Hmmm... the media seems to like some whistleblowers; you think they'll take an interest in these two?

Two senior investigators with the committee probing corruption in the U.N. oil-for-food program have resigned in protest, saying they believe a report that cleared Kofi Annan of meddling in the $64 billion operation was too soft on the secretary-general, a panel member confirmed Wednesday.

The investigators felt the Independent Inquiry Committee, led by former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, played down findings critical of Annan when it released an interim report in late March related to his son, said Mark Pieth, one of three leaders of the committee.

...

The investigators were identified as Robert Parton and Miranda Duncan.

...

Pieth acknowledged disagreements within the committee about how to interpret the evidence on Annan, but he denied investigators were censored.

...

Pieth added, however, that he believed the two investigators got "personally very involved" in the probe and so grew upset. "Again, this is the nature of things," he said.

God forbid that investigators should get "personally very involved" in an investigation into the biggest dollar-amount swindle in human history.

Obviously, they're nuts. And that Miranda-- probably a "stalker." Confabulating some sort of fantasy sexual affair with the very dapper Kofi Annan.

Parton, too, probably. Kofi's the sort of guy that just makes people of any sexual orientation swoon.

Proof? Ask Paul Volcker.

Posted by: Ace at 10:43 AM | Comments (13)
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The Death Express picks up steam:

Rejecting a bid by the parents, a British judge on Thursday upheld a court order allowing doctors to let a critically ill baby die if she stops breathing - a move doctors say is the only humane way to end the child's suffering.

Eighteen-month-old Charlotte Wyatt can hardly see or hear and weighed about a pound when she was born prematurely. Her brain and other organs are so seriously damaged that she has "no feeling other than continuing pain," according to physicians.

Darren and Debbie Wyatt, who believe in preserving life at any cost, sought to overturn a court order granted in October.

But Justice Mark Hedley was not persuaded by the parents' pleas.

"I am quite clear that it would not be in Charlotte's best interests to die in the course of futile aggressive treatment," Hedley ruled Thursday at London's High Court.

Disclaimer: I actually agree with the judge, given what I know (and I don't know much; I'm assuming these are all the true facts).

But I agree with him only in the sense that if it were, in fact, my baby, I'd come to a similar conclusion. Call me heartless or call me a pessimist, but I do think sometimes there's no point trying to fight the inevitable.

But. But. But.

We are again confronted with a situation in which the parents of a stricken child see their wishes thwarted by a representative of the State. Again-- a judge, of course. Who else?

I may agree that this is the best course of action. But I would never be so arrogant to impose my stupid opinion on the parents of the poor child.

If the parents want to try to keep this poor baby alive, why should they not be allowed to do so? How can a judge be so arrogant as to substitute his opinion on the matter for the parents'?

I didn't know they handed out the Wisdom of Solomon at law school. I didn't know that a JD grants you such godlike insight and king-like power over the life and death of your subjects.

Thanks to the TeamHammer blog, which would be an oustanding blog, if only they got rid of that superfluous male member of the team.

Breaking News: The baby in question was just proposed to by Michael Schiavo, who also filed a malpractice claim against the British NHS.

Caveat: It has been correctly pointed out that the Brits, having a national health-care system, of course empower the government to make these sorts of decisions, partly for cost-reduction purposes.

Update: Joshua says I'm wrong to rely on the court's rendition of the facts. He offers this link to SaveCharlotte.com

Charlotte's the little girl's name, by the way.

Posted by: Ace at 10:24 AM | Comments (46)
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This is your chi. This is your chi on drugs. Get the picture?

Thanks to the soon-to-be-banned Scout.

And Dave... Just. Don't. Go there.

Posted by: Ace at 10:12 AM | Comments (5)
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I love trains, not just because they're smoother and quieter than, say, buses, and more convenient than planes for shortish jaunts, but because there's just something... dare I say, romantic about them.

And, of course, railyards are a perfect hunting ground for my Most Dangerous Game sessions against drugged hobos.

John Tierny at the New York Times concludes that Amtrack is dead and so, therefore, is passenger rail. The much-heralded Acela program isn't going to work.

It's a nice train and all, but the fares are just too expensive to shave forty minutes off a NY-DC trip. And now there are tecnical problems up the wazoo.

But in the 1990's, after writing a book on foreign trains, he finally gave up hope. Japan and other countries were setting rail speed records and reviving their rail systems by turning them over to private companies, but Amtrak was still going nowhere. Mr. Vranich made the conversion from spokesman to scourge, arguing in books titled "Derailed" and "End of the Line" that train service would never improve as long as Amtrak had a monopoly on it.

...

Aside from the latest problem with the brakes, the Acela has been plagued by cracks in its suspension system (which shut down the service in 2002) and goofs ranging from bathroom doors that don't work to cars that were built, oops, four inches too wide for the train to take curves at high speeds. It's a slowpoke by international standards even when it arrives on schedule, but it's on time on only three-quarters of its trips.

Amtrak officials no longer pretend that Acela is the future - they've vowed not to buy any more of the trains - but they insist that they still know the solution to passengers' woes: more money from Washington. Last week, though, the Bush administration adopted Mr. Vranich's idea of giving the federal money to someone other than the folks who brought us the Acela.

Well, maybe not quite dead yet. Maybe there's something about private enterprise that's magic.

