When Nora W. Tyson entered the Navy in 1979, women were not allowed to go to sea on aircraft carriers. The idea of a woman commanding a mighty carrier strike group? That was certainly for another day.
That day arrived Thursday for Rear Adm. Tyson, who made history in assuming command of Carrier Strike Group Two in a ceremony on board the USS George H.W. Bush.
The strike group consists of the Bush, America's newest carrier, four guided-missile cruisers; Destroyer Squadron 22, which includes six guided-missile destroyers and two frigates, and Carrier Air Wing 8, with eight squadrons of aircraft.
In accepting her new assignment, Tyson spoke of the challenges that the Navy faces and said she was humbled to be selected. Talking later with reporters, she downplayed her history-making step.
"As far as the trailblazing piece, I understand I am the first woman on the job," she said. "But I'm a professional just like my fellow officers are, and my fellow strike group commanders."
Tyson said she's thought about whether she'll face more scrutiny. She said it all comes down to professionalism.
But while women have made progress in the Navy over the years, Tyson's appointment marks a dramatic step forward, said James V. Koch, president emeritus of Old Dominion University who also teaches World War II history.
"This is an exceedingly responsible position in terms of the pressure and the kinds of life-and-death decisions that have to be made," he said. "I think there is more pressure and more responsibility than a staff position in the Pentagon, even though the rank of that person might be higher."
Because carriers are a symbol of America's military might, "one is constantly on the front lines when you are a commander of a task force. And the tradition of the Navy is that whoever is in charge is responsible," he said.
Tyson acknowledged as much during her speech. "This," she said, "is not an easy position to be in."
A 26-year-old Chicago man was charged on Wednesday with attempting to provide material support to al Shabaab, an extremist Somalia-based group allied with al Qaeda, authorities said.
Shaker Masri, a U.S. citizen who worked for a company that translated the Koran into English, was arrested on Tuesday hours before he was due to board a flight for California, with Somalia intended as his ultimate destination, according to an FBI affidavit.
Masri was arraigned on charges of attempting to provide material support to a terrorist organization and attempting to provide material support through the use of a weapon of mass destruction. A U.S. magistrate judge ordered him held without bond.
Based on weeks of conversations with a paid FBI informant and tape-recordings of telephone calls, Masri was intent on gaining weapons training in Mexico and then wanted to become a suicide bomber to participate in a "jihad" to kill people he termed "infidels," according to the affidavit.
The informant provided Masri money to buy plane tickets for both of them. They hatched elaborate plans on how to travel incognito to various countries en route to Somalia. Masri told the informant he wanted to strap on a suicide vest and keep it on until called upon to detonate it.
Masri said he wanted to keep a low profile, having known a recently arrested Virginia man, Zachary Adam Chesser, though the FBI said there was no evidence they had been in contact.
A subplot to Masri's case was the love-sick telephone calls he engaged in with an unnamed young woman in London identified in court documents as "Individual B."
"Do you know, like, how much this will affect me? Do you even realize?" the woman asks Masri in one conversation. According to affidavit, she complained of being misled by Masri. "It appeared to her that he never intended to build a life with her but, instead, at best, to marry her, get her pregnant and then 'emigrate for the sake of God,' 'to learn more about his (religion), and then disappear,' never to return," the document said.
A SUDANESE court ordered 19 Muslim youths to be flogged in public for dressing up like women.
The punishment was carried out immediately after the sentencing by the court in Omdurman, which lies across the Nile river from Khartoum.
Hundreds of people looked on as each young man received 30 lashes, an AFP correspondent reported.
They were convicted under laws that forbid "indecent clothing." The youths must also pay fines ranging between 500 and 1,000 Sudanese pounds ($250 to $450).
The Sudanese press said the men were homosexuals attending a same sex marriage. Northern Sudan is governed by Islamic law, which forbids homosexuality.
The law forbidding "indecent clothing" was brought into the spotlight last year when a court sentenced a woman journalist to be flogged for wearing trousers.
The sentence was commuted to a fine after a public outcry.
Posted by: tipper ||
08/04/2010
15:13 ||
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#1
I'm a lumberjack and I'm OK...I sleep all night and I work all day.....I dresses up in womens clothing and hang around in bars. I wear highheals a low cut skirt suspenders and a bra !!
#4
Islam is a strange religion. On the one hand they flog believers who dress in womens clothing but on the other hand they are told to emulate Mo. So what is the situation?
Can they dress up in baby, infant female child clothing like Mo did or not?
Taxing the rich, except in my district. AKA: The Nads of Nadler
One irony of the tax increase that arrives on January 1 is that the it will hit residents of high-income, Democratic-leaning states like California, Connecticut, New Jersey and New York the hardest. This is a problem for pro-tax Democrats.
Enter New York Representative Jerrold Nadler, who wants to exempt his own six-figure constituents from the tax hike he supports. Mr. Nadler's bill would "require the IRS to adjust tax brackets proportionally in regions where the average cost of living is higher than the national average."
In other words, the various tax brackets would apply to residents in certain regions at higher income levels versus other parts of the country. A family with an income of $50,000 or even $1 million in Manhattan would pay less federal income tax than a family with the same earnings in Omaha. The bill is called the Tax Equity Act, but a more accurate title would be the Blue State Tax Preference Act.
"The basic costs of life in the New York region are much steeper than in most parts the country," says Mr. Nadler. "The reality is that a dollar in New York isn't worth nearly as much as a dollar in Spokane or Knoxville or Topeka. It's time for our tax code to take reality into account when assessing someone's tax liability."
That point about "reality" and the tax code could certainly use some fleshing out, but leave that aside. A big reason the cost of living is so high in Boston, Manhattan and San Francisco is because of high state and local taxes, union work rules, and heavy business regulation that make it more expensive to produce, sell and buy things.
Why should someone in Spokane or Knoxville or Topeka be penalized because New York and California impose destructive policies? Mr. Nadler also conveniently forgets that the federal tax code already subsidizes high-cost states through the deductibility of state and local income and property taxes.
An all-star line-up of liberal class warriors has nonetheless endorsed Mr. Nadler's effort to raise taxes on the rich everywhere but in their own districts. New York House Members Tim Bishop, Steve Israel, Nita Lowey, Carolyn Maloney and Carolyn McCarthy are cosponsors. Ms. Lowey, who has voted to tax anything that moves, now says that "When it comes to the tax code, one size just doesn't fit all" and laments that New York has "some of the highest property taxes in the country." But whose fault is that?
So welcome to the brave new world of "tax equity." If you live in a state that voted for Barack Obama, you get a tax cut.
#3
I thought if you could make it there, you could make it anywhere.
Guess not.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/04/2010 15:39
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#4
More seriously, it represents yet another transfer of wealth from the politically unconnected to the politically connected.
The Russians had words for this: the nomenklatura. The apparatchiks. These are the people who will run our country, and their first job will be to ensure that they and their friends do well. If that means you do less well, not only is that not their problem, it's a design feature.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/04/2010 15:43
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#5
perhaps a bill to lessen the value of their votes by geography as well? Say 3/5ths?...hhmmmmm. 1/5 sounds fair to me. And they get the same "lesser value" on their electoral votes?
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/04/2010 19:24
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#6
Let him know what you think of his article. I do not see how biased opinion counts as news. Oh wait.
He doesn't care what you think.
Navarette used to write opinion pieces for the San Diego Union-Tribune. It was sickening. I've kept my subscription because Mrs. Uluque reads the Travel and Entertainment sections. But I never read any of it anymore.
#8
Actually, Fear wears hot pants, and walks the street of Van Buren in Phoenix. And always remember to take Fear back to your motel room, 'cause Fear's pimp, Pedro, is waiting back in Fear's apartment to rip you off and shank you, if you go there.
And don't even think for a moment that the Phoenix PD will be fooled into thinking that Fear is your cousin from Puerto Rico. They know all about Fear, and her girlfriends Hate, Envy and Shanice (the fat one).
Oh, and yes, Fear will give you a nasty dose of some Mexican strain that can eat through latex.
#11
"That's not true," says the husband, who's worked his way up from manual labor to an office job for a jeweler. "Americans are lazy. They don't want to work."
"At least that's what I choose to believe. Hey, watchoo lookin' at? It gives me all the excuse I need to take someone's job. Besides, we're all North American, man!"
But then, he catches himself -- and corrects himself.
IOW: Here comes the BS ....
"I shouldn't say that," he says. "They're not all like that, but some are. They're spoiled. They think it's easy to come to the United States legally, and they speak from ignorance."
They're not lazy. They are purchasing the cheapest product. To their own personal benefit but to society's detriment. Happens a lot these days.
#1
It was supposed to have been the biggest fight of Chris Christies young administration: a May showdown over what Democrats in Trenton were calling the millionaires tax, designed, like each of the 115 statewide tax increases of the last decade, to paper over a small part of a yawning structural deficit by soaking the rich, one last time. Never mind that half the filings and a third of the revenue from the tax were to come from New Jerseys business community, already battered by a perfect storm of overtaxation, capital flight, and recession. The Democrats were loaded for bear, and had the legislative majorities in place to pass the measure, having spent all winter threatening a government shutdown should Christie use his veto pen.
Next time, the Dems ought to try bluffing with something they are genetically able to do. Shutting down government isn't one of them.
Democratic senate president Stephen Sweeney had even admonished, in a turn of phrase eminently Trentonian in its sheer backwardness, that to give up $1 billion to the wealthy during this crisis is just wrong. He promised that the millionaires tax was where theDemocrats would make our stand.
A highly principled, well-thought-out, feel-good stand.
The tax passed on party-line votes in the assembly and senate on May 20. Sweeney then certified the bill and walked it across the statehouse to Christies office, where the governor who had vowed to balance the budget without raising taxes, and whod developed a bewildering habit of keeping his promises vetoed it. The whole thing took about two minutes.
My, that was easy. A whole lot easier than, say, trying to lower a revenue-negative 6.25% sales tax. Oh, the debating. Oh, the tooth and hair pulling. Oh, the political favors that have to be called . . . . It's hard to do the right thing. Unless you don't have a political agenda, that is.
Well be back, governor, Sweeney told Christie on being dispatched with the dead letter.
... his lip quivering.
All right, well see, came the reply.
IOW: Up yours, you over-complicated politcal a-hole.
And just like that, the biggest obstacle standing between Christie and the realization of his sea-changing, fiscally conservative first-year agenda was gone.
Yep. Just like that. And I'm thinking about moving to NJ just to be near the guy! :-)
We have not found our footing, Democratic state senator Loretta Weinberg later said, still reeling from the decisive defeat. I think a lot of people underestimated Chris Christie.
He thinks like the peasants. Be careful of them, too.
Christopher James Christie is fond of saying that hes been underestimated his whole professional life. The Newark-born son of an Irish father and a Sicilian mother, Christie is the product of respectable but middling schools the University of Delaware and Seton Hall Law and enjoyed a successful, if not spectacular, career as a partner in a small New Jersey firm. He served a single term as a Morris County freeholder, but was primaried, and soundly defeated, in his bid for reelection. When, despite a lack of criminal prosecutorial experience, he was appointed U.S. attorney in 2002, some detractors thought it a bit of cronyism the Bushadministration rewarding Christie for the fundraising work hed done during the 2000 election.
Sometimes even the blind squirrel finds its nuts.
They were wrong. By the time Christie left the job six years later, he had put over a hundred crooked pols from the school board to the state house and of both political parties behind bars, without losing a single case. And he had tried and convicted terrorists, Mafiosi, and child pornographers; arms dealers, gang members, and corporate hacks.
But it's so hard to know what to do with these guys. It's more complicated than it seems. Especially if you have relative morals. Or are looking at it from an effed up political perspective.
#2
PIMF, I know. Something bad happened with the html tags on the last one. Here is what it should have looked like. :-)
It was supposed to have been the biggest fight of Chris Christies young administration: a May showdown over what Democrats in Trenton were calling the millionaires tax, designed, like each of the 115 statewide tax increases of the last decade, to paper over a small part of a yawning structural deficit by soaking the rich, one last time. Never mind that half the filings and a third of the revenue from the tax were to come from New Jerseys business community, already battered by a perfect storm of overtaxation, capital flight, and recession. The Democrats were loaded for bear, and had the legislative majorities in place to pass the measure, having spent all winter threatening a government shutdown should Christie use his veto pen.
Next time, the Dems ought to try bluffing with something they are genetically able to do. Shutting down government isn't one of them.
Democratic senate president Stephen Sweeney had even admonished, in a turn of phrase eminently Trentonian in its sheer backwardness, that to give up $1 billion to the wealthy during this crisis is just wrong. He promised that the millionaires tax was where theDemocrats would make our stand.
A highly principled, well-thought-out, feel-good stand.
The tax passed on party-line votes in the assembly and senate on May 20. Sweeney then certified the bill and walked it across the statehouse to Christies office, where the governor who had vowed to balance the budget without raising taxes, and whod developed a bewildering habit of keeping his promises vetoed it. The whole thing took about two minutes.
My, that was easy. A whole lot easier than, say, trying to lower a revenue-negative 6.25% sales tax. Oh, the debating. Oh, the tooth and hair pulling. Oh, the political favors that have to be called . . . . It's hard to do the right thing. Unless you don't have a political agenda, that is.
Well be back, governor, Sweeney told Christie on being dispatched with the dead letter.
... his lip quivering.
All right, well see, came the reply.
IOW: Up yours, you over-complicated politcal a-hole.
And just like that, the biggest obstacle standing between Christie and the realization of his sea-changing, fiscally conservative first-year agenda was gone.
Yep. Just like that. And I'm thinking about moving to NJ just to be near the guy! :-)
We have not found our footing, Democratic state senator Loretta Weinberg later said, still reeling from the decisive defeat. I think a lot of people underestimated Chris Christie.
He thinks like the peasants. Be careful of them, too.
Christopher James Christie is fond of saying that hes been underestimated his whole professional life. The Newark-born son of an Irish father and a Sicilian mother, Christie is the product of respectable but middling schools the University of Delaware and Seton Hall Law and enjoyed a successful, if not spectacular, career as a partner in a small New Jersey firm. He served a single term as a Morris County freeholder, but was primaried, and soundly defeated, in his bid for reelection. When, despite a lack of criminal prosecutorial experience, he was appointed U.S. attorney in 2002, some detractors thought it a bit of cronyism the Bushadministration rewarding Christie for the fundraising work hed done during the 2000 election.
Sometimes even the blind squirrel finds its nuts.
They were wrong. By the time Christie left the job six years later, he had put over a hundred crooked pols from the school board to the state house and of both political parties behind bars, without losing a single case. And he had tried and convicted terrorists, Mafiosi, and child pornographers; arms dealers, gang members, and corporate hacks.
But it's so hard to know what to do with these guys. It's more complicated than it seems. Especially if you have relative morals. Or are looking at it from an effed up political perspective.
As Spain prepared Wednesday to receive First Lady Michelle Obama, the U.S. State Department rescinded a warning to travelers in Spain that cautioned Americans to beware of "racist prejudices." Obama and her nine-year-old daughter Sasha are expected to begin a four-day vacation Wednesday in a five-star hotel in Marbella, on the Costa del Sol.
On Tuesday, the U.S. State Department was still advising tourists that "racist prejudices could lead to the arrest of Afro-Americans who travel to Spain." The website of the Office for Consular Affairs also mentioned "isolated reports" of racially-motivated arrests of tourists. The travel advice has since been removed.
"The note has been removed. It was 15 months old and out of date. Somebody forgot to remove it," the U.S. embassy in Madrid said. "We are in no way suggesting Spanish police are racist. This is an isolated incident."
#3
Funny enough, the State Department issued the same warning for New York, Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle, Dallas, New Orleans, Richmond, and Newark. Apparently, if you're black the police watch you closer.
Posted by: Who you calling Troll? ||
08/04/2010 15:49
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#4
OTOH TURKEY > repor ranks ahead of SPAIN in the market for EXPATRIATE REAL PPROPERTY DEV + INVESTMENTS, by Foreigners.
* Also, WAFF > NEW LAW IN TURKEY: PROPRIETORS MUST EMPLOY FIVE LOCAL TURKS FOR EVERY ONE FOREIGN RECRUIT, within six months of gaining their legal permits to employ foreign workers.
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) calls upon the government in the Gaza Strip to investigate the circumstances of an explosion that occurred in Deir al-Balah refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, which left 58 injuries, including 13 children and 9 women, 7 houses uninhabitable and 30 others damaged. PCHR calls further for publishing the results of such investigations.
According to investigations conducted by PCHR, and testimonies of eyewitnesses, at approximately 01:20 on Monday, 02 August 2010, a heavy explosion rocked Deir al-Balah refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. The explosion occurred in a 100-square-meter, uninhabited house. As a result of the explosion, 58 Palestinians living in the surroundings, including 13 children and 9 women, were injured, and a pregnant woman miscarried.
Additionally, 7 houses were destroyed and rendered uninhabitable, and another 30 ones were damaged. According to eyewitnesses, a red glow came from the house before an explosion rocked the area. Mahmoud, what's that red glow?
I don't kn...
After the explosion, activists of the Palestinian resistance arrived in the area and surrounded the affected house. The Palestinian police also arrived in the area and prevented people from reaching the house. Resistance activists collected from the house shrapnel of the explosive devices and transported them in a car. Move it along, nuthin to see here...
