Lost: The freedom this Afghanistan mission was supposed to bring. This is really quite shocking (hat tip JBG):
A young man, a student of journalism, is sentenced to death by an Islamic court for downloading a report from the internet. The sentence is then upheld by the country’s rulers. This is Afghanistan – not in Taliban times but six years after “liberation” and under the democratic rule of the West’s ally Hamid Karzai.
The fate of Sayed Pervez Kambaksh has led to domestic and international protests, and deepening concern about erosion of civil liberties in Afghanistan. He was accused of blasphemy after he downloaded a report from a Farsi website which stated that Muslim fundamentalists who claimed the Koran justified the oppression of women had misrepresented the views of the prophet Mohamed.
Lost: Rudy Giuliani. Both Edwards and Giuliani are out of the race. For Giuliani, this Presidential race will go down as a complete failure to launch. As John Stewart said last night “Giuliani was the frontrunner…until people started voting”. Then he became nothing more than a 5th place candidate.
Lost: Mike Huckabee’s tough guy edge. Hulk Hogan endorses Obama and Ah-nold is ready to endorse McCain. Hasta La Vista Romney!
Lost: Stephen Harper’s composure. Every now and then Harper just seems to slip up and go too far, be it the Navdeep Bains incident last year, or his latest Big Fat Greek Gaffe:
Michel Guimond had just asked if the aforementioned fundraiser had ever paid a visit to 24 Sussex. And this was the Prime Minister’s response.
“Mr. Speaker, the Bloc MP has mentioned the names of two people of Greek origin, one who’s an employee who works here in Ottawa, and another who’s a supporter of the Conservative Party in Montreal. The fact there are two Montrealers of Greek origin doesn’t mean there’s a conspiracy.”
Uh-huh. So, to recap, questions have been raised about Dimitri Soudas using undue PMO influence. It’s a completely mini-scandal (all together now: “it’s all Greek to me!”) but, the point of the matter is, no one had even so much as alluded to race before Harper brought it up. A BCer in Toronto has a good run down on this, include Peter Van Loan, taking it to a whole new level.