Czech President Vaclav Klaus took aim at climate change campaigner Al Gore on Saturday in Davos in a frontal attack on the science of global warming.
"I don't think that there is any global warming," said the 67-year-old liberal, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the European Union. "I don't see the statistical data for that."
Referring to the former US vice president, who attended Davos this year, he added: "I'm very sorry that some people like Al Gore are not ready to listen to the competing theories. I do listen to them.
"Environmentalism and the global warming alarmism is challenging our freedom. Al Gore is an important person in this movement."
Speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, he said that he was more worried about the reaction to the perceived dangers than the consequences.
"I'm afraid that the current crisis will be misused for radically constraining the functioning of the markets and market economy all around the world," he said.
"I'm more afraid of the consequences of the crisis than the crisis itself."
Klaus makes no secret of his climate change scepticism -- he is also a fierce critic of the European Union -- and has branded the world's top panel of climate experts, the UN's IPCC, a smug monopoly.
The top UN nuclear proliferation official refused to take a position on whether Israel should exist as a Jewish state. In an interview with the Washington Post published Sunday, Mohammed ElBaradei argued for establishing trust between the West and Iran, blaming both sides for inflaming rhetoric.
ElBaradei, who directs the International Atomic Energy Agency, likened a positive outcome to such talks to Japan, a country that runs the full nuclear technology cycle without international opprobrium, "because there is trust that this country is not aiming to develop nuclear weapons." The interviewer challenged him, noting that Japan does not advocate the destruction of another country, as Iran does with Israel.
"There have been a lot of offensive statements, frankly, on the part of Iran, although from what I understand, Iran wants a one-state solution -- not, as reported in the media, that Israel should be wiped off the map," ElBaradei responded.
That, the interviewer noted, would end Israel's status as a Jewish state.
"I'm not taking sides on that," ElBaradei replied.
ElBaradei endorsed the call by President Obama for direct talks with Iran. ElBaradei said Iran was violating agreements by enhancing its nuclear cycle and blocking inspections, but that he had no evidence of a nuclear weapons program since 2003. He also expressed anger with Israel for bombing a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor in September 2007; Israel should have presented its information to the IAEA, which would have launched inspections.
"I have been very harsh on Israel because they violated the rules of international law on the use of unilateral force, and they did not provide us with the information before the bombing, which we could then easily have established whether Syria was building a nuclear reactor," ElBaradei said. "To that extent, the blame is also shared with the US, who sat on the information for a year and six months after the bombing."
#1
And they will turn it down, God willing. Peace and Hamas cannot long coexist.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
02/01/2009 18:25
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Theysaid Olmert was interested in completing his tenure with a major agreement such as the release of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is interested in the deal "because her popularity is declining", and Defense Minister Ehud Barak wishes "to strengthen his rise in the polls".
he's dead, Jim
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/01/2009 18:30
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Pretty clever of those Jews! Call everyone and let them know that the missles are coming to hit the rocket caches, etc. Then, hit the buildings that have people streaming out of them. Reduce the enemy's inventory of weapons with efficiency and a minimum of fuss. And IDF gets refreshed information on other locations to find Hamas personnel. Ain't those UAV's great!
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
02/01/2009 18:35
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"SMS" = Kaiser Wilhelm's IMPERIAL GERMAN NAVY???
When the Arizona Cardinals take the field in Tampa for Super Bowl XLIII, in their first-ever Super Bowl appearance, there will be an extra player on the field. You won't see him, but he'll be there nevertheless. And he'll play the entire game with his Cardinals.
His presence was felt as the Cardinals posted a surprising win in their playoff game against the Carolina Panthers, a game in which everything seemed to be in the Cardinals' favor. And his presence will no doubt be felt in Tampa, as the Cardinals, playing in the Super Bowl for the first time in team history, square off against the Pittsburgh Steelers, a team making its seventh Super Bowl start and hoping for its sixth Super Bowl win.
The extra Cardinals player on the field, of course, will be superstar and hero Pat Tillman, the patriot who suspended his NFL career and shocked fans when he walked away from a $3.6 million contract offer from the Cardinals to become an Army Ranger. He enlisted in the Army along with his younger brother, Kevin, after the terrorist attacks of 9/11.
Tillman is likely the most famous Cardinals player in the history of the team.
There will also be a very special audience for this game. Super Bowl XLIII will be broadcast to more than 230 countries, to a potential worldwide audience of more than 1 billion viewers, including military members serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The special video linkup will allow soldiers in Afghanistan to watch the game from the Pat Tillman USO Center that was built in his honor at Bagram Air Base with funds donated by the NFL. Another group of soldiers will watch the game from FOB (Forward Operating Base) Tillman, in the mountains of Afghanistan near the Pakistani border, close to the place where Pat Tillman gave his life in defense of freedom.
So as the pre-game festivities of Super Bowl XLIII come to an end, after the national anthem and the fly-over by the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds, and just before General David Petraeus makes the ceremonial coin toss, say a prayer of thanks for the life and service of Pat Tillman, and for all those men and women defending our freedom and our American way of life around the globe, and for their families. And don't forget to also say a prayer for the safety of the players in the game.
NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said, "[The NFL] feels that the 70,000 fans attending the Super Bowl this year should be cheering louder for the military than the two teams playing," he said. "It is, indeed, very important for the NFL to look for every opportunity to support the troops."
#2
Amen, and God bless all our troops in harm's way on our behalf. Ima rooting for the Cards (sorry, Dave D.), based on state proximity and Kurt Warner is a freaking great guy. Oh, and Pappy said he'd sinktrap me if I didn't.
/jk
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/01/2009 18:20
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One senior official in the former Bush administration is bemused by how "you only see British officers wearing their uniforms when they come to visit Washington, not in London."
"The British army is like an engine running without oil. It is still going, but it could seize up at any moment," argues Michael Clarke, director of the Royal United Services Institute, a think-tank.
These troubles are made worse by a chronic shortage of manpower. On October 1st the trained strength of the British armed forces was 173,270. This is 3.2% below the official requirement, but it understates large gaps in some areas--especially infantry units. Most battalions are 10-20% short of their required numbers; if those deemed unfit to deploy (due to, say, battle injuries) are factored out, they are as much as 42% under strength. So when battalions are preparing for war, they often regroup soldiers from their four scrawny companies into three, and then bolt on a fourth from another unit. To support current operations, the army has cut back training and lowered readiness.
Withdrawing from Iraq will relieve some of the strain. But operations in Afghanistan alone, involving some 8,000 British troops, arguably are already more demanding than the structure permits--and many expect Britain to send another battle-group to support the American reinforcement there. Generals want the army to grow. Yet it struggles to recruit, train and keep enough soldiers to fill its existing quota. An acute problem is the large "wastage" of recruits. Last year 38% of those in training either gave up or were thrown out--a bigger share than in the American army. (For comparison, "wastage" in the USMC is 9% for males and 18% for females)
Britain gets by in part thanks to foreigners: Commonwealth citizens (who made up more than 6% of soldiers in 2007), Irish recruits and Gurkhas.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
02/01/2009
15:24 ||
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#1
"Irish recruits and Gurkhas."
Probably better off it were a majority of those 2 groups.
It's a quagmire out there!
If the security situation in Iraq continues to improve, the number of refugees and displaced people returning to their homes could more than double this year to 500,000, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Thursday.
Iraq is now experiencing markedly improved security, said Daniel Endres, Baghdad representative of the Geneva-based agency. "Although this security remains fragile, last year we saw a significant return as a result," he told journalists in Brussels.
More than 220,000 Iraqis who fled abroad or were displaced within the country after the US-led invasion returned home in 2008, according to UN statistics. I don't remember any mention of this in the MSM. Could it be that no one wanted to give credit to George Bush? Say it ain't so!
International refugee organisations have been encouraged by the government's recent moves to normalise the situation and encourage returns. This includes setting up a special army unit charged with evicting militia members and others who moved illegally into homes owned by people forced to flee the violence. This wasn't mentioned by the MSM either. Will Obama get the credit?
While we're at it, why do I have to go to a Dubai newspaper to get this information? Can't the NYT or WAPO find this stuff?
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
02/01/2009
14:45 ||
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Or, how not to save a failing family business The Kennedies, natch, "America's Royal Fambly"
Here a quick glance at some of Robert's children is instructive. One of them, David, died of a drug overdose in Palm Beach just a year after another, Robert Jr., was arrested for possession of heroin at the Rapid City, S.D., airport. Courtney's second husband was an Irish Republican Army militant named Paul Hill. Max, who had threatened to run for Congress in California, began campaigning for a House seat in Massachusetts but ceased his efforts when, in his first public appearance, "he scratched his head, giggled nervously, lost his place several times and misnamed at least one member of the U.S. Supreme Court," according to the Los Angeles Times. The fact that, as a student at Harvard, he had assaulted a campus policeman didn't help, either.
Michael was in the midst of accusations of having sexual intercourse with his children's teenaged babysitter when he was killed in a skiing accident. Joseph II, the great hope of the family after his father's murder, was elected to Congress from Massachusetts in 1986 and served six terms, but enjoyed a reputation for bumptiousness rather than statesmanship, and is probably best known for his penchant for befriending Caribbean tyrants (Jean-Paul Aristide of Haiti and, more recently, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela). His sister Kathleen arrived in Maryland in 1986, promptly ran for Congress, and was defeated. A decade later she served two terms as lieutenant governor on the ticket with Governor Parris Glendening, but lost her own 2002 campaign for governor--in a state with an overhwelming Democratic edge in registration...
Having washed out of Georgetown and retreated to Providence College, Patrick was elected to the Rhode Island legislature while pursuing his undergraduate career, then in due course was elevated to Congress. He was, at first, taken up by the minority leader, Richard Gephardt, as a Democratic fundraising device; but his own peculiar demons--vandalizing a rented yacht, abusing an airport employee, crashing his car into a police barrier in the dead of night while en route to an imaginary House vote--soon reduced him to laughingstock status in the nation's capital, and deprived him of Gephardt's patronage. Poor Patrick is now condemned to life tenure in the lower chamber, on behalf of Rhode Island, where his (now publicly acknowledged) manic depression has made him a pharmaceutical role model.
When John F. Kennedy Jr. crashed his private plane into Long Island Sound, killing himself, his wife, and his sister-in-law in 1999, it was said that John, publisher of the now-defunct George magazine, was considering politics and assessing his presidential prospects. No one says such things about Patrick.
As with the hapless Patrick, the most impressive aspect of Caroline Kennedy's brief campaign for appointment was its sheer presumption.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2009
13:18 ||
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#1
yet the media pant and get all moist over Camelot any time one of these losers speaks. I'd forgotten that Patches story part about the imaginary vote. Hee hee.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/01/2009 13:40
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#2
Interesting photograph. Past generations and hope for the future both given the front row.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/01/2009 14:43
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#4
how about the canard the Kennedys keep advancing..."the Kennedys have always had to work twice as hard as anyone else"? Caroline actually used this once the heat got turned up on her vis a vis her meager credentials.
#1
At least they don't obfuscate that Hamas' main dispute is with Egypt over the Rafah crossing. Typical Paleo logic - Fight Israel because you have a dispute with Egypt.
He also reiterated Hamas’ demand that any truce with Israel be conditioned on the reopening of Gaza’s long-closed border crossings, particularly the Rafah crossing with Egypt. “Any other conditions are unacceptable,”
(IsraelNN.com) Following a meeting with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah on Thursday, newly-appointed American Middle East envoy George Mitchell called for open crossings into Gaza and greater Fatah involvement there.
Talking to reporters after his discussions with Fatah leader Abbas and other PA officials, Mitchell said, "To be successful in preventing the illicit traffic of arms into Gaza, there must be a mechanism to allow the flow of legal goods. And that should be with the participation of the [Fatah-controlled] Palestinian Authority
Fatah is the faction currently heading the Judea and Samaria half of the Authority, while the more jihadist Hamas controls the Gaza half of the PA. Hamas initially took legislative power in a landslide in PA-wide elections, and later carried out a successful coup in Gaza in order to obtain absolute control there.
The U.S. envoy further called for "a sustainable and durable ceasefire" between Hamas and Israel. Mitchell added that he had expressed to Abbas President Barack Obama's "deep concern over the killing of the Palestinians and the humanitarian situation in Gaza." The President is also committed to a Palestinian State and "lasting peace", according to Mitchell.
While Abbas did not address the media following his meeting with Mitchell, senior PA representative Saeb Erekat told journalists that the PA chairman discussed "humanitarian aid to Gaza, the importance of the truce, opening the crossings and lifting the blockade of Gaza." Abbas also claimed that "continued construction of Israeli settlements, creating facts on the ground... and construction of the wall are an attempt to separate the West Bank from the Gaza Strip," according to Erekat. He added that Israel's Operation Cast Lead in Gaza harmed the chances for peace in the region.
Touching on another matter, Erekat said that Abbas told Mitchell of his eagerness to form a unified regime with Hamas. Due to the American boycott of Hamas, which it officially recognizes as a terrorist entity, Mitchell is not going to visit Gaza during his current Middle Eastern tour.
Mitchell met with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Wednesday, after meetings in Egypt. He also met with IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi. On Friday, Mitchell is scheduled to meet with Knesset opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu.
#3
How is it that the United States, with the most developed education system in the world, cannot come up with a politician with more brains than a rock? George Mitchell, the person who sent him on this idiotic mission (Hillary Clinton), and the person that actually gave Hillary a JOB (Barack Obama) ALL flunk the smell test. God help us over the next four years!
