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144 Dead as Syria Jets Blast Maaret al-Numan and Suicide Bomber Hits near Interior Ministry
Today's Headlines
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Page 4: Opinion
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Page 6: Politix
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Africa North
Volts for Vienna, Bupkis for Benghazi
While the US consulate in Benghazi was guarded by unarmed Libyan contractors making $4 an hour, our embassy in Vienna received an expensive charging station for its new electric cars to help fight climate change.

Requests for extra security had been made by our Libyan ambassador, Christopher Stevens, and other members of our consulate in Benghazi. The requests were denied, despite 230 security incidents in Libya between June 2011 and July 2012, with 48 taking place in Benghazi, two at the U.S. diplomatic compound where Ambassador Stevens and three other Americans were murdered on Sept. 11, 2012. A date that by itself should have prompted enhanced security.

Security was left to one DSS agent, four armed members of the 17th of February Martyrs Brigade and unarmed Libyan contractors employed by the British-based Blue Mountain Group.

In a May 3, 2012, email on which Ambassador Stevens was copied, the State Department denied a request by a group of Special Forces assigned to protect the U.S. Embassy in Libya to continue their use of a DC-3 airplane for security operations throughout the country.

Four days after the use of an ancient DC-3, along with other security requests, was being denied, on May 7, 2012, the State Department authorized the U.S. Embassy in Vienna to purchase a $108,000 electric-vehicle charging station for the embassy motor pool's new Chevrolet Volts. The purchase was a part of the State Department's "Energy Efficiency Sweep of Europe" initiative, which included hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars on green program expenditures at various U.S. embassies.

At a May 10 gala held at the U.S. Embassy in Vienna, the ambassador showcased his new Volts and other green investments as part of the U.S. government's commitment to "climate change solutions." The event posting on the embassy website read: "Celebrating the Greening of the Embassy."

We do not know if our consulate in Benghazi was environmentally friendly. We do know that it did not have even the minimally acceptable security features by State Department standards. Certainly solar panels on the roof or Chevy Volts parked outside would have done much to protect the consulate from an organized terrorist attack using mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.
Posted by: Pappy || 10/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  You gotta love this......

Certainly solar panels on the roof or Chevy Volts parked outside would have done much to protect the consulate from an organized terrorist attack using mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.
Posted by: Sherry || 10/19/2012 0:58 Comments || Top||

#2  Oh -- and yea this:

The $535 million wasted by Obama-Biden on Solyndra would have helped.
Posted by: Sherry || 10/19/2012 1:00 Comments || Top||

#3  A DC-3? Wow, nuthin but the best for our boys...
Posted by: tu3031 || 10/19/2012 1:21 Comments || Top||

#4  DC-3/Dakota is still a good aircraft for hauling stuff. Pretty much have to hit the boneyards or custom manufacture for parts, though. Basler up in Oshkosh, Wisconsin does some nice upgrades.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 10/19/2012 12:05 Comments || Top||

#5  Depending on the configuration, a DC-3 could be an extremely effective piece of security equipment. According to the stories, no Vietnamese village under the protection of the Spooky Squadron was ever lost.
Posted by: Glenmore || 10/19/2012 13:28 Comments || Top||

#6  "Security was left to one DSS agent"

Every time I hear more of this story - it just gets crazier and crazier. Is the State Department howling at the moon these days??? They had one DSS agent assigned? ONE??? Not two - so they could at least back each other up - but just one.

And they say that Fidel is in a "neurovegetative state". Sheesh.
Posted by: Raider || 10/19/2012 17:53 Comments || Top||

#7  The other guy was the ambassadors um..er...S/O.
So in death he got a bit of a promotion.
Posted by: Mikey Hunt || 10/19/2012 19:11 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
It’s Not Just Obama’s Lies — It’s the Premise of Obama’s Lies
Posted by: Whomoth Barnsmell7003 || 10/19/2012 02:40 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It is not enough to reject Obama’s lies. It is essential to reject the premise of his lies. In our society, we get to say unkind things about icons, just as we get to speak vigorously in their defense. It is for us, the sovereign people, to weigh the merits of these competing claims without government’s meddling thumb on the scale. That is a big part of what makes Western civilization civilized.

Spot on! Thank you Barnswell. Thank you very much.
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/19/2012 8:59 Comments || Top||

#2  Unfortunately this issue cannot be brought up in this campaign. What McCarthy correctly calls the 'premise of Obama's lies' is not fundamentally different from the premise of e.g. Chris Christie's politics.

