Ron Paul: Man of Compassion

Sure, it's a symbolic gesture and usually when it comes to something like this the votes are unanimous.

So when a congressional resolution came up this week offering "condolences and sympathy" to the people of Myanmar, guess who was the only member of Congress to vote against it?

Paul fans -- regularly called Paulites, Paultards or Paulunteers -- also see a gentle humility in the weathered but wise hands of the 72-year-old ob-gyn, who reputedly has delivered some 4,000 infants into life in this wondrous world.

But there seems to be another side to Paul. A mean, vicious, cruel and uncaring side. A side that sees millions of humans -- albeit Burmese who are not registered to vote in Texas -- afflicted with an historic cyclone, countless thousands of lives lost, devastation everywhere.

And the doting grandfather could care less.

This week when a Congressional resolution came up for a vote merely offering "condolences and sympathy" to the people of Burma affected by the recent deadly cyclone, Ron Paul, the millionaire, was the only member of the entire House of Representatives to vote "No."

Burma has a new constitution

You have to admire the people of Burma, also known as Myanmar. After suffering a devastating cyclone in which by some estimates as many as 100,000 people may have lost their lives, in spite of humanitarian aid not being allowed in or only sporadically delivered and for many others having no place to live as entire villages were wiped out they managed to turn out in record numbers and overwhelmingly approve the new constitution.

A new constitution proposed by Burma's military rulers has been overwhelmingly approved in a referendum, according to the country's state-run media.

The junta said 92.4% voted "yes" in the ballot and reported a turnout of 99%.

Of course we probably need to wait to hear from Jimmy Carter to approve the results before we can call it official.
And to think we can only get about 40% of Americans to vote in any election, these very dedicated people, many of them doubtless still trapped in rubble or living day by day struggling to survive managed to turn out 99% of the population to vote. Maybe they can tell us their secret?

Myanmar Cyclone Toll Could Be Over 50,000

It's difficult to fathom the human calamity when we're so far removed from it, but as time passes the tragedy in Myanmar is reaching epic proportions.

Foreign aid workers in Burma have concluded that as many as 50,000 people died in Saturday’s cyclone, and two to three million are homeless, in a disaster whose scale invites comparison with the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

The official death count after Cyclone Nargis is 15,000, and the Thai Foreign Minister says he has been told that 30,000 people are missing. But due to the incompleteness of the information from the stricken Irrawaddy delta, UN and charity workers in the city of Rangoon privately believe that the number will eventually be several times higher.

Andrew Kirkwood, country director of the British charity Save The Children told The Times: “I’d characterise it as unprecedented in the history of Myanmar and on an order of magnitude with the effect of the tsunami on individual countries. It might well be more dead than the tsunami caused in Sri Lanka.”

The death toll in Sri Lanka on Boxing Day 2004 was 31,000, second only to the 131,000 who died on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Eleven countries were affected.

Back then the ruling junta refused foreign aid, but apparently the magnitude of the devastation has them considering it this time. They'd be wise to do so.

Burma's junta refused foreign aid after the 2004 tsunami, in which between 60 and 600 of its citizens are reported to have died, but this time the sheer scale of the slowly emerging disaster seems to have forced it to change its mind. "We will welcome help . . . from other countries because our people are in difficulty," said Nyah Win, the Burmese Foreign Minister, in a rare TV appearance.

Of course, they're still playing politics with people's lives. What a disgrace.

The generals have, however, turned down an offer from the US State Department of $250,000 (£125,000) in help and a disaster assistance team, suggesting that it remains selective about whom it accepts. The refusal prompted a sharp rebuke from Laura Bush, the US first lady, who urged the generals not to hinder the relief effort. "The United States stands prepared to provide an assistance team and much-needed supplies to Burma, as soon as the Burmese Government accepts our offer," she said.

It may be just a matter of time until George W. Bush is blamed and the UN says how stingy Americans are.

Panties for Peace

Panty power!

You've got to admit, it does get your attention.

Whether it does any good is a whole other story.

Activists send female underwear to Burmese embassies

Activists exasperated at the failure of diplomacy to apply pressure on Burma's military regime are resorting to a new means of protest against the regime's recent crackdown: sending female underwear to Burmese embassies.
Embassies in the UK, Thailand, Australia and Singapore have all been targeted by the "Panties for Peace" campaign, co-ordinated by an activist group based in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

The manoeuvre is a calculated insult to the junta and its leader, General Than Shwe. Superstitious junta members believe that any contact with female undergarments - clean or dirty - will sap them of their power, said Jackie Pollack, a member of the Lanna Action for Burma Committee.

"Not only are they brutal, but they are also very superstitious. They believe that touching a woman's pants or sarong will make them lose their strength," Ms Pollack told Guardian Unlimited.

So far, hundreds of pairs of pants have been posted, according to another campaigner, Liz Hilton. "One group sent 140 pairs to the Burmese embassy in Geneva," she said.

Slaughter in Burma

No wonder they cut off Internet access the other day. This is just horrifying.

Burma: Thousands dead in massacre of the monks dumped in the jungle

The left will probably blame George W. Bush for offending the killers last week.

Thousands of protesters are dead and the bodies of hundreds of executed monks have been dumped in the jungle, a former intelligence officer for Burma's ruling junta has revealed.

The most senior official to defect so far, Hla Win, said: "Many more people have been killed in recent days than you've heard about. The bodies can be counted in several thousand."

Mr Win, who spoke out as a Swedish diplomat predicted that the revolt has failed, said he fled when he was ordered to take part in a massacre of holy men. He has now reached the border with Thailand.

Meanwhile, the United Nations special envoy was in Burma's new capital today seeking meetings with the ruling military junta.

Ibrahim Gambari met detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in Rangoon yesterday. But he has yet to meet the country's senior generals as he attempts to halt violence against monks and pro-democracy activists.

Reports from exiles along the frontier confirmed that hundreds of monks had simply "disappeared" as 20,000 troops swarmed around Rangoon yesterday to prevent further demonstrations by religious groups and civilians.

Word reaching dissidents hiding out on the border suggested that as well as executions, some 2,000 monks are being held in the notorious Insein Prison or in university rooms which have been turned into cells.

There were reports that many were savagely beaten at a sports ground on the outskirts of Rangoon, where they were heard crying for help.

Others who had failed to escape disguised as civilians were locked in their bloodstained temples.

More from Jules Crittenden, Gateway Pundit (with disturbing images), Blue Crab Boulevard, Michael van der Galiën.