Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
08/21/2011 11:37 ||
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#1
Because he's a lying sack of *&%@!?
(don't wanna get sink'trapped)
Posted by: Barbara ||
08/21/2011 13:41 Comments ||
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#2
Pick one:
1) George Bush
2) Those stubborn Republicans
3) The dog ate my economic plan
4) Not enough taxes
5) Michelle spent it all
6) Hey! I'm trying to putt!
7) Bad luck
Posted by: Barry O ||
08/21/2011 13:42 Comments ||
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#3
All of the above, of course, Barry. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara ||
08/21/2011 13:43 Comments ||
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#4
Did anyone, anywhere, think BO's policies would improve the economy? Did anyone think that was even the plan?
#12
It's not the 'lying' part...it's the "sack of *&%@!?" part that is a little offensive.
Posted by: Etienne
I am for one, personally offended. The product of a very essential part of the bodily excretory process should not suffer such rediculous, and unwarranted comparison.
One more outburst like that Barbara and I will threaten, I say again, threaten to vote democratic! This is my last warning!
[Dawn] THOUGH the army announced on Thursday that operation Koh-i-Sufaid in central Kurram Agency ...home of an intricately interconnected web of poverty, ignorance, and religious fanaticism, where the laws of cause and effect are assumed to be suspended, conveniently located adjacent to Tora Bora... had been wrapped up, it is clear that the mission in the area is far from accomplished. And while the army chief was in Kurram when it was announced that the central part of the agency had been cleared of turbans, many questions about the operation and what it achieved (or rather failed to achieve) remain. In a statement the ISPR announced that "clearance of central Kurram will ensure opening of [the] Thall-Parachinar road". However, facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable... it is unclear how this will happen when action against gunnies has been taken in only a selected area and nothing concrete has been done to open the vital link road and ensure the security of those who use it. If people remain trapped, what has been achieved?
The Thall-Parachinar road is the key link connecting Kurram Agency to the rest of Pakistain. However, facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable... it has been blocked by the Taliban-backed local tribal gunnies for nearly four years, as a result of which people have to take a treacherous detour through Afghanistan. The blockade has left the people of Kurram marooned, left to their fate by the state and unable to freely travel. Those who do attempt to use the road are targeted by turbans. Considering such a situation it was thought that the prime objective of the army would have been to secure the road. But this was apparently not the case. Observers say that, instead, the army`s aim was to flush out gunnies hiding in central Kurram who had beat feet from other conflict zones and to cut off a route to North Wazoo.
Though it has been said the military did not want to get involved in the region`s `sectarian` strife -- Kurram`s Shia and Sunni tribes have been at loggerheads -- and hence avoided a larger operation, this explanation is not satisfactory. Ensuring people`s safety and their freedom of movement and ending a blockade enforced by gunnies is really a law and order issue. Though peace between the tribes must be facilitated, leaving them to handle security issues, most importantly the security of the Thall-Parachinar road, is a policy that has failed to bear fruit. There have been many peace agreements in the past, but it is fair to say that unless the state resolves to maintain security no peace accord can succeed in the long term. Providing security is the duty of the state and it cannot be outsourced to non-state actors. It is hoped the state has a plan to secure the key road. Militants cannot be given a free rein any longer and allowed to terrorise the people of Kurram.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] THE people of Badin, a district in Sindh that provides the country vast amounts of resources in the form of oil and gas, have been left to fend for themselves in the wake of heavy rains and canal breaches. As was the case last year across large sections of the country, the government appears to be conspicuous by its absence and the residents of Badin are having to make do as best as they can against heavy odds. Officials in positions of authority in all provinces need to realise that preventive measures could at least lessen the impact of the fury of nature. True, heavy monsoon rains will hit Pakistain almost every year but that does not mean that hundreds of thousands of people, and sometimes millions, should routinely be reduced to penury as a matter of course. Then there is the cruel fact that the immediate disaster is only part of the problem. People who lose everything in any given monsoon will struggle desperately to make ends meet for many more months to come. Their needs, be it ruined homes and lost cattle or seed stocks, must be met and it is here that the authorities which themselves live lavishly for the most part must come to the fore.
Oxfam, the international aid agency, has urged the government to improvise and implement an effective disaster reduction regime to provide relief to the most vulnerable and save the economy from collapse. This should not be fresh news for those who run and control our affairs. Actions taken before the event can help save lives, protect livelihoods and prevent an increase in poverty. This is not asking for the impossible. It can be done given the right amount of empathy and a genuine desire to do the right thing.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2011 00:00 ||
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The main element connecting these military officers and jihadist organizations in Pakistan is the officers' jihadist mindset, and opposition to the U.S.-led war on terror. Some of the examples of such plots, coup attempts and terror attacks in which Pakistani military officers were involved are related below. Some of these cases, revealing the jihadist mindset of Pakistani officers, occurred prior to the 9/11 attacks.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/21/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
In other news, water is wet.
Posted by: Barbara ||
08/21/2011 13:43 Comments ||
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I think that the time has come to send messages of greetings and felicitations to the heads of Iran for their arresting three American "hikers" and convicting two of them over the weekend for "espionage." The convictions seem to be empirical proof that God has a sense of humor.
