The Heat's decision to halt season tickets sales on speculation it might sign LeBron James means the team no longer needs a season ticket sales staff.
About 30 employees were told Friday morning they were losing their jobs, and some were moved to other positions. The Heat confirmed the layoffs in a statement indicating with its season ticket inventory "exhausted, we no longer require a season ticket sales team to sell tickets.
"While the decision to release part of our sales force was a difficult one, we greatly appreciate their contributions to the company," the statement continued. "We have also hired a placement service to assist those individuals find new employment."
Sources said the employees made a base salary and commission, which was sizable during the sales rush that came on rumors the team might sign LeBron James, Chris Bosh and re-sign Dwyane Wade. Some employees were offered severance of up to a year's salary and extended benefits. Additionally, some staffers might be hired back to oversee season ticket holder accounts, the sources said.
What year is this?
SANTA FE, N.M. - The showdown between Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid has fascinated the American public for nearly 130 years with its classic, Old West storyline of the frontier lawman hunting down the notorious gunslinger.
#1
Bill (D-corruption/baseball liar) has no problem with pardoning a felon, and will likely restore his voting rights. Expect to see Billy voting in the next 20-30 elections for the Democrat
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/31/2010 18:06
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I saw this earlier and thought it was stupid. Later today it is still stupid. Richardson must have something better to do. I guess illegal immigration is not a problem for him. If it were, he would choose to ignore it and declare Nex Mexico a sanctuary state--unless he has already done that.
#3
Beyond the well noted stupidity, the thing that struck me is that I'd forgotten Richardson was still governor of NM. His time passed quite a while ago, even if the term still runs.
#3
Second revolution at the ballot box, but not the kind with guns and stuff. Liberalism and Progressivism will be dirty words for a decade or so after Obama but the left will come up with some other word to fool the gullible into following them.
I suspect the next go around will be fiscally responsible style progressivism which will draw a lot of Libertarian leaning folks in. Still, a step further away from Marxism, no matter how imperfect, is a step in the right direction.
#4
Soap Box, Ballot box, Cartridge box. If we don't win in November, the third option will be all that's left to us.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/31/2010 17:08
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#3 Second revolution at the ballot box, but not the kind with guns and stuff.
You are wrong. There will necessarily be a brief period involving the "guns and stuff". It is inescapable.
Posted by: Secret Asian Man ||
07/31/2010 21:27
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#6
I agree, but they won't be pointed at other Americans. The Chinese will have to decide if they really think they can win. I suspect they'll make the same mistake the Japanese and Germans made, but with more horrific consequences.
#7
well if history repeats itself, the conditions are certainly right. First we have taxation without representation and then we have the issue of states rights with the flashpoint of illegal immigration (those supporting have very similar arguments to the support of slavery) and then the issues re: raids across the Rio Grande.
Posted by: Martin ||
07/31/2010 22:41
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Begorrah! What a maroon...
Irishman Khalid Kelly — who dreams of seeing the 'black flag of Islam' over the Dail — has returned from Pakistan to set up a group called Islam for Ireland, writes MARY FITZGERALD Foreign Affairs Correspondent
IT IS seven years since Khalid Kelly, Liberties altar boy turned Muslim convert turned radical blowhard, prompted heckling and jeers from a Late Late Show audience. Back then Kelly, dressed in black and grey robes and accompanied by a fellow member of British-based organisation al-Muhajiroun, defended the 9/11 attacks and claimed one day the world would be ruled by sharia law.
#1
ayuh, that'd be encouraging if the GOP were any more trustworty than the Donks. At least the Dems don't lie to you - they come right out and tell you they're going to screw you.
#4
B. I understand what you're saying - but voting in this election is like skydiving - when the chute doesn't work, you'll be kicking yourself in the butt all the way down, saying " I just KNEW this was going to happen!"
#5
We cannot generally be held accountable for the roster of candidates, but we certainly are held accountable to vote. I believe we are nearing the first of four major political tipping points. The first is of course the upcoming November elections, thence January 2011, followed by the same in 2012 and 2013. Better days are coming. We just somehow stop the bleeding and hang on. This is a great land and a great people. What we are seeing is a wicked and deceitful aberration. This too shall pass.
Knuckles, etc, if you do not vote in an election you agreed to the outcome, whatever it might be. Do you trust the people around you to vote in your interest instead of theirs?
#8
That's ok then, Knuckles dear. As long as you vote your conscience, whatever that might be, I can't complain. And I am quite sure there will be problems with the voter lists again this fall -- the Soros people worked hard to get Secretaries of State in position to ensure that. Nobody said taking back our country would be easy.
#9
The problems are political parties and professional politicians, neither of which were contemplated by the Founders. Partisanship is superceding patriotism. The only person I'd really trust in office is the independent who was dragged in, screaming and kicking... and I'd watch him like a hawk.
Personally I think we reached the game-fail stage. For any set of rules, people will game the system to achieve their ends in fashions the rules don't normally allow or contemplate. US politics is at that stage with the political class building on 200+ years of gamesmanship. It's reached the stage where the gaming prevents the system from doing what it was designed to do.
Time for a game-changer. As bad as O is, he's just one man. I think the larger problem is the half-a-thousand in the Boarding School for Kleptocracy we call Congress. The recent Rangel business proves they can't/won't police themselves, so we need to do it for them.
I've long thought that the checks and balances system breaks down w/r/t Congress. If I were appointed Czar of Fixing Everything That's Wrong, I'd appoint a permanent Inspector General or Independent Prosecutor, reporting to the Supreme Court with powers including subpoena, recommending dismissal from Congress and filing of criminal charges in Federal Court. Yes, this conflicts with the Constitution but that's what we have Amendments for.
#2
i know i will get back lash for this comment but too ad it wasn't more
Posted by: chris ||
07/31/2010 15:30
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#3
The monsoon rains have shifted to the West, a multi-year phenomena. No one seems to know why, but doubtless the GW crowd will be running around soon saying we told you so (which of course they didn't).
It was a strange case. The masseuse delayed filing the police report, then she backed away from it, then ages later she refiled, and talked to the reporters about it. All that makes a prosecutor think his odds of getting a conviction are not terribly high.
On the other hand, former Vice President Gore's marriage and reputation are ruined, so the lady still got her vengeance.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
07/31/2010
12:11 ||
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#2
vengeance? Hmmm. Is that what a woman wants after allegedly being sexually assaulted? Some might prefer the word "justice". I acknowledge a conviction would have been difficult. I just wonder if he had been a Republican if everyone would have been so quick to shrug it off.
Posted by: Martin ||
07/31/2010 16:21
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Late on a Saturday night two weeks ago, an unemployed carpenter packed his mother's Toyota Tundra with guns and set off for San Francisco with a plan to kill progressives. That's why progressives don't want people to have guns.
When California Highway Patrol officers stopped him on an interstate in Oakland for driving erratically, Likker? Drugs? Just being unbalanced?
Byron Williams, wearing body armor, fired at police with a 9mm handgun, a shotgun and a .308-caliber rifle with armor-piercing bullets, Oakland police say. Shot and captured after injuring two officers, Williams, on parole for bank robbery, told investigators that he wanted "to start a revolution" by "killing people of importance at the Tides Foundation and the ACLU," according to a police affidavit. Moron.
His mother, Janice, told the San Francisco Chronicle that her son had been watching television news and was upset by "the way Congress was railroading through all these left-wing agenda items." As a felon, perhaps he was not allowed to vote in November? So he had no outlet for his rage. We'll hear all about the need to limit gun ownership because of this. But since he's a convicted felon, he wasn't supposed to have guns in the first place. So a convicted criminal violated the law (again). Color me surprised.
But what television news show could have directed the troubled man's ire toward the obscure Tides Foundation, which sounds as if it's dedicated to oceanography, or perhaps laundry detergent, but which is in fact a nonprofit that claims to support "sustainability, better education, solutions to the AIDS epidemic and human rights"?
The Tides Foundation does indeed make that claim. It's an odd mix of objectives, though...
A week after the incident, the mystery was solved. "Tides was one of the hardest things that we ever tried to explain, and everyone told us that we couldn't," Fox News host Glenn Beck told his radio listeners on Monday. "The reason why the blackboard" - the prop Beck uses on his TV show to trace conspiracies - "really became what the blackboard is, is because I was trying to explain Tides and how all of this worked." Beck accuses Tides of seeking to seize power and destroy capitalism, and he suggests that a full range of his enemies on the left all have "ties to the Tides Center." On Monday, he savored the fact that "no one knew what Tides was until the blackboard." Was Beck talking about the Tides after the shooting? I'm not clear on that. Is there something wrong about talking about Tides, and talking about them more than once?
For good measure, Beck went after Tides again on Fox that night. And Tuesday night, Wednesday night and Thursday night. That's on top of 29 other mentions of Tides on Beck's Fox show over the past 18 months AHA!(two in the week before the shootout) according to a tally by the liberal press watchdog Media Matters. Other than two mentions of Tides on the show of Beck's Fox colleague Sean Hannity, Media Matters said it was unable to find any other mention of Tides on any news broadcast by any network over that same period. Fox reports, the shooter decided.
It's not fair to blame Beck for violence committed by people who watch his show, but I'm gonna do it anyway. Yet Williams isn't the only such character with a seeming affinity for the Fox News host. In April 2009, a man allegedly armed with an AK-47, a .22-caliber rifle and a handgun was charged with killing three cops in Pittsburgh. The Anti-Defamation League reported that the accused killer had, as part of a pattern of activities involving far-right conspiracy theories, posted a link on a neo-Nazi Web site to a video of Beck talking about the possibility that the Federal Emergency Management Agency was operating concentration camps in Wyoming. Idiot stuff to be sure, but the shooter there was also prohibited by law from having guns and had them anyway.
Beck has at times spoken against violence, but he more often forecasts it, warning that "it is only a matter of time before an actual crazy person really does something stupid." There are enough crazies in the world that anyone who forecasts violence is bound to be right ...
Most every broadcast has some violent imagery: "The clock is ticking. . . . The war is just beginning. . . . Shoot me in the head if you try to change our government. . . . You have to be prepared to take rocks to the head. . . . The other side is attacking. . . . There is a coup going on. . . . Grab a torch! . . . Drive a stake through the heart of the bloodsuckers. . . . They are taking you to a place to be slaughtered. . . . They are putting a gun to America's head. . . . Hold these people responsible." Visited Daily Kos, lately? How many readers go there? No question. Been there and to the other progressive web sites, and the commenters there can match craziness one on one with any ultra right wing-nut.
Beck has prophesied darkly to his millions of followers that we are reaching "a point where the people will have exhausted all their options. When that happens, look out." One night on Fox, discussing the case of a man who killed 10 people, Beck suggested such things were inevitable. "If you're a conservative, you are called a racist, you want to starve children," he said. "And every time they do speak out, they are shut down by political correctness. How do you not have those people turn into that guy?"
Here's one idea: Stop encouraging them. You first, pal. Let's have the progressive commentators like yourself stop encouraging the hard left crazies. Deal?
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/31/2010
10:41 ||
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#1
Might be a good idea, get the nuts out in the open where we can see and capture them instead of fermenting in silence until another Oklahoma City style Bomber goes BOOM.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/31/2010 11:32
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#2
This explains Alger Hiss.
I knew there was a solution somehow related to the international communist conspiracy.
#3
Hollyweird came out with a movie in 1993 titled "Falling Down" with Michael Douglas. Douglas played a fired defense worker who goes postal. Sounds somewhat like the guy in this piece.
Older readers will recognise this mantra from the past: “South Korea stole our first Five-Year Plan.” According to this urban legend, when a Korean was accused of this petty larceny by a Pakistani, he retorted: “Yes, but we implemented it.”
The other pat on the back we give ourselves is about how PIA helped establish Air Malta and Emirates. I suppose thatÂ’s how those who have failed comfort themselves after having been knocked out of the league many years ago: in our period of decline, we sit around, reminiscing about the good old days.
Younger Pakistanis may find it hard to believe, but there was a time when Pakistan was held up as a model of development. India, constrained by its tightly regulated economy, was plodding along on what was called the ‘Hindu rate of growth’. Buoyed by foreign aid, then quite efficiently utilised, and with relatively liberal economic policies, Pakistan grew at a respectable rate that gave economists the widespread expectation that soon, the country would reach the take-off stage.
In the mid-1960s, a Turkish friend who worked for one of his countryÂ’s financial institutions told me that PakistanÂ’s Industrial Development Bank (IDBP) was cited as an exemplary state-sector enterprise in his organisation. As a young student, I remember feeling quite proud of my country. What institutions do our young people have to be proud of today?
In 1963, I drove from Germany to Pakistan with some friends over a series of steadily deteriorating roads. In Iran, we came across a metalled road 100km or so before and after Tehran. The rest were unpaved dirt roads. Poverty was so widespread that workers in eastern Iran would beg us for a box of matches. When we crossed into Pakistan, it was like entering a developed country: although the roads in Balochistan were also unpaved, they had been neatly graded and properly marked. The border rest-house where we spent the night was adequate, and we were cooked a hot meal. Sleeping in the open under a brilliant, star-speckled sky, it felt good to be back.
So what happened to derail this success story? The short answer is 1965. This brief, pointless war, needlessly provoked by Pakistan, destabilised Ayub KhanÂ’s government, and set in motion a chain of events that had far-reaching consequences that haunt us still. Without getting into the causes leading up to this military disaster, I do see it as a hinge moment in our history.
Although the economy has grown in fits and starts since then, governance and institution-building have recorded a steady and terminal decline. Internationally, we are toxic, with our geopolitical location, our nuclear arsenal and our scary jihadi threat the only reasons why we figure in the calculations of other countries.
Many Pakistanis are convinced that if only we would get a good leader, everything could be fixed. Scores of readers have emailed me over the last couple of years, complaining about Asif Zardari. “What have we done to deserve him?” they moan. It’s almost as if they think some celestial figure should parachute down to take over. The reality is that all the actors are on the political stage, and we know what the options are.
A sizeable chunk of our chattering class is convinced that once Zardari quits the scene, rivers of milk and honey will start flowing again. Considering that his predecessors in the presidency include such stellar figures as Ghulam Ishaq Khan, Farooq Leghari and Pervez Musharraf, it is difficult to understand how Zardari can do any worse. Indeed, whatever his many detractors say about him, his performance in office has been far better that anybody could have hoped for.
Of course, the inevitable allegations of graft swirl around this government, as they have around every elected civilian government in the past. The only reason military rulers have been spared this scrutiny is that our media moguls know better than to take on the generals over such a sensitive issue. Mere politicians, of course, are fair game. The wildest, most unfounded charges against them can be amplified in the megaphone that is the electronic media today.
Political discourse in Pakistan today resembles a Roman amphitheatre where gladiators fight and die before a mob baying for yet more blood. In this hysterical environment, it is next to impossible to initiate and sustain a sensible discussion on the real issues. When people get used to a steady diet of raw meat, itÂ’s not easy to convince them that vegetables are good for them.
Thus, deadly serious matters like religious extremism and violence, illiteracy, poverty, the need for clean drinking water, rapid population growth, the degradation of our urban and rural environment and the water crisis are impatiently swept aside by the public and the media. What counts most to them are the NRO, the 18th Amendment, allegations of graft and the comings and goings of politicians, judges and generals.
This national preoccupation with peripheral issues lets the government off the hook. When the political discourse is diverted away from our pressing problems, the administration is under no pressure to deliver. While civil society is ready and willing to agitate for judicial independence and against the NRO, it does not show the same energy and zeal to take to the streets to demand better governance. I suppose ‘Go, Musharraf, go!’ makes a better slogan than ‘Clean drinking water for all!’
One reason for these warped priorities is that we seem to prefer to talk about abstract issues rather than mundane ones. For our educated middle class, access to clean drinking water is not the problem it is for millions of deprived Pakistanis. Ditto for education and health services as they can generally afford not to rely on creaking state facilities.
In most societies, pressure for change comes from an educated middle class. Until this class feels strongly enough for the countryÂ’s masses to demand an improvement in their lives, little will change. Currently, our civil societyÂ’s problems are more to do with the courts and government departments, so their focus is on reforming them. The mediaÂ’s concern is to improve circulation and audience figures, so they whip up sudden squalls in the teacup about non-issues. And we lap up these little dramas and express our indignation in the comfort of our drawing rooms.
Meanwhile, in the real world, children starve quietly, or grow up stunted, unloved and malnourished in a hostile world. Uneducated, they have little chance of finding a job. But at least we have the consolation of being blessed with an independent judiciary.
Posted by: john frum ||
07/31/2010
10:29 ||
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Yup, Blame anybody but Ourselves.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/31/2010 21:13
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Arizona-style immigration laws make even less sense in Texas Oh boy, oh boy...
Parents, you know how it is with kids. One acts up, and so you have to focus your attention on the troublemaker and take your eye off the others. Then, when you're not looking, another one gets out of line. You talkin' about the gubbamint, Ruben?
States are much the same way. The eyes of the nation are fixed on Arizona, the undisputed problem child in our national immigration debate. But there are other states where lawmakers are eager to follow Arizona's lead and blame Washington for not solving a problem that, in truth, their own residents (i.e., employers) helped create. My grandparents were immigrants, too, and they received no amnesty. They had to work for a living. Make the employers suffer, I say. Close the border. Send them home.
At least half a dozen of the states thinking about going on this suicide run can perhaps be forgiven their ignorance because the experience of having a sizable population of illegal immigrants is new to them. In Utah, Georgia, Ohio, Maryland, Oklahoma and South Carolina, illegal immigrants are still a rather exotic import.
But then there's Texas, which used to be part of Mexico and where lenient immigration policies toward white settlers from the South and Northeast led to a famous tenant dispute that included a dustup at the Alamo in 1836. In Tejas, Latinos are indigenous and as ubiquitous as bluebonnets. In the Lone Star State, where my mother and grandparents and great-grandparents were born and raised and where I spent five years writing about immigration and other issues for the Dallas Morning News, legislators should know better than to even flirt with the idea of adopting a divisive and dangerous law like the one in Arizona. Anybody else from Texas got an opinion? I say, let the voters speak.
This was true even before Clinton appointee U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton, in defense of the Constitution, but not the government who chooses to ignore the law ripped the guts out of the Arizona law by striking down its most egregious and indefensible parts. Bolton had her pick of seven lawsuits seeking to block the law's implementation, and she based her ruling on the lawsuit filed by the Obama administration. The Justice Department argued that Arizona had exceeded its authority and trampled on powers reserved for the federal government. Swell. So how do we get the Federal Government to do their job? OK, so why do we have to wait until November?
