ATLANTA - Following U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney's second ouster from office in four years, some are already closing the book on her political future.
The word you're looking for is "has-been."
But anyone who has followed the dipsy doodle fiery Democrat's career - including her election as Georgia's first black congresswoman 14 years ago and her recent scuffle with a Capitol Hill police officer - would know that she doesn't give up that easy. McKinney lost her bid for a seventh term in Congress on Tuesday.
By about 60-40...
Her challenger, Hank Johnson - a political unknown before the July 18 primary - defeated her 59 percent to 41 percent in the runoff election.
That's known in the trade as "getting trounced."
After her first re-election defeat in 2002 following 10 years in Congress, she toured the country protesting President Bush and the war in Iraq before winning back her old seat two years later. Even in conceding defeat in Tuesday's runoff, she ripped into Republican leadership and vowed to continue her fight against war, poverty and injustice.
Maybe she'll move to Crawford and share expenses with Mother Sheehan.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2006
23:05 ||
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German engineers the past few weeks have been in Israel working to improve three advanced, nuclear capable attack submarines it provided the Jewish state last year, security sources tell the Galil Report.
Many here have estimated the vessels can be used both as a strategic, second-strike nuclear deterrent or for conventional use during any large-scale confrontation.
Military officials say the submarines are not needed for Israel's current campaign in Lebanon. The officials said Israel recently has discussed with foreign governments travel and refueling routes so the submarines can reach the Persian Gulf within firing distance of Iran.
The submarines usually patrol in the Indian Ocean. But the Galil Report has learned one is currently stationed in the Mediterranean off the coast of Haifa and another off the coast of Lebanon. Both submarines are being serviced. The Galil Report was not provided with the location of the third submarine.
The submarines are being fitted by German engineers with larger fuel tanks, security sources said. They said the submarines also are being fixed to carry larger torpedo tubes. Israel already had the submarines redesigned once in the past. Four of the 10 torpedo tubes were made to carry a 650 mm tube size, surpassing the nearly universal 533 mm diameter. Security sources said the submarine enhancements were not related to any specific military agenda. But they said Israel has discussed travel routes with foreign governments for the submarines to reach the Persian Gulf, within firing distance of Iran.
They said Egypt has denied Israel the ability to travel through the Suez Canal, but the Jewish state through diplomatic channels has secured the ability to travel to the Gulf via the Mediterranean. Coastal Eritrea had agreed to allow Israel to refuel at its port, which is still controlled by the Ethiopian army, sources told the Galil Report. Still, Israel is playing it safe by having the submarines' fuel capacity enlarged.
Today's Galil Report details the upgrades being made to Israel's already enhanced SSK Dolphin-class submarines and outlines diplomatic negotiations to ensure the vessels can travel toward the direction of the Iranian coast.
#1
From a news report. According to London's Sunday Times quoting Haaretz, an Israeli Navy Dolphin submarine came up to Balasore on India's eastern seaboard to test fire an anti-missile missile. Israel's Dolphin submarines which are based in the port of Haifa, are believed to be armed with nuclear missiles.
This is sometimes reported as "off the coast of Sri Lanka".
Note that Balasore is the Indian missile test range. It has long range radar and optical tracking equipment and telemetry for missile tests.
Posted by: john ||
08/09/2006 21:30
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#2
If Israel is using the Indian test range, it is probably using the IN submarine tenders and bases as well.
Posted by: john ||
08/09/2006 21:32
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www.defenseindustrydaily.com
It is also rumored that Israel has tested a nuclear-capable verson of its medium-range "Popeye Turbo" cruise missile design for deployability from the two 650mm torpedo tubes in its Dolphin Class submarines. The 2002 Popeye Turbo launch test location off Sri Lanka suggested that the tests may have been performed in cooperation with India.
Posted by: john ||
08/09/2006 21:37
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#4
heh heh. Put one in the Qom well that Imam is hiding in?
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/09/2006 21:42
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#5
heh heh. Put one in the Qom well that Imam is hiding in?
humm..sounds like a plan Frank..
I take it you mean why not save the twelfth imammi all the effort of climbing up out of that well.
#6
why not stay hidden? As in: atomized, carbonized and dispersed over a 100 mile radius?
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/09/2006 22:06
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#7
Refitting the 533mm tubes (NATO) to handle a 650mm torpedo(Russia) is interesting. It would be even more interesting if they were being refitted to 660mm or 762mm. Then they would be capable of firing cruise missiles.
At this link you'll find Some common torpedo diameters (using the most common designation, metric or inch, and listed in increasing order of size):
12.75 inch (approximately 324mm) is the most common size for light torpedoes.
