Sounds like good news:

TRIPOLI (AFP) - Libya's highest judicial body commuted to life in prison on Tuesday the sentences of six foreign medics who have been on death row for infecting children with the AIDS virus, an official said.

"The Judicial Council decided to commute the death sentence to life in prison," said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor, who has been granted Bulgarian citizenship, could serve out their sentences in Bulgaria, as the two countries have an extradition treaty

Let's keep our fingers crossed that these people get sent to Bulgaria to *ahem* "finish out their sentences."

As the old saying goes, however, follow the money.

The decision came after the childrens' families dropped their call for the death penalty following a compensation deal worth millions of dollars.

Yeah, if I truly believed someone deliberately injected my kid with the AIDS virus, I'm not going to take cash over the death penalty. Especially if I'm in Libya, not known for its soft stance towards Westerners.

I believe these people were railroaded to cover up shoddy conditions at the hospital, and then Qaddafi figured out a way to wring cash back from the EU after the payout he had to give in the Lockerbie case.

But, that's just me. I also think that once we got hold of his WMD technology, we should have thanked him with another bombing run.

Yanno, cuz we missed the last time.

Posted by: Vinnie at 12:03 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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France has put it's collective foot down. They have taken enough grief, and they are finally fed up.

Not with the car and bus burnings, the daily riots, the vandalism and graffiti or the near-constant outpouring of Muslim rage in their streets.

No, France is OK with that... but the evil BLOGGERS have got to go!

According to Peter Sayer, IDG News Service:

The French Constitutional Council has approved a law that criminalizes the filming or broadcasting of acts of violence by people other than professional journalists. The law could lead to the imprisonment of eyewitnesses who film acts of police violence, or operators of Web sites publishing the images, one French civil liberties group warned on Tuesday.

Posted by: Kafir at 01:42 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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Google caught criticism, and rightfully so, for disclosing user identification data to the totalitarian communist government of the People's Republic of China, thereby condeming at least some of those users to harsh repression by the ChiComs.

Now, Google has agreed to comply with a subpoena issued by the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, and this writer is wondering if Google's compliance in this case will be viewed in a similar way to Google's cooperation with the ChiComs:

I wonder how YouTube users will feel about the company’s disclosure of personal information. While there was a fair amount of concern raised when the subpoenas were issued, I’m going to guess that most YouTube users will tolerate or even support the company’s decision. Perhaps the rest will stop linking their personal information to accounts used in illicit activities. Privacy experts report that it’s the simple things that get most people burned.

h/t : Glenn.

Posted by: Ragnar at 04:25 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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So this is how liberty dies... with thunderous applause.

"Long live the sovereign people! Long live President Hugo Chavez! Long live socialism!" said National Assembly President Cilia Flores as she proclaimed the "enabling law" approved by a show of hands. "Fatherland, socialism or death! We will prevail!"

Fatherland? Where have I heard that term before?

Posted by: Vinnie at 09:41 PM | Comments (17) | Add Comment
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It seems Pakistan's new law negating the need for four male witnesses to a rape is not being met with open arms by his fellow members of the Religion of Seething.

KARACHI (Reuters) - Thousands of Islamist protesters demonstrated in southern Pakistan on Sunday against a new law that reduces the burden of proof on rape victims by allowing them to seek justice without the need for four male witnesses.

The Women Protection Bill, signed into law last month, was seen as a key test for President Pervez Musharraf's philosophy of "enlightened moderation" for his predominantly Muslim country.

The protest in the country's biggest city of Karachi came a day after Musharraf ruled out any changes to the law despite calls from the Islamists.

Apparently, this law is so horridly wrong, it's going to turn Pakistan into a "free sex zone."

"We reject this law because it is unIslamic and also against women rights," Fazal-ur-Rehman, a senior leader of the main Islamist alliance and opposition leader in the National Assembly, parliament's lower house, told the rally.

Rehman said the law is a conspiracy to make Pakistan a "free sex zone".

I don't know what Mr. Rehman is complaining about. Sex outside of marriage is still punishable by 5 years in prison, and adulterers are still allowed to be stoned to death.