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/01/2009 14:21
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#4
He's right of course: let Hamas bring in guns, ammo and rockets openly and there won't be any need for smuggling. Cheez ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/01/2009 14:43
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#5
The very first word that came to mind when I read the headline was "retarded". He is either retarded or is willfully ignoring reality to further his own goals or those of his boss(es).
#6
OP---in the US good people do not go into politics because a good person is not willing to put up with the sh*t and personal attacks on him/herself and the family. Who in their right mind wants to subject themselves to that. Also having to pay $2 mil+ for a $200K job does not make sense, unless you are into baksheesh and related corruption.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/01/2009 15:36
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#7
The problem has been around for decades; a long-running domestic dispute in the world's trailer park. The U.S. is supposed to 'do something about it', according to the rest of the neighborhood.
So you send a beat-cop, preferably someone everyone recognizes. Officer Mitchell goes in, talks, gets an agreement, and goes back to the donut shop until the crap starts flying again.
If you look at it from the standpoint that it's a long-running farce, it's much easier to deal with.
#8
Nuclear arms in the Middle East
Israel is attacking the Iraqis
The Syrians are mad at the Lebanese
And Baghdad does whatever she please
Looks like another threat to world peace
For the envoy
An Egyptian opposition politician will face military prosecutors on Monday for going to the Gaza Strip in a highly publicized trip last week, his lawyer told Deutsche Presse- Agentur (DPA) on Sunday.
The Egyptian military detained Magdi Hussein, a fiery orator from Egypt's suspended Labour Party, on Saturday on charges of crossing Egypt's borders illegally, Hussein's lawyer, Hassan Ali, told DPA on Sunday. Military prosecutors will interrogate Hussein on Monday before deciding whether to try him before a military tribunal, Ali said.
Hussein chronicled his trip in daily entries posted to the Labour Party's website after he crossed into the Gaza Strip through a hole in the border fence on January 23. In an interview published in London's pan-Arab daily al-Quds al-Arabi the day before his arrest, Hussein said that expected to be detained or sent back to Gaza when he attempted to return to Egypt. 'I know I will face more troubles when I go back to Egypt next week,' Hussein told the daily. 'They might prevent me from entering Egypt from Rafah.'
Hussein told al-Quds al-Arabi that he thrice failed to enter Rafah legally before 'a friend' helped him to enter the territory through a hole in the border fence created, he said, when Israeli warplanes bombed the area. The Egyptian politician said he went with no clear idea what he would do when he arrived in the salient. Once there, he joined a Moroccan parliamentary delegation and Kuwaiti MP Walid Al-Tabatabai on a tour of the destruction in the territory.
Al-Tabtabai said he visited Gaza on January 22, arriving 'by special ways' after Egypt stopped him from entering via the Rafah crossing, London's pan-Arab daily al-Hayat reported last Wednesday. The newspaper hinted that Tabatabai might have used one of the tunnels connecting Rafah with the Gaza Strip.
In articles posted on the Labour Party's website, Hussein said he had met with politicians and militants from Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza, and that he had preached the virtues of armed struggle in Gazan mosques.
Egyptian security forces last detained Hussein in October, when they intercepted a convoy carrying medical supplies into Gaza and found him and five other Egyptian Islamist opposition politicians traveling into the strip to protest the Egyptian and Israeli blockade of the salient.
paging Joe M!Socio-economic lecturing from a guy that eats his own ear wax. I'll pass
-Frank G
KEVIN RUDD has denounced the unfettered capitalism of the past three decades and called for a new era of "social capitalism" in which government intervention and regulation feature heavily.
In an essay to be published next week, the Prime Minister is scathing of the neo-liberals who began refashioning the market system in the 1970s, and ultimately brought about the global financial crisis.
"The time has come, off the back of the current crisis, to proclaim that the great neo-liberal experiment of the past 30 years has failed, that the emperor has no clothes," he writes of those who placed their faith in the corrective powers of the market.
"Neo-liberalism and the free-market fundamentalism it has produced has been revealed as little more than personal greed dressed up as an economic philosophy. And, ironically, it now falls to social democracy to prevent liberal capitalism from cannibalising itself."
Mr Rudd writes in The Monthly that just as Franklin Roosevelt rebuilt US capitalism after the Great Depression, modern-day "social democrats" such as himself and the US President, Barack Obama, must do the same again. But he argues that "minor tweakings of long-established orthodoxies will not do" and advocates a new system that reaches beyond the 70-year-old interventionist principles of John Maynard Keynes.
"A system of open markets, unambiguously regulated by an activist state, and one in which the state intervenes to reduce the greater inequalities that competitive markets will inevitably generate," he writes.
He urges "a new contract for the future that eschews the extremism of both the left and right".
He mocks neo-liberals "who now find themselves tied in ideological knots in being forced to rely on the state they fundamentally despise to save financial markets from collapse".
He advocates tighter regulation and policing of global finances, and identifies the immediate challenge as restoring global growth by 3 per cent of gross domestic product, the amount it is expected to fall in 2009. Next week, as Parliament resumes, his Government will chip in with a second economic stimulus package.
Mr Rudd commits to keeping budgets in surplus "over the cycle", meaning deficits should be temporary. In a further sign the Government is not contemplating additional tax cuts, which would deliver a permanent hit to revenue, he stresses that stimulus measures have to be paid for when the economy recovers.
Mr Rudd singles out Thatcherism as a culprit, as well as the former Howard government. His essay implicitly attacks the Opposition Leader, Malcolm Turnbull, who this week urged the free market be allowed to dictate commercial property values as he slammed a Government measure to prop them up.
Mr Rudd's essay follows the blast Mr Obama gave Wall Street bankers yesterday for awarding themselves $28 billion in bonuses last year at the same time as they were being bailed out by taxpayers.
In a message to Mr Obama and the US Congress, Mr Rudd counselled against erecting trade barriers. "Soft or hard, protectionism is a sure-fire way of turning recession into depression as it exacerbates the collapse in global demand."
The message was reinforced in Davos yesterday when the Trade Minister, Simon Crean, described the "buy American" provisions of the new Obama stimulus package as "very worrying". "On the face of it, it looks like it contravenes commitments made to the World Trade Organisation," he said.
Posted by: Besoeker & Frank G ||
02/01/2009
11:43 ||
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#1
a joint venture with B!
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/01/2009 13:34
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Mr Rudd's essay follows the blast Mr Obama gave Wall Street bankers yesterday for awarding themselves $28 billion in bonuses last year at the same time as they were being bailed out by taxpayers.
In a message to Mr Obama and the US Congress, Mr Rudd counselled against erecting trade barriers. "Soft or hard, protectionism is a sure-fire way of turning recession into depression as it exacerbates the collapse in global demand."
OH, so you're all for government intervention in the economy as long as you're eating off of someone _else's_ gored ox.
Isn't that how the economic crisis _really_ happened?
#4
Now let's see. The system where private capital is allowed but has to do what the government says is called Fascism.
Bet the Australian voters didn't know they were voting for a Mussolini. Unfortunately ours can't even make the trains run on time(ask the people of Sydney and Melbourne - both states they are in have incompetent ALP(Labor party aka Looter Party) state governments although there's some redundancy in that statement.
Posted by: Aussie Mike ||
02/01/2009 15:58
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#5
It was regulation that created the credit bubble.
They really are sh1t5.
Cause a problem. Shift Blame. Seize more power to claim to fix it.
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees does little to check whether its staff or clients are terrorists, its former chief attorney, James Lindsay, says in a newly published report. Allegations linking terrorists to UNRWA are not new. Israel has said many times its troops were fired on by gunmen using UNRWA facilities, that UNRWA vehicles transported weapons and that some of its staff members were terrorists.
UNRWA has denied those charges and Israel has often retracted them or found them hard to prove.
This latest claim against UNRWA, contained in a 67-page critique of the organization published at the end of January by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, has more authority behind it, because Lindsay was a senior lawyer for UNRWA from 2000 to 2007.
The issue, Lindsay wrote, is not intention but oversight. "UNRWA has taken very few steps to detect and eliminate terrorists from the ranks of its staff or its beneficiaries, and no steps at all to prevent members of terrorist organizations such as Hamas from joining its staff," he wrote. "These failings have occurred not because UNRWA consciously supports terrorism but rather because it is not particularly concerned about the issue.
why anyone should be concerned about supporting terrorism is completely lost on UNRWA
Its main focus [is] the provision of services and protection of Palestinian refugees," he wrote. another focus is criticizing Israel; still another is getting its senior alumni placed in high level positions when they return to home country
UNRWA's Jerusalem spokesman Chris Gunness said in response that his organization had "a rigorous approach to ensuring that its staff are not involved in militant or political activity" we rigorously define all terrorism as non terrorism
and that it took the matter very seriously.
#3
#2 I thought that's what they were being paid for. Posted by: Nimble Spemble
No, NS, they're being paid to ensure there continues to be a "refugee problem" among the "palestinian people", so they can continue their existence. I don't remember who said it, but "There's nothing quite as permanent as a 'temporary' government agency." is the quote that explains everything about the UN, including the UNRWA. Israel needs to drive all the ARABS in Gaza and the West Bank into the neighboring territories, and threaten to nuke the capitals of the countries surrounding it if those governments don't accept them. That is especially true of Lebanon, where the "refugee" problem is created and continued by ARABS as a weapon against Israel.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/01/2009 13:57
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#1
The people who have been the most absolutely vicious towards me because of my support for the GWOT and for the few instances of harsh interrogation of captured terror suspects have been secular American Jews.
They take particular umbrage at labeling anyone 'evil'. I've gotten long angry lectures about how 'torture' never works and in any case no one except a very small (dozens in the world) handful of psychopaths are really bad, unless we make them so by labeling them 'other' and failing to acknowledge our nation's responsibility for their hatred.
The are DETERMINED to maintain that belief and lash out venomously at anyone who attempts to suggest otherwise. I have figurative, if not literal, scars from several such encounters. In one recent case the other person threatened to have me fired from my job for promoting hatred and is in a position to (at a minimum) create problems for me at work.
I have a very sick feeling in my stomach about this year. I suspect it may get very bad very quickly.
#3
They take particular umbrage at labeling anyone 'evil'. I've gotten long angry lectures about how 'torture' never works and in any case no one except a very small (dozens in the world) handful of psychopaths are really bad, unless we make them so by labeling them 'other' and failing to acknowledge our nation's responsibility for their hatred.
Ya know, I don't really wanna do torture as a tactic, it's too much trouble, but the question to ask is, North Vietnam tortured not only our soldiers but lots and lots of South Vietnamese soldiers and civilians.
They used torture and other terror, and it worked like a son-of-a-bitch. They have a country and their kids get to be factory owners while their conquered enemy's kids get to be 5 dollars a day factory workers in the caste system they've set up there.
They're living in a fantasy world where nothing evil ever _works_. Unfortunately it works all too well, otherwise people wouldn't be doing it.
#4
Thing, I don't want to do torture either. What I asked them to do was to grant the possibility that those who authorized waterboarding did so because they believed that thousands of lives were at stake.
These people would not even admit that. The only 'evil' they could imagine were embodied in Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld.
And, although it did not come up, possibly also in religious Jews. I suspect they hate, fear and are guilty about Israel and that that is at the root of their blindness to and even support for Muslim terror.
Or maybe that's just pop psychologizing on my part. Who knows?
What I do know is that they would gladly have destroyed me when I didn't agree with them. And I know that they and many like them are quite ready to support pretty damned near anything the Obama administration does.
NS trusts there will be a voter backlash in the Nov 2010 elections. Possibly so, and I would welcome it. But a lot can happen between now and then and some of it may be irreversible.
#5
Here is my evil story about Vietnam. A group of medics went to a village to give aid and to inoculate the children for small pox. The next day upon returning to finish their aid work they discovered a pile of little arms from the children that they had incoculated the day before. Did it happen? Who knows, but it damn sure could have. The atrocities commeted by the v.c. commies and nva are unimaginable to those that did not experience.
#7
the helicopter assault on the village made the hair on my neck stand up, but the rest of the movie didn't do much for me. I wondered where I had heard that story, amazing how fact and fiction blend together over the years.
#9
Saigon... shit; I'm still only in Saigon... Every time I think I'm gonna wake up back in the jungle. When I was home after my first tour, it was worse. I'd wake up and there'd be nothing. I hardly said a word to my wife, until I said "yes" to a divorce. When I was here, I wanted to be there; when I was there, all I could think of was getting back into the jungle. I'm here a week now... waiting for a mission... getting softer; every minute I stay in this room, I get weaker, and every minute Charlie squats in the bush, he gets stronger. Each time I looked around, the walls moved in a little tighter.
Oh, did I show you my Lucky Hattm?
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/01/2009 12:15
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#10
2010 is too son for a backlash. The press will stiffle most any pro-trunk or anti-donk/anti-Barry news for at least a year.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
02/01/2009 12:19
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#11
2010 is doable. The Messiah has made some gigantic mistakes.
He has been rolled by Queen Nan and Prince Harry into supporting an overreaching spending bill that does too little for stimulus and too much for special interest payoffs they've been waiting for years to implement. Too greedy too fast.
Barry is bad mouthing the economy way too much; too much fear, fear, fear to get the package passed before anybody figures out what's in it and too little "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself" confidence building. This will also delay recovery.
As a result, the crowning jewel of socialized medicine will prove once again elusive and the blush will come off The One's halo for the true believers. They will see The Messiah has feet of clay and can't deliver the goods.
So the economy is still in the tank 3 years on, the donks own it, and they've gone a bridge too far.
