CdnRepublican

Yes you are right, the Oil for Food Scam does not exist, it is only in the minds of those stupid right wingers, who invented the $50 billion fraud in their imaginations. Not one of your sources is credible, and not one of their statements makes any sense. The facts are that billions were scammed by Hussein, his family, and that France, Russia and China made upwards of $7 billion per annum in illegal monies. The UNO made $21 billion in revenues [the difference between monies taken and goods given] and this sits in French banks. Much of Hussein's money has obviously found its way into terrorist networks and is funding the current insurgency. Sources for the above include the 9-11 Commission Report, Kay Report, Duelfer Report and WSJ's Claudia Rossetta. But right, Kofi Anan is a great and moral leader who did so much in the 1990s to save Central Africans, Bosnians, Iraqi's, Jews....while his son made a cool few million from illegal deals. A real leader that Kofi. The same guy who said Hussein was a man he could do business with [literally meaning it], and that going into Falluja to safeguard innocents being murdered by terrorists would 'derange the election process.' What a joker. These Left vs. Right demarcations are getting tedious and are besides the point. Reality is reality and facts are facts. The UNO is a mockery. Another study confirms that the UNO is funding terror: But hey these are just the ramblings of immoral fanatical Christians who eat babies and hate all immigrants. Maybe Kofi can enlighten us on the UNRWA - OR would he withhold critical documents and interviews.....as he has done with the Oil for Food Scam ????

As usual you post no facts, only your own immorality to make nary a point. If you hate western values so much, why don't you move to Palestine, Iran or NK ? Provide proof that any independent organisation or investigation has found any of Israel's past or present leaders to be war criminals. If you can't provide proof - cork it. Compare their record to the homoerotic and sadistically immoral Arafat. A man who looted public funds and destroyed thousands of Palestinians. This is a leader ? If this is the best the Arabs and Palestinians can do then they deserve their misery. I doubt that Arafat and his criminal gang did ONE thing to improve the plight of 'their people'. The Non-Palestinian Arafat did a very nice job of opportunistically stealing funds and destroying any peace process - for his benefit only. www.victorhanson.com The above is well said and true. Arafat - a hero ? Only to those who hate everything that freedom, morality and common sense can value and offer.

The UNO stood idly by in Central africa; Bosnia; Iraq in the 1990s while millions in sum perished. It is increasingly clear that Anan's and the UNOs objection to the 2nd Gulf War has to do with money and with French-Russian-Chinese interests. One should also add that the UNO feted Arafat and other terrorists as 'freedom fighters' and legitimised terror through direct funding of Arafat and Palestinian refugee camps. It is a remarkably immoral organisation. Big surprise that the UNO does not want the $50 billion Oil for Food Scam investigated. Anan is a mediocrity - anyone who said Hussein 'was a man i can do business with' should be tossed into a prison cell somewhere.

Judeo values are not Jewish Talmudic values. There is little correlation between the two. Jewish values inform Christrianity - Christ after all was a Jew and was trained by the Essenes a Jewish sect. Jewish philosophy is not beholden to Fundamentalist Rabbi's alone. Jewish and Judeao concepts permeate Western thought and have served a great contribution to Western civilisation. Without these Jewish philosophies we would be a far poorer world today. There is right and wrong in life; black and white; good and evil. Back to Arafat. He was evil. He purloined $1 billion in International funds that were supposed to go to his 'people' and expropriated these monies for himself and his darling wife. He apparently skimmed off a further $2-3 billion which is deposited in various accounts around the world. He did nothing but murder innocents; ensure the poverty of his own people; build up a terrorist/criminal regime; and embark on policies that assured the region of war and brutality. And the Western media's and Liberal's reaction ? Arafat was chic. Clinton had to meet him 20 times. He was the new Che. They ignored his atrocious record and self serving nepotism. Useful idiots.

