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Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Non-WoT        Politix   
IDF, Shin Bet Arrest 55 Terror Operatives In West Bank
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 4: Opinion
9 18:57 Vortigern Hupoluse1541 [336076] 
1 19:03 JosephMendiola [336080] 
2 22:21 Large Crusong3149 [336095] 
1 12:30 Bill Clinton [336075] 
3 12:47 Besoeker [336074] 
10 19:06 JosephMendiola [336079] 
2 09:48 M. Murcek [336075] 
2 17:14 Thing From Snowy Mountain [336073] 
2 13:40 Penguin [336071] 
Page 1: WoT Operations
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Page 2: WoT Background
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1 12:26 American Delight [336077]
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Page 6: Politix
1 22:51 Skidmark [336090]
Afghanistan
From one Karzai to another Karzai?
[Dawn] Among the many wild and woolly theories on the election doing the rounds of Kabul -- an example being the 'Putin model', whereby Karzai will elevate a pliable vice president to the presidency and run the administration from a lower position -- one name is consistently mentioned as a likely successor to Karzai: his elder brother, Qayyum Karzai.

"There is a lot of buzz in Kabul around the name of Qayyum Karzai," said Daud Sultanzai, a member of the Afghan parliament.

Sultanzai argued that while it was too early for Karzai to formally name a candidate, the president is keen to have someone from his camp succeed him as president.

Weighing in in the elder Karzai's favour is his position as President Karzai's confidant and canvasser for support, according to Ikram Shinwari, a veteran Kabul-based journalist. "Qayyum Karzai is the president's main lobbyist, meeting people in Afghanistan and abroad on the president's behalf and active in gathering support from tribal and business leaders," Shinwari said.

Yet, most analysts and politicians cautioned that it was too early to know if Qayyum Karzai would eventually get the nod to contest the presidential election, or even if he can win. According to Daud Sultanzai, the Afghan parliamentarian, other names in the presidential mix include Zalmay Khalilzad, the influential former US ambassador in Kabul; Ali Ahmad Jalali, a former interior minister; and Omar Daudzai, the Afghan ambassador in Islamabad who has previously served in Tehran.
Posted by: Fred || 11/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336073 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hamid Karzai isn't able to hold on without international Janissaries. What odds any of his relatives would be able to?
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/23/2012 12:37 Comments || Top||

#2  Hi, I'm Hamid, this is my brother Qayyum, and this is my other cousin Vladimir...
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 11/23/2012 17:14 Comments || Top||


Economy
Home Sweet Home Shipping Containers
Posted by: Dale || 11/23/2012 10:14 || Comments || Link || [336076 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Offshore living quarters greatly resemble shipping conainers with bunks and a seaworthy door.
Posted by: Glenmore || 11/23/2012 10:24 Comments || Top||

#2  But will those walls stop a bullet? They are supposed to be erected in Detroit, after all.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 11/23/2012 10:56 Comments || Top||

#3  For a fraction of the money spent on this, there could be an ad campaign urging people to move somewhere viable. The same people making the ads urging illegal aliens to sign up for food stamps and welfare could be engaged. They understand the target audience...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 11/23/2012 11:20 Comments || Top||

#4  You could buy a pile of Grayhound bus tickets to NW Dakota for the price of one of these, and there are lots of jobs there (and you'd still get to live in a shipping container.) Only problem is you have to be willing to work hard and able to pass random drug tests.
Posted by: Glenmore || 11/23/2012 12:58 Comments || Top||

#5  SMALL shipping containers. Often referred to as "dog kennels" by the occupants - not much larger than a kennel, either :-). Usually set up in old warehouses and hangars. Cost effective for the Army. Demoralizing for those on duty.
Posted by: Raider || 11/23/2012 13:07 Comments || Top||

#6  Golly gee wiz, what's old is new again. Maybe we can call it Cabrini-Detroit.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/23/2012 13:55 Comments || Top||

#7  CHU (containerized housing unit)

Better than a tent I assure you.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/23/2012 16:25 Comments || Top||

#8  I own two of these actually (plus a slightly smaller "off spec" container I use for a shop and a 1000 square foot "pig reefer" I use for food storage). I think think they should work fine. An 800-square-foot living or work space is small, but not unlivable. And they should be bullet proof enough for what gets tossed around in Detroit.
Posted by: Secret Master || 11/23/2012 16:26 Comments || Top||

