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Airstrikes kill at least 80 in deadliest bombings of Yemen war
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Page 6: Politix
9 22:53 OldSpook []
-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Rev AL on the bad weather in Texas: 'We done it to ourselves.'
[Daily Caller] "Talking about the weather," Sharpton said on his syndicated show.

"All of the storms, the tornadoes, the flooding in Texas. Is this a rebuke from God, which many callers said today it is. And others are saying it is just a natural result of man using fossil fuels and abusing the environment -- and it's climate change, global warning. We've done it to ourselves."

Notably, Sharpton left no room for a third explanation: that the storms and flooding are just a particularly severe turn in the natural weather cycle.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/28/2015 05:08 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The rev prolly forgot about the previous five-year drought which preceded the deluge. Maybe folks won't pray so hard to end droughts in the future!
Posted by: Bobby || 05/28/2015 7:32 Comments || Top||

#2  Rev prolly stopped to think and forgot to re-start.
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 05/28/2015 8:27 Comments || Top||

#3  Rev Al saw the income stream from being an AGW fanatic and became a late adopter of the investment scheme.
Posted by: AlanC || 05/28/2015 8:29 Comments || Top||

#4  Does he have a minaret as well?
Posted by: Pappy || 05/28/2015 8:42 Comments || Top||

#5  Wow - storms are racist now?

Where would we be without the good Rst Al Sharpton to tell us these things?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 05/28/2015 8:58 Comments || Top||

#6  Nope. The Army seeded the clouds to produce the floods so martial law could be declared and the Army can take over. Or maybe it was the chemtrails.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 05/28/2015 9:12 Comments || Top||

#7  About the climate, he's wrong.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/28/2015 9:14 Comments || Top||

#8  because Texas never had rain before now. Oh, wait. Stevie Ray Vaughn (and Larry Davis) did a song called "Texas Flood", more than 30 years ago.


Racist Grifting Fool
Posted by: Frank G || 05/28/2015 9:56 Comments || Top||

#9  Two years ago this part of the country (panhandles) you could mow your yard with a leaf blower.

Last year was a break.

This, even though there is damage being done and a number of people are not used to floods, is a blessing. Lake and reservoir levels are up.

Maybe instead of being an a-hole, go make a visit downriver to make sure people are ready for a rise in the river level.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 05/28/2015 11:45 Comments || Top||

#10  If you build your home in a flood plain, don't come crying to me when it floods.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 05/28/2015 12:39 Comments || Top||

#11  To be fair, I saw a stat last night which said Oklahoma City has received 18"~19" of rain in May alone, not counting last night.

We have flood warnings in West Kansas. Most certainly not a flood plain. I'm not sure if it is the same reservoir, but last year there was talk about Dallas running out of water, now it was whether a dam was going to breach.

3 years of drought offset by six months of plenty, and you get an average.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 05/28/2015 13:04 Comments || Top||

#12  Right and average = climate change! The climate has changed ever since we got one.
Posted by: Bobby || 05/28/2015 14:03 Comments || Top||

#13  If you get 6 inches of rain in a single hour, it doesn't really whether or not you live on a flood plain. You will get flooded.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 05/28/2015 14:19 Comments || Top||

#14  Rev. Al Sharpton is himself a punishment for our sins.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 05/28/2015 14:20 Comments || Top||

#15  If you did NOT build on a flood plain and you still got flooded then perhaps your insurance company will help. Heck, I might not even complain if the government provides some flood relief.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 05/28/2015 17:11 Comments || Top||

#16  But don't count on much from Reverend Al.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 05/28/2015 17:13 Comments || Top||

#17  Mr. Sharpton, to use the local vernacular, we out here call it Spring. But I have to ask, of this is rebuke from God, does that mean that California's drought is Him saying You Guys are Awesome?

I think the insurance rules can vary by state. IIRC if my house was located in a zone known to flood, I would be required to have flood insurance. Since the bank still owns it, I have it, but am not sure if I can legally drop it after it becomes mine.

Here is an interesting question for them - considering my soil composition and that the ground is totally saturated (in a flood watch right now, with a near guarantee of more rain later), would damage to the foundation caused by shifting ground be covered by flood insurance? Have to ask my local rep.

