#1
Oh gee... "The children of Gaza are suffering post-tramatic stress from the violence."
From their own Orc kind? They are more brutal than the evil JOOOOOS. What about the Jewish children? Are they not traumatized from the rocket and suicide bomber attacks?
No, of course not. They are only decedents of pigs and apes after all.
Fucking anti-Semite liberals need killed as much as the terrorists do.
#3
"The administrator and the administration has decided to move forward on endangerment, and your comments do not help the legal or policy case for this decision," he wrote, according to the e-mails released by CEI. "I can only see one impact of your comments given where we are in the process, and that would be a very negative impact on our office."
proof of bias printed directly within the article itself.
Short form.
Don't bother me with the facts, my mind's made up.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/29/2009 21:22
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TENS of thousands of Iraqis partied amid massive security in Baghdad overnight to mark the imminent pullout of US troops from urban areas and celebrate the restive nation's reclaimed sovereignty.
The American pullback, agreed under a security accord signed last year, will be completed today, which has been declared a national holiday, but soldiers and police were out in force as festivities began.
"Since 2003, I have never been to a party," Ahmed Ali, 20, said as a large celebration got under way in Zawra Park, the largest in the capital, "but today I am coming to hear the singers I love."
Popular Iraqi singers including Salah Hassan, Kassem Sultan and Abed Falek, who all live abroad, had travelled to Baghdad for the occasion.
Revellers had to undergo three security checks to enter the park but no one seemed to complain amid a jubilant atmosphere, where an onstage banner declared Baghdad's sovereignty and independence had been recovered.
Even policemen joined in the fun, dancing with the party-goers.
"Today is the day that we got back our country," said Salim Mohammed, from the sprawling Shi'ite working-class district of Sadr City.
From July 1, Iraq's army and police will take sole charge of security in the country's cities, towns and villages.
Baghdad civil defence spokesman Tahsin al-Sheikhli said: "All Iraqis are happy today because it's the first day that they're going to protect themselves.
"We know that Iraq's enemies will attempt to disrupt security but our forces are ready to take them on."
AS many as 85 fundamentalist sharia courts are now operating in the UK -- far more than was thought. It was believed there were just five of the hard-line courts in Britain, but a report out today says the number is much higher.
Experts predict the growing quantity could lead to difficulties in applying usual British legal standards to Muslims.
Dennis MacEoin, author of the report, said the only sharia courts previously known about were in London, Manchester, Bradford, Birmingham and Nuneaton, in Warwickshire. He said: "This is not a matter of eating halal meat or seeking God's blessing on one's marriage.
"It is a challenge to all of us to live in a society as free as possible from ethnic-religious division or communal claims to superiority and a special status that puts them in some respects above the law to which we are all bound."
In his report, published by the think-tank Civitas, he states many of the courts operate out of mosques and their rulings are closed off to non-Muslims. He includes a list of previous sharia judgments he believes give an indication of the type of ruling being handed down by the courts working in the UK.
Among the examples quoted are laws banning a Muslim woman from marrying a non-Muslim unless he converts to Islam and the removal of a wife's property rights in the event of divorce. The report states: "Among the rulings ... we find some that advise illegal actions and others that transgress human rights standards as they are applied by British courts."
Some UK sharia courts work as part of the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) system which works with British law to deal with commercial, civil, and matrimonial matters and some instances of domestic violence and neighbourly disputes.
UK Allows Sharia. Pigs get foot rot, want to bolt to the sty.
Labour employs any fuckwit willing to give infomercials. Even if you're 2ft, ginger, and look like a cunt. There's hope yet! Thanks Labour. Thank you ever so much.
Iran's election oversight body on Monday declared the hotly disputed presidential vote to be valid after a partial recount, rejecting opposition allegations of fraud and further silencing calls for a new vote. State television reported that the Guardian Council presented the conclusion in a letter to the Interior Minister following a recount of a what was described as a randomly selected 10 percent of the almost 40 million ballots cast June 12.
The "meticulous and comprehensive examination" revealed only "slight irregularities that are common to any election and needless of attention," Guardian Council head Ahmed Jannati said in a letter, according to the state TV channel IRIB.
Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi claims he, not incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was the rightful winner and has called for a new election, something the government has repeatedly said it will not do. "From today on, the file on the presidential election has been closed," Guardian Council spokesman Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei said on state-run Press TV.
Mousavi supporters have taken to the streets in protest after the election, outraged by official results that gave Ahmadinejad the victory by a roughly 2-1 margin. Police and the feared Basij militia have taken increasingly harsh measures against the demonstrators, prompting widespread international criticism.
The recount conducted Monday had appeared to be an attempt to cultivate the image that Iran was seriously addressing fraud claims, while giving no ground in the clampdown on opposition. Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the Council already had pronounced the results free of major fraud and insisted that Ahmadinejad won by a landslide. And even if errors were found in nearly every one of the votes in the recount Ahmadinejad, according to the government's count, still would have tallied more votes than Mousavi.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday questioned the recount's utility. "They have a huge credibility gap with their own people as to the election process. And I don't think that's going to disappear by any finding of a limited review of a relatively small number of ballots," she told reporters in Washington. Asked if the United States would recognize Ahmadinejad as Iran's legitimate president, she said "We're going to take this a day at a time."
Hillary would know all about credibility gaps. The US is looking more and more like an enabler to the Mad Mullahs.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/29/2009
16:20 ||
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Democrats take note, next contested election have a "Recount" but include only the precincts you won overwhelmingly, and declare victory.
Hell why not, you're no less thieves than the Iranians.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/29/2009 21:54
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Isn't that what Gore wanted in 2000 - a recount but only in selected known pro-democrat precents.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday the United States believes the unrest in Honduras "has evolved into a coup," but the U.S. is not demanding that deposed President Manuel Zelaya be restored to office. She also said the military coup has not triggered an automatic cutoff of U.S. aid to Honduras.
Clinton told reporters at the State Department that a delegation from the Organization of American States will be heading to Honduras as early as Tuesday "to begin working with the parties" on the restoration of constitutional order.
She stopped short of saying the Obama administration would demand the return to power of the deposed president, who was forcibly removed from the country on Sunday morning by the Honduran military.
Obama didn't stop short ...
A reporter asked whether the administration would insist that Zelaya be restored to power.
"We haven't laid out any demands that we're insisting on, because we're working with others on behalf of our ultimate objectives, which are shared broadly," Clinton replied. "So we think that the arrest and expulsion of a president is certainly cause for concern that has to be addressed. And it's not just with respect to whether our aid continues, but whether democracy in Honduras continues."
"You expect the United States to intervene in a Latin American coup?"
Clinton cited a "fast-moving set of circumstances" in Honduras that require close monitoring. "Our immediate priority is to restore full democratic and constitutional order in that country," Clinton said at her first news conference since breaking her right elbow in a fall at the State Department June 17.
"As we move forward, all parties have a responsibility to address the underlying problems that led to yesterday's events in a way that enhances democracy and the rule of law in Honduras," she added.
Seems like the Honduran president was proposing a referendum that would have dumped on the rule of law there. Their Supreme Court told him not to do it but he was doing it anyway. How does that fit the 'rule of law'?
While stating that circumstances in Honduras had "evolved into a coup," Clinton added that it was a fast-moving situation with an uncertain outcome. "So we are withholding any formal legal determination. But I think the reality is that having expelled the president, we have a lot of work to do to try to help the Hondurans get back on the democratic path that they've been on for a number of years now," Clinton said.
She said the United States is looking at its aid program for the country and considering the implications of the forced removal of Zelaya for continued American assistance.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/29/2009
16:17 ||
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Uh, with a President like Reagan Honduras had the confidence to enter a democratic path.
Now, with the current one, the best they apparently feel they can hope for is a dictatorship they control instead of Hugo.
#2
What happens if it devolves into an impeachment? Anybody have experience with those? What if a competent judicial authority finds that a competent military authority properly refused to obey an unlawful order? What if nobody is killed during the entire affair? What if neighboring, and near neighboring states exert overt and covert pressure on domestic authorities? Who is to judge that? What if the OAS demands a return to "democratic" norms? What if Honduras asks for a definition of that, along the lines of Cuban and Venezuelan examples?
#3
She said the United States is looking at its aid program for the country and considering the implications of the forced removal of Zelaya for continued American assistance.
In finest traditions of Chicagoland "pay to play." Of course the upside.... Aid dividends harvested from an illegal coup could be redirected to Hamas for education and school lunch programs.
#3
Obama - that statement could put some US students, on a working trip, there in a position where everybody will be after the American students.....
Some really nice kids you jerk!
#6
Well, we have a new entry in the political dialectic. According to the ever evolving leftist meme of statecraft, a president who is "democratically elected" can disregard the legislative and judicial branches, get help from a foreign military, and stage what amounts to his own sham election if he wants an additional term (unless of course he is a Republican and this is the US we are talking about).
That, friends, is an inescapable and logical inference from the reaction to the Honduran constitutional crisis in liberal, media, and other leftist circles.
We probably cannot save Honduras from an authoritarian caudillo in the Castro/Allende/Chavez mold at this point. Our population is too heavily indoctrinated with misapplied and loaded terminology (like "coup"), weasel words, and common bigotry.
Will Obama and ACORN have help from the Venezuelan air force if they try to stage their own sham election and give the Zero a third term in 2016? Ridiculous? Sure, but it is no different from what they are trying to force on the people of Honduras. After all, the One was "democratically elected."
Militant groups banned in Pakistan are expanding operations and recruitment in Pakistani-run Kashmir, according to a government report seen by the BBC.
A copy of the report, which was submitted by regional police to Pakistan-administered Kashmir's cabinet on 25 March, was obtained by the BBC in Islamabad. It finds that three banned groups - Harkatul Mujahideen, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba - are active in Muzaffarabad.
Harkatul Mujahideen and Jaish-e-Mohammad are said to be planning to open madrassas, or Islamic schools, in the city where Lashkar-e-Taiba is already operating a madrassa. "No officials are allowed to enter these premises to gather any sort of information," the report says. "We fear these madrassas maybe a cover for furthering militant activities."
The report also elaborates how the militant groups are growing in size and number across Kashmir. It especially mentions the Neelum district, where they are said to be at their most powerful. The report says the militants are involved in the logging of trees, one of the most lucrative trades in the region. They have also set up offices in the Kandal Shahi market in Neelum, where they have become a major law and order headache, the report says.
It then goes on to say that the authorities should take up the matter with the intelligence agency responsible for the militants.
The report mentions an incident which led to the killing of some locals and a resulting stand-off with the militants. "The situation was only resolved by the intervention of the local administrator and senior army officials," the report says. It then goes on to say that the authorities should take up the matter with the intelligence agency responsible for the militants. The report says officials from that agency should relocate the militants to some area near the border, otherwise clashes with locals could take place.
Posted by: john frum ||
06/29/2009
16:12 ||
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Islamabad - Piotr Stanczak did not exhibit the slightest hint of hesitation when the Pakistani Taliban asked him to choose between execution and conversion to Islam. Whether the Polish geologist acted out of pride or religious conviction, he decided to pay through his blood to save his faith, a choice that bewildered his killers and keep them talking about him with respect after his murder. Stanczak, 42, was kidnapped September 28 on his way to survey for oil exploration in Attock district, of Pakistan's eastern province of Punjab. The kidnappers also killed his driver and two guards.
Militants released a gruesome seven-minute video in early February showing his beheading. One of the murderers blamed the Pakistani government which failed to accept their demands for the release of detained militants.
Warsaw reacted angrily, slammed Islamabad's 'apathy' in tackling terrorism and offering a 1-million-zloty (300,000-dollar) reward for information leading to the capture of the Taliban militants who beheaded Stanczak.
Among the militants whose release was sought by the Taliban was Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, a British-Pakistani who was sentenced to death for the 2002 abduction and murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl.
When negotiations between the representatives of the Pakistani government and the hostage-takers failed, the Taliban leadership gave the Polish man a last chance to save himself, Stanczak's captors revealed to another hostage, a Pakistani man Mohammad Amir. Amir - a pseudonym, as he asked for anonymity to avoid possible repercussions - was released recently after his family paid 1 million rupees (25,000 dollars) to agents of Taliban commander Tariq Afridi.
Afridi heads a small group of Taliban in the Orakzai tribal district and is loyal to Baitullah Mehsud, the chief of local Taliban who has a 5-million-dollar bounty on his head for being an al-Qaeda facilitator. Pakistani troops have recently been ordered to take decisive action against Mehsud.
In an interview with the German Press Agency dpa in Attock, Amir said he was kept in the same cell where Stanczak was held for a month before the Polish man was decapitated. Amir said Taliban soldiers guarding the two-storey prison building in South Waziristan, a lawless tribal district bordering Afghanistan, frequently chatted with him and one day they mentioned the abduction and killing of Stanczak. 'Our people were keeping an eye on his movements for several months. We were expecting that we could exchange some of our mujahidin in the government's custody for him,' Amir quoted a guard as saying.
Because Stanczak was a high-profile target, the Taliban made extensive preparations to kidnap and shift him to a safe place from Attock, some 100 kilometres from Islamabad. 'You know the Indus River lies between Attock and North Western Frontier Province (NWFP) and our people could not use the bridge to cross it because it is heavily guarded. So we bought a boat to transport Piotr across the border,' the guard, who identified himself as Abdullah, told Amir. From NWFP, Stanczak was moved to the Tirah Valley of the adjoining Khyber tribal district, and a month later to the Taliban's stronghold of South Waziristan, a 14-hour drive through muddy mountain tracks.
'Piotr never showed any sign of nervousness or fear. He would finish the food we gave him and sleep well. We all admired his courage. It was not an easy decision even for our commander to kill Piotr,' Abdullah said. 'That's why he gave him a last chance. But he was very stubborn and refused our goodwill gesture to save his life,' Abdullah was cited as saying by Amir. 'Piotr said first we should release him. He will go back to his country, consult his family and read about Islam and only then deicide about converting to Islam. This surprised everyone but we had to kill him because principles are principles - we gave him a chance and he lost it, the guard told Amir. 'But undoubtedly he was a brave man.'
Posted by: john frum ||
06/29/2009
16:01 ||
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#4
Ths was a great man. Words fail me except to say this: the name Stanczak will be recalled with the name King Jan Sobieski for whom a prayer should be daily.
Considering that 2009 marks the 20th year of full-blown insurgency in Kashmir, it is somewhat surprising that there are not many books that go behind the scenes and beyond newspaper reports to lay bare what actually was happening on the ground and to the people of the state. In recent years, however, Praveen Swami and David Devadas have done some remarkable work to fill some of this empty space. But until now, very little was known of how the insurgency was guided from across the border in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
Much of what we know is based on information handed out by the Indian security agencies. There was however no means to corroborate this information. The absence of any independent source of information, which was also reliable, left a huge gap in our knowledge of how the insurgency was planned and how it played itself out inside Pakistan. Also missing was the story of the jihadists and Kashmiri separatists who operated from Pakistan.
In his book Shadow War -- The Untold Story of Jihad in Kashmir, Pakistani journalist Arif Jamal, unveils the involvement of Pakistan in the insurgency and provides some new and quite startling details of the jihad that Pakistan waged against India in Kashmir. Having covered and observed this jihad from very close quarters, Arif was ideally placed to write this book. There is little that he doesn't know about the people and organisations involved in spawning militancy and terror in Kashmir. But while he is brutally honest in exposing all the misdeeds and murders that were committed in the name of 'Kashmiri struggle for independence', he has concentrated more on the involvement of the Jamaat Islami and its terrorist arm, Hizbul Mujahideen [ Images ], in spreading murder and mayhem in Kashmir.