Posted by: Vinnie at 02:39 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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I was unable to post this earlier for some reason, so am trying again. The basic situation here is that, like Rusty, I'm not sure what comes next. Rusty asks:

So, is leaving the answer? Or is there something else we should be doing?

I think we have to leave for two reasons. One is that we ultimately have to draw-down until we disappear, so that the credit and legitimacy associated with victory over the Islamofascist insurgency in Iraq accrues to the new government. They need it, just as all newly formed governments need legitimacy. The other reason is that we now have other materializing challenges.

Note: I'm assuming that far from the MSM's conclusion that we're losing and that Iraq is a quagmire, we've essentially won. Barring some miracle the Sunni version of Islamofascism will be ejected, eventually. They're at a strategic disadvantage, and judging from their own communiques they know it.

But that leaves us with a dilemma.

Since I'm a bicycle enthusiast I've chosen to illustrate the dilemma as analogous to Lance Armstrong's choice of whether, and how, to allow Marco Pantani the win on the Mont Ventoux stage of the Tour de France in 2002. Armstrong's "big idea" was that by making a magnanimous gesture he'd create a strategic ally in his overall effort to win the Tour. But it didn't work out that way. The problem was that he didn't pull up soon enough, so Pantani (and more importantly Pantani's fans) knew that the victory had been gifted. Had Armstrong been more clever he'd have made the arrangement far less obvious, and still have won Pantani as an ally.

So, borrowing from this analogy we need to leave early enough that any final victories won't be attributed to the US. That's the bitter pill we must swallow in service of a larger goal.

I think the best way for us to accomplish this tricky transition, without sacrificing our own reputation and appearing weak (which would help Islamofascist recruitment like nothing else), is to simply move on to another military mission, or at least clear the decks so that we can be ready should we need to act. We can rightly say that we didn't leave because we were defeated, but because we had pressing concerns somewhere else. The draw-down probably should be gradual, but still faster than would have seemed prudent a few months ago. Maybe the Baker Commission will give us some cover?

And where should the next engagement be? The tulip or the star?

Tear it up.

Posted by: Demosophist at 12:03 PM | Comments (33) | Add Comment
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It's "deja vu all over again". Apparently the ideological tie that afflicted the US Presidential Election six years ago, and the deadlock that Thomas Mann has been writing about for a number of years, isn't just an American thing. If Europe is becoming less convinced of its cultural bet on appeasement, as a result of recent events, that may simply mean the impasse is spreading. In the US the primary impact of the Hamdan Decision is to defer to congress certain powers of war-making that the founders intended the executive fulfill, because... indecision may be bad all the time, it can be downright catastrophic in the midst of a war. We just can't bring ourselves to the point of lifting the burden of our own "Mexican Stand-Off" from the Executive. So, we pass the buck to congress where they can wrangle and bloviate about things while we twiddle and dance. Like, we really have such a luxury.

At precisely the time in history when we need to be decisive, we're afflicted with paralysis. We've got two approximately equal sides, equally convinced that they're right, and in diametric opposition to one another about critical issues that can impact not only whether we suffer a massive attack, but ultimately whether we lose the conflict outright. And, like I said, it's not just us. more...

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Cochabamba, Bolivia - Evo Morales, a leftist lawmaker and strident US critic who is leading Bolivia's presidential race, closed his campaign on Thursday, saying his movement was "a nightmare for the United States".

Thousands of Bolivians packed a soccer stadium in this central Bolivian city as Morales made a final plea for votes in his bid to become the country's first indigenous president in Sunday's election.

Morales, whose defense of coca leaf-growing has made him a pariah in Washington, said his Movement to Socialism party was a "political force that has the North Americans trembling."

It "is a nightmare for the United States", he said.

I'm trembling, are you trembling?

Such a nightmare, whatever shall we do.

I know, when the awesome military might of the hyper-power Bolivia appears on the horizon off of our coasts, I shall dutifully urinate in my underwear and hide under the bed.

I've got a better idea. We need divine help in this crisis.

