One year ago this week, Barack Obama promised activists with the nation's largest abortion business that the first thing he would do as president is overturn every pro-life law in all 50 states. Obama said his first action would be signing the mislabeled Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA).
The measure, if it becomes law, would codify Roe v. Wade by making the infamous Supreme Court decision allowing unlimited abortions the law of the land.
But it would go further, warns Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council.
"If FOCA were to become law it would overturn hundreds of state laws that have put limits on abortion," he explains.
Perkins points to a new research paper written by FRC Vice President of Government Affairs Tom McClusky and he said Planned Parenthood, NARAL and other pro-abortion groups agree with This assessment.
The ACLU has said, "This [FOCA] bill prohibits such restrictions as parental notification and consent, as well as the requirement that all abortions be performed in a hospital, spousal consent, waiting periods, etc."
"Recent polls show that most Americans agree there should be more restrictions on abortion and that tax dollars should not go to the life-ending procedure," Perkins says. 'However, the passage of FOCA would guarantee that more taxpayer dollars pay for abortions."
The McClusky paper points out that, while abortion advocates say they want to make abortions rarer, the state of Maryland, after it passed a law like FOCA, saw its abortion rates shoot upward.
That happened as the rest of the country experienced a general decline in the number of abortions over the last decade or more.
"Passage of FOCA would be a big payoff to the abortion industry at the deadly cost of citizens' rights," Perkins concludes. I put it in 'Opinion', because being an Obama promise, it is subject to change.
DUKE FIELD, Fla. (AFPN) -- Duke Field Airmen from the 711th Special Operations Squadron dropped the last operational Bomb Live Unit-82 from an MC-130E Combat Talon I July 15 at the Utah Test and Training Range. Nicknamed "Commando Vault" in Vietnam and "Daisy Cutter" in Afghanistan, the BLU-82 is a 15,000-pound bomb, and because of its size, the bomb was dropped by parachute from the aircraft.
"We in the Air Force Reserve Command feel fortunate to have been chosen to drop the last operational Daisy Cutter," said Col. Jon Weeks, the 919th Special Operations Wing vice commander and mission commander on the drop. "Our people in the 711th Special Operations Squadron dropped several BLU-82s during the first few months of Operation Enduring Freedom with significant psychological and tactical effect." Oh, I'll bet...
When originally designed, the BLU-82 was the largest conventional bomb in existence. It could instantly clear jungles for helicopter landing zones in Vietnam. Later, the military used the bomb as an antipersonnel weapon because of its large lethal radius combined with the psychological effects of the flash and sound. The warhead contains 12,600 pounds of GSX slurry (ammonium nitrate, aluminum powder and polystyrene). A 38-inch fuse extender detonates the bomb, allowing maximum destruction at ground level without leaving a crater. "The power of this weapon is overwhelming," Colonel Weeks said. "Even flying the chase plane at 6,000 feet above ground level and approximately three-quarters of a mile away from the bomb's detonation point, we felt a shock wave that shook the aircraft. As former commander of the 711th SOS and a traditional reservist, I feel especially proud to have been part of this historical event."
The crew determines the accurate delivery of the weapon. The navigator positions the aircraft and calculates ballistic and wind computations. The pilot keeps the plane on course with precision instrument flying. "As far as aircraft loads go, the delivery of the BLU-82 was nothing unusual," said Lt. Col. Mike Theriot, the aircraft commander and pilot on the mission. "Our aircraft routinely drop loads much larger and heavier."
Wing officials said they believe there are no plans, at this time, to produce BLU-82s in the future. The only remaining inactive bombs are used for loadmaster training and for static displays in museums. Pics at the link.
#2
"No plans ... to produce BLU-82's in the future" > AFRICA, BALKANS redux, + SOUTH/SE ASIA = AUSTRALESIA, VV POST-OSAMA, ZAWI, OMAR, etc + next generation of Jihadist leaders [Nukular?] E.G. OSAMA's SON(S), etal???
FLINTSTONES episodes > D *** NG IT, I HAVE A GOOD MIND TO TURN THE AIR FORCE IN TO THE OWG DAISY CUTTERS UNION ..........I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU IN THE MILITARY CALL IT, GENERAL, BUT I'M GLAD ITS ON OUR SIDE"!
#3
Well, there goes our hole-card. Daisy Cutters and MOABs define a certain style in American war-blogging. Still got a few MOABs left to keep us going for a bit, until Teal-Rabbit is revealed.
So you'll be flying across The Pond, Abu? Two words: "traumatic decompression"...
LONDON, England (CNN) -- A British judge ruled Wednesday that radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza may not appeal an order for his extradition to the United States, where he faces terrorism-related charges, the judge's office said.
The move clears the way for the Egyptian-born cleric's transfer to the U.S., where he faces 11 charges including conspiracy in connection with a 1998 kidnapping in Yemen and conspiring with others to establish an Islamic jihad, or holy war, training camp in rural Oregon in 1999. High Court Justice Igor Judge on Wednesday turned down Abu Hamza's request for permission to appeal his extradition order to the House of Lords, which is Britain's highest court, Judge's office said. Buh bye. Don't forget to write. Oh, that's right, you can't...
Abu Hamza has one legal avenue left to appeal -- the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, a British Home Office spokesman said. He has 28 days in which to launch an appeal there. That's okay, Abu. Supermax ain't going anywhere...
Abu Hamza's lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment. From now on, Abu, cash up front. Oh, that's right. You don't pay me, the government does.
The one-eyed, hook-handed cleric is one of the highest-profile radical Islamic figures in Britain. He is already serving a seven-year sentence there for inciting racial hatred at his north London mosque and other terrorism-related charges. Hamza has previously denied any wrongdoing, saying, "They have no evidence against me whatsoever apart from me trying basically to open the people's eyes about certain principles." And what might those be? Killing Infidels, maybe?
If Abu Hamza is extradited his British sentence could be interrupted so he could stand trial in the U.S., the Home Office has said. If he receives a prison sentence in the U.S., Abu Hamza would be returned to England to complete his sentence there before serving time in the United States, the Home Office said.
Abu Hamza, who is also known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri, formerly preached at the Finsbury Park Mosque in London. His followers included the so-called "shoe bomber" Richard Reid, who was convicted of trying to light a bomb in his shoes on a trans-Atlantic flight and Zacarias Moussaoui, who was charged over the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Both MENSA candidates. And Moussaoui was "convicted" too in case CNN forgot.
Abu Hamza was also convicted of possessing eight video and audio recordings that prosecutors said he intended to distribute to stir up racial hatred. In all, police seized some 2,700 audio tapes and about 570 video tapes from two addresses -- one his home -- during raids in 2003. He's addicted to jihadi porn, your honor.
The material included a 10-volume "encyclopedia" of Afghan jihad, which prosecutor David Perry described as "a manual for terrorism." The texts discussed how to make explosives, explained assassination methods and detailed the best means of attack.
Both non-Muslims and Muslims condemned his preaching, which include praising the September 11, 2001, attacks, calling al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden a hero, and describing the 2003 Columbia shuttle disaster as punishment from Allah because the astronauts were Christian, Hindu and Jewish. He would've clapped...if he could.
The U.S. accuses Abu Hamza of helping kidnappers who abducted 16 Western tourists in Yemen in December 1998. Four hostages were killed and two injured in a rescue operation. The U.S. also accuses Hamza of trying to set up terrorist training camps in Bly, Oregon, and charge that he supported militants fighting in Afghanistan.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. - State police say they arrested a man early Tuesday whose blood alcohol level was 0.491 percent the highest ever recorded in Rhode Island for someone who wasn't dead.
Stanley Kobierowski was taken to a hospital, put in the detoxification unit and sedated, said Maj. Steven O'Donnell. He was arraigned Tuesday on charges of driving while intoxicated and resisting arrest, and he was released after promising to appear Friday at a court hearing.
"The person's lucky they survived," O'Donnell said. "There's no doubt he would have gotten killed or killed someone if he had continued on the route he was taking."
A phone listing for Kobierowski could not be found, and he did not have a lawyer in court Tuesday.
Kobierowski, 34, of North Providence, was arrested after he drove into a highway message board on Interstate 95 in Providence, O'Donnell said.
After police arrived, Kobierowski had trouble getting out of the car, then grabbed it and refused to move, forcing troopers to carry him to the breakdown lane before taking him back to their barracks, O'Donnell said.
A breath test showed blood alcohol readings of 0.489 percent, followed by 0.491, O'Donnell said, the highest readings state officials could remember for someone who didn't end up dead.
The legal limit in Rhode Island is 0.08. A level of 0.30 is classified as stupor, 0.4 is comatose and 0.5 is considered fatal, according to the health department.
Obama's Withdrawal Policy Could Lead to U.S. Fighting Wider War in Iraq, McCain Says
Sen. John McCain warns that Sen. Barack Obama's troop withdrawal plan could reverse progress in Iraq, forcing Americans to return to Iraq to fight a wider war.
"We have succeeded but it's still fragile. Sen. Obama's strategy could easily reverse all the hard fought gains we made," McCain told ABC News' David Wright on Wednesday in an interview that will air in part on "World News with Charles Gibson."
"If we do what Sen. Obama wants us to do, we will risk having to come back and risk a wider war and defeat in the first major war since 9/11," McCain said. "and that could be, have, is fraught with consequences of the United States of America's security."
McCain's comments come a day after the Republican presumptive nominee unveiled new, harsh language in his attacks on his Democratic rival for not supporting Presidenft Bush's 2007 troop "surge" policy in Iraq -- a policy advocated by McCain. The policy is credited in part with helping to reduce violence in Iraq in the last year.
"I Was Right" on Iraq SurgeWho Will Be McCain's Second-In-Command?" I had the courage and the judgment to say I would rather lose a political campaign than lose a war. It seems to me that Obama would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign," McCain told a crowd of 400 Tuesday in Rochester, New Hampshire. Mccain repeated the line Wednesday at a campaign event in Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
Asked today whether he believes Obama would actually prefer losing in Iraq so that he could win the White House, McCain pointed to Obama's comments made to ABC News' Terry Moran Monday, in which he acknowledged that the surge succeeded in providing greater security, but that he stands by his original opposition to it.
"I cannot believe that any objective observer can conclude that the surge did not work and is not succeeding," McCain told Wright." It has succeeded and it is and we are winning this war and we will come home with victory and with honor."
"We are responsible for our records. I was right. Sen. Obama was wrong. So therefore, I think I have more credibility about what the future should be as opposed to Sen. Obama, who if he had had his way, we would very likely be involved in a wider war today if we had done what he wanted to do," McCain told Wright.
#1
ION DEBKA > OLMERT TO OBAMA: BY END OF YEAR 2009 TO EARLY 2010, IRAN COULD ASSEMBLE A NUCLEAR BOMB; + OBAMA: A NUCLEAR IRAN WID A BOMB WOULD BE A SITUATION-CHANGING SITUATION.
New York Times Co. says its second-quarter earnings fell 82 percent from the year-ago quarter boosted by a one-time gain. Meanwhile, print advertising revenue continued to shrink.
The New York-based newspaper publisher says its quarterly net income dropped to $21.1 million, or 15 cents per share, which included 11 cents per share in buyout costs.
Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected income of 22 cents per share in the latest quarter. Analyst estimates typically exclude special items.
Revenue dropped 6 percent to $741.9 million, missing the average Wall Street estimate for $754 million. Ad revenue slipped down 11 percent, hurt mostly by fewer classified ads.
Chief Executive Janet Robinson says business was hurt by the "U.S. economic slowdown and secular forces playing out across the media industry."
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
If you are making somehting that few people want, you will sell less of it.
Coke was smart enough to reverse "New Coke".
But the NYT keeps on accelerating to the bottom, with their idealogical blinders making them oblivious to the reasons why few trust them any more and therefore fewer read them.
Sacrificing truth and objectivity for liberal spin and partisanship is what killed the NYT.
#10
You mean their web advertising isn't making up for their loss of paper advertising? I thought the Internet was the problem causing the paper to lose circulation ... their website should make up for all that, right?
#11
Secular here might mean long-term, nonperiodic changes, as in astronomy. In that case, she'd be write.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
07/23/2008 21:37
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#12
Right, not write. Darn it!
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
07/23/2008 21:38
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#13
Pay-Per-View Times Select Op-Eds worked out sooooo well for them. I hope they end up in layoffs determined by who loses in caged death-matches with sharpened back-stabbers (anti-American versions, of course)
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/23/2008 21:38
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This Monday readers of New Hampshires Valley News were surprised to see the paper's name spelled "Valley Newss" on the front page masthead.
The following day the newspaper, which covers the Upper Valley area straddling New Hampshire and Vermont, published an Editors Note acknowledging the error. "Oupes. We messsed upp."Readers may have noticed that the Valley News misspelled its own name on yesterdays front page, it read. Given that we routinely call on other institutions to hold themselves accountable for the mistakes, let us say for the record: We sure feel silly. "Knot to mentyon stupppid."
The misspelling, which is still visible in the archive section of the newspapers website , has already been touted as favourite for typo of the year by the Regret the Error blog, which monitors media mistakes.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/23/2008
14:37 ||
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An A-10 pilot in Afghanistan used flares, infrared cameras, his 30-millimeter gun, some quick thinking and his huge brass balls to save the lives of a German reconstruction team in Afghanistan two years ago. On July 11, Capt. Brian Erickson was awarded a much-deserved Distinguished Flying Cross.
It happened like this: On Oct. 16, 2006, Erickson and a wingman were called in to help six German soldiers pinned down by insurgents firing rockets, machine guns and small-arms.
#3
I may rag on the zoomies for their "in the rear with the gear" ways, but I have nothing but the highest respect for their A-10 drivers. I'd take any one of them for a dozen interceptor pretty boys.
#5
"As Captain Erickson flew his A-10 deep into the moonless valley, the only light on the ground was from insurgent weapons-fire," the Air Force reported.
#6
We should be building 500 more of these babies ASAP. As for his flying blind into the night..unreal. Pure guts to save the guys on the ground. Germans no less. Salute, Cpt. Erickson.
United States Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama has got it right - Afghanistan, and not Iraq, is "the central front in the war on terror". Al-Qaeda couldn't agree more. That is exactly where they want the war to be fought, and then extended into Pakistan.
#2
Of course that is what they want. They already got their asses kicked in Iraq and they have friendly bases and support in Pakland. They tried to make Iraq a central theater and failed.
#3
A good article - while I broadly agree wid many of its premises as per Osama's = AQ's strategy vv Pakistan, METHINKS IT IS MORE CORRECT TO SAY THAT OSAMA = RADICAL ISLAM IS ULTIM ENGAGING IN GREAT POWER "BRINKMANSHIP" AS COVER TO PROTECT ISLAMIST EFFORTS AT NUCLEARIZATION includ TECHS TRANSFERS.
IIMB the artic's "REAL FRONT" still includes IRAN and likely the former Soviet SSRs. SAVING THE JIHAD vv USA > "TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE" = RADICAL ISLAM NEEDS TECHS, RESOURCES, ETC. + WARRIORS - read, WARRIORS WHOM KNOW HOW TO USE SAME - AMAP ASAP WHICH PRAGMATICALLY THEY'RE NOT GOING TO GET IN PERENNIALLY UNDERDEV THIRD WORLD AFRICA OR THE AMERICAS. The latter certainly can provide untold numbers of brave new fighters for Islam + Islamist Jihad-Insurgency, but will only be somuch "cannon fodder" agz US-Western MilTech superiority. ANY PROTO-EMIRATE/CALIPHATE IN CENTRAL ASIA + PERIPHERIES MUST ALSO BE PROTRACTIVELY PROTECTED AND DEFENDED, NOT JUST CREATED.
#4
A a reminder, RADICAL MULLAHS > VARIOUS OIL-RESOURCES CATACYLSM(S)/CRISES [Global Warming] + GLOBAL MUTUAL DESTRUCTION-ANARCHIES, including but not limited to inducing ANTI-US ASYMMETRIC NUCLEAR-WMD WARFARE ON MUSLIM SOIL AS DEFENSE AGZ US INVASION AND OCCUPATION, IS TO THE ADVANTAGE OF ISLAM = ISLAMIST AGENDA.
Angry reaction brings a halt to use of city pumps Back off, peasants...
The committee hosting the Democratic National Convention has used the city's gas pumps to fill up and apparently avoided paying state and federal fuel taxes. Errrrr....ummmmmmmmm...Look! Obama's on television!
The practice, which began four months ago, may have ended hours after its disclosure. An aide to Mayor John Hickenlooper released a statement Tuesday evening saying that Denver 2008 Host Committee members would pay market prices for fuel and would also be liable for all applicable taxes. I was shocked, shocked I tells ya, when we were caught this was brought to my attention.
However, Public Works spokeswoman Christine Downs told City Council members just hours before that host committee members were fueling up at the city pumps. The city does not pay taxes on the fuel for its fleet, and Downs said the host committee would not either. The word must've went out. Fill 'em up fast! The gravy train's gonna derail.
The disclosure brought immediate scrutiny. Colorado Attorney General John Suthers said the practice "would seem" to be illegal and referred the matter to the state Department of Revenue. Nonprofits, such as the host committee, are subject to state and federal gasoline taxes, according to the Department of Revenue. Oh. We...forgot.
The issue arose during the regular weekly meeting of Hickenlooper and City Council members. Downs requested authorization for a contract so the Public Works Department could be reimbursed by the host committee for use of "fueling facilities, fuel and car washes." Downs said the contract with the host committee started in March and that $9,700 in fuel and services had been purchased from the city so far. But the committee has yet to be billed. The city anticipates $466,125 in total revenues from the contract, Downs said. So they've been working on a nonexistent contract since March?
City Councilman Charlie Brown raised the question of whether the host committee would be paying fuel taxes, and Downs said it wouldn't. "There's something there that just doesn't seem right to me because, in a sense, you're saying then that the officials who pass the laws are not willing to live by them," said Councilwoman Jeanne Faatz. ...and, this shocks you?
Hickenlooper said the practice isn't unique to Denver. "I do know for a fact that they're doing the same exact thing in Minneapolis," Hickenlooper said, referring to the city that along with St. Paul is hosting the Republican National Convention. Harrrumph harrumph harrumph!
But Teresa McFarland, a spokeswoman for the Minneapolis-St. Paul host committee, said its members are getting their gas at public pumps."We're not getting a tax break on fuel," she said. "That's not the setup at this end." Oh-oh. Somebody better tell Mayor Ooompalooompa before he makes a bigger ass of himself.
In Colorado, consumers pay 40.4 cents per gallon in state and federal fuel taxes. "We're a nonpartisan, nonprofit committee, but certainly, if the city feels that taxes are applicable, we will pay those, too," said Chris Lopez, spokesman for the host committee. "So we would pay all applicable taxes on any of the fuel." Especially since we've been caught...
The host committee, which is responsible for raising money to put on the convention, is using the city's pumps "for safety and security reasons," Lopez said. "We know the gas is not tainted," he said. "We use it as a safety and security measure." Yeah..."safety and security"! That's the ticket!
Hickenlooper said GM is "loaning" the host committee vehicles and he expects a large number to be hybrids. It wasn't clear Tuesday whether host committee members are using those loaners or their personal vehicles. Oh...let me guess.
Dick Wadhams, chairman of the Colorado Republican Party, said the city's arrangement with the DNC host committee was "appalling. I'm hoping this is not the first of many stories about how Colorado taxpayers are apparently subsidizing the Democratic convention," Wadhams said. Care to make book on that, Dick?
After the meeting, Faatz said it was wrong for the DNC host committee to get a tax break."I am just troubled by not having the payment of taxes for what I consider to be a privately funded party, and that's what the host committee is: it's a private organization," she said. "If you've got a 14-gallon tank, on the average, that's about $5.66 that they don't have to pay for fill up," Brown said. Brown also questioned the need for car washes. C'mon, man. My ride's gotta look good. For the reputation of the city.
It also wasn't clear Tuesday whether the Department of Revenue will investigate."We can't talk about any individual taxpayer's circumstance," said department spokesman Mark Couch. "Tax-exempt organizations are not exempt from fuel taxes, so a nonprofit group is not exempt from fuel taxes. As to the individual circumstance involved here, we'd have to look into it and investigate to make any kind of determination." If it was Republican's though, they'd already be in cuffs...
Denis Berckefeldt, spokesman for Denver Auditor Dennis Gallagher, said Hickenlooper's administration has been guilty in the past of doing business before a contract is executed. GASP!!
"Is it unusual that it happens?" he asked. "No, because they do stuff like this. Do we like it? No." Awww, you can trust the mayor. He's not like the others...
In January 2006, Gallagher complained to Hickenlooper in a letter about the "ongoing problem related to work being performed on behalf of the city before a contract for that work has been fully executed and properly signed."
At that time, Gallagher wrote, an examination of 999 contracts found that in 790 cases - 79 percent - work began before the contracts were "fully executed." Well...hey...well...ummmmm...Look! Obama's on television!
"We would have a problem with this because they're clearly selling fuel to the host committee without a fully executed contract," Berckefeldt said. "We have a real serious issue at the auditor's office with the city doing business with anyone without a contract." C'mon. You can trust me. I'm the mayor.
The foreign ministry has formally complained to Libya against retaliatory measures following the arrest last week in Geneva of one of Moammar Gaddafi's sons.
It said that since last Thursday Gaddafi's government had detained Swiss citizens in Libya, demanded the closure of Swiss firms present in the country and recalled some of its diplomatic representatives to Switzerland.
Libya has also stopped processing visa requests from Swiss, and on Wednesday announced that the airline, Swiss, would have to reduce its flights to Tripoli from three to one a week.
Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey protested against the moves in a telephone call with her Libyan counterpart on Tuesday. A Swiss delegation is expected to hold talks in Tripoli later on Wednesday with the Libyan authorities.
The moves against Swiss interests came a week after "Hannibal" Gaddafi was arrested with his wife, Aline, at a Geneva five-star hotel last week and spent two nights in a court cell.
The couple, who were released on bail and have left the country, were charged by a magistrate with inflicting physical injuries and using threats and force against two of their staff, who lodged a formal complaint.
During these turbulent economic times, Gordon Brown is keen for the country to stick by him. However, this probably wasn't quite what he had in mind. Dan Glass, of the climate change pressure group Plane Stupid, today tried to superglue himself to the Prime Minister at a Downing Street reception. Plane Stupid?
As Mr Glass, 24, was introduced to the Premier, he laid a glue-covered hand on his sleeve. Maggie Thatcher would've beat the piss out of him.
He also took the opportunity to urge Mr Brown to change his mind on the Heathrow airport expansion. Well, I was gonna, but, since you're an asshole, I think we'll double the size.
Mr Glass told the assembled guests: 'Do not worry - this is a non-violent protest. We cannot shake away climate change like you can just shake away my arm.' ...whereupon the PM's security detail beat him to a pulp. Nah. You just wish that happened.
Mr Glass, who had smuggled pouches of glue into the event in his underwear, added later that Mr Brown laughed off the protest. 'He was just grinning about it,' he said. 'He didn't seem to take me seriously.' Ha ha ha. What if had a gun down his shorts? Ha ha ha...
Mr Glass, an invited guest, was allowed to stay at the reception for 40 minutes after the stunt. When he left, he tried to glue himself to the gates of Downing Street - but had his hand detached by a police officer. 'I didn't have much glue left by that point,' he said. I'd have let him stay there. For a coupla days. I would've bought him more glue to make sure.
Denis Boyles, "Europress Review" @ National Review Online
. . . the Independent covers Obama the way Men&'s Health covers workout programs:
Barack Obama for beginners
The most lionised US politician since JFK visits Europe next week. Mass outbreaks of Obama-mania are expected. Are you prepared?
The piece snark-snipes the competitive zeal of hard-working American journalists who are outdoing each other in a race to produce the fluffiest, most inconsequential coverage of the candidate. On Wednesday, cable news breathlessly reported that Obama had spent more time in the gym than on the campaign trail as he prepared for his European tour. We also now know the contents of the candidate's iPod , which, the Indy adds wryly, is apparently Bob Dylan. He has at least 30 Bob Dylan songs on his iPod, including the entire Blood On The Tracks album. The story runs for miles.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/23/2008
12:06 ||
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#1
Well, it appears everybody's aware of it.
So why's it keep on happening? Or does the media not care that it's being perceived as having the ethics of a South Side crack whore?
#5
OTOH, NET Poster > opined that in the so-called OBAMESSIAH, Amers will see the worst of both CARTER + BILL CLINTON years redux. Namely:
(1) US trusting IRAN NOT to dev nuclear weapons > new CARTER-ERA SOVIET PROMISE NOT TO INVADE AFGHANISTAN; +
(2) CHANDRA LEVY MURDER as MAN-GATE [vv Barack's alleged homosexuality] > NEW MONICA-GATE???
(3) NEW US WAR IN IRAN OR PAKISTAN = CHANDRA's WAR > NEW MONICA's WAR???
(4) GLOBAL WARMING CRISES > NEW 1970's STAGFLATION + PRICE CONTROLS.
(5) Other.
BLASTS FROM THE PAST.
OUCH!
And Amer is still low on POPCORN thanx to GASAHOL!
#6
What's all the fuss? The fluffiest, most inconsequential coverage seems appropriate for the fluffiest, most inconsequential candidate. McCain should be able to take Obama down with the fact that Obama's entire foreign policy experience consists of a week of photo ops.
In Norway, many motorists are up in arms over why they have to pay the highest petrol (gasoline) prices in Europe when the country is the world's fifth-largest oil exporter and a recent tax hike has done little to cool tempers.
"It is really strange: we have lots of oil and we're a rich country. Why do we have to pay so much?" asks Per-Arne Skjerpingstad, a 38-year-old hospital porter as he fills up the tank of his Peugeot 307 at an Oslo gas station for 750 kroner (94 euros, 148 dollars).
Diesel costs 14.23 kroner (1.78 euros, 2.82 dollars) a litre (quarter gallon) and 95 unleaded 13.84 kroner, putting it at the top of the European league, EU figures show.
And while many countries are discussing how to soften the blow of skyrocketing oil prices on consumers, Norway on July 1 increased its already heavy tax take by 0.05 kroner per litre on petrol and 0.10 kroner (0.1 euro cent, 0.2 dollar cent) on diesel.
Seven out of 10 Norwegians oppose the tax increase, according to a July poll by the daily VG.
"It's not the way to go. In a country like Norway, people need to have cars. I bought this car because I'm going to be a father soon," Skjerpingstad said.
