Jimmy Carter: Hey, Now That My Grandson is Running for Congress in a Distirct That Has a Relatively Large Jewish Population, I Just Wanted To Say Sorry for All the Reflexive Anti-Semitism and Jew-Baiting I've Done for the Past 60 Years
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Question the source. When was the last time Jimmuh Kahtuh told the truth?
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/24/2009 21:23
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I feel so much better about him now that he has issued such a sincere apology. In the same vein, I would be honored to recite the Mourner's Kaddish for him when the day comes.
But there's one common Christmas practice not on the First Family's schedule: a visit to Christmas Eve church services. Church, in fact, has been a surprisingly tough issue for the Obamas. They resigned their membership with Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago in 2008 after Obama renounced the church's controversial former pastor, Jeremiah Wright. And while the First Family intended to find a local church to attend when they moved to Washington, concerns about crowds and displacing regular worshippers has prevented them from finding a new religious home during their first year here.
When Saul of Tarsus set out on his journey to Damascus the whole of the known world lay in bondage. . . . Then, of a sudden, there was a light in the world, and a man from Galilee saying, Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's.
And the voice from Galilee, which would defy Caesar, offered a new Kingdom in which each man could walk upright and bow to none but his God. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. And he sent this gospel of the Kingdom of Man into the uttermost ends of the earth.
So the light came into the world and the men who lived in darkness were afraid, and they tried to lower a curtain so that man would still believe salvation lay with the leaders.
But it came to pass for a while in divers places that the truth did set man free, although the men of darkness were offended and they tried to put out the light. The voice said, Haste ye. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness come upon you, for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. . . . Published December 24, 1949, and every year since.
Posted by: Mike ||
12/24/2009
13:04 ||
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#1
Thank you. It's been too long since I read this.
Vermont Royster was an fellow alumnus of my tiny private high school in Tennessee (link) - a fact which was mentioned to us early and often. Otherwise I probably never would have heard of him since I'm not a WSJ reader.
An Israeli father of seven was shot dead in an apparent terror attack in the West Bank on Thursday afternoon, while driving along Route 57, between the northern West Bank settlements of Shavei Shomron and Einav.
Rabbi Meir Chai, 40, lived in Shavei Shomron for the last 14 years, and teaches at the Talmud Torah School. His seven children range from two months-old to 18 year-old. That what happens when you remove checkpoints---to "ease the lives of Palestinians". Which it does---since Palestinians live to kill Jews.
And no snark, please; especially on the need to pray for the president. We should also pray for our other politicians as well.
For all the children who should be loved always, but especially on this wondrous night, with our arms around them and a long good-night kiss on the temple, a kiss more precious than anything wrapped in a box.
For all the parents who linger in the doorways of the bedrooms, watching those sleeping shapes.
For all the babies who aren't loved enough, and may grow up with a hard crust around their hearts because someone neglected to plant those kisses and give those hugs.
For every couple who adopts a child and saves a life. For those who've tried to have children, but can't. For those who've lost their children, and for the children who've lost their moms and dads.
And for the crazy uncles who will drink too much tonight, and tell wacky jokes and put on the red suit and dance outside in the cold, before sneaking in to surprise the laughing kids. For those wise aunts who make sure the coffee is strong, so the crazy uncles can sober up.
For all the men and women and children of all the choirs of the world. They've been practicing for months, gathering on weeknights in empty churches, so that on this night they may carry us with their harmonies.
And for their voices that gently invite us to humble ourselves, so we can ask for help and begin scraping away any bitterness that has taken root.
For the friends, relatives and neighbors who haven't waited for one night to build what is important. All year they've been building it. They show up on a Thursday afternoon in June or some cool morning in November, just to see if you're OK.
So tonight is theirs and tomorrow, too, because they are family, by friendship or by blood, by the acts of family.
For those who are far away and can't make it home this year. And for those who've been distant in so many other ways, worrying they've been gone too long, wondering if it's too late. But because of this night, we're given new hope.
The door is always open.
Just reach for it and see.
For those who keep their sense of humor and count to 10, and for those of us who only make it to 7, and wish we'd kept counting.
For everyone who has made bad choices, but acknowledges what's been broken. Tonight is the night to begin again.
For the old guys at the end of the bar, nursing their drinks, half-watching the TV and grateful there is a warm place to sit and hear laughter.
And for the old women alone in their rooms, awake in bed, remembering these nights past and the laughter of children, nights when it wasn't so still, when there was so much to do and a houseful of hungry guests to feed.
For all the young moms who are stressed and overwhelmed, with the kids and the bills and the shopping. For the dads and moms who've been out of work and need a job.
And for everyone on the night shift tonight, and those who work tomorrow. For the families of our police officers, firefighters and paramedics working tonight, and for the police and firefighters and paramedics themselves, who run into danger to help us.
For everyone in the hospitals praying for dignity and relief without shame or suffering. For the doctors who care for them. For the nurses who enter the room and pull up a chair, listening to quiet confessions.
For the clergy who have struggled with belief, yet find it again, and are renewed.
And for every sailor on every ship tonight, especially those standing watch on the bridge, looking out into cold black water, remembering brightly lit rooms.
For our young president and our leaders. For members of the U.S. armed forces who protect us with their bodies and their lives. For the members of the intelligence services and Foreign Service who put themselves at risk for us. And for their parents and loved ones who wait for them.
For our great nation that faces difficult days ahead.
To those of you whom I've offended with my thoughtless and clumsy words and shrill tone on bad days. I'm sorry.
And to those of you who've given this column a chance for more than 10 years now, visiting with me four mornings a week, and those of you who write or call or send an e-mail. My wife and I can't ever properly express our thanks. But we do thank you, again.
For everyone who has kept hold of what is important about this special night. It is the message brought by that perfect child born in a manger in Bethlehem, who came to light the world.
He is the gift.
It is all about love.
And I hope that it comes to you, and comforts you, and remains.
From my wife, Betty, and our boys, from my mother and my brothers and their wives and children, from all of us to all of you and yours.
VENEZUELA President Hugo Chavez threatened today to expropriate Toyota's local assembly plant if it did not produce an adequate number of vehicles designed for rural areas.
Socia1ists always need an enemy. If they don't have one they invent one ...
Mr Chavez said his socialist government was going to apply strict quotas regarding the number and types of vehicles firms could produce. He ordered an immediate inspection of Toyota's facilities to see how many "rustic vehicles" they were currently producing.
"They'll have to fulfil (the quotas), and if not, they can get out," said Mr Chavez during a televised address. "We'll bring in another company."
He said if the inspection showed Toyota was not producing what he thought it should, the government might consider taking over the facilities and have Chinese companies operate it.
"We'll take, we'll expropriate it, we'll pay them what it's worth and immediately call on the Chinese," Mr Chavez said. Chinese firms, he said, were willing to make vehicles made for the countryside.
Mr Chavez in recent years has nationalised dozens of foreign-owned companies and sometimes entire sectors of the economy, including cement firms, coffee companies and oil services firms. It's all part of his effort to move Venezuela toward "21st Century Socialism".
Toyota's assembly plant in Venezuela has more than 2000 workers, and has been in this South American nation for more than 50 years.
Attempts to reach Toyota's local office were not successful.
Venezuela's auto sector is in tatters amid constantly recurring labour problems which has led to a lack of productivity from workers. Analysts say many auto workers hope their company is nationalised so they can become de facto government workers and enjoy the extra job security that comes with it.
Are you listening, America?
As a result of low productivity, demand for automobiles far outstrips supply in Venezuela. Demand is also enhanced by subsidised petrol in this oil-rich nation that makes a nearly four litres of petrol cost about US7 cents.
Eduardo Blanco, who manages a Toyota dealership in the Los Palos Grandes neighbourhood of Caracas, said last week that he has a waiting list for vehicles that's 600 people deep, and that only a half a dozen cars arrive at his lot each month.
#1
Analysts say many auto workers hope their company is nationalised so they can become de facto government workers and enjoy the extra job security that comes with it.
they should talk to the former pdvsa workers about how well it's worked turning over big sectors of their industry to the chinese and iranians.
Adam, 52, keeps his three wives in different towns to stop them from squabbling, but the white-bearded Chechen adds that he might soon take a fourth. Chechnya is Muslim, so this is our right as men. They [the wives] spend time together but do not always see eye to eye, said the soft-spoken pensioner, who only gave his first name.
Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov is vying with insurgents for authority in a land ravaged by two secessionist wars with Moscow. Each side is claiming Islam as its flag of legitimacy, each reviles the other as criminal and blasphemous. Wary of the dangers of separatism in a vast country, Moscow watches uneasily as central power yields to Islamic tenets. It must chose what it might see as the lesser of two evils. Though polygamy is illegal in Russia, Chechnya encourages the practice, arguing that it is allowed by sharia law and the Quran, Islams holiest book.
By Russian law, Adam is only married to his first wife of 28 years, Zoya, the plump, blue-eyed mother of his three children, with whom he shares a home on the outskirts of Grozny. His marriages to the other two squirreled away in villages nearby were carried out in elaborate celebrations and are recognized by Chechen authorities.
The head of Chechnyas Center for Spiritual-Moral Education, Vakha Khashkanov, set up by Kadyrov a year ago, said Islam should take priority over laws of the Russian Constitution. If it is allowed in Islam, it is not up for discussion, he said in an interview near Europes largest mosque, which glistens in central Grozny atop the grounds where the Communist Party had its headquarters before the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. As long as you can feed your wives and theres equality among them, then polygamy is allowed in Chechnya, he said.
Political analysts say that in exchange for successfully hunting out Islamist fighters, the Kremlin turns a blind eye to Kadyrovs Muslim-inspired rules. Kadyrov, like most of his regions 1 million people, is Sufi, a mystical branch of Islam that places a greater focus on prayer and recitation.
Today, Groznys cafes hold men sipping smuggled beer out of teacups as alcohol has been all but banned, single-sex schools and gyms are becoming the norm and women must cover their heads in government buildings. Clad in a tight hijab, Asya Malsagova, who advises Kadyrov on human rights issues and heads a state council dealing with the rights of Chechen prisoners, said in an interview: We believe every woman should have a choice but we prefer she covers up.
Against the backdrop of a bubbling Islamist insurgency, Islams revival has also brought violence against those who do not live by sharia law in the North Caucasus a region that the Kremlin has described as its biggest political domestic problem. Islamist militants, who label Kadyrov and other regional bosses as infidels for siding with Moscow, have been behind attacks on women that they say worked as prostitutes in Dagestan and murders of alcohol sellers in Ingushetia. In Chechnya and Ingushetia, rebel fighters who regularly carry out armed attacks on police are celebrated as martyrs by Islamist news sites with links to the insurgency.
Dirt roads lead the way to Chechnyas first camel farm, about 55 kilometers northwest of Grozny, where 46 of the two-humped creatures munch on salt and grass while they are groomed to be gifts for dowries and religious holidays. Considered holy animals in Islam, they sell for 58,000 rubles ($1,900) each, said Umar Guchigov, director of the farm, which opened just over a year ago under Kadyrovs command. Plans are in place to build three more in Chechnya. So many people, simple people, congratulated us for bringing back this ancient tradition, Guchigov said.
Animals are also being used to reintroduce Islam at Chechnyas round-the-clock Muslim television channel, where 60 young bearded men and headscarved women create childrens programs in large studios adorned with photos of Mecca. A bevy of bumble bees joyfully scream Salam Alaikum (Peace be with you) upon entering the studio of Ruslan Ismailov, who is making a full-length cartoon on high-tech Apple computers for the channel, which is called Put (The Way). The bees appeal to children, and they will teach them how to live properly by the Muslim faith, Ismailov said.
Set up two years ago by the state and broadcast to thousands across the North Caucasus, instantly becoming one of the top channels in the region, it also features programs for women on how to keep home and reading of the Quran throughout the night. Its no secret what Chechnya has been through, said the channels general director, Adam Shakhidov, sporting a ginger beard and traditional black velvet cap. Two wars, the Soviet Union and todays Muslim extremism its time to show the true beauty of Sufism and install the basis for sharia, he said.
If a major homegrown terrorist attack happens on U.S. soil in the coming years, 2009 will be looked at as the year when the warning signs were missed. According to the Rand Corporation, the U.S. has experienced 30 homegrown terrorism plots since 9/11. One-third of these occurred in 2009; a frightening spike that warrants more attention than it is currently being given by public officials.
The Obama Administration began its term by refusing to include terms like "radical Islam" as part of its lexicon. The Global War on Terrorism was alternatively called an "overseas contingency operation" or "a campaign against extremists who wish to do us harm."
The Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, described terrorism as a "man-caused disaster. When asked about not even mentioning the word "terrorism" in her first address to Congress, she said, "That is perhaps only a nuance, but it demonstrates that we want to move away from the politics of fear towards a policy of being prepared for all risks that can occur."
The homegrown terrorist activity this year has startled the Obama Administration, which now is forced to privately conclude that the radicalization of American-Muslims is increasing.
In today's 30-second news culture, shocking incidents such as these quickly fade away as the topic of coverage as other news develops. A summary of some of the biggest incidents this year is needed for the American people to understand how much activity took place:
* In May, authorities broke up a plot by four prison converts to bomb two synagogues in the Bronx and fire Stinger missiles at aircraft flying around the Air National Guard base in Newburgh , New York .
* On June 1, a Muslim convert shot up a military recruiting center in Arkansas, killing one soldier and wounding another. The attacker, Abdulhakim Muhammad, was previously jailed in Yemen for traveling on a fraudulent Somali passport. Robert Spencer of JihadWatch.org reported that a "well-placed source" informed him that he had gone to Yemen to try to study under a radical cleric named Yahya Hajoori.
* In July, seven Muslims were arrested in North Carolina for training with high-powered weapons in preparation to join a jihad overseas. The leader of the group, Daniel Patrick Boyd, had previously trained in guerilla camps in Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion and enlisted his two sons in his plans.
* In September, FBI and local law enforcement raided two apartments owned by Afghans in New York after the occupants were visited by Najibullah Zazi, a suspected terrorist who had traveled to an Al-Qaeda training camp last year. Nine backpacks and cell phones were confiscated, and Zazi was found to have purchased chemicals similar to those used in the 2005 London subway bombings, causing concern that the suspects were planning an attack styled after that operation.
* Also in September, FBI sting operations led to the arrest of two desiring to carry out acts of terror. A Jordanian named Michael Finton, an admirer of the "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh, was arrested for planning to set off car bombs outside of a courthouse in Illinois and a skyscraper in Texas . Hosam Maher Husein Smadi was arrested in Texas after trying to detonate a decoy car bomb underneath an office tower.
* In October, the FBI tried to arrest a radical imam in Detroit connected to a range of criminal activity. When they arrived at a warehouse to get Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah, he responded with gunfire, killing one of the FBI's dogs before he was shot and killed. Six of his associates were arrested. In the same month, Tarek Mehanna was arrested in Boston for planning to attack a shopping mall and assassinate two public officials.
* The next month, Nidal Malik Hassan carried out the horrific shooting at Fort Hood , killing 13 people. He is now known to have previously expressed his support for suicide bombers and to have communicated with Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical imam in Yemen who has acted as a recruiter for Al-Qaeda and praised Hassan's shooting. To this day, President Obama and senior officials have not publicly described the incident as terrorism.