At least partial acceptance of Rushdie rules is consensus among the political elites not only in the US.
Imams Al-Qazwini and Qatanani are called friends by the powerful, notwithstanding their public demand for a profound modification of American's 1st Amendment rights, and notwithstanding their prior(?) involvement with Hamas and the Iranian theocratic fascists.

Terry Jones otoh is a nutty bitter clinger precisely because of his uncompromising and totally peaceful defense of said rights.
Posted by: Whomoth Barnsmell7003 || 10/19/2012 13:11 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
The roots of insanity
[Dawn] WHILE the dastardly attempt to kill Malala has pricked the conscience of humankind it has also revealed the nature and extent of the cankerous growth within Pakistain's body politic that is smothering reason.

Those taking exception to sympathy for and solidarity with the courageous girl from Swat
...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat...
have confirmed that in their bid to capture power in Pakistain they are going to respect neither the people's humanistic instincts nor the spirit of their faiths.

Attempts are being made to prevent the people from identifying the malignancy of which the attack on Malala is merely the latest manifestation. The kind of mental acrobatics being performed by normal-looking gentlemen is a measure of the corruption of the mind that the lust for power can breed.

Short of denying that Malala has been attacked at all or brazen-facedly proclaiming their hatred for womenfolk the high priests of reactionary thought are doing everything they can to confuse the people about a matter of life and death not only for Malala but for the entire next generation, if not for the entire population of this country. And their hangers-on in the media are bent upon abusing the public space for truthful debate and expropriating it for playing foul with reckless abandon.

References are being made to the casualties in drone attacks and other victims of the ongoing conflict in parts of Pakistain. This from a band of people who do not accept the inviolability of all Pak citizens' dignity of person.

They want their audience to ignore the distinction between loss of life in conflict or as a result of accident/disaster and in deliberate, assassination. The allegation that the members of civil society now demonstrating solidarity with Malala and her brave parents have never protested against civilian casualties in drone attacks or against the rendition of Pak citizens to the US/NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants...
forces is a figment of sick minds.

The born-yesterday chroniclers of our history have forgotten how single acts of individual perfidy or courage become precursors of epoch-making events. They do not care to tell us why the desecration of Hamza's corpse by Hind became the most gripping tale of barbarism from a battle in which many close companions of the Prophet ((PTUI!)) had fallen and who are rarely remembered.

Dreyfus was not the first Frenchie to suffer long under an insensitive system but his predecessors went unsung for want of a Zola who could utter the two immortalised words, 'I accuse'. It may be quite possible for these elements in the current situation in Pakistain to attack Iqbal for treating Fatima as the only spark of life in the Mohammedan ummah while there were many other women who had perished during Italia's aggression on Libya.

But these are minor matters in the context of the broader design for the indoctrination of the people, especially the youth.

When Malala's identity as a symbol of knowledge or of women's aspiration to receive education is challenged the idea is to challenge the authenticity of the concept of education subscribed to by Malala and her 'misguided' supporters.

The message to the people is that anything outside the fungus-ridden mind of the preachers of hate is not education, the laws of gravity and motion are not part of knowledge and all sciences are snares spread by the devil to trap the unwary among the servants of the Almighty.
Posted by: Fred || 10/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Often symbols of freedom are stronger than swords of war.
Posted by: JohnQC || 10/19/2012 11:32 Comments || Top||


-Election 2012
Unexpectedly! Obama's White House Pays Womyn Less
The president touts equal pay for equal work but hasn't practiced what he preaches with the women he has employed.
It remains a mystery to some, on the record as to why equal pay for women was one of the questions elected by unofficial Team Obama debate coach Candy Crowley of CNN during the second presidential debate.

But it let President Obama launch into breathtaking hypocrisy regarding the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Lilly Ledbetter, which in Crowley's view ranked right up there with BenghaziGate as a pivotal issue, woke up one morning complaining that her male counterparts were getting paid more money for the same work and decided to sue for redress of this perceived grievance.