In the process, Arif has ignored the role of terror outfits like Lashkar-e-Tayiba [ Images ] and Jaish-i-Mohammed because, according to him, "they have a global agenda in which Kashmir is no more than a training ground."
Arif busts many myths in his book, not the least of which is the commonly held view that the alleged rigging in the J&K state assembly elections in 1987 sparked the insurgency. According to Arif, right from the time of partition, Pakistan was always on the lookout for opportunities to stir up trouble in Kashmir. There were occasional lulls in Pakistani efforts to destabilise Kashmir, for instance after the 1971 war. But these periods had more to do with Pakistan's compulsions rather than any change of intentions. As Arif puts it, "Jihad, holy war and diplomacy were thus the first elements of Pakistan's foreign and defence policy -- and they remain so more than 60 years later."
He reveals that in early 1980, General. Zia-ul Haq held a meeting with the chief of Jamaat Islami in PoK, Maulana Abdul Bari. In this meeting Zia told Bari that he "had decided to contribute to the American-sponsored war in Afghanistan in order to prepare the ground for a larger conflict in Kashmir".
Zia predicted that "the Americans would be distracted by the fighting in Afghanistan and as a result would turn a blind eye to Pakistani moves in the region" [If one goes by what Arif writes later in this book, a similar calculation is being made by the Pakistan army [ Images ] today]. When Bari asked Zia who in Afghanistan will receive the biggest share of US assistance, Zia said "whoever trains the boys from Kashmir".
Arif puts a lie to the propaganda that the insurgency in Kashmir is a localised phenomenon and has no links with Jihad international. The book clearly points to the organic links that were established between the Islamists who were waging jihad in Afghanistan and those waging jihad in Kashmir. According to Arif, "in the early days of fighting, Hizbul Mujahideen had all its fighters trained at camps in Afghanistan run by Hizbe Islami [of Gulbadin Hikmatyar]. In particular, they made use of al Badr in Khost province... Kashmiri fighters also made use of other camps in Afghanistan, including Khalid bin Walid, Al Farooq and Abu Jindal." The camp, Abu Jindal, was known as a site for training Arab fighters and in 1998 Osama bin Laden [ Images ] held a press conference there. Later, Arif reveals, training camps were established all over Pakistan and in PoK.
According to the book, the Hizbul Mujahideen learnt its brutality and savagery at the feet of Gulbadin Hikmatyar, who advised the HM chief Syed Salahuddin to eliminate all his rivals. The book quotes a HM commander who said that his organisation eliminated over 7,000 political rivals. But according to another dissident HM commander the number was "many times higher". The method of killing rivals -- chopping bodies, beheading them, sawing them, hanging them publicly are all eerily reminiscent of the tactics used by the Pakistani Taliban [ Images ] in Swat recently.
In a sense, Arif corroborates a lot of what Indian security agencies had already revealed to the Indian media. But where Arif breaks new ground is by informing his readers the suppleness with which the Pakistani military establishment adapts to unfavourable international situations and calibrates the jihad in Kashmir accordingly. This is something that holds important lessons for those in India who once again have started suffering from the delusion that Pakistan army has realised the futility of the jihad and that therefore the time is ripe for striking a workable deal with Pakistan.
Arif believes that the appointment of General Ashfaq Kiyani as army chief signals "a continued strengthening of Pakistani support for jihadi groups". He quotes an HM commander as saying that the jihadis "never had it so good since 1999".
In a clear indictment of the Pakistani policy of unending jihad against India, Arif writes that "in the spring of 2007, the ISI arranged several meetings between a group of Pakistani and Kashmiri jihadis and the Afghan Taliban... these meetings were aimed at creating coordination between the two jihads, in Afghanistan and in Kashmir... As a result of these meetings, some Pakistani jihadi groups joined their Afghan comrades in the tribal areas of Pakistan and also inside Afghanistan. However, most importantly, more jihadis were pushed across the LoC or use other routes to reach India... In a new strategy, most of them were ordered to establish sleeper cells". The aim of this link-up is apparently to reduce Indian support to the Hamid Karzai [ Images ] government and Arif speculates that the bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul is probably a result of this new strategy.
Given that it now appears only to be a matter of time before India and Pakistan re-start the stalled dialogue process, this book should be an eye opener for the Indian negotiators. While negotiations are always a preferred way to resolve disputes, they will never be fruitful until and unless there is a genuine desire on both sides to seek some sort of a middle ground on which a deal can be struck. But if negotiations are only a smokescreen or a diversionary tactic for a nefarious game-plan, then quite obviously the negotiations will be a dialogue of the deaf.
The book, Shadow War, only reinforces the apparent futility of any dialogue with Pakistan at this stage.
Posted by: john frum ||
06/29/2009
16:00 ||
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#1
Dialog? It's impossible to conferr with closed minds.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/29/2009 21:24
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Pakistan army wanted a reason to take their troops from Western Pakistan where they didnt want to fight the taliban to the Eastern border where they would much love to fight the peace loving Indians!!
Scum/failed state is what pakistan is but look where they get their funding/ideology from our friends the Saudis!!!!
Of particular interest to those of you who dabble -- or work -- in financial investing. For the rest of us, it's good to understand one of the major weapons employed by those who choose to be our enemies. Click on the title to go read the whole thing.
When a pro-terrorist organization announces its intention to launch a financial jihad against the West, it is well worth learning their methods. More significant than the promotion of a religious pseudo-financial scheme is the possibility their largely unregulated practices could release a new wave of toxic assets into the wider economy and trigger a series of small-scale Enrons.
The Muslim organization Hizb Ut Tahrir capitalizes on Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna's 20th century derivative, encouraging followers to build a parallel financial structure. Al-Banna envisioned the resultant Shari'a-compliant finance as a back door into Western financial markets and institutions through which to supplant liberty and prosperity with Islam. Muslim clerics including MB spiritual leader Yusuf al-Qaradawi promote Shari'a finance as generally safer than Western investments, a diversification method to steady personal assets -- and a stable economic system that should replace capitalism. Call it financial replacement theology, if you wish.
In July, Hizb Ut Tahrir plans to launch its U.S. arm with a huge Chicago Khalifah conference heralding the coming Caliphate and global Islamic supremacism. After 9/11, Germany and Sweden outlawed Hizb Ut Tahrir. In July 2005, Pakistan's then-president Pervez Musharaf warned Britain not to tolerate its continued U.K. presence. But in the U.S., Hizb Ut Tahrir has proudly announced intentions to replace capitalism with Islam.
Major banks from Citigroup, HSBC, Chase, Bank of America and Lloyds TSB -- probably unaware of the etymology of Islamic finance -- established subsidiaries offering Shari'a-compliant products. Mutual funds at Principal Financial Group, UBS, Amana Funds and SEI Investments, among others, followed suit. Especially late last year as the devastating toll of sub-prime mortgage lending mounted, clients were assured that Islamic banking -- in many respects a dangerous financial fad -- was much safer than other banks and investment houses.
Yet bad economic news has not escaped the supposedly secure Islamic investing sector. Islamic securities can also (like all other asset classes) go into default, moreover. Holders of East Cameron Partners LP's safe, asset-backed Islamic bonds (sukuk) now line up before a Louisiana bankruptcy judge with all the other hapless creditors of the Texas-based Easter Cameron Oil and Gas Co. that filed for Chapter 11 reorganization last October.
NEW YORK Bernard Madoff has been sentenced to 150 years in prison for his multibillion-dollar fraud scheme. U.S. District Judge Denny Chin handed down the sentenced in New York on Monday.
The 71-year-old former Nasdaq chairman was arrested late last year after confessing to his sons that his secretive investment advisory business was a "big lie." He pleaded guilty to securities fraud and other charges in March and has been jailed since.
Billy Mays, the bearded, boisterous pitchman who, as the undisputed king of TV yell and sell, became an unlikely pop culture icon, died June 28 at his Tampa home at age 50. Tampa police told the Associated Press that his wife discovered him unresponsive early in the morning. A fire rescue crew pronounced him dead at 7:45 a.m.
The man many TV viewers knew as "the OxiClean guy" was among the passengers on a US Airways flight that made a rough landing the previous afternoon at Tampa International Airport. Mr. Mays told Tampa's Fox TV affiliate that something fell from the ceiling and hit him on the head, "but I got a hard head." A police spokeswoman said linking his death to the rough landing would "purely be speculation."
As often as 400 times a week, his "Hi! Billy Mays here!" signaled yet another paean to Mighty Putty, Simoniz Fix It scratch remover, the Big City Slider Station, the Handy Switch, the Awesome Auger and numerous other "As Seen on TV" products. In a 2008 profile of Mr. Mays, The Washington Post noted that top pitchmen get about $20,000 upfront for each commercial they tape, although Mr. Mays made even more money from a commission on gross revenue. He refused to be specific about his annual income, although Forbes magazine said his efforts accounted for more than $1 billion in combined sales for the products he pitched.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/29/2009
11:20 ||
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I wonder if Billy Mays had a precondition in his brain that was aggravated by the hit on the head. Maybe the autopsy will tell us.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/29/2009 13:29
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prelim autopsy results
- hypertension
- clogged arteries
Posted by: lord garth ||
06/29/2009 19:18
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6 o'clock news said heart problems (I think undetected - I wasn't paying much attention).
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/29/2009 20:02
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THE horrifying state of pop superstar Michael Jackson in his final days can be revealed by The Sun today.
Harrowing leaked autopsy details show the singer was a virtual skeleton -- barely eating and with only pills in his stomach at the time he died. His hips, thighs and shoulders were riddled with needle wounds -- believed to be the result of injections of narcotic painkillers, given three times a day for years. And a mass of surgery scars were thought to be the legacy of at least 13 cosmetic operations.
Experts found the distressing evidence of Jacko's physical decline while investigating his startling death in Los Angeles last week.
The examination showed the 5ft 10in star -- once famed for his on-stage athleticism -- had:
PLUNGED to a "severely emaciated" 8st 1oz. It is understood anorexic Jackson had been eating just one meagre meal a day. 112 pounds, 1 ounce.
Pathologists found his stomach empty aside from partially-dissolved pills he took before the painkiller injection which stopped his heart. Samples were sent for toxicology tests.
LOST virtually all his hair. The pop pin-up was wearing a wig when he died and pathologists said little more than "peach fuzz" covered his scalp. A scarred section of skin above his left ear was entirely bald -- apparently the result of a 1984 accident when his hair caught fire as he filmed an ad for Pepsi.
SUFFERED several broken ribs as frantic rescuers pumped his chest after he collapsed in cardiac arrest. Four injection sites were found above or near to Jacko's heart. All appeared to result from attempts to pump adrenaline directly into the organ in a failed bit to restart it. Three of the injections had penetrated the heart wall -- causing damage -- but a fourth missed and hit one of the 50-year-old star's ribs.
The autopsy also found unexplained BRUISING on Jackson's knees and on the fronts of both shins. And there were CUTS on his back, indicating a recent fall.
The King of Pop's once handsome face bore a network of plastic surgery scars, while the bridge to his nose had vanished and its right side had partially collapsed.
As inquiries into the tragedy last night focused on the star's personal physician Dr Conrad Murray, a source close to the Jackson entourage said: "Michael's family and fans will be horrified when they realise the appalling state he was in.
"He was skin and bone, his hair had fallen out and had been eating nothing but pills when he died. Injection marks all over his body and the disfigurement caused by years of plastic surgery show he'd been in terminal decline for years.
"His doctors and the hangers-on stood by as he self-destructed. Somebody is going to have to pay."
Cardiologist Dr Murray was thought to have given Jackson the final injection of painkiller Demerol. He is facing serious questions about his resuscitation attempts, which began when he started CPR as Jacko lay unconscious on a bed. Basic first aid guidance says patients must be face-up on a hard surface before compressions.
Experts yesterday expressed amazement that a trained cardiologist could have made such an error, potentially wasting vital minutes.
Additional damage was believed to have been caused by oxygen masks and tubing inserted during resuscitation attempts. But in an ironic twist, the probe found Jacko was recovering well from skin cancer -- with an op to shave cells from his chest a total success.
A second autopsy demanded by the Jackson family was carried out at a secret location on Saturday after the first ruled out foul play.
Family friend Rev Jesse Jackson said the family were deeply suspicious about what caused his death.
Dr Murray was hired just 11 days ago by AEG Live -- the firm masterminding Jacko's 50-date residency at London's O2 Arena, which was due to start next month. Sources claimed the family were preparing a multi-million-dollar lawsuit against the cardiologist.
Detectives were unable to find the doctor at Jackson's home and his car was taken away for analysis as police sought him for questioning. He surfaced late on Friday and was quizzed over the weekend.
The Sun told on Saturday how Jacko had developed stage fright for the first time and was terrified of performing the comeback gigs. Aides claimed the ailing star even believed he would be KILLED if he pulled out on health grounds. We also revealed he was taking a potentially toxic cocktail of drugs.
Sources last night said prescriptions for drugs for patients other than Jacko were found at his home. Those patients were due to be quizzed.
#5
And, not to be outdone in Battle of the Opportunistic Race Baiters...
The Rev. Al Sharpton is expected to at the Jackson's family home in Encino, CA on Monday. He will be there to discuss a worldwide tribute and how to preserve Michael Jackson's legacy.
Sharpton flew in from Atlanta on Sunday is going to meet with the family to plan a possible worldwide celebration to honor the "King of Pop"s" life.
Sharpton said this: "I'm here to make sure Michael gets in death what he never got in life - he never got credit, He was not a freak, he's a genius. He was not somebody who was eccentric, he was innovative and that innovation smashed barriers and he should be given a lot more credit than he's been given."
#8
Weighing out at 8 Stones, 1 ounce. I thought the stretcher-bearers were skipping along rather briskly.
Definite candidate for snark-of-the-week award ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/29/2009 13:33
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#9
And where were all of his so-called friends who "loved" him so well when he was living a life of total self-abuse? It is still all about persona.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/29/2009 13:58
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#10
I find the anorexia claim suspicious. Recent articles quoted Mr. Jackson as admitting to being underweight and needing to eat enough to regain the weight necessary to have the strength to perform the contracted concerts. One of trailing daughter #2's friends went through an anorexic/bulimic phase; the key marker was her insistence that she was fat, despite being healthily muscular rather than her target of catwalk-model thin. (When her family's home life stabilized, so did her ability to see her body properly, so that's ok). On the other hand, I've been so sick that I couldn't muster the energy to eat more than a bowl of soup or cereal over the course of a day, which sounds more like Mr. Jackson's situation. Compound that with the incredibly high level of stress he was under the last few months, trying to pull together a concert he knew he didn't have the stamina to perform, and it's no wonder he was living on pills and injections.
SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea criticized the U.S. on Monday for positioning missile defense systems around Hawaii, calling the deployment part of a plot to attack the regime and saying it would bolster its nuclear arsenal in retaliation.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said he ordered the deployment of a ground-based, mobile missile intercept system and radar system to Hawaii amid concerns the North may fire a long-range missile toward the islands, about 4,500 miles away.
"Through the U.S. forces' clamorous movements, it has been brought to light that the U.S. attempt to launch a pre-emptive strike on our republic has become a brutal fact," the North's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in a commentary.
The paper also accused the U.S. of deploying nuclear-powered aircraft and atomic-armed submarines in waters near the Korean peninsula, saying the moves prove "the U.S. pre-emptive nuclear war" on the North is imminent.
