Insta-hoglets

Senator Edward Kennedy has called off talks with the leader of the IRA's political wing, Sinn Fein, which will further isolate the party in America. This from the Independent newspaper:

Mr Kennedy's spokeswoman, Melissa Wagoner, said: "Senator Kennedy has decided to decline to meet with Gerry Adams, given the IRA's ongoing criminal activity and contempt for the rule of law.

"The IRA murder of Robert McCartney and subsequent calls for vigilante justice underscore the need for IRA violence and criminality to stop and for Sinn Fein to co-operate with the Police Service of Northern Ireland."

Meanwhile, the party's most high-profile supporter in Congress, the New York Republican Senator Peter King, called on the IRA to disband.

The article also notes that Sinn Fein will not be making fundraising efforts on this trip in case it interferes with future visa applications. While it's nice to see Americans on both sides of the street realising that in a post-9/11 world their support for terrorism in an allied nation may just be looked askance at, banning them from parties and lunches isn't truly effective. It is high time that the US told Sinn Fein that they either disband the IRA or forget about visas or any other kind of welcome from these shores.

Of course, sometimes the measures out glorious leaders want to exercise to combat terrorism may reach a little too far. That is happening in the UK right now but the House of Lords, stuffed with stubborn old aristos, has been fighting the rearguard action for civil liberties. This post from Simply Apalling blog gives a good summary of their stand. The legislation eventually was forced through, of course - with such a huge government majority in the Commons that was certain - but the Lords won concessions on oversight by judges, and many Labour MP's were perturbed by the zealousness of Blair and Clark, to say the least.

It looks like pro and anti Syrian groups are playing "My protest is bigger than yours" in Lebanon. The latest numbered in the region of one million and was organised by the opposition. There is no doubt that Lebanese society is split, and rumours of pro-Syrian demonstrators bussing in government employees as "ringers" have abounded on blogs. Think for a minute - who is most likely to be pro-Syrian, the folks who work for the pro-Syrian government maybe? Do es anyone think one million opposition supporters just happened to turn up without organising and, dare I say it, buses?

Via Lost in Westminister blog comes the news that the greatest living Scotsman, Sean Connery, is recording a "vote SNP" election message. Around 250,000 Scots voters will receive a phone call from 007 in the run up to the general election. Connery makes large donations to the SNP, and has always kept his UK citizenship even though it meant paying far higher taxes than other famous Britons who defected to Hollywood and became US citizens in order to say he had the right to speak out for Scottish independence. A few years back, a poll showed he was by far the favourite of the populace to become first President should Scotland secure a parting from the UK as a republic. Hey, if Reagan could do it...

Talking of sex symbols, the far right's favourite pinup girl (no, not Ann Coulter! Condi -in -kinky -boots.) has said she won't run for President. "I have no intention. I don't want to run," she told NBC's Tim Russert on Meet the Press, adding finally: "I won't run." Republicans and foot fetishists - sometimes in one and the same person - nationwide breathed a sigh of disappointment.

Paul Reikhoff, director of the veteran's rights group Operation Truth, has posted an open letter to Donald Rumsfield on their website. He applauds Rummie for deciding to decrease the Pentagon budget for weapons development while providing a funding increase of $25 billion for Army ground forces.

It should be no surprise by now that many Veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom are returning home with stories of a war far different than what was predicted two years ago. The acronym "I.E.D." has become a household term, and every American should now agree that developing the weapons of the future is futile if we cannot protect our Troops from these weapons of the past.

Some of our Troops still lack basic equipment such as armored vehicles. They need better medical and psychological care, fair pay and compensation, and fewer surprises about the length of their deployment. Resources are limited, but putting these pressing needs ahead of weapons development is the right thing to do.

At least part of the credit for Rummie's decision should go to OpTruth (and maybe the other blogging voices supporting them) as I honestly think "Donald and the Desk Soldiers" are waaaay too enamoured of their shiny toys to have made this move without their work in educating the public about the way the current administration treats it's heroes.

Take for instance this piece of skullduggery, as reported by USA Today earlier this week.

Bush promised a while back to reimburse the soldiers for their personal purchases of everything from higher-quality protective gear to armor for their Humvees, medical supplies and even global positioning devices. The thing is, a month past the deadline for doing so the Defence Depatment still hasn't even got a plan to make good on their Commander in Chief's promise.

In a letter sent Wednesday to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., asked details on the Pentagon's progress setting up the reimbursement program and questioned why it was not in place yet.

"Very simply, this is either negligence on their part, because they were not happy with this when it passed, or it's incompetence," Dodd said. "It's pretty outrageous when you have all their rhetoric about how much we care about our people in uniform."

Donald and most of the Desk Soldiers should resign in shame or be fired for this and for so much else from torture to the huge toll on US servicemen's lives their incompetence has caused.