16 inch (406mm) was the size of the earliest specialised Soviet ASW torpedoes. 16 inch torpedo tubes were fitted to Soviet Hotel, Echo and early Delta class submarines, often in addition to 21 inch tubes.
17.7 inch (450mm) was the standard size for light torpedoes of the Imperial Japanese Navy. This size is sometimes referred to as 18 inches.
21 inch (533mm) is the most common size for heavy torpedoes, including:
Allied torpedoes of the Second World War.
Some torpedoes of the Imperial Japanese Navy.
NATO torpedoes.
Some Soviet and Russian torpedoes, including the current ASW models.
24 inch (610mm) torpedoes were used by the Imperial Japanese Navy, most famously the deck launched Type 93 torpedo, also some Kaitens.
650mm (approximately 25.6 inches) is the largest torpedo diameter used by the Russian navy, see Type 65 torpedo. Adaptors are used to fire 533mm (21 inch) munitions from 650mm tubes.
Even larger sizes of torpedo tube, including 660mm (26 inches), 30 inch (about 762mm) and 36 inch (about 914mm), have been installed on some nuclear submarines. These tubes are designed to be capable of firing large diameter munitions such as cruise missiles, as well as the standard 21 inch heavy torpedo.
NEW DELHI: Forget back channel diplomacy, if the Indian army has its way it will unleash a new war doctrine to combat what it describes as Islamabads new strategy of attack by infiltration into Indian territory beyond Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).
According to this months issue of Force magazine, the army may attempt to persuade New Delhi to follow the Israeli example in Lebanon and authorise the attack of terrorist targets in Azad Jammu and Kashmir. This could include punitive raids against Pakistani posts along the Line of Control (LoC), cross-border pursuit of militants and the crushing of militant training camps.
Indeed, the magazine points out that it is not difficult for the army to attack a nearby Pakistani post on the LoC and bring back their dead to show intruders into Indian territory, noting that both sides have attempted this in the past.
Force also stresses that India is well-prepared to meet Pakistans war threat (in retaliation) head-on, going on to suggest that New Delhi would simply need to allow its military a timeframe of three to four weeks to accomplish its aims before bowing to international pressure for a ceasefire.
Thus it warns that the next three months - that is, before winter sets in and the passes in Jammu and Kashmir close for the season - could prove crucial for Indias relations with Pakistan.
The magazine also says that the armed forces have taken into account Pakistans military weaknesses to ensure the success of their war doctrine.
Should Pakistan decide to enlarge the war theatre to ease pressure on the J&K front, the Indian military will seek to destroy its offensive forces, as well as capture territory inside the Thar desert to be used as a bargaining chip in the aftermath of war, the magazine says in its unsigned cover story, Peace by Other Means.
Moreover, Force points out that President Musharraf understands this. Thus his offer to help India nab those responsible for last months Mumbai train blasts came with a warning to New Delhi to refrain from any hot pursuit across the LoC. In short, he (Musharraf) is threatening action against likely raids by the Indian Army inside PoK.
The magazine notes that New Delhi should understand its military strength too. Army forces stationed in J&K say that following Indias fencing of the LoC and its employment of surveillance equipment in the area cross-border infiltration has taken on a new guise.
According to Lt Gen Deepak Kapoor, the army commander of Northern Commands, infiltration into J&K is unstoppable as the LoC is no longer the sole route of entering the state as terrorists infiltrate from all available routes and their area of interest is no longer confined to J&K.
Given that terrorism is now spilling into Indias heartland, the magazine says that New Delhi may choose to look beyond diplomatic and intelligence-based solutions to dismantle the ever-expanding tentacles of terrorism.
Enter the Indian army, which has stressed that military action be seriously considered if all other options fail. It has pointed out that the countrys armed forces have come a long way since the end of Operation Parakram in 2002, stressing that air, naval and military forces now have the capability, will and a war winning strategy against Pakistan.
According to Force, the army would use Special Forces deployments, assisted by the Air Force, to win any battle with Pakistan. The magazine also identifies the significant areas of Pakistans military weakness that would aid Indian forces in defeating any attempt by Islamabad to expand its war theatre:
* The Pakistan Air Forces capacity to conduct daily sorties is calculated at 260 per day, compared to the Indian Air Forces potential of 450;
* Pakistans 11 and 12 Corps (reserves for the Indian theatre) are completely tied down in other ongoing military activities, such as the US-led Operation Mountain Thrust in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). Thus most of these forces would be unavailable for any short war with India;
* Pakistan is already facing internal dissension in Balochistan;
* In operational terms, there are innumerable choke points in the Pakistan armys lines of communications, rendering them vulnerable to interdiction;
* Karachi port remains vulnerable.
Thus the race is on in the next three months to determine what the choice will be for India and Pakistan: war or peace?
