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US, Iraqis to use tanks to secure Baghdad
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 3: Non-WoT
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Page 1: WoT Operations
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Page 4: Opinion
1 00:00 Alaska Paul [4]
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Page 5: Russia-Former Soviet Union
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16 00:00 Jan []
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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Head lice 'are becoming indestructible'
You can comb them out, zap them with chemicals or simply keep scratching. But head lice have a habit of maintaining a firm grip on their habitat. And the bad news is they are becoming increasingly resistant to the most common treatments. Scientists believe that 80 per cent of the bugs are immune to over-the-counter lotions. They found lice were untroubled by the chemicals permathrin and phenothrin, found in popular bug-busting brands such as Lyclear and Full Marks.

The experts say the process of natural selection means the insects have developed a resistance to the lotions. The findings will not just leave children, parents and teachers scratching their heads. It will almost certainly start a scramble to discover a lotion to do the job better.
The very thought makes me itch.
Posted by: Fred || 06/14/2006 10:41 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Round Up - it kills everything!
Posted by: Raj || 06/14/2006 15:08 Comments || Top||

#2  Actually, a temporary 'skinhead' works 100%.
Posted by: zazz || 06/14/2006 15:30 Comments || Top||

#3  We're doomed! Doomed!
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 06/14/2006 15:37 Comments || Top||

#4  zazz - temporary skinhead is bad enough for the boys. I can't imagine doing it to a little girl.
Posted by: Rambler || 06/14/2006 16:59 Comments || Top||

#5  Dammit, I just got good news from the FL DOE and now this. It's hopeless.
Posted by: 6 || 06/14/2006 17:34 Comments || Top||

#6  Rambler, that's because you lack imagination and marketing skills. ;-p
Posted by: zazz || 06/14/2006 19:33 Comments || Top||

#7  call her "Sinead"
Posted by: Frank G || 06/14/2006 20:22 Comments || Top||

#8  Once known in the trade as, "tiny livestock".
Posted by: Zenster || 06/14/2006 21:19 Comments || Top||

#9  --Lyclear and Full Marks--

never heard of them - the young'un had it over Christmas - NIX and RID. And chopping 3 inches off.
Posted by: anonymous2u || 06/14/2006 21:48 Comments || Top||

#10  The Germans manufacture a stainless steel lice comb that's won industry awards. Comb through the hair daily, and the eggs don't stay around long enough to hatch. And boil/wash the bedsheets and pillowcases at least once a week -- it's 8-10 days between hatchings. The common treatment shampoos merely got rid of the crawly stage, the eggs still had to be dealt with the hard way.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/14/2006 23:38 Comments || Top||

#11  The Germans manufacture a stainless steel lice comb that's won industry awards. Comb through the hair daily, and the eggs don't stay around long enough to hatch. And boil/wash the bedsheets and pillowcases at least once a week -- it's 8-10 days between hatchings. The common treatment shampoos merely got rid of the crawly stage, the eggs still had to be dealt with the hard way.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/14/2006 23:38 Comments || Top||


Jerry Lewis Suffers 'Mild' Heart Attack
get well soon, Amr...er, Jerry.
"Hey, Laaaay-deee!... [GASP!]... [CLUTCH!]... [Tip-toe tip-toe tip-toe]... [Spin]... [Stagger stagger stagger]... [Sway]... [THUD!]"
Posted by: Fred || 06/14/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If only it had been Rep. Jerry Lewis instead.
Posted by: Eric Jablow || 06/14/2006 0:24 Comments || Top||

#2  Jerry Lewis Suffers 'Mild' Heart Attack . . . Panicked France Surrenders to Radical Islamists as a Precaution.
Posted by: Tibor || 06/14/2006 1:09 Comments || Top||

#3  Frankly I find the preceeding post totally unrelated, offensive and racist.
Posted by: JFM || 06/14/2006 3:53 Comments || Top||

#4  You should have seen the furor in France when Jerry Lewis went to a well known restaurant, ordered the best dish, the most expensive wine they had... and mixed it with Coca-Cola.
Posted by: JFM || 06/14/2006 3:57 Comments || Top||

#5  I never understood why, for americans, Jerry Lewis is supposedly a big star in France.
I mean, that's just not true, he's pretty much *unknown*, even more compared to current US actors, and the last time I saw one of his movies on teevee (including cable) was perhaps 10-15 years ago, or even more (I remember only seeing one of his movies in my childhood).
Of course, he got some kind of medal by the french ministry of culture - yes, we have a ministry of culture, subventioned and official progressist culture -, but many others US actors got one as well, including Sylvester Stallone and Robert de Niro.

