Voting a la Venezuela

The old joke about what communists think of democracy is "one man, one vote, one time."

Maybe they're working on a new line -- one man, approximately one vote, maybe.

The federal government is investigating the takeover last year of a leading American manufacturer of electronic voting systems by a small software company that has been linked to the leftist Venezuelan government of President Hugo Chávez.

Coming soon to a vote counting place near you?

Wedge, wedge, who sees the wedge?

If the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, wanted to drive a wedge between the U.S.A. and western European countries during his speech today, would it help or hurt his purpose to have the news media make that purpose plain?

Notice how Ahmadinejad's statements were reported differently by European and American news sources. The Europeans (except for Agence France-Presse) pointedly noted the threat was aimed at them, not the U.S.A. The Americans (even Fox News) blurred that distinction (except for The New York Times).

Taking Aljazeera first, since it is neither European nor American and thus may give the words the meaning intended by the speaker, the following excerpts may seem repetitive, but notice how the intended target of Ahmadinejad's threat is described in each.

Aljazeera:

In a speech to mark Jerusalem day, the Iranian president said Europe was stirring up hatred in the Middle East by supporting Israel and warned it "may get hurt" if anger in the region boiled over.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a speech broadcast on state radio: "You should believe that this regime [Israel] cannot last and has no more benefit to you. What benefit have you got in supporting this regime, except the hatred of the nations?

"We have advised the Europeans that the Americans are far away, but you are the neighbours of the nations in this region. We inform you that the nations are like an ocean that is welling up, and if a storm begins, the dimensions will not stay limited to Palestine, and you may get hurt."

The Times (UK):

"You should believe that this regime (Israel) cannot last and has no more benefit to you. What benefit have you got in supporting this regime, except the hatred of the nations?" said Mr Ahmadinejad, addressing European countries in a speech on state radio.

"We have advised the Europeans that the Americans are far away, but you are the neighbours of the nations in this region. We inform you that the nations are like an ocean that is welling up, and if a storm begins, the dimensions will not stay limited to Palestine, and you may get hurt."

The Guardian (UK):

"We have advised the Europeans that the Americans are far away, but you are the neighbours of the nations in this region," he said. "We inform you that the nations are like an ocean that is welling up, and if a storm begins, the dimensions will not stay limited to Palestine, and you may get hurt. It is in your own interest to distance yourself from these criminals ... This is an ultimatum. Don't complain tomorrow."

Reuters:

"We have advised the Europeans that the Americans are far away, but you are the neighbors of the nations in this region. We inform you that the nations are like an ocean that is welling up, and if a storm begins, the dimensions will not stay limited to Palestine, and you may get hurt."

BBC:

"You imposed a group of terrorists... on the region. It is in your own interest to distance yourself from these criminals... This is an ultimatum. Don't complain tomorrow."

The "ultimatum" was directed at European states in particular.

"We have advised the Europeans that the Americans are far away, but you are the neighbours of the nations in this region," Mr Ahmadinejad said.

"We inform you that the nations are like an ocean that is welling up, and if a storm begins, the dimensions will not stay limited to Palestine, and you may get hurt."

Agence France-Presse:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has predicted Israel would collapse and warned that its allies face the "boiling wrath" of the people if they continue to support the Jewish state.

The renewed assault on Israel by Ahmadinejad -- who has been castigated by world powers for his frequent anti-Israeli outbursts -- came as tens of thousands marched through Tehran in an annual pro-Palestinian protest.

"This regime (Israel) will be gone, definitely," Ahmadinejad, who has previously called for Israel to be "wiped from the map" and described the Holocaust as a myth, told the protestors.

"You (the Western powers) should know that any government that stands by the Zionist regime from now on will not see any result but the hatred of the people," he added. "The wrath of the region's people is boiling."

"Efforts to stabilise this fraudulent regime have completely failed, thank God ... This regime has lost the rationale of its existence," the president said.

Ahmadinejad described his warning as an "ultimatum" for Western powers. "You should not complain that we did not give a warning. We are saying this explicitly now."

"If a hurricane starts be rest assured that the dimensions of this hurricane will not be limited to the geographic borders of Palestine," he added. "This regime (Israel) will take its supporters to the bottom of the swamp."

"The best solution is for you to take all the components of the regime and take it away," Ahmadinejad said.

International Herald Tribune (version "A"):

Ahmadinejad, speaking to a crowd of hundreds of thousands in Tehran, threatened any country that supports Israel, and said the U.S. and its allies had "imposed a group of terrorists" on the region by their support of the Jewish state.

"It is in your own interest to distance yourself from these criminals... This is an ultimatum. Don't complain tomorrow," he cautioned. "Nations will take revenge."

International Herald Tribune (version "E"):

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned Friday that Western countries and particularly Europe would be hurt by popular fury against their support of Israel.