The 'Izziddin al-Qassam Brigades (the armed wing of Hamas) issued a press release on Tuesday morning, 03 August 2010, stating that: "We confirm that what happened resulted from a Zionist security operation intended to assassinate field leaders in the 'Izziddin al-Qassam Brigades." It further stated that "such ground targeting is part of Zionist operations." Must've beamed that Zionist Idiot Ray at them...
In light of information available to PCHR through field investigations, and according to testimonies of eyewitnesses that saw transportation of bombs from the house, there are reasons to suspect that the explosion was coming from inside the house and occurred for no apparent reason, similar to some incidents in the past. It's a mystery, I tells ya. Like it always is...
Internal explosion occurred in the past in houses amidst densely populated areas, because of mistakes in manufacturing, bad storage of bombs or other reasons, which caused many fatalities among civilians and destroyed houses. Really?
Accordingly:
1) PCHR calls for conducting a serious and comprehensive investigation into this incident and publishing the results. Yeah, that'll happen...
2) PCHR is concerned over continued storage of explosive devices by Palestinian resistance groups in civilian populated areas, which threatens the lives of Palestinian civilians, and constitutes a violation of international human rights law and humanitarian law. Such acts must be stopped, as they become more serious in light of threats declared by the Israeli military forces. Ah, hell. Let's blame the Joooos anyways...
#1
PCHR is concerned over continued storage of explosive devices by Palestinian resistance groups in civilian populatedshield areas
FTFY.
Lives are cheap there, and they make for great protection of their most valuable assests. Nothing will substantially change. Mosques will continue to be munitions dumps and meeting halls, and basements will continue to be storage areas and workshops.
General David Petraeus has issued new rules to troops in Afghanistan, telling them to "redouble" efforts to avoid civilian deaths -- seen as a crucial issue in winning the increasingly unpopular war.
The head of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan told commanders he believed the counter-insurgency strategy was bearing fruit but warned that any civilian casualties risked losing the battle to win Afghan hearts and minds.
"We must continue -- indeed, redouble -- our efforts to reduce the loss of innocent civilian life to an absolute minimum. Every Afghan civilian death diminishes our cause," he said in the directive released by NATO on Wednesday.
"If we use excessive force or operate contrary to our counter-insurgency principles, tactical victories may prove to be strategic setbacks," he said in the directive, which replaces rules issued to troops in July 2009.
The four-star general, credited with turning around the Iraq war, emphasised the need to partner Afghan troops at all times and to make sure that no civilians are present before using force, except in cases of self-defence. "And for heavens' sake, DON'T HURT ANYBODY! This is a war, not a place where you can hurt people!"
#1
emphasised the need to partner Afghan troops at all times
Doubtless Petraeus meant that US troops need to stop Afghan troops killing civilians, but the journo has included the quote in way that implies Afghan troops will stop US troops killing civilians.
#2
but the journo has included the quote in way that implies Afghan troops will stop US troops killing civilians.
Makes sense, soon the war will end, this makes the Afghan Military (Who will remain there as the "Peacekeepers") the "Good Guy", I like it, it's devious.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/04/2010 12:14
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#3
having the ANA with them will prevent most encounters with isolated Taliban in civilian areas as the ANA will tip off the Taliban that we are coming and they will go hide.
the notable exception being when the taliwackers can gather enough forces for a successful ambush, at which time, we can respond with force provided the Taliban forget their human shields.
also, embedding more ANA in with our troops will make it easier for the 'rogue' elements of the ANA to shoot our friendlies in the back at close range as well as provide routes and methods intel to the Taliban so that they can be more effective in IED placement.
what is not to love?
Posted by: abu do you love ||
08/04/2010 12:59
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#4
Hell, just take this mentality to its logical conclusion: avoid all risk to civilians from coalition troops, and pull out.
On the other hand, NATO forces could IGNORE collateral damage and go hell for leather to wipe out the Taliban.
#7
"These demands are not open to negotiation or discussion. The Taliban must act, and act immediately. They will hand over the terrorists, or they will share in their fate."
George W. Bush, Statement To Joint Session Of Congress September 20th 2001
"We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them."
George W. Bush, September 11th 2001
When Bush made these statements he spoke in his capacity as President, in the immediate aftermath of a mass fatality attack on the continental US.
At the time these statements were not controversial, this was political consensus in the US and NATO.
This is the political reason for US and NATO troops to be in Afghanistan in the first place.
But apparently these were just inconsequential rants worthy of a Comical Ali. Afghanistan is being refurbished and renovated by Western Countries and will soon be returned to the Taliban. The elimination of the Taliban isn't even the objective anymore, the goal is reconciliation, peace and power sharing.
Mullah Omar is at this time not one Karzai's cabinet minsters because he declined Karzai's offer after all.
#8
Pull out and nuke the he$$ out of both Afghanistan and Pakistan, to the point where no one from there could manage to bake a loaf of bread, much less carry out a long-distance asymmetrical war. The entire US military & civilian hierarchy has forgotten that the first, last, and only rule of warfare is to make your enemy quit. Everything else is tactics.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/04/2010 20:25
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Welcome to the revolution... Democratic Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick of Michigan lost her bid for an eighth term on Tuesday, the crap splatter from her son Kwame, the former Detroit mayor, prompting her constituents to throw her out on her ear in a year when disgusted voters seem eager to fire their would-be rulers.
She's the sixth -- and the fourth in the House -- to bite the dust so far this year. And infuriated voters could deal others the same fate in primaries over the next two months, not to mention the general election in November, when nothing less than unchecked Dem power will be at stake.
In another nod to fresh blood, Michigan voters chose political newcomer Rick Snyder as the Republican nominee in the race to succeed outgoing Democratic Gov. Jennifer "Placidly Surveying the Rubble" Granholm in a state severely battered by ineptitude and mismanagement.
He automatically became the favorite in the ailing state in his race against Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero, who grabbed the Democratic nomination by beating House Speaker Andy Dillon. Michigan has the nation's second-highest unemployment rate -- at 13.2 percent -- and scores of foreclosures, and that has been a drag on Granholm, the Democratic governor who must leave office because of term limits. The voters wouldn't toss her, of course...
The two outcomes reflected the electorate's strong tar and feathers sentiment and intense desire to turn the bastards out just three months before midterm elections.
Other races in Missouri and Kansas were more predictable in what otherwise has been a primary season filled with unanticipated results, as tea party hopefuls shook up races and voters threw rotting fruit and vegetables at candidates aligned with the political parties.
In Kansas, two-term Sen. Sam Brownback sailed to the GOP nomination in the gubernatorial race. Democrat Robin Carnahan -- the privileged scion of a famed Missouri political dynasty -- and seven-term GOP Rep. Roy Blunt secured spots on the November ballot in that state's Senate race.
Another veteran politician -- GOP Rep. Jerry Moran -- narrowly topped fellow Republican Rep. Todd Tiahrt in the race for the party's Senate nod in Kansas and will face Democrat Lisa Johnston, who's regarded as toast. Moran had the backing of Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., while Tiahrt had the support of Sarah Palin. Victory in the GOP primary was tantamount to a general election win, as Kansas hasn't elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1932.
The 2010 midterm elections already have seen five incumbents lose. Sens. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, and Arlen Specter, R-D-Pa., were ousted by their respective constituencies, if any. Reps. Alan Mollohan, D-W.Va., Parker Griffith, R-Ala., and Bob Inglis, R-S.C., have crashed and burned.
State Sen. Hansen Clarke of Detroit beat Kilpatrick in Michigan's Democratic primary. Throughout the campaign, he stressed the oozing corruption of Kilpatrick's son, who was kicked out as Detroit mayor in 2008 after copping a plea to obstruction of justice. Kilpatrick tried to overcome her son's record by emphasizing her membership on the House Appropriations Committee and what she called her record of providing boodle for the metropolitan Detroit district, which is rolling in dough as anyone with half an eye can see.
In the governor's race, Snyder -- who grabbed attention with ads promoting himself as "one tough nerd" -- overcame Attorney General Mike Cox, Rep. Pete Hoekstra and two others. The former president and chief operating officer of computer maker Gateway Inc. spent $6 million of his own money to purchase the primary.
In Kansas, Brownback easily won the GOP gubernatorial nomination over a single opponent and already was considered a shoo-in. He is giving up a Senate seat he's held since 1997. The conservative made a brief run for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination before dropping out because nobody noticed.
State Sen. Tom Holland is unopposed for the Democratic nomination. They will square off to succeed Democratic Gov. Mark Parkinson, who was finishing out the remainder of Kathleen Sebelius' term. She left office last year to join the B.O. team as Health and Human Services Secretary.
In Missouri, Carnahan, the heir of a former governor and a former senator, easily defeated two token opponents. Her Senate bid comes 10 years after the death of her father and one of her brothers in a plane crash. Still waving the bloody shirt, is she?
Carnahan, the two-term secretary of state, will face Blunt, another dynast who has served in the House since 1996 and whose son is a former governor. He beat eight opponents for the GOP nomination, including tea party favorite state Sen. Chuck Purgason. Four-term Sen. Kit Bond is retiring.
Missouri also became the first state to test the popularity of Obama's health care fiasco.
Voters jumped on a new law that prohibits the government from requiring people to have health insurance or from penalizing them from paying for their own health care. That conflicts with a federal requirement that most people have health insurance or face penalties starting in 2014 which means the fed are going to take them to court before the next month is out.
The legal effect is questionable, because federal laws generally supersede those in states, which is why they're going to court. But its passage is a thumb in the eye to Obama and the Democrats.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2010
11:02 ||
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#1
Kilpatrick tried to overcome her son's legal woes by emphasizing her membership on the House Appropriations Committee and what she called her record of providing for the metropolitan Detroit district.
Really. Detroit is such a utopia thanks to folks like Caroline and her scumbag son.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was unhurt on Wednesday after an explosive device, officially described as a firecracker, went off near his motorcade.
Ahmadinejad was on his way to a sports arena to make a speech in Hamedan, south of the capital, when the explosion occurred.
Conservative website Khabaronline, the first source to report the incident initially said a hand grenade was thrown at the hardliner's motorcade but later in the day dropped "grenade" in its report and used the word "firecracker" instead.
"This morning a hand grenade exploded next to a vehicle carrying reporters accompanying the president" the website, close to parliament speaker Ali Larijani, said first.
"Ahmadinejad's car was 100 metres (yards) away and he was not hurt," it said, adding that the alleged attacker was detained.
Iran's Mehr news agency quoting witnesses as saying a "hand-made noise bomb exploded a far distance from the president's car."
"Nobody was hurt and several people have been arrested," the agency said.
Ahmadinejad later delivered his speech and made no reference to the incident.
An official in the president's media office told AFP the explosion was from a "firecracker."
The ISNA and ILNA news agencies also said the blast was caused by a "firecracker," while Fars news agency said a "hand-made grenade" had been thrown at the motorcade.
"After the president's motorcade passed someone threw a hand-made grenade at the vehicles behind it," Fars said.
The agency used the Farsi word "narenjak," which means both a hand grenade of the military sort and a noisy home-made firecracker, the size of a tennis ball, that Iranians set off at festive events such as the New Year fire festival.
"Security agents arrested the person who threw it," Fars said, adding that the incident had "irritated" well-wishers, but not saying if anyone had been hurt.
The incident came only two days after Ahmadinejad repeated his claim that Iran's archfoe Israel wants him dead.
"Stupid Zionists have hired mercenaries to assassinate me," Ahmadinejad said in a televised speech to expatriate Iranians on Monday.
On Tuesday, Iran's foreign ministry spokesman also insisted that the hardliner is on Israel's hit list.
"It is quite evident that the Zionist forces are under state orders to assassinate different figures in the Islamic world," Ramin Mehmanparast told reporters.
"They may dare in their mind to assassinate Islamic world figures as soon as they have access to them and one of the greatest enemies of this regime is Dr Ahmadinejad."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2010
10:30 ||
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#1
bet the little coward left a short round in his shorts, though....
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/04/2010 11:43
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#2
Too bad. Better luck next time, boyz....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/04/2010 19:03
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#3
Bummer!
Posted by: Jefferson ||
08/04/2010 19:18
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#4
Iran is claiming that it was a FIRECRACKER, + NOT A DEDICATED MIL GRENADE OR OTHER.
AFAIK SUPREME CLERIC AYATOLLAH KHAMENI is the true EL SUPREMO/HEFE of the entire Islamist Republic of Iran [includ IRGC] under that country's post-Shah Constitution, NOT MOUD.
* ION WAFF > [Telgraph.UK] IRAN CLAIMS TO HAD SMUGGLED ANTI-AIRCRAFT MISSLES [AAMS/ADS] INTO THEIR COUNTRY.
The leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah on Tuesday accused Israel of assassinating the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, saying he would present "elements" in the sense that will help the investigation led by a UN court. Anybody not see this coming?
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2010
09:54 ||
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Top|| File under: Hezbollah
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has ruled out any unilateral declaration of Palestinian statehood.
"There is not going to be a unilateral declaration of statehood," Fayyad told The Media Line during a private meeting in his office. "What's the point? We did that in 1988, and what did it get us?"
I didn't remember the Paleos had done that. Didn't make much of a difference when they did, huh ...
The statement was a public rejection of increasing calls from minority Palestinian factions to recalibrate the Palestinian struggle away from a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and towards a shared, bi-national, secular and democratic state.
"The Palestinians have used this as a sort of whip to say if we do not move ahead towards the two-state solution, then we will move ahead towards a one-state solution and everything will be lost for Israel by sheer force of democracy," Dr. Shmuel Bar, Director of Studies at the Institute of Policy and Strategy at IDC Herzliya told The Media Line.
"The narrative of 'Palestine from the river to the sea' has always been popular among Palestinians, so when you have a public opinion poll as to whether they would prefer a one-state solution or a two-state solution, you will see a lot prefer a one-state solution. But it's just part of the old vision of liberating all of Palestine and doesn't have an effect on actual political decision-making."
That's a long-winded way of saying that the Paleos are delusional ...
Fayyad has been championing a plan to build national Palestinian institutions so as to create a de facto state over a period of two years, which comes to a close in August 2011. The initiative is known as the 'Fayyad Plan'.
"[Statehood] is not something that is going to happen to the Israelis, nor something that is going to happen to the Palestinians," Fayyad said. "It is something that will grow on both sides as a reality... creating a belief that this was inevitable through the process, a convergence of two paths, the political and the process, from the bottom up and the top down."
"When we started there was skepticism, but I am most encouraged by the growing number of people who now believe it," Fayyad said, referring to the "necessity" to "build a state based on universal principles" and "support the shift and mindset away from violence."
I've said this before: if the Paleos had followed Gandhi instead of Hitler and Arafat, they would have had a country in the 1980s. The Israelis are susceptible to exactly the same social pressure the Brits were susceptible to after World War II: guilt. Peaceful, non-violent protest is the only path the Paleos have to statehood.
Gandhi used that because, in the end, he was by education a Westerner. He had been educated in English law, so he understood Western ideals and mores. The Paleos don't have and don't respect a Western tradition, so the idea of non-violent protest is apparently beyond their comprehension. The Islamic world, and the eastern pre-Islamic world that underpins Islamic thought, has always used violence to gain control, so that's what the Paleos have bought into.
If Fayyad recognizes this and has decided to plough ahead to build a state by non-violent means, he'll be the smartest Paleo in his, and preceding, generations.
The Palestinian Authority's chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said that a one-state solution is not on the table, arguing that any negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel would be based on "the terms of reference of two states and 1967 [borders] with agreed swaps."
"I am against a one-state solution, my option is a two-state solution -- that is the only option for Palestinians and Israelis," he told The Media Line. "We want to reach the end game, we want to end the conflict."
Hillel Frisch, a professor at the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, pointed out that senior Palestinian diplomats would lose out with a one-state solution.
"Fayyad is the prime minister of a quasi-state right now," he told The Media Line. "So he and most of the bureaucrats in the Palestinian Authority have a vested interest in promoting a two-state solution as they would personally only stand to lose if they were to become the leaders of a minority section of a new bi-national state."
That might be true, and it isn't clear to me how much indigenous support Fayyad has. He might have been made PM just to get him out of the way, though usually when the Paleos want to do that they shoot the target in the feet.
"Fayyad gets to Obama and travel[s] in the highest circles, and that's even before a Palestinian state," said Dr. Frisch. "Under a bi-national state he'd become a nobody."
"Fayyad also realizes that a bi-national state is basically a code-word for a continuation of violence," he continued. "Because the only way Israel would ever be compelled into accepting a bi-national state, which Israeli Jews see as their demise, would be through violence."
Most certainly true. Only the hard-core Israeli left would buy into a binational state without being coerced.
Dr. Frisch argued that despite day-to-day diplomacy, the Palestinian Authority, Israel and the US have agreed on the need to delay the formalization of a Palestinian state.
"I think that all sides to the conflict, including the US, are trying to buy time," he said. "That's essential to making sure that Hamas cannot take over."
"The Israelis still incarcerate about 5,000 Palestinians, a high percentage of whom are Hamas members, meaning there is a tremendous swamp that has to be dried before a Palestinian state, and basically, the Israelis are drying it," Dr. Frisch said. "So there is no rush."
Fayyad denied using delay tactics, but has stressed that the state-building process would be long and arduous.
"Our process is predicated upon a shift away from violence towards a positive agenda of state-building," he concluded. "A solid majority of Palestinians support a two-state solution, but only a minority believe it will actually happen. Our plan is to create the sense that a Palestinian state is inevitable."
