ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - Republican John McCain is calling Democratic rival Barack Obama a liar.
The GOP presidential candidate told a campaign rally: "Sen. Obama has accused me of opposing regulation to avert this crisis. I guess he believes if a lie is big enough and repeated often enough it will be believed."
In some of the harshest language yet, McCain said the campaign comes down to a simple question: Who is the real Barack Obama?
McCain drew the loudest cheers when he said the Democrat has written two memoirs but "he's not exactly an open book."
Trailing in the polls, McCain and his advisers say they will hammer that theme as the campaign heads toward the Nov. 4 election.
AN asteroid discovered today will hit Earth's atmosphere over Sudan in a few hours but will burn up before it can hit the ground or endanger aircraft, astronomers say. The asteroid would create a large fireball about 10.46pm EDT (1.46pm AEST) as it burns up, a team at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics said.
"We want to stress that this object is not a threat," said Timothy Spahr, director of the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center at Harvard in Massachusetts. "We're excited since this is the first time we have issued a prediction that an object will enter Earth's atmosphere," Dr Spahr said.
The asteroid, known as a meteoroid, is between 1m and 5m in diameter. "A typical meteor comes from an object the size of a grain of sand," said Gareth Williams of the Minor Planet Centre. "This meteor will be a real humdinger in comparison."
It would be visible from eastern Africa and would evaporate over Sudan, the scientists said. "We really hope that someone will manage to photograph it," said Mr Williams.
#5
Wel-l-l, may or may not be related but iff the fireballs = meteor atreaks I'd seen over GUAM-WESTPAC the last two nites are any measure, its ASTEROIDS, PLURAL, NOT -ROID SINGULAR.
Also visibly saw a TWO-LEGGED TAOTAMONA = BLACK SHADOW BEING leap o'er a fence and walk thru a parking lot last nite, but we don't see any on SPACEWAR or SCIENCE DAILY, etc. now do we!?
D *** NG IT, ITS NOT THE ROCK WE SAW, BUT THE ROCKS WE DIDN'T SEE!
#8
I'm still waitin' for the one about 100m in diameter that's gonna splat Riyadh on one of the royals' birthday. Can't decide which I'd rather it be - a nice nickel-iron rock, or maybe highly compacted frozen methane, ammonia, and water-ice.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/06/2008 22:44
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Jaigaon (Jalpaiguri), Oct. 6: Their tin hut surrounded by marauding elephants on three sides, a 65-year-old woman dug a tunnel with the help of her two grandsons to escape through the rear this morning.
Around 2am, Maneshwari Burman was awakened by trumpeting in her kitchen, a few yards from where she slept with Pradip, 14, and Arjun, 10.
We knew that to talk would be to die and so looked at each other. Along with us was Bindu, a neighbour who had come to sleep at my home last night, said Maneshwari.
The family heard the animals gorge on its paddy. I was frightened but knew that to survive we would have to find a way out. The elephants could break down the tin walls any moment, Maneshwari said.
While Pradip kept an eye on the animals, Maneshwari and Arjun started digging the floor. We struck the mud floor with a khunti (spatula) and scooped out the soil with brass bowls. In half-an-hour, we created a 1.5ft deep, 3.5ft long hole. It ended outside the wall, the elderly woman said.
Arjun and Pradip were the first to jump into the ditch and come out in the courtyard. Bindu was too frightened to follow. But Maneshwari crawled out. With her grandsons in tow, she stood silently for some time in the courtyard before making a run for her neighbours house, 200m away.
The neighbours were surprised. They had taken us for dead, said Pradip.
Bindu stayed in the hut for another hour before she felt the elephants had retreated from one side and took a chance. She opened the door and ran.
The herd of 40 had strayed into Rabindranagar, in Madarihat block of Jalpaiguri, 28km from here, from Dhumki forest. Foresters said they first entered the paddy fields of Hemkumar Chhetri around midnight and wreaked havoc across over 3 acres. Then they damaged over 70 betel nut trees of Bhajan Sharma before surrounding Maneshwaris house.
A forest team arrived around 3am and took four hours to push the herd back into the forest skirting the village.
Rabindrangar is familiar with elephants, it has frequent brushes with them. But such bravado as Maneshwaris is rare. The range officer of Jaldapara (north), Rajendranath Dakua, said: The womans efforts saved four lives.
The boys parents live 30km away, in Falakata, where they work as daily labourers.
The ranger said the herd was on its way to Jaldapara Wildlife Sanctuary, across National Highway 31. Rabindranagar is on the route.
Posted by: john frum ||
10/06/2008
18:07 ||
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#1
The Palestinians should make her an honorary citizen of Gaza.
The Relationship Between Barack Obama And Bill Ayers Is Much More Extensive Than Obama's Campaign Is Willing To Admit
Obama's Top Campaign Staff Have Attempted To Downplay The Relationship Between Obama And Bill Ayers:
Obama Spokesman Robert Gibbs Said That Obama And Ayers Weren't Close And That Obama Was Only 8 Years Old When Ayers Was Bombing Buildings. Robert Gibbs: "If you read the article ... it says these two men weren't close, this man isn't involved in our campaign. Bill Ayers is somebody that Barack Obama said his actions were despicable and these happened when Barack Obama was 8 years old." (FOX News' "FOX & Friends," 10/6/08)
Continued on Page 49
GAUHATI: Clashes between ethnic groups in India's remote northeast have left at least 49 people dead in four days including 19 killed on Monday, officials said.
The fighting in Assam state began Friday when a group of young ethnic Bodo men were attacked after patrolling their villages. Bodo leaders blamed relatively recent settlers, most of whom are Muslims, for sparking the clashes, said Assam Home Commissioner Subhash Das.
But authorities said the National Democratic Front of Bodoland, a Bodo separatist group with a history of violence, were targeting Muslim settlers.
Ethnic Bodos and Muslim settlers in Assam have a history of conflict and have fought recently with bows and arrows, spears and machetes, and have burned each other's homes and property, officials said over the weekend.
More than 150 people have been injured in the violence and more than 100,000 have fled their homes in some 30 villages, Das said.
``This is a clear case of ethnic cleansing by the NDFB,'' said Assam government spokesman Himanta Biswa Sarma. He said Bodo militants were coordinating attacks with violent mobs who were burning Muslims' homes.
In an e-mail sent to journalists Sunday night, the Bodo group's spokesman, S. Sanjarang, denied any role in the fighting.
The 49 people killed since Friday include 15 people who were fatally shot when police opened fire on violent mobs in at least four different incidents, said Sarma. Police have been authorized to shoot at anyone fighting in the streets.
An indefinite curfew imposed Friday in the northern Assam districts of Udalguri and Darrang continued Monday with small breaks to allow people to buy essential supplies.
Animosity between the Bodos and Muslim migrants stems from long-standing land disputes. The groups clashed sporadically throughout the 1990s, leaving at least 250 dead and an estimated 300,000 displaced.
Nearly 100,000 people are still living in makeshift relief camps.
Posted by: john frum ||
10/06/2008
16:18 ||
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It seems anxiety from the financial crisis is reaching new highs, but the tipping point for one individual came at the Lehman Brothers gym in the midst of the companys collapse.
While former Lehman CEO Richard Fuld was testifying before the House Oversight Committee Oct. 6, CNBC reported he had been punched in the face at the Lehman Brothers gym after it was announced the firm was going bankrupt. CNBC and Vanity Fair contributor Vicki Ward said Fuld was attacked at the gym on a Sunday following the bankruptcy.
Frankly, I sat there and listened and Im with the guy who apparently, the day before Barclays announced they were coming in and Lehman had already filed for bankruptcy, went over to him in the gym and punched him because thats how I feel when I, you know, when I watched that, Ward said on the Oct. 6 Power Lunch. I didnt think he was contrite at all, I thought he was arrogant.
Ward confirmed previous reports about the incident that reportedly occurred Sept. 21 and said the information came from two very senior sources.
From two very senior sources one incredibly senior source that he went to the gym after Lehman was announced as going under. He was on a treadmill with a heart monitor on. Someone was in the corner, pumping iron and he walked over and he knocked him out cold. And frankly after having watched this, Id have done the same too.
Ward determined Fuld deserved the beating based on his testimony before the committee.
I thought he was shameless, Ward said. I thought it was appalling. He blamed everyone. He blamed, as you say, naked short sellers over and over in case we didnt get the point, when in fact hedge funds like Harbinger had money locked up in Lehman and was shorting it to try and make the most of the money that they already had. He blamed everybody but himself.
Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy in September 2008 and its assets were later snatched up by the British bank Barclays for $1.35 billion, which included Lehmans Midtown Manhattan office tower with a $960 million price tag.
#3
70% of investment banking's political contributions went to supporting Democrats. And the Democrats supported the investment bankers right up to the end.
Posted by: ed ||
10/06/2008 17:10
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#5
I thought the cultural tradition for investment bankers was to jump not to hang. Well, at least American investment bankers, I seem to recall seppuku was appropriate in Japan. Not that there's anything wrong with it being done by their American counterparts.
#6
Seems to be quite a bit of scum in the gene pool lately - scum that needs to be scraped off and burned in an open fire (screw EPA!). Start in DC, head north to New York, then west to LA, SanFran, and Sacramento. I'm sure most of the locals can clean up their OWN neighborhoods, if they have the courage.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/06/2008 20:35
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#7
Vicky Ward - the woman who slugged CEO Richard Fuld.
MUMBAI: In what is touted as the 'biggest manhunt' in India, the Mumbai police on Monday claimed to have nabbed key members of the terror module allegedly responsible for the bomb blasts in Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and planting bombs in the diamond city of Surat.
At a packed news conference, Mumbai police commissioner Hasan Gafoor and crime branch chief Rakesh Maria credited ordinary citizens - more specifically, Muslims - with providing key information that led to the arrest of 11 suspected Indian Mujahideen terrorists from Pune, Mangalore and Mumbai.
The top cops, who were flanked by a team of more than 30 crime branch officials involved in the operation, revealed that three of these suspects were directly involved in sending terror emails that had shocked the country for the past one month. "These are all highly qualified, computer-savvy people belonging to good and educated families. Their families were not aware of their activities," said Maria.
One of the suspects, Mohammed Mansoor Asgar Peerbhoy (31) alias Mannu, a resident of Pune, was employed with Yahoo as a principal software engineer. "He speaks good English and was responsible for finalising the draft emails before they were sent from three different locations in Mumbai. His annual pay package is Rs 19 lakh," said Maria. The two others are Mubin Shaikh (24), a senior technical advisor in an information technology company, and Asif Bashir Shaikh alias Mehmood (22), a mechanical engineer. The police also arrested Mohammed Akbar Ismail Chaudhary alias Yakub who drove them from Pune to Mumbai.
Anti-terrorism squad chief Hemant Karkare said interrogation of an accused nabbed by the Delhi police after the controversial encounter in Jamia Nagar had revealed that IM was planning a blast in Mumbai on October 26. Police sources also claimed that timely action had averted a terror attack in the city during Navratri on October 4.
The Mumbai police, which launched its own anti-terror drive soon after the July 26 Ahmedabad blasts, have arrested 20 persons in all. Gafoor said that these arrests do not mean that the entire IM module has been wiped out. Earlier, on September 23, the crime branch had arrested five members of an IM module - Sadiq Shaikh, Afzal Usmani, Arif Shaikh, Zakir Shaikh and Ansar Shaih.
Maria claimed that interrogation of these accused led to further arrests in Mangalore and Pune. In a joint operation with the Mangalore police, the crime branch last week arrested four persons. One of the main operatives, Riyaz Bhatkal alias Roshan Jamal is still at large. So is his brother Iqbal.
Maria said that they have recovered five laptops, three CPU units, three pen drives, sleep-inducing pills, anaesthetic injections, two bullet-proof jackets, country-made revolvers, a radio and WiFi frequency signal detectors, wireless routers, jihadi literature and provocative CDs during the anti-terror operation.
According to Maria, the IM module which has been active since 2005, has been motivated by jihadi literature and CDs containing inflammatory material on incidents that happened in other parts of the world besides attacks on the minority community in India. "Most of them have undergone training in Pakistan," he added.
Of the arrested, Maria claimed that Ismail Chaudhary drove the vehicle containing explosives from Mangalore to Surat. "Most of the explosives used in the recent blasts have come from Mangalore and another place in south India," he said. Chaudhary identified himself as Yakoob and rented a house, belonging to one Qayamuddin Kapadia in Surat where the bombs used in Ahmedabad blasts and the unexploded ones in Surat were assembled.
The top cops claimed that Chaudhary had also planted bombs in Dilkush Nagar in Hyderabad which did not explode. Hyderabad was rocked by a series of blasts on August 25, 2007. Bhatkal himself planted bombs at Gokul Chaat Bhandar at Hyderabad. "The conspiracy to carry out blasts in Hyderabad was hatched during a meeting in Mumbai, which was attended by IM operative Sadiq Sheikh, Riyaz Bhatkal and Ansar Ahmed," he said.
Another accused, Anique Sayed, placed the bomb in Lumbini Park in Hyderabad. Abubakar transported explosives from Mangalore to Hyderabad. Maria said two of the bombs did not explode in Hyderabad as the digital timers were not functional. Maria claimed that except Bhatkal and Afzal Usmani, the first arrest that led to the busting of the terror module, none of the arrested accused have a criminal background.
On Tauqeer alias Subhan Qureshi, who is part of the terror module, Maria said he paid two visits to Ahmedabad in April 2007 to indoctrinate the other accused. "We are hunting for him," Maria said.
Posted by: john frum ||
10/06/2008
16:05 ||
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#1
His annual pay package is Rs 19 lakh
That's Rs 1,900,000 or $39,660/year. In India. I suspect another poor, oppressed individual of indeterminate religious affiliation.
Posted by: ed ||
10/06/2008 17:16
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#2
Obvously another sad case of the downtrodden masses rising out of anger and hopelessness to strike back at their oppressors. Grapes of Wrath, all over again. No? Pity. It would have made a good movie.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
10/06/2008 18:29
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#3
Shit, it's been years since I earned that much here in the USA... and that's with a University degree + web design/programming background. :-(
President Asif Ali Zardari has backtracked on his remarks describing militants in Jammu and Kashmir as "terrorists" saying there is no change in Pakistan' Kashmir policy, a day after his comments triggered an outcry in this country.
The Pakistan government clarified Zardari's stand in an official statement asserting that the President has never called the legitimate struggle of Kashmiris "an expression of terrorism."
Former premier Nawaz Sharif's PML-N was among other parties which had slammed the President for his remarks in an interview to 'Wall Street Journal' which was welcomed by India as a good step.
In the statement, Information Minister Sherry Rehman said Pakistan was committed to the Kashmiri people's right for self-determination.
The President, she said, had "made it very clear that the just cause of Kashmir and its struggle for self-determination has been a consistent central position of the (ruling) Pakistan People's Party for the last 40 years".
"There has been no change in this policy," Rehman said. "The President has never called the legitimate struggle of Kashmiris an expression of terrorism, nor has he downplayed the sufferings of the Kashmiris. All his statements on India should be viewed in the context of Pakistan's current bilateral relations with that country," she added.
The government "is firmly committed to extending moral and diplomatic support to the just cause of Kashmiris for their right of self-determination," Rehman said.
Posted by: john frum ||
10/06/2008
16:00 ||
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Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves are so low that the country can only afford one month of imports and faces possible bankruptcy.
Officially, the central bank holds $8.14 billion (£4.65 billion) of foreign currency, but if forward liabilities are included, the real reserves may be only $3 billion - enough to buy about 30 days of imports like oil and food. Nine months ago, Pakistan had $16 bn in the coffers.
The government is engulfed by crises left behind by Pervez Musharraf, the military ruler who resigned the presidency in August. High oil prices have combined with endemic corruption and mismanagement to inflict huge damage on the economy.
Given the country's standing as a frontline state in the US-led "war on terrorism", the economic crisis has profound consequences. Pakistan already faces worsening security as the army clashes with militants in the lawless Tribal Areas on the north-west frontier with Afghanistan.
The economic crisis has already placed the future of the new government in doubt after the transition to a civilian rule. President Asif Ali Zardari has faced numerous but unproven allegations of corruption dating from the two governments led by his wife, Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated last December.
The Wall Street Journal said that Pakistan's economic travails were "at least in part, a crisis of confidence in him".
While Mr Musharraf's prime minister, Shaukat Aziz, frequently likened Pakistan to a "Tiger economy", the former government left an economy on the brink of ruin without any durable base.
The Pakistan rupee has lost more than 21 per cent of its value so far this year and inflation now runs at 25 per cent. The rise in world prices has driven up Pakistan's food and oil bill by a third since 2007. Efforts to defer payment for 100,000 barrels of oil supplied every day by Saudi Arabia have not yet yielded results, while the government has also failed to raise loans on favourable terms from "friendly countries".
Mr Zardari told the Wall Street Journal that Pakistan needed a bail out worth $100 billion from the international community. "If I can't pay my own oil bill, how am I going to increase my police?" he asked. "The oil companies are asking me to pay $135 [per barrel] of oil and at the same time they want me to keep the world peaceful and Pakistan peaceful."
The ratings agency Standard and Poor's has given Pakistan's sovereign debt a grade of CCC +, which stands only a few notches above the default level. The agency gave warning that Pakistan may be unable to cover about $3 billion in upcoming debt payments.
Mr Zardari is expected to ask the international community for a rescue package at a meeting in Abu Dhabi next month. This gathering will determine whether the West is willing to bail out Pakistan.
Posted by: john frum ||
10/06/2008
15:26 ||
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"This gathering will determine whether the West is willing to bail out Pakistan."
NO.
Ask your friends the Arabs.
Or better yet, ask Allen.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/06/2008 15:40
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#2
Do they mean moral bankruptcy or financial? The article only talks about the money stuff.
I know you said all election stories are to be in 'Home Front: Politix', but this is NEW ORLEANS politics, so shouldn't it be under 'Lurid Crime Tales"?
Results show voters keep the faith in Congressman William Jefferson
For more than three years, critics presaging Rep. William Jefferson's political demise have derived their assumptions from the nine-term congressman's mounting legal problems, which have cost him stroke on Capitol Hill and handcuffed his ability to raise campaign money.
But even his staunchest enemies marvel that Jefferson, whose trial on 16 federal charges of public corruption is set to begin in early December, has maintained his hold on a loyal bloc of voters who appear unfazed by the allegations of wrongdoing.
It was the backing of those faithful, concentrated in African-American neighborhoods, that was key to Jefferson's success Saturday, when he surged ahead of a pack of well-financed, politically seasoned opponents who lined up to unseat him. With two-thirds of the district's voters registered as Democrats, the winner will be considered the prohibitive favorite in the Dec. 6 general election.
