[Al Ahram] Judge Adly Mahmoud Mansour, 67, head of Egypt's High Constitutional Court (HCC) -- who is now Egypt's transitional president after former Moslem Brüderbund president Mohamed Morsi was ousted after mass protests this week -- was appointed head of the HCC last July after former head Judge Maher El-Beheiry's term had ended.
Mansour was appointed in line with a new 2011 law, which stipulated that HCC heads should be appointed from within the court system. For 20 years, the HCC head was chosen from outside the constitutional court. Mansour has served as deputy head of the HCC since 1992.
Mansour helped draft the supervision law for the presidential elections that brought Morsi to power in 2012, which included setting a legal timeframe for electoral campaigning.
Born in December 1945, Mansour graduated law school in 1967 and worked at Egypt's State Council -- which has jurisdiction over the administrative court system when the government is involved -- before joining the HCC.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/04/2013
18:28 ||
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#1
it's Headly! Adley!
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/04/2013 7:38
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#2
Crap - hit submit too soon
it's Headly!Adley!
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/04/2013 7:39
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#3
Good political move. It will be hard for Moslem Brüderbund to fight their ouster in the courts.
[Al Ahram] The United States declined on Wednesday to criticize Egypt's military, even as it was ousting Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi from power. "Poop or go blind? Poor or go blind? Oh, dear! Decisions!"
Minutes before Egypt's army commander announced that Morsi, the country's first democratically elected president, Hitler was democratically elected, too...
had been deposed and the constitution suspended, the U.S. State Department criticized Morsi, but gave no public signal it was opposed to the army's action. "We're on... ummm... their side."
"Which side?"
"Whichever. You know."
Asked whether the Egyptian army had the legitimacy to remove Morsi from power, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said, "We're not taking sides in this." "We are keenly supportive of the hopes and aspirations of the Egyptian people!"
"Which Egyptian people?"
"Whichever."
The muted U.S. response - at least thus far - to the dramatic events in Cairo suggested that Washington may be willing to accept the military's move as a way of ending a political crisis that has paralyzed Egypt, a long-time U.S. ally. All depending on which way the wind blows, of course.
Still, the distant attitude toward Morsi, who has come under U.S. criticism in recent days, could open up President Barack Obama I've now been in 57 states -- I think one left to go... to complaints he has not supported democracy in the Arab world. "The United States steadfastly supports the aspirations of the Egyptian people!"
"Which aspirations?"
"Whichever."
There was no immediate reaction from the White House or the State Department to the military's announcement that it was installing a technocratic government to eventually be followed by new elections. "Michelle! Michelle! Wake up!"
"What? Barry, it's 3 a.m.!"
"Michelle, should I poop or go blind?"
"I don't know, Barry! Compromise! Fart and get near-sighted!"
But the fact that the Egyptian military announced plans for elections and a constitutional review, and that those plans were immediately backed by the country's leading Moslem and Christian holy mans, could help the transition roadmap earn Washington's backing. "Yeah! That's it! They got a roadmap! That's the ticket! Can't go wrong with a roadmap!"
"Sure, Barry. Look how well it's worked in Paleostine!"
Earlier, Psaki had made clear that U.S. officials were disappointed in Morsi's speech on Tuesday night. "Harrumph! Harrumph! Yasss! Disappointed! Very disappointed!"
In that speech Morsi said he would defend the legitimacy of his elected office with his life. "Mill-yuns of martyrs! Marching as we go!"
"Ummm... It's not millions anymore, Moe."
"It's not? Thousands?"
"Not quite that many."
"Hundreds?"
"No."
"Dozens?"
Morsi must "do more to be truly responsive" to concerns of Egyptian people" after huge rallies over the weekend, she said. "We are calling on him to take more steps." Was that before or after he was dumped?
Specifically, Psaki said Morsi should call for an end to violence, including violence against women. Yeah, yeah. That ain't gonna happen. That's an Arab thing, not an MB thing. Don't forget to call for an end to violence against homosexuals. And an end to cruelty to animals. Both concern the central issue about as much.
He should also take steps to engage with the opposition and the military and work through the crisis in a political fashion, she added. He wasn't willing to "dialogue" until everybody was ready to toss him. That was his problem. Have they been paying any attention at all in Washington?
The military move also presents Obama with a dilemma over continuing U.S. aid to Egypt. Underlying the importance for Washington of keeping ties to Egypt's military, Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... in May quietly approved $1.3 billion in military assistance, even though the country did not meet democracy standards set by the U.S. Congress for it to receive the aid. U.S. law requires most American aid to be cut off "to the government of any country whose duly elected head of government is deposed by military coup d'etat or decree.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/04/2013
18:05 ||
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[NY Times] Egypt's military on Wednesday ousted Mohamed Morsi, the nation's first freely elected president, suspending the Constitution, installing an interim government and insisting it was responding to the millions of Egyptians who had opposed the Islamist agenda of Mr. Morsi and his allies in the Moslem Brüderbund. The nation's first freely elected president decided he was the replacement for the previous dictator.
The military intervention, which Mr. Morsi rejected, "I reject your tanks! I reject your guns! I reject your... ummm... firing squad?"
marked a tumultuous new phase in the politics of modern Egypt, where Mr. Morsi's autocratic predecessor, Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... , was tossed in a 2011 revolution. Morsi misjudged his moment in history. He thought it was time to install his party and exclude everybody else. Syria's Assad is misinterpreting this, naturally. It'll be interesting to see what Erdogan does, since he's in precisely the same position.
The intervention raised questions about whether that revolution would fulfill its promise to build a new democracy at the heart of the Arab world. Egypt got the Islamist thing out of the way. I thought it would take them a generation to get sick of it. It turned out to be a year. The choices they make this time around will be at least minimally better than Morsi, though don't expect to see any Jeffersons or Madisons in Giza.
The defiance of Mr. Morsi and his Brotherhood allies raised the specter of the bloody years of the 1990s when fringe Islamist groups used violence in an effort to overthrow the military government. Except that the Islamists have been running things. At this point they'll merely be running. However, the relatively moderate MB will now be replaced by frothing Salafists who don't care about any damned elections, determined as they are that rule by holy men is man's natural state. I wonder if the army's next move is to round up the Salafists who conveniently identified themselves these last couple years, and shoot them...
In an announcement read on state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
, Gen. Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi, the Egyptian defense minister, said the military had taken the extraordinary steps not to seize power for itself but to ensure that "confidence and stability are secured for the people." Notice that the military in this case are acting remarkably like the Turkish military always has--and as the Syrian military would have, had it had the national interest at heart. Under a "road map" for a post-Morsi government, the general said, the Constitution would be suspended, the head of the Constitutional Court would become acting president and plans would be expedited for new elections while an interim government is in charge. The constitution was designed by the MB to keep the MB in power. The [army] hasn't actually wasted a couple years; they've learned something.
The general, who had issued a 48-hour ultimatum to Mr. Morsi on Monday to respond to what he called widespread anger over his administration's troubled one-year-old tenure, said the president's defiant response in a televised address on Tuesday had failed "to meet the demands of the masses of the people." ... most of whom were out in the streets demanding his head.
The general's announcement came after the armed forces had deployed tanks and troops in Cairo and other cities where pro-Morsi crowds were massing, restricted Mr. Morsi's movements and convened an emergency meeting of top civilian and religious leaders to devise the details of how the interim government and new elections would proceed. Morsi knew the door was open for him and he didn't leave. He would have liked to be another Assad.
Ahram Online, the government's official English-language Web site, said the military had informed Mr. Morsi that he was no longer head of state. There was no word on Mr. Morsi's whereabouts. In the cell next to Hosni?
But in a statement e-mailed by his office, Mr. Morsi rejected the military's intervention. I reject all this lard hanging over my belt. It hasn't left yet.
"Dr. Mohamed Morsi, the president of the Arab Republic of Egypt, emphasizes that the measures taken by the General Command of the armed forces represent a complete military coup which is categorically rejected by all the free of the country who have struggled so that Egypt turns into a civil democratic society," his statement said. Most of the free of the country are in the streets with torches and pitchforks.
"His Excellency the president, as the President of the Republic and the Chief Commander of the Armed Forces stresses that all citizens, civilians and in the military, leaders and soldiers, must commit to the constitution and the law and to not respond to this coup that sets Egypt back and to maintain peacefulness in their performance and to avoid being involved in the blood of the people of the homeland. Everybody must shoulder their responsibilities before God and then before the people and history. " He's blowing wind. It means no more than did his last-minute demand for "dialogue."
The military had signaled early in the day that it intended to depose Mr. Morsi. By 6:30 p.m. military forces began moving around Cairo. Tanks and troops headed for the presidential palace -- although it was unclear whether Mr. Morsi was inside -- while other soldiers ringed the nearby square where tens of thousands of the president's supporters were rallying.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/04/2013
17:00 ||
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#1
Interesting the salafists are supporting the coup. Could just be politics.
#8
3 or 4 days ago, Obama was warning the Copts to not demonstrate against his bitch Morsi. Guess America's President forgot about the people with tanks.
#10
All afternoon the CNN was using the lower screen post as 'Morsy with a 'y' ousted'. Maybe they are trying to make sure they have access there like Iraq..
#11
CNN is actually covering it? Or is that the five minutes in between their coverage of the Zimmerman trial where they display Zimmerman's SSN and other personal data?
#13
I remember asking this question before but I don't remember if there was an answer..... what flavor of tanks are those in the picture? Some US light tank pre-dating the Sheridan? A Chaffee?
[REUTERS] The leader of the Moslem Brüderbund was tossed in the clink Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! by Egyptian security forces on Thursday in a crackdown against the Islamist movement after the army ousted the country's first democratically elected president.
The dramatic exit of President Mohamed Mursi was greeted with delight by millions of people on the streets of Cairo and other cities overnight, but there was simmering resentment among Egyptians who opposed military intervention.
Perhaps aware of the risk of a polarized society, the new interim leader, judge Adli Mansour, used his inauguration to hold out an olive branch to the Brotherhood, Mursi's power base.
"The Moslem Brüderbund are part of this people and are invited to participate in building the nation as nobody will be excluded, and if they respond to the invitation, they will be welcomed," he said.
But a senior Brotherhood official said it would not work with "the usurper authorities". Another of its politicians said Mursi's overthrow would push other groups, though not his own, to violent resistance.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/04/2013
13:06 ||
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#1
On an incitement to murder charge. The gallows calls...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/04/2013 13:29
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#2
They've started arresting the rest of the leadership as well.
[DAILYMAIL.CO.UK] A college student is suing the NYPD claiming that police officers unnecessarily stopped on the street and searched her, including looking inside her underwear.
Samantha Rosenbaum, 22, from Essex County, NJ, claims that she was stopped for no apparent reason last year as she stopped to stroke a cat in Williamsburg. She made the allegations in a Brooklyn federal court lawsuit filed this week concerning the July 17 incident.