Via The View Through the Windshield, apparently a blog about cars and trucks and things that go.

Posted by: Ace at 09:09 AM | Comments (18)
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And Jeff Gannon Larkin over at Football Fans For Whatever They're Calling Themselves Now has the early line.

He's good at it... plus, there's a funny picture of Doctor Evil, and two stacked chicks wrestling in what appears to be wet cement.

Posted by: Ace at 08:49 AM | Comments (2)
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Michael Kinsley remarked that a "gaffe" is usually just a situation in which you accidentally blurt out your actual opinions.

Seems like the hyperpartisan hack Dana Milbank at the WaPo has committed a Kinsley-type gaffe:

James Taranto, at OpinionJournal.com the other day, had a great catch. Washington Post reporter Dana Milbank had written, “Democrats . . . assailed Bolton’s knack for making enemies and disparaging the very organization he would serve.”

Hmmmm...? Which organization would Bolton be serving?

Has he been caught disparaging the United States Government or the Office of the President of the United States or the United States Department of State?

Of course not. He's disparaged the United Nations -- which, Dana Milbank accidentally admits is, by his lights at least, the organization that Bolton will "serve."

That encapsulated perfectly the Democratic mindset. You see, we Neanderthals think that the purpose of the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. is to serve the United States, particularly its foreign policy, as made by the government’s executive branch. It is the other view that the U.S. ambassador is to serve the United Nations — to be part of that clique, that bureaucracy. That is why Barbara Boxer and others shudder so at Bolton’s “contempt” for the United Nations. They love that body, and value it as a check — or a brake — on U.S. foreign policy.

Preach it, brother.

The UN is viewed by many liberals not as tool for advancing US interests but as a necessary and desirous impediment to the advancement of those interests. The fact that the UN acts as an opponent to the foreign policy of the US is, as Steven den Beste would say, not a flaw but a feature.

More From Nordlinger: He notices, for the billionth time, that the media doesn't seem to mind when liberal Democrats use the "slur" un-American.

Is this a verboten word or not? If it's uncivil, then the media had better start castigating Democrats when they use it. If it's permissible, then let me know, because I'm going to start using it like a brothertrucker.

Posted by: Ace at 08:46 AM | Comments (8)
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Can't say what it is. Don't want anyone stealing my ideas.

But the most exalted Slublog is already working on a press-kit for me.

Posted by: Ace at 08:37 AM | Comments (7)
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There is no excuse not to control the border, she said. "I’m a liberal with a capital ‘L’," she said, "but I’m sick of it."

Y'ain't gonna believe you actually agree with this person on a political issue.

As has been noted until the point of tedium, there is a real desire by the American public to control the borders and reduce illegal immigration, and this is popular among many Democrats as well as Republicans.

But the elites in both parties, vying for the in-play (kinda) Hispanic vote, simply refuse to accede to the wishes of the majority.

Illegal Hispanic immigrants are certainly not bad people. (Well, except for the vicious gangsters and narcoterrorists that operate here illegally.) No one can blame them morally or otherwise for seeking to make good money in a country where it is, despite what Michael Moore might say, still relatively easy to make a living if you're willing to work.

But many Americans are tired of picking up the costs of illegal workers who do not actually pay most taxes (how many illegal migrant fruit-pickers are actually paid above the table?) except for sales taxes, which we all pay, on top of every other tax.

This is one of those necessary political discussions that you Simply Are Not Permitted to Discuss in polite, or political, company. And that's a type of political dysfunction, because it will be talked about eventually, and perhaps in less-than-polite terms, when a majority of the public grows weary of seeing their legitimate political wishes ignored by their supposed representatives in government.

But Of Course She Does, Darling Update: See-Dubya thinks he knows why Maxine Waters opposes illegal immigration.

How else can the US Government run crack into black neighborhoods without a steady flow of Hispanic patsies?

Posted by: Ace at 08:13 AM | Comments (18)
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I had a policy against linking these quizzes, I know, but I've come across two in as many days that I liked.

This quiz will tell you what dialect of Americn English you speak, by asking you stuff like "Do you call it pop or soda?"

In a way, I guess it's pretty useless, since most of us have a good idea of which region of the country we come from, and therefore which regional dialects we speak in; but then, all of these quizzes are like that. People just like answering questions about themselves and then having a bit of computer-code parrot back to them what they've just told the quiz.

I know I do.

Posted by: Ace at 07:50 AM | Comments (28)
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Wizbang has actually turned the He Who Will Not Be Named Freak-Out Advisory into a bit of java-code you can add to your site, if you want.

The current Freak-Out level will be adjusted automatically, by Wizbang, I guess in consultation with Allah and myself.

Not really my call, but apparently they've decided to lower the Advisory to "Shocked." I guess that makes sense; it costs millions of dollars in overtime to maintain a heightened police presence, as well as a great deal of anxiety for the nation at large, when the Freak-Out Advisory goes into the red.

We want to keep the public aware, but we also don't want to panic them.

Remember: Remain vigilant, keep your eyes open for suspiciously freaked-out postings, but do try to go on with your daily lives with something resembling normalcy.

For if we overreact to He Who Will Not Be Named's Freak-Outs, then He Who Will Not Be Named will have won.

Posted by: Ace at 07:41 AM | Comments (14)
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