This is ludricous. The capitalist system and its variants have done more to help the 'poor' than any system in world history. No other system has generated the wealth and appliances to help the non-elite like the market based system we employ today. Any study which looks at the so-named rich over 2 generations notices the upward mobility that permeates western liberalism. You can move up in life - you can also fall down. None of the oriental philosophies has ever constructed a system to benefit those with talent, energy or allowed the poor to move into the ranks of the rich. Comparing progress and scientific advancement with Naziism is fatuous. The Western enlightenment tradition has nothing to do with fascism. It is opposed to totalitarian statism. Western society has benefited mankind and especially those posting on this site, regardless of what leftist pro Castro, pro Arafat think tanks state. To compare our Western world with oriental despotism or fascist tyranny is to display the insanity embedded in Noam Chomsky and Michael Moore.

The response is based on Palestinian investigations which confirm that Sharon's so-called 'war crimes' are nothing of the sort. Listen to yourself - your moral equivalency which means you have no moral concepts is superior to my moral relativity ?? I do not possess moral relativity - i am sharply pro-Christian and pro-Judeo and reject relativity. I am not a post modernist. Do you really know what you are stating ? Your immorality and anti-Semiticism is hardly a source of pride. Defending terrorists like Arafat leads inevitably to your defense no doubt of 9-11 and Bin Laden. Your inability to see what makes the West superior blinds you to what is at stake in Israel and elsewhere. Your pining for intellectual authenticity leads you to cohabitate with mendacious mendicants such as Michael Moore or Edward Said. It is the same pattern of muddled thinking that obstructed Reagan in the 80s with cries of Russians love their children too ! It is why the left is so dangerous - it is their denial of reality. On Sharon he has always been cleared of wrong doing by independent investigations. Time Mag. was sued by Sharon for alleging war misconduct and withdrew its claim. There is no independent proof that Sharon is a war criminal. http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_current_sharon.php

Your post makes little sense. The religious right voted 80-20 Bush over Kerry. About 60 % of the 4 million Evangelicals voted. About 1.6 mn voted therefore for Bush. Data that is publicly available is pretty clear that the extra or other 7.4 million votes that GW received were based in part on values and leadership. Very few of these people would accept your stigmatism that values = the extreme religious right. There is nothing to base such a statement on, other than prejudice. As for Huntington's comments i guess he forgot; the scientific revolution; the enlightenment; the renaissance; the industrial revolution and the information revolution. I suppose that Russian, Chinese, Arabic, African and Indian histories are peaceful, quiescent, full of concord and amity with nary a war or butchery to be found. Economic development and scientific advancement will of course translate into higher war making capacity. And so what ? Would we be better off under the heal of the Communists ? Or the Arabs ? Obviously not, so that comment from Huntington is irrelevant and inconsequential and has no relationship to the post.

Sharon was in a war and acted with restraint in the so-called atrocities you list from some palestinian.org website. Or maybe the BBC and CBC inform your inflated opinion with their endless obsessed support for the aggrieved Palestinians: Well certainly the BBC and CBC would distort such views. Ridiculous. I suppose in war you should not fight the enemy but passively let them kill you. Interesting. He is now the elected leader of a democratic country. Arafat has engaged in nothing BUT terror. He has never deployed his army of thugs and criminals against the Israeli army, but only against civilians. Jenna and other UNO sponsored camps are swamps of terror and terrorist activity. This is well documented. By giving money to Arafat with no strings attached the UNO and other other groups have guaranteed the continuation of the so-called Intifada - or war against civilians.

Your post expresses nothing. Western civilisation is a confluence of ideas animated in part by Judeo-Christian precepts. Are you suggesting that these values are to be equated with Jerry Falwell or other uncouth practitioners of fraud ? If so it is a very foolish and rather ignorant association that is being made. I don't go to Church for instance, but milllions of people like me do believe in a framework of morality and activity that has nothing to do with Falwell or with terrorists like Bin Laden for that matter. Christianity is an embedded and important part of the Western experience and the West in total must be defended. I doubt that one can deny the usefulness to the West of its primary religious doctrine. To do so would be to deny one of the great motivators of the West's superiority in the modern world.