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/04/2010
09:14 ||
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#1
The Paleos will do whatever is necessary to keep the violence alive, because seething, killing Joooos and dying as martyrs is a lot easier than actually creating and successfully governing a productive state. That's hard work.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/04/2010 18:47
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Last November, Nancy Pelosi was asked if ObamaCare was Constitutional and she replied: "Are you serious?" Two salient points are implicit in Pelosis' statement. Those are: 1. Failed lawyers go into politics and 2. "We don need no steenking Constitution." Pete Stark was making that exact point that just the other day ...
The State of Virginia passed a law which had broad bipartisan support in the State legislature. The law prohibits its citizens from being forced to purchase health care insurance at risk of being fined if they don't. U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson got serious and ruled against Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius' motion to dismiss Virginia's lawsuit. Judge Hudson's ruling paved the way for a trial beginning October 18th (Just in time for the November elections)
which is certain to end up in the Supreme Court of the United States.
Twenty-one states and several individuals are already suing to overturn ObamaCare. Missouri took another avenue similar to Virginia's except Missouri chose to use a referendum to turn aside the ObamaCare. At the heart of these arguments are individual and States' rights versus the rights of the Federal government. If individuals can be compelled to buy health care insurance then they can be compelled to buy anything at the direction of the Federal government depending upon the perceived needs of the government. If ObamaCare stands, individuals could be compelled to buy cars from GM or Chrysler, buy certain kinds of food that are deemed healthy, buy appliances or other products which are determined to impact health, buy stocks from Wall Street firms to keep them solvent, and on and on. The individual basically becomes a servant/slave of the state the purpose of that slave to be determined by central planners in Washington. At that point individual liberties defined by the Constitution cease to exist. The ends justifies the means and social justice have replaced a sacred document which has guided this country for more than two centuries; the U.S. Constitution.
The U.S. Justice Department will sue Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio if he continues to refuse to cooperate with a civil rights investigation.
The Department of Justice Civil Rights Division since March 2009 has been investigating Arpaio's operation for alleged discrimination and for unconstitutional searches and seizures. Arpaio has said he believes the investigation is politically motivated.
In a letter sent to Arpaio today, Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez gave the Sheriff's Office until Aug. 17 to cooperate with the investigation, and to turn over documents requested last year for an inquiry into claims of discrimination based on national origin.
"MCSO's refusal to cooperate fully with the Division's investigation makes it an extreme outlier when compared with other recipients of federal financial assistance, which have uniformly recognized their obligation to cooperate with the Division's investigations of alleged discrimination," Perez wrote.
"Although we would prefer voluntary compliance in this case as well, we will not hesitate to commence litigation after Aug. 17, if MCSO continues to take the position that it need not cooperate with the Division's investigation." The quote from that bureaucrat needs to be framed. In a single sentence, it screams "political attack", "abuse of office", "bureaucratese", "coercive yet unconstitutional federal authority", "doublethink", and "buzzword blahspeak."
#1
The DOJ bigwigs better start purging their files. Darrell Issa becomes chair in a Republican year, and the power of subpoena comes with it. Clear house at DOJ of the corrupt lying racists
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/04/2010 8:57
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Classic case of selective enforcement. This is the DOJ that will do nothing about Black Panthers blocking voter access to a polling station.
#5
I heard Sheriff Joe on the radio yesterday. He said that the DOJ has been investigating him for 18 months to support a racial profiling charge. Apparently it's easier to CLAIM a racial profiling charge than it is to PROVE one. I really cracked up when he said he would arrest demonstrators and lock them in the same jail as illegals. poetic
#6
In a letter sent to Arpaio today, Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez gave the Sheriff's Office until Aug. 17 to cooperate with the investigation, and to turn over documents requested last year for an inquiry into claims of discrimination based on national origin.
"And if we find that the number of illegals people arrested exceeds the fraction of the population that they make up, we'll know for sure that it's discriminatory! Boy, we'd better find representative samplings of little old ladies in wheelchairs, blacks, whites, hippies, babies, and everything! You have to do this with your eyes closed!"
"MCSO's refusal to cooperate fully with the Division's investigation makes it an extreme outlier when compared with other recipients of federal financial assistance, which have uniformly recognized their obligation to cooperate with the Division's investigations of alleged discrimination," Perez wrote.
So, smartypants, where do you suppose the feds get that money that they give back (mostly) to the states, anyway?
THE UN peacekeeping force has confirmed that the tree at the centre of deadly clashes along the Lebanon-Israel border was in Israeli territory.
Lebanese and Israeli troops exchanged fire yesterday in a fierce border battle that killed a senior Israeli officer, two Lebanese soldiers and a journalist.
The violence started when Israeli troops tried to cut down a tree that both sides claimed was in their territory.
Lieutenant Naresh Bhatt, a spokesman for the UN peacekeeping force in south Lebanon, UNIFIL, said yesterday they have determined the tree was in Israeli territory.
The Israeli army has said it is continuing to uproot trees in the area.
Iranian officials have denied that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was targeted in an assassination attempt.
A conservative Iranian website had said an explosive device was thrown at his convoy in the western city of Hamedan, where he was to deliver a speech.
But state-run Press TV said "no such attack had happened", and officials said the confusion was caused by an exploding firework.
Mr Ahmadinejad went ahead with his speech at a football stadium.
"It was a firecracker, and a statement will be released soon," an official in the president's media office told the Agence France-Presse news agency. Something bigger than an M-80, I'm guessing ...
Iranian Al-Alam TV reported that the firecracker was set off to cheer the president.
Earlier, a source in his office told the Reuters news agency that Mr Ahmadinejad's convoy was targeted as he was travelling from the airport.
Dubai-based Al Arabiya television said the attacker threw an explosive device at a car carrying journalists. The attacker was detained, it said.
Other Arab TV reports had said a number of people were wounded in the attack.
Posted by: tipper ||
08/04/2010
06:17 ||
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[22 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
Iranian Al-Alam TV reported that the firecracker was set off to cheer the president
I hope his countrymen continue to try to cheer him in similar, but perhaps more massive style.
#1
...Article starts out well enough but then spirals into absurdity with the "America can be destroyed by one Iranian nuke" part. Add to that the fact that one of the authors runs " a non-profit organization for citizens dedicated to protecting America from man-made or natural electromagnetic pulse (EMP) catastrophe", and they pretty much lost me."
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/04/2010 8:06
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#2
A single EMP strike on the US would devastate its economy but would not destroy the US. AFAIK, nothing has been done to mitigate possible losses. But a real EMP strike requires a nuclear explosion at just the right high altitude over the US.
#3
Without a test, they don't have a nuke bomb. The moment a test is detected, within 30 minutes of confirmation, a chain of events would ensue ensuring they would regret the test retroactively.
Then Israel would already have been destroyed, they would have ten more under their belt, and they would ratchet up their already insane rhetoric, and oil prices just so they could pay for some more.
#6
It was called INTERNATIONAL = INTER-STATE GEOPOL "FRANCHISING" during the POTUS Bush 1 + Clinton Admins.
IRAN HAS THE BOMB > ITS CALLED PAKISTAN + NORTH KOREA, ETC. + "BLACK MARKET" COLD WAR EX-SOVIET NUKES [+ WMDS].
Again, as per the MSM-NET + Perts > Islamist Iran had already procured "dual-use" CHIN SILKWORMS + ditto UKRAINIAN TLCMS + of course the proverbial NOKOR SCUDS.
The ISLMAIST JIHAD is being expanded into CENTRAL-EAST-SOUTH ASIA, IN PART, BECUZ RADICAL ISLAM BELIEVES THEY CAN SUCCESSFULLY DESTABILIZE RUSSIA + CHINA + INDIA, ETC. ENOUGH TO GET CONTROL OF SOME OR ALL OF THEIR NUCWEAPS ARSENALS + ADVANCED MILTECHS, espec iff IRAN + even PAK get invaded by the US-NATO = US-LED ALLIED COALITION.
Again again, 2012-Plus > IMO the REAL DABGER from Iran declaring it is not only a NUCENERGY STATE but also a NUCWEAPS STATE IS NOT IRAN PER SE, BUT THE SPREAD OR PROLIFERAT OF NUCTECHS + ADVANCED MILTECHS TO ISLAMIST + OTHER HIGHLY DECENTRALIZED, ARMED REGIONAL, GLOBAL MILITANT-INSURGENT GROUPS [individuals, Nons, + Cells].
REGIONAL, GLOBAL NUKE-WMD MILITANCY-TERROR THREAT + is why I had said or inferred in past that, as per the 9-11 Event + WOT + "Islamist/Jihadist/Militant Bomb", THE NATURE OF THE THREATS ARE SUCH THAT THE US [+ Allies] MAY HAVE TO DE FACTO CONQUER THE WORLD WHETHER IT WANTS TO OR NOT, + IFF ONLY BECUZ AMER'S ENEMIES DESIRE TO WAGE A PCORRECT/DENIABLE COVERT OR SUBTLE "WAR OF ANNIHILATION" [aka "Aymmetric" = Unilateral Warfare] AGZ THE US WHILE DEMANDING THE US DOESN'T + CAN"T DO SAME AGZ THEM, i.e . THE US MUST BE MORAL WHILE ITS ENEMIES CAN BE IMMORAL.
The Netherlands moved closer Tuesday to a rightist cabinet relying on anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders' support for passing policy, after a royal official said this option must be explored further.
"There is strong political will" on the part of the centre-right VVD, the Christian Democrats (CDA) and Wilders' Party for Freedom (PVV), to reach a cooperation agreement, Ruud Lubbers, an official tasked by the queen with examining post-election coalition options, said in his final report. He recommended closer examination of how a VVD-CDA "minority" coalition could work in firm agreement with Wilders' PVV to give it a parliamentary majority when needed.
Analysts have explained that the "minority government" system currently on the drawing board would see Wilders' party left out of the cabinet but consulted on all policy.
Lubbers said further talks were needed to see whether it was "practically possible" to agree on public spending cuts to the tune of 18 billion euros (24 billion dollars)" -- a plan of the VVD, the biggest party, that Wilders opposes.
On the other hand, agreement will have to be reached on a "common approach to immigration, integration and asylum". This would include negotiations on Wilders' demands for "regulating the dress of public servants" and "raising the level of Dutch language tests" for would-be immigrants.
The CDA initially refused post-election talks with Wilders citing fears for "basic human rights." But as negotiations for a leftist coalition failed, the CDA agreed to new talks though many of its members still baulk at entering into a formal coalition with the PVV.
#1
FTA: "It is not the first time the Guardian has done this. Earlier this year, it publicised a report which claimed to have found a rising tide of anti-Muslim violence in London something simply not supported by the crime figures (which is presumably why the report coyly neglected to give any figures!) This report was co-compiled by a well-known sympathizer of Islamism, Robert Lambert, and funded by the Islamist Cordoba Foundation."
Would this be the Cordoba Foundation that want to build next the WTC in NY?
#2
One of the key techniques of extremists of both the Islamic and the white Right is to frighten and polarise their target audiences with exaggerated claims that they are widely disliked or are under attack. As well as helping recruitment, it furthers the extremists central lie that different races and faiths cannot coexist.
That is why it was so depressing to see todays Guardian fall for a textbook distortion by one of these groups. A news story reported that three quarters of non-Muslims believe that Islam has provided a negative contribution to British society, according to a new poll.
The poll was not in fact a poll, using a representative sample of sufficient size and publicly reported according to the strict standards of the British Polling Council. It was a market research questionnaire of a small (500) and random sample. And though it appears to have been done by a professional firm, its results were totally twisted by iERA, the group which commissioned it, and whose claims the Guardian took entirely at face value.
A repentant, preferring anonymity and nicknamed "Aboul Haithem Ellithi", who used to be within "Katibet El Muhajiroun", has made important revelations on terrorist groups to Ennahar.
During his meeting with Ennahar, Abul Haithem said that national reconciliation is the only legal solution to the security crisis that has shaken Algeria since years. Our interviewee, a native of Sidi Aissa, north of M'sila, acknowledged that his return to normal life was possible thanks to the preacher " Aâid El Karni " and other sheikhs such as Sheikh al Ebikane who called the terrorists to repent and reach national reconciliation. But, says Abul Haithem, the elements of Katibet al Muhajiroun refused to hear these appeals and began to attack the innocent citizens after they were fighting the regime. In fact, he says, people have been fooled. They lied and the fatwa of Sheikh Al Albani were forged and distributed in mosques and on the streets by groups of terrorists who wanted the fight. This had its impact on hundreds of young people who joined the bush for the Jihad.
Proposition C, also known as the Health Care Freedom Act, has been approved by Missouri voters.
Prop C was placed on the ballot as a referendum after being passed by the Missouri Legislature and authorizes Missourians to opt out of the federal healthcare plan passed by Congress earlier this year.
With 2,681 of 3,354 precincts reporting, 72.7 percent of Missouri voters approved the measure.
Tonight is a historic night, said Lt. Governor Peter Kinder. Missourians have the distinction of being the first Americans to go to the ballot box and reject the reckless federal health care takeover. From Massachusetts to Virginia to Missouri, voters are rejecting the extreme liberal agenda being forced upon our nation by an out-of-control federal government.
Kinder has filed a lawsuit against the federal government on behalf of Missouri, claiming the federal healthcare plan is unconstitutional.
Clearly the measure is split down party lines.
Kinder is the only Republican to hold statewide office. Democrats Gov. Nixon and Attorney General Chris Koster did not support the move.
Sen. Jane Cunningham, a Republican, fostered the bill through the Missouri Senate.
Missourians have sent Washington a clear message: stay out of our health care decisions, she said. For more than a year, Americans have taken to the streets to protest the federal governments irresponsible agenda. Washington liberals didnt listen when they rammed through Congress their reckless health care bill but they cant help but hear us now.
Cunningham noted that Prop C does present a conflict with federal law and the case will likey come down to a decision by the Supreme Court.
She also noted that Prop C does not prevent Missourians from participating in the federal healthcare system, it simply gives them a choice.
Four other states will vote on a similar measure in upcoming primaries
#3
so, nearly 73% of Missourians reject serfdom to their betters. Can you smell the Dem desperation this AM?
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/04/2010 7:25
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If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.
- Sun Tzu
Let's just hope the socialists stay in a state of denial through November and simply retrench into recrimination and the usual abusive howling afterward.
#6
And after the Federal judges find it unconstitutional, according to their unwritten-and-doesn't-exist Liberal version of the constitution, the voters will get even more irate.
At this point, I'm not sure that there are judges even worthy of respect. I'm sure there's a few out there, somewhere.
But at this point, they pretty much rank with 'journalists'....ie, Liars, traitors and anti-human bigots until proven otherwise.
Without a massive voter uprising that ends up forming a new party and sweeping it into power long enough to purge government of all the vermin, I'm not sure I can see any solution to getting the country moving back toward founding ideals.
I admit to being normally pessimistic, but even that isn't enough to stop me from getting a bit depressed at how far into the Twilight Zone this country has gone. It's like some weird hybrid of Huxley, Orwell and Pournelle's CoDominium series of Taxpayers and citizens.
Yep, says right here in the constitution, the 28th Amendment - "The Federal Government can do anything it wants". What, it's not in YOUR copy of the constitution? You need to get the new Obama Constitution RIGHT NOW citizen!
The Al Jiz article is about a talk given by Mexican president Felipe Calderon at a security conference where he laments journalists under attack. The real story and problem for Calderon is one of the biggest murder cases broken in northern Mexico in weeks was done through Youtube and a blog with the help of a criminal gang.
by Chris Covert
Even as the international press highlights Mexican president Felipe Calderon's lament about Mexican journalism under attack, he can't explain how his government was alerted to corruption in a Durango state prison uncovered by a combination of a snuff video released by the criminal gang Los Zetas and a tip on a mass murder placed in a blog only two months ago.
Only three days ago two more journalists out of four were released unharmed by Los Zetas after being held until their respective news organizations released several videos purporting to show links between political leaders in Durango and drug cartels.
Four journalists, three electronic and one print, were kidnapped eight days ago while they were finished covering news at the CERESO No. 2 where it was found that the prison director and three of her staff as well as several guards were using prisoners to commit more than 30 murders at Los Zetas operated facilities in Torreon, Coahuila.
Rantburg initial reports on two of the massacres can be found here and here.
What the Mexican national news media hasn't reported is that Los Zetas made local media in Torreon report the news of the videos as well as the content. The fact is that local media did as good a job as it was allowed with the information on hand from the government. But that was not enough for Los Zetas, which precipitated the abductions and the subsequent release of the victims unharmed.
Apparently Los Zetas wanted the credit for the tips leading to the arrests of the CERESO prison staff last week.
The blog Blog del Narco which was responsible for much of the information the government now knows about the Torreon massacres, was also instrumental in releasing information about the intergang gun battle which took place in Tubutama, Sonora July 2nd. In a post was shown photographs which demonstrated the gun battle was in fact a one sided ambush, a detail not released by the Mexican government at any level.
Thanks to Blog del Narco, we now know the Sinaloa supported gang Command X ran into a Los Zetas buzzsaw in the mountains of northern Sonora.
Mexican press are for the most part vigorous and diligent when reporting drug and crime news inasmuch as they rely on state attorneys general for at least their initial information. State governments will release information about confrontations between government forces and drug gangs, but not much in the way of details, and apparently the Mexican press is fine with the arrangement.
The Durango CERESO story with the subsequent kidnapping may be changing all that. Now Los Zetas, as well as other criminal gangs, know they can get invaluable advantage in the information wars simply by pointing out where the corruption is, as they did with the snuff video.