Critics argue it is meaningless to increase taxation when oil prices have risen so much in the past months. And as the new tax increase is low, it won't significantly change drivers' behaviour.
Instead "we should lower tax because we are so fortunate to be an oil exporter," said Siv Jensen, the leader of the far-right Progress Party, the leading opposition group in Norway.
"We should give the money back to the people so they can enjoy it," she told AFP.
The tax increase is part of a wider government strategy to fight climate change by pushing Norwegians to leave their car at home.
"At a time when climate change is beginning to seriously impact the planet, and when Norway's carbon dioxide emissions are increasing, we politicians must take steps to meet these challenges," Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen said.
The tax was agreed by all political parties, apart from the Progress Party, as part of the country's overall climate change policy.
But now supporters of the centre-left coalition government fear the tax increase will cost them dearly in the next elections, in September 2009.
"It's a very unwise political decision. The only thing it will accomplish is that the Progress Party will get even more votes," Labour MP Karita Bekkemellem told the daily VG in June.
A third of the population expect fuel prices to be the most important issue in the polls, according to a survey in Aftenposten, Norway's paper of reference.
Speculation has been rife over whether the far-right could come to power for the first time in the next election. Even Labour Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg has acknowledged that the Progress Party could get into government.
Those living in rural and remote areas are particularly incensed about the tax increase as they are more dependent on cars than city dwellers who have access to public transport.
"This is a serious issue with many people I have spoken to and met in my region, (rural) Moere and Romsdal. Much more serious than for those who live in a small circle in Oslo and Gruenerloekka (a fashionable area in the capital) think," Bekkemellem told VG.
At the same time, there are those who think the protests are overdone since Norway is a rich country and should be able to afford high fuel prices in the service of a good cause.
Norwegian salaries are among the highest in the world and the government estimates an average industry worker here can buy twice as much petrol as his Spanish counterpart after working an hour.
"Of course petrol is expensive but it's okay. The standard of living is good here and salaries are high," said Stine Nore, a 28-year-old logistics manager as she filled up her black BMW estate.
"There have to be incentives for people to drive less. Driving is a luxury. People should only drive a car when it really is necessary," she told AFP. Hopefully the Progress Party will kick seven bells out of the tax hikers, sending a strong message to the US Democrat party
#1
"The Progress Party is officially a liberalistic party committed to tax reductions, free market economics and deregulation of the economy, stricter limits on immigration, closer cooperation with NATO, the United States and also Israel in foreign policy, a more controlled state aid to developing countries, social and cultural conservatism, and the decentralization of government.
#3
At the same time, there are those who think the protests are overdone since Norway is a rich country and should be able to afford high fuel prices in the service of a good cause.
Remember, our ancestors either left or were thrown out because unlike their stay behind blood, they believed government works for the people, the people don't work for the government.
#4
"At a time when climate change is beginning to seriously impact the planet, and when Norway's carbon dioxide emissions are increasing, we politicians must take steps to meet these challenges," Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen said.
I have relatives named Halvorsen. They, however, are not Kool-Aid drinkers....
#5
"Of course petrol is expensive but it's okay. The standard of living is good here and salaries are high," said Stine Nore, a 28-year-old logistics manager as she filled up her black BMW estate."There have to be incentives for people to drive less. Driving is a luxury. People should only drive a car when it really is necessary," she told AFP.
#6
A place like Norway ought to be FOR global warming! It would make the place a lot more comfortable for most of the year. And they might even be able to grow more than cabbages.
A Royal Marine who threw himself on a grenade to save his comrades' lives is to receive the George Cross.
Lance Corporal Matthew Croucher, 24, from Solihull, in the West Midlands triggered a trip wire in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, in February.
He immediately dropped to the ground and lay across the grenade, being blown into the air as it went off.
The George Cross is one of the highest decorations that can be awarded for acts of gallantry.
L/Cpl Croucher said: "All I could do in the moment was shout out 'grenade' before diving on top of it."
His bag was crammed with equipment which cushioned the explosion. His three comrades suffered just cuts and bruises while L/Cpl Croucher was thrown in the air.
He added: "It was incredible. I escaped with only a nose bleed and a headache."
L/Cpl Croucher, a reservist, is one of 20 living recipients of the award.
Chief of the Defence Staff Sir Jock Stirrup said: "He acted to save his comrades in the most certain knowledge that he would not himself survive.
"His exemplary behaviour and extreme heroism are fully deserving of the nation's highest recognition."
His parents said they had had no idea what had happened to him.
His mother Margaret Croucher, 55, a teacher in Birmingham, said she got three text messages from him while he was away, one of which read: "Being put forward for a citation, might meet the Queen."
She said: "Obviously I was very intrigued but we didn't get the full story until he got back and we read about it in the papers.
"I am obviously immensely proud but it was a typical act from him. It was not the first time he had put his life at risk."
His father, Richard, 57, described him as a very "lucky man".
L/Cpl Croucher is expected to receive his honour from the Queen at Buckingham Palace in the autumn.
He was deployed to Afghanistan attached to Taunton-based 40 Commando Royal Marines last autumn.
Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Birrell, the unit's commanding officer, said: "This was a magnificent act which absolutely typified the highest traditions of commando service."
#6
If this is blunt and to the point I am sorry but I wanted you all to know what kind of caliber of person he really is. What you see in the news is all fake.
In service,
CPT J
Bagram, Afghanistan
Thanks CPT J. We pretty much had the bugger pegged, but from your report he's just created new lows.
#7
If I recall correctly, the latest polls have McCain and Obama within statistical variation in Michigan, and McCain leading slightly in Ohio. Oh, and something like 70% of those asked believe the media are significantly biased in favour of Obama. Perhaps Cpt. J is not the only one reporting in from this Tour.
#9
"Tour of Duty" sounds better than "Tour of Sucking Up and Trying to Look Important While Not Admitting You Were Wrong About Everything". Shorter, too.
#11
Next thing you know they will give BO a Nobel Peace Prize for his "Tour of Duty." That will be followed by an Academy Award for his acting.
Geez, do these MSM types have no shame? Calling this media blitz a Tour of Duty is an insult to anyone who has served a real tour of duty in Iraq or Afghanistan. The MSM has pulled out all the stops to try get the Messiahman elected.
#1
forced diversity is bullshit. I am so sick of hearing about how "this minority needs or wants this" or "we are trying to target this minority for recruitment". MLK is rolling in his grave, unless Content of character means something else I've missed.
Speaking from a USMC perspective - blacks make up 12.8% of the U.S. population - if they make up 17% of the mil then they are represented well. Officer candidates need to have a 4 yr degree, last I checked - only about 6% of eligible black males for service had this first requirement - when they do have a 4 yr degree they are sought out very hard by corporate America & offered lucrative employment in the private sector - logically many of them would rather make high $$$ in corporations vice making less cash as a 2ndLt/Ensign - I know, I talk to these kids on at least on a monthly basis. Second, their own major influencers (parents, teachers, pastors & the idiot forces in pop culture) in their communities tell them that joining the mil after they already have a degree -even as an officer is basically a dumb idea - why not go out into the private sector and make twice as much? The radicals tell me - why would I want to fight in George W's war?? Another factor about blacks in the Corps not making general officer - the majority of our generals are from the Infantry community. For whatever reason the majority of blacks that enter our branch choose to work in support areas. I love how the national black caucus tries to punch us in the chest over the lack of black generals then these same folks tell their college educated youngsters not to join up.
Lastly, my $.02 - if you can't do your job as well or think you need a mentor of the same race or you have an issue w/the pigmentation of the skin of your senior officers then you need to search your own soul. Racism comes in many forms and guises - bullets don't discriminate.
#4
For whatever reason the majority of blacks that enter our branch choose to work in support areas.
Spike Lee kicked up a fuss over the fact that Clint Eastwood's Iwo Jima movie did not feature blacks, who were primarily restricted to support roles during the entire war. Sixty years later, blacks are voluntarily enlisting mainly for support roles.
#6
"Blacks make up about 17 percent of the total force, yet just 9 percent of all officers".
Blacks are about 12% of the US population. And the percentage of black NCOs is *higher* than 12%. This means that blacks prefer the enlisted ranks, *not* that they are being excluded from the officer ranks.
#7
This is an absolute outrage. After more than 25 years of basketball scholarships, race and gendor preference quotas, affirmative action to include 'special' guidance to promotion boards, and post-board summary reviews, board members still cannot get it right. Board members, simply vote the photograph and disregard Professional Development and Education (PDE), Assignment histories, Fitness Reports (FITREPS) and Officer Evaluations (OER's)as the bias pieces of racist hate and prejudice that they are. If DoD must, secret voting ballots can be done away with and the board president and recorder CAN to be issued pistols! Or better yet, selected officers can be appointed to field grade at commissioning. Now, get back in there and do it right!
#8
In the Navy, I worked for three black officers. Two post major command captains and a Lieutenant Commander. Using the terms of the time, all three were head and shoulders above their peers.
Mr. Obama in Iraq
Did he really find support for his withdrawal plan?
Wednesday, July 23, 2008; A14
THE INITIAL MEDIA coverage of Barack Obama's visit to Iraq suggested that the Democratic candidate found agreement with his plan to withdraw all U.S. combat forces on a 16-month timetable. So it seems worthwhile to point out that, by Mr. Obama's own account, neither U.S. commanders nor Iraq's principal political leaders actually support his strategy. All morning, all I've heard and read, is that all the Iraqis had agreed with Mr. Obama, as the Post calls him. Am I reading this correctly?
Gen. David H. Petraeus, the architect of the dramatic turnaround in U.S. fortunes, "does not want a timetable," Mr. Obama reported with welcome candor during a news conference yesterday. In an interview with ABC, he explained that "there are deep concerns about . . . a timetable that doesn't take into account what [American commanders] anticipate might be some sort of change in conditions."
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who has a history of tailoring his public statements for political purposes, made headlines by saying he would support a withdrawal of American forces by 2010. But an Iraqi government statement made clear that Mr. Maliki's timetable would extend at least seven months beyond Mr. Obama's. More significant, it would be "a timetable which Iraqis set" -- not the Washington-imposed schedule that Mr. Obama has in mind. It would also be conditioned on the readiness of Iraqi forces, the same linkage that Gen. Petraeus seeks. As Mr. Obama put it, Mr. Maliki "wants some flexibility in terms of how that's carried out." This is not the news that is being reported
Other Iraqi leaders were more directly critical. As Mr. Obama acknowledged, Sunni leaders in Anbar province told him that American troops are essential to maintaining the peace among Iraq's rival sects and said they were worried about a rapid drawdown.
Mr. Obama's response is that, as president, he would have to weigh Iraq's needs against those of Afghanistan and the U.S. economy. He says that because Iraq is "a distraction" from more important problems, U.S. resources devoted to it must be curtailed. Told Petraeus, he didn't have the strategic vision, that I, The One, have
Yet he also says his aim is to "succeed in leaving Iraq to a sovereign government that can take responsibility for its own future." What if Gen. Petraeus and Iraqi leaders are right that this goal is not consistent with a 16-month timetable? Will Iraq be written off because Mr. Obama does not consider it important enough -- or will the strategy be altered?
Arguably, Mr. Obama has given himself the flexibility to adopt either course. Yesterday he denied being "so rigid and stubborn that I ignore anything that happens during the course of the 16 months," though this would be more reassuring if Mr. Obama were not rigidly and stubbornly maintaining his opposition to the successful "surge" of the past 16 months. He also pointed out that he had "deliberately avoided providing a particular number" for the residual force of Americans he says would be left behind.
Yet Mr. Obama's account of his strategic vision remains eccentric. He insists that Afghanistan is "the central front" for the United States, along with the border areas of Pakistan. But there are no known al-Qaeda bases in Afghanistan, and any additional U.S. forces sent there would not be able to operate in the Pakistani territories where Osama bin Laden is headquartered. Is this really coming from the Washington Post?
While the United States has an interest in preventing the resurgence of the Afghan Taliban, the country's strategic importance pales beside that of Iraq, which lies at the geopolitical center of the Middle East and contains some of the world's largest oil reserves. If Mr. Obama's antiwar stance has blinded him to those realities, that could prove far more debilitating to him as president than any particular timetable. Yea, it is... I checked the link to be sure it is correct
#3
Jon Stuart of the Daily Show just mocked -- with photos and clips from today's news -- Candidate Obama's pretensions. Afterwards, a bit of mockery for Candidate McCain, who campaigned amongst the ordinary folks of Wilke-Barre, Pennsylvania, and called on former president George H. W. Bush, but nothing like showing Obama speechifying on a mountain top in Israel and the Temple of Hercules in Greece. The clear implication was the only thing left out of Obama's photo op collection is a miracle involving loaves and fishes or a fellow named Lazarus.
US forces could be stationed permanently in Kurdistan as part of a long-term security agreement, top Kurdish political sources revealed to Gulf News.
The Iraqi government and head of northern Iraq's regional Kurdish administration, Massoud Barzani, along with the leadership of US forces in Iraq have started to suggest that American forces be permanently based in Kurdistan.
These ideas are welcomed by Democratic US Presidential candidate Barack Obama who believes the survival of US combat forces in Kurdistan does not pose any real danger to the lives of US troops and therefore it would be appropriate to redeploy US troops there in the future, added the sources.
Iraqi and US negotiations continued in Baghdad to conclude a memorandum of understanding to sign this agreement, which will allow the US military to stay permanently in Kurdistan, and Iraqi and US negotiators agreed to focus these negotiations on the issue of determining a timetable for the agreement.
There are currently no military airports or airbase installation in any of the three provinces in Kurdistan and these may need to be established. It may take two to three years to clear US forces from Iraqi cities.
Protection
"A permanent US military presence in the Kurdistan region is welcome and is necessary to defend Iraq from internal and external risks and is important to protect the region, but this presence must be within an Iraqi-Kurd-American agreement," Jabar Al Yawir, spokesman for the Protection Forces of the Kurdistan Region, told Gulf News.
"Permanent US forces remain in the Al Hurria Air Base in the province of Kirkuk and the Al Gizlani Air Base in Mosul, close to the Kurdistan Region, but this will not be a solution because such a permanent presence in those cities is fuelling the armed resistance. I therefore believe that the relocation of US forces inside the region is the solution," Emad Al Hamadani, an Iraqi army officer told Gulf News.
While US and Kurdish sources denied any intention of building a US air base near the town of Halabja in the governorate of Sulaymaniya, near Iran, some independent Kurdish sources said if the US decides to establish a permanent presence in the Kurdistan Region they will certainly be closer to the Iraqi-Iranian border.
"Kurdish leaders are among the most prominent US allies in Iraq and the region, and with this permanent US presence not one neighbouring country would dare to threaten the sovereignty of the region and its federal experience, and the Kurdish population will not to take up arms against the presence if this happens, because much of them are have a message of thanks and gratitude for the Americans," Abdul Razzaq Al Saadi, a strategic analyst told Gulf News.
#3
I been talling you guys, the Kurds want and need us there on a permanent basis. One Stryker brigade, one support brigade (including Army aviation units), an SF unit, and an airfield with USAF and UAVs would be enough.
#7
ION WAFF.com > CHAVEZ OFFERS RUSSIA MILITARY BASES IN VENEZUELA, as part of major arms deal.
WAFF Poster opines/predicts that GAZPROM will come and invest in Venezuela and hence will need protection [from America?]; + that one day Amer may even buy fuel from a Venzuela-based GAZPROM ENERFAC???
Also from WAFF > THE INDO-CHINESE WAR AT SEA [Naval competition, espec vv SUBS].
There is some irony in the fact that Democrats, after years of deriding Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki as a hopeless bungler and conniving Shiite sectarian, are now treating as sacrosanct his suggestion that Iraq will be ready to assume responsibility for its own security by 2010. Naturally this is because his position seems to support that of Barack Obama.
A little skepticism is in order here. The prime minister has political motives for what he's saying -- whatever that is. An anonymous Iraqi official told the state-owned Al-Sabah newspaper, "Maliki thinks that Obama is most likely to win in the presidential election" and that "he's got to take preemptive steps before Obama gets to the White House." By smoothing Obama's maiden voyage abroad as the Democratic nominee, Maliki may figure that he will collect chits that he can call in later.
Giving the Iraqi prime minister an added motive to posture about troop withdrawals, even while he explicitly eschews binding timelines, is that he is engaged in contentious status-of-forces negotiations with the United States. He may figure that threatening to boot us out gives him more leverage over our troops. Beyond the negotiations, there is the imperative of Iraq's provincial elections, supposed to take place this year. Maliki no doubt expects that his Dawa party will reap political benefits from appearing to stand up to the Americans.
This is part of a pattern for Maliki, who, though he won office and has stayed alive (literally and politically) with American support, has hardly been an unwavering friend of the United States -- at least in public. Although he was an opponent of the Saddam Hussein regime, he was not a proponent of the U.S.-led invasion. Having spent long years of exile in Syria and Iran, he has had to overcome deeply ingrained suspicions of the United States.
Keep in mind also that Maliki has no military experience and that he has been trapped in the Green Zone, relatively isolated from day-to-day life. For these reasons, he has been a consistent font of misguided predictions about how quickly U.S. forces could leave.
In May 2006, shortly after becoming prime minister, he claimed, "Our forces are capable of taking over the security in all Iraqi provinces within a year and a half."
In October 2006, when violence was spinning out of control, Maliki declared that it would be "only a matter of months" before his security forces could "take over the security portfolio entirely and keep some multinational forces only in a supporting role."
President Bush wisely ignored Maliki. Instead of withdrawing U.S. troops, he sent more. The prime minister wasn't happy. On Dec. 15, 2006, the Wall Street Journal reported, "Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has flatly told Gen. George Casey, the top American military commander in Iraq, that he doesn't want more U.S. personnel deployed to the country, according to U.S. military officials." When the surge went ahead anyway, Maliki gave it an endorsement described in news accounts as "lukewarm."
In January 2007, with the surge just starting, Maliki predicted "that within three to six months our need for the American troops will dramatically go down." In April 2007, when most of Baghdad was still out of control, the prime minister said that Iraqi forces would assume control of security in every province by the end of the year.
Even now, when the success of the surge is undeniable, Maliki won't give U.S. troops their due. In the famous interview with Der Spiegel last weekend, he was asked why Iraq has become more peaceful. He mentioned "many factors," including "the political rapprochement we have managed to achieve," "the progress being made by our security forces," "the deep sense of abhorrence with which the population has reacted to the atrocities of al-Qaida and the militias," and "the economic recovery." No mention of the surge.
To his credit, although he has postured as a fierce nationalist in public, Maliki has often accommodated American concerns in private. And, despite saying that Iraq doesn't need many U.S. troops, he has acquiesced to their presence.
But Maliki's public utterances do not provide a reliable guide as to when it will be safe to pull out U.S. troops. Better to listen to the military professionals. The Post recently quoted Brig. Gen. Bilal al-Dayni, commander of Iraqi troops in Basra, as saying of the Americans, "We hope they will stay until 2020." That is similar to the expectation of Iraq's defense minister, Abdul Qadir, who says his forces cannot assume full responsibility for internal security until 2012 and for external security until 2018.
What would happen if we were to pull out much faster, on a 16-month timetable? Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Hammond, commander of coalition forces in Baghdad, says that would be "very dangerous" -- the same words used by Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Of course, if the Iraqi government tells us to leave, we will have to leave. But, the prime minister's ambiguous comments notwithstanding, the Iraqi government is saying no such thing, because most Iraqis realize that the gains of the surge are fragile and could be undone by a too-rapid departure of U.S. forces.
The Chinese government has ordered a Danish-operated art gallery not to display Andy Warhol pictures for security reasons Up to 38 athletic paintings by late American artist Andy Warhol have been forbidden to be displayed at Danish-owned Galleri Faurschou in...
But gallery management says the real reason for the ban is to force visitors to concentrate on Chinese art. Galleri Faurschou believes it had previously received approval for the Warhol exhibit from European representatives of the Chinese government. But customs officials are now refusing to release the pictures.
'We sent out 500 invitations, the catalogues were printed and the pictures' owners had arrived in Beijing, but on Tuesday we had to cancel everything,' Kai Heinze, the gallery's manager, told Politiken newspaper.
Heinze said other galleries have been forced to change some of their exhibits to Chinese displays as well.
He said Galleri Faurschou would probably be allowed to show the Warhol exhibit after the Olympic Games are over, but added the business had already wasted nine months work and lost around 300,000 kroner in investments planning the display.
#2
Gee, the Chinese are really getting into the spirit of warmly welcoming visitors from around the world and showcasing the hospitality of their ancient oriental culture.
#3
Maybe there's some lingering bitterness over those tarted-up images of Mao, which made a fortune for Warhol by, essentially, treating Mao as a disposable product similar to Campbell's Soup or Coke bottles. Or so I'd like to think, anyway. ;-)
FORT RILEY, Kan. Standing next to a screen illuminating a long list of tips, Maj. Anthony Nichols looked out at the classroom of neophyte military trainers and began a lecture about the ways that fellow soldiers will look down at them while they serve in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Other soldiers will call them "undesirables," sent in because they had no other place on the battlefield, the instructor said. Some units will kick military advisers out of security briefings. One recommendation: to "patch swap," carry alternative military insignia for their uniforms so they can pretend to be members of other units. It will help them get supplies and equipment more easily. Or at least more respect.
"I came armed with a stack of patches. . . . Who am I going to be today?" Nichols said about his time in Iraq.
Nichols' depiction is in stark contradiction with Pentagon rhetoric. Top Pentagon officials say that developing a new corps of military advisers is a priority as part of the new emphasis on counterinsurgency. But the military, which continues to use the Army Special Forces to train foreign troops for combat in Iraq and elsewhere, hasn't fully embraced the program to train trainers in counterinsurgency.
At Fort Riley, former military advisers are building the curriculum ad hoc, and their place in the military's pecking order is ambiguous. Advisers don't get promoted as fast as their combat counterparts do, according to soldiers at Fort Riley. And the work of advisers in the field depends on the will of the brigade commander who's securing the area, they say.
Resolving the role of advisers has never been timelier. The U.S. military is considering a drawdown in Iraq. As brigades leave, advisers will stay behind to deter corruption and abuse among the Iraqi forces, track weapons confiscated by Iraqi soldiers and monitor the state of the local forces.
Troops in Afghanistan are stretched thin, and military advisers often are the sole presence in isolated communities. Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said that the military needs at least 3,000 more advisers there. Last year, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates called training Afghan security forces "arguably the most important military component."
In Iraq, trained advisers are serving with Iraqi combat brigades. As the Iraqi forces are increasingly capable, traditional U.S. brigades are supporting their Iraqi counterparts and monitoring how they take the lead. American soldiers who came expecting combat are watching their Iraqi counterparts take charge. At one base in the southern city of Amara, a U.S. soldier told McClatchy, speaking on condition of anonymity in order to talk candidly: "I keep looking around, wondering what I am supposed to be doing here."
Regardless, there's a pushback throughout the ranks from those who think that the next wars won't demand such cerebral officers, Nichols said. The Army should train to kill enemies, not train large militaries. That job should stay with the special forces, soldiers often complain.
One soldier returning to Fort Riley from a yearlong rotation in Iraq's restive Diyala province told McClatchy of his experience: "I didn't join the Army to be an adviser." He asked not to be identified so that he could speak about his experiences without fear of retribution.
At Fort Riley, some of the Army's best-known innovators are fighting for the advising program. Retired Lt. Col. John Nagl, who helped craft the counterinsurgency manual with current Iraq commander Gen. David Petraeus, has proposed that the military develop a permanent 20,000-member "advisory corps."
Here, soldiers who worked as advisers in Iraq and Afghanistan have developed an in-depth training program. Soldiers learn basic Arabic or Dari one of the Afghan languages along with the fundamental tenets of Islam and cultural norms of Iraqis and Afghans. Near the end of two months of training, they're sent to a mock town, where native Iraqi and Dari speakers pose as residents and local forces and test the U.S. soldiers on what they've learned.
Col. Jeffrey Ingram, the commander here, has been building the military adviser training program since 2006. Before that, soldiers such as Nichols learned on the job.
In his office, among books such as "Islam for Dummies" and the Quran, Nichols keeps a photo of Col. Yahya Hameed al Zubaidi, an Iraqi police officer he was training near the Syrian border in 2006. Nichols is convinced that tribal leaders killed Zubaidi because the police commander didn't include them enough in his security efforts.
Nichols said that had he known the importance of the tribal system to Iraqis, he would've encouraged officers such as Zubaidi to reach out more.
"He represents the effect you are having on your counterparts," Nichols said, holding the flier that announced the colonel's death. "We push them very hard, and they become vulnerable. I could have been a better transition leader if I had known that then."
Fort Riley trains roughly 40 percent of Army, Navy and Air Force military advisers, and the rest train with their units. Marines train their troops at Twentynine Palms, their base near San Diego. The Army training center is scheduled to move to Fort Polk, La., sometime next year.
Trainers are slowly getting respect. Last month, Gen. George Casey, the Army chief of staff, said that advisory work by senior officers would be taken into account at promotion boards. The test, Ingram said, is if the promotions come through.
#1
Pity party at fort Riley! Training and advising other countries troops is tough. So what! Any time a hand full of guys can get some other countries troops to fight instead of using ours its a bonus. Advisor work is hard, its misunderstood, and not appreciated. Welcome to the Special Forces world at a very micro level. And this guys needs a real B&*ch slapping for patch swapping! Just plain dumb.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
07/23/2008 10:48
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Advisers don't get promoted as fast as their combat counterparts do
Welcome my friend, to the role of the Special Forces advisor, warts and all!
#4
is this an Army thing? We took care of our MTT/BTT/SPTT teams like it was going out of style. Whatever those dudes needed we coughed up the best we could.
#7
There are several divisions in the military. Conventional and unconventional is one; combat and combat support is another; front line and REMF is another; active duty and reserve is another; and "big picture" vs. "tacticals".
Within these, you get personality types; the "by the book" vs. "casual" types; the militants vs. the militarists; the religious vs. the secular; and intolerant vs. the tolerant.
What makes it livable is that you can usually migrate to where you want to fit in. This is a trade off with the regimental system where you were stuck for your whole career in just one unit.
Would-be burglar found dead in Hollywood ventilation shaft was upside down Pic at the link. He looks like a guy that would be found dead upside down in a ventilation shaft... Police think man was trying to rob Hollywood sports bar Well...maybe he just snuck out for a smoke maybe.