The donk's House majority rests on lots of conservative democrats who ran against George Bush in pretty conservative districts. Now they are going to have to distance themselves from the Holy Family in their voting record, or defend themselves to constituents who are pretty loyal Rush listeners.
By then, the trunks may figure out that if they ever get in again, they better not screw up like they did last time. A Contract for America message delivered nationwide by a real positive, inspirational, mediagenic figure like, say Michael Steel supported by Palin, Jindal and (pick your fav for 2012) of lower taxes and growth can put the trunks on top in 2010.
And I didn't even assume any foreign disasters from the donk's friends. And there will be some. Because this economy will hurt everyone else a lot more than it will hurt us. And somebody will be pushed over the brink. That's The One's only hope, that he is the indispensable wartime leader. Watch for less Lincoln now and more FDR.
#13
bman - Yeah, I heard the same story, from Marlon Brando (as Col. Kurtz) in "Apocalypse Now". Good movie.
A movie the liberals have been shoving down our throats for the past twenty years.
AND... a movie which pretty much postulated the view that the N. Vietnamese deserved to _win_ because they were willing to do evil things like cut off the arms of kids being vaccinated and we weren't. Or that we couldn't win because we wouldn't do those things.
But now... they want to talk about the morality of waterboarding and/or other forms of torture.
#14
When it comes to atrocities, the Muslim barbarians are rank amateurs compared to their communist predecessors, their obvious enthusiasm notwithstanding. I don't know about lopping off inoculated arms, but the VC and their fellow lefty heroes, the NVA, were fond of lopping off heads, skinning bodies (living bodies if they could get them), gouging out eyes, and various other disgusting practices.
It is a measure of their depravity that media- culture conformists and peace hypocrites will invariably leap to the defense of these savages and blame it all on napalm, "American imperialism," and the myth of "indiscriminate bombing."
Personally, I was appalled at our use of napalm at first, but after a few weeks of seeing Charlie in action, I was frustrated that we didn't have something even more scary.
#15
As I told another Vietnam vet just Friday, the thing I cherish most about my year in Vietnam is being one of the people that drew ARCLIGHT boxes and did the follow-up bomb damage assessment. He told me something I hadn't heard before - that these strikes killed EVERYTHING, even the ants in the ground. I had known that they killed anyone within thee or four miles of the strike from overpressure, and they totally leveled the landscape, but that they killed ants in the ground? Of all the weapons in our arsenal, the NVA hated and feared ARCLIGHT the most. That's one reason I've been so adamant about using them against the muslims - they need to understand that we can sow much greater fear than they can, and we can do it as a total surprise. One ARCLIGHT strike down through the Gaza Strip would eliminate it as a problem for CENTURIES. There would be no Hamass, there would be no "palestinians", there would be no rockets, mortar shells, or anything else. You'd have to be in a completely self-contained bunker at least 750 feet below the surface to even POSSIBLY survive. I hope we never have to do that to such a densely-populated area, but we're going to HAVE to do something that teaches the arabs that messing with the US is a sure-fire way to die a horrible death. Not using ARCLIGHT strikes against the Republican Guards left the door open to the guerilla struggle that followed. Using such a strike against a target in the NWFP would send such a clear message even the Pakistanis would have to acknowledge it.
There's a good probability, especially with Barry in the White House, that the next place we'll have to use such weapons will be in Western Europe, principally against Brussels. I doubt we'll have the intestinal fortitude to do so, however.
War is not a computer video game. War is hell. Not using the most imposing weapons in your arsenal only prolongs your enemy's will to fight.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/01/2009 15:43
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#16
4 drinks in one post, OP. And I have to get up and go to work in a few hours.
WASHINGTON - Thomas Daschle waited nearly a month after being nominated to be secretary of health and human services before informing then-President-elect Obama that he had not paid years of back taxes for the use of a car and driver provided by a wealthy New York investor.
Daschle, one of Obama's earliest and most ardent campaign supporters, paid $140,000 to the US Treasury on Jan. 2 and about two days later informed the White House and the Senate Finance Committee, according to an account provided by his spokeswoman and confirmed by the Obama administration.
Although Daschle had known since June 2008 that he needed to correct his tax returns for 2005 to 2007, he never expected the amount to be such a "jaw-dropping" sum and "thought it was being taken care of" by his accountant, spokeswoman Jenny Backus said. Can't blame TurboTax this time, but there's always the CPA to throw under the bus...
Daschle is expected to face tough questioning from GOP lawmakers on the Senate Finance Committee about underpaying his taxes and his extensive work for clients in the healthcare industry, Republican aides said yesterday. ...while other committee members from The Party That Shall Not Be Named will do so half heartedly, if at all.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said last night that Obama stands behind his friend and confidant. "The president believes nobody's perfect but that nobody's hiding anything," Gibbs said. At least not until they're nominated for a Cabinet post...
The disclosure of Daschle's tax problems coincided with the convenient Friday afternoon press release of the financial statement he submitted to the Office of Government Ethics, which details for the first time how, without becoming a registered lobbyist, he made millions of dollars giving public speeches and private counsel to insurers, hospitals, realtors, farmers, energy firms, and telecommunications companies with regulatory and legislative interests in Washington.
Daschle's expertise and insights, gleaned over 26 years in Congress, earned him more than $5 million over the past two years, including $220,000 from the healthcare industry, and perks such as chauffeured Cadillacs in Washington, according to the documents.
In mid-December, Obama's transition team discovered that $15,000 of the $276,000 in charitable contributions claimed by Daschle and his wife over three years lacked proper receipts. But the former Senate majority leader did not mention the larger tax liability until after his accountant had filed amended returns.
The Senate Finance Committee has scheduled a private session tomorrow to discuss Daschle's tax problems. Daschle, visiting an ailing relative, was unavailable for comment this weekend.
Meanwhile, the disclosure of Daschle's lucrative ties to private companies with Washington interests have begun to raise eyebrows among those who expected Obama to be wary of relying on wealthy insiders to stock his administration.
"Daschle is the quintessential Washington story. You leave a powerful position, and you leverage it to make a fortune," said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a nonprofit government watchdog group.
In his principal campaign speech on government ethics in June 2007, candidate Obama decried the "morally offensive conduct" of lobbyists and lawmakers who help large industries and special interests exercise "an effective veto on our progress."
He singled out the drug and insurance industries for particular scorn, saying they had pushed for a new Medicare prescription drug benefit and that lawmakers and Bush appointees who made it happen were rewarded with "cushy lobbying jobs that pay millions."
In recent months, Daschle has advocated changes to the health system that are unpopular with sizable portions of the industry, including some physicians, drug makers, and insurance companies. Daschle has nonetheless prospered from a stream of income from the health sector, including $220,000 in speaking fees in the past two years, according to the ethics filing. Whig. Daschle's gotta be a Whig, right?
Please note the formatting rules. The article does NOT go into italics. Close the spaces between the article text and your in-line commentary. AoS.
#1
without becoming a registered lobbyist, he made millions of dollars giving public speeches and private counsel to insurers, hospitals, realtors, farmers, energy firms, and telecommunications companies with regulatory and legislative interests in Washington.
I'm "deeply disappointed" in Tom Thumb. Farking lying crap weasel.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/01/2009 10:14
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#2
oh, and note that he knew this as of last June, but didn't do anything about it til he was caught via teh vetting process. Think he'd have paid up if he wasn't forced to? Me neither.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/01/2009 10:24
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#3
The Culture of Corruption is now under, new, Democratic Party management.
#6
One of the most to-the-point critiques I've read of the Democrat label omission, was when somebody got a Blago story and re-inserted the Democrat label in the story. In put things into perspective.
Noche de Cristal?
The vandalizing of a Caracas synagogue late Friday only underscores the feeling of growing anti-Semitic sentiment in the South American nation, Jewish community members said over the weekend.
A group of people - reports run as high as 15 - broke into Caracas's Sephardic synagogue late on Friday, held the guard at gunpoint, wreaked havoc on the building and damaged the Torah scrolls. Before leaving at around 3 a.m., the vandals scrawled "Death to the Jews" and "We don't want Jews here" on the synagogue's walls.
The damage was discovered by community members on Saturday morning. The guard was found on the floor, one community leader said.
According to Paul Hariton, a former leader of the Ashkenazi community in Caracas, "this was a well-organized event. The attackers were heavily armed. They jumped a wall and overcame two guards. They even took the videotape out of the security camera before they left."
The US-based Anti-Defamation League (ADL) said the attack was "not a random event in Venezuela; it is directly related to the atmosphere of anti-Jewish intimidation promoted by President [Hugo] Chavez and his government apparatus."
The suggestion of government sanction for the attack was heard many times from Venezuelan Jews over the weekend, though most of them would not speak on the record. "I do not expect the law to be enforced," Hariton said simply.
The ADL called on Chavez "to abandon the official government rhetoric of demonization of Israel and Jews and to publicly denounce this wanton act of anti-Semitic violence."
Chavez called on the Venezuelan Jewish community to "declare itself against this barbarity" - Israel's recent offense against Hamas in Gaza - in a January 6 interview with Venezuela's state-run VTV television network.
"Don't Jews repudiate the Holocaust? And this is precisely what we're witnessing," Chavez told the network.
According to Miami Herald columnist and Latin America expert Andres Oppenheimer, "Chavez-backed regional media carry anti-Semitic - and not just anti-Israel - stories almost daily."
For example, he relates, "As I'm writing this [on Thursday], a quick look at the Web site of Telesur, the Venezuela-based regional television network owned by the governments of Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Paraguay, shows me a story entitled 'Gaza's Ruins,' which accuses Israel 'and the world's Jews' of failing to denounce alleged atrocities by Israeli troops and 'Jewish planes' in Gaza."
"We've never had such an incident. It looks well-planned," Daniel Ben-Naim, spokesman for the Federation of Jewish Communities in Venezuela, said of the synagogue attack. "We were afraid something like this would happen. The official press was becoming more and more anti-Israeli and anti-Jews. There are hundreds of anti-Semitic articles, ads and fliers."
According to Hariton, the government is using the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a "scapegoat" to distract attention from Venezuela's most pressing problems. With crime at one of the highest levels in the world, "where does the Venezuelan government find the time to talk about terrorists getting killed in Gaza? It used to be a country friendly to Israel and the Jewish community," he said.
"You can disagree with Israel. That's fine," said Hariton. "But you can't go to a place where we worship and destroy it. That's clearly anti-Semitism." Coming to a community near you.
"Never again," they say? Well, it's happening again, right before our eyes. Forbearance and pacifism worked real well in 1933-45, didn't they?
I suggest a different course this time:
First they came for the pacifist Jews,
but I was not a pacifist, so I did not speak up.....
Then they came for the liberal Jewish professors,
but I was not a liberal Jewish professor, so I did not speak up....
Then they came for the media-activist Jews,
but I was not a media activist Jew, so I did not speak up...
Then they came for the self-hating liberal Jews who had supported them,
but I was not a self-hating Jew, so I did not speak up.
Then they came for the gun-owning Republican Jews,
#4
I wonder what would happen to Venezuela if we imposed an embargo against them like we do against Cuba. I do wonder how long Hoogo would last. Nobody else in the world will buy that sludge he calls oil. No money, no power, just coca and bullets.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/01/2009 13:26
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#5
One must remember that Hamas is quite active in Venezuela and there are many Iranians there too. Iran and Venezuela are allies.
Palestinian sources told the Egyptian daily newspaper Al Ahram that the Hamas leadership in the Gaza Strip sought to extend the six-month cease-fire that preceded Israel's military offensive last month and are furious with Hamas' Damascus-based political bureau chief Khaled Meshal's decision to end the truce, Israel Radio reported on Saturday.
According to the report, two senior Hamas officials in Gaza - Mahmoud al-Zahar and Ahmed al-Jabari - warned Meshal that abandoning the cease-fire was "rash" given that the organization had not adequately prepared for an Israeli ground incursion into the Gaza Strip.
#2
Mashaal's gonna be pissed. This might interrupt the Damasacus cocktail hour
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/01/2009 0:38
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#3
This could be fixed.
Kill the surviving "leaders," then kill the "leaders" in Damascus.
Then everybody would be happy.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/01/2009 0:45
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#4
So the Gazooks didn't know their place, eh ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/01/2009 0:50
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#5
And the people in Damascus are pi$$ed with the people in Iran. Hey, these are tough and troubling times. Stephen Foster wrote a song about this theme in 1850.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/01/2009 15:39
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MARION, Ky. -- In some parts of rural Kentucky, they're getting water the old-fashioned way -- with pails from a creek. There's not room for one more sleeping bag on the shelter floor. The creative are flushing their toilets with melted snow. not a good story for the MSM to cover because it doesn't seem to scream "global warming"
At least 42 people have died, including 11 in Kentucky, and conditions are worsening in many places days after an ice storm knocked out power to 1.3 million customers from the Plains to the East Coast. About a million people were still without electric Friday, and with no hope that the lights will come back on soon.
Local officials were growing angry with what they said was a lack of help from the state and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The ONE Dozed, White People Froze
In Grayson County, about 80 miles southwest of Louisville, Emergency Management Director Randell Smith said the 25 National Guardsmen who have responded have no chain saws to clear fallen trees. "We've got people out in some areas we haven't even visited yet," Smith said. "We don't even know that they're alive."
Smith said FEMA has been a no-show so far. "I'm not saying we can't handle it; we'll handle it," Smith said. "But it would have made life a lot easier" if FEMA had reached the county sooner, he said.
#1
First - This should not be a national-level issue - it is a local issue, that is well within the capability of local authorities to handle. Winter weather and ice storms are routine, recurring phenomenon.