Dear Lord our God, we pray to you in our hour of need.
Our children cry, our women weep, our men cower in fear.
O God, please deliver us, your faithful, from the terrible onslaught of mighty prospective Bolivian (which is similar to Bovine, but not necessarily the same) president what's-his-name.

Save us O Lord, for we have no other recourse.

Amen.

Posted by: Vinnie at 03:53 AM | Comments (27) | Add Comment
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A senior delegation of U.S. lawmakers, led by Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., the powerful chairman of the House International Relations Committee, was snubbed by Venezuelan authorities at Maiquetia International Airport in Caracas. The delegates were not allowed to disembark from their plane and eventually left.

Venezuelan officials denied reports that the incident happened, however, U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the Venezuelan government had in fact apologized for the incident.

It's my perception that Hugo Chavez's attitude toward international diplomacy will soon be indistinguishable from the attitude of North Korea's Kim Jong Il.

 

Companion post at Interested-Participant.

Posted by: Mike Pechar at 06:12 PM | Comments (15) | Add Comment
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You got a beef with prisoners being held on the island of Cuba? Why don't you go bitch at the real torturing thugs, and quit pissing and moaning about us.

From Nordlinger's column on NRO:

It’s hard to take in the entire monstrosity that is Castro’s Cuba, but focus on one prisoner, if you will, as described and supported by Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, on the House floor:

"Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak about Blas Giraldo Reyes Rodríguez, a political prisoner in totalitarian Cuba.

Mr. Reyes Rodríguez is an opposition activist and independent librarian . . . His life is dedicated to the proposition that the men and women of Cuba must be free: free to learn, free to worship, free to elect their leaders, free to enjoy their inalienable human rights. Independent libraries in Cuba, such as the one operated by Mr. Reyes Rodríguez, provide the indispensable service of circulating truth at a time when the tyrannical regime provides only propaganda. These heroic librarians often circulate the great works of anti-totalitarian literature, including the important writings of Václav Havel and Dr. Martin Luther King. Literature is a great danger to totalitarian regimes: books often provide the truth that tyrants seek to hide.

Unfortunately, in March 2003, as part of Castro’s condemnable crackdown on peaceful pro-democracy activists, Mr. Reyes Rodríguez was arrested. In a sham trial, he was sentenced to 25 years in the totalitarian gulag."

Reyes Rodríguez is suffering from ill health. The authorities have threatened to arrest his wife, for receiving visitors who expressed sympathy with her — this comes under “counterrevolutionary activities.”

Lincoln D.-B. concluded, “Mr. Speaker, let me be very clear: Mr. Reyes Rodríguez is languishing in an infernal gulag because he believes in freedom, truth, democracy, and human rights. His family is being constantly threatened because of these ‘dangerous’ beliefs. My colleagues, we must demand the immediate and unconditional release of Blas Giraldo Reyes Rodríguez and every other political prisoner in totalitarian Cuba.”

You want to whine about Gitmo? Tell it to Castro.

You want to whine about "secret" prisons? Tell it to the Chi-Coms.

You want to carp about Abu Ghraib? Go complain to Ayatollah Khamenei.

Just don't come crying to me, beeyotch.

Posted by: Vinnie at 05:48 PM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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Chavez is moving to consolidate power again. Yes the democratically elected President and self appointed Dictator of Venezuela is after control of that country's banking system.

A continuation of left-wing President Hugo Chavez's aim to create "socialism of the 21st Century", a number of foreign banks would be affected. Among them are Spanish institutions Banco Santander and BBVA. Both own Venezuelan banks - Banco de Venezuela and Banco Provincial respectively.

Hat tip: California Conservative.

Yeah I know but I'm waiting on a machine right now.