Moreno was able to differentiate herself as the only female candidate, the only white candidate and the only candidate with no experience working in government. She was helped by the fact that the other five challengers closely resembled each other: All were black men with limited experience in politics and a limited base of supporters.
For his part, Jefferson benefited from the personal ties he has forged with constituents across the district for nearly two decades, "Voters don't just think in terms of issues, they also think with emotions," pollster Silas Lee said.
Moreno, who is Hispanic, was the only non-African-American on the ballot. In majority white precincts, she earned 45 percent of the vote, more than three times the portion of votes received by her nearest competitor, Jefferson Parish Councilman Byron Lee.
Further complicating matters for Moreno is the expectation that turnout among black voters on Nov. 4 may reach record-breaking levels as Democratic Sen. Barack Obama makes his bid to become the nation's first black president.
It is clear, meanwhile, that Jefferson intends to push the notion that the indictment against him is nothing more than the government's unproven accusation and does not reflect on his ability to serve.
In his analysis, Chervenak said he found support for the idea that a portion of voters in African-American neighborhoods buy into Jefferson's implication that the government may be out to get him.
#1
Longtime New Orleans pollster Silas Lee said Jefferson, the first black elected to Congress from Louisiana since Reconstruction, remains popular among a strong core of supporters in the district."He comes across as someone who the ordinary citizen can relate to," Lee said.
#2
Reminds me of DC where they re-elected Marion Barry and Providence, RI where they re-elected Buddy Cianci, both after doing time*. If you're a homey or goomba (or other such ethnic terms) it doesn't matter what you do as long as you don't dis the locals.
* Buddy did a second stretch following his second tenure as Hizzoner.
#4
So, if Dollar Bill Jefferson gets convicted in his trial in December, will he have to give up his seat? Or will he just phone in his votes from the slammer?
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
10/06/2008 20:46
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Deputy head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization Mohammad Saeedi on Sunday expressed concern about the U.S.-India nuclear deal saying the deal has violated the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Talking to IRNA, he said the countries which are not members of the NPT cannot make use of the privileges of the treaty. The method used by several nuclear states to transfer the technology to non-members of the NPT, will create new crises for the international community, he added.
According to the NPT, only signatories to the treaty can make use of the rights mentioned in the treaty, Saeedi noted.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in India Saturday to showcase a historic bilateral nuclear deal, but last-minute hitches raised doubts that the pact would be signed on her trip. A signing delay would be another bump in a three-year rollercoaster for an agreement aimed at lifting a ban on U.S.-Indian civilian nuclear trade imposed after India's first nuclear test in 1974.
Both houses of the U.S. Congress voted in favor of the landmark nuclear deal this week, but President George W. Bush has yet to sign it into law.
The deal offers India access to sophisticated U.S. technology and cheap atomic energy in return for New Delhi allowing UN inspections of some of its civilian nuclear facilities. Military nuclear sites will remain closed to international inspections.
Critics say it undermines global efforts to curb the spread of nuclear weapons, because India has refused to sign the NPT.
Posted by: john frum ||
10/06/2008
14:38 ||
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#1
Sorry, Mohammad, but we don't value your opinion. See ya later.
Posted by: Great Satan ||
10/06/2008 14:59
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#2
And if anyone knows about violating the NPT, it would be Iran.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
10/06/2008 20:37
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#1
Turn over bin Laden and Mullah Omar, provide us Al-Qaeda targeting information, and cease fire in Afghanistan -- then we'll sit down and talk. No, wait, that's pre-conditions. How very un-PC of me!
The big break in Iraq came when AQ's local allies turned on them. It is not impossible for the same thing to happen in Afghan/Pakistan. They are probably tired of seeing their young men tramp off on jihad, never to be seen again.
Fanatics and their western sycophants (ie Robert Fisk) like to recall Afghnistan's "graveyard of empires" apellation. The media culture's compulsive need to romanticise terrorists* notwithstanding, twenty-first century Afghanistan is really the graveyard of impressionable young Muslims.
#7
I think Pakistan is triangulating and trying to get the best of both worlds. Keep their Taliban buddies alive and viable, keep the US from attacking them. If Al Queda has to go, so be it.
#8
A second round of talks is scheduled to take place in two months, the Saudi source said.
I'm willing to wait until the Saudis have facilitated the second round before beginning any discussions. A terrible thing for negotiations, adding another party in the middle.
To All My Friends, this is long, but very important, please take the time to read it.
This election has me very worried. So many things to consider. About a year ago I would have voted for Obama. I have changed my mind three times since than. I watch all the news channels, jumping from one to another. I must say this drives my husband crazy. But, I feel if you view MSNBC, CNN, and Fox News, you might get some middle ground to work with. About six months ago, I started thinking "where did the money come from for Obama". I have four daughters who went to College, and we were middle class, and money was tight. We (including my girls) worked hard and there were lots of student loans.
Continued on Page 49
....What are McCain's options to turn this race around?
From what I hear, the campaign's plans are to put John McCain back in the seat of his A-4 Skyhawk bomber and drop bomb after bomb on Obama to try to convince voters he is unfit to lead.
I think that formula will lead to failure, just as Hillary Clinton's strategy failed.
Personal attacks won't work this late in the campaign and may backfire on McCain. He must attack Obama's policy and spending proposals. iReport.com: Do you support the recent campaign attacks?
When you are fighting a brand, you must redefine the brand. "Change" means what? Is change the "Robin Hood tax policies" of traditional Democrats that shifts earned wealth from productive people and small businesses that create jobs to those who have not had the same success?
Is change adding billions of new entitlement programs as promised by Obama in a time of record deficits? That is certain to make the recession deeper and last longer.
Is change altering our spending priorities away from national defense and weakening our military or homeland security in a time of uncertainty both at home and abroad?
With two debates left and four weeks for a national dialogue, let's find out who these guys really are and what direction they want to take this country. We are still in a war on two fronts. We are in an economic disaster. America has no faith in the political or financial leadership in this country.
Democrats will still control both houses of Congress and add more House and Senate members after this election. I promise you they are not about change. They are about taxing and spending.
Electing President Obama would eliminate important checks and balances on liberal Democratic power in Washington and that could be a disaster. It was a disaster when Bush and the Republicans controlled it all. It was a disaster when Clinton and the Democrats controlled it all.
John McCain, your challenge is to tell us what Obama's change means! Is it just rhetoric, or if not, is it really change in a bad direction? Don't waste your time beating up on him. Challenge his ideas and promises.
If you can do it effectively, you might come back from the deficit you now face. If you can't, you face the possibility of an electoral and popular defeat of landslide proportions.
The good thing about ice is it melts with heat. Mr Maverick, turn up the heat!
#1
From what I hear, the campaign's plans are to put John McCain back in the seat of his A-4 Skyhawk bomber and drop bomb after bomb on Obama to try to convince voters he is unfit to lead.
I think that formula will lead to failure, just as Hillary Clinton's strategy failed.
By themselves, a campaign based SOLELY on Obama's past associations would probably fail. A McCain campaign SOLELY on Obama's economic policies would also fail. But a campaign of AYERS+WRIGHT+REZKO+FANNIE MAE-FREDDIE MAC CONTRIBUTIONS and Obama's tax and spend plans for the country will work to McCain's benefit. The trick is to weave them together to fill out the picture for voters - that Obama's "hope" for America is truly a nightmare scenario of economic and social disaster - a plausible future based on BO's past votes, planks, and past associations.
McCain: 'Senator Obama was silent on the regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and his Democratic allies in Congress opposed every effort to rein them in.'
John McCain, today, finally starts talking about Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the irresponsible leadership at both, and the Democrats' efforts to prevent serious oversight:
Our current economic crisis is a good case in point. What was his actual record in the years before the great economic crisis of our lifetimes?
This crisis started in our housing market in the form of subprime loans that were pushed on people who could not afford them. Bad mortgages were being backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and it was only a matter of time before a contagion of unsustainable debt began to spread. This corruption was encouraged by Democrats in Congress, and abetted by Senator Obama.
Senator Obama has accused me of opposing regulation to avert this crisis. I guess he believes if a lie is big enough and repeated often enough it will be believed. But the truth is I was the one who called at the time for tighter restrictions on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that could have helped prevent this crisis from happening in the first place.
Senator Obama was silent on the regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and his Democratic allies in Congress opposed every effort to rein them in. As recently as September of last year he said that subprime loans had been, quote, a good idea. Well, Senator Obama, that good idea has now plunged this country into the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
To hear him talk now, youd think hed always opposed the dangerous practices at these institutions. But there is absolutely nothing in his record to suggest he did. He was surely familiar with the people who were creating this problem. The executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have advised him, and he has taken their money for his campaign. He has received more money from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac than any other senator in history, with the exception of the chairman of the committee overseeing them. Did he ever talk to the executives at Fannie and Freddie about these reckless loans? Did he ever discuss with them the stronger oversight I proposed? If Senator Obama is such a champion of financial regulation, why didnt he support these regulations that could have prevented this crisis in the first place? He wont tell you, but you deserve an answer.
UM OK, How about this?
snip. Our current economic crisis is a good case in point. What was his actual record in the years before the great economic crisis of our lifetimes?
This crisis started in our housing market in the form of subprime loans that were pushed on people who could not afford them. Bad mortgages were being backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and it was only a matter of time before a contagion of unsustainable debt began to spread. This corruption was encouraged by Democrats in Congress, and abetted by Senator Obama.
Read it all:http://hotair.com/archives/2008/10/06/mccain-blasts-obama-democrats-for-fannie-mae-meltdown/
#4
McCain has now given The One only 24 hours to get answers to these questions together, and speak them with teleprompter!
I noticed in the last debate, most of The One's responses had already been used, via Teleprompter -- he's had time to embed them into himself.
He now has only 24 hours -- how is he going to answer this, without teleprompter.
McCain didn't stop with the above ---
A bit more from that same speech--
My opponent has invited serious questioning by announcing a few weeks ago that he would quote -- take off the gloves. Since then, whenever I have questioned his policies or his record, he has called me a liar.
Rather than answer his critics, Senator Obama will try to distract you from noticing that he never answers the serious and legitimate questions he has been asked. But let me reply in the plainest terms I know. I dont need lessons about telling the truth to American people. And were I ever to need any improvement in that regard, I probably wouldnt seek advice from a Chicago politician.
My opponents touchiness every time he is questioned about his record should make us only more concerned. For a guy whos already authored two memoirs, hes not exactly an open book. Its as if somehow the usual rules dont apply, and where other candidates have to explain themselves and their records, Senator Obama seems to think he is above all that. Whatever the question, whatever the issue, theres always a back story with Senator Obama. All people want to know is: What has this man ever actually accomplished in government? What does he plan for America? In short: Who is the real Barack Obama? But ask such questions and all you get in response is another barrage of angry insults.
#5
That was a whale of a speech. I'm really beginning to warm up to Sarah Palin's running mate!
Posted by: Mike ||
10/06/2008 16:06
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#6
One thing Sen. McCain understands, and that his staff understands, and that many of us do not, is timing.
You have to set up your argument before you can make it. And sometimes you're constrained by other events.
Mr. McCain couldn't do this particular speech while the Bailout bill was going through Congress. He had to wait. Since the bailout came through on Friday, he had to wait until today, else his broadside would have been lost on the weekend chatter and football. And his people have been working hard to get a base level of consciousness about Obama, Ayers, etc, etc into the public (very hard when the MSM is so deep in the tank for Obama that they've grown gills) -- without that, the attack sounds phony and screechy.
You have to be a boxer, or a military person, or a CEO type. First you set up the battle, then you fight it. You don't just flail. Mr. McCain showed us today that he understands that.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/06/2008 16:31
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#7
I think that formula will lead to failure, just as Hillary Clinton's strategy failed.
I'm sorry Ed Rollins but Hillary is not John McCain. She was shrill and scary and leaned way to the left. John McCain is a war hero who gave five years of his life in the Hanoi Hilton while the likes of the left's darlings such as Jane Fonda were visiting North Vietnam to slam our troops thus scoring a propaganda coup for our enemy.
#8
Based on conversations I've been in the last few days, Mac can shake some people's confidence in Obama but he also has to make them feel like he has a way forward.
Srinagar, October 6: Defying curfew, protesters on Monday set fire on an effigy of Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari in Baramulla town of Jammu and Kashmir for terming militants operating in the state as terrorists.
More than 400 protesters defied curfew, which has been imposed in the valley since Sunday, gathered in Baramulla town and raised slogans against Zardari for his remarks on Kashmiri militants in an interview to the Wall Street Journal recently, official sources said.
Upset that Zardari seemed to be giving up on them ...
The agitators burnt an effigy of the Pakistani president before dispersing peacefully, they said.
This is for the first time that an effigy of a Pakistani ruler has been set ablaze in Kashmir valley since April 1979.
Posted by: john frum ||
10/06/2008
13:31 ||
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Earlier this year the Japanese government released the results of a survey which suggested that one in five men and women in the country had seriously thought of taking their own life.
Japan has one of the highest suicide rates in the industrialised world. On average around ninety people kill themselves in Japan every day.
In past years the suicide rate peaked each time the country's economy fell into recession. Now that Japan's government has reported one quarter of negative growth, and signalled it is likely there are more to follow, there are fears of further increases in the number of people taking their own lives.
Continued on Page 49
Yeah, we've heard that before...
MOGADISHU, Somalia -- A group of Somali pirates who have hijacked a tanker loaded with military supplies say they will fight to the death before giving in to Russian and U.S. authorities.
We can only hope ...
The superpowers have been unable to end the standoff and remain concerned that the ship's cargo of 33 tanks and other weapons could fall into enemy hands.
But a local official reported that the pirates turned down a demand from Islamist insurgents for some of the arms.
The tense situation off the coast of Somalia began 11 days ago when the pirates took control of the Ukrainian vessel MV Faina. They have asked for a ransom of about $22 million, or 11 million British pounds, to release the 21 Ukrainian, Latvian and Russian hostages and the cargo.
"If we are attacked we will defend ourselves until every last one of us dies," Sugule Ali, a spokesman for the pirates, said in an interview over satellite telephone from the ship. "We only need money and if we are paid, then everything will be OK," he said. "No one can tell us what to do."
US to attack pirates?
Mon, 06 Oct 2008 07:53
The Unites States Navy has its eye on the land bases of Somali pirates, a US commander warned on Sunday.
Admiral Mark Fitzgerald, commander of US naval forces in Europe and Africa, was speaking to media on board the cruiser USS Monterey, in Cape Town harbour. He said 20 000 ships passed the Somali coast every year, and to defend them all would require a naval force that did not exist any more.
"That said, we know where the pirates live on land, and... I guess we won't go any further," he said with a laugh. "I can't predict, nor do I have knowledge of any operations there. But it's pretty clear where these people are coming out of. We'll see what happens."
#6
I still say the US MUST hit somewhere in the Muddled East with an ARCLIGHT strike to be taken seriously. I do recommend one or more of the pirate ports as an initial pounding. When it's about 4/5 over, hit the ships with Navy SEALS. The pirates won't know what hit them.
Until you've witnessed an ARCLIGHT strike, you cannot understand the sheet terror they instill in the recipients. Until the United States shows that it's not only the biggest, baddest dude on the block, but that it's got the biggest booms, we won't be taken seriously. It's time to put an end to all this nonsense and show the Somalis that they are messing with something far larger than they're capable of.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/06/2008 14:33
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#7
What's a MOAB worth?
Posted by: ed ||
10/06/2008 14:35
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#8
I presume an ARCLIGHT is some kind of shell, probably one that lights up the sky and sends the cockroaches scurrying. Any further information for those of us not in the know about military hardware?
Carpet bombing is sooo last millennium. Nowadays the hot thing is a teensy dragonfly-sized guided munition that flies in your ear and makes your head explode. Instant death and no collateral damage. At least none that can't be fixed with a roll of paper towels and some Spray-n-Wash.
#12
As I have said before. The reason HOA did not attack the pirates, or deter piracy was a strategic policy that forced the HOA operational commander to shape his ROE's. Now the strategic policy has changed, and so are the ROE's. Look for Max Pain infliction at the source in the near future.
#13
Steve, big difference in cost; ARCLIGHT and other related dumb bombs are cheaper, much cheaper than the precision ordnance that is so in vogue with all the MBA-oriented warfighters ( oxymoron).
Since all ordnance has a shelf life ( yeah it might blow up! imagine that) we might as well test it for effectiveness on the mussie rach motels.
never saw John Wayne or Clint Eastwood count the shells when they were loading their gun and only putting in 1 bullet for each bad guy.
#16
I remember reading that during WWII, when Russians would catch a German soldier, they would pound shell casings into his kneecaps, and then ask him questions. They weren't really interested in what he had to say, they just enjoyed the idea that he was hoping for an easy death if he told them something interesting.
#17
The devil's in the details. You'd have to time your arclight for when there weren't any hostages around.
Posted by: James ||
10/06/2008 20:37
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#18
Old Patriot's answer to everything is ARCLIGHT. Its starting to get old.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
10/06/2008 22:37
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#19
On the subject of ARCLIGHT strikes. Would it be possible to have the load out be all JDAMS with their impact point pre-programmed? I think this would allow for some interesting effects above and beyond the sheer awesomeness of just dropping iron bombs.
#3
Nothing wrong with borrowing money. Using it to buy shiny unnecessary luxury crap that wears out, not so good. We've been doing that for a lot longer on a level the Icelanders can't even imagine. Get ready to appreciate a good pair of shoes...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
10/06/2008 11:50
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#5
Keep in mind this is the same Iceland that was quite unhappy when we announced the winddown of our military presence there, despite their bitching about said presence in the past. They got to keep the facilities. I'm less than impressed at how hard things are for them now.
#6
Might also keep in mind that this is an "Al Guardian" article, with the usual built-in biases. I've got a young friend in Iceland - she was an exchange student here in Colorado Springs. The last word I heard from her was that the country was ready to go back to its roots - fishing, sheep, wool, and other indigenous products. Most of her friends have dumped their more expensive cars for high-mileage, low-cost imports, they've given up their iPods for simple cell phone service, and they're "cleaning out the house". Iceland will do as it's always done - survive. It might get rough, but the people who live there have been there before.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/06/2008 15:01
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#7
I thought Iceland was going to be the OPEC of hydrogen.
Posted by: ed ||
10/06/2008 15:04
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From McCain's speech today (I posted in comments, but it needs to be read) and pray that he is counting on The One having only 24 hours to get his answers together for this, and on national TV with NO teleprompter.