Everyone always predict this scenario. 'If you are not nice to 'insert terrorist name here' there will be more violence.' In short - nonsense. He was an obstacle and should have been killed long ago. With him dead maybe though i sorely doubt it, the PLO will get organised and start building institutions instead of homicide bombers. I have little faith in any of the parties in the PLO or Palestinian authority. They want violence. They incite violence. Their mandate is to destory Israel. This is clear from their actions, their pronouncements their rejection of the Roadmap for Peace. Just because the media hails Arafat as the Che of his day, means little. Arafat was adept at using the media - just the same as Lenin and Stalin were - which is why Lenin named Western journalists and intellectuals - 'useful idiots'. He was right on. With this terrorist gone Israel can give the PLO a chance to reform - if not - then let the Israeli's finish their war by wiping out the PLO and PLA. Article by D. Frum NRO

The US is the world's reserve currency because it is the greatest store of value after gold. The Euro only accounts for about 30 % of world reserves, the great bulk are still in US $. The EU's economic performance is so mediocre that the currency's value is wholly dependent on US monetary policy ie. cheap or dear dollar dependent on US money supply and interest rates. Canada has only paid off $55 billion in the last decade of debt. The economy as grown so your debt/GDP is misleading. Canada has per capita debt all totalled of $174.000 per person. Sure Fed debt is $535 billion in total, out of a $1 Trillion economy. But this has more to do with Ontario and Alberta growing their economies than with fiscal discipline. A conservative financier Paul Martin never was. Total aggregate debt overall has gone only up, when all levels of government are added in. Plus you don't add in unfunded liabilities which are $1 Trillion in total. Apparently Enron execs should go to jail for off balance sheet financing but not Finance Ministers. The C$ is only up due to oil and commodities and 2 % interest rate differential with the US. When oil comes back down to $35 per barrel the $ will decline. The main factors are that the US has more net income per capita, more net assets per capita, higher living standards and higher productivity. There is no reason to believe that such gaps will narrow anytime soon. Especially as Bush spurs his economy with further tax cuts and social security reform, something you will never see in Canada.

Christianity expresses values far exceeding your simple definition which is marxist of 'egalitarianism'. Christianity preached separation of powers; individual responsibility; living in the here and now; inquiry; equality before the law; and equality of opportunity. The last 2 values DO NOT mean egalitarianism. You can have vast differences between people but institutional equality. Christianity is not monolithic. There are various sects that interpret the gospel and its values in different ways. This is far more meaningful than Islam where the only schism is over the Prophet's blood lines. There are very few Christians that would equate equality in the biblical sense with Socialist egalitarianism. Not even Lenin would have had the gall to make that erroneous dialectic connection. Western civilisation which has given even fools the right to express their opinions is worth defending. If you don't believe so, move to Iran or North Korea. If you are so certain that the West is not worthwhile why are you here ? Maybe to feed off of the efforts of others ? Snotty liberalism at its most mediocre.

In general your post is odious. You should not be able to post this type of blind unsupported racism. Sharon a terrorist ? Please. Sharon is the democratically elected leader of an embattled, 5 times attacked democratic nation. GW Bush never met Arafat - he refused to meet Arafat and stated that Arafat was the main reason the Roadmap to Peace has failed. Provide proof that GW Bush met Arafat. I can provide lots of proof that Clinton and his team met Arafat - in fact the count is over 20 times. Arafat is the leader of a non-democratically based, non-transparent organisation that has spent 4 decades killing innocents. He is the greatest obstacle to peace in the Middle East. Sharon is giving up 85 % of the West bank and pulling out of Gaza. He has given far more than the Palestinians. The Palestinians live in UN sponsored poverty, and NGO funded PLA terror. They have themselves and their leaders and the UNO to blame.

Caesar represents the equivocating left This is a very sad statement. Clinton met this terrorist more times than other world leader during the 1990s. Chirac finds it important to visit this dying terrorist on his deathbed in Paris than to meet with Allawi the President of an emerging Iraq. The Western media feted this man as the Che Guevara of the Palestinian cause, ignoring the murderous, corrupt regime that destroyed lives on both sides, presided over by this Egyptian terrorist. This is immorality writ large. Arafat has murdered Jews, Westerners and even his own people. He has murdered as many or more Palestinians then Jews while accumulating millions in personal funds and corruption. He is no more than a criminal gang leader intent on ensuring the destruction of everyone but himself as he accumulates power and money. I find Caesar and left liberalism's moral equivalency over this man sickening. The CBC and leftist media love this man - this says alot about the mental rot of the so-called elite.

