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Lankan Army seizes entire west coast from LTTE
Today's Headlines
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Page 6: Politix
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Europe
Netherlands: Fraud At 86% Of Islamic Schools
To any of our fellow Conservatives who think school vouchers are a good idea, get a load of this.
THE HAGUE, 14/11/08 - Nearly nine out of 10 Islamic schools in the Netherlands spend government subsidies unlawfully. The education ministry confirmed yesterday following a report in De Telegraaf that 86 percent of the schools make fraudulent use of money.

De Telegraaf obtained a study by State Secretaries Sharon Dijksma and Marja van Bijsterveldt of Education of the 41 primary schools and two secondary schools that provide Islamic education. At half of the schools, the quality of the education is assessed as weak to very weak. At normal schools, this figure is 11 percent.

Additionally, financial mismanagement was established at 86 percent of Islamic school managements.

The illegal spending ranges from salaries to 'teachers' who turn out to be the wives of management board members, unlawful payments for transport that is never hired and even, as already made known earlier, trips to Saudi Arabia - the school (Ibn Ghaldoun in Rotterdam) bought plane tickets for Muslims who had nothing to do with the school whatsoever.

The Islamic education "gives ground for great concern," said Dijksma and Van Bijsterveldt yesterday. The education ministry is trying to claim back 4.5 million euros in unlawfully spent subsidies from the schools. This is an increase of 2.5 million from fraud figures previously known.

Due to the constitutional freedom of education - every religion can set up its own school at the expense of the government -

the government sees little possibility of intervening.

No Islamic school has ever been closed.

Virtually nothing can be done against fraudulent school managers either.

Dijksma and Van Bijsterveldt hope that the Islamic schools themselves will introduce reforms. The weak and very weak Islamic schools will come under "intensive supervision" by the Education Inspectorate. And "if the position of the management board becomes insupportable, the ministry will push for the removal of the board," they write to the Lower House.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 11/16/2008 11:26 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I still believe charter schools and vouchers are ok. The only way to circumvent the communistic teachers' unions and promote choice for parents and students. This doesn't mean they acn simply operate without any regulation or oversight. It merely proves that the Netherlands is hardly a nation at all any longer. Unfortunately, thanks to this election of Hussein, the US is heading down the same path.
Posted by: Woozle Elmeter 2700 || 11/16/2008 13:59 Comments || Top||

#2  The Saudis are already setting up indoctrination centers for true believers. Vouchers will change nothing except that my kids get a good education.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 11/16/2008 18:50 Comments || Top||

#3  Additionally, financial mismanagement was established at 86 percent of Islamic school managements.

After what we have witnessed with ACORN and this stolen election, I don't think I'll be commenting on ANYTHING coming out of Europe.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/16/2008 19:29 Comments || Top||

#4  Maybe, you know, parents should pay for their own children's education themselves?

Just a thought.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 11/16/2008 19:59 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
The coming revolution?
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 11/16/2008 08:33 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The guy does have an impressive record.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/16/2008 8:52 Comments || Top||

#2  Some of the phrasing sounds iffy "class war" stuff, but other stuff such as a tax rebellion i agree with.

America is founded on rebelling against tax.

Time to water the tree of liberty with the blood of tax extorter's.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 11/16/2008 11:05 Comments || Top||

#3  Put me on the mailing list.
Posted by: Hellfish || 11/16/2008 11:21 Comments || Top||

#4  Very iffy for some of it.

"Tent cities are already sprouting up around the country and we’re going to see many more."


Where are all these tent cities around the country?

I think this might be suffering from hyperbole because you can't get attention with screaming disaster. His previous predictions were reasonably correct only because they could be realistic and still sound hyperbolic when compared to everyone else.

Now that most people are crying doom, he really has to go over the top.
Posted by: AlanC || 11/16/2008 11:33 Comments || Top||

#5  We shouldn't even be here right now, Y2K killed us already.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 11/16/2008 13:11 Comments || Top||

#6  And bird flu.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 11/16/2008 13:11 Comments || Top||

#7  And terrorist attacks.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 11/16/2008 13:12 Comments || Top||

#8  Okee dokee, between this guy, the Mayan calendar prediction and Obama's sure to be higher tax rates, I think I'm gonna slack off for the next few years.
Posted by: Cornsilk Blondie || 11/16/2008 13:20 Comments || Top||

#9  I've been contemplating buying some Earth Boxes (because the soil on my property is thin and poor, and because I'm too busy to do an in-ground garden the right way) and stashing some non-hybrid seeds.  Just as an insurance policy.