In a speech carried live by Iranian radio, Ahmadinejad told European countries, "People in the region blame you for any crime or invasion against any country and will take revenge on you."

"You should know that the rage of people is boiling and is like an ocean that is welling up," he said. "Once its storm begins blowing, it will go beyond the borders of Lebanon and Palestine and it will hurt European countries."

ABC News:

In Iran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Friday called Israel's leaders a "group of terrorists" and threatened any country that supports the Jewish state.

"You imposed a group of terrorists … on the region," Ahmadinejad said, addressing the U.S. and its allies. "It is in your own interest to distance yourself from these criminals … This is an ultimatum. Don't complain tomorrow."

CBS News:

Ahmadinejad also called Israeli leaders a "group of terrorists" and threatened any country that supports the Jewish state, as millions of Iranians took to the streets for anti-Israel protests.

"You imposed a group of terrorists ... on the region," Ahmadinejad said, addressing the U.S. and its allies. "It is in your own interest to distance yourself from these criminals... This is an ultimatum. Don't complain tomorrow."

The New York Times:

TEHRAN, Oct. 20 —President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned today that Western countries, particularly in Europe, will be hurt by popular fury caused by their support of Israel.

Referring to European nations, Mr. Ahmadinejad said, “People in the region blame you for any crime or invasion against any country, and will take revenge on you.”

“You should know that the rage of people is boiling and is like an ocean that is welling up,” he said in a speech broadcast nationally on radio. “Once its storm begins blowing, it will go beyond the borders of Lebanon and Palestine, and it will hurt European countries.”

USA Today:

Speaking to tens of thousands of supporters at a pro-Palestinian rally in the capital, Tehran, the Iranian leader addressed Israel's allies: "It is in your own interest to distance yourself from these criminals... This is an ultimatum. Don't complain tomorrow."

Fox News:

Ahmadinejad, speaking to a crowd of hundreds of thousands in Tehran, threatened any country that supports Israel, and said the U.S. and its allies had "imposed a group of terrorists" on the region by their support of the Jewish state.

"It is in your own interest to distance yourself from these criminals... This is an ultimatum. Don't complain tomorrow," he cautioned. "Nations will take revenge."

What bias would cause this general difference in reporting? It seems likely that the Europeans would notice that they are the intended targets of the threat, but not all of them reported it that way. American news reporters surely could tell that Europe was the target, yet they almost all avoided saying so.

A Voice from the Past

Why do "they" hate us? Here is part of the reason:

In 1972, the Kremlin decided to turn the whole Islamic world against Israel and the U.S. As KGB chairman Yury Andropov told me, a billion adversaries could inflict far greater damage on America than could a few millions. We needed to instill a Nazi-style hatred for the Jews throughout the Islamic world, and to turn this weapon of the emotions into a terrorist bloodbath against Israel and its main supporter, the United States. No one within the American/Zionist sphere of influence should any longer feel safe.

According to Andropov, the Islamic world was a waiting petri dish in which we could nurture a virulent strain of America-hatred, grown from the bacterium of Marxist-Leninist thought. Islamic anti-Semitism ran deep. The Muslims had a taste for nationalism, jingoism, and victimology. Their illiterate, oppressed mobs could be whipped up to a fever pitch.

Terrorism and violence against Israel and her master, American Zionism, would flow naturally from the Muslims’ religious fervor, Andropov sermonized. We had only to keep repeating our themes — that the United States and Israel were “fascist, imperial-Zionist countries” bankrolled by rich Jews. Islam was obsessed with preventing the infidels’ occupation of its territory, and it would be highly receptive to our characterization of the U.S. Congress as a rapacious Zionist body aiming to turn the world into a Jewish fiefdom.

I have often thought that the murderous hatred towards the U.S. and Israel felt by so many in the Islamic world may have been nurtured by the Communists during the Cold War. This apparently reliable report by a Rumanian defector supports that supposition.

Is this also why so many leftists in the U.S. treat Israel as a pariah and support the so-called Palestinians? Did the party line simply become part of their dogma, so that they don't even recall how they came to believe it?

Dead Salmon Don't Spawn

The Seattle P-I reports that the federal government is being sued by a group that wants fewer Puget Sound chinook salmon caught -- so more can actually reach the spawning grounds.

Seems logical. If they're endangered, why catch and eat so many of them?

Union Rules on the Eastern Front?

According to The Globe and Mail, some of our NATO allies aren't pulling their weight in Afghanistan:

But some of the large European countries with troops in the safer northern and western regions will not allow their soldiers to move into the danger zones when they are needed, even on a temporary basis. And some are not permitted to fight at night.

As noted in the article, there are some who are willing (Canada, the United States, Britain, the Netherlands, Romania and Estonia), and there are some who would rather not (Germany, France, Spain and Italy).

"Not Able To Operate" still seems to be a fitting name -- at least in the sense of operating as one organization in which all share the burdens and risks of war.