With that said - and in light of the Katrina albatross that was hung with glee from President Bush's neck, the hecklers should absolutely CRUCIFY Obambi for utter negligence, absent leadership, incompetence, cowardice, racism, dereliction of duty, and any other failings that can be imagined. The opposition should grind his face into the slush until he gurgles.
And - the Obamination should be heckled every week for the next 203 weeks about his failed performance during "ice storm gate", and his personal responsibility for each death. The protest posters should show Obama and his aides in shirtsleeves in the overheated Oval Office, with an inset picture of white schoolchildren huddled and shivering in some Appalachian church.
#2
Maybe the One should tell the Kentuckians that they should show Chicago flinty resolve to overcome this.
On the other hand, the Lone Ranger is absolutely right: 1) this is not a Federal Government issue and 2) Because the president has a D after his name, rather than an R, the press will suddenly remember fact 1).
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
02/01/2009 0:38
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#7
the 25 National Guardsmen who have responded have no chain saws to clear fallen trees.
No chain saws, when the problem is power lines downed by ice-covered tree limbs? There are an awful lot of tree companies up here in Cincinnati; why had no one hired them to help down there?
#11
While I have to agree that this is NOT a "federal" issue, it IS a state issue. They've only called up 25 National Guardsmen? The nearest WalMart has gas-powered chain saws. Why hasn't the state's emergency management people just gone to Wallieworld and pick up a half-dozen? A few chain saws and 50 sacks of cat litter can help a bunch.
Is rural Kentucky absolutely axe-free? An axe takes longer than a chain saw, but it works without having to have either gas or electricity. I know the kind of havoc ice storms can cause. I lived through a couple in Louisiana, and one in Germany where the local government completely shut down road travel for 36 hours. They can be a killer. At the same time the best place to find a helping hand is at the end of your arm. I can remember being 15 and helping clear broken limbs and whole trees from the road we lived on after a really bad ice storm. I have little sympathy.
Local people should be angry that the State government isn't providing assistance (or sufficient assistance), but there's a lot they could do for themselves.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/01/2009 15:08
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#12
latest on Fox said ALL NG were called up
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/01/2009 15:38
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#13
Stay safe, 3dc. He's down in Kan-tuck-ee right now.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/01/2009 15:44
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#14
While I would like to lay this at Obama's feet, as far as I know the Govornour of Kentucky has not asked for Federal help and until he does there is nothing the US, or Obama, can do. This is not like New Orleans where Bush contacted the Louisiana Govourner and she told him she didn't need the Feds and then screemed bloody murder when she and the locals were not able to handle the situation.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/01/2009 18:37
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#15
This seems like a larger natural disaster than Katrina. State and local response is inadequate and national response is very poor. Lots to criticize, but few have taken up the gauntlet. Once again the public is ill-served by MSM. N o suprise there.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
02/01/2009 18:47
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#16
Hard to believe folks in rural Kentucky do not have chain saws.
Tractor, shotgun, chainsaw. Rural folks can usually look after themselves.
#17
Hell you ought to see my "Survival closet" chain saw fuel and oil (In pickup sealed back toolbox) air mattress, gasoline lanterns, Propane lanterns, Coleman gasoline cook stove (Two burners) Tarpaulins (2) and hand saw (two actualy one plain handsaw and one woods saw with a 30 inch bandsaw type blade, (No axe yet I'm lazy) two claw hammers, many different sizes of nails and screws, I suppose I should include my pickup, a Small Isuzu that'll go wherever I want it to, Backwoods, or interstate. Extra 5 gallon gas can (Full of course).
Much more, books on construction and survival I guess I'm just a big Boy Scout.
Served me well about 15 years ago when we had a freak snowsorm and an snow filled Huge pine cut my house in half (2 1/2 feet across through the living room and 50 feet from the stump)
Let it snow.
Posted by: Rednek Jim ||
02/01/2009 21:07
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#18
PS, those huge pines went to the sawmill right after the roads opened, never again.
Posted by: Rednek Jim ||
02/01/2009 21:10
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#19
good kit, RJ. When I went to Mexico in my FJ40, I carried extra fanbelts, hoses, and a fuel pump. Just in case. I thought I was doing well......
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/01/2009 21:18
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#20
Frank G
the best kit is one you never need to use, you did good.
Posted by: Rednek Jim ||
02/01/2009 22:22
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#21
On Friday morn -- an interview with the Lt Gov of KY said, "Yes, we have contacted the White House, we have requested disaster designation, and are in conversation with the White House."
Not sure when that request was made --- but it has been made. At the least, it was on Thursday, cause this was early Friday morn, and The One isn't an early man into the office.
#22
Every couple of years KY has a good ice storm. The KY national guard is very prepared for this as are most of th local folks. I question this reporters intent. KY can take care of its own and they don't need any help from Wash DC.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
02/01/2009 23:01
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Iran says its newly-built air-defense system would fully protect its nuclear installations as it can engage targets as high as 55,000 feet. Defense Minister Brigadier General Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said on Saturday that Iran's "new 100mm anti-aircraft gun is capable of reaching target enemy aircraft at an altitude of 55,000 feet (about 18 kilometers)."
The manufacturing of Iran's anti aircraft artillery -- also known as Triple-A -- comes as military analysts had earlier made speculations about the potential of Iran's existing anti-aircraft systems, saying that the country's air-defense capabilities would allow Israeli sorties over Iranian nuclear facilities.
Iran's defense development came in line with a June report by the New York Times which said Iran was "taking steps to better defend its nuclear facilities" after it was revealed that Israel carried out a major military exercise as a rehearsal for a potential bombing attack on Iran.
"Two sets of advance Russian-made radar systems were recently delivered to Iran. The radar will enhance Iran's ability to detect planes flying at low altitude," added the report.
Military experts believe the dropping of bunker-busting bombs on targets like Iran's nuclear complex should be carried out from a low altitude, as it requires great precision.
US and Israeli military experts have also expressed concern about the possibility of the sale of sophisticated S-300 air-defense systems by Russia to Iran.
Hawley, a former fighter pilot with more than 3,000 flight hours and 438 combat missions over Vietnam, said the prospects for conventional aircraft would be grim when faced with the SA-20.
According to the Russian producer company of the weapon -- Almaz Scientific Industrial Corporation -- the S-300PMU-1 system is capable of engaging targets from altitudes as low as 30 feet to as high as 90,000 feet, against incoming targets traveling at a velocity of 9,000 feet per second. Its horizontal range allows the S-300PMU-1 to attack targets as close as 3 miles to as far out as 95 miles.
The missile system is also capable of destroying incoming intermediate-range ballistic missiles up to 25 miles.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2009
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#1
Does anybody know how many cruise missiles we have in inventory? Wikipedia says 3,500 TLAM (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BGM-109_Tomahawk).
I wonder what sort of air defense capability would be left standing after about 2,000 Tomahawks finished playing "whack a mole"?
Then again, we are faced with an Obmination of leadership - so, maybe Iran is on track for achieving bullet-proof status.
During a battle an ROK (Republic of Korea) commander, whose unit was fighting with the Marines, called legendary Marine (then Colonel) Chesty Puller to report a major Chinese attack in his sector.
"How many Chinese are attacking you?" asked Puller.
"Many, many Chinese!" replied the excited Korean officer.
Puller asked for another count and got the same answer: "Many, many Chinese!"
"#*#&*!#%!" swore Puller, "Put my Marine liaison officer on the radio."
In a minute, an American voice came over the air: "Yes, sir?"
"Lieutenant," growled Chesty, "exactly how many Chinese you got up there?"
"Colonel, we got a whole s**tload of Chinese up here!"
"Thank God!" exclaimed Puller, "At least thereÂ’s someone up there who knows how to count!"
#4
The Iranians recently purchased top of the line Russian systems. I recall these are the same Russian systems shredded by the Israelis on their way to take out that NORK "test lab." The Iranian air defense isn't the problem. It's the number of hidden sites that's truly problematic.
Egypt on Friday accused Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah of being an "agent of Iran," after his tirades against Cairo during Israel's military assault on the impoverished Palestinian territory. "Hassan Nasrallah's criticism of Egypt confirms once more that he is nothing more than an agent of the Iranian regime and takes his orders from Tehran," it charged in a government statement.
On Thursday, Nasrallah, whose group is wholly owned supported by Damascus and Tehran, slammed Egypt on the grounds it continues to keep its Rafah border post with Gaza closed while claiming to have opened it. Rafah is the only land exit point from Gaza which does not lead into Israel.
Nasrallah accused Cairo of complicity in the Israeli blockade on Gaza and cast doubt on Egypt's neutrality in efforts to mediate a formal ceasefire.
Egypt on Wednesday accused Iran, along with Hamas and Hezbollah, of using Gaza to provoke conflict in the Middle East. "(They tried) to turn the region to confrontation in the interest of Iran, which is trying to use its cards to escape Western pressure ... on the nuclear file," Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said, referring to Iran, the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas and the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2009
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Yesterday, North Korea declared all its political and military agreements with the South "dead" -- the latest in a string of confrontational moves taken by Pyongyang against Seoul and the U.S. In the past few weeks, the North confirmed it possessed enough plutonium for four to five nuclear warheads; threatened to retain its nuclear weapons until America withdraws its nuclear protection from the South; denounced the appointment of Seoul's new unification minister as "an open provocation"; and proclaimed that a routine South Korean military exercise had so inflamed tensions that "a war may break out any time."
The Associated Press concluded from all this that North Korea "sounded open to new ideas to defuse nuclear-tinged tensions." Some State Department quarters will warmly receive that analysis; a senior careerist at State once called earlier North Korean provocations "a desperate cry for help." Others will say Kim Jong Il just wants attention, that these moves are simply a "coming out" exercise after his recent illness.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/01/2009
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#1
NORK is imploding. Try to catch of the fray with Japan to be lead, and china to be big brother watch. Prepare for it as it unfolds under your eyes.
This is a failed state no one wants to catch. It is the fairness doctrine.
NORK is your first challenge Obama, though others are there you know not of.
#2
Kimmie crawling out of his whole because he thinks he can shake a couple hundred million or more out of this clueless admin. Or maybe China's had it with B.O.s comments of late on their currency manipulation/subsidies and decided to sick their dog on 'em.
Aswat al-Iraq: Iraqi President Nouri al-Maliki on Saturday expressed thanks to the Iraqi people and organizations that did their best to render the 11-hour marathon local elections "successful" less than one hour before all voting centers close in 14 Iraqi provinces. "The Iraqis have sent a message to the whole world through these elections and I thank all participants who bypassed their religious, sectarian, and ethnic affiliations," Maliki said in a speech he delivered after the provincial council elections were wrapped up today (Jan. 31).
The premier also praised Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) staff for their efforts and the security agencies that protected the citizens during the course of the voting.
Voting centers in Baghdad and other 13 provinces started at 07:00 a.m. Baghdad local time to receive eligible voters who are electing their candidates to occupy all 440 seats in local councils amidst blanket security measures.
Four provinces, including the three autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region provinces of Arbil, Sulaimaniya and Duhuk, have not witnessed local elections, in addition to oil-rich Kirkuk, where elections were postponed until reconciliatory solutions are reached for the political crises there.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2009
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#1
And all of this was made by possible by who, again?
A special force will be formed to boost security in areas hit by a Taliban-led insurgency, Afghan Interior Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar said on Saturday. The paramilitary-style force, to be funded by the US government, would operate under the command of the Interior Ministry, the department responsible for the Afghan police force, Atmar told reporters. "Considering the special situation in the country, we've decided to... create public protection forces with a special security mission within the Interior Ministry frame," Atmar said. Their tasks would include protecting communities, schools, other government installations and highways that "are threatened by an ongoing Taliban-led insurgency", the minister added.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2009
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#1
'Suggest they outsource to the Gurkhas. I've never herd of Gurkha's being undermined by corruption.
Good lord, Glomotch, please do some frigging formatting! AoS.
According to a poll by the University of Bielefeld, 62 per cent of Germans are "sick of all the harping on about German crimes against the Jews" - which is an unusually robust formulation for a multiple-choice questionnaire, but at least has the advantage of leaving us in no confusion as to how things stand in this week of panEuropean Holocaust "harping on". The old joke - that the Germans will never forgive the Jews for Auschwitz - gets truer every week.
I have some sympathy for that 62 per cent. Killing six million people is a moral stain on one's nation that surely ought to endure more than a couple of generations. But, on the other hand, almost everything else about the Germany of 60 years ago is gone - its great power status, its military machine, its aggressive nationalism, its need for lebens-raum. The past is another country, but rarely as foreign as the Third Reich. Why should Holocaust guilt be the only enforced link with an otherwise discarded heritage?
"Enforced" is the operative word. If most Germans don't feel guilty about the Holocaust, there's no point pretending they do. And that's the problem with all this week's Shoah business: it's largely a charade. The European establishment that has scheduled such lavish anniversary observances for this Thursday presides over a citizenry that, even if one discounts the synagogue-arsonists and cemetery-desecrators multiplying across the Continent, is either antipathetic to Jews, or "sick of all the harping on", or regards solemn Holocaust remembrance as a useful card to have in the hand of the slyer, suppler forms of anti-Semitism to which Europe is now prone.