Ms Rosenbaum was on her way back from a post office errand during an internship she stooped down and looked a cat, reported the New York Post.
The suit claims that is when a man inside a gold sedan shouted at her to stop.
The Bard College graduate ignored the man, until he and another woman jumped out the car, demanding to know why she had not stopped and whether she had drugs, the suit alleges. She told the newspaper that only after a few minutes the people told her they were police.
'My face and stomach were on the hood.'
She said that she offered to show them the cat, but the suit alleges the female cop the opened Ms Rosenbaum's clothing and peering inside her bra and her under pants.
Ms Rosenbaum said she spent the whole ordeal sobbing - the suit says she was told multiple times she could be taken to the police station and written up for a felony. She said she was let go after they told her they did not want her to a have a 'bad impression of cops.'
Posted by: Fred ||
07/04/2013
13:05 ||
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#2
She said that she offered to show them the cat, but the suit alleges the female cop the opened Ms Rosenbaum's clothing and peering inside her bra and her under pants.
perhaps she used a different word, and they took it upon themselves to look unaided?
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/04/2013 13:50
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Posted by: Barbara ||
07/04/2013 18:05
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#7
Again, you seem to have amnesia. Things were far worse in the 1970s up through the mid-1990s. The precinct cops in my part of New York were so corrupt and brutal that they were viewed by everyone as basically another gang. The commission that investogayed them came to the same conclusion. Ditto for cops in Detroit, Houston, Frank Rizzo's Philadelphia, to name just a few.
I know y'all have this frothing hatred of Obama, but the fact remains that urban cops today are far less brutal than they've been at any point in my lifetime.
#8
I know y'all have this frothing hatred of Obama, but the fact remains that urban cops today are far less brutal than they've been at any point in my lifetime.
When Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence, he included a wistful line that was excised by the other signatories: 'We might have been a great and free people together'.
Until that moment, the idea that Americans were engaged in a war against a foreign power would have struck Patriots and Loyalists alike as bizarre. Jefferson, like other Virginia radicals, saw himself as a British Whig, heir to the tradition of Edward Coke (1552--1634), John Hampden (1595--1643) and Algernon Sidney (1623--1683). He did not believe he was laying claim to any new rights; rather, he was defending the liberties that he assumed he had been born with as an Englishman. Right up to the end, he had hoped that such liberties might flourish under the Crown, but George III dashed his ambition. We sense Jefferson's bitterness in the Declaration's telling complaint about the king 'transporting hither foreign mercenaries'. Foreign! How historians have glossed over the significance of that word. In sending his Hessian hirelings against Britons, the Hanoverian monarch was in effect annulling their nationality.
The American Revolution is now described with anachronistic terminology. History books and tour guides talk about how, in 1775, minutemen and militias swarmed to resist 'the British' -- language that no one would or could have used at the time. Everyone involved was British, and public opinion in the British Isles was divided in exactly the same way as in the colonies. The American conflict was, in truth, a settlement by force of the ancient Tory--Whig dispute which, at least in New England, had passed the point of peaceful resolution. What we now call the American War of Independence would more accurately be termed the Second Anglosphere Civil War -- the First having been fought across England, Scotland, Ireland and America in the 1640s.
#1
What we now call the American War of Independence would more accurately be termed the Second Anglosphere Civil War -- the First having been fought across England, Scotland, Ireland and America in the 1640s.
The first being a fight between the Crown and Parliament about who had the authority to levy and collect taxes, who had the authority to appoint officers of the realm and were those officer accountable to the laws of Parliament, and ultimate whose office is beholding to whom.
Among the sympathizers in Parliament, they stated these British colonists were only defending the natural rights of Englishmen.
As Adams later reflected, a third were for it, a third were against it, and a third remained in the middle. [Well, at least till the Crown enlisted the Indians around New York to join up.]
Many people in London could not understand why the big fuss. With the removal of the French threat and the natives relatively benign at the time, thing were never better.
The Jordan Times has this to say about Egypt's armed forces overthrew of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi.
Flanked by political and religious leaders and top generals, General Abdel Fattah Al Sisi announced the suspension of the Islamist-tinged constitution and a roadmap for a return to democratic rule under a revised rule book.
The president of the supreme constitutional court will act as interim head of state, assisted by an interim council and a technocratic government until new presidential and parliamentary elections are held.
"Those in the meeting have agreed on a roadmap for the future that includes initial steps to achieve the building of a strong Egyptian society that is cohesive and does not exclude anyone and ends the state of tension and division," Sisi said in a solemn address broadcast live on state television.
After he spoke, hundreds of thousands of anti-Morsi protesters in central Cairo's Tahrir Square erupted into wild cheering, setting off fireworks and waving flags. Cars drove around the capital honking their horns in celebration. Give it to Morsi, he managed to unite the country. :-)
The massive anti-Morsi protests showed that the Brotherhood had not only alienated liberals and secularists by seeking to entrench Islamic rule, notably in a new constitution, but had also angered millions of Egyptians with economic mismanagement.
The country's two main religious leaders, the head of Al Azhar Islamic institute and the Coptic Pope, both expressed their support for the army's roadmap in speeches after Sisi, as did the main liberal opposition leader, Nobel peace laureate Mohammad Al Baradei.
#1
Under the provision, companies with 50 or more workers face a fine of as much as $3,000 per employee if they dont offer affordable insurance.
The law does not require that employers offer affordable insurance. In fact, given that the insurance must be comprehensive, it is guaranteed to be expensive. Furthermore, employees will be required to bear the majority of the burden. When the democratic sheep realize how much they have been sheared by Obamacare the bleating will be deafening.
#8
When the democratic sheep realize how much they have been sheared by Obamacare the bleating will be deafening.
No, it'll be "Look at what all the corporations are doing to us" and "how could any of you Rethuglicans be for _this_ instead of Single Payer, The Only real Pro-Business Solution?"
#9
Nothing will happen, Champ will get another pass at violating the laws of the country and any who challenge him will be smeared by the LSM. Rules only apply to the meek.
Three men were killed and seven men wounded in separate attacks this evening and afternoon on the city's South and West Sides.
Most recently in the West Woodlawn neighborhood, three men were shot about 7:25 p.m. in the 6600 block of South Champlain Avenue, according to police News Affairs Officer Daniel O'Brien, who was citing preliminary information.
They "self-transported" and showed up at Saint Bernard Hospital and Health Care Center, where a 26-year-old man who was shot in the head was dead on the scene, an 18-year-old was shot in the shoulder and critically hurt, and the third, a 19-year-old who was shot in the shoulder, was in "stable" condition, said O'Brien. Will "Self-Transported" will be covered under Obamacare ? Yes, it's a separate tax...
The Cook County medical examiner's office confirmed the death of the 26-year-old man who was shot on Champlain Avenue and was pronounced dead at 7:38 p.m. at Saint Bernard.
Earlier in the South Shore neighborhood, a 24-year-old man was shot in the back and critically wounded about 6:50 p.m. in the 2400 block of East 79th Street, according to O'Brien. Very strange, they all seem to be about the same age.
Police said someone fired at him after getting out of a green car. The man shot then ran around the corner into the 7900 block of South Phillips Avenue and collapsed, police said. He was pronounced dead at Northwestern Memorial Hospital at 7:26 p.m., according to the medical examiner's office. No arrests have been made, said O'Brien, who said the victim was initially described as being in critical condition. Yes, a near death condition is oftentimes described as critical.
[IrishTimes] Gen Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, architect of the military intervention in Egypt's worsening political crisis, was little known outside the army when he was appointed Mohamed Morsi's defence minister last August -- part of the Islamist leader's deft consolidation of power.
Sisi, a career soldier, was head of military intelligence and the youngest member of the 19-strong Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. But despite coming from the security establishment he had a reputation for being sympathetic to the Moslem Brüderbund -- the reason, many Egyptians assumed, Morsi chose him for the job. Sisi is said to be a religious man, and his wife, unusually, wears the full niqab (face veil).
Mohamed Beltagy, a senior Brotherhood figure, has described receiving a "brotherly" warning from the intelligence chief about an impending attack by regime thugs on demonstrators in Tahrir Square in what became known as the "battle of the camel" -- one of the brutally defining moments of the revolution that overthrew Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... , in 2011.
But Sisi also attracted criticism for appearing to defend the behaviour of the armed forces in detaining and beating women protesters who were subjected to strip searches and "virginity tests" and threatened with prostitution charges.
Sisi, born in 1954, was a relative youngster in a military dominated by elderly officers with extensive privileges and a traditional view of their place in Egyptian political life. Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, whom he replaced, was in his late 70s. Sisi reportedly shook like a leaf when Morsi told him to "behave like a man" and take the job, while Tantawi waited in the next room.
Eyebrows were raised when he allowed Islamists to enter the Egyptian military's officer training academy -- when it had always insisted before that cadets were unimpeachably apolitical. Opposition supporters point out that as army intelligence chief, Sisi was privy to classified information about the Moslem Brüderbund and more radical Islamist groups, as well as links with Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason.
Just days before Sisi was appointed, jihadis in Sinai attacked Egyptian border guards, killing 16 and humiliating the armed forces - underlining the dangerous gaps in security in the messy post-Mubarak transition.
Sisi, an infantry officer, was trained at the UK Joint Command and Staff College and did a masters degree at the US army's War College in Pennsylvania.
He is said to have "experienced firsthand the aggravation of officers who watched huge amounts of money squandered on projects that lined the pockets of the high command but left the soldiers unable to fight effectively."
He is also described as enjoying close relations with the US military as well as Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... , where he served as a military attache. Inside the army, some critics reportedly believe he has been too soft on the Brotherhood.
Last December, the new Egyptian consititution gave the military greater autonomy than it had ever enjoyed before but relations with the Brotherhood worsened as public disenchantment with Morsi grew and the army polished its own PR. Sisi warned of intervention a week before the 30 June protests. Now he is at the centre of a high stakes struggle for the future of Egypt.
[AlArabiya] Egypt's Moslem Brüderbund is seeking to infiltrate the military establishment, overthrow its leadership and bring it fully under its control, Egyptian media reported Friday.
The Islamist movement is not happy with the military because the latter has refused to recruit more of its members and because the generals object to President Mohammed Mursi's rapprochement with Iran, the daily al-Masry a-Youm reported, quoting sources.
Last February, similar reports claimed that the Brotherhood sought to overthrow the head of Egypt's Armed Forces, General Abdulfatah al-Sisi, and other high-profile officers in a scenario similar to the ouster of Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi.
Al-Masry al-Youm's reported, however, that the military will not allow the ouster of another general and that Sisi enjoys wide support among military officers and the public on the lam.
