ninme

Yee-haw.

Paul Berendt has said that Christine Gregoire has an opportunity to be a great governor because God has placed her in office. He has intervened on her behalf, anointed her. He said this last night on the radio, can’t find a quote. Well, hell, Christine. If God has anointed you, go join a bloody convent.

Meanwhile, Ayad Allawi writes for the Wall Street Journal, A Historic Moment for All Iraqis: Ballots will prove to be more powerful than bullets.

Allawi says:

We will fight bias and factionalism in all its forms, and seek to include all ethnic and religious communities. We will aim to build strong and honest governmental institutions, and strive to stamp out corruption in all areas of Iraqi life. We will work to restore the rights of those who suffered under the previous regime, while enabling the progress of a free media and strong institutions for civil society.

The Opposition says:

“Blammo”

Thomas Friedman writes for the New York Times, Worth a Thousand Words

As the Johns Hopkins foreign policy expert Michael Mandelbaum so rightly pointed out to me, “These so-called insurgents in Iraq are the real fascists, the real colonialists, the real imperialists of our age.” They are a tiny minority who want to rule Iraq by force and rip off its oil wealth for themselves. It’s time we called them by their real names.

Indeed. And:

Indeed, they haven’t even bothered to tell us otherwise. They have counted on the fact that the Bush administration is so hated around the world that any opponents will be seen as having justice on their side. Well, they do not. They are murdering Iraqis every day for the sole purpose of preventing them from exercising that thing so many on the political left and so many Europeans have demanded for the Palestinians: “the right of self-determination.”

Then:

We may lose because of the defiantly wrong way that Donald Rumsfeld has managed this war and the cynical manner in which Dick Cheney, George Bush and - with some honorable exceptions - the whole Republican right have tolerated it. Many conservatives would rather fail in Iraq than give liberals the satisfaction of seeing Mr. Rumsfeld sacked.

Eh…Right. Not because the NYT is splashing happily in bloody puddles extolling the wonders of a suicide bomber in a Mosul mess hall and its consequences to Bush’s political future. Not the fact that the terrorists go blow up school children then turn to the NYT to see how the reaction is. Not that the NYT is being used, lock stock and barrel, in order to get Americans to give up here. No, it’s conservatives and their cynical toleration of evil Rummy, horrid Bush, and dastardly Cheney. Who are the honorable exceptions, hmmm? John McCain? See to your own house, dude.

We may lose because most Europeans, having been made stupid by their own weakness, would rather see America fail in Iraq than lift a finger for free and fair elections there.

And lemme guess, that’s Rummy’s fault, right? Because he called them Old Europe? Why, how..unilateral of him. shudder

As is so often the case, the statesman who framed the stakes best is the British prime minister, Tony Blair. Count me a “Blair Democrat.” Mr. Blair, who was in Iraq this week, said: “Whatever people’s feelings or beliefs about the removal of Saddam Hussein and the wisdom of that, there surely is only one side to be on in what is now very clearly a battle between democracy and terror. On the one side you have people who desperately want to make the democratic process work, and want to have the same type of democratic freedoms other parts of the world enjoy, and on the other side people who are killing and intimidating and trying to destroy a better future for Iraq.”

Exactly. So get in line, moron, and quit with the Rummy bashing.

Robert Novak, in the Chicago Sun Times, Neocons pin Iraq on Rumsfeld

In the bowels of the Pentagon, the colleagues and subordinates of Donald Rumsfeld were not upset by Republican senators who were sniping at him. Instead, they complained bitterly about a call for his removal by a private citizen with no political leadership position: William Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard. His position was, in effect, a declaration of war by the neoconservatives against the secretary of defense

Seriously. Talk about Republicans always lining up the firing squad in a circle. Holy Hannah.