Bolton agreed. She was particularly bothered by those elements of the law that all but required racial profiling by forcing police officers to arrest people they suspect are in the country illegally, made it a state crime for the undocumented to seek work, required legal immigrants to carry papers proving their status, and allowed police to detain and arrest people who could not prove their legal status. So the judge issued a preliminary injunction against those parts. The rest of the law - which did things such as making it a state crime to transport illegal immigrants - was allowed to go into effect. Almostforced the police? My experience with the police is that some are lienient and some are not. So who would force the police - to a mna/woman/person - to all be Dick Cheney with a truncheon?
So much for Gov. Jan Brewer's bravado in telling the federal government that Arizona would "meet you in court." This battle is far from over, and the issue is probably headed to the Supreme Court. So far, it's Liberal Common Sense, 1, Arizona, 0.
But like the saying goes, common sense isn't always common - even in Texas. State Rep. Leo Berman, a Republican, is drafting an Arizona-style bill for Texas and plans to introduce it next session. How dare he run against the liberal common sense? Adding fuel to the bonfire, Texas Republicans recently adopted an over-the-top platform at their state convention that, among other things, encouraged the Legislature to create a Class A misdemeanor criminal offense "for an illegal alien to intentionally or knowingly be within the state of Texas," and to "oppose amnesty in any form leading to citizenship." Texas Republicans also want to deny citizenship to the U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants, ban day-labor work centers, limit bilingual education to three years,
We observed when trailing daughter #1 went to the local preschool in Germany that it takes six months of full immersion in the local language to become reasonably fluent. Of course, that six months is quite painful, but considerably more efficient than bilingual education. Were I an immigrant I would demand full immersion rather than bilingual nonsense.
and deny non-U.S. citizens access to state or federal financial assistance for college. Not me, man; I WANT to pay for illegal immigrants to go to Harvard, UCLA, Columbia, and other lefty diploma mills
Non-U.S. citizens generally have access to their own nation's tertiary education systems, which are generally considerably cheaper, tuition-wise, than American schools. How fair is that for their American schoolmates?
In Texas, Latinos are forecast to make up nearly 80 percent of the population growth over the next 30 years (compared with only 4 percent for whites), and Latinos could outnumber whites by 2015, the San Antonio Express-News reported last month. What the Texas GOP drafted was a pact with the devil. Ruben, Ruben.. Are you saying all Latinos love illegal immigrants? That the proposed law pits Anglos against Latinos? That everybody thinks like you do? My grandchildren live in Texas, Rueben; that's where we're going when we retire.
All of which leads me to ask my friends in the Lone Star State the same question my mom used to ask me growing up: "If all the other kids jumped off a cliff, would you do the same?" How high is this cliff you've constructed in your own imagination? Aren't you running with the liberal herd, headed for the November cliff?
Apparently they would. His e-mail address is at the link. Try not to come off as one of those gun-toting, bible thumping, legal-immigrant hating, xenophobic (did I use that big word correctly, TW?), Bushites. There are plenty of logical fallacies in his dribble for the WaPo faithful.
Yes, you did, Bobby dear. Although I think it's Bushies.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/31/2010
10:08 ||
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It would fix 90% of the problem if illegals couldn't get work here. But, neither party has any desire to punish the employers who hire illegals.
AS PJ O'Roarke said, "When buying and selling is controlled by politicians, the first thing bought and sold are politicians.
Posted by: Formerly Dan ||
07/31/2010 11:28
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Ruben's a smarmy little open-borders punk who tries hard to hide it. He was let go at the SD Union Trib and the comments were unanimousl positive about that. If you actually DID go hard at the employers (a good idea), he'd find that "too harsh" or find some other reason to keep la raza safe
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/31/2010 12:25
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#3
We are not on the edge of the cliff. We went over it and are looking at the edge slip away.
It was reported that a memo was written in the government which said to explore ways to implement amnesty through the executive branch rather than legislatively--similar to implementing cap and trade via EPA. It seems like we are getting an executive branch dictatorship aided and abetted by the Democratically-controlled Congress.
#4
Ruben Navarette is an idiot that needs to get the full attention he deserves - none. The man cannot say anything without showing he's so liberal even San Francisco couldn't stand him. I usually don't read what he writes, because it has very little connection to reality. My brother and many of my other family members live in Texas. Latino citizens are fine, but illegals cause all kinds of problems, including being about 70% of those in the drug trade.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/31/2010 17:00
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#5
Create a guest worker program to protect the immigrants and control their access to the US. Give illegals six months to get across the border or get themselves into the guest worker program. Make it so that guest workers don't bring family and any children of guest workers born here are not citizens. Then control the border so that only illegal crossings occur.
beyond that citizenship is another issue altogether and doesn't not need to be dealt with at this point.
#6
The "cliff" was breached by LBJ's immigation legislation in 1965. "One man, one vote" + demographics will settle the issue once and for all. HAMILTON spins in his grave as he concept of an American REPUBLIC DIES.
#8
I live in Texas, too - and the illegals aren't any more popular there, especially with the horrific drug-gang border violence.
And I would guess that while a lot of Hispanics would have been prepared to be indulgent ... patience may be wearing a little thin. Tejanos have been Americans for a long time, and the 1836 dustup which he refers to so humorously, featured a great many Tejano Federalistas (who favored for Mexico a confederation of fairly independent states and a small federal government) who fought with their Angelo neighbors against the Centralistas (a more authoritarian, powerful and dictatorial style of government) espoused by General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. Texas was just one of the Mexican states which rebelled when Santa Anna made himself supreme dictator over Mexico - and the only successful one.
At the Alamo - most of the artillery crews were Tejano, and Sam Houston's scouting company on the retreat across Texas was led by Juan Seguin - just about all Tejanos. At the battle of San Jacinto, Houston wanted to keep them safe, fearing that they might be mistaken for the enemy in the heat of battle, but Juan Sequin angrily refused, demanding a place in the battle line. He got it - his men put pieces of cardboard in their hats to mark them. (The Texians/Tejanos didn't have uniforms, of course.)
I don't think dear Ruben knows those little factoids about that little dustup in 1836. Putz. Centralista - Federalista... round two of that is looking more and more of a possibility.
The Prince of Wales says he believes he has been placed on Earth as future King 'for a purpose' - to save the world. Britain's so far had two King Charles'. Charles II was known as "Merrie Charles" and is remembered for his association with Nell Gwynn. Prince Chuck seems to be nearly as well-loved as Charles I, whose head was chopped off. There's still time to turn yourself around, Chuck.
Giving a fascinating insight into his view of his inherited wealth and influence, he said: 'I can only somehow imagine that I find myself being born into this position for a purpose.
'I don't want my grandchildren or yours to come along and say to me, "Why the hell didn't you come and do something about this? You knew what the problem was". That is what motivates me.
'I wanted to express something in the outer world that I feel inside... We seem to have lost that understanding of the whole of nature and the universe as a living entity.' That whole milkmaid routine was very big in Marie Antoinette's time. They all wanted to be close to nature, as long as they didn't have to smell it.
His impassioned comments come during a film about his belief that unbridled commerce has led to the destruction of farmland and countryside. "Aye. Life wuz better when we wuz a nation of rustics!"
The documentary, called Harmony, is due to be aired on the U.S. network NBC in November to coincide with the launch of a book of the same name by the prince. Charles is understood to have waived his author's fee, and all royalties will go to his charity, the Prince's Trust.
But the Prince has previously come under fire for hypocrisy over his eco-values. Last year he commandeered a jet belonging to the Queen's Flight to attend the Copenhagen climate change summit, generating an estimated 6.4 tons of carbon dioxide - 5.2 tons more than if he had used a commercial plane.
Critics condemned his words as 'delusional'. Graham Smith, of the anti-monarchy group Republic, said: 'He is under the impression he has been sent to save the world and deliver us from our sins. It's quite delusional.
'He will have to be impartial and keep his mouth shut when he's king. If he really believes this is his mission and he disagrees with Government in future, he risks plunging us into a constitutional crisis.'
Senior royal aides denied the prince was attempting to mould his public image and pave the way to ensure a positive legacy. They stressed Charles also cared passionately about his other royal duties, such as defence.
One said: 'In private he has dismissed talk of legacies - that's not for him to say because it's for others to judge. But hopefully his charities will carry on for many years to come.
'He has said there is a reason why he's in a position to raise these issues - that there is some higher power. But there is more to his role than just green problems.
'It's true that outside royal duties, the environment is the thing he cares most passionately about.'
In a trailer to the film, the prince spoke passionately about his decades-long quest for what he described in a statement as 'a sacred duty of stewardship of the natural order of things'.
He said: 'I started 22 years ago on something that nobody really wanted to know about except a few people who thought it was pretty crazy. The way nature presents itself - we've turned it into merely a mechanical process. What is happening to the small farmers around the world is simply appalling, as a result of globalisation. Is that really the intention behind it all, just to sweep all these people off the land?'
An Asian woman, who is not named in the documentary, piled praise on the royal, saying: 'Princes Charles has been a very courageous man because he has never thought through the throne he will occupy - he has thought through the planet he lives on.'
#2
"Grandfather, why the hell didn't you come and do something about your F%^&up teeth? You knew what the problem was". Also, why the hell did you dump grandma for that hag Lady Camille?
#9
'I can only somehow imagine that I find myself being born into this position for a purpose.
Hell yes you were born with a purpose, it's to ensure the lineage of the Windsors should the heir die, NOTHING ELSE, YOU'RE A "SPARE".
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/31/2010 12:55
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#10
'I wanted to express something in the outer world that I feel inside... We seem to have lost that understanding of the whole of nature and the universe as a living entity.'
What he 'feels inside' is a garbled bunch of rationalization and wishful thinking. Even the foremost spiritual leaders 'check' their intuitions with other people.
In Chuck's defense, the high-spiritual guide for the royal family is *supposed* to be the Archbishop of Canterbury. So the Prince is alone in the woods, so to speak.
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/31/2010 13:47
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#14
His impassioned comments come during a film about his belief that unbridled commerce has led to the destruction of farmland and countryside.
ItÂ’s easy to dismiss the man as an inbred dullard with a messiah complex. But, IMO, any person with his wealth and influence that has so much contempt for free market capitalism is flat out dangerous.
#17
I am defiled by the little people who intrude on my peaceful country setting. Why can't they just disappear and leave me to my peace. Hey serf, crank up the heat on my castle and bring me a latte. I have a private plane to catch.
Posted by: Martin ||
07/31/2010 16:17
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#18
Prince Charles, the Joe Biden of the royal family.
#19
Why, why do you continue to humiliate all those who share your first name!? Why can't you just jump out a plane saying Jesus will save you to protect the world!?
Posted by: Charles ||
07/31/2010 19:51
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The US Army intelligence analyst, who is half British and went to school in Wales, appeared to sink into depression after a relationship break-up, saying he didn't "have anything left" and was "beyond frustrated".
In an apparent swipe at the army, he also wrote: "Bradley Manning is not a piece of equipment," and quoted a joke about "military intelligence" being an oxymoron.
Mr Manning, 22, who is currently awaiting court martial, is suspected of leaking more than 90,000 secret military documents to the Wikileaks website in a security breach which US officials claim has endangered the lives of serving soldiers and Afghan informers.
Supporters claim the war logs leak exposed civilian deaths in Afghanistan which had been covered up by the military, and Mr Manning's family, who live in Pembrokeshire, said he had "done the right thing".
The Pentagon, which is investigating the source of the leak, is expected to study Mr Manning's background to ascertain if they missed any warnings when he applied to join the US Army. The postings on his Facebook page are also likely to form part of the inquiry.
Mr Manning, who is openly homosexual, began his gloomy postings on January 12, saying: "Bradley Manning didn't want this fight. Too much to lose, too fast."
At the beginning of May, when he was serving at a US military base near Baghdad, he changed his status to: "Bradley Manning is now left with the sinking feeling that he doesn't have anything left."
Five days later he said he was "livid" after being "lectured by ex-boyfriend", then later the same day said he was "not a piece of equipment" and was "beyond frustrated with people and society at large".
His tagline on his personal page reads: "Take me for who I am, or face the consequences!"
Mr Manning was arrested at the end of May on suspicion of leaking a video of a US helicopter attack, and quickly became the main suspect when the Afghan war documents were leaked earlier this week.
His uncle, Kevin Fox, said the soldier's arrest and imprisonment in a military jail had taken its toll on his mother Susan, who lives in Haverfordwest.
"She hasn't been well," he said, adding that if Mr Manning had leaked the documents: "I think the boy did the right thing."
Another close relative, who asked not to be named, said: "His mum didn't know anything about what he was doing and it's come as a big shock. She's very upset."
Susan Manning, 56, moved to the US in 1979 after marrying Bradley's American father Brian Manning, a former serviceman who was based at the Cawdor Barracks in Brawdy, near Haverfordwest.
Bradley Manning was born in Oklahoma but the couple divorced in 2001 and Mrs Manning moved back to Wales with her son, who sat his GCSEs at the Tasker Milward secondary school in Haverfordwest.
#3
Hmmm. A PFC with waaaaay more access to large volumes of classified info than he should have had - check. Said PFC with a seriously dodgy background - check. Can you say "Obamunist-engineered intentional leak for the purpose of helping The One's media operatives undermine the war effort," boys and girls? I knew you could!
[/Mr. Rogers]
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
07/31/2010 12:05
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#4
Too bad, kid. No Facebook in Quantico. Probably gay sex though, so at least you got that going for you. But it might be a little rougher then you're used to.
See ya in about a hundred years. Maybe Assange will send you a Christmas card...
#6
The Army had three failures involving leadership involving supervision of immediate subordinates. Abu Ghraib, Major Hasan, and the Wikileaker. All three were strategic defeats of the order of losing a battle. None involved direct combat arms on combat situations.
The Army needs to update its LMET courses to include these failures.
#7
It does beg the question, and since I'm not mil/ex-mil, perhaps someone at Rantburg U can answer the question --
-- how often do junior enlisted personnel get secret and top-secret clearances, and how often are they entrusted with classified information?
I can imagine that a PFC might have assignments that would require them to handle classified info and therefore be screened, etc., but is that typical?
Second question: if PFC Manning was screened, did the personnel doing said screening uncover any warning signs? If not, why not -- seems like they were right there in the open.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/31/2010 13:27
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#8
Leadership Management Education & Training (LMET).
#9
-- how often do junior enlisted personnel get secret and top-secret clearances, and how often are they entrusted with classified information?
It is very common for lower raking enlisted personnel to have a SECRET clearance, granted or based on a National Agency Check or NAC. Today, many battlefield systems as well as information systems require a Secret or what is referred to as "collateral access" as do facilities in which sensitive operational planning is conducted. A Top Secret or TS level of clearance is a lengthy process (can take up to 2 years) which is generally initiated based on the soldier's need or anticipated need for specific access to TS level documents or systems. Interum access is sometimes granted pending final adjudication of the TS clearance. There are numerous security level caveats beyond TS which can also be required and granted as well. Eligability for these caveats is based once again, on very specific needs. Other government agencies have entirely different processes and proceduress which generally parallel that of DoD, but can require much more stringent and evasive updates and personnel monitoring procedures.
#10
Check to see who he winds up with as his defense counsel. If he winds up with a phalanx of these treasonous tools at his defense table, to me that'll serve as ABSOLUTE CONFIRMATION that this "leak scandal" was set up by Ogabe appointees in the DoD to assist in the undermining of our war effort.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
07/31/2010 16:20
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#11
You have to wonder what happened to "need to know". It used to be that intelligence files were hard copy folders physically located in a fixed location, with limited copies circulated to those who needed to know, whether they were people who specifically requested them, or task-related personnel. These days, with the computerization of, and universal access to (provided permission is given), military intelligence data, it appears that lazy system administrators or ignorant policy-makers have given the keys to the kingdom to mere privates. I am glad we have found out about these lapses during the equivalent of a bush war, rather than an all-out war (i.e. war with a peer competitor like Russia or China).
#12
Old saying: Two can keep a secret if one of them is dead. Corollary: If you want ANY chance at all of keeping it secret, don't put it on a hard drive...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/31/2010 20:39
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#13
This guy sounds like Intel records clerk and the messages are hardly "Top Secret" as far as I can tell. The guy obviously had access to a repository of classified reports (prob on a server). Yes we give E-1s clearances Top Secret and above if they need to do their job. We can't detect whacko, but I bet his fellow soldiers will shed some light on that.
#2
he should be "disappeared". A message needs to be sent
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/31/2010 10:09
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#3
he should be "disappeared". A message needs to be sent
Oh, a message will be sent. I doubt that he will disappear though, I expect he will be left where he can be found and some pictures will show up on the Net. I suspect it will not be pretty. Good.
Posted by: Secret Asian Man ||
07/31/2010 10:34
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KABUL, Afghanistan (July 29) - A Taliban commander and his accomplice were apprehended in Farah province after Afghan National Army Commandos discovered them disguised in burkas July 25.
Afghan National Army officials said the insurgent commander was responsible for numerous attacks on Afghan and Coalition forces in Farah province. The 1st Company, 4th Commando Kandak, partnered with Coalition forces, was conducting a presence patrol to disrupt insurgent activity when the men were captured, according to ANA officials on the scene. Coalition officials said the two men were dressed up like girls to disguise themselves after a failed attempt to emplace an IED in the southern part of Diware Village.
Throughout the course of the operation, the ANA Commandos also found a large quantity of opium and a cache of explosives. An explosive ordnance disposal team disabled, removed, and destroyed the cache to prevent the materials from being used to harm innocent civilians, Afghan, and Coalition forces. According to Afghan customs, men wearing burkas is considered cowardly and demeaning toward women.
#1
I suppose that one of the DOD contractor companies came up with a device that detects anomalies,; ie, a person with a burka scratching their nuts, clearing their nostrils in public or instinctively attacking woman actually wearing burkas.
Posted by: Martin ||
07/31/2010 15:45
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#4
The 1st Company, 4th Commando Kandak, partnered with Coalition forces, was conducting a presence patrol to disrupt insurgent activity when the men were captured, according to ANA officials on the scene.
"Presence" patrol? Whatever happened to search and destroy?
Which can't be seen through the eyes screen of a burqa anyway...
Any stratagem is permitted in fooling the infidel, I suspect, including beard shaving, as long as it is grown back as soon as one is safe. As I recall we've seen that behaviour before, although I think it was in Pakistan.
I see your problem sir. You're going to need to replace the toilet because it's been contaminated.
In protest of what it calls a religion "of the devil," a nondenominational church
Which is to say, generally Protestant Christian, rather than including Druids, Satanists, Hindus and Jews, right?
in Gainesville, Florida, plans to host an "International Burn a Quran Day" on the ninth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks. That ought to get their turbans in a knot!
Way more at link. It was really tough not to grab the whole thing! :-)
This kind of thing is rude and unnecessary. That it's just as much protected speech as burning the national flag, that does not make it any better an idea. Burning the religious books of others has a long tradition -- the Catholic Church burnt the religious books of heretics, Jews, and Muslims; the Orthodox Church burnt the religious books of pagans and Jews; the Nazis burnt the books of everyone they disapproved of, including various varieties of Christians and Jews; Muslims at various times and places burnt everything that wasn't Quran, Hadiths, and Sunna... Burning books is an act that demonstrates the barbarity and poverty of thought of the perpetrators.