#9  The problem with that Detroit project is that it will be done with "other peoples money" and using union labor. Also they are making the same design mistake of cramming a bunch of people into one location. Any savings generated by using the steel of the containers will be lost in the spiff up process and the following maintenance nightmares.
Posted by: Vortigern Hupoluse1541 || 11/23/2012 18:57 Comments || Top||


Great White North
Steyn: The Twinkie Curtain Descends
From the deplorably parochial coverage in the U.S. media, you’d almost get the impression that those iconic American delicacies of Twinkies and Wonder Bread have ceased production. That’s not true. They’ve just ceased production for Americans. Up north, the streets are paved with Twinkies, and every Canadian is walking in a Winter Wonderbreadland:

Twinkie and Wonder Bread lovers in the U.S. can still head north of the border to stock up on the baked goods even with the bankruptcy of Hostess Brands Inc.

Saputo Inc. (SAP), Canada’s largest dairy processor, has the trademark and brand rights to Hostess CupCakes and Hostess Twinkies in the country and manufactures the products themselves, said Sandy Vassiadis, a spokeswoman for the company.

“It’s totally separate,” she said, in an interview from Saputo’s headquarters near Montreal. “We own the rights in Canada so what’s happening in the U.S. doesn’t affect us.”

Happy the man who can say that as the fiscal cliff looms.

As pitiful Twinkieless Americans stampede for Vancouver, Windsor and Niagara, it would be tempting for gloating Canadians to descend into Twinkie triumphalism. But fortunately they’re mindful of Churchill’s injunction — in victory, magnanimity:

Sorry, guys, but we continue to beat your asses. (While making them bigger…)

P.S. If you want your authentically all-American Canadian-made Twinkies, my advice is get them soon, before the zealots of U.S. Homeland Security raise them to the threat level of Kinder Eggs.
Posted by: tipper || 11/23/2012 01:01 || Comments || Link || [336079 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Lousy bastids!!
Posted by: tu3031 || 11/23/2012 1:20 Comments || Top||

#2  Canadian century!
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/23/2012 1:50 Comments || Top||

#3  Buy American. Buy Tastykake.

I've always been a big fan. Pun intended.
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 11/23/2012 6:01 Comments || Top||

#4  I forgot about Canada. Distribution is different there. Vendors in remote areas have had distribution rights in difficult service areas. I believe Frito Lay was distributing them there also. Flowers owns Tastkake. Most of that distribution is nonunion. They will takeover companies that open up new market areas. Like Snyders of Hanover taking over Lance(Toms). Nonunion again. Smart move. New equipment, new warehouse space, distribution points. Delivery people must purchase their own routes. No employee issues.
Posted by: Dale || 11/23/2012 7:18 Comments || Top||

#5  ..doing the jobs Americans won't.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/23/2012 7:39 Comments || Top||

#6  Union Rules were Harder to Digest than Twinkies
Posted by: tipper || 11/23/2012 9:53 Comments || Top||

#7  I guess its back to RC and moon pies.
Posted by: Snaiting Snomort5669 || 11/23/2012 10:06 Comments || Top||

#8  One poster on Tippers link said forget them. Turn the factories in clothing manufactures. Because everyone will lose weight. Watch the first of the year what happens. Many in the clothing industry are just holding on till the first of the year. Holiday sales are their last hope. False hope because so much has been lost already.
Posted by: Dale || 11/23/2012 10:06 Comments || Top||

#9  Hmmm, Think about March is when everything is going to crash into the ground Dave. Holiday sales past, summer jobs gearing up(which won't be there), graduates looking for jobs.
Posted by: Charles || 11/23/2012 18:40 Comments || Top||

#10  Sniff, sniff, is there no love for Choco-diles + coconutty SnowBalls???

All your Snacks belong to us!
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 11/23/2012 19:06 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
How Gaza Changes Obama’s Second-Term Agenda
Posted by: tipper || 11/23/2012 08:30 || Comments || Link || [336080 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Many Perts, Bloggers includ Moi are expecting the Bammer's second term to be chaotic or anarchic, etc. anyway, vee pro-QE "Spend Spend Spend" Welfare-Nanny Super-Statism + domestic, foreign policy bugaloos.

Again, the post-Cold War, post-9-11 US is the broad "Tip of the Spear" when it comes to setting up OWG-NWO + "Global Federal Unions" - the prob for mainstream America = Amerikka is that despite doing so the Globies want the US to give it up.