Peggy Noonan writes in the Wall Street Journal, A Child’s Christmas

Is there a moral to this memory? What it taught me, what I remember all these years later, is that everyone likes gifts but no one is more affected by their power than children. They are susceptible to wonder. A child can look at a red toy car in the red-green glow of Christmas tree lights and imagine an entire lifetime. A child can play with a new doll and smell good things being cooked and hear sweet music and it can make that child imagine that life is good, which gives her a template for good, a category for good; it helps her know good exists. This knowledge comes in handy in life; those who do not receive it, one way or another, are sadder than those who do.

I hear Christmas wrapping paper and trees is getting big in Saudi Arabia. Bless the little children.

Boris Johnson in the Telegraph writes We banned a berry – and it took Brussels to stop us being so silly. He’s never heard of the Saskatoon. Has he never heard of Calgary? Vancouver?

Alas, he had underestimated the vengeful meddlesomeness of the bureaucrats. It turns out, of course, that there is a law against this sensible exercise of free trade, whereby British people can eat at breakfast what their kith and kin enjoy in Canada. It is called the Novel Foods Regulation (EC 258/97), and it came into force in this country in 1997, and means that you cannot expect the authorities to accept that a food is safe, just because the Canadian population swears by it.

It’s hilarious. Read the whole thing. (hehe: “Boris Johnson is MP for Henley and reminds you that his novel, 72 Virgins, is still in the shops, should you be in search of a last-minute present”)

Ouch: Where the money is, also in the Telegraph.

The launch of the euro has not undermined the City. In fact, it has done the opposite. As far as the City is concerned, the euro is just another trading opportunity. Frankfurt remains no bigger a financial centre than Edinburgh and should Deutsche Börse ever be silly enough to try to remove the biggest equity market in Europe to Germany, another one would simply grow up here in its place.

In Scotland, in The Scotsman, Will Springer writes of Heroes and villains: fishermen and drinking drivers, and mentions giant 74 lb turkeys selling for £1,700

The Jerusalem Post has a column about Christians in Israel: For a happy Christmas

The festival of Christ’s birthday has been marked by the Christian world on December 25 since the 4th century, though eastern Christianity observes it on January 6.

For most Israeli Jews Christmas is a non-event. But it is the perfect time to reflect on how well sovereign Israel has fulfilled its duties to the Christians of the Holy Land.

Then:

Concurrently, Labor’s incoming interior minister should establish an ombudsman’s office for the Christian community - with a multi-denominational advisory board - to troubleshoot difficulties that invariably crop up at this most Byzantine of government ministries.

Can you imagine an ombudsman’s office for the Jewish Community in any Arab state other than Israel?

Some changes should be made urgently. Christian resident aliens who are strong supporters of Israel have no straightforward way of applying for citizenship, or even gaining interim benefits. A roster needs to be disseminated of clergy and lay leaders known to pose no security risks, whose movements can then be facilitated.

As Country actions go, that’s just downright sweet.

In Australia, Anthony Browne writes of an [Unholy war on Christmas] in the Australian:

COMPARE and contrast 1: (a) Sikhs storm a theatre in Britain showing a play depicting rape inside a Sikh temple;
(b) The Red Cross bans nativity scenes in its shops.

Compare and contrast 2:
(a) Christmas trees and decorations are banned in Saudi Arabia;
(b) Christmas trees and decorations are banned in Britain’s Jobcentres.

In Africa, Niger police crack down on newspaper

Niger police acknowledged on Wednesday that officers had toured the capital, Niamey, this week to remove all copies of the independent weekly Testimony (Le Temoin) ahead of the inauguration of re-elected President Mamadou Tandja.

Nice. Meanwhile, all the other Africa Headlines at the Mail and Guardian are all pretty depressing. UN threatens sanctions against Sudan (all these months later, even though China gets oil there, so we know it’ll never happen), the UN needs $281m to help Ethiopia, in the Central African Republic, Presidential corruption trial postponed, in Egypt, Suez oil slick threatens Mediterranean, etc. I think I’ll go read more Christmas articles in the Australian.