[Straits Times] A POWERFUL earthquake struck waters of eastern Indonesia on Tuesday, but there were no immediate reports of damage and officials said there was no threat of a tsunami.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.3 and was centred off Sulawesi island, around 26 miles (42 kilometers) beneath the ocean floor.
Some buildings shook in Manado, 100 miles east of the epicenter, and in the nearby cities of Bitung and Tondano.
But Deny Hendrawanto, an official at Indonesia's earthquake monitoring office, said there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.
Dr Fauzi, chief of the agency, said there also was no threat of a tsunami. Like many Indonesians, Dr Fauzi uses just one name.
Indonesia straddles a series of fault lines that make the vast island nation prone to volcanic and seismic activity. A giant quake off the country on Dec. 26, 2004, triggered the Indian Ocean tsunami that killed 230,000 people, half of them in Indonesia's westernmost province of Aceh.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2010
00:00 ||
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Methinks I spoke too soon.
See my Post #3 on the RB's "SOLAR TSUNAMI" thread.
#2
ION NEWS KERALA > [ENSEMBLE Euro = German Project]NEW CO2 MODEL TO ENSURE EARTH DOESN'T HEAT UP BEYOND TWO DEGREES, come Year 2100.
and
* SAME > NASA DEMYSTIFIES SPACE "RED GLOW".
IOW, NASA-JPL + USDOD-DARPA have to keep That Guy/Madonna Fan from Guam from roundaboutly detecting discrete RED PRISM LIGHT all over the place WIDOUT DE FACTO US GOVT + OWG PERMISSION.
[Tolo News] Pakistaini President, Asif Ali "President Ten Percent" Zardari in an interview published in France on Tuesday said Coalition forces "are losing the war against the Taliban" in Afghanistan
Mr Zardari in an interview with Le Monde, the French newspaper, said the US and NATO-led coalition forces had "underestimated the situation on the ground" in Afghanistan.
Daily Telegraph, a British newspaper, quotes Mr Zardari as saying, "I believe that the international community, which Pakistain belongs to, is in the process of losing the war against the Taliban. And that is, above all, because we have lost the battle for hearts and minds."
Zardari's comments came after secret US military documents disclosed by WikiLeaks showcased Pakistain's support to the Taliban and terrorist groups.
In a press conference on July 29, President Karzai told reporters that the hard boy's havens should be targeted outside Afghan borders.
UK's Premier, David Cameron, angered Pakistain's President by saying last week that Pakistain should stop looking "both ways" secretly promoting extremism while pretending to seek regional stability.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2010
00:00 ||
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#1
And
NEWS KERALA > [Pak Taliban]TTP TO CONTINUE JIHAD UNTIL PAKISTAN GOVT PARTS WAYS WID US-LED NATO FORCES.
TTP SPOKEMAN AZAM TARIQ > proclaims the US IS NOT SAFE ON ITS OWN SOIL. US is not safe from Taliban, Islamist terror retaliation or response.
* NEWS KERALA > EUROPEAN JIHADIS FLOCK TO PAKISTAN FOR TERROR TRAINING.
* PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > YOUTUBE > [2008 Glen Beck Interview] AL QAEDA READY FOR A NUCLEAR ATTACK ON AMERICA?
* PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > US SECDEF GATES HINTS AT MAJOR GROUND STRIKES AT EXTREMISTS HOLED UP IN PAKISTAN [rising US mil buildup in Eastern Afghanistan agz PAK borders].
* WAFF > SOMALI ISLAMISTS DEMAND CASH + JEWELS [+ "ARMS/WEAPS DONATIONS"] FOR HOLY WAR, agz AU peacekeeping forces + Somali Govt.
[The Nation (Nairobi)] Botswana has said that it will not send troops to Somalia though it can provide logistics to the African Union (AU) force in the war-torn country.
Foreign Affairs Minister Mr Phandu Skelemani told the press in Gaborone that the Botswana Defence Force (BDF) already has its hands full with anti-poaching activities and control of the contagious Foot and Mouth Disease and cannot afford to send troops outside the country.
"We have to protect our wildlife rather than send troops to Somalia," Mr Skelemani said after arriving from the AU Summit in Kampala which called on African countries to send more troops to Somalia.
He regretted that Botswana cannot send troops because of the poaching problem.
"Poachers are killing our wildlife which is our revenue (earner), therefore members of the Botswana Defence Force have been deployed in anti-poaching units as well as fighting Foot and Mouth Disease with other national duties they are now engaged in," he explained.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2010
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[Arab News] The owner of a Saudi ship that was hijacked by Somali pirates in March with 14 crew members said that he made a mistake while speaking to Arab News last week in how much ransom the pirates were demanding.
"I told the reporter that the sum was $20 million. In fact, this was the amount previously demanded by the pirates which was greatly reduced later," said Kamal Arri, the owner of the Al-Nisr.
The ransom money is to be paid by his insurance company once approved by the Saudi Monetary Agency. Arri said he is still worried about the fate of sailors on board the ship and that it is because of this that he was unable to clarify the exact amount earlier to Arab News.
"I am only concerned now with the safe return of all sailors on board. They were desperate. In my last telephone conversation with them yesterday, the Greek captain complained that the pirates were making them sleep on deck while they were using the cabins and rooms themselves, and they have been physically beaten and tortured," he said.
The Al-Nisr, with 13 Sri Lankans and one Greek crew member, was seized on March 1 as it returned from Japan to the Saudi port of Jeddah and was not carrying any oil.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2010
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#1
A ship owner who cares for the welfare of his sailors? Is this Bizarro world?
#2
ION DAILY TIMES. PK > AL QAEDA-LINKED GROUP CLAIM ATTACK ON JAPAN TANKER. The Abdullah Azam Brigades, which is believed to be linked to 2009 + 2006 attacks agz Israel + 2005 attack in Jordan, CLAIMS THE STRIKE WAS A BLOW AGZ THE GLOBAL, OIL ECONOMY.
* WAFF > RUSSIA ASKS GREECE FOR PERMANENT [naval]ANCHORAGE OR NAUTICAL BASE.
Sen. Lindsey Endangered South Carolina RINO Graham (R-S.C.) was officially censured last night by a third Republican county committee in his home state.
The Greenville County Republican Party passed a resolution censuring Graham for "support of President Obama and the Democratic Party's liberal agenda for the United States."
GOP committees in Lexington and Charleston counties had previously censured Graham.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2010
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Anti-American rage is whipped up by the Euromedia, of course, and they are run by the Eurocracy, so we know where it's coming from. We can even guess at the motivation -- after all, America is the only safe target available today. Europeans can't insult the Russians because they are still scared of Moscow. They can't criticize Muslims for fear of being stabbed or head-chopped by some kid on the street. They cannot criticize people who are lazy, who exploit the welfare system, druggies, Islamic fascists, radical leftists, criminals, sexually destructive people, or anyone else. The Nanny State has made itself the guardian of all those pitiable folk, and it will not tolerate a word of criticism. It is a kind of reign of terror -- an upside-down Victorian morality, but just as intolerant.
...Except for attacking Israel, that is, which is just as safe a target as America. If you insult a Muslim teenager who wants to pick your pockets, you might get stabbed. But it's fine to sneer at Israel because the Mossad is not going to come after you. They have other things to worry about. As a result, all the instruments of social control -- teachers, cops, politicians, media -- have turned tail in the most cowardly fashion. Cowardice is the reigning creed in Europe today. It is a poor substitute for Christianity.
Euromediots insist that attacking Israel is fine because that's not anti-Semitic, but that is a distinction without a difference. The Left in Europe has recruited radical leftist Jews to serve as fronts for anti-Israel agitprop, just as Obama has done with J Street. But of course, those genetic Jews are not Jews in the sense of feeling any real attachment to their people. They are leftist ideologues, like Leon Trotsky. They have found a secular religion, and they don't care whom they shoot as long as it promotes the agenda. In a very important sense, they are un-Jewish -- not because they are irreligious, but because they are hostile to the welfare of their own people. And the un-Jewish left peddles the bizarre notion that Israel doesn't allow for rational criticism of its policies. Go to Israel, and all you hear is political criticism. The Knesset sounds like a wrestling ring. Free speech is all over the place.
People like Chomsky truly hate Israel with a dreadfully emotional hatred. It doesn't look healthy. But it is enthusiastically applauded on the Left. Chomsky has made his leftist career out of it...which tells us all we need to know.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2010
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#1
Excellent Article!!
JudeoChristians values were once such a part of the fabric of Western society that we mistakenly believed that they were just a natural part of human nature and not learned behaviors right along with reading, writing, arithmetic and brushing your teeth. It is easy to see, looking back now, that the world is a much more cruel place when the ugly side of human nature is taught to be indulged rather than controlled.
But he really nails this one.
I don't see much to be hopeful about anymore. Middle Eastern and other countries have been able to use the trick of blame for thousands of years and their people still haven't gotten a clue. Same trick, works every time.
It didn't use to work in Western Societies because children learned the ten commandments as well as concepts of charity, forgiveness and that we are all equal under the eyes of God. No longer. Why is anyone really surprised?
Posted by: Martini ||
08/04/2010 1:45
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[Dawn] Clashes that killed at least 40 people overnight in Karachi scared residents off its streets on Tuesday as Pakistan's largest city was on alert for more violence after the shooting of a leader in a dominant political party.
Police said more than 90 people were maimed and dozens of vehicles and shops torched as mobs who took to the streets after Raza Haider, a member of the provincial Sindh Assembly from the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM), was bumped off on Monday along with his hired muscle while attending a funeral.
The government blamed the Pak Taliban and the banned militant group Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) for the killing of the lawmaker. I'm not too sure what they mean by "banned." It doesn't seem to mean dissolved, its members arrested or dispersed.
Twenty people have been selectively jugged in connection with the violence, federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik told the Senate on Tuesday.
The violence once again raised fears of instability in Karachi, a city of 18 million and Pakistan's commercial hub, Instability in Pakistain? How could you tell?
and about the flight of Taliban militants to the city after army offensives against their bases in Pakistan's northwest.
Some analysts said the violence could ultimately affect the economy. Karachi is home to the country's main port, the central bank and the stock exchange, which has so far seen thin trade and will close an hour early because of the violence. "This obviously raises concern and anxiety, and if these things continue, Pakistan's economy gets undermined," said Hasan-Askari Rizvi, a political and security analyst. "It is a pathetic situation and exposes the helplessness of the government to perform its basic duty towards its citizens," said Rizvi. That's assuming the government doesn't see its basic duty as milking the citizenry...
The stock market was open on Tuesday but trade was dull and attendance thin due to security concerns. "Okay, honey! I'm about to leave for the stock exchange!"
[BANG! BANG! BANGETY BANG!]
"Y'know, I think I'll take the day off. We don't spend enough time together..."
The main index was flat by 1:00 pm (0800 GMT), but dealers said the violence could dampen investor sentiment.
Police and officials said that they also found evidence suggesting that militants had planned a suicide kaboom during Haider's funeral, scheduled for later on Tuesday.
"On the basis of evidence available at the moment, it (the killing of Haider) was carried out by the Tehrik-e-Taliban and Sipah-e-Sahaba," Malik told reporters in Islamabad. Two branches of the same organization...
The MQM, a coalition partner in the federal as well as the provincial Sindh government, renewed calls for a crackdown on militants after the killing of its lawmaker. "For the past 3 to 4 years we have been pointing out and giving evidence about the presence of Taliban and extremists in Karachi," said Wasay Jalil, a spokesman for the MQM. "We were ridiculed at that time. But now everyone is admitting that the Taliban and the SSP are here."
POLITICAL FORCES AND ARMED GROUPS
On Tuesday, a day after the killing, Karachi was tense as police and paramilitary troops patrolled deserted streets. Hyderabad, the second largest city of the province, was also largely deserted as were other towns after the MQM called for three days of mourning. "This could be the last nail in the coffin and could be disastrous for the stock market because as it is, volume has been below average and this may lead to foreign investors exiting the market," said Sajid Bhanji, a director at brokerage Arif Habib Ltd, of Haider's killing and the ensuring violence.
Karachi has a long history of mindless ethnic, religious and sectarian violence. It was a main target of al Qaeda-linked militants after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, when Pakistan joined the US-led campaign against militancy, and foreigners were attacked in the city several times. "All political forces in Karachi have their armed groups," Rizvi said. "And then there are a lot of other groups - criminal, sectarian, drug mafia." "Most of the city's inhabitants are murderous lunatics, y'know..."
Including last night's death toll, officials say at least 193 people have been killed in hits since the start of the year, although analysts and political parties say the number is likely much higher.
Mohajirs, the descendants of Urdu-speakers who migrated from India after the creation of Pakistan in 1947, are the biggest community and dominate the city's administration through the MQM. It is also home to the largest concentration of ethnic Pashtun primitives outside the northwest.
Government officials also say criminals, including drug lords competing for turf in the city's teeming neighbourhoods, take advantage of the tension, complicating the police's difficulties.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2010
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi says Iran's armed forces have prepared "enemy-crushing, defensive plans" to make infidels regret their actions in case of any attack.
Vahidi's remarks came in response to Sunday statements of the US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen, who envisioned a military strike against Iran to deter Iran from acquiring "nuclear weapons." ... that would "explode" and "kill" lots of "people"...
"Such statements not only associate with fascism literature and contradict their [Americans'] peace-seeking claims, but also indicate their failure against the Iranian nation's strong will," IRNA quoted General Vahidi as saying on Tuesday, prior to his trip to the Jordanian capital, Amman. They have nothing at all to do with fascism, and might have something to do with Iran's occasional blood-curdling threats and penchant for face-making...
Earlier on Saturday, the Iranian defense minister vowed inauguration of some defense projects as practical response to recent anti-Iran sanctions. "What kinda projects?"
"Defense projects!"
On June 9, the UN Security Council (UNSC) adopted a resolution imposing a fourth round of sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program. Following the UNSC sanctions, the United States, the European Union, Canada and Australia passed more sanctions against Iran's banking and energy sectors.
The US and its allies are accusing the Islamic Republic of being after nuclear weapons, but Iran strongly rejects the claim. Iran says as a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, its nuclear activities are in the framework of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
While the US possesses and has used nuclear weapons in the past, ... and is becoming increasingly likely to do so again, given the exigencies of "pay me now, pay me later with interest"...
Washington, in a politically-motivated move, is imposing unilateral sanctions against Iran, which does not possess nuclear weapons nor does it seek to develop such weapons.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2010
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#1
I prefer to describe it as IRAN DOING A "CHEONAN", or in the absence therein a NORTH KOREAN-STYLE "BUILDING/USING OUR [future?] NUCLEAR DETERRENCE" rant.
In the interim, 2010-2012,
To wit,
* WAFF/TOPIX > HIZBOLLAH WARNS OF [retaliatory]VIOLENCE IN WAKE OF [Lebanon-Israel] BORDER CLASH.
PRE-CLASH > Lest we fergit, HAMAS is planning to impose a MILITARY DRAFT of young Paleo Men to support PA security, espec agz Israel.
[The Nation (Nairobi)] An Angolan court jailed four people Tuesday over links to a militant group which carried out a deadly gun attack on Togo's football team during the Africa Cup of Nations in January, local media said.
The court in the restive northern enclave of Cabinda found the four, described by Human Rights Watch as activists, guilty of crimes against state security, Catholic broadcaster Radio Ecclesia said.
The trial has been sharply criticised by rights groups that accused the government of using the attacks to justify a crackdown on critics.
University professor Belchior Lanso was sentenced to six years in prison, lawyer Francisco Luemba and Catholic priest Raul Tati to five years each, and former police officer Jose Benjamin Fuca to three years, the radio said.
The shooting attack during the Africa Cup of Nations, which killed two members of the Togolese national team, was claimed by the separatist guerrilla movement Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC).
The four men were arrested because they had documents about FLEC and had travelled to Paris for meetings with exiled leaders.
A total of nine people were arrested in connection with the Togo attack, but only two of them have any direct link to the shooting, according to Human Rights Watch.
One meeting had been requested by a government-backed mediator, according to Jose Marcos Mavungo, an independent human rights activist who monitored the trial.
Mavungo said the trial had been marked by contradictory evidence from the state about the nature of the charges, which initially appeared to centre on the shooting itself but later focussed on the meetings in Paris.
Radio Ecclesia said demonstrators gathered outside the courthouse Tuesday to protest the trial, as heavily armed riot police guarded the building.
FLEC separatists have been fighting for Cabinda's independence for more than three decades.
Despite a peace deal in 2006, FLEC factions continue to wage low-level attacks in the oil-rich province that is separated from the rest of Angola by a strip of territory belonging to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2010
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Tamaulipas news organizations are worthless in reporting criminal gang news so the government has to resort to Twitter to communicate with its citizens about ongoing gang violence.
UPDATED with video taken yesterday. Comments in the article which posted the video say as 1600 hrs. fighting is still going on.
The city government of Reynosa, Tamaulipas communicating through Twitter has advised its citizens to stay indoors because of a number of "narcobloques" in the city, according to the Mexican daily Milenio.
Blocks have been emplaced by criminal gangs at Calle 20th and Bulevar Morelos in the Puentes Gemelos district and on Bulevar Hidalgo. Blocks are a certain indicator of violence where they take place.
Street blocks are a tactic employed by criminal gangs as a counter to police and military authorities against movement and deployment. It is used extensively by Los Zetas.
