorite sayings is that one should never underestimate the power of human stupidity. The insanely misguided people who believe George Bush and Dick Cheney are more dangerous than Ahmadinejad prove that point exactly. (Boy, I can't wait to see the comments that particular bit of troll bait brings). Egypt is already signaling that they are going to enter into an arms race in the Middle East. The situation will continue to spiral out of control while the stupid applaud messianic madmen for "standing up to the US". By the time the scales fall from their eyes we will all be in trouble.

Beware The Man-Eating Pandas

A Chinese man is in the hospital today because he decided to try to pet a Panda at the Beijing Zoo. He found out for a fact what we have long suspected. Despite their cute, cuddly looks, Pandas are actually man-eating monsters!

Zhang Xinyan, from the central province of Henan, drank four jugs of beer at a restaurant near the zoo before visiting Gu Gu the panda on Tuesday, the Beijing Morning Post said.

"He felt a sudden urge to touch the panda with his hand," and jumped into the enclosure, the newspaper said.

The panda, who was asleep, was startled and bit Zhang, 35, on the right leg, it said. Zhang got angry and kicked the panda, who then bit his other leg. A tussle ensued, the paper said.

"I bit the fellow in the back," Zhang was quoted as saying in the newspaper. "Its skin was quite thick."

Zoo officials say they have no plans to punish the panda. Big mistake. Gu Gu has acquired a taste for human flesh. Just wait until the zookeepers begin vanishing one by one. Bwahahaha.

Beware strong drink, folks. It may lead you to try to bite pandas.

Puppy Daiquiris!

Soccer Dad writes about the latest from the race for the Senate in Maryland. It's all about puppies in blenders.

I Wonder What He’d Do For A C-Note?

Man counts money, man loses grip on $20 bill. Bill falls in River.

Man jumps after bill, falling 50 feet.

PALMETTO, Fla. - Mark Giorgio figured a 50-foot fall was worth $20. Giorgio, 47, was counting his money Monday while walking across the U.S. 41 bridge over the Manatee River when a $20 bill blew out of his hand and flew over the rail.

He followed. And plummeted 50 feet into the river.

Then he swam about 100 yards to fish the bill from the water.

"I got my money back, hell yeah," Giorgio told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. "Twenty bucks is a lot of money when you're broke."

Giorgio apparently had a broken collarbone before he jumped into the river. Please, don't wave a $100 bill at him. We already know he's not the sharpest tool in the shed. Unless you can think of something non-life threatening that would be highly amusing. Then it would be okay.

New Biblical-Level Plague Detected!

Forget that plague of locust thingee, that's small potatoes. We have a real threat to China, and the city of Shanghai in particular, at the moment. Bird flu? Nope, much much worse.

A plague of BLOGGERS.

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - People wearing pajamas in public, still a common sight in Shanghai, is one of the most irritating aspects of life in China's biggest city, according to an opinion poll of residents.

The survey found that pajama-wearing on the streets and in public places such as shops, banks and parks is among the most uncivilized things in the city, along with aggressive pets, unhelpful neighbors and disregard for the natural environment,

Over 16 percent of respondents said they or family members often donned pajamas in public, and 25 percent reported they sometimes did, Yang Xiong, a professor who helped conduct the poll, said Wednesday.

Since the we know the infamous remark about bloggers being a bunch of people sitting around in their pajamas and since their are thousands of people running around Shanghai in pajamas,  this must indicate that Shanghai is being overrun with bloggers! Right? The logic is impeccable.

Run for your lives! The bloggers are coming!

NASA Continues To Inspect Atlantis

Three more mystery objects have been sighted near the shuttle and NASA is taking great care to thoroughly inspect the heat shield of the craft. So far there have been no concerns noted. It is actually not at all unusual to see a bunch of different weird things floating by in space. Astronauts have noted these kinds of things since the early days of the Mercury project. NASA has become a lot more careful about it, though.

HOUSTON - Shuttle astronauts spotted three more pieces of debris floating in space outside Atlantis early Wednesday, but officials said it didn't seem their appearance would prevent a landing attempt on Thursday.

The objects were sighted during stepped-up inspections a day after the discovery of two other mysterious objects forced a postponement of the planned Wednesday landing.

NASA downplayed the discovery of Wednesday's objects, saying the important question was whether an in-depth inspection of the shuttle showed no damage to Atlantis' heat shield.

"It's not uncommon to see little bits of pieces of things floating by," said flight director Paul Dye.

Atlantis commander Brent Jett described the objects as two rings and a piece of foil. He told Mission Control the first object, about 100 feet from the shuttle, was "a reflective cloth or a mechanic looking-cloth. … It's not a solid metal structure."

Before the postponement Tuesday, Atlantis had been scheduled to touch down just before daybreak Wednesday, when the weather forecast wasn't favorable for landing anyway. The landing time was reset for early Thursday, but could be put off until Friday.

The extra inspection with the boom followed a 4 1/2-hour inspection using cameras on the space shuttle's robotic arm early Wednesday

NASA managers didn't see anything that concerned them during the initial inspection but decided to go ahead with the boom inspection anyway as an extra safety precaution. The boom, which is attached to the shuttle's 50-foot robotic arm and has cameras and sensors at its end, can look at hard-to-reach places.

The first object sighted appeared to drift away when landing systems were put through a normal but bumpy trial run early Tuesday morning.

Worry about whether it came from a crucial part of Atlantis was enough to make NASA postpone the landing. NASA officials said their best guess was that the object was a plastic filler placed in between thermal tiles which protect the shuttle from blasting heat.

But after being unable to determine what the object was Tuesday, NASA managers opted to spend early Wednesday making sure the shuttle was in good shape instead of concentrating on solving the mystery.