So, this whole stuff escapes me. Weird.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 06/14/2006 4:19 Comments || Top||

#6  that's interesting. So the whole Jerry Lewis is beloved by France is just a highly successful PR blitz? heh, heh. Well I'll be. Give a raise to the guy responsible for that one - if he's still alive.
Posted by: 2b || 06/14/2006 6:36 Comments || Top||

#7  Anon,

He was a god of Bazin & the Cahiers du Cinema crowd back in the 60's since he was a good example of what they called an "auteur" (i.e. a director with total production control of his films, like Chaplin and Hitchcock) and he authored a book called "The Total Filmmaker." Also, he portrayed the American everyman as idiot, which appealed to anti-"Ami" bigotry.

JL wore out his welcome in the 80's, with the advent of new theories and the realization that he was not that funny.
Posted by: Ernest Brown || 06/14/2006 14:22 Comments || Top||

#8  Sounds like Jerry is headed the way of the Dino ...

[rimshot]
Posted by: Zenster || 06/14/2006 16:45 Comments || Top||

#9  Mr. Brown, thanks for the infos.
I didn't even know that, I've read the Cahiers du cinéma perhaps a dozen times in my whole waste-of-skin life, in high school library (very boring and overly intellectual), my jaded tastes leaned more toward the french "Fangoria", "Mad Movies", and a cool mag called "Starfix" (intellectual too, but in an hip way).

Anyway, the 60's are prehistory, the 80's only a bit less, and I maintain he's pretty much unknown to the general french public, except perhaps for the happy fews who read The Cahiers (is there any left?).
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 06/14/2006 17:19 Comments || Top||

#10  JFM, what post are you referring to?
Posted by: Tibor || 06/14/2006 17:21 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Power Restored to U.S. Mission in Cuba
Posted by: Fred || 06/14/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I should have known it was lighting bolton.
Posted by: Captain America || 06/14/2006 1:33 Comments || Top||

#2  The last thing Fidel needs are US-Brit flyboyz stopping planes carrying his imported expensive hams.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 06/14/2006 3:24 Comments || Top||

#3  Power restored so soon after the State Department announced the problem? Big suprise there. Fidel has to keep his friends in State happy.
Posted by: Charles || 06/14/2006 6:39 Comments || Top||

#4  I think Castro is working for the Mossad.
Posted by: Leftwing nutcase || 06/14/2006 11:10 Comments || Top||

#5  Noway, the Mossad draws the line at expensive hams. They'll go for a pork loin on occasion but that's it.
Posted by: 6 || 06/14/2006 17:38 Comments || Top||


Europe
Insider trading conviction of Soros is upheld
PARIS The highest court in France on Wednesday rejected a bid by George Soros, the billionaire investor, to overturn a conviction for insider trading in a case dating back nearly 20 years, leaving the first blemish on his five-decade investing career.
Beside 2004's loss with his French candidiate for POTUS
The panel, the Cour de Cassation, upheld the conviction of Soros, 75, an American citizen, for buying and selling Société Générale shares in 1988 after receiving information about a planned corporate raid on the bank.
75, huh? Hope his family has bad genetics
Ron Soffer, his lawyer, said Soros planned to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights, saying that the length of the proceedings had prevented his client from having a fair trial.
I'm sure your lengthy appeals had no part in it. The "Chirac" method...
"The investigation started in 1989," he said. "The appeals trial occurred in 2004. How can you call witnesses and ask them about what happened in 1988?" The French stock market regulatory authority investigated the matter separately and concluded that Soros had not violated the law or any ethical rules, Soffer said.

The French authorities have not yet determined what fine Soros will pay.

In a March 2005 ruling, a French appeals court confirmed a fine of €2.2 million, or $2.8 billion, set by a lower court for the illegal purchase of 95,000 shares in Société Générale. The Cour de Cassation ruled that the fine would be adjusted to reflect Soros' profits, and it ordered the case returned to the appeals court to clarify the amount.
heh heh that's serious money
Soros, a Hungarian-born businessman, has acknowledged that he was told about a Paris financier's plans to take over Société Générale in late 1988 and began independently acquiring shares in the bank just days later.

But he denied that knowledge of the raid had amounted to insider information or influenced his transactions, which he said were part of a broader, documented strategy of investing in newly privatized French companies. Soros' lawyer said he had cooperated in the case from the beginning.

A spokesman for Soros, Michael Vachon, called the decision "an absurd miscarriage of justice" and said Soros was confident he would be cleared by the European court.

"As he has from the beginning, George Soros maintains that he engaged in no illegal or unethical conduct," Vachon said in a statement.

Soros, who emigrated to the United States in 1956 and set up Soros Fund Management 17 years later, has billions of dollars under management in his Quantum Fund.

He remains the only person convicted in the Société Générale affair. Two others, Samir Traboulsi and Jean- Charles Naouri, were acquitted.

At an appeals hearing in 2005, Soros told the court his insider trading conviction had been a "gift to my enemies" in the United States and elsewhere. "My reputation is at stake," he said.

Soros has often drawn criticism for speculating heavily on the collapse of fragile currencies. In 2004 he also angered many conservatives in the United States by pumping millions of dollars into election campaigns to try to unseat President George W. Bush.