Reynosa has been the scene of numerous encounters between the Mexican Army and Marines, and criminal gangs in the recent past the last of which was an armed confrontation between the Mexican Army and suspected drug criminals July 15th which killed two suspects.
In other news in Reynosa, the government in Reynosa advised citizens through Twitter to avoid the area around Bulevar Hidalgo because of an explosive device which detonated in front of the store Soriana Tianguis Hidalgo. No injuries were reported and only minor property damage was reported.
THI-QAR / Aswat al-Iraq: Security forces on Tuesday defused two bombs in southern and northern Nassiriya and found a weapons cache, according to a security source.
The forces removed a 10 kg anti-shields bomb in Saba field in southern Nassiriya on the road between Thi-Qar and Basra, the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
The other bomb was defused on the road in al-Refaie district, northern Nassiriya, between Thi-Qar and Diwaniya, he added.
The forces found a weapons cache in a deserted house in Abada region, he said, noting it contains hand grenades and mortar shell.
Nassiriya, the capital of Thi-Qar, lies 380 km south of Baghdad.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/04/2010
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BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: The upcoming meeting between the Kurdistan Alliance and heads of political blocs in the Iraqi Parliament has been postponed until further notice, Kurdish Lawmaker Sardar Abdullah said on Tuesday. Maybe Iraq is better off without a parliament. I think they should hire the Czech Republic's...
"The meeting was supposed to occur during the coming days, but the meeting has been postponed until an unnamed appointment," Abdullah told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
He explained that the Kurdistan Alliance was planning to propose a plan of 16 items to solve the current political dispute in Iraq and distribute the three major posts in the country, Presidency, Premiership, and Parliament's Speakership.
"The meeting has been put on hold because negotiations between political blocs have reached no tangible results," Abdullah added.
He expected that negotiations could be resumed at the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/04/2010
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Liberal asshat filmmaker Michael Moore, in an interview with CNN's Larry King, compared the suspected WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning with witnesses of Nazi atrocities testifying at Nuremberg.
He's saying that Manning is a Nazi? Oh, no, he's saying that Manning is fighting Nazis. The Taliban are Nazis? No, our government are Nazis. You know, the government led by Barack Obama.
"He essentially followed the Nuremberg principles," Moore claimed, "which is when you see something going on like this, when you see war crimes being committed, when you see lies being told in order to bring a country to war, you have to speak out against it."
Same thing when you're dumped by your boyfriend, you push a lot of classified files into the public. No difference at all.
Moore thought that Manning "is exactly who we want in our armed forces," and deserves the Profile in Courage award for helping to make the WikiLeaks public knowledge. "You can't just line up and be a good German and do what you're told to do," Moore said in defense of Manning's audacity.
Let's have someone rummage through fat boy's personal files and see what he says then.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#1
Moore thought the Arizona immigration law "disgusting," and added that he planned to boycott the state, by not having his films screened there, until the law is changed.
Awwwwww geez, Mike, say it ain't so....
Losing Bush as a punching bag ruined this slob's schtick. Ouside of geriatric talk show hosts, who the hell cares anymore, Mike?
#6
Moore thought the Arizona immigration law "disgusting," and added that he planned to boycott the state, by not having his films screened there, until the law is changed.
Like states need more incentive?
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/04/2010 7:57
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#7
Lumpy Riefenstahl
AC,
You owe me one new monitor.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/04/2010 8:25
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#8
He war already irrelevant, and now he's Godwined himself.
Prof. Hansen nails a topic that I've often discussed with my colleagues at the University.
The American poor live better than many, many people on this planet. We have more affluence and use that, in the ways Prof. Hansen describes, to provide our poor, even our illegal immigrant poor, with a live that they simply couldn't have in most of Africa, much of South and Latin America, and big chunks of Asia. Be it medical care, food, clothing or cell phones, our poor do better than the poor of the world, and as Prof. Hansen notes, better than the upper middle class of the 1960s.
It's progress, I suppose, though at some level it is also grating, since as an upper middle income person (for which I make no apologies) I am to a fair extent supporting this. A progressive person would point out that it's the price I pay for my own success.
But I fear that our poor, precisely because they live a life in America that they couldn't live elsewhere, are being robbed. Robbed of their incentive, robbed of any desire to get ahead, robbed in the end of their own dignity.
I take care of the poor in my clinic at the University. Frequently my interview with such a patient is interrupted. By their cell phone. "I'm with the doctor now, honey, hush," they say, as they answer and then look at me with some embarrassment. I shrug. It's just the way things are.
I'm grateful that we don't have starving beggars on our streets (we do have professional beggars in our intersections, and I wish the Chicago cops would do their jobs). I appreciate that only the hard-core are homeless. I pitch in and provide medical care. This is all good.
But I wish we had a better ethic about it. In that I think Prof. Hansen and I would agree.
It has always bothered me when some limo lefty who can't imagine not living in their lovely suburb in a 4000 square foot house with all the accoutrements spouts self righteously about how being on welfare brings its own shame and disincentive to continue living in "squalor". Based upon the experiences of humans over millions of years, EVERY welfare recipient in the U.S. is living better, with better nutrition, medicine, and shelter than about 98% of all the people who have ever lived.
For individuals who only care about being clothed, fed, and housed, welfare is paradise, and there is NO incentive to do anything else. As long as welfare in its current state exists, they'll literally never do anything to change or improve.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
08/04/2010 6:09
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#3
If you go to the four corners area to see the Navajo or the Dakotas to see the Sioux, there in the hinterland you can still see and feel real 'traditional' poverty, greatly assisted by one of the oldest 'progressive' governmental organizations, the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The problem for society in addressing such poverty is 'guilt'. It obstructs real progress which can not come without some pain.
Now there are other locations which have such 'traditional' poverty but in such small numbers as to be blended into the social economic landscape. The fundamental problem with 'traditional' poverty is that to over come it requires that the individual take responsibility to do just that. The bulk of such poverty can be distilled in four major categories; substance abuse, creating children before one has the means to support them, wasting one's existence (being a zombie) in educational opportunities, and keeping to the 'old' ways. Each is a choice for there are others in the exact same social economic conditions who 'choose' not to follow those patterns who do succeed. Other people's choices should never be your guilt.
Seven trillion dollars spent on anti-poverty programs and initiatives since the War on Poverty was declared by President Johnson in the 60s. Time past to declare victory and get out.
#4
But we don't have enough money to treat the mentally retarded properly. We just turn them out on the streets to meet whatever fate awaits them with no protection. Maybe they should vote more often.
#5
Steve: There is one element of all of this, of which most people are blissfully unaware. This is that we are now, since the end of WWII, living in a Keynesian economy, an experimental economy, fundamentally different from the economy that existed before the Great Depression.
And the experiment is collapsing.
This is not so much because of the generosity of the wealthy, but generosity far beyond anyone's means. Easy credit taken to a nonsensical degree, and indifferent to the debt it created.
For a long time it worked. It was responsible for America's profound growth after the war. It allowed us to build a military that dominates the world, while at the same time giving vast largess to everyone.
And for a long time it worked. The money was used for tangible and efficient ends. But ironically, its death knell began, not with uplifting the poor, but efforts to equalize their prosperity with those that had earned their prosperity.
No sane or tangible reason to do this--it was based in a flawed and failed philosophy of equalized ends, not equalized means to different ends.
Things like subprime loans come to mind. But at the same time, and far worse in consequences, the wise investment of careful debt was forgotten. Instead, vast debt was accrued solely to satiate the gambling of speculators.
There was no will or effort to stop this, or even to get control over it, or mitigate it. It became an orgy of spending, for the sake of spending. Of debt accumulation for no reason. Because if you are in such debt that you can never repay it, why not double, triple, or quadruple that debt?
So what will come of this, because most certainly it is soon coming to an end? To start with, the poor were given their chance. And for most of the poor, they blew it, as one would expect them to do, having already shown incapability for prosperity. But some succeeded.
Yet at the same time, there are now in the middle classes many people who are themselves too incapable to remain in the middle classes without support. And many of them are soon to augment the poor.
Millions of people, right now, are becoming "99'ers", in that they have used up all 99 weeks of extended unemployment compensation. And each one of them now has only their meager resources left before they become part of the poor.
Now someone, likely the government, is blatantly manipulating the stock markets to sustain stock prices. With little effort at concealment, offers for huge blocks of shares are made by computer, driving up prices, then the orders are canceled within a few fractions of a second, before sell offers arrive.
But this highly illegal technique only works until there is some economic crisis. These days, most likely, something like a sovereign default by some country.
So, what of the poor? The gravy train is ending, so they will be in a sink or swim proposition, and soon. Likely there will be an end to cash payments, free medical care, perhaps all other aid but food aid.
They will back where they started from, before the government decided to uplift them.
#6
-- #5 - excellent summary of the current crisis
--- But this highly illegal technique only works until there is some economic crisis. Lots of other highly illegal things have been &/or are continuing to be done to perpetuate and exacerbate the current crisis. The administration and DOJ is doing nothing to stop the looting and start prosecuting using the laws we already have against some of the greatest malefactors in world history (based on dollar value of their crimes). The recent financial regulations passed have been carefully devised to look good on the surface and do essentially nothing about the core of the problem.
-- Should the gravy train Steve mentioned run out for a sufficient number of our poor, life in the US will take a turn for the worse, for all of us.
#11
This is that we are now, since the end of WWII, living in a Keynesian economy, an experimental economy, fundamentally different from the economy that existed before the Great Depression.
Not quite true. We have been debasing our currency since 1916, the era of the glorious segregationist and warmonger Wilson. We did not deflate after WWI as we had after all our other wars. We did suffer some deflation in the early Depression, but it's been inflation ever since. It is inflation and the growth of the credit (as opposed to the savings) economy that have been our Achilles heel. The rest of the results come from having too much money as a result of being able to print it with a press instead of earn it with labour.
No worse than in the past. The usual 'bright spots' will ignite themselves. There may even be some spreading of the behavior into 'gun free zones'. However, the last big riot in LA, the Koreans who armed themselves were generally left alone. One can see the effect come into play when the local 'authorities' are unable to deal with the situation. The distribution system will certain collapse in some neighborhoods as it did in New Orleans in the wake of Katrina, but this will be a self inflicted wound. Unlike Katrina, the only sympathy the perps will find, regardless of color, race or creed will be the entry in the dictionary between sh*t and syphilis. Collective guilt will have have a zero effective range in those conditions. Push the middle class into self preservation and just step back and watch the show. It won't be nice but it is predictable.
#1
A Better Way to Freeze Rat Sperm (Columbia, MO) - $180,935
AKA the Levi Johnston Project
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/04/2010 7:55
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#2
What no money for a study of the effects of passing an Amendment that would require Congresscritters to live under the same laws they pass for others?
WELLINGTON New Zealand suffered its first combat death in Afghanistan since deploying troops there in 2003 when a soldier was killed on patrol, the government and defence officials said Wednesday.
The death was confirmed by Prime Minister John Key in a statement from Vanuatu, where he is attending the Pacific Forum. "This is New Zealand?s first combat loss in Afghanistan and reinforces the danger faced daily by our forces as they work tirelessly to restore stability to the province," Key said.
Two other soldiers were seriously wounded in the attack on Tuesday, but their injuries were not considered life threatening. A local interpreter was also injured.
Defence Force chief Lieutenant General Jerry Mateparae said the attack took place in Bamiyan Province and the soldiers were members of the New Zealand military reconstruction team based there. "Three New Zealand vehicles which made up the patrol came under a complex attack by as yet unknown assailants," Mateparae said."We believe that an improvised explosive device or IED was detonated and then the patrol came under fire from two positions with rocket-propelled grenades and other small arms fire."
New Zealand has a contingent of 140 personnel carrying out reconstruction work in Bamiyan while a task force of 70 members of New Zealand's elite special forces are in Afghanistan and believed to be operating in Kabul.
#2
They were also in Vietnam but the legacy media, the academic history establishment, and various other VC propagandists and agitprop outlets would prefer that you not know that either.
#4
We had a handful of New Zealand intelligence people come to our compound at Tan Son Nhut for a week to become familiar with the Ho Chi Minh trail road network. Our unit also had a handful of Australians working in our building (ran into one of them online a couple of years ago - GOOD people!). MSgt Han would never forgive me if I left him (ROK Marine) out. Their compound was right next to ours. Only saw the Thais occasionally - they liked our BX. From what I've read at Rantburg, as many as 80 countries are represented in either Afghanistan or Iraq. Quite a "unilateral" effort on old George's part.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/04/2010 20:40
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#2
The leader of the Islamic Center of Irvine, Sheik Sadullah Khan, is very progressive. He was recently removed; I think its because he was liberal. For example, he thought that men and women should be allowed to shake hands.
This statement is one of the most frightening in the interview. The fact that someone is considered a wild reformer if they believe men and women can shake hands tells you what Islam is like.
The other frightening thing is how UC Irvine denied her financial aid once she became an apostate.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
08/04/2010 11:26
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Saying "I'm very comfortable where I am," Sen. Ben Cornhusker Kickback Nelson (D-Neb.) indicated Tuesday he will not switch to the Republican Party -- or become an independent.
Nelson, a chameleon who's broken with his party on a number of key issues during this Congress, said he enjoys a great deal of flexibility as a Democrat, which wouldn't be the case if he were to join the GOP.
"I don't believe so," Nelson said on KLIN radio in Nebraska when asked if he'd become a Republican.
The GOP, Nelson said, "doesn't seem to be" a party with a very large ideological tent.
"Certainly, if you look at the partisan votes recently," he said, "it's been pretty much lockstep, and I'm not one who's comfortable being that way." "The chameleons have been getting thrashed everywhere you look!"
Nelson has arguably been the Senate's most slippery Democrat over the past year and a half, having opposed several jobs packages without budget offsets, the Supreme Court nomination of Elena Kagan, and elements of healthcare reform, including the so-called "public option" favored by many in his party's base. But in the end he was available for the right price...
His voting record led some to think he might bolt to the GOP or follow the path of Sen. Joe Lieberman (Conn.), who ran for reelection as an independent in 2006 after having lost a Democratic primary. Lieberman still caucuses with Democrats but sometimes also breaks with his party's leaders.
Nelson rejected such a move, saying he still feels very comfortable within the Senate Democratic Caucus.
"I'll put it this way: I don't think you leave your party, your party leaves you. And my party hasn't left me," he said. "My party gives me a great deal of latitude to do what I think is right on the basis of policy and interests, rather than just what party philosophy seems to be. So I'm very comfortable where I am."
Nelson is up for reelection in 2012, leading to some suggestions that his voting record may be aimed more at protecting his reelection effort than anything else.
"I'm an independent-minded person, so some folks back in Washington have a difficulty in understanding that you can be independent-minded," he said. "Because this is a partisan town, and when you approach things in a bipartisan way, you don't fit into the mold or the category that they have all set for you."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2010
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#1
The GOP, Nelson said, "doesn't seem to be" a party with a very large ideological tent.
translation - it still has people of influence and position who believe in the Constitution as written.
#2
Good riddance, you useless turd - we wouldn't want you anyway. Hope you're "comfortable" with two years of irrelevancy followed by an ignominious passage into retirement come the '12 election.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
08/04/2010 9:05
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#3
In general, we are better off without these clowns, but if it means the difference between a majority in the Senate we should be willing to write a very generous check.
[Dawn] A suicide bomber on foot detonated explosives outside the main foreign military base in Afghanistan's southern Kandahar on Tuesday, killing himself, but there were no reports of any other casualties, officials said.
A spokeswoman for NATO-led forces in Kabul, Lieutenant Commander Katie Kendrick, said there was small-arms fire outside the base and that the bomber had tried to gain access through one of the gates.
"The suicide bomber failed to gain access and then detonated his explosives, killing himself. This appears to be an unsuccesful and unorganised attack," said Kendrick. This appears to be a different kaboom than the attack that the Talibs claim killed 150 infidels.
Kendrick did not have any more details on the attack or how many people were involved and said there were no reports so far of any other casualties.
A Reuters witness inside the base said he heard what sounded like two rockets followed by gunfire.
Kandahar Air Field, 25 km outside Kandahar city in southern Afghanistan, is the largest foreign military base in the country and home to tens of thousands of troops and civilian workers.
The airfield often comes under insurgent rocket attack but it is rare for militants to launch a ground assault on the sprawling and heavily fortified base. One in May, however, left a number of troops and civilian staff wounded.
Kandahar, the spiritual home of the Taliban, is the main focus of Washington's strategy to try to turn the tide against the insurgency this year.
Thousands of US troops are engaged in operations in outlying districts while others have moved inside the city with Afghan police in a bid to bring better security.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2010
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#1
Had front row seats for that one, things DID NOT go well for the Splodey-Dopes. The Bulgarian Boyz chewed them up rickey-tick, completely one sided. The boomers made quite a racket, kicked up a little dust, tidied up the Gene Pool a bit. None of our folks got Kilt, minor scratches and scrapes at worst. How do you get rid of an intact Suicide vest on a dead Evil-Doer? You blow it in place.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/04/2010 8:12
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#5
Thanks for the on-the-scene report, Bodyguard. Stay safe.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/04/2010 11:14
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#6
How do you get rid of an intact Suicide vest on a dead Evil-Doer?
I hope you guys don't bother checking too close as to whether or not the accused is wearing a suicide vest or is even dead. Reduce them to very fine particles & THEN check all you want.