* Most recently, five Americans were arrested in Pakistan on their way to link up with the Al-Qaeda and Taliban. They were arrested at the home of a member of the Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist group, who is the uncle to one of the suspects.
These are only some of the major incidents related to radical Islamic activity in the U.S. that occurred this year. A total of 14 Somali-Americans from Minnesota have been indicted for helping to recruit fellow members of their community to join the Al-Shabaab terrorist group fighting for control of Somalia . The case of Rifqa Bary received considerable attention, as did the honor killing in Arizona of a daughter by her father for being "too Westernized."
The Christian Action Network, where I serve as a national security researcher, released the "Homegrown Jihad" documentary in February about the isolated communities in the U.S. run by a radical Islamic group used as paramilitary training and recruitment centers. A new tape provided to me as part of CAN's investigation into the group called "Muslims of the Americas " shows female recruits of the organization receiving such training at their headquarters in New York called "Islamberg."
The media is failing to compile all these events and see the frightening increase that the Obama Administration is now admitting exists. When the problem is mentioned, the ideological component is not discussed or is misunderstood. On December 12, Kimberly Dozier reported on the Obama Administration's realization regarding the problem on CBS Evening News, but attributed the rise in homegrown terrorism to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan , saying they were "portrayed by the militants as America 's war on Islam."
Dozier also said that "Muslim community leaders here say young people are also being driven to extremes by post-9/11 anti-Muslim propaganda" and cited the Council on American-Islamic Relations as saying that civil rights complaints by Muslims have increased by ten percent in 2009, attempting to draw a connection between bigotry against Muslims and homegrown terrorism. If Dozier had done her research on her source, she would have found that the view of the War on Terror as a war on Islam that she says is causing the increase in homegrown terrorism is actually promoted by CAIR.
2009 should put to rest the idea that any homegrown terrorist plot is an isolated incident. The participants in these plots might not be operationally connected, but a political-religious ideology binds them together. The fight for the home front continues into 2010.
The United Nations (UN) has licensed the minting of gold bullion coins bearing its logo to provide a "public option" world savings currency. According to the Vancouver Examiner, Oro gold coins are hoped to contribute to making the UN better funded by 2015, with revenue rising by ten to 15 per cent. The coins are set to be produced in Europe and then distributed globally, with any licensee able to produce such bullion under contract.
Armand Dufour of the European Bank says that he welcomes the introduction of the gold coins. However, he goes on to add that there is a danger that if the US dollar weakens, there will be a strong move towards the Oro. In turn this could potentially drive the value of the coin up to a level where international governments will not allow it to be circulated.
UN coins were previously made purely for commemoration in the 1970s, but they hold no monetary value.
Can one or more of our R-burgers verify / debunk this one? I strongly encourage a critical view regarding this one.... Only found one source for this story, from the "World Gold Council", on their own website. Founded in 1987, the World Gold Council is an organisation formed and funded by the world's leading gold mining companies with the aim of stimulating and maximising the demand for, and holding of Gold. In other words, "Big Gold".
#2
The only Armand Dufour I could find, outside of versions of this story, is a fictional character in the 1999 novel, The Phantom of Manhattan, which is a sequel to the Andrew LLoyd Webber musical The Phantom of the Opera, not the book.
#3
Gold coins aren't really currency. They are gold bullion. For some reason people will pay a small premium for gold in coin form rather than in bar form. Although in Asia I recall bars are preferred.
Your tax dollars at work! Apparently the 1860's Plasma Cannon needs more, uh, refinement.
"...researchers accidentally blew a building apart... while testing a gun which acts like a Civil War cannon..."
Looks like the 'citizens watchdog group' that released this claim overstated their case.
NNSA is forbidden from conducting live tests with nuclear explosions and therefore must design proxy experiments using other explosives to estimate the effects of detonations on new materials. One such experiment resulted in higher than expected damage. There are alternatives to such experiments: to withdraw from the nuclear test ban treaty - in which case unpleasant surprises are likely to be rather larger - or to continue with these materials effects proxy experiments, which being experiments sometimes generate unforseen results.
SANAA, Yemen -- Yemeni forces killed at least 30 suspected militants in an airstrike early Thursday on an alleged al-Qaeda hideout in southeastern Yemen, the second such assault in the past week, according to Yemeni security and government sources.
The strike appeared to target the home of Anwar al-Aulaqi, the extremist Yemeni American preacher linked to the suspected gunman in the Fort Hood Army base attack in November.
A Yemeni government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said al-Qaeda leaders were believed to be meeting at the house. It was unknown whether Aulaqi was present at the gathering, and, if so, whether he died or escaped, the official said.
Posted by: lord garth ||
12/24/2009
09:52 ||
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#1
Grain of salt. This is another "killed 30" report, and so is suspect. That is, a whole slew of different strike reports have all claimed to have "killed 30" enemy, all within the last few weeks, casting the information into doubt.
#2
BBC sez: AFP news agency quoted the security official as saying Saudis and Iranians had been at the suspected al-Qaeda meeting.
"We are still unsure if two of the top leaders have been killed or not," Reuters news agency quoted him as saying. "One of them is the Saudi al-Qaeda member Nasser al-Weheshi."
Another official told AFP that the suspected militants had been meeting to plan terror attacks in Yemen, in retaliation for Yemeni military air strikes carried out last week.
Posted by: ed ||
12/24/2009 15:06
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A man considered to be the country's most decorated soldier has died. Oak Crest Funeral Home in Waco, Texas, says retired Col. Robert Lewis Howard died Wednesday. He was 70. The funeral home obituary said that at the time of his death he was the most decorated American soldier.
Howard served in the Army from 1956 to 1992. He was nominated three times for the Medal of Honor, the nation's most prestigious award for combat veterans. He was awarded it once, for his bravery in Vietnam during a mission to rescue a missing soldier in enemy territory. He was wounded 14 times in Vietnam and was awarded eight Purple Hearts.
Howard will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery. No date has been set.
#2
Maybe OS can correct me if I'm wrong but is this the guy that road marched each new class at SFQ out to McCall and then marched the returning class back?
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
12/24/2009 18:10
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[AFP] - Nidal Hasan, the US soldier who killed 13 people at an attack on Fort Hood military base last month, sought advice about murdering US troops in 2008, a Yemeni imam told Al-Jazeera on Wednesday.
Hasan, a Muslim Army psychiatrist, faces 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder in connection with the November 5 shooting attack at the Texas military facility.
On Wednesday, Al-Jazeera's Arabic-language website published an interview with US-Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Aulaqi, who said he and Hasan communicated by email for over a year about the permissibility of killing US soldiers and Israeli civilians.
"The first message I received from Nidal was on 17 December 2008," Aulaqi told the interviewer, adding that Hasan initiated the email communication.
"He asked about killing American soldiers and officers and whether that was legitimate or not," Aulaqi said.
Links between the Muslim cleric and Hasan are already being investigated, but the interview reveals for the first time how long the two men knew each other and communicated, and also offers insight into how early Hasan was thinking about the possibility of attacking fellow servicemembers.
Aulaqi, a US-born preacher, said he met Hasan nine years earlier at the Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Washington, DC and the pair begin communicating after Aulaqi left the United States for Yemen.
"The first message was on the rules about a Muslim soldier who serves in the American army and kills his fellow (soldiers)," Aulaqi said.
"And in a group of his messages, Nidal explained his view on the killing of Israeli civilians, which he supported," he added.
Aulaqi denied having suggested the attack on Fort Hood, but said he supported Hasan's actions, adding that Hasan was motivated by long-standing grievances against the US military.
"The target that Nidal targeted was a military target inside the United States and not anything else," Aulaqi said.
"I didn't recruit Nidal Hasan and in fact America recruited him with its crimes and injustices and that is something that America does not want to recognize."
Hasan, who is paralyzed from the chest down after being shot by a police officer during the attack, is being held at the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio pending trial.
#1
Tell me Rantburg viewers, is there ANYONE out there who still believes the FBI's failure to recognize the Hasan threat were due to the oversight of a careless GG-13 intelligence analyst?
I suppose we could interview US-Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Aulaqi.......oh wait, his home was just targeted by a US air strike and he along with a couple dozen of his closest friends were killed?
Hopefully the Secretary of State will send a team to Sanaa to retrieve....boxes, e-mails, computers, personal gifts, etc. Local law enforcement, step out of the way, and no photos please.
#2
The idiocy begins at the top, where 50 years of evidence that, whether we're at war with Islam or not, Islam is at war against us is totally ignored. We've been paying a heavy price, and as long as the American stupidity continues, so will the price tag.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/24/2009 18:17
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A French government authority has warned a satellite broadcaster that carrying the Hamas TV channel violates French law.
The Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel (CSA), which regulates the electronic media in France, warned Eutelsat that al-Aksa TV violated the 1986 French media law that "prohibits all forms of incitement to hatred or violence on the ground of race, religion or nationality," according to a statement from the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, which lobbies for the removal of terrorist-run broadcasters from satellite providers.
"This is an important victory against terrorist media," said Mark Dubowitz, the foundation's executive director. "If Eutelsat complies with this warning and removes al-Aksa television from broadcast, as we hope that it will, it will deal a severe blow to Hamas's distribution efforts."
Not a victory until the prohibition is enforced and Eutelsat complies. Nonetheless, I didn't expect even this much from France.
#3
Yemeni authorities say government warplanes have attacked an al-Qaida leadership meeting in the country's east, killing at least 30 militants.
Officials say Yemen's air force>/b> carried out the raid Thursday in the eastern province of Shabwa. They say the militants were planning attacks on economic installations in Yemen.
#6
I forgot to engage the cynical button on the key board with the above posting....I did want to add that it would be awfully convenient to eliminate a possible key witness (al-Awlaki) that could expose more of the extensive radical exchanges between Hasan and al-Awlaki under the eyes of investigators. Maybe this was witness tampering at the highest order.
#8
#6 I forgot to engage the cynical button on the key board with the above postingwas witness tampering at the highest order. Posted by: HammerHead
Not "cynical" at all HammerHead, just a connecting of the dots.
Is there ANYONE out there who still believes the FBI's failure to recognize the Hasan threat was due to the oversight of a careless GG-13 intelligence analyst?
I suppose we could interview US-Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Aulaqi.......oh wait, his home was just targeted by a US air strike and he along with a couple dozen of his closest friends were killed?
Hopefully the Secretary of State will send a team to Sanaa to retrieve....boxes, e-mails, computers, personal gifts, etc. Local law enforcement, step out of the way, and no photos please.
#9
Besoeker...don't think anyone really believes that...the cogitation at DIA and the FBI must have been to be dismissive that a Maj. and Phd could be a threat. That is an intelligence failure, like 9/11...where no one imagined that a few guys with box cutters could pull off the attack of the century rivaling Dec 7th, 1941 in the loss of lives. After 9/11 Mueller sent out an edict that the "FBI must think outside the box." Doesn't seem that it sunk in.
#10
I must respectfully disagree Hammerhead. The amounts and frequency of USD this fellow was wiring to his middle east pals, along with his communications and lifestyle, would have rung bells up and down the US Intelligence chain of command. This one would have been too sweet, too cut and dried to ignore. For phuechs sake, the bastard held a security clearance! In fact, the monitoring of Hasan was being handled, not by the local FBI office Waco or their representative at Fort Hood's CID office, but by the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF). The significance and failures of 9/11 would have dictated that this receive top, high-level intelligence community monitoring and reporting. I'll never believe differently. The piece of human fecal matter was being monitored for his placement and access to AQ, and he blew up on those monitoring him.
#12
FYI: Excerpts of Hasan's emails to al-alwaki: :
Question: "What is your connection with Nidal Hasan, and when did it begin?"
Answer: "Nidal Hasan prayed at my mosque when I was imam at the Dar Al-Hijra mosque."
Q: "When was your first meeting?"
A: "About nine years ago, when I was imam of the Dar Al-Hijra mosque in the capital Washington, a mosque which is one of the biggest Islamic centers in America."
Q: "[There are] reports that there was more than that."
A: "Brother Nidal used to contact me via email last year, until the middle of this year."
Q: "When did the correspondence with Nidal begin?"
A: "I got the first message from Nidal on December 17, 2008."
Q: "Who initiated the correspondence, you or him?"
A: "He initiated the correspondence with me."
Q: "What did the correspondence contain?"
A: "He was asking about killing American soldiers and officers. [He asked] whether this is a religiously legitimate act or not."
Q: "So he asked you that question about a year before the operation was carried out?"
A: "Yes. And I wondered how the American security agencies, who claim to be able to read car license plate numbers from space, everywhere in the world, I wondered how [they did not reveal this]."
Q: "What did Nidal want from you in his messages?"
A: "Naturally, as I told you, the first message was asking for an edict regarding the [possibility] of a Muslim soldier killing his colleagues who serve with him in the American army. In other messages, Nidal was clarifying his position regarding the killing of Israeli civilians. He was in support of this, and in his messages he mentioned the religious justifications for targeting the Jews with missiles. Then there were some messages in which he asked for a way through which he could transfer some funds to us [and by this] participate in charitable activities."
Q: "There are other indications to your connections with Nidal, one of which is that you blessed what he did three days after he did it."
A: "My support to the operation was because the operation that brother Nidal carried out was a courageous one, and I endeavored to explain my position regarding what happened because many Islamic organizations and preachers in the West condemned the operation. So it was necessary for me [to raise] a voice that is [myself] connected to the Muslims in America and the West, while at the same time is independent and explains the truth regarding what Nidal did, especially since the media tried to connect him to me from the very beginning."
Q: "Why did you bless Nidal Hasan's act?"
A: "Because Nidal's target was a military target inside America, and there is no question about this. Then, also, those members of the military [i.e. the victims] were not regular soldiers; rather they were prepared and preparing themselves to go to battle and to kill downtrodden Muslims and to commit crimes in Afghanistan."....
#13
I guess the obvious question is...was the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) and US Intelligence monitoring this e-mail traffic and exchanges prior to November 4, 2009? If they in fact were, then we have a very, very real problem.
#16
Whether they were, or were not, we still have a very very real problem. Lots of carnage coming this way. It might just be the trigger that topples our corrupt government. Necessary, but a hard way to go. Sad that we have been reduced like this.
#18
For me, I'm glad he's dead and a merry Christmas to all those that suffered from his influence. If this strike was to cover their mistakes in DC we will know when the US strikes stop. This guy deserved to die a long long time ago, I for on see it as an early Christmas present.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
12/24/2009 18:01
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Whoa there! Yemen has aircraft and pilots that can hit a house/compound in most remote Yemen? At 0430?? Uh-huh. LOL!
The real question is: USAF, USN, CIA or an evil Zionist plot?
I dunno about all that. For starters we have a remote location, a time of day when very few civilians would be roaming about, a lot of dead miscreants with no harm to the good guys, i think maybe the RAB is setting up an airwing and were on a TAD/ TDY trip....
just a thought.
Granpaw and others, when you submit a site, please paste the link in the Source box. That ties it to the headline. Congratulations on your first (I think) Rantburg post -- a good choice! :-)
#1
Nice digs. Where does a community organizer get this kind of money? What's the place in Chicago worth? Bill Ayers home doesn't appear too shabby either.