PARIS The highest court in France on Wednesday rejected a bid by George Soros, the billionaire investor, to overturn a conviction for insider trading in a case dating back nearly 20 years, leaving the first blemish on his five-decade investing career.

The panel, the Cour de Cassation, upheld the conviction of Soros, 75, an American citizen, for buying and selling Société Générale shares in 1988 after receiving information about a planned corporate raid on the bank.

Ron Soffer, his lawyer, said Soros planned to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights, saying that the length of the proceedings had prevented his client from having a fair trial.

"The investigation started in 1989," he said. "The appeals trial occurred in 2004. How can you call witnesses and ask them about what happened in 1988?" The French stock market regulatory authority investigated the matter separately and concluded that Soros had not violated the law or any ethical rules, Soffer said.

The French authorities have not yet determined what fine Soros will pay.

In a March 2005 ruling, a French appeals court confirmed a fine of €2.2 million, or $2.8 billion, set by a lower court for the illegal purchase of 95,000 shares in Société Générale. The Cour de Cassation ruled that the fine would be adjusted to reflect Soros' profits, and it ordered the case returned to the appeals court to clarify the amount.

Soros, a Hungarian-born businessman, has acknowledged that he was told about a Paris financier's plans to take over Société Générale in late 1988 and began independently acquiring shares in the bank just days later.

But he denied that knowledge of the raid had amounted to insider information or influenced his transactions, which he said were part of a broader, documented strategy of investing in newly privatized French companies. Soros' lawyer said he had cooperated in the case from the beginning.

A spokesman for Soros, Michael Vachon, called the decision "an absurd miscarriage of justice" and said Soros was confident he would be cleared by the European court.
"I've actually purchased them"
"As he has from the beginning, George Soros maintains that he engaged in no illegal or unethical conduct," Vachon said in a statement.

Soros, who emigrated to the United States in 1956 and set up Soros Fund Management 17 years later, has billions of dollars under management in his Quantum Fund.

He remains the only person convicted in the Société Générale affair. Two others, Samir Traboulsi and Jean- Charles Naouri, were acquitted.

At an appeals hearing in 2005, Soros told the court his insider trading conviction had been a "gift to my enemies" in the United States and elsewhere. "My reputation is at stake," he said.

Soros has often drawn criticism for speculating heavily on the collapse of fragile currencies. In 2004 he also angered many conservatives in the United States by pumping millions of dollars into election campaigns to try to unseat President George W. Bush.
'Landlord of Mark Mulloch Brown' alone should get your ass publicly stocked and flogged

Posted by: Frank G || 06/14/2006 20:59 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  20 years, Devil's Island. Make it so!
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/14/2006 21:49 Comments || Top||

#2  "leaving the first blemish on his five-decade investing career"

That we know of....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 06/14/2006 21:53 Comments || Top||


EU finance ministers in stability pact storm
Posted by: lotp || 06/14/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Arafat style Stability
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 06/14/2006 11:02 Comments || Top||

#2  Keep an aye on Italian bonds...

(sounds deep don't it?)
Posted by: 6 || 06/14/2006 17:40 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
Moonbats at Sea
Katherine Jean Lopez at National Review posts this gem from her inbox:
Dear EmailNation Subscriber,

We know that cruises aren't for everyone but Nation publisher emeritus Victor Navasky and The Nation want to invite you on The Nation's ninth annual seminar cruise. Setting sail from Fort Lauderdale on December 16, the Holland America's MS Zuiderdam will cruise through the Caribbean on a seven-day tour, returning to Florida on December 23.
Yes, seven days of sun, seasickness, seething, and solidarity with the working class on a cruise ship that's priced out of reach of the proletariat!
The dates have been selected to allow families and educators to make the trip. You'll be joining a distinguished group of speakers who will participate in a series of lectures, seminars, conversations and binge drinking cocktail parties over the course of the voyage. Confirmed speakers include Joe Wilson,
(top secret CIA agent--shhhhh! don't tell anyone he's aboard!)
Scott Ritter,
(youth counselor)
Steve Earle,
(washed-up drug-addled folk singer)
Jane Smiley,
(whodat? Did she invent the Wal-Mart smiley face icon or something?)
Jonathan Kozol,
(rich guy who writes about poor people)
Molly Ivins,
(former pro wrestler)
the Rev. Lennox Yearwood,
(whoever the hell he is, he has the coolest name of the bunch)
and Jim Hightower
(alleged radio personality)
as well as Nation writers David Corn and Katha Pollitt and RadioNation host Laura Flanders. They'll join Navasky and Nation editor and publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel in what has always been both an enlightening exchange of ideas and a no-hassle, nonstop Bush-hating frenzy relaxing vacation.