Bush won a clear mandate by increasing his votes by 9 million - only 18 % of that increase is due to evangelicals - the rest is broad based support and most people voted for values and leadership. People in an age of terror want leadership, aggressive military action and a concrete set of policies that view terror in its horrific reality. They don't want Kerryesque 'global tests', they are tired of Kofi Anan and UNO corruption, they find it sickening that the terrorist Arafat is feted as a hero, and they find it senseless that terrorist acts are relegated by Democrats including Clinton and Kerry to 'criminal investigations.' They also grow weary of rhetoric from self proclaimed hollywood pundits and Michael Moore-George Soros types that America is to blame. Even in California where Bush lost 55-45 he won many counties with 70 % of the vote - he lost the rich upper class counties that have time and money to sniffle that their good fortune means that all other Americans are stupid and should follow their hollow oratory. Christian values and Western Enlightenment values have to be defended. You don't defend civilisation by Clintonian strategems of loving the enemy more, being more sensitive to root causes or not retaliating when the WTC is bombed in '93 or hundreds die in the '98 embassy bombings. Peace is only achieved through strength. It is uttterly mindboggling how the Left and most Cdns have no comprehension of recent modern history and its lessons. But then again in the Post modern world, history is relative and meaningless. At least that is what the Cdn liberal left and the Democrats support.

Arafat was a terrorist that looted international money and corrupted the entire concept of Palestinian statehood. He should have been assassinated years ago. He is and was an obstacle and is just another corrupt criminal gang leader praying on people, the UNO and the good will of NGO's to divert hundreds of millions of dollars into his own accounts, while he orders 17 yr old kids to commit homicide bombings. There is nothing good to say about such a creature except - die and die slowly. Apparently the rumors are he is stricken with Aids. In any event i hope his death is painful. No doubt he is a terrorist, a murderer, a corrupt and immoral man. Good riddance.

People move to the US for many reasons - not just greed as you put it - though i would argue there is nothing wrong with greed. Greed generates economic activity, taxations, benefits, products, innovation and higher living standards. If you wish to reconcile yourself to subservient UNO sponsored socialism go right ahead. Maybe a foray into the FSU or North Korea might cure you. What do you say about Cdn firms, exporting product to the US ? Are they greedy capitalist pigs fattening themselves on the poor gruel of the US market ? What about greedy Cdn politicians that increase their pay and pensions at the expense of taxpayers or loot the public treasury to pay off their greedy friends that elevated them to power ? What about greedy Cdn professional hockey players that are pricing the so-called national game out of the reach of the middle class would-be ticket buyer ? How about the greed and corruption of former PM Chretien who had the public write off $800K of a personal bad debt ? What about all the greedy middle - class canadians that want a bigger car, a bigger home and to send their greedy children to Ivy league prep schools ? Do these people and others who wish to improve their lives make your list of the obnoxious swine that move to the US because they want a challenge; keep more of their money; access to better technology; or just warmer weather ? Or are 'domestic' Cdns greedy for a better life somehow better and more cultured than the oily cringeing gang that slips into the US to live ? I suppose people like yourself vacation in Florida. Greedy for sunshine i suppose.

I think it is hard to argue that the US economy is doing badly. None of the major stats bear this out. The Kerry campaign tried to convince Americans that Bush was Hoover and that the 2004 world mirrored the Great Depression. It was done for political reasons but his data was faulty and most people knew it. -Economic growth in the US has been far stronger than anyone after 9-11 would dared have predicted. -Since 2001 GDP growth has exceeded the historical mean average - no mean feat considering 9-11 and the Clinton Bubble -Productivity is exploding which means higher future profits and better living standards and the US prod. rate far exceeds the Cdn. [www.heritage.org Past. Present! Future? Economic Growth in America by Tim Kane, Ph.D., and Rea Hederman WebMemo #601] As i posted earlier the Employment rate now under Bush is the highest in US history and the 5.4 % unemployment rate is below the historical mean average of the past 50 years [which is about 5.7 %]. The Media are culpable for their knee jerk pro-liberalism - a media study concluded that: Canada is doing well in some areas; -Net Foreign Debt is down to 17 % of GDP -Federal Surpluses are consistently in the 1% of GDP range [though i would argue over taxation and Alta and Ontario's growing economies account for this] -Unemployment rate is slowly coming down but is still far higher than the US rate There is much reform needed in Canada to keep pace with the US, especially since Bush will cut taxes further.