#1
Whoops! I just saw that ryuge beat me to it on Page 2. If you think it worthy, maybe throw this link under there if you want to delete this article?
#2
I'm sure the local university's Muslim Student Union is going to have something special planned for this day, too. Probably featuring lots of Pali flags (and defaced Israeli ones).
#3
I have no idea what the church thinks it's doing.
Doesn't mean they don't know.
But one result will, or should be, that certain kinds of insulting, inciting, impolite speech are allowed to Christians, too.
Sort of a new concept.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
07/31/2010 8:45
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#4
Wanna bet that some government agency decides that this transcends free speech and intervenes?
It may be well placed in a way. The "moderate" muslims will see this and compare it to their own lethal riots at the slighted drummed up excuse and just have to sigh and carry on.
Those who are "radicalized" are going to get radicalized anyway.
The radicals, well, they'll just riot again, and more people will see them for what they are.
Who knows, maybe a few of them will see themselves for what they are and back off.
Besides, it's not like they're burning every last Holy Crayon.
I was tempted top put up the pic of the unnamed one who runs the Westboro Baptist "Church".
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Israeli warplanes fired missiles at five targets across Gazoo, killing a senior commander of the Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, military wing and wounding 11 people, the group said Saturday.
The Israeli military confirmed the air strikes and said they came in response to a rocket attack from Gazoo on the Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon on Friday. The attack on Ashkelon caused damage but no injuries. The cross-border violence came after weeks of relative calm and raised concerns of further escalation.
Hamas' military wing, Izzedine al-Qassam, swore Dire Revenge™ for the killing of Issa Batran, 42. It identified Batran as a commander of the military wing in central Gazoo and a senior rocket maker.
Hamas says eight of its supporters and three civilians were wounded in the air strikes.
The targets hit by missiles included a Hamas military training camp in Gazoo City, smuggling tunnels under the Gazoo-Egypt border and a shack on the outskirts of the Nusseirat refugee camp, Hamas security officials said.
There has been no claim of responsibility for Friday's rocket strike against Ashkelon, a city of 120,000 located 11 miles (18 kilometers) to the north of Gazoo and a short drive from Israel's main population center in Tel Aviv.
Since Israel's military offensive, small renegade groups in Gazoo have occasionally fired crude short-range rockets. However, in Friday's attack, Ashkelon was hit by a military-grade Grad rocket.
A Florida church was yesterday promoting an event where it will burn copies of the Koran to mark the ninth anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the U.S.
Idiots. Book burning is the act of barbarians. Not only that, but unless the book burners have the power to impose their likes and dislikes on the target population, their little bonfire is merely a feel-good temper tantrum, just like the idiots who burn American flags. If the congregation objects to creeping Sharia, they'd be more effective lobbying for laws that assert the Constitutional separation of church and state overrides and religion's rules, including Sharia... and then keeping a vigilant eye on any legislatorial moves to weaken that position. But that would be hard work, without the immediate endorphin rush of burning paper.
Yep. This is only a step or two away from New Black Panther party behavior. In its way, it is as much of an attack on Christianity as a play portraying Jesus as a transexual S&M snuff moviemaker would be. It's the sort of thing that MoveOn or CAIR would make plenty of effort to stage successfully, if they thought they could get away with it.
In the announcement on its Facebook page, The Dove World Outreach Center of Gainesville, Florida, asked other religious groups to join in standing "against the evil of Islam. Islam is of the devil!" The Facebook event has received more than 1,500 "Like" recommendations by users, but had also been attacked with a number of threatening messages posted on the page and corresponding anti-Islam rants.
The church's pastor, Terry Jones - who has written a book titled "Islam is of The Devil" and sells T-shirts bearing the same message - defended the controversial event. "Islam and Sharia law was responsible for 9/11," Jones told Agence France-Presse.
"We will burn Korans because we think it's time for Christians, for churches, for politicians to stand up and say no; Islam and Sharia law is not welcome in the U.S. We've got many death threats from jihad groups, but we cannot react by fear and we cannot compromise our beliefs. Somebody must stand up."
If you want to stand up, why not challenge groups to debate you in an open forum on, say, the merits of Shari'a vs. the Constitution or our Judeo-Christian heritage vs. Islamic civilization? Because you're a logically challenged troublemaker, perhaps?
The National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) called for the church to cancel the event, The Christian Post reported. "It sounds like the proposed Koran burning is rooted in revenge," NAE president Leith Anderson said. "Yet the Bible says that Christians should 'make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.'"
Mainstream Muslim groups also denounced the move and lamented the sentiments promoted by the Gainesville church. "Unfortunately in [Florida] and nationwide, Islamophobia are actually on the rise," Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) spokesman Ramsey Kilic told AFP. "I'm more afraid of those who have anti-Muslim sentiments and may think this is a legitimate action and may want to attack a mosque or attack a Muslim on the street," he added.
However, Kilic said, "we are not taking any action to avoid this... we don't want to give attention to this, because that's what they want."
Besides the Koran burning ceremony, the Dove World Outreach Center also plans an anti-homosexual event August 2 outside Gainesville's City Hall. The "No Homo Mayor Protest" targets the city's first openly gay mayor, Craig Lowe.
If this church were to join forces with Westboro, imagine how little power and influence they could have together.
#6
Well, if nothing else, it makes them willing targets for Islamic retribution. If they want to become martyrs, perhaps they will unmask some truly dangerous individuals who might have eventually butchered many innocent people.
Saint Darwin works in mysterious, and often hilarious, ways.
#7
Never could understand why anyone would stand up to PC or Islam. However wacky, cause for sure that will end up becoming a lightning rod. And most state side has the grit to be a lightning rod, or the strength to stand up in a Mohammedan's face.
NYC schools are now starting to recognize Islamic holidays and the NYC Mayor is all for a Mosque on the Mohammedan's conguered soil, Ground Zero, so having a koran burning at some Florida Church on 911 is a little crazy.
Especially when the proper place for the koran burning on 9/11 would be at Ground Zero where the Mohammedans slammed fully loaded airliners into the towers full of thousands of innocents, don't you think?
Or is the right even to d@mn PC to stand up anymore?
Oh, by the way, the US Constitution should be amended. Freedom of Religion, except for any Theocratic Intolerant of other Religions, that being Islam.
#8
Oh Lordy. That little edfitorial note up there in the article about standing up and debating Judeo-Christian vs Islam got some Christians thrown in jail up there in Dearborn, Michigan very recently now didn't it?
#9
it makes them willing targets for Islamic retribution. If they want to become martyrs, perhaps they will unmask some truly dangerous individuals
that comment says something about you, and none of it good. Here are people willing to stand up for freedom of speech and you cheeringly mock them as Darwin candidates?
How far we have fallen.
Posted by: Martin ||
07/31/2010 15:24
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#10
I wonder how many of you would have shown the same outrage and poorly suppressed Darwinian glee over the possible murder of a group of atheists burning bibles. Oh...that's right, Christians won't kill you for the act of expressing free speech.
Cowards.
Posted by: Martin ||
07/31/2010 15:28
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#11
debating Judeo-Christian vs Islam got some Christians thrown in jail up there in Dearborn
That may be true, HF, but being involved in the tea party movement got many people publicly branded as racists, got a couple beat up and one had his finger bitten off. That doesn't mean that we should stop behaving reasonably and start burning Obama in effigy.
The fact that people got arrested in Dearborn has, at the very least, alerted many around the country to be on the lookout for such infringements of our rights and to be ready with legal challenges. And, if a civilized debate were arranged ahead of time, it's doubtful that even the Dearborn police would try to stop it.
#12
Just to be clear, I'm not condoning burning the Koran, Bibles, American flags or bras. But, as an American, I am willing to stand up for the right for others to do so without gleefully wishing that very real people be made into martyrs for the cause in order to expose mentally ill people of any sex, race, creed or religion.
Posted by: Martin ||
07/31/2010 15:36
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#13
That little edfitorial note up there in the article about standing up and debating Judeo-Christian vs Islam got some Christians thrown in jail up there in Dearborn, Michigan very recently now didn't it?
Up in Dearborn they weren't debating, they were proselytizing. And as I recall, while they were arrested, they were given a court date rather than thrown in jail, although I could be wrong about that.
Formal religious debates have a long (we're talking about a thousand years) tradition, both in Christendom and Dar al Islam. In most cases they were organized by the majority religion so that it's wise men had a forum to prove that the minority religion was false. In a very few cases they were organized by a political leader so that by demonstration he could decide which of the various monotheistic religions to convert to. I strongly suspect very few in this country have the depth of knowledge of both their own and of the competing religions to do a formal debate justice -- including the pastor of the Florida church under discussion.
#14
You would think that two or three Judeo-Christians discussing islam vs Christianity would fall well within Constitutional Freedom of speech. Can,t seem to in there where so called prositalizing requires a permit. Must be in the koran. Sharia trmps all after all!
#17
Can,t seem to in there where so called prositalizing requires a permit. Must be in the koran. Sharia trmps all after all!
I don't disagree. But it's important to be accurate, Hupoting Fillmore9546.
are you suggesting that proselytizing is now worthy of a court date in this country? I must be missing your point.
No, I'm not, Martin. And yes, you are. My point is that we must be accurate. Oh, and that burning books is dumb. There are plenty of other ways -- more effective ways -- to get across the point that we will surrender to neither the hard jihad of the sword and commercial jet nor the soft jihad of the law. This Florida congregation is choosing to do something that feels good but harms their very important cause instead of something that actually helps their cause.
#19
"My point is that we must be accurate. Oh, and that burning books is dumb"
I can't disagree with that. And, as I said, I don't condone burning the Koran or Bible. Nor do I condone burning the flag. But I believe (and not saying that you don't believe it) that we must stand behind the right to do so.
Posted by: Martin ||
07/31/2010 19:24
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#20
But I believe (and not saying that you don't believe it) that we must stand behind the right to do so.
#22
Let them burn the Qu'ran, it will serve a useful purpose. Recon by hostile fire. Flush out the enemy so to speak.
Posted by: Secret Asian Man ||
07/31/2010 21:16
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#23
Damn, this site is getting Politically Correct nowadays : this is no more offensive or upsetting than a synagogue burning copies of Mein Kampf. Some ideas need to have to be exposed to the sunlight, and the manual for world enslavement, aka the Koran, is one of them -- if a book-burning makes people look at the book in question, then it is a good thing.
#25
There is a significant difficulty with the idea of debating Islam vs. Christianity. It has to do with what I've heard described as the Islamic doctrine of abrogation. IIUC correctly the gist of this doctrine is that
- Allah revealed his truth to the Prophet gradually. That is why some of the later verses in the Quran contradict earlier ones.
- Converts should be led through the same steps that the Prophet took. That is, the early peaceful verses of the Quran are taught first, then later the more and more confrontational ones are revealed to the new Muslim once they are drawn into Islam more and more deeply.
Add in the fact that in Islamic law 'slander' of Islam means anything that leads others to have a poor opinion about Islam.
What you would get from such a debate, therefore, are platitudes that do not represent the full Islamicist agenda. And those doing this would not believe they were lying but rather that they were obeying Allah's will for how to deal with unbelievers when when it is not yet possible to impose Shar'ia.
#26
Agreed, lotp. Which is why the Christian challenger would have to thoroughly know and understand not only the Quran but also Muslim theological and historical development and apologetics. There aren't many equipped for that. And there probably aren't any on the Muslim side -- that's the problem with being both supercessionist and triumphalist, it leads to not bothering to learn what the other side thinks and why, since one "knows" they're wrong.
But if Muslims are to live with the rest of us, they're going to have to come to terms with hearing things they consider slander, without going jihadi. If they refuse, they simply cannot live with us.
A suspected terrorist insurgent facing seven arrest warrants for his alleged involvement in violent attacks in Pattani has been captured. Following a tip, police stormed a house in Pattani's Nong Chik district where they arrested Sakareeya Sameng, 28. Mr Sakareeya, a native of the province's Kho Pho district, had seven outstanding arrest warrants for charges related to violent attacks, including murder, arson, and terrorism.
In Narathiwat, three defence volunteers providing protection for teachers were injured in a bomb attack in Sungai Padi district yesterday. The bomb went off about 3pm as the volunteers were on their way to a school to escort teachers home. The blast injured Nukul Ngern-niam, 23, Suwit Nukhorwat, 35 and Banjit Salee 31.
Meanwhile, police allege that two men who were shot dead in a clash with officers in Bannang Sata district on Thursday had taken part in violent attacks in the province.
Arhama Dorni, 25, had two outstanding arrest warrants, while Sukri Dueramae, 24, had one, police said. The suspects were killed in an exchange of gunfire with police who raided a house in Bannang Sata. Police officers claim they had tried to persuade the pair to surrender, but they opened fire instead. One officer was injured in the attack.
The Facebook group Nueng Khwamdee Puea Phorluang (One Good Deed for the King) yesterday donated 150 bullet-proof vests for police in the deep South.
Well...knock me over with a feather. It's Christmas in July ...
WASHINGTON -- A House investigative panel has decided to charge Democratic Rep. Comrade Maxine Waters of California with ethics violations, raising the possibility of a second high-profile trial with political implications for Democrats this fall.
Insiders say the allegations could be announced next week. The House ethics committee (think of an escargot pretending it has a backbone) declined Friday to make any public statement on the matter.
Waters has been under investigation for a possible conflict of interest involving a bank that was seeking federal aid. Her husband owned stock in the bank.
Waters came under scrutiny after former Treasury Department officials said she helped arrange a meeting between regulators and executives at Boston-based OneUnited Bank without mentioning her husband's financial ties to the institution. Her husband, Sidney Williams, held at least $250,000 in the bank's stock and previously had served on its board. Waters' front man has said Williams was no longer on the board when the meeting was arranged. But did he still own the stock?
Waters has said the National Bankers Association, a trade group, requested the meeting. She defended her role in assisting minority-owned banks in the midst of the nation's financial meltdown and dismissed suggestions she used her influence to steer government aid to the bank.
#1
Helping minority owned banks huh?
So honky White owned banks and their investors (who are probably a bunch of moonbeams too) can go down the toilet?
#3
As a Threefer (black/female/leftist), this loud-mouthed harpy doesn't have anything more to worry about than a Strongly Worded Letter® - and maybe not even that.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
07/31/2010 12:21
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The Los Angeles Times conveniently forgets to touch upon the fact that Congressman Barney Frank (D-Mass) was also involved in the bailout of this bank. As head of the House Financial Services Committee, he was able to insert legislation designed to replenish the coffers of OneUnited with taxpayer money.
These efforts were made despite the FDIC and Massachusetts bank regulatory officials alleging that poor lending practices and executive-compensation abuses contributed to the failure of the bank. Barney Frank justified his actions, in part, by citing the bank as the state's only financial institution owned by African-Americans.
Or was Barney Frank just logrolling (the trading of favors in politics so that the true perpetrators fingerprints are left off actions designed to favor them) for his political ally Maxine Waters. One can only hope that Congresswoman Waters continues her defiant stand towards the Ethics panel, refuses to accept a trivial "reprimand" and that some facts about Frank's role in this scandal come to light. This is the type of oversight that would be done if the Republicans took over the House and Darrell Issa, who heads the Government Oversight Committee, took charge.
Come to think of it..maybe the Ethics Panel, whose docket is filled with Democrats in trouble, is trying to rush through resolutions of these problems before Republicans take over in January. After all, these issues have lingered for a long time; yet, only now as November approaches, are we seeing a rush in Congress to sweep them under the rug. Or is it just a Congressional Coincidence? Uh, no.
#5
The story behind the scenes is that Waters is the closest ally of Rangel. She is also very powerful on the Banking committee.
So add it all up: Rangel off Appropriations, and Waters off Banking.
Both of them have been breaking the rules forever, with no consequences from either party. So this just screams "purge". Getting them out of the way so that members of another faction can take their place.
And since the dominant faction right now is the 1960s radicals, they are who is responsible.
For reference, this pic here is a clickable link to a higher-res shot of the damage to the USS Cole. Pics of the damage to that Japanese oil tanker can be found at the link. Looks like an explosion of some sort to me. It certainly wasn't a sub. Remember that the side of the cole was angled, not vertical. Seems to me the more vertical hull of the tanker vs. the angled hull on the USS Cole may explain the differences in the damage. If the hull were angled away from the bomb, it seems to me that there would have been very little damage, but towards the bomb is going to reflect/focus the blast energy in a way consistent with the picture. To me, it seems that part of the blast energy directed against the vertical wall of the tanker was reflected off the water, which would the cause maximum blast force to be several meters above the waterline, and a more-or-less spherical blast front.
Can anyone out there who actually knows something about explosives confirm or refute this idea?
The M. Star, a Japanese oil tanker, suffered ... something in the early-morning hours Wednesday as it passed through the Strait of Hormuz. Crew members heard a blast and saw a flash, windows were blasted out, ceiling panels in a dining room were shaken loose, and one crew member suffered minor injuries. And most significant, an enormous dent appeared on the tanker's starboard side, extending from the waterline more than halfway up the hull. 1) Crew saw a flash
2) Straits of Hormuz
3) Crew heard blast
4) Straits of Hormuz
5) Spherical compression wave damage above the waterline
6) Straits of Hormuz
7) The USS Cole's damage was mostly above the waterline, too
8) Straits of Hormuz
The only evidence I see against the idea that some jihadi did it is that none of the crew heard "Allahu Snackbar!" before the blast.
#6
That dent is well above the water line. The center of the dent is above the top of the red water line marker. It was not an underwater collision that caused that. Looks to me like it was rammed by a surface vessel.
#10
The paint is still there. Explosions are VERY hot and would blacken the paint job.
Doesn't look like a sub collision either. Although that is much more common than you'd think.
Bubble jet device like the one that sank the Cheonan? I never saw damage photos, plus like Phil, I don't know anything about explosives either. Just the physics.
#11
Looking at the article again in the morning, with some working neurons, and actually reading for comprehension, I see the pic I thought as the tanker turned out to be the Cole instead.
Now, granted, other submarines also have conning towers. The #1 Persian Gulf player right now is the USN, but Israel and Europe have interest, China(*) wants to watch the flow of oil and to watch US naval ops, and even Russia would want at least a few boats in the area.
The other big question, more an assumption, is that if a US submarine bumped into it, why would the US do a disinformation campaign, unless it was operationally significant? That is, if the damage was minor, the US boat *had* to stay there, because it was going to go 'live' shortly.
#13
furthering #12 why shouldn't this be an Israeli sub to have collided? Subs are covered in rubber so this is very possibly the source of the dent.