Best Regards,
Peter Rothberg,
The Nation
Imagine: a whole boatload of moonbats. Any chance we can get them to do an audience-participation reenactment of The Poseidon Adventure -- or at least Gilligan's Island?
Posted by: Mike || 06/14/2006 17:30 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Reenactment? How about "Sink the Bismarck!"?
Posted by: PBMcL || 06/14/2006 18:26 Comments || Top||

#2  Load aft tubes 4 and 6.
Posted by: Rex Mundi || 06/14/2006 18:37 Comments || Top||

#3  So how much does this holiday in Hell cost, and does it include all the booze you can swill?
Posted by: Desert Blondie || 06/14/2006 18:55 Comments || Top||

#4  I really am half-tempted to sign up. I would start drinking after I woke, stagger from hatefest-to-hatefest, cast dispersions on Valerie Plames’ honor, and take a poke at Ritter. And that is just my day one activities! Day two I would bag me a couple of LLL m0onb@+ chicks after the (champagne reinforced) breakfast buffet, take another swing at Ritter, and then pee on David Corns’ leg in the men’s room. Day three I accuse Jonathan Kozol of providing kids for Scott Ritter, take a swing at Steve Earle (Ritter avoids me by now), and throw Jane Smiley overboard. Day four David Corn offers to refund my passage if I leave quietly. I accept his offer then call him a “pussy” as I disembark in Belize with enough cash to party for a week.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 06/14/2006 19:18 Comments || Top||

#5  lol CS - I'll pay part of your entry fare
Posted by: Frank G || 06/14/2006 19:40 Comments || Top||

#6  Memo to crew of the MS Zuiderdam: Don't base your Christmas shopping plans on planning for big tips from this one. Got a feeling it won't be too... lucrative.
Posted by: tu3031 || 06/14/2006 20:21 Comments || Top||

#7  Cyber Sarge, damn....where the hell were you when I was single? ;)
Posted by: Desert Blondie || 06/14/2006 20:24 Comments || Top||

#8  Put more ballast on the right, cuz all the passengers are on the left.
Posted by: Darrell || 06/14/2006 20:30 Comments || Top||

#9  Pure brilliance, CS, pure brilliance.

Posted by: Matt || 06/14/2006 20:31 Comments || Top||

#10  Put me down for a donation to help pay for that trip, Sarge! ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 06/14/2006 20:31 Comments || Top||

#11  After November these people will all be suicidal.
Posted by: Kalle || 06/14/2006 20:34 Comments || Top||

#12  But will they follow through, Kalle?

That's the important question. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 06/14/2006 20:45 Comments || Top||

#13  "more bedsheets in all cabins"
Posted by: Frank G || 06/14/2006 20:49 Comments || Top||

#14  Scottie Ritter goes to sea? I'll be praying for head winds, heavy gales, storms, and generally fowl weather.
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/14/2006 20:55 Comments || Top||

#15  Cyber Sarge is my newest hero!
Posted by: Raj || 06/14/2006 20:56 Comments || Top||

#16  There's no icebergs in the Carribean, are there?
Posted by: Mike || 06/14/2006 21:07 Comments || Top||

#17  Jane Smiley.
Posted by: Seafarious || 06/14/2006 21:13 Comments || Top||

#18  Mike, there just might be if Al Bore shows up for a Global Climate change speech. His timing is priceless for those speeches.
Posted by: BA || 06/14/2006 23:04 Comments || Top||

#19  The hate is free and flowing. Just in this for the X-Mas spirit
Posted by: Captain America || 06/14/2006 23:09 Comments || Top||

#20  Das Boot II: the Carribean Caper.
(OK, a guy can dream a little, can't he?)
Posted by: Mike || 06/14/2006 23:20 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Hastert Deals Blow to Immigration Bill
Hopes for a quick compromise on immigration were dealt a blow Tuesday after House Speaker Dennis Hastert said he wanted to take a "long look" at a Senate bill offering possible citizenship to millions of illegal immigrants. Hastert said hearings on the Senate bill should be held before appointing anyone to a House-Senate committee to negotiate a compromise immigration bill. Later, he said he was unsure what the House's next move would be. "We're going to take a long look at it," Hastert said late Tuesday.

House Majority Leader John Boehner agreed. "I think we should know clearly what's in the Senate bill," Boehner said. But he added there are lots of ways to understand its contents. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, also scheduled a hearing for Monday to review provisions in the bill requiring employers to verify that their workers are legal. Cornyn said he opposes a provision allowing workers to use up to 20 documents to verify they are legal workers. Also, the Department of Homeland Security has raised concerns about how quickly it must have in place an electronic system that employers will use to verify their workers legal status, Cornyn's spokesman Don Stewart said.
Posted by: Fred || 06/14/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Long meaning until after the November elections. Long meaning that the public is boiling tar and they are getting a little scared. Long meaning that they think we have short attenction spans. Long meaning they need to actually do something this time cause the public is keeping lists and checking them twice.
Posted by: 2b || 06/14/2006 6:33 Comments || Top||

#2  Hey 2b, where are you going with that box of feathers? ;-)
Posted by: Seafarious || 06/14/2006 7:50 Comments || Top||

#3  Anything to slow down the excreable Senate bill. Hastert has to do this to get the House version punched through.
Posted by: Steve White || 06/14/2006 8:17 Comments || Top||