I think they made the right choice. They may never be able to figure out what the object was. But they should be able to examine the heat shield integrity with the new equipment they have on board.

Why You Should Think Twice About Instant Messaging

Security experts are warning that a Trojan worm is being spread via AOL Instant Messenger. Hackers appear to be building a "botnet" out of infected computers. The malicious software is spread by tricking people into thinking that they are opening a jpeg file.

FaceBook security specialists advised users not to open any files sent to them via AIM.

FaceTime Security Labs identified the worm as "W32.pipeline" and said the executable software tricked its way into people's computers by posing as a picture attached to an instant message from someone on their AOL "buddy list."

Once in computers, the worms open the doors to download infectious software that essentially lets those behind the invasion take control of the machines, according to FaceTime.

"The motivation for the bad guys seems to be in lining up as many 'install chains' as possible to insure a consistent pipeline that can be controlled by their rogue botnet," said FaceTime director of malware research Chris Boyd.

AIM users are duped into letting the worms in through psychological ploy from the "social engineering" playbook, according to FaceTime.

The infected attachments are disguised as image "JPEG" files and arrive with AIM messages to the effect of "hey would it (be) okay if i upload this picture of you to my blog?"

The worm sends copies of itself to addresses found on AOL instant messaging (AIM) buddy lists of newly infected machines, FaceTime said.

The robotic computers can be amassed in a network referred to as a "botnet."

"FaceTime researchers believe that the ultimate goal of the W32.pipeline is to create a sophisticated botnet that can be used for a range of malicious purposes," the Foster City, California, company said in a statement.

My daughter installed AIM on a computer against my wishes a short while ago. That computer is currently out of commission because of some weird behavior I noticed, including trying to repeatedly install something (it keeps failing to install whatever it is for reasons unknown). I now wonder if this may be the cause. But there's your tip for the day - do not open ANY attachments sent via AIM.

Hungary In Turmoil?

I'm still waiting for frequent commenter Roland, who lives in Hungary, to send along an on the scene report I offered to post for him. In the meantime, Publius Pundit has a better analysis than you are going to get from the major media right now. I've read two wildly different media reports already this morning. It appears that things are very unsettled at the moment.

Major Spam Attack

Just to let folks now, the site, and I presume my hosting company as well, is under a major spamming onslaught at the moment. The site is currently slowing down under the load. Attacks like this have in the past been precursors to DDOS attacks on the hosting company. If you suddenly can't get to the Crabitat, you'll know why.

Of course, if you can't get here to read this, you won't realize what is going on.

Thailand Appears Calm

As coups go, the one in Thailand was at least apparently completely bloodless. It also appears to be completely successful up until now. The leader of the coup says he will assume the duties of Prime Minister for only two weeks until someone els can be appointed and a temporary constitution put in place. Elections are being schedule for October.

BANGKOK, Thailand - The army commander who seized Thailand's government in a swift, bloodless coup promised Wednesday to act as prime minister for only two weeks, until a new leader "who is neutral and upholds democracy" is found and a temporary constitution is enacted.

Army chief Gen. Sondhi Boonyaratkalin told a news conference that a general election would be held in October 2007, and he hinted that ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra could face prosecution for wrongdoing.

In the country's first coup in 15 years, Sondhi led a well-orchestrated overthrow while Thaksin was in New York at the U.N. General Assembly. Sondhi said on nationwide television that the overthrow was needed "in order to resolve the conflict and bring back normalcy and harmony among people."

"I am the one who decided to stage the coup. No one supported me," Sondhi said, referring to Thailand's revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

The coup has triggered some instability in Asian markets, but it is not clear whether there will be any long term effects.

Arms Race

Gamal Mubarak, son of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, made a speech in Cairo yesterday. He proposed that Egypt begin pursuing a nuclear program. We are rapidly running out of time to deal with Iran before it completely destabilizes the entire region and the world.

CAIRO, Sept. 19 — Gamal Mubarak, the son of Egypt’s president, proposed Tuesday that his country pursue nuclear energy, drawing strong applause from the nation’s political elite, while raising expectations that Mr. Mubarak is being positioned to replace his father as president.

The carefully crafted political speech raised the prospect of two potentially embarrassing developments for the White House at a time when the region is awash in crisis: a nuclear program in Egypt, recipient of about $2 billion a year in military and development aid from the United States, and Mr. Mubarak succeeding his father, Hosni Mubarak, as president without substantial political challenge.

Simply raising the topic of Egypt’s nuclear ambitions at a time of heightened tensions over Iran’s nuclear activity was received as a calculated effort to raise the younger Mr. Mubarak’s profile and to build public support through a show of defiance toward Washington, political analysts and foreign affairs experts said.

“The whole world — I don’t want to say all, but many developing countries — have proposed and started to execute the issue of alternative energy,” he said. “It is time for Egypt to put forth, and the party will put forth, this proposal for discussion about its future energy policies, the issue of alternative energy, including nuclear energy, as one of the alternatives.”

He also said in a clear reference to the White House: “We do not accept visions from abroad that try to dissolve the Arab identity and the joint Arab efforts within the framework of the so-called Greater Middle East Initiative.”

This is, of course, the direct result of Iran's lust for nuclear weapons. The Egyptians are rightfully worried about a nuclear armed new Persian Empire. They do not want to become a province of the Mullah's new territorial ambitions. Experts have been warning about the inevitable nuclear arms race that Iran will touch off with its program. It has already begun. Numerous other states will now begin pursuing them.  

For some 60 years, the United States and the Soviets, despite being armed with many more warheads than were needed to kill the entire planet, were yet able to cooperate enough to keep those weapons out of the hands of all but a few states. No we face a future where the arms will be in the hands of a multitude of marginally stable countries or dictatorships bent on bringing the end of the world.

They will inevitably get into the hands of terrorists. We have a major problem.