This is a Michael Yon repost of an article in the UK Mail. I am posting it here by way of apology to Bulldog and our other UK 'burgers who have been justifiably outraged by the Caliph Obama's efforts to singlehandedly destroy the special relationship. You can't count on him, but you can count on us.
And he should be gone in by January 21st, 2013, but we will most certainly still be here.
It was one of the most complex military logistical and medical operations ever undertaken -- and it saved the life of a young British soldier critically injured in Afghanistan.
It involved hundreds of doctors, air and ground crews of several nations, travelling many thousands of miles, revolutionary and experimental medical equipment, several planes and helicopters and communications between three continents and cost millions of pounds.
The respected American journalist Michael Yon, himself a former US special forces soldier, reported on his blog that he heard the shot and saw a flurry of activity and a medical evacuation helicopter taking Soldier X away.
Then began a most incredible effort to save his life.
He was alive -- but only just. He needed specialist equipment to do what his lungs could not: provide oxygen to his blood and remove the carbon dioxide built up in its passage through his body. He needed an artificial lung and intensive care within hours. Such equipment was available at hospitals in Britain, nearly 4,000 miles away, but Soldier X would almost certainly die on the long flight.
He needed a portable, low-pressure artificial lung and the Americans offered to help. But the bureaucracy of moving from the British to the American military system meant that valuable time was being lost.
Contacted by a quick-thinking British doctor at Camp Bastion, Mr Yon sent an urgent email to a group of American civilian volunteers called Soldiers' Angels near Ramstein Air Base in Germany, where most American casualties from Iraq and Afghanistan are initially sent.
The volunteers, founded by the great-niece of General George S. Patton, alerted the US Army's nearby Landstuhl Regional Medical Center's Acute Lung Rescue Team, which specialises in going straight to the aid of soldiers with severe lung problems.
And within an hour, the team was in touch with doctors at the nearby University of Regensberg who had access to a revolutionary portable artificial lung called a Novalung.
With time running out, and Soldier X needing specialist attention immediately, a call was made from Camp Bastion to the US-led Combined Air and Space Operations Center at al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, where all military aircraft movements in and around Afghanistan are controlled.
Within minutes, the Joint Patient Movement Requirements Centre there identified a US C-130 Hercules at Kabul that could fly pulmonary specialists immediately to Camp Bastion.
At the same time, the 618th Tanker Airlift Control Centre at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois was alerted to co-ordinate the move of the Landstuhl team with the Novalung from Germany to Camp Bastion and back.
At Ramstein, a giant US C-17 Globemaster loaded with cargo for Iraq was quickly reassigned to take the Novalung team to Afghanistan and within six hours it was airborne and on its way, via a stop for more medical equipment at Bagram, Kabul
A second C-17 was urgently reassigned at Camp Bastion, while the Novalung was carefully connected to the blood vessels of Soldier X's legs.
Eight hours later, and within 22 hours of receiving the call for help, the US Air Force had moved Soldier X from a combat zone on one continent to the medical safety of another.
The only reported comment from Soldier X's family comes from MaryAnn Phillips, of Soldiers' Angels at Ramstein. In a message to Michael Yon on his website, she said she had met the young soldier's mother at Regensberg Hospital, where he had regained consciousness and was improving.
'I told her about some of this,' MaryAnn wrote to Yon. 'She broke down and couldn't believe "all of those people would do all that for my son". It was a very, very moving moment.'
Posted by: Matt ||
03/07/2010
19:55 ||
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#1
What a wonderful story. If you can keep the Washington (and Washington-like) bureaucrats out of it, much can be accomplished.
Hope the UK soldier fully recovers.
As Matt says, Bulldog, Dave, & others - we still believe there's a special relationship between our countries. It's just our so-called "leader" who's got his head up his a**. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/07/2010 20:30
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#2
Let me have men about me that are fat;
Sleek-headed men and such as sleep o' nights:
Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look;
He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.
- Julius Caesar ACT I SCENE I, by William Shakespeare.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
03/07/2010 20:22
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#8
These two would fit the bill just fine:
Posted by: Andy Ulolusing3083 ||
03/07/2010 21:29
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#9
Laurel and Hardy would make a better Donk ticket than Obama and Biden.
Now let's see could we get a Curly, Larry and Moe ticket? Curly as VP, Larry as POTUS and Moe as SecDef. There you have it...or should Moe be SecState or DCI?
Posted by: Karl Rove ||
03/07/2010 21:32
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#10
The aree ready to fight all enemies foreign or domestic:
#11
I think Laurel and Hardy would make better policy decisions than Obama and Biden and FURTHERMORE I would National Defense and National Security to Curly Larry and Moe more than Obama and Biden. Especially with MOe as SecDef.
Posted by: Karl Rove ||
03/07/2010 21:34
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#12
From top right to left
President - Vice president - Secretary of State - Director National Intelligence
Posted by: Andy Ulolusing3083 ||
03/07/2010 21:37
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#13
Cabinet members:
Posted by: Andy Ulolusing3083 ||
03/07/2010 21:43
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#14
First International Incident:
Posted by: Andy Ulolusing3083 ||
03/07/2010 21:45
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#15
Re #13: No thanks. We already have enough Marxists in the White House.
Posted by: ed ||
03/07/2010 23:30
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#1
Holder's choice of civilian trials for monstrous war criminals like Khalid Sheik Mohammed (KSM) reveals an extremely decayed and corrupted state of patriotic feeling which is well beyond the pale. In fact, Holder is so supercilious and incompetent that he has adamantly refused to distinguish the difference between heinous illegal enemy combatants and American citizens, military tribunals and civilian trials, friend and foe, war and peace. No one in their "right mind" would choose to give a gruesome illegal enemy combatant known as the "worst of the worst" the lavish if not sumptuous protections of an American civilian trial, but not so Eric Holder -- irrefutably proving him to be "the ugliest of things".
Posted by: war on terror ||
03/07/2010 21:58
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#2
Preceeded by only these two:
Posted by: Andy Ulolusing3083 ||
03/07/2010 22:25
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Polls closed across Iraq on Sunday as the war-weary population awaits results from the national election that will decide the future of the country's still-fragile democracy.
The election tested the mettle of the country's shaky security as insurgents killed 31 people across Iraq, unleashing a barrage of mortars intent on disrupting the historic day.
About 19 million Iraqis were eligible to vote on a government that will oversee the withdrawal of U.S. forces. The election is critical in determining whether Iraq can overcome the jagged sectarian divisions that have defined it since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
Once the day's results are calculated, it could be months before Iraq's new parliament chooses a prime minister and forms a government.
On Sunday, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said voter turnout was "high if not higher" than expected, according to Reuters. Expectations prior to the national election were approximately 50 percent voter turnout
On Sunday, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said voter turnout was "high if not higher" than expected, according to Reuters. Expectations prior to the national election were approximately 50 percent voter turnout
Security was tight across the capital. The borders have been sealed, the airport closed and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi military and police have flooded the streets.
Extra checkpoints were set up across the city, and in some parts of central Baghdad, people could not go 50 yards without hitting another checkpoint.
A ban on small vehicles was lifted around the country, except in northern Ninevah province, to facilitate access to the polls, Maj. Gen. Ayden Khalid Qader, who's in charge of election security, on state-run Iraqiya television.
But many voters continued to proceed to the polling places on foot.
In keeping with the U.S. military's assertion that Iraqis are running the elections, the only visible American military presence was in the air or escorting election observers to and from the polls; four U.S. helicopter gunships could be seen in the sky over the Kazimiyah neighborhood.
Exiting the polls, Iraqis waved purple-inked fingers -- the now-iconic image synonymous with voting in this oil-rich country home to roughly 28 million people.
Despite the violence and frustration that has set in after years of fighting and faulty government services, many Iraqis were still excited to vote.
In the city of Nasiriyah, in the Shiite south, crowds of people filled the streets -- men in what appeared to be their best clothes were accompanied by women in long black cloaks and often children.
"I voted in 2005. There were a lot less people then," said Ahmed Saad Chadian. "Today participation is much higher."
In the Shiite holy city of Najaf, south of Baghdad, dozens of voters also lined up to cast their ballot.
"We came to participate in this national day, and we don't care about the explosions," said Sahib Jabr, a 34-year-old old taxi driver.
President Jalal Talabani was among the first to vote Sunday morning in the Kurdish city of Sulamaniyah. Talabani's party, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, is enmeshed in a tight race with an upstart political party called Change which is challenging the two Kurdish parties that have dominated Iraqi politics for years.
#1
Unexpected moves out of the economy into international relations? This will be remembered as the unexpected administration. Unfortunately some of us did expect this. with worse to come.
NINEWA / Aswat al-Iraq: Around 65 percent of people allowed to vote in Ninewa province cast their ballots in Iraq's parliamentary election on March 7, 2010.
"The final results of the Ninewa election will be announced soon," a source from the Ninewa elections office told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
Mosul, the capital city of Ninewa province, lies 405 km north of Baghdad.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/07/2010
13:25 ||
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BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: The final count of casualties from Sunday's earlier blast that targeted a residential building in eastern Baghdad rose to 25 dead and 19 others wounded, according to an Iraqi police source.
“Victims of the explosive attack that left a residential building in Ur neighborhood, eastern Baghdad, destroyed by mortar shells rose to 25 deaths and 19 injured,' the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
Earlier, a security source said the attack left 12 dead and 10 wounded, noting the number of casualties was most likely to rise. Eyewitnesses had told Aswat al-Iraq that the explosion occurred when a store on the ground floor was detonated.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/07/2010
13:23 ||
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KARACHI, Pakistan- An American citizen, who joined the Al-Qaeda leadership in the lawless Pakistan-Afghanistan border region, Adam Gadahn, has been nabbed by security and commando forces in Pakistan, reports said.
31-year-old Adam Gadahn is often quoted by media and seen as a spokesman for Al-Qaeda in the region, as recently as the March 7, 2010, Adam Gadahn can be heard in video calling for attacks by Muslims on western nations.
Adam Gadahn was indicted for treason in 2006 by a federal grand jury for the capital crime of treason for aiding an enemy of the United States. Adam Gadahn was the first American charged with such a treason law since 1952. From as far back as 2004, Adam Gadahn has appeared in a number of videos produced by Al-Qaeda, identified as “Azzam the American.'
In 1995, at age 17, Gadahn began studying Islam at the Islamic Society of Orange County, California. Members of Gadahn's study group were young fundamentalists who “targeted the mosque's chairman, Haitham ‘Danny' Bundakji,' whom they referred to as ‘Danny the Jew' for his practice of “wearing Western clothes and being overly friendly with Jews.'
Gadahn converted to Islam later that year, and shortly thereafter posted an essay to the USC website describing his conversion, entitled “Becoming a Muslim.'
According to his parents, Adam was “arrested and convicted of assaulting his former mentor Haitham Bundakji in May 1997,' as seen in the picture above. He served two days in jail, but his failure to do 40 hours of community services leaves a warrant for his arrest active.
Gadahn reportedly moved to Pakistan in 1998, where he married an Afghan refugee and maintained intermittent contact with his family.
Details about Adam Gadahn's reported Pakistan capture are still forthcoming, but widely reported in Pakistan media, citing security sources.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/07/2010
13:21 ||
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#1
the guards at Guantanamo are gonna love him
Posted by: chris ||
03/07/2010 13:36
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#2
AP's picked it up...
Adam Gadahn, the treasonous Californian Al Qaeda leader who has long been on Washington's Most Wanted list, was nabbed in Pakistan Sunday - a huge victory.
After some confusion in the intial reports, the Associated Press quoted Pakistani officials confirming the arrest.
Gadahn was bagged just hours after releasing a new internet video urging American Muslims to go on shooting sprees like Maj. Nidal Hasan's at Fort Hood last year.
He is the first American to be charged with treason since World War II.
KARACHI: Pakistani security forces along with help of US intelligence arrested Abu Yahya Mujahdeen Al- Adam, who is a close associate of Osama Bin Laden. Abu Yahya was arrested on Sunday from an area surrounding the super highway, on the outskirts of Karachi.
Sources confirmed that the arrested militant commander has been shifted to Islamabad for further investigation.
Pennsylvania-born Abu Yahya is a US citizen and assumed to be a commander of foreign militants fighting in Afghanistan against the US. He was living with Osama Bin Ladin after 9/11 attacks in New York. His name is included in the top ten wanted on the CIA list.
#9
I'm not picky, Chuck - I'd be satisfied if someone in Pakistand shot him. Whether in an "escape" attempt or not....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/07/2010 14:33
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#10
A background question - has this guy actually done anything, other than act as AQ's Tokyo Rose/Axis Sally? Granted, there's the precedent for the treason charge, but is it just all talk, or is there an allegation that he's actually joined in violence?
#11
If Gitmo and Baghram are no longer accepting detainees, who gets him? Although if the Pakistanis have had him for several days, let the ACLU take them on for violation of his "human rights". I think a case could be made for a floating sovereign US brig in international waters.....
#14
I truly hope that this clown gets a bullet in Pakistan, because a treason trial would be a disaster. He likely would get convicted of some other charge, because far too many in power are nervous about treason as a criminal charge. Then it would be off to the already overcrowded ADX, which is a waste of expensive prison cell.
Worst of all, he would continue to be used as an excuse to *not* racially profile. Racial profiling works, and the Europeans do it because it works. For the US to pretend that gray haired Swedish grandmothers in wheelchairs need to be strip searched by the TSA because they *might* be a Muslim suicide bomber is b.s.
#15
I am guessing Eric Holder can't wait to represent this fine Amerikan. Let's hope he is really captured and not just getting new orders from Pakistan.
On a positive note it appears someone at the near top of Al Qaeda is finally ratting out his fellow extremists.
#16
The Holder Justice Dept would probably work out a deal so he does community service with ACORN.
Posted by: lord garth ||
03/07/2010 15:02
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#17
The reason for my question in the string above is that while Mr. wahtever his name is has been the propagandist, unless he's done worse, in all liklihood if AG Holder gets ahold of him, he may get convicted, but with only a short sentence.
I've seen this ending twice before - Axis Sally ended up living out her life a few miles down the road from me in Ohio, and Tokyo Rose just died 3 years ago about ten El stops away from me on the north side of Chicago.
Unless the Pakistani's take care of this guy, he'll likely end up back in LA in about 10 years - and he'll only be 40ish.
#21
Agreed Barbara, but I think Mizzou has the answer - the POTUS and AG won't let him anywhere near US soil. He may get here in the Palin administration, with AG Levin handling the treason prosecution - but 10-15 years is a long time - he'll be quietly renamed John Doe and halfway housed somewhere forever after all that.
He should be brought to the US and tried for what he is charged with: treason.
Reasons:
1) he is an American citizen
2) he is charged with treason
3) it provides the DoJ and Bambi with an opportunity to prove that they are serious
There is virtually no doubt in my mind that he would be convicted if tried. A smart, tough federal judge would disallow most if not all the showmanship Gadahn and his lawyers might try. A jury of reasonable Americans would not be swayed by any of the showmanship that did get through.
He is an American citizen. I have no problem jugging a non-American terrorist forever in Gitmo, Bagram or Ice Station Zebra. You raise a hand against us and you get what you get.
I shall maintain, however, that an American citizen enjoys the protection of the Constitution even he takes up arms against us, at least long enough for him to be judged guilty of treason and hanged.
I also confess that I want to see what Holder and Bambi would do. Would they have the moral courage to see that Gadahn gets a proper trial? That the trial not be turned into a circus? That the prosecutors go for the max?
The answers would be illuminating.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/07/2010 16:23
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#24
more illuminating than previous inactions? I'd agree if we didn't have an administration that actively supports (via nonaction) voter intimidation by the NBP as well as chummily relations with noted terrorists Ayres and Dorne. The POS that is Adam Gadahn should be given the McVeigh treatment (which even Clinton concurred with) and needled. I have my doubts this group supports that. We already know which side they're on. It's not a prosperous, powerful, force of western-values America
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/07/2010 16:29
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#25
it provides the DoJ and Bambi with an opportunity to prove that they are serious
#26
I'd agree with Dr. Steve once he's in U. S. custody. Until then he's a Pak detainee. Under the Geneva Conventions he should be shot as a spy in a summary execution by the Pak Army.