Posted by: john ||
08/09/2006
21:13 ||
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#1
It would require a terrorist attack with mass casualties to provoke Manmohan Singh into approval of something like this...
Posted by: john ||
08/09/2006 21:20
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John, chances of that happening are somewhat in the realm of possibilities. Muzzies simply can't keep themselves from murdering kaffir. Anywhere. The time of appeasement of the bully camel is wating to end under the weight of the last straw.
The Bush administration has justified its decision to sell 36 F-16 Falcon fighter jets to Pakistan on grounds that it would increase American "access and influence" in Islamabad.
Pakistan's military regime, which will incur a debt of $5 billion to purchase the planes made by Lockheed Martin, considers the deal a boost for Pakistan's security. Close examination of the deal and of the history of similar US-Pakistan deals indicates that the stated goals of neither the US nor the Pakistani rulers are likely to be advanced with the F-16 purchase.
If anything, the F-16s are a pay off from Washington for General Pervez Musharraf's military regime a sort of "toys for the boys" gift that is expected to extend the regime's survival. That is all that concessional arms transfers under previous pro-US Pakistani military regimes have achieved.
Let us first look at the F-16 deal from the perspective of Pakistani national security. Not long ago, Musharraf declared that the greatest threat to Pakistani security comes from extremist ideologues and terrorists within the country. Domestic extremism in Pakistan would be fought more effectively with investment in the neglected social sectors. A sum of $ 5 billion could go a long way in expanding education, healthcare and poverty alleviation programmes.
If the purpose is to locate and liquidate hardened terrorists, the F-16 Falcon is not the best weapon to identify, isolate or even kill individual terrorists. Most major Al Qaida figures arrested in Pakistan and handed over to the US were arrested in major Pakistani cities.
The F-16's sophisticated air-to-air, air-to-surface and anti-ship missiles have little to contribute in the battle in the neighbourhoods of Westridge, Rawalpindi (where Khalid Shaikh Mohammad was found) or Defence Society, Karachi (where Ramzi Bin Al Shibh was caught). They have limited value in Waziristan or other tribal areas on the Afghan border.
Pakistan's traditional security threat is believed to come from India but here too Pakistan will not get a bang for its buck. The Pentagon's statement accompanying notification of the F-16 sale to the US Congress has stated unequivocally that Pakistan's F-16 purchase would "not significantly reduce India's quantitative or qualitative military advantage" and that it would neither affect the regional balance of power nor introduce a new technology in the region.
John Hillen, the US Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs, told a recent Congressional hearing that the version of the plane being sold to Pakistan "will not be nuclear capable" and explained that the Pentagon's notification to Congress had "enumerated the technologies that were not, that would usually go with an F-16, that are not part of this deal". According to Hillen, these withheld technologies "include ones that would allow the F-16 to be used in offensive ways to penetrate airspace of another country that was highly defended".
If the F-16 will not enhance Pakistan's military capability against domestic terrorism or confer it some qualitative or quantitative advantage in its unfortunate perennial conflict with India, why add to Pakistan's debt burden for such expensive jets? Hillen's explanation, repeated in private and public conversations by other American officials, focuses on US influence over Pakistan.
Secure leverage
The military is the most powerful institution in Pakistan and military sales, backed by large American credits, are a means of pleasing the Pakistani military. This, in turn, is supposed to secure leverage for the United States.
The US has dreamt of leverage over Pakistan's foreign policy in return for military equipment and economic aid ever since the days of the Cold War alliances, SEATO and CENTO. Contrary to the assumption of American officials that military aid translates into leverage, Pakistan's military has always managed to take military aid without ever fully giving the US what it desires.
If Pakistan's security policy was determined by a representative government and not by a Praetorian army, the ability to make independent foreign policy decisions would be a good thing from Pakistan's point of view even if that is not what the Americans seek.
But given the ascendancy of the military in Pakistan's decision-making, the military aid relationship with Washington has become a contributing factor to Pakistan's internal dysfunction.
The availability of weapons systems that enhance the Pakistani military's prestige and therefore its ability to continue to dominate national life offered by the US to secure limited Pakistani cooperation in US grand strategy allows Pakistan's military rulers to believe that they can continue to promote risky domestic, regional and pan-Islamic policies. It undermines the Pakistani military's willingness to negotiate realistically with India without bolstering Pakistan's actual military prowess against its much larger neighbour.
The people of Pakistan, and the long-term US-Pakistan relationship, would benefit far more if Washington made it clear that its support for Pakistan's security would be contingent upon Pakistan having an elected government that determines Pakistan's real security needs in a transparent manner.
Husain Haqqani is Director of Boston University's Centre for International Relations and Co-Chair of the Hudson Institute's Project on Islam and Democracy. He is the author of the Carnegie Endowment book "Pakistan Between Mosque and Military".