This article starring:
Abdel Fattah al-Sisi
Posted by: trailing wife ||
07/04/2013
03:16 ||
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#1
Scratch what I said in an earlier post. "New boss same as the old boss?"
he probably did them a favor by acting as soon as he did
if the MB in egypt were a corporation, what he did was put them in Chapter 11 and hope they can reorganize rather than go to chapter 7 and be liquidated
Posted by: lord garth ||
07/04/2013 11:55
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Army concern about the way President Mohamed Morsi was governing Egypt reached tipping point when the head of state attended a rally packed with hardline fellow Islamists calling for holy war in Syria, military sources have said.
At the June 15th rally, Sunni Muslim clerics used the word "infidels" to denounce both the Shias fighting to protect Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and the non-Islamists that oppose Mr Morsi at home.
Mr Morsi himself called for foreign intervention in Syria against Mr Assad, leading to a veiled rebuke from the army, which issued an apparently bland but sharp-edged statement the next day stressing that its only role was guarding Egypt's borders.
"The armed forces were very alarmed by the Syrian conference at a time the state was going through a major political crisis," said one officer, whose comments reflected remarks made privately by other army staff. He was speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to talk to the media.
For the army, the Syria rally had crossed "a national security red line" by encouraging Egyptians to fight abroad, risking creating a new generation of jihadists, said Yasser El-Shimy, analyst with the International Crisis Group.
At the heart of the military's concern is the history of militant Islam in Egypt, homeland of al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri. The military source condemned recent remarks made by "retired terrorists" allied to Mr Morsi, who has deepened his ties with the once-armed group al-Gamaa al-Islamiya.
What about concern about the number of Brotherhood members quietly working their way up the ranks in the military?
#2
Iran is an "Islamic republic." The flavor of the theology doesn't count as long as holy men are in charge.
Even al-Azhar was gagging on that idea.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/04/2013 9:38
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#3
2100-2140 local time. A 'mob' attacks the US consulate in Benghazi...The attack is reported as 'disorganized', but also appears to target specific areas...Walid Shoebat notes a translation of an Al Jazeera video taken during the Benghazi attack, where the attacker says, "Don't shoot, Mursi sent us".
From my notes on the Benghazi attack timeline, based on open sources.
[An Nahar] Hizbullah Secretary-General His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah The satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb... considered that the recent security incidents across Leb aim at curbing the movement of the resistance and plunging it in the local political disputes.
Nasrallah stressed, according to al-Joumhouria newspaper published on Wednesday, that the krazed killer phenomenon that Leb has been witnessing lately are backed and funded by known Arab countries.
The party leader pointed out during a meeting with senior Hizbullah officials that such acts aim at creating sedition between Sunnis and Shiites, reiterating that Hizbullah is trying to avoid it.
Since the eruption of Syria's festivities in 2011, Leb has been witnessing several security incidents in Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... , along the Lebanese-Syrian border and in several other regions.
Concerning the situation in the neighboring country Syria, Nasrallah addressed the rise of the Takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who most be killed... groups.
He said that the conflict in Syria will be prolonged but the Syrian regime of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Supressor of the Damascenes... will emerge victorious.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/04/2013
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[An Nahar] Donor nations funding Afghanistan's recovery on Wednesday piled pressure on the government to pass election laws seen as crucial to proving the 12-year war and billions of dollars of aid money have not been wasted.
The laws, which will determine how April's presidential election is run, have been delayed for months in parliament, and the international community is increasingly concerned that the poll's credibility is at risk.
"We cannot stress enough the importance of a successful and democratic political transition next year and a credible and timely election," the United States said in a statement at an aid meeting in Kabul.
"We urge the Afghan government and parliament to take the next critical steps and pass electoral legislation that provides for credible appointments of electoral officials and an independent complaints process."
The head of the U.N. mission in Afghanistan Jan Kubis said that "any further delay seriously risks jeopardizing" preparations for the presidential election, which is scheduled for April 5.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/04/2013
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#1
Immediately followed by Detroit style Vote rigging.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/04/2013 9:51
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[An Nahar] The Maronite Bishops council condemned on Wednesday the spread of illegal arms in Leb, saying that it will only create chaos in the country.
They said in a statement: "All gangs must lay down their weapons in favor of official security forces."
The bishops made their remarks after their monthly meeting headed by Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi.
"Political groups cannot rely on arms to achieve their goals, but they should do so through democratic means," they declared.
"Leb is passing through a critical phase and the people must adhere to coexistence in order to fortify their country," they demanded.
The bishops therefore called on all political powers to launch dialogue and respect the state and army.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/04/2013
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[An Nahar] Paleostinian President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... assured on Wednesday abiding by the Lebanese cabinet's decision regarding the possession of arms in the country's refugee camps.
"We abide by the Lebanese cabinet's decisions regarding Leb's safety and the possession of weapons in refugee camps," Abbas said in a mutual presser with his Lebanese counterpart in Baabda Palace.
By long-standing convention, the Lebanese army does not enter the country's 12 refugee camps, leaving security inside to the Paleostinians themselves.
Abbas stated: "We do not interfere in others' countries issues and we stress on disassociating Paleostinians from Leb's internal conflicts."
Meanwhile, ...back at the fist fight, Jake ducked another roundhouse, then parried with his left, then with his right, finally with his chin... President Michel Suleiman ...before assuming office as President, he held the position of commander of the Leb Armed Forces. That was after the previous commander, the loathesome Emile Lahoud, took office as president in November of 1998. Likely the next president of Leb will be whoever's commander of the armed forces, too... revealed that there are Paleostinians that are "individually taking part in the country's conflicts."
"It is for their and for Leb's best interests if they do not get involved," Suleiman warned.
Suleiman praised efforts exerted to prevent the involvement of any Paleostinian faction in the festivities of the southern city of Sidon.
"We both agreed on the importance of not letting Paleostinians slip into the internal Lebanese crises."
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Pak Daily Times] Israel's blockade of the Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,-ruled Gazoo Strip has dramatically restricted the income of Paleostinian families and hampered their development, a top UN official said on Wednesday.
"We see the dramatic impact on the people of Gazoo because of the closure and blockade and how the income of these people has been dramatically restricted," UN humanitarian coordinator for Paleostinian territories James W Rowley told news hounds during a visit to the enclave.
"These restrictions affect the poorest the most; they impede development of a sustainable economy and increase dependency on aid," he was also quoted as saying in a statement. During his visit Paleostinian farmers complained to Rowley how the blockade has affected their products.
"Our products are always damaged because of the closure of the terminal. Our strawberries have to go through four or five stations before being sold through Kerem Shalom," an Israeli terminal for transporting goods from Gazoo, farmer Ayman Subuh from Beit Lahia said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/04/2013
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#1
Our products are always damaged because of the closure of the terminal.
If it ain't one damn thing it's another, a lot like life. It would be so cool if they had 800 or 900 acres of greenhouses to spur production. Perhaps the noted American Agriculturalist Wednesday Adams can provide verbal assistance.
#2
I'd argue that the blockage is good for the Paleos because it prevents them from reaching their full annoyance potential, something which would result in a complete and thorough ass-kicking from the IDF.
Make this pompous ass live there and suffer the lack of four star restaurants. Let him leave with major foot injuries suffered during Paleo Gun Sex and Festivities
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/04/2013 16:07
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Princess Fawzia, a member of Egypts last royal family and the first wife of Irans later-deposed monarch, has died, Iranian opposition groups said. She was 92.
Fawzia died Tuesday in Egypts Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, the Paris-based opposition groups said, but no cause of death was immediately known. She was the daughter of Egyptian King Fuad I, who ruled until 1936. Her brother and nephew later rose to the throne before the monarchy was toppled in 1953.
In 1939, Fawzia married Irans then-crown prince, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was overthrown in the 1979 Islamic Revolution. They divorced in 1945 after having one daughter.
Fawzia remarried in 1949 to an Egyptian army officer.
Burial was planned for Wednesday in Cairo.
Egypt could do a lot worse than to bring back the royal family. Set up a constitutional monarchy, limit the powers of the king to that of head of state, and set up a strong constitutional order with a prime minister. The royal would be the visible symbol of Egypt and the guaranteer of the constitution and of the republic. Make it halfway between that of Morocco's system and that of Thailand, with a touch of Britain thrown in.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/04/2013
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#1
That assumes that the "royalty" were better and more honest leaders than the present "candidates".
[Pak Daily Times] A roadside blast maimed four children outside the residence of a PPP politician in Jacobabad on Wednesday. According to media reports, the bomb was planted on an under-construction road outside the house of MPA Sohrab Sarki. As a result of the kaboom, four children were maimed. They were shifted to the Civil Hospital. Police surrounded the area and launched a search operation.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/04/2013
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[Al Ahram] Tunisian opposition activists have launched their own version of Egypt's Tamarod protest movement, whose campaign to remove President Mohamed Mursi drew millions onto the streets and led to an army ultimatum for the Islamist leader to share power.
The youthful, little known leaders of Tunisian Tamarod (Rebel) hope to galvanise opposition to their own Islamist-led government which, like Mursi, came to power after an uprising in 2011 swept an autocratic leader from office.
Like its Egyptian namesake, the Tunisian group accuses the Islamists of trying to usher in a religious state that smothers personal freedoms and failing to drag the economy out of crisis.
Its members said they planned to call for mass protests after quickly gathering the signatures of about 200,000 people opposing the government.
That is a fraction of the 22 million signatures their Egyptian counterparts said they collected against Mursi, but the Tunisian activists believe they can acquire comparable momentum.
Tamarod front man Mohamed Bennour said the group aimed to overturn a Constituent Assembly charged with drafting a new constitution, accusing the body of preparing the ground for a religious state. It also wants a new caretaker government.
"Tunisia's young are following in the footsteps of young Egyptians.. We are not satisfied with what is happening in the country, from an attack on freedoms to a bad economic and social situation," Bennour told news hounds.
The struggle for power has deepened animosity between Tunisia's Islamists and liberals since the ousting of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in the first Arab Spring uprising.
But the protest group may struggle to have the same impact as Egyptian Tamarod.
Egyptian liberals and secularists accuse Mursi and his Moslem Brüderbund of spurning any form of political compromise and forcing through a new constitution to further a project of Islamic rule.
The Brotherhood denies this and accuses its opponents of violating democracy by supporting a military coup against an elected head of state.
But the scale of this week's protests suggests its failure to share real power has helped alienate millions of ordinary Egyptians suffering from the government's economic mismanagement.
In contrast, Tunisia's governing Islamist party Ennahda managed to head off growing street protests and appease secular-minded parties by ushering in a coalition government in March that included several independent ministers.
Ennahda has also accepted that sharia (Islamic law) is not mentioned in Tunisia's new constitution, a demand of secular politicians.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[An Nahar] U.S. National Intelligence Director James Clapper has apologized for telling politicians the National Security Agency does not collect data from Americans' phone records and Internet use.
Clapper had been asked by Senator Ron Wyden at a March 12 hearing if the NSA had gathered "any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans," and the spy chief replied: "Not wittingly."
