Day: September 2, 2004

Memo to Kerry: Shut Up about Vietnam Already

What is John Kerry thinking? The Republicans spend the week laying out one charge after another — some fair, others not. To hear the Republicans, Kerry is a flip-flopping Senator who is at heart a leftist peacenik in the Dukakis mould. So what is Kerry’s response? That’s right, he served in Vietnam, and his opponents didn’t,

I’m not going to have my commitment to defend this country questioned by those who refused to serve when they could have and by those who have misled the nation into Iraq

. . .

The vice president even called me unfit for office last night. I guess I’ll leave it up to the voters whether five deferments makes someone more qualified to defend this nation than two tours of duty.

It’s just bizarre to see the extent to which Kerry’s answer to everything is “I served in Vietnam”. Howard Dean almost won the nomination by exposing the holes in Kerry’s Vietnam strategy, but Kerry and/or his campaign seems to have learned nothing from that primary experience.

Bizarre.

Source:

Kerry Criticizes Cheney for Avoiding Vietnam War. Patricia Wilson, Reuters, September 3, 2004.

Kuwaiti Firm Disproves Public Radio International Guest’s Slander

A few weeks ago, I was driving into work listening to a Public Radio International program about ongoing terrorism in Iraq. The topic that day was the murder of a driver for a Kuwaiti trucking firm. Obviously, the goal of the terrorists was to deny supplies from coming into Iraq by instilling fear in the company and/or it’s drivers.

The guest on PRI that day made what I thought was a rather bizarre slander against the Kuwaiti trucking firms. Asked by the host whether or not this would be an effective tactic, the guest noted that the drivers employed by the Kuwaitis are foreiengers and that the tactic would not work because the Kuwaiti firms could care less about the safety of their foreign workers.

In fact, last week one of the major trucking firms, Kuwait Gulf and Link, announced it would cease all operations in Iraq in an effort to free seven of its drivers held hostage by a group calling itself the Secret Islamic Army. The hostages were all foeigners — three Indians, three Kenyans and an Egyptian.

Frankly, I don’t think the firm should have given in to terrorism on principle, but it’s understandable why they made that decision. I wonder if the PRI guest will go back on network now and apologize. I won’t be holding my breath.

Source:

Kuwaiti firm bows to kidnappers’ demands, stops work in Iraq. Agence-France Press, August 27, 2004.

They’re Action Figures!

Okay, this was a very bizarre story that appeared on Reuters’ wire this week,

A man caught having sex with a blow-up doll in a busy public shopping arcade had to be physically parted from his rubber lover and escorted away, police in Stuttgart [Germany] say.

No word on if the man offered up as a defense that it was in fact an action figure, not a doll.

Source:

German caught having sex with doll. Reuters, September 1, 2004.

More on Activist's Debate Over California Foie Gras Ban

As this site noted earlier this week, there’s an ongoing conflict between animal rights groups over whether or not they should support California’s proposed ban on force feeding of ducks and geese. One one side is Friends of Animals which is opposing the bill because it doesn’t go far enough, and on the other side are United Poultry Concerns and a number of other groups who argue that activists should take what they can get.

Farmed Animal Watch’s Mary Finelli recently posted e-mail correspondence between herself and Friends of Animals’ Daniel Hammer in which Finelli asked how opposing the bill could help ducks and geese. Here’s the response she got,

>From: "Daniel Hammer" <[email protected]>
>To: "Mary Finelli" <[email protected]>
>CC: "Priscilla Feral" <[email protected]>
>Subject: Re: FoA on SB 1520
>Date: Tue, 31 Aug 2004 16:05:30 -0400


>Dear Mary,


>Friends of Animals proposes that people work for the rights of animals and
>promote a vegan lifestyle.


>Friends of Animals is making this happen by fighting the amended version of
>SB 1520. The only thing SB 1520 does is protect the "right" of Sonoma Foie
>Gras to forcefully fed ducks for the next eight years. "These animals,"
>those currently at Sonoma Foie Gras, will have been slaughtered when SB
>1520
>takes effect--along with an additional 440,000 more. SB 1520 does nothing
>for these animals--each one an individual whose rights are just as
>important
>as those birds eight years from now.


>Friends of Animals is also making this happen by encourage people to adopt
>a
>vegan lifestyle. There are a number of ways we are doing this, including
>our
>Vegan Starter and Restaurant Guides. Obviously, if people go vegan it will
>help these animals, and many, many, more.


>Thank you for taking an interest in the work of FoA. More information on
>what FoA is doing can be found at: www.friendsofanimals.org.


>Cheers,
>Daniel Hammer

To which Finelli responded on AR-News,

Apparently FoA thinks there is more hope for these
birds that everyone will go vegan by 2012. Any sane person knows how utterly
improbable that is. Furthermore, supporting SB 1520 and promoting veganism
are not mutually exclusive. Most if not all of the many groups who are
supporting the bill are in fact doing both. FoA is pushing its philosophical
position to a berserk extent, one that is immensely detrimental to these
many birds as well as to the animal protection community. If in 8 years
ducks are still being brutally tortured for foie gras production in
California, FoA and the Humane Farming Association, which is also opposing
the bill, will be among those to blame. It’s inexcusable and infuriating. We
have met the enemy and it is these “Friends.” I urge all reasonable people
to do what they can to support this bill.

An animal rights group and its leader insane? Say it isn’t so.

Source:

Controversy over the California foie gras bill. Mary Finelli, E-mail Correspondence, September 1, 2004.

Alaska to Expand Wolf Cull

Despite protests from the Friends of Animals over its wolf hunt last year that killed 144 wolves, Alaska plans to expand the aerial hunting of wolves this year.

Alaska’s initial aerial hunting program in 2003 resulted in 127 wolves killed in the Nelchina Basin and 17 in the McGrath area. The wolves were culled in order to allow moose populations in those areas to increase for hunting purposes. According to the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, there are anywhere from 8,000 to 11,000 wolves in Alaska, and about 1,500 are killed annually by hunters and trappers.

This year, in addition to the Nelchina Basin and McGrath areas, the state will offer permits for the aerial shooting of wolves west of Cook Inlet and near Aniak as well. The state would like hunters to kill about 150 wolves in both of the new areas.

Asked about the possibility of the Friends of Animals’ tourist boycott intensifying, a spokeswoman for Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski said, “He’s [Murkowski] concerned about what Alaskans think” not what animal rights activists elsewhere in the nation think.

Permits for the aerial hunt will be issued on October 15th and the hunt itself should get underway sometime in early December.

Source:

State widens wolf control program. Tim Mowry, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, August 29, 2004.