#33
Traitors most certainly are citizens. That's why you can execute them for treason.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/07/2010 18:12
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#34
I believe he did renounce his citizenship (for what that's worth) in a video. He's certainly a traitor, but I really question this Admin's and Congressional/judicial stones to follow through. Couldn't be a much clearer case with all the vids, intel, etc. Yet, I see a "but what about..." bullshit defense. Lucky most of those defense-whores are already employed on our dollar at the DOJ, huh?
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/07/2010 18:20
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Excerpt: American and Pakistani officials said the man arrested was Abu Yahya Mujahdeen Al-Adam, who was described as having been born in Pennsylvania and who was thought to be affiliated with the operations division of Al Qaeda, commanding fighters in Afghanistan.
Little else was known about him, American officials said, and it was not immediately clear that American officials were involved in the arrest.
Initial reports seemed to have confused the American with Adam Gadahn, a California native who has been a spokesman for Al Qaeda and often appears on videos calling for strikes against targets in the United States.
Israel's arms trade with India stands to expand dramatically following New Delhi's decision to increase its defense budget to $32 billion.
"India plans to rebuild substantial parts of its armed forces and we will be there, offering everything they need," a source within the Israeli Military Industries said.
Israel's various military industries have delegates in India and according to the source, several multimillion dollar deals have been discussed during two recent weapons and security trade fairs.
Since 1991, India has purchased $8.5 billions worth of Israeli weaponry, making Jerusalem its second-largest arms supplier, after Russia. According to foreign publications, India's most recent purchase is the Israeli Aerospace Industries' Harpy – an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) designed to attack radar systems.
Other recent acquisitions include the IAI's Searcher, which is a reconnaissance UAV, and the Heron-1, which is an UAV capable of Medium Altitude Long Endurance operations of up to 52 hours.
New Delhi has also signed a $1.1 billion deal with the IAI to convert Russian cargo planes into CAEW (conformal airborne early warning) aircrafts using the Falcon system.
Posted by: john frum ||
03/07/2010
11:58 ||
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Female Sailors will begin serving on submarines by the end of next year, with Naval Academy graduates leading the way, Navy leaders told a Senate committee.
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the Navy is in a good position to move forward with integrating women onto submarines. "We think we learned a lot about integrating women in the services years ago, and those lessons are relevant today," Mabus said. Those lessons, he said, include having a "critical mass" of female candidates, having senior women to serve as mentors, and having submarines that don't require modifications: the SSBN ballistic missile and SSGN guided-missile subs.
Finally, Mabus said, "We have the lesson learned to make sure any questions are answered, ... and we're very open and transparent on how we'll do this. We think this is a great idea that will enhance our warfighting capabilities."
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates notified Congress on Feb. 19 of the intended change to Navy policy. Mabus had pushed for the change since taking office in May. Adm. Gary Roughead, chief of naval operations, endorsed the change, saying in a statement released in September that his experience commanding a mixed-gender surface-combatant ship makes him "very comfortable" integrating women into the submarine force. The Navy changed its policy to allow women to serve on combatant ships in 1993. "We have a great plan, and we're ready to go for the first women to come aboard in late 2011," Roughead told the Senate committee yesterday. In a prepared statement to the committee, he said the change would enable the submarine force "to leverage the tremendous talent and potential of our female officers and enlisted personnel."
Besides the incoming officers from the academy, the first women submariners will include female supply corps officers at the department head level, Roughead said. The change will be phased in over time to include enlisted female Sailors on the SSBN and SSGNs, he said. Women will be added to the Navy's SSN fast-attack submarines after necessary modifications can be determined, he said.
"This initiative has my personal attention, and I will continue to keep you informed as we integrate these highly motivated and capable officers into our submarine force," Roughead told the committee.
#3
one of my buddies is a sub/nuke officer - his contract is up this fall, he told me yesterday that when this came out on the heels on the debate abt removing DADT he was glad he was resigning his commission.
#4
When I was in the Naval Reserve, one of my unit COs was an ex bubblehead. He saw no problem with having women on board subs - even on the missile boats that went out for 2 months and stayed out there no matter what.
When I asked him what they would do about all the problems that occurred aboard surface ships with women on board (sexual harassment, rapes, jealousies, etc.) he said that those were just discipline problems that would be dealt with.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
03/07/2010 19:59
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#5
They never mentioned problems with co-ed space ships on Star Trek.
#6
On Star Trek they also used to send the CO, XO, Chief Engineer and the Medical Officer on an away team. And the red-shirted Ensign if it was dangerous.
Wouldn't happen on a real ship.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
03/07/2010 21:51
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#7
They never mentioned problems with co-ed space ships on Star Trek.
And the Federation was supposed to be a socialist paradise, too...
CAIRO -- Al-Qaida's American-born spokesman on Sunday called on Muslims serving in the U.S. armed forces to emulate the Army major charged with killing 13 people in Fort Hood.
In a 25-minute video posted on militant Web sites, Adam Gadahn described Maj. Nidal Hasan as a pioneer who should serve as a role model for other Muslims, especially those serving Western militaries."Brother Nidal is the ideal role-model for every repentant Muslim in the armies of the unbelievers and apostate regimes," he said.
Gadahn, also known as Azzam al-Amriki, was dressed in white robes and wearing a white turban as he called for attacks on what he described as "high-value targets."
Gadahn grew up on a goat farm in Riverside County, California, and converted to Islam at a mosque in nearby Orange County.
"You shouldn't make the mistake of thinking that military bases are the only high-value targets in America and the West. On the contrary, there are countless other strategic places, institutions and installations which, by striking, the Muslim can do major damage," he said, an assault rifle leaning up against a wall next to him.
Gadahn has been wanted by the FBI since 2004 and two years later was charged with treason. There is a $1 million reward for information leading to his arrest or conviction. He has in the past posted videos and messages calling for the destruction of the West and for strikes against targets in the United States. His location is unknown, but he is believed to be somewhere along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
In the latest video, Gadahn said those planning attacks did not need to use only firearms like Hasan, but could use other weapons. "As the blessed operations of September 11th showed, a little imagination and planning and a limited budget can turn almost anything into a deadly, effective and convenient weapon."
Gadahn said fighters should target mass transportation systems in the West and also wreak havoc "by killing or capturing people in government, industry and the media." He recommended finding ways to shake "consumer confidence and stifle spending" and noted that even unsuccessful attacks, such as the failed attempt to bomb a U.S. airliner on Christmas Day, can bring major cities to a halt.
"I am calling on every honest and vigilant Muslim in the countries of the Zionist-Crusader alliance in general and America, Britain and Israel in particular to prepare to play his due role in responding to and repelling the aggression of the enemies of Islam," Gadahn said.
#4
hiding in Pakland was he? Too important to get on the front lines? Pussy
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/07/2010 13:20
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#5
This guy is an open and shut treason case - I will guarantee you he is barely prosecuted. Holder and Bambi will get him to plead to a 5-10 year sentence.
#9
you know that his arrest was not the result of Holder/Obambi loiered up Miranda techniques..."Mohamed, well give you two lumps of sugar in your tea if you tells us where the Goat=boy is"
WASHINGTON (AP) - In private pitches to Democrats, President Barack Obama says he will persuade Congress to pass his health care overhaul even if it kills him and even if he has to ask deeply distrustful lawmakers to trust him on a promise the White House doesn't have the power to keep.
That, in a sometimes darkly joking way, is what the president is telling Democratic House members as he begins an all-out push to coax Congress into passing his proposals despite voters' misgivings and Republicans' dire warnings.
"He made the case, 'Listen, we put in a very hard year working on health care reform and the time for action is now,'" said Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis., one of several Democrats who met with Obama at the White House on Thursday.
Obama joked that the political battle has contributed to the recent rise in his cholesterol, Kind said, and the president noted how ironic it would be if health care drove him to his grave. Tempting. But I'm still against it...
But Obama is anything but sickly these days, making health care pitches Monday in Philadelphia and Wednesday in St. Louis, and instructing aides to address every question or concern Democratic lawmakers possibly can raise.
Some answers, however, rely more on faith than fact. Confronting party unrest on his left and right, Obama is calling for political courage, citing historic opportunities and essentially saying "trust me" in areas inherently murky, uncertain and out of his control. The process for getting health care legislation through Congress is tough enough already, and Republicans are determined to derail it.
Obama told House liberals last week that he understands their frustration in seeing priorities _ such as allowing the government to sell insurance in competition with private companies _ dropped from the revised legislation. He promised to work with them in the future to improve health care laws, said Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., who leads the Congressional Black Caucus.
"He said, `This is the first step, a foundation that we can build upon,'" she said. "He made a commitment to work with us on all the issues that are outstanding, and there are many."
It's unclear whether Obama can keep such promises, especially with Republicans expecting to gain House and Senate seats this fall.
Obama is asking his party's House moderates to have a different kind of faith. The party's strategy calls for House Democrats, despite many misgivings, to go along with a health care bill the Senate passed in December. Obama would sign it into law, but senators would promise to make numerous changes demanded by House Democrats. Because Senate Democrats no longer have the numbers to stop GOP filibusters, the changes would have to be made under rules that require only simple majority votes.
Republicans are playing on House Democrats' suspicions of their Senate colleagues, saying Senate Democrats may not keep their end of the bargain. The taunts often hit their marks.
"A big issue for the House is putting suspenders with belts on the plan to ensure we don't get left holding the bag with just the Senate bill by itself," said Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Conn.
Democratic leaders are considering several ways to reassure nervous House members, who felt burned last year when they voted for climate legislation _ a vote many now regret _ and the Senate never did its part. Possibilities include a letter pledging compliance, signed by 51 or more Senate Democrats, or a parliamentary move that essentially would suspend the House-passed bill until the follow-up Senate action takes place.
Congressional insiders say the likeliest path involves Obama and others convincing House members that Democrats, who control 59 of the Senate's 100 seats, have more than enough votes for a simple majority, especially when Vice President Joe Biden can break a tie.
Even if the House does its part, Republican senators promise to use every tool they can to kill the Senate's follow-up actions with delaying tactics, such as introducing unending streams of amendments. Democrats say they believe they can grind down efforts over time, leaving Republicans exhausted and perhaps vulnerable to renewed accusations of obstructionism.
A bigger worry for Democrats is that a dispute over abortion restrictions could cause as many as a dozen House Democrats to switch to "no" on health care even though they voted "yes" last year. If that happens, Obama and other party leaders will press some of the 39 House Democrats who voted "no" last year to switch sides. Such a switch can be defended politically, party leaders say, because the revised bill is less costly and excludes the contentious public insurance option
Republicans are working overtime to thwart such strategies by sowing doubts and fears among Democrats. They say Obama is marching his party toward political suicide in a year when he's not on the ballot.
GOP Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee said the president and House Democratic leaders are asking their colleagues to "hold hands, jump off a cliff and hope Harry Reid catches them," a reference to the Senate Democratic leader from Nevada.
Even if the Senate keeps it promise to make changes that the House wants, Alexander said, Republicans will try to repeal the legislation and make it a campaign issue in every race this fall.
White House and Democratic leaders counter with their own warnings to nervous House Democrats who might consider switching from "yes" to "no" on health care. Why would Republicans, they ask, shout warnings if they truly believed Democrats were blundering their way to catastrophe?
They also say Republican challengers will heap even more scorn on a vote-switcher, reviving versions of the flip-flopping taunt used against 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry: "He was for it before he was against it."
It's better, these party leaders say, to pass the health care bill and spend the last few months of the 2010 campaign telling voters about the ways it will help them.
"You've got to go out and sell that product and stop worrying about the process," said Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee. "And the president is a very powerful salesman for that product."
I get to leave office with all the perks all former Presidents receive. Not shabby. So, just go throw yourself on the sword for The Party and Socialism!
your Great leader,
Bambi"
Yep, that'll wow them on the steps of the Capital.
#3
Obama joked that the political battle has contributed to the recent rise in his cholesterol, Kind said, and the president noted how ironic it would be if health care drove him to his grave.
I remember some link posted awhile ago that Obama might have lung cancer. Michelle was also recently quoted as saying she was going to "get on him" to quit smoking and drinking, but that it was a "process". Maybe he should be treated under his own health care bill?
Attorneys for Muzzammil S. "Mo" Hassan Friday said the media and public have misconstrued Hassan's actions in the beheading of his estranged wife, Aasiya Zubair Hassan. How could I have been so wrong? If I'd just taken a moment to think, then... umm...
Many have wrongly come to regard Hassan as an Islamic terrorist, and the general public is suffering from "Islamophobia," defense attorneys Julie Atti Rogers and Frank M. Bogulski said after a court appearance Friday. Hassan is "a nonpracticing Muslim," Rogers said, while Bogulski stressed that Hassan "doesn't pray five times a day" as an obedient Muslim would. He does, however, behead people ...
Hassan, 44, is accused of killing and beheading his 37-year-old wife on Feb. 12, 2009, soon after she began divorce proceedings against him. But that wasn't a religious thing. It was a cultural thing.
Erie County Judge Thomas P. Franczyk has scheduled a May 4 hearing to consider defense challenges to an alleged confession Hassan made to Orchard Park police about an hour after his wife was killed in the office of their Bridges cable television station. During a brief court session Friday, Franczyk kept in place his order barring a psychiatric defense for Hassan, but he agreed to reconsider if Hassan's attorneys file motions in coming months.
Bogulski recently claimed that the victim drove her husband into an uncontrollable homicidal rage, and he and Rogers said Friday they are confident they can convince the judge of the propriety of their defense strategy. They acknowledged they need the court-approved release of some of Hassan's funds to finance their effort. The defense attorneys said they will go to Erie County Surrogate's Court on Tuesday to fight for the release of money from Hassan's bank accounts to pay for his proposed psychiatric defense. Cha-ching!
The two attorneys also said they will begin court action to try to get Hassan's two children returned from Pakistan, where they were taken by Aasiya Zubair Hassan's relatives. Hassan fears the children "will be radicalized" in Pakistan, Bogulski said. YJCMTSU
#2
He probably prays four times a day, like most Muslims. Five times a day includes once in the middle of the night, that only particularly devout Muslims observe. Not being devout does *not* equate to "nonpracticing", and doesn't even imply moderation.
#3
Could we just say that anyone that beheads a family member is a little off it?
Of course given how his brethren in the faith of Mohammed are want to collect heads, I think we could rationally say there is some quid pro quo between going to the mosque and wanting to make a video.
Posted by: Karl Rove ||
03/07/2010 21:37
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#4
As I recall, the wife was going to divorce him, take the children, and destroy the cable television company that was his life's dream -- a Muslim cable television station that was to spread across the U.S., making him and his investors pots of money.... or not, quite possibly it was already in trouble.
#5
Fine. He's nuts. Here's your new accomodations to keep society safe from you. Very similar to the accomodations you'd receive if you were guilty of murder. No, you can't have the kids because you're a crackpot. Your job will be to clean up under the beds and behind the toilets of all the alpha males in the the facility. Hope you brought your kneepads or your knees are going to get rug-burn with them pushing you around their cells. Yeah, shoulda just pled guilty, but at least this way it keeps the money out of terrorist hands.
An Egyptian blogger on trial before a military tribunal for slandering the nation's premier army academy will be released and proceedings suspended after he agreed to apologize, his lawyer said Sunday.
Mohammed Mahmoud, lawyer of 20-year old Ahmed Mostafa, said his client has a week to issue an official apology on his blog for blatant honesty falsely claiming there was corruption in the army's military academy in a post titled "The Military Academy's Scandal."
The tribunal agreed to suspend proceedings in return for the apology. This means the case is not written off, and could be revived. "If he doesn't apologize, the case can be revived," Mahmoud said.