Senator Obama has accused me of opposing regulation to avert this crisis. I guess he believes if a lie is big enough and repeated often enough it will be believed. But the truth is I was the one who called at the time for tighter restrictions on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that could have helped prevent this crisis from happening in the first place.
Senator Obama was silent on the regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and his Democratic allies in Congress opposed every effort to rein them in. As recently as September of last year he said that subprime loans had been, quote, a good idea. Well, Senator Obama, that good idea has now plunged this country into the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
To hear him talk now, youd think hed always opposed the dangerous practices at these institutions. But there is absolutely nothing in his record to suggest he did. He was surely familiar with the people who were creating this problem. The executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have advised him, and he has taken their money for his campaign. He has received more money from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac than any other senator in history, with the exception of the chairman of the committee overseeing them. Did he ever talk to the executives at Fannie and Freddie about these reckless loans? Did he ever discuss with them the stronger oversight I proposed? If Senator Obama is such a champion of financial regulation, why didnt he support these regulations that could have prevented this crisis in the first place? He wont tell you, but you deserve an answer.
My opponent has invited serious questioning by announcing a few weeks ago that he would quote -- take off the gloves. Since then, whenever I have questioned his policies or his record, he has called me a liar.
Rather than answer his critics, Senator Obama will try to distract you from noticing that he never answers the serious and legitimate questions he has been asked. But let me reply in the plainest terms I know. I dont need lessons about telling the truth to American people. And were I ever to need any improvement in that regard, I probably wouldnt seek advice from a Chicago politician.
My opponents touchiness every time he is questioned about his record should make us only more concerned. For a guy whos already authored two memoirs, hes not exactly an open book. Its as if somehow the usual rules dont apply, and where other candidates have to explain themselves and their records, Senator Obama seems to think he is above all that. Whatever the question, whatever the issue, theres always a back story with Senator Obama.
All people want to know is: What has this man ever actually accomplished in government? What does he plan for America? In short: Who is the real Barack Obama? But ask such questions and all you get in response is another barrage of angry insults.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/06/2008 16:15
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#5
Now then, let's have Governor Palin tee off on these comments tomorrow in Michigan. And let's have Mac say these same words again in Ohio.
And let's get Governor Romney, Mayor Guiliani, Governor Huckabee, et al., off their asses and get them to work. They promised Mac they would help. Now would be good. It's time to swarm the MSM, particularly the talk show circuit, and make it hard to be ignored.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/06/2008 16:17
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#6
About f'in time!
wait for the out of context / edited quotes on tonight's news; 180 degree fliperroo i'll bet.
#7
Someone needs to make a poster image 2x2 of Pelosi, Frank, Dodd and Reid with the large title 'Gang of Four'. Run against a Congress portrayed as that and you'll get the American people mad enough by November for 'Change'.
#9
I've been watching McCain live on Fox News. He truly has taken the gloves off.
Between that and this (H/T to Mickey Kaus via Instapundit), I'm wondering if we're not about to witness the Mother of All October Surprises. One can always hope (snicker, snicker, chuckle)...
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
10/06/2008 22:06
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...America needs both uplift and realism, both change and steadiness. It needs a leader temperamentally, intellectually, and emotionally attuned to the complexities of our troubled globe. That leaders name is Barack Obama.
#2
Barry, the choice of the east and west coast elite, Hollywood left, intelligentsia, wanna-be socialists, and aging radicals and domestic terrorists.
Posted by: ed ||
10/06/2008 10:50
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#4
From a Reader's Digest poll: Barack Obama's proclamation last July to being a "citizen of the world" was affirmed Monday as a new poll -- taken before the August conventions -- showed that in 16 out of 17 countries surveyed he was the overwhelming choice to be the next president of the United States.
The lone country to prefer a John McCain presidency: the U.S.
I just pray that US voters are fairly represented, as I don't want a president that looks after the world's interests before mine.
#5
And why, is that voters should care about the opinion of a bunch of a journalists, a profession who is notorious for not recruiting neither the mater nor the more honest people who leave high school?
#6
I could not possibly care less about what the editors of tne New Yukker think. As with the NYT, anything they say has to be checked every way possible for lies and anything they like is probably detrimental to the United States.
#11
Another fine product of the Obama-Ayers Annenberg Chicago school system comes to grace this modest web site. Bomb throwing and running away comes naturally to these indoctrinated tykes.
Posted by: ed ||
10/06/2008 14:59
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#12
I hope everyone understands that media outlets are OWNED BY INDIVIDUALS who determine content, direction, etc. The people who work for them, work for their boss (the owner) and do what they're told. The owners are so invisible, but trust me, they're calling the shots and like to manipulate public opinion. They are like the owners of sports teams (only in the very loosest sense), in that no one really notices the owners, just the coaches and the players.
A suicide bomber killed at least 12 people and wounded a leading Pakistani opposition politician and member of the minority Shi'ite Muslim community on Monday, police said.
The attack targeted the home of Rashid Akbar Khan Nawani, a member of parliament for former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's party, in the town of Bhakkar, 260 km (160 miles) southwest of Islamabad.
"The bomber blew himself up the courtyard when Mr. Nawani was sitting with his supporters there," Khadim Hussain, a police officer, told Reuters. Shaukat Javed, police chief of Punjab, said 12 people were killed.
Nawani has spoken out in parliament several times recently against growing sectarian violence between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims.
Deep in the central province of Punjab, Bhakkar is in an area where sectarian tensions have run high. "It could a sectarian related attack as he belongs to the Shi'ite community," Khan Baig, a senior police officer in the region said.
Several Sunni militant groups, like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, that regard Shi'ites as their enemy, also share a similar world view to al Qaeda and have forged links with Osama bin Laden's network.
Posted by: ed ||
10/06/2008
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A Sri Lankan suicide bomber killed 26 people at an ancient tourist town on Monday, including a popular retired army general who was the main opposition party's provincial leader. The blast, immediately blamed by the government on the rebel Tamil Tigers, also injured at least 80 people, the military said.
The bomber struck during the opening of a new office for the opposition United National Party (UNP) in the north central town of Anuradhapura, 200 km (124 miles) north of the capital Colombo, attended by retired Major-General Janaka Perera.
"A suicide bomber went inside and exploded. My senior officer there said 22 people were killed, and among the dead were Janaka Perera and his wife," Deputy Inspector General K.P.P. Pathirana told Reuters. Hospital officials later raised the death toll to 26.
Last month Perera unsuccessfully ran to be North Central Province's chief minister, a powerful position that was seen as a stepping stone to help him challenge for his party's leadership. ...
Posted by: ed ||
10/06/2008
08:59 ||
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The United States has asked Japan and NATO allies who have refused to send troops to Afghanistan to pay the estimated $17 billion needed to build up the Afghan army, according to U.S. defense officials. The push to quickly increase the size of Afghanistan's army and spread the cost of the initiative underscores the financial and military strain the war has placed on the United States and NATO members, many also operating in Iraq and elsewhere.
"The faster we get the (Afghan army) to the size and strength they need to be, the less they depend on us for providing security, and God knows we operate far more expensively than the Afghan national security forces do," said Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell.
"At a minimum it's going to cost $17 billion. That's a hefty price-tag and someone's got to pay it," Morrell said. "This may be one of those cases where countries that have had a reluctance to contribute forces, in particular combat forces, may be able to take part in this mission through a financial contribution to the development of the Afghan National Army."
The new Pentagon push to share costs more widely reflects a realization among U.S. officials that some allies simply will not put troops into the war despite heavy pressure from Washington - something Europe has been telling the United States for more than a year. But it also threatens to create just the type of two-tiered NATO alliance that U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned against early this year.
Posted by: ed ||
10/06/2008
08:49 ||
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#1
The U.S. is not making NATO a two-tiered force. Those that choose the benefits of alliance while trying to avoid the costs have made it what it is.. or perhaps made obvious what it always was. We put US $850 billion into stabilizing the world; I think it fair that together they put in $17 billion or so.
#4
Is this a joke ? Do they really believe anyone but US taxpayers are going to pony up ? Freakin' good luck. At least the players in the pentagon are realizing the US is bankrupt and big changes in their funding are coming soon. They'd better shit or get offa the pot. Quit holding hands. Get it done.The entire effort in WWII took less time. If these jokers want to have it their own way, let them. I'm in favor of cutting the umbilical cord. Let them be on their own. Shut down all US funding of UN, Nato, plato, etc. Tell them to vacate our territory in NY. I'm sick and tired of these free loaders.
#5
Better yet; either pay up or we will institute OP's Arclight idea and don't let us hear one whimper out of all you freeloaders.
Get the job done quicker; messier maybe but if its our dime it is our way and y'all can just STFU!
#4
Bum Buddy Love ConnectionProminent Democrats ran Fannie Mae, the same government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) that donated campaign cash to top Democrats. And one of Fannie Maes main defenders in the House Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., a recipient of more than $40,000 in campaign donations from Fannie since 1989 was once romantically involved with a Fannie Mae executive Herb Moses.
Oil fell below $90 a barrel on Monday to its lowest in eight months, pressured by expectations that the global credit crisis will bring a sharp fall in oil demand.
U.S. light crude for November delivery fell $4.28 a barrel to $89.60 by 7:44 a.m. EDT, its fourth day of losses. It touched a session low of $88.89, its lowest since early February. Prices have dropped nearly 40 percent from a peak of $147.27 on July 11.
London Brent crude was down $3.99 at $86.26 a barrel. ...
Posted by: ed ||
10/06/2008
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#2
I look at this as for every $10/barrel drop in the price of petrleum, the US keeps $44 billion/year in the US. From the high of $147/barrel to $90/barrel, that's $250 billion/year that US consumers and industry keeps. That's the real WOT.
Posted by: ed ||
10/06/2008 9:29
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#3
Fannie and Freddie go tits up. Undeserving borrowers are told to RENT! Big city banks take an enima. Loans tighten. Crude oil prices drop. OPEC beats it's chest. Stock market corrects. Russian economy slides, USD rises on Euro and world markets. Obama unmasked.
#4
Why is it that, when oil was knocking on $150/barrel's door, gas was $4.00+ per gallon and now that oil has plummetted over 1/3, the price of gas is around $3.50 or about 13% lower?
#7
Wouldn't it be nice if the price remained stable? Perhaps as a result of an import fee that kept the price of a barrel of imported oil at a minimum $100?
#8
...also drill our own oil especially out my way. Its called, what is that..Energy Independence. Now if our governor would let us build our own power plants then we would really be onto something.
#10
Who mandates the 31 Flavors (or more) of gasoline? Is it federal in nature or is it individual states deciding they need such-and-such kind?
Posted by: Grenter, Protector of the Geats ||
10/06/2008 10:08
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#11
The $90 oil hasn't arrived at the refineries yet. It will.
The $150 dollar oil hasn't arrived at the refineries yet either. Didn't stop the lcd's on the pump from going up the day after the price increased on the futures market. The amplitude of price increases is sharp and the amplitude of price decreases is gradual. Funny about that huh?
#12
At $90/barrel, retail gas should be about $3/gal. Give it a few weeks for the local production and imports to be refined and shipped.
I would be OK with it oil settling at $60/barrel. That's high enough for alternatives to be profitable and gradually replace imports. Unfortunately I don't think our leaders have the foresight to place an import tax price floor on petroleum, encourage US production/alternatives and give tax credits to fuel efficient vehicles/penalize gas guzzlers. The price of oil is not just what the refiners pay, but the extra costs dealing with enemy/unstable oil exporters and the foregone tax revenues of importing oil and exporting jobs and dollars.
Posted by: ed ||
10/06/2008 10:38
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#13
If I could be sure, and that's a Hell of a big if, that the extra revenue would go toward building nuclear power plants in this country, I'd be willing to accept an import floor of $100/barrel. I'd be willing to keep the tariff until such time as we had enough power here to make certain that if every car in America was electric we wouldn't have any problem supplying the juice.
Being obligated to the oil ticks has cost our country dearly. Getting off the oil addiction should be our No. 1 national priority because being entangled in the Middle East's insanity is our No. 1 national danger. The sooner we can disengage our national interest from there, the safer we will be.
#18
Yes, a tariff setting a $60 price floor on oil is essential to keep investment going. The proceeds should not go into the general fund, but should be used for tax credits on energy infrastructure: oil, gas, nuclear, green.
#19
Getting off the oil addiction should be our No. 1 national priority
Just not going to happen, at least not in my lifetime or yours. We can, however, buy more oil from ourselves and less from the ME. Drill here. Drill now.
Even though I find such things repulsive in general, a price floor on imported oil might be a necessary evil. It's the sort of thing that will ensure that billions in investment capital flow into expanding our domestic oil industry. I am told by an industry friend that the price needs to be $100/bbl for shale to be viable. That seems high, but it should be on the table.
#21
On the "more drilling" theme, this summer we drove from Denver to St Louis on Rt 70, and on to Kentucky on Rt 64, and we saw oil pumps pretty much the whole way.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
10/06/2008 14:50
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#24
Still going down. Unfortunately, so is the stock market.
U.S. crude traded down $6.00, to $87.80 a barrel, at 2:30 p.m. EDT after hitting a fresh eight-month low of $87.56. London Brent crude fell $6.45 to $83.80 a barrel.
Posted by: ed ||
10/06/2008 14:54
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#25
Unfortunately, so is the stock market.
I expect it will bounce up and down for a while. Use to do that much more. When it becomes attractive enough watch the Japanese and Chinese to start snatching up goodies. For the young'ins who weren't around last time, it was the Japanese and Europeans who did that, but it appears that the Euros are just as much in the mess and the Chinese are awash with dollars [probably enough even after all the graft] to play this time around [still being poor Commies last time sort of kept them out of the game].
#27
Not only lost their shorts, but sold it back to Americans. Lol!
We got cars and stereos, they got green pieces of paper, which they used to buy real estate from us, which we bought back from them for $ich fewer pieces of paper.
Capitalism for the win!
Posted by: Mike N. ||
10/06/2008 20:07
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#28
Cause in the end you usually can't move the real estate around like the paper, so you end up transferring it to someone who's usually still standing around the stuff if you don't have the patience to hold on to it or make something out of it.
#29
On the "more drilling" theme, this summer we drove from Denver to St Louis on Rt 70, and on to Kentucky on Rt 64, and we saw oil pumps pretty much the whole way.
That part of southern Illinois has been full of oil pumps since the Dawn of Time, i.e. when I was a kid. My sister and I used to play a car game where you counted the oil "wells" (as we thought they were) on your side of the car. Whoever got the most, won -- but if you passed a cemetery, you lost all your wells.
This got REALLY complicated somewhere on US 50 where there are pumps *inside* the cemetery.
Posted by: James Watt ||
10/06/2008 20:54
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#30
Would that be...Welcome to Crawford County Jim? :)
#31
All that US real estate the japs bought and lost their shorts......
They lost their shorts in domestic (Japanese) real estate. They generally broke even or made money in US real estate. The whole reason they bought assets overseas was because domestic assets were so over-priced.
wow, a surprise the pro-Obama front misled, lied, edited? Ima shocked!
A video released by the Jewish Council for Education & Research which appeared to show several retired senior IDF and Mossad officials supporting Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has proven to be misleading, with a number of officials who appeared in the video saying on Monday that their words were taken out of context.
"It's not only misleading, it was an interview about what the next president was going to have to deal with," former deputy chief of staff Maj.-Gen. (res.) Uzi Dayan told The Jerusalem Post. "And to know that they used this interview and took five seconds, and put me in a list of people praising Barack Obama
"It wasn't about the campaign, it was about the political and security issues of the Middle East that the next president should be involved in," he continued. "Nothing was said about Obama or [Republican presidential candidate John] McCain."
"I don't want other people to interfere in my elections, and I must not interfere with the elections in the United States," he said, adding that to do so would be neither "ethical nor smart."
In the video, the senior Israeli officials appear to support Obama's stated policy that dialogue with Iran would be the best way of confronting the current nuclear crisis. Dayan said that his position is just the opposite.
"I don't think that we - either the United States or Israel - should be engaged with Iran, because the Iranians will take advantage of that," the former deputy chief of staff said. "Our issue is to prevent Iran from achieving nuclear capability."
"We need more powerful, effective sanctions to delegitimize [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad," he continued. "A military option should be prepared, but used only as a last resort."
Former Mossad chief Ephraim Halevy, who appeared in the video praising the Democratic candidate, also said that he was misled.
"I was interviewed for a documentary dealing with what issues the new American president must deal with regarding the Middle East," Halevy told the Post. "I was asked about the candidates, and was complimentary to both."
But when asked about his opinion on who was more qualified to be president, Halevy said that he had rejected the question.
"I said that I thought it was inappropriate for an Israeli to advise Americans on who they should vote for, as it would be for them to advise Israelis on who they should vote for prime minister," he said.
Halevy added that it would be irresponsible to comment on the positions of any US presidential candidates before an election, as those positions may change once the new president takes office.
Both Halevy and Dayan said that representatives of the Jewish Council for Education & Research had been in contact with them, and promised to deal with the matter.
According to Israel Radio, Maj.-Gen. (Ret.) Amram Mitzna and Brig.-Gen. (res.) Giora Inbar, a former IDF commander in south Lebanon, both said that they were also unaware of the true nature of the video. However, Inbar said he did not have a problem with the clip because it represents his views.
In the video, Mitzna had said that another four years of indecision, stagnancy and a lack of intense US involvement in the Middle East peace process would be bad for Israel. He claimed Obama would achieve a greater involvement and that he "brings many hopes."
For his part, Inbar was filmed saying that he would personally vote for Obama to help Israel. Inbar said he was not convinced that the Bush method was the right way to deal with the axis of evil and that he would welcome anyone who chose to handle it differently.
Revised Films, the independent film company that produced the clip, issued the following response:
"Our firm is an independent company that created a clip that was composed of interviews with senior Israeli security officials, and whose subject was the American policy regarding Israel, in light of the upcoming elections in the United States, while focusing on the two central candidates for president, and Barack Obama. that statement is mealy mouthed bullshit and doesn't make sense
"The Obama campaign was not involved during any stage of the production, or [the film's] distribution. After the film was completed, the Jewish Council for Education & Research, took charge of the film and used it."
A response by The Jewish Council for Education & Research has yet to be obtained due to the time differential between Israel and the US.
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/06/2008
08:17 ||
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#1
"It wasn't about the campaign, it was about the political and security issues of the Middle East that the next president should be involved in," he continued. "Nothing was said about Obama or [Republican presidential candidate John] McCain."
It is ALL about getting elected with these people, there is nothing else. As it is written (Devarim 24:9), 'Be careful for yourself and be greatly careful for your soul.'