From time to time, the late Diana Mosley used to tell me how "clever" she thought the Jews were. If you pressed her to expand on the remark, it usually meant how clever they were in always keeping "the thing" - the Holocaust, as she could never quite bring herself to say - in the public eye, unlike the millions killed in the name of Communism. This is a fair point, though not one most people are willing to entertain from a pal of Hitler. But "the thing" seems most useful these days to non-Jews as a means of demonstrating that the Israelis are new Nazis and the Palestinians their Jews. Iqbal Sacranie, secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, has told the Home Secretary that his crowd will be boycotting Thursday's commemorations because it is racist and excludes any commemoration of the "holocaust" and "ongoing genocide" in Palestine.
Ah, well. He's just some canny Muslim opportunist, can't blame the chap for trying it on. But look at how my colleagues at The Spectator chose to mark the anniversary. They ran a reminiscence by Anthony Lipmann, the Anglican son of an Auschwitz survivor, which contained the following sentence: "When on 27 January I take my mother's arm - tattoo number A-25466 - I will think not just of the crematoria and the cattle trucks but of Darfur, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Jenin, Fallujah."
Jenin? Would that be the notorious 2002 "Jenin massacre"? There was no such thing, as I pointed out in this space at the time, when Robert Fisk and the rest of Fleet Street's gullible sob-sisters were going around weepin' an' a-wailin' about Palestinian mass graves and Israeli war crimes. Twenty-three Israelis were killed in fighting at the Jenin camp. Fifty-two Palestinians died, according to the Israelis.
According to Arafat's official investigators, it was 56 Palestinians. Even if one accepts the higher figure, that means every single deceased Palestinian could have his own mass grave and there'd still be room to inter the collected works of Robert Fisk. Yet, despite the fact that the Jenin massacre is an obvious hallucination of Fleet Street's Palestine groupies, its rise to historical fact is unstoppable. To Lipmann, those 52-56 dead Palestinians weigh in the scales of history as heavy as six million Jews. And what's Fallujah doing bringing up the rear in his catalogue of horrors? In rounding up a few hundred head-hackers, the Yanks perpetrated another Auschwitz? These comparisons are so absurd as to barely qualify as "moral equivalence".
I'm not a Jew, though since September 11 I've been assumed to be one. Nor am I, philosophically, a Zionist. Had I been British foreign secretary, I doubt I would have issued the Balfour Declaration. Nor am I much interested in whose land was whose hundreds or thousands of years ago. The reality is that the nation states of the region all date back to the 1930s and 1940s: the only difference is that Israel, unlike Syria and Iraq, has made a go of it.
As for the notion that this or that people "deserve" a state, that's a dangerous post-modern concept of nationality and sovereignty. The United States doesn't exist because the colonists "deserved" a state, but because they went out and fought for one. Were the Palestinians to do that, they might succeed in pushing every last Jew into the sea, or they might win a less total victory, or they might be routed and have to flee to Damascus or Wolverhampton.
But, whatever the outcome, it's hard to see that they would be any less comprehensively a wrecked people than they are after spending three generations in "refugee" "camps" while their "cause" is managed by a malign if impeccably multilateral coalition of UN bureaucrats, cynical Arab dictators, celebrity terrorists and meddling Europeans whose Palestinian fetishisation seems most explicable as the perverse by-product of the suppression of their traditional anti-Semitism.
Americans and Europeans will never agree on this, and the demographic reality - the Islamisation of Europe - will only widen the chasm in the years ahead. But, if I were a European Jew, I would feel this week's observances bordered on cultural appropriation. The old defence against charges of anti-Semitism was: "But some of my best friends are Jewish." As the ancient hatreds rise again across the Continent, the political establishment's defence is: "But some of our best photo opportunities are Jewish."
I guess that's only fair - they perpetrated it, after all.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/01/2009 0:53
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#2
That was one of the foreseeable consequences of the transformation from the EEC (in theory a purely economic organisation) to the UE (a political one). As the uofficial motto of thde UE was "Europa uber alles in der welt" (Europe above everyone else in world"), the Holocaust was something to be pushed aside as it put in question the moral right of Europeans to strive for world leadership. One of the corollaries was the demonization of Israel: if Israelis were montser then the Holocaust was a less horrible thing. Sooner or later the top-down induced Euopean patriotism wil lead to a rehabilitation of Hitler as a defender of Europe against "aliens" ie Russians and Anglo-Saxons. Remember Vlad Tepes, aka Vlad the Impaler aka Count Dracula is a hero in Romania despite the tens of thousands Romanins he had impaled.
#5
In truth, I saw this "reaction" coming decades ago, with the "overuse" of the Holocaust for leftist agenda points. The exact moment was when the "meme" stopped being "3 million Jews and 3 million others", and was changed to "6 million Jews".
When even children pointed this out this change, they were cursed for pointing it out, as if they were somehow defending the Holocaust or being antisemitic.
In other words, the same kind of people who today demand political power because of Man Made Global Warming, co-opted the Holocaust for leftist political purposes.
In the US, they wanted Americans to feel guilty for the Holocaust, because only in that way could they get political compliance out of Americans.
This was asking for trouble. And in Germany, the left used the Holocaust as an excuse to stifle the teaching of history or politics. To a great extent this directly lead to a lot of the Neo-Nazism they experience today.
The bottom line is that the Holocaust really isn't that special in the horrors of the 20th Century. It should be seen in context with the Armenian genocide, the Stalinist horror, the Chinese Cultural Revolution, the Red Khmer killing fields, even bloody Africa, etc.
The Nazis weren't special, either. Snazzy uniforms don't change the essentially nasty tyrannical character of their regime, or distinguish it from the equally verminous other murderous regimes.
Germans have been made to remember the Holocaust, and had they not been, they would be like the Turks are today about the Armenians--in denial. But otherwise, the last blood of the Holocaust has been drained by the political left. It now belongs to history.
I see no reason to distinguish or condemn Zionism, either. The Jews wanted their country and they fought to get it and keep it. And now they are willing to protect it. And that is all the legitimacy they need. America itself has no greater legitimacy.
If anything, Zionists should be criticized for not finishing the job, and being done with Arabs and Muslims for good.
It was never 3 million Jews and 3 million otrhetrs. But 6 million Jews and four million others.
Alos tehre was something very special in the Nazis. Even witg Stalin you could escape by toeing the Party line. The Nazis killed new born childre,n and they didn''t do it in the anger of a pogrom but camly, in cold blmood and following a plan. That is very specific.
#9
Don't forget the Gypsies. Smaller overall population but also a specific target of cleansing. And tossing in the Japanese activities from 1905 (starting in Korea) on to 1945 to the list of man's inhumanity to man.
According to a poll by the University of Bielefeld, 62 per cent of Germans are "sick of all the harping on about German crimes against the Jews"
Any different than the guilt game about slavery in America which always ignores that slavery was common in the world when the United States paid the blood price of 250,000 white Northerner to get the 13th Amendment put into its Constitution? That was in a population one tenth the size of today. Can anyone imaging a war in which the casualty count today would be 2.5 million? And yet that kind of sacrifice is never honored today, just buried for one group's political power and influence by harping on something that was rectified over a hundred and forty years ago.
#11
That particular conflict did not begin with "slavery" as it's central theme. History has undergone a bit of a rewrite there as well I'm afraid.
That particular conflict began with slavery: this and no other was the reason te Southv seceded., And for the Northern side, most people were not ready to be killed for abolishing it, but when you read the letters from Union soldiers what they defended was notn teh Union but "our magnificent form of government", one of whose essntial postulates is that when you lose an election you smile, congratulate your opponent, obey the law and wait for the next election. BTW, without the Rebellion, Linclon would have never been able to get the required majority of state legislatures agreeing to abolish the Constitution.
#12
Agree completely with JFM. I thought we had beat that horse to death here a couple of years ago. I think it takes 400 years, 5 life times, before a historical event can possibly be looked at objectively. When I was young the cry was, "Save your Confederate currency. It will be good someday." Not so much any more. A great tragedy for all involved. And we are still paying the bondsman's price.
The fianal destruction of the Constitution did not occur until the 16th-17th amendments.
#13
This debate may never end but Lincoln's purpose was to save the Union.
Executive Mansion,
Washington, August 22, 1862.
Hon. Horace Greeley:
Dear Sir.
I have just read yours of the 19th. addressed to myself through the New-York Tribune. If there be in it any statements, or assumptions of fact, which I may know to be erroneous, I do not, now and here, controvert them. If there be in it any inferences which I may believe to be falsely drawn, I do not now and here, argue against them. If there be perceptable [sic] in it an impatient and dictatorial tone, I waive it in deference to an old friend, whose heart I have always supposed to be right.
As to the policy I "seem to be pursuing" as you say, I have not meant to leave any one in doubt.
I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored; the nearer the Union will be "the Union as it was." If there be those who would not save the Union, unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors; and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views.
I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty; and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men everywhere could be free.
#14
As a follow-on, it is my fervent belief that the practice of slavery was a blight upon the nation from it's very beginning. It represents a contradiction to the very precepts of Christendom and is every bit a sin today as it was then. It continues to be a blight that keeps on giving as it plagues the generations. In the final analysis, there is nothing "cheap" about "cheap labor."
I knew that letter and since the subject was what the Union soldiers wee ready to die for, it is irrelevant since Lincoln didn't do the dying. What matters is what soldiers wrote home and they wrote about preserving the form of government ie the thing about governmnt of the peeople, by the people, for the people not the Union for the sake of it.
Yes, Lincoln's direct purpose was to save the union. That was his top priority. That said, both he and the Confederates knew that if the union were saved, slavery would eventually wither and die -- and probably soon. That is why the states of the Confederacy seceded: They knew that secession was the only way to maintain slavery. If the union remained intact, slavery would have soon died in an increasingly "free-state" union.
The supposed dicotomy between saving the union and freeing the slaves is nonsense designed to salve the consciences of descendents of men who fought to enslave other men.
If there had been no slavery, there would have been no secession and no war.
If Lincoln had saved the union without freeing a single slave, they would have been freed soon.
The civil war was all about slavery.
Posted by: Some guy ||
02/01/2009 14:39
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But, whatever the outcome, it's hard to see that they would be any less comprehensively a wrecked people than they are after spending three generations in "refugee" "camps" while their "cause" is managed by a malign if impeccably multilateral coalition of UN bureaucrats, cynical Arab dictators, celebrity terrorists and meddling Europeans whose Palestinian fetishisation seems most explicable as the perverse by-product of the suppression of their traditional anti-Semitism.
Excellent summary.
The distortions about the Holocaust and the Civil War for political purposes spring from the same sin: find some justification, however illogical, to support one's own prejudice and hate.
#18
When I was young the cry was, "Save your Confederate currency. Nimble Semble.
http://www.csanotes.com/1861_notes.htm
T-36
Cr278 $5 Center shows Commerce seated on a bale of cotton with a sailor on the left side--(3,694,890 total notes issued) Printed by J.T. Paterson & Co. in Columbia, SC. UNCUT CSA SHEET XF++ $3450
#19
It is my opinion after extensive reading of the accounts of the people involved that South Carolina secedded because of the promise by the Republican Party to impose a tarrif of 48% on all imported goods. This would have bankrupted all Southern buisnessmen as did the Tarrif of 1832. This ment that if I sent 1 million dollars of raw materials to England and then took delivery of 1 million dollars worth of finished goods I would pay the US Government $480,000. No buisiness person could stay in buisness. When one of his Cabinet members said, "Why don't we just let the South go?" Lincoln said, "Let the South go? My God, man, who would pay our Tarrifs?" The South accounted for 80% of the Federal Coffers.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/01/2009 18:54
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#20
Nonsense to all, the Civil War was all about establishment of a monstrous hegemony through the expropriation of civil liberties to that abomination of Federal powder, Lincoln.
#21
ION EUROZONE, PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > SARKOZY IS RIGHT TO FEAR US: FRANCE FEARS RISE OF THE [New] LEFT - REVOLUTION [France/National, Euro]!? COMMUNIST-LED FRENCH, PAN-EURO REVOLUTIONARIES, ANARCHISTS, TERRS, etal. = "EXTREME LEFT" REACTIONISM-VIOLENCE [but weirdly and mysteriously NOT the ULTRA-LEFT ]???
*SAME > BRITAIN-UK > MOSSAD HIT ON LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE?; + RENSE > INTERNET CALL FOR ALL WORKING MEN/LABOR WITH SKILLS TO JOIN PROTESTS [Strike] + RISING DEFICITS FOR A SHRINKING WORLD ECONOMY.
1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Armed miscreants have unleashed a reign of terror in the rural areas of Naria upazilla in Shariotpur district. Local sources said, armed extortionists and terrorists have been increased resulting to murder, abduction, extortion and dacoity under the protection influential quarters.
There is no reason of denying the fact that people of Naria upazila of the district are held hostage by the armed terrorists who are demanding illegal toll at gun point and carrying out murders or grave injury in defalcation. They are creating panic by threatening their lives. As a result, a large number of residents of different villages fearing more violence already left their homes looking for peace and security.
Meanwhile, Md Moazzem, son of Alef Khan, Sayem Baperi, son of Motin Baperi, Monir Hossain, son Kolomali Khan of village Atipara under Sadar upazila left their homes and took shelter elsewhere of the country as the terrorists demanded illegal toll.
A local Police official while talking to this correspondent seeking anonymity over the situation said, the number of cadres multiplied, along with criminal activities. The gangs are equipped with the latest firearms and have intensified their misdeeds. A local BNP leader said, a reign of terror had literally been let loose and they were living in constant fear and uncertainty. A local portfolio leader of Bangladesh Awami League said, several gangs of terrorists have made the population of the district captive.