Nuclear-powered aircraft? Oh right, the F-222. Dang, they caught us ...
The hilarious commentary, carried by the official Korean Central News Agency, said the North will bolster its nuclear arsenal in self-defense.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/29/2009
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#2
the North will bolster its nuclear arsenal in self-defense.
Ten times zero is still zero. If they actually had a functional nuclear device, so would Iran and Syria, at the very least... and at least a few of them would already be in the air, with great fanfare.
#4
"Through the U.S. forces' clamorous movements, it has been brought to light that the U.S. attempt to launch a pre-emptive strike on our republic has become a brutal fact,"
Uh....huh... Son, if we really wanted to do a pre-emptive strike on your ass, we would and you would never know about it until it was all over.
Governor's missteps, others' reactions painted him into a corner
Posted by: Fred ||
06/29/2009
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#1
Thrown from the tracks by the speeding train the badly shaken hound was pleasantly surprised to discover he was all intact with the exception of his beautiful tail. Returning to the tracks to recover his tail, a southbound frieght decapitated the hapless dog. Moral of the story.... Don't lose your head over a piece of tail.
Monica Conyers has admitted accepting bribes in a sludge deal, but the Detroit councilwoman's political adviser and onetime chief of staff told the Free Press she received cash and jewelry for brokering other questionable transactions. The aide, Sam Riddle, said Conyers even helped draft a letter sent by her husband, Congressman John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., to help a man with whom she had financial ties. It is unclear whether John Conyers knew of his wife's alleged link to the businessman.
In that deal, Riddle said, Monica Conyers arranged for Riddle to get a $20,000 contract with Greektown entrepreneur Dimitrios (Jim) Papas in about 2007. Riddle said Papas hired him for crisis consulting and political advising -- but he was never asked to do any work. She then demanded $10,000 of that money as a "finder's fee," Riddle said.
At some point after Papas paid him, Riddle said, John Conyers sent a letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in support of a controversial hazardous waste injection well in Romulus that one of Papas' companies was seeking to operate.
Federal investigators examined a variety of Monica Conyers' dealings. U.S. Attorney Terrence Berg said Sunday: "We didn't have any evidence the congressman was knowingly or intentionally involved in Ms. Conyers' illegal conduct."
Monica Conyers' lawyer wouldn't discuss Papas. And Papas did not return messages seeking comment. Karen Morgan, John Conyers' spokeswoman, declined to discuss the letter.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/29/2009
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#1
It is unclear whether John Conyers knew of his wife's alleged link to the businessman.
#5
Looking at him, then looking at her, I can understand why there'd be no pillow talk ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/29/2009 12:42
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#6
Ah. It appears we have the definition of "unclear". Looks like ya on your own, baby...
Detroit -- The 14th Congressional District Democratic Party Organization has passed a unanimous resolution backing Congressman John Conyers Jr., whose wife pleaded guilty in federal court to a single count of conspiracy to commit bribery.
"Congressman Conyers has provided outstanding leadership throughout the district and we all look forward to continuing to work with him in the future," Dearborn Democrat Isaac Robinson, chairman of the 14th District Political Organizing Committee, said in a written statement. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the Conyers family. This is an unfortunate situation, but has no negative reflection on Rep. Conyers, one of the most powerful members of Congress, who fights for our district and Michigan every day."
The group's spokesman Tim Gardner said 160 members voted at the meeting held in Teamster's Hall in Detroit.
Conyers' wife, Detroit Councilwoman Monica Conyers, pleaded guilty and admitted in federal court that she took money in exchange for her vote on a $1.2 billion sewage sludge contract.
According to court documents, Conyers is also accused of tossing her support behind projects being pitched to the city's General Retirement Fund pension board, while she was a trustee.
The Conyerses were married June 4, 1990, when she was 25 and John Conyers, until then a lifelong bachelor, was 61. She was seven months pregnant during the ceremony with the couple's first son, John Conyers III, according to state and county records. The two had met while she was an intern working for the U.S. Congress.
#1
I blame it on the weather, which was very hot and humid all week until Sunday morning. This was the first hot spell in Chicago this summer and that usually triggers (pun intended) a rise in violent crime.
The Supreme Court ruled Monday that white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., were unfairly denied promotions because of their race, reversing a decision that high court nominee Sonia Sotomayor endorsed as an appeals court judge.
New Haven was wrong to scrap a promotion exam because no African-Americans and only two Hispanic firefighters were likely to be made lieutenants or captains based on the results, the court said Monday in a 5-4 decision. The city said that it had acted to avoid a lawsuit from minorities.
The ruling could alter employment practices nationwide, potentially limiting the circumstances in which employers can be held liable for decisions when there is no evidence of intentional discrimination against minorities.
"Fear of litigation alone cannot justify an employer's reliance on race to the detriment of individuals who passed the examinations and qualified for promotions," Justice Anthony Kennedy said in his opinion for the court. He was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.
In dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said the white firefighters "understandably attract this court's sympathy. But they had no vested right to promotion. Nor have other persons received promotions in preference to them."
Justices Stephen Breyer, David Souter and John Paul Stevens signed onto Ginsburg's dissent, which she read aloud in court Monday.
Kennedy's opinion made only passing reference to the work of Sotomayor and the other two judges on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals who upheld a lower court ruling in favor of New Haven.
But the appellate judges have been criticized for producing a cursory opinion that failed to deal with "indisputably complex and far from well-settled" questions, in the words of another appeals court judge, Sotomayor mentor Jose Cabranes.
"This perfunctory disposition rests uneasily with the weighty issues presented by this appeal," Cabranes said, in a dissent from the full 2nd Circuit's decision not to hear the case.
#1
That "Social Justice" trumps law and Constitution still has hold at the SCOTUS level.
"New Haven was wrong to scrap a promotion exam because no African-Americans and only two Hispanic firefighters were likely to be made lieutenants or captains based on the results, the court said Monday in a 5-4 decision."
"In dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said the white firefighters "understandably attract this court's sympathy. But they had no vested right to promotion. Nor have other persons received promotions in preference to them."
If there is no 'vested right', why have the exam? Isn't the promotion exam an implied basis of right to promotion? Let the lawyers make black white and white black. Welcome back to 1984 legalese.
NB - the Constitution is a contract between the people and it's government. When you break the contract because you believe 'Social Justice' trumps it, all conditions of the contract are voided.
#2
In dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said...But they (the white firefighters) had no vested right to promotion."
Other than following the rules by studying and passing the test for promotion, you mean. Their outcome would have been different if they were not white.
If it is wrong to deny someone a job based on the color of their skin, then it is wrong to deny someone a job based on the color of their skin.
#3
Themis (Lady Justice) the goddess of justice and law, held the scales in her left hand and a sword in her right. She was blindfolded to show that justice is not subject to enfluence. I submit the blindfold should remain.
#4
But the appellate judges have been criticized for producing a cursory opinion that failed to deal with "indisputably complex and far from well-settled" questions, in the words of another appeals court judge, Sotomayor mentor Jose Cabranes. "This perfunctory disposition rests uneasily with the weighty issues presented by this appeal," Cabranes said, in a dissent from the full 2nd Circuit's decision not to hear the case.
Is it just me, or does Sonia appear not to be a very good judge?
#8
What this means is that finally merit and common sense trump political correctness. Now, is it a stand alone or a super precedent? Wouldn't that be nice but it won't last long since Sonia will be on the bench by October.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
06/29/2009 13:51
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#9
Yeah, replacing Souter which means 5-4 should be the status quo until one of the conservatives dies. Then you worry.
The French state will sell a chunk of nuclear giant Areva to Asian and Middle Eastern investors to help finance the future of a group considered a jewel in the country's industrial crown, a report said Friday.
What could possibly go wrong?
The Financial Times said the government was preparing a capital increase for the state-controlled group and could sell a 15 percent stake to raise two billion euros (2.8 billion dollars). The move would leave the French state with 75 percent of Areva, a world leader in nuclear power with manufacturing facilities in 43 countries, down from its current 90 percent.
France produces most of its electricity from nuclear power and President Nicolas Sarkozy has been active in trumpeting his country's know-how to win French companies new business abroad.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), Areva's Japanese partner, is set to take a stake in the French company, said the FT, citing unnamed people with knowledge of the situation. MHI said it had not received an offer to buy a stake but told AFP it was prepared to study such a proposition.
French energy groups like EDF, Total and GDF Suez have previously been touted as possible investors in Areva. The French government is also in talks with sovereign wealth funds such as Mubadala of Abu Dhabi over their participation in a capital increase, which will be launched later this year, the FT said.
Areva needs between eight and 10 billion euros by 2012 to fund its investment programme, notably to develop its third-generation EPR nuclear reactor. It also needs an estimated two billion euros to buy out Siemens' stake in Areva NP, its reactor subsidiary.
Areva's supervisory board is due to meet next Tuesday after which the FT says it is likely to announce plans for a capital increase.
The International Whaling Commission's annual conference ended in disarray Thursday, keeping in place a ban on commercial whaling amid deep rifts between hunters and conservationists.
The commission's new chairman said the IWC should now question its role as the conference on the Portuguese island of Madeira wrapped up a day early with delegates agreeing only to extend negotiations on whaling for another year. "We have to re-establish a consensus on what the IWC is and should do, and there are at least two contradictory perceptions to answer that question," said Cristian Maquieira, who was elected chairman during the talks this week.
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Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez' announcement that the state will borrow more money to help pay off national oil company debts follows the disclosure by President Hugo Chavez of a letter urging Moscow to cooperate in selling oil at $100 a barrel.
The squeeze begins to hurt ...
State petroleum company Petroleos de Venezuela has run up billions of dollars in debts to contractors since global oil prices began tumbling nearly a year ago.
Although denying that PDVSA had cash-flow problems, Ramirez said that outstanding debts to contractors, both domestic and foreign, stood at $5.6 billion. That figure is far short of PDVSA's previous reckoning of $12 billion in financial debt last year. The minister said he would try to raise money by selling domestic bonds to finance public spending. He gave no details when the sale would take place or how much debt would be taken on.
But his announcement is in line with a government plan outlined in March to sell almost $16 billion worth of new bonds this year.
And a law was passed in May permitting PDVSA, which he heads, to pay debts with bonds rather than cash, and to compensate assets at book value. The state-owned oil company now insists that the drop in prices means oil companies are charging too much and it wants to renegotiate what it now refers to as "overvalued contracts." Oil firms should take a 40 percent cut in their bills, Ramirez insists.
In May the Venezuelan military seized some 30 oil terminals and 300 boats belonging to 60 oil service companies. Chavez said that the oil industry rightly belongs to the nation and its people. Oil producers have protested, with some taking Venezuela to international arbitration or suspending operations until the bills are paid.
The national oil company says it needs to reduce expenses by 60 percent, due to the low price of oil, which stood at around $70 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange Friday. That figure is more than 50 percent below last year's peak of $147 a barrel in July.
Like OPEC, Venezuela continues to almost totally depend on oil revenue, which provides 93 percent of its export revenue. Chavez said he sent Russian President Dmitry Medvedev a letter last week urging that "big oil-producing countries unite" to raise oil prices to $100 a barrel. The letter was taken by Venezuelan Vice President Ramon Carrizalez, who visited Moscow last Monday.
#2
Long time passing my brother had a small concrete business. He once told me it is better to let the equipment sit in the yard rather than have it working on a job where he lost money and had wear and tear on the equipment to boot.
It sounds like these oil companies should pull out and write the loss off the books. I suspect they are losing money and wearing out their equipment as well.
#6
"urging Moscow to cooperate in selling oil at $100 a barrel"
Flunked market economy 101?
Posted by: European Conservative ||
06/29/2009 15:27
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Definitely too many clerics. Everyone knows you need a balanced party with wizards, fighters, at at least one elf.
You mean that rotary transformer thingy, it puts out higher voltage, that's what transformers do, but I've noticed they deliberately do NOT measure amperes.
Not so much a hoax, as bad research, coupled with poor understanding of electricity in the first place.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/29/2009 15:30
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#8
Sorry, previous cut and paste did not clear, it was supposed to say
The famous battery powered battery charger. Coming to the US economy real soon now...
and THEN
You mean that rotary transformer thingy, it puts out higher voltage, that's what transformers do, but I've noticed they deliberately do NOT measure amperes.
Not so much a hoax, but bad research, coupled with poor understanding of electricity in the first place.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/29/2009 21:01
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Hugo Chávez's coalition-building efforts suffered a setback yesterday when the Honduran military sent its president packing for abusing the nation's constitution. It seems that President Mel Zelaya miscalculated when he tried to emulate the success of his good friend Hugo in reshaping the Honduran Constitution to his liking. But Honduras is not out of the Venezuelan woods yet. Yesterday the Central American country was being pressured to restore the authoritarian Mr. Zelaya by the likes of Fidel Castro, Daniel Ortega, Hillary Clinton and, of course, Hugo himself. The Organization of American States, having ignored Mr. Zelaya's abuses, also wants him back in power. It will be a miracle if Honduran patriots can hold their ground.
That Mr. Zelaya acted as if he were above the law, there is no doubt. While Honduran law allows for a constitutional rewrite, the power to open that door does not lie with the president. A constituent assembly can only be called through a national referendum approved by its Congress. But Mr. Zelaya declared the vote on his own and had Mr. Chávez ship him the necessary ballots from Venezuela. The Supreme Court ruled his referendum unconstitutional, and it instructed the military not to carry out the logistics of the vote as it normally would do. The top military commander, Gen. Romeo Vásquez Velásquez, told the president that he would have to comply. Mr. Zelaya promptly fired him. The Supreme Court ordered him reinstated. Mr. Zelaya refused.
Calculating that some critical mass of Hondurans would take his side, the president decided he would run the referendum himself. So on Thursday he led a mob that broke into the military installation where the ballots from Venezuela were being stored and then had his supporters distribute them in defiance of the Supreme Court's order. The attorney general had already made clear that the referendum was illegal, and he further announced that he would prosecute anyone involved in carrying it out. Yesterday, Mr. Zelaya was arrested by the military and is now in exile in Costa Rica.
It remains to be seen what Mr. Zelaya's next move will be. It's not surprising that chavistas throughout the region are claiming that he was victim of a military coup. They want to hide the fact that the military was acting on a court order to defend the rule of law and the constitution, and that the Congress asserted itself for that purpose, too. Mrs. Clinton has piled on as well. Yesterday she accused Honduras of violating "the precepts of the Interamerican Democratic Charter" and said it "should be condemned by all." Fidel Castro did just that. Mr. Chávez pledged to overthrow the new government.
Honduras is fighting back by strictly following the constitution. The Honduran Congress met in emergency session yesterday and designated its president as the interim executive as stipulated in Honduran law. It also said that presidential elections set for November will go forward. The Supreme Court later said that the military acted on its orders. It also said that when Mr. Zelaya realized that he was going to be prosecuted for his illegal behavior, he agreed to an offer to resign in exchange for safe passage out of the country. Mr. Zelaya denies it.
Many Hondurans are going to be celebrating Mr. Zelaya's foreign excursion. Street protests against his heavy-handed tactics had already begun last week. On Friday a large number of military reservists took their turn. "We won't go backwards," one sign said. "We want to live in peace, freedom and development." Besides opposition from the Congress, the Supreme Court, the electoral tribunal and the attorney general, the president had also become persona non grata with the Catholic Church and numerous evangelical church leaders. On Thursday evening his own party in Congress sponsored a resolution to investigate whether he is mentally unfit to remain in office.