#3
More snakeshit from Hussein's campaign. I would hope the US Jews see this for what it is. This finance upheaval has definitely swayed Jewish voters in NY and Florida. They have panicked. Maybe everyone has, but fergawdsakes why do people believe this two bit lawdog and professional scammer can handle an economic crisis or any damn crisis? Can voters pull their heads out of their asses long enough to imagine this commie and his pals calling the shots for all of us in world affairs and in charge of our military? This is frightening. And Bush and McPain performing at their worst, exhibiting no leadership and sending these voters scurrying over to Obambi. Damn, what a stinking kettle of fish.
#1
Only 59%? It would be nice to see a really strong "throw the bums out" movement emerge this season.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
10/06/2008 7:59
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#2
59% = Trunks and independents. You think the Donks will turn out their own like the Trunks did two years ago? They understand its all about POWER, no matter how disastrous its implementation by their boys has been.
#4
I'd keep Kenny Marchant R-TX. He consistently scores near 100% at Club for Growth. And his voting record gets my seal of approval. He voted NO on Amnesty and the Bail Out. Generally, he votes just the way I'd ask him to.
#7
I can hardly wait to vote against my first-term Congressman Murphy (Dimwit-PA) who kissed Nancy Pelosi's butt, trailed around following her lead, and then had the audacity to locally wring his hands over the "sweeteners" tacked on to the Senate's bail out bill before he voted "yes" on it.
#8
Sorry, I should clarify that I was speaking of idiot Patrick Murphy, not the respectable Tim Murphy. Congressman Tim Murphy (R-PA) did the right thing and voted against both bail out bills.
#12
Dump the whole damned lot of them. My congressman voted against the bailout twice and he's generally very conservative and a real strong 2nd Amendment man. He's go to go as well. If he asked why, my answer would be, "You've had your trotters in the trough long enough. Let someone else have a turn."
#13
With the likelyhood of a Democratic President I'd sure love to see a Republican Congress. It would be interesting to see how everything was the fault of the PResident for 8 years and suddenly the President is blame-free and the Congress is somehow in the drivers seat for everything that is wrong.
Of course I'd love to have both parties Dem so their policies could be put up to the clean light of day but the damage that would do, well fear of the damage their policies would do scare me.
#16
If the RCCC had a decent campaign it would. Something like the Contract with America that targets specific legislative goals that every trunk campaigns on would do the trick and establish a mandate. It's much better to campaign for something other than job security.
#17
Anonymoose hit the nail on the head in #11.
When I was in college in the 60's one of my professors said that the purpose of democracy was to provide for an orderly transition of government. That is why he always voted against the incumbent. That still makes sense today.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
10/06/2008 20:40
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#18
With a 10% approval rating one would think
it would be more like "90% would vote to replace the entire congress".
WASHINGTON -- When Afghan security forces found an enormous cache of heroin hidden beneath concrete blocks in a tractor-trailer outside Kandahar in 2004, the local Afghan commander quickly impounded the truck and notified his boss.
Before long, the commander, Habibullah Jan, received a telephone call from Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of President Hamid Karzai, asking him to release the vehicle and the drugs, Mr. Jan later told American investigators, according to notes from the debriefing obtained by The New York Times. He said he complied after getting a phone call from an aide to President Karzai directing him to release the truck.
Two years later, American and Afghan counternarcotics forces stopped another truck, this time near Kabul, finding more than 110 pounds of heroin. Soon after the seizure, United States investigators told other American officials that they had discovered links between the drug shipment and a bodyguard believed to be an intermediary for Ahmed Wali Karzai, according to a participant in the briefing.
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#2
What's the point of being president of the top opium producing country in the world if you can't make a little money from it? When he finally retires he's got to pay for that villa in Nice somehow.
#3
That Karzai's brother was a major player in the heroin market widely known piece of information, nothing new. People ... the war in Afghanistan from the perspective of the tribes is about protecting the opium and heroin trade that brings in more money per year than the entire legitimate economy of Pakistan.
"THE lion of the people will turn on you," warned Mullah Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, a former Taliban foreign minister, as we sipped green tea at his home in Kabul a few weeks ago. He noted that while Americans had been shocked by a series of spectacular insurgent attacks over the summer, the United States-led coalition faced a far greater danger than the resurgent Taliban: growing despair among average Afghans that their government is fundamentally illegitimate.
Every aspect of sound counterinsurgency strategy revolves around bolstering the government's legitimacy. When ordinary people lose their faith in their government, then they also lose faith in the foreigners who prop it up. The day that happens across Afghanistan is the day we lose the war.
With more than 230 military deaths since January, this year is on track to be the deadliest yet for the coalition in Afghanistan. July alone saw a brazen attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul, the deaths of nine Americans at a combat outpost in Nuristan and the killing of 10 French soldiers on the outskirts of Kabul. The response has been a growing consensus around sending two to four more combat brigades to Afghanistan -- 8,000 to 16,000 troops.
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#1
BIGNEWSNETWORK > PALIN, BIDEN: NUCLEAR PAKISTAN AND IRAN ARE A THREAT.
ION IRAN > WORLD IS SEEING THE EMERGENCE OF NEW REGIONAL POWERS + IRAN WILL NOT STOP URANIUM ENRICHMENT FOR FOREIGN FUEL SUPPLY [even iff guaranteed] + IRAN DOES NOT TRUST WEST FOR NUCLEAR COOPERATION + IRAN IS NOW SELF-SUFFICIENT IN MISSLES.
#2
shocked by a series of spectacular insurgent attacks
I'm American, and not shocked; nor would I call the attacks spectacular.
greater danger...growing despair among average Afghans that their government is fundamentally illegitimate.
Agree. By all accounts the government is corrupt and not very effectual. In other words, like every other Afghan government ever. The British couldn't fix it even at the height of their empire-building; the Russians couldn't fix it even with their casual regard for human life; how are we going to do it? We can't 'buy' success like in Iraq; we can't logistically support the force we would need to secure success the way did in South Korea or Germany; we don't have the national will to win the way we did in Japan; what's left? I suspect we should have declared 'victory' and left some time ago - and left some Special Ops units and Predators to continue the hunt for bin Laden et al.
#3
Agree Glenmore. More should study the Russian and British experiences and explain why we will be successful. A disaster looms. What would Bambi do if there were massacres of unsupplied US troops?
#4
Afghan unity is an illusion. From the beginning we should have supported the Tadjiks, Uzbeks, Hazaras for sustained old style campaigns against the Pushtun bigots. Let the world know that those who attack, or support the attack against, the United States will die in horrible ways and their lands resettled by their enemies.
Posted by: ed ||
10/06/2008 10:27
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#5
The first thing we should have done is imposed a MacArthur constitution on Afghanistan. We made the damned fool mistake of trying to preserve what has been *proven* to be a failed system of government.
The rule would have from the onset been created with the idea that it could not be changed for at least 20 years. The entire government would have been sent to school to learn how to govern, then apprenticed to western bureaucrats to learn how to do it in practice.
Very strict rules, any violation of which results in being fired. Totally disregard any social status not based in meritocracy.
Add to this mandatory western style public schools for all children, and a public works project for all unemployed males--which is possible because of their ridiculously low standard wage.
Within a few years, all citizens of Afghanistan are intentionally made *different* from their neighbors in other countries. The more different they can be made, the more difficult it is for negative interface between the two.
#6
More should study the Russian and British experiences and explain why we will be successful.
Because we can study our own experience on the Mexican border 1860-90 and see how we succeeded. Somehow it worked didn't it? Put enough pressure on those raiders and suddenly they find it easier to do their work back on the other side of the border, making the host government unstable and forcing action. And don't try to sell a bill of goods that the Territorial government let alone those in Washington weren't awash in corruption either at the time.
#8
NS, our lines of communication in Afghanistan are just fine (and way better than Mexico 100 years ago); I think you mean our lines of supply, and that would be quite true.
#12
"Ayers/Dohrn in '12" is what it is really trying to say, TMY.
Amazing how witty and clever these libtards think their transparent lies are; fooling the primitive masses, all that. I think it comes from deriving their entire worldview, their entire personalities even, from stand-up comedy and the media sound-bite world.
It is quite possible to create an Afghan government that will keep international terrorists from using the country as a base. That is the objective here, not to Christianize, civilize, or consumerize the Afghan hillbillies. At one time, Afghanistan did in fact have a national government that could do that. It was a monarchy and it was quite successful in keeping tribal "disturbances" within reasonable bounds from about 1920 until communist meddling led to its overthrow in the 70s. The last king, Mohammed Zahir Shah, returned from exile in 2002 and died just last year.
Whatever the much anticipated vice presidential debate may have told us about Gov. Sarah Palin and Sen. Joe Biden, it revealed clear differences in the foreign policy philosophies of the two tickets.
As Mrs. Palin pointed out, when it comes to foreign policy, the Obama-Biden team is backward looking. It continues to view international issues through the prism of opposition to George W. Bush. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Obama-Biden's continuing assertions that the Iraq war was a mistake, from beginning to the end, and that, at best, it constituted an irrelevant distraction from the combat that really matters -- in Afghanistan.
Osama bin Laden himself called Iraq the "central front" in his fight against the United States. Thousands of jihadists operated in Iraq where, with the help of Sen. John McCain's and Gen. David Petraeus's surge strategy, al Qaeda was resoundingly defeated. Its standing in the Muslim world has plummeted.
As in many other conflicts in American history, our enemies in this war operate in many geographically distinct theaters. The essence of being a good commander in chief is appreciating the connections among these theaters -- including the adversary's willingness to open new fronts -- rather than obsessing about where the last enemy attack originated.
This is exactly what President Franklin Roosevelt did in World War II when he chose to dedicate initially the bulk of American resources to the European theater, believing that destroying Hitler's Reich was the most urgent task and that Imperial Japan could be dealt with in turn; history proved him right. Yet, under the Obama-Biden playbook, FDR blundered by getting distracted from the "real" war -- in the Pacific, where America had been attacked.
Another problem with the Obama-Biden foreign policy is its obsession with high stakes presidential-level diplomacy focused on the world's rogue states. Of course, high level diplomacy is a key tool of statecraft, but it risks devaluing the president's own capital on the international stage.
Having a president try and fail fundamentally damages the nation's own credibility. The textbook example of this phenomenon remains Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev's taking the measure of a young and inexperienced John F. Kennedy in the 1961 Vienna Summit meeting. Khrushchev found Kennedy to be ill-informed and weak, and consequently embarked on an aggressive policy in Berlin and Cuba. Although Kennedy ultimately proved that he was made of sterner stuff, the world was nevertheless brought to the very brink of a nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The next president will likely be similarly tested by Russia and by Iran. Iranian leaders are stubbornly pursuing a policy of acquiring nuclear weapons, despite years of dialogue with Western interlocutors. The chances that they would take any more seriously diplomatic advances from a new and untried President Barack Obama are remote. Most likely, they would interpret it as a sign of weakness, causing them to accelerate their nuclear program.
The best way to create a strong negotiating position vis-à-vis Tehran, would be to alter the strategic environment in its backyard, such that the Iraqi government has stabilized that country and maintains strong military and intelligence ties with the United States, while dramatically curtailing Iranian influence. This, of course, is precisely what Mr. McCain's Iraq strategy is in the process of accomplishing, and what Mr. Obama's Iraq policy can never achieve. It would be the McCain-Palin team that is best positioned to engage in fruitful diplomatic dialogue with the Iranians.
#1
It would be the McCain-Palin team that is best positioned to engage in fruitful diplomatic dialogue with the Iranians.
Uh - wrong. The McCain part of the team, and the team itself, would be immeasurably better in every respect (in all likelihood) than the ridiculous opposition team, when it comes to foreign policy.
But "fruitful diplomatic dialogue" is not an objective, nor even a plausible development WRT Iran. Period.
Having cleared that up, I have to report that I'm still deciding whether the country will redeem itself by picking the quite imperfect M-P team, or if even by putting the preposterous Dem candidate in a position to become president, it has already disgraced itself and become unserious. Also, whether Iran and others like it will have already drawn conclusions based on this unbelievable state of affairs, regardless of the November outcome.
Speaking of which, I still think - and, a separate thing, hope - that things will turn out a bit differently than the media and the Beltway idiots now expect. If it doesn't, hard to see a down limit on the negatives.
#2
No, Iraq was not a distraction: it was the ONLY place in the world where we could expand the war with militant Islam with any force. While Iraq was not the most dangerous opponent it was the most accessible (both politically and logistically, and both are vital). In a way it was like Italy in WWII. None of the reasons listed for going to war were lies, but neither were they the whole truth. In my opinion the two key reasons for taking the war to Iraq were 1) because we could, and 2) because it is the fulcrum for the entire Muslim world - a mix of Sunni & Shia, between Arab and non-Arab, a history of secular and religious, a geographic crossroad. I guess I would call Bush's biggest failure his inability to convince America of the importance of Iraq, but am not sure how that could have been done without being counterproductively open about the above.
#3
The authors of this article have demonstrated such colossal ignorance about the nature of the Iraq War in this piece that I don't know where to even start.
First of all, (authors) Casey and Rivkin have use the classic "Circular Cause and Consequence" fallacy when they suggest that the Iraq War is not a distraction by stating:
Osama bin Laden himself called Iraq the "central front" in his fight against the United States.
But they fail to mention (or are perhaps simply unaware of the fact) that bin Laden and Zawahiri call it so because of US military presence in Iraq. If the US government decided to place 150,000 of its troops in Egypt, then Egypt would become Al Qaeda's "central front" in their fight against the United States; and if it places 150,000 American troops in Indonesia, then Indonesia would become Al Qaeda's "central front" in their fight against the United States.
The argument that Iraq is not a distraction because "bin Laden himself called Iraq the "central front" in his fight against the United States" is completely hollow, since bin Laden's statement is a consequence of US's decision to keep troops there, not its cause. It's like a man who doesn't shower arguing that clothes shouldn't be worn because they smell bad.
Second, it is stated in this article: "with the help of Sen. John McCain's and Gen. David Petraeus's surge strategy, al Qaeda was resoundingly defeated."
Again, more ignorance. Al Qaeda was defeated because of the Sunni Awakening in Anbar. The Surge helped reduce violence (in select locations) in Iraq, most of which was not Al Qaeda related - it was sectarian based. Reduction in inter-sectarian violence is not the same as Al Qaeda's defeat, something that any marginally informed political analyst should be aware of.
Third, it states: "[al Qaeda's] standing in the Muslim world has plummeted."
Because of the Surge??? Utter ignorance! It's because Al Qaeda's decision to target even the neutral Muslims (in multiple countries, by the way, not just in Iraq), not because of the Surge.
Fourth, the article authors foolishly argue again that the Iraq War isn't a distraction by providing the following analogy:
"This is exactly what President Franklin Roosevelt did in World War II when he chose to dedicate initially the bulk of American resources to the European theater, believing that destroying Hitler's Reich was the most urgent task and that Imperial Japan could be dealt with in turn; history proved him right."
The outright inanity of this analogy is mind-numbing. Hitler's war against Europe wasn't a false intelligence report that was obtained through dubious means by the American government. It was fact! But the US decision to invade Iraq to fight Al Qaeda on the basis of "intelligence" that tied Iraq to Al Qaeda, while ignoring the fact that Al Qaeda leadership was actually hiding in the border region of Afghanistan-Pakistan is stupidity of colossal proportions. At best.
To put it in terms of the World War II perspective as the authors of this article have vainly tried to do would be to argue that, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the US government should have focused its military might on Brazil, where, it was brought to US intelligence's notice, President Getúlio Vargas was secretly having trade deals with the Japanese, some of whom could possibly be related to the pilots who attacked Pearl Harbor.
Fifth, the authors argue:
"Khrushchev found Kennedy to be ill-informed and weak, and consequently embarked on an aggressive policy in Berlin and Cuba."
Note the deceptive "consequently" added into the statement, implying that somehow Khrushchev foreign policy decisions were hinged entirely on Kennedy's persona at the Vienna Summit. That Khrushchev assumed that Kennedy, being the Emperor-God of USA, would base every single one of his decisions entirely on his own impressions, and would not deign to consult any of his advisors or analysts. That, even though he had a team of people hired to advise him at all times, they were simply worthless antiquities since he, The Mighty Emperor-God John Fitzgerald Kennedy, needed no input from these lesser mortals, and would therefore certainly not act in a manner that might go against the first impression Khrushchev received of Kennedy at that Summit. Khrushchev obviously assumed all this immediately upon observing Kennedy being "ill-informed and weak" at the Summit, and "consequently" embarked on an aggressive policy in Berlin and Cuba.
Sixth, the authors argue:
"Most likely, they would interpret it as a sign of weakness, causing them to accelerate their nuclear program."
"Most likely" is just as deceptive here as the "consequently" in the previous point. After displaying such profound ignorance in international affairs, please spare us any more of your personal opinions, and just stick to the facts.
Seventh, the authors continue to display their utterly delusional assessment of the current situation in Iraq when they state:
"The best way to create a strong negotiating position vis-à-vis Tehran, would be to alter the strategic environment in its backyard, such that the Iraqi government has stabilized that country and maintains strong military and intelligence ties with the United States, while dramatically curtailing Iranian influence."
The idea that Iraq is experiencing "Iranian influence" is another example of the profound ignorance of the authors of this piece. What they don't comprehend is the difference between "influence" and "predisposition". The authors should realize that more than 60% of Iraq's population is Shi'ite Muslim, while Iran is a Shi'ite theocracy (almost 90% Shi'ite). So this "influence" that Iran ostensibly has on Iraq is nothing other than common perspective! Even if Iraq was located at the lower tip of South America, these authors would still observe the same "Iranian influence" that they would like to see curtailed.
The outright absurdity of this argument is mind-boggling. No one says that Italy exerts great influence on USA as evidenced by the Pope drawing immense crowds of supporters in his recent visit, crowds who then vote on religious grounds in elections. No one says this because it is plain stupid. Just like the claim that the common perspective seen amongst the Shi'ite in Iraq and Iranians is due to "Iranian influence" is plain stupid. They simply share the same faith! Obviously, they will have a common perspective, regardless of the "influence" of each other.
Given Messrs. Rivkin and Casey's sheer ignorance about international affairs, they should have the moral sensibility to not even vote until they educate themselves, let alone post articles on a news website.
#4
I guess I would call Bush's biggest failure his inability to convince America of the importance of Iraq, but am not sure how that could have been done without being counterproductively open about the above.
Please, tell me how he could have done it: teh President doesn't own the MSM and can't order film directors and singers to bolster morale at home and weken eneemy's. The failure uis taht teh Democrats and, in Europe, the botred elistsis, decided to score oplitical points againt Bush/America and to hell with civilization.