The police role in wiping out terrorism has given rise to many questions. According to a leading lawyer of the district, the law-enforcing agencies are not sincere enough to destroy roots of crimes which are perhaps in their knowledge. Police reportedly remain silent when they are informed of whereabouts of the terrorists, he alleged. A rickshaw-puller said, some areas of Naria upazila is now a trouble spot of bush war, and noteworthy to mention extortion, kidnapping and murder were the order of the day.
A local business magnet said, it is now impossible to do business without paying tolls and protection money to various groups. He alleged that sometimes the outlawed groups fixed toll rates for carrying different commodities. The toll for every common business commodity has been set out clearly, so that there could be no confusion. According to contractors, who undertake construction work on roads and buildings and bridges have to pay a hefty toll of seven to eight percent of the total cost. Being tired of torture, the people of the area urge the authorities concerned to take immediate steps to arrest the real terrorists and free the society from terrorism.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/01/2009
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Iraqis went to polls on Saturday to vote in the country's provincial elections, with a massive participation from Sunni Arabs and women, a candidate told Gulf News.
Ammar Al Zobaie, a Sunni Islamic Party's candidate in Fallujah, said many Sunni Arabs participated in the elections. "Sunni Arabs [want] to redress the harm suffered by the Sunni cities because of their non-participation in the previous elections in 2005, which led to the suspension of development projects," Al Zobaie said.
Tribal elders in Al Anbar said that the large Sunni attendance in the elections is also aimed at decreasing in the influence of Al Qaida.
Girl power
Amera Al Baldawi, a member of the Iraqi parliament, told Gulf News that women also turned out in full force at the elections. Al Baldawi said the participation of women in the elections shows "greater political maturity" in Iraq.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2009
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Iraqis streamed past police cordons and barbed wire as they went to the polls on Saturday to vote for the first time in four years. The elections are widely seen as a test of Iraq's stability as the U.S. role here diminishes.
As the polls closed Saturday evening, there were no reports of anyone being injured or killed for political reasons. At polling stations across Iraq, people voted calmly, with many bringing their families to participate in only the second elections since the collapse of former president Saddam Hussein's government. Voter turnout in many areas was lower than expected, according to early reports.
"I am so happy," declared Raad al-Shimari, 30, in Baghdad's Kadhamiyah neighborhood, flashing his forefinger, which had been dipped in purple ink to indicate he had just voted. "I chose the person that will represent me."
The all-important provincial elections are viewed as a key indicator of whether the nation can build upon fragile security gains and address imbalances in power that still plague many areas. More than 14,000 candidates are running for 440 seats to lead councils that are the equivalent of state legislatures in the United States.
The elections are unfolding in all of Iraq's provinces except three in the autonomous Kurdish region and the province that includes the disputed city of Kirkuk, where ethnic groups were unable to reach a power-sharing agreement paving the way for elections.
The voting at 7,000 polling stations opened shortly after dawn following a heavy security clampdown launched on Friday. Those security measures included closing Iraq's borders and airspace coupled with bans on vehicle traffic and the deployment of thousands of security personnel around polling stations. Officials extended the voting by one hour to accommodate last minute crowds.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2009
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This spectacular 1.474 gigapixel photo is of the inauguration. An incredibly detailed panoramic picture of the inauguration.
What makes this unique is the technology. Start zooming in an moving the focus and you will see minute details such as eyes open or closed. The details are simply amazing. Big brother indeed is looking out for you ... or is he?
Supreme Court Justice Thomas and three of the four trombonists of the USMC Band appear to be.... napping, but so was I.
Newly elected chairman of the Republican National Committee Michael Steele said he is focused on three races in his effort to rebuild the GOP after it endured worrying losses in November's elections that gave Democrats control of Congress and the White House.
Steele, Maryland's former lieutenant governor and the first black to head the RNC, said one of the most critical battles for the GOP is to capture New York's 20th congressional seat formerly held by U.S. Sen. Kristen Gillibrand, D-N.Y. "It is the first of a series of races that are coming up that are going to be incredibly important," Steele said in remarks Saturday to the Republican House Retreat in Hot Springs, Va.
Steele said he will be in New York next week for a meeting with Republican state leadership to "map out the strategy to take that seat."
"That win will send a powerful signal to the rest of the country and especially those folks in the elite media who think they know so much more than the rest of us," he said. "Our game is not up ... our message still rings true with countless Americans, specifically with those in the 20th congressional district," he added.
The Republican chairman said the GOP's second focus will be on winning the governorship in both Virginia and New Jersey, along with other state offices. "That is our fight," he said of the two races.
Steele also stressed the importance of winning "reapportionment races at the state level."
"We got a lot of work ahead of us," he said. "We've got to map a strategy to preserve what we have, take what we want and continue to move forward ... (and) reaffirm and reestablish with the American people a sense of trust, a sense of commitment, a sense of opportunity."
Steele was elected as the RNC chairman on Friday, defeating the incumbent party chief and three other challengers over six rounds of voting to become the first black to lead the GOP. "As a little boy growing up in this town, this is awesome," said Steele, the most moderate candidate in the field.
Steele, who had been considered an outsider by some because he was not a committee member, struck a tone of inclusiveness in his brief acceptance speech Friday. "We're going to say to friend and foe alike: We want you to be a part of us, we want you to with be with us, and for those who wish to obstruct, get ready to get knocked over," he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/01/2009
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#1
"for those who wish to obstruct, get ready to get knocked over"
Me likee. :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/01/2009 0:47
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#2
How about concentrating on changing redistricting laws in all 50 states, Mr. Steele, requiring that all congressional districts have the smallest, most easily recognized outside boundaries as possible? That would end gerrymandering districts to "protect" a seat, and make them more competitive. Republicans are NEVER going to win the gerrymandering fight, because they're just not as crooked as Democrats. Changing the laws governing redistricting is the best way to instill better government at all levels.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/01/2009 15:18
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Iran paid homage on Saturday to its revolutionary father Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini who landed in Tehran 30 years ago to set off the Islamic revolution, as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the revolution would extend beyond Iranian borders.
Ahmadinejad joined Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and members of the government and military commanders at Khomeini's mausoleum in southern Tehran to mark his arrival from exile.
The country is holding 10 days of celebrations marking the 30th anniversary of the overthrow of the U.S.-backed shah, who ruled Iran for almost four decades but fled just two weeks before Khomeini's return.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2009
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#1
One year of idiocy repeated thirty times....
Posted by: john frum ||
02/01/2009 16:20
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#2
Did Jimmy Carter show up to pay homage?
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/01/2009 16:27
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#3
PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > FORMER US AMBASSADOR/ENVOY TO THE UN JOHN BOLTON SAYS AMERICAN HAS SUFFERED A HUMILIATING DEFEAT TRYING TO STOP IRAN'S NUKES.
IHO the US has LOST ITS BATTLE WITH IRAN, + HIGHLY DOUBTS THAT POTUS OBAMA WILL ATTEMPT ANY MIL STRIKE ON IRAN IFF 3 MOS. OF US-IRAN, etc. NUCLEAR NEGOTIATIONS FAIL.
#2
I actually met Jane Russell in the late 70's working in the Coronado Cays (Dick Van Dyke as well - he was very nice). That picture is a better memory. Yikes!
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/01/2009 0:54
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Special Sunday Edition, (Thanks Fred)
It's a good thing for her that Howard Hughes invented the underwire bra. She certainly comes from good Minnesota stock.
Washington Post discovers Iraqi elections...
In Iraq's receding but still entrenched sectarian struggle, perhaps the most important votes in the provincial elections Saturday were cast in Diyala, a sometimes picturesque province known for its orchards of oranges and its killing fields.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2009
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A U.S.-funded program to train and arm community members in Afghanistan's most dangerous regions as a way to defend against the Taliban has begun, the country's interior minister said Saturday. The community forces will be armed with the same weapons used by Afghan police - Kalashnikov rifles, said Interior Ministry Mohammad Hanif Atmar. Other officials said the program will begin in Wardak, an increasingly dangerous province on the southwest side of Kabul.
"After training they will have the responsibility of protecting the people, providing security for the highways, schools, clinics and other government institutions," Atmar told a news conference.
Afghan and Western officials have struggled to fight the perception that they are creating regional militias, and officials are even sensitive over the name used to describe the program. Atmar said the program is called the Afghan Public Protection Force.
Atmar said the top U.S. general in the country, Gen. David McKiernan, supports the program. The tactic of engaging local Afghan communities is endorsed by Gen. David Petraeus.
US begins program to train and arm villagers to fight join Taliban?
Posted by: Abu do you love ||
02/01/2009 0:51
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#2
I am glad the messiah came along...I would have never have thought of it
Posted by: Bill Uneang8288 ||
02/01/2009 1:09
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#3
I wonder if the next step will be to announce the "strategic hamlet" program? CIDG revisited, +40 years.
As far as I know, every village in Afghanistan has always been armed to the teeth, and village boys have always been trained to wage war as soon as they can walk.
Warfare has actually been a prime form of conducting routine business in Afghanistan, virtually forever. The way to harness the warrior spirit and turn it to productive pursuits is to frame "security" activities into the context of profitable business.
And - the benchmark ti beat is the profitability of opium/heroin production and smuggling.
#4
Actually the Civilian Irregular Defense Group (CIDG) program worked pretty well in Southeast Asia until NVA regulars moved south and things became a bit more conventional. In 2001 elements of US Army Special Forces were used somewhat clandestinely in Operation Enduring Freedom (AFIE) in the Afghan Northern Alliance. General Dostum was quite proud of his advisors. Photo at link here.
#5
As far as I know, every village in Afghanistan has always been armed to the teeth, and village boys have always been trained to wage war as soon as they can walk.
Who are routinely chewed up and spit out by professional soldiers. This 'warrior' from birth mythology works when they fight each other or draftees/conscripts or chop up women, but falls flat on its face when primitive warfare meets modern warfare.
#6
Actually the Civilian Irregular Defense Group (CIDG) program worked pretty well in Southeast Asia until NVA regulars moved south and things became a bit more conventional.
I don't argue the direct point - but the failure of the CIDG program in Vietnam was ultimately because the people in the villages really did not identify with the SVN government. This is the same problem that exists in Afghanistan - there is no central government for which the villages have any respect - or with which they can identify. There is no national identity outside of Kabul.
This 'warrior' from birth mythology works when they fight each other
But - they will be fighting each other - the Taliban are basically the same as they are.
Afghanistan is a waste of blood and treasure. It will be three orders of magnitude more difficult to stabilize than was Iraq - perhaps one order of magnitude tougher than Somalia. Draw a line from those starting points - and get the hell out of Afghanistan.
#7
isn't this part of how the taliban started. the US trained ppl the mujahadeen too fight the soviets then a few years later the ISI turns alot of them into the taliban movemenet. And i believe they all have weapons so why are we gonna pour more of them into the area when the pakistanis can't even keep aid and supplies too ANTO safe
Link modified because the article led to this. Either the AP re-used the link, screwed up, or blind-sided everyone (same mis-directed article shows up at other news sites).
#9
rw, no, that is not how the Taliban got started. They were a bunch of kids in Pakistani madrassahs armed by the Paks and sent to Afghanistan to take control of the civil war.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
02/01/2009 12:33
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#10
isn't this part of how the taliban started. the US trained ppl the mujahadeen too fight the soviets then a few years later the ISI turns alot of them into the taliban movemenet.
Not exactly. The Taliban originally was formed from the refugees who fled the Soviets, then both went into religious studies and efforts to form a resistance group. It's probably more correct to say the Taliban were formed and trained from the religious elements of these refugees by the ISI, with funding from Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
The problem is not so much the training as it is ensuring the indigenous defense forces have proper backup and supervision.
Arming villagers, giving them minimal training and then leaving them to fend for themselves is a good way to either get them killed off or subject to Taliban pressure. The Pakistanis have been masters of that with their own people in the northwestern territories.
#11
See also PAKISTAMI DEFENCE FORUMS > SIR JOCK STIRRUP: NOT EVEN A SURGE WILL DEFEAT THE TALIBAN [best ultimately for US-NATO/Allies to dev a strong and prosperous local Govt].; + INDIA LAGS BEHIND PAKISTAN IN [strategic BM]MISSLES. INDIA has only the "PRIVTHI" SHORT-RANGE STRATMISS???;
* SAME > INDIA > NEPAL RECLAIMS LANDS FROM INDIA [100,000-KM **2 in VARIOUS INDIAN STATES LOST DURING ANGLO-NEPALESE WARS + Treaty of 1816, etc.] + INDIA'S BJP WILL CARRY OUT MILITARY SURGICAL STRIKES AGZ MILITANT-TERROR CAMPS INSIDE PAKISTAN AS NEEDED IFF NDA GOVT WON'T, + HINDU EXTREMIST GROUP SRI RAM SENE CLAIMS PRO-INDIA/INDIAN ARMY SUICIDE BOMBERS ARE READY TO LAUNCH ATTACKS AGZ MUSLIMS!?
* SAME > TARGET PAKISTAN: WAHINGTON'S NEXT WAR
[Undeclared] MAY HAD ALREADY STARTED?, by Order of now-former POTUS Dubya last 9-11-2008 [MYT]???
+ GLOBALRESEARCH.CA - CONTROL OF THE WORLD'S OCEANS: A PRELUDE [Catalyst] FOR WAR? THE PROLIFERATION SECURITY INITIATIVE (PSI)AND THE US 1000-SHIP NAVY [OWG-Global Multi-Mation "Task Force"]???
Syrian President Bashar Al Assad told a visiting US delegation on Saturday that he wants a "constructive" dialogue with Washington after years of hostility, the official Sana news agency reported.