Tests will tell if there is explosive residue on the oil tanker.
Posted by: Bacon in the Mosque horror ||
07/31/2010 11:09
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#14
When ships collide there's always "Paint Transfer" (Paint is scraped off and onto the other ship).
I see NO paint transfer, that one fact pretty well eliminates a ship collisionehatevr hit this tanker was NOT painted OR unpainted(No rust steaks) That leaves an unfotunate whale with a hell of a headache.
Even a wooden vessel is painted.
Salt is corrosive as hell.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/31/2010 11:23
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#15
Does conning tower 'A' about match dent 'B'?
If the strike was perpendicular, you would expect the hull to punch a hole in the tanker below the waterline.
If the strike was parallel, I would expect the vertical hull of the tanker to impact the hull of the sub, not the conning tower.
In any case, what about the flash and explosion?
As for the charring, I can't tell. The paint is dark, so it wouldn't show charring much. The red paint looks a bit darker on the right side, but I can't tell if that's some kind of stain or what. Looks suspicious. And wherever there is a metal rib under the metal plate, you can see that it looks like the paint has been somewhat removed. I can't tell if where the paint has been removed is charred.
#18
You know, the damage to the M. Star is a big weird. I don't think it was a bomb. Absoultely no charring or blast streaks or evidince of fragmentation. It's also compeletly above the water line. Well, the damage starts just above the water line, and goes up.
The other weird thing is, if it was a collision, where are the streak marks of the object that collided with it? It doesn't look like to large object moving in different directions collided and glanced off one another. I couldn't see any scraping of the paint. It looks like some thing punched the tanker or through a very large ball at it. I would expect even a cannon ball to leave scarring.
The current theory is it hit a Chinese sub, but would that have scraped the bugger out of the side of the vessel? Also, wouldn't a conning tower get the worst of it? It is a double hulled tanker after all.
Posted by: chris ||
07/31/2010 15:29
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#21
I need to ask, between Wednesday and these pictures, has the tanker offloaded, becoming lighter and therefore sitting higher in the water?
The max water level line suggests the dent could be equal distance over and under the water level; stronger suggesting a ramming by a sub perpendicular to the tankers hull.
Posted by: Bacon in the Mosque horror ||
07/31/2010 15:35
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#22
What is the water displacement difference between a fully laden tanker and an unladen one?
And in this case, its an unladen Oriental tanker, neither a European nor African one.
#23
Mitsui maintains the explosion was "caused by an external attack," potentially by rocket missile, because a crewman reported seeing a flash on the horizon just before the explosion.
The company said the explosion occurred on the ship's deck. One crewman was slightly injured when doors and windows from crew quarters were destroyed. The blast also caused a rescue boat to fall overboard.
A Japan Coast Guard official said chances were very low that another ship had collided with the tanker because the dent was higher than the waterline.
With almost no reports of piracy around the strait, a local media outlet reported that high waves damaged the tanker. Mitsui has refuted this claim, saying waves do not cause explosions.
The crude carrier M. Star was loaded with about 270,000 tons of oil at the time of the blast but no leakage has been reported. link
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/31/2010 16:06
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#24
Talking as a photo interpreter, this looks like something very large hit the ship squarely in the side, but only over about three bulkheads. There isn't much scarring. Most of the dark area appears to be the way the light hits the paint where the side is bashed in. So many things stand out that make this extremely unusual: the area is virtually rectangular (bomb blasts, even mine blasts, are circular); rogue waves would have hit in a long arch along the side, not one specific point; most of the characteristics of an impact (caused by hitting another vessel) are missing (no paint scrapes, no punctures, no BIG dents caused by the bow of another ship hitting the side of the tanker, etc., and impacts are usually horizontal, not square); and so forth. There is one possibility: they could have hit a wooden, unpainted dhow running without lights (smuggling?) that was sucked into the side of the ship. The location of the impact point is one reason to consider this - the bow wave would push the other ship away along the front of the tanker, but suck it back in toward the stern. The impact could have caused the dhow's fuel tank to explode, and the dhow to completely break apart. If this is what happened, wood from the wreck will begin floating ashore in Oman or the UAE in a few days.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/31/2010 16:13
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#25
Nice, OP. That's the only explanation that makes more sense than Moby Dick. Guess that's why you had the job.
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/31/2010 16:24
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#28
Bobby noted: Mitsui maintains the explosion was "caused by an external attack," potentially by rocket missile, because a crewman reported seeing a flash on the horizon just before the explosion.
Could it have been an Iranian test run with a low-yield warhead? Anyone know the geography here and the situation to know what direction that missile may have come from? The guy on the tanker said "the horizon" I gather. Could it have been fired from another ship or sub?
Might just be something to get people a-thinkin', you know.
#30
The only thing that makes sense to me is that it was a small anti-ship missile that failed and blew itself up just before hitting the ship. The effect would be an explosion off the side of the ship, above the waterline. There would be a healthy, focused concussion, but not much shrapnel.
Posted by: Bruce ||
07/31/2010 20:13
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Five Taliban have been struck off a U.N. Security Council list of people subject to sanctions -- a move sought by Kabul to ease reconciliation talks with bad boys, a U.N. diplomat said on Friday.
Two of the five were delisted because they were dead, the diplomat said.
The move followed a review of the list of Taliban and al-Qaeda members maintained by a Security Council committee. Two of the five were delisted because they were dead, the diplomat said.
Afghanistan had pressed the committee to take some names off the list as part of a scheduled update. A "peace Jirga" in Afghanistan last month recommended negotiations with moderate Taliban leaders and other bad boys to end a worsening nine-year war in the country.
Diplomats said Afghanistan's Caped President Hamid Karzai had been seeking the delisting of about a dozen Taliban, either because they had joined the government side or because they were dead.
But Russia, which sits on the committee along with other Security Council members, had been cautious about deleting names, they said.
The diplomat named the five delisted as Abdul Hakim Mujahid Mohammed Awrang, a former Afghan ambassador to the United Nations, Abdul Salam Zaeef and Abdul Satar Paktin, as well as Abdul Samad Khaksar and Mohammed Islam Mohammadi, who have both died.
Russia, diplomats said, has indicated reluctance to remove even the names of dead people from the U.N. blacklist, possibly because it would free up any frozen assets that could somehow be used to help fund the Taliban insurgency.
The committee has been reviewing all the more than 500 Taliban and al-Qaeda entries on the blacklist.
"The review of the Taliban and al-Qaeda sanctions list will continue," a diplomat said. "There may be more names coming off the list in the weeks and months ahead."
Five years ago Karzai's office had asked the Security Council committee that oversees implementation of resolution 1267, approved in 1999, to remove some 20 names from the roughly 140 on the list at the time. Some have already been removed.
Resolution 1267 freezes assets and bans travel of senior Taliban and al-Qaeda figures and firms associated with them.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2010
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[The Nation (Nairobi)] A Ugandan court on Friday charged three Kenyans over the Kampala bombings, the first such cases opened against suspects in the July 11 kabooms.
Hussein Hassan Agad, Mohamed Adan Abdow and Idris Magondu were charged before a Kampala magistrate's court, but did not enter a plea.
They face 61 counts of murder for those killed while watching the World Cup final at the Kyadondo Rugby Club in the east of the Ugandan capital and 15 counts for those killed at an Ethiopian restaurant.
Mr Mogandu, 42, is an employee of Flexible Trading Company based in Nairobi and hails from the sprawling Kawangware estate, while
Mr Agad, 27, lives in Athi River while Mr Abdow, 25, a hails from Tawa in Makueni.
At 3. 35 p.m., the three men appeared before chief magistrate Deo Sejjemba, who asked the suspects whether they understood English.
Mr Abdow said he only understood Kiswahili and an interpreter was immediately made available.
"You are charged with 79 offences, I will summarise and read them to you, your work is to listen and say nothing because this Court has no Jurisdiction over the offences. You will be allowed to answer to the charges before a High Court judge who will try you on the matter," Sejjemba said.
Prosecution led by Joan Kagezi, Principal State Attorney from the Director of Public Prosecution, said the men on July 11, 2010 committed the offence of terrorism, murder and attempted murder in three separate places- Kyadondo Rugby Club Lugogo in Nakawa division, Ethiopian Village Restaurant in Kabalagala, Makindye Division and Makindye House, a popular hangout place in the same area.
The State Prosecutor said investigations into the matter were still going on and the Magistrate remanded the men to Luzira Maximum Prison until August 27.
Security sources said the three men were part of the inner ring of Orcs and similar vermin who were involved in moving the bomb blast materials from Kenya to Uganda having received them from the Somalia based al- Shabaab hard boys.
They were reportedly involved in recruiting the boomers who executed the grisly bomb blasted that killed football lovers and inflamed emotions in the country.
According to security agents, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the matter is sensitive, the three suspects reportedly helped establish Al-Shabab operations in Uganda. After the bomb attacks, al Shabaab took credit of the Kampala attack.
Two of the suspects were Christians but were radicalised after embracing Islam.
"Hassan Agade and Magondu were Christians. The Orcs and similar vermin use them because they understand Christian behaviour and can hide in that knowledge to elude security," said a senior officer familiar with the investigations.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2010
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[Straits Times] GOVERNMENT troops killed three communist rebels in a clash on Friday in the northern Philippines while roadside bombings blamed on another guerrilla faction wounded four soldiers in a southern city, officials said.
The country's 41-year communist rebellion is one of Asia's longest-running insurgencies. Maoist rebels, who are on a US terrorist blacklist, have become more active in recent months, attacking distant military and police outposts to seize badly needed weapons.
Lieutenant Colonel Rogelio Mesias, an army spokesman, said troops clashed with rebels they were pursuing in northern Pampanga province's Mexico township.
After an hourlong battle, soldiers recovered the bodies of three members of the Marxist Leninist Proletariat Party-Revolutionary Army, a group that broke away from the main rebel force New People's Army in the 1990s. No one was wounded on the government side.
In southern Davao city, New People Army rebels exploded two improvised bombs planted on a roadside, wounding four soldiers from a platoon dispatched to check on armed men seen by villagers, said Major General Carlos Holganza.
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[The Nation (Nairobi)] A fire station in Mombasa went up in flames on Friday because there was inadequate water to fight the blaze. Embarrassed municipal fire fighters asked for help from the Kenya Port Authority to put out the inferno in their station.
Mombasa Town Clerk Tubman Otieno, however, jumped to the fire team's defence, laying the blame on lack of adequate equipment. He said the council has been struggling to fight fires after protesting hawkers burnt down a state-of-the-art engine worth more than Sh50 million.
Mr Otieno said the cause of the fire had not yet been established.
"I visited the offices immediately after the inferno, but we have not yet established the cause nor the total loss to the council," he said.
The council is refurbishing old fire engines to complement the two which are in service, the Nation learned.
But residents said the Thursday night fire showed how vulnerable the town was. Mr Ali Hussein, who lives in the town, said: "It was sad watching property being reduced to ashes while fire engines were parked on the grounds because there was no water."
The Mombasa Fire Brigade, on which thousands of people in the entire South and North Coast rely, has been in the spotlight for years due to poor service delivery.
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[Al Arabiya Latest] A Canadian man convicted of trying to send nuclear technology to his native Iran has been sentenced to 20 months in prison.
In addition to his 20 months in jail, the Ontario Court of Justice sentenced Mahmoud Yadegar to another 15.5 months of pre-sentence custody, Canada's public prosecution service said in a statement.
"Because the court granted double credit for pre-sentence custody, this amounts to a four-year, three-month sentence," the statement read.
He was found guilty on July 6 of nine out of 10 charges, including offences under the Customs Act, the United Nations Act, and the Criminal Code.
Prosecutors were seeking 6.5 years prison for Yadegari, 37, who was born in Iran but has been living in Canada since 1988.
On March 4, 2009, Yadegari "attempted to export controlled material to Iran" via Dubai, read the statement. "The goods, known as pressure transducers, are subject to a United Nations embargo on nuclear-related exports to Iran."
The items, it said, "are also on Canada's Export Control List."
Yadegari was arrested in April 2009 following a two-month investigation carried out jointly with US officials, and is the first person convicted of violating UN anti-nuclear proliferation resolutions against the Tehran regime, Crown prosecutor Bradley Reitz said earlier.
Yadegari could face maximum sentences of 10 years in prison or $482,000 in fines.
This article starring:
Mahmoud Yadegar
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2010
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#1
ION TOPIX > NORTH KOREA WARHEAD TEST SEEMS TO BE PROBABLE. Next NOKOR test may be a WARHEAD-ON-A-ROCKET/MISSLE thingy.
ARTIC >CHINA believes that NOKOR has "sufficient nuclear weapons manufacturing" capability, + now desires to dev or improve its ability to miniaturize potentially nuclear-capable new Warheads???
[Al Arabiya Latest] A U.S. soldier accused of leaking a military video from Iraq and suspected in the release of thousands of secret documents on the Afghan war has been moved to a U.S. military jail, the Pentagon said on Friday.
Private First Class Bradley Manning arrived at Quantico Marine Base in Virginia late on Thursday, the Pentagon said, after his court martial proceedings were transferred from Camp Arifjan, Kuwait.
Manning is facing four charges related to the leak to the website WikiLeaks of a video showing a U.S. Apache helicopter strike in Baghdad in July 2007 that killed several people.
He now is also suspected of possible involvement in the bombshell leak to the same website of tens of thousands of classified documents related to the war in Afghanistan.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said posting the war logs on the Web jeopardized national security and put the lives of Afghan informants and U.S. military personnel at risk. Asked what the Obama administration could do to stop the posting of more war secrets, Gibbs said, "We can do nothing but implore the person that has those classified top secret documents not to post anymore."
"I think it's important that no more damage be done to our national security," Gibbs told NBC television's "Today" show Friday.
This article starring:
Bradley Manning
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2010
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#1
"I think it's important that no more damage be done to our national security," Gibbs told NBC television's "Today" show Friday.
I'm sure the "Present" administration will soon be able to say they've put a stop to further leaks. Of course, the fact that there's nothing left to leak may play a small part in this, but let's ignore that.
#3
Wanted - Romantic roommate to share small one-room studio apartment and split expenses in Pound, Virginia. Must agree to lifetime lease. If you can't pay, I'm sure other arrangements can be made. If you think this might fit you, please call Bubba. 555-1212.
#5
Article from the Oklahoman online, interviews with people who knew him back then. Chera Moore, 23, was friends with Manning from kindergarten until he left Crescent in the first semester of his eighth-grade year. She said he was quiet outside of class but would always chime in when discussions in class turned toward politics or religion.
"He didn't hide his feelings on those things," Moore said. "He didn't agree with how stuff was being run. He didn't believe in God. He had a problem with the Pledge of Allegiance because of the 'under God' part. He had different views than everyone else in our class, and he didn't really care what anyone thought about it."
According to chat logs between Lamo and Manning, the soldier reportedly had dog tags custom made with "Humanist" listed as his religion.
Manning apparently got his high school education in the UK.
#6
If none of the informants has died yet, it is only because they went into hiding, and the Taliban haven't found them. But they will, they will.
And then Mr Assange will have lots of blood on his hands.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
07/31/2010 0:38
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#7
Earlier this week, Assange told a mob of fawning media beasts:
“It is not our role to play sides for states,” he said. “States have national security concerns, we do not have national security concerns.”
Really? The Taliban considers itself a state, and it was internationally recognized as such at one time. Assange does not mind playing sides for them. The ongoing liquidation of American and Afghan government agents will certainly improve their security, and that of their client, Al Qaeda.
This is not free speech, it is mass murder and it was committed on behalf of one of the most brutal, misogynistic, and intolerant regimes to have existed since medieval times.
Assange is responsible for his actions. He should be arrested and jailed the very minute he sets foot in the United States. Every possible pressure should be brought to bear against the Australian and British governments to extradite him.
For that matter, both Australia and the UK have troops fighting in Afghanistan. Assange has materially harmed them as well. Why isn't he already in jail? Is treason legal in the Commonwealth these days?
There is no statute of limitations on this. We will very likely have a new administration in 2013. Assange is a marked man, even assuming that private actors don't get to him first. For that matter, there are potential state actors other than the cowardly regimes currently in power in the US, the UK, and Australia.
#8
To me, Assange comes across as a sociopathic narcissist. One of these "I must destroy the world to save it" people. I think he could be up to his neck in somebody else's blood and it wouldn't phase him in the least.
His ego's so big that he seems to think he's invulnerable to any consequences of his actions.
But I'll bet there are some people in this world right now with the means and the ability to do it who have recently made it their mission in life to take this smarmy little prick down. And down hard.
#9
This is not insoluble. If he had the balls for it (ha ha!) the big Zero could have this babboon shot like a dog on the street, then he could use the President's ABSOLUTE power of pardons and paroles to pardon both himself and the shooters.
Failing that, private citizens or foreign operatives of some sort will have to take care of it.
Whatever happens, Assange has to know that he can never have a minute of peace for the rest of his (hopefully short) life. Is that gawky looking kid walking toward him on the sidewalk actually a master marksman with a suppressed pistol in the waistband of his jogging suit? Does that Volvo parked outside his neighbor's house conceal a bomb in the trunk? Is the cable guy really a cable guy? Is that old fart in the parking lot a former KGB agent and is there a nasty surprise in the tip of his umbrella?
I'm very glad I don't have to think about these things.
#14
I have this jackass over in the "Just because you can doesn't mean you should", with the book burners and ground zero builders.
There was the question, what would W. have done? Nothing because he wouldn't have been given the option. Well the current commander in chief had the option, even if wiki people did not visit the wh staff its not like this came out of nowhere. The current CiC did not do everything possible to protect military mission and people.
If its a giant misinformation gig, I have a difficult time imagining the benifit justifying the collateral damage. So then at the least non-sinister, the White House shows a dangerous carelessness. Any congresscritters involved in the military committees should be pointed at as well.
So its difficult for me to be too upset with Assangle when the military let the secrets out and the cic does not seem to care. Hey, I know, let's tear out our gates so we can have a shiny trophy to look at.
#15
You don't have to kill the guy, you ruin him. You wreck his credibility, his reputation, you make him an unreliable source. You turn him into an object of ridicule, like Sy Hersh or Peter Arnett or Dan Rather, taken seriously only by the lunatic fringe. That's a fate worse then death to a guy like this.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, political chief Khaled Meshaal says the Arab League's endorsement of direct peace talks between Israel and the Paleostinians indicates the body's ineffective leadership.
Describing the decision made by the Arab Peace Initiative committee as an attempt to mitigate the negativity of Arab political positions, Meshaal said on Friday that the Arab leaders were suffering from a lack of "leadership that can push their nations forward."
"It seems that the embarrassment the Arab leaders are feeling at this time is greater. They do not want to show that they're shying away from their decisions, so they came up with a vague result, saying neither 'yes' nor 'no' to an immediate resumption of direct negotiations with Israel," Al-Jazeera quoted Meshaal as saying.