As for the tornadoes, what I have seen, have been a minor nuisance with a few scares. Oklahoma took some hits, but out here, even on The Day of Sharknado - weather duds were predicting an outbreak like they were a twelve year old on five packs of sweet tarts watching Twister - what did land was more like a beer drunk emo than a tequila drunk gurkha.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 05/28/2015 18:39 Comments || Top||

#18  Obviously the good Rst Al Sharpton is as much as Weatherman as he is 'Reverent'.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 05/28/2015 19:19 Comments || Top||


The Grand Turk
Turkey's top imam as the 'Muslim world's pope'
[Hurriyet Daily News] Having increased the tone of "Moslem solidarity" in his speeches with 10 days to go until the general elections, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him...
has finally come to the point of comparing The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
's top religious official to the pope, the spiritual leader of the world's Catholics.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 05/28/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  erdogen defo sees himself as the leader of muslims.does he miss the ottoman empire or what?
Posted by: paul || 05/28/2015 2:38 Comments || Top||

#2  Wonder what the Saudi Grand Mufti thinks of it?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/28/2015 7:02 Comments || Top||

#3  Or al-Baghdadi, the self appointed caliph.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 05/28/2015 9:13 Comments || Top||

#4  BTW, the Pope does not have a private airplane. He does have a private car - a 1980's POSTED that someone gave him.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 05/28/2015 9:15 Comments || Top||

#5  Uh oh, methinks this will NOT go down well wid the Saudis, ISIS, AQ, Egypt, + other Islamic Centre wannabes.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 05/28/2015 23:50 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
The 7 Reasons Scott Walker Should Get the Republican Nomination for President
h/t Instapundit
Scott Walker has not yet announced his candidacy for president.

He should.

...You may recall that massive crowds of union supporters took over the capitol building in Madison for weeks (the genesis of the Occupy movement), shouting, banging drums, blasting horns and even spitting on GOP legislators who came within range. The union bosses then staged a series of costly recall elections, all of which resulted in Walker's reelection (twice) by a larger margin, with a stronger majority in the state legislature. The Act 10 reforms worked, allowing governments and schools to increase their effectiveness, yet cutting taxes for Wisconsinites, and turning a $3.6 billion deficit into a $1 billion surplus, all while growing jobs.
Scott Walker is competent & pragmatic---fat chance Republicans will run him.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/28/2015 09:22 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Unlike Romney, Walker would at least carry his own state.
Posted by: Iblis || 05/28/2015 10:37 Comments || Top||

#2  There is some doubt whether he can be.....bought. Yet another downside to a pub nomination.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/28/2015 10:40 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Inaction plan
[DAWN] Firstly, over 100 convicts have been hanged in five months since the Dec 16 carnage at the Army Public School, Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
. Has capital punishment deterred diehard terrorists? All I can say with my experience of more than 40 years in law enforcement is that it is the certainty and not the severity of punishment that deters criminals or reduces criminality. As long as loopholes exist in our justice system, death by hanging will not work.

Second, NAP emphasised that no armed militias would be allowed to function in the country. While the interior ministry has banned issuance of arms licences, some provinces are generously distributing licences of even prohibited-bore weapons. There is no policy of firm gun control in any province. No wonder violence cannot be stopped by a state machinery unwilling or incapable of enforcing its writ through effective deweaponisation.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 05/28/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Rioting lawyers: Institutional clash?
[DAWN] EARLIER this week, Daska, a small, somewhat lesser known town, 100 kilometres north of Lahore, was catapulted into national prominence. The reasons for this, however, were not only tragic but also potentially dangerous.

According to reports, certain local residents -- including lawyers -- had been protesting against an anti-encroachment drive organised by the municipal administration and the Daska police. It is not clear whether the police asked the protesters to disperse and if and how they resisted. What is known, however, is that the police opened fire, killing two -- both lawyers, the president of the Daska Bar Association amongst them -- and injuring two more, one an ordinary citizen.
"Encroachment" in Pakistain refers to the grabbing of land by more powerful people, such as politicians, holy men, or other types of robber baron. This is facilitated by the lack of real property deeds, a lack which is perpetuated by the people you'd most expect to benefit.
As news of these deaths spread, lawyers in Daska hurled stones at the police, set on fire police offices and injured the deputy superintendent. They also set on fire the house of the assistant commissioner who was reported to have fled the city with his family. The fear, insecurity and rage soon spread to Gujranwala, Sialkot and eventually to Lahore where lawyers attacked the Punjab
1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots....

Assembly. Even as the Lahore High Court chief justice and the Punjab chief minister took notice, lawyers took to the social media, suggesting the clash between lawyers and police was in fact an irrevocable breach of trust and worse, a clash of institutions.

What actually happened at Daska? Had the protesters -- whether ordinary citizens or lawyers -- committed an offence? In the absence of details, it may be assumed that the protesters had committed either or both of the offences of encroachment and unlawful assembly.

In Punjab, encroachment is an offence under Section 6 of the Punjab Highways Ordinance 1959 and Section 175 of the Punjab Land Revenue Act 1967. Under both laws, the offence is punishable by fine, which the highway and revenue authorities may levy themselves. In case of highways, it is also punishable by imprisonment that may only be awarded by a court.