Egypt has arrested a string of prominent bloggers in the past who criticized security repression or were accused of insulting Islam and the president. But military tribunals are normally reserved for those the government perceives as a threat to its existence, such as terror suspects or members of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The engineering student was detained on Feb. 25 and charged with publishing false news and "tarnishing the military's image" after blogging about a student forced to leave the academy to make room for a candidate from a wealthier family. Criticizing the armed forces is illegal in Egypt and considered a threat to state security.
The lawyer said the academy investigated Mostafa's claims, which it said were "incomplete."
The Freedom Party (PVV) of anti-immigrant leader Geert Wilders moved three seats ahead of its rivals in a new Dutch election poll on Sunday, as support for the Christian Democrats (CDA) of Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende continued to slip. The Maurice de Hond poll put the PVV on 27 seats in the June 9 national elections, while the CDA and the Labour Party (PvdA) were both on 24 seats. The poll also showed that none of the three most likely coalitions would be able to form a majority government without reaching across lines to a fourth or fifth party.
In local council polls on March 3, Wilders made substantial gains, positioning him to do well in the national election. Balkenende's Christian Democrats were seen as the biggest loser in the council voting. There has been heavy speculation since then in the Dutch press that the party might change course and name Transport Minister Camiel Eurlings to lead it into the election.
The current government collapsed February 20 after Labour pulled out of the CDA-led coalition in a dispute over the Dutch mission in Afghanistan.
TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran said Sunday it has launched a new production line of highly accurate, short range cruise missiles, which would add a new element to the country's already imposing arsenal.
Gen. Ahmad Vahidi told Iranian state TV that the cruise missile, called Nasr 1, would be capable of destroying targets up to 3,000 tons in size.
The minister said the missile can be launched from the surface but would eventually be modified to be fired from helicopters and submarines.
The world is already concerned about Iran's military capabilities, especially the implications of its nuclear program. The U.S. and some of its allies, as well as the International Atomic Energy Agency, say Iran is apparently trying to produce nuclear weapons, a charge Iran denies.
Iran also has an array of missiles from short to medium range that could hit targets including Israel, U.S. military bases in the region and much of Europe.
Iran frequently makes announcements about new advances in military technology that cannot be independently verified.
Gen. Vahidi said the production of the cruise missiles, which took two years to develop, showed that sanctions on Iran have failed. He said the cruise missiles would strengthen Iran's naval power.
The state TV showed propaganda a video of boxes in a warehouse containing several missiles. It also showed footage of Iran's cruise missile test in 2007. That missile was apparently imported.
Iran began a military self-sufficiency program in 1992, under which it produces a large range of weapons, including tanks, missiles, jet fighters, unmanned drone aircraft and torpedoes.
Russia confirmed Saturday that its forces had killed the militant leader Aleksandr Tikhomirov, who under the name Said Buryatsky is believed to have trained suicide bombers in the North Caucasus. And Russian officials said they had proof that his organization was behind the bombing of a luxury train in November.
Aleksandr Bortnikov, the director of the Federal Security Service, told Russia's president that it "has been proved absolutely certainly" that a charred body retrieved after a huge raid on the village of Ekazhevo in Ingushetia was that of Mr. Tikhomirov. He said federal investigators in Ekazhevo had uncovered material evidence establishing that Mr. Tikhomirov's group was responsible for the bombing of the luxury train, the Nevsky Express, which killed 28 and wounded more than 90. He also said genetic tests performed on the bodies of fighters killed in the raid "give grounds to presume" that they had bombed the train.
Mr. Bortnikov said eight fighters were killed and 10 were detained during the federal raid, which sealed off the village of 25,000 before dawn on Tuesday.
Chechnya's president, Ramzan A. Kadyrov, celebrated even before Mr. Tikhomirov's death had been confirmed, telling reporters in Grozny that the man was a "bastard schizophrenic" who worked for Western intelligence services. But Ingushetia's president, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, was far more circumspect.
"They killed him, but in his place will come some other ideologist," Mr. Yevkurov said Saturday at a meeting with relatives of men who were sheltering Mr. Tikhomirov, where he urged them not to "allow this dirt to come out of your house."
"Our goal is not to kill them, but to extract them from the system," he said of the fighters, according to the RIA Novosti news service. "We will put the guilty behind bars, let them pay for their actions according to the law, and then leave corrected, but alive and well, just so that they do not continue killing people."
He went on to say that a bomb laboratory in Ekazhevo was responsible for the most notorious attacks of the past year, including an attempt on his life in June and an August suicide bombing at a police station that killed at least 25 and wounded more than 150.
The Federal Security Service released a statement on Saturday saying its forces had killed four brothers in the Kartoyev family, as well as the man who financed the militants, an official in the regional office of the Russian Federal Treasury. The statement said there was "documentary evidence" that one of the Kartoyev brothers, Turkhan, had bombed the Nevsky Express.
During a search of the area, the statement said, the authorities found more than a ton of aluminum nitrate and plastic explosives, as well as a workshop used to make improvised explosive devices. They also retrieved "material evidence" linking the group to the bombing in November and explosive devices identical to the one used in a train attack in 2007.
Belan Kartoyev, a resident of Ekazhevo who said he was no relation to the Kartoyev brothers, said the men were construction workers uninvolved in terrorism. In a telephone interview, he said that at least three other people were killed at a second location in Ekazhevo, but that they were strangers to the village. "I have no idea who those people were," he said. "I doubt anyone here knows them."
#1
why would you rather capture them than kill them? Also since you don't really hear too much about Chechnya in the US I had always thought that Kadyrov used too be against Russian forces. If only they jsut named everyone muhammad and ali like the ME it would be easier too keep up with
Posted by: chris ||
03/07/2010 14:17
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Kadyrov indeed used to be a Chechen rebel before he defected and agreed to work for the Russians. Now he's the well-compensated, entrepreneurial President of Chechnya.
And the Russians are quite particular about people who work workagainst them or their client.
Messages are flying between Hamas commanders deployed throughout the Middle East, expressing concern that local leaders are losing control over Gaza.
Shin Bet Internal Memo: Well done, everyone! Don't forget to thank your people out in the field, especially the various colours of princes and princesses.
Ahmed Ja'bri, head of the terror group's Izz a-din al-Kassam armed division, recently sent an urgent missive to Hamas politburo leader Khaled Mashaal in Damascus, complaining about the organization's "deteriorating" authority in Gaza. According to a report published Saturday in the London-based Arabic-language newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat, the letter noted that "several worrisome explosions recently occurred in Gaza, security anarchy is extensive, and al-Kassam men are being killed."
Isn't it rather unusual for such intra-organization communications to be leaked? I wonder who did so, and why?
*Whispered* "Tov m'od, Uri!"
The letter was apparently not the first sent by Ja'bri, warning Mashaal that the situation in Gaza has become increasingly tense. Global jihadists have been posing a growing challenge to Hamas's authority in the area, he informed his superiors. The latest message followed a spate of attacks targeting the offices of senior Hamas commanders, including the Gaza prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh. It was not clear who was behind the assassination attempts.
"This is the second letter sounding the alarm, the first having been sent in November," he reminded. "I want to stress once again that the situation in Gaza is worsening," the text of the letter read. "We began to lose control of the internal situation after you asked us to transfer control to the government and not to interfere, in order to allow it to direct the affairs of Gaza," he complained.
"A number of government officials have complained about operations in which we eliminated some Fatah operatives, something that was necessary to secure peace internally. Izz a-Din al-Kassam may have made a few stupid errors, such as killing agents from the Palestinian Authority security force, and these resulted from personal motives -- but the security of the [Hamas] movement was always vastly more important than an occasional death," he added.
Hamas has been struggling in recent months with a growing challenge to its authority from mushrooming Islamist groups linked to the international al-Qaeda terrorist organization. According to IDF military intelligence sources, global jihad (al-Qaeda) operatives were active in Gaza for several years; an IDF soldier was killed in an attack perpetrated in January 2009 by global jihadists near southern Gaza. Global jihadists also clashed with Hamas terrorists last July over control over a mosque in the area of the Rafiah, the only border crossing that does not lead into Israel, but rather into Egypt and the rest of the world. IDF military officials warned in 2008 that al-Qaeda terrorists were among the hundreds who had infiltrated Gaza after Hamas operatives blew up the security barrier on the Egyptian-Gaza border in January 2008.
One of the three Hamas-linked terrorist groups involved in the June 2006 kidnapping of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit was the Army of Islam, a group that has ties to the Doghmush clan, and that is considered a branch of al-Qaeda in Gaza. The group was also responsible for the March 2007 kidnapping of Alan Johnston, the Gaza City bureau chief for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). It was nearly four months before Johnston was freed; Shalit is still being held hostage -- his condition and whereabouts remain unknown.
Last month another British journalist was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists -- freelancer Paul Martin was arrested at a Gaza courthouse for allegedly supporting a terrorist facing charges of collaborating with Israel. Martin, who has written for the BBC and the Times of London, among others, is still being held by the terrorist group, which has not announced formal charges against him, but has said he will be held until at least March 15. Hamas, which seized control of the region following a milita war with Fatah in June 2007, claims Martin "committed offenses that harmed the security of the country" but has not detailed what those offenses are. Since Gaza is not a sovereign country, and Hamas does not respect the Geneva Convention or any other international law, negotiations for Martin's release will rest largely on the skill of his defense lawyer alone, Sharhabil Zayim.
The professional designation of lawyer seems a bit odd in a territory where the law does not rule.
#1
Barney really doesn't know what is going on with the US Economy, here he sounds like a little boy attempting to pass his mid term exams, with little knowledge of the subject at hand.
Man, are we in trouble.
Next a bit of music to pull the blood pressure down:
New Delhi, March 7 (IANS) Security forces killed 245 terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir last year, when the number of infiltration attempts by militants from Pakistan went up marginally, according to official figures.
"Attempts at infiltration from across the LoC (saw) a marginal increase during 2009," Minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Maken said, referring to the Line of Control dividing Indian and Pakistani Kashmir.
He said 342 incursion attempts were recorded in 2008 and 485 in 2009, the minister told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply. Maken said that terrorist activities showed a "declining trend - from 708 in 2008 to 499 in 2009″ in Jammu and Kashmir.
"As per the statistics provided by the ministry of defence, the terrorists killed in Jammu and Kashmir are 245 in 2009, and 27 up to Feb 21, 2010," he said.
The minister said the government had adopted a multi-pronged approach to contain cross-border infiltration in the state. This "includes strengthening of border management and multi-tiered and multi-modal deployment along international border and the LoC and infiltration routes".
He said the government was also upgrading border fencing, acquiring latest weapons and equipment, and synergising intelligence flow to check infiltration from Pakistan.
Posted by: john frum ||
03/07/2010
07:28 ||
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#1
Where is Amnesty International when you need them ?
Posted by: Dave UK ||
03/07/2010 14:59
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#2
"Where is Amnesty International when you need them?"
Same place they always are, Dave - kissing terrorists' butts....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/07/2010 15:38
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#1
"it's not like anyone can shoot this system"
erm, no, you do have to be IDF of course
Posted by: Sir Victor Emmanuel Glomomble IV ||
03/07/2010 10:11
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#2
The young lady is operating a remote weapon system, either Raphael or Elbit, mounting either a .50 cal or 7.62mm weapon. The implication is that the system is integrated with external sensors to operate on what is called a "slew to cue" basis. Under this configuration the weapon automatically swings over to where the threat is detected and then the operator takes over to dtermine if the threat is real and dispatch it as needed.
While the IDF officer is rightfully proud of this system, rest assured that it is not the only one in the world. We have them here in the US too, protecting critical assets, and proudly provided by the company I helped found.
A sharp-eyed viewer has noticed that when I was debating George Monbiot on TV yesterday and I mentioned that his cherished “peer-reviewed science' had been discredited by Climategate he bared his teeth like a cornered cur. Says my body language expert John Lish:
“It was a quite aggressive and defensive gesture which was noticeable when he was attempting to dismiss you (talking about peer review). A definite body-language sign of being rattled. He's definitely uncomfortable about what's occurring and others will have spotted that as well.'
Monbiot isn't the only one. Consider the paranoid tone of this email from climate-fear-promoter Paul Ehrlich, during an exchange with fellow members at the National Academy of Scientists on how best to deal with the Denier threat: (Hat tip: Marc Morano)
“Most of our colleagues don't seem to grasp that we're not in a gentlepersons' debate, we're in a street fight against well-funded, merciless enemies who play by entirely different rules.'
And consider this tragic response from the editor of the US magazine Skeptical Inquirer when faced with declining readership. Despite its name, the Skeptical Inquirer has tended to adopt a none-too-sceptical position on AGW. This has annoyed one or two readers who have been cancelling their subscriptions in disgust. The editor Kendrick Frazier seems to imagine that this is not a reflection on his editorial policy but on his readership's ‘false consciousness' – as he shows in this robust editorial: (hat tip: Philip Thomas)
This is the third SI reader who has canceled his (it's always a male) subscription over our climate change pieces in the current SI (not to mention the at least six who did so after our first round of articles several years ago). Boy, they don't want to hear anything they disagree with, do they.
It is clear the anti-GW science crowd have their minds made up, and nothing anyone is going to say, no appeal to scientific evidence, no attempt to place things into an accurate context, no attempt to point out that many media and blog portrayals are not always fully accurate, no facts, no explanations, no attempts to show they themselves are being manipulated, nothing is ever going to change their minds. Very much like the evolution/creationist controversy, except that these are some of our longtime readers.
They do not want to engage forthrightly with factual, science-based statements or arguments. They only want their own views reinforced. There is no attempt at open-minded discussion or even fair argument. Just a determination to maintain their ideological purity and not have it be contaminated with any scientific information and perspective that doesn't support their presuppositions. They want to draw a don't-tell-me-anything-I-don't-want-to-hear cocoon around themselves. Unfortunately, that cocoon is growing ever larger. And they know they are punishing us, because, even more than most publications, which have advertising, we depend mostly on subscription revenue.
Guess we should just go along with the crowd, the lynch mob. Hop on the bandwagon. Slam those damned ignorant climatologists coming up with all that nonsense about changing climate and a warming planet. Who needs science anyway?
All this is a roundabout way of answering one of my editors' kind suggestions that I respond to this morning's front page story in which some desperate scientists at the embarrassing, useless and parti pris Met Office have apparently attempted to repair their creaky, wheel-less AGW bandwagon with a hurried new botch job report. Sorry, but I don't think many of us are going to fall for this nonsense any more.
Monbiot tried it on yesterday with his free two and half minute propaganda broadcast generously funded by the BBC's The Daily Politics show in which he rehashed all his old arguments (man's selfishness, rising sea-levels, plight of the poor, wind farms, blah di blah di blah) as though Climategate, Glaciergate, Pachaurigate, Amazongate, Africagate et al had never happened. Now the MET office is having a go.
Sorry chaps, it won't wash. The debate has moved on. It's not about “the science' any more. (Not that it ever was). It's about economics. Politics. Money. The taxpayer versus Big Government.
On all of which, more laterÂ….
#4
The money quote: Once the state swells to a certain size, the people available to fill the ever-expanding number of government jobs will be statists - sometimes hard-core Marxist statists, sometimes social-engineering, multi-culti statists, sometimes fluffily "compassionate" statists, but always statists. The short history of the postwar welfare state is that you don't need a president-for-life if you've got a bureaucracy-for-life.
President Obama's proposed budget would add more than $9.7 trillion to the national debt over the next decade, congressional budget analysts said Friday. Proposed tax cuts for the middle class account for nearly a third of that shortfall.
The 10-year outlook released by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office is somewhat gloomier than White House projections, which found that Obama's budget request would produce deficits that would add about $8.5 trillion to the national debt by 2020.
The CBO and the White House are in relative agreement about the short-term budget picture, with both predicting a deficit of about $1.5 trillion this year -- a post-World War II record at 10.3 percent of the overall economy -- and $1.3 trillion in 2011. But the CBO is considerably less optimistic about future years, predicting that deficits would never fall below 4 percent of the economy under Obama's policies and would begin to grow rapidly after 2015.
Deficits of that magnitude would force the Treasury to continue borrowing at prodigious rates, sending the national debt soaring to 90 percent of the economy by 2020, the CBO said. Interest payments on the debt would also skyrocket by $800 billion over the same period.