E.G. CHINA DAILY FORUM > OBAMA'S SECOND TERM WILL BE CHALLENGING.

* TOPIX, WORLD NEWS > OBAMA SECOND TERM LIKELY TO BE CHAOTIC.

* Lest we fergit, 1990's CLINTONISM [paraph]> "THE USA-N-ONLY-THE-USA MUST BE RESTRAINED OR CONTROLLED".

D *** NG IT, ITS ONLY BEEN A MERE 15-20 YEARS SINCE BILLARY!
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 11/23/2012 19:03 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Islamic banking is a myth
Posted by: tipper || 11/23/2012 07:02 || Comments || Link || [336095 views] Top|| File under:

#1  In its intended form, Islamic banking as advocated by the Prophet would be close to venture capital or even a mutual fund – where the investor earns nothing if his money makes a business loss. He gets a share of profit or dividends if the venture or underlying investment makes a profit.

Kinda like tithing?
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/23/2012 8:17 Comments || Top||

#2  Here's another myth: Islam is a religion of peace.
Posted by: Large Crusong3149 || 11/23/2012 22:21 Comments || Top||


Blindfolded by Muslim brotherhood
Posted by: tipper || 11/23/2012 06:20 || Comments || Link || [336075 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Wow,
I have to recant.
There IS a RATIONAL moslem out there.
Well written.
I doubt if anyone on the crescent moon side of the aisle will ever admit to one scintella of truth in this.
Posted by: Bill Clinton || 11/23/2012 12:30 Comments || Top||


Kasab's execution
[Dawn] THE secret execution and burial of Ajmal Kasab, the sole gunman to survive the 2008 tragedy in Mumbai, revives the memory of a senseless but well-planned act of mass murder that brought Pakistain and India to the brink of war. Four years later, many questions still remain unanswered on this side of the border: who were the brains behind the slaughter of the innocent civilians? What did they propose to achieve? Where and how were the gunnies trained and armed? Who brainwashed them into undertaking that ignoble mission? Who provided the operational facilities, including the boat journey to the Indian port? And why did these activities go unnoticed in Pakistain? Subsequently, the authorities in Islamabad acted to establish facts that distanced the state from the work of a few fanatic killers. But that doesn't serve to hide the shortcomings in the working of Pakistain's anti-terrorism apparatus and its inability to keep tabs on organizations -- not necessarily banned -- which manage to amass enough resour-ces to run clandes-tine cells that undertake fiendish operations of such magnitude.

The Pak part of the trial is dragging on, prompting allegations from New Delhi that Islamabad is not serious. The fact that the prosecution came up with some new information about the Pak handlers of the suspects and the money transfer mechanism to shed some light on the case gives hope that the case will be pursued with speed and that justice will be done so that those responsible for the massacre are exposed. Above all, Paks deserve to know what the government intends to do to ensure that such a tragedy is not repeated. The issue is linked to the hydra-headed monster that terrorism has become for us. Militants are now operating throughout Pakistain and feel free to choose their targets, strike at will and plan operations abroad. The lesson to be drawn from the Mumbai events and its aftermath is that the government must make efforts to ensure that the state and citizens unite to root out what has become the biggest threat to our peace of mind as well as to our own and regional security.
Posted by: Fred || 11/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336075 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  **** cough **** cough **** ...

D *** NGED TURKEY DAY COOKIES!
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 11/23/2012 0:06 Comments || Top||

#2  Too bad we don't do that to clowns like Nidal Hasan here...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 11/23/2012 9:48 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Gaza ceasefire: Syria's shrinking influence now exposed
[Guardian.CO.UK]
Posted by: Fred || 11/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336071 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  Egypt needs 5 billion $ loans every year just to buy enough wheat to keep famine away---that's some regional power.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/23/2012 4:06 Comments || Top||

#2  Important fact from the article:

" in the eight days of Operation Pillar of Defence 160 Palestinians were killed by Israel. In the same period, Syrian forces killed 817 civilians and injured thousands."
Posted by: Penguin || 11/23/2012 13:40 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Too Few Oppressors, Too Many Victims
h/t Gates of Vienna
Since the election, some fatalistic Washington conservative elites have accepted — and Obama operatives have rejoiced in — a supposedly new and non-white-male ethnic electorate: Americans will be categorized, and collectively so, on the basis of largely how they look and, to a lesser extent, how they sound. Republicans, then, better get with the new tribalism and remarket themselves to address the new minority monolith.