The offence of unlawful assembly is more complex. In terms of Section 141 of the Pakistain Penal Code 1860, any group of five or more persons that gathers with the common object of overawing a public servant in the course of his duty, resisting the execution of law or criminally encroaching upon property may be liable for unlawful assembly.

The offence is compounded if a person intentionally joins such a group especially if he does so armed with a deadly weapon, joins it after the group has been ordered to disperse, or incites the group to riot with or without a deadly weapon.

Once again the offence, in all its permutations, is punishable by fine or imprisonment to be determined by a court.

If the protesters had indeed committed either of these offences, was the police authorised to open fire on them? According to Section 127 of the Criminal Procedure Code 1898, the officer in-charge of a cop shoppe -- the SHO -- has the authority to direct an unlawful assembly to disperse. Further, in terms of Section 128, if the assembly resists his orders, the SHO has the right to use civil force to disperse the crowd. This means that, unless specifically authorised by higher authorities to do so, he may resort to any means for dispersal of the assembled protesters, short of firing at them.

It is, therefore, clear that in shooting at the Daska protesters, whether they were themselves the encroachers or had assembled merely to protest against the anti-encroachment drive, the SHO acted beyond his legal authority. Does this, however, justify the violent reaction of the lawyers? Cer­tainly not. Irrespec­tive of the provocation, lawyers, perhaps even more than ordinary citizens, are duty bound to uphold the law rather than to break it.
Posted by: Fred || 05/28/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Monitoring sermons
[DAWN] MOST of Pakistain's mainstream religious parties have either tended to remain silent on the issue of extremism, or at best offered lukewarm criticism of fanatical tendencies. Perhaps this is why today, whatever the mainstream clergy's views may be, Death Eater groups continue to recruit individuals to their cause with ease. Nevertheless, any effort by religious groups to try and stem the Death Eater tide should be supported, if only to prevent further loss of space to hate-mongers and demagogues. In this regard, the Milli Yakjehti Council's decision to monitor Friday sermons in order to counter hate speech is a laudable initiative. On Tuesday, the conglomerate of religious parties representing nearly all of Islam's major schools of thought in Pakistain announced in Lahore that in order to promote religious and sectarian harmony, Friday sermons would be monitored and any holy man making 'problematic' speeches would be censured. The council also said holy mans would be urged to speak on topics that centred on moral and humanitarian issues.

Indeed, the MYC
...Milli Yakjehti Council: an alliance of Pak religious parties including the Jamaat-e-Islami and the JUI-F. Somehow this is considered to be a good way to promote sectarian and religious harmony in Pakistain despite their habit of sponsoring terrorist groups both at home and abroad...
has in the past also made attempts to promote religious and sectarian harmony -- most memorably under the stewardship of the late Jamaat-e-Islami
...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores...
emir Qazi Hussain Ahmed
...the absolutely humorless, xenophobic former head of the Pak Jamaat-e-Islami. He was also head of the MMA, a coalition of religious parties formed after 2001 that eventually collapsed under the weight of the holy egos involved. Qazi was the patron of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar during the Afghan mujaheddin's war against the Soviets. His sermons are described as fiery, which means they rely heavily on gospel and not at all on logic. Qazi once recommended drinking camel pee for good health, but that was before his kidneys went...
-- with mixed results.
And everybody was just so surprised.
In the current atmosphere, where the mosque loudspeaker has far too often been misused to stir up hatred against different religious communities as well as various Moslem sects, the initiative is timely. But as always the question remains: how effective will it be? For example, over the past months the state has claimed to arrest a number of individuals for generating hate material. Yet we must ask if these efforts have genuinely succeeded in sending a strong message to hate-mongers that their actions will not be tolerated. In the latest initiative, will the clergy's effort to police their own deliver better results? History would suggest otherwise as in the past, well-meaning initiatives -- launched with fanfare and similar promises of cracking down on divisive
...politicians call things divisive when when the other side sez something they don't like. Their own statements are never divisive, they're principled...
elements -- have fallen through as mainstream religious parties have failed to isolate hate-mongers. For example, whenever exigencies have demanded it, some of the MYC's constituent parties have shared the stage with outfits that make no bones about demonising other sects and religious groups. Will the holy mans, this time around, have the wherewithal to both publicly and privately condemn such elements? Well-meaning statements are fine, but religious parties will have to practically show they will not tolerate hate speech and will condemn rabble-rousing holy mans.
Posted by: Fred || 05/28/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Maybe they should have the City Attorney of Houston send them a letter demanding a copy of each sermon be sent to City Hall for the mayor's perusal.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 05/28/2015 9:26 Comments || Top||


International-UN-NGOs
Boat people too have rights
[DAWN] TOMORROW’S regional meeting in Thailand must find some humane answers to the plight of thousands of homeless people floating on the sea, if the international community does not wish to be arraigned for its callous disregard for the sanctity of human life.
Oh wait! Those are the wrong 'boat people' !
Few issues expose the hollowness of the global rhetoric about human rights to a greater extent than the lack of understanding shown for homeless/stateless refugees and poor men and women seeking escape from persecution, hunger, and a life without hope.