The raising of livestock consumes two-thirds of the planet's farmland, and is a major source of greenhouse gases. Meanwhile, tons of edible, sustainable protein swarms all around us, free for the taking. In a new policy paper being considered by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Belgian entomologist Arnold van Huis makes the sensible recommendation that the western world eat more insects.
Farming edible insects like mealworms and crickets would produce far less greenhouse gas -- 10 times less methane and 100 times less nitrous oxide -- than the large mammals we currently farm. Insects are metabolically much more efficient, which makes them far cheaper to feed and raise; and, since they're so biologically different from humans, they are less subject to contagious disease scares like mad cow. They are high in protein and calcium, and, with over 1,000 edible species, offer plenty of delicious variety.
In April, the FAO started a pilot locust-farming project in Laos, where entomophagy is not unheard of, but where it's been in decline under the cultural influence of the West. According to the Guardian, 15,000 household farmers already raise locusts in Thailand, and that expertise can be transferred elsewhere.
Introducing a bug-rich diet to the western world might be more of a challenge, although it's certainly not unheard of. A British author named Vincent Holt published an essay advocating it in 1885, along with a nice selection of menus -- moths on toast, anyone? -- in a pamphlet called Why Not Eat Insects?
Van Huis proposes a two-phase plan: first just farming insects to feed to more conventional livestock; and then gradually introducing them directly to the menu for humans. "We're looking at ways of grinding the meat into some sort of patty, which would be more recognizable to western palates," he says.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2010
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Van Huis proposes a two-phase plan: first just farming insects to feed to more conventional livestock; and then gradually introducing them directly to the menu for humans. "We're looking at ways of grinding the meat into some sort of patty, which would be more recognizable to western palates," he says.
A good place to start? The cafeteria at the Whorehouse on Turtle Bay.
#6
I'm not above eating bugs in survival situations. I've often said if a plague of locusts eats my crops, then I will grow fat on the locusts. But in the meantime, let the third world's burgeoning and unsustainable population eat insects, I'll eat what I can grow and raise.
#8
August 2030. A consumer unit pulls up to the window of a McDonald's collective in his luxury, automobile, a 50cc cardboard tricycle, and places an order:
"I'll have a Bug-mac with a large order of flies."
"D'you want to super-size that, sir?" says the attendant, a destitute former capitalist.
"No, but leave off the mashed roach sauce, I hate the stuff."
#13
This is no surprise, because once a year, for decades now, delegates to the UN general assembly have voted that fried grasshoppers are their favorite snack. I'm not kidding.
Add that to the fact that, even though the western delegates have advanced degrees, the average education of *all* delegates is 5th grade. From a quarter to a third of delegates are illiterate, so are reliant on audio interpretation.
Several times, a resolution has almost passed, that would include varieties of "drum" as interpreted audio language.
And yet leftists still thing having these people rule the world would be a good idea.
#21
the EyeWitless news always carries the same shit when Cicadas come out: how to bread and fry em, blah blah. Hey newslady? You first, you last, and no cheeseburgers in between. Keep munching!
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/04/2010 19:21
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* DAILY TIMES.PK > {PAK Federal Minster on Envrionment HAMEDULLAH] CLIMATE CHANGE PROMPTING HEAVY RAINS AND FLOODS, in PAK + around the World.
and
* WMF > RUSSIA, CANADA SUFFER HIGH PRICES FOR GRAIN CROPS AS GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS WORSENS.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Israel warned Leb on Tuesday it would face "consequences" if there were further disturbances along the northern border, just hours after a deadly exchange of fire.
"Israel sees the government of Leb as responsible for this grave incident and warns of consequences in the event that disturbances of this kind continue," a statement from office of Foreign Minister Avigdor "You lunatics better quit messing with us!" Lieberman said.
The rare cross-border exchange of fire, which killed two Lebanese soldiers, a Lebanese journalist and a senior Israeli officer, was the most serious violence along the frontier since a 2006 war between Israel and Lebanese Hezbullyhard boys.
There were also Lebanese reports of an undetermined number of Israeli soldiers wounded.
"It started when the Israelis wanted to cut a tree down inside Leb. Except that it was on the Israeli side and had been coordinated with the UN...
The Lebanese army fired warning shots at them ... killing the officer in charge...
and they responded by shelling," said a security source in Leb.
The Israeli foreign ministry said Lieberman had instructed Israel's delegation to the United Nations to lodge formal complaints with the evanescent Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Security Council.
It said Israeli troops had been operating on the Israeli side of the border, in coordination with U.N. peacekeepers in Leb, when they came under fire.
Hezbullies will not respond Hezbullies chief Hassan Nasrallah said his hard boys had been ordered not to react following the clashes but that his group would not stand silent if Israel attacked the Lebanese army in the future. Did anybody but me notice that this little incident comes as the UN's Hariri investigation is about to name Hezbollah? It's just so coincidental, though I'm sure it's all perfectly innocent, could happen to anybody...
"We told our hard boys to hold back, not to do anything," Nasrallah said in a speech transmitted via video link to thousands of supporters massed in Hezbullies's stronghold in Beirut's southern suburbs. ... which are due to be leveled next time the balloon goes up...
However Nasrallah added that "I say honestly, that in any place where the Lebanese army will be assaulted and there's a presence for the resistance, and it is capable, the resistance will not stand silent, or quiet or restrained. The Israeli hand that targets the Lebanese army will be cut off." "Give us a little while longer to listen to our own propaganda and as soon as our Persian satraps give the word we're gonna roll. I'll be out of the line of fire well before the festivities start, naturally, but we'll have the old video link fired up quick enough!" In breach of the resolution
The Israeli foregin ministry statement said the Lebanese attack was a "clear breach" of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended a devastating 2006 war between Lebanese Shiite Hezbullies and Israel and beefed up the U.N. Interim Force in Leb (UNIFIL), charged with overseeing a ceasefire between the two enemies.
For its part, the Israeli military blamed the Lebanese army for the clashes that occurred along the border, saying it bore "full responsibility" for the incident.
Lebanese Officials, however, said it was Israel which was in breach of the resolution. "The president denounces the new Israeli violation of Resolution 1701, which includes ... the bombing of a Lebanese army checkpoint and attacks on Lebanese property," a statement released by President Michel Suleiman's office said.
Meanwhile Prime Minister Saad Hariri condemned the "violation of Lebanese sovereignty and demands ... the United Nations and the international community bear their responsibilities and pressure Israel to stop its aggression," a statement from his office said.
And the Lebanese military said: "We hold Israel's arrogance responsible" for the clashes.
The fatalities were the first suffered by either side since the 2006 war in which 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in Leb, along with 158 Israelis, mostly soldiers.
UN and US reactions
President Suleiman met top defence officials and decided to file a complaint with the U.N. Security council, whose members met for private consultations on the incident.
Afterwards, the council expressed "deep concern" and urged the parties to show "utmost restraint ... observe the cessation of hostilities and prevent any further escalation."
The United States said it was in touch with both governments to try to get facts behind a cross-border skirmish.
"We deeply regret the loss of life; we urge both sides to exercise maximum restraint to avoid an escalation and maintain the ceasefire that is now in place,", State Department front man P.J. Crowley said.
"We are trying to understand what happened ... Our greatest concern is that whatever did happen not be repeated. The region has enough tension as it is. The last thing that we want to see is that this incident expand into something more significant," Crowley said.
He said the United States had been in touch with both governments in Washington and in Israel and Leb. He also said there might be a formal meeting, supervised by the United Nations on Wednesday, in the region.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2010
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#1
The un ought to get their butts out of dodge right now.
[Dawn] Al-Qaeda fighters killed five policemen at a Baghdad checkpoint on Tuesday and planted the black flag of the terror network's front group in Iraq, an interior ministry official said.
A traffic policeman and three soldiers were also killed in the capital, raising concerns that Iraq's security may be deteriorating after the government said more people died in violence in July than in any month since May 2008.
The flag-planting incident was the second such act in less than a week.
"Around 5:30 am (0230 GMT), men with silenced pistols shot dead five policemen at a checkpoint in Mansur neighbourhood before planting the flag of the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI)," the ministry official said.
He said the traffic policeman was killed by a homemade bomb while a statement from Baghdad security forces said a soldier was killed by a second bomb and two other troops perished when they tried to disarm a third device.
The shootings and bomb deaths follow a brazen series of attacks in the Iraqi capital on Thursday that killed 16 people, after which insurgents also hoisted the Al-Qaeda front group's black flag.
Those incidents, which occurred in the north Baghdad neighbourhood of Adhamiyah within 15 minutes of each other, began with the killing of three soldiers. The fighters then burned their bodies and planted the flag.
Three homemade bomb attacks on different routes to the scene of Thursday's shooting killed 13 more people, including three soldiers and three policemen, and wounded 14.
In a statement on the Honein jihadist website on Tuesday, ISI claimed last week's attacks which it said "targeted the heart of the failed security plan of the Green Zone government," using its standard term for the Iraqi government to allege that it only controls the heavily-fortified centre of Baghdad.
Tuesday's violence comes after Iraqi figures compiled by the ministries of health, interior and defence showed 535 people were killed by violence in July, the highest monthly figure in more than two years.
The US military, however, has disputed those figures, saying they were "grossly overstated."US and Iraqi officials have warned of the dangers of an upsurge in violence if negotiations on forming a new government drag on, only one month before a major US troop pullout, giving insurgent groups an opportunity to further destabilise the country.
Nearly five months since the March 7 general election which gave no single bloc an overall parliamentary majority, the two lists which won the most seats are still bickering over who should be the next prime minister.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2010
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Just a few devout Muslims of Pak extraction in Britain. The girl was no doubt asking for it. A 14-year-old was forced into prostitution and sexually abused by a series of men after going missing from her home in Greater Manchester.
Nine men were convicted in connection with the abuse, which took place in February and March 2008.
The girl, described as vulnerable, was "used as a commodity" for sexual activity with the men, police said.
Supt Paul Savill, of Greater Manchester Police (GMP), said she had been through an "absolutely horrifying ordeal".
Police said the girl, who first went missing on 16 February 2008, had been abused by a number of different men "as she went from one vulnerable situation to another".
In each case the men identified her vulnerability to take advantage of her.
In a statement issued following the convictions, the girl said: "These people exploit young girls, introduce them to prostitution, feed them drugs and alcohol and tell them they love them.
Nine men convicted at Manchester Crown Court in connection with the abuse were:
Aftab Khan, 31, of Tarporley Avenue, Fallowfield pleaded guilty to one count of controlling a child prostitute and one count of sexual activity with a child. He was sentenced to nine years in prison. This was later reduced to seven years on appeal
Abid Khaliq, 30, of Shrewsbury Street, Stretford was sentenced to eight months in prison after admitting perverting the course of justice
Noorzai Ahmed, 29, of Royce Court, Hulme was sentenced to four years in prison after he was found guilty of paying for the sexual services of a child
Mohammed Anwar Safi, 29, of no fixed address, was sentenced to 31 months in prison after admitting paying for the sexual services of a child
Mohammed Khan, 26, of Royce Court, Hulme was sentenced to four years in prison after he was found guilty of facilitating child prostitution
Najibullah Safi, 33, of Reabrook Avenue, West Gorton was sentenced to two years in prison after admitting to sexual activity with a child
Asad Yousaf Hassa, 28, of Rivington Street, Rochdale was sentenced to two years in prison after admitting two counts of sexual activity with a child
Mohammed Basharat, 28, of Prospect Street, Rochdale was sentenced to two years in prison after he pleaded guilty to sexual activity with a child under 16
Mohammed Atif, 29, of Rivington Street, Rochdale was sentenced to two years in prison after admitting to sexual activity with a child
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2010
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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has denounced the US administration for failing to implement the policy of change, saying capitalism in the US is nearing its end.
"US President Barack Obama was brought to power to salvage the capitalist system," Ahmadinejad said in an address to directors and producers of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) on Tuesday.
The president said although Obama came to power with the emphasis that wrong US policies should be reformed, he has failed to live up to his promise of change.
President Ahmadinejad further pointed out that Obama will not be able to save a dying US economy.
Elsewhere in his remarks, the Iranian president dismissed the US-backed sanctions against Tehran's nuclear program.
"The West has been trying to use sanctions to deal a blow to the Iranian nation, but Iranianians will turn those moves into opportunities." he said.
He underlined the West is trying to force Iran into a retreat through imposing sanctions.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2010
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#1
Obama saving capitalism is like muzzies being tolerant of other religions, pedophiles not abusing children, a tiger becoming a vegetarian.
A total of 23 individuals were murdered in northern Mexican state since Sunday in ongoing drug and gang related violence, including numerous attacks on Mexican Federal agents in Juarez and a dead state police agency head in Sonora. For a map, click here.
A man was shot to death Monday afternoon in Juarez, according to Mexican news reports. Carlos Valdez Alvarez 41 was shot six times by armed suspects at his home near the intersection of calles Oso Polar and Santiago Troncoso in the Eco 2000 district.
Two unidentified men were shot to death in front of a residence in Chihuahua, Chihuahua Sunday night, say Mexican press reports. The attack took place near the intersection of calles Cordillera del Cóndor and Campo Agostadero in the Cordilleras district when a group of armed suspects riding a convoy of at least six late model trucks opened fire and killed the pair.
An unidentified Chihuahua city CIPOL agent was shot to death early Monday morning, accoridng to Mexican press accounts. The attack comes of the heel of the resignation of the Chihuahua city head of the CIPOL division because of threat from organized crime. CIPOL is similar to a detective squad. City and state police departments staff them.
Juan Lopez Lozano was shot near the intersection of Periferico de la Juventud and Paseos Universidad in the Paseos de Chihuahua district while in his official Dodge Ram pickup truck. Investigators found 51 spent shell casings at the scene from 9mm weapons and AK-47 assault rifles.
Two unidentified people were shot to death in Chihuahua, Chihuahua Monday afternoon, according to Mexican press accounts. The attack took place near the intersection of Avenida Universidad and Calle Escudero where armed suspects riding aboard Chevrolet Suburban shot and killed the driver of a Honda sedan. Stray bullets struck a couple walking together nearby, killing a man and wounding his wife. Stray bullets also struck and damaged nearby buildings in the area.
A bomb was reported at a bank in Chihuahua, Chihuahua Monday Morning, according to Mexican press reports. An employee at the Bancomer Santo Nino reported a cardboard box near the building which prompted authorities to fear a bomb. Employees and customers were evacuated for two hours. The bomb was not exploded and no determination has been made if the box in fact contained a bomb.
One Mexican Federal agent was shot to death and four others were hurt in four separate attacks in Juarez Sunday night, according to Mexican press reports. The attacks were centered around northern Juarez. One involved a hand grenade which injured two agents, a gun attack which killed one agent and wounded two others destroying a police vehicle by fire, plus a hand grenade attack at Mexican Federal police headquarters which did damage but harmed no one, and a fourth in which agents were shot at but not injured.
An unidentified man was found with his head nearly severed in Chihuahua, Chihuahua, Monday night. The find was made near the intersection of calles Sierra de Pedernales and Hacienda del Real in the Sierra Azul district.
Two unidentified young men were killed, a third wounded and a young girl kidnapped Monday night in Juarez, according to Mexican press reports. The attacks took place near the intersection of calles Vid and Romero in the El Mezquital district where armed suspects aboard a van and a Jeep SUV chased two young men killing two and wounding a third. The girl, 15, was kidnapped by the suspects.
An unidentified newspaper vendor in his 30s was shot to death in Juarez Tuesday, according to Mexican press accounts. The attack took place near the intersection of Juarez-Porvenir highway and Libramiento Independencia where a lone gunman riding a vehicle shot the victim four times with a 9mm pistol.
A young girl reported kidnapped the night before was found shot to death in a residence in Juarez Tuesday, say Mexican press reports. Ana Karen Santana, 15, was found dead in a home near the intersection of calles Rincon del Valle and Luis Spota in the Chinconcuac district shot six times with a 9mm pistol.
Three unidentified individuals, including two parents, were shot to death in a home invasion attack in Juarez Tuesday, say Mexican press reports. The attack took place near the intersection of calles Desierto de Gila and Desierto de Sonora in the Las Dunas district when armed suspects burst into a home and shot three adults. Two toddlers were also in the home when the attack took place but were unharmed.
The head of the Sonoran state investigators bureau was shot and killed Monday during a family outing in Hermosillo, Sonora, according to press reports. Jesús Fernando de la Cruz Lugo, head of the Sonoran PolicÃa Estatal Investigadora(PEI) was shot in front of his family at a park only a short distance from his workplace. The attack took place near the intersection of Calle 1st and Avenida 5th in the Bugambilias district where responding police units found a Toyota Sienna minivan with its doors open and de la Cruz Lugo dead in the back. Witnesses say three men riding a Jeep Cherokee shot the victim. Investigators found Super .38 and 9mm spent shell casings at the scene.
A man was shot to death in Nogales, Sonora Monday, according to Mexican press accounts. Danacio Palacios Lopez, 55, was shot on Calle Sierra Madre Occidental in the Benito Juarez district while driving his Dodge Ran pickup with his wife when armed suspects shot him causing his vehicle to crash. His wife was unharmed in the attack.
Three Nogales, Sonora police officers were wounded in a shootout with armed suspects Monday afternoon. The attack took place when armed suspects riding aboard a Jeep Liberty shot at the officers near the intersection of calles Altar and Privada Arizpe in the La Granja district. The suspects escaped the ensuing firefight when assisting police arrived.