Obama's tax-cutting agenda is by far the biggest contributor to those budget gaps, the CBO said. As part of his campaign pledge to protect families making less than $250,000 a year from new taxes, the president is proposing to prevent the alternative minimum tax from expanding to ensnare millions of additional taxpayers. He also wants to make permanent a series of tax cuts enacted during the Bush administration, which are scheduled to expire at the end of this year.
"Over the next 10 years, those policies would reduce revenues and boost outlays for refundable tax credits by a total of $3.0 trillion," wrote Douglas W. Elmendorf, the CBO director. Combined with interest payments on that shortfall, the tax cuts account for the entire increase in deficits that would result from Obama's proposals.
Obama is convening a special commission to bring deficits down to 3 percent of the economy, but the CBO report shows that Obama could accomplish that goal simply by letting the Bush tax cuts expire and paying for changes to the alternative minimum tax.
Other policy changes, such as Obama's signature health-care initiative and a plan to dramatically expand the federal student loan program, would have significant effects on the budget, Elmendorf wrote, but they generally would be paid for and therefore would not drive deficits higher.
#1
I am so shocked! How can that be? But the WH told us differently. Just another reason not to trust any health care reform coming out of this administration.
Health care reform is like rape. Just as rape is about power and control, health care reform in Washington is too.
#2
"unexpected" but not "unprecedented". Theme of this loser admin
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/07/2010 10:30
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Even this vastly understates the problem. The Federal budget deficit does not equal Federal debt. For instance the Fed deficit for 2009 and 2010 is projected at $3.0 trillion, but the national debt increases by $4.5 trillion to $14.456 trillion. The difference is made up by stealing borrowing from the Social Security trust funds which guarantees it won't be there when the baby boomers retire. All that's happening, at best, is the heroin addict is delaying the day of reckoning another 10 years. In 20 years old (and young) folks are going to think Alpo is a luxury.
Posted by: ed ||
03/07/2010 19:18
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#4
Did the Social Security trust funds ever really have money in them? Because from the beginning they paid out funds collected from workers that (or the previous) year.
#5
That's a debatable question since government accounting would land people in prison if a civilian company ever tried it. However, SS is still collecting more money than it pays out. The gov "borrows" from the balance (the SS Trust Fund) to run continuing operations. But worse news, just last year Medicare started paying out more than it took in and the Medicate Trust Fund will soon be broke.
Posted by: ed ||
03/07/2010 23:26
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#6
"90% of GDP" > Yep, 'twas all over CNN + CNBC + FOX this AM. The PRO-BAMMER BUDGET, ECONO PERTS tried hard to put on a HAPPY/STRAIGHT FACE at that particular bit of analysis from the CBO, but I doubt any of the Newsies were impressed, not even CNN.
Ay-Pee . . . .
BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) - Anger over increasing tuition and school budget cuts boiled over as students across the country staged rowdy demonstrations that led to clashes with police and the rush-hour shutdown of a major freeway in California.
Students, teachers, parents and school employees rallied and marched Thursday at college campuses, public parks and government buildings in many U.S. cities in what was called the March 4 Day of Action to Defend Public Education. One of these days, people in CA will figure out that money does not fall into state coffers like manna from heaven. People will have to make sure they are careful with everyone else's money, and everyone else will have to be careful with your money. And paying bribes for the hispanic vote doesn't pay.
#1
This is really an "The Emperor has no clothes" moment for higher education, that is long overdue.
It began in earnest with rotten federal court decisions that hiring policies could not be based solely on test results given by employers, as these were, or could at least easily be, "racist".
Instead, hiring policies could only be based on whether new hires had a college degree or not. Since colleges could *never* be racist, I guess.
This meant not only that colleges would have enormous expansion, yet provide minimum education in a paper chase for a diploma. Cranking out huge numbers of graduates who had to be retrained by employers. Paid for with higher and higher tuition rates and much larger government subsidies.
And this meant students would graduate deeply in debt, forcing them to hold off on marriage, children, home ownership, etc., until they had paid off their loans.
However, with tuition now skyrocketing all over the country because of cutbacks in government subsidies, and schools unwilling to delete grotesque amounts of fat or spending, the situation is being forced to a head.
And never one to not reinforce defeat, now Obama is nationalizing student loans, figuring that students will be beholden to the government for the rest of their lives.
However, the truth of the matter is that a heck of a lot of individuals are going to give up trying for a college degree. So what happens from there?
Either the federal courts relent, and allow them to hire high school graduates based on test results, or they have to contract with educational corporations to train and evaluate all prospective hires before they will even be considered for hiring.
In either case, the days of Enormous State University are rapidly drawing to a close. They will have to slash their spending and eliminate utterly useless degrees, and they are not going to like it one bit. But with losing half or more of their students, they will have no choice.
#2
When the wintry winds starts blowing
And the snow is starting in the fall
Then my eyes went southward knowing
That's the place that I love best of all
Argentina I've been blue
Since I've been away from you
I can't wait 'till I get blowing
Even now I'm starting in a call
Argentina, here we come,
worse than where we started from
weÂ’re students at Berkeley,
tuitionÂ’s cheap,
a living is owed us
the whole world revolves around us
Our suntanned profs say “we want more”
That is what inflationÂ’s for
Open up your rusted gate,
Argentina, Here we come.
Argentina, here we come,
right back where we started from
our parents in houses
equity free,
our unions have pensions
we know they will never see
A lying pol say spend it all
Bankers say letÂ’s just inflate
Open up your rusted gate
Argentina, Here we come.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Iran's transport minister said on Saturday that Russian pilots flying for Iranian airlines will be replaced by local cockpit crew within two months, the Fars news agency reported. "The ministry of transport has given a two-month period, after which all Russian pilots must leave the country," the agency quoted Hamid Behbahani as saying.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2010
00:00 ||
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#4
Or -- Russia doesn't want it's pilots there in case of war and are withdrawing them but are allowing the Iranians to be the announcers to give them some face-saving.
#7
According to StrategyPage, it's all about the S-300 SAMs. Russian attempts to replace Iran's aging AirBus and Boeing airliner fleet with Russia aircraft has apparently failed. Iran has ordered dozens of Russian pilots (for the Russian airliners Iran does use) to leave the country within two months. Iran is angry that Russia has again said it would deliver the S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems Iran has bought and paid for, and then said that, no, the missile systems would not be shipped. Russia has become alarmed at Irans nuclear weapons program, and the aggressiveness and instability of Iranian leadership.
Posted by: ed ||
03/07/2010 18:21
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#8
I just got in an extra boxcar-load, Karl. :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/07/2010 18:24
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#9
"Russia has become alarmed at Irans nuclear weapons program, and the aggressiveness and instability of Iranian leadership."
Why? Russia finally figured out they're a lot closer to Iran than we are?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/07/2010 18:26
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#10
I think our buddies in the Politburo have finally looked at the wind patterns in the ME and figured out that if Iran cooks off one of their new toys, the nuclear plume from the blast will contaminate a significant chunk of Russia.
Not to mention Iran it self but then if they do that, a war would be easy, the Iranians would all glow in the dark.
No seriously the prevailing winds would blow fallout from a blast in Israel across Jordan, part of the KOSA, Iraq, Syria (we could only hope) and Iran itself.
It's like the guy who catches his wife in bed with another man, and tells them he is committing suicide, and when they laugh he says, well you're next.
Irrationality compounded with religious fanaticism is a witches brew of disaster.
Posted by: Karl Rove ||
03/07/2010 22:05
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"Don't need a Weatherman to know which way the wind blows ..."
The Association of Iranian Journalists and Reporters describes the arrest of TV correspondent Hamid Masoumi-Nejad in Italy as 'a Mafia-style tactic' to pressure Iran over its nuclear program.
Masoumi-Nejad, an accredited journalist working for the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting in Rome, was arrested on Wednesday on charges of smuggling weapons to Iran in defiance of international sanctions.
In statement released on Friday, Abbas Darvish-Tavangar, who heads the Association of Iranian Journalists and Reporters, said the arrest shows more than ever that the Mafia has infiltrated into the high ranks of the Italian government and justice department.
"Masoumi-Nejad's arrest was nothing but a Mafia-designed scenario, staged at the behest of Israel and the United States to prevent Iran from enriching uranium," said Darvish-Tavangar.
"In a recent meeting with Israeli leaders, Berlusconi promised to increase pressure on Tehran over its nuclear work. He even went so far as to promise that he wouldl do everything in his power to end Tehran's enrichment activities," he noted.
Speaking on behalf of all Iranian journalists, Darvish-Tavangar said the arrest was "purely political, utterly immoral, and in blatant violation of human rights."
Tavangar added Masoumi-Nejad was in fact arrested because of his hard-hitting coverage of the many scandals and corruption charges against Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
"His crime was to cover demonstrations, in which millions of Italians protested the policies of their government," he noted. "His crime was to expose the corrupt nature of the Berlusconi government to a greater extent."
"His crime was to reveal the racist mindset and xenophobic policies of Italian government and police officials towards more than 2.6 million immigrants in Italy, particularly the Muslim minority," he added.
Darvish-Tavangar described as "absurd" accusations of weapons-smuggling against Masoumi-Nejad and another Iranian national by the name of Homayoun Bakhtiyari, who was also arrested in Turin in northwestern Italy.
The association head explained that the allegations are in line with efforts to demonize Iranian media correspondents and government officials throughout the international community.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2010
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#1
I wonder: what if Italians farmed the job out to some don?
I have personally run into what happens when poorly trained nurses are left to their own devices. It ain't good. Not in the US, and even worse under socialized medicine. Hospital administrations think that RNs aren't worth their pay and cut costs by employing Medical Assistants or those that aren't appropriate but take lower pay. People die or are further injured. The more vulnerable ones. And then the thin white line comes into play and everyone clams up. Then the storm blows over and things go right back to where they were until the next storm. And the cycle repeats itself. The example listed below is in the UK as a result of the vaunted NHS:
A man of 22 died in agony of dehydration after three days in a leading teaching hospital.
Kane Gorny was so desperate for a drink that he rang police to beg for their help. They arrived on the ward only to be told by doctors that everything was under control.
The next day his mother Rita Cronin found him delirious and he died within hours. She said nurses had failed to give him vital drugs which controlled fluid levels in his body. 'He was totally dependent on the nurses to help him and they totally betrayed him.'
A coroner has such grave concerns about the case that it has been referred to police. Sources say they are investigating the possibility of a corporate manslaughter charge against St George's Hospital in Tooting, South London.
Mr Gorny, from Balham, worked for Waitrose and had been a keen footballer and runner until he was diagnosed with a brain tumour the year before his death.
The medication he took caused his bones to weaken and he was admitted to St George's for a hip replacement in May last year. The operation left him immobile and unable to get out of bed. His 50-year-old mother says that he needed to take drugs three times a day to regulate his hormones. Doctors had told him that without the drugs he would die.
Although he had stressed to staff how important his medication was, she said, no one gave him the drugs. Better check into the qualifications of every nurse in the hospital. And find out where their duty stations are and when they are on duty. I'll bet there aren't even a quarter of the number of RNs you really need to provide adequate decision-making and care.
She said that two days after his hip operation, while Miss Cronin was at work, he became severely dehydrated but his requests for water were refused.
He became aggressive and nurses called in security guards to restrain him. After they had left, he rang the police from his bed to demand their help.
Miss Cronin, who is divorced from her son's father Peter, said: 'The police told me he'd said, "Please help me. All I want is a drink and no one is helping me".
'By this time my son was confused due to his lack of medication and I think the nurses just ignored him because they thought he was just being badly behaved. Ah, "badly behaved". People tend to do that when they are dying. I guess the "nurses" decided to take that as the permission they needed to aggressively ignore his every request.
'They were lazy, careless and hadn't bothered to check his charts and see his medication was essential.' More likely they were never trained to deal with these things, and they were put there by the administration to "save on costs". I'd look there, too.
That evening, Miss Cronin visited him. She said: 'I told Kane to behave himself because I thought he had been causing trouble - and I feel so bad about that now. I thought maybe he was having a bad reaction to the morphine he was on but in fact it was because he had not had his medication.'
The next morning she visited him before going to work. 'He was delirious and his mouth was open,' she said. 'I gave him a drink of Ribena.
'I told three nurses there was something wrong with my son and they said, "He's fine" and walked off. I started to cry and a locum doctor who was there told me not to worry. Eventually the ward doctor came round, took one look at Kane and started shouting for help.'
Miss Cronin was asked to leave her son's bedside. 'He died an hour later,' she said. 'I didn't even realise he was dying. I didn't even have a chance to say goodbye.' This is why Europe has banned guns.
The death certificate said Mr Gorny had died because of a 'water deficit' and 'hypernatraemia' - a medical term for dehydration.
His mother added: 'When I went back to the hospital I was told that all the nurses had been offered counselling as they were so traumatised, but nothing was offered to me. Counselling, or counsel?
'The whole thing is a disgrace. This hospital has a brilliant reputation and boasts of its excellent standards and safety record. Is that what they say about themselves? I know other hospitals that do that, too.
'But as soon as my son walked into that ward, his death warrant was signed. Of the 32 people who were involved in my son's care, every one made a mistake that ultimately led to his death, from the consultant to the care assistant.
'There has been an internal investigation but St George's never made it public and it was a whitewash-After his death the hospital never phoned me or wrote to me to apologise. How could this happen in the 21st century?' It's a legal thing. CAn't admit you were wrong because you might have to pay the penalty, you know.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: 'Detectives from the Homicide and Serious Crime Command are investigating the death of Kane Gorny at St George's Hospital after this was referred to us by Westminster Coroner's Court.'
A spokesman for St George's Hospital said: 'We are extremely sorry about the death of Kane Gorny and understand the distress that this has caused to his family. Then apologize.
'A full investigation was carried out and new procedures introduced to ensure that such a case cannot happen in future. We have written to the family to explain the actions that have been taken and to answer their concerns about Mr Gorny's care. The family has also been invited to meet with trust staff to discuss the case in detail.' No they weren't.
The tragedy emerged a week after a report into hundreds of deaths at Stafford Hospital revealed the appalling quality of care given by many of the nurses. It's not only socialist hospitals that have these problems, but I'll bet the socialist system exacerbates it. There will be people going to hell for this one.
This week a task force called on nurses to sign a public pledge that they will treat everyone with compassion and dignity. Make sure that pledge comes with an RN degree.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Icelanders are voting on whether to pay the UK and the Netherlands $5.2 billion they paid to their citizens after the Icesave bank went bankrupt in 2008.
Iceland voters likely will reject a plan to use taxpayer money to cover the losses of British and Dutch depositors in a failed online bank, observers say.
The British and Dutch governments want reimbursement of $5.2 billion they paid in compensation to customers after the failure of Icesave bank, which folded in 2008.
Voters in Iceland headed to the polls on Saturday, one day after talks between the three countries broke down before an agreement could be reached.
Opinion polls suggest the majority of voters will reject the referendum. 96% of them did, according to the vote.
But a no vote is expected to deal another blow to Iceland's troubled economy as it could block billions of dollars of loans from international organizations.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2010
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#1
Setting aside the fact that the poll was moot (the proposed reimbursement package being voted on had been shelved and a new one is in the process of being drafted - that's my understanding), this is an example of democracy at its worst. These turkeys felt as though they were being asked to vote in an early Christmas, for the benefit of faceless strangers in countries with 'much bigger economies'. The fact is that Iceland prospered for years from a banking industry taking the sharp practices we're familiar with to the max. They do bear a collective responsibility: their bankers took the hard earned savings of others and lost the lot. They will pay the consequences, one way or another, but this vote shows that, sadly, they really don't deserve much sympathy.
#5
A more equivalent question would be if random citizens of Houston should have to pay the debts of Enron... or if random citizens of New York should have to pay the debts of Lehman Bros.' derivatives unit.
[Maghrebia] A Sale court on Thursday (March 4th) rejected a bail request from 12 alleged Salafia Jihadia terror cell members, MAP reported. The defendants, including a police commissioner and two police officers, are accused of financing terrorism, drug trafficking, theft and other criminal activities in Morocco and Spain.