#4  And expose all the hidden little goodies for illegals they stuck in. The Senate is beyond shame.
Posted by: Frank G || 06/14/2006 8:29 Comments || Top||

#5  Or long meaning just before the election so all the donks can run on their vote in contested districts. Since there are only about 45 districts, it won't take that long to do the polling. It's the televised hearings leading up to the vote that will take a lot of time.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 06/14/2006 9:30 Comments || Top||

#6  Frank, you're right. The Senate bill is a complete sham. Frisk has stacked the deck with RINOs. Haskert has no recourse.
Posted by: Captain America || 06/14/2006 13:04 Comments || Top||

#7  this per Robert Novak:

Immigration: House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) appears to be dragging his feet on compromising with the Senate's immigration bill. This is good news for House Republicans, considering the lessons of recent elections. Republicans win when they run away from Bush on immigration. If enough endangered House Republicans are arm-twisted into supporting a lax immigration bill, they will go down as a result.
The best outcome right now for the GOP, from a political perspective, is a failure to act, and that appears to be exactly what Hastert is encouraging.

Posted by: Captain America || 06/14/2006 14:31 Comments || Top||

#8  Can Tom Tancredo and JD Hayworth lead the house team in the conference committee?
Posted by: eLarson || 06/14/2006 17:35 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
ICE Arrests About 2,000 Illegal Immigrants
A swarm of federal immigration agents sped silently, headlights off, down a Boston side street early Wednesday and surrounded an apartment house.

"Police! Policia! Police!" yelled Daniel Monico, a deportation officer, holding his badge to a window where someone had pulled back the curtain. "Open the door!" Moments later, agents led a dazed-looking Jose Ferreira Da Silva, 35, out in handcuffs. The Brazilian had been arrested in 2002 and deported, but had slipped back into the country. He now faces up to 20 years in prison.

In a blitz that began May 26, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has arrested nearly 2,100 illegal immigrants across the country. Officials said the raids are aimed at child molesters, gang members and other violent criminals, as well as people like Da Silva who sneaked back into the country after a judge threw them out. The crackdown is called Operation Return to Sender. "This sends a message," said Monico, standing outside the gray Victorian apartment where Da Silva had been hiding. "When we deport you, we're serious." An Associated Press reporter and photographer accompanied a fugitive task force as it made Operation Return to Sender raids Tuesday night and early Wednesday.

The operation has caught more than 140 immigrants with convictions for sexual offenses against children; 367 known gang members, including street soldiers in the deadly Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13; and about 640 people who had already been deported once, immigration officials said. The numbers include more than 720 arrests in California alone. More than 800 people arrested already have been deported.

"This is a massive operation," said Marc Raimondi, a spokesman for immigration enforcement or ICE, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security. "We are watching the country's borders from the inside."
If I had a evil mind I'd think somebody getting nervous about the poll numbers of their base
In New England, officials said the sweeps have caught more than 150, including 75 who had come back after being deported.

ICE has a network of 35 fugitive teams across the country. The 2006 budget increased that number to 52, and the Bush administration is pushing for 70 by 2007. The challenge, agents said, is staggering.

There are more than 500,000 "fugitive aliens" who have been deported by judges and either slipped back into the country or never left. There is often a disconnect between local and state prisons and the federal government that allows illegal immigrants to serve time and be released without being transferred to federal officials for deportation. The work that led to the series of arrests over the past 20 days began last winter. Agents in Boston, for example, began scouting targets four months ago, conducting street surveillance and following up leads from confidential informants.

"It's a lot of preparation, and it's a lot of patience," said Jim Martin, deputy director for ICE's New England field office. "All for a couple minutes of adrenaline."

During the raid late Tuesday, the federal squad, which includes a Boston police sergeant detective, wore bulging bulletproof vests and stiff Kevlar gloves to protect their hands from needles, knives and rusty fences. Badges dangled on chains around their necks as they passed around wanted posters and shined flashlights on the face of a 24-year-old Latvian man who had served prison time for assaulting a police officer. The team moved in the dark, climbing fences and hiding behind parked cars to encircle a three-story house in Boston's Allston-Brighton neighborhood. All at once they emerged from the shadows. A half-dozen agents filled the front porch, their knocks on the door echoing down the block. The target had moved, the agents learned, and a team split off and caught him in Weymouth, about 15 miles south of the city.

Another man caught in the recent blitz was a Salvadoran gang member who was convicted in a stabbing that left a 13-year-old boy paralyzed. Agents caught him working at Budget Rental Car at Boston's Logan Airport. "The problems with immigration aren't going to be solved overnight," Raimondi said as the team sped toward another raid. "You start chipping away at it ... The more teams we get up and running, the more dangerous people we are going to get off the streets."
Posted by: Steve || 06/14/2006 14:04 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  2100 down, 12,000,000 to go.
The federal gov would get a lot more "bang for their buck", if they would go after those who employee illegals.
Posted by: TomFeral || 06/14/2006 14:47 Comments || Top||

#2  The federal gov would get a lot more "bang for their buck", if they would go after those who contribute the most to their campaigns employee illegals.