HOLLYWOOD - A man whose body was found in the ventilation shaft of a Hollywood sports bar was upside down and died of suffocation, the Broward Medical Examiner's Office said today. The cause of death of Benjamin Rodriguez, 46, was given as positional asphyxia, meaning his lungs became compressed and he suffocated. It was classified as an accident. Benjamin "Mastermind" Rodriguez...
The Hollywood man could have been dead for up to 72 hours when police found him at 441 All-Star Sports Bar, 1510 S. State Road 7, on Saturday night, authorities said. Hey. Does it always smell like that in here?
Smell like what?
Police believe Rodriguez, who was 5-foot-7 and weighed 182 pounds, could have been trying to burglarize the business. Damn fine police work if ya ask me...
"Rooftop burglaries aren't uncommon, but to have somebody stuck or die is," police spokesman Lt. Manny Marino said Sunday."This is the first one I've seen where the person died," said Marino, who has been with Hollywood police for 13 years. I wish I'd seen more, but...sorry.
It took authorities about five hours to extricate the body from the vent, which police said measured no more than 2 square feet. Charlie, gimme the sawzall...
Employees of the bar called police about 7:20 p.m. Saturday, after they smelled a foul odor and saw what appeared to be blood dripping onto the bar's kitchen floor. Hey. Is that barbeque sauce? And has that cheese gone bad?
Nope. Looks like there's a dead guy in the vent.
Firefighters arrived and found the body trapped in the exhaust vent of the stove hood. Hey, Charlie. Lookit this...
Crime scene technicians were at the sports bar throughout the night, and the body was removed by about 1 a.m. Sunday, Marino said. Hey, hurry it up. We don't wanna miss CSI...
The gruesome find came two days after sports bar employees noticed a few ceiling tiles had fallen to the floor, police said. We thought it was an earthquake or...sumthin.
The incident was classified as an attempted break-in and no one thought then there might be a body trapped in the vent. But...what if there's a dead guy in the vent?
Yeah. Right. Does it always smell like that in here?
Smell like what?
The previous week, another business that shares the small strip mall with the sports bar was burglarized. Investigators think the dead man successfully burglarized the adjacent business and returned to break into the sports bar, Marino said. Ha! That was easy!
Over the years in South Florida, many thieves have cut through roofs to steal from businesses -- jewelry stores, pawn shops, check-cashing and convenience stores, according to news reports. Elsewhere in the nation, there have been reports of rooftop burglars breaking bones and suffering other injuries in falls. Look for OSHA to demand that airbags be deployed after an establishment closes to prevent a recurrence of such tragedies...
Though risky, the rooftop entry method may be preferred because it's harder to detect than forcing open a door or breaking a window, Marino said. Risky? Any comment on that Benny?
Those more conventional methods tend to set off burglar alarms, but generally, internal motion sensors detect even rooftop burglars once they get inside. What is this, The Thomas Crown Affair?
If the man found dead in the sports bar was trying to rob the place, he may have given his life for a small amount of cash or alcoholic beverages. If?
"It would've been minimal," Marino said of the potential haul. "This is a closed bar. What could have possibly been there?" The motherrlode. Booze, smokes, and lottery tickets...
#3
Mike Rowe on Dirty Jobs did an elevator cleaning bit and while he found used condoms and other debris, there were no dead burglars hanging around, inverted or otherwise.
#4
Look for OSHA to demand that airbags be deployed after an establishment closes to prevent a recurrence of such tragedies...
Hey! Don't give them any ideas....
Ah, yes. Spain...
IsraelNN.com) The National Court in Spain has accepted a Palestinian Authority courtsuit that was filed less than a month ago, and orders the arrest of Binyamin Ben-Eliezer. The explanation: He oversaw the killing of arch-Palestinian terrorist Salah Shehada.
The Spanish court has also ordered the arrest of former IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon and other IDF officials, both past and present, for the same reason. The arrest orders are to be executed immediately upon the officials' setting foot on Spanish soil.
Shehada was killed in an Israel Air Force strike in July 2002, shortly before his plans to send a truck loaded with 600 kilograms of explosives to a Jewish celebration in Gush Katif were to be implemented. Slated to succeed Sheikh Ahmed Yassin as leader of Hamas, Shehada was responsible for hundreds of attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers, and the deaths of dozens of Israelis. Geez, there's a real loss for humanity... More important to persecute prosecute those who remove the scum of the earth ...
Ben-Eliezer of the Labor Party, currently Minister of Infrastructures, was Minister of Defense at the time of the successful liquidation of Shehada. Spain also seeks to arrest then-IDF chief Lt.-Gen. (res.) Moshe Yaalon, then-IAF chief Lt.-Gen. (res.) Dan Halutz (also a former Chief of Staff), then-Southern District Commander Gen. (res.) Doron Almog, then-National Security Council head Gen. (res.) Giora Eiland, and Ben-Eliezer's military advisor Mike Herzog.
The PA suit was filed in Spain by the Palestinian Committee for Human Rights (PCHR), which claimed that the one-ton bomb was too powerful to be dropped on a residential neighborhood. He was gonna use a 600kg. bomb, so I'd say they were a little light. But it did the job...
Arutz-7's Shimon Cohen notes, however, that it had been widely known during the period of the attack that Shehada and other terrorist leaders often took refuge behind children and other civilians in order to avoid being targeted by Israel. The IDF made it clear afterwards that the bombing of the building in which Shehada was hiding was done only after it was ascertained that no civilians - except possibly the terrorist's wife and daughter - were in his vicinity. The mission had been postponed numerous prior times when it was feared that civilians would be hurt.
In the event, however, 14 civilians were killed, and Israel was widely criticized from all quarters. Gen. Halutz's statement at the time, that all he felt when dropping a bomb was "a small bump in the side of the plane" - designed to express support for his pilots - added to the poor international perception of Israel's humanitarian image at the time. The PCHR often works in tandem with left-wing organizations in Israel, and refers to the IDF (Israel Defense Force) as the Israel Occupation Force.
#2
Jim, at one time, Spain had this really big empire. True, most of it was in South America, but anyway...
So, they are just acting like the empire they used to be.
The only thing more ridiculous is Belgium.
Posted by: Rambler in California ||
07/23/2008 12:19
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#3
Maybe longing for the days of Andalusia and dhimmitude.
#6
If Spain gets too obnoxious, the Jews will press charges in the International Criminal Court for all the torture the Spanish Jews suffered during the Inquisition. They may even decide that it wouldn't hurt Madrid much to be placed on Israel's long list of possible nuclear targets. The Spanish are fools, doing the bidding of fools.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/23/2008 22:07
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BAQUBA, Iraq (AFP) - Some 30,000 Iraqi soldiers and police are to launch a military assault against Al-Qaeda fighters and insurgents in Diyala province from August 1, army and police officers said Wednesday.
"The operation is aimed at cleansing the region of insurgents, Al-Qaeda and militias who are still there," a senior Iraqi military officer told AFP. He said some 30,000 soldiers and policemen from across Iraq would take part in the crackdown in the central province starting August 1.
Senior Iraqi police officials in Baquba, the capital of Diyala, confirmed the assault would start on August 1. "It will be an operation led by the Iraqi army. The US army will probably only watch... If they need help, we'll help them. If not, we will not do anything," a US military officer said.
Iraq's interior ministry spokesman Major General Abdul Karim Khalaf announced on July 13 that the Iraqi military would launch an assault in Diyala but did not specify the date. He said troops expected tough fighting during the assault.
Diyala and its capital Baquba are Iraq's most dangerous regions with insurgents regularly carrying out attacks, including by female suicide bombers. The looming assault in Diyala follows similar Iraqi military operations in the southern provinces of Basra and Maysan, and the northern province of Nineveh.
Aided by the US military and Iraqi forces, local anti-Qaeda groups known as "Sahwa" or Awakening councils, have inflicted severe blows on Al-Qaeda but the extremist group continues to carry out attacks in the region.
"Yes. Diyala remains the most dangerous province in Iraq," said Colonel Ali al-Karkhi, commanding officer of Iraqi forces in Khan Beni Sad, a town near Baquba which has been torn apart by the violence. "But understand that it is a mini-Iraq. There are Sunnis, Shiites, Kurds, Christians," the colonel told AFP in an interview.
"The other provinces are far less mixed which is why it is so difficult to restore peace here. It is also the reason why people are so extremist," he said.
As in other parts of Iraq, the colonel said, the locals have grown weary of violence and massacres and want peace and reconstruction, particularly through economic development.
Diyala, fed by the Euphrates and Diyala rivers, was once the granary of Iraq and the country's orange capital with its lush orchards.
But "foreign countries have sown the disorder," lamented Colonel Karkhi, pointing a finger at Shiite Iran, which shares a border with Diyala. "We captured five people (Iraqis) who 45 days ago were in Iran for training. They receive instructions from the Iranian services and their business is to kill people," he said.
The US military claims that most of these militants are "rogue" members of the Shiite Mahdi Army militia, the militant wing of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's movement.
Karkhi said the militants apart from receiving weapons, are paid three million dinars (2,400 dollars) monthly. "It is good money," he said. He said security forces usually display the names and photographs of wanted people at check-points. "The problem is that when we apply pressure they flee to Iran," Karkhi said.
#3
Good idea except the 101 doesn't drop anymore, they are helicopter assault which would work very well. Seems like we use to do this in the RVN with good results.
#5
Ted Striker: My orders came through. My squadron ships out tomorrow. We're bombing the storage depots at Daiquiri at 1800 hours. We're coming in from the north, below their radar.
Elaine Dickinson: When will you be back?
Ted Striker: I can't tell you that. It's classified.
#6
Are we sure that we are not preparing to make it difficult for them to go to Iran. It sas we are just watching. Maybe we are watching and waiting like bigjim wants. Thus the early warning.
NBC's "Today" called Obama's visit to Iraq "picture-perfect."
Obama also met with senior U.S. military commanders, including Gen. David Petraeus, who gave Obama a helicopter tour of Iraq and a briefing on the situation on the ground. Although their encounter was described as friendly, and photos show the two smiling and shaking hands, observers said Obama and Petreaus "agreed to disagree" about the feasibility of Obama's withdrawal timeline in an "animated" conversation.
David Gergen: "I think it was the first -- Barack Obama made the first mistake of his trip, in my judgment, in releasing a statement in which he said exactly what Maliki had said in those conversations. We have a long tradition in this country that we only have one president at a time. He's the commander in chief and the negotiator in chief. I cannot remember a campaign which a rival seeking the presidency has been in a position negotiating a war that's under way with another party outside the country. I think he leaves himself open to the charge tonight that he's meddling, that this is not his role, that he can be the critic, but he's not the negotiator. We have a president who does that. So, I think the underlying facts support him, but I think it would be a real mistake -- and I think it was a mistake -- to get into these conversations and let it be used politically."
#1
In other words, Obama, with his 145 days of duty in the senate, illinois state legislator, and community organizer, believes he know more than the man who has made his career in the military, and who has writtne books on foreign policy.
#3
In other words, Hussein Messiah will pay no regard to the military whatever, as he already knows all he needs to know. If this f**ker is elevated to the top, which I really can't comprehend, the military is going to suffer even more than under Buffoon Bill. Neither have any knowledge of the military mission or how the nations of the world interact. This dimwit will do some damage and allow Pubs to regroup, but it's going to be be a hard grind.
#4
Heh, coming from the guy who does not understand the logistical nightmare of suddenly choosing Invesco Field as the venue of his presumed corronation.
#5
In other words, Hussein Messiah will pay no regard to the military whatever, as he already knows all he needs to know.
Essentially. Obama can't say "Petraeus was successful" because that would imply that Bush's decision to put Petraeus in command was right. But most importantly, he'd be saying "My stance on the surge was wrong".
I guess why he said what he said depends on whether his fact-finding trip and subsequent comment was:
1. a campaign stunt,
2. an information-gathering to establish or revise his policies and the comment was made to keep the supporters happy,
3. an expedition to figure out how the facts on the ground will conflict with his already established policies (rather, the policies his 300 experts have come up with) or,
4. it was just to take his ego on a tour.
If it's from the first two, then his commentary, while flat-out wrong, is understandable in a political sort of way.
If it's from the second two, that doesn't bode well with him as President.
#9
We're hearing what the media outlets interpret Obama's visit to be instead of reporting the actual substance.
This embellishment crap has to be nipped in the butt and these guys punished publicly.
Why don't folks see this as the trash that it is?!
I'm losing patience with our citizens that have joined the sheeple herd.
I just discovered a new beer, Moose Drool, quite tasty, I think it's time.
Posted by: Jan ||
07/23/2008 14:45
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#10
the problem
It almost certainly IS quiet enough in Iraq for Obamas 16 month withdrawl to work, with a residual force of 50k or so left. Problem is, that leaves everyone reliant on the Iraqi army, and gives Maliki a free hand against the Sunni awakening types and the Kurds. Which makes it less likely we will get a truely pluralist democratic and prowestern Iraq, and more likely we get a Shiite quasidemocracy playing teh US and Iran against each other. Petraeus et al cant publicly say that, cause that would be undiplomatic to Maliki. Even Sunni pols cant say it, cause the whole Sunni world has been so hostile to the US position in Iraq so long (ironically in many cases cause they feared a shiite dominated Iraq) The Kurds want us to stay, but who will listen to them?
#13
It almost certainly IS quiet enough in Iraq for Obamas 16 month withdrawl to work, with a residual force of 50k or so left. Problem is, that leaves everyone reliant on the Iraqi army, and gives Maliki a free hand against the Sunni awakening types and the Kurds.
A secondary issue already raised is that the next president will also have to is continuing to assist Iraq's infrastructure and economic development; something that is also a factor in achieving "a truely pluralist democratic and prowestern Iraq".
Obama's remarks don't give me the warm and fuzzies on that.
#14
EVERY damned time I read something about Obama I see him screwing up yet again. This character isn't smart enough to get elected dogcatcher, much less POTUS. If the press treated him fairly he'd be back "community organizing."
If he gets elected, I predict that both taxes and the number of anti-black racists in America will rise exponentially.
Why not a 'Jirga' or some form of conflict resolution from the Quran? (Oh wait, that might get too bloody for the nice carpets at Canterbury)
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
07/23/2008 9:49
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#2
The African concept when you do an indaba is you talk, talk, talk until you agree. In these indaba groups, they talk a little and then someone changes the subject if they dont like it. The Americans (Conservatives) are feeling railroaded and manipulated. Even the Africans are saying, 'This is not indaba'. None of the bishops asked by The Times had yet been given a chance to discuss the one thing that they are all desperate to address: how can the Anglican Communion survive the consecration of Gene Robinson, the openly gay Bishop of New Hampshire. The Archbishop of Sudan, Dr Daniel Deng, heightened tensions yesterday by saying that Bishop Robinson ought to step down.
That's what the issue is, not "pandering" to African bishops.
Do they, the Anglican Church, allow open homosexual conduct from their clergy and do they therefore endorse homosexual marriage?
If they do, then the Anglican Church will shatter. Its already doing so with many US congregations switching to follow African bishops, who are orthodox and conservative in belief, over the Rowan Williams and his allied lefty bishops who preach an ignore-the-bible dont-offend-anyone feel-good anything-goes theology.
#3
The Americans (Conservatives) are feeling railroaded and manipulated.
The US TEC bishops are the wild-eyed rads at the conference. It's the traditionalist Anglo-Catholics that are getting the stick, which was was made clear in a series of votes at the Anglican Communion's Synod (held a few weeks ago).
For a conservative British Catholic's viewpoint, Daily Telegraph blogger Damian Thompson's perspective on the Lambreth conference makes for some interesting reading LINK
Guess he'd better get in line. And be prepared to wait, because it's a long one...
IsraelNN.com) Muslim Americans are furious over remarks made by Col. Bud Day, a former comrade in war of Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain. "The Muslims have said either we kneel or they're going to kill us," Day said in a Florida conference all with reporters. "I don't intend to kneel and I don't advocate to anybody that we kneel, and John doesn't advocate to anybody that we kneel.''
A Republican Party spokeswoman explained that Day meant to refer to "terrorists" and not to Muslims. However, Arab-American groups denounced the comments as bigotry.
Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama has called for withdrawing troops from Iraq, a policy that Day condemned, ''I think it's incredible that he would make up his mind before he ever got the facts,'' Day told reporters. Col Day's resume:
George "Bud" Day is the most decorated officer in the modern history of the U.S. military, having won (this is a chest seriously full of medals and ribbons) the Medal of Honor, Air Force Cross, Distinguished Service Medal, Silver Star, Legion of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star Medal for Valor with two Oak Leaf Clusters, Bronze Star Medal for Merit, Purple Heart with three Oak Leaf Clusters, Air Medal with nine Oak Leaf Clusters, National Order of Vietnam, Vietnam Gallantry Cross with Palm, and Prisoner of War Medal.
#1
Glad to hear it. Glad Ole John Boy thinks it. Ass kicking well beyond what has already occurred is what is required. F**k arab-Americans. Don't like the medicine, pack your asses back to the desert. We don't need ya.
#3
It would be helpful to know what percentage of Muslims offended by Col. Day's comments are offended by the suggestion that Muslims want to kill those who won't kneel and what percentage are as offended by his outspoken refusal to kneel.
#1
There is an interesting piece of graffiti on a bridge near Basra. A fleeing militiaman has scrawled We'll be back; underneath an Iraqi soldier has scribbled in reply And we'll be waiting for you.
McCain is now cast as the crabby uncle who visits and shrieks there's no gin in your house. He grabs the TV remote control, turns off the cartoons and forces the kids to watch the ancient Mesopotamia special on The History Channel.
Meanwhile, the Democrat Obama is treated quite differently. He's the Mr. Tumnus of American politics, the gentle forest faun of Narnia, with throngs of reporters trembling to sit with him at tea and cakes, like the little girl in the C.S. Lewis story, as he plays the flute, chanting "We Are The Change We've Been Waiting For." And nobody laughs. You don't laugh because you can't make fun of Obama. The ground would swallow you whole.
#1
"TV anchors were all but ululating (which has nothing to do with sex) at his approach, desperate for interviews after he sank that three-point shot in front of American troops and hit nothing but net. Who needs foreign policy expertise when you're so cool, you risk a three-point shot and make it on camera?"
This guy nails it - ans skewers DailyKos leftists who want him beaten up for his criticism of Obama and the press fawning.
A record 450 French olim were to arrive at Ben Gurion International Airport Wednesday, on three special flights sponsored by the Jewish Agency and the AMI immigration association. The immigrants were to be welcomed in an official ceremony, where they were to be addressed by Jewish Agency Chairman Zeev Bielski, Immigration and Absorptiion Minister Eli Aflalo and AMI founder Pierre Besnainou.
France has one of the largest Jewish communities outside of Israel, totaling nearly half a million people. Its population is second only to America's Jewish population, which has now exceeded 5 million.
Since 2000, there has been a marked increase in the number of French citizens immigrating to Israel, arguably due to the waves of growing anti-Semitism in the European state. Many French Jews say that they no longer feel comfortable or welcome in France, particularly within the working-class suburbs of Paris, where much of the tension has been focused.
Last month, a Jewish teenager was brutally attacked in the 19th Arrondissement of Paris. That neighborhood, which has been the site of ongoing scuffles between North African Jews and Muslims living in Paris, was the same suburb in which 23-year-old Ilan Halimi was beaten and left to die a year before.
#3
The people killed at Oradour were not jews, they were your average forties french rural folks, and the actual killers were not germans, IIRC, but french soldiers from Alsace who had been forcibly enlisted in the german army (the only germans involved were the officers).
#4
Moose, you have a reference that the SS were composed of draftees?
In the days leading up to the Allied D-Day landings at Normandy, the local French Resistance increased its activities in order to disrupt local German forces and to hinder communications. 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich was ordered to make its way across the country to the anticipated fighting in Normandy. Along the way, the Germans killed many French citizens and, in turn, came under attack and sabotage from the French Resistance.
Early on the morning of June 10, 1944, Sturmbannführer Adolf Diekmann, commanding the I battalion of the 4th Waffen-SS ("Der Führer") Panzer-Grenadier Regiment, informed Sturmbannführer Otto Weidinger at regimental headquarters that he had been approached by two French civilians who claimed that a German officer was being held by the Resistance in Oradour-sur-Vayres, a nearby town. The captured German was alleged to be Sturmbannführer Helmut Kämpfe, commander of the 2nd SS Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion, who may have been captured by the Maquis the day before.
On June 10, Diekmann's battalion sealed off the town of Oradour-sur-Glane, having confused it with nearby Oradour-sur-Vayres, and ordered all the townspeople â and anyone who happened to be in or nearby the town â to assemble in the village square, ostensibly to have their papers examined. In addition to the residents of the village, the SS also apprehended six people who did not live there but had the misfortune of riding their bikes through town when the Germans arrived.
All the women and children were then taken to and locked in the church while the village itself was looted. Meanwhile, the men were led to six barns and sheds where machine-gun nests were already in place. According to the account of a survivor, the soldiers began shooting at them, aiming for their legs so that they would die more slowly. Once the victims were no longer able to move, the soldiers covered their bodies with kindling and set the barns on fire. Only five men escaped; 190 men died.
The soldiers then proceeded to the church and put an incendiary device in place there. After it was ignited, women and children tried to flee from the doors and windows of the church, but were met with machine-gun fire. Two-hundred and forty-seven women and two-hundred and five children died in the mayhem. Only one woman survived, 47-year-old local housewife Marguerite Rouffanche. She had managed to slide out of a small window at the back of the church, and hid in the bushes overnight until the Germans had moved on. Another small group of about twenty villagers had fled Oradour-sur-Glane as soon as the soldiers had appeared. That night, the remainder of the village was razed.
A few days later, survivors were allowed to bury the dead. It was found that six-hundred and forty-two inhabitants of Oradour-sur-Glane had been brutally murdered in a matter of hours.
#6
Moose, you have a reference that the SS were composed of draftees?
That was something I remembered out of the fact the killers were actually pardoned by the french justice in the early 50's. I went to french wikipedia, and it sez that out of 21 killers, 14 were alsacians 'malgré-nous', IE forcibly-enlisted into the german army, as they were seen as ethnically and culturally german (which they are, though they have their own distinct regional identity).
look hard again. It was a battalion. That's far more than 21. I'm aware of SS impressment, but that doesn't kick in till late '44, early '45. And the SS were not the 'German Army' but a separate organization directly under Himmler. It's like us mixing our Army and Marine Corps, two distinct organizations with different chain of command till you get to the JCS. As far as the French government dropping the issue, it seems to have had more in line with relations with the new Germany rather than the individuals involved. Remember the French had no problem offing their own people who collaborated with the Germans during the occupation. Petain survived only because of his WWI stature.
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Dolly strengthening as it approaches the southern Texas coast...
a Hurricane Warning remains in effect for the coast of Texas from Brownsville to Corpus Christi....At 800 am CDT...1300z...the center of Hurricane Dolly was located
near latitude 25.9 north...longitude 96.9 west or about 40 miles ...east of Brownsville Texas....Dolly is expected to produce total rainfall accumulations of 6 to 10 inches...with isolated amounts of 15 inches...over portions of south Texas and northeastern Mexico over the next few days.
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1. the link is to the long range Brownsville radar
2. the Rio Grande valley will get a huge dump of rain... probably a few areas (most in Mexico where drainage is unimproved) will get flooded to 2nd story window level
#3
"100 mph winds blew semi tractors off the road while hail knocked out the windows of vehicles caught in the storm." Last night, south of Wichita as global warming comes to Kansas.
#6
at 700 pm CDT it was well inland, almost certainly will be downgraded to a tropical storm by 1000pm CDT
also velocity has picked up slightly
still, this will dump over 10 million acre-feet of rain into the lower Rio Grande river basin and while some of this area is in a drought, that much water will do some bad things to houses, roads, etc.
Jonah Goldberg presents a nice chart summarizing the strengths and weaknesses of several people who have been mentioned as potential running mates (including a few that don't really belong there, like Huckabee). Click through and read it all.
I still like Sarah Palin and Bobby Jindal best of all--but where is Michael Steele?
Posted by: Mike ||
07/23/2008
08:54 ||
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[19 views]
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#1
In a box labeled "can't even be expected to carry his own state"? Nice guy and all, but he's A)from the defeatist wing of the Republican Party and B)a former one-term lieutenant governor of a decidedly non-swing state.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
07/23/2008 9:23
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#2
Some months ago someone mentionned another Black republican but I don't remember his name. It wasn't this guy Steele.
He is chairman of J.C. Watts Companies, a business consulting group. He is former chairman of the Republican Conference of the U.S. House, where he served as an Oklahoma representative from 1995 to 2002.
Why is Watts not even being considered? His bio looks good and a Black VP witrh potential to be Republican nominee in 2012 would cut a loot of grass under the feet of the Obamessiah.
#6
Few people outside of The Movement remember who J.C. Watts was, and he hasn't exactly kept a high profile since retiring from Congress like, oh say, Newt Gingrich. He's not really a public face, nor has he run for office in the last six years. Oklahoma is as solidly red as Maryland is solidly blue, so his Favorite Son status would be largely wasted.
Also, I'd be willing to bet that he's a registered lobbyist.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
07/23/2008 14:29
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#7
I should have thought of J.C. Watts myself. He may not want to get back into politics--if so, his gain and our loss. he's one of the good ones.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/23/2008 14:34
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#8
Re: J.C Watts: he's been publicly hinting at voting for Obama. And I used to admire the guy *sigh* ...
#10
OldSpook: sorry for the delay in getting a cite, but I had to wade through a lot of fog. It's not cut-and-dried, hence my use of "hinting," but IMO Watts is being coy about it, and others have inferred things and put words into his mouth. As this article makes clear, though, he's pissed at the Republicans - partly on the things we take them to task for here at the 'burg and partly on racial grounds.
So, further research has softened my disappointment a bit, but he is definitely being coy about it.
The more a coy Obama speaks to enthusiastic crowds and gives soundbites and photo-ops to slavish reporters, the more everyone wants more of a piece of him, especially in interviews and press conferences.
But the more he dispenses his impromptu wisdom, the more he sounds like, well, a rookie senator whose collective experience derives from the utopianism of The Harvard Law Review, the gravy-train of Chicago entitlement politics, and the world view of Trinity Church.