Information provided by Spanish intelligence officials reportedly helped Moroccan authorities dismantle the network last June. Accused cell leader Abou Yacine previously served prison time for ties to the Ansar el Mehdi terror group.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2010
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KUALA LUMPUR - A MALAYSIAN magazine apologised Saturday for upsetting Christians after it published an article researched by two Muslims who pretended to be Roman Catholics and took Communion in a church.
The apology is likely to soothe frustrations among religious minorities who feel that overzealous government authorities and clerics are trying too hard to champion the interests of Islam and ignoring the rights of non-Muslims.
The Al Islam monthly magazine, which focuses on issues affecting Malaysian Muslims, acknowledged in a statement on its publisher's website that its article had 'unintentionally hurt the feelings of Christians, especially Catholics'. Al Islam's article, published in May last year, was meant to investigate rumors that Muslim teenagers were being converted to Christianity in churches. The article said its two reporters had found no evidence of that.
The apology came after Archbishop Murphy Pakiam, who heads the Catholic Church in peninsular Malaysia, criticized government authorities earlier this week for not prosecuting the two men who researched the article. Pakiam, however, said that church leaders would be satisfied if the magazine issued a formal apology. Attorney General Abdul Gani Patail responded that no charges were filed because the two men committed only 'an act of sheer ignorance' without any malicious intention.
The magazine's statement Saturday said it 'never meant to insult the Christian faith, let alone to disturb or trespass into its house of worship'.
'The Al Islam magazine apologizes in connection with the publication of the article,' the statement said, adding that its two writers were also sorry and had been unaware that their actions would offend Christians. The men had spat out Communion wafers and took a photograph of a partially bitten one. Catholics believe the Communion wafer is transformed into the body of Christ by the priest during Mass.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2010
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#1
I would suggest that the writers of Al Islam do a little bit more reseach on the Quran and Jesus, because by their act the 2 Muslims transgressed against not only Christianity but Islam too.
Posted by: Jack Ebberert6731 ||
03/07/2010 9:36
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[Iran Press TV Latest] Some of the hundreds of bacteria found in the digestive systems are believed to be responsible for obesity and a group of other health conditions, a new study finds.
"Previous research has suggested that bacteria can influence how well energy is absorbed from food, but these findings demonstrate that intestinal bacteria can actually influence appetite," said lead researcher Andrew Gewirtz.
According to the study published in Science, certain bacteria cause affected individuals overeat through stimulating inflammation in the body.
Baby mice born to mothers having these bacteria in their gut were reported to develop the very micro-organisms even if their embryos were transferred into surrogate mothers, the study found.
These mice were more vulnerable to developing metabolic syndrome -- a group of symptoms including high cholesterol levels, abdominal obesity, high blood pressure and insulin resistance -- later on in life.
Scientists concluded that intestinal inflammation caused by these bacteria alters insulin from working properly and subsequently causes insulin resistance and obesity.
They hope to identify the culprit bacteria in the near future in order to tackle the global epidemic of obesity affecting millions of individuals worldwide.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2010
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#2
I have heard this before from other studies but I believe they are going to discover the culprit is gluten. Humans did not evolve eating grains, we have only been eating them for about the past 6,000 years or so.
#4
Humans have been eating gluten for a very long time, just not as a staple. Prior to the advent of grain growing (approximately 10,000 years ago) humans would eat grass seeds when they came upon them. (Actually, they'd eat just about anything that was edible on that basis.)
I've seen new evidence that suggests the original use of grain grown in bulk was for brewing, not baking, as well. But certainly by six or eight thousand years ago civilizations were growing grain as their primary food source.
However, analysis of bones from the immediate post ice age era prior to plant agriculture suggest that over 85% of the diet was meat, with smaller amounts of fruit as the bulk of the rest.
A diet high in grain-based carbs is the problem. If you look at different ethnic types, you'll find that the ones which have been growing rice, wheat, barley, corn, etc. the longest have the lowest percentage of individuals with celiac disease (also known as "sprue"), a skeletal disorder, which is directly related to consumption of the protein gluten.
But the risks of a high-grain diet aren't limited to the gluten component. If you look at ethnic groups that did not eat large amounts of grain until recently (meaning a century or three) - blacks and American Indians in particular - you find that when they adopt a diet high in grain products they develop diabetes at rates that are off the charts. This is due to the carb content, not gluten.
This has been exacerbated in the past forty or so years by the federal government, which simultaneously uses our tax money to subsidize massive grain production while putting out propaganda like the "food pyramid" which tells people to eat fifteen servings of grass seed a day.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
03/07/2010 7:02
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#5
All scientific discoveries aside, the largest part of the obesitypriblem is and will always be the fact that certain people EAT (very) UNHEALTHY FOODS,are EATING PORTIONS THAT ARE WAY TO BIG or are refusing ANY FORM OF EXCERCISE.
As Dennis Leary said: "Dinosuars are big-boned, PUT DOWN THE FORK"
Posted by: Snaigum Oppressor of the Sith8920 ||
03/07/2010 7:30
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#6
What he said.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
03/07/2010 7:52
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#7
So all these fat people are "bug" carriers ?
I think not, some may be like this guy,
Posted by: Jack Ebberert6731 ||
03/07/2010 7:55
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#8
Remember those pictures from Somalia [when people cared]? See any fat people? Technically, they all were fat because they had the bodies to extract any last bit of nourishment from anything that was 'food'. Those who couldn't had already died. Now you alter the environment in which food is plentiful and readily accessible and they start to 'put it on'. Tens of thousands of years of evolutionary defensive breeding against lean and hungry seasons means that less than a hundred years of sustained abundance doesn't weed out that gene from the pool. I wouldn't bet my tribe's existence that we are now beyond the time when food can become scarce again by 'fixing' it.
Just take a look at photographs from a hundred years ago. The rich were fat and the workers were skinny [even the shop keeps and help, not just the farmers and laborers]. The social critics and nannies bitched about that. Now its the poor who are fat and the rich who are skinny. The social critics and nannies still bitch. The one consistency is the critics and nannies of any society, complain, complain, complain.
#9
The Pima Indians of Arizona are a very interesting case for this.
For many centuries, they lived on such a sparse diet that their livers are hyper efficient, as little as 800 calories a day would sustain them. Needless to say, in a McDonalds society, they are generally, if not universally, obese and have widespread diabetes.
They were smart, so that when casino money started rolling in, they built a world class diabetes research and treatment center as one of their first priorities.
#10
The 'Eat Right 4 Your Type' tries to address the different diets according to ethnicity. Asians, with a rice-based diet, also gain weight when eating American style food. A real problem in determining a proper diet is our diversity and intermarriage. For instance, the Irish eat a lot of dairy but Native Americans are generally lactose-intolerant. Another problem in recent history, is food preservatives to ensure a long shelf-life and hormones to fatten beef up, increase dairy production, and hurry poultry through the food chain. These are xenoestrogens, not water-soluble and when ingested, convert the carbs into fat and are stored in the body without breaking down. Deprived of real nutrients, the body craves more food, making weight loss a vicious cycle. Estrogens also feed cancers, particularly breast and prostate tumors. Other symptoms exhibited are PMS, man-boobs, loss of libido, fibrocystic diseases, and metabolic syndrome. The new rule of thumb is fresh and raw, avoiding anything that didn't exist 1-200 years ago. Tougher to follow than you might think, too.
#11
Interestingly, that while type II diabetes is rampant in Australian Aboriginal populations, obesity isn't.
It's unusual to see even an overweight young Aboriginal. Most are rail thin to lean. Although their diet is the burger and fries fast food that is blamed for obesity.
#12
Interestingly, that while type II diabetes is rampant in Australian Aboriginal populations, obesity isn't.
It's unusual to see even an overweight young Aboriginal. Are you implying that Australian aborigines with Type II DM are not obese? That would be a very interesting condition indeed. I suspect your observation is off by separating thin young people from fat older people. The ones with Type II DM are most likely fat & not particularly young. The thin young ones (if anyone bothered to study them) would already have impaired glucose tolerance, and as they age, will put on weight & many will develop Type II DM. Studies on youthful, slim & apparently healthy adults using PET scanners to follow glucose metabolism at the cellular level have show that descendants of Type II diabetics have abnormalities in their glucose metabolism like those I mentioned, even though they have no outward or clinical sign of DM or even obesity.
Some influences on populations take time to show up. When I worked near the Navajo reservation in 1975, there were almost no overweight young Navajos. 35 years later that is not the case. In 1975 (to my best knowledge) there was only one Type I diabetic among the Navajos, an astoundingly small incidence of that disease. Virtually none had high blood pressure or ischemic strokes. It was extremely uncommon to find evidence of old heart attacks on EKG's, and it wasn't because we weren't looking for them. Very few kids were hyperactive & believe me, there was plenty of opportunity to observe that in the waiting rooms. I expect that tribe has done a lot of catching-up since then.
#13
The new rule of thumb is fresh and raw, avoiding anything that didn't exist 1-200 years ago. Tougher to follow than you might think, too.
There is nothing harder than to profoundly change one's diet and to stick to it for years. Nothing. Can anything be tougher to do than that?
#14
Gosh, Ive noticed something and it is not sugar coated because that is fattening:
People who are not wheelchair bound or otherwise physically incapacitated or exceptionally unable due to limitations physically are obese because they
A) eat too many sugar, alcohol, refined carbs and such.
B) their caloric intake exceeds their basal resting metabolic rates (ie: how many calories you use just staying alive )by large margins
and
C) they don't get out and exercise
"lost 20 pounds...How? I drank bear piss and took up fencing. How the f^&* you think, son? I exercised."
- popular social networking site quote "Sh&* my Dad says'
Absent a better and compelling truth to this study people are fat because they eat too much crap and sit around on their ass or never break a sweat.
#15
"The 'Eat Right 4 Your Type' tries to address the different diets according to ethnicity. Asians, with a rice-based diet, also gain weight when eating American style food. "
Ive read this book. Overall,IMHO its point is good but it hits a brick wall when dealing with what those among us who are an AB+ blood type. AB+ blood type is a rarer blood type that tends to emerge in Eur-Asian decent.
The book lays out what AB pluses like me are supposed to be able to eat with good results. However, in these 'catch all' categories, catch all should be coined "catch many, not nearly all" because what the book doesn't completely hash out is many AB + can eat a variety of everything! One of my AB+ friends name is nicknamed "garbage disposal" this guy eats everything and his body accepts it fine. Same with me. I eat a b-r-o-a-d span of every kind of food and have never had a picky constitution.
Books like this may be useful for some, but for some it just induces paranoia when whats best is eating a variety and not worrying is the way to go. I would bet if you polled a bunch of AB's the old wisdom of eat a variety and you're good would be common but not unnanimous. I'd be curious if any other hybrid types (admittedly unscientifically polled) are "garbage disposals" too.
#16
The new rule of thumb is fresh and raw, avoiding anything that didn't exist 1-200 years ago.
In other words, eat as farmers did in the summer two centuries ago? Because I guarantee that fresh and raw was how nobody ate during the winter back then, or even very much until the first fruits of summer were harvested, except inasmuch as was available from thinning the garden. Greenhouses became the hobby of moneyed Victorians, when glass production was finally industrialized and therefore affordable in quantity, and canning was a 19th century activity, to the best of my knowledge. Before that fruits were mostly dried or preserved in alcohol for winter use, hence the traditional candied fruit cake for Christmas. Until then scurvy, rickets, and osteoporosis were the order of the day, not to mention all sorts of other debilitating metabolic disorders due to lack of proper nutrition much of the year.
Oh, and the latest hypothesis I've seen posits we developed the ability to talk after we discovered the pleasures of cooked meat, resulting in the evolution of weaker jaw muscles and therefore finer motor control of the jaw, teeth and tongue to make communicative sounds. H. sapian sapian evolved to be nourished on cooked as well as raw foods.
Some of us have nastier caries-producing bacteria in our mouths, some have nastier obesity or infection-causing bacteria in our intestines. If this study is indeed correct, all the probiotic-containing foods and pills are likely the best first line of defence we have against obesity as well as intestinal discomfort, as we provide and encourage good bacteria to displace bad. I shall make a point of picking up some probiotic yoghurt and a box of Align tomorrow at the grocery store. On the other hand, like so many other things, obesity is known to have multiple causes, and even if one's bacteria make one crave large volumes of unhealthy food, one is perfectly capable of resisting the impulse or choosing to exercise more -- it is that ability of thoughtful choice that makes us different from the other animals on this planet.
#17
Girl Thursday, I'm O- and of pure Middle European Jewish descent (German, Russian, Latvian). Except for not eating forbidden foods (pork, shellfish, insects, birds and animals of prey or carrion-eaters), I eat most cuisines and many foods with gusto and without apparent harm. I haven't read the book, but as you can see from my post above, it's not likely the arguments contained within would persuade me, no matter how well presented.
#18
Im of some unknown origins. However, Russian is one Im certain of.
I Agree the book can't really convince me to limit my liberal (ooh I hate to use that term) eating habits.
When in Asia a group of us ate some meat parts considered strange or repugnant by American dietary norms that were standard local fare, which was followed by several of our American group landing in the ER with food poisoning and dehydration. We'd all eaten the same things from a central platter. I weathered it fine, and almost felt apologetic for doing well. Again, human garbage disposal, AB+.
I do take acidophilus chewables wafers every day--a banana strawberry flavor are yum!
#19
Ah yes, you would have had more adventurous gustatory adventures than I, Girl Thursday. ;-) Except for joining Mr. Wife on a business trip to the far side of Malaysia, I've never dined anywhere outside of civilization, so I don't really know what my system can handle.
#20
Are you implying that Australian aborigines with Type II DM are not obese? That would be a very interesting condition indeed.
I worked for a while at the local Aboriginal Medical Service and I have spent time at remote Aboriginal communities. I'm not a medical person but I do have a degree in genetics.
Obese or even overweight Aboriginal children are rare, certainly much rarer than the white population. You do see overweight adults, but probably no more than the white population. Although, many adults by middle age develop a pronounced extended 'fat' stomach.
Type II diabetes is about 40 times the white population. Diet is generally pretty bad - fat, sugar starch.
Perhaps the other factor is that young Aboriginals walk a great deal more due to their parents owning few cars. A sedentary lifestyle only sets in with adulthood.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Residents here were not terribly surprised on Friday when Larry Langford, the former mayor, was sentenced to 15 years in prison and fined $360,000 by a federal judge, ending a long-running bribery case that shook local government and state Democratic politics.
But Mr. Langford provided one last jolt to the city just before his sentencing. In an unrelated lawsuit this week, it was revealed that he had somehow won hundreds of jackpots at a bingo casino owned by a supporter, adding $1.5 million to his income, according to his tax returns.
The back-to-back stories spread quickly across Birmingham, generating ridicule, disbelief and disgust, on blogs and at office water coolers.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
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The WSJ added this: Mr. Langford was accused of telling major Wall Street banks J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Bank of America Corp. and the now-bankrupt Lehman Brothers to include Blount's investment banking firm if they wanted to handle the county's bond work...Mr. Blount's Montgomery firm was accused of making $7.1 million off the bond deals with Jefferson County. The bonds were part of risky financing of sewer debt that has grown to more than $3 billion and pushed Alabama's most populous county to the brink of filing the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.
Nothing in the news about criminal investigations of JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, etc.
[Dawn] US special operations forces could help the Somali government, which is preparing an offensive to dislodge Al-Qaeda militants from the capital Mogadishu, The New York Times reported late Friday.
Citing an unnamed US official in Washington, the newspaper said the offensive could begin in a few weeks.
"What you're likely to see is airstrikes and Special Ops moving in, hitting and getting out," the official is quoted in the report as saying.
Over the past several months, American advisers have helped supervise the training of the Somali forces to be deployed in the offensive, the paper said. US officials said that this was part of a continuing program to "build the capacity" of the Somali military, and that there has been no increase in military aid for the coming operations, The Times noted.