Three men were found shot to death in a club in Mazatlan, Sinaloa Monday, according to Mexican press reports. Jorge Omar Garzon Hernandez, 37, Francisco Javier Torres Lizarraga and Omar Isaias Valdez Romero, 34, were found shot dead at the Club Deportivo Chololo sports field with several spent cartridge casings at the scene.
Three unidentified individuals were found dead inside a luxury SUV in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon late Monday night, according to Mexican press accounts. The find was made near the intersection of calles Padua and Tlaquepaque in the Gonzalitos district aboard a BMW where the three victims were found in the back.
From the Oops-My-Bad Department
A Nogales police officer who was kidnapped Monday while on an outing was released unharmed the next day, according to Mexican press accounts.
Rosina Wilma Gonzolez Viay was on a personal outing with her son when she was kidnapped. The kidnappers told the officer they had taken her by mistake and released her unharmed.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Egypt has launched a wide security sweep of Sinai after rockets said to be fired from the peninsula landed in Israel and Jordan killing one person, an Egyptian security official said on Tuesday.
A senior Jordanian official said earlier that his country had proof the deadly rocket that landed in the port town of Aqaba, killing a taxi driver and wounding five other people, had been fired from Sinai.
"Following the Jordanian comments, Egypt has launched a wide security sweep of the Sinai peninsula," the Egyptian official said on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media.
But he insisted "there are no organized groups operating in Sinai and security on the peninsula is extremely tight. Any suspicious activity would have been detected," he said.
The rocket that fell in a busy Aqaba street near a major hotel on Monday was one of several apparently fired at the nearby Israeli tourist resort of Eilat, in an attack condemned by Israel, Russia and the United States.
"We can now say without hesitation that the Grad rocket was launched from Sinai," said the official official close to the investigation of Monday's rocket attack, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"We have strong suspicions about the identity of the group behind this attack," he added without elaborating.
At least five blasts were heard, with one rocket exploding in open ground outside Eilat, two crashing into the Red Sea and the rest hitting Jordan, Israeli police said.
"The fact that Aqaba was not the target and that the rocket fell there by mistake does not change the fact that it's still a terrorist act, which killed and wounded innocent people," the senior Jordanian official said.
"This is the second such incident in three months and Jordan will not tolerate that its territory becomes a target of rocket attacks," he added.
An Egyptian security official has denied the attack was launched from the Sinai peninsula, a mountainous desert region that flanks the Gulf of Aqaba.
"The rockets did not come from Sinai," which would need "a great deal of logistics and equipment, and that is impossible considering the heavy security presence in the Sinai Peninsula," the official told AFP.
"We have a heavy security presence in Sinai, particularly along the Egyptian Israeli border. No suspicious activity has been reported anywhere in Sinai."
On April 22, two military-grade rockets struck in and near Aqaba, one slamming into a warehouse and the other splashing into the Red Sea.
Aqaba and Eilat are the neighboring Red Sea ports of Jordan and Israel, who signed a peace agreement in October 1994 after decades of strained ties and conflict.
The two ports are nestled in the Gulf of Aqaba, a narrow stretch of water bordered on one side by Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and the other by Saudi Arabia.
In August 2005, three Katyusha rockets were fired in Aqaba, missing two U.S. warships docked in the port. One of the projectiles hit a warehouse, killing a Jordanian soldier, while another landed across the border in Israel.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2010
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#2
The problem with the swamp is that every election rainy season, it just fills up again. Mandatory term limits draining on a regular basis is the better tool at hand till the political topographical landscape is restructured to address the source of the containment.
#3
I like the analogy. The swamp is draining, and there are dying and dead Democrat fish wallowing around in the mud, as the stink rises to high heaven.
A day after writing to Hugo Chavez that he intended to continue the fight for the American government to list Venezuela as a state sponsor of terrorism, Republican U.S. Rep. Connie Mack of Florida did just that, sending a letter to President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
"I write to you today to urge you to immediately finalize the steps required to designate Venezuela as a state sponsor of terrorism," wrote Mack. "Hugo Chavez has politically, materially and diplomatically supported international terrorist groups, threatening the freedom, security and prosperity of the United States and our allies. We must stop all interaction with the tyrannical regime of Mr. Hugo Chavez.
"As a beacon of freedom, the United States must stand firm against those who harbor terrorists, threaten our allies, and rebuke the freedoms we are committed to protect," continued Mack. "Hugo Chavez's solidarity with internationally recognized terrorist groups, such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), endangers stability in the region and prompts national security concerns for our nation.
"Securing the Western Hemisphere begins with condemning those who undermine freedom," wrote Mack. "Chavez's efforts to derail our allies and support terrorist activity fly in the face of democratic values. As protectors of freedom, it is our responsibility to keep our nation safe by opposing those who challenge it."
Mack closed with the demand that action be taken against Venezuela immediately.
"It is time for us to stand behind freedom by placing Venezuela on the list of state sponsors of terrorism," he concluded. "I request your urgent action addressing this matter of national security, and look forward to your prompt reply."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2010
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Good luck on that one, pal...Hugo's not just Ogabe's buddy, he's a role model for Barry's third term and beyond.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
08/04/2010 9:07
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Iran on Tuesday rejected an offer by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to give asylum to an Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning for having an extra-marital relationship.
The sentence imposed on Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, who denies the charges against her, has angered rights groups and caused an international outcry. It has been suspended pending a review by Iran's judiciary, but could still be carried out.
Lula called on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last week to let Brazil give refuge to Mohammadi Ashtiani, but the Islamic Republic rebuffed the offer.
"From what we know about Mr. da Silva, he has a humane and sensitive character and probably he has not been provided with enough information," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told a news conference.
"What can be done here is to let him know about the details of the case of this person who has committed a crime so that he understands the case," he added.
Iran and Brazil have drawn closer this year after Brazil and Turkey brokered a proposed compromise deal on Iran's uranium enrichment work, which the West fears is a cover for developing a nuclear bomb. Tehran rejects the accusation, saying it only wants to generate electricity.
A humanitarian gesture
At a summit in Argentina, Lula reiterated his opposition to U.N. Security Council sanctions against Iran and said he had offered asylum to the woman as a humanitarian gesture.
"For me, death by stoning is so barbaric that I said Brazil would receive this woman with open arms," he told a news conference. "My appeal was more humanitarian than political."
Washington urged Iran on Monday to accept Lula's offer.
"If Brazil is willing to accept... this woman, we would hope that Iran would consider that as a humanitarian gesture," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said. "And the fact that Brazil has stepped up and indicated a willingness to resolve it, we hope Iran will listen."
Murder, adultery, rape, armed robbery, apostasy and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under Iran's sharia law, enforced since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Human rights group Amnesty International has said Mohammadi Ashtiani was convicted in 2006 of having an "illicit relationship" with two men and received 99 lashes as her sentence.
The rights group said that, despite this, she was subsequently convicted of "adultery while being married", which it said she denied, and was sentenced to death by stoning.
Amnesty has listed Iran as the world's second most prolific executioner in 2008 after China, and says it put to death at least 346 people in 2008. The Iranian authorities routinely dismiss charges of rights abuses, saying they are following Islamic sharia.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2010
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#1
Using diplomats, the way to deal with this is to be very clear that everyone involved is committing an *international* crime, and with a change in the political winds in Iran, they could, and will, likely find themselves in the dock. And that the international community is keeping records of who is responsible.
And, given such a hideous and obscene method of tortuous murder, Iranian leaders could spend the rest of their lives in prison. Most certainly, any chance of their leaving Iran in haste, to retire in another country, would no longer be possible.
#3
The rights group said that, despite this, she was subsequently convicted of "adultery while being married", which it said she denied, and was sentenced to death by stoning.
The woman was supposedly complicit in the murder of her husband, too. I don't know the circumstances, but perhaps she does deserve the death penalty. And maybe it's hogwash. And maybe he deserved it. And maybe it didn't happen.
If Brazil were to accept her, it would probably behoove them to look into the veracity of and circumstances surrounding her husband's death, and perhaps offer to put her in prison for life there.
Did you know the Justice Department threatened several universities with legal action because they took part in an experimental program to allow students to use the Amazon Kindle for textbooks?
Last year, the schools -- among them Princeton, Arizona State and Case Western Reserve -- wanted to know if e-book readers would be more convenient and less costly than traditional textbooks. The environmentally conscious educators also wanted to reduce the huge amount of paper students use to print files from their laptops.
It seemed like a promising idea until the universities got a letter from the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, now under an aggressive new chief, Thomas Perez, telling them they were under investigation for possible violations of the Americans With Disabilities Act.
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Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2010
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#1
Unless Bin Laden starts issuing his fatwas in Braille, we should sue him under the ADA.
Posted by: American Delight ||
08/04/2010 5:54
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#2
DOJ's motto: We are everywhere, all the time meddling in the mundane affairs of Americans. If blind people can read Braille, cannot they not identify the buttons on Kindle that would convert text to speech. Is this not a technological fix or training fix rather than a legal fix? Doesn't the DOJ have better things to do?
#5
American soldiers are being disenfranchised AGAIN, but the DOJ is more concerned with an experiment to distribute Kindles to college students. Eric Holder is an ass.
One of the country's largest civil rights organizations lauded the next step forward in the development of an Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero in Manhattan.
Of course they did ...
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission on Tuesday voted to deny "landmark" status to the building currently at the site, paving the way for its demolition and, eventually, for development of the Muslim center.
Those opposed to the project say the building's proximity to the site of the 2001 terrorist attacks -- led by al Qaeda-affiliated Muslims -- is insensitive to the families of the dead. Supporters defend it on the grounds of religious freedom.
On Tuesday, the New York Civil Liberties Union and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) praised the center's progress, saying that it represents the core of American values.
"The free exercise of religion is one of America's most fundamental freedoms," said the ACLU in a statement. "For hundreds of years, our pluralism and tolerance have sustained and strengthened our nation. On 9/11, religious extremists opposed to that very pluralism killed 3,000 Americans. Those fanatics would want nothing more than for our nation to turn its back on the very ideals that make this country so great.
"For those who have sought to ban the construction of the cultural center, we must remember that our precious ideals extend to all Americans, regardless of creed or color. We see the center as a monument to pluralism, symbolic of America's commitment to religious freedom."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2010
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#1
"The free exercise of religion is one of America's most fundamental freedoms," said the ACLU in a statement. "For hundreds of years, our pluralism and tolerance have sustained and strengthened our nation. On 9/11, religious extremists opposed to that very pluralism killed 3,000 Americans. Those fanatics would want nothing more than for our nation to turn its back on the very ideals that make this country so great.
"For those who have sought to ban the construction of the cultural center, we must remember that our precious ideals extend to all Americans, regardless of creed or color. We see the center as a monument to pluralism, symbolic of America's commitment to religious freedom."
Yeah, just don't try to put up a manger on the town common during Christmas the "Holidays" though. We'll be on you like flies on shit...
#3
All of this would matter much less if Afghanistan had been swiftly and decisively defeated and punished in the months after 9/11.
The result of western restraint is creeping Sharia at home (not only in Eurabia, also in the US) and brutal Islamic intolerance in 'liberated' Afghanistan subsidized by Westen protection money aid.
"For hundreds of years, our pluralism and tolerance have sustained and strengthened our nation."
There's no tradition of religious tolerance when the 'religion' in question is an external enemy's political ideology. In 1945 the Japanese were forced to make fundamental changes to Shinto doctrine, and to fundamentally alter the relationship between government and the Shinto religion, the alternative being nuclear annihilation.
Shinto is a bona fide religion with a longer history than e.g. Islam's.
#4
The fact that the ACLU sees fit to comment means that this mosque is designed and intended as a political statement.
No one seems to have asked what direct spiritual need is going to be filled by a huge mosque in lower Manhattan. Is Battery Park City really a Muslim enclave? (Hint: that would be 'no.')
Bonus note: I am quite certain that even if Catholic, Mainline Protestant, Lutheran and Orthodox Churches somehow combined forces to build a 'Christian Cultural Center' on this site, the ACLU (and a whole bunch of others) would be suing to block it.
#5
I see where this is going to a lawsuit. A woman on Fox this a.m. said the imam who is pushing the building of the mosque is a fraud and has links to the Muslim Brotherhood. Are there imans who are not frauds?
#6
we must remember that our precious ideals extend to all Americans, regardless of creed or color
Yes, but those ideals include intolerance of americans whose creeds are not compatible. From burning witches to imprisoning serial killers, american ideals do not include universal tolerance.
#10
The Muslims have a habit of building Mosques on the site of a conquest. One of the earliest mosques is the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, which is built on the place where the Jewish Temple once stood.
Read the history of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople or Mezquita in Cordoba. That's funny. they originally wanted to name the Ground Zero Mosque, Cordoba.
#12
You think the ACLU will back the installation of a "Men's Club" a few doors down. It would be fun just to watch the ACLU turn into a pretzel when they ignore resultant ruckus of a non-grandfathered establishment in the proximity of a religious facility or the arguments that will be an affront that it desecrates the holiness of the location. Separation of church and state right?
#13
I knew this place looked familiar. Actually, there's already a bar right next door now. The Dakota Roadhouse. When we went down to Ground Zero a few years back we went in for a few pops. Divey, hardcore blue collar place. Good burgers. The bartender was telling us it was a big hangout for the folks working at Ground Zero.
They didn't seem like the kind of people who'll leave to accomodate our Muslim friends.
#14
The ACLU cred: You must tolerate the intolerant (as long it's ant-America) otherwise you are intolerant.
Posted by: Jack Salami ||
08/04/2010 14:25
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#15
As a free speech gesture someone needs to open a BLT shop and dog grooming shop next door.
Posted by: Jack Salami ||
08/04/2010 14:26
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#16
The spineless left was defeated by the attack on the United States since 9/11/2001. For two weeks they aligned with the right to attack Al Qaeda. As soon as the bullets started flying they cut and ran and have done everything they could to undermine those who have the courage to stand and fight.
Now they WANT a Mosque at Ground Zero.
There are three players here. The Good, the Evil, and the Feather Brained Weaklings.
Posted by: Herman Spomoper8280 ||
08/04/2010 15:10
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#17
As a free speech gesture someone needs to open a BLT shop and dog grooming shop next door in Mecca.
#18
The free exercise of religion is one of America's most fundamental freedoms
No, it's not. The freedom to believe in the religion is separate from exercising it. Just ask a Mormon. Or a voodoo witch doctor.
Posted by: Who you calling Troll? ||
08/04/2010 15:34
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#19
This (and continuous picketing and Christian proselytization) is the appropriate response to the mosque. I hope the Jumpers video is on continuous loop.
[Tolo News] Six Taliban militants have been killed in clashes with Afghan security forces after launching rockets on Kandahar airbase
Security forces killed two men who were carrying explosives, said a spokesman for the governor of Kandahar, Zalmai Ayubi.
An ISAF soldier was wounded and six Taliban insurgents were killed in the attack, he added.
Qari Yosuf Ahmadi, a Taliban spokesman said one of the suicide attackers managed to enter the airbase.
He added that seven suicide attackers planned an attack on Kandahar airbase, of which one blew himself up.
Kandahar airbase has come under Taliban attacks several times before.
Taliban casualties have dramatically risen in the past few months, and only in July this year, 672 insurgents were killed, 76 were wounded and 127 others have been arrested in clashes with Afghan and foreign forces.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2010
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[Straits Times] INDONESIA is letting radical Islamists trample the constitutional rights of minorities, leading to inter-communal violence, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday.
The New York-based watchdog called on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to repeal laws that it says have given extremists from the dominant religious group the legal space to launch violent attacks on people of other faiths.
'When the Indonesian authorities sacrifice the rights of religious minorities to appease hardline Islamist groups this simply causes more violence,' the group's Asia director, Elaine Pearson, said in a statement.
Hundreds of Muslim extremists tried to attack a mosque belonging to the minority Ahmadiyah Islamic sect in Kuningan district of West Java province last week, resulting in clashes with police and the sect's followers.
A government decree adopted in 2008 under pressure from Islamic conservatives bans the sect from spreading its faith, which includes the belief that its founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, was the final Muslim prophet.
Orthodox Islam holds that Mohammed was the final prophet, leaving the Ahmadis open to charges of heresy and blasphemy, which are punishable by up to five years in jail under a controversial 1965 law.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2010
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Sporting a long blue dress and white headscarf, Umm Omar barely blinks as she whips out a pistol in her garden. For her, the gun is a necessary evil to protect her young family.
"I hate the sound of gunfire, but it is the terrorists who have forced me to learn to handle a gun to protect my children and my home," says the 27-year-old mother of three children.
Umm Omar lives with her family in Ramadi, capital of the western province of Anbar, one Iraq's most violent regions. She is among a growing number of young mothers who have learned to use a weapon to fend off insurgents targeting the families of civil servants and security personnel.
"A few months ago, a group of gunmen tried to burgle our home," notes husband Ahmed Karim, a police sergeant whose work frequently keeps him away from home for days at a stretch.
"I was not there, but my wife's screams alerted the neighbors," the 32-year-old adds, noting that the gang fled before completing their mission. "After that, I decided to teach her how to use a pistol."
Following the US-led invasion to oust Saddam Hussein in 2003, Anbar became the centre of a vicious insurgency that was only put down after Sunni tribes and their militias sided with the US military against Al-Qaeda.
Today, violence levels are dramatically lower in the province, where safety remains precarious despite major security improvements.