Posted by: john ||
08/09/2006
21:10 ||
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#1
VIEW: Are the F-16s up to scratch?
By Kamran Shafi
So then, despite the fact that the infrastructure of the country is in the state it is in: water soluble roads that are pot-holed with the slightest rain; rickety bridges that collapse at the merest provocation; an electricity distribution system that is so weak and frayed it breaks down with sickening regularity; schools that do not have chairs and tables or safe drinking water for children; government-run hospitals that do not even have sutures, bandages, cotton-wool or methylated spirit; a train network which can be decimated by the washing away of a single bridge- despite all of this it seems we must have the blessed F-16s first.
Indeed the fact that, the infrastructure of Karachi, the major centre of industry and trade and the city that pays majority of the federations bills, could be so creaky that it drowns in three inches of rain; when three-fourths of its residents are out of electricity or water, seems to be a greater cause for concern. Yet we are geared to spend an outrageous amount of five billion US dollars to buy the, as Husain Haqqani put it yesterday, toys for the boys along with building a new general headquarters in Islamabad the beautiful, to boot.
Well talk about the new GHQ another time; this week it is the F-16s. While buying these expensive planes at a time when the country needs all the money it can muster to make the lives of its people a little easier, is a criminal waste of money. Are these aircrafts even worth it? A Pakistani reader from America, who is researching for his PhD sent me a quite shocking email two days ago, which got me going on this subject anew. While I have edited it for brevity, I reproduce it (almost) verbatim:
I am a PhD student at present in the United States and consider myself a patriot. I therefore feel it my duty to ask you to bring something to the nations attention and if possible, create a furore through the press (something similar to what happened in the steel mills case).
A friend of mine, who has inside information (but doesnt want to be known) regarding the operational capabilities of the F-16 batch that we currently have, is very worried about the purchase of the new F-16s being touted as a quantum leap for the PAF.
What worries him specifically (other than the US being able to stop the supply of spares whenever) is that these F-16s will not have EW (electronic warfare) programming capabilities for its RWR (radar warning receiver). Our F-16s have a pre-installed threat library that is able to identify only non-NATO aircraft using its RWR. It has been observed that our F-16s could not detect being locked onto by a Mirage 2000 (since thats a NATO aircraft) while the Chinese built F-6 could. This was because of the above-mentioned limitation in the EW capability of the F-16 supplied (i.e. it cannot be reprogrammed). What this would mean is that an enemy airplane fitted with BVR (beyond visual range) missiles, can lock on to our F-16s and fire a missile without the F-16 being able to take evasive measures. This would make even the most sophisticated aircraft (with all the manoeuvrability in the world) a sitting duck.
His concern is that in the current technological revolution, the age-old concept of dogfights and pilots skill is no longer an integral part of having mastery of the skies. Unfortunately, most of our PAF high ups are usually GD pilots and have a jingoistic vein where they think their skill and superior manoeuvrability is all they need to teach the enemy a lesson. They dont seem to appreciate that the paradigm has shifted in air warfare.
Having no capability to re-program the EW systems in these most advanced fighters is like giving someone a super-duper Pentium Core Duo system with a 29-inch LCD screen and the best sound system in the world; and then to only allow the user to browse the Web on it. Using this same analogy, wouldnt it be preferable to have a Pentium 3 with the capability of writing your own code and interfacing your own peripheral devices?
The bottom line is that we want to ask the government this question: Is the PAF being provided the capability to reprogram the EW threat library? A simple yes or no is all we need because then we can hold them accountable to a folly that may cost us, not only the billions spent on the deal (and the millions received in kickbacks?), but also the fate of our nation in the near future.
I have tried to be as exhaustive as I can. Please, if you feel the need, investigate more through Janes and other such sources, and try to make the PAF at least reply to the question.
Right then, this is not all. We have the bum too, folks, remember? How can we forget when the Establishment reminds us day in and day out that we have it because it and it alone is the deterrent that keeps India in check. Well, if you have this great deterrent, what are the F-16s for? Neither is this all. The F-16s on offer to Pakistan apparently cant deliver nuclear bombs either!
So, could some PAF-wallah please clarify the points raised here? And could he please tell us who the F-16s agent(s) is/are and what sort of commissions he/they will make out of this deal? And while he is at it, could he also please tell us who the agents (because there are several, according to my information) are in the SAAB AWACS deal, and how many hundreds of millions of scrumptious Dollars they will make?
Posted by: john ||
08/09/2006 21:17
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#2
The miserable pakis make wonderful cannon fodder. The islamists thrive in ignorant, starving, fanatical, saudi-funded-madras-ridden societies. I suppose the new weapons will come in handy when the moolahs take over from Perv and the democrats immasculate our US forces. Sorry, i've been feeling depressed today--perhaps it was liebermans defeat, one of the few democrats who "gets it".