Yet, the more his handlers treat him like fossilized amber, the less experience he gains, guaranteeing that on almost every rare ex tempore moment he will suggest something that doesn't computethat he might be president for 10 years, or that we need a civilian version of the Pentagon with the same $500 billion annual budget, or that someone like a Centcom commander like Petraeus doesn't have his strategic comprehensive view, or that the Anbar awakening and the Surge were not, at least in part, connected (as if the signal that we were not pulling out, [as Obama advocated] or that we were changing tactics to ensure the safety of those in the neighborhoods who would help us, did not reassure tired Sunnis to join with us in expelling al Qaeda.)
For someone who has made the case that Bush in general is responsible for everything from the mortgage to energy crises, it's jarring to hear such particularism and contextualization about the surge's irrelevance.
An email from Ireland to all of their brethren in the States. A point to ponder despite your political affiliation:
We, in Ireland, can't figure out why you people are even bothering to hold an election in the United States.
On one side, you had a pants wearing female lawyer, married to another lawyer who can't seem to keep his pants on, who just lost a long and heated primary against a lawyer, who goes to the wrong church, who is married to yet another lawyer, who doesn't even like the country her husband wants to run!
Now...On the other side, you have a nice old war hero whose name starts with the appropriate 'Mc' terminology, married to a good looking younger woman who owns a beer distributorship!
What in God's name are ya lads thinking over in the colonies!!!!!
Praising U.S. participation in the weekend nuclear talks with Tehran in Geneva as a "positive step forward," Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said it was a step toward recognizing his country's right to acquire nuclear technology.
The hard-line president said Wednesday that the U.S. decision to attend the talks in Geneva, Switzerland, would help refurbish Washington's tarnished image in the world.
Addressing supporters in the southern Iranian town of Yasouj, he said Tehran will not "retreat one iota" in its nuclear activities -- in his first reaction to a new call from the U.S. allies for it to end uranium-enrichment.
The remarks came close on the heels of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accusing the Islamic Republic of not being serious in Saturday's talks despite the presence of a senior U.S. diplomat. She also said the regime has two weeks time to respond positively or face more punitive sanctions.
The meeting in Geneva Saturday was the first time U.S. and Iranian officials held face-to-face talks about Iran's controversial nuclear program.
Envoys from U.S., E.U, and the U.N are hoping that Iran would respond to a so-called "freeze-for-freeze" offer, under which a freeze of Iran's uranium-enrichment program at its current levels would be matched by a Western pledge not to strengthen sanctions against Tehran.
The U.S. and its western allies accuse Iran of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons, and demand that it freeze uranium-enrichment. Iran, on the other hand, insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.
#1
TOPIX > NORTH KOREA DEMANDS RESPECT AS A NUCLEAR STATE.
As argued or inferred times before, GEOPOLITICAL IRONY FOR US-WEST > NUCLEAR NOKOR = IRAN, etc. is useful as hedge agz the anti-US ambitions of Russia + China, besides also openning the door for NOKOR per se to both escape from CHINESE-specific domination and influence, + reunify wid SOKOR.
Odd as it seems, the only thing that tweaks my pique these days is Garrison Keillors horrible syndicated column. Having written many simplistic columns in my own time, I should be sympathetic, but I just cant bring myself to measure out the requisite nine yards of slack. Obligatory disclaimer: Keillor is a tremendously talented writer, but his newspaper columns are usually devoid of logic, wit, argument, surprise, or, commas, and generally sound like a prematurely elderly fellow seething over the fact that someone dared run against FDR in 40. The only reason to read the column is to see what reminded him this week how much he doesnt like George Bush. Because he doesnt like Bush. And its very important that people know this. There are hundreds of thousands of people across the country wondering whether Keillors grudging admiration of a slightly lumpy tapioca pudding in a Maine coffee shop has led him to moderate his hatred of George Bush. Be assured: no. The man is steadfast and true.
This week hes in Pasadena, sitting on a porch with other fellow American optimists. A curious definition of optimism, this:
We grew up with cheapo gasoline and our children wont and anything you hear about rolling back prices at the pump is just election-year blather.
Im convinced right there, but he presses the point home with inexorable logic:
Supply is not rising to meet demand, what with China and India booming, and that drives the price up: you learned about this in the seventh grade.
We also learned that Pluto was a planet, but nevermind. Yes, that supply and demand thing is part of the problem, now that he mentions it, and I think I speak for many readers who put down the paper at that point, called over the spouse, and said look here. That Keillor fellow really spelled it out. But the two sentences share only their interminability; they dont constitute an argument. If supply is not rising to meet demand, perhaps we should endeavor to increase the supply? Nope: dont bother:
So our kids will have to deal with new realities, which they can manage better than we can, and when gas goes to seven and eight and 10 dollars a gallon, theyll roll with it.
Yes, in rickshaws. The effect of 10-dollar-a-gallon gas on the economy, even years hence, is blithely dismissed by the American Optimist, because the kids will deal with a new reality, and they will be better at it. So forget about puncturing the speculative bubble, or increasing the supply so increased demand from China and India doesnt give us ten-dollar gas before our wise, nimble children figure out how best to ride bikes in the winter, or leasing new lands for shale-oil exploration.
(That last one is particularly important and high on the list of things WE CANNOT AND SHOULD NOT AND MUST NOT DO. Oh, this 07/22/08 Dept. of the Interior press release says the Bureau of Land Management published proposed regulations to establish a commercial oil shale program that could result in the addition of up to 800 billion barrels of recoverable oil from lands in the western United States. You think: Thats quite a bit of oil. That would give us a nice cushion while we invent and perfect all the alternatives, no?
No. It's empty theatrics and a favor for the oil companies. Also, a key legislator opposes the idea. As he writes in the Post: Since the 19th century, we in the West have been trying to extract oil from the vast oil shale riches that lie under our feet. It is no easy task, and past efforts have failed miserably. Well, then, never mind. Stop doing those things! People failed in the past! If that doesn't keep us from trying again, what will?
Really, it's as if we learn nothing from history.
Having informed the reading public that this particular millionaire is nonchalant about expensive gas, he moves on to bygone foreign policy in Guatemala (bad), the New Yorker Obama cover (dumb), McCain talking about Viagra (funny! Hes old), the rescue of Freddie Mac and Freddie Mae. The usual saints and villains are trotted out. (Keillor makes a Manichean look like an agnostic Unitarian.) It all leads nowhere, but usually the fifth paragraph is where Keillor blames Bush for the aforementioned items, be they dandelions or black holes or the heartbreak of psoriasis, and here it is, re: Freddie Mac:
A whiner might wonder where was the Current Occupant? Does the gentleman still come to the office on a regular basis? Does anybody tell him whats going on or is he still looking at picture books?
If youre done slapping your knee red, you might wonder how this is topped, and if youre a regular reader of the Old Scout, you know how: the rote condemnation of the Current Occupant is now followed up with Obama Hosannas. Keillor, adept and deft at burnishing his moderate credentials, takes the hard left to school, and its snap-city:
Same with the growling and grumbling on the left about Barack tacking to the center, adjusting positions, giving tough-love speeches to African-American audiences what some people decry as cynical politics some of us welcome as a sign of seriousness.
Hes welcome to think that, of course, but this suggests that the previous non-centrist positions were evidence of intellectual frivolity. Or pandering. Not that these would be unique in a politician, of course, and as we all know, its what candidates do after theyve sewn it up. We have come to expect the gavotte, and some think it reveals the bones of a man to show how well he swaps one suit for another. This isnt always bad - aside from a few standard-issue banalities he used to identify his ideological self-conception, President Clinton had few core principles beyond his own ego, and was thus able to adopt centrist positions with admirable, nimble skill. Whether its the same for Obama, I cant say yet I have my suspicions - but Clinton was a far better extemporaneous speaker, and wonkier at internalizing the issues and manipulating the rhetoric of the debate. Bill Clinton seemed to relish combat, and loved not just debate but winning one on points; Obama seems to prefer limiting the terms of the debate before it begins, and seems uncomfortable with details both ancillary and specific.
In any case, seriousness can be a facile attribute; I had a serious turtle as a kid.
Anyway. Here are the serious positions of which the Old Scout approves:
Barack making overtures to evangelicals? Its about time! Barack expressing his support of the Second Amendment? Bravo.
When Obama says it, its good, I guess. When the other guys do it well, lets not forget Keilors famous characterization of his ideological opponents in 2004:
hairy-backed swamp developers, corporate shills, Christians of convenience, freelance racists, hobby cops, misanthropic frat boys, lizardskin cigar monkeys, jerktown romeos, ninja dittoheads. In 1994 he called them dim figures emerged from the mist; lo and behold, the same old gang of frat boys, geezers in golf pants, cheese merchants, cat stranglers, corporate shills, Bible beaters, swamp developers.
Youre so entranced by his fascination with frat-boy swamp developers that you forget the swipe at the cheese merchants. I never quite understood what he meant by that. The fellow who gets your cheese at the Lunds deli counter is a young Polish immigrant, and I dont think he strangles cats. Its almost as if the word processor was set on automatic. Enabling Keillor mode:
Fat shapes emerged from the fog; hail and fare-thee-well, the same ancient mob of sorority sisters, Masons of the moment, backwater frog-heads, spumoni disciples, swamp-cheese franchise experts, Cartesians in LaCrosse socks, ferret-ticklers, and Rosicrutian tract-whappers.
Id be opposed to those people too. Whoever the hell they are.
Anyway, thats just something to keep in mind when the Scout starts praising a candidate who tries to appeal to evangelicals and gun-right advocates. At least its good to know he approves of evangelicals and gun-rights advocates now. If Obama made a speech praising ANWAR drilling, you suspect it would be seen as a frank pragmatic assertion that our children need help rolling with the future. Keillor continues:
Bravo. I want to see my man excited by the prospect of victory and not shrink from it as so many Democrats do. Theyve read too many books about heroic dissenters and it makes them nervous about being in too big a crowd.
I have no idea what hes talking about. Seriously. Perhaps in Pasedena theres some alternate-universe Barnes and Noble where the shelves are stacked high with books praising the administration and shouting the myriad & infinite glories of America the Perfect, but I was at B&L today and there was a table six feet long heaped with books about how were screwed and broke and lied to and misled and all the other merry sentiments that abound in the land these days. I dont think any of the authors are worried about selling too many books, and ending up in too big a crowd. If hes saying that the Modern Brave Soul automatically questions his principles if theyre accepted by the masses the loutish, stupid, cat-strangling masses then he seems to have missed that portion of the internet that practices Heroic Dissent on a daily basis. Or maybe he spends all day reading the Daily Kos and wonders why these people are so timid and gunshy.
Lets keep going with that crowd idea:
The huge crowds that Barack draws are stunned by the fact that someone like him, with that interesting name, is hang on now a mainstream candidate for President of the United States, and that he is, on close examination, One of Us.
Thats the line that pinged out at me, and made me file away the column for future fiskery. One of us. Never mind the gabba-gabba-hey connotations, or the mainstream line Id love to hear a Woebegon ep in which Rev. Wright brings his race-based rhetoric to a small Lutheran church. ("Think twice about who you put your arm around, Senator McCain," the Scout cautioned in another column, back in the olden times when associations were relevant..) No, by one of us Keillor, I suspect, means the us of the smart set, the people who read the New Yorker even if one out 52 covers offends, the people who went to college for real instead of floating by with frat-boy grins, the people who protested the war instead of fighting it, the people who grapple, you know, with issues, seriously, and express a certain soulful anguish at the complexity of it all, and file away the details about zoning disputes with neighbors to be worked into a novel six years hence, when the whole incident has ripened into a metaphor.
I might be wrong, but I dont think a fellow who works at a gas station in the Midwest whose wife works as a nurse and commutes 27 miles a day and complains more about the cost of gas than the cost of dance lessons regards Obama as One of Us. They may like his views on this issue or that, and they may well vote for him in the name of Change or a serious belief in Obamas positions, but if you grew up in a community that was already pretty well organized on its own, you might look at a Harvard grad community organizer who had the time and luxury to write an autobiography before he was 50 as something other than One of Us in the "second-shift / Costco" sense. You want to be one of us, come down here and do something that requires five minutes of Gojo scrubbing come five PM.
Keillor concludes that Obama is much more One of Us than the Current Occupant - although I suspect that if Obama was deeply religious and a reformed alcoholic this would be a sign of his ability to understand how human nature can be both transcendent and imperfect. Obamas National Guard service would also be terribly illustrative, and old photos of the fellow in a flight suit would be regarded as proof of an essential, indelible, illustrative bond with the men and women who serve today. (In the absence of such photos, or the service that would have produced such photos, such experience is irrelevant.) Keillor ends by noting that Obama is more One of Us than Rush Limbaugh, whose Florida home has cherubs painted on the ceiling just like Versailles and has a life-sized portrait of himself on the premises.
True that may be, but I suspect Mr. Limbaugh paid for the portrait himself. And Mr. Limbaugh works in the private sector, which is where Most of Us work. The city of St. Paul helped pay for the renovation of the Fitzgerald Theater, the lovely palace from which Mr. Keillor broadcasts. I imagine there will be a portrait of the theaters most famous resident some day, and if the St. Paul city council decides to use tax money to pay for it, who could complain? Hes one of us. And if people cant afford to drive downtown for the unveiling ceremony because gas is 10 dollars a gallon? Well, their children should have figured that out.
If they didnt, they must be cheese merchants.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/23/2008
06:28 ||
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#1
Fat shapes emerged from the fog; hail and fare-thee-well, the same ancient mob of sorority sisters, Masons of the moment, backwater frog-heads, spumoni disciples, swamp-cheese franchise experts, Cartesians in LaCrosse socks, ferret-ticklers, and Rosicrutian tract-whappers. hairy-backed swamp developers, corporate shills, Christians of convenience, freelance racists, hobby cops, misanthropic frat boys, lizardskin cigar monkeys, jerktown romeos, ninja dittoheads. In 1994 he called them dim figures emerged from the mist; lo and behold, the same old gang of frat boys, geezers in golf pants, cheese merchants, cat stranglers, corporate shills, Bible beaters, swamp developers.
#2
Honestly, Keillor has gone so far around the twist that I can hardly bear listening to PHC these days. The great clouds of liberal smug eminating from my radio whenever it is on is so dense it chokes everything else.
And he used to be funny, too. I have noticed that he only ever mentioned 9/11 directly on PHC once or twice, in the weeks immediatly after it happened. In a real Lake Woebegon, working class blue-collar sort of town there would have been reservists activated, and sons and daughters who would have been in the military and gone to Iraq or Afghanistan... but not in Mr. Keillor's fairy-tale town.
#6
If bigjim had trouble distinguishing Lileks' parody from genuine Keillor dementia, I think that says something for Lileks' skill as a mimic . . . and maybe something about the full extent of Keillor's delusion.
Besides, I like cat merchants, cheese developers, and swamp stranglers as much as the next guy. Why, some of my best clients are backwater tract-whappers, Cartesian frog-heads, and ferret-tickling Rosicrutians in LaCrosse socks!
Posted by: Mike ||
07/23/2008 12:05
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#7
Besides, I like cat merchants, cheese developers, and swamp stranglers as much as the next guy. Why, some of my best clients are backwater tract-whappers, Cartesian frog-heads, and ferret-tickling Rosicrutians in LaCrosse socks!
#9
Lileks: what a gem. Now only does he deconstruct Keillor to a quivering mass of protoplasm, he's orders of magnitude funnier than Keillor ever was - even before he went 'round the bend.
#14
I was beginning to think this guy was dangerously insane.
Don't worry, you were on the right track. Here's an authentic quote:
"Rich ironies abound! Lies pop up like toadstools in the forest! Wild swine crowd round the public trough! Outrageous gerrymandering! Pocket lining on a massive scale! Paid lobbyists sit in committee rooms and write legislation to alleviate the suffering of billionaires! Hypocrisies shine like cat turds in the moonlight! O Mark Twain, where art thou at this hour? Arise and behold the Gilded Age reincarnated gaudier than ever, upholding great wealth as the sure sign of Divine Grace."
A New York state report says a maintenance man who earned $100,000 last year working at a psychiatric center has been living for free in a paint shed on company grounds and even had his mail delivered there.
A report issued Monday by the inspector general's office says the worker lived on the grounds of the Rockland Psychiatric Center in New York City's northern suburbs for three years. It says he stayed in a back room of the shed and had a couch, microwave and refrigerator.
The worker is being charged $2,500 for the time he lived there. Now he's living with his wife at a home in Pearl River, about 3 miles away. Think of all the gas he saved! Or...perhaps it was a love nest?
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/23/2008
06:22 ||
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A six mile round-trip commute. Let's take a plausibly unfavorable scenario for fuel consumption: he has an absolutely top-end giant monster SUV, a big honkin' Lincoln Continental, or a ratted-out 30-year old Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme Landau Brougham -- whatever it is, let's say that it gets 18MPG. He's burning, what, a whole two and a half gallons a week? TEN BUCKS in gas to get to and from work.
If he drives the biggest, most profligate, most carbon-footprinty big-block musclecar found at the local dragstrip, his fuel expenses for the daily commute still won't crack the $30 a week barrier.
This is a "crisis?"
Posted by: Mike ||
07/23/2008 8:31
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The average adult male can walk 3 miles an hour easily. Given that many in the DC area and around other metro areas commute in a car an hour to and from work, what's the problem. It's just not kids who are couch potatoes.
#4
I walked 3 miles before I came to work today...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/23/2008 12:22
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#5
So maybe he needs to sue for the $2500 back, no lease and was the 'rental unit' oked by the local authorities? seems like all tenant / landlord laws favor the tenant
#1
There is only one real form of soft jihad, and it only happens as part of the Islamic Reformation.
It is the changing of the entire meaning of jihad from external to internal struggle, only. It must be accompanied by the ethic that the external expression of jihad represents a failure of an individual's spiritual struggle.
For a Muslim to express jihad in action shows that he has failed in his submission to Allah.
Certainly it is hypocritical, and ignores the written word, but that is the essence of reformation.
#2
Soft Jihad is rioting and otherwise intimidating the west into bending to accomidate Islam. It is done without actually killing anyone and it is happening now.
#3
Anonymoose!!!! Stop dreaming please. Soft jihad is NOT in the Koran. It is either an invention of people who were trying to curb Islam's violence or tkaiyah: lies for consumption of infidels.
What is in the Koran not one but many times ios calls to make war on infidels and make them pay the jizya. And there is no way to change Koran: it is supposed to have existed from the beginning of times, it is supposed to never having been created. God himself cannot change it.
#4
And the 2008-2012 [2016?] post-Dubya POTUS Period wins yet anuther one!
ALL THATS MISSING IS FOR WHITNEY FAN OSAMA's + MOUD's, ETC. "HIDDEN IMAM-MAHDI" TO APPEAR AND SAVE IRAQ + AFGHANISTAN = KHARTOUM, etc. FROM GORDON + KITCHENER??? HOLLYWOOD > Hopefully,
"the MAHDI" will be able to stop his Boyz from cutting off CHUCK HESTON's = GENERAL GORDON's head lest the prophecy be fulfilled that despite great victory the Mahdi's Jihad will be doomed.
D *** NGED SEXY WHITNEY, + MORIARITY, GOD'S GREAT BATTLE = ISLAMIST APOCALYPSE IS AHEAD OF US, NOT BEHIND US!
We missed the THEORETICAL AND ENGINEERING/QUANTIT
APPLICATIONS OF MTV HEADBANGERS BALL TO THE WORKS OF OMAR KHAYYAM THAT YEAR, DIDN'T WE???
The head of the Israel Security Agency (ISA) on Tuesday reiterated to cabinet ministers his warning that the current ceasefire deal with Gaza's Hamas rulers is only going to result in more severe violence in the future. During his weekly briefing, ISA chief Yuval Diskin said that Hamas is now planting minefields in the Gaza Strip, and has imported longer-range rockets capable of striking Israeli cities previously unthreatened by Palestinian forces based in the coastal territory. Diskin said the quiet along the Gaza border, which has lasted for over a month, is deceptive, as Hamas' long-term goals have not changed. He said the terror group is only maintaining the calm so that it can strengthen its hold on Gaza, further reducing the chances that Hamas will be ejected from power in the near future.
#1
Not cleaning Arabs from within the "Green line" in 1948 was a mistake.
Not cleaning Arabs from the liberated territories (all part of Palestinian Mandate given to Brits to establish Jewish homeland) in 1967, was a mistake.
Not giving Fatah a hand with conquest of Jordan (part of the Palestinian Mandate set aside by Brits to be an Arab (Palestinian) Homeland), and then shoving the Arabs from Judea and Samaria there, was a mistake.
Not finishing Egypt in 1973 was a mistake.
Not responding to Saddam's Scuds in 1991, was a mistake.
Giving in to USA pressure on Oslo Accords, was a mistake.
Giving in to USA pressure on Lebanon two year ago, was a mistake.
Which draws more juice from the electric grid, a big-screen plasma television or recharging a plug-in hybrid car? Do hybrids plug in, or are we talking about electric cars?
The answer is the car. But the electricity drawn by plasma televisions is easing the minds of utility company executives across the nation as they plan for what is likely to be a conversion of much of the country's vehicle fleet from gasoline to electricity in the coming years.
Rechargeable cars, industry officials say, consume about four times the electricity as plasma TVs. But the industry already has dealt with increased electric demand from the millions of plasma TVs sold in recent years. Officials say that experience will help them deal with the vehicle fleet changeover. But many plasma TVs aren't on during rush hour.
So as long as the changeover from internal combustion engines to electric vehicles is somewhat gradual, they should be able to handle it in the same way, Mark Duvall, program manager for electric transportation, power delivery and distribution for the Electric Power Research Institute, said Tuesday. "We've already added to the grid the equivalent of several years' production of plug-in hybrids," Duvall said at a conference on electric vehicles in San Jose. "The utilities, they stuck with it. They said, 'All right, that's what's happening. This is where the loads are going, and we're going to do this.'"
Automakers, such as General Motors Corp. and Toyota Motor Corp., are planning to bring rechargeable vehicles to the market as early as 2010. But speakers at the Plug-In 2008 conference say it will take much longer for them to arrive in mass numbers, due in part to a current lack of large-battery manufacturing capacity. Auto and battery companies still are working on the lithium-ion battery technology needed for the cars, and on how to link the battery packs to the vehicles.
"We see the vehicle penetration levels coming at a rate that's manageable," said Efrain Ornelas, environmental technical supervisor with Pacific Gas and Electric Co. in San Francisco. "It's not like tomorrow the flood gates are going to open and 100,000 vehicles are going to come into San Francisco or something like that."
Instead, the vehicles will show up by the thousands throughout Northern California, he predicted. PG&E will be able to track their charging patterns and plan accordingly for the future, he said. Utility officials say they already are coping with increased demand, especially during peak-use periods in the afternoon and early evening. But the rest of the day, most utilities have excess generating capacity that could be used to recharge cars. California rolling brownouts are finished?
But the preparation doesn't mean electric vehicles will be accommodated without problems and good planning, the officials say. Since most electric cars will in the perfect world likely be charged during off-peak electric use times, utilities should have no problem generating enough electricity. But since people with the means to buy electric cars likely will live in the same areas, utilities worry about stress on their distribution systems, Ornelas said.
That means consumers will face a lot of choices about when and where they charge up their cars and how much they want to pay for the electricity. The choice for consumers will come because utilities likely will raise rates to charge cars during peak use times, generally from around noon to 8 p.m., and lower them for charging during low-use hours, industry officials say. I assume that's all rates; not just those to charg cars. or are they planning separate meters and/or voltages?
In California, utilities already are installing meters that track use by time of day. PG&E charges 30 cents per kilowatt hour to charge an electric vehicle during peak hours, he said, but charges only 5 cents from midnight to 7 p.m. Phoenix had several choices of variable rate plans 20 years ago.
Duvall said utilities still have to be wary that high gasoline prices could push sales of rechargeable electric vehicles well into the millions by 2020, because that could stress the system. Other possible problems include electric vehicles getting larger and requiring far more electricity for recharging, and demands from people that their vehicles be recharged quickly, drawing more electricity during peak times.
Also, companies such as the Campbell-based Coulomb Technologies, are starting to develop recharging stations for sale to parking lot operators, office buildings and cities, which will draw more electricity. Or could trickle-charge over a longer period of time?
There's also talk of the cars storing electricity and sending it back to the power companies during peak times, but officials say that's in the year 2525 a long way off.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/23/2008
06:07 ||
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#1
Do hybrids plug in, or are we talking about electric cars?
Electric for the first 20 miles or so then hybrid.
#2
I think they are talking about plug-in hybrids Bobby. You charge the batteries before you leave the house, if your trip is no more than 40 to 125 miles (depending on the model of car) you wont use any gas at all. The gasoline generator will kick on and recharge your battery pack at 30% charge. All told, Chevy Volt should get 540 miles to the gallon on a tank of gas starting with a full charge.
To charge the vehicle on off peak rates you need a special meter from the electric company that keeps track of peak/off peak charging. Where I live, it would cost about 45 cents a day to charge the Chevy Volt.
Another thing to keep in mind is range, they claim it has a range of 45 miles on the batteries. That is somewhat misleading because they are quoting that as the guaranteed range after 100,000 miles on the battery pack. I don't know if its true, but some people on the Volt forum claim the new range is around 125 miles for a fresh battery pack.(?)
The car will fully charge in 3 hours, but like you mentioned, it could trickle charge for 8-10 hours and put a lot less strain on the grid. I wouldn't be a bit surprised to see a selectable charging time, 3 hours if you are in a hurry, or 8 if you have all night to let it charge.
There is a wait list for the volt with over 50,000 people on it already, to be released in late 2010.
#3
Now; what will be the solution to build and maintain the roads when these cars are not paying into the present gas tax system? A tax on the power derived from these charging stations? That ought to PO those folks who don't think they should pay for those nasty highway workers because their car is green. Similar to the bicycle riders who think they should not pay for those bike lanes they have been using.
#5
Another thing to keep in mind is range, they claim it has a range of 45 miles on the batteries. That is somewhat misleading because they are quoting that as the guaranteed range after 100,000 miles on the battery pack. I don't know if its true, but some people on the Volt forum claim the new range is around 125 miles for a fresh battery pack.(?
That's best case range just driving. How long will it last on a cold, rainy night, running the lights, defroster, wipers while listening to the radio?
Posted by: Steve ||
07/23/2008 19:45
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the new range is around 125 miles for a fresh battery pack.
#7
The claim may be for 125 mpg - running 40 miles on the initial charge and then a good mpg run for the remainder. A 1.1 litre diesel at constant rpm can do wonders for mileage.