UNO surveys ? The highest living standard is in the US. The average European lives on less square footage than the average poor American. A swedish thinktank completed a study - all the EU nations would be in the bottom of economic and social rankings if they were apart of the US - the exceptions were Ireland and Luxembourg. 40 % of Swedes live on less than $25000 US per annum - the comparable US rate is 15 %. Socialism makes a better society ? Doubtful. When 40 % of your population is living in small apartments on less than U$25 K per annum something is deranged in your society. If Canada is such a wonderful place to live why do 40.000 Cdns go South each year vs. 5.000 who head North ? UNO and post modern institutions can collaborate and 'manage' their surveys and then propagandize their so-called findings, which conform to their whims of a one world socialist state, in which all people live in equal misery or at least have long line ups at the hospital and in the rationed health care market. The UN will of course applaud socialist nations as exemplars. So what. People will read these insipid reports, just shrug and move to where the jobs and money are. [And contrary to what Eureka states i have already posted that wage gains were 9. 3% 2000-2004 under Bush. This was confirmed by Forbes, Factcheck.org, and other groups. There has been no wage loss in the last 4 years.]

The US economy will grow at 4 % - higher than the 3 % in Canada. It is certainly not sick. Productivity will be 4 % this year vs. 1.5 % in Canada. The average US wage is 20 % above the Canadian. The average US net income after tax is 30%+ on average higher than in Canada. More Americans work now than ever before in their history. The Clinton economic bubble and 9-11 literally costed the US millions of jobs. Their economy is far from sick - in fact it is so strong they are running a current account deficit importing goods from across the globe. Consumer Net Assets reached $14 Trillion which is the highest ever. Household debt payments remain at 14 % which is the historical mean average. I am not saying that the US is nirvana - but their economy is stronger and more diversified than Canada's and their productivity rate ensures a higher standard of living than Canada's. Emotionalism might be satisfying, but so is change for the better.

You 2 guys should tone it down. Relax. There are 4 pages of Iraq-Al Qaeda links in the 9-11 commission report. You seem to forget that 250.000 Iraqi's died in the 90s while France, the UN, Russia, China, Hussein and Terrorist groups made money, while the US and Britain incurred all the costs of containment. There is a slight immorality in your posturing that Iraq was not a part of the terror network and that somehow the world is better off under the old fascist regime. It funded terror from the 93 WTC bombing to Palestinian homicide bombers to the 98 East African bombings. On Canada and taxes - 42 % of GDP is Government revenue with about 10 % more in indirect revenue for crown corps, regulatory bodies and public trusts. There are a litany of sources for these numbers. Many studies show that above 30 % of GDP the effect of taxation on the economy and jobs is highly negative. High taxes are counterproductive. There is little real dispute that Canada is left wing and reliant on government control - be it in health or in business. Whole economic sectors lie within government protection and regulation.

Your post is just vitriol. Coyne would define a liberal in much the same way that most Canadians would. So what is your point. Is your point that Coyne is somehow inferior to yourself ? I would find that rather ludricous. Canada is left wing - provide proof that it is not. High taxes, socialised health care, massive redistribution, protected markets, state owned media - these are the hallmarks of capitalism ? Coyne's analysis is a good one and dispels the myths of who voted for Bush. Bush garnered more votes than anyone in history. This is a fact. 2004: Bush 58,390,139 (current, from CNN) 2000: Gore 50,996,582 1996: Clinton 45,590,703* 1992: Clinton 44,908,254* 1988: Bush 47,946,000 1984: Reagan 54,455,000 1980: Reagan 43,901,812 As for Caesar's argument that Iraq has made the world unstable i would assume this topic would have been dealt with at length and elsewhere. Read the 9-11 commission and Duelfer reports. Iraq was vital part of the terrorist network. Understand the massive corruption at the UNO during the Oil for Food program where Hussein bought off the UN, Russia, France and China. It is absurd to state that the world is better off with Hussein and the Oil for Food scam which provided money to terrorists still in operation.