#3
This is typical FMF back scratching for being a good boy. We sell them 30 F-16 aircraft that are really not any good for a first world fight. There is no money exchanged, it's a loan. They play along and let us push our policies in the area. The aircraft will soon be lawn art because the PAF can't maintain them, and we will forgive the debt when we need a big favor from them. Same game, different country.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/09/2006 23:02
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#4
49 Pan's got it...but I think John had it too...he's no slouch, that John
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/09/2006 23:10
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The Iraqi army is halfway to its goal of 10 divisions as the 4th Division assumed command of the area north of Baghdad yesterday.
The division assumed primary control of its area of responsibility from the 101st Airborne Division. This is the fifth of 10 division headquarters in Iraq to assume the lead in regional operations.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman called the development a key benchmark in the effort Iraqis are making to take control of their own country. The division will be in the lead for security in Salah Ad Din, Sulaymaniyah and Kirkuk provinces. This area includes the cities of Tikrit, Kirkuk and Samarra and Iraqs northern oil fields.
Overall, Iraqi security forces are in the lead with five army divisions, 25 army brigades and 85 army battalions, Whitman said. The Iraqi national police have two battalions in the lead in other areas.
In northern Iraq, 33 battalions, nine brigades and two divisions have demonstrated their ability to operate independently and now lead the fight against terrorists and anti-Iraqi forces. The 5th Iraqi Army Division assumed the lead in Diyala province in July.
The assumption of authority ceremony was held at Camp Dagger, outside Tikrit. Iraqi Lt. Gen. Abdul-Aziz Abdel-Rahman al-Mufti, commander of the 4th Army Division, and U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Thomas Turner, commander of Task Force Band of Brothers, presided.
Dignitaries attending the ceremony included Iraqi National Security Adviser Mouwaffak al-Rubaie, Defense Minster Gen. Abdul Qadir Muhammed Jasim, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad, Multinational Force Iraq Commander Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the governors of Salah Ad Din, Sulaymaniyah and Kirkuk provinces, and many provincial and local leaders.
I think this is a good day for Iraq, Khalilzad said. The people of Iraq are starting to get organized so they can take on more responsibility for their own country.
Casey agreed. I think what you saw here today was a great statement in progress and unity in Iraq, he said. They (Iraqis) keep taking small steps and getting better and better every day.
The 4th Division will continue to report through the coalition command structure until the Iraqi Ground Forces Command is fully set up at Camp Victory, outside Baghdad, Multinational Corps Iraq officials said. The IGFC begins standing up in September with its formal alignment under the Joint Headquarters and will then conduct a phased assumption of overwatch for Iraqi army divisions, said Army Lt. Col. Michelle Martin-Hing, a Multinational Corps Iraq spokeswoman.
American advisers will continue to work with the 4th Division as it moves forward. Servicemembers assigned to military training teams are embedded with the Iraqi units. Thirteen such teams are with the 4th Division. Roughly 150 U.S. personnel are assigned to the teams, and U.S. units will continue to partner with Iraqi units as they gain more capabilities.
Servicemembers of Task Force Band of Brothers, which is built around the 101st Airborne Division, will continue to train and operate with the Iraqi army as they now take the lead for security operations, Martin-Hing said.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/09/2006 22:24
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#3
This would explain the shift in political opinion to 'get the US out now!' - they want to be perceived as leading by demanding what is already happening.
The mentally impaired leading the visually challenged
The security cabinet approved Wednesday a broader ground offensive by the Israel Defense Forces in Lebanon, authorizing troops to push at least up to the Litani River some 30 kilometers from the Israel-Lebanon border. The IDF's goal is to significantly reduce Hezbollah's short-range rocket launching capabilities. Most Katyusha rocket launches take place from within this area. What a dumb goal. Iran will suppply all lost material within one month of a cease fire. What they can't replace is trained, experienced fighters. The goal should be to kill every adult male in Southern Lebanon.
No, sorry, that will create a bigger problem. The goal should be to kill the Hezbie leadership, Hezbie gun slingers, and Hezbie rocket techs. When enough of that happens the rest of the Hezbies will decide to become auto mechanics.
The cabinet authorized Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz to widen the offensive and to determine its timing. Now for the capper -
The offensive would not begin for two or three days so as not interfere with ongoing efforts to broker a cease-fire at the United Nations, said one minister in the meeting. And don't forget your permisssion slip from Mr. Annan.
Members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard have been found among Hizbollah guerrillas slain by Israeli forces in southern Lebanon, Israel's Channel 10 television reported on Wednesday citing diplomatic sources. It said the Iranians were identified by documents found on their bodies, but gave no further details on how many were discovered or when. Neither the Israeli military nor Hizbollah representatives in Beirut had immediate comment on the report.