#10
ION TOPIX > GLOBAL WARMING? GEOPHYSICAL WEAPONS/SYSTEMS, EMP BOMBS ARE A GREATER THREAT; + EMERGY-BASED NEW TECHNOLOGIES WILL SHAPE FUTURE US, WORLD.
There have been a dozen prisoner exchanges between Hezbollah and Israel since the early 1990s, but Samir Kuntar was always a case apart. In 1979 Kuntar and his companions killed a policeman, kidnapped a young father, Danny Haran, and killed him in front of his 4-year-old daughter. Then Kuntar turned to the child and crushed her skull against a rock with the butt of his rifle. In the mayhem, Danny Haran's wife, Smadar, hiding in her home, accidentally smothered to death the couple's 2-year-old daughter. Now Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has finally got his way. Last week, Israel handed over Kuntar in return for Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, captured by Hezbollah in the summer of 2006. They returned to Israel in black coffins.
This prisoner swap will serve Hezbollah's purposes in the interminable struggles within Lebanon. Trumpets and drums greeted Kuntar's release. Breathless pollsters now tell us that Nasrallah, a turbaned Shiite and a child of poverty, is the most admired hero of the "Arab street." This is so, we are told, even in Sunni Arab lands otherwise given to animus toward Shiites. But Nasrallah had been here before. Two summers ago, he triggered a terrible war across the Lebanon-Israel frontier, with a toll of 1,200 Lebanese deaths (160 Israelis also perished in that senseless summer) and no less than $5 billion in damages to Lebanon's economy. That war was sold to the gullible as a "divine victory" -- the first Arab victory against Israel's might.
Some expected that Hezbollah would lay down its arms and that the Lebanese, free of Syrian captivity, would return their country to a modicum of order and normalcy. Those hopes were in vain. In the last two years, Hezbollah brought the political life of Lebanon to a standstill. Its formidable militia made a mockery of the incumbent government. Nasrallah sent his followers into Beirut's commercial center, and for seven long months he thwarted the attempts to elect a new president. The "Cedar Revolution" of 2005, so full of promise, was no match for Nasrallah's "soldiers of virtue." A proxy struggle played out in Lebanon, with the United States, France and Saudi Arabia on the side of the incumbent government, and Syria, Iran and Hezbollah, on the other. There was no escaping the sectarianism: A determined Sunni-Shiite struggle had come to Lebanon.
In its heady days, the Cedar Revolution movement was "hip" and seemed like a fight between the "beautiful people" and the Shiite hicks. The Shiites had a cruel, rural past and they still had self-doubt -- believing that the Sunni merchant classes of West Beirut continued to see them as squatters in the city. The clerics and laymen who dominate Hezbollah were quite skilled at exploiting this Shiite sense of unease. There was a built-in flaw in the Cedar Revolution that Hezbollah preyed upon. Intended or not, that broad, spontaneous eruption following the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri had come to rest on an alliance of the Druse, the Sunni Muslims and the bulk of the country's Christian population. The vast Shiite community, the country's largest, had stood uncertain amid the tumult that followed Syria's withdrawal. The Shiites had an uneasy alliance with the Syrian occupiers, and the Shiite mainstream was enthusiastic about Lebanese liberty. Hezbollah had the guns and the money. It had as well the status of a "liberation movement," and few in Lebanon dared question this claim.
The impasse between a sovereign Beirut government and an armed militia doing the bidding of the Iranian theocrats could not last. A small war broke out last May when the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora wanted to dismantle an illegal fiber-optic network that Hezbollah had installed, a vast communication system that stretched for more than 200 miles and reached to the Syrian border. In retaliation, Hezbollah struck into the Sunni neighborhoods of West Beirut and the Druse stronghold in the Shouf Mountains. The Sunnis were easily overwhelmed. The Druse had put up a measure of resistance, but they, too, could not stand up to Hezbollah. It's no small irony that Kuntar, a man of the Druse Mountains, is now returned home courtesy of Hezbollah. But the deep antagonism between the Druse and Hezbollah can't be wished away by Kuntar's release.
More than ever, Hezbollah is a Shiite party, shorn of its exalted status as a national resistance movement. Behind Hezbollah's deeds is the fine hand of Iran. Nasrallah had tried to obscure the difference between Lebanon's needs and those of his paymasters in Iran. In a widely scrutinized speech the cleric gave in late May, on the eighth anniversary of Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon, Nasrallah claimed that he was at once a devoted believer in Ayatollah Khomeini's revolution and a son of Lebanon who believed in its "specificity" and pluralism. There would be distinct roles for the Lebanese state and for his "resistance movement." The first would assume the burden of order and governing, while his movement would carry the banner of the armed struggle against Israel. This kind of contradiction can't be papered over. Nasrallah and his lieutenants must fully grasp their precarious position: They feed off mayhem and strife, while the country yearns for a break from its feuds.
It is doubtful that the Shiites will always follow Nasrallah to the barricades, and those who do so will expect material sustenance from Hezbollah. There are estimates that Hezbollah provides employment for 40,000 of its wards and schooling for 100,000 children. This is no small burden, even for a movement sustained by Iranian subsidies. Nor is it the case that the majority of the Shiites want the strictures and the rigor of Qom and Tehran dominating their world. True, the underclass and the newly urbanized in the Shiite suburbs may have taken to the dress codes and style and religious ritual of the Iranian theocracy. But the majority must wish a break from all that.
Hezbollah will not be able to run away with Lebanon. Already the Sunnis have been stirred up by Hezbollah's power. Sunni jihadists have made their presence felt in the northern town of Tripoli, and in the dozen or so Palestinian refugee camps on the outskirts of the principal cities. It would be reasonable to assume that the weight of Sunni sentiment would shift toward the jihadists, were they to conclude that the mild-mannered Sunni politicians can't win a test of wills, and arms, against Hezbollah. Nor do the Christians want Hezbollah's utopia. The Christians have been weakened by emigration, but they, too, will fight for their place in the country if forced to do so. Furthermore, should there be any accommodation between America and Iran, the Persian power is sure to cast Hezbollah adrift.
"We lived in a world where we believed that our enemy was exactly like us," Ofer Regev said in a eulogy for his fallen brother. "We thought we could speak to people who also wanted to raise a child, grow a flower, love a girl, exactly like us. But the enemy proved that it is not exactly like us. And still, we will not stop trying." Across the Lebanon border, Israelis may have once found a culture not so distant from their own, with mercy, decorum and "rules of engagement" even in times of conflict. The Lebanese will have to retrieve that older world if they are to find their way out of the grip of bigotry and terror. A decent country would be under no moral or political obligation to celebrate a murderer as a heroic son returning from a long captivity.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas wants Barack Obama to take away one message from their meeting Wednesday - he should focus immediately on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict if elected, or any apaprent, vaperous, vacous gains made in peace talks could vanish.
Obama, the presumptive Democratic candidate, made time in his jam-packed Mideast schedule for what is to be a 45-minute meeting with Abbas. During a stop in Jordan on Tuesday, Obama suggested that he was open to the Palestinians' request, saying that he'd do his best to bring Israelis and Palestinians together, "starting from the minute I'm sworn into office." However, he also cautioned that it is "unrealistic to expect that a U.S. president alone can suddenly snap his fingers and bring about peace in this region."
The candidate's visit in the West Bank generated some goodwill here, particularly since his Republican rival, John McCain, did not visit the Palestinians in a Mideast trip earlier in the summer. A Ramallah baker said he's named a bagel after Obama, to thank him for not ignoring the Palestinians. Bagel O'Bama?
Like people elsewhere in the region, Palestinians are fascinated with the U.S. campaign. The success of a black candidate may also have helped improve the tarnished U.S. image in the eyes of some. Wael Hamad, a 35-year-old mechanic from Ramallah, said he expected Obama, who is black, to be more understanding of Palestinian suffering because of the hardships suffered by blacks in the United States.
However, deep skepticism about U.S. policy prevailed. Most Palestinians believe the U.S. is so irrevocably biased toward Israel that it will make little difference whether Obama or McCain is elected U.S. president, said pollster Jamil Rabbah. "The American interest has always been with Israel, not with us," said 22-year-old college student Mohammed Hatem. "We have seen a lot of (U.S.) leaders who say they are going to work to get the Palestinian people an independent state, and they end up serving Israel."
Obama deepened those fears in a speech to American Jewish leaders in June when he said Jerusalem must remain Israel's undivided capital - even though no U.S. government has recognized Israel's 1967 annexation of east Jerusalem, the sector claimed by the Palestinians as their future capital.
Obama later changed his mind, speaking to a different audience clarified that he believes the future of Jerusalem is to be determined in negotiations - Washington's longstanding policy. The fate of the city is currently on the table in U.S.-backed Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
Kadoura Fares, a legislator in Abbas' Fatah movement, said Obama's slip-up on such a key issue caused serious damage. "His correction was not enough," Fares added. "He should have said he recognizes the Palestinian right to freedom."
The Islamic militant Hamas group, which rules the Gaza Strip, said Obama was not welcome and criticized Abbas, a bitter rival, for receiving him. "Obama wants to go to the White House through Tel Aviv, at the expense of the Palestinians," said Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman. It's all about meeeee!
Abbas aides insist the Palestinian leader's meeting with Obama offers an important opportunity. Abbas will list the same old Palestinian grievances, including Israel's continued settlement construction and refusal to ease restrictions on the movement of Palestinians in the West Bank, Foreign Minister Riad Malki said.
Abbas will also tell Obama that, if elected president, he must not waste time and must immediately turn his attention to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, said Saeb Erekat, an Abbas adviser.
Abdullah Abdullah, a former Palestinian deputy foreign minister, said he thinks Obama's visit to Ramallah is a positive sign. "It means that if elected president, the Mideast file will be on his (Obama's) desk from day one," Abdullah said hopefully.
President Bush, like President Bill Clinton before him, had largely stayed clear of the messy Mideast conflict during their first years in office.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/23/2008
05:55 ||
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#1
Haste makes waste. I wish to 'clarify' my posting. This belongs in 'Non WOT - Home Front: Politix'.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/23/2008 6:03
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Obama deepened those fears in a speech to American Jewish leaders in June when he said Jerusalem must remain Israel's undivided capital - even though no U.S. government has recognized Israel's 1967 annexation of east Jerusalem, the sector claimed by the Palestinians as their future capital.
Congress ordered the moving of the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, but it's been delayed by State Department maneuvering.
A bomb in Thailand's insurgency-hit south has injured two soldiers and a Muslim villager has been shot dead, as the army warned on Wednesday of an escalation in terrorist separatist attacks.
Two privates assigned to protect teachers in the Muslim-majority southern province of Yala were seriously wounded in a roadside blast early Wednesday, provincial authorities said. On Tuesday evening, a 41-year-old Muslim man was shot dead at his rubber plantation in Narathiwat province by four militants.
Army spokesman Colonel Acra Tiproch told AFP that they were on high alert after intelligence reports suggested militants may launch attacks in the three southernmost provinces between July 25 and July 28. He said two large events being held later this month - a food festival and a dove singing competition - were possible targets. 'According to a series of rumours about possible attacks, it would be good for security officials to be well prepared,' Col Acra said.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/23/2008 6:19
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"Theorizing that one could time travel within his own lifetime, Doctor Elvis Presley led an elite group of scientists into the desert to develop a top secret project, known as QUANTUM LEAP.
"Pressured to prove his theories or lose funding, Doctor Presley prematurely stepped into the Project Accelerator and vanished. He awoke to find himself in the past, suffering from partial amnesia and facing a mirror image that was not his own.
Fortunately, contact with his own time was made through brainwave transmissions, with Al, the Project Observer, who appeared in the form of a hologram that only Doctor Presley could see and hear. Trapped in the past, Doctor Presley finds himself leaping from life to life, putting things right, that once went wrong and hoping each time, that his next leap will be the leap home."
THE most highly placed Australian to serve in Iraq has offered a lethal critique of the Australian way of war in its diplomatic, strategic and military dimensions, challenging the orthodoxy of the Howard and Rudd governments.
#2
Molan's vision from Iraqi headquarters was that US military leaders divided nations into "swimmers and non-swimmers": those nations whose troops fight and die, and those who attend to show the flag.
An odd one, this. Kunming is quite distant from any Olympic venue - Yunnan province is in the middle of nowhere. Why would anyone bomb an ordinary city bus? If it was terrorism, then why no claim of responsibility? If it was some farmer who got screwed out of his farm, then why would he bomb a bus?
In the wake of yesterday's bomb attacks on two buses on Renmin Xi Lu, some new bits of information are trickling out through local media. Here are some of the latest developments:
A criminal investigation unit dispatched from Beijing arrived in Kunming yesterday afternoon. By 7:45 pm all on-site investigation for both explosions had basically concluded, with traffic returning to normal. Investigators have identified the explosive in both explosions as ammonium nitrate, a common fertilizer that is often used in homemade bombs.
As early as 5:00 am on Monday, some Kunming residents received what is being treated by police as possibly being a text message warning from the bomber(s), which reads: "I hope the city residents who receive this text message don't take the 54, 64 or 84 buses..."
The sender, whose number displayed as anonymous, referred to him/herself as "the mobilizer of nobodies". Police have confirmed that numerous people received this message the morning of the explosions.
Kunming vice mayor Du Min has been quoted by Xinhua as saying that there was no text message prior to Monday's explosions, according to a Reuters report. "In fact, there was no such message," Xinhua news agency quoted Du as saying on Tuesday, according to Reuters. Hard to say, fakes of this kind are common in China, people will want to make something true so they say it's true. On the other hand, the government is well-known for coverups.
Thirteen of the 14 injured in yesterday's explosion are in stable condition, with one victim, a woman, still in the intensive care unit at Kunming First Affiliated Hospital in critical condition. One of the injured is a pregnant woman who herself is fine but her fetus is still undergoing tests. Most of the injured suffered at least one broken eardrum and some skin damage.
Russia will soon return 174 sq km of territory on the northeast border to China, ending more than 40 years of negotiations. Putin making nice? Eh?
The area to be returned is half of the Chinese territory the former Soviet Union occupied during a 1929 border skirmish. In Chinese, the area is collectively referred to as the Heixiazi Islands.
The two countries will sign an agreement to this effect during Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's two-day visit to Beijing that starts today. What did they stand to gain by this? Russian territory is inviolate...
According to the agreement to be signed, Russia will return Yinlong Island (Tarabarov Island) and half of Heixiazi Island (Bolshoi Ussuriysky Island).
The islands are at the confluence of the Heilongjiang and the Wusulijiang rivers that serve as the natural border between the two countries.
"This will end the boundary demarcation work (between China and Russia), for which the two countries have been negotiating for more than 40 years," the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday.
#1
It's business. Who has power, who can help who. Meanwhile, Puty has no problem threatening and territorially posturing with Poland and the Baltic States. I think the analysis back in the Kremlin is that China is going to be the economic bully boy on the Eurasian continent while Russia stagnates. No need to provide provocation which might end up with the loss of the Siberian resource region.
#2
I think you're partly correct P2K. China is an economic powerhouse who benefits Putie immensely. They have a whole new round of military technology to sell the Chicoms, who can now easily afford the payments. Putie is willing to give a little to stay in their good graces. They are both growing and puffing their chests together. Back to harmony for the commies.
#3
I'm still waiting for the Russians and Japanese to get together and work out the transfer of those islands the Russkies grabbed at the end of WW2. It seems Japanese know-how and need of raw materials would go well with Russia's possession of the islands and raw materials.
#4
PUTIN now VLADVEDEV appears to also be trying to get CHINA + JAPAN involved in various joint dev projects as per SAKHALIN ISLAND, which IMO is causing a maritime border ripple/domino effect bwtn JAPAN + SOKOR as per minor islets???
#5
Lest we fergit, RUSSIA + IRAN are also pres engaged in ongoing diplo-talks over the establishment of a INTER-NATION TRADE CORRIDOR, which as per OWG FREE TRADE ZONES will prob be linked to to SAKHALIN, etc. + Russia's proposed RUSSO-JAPAN-ALCAN [Arctic?] NORTH PACIFIC CORRIDOR into NORAM.
JAPAN per se is starting talks over dev of another super-corridor linking "the DRAGON ISLE" wid SOKOR, and which in LT will prob also link wid the PHILIPPINES, TAIWAN, + SE ASIA.
"ALL [OWG?] ROADS LEAD TO ROME" = CORSICANT = USA/USSA-USR, at least for time being.
I've always loved IBD's op-ed page. They just plain don't take prisoners. Signs Of The Times
If you doubt the media are in the tank for Obama, doubt no more. The refusal of the New York Times to print McCain's op-ed on Obama after an Obama piece was published has nothing to do with editorial judgment and everything to do with protecting the media's heartthrob.
Times op-ed editor David Shipley, who served in the Clinton administration from 1995 to 1997, insists it was just a request for a rewrite, as is frequently done with other writers. But McCain isn't a freelance writer or NYT staffer. He's a candidate for president of the United States and ought to be able to express his views -- unedited and unfiltered.
Shipley wanted McCain to define what he meant by victory and submit a timetable for achieving both victory and total withdrawal. He wanted McCain to write his editorial on Obama's terms. We suspect the Times was trying to protect Obama, at least during his trip, from reminders that he opposed the surge and the war and was wrong on both counts.
Obama, whose foreign policy consists of talking to our enemies while bombing our allies, Reason #42,658 why I love IBD's op-eds. Even the WSJ doesn't have the cojones to be THIS blunt
told the assembled veterans at the VFW Convention in Kansas City last year, "All our top military commanders recognize that there is no military solution in Iraq."
But there was a military solution in Iraq in Gen. David Petraeus' brilliant anti-terrorism strategy that paved the way for Iraqi political and religious reconciliation. If things are heating up in Afghanistan, it's because al-Qaida and its jihadist brethren, having been defeated in Iraq, have fled there to make a last stand. Okay...in fairness, I'm keeping my fingers crossed on the Afghanistan part...
The Times spiked McCain's op-ed, which will now receive wider circulation, because it reminds voters of Obama's dangerous and naive foreign policy that only starts with being wrong on Iraq and the surge. The judgment of both Obama and his sycophants at the Times is open to question.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
07/23/2008
01:43 ||
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#3
I had no idea they were that f*cked up over this guy. I don't get it, I simply don't get it.
NO human being could possibly live up to this kind of hype. They are approaching the point of mental illness with this. What's going to happen if he loses? Mass suicide?
#8
One of my favorite comments from the piece:
WFT? I mean WFT! Last I looked, most of the world either envies or hates us. A gift? What kind of gift? An STD? Elect this man and youre fucked.
The MSM shouldn't be allowed to embellish and be fined for false reporting that's all there is to it. They need to report real news not what they want to spin. I want to see real fines and jail time, the damage these 'reporters' are doing to our country alone is frightening. It's hard to admit that many Americans actually believe this crap they're being fed because they want to believe it.
I do hope for a rather large scale wake up call to America or we truly are f**ked.
Posted by: Jan ||
07/23/2008 14:27
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No, but if this bugger is elected I'll 'feel' a warm one running down it!
Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Tuesday lauded the civilian and the Border Police officer who "acted quickly" and killed a Palestinian who rampaged through central Jerusalem on a bulldozer earlier in the day, injuring at least 24 people. Barak stressed that this incident "exposes the complex reality facing us: war in Gaza, also with Hezbollah in Lebanon and even with Iran. We are a strong people."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/23/2008
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#1
In the first "Robocop" movie, the thing warns at one point, "put down your arms or I will commence firing." They don't and it blows them away. Unless you are a robot, warnings could get you killed.
#2
In Israel, gun licenses are available to every adult on demand. For their part, the government should do a lot more to encourage more of their citizens to be armed, preferably with concealed carry, which gives a strong tactical advantage.
Ironically, Israel for the most part is so peaceful, despite the MSM news, that the illusion is created that most Israelis don't need guns.
The way around this is to create the social idea equating gun ownership with adulthood. It would be a small expense to offer a "birthday present" to young men and women on reaching perhaps their 18th birthday, that for a nominal cost they would receive a gift of a handgun, engraved with the symbols of Judaism.
Perhaps the Star of David and a religious blessing in Hebrew.
Not offered by the government, since it would not be offered to Arab citizens, but indirectly, through a secular Jewish organization.
Many would want it, even though some would reject it. But it would strongly increase the number of armed Israelis.
In fact, something like this would be a good idea in the United States, as well.
#3
There is a local restaurant business out this way with a sign on the door:
(yellow stick figure with smiley face head arms in surrender position with the circle-cross-through around it)
"This is a victim free zone. Legally allowed carried weapons are welcome and encouraged."
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) | Returning home after three tours of duty in Afghanistan, Derek Blumke was eager to return to college. But the Air Force veteran felt unwelcome at the University of Michigan as he tried alone to manage the transition from warrior to student. During one of his initial calls to the school, employees told him they couldn't answer his questions because he wasn't yet a student. Later, he found himself wandering around the Ann Arbor campus, trying to figure out how to use his military benefits to pay tuition and feeling like no one would help.
"I was frustrated and angry and disappointed," said the 26-year-old former gunship maintenance supervisor who's now a senior studying political science and psychology at Michigan. "That frustration and anger turned into motivation. You don't want me here? OK, fine. I WILL come here."
As veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq return to campus, many are finding that colleges and universities are only beginning to figure out how to help them transition back to civilian, social and academic life. Many need help with paperwork. Others seek emotional and psychological support, and some struggle to fit in with classmates who are often much younger.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/23/2008
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#1
Most of the Vet's are adults, most of the others are children.. No Surprise, no great analysis required.
#4
My son is a former US Marine, and currently an AF ROTC candidate. (He served 4 years in the Corp 1996-2000, so he missed the current unpleasantness.) At age 30, he is quite a bit older - and more motivated - than many of his classmates. He looks down on them as being undisciplined and immature.
Posted by: Rambler in California ||
07/23/2008 1:09
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veteran felt unwelcome at the University
At a lot of universities the veteran IS unwelcome. By administration, staff and other students. There are others though. The hard part is knowing which ones.
#6
The irony is that the great expansion of universities (and accompanying jobs for professors and administrators) in the second half of the 20th century was due to WWII vets attending on the GI bill. The "Ivory Tower" is not against biting the hand that created it.
#7
I had issues going back to college after my first enlistment, when I was in the reserves.
A lot of it is that the students and teachers are so ignorant when it comes to the real world, and are childish as a result.
The faculty, in particular, doesn't like being called on it, the way veterans call bullshit when they see it (in general).
#8
But like with the post-WWII era, the ivory tower is soon to learn that veterans have little tolerance for b.s. Schools take advantage of and abuse kids because they can.
But veterans have a tendency to be either an irresistible force or an unmovable object.
I remember the story of a Vietnam Vet gunship pilot who, when attending the first day of class, got an earful from a leftist professor ranting at his class about how the military was fascist and killed babies.
Halfway through the lecture he stood up, which got everyone's attention, and loudly stated, "I do not have to listen to this shit!", in a loud voice, then walked out.
Other students later told him that it just pulled the rug out from underneath the lefty professor, and that several other students followed suit, leaving the class looking half empty. For the rest of the semester, the lefty held his tongue and just taught the class.
#9
I went back to school at the age of 30 and I wanted to stomp the shit out of most of those little turds that sat around me. Not until the last year on Engineering school had all the dipshits been weeded out and I started getting along with them.
They are ignorant of the workings of the real world, they have never been in it. Straight from high school to college and none of the fun stuff in between. They are miserable little brats because they are being fast tracked to a career and a house and probably a family that they don't even really want. They should require a 3 year work period or make the min. age 21 to go to a university, unless you have a pretty good reason to go straight in.
#10
having worked and working at a ROTC gig I can tell you how true this is. Although where I work we take care of any veterans that seek us out - whether they're part of the program or not. A lot of professors are fairly ignorant - I know them on a faculty/staff level and I'm often amazed at how much commonsense they do not possess.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday released details of a letter he received from Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah outlining his group's conditions for further prisoner deals with Israel.
Last week the leader of the Lebanese guerrilla group made a rare public appearance in Beirut to welcome five Lebanese released from captivity in Israel after Hezbollah returned the bodies of two captured Israeli soldiers.
Israel is also due to release Palestinian prisoners in the future as a gesture to the U.N. secretary-general. Nasrallah said he had written to Ban asking him to use his good offices.
In a letter to the current president of the U.N. Security Council, Vietnamese Ambassador Le Lunong Minh, Ban said that Nasrallah "declared his readiness for participation in the remaining humanitarian cases of Israeli MIA (missing in action) of the 1980s."
But Ban said Nasrallah was "conditioning his positive attitude to the nature and extent of Israeli humanitarian moves on behalf of Palestinian and Arab victims."
Ban quoted Nasrallah's letter saying the Hezbollah chief informed him that further prisoner releases by Israel should "be adequate to the high level of government commitment to the Secretary-General of the United Nations and to the importance of results achieved under the U.N. facilitation."
In other direct quotes from Nasrallah's July 7 letter, Ban said he referred to "the high number of innocent victims caused by the war of 2006," adding that he considered it "as a minimum requirement that the releases comprise a maximum number of minors, women and elderly people being held in ... detention."
These cases "go into the hundreds" according to non-governmental organizations, Ban quoted Nasrallah's letter as saying.
These must be resolved immediately in order to secure Hezbollah's support in other humanitarian cases, Nasrallah wrote to Ban.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/23/2008
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#1
But Ban said Nasrallah was "conditioning his positive attitude to the nature and extent of Israeli humanitarian moves on behalf of Palestinian and Arab victims."
Jesus. How brain dead do you have to be to be UN Secretary General?
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Maulvi Umar said the deadline given to the NWFP government to resign had already ended but the Taliban would await the provincial government's response until Wednesday morning, a private television channel reported on Tuesday.
Apparently nobody in Pakiwakiland is ever on time ...
According to Geo News, Maulvi Umar asked for a halt to military operation in Hangu and Swat, as their deadline for the NWFP government to resign expired on Tuesday.
NWFP govt squealed like Islamic piggies and pressured the government to cease and desist, which it did, rather than risk either the Talibs beating up the mighty Pak army -- both India and NATO are watching with professional interest -- or the converse, the mighty Pak army actually hurting the oligarchy's tool for maintaining Strategic Depth.
He said they would launch attacks against the government if operation was not stopped in the two districts.
Presumably these would be boomers and kidnapping of enlisted men, that sort of thing.