The discovery of mass graves in Malaysia and Thailand at sites of camps operated by gangs of traffickers has added an utterly grisly chapter to the migrants’ tale of unimaginable suffering. Evidence already available suggests that some of the migrants were tortured and killed by their handlers.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 05/28/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq
Iraq will never be whole again, so what's next ?
[Rooters] Is there hope for Iraq? It depends on what you are hoping for.

It is becoming clearer that there is little hope of destroying Islamic State in Iraq. Islamic State has no shortage of new recruits. Its fighters capture heavy weapons with such ease that the United States is forced to direct air strikes against equipment abandoned by the Iraqis -- even as it ships in more. Islamic State holds territory that will allow it to trade land for time, morph into an insurgency and preserve its forces by pulling back into Syrian territory it controls even if Iraq's government, with Iranian and American help, launches a major assault.

Islamic State maintains support among Iraq's Sunnis. The more the Shi'ites align against it, the more Sunnis see no other choice but to support Islamic State, as they did al Qaeda after the American invasion in 2003. Stories from Tikrit, where Shi'ite militia-led forces defeated Islamic State, describe "a ghost town ruled by gunmen." There are other reports of ethnic cleansing in the Euphrates Valley town of Jurf al-Sakhar. Absent a unified Iraq, there will always be an al Qaeda, an Islamic State or another iteration of it to defend the Sunnis.

The only way for Iraq to remain unified was a stalemate of force, with no side having the might to win nor weak enough to lose, with negotiations to follow. As the United States passively watched the Iranians become its proxy boots on the ground against Islamic State, all the while knowing Tehran's broader agenda was a Shi'ite Iraqi client, that possibility was lost.

The government all but abandoned the idea of a nonsectarian national army; it turned instead to a gang of Iranian-supported Shi'ite militias with a bundle of anti-Sunni agendas.
It's possible to pin down the failure to a single battle. The last hope that Iraq would not become an Iranian client was dashed after Islamic State's defeat in Tikrit. The victory triggered the Iraqi central government to dismiss American and Kurdish support for a drive toward strategically important Mosul. The government all but abandoned the idea of a nonsectarian national army; it turned instead to a gang of Iranian-supported Shi'ite militias with a bundle of anti-Sunni agendas. Baghdad pointed those forces toward Ramadi.

Islamic State is also in Ramadi, but it had already poked into most of the city over the past year. It needed only 400 fighters for the final push last week. The threat was not new. The move by Baghdad on Ramadi is thus more long-term political than short-term tactical: think of Ramadi not as a gate through which Islamic State must pass moving east toward Baghdad (Islamic State cannot occupy the Shi'ite city of four million, defended by untold militia, any more than the German army could capture Stalingrad) but as a gate the Shi'ite militias must traverse headed west to control the Sunni homeland of Anbar.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/28/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State



Who's in the News
28[untagged]
12Islamic State
10Govt of Pakistan
2Taliban
2Govt of Syria
2Houthis
2al-Nusra
2Govt of Iran
2Lashkar e-Jhangvi
1TTP
1al-Qaeda
1al-Qaeda in Pakistan
1Arab Spring
1Hamas
1Jamaat-e-Islami
1Lashkar-e-Islam

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Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
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In no particular order...
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Two weeks of WOT
Thu 2015-05-28
  Airstrikes kill at least 80 in deadliest bombings of Yemen war
Wed 2015-05-27
  Shiite militia claims ISIS leader killed near Fallujah
Tue 2015-05-26
  Suicide bomber blows himself up during Rangers operation in Karachi
Mon 2015-05-25
  Syria: IS executes hundreds in Palmyra
Sun 2015-05-24
  Prayer leader explodes in mosque
Sat 2015-05-23
  Kunar Drone Strike Kills Four Taliban
Fri 2015-05-22
  Air strikes kill 15 militants in North Waziristan
Thu 2015-05-21
  Kurds advance against Islamic State in northeastern Syria
Wed 2015-05-20
  IS Attacks Syria Druze Village, Battles for Palmyra
Tue 2015-05-19
  US drone strike in North Waziristan leaves six 'militants' dead
Mon 2015-05-18
  ISIS confirms Ramadi capture
Sun 2015-05-17
  US special forces kill senior IS leader in Syria: Pentagon
Sat 2015-05-16
  Jury sentences Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to death for marathon attack
Fri 2015-05-15
  Belmokhtar's Jihadist Group in N. Africa Pledges Allegiance to IS
Thu 2015-05-14
  ISIS acting leader al-Afri killed by US-led airstrike

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