If I really bought into the panic, I'd be setting up an indoor area to grow veggies over the winter.   Maybe hydroponic. But that would entail moving a bunch of stuff around in the house and Mr. Lotp is already highly skeptical about a recent ammo purchase. He was mollified to see that they were just a couple hundred rounds of practice stuff ... but then, I've been away from the range for a while and I need practice.

BTW, I've been trying for 3 months to buy a 20 ga tactical shotgun. The decent ones cannot be found for love nor money right now and no word on whether they'll ever be available. Dunno if we'll have a real depression or revolution but clearly a bunch of somebodies are hedging their bets.
Posted by: lotp || 11/16/2008 14:32 Comments || Top||

#10  If you have a P.C. the best hedge will be to buy a UPS (un-interuptable Power Supply) as power will get more iffy with brown and black outs.

I'd recommend them to anyone anyway, but their a must buy if you think power quality will fall.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 11/16/2008 15:18 Comments || Top||

#11  We've been procrastinating on getting a backup power system for our home, which is in the exurbs. I think it's time to start calling around for quotes.

BTW - if any Rantburgers picked up a 20 ga Reminton 870, 18" barrel, folding tactical stock and is willing to see it go to another good home, leave a note in the O Club. I promise it will see practice at the range and be put to good use. (We live too close for my comfort to a small city that was ruined by race riots in the 60s and is mostly drug/gang -ridden public housing now.)
Posted by: lotp || 11/16/2008 15:22 Comments || Top||

#12  The author has watched our situation unfold in Zim, South Africa, and most recently the UK. The parallels are indeed striking, as many on the Burg have previously noted. I hope and pray he is wrong.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/16/2008 15:50 Comments || Top||

#13  (We live too close for my comfort to a small city that was ruined by race riots in the 60s and is mostly drug/gang -ridden public housing now.)

We used to refer to this as a "target rich environement." I'd have to drive 25 miles to appreciate such a delightful experience.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/16/2008 15:55 Comments || Top||

#14  I guess I won't have a need for my hoard of incandescent light bulbs. I shoulda invested in canned tuna.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 11/16/2008 16:41 Comments || Top||

#15  And when the grid fails for an extended period of time, what do you use to fuel the generator? If we don't have Reddy Kilowatt hustling down the line, the diesel won't be delivered either. Ethanol from the still behind the garage?
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 11/16/2008 16:53 Comments || Top||

#16  biodiesel from composted leftists
Posted by: Frank G || 11/16/2008 17:06 Comments || Top||

#17  LOL Frank.  I was leaning towards gasoline or LP generators.  Hadn't considered diesel .....

Well, I confess that I'm not likely to be energy or food independent here, NS.  So if it comes to that we're in trouble.  But in the meanwhile it would be nice to have our well pump work during short term power outages.  And the electrically-powered doohickey that keeps our oil-burning furnace going too.   Gets cold around here in winter. We've lost power for over 24 hrs due to ice storms more than once in the last few years.

We've had the money set  aside for a backup power generator for a while now ... I've just not made it a priority to start the process of selecting a contractor and getting it installed / connected to our house panel.
Posted by: lotp || 11/16/2008 17:56 Comments || Top||

#18  What I've been really been coveting of late is to plant several fruit trees and blueberry bushes.   I had the catalogs all marked up in August but this was not the year for me to make sure half a dozen small trees were properly planted, watered in and mulched for the winter.

There are some delicious cherry varieties for which semi-dwarfed stock is now available .... mmmmm.  And apples, but we've got apple orchards all around our area.   Have my eye on two varieties of pears, tho, and maybe I can coax  apricots to grow here if I coddle them through the winter ....

Homemade apricot preserves -- yummmmm.
Posted by: lotp || 11/16/2008 18:00 Comments || Top||

#19  There's a persimmon tree down the road that is loaded. MMMMMMMM.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 11/16/2008 19:58 Comments || Top||

#20  If you have enough guns & ammo, you can get all the Soylent Green you can eat. That & a copy of "How to Serve Man" is all you need to live well.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 11/16/2008 19:58 Comments || Top||

#21  Nothing beats homemade persimmon pudding. Well, almost nothing.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/16/2008 20:06 Comments || Top||

#22  well, my grandma's persimmon cookies rule
Posted by: Frank G || 11/16/2008 20:48 Comments || Top||

#23  Great multipurpose cherry - North Star, and on dwarf rootstock.
Posted by: no mo uro || 11/16/2008 21:13 Comments || Top||

#24  Yes, that was one of the varieties I had in mind.
Posted by: lotp || 11/16/2008 21:14 Comments || Top||

#25  LOPT, you need to go to Gunbroker.com , just go to the menu firearms-shotguns and type 'tactical' into the search. I just pulled up about 135 of all different configurations. I've sold several items in the past and bought a few. It's a reputable site with a secure payment service. Highly recommended.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 11/16/2008 22:00 Comments || Top||


Fail To The Chief: Superlativegate
BUSH WAS WORST PRESIDENT (EXCEPT FOR ALL THE OTHERS)

Farewell to George W. Bush. The. Worst. President. In. Modern. History.