#5
I don't care who calls it what. It was well-located to provide a great shooting gallery for taking out lots and lots of young Saudi jihadis. Now we just need to punish the Iranians for interfering.
#6
I guess I would call Bush's biggest failure his inability to convince America of the importance of Iraq, but am not sure how that could have been done without being counterproductively open about the above.
Is it me or did he really abruptly stop talking about Iraq after his re-election? It seemed like he went directly to Medicare and/or Social Security reform.
Posted by: Grenter, Protector of the Geats ||
10/06/2008 10:13
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#7
I'm not convinced fyst. Your arguments ring hollow. You are convinced of your own logic and I doubt if anyone could say anything that would convince you of any other position.
I'm convinced of my own logic because it happens to be correct. If my arguments sound hollow its because you don't want to believe what I'm saying.
I'm no Obama fan, and I still am, and have always been, for the invasion of Iraq and the overthrow of Saddam Husein, but that doesn't change the fact that he authors of this article are profoundly and comprehensively ignorant about the situation in Iraq.
The Iraq War was absolutely a distraction, even though good came from it in several different ways.
#9
I agree that Iraq 2.0 invasion was right but I so strongly have been upset with the performance and reaction of the Bush administration's execution of the post-war plan.
#11
Inasmuch as it might have been a distraction, with which I do not agree, Iraq is where tens of thousands of jihadis went and died, where the cream of Al Qaeda's leadership and highly trained specialists and the bulk of their funds disappeared forever. This has made the fight in Afghanistan much easier for the good guys than it would otherwise have been, and that is fine with me.
Equally important, at the time we went into Iraq Saddam Hussein was the leading supporter and trainer of terrorist groups in the world. At the Salman Pak facility Iraq was providing training in biological and chemical weapons production, airplane hijacking, bomb-making, etc and so forth. He was sending funds and weapons to just about all of the terror groups in the region -- including openly awarding checks of US$25,000-50,000 for each attempted/successful suicide attack on Israelis. The invasion of Iraq put a stop to all of that. The War on Terror is not merely a fight with Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda conglomerate, but a war with all those who would establish Arab/Muslim rule of the world. Saddam Hussein planned to do that first in 1991 by conquering Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to corner the world's oil supply, and then by sponsoring various jihadi groups to terrorize the world into submission so he could conquer Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and corner the world's oil supply. Why on earth do you think he went to war with Iran? It certainly wasn't because the West was uneasy about the Shiite Revolution in 1979.
#12
The problem with second-guessing Bush Administration post-war plans etc. (or any plans anywhere by anyone) is that you cannot know if an alternative path would have worked better. Case-in-point: 'We should have had more troops on the ground in Iraq from the beginning.' Whatif we had? Would the Sunni Awakenings have awoken or would we just have been more targets for AQ to attack? Where would those troops have come from and what would have happened there, then? Maybe that plan would have worked better, in hindsight we might have reason to think so, but we can never be sure. One thing I CAN be sure of - whatever plan had been implemented we would be very upset with it today.
Al Qaeda and its ideological allies are not a geographically-determined entity. They had a large establishment in Afghanistan, which was quickly destroyed or forced to flee, but Afghanistan or even Pakistan were peripheral to their base, the Arabs of the Middle East. Thats where the money and ideas come from. Once fled, the only place to chase them was into Pakistan - which implies a far larger war by an order of magnitude, and geopolitical complications likewise. There's plenty of otherwise irrelevant Pakistani cannon-fodder there that the Arabs won't miss, they despise them in any case. Iraq is something else - the Shiite angle alone ensures it, as the AQ Wahabbis could not let them grab a potentially rich and powerful state with all the influence that comes with it. Here the war could be brought into the open where the US could get at many of its enemies who were unable to stay away. Bin Laden was right.
AQ in Iraq was defeated by a host of things, all of which were put in place and critically facilitated by the US. The "surge" in reality added few more men to the mix, it was a small escalation. What it really was was a commitment to stay until victory, without which there wouldn't have been much of an "awakening", or the critical growth and new morale of the Iraqi regular forces. Insurgency wars are won mainly by patient commitment, until the other side loses their enthusiasm. In this one it also required time to create an Iraqi state apparatus and military and civic commitment from nothing. We stayed until they had time to bear fruit. The alternative plans had the US leaving, and committed to abandoning all the positive efforts then underway, which would have undercut all our current allies and partners there.
AQ would have much higher standing irrespective of its atrocities (which on the basis of experience doesn't bother the Arab masses very much, if they aren't Arabs, and the right sort of Arabs at that), had AQ gained anything from its efforts. This is a society that, more than usual, works on the basis of honor and humiliation. Defeating an enemy brings great prestige, losing brings derision.
There was no Ruhr to invade in this case, to address your next point. Pakistan isn't it.
"Consequently" is correct, if it fits into the mix of factors considered by Khrushchev. All policy decisions are made by weighting many factors, potential risks and potential benefits. Khrushchev did see Kennedy as weak. This was a significant factor. It may well (and there is good testimony that it did) have tipped the balance on some of these matters.
You have a point on the Iranian nuclear program - I don't think they have ever slowed it down, they have been going as fast as their ability and resources permit for the last couple of decades.
The last argument is plain pettifogging. I am certain the authors understand all thats claimed they don't. I think rather you don't understand their point very well.
There is Iranian influence and there is Iranian influence. These places are thoroughly interpenetrated - there is likewise Iraqi Arab influence on Iran, culturally and religiously. The point here is Iranian political/ideological influence. The Iranian state is run on the basis of a certain strain of Shiite thought, which by default, being the only such strain with substantial state backing, is the most active and influential, to the detriment of everyone besides the Iranian government clique. There would be a considerable reduction in religious and political tensions if an alternative way of Shiism (such as that of Najaf) gains similar or greater influence.
An 89-year-old grandmother who went on a tyre-wrecking spree in her street has been ordered to knit jumpers for her victims.
Heidi Kohl, from western Germany, was arrested after one neighbour spotted her slashing the tyres on a car. She later confessed that she had resorted to drastic measures after becoming "fed up" with so many drivers parking in her neighbourhood.
Kohl was initially told that she would be fined for her behaviour, but authorities came up with the more unusual punishment after the woman claimed she would be unable to pay. A spokeswoman confirmed: "When she's knitted the sweaters, then the matter will be over for us."
Kohl is believed to have wrecked 50 tyres in total. Prosecutors have said that she will not offend again as she has since been moved to a retirement home.
#2
The meaning behind the original name is not clear.
Identifying with all the 'fluffy bunnies' iced in Iraq and Afghanistan the press plays up along with the baby ducks and unicorns maybe? Thugs who hide behind civilians to carry out their little tyranny of terror and are eulogized by the MSM.
#6
Parts of Scottsdale, just South of there, have rich kids that are so corrupt they belong in a William S. Burroughs novel.
Week long crack smoking parties, stupid gun play like shooting things off each others heads, and a favorite, getting totally stoned and intentionally running through plate glass windows.
"Human life means nothing to me" should be their motto.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit made a surprise visit to Iraq on Sunday in the latest signal that Arab nations are slowly reviving relations after years of violence, his office said.
That sounds like he turned out the national lights, then flipped them on and hollered "suprrise" when they walked into the Fertile Crescent.
The one-day visit, the first such trip since 1990, is aimed at restoring formal ties between the two countries, a foreign ministry official said in a statement.
Cairo has had no official diplomatic representative in Iraq since the July 2005 abduction and murder by al-Qaeda of its charge d'affaires in Baghdad, Ihab al-Sharif.
Iraqiya television also reported that Egypt's energy Minister, Sameh Fahmi, had arrived in Baghdad.
The foreign minister said in May that Cairo was ready to send a fact-finding delegation to Baghdad to evaluate security conditions for opening an embassy. "When we set up an embassy in Iraq we want to guarantee that conditions will be favorable and that its security will not be undermined," he said at the time.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/06/2008
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#1
The smell of money attracts many. Trust is slower to grow.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
10/06/2008 8:17
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LONDON, England (CNN) -- In a groundbreaking meeting, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia recently hosted talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban militant group, according to a source familiar with the talks. King Abdullah of Saudia Arabia hosted meetings between the Afghan government and the Taliban, a source says. The historic four-day meeting took place during the last week of September in the Saudi city of Mecca, according to the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the negotiations.
King Abdullah broke fast during the Eid al-Fitr holiday with the 17-member Afghan delegation -- an act intended to show his commitment to ending the conflict.
Taliban leader Mullah Omar was not present, the source said.
That's no surprise. He doesn't like being in any location with known GPS coordinates ...
It marks a significant departure by the Saudi leadership to take a direct role in Afghanistan, hosting some delegates who have until recently been their enemies. In the past, Saudi Arabia has generally dealt with Afghanistan through Pakistan.
The current round of talks is anticipated to be a first step in a long process. According to the source close to the talks, it has taken two years of behind-the-scenes meetings to get to this point.
The talks took place between September 24 and 27 and involved 11 Taliban delegates, two Afghan government officials, a representative of former mujahadeen commander and U.S. foe Gulbadin Hekmatyar, and three others. It was the first such meeting aimed at bringing a negotiated settlement to the Afghan conflict and for the first time, all parties were able to discuss their positions and objectives openly and transparently, the source said.
Saudi Arabia was one of only three countries that recognized the Taliban leadership during its rule over Afghanistan in the 1990s, but that relationship was severed over Mullah Omar's refusal to hand over al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. While Mullah Omar was not present at the talks in Mecca, the source said the Taliban leader has made it clear he is no longer allied with al Qaeda -- a position that has never been publicly stated but emerged at the talks. It confirms what another source with an intimate knowledge of the Taliban and Mullah Omar has told CNN in the past.
During the talks, all parties agreed that the only solution to Afghanistan's conflict is through dialogue, not fighting. The source described the Mecca talks as an ice-breaking meeting where expectations were kept necessarily low. Further talks are expected in Saudi Arabia involving this core group and others.
The reasons for Saudi Arabia's involvement are numerous, including having the trust of the United States and Europe to play a positive role at a time when the conflict appears to be worsening and the coalition's casualty toll is climbing. Also, Saudi Arabia may fear that Iran could take advantage of U.S. failings in Afghanistan, as it is seen to be doing in Iraq.
'failings'? We're killing them as fast as we find them ...
Several Afghan sources familiar with Iranian activities in Afghanistan have said Iranian officials and diplomats who are investing in business and building education facilities are lobbying politicians in Kabul. The Afghan sources wish to remain anonymous due to their political roles.
Coalition commanders regularly accuse Iran of arming the Taliban, and Western diplomats privately suggest that Iran is working against U.S. interests in Afghanistan, making it harder to bring peace. Saudi sources say perceived Iranian expansionism is one of Saudi Arabia's biggest concerns.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/06/2008
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#1
Lets not forget 9/11 they started this and we should finish it not this king abdulh from saudi. That is all I have to say!!!
#2
so by the end of this year the loop will be closed, the talibans will be forgiven, the iraquis never had WMD, Al-Qaeda leaders turn up peaceful, Osama will be found innocent, all the conflicts that began in 2001 will be closed, and someone steps down and walks away as if nothing ever happened... what a chapter in history...
Posted by: Don Vito ||
10/06/2008 7:52
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#3
Saudi/Taliban -- not a dime's worth of difference.
#4
I rather the US were chasing Saudis in Arabia than Pakistanis in Afghanistan.
Posted by: ed ||
10/06/2008 10:21
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#5
The US should NEVER put ground troops or anything else in Saudi Arabia. I prefer the Soddies be on the receiving end of natural disasters, such as 300m spheres of titanium steel at 150,000 km/h impacting the top ten inhabited points in Saudi Arabia, but large thermonuclear weapons would work just as well, I suppose.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/06/2008 14:37
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#5
Too bad most police officers in the UK are unarmed. In the US, they could have just shot the stupid animal.
At least the kids who saw the ram convulsing from the TASER would have something else to talk about. And the ram would not have suffered for very long - if the officer was a good shot.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
10/06/2008 20:52
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Oct. 6 (Bloomberg) -- The euro slid to a 13-month low against the dollar as European governments rushed to support financial institutions in the region hit by the widening global credit crisis. The 15-nation currency also fell to the lowest in more than two years versus the yen as German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the government will guarantee personal bank deposits to shore up confidence in the banking system. Germany, the euro region's largest economy, will also join with banks and insurers to bail- out property lender Hypo Real Estate Holding AG, while Belgium announced a deal to rescue Fortis, the largest Belgian financial-services firm after an earlier rescue failed.
``Everything coming out has been fairly euro-negative,'' said Alex Sinton, a senior currency dealer at ANZ National Bank Ltd. in Auckland. ``The euro zone is the second domino of the globe to be falling over after the U.S.''
The euro declined to $1.3670 at 8:15 a.m. in Tokyo from $1.3772 late in New York on Oct. 3. It earlier reached 1.3617, the lowest since Sept. 5, 2007. The euro fell to 142.65 yen, the weakest since May 22, 2006, and traded at 143.29 yen from 145.11 yen. The dollar bought 104.88 yen from 105.32 yen.
The German government and the country's banks and insurers agreed on a 50 billion euro ($68 billion) rescue package for commercial property lender Hypo Real Estate Holding AG after an earlier bailout faltered. BNP Paribas SA, France's biggest bank, will take control of Fortis's units in Belgium after a government rescue of the Brussels and Amsterdam-based company failed. BNP Paribas will buy 75 percent of Fortis Bank Belgium from the government for 8.25 billion euros ($11.3 billion) in stock, and purchase the company's Belgian insurance operations, Prime Minister Yves Leterme told reporters.
Japan's currency was the best-performer in September and the only currency to appreciate against the dollar as credit market collapse that drove Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. into bankruptcy and sent bank borrowing costs in Europe to record highs makes the yen unbeatable. Deutsche Bank AG, the biggest trader of foreign exchange, says the yen will rise 5 percent in coming months. New York- based Morgan Stanley is telling clients to buy the currency versus the euro and pound.
Futures traders increased their bets that the yen will gain against the U.S. dollar, figures from the Washington-based Commodity Futures Trading Commission show.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/06/2008
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#1
ION BRITAIN: CASH-STRAPPED NAVY TO CUT HALF OF DESTROYER FLEET; + TERROR THREAT [incl. Al Qaeda]TO UK APPROACHING CRITICAL ["severe end of severe"]; + Over 75,000 BRITS MAY DIE FROM FLU OUTBREAK.
Compare last wid CHINA > MILLIONS TO DIE FROM LUNG DISEASE.
#3
"The euro zone is the second domino of the globe to be falling over after the U.S."
The US stumbled. The Euros are falling. As Richard Fernandez reminds us of Samuel Johnson's quote "the prospect of hanging focuses the mind wonderfully" this morning, the markets are becoming focused upon security rather speculation. The underlying fundamentals become important in determining where to harbor your resources.
#4
I wonder, if Europe plunges into a deep recession, if they can keep their socialist lifestyle? And if not, how bad would the riots and civil unrest be?
Maybe some of our European 'burgers could expand on these ideas.
#6
The US Fed has been injecting $ into Euro banks. Also I read somewhere that most of the $85B US Treasury loan to AIG went to pay off European companies.
Posted by: ed ||
10/06/2008 10:19
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And if not, how bad would the riots and civil unrest be?
If France was a precursor, I'd dump any stock dealing in auto insurance.
#10
For years the market tracked surprisingly closely with the Euro to Yen value. When the Euro strengthened against the Yen, the market went up and vv. Luckily for us, the market has divorced itself from that trend.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
10/06/2008 11:39
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#11
NS wins the Silver Lining award of the day. ;-)
#12
Firstly let me say I know nothing about economics or finance...but I keep hearing people say that the problems in Europe are due to the 'trouble the Americans got us all into'. Isn't our (I'm Canadian so by 'our' I mean Canada's) economy more entwined with the US than most others? If the American financial crisis is the cause of Europe's banks failing then why are the Canadian banks doing OK? As far as I know we have had none of them fail. Am I off the ball here?
#13
Nope, Chemist. You're dead on. The European banks are in serious trouble for two reasons. First, they skirted around their regulatory capital requirements, primarily through arrangements insured by AIG. Second, the European Central Bank *raised* interest rates as liquidity began seriously drying up. Perverse ideologically-rigid stupidity on their part.
So when the sub-prime mortgages started having trouble, the European house of banking cards was much more rickety than that of the US and Canada.
The Russian president said in a speech Thursday that the financial crisis in the United States should be taken as a sign that America's global economic leadership is drawing to a close, reiterating an argument that leaders here have been making for some time, though investors in recent weeks have been fleeing Russia and depositing money in U.S. Treasury bills.
Perhaps inevitably for a country long lectured to by the United States, Russia is using the occasion of the U.S. financial crisis to do some lecturing of its own.
President Dmitri Medvedev said Thursday that the U.S. crisis showed that "the times when one economy and one country dominated are gone for good." Speaking of the United States, Medvedev said the world no longer needed a "megaregulator."
Russia has argued that the freewheeling Anglo-American style of capitalism is to blame for the crisis, a position echoed by Germany and other Continental European nations. Medvedev even called it financial "egoism."
A drumbeat of similar pronouncements has been heard in Russia in recent days. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin made a major speech Wednesday on U.S. financial "irresponsibility," blaming the plunge of more than 50 percent in the Russian stock market on the global economic slowdown and U.S. financial turmoil, rather than on any troubles endemic to Russia. "The saddest thing is that we can see an inability to take appropriate decisions," Putin said in his speech after the U.S. House of Representatives rejected the Bush administration's bailout plan.
In contrast, the Russian bailout was decided by decree. "This is not the irresponsibility of some people but the irresponsibility of the system, which, as it is known, claimed to be the leader," Putin said.
Medvedev spoke Thursday at St. Petersburg State University during the eighth annual Petersburger Dialog, a forum devoted to developing relations with Germany and where he met with Chancellor Angela Merkel. Members of Merkel's government have also been critical of U.S. regulators.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/06/2008
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#1
ION TOPIX > INDONESIA: ASIAN BANKS SAY TO PREPARE FOR WORLDWIDE ECONOMIC RECESSION.
#2
Putin is claiming that Russia is in better financial shape than the US. Care to make a wager, Valdimir? With a crashing oil price, your resources are drying up, fast.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
10/06/2008 7:48
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#3
Cause: "investors in recent weeks have been fleeing Russia and depositing money in U.S. Treasury bills"
Effect: "The Russian president said in a speech Thursday that the financial crisis in the United States should be taken as a sign that America's global economic leadership is drawing to a close"
If you come to the U.S. and buy insurance for treatment, Dmitri, your delusions can get much better mental health care coverage than even just a week ago.