A Chinese court sentenced five more people to death for their part in bloody ethnic rioting earlier this year in Urumqi, the capital of far western Xinjiang region, a local government spokeswoman said on Thursday. The new trial, which was not reported in national Chinese media, brings the number of death sentences for the rioting to at least 22, of which at least nine have already been carried out.
"Altogether 22 defendants in five cases went on trial on December 22 and December 23," Hou Hanmin, director of the Xinjiang Government Information Office, told Reuters by phone. Hou would not specify the charges, which she said were published in Xinjiang newspapers. The Internet has been blocked in Xinjiang since July, and local newspaper websites cannot be accessed from outside the region.
The intermediate court in Urumqi sentenced another five people to death with a two-year suspension, which is usually commuted to a life sentence, and jailed another eight for life, according to a statement faxed by the spokeswoman. Judging from the names, the ten sentenced to death or the suspended death sentence are all be Uighurs, a Muslim, Turkic-speaking people native to Xinjiang. The statement said the court was shown ample evidence in the open trials, and that more similar trials would follow.
Energy: An oil company wants to invest its profits in clean-burning American natural gas. A Hungarian billionaire and a "green" politician want to stop it. This is the real Climate-gate scandal.
While the greenies of the world united in Copenhagen to talk about the weather, emitting a Third World-country-size chunk of greenhouse gases to gather there, the world's largest oil company, Exxon Mobil, was doing something about it.
On Dec. 14, Exxon agreed to buy XTO Energy, a natural gas firm, in a deal valued at $41 billion. XTO is one of the leaders in something called "fracking" technology, in which water, sand and additives are pumped into the ground to unlock trillions of feet of natural gas previously thought to be unobtainable.
This is what energy companies really do with their profits. They find more energy, then sell it to you.
While the technique is not new, the technology exploiting it is.
XTO has helped develop new technologies that let it drill a single well 9,000 feet and then bore horizontally through shale formations to unlock the natural gas trapped in the porous rock. The rock is fractured and the gas is pushed into accessible pockets whence it can be extracted with a minimal surface footprint.
Because of these new technologies, it is estimated that the U.S. sits on 83% more recoverable natural gas than was thought in 1990.
The Barnett Shale rock formations of Texas and Louisiana, the Bakken Shale formation in Montana and North Dakota, and the Marcellus Shale formation running through New York and Pennsylvania and other states may hold as much as 2,000 trillion cubic feet of this clean-burning, domestically produced fuel.
We are the Saudi Arabia of shale.
At current use, we have an estimated 90-year supply, if we are allowed to get at it.
Slam dunk? Hardly. Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., one of the sponsors of the job- and economy-killing Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill and no fan of domestic energy, wants to hold hearings on the alleged environmental dangers of the new technology.
Soros owns a major stake in a company called InterOil, a company that has discovered a large natural gas field in Papua, New Guinea, with which American shale resources would compete.
Soros would rather have us import his liquefied natural gas than develop our own. His allies in the media, the environmental movement and the Democratic caucus are all too eager to exploit public fears to do it.
Roger Willis owns a hydraulic fracturing company in the Pennsylvania town of Meadville. He says thousands of frack jobs have been done in rock formations above and below the Marcellus Shale in New York state with no aquifer damage.
"This 60-year-old technique has been responsible for 7 billion barrels of oil and 600 trillion cubic feet of natural gas," according to Sen. James Inhofe, ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Committee. "In hydraulic fracturing's 60-year history, there has not been a single documented case of contamination."
Whether some are trying to hide the decline in global temperatures or the abundance of clean-burning domestic natural gas, it's a scandal. If we're serious about both carbon emissions and energy independence, let's stop this nonsense and get the fracking gas.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2009
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has not been a single documented case of contamination."
I don't believe that statement. If it is actually true, then the truth lies in the 'documented' modifier - perhaps cases have been settled without admission of guilt somehow.
I do know we work very hard to avoid contamination, whether due to fracking or other processes, and I do know that contamination does sometimes happen anyway. Still, it's rare, and (especially with gas) not all that big a disaster.
(We had an underground blowout offshore of Mobile some years ago and charged a shallow sand (possibly connected with an aquifer) with a lot of natural gas; we then drilled a bunch of wells into that shallow sand and produced the gas before it could get to any water wells.)
The oil industry has been more forthcoming with information than either the EPA or the climate goons.
The goons essentially shut down a major oil field off Santa Barbara claiming oil spills, pointing at the blobs of tar washing up on Santa Barbara beaches...it worked. The stinker is that the local Native American tribes used tar to caulk their canoes HUNDREDS of years before drilling began, the tar is reduced oil that has seeped out of the fractured strata underwater (the oil is very very shallow and the rock is busted up because of EARTHQUAKES). We have methane leaking out of the ground in West LA and sidewalks catch on fire.
It is interesting that Yahoo reprinted an article about the ten cities with the best drinking water and four of them are in Texas and two of them are in areas with lots of drilling. They've been using Fracking, steam and high pressure water to wring oil out of the local chalk and limestone strata in west and central Texas for over sixty years...how can you have clean drinking water if this technique is a pollutant.
Some people just want to obstruct and bash. The Oil companies spend more money on exploration and technology as a percentage of their gross revenue than any industry out there...and their profits, in the eight percent range, are lower than you neighborhood mechanic.
Posted by: Karl Rove ||
12/24/2009 12:43
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#3
Soros is looking after self-interests (another way of saying bottom-feeder"). He had never had the best interests of the U.S. at heart.
As an aside what does "contamination" mean in this article? What are the implications?
#6
I think contamination, according to the environazis, means making a profit, living in a house rather than a cave, having in door plumbing and driving a car...how do they reconcile the supposed environmental damage that bovine and equine flatulence has on the ozone layer with their implied advocacy of "natural" means of transportation...won't that make the animal rights groups angry? Okay let's be vegans...but eating lentils and beans will make you very...uh...gassy...so what does humanoid flatulence do to the ozone layer.
See its a never ending shell game. Solve one environmental complaint and another group spins it in another direction...conflicting goals, standards and vision. Let's see, we can't use fossil fuels, but nuclear is off the table, we can't drive cars but we can't ride horseback since we are either exploiting Mr. Ed or he's damaging the ozone layer. If we eat meat we are barbarians, if we are vegans we die of protein depletion and malnutrition...and we damage the ozone layer. So we live in caves, since we can't cut down trees to build homes..makes the tree people angry...and since we live in caves, we can't go to Los Angeles or even to Pomona to work so we disintegrate into a bunch of cave dwelling hunter gatherers again...wait did you say "hunters"?
These clowns are communists, damage the system, destroy the system...start a big brother approach to government and then screw the environmentalists as "useful idiots".
I just love the left, they are so self righteous and so self satisfying. They ask us to make sacrifices to save the environment...so they can go to conferences and make a small group of their financiers rich. We wind up living in hovels and they go to Copenhagen and eat caviar...don't tell PETA where caviar comes from
Posted by: Karl Rove ||
12/24/2009 16:14
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A retired Florida couple would appear an unlikely source to have given $83,000 in campaign donations over a five-year period to members of Congress from all over the country.
Both in their 80s, they lived in a $118,000 Daytona Beach house they didn't own; they each voted only twice since 1992; and they seemed to lack the financial means to make the contributions.
Yet, both were listed as having given dozens of donations to lawmakers, nearly half of which went to members of the House Appropriations Committee - legislators who were especially important to their then-son-in-law, superlobbyist Paul Magliocchetti, who owned the house in which they lived.
Mr. Magliocchetti is now the focus of a federal investigation into whether he made illegal campaign contributions by reimbursing people, or "straw donors," who made contributions in their names to his favored candidates - helping the lobbyist avoid federal limits on his personal donations.
In addition to the elderly couple, The Washington Times has identified several other campaign contributors related to or associated with Mr. Magliocchetti who also do not appear to have had the financial means to make the donations listed in their names or who gave to candidates to whom they normally would not be expected to contribute.
Mr. Magliocchetti is a one-time congressional staffer who worked with Rep. John P. Murtha, Pennsylvania Democrat, on the powerful House Appropriations defense subcommittee in the 1980s. He built his company, the PMA Group, into one of the 10 top-grossing lobbying firms in Washington before it imploded after federal agents raided it and his home in November 2008.
The firm made more than $16.4 million in lobbying income in 2007, according to Senate records, and was the go-to lobbyist for contractors who wanted earmarks - especially from the defense appropriations subcommittee, which Mr. Murtha heads.
Earmarks are taxpayer funds that lawmakers specifically set aside for favored contractors and projects in annual spending bills. For 2008, PMA obtained $300 million in defense appropriations earmarks for its clients, according to an analysis by Congressional Quarterly and Taxpayers for Common Sense, a watchdog group.
A review by The Times of federal campaign-disclosure records shows that Mr. Magliocchetti returned the favor to his friends in Congress by serving as a major campaign donor and fundraiser.
As a group, Mr. Magliocchetti, his family, his employees and his business associates were among the largest donors to key members of the defense subcommittee - including Mr. Murtha and Democratic Reps. James P. Moran of Virginia and Peter J. Visclosky of Indiana, pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into their coffers. All three members have denied any wrongdoing.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2009
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Lebanese authorities have arrested a man suspected of opening fire on a Syrian bus in Lebanon this week and killing a 17-year-old passenger, an army officer said late on Tuesday.
The man had "confessed under interrogation that he had personal motivations" for Monday's attack, an army spokesman told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Investigators were looking into the suspect's nationality and background, he said, adding he doubted the shooting was "a terrorist act."
The bus carrying Syrian laborers was shot at as it travelled near an army checkpoint along the main highway between Syria and northern Lebanon. A 17-year-old laborer died and three other people were wounded by glass.
The attack came a day after Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri ended a fence-mending visit to Damascus, his first trip to Syria since the 2005 assassination of his father, ex-prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri.
Saad Hariri and his U.S.-backed allies in Beirut blamed the killing on Syria, which has consistently denied any involvement. The killing prompted the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon after a 29-year presence.
His bloc also rode to victory on an anti-Syrian platform after his father's assassination in 2005.
Hariri was appointed premier in June after his Western-backed bloc defeated a Hezbollah-led alliance backed by Syria and Iran in a general election.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2009
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[Al Arabiya Latest] A German mediator gave Hamas on Wednesday Israel's response to a proposed swap freeing hundreds of jailed Palestinians for a captured soldier, and the Islamist group said it would need days to review the new draft.
"The German mediator gave the Israeli proposal to the Hamas movement today during a morning meeting," Taher al-Nunu, a spokesman for the Hamas-run government, told AFP.
"Hamas is studying this proposal at all levels and when it has a response it will contact the mediator," who has left Gaza, he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2009
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[Straits Times] Mauritanian gendarmes on Monday arrested a Mali national for alleged involvement in the abduction of an Italian couple last week near the Malian border, local and international press reported on Tuesday (December 22nd). According to Nouakchott daily ANI, suspect Abderrahmane Ben Meddou confessed that in return for the promise of a large pay-off, he provided information to al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb about the movement of the Italians. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the kidnappings.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2009
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We have crossed wires here- the "M(alay)sia Govt. Under Fire" story is about the stolen F5 engines.
[Iran Press TV Latest] US military firm "Raytheon" has signed a 1.1 billion-dollar contract with Taiwan to upgrade the Island's Patriot missile systems amid China's outcry. Taiwan's defense ministry has said the contract includes short-range ballistic and cruise missiles.
Negotiations on the contract began in 2007, when the Pentagon announced that it would allow Taiwan to upgrade its missile systems. Raytheon has provided Taiwan with advanced military technology and support for more than 40 years.
China has criticized the deal, saying it is in violation of US's commitment to reduce weapons delivery to Taiwan.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Non-gov't private sector jobs in the making here by a US contractor? Barry will see that this is quashed after the New Year.
It was probably a whistleblower that released files from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia (UEA)? If so then the information is admissible in court and we will get greater detail on the greatest deception in history.
Phil Jones, former Director of the CRU knew the potential damage and legal implications of the file's content. Jones told the police the files were from CRU, and claimed a crime was committed. Ludicrously, he said the information had no value because it was criminally obtained.
Why an Insider?
Major clues suggest the leaks were from an insider. A few emails were sent to a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reporter Paul Hudson on October 12, weeks before full release. This indicates someone trying to draw attention, but Hudson did nothing. He knew of the wrath and reach of Michael Mann. As a CRU member noted on October 26 2003, Anyway, there's going to be a lot of noise on this one, and knowing Mann's very thin skin I am afraid he will react strongly, unless he has learned (as I hope he has) from the past...." He didn't as his later reactions showed.
An October 11 2009 email from Narasimha Rao to Stephen Schneider says, "You may be aware of this already. Paul Hudson, BBC's reporter on climate change, on Friday wrote that there's been no warming since 1998, and that pacific oscillations will force cooling for the next 20-30 years." Mann became aware and on the 12th wrote, "extremely disappointing to see something like this appear on BBC. Its (sic) particularly odd, since climate is usually Richard Black's beat at BBC (and he does a great job). From what I can tell, this guy was formerly a weather person at the Met Office. We may do something about this on RealClimate, but meanwhile it might be appropriate for the Met Office to have a say about this, I might ask Richard Black what's up here?" This is Mann at his nasty bullying best.
When Hudson did nothing the person(s) released the entire file to the world. Hudson's failure was disappointing because he had credibility as a BBC weather presenter and former Met Office employee. The Copenhagen conference was probably the concern because the files showed the scientific basis for climate policies was falsified.
Knowledge and Access to the University Computer System
Whoever released the files knew which were significant and had access to the UEA computer system.
Canadian network engineer Lance Levsen after detailed analysis showed convincingly the source was someone within the university. He concluded, "For the hacker to have collected all of this information s/he would have required extraordinary capabilities...to crack an Administrative file server to get to the emails and crack numerous workstations, desktops, and servers to get the documents."
Strong Candidate
There are several internal candidates including Keith Briffa. Emails show his conflicts within the group. On October 5th 2009 Wigley wrote to Jones, It is distressing to read that American Stinker item. But Keith does seem to have got himself into a mess. As I pointed out in emails, Yamal is insignificant.......I presume they went thru papers to see if Yamal was cited, a pretty foolproof method if you ask me. Perhaps these things can be explained clearly and concisely--but I am not sure Keith is able to do this as he is too close to the issue and probably quite pissed of (sic). I think Keith needs to be very, very careful in how he handles this. I'd be willing to check over anything he puts together. Jones forwarded the email to Briffa.
Briffa's dislike of Mann goes back a long way. On 17th June 2002 Briffa wrote to Dr Edward Cook about a letter involving Esper and Michael Mann, "I have just read this lettter - and I think it is crap. I am sick to death of Mann stating his reconstruction represents the tropical area just because it contains a few (poorly temperature representative) tropical series. He is just as capable of regressing these data again any other "target" series, such as the increasing trend of self-opinionated verbage (sic) he has produced over the last few years, and ... (better say no more)"Cook responds; "We both know the probable flaws in Mike's recon (reconstruction), particularly as it relates to the tropical stuff.... It is puzzling to me that a guy as bright as Mike would be so unwilling to evaluate his own work a bit more objectively."