Except for Nixon. That glowering paranoid freak sucker-punched the economy with his absurd price controls, secretly bombed Cambodia and led a gang of burgling henchmen who would later fill the federal prisons.

And Johnson. The most divisive event in modern American politics, it may surprise you to learn, is not the premature draping of a "Mission Accomplished" banner on an aircraft carrier or the decision to wiretap members of Al Qaeda's Friends and Family plan. It was the Vietnam War. It was a little matter of 60,000 fine Americans - many of them draftees, not volunteers - sent off to die for an irrelevant sliver of jungle on the shady pretext of a trumped-up, possibly fictitious attack in the Tonkin Gulf.

And Kennedy. LBJ sank into the quagmire that Kennedy stepped in. JFK wasn't kidding with that "Bear any burden, pay any price" nonsense, that "ask what you can do for your country" drivel. What he wanted you to do for your country was be drafted and go fight Communists wherever they lurked, even rice-paddy Communists in pajamas who would have posed no threat to this country unless they had figured out how to launch intercontinental ballistic spitballs.

And how about botching the Bay of Pigs invasion, which led Cuba and the Soviets to buy an insurance policy in the form of a missile site that took this country the closest it has ever come to nuclear war?

And Carter. Four years of malaise. Inflation was running at levels last seen in Weimar Germany. Military morale sank to an all-time low as Carter allowed the armed forces to decay so badly that Delta Force commandos got nowhere near rescuing hostages being held by a bunch of jibbering religious freaks.

And Reagan. Let's not forget who presided over the only really agonizing recession since the Depression, the 1981-1982 one, in which the U.S. economy exhibited unemployment levels that can only be described as "Swedish." And let's not forget his whopper when he said he didn't know about the illegal Iran-Contra operation. Of course he knew.

And Truman. Small wonder he had an 22% approval rating when he was forced out of office instead of running for a second full term, after squandering 50,000 American lives who "died for a tie" in Korea.

And Clinton. A lying, venal, human petri dish of corruption, Clinton is to integrity what the frat house is to cleanliness. He swept up innocent people around him in his vortex of untruth and sold pardons to criminals for the hilariously pathetic purpose of adding to his own glory at his presidential library. Signing the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act that set investment banks free doesn't look so uncontroversial today, does it?

And FDR. The downturn of 1937 - in FDR's second term - was almost as bad as the original one. How could his stewardship of WWII have been much worse? What kind of president lets our trans-Pond cousins get bombed in their beds every night for months? And Roosevelt should have opened the doors to every Jewish refugee who asked for asylum. Instead he locked them out.

And he was so unprepared for the Japanese attack military theorists had predicted for years that our sailors got bombed in their own beds from Hawaii to the Philippines. Later he imprisoned thousands of Americans for the crime of having Japanese ancestry. By setting up Social Security not as a charity for the poor but as a Ponzi scheme, he insured that the program would cripple the budget some day while millionaires collected their checks each month on the golf course.

And long before any of this he unleashed perhaps the most deranged attack on the Constitution in presidential history when he proposed adding six new Justices to the Supreme Court because he didn't like the ones who were already on it.

Everything is the best/worst/funniest/most tragic/most brilliant thing ever, if you're a high school girl, the hero of "Memento" or a political commentator.

Things look different if you extend your memory more than five minutes into the past. Maybe the problem is the lack of a buzzword for the scandal. Here's one: "Superlativegate."
Posted by: Sherry || 11/16/2008 00:24 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Why hammer Johnson and Kennedy without reference to Eisenhower? It was his paranoia about encircling China (Cam Ran bay, Subic bay, Japan, Korea, etc) they mishandled.
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/16/2008 0:57 Comments || Top||

#2  Four years of malaise. Inflation was running at levels last seen in Weimar Germany. Military morale sank to an all-time low...

Not to mention the energy crisis, bell-bottoms, and disco! Worst. President. Ever. And during the Bicentennial, too, dammit.
Posted by: Angie Schultz || 11/16/2008 4:11 Comments || Top||

#3  bell-bottoms, and disco!

Neither forgotten nor forgiven.
Posted by: .5mt || 11/16/2008 4:18 Comments || Top||

#4  Neither forgotten nor forgiven.

History is cyclical, so they will be back in one form or an another, and the Pain will start all over again.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 11/16/2008 5:29 Comments || Top||

#5  back to the age of man-purses. Awesomeness. Better start up that fannypack biz too, it' only a matter of time...
Posted by: Frank G || 11/16/2008 8:12 Comments || Top||

#6  4 Neither forgotten nor forgiven.