He accused the AL of bowing to Western pressure and not considering Paleostinian unity, describing some Arab policies as "conflicting."
Meshaal's comments come one day after the majority of Arab officials endorsed direct Israeli-Paleostinian peace talks in a meeting in Cairo but left the time of the talks to the Paleostinian Authority.
The PA has repeatedly said that it will only join direct talks with Israel after Tel Aviv ends the expansion of illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank and accepts a full withdrawal to the borders of 1967.
The Paleostinian Authority has also called for the resumption of the negotiations from the point they were left off at the end of 2008.
Acting Paleostinian Authority Chief the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas said on Sunday that direct talks would resume after agreements are made on key issues in the ongoing indirect "proximity talks," which the Fatah-led West Bank authority entered under US pressure, despite opposition from other West Bank factions and rival Gazoo-based parties.
Direct peace talks between the Paleostinians and Israelis were broken off in December 2008 when Israel launched a deadly onslaught on the Gazoo Strip, killing at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians, in the impoverished territory.
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07/31/2010
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#1
The PA has repeatedly said that it will only join direct talks with Israel after Tel Aviv ends the expansion of illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank and accepts a full withdrawal to the borders of 1967.
In other (Shorter) Words HELL NO.
OK Vanish into the dustbin of History, You won't be missed.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/31/2010 11:48
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[Mail and Globe] President Nicolas Sarkozy warned on Friday that France would strip the French nationality from foreign-born criminals who use violence against police or public officials.
Struggling in the opinion polls after his government was implicated in a financial scandal and in the wake of a spate of violent unrest, Sarkozy announced a headline-grabbing package of security measures.
Top of the list, in a week when Sarkozy had already threatened to expel foreign Roma who commit crimes back to Eastern Europe, was a vow to tighten nationality rules for other non-French-born criminals.
"Nationality should be stripped from anyone of foreign origin who deliberately endangers the life of a police officer, a soldier or a gendarme or anyone else holding public authority," Sarkozy said.
Speaking in the eastern city of Grenoble, scene in recent weeks of clashes between police and armed rioters, Sarkozy said that foreign minors who commit crimes would henceforth find it harder to get citizenship on coming of age.
And he promised to review the welfare payments made to non-documented immigrants living in France, in a speech made amid renewed accusations that Sarkozy has swerved to the right to distract from his political woes.
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07/31/2010
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#1
They have to import criminals? The French don't have enough home-grown ones? Speaks to a lack of initiative if you ask me.
#2
Doing the jobs Frenchmen won't do. There was a time when all a Frenchman had to do was steal a loaf of bread to get the attention of the 'authorities'. Now you practically have to burn down a good portion of one of their cities before they pay attention. /sarc off
[Straits Times] THAILAND'S premier warned on Friday of possible further bomb attacks in Bangkok after a grenade blast left one man seriously hurt, days after a deadly explosion at a bus stop.
The grenade, which was in a plastic bag, exploded before dawn on a street in the capital, leaving a rubbish scavenger in critical condition with shrapnel in his head, police and hospital officials said.
'It's likely that the bomb was aimed at inciting unrest,' Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva told reporters.
'The overall assessment and evaluation of the situation is that more bomb attacks are likely at this time,' he said.
The blast came less than a week after a small bomb exploded at a Bangkok bus stop, killing one person and injuring 10 in an attack that rekindled tensions in the capital two months after the end of bloody street protests.
About 90 people died and some 1,900 were injured in street clashes between armed troops and demonstrators during two months of mass rallies by the anti-government 'Red Shirts' that ended with a bloody army crackdown in May.
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[Straits Times] A MALAYSIAN court on Friday acquitted a Muslim man of arson charges on Friday after he was accused of torching a church during a religious tensions over whether non-Muslims can use the word 'Allah' to refer to God.
The firebombing of the church in this Muslim-majority country marked the start of an unprecedented string of assaults on places of worship in January following a court verdict that allowed Christians to use 'Allah' in their Malay-language publications.
The attacks threatened decades of harmonious ties between ethnic Malay Muslims, who make up nearly two-thirds of Malaysia's 28 million people, and minority ethnic Chinese and Indians who mainly practice Buddhism, Christianity or Hinduism.
Azuwan Shah, 23, was acquitted because of a lack of evidence proving he had a role in starting the fire that partially gutted a Protestant church in a Kuala Lumpur neighborhood on Jan. 8, said his lawyer Rosal Azimin.
He said two witnesses testified Azuwan was not at the church when the fire started.
Two Muslim brothers charged along with Azuwan were ordered Friday to enter pleas at the Kuala Lumpur district court, Rosal said. The brothers in their 20s face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison if convicted of 'mischief by fire' with the intention of destroying a place of worship.
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[The Nation (Nairobi)] Philippine President Benigno Aquino on Friday launched a "Truth Commission" with broad powers to investigate alleged corruption and vote fraud by his predecessor, Gloria Arroyo.
"The process of bringing a necessary closure to the allegations of official wrongdoing and impunity has begun," Aquino said in a statement announcing he had signed an executive order to form the commission.
"It is tasked with investigating and establishing the truth regarding the serious allegations of wrongdoing in the past nine years supposedly involving government officials and their accomplices in the private sector."
The body will look into allegations Arroyo cheated her way to victory in the 2004 presidential election, as well as large-scale corruption cases, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima told reporters.
Among the graft issues to be probed are allegations Arroyo's family and government officials acted improperly in negotiating a 329-million-dollar Internet broadband deal with a Chinese firm, de Lima added.
She said that if Arroyo and others refused to co-operate with the commission, they could be prosecuted for perjury or obstructing justice.
"They can testify or not at their own risk," de Lima said when asked whether Arroyo would have to report to the commission.
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Iranian Parliament (Majlis) Speaker Ali Larijani says Iran takes pride in Lebanon's Islamic resistance movement for its steadfast Islamic stance.
Speaking in Iran's northern Mazandaran Province on Thursday, Larijani praised Hezbollah for its resistance against oppression and said, "Hezbollah nurtures the original ideas of Islamic Jihad," IRNA reported.
The Iranian official further slammed the West for charging Iran with "its support of terrorism" and said, "The real terrorists are those who provide the Zionist regime with military equipment to bomb the people" in the region.
Larijani also made a reference to the Western-brokered sanctions on Iran over its nuclear energy program and said the Islamic Republic has always emphasized on negotiations but will not bow down under pressure from the bullying powers.
"They speak of the Iranian threat against the Zionist regime... but never elicit public opinion on the Zionist regime's atomic warheads and other missile," he noted.
The UN Security Council passed a US-sponsored anti-Iran resolution on June 9 that imposes restrictions on the country's economy and energy sectors.
The move was to pressure the Islamic Republic to resume nuclear talks.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has recently said that Tehran would return to talks only if certain conditions are met.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2010
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Indonesian police have clashed with about 200 people trying to attack a mosque used by a minority Islamic sect known as Ahmadiya.
The mob hurled stones at the mosque in Manislor village in Kuningan district in West Java, prompting an hour-long confrontation with police, a local Ahmadiya official said.
"About 200 people pelted stones at our mosque and clashed with the police for about an hour. It is not clear yet who was the organiser of the mob," Nurahim, the local general secretary of the sect, told the AFP news agency.
"The police were able to secure the mosque and handle the people. The situation, however, is still tense now."
Nurahim said the village's 3,000 Ahmadiyah followers were ready to help the police if needed but would not respond to the violence.
Posted by: American Delight ||
07/31/2010
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#1
I just hope no Korans were desecrated. You know how that riles up your average Musselman.
#6
Ah, our new vibrant future: Muslim street wars forever.
Posted by: American Delight ||
07/31/2010 7:26
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"Nurahim said the village's 3,000 Ahmadiyah followers were ready to help the police if needed but would not respond to the violence."
And this is why they are persecuted in the first place.
Ghandi's use of passive resistance only works when those who are being resisted are civilized enough to appreciate passive resistance. If they aren't, and they can, they will likely butcher and enslave the resistors.
For further reference, see The Childrens Crusade of 1212 A.D., a well documented event bitterly denounced and denied by modern secularists.
The UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon is reportedly set to announce that Mustafa Badr al-Din, a senior Hizbullah operative and close relative of the former Hizbullah terror chief Imad Mughniyeh, is the main suspect in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.
According to an Israel TV report on Thursday night, Hariri's son, the current Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, asked the tribunal to postpone releasing Din's name, because of the potentially incendiary implications for Lebanon of such an announcement. And we wanna give him a chance to catch his flight to Tehran...
Din, the cousin and brother- in-law of Mughniyeh, who was killed in a car bomb in Damascus in February 2008, was also reportedly responsible for planning the attempted assassination of the ruler of Kuwait in 1985, among other operations. Well...everyone should have a hobby.
Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hizbullah, said last week that members of his group would be among those indicted by the tribunal, which he dismissed as an "Israeli plot."
Many in Lebanon have worried that if the tribunal implicates Hizbullah, it could lead to another round of clashes between Lebanon's Shi'ite and Sunni communities, like the bloody conflict that convulsed Beirut in 2008. Who's making the popcorn?
Tensions in Lebanon have generated so much concern that Syria's President Bashar Assad was expected to travel to Beirut on Friday, his first trip there since his troops were forced out.
Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah made a rare journey to Damascus on Thursday, in a visit apparently intended to indicate a united front as regional tensions mount over the pending indictments in the Hariri assassination.
Syria and Saudi Arabia have long been on opposite sides of a deep rift in the Arab world, with Syria backing groups such as Hizbullah and Hamas. The Saudi kingdom is a US ally, along with Jordan and Egypt.
Assad and Abdullah agreed that the "challenges facing Arabs, mainly in occupied Palestine, necessitate that all [Arabs] double their efforts to upgrade inter-Arab relations," Syria's official news agency reported after the end of a meeting between the two leaders.
They also stressed the need to support all means to boost stability and unity in Lebanon.
This article starring:
Imad Mughniyeh
Mustafa Badr al-Din
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2010
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#1
"Din, the cousin and brother-in-law of Mughniyeh, who was killed in a car bomb in Damascus in February 2008..."
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Friday called ethics charges against Democratic Rep. Charlie Rangel "very troubling" and said he hopes the longtime lawmaker can end his career with dignity. Several House Democrats went further, flat-out urging the New York congressman to resign. It wuz you, Barry. Remember ya told me, "Charlie, it's not your night. We're going for the price on Pelosi. Not my night! I coulda taken Pelosi apart!"
"He's somebody who's at the end of his career," Obama said in an interview that aired Friday on "CBS Evening News with Katie Couric." "I'm sure that what he wants is to be able to end his career with dignity. And my hope is that it happens." Okay...looks like open season on Charlie has begun. Cholle gets a deal: resign with dignity or get reprimanded and watch his opponent 'steal' the fall election ...
#1
Another one rides goes under the bus.
And another one gone, and another one gone...
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
07/31/2010 0:11
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#2
"Troubling" indeed. At 80, he's still got a couple of decades of congressional career yet ahead of him. Congressional "dignity"....ranks right up there with dehydrated water?
#3
NO, the reason Obama finds this "Troubling" is that Chollie's Black (Like Obama) and he thinks (Correctly) that once people see and do sonething about Black corruption he's next in line.
I just noticed they are also after Maxine waters so that's two in a row, hell yes he's "Troubled".
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/31/2010 11:00
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#4
Corruption doesn't have a skin colour, Redneck Jim, or a religion, or... It doesn't even have a party, sadly enough. However, there is a strong tie to longevity in public office.
At the moment, given the fragility of the Democratic majority in both houses of Congress, corruption charges against yet another Democrat should be very troubling indeed to the leader of the Democrats in Washington, DC.
Finally, the vision of his party comrades turning on Rep. Rangel (D-Corruption) at the end of his career should also trouble President Obama, as the end of his own career may be only a few short years away. What a resume': BA Columbia, JD Harvard, Illinois State Senator (2 1/2 terms), U.S. Senator (1/2 term), U.S. President (1 term), has-been occasional speechmaker (2013 ff.)
After the Los Angeles Times reported that the blue-collar suburb of Bell, Calif., was paying its city manager Robert Rizzo $787,637 a year — with 12 percent annual pay increases — a crowd of indignant Bell residents waited almost eight hours outside the city council meeting last Thursday. At midnight it was announced that Rizzo, along with Police Chief Randy Adams and Assistant City Manager Angela Spaccia, were resigning without severance. The combined annual salary of these three highest-paid Bell employees was $1,620,925 in a city where one in six lives in poverty, property taxes are higher than Beverly Hills, and debt held by the city quadrupled between 2004 and 2009. To say the citizens of Bell weren't getting the management they were paying for would be a gross understatement.
Despite two corruption investigations of the city, taxpayers are still on the hook for Bell's obscenely overpaid officials. The likely reason why Rizzo, Adams and Spaccia resigned so readily is that they are eligible for public pensions. Under current formulations, Adams will make $411,000 annually in retirement, and Spaccia could make as much as $250,000 when she's eligible for retirement in four years at age 55.
Rizzo, who was arrested in March for driving over his neighbor's mailbox with a blood alcohol level nearly four times the legal limit, is set to become the highest paid public official in California's retiree system. He will collect more than $650,000 annually. Six years from now, when Rizzo turns 62 and starts collecting Social Security, his annual benefit rises to $976,771. When he turns 64, it tops $1 million, and if he lives to 83, he'll be pulling in $1.48 million a year — and again, all of this largesse is courtesy of state taxpayers.
California is but one of many states on the brink of fiscal ruin largely due to outrageous public employee benefits. Some 9,111 Californians have six-figure public pensions, as do thousands more public employees in other states. Maybe these retirees won't get a million a year like Rizzo, but they are, in effect, taxpayer-funded millionaires. Fortunately, there are signs that taxpayers are fed up with this state of affairs. Last week, the governor of Missouri signed a law requiring new state employees to contribute 4 percent of their pay to their retirement plan. The Show Me State is showing California and the rest of the country a path to public pension reform. In other news, the citizens of Bell, California have introduced legislation to bring back lynch mobs... A simple law capping pensions to a certain maximum is all they need. Public jobs used to be low pay with a sweet pension and good job security. Now it's high pay, absolute job security and a bigger pension. Cap the pensions, and don't let sick time, etc count for calculating a pension. No sane politician can oppose that publicly.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2010
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#1
No sane politician can oppose that publicly.
Don't bet on it. Any "good" politician can turn that problem around so that it looks like they are being screwed if they have their pensions cut or even capped.
And by a good politician, I don't mean someone who is morally good, just that they are very effective at being politicians.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
07/31/2010 0:16
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#2
The only publicly financed pensions should be for retired military. No other public employees should have them, they can save for their retirement like the rest of us do (or don't). If prospective public employees don't like that, they are always free to seek employment elsewhere.
#3
Plus they'll grandfather it. Anybody from here back, it's status quo. Fight it in court and they'll wave their legally binding contracts and you'll lose. Granted the new hires will have to abide by it, so in about 20 years maybe you start to get a handle on things. They've done it here in Mass.
#5
I agree. Just don't get impatient and expect to see progress overnight. Any return on the changes that will implemented won't really be seen until this current generation of public employees is retired, dead and gone. Unless, of course, the public entity responsible for these pensions goes belly up which is a far more distinct possibility.
#8
I know evry one is upset about public pension stories, but only the spikers and top managers get that kind of payment. I was an LEO for 27 years and 6 years active military prior to that. At 52 I was hit by a car while working a crash and my left knee was wrecked. Two surgerys and 9 months later I was forced to retire. If your over 50 no desk job for you. I paid 8% of my gross into my pension every month and no, I do not and never will see SSI - they reduce it dollar for dollar to your public pension. The retirement pays the bills but I'm not getting rich. Let the attacks begin.
Signed a real public servant
Posted by: retired LEO ||
07/31/2010 4:02
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#9
AH, exactly what public pension are you talking about that requires no contribution from the employee? Because I worked as a benefits advisor for a state pension plan, and I never heard of one that worked that way.
There are plenty of plans that had totally unrealistic investment plans and/or actuaries. Lots of them didn't deduct enough from employee checks because they thought the stock market returns that we saw in the 90's and early 00's would be there forever. There are also some plans that had overly generous payouts programmed in from the start (elected official retirement plans come to mind). But to say that the average guy or gal working in your least favorite guvmint office never contributed a dime towards their own plan is complete and total bullshit. (Yes, that's a technical financial term, but I'm sure you all know what it means.)
And before anyone here pipes up with the old favorite "well then....if you want your public pension, you better give up your social security" argument.....guess what? Most public employees, with the exception of law enforcement and firefighters, ALSO pay into social security like the rest of you do.
So, do the math. At the end of my employment with the pension fund, I was involuntarily contributing 8% to the pension fund....involuntarily contributing 8% to social security.....and then there was 10% to my deferred comp. (No employer match for that, BTW, like many of you have with your 401k's. That amount was voluntary, though.) Some years I even squeezed it further and made a contribution to a Roth if I skipped going to restaurants and movies. Yes, I'll (probably) have a nicer retirement payout than someone who worked at a comparable salary in the private sector. Gee....wonder why?
There should be a lifetime cap on payouts, and things like Rizzo's future paycheck should never have happened. But that's what happens when people don't bother to pay any attention to their local governments, and the media basically gives them a free ride by focusing on Lindsay Lohan's lack of skivvies.
#10
There should be a lifetime cap on payouts, and things like Rizzo's future paycheck should never have happened. But that's what happens when people don't bother to pay any attention to their local governments, and the media basically gives them a free ride by focusing on Lindsay Lohan's lack of skivvies.
Yep! Bread and Circuses. LOOK...OVER THERE...Brittany's SNAAAAAAATCH!!!!!!!eleventy!
Posted by: Secret Asian Man ||
07/31/2010 7:23
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#11
All such caps need to be amended into the state constitutions. Now tell me why should any public employee draw more than 50% of what the average taxpayer, not the per capita, of the state makes? The incentive of any public servant would seem to be to make the average taxpayer's income rise to raise their own long term benefit.
#12
Simple solution: structure the retirement like the military. , except wiht later collection eligibility, and keep the military limits. Rate job equivalent to a GS and transfer that over to military rank, and there's the pension amount. NO more million dollar a year pensions.
#13
I'll stand by my comment. Cap the total amount of a pension someone can have. That way the average workers in public service will be treated fairly, and people like Mr. Rizzo won't be able to scam the system.
Blondie: I'm told that we have public pensions in Illinois structured so that workers do not contribute. I can't put my finger on a link but I'll work on it.
LEO: In no way do I want to reduce pensions for average public workers who contribute to the system and who have done their jobs.
