wombat_socho

What if Ingrid Betancourt had travelled to the Colombian jungle after agreeing to a fake high-profile kidnapping? What if Nicolas Sarkozy had orchestrated her rescue to boost his popularity ratings and to settle an old score with former primer minister Dominique de Villepin?

Just as Franco-Colombian politician and former FARC hostage Ingrid Betancourt launches her memoirs, Even Silence Has an End, a whole different version of her story is also hitting bookstores in France. Ingrid de la Jungle (Ingrid of the Jungle), a comic book written by French writers Serge Scotto and Eric Stoffel, and illustrator Richard di Martino, is a highly politically incorrect take on Betancourt's captivity and its political implications in France.

Liu is a special kind of officer. He's a political officer, a job invented by the Russians during the Soviet period. The political officer is assigned to units from company size on up, and is second in command of the unit. The political officer is responsible for the political loyalty of all the officers and troops in the unit.

Does Hillary Clinton think it is more important to promote liberal Western ideologies than to address the critical needs of the women and children of Africa and Asia? Does she prefer to promote the tired, old eugenic orthodoxies of the largely discredited population-control movement? Is Hillary Clinton — and the Obama administration — willing to hold up funding for maternal and infant health because of a dogmatic commitment to a universal right to abortion on demand?

The region is bubbling, lots of it (including Afghanistan) due to Iran, and we still have no Iran policy. Dennis Ross doesn't seem to have one. While we're purging, send him back to the lecture circuit and find someone who sees the war plain, and can wage political war on the mullahs.

What is best in life?

"Hot water, good dentistry and soft toilet paper".
-Cohen the Barbarian

VIRTUALLY ALL the coverage of judge Garzón's suspension in the English-language media lacks a basic understanding of recent events at best, or outright distortion at worst (yeah, I know, big surprise), on the nature of the accusation against him, the circumstances that surround it, and Spain's recent history.