History is cyclical, so they will be back in one form or an another, and the Pain will start all over again.
Posted by anonymous5089 2008-11-16 05:29|| Front Page|| ||Comments Top

#5 back to the age of man-purses. Awesomeness. Better start up that fannypack biz too, it' only a matter of time...


Ima not nomally a gun sorta of poster. But deh above makes me want to invest in a street-sweeper. There are things worser than death, disco is one of them.
Posted by: .5mt || 11/16/2008 8:17 Comments || Top||

#7  And FDR.

Oh, and let's not forget he invaded French North Africa without a declaration of war or Congressional authorization. He'd maintained an open diplomatic relationship with the neutral Vichy French government up to the moment of the unprovoked and premeditated attack. A day of infamy indeed.

Let's remember the modern liberal mantra - one set of rules for me and a separate set of rules for thee.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/16/2008 8:40 Comments || Top||

#8  Ike was wise enough to avoid bailing out the French when they got themselves encircled at Dien Bien Phu.
Posted by: WilliamMarcyTweed || 11/16/2008 9:27 Comments || Top||

#9  There are a couple of old sayings regarding politicans..."all politicians are liars, thieves and whores" AND "people (we) get the kind of government they (we) deserve" Just sayin', ya' know??
Posted by: WolfDog || 11/16/2008 12:04 Comments || Top||

#10  Prepare for Carter 2.0
Posted by: DMFD || 11/16/2008 12:06 Comments || Top||

#11  Ike was wise enough to avoid bailing out the French when they got themselves encircled at Dien Bien Phu.

Yeah, proved real fruitful for the USA in the mid term.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 11/16/2008 12:07 Comments || Top||

#12  5 back to the age of man-purses. Awesomeness. Better start up that fannypack biz too, it' only a matter of time...

Brother has one, you do NOT ridicule a 6.4 280lb Biker, not more than once anyway?
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 11/16/2008 12:16 Comments || Top||

#13  hopefully you mean he has the fannypack cuz he's a biker. If it's a man-purse, then I call mo-ped!
Posted by: Frank G || 11/16/2008 13:05 Comments || Top||

#14  It's actually a "belly bag".
He calls it his "Man Purse".
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 11/16/2008 16:46 Comments || Top||

#15  well, I'm 6'-2" and 275. If he calls it a man-purse, bring it on
Posted by: Frank G || 11/16/2008 17:09 Comments || Top||

#16  > Prepare for Carter 2.0

Worry about FDR 2.0
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 11/16/2008 18:13 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
A Military for a Dangerous New World
The NYT opines on what a President Obama will need to do with our military. They and the Democrats have spent the last eight years depicting our troops as broken, depressed or damaged goods, or as heartless killers, or as ruthless automatons bombing enemies into submission, or as stupid, bitter young men and women with no other prospects for getting out of the sticks to which they cling.

Now they think they know what our military needs.

And no surprise, they think the military should cut all the expensive stuff like the F-22 and new naval combat ships, dump the ballistic missile defense until it can be 'guaranteed' to work, and so on. And no one should think that their advice have more marines and soldiers, more transport capacity, and more 'preparedness' and training for small wars is genuine: that's the sort of thing a Democrat always cuts first when they're looking for spare change to fund new social welfare initiatives.

The NYT is calling for less military. It's what they believe in. It's going to be a rough four years.
Posted by: Steve White || 11/16/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Donks are going to do their usual thing: Slash military spending as long as they are in power. This has a double-upside for them. Since they don't seem to give a $hit about military spending beyond what is absolutely necessary to hold onto any credibility among centrists whatsoever, they get to use the $$$ to buy votes in the next election or two and it makes it easier to "balance" the overall budget. When the Trunks grab the reigns back, they end up having to rebuild the dilapidated military, and all the Donks start their usual rhetorical whining about how the Trunks warmongering is bankrupting the country in the process. And after things are about as patched up as they can be given the combination of legitimate spending plus pork/earmarks (and whatever else the Donks can sabotage the process with by taking advantage of weak-willed politicians) that are competing for the military budget, the people vote the Trunks back out of power so they can get "Change" or whatever other mantra seems to resonate with the public's short memories and idiotic expectations that the US will somehow always end up on top after taking yet another four or eight year nap while the rest of the world plows forward.
Posted by: gorb || 11/16/2008 7:22 Comments || Top||

#2  I'm sure this recruiting message is just waiting for January.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/16/2008 8:32 Comments || Top||

#3  The Obama Youth can take up the slack.
Posted by: Grunter || 11/16/2008 9:20 Comments || Top||

#4  This time, though, I'm afraid the bottom line is that Defense is going to have to take a 25% hit, and though the Democrats want that, they aren't going to have a choice in the matter.

Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and all their other spending is also going to have to take a 25% hit as well. Which they are not going to like one damn bit.

To start with, next year, tax revenues are going to be down by double digits. And nobody is left who has the money to fund deficit spending. China is our biggest creditor, holding over $1T of US debt, and that gravy train has run out. Even if they just don't buy any more, the US is broke. If they cash in their bonds, very, very broke.

This means that one dollar beyond tax revenues will have to be "monetized" debt, like what Mugabe is doing in Zimbabwe. This results in the unpleasant weirdness that at the same time our money is terribly deflating, prices are terribly inflating.

As far as the military goes, when the economy tanks, they will have to turn away huge numbers of the unemployed. But almost all will be light infantry, carrying a rifle and getting room and board.

The international crises will probably mean that they get sent to other countries for heaven knows what.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 11/16/2008 9:26 Comments || Top||

#5  Not to sound like I am eager for it.

But it would be interesting to see the nutjobs of the world pull off their next massive terrorist strike against DURING the administration of the party that creates the situation instead of nine months after they are voted out of office.

Of course, I shudder to think of what would have happened if the world trade center had occured under Clinton instead of Bush and I shudder to think of what BO will do in similar circumstances.

Cutting defense and our capability to search for, close with and destroy the enemy invites a big fat lip of a terrorist act that will kill thousands.

I sincerely believe that not even the disappearance of one of our cities will wake these nihilists up.
Posted by: James Carville || 11/16/2008 17:57 Comments || Top||

#6  all we can hope is that most of the appeaseniks inhabit that City. Might wake a few of the rest up
Posted by: Frank G || 11/16/2008 18:01 Comments || Top||

#7  "Dangerous New World > POTENTIAL LACK OF A CLEAR WINNER IN THE US-ISLAMIST GWOT; + ISLAMIST-LED, PAN-ASIAN/AFRICAN DESTABILIZATION/BREAKUP, + ON-GOING ENVIRO-LEFT DEMANDS FOR IMMEDIATE ANDOR NEAR-TERM GLOBAL WARMING "FORCED/GOVT-EMFORCED" + "GLOBAL" SOLUTIONS???

Dare I say to include PROTRACTIVE US-GLOBAL FINANCIAL + FOLLOW-ON ECON CRISES FOR THE SAKE OF GLOBAL SOCIALIST ORDER - you know, PROGRESS = REGRESSION, REGULATION = LIBERTARIANISM, etc???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 11/16/2008 18:30 Comments || Top||

#8  E.g. WORLD MIL FORUM > "official" US GDP of US$13.0 +/-Trilyuhn offset by excessive US global debts levels possibly as high as US$50.0Trilyuhn, THUS MANY US DOMESTIC SECTORS ARE SCREAMING FOR US GOVT-LED, INDUSTRIES- AND STATE(S) BAILOUTS!?

MANY NET POSTERS > argue the USA is directly responsible for its probs just as all other World States, or just as drug addicts are responsible for their own drug [over]consumption and resultant personal legal, criminal, moral, psychological, and pan-econ probs > WHY SHOULD THE WORLD HELP = BAIL OUT IMPERIALIST ZIONIST NWO, ETC. AMERICA???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 11/16/2008 18:44 Comments || Top||

#9  Yes, Joe.  We know.

And if it weren't that it would be some other reason to blame us.
Posted by: lotp || 11/16/2008 19:45 Comments || Top||

#10  The WEEKEND OF FIVE(S) continues.

WORLD MIL FORUM > THE FIVE MAJOR TASKS OF CURRENT US INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES, as vee OWT + World Affairs.
* Monitoring CHINESE NAVAL. MIL DEVELOPMENT + MOVEMENTS.
* Ascertain and determine RUSSIA's intentions as per CENTRAL ASIAN ENERGY, ESPEC MILITARY UTILITY = ENERGY WEAPONIZATION.
* AL QAEDA + TALIBAN > vital intel data collection and interpretation, "divide-and-conquer" of same.
* Identify NEW EMERGING REGIONAL-INTERNATIONAL STATE(S) POWERS = GEOPOL "YOUNG TURKS", espec those wid NUCLEARIZED = HYDROGEN/PLUTONIUM BOMB CAPABILITIES [thermonuclear] + EFFEC TARGETING-DELIVERY SYSTEMS.
* CLOSE ATTN TO NORTH KOREA, espec as per KIMMIE SUCCESSION + NOKOR NUCLEARIZATION.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 11/16/2008 23:59 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Politics of 'Hindu terror'
By Chandan Mitra

Ab Tak Chhappan! The title of this Ram Gopal Varma film easily comes to mind observing the manner in which the Maharashtra ATS is going about picking up people all over India and slapping them into the cooler on a daily basis, ostensibly in a bid to unearth dimensions of "Hindu terror".