The channel quoted Umar as saying that important decisions were taken at a Taliban Shura meeting held on Tuesday. According to the channel, TTP chief Baitullah Mehsud chaired the Taliban Shura and discussed with his colleagues a future course of action, adding that important decisions regarding the ultimatum to the provincial government were taken.
The Talibs have begun referring to themselves as an "emirate." It's kinda hard to maintain the fiction of Islamabad's writ applying when they have Islamic "princes" strutting around ordering people's heads chopped off. At the same time, the myth of the "ungovernable" tribal areas is evaporating, since the "emirate" doesn't seem to have much trouble.
Maulvi Umar welcomed the NWFP government's announcement that it is willing to resolve all problems through negotiations.
You could also call that a spade, or even a surrender.
He said that despite the use of force in Swat and Hangu, the government has failed to redress any of the region's problems. He went on to say that the TTP preferred talks over confrontation.
But of course you can't have talks without first having confrontation. That's the way the game is played.
NWFP Information Minister Mian Iftikhar had told a press conference on Monday that his party was against violence. They would however be "compelled" to use force if the other side continued to challenge the writ of the government.
But they'll keep denying the obvious whenever they can get away with it.
Mehsud had on July 18 given the NWFP government a five-day ultimatum to either resign "or else face dire consequences", inviting strong reactions from the provincial government. The NWFP government responded the next day, saying they would not resign, nor become hostage to any militant group.
This article starring:
BAITULLAH MEHSUD
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan
MAULVI OMAR
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan
NWFP Information Minister Mian Iftikhar
Posted by: Fred ||
07/23/2008
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#1
Pakistan is worthless and weak. Drop and give me twenty
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/23/2008 19:30
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The local Taliban will not hinder anti-polio campaigns in Swat, as long as lady health workers (LHWs) do not accompany the anti-polio teams, Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan told Daily Times on Tuesday. Khan said that teams, with male workers, were free to visit any area. However, he added, the teams would not be allowed to 'force' parents to administer polio drops or to vaccinate their children. "What they have to do is to inform people through mosques about vaccinating their children and then it depends on the parents whether they want to bring children or not."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/23/2008
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#1
Because, as we all know, icky girls cause polio...
ROME (AP) - Italy's Parliament gave final approval Tuesday to a contentious law that grants immunity from prosecution to Premier Silvio Berlusconi and other top Italian officials. The Senate passed the legislation by a wide margin after it previously sailed through the lower house of Parliament. Berlusconi's conservatives have a comfortable majority in both chambers.
The legislation protects the president, the premier and the two speakers of parliament from court prosecutions while in office. It will enter into effect once President Giorgio Napolitano signs it.
Critics have charged that the law is aimed at protecting Berlusconi from a current corruption case in Milan. Berlusconi is accused of ordering payment in 1997 of at least $600,000 to his co-defendant, British lawyer David Mills, in exchange for false testimony at two Berlusconi trials in the 1990s. The defendants deny the charges. Berlusconi has depicted himself as the victim of left-leaning magistrates.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/23/2008
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I'll assume the magistrates are guilty until proven innocent (guilty of leftism, that is.)
Two NATO aircraft intruded into Pakistani territory late on Monday night in North Waziristan, according to officials. Officials said the NATO aircraft violated Pakistani airspace in Lawara Mandi, Datta Khel, Ghulam Khan and Saidgi areas close to Pak-Afghan border around 11pm on Monday night. Both aircraft flew over these areas for about 25 minutes and returned to the Afghan side of the border without any action, the officials said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/23/2008
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#10
We fly where we want; they get to complain publicly. And everybody's happy.
Posted by: Bin thinking again ||
07/23/2008 20:34
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#11
ION INTERFAX > MILITARY EXPERT - RUSSIAN STRATEGIC BOMBERS ARE ENTITLED TO USE AIRFIELDS ABROAD INCLUDING IN CUBA [International Law/Host Nation/Sovereignty/Airspace]. USA General Schwartz's "red line" comments are "inadequate". RUSSIA MAY NOT EVEN NEED TO HAVE A PERMANENT BASE IN CUBA/QUBA DUE TO BOMBERS' ABILITIES AS PER LR STANDOFF ATTACK WEAPONS.
Launching her campaign for the Kadima primary in September, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni declared Tuesday that after winning the race, she will immediately work to form a national unity government with Likud's Benjamin Netanyahu and Labor's Ehud Barak.
Speaking at a gathering of activists at the Kadima branch in Hadera, Livni said that a unity government is the best thing for Israel at a time of internal disputes and external threats, and promised there would be room for members from Meretz to Yisrael Beiteinu.
"I think that out of this swamp it is possible to generate a very broad common denominator: a unity government that will advance the peace process," Livni told Haaretz. "Bibi, too, understands now that the concept of economic peace is not enough. He also says so. The same goes for investing in education and changing the government within the framework of a unity government."
Livni commented on the negative publicity she has received in the past few days, including attacks attributed to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert implying that she is not cut out to function under pressure, as well as a Channel 1 television report Tuesday night about her past service in the Mossad.
"I know they'll be gunning for me," she told Haaretz. "I knew it from Day 1, but I made a decision from the start not to get hung up on other people and not to deal with what others say about me. I'm coming from a place where any question is legitimate, and I know they'll keep trying to go after me, but I don't get into that. My life story is open to everyone, including my political and security experience. In recent years I was a partner in the government to reaching significant political and security decisions, including Resolution 1701, and I wish to be judged on the basis of those decisions."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/23/2008
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Gunmen killed a senior security officer for Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari in Karachi on Tuesday, police and party officials said.
"Khalid Shahenshah sleeps widda fishes!"
Ejaz Durrani, a spokesman for Bilawal House, said unidentified gunmen opened fire on Khalid Shahenshah's vehicle outside his home in Khayaban-e-Bukhari in Defence Housing Authority (DHA) Phase VIII. Doctors at the nearby Ziauddin Hospital in Clifton were unable to save him, Durrani said.
[Snff!] "Don't let his mudder see him like dis!"
Karachi police chief Khalid Mahmood confirmed the incident. Shahenshah, a long-time PPP activist, was among a coterie of party security guards who failed to prevent the murder of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in a gun-and-bomb attack in Rawalpindi on December 27, 2007.
According to details, Shahenshah, 45, had arrived at his house at around 2:40pm after attending a meeting at Bilawal House, when assailants attacked his vehicle -- a Toyota double cabin -- shooting him six times in the back. Shahenshah was rushed to hospital where he later died.
"Rosebud! [Rattle!]"
His body was taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for legal formalities before being moved to Bilawal House.
The police have found a white Suzuki Mehran vehicle with fake registration plates near Sultan Masjid, Clifton Town Superintendent of Police Azad Khan said. The police are looking for the vehicle's owner, Khan said, adding the vehicle might have been used in the attack. Senior officials of the Sindh police inspected the scene. The investigators found 39 empty shells at the site. The officials believe that the assailants fired for two to three minutes and used an SMG rifle, .222 rifle and 9mm pistols.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/23/2008
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#1
How are those deals with the devil(s) going, old boy?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/23/2008 12:08
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Pakistan is committed to fighting terrorism, which is clearly in its own interest and the government would never compromise with militants, Prime Minister (PM) Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Tuesday.
He was talking to US Ambassador to Pakistan Anne W Patterson who visited Prime Minister's House ahead of Gilani's United States tour. "The upcoming visit to the US is very important and it will help enhance the existing close ties between the two countries," he said.
Expand relations: The PM said that Pakistan accords high priority to its strategic relationship with the US and is keen to further expand its relations in various fields. "Pakistan is also eager to enhance co-operation in the fields of education, health, energy, science and technology," he said.
He said that his government would not talk to militants, but would keep the doors of dialogue open for those who have laid down arms.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/23/2008
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
Pakistan is committed to fighting terrorism...and the government would never compromise with militants,
Yeah. My wife...Morgan Fairchild, told me.
Posted by: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani ||
07/23/2008 10:39
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A decision has been taken to stop the military operation in Hangu at the request of the NWFP government, a private television channel reported on Tuesday. According to Aaj TV, the federal government accepted the provincial government's request and decided to stop the Hangu operation. The channel quoted an NWFP minister as saying that the provincial government wanted to resolve the problems though negotiation.
Security forces continued however a search operation in the Doaba area of Hangu district -- making no arrests -- while curfew was relaxed in the city.
The continuous curfew in Hangu city and Doaba has resulted in a food crisis as edible items and medicine are vanishing from markets.
Also on Tuesday, a jirga of religious leaders met the Taliban leadership and the district administrator here before leaving for Kohat to inform Regional Co-ordination Officer (RCO) Omar Afridi about the Taliban demands.
ISPR spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas said the operation carried out against Taliban in Hangu has achieved all desired results. Talking to the BBC, he declared that all troubled areas in Hangu district have been cleared of militants. Separately, Hangu SSP Muhammad Idris told a news conference that an elite force had been established to ensure the people's security. He said Hangu city had been divided into three sectors where the army, paramilitary and police personnel would continue their patrol.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/23/2008
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Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
07/23/2008
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#1
Bury this turd already - its been a dead issue for a while. The only issue is whther he had dual citizenship, and if that affects eligiblity for the Presidency. I think not, since he otherwise qualifies.
#2
Yah, bury it. However, I happen to recall August 1961 very well. Why? My daily paper was putting up charts on the homerun counts of Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle. That was a great year for the Yanks, and baseball. Final HR totals: Maris: 61. Mantle: 54. Trivia: Maris didn't burst onto the scene that year: he was MVP in 1960.
#3
From the comments on that blog, one poster points out that he may have been born at sea when his mother went from Hawaii to Seattle. He suggests that were that the case, then it would not be automatic that he was given US citizenship.
So, the question I'd like to know the answer to is: Did his mother relinquish her American citizenship in Indonesia BEFORE she attempted to obtain a US birth certificate for Obama. She would not have been allowed to have dual citizenship in Indonesia. So she either had to be there on a visa or she had to relinquish her US citizenship.
Thus if she then went back to the US at a later date and tried to establish Obama's US citizenship at that time, she might not have been able to do it.
Normally, I'd have thought it all just a paperwork flaw and that Obama deserves his due, but if in fact she failed to obtain a US certificate for him at birth, moved him to another country as a child, obtained his first citizenship elsewhere and then and relinquished her own citizenship all before she attempted to obtain his US certificate... then it seems to me that he doesn't have the qualifications we look for when we demand citizenship of our ultimate leader.
But those are all if's. Once again, Obama deems himself too worthy to have to answer any questions from the serfs. And we know the media won't ask.
#4
Can a prosecutor bring suit against the democrat party for running a non-citizen for president ?
If so, then the democrats will have to prove he is a citizen, and all those questions will be answered.
#5
my speculation is that he's likely a bastard (literally as per birth by an unwed mother) and is embarrassed by the fact. This may be the reason why he's trying to keep the birth cert under wraps.
#6
I don't think renouncing your citizenship means a whole lot. Even if Obama's mom did so nobody would take it seriously unless it was on film or something. Let it die.
#9
I thought it was worth letting it die but the more you dig into it, the more perplexing it becomes. It doesn't seem to be just a matter of her being unwed. Let's face it, at this point in time, that would be a plus rather than a negative.
It seems to me that at the very least he should be able to prove he is a US citizen. If he's unwilling or unable to produce the paperwork then he is not eligible to run. The burden is on Obama to prove he is a citizen. It's just that simple. I see no reason to look the other way on such a basic issue.
#10
This is going to become a crisis. No matter who wins, Obama or McCain, if either was not born on US soil (Obama possible at sea or Kenya or in BC) and McCain in Panama - whomever loses will throw this to the courts and paralyze our country for God knows how long. This is going to create absolute havoc if the issue is not resolved to everyone's satisfaction before the election is conducted.
Diners have been flocking to a restaurant in northern Nigeria to see pieces of meat which the owner says are inscribed with the name of Allah.
What looks like the Arabic word for God and the name of the prophet Muhammad were discovered in pieces of beef by a diner in Birnin Kebbi. He was about to eat it, when he suddenly noticed it looked and smelled like dog doody the words in the gristle, the restaurant owner said.
A search of the kitchen's meat revealed The Islamic Trinity three more pieces which bore the names. The meat was boiled and then fried before being served, owner Kabiru Haliru told newspaper Weekly Trust. The chef boiled and fricasseed allah! He must be Killed!
"When the writings were discovered there were some Islamic scholars who come and eat here Try the Golden Calf gristle. It's delish.
and they all commented that it was a sign to show that Islam is the only true religion of Table Scraps for mankind," he said.
The restaurant has kept the pieces of meat for visitors to see. Thousands of people have already gone to the restaurant to see them since they were discovered last week. A vet told the newspaper the words "defied scientific explanation". Undoubtably the most succinct description of islam I have ever seen.
"Supposing only one piece of meat was found then it would be suspicious, but given the circumstances there is no explanation," Dr Yakubu Dominic said. I'm going to make a fortune with my "allah" meat stamp. Patent pending. Photo at link.
Posted by: ed ||
07/23/2008
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#1
I wonder how many times Alan's name has appeared in Arabic around the world, and ignorant people couldn't read it - so the message was wasted.
Posted by: Rambler in California ||
07/23/2008 1:12
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#2
Lol , just lol .. Especially the Islamic scholars bit ..
#5
Oh come on! It's obvious that if Allan wanted people to know that Islam is "the one true religion for mankind" that he would put his and Mo's names on a couple pieces of boiled-then-fried meat. Cheez, what more evidence could you want?
#11
Allah's name on an icecream-cone (if you twist it and look really hard) is sinful but if it appears on meat (if you're dillusional) is proof of Allah's superiority?
It would be a crack up if they found out the meat was not prepared Halial style (however you spell it).
#12
To see a world in a grain of sand and read the name of God in a piece of gristly meat. It is all so beautiful and poetic. Or would be if it weren't so silly. I still think Allah is really Loki in disguise.
#16
Steve S. Thanks for the comparison of Allah to Loki. I've been looking for some kind of comparative description for years, and now I have it. Again, many thanks.
#18
Muhammed didn't have the sense of humour necessary to be Loki, Broadhead6. Allah, as described in his book, clearly did. And after all, Allah is just as real as Loki.
The Indian government last night survived a knife-edge parliamentary vote of confidence, clearing the way for a landmark nuclear deal with the US which marks the end of India's international isolation as a rogue nuclear weapons state.
The vote came after weeks of political horse-trading saw allegations of MPs being offered million-pound bribes, others being assured of cabinet posts and bizarre claims that some had been kidnapped.
Just hours before the vote, opposition MPs brought 10m rupees (£117,750) in cash into the parliament to highlight the corruption claims, which will now be investigated by the parliamentary authorities.
In the end the vote was won with a majority of 19. This was partly owing to sick MPs being brought on hospital trolleys and others convicted for murder being freed from jail to vote. General elections can now take place in May, when the government's five-year term expires.
The crisis was precipitated when the coalition government, led by the Congress party, lost the support of the 59 MPs of the communist parties. Those parties said they could not back a government that announced it would go ahead with the long-stalled nuclear accord.
India exists outside of the non-proliferation treaty, which allows the US, Russia, the UK, France and China to keep atomic weapons. Under the treaty, other countries can have atomic energy for civilian use but not nuclear weapons.
In 2006, George Bush offered Delhi a nuclear pact, which allows India to keep its nuclear bombs and access nuclear technology and material in return for separating its military and civilian reactors and accepting international inspections. It is an exceptional offer. Brazil and South Africa had to give up their nuclear weapons programmes before export controls were lifted.
"This is a big move. It signals India coming out of international isolation and that it can be part of the community of nations. This is important for a country that aspires to be on the G8," said K Subrahmanyam, a defence analyst.
Communist parties had blocked the deal, saying it would make India little more than a US pawn. Last night in a statement posted on his official website, the Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh, said that those parties "wanted a veto over every single step of [nuclear] negotiations which is not acceptable. They wanted me to behave as their bonded slave".
The deal has to be approved by the International Atomic Energy Agency and the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group, which monitors sales of nuclear technology. Most big powers have backed the deal, although Pakistan has raised objections.
The news of the vote was welcomed by the White House. US officials had been openly saying that time was running out for the deal. The US Congress also has to vote on the accord, which Bush had hailed as one of his major policy achievements.
Singh, an economist who was the architect of India's economic reforms in the 1990s, has emerged as a skilful political operator after being installed by the Congress party president, Sonia Gandhi, following India's 2004 elections.
In the past two weeks, he not only saw off Bharatiya Janata, the main opposition Hindu nationalist party, but also outmanoeuvred Kumari Mayawati, the chief minister of India's biggest state, Uttar Pradesh. She had convinced two minor parties that were expected to vote with the government to switch sides.
"He's proven to be a risk-taker and it's paid off. He believed in [the nuclear deal] intellectually, morally, philosophically and politically. That's a good thing," Shekar Gupta, the editor of the Indian Express newspaper, told New Delhi TV.
Seeds of a US nuclear rapprochement with India began in 2005 when the Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh, visited Washington. The Bush administration, determined to make history, announced it would reverse three decades of policies designed to deter nations from developing nuclear weapons - and aid India's civilian nuclear power programme. It was another year before George Bush arrived in Delhi, laying out a deal which both countries signed. Since then the accord had been repeatedly blocked by India's communists until Singh met Bush at the G8 summit this month in Japan and told him he would risk his government and make a last-ditch attempt to rescue it. India now faces a tight timetable: the deal must make it past the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Nuclear Suppliers Group in time to get it to the US Congress before Bush leaves office in January to guarantee the deal.
Posted by: john frum ||
07/23/2008
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#1
This is actually hugely important to both countries, and is a major victory for President W. Bush.
H.W. Bush had a huge victory by continuing China's MFN trading status after Tiananmen Square, in exchange for them signing on to the nuclear non-proliferation agreement after 40 years of US presidents trying to get them to sign despite their absolute refusal.
And this is just as important, as India is just as capable, or more so, of making nuclear weapons.
By keeping everything low-key, even the dumbass US senate will quietly vote for this, unless they have gone mad.
But as with his father, there will be no public celebration or even extraordinary mention, as part of the deal.
Nuclear non-proliferation should be added as a symbol to the Bush family crest.
Let us hope that both Jeb Bush is as good as his father and brother, and is given the opportunity in the near future to show it.
#3
President H.W. Bush's non-proliferation treaty with China has gone very well indeed, from what I understand, Anonymoose. Dare we even think of hoping for better from India with his son?
/I'm not quite sure what, but this is most certainly the end of it.
#4
From a non-proliferation perspective, I think India has been very good with not spreading nuclear weapons to other countries, on its own accord. So, that wouldn't necessarily be a Bush success story. Also, note that india has never signed the NPT (one of just 4 countries in the world not to do so), and has no intention of doing so in the future, regardless of what happens with this deal.
What this nuclear deal will accomplish is that India will be able to get more energy, and we will get a share of an estimated $100 billion in future nuclear power plant work in India (by 2027).
This deal will also potentially free up some uranium for India to make nukes. We are just seizing a good economic opportunity for both nations with this deal, and there's nothing wrong with that.
One last thing... it's only a matter of time before we figure out how to harness Thorium as an alternative to Uranium in nuclear power plants... and India has a third of the world's Thorium deposits. They have been studying thorium-based nuclear technology very aggressively of late.
Hattip Instapundit. A taste from one of our best independent reporters. Go read the whole thing.
I understood already why the KLA [Kosovo Liberation Army, presumably]
told the mujahideen, the radical Arab Islamists, to stay out during the war, but I wanted to hear a local person explain it from his or her perspective.
"The KLA," I said. "Why did they say no to the mujahideen?"
"In Bosnia," he said, "the mujahideen called the war a holy war, and they wanted to call the war here a holy war. But it was not a holy war, it was a war against the Serbian regime and paramilitary forces. So to prevent this we told them No. You can't have an attitude like that. You can send money to buy guns, but you cannot be with us in the war. That was a good idea. They destroy everything they touch."
#1
Totten is an obsessed snake oil vendor. What you read from him is not expertise; it is apologism, worthy of loathsome medieval Jesuits. There have been several documented liberal and secular periods in the history of islam; 100% of same faded out, as fundamentalists revive - again and again - the confrontation with the West.
When the Communists had to explain un-socialist aspects of their tyrannies, they spoke of "non antagonistic contradictions." Only the morally bankrupt denied that visible benign phenomenon, was purely transient. During the Cold War, thousands of pseudo intellectuals attributed lapses in communist legality, to peaceful intentions. To this day, I doubt that the communist doctrine of "protracted war" could impact on Chomsky's warped brain. Similarly, the muslim enemy benefits from cartoonish characterizations of their attitudes to the despised disbeliever (kaffir).
All muslims are inherent belligerent to external enemies and internal shirkers. They are conditioned to believe that their deity needs 5 prostrations per day from believers, and perma war against disbelievers. All muslim polities degenerate into malignant forms. They are passive when they are small in number, and aggressive when they have the force of numbers to effect sharia perversities. There is no such thing as a loyal muslim; ALL their patriotic efforts are either directed at a Caliph (leader of Muslims) or Calipha movements. Muslims are the termites of Western Civilization.
Totten skates around an explicit defense of Clinton's savageries against Serbs in Bosnia and Kosovo. While he was writing, a Kosovo Assembly leader was caught with a pound of Afghan Heroin. Are Kosovo/Albania the carriers of Central Asia poison to Europe? What do Americans get from defending Clinton's Heroin Republics?
Totten regurgitates lies about nominal muslim tolerance of Christians, without admitting a fact: Christians CANNOT construct new churches in either Bosnia or Kosovo or Albania. Even getting permits to renovate is difficult. In contrast, Wahabi mosques are going up all over the Ottoman rat-holes of Europe. One report disclosed 20% Kosovan support for the Wahabi ideology.
Lastly, Totten the Clintonist liar promotes indulgence of Ottoman gutter entities in Europe. Exactly how many muslims support a Judaeo-Christian presence in the Middle East? ZERO!!! Over 2,000,000 Christians have been cleansed from their Holy Lands since 1948. And you know how much respect there is for Jews in the muslim tyrannies. I don't see NATO protecting Egyptian Copts and Lebanese Maronites or Chaldeans or Mandeans.
Its too bad that free peoples crave reports on happy, liberal muslims. Lies can comfort, but they hardly contribute to understanding. Totten can drop dead.
Do any Rantburg regulars deny the "Clash of Civilization" thesis? If so, I would like to see what could be dredged up as evidence of latent amity.
#2
Yup, we did a good a job bombing the Serbs out of their homeland so that Islamists could have a base in Europe. If I was an indigenous citizen of a small European country I'd be very, very worried by this precedent.
#3
Oh and while we're at it, we can't just blame Clinton for this insane policy, since Bush and the EU are doing pretty much the same thing with Turkey, smoothing its transition from secularism to Islamism.
#5
You got a little bit of spittle in your beard, there, McZoid.
How was your last trip to Albania, by the way? See a lot, talk to a lot of people?
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
07/23/2008 9:20
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#6
Bravo McZoid! Not for your sentiments---which I fully share, but for managing to remain civil. When I think of Totten and his "moderate Muslim" Pravda, I just can't help reverting to the Russian profanity of my youth.
#7
Totten is a good guy but unfortunately he has taken at face value everytning his contacts havce told him. To begin with he know little of region's history be it the genocide of Serbs during WWII (I advice reading abit ovout the SS Hanschar division ) or the silent ethnic cleansing of Serbs after Tito's death.
Now he has a point: in his phtos it looks like it is harder to find a hijab in Kosovo than in Paris.
#9
Totten is a good guy but unfortunately he has taken at face value everytning his contacts havce told him. To begin with he know little of region's history be it the genocide of Serbs during WWII (I advice reading abit ovout the SS Hanschar division ) or the silent ethnic cleansing of Serbs after Tito's death.
And here's a little bit of global historical context: within ten years of the defeat of the Nazis the Soviets were operating a totalitarian empire of their own, running from central Germany to China, killed tens of millions of people, enslaved hundreds of millions, and stopping them at South Korea cost the US some 50,000 war dead of our own. I am disinclined to accept "...but they were victims of the nazis 50 years ago" as a reason for their pogrom-of-the-week, especially from close allies of the Russians who are (as we speak) profiting from selling breeder reactors to the Iranians.
#10
Yugoslavia was neutral in the cold war. Ptoblem is: Yugoslav Muslims weren't little saints and Serbs had perhaps some reasons to be unwilling to live under Muslim domination in Bosnia. Did you know that Itzbegovitch, the Muslim presdient was told to havbe been a Hanschar? That his propganda depicted turbanned horsemen crushing christains under the roofs of their horses? What did ypu expect from the Serbs? That they waited patiently until they were exterminated?
About genocide. First do you really think MSM lied only in Irak and Vietwnam?
#11
The girls in the pix at the link certainly don't look like your typical burqa babes and the availability of liquor is always a good thing.
But I couldn't help getting the feeling that MSM coverage of the 1990's Balkans wars was indeed one sided. Wasn't Serbia's loss of Kosovo somewhat like if the US lost California? Oh, that's right, we're letting California go too.
Memo to third world countries contemplating invading their neighbors: Don't send an army of guys with guns, tanks and warplanes. Send families with plenty of women and children who are willing to do the work your neighbor's people won't.
Then there are new reports of ethnic Albanians causing trouble in Macedonia. Is it a pattern? Is Albania in an expansionist mode? I dunno but if you Google "Greater Albania" it sure returns a lot of hits.
#12
McZoid and others in this thread need to get back on their meds, stat.
Obviously none of you have any freaking clue what the hell you are talking about. As it happens, I took the same tour (Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Albana, Kosovo) last summer as Totten is doing right now.
Yeah, Albania and Kosovo are Muslim areas. That's like saying that Canadians are Christians - meaning, in name only. Hell, in Shkoder, Albania, I had a group of these wild-eyed savages with scimitars buy me beer and pizza all afternoon, which they also shared.
I'd take them rather than say, Belgium, any day to watch my back.
#13
I'm not ready to go McZoid, but I wonder what kind of reception you'd get in 60 years. And I'd observe that Turks weren't burka babes a generation ago.
That's not to say that anything will happen but that things do change and Islam, supported by Saudi Wahabi money, seems to change things in the wrong direction.
I do believe that in order to bring this trend to am end, a lot of people are going to have to die one way or the other.
#15
If the Serbs committed "genocide" when they killed "8000" Muslim "civilians" in Srebenica, then we also committed "genocide" when we bombed Serbian civilians in Belgrade.