Many wives of civil servants, security personnel, elected provincial officials and journalists began arming themselves in June 2009, when insurrectionists attacked the homes of notable residents or members of the police force.
In this largely desert province where the arid plain is interrupted by meadows and orchards on both banks of the Euphrates river, the foliage provides effective camouflage for gunmen, whose weapons of choice are handguns and the AK47 assault rifle.
"As the wives of people responsible for maintaining security, we must protect our families when our men are protecting the country," says Ghada Ahmed, 24.
"It is they (the wives) who defend the home in the evenings when their husbands are away, or when they return tired from work," adds the robust mother of four, dressed in a colorful printed dress and pink Islamic headscarf.
"It was the continuous attacks that pushed us to react," she says, referring to the 10,000 soldiers and police officers killed since 2003 by insurrectionists who consider them "henchmen of the (American) occupiers."
In mid-June, a former member of the anti-Qaeda militia and five members of his family were killed in an armed night attack on his home close to Fallujah, another restive city in Anbar.
Paradoxically, in this religiously conservative region where women usually keep a low profile, the police and tribal chiefs, as well as religious dignitaries, take a positive view of women who are ready to defend themselves and their homes.
"This is an evolution toward modernity. We do not have any objection -- quite the contrary," assures General Bahaa al-Qaisi, head of the provincial police force.
"It is necessary that they (women) help us because we do not have enough police officers to protect everyone," he adds about a province where a police force of 24,000 has to look after nearly two million inhabitants.
For Adnan Khamis, a leader of the al-Bualwan clan, the bravery of the women evokes memories of Islam's glorious past.
"Seeing women carry arms is (a sign of) great nobility," he says, adding that "women always took part in the wars alongside men and held their place in history."
Even religious leaders approve of this.
"For a woman, learning how to handle a weapon to protect her children and home is inscribed in Islamic law and mentioned in the words of the Prophet (Mohammed)," said an imam of Ramadi, who did not want to give his name.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2010
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[Ma'an] The Popular Resistance Committee in Gazoo denied reports Tuesday that it launched at least five rockets which struck the southern coastal cities of Eilat in Israel and Aqaba in Jordan.
"It was the other guys."
Abu Al-Atayah, who speaks on behalf of the PRC's Salah Ad-Din Brigades, told Ma'an radio that the rockets, which killed one Jordanian civilian on Monday, were launched by "private" groups with "goals not related to any Paleostinian faction."
"See? Splitters!"
"We only battle in the West Bank, the Gazoo Strip, and over our occupied lands. We never attack the Israeli occupation in any other place," Abu Al-Atayah said.
"Don't hurt us for it!"
The front man described his movement and the Gazoo government as inexorable "and both encourage Jihad," adding that Israel has been trying to solicit information on the PRC "in order to push for a new battle."
"The resistance has its secrets and hides its plans and new tactics, which the enemy will only discover on the battlefield. If the enemy tries to enter a new war with Gazoo, they will see new measures. We ... have our private vision regarding rocket attacks," Abu Atayah said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2010
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[Tolo News] Gunmen slain 6 employees of Kabul Bank, a private Afghan bank in Mazar-e-Sharif, the provincial capital of the northern province of Balkh on Monday night, officials said
These men have reportedly robbed $200,000 and more than 3 million Afg from the bank.
The incident has happened in Chawke Kefayat area of Mazar-e-Sharif.
Primary investigations have revealed that the robbers were close friends of the Bank's security guards, said the Police Chief of Balkh, Abdul Rawoof Taaj.
Six security employees of Kabul Bank were slain by the thieves and some cash was also stolen, he added.
The manager of the bank said the guards were not legally allowed to have guests inside the bank.
Balkh Police Chief said investigations are being carried out, and said they will soon arrest the gang.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2010
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[Arab News] A special tribunal dealing with charges of crimes against humanity against four senior leaders of Bangladesh's largest Islamic party ordered authorities on Monday to keep the accused in jail indefinitely.
The charges stem from the nation's 1971 war for independence and alleged atrocities committed by Pakistani soldiers in a failed attempt to keep Bangladesh from breaking away. The Bangladeshi government says the soldiers, aided by local collaborators, killed an estimated three million people, raped about 200,000 women and forced millions more to flee their homes during the bloody nine-month war.
The suspects being held by the tribunal are from the Jamaat-e-Islami party, which sided with Pakistan during the war in which India backed those seeking independence. The suspects face charges such as genocide, murder, rape, torture, looting and arson. The party has said the charges are politically motivated. But so, too, were the genocide, murder, rape, torture, looting and arson that resulted in the deaths of three million human beings.
The long-delayed tribunal - which was a campaign promise of Prime Minister Hasina Wajed during elections in 2008 - was finally set up in March.
Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been voted as the third worst premier in UK history since the Second World War.
A poll of more than 100 academics in Britain found that the former Labor Party leader should be considered a failure because of the huge debt he left behind, the Daily Mail said in a report.
According to the poll results, Brown came tenth out of the 12 post-war premiers, ahead of Anthony Eden and Sir Alec Douglas-Home who both have long been associated with failure.
David Cameron was not included in the survey as he has just taken the post of prime minister.
Brown was portrayed as the biggest prime ministerial failure in more than 45 years as his predecessor and bitter rival Tony Blair came out as the third successful leader, marginally behind Margaret Thatcher.
Labor's post-war leader Clement Attlee has been voted the best UK prime minister who between 1945 and 1951 established the National Health Service (NHS) and welfare state.
Harold Macmillan, dubbed Supermac when he led the Tories from 1957 to 1963, came in fourth place.
Labor's Harold Wilson (1964-70 and 1974-6) was the fifth, while Winston Churchill only came sixth for his peacetime stint as premier from 1951 to 1955.
James Callaghan -- who led Labor during the notorious Winter of Discontent, came higher in the survey than both John Major and Edward Heath, who took Britain into the EU but whose premiership was marred by arguments with the country's miners.
Next on the list is Brown, followed by Douglas-Home -- who only led the Conservatives for a year as the party floundered in the wake of the Profumo scandal.
At the bottom of the list is Sir Anthony Eden, who led Britain into the disastrous Suez invasion.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2010
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#1
"Labo[u]r's post-war leader Clement Attlee has been voted the best UK prime minister who between 1945 and 1951 established the National Health Service (NHS) and welfare state."
Um... OK... so the one-term Labour leader (who was bumped out at the first opportunity to be replaced by Churchill - who could only compete with Thatcher as truly the best post-WWII PM), who sowed the seeds of future Labour governments and their gross over-spending on social programmes was the best? Rollocks: Attlee and Brown should be slugging it out at the bottom together.
The Taliban have claimed responsibility for killing 150 US-led troops in an attack on the main US base in southern Afghanistan.
A gun battle erupted after the Taliban attacked the military base in Afghan province of Kandahar, a Press TV correspondent reported Tuesday.
According to a statement by the provincial governor's office, only one foreign soldier was killed and several civilians were injured after two rockets struck inside the base.
Explosions had been reported in the vicinity of the air base before a fire-fight started between the militants and the US-led forces.
The fight lasted for more than two hours. NATO has confirmed the attack but offered no details on the possible casualties.
However, according to a statement by the provincial governor's office, only one foreign soldier was killed and several civilians were injured after two rockets struck inside the base.
Meanwhile, NATO-backed Afghan soldiers reported to have killed six militants that attacked the base.
A Taliban spokesman, however, insisted that the militants managed to infiltrate the largest US base in Kandahar and killing at least 150 foreign troops there.
If accurate, the latest casualties would bring to over 2,000 the number of US-led troops killed in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion of the war-ravaged country.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2010
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#1
Do they still have that crazy Canadian Jihad Unpsun chick? Looks like they put her to work. Or traded her to Press TV Iran for some silky haired goats.
#2
Re. above, no casualties on our side. Was about 200M from the festivities. All 10 or 11 of their away team are currently decomposing though... Im hoping the Garbage men did a good job of scraping them up, in this heat the remnants start to get stinky pretty quickly.
[Straits Times] AN INDONESIAN court on Tuesday jailed three men for harbouring terrorists involved in suicide bomb attacks on two luxury hotels in Jakarta last year that killed seven people.
Afham Ramadhan, 23, Fajar Firdaus, 26, and Sonny Jayadi, 24, were each sentenced to four-and-a-half years' jail in separate trials at the South Jakarta district court.
The men sheltered Syaifudin Jaelani, who recruited the suicide bombers, and a florist called Ibrohim who helped the bombers get into the hotels ahead of the attacks.
Police killed Jaelani and Ibrohim after the July 17 bombings, as well as the suspected mastermind of the blasts, Malaysian terror leader Noordin Mohammed Top. Noordin led a splinter faction of the Jemaah Islamiyah regional extremist network, which is blamed for multiple attacks in Indonesia.
'Afham Ramadhan was the one who picked up Syaifudin and provided his rented room on the second floor for two days,' judge Didik Setyo Handono said.
Prosecutors said the three suspects, including Jaelani's nephew Firdaus, took turns bringing food to Jaelani until anti-terror police raided the hideout. The prosecutors had demanded a seven-year jail term.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2010
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Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu said his deputies are outmanned and outgunned when it comes to battling drug cartels.
The Pinal County Justice Foundation is asking the public to donate money so that they can equip deputies with rifles.
Babeu said the guns purchased with donations would go to first responders. The sheriff said they need to raise $150,000.
A CBS 5 News investigation last November revealed the Mexican drug cartel relies heavily on smugglers from Arizona to stockpile their arsenal. That arsenal, officials said, is used in gun battles along the border.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Maybe we could recycle some of the RPGs confiscated in Afghanistan or Iraq; send them to Arizona. C4 makes good IEDs. Are there not some BARs in storage in the military arsenal that could be sent to Arizona? On my taxes, can a box be provided to check that sends a dollar to Arizona Sheriffs? I'd rather do that than send a buck to the elections.
#3
The Sheriff and his people are in the trenches feeling the strain. He is doing what any good leader would do. Getting his people all the support he can find for them.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Iran's Foreign Ministry has, in a statement, vehemently condemned the recent Israeli aggression against South Lebanon which left several Lebanese service members killed or wounded.
A history of Israeli aggression and the numerous conflicts Tel Aviv has imposed on the region, coupled with the recent incursion, have fueled already existing concerns about another possible war on the Lebanese people by the Israeli regime, said the statement.
The Zionist regime's stance on Lebanon's local developments reflect its intent to trigger domestic unrest in the country, the statement noted.
The foreign ministry statement also reiterates that Tel Aviv has a grudge against Lebanon and does not want to see stability return to the country.
The recent aggression makes it all the more inevitable for the Lebanese to remain united, added the statement.
As highlighted in the statement, the recent incursion comes at a time when the Zionist regime is facing international condemnation over its atrocities against Palestinians, including the residents of Gaza, and seeks to shift the burden of blame onto others by resorting to such 'adventurism.'
The statement also calls on the world community to condemn such acts of aggression, and immediately adopt measures to halt further Israeli incursions in order to safeguard Lebanon's territorial integrity and sovereignty.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[The Nation (Nairobi)] The three Kenyans linked to the Kampala bombings are beyond the jurisdiction of the Kenyan courts. The Anti Terrorism Police Unit said on Tuesday Kenyan authorities could not interfere as they were now in the hands of Ugandan authorities and could not be produced in the Kenyan courts.
An ATPU inspector, Mr Charles Ogeto was responding to an application by relatives of two of the men asking that they be brought to Kenya.
Handed over
Mr Hussein Hassan Agade and Mr Christopher Magondu, alias Idris Magondu were arrested in Kenya last week and handed over to Uganda. Mr Agade was arrested in Mlolongo while Mr Magondu was seized in Kawangware.
Their families have asked the High Court to order Police Commissioner Mathew Iteere to show a warrant allowing him to arrest the two. Also sued are the Attorney General and the ATPU.
The police also denied barring the men from communicating with their families.
"At no time did anyone ask to see them and was denied." said Mr Ogeto.
Mr Magondu's wife, Saida Rosemary, said more than 20 officers stormed her Kawangware home at about 1.30am, handcuffed and blindfolded her husband and drove off with him. She said in the court papers that she had not seen him since.
The case has been taken back to Justice Mohammed Warsame, who initially ordered that the men be produced in Kenya, and he will hear the case on September 20.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Household products maker Clorox Co. says its fourth-quarter net income was nearly flat, even though its revenue rose one percent, because it paid higher taxes and had smaller margins.
The company says it earned $171 million, or $1.20 per share, in the three months that ended June 30th. A year earlier, it earned $170 million, or $1.20 per share.
The company's revenue was $1.52 billion in the quarter, helped by record shipments of Hidden Valley Ranch and Kingsford charcoal. Overall sales volume rose two percent.
The earnings met the average forecast of analysts for $1.20 per share on revenue of nearly $1.51 billion.
Clorox still expects to earn $4.50 to $4.65 per share for fiscal 2011, in line with estimates.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2010
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#1
I think they're based here in Oakland, they have a high rise in City Center. I don't know of ANYONE in California making money right now. Of course I dont know anyone in the financial sector though. Every time I go the Half Moon Bay I see some a-hole in a Ferrari, so somebody must be doing ok.
#2
CLOROX = TUPPERWARE, etc > its Brand/Product name is so well known + established its Competitors' copycat products are called/labelled as such widout hesitation.
With considerable help, it must be admitted, from the financial meltdown that preceded his arrival in office, Obama & Co. have been remarkably successful in lowering expectations. They have persuaded a large part of the American people that we should count ourselves lucky if what was once -- and indeed throughout almost our entire history -- the greatest and most dynamic economy in the world drifts along in a semi-comatose state -- without totally collapsing. They continue to promote the idea that the American economy is no longer capable of functioning without massive and ever-increasing government intervention. In their view, we should accept this as a permanent condition. And be glad for it.
According to a recent Pew / National Journal poll, nearly two-thirds of the American people think that "Barack Obama's economic policies" have failed. That includes 29% who think the president's policies have led to worse results and another 35% who think they have had little or no effect.
The poll numbers on Obamacare are worse still. A Rasmussen poll shows that a 2-to-1 majority of voters are in favor of repealing the president's landmark health care bill. That includes a stunning 46% who "strongly" favor repeal, against just 25% who "strongly" oppose repeal.
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Twin car bomb explosions have killed at least 30 people and wounded 80 others, including women and children, in the southern Iraqi city of Kut, security officials say.
"We have so far received 30 corpses and 80 people have been wounded," the head of the emergency services at Kut hospital told AFP.
"Two cars, parked 10 meters from each other, exploded at the same time at al-Amel crossing," said police Lieutenant Ismail Hussein.
The explosions at the commercial center of Kut city also damaged several nearby shops badly and destroyed multiple cars.
Earlier in the day, at least five policemen were killed in Mansur neighborhood in the capital city of Baghdad.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Top|| File under: Islamic State of Iraq
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.
A 26-year-old Chicago man was charged on Wednesday with attempting to provide material support to al Shabaab, an extremist Somalia-based group allied with al Qaeda, authorities said.
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) calls upon the government in the Gaza Strip to investigate the circumstances of an explosion that occurred in Deir al-Balah refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, which left 58 injuries, including 13 children and 9 women, 7 houses uninhabitable and 30 others damaged. PCHR calls further for publishing the results of such investigations. 
Democratic Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick of Michigan lost her bid for an eighth term on Tuesday, the 
[Straits Times] A POWERFUL earthquake struck waters of eastern Indonesia on Tuesday, but there were no immediate reports of damage and officials said there was no threat of a tsunami.
[Tolo News] 
[Arab News] The owner of a Saudi ship that was hijacked by Somali pirates in March with 14 crew members said that he made a mistake while speaking to Arab News last week in how much ransom the pirates were demanding.
Sen. 
[Dawn] Clashes that killed at least 40 people overnight in Karachi scared residents off its streets on Tuesday as Pakistan's largest city was on alert for more violence after the shooting of a leader in a dominant political party.
Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi says Iran's armed forces have prepared "enemy-crushing, defensive plans" to make 
Liberal 
[Dawn] A suicide bomber on foot detonated explosives outside the main foreign military base in Afghanistan's southern Kandahar on Tuesday, killing himself, but there were no reports of any other casualties, officials said.
The raising of livestock consumes two-thirds of the planet's farmland, and is a major source of greenhouse gases. Meanwhile, tons of edible, sustainable protein swarms all around us, free for the taking. In a new policy paper being considered by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Belgian entomologist Arnold van Huis makes the sensible recommendation that the western world eat more insects.
A 14-year-old was forced into prostitution and sexually abused by a series of men after going missing from her home in Greater Manchester.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has denounced the US administration for failing to implement the policy of change, saying capitalism in the US is nearing its end. 
[Tolo News] Six Taliban militants have been killed in clashes with Afghan security forces after launching rockets on Kandahar airbase
[Tolo News] Gunmen slain 6 employees of Kabul Bank, a private Afghan bank in Mazar-e-Sharif, the provincial capital of the northern province of Balkh on Monday night, officials said
[Arab News] A special tribunal dealing with charges of crimes against humanity against four senior leaders of Bangladesh's largest Islamic party ordered authorities on Monday to keep the accused in jail indefinitely.
government says the soldiers, aided by local collaborators, killed an estimated three million people, raped about 200,000 women and forced millions more to flee their homes during the bloody nine-month war.
Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been voted as the third worst premier in UK history since the Second World War. 
The Taliban have claimed responsibility for killing 150 US-led troops in an attack on the main US base in southern Afghanistan. 