We have lost count of the number of persons interrogated, sent on police or judicial remand, their brains penetrated with narcotic substances to induce confession to their "crimes". But not a day has passed, since Sadhvi Pragya was nabbed some 25 days ago, without somebody or the other being arrested, allegedly in connection with a fantastic plot conjured up by the Maharashtra Police.

Those arrested included serving and retired Army officers, school and college teachers, political activists and now even a resourceful sadhu. Every evening at the news meeting in our office, the first question asked is, "What's the score today? Ab tak ...?"

Buoyed by enthusiastic endorsement from the "secular" media, which is gleefully eating out of the ATS' hands, the so-called Hindu terror plot keeps assuming an ever-growing magnitude. Not content with pinning the blame for the minor bomb blasts in Malegaon and Modasa, then Nanded and later Kanpur, the ATS' ambitions have increased manifold. Currently, it is busy trying to implicate the same group in the 2006 Samjhauta Express blasts. Curiously, SIMI commander Safdar Nagori's narco tests have resulted in a confession that his organisation executed the Samjhauta bombings. Does this mean that so-called Hindu terrorists have been synchronising their moves with SIMI? Or, maybe ATS will tomorrow come up with a theory that "Hindu terrorists" have been funding and masterminding the actions of jihadis who innocently fell into the Hindu trap in the lure of money. Far fetched? Not really, if you consider the gigantic yarns being spun around the purported confessions of the detained suspects.

Interestingly, in the last seven days, contradictory "leaks" have been planted on the handpicked media about the responses of detained suspects. A particularly hilarious story front-paged by a leading national daily claimed that the narco-analysis of Sadhvi Pragya came to a naught because she meditates daily! Apparently, those who are ardent practitioners of that spiritual art become immune to narco tests because their mental powers are strong enough to resist drug-induced coercion aimed at extracting confessions.

Moral of the story: All criminals ought to mediate, for then narco-tests shall fail and they go scot-free!

By the way, it would be interesting to know if the servants arrested in the Arushi Talwar murder case were also trained in the art of meditation. Must be, for the CBI failed to get any information out of them and finally they had to be released. Similarly, Lt Col. Srikant Purohit, too, foiled the investigators' desperate attempts to cajole him into confessing his crime because, we are told, as an Armyman, he was trained to absorb stress and no amount of drugs got him to talk. Halted on their tracks, the ATS then leaked purported details of Purohit's confessions, which were eagerly lapped up by sections of the media to further their campaign to equate "Hindu" with jihadi terror.

Following the arrest of Swami Amritanand aka Dayanand Pandey or Sudhakar Dwivedi, we were treated to details of his past, website photos, his ashrams, connections with top national personalities, ex-President APJ Abdul Kalam downwards. But what we never got to know was his role in the Malegaon blasts. Within hours of his arrest, the Haryana Railway Police swooped down on him apparently to discover his link to the Samjhauta Express blasts, which self-confessedly, SIMI had carried out. Without a shred of evidence to that effect, he has already been awarded the epithet of "Terror Guru".

In the same way, the highly respected Bhonsala Military School has been dubbed a terror factory - a term used hitherto for Talibanised madrasas. Merely because some members of a little known outfit called Abhinav Bharat, an adjunct of the largely defunct Hindu Mahasabha, visited the premises of the school, its custodians were hounded to the point of putting in their papers.

Judging by the hype accompanying the "Hindu terror" revelations, it would appear that nothing else is happening in this country for the last month or so. With every passing day, the ATS' concoctions get more incredible, the scale of "leaked" stories magnified and the media's tone becomes predictably shriller. All this before any of the arrested persons is formally charged or given an opportunity to defend themselves. Wasn't it the Congress that kept cautioning us against trial by media? Wasn't it Manmohan Singh who plaintively lamented that everything in this country gets politicised? But when a trial by the media is actually sponsored by the Government and agencies under its control, like the Maharashtra ATS, nobody sees anything wrong with it.

That, in the process, even the Army is being hauled over the coals and its exalted status sullied beyond repair is of no consequence. Clearly, the Government thinks tarnishing the Army serves its short-term agenda: Putting BJP on the backfoot. Nothing is too sacrosanct to achieve that aim in an election year. In the face of mounting public anger against the UPA's all-round failure, especially its vote-bank politics over terrorism, the Government desperately needed a face-saver. So, they decided to construct an elaborate theory of all-pervasive Hindu terror hoping to convince the electorate that the Hindutva forces are the real fountainhead of all terrorist activities. It is a matter of time before it is volubly argued by "secular" politicians and their media cheerleaders that jihadi terror is nothing but an act of self-defence in the face of rampant "Hindu terrorist" provocation.