The key here is to ensure that the wolves and scam-artists can't enrich themselves the way Mr. Rizzo has. It would help if the press and the public were more engaged in state and local affairs.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/31/2010 10:31
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Defined benefit (DB) pensions supported by taxes are the issue. AFAICT such DB pensions are what military pensions are & have been for centuries. DB pensions may or may not involve employee contributions. But to say that the average guy or gal working in your least favorite guvmint office never contributed a dime towards their own plan is complete and total bullshit. I never implied that. What the employees have contributed is their property, IMO, and is properly a separate issue. DB pensions promised & backed by governments are otherwise an obligation of the government (i.e., paid for by taxes if all else fails).
Other DB pension plans (i.e. those not supported solely by taxes) always hinge on accurate predictions of future economic growth & future investment returns, predictions which have proven unreliable. Besides the need to predict the future, DB plans of private companies also depend on the continued existence of the company or its pension plan backers, &/or whether the government has volunteered to bail out the plans if all else fails, see PBGC. Private employers have by and large discontinued DB pension plans for the vast majority of employees except for their most privileged class, CEO's, etc. Otherwise private DB pension plans are unfeasible. I do not see why tax-backed public DB pension plans should continue either, excepting the military (a tradition going back centuries).
Social security is a modified DB pension plan. It also involves employee contributions. The level of future benefits paid and eligibility for same are not established by contracts, such as those that apply to the 3 highest-paid Bell employees. I don't know of any law forbidding the gov't from slashing social security payments to a trivial level and raising the bar of eligibility very high. This will likely happen if the US economy continues to stink over the next 30 years. that's what happens when people don't bother to pay any attention to their local governments, and the media basically gives them a free ride Government-backed DB pension plans are also moderately complicated taxation and economic issues which cannot be handled with sound bites and political slogans.
Tax-backed DB pension plans are a piece of the puzzle. The larger issue is how the electorate is to plan & pay for its own retirement. A century ago very few lived long enough to worry about a retirement. During the last century longevity has increased while the US economy grew so rapidly all sorts of extravagant spending plans were developed & planners were pleased to think this gravy train would continue indefinitely. 70% of the US economy depends on consumer spending. If Americans really took responsible for their own retirements & saved accordingly, the resulting economy would scarcely be recognizable.
#16
Many of us took big hits in our personal retirement when the economy fell apart in 2008. I'm talking about monies that were earned by the sweat of our brow and put into investment accounts. It has been overdue for public pensions to experience the same hits. California unions have resisted much of the proposed legislation which would rein in the high salaries and pensions in public jobs. The taxpayers are footing the bill for public employees to live opulent life styles and have posh retirements. Many of these taxpayers are about tapped out.
#17
How the Bell city council ripped off its taxpayers (LA Times).
They basically set up a special election to modify their form of government & excepted Bell from the statewide limitation on such shenanigans. Less than 1% of the city's population voted for the change.
#18
Quite frankly, if only 1% of the city's voters bothered to turn out for the election, and few if any of them studied the issue to find out precisely what they were voting for....they got pretty much what they deserve. It's not like it was passed at some super secret, inconveniently timed city council meeting.
Now...the rest of us should take note and make sure the same situation doesn't happen in our hometowns and/or states.
(BTW, Steve....I wouldn't doubt that Obama's home state has a plan like that. It's probably the elected officials one if it exists....go figure, right? ;) )
#19
Colorado public employees pay into the state retirement system and make adjustments to keep it solvent. This happened this year. Not all public retirement systems are screwed up.
Google Translate from a variety of web news sources. For a map, click here
Currently a gallery of photos are being circulated about this latest confrontation showing a large number of dead bodies. These are not from the confrontation July 29th but from the ambush July 2nd.
Latest reports are military forces in the area have found three dead and have arrested four so far. Most unofficial reports say there are many more dead.
Updating to corrected death toll.
As many as 21 individuals have been shot to death, six wounded and nine captured following an apparent intergang firefight near the Sonoran town of Saric Thursday night according to several Mexican news accounts.
Unofficial police sources from the nearby towns of Tubutama, Carborca and Saric said that between 300 and 400 heavily armed suspects entered the area seeking to exact revenge for a firefight that took place earlier this month in the same area near Tubutama between a sub gang associated with the Sinaloa Cartel called Command X and Los Zetas who are associated with the Beltran-Leyva Cartel of Baja California.
Sources say Command X attempted to enter the area again Thursday, but a communications center maintained by drug gangs in Saric intercepted communications and enabled a direct confrontation between rival gangs.
The actual site of the battle was an area known as Cara Pinta between seven and eight kilometers north of Saric. The area is a dirt road that wends through mountains towards the Sonoran border city of Nogales. The area is so remote that cell phone do not work and thus news has been slow in getting out.
The latest body count was confirmed at 2330 hrs Friday night by ProcuradurÃÂa General de Sonora spokesman Jose Larrinaga Talamante.
Residents of Saric reported the gunfire last 20 minutes starting at about 1900 hrs. Local paramedics were refused access to the area by Mexican Federal, military and Sonoran state security elements, who moved to cordon the area in an attempt to prevent the violence from spreading to nearby towns. Residents remained in their homes through the night fearing being hit by stray rounds.
Because of the delay, unofficially the death toll is expected to rise.
#1
They're much better shooters than the Arabs. Sounds like the authorities were disappointed the death toll wasn't higher. Nonetheless, it is a mistake for the state to give up its monopoly on violence.
#2
For many years now, Mexican TV and movie violence has been of the "ultraviolent" variety, and its mix of realism and fantasy is different from that of US violence movies.
For example, few if any death scenes involve anyone getting shot just once, or just a few times. Squibs and plastic blood packs are cheap, so they use a lot of them.
This means a lot fewer people are wounded in a real Mexican gunfight. It's either "not a scratch", or "blown to bits". They also bring lots of extra weapons and ammo to a fight, which works. Thugs with combat loads.
They are also very big on ambushes, fights not "being fair", and torture before death with mutilation after death.
And relatively speaking, there is big money in being a fighter. Family is a little less important than pay, and the cartels pay handsomely. It also motivates better.
Note: The claim of 20 dead is added to today's Mexican Mayhem. Early reports are that the toll will be much higher,but at the moment the official word is 20 dead in Sonora.
A total of 26 individuals is the toll for drug and gang related violence in northern Mexico which included a Sonoran state police investigator murdered Thursday and a Guadalupe, Nuevo Leon police officer wounded in a hand grenade attack.
An unidentified man was found shot to death Friday morning near Chihuahua, Chihuahua, say Mexican press reports. The find was made on the main highway to Juarez at about the 4.5 km. marker. The victim, a male, was shot in the head.
An unidentified man was found shot to death in southern Chihuahua city, say Mexican press accounts. The scene was near the intersection of Carrizalillo and calle 82nd involving a man in his 30s bound by his hands and shot in the forehead.
Two bomb threats were issued Friday causing the evacuation of a newspaper office and other facilities in Juarez, say Mexican press reports. An unidentified caller phoned in a bomb threat to the offices of the Juarez newspaper El Norte Friday, near then intersection of calles Templo de San Lorenzo and El Mexicano downtown. A search conducted by Mexican Federal agents found no explosive device.
In a related development, another message spray painted on a wall near the intersection of calles Isla Java and Isla in the 16 de Septiembre district, and signed La Linea, said a previous warning had been ignored. The previous warning issued on July 19th that Mexican federal officials known to be in the pay of drug gangs be arrested expires on August 3rd with the threat of another cab bomb.
An unidentified woman was shot to death in Juarez Friday, say Mexican press accounts. The attack took place by the Super Mercado Gonzalez near the intersection of calles Ramon Rayon and Santiago Blancas. The victim was shot aboard her Lincoln Navigator with Oklahoma plates.
A man walking alone was shot to death in Juarez Friday, accodring to Mexican press accounts. The attack took place near the intersection of calles Camilo Cienfuegos and Batalla de Santa Clara in the Che Guevara district when two armed suspects stepped from their vehicle and shot at the victim 13 times. A 9mm weapon was used in the attack. Witnesses say the armed suspects then re-boarded their vehicle and left normally.
An unidentified man as found shot to death on the Chihuahua city-Delicias highway Friday according to Mexican press accounts.
The victim was found on Km. Marker 207 with a single gunshot wound to the head.
An agent with the Sonora Policia Estatal Investigadora (PEI) was shot to death and another agent was wounded in an attack near San Pedro, Sonora Thursday, say Mexican press reports.
Jesús Gerardo Cäzarez Valenzuela, 27, was shot to death near the intersection of real Zamora and calle San Pedro while in his official Dodge Dakota by armed suspects riding aboard a Chevrolet Silverado. His partner, Leonardo Espino Valenzuela, was wounded in the attack. Investigators say AK-47 assault rifles were used in the attack. Police reports say the pair were shot with automatic fire.
A Guadalupe, Nuevo Leon police officer was wounded in a hand grenade attack Wednesday night, say Mexican press reports. Tomas Lopez de Leon was wounded in the attack near the intersection of Avenida Las Americas and Calle Solidaridad in the Contry La Silla district while in his official vehicle. The vehicle was destroyed by a resulting fire. The officer suffered wounds on his legs.
A television station was attacked by a suspect with a hand grenade in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas according to Mexican press reports. The Televisa Channel 57 offices were attacked at 1900 hrs when a grenade was detonated in the facility parking lot. The explosion damaged a car and made a crater in the ground. No one was reported hurt in the attack.
A former Navy lieutenant commander who was scheduled to be released next month after serving sixteen years for a murder-for-hire plot against his wife in Virginia Beach has died.
Michael Fricke, 54, died Thursday of injuries he sustained when he was attacked with a baseball bat by another military prisoner at Fort Leavenworth, a prison spokeswoman confirmed today.
A brief fight broke out between Fricke and the other inmate on July 24 around 2 p.m. while several inmates were playing sports, according to the spokeswoman. Fricke was taken by helicopter to a local medical facility and died Thursday at about 11:50 a.m. after his family authorized taking Fricke off life support.
Fricke was convicted in 1994 by a military court at Norfolk Naval Station of the premeditated murder of his wife, Roxanne Fricke. His 31-year-old wife was shot in the parking lot of a grocery store in Kempsville in 1988. Two other men were implicated in the murder-for-hire plot, then had charges dropped against them.
Fricke, who was a trustee at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks, was supposed to be released next month to Edgewater, Fla., according to documents from Fort Leavenworth provided by Roxanne Fricke's mother, Elizabeth Wade.
He was sentenced to 30 years, but eligible for parole after 10.
Wade said members of his family, including the couple's son, who was 13 months old at the time of the murder, live there.
Wade said that an official from Fort Leavenworth called her Thursday to inform her Fricke was dead.
"All we can say is God takes care of everything," Wade said. "Maybe not the way we want it to be taken care of. But I did not want him to walk outside prison walls." U.S. v. Fricke
Afghans staged anti-US demonstrations outside the United States Embassy in Kabul, condemning the killing of civilians by foreign forces.
The Anti-American protests followed an incident in which a US military vehicle collided with an Afghan civilian car in the center of Kabul city, killing at least four civilians, a Press TV correspondent reported. Geez...hope their Korans are all right. That'd really piss people off.
Demonstrators chanted anti-US slogans and set fire to two vehicles belonging to the US Embassy.
The protesters threw stones at NATO forces and scuffled with Afghan security forces as they marched toward the embassy compound.
Afghan officials say the demonstrators have been dispersed and the situation is under control in the heavily-fortified area of the capital.
Civilians have been the main victims of violence in Afghanistan, particularly in the country's troubled southern and eastern provinces.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2010
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#1
Here's a link to some pics of some very unappreciative Afghans. Maybe it would be better to leave them to the tender mercies of the Taliban.
Of course, I don't know if the military vehicle was doing something it shouldn't have been. I suppose that will come out later today.
The New Orleans Riot, which occurred on July 30, 1866, was a violent conflict outside of the mechanics institute in New Orleans during the reconvened Louisiana Constitutional Convention.
The Radical Republicans in Louisiana reconvened the Constitutional Convention were angered by the enactment of the Black Codes in Louisiana and by the legislature's refusal to give black men the vote.
The reconvened convention was illegally formed and its intended purpose was to use the popular Republican swing in Washington, D.C. to attempt to take control of the state government.
New Orleans had been under martial law imposed by the Union for the greater part of the American Civil War but on May 12, 1866 Mayor John T. Monroe was reinstated as acting mayor, the position he held before the civil war. The convention was led by Judge R. K. Howell and was undertaken with the aim to seize the state government.
The riot illustrated conflicts deeply rooted within the social structure of Louisiana. It is noted that nearly half of the blacks in the riots were veterans of the Union army and more than half of the whites were former Confederate soldiers.
The reaction to the riot was felt throughout the United States and led to the Republican Party taking control of both the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate in the United States election, 1866. The estimate of the number of casualties comes to 38 killed and 146 wounded.
#2
an AFRICAN AMERICAN SOLDIER whom served loyally in the Confederate Army.
There were those, JosephM. Some went with their owners, some volunteered to protect the only homeland they knew, I assume some believed in State's rights, some were given their freedom in return for fighting, especially toward the end of the war when the South was running out of men to soldier. History is always more complicated than we're taught.
WASSIT / Aswat al-Iraq: An Iraqi security force seized four rockets ready for firing in the direction of a U.S. military base in western al-Kut city on Friday, according to a local security source in Wassit province.
“An Iraqi interior ministry force seized today (July 30) four Katyusha rockets in a farmland in al-Ahrar district, (25 km) western Kut,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
“The rockets, ready for firing on the Delta military base, (7 km) western Kut, which is taken by the U.S. forces as their headquarters, were defused by a bomb squad,” he said, adding intelligence tip-offs led the force to the site of the rockets.
The Delta base had come on July 20 under attack with four Katyusha rockets but there was nothing revealed about possible losses or casualties.
Kut, the capital city of Wassit province, lies 180 km southeast of Baghdad.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/31/2010
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NABLUS, Palestinian Territories — Palestinians and Israeli settlers clashed in the northern West Bank on Friday, throwing stones at each other and damaging property, witnesses and the army said. The clashes occurred just south of Nablus, between the Palestinian village of Iraq Burin and the neighbouring Jewish settlement of Bracha, a frequent flashpoint.
Palestinian witnesses said settlers had attacked the village, throwing stones at cars and houses. However, the Israeli army said the Palestinians had attempted to attack Bracha, before the military intervened.
“Approximately 30 Palestinians gathered near Bracha and began hurling rocks. Troops responded with riot dispersal means,” an army spokeswoman said.
Neither side reported any casualties and it was not immediately clear what sparked the unrest Friday.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/31/2010
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[Al Arabiya Latest] A 26-year-old scholar was late Friday named winner of a hugely popular Malaysian TV talent show search for a top young Islamic leader which has gained worldwide attention. I'll bet it was the flaming baton twirling that did it...
The "Young Imam" program has seen 10 finalists hit the prime-time stage to recite verses from the Koran, wash corpses and slaughter sheep according to Islamic rules, and persuade youngsters away from sex and drugs. ...and world peace.
Religious scholar Mohammed Asyraf Mohammed Ridzuan, 26, beat Hizbur Rahman Omar Zuhdi, a 27-year-old religious teacher in the finale, after the 10-week series which began in May saw eight other contestants eliminated. Did he literally "beat" him?
The show, which is the first of its kind, follows the reality-TV formula of shows such as "American Idol" in the U.S. and "The X Factor" in Britain, and has ignited new enthusiasm for Islam among Mohammedan youth. They should make them fight each other like on "American Gladiators"...
"I feel good. Thanks to my parents, my wife and my fellow villagers who have been supporting me," an emotional Asyraf told the studio audience of more than 1,000 at the end of the show, which was aired live over Islamic lifestyle channel Astro Oasis. Oh, God. When will I be getting that on my cable package?
Asyraf, clad in a black long robe over a smart black suit, hugged the runner-up on stage as soon as he was declared the winner, and was "crowned" with a white Islamic skullcap as his fans cheered his victory. There he is
Mister Young Imam
There he is
Your ideal...
The winner gets a trip to Mecca to perform the hajj pilgrimage, a scholarship to al-Madinah University in Saudi Arabia, and a job at a head-bonking palace. ...and lifetime supply of Vaseline.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2010
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#1
"Islamic Idol"?
They DO watch American TV.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/31/2010 11:38
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only one wife?
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/31/2010 14:19
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He never would have made it if Simon Cowell were on the judges' panel
Posted by: Andy Elmiper3490 ||
07/31/2010 17:06
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BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: The U.N. committee paid on Thursday $650 million in Iraqi compensation to Kuwait, raising the total amount paid to Kuwait as compensation to $30 billion, spokesman of the Iraqi government said on Friday.
“These compensations are paid every three months from the Iraqi Development Fund’s budget, according to the U.N. Chapter VII,” Ali al-Dabbagh told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
The payment brings the total sum of compensation paid to Kuwait to 30 billion dollars. A further 22.3 billion dollars is due to Kuwait.
Following the 1991 invasion of Kuwait, Iraq is required to put five percent of its oil and gas revenues into the UN reparations fund.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/31/2010
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OK now just exactly WHERE did this "Compensation" come FROM?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/31/2010 11:51
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[Ma'an] Egyptian security forces said officers located a weapons storehouse in the northern Sinai south of Al-Arish on Friday, and said they believed the goods were destined for the Gaza Strip.
Police uncovered what a report described as a three-meter deep hole near a small warehouse, and said the hole was filled with munitions and weaponry.
The store was found in the Beir Lahfan area in the northern Sinai, which police said was being searched as a routine action, as the area is known as a smuggling hotbed.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2010
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[Bangla Daily Star] Police yesterday busted a militants' den at Mirpur in the capital and seized a firearm, ammunition and bomb-making materials.
They also recovered 35kg of powder which they suspect to be explosives. They sent the powder to Detective Branch of police to know for sure what it is.
They recovered a homemade grenade, 36 grenade cases, a pistol, a sub-machine-carbine, 18 bullets, batteries and wires, 150 to 200 clocks and three bags of metals, which police believe are meant for use as splinters. There were 35 books on jihad and Bengali translation of the holy Quran as well.
None was arrested and police are yet to find out which organisation was behind this.
Officer-in-Charge of Shah Ali Police Station Abdul Latif said the clues indicate that the militants were trying to make time bombs. He said they sent the powder to Detective Branch of police to verify if it was explosive.
The recovery prompted investigators to examine whether the militants, who are yet to be identified, were trying to launch attacks at a time when the trial of war criminals has just begun, police said.
The den was in a rented room in a three-storey building on Road-10 of Uttar Bishil in Mirpur.
Landlord Musharraf Hossain discovered sacks and cloth-wrapped packages containing arms and powder in the rented out room on the top floor of his building around 10:00am. Everything in the room was packed, even the gun and bomb-making materials.
He had broken into the room as his tenants had been traceless since July 10, the day he asked for their particulars (photo copy of the national ID card) with photographs.