On 22nd September 1999 Briffa again confronted Mann in a long email that included the comment, "I believe that the recent warmth was probably matched about 1000 years ago." Treasonous words for Mann's hockey stick paper that claimed no medieval warm period existed. Mann appeared to back off. He wrote, "Walked into this hornet's nest this morning! Keith and Phil have both raised some very good points." In reality he puts Briffa down again. "SO(sic) I think we're in the position to say/resolve somewhat more than, frankly, than Keith does, about the temperature history of the past millennium. And the issues I've spelled out all have to be dealt with in the chapter." One cynical comment from Mann says, "And I certainly don't want to abuse my lead authorship by advocating my own work." It's a classic example of Mann's dishonesty, because he abused it in the IPCC 2001 Science Report and Summary for Policy Makers.
Wigley didn't help. Here is the first part of a belittling email from Wigley to Briffa on 10 January 2006. Thanx for this. Interesting. However, I do not think your response is very good. Further, there are grammatical and text errors, and (shocking!!) you have spelled McKitrick wrong. This is a sure way to piss them off. Typical of Wigley's patronizing way of talking to wayward CRU members.
Conflict continued as Briffa expressed his concern. Mann made some overtures, but on April 29th 2007 Briffa responded, "I found myself questioning the whole process and being often frustrated at the formulaic way things had to be done--often wasting time and going down dead ends. I really thank you for taking the time to say these kind words. I tried hard to balance the needs of the science and the IPCC, which were not always the same." What damning commentary about what the CRU and the IPCC were doing?
Briffa may have worked with the Information Officer at the University who was under pressure for Freedom of Information (FOI) requests. In September we learned Briffa was ill. Did this give him time to think about what was happening? Maybe, but his treatment by Mann and the sinking ship was an impetus. Whatever the answer any reading of the emails show they were anything but normal correspondence between colleagues.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2009
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I've heard elsewhere that Briffa was the leaker. Briffa may not be a very good scientist, but he does appear to be an honest scientist.
#2
Science is irrelevant, what's important is serving The Cause. The Cause requires global warming as a justification to impoverish the West and squander the money on third world dictators.
#3
The bigger issue is the arrogance of science and the arrogance of those who believe that man is all powerful and in control. The same logic that goes into denial of the existence of a higher power go into this nonsense that man can have a significant impact on the climate.
The climate change guys have blamed cow flatulence, dog poop and lawnmowers for global warming. Now we find out they have "queered" the numbers with some very questionable weighting of data and adding and subtracting of mean temperatures from the bottom and top of the scale.
Whether you believe in creation or evolution, the fact remains that the earth has gone through a number of cycles of warming and cooling over its history, many of them well before man was in significant numbers.
That volcano in the Philipines, when it blows, will spew more carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, particulates and crap into the atmosphere than every coal fire, automobile, lawnmower or cow fart since the history of man.
You can shut down every factory, every power plant and take every car off the road and ban fossil fuels and the climate will still change one way or another, up or down.
Everyone of the serious computer models that address climate change shows that the end result of a warming cycle is an ice age. You melt enough ice cap, the ocean currents (which are convection currents) will cease to work and the open oceans at the poles will pump huge quantities of water into the atmosphere, that combination, leads to a global cooling cycle and an ice age.
I think whoever did this should get ALL of the Nobel prizes...even literature and economics because the end result is that all of this climate change crap will be wars and famine and vast starvations of huge quantities of people...as well as the end of civilization as we know it because the industrialized state cannot sustain itself under the caps that these crazy treaties will impose, well not if you consider nuclear power...but wait isn't nuclear power off the table here in the US?
Posted by: Karl Rove ||
12/24/2009 12:30
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#4
So can we suggest that Al Gore's trinket be taken away and given to the whistleblower?
[Iran Press TV Latest] An Afghan civilian has been killed and another wounded in Western Afghanistan after Spanish troops fired at them, the Spanish military confirmed.
The Spanish defense ministry said the troops opened fire on the two Afghans near Herat Province on Wednesday.
The ministry claimed that its soldiers believed the Afghans wanted to attack their convoy when they did not stop their motorcycle after the first and second warning shots.
It added that Spanish troops followed all the rules of engagement set out by NATO for dealing with such situations.
More than 1,200 Spanish troops are currently serving with NATO-led forces in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2009
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#1
A surprisingly fair report of the incident, especially considering the source.
You'd think that after 8 years of war the Afghans would have figured out that warning shots from Western troops are something you should stop for, but I guess they're slow learners.
#2
Glenmore, there are differences between being unable to learn, unwilling to learn, and refusing to learn. By the time this little war is over, the majority of those that either are unwilling to learn or refuse to learn won't be around to pass on their backwards genes. Consider it Darwin in action.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/24/2009 13:58
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Israel has threatened another massive war against the Gaza Strip as the impoverished enclave continues to suffer in the aftermath of the devastating January offensive.
Israeli planes have been dropping thousands of leaflets across Gaza, warning Palestinians against cooperating with the resistance fighters based in the coastal sliver.
The leaflets also threaten Gazans with a new attack just ahead of the first anniversary of Israel's 22-day onslaught against the Palestinian territory.
On December 2008, Tel Aviv launched an all-out military action against Gaza, killing 1,400 people, including a large number of women and children, killed and leaving thousands more injured.
The threats come despite the Israeli army's failure in its January operation to reach its strategic and military objectives -- above all its pledged overthrow of Israel's long-time arch foe, Hamas.
In July, the activist group Breaking the Silence released print and video testimony from some 30 soldiers who said they entered Gaza with firing guns upon a "permissive" guideline by commanders, urging to shoot first and worry later about distinguishing civilians from combatants.
The 112-page testimony also accused Israeli troops of using Palestinian civilians as human shields and charged Israel with dropping forbidden white phosphorus bombs indiscriminately into Gaza streets on the top of aerial bombardment and heavy artillery fire.
In April, former South African UN prosecutor Richard Goldstone led an independent fact-finding mission commissioned by the United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate international human rights and humanitarian law violations during the Gaza war.
The committee's 575-page report mostly highlighted Israeli atrocities against the people in the beleaguered Gaza Strip and documented deliberate targeting of centers, such as schools and mosques, known to be holding civilians.
The document also filed complaints that the Israeli soldiers killed unarmed people on the run, saying some of the victims were even waving white flags.
In October, the damning report was put up for a vote in the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council and endorsed by an overwhelming majority of 114 countries while 18 opposed and 44 abstained.
The three-week Israeli land, sea and air offensive in the Gaza Strip also devastated a large part of the infrastructure in the impoverished coastal enclave, which remains under Tel Aviv's blockade despite international opposition.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Where to begin.
Wars are a last resort. Its whiny stupid and silly to call wars "illegal". If they ARE illegal then go call a Cop. If you cant get a Cop to stop the war then quit making yourself look weak and whiny by saying something ridiculous. The LAST thing you want when you are IN a war is to look weak and whiny ( unless you LIKE bending over in the shower).
Do you like bending over ( Obama does)?
The Left likes to whine. They think being a "victim" is somehow Cool. You get more candy when you whine and are a "victim".? He hit me , Mommy?
Who raised these people? Bruce and Dwayne?
And saying the war killed 1,400 women and children..come on. Give me the names otherwise I am gonna think you are BS as well as whiny. You didnt say that, then? What DID you say? That War is bad..ESPECIALLY when nasty Jews kick goombah ass? You against Jews or kicking ass?
Kicking ass is always bad? yeah? I got news for you, Francis. Kicking ass is the VERY BEST way not to get your own ass kicked.
Look into it. My mother didnt rAISE ME TO BE A "VICTIM". I SEE ABSOLUTELY NO VALUE IN BEING A VICTIM...EVER!
That's exactly what the Euros and others intend to do via the ICC and the UN. Obama's executive order giving diplomatic privileges to INTERPOL is one step towards making that a full reality.
#4
Since we're going to be condemned whatever we do, lets exercise some financial prudence---lets just use cheap artillery instead of expensive aviation.
#5
Aircraft move fast, field guns move slow. (By comparison)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/24/2009 11:52
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ARCLIGHT sneaks in, leaves with a loud noise and shaking ground.
It is ALWAYS preferable to be feared rather than be treated with contempt. The entire Muddled East has nothing but contempt for the United States because we've fought this war with our hands tied. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
If Israel were to tell the rest of the world to go fornicate with a pack of Grizzlies and just STOMPED Gaza, things would change rapidly. Unfortunately, there are no Genghis Khan in today's world.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/24/2009 21:16
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#2
hot needles made by a competitor to ruin the street name of a brand. Sometimes bought, contaminated, and resold. Sometimes brewed and a payoff ensures it hits the streets as the competitors product.
#9
well along with free syringe disto, the UK progressives should establish a anthrax free heroine zone see we need to make self-destruction flawless and trouble free plus, why eliminate a consumer and hurt the Afghan economy?
#2
From the article:
The longer that debate drags, the further Obama drops in the polls, which is why this move only makes sense if the White House sees weeks more futility in the health-care overhaul debate. Even liberal commentators like the Seattle Times editorial board want Democrats to shelve ObamaCare and start paying attention to the fact that unemployment has spun out of control on their watch. Deficits are even more wild, as Obamas OMB Director Peter Orszag was forced to acknowledge when he admitted that he had underestimated deficits over the next ten years by 22%, or $2,200,000,000,000. <- Two trillion
At this rate, Zero's Zogby poll numbers will be 22% (as estimated by Augush) and the unemployment rate will be 14.7% not counting the discouraged workers who have dropped out of the job market.
Posted by: Angush Protector of the Poles2341 ||
12/24/2009 5:37
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#3
So you bust your ass to get it passed by Christmas and the Lord Protector can't get around to it until February? HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA....Stop you're killing me!
#4
This regime is atrocious. One of the things that has me concerned are the number of off-hand comments in various places that broach the subject of revolution.
Note: these are not fanatical militia types or anything other than normal people that mention in passing that the behavior of the Zero claque is such that revolution is not totally out of the picture. This is said in such an off-hand manner..............................
#7
I think that's it. I also think they believe that they can turn the PR situation around given some time.
Get past Christmas and the Super Bowl, they're thinking.
Get Bambi to do a real stemwinder at the State of the Union, they're thinking.
Let winter settle in and diminish the response of the Tea Party types, they're thinking.
Let fatigue set in amongst the protesters, they're thinking.
Let the whole thing look like a fait accompli, they're thinking.
Get Rahm in there to twist some recalcitrant arms and to shut Stupak up. Come up with some more weasel words on the abortion issue. Bribe a few representatives with public money -- if Senators can cash in, why not Congresscritters?
Distract the rubes with a new stimulus plan. Maybe get a terrorist trial going. Climate change didn't work and cap-n-tax is a no-go but they can come up with something else.
I bet that's Axelrod's plan.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/24/2009 12:41
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#8
There will be an election for a new Senator in January. This health care thing must be messing up the prospects of the democrat.
[Al Arabiya Latest] The United Nations Security Council slapped Wednesday an arms embargo on Eritrea and imposed targeted sanctions on its leaders for allegedly aiding Somali rebels and threatening neighboring Djibouti.
The 15-member body voted overwhelmingly to pass a Ugandan-drafted resolution to ban weapons sales to and from Eritrea and impose travel restrictions on, and freeze the assets of, the country's political and military leadership.
Libya, the lone Arab member of the council and the current chair of the pan-continental African Union (AU) bloc, is the only country that voted against the resolution.
The draft demands that Asmara "cease all efforts to destabilize or overthrow, directly or indirectly" the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) in Somalia.
It urges member states to conduct inspections on their territory, including seaports and airports, of "all cargo to and from Somalia and Eritrea" if there is reasonable grounds to believe it contains banned weapons or related material.
And it presses Eritrea to withdraw troops immediately from disputed territories along its frontier with Djibouti and engage in diplomatic efforts leading to "a mutually acceptable" settlement of their long-running border dispute.
The text further calls on all member states, in particular Eritrea, to stop "arming, training and equipping armed groups (including hardline Islamic militants in Somalia) that aim to destabilize the region or incite violence and civil strife in Djibouti."
It directs U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to report within 180 days on Asmara's compliance with the provisions of the resolution.
In a letter sent this month to Security Council chair and Burkina Faso counterpart Michel Kafando, Eritrea's U.N. ambassador Araya Desta urged all members, "to use their influence to ensure the rejection of this draft resolution in its entirety."
He accused Washington of being, "the main architect of this resolution," which he said, "has no factual or legal justifications.
"The U.N. Security Council cannot penalize Eritrea for its views simply because (Asmara) does not toe or conform to Washington's policy choices and preferences," Desta charged.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2009
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Top|| File under: al-Shabaab
#1
Smooth move, idiots. It's only about 10 years too late. Eritrea has been stirring every "armed conflict" in East Africa since its independence from Ethiopia, and it has long fingers in Yemen.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/24/2009 14:04
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A bomb explosion targeting Shia worshipers has left at least three people killed in Iraq, while four police officers have been killed in a shootout.
At least 3 people have lost their lives and 28 others sustained injuries, when an improvised explosive device (IED) was detonated in eastern Baghdad, targeting a number of Shia worshippers who were on their way to the city of Karbala to commemorate Ashura.
Ashura, which is on Sunday, marks the martyrdom anniversary of Imam Hussein, the Prophet Muhammad's grandson. Iraq has beefed up security measures in Karbala ahead of the event.
On April 14, 2007, a car bomb exploded about 200 meters (600 ft) away from Imam Hussein's shrine, killing 47 and wounding over 150.
Meanwhile, unidentified armed men attacked a police checkpoint in Karit region of Abu Ghraib district, western Baghdad, killing four police officers, the Voices of Iraq news agency reported.
The gunmen aboard a vehicle fled the scene after the fatal shootout.
Iraq has been witnessing violence-related incidents nearly on a daily basis since the US-led invasion of the oil-rich country in March 2003.
The ongoing sporadic attacks in the war-battered country have shaped a setback to the efforts of the central government in Baghdad to restore normalcy ahead of the country's general elections next year.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2009
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#1
I see it's Ashura bombing season again. "Peace on earth, goodwill toward men" is unislamic.
Posted by: ed ||
12/24/2009 15:14
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Venezuela imposed electricity rationing Tuesday, trying to avert widespread blackouts in the coming months by limiting the hours of shopping malls and requiring businesses and large housing complexes to cut back or be penalized.
The unprecedented measures are aimed at keeping the Guri hydroelectric dam -- the country's largest -- from failing because of a prolonged drought as Venezuela enters the dry season, said Angel Rodriguez, the government's electricity minister.
He said officials are concerned that without reductions the dam could stop feeding the power grid in the first half of January. Venezuela relies on dams for most of its electricity, exposing the nation to worsening power shortages from a drought that Rodriguez called the longest in 59 years.
Parts of South America have suffered dry conditions as Pacific Ocean currents have altered weather patterns as part of the El Nino phenomenon. President Hugo Chavez has also blamed climate change, but his opponents accuse the government of failing to plan adequately or invest enough in electrical projects to meet growing demand.
The rules announced Tuesday are the first ever requiring Venezuelan businesses and large residential complexes to conserve energy and setting penalty fees for those that don't meet targets.
