Archive for 2005

DARFUR UPDATE: Nicholas Kristof writes:

All countries have rapes, of course. But here in the refugee shantytowns of Darfur, the horrific stories that young women whisper are not of random criminality but of a systematic campaign of rape to terrorize civilians and drive them from “Arab lands” – a policy of rape.

One measure of the international community’s hypocrisy is that the world is barely bothering to protest. More than two years after the genocide in Darfur began, the women of Kalma Camp – a teeming squatter’s camp of 110,000 people driven from their burned villages – still face the risk of gang rape every single day as they go out looking for firewood.

Nemat, a 21-year-old, told me that she left the camp with three friends to get firewood to cook with. In the early afternoon a group of men in uniforms caught and gang-raped her.

“They said, ‘You are black people. We want to wipe you out,’ ” Nemat recalled.

I think we need to be doing more. A lot more.

UPDATE: More commentary here:

After reading Nicholas Kristof’s piece on the Sudanese government’s “systematic campaign of rape” in Darfur, I have a question for Europe:

Where the hell are you?

Are you waiting for the U.S. to take action? We’re rather busy in Iraq and Afghanistan at present. So why don’t you do something? France, Germany, Belgium: For years you’ve claimed moral superiority to us. Prove it now.

France, at least, seems more interested in oil and arms sales.

JAY ROSEN: “As everyone knows, there is a priesthood in journalism. Whether it has authority is another matter.”

BLOGGING IN COLOMBIA: “BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) – In another sign Colombia’s presidential election campaign is heating up, the country’s main newspaper offered Sunday to host Web sites for all the candidates in what is expected to be a spicy race.” (Via Grim).

MICKEY KAUS: “What’s specifically Democratic about patent reform? Not much.”

Nope. In fact — notwithstanding that many of its most prominent advocates are Democrats — I suspect that intellectual property reform generally is more likely to benefit Republicans.

EUGENE VOLOKH: “Perhaps college students aren’t scared of the draft because they don’t really trust the people who are trying to scare them.”

BIDEN BLASTS DEAN on This Week: “He doesn’t speak for me with that kind of rhetoric and I don’t think he speaks for the majority of Democrats.”

Er, so what’s he doing as party Chair, then? (Via USS Neverdock).

UPDATE: John Edwards is singing from the same choirbook. Hmm. If I were Dean, I’d be worried.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Trey Jackson has the Biden video.

(Wrong link before — fixed now. Sorry!)

MORE: But Harry Reid doesn’t seem to have gotten the memo.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: The fratricide spreads.

NEWS WITHOUT NEWSPAPERS: My WSJ piece from last week is now available for free over at OpinionJournal.com.

THIS WEEK’S BRITBLOG ROUNDUP is up!

PRO-DEMOCRACY RALLIES IN AZERBAIJAN: Via Alarming News, which found something interesting in the photos. And there’s more here, too.

UPDATE: James Oberg relays this report from an American in Baku:

US government reps in Baku support the democratic process and they aren’t backing any particular government or candidates. However, all agree that the opposition has no platform, has no agenda for reform or improvement for the country. In fact, maybe a year ago, when Ambassador Harnish was at a meeting with opposition figures, his parting words to them were something like, ‘Now I’ve heard all your complaints, I hope next time you will have ideas and plans for change’.

A year’s gone by. Have we heard anything like that from the opposition? Nope. It seems they just want their turn at the trough. It will be a bad day for Azerbaijan if the opposition does take over.

Not terribly encouraging.

LEBANESE ELECTIONS: Publius has a roundup. As expected, Hezbollah is doing very well in the south.

TONY BLAIR HAS GIVEN UP ON EUROPE:

Mr Blair, who will seek to shift the focus of his administration on to poverty in the Third World this week during talks with President Bush, has told his closest allies: “Africa is worth fighting for. Europe, in its present form, is not.”

I’m inclined to agree.

UPDATE: Plan B: The Telegraph offers an alternative — and a much shorter one — to the European Constitution.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Meanwhile, Jim Bennett sends this link and wonders if we should start taking bets as to the collapse of the Euro.

ORIN KERR: “I can’t stress enough that I am not saying this story isn’t newsworthy. Every missing persons report is potentially newsworthy. Still, a person who followed the MSM uncritically might think that the only missing people in America are young attractive white women.”

GAY MARRIAGE — or something pretty close — in Switzerland?

A GIGANTIC MARCH AGAINST APPEASING TERRORISTS IN MADRID, according to Franco Aleman. Of course, it’s the ETA terrorists, not Al Qaeda, but still . . . . When they elected Zapatero, surely they didn’t expect anything else?

UPDATE: Photos here, courtesy of El Mundo.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Gateway Pundit has video.

THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS is running a series of Ward Churchill investigative stories. Here’s a roundup.

CATBLOG UPDATE! Precious found a nice home with Dr. Tony, who reports that she’s adjusting nicely. He says she’s living up to her name.

UPDATE: Now he’s posted photos! Quick work!

AUSTIN BAY UNCOVERS fifteen more cases of Koran desecration at Guantanamo. “Call Amnesty International. The investigation seems to be glaringly incomplete.”

[LATER: Don’t miss Austin’s “Update No. 4”].

UPDATE: More on those revelations, here. Related comments here.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Ed Morrissey comments: “I submit to you that this week represents the nadir of responsible thought about the war on terror.”

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: More on this and other topics in Dave Kopel’s latest media analysis column in the Rocky Mountain News.