#16
I am disinclined to accept "...but they were victims of the nazis 50 years ago" as a reason for their pogrom-of-the-week, especially from close allies of the Russians who are (as we speak) profiting from selling breeder reactors to the Iranians.
So the fact that the Serbs are allied with the Russians proves that they're the bad guys. By that logic, the killers at Beslan are the good guys.
#17
So the fact that the Serbs are allied with the Russians proves that they're the bad guys. By that logic, the killers at Beslan are the good guys.
No, but it doesn't mean we have to pretend you're the good guys while they're are killing every adult male and pretending that using the word civilian with scare quotes makes it ok.
The government on Tuesday said the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections would be held in "time" and any attempt by terrorists to disrupt the process would be dealt with firmly. "The government and security forces have a single-point agenda to ensure that elections are held peacefully and fairly," Defence Minister A.K. Antony said in the backdrop of a sharp increase in infiltration attempts from across the Line of Control in the past three months.
"We have reports that more attempts would be made in the next few months, in the run-up to the elections," Mr. Antony told journalists on the sidelines of an Army seminar here. "We would spare no effort to defeat these attempts of anti-national forces."
The troops had been asked to be pro-active, keeping in mind human rights. Mr. Antony said security experts held meetings to take stock of the situation and frame a strategy to counter the threat of terrorists.
Infiltration attempts
Army authorities have said April and May this year accounted for almost 90 infiltration attempts, most of which were foiled. But Home Ministry officials claimed that nearly 100 terrorists had entered the Kashmir valley. Cumulative figures for the last six months show a staggering 161 infiltration bids after a dip in the past two years, with most of the attempts reported from the Uri, Machail and Keran sectors in northern Kashmir, say Army sources.
Based on radio intercepts of militants, they said, the bulk of those attempting to cross were from the Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Jaish-e-Mohammed, with instructions to enforce a poll boycott at gunpoint.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/23/2008
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Lawyers for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert screened a video of key witness Morris Talansky in Jerusalem District Court on Tuesday in which the American businessman is seen talking about cash he once gave to the late Yitzhak Rabin.
On the last day of the cross-examination of the key witness in the graft probe against Olmert, the attorneys questioned Talansky over statements he made to police about contributing money to Rabin, despite his denial in court that he had any connection with other Israeli politicians. Talansky said his remarks about Rabin were meant to be confidential.
At this stage, State Prosecutor Moshe Lador interceded in the exchange. "He had no idea that he was being filmed," Lador said of Talansky. "This whole exercise, where the attorneys are taking an interest in what he said about Rabin, is so transparent." Legal experts say Olmert's lawyers are trying to manufacture "spin" by diverting public attention away from the investigation into Olmert's alleged financial improprieties.
Despite the state prosecutor's attempt to suppress the footage, it was played in court. Talansky is seen in the clip remarking that Rabin received money from American Jewish businessman Leon Charney during one of his trips he took to the U.S. as a member of Knesset. Talansky is seen in the video saying he paid for Rabin's airline ticket, and that he wagered $100,000 in a tennis match together with Rabin, a match they would eventually won. Talansky is also heard saying he paid for Rabin's hotel room.
After screening the clip, Olmert's lawyers asked Talansky about his statements. Talansky replied that he and Rabin won $100,000 which would then be donated to Sha'arei Tzedek Hospital in Jerusalem.
Tel-Zur then offered Talansky a chance to apologize for the story. Talansky replied that he was sorry, that he regretted making the statements, and that he wished to apologize before the Rabin family.
"Talansky didn't say whether the story was true or false," Lador said afterwards. "This remains an open question."
During the questioning, an argument erupted between Talansky and Olmert's attorneys over a $15,000 loan the premier once received from Talansky during his stay in New York. Talansky claimed that Olmert called him three times in the morning, which meant that he needed something. Talansky then said he went to the bank to retrieve the money for Olmert. Olmert's lawyers then showed Talansky an excerpt from his previous questioning in which he denied being near the telephone when Olmert called.
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BAGHDAD (AP) - Gunmen killed a Kurdish journalist near the northern city of Kirkuk, a police official said Tuesday. Soran Mama Hama, a reporter for the Kurdish-language magazine Leven, was shot late Monday in the Rasheed Awa village, where many Kurds were forced to relocate when Saddam Hussein sent thousands of Arabs into the oil-rich Kirkuk area to dilute the presence of Kurds and others.
Kirkuk police Brig. Gen. Sarhat Qadir said the motive for the slaying of the 23-year-old journalist was not immediately known.
Qadir said gunmen killed the journalist. But the U.S. military gave a differing account, saying he was killed by a bomb. The reason for the conflicting reports was not immediately clear.
Reporters Without Borders said Hama had often covered government corruption for the magazine. He had written an article in the latest issue that was about the involvement of Kurdish officials in prostitution rings, according to the Paris-based advocacy organization. "He wrote hard-hitting articles about local politicians and security officials and had received threats from people telling him to stop his investigative reporting. The authorities should therefore give priority to the theory that he was killed because of his work," the group said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/23/2008
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OTTAWA - The prosecution closed its case against Momin Khawaja Tuesday, its final witness testifying the young Muslim was angry over Iraq and Afghanistan but showed no sign he was a terrorist intent on bombing London.
"Just because he supports them (violent jihadists) in theory is not actually proof of his involvement as such . . . it's not the same as blowing up London," Zeba Khan, Khawaja's former finance, told the court via video link from Dubai. "Jihad and terrorism are different things."
Of course. Anyone can see that. Terrorism involves killing people and blowing stuff up. Jihad is .. something else. Entirely.
"You will not meet a young Muslim man in the world who is not angry about something. Anyone who watches the news, if he wasn't mad then: a) there's something wrong with him or: b) he's ignorant."
Another clear definition of a Moose-limb, though not the way they intended ...
Though she was called as a Crown witness, prosecutor David McKercher did not ask Khan any significant questions in an examination-in-chief that lasted less than 10 minutes. Instead, he entered into evidence lengthy transcripts of two interviews she gave to the RCMP in 2004, a move Judge Douglas Rutherford called "unorthodox."
During the first interview at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad that July, Khan referred to one of several e-mails from Khawaja expressing his plan to join the mujahedeen fight against western military in Afghanistan.
"I never thought that he would ever take it seriously, that he would do anything, see. This is all just talk. My sister was like, 'You know what? This guys seems like, really extreme, you know? He seems like he's very much supporting of like blowing things up and stuff.'
"And my response to her was, 'I bet he's not gonna do it. And I bet that if we got married and he tried to do it, I would stop him.'"
Her testimony Tuesday, most solicited during cross-examination by defence lawyer Lawrence Greenspon, expressed confidence in Khawaja's innocence in the London bomb plot. Not once, she said, in all their e-mails and two brief visits he made to her home, did he mention anything about the London plot or any other terrorist activity,
But her credibility with the court likely suffered when she said the nearly 3,000 people murdered on 9/11 were unintentional victims - "collateral damage" - of what was intended as an economic assault against the United States and an act she compared to the Allied bombing of Dresden, Germany during the Second World War. The Dresden bomber crews were not terrorists, she said. "Some things happen in war, innocent people get killed. In America you call it collateral damage, I don't see this as much different."
Now 27, married and living in Dubai, Khan was then a 23-year-old American living in Pakistan when she entered into an e-mail courtship with Khawaja in 2003. She later admitted to police it was more about trying to escape from her parents' home in Islamabad than love. "He wasn't the brightest crown in the box . . . not the handsomest guy in the world . . . thick mentally. My sister described him as a blowhard, somebody who like to talk a lot, and just listen to the sound of his own voice."
Khawaja broke off the engagement a few months later.
For nearly an hour, the poised, intelligent and well-spoken woman in a light pink hijab insisted Khawaja had a strong moral compass, had shown no signs of wanting to harm innocent people and had never talked of a plot to bomb public sites around the British capital in 2004.
She said they shared a belief in jihad - struggle - that fell far short of terrorism. "I do believe in jihad, but my belief in jihad is vastly different from what many believe it to be. To say that I believe in jihad does not mean I believe in terrorism, that I believe in blowing things up. When I say I support this, I do not support blowing up miscellaneous things in Britain and the U.S."
But death to the Joooz, most definitely ...
In her July 2004 statement to police, she said fighting U.S. troops in Muslim lands, "is not an act of terrorism."
She said she believes Khawaja felt the same.
I'll bet he did ...
When her sister showed her a newspaper story about the March 29, 2004 arrest of a Canadian named Momin Khawaja for an alleged role in the London bomb plot, Khan was stunned. "It can't be him," she recalled saying. "It's got to be someone else, it didn't line up, it's crazy. How he was acting, in my view, did not in any way line up to the terrorist situation."
A University of Illinois law professor says he has offered to represent Iran if it decides to sue the United States over threatened nuclear program sanctions. Iran's Press TV reported Tuesday that Francis Boyle, an international law expert, is urging Iranian leaders to sue Israel and the United States through the International Court of Justice in The Hague over their ultimatum that Iran freeze its nuclear enrichment program in a matter of weeks or face further sanctions.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/23/2008
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
I offer the US government some copper covered lead circular objects for dealing with this poopy butt. Of course they will be free too.
#8
Is this guy a poster boy for a$$ clown of the moment or what????
No. He has much higher ambitions. Seems to me that I'd heard something else about this guy in the last year or so, something that wasn't listed at the link. Can't think what, though.
Between 1988 and 1992 Boyle was a member of the board of Amnesty International USA. Boyle also charged that Amnesty's staff had been infiltrated by US and UK security services (see Covert Action interview below) a claim hotly disputed by many in the human-rights community.
From 1991 to 1993, Boyle was a legal advisor to the Palestine Liberation Organization. Boyle is currently a member of the Nobel Peace Prize for Governor George H. Ryan Committee.
Corrupt former governor of Illinois who shitcanned the death penalty so as not to piss off a potential cellmate.
Professor Boyle is a controversial figure at the University of Illinois. He advocated for warmer US relations with Libya in the 1990s, and speaks fondly of his interactions with Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi. Professor Boyle has also made comments about the Middle East, accusing Israel of committing "Nuremberg offenses" against the Palestinians, an allusion to the actions of Nazi Germany.
Boyle has also taken a strong stand in favor of Hawaiian independence, and in support of this effort uses a resolution signed by former U.S. President Bill Clinton apologizing for U.S. involvement in the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy.
Locally, Boyle is outspoken against a University of Illinois "pub crawl" which celebrates Saint Patrick's Day days prior to March 17th. This "celebration" consists of excess drinking as well as increased vandalism on campus, which Boyle argues is offensive to persons of Irish nationality.
I'll bet that pissed off the boyos...
In 2002, Boyle protested a speech by Ruth Wedgwood, a law professor performing consulting work for the Bush administration, by equating her advocacy of military tribunals in the War on Terror to kangaroo courts. He appeared with an individual dressed in an anthropomorphic kangaroo costume to underline this point. More recently Boyle has been on the vanguard of movement to impeach U.S. President George W. Bush. He had previously called for the impeachment of former U.S. President Bill Clinton.
Well, nobody's all bad I guess. Sounds like he likes the sound of his own voice.
A jirga comprising Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) leaders began negotiations on Tuesday with Mullah Mehboob's Ansarul Islam (AI) -- a rival group of Mangal Bagh's Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) -- for a ceasefire between the two militant outfits. A first round of talks with the LI in Bara has ended, with the jirga -- headed by Mullah Shujaul Mulk -- beginning a second round of talks with AI leaders at an undisclosed location in Peshawar. Sources privy to the jirga meeting revealed that LI leaders were adamant over their demand not to include Pir Saifur Rehman's group at the talks. AI leaders did not attend the Bara negotiations with the LI leaders for security reasons. Sources quoted AI leaders as saying that they were ready to disassociate themselves from Pir Saifur Rehman's group but not willing to disown Haji Khanzada from the AI.
This article starring:
HAJI KHANZADA
Ansarul Islam
MANGAL BAGH
Lashkar-e-Islam
MULLAH MEHBUB
Ansarul Islam
MULLAH SHUJAUL MULK
Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl
PIR SAIFUR REHMAN
Ansarul Islam
Posted by: Fred ||
07/23/2008
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Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Ulema Islami
HMMMMM, iff my old Afghan War cohort OSAMA was truly intent on attacking and destroying the WH + Congress, SUICIDE TRUCKS OR SUIC COMMANDO-SAPPER TEAH COULD HAD ACHIEVED IT AND AT HIGHER PAN-SUCCESS PROB THAN USING AIRLINERS. IMB the only pragmatic utility of using commercial airliners in that fashion on 9-11-2001 would be as a HIGH-PROFILE, SELECT POLITICAL-MEDIA STATEMENT.
As a WAR/ATTACK METHOD, many of the CIVILIAN deaths at the WTC may arguably be UNAVOIDABLE, BUT IMO OSAMA's CREDIBILITY + PRESTIGE, INCLUD FOR RADICAL ISLAM, WOULD HAD BEEN GREATER IFF THE AIRLINER CIVILIANS WERE NOT INVOLVED.
Not solely. It disrupted an industry, placed constraints on the freedom of travel, forced a government to take actions that impinged on its citizens liberty and placed a brake on several nations' economies.
Sounds like was an attack in a guerrilla-warfare campaign to me.
By WILLIAM MCGURN
David Addington and Omar Khadr are two names that will forever be linked to the war on terror.
Mr. Addington is chief of staff to Vice President Richard Cheney and a former colleague of mine. He's the son of a West Point man who earned a bronze star in World War II and went on to become a general. Before coming to the White House, David put in stints at the CIA, at a congressional intelligence committee, and at the Pentagon -- all giving him an expertise on intelligence and national security issues only a handful of others can match.
Then there's Mr. Khadr. He is the son of a man who helped found and finance al Qaeda, and who died in a 2003 gun battle with Pakistani troops near the Afghan border.
So close were the family ties that the Khadrs lived for a while in the bin Laden family compound in Jalalabad, Afghanistan; and when Mr. Khadr's sister was married, bin Laden was an honored guest. Mr. Khadr himself went through weapons training at an al Qaeda training camp, and was captured in 2002 after a battle in which he is alleged to have killed a Special Forces medic. Ultimately he was brought to Guantanamo, where he awaits trial before a military commission for war crimes.
Guess who gets the sympathy in the press?
A few days ago, Mr. Khadr's attorneys released a videotape from February 2003 of their client being questioned by visiting Canadian officials. At first he was hopeful, but he quickly became sullen and withdrawn when he realized the Canadians were not going to get him out. The tape shows the young man, then 16, crying for his mother, and complaining about treatment for the wounds he suffered while fighting alongside al Qaeda.
The response has been illuminating. The Montreal Gazette calls him "a victim," "not a villain." Closer to home, our headlines run along the lines of "Tape shows 'frightened boy,'" "Teen on video: 'Help me, help me'" or "Teenage detainee pleads for help, tells of torture on video; Rights group seeks immediate release." About the only one willing to say anything unpleasant about Mr. Khadr is the soldier who lost an eye in the same firefight in which Mr. Khadr is alleged to have thrown the grenade that killed Army Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer.
It would be easy to denounce the treatment of David Addington and Omar Khadr as an example of moral equivalence. But moral equivalence would be a step up for David.
While the operative for al Qaeda is humanized, the counsel for the vice president is demonized. Such is the temper of the times that Rep. William Delahunt (D., Mass.) felt free to joke during recent hearings that he was sure al Qaeda was watching -- and was "glad they finally have the chance to see you."
And so it goes. Reasonable people can disagree with David, and many did. But the aim here is not reasonable debate. The aim is to close debate by shouting accusations so often that they become accepted.
Thus memos that are mostly about a commander-in-chief's legal authority are now routinely described as "torture memos." Thus the drumbeat for hearings on "war crimes." And thus the Washington Post column on David's congressional testimony, where he is described "hunched" and said to have "barked," "growled" and "snarled" -- language you would use to describe an animal.
For these purposes, David makes a convenient villain. For one thing, outside the Beltway he is relatively unknown, which feeds the aura of conspiracy; one documentary presented his photo as though it were a rare shot of the Yeti.
More to the point, David does not leak to the press, in sharp contrast to many of his adversaries. I am thinking in particular of the "former high-ranking administration lawyer" who figures so prominently (and so anonymously) in the New Yorker profile that did so much to cast David as some sort of cartoon.
In his own book, Jack Goldsmith -- former head of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel and perhaps David's greatest critic -- put it this way: "Our sharp disagreement over the requirements of national security law and the meaning of the imponderable phrases of the U.S. Constitution was not a fight between one who loves the Constitution and one who wants to shred it." Mr. Goldsmith went on to say that "whether and how aggressively to check the terrorist threat, and whether and how far to push the law in so doing, are rarely obvious" -- and that for all their fights, David is a man is who acted "in good faith" to serve his country.
It's a tribute to our society that even amid a terrible war we are capable of seeing the humanity of an enemy raised and trained to hate and kill us. Some of us are still waiting for that same presumption of humanity to be extended to the good men and women doing their imperfect best to keep us safe.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/23/2008
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#1
Khadr is being peddled as a clone of Africa's "child soldiers." The factual narrative of the murder by Khadr is as follows: 1. US troops entered an al-Qaeda compound, and acted to secure same; there wasn't a major firefight. 2. A Medic would normally only enter a "clear" zone, however, that might not always be the case. When the Medic entered, Khadr - who understood every word of English - hid behind a wall and waited for an opportunity to make a kill with the grenade that he held in hand. 3. given every opportunity to surrender and accept US custody, he tossed a grenade with knowledge that doing so would cause the death of a US soldier. 4. without further arms for aggression, he was seized and taken into custody. 5. every al-Qaeda terrorist took a blood oath (bayat) to Osama bin Laden and Mullah Umar, under text that put the testator under obligation to make jihad to the death. Clearly, Khadr understood the oath and both gave same with the same knowledge of an adult, and carried it out as would an adult.
Is the above narrative true or false? I have little doubt, given incontravertible facts. There are several witnesses for the prosecution. Put the little terrorist on trial as an adult. It is foolish to let this issue float.
The Canadian tape was released by judges who wanted an international audience to hear American soldiers accused of "torture." That is BS. The "Standard Operating Procedures" used at Delta Camp, Gitmo are on the internet. Frankly, I find them inept at best, and worthy of the terrorist derision that they received, at worst. Further, I have seen a UK production, "Road to Guantanamo Bay" which featured 4 UK muslims who were captured with Taliban and sent to Gitmo; none claimed to have been tortured. Captured al-Qaeda documents disclose standing orders that bind captives to make claims of torture, in order to engage the dhimmi-equivocators.
A hardline Somali Islamist accused of ties to Al-Qaeda claimed leadership of the country's fractured opposition on Tuesday, highlighting a bitter power struggle within the movement. Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, an influential cleric designated as a terrorist by Washington, was elected head of the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia (ARS) in a meeting in the Eritrean capital, an ally to Aweys said.
"We have elected Aweys as the head of the alliance," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity. "The appointment of the new leaders will enhance the liberation of Somalia from the occupation of Ethiopia and the puppets proclaimed by Addis Ababa," he added, referring to the Ethiopian-backed interim government in Somalia.
But ARS leader Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, who was chairing the group's meeting in Djibouti, dismissed the move. "What they have said is null and void," said his spokesman Suleiman Olad Roble told AFP in Djibouti.
The ARS central committee, led by Ahmed, endorsed over the weekend in Djibouti a June 9 cease-fire agreement reached with the Somali government. But Aweys rejected the truce, insisting the ARS was committed to driving out Ethiopian forces who entered Somalia in late 2006 and ousted an Islamist movement from the country's south and central region.
The ARS was formed in September 2007 in Asmara and delegates chose Ahmed as its new leader. The two fell out after Ahmed decided to participate in UN-sponsored peace talks in Djibouti to seek an end the Somali fighting that has raged since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
This article starring:
Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia
Mohamed Siad Barre
Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys
Islamic Courts
Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed
Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia
Suleiman Olad Roble
Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia
Posted by: Fred ||
07/23/2008
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Top|| File under: Islamic Courts
#1
Good. He can paint a nice henna bullseye on his forehead.
ANKARA - Turkey's highest court will begin deliberating in a case to close the governing AK Party for suspected Islamist activities on July 28, a court official said on Tuesday. The Islamist-rooted AK Party is on trial on charges of trying to introduce Islamic rule in Turkey, a predominantly Muslim but officially secular state.
A chief prosecutor also wants to bar Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, President Abdullah Gul and 69 leading AK Party figures from party membership for five years on charges of seeking to introduce Islamic sharia law in Turkey.
"We will begin the discussions on Monday. Will it take three days, five days or 10 days? That we don't know," Constitutional Court Chairman Hasim Kilic told reporters on leaving the court. Traditionally the court's 11 judges have moved swiftly to rule on high-profile cases, usually within the same day.
If the AK Party is closed and Erdogan -- seen as key to the survival of a reformist political movement he helped create in 2001 -- removed from power, analysts expect an early parliamentary election will follow.
Political analysts and senior AK Party sources have long believed the governing party would be shut down and have viewed the court case as politically-driven, but in the past week have become more cautious and now say it might not be closed.
A closure case comes amid a separate potentially explosive case involving what a prosecutor says is a shadowy, ultra-nationalist group suspected of seeking to overthrown the government by launching a series of violent actions that would force the army to step in. More than 80 people, including two senior retired army generals have been arrested in the expanding investigation.
The 11 judges -- most of them known for their strict interpretation of Turkey's constitution -- will vote and seven votes in favour are needed to shut down the ruling party. More than 20 parties have been banned for Islamist or Kurdish separatist activities in the past few decades, but none has had as much popular support as Erdogan's AK Party.
"This is not a regular closure case and this is not a trivial party but one in power that won a landslide re-election last year," Dogu Ergil, an expert on Turkish politics. "The court has responsibilities, there are divisions among the judges and shifting opinions. Any verdict is possible."
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/23/2008
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(VOI) - Police forces on Tuesday killed a suicide bomber in Falluja and arrested ten wanted individuals in three provinces, Iraqi Interior Ministry said.
"Police patrols in Anbar killed an individual wearing an explosive belt in Falluja, leaving no injuries, "said Iraqi Interior Ministry statement received by Aswat al-Iraq-Voices of Iraq (VOI).
The announcement noted "Security forces captured a Syrian national who admitted sneaking into Iraq through border town of Sinjar without an Identification Card".
It pointed out "an Emergency battalion freed a captive abducted by gunmen in al-Mashahda near Talafar, south-west Mosul".
It added, "an explosives ordnance team defused a roadside bomb in al-Shifaa area, west Mosul".
In Diala, the announcement said "three wanted individuals surrendered to the police department of Muqdadiya town.
It highlighted "security forces discovered three weapons hidouts in Bani Saad village, al-Hideed, and the area on the way to hajj Yousef tomb".
In Karbala, the statement noted, forces from Karbala's 2nd Emergency battalion detained two wanted individuals in Karbala".
Posted by: Fred ||
07/23/2008
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Within minutes of the bulldozer attack in central Jerusalem, many locals and tourists on the city's King David Street were debating whether the terrorist's actions were inspired by the expected arrival of U.S. presidential hopeful Barack Obama, or if it was simply an imitation of the similar incident two weeks ago.
"I don't think the terrorist cares who sleeps here tonight, all he wanted to do is kill Jews," said Paul Packer, of Long Island, New York. Packer had come to Jerusalem for a business trip and stayed in an apartment near the site where an East Jerusalem resident rammed a bulldozer into passing vehicles, injuring at least 24 people, mere yards from the hotel where Obama was to stay later in the day.
Watching the scene being cleared, he added, "I think they should leave the truck here so Obama can see what Jews and Israelis are facing every day."
"It was just a matter of time until there is a copy cat," said James Kennedy, a student at Tufts University in Boston who currently studies at the Hebrew University. His friend Jacob Abolafia believes the location of the attack was no accident: "We're between the King David and the Inbal hotel, where all the important people stay. Maybe there was a message that the terrorist wanted to send us."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/23/2008
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Top|| File under: Global Jihad
#1
whether the terrorist's actions were inspired by the expected arrival of U.S. presidential hopeful Barack Obama
Notice how the "reporter" plants the seed right in the first paragraph.
He came to send a message to the holy one.
It's not just another nutcase on a jihad rampage, but a tormented soul attempting to communicate with The Savior. Gotta give the reporter extra points for turning an non-Obama story into a biblical event.
#2
He is mistaken on both counts. The #1 thing the terrorists want is the land of Israel. Killing Jews is just a bonus, and they would forget about it if they could drive the Jews off the land.
Just as importantly, they will want to drive *anybody* who is non-Muslim off what they think are their lands. Which in the final analysis, are ALL lands.
Senator Obama should have very clear eyes about this, that any illusion about him being loved by Muslims is dangerous.
In truth, they see him as first, an apostate. Second, they see him, as black, as being inherently inferior to Arabs. Any fondness for him they are showing is because they feel superior to him an every way, and that his ascendancy will bring a feared enemy down.
But the most radical don't even think that far. For them, they see him only as an apostate, who must die.
And when he opens his mouth, hoping that buttered inanities will persuade them otherwise, they will only be convinced he is a fool.
#3
Actually, Anonymoose, consider that the situation in Israel would be right now if---following Oslo---Paleos could control their lust for Jewish blood for, say, a decade?
I am unsure about if yoau are an useful or an useless idiot. Palestinians have been saying loud and clear for decades they want the extermination of Israelis. They have been educating their children not merely to become suicide bombers but also to level of hate who exceeds even the one Hutu children were raised.
If Palestinians ever gain the upper hand there will be a Holocaust and the model will not be Auschwitz, envision Babi-Yar multiplied 500 times or a Rwanda-like genocide when people and even children were on purpose merely wounded so their agony would take hours or even days.
#5
JFM: You are right in that is what they say, but it is their *means* to their end, not the end in itself. Paleo, Arab and other Muslim leaders have said, repeatedly, that if the Jews would just leave Israel, and go somewhere else, so that their lands would be owned by the Paleos, then they would ignore Jews altogether.
The reason, over and over, is that they want the land, and the Jews are in the way. They want to kill the Jews, just like they would want to kill Christians, if Christians lived in Israel. Land is the Muslim obsession.
For heaven's sake, they are now claiming part of Spain, because in the distant past, it was Muslim. Do you for one second think that if they focused on *that* land, that they would want to slaughter the Spanish any less than they now want to slaughter the Jews?