With investigating agencies dragging their feet (could it be under orders from above?), failing to convict any terror accused so far, this is a clever ploy to divert attention from the real danger jihadi terror poses to India. Determined to thwart efforts by BJP-ruled States to introduce tough anti-terror laws, the Government has directed the President to return Narendra Modi's proposed GUJCOC, drafted on the lines of MCOCA, which is operational in UPA-ruled Maharashtra. And the Centre is equally determined not to execute Afzal Guru despite the Supreme Court sentencing him to death several years back. Incidentally, Muslim-majority Indonesia has fewer qualms: It executed three Islamic radicals last week, soon after they were convicted for the Bali bombings.

But our Government is focused on damning Hindu organisations by a sustained campaign of calumny. I wonder if the Maharashtra ATS will soon "unearth" global linkages of Hindu terror and accuse some sadhvi, swami or an Army officer of having plotted 9/11 too!

What the Congress-led Government is failing to recognise is that public anger against a regime increasingly seen as decidedly anti-Hindu, is rising. In the process, the Congress may actually be helping to create a Hindu vote for the first time in India's history. Pyromaniacs often end up being consumed by the very fire they light
Posted by: john frum || 11/16/2008 12:25 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
The perils ahead
by Caroline Glick

US President-elect Barack Obama has properly sought to maintain a low profile in foreign affairs in this transition period ahead of his January inauguration. But while Obama has stipulated that the US can have only one president at a time, his aides and advisers are signaling that he intends to move US foreign policy in a sharply different direction from its current trajectory once he assumes office.

And they are signaling that this new direction will be applied most immediately and directly to US policy toward the Middle East.

Early in the Democratic Party's primary season, the Obama campaign released a list of the now-president-elect's foreign policy advisers to The Washington Post. The list raised a great deal of concern in policy circles, particularly among supporters of the US-Israel alliance. It included outspoken critics of Israel such as Zbigniew Brzezinski, who served as national security adviser under president Jimmy Carter, and Robert Malley, who served as a junior Middle East aide to president Bill Clinton. Both men are deeply hostile to Israel and both have called repeatedly for the US to end its strategic alliance with Israel.

In the months that followed the list's publication, the Obama campaign sought to distance itself from both men as the president-elect's advisers worked to position Obama as a centrist candidate.

Brzezinski was cast aside in February when he headed a delegation to Syria to meet with President Bashar Assad. The purpose of his "fact-finding" mission was to castigate the Bush administration for its refusal to pursue Syria as an ally, and to decry Damascus's international isolation caused by its support for the insurgency in Iraq, its strategic alliance with Iran, its support for Hizbullah as well as Hamas and al-Qaida, its illicit nuclear program and its subversion of the pro-Western Lebanese government.

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White || 11/16/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Great. Zbiggys back. Luckily the Russian economy isn't back.
Posted by: Mike N. || 11/16/2008 1:07 Comments || Top||

#2  The Obama team's pre-inaugural signals indicate strongly that Israel's next government will need to strike Iran's nuclear installations before two rapidly approaching deadlines

Actually the Israelis have less than 42 days to hit Iran before Obama takes office.
Posted by: badanov || 11/16/2008 1:52 Comments || Top||

#3  They might as well. Either way they are going to be screwed.

If they do hit Iran maybe they could do us all a favor and take out Washington while they are at it.
Posted by: Kelly || 11/16/2008 12:01 Comments || Top||

#4  Is this why Slow Joe was telling the minions to stick by him and Hussein? That they might doubt the path the administration was taking, but they should stick with them because they would need their support more than ever ? Biden has been a big supporter of the Muzz himself in the past. Is the payoff for the millions in illegal donations going to begin immediately by turning on Israel right after the inaugural ? This tactic will be glaring. Does Barry have the balls to try it ? If he does, we need to give Jesse a nice, sharp blade for Christmas.
Posted by: Woozle Elmeter 2700 || 11/16/2008 14:09 Comments || Top||

#5  I have a bad feeling about this. BO is going to be an unmitigated disaster.
Posted by: Spike Omosh4021 || 11/16/2008 18:27 Comments || Top||

#6  don't worry, he's being advised by previously exposed incompetent advisors
Posted by: Frank G || 11/16/2008 18:43 Comments || Top||

#7  CHURCHILL or WELLINGTON > 'tis a "DAMN NEAR THING".