Posted by: ed ||
10/06/2008 14:37
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#7
Dollar has been climbing steadily for awhile. Moreover, Oil has dropped below $90/barrel. I'd say the Russian economy is the one in trouble should oil continue to fall.
A senior official of the Turkish military on Sunday criticized the Iraqi Kurds for aiding the outlawed PKK militants against Ankara. He made criticism following a PKK Friday attack that killed some 15 Turkish soldiers.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/06/2008
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(Xinhua) -- The Russian troops started dismantling posts in the buffer zone around South Ossetia and Abkhazia to meet the Friday deadline for their withdrawal from Georgia's territory, the Itar-Tass news agency reported on Sunday.
"Indeed, we started withdrawing material property and dismantling defense barriers at peacekeeping observer posts, put up on the southern border in the security zone, adjoining South Ossetia," Igor Konashenkov, the assistant to the commander-in-chief of the Land Troops, was quoted as saying.
A follow-up agreement set a timetable for the withdrawal of Russian troops as well as the deployment of foreign observer missions. The agreement obliged Russia to pull its troops out of the territory of Georgia by Oct. 10.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/06/2008
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#2
Obama reminds me in some ways of JFK - charismatic, widely hailed as brilliant but with no track record of achievement, representing a new demographic in the highest echelons of politics. I suspect he is more likely to match JFK in debacles like Bay of Pigs and Vietnam than in economics like tax relief. I pray he gets as lucky in foreign policy crises like the Cuban Missile Crisis. And of course, luckier in tragedies like LH Oswald (or whoever.)
#4
Lacking the moral parables that made our ancestors wary of those delusions in which overweening pride is apt to involve us, we pursue false gods and turn away from traditions that really can help us make sense of our condition.
Yesterday on the radio, Fred Grandy (who was a congressman for a spell before he took up honest work in talk radio) was ranting about Barney Frank.
Remember the Barney Frank scandal - when he had a "friend" who was running a male prostitution ring out of Frank's Capitol Hill mansion? Turns out that this "friend" was an EXECUTIVE at Fanny Mae!
Grandy knows this since he was in the ethics committee of the House when Barney was under charges. The charges ended up being dropped since they could not link Frank (who, of course did not know) to the prostitution. Grandy says that he did not know at the time that Herb Moses was a Fanny Mae exec. Of course, Frank is a lib democrat, and as a result the MSM would never think of hinting about this clear conflict of interest. After all, there is nothing wrong having the overseer (literally and figuratively) in bed with the overseen.
The Shaman, Palosi, Franks, and Dodd are the problem not the SOLUTION!
An interesting read but incomplete without mentioning Herman Hesse which was required reading at some point among myself and contemporaries; as well as Friedrich Nietzsche. I personally disliked the themes of both of these writers (elitism, my way should be your way because I know how you should live better than you do, thought Sidartha was a damn fool with a weak will who never found Nirvana because he projected other people's accomplishments onto himself) but many my age unquestioningly took both writers to be infallable.
The High Court (HC) yesterday directed the government not to harass or arrest Awami League (AL) President Sheikh Hasina at home or abroad till October 20 in the Niko and barge-mounted power plant graft cases.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/06/2008
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Police have arrested six suspects for their alleged involvement in the kidnapping of a Polish engineer and for killing his driver and guards, police sources said on Sunday. The suspects are Khalid Ejaz, Rashid Hussain, Tasawar Hussain and Ikram Saeed, all residents of Pind Sultani, and Habibur Rehman and Akhtar Hussain who hail from Pind Sirhal. The Polish engineer was abducted and his driver and guards killed on September 28.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/06/2008
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Intelligence Bureau -- which has come under flak for its failure to keep tabs on tech savvy jihadis -- is set for major revamp with the government recruiting 6,000 more spies to strengthen its existing cadre of nearly 25,000 personnel. The IB will also get modern gadgets to monitor cyber communication.
The idea is to turn the internal spy agency into a potent force to fight terrorists through effective intelligence in the age of modern communication systems. While new-age gadgets will give IB an edge through technology, the increased manpower will widen the scope for human intelligence (humint) -- which played an important role in cracking recent terror attack cases.
The home ministry also plans to set up an exclusive "research & technology centre" within IB to keep a complete databank of terrorists and suspicious persons under one umbrella. The job of the new centre will also be to "research and analyse" the technological aspects of threats which have, of late, multiplied due to extensive use of the Internet by the new breed of educated terrorists.
"Widespread use of cyber technology -- like Wi-Fi system -- in the recent terror attacks, where terrorists of Indian Mujahideen (IM) had not only used it for sending emails but also for networking among their cadres for planning and execution of their operations, has forced us to rethink our strategy," said a senior home ministry official.
The plan for modernisation and increasing the strength of IB -- which has already got Cabinet nod -- came up for review recently when home minister Shivraj Patil asked the agency to complete the recruitment process of 6,000 additional spies, including technical and cyber experts, by next year. The emphasis in the meeting -- attended by IB chief P C Haldar and home secretary Madhukar Gupta among others -- was on impressing upon states to strengthen their special branches (intelligence wing) with the Centre helping them out with funds and expertise.
Referring to how new technologies were increasingly being used by jihadis for assembling bombs (using integrated chips for the first time in Bangalore and Surat operations) and networking among themselves through Internet, the official said, "Since terrorists the world over are using new communication technologies as 'weapon of mass influence' for the warfare, we cannot afford to function in the traditional way -- even though it has its own importance."
Though the official did not disclose the kind of methodology being adopted to fight tech savvy jihadis, he mentioned the possibility of bringing certain changes in the Information & Technology Act to widen the scope of cyber intercepts, including snooping on text messages.
Posted by: Fred ||
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The Taliban are unusually angry about the latest suspected U.S. missile strike in Pakistan, a sign a top militant may have died in the attack, officials and residents said Sunday amid reports the death toll rose by two to 24.
Elsewhere in Pakistan's northwest, an official said some 15,000 Afghans had left a tribal region the military is trying to wrest from insurgents, but that tens of thousands more had yet to meet a government ultimatum to get out by Sunday.
The U.S. has ramped up cross-border strikes on alleged al-Qaida and Taliban targets along Pakistan's side of the border with Afghanistan, straining the two nations' anti-terror alliance.
The U.S. says pockets of Pakistan's border region, especially in its semi-autonomous tribal areas, are bases for militants attacking American and NATO forces in Afghanistan. It has pushed nuclear-armed Pakistan to eliminate the safe havens.
The frontier region is believed to be a possible hiding place for al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahri, and several Arab militants were said to be among the dead in Friday's strike in North Waziristan tribal region.
Two Pakistani intelligence officials said that over the weekend two people wounded in the attack died at a hospital in Miran Shah, the main town in North Waziristan. The officials sought anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media.
Based on information from informants and agents in the field, the intelligence officials said the Taliban appeared extra-perturbed over the latest strike. The anger was a signal that a senior militant may have been killed, but that has yet to be confirmed, the officials said.
The insurgents were moving aggressively in the area while using harsh language against locals, including calling them "saleable commodities" a reference to people serving as government spies, the officials said.
Two local residents said Taliban fighters had warned people not to discuss the strike, including with the media, or to try inspecting the rubble at the site. The residents asked not to be named for fear of Taliban retaliation.
The strike in Mohammadkhel appeared to be the deadliest of 11 reported cross-border operations by U.S.-led forces since Aug. 20. The area is a stronghold of Jalaluddin Haqqani, a veteran Taliban commander regarded by the U.S. as one of its most dangerous foes.
The U.S. rarely acknowledges such attacks, 1st Lt. Nathan Perry, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan, said he had "no information to give" about the reported attacks. He did not deny U.S. involvement.
The information is nearly impossible to verify independently because of the remote, dangerous nature of the areas.
Taliban spokesmen could not immediately be reached for comment Sunday. Neither could Pakistani government and military spokesmen.
Earlier, however, Pakistan army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said initial reports indicated that 20 or more people were killed. He said there was "speculation" that many were foreign militants, but cautioned that the army was still awaiting a detailed report.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/06/2008
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#1
angry, are they? Wow, our bad
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/06/2008 4:08
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#2
And the winners of eternal paradise are...
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
10/06/2008 8:08
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The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) yesterday pressed charges against former BNP lawmaker and Partex Group Chairman MA Hashem in a case filed for amassing wealth worth Tk 17.11 crore illegally and hiding wealth information from the commission.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/06/2008
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The Anti-corruption Commission (ACC) yesterday finally submitted a charge sheet against former premier Khaleda Zia and 15 others, including 10 former ministers, in Barapukuria coalmine graft case.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/06/2008
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French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner warned in comments published yesterday that Israel would strike archfoe Iran before it was able to develop nuclear weapons.
"I honestly don't believe (a nuclear weapon) will give any immunity to Iran," Kouchner said in an interview conducted in English with Israel's Haaretz newspaper during a two-day visit to the region.
"First, because you will hit them before. And this is the danger. Israel has always said it will not wait for the bomb to be ready. I think that (the Iranians) know. Everyone knows."
The newspaper's print edition quoted Kouchner as saying that Israel would "eat" Iran, but in a written statement the foreign minister said he had used the word "hit," and that he regretted any "phonetic confusion".
Kouchner told Haaretz he hoped tough diplomacy and sanctions would persuade Iran to halt its uranium enrichment programme, which Israel and many Western countries believe is aimed at developing nuclear weapons. "Iran with an atomic bomb is unacceptable at all... Talking, talking talking, and offering dialogue, sanctions, sanctions, sanctions. Is the alternative to bomb first -- I think not."
Kouchner is set to meet outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni -- who is trying to form a new coalition government to succeed Olmert's administratin -- on Sunday.
France currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, which has been sponsoring Israeli-Palestinian peace talks as part of the Middle East Quartet, which also includes the United States, the United Nations, and Russia.
On Saturday Kouchner toured the West Bank town of Jenin, the focus of a months-old Palestinian security crackdown that has been praised by Israel and the United States -- and met ineffectual Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.
Kouchner hailed the peace talks, which were formally relaunched last November but said they were unlikely to meet their stated goal of a comprehensive agreement by the end of the year.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/06/2008
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Hezbollah officials have dismissed Israeli threats of massive destruction in a future conflict in Lebanon as "media war," speaking to the United Arab Emirates newspaper Al Ittihad.
"You can't hurt us! Only pain hurts us!"
The officials said the Lebanon-based militant group is ready for any Israeli assault, including a surprise attack. They told the paper that Israel is a "cardboard state" that will collapse in a conflict with Hezbollah. "Israel is wrestling with its many problems and has no capability to start a war over Lebanon," Al Ittihad quoted them as saying.
The Hezbollah officials were responding to recent comments by senior Israel Defense Forces officers who intimated that the next war will appear very similar to the last one. In particular, GOC Northern Command Gadi Eisenkot spoke of the IDF using of "disproportionate power" as it did in 2006 Second Lebanon War.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/06/2008
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#1
ION IRAN > IRANIAN.WS - IRAN'S MULLAH REGIME BELIEVES THE USA "CANNOT FIGHT ANY NEW WAR".
#7
Debkafil, so salt to taste:Damascus is plotting a large-scale terror attack or the assassination of a Lebanese figure to drum up another pretext for invading northern Lebanon, according to Lebanese prime minister Fouad Siniora. Reporting this, DEBKAfiles Beirut sources disclose that two senior US officials, deputy secretary of state David Hale and assistant defense secretary Mary Beth Long, were sent post haste to Beirut in response to this warning, arriving on Oct. 5.
Sinora told them that Syria is turning the Al Kebir River (which marks the Syrian-North Lebanese border) from a Blue Line to a Red Line.
He was joined by Lebanese president Michel Suleiman in charging that Washingtons efforts to draw Damascus out of the Iranian orbit threatened to throw Lebanon to the wolves and the loss of Americas foothold in Beirut. The prime minister said the tip-off he received uncovered a Syrian conspiracy to stage a major terrorist operation or assassinate a Lebanese figure of equal rank to the former prime minister Rafiq Hariri whose murder in 2005 left Damascus under grave suspicion. This time, Syria might be cunning enough to single out a pro-Syrian Lebanese politician to avoid suspicion. The consequent turmoil in Beirut would be the trigger for the Syrian incursion.
Two brigades of the 4th Syrian Mechanized Division, numbering up to 10,000 men, have been poised on the Lebanese border since last month and are now on combat readiness.
(DEBKAfile first disclosed this Syrian troop concentration on Sept. 20 and again on Sept. 27. For the second article,
Click HERE))
Damascus has complained to Beirut and Washington that the pro-Western majority leader Saad Hariri (son of the dead politician) has organized 45 extremist Islamic organizations, most Salafi, in northern Lebanon and established similar fronts in Sidon and the Ain Hilwa Palestinian camp in the south. Bashar Assads emissaries claim that these fronts were established to threaten Syrias national security and curb Hizballahs burgeoning strength.
Adding to the rising tension around Lebanon, the UNIFIL commander in south Lebanon has alerted the commanders of the multinational contingents to prepare for Israel to pull out on Nov. 21 from the northern part of Ghajar, the village split in two by the Lebanese-Israeli border.
Turkey staged retaliatory airstrikes against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq on Sunday as thousands of Turks attended rain-lashed funerals for 15 soldiers killed by the rebels in a cross-border attack from Iraq.
Public anger mounted in Turkey at the inability of civilian leaders to stop attacks by the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK. The group has waged a 24-year guerrilla war for greater autonomy for Turkey's minority Kurds from bases in southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq.
Mourners booed President Abdullah Gul and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan at funerals Sunday for two of the soldiers killed near the border with Iraq on Friday.
Demonstrators elsewhere waved the country's flag in front of parliament and beat and burned effigies of the PKK leader, Abdullah Ocalan.
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10/06/2008
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A Maoist leader has claimed responsibility for the death of a Hindu holy man whose murder sparked savage anti-Christian riots in India, news reports said Sunday.
Hardline Hindus had blamed Christians for the killing of Swami Laxamananda Saraswati, which led to widespread rioting and the death of at least 33 people in Hindu-Christian clashes in eastern Orissa state. The Hindu leader had been associated with a radical group opposed to Hindus converting to Christianity. But the Maoists said they killed Saraswati because he was forcing tribal people to convert to Hinduism. "We ordered the death penalty for him," Maoist leader Sabyasachi Panda told reporters on Saturday.
Panda said his group had left letters at the killing in August claiming responsibility but that local authorities hid the evidence. "They suppressed the evidence so that they could get an excuse to attack Christians," Panda told the NDTV news network. Hindu groups have attacked churches, prayer halls and homes of Christians in the state, forcing tens of thousands of people to seek shelter in state-run refugee homes.
On Friday, the Orissa government said police had arrested four people for the alleged rape of a nun during the riots. The attacks have been condemned by the Vatican and described as "a national shame" by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
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Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told her French counterpart Bernard Kouchner that she opposes the agreement in principle that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has offered Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. "I do not believe in far-reaching proposals and an attempt to expedite matters, especially in light of the political situation," Livni, the prime minister-designate, told Kouchner yesterday.
In the morning, Kouchner met with Olmert, who said he was frustrated that Abbas had not accepted his proposal. "You've read what I said in the interview," Olmert told Kouchner, referring to his statements in Yedioth Ahronoth favoring concessions. "Still, the Palestinians do not want to sign."
Kouchner raised the matter later when he met with Livni and asked why she objects to Olmert's proposal. Olmert's plan proposes a comprehensive solution on borders and refugees and postpones a decision on Jerusalem.
Livni's explanation was a criticism of Olmert. "Abu Mazen [Abbas] in his present political situation cannot accept such an agreement," she said. "The political situation in Israel also does not allow it to be signed."
Livni also argued that blaming the Palestinians for refusing to accept Olmert's offer does no good. "We can say this is their fault - but what will that do?" she said. "We had the same thing after Camp David in 2000 and look where that got us."
So figure out where the border is going to be, build the wall as high as is needed, and make sure the Paleos understand that you'll lob back three missiles to the location of each Qassam firing ...
Also yesterday, Livni, in her first foreign policy address since winning the Kadima party primary, voiced her commitment to continue peace negotiations with the Palestinians. "Annapolis will continue," she said, referring to the U.S.-sponsored peace conference last November that restarted negotiations on a Palestinian state.
"Let us not allow dates or political changes to stand in our way," she said, in her address to a three-day Foreign Ministry conference on policy and strategy in Jerusalem. "The point is to understand the required concessions in order to conduct a proper process."
How about getting the Paleos on record as to some concessions?
This conference is the first such event of its kind; the ministry hopes to make it an annual affair. Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki attended, along with several of his international counterparts.
Israeli and Palestinian leaders have expressed doubts about meeting Washington's goal of reaching a peace deal by the end of the year, before U.S. President George W. Bush leaves office.
"We see that the next months are maintaining a level of uncertainty, and that level of uncertainty is getting higher and higher," Malki said in his English-language address. "We are waiting to see who will be the next president, [Barack] Obama versus [John] McCain, and believe me, there is a big difference between the two vis-a-vis the situation in the Middle East" Malki said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/06/2008
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In her first trip to the Bay Area as the GOP's vice presidential nominee, Sarah Palin today charged that Americans don't know "the real Barack Obama," suggesting that the John McCain campaign will sharpen its attacks in the final month of the campaign on Obama's biography as well as his platform.
Palin, on the second day of her two-day California swing, spoke to a crowd of 1,500 supporters at a private Burlingame fundraiser, which raised $2.5 million for state and federal GOP party operations. The Alaska governor repeated a claim she made Saturday at a Los Angeles County rally, charging that Obama has been "less than truthful'' about his relationship with Bill Ayres, a founder of the 1960s radical group, the Weather Underground, whose members were blamed for several bombings when Obama was a child.
The Mercury reporter dismisses it thusly:
Obama has denounced Ayer's radical views and activities. Obama and Ayers, now a Chicago university professor, have met several times since 1995, when both raised funds for Chicago charities. Media reports have concluded the two men do not have a close relationship.
That would be the NYT, etc. If Manhattan sez so it must be that way ...
"I'm afraid that he is someone who sees America as imperfect enough that he would pal around with, and work with, a former domestic terrorist,'' she said Sunday.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#1
You tell 'em, Sarah. The people have more reason to believe you than any ordinery politican.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
10/06/2008 7:53
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#2
Palin says voters don't know 'the real Barack Obama'
And the MSM is proud of that fact!
[Tell me again why we confuse the concept of a means of communication (the press) with the function of free communication to deliver the truth which is today being accomplished by the internet? Why should a means get unwarranted exemption from standard interstate commerce laws concerning fraud and misrepresentation?]