For Hondurans who still remember military dictatorship, Mr. Zelaya also has another strike against him: He keeps rotten company. Earlier this month he hosted an OAS general assembly and led the effort, along side OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza, to bring Cuba back into the supposedly democratic organization. The OAS response is no surprise. Former Argentine Ambassador to the U.N. Emilio Cárdenas told me on Saturday that he was concerned that "the OAS under Insulza has not taken seriously the so-called 'democratic charter.' It seems to believe that only military 'coups' can challenge democracy. The truth is that democracy can be challenged from within, as the experiences of Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and now Honduras, prove." A less-kind interpretation of Mr. Insulza's judgment is that he doesn't mind the Chávez-style coup.
The struggle against chavismo has never been about left-right politics. It is about defending the independence of institutions that keep presidents from becoming dictators. This crisis clearly delineates the problem. In failing to come to the aid of checks and balances, Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Insulza expose their true colors.
#1
Hondouras is fighting back a hostile takeover by enforcing the constitution. What a concept! Maybe we should try that. Seems like or constitution has been bypassed quite a lot recently.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
06/29/2009 8:22
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#2
The fact that they are strictly following the constitution is exactly why this is being condemned so loudly in the usual quarters. It sets a bad precedent.
#3
Man I bet Barry, Nacny, and Hillary wished they could do this. If your keeping score this is the third time our country has sided against democray: Israel, Iran, and now Hunduras. Paging Jimmy Carter!
#5
This is an outrage, an utter disgrace; the United States joining various tinhorns in an effort to overthrow the rule of law and place yet another country under the heel of authoritarian "community organizers."
Is this the Big Zero's plan for the United States, too; staged and orchestrated "popular" sentiment and the charisma of the dear leader trumping the Constitution and the rule of law?
Screw these traitors, screw the media and to hell with Chavez, Castro, and ACORN.
#6
Honduras makes me wonder if anything like this would even happen in the USA, the military moving against the executive branch to block a move outlawed by the courts &/or legislature.
#8
"Honduras makes me wonder if anything like this would even happen in the USA, the military moving against the executive branch to block a move outlawed by the courts &/or legislature."
Normally, federal marshals (who work for the judicial branch) would have the job of dealing with illegal acts by the executive branch. If they cannot handle it, the Congress can in fact declare a state of insurrection and call upon the military to enforce the Constitution. This is almost exactly what happened in Honduras. The "coup" and "military power grab" as the traitors at AP call it, was no such thing.
#9
I believe the federal courts can also order the military into action in the event of an insurrection, which open defiance by Obama and ACORN the executive certainly would be.
#10
The military is part of the Executive branch of government. Not the judiciary and not the legislative. Its leader is the President not the Chief Justice. But that aside, there is always the possibility of a "7 Days in May" type of putsch but Barry would have to be in the soup big time, not just for increasing the deficit and strangling capitalism. I fear we are going to lose our post-Iraq and post-Afghanistan officer corp and Barry gets to mold the heart of the military to his own liking. That is a greater fear than an actual military coup over the One.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
06/29/2009 13:56
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#11
AP limited their discussion of past coups to Central America. Otherwise they probably would have mentioned the Bush coup of 2000 as the last one. That was executed not by the military but by something libs and the media hate even more, a duly constituted and ethical court of law.
#12
Jack, I understand that the military is part of the executive. Nevertheless, its primary oath is to the Constitution and that supercedes any other arrangement or chain of command. Are you saying otherwise, that it is somehow unlawful for the military to assist the Congress or the courts in restoring Constitutional order?
#14
I'll try to make it simple: If the President breaks the law, Congress and the Supreme Court can order him to obey the law in a number of ways. If he still refuses, and attempts, for example, to use force against an impeachment and removal proceeding, the legal obligation devolves down the chain of command until someone will obey. At some point, whoever can enforce the law is legally required to do so.
Two people were killed on Monday and at least 8 others wounded in a bomb attack blamed by the military to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in the restive Muslim autonomous region in Mindanao.
Colonel Jonathan Ponce, a regional army spokesman, said the powerful explosion occurred at around 6 a.m. near a market in Kitanggo village in town of Datu Saudi Ampatuan in Maguindanao province. He said the explosion killed Malimpunok Nunokan, 65, and Tong Hadji Omal, 25. One of the dead was the courier of the bomb and a member of the Moro Islamic Liberation Fronts special operations group, Ponce said without identifying the bomber.
It was unknown if the bombing was a suicide attack. Other reports said the improvised explosive was planted near a café. Ponce said the bomb was assembled from an 81mm mortar. The series of IED bombings in central Mindanao are the handiwork of the special operations group of the MILF, he told the Mindanao Examiner.
No individual or group claimed responsibility for the blast, but the MILF denied it was behind the bombing and said soldiers planted the explosive as part of its campaign to discredit the rebel group. Villagers saw soldiers arrived in the area at dawn and there was an explosion several hours later, Eid Kabalu, a senior MILF leader, told reporters.
Terrorists Suspected insurgents gunned down a village chief in Thailand's restive south on Sunday, police said. Police Sgt. Sarawut Suwanmanee said Mayuso A-dae, the chief of a village in Yala province, was shot dead by suspected insurgents as he rode his motorcycle home from a tea house.
Authorities also found the body of Sunee Kaewkongtham, a 38-year-old teacher from neighbouring Narathiwat province. Police initially said she had been killed by insurgents while riding her bicycle but later in the day said she died after hitting a cow - after finding skid marks in the road and the injured animal nearby.
RELATIVES of a Pakistani teenager who eloped and married without parental consent shot her dead in a raid on her new home which also killed her husband and in-laws, police said.
Dressed in police uniforms, dozens of relatives attacked the bridegroom's house in the district of Charsadda, in North West Frontier Province. "The assailants took the bridegroom out while some of the attackers climbed the wall and entered the house. They killed the bride, the mother and sister of the bridegroom,'' said Charsadda district police official Saleem Jan. "They beat them first and then shot them dead,'' he told AFP. The groom's father was also killed, another police official told AFP from Sardheri village in Charsadda.
The bride was aged 18 to 19 and the groom 29 to 30.
Police said the teenager, from the deeply conservative Mardan district next to Charsadda, had run away and recently married without telling her parents. "Both the girl and man married some weeks ago,'' the bridegroom's uncle Misal Khan told reporters at the scene. "The attackers were headed by the (paternal) uncle, cousin and maternal uncle of the girl. One of the attackers left his police uniform at the site. They also left one mobile phone in a pocket of the uniform,'' he added.
Such clever men, as well as loving.
Police said the main suspects were two uncles and a cousin. "We have registered a case against three relatives of the girl and their unknown accomplices,'' police official Saleem Jan said.
Hat tip, Instapundit
THE CONGRESSIONAL Budget Office has a tough job: to provide America's lawmakers with a reality check on their tax and spending plans. Not surprisingly, the CBO's projections are not always received cheerfully. Both President Obama and leading congressional Democrats were less than thrilled when the CBO estimated that the costs of universal health coverage would be much higher than advertised. To be sure, projecting the cost of legislation involves making assumptions and constructing models that may or may not prove accurate 10 years down the road. Nonetheless, the CBO, with its tradition of scholarly independence, is the best available arbiter, and Congress must heed its numbers -- like them or not. That's not how "Hope & Change" Messiah operates
Now comes the CBO with yet more news of the sort that neither Capitol Hill nor the White House is likely to welcome: its freshly released report on the federal government's long-term financial situation. To put it bluntly, the fiscal policy of the United States is unsustainable.
German Prime Minister Angela Merkel and the Chinese have been telling President Obama the same thing, the one as a friend, the other as the largest holder of our debt.
Ah, ours is a President to whom you don't 'tell' things ...
Debt is growing faster than gross domestic product. Under the CBO's most realistic scenario, the publicly held debt of the U.S. government will reach 82 percent of GDP by 2019 -- roughly double what it was in 2008. By 2026, spiraling interest payments would push the debt above its all-time peak (set just after World War II) of 113 percent of GDP. It would reach 200 percent of GDP in 2038. Or USA will cease to exist
Or we'd repudiate the debt, or we'd inflate our way out of it.
An important warning from a fairly unbiased source. But long before 2038 the fools who attempted to take on the debt load for us will be out of office and in the political equivalent of a locked ward. Remember, most of the payouts in the current budget have not actually been disbursed yet (and therefore need not be) -- that was one of the complaints about its efficacy as an economic pump primer.
#1
This is really scary stuff. Despite everything the CBO is telling us, the 0ne insists that any criticism of his plans for energy and health care reform are "misinformation".
If even one of the aforementioned plans are implemented, let alone both, how long will it take to undo the immense damage it will inflict upon our country? Or are we totally screwed not matter what we do?
#2
But long before 2038 the fools who attempted to take on the debt load for us will be out of office and in the political equivalent of a locked ward.
There will be no blaming President Obama by then. He will have left office 5 years previous to this and retired to his koffee plantation in Kenya.
#3
There are only 3 ways out of the existing national debt:
(1) pay it off
(2) repudiate it
(3) devalue the currency
The first option is plainly impossible even now. 0's profligacy will only make things worse.
#4
There is another way: Vote out BO next time around. Vote out the buffoons who are in Congress and replace them with people who are fiscally responsible. Vote them in with the clear understanding that they will so long as they do the job that they were sent there to do--rein in costs and spending. Also they need to quit ruining our economy.
#7
These projections are wildly optimistic, because they assume a recovery from the current collapse in government revenues (everywhere). Even where government revenues and spending were roughly in balance, large cuts in spending are required to avoid balloning debt.
Due to the wonders of compounding the crunch will come a lot sooner.
There is no avoiding large cuts in government spending everywhere. Which some of us see as a good thing.
European efforts to play a major role in Arab-Israeli peace discussions have again been overshadowed, this time by US President Barack Obama's initiative. To raise Europe's visibility, the rate of official visits has increased, and a number of academic conferences on Europe's role are taking place. For example, yesterday the Hebrew University began a three-day conference with the ambitious headline "Strengthening the Forces of Moderation in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: The Role of the European Union After the Gaza War."
For diplomats and policy-makers, a "frank and honest exchange of views" on the problematic European track record in academic settings could be very helpful in correcting decades of misjudgments. For example, during the Oslo process, the European Union and its member states were convinced that Yasser Arafat was a "force of moderation," providing him and his corrupt Fatah cronies with suitcases of money, justified as necessary to "grease the wheels" of the peace process and Palestinian state building. Instead, the cash went to foreign bank accounts and terror.
In Europe, there have been very few independent analyses of these and other diplomatic and policy failures. Fearing embarrassment and worse, officials rejected calls for an independent investigation, until the European Parliament forced the European Commission to hold an inquiry (known as the OLAF report). But years later, this report remains top secret, One wonders why?
meaning that few if any lessons were apparently learned.
Given this record and the difficulties that Europe has in analyzing itself, Europe does not have a very good record of useful introspection,
although they are quite good at browbeating and self-promotion
serious academic research and conferences can play a very positive role. Unfortunately, many of these discussions of European policy feature speakers and officials who prefer to preach to Israelis rather than investigating their contribution to failure.
As stated above. Preaching to others is so much more fun than admitting to fatal errors, or rather errors fatal to others.
In parallel, important issues related to policy failures are conspicuously absent from such conferences.
ONE SUBJECT consistently avoided in the quasi-official research and conference framework is the massive European funding for radical nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) whose activities fuel the conflict instead of "strengthening the forces of moderation," as proclaimed in the title of this conference.
The U.S. has been guilty of this, too. For that matter, so has Israel, through funds transferred to the Palestinian Authority and others.
Through the "Barcelona program" and aid schemes, the European Commission and member governments provide tens of millions of euros every year to Palestinian, Israeli and other NGOs. The ostensible objectives include promoting democracy, peace, development and human rights, but the results are often counterproductive and fuel the conflict.
These NGOs lead the demonization and delegitimization of Israel, through labels such as "apartheid" and "war crimes," based on the strategy adopted at the 2001 Durban Conference NGO Forum. For example, European NGO funding is the primary engine behind the "lawfare" assaults against Israeli military and civilian officials - a form of soft-war aggression through the courts which accompanies the "hard war" of terrorism. The current case in Spain (chosen for its lenient universal jurisdiction policies) is led by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, which is funded by the European Commission, Norway, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland and other governments. Indeed, PCHR is a central force in the NGO demonization and political warfare against Israel.
These European-funded "lawfare" cases are part of the much wider process, conducted through highly political NGOs in Israel that seek to overturn the government's policies - groups like B'Tselem, Yesh Din, Machsom Watch, Bimkom, Ir Amim, Adalah, Mossawa, etc. (The EU claims to fund these NGOs under the guise of limited projects, but the amounts often constitute the bulk of the total operating budget.)
AN EXAMINATION of the activities of European funded NGOs demonstrates that they do not contribute to "strengthening the forces of moderation." Many are active in promoting anti-Israel boycott campaigns, one-state proposals (meaning the elimination of Israel as a Jewish state) and submitting tendentious claims to UN "investigatory" committees. Who says "soft power" is ineffective?
#1
led by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, which is funded by the European Commission, Norway, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland and other governments. Indeed, PCHR is a central force in the NGO demonization and political warfare against Israel.
#2
Well no wonder there's been no recent updates to their renowed "Field Reports". Sounds like they've been busy in the glitzy world of international lawfare.
Little Mahmoud blowing himself up with one of pop's homemade grenades probably sounds pretty mundane next to that.
Hours before Defense Minister Ehud Barak leaves for the US, the Defense Ministry on Monday notified the High Court that it has approved a master plan calling for the construction of an additional 1,450 housing units in a new neighborhood in the West Bank settlement of Adam, Army Radio reported. Der Juden are revolting, mein Leader
[Geo News] Governor NWFP, Owais Ahmed Ghani has said that Afghanistan has turned into a narco-state.
Gosh, when did that happen?
Speaking in Geo News popular program 'Jawab Deh' hosted by Iftikhar Ahmed, Owais Ghani said some elements want disintegration of Pakistan but 'they will not succeed in their nefarious designs.' When asked who these elements are, the NWFP Governor said: "I would have exposed them if I were not the Governor of NWFP." "Personally, I support FCR because it is in conformity with tribal traditions," he said, adding: "although the government failed in Swat, it managed to restore its writ within two months."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/29/2009
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[Geo News]Five people including two children and a woman were dead from gastro disease while dozens of people were admitted to hospital. According to hospital sources, 40 people including children and women were admitted in various wards of the People's Medical college here on Sunday. All these people belonging to the areas of Goth Pannu Jamali, Allah Warayu Jamali and Ali Akbar Jamali were suffering from gastro. As per the relatives of the affected people, five people including two children and a woman were passed away just in the village. Meanwhile, EDO Health Jaji Shah Kazmi said that a doctors' team has been sent to the affected village.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#2
Fred, it doesn't have to be cholera to be deadly. All kinds of bacteria and parasites infest bad water; could also be from pollution if there's a low-grade factory or mine in the area.
Second Daughter contracted a dozen different gastrointestinal bugs while studying in West Africa. It was rough having final exams and parasite problems at the same time.
[Geo News] girl, aged 24, shackled in chains has been recovered from a remote village Kajlay Wali. According, DPO Sialkot Waqar Chohan the girl's step-mother had kept her detained in chains for seven year. He said the girl is now suffering from a psychological disorder due to the prolonged inhuman treatment she was meted out during the detention time.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Maghrebia] Moroccan authorities arrested five suspected members of a Salafia Jihadia cell last week in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, local and international press reported on Friday (June 26th). The suspects are charged with trafficking drugs between Spain and Morocco. The group's reputed leader, Abou Yacine, was released from prison in 2008 after serving two years for ties to another terrorist group, Ansar el Mehdi. Two of the suspects are Moroccan, while three are Spanish nationals of Moroccan origin.