Yes and Andrew Coyne in today's NP makes a good analysis of Bush's vote. Bush won because he has substance, is a leader, has clear plans and acts. He is not a Chretien-Martin-Kerry liberal - who talks and does nothing. Regarding Bush voters Coyne states: -45 % are Liberal or Moderate -Bush polled below 40 % in only 3 Liberal states [Vmt; Mass, Del] -Kerry polled below 40 % in 15 states -Bush took 45 % of the Hispanic vote in many states -Bush increased the Reps share of the Black Vote -Married women preferred Bush to Kerry [The security moms] Even with Lying exit polls the media could not swing this election to Kerry. Bush's support is broad, covers most of the country with the exception of the 3 Liberal states mentioned above and Calif/Oregon and Chicago-Pitts-Philly. 54 % is a justifiable mandate. It was not nearly as close as the media made it out to be. Canada and Cdns are too left wing to notice, but a Bush election win is good news for Canada. Trade issues should be resolved, lower taxes in the US will spur lower taxes here [if Canada wants to remain competitive], and Cdns are dealing with a well organised mature White House unlike during the Clinton years when the Frat boys were in charge. The world needs a strong right of centre America.

Rebuttal to Black Dog's economic misinformation. This is another reason why the democrats lost - their marketing information never collides with reality. Black Dog says: Wrong: -Forbes Magazine: "During Clinton's first 3.5 years, real disposable personal income rose by 10.4%. Over a comparable period under Bush, it rose by 9.3%" Hardly a large gap. And it is an increase not a decrease as Black Dog says. -Poverty; 12.5 % of Americans live in poverty - down from 25 % in 1950 - and 12.5 % is about the range over the past 15 years. The 12.5 % in 2004 is the lower than the rate in the mid-late 1990s. Governments measure poverty by your paycheque not assets. This is absurd. I could own 2 homes, have dividend income, but no job and be declared 'poor'. Any analysis of those in poverty state that 1/2 own their own homes and 3/4 own amenities ranging from cars to tv's. The poor in the US live on average in more living space than the AVERAGE person does in Europe. So what is poor then ? -Employment rates. The unemployment rate is the lowest in 25 years. The employment rate has not dropped but gone up. The number of American workers is at an all-time high of 138.5 million, a level never before attained in U.S. history. There is no source proof that employment has gone down. As well according to Household surveys and the BLS 2.5 million jobs have been added since Bush took office. http://www.factcheck.org/article298m.html One of the reasons Kerry lost the campaign is his use of bogus stats. He tried to make the economy look like it is in terrible shape - it is not. GDP growth, productivity, corporate profit growth, and export numbers are all up way above historical means. Lying about the state of the economy makes good politics but bad reading. -

No more insane than Hillary Clinton running. Kerry apologists can spin all they want. The democratic party offers very little of substance. Even Clinton yesterday admitted that. Kerry has no firm policy ideas and no firm beliefs. He lied about his Vietnam war record and contrary to Black Dog's propaganda never released his military records. He released only few files. The Democrats lost on a number of issues; -Leadership -- there is little doubt Kerry would not improve on the Bush doctrine and might even withdraw prematurely from Iraq -Naive belief in the UNO - many Americans are bright enough to know the UNO is useless - Kerry's Wilsonianism goes down badly in age of terror -Taxes - Kerry is not credible as a fiscal conservative. A liberal lawyer from Mass. Come on. -Protectionism - Canada should be happy Bush won. Kerry would have made trade more difficult not less. He made this very clear on the stump as he tried to buy votes in Ohio. Bush won on values and leadership. This is refreshing after the MTV, Pop centric, Leadership-Light world of the Clintons. Even with lying exit polls, a biased anti-Bush media and CNN spinning day and night the Democrats could not beat a man who had to deal with the Clinton Economic meltdown; 9-11; 2 wars and increased global competition. Bush's victory is rather remarkable no matter how you analyse it.