Al Assad told Congressman Adam Smith of the "importance of the opening of a positive and constructive dialogue between Syria and the United States based on common interests and mutual respect," it said.
Sana said members of the US delegation in turn highlighted "Syria's important role in the Middle East and the desire of the new adminstration to develop American-Syrian relations for the benefit of regional stability."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2009
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Tehran, Iran, Jan. 29 - Russia has delivered two Mi-171 helicopters to Iran as part of a $45 million contract to upgrade the latter's rescue fleet.
Under the contract, Russia is to deliver five Mi-171 transport helicopters to Iran before the end of March, the government-run news agency Fars reported. Another three helicopters will be delivered in March, state media said on Thursday.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/01/2009
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#1
low oil prices = desperation to stir things up. Pooty's in bad shape, might as well sell shit to his enemies
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/01/2009 0:46
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#2
I much prefer moving targets to stationary ones.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
02/01/2009 12:20
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what's the difference, we can blast them both equally as well
Remember "Don't run, you'll only die tired".
Posted by: Rednek Jim ||
02/01/2009 15:25
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The Iranian "Insh'Allah" maintenance brigade eagerly awaits the new aircraft.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/01/2009 15:40
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Hamas has dismissed a condition set by Mideast Quartet Envoy Toney Blair that the movement must recognize Israel before starting talks.
Mushir al-Masri, the head of Hamas's parliamentary bloc, said Saturday that raising this "suggestion" testifies that Blair is not familiar with the situation in the Middle East. He termed Blair's suggestion as "utterly foolish and useless."
In an interview with The Times published Saturday, Blair said Hamas must be involved in the Middle East peace process; however, the movement have to recognize Israel's right to exist and renounce 'violence'.
The former British Prime Minister admitted that any effort to exclude Hamas from efforts to establish a Palestinian state would be doomed to failure. "I do think it is important that we find a way of bringing Hamas into this process, but it can only be done if Hamas are prepared to do it on the right terms," Blair said.
Hamas is the supposedly democratically-elected ruler of the Gaza Strip by winning the majority in the 2006 Palestinian elections.
Al-Masri said the Blair remarks reflect "a return to the same obstacles erected by the West, as an excuse to postpone Palestinian democracy, continuing the siege of the Palestinian people and granting the Zionist enemies the cover to commit their crimes - the last of which was the Gaza war and the refusal to recognize the legitimate parliament and government of the Palestinians."
"Tony Blair's words prove that Europe and the world understand that all attempts to uproot Hamas and erase it from the Palestinian scene have failed, and that today we are the first and foremost power" representing the Palestinians, the Hamas official added. "The only gate into the Palestinian issue and its transformation into any agreement cannot occur unless through Hamas - a movement that cannot be ignored."
This article starring:
Mushir al-Masri
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2009
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#1
Hey, for Hamas any mirror is a "mirror of stupidity". I'll be here all week, try the veal.
A Palestinian Grad rocket exploded in Ashkelon on Saturday morning, according to Israel Radio. The projectile struck an open field in the city. Authorities are now searching for the precise landing spot, Israel Radio reported. No injuries were reported in the attack.
Decision-makers in Jerusalem said Israel would continue to launch pinpoint strikes against Hamas and other Palestinian militant organizations in the Gaza Strip, Haaretz has learned.
Israeli aircraft on Thursday wounded 10 Palestinians in the attempted killing of a Hamas operative in southern Gaza. Palestinian militants launched two Qassam rockets and one mortar round into Israel, resulting in no casualties or damage.
Hezbollah, meanwhile, has vowed to strike Israeli targets, and Cypriot authorities Wednesday detained an Iranian arms ship that Israel believes may have been en route to Hezbollah.
The decision to carry out further pinpoint strikes against Hamas emerged after consultations between the security cabinet and top Israeli defense officials. The hostilities were necessary to let Hamas know that strikes against Israel would not go unanswered, one source said.
During the deliberations, intelligence officers said Hamas was trying to contain its radical elements because it was interested in cementing a cease-fire agreement. This, the intelligence officers said, was why the organization is delaying its response to recent strikes by the Israel Defense Forces.
The first IDF strike against Hamas after Operation Cast Lead came on Tuesday, after the death of one Israeli soldier in an explosion near the border with Gaza. Since then, the Israel Air Force carried out several retaliatory raids.
The latest, which wounded 10 Palestinians, was aimed at Mohammed Samiri, whom the IDF believes was involved in planning and carrying out the attack on the IDF patrol on Tuesday. According to reports from the Strip, Samiri was riding a motorcycle in Khan Yunis when a missile exploded near him, wounding him and several others.
Another IAF raid took out what the army believed to be a weapons production shop in Rafah.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2009
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#1
These no-damage-done rockets are just heightened-level stones like those thrown by youths at Israeli soldiers; a tactic to provoke a deadly Israeli response, with which to claim victimhood and demand outrage.
While a professional soldier, in their micro-theater, rightly refrains (in opposition, IÂ’m sure, to every instinct and fiber in their body), from being suckered in by blowing apart a prepubescent non-threat with a David (as in Goliath) complex, civilians must not be forced to accept the enemy lobbing missiles at their towns, regardless of the low casualty count.
Disgustingly, the Members of the Committee for the Promotion of Multi-Cultural Moral Equivalence and Prevention of Non-Progressives, a.k.a. the malicious, leftist Press, are the opinion-shapers of choice for the worldsÂ’ lazy, narcissistic neo-sheeple.
An American aid group has been thrown out of Sudan's Darfur region after officials found thousands of Arabic-language bibles in its office, state media reported on Saturday.
Sudanese authorities told the offical Suna news agency they found 3,400 copies of Christianity's sacred book in the office run by water charity Thirst No More in North Darfur, a region that is almost entirely Muslim. Officials told Suna they had decided to expel the Texas-based group "for its violation to the Voluntary Work Act, the Country Agreement and the regulations on registration of organizations in Sudan."
Regulations dictate all aid groups have to give details of their activities to the Sudan government's Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC) and are not allowed to start new projects without state approval.
Suna said Thirst No More was supposed to be in the war-torn region supplying drinking water. It had "failed to provide justification" for its ownership of so many bibles, North Darfur's HAC commissioner Osman Hussein Abdalla told the agency. Thirst No More's website describes its work in Darfur as focused on repairing and drilling water wells and makes no mention of evangelism or other faith-based work.
The vast majority of aid groups in Darfur, including ones with religious foundations, voluntarily sign up to a Red Cross code of conduct that says aid should not be used "to further a particular political or religious standpoint".
Freedom of religion is enshrined in Sudan's constitution, created after a 2005 peace deal ended two decades of war between the mainly Christian and animist south and the mostly Muslim north, which includes Darfur, however apostasy is banned in the Darfur region.
Aid groups are running the world's largest humanitarian operation in Darfur where, international experts say, more than 2.5 million have fled their homes in almost six years of fighting.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2009
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#1
Preying on shipping is ok, but praying with bibles is a no-no.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/01/2009 15:32
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Nine people, including three security personnel, were killed on Saturday in fresh incidents of violence in NWFP's Swat district.
Locals said three people were killed in a clash between security personnel and the Taliban in the Dherai area of Kabal tehsil.
Those killed were identified as Bakht Buland, Mian Pirzada and Akbar Zada, they said, adding a Taliban was also killed in the clash.
In the Aligrama area of Kabal, the Taliban attacked a security forces' convoy. Three security personnel were killed while another was injured in the attack.
Gunships: Three people were killed as helicopter gunships targeted Taliban positions in Kabal. The forces' air attack also destroyed a self-proclaimed Taliban court building.
The district's Kooza Bandai, Bar Bandai, Tangolai and Shakardara areas remained under curfew for the seventh day.
Arrests: Peshawar city police on Saturday arrested 15 people suspected of having links with the Taliban, during a crackdown in the Mathra police station precincts, police said.
Operations Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Abdul Ghafoor Afridi told reporters that the operation was launched in Badi Koroona, Bela Mohmandan and Qila Shah Baig.
He said the area had become a hideout for the terrorists, who were attacking Peshawar, Charsadda, Mohmand and Khyber Agency from there.
Afridi said the police raided these hideouts during the early hours on Saturday, adding that around 200 police personnel took part in the operation.
The SSP said the police have also arrested some men suspected to be senior commanders of the terrorists operating from the area. He said the operation in the area was continuing.
He said the terrorist put up resistance in some areas and exchanged fire with the police, however, there were no casualties among the security personnel.
Afridi said some of the arrested men were assisting the terrorists by providing them with routes, while some of them were key commanders and were involved in crimes. Commenting on the increase in kidnapping incidents in the city, Afridi admitted that abductions had recorded a rise.
However, he said the primary concern of the police was fighting extremism, adding the number of abductions would come down, as the police were making all efforts to counter terrorism in the area.
Meanwhile, Daily Times learnt that one of the arrested people was a Taliban commander, suspected of training suicide bombers.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2009
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I had no idea Weekly World News had an international edition ...
A family in Saudi Arabia revealed they were shocked to discover their Indonesian housemaid had used black magic on them to achieve personal gains, local press reported Friday.
The housemaid identified as Suma Rini said she cast a total of 55 spells, which resulted in some members of the family slipping into a coma, a boy being hospitalized and other members being afflicted with various illnesses and pain, the Saudi Gazette reported.
The Saudi national, who was not named in the report, described how the family realized there was something wrong with the housemaid when she visited their son in hospital and told his mother that the boy was possessed by Satan. The housemaid said she had read about sorcery, magic and conjuring up jinns while she was in Indonesia and said she could see in the boy's eyes that he was possessed, the paper reported.
The Saudi national said they began to suspect the housemaid was involved after she ran away in panic saying "everything had become dark" when the Quran was recited in an attempt to alleviate the boy, the paper said.
Rini was arrested after she was tricked with a fake check into confessing that she had cast the spells. Rini told the family although she knew how to perform magic but did not know how to undo it.
The authorities found the places where she had hid the spells and the paper reported that the housemaid had used pins, nails, broken glass, clothe hangers and symbols that no one could understand.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2009
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#1
Good grief.
"Too stupid to live" really should be a valid diagnosis.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/01/2009 0:51
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..Trouble is, I've been to the Magic Kingdom - Miss Rini is for the chop.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/01/2009 10:35
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Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said on Friday his Hamas rivals will "never" be able to take over the West Bank as they did the Gaza Strip, where they ousted his forces in 2007. "Hamas succeeded in its capture of Gaza because we wanted to avert military confrontation, but what happened there would not be repeated in the West Bank. Never," Abbas told journalists.
Hamas seized power in Gaza in June 2007, ousting forces loyal to the moderate Palestinian president after a week of deadly street battles.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2009
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#1
gee and i thought they handed your asses to you because you were afraid to fight
Posted by: Abu do you love ||
02/01/2009 0:53
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The Fatah-nics were always a small minority in Gaza, if my recollection is correct. Party loyalty amongst the Palestinians is as much a matter of family/tribe/clan loyalties as it is about personal conviction.
Taking things a little too literally, a Moroccan man was jailed for six years for selling customers dog meat instead of beef, a judicial source said Friday.
The man, who admitted mixing the dog meat with chemicals to conceal the different smell and color, was also made to pay a fine of 10,000 dirhams ($1,185).
A Casablanca court also sentenced four other men to between eight months and four years in prison for their part in hunting and shooting the dogs.
Last year in Egypt a butcher was arrested for selling donkey and horse meat disguised as beef.
According to reports at the time the butcher would pick up dead or sick animals from canals, swamps or garbage dumps and add a chemical substance to cover up the smell.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2009
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#1
Six years seems rather lenient
Posted by: john frum ||
02/01/2009 16:22
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#2
six dog years, John
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/01/2009 16:31
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A wave of protests swept across Russia yesterday in one of the first signs of mass discontent with the Kremlin's handling of the financial crisis. More than 2,500 people attended a demonstration in Vladivostok against the government's decision to raise import tariffs on cars.
In Moscow, about 2,000 gathered at protests uniting civil rights activists, communists and pensioners disgruntled at rising food and utility bills. There were smaller demonstrations in other cities. It was the first time such diverse groups had co-ordinated activities to direct their anger at president Dmitry Medvedev and prime minister Vladimir Putin.
In Moscow, one of the leaders of the Other Russia movement, Eduard Limonov, was surrounded by riot police as he arrived at a central square. As he was arrested, Limonov said: "The government is bailing out its friends in banking corporations but doing nothing to help ordinary Russians survive this crisis."
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/01/2009
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The president of Madagascar said Saturday that he was still in charge of the country and insisted calm had returned to the Indian Ocean island after a wave of anti-government protests that left 43 dead.
President Marc Ravalomanana was responding to claims that the capital's mayor, Andry Rajoelina, had taken over control of the government. "I remain the president of this country," he said in a short statement while meeting with Cabinet ministers. "I know the situation is very serious before, but now it is OK. We managed the crisis in Madagascar."
Ravalomanana said Rajoelina had to "respect the law" of the country.
Earlier Saturday Rajoelina, who has grown increasingly critical of Ravalomanana and has called for him to stand down, addressed a crowd of about 4,500 people in the capital's main square. "Until the establishment of a transitional government, it is me who gives the command," he said. "I send a call to the forces of law and order that it is me who gives the command."
Rajoelina has made similar claims in the last week, saying he is ready to take over an interim government. But the constitution requires a president be at least 40, and Rajoelina is 34. The rally ended peacefully after some protesters threw stones at police in the morning. Police withdrew from the area and protesters set up a barricade of barrels and trash cans around the square.