O brave, drug trafficking Lions of Islam! Exactly the kind of people to whom I'd trust the future of my soul.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Ceuta is only a hop, skip and jump to Spain and Gibraltar.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
06/29/2009 13:39
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How would they do this IN Ceuta?
Ceuta is part of Spain, not of Morocco
Posted by: European Conservative ||
06/29/2009 15:23
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Which always made Spanish teeth-gnashing over Gibraltar seem a little ironic.
[Geo News] More than 2,000 people are still in detention and hundreds more are missing in Iran since a government crackdown on protests over a disputed presidential election, the FIDH human rights group said Sunday.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Straits Times] THAILAND'S 'Red Shirt' protesters loyal to fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra ended a peaceful rally in Bangkok on Sunday with the promise of more anti-government gatherings in the future.
Thaksin, who is living in exile to avoid a jail term for corruption, urged a crowd of around 25,000 followers not to leave him 'dying in the desert' of Dubai in an impassioned telephone address late on Saturday.
The crowds stayed overnight in a historic quarter of central Bangkok and dispersed at around 6am on Sunday (7am Singapore time) after a 14-hour rally marked by several spells of heavy rain, police said.
Police said the demonstration was peaceful as the protesters had promised, but more than 3,000 officers and 1,000 soldiers were on hand during the event to guard government offices and search the crowd.
Billionaire telecoms tycoon Thaksin was ousted in a military coup in 2006 and saw his allies driven from government late last year after protests by the rival 'Yellow Shirt' movement.
He made a 50-minute speech on Saturday night, telling the cheering, red-clad crowd: 'We come here because we want to see real democracy. We hate injustice and double standards'.
'I am fine and doing some business and travelling around but I am really lonely, I want to go back,' Thaksin said. 'Why do you have to leave me dying in the desert when I can work for our country?' Appealing to his grassroots support base in the poorer north of Thailand, he said current Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's government was 'good for three things: borrowing, hiking taxes and hounding Thaksin'.
In the largest anti-government rally since bloody Red Shirt riots erupted two months ago, protesters repeated their demands for British-born Abhisit to dissolve parliament and call fresh elections. They also berated royal adviser Prem Tinsulanonda, whom they accuse of instigating the 2006 coup that ousted Thaksin.
Protest leader Jatuporn Prompan said they would organise three more gatherings, without saying when they would be.
During his weekly television programme on Sunday, Mr Abhisit made no mention of the rally.
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A rather poor choice of colors. Well someone has to do this.
[Maghrebia] Mauritanians spoke out strongly this week against the killing of a US citizen in the Ksar district of Nouakchott. Christopher Leggett, the 39-year-old director of a language and IT school, was shot dead on the morning of June 23rd outside his place of work. Two young Mauritanians were arrested in connection with the case on Thursday.
See -- we caught them. Please don't invade us.
The same day -- in an audio tape aired on satellite TV channel Al Jazeera -- al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the fatal shooting.
Citizens were shocked by the casual manner in which the act was committed: in broad daylight, at the corner of a road leading to a mosque, very close to the central market and in an old district of the capital. The press drew inevitable connections to the December 2007 slaying of four French tourists near the town of Aleg, east of the capital, by three young men with connections to al-Qaeda.
It's as if the passers-by were accustomed to such goings on.
On the day of the killing, a group of Mauritanian political party leaders issued a collective statement condemning the "appalling act" and decrying it as "foreign to the values and traditions of hospitality of our peace-loving people".
It wasn't us. Please don't invade our country.
The officials called for an immediate inquiry, "to shed light on the circumstances surrounding this unspeakable crime, arrest those responsible and bring them to justice".
We're taking care of it so you don't have to come over here.
Members of the Coordination Nationale pour la Sauvegarde de la Démocratie (CNSD, which supports General Mohamed Ould Abdul Aziz's bid to become president) stressed in a similar statement that "by no means can the Mauritanian people be held responsible for this act of barbarity which is contrary to our religious and moral values".
The Rally of Democratic Forces, leaders of the democratic opposition, offered condolences to Leggett's family and condemned the criminal act.
The National Foundation for the Defence of Democracy also pressed for an inquiry, questioning the "uncertain circumstances" of the killing. "This hateful crime, which was committed in broad daylight close to the market in Ksar, one of the busiest in Nouakchott, once again raises the issue of instability and terrorism, which is often used by the military authorities to justify all sorts of unnatural situations," the FNDD said. "It is surprising that the chief commanding officers, who are so preoccupied with security and the fight against terrorism, are on their way to the east of the country to welcome their candidate, Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, while peace-loving foreign citizens are being assassinated in cold blood and in broad daylight, right in the centre of the capital," the opposition group concluded.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] Honduran congressional leader, Roberto Micheletti, has been designated to replace the ousted president Jose Manuel Zelaya.
Former president Zelaya was detained and flown to Costa Rica by coup soldiers on Sunday, leaving the position vacant.
A resolution read on the floor of Congress accuses Zelaya of "manifest irregular conduct" and "putting in present danger the state of law," for his refusal to obey a Supreme Court ruling against a constitutional referendum he wanted to hold.
Zelaya, a close ally of the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, was seeking to remove the limits on presidential terms through a referendum, paving the way for his re-election.
Later in the day Congress approved the removal of Zelaya, and cited constitutional articles that said the head of congress assumes the presidency in such cases.
The body had earlier read and approved a supposed letter of resignation from Zelaya, who claims the document is false.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Only coverage I saw was on the various spanish channels. Lots of stuff about Mexico I didn't hear about either. Lots of excitement about the confederation cup as well.
[Geo News] Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani said no compromise will be made on the sovereignty of Pakistan, Geo News reported Sunday. Talking to media after offering condolences to the Jama'at Islami leaders at Mansoorah on the sad demise of former JI Amir Mian Tufail, he said the services rendered by Mian Tufail are invaluable. He said those who disrupt the peace of Pakistan include Chechen and Uzbek militants. Commenting on the drone attacks, the PM said the drone attacks are definitely an attack on the integrity of Pakistan, as they force the local tribesmen to join the extremist elements.
Posted by: Fred ||
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South Korea is acquiring 40 US-made missiles for an Aegis destroyer this month to boost its defences amid reports North Korea may soon test-fire missiles, Yonhap news agency on Sunday quoted a military source as saying. The surface-to-air missiles for the Aegis destroyer, designed to track and shoot down objects including missiles, can hit targets up to 160 km away, Yonhap quoted the source as saying. North Korea has warned ships to stay away from waters off its east coast city of Wonsan, Japan's Coast Guard said last week, in a possible indication of a missile test.
Posted by: Fred ||
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New attacks linked to a spreading Taliban-led insurgency killed around three dozen people including seven civilians and seven policemen over the weekend, authorities said on Sunday.
Was there Taliban violence when outsiders were not there to witness? Did it count as violence when the Afghan police and army, and the international forces, were not there to help the locals fight against it?
In the deadliest incident, extremists attacked a district headquarters in the southwestern province of Farah on Saturday, deputy provincial police chief Mohammad Naeem Popal told AFP. "Five policemen were martyred and eight Taliban were killed," he said, adding that an unknown number of the Taliban were also wounded in the fighting.
Taliban also ambushed a convoy of police, the Afghan army and International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) personnel in the same province on Saturday, an army spokesman said. "Two policemen and six Taliban were killed in the firefight after the attack and nine Taliban were wounded," said the spokesman, Abdul Basir Ghori. In southeastern Ghazni province, a vehicle carrying shopkeepers returning to their district on Saturday after purchasing goods hit a roadside bomb, a local official said.
Five people, including the driver, were killed, said Muhammad Yousuf Siraji, adding security forces had been the intended target. In Andar on Sunday, Taliban attacked a logistics convoy and killed an Afghan guard, provincial spokesman Ismail Jehangir said.
He also reported that a teacher had been murdered in the province on Saturday but it was not clear by whom. The Education Ministry said the attack was by the "enemies of education", a reference to insurgents. Also Sunday, a suicide attack on police near the eastern town of Jalalabad killed an eight-year-old child, provincial government spokesman Ahmad Zia Abdulzai said. Five more civilians and four police were wounded, he said. In Helmand province in the south, police late Saturday swooped on a group believed to be behind the killing of eight policemen two nights ago and killed five of them, provincial police said.
ISAF announced that it had called in airstrikes on the mountain hideout of a insurgent commander in the eastern province of Khost on Saturday. "Coalition forces observed and identified suspected militants gathering at this location and called for precision air strikes to eliminate the target," it said in a statement that did not say how many insurgents were killed. Deputy Interior Minister Munir Mohammad Mangal told reporters in Kabul on Sunday that 49 civilians were killed and 122 wounded in insurgent violence across the country in the past week.
Eighteen policemen and 84 Taliban were also killed, he said. Another 63 suspected insurgents were arrested, the minister said. The rebels had also planted at least 88 roadside bombs in the past week of which 42 have exploded, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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SEOUL, June 28 (Yonhap) -- North Korea on Sunday accused South Korea of trying to absorb the communist state, citing President Lee Myung-bak's recent remarks that his government will pursue reunification with the North on the basis of a market economy.
Well, now that you mention it ...
The weekly Tongil Sinbo, a government mouthpiece, was referring to a speech Lee made after a summit with U.S. President Barack Obama earlier this month, in which he said Seoul will pursue inter-Korean unification "on the principles of free democracy and a market economy." Both sides have signed on to "reunification," but it means something different to both sides. The South anticipates NKor collapsing upon itself and having to be reconstructed pretty much from the ground up, with Seoul in charge of the new Korea. The North sees SKor turning commie -- whether through the actions of the fifth column or a more successful rerun of the Korean War doesn't matter -- and being ruled by the Kim dynasty, who will proceed to "manage its economy."
Such remarks are aimed at "breaking down the North's ideology and system to achieve 'reunification through absorption,' and it is appalling that they came out of the mouth of Lee Myung-bak," the paper said in an article carried by the North's official Web site, Uriminzokkiri.
The weekly also blasted Lee's signature North Korea policy, called "Denuclearization, Openness, 3000," in which his government seeks to raise the country's per capital income to US$3,000 if it abandons its nuclear program, as the "basis and destination" of the "absorption" scheme.
Taking office last year, Lee adopted a tougher stance than his liberal predecessors over the North's nuclear weapons program. His conservative government also ended unconditional rice and fertilizer aid to the North that had continued for nearly a decade. Such support continued despite the North's 2006 nuclear test and launching of long range missiles.
Lee's hardline policy won support from conservatives at home, but liberals and non-governmental groups say his tough stance sent inter-Korean relations backwards after years of reconciliatory progress. "What we can obviously learn here is that South Korea's confrontational policy toward its fellow men will never change as long as Lee Myung-bak is in power," the paper said.
Let's assume for the moment that Kimmie soon cavorts in the ninth circle of hell with Himmler. Then let's assume that his callow third son isn't the man to run the country, even as a figurehead, and let's further assume that a war of succession takes place in Pyongyang. Let's assume finally that because of all this that North Korea thus finishes its implosion and is now a global basket case, eyesore and flashpoint for a regional war.
What to do?
The US should immediately tell the Chinese, quietly, that if China allows the South to absorb the North, the US will take no action that harms China's interests on the peninsula. We won't allow the South to keep the North's nuclear program or weapons, we'll restrain Japan from going nuclear, and, most importantly, we won't put American troops in the North. In fact, as the South gets control of the situation, we'll be happy to draw down our troops on the peninsula. But absolutely, positively, no military bases for us north of the 38th parallel.
In short: we make clear to China that it has nothing to fear from a united Korean peninsula. The Chinese don't have to underwrite aid to the Norks anymore, they won't have a militarized Korea on their border, and we won't seek to improve our military position there.
None of that guarantees that the Chinese would go along, but floating such a tentative plan certainly would give the Norks a lot more to worry about in the coming months. Solving the Nork problem means getting the Chinese to curb their dog -- or maybe, just maybe, kicking their dog to the curb.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#1
Good plan, Steve, and exactly what I think we really would communicate to the Chinese. However, despite Lee's public comments, I think the South is really afraid of the North collapsing and having to actually absorb them. West Germany absorbing East Germany was much more of an economic burden than they expected and North Korea is a million times worse off than East Germany ever was.
#2
I agree with that assessment. However, no one else wants the job so the SKors will get it by default. You certainly won't see the Chinese man-up to help the starving Norks.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/29/2009 9:36
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Now we'll see if The One and hsi Snake Department are as smart as our own Dr. Steve White.
I ain't holdin' my breath.
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/29/2009 12:12
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Everybody talks about how much a burden absorbing North Korean people would be if the Norks collapsed. If the world and the useless POS meeting-going child m01esting UN would share the burden, it would not be an impossible task. Hell we went into Europe and Japan after the war and rebuilt.
I swear, leaders spend 10x the effort in avoiding the right thing and doing the wrong thing.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/29/2009 13:21
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#5
Norks claim South is scheming to absorb communist state
the norks want to be part of the history of the widely acclaimed tv series This old house.
The South wants to produce the show to show its efficiency, and good taste.
So the crying out continues, while negotiations proceed in fits and starts. Norks want to deny access to the basement, Southies want to fix the holistic house. who knows how long these negotiations will take.
Meanwhile bobo chavez is threatening to invade Honduras, just like he threatened to invade Columbia.....these misadventures are attempts to convince the world over that he really is a great general....really, not like saddam, but a really great warrior, who dont need no stinkin proxies to fight the rhetorical fight.
#6
ION WORLD MIL FORUM > IIUC "CENTRAL DAILY NEWS" SURVEY: APPROXI 60.5% OF SOUTH KOREANS BELIEVE THE SOUTH SHOULD HAVE NUCLEAR WEAPONS FOR SELF-DEFENSE.
* SAME > "KOREAN DAILY NEWS": SOUTH KOREA IS MAKING MILITARY CONTINGENCY PLANS FOR THE COLLAPSE OF NORTH KOREA, INCLUDING POSSIB TAKEOVER FROM PYONGYANG. NEW MASSIVE SOUTH KOREAN ARMS PROCUREMENT AND MODERNIZATION PLANS. SOUTH KOREAN MILITARY INTERVENTION OPTIONS.
#7
SAME > Seems CHINA is repor planning to deploy "LARGE NUMBERS" of H-7 ATTACK BOMBER AIRCRAFT on its HAINAN ISLAND PLA MILBASE in faceoff agz VIETNAM over SINO-VIETNAM CHINA SEAS SOVEREIGNTY CLAIMS
* SAME > "MUMBAI DAILY": MAY 5th SINO-INDIAN NAVAL CONFRONTATION. INDIAN NAVY AIRCRAFT CARRIER TASK GROUP GAVE WARNING AND THREATENED TO SINK PLAN TYPE 092 SUBMARINE TRACKING SAME [ Indian Navy ASW "weapons lock" agz PLAN Sub]. FEAR OF SINO-INDIAN NAVAL CLASH INSIDE MUMBAI HARBOR [Regional War].
#8
* SAME > KONG KONG "SING TAO DAILY": THE PLA "CHINA/HAINAN-GUAM" CONCEPT FOR THE MILITARY, GEOPOL DEFENSE OF CHINA [ "First Island" Chain" + periphery]. PLA STRENGTHENING OF MILFORCES ON HAINAN ISLAND. HAINAN ISLAND AS CHINA'S MIL "STRATEGIC SPRINGBOARD" FOR OTH PROJECTION BEYOND THE CHINA SEAS AND PHILIPPINES INTO THE WEST/CENT PACIFIC REGIONS.