*FREEREPUBLIC POSTERS > HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER [Actor Fred Thompson] > THIS THING WILL GET OUT OF CONTROL AND WE'LL ALL BE LUCKY TO JUST LIVE THROUGH IT.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 11/16/2008 18:55 Comments || Top||

#8  [Actor Fred Thompson] > THIS THING WILL GET OUT OF CONTROL AND WE'LL ALL BE LUCKY TO JUST LIVE THROUGH IT. -- where's the video?
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 11/16/2008 20:00 Comments || Top||

#9  FREEREPUBLIC > DEBKA - AL QAEDA CLAIMS ORDER GIVEN FOR NEW ATTACK AGZ USA BIGGER THAN 9-11; + PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING, THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING. Russia + other CSTO States propsoe to formally create/form a common military security and reaction force capable of defeating or repelling all threats to same in CENTRAL ASIA - THREATS TO THE CSTO BEING IDENTIFIED IN WHITE PAPERS AS "THE AGGRESSIVE POLICIES OF THE UNITED STATES IN THE REGION" [Central Asia] + "CREEPING EXPANSIONISM OF MILITARILY SECRETIVE AND UNPREDICTABLE CHINA"???

Also, TOPIX > CAN THE NEW OBAMA ADMINISTRATION STOP IRAN [+ by extens Militants-Terrorists] FROM GOING NUCLEAR?; + WORLD MILITARY FORUM > PLANNED US DEPLOYMENT OF UP TO SIX AIRCRAFT CARRIER BATTLE GROUPS AND 60% OF SUBMARINES TO ASIA-PACIFIC WILL FORCE CHINA TO DEVELOP A BLUE WATER NAVY.

* WORLD MIL FORUM > OBAMA ERA IS A MAJOR TURNING POINT IN US DEFENSE STRATEGY FOR ASIA-PACIFIC [end of Bush-esque Preemptive Strike + general Bush Doctrine], + [Taiwan]IMPRISONED CHEN SHUI-BAN SUPPORTERS PROCLAIM NEED TO FREE CHEN VIA ABSOLUTE VIOLENT REVOLUTION IN TAIWAN. SOUTHERN TAIWAN URGED TO BUY FIREARMS, USE GRENADES, PETROL BOMBS + EVEN ROCKET LAUNCHERS; + CHINA TO DEPLOY NEW 400-KM, YJ62-A "EAGLE" ANTI-SHIP/AIRCRAFT CARRIER MISSLES IN SE CHINA TO LOCK IN TAIWAN AGZ US NAVY, + TOKYO SURPRISED AT SECRET ARRIVAL OF USN LOS-ANGELES CLASS ATTACK SUB TO MONITOR CHINESE/PLAN WARSHIPS + JAPAN CONCERNED ABOUT RECENT CHINESE, RUSSIAN NAVAL ACTIVITIES CLOSE TO STRATEGIC WATERS.

Posted by: JosephMendiola || 11/16/2008 23:39 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
The History of Political Correctness (videos)
Nothing earth-shattering, but good reminder from an older documentary.
Part2
Part3
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 11/16/2008 11:39 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Too bad that America is paralyzed by PC and not sure what it will take to shake this disease off our backs. Sad to heard that a stinkin Hungarian commie started it...must have been Soros' mentor/hero.
Posted by: Hammerhead || 11/16/2008 18:48 Comments || Top||

#2  You don't suppose those lads in the foto could simply be dashing after some Weihnachtstollen do you? We must be careful about stereotyping....etc.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/16/2008 19:33 Comments || Top||

#3  deceased equine, Besoeker.
Posted by: lotp || 11/16/2008 19:43 Comments || Top||



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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
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In no particular order...
Steve White
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badanov
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Two weeks of WOT
Sun 2008-11-16
  Lankan Army seizes entire west coast from LTTE
Sat 2008-11-15
  Al-Shabaab closes in on Mog
Fri 2008-11-14
  U.S. missiles hit Pak Talibs, 12 dead
Thu 2008-11-13
  Somali pirates open fire on Brit marines. Hilarity ensues.
Wed 2008-11-12
  Philippines ship, 23 crew seized near Somalia
Tue 2008-11-11
  EU launches anti-piracy mission off Somalia
Mon 2008-11-10
  Somali gunnies kidnap two Italian nuns
Sun 2008-11-09
  Boomerette hits emergency room west of Baghdad
Sat 2008-11-08
  Mukhlas, Amrozi and Samudra executed
Fri 2008-11-07
  Pak: 13 dead in dronezap
Thu 2008-11-06
  Iran: We can block off Persian Gulf in blink of an eye
Wed 2008-11-05
  America Votes. B.O. wins.
Tue 2008-11-04
  IAF strike zaps four Gazooks
Mon 2008-11-03
  Sheikh Sharif returns to Somalia
Sun 2008-11-02
  Gilani will complain about drone strikes to US


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