Unrest began Monday when protesters set the government broadcasting complex ablaze, along with an oil depot, shopping mall and a private TV station linked to Ravalomanana.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2009
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An oil spill from a crashed truck erupted into flames Saturday in Kenya, killing at least 50 people who were trying to scoop up free fuel, officials said. Abbas Gullet, secretary general of the Kenyan Red Cross, says "more than 50" people died after a crowd gathered around the crash in search of free fuel.
The crash was in Molo, several hours outside the capital, Nairobi.
Local newspapers have criticized the government for poor safety.
On Wednesday, a massive fire swept through a supermarket in downtown Nairobi, killing at least 25 people. After the supermarket blaze, the Daily Nation said Nairobi's 3 million people are served by just one fire station situated close to a traffic-choked business district. "Ours is a modern city with an 18th-century firefighting infrastructure," the newspaper said in an editorial.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2009
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A former Interior Department official pleaded guilty yesterday to accepting $15,000 in kickbacks from an insurance company in exchange for arranging meetings with government officials in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Edgar A. Johnson, 60, of Bowie, left his position at Interior's Office of Insular Affairs last year. He was charged in November in U.S. District Court in Washington with one count of honest services wire fraud.
Johnson, who is scheduled for sentencing April 10, faces 12 to 18 months in prison. He did not return phone calls seeking comment. His attorney, Stephen O'Neal Russell, declined to comment on the case.
A confidential informant who was a former fraternity brother of Johnson's introduced him in December 2006 to representatives of a New Jersey firm looking to sell insurance to government agencies, according to court documents. "I'm the Virgin Islands desk officer for the government," Johnson told the men, according to the documents. "I know people but I got to be careful there for the whole idea of what we can do."
The insurance company, which is not named, offered to pay Johnson and a "relative" working in Detroit's city government for helping set up insurance contracts. In exchange, Johnson would get a 10 percent cut and the relative would get 15 percent, prosecutors said in the documents.
The Detroit deal fell through, but Johnson told his old friend that he could introduce the firm to high-level Virgin Islands officials, adding that it was his job to "spur economic development" in the territories. Johnson was given $5,000 in $100 bills in February 2007 and another $10,000 in cash in August 2007, according to the documents.
Johnson held federal jobs for nearly 30 years and had a salary of $121,000 when he retired. He told prosecutors that he was struggling to pay private school tuition for one of his children and that he was looking to "maintain his lifestyle" after his retirement.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Allegations that the CIA station chief in Algiers drugged and raped Muslim women may hurt efforts by President Barack Obama to improve U.S. relations with the Muslim world, Algerian dailies said on Saturday. "Sex, rape and video at the U.S. embassy in Algiers," wrote Algeria's most influential French-language newspaper El Watan in a front page headline.
The explosive allegations could potentially deal a major blow to the U.S. image abroad at a time when Obama has called for "a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect" with the Muslim world.
The case "will be seen as the typical ugly American," ABC News quoted former CIA officer Bob Baer as saying. "My question is how the CIA would not have picked up on this in their own regular reviews of CIA officers overseas."
ABC news was the first to report that two Algerian women had complained they had been separately drugged and sexually abused by the CIA officer at his official residence in September 2007 and February 2008.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2009
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#1
how do they figure that? i had always supposed that Obama's plan was to undermine and diminish the US internationally and this seems go right along to that end
Posted by: Abu do you love ||
02/01/2009 1:00
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#2
"My question is how the CIA would not have picked up on this in their own regular reviews of CIA officers overseas."
Answering this question may reveal more than the agencies ailments, it may reveal or further hihglight a systematic problem within the entire governmental service.
#4
Were these women wearing burkas and veiled? If not, why not? I was under the impression men of the Islamic faith could treat women in any manner they choose. Rape is always the fault of the woman...yes?
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni spoke to her Cypriot counterpart Markos Kyprianou by phone and requested that he act toward confiscating weapons aboard the ship that were allegedly on their way from Iran to Syria. Livni emphasized that the passage of the weapons is in contravention of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1747 that prohibits trade in weapons with Iran because of its ongoing nuclear program.
The saga of a ship suspected of carrying arms from Iran to Gaza grew more complicated Saturday as Cypriot authorities searched the ship, then backed away from previous assertions that it was violating United Nations resolutions. Authorities will now conduct a second search, the Cypriot foreign minister said.
Wanna bet they find 'nothing' this time?
Suspicions that the Cypriot-flagged container ship Monchegorsk was ferrying arms from Iran to the militant Palestinian organization Hamas had been raised by the United States. The U.S. military stopped the vessel in the Red Sea last week but could not legally detain it or seize its cargo.
The ship continued on to Port Said, Egypt, then headed for Cyprus, where it arrived Thursday. It remains anchored off the island nation's southern port of Limassol under tight marine police security.
Kyprianou said Saturday that a first inspection of the Monchegorsk was complete. He said authorities were still trying to determine whether the ship's cargo contravened United Nations resolutions.
On Friday, Cypriot President Dimitris Christofias had said without qualification that the ship had violated U.N. resolutions.
The foreign minister refused Saturday to divulge any details about the ship's cargo. "This is a very serious matter concerning the Cyprus Republic's responsibilities as a member of the United Nations and the European Union, but also its relations with the international community," Kyprianou told state radio.
He urged patience for a few days, saying disclosure of information would
hinder the government's handling of the issue.
A European diplomatic source said Thursday that the Cypriot authorities had detained what he called an Iranian arms ship en route to Syria.
The move apparently came after Israel and the United States requested that Cyprus stop the ship, based on suspicion that the boat was carrying a large amount of weaponry, including artillery rounds and rockets that Israel believes are destined for either Hezbollah or Hamas. The vessel left the Persian Gulf a few weeks ago and reached about 60 miles from Cyprus on Wednesday.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2009
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Islamist leader Sheikh Sharif Ahmed on Saturday was elected Somalia's president, leaving him in charge of a fragile peace process aimed at ending 18 years of civil conflict.
The young Imam promptly vowed to form a broad government and invited all armed groups in the war-ravaged Horn of Africa nation to join the U.N.-sponsored reconciliation effort.
"Extending a hand"
Sheikh Sharif, who chairs the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), comfortably won the vote held in neighboring Djibouti, only days after the Ethiopian troops who sent him into exile two years ago completed their pullout from Somalia.
He defeated Maslah Mohamed Siad Barre, a general and the son of a former president, in the second round of voting, according to an official tally of some 430 lawmakers' votes.
"We have 293 votes for Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and 126 for Siad," said Hussein Mohamed Jama, head of the presidential electoral commission.
"I declare Sharif Sheikh Ahmed the president of Somalia after winning this election," Parliament Speaker Aden Mohamed Nur said.
In a brief acceptance speech following a vote that ended after 4:00 a.m. (0100 GMT), Sheikh Sharif vowed to reach out to the former transitional government as well as to the Shebab, a hardline offshoot of the ICU which rejects talks.
"Very soon, I will form a government which represents the people of Somalia. We will live peacefully with East African countries and we want to cooperate with them," he said.
"I am extending a hand to all Somali armed groups who are still opposed to this process and inviting them to join us," he added.
Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein, long seen as the young cleric's main rival to take the helm of the war-ravaged country, pulled out of the contest after trailing Sheikh Sharif by a massive 160 votes in the first round.
"I am ready to cooperate with whoever is elected to make Somalia a peaceful country," he then said.
The vote by a parliament enlarged earlier this week to include Sheikh Sharif's moderate wing of the Islamist-led opposition started late Friday, after hours of intense discussions between MPs.
Sheikh Sharif, a former geography teacher educated in Sudan and Libya, ran in the election as the head of the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS), an Islamist-dominated opposition umbrella formed in 2007.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2009
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Dhaka Central Jail authorities are apprehending that the banned militant outfit Jam'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and other linked groups may be trying to carry out "subversive' acts within the jail premises to embarrass the government.
Towhidul Islam, senior superintendent of the jail, told The Daily Star that acting on specific reports received from intelligence sources on the matter, they have taken actions to avert the situation. A cultural programme inside the jail, scheduled for January 29, was cancelled a day earlier for the same reason, he said.
State minister for home Tanzim Ahmed Sohel was supposed to attend the the programme.
Over 100 prisoners from 67 jails across the country were scheduled to perform in the cultural programme at Dhaka Central Jail. Jail authorities have already sent back the prisoners gathered at the central jail on the occasion, sources said.
Sources said the tension began after unrest between the jail guards in Rajshahi jail on January 17 and clashes that took place between Dhaka Central Jail guards and students of Alia Madrasa on January 24. Islam said that over 150 members of the banned Jam'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) are currently being held at the central jail itself. Intelligence reports warned that a vested quarter was attempting to create chaos at the jail to damage the government's image, the jail superintendent added.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/01/2009
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Egypt has begun installing cameras and motion sensors along its border with the Gaza Strip to try to combat smuggling into the Palestinian territory, security sources said on Saturday. "Alarms and surveillance cameras were installed last week along the 14-kilometre (eight-mile) border" to detect activity through smuggling tunnels, a security official said, declining to be named.
The sources said Egyptian authorities had begun installing the equipment two days ago with joint U.S., French and German expertise, and added that they hoped the sensors and cameras would help detect any tunnel construction in the border area.
"Cables that are part of a tunnel detection device are being installed along the Gaza-Egypt border," another security source said, adding the cables were being installed from south of Rafah to the Mediterranean coast. The source said some cameras and sensors had already been installed, and the cameras would be connected by the cables.
Israel bombed the tunnels during its recent 22-day Gaza offensive, and its military fears Hamas could use them to re-arm. But many tunnels have sophisticated systems and seem to have survived weeks of Israeli bombardment.
The United States has pledged 25 million euros ($32 million) in detection equipment to unearth smuggling tunnels, and U.S. army engineers have been providing technical assistance on the ground. France, meanwhile, has sent a frigate to patrol the waters off Gaza.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2009
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#1
Egypt installing cameras, sensors at Gaza border
So nobody sneaks by without paying "Taxes".
Posted by: Rednek Jim ||
02/01/2009 15:15
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#2
Gotta pay for them cameras and sensors somehow.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
02/01/2009 16:28
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Aswat al-Iraq: Spokesperson for the Sadr parliamentary bloc on Saturday said that he has fears of rigging the results of the elections in that some voters' registration folders went missing in some provinces, attributing the responsibility for this issue to political sides that he did not name.
"There are some indications of election rigging by withdrawing some voters' registration folders from some polling stations in a number of provinces, to prepare for rigging the elections," Ahmed al-Masaodi told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
For his part, the Iraqi Minister of Interior, Jawad al-Bolani, announced that the election security plan that was implemented on Saturday has succeeded, describing Iraqi people's participation in the elections as good.
But the coordinator of al-Hadbaa national list, Atheel al-Nujaifi, said that "forces of the Iraqi army 3rd division arrested today one of the list's monitors, without mentioning the reasons."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2009
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Here a quick glance at some of Robert's children is instructive. One of them, David, died of a drug overdose in Palm Beach just a year after another, Robert Jr., was arrested for possession of heroin at the Rapid City, S.D., airport. Courtney's second husband was an Irish Republican Army militant named Paul Hill. Max, who had threatened to run for Congress in California, began campaigning for a House seat in Massachusetts but ceased his efforts when, in his first public appearance, "he scratched his head, giggled nervously, lost his place several times and misnamed at least one member of the U.S. Supreme Court," according to the Los Angeles Times. The fact that, as a student at Harvard, he had assaulted a campus policeman didn't help, either. 
Iran says its newly-built air-defense system would fully protect its nuclear installations as it can engage targets as high as 55,000 feet. Defense Minister Brigadier General Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said on Saturday that Iran's "new 100mm anti-aircraft gun is capable of reaching target enemy aircraft at an altitude of 55,000 feet (about 18 kilometers)." 
Egypt on Friday accused Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah of being an "agent of Iran," after his tirades against Cairo during Israel's military assault on the impoverished Palestinian territory. "Hassan Nasrallah's criticism of Egypt confirms once more that he is nothing more than an agent of the Iranian regime and takes his orders from Tehran," it charged in a government statement.
By John R. Bolton
Aswat al-Iraq: Iraqi President Nouri al-Maliki on Saturday expressed thanks to the Iraqi people and organizations that did their best to render the 11-hour marathon local elections "successful" less than one hour before all voting centers close in 14 Iraqi provinces. "The Iraqis have sent a message to the whole world through these elections and I thank all participants who bypassed their religious, sectarian, and ethnic affiliations," Maliki said in a speech he delivered after the provincial council elections were wrapped up today (Jan. 31).
Armed miscreants have unleashed a reign of terror in the rural areas of Naria upazilla in Shariotpur district. Local sources said, armed extortionists and terrorists have been increased resulting to murder, abduction, extortion and dacoity under the protection influential quarters. 
Iran paid homage on Saturday to its revolutionary father Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini who landed in Tehran 30 years ago to set off the Islamic revolution, as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the revolution would extend beyond Iranian borders.
Nine people, including three security personnel, were killed on Saturday in fresh incidents of violence in NWFP's Swat district.
Islamist leader Sheikh Sharif Ahmed on Saturday was elected Somalia's president, leaving him in charge of a fragile peace process aimed at ending 18 years of civil conflict. 
Egypt has begun installing cameras and motion sensors along its border with the Gaza Strip to try to combat smuggling into the Palestinian territory, security sources said on Saturday. "Alarms and surveillance cameras were installed last week along the 14-kilometre (eight-mile) border" to detect activity through smuggling tunnels, a security official said, declining to be named.