Also, AT CURENT TRENDS CHINA'S PLAN WILL BECOME THE WORLD'S LARGEST BY 2020 OR SHORTLY AFTER. PLAN IS GIVING SERIOUS CONSIDERATION FOR THE DEV OF BATTLECRUISER AND SUBMARINE-LED, ASBM-ARMED, "ARSENAL/FIRE SHIP" LR TASK FORCES TO CHALLENGE, DETER OR DEFEAT USN CARRIERS IN THE CENTRAL PACIFIC>
#9
"Proposed PLAN "ARSENAL SHIP" DESIGNS > may have as many as 100-PLUS VLS/VLMS = ASBM? Tubes + multi-AAM + multi-Naval BMD + VTOL Helo-Air Platforms.
Iraq cancelled leave for all its police and put them on high alert on Sunday ahead of the withdrawal of US combat forces from Iraqi towns and cities at the end of the month, an official said. Security was tightened across the capital on Sunday, with troops and police closing roads and carefully searching cars. "The alert has gone to all of our forces. There will be no days off. They are at their full strength across the whole country, at 100 percent," said Major General Abdul-Karim Khalaf, spokesman for the interior ministry, which controls the police. "All of our units have seen an increase in their numbers, not only at the checkpoints," he told Reuters. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Saturday that the US withdrawal sent a message to the world that Iraq could handle its own security. The government trusted its forces to defeat Al Qaeda militants and criminal gangs, he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#3
Well, Fred, I see you have come to your senses about the Iranian Revolution. Unfortunately, that's the way I see it too - hard to beat a bunch of immoral thugs led by deviant mullahs. I do wonder how it would have turned out if The One had been more forceful and demanding in a Reaganesque way.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
06/29/2009 13:35
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Won't happen Jack, Ohblablahblah is a coward, he'll only wait it out, then claim he was behind (Whoever wins) all along.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/29/2009 14:46
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This was a "hesitation mark." If you've been keeping track, Iran has a cycle of unrest that peaks in June or July every couple years. This was the year they've come closest to date to throwing the ayatollahs out.
The best thing for the ayatollahs would be for Rafsanjani to push the Guardians Council into removing Khamenei and replacing him with someone more reasonable. If they do that, the 1979 Revolution will keep puttering along, most of the same set of religious oligarchs in place, still raking in the money, with maybe a functioning economy.
If Rafsanjani loses and gets dumped, there will be more unrest next year or the year after. It only takes one to succeed, at which point we may well be treated to the sight of ayatollahs dangling from the lamp post, Najaf ascendant over Qom, and a secular Iranian state.
The Shah was allied with the U.S. not because he was that enamored with the U.S., but because Iran's a non-Arab power and the Soviet Union was busy making inroads among the Arabs while puppeteering the Afghans.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/29/2009 18:49
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Fred, that pretty bit of analysis makes this a Classic, in my opinion.
[Straits Times] AN Iranian man was arrested after trying to smuggle 5.7 million ringgit (S$2.35 million) worth of drugs disguised as pickled cucumbers into Malaysia, it was reported on Sunday.
Customs deputy director general Mohammad Hassim Pardi told state media the Iranian was detained with liquid methamphetamine at Kuala Lumpur's international airport on Friday after arriving on a flight from the Middle East. He said inspectors became suspicious after inspecting one of two bags the man was carrying, which contained five cans labelled as pickled cucumbers. However, no cucumbers could be seen when the luggage was screened.
Mohammad Hasim told the news agency Bernama it was the first time that customs officials had detected and foiled an attempt to smuggle liquid methamphetamine into Malaysia. 'When the liquid methamphetamine is processed or dried, it turns to crystals forming what is known as Ice,' he said.
'The Iranian man, who has been to Malaysia three times before, is now remanded for seven days to facilitate investigations,' he added. Mohammad Hassim said that, if found guilty of drug smuggling, the man faced the death penalty under Malaysia's harsh anti-narcotics laws.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Very effective pickle-screening equipment those Malays have.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Head of Iran's Expediency Council Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani has called for a "fair and thorough" study of the legal complaints made about the disputed presidential election.
"The developments following the presidential vote were a complex conspiracy plotted by suspicious elements with the aim of creating a rift between the people and the Islamic establishment and causing them to lose their trust in the system," Rafsanjani said Sunday.
"Such plots have always been neutralized whenever the people have entered the scene with vigilance."
Following the June 12 election, which saw President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad re-elected to a second four-year term, Iran became the scene of rallies with defeated candidates Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi rejecting the result as fraudulent and demanding a re-run.
In his Sunday remarks, Rafsanjani praised the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei for extending by five days the Guardian Council's deadline to review issues pertaining to the elections and removing the ambiguities surrounding it.
"This valuable move by the Leader to restore the people's confidence in the election process was very effective," he said.
He expressed hope that "those who are tasked with this issue (election) can thoroughly and fairly review and study the legal complaints."
On Saturday, the Expediency Council called on all defeated candidates in the disputed presidential election to legally pursue their complaints through the proper channels.
"As the best and most appropriate way, the Expediency Council asks all to observe the law and resolve conflicts and disputes [concerning the election] through legal channels," the council said in a statement.
The statement came after the Guardian Council on Thursday announced that it would form a special committee to investigate the June 12 election.
Mousavi has rejected the offer of a partial recount, refusing to cooperate with the Guardian Council's special commission.
Karroubi has also refused to send a representative to the commission. He has criticized what he considers the "lack of impartiality" among the group's members, some of whom have publicly supported President Ahmadinejad.
The third candidate, Mohsen Rezaei, will not be sending a representative to the commission either.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/29/2009
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[Khaleej Times] Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Moussavi Saturday refused to support a panel set up by the electoral watchdog Guardian Council to conduct a partial recount of votes in the disputed presidential election, a media report said. Refusing to be cowed by attacks on his party offices, Moussavi again demanded for fresh polls. "Limiting the probe into complaints about electoral irregularities to recounting 10 percent of the ballot boxes cannot attract people's trust and convince public opinion about the results," Moussavi said on his campaign website.
Moussavi said: "Reaching a just judgment is not within the domain of the Guardians Council and above all a board which is appointed by this council. I insist again on canceling the election (results) as the most suitable way out of the problem," Geo TV said citing Moussavi.
The issue should be referred to a body which observes (Islamic) Sharia law, has legal status and is independent, said the former prime minister, who trailed in 11 million votes behind incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, according to official results from the June 12 election.
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06/29/2009
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[Jakarta Post] Warplanes and helicopter gunships pounded suspected militant positions in Pakistan's troubled northwest on Sunday, killing 11 Taliban fighters, intelligence officials said.
The government also upped the stakes in its conflict with Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, offering a reward of 50 million rupees ($615,000) for information leading to Mehsud's capture or death.
Clashes between the military and Mehsud and his militants are increasing in the volatile northwest, where the army appears to be preparing for a fresh offensive aimed at eliminating the Taliban chieftain.
In North Waziristan, insurgents ambushed an army convoy on Sunday, killing six soldiers, intelligence officials said on condition on anonymity because they weren't authorized to disclose the information. The four officials say some soldiers were also wounded in the attack.
Insurgents also killed one government soldier in twin attacks on a pair of army outposts near Wana in South Waziristan shortly after morning prayers, the army said.
Pakistan's military kept up its bombing campaign on suspected militant hideouts in the region. Jet fighters struck the village of Kani Guram overnight, leaving eight militants dead, while helicopter gunships hit positions in Shah Alam and Raghhzai, killing three more fighters, the intelligence officials told The Associated Press.
It was not possible to independently confirm the casualty counts or the identities of those reported killed. Journalists have little access to the remote, dangerous region.
Islamabad has set its sites on Mehsud in recent weeks, and on Sunday the government published an announcement in two national newspapers offering a the reward for the Pakistani Taliban leader. His group has been blamed for a string of suicide attacks across the country that have killed more than 100 people in the past month. Smaller amounts were offered for information on his top lieutenants.
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06/29/2009
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Security forces in Kyrgyzstan have killed three men they believe were militants from a rebel group, a state security official said on Sunday.
Earlier this week the Central Asian state said five militants had been killed in a gunbattle in the southern town of Jalal-Abad in which one state security officer had been killed. It said the militants belonged to the Islamic movement of Uzbekistan (IMU). A state security official who asked not to be named said its forces killed three more militants in a village in the Osh region, also in the south near the border with Uzbekistan, on Saturday night. "According to preliminary data three militants have been killed. Most likely they were terrorists from the group destroyed in Jalal-Abad," the official told Reuters. Another senior government official confirmed the killed militants were believed to be members of the IMU. "They (the militants) were from the same structure ... They (the security service) used two armoured personnel carriers to avoid casualties on our side," said the official, who also requested anonymity.
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Duty Honor Country
May your memory be as much of a blessing as was your life to those you loved and those you kept free.
Retired Marine Corps Col. Kenneth L. Reusser, called the most decorated Marine aviator in history and was shot down in three wars, has died at age 89.
Reusser flew 253 combat missions in World War II, Korea and Vietnam and was shot down in all three, five times in all. His 59 medals included two Navy Crosses, four Purple Hearts and two Legions of Merit.
In 1945, while based in Okinawa, he stripped down his F4U-4 Corsair fighter and intercepted a Japanese observation plane at a high altidude. When his guns froze, he flew his fighter into the observation plane, hacking off its tail with his propeller.
In 1950 in Korea led an attack on a North Korean tank-repair facility at Inchon, then destroyed an oil tanker almost blowing himself out of the sky.
In Vietnam he flew helicopters and was leading a rescue mission when his Huey was shot down. He needed skin grafts over 35 percent of his badly burned body.
Reusser, who lived in the Portland suburb of Milwaukie, was born Jan. 27, 1920, the son of a minister. He raced motorcycles to help pay for college and earning a pilots license before WWII.
After retiring from the Marine Corps he worked for Lockheed Aircraft and the Piasecki Helicopter Corp. He remained active in veterans groups.
Reusser died June 20 of natural causes. He is survived by his wife, Trudy; and sons, Richard C. and Kenneth L. Jr. Interment was Friday in Willamette National Cemetery. Stainless steel cojones.
But - to give heroic credit where it is due, the record needs to be corrected - Ken Reusser did earn a Navy Cross for pursuit of a Japanese observation plane, but it was a pilot named Robert Klingman who used his propellers to down the enemy plane.
Details at http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7795385237882019506/posts/default
Checkerboarder Jim Cox's Corsair kept dropping back until he was a thousand feet below and behind. He wasn't able to coax one more knot out of his battle-weary plane. Reusser told Cox and the other pilot to return, while he and Klingman continued their pursuit.
At 38,000 feet, they were at their struggling Corsairs' service ceiling. But the Nick was still one mile ahead. In the thin air, they were on the edge of stall, and had to make only small and gentle movements of their controls to avoid the drag of a pre-stall burble that would allow the enemy to extend further out of range.
Reusser recalls, "The gunner pounded with his fist on the action of his machine gun to free it up.
Klingman continued,
As we got closer, Ken was firing and the bogey's rear gunner started firing back at us. I was taking a few small bullet holes. My plane had no gun heaters and my guns were frozen and inoperative. But I was still pretty eager to get me a Jap plane.
My Corsair was a bit faster than the other one. So I crept ahead. I closed until I was 20 or 30 feet behind him. I couldn't get any closer due to his prop wash. Held me back. I slowly climbed above, then nosed over slightly and sliced into his tail with my prop. I only had enough extra speed to chew off some of his rudder and elevator before being blown away by the Nick's prop wash.
He was still flying, so I climbed above him for a second run. I nosed down toward him again, but pulled out too soon. I only got some of his rudder - and part of the top of the rear canopy as the gunner frantically tried to use his machine gun.
I climbed slightly above for a third run, then chopped off his right elevator. That hit did most of the damage to my plane. And we both spun down out of control. After losing only about 1,000 feet I recovered. But the enemy plane continued its spin until, at about 15,000 feet, both its wings came off.
Klingman didn't have a 'shoot down.' But . . he definitely had a ' knock-down.'
They were hundreds of miles from home with Klingman's control stick shaking so hard it was "leaping around " in his cockpit. Then, as they worked their way home, descending through 10,000 feet, Klingman radioed that his engine had quit.
Others radioed Bob to "Go over the side."
In his own judgment, Klingman thought he had a fair chance to glide as far as the airstrip's closest end, then land it ' dead stick' out of a straight-in approach.
There would be no forgiveness for his slightest misjudgment.
Alerted by radio, all the pilots and crew members near the airstrip were transfixed as Klingman, with propeller silently windmilling, approached the airstrip for a ' no-go-around ' landing.
At the last second, Klingman flared. His plane touched down on the dirt overrun, bounced a handful of yards to the airstrip's hard surface, and rolled to a stop.
As the pilots and crew members ran over to examine the aircraft and applaud the pilot, they were astonished by the plane's damage. All three blades of Klingman's propeller had six inches missing from the tip. The bird's wings were riddled with bullets, and chunks of the Japanese airplane were found inside the cowling.
#2
I am sure that the NY Times, CBS, NBC and ABC as well as NPR will interrupt their regularly scheduled Obamathon and report this news about a real American hero.
/snarked out
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
06/29/2009 14:03
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[Iran Press TV Latest] In the first outbreak of violence since this month's elections, political factions in Lebanon's capital Beirut traded fire killing a woman and injuring two others.
It was not clear what sparked the gunfight on Sunday evening when automatic rifle fire and three explosions were heard which underlines continued tension despite recent pledges by political leaders to work together.
Supporters of Lebanon's Western-backed billionaire Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri and rivals from the Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri's political faction traded brief gunfire in Beirut's Aisha Bakkar neighborhood.
Lebanese troops, who rushed in to restore calm, cordoned off the area to prevent any further tension between the rival groups.
Hours earlier, Hariri was holding talks with his predecessors as part of a process to form a unity government.
Hariri was named by Lebanon's President Michel Suleiman as the country's next prime minister on Saturday.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Iranian state media is reporting that authorities have released some members of the British Embassy staff in Tehran, one day after eight Iranian staffers there were detained for alleged links to the nation's post-election unrest. It is unclear how many staffers remain in custody.
A report quotes the nation's intelligence minister, Qolam Hosein Mohseni-Ejei as saying Sunday it has proof that some British embassy employees collected news about the recent protests.
But that's part of the job of a diplomatic corps. It's only a problem if they are actively spying.
Earlier in the day, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband demanded their release, calling their detention an unacceptable form of harassment and intimidation. European Union foreign ministers Sunday vowed the EU will respond in a "strong and collective" manner to any harassment or intimidation of staff members at embassies in Iran.
They'll pass a UN-style strongly-worded resolution.
Also Sunday, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused British and U.S. officials of making absurd comments about Iran. Tehran has accused both Britain and the United States of involvement in the street protests and violence that swept the country after its June 12 presidential election.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/29/2009
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#1
Tehran has accused both Britain and the United States of involvement in the street protests and violence
A bit premature I suspect. The real tipping point for "involvement" will be when you see the "protestors" forming into squads and platoons and hear them returning small arms, sniper, and mortor fire. Of course I would never be so naive as to think Barry would authorize such a measure.