After she was told she had missed the statutory deadline, her case made it to the Supreme Court, which said too bad, but you missed the deadline. So Congress passed the Fair Pay Act, which does more for lawyers than it does for women, merely extending the statute of limitations for pay-discrimination lawsuits from 180 days from the violation to 180 days after the last paycheck issued that was affected by that discrimination.
Laws: written by lawyers for lawyers.
When Katherine Fenton asked Obama what he intended to do about "women making only 72% of what their male counterparts earn," the question was based on a false premise and a false statistic -- one calculated by Diana Furchtgott-Roth, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, by comparing all male with all female workers, regardless of experience, productivity, number of hours put in or length of service.
The simple approach - just divide two numbers, suits the narrative, study over.
When you factor these things in, Furchtgott-Roth says, women make about 95 cents to a man's dollar, which may explain why, since the Ledbetter Act was passed in January 2009, only 35 women have filed lawsuits under the new law.

The question, and Obama's response, were calculated to highlight the Democratic campaign theme that Republicans are waging a war on women because they don't think that having taxpayers provide free contraceptives to Georgetown coeds will help us beat China.
Posted by: Bobby || 10/19/2012 06:27 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ...but, but, they Care(tm). /sarc off
Posted by: Procopius2k || 10/19/2012 11:31 Comments || Top||

#2  Yea, but don't blame it on Obama---like he wouldn't be generous with public funds. It's, probably, Valerie's idea.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 10/19/2012 11:47 Comments || Top||

#3  The womyn on the left don't seem to notice.
Posted by: JohnQC || 10/19/2012 17:02 Comments || Top||


Funny: Romney's Alfred E. Smith Dinner speech
Posted by: badanov || 10/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Interesting delivery by Romney.... He's given some forceful speeches without notes or TelePrompter..... Got some pretty good "stump" deliveries.

In debates, his "management" skills are visible.... you almost see his mind working as he listens....

He can "roam" the stage when in debate.... with a body language that tells he is absolutely in charge. He can go toe-to-toe with The President.... and make his points....

Take the 9 minutes to watch this.... you might like his delivery...

"To make mistakes is human; to stumble is commonplace; to be able to laugh at yourself is maturity." ... William Arthur Ward
Posted by: Sherry || 10/19/2012 0:54 Comments || Top||

#2  Very well done.
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/19/2012 1:15 Comments || Top||

#3  Good stuff.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 10/19/2012 10:04 Comments || Top||

#4  Romney is a funny guy. To listen to the MSM and Obama's attack ads, one would think he killed little old ladies, had horns, did not pay his taxes, and stole from everyone.
Posted by: JohnQC || 10/19/2012 11:30 Comments || Top||

#5  Came across it on TV last night. I was feeling kinda burned out on all this political stuff after the debate so I decided to change the channel. But after a few of the jokes I realized I couldn't. The guy is good.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 10/19/2012 11:42 Comments || Top||

#6  Bravo! The man's a real mensch.
Posted by: Shinter Javirong9154 || 10/19/2012 16:49 Comments || Top||

#7  PJ O'rourke?
Posted by: Shipman || 10/19/2012 17:34 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
35[untagged]
4Govt of Pakistan
2Ansar Dine
2Arab Spring
2Govt of Iran
2Govt of Syria
2TTP
2al-Qaeda
2Hezbollah
2Lashkar e-Jhangvi
1Jamaat-e-Ulema Islami
1Govt of Sudan
1Taliban
1Hamas
1Thai Insurgency

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Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2012-10-19
  144 Dead as Syria Jets Blast Maaret al-Numan and Suicide Bomber Hits near Interior Ministry
Thu 2012-10-18
  Iranian-American Pleads Guilty to Plot to Kill Saudi Envoy to U.S.
Wed 2012-10-17
  ROPer arrested for attempting to blow up Federal Reserve Bank in NYC
Tue 2012-10-16
  Pak President Admits Creating Terrorist Groups
Mon 2012-10-15
  Gunmen kill 20 at mosque in northern Nigeria
Sun 2012-10-14
  Israel AF kills head of Al-Q affiliate in Gaza
Sat 2012-10-13
  96 Dead, Including 41 Troops
Fri 2012-10-12
  US names new diplomat to Libya to replace Stevens
Thu 2012-10-11
  US embassy security chief gunned down in Yemen
Wed 2012-10-10
  Turkey Intercepts Syrian Civilian Plane
Tue 2012-10-09
  Taliban bravely shoot Pakistani schoolgirl campaigning for peace
Mon 2012-10-08
  Syria Rebels Advance in North, Pushed Back in South
Sun 2012-10-07
  1 dead, 10 arrested in anti-terror sweep in France
Sat 2012-10-06
  US suspected drone kills five persons in Shabwa
Fri 2012-10-05
  18 Republican Guards killed in Damascus province

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