Ain't. Gonna. Happen.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 06/14/2006 14:51 Comments || Top||

#3  wait for 'lection season when the migra status of all the candidates' roofers and lawn guys start to be scrutinized...
Posted by: Seafarious || 06/14/2006 14:52 Comments || Top||

#4  They hit some of the Brazilian bars here during World Cup and the can rake 'em in like shrimp in a net.
Posted by: tu3031 || 06/14/2006 14:53 Comments || Top||

#5  Are they taking beats in Vegas when they'll be returned to the streets?
Posted by: Churong Thang9876 || 06/14/2006 15:18 Comments || Top||

#6  It looks like they went after targets that are unlikely to be back on the street. The idea is to get the truly bad men behind bars and scare the average Juan to go home till after the election. I'll bet they have film of DaSilva doing the perp walk for the nightly news.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 06/14/2006 15:22 Comments || Top||

#7  ICE Arrests About 2,000 Illegal Immigrants

Wow. Time to take MERP seriously.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 06/14/2006 15:23 Comments || Top||

#8  thank you TomFeral, I agree:

Fine the hell out of employers, only then will they they think twice before hiring illegals with or without any ole funky ID.

If you care about our Citizen voting rights, health care, health care insurance payments, Social Security, Pensions, Taxes, and every other hidden yet burgeoning costs attritibutable to the millions of illegal immigrants here in America, then reject those hucksters who sell illegals as 'cheap labor'.. Somthin for Nothin IOW.


and It would help if everyone reminded our pols with these this year.



I printed a bunch then stuffed them back into their respective return envelopes and then mailed them back to..

President Bush's White House Invitation Dinner Invite [I receive them because I contribute, so does everyone else]

Speaker Dennis Hastert [same]

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist [same]

RNC [same]

and Arnold [same]

and I included a short note of course...
Posted by: RD || 06/14/2006 15:46 Comments || Top||

#9  The federal gov would get a lot more "bang for their buck", if they would go after those who employee illegals.
We want the illegals out, we don't want to create a massive new group of criminals. Besides, with 4.6% unemployment, many employers have to take what they can get. And finally, if the law were to make employers fully responsible, that would create 12 million jobless, starving people wandering through your neighborhood, overnight.
Rounding up the criminals, and building the fence, are a good start. Now, we need to seal the border, and be fair to productive workers. God knows we've been 'fair' to non-productive workers long enough.
Posted by: wxjames || 06/14/2006 15:48 Comments || Top||

#10  Here is a recent poll done by a group called "The Polling Station".
Do you believe that ILLEGAL immigration is a threat to US nationalism?
N = 13,550 Margin of Error +/- .5%
....... Yes ...... No .... Undecided
Dem ..... 51.1% .... 39.1% ... 9.8%
Ind .... 70.2% .... 23.8% ... 6.0%
Rep .... 90.9% .... 6.0% ... 3.1%
What world does the Senate live in? Who are they afraid of?
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 06/14/2006 15:52 Comments || Top||

#11  RC - LOFL! I think Bush and Co have been using the Fumble tables on this issue so far. ;)
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats || 06/14/2006 16:36 Comments || Top||

#12  Fine, the employers want them then stick the employers with the same requirements they've established for people seeking to marry foreigners, like the obligation for their welfare if for any reason they break up before 5 years. You think the employers will step forward to take that liability? Ha.
Posted by: Churong Thang9876 || 06/14/2006 17:29 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
No ban on teaching of Holy Quran, committee told
As if there was ever any doubt.
PESHAWAR: A meeting of the NWFP Assembly Special Committee on Higher Education, Archives and Libraries department was held here today under the chairmanship of MPA Anwar Kamal Khan Marwat. [Long list of names redacted] as movers of the adjournment motions regarding the alleged ban imposed on "Dars-e-Quran" or "Wazz-o-Nasihat" entrusted to The Committee.
In Peshawar? Pshaw.
And a hearty wazoo nasty hat to youse, too!
The members of the committee listened to the faculty members and the Vice Chancellor of the Peshawar University droning for hours whereby they explained their position with regard to the notification whereby an impression was created that the teaching of Holy Quran had been banned on the university campuses. The VC Prof. Dr. Haroonur Rasheed informed the meeting from the very outset that no ban on the teachings of Holy Quran what so ever had been imposed rather the university syndicate has recently decided to include the teachings of Holy Quran as part and parcel of the academic activities in each and every discipline of the university while different committees / organizations were working under the guidance of senior professors of the university to teach the students the Holy Quran. He also pointed out that the Supreme Court of Pakistan has imposed ban on political activities of students inside the education institutions. Later the members of the committee thoroughly discussed the issue of the aforementioned notification in detail in light of both the teachings of Holy Quran and Sunnah as well as the judgment of the Supreme Court of Pakistan banning political activities inside the educational institutions of the country.
Aha. This meeting is with regards to the fine "talibs" always pictured at the 'Burg with the Nazi flags. Looks like somone tried to rein them in and HQ pulled some strings, with a nice dog-n-pony show at the Chancellor's office.
Later the committee, decided to further probe the matter and if required they will again summon the university administration and will soon finalize its recommendations for submission to the Assembly.
Obviously, any sanctions on the, um...students is unIslamic, with jobs and possibly heads on the line.
Posted by: Seafarious || 06/14/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  don't need no biology or science or nuthin'! We got the Quran!
Posted by: Frank G || 06/14/2006 8:59 Comments || Top||