The police were informed and they reached the spot around noon. They were examining the recovered materials at the time of filing of this report at 9:00pm.
"The tenants had sought time till July 15 for providing me with the particulars and left the house keeping the door locked," said Saju, caretaker of the house.
Four people aged between 28 and 35 rented the room on July 1 for Tk 2,400 a month. They told Saju that they were from Patuakhali and they hawked gas for refilling cigarette lighters.
"The men rarely talked to neighbours. They appeared to be less interested in having unnecessary interaction with us and were hardly seen outside the room," said Parvez, a next-door neighbour of the four men.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner AKM Shahidul Hoque said, "The amount of 'explosive materials' recovered is enough to make at least 1,000 grenades." He said they were still unable to confirm which organisation the den belonged to.
"We are also investigating whether empathy for war criminals being tried had made militants to get organised in this way," Shahidul Hoque told reporters visiting the spot after the recovery.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2010
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[Tolo News] The US Secretary of Defence said that the the US defence department has asked the FBI to help investigate the leak of more than 90,000 secret military logs
Speaking at a news conference at the Pentagon on Thursday the US Secretary of Defence, Robert Gates called the leaks "potentially severe and dangerous".
"It seems to me, to ensure the investigation goes wherever it needs to go, that having the FBI involved as a partner is very important," he said.
Robert Gates did not say whether he planned to pursue charges against Wikileaks, the website which leaked the US secret logs and distributed them to other organisations.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen said the leak endangered the lives of NATO soldiers, and of civilians and Afghan citizens working with NATO.
"They might already have on their hands the blood of some young soldier or an Afghan family," he said.
Describing the leaked secrets on Afghan war as facts, the Afghanistan's Caped President said on Thursday that foreign forces are not acting strongly enough against terrorism.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2010
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#3
Hey....FBI....maybe y'all might want to look here....and then figure out how this jackwagon (yep, my first use of the term) made it anywhere near material more sensitive than canned veggie labels in the mess hall prep kitchen...sheesh.....:
#1
I understand this is all about the procedure to introduce the bill.
What were the Donks up to this time? Trying to subvert the process with a politically charged bill in order to have an excuse to subvert it again in the future?
Our work is done here. Waiter! More wine! And bring a menu...
Arab League foreign ministers on Thursday authorized the Palestinian Authority to enter into direct negotiations with Israel, but left it up to PA President Mahmoud Abbas to decide on the timing.
Jerusalem immediately welcomed the decision, taken at a special meeting in Cairo, with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu issuing a statement saying he was "prepared to begin direct and honest discussions with the Palestinian Authority in the coming days."
The US, which has been urging Abbas to switch from the current "proximity" talks to direct talks, also praised the move, and said it would seek to convene the direct talks "as soon as possible."
Netanyahu added that it would be possible through direct negotiations to soon reach an accord "between the two peoples."
Defense Minister Ehud Barak, currently in Washington, also praised the move, saying that only direct negotiations would lead to two states for two peoples. He added that the negotiations would require "difficult and courageous" decisions from both sides, and that he hoped the Palestinians "also realize that."
Qatari Foreign Minister Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani said the Arab foreign ministers decided to send a letter to US President Barack Obama explaining the Arab position vis-a-vis the entire peace process in the Middle East.
Abbas told the foreign ministers that Obama had been exerting heavy pressure on him to enter direct negotiations, a PA official in Ramallah said. Abbas told the ministers he saw no reason why he should succumb to the American pressure in light of the fact that no progress has been achieved during the current US-brokered proximity talks.
The US pressure, according to Israeli officials, was leveled not only at the PA, but also at the Arab League to ensure that it not "handcuff" Abbas.
One senior Israeli official said that the League's decision could have been "much worse," and that it could have piled on a number of conditions for Abbas before enabling him to enter the talks.
"Abbas now has the backing to go into the talks," the official said, adding that the Arab League gave him the ball to do with it what he wanted.
The official said Jerusalem made no commitments to ensure the Arab League green light. Israel's position is that it would not institute new confidence building measures toward the PA to get it into direct talks, but that once the talks began both sides would be expected to take steps to improve the atmosphere and ensure the talks succeed.
The official, who said he was fairly optimistic that direct talks would resume, gave no indication of where the negotiations would be held, or in what format.
In Washington, meanwhile, a State Department official said the US was "encouraged by reports that Arab states meeting in Cairo agree on the need to resume direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians to reach a final-status agreement. In the days ahead, we will continue to work with the parties, Arab countries, and our international partners to launch these negotiations as soon as possible."
The Qatari minister said that Thursday's meeting did not discuss when and how the direct talks would take place. "The Palestinians will decide when conditions are suitable for the negotiations," he said.
"We are sure that Israel is not serious about the peace process," the minister said. "Israel just wants to waste time. On the other hand, we are confident that the US is serious and we are sure of Obama's intentions to achieve peace."
He said that the Arab ministers were originally opposed to direct talks with Israel, but changed their mind due to the "situation in the Arab world."
He added: "Whether we hold indirect or direct talks with Israel, there will be no progress as long as [Prime Minister Binyamin] Netanyahu is around. But we want to prove to the world that we want peace, without giving up our principles, and that there's a price for peace."
Asked if the US administration had given the Arab League any "assurances," the Qatari minister said: "The Arabs don't have guarantees; we only have hopes and fears."
Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa, however, told reporters after the meeting that Obama's message to Abbas, which included a pledge to work toward achieving a two-state solution, was tantamount to assurances.
"We don't want lengthy talks that would allow the continuation of settlement construction and Israeli practices [on the ground]," Moussa stressed. "We know that Netanyahu is not serious. But we are addressing the US because the Americans are addressing us. We won't enter negotiations without a time limit or a reference, as was the case in the past. The Israelis are playing a political game by winning time. This is what we are trying to prevent by proving that they are not serious."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2010
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Mike Grimm, a G.O.P challenger to Democrat Mike McMahon's Congressional seat, took in over $200,000 in his last filing.
But in an effort to show that Grimm lacks support among voters in the district, which covers Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn, the McMahon campaign compiled a list of Jewish donors to Grimm and provided it to The Politicker.
The file, labeled "Grimm Jewish Money Q2," for the second quarter fundraising period, shows a list of over 80 names, a half-dozen of which in fact do hail from Staten Island, and a handful of others that list Brooklyn as home.
"Where is Grimm's money coming from," said Jennifer Nelson, McMahon's campaign spokeman. "There is a lot of Jewish money, a lot of money from people in Florida and Manhattan, retirees."
As a point of comparison, the campaign also provided in-district and out-of-district fundraising totals from McMahon and Grimm's G.O.P primary opponent, Michael Allegretti. However, they did not provide an out-of-district campaign filing from Grimm, but only a file of Jewish donors to him.
Nelson said that the list was compiled by the campaign's finance director, Debra Solomon and that she did not know exactly how the finance team knew who was Jewish and who was not.
"She herself is Jewish so she knows a lot of people in that community," Nelson said.
Nelson stressed that the point of compiling the list was not to show that Grimm had a lot of Jewish support, but that he had little support in the district.
"I don't think ethnicity matters. When people look at who is funding his campaign it's not people who have a direct vested interest [in the district.]"
The campaign also wanted to point out that Grimm benefited greatly from his endorsement by Rudy Giuliani, and made a separate column to denote donors who have to the former mayor's presidential or Senate campaigns. Only five appear to have done so.
Grimm recently went to a religious service led by Rabbi Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto, a Kabbalahist who is known as a rabbi to the rich and famous. Several of his followers, including Haim Revah, whose company owns the Lipstick Building and Ilan Bracha of Prudential Douglas Elliman, donated to Grimm.
McMahon meanwhile has been trying to make his own in-roads into the Jewish community. A source said that he is scheduled to meet next week with several major Jewish donors. But that's all right. My Jews are good Democratic Jews...
Reached by phone, Grimm, who is part-Italian, part-German, said he was proud of his Jewish support and said he was disturbed to hear that the McMahon campaign compiled a separate list of his Jewish donors.
"The fact that a U.S. Congressman would separate out any group by religion or even by ethnicity is nothing short of outrageous," he said. "This goes beyond politics."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2010
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#1
If a Republican or his team had said that the howls would be deafening, demanding ouster and public humiliation. Where's the ADL? Just shows that their principles are partisan first
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/31/2010 13:51
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Where's the ADL? Just shows that their principles are partisan first
Frank G., as far as I can tell the ADL doesn't get involved until it's a great deal more serious than this. If the Jews of that district, and more particularly the Democratic Jewish donors, choose to vote for Rep. McMahon, nobody can say they didn't know what kind of little rat they were going to get.
#3
Wow, trailing wife. You don't think this is serious? I wonder if your grandmother also pooh-poohed how serious it was when she first heard nonsense about the jewish money.
Posted by: Martin ||
07/31/2010 16:42
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the ADL knows where the plantation is. I was being sarcastic, but I'd expect to hear Jesse or Sharpton outraged before the ADL.
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/31/2010 16:44
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Again, the ADL isn't needed. The Republican Jewish Coalition is on the case. Which is as it should be. Oh, and Rep. McMahon fired the idiot who made the list.
Godwin's law, Martin? My grandparents registered for visas to America in 1936 or so; my adult, unmarried aunt was able to exercise hers immediately, but my mother and her parents were wait-listed. When the SS came for my grandfather -- stopped in their initial effort because my grandfather's hunting dogs stood growling between them and Grandfather sitting in his office with his shotgun -- they escaped to Holland to wait until their number came up... which it finally did in 1946. One reason I feel so strongly about illegal vs. legal immigrants, as it happens.
This, to me, is the kind of thing that should be named, shamed, and lose the election. Mr. Grimm should campaign as the anti-antisemite, and he should win by a landslide. Bigotry is crushed when the peepul demonstrably reject bigots, that it's tarred as a loser's philosophy.
#6
thanks for the family hx, trailing wife. Great story about GP with the dogs and shotgun. Glad you became a part of the melting pot. We are all stronger for it.
Posted by: Martin ||
07/31/2010 19:16
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Thank you for your kind words, Martin. I'm grateful every day that my grandparents made that decision.
Frank G., it seems the ADL has chosen to put their resources into opposing the Ground Zero mosque instead. link
#8
Can't fight two battles? Or is one too close to their political masters? One is a no-brainer....the other is...a no-brainer too. Don't make excuses for their refusal to get all outragey on all MSM outlets, TW, you're better than that
Frank
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/31/2010 20:15
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A 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, ADL neither supports nor opposes candidates for political office.
They nonetheless seem to have released a statement on the subject, despite the other projects. I haven't noticed that anyone cared to report it, which is probably why none of us were aware of it.
A 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, ADL neither supports nor opposes candidates for political office.
puhleeeeez
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/31/2010 22:04
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you will not find a better supporter of Jews, Israel, their right to exist, their hereditary homelands, etc., than this Roman Catholic and I say the ADL is a bought-and-sold Democratic HQ. Take a look at their targets... see the Jesse Jackson (extended version) or Al Sharpton pages? I thought not. Where's the outrage over Hillary's comments as put forth by Dick Morris (D- present)? Spare me
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/31/2010 22:10
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#13
this is a dangerous game that ends badly every time it is played. Please don't forget that our current president sat and listened to Rev Wright for 20 years and he never got up and left.
The eery silence is enough to make one go deaf.
Posted by: Martin ||
07/31/2010 22:29
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you will not find a better supporter of Jews, Israel, their right to exist, their hereditary homelands, etc., than this Roman Catholic
Agreed, Frank. And if you're right about the Anti-Defamation League, they'll be bypassed by the currents of history. But I think it's important to allow for intersecting sets of interests and passions, as long as in general we're fighting on the same side. The ADL has been tracking jihadis an awful lot longer than we have here at Rantburg, publicizing and fighting to contain them at the national and international level. Personally, I'd rather they worked on President Obama's Israel problem, persuading big pro-Israel Democratic donors to withhold, than on a local election issue that's being handled by local and national political organizations.
[Ma'an] The Israeli military reported Friday morning that a projectile launched from the Gaza Strip hit the outskirts of the coastal city of Ashkelon.
Richard Miron, spokesperson for the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Robert Serry, issued a statement saying the office "condemn[s] the attack on Ashkelon earlier today, in which a rocket struck a residential area. Indiscriminate rocket fire against civilians is completely unacceptable and constitutes a terrorist attack."
A second set of mortars were reported shortly after noon, landing in empty fields in the western Negev. The reports have not been confirmed, but coincide with reports of explosions north of Gaza City.
According to Israeli daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, an air raid siren sounded south of the city during the 8:30a.m. strike, and damages were reported in an empty apartment building as well as to some cars parked nearby.
The report said crews were dispatched to locate the remains of the projectile, but have not reported findings.
No Gaza faction has claimed either launch.
Yedioth quoted Ashkelon Mayor Benny Vaknin as saying the incident was "one of the worst since Operation Cast Lead," and categorizing it as an "escalation," while military officials were quick to respond, telling the paper that the launch did not necessarily indicate an escalation.
By early afternoon, Israeli officials told Yedioth that a complaint over the projectiles would be submitted to the UN. Quoting Foreign Ministry spokesman Yossi Levy, the news site said, "Israel will stress in its complaint that the firing of a Grad missile on a large city like Ashkelon — with the clear goal of murdering men, women and children as they prepare for Shabbat — is a blatant violation of international law and points to the murderous, barbaric and violent nature of those behind it." How about you activate Operation Boom Goes the New Mall instead?
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2010
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#1
This is an improvement. At least the UN was aware of it this time.
#2
Robert Serry, issued a statement saying the office "condemn[s] the attack on Ashkelon earlier today, in which a rocket struck a residential area. Indiscriminate rocket fire against civilians is completely unacceptable and constitutes a terrorist attack."
with that, pigs began to lift off and orbit
Posted by: Mike Hunt ||
07/31/2010 0:54
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[The Nation (Nairobi)] Zimbabwe President Robert (Muggsy) Mugabe's younger sister and political ally Sabina Mugabe has died at age 80 after years of failing health, state media reported.
She suffered a stroke in 1995, which damaged part of her brain, the president told mourners at State House, according to the Herald newspaper.
She will be buried tomorrow at a shrine for heroes of Zimbabwe's independence struggle.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2010
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She's in the land of Heroes and Ancestors, aka Gooks and Spooks, where she can stoke the fires for Bob's arrival, although the Devil would probably be evicted when he does get there.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Visiting King of the Arabians Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz and Syrian President Bashar "Pencilneck" al-Assad on Friday urged Lebanese parties to avoid resorting to violence in the face of mounting political tensions in the country.
"The leaders stressed the importance of stability... the commitment (of the Lebanese) not to resort to violence and the need to place the country's interests above all sectarian interests," said a communique issued by the Lebanese presidency after a mini-summit between the two leaders and President Michel Suleiman.
The statement also stressed the need to "resort to legal institutions and Leb's unity government to resolve any differences."
The Syrian president and Saudi monarch made the hours-long visit to Leb in a bid to defuse tensions over reports of an impending indictment against members of the armed group Hezbullies for Hariri's murder.
Asked about the outcome of the talks as he left the presidential palace, the Syrian leader gave a thumbs up and said: "The discussions were excellent."
First visit since Hariri assassination
Assad was visiting Leb for the first time since Hariri's assassination soured bilateral ties and forced the pullout of Syrian troops from Leb after a 29-year presence.
Hariri's killing drove a wedge between Assad and King Abdullah. Now reconciled, their visit symbolises their determination to avert a crisis brewing between Hezbullies, backed by Syria and Iran, and factions aligned with Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri, an ally of Riyadh.
Saad, son of the slain Sunni Mohammedan leader, told Al Arabiya on Thursday that he believed the three-way summit between King Abdullah, Assad and Lebanese President Michel Suleiman would provide "considerable stability" to Leb.
King Abdullah was last in the Lebanese capital for a 2002 Arab summit, when he was still Crown Prince, and he will be the first Saudi monarch to come to Leb for decades.
Assad and Abdullah are alarmed by the political ferment set off by Hezbullies leader Hassan Nasrallah this month when he said Hariri had told him the tribunal would indict "rogue" members of the Shi'ite guerrilla group for his father's killing.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2010
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[Dawn] Three protesters were killed by security forces Friday in a day of violence in Indian-administered Kashmir that also left 75 people injured, police and witnesses said.
The fatalities added to a string of deaths that have fuelled a rolling series of angry protests across the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley in the past two months.
At least 20 people are known to have died in the latest burst of violence which erupted when a 17-year-old boy was killed after being hit by a police tear gas shell in early June. Many of those killed have been teenagers.
Witnesses said two men were shot on Friday when security forces opened fire on a demonstration in Sopore town, about 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Srinagar. Both died on the way to hospital.
"Both men had bullet wounds and were dead by the time they reached us," a doctor in Srinagar's main hospital told AFP.
Police said the demonstrators tried to damage a railway track and also attacked paramilitary forces with stones.
However, locals said they were holding a peaceful protest after Friday prayers when troops fired at them.
The deaths brought thousands of people out onto the streets of Sopore and adjoining villages, residents said.
In neighbouring Patan town, angry protesters ransacked a police station and set part of it on fire. One person died when police opened fire on the crowd, a witness said.
Earlier in the day authorities imposed a strict curfew in Srinagar after security forces opened fire at stone-throwing protesters, injuring three people. One of the injured is in critical condition in hospital.
No prayers were held at the region's main mosque, the Jamia Masjid in Srinagar, for the fifth consecutive Friday as security forces had sealed off entrances to the Mughal-built mosque with coils of barbed wire.
However, residents were able to attend prayers in smaller local mosques.
More than 75 people, including ten policemen, were injured during Friday clashes between protesters and security forces across the Kashmir valley, police said, adding 10 protesters were hospitalised with bullet wounds. Separatists had called for protests on Friday.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Jakarta Post] The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) deplored on Friday an incident of attack against members of the Islamic sect Jamaah Ahmadiyah at Manislor village, Jakalaksana district, Kuningan regency, West Java, a day earlier.
"It should have been settled persuasively," said Slamet Effendi Yusuf, head of MUI's Inter-religious Harmony Commission as quoted by tempointeraktif.com news portal.
The way to settle the problem could be through dialog between representatives of the regional government and Ahmadiyah members as well as members of mainstream Muslim organizations, he said.
Slamet admitted settling the problem was easier said than done. On the one hand a joint ministerial decree on Ahmadiyah signed two years ago has to be implemented. "But on the other hand, Ahmadiyah members insist to maintain their existence, exercise their activities and even try to expand themselves," he said.
The problem is, Slamet said, that it could be left without any attention. There must have been a commitment to implement the joint decree and all parties have to wiser and respect one another as the process is not short.
"Amid the process, the Muslim organizations can make intensive approaches," he said.