Iran, like fellow Hizbollah patron Syria, insists its support for the Shi'ite guerrilla group is purely moral. Israel says many of the rockets being fired against its civilian and military targets are Iranian made, and that Hizbollah fighters taking on its forces trained in Iran. Washington also accuses Tehran of actively funding Hizbollah.
Posted by: Destro in Indiana ||
08/09/2006
18:02 ||
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#1
"Well, unless Iran is willing to claim them as their personnel, we will bury them in a grave with pig entrails in 72 hours."
#4
No surprise, just a matter of time. Iran doesn't care , they basically admit this is their operation and they started it. What I would like to know is when we are going to crack their knuckles ?
#6
We had American flyers flying and fighting with China, England, and France before our own country got officially involved. This doesn't seem like an act of war unless Israel has proof these RGs were ordered there and not "over zealous" volunteers.
Posted by: Dar ||
08/09/2006 20:03
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#7
were we supplying those fighters with American weapons?
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/09/2006 20:05
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#8
Seems Syria doesnt want war it is announcing war shelters being cheked:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3288995,00.html
#11
acknowledged. IIRC they volunteered and resigned their commissions, if any, with us first. Lend/Lease was a fig leaf. The Iranians haven't even bothered with that
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/09/2006 20:14
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#12
Honestly, the more evidence I see of this sort of conventional Iranian involvement, the happier I am, since at least it seems to indicate that Iran doesn't have a big surprise planned for the immediate future.
#13
#7: were we supplying those fighters with American weapons?
Chenault's Flying Tigers were Americans flying American planes with American Bombs and Bullets.
I'd have to say "Yes"
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/09/2006 21:25
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#14
Actually, the Flying Tigers did not fly their first comabt mission until after December 7, 1941. That doesn't change the fact they were American pilots flying American supplied aircraft and being paid handsomely for it. However, they weren't in the employ of a regime bent on the eradication of a whole race of people.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
08/09/2006 21:30
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#18
Frankly I'd like to see a LOT more IRG dead, as in "all of 'em"
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/09/2006 21:49
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#19
Don't the Iranian moolahs have some weird end-of-the-world apocolypse, hidden Imam fantasy? I think i've read somewhere that their brand of shi'ism has a bunch of myths about something like the second coming related to a decendent of Ali (mahmout's son-in-law). Too many wacky cults to keep track of...
I've been wondering what was going on in the south
Yisrael Beitenu party Chairman and MK Avigdor Lieberman said Wednesday that Hamas is planning to change the way it is waging war on Israels southern front based on the Hizbullah model.
Hamas opened the Re-engagement War with a terror attack on an IDF outpost on June 25th at the Kerem Shalom border crossing with Gaza and Egypt. IDF Corporal Gilad Shalit was taken hostage by Hamas terrorists during the battle in which two soldiers were killed and four others injured.
Hamas is now the majority party that leads the Palestinian Authority, and is also involved in internal fighting with the Fatah faction which controlled the PA prior to elections in January 2006.
Lieberman said the PA is preparing to wage a war on southern Israel modeled on the Hizbullah military strategy against communities in northern Israel. He also expressed criticism of the media for ignoring the ongoing PA Kassam rocket attacks on the cities of the Negev.
Lieberman said that PA terrorists are "smuggling Katyushas and Grad missiles into the Gaza Strip. The southern Lebanon script must be prevented in southern Israel."
Lieberman further criticized the government for failing to keep the Knesset apprised of Hamas war preparations, charging that better information can be found on the Internet than in parliamentary committee sessions.
He added that the government must not close its eyes to the fact that Hamas intentions are to destroy Israel, a goal the terror group does not hide.
The groups party platform focused on its refusal to formally recognize the State of Israel, disarm or renounce terrorism. Foreign funding to the PA by most western nations was frozen when the terrorist organization took over the government.
#3
Unlike in du Liban, there are no hills, valleys, rivers, ANY type of natural barrier or even cover in Hamastan. No large amount of ATGW. Nothing. Nada. ZIP.
#9
The Israelis could end it right now by saying that any declaration of war by Hamas will result in the deportation of all Paleos from the Gaza Strip into Egypt.
#13
Remember when they let the refugees back into Gaza and Israel said Iran had advisors and Hamas mixed in with them. Looks like they are feeling like they are ready for a fight. Take it to them Israel!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/09/2006 21:30
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#14
Isreal needs to start a campaign in gaza like the one in lebanon then. Start in the north, bomb thoroughly and slowly moving soutward. Give 'em time to run south into the loving arms of egypt. Call the egyptian border the southern Litani river...