#2  An engineering curiculum, based solely on the Quran.
That's what they should have.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 06/14/2006 10:57 Comments || Top||

#3  Wait a minute, maybe that's already what they have.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 06/14/2006 10:57 Comments || Top||

#4  Reality-based education! Yeehaw!
Posted by: Seafarious || 06/14/2006 11:11 Comments || Top||

#5  Wazoo nastihat in a basket. I guess when your brain's in the eighth century, everything seems like calculus.
Posted by: wxjames || 06/14/2006 11:26 Comments || Top||


Better homes and market stalls, Peshawar-style
I must say, the civic discourse in Pakland is rather...robust.
BARA: The situation remained tense in Bara Tehsil of Khyber Agency on Monday as political authorities demolished a huge commercial plaza owned by Mengal Bagh, the commander of a self-styled Islamic Lashkar.

Followers of Mengal Bagh forcibly occupied a number of shops in the main Bara bazaar earlier in the week, spawning the latest wave of unrest in the tribal region.

In Landikotal, armed tribesmen from Khyber Pakhai Zakhakhel continued patrolling the main road to prevent Mengal Bagh and his followers from entering the area. Residents took up small and heavy weapons in order to deal with any unpleasant situation in a bid to protect their area in case of a possible attack by Mengal led-group. "We are carrying weapons for self-defence," said Shakir Afridi, a leader of the patrolling group.

The people of Pakhai Zakhakhel went to the Brug area on the invitation of some local elders to hold a public meeting (jirga) there at Karamna, but the local people were not present. They held a gathering at a mosque. Addressing the gathering here, Maoeen Shah, Malik Abdul Raziq, Jan Syed, Khaid Khan and Abdul Ghafoor stressed that the people of Zakha Khel Bazaar were their brothers but they had made a blunder when they had invited Mengal Bagh to the bazaar to damage the peace in the area. The speakers invited the people of Bazaar to forget about the flattened market stalls past mistakes and come to join with their brothers for expelling Mengal Bagh from Bazaar area.
Posted by: Seafarious || 06/14/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Culture Wars
Christopher Hitchens to become US citizen this month
Welcome, Hitch. We're proud you've chosen us; any nation surely would be enriched by you. Hat tip to Mark in Mexico. There's a lot in this article, I cut it just to the citizen stuff but encourage you to read the rest:
...At 57, the Oxford grad with the brooding look of Richard Burton has spent nearly half his life in the United States on a green card (and has three American daughters to show for it). "This being the generous country that it is, I was quite prepared to go on as an Anglo-American. I don't particularly want to vote. But after September 11th, I thought I was cheating on my dues."

Unlike other expat legends—rock stars Bono and Neil ("Shock & Awe") Young come to mind—who fashion themselves as U.S. foreign policy experts while keeping their citizenship and their vote elsewhere, Mr. Hitchens had a change of heart after terrorists attacked New York and Washington. He watched the Pentagon burn from the rooftop of his apartment in northern Virginia and later lost a mailman to anthrax. So one day this month he will walk into a government office just outside Washington, pledge his allegiance to the United States of America, and become a citizen.

"I realized that when I was reading arguments after 9/11 that said there was the American view and there was the European view—that sort of tripe—that as far as I could tell the American view is the one that I took. I felt a much stronger identification than I had before," Mr. Hitchens tells WORLD. "Before I was ready to curse alone. I was an outsider in both countries. But it felt like, feels like, is a gesture of solidarity."

Solidarity with what, exactly, in a country cleanly divided over war in Iraq and led by a president whose policy toward terrorism has dropped his poll numbers into the dustbin?

"It's fallen on the United States to be the country that resists the renewal of barbarism, of religious barbarism in the world," Mr. Hitchens answers. "It doesn't particularly want the job, it doesn't do it terribly well—and I think would have escaped it if it could—but there's something about the United States that makes it both hated and antagonistic to this barbarism." He adds, "If one wants to defend the deployment of forces of fellow citizens, one probably ought to be a fellow citizen."