The measures published in the Official Gazette said affected businesses and apartment complexes should reduce energy use by 20 percent in comparison to the same period last year. It said they will have a month to come up with energy-saving plans and after that will be charged 20 percent extra if targets aren't met. Further 10 percent penalties will be added for each additional month they don't comply.
The measures affect industrial plants that use more than 5 megawatts and businesses, housing complexes and shopping centers that use more than 2 megawatts.
The government also is cracking down on lighted billboards, requiring them to use energy-efficient lights.
Shopping malls can turn on the lights only from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., and casinos and bingo halls have electricity from 6 p.m. to midnight. Violators could be punished with a daylong temporary shutdown, or up to three days for repeat offenders.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2009
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#1
Leave it to the tinpot narcissist dictator and his ultramodern government of the people to manage to have an energy shortage in a country sitting on enough petroleum to fuel all of S America for centuries.
The Taliban blew up a girls' school in Pakistan's Khyber district, where troops are fighting against militants in the tribal region bordering Afghanistan, an official said Wednesday.
Militants detonated explosives overnight at the government-run school in Bazgarah town, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) west of Peshawar, capital of the violence-plagued North West Frontier Province.
"The building had 21 rooms. All have been completely demolished," local administration chief Shafeerullah Wazir told AFP by telephone.
There were no casualties because the property was empty at the time.
"Taliban and their local allies are responsible. They are destroying educational institutions to avenge the military operation against their hideouts in the area," said Wazir.
"This was the ninth educational institution blown up in Khyber over the past six weeks," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2009
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#1
After all, thats what real brave men do right? Blow up other peoples little girls and schools? Does that make you a Man?
you are as sick as the day you were conceived of bad seed. The seed planted by the jealous one that may never advance.
This branch is evil to the root and must be culled.
One or two girls schools blow up every week. Do you not think finding that evil root may lead you to the first trunk? They are not even close to pros.
[Iran Press TV Latest] President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says the world needs a new order, adding that the US which was the "epitome of liberalism" is in decline.
"It is quite clear that any system that depends on military power will collapse," Ahmadinejad said in a speech in the central city of Shiraz on Wednesday.
"It (the US) entirely depends on military power and sanctions," IRNA quoted the Iranian president as saying.
"This shows that the US is in decline," he added.
The Iranian president noted that after the collapse of liberalism, the world will need a new order.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2009
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
I'm with you, Mahmoud---though we probably differ on details.
#2
Ahmadinnerjacket's New Year's wish... WORLD NEEDS NEW ORDER. Translation..."What'll Ya Have, What'll Ya Have, What'll Ya Have"....A NEW WORLD ORDER?
#3
Imagine there's no Islam
It's easy if you try
No more jihad or Sharia
Or honor killings too.
Imagine all of Mecca,
Turned into boiling glass.
Hoo-ha.
You might say I'm a Crusader,
But I'm not the only one.
Some day they'll be no Muslims,
And that day will be a happy one.
Top brass of the U.S. Forces Korea is seriously worried that a joint South Korea-U.S. defense plan has been hacked, apparently by North Koreans.
But South Korea claims no great damage has been done. At a session of the National Assembly's Intelligence Committee on Monday, the National Intelligence Service said the hacked material would not cause much damage to security.
A military source on Tuesday said USFK top brass, including Commander Gen. Walter Sharp, "recently expressed concern to our military about OPLAN 5027 being apparently accessed by a North Korean hacker." The U.S. military is apparently particularly concerned that the plan leaked out when a South Korean military officer used an unsecured USB memory stick on a computer.
The hacking took place in mid-November when a field-grade officer with the Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command switched to the Internet on a dual-use PC with both Internet and Intranet services in his office and left a USB memory stick still inserted after finishing work on the Intranet.
Almost as if he had planned it that way ...
Under South Korean security regulations, all officers must take out the USB stick and reboot the dual-use PC if they want to switch to the Internet after handling confidential documents. But U.S. officers are prohibited from using USB sticks in the first place to eliminate room for mistakes, according to a USFK officer. U.S. soldiers are required to copy materials to a CD or a DVD if they need to deliver them for some purpose.
"The U.S. military has banned the use of USB sticks altogether in principle because secrets were leaked through USB memory sticks once in a while," a Defense Ministry official said. "We are going to prevent leakage of secrets through USB sticks by introducing a new verification system next year where Internet USB and Intranet USB are not compatible."
The U.S. military also operates separate Internet PCs and Intranet PCs, and officers can use only designated Intranet PCs when handling confidential documents.
The South Korean military operates some separate PCs for Internet and Intranet use but still maintains about 5,000 dual-use PCs due to lack of money. The ministry official said a budget of about W5 billion (US$1=W1,180) will allow it to get rid of all dual-use PCs and buy individual PCs by next year.
The U.S. military allows officers to use their own PCs only after they insert ID cards into the PC, making it difficult for unauthorized people to access individual PCs. But South Korean military officers can work on any officer's PC if they type in their own ID and password.
Regarding the hacker attack, the ministry says the incident was not serious because the full original text of OPLAN 5027 was not leaked but only an 11-page PowerPoint file created for educational materials for military leaders or newly assigned officers.
Nonetheless, the ministry will have to change the defense plan's framework if the file contains the basic context of certain operation plans.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/24/2009
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#1
Unless things have changed dramatically, paragraph three of the article represents a security compromise and OPSEC violation itself.
#2
I hope they stripped him of access and suspended his security clearance until the investigation is concluded.
When I was an S-2, I had to strip my CO's security clearance when he left a page of a classified document in the head...
Posted by: Karl Rove ||
12/24/2009 13:46
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#3
His clearance will or is already a giant piece of toast. Think along the lines of arriving at the office to find the locks changed and no access. I say that with authority of someone who is very familiar with Korea, and such items of business.
[Dawn] With Christmas just around the corner, a bomb attack on a church in the Iraqi city of Mosul killed a passerby and wounded six others in the sixth attack on Christians there in less than a month, police and a witness said.
'Around 11 am (0800 GMT), a handcart used to carry flour, left across the street from the Syrian Orthodox church of St Thomas, exploded and caused damage' to the building, witness Hamis Paulos said.
'A passerby was killed and six others wounded' in the attack, a police officer said.
Father Faez Wadiha, whose own Syrian Orthodox Parish of the Very Pure Virgin was attacked a week ago, said 'words cannot describe what has happened.
'This is certainly a Christmas present for Mosul,' he said with irony, 'a message of congratulations why we are celebrating a feast of love and peace.'
'But we will pray in the streets, in homes, in shops. God is everywhere, not just in churches.'
Father Wadiha's parish operates a school adjacent to the church, in central Mosul, and a bomb exploded there on December 15, killing an eight-day old girl and wounding 40 people, including five students.
A second bomb struck the Syrian Catholic Church of the Annunciation in the north of the city, without causing any casualties.
On November 26, a church and a convent were bombed, with both targets severely damaged but without any casualties, religious leaders said.
One of the attacks hit the St Theresa Convent of Dominican nuns in the western Jadida (New Mosul) district, said the chief representative of the Dominican order in Iraq, Father Yousif Thomas Mirkis.
'These attacks are aimed at forcing Christians to leave the country,' he told AFP, noting that the bomb had been placed inside the convent grounds and caused damage to the building.
Another bomb struck the Church of St Ephrem in the same Mosul district, causing major damage to the Chaldean place of worship, Patriarchal Vicar George Basman said.
And last week, a 30-year-old Christian, Zeid Majid Yussef, was gunned down as he walked from his parked car to his home.
Last year, thousands of Christians fled Mosul in the face of violence that claimed the lives of 40 members of the community.
Since the US-led invasion of 2003, hundreds of Iraqi Christians have been killed and several churches attacked.
Around 800,000 Christians lived in Iraq at the time of the invasion, but their number has since shrunk by a third or more as members of the community have fled abroad, according to Christian leaders.
Although violence has dropped dramatically across Iraq compared to last year, attacks remain common in Mosul and the capital Baghdad.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2009
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Top|| File under: Islamic State of Iraq
[Dawn] 'Thousands of Taliban fighters' have been sent to Afghanistan to join the war against US-led Nato troops, according to the South Waziristan chief of Taliban, Waliur Rehman.
Talking to reporters in the Shaktoi area, he said the move was consistent with Taliban strategy of 'waging a guerilla war' against Pakistani forces and a small number of 'our fighters are sufficient to engage the troops in Waziristan'.
Wali, who was accompanied by Taliban spokesman Azam Tariq and a number armed guards, said the move was a response to the US troop surge. 'More reinforcements can be sent to strengthen the Afghan Taliban.' He said that Taliban were 'still strong' in South Waziristan despite the 'tactical withdrawal'.
Troops, he said, controlled only areas near roads but the rest of South Wazristan is still under Taliban. The real war will be fought ... in the rough terrain and thick forests of Waziristan'.
He denied security forces' claim that over 600 militants had been killed and said Taliban had lost 'less than 20 fighters ... since the launch of the military offensive on Oct 17 this year'.
He said that Hakimullah Mehsud, the central leader of Taliban, was safe and 'guiding his men in Waziristan'.
According to him, they would stop attacking military forces only if Pakistan severed ties with the US and ended its support.
Mr Wali claimed his group had 2,500 trained suicide bombers and a lot of them being trained at secret locations. 'They are waiting for Taliban chief's order to strike anywhere in the country.'
Denying that Taliban carried out suicide attacks in mosques and markets, he said that their targets were security forces and government installations.
He claimed that 'Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden is safe and alive and was in constant touch with his followers', but said he had never met him in person, He rejectd claims that Taliban were Indian agents and said that the TTP would continue its jihad (Holy war) against America and also India.'
AP adds: A US military spokesman in Afghanistan, called Wali's comments 'rhetoric' that were not to be believed.
'We have not noticed any significant movement of insurgents in the border area.' Ishtiaq Ahmad, a professor of international relations at the Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad, said the comments were an attempt to worsen the already tense relationship between the US and Pakistan.
'When the US expects Pakistan to synchronise its own counter-terrorism policy with troop surge ... the militants issue these statements in an attempt to create problems in this relationship,' said Prof Ahmad.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2009
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#1
Bring em on, the Marines need target practice before we go at it with Iran.
Posted by: Karl Rove ||
12/24/2009 12:53
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The head of Hamas political bureau, Khaled Meshaal, says the construction of an enormous metal barrier by Egypt equals a new war against Gazans.
In a statement televised by Al-Quds satellite channel, Meshaal echoed remarks made by United Nations Relief and Works Agency Commissioner-General Karen Abu Zaid, describing the wall as more dangerous than the Bar Lev Line.
Israel built the Bar Lev Line along the eastern coast of the Suez Canal after it captured the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt during the 1967 Six-Day War.
Khaled Meshaal said "the victory of Gaza did not appeal to those who wagered on the defeat of the resistance and there is a desire to tighten the screws on the resistance which shows fortitude in the face of the occupation."
The Damascus-based Hamas leader underlined that despite all these efforts resistance will continue in the coastal enclave .
In a related incident, hundreds of people gathered on the Palestinian side of Gaza's southern border with Egypt on Monday, protesting the underground barrier Egypt is building.
The demonstrators chanted slogans calling for a lift of an Israeli blockade imposed more than two years ago and urged Egypt to stop building the steel wall.
The wall would curb a network of underground tunnels the Palestinians use to bring in their basic necessities that Israel does not allow into Gaza markets.
Receiving full cooperation of the Egyptian authorities, Israel has long imposed a complete siege on the already impoverished Gaza Strip, causing a humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian sliver.
The Gaza Strip has been under an Israeli siege ever since Hamas resistance movement, which does not recognize Israel, won Parliamentary elections in 2007.
Some 1.5 million people are being denied their basic rights, including freedom of movement, a right to appropriate living conditions, work, health and education.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2009
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#1
Apparently Hamas doesnt understand Cause and Effect.
Borders between countries and National Sovereignty are REALITY. get some.
You can sh8t in YOUR hat but not in mine. Right to movement...just as far as the Border...then you say "please", nigger. I dont HAVE to love you. I dont have to let you dance in my yard. I CAN stop you AT my border and you WILL obey me. I dont HAVE to let you piss on my lawn and you can kiss my ass if you think you have ANY say on what crosses my border including the regular delivery of your next fix. Screw your fix. I dont have to get along with you and if you dont LIKE my Border, try and cross it and see what happens.
Living conditions, work , health, and education? That YOUR problem, Sambo, not mine. get right on it.
You want to have better relations with me? What have you GOT that I want or need? yeah? Come back and see me when you have something I want or need. Until them welcome to Reality.
And no, I dont feel sorry for you. And if you dropped dead ( do us all a favor) .... do it down wind.
#2
Language, Angleton9. I sinktrapped your comment because we do not use racist language at Rantburg. Think of this as a "Drop and give me 200!" kind of warning. I'm sure it wouldn't take you the two hours it took me to accomplish that, the last time I tried.
#3
Meshaal talks really tough from his hidey-hole in Damascus. Why don't you fly to Cairo and talk sh*t about it, tough guy?
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/24/2009 8:30
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#4
"...The Gaza Strip has been under an Israeli siege ever since Hamas resistance movement, which does not recognize Israel, won Parliamentary elections in 2007..."
Actually, the elections were in 2006. In June 2007, Hamas waged a 3 day war (or a 'cleansing' as its call by Hamas) against Fatah and took over all administrative functions of the Gaza (perhaps Iran considers this an election). After this 3 day war, the Israelis took strong measures to reinforce the border and increase the blockage (which was partially in effect before that).
Posted by: lord garth ||
12/24/2009 9:32
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#5
Why don't you fly to Cairo and talk sh*t about it, tough guy?
Better yet, have the tough guy talk to us from Gaza City ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/24/2009 11:11
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#6
The last sentence was not complete. I shall attempt to complete it now.
"Some 1.5 million people are being denied their basic rights, including freedom of movement, a right to appropriate living conditions, work, health and education", because they repeatedly attack and shoot rockets into Israeli civilian areas.
Posted by: Mike Hunt ||
12/24/2009 18:24
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Iranian security forces violently suppressed opposition supporters in the city of Isfahan yesterday as tensions increased before nationwide demonstrations planned for this weekend.
Two days after massive demonstrations in the holy city of Qom, clashes erupted in Isfahan, Irans third city, as thousands of mourners gathered for a memorial service for Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, the oppositions spiritual leader, who died at the weekend. Opposition websites said riot police and Basij militiamen surrounded the Seyed mosque from early in the morning, and then attacked the mourners with batons, teargas and pepper gas.
Many were injured and dozens were arrested, including four journalists and a cleric, Masoud Abid, who was to deliver the sermon. Reformist website Parlemannews reported that more than 50 people were detained.
Montazeri mourners shouted slogans against the top authorities, another website, Rahesabz, reported. They are beating protesters, including women and children, with batons, chains and stones. Farid Salavati, an Isfahan resident who tried to attend the memorial, said that tens of thousands gathered outside the mosque but were savagely attacked by security forces. He saw baton-wielding riot police clubbing people around the head and kicking men and women, injuring dozens. I saw at least two people with blood pouring down their face, he said.