Washington has provided covert training to Somali intelligence officers, logistical support to peacekeepers, fuel for the maneuvers, intelligence on insurgent positions and money for bullets and guns, said the Times.
Washington is also using its clout as the biggest supplier of humanitarian aid to Somalia. It has encouraged private aid agencies to move quickly into "newly liberated areas" to help civilians in an effort to make the government more popular, The Times said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2010
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#1
I'm sure it will help the Somali government expand on the 3 blocks of downtown Mogadishu they currently control.
[Geo News] Arrested US citizens have filed plea in a session court for their release, which will be heard on March 08.
Defence counsels Khalid Khwaja and Shahid Kamal filed plea on behalf of US men in district sessions court Sargodha of Judge Syed Hamid Hussain, which was accepted for hearing on March 08.
The men from Washington were arrested in December, pleaded before court that they reached Pakistan with valid documents and were kidnapped by 12 armed men one of whom claimed to be US Consul General.
Nonsense. Convict them, then hang 'em high!
We be released and kidnappers be arrested, the plea further added.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Ma'an] Fatah Central Committee Member Nabil Sha'ath sharply condemned on Saturday President of Panama Ricardo Martinelli's remarks in which he referred to Israel as the "guardian" of the holy city of Jerusalem.
"Martinelli's comments did not only insult the Palestinian people, the Arab, Islamic, and Christian world, but also insulted international law," Sha'ath said in a statement.
"After Martinelli became president of Panama, the whole policy of the republic changed and it became the only country in Latin America to vote in favor of Israel in the UN. Once again, the president of Panama is challenging its neighboring countries and international law during his visit to Israel.
"He toured holy sites in the Palestinian Territories escorted by Israeli officers. The republic of Panama has the right to establish diplomatic relations with any country in the world including Israel, yet they shouldn't support Israel's violations of international law and human rights."
Sha'ath said Israel's "colonialism" in Jerusalem was repeatedly condemned internationally, by countries such as the US, the EU, the Vatican, Latin American countries, Islamic countries, and the rest of the international community. He added that Martinelli's statement is "worrisome," and both Arab and Latin American countries should have a clear stance toward it.
"Since, the president of Panama announces that Israel is the guardian of Jerusalem, he might need to explain the meaning of his words to the Palestinian families who lose their homes in Jerusalem every week. He might also need to explain to the millions of Muslims and Christians who are denied access to the holy sites in the city," Sha'ath added.
During an official visit at Israeli President Shimon Peres' residence in West Jerusalem on 2 March, Martinelli addressed officials present, saying "As a citizen of Panama .. I say with great honor and joy: I will always support Israel, guardian of the world's capital, Jerusalem."
"The Jewish heart is the same as Panama's heart."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2010
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#1
Do you have a problem with Panama's Heart, sir?
Do you have anything to offer anybody but rantings? ..
.?sir?
#4
That's very surprising to me. Maybe there's still hope yet. All the rest of the world, including the leftists in this country are happy to go along and support the maniacs in palastan and arabstan, yet here's this one little country's leader who's got the guts and integrity to stand up to them. I hope he's got some good security.
[Straits Times] THE Sungai Batu archeological site in the Bujang Valley proves that civilisation in this country had started much earlier and was the oldest in South-east Asia.
Information Communication and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim said the site, which was believed to have existed in the year 110, showed the existence of religion, commerce and the economy.
'The Bujang Valley in Sungai Batu is a determination to estimate the new civilisation which is known to have existed much earlier than the one existing in neighbouring countries either in Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia or Thailand. It is hoped that no one will belittle this effort because when it is endorsed by the whole world, Malaysia will be on a high and old archeological, anthropological and sociological perspective,' he said to reporters after visiting the Sungai Batu archeological complex in the Bujang valley, on Saturday.
The archeological complex, measuring three square kilometres located in an oil palm area, has 97 study sites which are said to hold the key that will open the history of early civilisation in this country. Research on the Bujang Valley is among the projects under the Ninth Malaysia Plan (9MP) carried out with the cooperation of the National Heritage Department and researchers from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM).
In addition, Rais plans to present a working paper on the conservation of the archeological complex so that the country would not be lagging behind in terms of heritage as well as to forge cooperation with foreign researchers.
'My ministry will discuss with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak the funds for research studies at the archeological complex, because the existing funds had been used up,' he said. He said his ministry was also prepared to hold meetings and discussions with the Kedah state government to work together in conserving the historical artifacts which were important for national heritage.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2010
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#1
Link to Sungai Batu archeological site in the Bujang Valley.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Iraqi politicians on Saturday ended a fierce election campaign with little expectation for a clear winner to emerge from Sunday's vote that militants threatened to derail through violence.
In leaflets distributed in volatile Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad, the Islamic State of Iraq, an al-Qaeda-led umbrella group, warned Iraqis they risked death if they voted.
A powerful car bomb near a Shiite shrine in Iraq's holy city of Najaf on Saturday killed two Iranian pilgrims and an Iraqi and injured at least 54 people, police and medical officials said.
The blast occurred despite intense security measures put in place across Iraq in the lead up to the parliamentary vote, which has already been marked by violent attacks in Baghdad and the restive city of Baquba.
Suicide bombers killed at least 33 people in Baquba, Diyala's provincial capital, on Wednesday. Attacks in Baghdad, mostly aimed at soldiers and police who were voting early, killed at least 12 people and wounded 35 on Thursday.
Militants staged no major attacks on Friday. Security forces will ban vehicle movement from 10 p.m. (21:00 GMT) on Saturday until dawn on Monday to try to prevent election day bombings.
The Islamic State declared an election curfew of its own in a new message on a jihadist website and warned Sunnis that the polls would only serve to further empower majority Shiites.
"Anyone who goes out to participate on this day ... will unfortunately expose himself to the anger of Allah and then to all kinds of weapons of the mujahedeen," the message attributed to the group said, according to SITE Intelligence Group.
On the last day of legal campaigning, Ammar al-Hakim, leader of a powerful Shiite Islamist party, told Iraqis at a rally it was their religious duty to vote, citing appeals issued by Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most revered Shi'ite cleric.
"Look for the lists that have a history and roots and that stood by the Iraqis in good times and bad," Hakim declared.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2010
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[Ma'an] Resuming negotiations with Israel would be "dangerous" in light of the ongoing Israeli policy of settlement and "judaization of Palestine," said Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) Secretary-General Nayif Hawatmeh in Damascus.
The speech came as the party marked its 41st anniversary on Friday at a crowded festival at Al-Yarmouk refugee camp near Damascus, three weeks after the party marked its annual celebration.
Hawatmeh attended the celebrations with representatives of other Palestinian factions and Syrian political parties. He spoke out in favor of dialogue between Palestinian factions, saying "Dialogue is ongoing in the Gaza Strip between the major Palestinian factions including Fatah, Hamas, DFLP, PFLP, and Islamic Jihad. They want to restart a comprehensive dialogue aimed at ending rivalry and rebuilding Palestinian national unity."
The leader also warned that in the West Bank, "More lands are being confiscated and Palestinian rights are being violated more and more, he said. This will endanger the chances of establishing an independent Palestinian state on the territories occupied in 1967 with East Jerusalem as its capital." He cautioned against peace talks under the current political climate.
The DFLP leader called on Arab countries to adopt a clear strategy as they hold the coming Arab League summit in Libya. Practical steps to implement the Arab Peace Initiative should be taken "instead of slogans," he said, affirming that both direct and indirect negotiations with Israel should be dependent on halting settlement activities completely and stopping assaults on Al-Aqsa Mosque, Ibrahimi Mosque, and Bilal Ibn Rabah Mosque (Rachel's Tomb) in Bethlehem.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2010
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[Quqnoos] A deadly clash between Taliban and Hezb-e Islami fighters has left scores of militants dead in northern Afghanistan
At least 25 militants from both sides have been killed and more than 40 others wounded in a half-day long gun-battle in the northern Afghan province of Baghlan, a local police official said.
It is still unclear why the Taliban insurgents turned against their strategic ally group, Hezb-e Islami of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, in Baghlan-e Markazi district of the province.
Baghlan-e Markazi, a Hezb-e Islami stronghold in northern Afghanistan, is a restive district in the region and a large number of Taliban and Hezb-e Islami fighters are believed to be stationed there.
"The clash between the Taliban and Hezb-e Islami fighters is on-going in Qaisar Khail, a village 9km north of the district centre, " said a spokesman for regional police command, Lal Mohammad Ahmadzai.
The police official said the Taliban have arrested 15 fighters of Hezb-e Islami during the battle.
The local police have not taken any action to curb the clash, but have surrounded the area and will move in after making sure that civilians will not be harmed in the battle, Ahmadzai further said.
It's the deadliest clash between Afghanistan's two major insurgent groups for many years and the dispute led to the gun-battle is to be known.
Neither the Taliban nor the Hezb-e Islami group have made an immediate comment over the fighting.
Hezb-e Islami led by Hekmatyar and the Taliban have a similar standing against the Kabul government and both of the groups have preconditioned the withdrawal of foreign troops to any peace talks.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2010
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#4
"The local police have not taken any action to curb the clash, but have surrounded the area and will move in after making sure that civilians will not be harmed in the battle, Ahmadzai further said."
Maybe instead of standing idly the local police should be arranging ammunition resupply to both sides.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Iraq's senior Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr urges the Iraqi electorate to help end the US-led occupation of the country by participating in the parliamentary polls.
Speaking at a Saturday press conference in the Iranian capital, Tehran, al-Sadr drew a parallel between participation in the Sunday vote and resistance against the invaders.
More than 6,200 candidates from six major coalitions and several other tribal and minority groups are vying for the 325 seats in the Council of Representatives.
The senior Iraqi cleric called on the Iraqis to opt for the candidates who would best serve the nation and work for Iraq's liberation.
Al-Sadr also warned that any interference by the United States will be unacceptable.
The United States reportedly pushed for qualification of more than 500 candidates who had been barred from the polls for their alleged links to the outlawed Baath party of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2010
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#1
The senior Iraqi cleric called on the Iraqis to opt for the candidates who would best serve the nation and work for Iraq's liberation.
Thanks for the vote of confidence. I'm sure you'd be just as chivalrous had the situation been reversed.
Al-Sadr also warned that any interference by the United States will be unacceptable.
Why don't you come a little closer and trash talk the US military to its face? Pu$$y . . . .
#3
Um...not to complain or anything, but is there a reason that uber Liberal and unattractive skank Wanda Sykes is included in today's otherwise stellar line up?
[Dawn] A car bomb killed two Iranian pilgrims and an Iraqi and wounded 54 other people in the central Iraq city of Najaf Saturday, the eve of parliamentary elections, police and a hospital official said.
A local official said the bomb exploded about 500 metres from the shrine to Imam Ali, son-in-law of the Prophet Mohammed and one of Shia Islam's most revered figures, reports AFP.
The blast occurred despite intense security measures put in place across Iraq in the lead up to Sunday's vote, which has already been marked by violent attacks in Baghdad and the central city of Baquba.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2010
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[Quqnoos] A new directive from NATO's top commander in Afghanistan orders foreign forces to avoid night raids when possible
The news guideline of Gen Stanley McChrystal relaseed on Friday says international troops should be accompanied by Afghan forces if they must enter homes after dark.
McChrystal had issued the order in late January and portions of the classified directive were made public Friday by his headquarters.
It follows the NATO commander's move to limit the use of air strikes last year that were responsible for the bulk of civilian deaths.
"Despite their effectiveness and operational value, night raids come at a steep cost in terms of the perceptions of the Afghan people," according to excerpts of his directive.
"In the Afghan culture, a man's home is more than just his residence. ... Even when there is no damage or injuries, Afghans can feel deeply violated and dishonored, making winning their support that much more difficult," it said.
At a security conference in Munich last month, President Hamid Karzai called for an end to night raids, saying "the war on terror is not in the Afghan villages and homes".
Civilian deaths and injuries inflicted during operations by international forces have caused deep anger among Afghans and drive people's support towards the Taliban.
Afghan security forces "should be the first force seen and the first voices heard by the occupants of any compound entered" during a night raid, the directive added.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2010
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#1
I imagine that the use of live ammo is offensive to Muslims and afghan men as well. Next up on the ROE bullshit?
Posted by: abu do you love ||
03/07/2010 0:34
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#2
"In the Afghan culture, a man's home is more than just his residence. ... Even when there is no damage or injuries, Afghans can feel deeply violated and dishonored, making winning their support that much more difficult," it said.
I guess it's OK if the Taliban come in and take over their home to sleep in at night by gunpoint though.
#8
I gotta back stan the man on this one - - - making it harder for our guys, sure - - - giving us the chance to ultimately win (unlike everyone else who just came in blazing with disregard for collateral damage [Ghengis Khan, the Brits, the Rus]) is worth a shot. The clan/tribe retribution thing needs to be leveraged. The culture doesn't follow modern rules so it can't be gamed the same way. McChrystal has been a door kicker his entire career and he wouldn't take this approach if he didn't think it had advantages over the "kill'em all and let God sort them out" line.
#9
I'd agree that McChrystal is correct if the objective is not to conquer the Afghans and reorder their society, the way we did the Germans and Japanese (G&J). The problem is, that means you never won the war. Look at the relationship we have with the G&J versus the Russians, whom we did not conquer but merely outlasted, by a critical decade or two as it appears. With whom are we more likely to engage adversaries on the field of conflict?
Bottom line? If we aren't ready to conquer (we must when our cause it is just) and reorder a society like we did with G&J, then we should stay home.
#10
Why did we spend the resource and develop the Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTP), let alone the technology, to 'take back the night' since Vietnam only to surrender the night back to the enemy? Just pull them all out, then you have the ultimate no collateral damage ROE.
#11
Restraint and appeasement might indeed be an approach that will be ultimately successful in Afghanistan.
The Afghanistan mission however is not an abstract lab exercise, conducted in a political vacuum. There are global consequences.
Potential (and actual) adversaries all over the world are observing what is going on in Afghanistan; and apparently western deterrence has dramatically eroded in their view.
Libya has openly announced a renewed terror campaign against Europe, Argentina is making first moves to grab the Falklands.
The price for restraint in Afghanistan might very well be a new armed conflict in the South Atlantic.
Posted by: Hupeaper Protector of the Poles4104 ||
03/07/2010 13:43
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@ #10 "Why did we spend the resource and develop the Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTP), let alone the technology, to 'take back the night' since Vietnam only to surrender the night back to the enemy?"
A DAMN GOOD QUESTION!
It seems the only people complaining about night raids (besides Karzai)are the terrorists and their supporters.
If there is a problem with the way night time raids were conducted, then we should refine or change tactics, not just stop night time raids altogether.
When ever muzzies complain, you know it's an effective approach against them.
Just like the muzzie resistance to full body scanners at airports. Full body scanners work so the muzzies are against them.
Posted by: Mike Hunt ||
03/07/2010 19:37
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Hundreds of people have gathered outside the British parliament to protest Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders' visit, aimed at spreading Islamophobia. Wilders isn't spreading 'islamophobia', that's just a made-up word that people opposed to him use as a convenience.
The protest erupted after Wilders, who is visiting Britain upon an invitation by far-right UK Independence Party leader Lord Pearson, screened his anti-Islamic film 'Fitna' in the House of Lords.
The far-right filmmaker sent shockwaves through both secular and faith-based communities when his defamatory film linking Islam to extremism was first posted on the internet in 2008. What is 'defamatory' about linking Islam to extremism? One could fairly say that many, many Muslims aren't extremist. But enough, including the owners of Presstv.ir, are indeed to make the point stand.
In 2009, British officials refused the 46-year-old politician entry into the county denouncing him as a "genuine, present and sufficiently serious threat to one of the fundamental interests of society."
But the ban was overturned in October after he appealed the decision.
Fitna, which means ordeal, also drew strong criticism from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who called the 17-minute movie "offensively anti-Islamic." As if anyone cares what Moon has to say.
Infamous for his anti-Islamic ideas, Wilders has also calls for a ban on the Holy Qur'an.