Posted by: Howie at 11:18 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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By Demosophist

I've never been convinced that the problem we confront with Totalitarianism 3.x is Islam, though there are certainly one or two mountains that need climbing for the people of the Ummah. There are, for instance, cultural reasons why most Muslims have a habit of avoiding statements that might put them at odds with other believers, even when there's deep disagreement. Tarek Heggy, a courageous Egyptian Muslim, satirizes this cultural duplicity by adopting an obvious artifice: "It is not I who criticizes and raises uncomfortable questions about the Ummah and its people, but my eccentric friend." Although an "inside joke," the purpose is far from humorous. If you haven't yet read Heggy's excellent series on Winds of Change that oversight can be easily corrected:

Thus Spoke My Eccentric Friend (1/5): Dreams of the Arabs
Thus Spoke My Eccentric Friend (2/5): A Word in the Palestinian Ear
Thus Spoke My Eccentric Friend (3/5): Rejecting Progress
Thus Spoke My Eccentric Friend (4/5): MI-6's Intelligence Failure
Thus Spoke My Eccentric Friend (5/5): What's in a Name?

(Cross-posted by Demosophist to Demosophia and Anticipatory Retaliation)

Posted by: Demosophist at 09:30 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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You will recall that the original affidavit used to obtain an arrest warrant for Hamid Hayat claimed that he attended a terror training camp run by Maulana Fazlur Rehman. This article from the SF Gate notes that the FBI may have mistaken Maulana Fazlur Rehman for Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil, who was recently released from jail in Pakistan after doing eight months--that's right eight months--on terrorism related charges.

Reading the SF Gate article is like reading a press release from the ACLU, isn't it? Notice all the meme-like qualities of the article? The way the FBI is made to seem like they screwed the pooch, how very few terrorists have been convicted, yada, yada.

But even as the SF Gate goes out of its way to discredit the arrests of the al Qaeda suspects in Lodi, this news from Pakistan. Tell me, if the FBI simply mixed the names up, what is the real Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil doing on the run?? Pakistan Daily Times:

Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil, former chief of Jamiatul Ansar (JA), has gone into hiding after the arrest of Hamid Hayat and Umer Hayat who told the Federal Bureau of Investigation that they received training from a Pakistani Al Qaeda camp allegedly run by Khalil.

Security agencies have begun efforts to arrest Khalil after Hamid Hayat and Umer Hayat were arrested in Lodi, California.

Sources said he was earlier released by security agencies after eight months’ detention. “Khalil was released on the condition that he separate himself from his militant activities but after this new development security agencies have resumed efforts for his arrest,” sources said.

Posted by: Rusty at 02:33 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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by Demosophist

Richard Posner, on the brand-spanking-new Becker-Posner blog, manages to say in a few succinct words what I've been attempting to say in a far less economical way for over a year. One implication of the exposte anti-war argument concerning Iraq is that the Administration knew the probability of Saddam having WMD was zero, but chose to invade anyway for some unambiguously self-serving reason. That's essentially what all the "Bush lied" talk was about. The other, less well articulated, implication is that there was no estimate made of the probability, because it didn't matter. We would have attacked whether the probability of a future WMD attack from Saddam was 1 or 0, or anything in between. The former implication, that we knew the probability was zero and acted as though it were closer to 1 really has little merit. Had we known with certainty that there was no threat, then there'd have been no debate at all about the evidence. If it had been faked, the fakery would have been undetectable, because the deception would have been coldly premeditated. There would have been no bungling attempt at a poorly constructed "yellow-cake" document from Niger. more...

Posted by: Demosophist at 11:50 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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by Demosophist

I watch LinkTV via satellite every once in awhile, and it's just brimming with these authentic looking and rather exotic documentaries. I saw one today that stars a double amputee in Kampuchea, who invented some special wheelchair that he teaches people to use. Almost as an afterthought to this humanitarian presentation the filmmakers present the US bombing in the '70s and the land-mining of Cambodia that resulted in most of the amputees. And after mentioning that fact they more or less state flatly that the unconscionable bombing and mining left a disorder that "led to" the rise of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. So if I were watching this program and wasn't aware of the details, and perhaps had an innate revulsion for war, I'd just assume that this was all presented honestly. The unavoidable inference is that the US = Khmer Rouge = genocide. more...

Posted by: Demosophist at 09:20 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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by Demosophist

Hostage Slaughterhouses, Death Camps, Gulags

Anyone recognize The Beast?

(Cross-posted by Demosophist to Demosophia and Anticipatory Retaliation)

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