#6
That's right Mark. This SOB would likely appoint 3 Judges in his first term. Any selections likely to confirmed with down the line voting in the Senate, led by Horse Face Harry. You can bet they will be Ginsberg clones.
#7
Mrs. Uluque6305 was shocked yesterday, shocked I tell you, when she heard Palin's quote about Obama's association with the "terrorist" Ayers. I had to explain to her about SDS and all that. She still maintained that it was 40 years ago. I told her about the picture in 2001 where he was standing on top of an American flag. She still didn't believe it. She thinks Palin is a kook for saying it. It's hard to penetrate that image the MSM has given the Messiah.
But Ayers is small potatoes. McCain needs to hammer away at the likes of Nancy Pelosi and Barney Franks. The hypocrisy of those people trying to tell us the mortgage meltdown is Bush's fault is just staggering. I mean, where were they the whole time? Out to lunch? McCain needs to call them on it in a big, loud, repetitive way from now until November or else he's gonna get clobbered on election day.
#9
And by clobbered I mean Obama is gonna win in a landslide because as far as I can tell the American people are biting on this bit about the economy being all Bush's fault hook, line and sinker.
#10
TOTAL BS, Like she does knows the real Obama! The more I study about the Ayes connection, the more I find out that it's BS and there is no connection and how she's a down right liar. Ayes was never convicted and cleaned up his act since the Vietnam war. Most of all, Obama doesn't know him well!
Don't insult the American people's intelligence with this questioning of patriotism of someone from a different background.
If this keeps up, more Americans will be labeled un-american because their different.
This goes for Palin and goes for Fox News as well.
Ayers confessed his guilt. As for "never convicted": Mr. Ayers is probably safe from prosecution anyway. A spokeswoman for the Justice Department said there was a five-year statute of limitations on Federal crimes except in cases of murder or when a person has been indicted.
Now that both Obama and Ayers are stinking rich, perhaps Mr. Ayers will have the guts to implement his ideology: Mr. Ayers, who in 1970 was said to have summed up the Weatherman philosophy as: "Kill all the rich people. Break up their cars and apartments. Bring the revolution home, kill your parents, that's where it's really at," is today distinguished professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Yeah. Burn, baby, burn the crooked-deal Obama mansion.
Posted by: ed ||
10/06/2008 16:18
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#12
Very interesting. Did Ayers and Dohrn convert to islam or did they name their kids in solidarity with the Black Panther terrorists they ran with.
Today, Mr. Ayers and Ms. Dohrn, 59, who is director of the Legal Clinic's Children and Family Justice Center of Northwestern University, seem like typical baby boomers, caring for aging parents, suffering the empty-nest syndrome. Their son, Malik, 21, is at the University of California, San Diego; Zayd, 24, teaches at Boston University.
Posted by: ed ||
10/06/2008 16:27
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#13
I think you failed.
"Most of all, Obama doesn't know him well"
Ayers was already on those city boards that Obama joined with his own resources.
I don't see a shred of evidence to prove they shared any kind of idealogy.
I do hear about some fellow POW who say McCain wasn't honest about his defiance against North Vietnamese.
I find it disgusting that he dumped his cripped wife for an rich heiress.
I find it disgusting that McCain was part of the Keating Five Scandal.
I find it disgusting that McCain claims he will save the econcomy but on mulitple youtube videos you can find him stating that he doesn't know much about the economy or finance, he needs to be educated.
McCain is an OLD FART who doesn't know much and depends on others who decide for him.
When I want something done, I don't go out to look for a 72 yr old to get this done.
Palin doesn't know crap about being a VP or about issues.
Obama's going to win it because McCain has too much baggage, besides being old as dirt.
#16
G&T, do you believe Ayers set off bombs at both the Capitol and Pentagon? Did his group the Weather Underground commit terrorism and murder? Given Ayers confession anfd Ayers and Dohrn's admission that they would do it again and wished they did more, do you believe it is moral that they got off scott free on an old statute of limitations for setting bombs instead of serving time for a terroristic crime he freely admits he committed?
"Most of all, Obama doesn't know him well"
Where in the world did you get that? It wasn't in the NYT article that I linked. Did you get that from the Daily Kos talking points, because Ayers and Obama knew each other very well. Even David Axelrod has said Obama and Ayers have a very friendly relationship. Obama knew his friend Ayers well enough and was comforable enough to announce the start of his political candidacy at Ayers house.
Obama and Ayers worked together for several years as co-directors of the Woods Foundation and disciples of the Communist Saul Alinsky. They had a jolly good time indoctrinating indoctrinating school children and bankrolling the premier voter fraud organization in the US, ACORN, via their control the $100 million Annenberg Challenge funds.
You want to know who Barak Hussein Obama is? Look at his flaky socialist mother and grandfather, his Communist Party USA childhood mentor, his racist-marxist preacher Wright, his Communist adult mentor Alinsky. An extremely ugly portrait.
Posted by: ed ||
10/06/2008 16:58
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#5 Want just ONE good reason to get out the vote for McCain/Palin on November 4th?
Contemplate the make-up of a federal judiciary after four years of an Obama administration with both Houses of Congress controled by the Dems.
Posted by Mark
Need another reason or two? Who do you think will hand out the $ 700B in USD from the bailout booty? Who (what special groups) do you think it will go to?
#18
GolfBravo has a good post on the RNC unloading their info on the Ayers-Obama connection.
Take a look for yourself Gleamp - just take care your head doesn't explode.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
10/06/2008 17:15
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Tom Hayden was part of the SDS/Weathermen. He was formerly married to Jane Fonda. Kathy Boudin (born 1943) is an American radical, who was convicted in 1984 for her involvement in the 1981 Brink's robbery that resulted in the killing of three people, and who became a public health expert while in prison. Ayres and his wife shared guardianship of Boudin's child, Chesa while Boudin and Gilbert were in prison. One should check out the Port Huron statement published by Tom Hayden if they would like to know the agenda of the left during the 60s and 70s. It hasn't changed much since that time.
#20
#13 G&T wrote: [i]I find it disgusting that McCain was part of the Keating Five Scandal.[/i]
Did you see Senator John Glenn at Ohio State over the weekend with Bruce Springsteen? Glenn is a Keating Five alum and Springsteen was in the E Street Band!
#21
McCain and Glenn were exonerated. The other 3, all Democrats, were not.
Posted by: ed ||
10/06/2008 18:29
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#22
I TOTALLY agree with Gleamp and Tenille. McCain is an "OLD FART" who is "old as dirt." That's all we really need to know. Being old is a fu*king crime in America, or at least it should be. They consume without giving back. Everyone who is old should die. We don't need their advice or experience. Young people are better. Kill the old people. Kill the fu*king babies, too. I hate them all for what they do to this country, and I'm glad Gleamp and Tenille have the guts to bring it out in the open. The only worthwhile people are the 15-45 crowd. Everyone else is expendable. And f*ck the Christians too.
America is OVER. OVER. We've had our day in the sun. Now it's time we pay our dues. Obama ingratiates himself to the Moslems and the left because he sees the writing on the wall. Ayers names his kids after Moslems FOR A REASON. A good reason.
We need a jihad here in America. The kind of jihad that is a real "holy war." A war against corruption, greed. We need change. We need Obama.
I'm changing my name to "pro-lib" since after this election campaign cycle, I've come full circle.
And I think the info at http://sweetness-light.com show JUST HOW FAR people will go to smear Obama.
Obama. Obama. Obama.
I love Obama. Obama will make us liked all over the world. Obama will give the riches of this country to the rest of world, which is the right thing to do. I hope Bill Ayers and George Soros and Khadaffi continue to help Obama as much as possible.
Besides that--did anyone see how he kissed Biden's wife on the lips--eyes closed and everything? Gawd, he's so sexy.
I think Obama was right when he said in his book that he's a blank slate upon which people write their own hopes and aspirations. My aspiration is to JUST ONCE, to touch him. To shake his hand.
#30
I watched Sarah Palin close up and live at the Tennis Stadium in LA on October 4th. If you have not seen this woman working a standing room only crowd of thousands you are missing out. She is a force to be reckoned with and she indeed took off the gloves on Saturday. It was a crowd of yound and old and Asian, Black and Latino and White. She is a wonder to behold!
#33
Obama may be flawed; He may not be the shining hope that his campaign would have the American people believe, but over the last 8 years the "group think" of people such as frequent this forum has acted as cheerleader to one of the worst Presidents America has ever experienced. While you screeched his praises and belittled his critics, he has presided over the economic transformation of billions of surplus to trillions of deficit. He has made America internationally synonymous with torture. He has watched as millions more Americans have lost health insurance cover. He has moved the relative burden of taxation from the richest to the rest (even Buffett doesn't argue this as fair). As the Dow, FTSE, CAC-40 etc continue to plummet, you will excuse me if I don't trust your judgement (or that of Prof Palin) in matters of appropriate leadership........
#37
He has moved the relative burden of taxation from the richest to the rest (even Buffett doesn't argue this as fair).
Isn't Buffet the guy who made billions of dollars buying bankrupt businesses from heirs who couldn't pay the estate tax he drones on and on about the country needing?
#38
Damn shame it is, as a non-US citizen you can't vote for any of them. I could give a flying phuech what a Canadian, Mexican, or European thinks of this process or it's participants.
#39
He has moved the relative burden of taxation from the richest to the rest
Have you actually looked up the % of taxes paid by the upper 5% or 10% of wage earners? [Rhetorial question because by laying out the usual class warfare dialectic you show you haven't.] That's the burden.
Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Kurbi called on Saturday for the immediate release of two nationals whose convictions on terrorism charges have been overturned by a US federal appeals court. The minister said that his government would "continue its efforts to secure the release, at the earliest opportunity" of the two Yemenis whose convictions for Al-Qaeda membership were quashed on Thursday.
The Second United States Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the convictions of Sheikh Mohammad Ali al-Moayad and Mohammad Zayed, who had been sentenced to 75 and 45 years in jail respectively. After the ruling, the two - who were arrested in Germany in 2003 and extradited to the US for trial- were put under the jurisdiction of another judge and could be retried at a later date.
The appeals court said that the convictions against Moayad, 60, and Zayed, 34, for giving financial support to Al-Qaeda and Hamas were based on "highly inflammatory and irrelevant" testimony from third parties who had unfairly influenced the jury.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/06/2008
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Posted by: Mike ||
10/06/2008 10:49
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#10
Hourglass figure? Looks more like a super-sized version of daylight savings time t'me.....
(of course she would come in handy in the desert, providing protection from the sun)
A man detonated a suicide vest inside a home in northern Iraq as U.S. forces were trading gunfire with its occupants, according to the American military. Eleven Iraqis were killed in the operation early Sunday.
No U.S. casualties were reported in the incident in Mosul, where war continues to rage despite a sharp drop in violence in much of the rest of the country.
At least five other Iraqis were killed Sunday in the city, which is about 240 miles north of Baghdad. Four were slain when gunmen opened fire during a funeral in the Zanjili area of Mosul, and an Iraqi police officer was shot by a sniper elsewhere in the city, according to local police and Interior Ministry officials.
The American raid occurred early Sunday morning as U.S. troops sought to capture a wanted man, according to an Iraqi army source and a statement from U.S. forces. People in the residence began shooting and U.S. troops returned fire, the military said. A man in the house then detonated a suicide vest, it said.
Eleven people died during the operation -- five suspected insurgents, three women and three children aged 2 to 4, according to the military.
It was not clear how many died in the firefight and how many perished in the explosion, said a U.S. military spokesman, Tech. Sgt. Chris Stagner.
After securing the house, troops searched it and discovered explosives and small arms, the statement said. Two other children, one of them injured, were found nearby, it said.
"This is just another tragic example of how al-Qaeda in Iraq hides behind innocent Iraqis," said another military spokesman, Rear Adm. Patrick Driscoll, referring to the largely homegrown Sunni insurgent group active here.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/06/2008
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#1
prolly a good sign they picked the right house
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/06/2008 4:01
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al-Qaeda's thirst for dead children... slacken...ahhhhh
Exiled Hamas supremo Khaled Meshaal has called for a thaw in ties between Saudi Arabia and Syria during a recent visit to Gulf kingdom, an Arab diplomat said on Sunday. "During meetings with Saudi officials, Meshaal raised the issue of Saudi-Syrian relations, which have long been tense, and stressed the importance of improving those ties," the diplomat told AFP, requesting anonymity.
Relations between Riyadh and Damascus have been tense since the February 2005 assassination of Lebanese former Premier Rafik Hariri, a close Saudi ally, in a bombing widely blamed on Syria. Meshaal, who lives in exile in Syria, visited the Saudi holy city of Mecca in September to perform the umrah, or lesser pilgrimage, and to meet with Saudi officials. Fresh tensions between Syria and Saudi Arabia surfaced after a deadly car bombing in Damascus last month that killed 17 people, with Syrian official media complaining that the Saudi authorities did not condemn the attack. Syrian authorities blocked the distribution of the Saudi-owned pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat after the September 27 car bombing, the paper's Beirut bureau chief told AFP on Thursday.
The head of the Palestinian Islamist Hamas also met in Mecca with Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, the Arab diplomat said. Meshaal also met with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman for talks on Cairo's efforts to broker a reconciliation between Hamas and the rival Fatah party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the diplomat added.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/06/2008
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#1
"Supremo". Heh. What's that mean, he's like the disco king of Damascus?
(PTI) Rattled by a string of audacious suicide bombings across Pakistan, President Asif Ali Zardari has called a joint session of parliament where lawmakers will get a rare briefing by top military and intelligence officials on efforts to take "head-on" the raging militancy.
Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani today also approved a comprehensive plan to heighten security for the top leadership in the wake of an unsuccessful attempt on the life of Awami National Party chief Asfandyar Wali Khan, a key leader of the Pakistan People's Party-led ruling coalition.
The two also finalised the agenda for the special in-camera joint session on Wednesday during a meeting at the presidential palace.
It was the second meeting between the two leaders since yesterday, when Zardari decided to call the joint session of parliament after talks with the Prime Minister and the army chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.
Kayani, Director General of Military Operations and chiefs of the Inter-Services Intelligence Agency (ISI) and Military Intelligence are expected to take part in the briefing.
At the meeting, Zardari and Gilani exchanged views on "matters of national importance, including the prevailing security situation as well as the challenges facing the country", state-run APP news agency reported.
TV channels quoted official sources as saying that the government had decided to "tackle the issue of militancy head-on" and wanted to take elected representatives into confidence during the joint session of parliament.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/06/2008
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Turkey pressed neighboring Iraq on Saturday to take action against Kurdish rebels after they killed 15 Turkish soldiers near a border outpost, in the rebels' single deadliest attack against Turkish forces this year.
Retaliatory strikes by Turkish warplanes, helicopter gunships and heavy artillery into northern Iraq killed at least 23 of the Kurdish rebels, Brig. Gen. Metin Gurak, a Turkish military spokesman, told reporters in Ankara, the capital.
Turkey said its forces were seeking two soldiers abducted during the fighting. A local civilian official at the scene said helicopters were patrolling the skies over the border.
Most of Turkey's casualties occurred in fighting Friday near an army post in the village of Aktutun, six miles from the border, Gurak said.
Emin Sari, a city councilman in Semdinli, the town nearest Aktutun, said by telephone that the rebels attacked soldiers in the mountains around the outpost around 1 p.m. Friday. The rebels were equipped with rocket launchers, rocket-propelled grenades and what appeared to be antiaircraft artillery, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/06/2008
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(Xinhua) -- A senior Hamas leader stressed on Saturday that his movement rejects holding early legislative elections and forming a new technocrat Palestinian government.
"Hamas welcomes forming a unity government as part of the comprehensive dialogue, as well as reforming the security apparatus on professional basis," Ismail Radwan, a senior Hamas leader in Gaza said in a statement. He added "the reason why Hamas rejects forming a technocrat government is that it will be rootless and not publicly supported, therefore, it won't succeed in implementing the Palestinians' national goals."
Hamas movement, which took control of the Gaza Strip by force in mid-June last year, has overwhelmingly won the last legislative elections in January 2006. "We reject discussing the idea of holding early legislative elections because it will be an over-jump to the will of the Palestinian people and a replacement of the legally elected leaders," said Radwan.
Ineffectual Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had earlier stated that the success of the comprehensive dialogue due to be held in Cairo early November depends on implementing a Yemeni initiative of reconciliation. The Yemeni initiative, which calls for forming a new Palestinian government that prepares for early presidential and legislative elections, was adopted by the Arab summit which was held in Damascus in late March.
"If we assume that early legislative elections were held in the Palestinian territories and Hamas won again, would the world stance towards the movement be changed? For sure, it won't," said Radwan.
Earlier on Saturday, Jamil al-Majdalawi, a senior Popular Front to Liberate Palestine leader told reporters that there are indications that Hamas might accept holding early presidential and legislative elections at the same time. He said that through a series of meetings his group had held with Hamas leaders recently, he felt that Hamas may finally accept early elections.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/06/2008
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Phil Woolas, previously an Environment Minister, was handed the brief despite infuriating the Pakistani community earlier this year by warning they were fuelling birth defects by inter-marrying. He also caused anger following the Oldham race riots by calling for 'the reality of anti-white racism' to be acknowledged. His appointment was part of a raft of junior ministerial changes announced by Gordon Brown yesterday.
A tribal jirga in Orakzai Agency has decided that 'outsiders' will not be allowed to enter the area, and anyone found providing shelter to 'outsiders' will be shot dead and his house set on fire, Express News reported on Sunday.
According to the channel, the Ali Khel jirga has also banned the 'brandishing of arms'. It also instructed men to stop hiding their faces behind large cloths. The jirga also constituted a committee to destroy the Taliban training camp in the area, the channel said, adding that the Ali Khel and Feroze Khel tribes had formed a tribal lashkar to combat Taliban.
Taliban had started leaving the area. The local Taliban said they were leaving the area so that peace could be maintained and it should not be taken as their weakness, the channel added.
It said 14 Taliban, including local commander Abdusalam Ali Khel, had been released from Dabori area of Orakzai. Taliban had vacated a high school building and the Tali Fort in Ali Khel, while also clearing the road to Chapri Feroze Khel.
Meanwhile, thousands of tribal elders and ulema belonging to the Mandal, Charmang and Mamond tribes in Bajaur Agency announced their full support to the government in restoring peace in the area. The tribes made the announcement during grand jirgas held in their respective areas on Sunday. The jirgas also decided to form local lashkars to combat Taliban.