South Korean intelligence authorities believe that a photo of purportedly showing North Korean leader Kim Jong-il on an inspection of the command of the 7th Infantry Division on June 14 was really taken during a visit to the 851st Unit on April 25. Intelligence forces are on alert in case that means that Kim's health has deteriorated again.
North Korea released a group photo of Kim accompanied by Kim Yong-chun, minister of the People's Armed Forces, and Kim Jong-gak, first vice-director of the General Political Department of the KPA, to illustrate a story that the visited the 851st Unit on the 77th anniversary of the army on April 25.
The photo was released on June 14 by the official KCNA news agency to accompany a story on the visit, but it mentions no date. The positions of people in the two photos except five or six soldiers at both ends of the front row are identical to the earlier picture, as are the ceiling lamps and the words in the placard in the backdrop. Kim Yong-chun, who is standing on Kim's right, was apparently in China around June 13. A Cheong Wa Dae official said it was "very strange" that Kim is wearing winter clothes in the photo allegedly taken on June 14.
Both the 7th Infantry Division, which Kim allegedly visited in June, and the 851st Unit, which he allegedly inspected in April, are near Anbyon-gun in Wonsan, an intelligence officer said. "It's possible that North Korea put different dates to visits to the two military units at similar times."
Prof. Nam Joo-hong of Kyonggi University said, "If North Korea reused the same photo again to make it look as if Kim were in good health, it shows that the regime is unstable."
Thank goodness for expert analysis to get that astounding insight ...
A North Korea expert said the manipulations could add credence to speculation that North Korea's current international grandstanding is part of efforts to tighten the regime's hold at home as Kim Jong-il's health deteriorates.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/29/2009
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[Geo News] Mir Mumtaz Jakhrani, brother of Federal Minister for Health Aijaz Jakhrani, escaped armed attack here in Garhi Kheru while his driver was killed on the spot. According to Geo TV, Jakhrani was traveling in his vehicle which came under fire attack in Garhi Kheru. He remained safe in the attack but his driver was killed on the spot.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/29/2009
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Top Obama administration officials say the door remains open for nuclear talks with Iran. They are discounting the latest anti-American rhetoric from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Since there are plenty of Bambi advisors who've spouted similar words in their time ...
Appearing on the CBS television program Face the Nation, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice indicated the Iranian nuclear program remains a matter of high concern for the White House.
As it should be, but direct talks aren't the answer ...
"We have an interest in any case in trying to ensure that Iran does not achieve a nuclear weapons capability," said Rice. "We have pursued that through multi-lateral diplomacy. We have left the door open to bilateral diplomacy."
On NBC's Meet the Press, President Obama's top advisor, David Axelrod, said the administration remains open to attending talks between Iran and the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany. He was asked if the tough talk over the weekend by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad might be enough to put diplomacy on hold.
"Understand that he is not the decision maker when it comes to foreign policy and defense policy in Iran," he said. "His comments are meant for domestic political content."
And who would know more about using words for domestic political content than David Axelrod?
Iran's president has accused the United States of meddling in his country's affairs. Axelrod said he is merely trying to change the subject. "It is a long used technique in Iran to try to make the United States the foil for their own problems," said Axelrod. "His problems are with the Iranian people, not with us!"
And you guys are looking to let them off the hook ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/29/2009
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#3
I could ask why _you_ hate Iranians so much, Plays4Keeps, that you want the US to engage with the people who treat the entire country as their property?
#5
The phrase Ive heard repeated is more even-handed in our mid-East dealings. Right. If we were just more fair and didnt always side with Isreal. I posted (elsewhere) recently that Israel had a right to defend itself. An extreme liberal told me I believed the FALSEHOOD that Palestine was a threat to Israel. I responded simply that if my neighbor shoots at me, they are a threat. At least I havent seen any Obama signs that read Long Live the King. My prayers go out to this man. I may not have voted for him, but hes my President and to say he has a tough road ahead is the understatement of the year.
#10
You lads are missing the boat on Barry. He's dumb like a fox, a one man Freedom Bureau if you will. The pursuit of a "level playing" field, the full enactment of liberation theology and reparations continues at a record pace.
Change is coming! Don't be alarmed at future initiatives such as full amnesty and voting integration of illegal aliens, an executive order banning capital punishment, laws against assembly aka tea parties, cross-border divisions of the south and west into federal military "civil defense" districts, 2nd Amendment restrictions, licensing, extended waiting periods, etc, Federal integration of California and New York employees, Obama banking holidays, the emptying of the oppressed from Federal prisons, the renaming of an aircraft carrier or two, a redesigning of the flag, an executive order approving duel citizenship.
#11
They are discounting the latest anti-American rhetoric from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Ahmadinejad isn't the decision-maker on foreign policy and defense, but he has the backing of those who do. His comments might be for "domestic content", but what if the Obama administration is projecting? The question then becomes, "at what point do you stop discounting the rhetoric?" After 2-3 years in fruitless pursuit of 'talks'?
#12
2-3 years of "talks" while they grind down freedom, and build weapons, and continue to call for the destruction of other nations...
Yes, Obama is a fucking idiot to believe the leopard will change its spots. Its his unbounded (and unwarranted) narcissism and arrogance that are leading him to disaster.
#15
Its helpful to start with the premise that nearly everything Obama has accomplished has come through misdirection. Even as narcissistic as he is its doubtful that he even believes Tehran will be persuaded by his charm. But that was never the goal! His objective is to persuade Europe/UN for tougher sanctions.
#16
Folks, I've come to the realization that Zero doesn't really care about foreign policy at all. Oh sure, he will take easy victories and make lots of "third way" noise about dialogue and relationships, but really, all foreign policy is to him is a toll to divert the focus and energy of the conservative forces in America from his primary focus, the domestic agenda. Cap and trade is looming because we all got sucked into Iran watching and he got Pelosi to slep on the gas and jam the bill through. Wehn momentum faltered, he worked the Hill personally. That he twisted a number of arms fatally for the mide-term elections isn't important to him. His agenda is exactly what Besoeker said: "The pursuit of a "level playing" field, the full enactment of liberation theology and reparations continues at a record pace".
What is is very good at is misdirection, triangulation, and deceit. He says things that sound ok, and acts differently,, more radically, and then says simple falsehoods about what he did and why.
This man is on pace to do more damage to America than anyone ever imagined. At his core, he and his hate this nation, and want to change it forever, and punish many of us in the process.
A lifetime of resentments has taught him how to play majority America, even as he conspires to destroy it's prosperity.
#18
I've come to the realization that Zero doesn't really care about foreign policy at all.
Might be true, and it would make him the anti-Nixon: Nixon never cared about domestic policy at all, seeing the job of President exclusively as managing foreign policy. Nixon would give the Congress whatever it wanted on the domestic side as long as it left him alone to pursue his foreign affairs agenda.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/29/2009 16:28
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[Quqnoos] A contingent of additional 10,000 US troops recently arrived in Afghanistan's volatile province of Helmand, officials said. Major General Mart de Kruif, the Dutch commander for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in southern Afghanistan said the new troops will boost the counter-insurgency efforts in the Afghan restive region.
Soon after taking the office, President Obama vowed to send an extra 17,000 troops to Afghanistan ahead of the Afghan presidential and provincial council elections in August 20. The remaining troops are expected to arrive in Afghanistan within a month to safeguard the polls.
The troops landed in Helmand province where around 8,000 British forces have encountered a bloody Taliban fighting over the past four years. A part of the new forces are likely to be stationed across the southern region during the elections.
Gen Kruif revealed with the advent of the new troops on the ground in Helmand, will significantly increase the levels of operations against the Taliban militants. "We are beginning a new phase of operations against the militants," the Dutch Gen added.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/29/2009
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The Saudi job market does not need more graduates in Islamic studies, the head of one of Saudi Arabia's newest universities said in remarks published on Sunday.
The comments by Mohammed Ali al-Hazaa, who directs Jazan University in the south, could irritate many in the influential religious establishment. Founded in 2006 by King Abdullah, Jazan University does not have a faculty for religious studies, unlike other universities in the kingdom, the world's biggest oil exporter. "There is no need in the job market for graduates in Sharia (Islamic law) and the foundations of religion. We don't want to increase unemployment and the market is saturated," Hazaa told Okaz newspaper.
But surely the study of Islamic religious literature, religious law and religious history prepares one as well as rabbinic or ministerial studies for a life outside the mosque or the madrassah... oh wait.
Never mind.
The education ministry has been considering ways of improving education after King Abdullah removed two clerics from top positions in February in what analysts said was an effort to curb the influence of the powerful clerical establishment. Graduates in religious studies work in government, education, the mosques, the courts and in the religious police force.
Director Hazaa does have a point; professionals tend to be ever so much more effective when they've received a professional education. We wish him and his university luck in achieving this goal.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#4
In Saudi Arabia, I don't see how this guy could be doing any better than p*****g in the wind and he may end up a whole lot worse. I hope his life insurance premiums are all paid up.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
06/29/2009 8:27
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#5
#2 Definitely too many clerics. Everyone knows you need a balanced party with wizards, fighters, at at least one elf.
Oh, dude, I know it's just plain wrong, but I simply cannot resist, I'm so weak, a weak geek, that's what I am, sorry... : DM of the Rings
Already had seen many of those individually, but only discovered the sequential blog posts a while ago, spent an afternoon readint the whole serie. It's just so... true. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.
#8
I see your DM of the Rings, and raise you The Order of the Stick. (The link goes to the latest comic.)
Too many funny comics to mention, really, including this one from the end of the first story arc, which reminds me of some of the comments threads around here sometimes.
This has the system the Clerics in Saudi Arabia use: link.
[Jerusalem Post Middle East] Hamas and Fatah negotiators were summoned to Cairo over the weekend for another round of "reconciliation" talks aimed at ending the differences between the two rival parties.
Representatives of the two sides said that the Egyptian authorities were exerting immense pressure on them to reach an agreement by the end of the month. Some claimed that the Egyptians had issued an ultimatum to Hamas and Fatah to end their power struggle and sign a unity government accord by July 7. However, spokesmen of the two sides expressed pessimism regarding the prospects of reaching any deal in the foreseeable future, pointing out that the gap between Hamas and Fatah on many issues remained very wide.
This is the sixth time in recent months that Hamas and Fatah officials have met in Cairo for talks aimed at resolving their dispute.
Hamas legislator and negotiator Salah Bardaweel said his movement would not sign any agreement with Fatah as long as security forces loyal to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas continued to detain Hamas supporters in the West Bank.
He said that Hamas was also demanding that Abbas release some 700 Hamas supporters who are being held without trial in jails in the West Bank. "How can we sign an agreement [with Fatah] when the Palestinian security forces are continuing to kidnap hundreds of Palestinians?" Bardaweel asked. "This issue will be at the top of the agenda of the meetings in Cairo."
The PA said that it released 85 Hamas supporters from its prisons over the weekend as a "goodwill gesture" on the eve of the resumption of the talks with the Islamic movement. Azzam al-Ahmed, a senior Fatah official closely associated with Abbas, expressed hope that the release of the Hamas supporters would prompt Hamas to reciprocate by freeing Fatah detainees. He said that Hamas was holding in its prisons in the Gaza Strip over 200 Fatah supporters, some of whom are reported to be in poor health condition.
Fatah officials in Ramallah said that Hamas's security forces have summoned for questioning more than 1,000 Fatah supporters in the past few weeks. Many of those interrogated by Hamas have been severely tortured, they added, charging that they had been beaten with clubs and plastic rods.
According to the officials, Hamas has also banned some 200 Fatah supporters from leaving the Gaza Strip for "security reasons." Fahmi Za'areer, a Fatah spokesman in the West Bank, said that besides the issue of the detainees, the two sides still had to agree on holding new elections, reconstructing the Palestinian security forces and the political agenda of the proposed Hamas-Fatah unity government.
Za'areer also voiced skepticism, saying he did not expect progress as long as Hamas continued to cling on to its "coup mentality" in the Gaza Strip.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/29/2009
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#1
As long as it doesn't interfere with Obama's "Peace Plan"...
The United States' top military officer says he believes Iraqi forces are ready to take full control of their country's cities on Tuesday, as called for in the U.S.-Iraq security agreement. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen spoke to reporters traveling with him in Europe.
In a conversation with a small group of reporters, Admiral Mike Mullen was asked whether he is confident the Iraqi forces can handle the duties they are about to take on. "I am, and I take that from not only my own interaction there, which is infrequent, but really the reports I get back routinely and the leaders I talk to, not just General Odierno but others that have that confidence as well," Mullen said. "They're going to need some support. They're going to need some enablers. But the United States military leadership in Iraq is confident that they can do that."
U.S. and other international forces will continue to provide air support to the Iraqi forces, as well as help with logistics, reconnaissance and other functions that enable combat troops and local police to do their jobs.
Al-Qaida and other insurgent groups have already begun an expected surge in attacks to challenge the new arrangement. Admiral Mullen says he is concerned, but his commander in Iraq, and the former commander who now heads all U.S. military operations in the region, tell him the Iraqi forces are ready. "All the engagement I've had with General (Ray) Odierno and General (David) Petraeus is (that) the Iraqi security forces are ready to do this," Mullen said. "We've been out of many of the cities for, I think, well over a year. Baghdad and Mosul are the two biggest challenges that we have right now. We're in a tough fight in Mosul, but the leaders have a plan to get through that. And I think we will."
Admiral Mullen accepted some harsh comments by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who referred to the coming handover of the cities as a victory over occupiers.
Necessary posturing for local consumption.
But the admiral was more focused on the prime minister's comments after the recent attacks, in which he did his best to prevent al-Qaida from sparking another outbreak of sectarian violence. "I was happy to see the prime minister respond so strongly because I think that leadership is critical, and the leadership of the Iraqi security forces," Mullen said. "And if we're going to get this right in the future, it's clearly going to be up to them."
Admiral Mullen notes that, overall, violence in Iraq is down substantially from recent years, but he acknowledges more violence is possible. "I'm optimistic, not naïve, about the challenges," Mullen said. "There are lots of them. And we need to not lose focus on Iraq in any way, shape or form."
Good luck, Iraq. Our thoughts and prayers go with you.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/29/2009
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#1
Let the festivities (Soody-Iran proxy war) begin!
#2
Grom, I hope you're wrong. So far I have not seen a strong Iranian presence in Iraqi government, nor an overwhelming militant posture among the Sunni. The violence looks like more of the same thing as several years ago, with fringe groups committing atrocities to try and generate a civil war and chaos from which they hope to weaken the government enough for their own weakened entities to regain competitiveness.
[Khaleej Times] Iran has shut down opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi's website that was the only source for US officials to monitor events in the Islamic country, according to a media report Saturday.
State Department officials, who have been monitoring events in Iran from Dubai via Mousavi's website "Kalemah", said the website - the opposition leader's last link to the outside world - was completely shut down, the Fox News reported
The officials also noted reports on Iranian websites alleging that Mousavi's supporters, who have been in jailed for anti-government protests, were being tortured in a bid to force them into "confessions" on TV that the demonstrations were part of a foreign plot against the Islamic regime, the report said.
It also cited a report by Iranian newspaper with close ties with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps that called on the country's justice minister to prosecute Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi for allegedly violating Islamic and constitutional law through her human rights advocacy.
There were also reports that the authorities were planning to recount only 10 percent of the ballots in presence of the media and the Guardian Council's post-election committee to show that there was no electoral fraud.
Since the June 12 presidential election reults, which saw incumbent president Mahmoud Ahamadinejad retaining power with a landslide victory, were out Mausavi's supporters took to streets in thousands to protest the alleged electoral fraud.