Security forces also sealed off the home of Ayatollah Jalaleddin Taheri, who organised the service and used to lead Friday prayers in Isfahan until he resigned in 2002 in protest at the regimes growing authoritarianism. I tried six different ways to get to the mosque, but they were all blocked, Parlemannews quoted him as saying. Treating people this way at a memor-ial service is deplorable.
Mohammad Khatami, the reformist former President, condemned the violence in Isfahan, which is 200 miles southeast of Tehran: Imam Khomeini [Irans revolutionary leader] believed that the Islamic Republic was based on two pillars freedom and independence.
If these pillars become shaky . . . we will have tyranny again, he said. Calling anyone who raises his voice a traitor, despite him believing in the [Islamic] system, is a major deviation.
Clashes also erupted in nearby Najafabad, Montazeris home town, on Tuesday night and continued yesterday. The situation is tense in the city. People are chanting anti-government slogans, Jaras, another opposition website reported. The regime appears to be moving aggressively against the opposition ahead of the emotionally charged holiday of Ashura this weekend, when millions of Shias take to the streets to mourn the 7th-century martyrdom of Imam Hussein, the Prophet Muhammads grandson, at the hands of the Sunni caliph Yazid.
The so-called Green movement, which has grown adept at hijacking public events that the regime cannot cancel, is planning to turn the day into another massive demonstration. Montazeris death will raise the temperature even further, as Sunday will be the seventh day since his death an important date in Shia mourning ritual.
On Tuesday the regime dismissed Mir Hossein Mousavi, the de facto opposition leader whom Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defeated in Junes hotly disputed presidential election, from his position as head of Irans Academy of Arts a post he held for ten years. Dariush Ghanbari, a prominent reformist MP, called his dismissal a political decision stemming from electoral grudges, and many of the academys members were said to be threatening to resign.
Hundreds of Basiji were reported to have attacked the offices in Qom of Grand Ayatollah Yusuf Sanei, the reformist cleric who is expected to replace Montazeri as the conscience of the nation and chief clerical scourge of the regime. They broke windows and beat his staff, according to opposition website Norooznews.
Government supporters also staged counter rallies in Qom on Tuesday and yesterday. This is the last time that something like that will happen in Qom. This is not a place for hypocrites, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Nouri Hamedani told them.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/24/2009
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Weeks after the Malaysian envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency autonomously voted against an anti-Iran IAEA resolution, a diplomat says Kuala Lumpur stripped him of his post.
The envoy, Mohd Arshad Manzoor Hussain, who also held the rotating chair of the 35-member IAEA's Board of Governors, was dismissed according to a diplomat familiar with his case.
The report comes as the Malaysian government has yet to confirm the move. When asked about the issue by the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), the Malaysian Ambassador to Vienna declined to comment.
Meanwhile, the diplomatic source added that the Malaysian government is likely to replace Arshad with a new ambassador who will also fill the position of the rotating chairman of the 35-member Board of Governor.
Earlier in December, Kuala Lumpur's ambassador to the agency was summoned to explain his "no" vote to an IAEA resolution against Iran's nuclear program as the vote "was not in line with Malaysian policies."
The resolution called on Iran to stop all construction work at its new enrichment facility named Fordo and confirm there are no more nuclear sites that the agency must be aware of.
The Tehran government, however, rejected the resolution as politically-motivated and without any legal basis, arguing that Iran's activities are not in breach of the nuclear pact.
Malaysia was one of the three countries along with Cuba and Venezuela that voted against the IAEA resolution.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2009
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
by Ted Nugent
Of the many self-inflicted problems that face our country, none is as dangerous to the survival of our nation as the curse of political correctness. PC appears to be a seemingly immortal condition of stupidity. But stupidity, in the long run, usually manages to limit its numbers. The danger lies in being in the vicinity when those numbers limit themselves.
Political correctness is a cancer that many Americans, government institutions, businesses and even many individual citizens have willfully embraced and now serve as hosts who intentionally spread this horrible disease. PC pokes its enormous nose into the tent disguised as good manners. Name-calling has come to be adjudged to have no place in civilized society. This is in theory good -- my grandmother was the most lovely of women, with a large and comfortable lap and a pair of arms that was always there for little boys, but she also had a moustache and she barely spoke English. I'd not take kindly to hearing her referred to as a "wop." On the other hand, I seldom heard "wops" referred to as such to their faces, though the hillbilly side of me does hear the word "cracker" a bit more often.
Let me be clear: political correctness is a form of cowardice that leads to brain damage. It takes us from now calling people bad names to being afraid to refer to spades as spades, or even as shovels.
It concerns itself with feeling good instead of thinking clearly and actually doing good. It masks the truth because the truth is too uncomfortable for the intellectually and spiritually weak in our society. The word "nigger" has mutated into "the n----- word." This is good as an expression of good manners. When we pass that point and refuse to acknowledge the existence of "yo boyz" we achieve the nirvana of stupidity. When we become aware of the existence of "niggahz" but restrain ourselves from using the word we dip our toes in the ocean of the ridiculous.
To others, political correctness serves as a useful smokescreen. Political correctness is ultimately about stepping on the throat of common sense and strangling the life out of it. Logic be damned. It becomes a method of thought control, which is the aim of all dictatorship. Thinking of the dread forbidden words makes us feel shame. Actually speaking them costs us jobs and social position. If we were sufficiently well indoctrinated we wouldn't even be able to utter the words, so we deserve our punishment.
Need some recent examples of politically correct poison? A flood of them lie on the edge of consciousness...
How about the Muslim terrorist -- yes terrorist -- who killed thirteen soldiers and wounded thirty more at Fort Hood? Many politicians, including our president, did their best to mask the discomforting truth about this hate mongering, murdering Muslim terrorist. Instead of calling him what he is, a Muslim terrorist, many in our government and the media did their best to downplay his Muslim religion and his e-mail communication with another radical Muslims, the clear and present enemies of America. The truth is that the murdering punk is a soulless, America hating Muslim terrorist. Islam, hiding its many (and literal) sins, was quick to jump onto the PC bandwagon. We view, every day, the atrocities Muslims visit upon each other in ensuring religious orthodoxy -- and often in arguing over what that orthodoxy might be. We are aware of the fact that exemplars of the religion have declared war on us, want the males among us dead and the females among us as slaves, sexual and otherwise. Yet these observations are denied validity, denied in fact their very existence. Islamic bloodthirst has to be our fault somehow.
Political correctness has enabled various human scum to slaughter innocent people. All recent mass killings including the slaughter at Fort Hood have occurred in the left's dream of gun free zones. Dozens of Americans have died because some political correct moron decided to make a shopping mall, Army fort, school campus, church, restaurant, and many other places gun free zones, the unarmed, helpless playground for murderers. Proceeding from the premise that all humans are law-abiding that idea makes perfect sense. Proceeding from the idea that most are but that the remainder are savages gives us today's reality.
That's right, some feel-good idiot made a conscious decision to create an environment that literally guarantees victims. But the theory sez it should work. What're y'gonna believe: theory or your own lying eyes?
And for what reason did they create this intolerable and inhumane environment: they wanted to "feel" good that they were doing something to reduce violence. The result: they created killing fields in every case. "Violence" is in the world of the politically correct a bad thing -- always and under all circumstances. It is, however, understandable in those who want to slap us around or despoil us or even kill us. Don't ask me how. My mind's not flexible enough to accommodate the concept. A band of fascisti goose stepping down the street and Hitler grüssing and singing the Horst Wessel song is bad. I'm guessing that it's because it's also in the past. A band of student ayatollahs goose stepping and Hitler grüssing down the street is a mere expression of a cultural difference and after all look what we did the the Kickapoos 150 years ago.
The global warming issue is one of the biggest political correct frauds in the history of mankind. If you recall, back in the 1970s the environmental alarmists were telling us we were on the verge of an ice age. I still have the longhandles I laid in for Nuclear Winter...
Now, Al Gore--possibly one of the biggest energy consumers and carbon emitters in the United States--wants us to believe that man is the cause of the earth warming. I confess. It was me. I burned the cardboard out back.
Al Gore is a fraud who has made tens of millions peddling his global warming junk science. He is the Bernie Madoff of the science community. Ted's just jealous because he didn't invent the internet and star in Love Story...
Due to political correctness, schools have expelled Boy Scouts because they had a small pocket knife, banned the games of dodge ball and tag, oftentimes the very concept of winners and losers in our educations system, yet these very same schools pump our kids full of junk food such as soda, candy, pizza and burgers while reducing the amount of physical activity. I'm wondering how that came about. I can remember the meat loaf and macaroni and cheese lunches served up in the cafeteria we had during my school years, and the milk -- occasionally chocolate milk -- we washed it down with. I can't recall ever being served pizza or burgers. I'm wondering how much we paid the genius who came up with the idea to do so. I've got a few ideas that probably aren't any better, but certainly aren't any worse, that I can let go for reasonable prices...
Result: our children are the fattest, most unhealthy, blubber-infested kids on the planet, yet not one of them has been attacked by a Boy Scout with a pocket knife. The only zero tolerance public school policy I advocate is banning policies that reward "feel good" idiocy. When I was a child our mothers would send us out to play, where we could burn off thousands of calories in just a few hours. We ran wild, exploring the entire town, visiting back and forth, trading toys and the occasional knuckle sandwich. No child I knew was ever carried off by a pervert... Oh. Wait. Calling them perverts is politically incorrect, isn't it? I don't think I ever heard the word "pedophile" until I was in my 30s. The politically incorrect hillbillies, wops, and dumb Dutchmen I grew up around wouldn't have stood for any of their number "getting after" kids, and while they were perfectly hospitable to strangers they weren't that indulgent of them, if you follow my drift...
Political correctness has even made inroads into the hunting community. We actually have hunters who believe we should cover up the dead deer in the bed of our pickup trucks because they believe we will offend non-hunters if they see an actual dead deer. This, of course, is the exact opposite what hunters should be told and what non-hunters need to see. I tolerate none of this lunacy. I celebrated the last pure, ultimate green environmentalism on earth; hunting, fishing and trapping. They are literally biologically perfect. I'm too stiff and arthritic to hunt anymore, so to be properly PC I guess I should demand that everyone else stop.
Someone told me not long ago that common sense is no longer common. It never has been. Never forget that half of everyone is below average. And 80 percent of everyone is middlin'.
Sadly, the grotesque evidence continues to stack up that buttresses this sad but true statement. The list of political correct, butthead examples goes on and on. The Titanic is sinking and some politically correct jerks are trying to convince the rest of us to get busy and rearrange the deck chairs instead of climbing into the life boats. It's literally that bizzarro and ugly. I think it's actually gone beyond that. They're fighting for control of the wheelhouse for the honor of piloting us all into the depths of the briny deep.
Until America returns to a policy of bold, unabashed truth, logic, honesty and common sense, the rest of our financial and social problems will continue to escalate. It is impossible to truly fix a problem by "feeling good" about fixing it. Only idiots go hunting with a "feel good" arrow in their quiver. I hunt with razor sharp arrows and I actually kill animals and then I eat them. If you have a problem with that you are stoned on weird and hopelessly addicted to denial.
I believe with all my heart that General Patton would tell us that the first thing we need to do to save America is to kill political correctness. A perfect solution to what ails us.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2009
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#1
Political Correctness: A doctrine which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a tur* by the clean end.
anon
#2
I AM a "Cracker". I give you permission to call me one. I am a Georgia Cracker. Forsyth County Georgia.
A lot of my kin are Brooks County Crackers (sawgrass, big snakes and Fox Squirrels)and Lumpkin County Crackers ( Hill billys north Georgia mountains). There are more of us scattered through Quitman and Pavo and Camilla( its still 1920 somewhere). My son is married to a Nigger and all my grandchildren are...
And I aint no Liberal and that's about all I have to say about what happens to Yankees who aint from around c'here.
And if you deliberately insult me, I will hurt you. And I can. But I do make good Cornbread and beans and hamhock. ( I hate sweet Cornbread, be warned..I use two eggs and a bit of salt in the dough to make it hard so you can carry some in your pocket for later) Stone Ground meal...the good stuff.
Ever see the Fox in that Disney Movie about B'rer Rabbit? That was my daddy.
I am the bear..but with two Master's Degrees and a pistol in the back of my belt. I own an I-talian Tractor and I have two real mean dogs.
#3
Ironic the previous comment had to be sinktrapped in the PC thread. Nonetheless, there are lines we do not cross, just as we do not refer to Mr. Pruitt's delightful Italian grandmother as a wop. If there is a question in anyone's mind, imagine you are sitting in my living room and I am pouring out tea, while the youngsters sit with a plate of purloined cookies in the corner where they fondly believe I can't see them. (Yes, of course there is something stronger on the sideboard for those who prefer it, do go help yourself).
#8
Gotta love the Nuge. I see Angleton9 hit the Yule Tide Cheer a wee bit early! Good stuff. Oh, BTW, interesting that the comment (even though sinktrapped) shows up when one comments. Lovely!
;-)
24 December 2009 JERUSALEM Yitzhak Ike Ahronovitch, the captain of the Exodus ship whose attempt to take Holocaust survivors to Palestine built support for Israels founding, has died. He was 86. He died Wednesday in northern Israel after a long illness, his daughter Ella said.
The Exodus 1947 ship left France in July 1947 carrying more than 4,500 people most of them Holocaust survivors and other displaced Jews in a secret effort to reach Palestine. At the time, Britain controlled Palestine and was limiting the immigration of Jews. The British navy seized the vessel off Palestines shores, and after a battle on board that left three people dead, turned the ship and its passengers back to Europe, where the refugees were forced to disembark in Germany.
The ships ordeal was widely reported worldwide, garnering sympathy for the refugees, especially because they were taken to Germany, where the Nazi murder of 6 million Jews during World War II originated. It inspired a fictionalized account by American writer Leon Uris and a classic 1960 film directed by Otto Preminger and starring Paul Newman.
Newmans character was patterned after Yossi Harel, who commanded the Exodus mission as a leader of the Haganah pre-state Jewish armed force. Harel died last year.
Ahronovitch, who was nicknamed Ike, captained the ship. His daughter said the experience remained a pivotal part of his life for years afterward.
It was one of the most important things of his life. He wasnt a big storyteller, but hed happily tell schoolchildren about it, she said. The Exodus influenced him and his friends deeply. Those were the days that defined them and as far as they were concerned defined the character of this country.
Ahronovitch was born in Poland in 1923 and moved to pre-state Israel 10 years later. He later worked with ships and always loved the sea, his daughter said.
In a statement Wednesday, Israeli President Shimon Peres called Ahronovitch one of a kind ... a combination of pioneering, courage and love of his people.
Ahronovitch is survived by two daughters, seven grandchildren and two great grandchildren. His funeral is scheduled for Friday in northern Israel.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/24/2009
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Iran police chief said on Wednesday the opposition would face a "fierce" confrontation if its "illegal" activities continued, the semi-official Fars news agency reported, following anti-government rallies in some cities.
"We advise this movement to end their activities. Otherwise those who violate the order will be fiercely confronted, based on the law," Fars quoted police chief Esmail Ahmadi-Moqadam as saying.
A reformist website earlier reported that security forces have arrested at least 50 opposition supporters in the central city of Isfahan.
"Over 50 protesters, including four Iranian journalists have been arrested in Isfahan during clashes with the security forces," Parlemannews website said.