Meanwhile, only 15, 000 of an estimated 80,000 Afghans had left Bajaur despite a three-day ultimatum expiring Sunday, AP reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/06/2008
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#1
So how many houses are they going to burn? Will they need more marshmellows? War is hell without a good supply of marshmellows.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
10/06/2008 8:23
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#2
Wasn't there a kind of Orc in Lord of the Rings called the Fighting Orakzai?
Two important Taliban commanders were killed in an exchange of fire with the security forces in Matta tehsil in the restive Swat district on Sunday. A spokesman of the Swat Media Centre told APP that Taliban commanders Ayub and Amir Zaib were killed when they clashed with the security forces during a search operation in Sambat area of Matta. Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) confirmed that a Taliban hideout had also been destroyed in the operation.
Earlier, a remote controlled roadside bomb hit a military convoy in Sambat, injuring two soldiers and a civilian. Official sources told Daily Times that soon after the blast, the troops resorted to firing that killed a man and a woman.
Meanwhile, people are facing acute problems due to the continuous disruption of electricity in different areas of Swat. Locals said WAPDA officials were providing electricity to 13 feeders for only two hours a day. There is also a severe shortage of clean drinking water in the district due to the disrupted electricity.
This article starring:
Matta tehsil
AMIR ZAIB
TTP
Posted by: Fred ||
10/06/2008
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India's minister of state for external affairs welcomed Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari's statement that Kashmiri militants are terrorists, but Kashmiri political parties reacted sharply.
"President Zardari's statement describing militants in Jammu and Kashmir as terrorists, a statement made, perhaps, for the first time by a top Pakistani leader which is in contrast with its earlier position of terming militants as jehadis, is confirmation of India's assertions all these years," minister of state for external affairs Anand Sharma told reporters in Shimla. "Zardari's statement is a welcome step. President Zardari and Pakistan should honour the words with action in curbing terrorism."
However, PDP president Mehbooba Mufti said Zardari needs to be updated about the situation in Kashmir. "The violence in the Valley is on decline. It's Pakistan and India which are confronted with terror attacks. The people of Kashmir have never approved of any kind of violence, particularly against civilians. The movement for permanent settlement of Kashmir issue is peaceful as evident from peaceful demonstration over a period of three months in Kashmir."
Hurriyat leaders, too, slammed Zardari for his statement. Fazal Haq Qureshi, a senior Hurriyat leader, told TOI that Kashmiri militants have always behaved within the parameters of humanity.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/06/2008
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(PTI) Not ruling out the possibility of V Prabhakaran fleeing the embattled north as troops advance into the rebel-held territory, Sri Lankan Army Chief Sarath Fonseka has said the LTTE supremo could not survive from his hideouts for long. "If Prabhakaran has a wee bit of brains left in him he should give up the battle now. He will soon realise that fighting with us is useless. Otherwise he has to remain in fighting, sacrificing over 20 to 30 LTTE cadres daily while constructing more graves to honour the dead cadres," Fonseka told the state-run 'The Sunday Observer' newspaper.
On whether the Tiger leader will try to escape, Fonseka said "yes, he can escape." "But I do not know whether he can just escape leaving his cadres and people at this stage. But as a person who loves his life more than anything he is not going to sit and die." Prabhakaran "will disguise and flee to somewhere," the army chief said, adding "the LTTE might have various connections with all terrorist groups in the world and some would lend a helping hand for him."
The army chief claimed the LTTE has lost about 11,000 cadres during the last two years and said the troops moved 60 kilometres deep into the Tiger stronghold of Wanni since March 2007. "The LTTE is now left with 4,000 cadres and they can conscript more, but how long can they do that?" Fonseka said. "This is a decisive period of the LTTE and Prabhakaran needs to decide not only his fate, but also the fate of his cadres soon."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/06/2008
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At least five Taliban were killed when security forces targeted suspected Taliban hideouts in Bajaur Agency on Sunday with heavy artillery and helicopter gunships. Eight Taliban were injured in the operation in Tang Khata, Rashakai, Khazana, Kausar and Shinkot. APP quoted a Frontier Corps press release as saying that six Taliban wearing the FC uniform were killed in Khazana.
Meanwhile, seven people were injured when a remote controlled bomb exploded at the hujra (guesthouse) of a tribal elder in Pusht in Salarzai tehsil. The bomb was placed in a plastic bag at the main entrance leading to the hujra of former parliamentarian Shahabuddin Khan. Separately, five people were killed and three injured after clashes between tribal rivals in North Waziristan.
Posted by: Fred ||
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A federal judge is considering whether to order a group of detainees held at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay released into the United States, in what would instantly become a landmark legal decision in the years-long battle over the rights of terrorism suspects there.
The men, a small band of Chinese Muslims who have been held for nearly seven years, are no longer considered enemy combatants by the U.S. government, but they are caught in a well-documented diplomatic bind. Unlike other captives, they cannot be sent to their home country because Beijing considers them terrorists, and they might be tortured. The government released five of the detainees, known as Uighurs (pronounced "WEE-gurz"), to Albania in 2006, but no other country wants to risk offending China by accepting the others.
The Uighurs' attorneys argue that the men have been confined for too long on flimsy evidence and pose no security threat to the United States. The lawyers want them released into this country -- most likely into the Washington area, where there is a Uighur community -- suggesting that authorities could supervise them much as they monitor criminal defendants released pending trial. Later, the government could find the Uighurs another home, the lawyers say.
At a hearing in August, U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina spoke at length about the case's complex issues and hinted that he was intrigued by the detainees' proposal. "I don't understand why that would not be a viable option," he said.
I don't understand why they can't come and stay a at Hizzoner's house. I'll bet he's got plenty of room in his basement.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/06/2008
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
#1
I would like to send 'em back to the ChiComs. I think what the Chinese do with them is no concern of ours. These guys weren't captured on the battlefield by accident.
#2
After all, we all here just loves it when the mexican government won't send a murder or rapist back to the US because we might, GASP!, execute the miscreant...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
10/06/2008 11:41
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#3
This group of Uighurs has managed to convince the judge (and maybe themselves and maybe the Justice Dept.) that they are idiosyncratic jihadists who hate the Chicoms but love the US evne both countries are ruled by infidels.
Its a tough case and I can't bring myself to condemn Judge Urbina because I can't figure out what to do either. Furthermore, the model where they go into the US civilian population and are eventually relocated to a country which can deny knowing about their jihadist belief may actually work -- of course it is more likely to fail with the failure being either criminal activity while being in the US civilian population or going anti US jihadist when they get to their destination country.
Mauritanian pro-democracy parties were set to defy a ban and hold an anti-coup demonstration on Sunday, one day before an African Union (AU) deadline for the junta to reinstate the ousted president.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/06/2008
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Government forces neared the Tamil Tiger rebels' main town in new fighting that left 29 guerrillas and five soldiers dead, the military said on Sunday.
The heaviest fighting was very near the rebels' administrative capital of Kilinochchi, where 20 guerrillas and four soldiers died on Saturday, military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said. The army says its soldiers are now only just over two kilometres from the outer limits of the town.
Kilinochchi was the meeting place between the rebels and various visiting diplomats during a Norwegian-brokered peace process that was officially called off early this year. Nanayakkara said four other rebels and a soldier were killed in clashes in the Vavuniya and Welioya regions.
Soldiers overran five rebel bunkers in the Mullaitivu district on Saturday and killed five rebels, the military said. The clashes left nine bunkers in government hands, it said in a statement. Rebel officials could not be contacted for comment because most communication lines to guerrilla-dominated areas have been severed. Most independent observers and reporters are barred from the war zone, making it difficult to verify the military's claims.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/06/2008
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Choked off from the outside world under a tight Israeli blockade; Gaza smugglers boast about the hundreds of tunnels breaking the siege and connecting the impoverished strip to neighboring Egypt.
Gazans in desperate need of goods, such as food and medicine, say their city is rife with tunnels and smuggling has now become a lucrative business in the densely populated area. "The ground at Rafah is a real Swiss cheese. If there were an earthquake the whole lot would cave in," the boss of one of the tunnels told AFP.
Paging the Halliburton Earthquake/Tsunami division to the white courtesy phone ...
"People come from everywhere to find work: Gaza, Jabaliyah, Deir al-Balah ... This tunnel alone keeps 15 families alive," he said.
The exact number of tunnels is impossible to verify but the rapid growth of excavation work is plain for all to see.
At 10 in the morning in Rafah, the only sounds come from the nearby border, where the grinding of motors draws attention to smugglers busy digging more passages beneath this sandy frontier. The presence of scores of tunnels is revealed by plastic huts camouflaging their entrances and by the heaps of earth visible along the 14-kilometre (8.5-mile) demarcation line. "It is a growth industry because of the blockade of Gaza and the closure of frontiers," said Abu Khaled, in charge of one of the sites, where tunnelling began 10 days ago.
Around his tent alone, three more tunnels are under construction.
Not very long ago it was difficult to meet smugglers or talk to them, but now they operate openly and with everyone's knowledge and they are not bothered by anyone except, they say, when it comes to paying taxes to the Hamas government, which controls Gaza.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/06/2008
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#1
Another episode in the making of Meerkat Manor.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/06/2008 1:48
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#2
Any chance of the sea entering the tunnel systems and sinking Gaza?
#4
Earthquake? Hmmm...
Wonder how 200 155mm cannon firing high explosive shells would affect the works. I'm sure there's not a part of the Gaza/Egyptian border Israel couldn't hit. While they're shelling, sneaking in a few cannon-deployed acoustical mines that won't become active until two or three days after the shelling. Might have quite a bit of fun before it's all over.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/06/2008 14:46
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#5
Didn't Ariel Sharon, or someone, advocate building a canal along the border - not very wide, but very deep. Obviously, nothing will stop a truly committed smuggler, but having to dig an extra 50 or 100 feet down would slow them down.
And of course, all the existing tunnels would be immediately filled with water. (Not that there is anything wrong with that.)
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
10/06/2008 20:34
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(Xinhua) -- Mexican police found the bodies of ten murdered victims Saturday in the northwestern city of Tijuana which borders the United States, after dozens of people were killed last week amid escalated drug gang clashes.
Five of the bodies were found Saturday in a small lane between two shopping centers in the eastern part of the city, while another five were discovered in a van which has a U.S. license plate, a police spokesman said. Investigators said all the victims had been beaten before being executed, and two of them were beheaded.
The criminals left a piece of cardboard with retaliation messages on the scene, local media reported.
In an interview with local media on Saturday, Rommel Moreno, attorney general of Baja California state, blamed the rampant violence on the escalating conflicts between feuding drug gangs. He said more than 420 people have been killed in drug-related violence in Tijuana so far this year.
Tijuana is one of the most violent cities in Mexico where drug, weapons, and human traffickers as well as kidnapping gangs are held responsible for most of the violent crimes. More than 60 people were murdered last week in Tijuana in increasing drug trade-related violence, according to the judicial authorities.
According to local media, at least 3,200 Mexicans have lost lives in violence related to organized crime or drug trafficking.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/06/2008
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#1
And MeCha waits/prays for AZATLAN...said org. sponsore by your local school districts...
Mayor of the central Mexican city of Ixtapan de la Sal was shot dead on Saturday, with drug cartel suspected to be responsible for the murder.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/06/2008
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#1
Like 1920's Chicago, pols either accept the bribe or the bullet. The historicaly deep Arab strain in Spanish/Latino bloodlines showing through with the rampant beheadings...
#3
I mean, we all understand that Mexico has problems but you're sounding just a wee bit racist there, borgboy, and I for one won't let it slide. I'm just as mad at Bush and McCain for their failure to secure the border as anybody. But you know, the violent criminal enterprise was never strictly a Spanish/Latino thing. White boys in this country who buy the drugs are just as much to blame as the thugs in Mexico. White businessmen who exploit cheap, illegal labor can share some of the blame too. And don't forget all the honest, hard working, family oriented Mexicans. In fact, I have long held the opinion that if the powers that be in this country really wanted to stop the drugs they could do it but there is plenty of corruption on both sides of the border. So don't try to pass that "Spanish/Latino bloodlines" crap unless you're prepared to defend it.
#5
not so, bigjim. Assaults, carjackings, rapes have become close to commonplace in certain areas, especially of gringos, and many times by uniformed assailants
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/06/2008 15:49
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#6
Most Mexicans are descended from the Indians not the Spanish.
#7
If the stuff I'm reading out of Cal and Texas is anything to go by, I wouldn't be caught dead in any Mex border town because I might end up staying dead if I was. Things are rough over there, as this story shows.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/06/2008
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#1
Just wait until McCain starts telling people about the DemonRats hands in the Fiancial Crisis (including Obama and the thugs at Acorn - Hannity covered this during his show today).
#2
If you ask a Donk what Swiftboating means they reply lies [though they haven't disproved the basic accusations]. You ask just about anyone else you get something along the lines of identifying shortcomings of the opponents record. Same here. In Obamaian Newspeak smear is their term for reporting the record. However, when they actually engage in an overt campaign of rumor mongering directed at Gov. Palin, its cool.
#4
Heard today Barack Hussein Obama is rolling out the Keating 5 Savings and Loan scandal. Only one problem, McCain and John Glenn (Democrat) were both exonerated. Alan Cranston, Dennis DeConcini, and Donald Riegle of the Keating 5 were all Democrats. BO will try to link McCain to Bush and the current economy. Palin and McCain ought to take the "Make my Day Punk Approach."
#5
I think the McCain campaign has done well up to this point, especially considering the money gap and msm narrative. One month left, 4th quarter, time to pull the stops and win this. They have quite a few advantages to play and they need to.
Without question Palin won the VP debate against Biden. This is important because Palin can frame the next presidential nominee debate (Tuesday 9ET). Most of the grunt work has been done so McCain needs to deliver. Stuff like "If Obama is about change then why does he and Biden agree with our platform?",
"Lawyers do not make decisions they influence people..judges make decisions. Both Obama and Biden are lawyers so where is the variety of background?",
"Why on the important subject of Russian policy did you Obama switch subjects and talk about housing?",
"It is so important for the president to be right the first time.. Obama's remarks about 10,000 people dying in Greensburg in the 53rd state of Cotex (a movement not too long ago for east CO, west KS, TX and OK panhandles to form their own state as a protest of tax dollars being funneled to urban areas, lost a lot of momentum with a silly name) from someone who wants to go 'all in', a desperate move in Texas Hold'em anyways, without knowing the rules of the game and how many cards are in a deck is not being strategic but foolish.",
"You explained your name is of Kenyan origin, did you know that the OIC has been disrupting the government and economy of Kenya keeping its citizens in poverty and killing innocents.",
"You accuse me of not being able to multitask well I'm here to tell you that it is tough enough to land a jet on an Aircraft Carrier nevermind fly a combat mission. If I wasn't able to multitask the Navy would not have even let me fly never mind performing combat sortees. As your running mate stated the economic crises was as dire as when FDR explained the situation on TV in 1932. Why, then as first and foremost a senator did you not participate in the crises though you claim to be the great uniter and wanting oversight, oversight which someone cannot be part of by calling in on the telephone?",
"The first appointee of a president is their choice for vice-president. Joe Biden, who was so wrong about so many topics during the debate, says he is going to carry the load of your policy advancements. Are you going to have someone else advance policies which you feel are important enough to become federal law or does Joe Biden not understand your intentions?"
I get the msm in the tank (2 chances left where the msm cannot ignore you), I get the Maverick meme; its go time lets get fired up.
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.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - Republican John McCain is calling Democratic rival Barack Obama a liar. 
AN asteroid discovered today will hit Earth's atmosphere over Sudan in a few hours but will burn up before it can hit the ground or endanger aircraft, astronomers say. The asteroid would create a large fireball about 10.46pm EDT (1.46pm AEST) as it burns up, a team at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics said.
It seems anxiety from the financial crisis is reaching new highs, but the tipping point for one individual came at the Lehman Brothers gym in the midst of the companys collapse.
Police have arrested six suspects for their alleged involvement in the kidnapping of a Polish engineer and for killing his driver and guards, police sources said on Sunday. The suspects are Khalid Ejaz, Rashid Hussain, Tasawar Hussain and Ikram Saeed, all residents of Pind Sultani, and Habibur Rehman and Akhtar Hussain who hail from Pind Sirhal. The Polish engineer was abducted and his driver and guards killed on September 28.
The Taliban are unusually angry about the latest suspected U.S. missile strike in Pakistan, a sign a top militant may have died in the attack, officials and residents said Sunday amid reports the death toll rose by two to 24.
Hezbollah officials have dismissed Israeli threats of massive destruction in a future conflict in Lebanon as "media war," speaking to the United Arab Emirates newspaper Al Ittihad. 
Turkey staged retaliatory airstrikes against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq on Sunday as thousands of Turks attended rain-lashed funerals for 15 soldiers killed by the rebels in a cross-border attack from Iraq. 
A Maoist leader has claimed responsibility for the death of a Hindu holy man whose murder sparked savage anti-Christian riots in India, news reports said Sunday.
In her first trip to the Bay Area as the GOP's vice presidential nominee, Sarah Palin today charged that Americans don't know "the real Barack Obama," suggesting that the John McCain campaign will sharpen its attacks in the final month of the campaign on Obama's biography as well as his platform.
A man detonated a suicide vest inside a home in northern Iraq as U.S. forces were trading gunfire with its occupants, according to the American military. Eleven Iraqis were killed in the operation early Sunday. 
Exiled Hamas supremo Khaled Meshaal has called for a thaw in ties between Saudi Arabia and Syria during a recent visit to Gulf kingdom, an Arab diplomat said on Sunday. "During meetings with Saudi officials, Meshaal raised the issue of Saudi-Syrian relations, which have long been tense, and stressed the importance of improving those ties," the diplomat told AFP, requesting anonymity. 
A tribal jirga in Orakzai Agency has decided that 'outsiders' will not be allowed to enter the area, and anyone found providing shelter to 'outsiders' will be shot dead and his house set on fire, Express News reported on Sunday.
Two important Taliban commanders were killed in an exchange of fire with the security forces in 
At least five Taliban were killed when security forces targeted suspected Taliban hideouts in Bajaur Agency on Sunday with heavy artillery and helicopter gunships. Eight Taliban were injured in the operation in Tang Khata, Rashakai, Khazana, Kausar and Shinkot. APP quoted a Frontier Corps press release as saying that six Taliban wearing the FC uniform were killed in Khazana. 
A federal judge is considering whether to order a group of detainees held at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay released into the United States, in what would instantly become a landmark legal decision in the years-long battle over the rights of terrorism suspects there. 
Choked off from the outside world under a tight Israeli blockade; Gaza smugglers boast about the hundreds of tunnels breaking the siege and connecting the impoverished strip to neighboring Egypt. 