(IsraelNN.com) IDF tanks are moving into southern Lebanon at this time, signaling the start of the advanced incursion intended to push Hizbullah further from Israels northern border, Israels Channel 2 TV reports.
#2
Meanwhile yesterday was a sad day: 15 soldiers were killed in four incidents in southern Lebanon. In one incident an anti-tank missile was fired at a tank. Members of the tank crew were killed.
In another incident, a missile was fired at a structure containing soldiers from an elite reserve unit. Military arms were also blown up. Part of the building crashed causing the deaths of nine soldiers. (Hanan Greenberg)
#8
IDF Moving North
IDF has now reached 10 k, 6 miles into Lebanon. The IDF has gone farther north in less than one day of fighting the war correctly than in almost a month of prior fighting.
#13
The IDF objective to date has not been to advance into Lebanon. It's been to locate and neutralize as many Hezbo bunkers as possible before any large scale invasion. Those bunkers were filled with thousands of Iranian-trained (and led) anti-tank teams. Most, but not all, of them have now been "Okinawanized". Many more dead Hezbos than being reported.
#18
Just watched the Canadian/Afghan video, and it seems remarkably stable and clear compared to most combat footage I've seen.
I'm not accusing that it's staged--there's certainly been a lot of technological advances in portability, stability, and other camera areas--but in most footage I've seen the camera operator is a lot more concerned with his own safety than getting all the action into the frame, and I'm a bit suspicious.
Posted by: Dar ||
08/09/2006 20:11
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#19
I thought the same thing Dar until I saw the guy smoking at the end look into his eyes he saw battle and it frighten him some.
#21
Well, like I said, I'm just suspicious but don't have the proof or experience to say otherwise. Could very well be real, the photographer has got nerves of steel, and the camera has incredible image-stabilization. Regardless, it's very captivating footage.
I try to maintain a healthy skepticism in these heady days of "fauxtography".
Posted by: Dar ||
08/09/2006 22:24
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If there is one bedrock conviction underlying President Bushs foreign policy, it is that freedom is the desire of every human heart. Bush repeats the phrase at every opportunity, and it is the premise of his push for democracy in the Middle East and elsewhere: Given a free choice, it is assumed, people will choose freedom and the political system best suited to foster it.
The problem with Bushs freedom rhetoric is that it appears to not be true. Hezbollah and Hamas, and the populations that support them, desire the destruction of Israel above all, and are willing to endure warfare and dysfunctional societies to bring it about. The Sunni insurgents in Iraq want power more than anything else, and are willing to kill and maim to gain it. The Shia militias, in turn, desire revenge against the Sunni.
Don't confuse the evil of a few, and their people to induce delusion in others, with the yearning for freedom. And let's define freedom in this context: the wish to be left the hell alone. Ahmadneijad, Nazrallah, Kimmie and others have no love for freedom, but put a bullet in each of them and there's a decent chance that the rest of the folks suffering under them would certainly want to be left alone.
An evangelical Christian, Bush couches his belief in the universal hunger for freedom in religious terms. He often says that freedom is Gods gift to humanity. But it sometimes seems that he neglects what, for a Christian, is a central event in understanding human motivation, the Fall. Pride and hatred and fear are as likely to drive human behavior as any hunger for freedom.
And while, all things being equal, people surely prefer to live in freedom than under a dictatorship, culture ensures that things are never equal. Someone living in a tribal or traditional culture will view the world differently, and have different values, than an atomized individual in the West. He might value sexual purity more than freedom, thus insisting on the repression of women. He might value his religious conviction that all of the Levant should be Muslim-controlled over freedom and life itself. He might hate the dishonor of foreign occupation more than he loves anything.
Different cultures value different things, and failing to understand what a particular culture desires can lead to many policy disasters. However, people said much the same thing about South America thirty years -- wasn't ready for freedom and would never be, and that the combination of repressive Catholicism, indigenous culture, Spanish authoritarianism, and backwards economies would forever doom them to authoritarian regimes. Best you could do is let enlightened commies run the place. Today? All but a couple countries are representative, democratic republics. And even if the people elect goofs we don't particularly like (e.g., in Brazil or Chile), it's their decision and they have the ability to change it. Not ready for freedom? Seems like they were, when they were finally given the ability to choose.
For all these reasons, Hezbollah seems to have a better understanding of human hearts, at least in its part of the world, than the president of the Unites States does. This doesnt mean that Bush should abandon the liberalizing thrust of his foreign policy. A democratizing Middle East offers the best alternative to the violent, dictator-plagued region of today. But his administration would be well served to focus on the particular instead of the universal, and talk more of the messy compromises and disappointments that are inevitable on the path to a better Middle East, even if we eventually get there.