Last year, also a court appeal in Amsterdam ordered prosecution against Wilder for "the incitement to hatred and discrimination."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2010
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#3
To my surprise, I heard the BBC broadcast some of Wilders' arguments on Radio 4 this morning. Completely agreed with them all, as I suspect did many more listeners than would admit.
#4
Hundreds of people isn't much in the way of a London crowd. They probably get more listening to the speechmakers on the streets. They claimed a million or more protesting the Iraq invasion in 2003.
#5
Fitna, which means ordeal, also drew strong criticism from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who called the 17-minute movie "offensively anti-Islamic."
Right. Because the entire movie consists of quoting muslims themselves.
Posted by: ed ||
03/07/2010 15:43
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#6
"Because the entire movie consists of quoting muslims themselves."
That's why it's "offensively anti-Islamic," ed. Normal people might begin to catch on....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/07/2010 15:46
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[Geo News] Criticizing provincial government, Governor Punjab Salman Taseer said that Law Minister Rana Sanaullah""s links with militants were illegal adding that law and order is a provincial subject. While talking to journalists he said that by promoting cultural activities we can eradicate Talibanization and Basant is a cultural festival. He pointed out that by contacting militants law minister was committing crime and he better go to Waziristan.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2010
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[Straits Times] A 6.5-MAGNITUDE quake struck late on Friday off the coast of Sumatra in Indonesia, seismologists said, but no tsunami alert was issued and there were no reports of damage or injuries.
The quake's epicentre was at a depth of 22km, the US Geological Survey said, and was 165km west of Bengkulu on Sumatra island.
The earthquake hit at 11.06pm (1606 GMT, 12.06pm Singapore time), waking people up, an AFP reporter said, but otherwise the effects were minimal. The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center did not issue an alert and said there was only a very small possibility of a local tsunami.
Indonesia sits on the Pacific 'Ring of Fire,' where the meeting of continental plates causes high volcanic and seismic activity.
Posted by: Fred ||
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The White House on Friday announced a "summit on entrepreneurship" to build economic ties with the Islamic world, part of President Barack Obama's outreach to Muslims.
The White House said it has invited participants from more than 40 countries over five continents for the April 26-27 conference in Washington.
"The summit will highlight the role entrepreneurship can play in addressing common challenges while building partnerships that will lead to greater opportunity abroad and at home," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.
Obama first spoke of the entrepreneurship conference in his signature June 4 speech in Cairo to the Islamic world.
In the closely watched address, Obama said the United States was seeking a "new beginning" with the Islamic world to rebuild relations that had sharply deteriorated over the past decade.
Obama promised at the time that he would convene a "presidential summit on entrepreneurship" by the end of 2009.
He said that the meeting would "identify how we can deepen ties between business leaders, foundations and social entrepreneurs in the United States and Muslim communities around the world."
#2
what about the missing jobs and entrepreneurship in the USA Barry? you know the people you are president of?
Or do you hate us as all your actions seem to show?
Posted by: regular joe ||
03/07/2010 9:11
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#10
This just gives them all a pass on Iranian sanctions and would allow Syria, Libya, Pakistan, and others the "right" to build up an arsenal.
From the NYT's:
The U.S. government reportedly has awarded billions to companies doing business with Iran, often in violation of U.S. sanctions, over the past decade -- a reality that suggests the new round of sanctions being sought through the United Nations could have limited effect.
The New York Times reported Sunday that foreign and multinational American companies have reaped $107 billion in contracts, grants and other payments from the federal government over the past 10 years. The Times analysis found $15 billion of that went to companies violating U.S. sanctions by investing huge amounts in the Islamic Republic's energy sector.
The U.S. government generally discourages investment in Iran and restricts U.S. companies from doing most kinds of trade with the country. That embargo, though, doesn't do much to foreign companies and overseas subsidiaries of U.S. firms, the Times reported.
Further, the newspaper found that the separate Iran Sanctions Act -- which punishes foreign companies pumping over $20 million in a year into Iran's oil and gas sector - has never been enforced.
Part of the concern over investment in Iran's energy sector is that the industry is important for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
"Law, without force, is impotent". Obsessing over missiles is ultimately penile envy--may God strike them all with permanent ED.
#12
Been trying to shut down NASA and now wants to make deals with foreign relatives of taxi cab drivers and 7-Eleven clerks. This junior senator from Illinois is definitely a third world leader. At best.
Posted by: Bob Gleanter3083 ||
03/07/2010 11:29
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#13
Yep, when the world wants to know how to encourage entrepreneurship, they look to Islam.
#14
Yep, when the world wants to know how to encourage entrepreneurship, they look to Islam.
If we discard oil, Israel's GNP is about 75% of the Combined GNP of all Arab countries. Not Middle east Arab countres but what stands between Morocco and Irak.
[Iran Press TV Latest] US President Barack Obama plans to focus on immigration matters next week by meeting at the White House with two senators crafting a bill on the issue. "Think of them as 'undocumented Democrats'!"
According to The White House spokesman Nicholas Shapiro, on Monday the US president will meet with Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York. Shapiro said on Friday that the president "looking forward to hearing more about their efforts toward producing a bipartisan bill."
Obama started focusing on the issue last year; however, this meeting will be the first he has had with Schumer and Graham on the proposal they are developing ever since.
Immigrants and their advocates have been growing frustrated by Obama's failure to deliver on his campaign promise to address the issue in his first year of presidency.
Several community groups planned to vent some of that frustration in a news conference on Monday in Washington and are also trying to gather thousands of people for a March 21 demonstration in Washington
The alien population unlawfully remaining in the US is estimated to be about 11 million people, down from a historic peak of 12.5 million people in 2007.
According to a Pew Hispanic Center report, in 2005, 57% of illegal immigrants were from Mexico, 24% were from other Latin American countries, primarily from Central America, 9% were from Asia, 6% were from Europe, and 4% were from the rest of the world.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2010
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Many people would have us believe that it would not actually be possible to round up and deport all illegal aliens in the U.S. This is most definitely not the case. It is merely a lack of resolve to do so. How can I say this? Easy. ItÂ’s been done successfully multiple times in the past. In fact, three of our most well-known presidents initiated successful illegal alien deportation programs.
William Ladd is a radiologist in San Diego.
First, President Herbert Hoover, during the great depression, ordered the deportation of all illegal aliens in order to make jobs available to American citizens that desperately needed work. My question is, why would you have to make an exception to “business as usual” to enforce the law?
Next, the greatly respected President Harry Truman deported over two million illegal aliens after World War II to create jobs for returning veterans. Were they allowed in because of a workforce shortage during WWII? I suppose that could be a reason they were here.
Read more at the link.
So the situation is similar but this time we have Zero and Company.
Posted by: Jack Ebberert6731 ||
03/07/2010 9:20
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#5
Truman and Hoover, regardless of their policies or politics, were still well rooted as being 'American'. They identified themselves as such. They took their oath of office as a obligation to the American people. The current crowd are transnationalists and socialists raised and schooled by the non-American tax subsidized academia. They have no loyalty to any American, only power and special interest groups.
#6
Keep going Wonder Boy, get behind another unpopular and foolish initiative - trying to ensure one term. Although McCain prolly would not have been much different, GWB wasn't good on immigration either. Build a wall, deport (or as I like to say repatriate lost foreign citizens) illegals and crush all companies that knowingly hire them. Problem solved - minus our politicos have no spine for this.
#7
The US electorate does not have the stomach for illegal alien amnesty – period. With near double-digit unemployment a “comprehensive” immigration bill is a non-starter. If you've seen this show before you may have noticed this nonsense gets floated about every couple of months. This seems to be one of The Great Obamagician’s favorite illusions. Watch with amazement as he fools the useful tools in the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and simultaneously distracts his critics. In the Biz it's known as ole' the Chicago Two-fer.
#8
Addressing immigration apart from other policies is just more smoke-and-mirrors. The immigration issue has not been addressed in regards to health care. Much of California's (and other states in the red)budget problems are the result of illegal aliens receiving health care, social service benefits, housing, education and in-state tuition rates, etc. that sometimes even citizens do not qualify for. We have competing philosophies here--either the US is a sovereign constitutional nation or we are global citizens, with international law superseding our laws and rights, with "human rights" for all but lawful Americans. Deport first, then bipartisan discussion can begin.
#9
I think we should allow them to come in. However, any illegals caught will be used for either involuntary organ donors or for a variety of testing. Medical, automotive, safety, etc. Human testing for everything!
[Ma'an] Two leaders of the Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad movement, turned themselves in to Palestinian Authority Preventative Security Services in Jenin on Saturday.
The move followed an Israeli incursion into a number of towns west of Jenin on Wednesday, attempting to locate the two leaders, identified as Ala' Sha'aban Zayoud, 25, and Bajes Adel Hamdia, 32.
Relatives of the leaders told Ma'an they have been on Israel's "wanted" list for over eight years on charges of commanding the brigades, and have survived five assassination attempts.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2010
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Saturday called the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States a "big fabrication" that was used to justify the U.S. war on terrorism, the official IRNA news agency reported.
Ahmadinejad, who often rails against the West and Israel, made the comment in a meeting with Intelligence Ministry personnel.
It came amid escalating tension in the long-running dispute between Iran and the West over Tehran's nuclear program, with the United States pushing for new U.N. sanctions against the major oil producer.
Ahmadinejad described the destruction of the twin towers in New York on Sept. 11, 2001 as a "complicated intelligence scenario and act," IRNA reported.
He added: "The Sept. 11 incident was a big fabrication as a pretext for the campaign against terrorism and a prelude for staging an invasion against Afghanistan." He did not elaborate.
Nearly 3,000 people died in the hijacked airliner attacks on New York and Washington, which were carried out by al-Qaeda operatives.
In January, Ahmadinejad termed the Sept. 11 attacks "suspicious" and accused the West of seeking to dominate the Middle East.
Ahmadinejad, who has called for Israel to be wiped off the map, was re-elected in a disputed presidential vote last June that stirred the largest display of internal unrest in the country since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2010
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#1
Come over here and stand in the crater and I'll show you a big ass hole in the ground, Nutjob.
The regional police medical cell stated that the terrorists had planted two bombs, each weighing five kilograms and three kilograms packed in ghee tins.
The five kg bomb was placed on the ground floor of the cafe and another bomb was planted at the first floor of the Highlight English Language Academy.
The Hangu police have registered the cases against the unknown terrorists and started the investigation.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2010
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Regulators on Friday shuttered banks in Florida, Illinois, Maryland and Utah, boosting to 26 the number of bank failures in the U.S. so far this year following the 140 brought down in 2009 by mounting loan defaults and the recession.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took over Sun American Bank, based in Boca Raton, Fla., with $535.7 million in assets and $443.5 million in deposits. Also seized were Bank of Illinois of Normal, Ill., with $211.7 million in assets and $198.5 million in deposits; Waterfield Bank in Germantown, Md., with $155.6 million in assets and $156.4 million in deposits; and Centennial Bank in Ogden, Utah, with $215.2 million in assets and $205.1 million in deposits.
First-Citizens Bank & Trust Co., based in Raleigh, N.C., agreed to assume the assets and deposits of Sun American Bank and to share losses with the FDIC on $433 million of the failed bank's loans and other assets. It was First-Citizens' fourth acquisition of assets of a failed bank since last July; the others were First Regional Bank of Los Angeles, Venture Bank of Lacey, Wash., and Temecula Valley Bank of Temecula, Calif.
Heartland Bank and Trust Co., based in Bloomington, Ill., is buying the assets and deposits of Bank of Illinois, and is sharing losses with the FDIC on $166.6 million in loans and other assets.
For Waterfield Bank, because no buyer was found, the FDIC set up a new savings institution that will operate until April 5 to allow customers access to their deposits and give them time to open accounts at other banks.
The FDIC was also unable to find a buyer for Centennial Bank, and it approved the payout of the institution's insured deposits. As a result, checks to the retail depositors for their insured funds will be mailed on Monday. Zions First National Bank in Salt Lake City agreed to accept the failed bank's direct deposits from the federal government, including Social Security and Veterans' payments.
The failure of Sun American Bank is expected to cost the federal deposit insurance fund $103.8 million. The cost of resolving Bank of Illinois is estimated at $53.7 million; that of Waterfield Bank is $51 million; and Centennial Bank is $96.3 million.
The pace of bank seizures this year is likely to accelerate in coming months, FDIC officials have said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2010
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Karl Denninger pointed out a bit of math on these bank failures that the media otherwise missed: * Waterford Bank, Germantown MD: $155.6 million in assets, $156.4 in insured deposits. They were "underwater" by $800,000, right? Wrong: Estimated loss, $51 million. That is, the assets of $155.6 million were overvalued by approximately 30% at the time of seizure.
* Bank of Illinois, Normal IL: $211.7 million in assets, $198.5 million in deposits. They were "underwater" by $13.2 million (which is why they were seized), right? Wrong: Estimated loss $53.7 million. That is, the the assets of $211.7 million were overvalued by more than 25% at the time of seizure.
* Sun American Bank, Boca Raton FL: $535.7 million in assets (so they claimed anyway), $443.5 million in total deposits. Heh, why did you seize them - they have more assets than liabilities? Oh wait: Estimated loss: $103.8 million, so the actual assets are worth $443.5 - $103.8, or $339.7 million. That is, the assets of $535.7 million were overvalued by a whopping 37% at the time of seizure.
Denninger speculates that if this pattern of overvaluing extends to the biggest banks, not only will the economy and lending environment not recover -- it can't
#2
AH, I think it's been you who has pointed out that we are soon going to be in an environment where it will be like things werer before Wilson's administration, IOW, you can't borrow money unless you really don't need it. Maybe we are at that tipping point.
Many will howl but I think it's a good thing. The whole house of cards of money valued at less than the free market would price it combined with government (tax) subsidized real estate in order to achieve the outcome egalitarian dream of every single person owning a home regardless of their ability to pay has been teetering for decades and now it has begun to fall.
Borrowing money will be an option available to those who are secure and frugal who want to expand. It will no longer be for the wasteful and undisciplined to maintain a lifestyle beyond their means.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
03/07/2010 6:47
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#3
My son works in real estate and was telling me yesterday that there are some mortgage lenders that are trying to branch out into something called "social lending".
Basically this is facilitating owner financed sales. However, the gov't paperwork and requirements pretty much stifle the attempt.
He also told me that mortgage loan requirements of the feds have been tightened to the point that lending has slowed to a trickle. Not sure I believe this one cause they're still lending on 3% down.
If the feds raise requirements high enough, then even good banks, small and medium size, can't loan. If they can't loan, they can only sustain themselves on existing loans. Basically eating their seed grain. Its only time before they are eating returns just to run operations.
It looks like the feds are using regulation to push corporatism, putting the small and medium banks in a position for a take over by their buds in the big banks. The big banks can play volume by borrowing from the Fed at 1 percent and buying Treasuries at 2 or 3 percent and make money. The small banks can't and are out of the game. Meanwhile the assets of the smaller entities are being absorbed by the Fed-Wall Street team though the FDIC route. They're killing the potential that some small and medium size banks in good condition can play the game and position themselves when the dust clears to be real competition to the good old boys.
#5
I've read that the small community banks by and large haven't been hurt by the economic struggles of the past two years. In banks of this size, many were prudently managed in the first place, didn't get into exotic financial instruments, and for the most part didn't join the rush into sub-prime and marginal real estate loans.
For those banks, there's money to be made working with local business, making prime home loans which they keep rather than sell to Fannie/Freddie, and doing auto loans to qualified customers.
The owners and managers of those banks are angry because the FDIC wants them to carry the burden of the larger banks: for example, making them pre-pay 3 or 4 years worth of deposit insurance (which FDIC uses to bail out other banks), etc.
The Obama administration apparently views the community banks as both a problem for them (no control) and as a piggy-bank for other ventures. We can expect various moves to get the small banks to cooperate or to drive them into the control of large banks, which Bambi's people can manipulate.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/07/2010 10:25
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The other shoe will drop this year for the small community banks. They couldn't compete in the residential origination market and they weren't located in markets where residential was skyrocketing. So they went into commercial real estate big time.