As a journalist Mr. Hitchens extensively covered the Bosnian war and the Gulf War, yet describes 9/11 as "an exhilarating moment" because it crystallized his views. "Everything I hate is on one side, and everything I love is on the other. I'm never going to get bored with this."
Posted by: Seafarious || 06/14/2006 01:29 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Stay West, young man.
Posted by: no mo uro || 06/14/2006 6:14 Comments || Top||

#2  well...ok Hitch. But if you really want to experience the American way - don't allow all of this puff piece press go mak'n you think that you are special. That's the real American way. Don't know if you can handle that aspect or not - but good luck to ya.
Posted by: 2b || 06/14/2006 6:29 Comments || Top||

#3  I'm pretty sure Hitch will celebrate his new status with a drink or two more than a regular day. And that's probably quite a few beverages.
Posted by: JAB || 06/14/2006 11:14 Comments || Top||

#4  "Everything I hate is on one side, and everything I love is on the other.

I'll drink to that!
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/14/2006 11:18 Comments || Top||


U.S. court tosses lawsuit over "In God We Trust"
A U.S. district court judge on Monday dismissed a lawsuit brought by a California atheist against the U.S. government for its use of the phrase "In God We Trust" on its coins and currency. Michael Newdow, the Sacramento, California lawyer and doctor who had previously launched a court challenge on behalf of his daughter over the phrase "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance said in schools, had argued that "In God We Trust" on monetary instruments violates his rights.
Posted by: Fred || 06/14/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'd suggest Newdow, could stop using monetary instruments altogether, as a form of protest. ;-)
Posted by: zazz || 06/14/2006 0:46 Comments || Top||

#2  He can change all his money to French franks. Or Italian lira. Or German marks. Or Irish punts. Maybe Spanish pesos?
Posted by: Steve White || 06/14/2006 8:15 Comments || Top||

#3  Better yet, he can exercise his right of movement and seek a home in a country without all that 'church and state' problem. Someplace that shares a common view with his intolerance. Generally found in 'advanced' blue countries often identified by dropping populations.
Posted by: Glolulet Gratch4509 || 06/14/2006 8:29 Comments || Top||

#4  "look at me! look at me!"
Posted by: Frank G || 06/14/2006 8:31 Comments || Top||

#5  Like S.W.put it, GET OUT!!!!!!
Posted by: ARMYGUY || 06/14/2006 9:21 Comments || Top||

#6  I'll be back! I'll show you! I'll show ALL OF YOU!!!
Posted by: Mike Newdow || 06/14/2006 10:04 Comments || Top||

#7  "A California atheist" point of order your honor. Nitwit Newdow is not from Californaia. His wife divorced him and moved here with their daughter. Newdow used his daughter (without his wife's support) as a prop for his stupid lawsuits. We have enough nuts here and we don't need to adopt anymore. On that note, can the previous owners of Babs Boxer please claim and repatriate her?
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 06/14/2006 10:37 Comments || Top||

#8  I can't believe that some religous zealot hasn't whacked this dude yet.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 06/14/2006 11:08 Comments || Top||

#9  bigjim: Note he doesn't file this frivilous lawsuits in Ali-bammy or Mississippi, eh? And, truth be told, I think the "religious right" sees the press they can get with nuts like Newdow filing lawsuits (often w/ the ACLU) all over the place. Even common-sense agnostics or atheists haven't tried this before and are probably thinking....who cares? And, like others said, he's free to "protest" by not using said US Dollars in my book...ptui!
Posted by: BA || 06/14/2006 11:41 Comments || Top||

#10  In a plastic card society, there is no need for him to use federal notes or coins. He exposes himself [in more ways than one] by choosing to use the currancy.
Posted by: Churong Thang9876 || 06/14/2006 11:57 Comments || Top||

#11  Thank G-d Ima athiest.
Posted by: Al Aska Paul, Resident Imam || 06/14/2006 12:08 Comments || Top||

#12  ! Thank G-d Ima athiest.

Al-Alaska has thrown down a mighty koan sepoy, hadith!

I will gather my junior Lashkar league and drum on this.
Posted by: 6 || 06/14/2006 17:50 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Wed 2006-06-14
  US, Iraqis to use tanks to secure Baghdad
Tue 2006-06-13
  Blinky's brother-in-law banged
Mon 2006-06-12
  Zark's Heir Also Killed, Jordanians Say
Sun 2006-06-11
  3 Gitmoids hanged themselves
Sat 2006-06-10
  Paleo Car Swarm for Abu Samhadana
Fri 2006-06-09
  50 dead in post-Zark boom campaign
Thu 2006-06-08
  Zark Zapped!
Wed 2006-06-07
  Iraqi army takes over from US in Anbar
Tue 2006-06-06
  Islamic courts vow to make Somalia Islamic state
Mon 2006-06-05
  Islamic courts declare victory in Mogadishu
Sun 2006-06-04
  Islamists defeat militias in Mogadishu
Sat 2006-06-03
  Canada Arrests 17 in Bomb-Making Plot
Fri 2006-06-02
  Man shot in UK anti-terrorism raid
Thu 2006-06-01
  State of emergency in Basra
Wed 2006-05-31
  Malaysia captures 12 suspected terrorists


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