Leaks from a former contractor for the NSA, Edward Snowden, in recent weeks have since uncovered a far-reaching "data-mining" program that scoops up telephone records and some Internet communications of Americans.
The revelations forced the spy chief to correct what he called his "erroneous" testimony before the Senate panel, according to a letter posted online by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
In a letter to the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator Dianne Feinstein, Clapper said he wanted to "set the record straight" given the "heated controversy" prompted by his remarks.
Clapper wrote that his answer had mistakenly focused on different intelligence gathering activities that allow for spying on the content of communications only under specific guidelines and a judge's approval.
He said "my response was clearly erroneous -- for which I apologize."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/04/2013
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#1
He said "my response was clearly erroneous -- for which I apologize."
Not good enough! You lied [and perjured yourself] to the elected representatives of the American people whilst under oath. Your resignation please.
Criminal Conduct
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Illegal involvement with drugs including possession, cultivation, processing, manufacture, purchase, sale or distribution can be considered disqualifying. A history of alcohol or drug abuse can be detrimental to a person applying for a security clearance. Signs of rehabilitation can lessen the detrimental effects.
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Omitting facts, lying, general dishonesty and refusing to cooperate in the process for obtaining a security clearance will be used as grounds for disqualification. Whether you have done something else that may disqualify you or not, being honest about it will always be better, and may even provide mitigating circumstance. Lying about it will only make it that much more likely you will be disqualified.
[An Nahar] King of the Arabians, Sheikh of the Burning Sands Abdullah ... Fifth out of 37 sons of King Abdulaziz to ascend to the throne. He is, after his half-brothers Bandar and Musa'id, the third eldest of the living sons of Abdul Aziz ibn Saud. Abdullah's mother is from the Rashid clan, longtime rivals of the Saud. He has 6 sons and 15 daughters and about $20 billion. His youngest son is just seven years old... on Wednesday sent a message of congratulations to Egypt's new caretaker president, saying his appointment comes at a "critical" time in the nation's history, the official Saudi news agency SPA reported.
"On behalf of the people of Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... I congratulate you for taking over the leadership of Egypt at this critical time in its history," Abdullah said in the first message of congratulations by an Arab leader to Adly Mansour.
"We call on God to help you bear the responsibility to achieve the hopes of our brotherly people in Egypt," the head of the Sunni-ruled oil powerhouse said in the message.
He also paid tribute to the Egyptian armed forces and its leader Abdel Fattah al-Sisi for using "wisdom" in helping to resolve the crisis and avoiding "unforeseen consequences."
Posted by: Fred ||
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On Monday, he became the head of Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court. Just two days later, the 67-year-old was installed as the country's president after a military coup ousted Mohammed Morsy from power.
In a televised speech to the nation Wednesday night, Egypt's top military officer announced that Mansour would become the country's interim leader.
Posted by: Au Auric ||
07/04/2013 0:24
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Air defense exercises being called "Defenders of the Sky of our Province - 5" will be held in Iran in the second half of this year (started on March 21), Commander of the Air Defense Staff Hatemul-Enbia of the Iranian Armed Forces General Farzad Ismaili said, Tasnim news repoted.
According to him, "Defenders of the sky of our province - 5" will be a major undertaking compared with the same exercise held in November of last year.
"In the course of this exercise, we will test the latest advances in the field of defense," Ismaili said.
The general added that Hazem-3UAVs will also be tested during this exercise.
Iran has recently been conducting air defense exercises entitled "Defenders of the sky of our province." Four such exercises have already been held in various provinces of Iran.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#1
"Defenders of the Sky of our Province - 5"
I bet it sounds snappier in the original Russian
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/04/2013 8:22
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[An Nahar] A military commander claimed on Wednesday that soldiers had since last week killed more than 100 attackers responsible for a deadly raid in ethnically divided central Nigeria.
"So far we have killed more than 100 of the attackers before we succeeded in securing the areas," Major General Henry Ayoola, who commands a task force in the region, told news hounds.
The military has come under major pressure over last week's attack which killed at least 28 residents and the commander's information could not be independently verified.
Violence on June 27 saw gunnies raid three villages in the remote Langtang region of Plateau state. Homes were also burnt in two other villages.
Some local officials have put the corpse count from the attacks higher, saying as many as 70 people were killed.
The attacks appeared to have been reprisals linked to cattle theft, often the source of friction in the Middle Belt region dividing the mainly Mohammedan north and predominantly Christian south of Africa's most populous nation.
The military came under criticism over an alleged slow response to the attack and has since sought to defend itself.
"Before the gunnies retreated, we had killed over 20 of them," Ayoola said.
"My troops traced them in their direction and bumped off several of them days after the attack. So far we have killed more than 100 of the attackers before we succeeded in securing the areas."
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Al Ahram] The Paleostinian Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, movement denied accusations made by rival Paleostinian group Fatah that it was intervening in the affairs of neighbouring Arab countries, including Egypt.
A press statement issued by Hamas denounced "the renewal of false accusations" against the movement, stressing that there had been no reported incidents of its intervention in any Islamic or Arab country historically.
Fatah had on Tuesday accused Hamas, ideologically affiliated with Egypt's Moslem Brüderbund, of being involved in Egypt for the past year, and of forming militias to defend the embattled group, UK-based paper Al-Arab Online reported.
Hamas called the accusations "fabricated illusions."
Posted by: Fred ||
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Written just yesterday and already dated. But the author, Mohamed Soliman, is a leader in the Rebel youth movement in Cairo and has an insider's perspective.
Example: he notes the bargain made between Champ and the Brøderbünd: we'd support them, and in return they'd control the crazies in the Syrian rebellion so as to ensure the weapons provided to the rebels didn't fall into the 'wrong' hands. Champ bought that? Apparently so.
Worth the read.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/04/2013
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On Monday, he became the head of Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court. Just two days later, the 67-year-old was installed as the country's president after a military coup ousted Mohammed Morsy from power.
In a televised speech to the nation Wednesday night, Egypt's top military officer announced that Mansour would become the country's interim leader.
Posted by: Au Auric ||
07/04/2013 0:25
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what Soliman didn't address much is
the role of the Salafist party over the past month
defection of rank and file MB members
I think it may have to do with the fact that there wasn't enough money to spread around to keep everyone happy
Posted by: lord garth ||
07/04/2013 6:17
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#3
Obama NOTE #2, your time is HERE.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/04/2013 12:03
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[An Nahar] Bulgaria's former spy chief Kircho Kirov has been charged with embezzling millions from the National Intelligence Service's budget between 2007 to 2011, Sofia military prosecutors said Wednesday.
Kirov -- who headed the service from February 2003 to January 2012 -- allegedly issued 1,100 documents for expenses he did not make and pocketed the money, estimated at 4.7 million leva (2.4 million euros, $3.1 million).
Charged with embezzlement and document fraud, he now risks between 10 and 20 years in jail and confiscation of property if found guilty.
The prosecution said the case was "particularly grave given the high office of the perpetrator".
Presa daily newspaper reported Wednesday that Kirov had opened a non-existant investigation under the code name D-05 and paid imaginary agents for working on it. The money -- about 900,000 leva per year -- has not been recovered.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/04/2013
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#1
James Bond, he Aint.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/04/2013 9:46
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[An Nahar] A former executive of iconic New York jewelry store Tiffany was placed in durance vile Please don't kill me! on Tuesday for stealing more than $1 million worth of valuables which she later resold, federal prosecutors said.
Ingrid Lederhaas-Okun, Tiffany's former vice-president of product development, swiped 165 items of jewelry between November 2012 and February 2013, when she left the firm.
In her role as vice-president of product development, Lederhaas-Okun had the authority to take items of Tiffany jewelry off-site to show to potential manufacturers to determine how much they would cost to produce.
The 46-year-old later sold the haul -- which included gold and diamond encrusted bracelets, platinum and gold earrings and gold rings -- to another jeweler for $1.3 million, claiming the property as her own.
Lederhaas-Okun's alleged crimes were unearthed in February after she was fired from the company and officials realized a vast inventory of items was missing.
Lederhaas-Okun denied any wrongdoing after her arrest, claiming the items in question were variously lost, or still in her former office.
However she was implicated by emails which contradicted her version of events and others which indicated she had sold the jewelry, a New York police report revealed on Tuesday.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
It is time for the Return of the Pink Panther.
Posted by: Au Auric ||
07/04/2013 0:41
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#2
A quite well connected Georgetown University and Lake Forest High grad. Probably more to this story as the investigation unfolds.
#3
Ahh, office supplies. Everybody uses the company copier for their own stuff, take home paper and clips and pens and stuff. What, you mean this doesn't count that way? People at work put it on my desk at some point.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
07/04/2013 10:41
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#4
Ed that's why I always wanted to work in an ICBM field.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Anita Page (August 4, 1910 September 6, 2008) was an American film actress who reached stardom in the last years of the silent film era.
Page became a highly popular young star, reportedly receiving the most fan mail of anyone on the MGM lot. She was referred to as "a blond, blue-eyed Latin" and "the girl with the most beautiful face in Hollywood" in the 1920s. She retired from acting in 1936. Page married her second husband the following year with whom she had two children. After a hiatus of 60 years, Page returned to acting in 1996. She appeared in four films in the 2000s. She died in September 2008 at the age of 98
1996 Sunset After Dark
2000 Witchcraft XI: Sisters in Blood Sister - Played - Seraphina - Medium - Direct-to-DVD release
2002 The Crawling Brain - Played - Grandma Anita Kroger - Medium - Direct-to-DVD release
2004 Socialite Socialite
2009 Frankenstein Rising - Played - Elizabeth Frankenstein - Film Released posthumously
Posted by: Au Auric ||
07/04/2013 0:11
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Happy Fourth of July to our patriotic American Rantburgers! To our foreign RB'ers, please forgive the hooting and hollering, the BBQ smoke, the beverages, and the stray fireworks scaring the dogs and cats
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/04/2013 7:32
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I may be being picayunish, but I don't think our lady displaying her great gam shot on our 237th birthday is following flag protocol. Flag protocol. I will offer to talk to her about her violations of our flag protocols. A good spanking might be slap on the wrists might be appropriate.
#9
Poor protocol, maybe, but not as bad as Better Homes and Gardens recently that showed a flag as a tablecloth. they have since served their time out and did a stop and go.
[An Nahar] U.S. President Barack Obama I've now been in 57 states -- I think one left to go... said he was "deeply concerned" over the Egyptian military's ouster of president Mohamed Morsi on Wednesday and urged a quick return to elected civilian government.
He also said he had ordered a review of the legal implications for U.S. aid to Egypt in the wake of the military's toppling of the country's first democratically elected leader.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
"Well, that was an incredibly counter-productive use of American soft power in order to effect change in a foreign country. - Moe Lane
#2
Morsi simply did not move fast enough with governmental and social change; ie, his purge of the military, his sweeping executive orders, his control of the media, his spying on millions of civilians, his Egyptian IRS intimidation, lawfare, thought-police, social justice, his gov't controlled economy, or his weapons and ammunition confiscation.