They lent the money to developers to build all the empty shopping centers and offices that appear to be owned by the conglomerate FOR LEASE. Now the construction loans have to be rolled into mortgages and guess what? Rents have nose dived and properties are worth nowhere near the balance of the outstanding construction loan.
It's that simple, aside from the ones run by the usual small town crooked mini-madoffs. No fed-big-bank conspiracies. Just incompetence, primarily at the Fed. In fact the FDIC is making all banks, regardless of size, accelerate premiums, in order to avoid borrowing from the treasury, and it is going to introduce a progressive premium scale so that big banks pay for their TBTF status.
If this is a topic you want to watch, be here every Friday night for the recap of closures and unofficial problem banks.
#8
"The Obama administration apparently views the community banks as both a problem for them (no control) and as a piggy-bank for other ventures."
Bambi views everything he doesn't control as a piggy-bank for his policies now that he's got the gummint that can make regulations so he does control them :-(
Change!
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/07/2010 12:23
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#9
Yes, commercial RE is the next shoe to fall. Get ready for an even bigger crash than the one in residential RE.
#10
More weird stuff is happening:Nevada Federal Credit Union has a deal for big savers: Withdraw your money and you'll get a bonus.
The credit union, one of the largest in Nevada, figures that deposits from members who don't have a checking account, mortgage loan or any other products are expensive... the credit union expects the National Credit Union Administration to boost deposit insurance premiums by 0.15 percent to 0.4 percent this year.
For each $100 million in deposits, that premium increase will increase Nevada Federal's costs up to $400,000 yearly, Beal said.
While Nevada Federal is well capitalized, reducing deposits also will increase its net worth as a percent of assets.
#11
"The credit union . . . figures that deposits from members who don't have a checking account, mortgage loan or any other products are expensive..."
They charge a fee for checking accounts? At my credit union, they're free (but I do have to pay for the checkbooks).
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/07/2010 20:21
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(CBS) Democratic Rep. Eric Massa, from western New York, acknowledged Friday he acted inappropriately with a male staffer and said he's leaving with "a profound sense of failure."
Massa's resignation caps a bad week for Democrats, a week dominated by ethics investigations, reports CBS News Correspondent Nancy Cordes.
In New York, the papers were filled with scandalous stories about not one but three prominent Democrats.
There was the governor, David Paterson, accused of interfering in a domestic violence investigation.
"I am ending my campaign for governor of the state of New York," Paterson said Feb. 26.
There was veteran Rep. Charles Rangel, forced to give up his Ways and Means Committee chairmanship over ethics lapses.
"Now he's trying to blame it on his staff," said one New Yorker. "That's no excuse."
Now there's Massa's resignation amid harassment allegations.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who famously promised to drain the ethics swamp in Congress, didn't seem to want to wade into the Massa situation Thursday.
"You know what?" she told reporters. "This is rumor city. Every single day there are rumors. I have a job to do."
Democrats were hoping to make hay of recent Republican lapses come November, but the growing number of Democrats caught up in controversy is muddying that message.
There's John Edwards with his paternity problems, and at least four House Democrats - Jesse Jackson Jr. of Illinois, Alan Mollohan of West Virginia and California's Laura Richardson and Maxine Waters - facing ethics investigations.
"I think when a party comes in saying they are cleaning up corruption and they're going to run the House differently than the last party, I think you really have to have your feet held to the fire," said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
Democrats won back the House four years ago partly by highlighting GOP scandals. Now they run the risk of having the tables turned on them.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2010
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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who famously promised to drain the ethics swamp in Congress, didn't seem to want to wade into the Massa situation Thursday.
Newly anointed House Ways and Means Chairman Sander Levin (D-Mich.) repaid a Maryland property-tax credit Friday that he should not have received, his office confirmed. Levin, who owns a home in Chevy Chase, Md., received a $690 credit on his most recent property tax bill, the result of Montgomery County program that provided one-time credits to residential property owners in the 2009-10 tax year. Levin, who purchased the home in 1977, received the tax credit although it was intended for only "owner-occupied" properties, and he does not live in the home. The credit reduced his tax bill to just under $9,500.
Credit where due. It sounds like the honourable Congressman noticed the error, fixed it, and paid his debt promptly.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2010
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Early wins in a major anti-Taliban push in southern Afghanistan offered a "beacon of hope," British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Saturday during a surprise visit to troops.
During a lightning eight-hour visit to Helmand province, Brown cautioned that it was vital to "win the peace as well as the war" and vowed that British troops would stay in Afghanistan until their job was done.
"That's why it's so crucial that in just 20 days since the start of the operation, the combined international and Afghan forces, military and civilian, have begun turning a stronghold of brutal Taliban insurgency into a beacon of hope for local people," he told reporters.
Before Brown left Camp Bastion, one of the biggest military bases in Afghanistan, Britain's Ministry of Defense reported the death of a British soldier in an explosion in Helmand on Friday.
The death in the Sangin district, which the ministry said was not connected to the ongoing assault that Brown referred to, brings to 269 the number of British troops killed since operations in Afghanistan began in October 2001.
This is likely to be Brown's last Afghanistan trip before a general election expected on May 6.
The premier met British troops at Camp Bastion and two frontline posts in Nad Ali, including one taken from the Taliban during Operation Mushtarak, currently underway in Helmand.
Mushtarak, in which U.S. Marines have led 15,000 troops against Taliban insurgents in two poppy growing districts, Marjah and Nad Ali, is the first test of a counter-insurgency strategy for speeding an end to the war.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2010
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There was a country called the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen, and this state endured for around 23 years. However in the early nineties this state [along with the Yemen Arab Republic] unified to become the Republic of Yemen. There are many powers today calling for a return to secession and the abolishment of everything that has taken place over the past decade and a half. There is a movement in the south calling for the secession of south Yemen from the Republic of Yemen. This movement may not achieve any of its major demands, and Yemen will most likely remain unified, but at the very least this is something that will cause a big headache in Sanaa and to the political leadership there.
There are many worse possibilities than this, especially as the Yemeni military failed to achieve a decisive victory over the Houthi insurgents, and the Yemeni government agreed a truce with the Houthis that is not going to last. There is also Al Qaeda which has managed to sow its ideologies and station its men throughout Yemen, not to mention occupy part of northern Yemeni territory. The vanguard of US troops are now arriving in Yemen to counter Al Qaeda regardless of the toll that this war will take on America's allies in Sanaa. The Yemeni government is therefore facing a dangerous situation that may persist for at least two years. During this time, it is expected that the southern secessionists will give their support to the Houthi rebels.
The reason that the southern secessionists have begun moving now is because this coincides with the Houthi rebels successfully creating chaos in the north. The southern unrest has been growing over the past two years without the official authorities showing any concern. The desire in the south to secede from unification cannot be described as overwhelming; this is simply a marginal movement with limited demands therefore it wouldn't hurt the government to listen to the southerners and attempt to address their needs. The Yemeni leadership would be making a big mistake if it ignores this movement, or if it makes empty promises such as the promise of holding bilateral dialogue or appointing a handful of southern politicians to the government in the hopes of appeasing them while neglecting their key demands.
According to the citizens of the former republic, the problem is that Sanaa, in addition to dismissing thousands of military officers and civilians from their posts, has also neglected the entire region as a whole, and southern Yemen has been plunged further into poverty. Other opponents believe that the political leadership has prevented Yemeni investors living abroad from investing in the south, as well as putting an end to the Aden Free Zone project, and preventing those who fled the country during the civil war from returning, in addition to banning those who were allowed to return from engaging in politics. This is just to mention a few of their countless complaints.
There are opposition politicians abroad who have only recently boarded the opposition train however the main challenge facing the Yemeni government right now exists from within the country itself. The opposition is growing steadily each day, and there is fear that Yemen will reach a point of clash and division that is beyond healing. Yemen is a large country and if there is a public desire for secession then the armed forces will not be able to impose control on the south which was, until very recently, an independent state.
The south is undoubtedly a chief partner in unification, and in Al Mukla in southern Yemen the southern leadership, which at that time was led by Ali Salim al Beidh, accepted the idea of unification between Aden and Sanaa. This came as a result of favourable conditions due to the collapse of the Soviet Union, the primary sponsor of the Marxist government of southern Yemen. Although the course of events led to war, the south eventually accepted Ali Abdullah Saleh as president. Saleh made many promises to the people in the south, and he vowed to promote comprehensive development in the south; a development that never took place.
However to be frank, the problem is not limited to the south. Yemen as a whole is suffering from a lack of development and poor management, and this is not something that affects one region of Yemen more than another. This is something that is well-known to many of those in the south. As a result of this, helping Yemen get back onto its feet is something that would be extremely beneficial to the entire country, its unity, and the region as a whole. Therefore it is important for the government in Sanaa to listen carefully to those in the south who are criticizing it, rather than confronting them, as long as they are demanding development rather than secession.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2010
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Whaddya mean before?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/07/2010 12:39
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As a result of this, helping Yemen get back onto its feet is something that would be extremely beneficial to the entire country
Forgive my ignorance, but when has Yemen been on its feet in the last 2,000 years, to which it could be helped back?
[Dawn] White House advisers are nearing a recommendation for President Barack Obama to choose a military trial for self-professed Sept. 11, 2001 attacks mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four of his alleged henchman, senior administration officials.
The review of where and how to hold a Sept. 11 trial is not over, so no recommendation is yet before the president and Obama has not made a determination of his own, officials said. The review is not likely to be finished this week.
Officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss private deliberations.
The matter is at the White House after Attorney General Eric Holder decided in November to transfer Mohammed and the four other accused terrorists from the prison at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to New York City for civilian trials. Initially supported by city officials, the idea was later opposed because of costs, security and logistical concerns.
When opposition ballooned further into Congress and an attempted Christmas airline bombing brought massive scrutiny to Obama's terrorism policies, the administration said it would review Holder's trial decision and consider all options for a new location.
In addition to local opposition to a trial, the administration faces pressure on its goal of closing Guantanamo on another front. Republicans in Congress have proposed barring prosecutions of terrorism defendants in federal courts or in reformed military commissions located in the United States.
Republican Rep. Peter King has proposed legislation that would prevent the Obama administration from putting Sheikh Mohammed and other terrorists on trial in any American community. Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham joined by about half the Senate's Republicans and a few Democrats, has made a similar proposal.
Separate from the internal trial review, the White House is in still-ongoing negotiations with lawmakers over those proposals, including how to secure funding from Congress to hold terrorism trials and to close the Guantanamo prison and replace it with another facility in the United States.
The Obama administration views civilian trials for terrorists as an important demonstration of the U.S. commitment to rule of law. Officials also have cited the numerous terrorism trials already held successfully in U.S. criminal courts. Further, the administration argues that prosecutorial decisions are for the executive branch to make, not lawmakers.
The Washington Post first reported the near-recommendation of a military trial.
"If this stunning reversal comes to pass, President Obama will deal a death blow to his own Justice Department, not to mention American values," said Anthony D. Romero from the American Civil Liberties Union. "Even with recent improvements, the military commissions system is incapable of handling complicated terrorism cases and achieving reliable results. President Obama must not cave in to political pressure and fear-mongering. He should hold firm and keep these prosecutions in federal court, where they belong."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2010
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#1
I'll bet that within a mere few months of near-constant handwringing, Noobama will come to the right conclusion.
#2
The way that Obama makes the hard decisions, it is a good thing he will be out of office no later than 2017 (hopefully in 2013). Otherwise, KSM would die of old age before he gets tried.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
03/07/2010 2:20
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[Dawn] Former PML-N leader Sardar Aziz Umrani was killed in a firing incident in Khuzdar town of Balochistan on Saturday.
Three of Umrani's guards also got injured during the firing and have been shifted to Civil Hospital Khuzdar for medical treatment. Police said that unknown motorcyclists opened fire on Umrani, killing him on the spot.
Police officials reached the spot and started investigation into the incident.
In another incident of target killing, one person was killed and another injured in Mastung town of Balochistan.
These incidents came one day after a bomb explosion left two FC personnel dead and two injured in Quetta on Friday night.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2010
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[Al Arabiya Latest] The Open Net Initiative (ONI) on Friday said Microsoft's search engine Bing is more prudish than government censors when it comes to sex-related online queries.
A January test of a Bing version tailored for users in Arab countries showed that it filtered Arabic and English words for sexually explicit content along with queries related to gay, lesbian, bi-sexual or transgender material.
Attempts to use filtered keywords prompted a message reading "Your country or region requires a strict Bing SafeSearch setting, which filters out results that might return adult content," according to ONI.
The message seemed at odds with the fact that while political censorship is widespread in the Middle East, not all countries there mandate filtering of sex, nudity, homosexuality and other such "social content," ONI reported.
"A more targeted approach, either country-based or preferably, defined by the user, is more generally consistent with minimizing the impact on freedom of speech," ONI study authors concluded.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2010
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OK Boys, thats it no more entertainment for you, its too racey.....
Posted by: Jack Ebberert6731 ||
03/07/2010 8:38
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
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.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
WASHINGTON (AP) - In private pitches to Democrats, President Barack Obama says he will persuade Congress to pass his health care overhaul even if it kills him and even if he has to ask deeply distrustful lawmakers to trust him on a promise the White House doesn't have the power to keep.
Attorneys for Muzzammil S. "Mo" Hassan Friday said the media and public have misconstrued Hassan's actions in the beheading of his estranged wife, 
An Egyptian blogger on trial before a military tribunal for slandering the nation's premier army academy will be released and proceedings suspended after he agreed to apologize, his lawyer said Sunday.
The Freedom Party (PVV) of anti-immigrant leader Geert Wilders moved three seats ahead of its rivals in a new Dutch election poll on Sunday, as support for the Christian Democrats (CDA) of Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende continued to slip. The Maurice de Hond poll put the PVV on 27 seats in the June 9 national elections, while the CDA and the Labour Party (PvdA) were both on 24 seats. The poll also showed that none of the three most likely coalitions would be able to form a majority government without reaching across lines to a fourth or fifth party.
TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran said Sunday it has launched a new production line of highly accurate, short range cruise missiles, which would add a new element to the country's already imposing arsenal.
Russia confirmed Saturday that its forces had killed the militant leader 
President Obama's proposed budget would add more than $9.7 trillion to the national debt over the next decade, congressional budget analysts said Friday. Proposed tax cuts for the middle class account for nearly a third of that shortfall. 
[Maghrebia] A Sale court on Thursday (March 4th) rejected a bail request from 12 alleged Salafia Jihadia terror cell members, MAP reported. The defendants, including a police commissioner and two police officers, are accused of financing terrorism, drug trafficking, theft and other criminal activities in Morocco and Spain.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Iraqi politicians on Saturday ended a fierce election campaign with little expectation for a clear winner to emerge from Sunday's vote that militants threatened to derail through violence.
[Ma'an] Resuming negotiations with Israel would be "dangerous" in light of the ongoing Israeli policy of settlement and "judaization of Palestine," said Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) Secretary-General Nayif Hawatmeh in Damascus. 
between Taliban and Hezb-e Islami fighters has left scores of militants dead in northern Afghanistan
[Iran Press TV Latest] Iraq's senior Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr urges the Iraqi electorate to help end the US-led occupation of the country by participating in the parliamentary polls. 
[Dawn] A car bomb killed two Iranian pilgrims and an Iraqi and wounded 54 other people in the central Iraq city of Najaf Saturday, the eve of parliamentary elections, police and a hospital official said.
The White House on Friday announced a "summit on entrepreneurship" to build economic ties with the Islamic world, part of President Barack Obama's outreach to Muslims. 
[Iran Press TV Latest] US President Barack Obama plans to focus on immigration matters next week by meeting at the White House with two senators crafting a bill on the issue. 
Regulators on Friday shuttered banks in Florida, Illinois, Maryland and Utah, boosting to 26 the number of bank failures in the U.S. so far this year following the 140 brought down in 2009 by mounting loan defaults and the recession.
[Al Arabiya Latest] The Open Net Initiative (ONI) on Friday said Microsoft's search engine Bing is more prudish than government censors when it comes to sex-related online queries.
