Kerry's and Edwards' sham calls for a positive campaign should be met with Teresa Heinz-Kerry's two words: "Shove it."

Kate O'Beirne on NRO's The Corner:

The New England Republican has more here (via Viking Pundit).

If Kerry was hoping for a post-convention bounce of 7-10 points, I think he's going to be disappointed.

The Clinton initiated "don't ask, don't tell" policy quickly grew beyond the issue of gays in the military to encompass the entire national security and foreign policy realm.

Is North Korea cheating on the nuke deal?
Cohen: I can't hear you.
Clinton: Mmmmmph.
Albright: I've seen no evidence of it. Kim is quite the dancer, you know.
Berger: Guess what's in my pants.

How is security for our ships visiting ports in the Persian Gulf?
Cohen: La la la la.
Clinton: Uh, uh, uh.
Albright: Yemen's a cute name for a country, dontcha think?
Berger: Come on, guess.

Ok, Sandy, is it Richard Clarke's latest "plan" for going after bin Laden?
Cohen: Huh?
Clinton: Uh, uh, uh, uuuuhhh.
Albright: Osama's taller than Kim, I bet he dances better.
Berger: Nope, that's not it. I inadvertently took Dick's memo home to read, but later I couldn't find it. I think it went out to the cleaners with a load of socks. Try again.

I give up Sandy, what is it?
Cohen: Hmmm, hmmm, hmmm.
Clinton: Aaaaaaahhhhh.
Albright: I never saw Dick's memo. Did it say if Osama knows how to dance?
Berger: It's the newer map of Belgrade Wesley Clark was looking for awhile back. Found it in my underwear drawer the other day. A little faded from going through the laundry, but dang if it don't show the Chinese embassy right where they said it was. Heh heh.

Up until this point in the article, Galtung has presented no more than a moderately respectable amount of paranoia, nothing that shocks Norwegian Dagbladet readers, who are used to moronic and ignorant claims about the evils of America. But then there's this, an almost Ann Coulter-like piece of hysteria:

Norwegian ministers of state, foreign policy and "defense", who with good conscience have let themselves be led by the exploiters, murderers and torturists of America, ought to be put under surveillance as useful idiots of the American empire. Placing them on trial for "betraying the peoples of the world" ought to be in order. An apology would help, or at minimum some self criticism. How could I let myself be fooled by the US? What was my fault of intellect or conscience, when I could see the splinter in the eye of the Maoists, but not the wooden beam in my own eye? ..

This self criticism won't happen. But when the people of the world and the people of America, through violence, non-violence, economic boycott etc. finally breaks the back of American imperialism, I'm sure the Norwegian elites will feel relieved.

...
Eager to keep his distance from those crazy people who really, really hate America, Norway's Noam Chomsky ends by warning that "a late conversion from imperialism to concern for human rights must not take the form of blind anti-Americanism or antisemitism." Right. We'll keep that in mind.

Staerk also provides the goods on Galtung's use of a standard Chomsky cum Michael Moore technique, the out-of-context quote. In this case, a Ralph Peters quote that Galtung simply attributes to a "Pentagon planner" and uses to establish imperial intent.

Leif Knutsen also looks Galtung's work and finds it "a study in Orwellianism."

Galtung's written work is - truthfully - a study in Orwellianism. By often invoking "peace," "dignity," and other unassailable but otherwise vague terms, he assumes that his position is automatically superior to everyone else's. In the article in Dagbladet, for example, his premise - which he never bothers to substantiate - is that Norway is taken in by the evil ways of the American empire. Neither the US nor Norway have legitimate claims to self-defense in their military policy; and never mind the Jewish refugees who inhabit the country - Israel, we are told, is an extension of American imperialism.

Conveniently, Ralph Peters has a current article addressing the Left that Galtung seems to exemplify so well (via Occam's Toothbrush). Peters lets them have both barrels: "The global Left never cared about the Iraqi people until they became American 'victims.'"

Meanwhile, Mullah Krekar, founder of Ansar al-Islam, an al-Qaeda affiliated group considered a terrorist organization by both the US and UN, was released by the courts in Oslo in February, convicted in absentia by Jordan in June, had charges dropped in Norway in June, and now has had his deportation to Iraq delayed until at least January 2005. While Galtung wishes his fellow Norweigans could be tried for the fanciful crime of "betraying the peoples of the world," Norway apparently can't even enforce its own asylum laws.