Why? Because all three are long-time activists in the "BDS" Boycott-Israel and Cheer Palestinian Terrorism "solidarity" movements. There are numerous sources for this claim, a few attached below.
The details of the arrest, from the blog of the third arrestee (Sarah Shourd, who was released on half a million dollar bail, showing that some jihadis are sitting on very large endowment funds from mommy and daddy) are here:
'On July 31, 2009, three Americans, Sarah Shourd (32), Shane Bauer (28) and Joshua Fattal (28), were detained by Iranian border guards while allegedly hiking in Iraqi Kurdistan. Iran claims the three crossed into Iranian territory, but the three Americans claim they were kidnapped from within Iraq. Sarah Shourd was released on $500,000 bail by Iran on September 14, 2010, on humanitarian grounds due to her declining health. The trial of the three hikers began on 6 February 2011; Sarah Shourd will not
'In June 2010, an article in The Nation alleged that two villagers said the hikers were accosted by Iranian authorities while they were on the Iraqi side of the border. The three, anti-war, social justice and Palestinian solidarity activists, had been living and active in the Middle East, and were on holiday in Iraqi Kurdistan, an autonomous of Iraq free from the sectarian struggle that dominates much of Iraq. They had been advised of the suitability of the region for a holiday by friends who had been there and through Internet research; and were recommended the Ahmed Awa waterfall, a popular Kurdish tourist destination, by a number of local people whilst they were in Sulaymaniyah. After visiting the waterfall, they continued walking within what they believed to be Iraqi Kurdistan, up to and including the time they were detained by Iranian border guards. According to the BBC, they were not "publicly charged" with a crime by Iran; but according to the New York Times, they have been held on espionage charges since their arrest.'
The Nation is supporting them? That sure convinces me they are guilty!
#1
" all three are long-time activists in the "BDS"
Boycott-Israel and Cheer Palestinian Terrorism "solidarity" movements."
And they now get to meet real islam in an Iranian Prison. Ever see that Turkish Prison movie, "Midnight Express"? Yeah, Ya Allah and all their colorful customs.
Eight years in a Moslem Prison....yeah.
Hello, Sailor.
Posted by: de Medici ||
08/21/2011 9:41 Comments ||
Top||
#2
I still think they are really spies. But the question remains, working for whom?
#4
...I have a suspicion that they were there to try and uncover/find some horrifying BushCheneyHaliburtonCIA scandal and figured the sheer righteousness of their cause would protect them.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/21/2011 12:23 Comments ||
Top||
#5
They might also have been double agents. It would make sense for the CIA to have people working in various dingbat movements, as has been done by the FBI domestically for decades now.
#6
Well, Sarah Shourd is not exactly St. Pancake, but here is a little blurb from FREE THE HIKERS website that has some interesting tidbits.
ABOUT SARAH SHOURD
Sarah Shourd, 32, has been living with Shane in Damascus, where she teaches English and is learning Arabic. She previously taught as part of the Iraqi Student Project, a program which gives Iraqi students living in Damascus the skills to continue their education in US schools. She was on a break from her teaching responsibilities for a week, and she and Shane decided to take a hiking trip with their friends Josh and Shon. Sarah has written articles on travel and social issues reflecting her time in Syria, Ethiopia, Yemen and Mexico. Sarah, who has an older brother and sister, was born in Oak Park, Illinois and grew up in Los Angeles, California. She attended UC Berkeley in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she lived after graduating until moving to Damascus with Shane.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/21/2011 14:10 Comments ||
Top||
Public profanity is nothing new, of course, but it inarguably has gotten worse. It was hilarious (and shocking) in the 1970s when comedian George Carlin poked fun at our cultural aversion to the seven words you cant say on television. His act now can be viewed as a period piece. We can say most anything anywhere now, and we do.
Good behavior is nothing but good manners, simply consideration of others. Recently out of vogue, manners get hauled out the way most people attend church at Easter and Christmastime. But manners arent just gray-haired pretensions practiced by smug elites on special occasions. They are the daily tithes we willingly surrender to civilization.
An MF here or an FU there might not constitute the unraveling of society, but each one uttered in anothers involuntary presence is a tiny act of violence against kindness, of which we surely could use more.
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.
Kurram Agency
Wazoo
THE people of Badin, a district in Sindh that provides the country vast amounts of resources in the form of oil and gas, have been left to fend for themselves in the wake of heavy rains and canal breaches. As was the case last year across large sections of the country, the government appears to be conspicuous by its absence and the residents of Badin are having to make do as best as they can against heavy odds. Officials in positions of authority in all provinces need to realise that preventive measures could at least lessen the impact of the fury of nature. True, heavy monsoon rains will hit Pakistain almost every year but that does not mean that hundreds of thousands of people, and sometimes millions, should routinely be reduced to penury as a matter of course. Then there is the cruel fact that the immediate disaster is only part of the problem. People who lose everything in any given monsoon will struggle desperately to make ends meet for many more months to come. Their needs, be it ruined homes and lost cattle or seed stocks, must be met and it is here that the authorities which themselves live lavishly for the most part must come to the fore.
