Secret Hours

In Sri Lanka, Tamil rebels say government forces have resumed fighting, following a two-day holiday truce, but the army denies it has resumed fighting. The government has rejected an appeal by the rebels for a permanent truce.

A pro-rebel Web site says Sri Lanka’s army began an offensive early Wednesday near a “no-fire” zone where there are tens of thousands of civilians. 

Exchange of fire?

The military denied reports of firing into the narrow strip in the northeast of the country, where the army is in the last stages of a campaign to defeat the Tamil Tiger rebels.  

Army spokesman Udaya Nanayakara says soldiers have surrounded the small, no-fire zone in which the rebel fighters are confined with civilians. But he says troops are only “observing” what is going on in the area.  

“There were no confrontations taking place there,” Nanayakara said. “We cannot conduct offensive inside the safety zone because of the civilian factor.”

Conflicting statements

The conflicting statements came as a two-day unilateral truce declared by the government ended. The truce was meant to allow civilians to move from the narrow coastal area to government-controlled areas, but only about 250 people crossed over.

The government blamed the rebels for not allowing the civilians to leave. It rejected a call by the rebels for an internationally supervised truce and peace talks.

Military campaign aims to crush rebels

The head of Colombo’s National Peace Council, Jehan Perera, says the government is determined to go ahead with its military campaign to crush the rebels, also known as the LTTE, despite widespread concern over the safety of civilians.      

“The government feels it is not possible to talk to the LTTE and reach a mutually acceptable solution with them, therefore they have to be eliminated,” Perera said. “The unfortunate thing is that in trying to eliminate the LTTE in this very limited area, the civilian casualties are likely to be very, very high.

In a statement, Human Rights Watch and the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative urged the Commonwealth to pressure Colombo and the rebels to end the humanitarian crisis caused by the fighting. But many similar calls in recent weeks by the international community have gone unheeded in Colombo.

It may not actually get us out of the recession, but Hank Williams Jr. is proposing his own bailout plan. It's a publicity stunt, really. But as the old saying goes, "If your singing about it, it aint so bad." So maybe it's good news that the recession is now embodied in the song "Red White and Pink-Slip Blues." Hank, of course, wrote the classic line "interest is up and the stock market is down" for his song "Country Folks Can Survive."

The latest "bailout plan" is really a promotional contest Hank is running that proposes to "stimulate" the economy by giving the winner $1000 cash, airfare and hotel, concert seats and backstage passes, three CDs, an autographed guitar and a signed copy of “Red White and Pink-Slip Blues.”

In the face of a growing number of deaths and cases of HIV linked to drug abuse, the Portuguese government in 2001 tried a new tack to get a handle on the problem—it decriminalized the use and possession of heroin, cocaine, marijuana, LSD and other illicit street drugs. The theory: focusing on treatment and prevention instead of jailing users would decrease the number of deaths and infections.

David Frum is not amused by Glenn Beck:

The audience for Beck’s Friday night special were each given copies of two books. One of them was Cleon Skousen’s Five Thousand Year Leap. Skousen, who died in 2006, is one of the legendary cranks of the conservative world, a John Bircher, a grand fantasist of theories about secret conspiracies between capitalists and communists to impose a one-world government under the control of David Rockefeller.

There’s always been a market for this junk of course. Once that market was reached via mimeographed newsletters. Now it’s being tapped by Fox News.

...

It’s not a new message of course. In fact, big parts of it seem almost self-consciously copied from Peter Finch’s legendary declamation in the movie Network.

Of course, Finch was only pretending to be crazy. He was an actor performing a role. Then again – so probably is Glenn Beck.

But what about Fox News? What’s their excuse?

Frum seems to be under the impression that Glenn Beck's blend of stupid and crazy is some sort of departure from Fox's previously high standards.  If only that were so.

The president insists that the U.S. can’t achieve great objectives on its own. This may break with George W. Bush’s style, but it is in keeping with the traditions of Roosevelt, Truman and George H.W. Bush.

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