In addition to the fact our intelligence services missed it again, I hope we can learn something from the Egyptian experience.
#3
I hope we can learn something from the Egyptian experience.
Folks here at the Burg did, B.
Not sure about our professional policy makers and wannabee overlords, though.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
07/04/2013 8:50
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#4
Libs spend an awful lot of time "learning" from experiences and not an awful lot of time "knowing" what the effect of doing something is going to be.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/04/2013 9:40
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Does anyone think we [Americans] would ever oust our President? Just asking on this anniversary of our emancipation from the British and its odious and onerous laws of the time.
#9
Does anyone think we [Americans] would ever oust our President? Just asking on this anniversary of our emancipation from the British and its odious and onerous laws of the time.
[Pak Daily Times] A brazen attack by Talibs on a security checkpost on the periphery of Frontier Region Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. left six personnel of the paramilitary Frontier Constabulary (FC) dead and seven others injured, officials said on Wednesday.
Two soldiers were confirmed kidnapped by the krazed killers, according to police officials, who added that the attack on the post started late Tuesday night and lasted for hours. It comes after June 30 attack on a Frontier Corps convoy near Badhaber on Peshawar-Kohat road that killed 20 people and injured over 40 others.
Speaking to a private media organization from some holy man's guesthouse an undisclosed location via telephone, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) front man Ehsanullah Ehsan grabbed credit for the attack. "The checkpost was attacked at 11:00pm on Tuesday and heavy exchange of gunfire between the security forces' personnel and the bully boyz continued until early hours of Wednesday morning," the official sources said. A few months ago the gunnies had kidnapped 22 FC men and killed them after tying up their hands and feet.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Al Ahram] A court in Turkey Wednesday annulled a government decision to redevelop Gezi Park in Istanbul that sparked protests which snowballed into deadly nationwide unrest, media reported. The administrative court justified its ruling, made last month but only revealed by Turkish media on Wednesday, by saying that the "local population" had not been sufficiently consulted about the redevelopment project.
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[Pak Daily Times] QUETTA: Unidentified armed men abducted a man in Turbat district, police sources said on Wednesday. Muhammad Hassan was on his way home when armed kidnappers took him away to an undisclosed location on gunpoint, police said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[An Nahar] The United States on Wednesday ordered the mandatory evacuation of its embassy in Cairo, just hours after the Egyptian military ousted president Mohamed Morsi.
Asked if reports of the evacuation were true, a U.S. official told Agence La Belle France Presse "yes."
A later travel advisory confirmed that "the Department of State ordered the departure of non-emergency U.S. government personnel and family members from Egypt due to the ongoing political and social unrest."
The embassy in Egypt has occasionally been targeted by demonstrators and had already been closed on Wednesday as a precaution. Due to the July 4 Independence Day and the Arab world weekend, it was not due to reopen until Sunday at the earliest.
The advisory warned that "political unrest ... is likely to worsen in the near future."
The State Department advised all Americans "to defer travel to Egypt and U.S. citizens living in Egypt to depart at this time because of the continuing political and social unrest."
An American was killed on Friday in the northern port of Alexandria during a demonstration and "Westerners and U.S. citizens have occasionally been caught in the middle of festivities and demonstrations," the advisory warned.
However the notice stressed that there were currently no plans for special charter flights or U.S.-sponsored airlifts to evacuate Americans from the country.
"If you wish to depart Egypt, you should make plans and depart as soon as possible. The airport is open and commercial flights are still operating, although cancellations may occur."
The U.S. also warned women in particular about rising sexual violence in the country, saying they have often been the targets of sexual assault.
Meanwhile, ...back at the wine tasting, Vince was about to start tasting his third quart... French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Gay Paree took note that elections had been announced in Egypt after the army ousted Morsi.
"In a situation that has worsened seriously and with extreme tension in Egypt, new elections have finally been announced, after a transition period," Fabius said in a statement. "La Belle France takes note of it."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/04/2013
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#1
Are we shuttering the Embassy in Tripoli as well? Anyone else pull out of Cairo ?
#2
glad to see that "New Respect for America" now that Preznit Obama has been re-elected
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/04/2013 7:36
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Let's not bash the President. Consider that he and his administration have managed to unite Egypt's youth, liberals, seculars, Copts, Islamists, military, and Nassarites during a time of social, economic, and political upheaval in a common cause.
Of course that cause is despising the United States, but - it's an accomplishment.
#4
The O admin took care of their cronies at the Egypt embassy in a timely manner and safely. Too bad they did not do the same thing so efficiently at Benghazi. But what does it matter?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/04/2013 19:08
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"that cause is despising the United States"
I dunno, Pappy. From the looks of some of their signs, who they really despise it Bambi (and Shrillery).
They can get in line.
Posted by: Barbara ||
07/04/2013 19:14
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[Ynet] Foreign Policy magazine reveals how in 1964 Israel bought 80-100 tons of yellowcake -- necessary for atomic bomb -- but kept deal secret from US
A comprehensive article released by the Foreign Policy magazine alleged that Israel struck a deal with Argentina in the 1960s to purchase between 80 to 100 tons of yellowcake -- uranium powder -- necessary for the production of a nuclear bomb.
The American magazine noted that this latest discovery solves the enigma of how Israel acquired the material to turn its burgeoning nuclear program military-grade.
The article, which cited 42 documents recently de-classified by the United States, recounted the beginning of Israel's hazy nuclear project, starting with the French aid in building the Dimona reactor, formally known as the Negev Nuclear Research Center.
But though La Belle France initially agreed to supply Israel with nuclear fuel, a new cabinet headed by Charles de-Gaulle marked a change in French foreign affairs and Israeli ties, and by 1963, with the nuclear reactor nearly finished, La Belle France imposed severe restrictions on uranium supply to Dimona.
According to Foreign Relations, Israel attempted to produce its own uranium from phosphates, but the high costs involved convinced Israeli officials a foreign source must be sought.
And indeed, the article described, in 1964 the Canadian intelligence agency found out that the Argentinean government was preparing an Israel-bound shipment of between 80 to 100 tons of yellowcake, a uranium concentrate powder and an intermediate step in the processing of uranium ores.
Canada shared the data with Britannia, which passed it on to the CIA. Skeptical at first, the Americans pursued the lead and inquiries made by the Buenos Aires American embassy personnel found local sources who confirmed the account.
According to the article, the United States confronted Argentina with the data, and the latter admitted a deal has been struck with Israel to supply it with the uranium powder the previous year.
[Pak Daily Times] Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... on Wednesday decided to convene a meeting of heads of all the political parties represented in parliament, on July 12, to come up with a strategy to curb terrorism and militancy plaguing the country.
The meeting will discuss and evolve a national strategy to curb increasing militancy and address the overall law and order and security situation in the country. Separately, Nawaz on Wednesday nominated Federal Minister for Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage Pervaiz Rasheed as the official front man of the federal government as well as the Prime Minister's Office. The nomination has been made with a view to ensure prompt response, uniformity of information and to avoid unnecessary overlapping.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/04/2013
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Tidbit from a longer article. What's interesting is how our Ambassador, Anne Patterson, took active steps to try and keep Morsi in power. I think that's called, "smart diplomacy"...
Prior to the Tamarod protest, the Morsi government took certain steps to minimize its impact. In [one] instance, Morsi called the Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church, Tawadros II, and asked his holiness to dissuade Coptic Christians from participating in the protest, but Tawadros maintained that the Copts are free to exercise their political rights.
It appears that Egyptians across a broad spectrum of more moderate Muslims and Christians are saying they did not fight for greater freedom against one dictatorship a little over two years ago only to have another take its place. They want a true democracy, not an oppressive Islamic theocracy masquerading as a democracy.
Many Egyptians are also angry with the Obama administration. According to an article by Raymond Ibrahim, Morsi was not the only one who spoke to Pope Tawadros II about the Tamarod protest. The U. S. ambassador to Egypt, Anne Patterson, also tried to persuade the Coptic Pope against the Copts participating in the protest.
Ibrahim says many Egyptian activists have condemned Ambassador Patterson for trying to undermine the protests. They call her "the Muslim Brotherhood's stooge." George Ishaq, a Coptic activist, told Patterson, "shut up and mind your own business."
"All throughout the Middle East," Ibrahim writes, "the U.S. has been supporting anyone and everyone opposing their leaders-in Libya against Gaddafi, in Egypt itself against 30-year U.S. ally Mubarak, and now in Syria against Assad. In all these cases, the U.S. has presented its support in the name of the human rights and freedoms of the people against dictatorial leaders."
"So why," Ibrahim queries, "is the Obama administration now asking Christians not to oppose their rulers-in this case, Islamists . . . ?"
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/04/2013
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#1
Why should the Coptic pope cooperate with Morsi? Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood would eventually do whatever they they could to eliminate the Colts.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
07/04/2013 1:21
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I can see the Copts being blamed/targeted unfortunately from now on.
Posted by: Paul D ||
07/04/2013 4:50
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Well, yes. Plus they aren't armed, like the Israelis.
[An Nahar] The March 14 General Secretariat condemned on Wednesday the recent festivities in the southern city of Sidon, refuting accusations that the alliance was supporting Salafist movements in Leb.
It said in a statement after its weekly meeting: "We stand against such groups ... Sidon has been an example of Mohammedan-Christian coexistence."
On claims that the Sunni sect was being targeted in the unrest, it said: "The whole of Leb and its population were the victims."
"We deserve a productive state and army," added the March 14 General Secretariat.
Eighteen soldiers were killed and 50 were maimed in festivities in Sidon between the army and armed supporters of Salafist holy man Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir on June 22 and 23.
Commenting on the political deadlock in Leb, the general secretariat voiced its confidence that Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam would be able to succeed in forming a new government.
President Michel Suleiman ...before assuming office as President, he held the position of commander of the Leb Armed Forces. That was after the previous commander, the loathesome Emile Lahoud, took office as president in November of 1998. Likely the next president of Leb will be whoever's commander of the armed forces, too... and Salam enjoy the complete support of the Lebanese people in their mission, it stressed.
It blamed Hizbullah's involvement in the Syrian crisis for obstructing the government formation efforts, as well as its "placing of preconditions that are rejected by the Lebanese people."
The Hizbullah-led March 8 forces ... the opposition to the Mar. 14th movement, consisting of Hizbullah and its allies, so-called in commemoration of their Mar. 8th, 2006 demonstration of strength in Beirut ... has been demanding that it be granted veto power in a new cabinet.
Salam has repeatedly rejected this suggestion, saying that such a power renders a government ineffective.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Al Ahram] Mere hours away from a 48-hour deadline imposed by Egypt's army, Moslem Brüderbund leading figure Mohamed El-Beltagy releases a statement pledging resilience and support for the "people's will," and condemning the army's ultimatum.