Iranian authorities have used a combination of warnings, arrests and the threat of police action over the last week to drive mass rallies off Tehran's street with smaller gatherings dispersed with tear gas and baton charges.
According to state media, at least 20 people have lost their lives in the violence.
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[Iran Press TV Latest] Hundreds of Iranians have gathered in a mosque to commemorate the martyrdom of former chief justice Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti.
Supporters of defeated presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi also marched down Tehran's Shariati Street from north to south and silently gathered outside the Ghoba Mosque -- where the event was being held.
Ayatollah Beheshti was killed in a terrorist attack on June 28, 1981, along with over 70 government and the Islamic Republic Party officials.
The pro-Mousavi gathering was the first post-election demonstration in five days. Latest reports say that the demonstration ended peacefully on Sunday night.
Opposition rallies were held almost on a daily basis, following the announcement of the election results, in which incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner with almost two-thirds of the votes.
However, once the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, called for an end to the street rallies, the protests drew down on scale and frequency.
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[Straits Times] INDONESIAN police are hunting for two more suspects, believed to be Singaporeans, in their crackdown on the Jemaah Islamiah terrorist network in the country.
Sources said they are the sons of Samad Subari, 53, a long-time JI member nabbed in Bandarlampung shortly after the anti-terror squad Densus 88 detained fugitive Husaini Ismail in Central Java last weekend. Both men are Singaporeans
'The two sons escaped. We're still after them now,' said a police source who spoke on condition of anonymity. 'Both of them are young adults and are involved in this. Both of them work as sellers of banana fritters.'
Police criminal investigation director Susno Duadji would not reveal the number of Singaporeans nabbed during last weekend's security blitz in Central Java and Lampung in southern Sumatra.
'We have arrested six people,' said the commissioner-general, declining to provide further details.
Husaini was the last member of a five-man cell arrested for plotting to crash a plane into Singapore's Changi Airport in 2002. Their leader was Mas Selamat Kastari.
Among the six in custody now are Husaini's wife, Rasidah Subari, 44, their sons Lukman, 20, and Mukmin, 19, said Kompas daily.
The Jakarta Globe, quoting sources, said yesterday that Husaini's wife and sons had entered Indonesia legally using their Singapore passports. But they had obtained Indonesian identity cards by using falsified documents.
The Jakarta Globe also said that Husaini was related to Samad.
Mas Selamat was deported to Singapore in 2006. He escaped in February last year and was recaptured in Johor in April this year.
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[Geo News] Twelve soldiers were martyred and 10 others injured when militants ambushed a convoy of security forces in Garmalai area of North Waziristan.
According to a statement issued by Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), 10 militants were also killed in an exchange of fire that took place between saboteurs and security men triggered by the above attack by militants. The wounded troops have been rushed to a nearby hospital.
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[Geo News] Amir Jamaat-e-Islami Syed Munir Hassan Sunday demanded of the government to have same attitude for NWFP province which its has adopted for Balochistan and to resolve issues through dialogue. Addressing a grand rally called Â'Go America Go' in Karachi, the JI Amir called for announcement of a timeframe for completion of the Malakand operation and questioned: Â"Who is the real enemy we are fighting against.Â" The march started from Mazar-e-Quaid and culminated at Tibet Centre. Syed Munawar Hassan alleged that the ongoing military operation in Malakand division and Buner was started on the dictates of the US which displaced 3.8 million people. He demanded of the government to announce a date by which the operation will be successfully completed and to allow media access to the affected areas for reporting.
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[Geo News] Pakistan, split in the middle with terrorist attacks and facing an economic crisis, remains among the top 10 failed states, says an index prepared by the renowned Foreign Policy journal. Pakistan, placed ninth among all countries last year in terms of its overall achievement, has improved its position only by a notch - it is placed 10th in the index for 2009 published in the July-August issue of the journal. The ranking is done on the basis of the following factors: demographic pressure, refugees/internally displaced persons (IDPs), group grievance, uneven development, economic decline, delegitimisation of the state, public service, human rights, factionalised elites and external intervention. The top 10 failed states in the latest list are: Somalia, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Guinea and Pakistan.
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#1
At this point I'd be inclined to bump Iraq (just) off the list and replace it with Venezuela.
[Iran Press TV Latest] The head of Iran's electoral office, Kamran Daneshjou, has criticized the complaints filed by the defeated presidential candidates for being "too general".
In an expansive speech on Sunday, Daneshjou addressed the candidates who had complained about the ejection of their representatives, and asked for the details of the districts.
He touched on many issues raised by the opposition candidates, including the question of the number of ballots printed and the shortage of ballots at a number of stations.
Daneshjou said that there was no truth in having extra ballots printed in the day before the election. But, on the day of the election 2 million ballots were printed, in addition to the 60,875,000 that had been printed earlier.
His remarks came as Iranian officials continue their efforts to clarify some of the issues raised by Mir-Hossein Mousavi, Mehdi Karroubi and Mohsen Rezaei -- the defeated presidential hopefuls.
Following a hotly-contested campaign, Iranians cast their votes on June 12 in unprecedented numbers. However, when the Interior Ministry announced the official results indicating an almost 2-to-1 for President Ahmadinejad win over his closest rival, Mousavi, the three opposition candidates cried foul and large numbers of their supporters took to the streets in protests.
More than 600 alleged "irregularities" have been lodged with the electoral watchdog, the Guardian Council, and the country's political establishment has been trying to probe into the allegations through lawful channels.
Coming to the accusations that some of the ballot boxes had already been stuffed with votes before the start of the election, and that the absence of the candidates' representatives made it impossible to rule this out, Daneshjou said that 14 individuals had signed off each ballot box, each with a different tendency, and they testify to the boxes being empty.
He also blamed the candidates' representatives for arriving too late at the polling stations and consequently finding it impossible to observe the emptiness of the boxes.
He said that charges of ballot-rigging are an insult to the 600,000 who took part in the election administration.
Daneshjou claimed that some of the opposition candidates' real gripe was that the election watchdog, the Guardian Council, had not disqualified the incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from running for a second term.
"They do not have the audacity to say this openly, and instead begin to find excuses to nitpick against the execution of the election," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
"I didn't do it, nobody saw me, you can't prove a thing!"
[Jerusalem Post Middle East] Washington's decision to return its ambassador to Syria is the latest stage in the present administration's policy of engagement with Damascus. It relates most importantly to the US desire to secure Syrian cooperation in the build-up to the departure of American combat troops from urban areas in Iraq. The decision is related to the broader American ambition of drawing Damascus away from Iran. Hopes for a revival of talks between Israel and Syria, and the desire to enlist Syria in the ongoing effort to bring about a rapprochement between the Palestinian Fatah movement and the Damascus-domiciled Hamas may also have played a role.
Regarding Iraq, the US is aware that Sunni insurgents will have an interest in ratcheting up the level of violence as the US prepares to draw down its combat forces - to give the impression that it is they who are bringing about the American redeployment. Syria has served as a key ally of the Sunni insurgency since its beginnings. For a period, the route between Damascus airport and the Syrian-Iraqi border was a favorite one for Sunni jihadis seeking to enter Iraq to take part in the insurgency.
In recent months, US officials have reported an improvement in Syrian control on the border, and a reduction in the number of insurgents crossing over. In the familiar Syrian fashion, Damascus's promotion of violence against Americans, and its subsequent willingness to partially reduce this promotion, is used as a tool to reap diplomatic rewards.
Regarding the Palestinian angle: ongoing Palestinian unity talks in Cairo have so far proved fruitless. Despite its focus on a revived Israeli-Palestinian peace process, the administration is aware that for as long as an openly rejectionist Hamas entity continues to rule over 40 percent of the Palestinian population, hopes for a meaningful negotiating process belong largely to the realm of fantasy.
There is therefore a real determination, shared by Egypt and the Palestinian Authority, to make a success of the unity effort. Hamas's leadership is based in Damascus, so efforts to bring Syria closer to Washington may also be intended to enlist Syrian support in pressuring Hamas towards greater flexibility.
The revival of Israeli-Syrian talks is likely to feature on the administration's agenda at some stage in the coming period. The presence of a US representative in Damascus would facilitate US mediation.
The biggest prize, however - a Syrian strategic reorientation away from alliance with Iran - is likely to continue to prove elusive.
An angry, more openly militant Iranian regime is likely to emerge in the coming weeks from the current unrest. It will be hated by a large section of its people. But this will not harm either its desire or its ability to support radical forces in the region.
For the Syrians, the maintenance of alliances with various Islamist and radical regional elements forms a key element of national strategy. It is one which continues to pay dividends. The past months have shown that the Syrians may repair relations with the West at little cost to themselves, while maintaining this stance. One does not, as the saying goes, kill the goose that lays the golden egg. The Syrian "goose" combines alliance with Iran and support for regional instability with occasional gestures of cooperation to the West. It has just delivered the "golden egg" of a new US ambassador in Damascus in return for no concessions on issues of core importance to the Assad regime.
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The U.S. is stepping up pressure on North Korea by launching a taskforce to implement UN Security Council Resolution 1874. The interagency taskforce to enforce sanctions against North Korea was launched Friday to coordinate actions with other nations in implementing the UN resolution, including searches of outbound North Korean ships and aircraft and international financial sanctions.
U.S. President Barack Obama appointed former U.S. ambassador to Bolivia Philip Goldberg to lead the team, sending him to China in the near future to discuss sanctions on the North. That brings to three the Obama administration's envoys of some description on North Korean affairs.
Brilliant, simply brilliant ...
In the early days of his presidency, Obama had two, with Stephen Bosworth named special representative for North Korean policy, in addition to U.S. special envoy on North Korean affairs Sung Kim. Bosworth was apparently to look after general issues and Kim as chief U.S. nuclear negotiator for the six-party talks.
Goldberg will take part in the making of North Korea policies alongside Bosworth, Kim, and Kurt Campbell, the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, who was recently approved by the Senate. Whether the responsibilities of the four will overlap and lead to confusion remains to be seen.
Confusion? Almost certainly. Political infighting and scheming? Absolutely.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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[Mail and Globe] The power struggle inside Iran appears to be moving from the streets into the heart of the regime itself this weekend amid reports that Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani is plotting to undermine the power of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Rafsanjani's manoeuvres against Khamenei come as tensions between the speaker of the Parliament, Ali Larijani, and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also appeared to be coming to a head.
Mass demonstrations on the streets against the election results have been effectively crushed by a massive police and basiij militia presence that has seen several dozen deaths and the arrests of hundreds of supporters of defeated candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi. But the splits within Iran's political elite are deepening.
In the past few days, Larijani -- who was fired by Ahmadinejad as chief negotiator on nuclear issues with the West -- has announced his intention of setting up a parliamentary committee to examine the recent post-election violence in an "even-handed way". In response, Ahmadinejad supporters within the Parliament have discussed the possibility of impeaching Larijani.
In a move with even greater potential significance, according to several reports Rafsanjani has been lobbying fellow members of the powerful 86-strong Assembly of Experts, which he chairs, to replace Khamenei as the supreme leader with a small committee of senior ayatollahs, of which Khamenei would be a member. If Rafsanjani were successful, the constitutional change would mean a profound shift in the balance of power within Iran's theocratic regime.
"Although Hashemi Rafsanjani is not a popular politician in Iran any more, he is the only hope that Iranians have ... for the annulment of the election," said an Iranian political analyst who asked not be named. "He is the only one who people think is able to stand against the supreme leader."
The membership of the Assembly of Experts, which has the power to appoint the supreme leader, is split between those supporting Rafsanjani and those who have gravitated around the highly influential ultra-hardline cleric Mohammad-Taqi Mesbah Yazdi, who is widely seen as both a supporter of Ahmadinejad and the president's religious mentor. Yazdi is also believed to have his own ambitions to succeed Khamenei as supreme leader. Like Ahmadinejad, he is fiercely opposed to the push by reformists for more democratic representation in Iran.
Yazdi is also understood to have a large following among both the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps and the basiij militia, both also sources of support for Ahmadinejad.
Rafsanjani has long been a proponent of weakening the power of the supreme leader. He is understood to be arguing in favour of replacing Khamenei with a leadership council of three or more senior clerics.
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#1
Sounds like Rafsanjani is leaning towards the Soviet Troika model for the Supreme Leader : after Stalin died, there was an agreement that any future leader of the Soviet Union would have to be approved by the Army, the KGB, and the Communist Party. Anyone who failed to get all 3 votes would NOT be made Premier. And it appears Rafsanjani's motives are the same - never again to have a Supreme Leader with the unlimited power of Khomeini.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Iran's Intelligence Minister has dismissed claims of vote-rigging in the presidential election, blaming the US and Israel for the spread of such rumors among the people.
"I announce that no organized rigging which could affect the result of the election has taken place," Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei said in an interview with IRIB's Channel Two on Sunday night.
He said the nation's enemies conspired several months before the presidential election to stir unrest in the country and dissuade the Iranians from voting.
"Americans and Zionists sought to destabilize Iran ... they were upset with a stabilized and secure Iran ... even months before the election they started to talk about the possibility of vote-rigging in the election and they continued the course following the vote," Ejei said.
He said the Iranian intelligence services were aware of US and Israeli plots to mar the election months before the vote, adding that Iran foiled some assassination attempts masterminded by Washington and Tel Aviv.
Incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner of the presidential election with almost two-thirds of the votes.
The announcement triggered opposition rallies in protest at the result with defeated candidates Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi calling for the result to be annulled.
Ejei took a swipe at Mousavi, saying his demand for holding the election anew would undermine the credibility of the electoral system.
The three defeated candidates -- Mousavi, Karroubi and Mohsen Rezaei -- have lodged more than 600 alleged 'irregularities' with the electoral watchdog, the Guardian Council.
Mousavi and Karroubi believe these irregularities are enough for the election results to be annulled.
However, the head of Iran's Electoral Office, Kamran Daneshjou, has criticized the complaints filed by the defeated presidential candidates for being 'too general'. The Guardian Council has also stressed that there were no 'major' irregularities in the presidential election.
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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.
THE horrifying state of pop superstar Michael Jackson in his final days can be revealed by The Sun today.
Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez' announcement that the state will borrow more money to help pay off national oil company debts follows the disclosure by President Hugo Chavez of a letter urging Moscow to cooperate in selling oil at $100 a barrel.
Both sides have signed on to "reunification," but it means something different to both sides. The South anticipates NKor collapsing upon itself and having to be reconstructed pretty much from the ground up, with Seoul in charge of the new Korea. The North sees SKor turning commie -- whether through the actions of the fifth column or a more successful rerun of the Korean War doesn't matter -- and being ruled by the Kim dynasty, who will proceed to "manage its economy."
[Khaleej Times] Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Moussavi Saturday refused to support a panel set up by the electoral watchdog Guardian Council to conduct a partial recount of votes in the disputed presidential election, a media report said. Refusing to be cowed by attacks on his party offices, Moussavi again demanded for fresh polls. "Limiting the probe into complaints about electoral irregularities to recounting 10 percent of the ballot boxes cannot attract people's trust and convince public opinion about the results," Moussavi said on his campaign website. 
Security forces in Kyrgyzstan have killed three men they believe were militants from a rebel group, a state security official said on Sunday. 
[Iran Press TV Latest] In the first outbreak of violence since this month's elections, political factions in Lebanon's capital Beirut traded fire killing a woman and injuring two others. 
[Khaleej Times] Iran has shut down opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi's website that was the only source for US officials to monitor events in the Islamic country, according to a media report Saturday.