Accordingly, the enlightened and redeemable liberal elements of the otherwise now played-out old white majority, when combined with the new ethnic minorities, will result in a permanent progressive majority — one that rejects the archaic, if not toxic, racialist values that have been in the past so injurious to the idea of what the United States might have otherwise become. Just imagine a better world with no more required reading of white male Greeks, no more inordinate focus on Shakespeare’s Shylock, no need to suffer through Twain’s N-word or Tolkien’s stereotypical dark-skinned orcs — or indeed, the one-dimensional and boring world we inherited from a Jefferson, Madison, Melville, Lincoln, Grant, Edison, Bell, TR, Salk, Nimitz, and Ike.

...Land of the Bad

If we are to live in a tribal society, at least get the narrative down to avoid embarrassing contradictions. America was a racist patriarchy of homophobic, intolerant nativists that exploited others — somehow to build the Hoover dam, invent electricity, create the largest economy in the world, provide a model for globalization, and craft the most inspired constitution in the history of civilization. Do Oaxacans flock to this terrible place on the theory that it is not necessarily any better than Mexico but that it belonged to their ancestors — in a way Oaxaca (where are they leaving from) did not?

Thus the dilemma: most in the world wish to emigrate to the one place that is held to be unfair and biased and in need of radical change. But if the United States begins to change and operate on the economic, political or cultural principles of Bolivia, Uganda, the Philippines, China, or Oaxaca, will millions still wish to come here, or will they prefer Uganda and Bolivia?

It is very American to find an “edge.” In the bad old days, that meant having an uncle who was in the butchers’ union, or a cousin in the fire department, or a granddad who gave money to Yale, or a sister who was married to the dean of the law school. So perhaps the world of Elizabeth Warren’s con is long overdue.

Only in America can we be all that we wish to be — by just declaring ourselves to be among the growing number of victims rather than among shrinking pool of oppressors.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/23/2012 02:07 || Comments || Link || [336074 views] Top|| File under:

#1  One obvious answer is for victims to unionize and demand more oppressors and increased victimization.
Posted by: SteveS || 11/23/2012 8:27 Comments || Top||

#2  will millions still wish to come here, or will they prefer Uganda and Bolivia?

From a tru globalist's perspective, if the willing inflow and outflow from each country to each country is not equal, then the system is unfair.
Posted by: Glenmore || 11/23/2012 10:21 Comments || Top||

#3  But if the United States begins to change and operate on the economic, political or cultural principles of Bolivia, Uganda.....

The "change" began quite some time ago and it recently accelerated to warp-speed.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/23/2012 12:47 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
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9Arab Spring
5Govt of Pakistan
4TTP
3Govt of Syria
3Hamas
2al-Shabaab
2Taliban
1Houthis
1Commies
1al-Qaeda in Pakistan
1Govt of Iran
1Govt of Sudan
1Hezbollah

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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.
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Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
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Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2012-11-23
  IDF, Shin Bet Arrest 55 Terror Operatives In West Bank
Thu 2012-11-22
  Mashaal: I accept a Palestinian state on '67 borders
Wed 2012-11-21
  'Bomb blast' on bus in Tel Aviv
Tue 2012-11-20
  Female Suicide Boomer Targets Qazi
Mon 2012-11-19
  Israeli Strikes Kill 21 Palestinians, Gaza Rockets Wound 10 Israelis
Sun 2012-11-18
  Israeli air strikes pound Gaza as death toll hits 38
Sat 2012-11-17
   Israel air strikes hit Hamas HQ
Fri 2012-11-16
  Israel Warns of Escalation After Tel Aviv Missile Firing
Thu 2012-11-15
  Gaza missiles fired at Tel Aviv
Wed 2012-11-14
  France recognizes rebel coalition as legitimate rulers of Syria
Tue 2012-11-13
  Jamaat, Shibir go berserk in Bangla
Mon 2012-11-12
  Govt. Soldiers shoot it out in Mogadishu
Sun 2012-11-11
  IDF Changes Rules of Engagement Along Syrian Border
Sat 2012-11-10
  Mexican police charged over US embassy staff shooting
Fri 2012-11-09
  David Petraeus resigns from CIA

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