Multi-million protests filled Egypt's major squares on Sunday 30 June to oust Brotherhood-fielded President Morsi, with much smaller but emphatic counter-demonstrations in limited areas.
Amid this political impasse, the Egyptian army issued a concisely-worded 48-hour ultimatum to all political forces on Monday to come to a resolution that would "fulfill the people's demands," otherwise the army would present an inclusive political roadmap.
"We will stand resilient in the face of this military coup in total peacefulness, and will stand by our just position. God is a witness that we have taken this position to protect a person or a brotherhood, but in solidarity with the people's will," reads a statement accredited to El-Beltagy on the website of the Brotherhood's political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP).
The Brotherhood is speculating that the Armed Forces' ultimatum is to ease in a military coup.
Anti-Morsi Rebel campaign who organised the nationwide protests deny rumours of a military coup, countering that "the Egyptian people is who will give orders to the Armed Forces to move," in a conference Wednesday afternoon.
On Tuesday night, President Morsi responded to the masses in a televised speech in which he emphasised the importance of "legitimacy," and called on the army to revoke its "warning;" referring to the ultimatum.
The president also blamed the former regime's corruption as a main reason for Egypt's current crisis.
El-Beltagy added via Facebook: "We have taken this stance only to denounce the scenario of the past 60 years and its entire tragic ramification on the nation and state," as many view Egypt as, essentially, a military state for 60 years.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/04/2013
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The UAE is following with satisfaction developments of the situation in Egypt in the light of the solid historic relations between the two brotherly countries, the Foreign Minister said in a statement tonight.
"Pleeeeeeeese don't forget to pay back the money we lent you!"
Shaikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan said that the UAE has full confidence that the great people of Egypt will be able to overcome the current difficult moments that the country is experiencing in order to reach a safe and prosperous future.
And he's real, real happy that the Brøderbünd are out of power for now. Those guys had kooties. And they were contagious...
Not to mention they were throwing away all that hard-earnt UAE money.
He added that Egypt's rich history, its important contributions to human civilisation and its pivotal role in the Arab and Islamic arenas are sufficient factors to allow it to provide a strong base that would permit it to build a prosperous future that would meet the aspirations of its people for progress and stability.
His Highness added that the great Egyptian army proves, once again, that it is the strong shield and the protector that guarantees that the country is a land of institutions and law that embraces all the components of the Egyptian people.
Even if the price is ten percent of everything that isn't nailed down...
Sheikh Abdullah concluded by saying that the UAE always looks to enhance its relations with the government and the people of Egypt and to work steadily for furthering strong cooperation in all fields for the mutual interest of both peoples.
In other words, the usual brotherly Arab blah-blah.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#1
The Sauds were second in line, but the King made a personal call.
[Al Ahram] Syria's main political opposition will attempt to nominate a new leader to unify a fractured coalition when members reconvene in Istanbul on Thursday, an official said. They can forget it now. Just go home, once the Syrian opposition became tainted by cannibalism.
Frontrunners include the secretary general of the Syrian National Coalition Mustafa al-Sabbagh, and Ahmad Assi Jarba, representing the faction of veteran secular dissident Michel Kilo. They change leadership about as often as most people change socks.
Recognised by dozens of states and organizations as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people, the umbrella group is seeking a successor to interim president Georges Sabra, who may also seek nomination. The recognition's getting hazier, the more beards, prayer bumps, and curly-toed slippers appear on the Heroic Fighters of the Opposition.
The opposition has been rudderless after the departure in May of Ahmad Moaz al-Khatib in protest at the world's "inaction" over Syria's civil war. Don't hold your breath, Ahmad. The arms are flowing in, but the interest is flowing out.
Coalition member Samir Nashar told AFP: "The names of Ahmad Assi Jarba, representing Michel Kilo's faction, and Mustafa al-Sabbagh, representing the local councils, are being formally proposed as possible leaders for the coalition, but there could be surprises.
"Informally, the names of Burhan Ghalioun, Georges Sabra and Louay Safi are also being discussed. But of course we never know.
"If there is speedy agreement on the name of the new president, then I would still have some hope," Nashar said Wednesday.
"Of course the coalition's last meeting was very difficult, and if things get blocked, then I think there will be some serious consequences that will affect both the coalition and the way it is perceived, both by its friends and its enemies."
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Pak Daily Times] QUETTA: Death toll of the Hazara Town suicide blast has risen to 31 after another injured woman succumbed to her injuries at a hospital. Official sources confirmed on Wednesday that the doctors made hectic efforts to save her life, but she could not survive. The victim, identified as Shazia Bibi, was among the 58 injured who were brought to the hospital after they sustained serious injuries in the June 30incident.
Posted by: Fred ||
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A policeman was slightly injured by a bomb blast in front of a television repair shop in Yala province early Wednesday morning. A bomb disposal team was sent to the shop after the owner reported finding an object suspected to be a bomb. As police were about to cordon off the area the bomb exploded.
#3
Great story. One of those 'If what you're doing isn't working for you, maybe you should do something else' deals. In spades.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
07/04/2013 10:36
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I forwarded the article to our daughter down in Texas who works as a drummer in a couple of R&R bands when she is not tending to her little mobile beanery. Thought she might find it as interesting as I did.
[NY Times] "Gentlemen don't read other gentlemen's mail," Cordell Hull once said, as the govt went too far in one direction in shutting down the American Black Chamber. The observation on what gentlemen do still applies even as the govt swings way too far in the other direction.
Posted by: Fred ||
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"U.S. Postal Service Logging All Mail for Law Enforcement"
Is that like "The U.S. Internal Revenue Service tracks your tea party donations for tax collection purposes"? Hmmm, no possibility of abuse there.~
Monitoring of mails, emails, websites visited and phone calls has got to be the most stultifying, boring job of all time. Most likely there are misses and FAs too. It would tend to make one begin to consider making up stuff just to liven up the job.
#3
If so, why are you content to allow corporations run by punks in hoodies to gather vastly more, and more intimate, personal info about you - and then SELL that info to data merchants like Acxiom and the credit scoring companies - than any US gov't entity will ever have? How so?
Given that governments and not the private sector have committed nearly all of the horrible atrocities of the past hundred or so years, Lex - over 100 million dead in the leftist world (USSR, Maoist China, and their various counterparts) and another fifteen million or so due to big-government right of center groups like the Nazis - why do you have so much trust in government and see the private sector as being inherently evil to the point where you want to regulate it to death and make it subservient to the state (instead of the opposite, which is what the founders envisioned)?
Posted by: no mo uro ||
07/04/2013 13:02
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#4
Mods....this comment was supposed to be on th thread for land of the free. Any chance of moving it?
Thanks.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
07/04/2013 13:03
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I'd like to know what kind of scanner; just taking a picture or do they have some accessories?
A man who was killed by the explosive device he was carrying on his motorcycle in Basilan on Tuesday afternoon was an alleged member of the Abu Sayyaf group.
The victim was identified as Rey "Gob" Sapili, who was killed when the IED he hid in a pouch bag strapped in his waist "prematurely exploded" while he was on his way to Isabela City. Senior Superintendent Mario Dapilloza, Basilan police provincial director, "Maybe he didn't anticipate that military and police authorities have set up a check-point on the way to Isabela."
Posted by: ryuge ||
07/04/2013
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#1
was he nicknamed "Gob" before or after his accidental splodeydope?
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/04/2013 7:47
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They don't have direct deposit in Pakistain. [Pak Daily Times] KARACHI: A teacher, deprived of 11-month salary tried to commit self-immolation during a protest, organised by New Appointment Teachers Action Committee, outside Sindh Assembly, here on Wednesday. However, corruption finds a dozen alibis for its evil deeds... he was saved by his colleagues. The committee's office-bearer, Ayaz Hussain, told that Chairman of the committee, Abu Bakr Abro, tried to commit self-immolation. He received some burn injuries and was shifted to Civil Hospital Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... for treatment. Earlier, the protesters carried out a rally from Karachi Press Club and staged a protest demo at Arts Council roundabout outside SA building. The protesters said instead of releasing their salaries, the Chief Minister Sindh Qaim Ali Shah, Education Minister Nisar Khuhro and Secretary Education Fazlullah Pechuho had termed their appointments as fake. "We followed the process of appointment and successfully passed interview and written tests, so how our appointments can be termed fake," they argued. They demanded of the chief minister to take action against corrupt officials responsible for their miseries and immediately release the unpaid wages of past 11 months.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Interesting article from Business Insider showing how one can use cell phone metadata -- in this case, of a German politician -- to track a person. Combine this with internet metadata and it's easy to see how you really can follow a person in near real time. Further, if you identify a person you really want to know more about, you can go back to stored data and assemble in painstaking detail their travel, habits, conversation partners, etc.
It's very powerful, and the interactive part of this piece is just a taste. Imagine how much better the NSA really is at this.
Now imagine that instead of using it to track jihadis, it's being used to track you. Or the people you favor.
Now we can see the problem, and why it matters to have rules, and politicians who play by the rules.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Indeed...
Posted by: Steve White ||
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Udall has a point. It's hard to see the national security relevance of knowing who and what Spitz communicated as he travels/traveled through Berlin.
Unrelated to Spitz, but Social Network Analysis permits the identification and monitoring of terrorist cell leaders, cell memberships, and facilitators. For example; if you are in constant contact with a known real estate agent [property sales facilitator], it could be assessed that you may be planning to buy or sell a home or property. If your network of recent contacts includes a known bomb maker, which just happens to coincide with your recent large bank withdrawal, and a string of deadly bomb attacks......well, you can take it from there.
If this Palantir investigation were an actual. live application, one could klik on each of the "entitites" [small faces] and a complete ontology would appear. I used Palantir because it came with this story. There are many other analytic tools which provide similar capabilities.
[Al Ahram] Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad The Scourge of Hama... , fighting to crush a two-year-old uprising against four decades of rule by him and his late father, said on Wednesday the upheaval in Egypt was a defeat for political Islam.
"Whoever brings religion to use in politics or in favour of one group at the expense of another will fall anywhere in the world," Assad was quoted as telling the official Thawra newspaper, according to an official Facebook page.
"The summary of what is happening in Egypt is the fall of what is called political Islam."
Relishing the possible downfall of one of Assad's most vocal critics, Syrian television carried live coverage of the huge street demonstrations in Egypt demanding the departure of President Mohamed Mursi.
Assad's late father, Hafez al-Assad, used the military to crush an armed insurgency against his rule led by the Moslem Brüderbund, killing many thousands in the conservative city of Hama, which became a centre of pro-democracy demonstrations when the uprising against the younger Assad erupted in March 2011. Thousands of leftists were also tossed in the clink Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! and tortured.
The Syrian branch of the Moslem Brüderbund became one of the most powerful factions behind the mostly Sunni Moslem uprising against Assad, who belongs to the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, and is being helped by Leb's Shi'ite Hezbollah militia.