The website said that security forces clashed with supporters of late dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri in at least two cities, including his birthplace.
"Sporadic clashes started from Tuesday night in Najafabad and still continued. The situation is tense in the city. People are chanting anti-government slogans," the Jaras website reported.
It also said "many" demonstrators were injured during clashes with the security forces in the central city of Isfahan.
"Security forces clashed with pro-reform protesters ... who gathered to commemorate ... Montazeri's demise," Jaras said.
"Police fired teargas to disperse people ... many people were injured ... some arrested."
In Isfahan, plainclothes security agents surrounded the house of a leading pro-reform cleric Ayatollah Jalaleddin Taheri, Jaras reported.
The reported incidents took place two days after huge crowds turned out in the Shiite holy city of Qom for the funeral of Montazeri, and many chanted anti-government slogans, websites reported.
The reports from the two cities could not be verified independently because foreign media are banned from reporting directly on protests.
Iran's government supporters staged counter rallies in Qom on Tuesday, official Iranian media reported.
Montazeri, who died on Saturday at the age of 87, was an architect of the 1979 revolution that overthrew the U.S.-backed shah and was once named to succeed Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as supreme leader of the Islamic state. But Montazeri fell from grace after criticizing the mass execution of prisoners.
The June 12 presidential election, which the opposition leaders say was rigged to secure President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election, has plunged the Islamic Republic into a crisis of legitimacy.
Supporters of the opposition, who have seized occasions marked in the Islamic revolutionary calendar to raise their voices, staged fresh anti-government rallies in Iran after Montazeri's death.
Iranian authorities deny any vote-rigging.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2009
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#1
The reports from the two cities could not be verified independently because foreign media are banned from reporting directly on protests.
#2
Formerly part-time daughter is over there now visiting relatives with her father. She'll be back before January 4th, when the new term starts at her university, so I'll pass on her report then... although hopefully her father will have ensured she didn't see much of the excitement.
[Maghrebia] Mauritanian gendarmes on Monday arrested a Mali national for alleged involvement in the abduction of an Italian couple last week near the Malian border, local and international press reported on Tuesday (December 22nd). According to Nouakchott daily ANI, suspect Abderrahmane Ben Meddou confessed that in return for the promise of a large pay-off, he provided information to al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb about the movement of the Italians. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the kidnappings.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2009
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Sudan's parliament on Tuesday passed a long-awaited bill setting out the conditions in which a
" What happened today is the worst violation against the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, and from today we will not participate in parliamentary sessions until this matter is resolved "
Yasser Arman, SPLM
January 2011 referendum on independence for the country's oil-producing south would be considered to be valid.
MPs from the former rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) and other southern parties withdrew from the parliamentary session in protest at a clause that would allow diaspora southerners to cast absentee ballots.
According to the bill, 60 percent of the southern Sudanese electorate will have to turn out to make the referendum legitimate. South Sudan will split away from the north if more than half of voters choose independence.
SPLM deputy secretary general Yasser Arman called the vote a breach of a 2005 power-sharing accord and threatened a boycott of parliament until the legislation was revisited.
"What happened today is the worst violation against the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, and from today we will not participate in parliamentary sessions until this matter is resolved," he told a media conference.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2009
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[Iran Press TV Latest] Guinea's interim leader General Sekouba Konate has announced that the country will hold democratic elections as soon as possible.
The announcement came on Wednesday after the United States and France criticized the regime of Captain Moussa Dadis Camara following a government massacre at an opposition rally on September 28.
On Monday, a UN investigative committee found Camara and two of his former aids directly responsible for the murder of 156 people as well as the systematic rape and sexual mutilation of over a hundred girls and women.
"My dear brothers in arms, today our concern, for everybody, remains to lead (the nation) at the earliest possible date... to elections, the first free and democratic elections in our history," declared Konate addressing soldiers one year after Guinea's junta seized power following the death of long-standing leader Lansana Conte.
"That is the concern of the Guinean people, that is our mission. Nothing and nobody... can distract or distance us from this ideal. This is the place and the time to reaffirm with force our desire, mine and that of my companions, to help the Guinean people choose their leaders through free and democratic elections," added Konate.
Camara is recuperating from gunshot wounds he sustained during an assassination attempt on December 3, and has not been seen since. Sources say that he is expected to fully recover from the injuries and plans on returning to Guinea.
On Tuesday, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner warned that Camara's return to Guinea could lead to a 'civil war' in the west African nation.
December 23 marks the anniversary of the junta's one year in power which is now haunted by charges of crimes against humanity.
The European Union imposed harsh sanction against the junta government on Tuesday by freezing assets of its members and banning shipment of equipment that could be used for state repression.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2009
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[Quqnoos] At least five civilians were killed and eight others wounded Wednesday in two separate explosions in southern Afghanistan, officials say.
An explosion occurred in the Nad-e Ali district of Helmand Province, killing three civilians and injuring five others, said a spokesman for the provincial government, Daud Ahmadi.
Two other civilians were killed and three more wounded as their vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb in Helmand's neighbouring province of Kandahar, according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Interior.
An Afghan army soldier was among the wounded in the blast in Helmand, a heartland of the Taliban-led insurgency, Mr Ahmad further said.
The Interior Ministry blamed 'enemies', a phrase commonly used to refer to the Taliban insurgents, for carrying out the attacks.
The wounded people have been taken to local hospitals.
No groups, including the Taliban, have made an immediate claim of responsibility for the bombings.
Afghanistan suffers a mounting insurgency as the US and its NATO allies have pledged to dispatch an extra 37,000 troops to overcome the insurgency.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2009
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#1
Afghanistan still has a half-million land mines left over from previous wars scattered across its landscape, making it difficult to assign blame where it's due.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/24/2009 14:00
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Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/24/2009 12:07
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#8
I loved Jayne in "Hercules and the Hydra". The special effects of that era were good for its day (though wretched compared to now). Jayne looked so beautiful (she was a brunette in most of the movie).
Posted by: lord garth ||
12/24/2009 12:09
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#9
A woman from an era of biology rather than chemistry and surgery (if not, please don't burst my bubble.)
[Iran Press TV Latest] Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Borodavkin says Moscow sees no reason to cancel a deal to provide Iran with the advanced S-300 missile defense system.
In a news conference in Moscow held on Wednesday Borodavkin stressed that the missile system is of a defensive nature.
"Exports of such weapons is subject to no UN treaty or other bilateral agreements," RIA Novosti quoted the Russian diplomat as saying.
"This is why we see no essential reason to make any change in the deal," he added.
The comments by Borodavkin come as the US and Israel are putting pressure on Russia to cancel the deal with Iran.
The S-300 system, which can track targets and fire at aircraft 120 km (75 miles) away, is able to simultaneously engage up to 100 targets.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2009
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Russia: Owing to once in a lifetime weakness of the U.S., No reason to cancel S-300 deal with Iran.
24 December 2009 BAALBEK, Lebanon -- Lebanon's drug-producing heartland is back in business with a resurgence of marijuana and poppy fields, challenging the country's underpowered security forces and adding another dimension to Israel's war with Hezbollah militants.
Interviews with farmers and Lebanese officials, and documents from international organizations that monitor drugs, show that the drug trade in the Bekaa Valley has ramped up again since its drop following the 1975-1990 civil war.
Israel's Anti-Drug Authority claims Hezbollah is behind the flow of cross-border drugs as part of its war on the Jewish state. Hezbollah denies abetting drugs, saying it's un-Islamic. Production in the Bekaa peaked during the civil war, then died down to the point where the U.S. removed Lebanon from its list of big producers in 1997.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
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North Korea in late October informed the UN its food output this year was 5.01 million tons, it emerged on Tuesday. The yield included 2.34 million tons of rice, 1.7 million tons of corn, 560,000 tons of potatoes, 240,000 tons of wheat and barley and 150,000 tons of beans.
They don't need us then ...
The figure represents an increase of 330,000 tons over the 4.68 million tons the North claimed last year. The original estimate was about 4 million tons.
North Korea's rice harvest increased this year thanks to little harm from floods and droughts, according to North Korea sources. Corn output was poor due to cold-weather damage in the border region with China and Kangwon Province. "Kim Jong-il appears to have carried out the shock currency reform out of confidence that the food situation next year won't be worse than expected," speculated a source.
If it is not in urgent need of food aid, the North can afford to be tougher in its dealings with the South and the U.S. for the time being. But there is a chance that the North exaggerated the food output in a bid to demonstrate the success of a "150-day struggle" and a "100-day struggle" where people were swept off urban streets and forced into labor on the collective farms.
With 5.01 million tons of staples, the North would face little problem in feeding its population of 24 million for a year. Its late leader Kim Il-sung once said, "Daily food consumption is about 10,000 tons. If we had 5 million tons of grains a year, we would be able not only to dole out food rations but feed the people with sugar and candy."
But the food shortage in the North arises not only from a chronic quantitative shortfall but also from uneven distribution and supply. The authorities place priority in food supply on the party and the military.
Especially the military ...
The burgeoning merchant class can also manage. But the old, the weak and the urban poor, estimated at 10 to 20 percent of the population, are marginalized. "Organizations aiding North Korea also need to improve monitoring of distribution," said a South Korean government official.
Meanwhile, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization said the grain output North Korea informed it of in mid-November was 3.53 million tons. A source said this was because potatoes and beans, which are included in ordinary grain yield estimates, were omitted. "The aim may be to get the maximum possible food aid from the international community," the source speculated.
No kidding. Hate to say it but we should call the Norks on all this. No food aid. The people are suffering anyways and the military could stand to be squeezed.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/24/2009
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report doesn't discuss spoilage and waste; in NKor significant loss is via fungus, rats, ontamination, etc.
Posted by: lord garth ||
12/24/2009 9:58
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Bet a lot of dirt and sawdust was added so quotas could be met.
And not many beans, so not much useful protein to supplement the fish catch.
"On the whole, I'd rather be in Philadelphia."
[Iran TV Press latest]Houthi fighters have managed to repulse Saudi Arabian forces trying to infiltrate into the province of Sa'ada in northern Yemen, killing an unspecified number of Saudi soldiers in a battle in the border region.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, Yemen's Shia Houthis said they pushed back Saudi troops from Al-Muannaq village in northern Yemen on the border with Saudi Arabia and also destroyed eight Saudi tanks.
The Houthi fighters say Saudi forces had fired 256 missiles and carried out air strikes against the Sa'ada region.
The statement also said that Saudi Apache helicopter gunships launched two air strikes on the city of Dahyan on Tuesday as Riyadh continues its air raids against the mountainous regions of northern Yemen. It added that Saudi ground forces used heavy machine guns during the operation.
The Saudi army also shelled Al-Malaheet and the villages adjacent to it, which caused many civilian deaths.
Seventy-three Saudis have been killed and 26 have gone missing since fighting broke out between Saudi forces and the Houthi fighters on November 3.
The number of wounded Saudi troops has reached 470, with 60 still hospitalized.
The conflict between the central government in Sana'a and the Houthis of northern Yemen began in 2004. The conflict intensified in August 2009 when the Yemeni army launched Operation Scorched Earth in an attempt to crush the Houthi movement.
The Houthis say their civil rights have been violated and they are suffering political, economic, and religious marginalization due to the policy of the Yemeni government, which they have also accused of widespread corruption.
The Saudi air force has further complicated the conflict by launching its own operations against Shia resistance fighters.
Houthi fighters say that Riyadh pounds their positions, and Saudi forces strike Yemeni villages and indiscriminately target civilians. According to the fighters, the Saudis are using prohibited weapons, including white phosphorous bombs, against civilians in northern Yemen.
The US military is also continuing its air raids on Yemen's regions of Amran, Hajjah, and Sa'ada, which have suffered much due to the joint Saudi-Yemeni government offensive against the Houthi fighters.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that since 2004, up to 175,000 people have been forced to leave their homes in Sa'ada and take refuge in overcrowded camps set up by the United Nations.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2009
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State Sen. Anthony D. Galluccio has failed random alcohol tests - blaming his toothpaste - while on home confinement less than a week after pleading guilty to a hit-and-run crash in Cambridge.
A judge could rule as early as tomorrow if the Cambridge Democrat should be sent to jail for violating terms of his sentencing.
Galluccio pleaded guilty Friday to an Oct. 4 hit-and-run accident that injured two people, including a 13-year-old boy.
He vowed to stay off booze, but the Herald has learned he failed random alcohol tests given at his home.
Galluccio admitted today in a statement he failed Breathalyzer tests blowing "low level positive reads over the course of an hour."
He blamed the positive readings on his choice of toothpaste.
"After discussing it with a physician, we have determined that is the result of my using two toothpastes - Colgate Total Whitening and Sensodyne Toothpaste, both of which contain sorbitol," Galluccio added. "While I knew that mouthwash or cold medicine would set the machine off, it did not occur to me that toothpaste would."
Bloody nonsense. Sorbitol is a humectant, in other words it keeps the toothpaste from drying out by holding onto the water in the toothpaste formula. Sorbitol is used in children's toothpastes as well as adult toothpastes, and the FDA would never permit anything mind-altering to be added to an over-the-counter product for children. Now if it were mouthwash, that would be another story -- many are quite high in alcohol, and are a favourite of closet alcoholics. I'm quite, quite certain Mr. Galluccio's physician does not have the training to have an opinion on the matter -- he would have been better off calling the 800-number to find the answer... or asking a convenient pharmacist. As the pharmacists like to say, "Doctors know diseases; pharmacists know medicines."
I'd bet big money the Colgate-Palmolive and Sensodyne companies will have statements out no later than Boxing Day explaining there is no risk of alcohol absorption from their products. Perhaps to be followed by a similar statement from the FDA in due course. This is exactly the kind of thing they have in-house lawyers and science staffs to handle.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2009
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State Sen. Anthony D. Galluccio
Favorite toothpaste: Colgate Total Whitening and Sensodyne Toothpaste
Favorite Mouthwash: The Glenlivet 12 Year Single Malt Scotch Whisky 750ml bottle.
Posted by: Angush Protector of the Poles2341 ||
12/24/2009 5:19
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There is a persistent urban legend that certain mints and candies can make someone test positive on a breathalyzer because of the "sugar alcohols" (like sorbitol) in the products. There is absolutely no proof that any of them can make your BAC reading higher no matter how much you consume.*
All his attorney is doing is giving this BS a novel twist. If he or she can convince one scientifically illiterate and gullible person (either a judge or a juror), Mr G walks.
* - Scarfing down large quantities, though, could give you the runs. While that is disgusting, that also would not affect a breathalyzer.....
#3
Sorbitol has been used in toothpastes and many other products as a humectant for at least thirty years that I'm aware of, and no doubt many more than that. Were there an issue with it causing false readings on breathalyzer tests, the evidence would have shown up long ago, ie an awful lot of upright citizens would be walking around drunk... which would be hard to miss.
#6
Ummm, what toothpaste, my toothpaste comes intermixed with Scope mouthwash, and yes it's alcoholic, I've heard of (Desperate) alcoholics drinking Scope when Booze isn't available.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/24/2009 12:20
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#7
Don't forget Geritol. Or Vitameatavegamin.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
12/24/2009 20:09
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#8
My solution... Gumitol! PULL ALL OF HIS TEETH in one extended setting without benefit of anesthesia!