By their twisted logic, the *major* reason the Muslims hate America is *solely* because they think that without American support, the Israelis would have to leave. So it is America's fault that Jews occupy Israel. What they believe is Muslim land stolen from the Paleos.
#6
Personally I've been waiting for them to claim the WTC site as moslem land by conquest.
Posted by: bruce ||
07/23/2008 15:36
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#7
Anonymoose
Koran is full of imprecations against the Jews (far more than against Christaians), Muhammad spent mots of its post-Hegira life perpetrating atrocities agsint the Jews and remeber alos that Hadith were at end of times stones and trees reveal the location of hiding Jews and tell Muslims to kill them.
Abyway America is not hated because it hemps Israel it is hated because it usurpates leaderdhip of the world friom the master race.
In an extraordinary TV interview, the third senior-most leader of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, Mustafa Abu Yazid alias Sheikh Saeed, has said something that should stop Pakistan's numberless and mindless "conspiracy" theorists from spreading the word that 9/11 was done by the Jews. Speaking to a Pakistani TV channel, Sheikh Saeed stated that the 9/11 attack on the US was carried out by 19 men of Al Qaeda and that Pakistan did a dastardly thing by handing over the "courageous" Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, and many others, to America. He also said that suicide-bombing was allowed under Islam and declared those clerics who outlawed it as "lackeys of the government".
Sheikh Saeed, who heads Al Qaeda's operations in Afghanistan, is Egyptian in origin and spent three years in jail along with the second senior-most man of Al Qaeda, Ayman Al Zawahiri. The Pakistani journalist taken from Karachi to visit his stronghold was spotted by a Palestinian "studying" in Karachi but in fact devoted to jihad. The journalist was told that he was taken to the province of Khost in Afghanistan where he met the Al Qaeda operational chief. Curiously enough, the Pakistani reporter did not ask him about the assassination of Ms Benazir Bhutto, a "job" admitted by an Al Qaeda spokesman immediately after the killing.
Sheikh Saeed was aggressive about the validity of suicide-bombing but balked at accepting the attempt at the life of the ex-interior minister, Mr Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao, inside a mosque. He denied that Al Qaeda had tried to kill Mr Sherpao. Again, curiously enough, the reporter did not ask if it was involved in the second attempt that did not take place inside the mosque. Possibly because he doesn't want to incur Al Qaeda's wrath again, Mr Sherpao himself says the culprits behind those attacks were the intelligence agencies of India and the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan.
Continued on Page 49
This article starring:
Khost
Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao
AIMAN AL ZAWAHIRI
al-Qaeda
Benazir Bhutto
KHALID SHEIKH MUHAMAD
al-Qaeda in Afghanistan
Maulana Rafi Usmani
MUSTAFA ABU YAZID
al-Qaeda in Afghanistan
SHEIKH SAID
al-Qaeda in Afghanistan
Posted by: Fred ||
07/23/2008
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
#1
"fact is that those who got killed on 9/11 belonged also to the party that did not elect President Bush."
Even more important, large numbers of the people in the World Trade Center were immigrants, including ~200 from Pakistan. Those people had NO say in the 2000 election.
Another point that must be made is Al Qaeda killed hundreds of Muslims at the World Trade Center. So, from the very beginning, AQ was showing as much (or more) interest in killing fellow Muslims than unbelievers.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
07/23/2008 13:05
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#2
Sheikh Saeed set apart the Arab component when he said that the suicide-bombing of the Denmark embassy in Islamabad was carried out by an Arab from Saudi Arabia
Our friends from Saudi strike again!!!!
Posted by: Paul ||
07/23/2008 13:23
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Two French aid workers kidnapped in central Afghanistan last week are being held by a commander of a former armed faction, a Western radio broadcaster said on Tuesday.
The pair were working for the humanitarian agency of Action Against Hunger in the central province of Dai Kundi and were kidnapped while sleeping in their house on Friday, the organisation said. Commander Sedaqat phoned Radio Liberty to claim responsibility for seizing and holding the two, said the US-sponsored station which broadcasts in Afghanistan's main languages, Pashtu and Dari.
Sedaqat said he had kidnapped them due to differences with provincial authorities he said had sidelined him from power, the network said. Sedaqat said he wanted to settle the issue peacefully, but made no demand for freeing the pair. Sedaqat belonged to an ethnic Hazara armed faction and briefly joined the Taliban when the group was in power from 1996 till 2001, the radio said.
He then sided with the Afghan government after US backed Northern Alliance forces toppled the Taliban government following the September 11 attacks in 2001.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/23/2008
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#1
Send in Barack Obama. I am certain his message of peace will do the business.
#4
"Sedaqat belonged to an ethnic Hazara armed faction and briefly joined the Taliban when the group was in power from 1996 till 2001"
A Hazara who joined the Taliban. This would be like a Pole who joined the Nazis. either a complete loon, or an opportunist of the most naked variety even by afghan standards.
Aerial firing during a marriage function near Islamabad airport late on Tuesday forced authorities to halt flight operations for more than an hour. Police sources told Daily Times that a Dubai-bound flight was about to take off when gunshots were heard from a nearby locality. Officials of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) delayed the flight while putting security on high alert. Police rushed to the scene and established that some gunshots had been fired into the air during a marriage function in a locality near the airport.The airport authorities, however, said that delay to the Dubai-bound flight was an operational one. The flight took off after a one-hour delay.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/23/2008
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(VOI) -- Seven civilians were wounded on Tuesday when a roadside bomb exploded targeting a police vehicle patrol in eastern Mosul, said a police source. "An explosive charge was detonated targeting a police vehicle patrol in Garage al-Shemal region in eastern Mosul, injuring seven civilians," the source, who requested anonymity, told Aswat al-Iraq -- Voices of Iraq (VOI). "None of the policemen were injured in the explosion," he added, giving no more details. Mosul, the capital city of Ninewa, lies 405 km north of Baghdad.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/23/2008
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Iraq
(SomaliNet) A Kenyan maritime official said Tuesday that Somlai pirates have seized a Japanese-owned vessel transporting lead and zinc off the Somali coast. Andrew Mwangura of the Kenyan chapter of the Seafarers Assistance Programme said the Panama-flagged MV Stella Maris was seized on Sunday near Calula, a port town in Somalia's breakaway northern region of Puntland.
"Thirty eight heavily-armed pirates stormed the ship sailing in the international waters in the Gulf of Aden," Puntland presidential advisor Bile Mohamoud Qabowsade said. "So far we are tracking them down. We want to know where they are going to stay with the ship," Qabowsade told AFP.
"We have been told that 18 crew members are also on board. Speed boats used by the pirates are also following the ship."
The hijackers of the 52,000-tonne freighter are yet to make any demands, Mwangura told AFP, adding that no information about its port of origin and destination as well as the nationalities of the crew had been received. The vessel is owned by Turtel Marine Shipping and managed by MMS Company of Japan.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/23/2008
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Top|| File under:
#1
You might figure after about the thirtyith or fortyith time somebody would get a clue?
#3
Oops! I think the pirates have just made a mistake. Japan cannot allow this kind of action - it costs them face. I wouldn't be surprised to see a couple of Japanese warships steam around to the Horn of Africa in the next week to ten days (they've got a long way to go).
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/23/2008 13:50
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#4
You dumbshits just stepped on the elephants toes. Whoopsie!
Pakistan is working with Iran on a joint strategy to stem the flow of militants through their territory to and from Iraq, Adviser to Prime Minister on Interior Rehman Malik said on Tuesday. "From Iran, they go to Iraq and then come back," Malik told reporters after talks with his Iranian counterpart. "We are preparing a joint strategy to control it." Iran's Acting Minister for Interior Syed Mehdi Hashemi is on an official visit to Pakistan to hold negotiations about militancy and sectarianism in the region. Malik said Iran, which is predominantly Shia Muslim, and Pakistan, mainly Sunni Muslim, had agreed to set up a joint commission of clerics and scholars to reduce sectarian strife in Pakistan. "It will send a good message to Shia and Sunni Muslims that they should stop cutting each other's throats," Malik said. He said the commission would help improve relations between both the two sects. The two officials discussed human trafficking and smuggling of POL products across the Iran-Pakistan border. "We have agreed to set up focal points at the Pak-Iran border to stop it (trafficking and smuggling)," Malik said. The government nominated Federal Investigation Agency Director General Tariq Pervez to take up the issue with Iranian officials.
Swap: The issue of exchange of prisoners between the neighbouring countries was also discussed. The Iranian minister requested for release of 16 Iranians held in Pakistan. Hashemi termed the meeting as "positive". Malik said that the minister had met with the prime minister and conveyed a message from Iranian President.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/23/2008
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#1
Is the Daily Times like the Weekly World News of Pakistan?
#2
Which country is the bigger threat to the West?
Posted by: Paul ||
07/23/2008 12:52
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#3
"It will send a good message to Shia and Sunni Muslims that they should stop cutting each other's throats," Malik said.
But cutting American or Joooos throats is OK.
A Dhaka court yesterday rejected the bail petitions of detained former deputy minister Abdus Salam Pintu and two other Harkatul Jihad (Huji) members in connection with the August 21 grenade attack case.
A third Huji cadre Shahadat Ullah Jewel, however, obtained bail from the same court following a High Court (HC) order.
Meanwhile, Huji chief Mufti Abdul Hannan has submitted a petition for retraction of his earlier confessional statement regarding the attacks.
Judge KM Rasheduzzaman Raja of the Second Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court adjourned the hearing following petitions submitted by defence lawyers.
The court fixed August 3 for next hearing on charge-framing and directed the jail authorities to produce all the arrested accused on that day.
The case was filed for the grenade attacks on an Awami League (AL) rally on August 21, 2004 that left 23 people dead and around 200 injured.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/23/2008
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MINGORA: A bomb disposal squad on Tuesday defused three bombs in Sumbat and Khaderi, officials said. Two bombs were planted near the Hira School in Sumbat, while the third was planted on a roadside in Khaderi.
Locals informed the police, who called the bomb disposal squad to defuse the devices. Meanwhile, Swat Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan said the security forces were taking action against the local Taliban despite of their peaceful activities, and demanded the government to immediately stop the military operation in Swat and withdraw the army. Meanwhile, Deputy Inspector General Police Malakand Region Tanvirul Haq Sipra said Swat police was capable of meeting any eventuality. He was addressing a high-level meeting of district co-ordination officers. "The police did a great job in the recent crisis and their morale is high," Sipra said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/23/2008
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British forces killed a Taliban leader, while another Taliban commander in the southern Afghanistan surrendered to the Pakistani authorities, the British Defence Ministry said on Tuesday.
Abdul Rasaq, also known as Mullah Sheikh, a Taliban leader in southern Helmand province, was killed along with three others in a missile strike north of Musa Qala on Sunday, the ministry said. Hours earlier, Mullah Rahim, said to be a senior Taliban leader in Helmand, had given himself up to the authorities in Pakistan, it said.
In an other incident, the United States-led coalition and Afghan forces killed or wounded more than 30 Taliban during fighting in the west of Afghanistan, a senior police official said on Tuesday. Fighting broke out in the Bala Boluk district of Farah province on Tuesday, Regional Police Chief Ikramuddin Yawar said. "So far more than 30 Taliban insurgents have been killed or wounded in the operation," Yawar said, adding, "The toll might be more than 30 because the operation is ongoing." A US-led convoy was engaged with small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades on Tuesday morning in Bala Boluk, a military spokesman said. Air strikes were called in but no munitions were dropped and the US military could not confirm if any Taliban had been killed, he said.
In Kabul, a Taliban suicide bomber wounded five civilians when he blew himself up as police challenged him on Tuesday, the Interior Ministry said. The bomber struck early in the morning in the Gozargah area of Kabul, next to the walls of the historic tomb of the 16th century Mughal emperor Babur. In the central Afghan province of Ghazni, militants killed four brothers, all police officers, and captured their father in an attack on their home, the Interior Ministry said.
This article starring:
Abdul Rasaq
Taliban
Mullah Rahim
Taliban
Mullah Sheikh
Taliban
Regional Police Chief Ikramuddin Yawar
Posted by: Fred ||
07/23/2008
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#1
No big deal. Paki madrases are generating new mullahs as fast as they can teach them to read one syllable words.
U.S. presidential contender Barack Obama arrived in Israel Tuesday night, facing a full schedule of meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders after pledging to work for peace as soon as he takes office.
Obama flew to Israel late Tuesday from Jordan, where he condemned an attack a few hours earlier by a Palestinian man from East Jerusalem who rammed a bulldozer into passing cars in central Jerusalem, injuring at least 24 people before being shot dead by a civilian and a Border Police officer. "Today's bulldozer attack is a reminder of what Israelis have courageously lived with on a daily basis for far too long," Obama said.
Obama said he would plunge into Mideast peacemaking, where efforts have failed for decades, warning there were no quick solutions.
Earlier Tuesday, at a press conference in Amman, Jordan, the Democratic senator promised to work toward achieving a breakthrough in Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations "starting from the minute I'm sworn into office."
Obama added that any U.S. involvement in peace talks must recognize "not only Israel's security concerns but also the economic hardships facing Palestinians."
He said he would continue to "regard Israel as a valued ally. That policy is not going to change," he said. "What I think can change is the ability of the United States government and a United States president to be actively engaged with the peace process and to be concerned and recognize the legitimate difficulties that the Palestinian people are experiencing right now." I'll translate, "Make room under the bus".
Obama, in the midst of a weeklong high visibility foreign trek, also acknowledged the long history of Middle East tensions that would confront him if he were to become president. "It's unrealistic to expect that a U.S. president alone can suddenly snap his fingers and bring about peace in this region," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/23/2008
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#1
He said he would continue to "regard Israel as a valued ally..."
Translation: "Kinda like South Vietnam. Hope your small boats aren't quite so leaky."
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
07/23/2008 1:35
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#2
Him and olmert ought to get along jsut fine - both are slimy, emptyheaded machine politicians.
#3
I dunno, OS...what worries me most about the Obamessiah is that he might be the opposite of emptyheaded. I think he's a hard-left radical with a very firm agenda and a roadmap of how to get there. And he has a cadre of supporters who've been waiting for this moment since 1968. Not the gasping hordes that show up at his rallies - I'm talking about the Sixties radicals, leftist financiers, poverty pimps and rabble rousers who form his braintrust. If he gets elected, he'll know he has two years to set his plans in concrete with the aid of what's likely to be an overwhelmingly Quislingcrat Congress. If he succeeds, the US becomes a de facto one-party state.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
07/23/2008 2:17
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#4
I came to the same conclusion as Ricky about two months ago. When he appeared to be an empty suit, he was bad enough. When I figured out that he was the great Gramscian bullet aimed at the heart of authentic America, I really got worried.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
07/23/2008 5:41
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#5
Yah, with a sweep of his hands he will rid Gaza, south Lebanon and the West Bank of all missiles.
#6
He will make sure the Jews can't defend themselves and feel all guilty if they try, starting a new holocaust. But afterwords there would be peace, right? I mean, the Arabs are only violent because of the Jews and before Israel was created they lived in harmony and held hands and sang Kumbiah, right?
#8
Obama said he would plunge into Mideast peacemaking, where efforts have failed for decades, warning there were no quick solutions.
Plunge: Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source
1. to cast or thrust forcibly or suddenly into something, as a liquid, a penetrable substance, a place, etc.; immerse; submerge: to plunge a dagger into one's heart.
2. to bring suddenly or forcibly into some condition, situation, etc.: to plunge a country into war; to pull a switch and plunge a house into darkness.
verb (used without object)
3. to cast oneself, or fall as if cast, into water, a hole, etc.
4. to rush or dash with headlong haste: to plunge through a crowd.
5. to bet or speculate recklessly: to plunge on the stock market.
6. to throw oneself impetuously or abruptly into some condition, situation, matter, etc.: to plunge into debt.
7. to descend abruptly or precipitously, as a cliff, road, etc.
8. to pitch violently forward, as a horse, ship, etc.
noun 11. act of plunging.
9. a leap or dive, as into water.
10. a headlong or impetuous rush or dash: a plunge into danger.
11. a sudden, violent pitching movement.
KARACHI - Buses, coaches, wagons, trucks and heavy vehicles across Sindh province yesterday went on an indefinite wheel-jam strike to protest against unprecedented price-hike in petroleum products.
The strike, which was called off in the afternoon, completely paralysed Karachi port operations resulting in losses of millions of rupees to the exchequer. Due to the strike many of the city's petrol pumps remained closed as the petroleum products could not be delivered and a closure of majority of the petrol stations is likely if the vehicles remained off the road for next few days.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/23/2008
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#1
ION WAFF.com [paraph] > INDIA > WOMAN MARRIED TO HINDU GOD AT AGE 12, AND SPENT THE NEXT TWENTY YEARS GIVING OUT SEXUAL FAVORS TO UNTOLD NUMBERS OF MEN IN THE NAME OF RELIGION AND CULTURE/TRADITION [Indian Temple Prostitution ala Pre-Teen/Tween Girls]. Temple Prostitutes also suffer from high HIV-STD Rates in consequence.
Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) 'arrested' three people on Tuesday suspected of being involved in a plot to kill LI ameer Mangal Bagh and his shoora members. The LI made the arrests in Kohi Sher Haider, Bara, where they were said to be planning the murder. The LI is looking for other people suspected to be involved in the murder plan. The arrested men include Gul Nabi, Iqbal and one unnamed person. They were also reportedly involved in the kidnapping of a doctor. The arrested men admitted that LI's opponents had offered financial rewards for the murder of Bagh and his shoora members.
This article starring:
Kohi Sher Haider
MANGAL BAGH
Lashkar-e-Islam
Posted by: Fred ||
07/23/2008
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BRUSSELS - The European Union widened sanctions against Zimbabwe Tuesday despite a deal between hardline President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai aimed at ending the political crisis.
EU foreign ministers, at a meeting in Brussels, added 37 more people to a list of individuals under a visa ban and whose assets have been frozen, as well as four "legal entities", or companies. The list -- which had already included Mugabe, his wife and other senior officials -- now totals 168 people and four companies, and sees the EU for the first time target business people and companies in Zimbabwe. The new names were not immediately released so as not to alert those concerned and allow them to transfer their assets to safety.
The move came despite the signing Monday of a deal between the veteran president and Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Tsvangirai on a framework for talks on a future government. Despite the deal, ministers said it was important to keep up the pressure.
"We decided to go for sanctions, because sanctions weigh heavily," said French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency until the end of the year. He said the ministers took the decision "not for the pleasure of imposing sanctions, but because it is a political weight and because we want to play a positive role alongside the African Union."
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/23/2008
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Deputy Speaker Sindh Assembly Shehla Raza said that the killing of Khalid Shahenshah might be linked to the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, Dawn News reported on Tuesday. Raza said Shahenshah was an eyewitness to the murder of Benazir Bhutto and his statement was likely to be recorded before the United Nations-led team that would possibly probe the incident. She termed the killing a great loss to the party.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/23/2008
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#1
Raza said Shahenshah was an eyewitness to the murder of Benazir Bhutto and his statement was likely to be recorded before the United Nations-led team that would possibly probe the incident.
If that's the case, they probaby could've waited at least a coupla years...
Vice Presidential candidate Sen. John Edwards was caught visiting his mistress and secret love child at 2:40 this morning in a Los Angeles hotel by the NATIONAL ENQUIRER.
The married ex-senator from North Carolina - whose wife Elizabeth continues to battle cancer -- met with his mistress, blonde divorcée Rielle Hunter, at the Beverly Hilton on Monday night, July 21 - and the NATIONAL ENQUIRER was there! He didn't leave until early the next morning.
So they say, anyway.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/23/2008
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#1
Well we post articles from the New York Times here all the time - this source is a step up! Next I guess we'll be seeing the Weekly World News.....
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
07/23/2008 8:02
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#4
here is something from Roger Simon's blog
"I want to start by bragging to you about how discreet Pajamas Media is. Over six months ago, we had wind of the John Edwards/Rielle Hunter love affair and love child and did not run with it. Most of this information was hearsay from people here in Hollywood, people who know Rielle. She was a long time hanger on in Hollywood circles before heading East to do political promo videos and, yes, I had met her myself on a couple of occasions at parties. She was not particularly notable, of the tedious sort that bore you to death about their yoga instructor."
#5
I loved how the National Enquirer guys managed to tree Edwards like a raccoon in a public toilet, until hotel security arrived to hustle him to safety.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
07/23/2008 9:25
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#6
Nothing says "leadership" like hiding in the bathroom.
#9
Don't slam The National Enquirer over accuracy. They are extremely lawsuit conscious, and carefully document everything they publish far more than all but academic journals. They are almost unique in that their legal department reviews the paper, and the sources, prior to publication.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
07/23/2008 12:18
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#13
A neighbor kid once asked me why my Pit Bull dog was licking his butt. I said, "He just ate a Lawyer and is trying to get the taste out of his mouth". My apologies to all of the fine people here at Rantburg who are Lawyers.
#16
It gets even more fun! Y'all may want to check out:
http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/categories/rielle-hunter/ : "The visibly pregnant blonde relocated from New York to Chapel Hill, N.C., where she's living in an upscale gated community near political operative Andrew Young, who's been extremely close to John Edwards for years.
And, in a bizarre twist, Andrew Young " a 41-year-old married man with young children himself" now claims HE is the father of Rielle's baby!
Others are skeptical, wondering if Young's paternity claim over Rielle Hunter's alleged offspring is a cover-up to protect John Edwards."
#18
It wasn't really him. He was just channeling the guy that knocked her up. Also that guy lives in the Other America, the one he doesn't live in, whichever one that is.
(Xinhua) -- The attack on Denmark embassy in Islamabad in June was made by al-Qaeda, said an al-Qaeda commander in an interview with Pakistan's private TV channel late Monday night. A car bomb was detonated in front of the Danish Embassy in Islamabad on June 2, killing at least eight people and injuring 24 others.
The commander of al-Qaeda Mustafa Abul Yazid, 53-year-old commander also known as Sheikh Saeed, made the remarks in an exclusive talk with journalist Najeeb Ahmed in a Geo TV program. The text story about the interview, considered as the first detailed one of any al-Qaeda leader during the last five years, was posted on the Geo's website on Tuesday.
The al-Qaeda commander's interview with Geo was said to have been conducted at an undisclosed location in Afghanistan. Yazid told the TV channel that his organization is being organized in Afghanistan and would very soon capture all Afghanistan. Al-Qaeda is doing jihad against America as it is murdering the innocent Muslims, Yazid said.
Yazid is an Egyptian Islamic militant and the current al-Qaeda commander of operations in Afghanistan.
This article starring:
MUSTAFA ABUL YAZID
al-Qaeda
Najeeb Ahmed
SHEIKH SAID
al-Qaeda
Posted by: Fred ||
07/23/2008
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#1
See WAFF.com > STRATEGYPAGE - THE NEW TALIBAN TACTICS HAVE A CATCH; + WASHINTON TIMES - PAKISTAN'S TERROR, INC.; + DER DPIEGEL - TERROR, NUKES, AND PAKISTAN'S UNCERTAIN FUTURE.
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.
BAQUBA, Iraq (AFP) - Some 30,000 Iraqi soldiers and police are to launch a military assault against Al-Qaeda fighters and insurgents in Diyala province from August 1, army and police officers said Wednesday. 
Which draws more juice from the electric grid, a big-screen plasma television or recharging a plug-in hybrid car?
Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Tuesday lauded the civilian and the Border Police officer who "acted quickly" and killed a Palestinian who rampaged through central Jerusalem on a bulldozer earlier in the day, injuring at least 24 people. Barak stressed that this incident "exposes the complex reality facing us: war in Gaza, also with Hezbollah in Lebanon and even with Iran. We are a strong people."
The local Taliban will not hinder anti-polio campaigns in Swat, as long as lady health workers (LHWs) do not accompany the anti-polio teams, Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan told Daily Times on Tuesday. Khan said that teams, with male workers, were free to visit any area. However, he added, the teams would not be allowed to 'force' parents to administer polio drops or to vaccinate their children. "What they have to do is to inform people through mosques about vaccinating their children and then it depends on the parents whether they want to bring children or not."
Two NATO aircraft intruded into Pakistani territory late on Monday night in North Waziristan, according to officials. Officials said the NATO aircraft violated Pakistani airspace in Lawara Mandi, Datta Khel, Ghulam Khan and Saidgi areas close to Pak-Afghan border around 11pm on Monday night. Both aircraft flew over these areas for about 25 minutes and returned to the Afghan side of the border without any action, the officials said.
Launching her campaign for the Kadima primary in September, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni declared Tuesday that after winning the race, she will immediately work to form a national unity government with Likud's Benjamin Netanyahu and Labor's Ehud Barak. 
Gunmen killed a senior security officer for Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari in Karachi on Tuesday, police and party officials said.
BAGHDAD (AP) - Gunmen killed a Kurdish journalist near the northern city of Kirkuk, a police official said Tuesday. 
A University of Illinois law professor says he has offered to represent Iran if it decides to sue the United States over threatened nuclear program sanctions. Iran's Press TV reported Tuesday that Francis Boyle, an international law expert, is urging Iranian leaders to sue Israel and the United States through the International Court of Justice in The Hague over their ultimatum that Iran freeze its nuclear enrichment program in a matter of weeks or face further sanctions.
A jirga comprising 
A hardline Somali Islamist accused of ties to Al-Qaeda claimed leadership of the country's fractured opposition on Tuesday, highlighting a bitter power struggle within the movement. 
has said something that should stop Pakistan's numberless and mindless "conspiracy" theorists from spreading the word that 9/11 was done by the Jews. Speaking to a Pakistani TV channel, Sheikh Saeed stated that the 9/11 attack on the US was carried out by 19 men of Al Qaeda and that Pakistan did a dastardly thing by handing over the "courageous" 
(SomaliNet) A Kenyan maritime official said Tuesday that Somlai pirates have seized a Japanese-owned vessel transporting lead and zinc off the Somali coast. Andrew Mwangura of the Kenyan chapter of the Seafarers Assistance Programme said the Panama-flagged MV Stella Maris was seized on Sunday near Calula, a port town in Somalia's breakaway northern region of Puntland. 
British forces killed a Taliban leader, while another Taliban commander in the southern Afghanistan surrendered to the Pakistani authorities, the British Defence Ministry said on Tuesday. 
U.S. presidential contender Barack Obama arrived in Israel Tuesday night, facing a full schedule of meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders after pledging to work for peace as soon as he takes office. 