Mursi has expressed support for foreign intervention against Assad and attended a rally two weeks ago calling for holy war in Syria.
A month ago, Syrian authorities responded to a wave of protests against Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, another fierce opponent of Assad, by calling on him to halt what it said was violent repression and step aside.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Wonder if that statement will be reported in Tehran.
The Burg rolls out a new category today for posting: Land of the Free
As Fred said to the mods, "Land of the Free: There was a story the other day--I don't think it was posted here--about a sorority girl who was almost shot by cops as they were attempting to detain her on suspicion of underage drinking.
"I'd say all evidence of police state stuff."
This is an extension beyond our usual WoT focus. Let's see if we can use this category as Fred suggests. There does seem to be more and more material with which to work.
A suggestion: the police state stuff and curtailments of liberties that we post in LotF should be about countries that aren't already police states.
Questions and comments about LotF today can go here.
#3
Would stuff like the Gibson guitar raids qualify as well?
Posted by: no mo uro ||
07/04/2013 6:01
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Good idea.
May I suggest that this might be a home for posts on international agreements that violate our constitution or what are normally considered sovereign responsibilities? (See UN arms control)
#5
Obama trying to get ready to send our young men and women in to protect Morsi and the muslim bunderhood against the millions of Egyption protestors and the Egyption military definitly a police state move by trying that nonsense over there before trying it here.
Secretly surveying every American, buying billions of rounds of hollow points, intimidating Catholic communities, while ignoring the guys who blew up the Boston Marathon in several locations, arming Al Qaeda affiliated terrorists in Syria, refusing to help the Benghazi Seals against the Al Qaeda attack, refusing to acknowledge a War On Terror. Damn straight a Hussein police state is priority one with this regime.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
07/04/2013 10:16
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#7
"Police state stuff" - wow... Aren't you getting a little carried away?
How can anyone over the age of forty believe that the US today does not offer vastly more protection for individual expression, more personal choice, more personal freedom than it did in the late 20th century? Fer chrissake, we still had sodomy laws on the books in many states.
30 years ago, this website and this community, of strangers living all over the world, was unthinkable. The media was dominated by three national broadcasting companies, and oligopoly newspapers dominated every local media market.
Aren't you getting just a wee bit paranoid, friends?
#8
US today does not offer vastly more protection for individual expression, more personal choice, more personal freedom than it did in the late 20th century? Fer chrissake, we still had sodomy laws on the books in many states.
Excellent illustrative point Lex. It was indeed for "Christ's sake" we had such prohibitions.
#9
This is a joke, right? During the week that saw SCOTUS protect the ability of homosexuals in this country to get married, you're talking about a looming _police state_? WTF?
A police state doesn't care about what you do in your bedroom. It only cares about things that threaten IT. Things like private communications, political speech, self defense and its ability to take anything from anyone at anytime.
The BS about sodomy laws and gay marriage is all part of the bread and circuses SQUIRREL approach. Make it look like the state is oh so benevolent all the while putting in place the means to do whatever it wants to maintain the power, wealth and priveledge of the ruling elite, backed up by the force of arms.
#12
Amour sacré de la Patrie, For the Land of the Free, für das deutsche Vaterland, Sal dit wel wees, God regeer. Rule Britannia, Britannia rule the waves! Britons never, ever, ever shall be slaves.
Our definitions of "freedom" differ greatly. None of the above mention sodomy as a cause. I would wager few served or died to made it so. Just my humble opinion.
#13
You guys should get out more. You want to see a state moving away from freedom, go to Putin's Russia. Or Venezuela.
But Rantburgers' freedom to say whatever we bloody well please, and f--- the consequences, hasn't diminished in the slightest. Never has anyone in this country had more freedom to say and do more stuff - good, bad, thoughtful or nutty, whatever - than in the present era. Sex, drugs, free expression, ranting about the wickedness of POTUS, whatever: all far, far less controlled than at any time any of us can remember.
Same for economics. Effective tax rates are vastly lower than they were 30 years ago. Businesses today are far less regulated than they were. Remember fixed brokerage commissions? Gone. Media monopolies, airlines' price-fixing? Gone. The average life of a top corporation is shrinking every year. Competition in sector after sector is more robust. There's never been more consumer choice.
Someone mentioned police brutality. Good lord, have you forgotten Frank Rizzo? Or the 1970s-era brutal and corrupt departments all across this country? There are many more, not fewer, curbs on the cops today than there were in our youth.
There are a few items that qualify for Land of the Free and our erosion of liberties. These items are large and small.
The SWAT team landing on the woman who was buying bottled water, that they mistook for beer.
The 14 year old arrested for wearing an NRA T-shirt
The young boy tossed from school for biting a pop-tart into the shape of a gun
The IRS harassing Tea Party groups over 501(c)4 applications, then lying about it to the House, then having the FBI conduct an 'investigation' in which no one is interviewed
New York trying to ban guns after saying it wouldn't ban guns
Investigation of and threats to AP writer James Rosen
Dismissal of Inspector General Walpin
Gibson guitar factory raid
I could name more if I had another minute.
You get the idea -- or, you would if you were willing to sit back a moment, put your ideology to one side and examine the situation.
There are people in this country who want to 'transform' it, and they're working to do so by hook and crook. That's the point.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/04/2013 11:18
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#21
Just curious - no snark intended - do you guys use Facebook or other social networks that sell your data to advertisers for profit? Do you allow cookies? Use Google?
If so, why are you content to allow corporations run by punks in hoodies to gather vastly more, and more intimate, personal info about you - and then SELL that info to data merchants like Acxiom and the credit scoring companies - than any US gov't entity will ever have? How so?
#25
But Rantburgers' freedom to say whatever we bloody well please, and f--- the consequences, hasn't diminished in the slightest. Never has anyone in this country had more freedom to say and do more stuff - good, bad, thoughtful or nutty, whatever - than in the present era. Sex, drugs, free expression, ranting about the wickedness of POTUS, whatever: all far, far less controlled than at any time any of us can remember.
Except if you hold conservative viewpoints. Not all change is a wonderful, shout-about, freeing moment. Some change is destructive, freedom-destroying, stultifyingly stupid, and culture destroying.
#27
John: Except if you hold conservative viewpoints. Not all change is a wonderful, shout-about, freeing moment. Some change is destructive, freedom-destroying, stultifyingly stupid, and culture destroying.
And what do you intend to do about the latter? Suppress it with the power of ... the state? Are you a Texas GOP state legislator?
Re: the new troll. May I ask, why are y'all engaging this ankle-biting biaytch? You can't reason someone out of a position they were never reasoned into in the first place. Just my $0.02.
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/04/2013 12:22
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#32
Quit complaining everyone. You don't know how good you've got it! Or Lex will project his views on you to shut you down
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/04/2013 12:23
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#33
And what do you intend to do about the latter? Suppress it with the power of ... the state?
Absolutely not. I would suggest less rather than more government intrusion into the lives of citizens would result in more freedom. I would also suggest that adding layers upon layers of security does not lead to more freedom for the citizen.
#35
Businesses today are far less regulated than they were.
Oh.
My.
God.
We now have proof that this Lex organism does not own an authentic (non rent-seeking) business or possibly owned one and it failed.
I've owned a business for over a quarter century now and there has NEVER been a time like the last four years with anything like the regulatory cost and time burden we have now. The Clinton years even were better.
Toss out a few isolated industries where the burden is slightly less as examples but ignore the other 95% of us who own businesses and are being crushed under a draconian hyperregulatory environment, and your credibility sinks even further, boy. You might win on the high school debate team with that sort of crap but reality has other notions.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
07/04/2013 12:35
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#36
Its about time! Thanks Fred and MODS. We must be vigilant about our right, or we will watch them go away. There is so much going on out there, both here and abroad that's getting missed. This will be Troll smashing fun!!!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
07/04/2013 12:43
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#37
Yes, thanks Fred and Mods. Dog sitting in Ga. Raining buckets with no end in sight, 4 inches last 24 hrs.
#41
we used to have an infrequent commenter nymed Lex, who was usually coherent, and dealing with the same reality. ll I can surmise is: 1) different Lex, or 2) head injury
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/04/2013 13:44
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#42
That's what I was thinking, Frank.
Unless our Lex drank a MASSIVE overdose of Kool-Aid.™
Posted by: Barbara ||
07/04/2013 14:25
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#43
my youngest son posted this today: On today, Independence Day, please reflect on how we lack the individual freedom to purchase and explode fireworks in all 50 states. Then mail me some Black Cats.>
#45
If so, why are you content to allow corporations run by punks in hoodies to gather vastly more, and more intimate, personal info about you - and then SELL that info to data merchants like Acxiom and the credit scoring companies - than any US gov't entity will ever have? How so?
Given that governments and not the private sector have committed nearly all of the horrible atrocities of the past hundred or so years, Lex - over 100 million dead in the leftist world (USSR, Maoist China, and their various counterparts) and another fifteen million or so due to big-government right of center groups like the Nazis - why do you have so much trust in government and see the private sector as being inherently evil to the point where you want to regulate it to death and make it subservient to the state (instead of the opposite, which is what the founders envisioned)?
Posted by: no mo uro ||
07/04/2013 16:14
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#46
no mo uro, I'm sorry but I have to object to you're portrayal of the Nazis as "right of center".
The Nazis were a flavor of socialism as is fascism, read your Mussolini. They were only "right" of center if you consider Mao to be the center.
This is a semantic turd that has bothered me for more than 40 yrs.
Other than that, I agree with you. Lex has apparently had his image of bad guys formed by watching too many James Bond movies.
#49
Ok, so it's black helicopter time. Anyone seen anything more on the Mike Hastings car crash ?
Nope, but I think it is safe to say 'He's(still) dead, Jim.'
#51
hey, any of you in the lex group do anything today, volunteer time, feed the poor, celebrate the liberty to express yourself? Get your coffee on time, or your tea and whine? Its quite obvious to me that you are nym by committee. Talk it over with your freaihnds?
#52
Re regulation, you either slept through the last half century or else you're wilfully ignorant. Let's take it industry by industry:
Banking: far more regulation pre-1990s: Glass Steagall, to name the most obvious example, plus much greater enforcement. After the circus of scandals in mortgage banking over the last ten years, you'd have to be an industry shill to argue that this rotten sector needed LESS, not much more, regulation. Consider that the state which most tightly regulated its lenders in the wake of the S&L debacle is the one whose real estate market has been the healthiest and least volatile. That would be Texas, if you care to know. The least regulated mortgage markets gave us boom and bust, Countrywide and other corrupt slimeballs. Again, TX is the most regulated in this area, CA one of the least . As usual, you've got it backwards.
Airlines: again, the industry was deregulated. Fares adjusted for inflation are lower than they were 40 years ago.
Media/Internet: there was no competition to speak of for many media companies 40 years ago. The Internet is wide open, with hardly any regulation at all.