As someone that had to get dentures, and had 15 teeth extracted at on go during my final extraction and fitting, it ain't no fun even with anesthesia.
#12
what toothpaste, my toothpaste comes intermixed with Scope mouthwash,
I'm quite certain the manufacturer didn't add enough Scope to trigger a breathalyzer, Redneck Jim. Had they added that much, the extra fluid would have overloaded the binders, causing the paste to glop out of the tube instead of forming a nice round ribbon on your toothbrush. The manufacturer would never send out a toothpaste that misbehaved, and the FDA would never allow an alcohol level high enough to be detectable on the breath following brushing. I spent an interesting couple of years dealing with all that, in a previous stage of life.
For all the press coverage about fiscal woes in Dubai and Greece, the country most likely to default on its debt is Hugo Chavez's Venezuela.
The country leapfrogged to the top spot in Q4 2009, with a greater than 50% chance of going deadbeat on its $90 billion in sovereign bonds, according to CMA Datavision, a U.K.-based company that compiles comparative data about credit default swaps.
Dubai ranks sixth, and Greece a lowly eighth. Ukraine, which still can't get a grip on its finances, is No. 2 on CMA's likely-to-default list. Argentina, with a $100 billion sovereign default in 2001 under its belt, is No. 3. Newcomers also rounded out the dubious top-10 distinction, like Romania, which ranks nine.
But after amassing $600 billion to $800 billion in oil earnings in history's biggest oil boom, Venezuela's current woes stand out. It shows that socialism can spend money faster than even an oil boom can draw it in.
Instead of using that oil money to diversify its economy, Venezuela devoted itself to rent seeking and expanding state power, according to El Universal.
That's driven the country's industrial output down nearly 12% in 2009, with the highest inflation in Latin America. Oil cash proved to be anything but a blessing with Chavez at the helm -- and bloggers in Caracas say the problem is political.
Now, with oil prices well off their 2008 peaks and Venezuela's output continuing to plunge due to incompetence at the state-owned oil company, the country's finances are a mess. Investors know Chavez expropriates private property and claims whenever it suits him. The idea that he would choose to rein in uncontrollable spending so he can make debt payments to foreign investors is a fantasy.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2009
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#1
Given our spendthrift president and congress, I wonder where the US ranks as a default risk?
North Korea is attempting to crack down on the newly rich by banning payment with foreign currency in the markets. The move follows a shock currency reform apparently intended to stifle a nascent market economy the regime sees as a threat.
A North Korean source on Tuesday said the regime banned foreigners as well as locals from directly using dollars or euros in mid-December. In the past, it was possible to pay with foreign currencies at hotels or markets.
Authorities have reportedly been urging people on nationwide TV to immediately report anybody using dollars directly. Rumor has it that the exchange value of dollars, which soared immediately after the currency reform, has now stabilized to some extent there.
According to North Korean defectors, many senior officials and agencies involved in earning foreign currency have long held their cash assets in those currencies, and larger transactions are more likely to be settled in U.S. dollars than North Korean won.
A former senior North Korean official said the regime banned payment in U.S. dollars to pacify the public since the amount of foreign currency held by senior officials and rich people had become so large that it "can be compared to the national treasury." After the currency reform suddenly devalued their savings at a rate of 100:1, ordinary people complained that really rich people who have dollars did not suffer, he said.
On the contrary, those with dollar holdings gained from the currency reform, when panic sent the dollar soaring. The regime apparently had no choice but to crack down on the practice since propaganda made out that the currency reform was intended to ensure greater equality.
Which means that as soon as the populace has been pacified (or have been sent to slave-labor camps) the regime thugs and apparatchiks will be able to spend their dollars openly.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/24/2009
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Appears we really are in a global monetary meltdown. Even the Norks are rejecting the US Dollar.
[Quqnoos] Afghan police gun down an Afghan Senator Wednesday morning in the northern Baghlan province, officials said.
Younos Shirinagha, a member of the Upper House of the parliament from the province of Baghlan, was ambushed Wednesday early morning as he was driving with his guard and driver, police said.
Mr Shirinagha's driver also was killed and one of his friends was wounded, according to the Interior Ministry statement.
Officers were hiding in an area near the provincial capital, Pul-e-Khumri, where they expected militants to transport a Taliban commander wounded in fighting Tuesday, local police said.
That battle left four police officers and four insurgents dead, according to police.
When Shirnagha's vehicle arrived in the area, police shouted for it to stop. When the driver did not stop, a gunfight broke out between police officers and bodyguards protecting Shirinagha.
A senior delegation has been dispatched to the province to probe the killing of the Afghan senator.
The parliamentarian, Shirinagha, was the 11th MP to be killed since Afghanistan's first democratically chosen parliament was elected in 2005.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2009
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Shirinagha, was the 11th MP to be killed since Afghanistan's first democratically chosen parliament was elected in 2005
23 December 2009 BAGHDAD Bombs targeted Iraqi Christians and Shiite Muslims Wednesday, killing at least seven people and wounding about three dozen before coinciding religious observances that will take place under heavy guard. Insurgents have routinely targeted Shiites and Christians in an attempt to undermine the countrys security gains and its Shiite-dominated government. Security forces in recent days have been concerned that the Shiite holy observances known as Ashoura and Christmas gatherings would be targeted by large-scale attacks.
Ashoura marks the seventh-century death of the Prophet Muhammads grandson Hussein.
In the first of Wednesdays attacks, a bomb targeted a historic church in the northern city of Mosul a day before Christmas Eve services, killing two people and wounding five.
Instead of performing Christmas Mass in this church, we will be busy removing rubble and debris, Hazim Ragheed, a priest at the church, said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.
The bomb was hidden under sacks of baking flour in a handcart left 15 yards (meters) from the Mar Toma Church, or the Church of St. Thomas, a police officer said. The officer said the two men killed were Muslims and that five other people were injured. A hospital official confirmed the casualties.
The blast damaged the wooden doors, windows, some furniture and one of the walls of the church, which is more than 1,200 years old, Ragheed said. Services will be moved out of the church, but Ragheed did not say where they would be held.
We demand that the government put an end to these repeated attacks, Ragheed said.
The blast occurred in an area where streets have been closed to cars and trucks to protect Mosuls dwindling Christian population.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/24/2009
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Michael Castle is a member of an endangered species in the U.S. Congress: He's a moderate Republican. He's also a key figure in next year's election.
Castle is running to fill the Senate seat for Delaware formerly held by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, and his likely Democratic foe is Biden's son, Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden.
Castle, a member of the House of Representatives since 1993, is seen as among the Republicans' best bets to end the Democrats' 60-vote super-majority in the 100-member Senate.
Sixty votes lets Democrats pass legislation without Republican support in that chamber, including a landmark overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system.
"Castle's Senate race promises to be one of the most watched next year," said Jennifer Duffy of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. "The stakes are high on a number of levels."
The contest unfolds as conservative activists take on Republican moderates like Castle, fueling an internal ideological battle that has pushed the party farther to the right and made it tougher to find common ground with Democrats in Congress.
But these conservatives aren't expected to tangle much, if at all, with Castle in the November 2010 election.
That's because the popular nine-term lawmaker -- who as tiny Delaware's only U.S. representative is elected statewide -- and former two-term governor is seen as the only Republican able to beat Biden in the predominately Democratic state.
CONSERVATIVES 'YIELD TO THE WORLD AS IT IS'
"Folks on the right, and frankly I'm one of them in terms of voting record, have to yield to the world as it is and not necessarily how they wish it would be," said Senator John Cornyn, who as chairman of the Senate Republican campaign committee recruited Castle to run.
"The world as it is in Delaware is that if Mike Castle didn't run, Beau Biden would be the next senator from Delaware," said Cornyn.
Still, Castle said he expects to draw "some heat" from
conservative activists, like he did at town-hall meetings this year.
At one meeting, he was called a "traitor" for being one of eight House Republicans to back a Democratic bill to fight climate change.
At an another, he was booed for defending President Barack Obama against a conspiracy theory pushed by fringe groups that the Democratic president is not a U.S. citizen.
"There have been times that they have been less than happy with me," said Castle. "And they don't forget."
Castle said Republicans need to be less strident and more tolerant of different points of view if they expect to win back control of Congress and the White House.
"You can't be a majority party unless you are accommodating of that," Castle said. "Democrats have done a better job at that than we have."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2009
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Well crap, the last thing we need in either the Senate or the House is another RINO (Republican in Name Only), just when we thought we got rid of Arlen Spector, this guys wants to torment us for six years.
While I pine anxiously for the mid term elections and the bloodbath that will occur, I do not look longingly toward seeing a bunch of sissies with no spine or principle running as Republicans. Crap, we need some ideological consistency here...as well as...some guts to vote for the general good instead of a bridge in every back yard (pork). Cap and trade will render millions of americans homeless and unemployed as the cost of energy will drive jobs to third world countries with cheap labor and cheap power. I have enough trouble paying the upside down mortgage on my house now because of the machinations of Barney Frank and Jamey Gorelick, without having to worry about my utility bills going up a 1000 percent.
Can we find a hard core, no cap and trade, no healthcare confiscation, fiscal conservative, who will run against this sissy in the primaries?
Posted by: Karl Rove ||
12/24/2009 12:51
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Sure you could find a Tom Coburn look-alike to run for the seat, but he'd be sure to lose. This is Delaware we're talking about. If Castle turns out to be the 51st trunk, I'll think he's a good one, at least in voting for committee chairmanships.
#3
Good point, now if we can get him to vote the way we want.
As long as we can spike the left's cannons in the next election.
I think the big rush to get all of this legislation passed is because the Democrats know they are going to get clobbered in the next election and none of this stuff would get passed in 2011...
Any guarantee that a coalition of Republicans and conservative Democrats (why don't they just call themselves Republicans) can unravel the Stimulus (Porkulus) and the Healthcare reform if they get control of both houses?
Posted by: Karl Rove ||
12/24/2009 16:19
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North Korea smuggled about 3,400 tons of weapons into the Democratic Republic of Congo in the midst of a civil war there in January, with some of them going to Congolese insurgents or nearby countries, VOA quoted a UN official as saying Wednesday.
Vi-i-i-i-i-ctor!
Christian Dietrich, a member of the UN Security Council committee investigating Congo, told VOA that the North Korean ship Birobong arrived in the port of Boma, Congo on Jan. 21, where it unloaded some 3,400 tons of weapons, 100 times the amount seized in Thailand earlier this month.
Dietrich said the committee was told the weapons were "modern" but was unable to find out any details. Assuming all the weapons were AK rifles, the weight would be equivalent to about 800,000 of them, he added.
North Korea in May also sent military instructors to train Congolese government soldiers for about four weeks, around the time the North conducted its second nuclear test.
Dietrich said there are indications that North Korea was the source of state-of-the-art weapons carried by insurgents in eastern Congo. In some cases, Congolese government soldiers have sold their arms to neighboring countries such as Zimbabwe, he said.
Under UN Resolution 1807, adopted in 2008, the UN must be informed in advance of all arms transactions with and military training for Congo, but North Korea did not. The UNSC committee is a watchdog that oversees implementation of the UN resolution.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/24/2009
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...Instead of strong American leadership, the White House has all too often offered humiliating apologies for Americas past and embarrassing gaffes.
Here is a list of the ten biggest foreign policy follies of Barack Obamas first year in office.entirety. But here's the list:
1. Surrendering to Russia over missile defence.
2. Appeasing the mullahs of Iran.
3. Ending the war on terror.
4. Announcing a surge while declaring an exit.
5. Apologizing to France for America's "arrogance."
6. Giving DVDs to the British Prime Minister.
7. Siding with Marxists in Honduras.
8. Bowing to emperors and kings.
9. Embracing genocidal killers in Sudan.
10. Throwing Churchill out of the White House.
Posted by: lord garth ||
12/24/2009
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Someone really ought to be keeping tabs and listing/inviting suggested means to rectify the likely unpleasant outcomes resulting from Obama's woeful lack of judgement.
In response to Blunder #10: Requesting the return of Churchill's bust to the White House. Should be done with some ceremony during the first days of the next president's term.
#7
Have you noticed any leaks or backstabbing from State as we saw during the Bush II era? They seem very content with these 'blunders'. No surprise there. So, it should have been titled Obama and State's Top Ten Foreign Policy Blunders.
#9
Bulldog, I admit that the return of Churchill's bust was a very low point in the special relationship, but look at it from Obama's point of view: Could there have been a more embarrassing comparison?
Posted by: Matt ||
12/24/2009 13:03
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Not difficult to figure actually. It was Winston Churchill's army that arrested Barry's grandfather for spying for the Mau Mau.
Apples, they generally fall pretty close to the tree.
Posted by: ed ||
12/24/2009 15:00
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I don't understand why he didn't move the bust into a different room. Not very political.
Nobody would have loaned Clinton anything expensive ... that they wanted back.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/24/2009 15:18
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Here's hoping the next conservative President of the US (yeah, we can hope for one of those) makes time for "stick my thumb in obama's eye" one hour a day during 8 years of cleaning up the beltway cesspool. Could be great fun...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/24/2009 17:23
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Wouldn't it be easier to list the Top 100?
No, that would be way more painful. It would be way easier to list the things he has done right. At least it would be a much shorter list.
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.
Adam, 52, keeps his three wives in different towns to stop them from squabbling, but the white-bearded Chechen adds that he might soon take a fourth. Chechnya is Muslim, so this is our right as men. They [the wives] spend time together but do not always see eye to eye, said the soft-spoken pensioner, who only gave his first name.
A man considered to be the country's most decorated soldier has died. Oak Crest Funeral Home in Waco, Texas, says retired Col. Robert Lewis Howard died Wednesday. He was 70. The funeral home obituary said that at the time of his death he was the most decorated American soldier.
It was probably a whistleblower that released files from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia (UEA)? If so then the information is admissible in court and we will get greater detail on the greatest deception in history.
The Taliban blew up a girls' school in Pakistan's Khyber district, where troops are fighting against militants in the tribal region bordering Afghanistan, an official said Wednesday.
Top brass of the U.S. Forces Korea is seriously worried that a joint South Korea-U.S. defense plan has been hacked, apparently by North Koreans. 
Iranian security forces violently suppressed opposition supporters in the city of Isfahan yesterday as tensions increased before nationwide demonstrations planned for this weekend.
North Korea in late October informed the UN its food output this year was 5.01 million tons, it emerged on Tuesday. The yield included 2.34 million tons of rice, 1.7 million tons of corn, 560,000 tons of potatoes, 240,000 tons of wheat and barley and 150,000 tons of beans. 
[Iran TV Press latest]Houthi fighters have managed to repulse Saudi Arabian forces trying to infiltrate into the province of Sa'ada in northern Yemen, killing an unspecified number of Saudi soldiers in a battle in the border region. 
Michael Castle is a member of an endangered species in the U.S. Congress: He's a moderate Republican. He's also a key figure in next year's election.
North Korea smuggled about 3,400 tons of weapons into the Democratic Republic of Congo in the midst of a civil war there in January, with some of them going to Congolese insurgents or nearby countries, VOA quoted a UN official as saying Wednesday.