Is has been reported earlier that a clash erupted on Thursday between Ahmadiyah followers
and members of Muslim organizations as the latter forced their way to enter Ahmadiyah compound in Kuningan. The Muslim organizations demanded that the government disband Ahmadiyah.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2010
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[Straits Times] WILD elephants trampled an Indonesian farmer on death on Friday, an official said.
A herd of elephants crushed the 30-year-old man as he worked in his field in Alue Keujereun village, Aceh province, district chief Mohammed Hasbi said.
'A herd of eight elephants appeared out of the blue. He panicked and tried to flee with his friend but he fell and one of the elephants crushed him,' he said.
Human-animal conflicts are a rising problem as people encroach on wildlife habitats in Indonesia, an archipelago with some of the world's largest remaining tropical forests.
There are up to 3,350 Sumatran elephants remaining in the wild, according to the environmental group WWF.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2010
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#1
Babe-chasing Militant Squirrels on TV, Whale-versus-Sailboat, Bear-versus-Car, Gators + now Elephants, etc. > THE ISLAMIST GLOBAL JIHAD MUST BE MORE SUCCESSFUL THAN WE THINK???
D *** NG IT, WOMAN, THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU LET FUTURE OWG SUPERMODEL PAULA ABDUL GET AWAY WID DESTROYING THE BACKYARD VEGGIES!
#3
In Europe for many years, breeding elephants the natural way was regarded as one of the most dangerous jobs around. A male elephant in rut was oblivious to its handlers. Many people died or were seriously injured.
The technique for artificial insemination is still very dangerous.
Step one involves a large, metal, torpedo-looking object that gives off a high voltage electrical charge.
Step two involves a large, clean, plastic bucket. This is the most dangerous job.
Step three, the actual insemination, is relatively easy. Just imagine an enormous turkey baster that uses compressed air instead of a big rubber ball.
[Straits Times] A MINORITY Islamic sect told followers on Friday to prepare for war after rock-throwing mobs attacked one of their mosques in central Indonesia, calling its members heretics.
The weeklong violence in Manislor, a village in West Java province, peaked on Thursday after more than 500 hard-liners from the Islamic Defenders Front, known as FPI, clashed with 3,000 Ahmadiyah sect followers. At least eight people were injured, including three police.
'We have to defend ourselves and our mosques,' said Deden Sujana, who heads security for the sect, saying hard-liners have 'gone too far.' 'We call on Ahmadiyah followers to fight against them in the name of Allah,' Mr Sujana said.
Indonesia, a secular state of 235 million, has more Muslims than any other in the world.
Most people practice a moderate form of the faith, but a small but vocal extremist fringe has gained influence in recent years because the government relies heavily on Muslim parties in parliament.
Ahmadiyah, which has roughly 200,000 members, is considered deviant by conservatives because it does not recognize Muhammad as the final prophet. Perpetrators of violence against the sect often go unpunished.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2010
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[Maghrebia] Mauritanian soldiers have apprehended two suspected scouts of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Mauritanie-web reported on Friday (July 30th). The arrests occurred overnight Wednesday at the border with Algeria and Mali, near Lemgheitty, the scene of a bloody 2005 terrorist attack. The suspects were jugged after a car chase and exchange of fire, said security sources quoted by Mauritanie-web. Lemgheitty has for several months been declared a "military zone" controlled by the army's counter-terrorism forces.
The arrests follow a Mauritanian army raid on an AQIM stronghold in Mali that aimed at finding French hostage Michel Germaneau, whose execution prompted a French declaration of "war" on Al-Qaeda.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2010
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[Tolo News] Nearly, 50 Afghan policemen accused of bribery and misuse of their posts were sacked in Herat, a Western Afghan province
Provincial police officials in western Afghanistan said that these policemen were taking money from drivers on Herat-Kandahar high way.
A Police Chief in western Afghanistan said that the policemen misused their positions, sought money from drivers using the highway.
"Four police checkpoints were creating problems for people on the way, and passengers had also complained against them. Today we sacked a total number of 50 policemen from these checkpoints," Deputy Police Chief in western Afghanistan, Ikramuddin told TOLOnews.
Meanwhile, Afghan police forces have always been criticised by the international community as corrupt and undisciplined.
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07/31/2010
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[Dawn] Senior Pakistan police officers have been heavily criticized in a judge's report for being ill-prepared, poorly equipped and incompetent in their efforts to prevent a terrorist attack on the Sri Lanka cricket team bus last year.
Calling one officer a lazy coward, Shabbar Raza Rizvi of Lahore High Court identified more than a dozen senior policemen in a report on the attack that is due to be submitted to the International Cricket Council.
Excerpts of the 120-page report, which has not been made public, were provided to The Associated Press on Friday.
Rizvi wrote that police officials failed to perform their duties on March 3, 2009 when gunmen killed six policemen and a van driver in the team convoy, and injured several Sri Lanka players and team officials.
Senior Lahore police officer Haji Habibur Rehman was supposed to be the overall commander of the Sri Lanka team's security, but Rizvi said he failed to do his job.
"I wish I had seen him marching on the road ... or at least sitting in his office before 8 a.m.," Rizvi wrote. "Unfortunately, he only became visible and audible after the occurrence had taken place."
The Pakistan Cricket Board is still waiting for permission from the government to submit the report to the ICC despite reminders by the game's governing body. The report was completed last year.
A spokesman for the ICC confirmed it had not received the report and had no further comment.
The ICC carried out its own investigation following the attack. It recommended a series of security measures to be implemented by member countries, including requiring cricket boards to have security managers and establish security standards.
After the attack, the ICC ruled that Pakistan could no longer serve as one of the hosts for the 2011 World Cup and the Pakistan team was forced to host its home matches at neutral venues -- it has used the United Arab Emirates and England as bases.
In his report, Rizvi also criticized police Deputy Inspector General Amjad Javed Saleemi for a "dereliction of duty" after Saleemi admitted he was not sure whether police officers in the area of the attack were even on duty.
"Obviously he (Saleemi) would have only known ... if he himself were there," Rizvi wrote. "He made contradictory statements before me and did not have moral courage to state the truth."
Rizvi also described Abdur Rahman, who supervised the station near the attack, as "a coward and lazy" after he and officers under his command came upon the gunmen but fled.
Police superintendent Mohammad Abid was also singled out by Rizvi as he was directly responsible for posting security officials in the area where the attack took place.
"He had the direct responsibility ... and placement of snipers on high-rise buildings is an area of his jurisdiction," Rizvi said. "He miserably failed to do that and was absent from duty when the occurrence took place."
Rizvi also described Abdur Rahman, who supervised the station near the attack, as "a coward and lazy" after he and officers under his command came upon the gunmen but fled.
According to Rizva, the police force were not well-equipped and didn't have a special security plan needed to host such a high-profile event.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2010
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[Mail and Globe] Somalia's al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab militants have called for worldwide attacks on the embassies of Uganda and Burundi, whose troops make up a large African Union (AU) force in Somalia, a terror monitoring group said on Friday.
In a video aired on the Islamic militants' "news channel," al-Shabaab spokesperson Sheikh Mukhtar Robow calls "for attacks against the embassies of Uganda and Burundi around the world", US monitoring group IntelCentre reported.
The hard-line Somali rebels promised on Thursday to turn Mogadishu into a graveyard for AU troops, after the pan-African body announced it had received pledges for 4 000 additional troops for the Somalia force, also known as Amisom.
Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage, another al-Shabaab spokesperson, had warned that beefing up the AU force, currently made up of about 6 000 Ugandan and Burundian soldiers, would only reinforce their jihad, or "holy war".
The English-language video released on the group's channel also claims responsibility for an attack on Soccer World Cup fans in Kampala, which killed 76 people on July 11, IntelCentre said.
Suicide bombers detonated deadly explosives in the midst of revellers watching the World Cup final at two separate entertainment venues in the Ugandan capital. Scores of people also were injured.
Uganda became the first country in early 2007 to dispatch troops to Amisom, which remains the main obstacle preventing al-Shabaab from seizing full control of the capital.
The July 11 blasts were the worst in East Africa since the 1998 bombing of US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam and which were also claimed by al-Qaeda.
According to the US monitoring group, al-Shabaab announced "the beginning of their own 'news channel' on July 27".
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07/31/2010
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Iran said on Friday it was ready for immediate talks with the United States, Russia and France over an exchange of nuclear fuel and added that it was also against stockpiling higher enriched uranium.
The comments by the Islamic republic's atomic chief Ali Akbar Salehi came as Washington decided to fan out across Asia, Middle East and the United Arab Emirates asking its partners to levy tighter sanctions against Tehran.
"We are ready even in the next few days to start negotiations with the other parties" over the fuel swap, Salehi was quoted as saying by Mehr news agency.
He said talks on this issue with the so-called Vienna group comprising the United States, Russia and France will be held in Vienna, where the UN atomic watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is based.
The Vienna group has raised questions about a proposal forwarded by Iran, Brazil and Turkey concerning a fuel swap.
The May 17 proposal, known as the Tehran Declaration, stipulates that Tehran send 1,200 kilograms of its low-enriched uranium (LEU) to Turkey in return for 20 percent high-enriched uranium to be supplied at a later date.
The 20 percent enriched uranium, when converted into fuel plates, will be used as fuel for a Tehran-based research reactor.
Salehi said Iran has already responded to the questions raised by the Vienna group, but that any other "technical" queries can be answered during another meeting.
The Tehran Declaration was Iran's counter-proposal to an earlier plan drafted by the IAEA for a fuel swap deal.
After that plan hit deadlock, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ordered Salehi to produce 20 percent enriched uranium inside the country, in defiance of world powers which want Tehran to stop the sensitive process.
Enriching uranium is at the heart of controversy over Iran's nuclear program because the material can be used to power nuclear reactors as well as to make atom bombs.
Experts say that by enriching uranium to 20 percent, Iran has theoretically come closer to enriching it to the 90 percent purity required for making nuclear weapons.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2010
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#1
over and over they play the same card and the liberal dupes and tools let them have another 6 month stall, then another... until finally they achieve their goal.
Nuclear blackmail?
you aint seen nuthin yet!
Posted by: Mike Hunt ||
07/31/2010 0:50
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#2
Perhaps some talks could be scheduled....Is next February convenient for everyone?
[Jakarta Post] President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has instructed the National Police to be strict in handling disputes surrounding the call to disband Islamic sect Jamaah Ahmadiyah in Kuningan regency, West Java, a minister said on Friday.
Speaking at the Presidential Office in Jakarta, Minister of Political, Legal and Security Affairs Djoko Suyanto said that the police had to be strict especially in anticipating any anarchic action conducted by whoever or whichever organizations.
"A stern action has to be done on any anarchic action by anybody, everywhere, whichever organization. The police have been instructed to do so. The President has also asked me that the police have to be strict," he said as quoted by the Antara news agency.
Djoko made the remarks following a clash between members of more than five Muslim organizations from outside Kuningan regency and Ahmadiyah followers residing in Manis Lor village, Jalaksana district, Kuningan.
The clash happened when organization members, who demand the disbandment of Ahmadiyah, forced their way to enter Ahmadiyah followers' compound on Thursday. Police officers in charge of maintaining order were pelted with stones.
As Ahmadiyah followers felt they were cornered, they fought back, attacking members of the Muslim organizations. Several people were injured in the incident.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2010
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[Maghrebia] Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has took credit for a suicide kaboom on Sunday in a village near Tizi-Ouzou, AFP reported on Thursday (July 29th). The attack killed a municipal guard and wounded at least eight coppers. AFP quoted the SITE monitoring group as claiming that an AQIM online statement said the attacker rammed a barracks in Ait Aissi with a truckload of explosives. Algerian security forces claim to have identified the attack's mastermind, an alleged AQIM emir named Sidi Mohand Ouramdane, aka El Khechkhache.
This article starring:
SIDI MOHAND URAMDANE, AKA EL KHECHKHACHE
al-Qaeda in North Africa
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2010
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#1
ION AQ, TOPIX > SUDAN: COUNTRY CLOSING/SHUTTING ITS BORDERS WID LIBYA, as due to "banditry".
* NEWS KERALA > AL QAEDA PLANNED 9-11 STYLE ATTACK ON KABUL.
* TOPIX > [AQAP/AQIY Commander] AL QAEDA FORMS ARMY OF 12,000 FIGHTERS IN YEMEN, in ADAN + ABYAN. Ultimate purpose is to establish an Islamic Caliphate + resist US conversion of Yemen into a Slave-Proxy for anti-Muslim US Imperialism, Zionism + Crusader-ism???
* TOPIX > SOUTH AFRICA: SA DEFENCE MINSTER SISULU WARNS OF KAMAPALA-STYLE TERROR THREATS [Bombings] FOR JOINING AU FORCES [Somalia].
[The Nation (Nairobi)] Russia has called for concerted efforts and additional support to Eastern African states that have accepted to host courts to try suspected Somali pirates arrested in the Indian Ocean.
Kenya and the island nation of Seychelles, with the assistance of the EU, US, Canada, UK, China and Denmark, among others, have set up special courts to try piracy suspects.
"Russia takes great interest at finding a solution to this challenge and any other form of organised crime in the region," said Alexey Saltykov, the deputy head of mission at the Russian embassy in Nairobi yesterday.
Mr Saltykov said his country has been at the forefront in the fight against piracy especially in providing escort to cargo vessels carrying humanitarian relief assistance in the high seas.
Since the governments accepted to try the suspects, Russia says a lot of progress has been achieved.
"It was the idea of President (Dmitry) Medvedev that special mechanisms be established to prosecute these pirates," he said, "The use of regional courts is a more efficient mechanism."
"In our continued cooperation with Kenya, we are focusing on the areas of innovation and technology, organised crime and trade.
We are looking for improved cooperation with Kenya and the Indian Ocean states especially in the fight against piracy and terrorism," said Mr Saltykov.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2010
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#1
Dear Russia, trials take time and money. Just a few nations actively dealing with pirates after trial by ships' Captains, is far more economical.
[Geo News] Two muscle of an outlawed religious outfit allegedly involved in supplying weapons to Orcs and similar vermin have been rounded up in Shershah area, Geo News reported Friday. According to SP CID Mazhar Shawani, in raid conducted in Shershah area police jugged two muscleMuhamamd Rizwan and Dawood belonging to defunct Jaish-e-Muhammad and recovered two TT pistols. He said the accused were involved in supplying weapons to Orcs and similar vermin in Sukkur and that they had fled to Karachi following a raid on their hideout in Sukkur. A police party has been sent to Sukkur to arrest other accomplices of the accused and to seize more weapons.
This article starring:
MUHAMAMD RIZWAN
Jaish-e-Muhammad
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2010
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Iranian Parliament (Majlis) Speaker Ali Larijani says the Islamic Republic has influence in the Middle East region but does not use it to build an empire. "Really, those aren't our satraps."
"If the Zionist regime (Israel) bullies Paleostine we will stand against it and if it decides to attack LebHezbullies will confront it," IRNA quoted Larijani as saying on Friday.
Larijani stressed that Iran is a country with peaceful nuclear know-how and added, "When the US questions why Iran has nuclear and missile technology it is because [it is unhappy that] we have the ability to obtain such technologies."
"And had we been producing fruit juice, mineral water and tomato paste, it (the US) would never have raised an objection [to our production]," added the Majlis speaker.
"They claim that Iran has nuclear weapons, but they never say [a word about] the Zionist regime (Israel), which is their friend, [and] possesses nukes."
The US and its Western allies accuse Iran of seeking a military nuclear program.
Iran argues that as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency it has the right to peaceful nuclear technology.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2010
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[Jakarta Post] West Java police have deployed about 500 reinforcement troops from the anti-riot and Mobile Brigade units to conflict-torn regency of Kuningan, following clashes between hard-line Muslim groups and followers of Islamic minority sect Ahmadiyah on Thursday.
Spokesman for the National Police Insp. Gen. Edward Aritonang told a media conference peace and order had gradually been restored in Manis Lor village, where the fight erupted, but said the reinforcement troops were needed to prevent the communal conflict from recurring.
"The police are there to secure the place so that no more fight will erupt. It's not true if we take side with one of the groups," Edward said as quoted by kompas.com.
Earlier President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had asked the police to take tough measures against perpetrators of acts of violence in the regency.
The fight followed a plan by Kuningan regent Aang Hamid Suganda to seal eight mosques belonging to the Islamic sect, which is deemed heretical. Village residents, mostly Ahmadiyah followers, resisted the plan and guarded the mosques, only to spark anger among hard-line Islamic groups.
Edward said the attackers came from Kuningan and neighboring regions of Cianjur, Tasikmalaya, Garut, Cirebon and Banten.
An Ahmadiyah follower and two police officers were injured in the clashes, Edward said.
West Java police chief Insp. Gen. Sutarman called on the public not to take the law into their hands in settling the matter.
"If Ahmadiyah is considered heretical, people can ask the government to enforce the law," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2010
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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.
Adding fuel to the bonfire, Texas Republicans recently adopted an over-the-top platform at their state convention that, among other things, encouraged the Legislature to create a Class A misdemeanor criminal offense "for an illegal alien to intentionally or knowingly be within the state of Texas," and to "oppose amnesty in any form leading to citizenship." Texas Republicans also want to deny citizenship to the U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants, ban day-labor work centers, limit bilingual education to three years,
The Prince of Wales says he believes he has been placed on Earth as future King 'for a purpose' - to save the world. 
The US Army intelligence analyst, who is half British and went to school in Wales, appeared to sink into depression after a relationship break-up, saying he didn't "have anything left" and was "beyond frustrated".
KABUL, Afghanistan (July 29) - A Taliban commander and his accomplice were apprehended in Farah province after Afghan National Army Commandos discovered them disguised in burkas July 25. 
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Israeli warplanes fired missiles at five targets across 
A Florida church was yesterday promoting an event where it will burn copies of the Koran to mark the ninth anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the U.S.
A suspected 
[The Nation (Nairobi)] A Ugandan court on Friday charged three Kenyans over the Kampala bombings, the first such cases opened against suspects in the July 11 
[The Nation (Nairobi)] A fire station in Mombasa went up in flames on Friday because there was inadequate water to fight the blaze. Embarrassed municipal fire fighters asked for help from the Kenya Port Authority to put out the inferno in their station.
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Friday called ethics charges against Democratic Rep. Charlie Rangel "very troubling" and said he hopes the longtime lawmaker can end his career with dignity. Several House Democrats went further, flat-out urging the New York congressman to resign.
NEW YORK - An earthquake measuring 5.7 rattled the northeast Iranian city of Torbat-e Heydariyeh on Friday, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.
BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: The U.N. committee paid on Thursday $650 million in Iraqi compensation to Kuwait, raising the total amount paid to Kuwait as compensation to $30 billion, spokesman of the Iraqi government said on Friday.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Visiting 
[Straits Times] WILD elephants trampled an Indonesian farmer on death on Friday, an official said.