I could go on, but it's not even worth arguing with someone who doesn't know what Glass Steagall refers to, or who thinks our banking sector needs less, not more, regulation after all the criminal stunts that those clowns pulled on us when they were cratering the world's economy during the Bush admin.
#53
Right, so the bitter enemy of communism who blamed the Reichstag fire on the Communists and allied himself closely with German industrialists and all the pillars of the right-wing Prussian hierarchy was a leftist. Suuuuure.
You guys need to adjust the tinfoil. Starting to constrict the blood flow to your brains.
The only moron here with tinfoil on their head is you. Nobody believes your regime provided talking points or falls for attempts to constant move the goal posts when you start losing the debate. There's really no point in even reading your posts because well, if we want to read inane drivel we can go to the CNN or MSNBC websites. My suggestion is that you find the rock you slithered out of and use it to club yourself into having an IQ
#57
Our Legal System was designed to protect US from Federal Government control any way possible. That Constitution is not about regulating US, but those with the biggest guns.
Many, many feel this slipping away.
Furthermore, the CINC almost has it to the point where he could* (Could)flip one switch and PWN it all.
You do not hurriedly consolidate such power so quickly unless you plan to use it.
Take off your Fedora, and put on tin foil hat. It is Our duty to watch the watchers and maybe have something in semblance of a non tyrannical state.
[Al Ahram] Egyptian security forces on Wednesday imposed a travel ban on President Mohamed Morsi and several top Islamist allies over their involvement in a prison escape in 2011, security officials said. Airport officials confirmed to AFP that they had received orders to prevent the leaders -- including Morsi, Muslim Brotherhood chief Mohammed Badie and his deputy Khairat al-Shater -- from travelling abroad.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Al Ahram] The Rebel campaign, the anti-Morsi signature drive that called for the nationwide protests that led to the former president's ouster, invited young cadres of the Moslem Brüderbund, the group from which Morsi hails, to "rejoin the ranks of the people and not be driven by calls for violence or terrorism."
Posted by: Fred ||
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[An Nahar] The army on Wednesday tossed in the calaboose Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! a man with 37 arrest warrants after raiding his residence in Baalbeck's al-Sharawina neighborhood.
"Ali Youssef Jaafar was nabbed Book 'im, Mahmoud! on 37 charges that include shooting activities, robbery, kidnapping operations and drug dealing," the Army Command's Orientation Directorate said in a communique.
"The patrol found a great number of weapons, ammunition and military equipments in the arrested man's house and car."
The army also pointed out that it found fake car number plates, communication devices and tools used in kidnapping operations in Jaafar's possession.
The military institution's communique added: "Investigation has started with the arrested man by the competent court."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/04/2013
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#1
OOooh, Bad Boy.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/04/2013 9:49
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#2
32 warrants, and they arrest him AT HIS OWN HOUSE, serious Corruption there.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/04/2013 21:14
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[An Nahar] Two charred bodies found in the southern city of Sidon in the aftermath of deadly gunbattles are not those of Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir and Fadel Shaker, a onetime prominent singer-turned Salafist, the state commissioner to the military court said Wednesday.
Judge Saqr Saqr confirmed that DNA tests of al-Asir's and Shaker's families revealed that the bodies were neither of the Salafist holy man, nor of Shaker or his brother.
Saqr, who is overseeing the initial investigation carried out by the military intelligence into the fighting between Asir's armed supporters and the army in Abra near Sidon, ordered on Monday the release of nine people who had been nabbed Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! at the end of the battles.
Thirty suspects remain in jug, the National News Agency reported Monday.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Pak Daily Times] QUETTA: At least three people were killed in different incidents across the province, while the Frontier Corps seized a huge cache of weapons and placed in durance vile Book 'im, Mahmoud! two men from the Kuchlak area on Wednesday.
According to details, a man was bumped off in Sibi district of Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it...
The victim, identified as Rehmatullah, was bumped off by unidentified gunnies on Nishtar Road.
The assailants escaped after the attack. Police reached the site soon after the incident and shifted the body to the District Headquarters Hospital. The body was handed over to the heirs after medico-legal formalities.
Separately, a girl was bumped off in Kuchlak. Police said that a boy bumped off Shafia Bib and fled. Police took the body into its custody and began a search for the absconder.
Meanwhile, ...back at the barn, Bossy was furiously chewing her cud and thinking... police recovered a body from the Satellite Town of Quetta.
According to details, the police on a tip-off recovered the body of a man whose identity could not be ascertained. The dead body was shifted to a hospital.
Separately, the Frontier Corps seized a huge cache of weapons and arrested two men from the Kuchlak area of Balochistan on Wednesday.
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[Pak Daily Times] SWABI: Unidentified armed motorcyclists gunned down a lady health worker on Wednesday. According to reports, the woman was administrating anti-polio drops to children during duty when the armed men opened firing on the anti-polio team.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[An Nahar] Belgium's King Albert II announced his abdication Wednesday in favor of his son, saying that after two decades at the helm of the tiny country he felt too old and frail to continue.
"I intend to abdicate on July 21," Belgium's national day, the sovereign said in a broadcast to the nation from the royal palace.
"After 29 years of reigning, I believe the time has come to pass the torch to the next generation."
"Prince Philippe is well prepared. He and Princess Mathilde have my entire confidence," Albert said in the short speech, read first in French then in Phlegmish, Belgium's two main languages.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[An Nahar] Four supporters of ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi were killed on Wednesday in festivities with the army and police in the western city of Marsa Matruh, a security official told Agence La Belle France Presse.
Another 10 people were maimed after the group of armed supporters stormed the city's security headquarters, the official said.
Another Morsi supporter was killed in festivities in the coastal city of Alexandria.
Clashes between security forces and Morsi supporters also erupted in the central province of Asiut and the Nile Delta province of Gharbiya.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
rubes didn't notice that Morsi fought to the last drop of their blood
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/04/2013 7:37
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I was hoping Brotherhood won't go down without a fight---a long and bloody one.
Click on the title to go to see the NSFW title the Strategy Page writer gave it.
[StrategyPage] Several Sunni Moslem religious leaders have recently issued religious rulings (fatwas) that permit Moslem women to go to Syria and have sex with rebel soldiers to improve the moral of these holy warriors, The lucky guys must be Moslem and fighting as a religious duty, not as mercenaries or just for the adventure of it all. Some of these fatwas permit husbands to offer their wives to rebel fighters. All this is meant to encourage more men to go and fight against the pro-Iranian Syrian government.
Some religious leaders have even issued fatwas allowing rebels in Syria to rape Shia Moslem women they encounter there. This fatwa came with some restrictions. The rapists must not have had sex (with a woman) for at least two years and the rape should not last more than a few hours so as to not permanently harm the victim and to allow the maximum number of rebels to have at it. Oh, and good Moslem wimmin should also attend to the needs of holy men. That sort of thing makes Allen really happy.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
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[Ynet] Exploiting a loophole in Western sanctions, Iran is importing a high grade of refined alumina ore from several European countries including Germany and La Belle France that Tehran could be using to make armor parts and missile components.
Western measures imposed on Iran over its disputed nuclear programme have hit many sectors of its economy including steel and metals, where it is heavily dependent on imports. Tehran says its atomic work is peaceful. The refined ore has been excluded from European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... sanctions, but tightened US sanctions that came into effect on July 1 seek to close the loophole.
[An Nahar] North Korea on Wednesday restored its hotline with South Korea and announced it would let the South's businessmen visit a shuttered joint industrial zone, Seoul officials said.
The move came hours after dozens of South Korean firms threatened to withdraw from the zone at Kaesong in the North, complaining they had fallen victim to political bickering between the two rivals.
"The hotline was restored this afternoon after North Korea accepted our request to normalize it," a South Korean unification ministry official said on condition of anonymity.
The move followed months of high tensions and threats by Pyongyang of nuclear war.
As tensions began easing last month, the North restored the hotline across the border truce village of Panmunjom for talks on setting up a high-level meeting to discuss the fate of the zone.
But the line was switched off again after plans for the talks collapsed due to disputes over protocol.
The Kaesong estate, where North Koreans work in Seoul-owned factories, was the most high-profile casualty of the months of elevated tensions that followed the North's nuclear test in February.
Operations at the complex just north of the border ground to a halt soon after the North banned entry by the South's factory managers and other officials on April 3.
About a week later Pyongyang pulled all its own workers out.
In an unexpected change of course on Wednesday, the North sent a message to the South saying South Korean businessmen and managers would be allowed to visit the complex.
It said the businessmen could take emergency steps to avert damage to facilities and materials during the rainy season, according to a unification ministry statement.
South Korean managers could have talks with their North Korean counterparts during their trip, it said.
The North's invitation sparked speculation that it may need money be ready for dialogue with the South.
But South Korea responded cautiously, saying it would review the proposal and convey its response later.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
"The hostages commercial partners are free to return to the zone"
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/04/2013 7:56
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Al Ahram] The United States declined on Wednesday to criticize Egypt's military, even as it was ousting Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi from power.
President 
[NY Times] Egypt's military on Wednesday ousted Mohamed Morsi, the nation's first freely elected president, suspending the Constitution, installing an interim government and insisting it was responding to the millions of Egyptians who had opposed the Islamist agenda of Mr. Morsi and his allies in the 
When Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence, he included a wistful line that was excised by the other signatories: 'We might have been a great and free people together'.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
King of the Arabians, Sheikh of the Burning Sands Abdullah
[An Nahar] A military commander claimed on Wednesday that soldiers had since last week killed more than 100 attackers responsible for a deadly raid in ethnically divided central Nigeria.
[An Nahar] U.S. President 
[Pak Daily Times] A brazen attack by Talibs on a security checkpost on the periphery of Frontier Region 
[Pak Daily Times] Prime Minister 
[Al Ahram] Syria's main political opposition will attempt to nominate a new leader to unify a fractured coalition when members reconvene in Istanbul on Thursday, an official said.
A man who was killed by the explosive device he was carrying on his motorcycle in Basilan on Tuesday afternoon was an alleged member of the Abu Sayyaf group. 
[Pak Daily Times] KARACHI: A teacher, deprived of 11-month salary tried to commit self-immolation during a protest, organised by New Appointment Teachers Action Committee, outside Sindh Assembly, here on Wednesday. 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[An Nahar] Belgium's King Albert II announced his abdication Wednesday in favor of his son, saying that after two decades at the helm of the tiny country he felt too old and frail to continue.
[An Nahar] Four supporters of ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi were killed on Wednesday in 
[StrategyPage] Several Sunni Moslem religious leaders have recently issued religious rulings (fatwas) that permit Moslem women to go to Syria and have sex with rebel soldiers to improve the moral of these holy warriors, The lucky guys must be Moslem and fighting as a religious duty, not as mercenaries or just for the adventure of it all. Some of these fatwas permit husbands to offer their wives to rebel fighters. All this is meant to encourage more men to go and fight against the pro-Iranian Syrian government. 
North Korea