So the writer agrees with the Bush administration on the strategy, he just doesn't like the tactics. My suggested tactic is decapitate Hezbollah, wreck the present Syrian regime and permit a series of unexplained, unfortunate accidents to happen in the gasoline refineries serving Iran. Wonder how fast Lebanon would get her freedom then?
It would be nice if James Madison were by default the worlds favorite political philosopher. Hes not, because the human heart is more complicated and twisted than President Bush acknowledges in his rhetoric.
#1
My suggested tactic is decapitate Hezbollah, wreck the present Syrian regime and permit a series of unexplained, unfortunate accidents to happen in the gasoline refineries serving Iran.
Europe 's view of the present Israeli offensive against Hezbollah as an "overreaction" and "disproportionate use of force" is rooted in relatively recent history, say progressive researchers. In 1943, Europe itself suffered from a similar Jewish overreaction to some controversial German policies, in an event known as the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, when Zionist radicals attacked the National Socialist German Workers Party that was loved by the German people for its far-reaching educational and social welfare services.
In fact, many academics who teach Peace Studies at prestigious universities believe that it was the Zionists' "disproportionate use of force" that had ruined hopes for peace in Europe and caused a humanitarian crisis that could have easily be avoided if only Jews had shown restraint and tolerance towards the democratically elected German government. Hilarious yet sad take on European and The New York Slimes coverage of the war. Check out the link for a good laugh (or cry).
#1
...that had ruined hopes for peace in Europe and caused a humanitarian crisis that could have easily be avoided if only Jews had shown restraint and tolerance towards the democratically elected German government.
I know this is parody, but that's basically what Ghandi was advocating to the European Jews before WW2.
Not so long ago it looked as if Russia wanted to carve out for itself a key role as mediator in the Middle East conflict. The Kremlin began by inviting the extremist Hamas party to talks in Moscow in March. That was followed by a cash injection for the Palestinian Authority after Western governments suspended their aid following Hamas' election victory.
But in the current conflict in Lebanon the Kremlin has surprised many observers by its reticence. Apart from calling for an immediate ceasefire, President Vladimir Putin has not said anything of significance for weeks on the fighting between Israel and the militant Lebanese group Hezbollah - although his remarks would have a wide reach in the Islamic world.
Independent Middle East experts in Russia are convinced that Moscow's position on the conflict in Lebanon consists of having none at all.
'Moscow is trying to be a mediator between radical Islamists and the rest of the world, but in reality can achieve nothing,' Alexei Malashenko of the Carnegie Moscow Center said.
Malashenko noted that Russia's position on international conflicts is usually diametrically opposed to that of the United States. At the UN Security Council, the Russian position so far has been that only a resolution serving Lebanon's interest can end the conflict.
In the past Russia has also usually supported Israel's enemies. Syria and Iran are key customers for Russian armaments and at the G8 summit in St Petersburg in July, Putin succeeded in having remarks criticizing Syria and Iran for backing Hezbollah kept out of the final declaration.
But the parallels end there. Hamas and Hezbollah no longer appear on Moscow's list of international terrorist organizations and anger is growing in Russia over Washington's attempts to 'democratize' the Middle East, which it sees as sowing the seeds of further tensions in the region.
In surveys, every second Russian names Israel or the US as responsible for the current fighting in Lebanon, with only one in seven seeing Hezbollah as the instigators. Despite Russia' reserve on the hostilities, Russia is expected to support the UN resolution on Lebanon and the deployment of an international peacekeeping force.
'In the end Moscow has no interest in being internationally isolated over the Middle East,' Malashenko says.
A 40-foot log used by protesters to block access to the Mike's Gulch timber salvage sale in a roadless area of the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest Tuesday morning was cut from a nearby botanical area, according to forest officials.
The butt of the green Douglas fir tree, about 12 inches in diameter, matched the stump of a recently cut tree at the Days Gulch botanical area, officials said. "You don't need to be a detective to see where it came from," said Tom Lavagnino, forest information officer at the site. "You can see the fresh sawdust, and where they dragged it 500 to 800 feet to the bridge.
"But the issue is finding the person who cut it," he added. "There is no doubt they used it for blockage."
Activist Laurel Sutherlin, 29, a member of the Oxygen Collective environmental group, was strapped to a platform hanging from one end of the log over the shallow river some 50 feet below.
"There is an active investigation to determine who cut the tree," said forest spokeswoman Patty Burel. "Laurel Sutherlin may have been in possession of it since he was hanging from the log."
Sutherlin could not be reached for comment Tuesday afternoon. Illinois Valley resident Annette Rasch, a longtime environmental activist who was at the protest, discounted the issue. She said she did not know where the log came from.
One of 11 missing Egyptian students has been picked up in Minneapolis, Minn., NBC News Pete Williams reported Wednesday. The student was being interviewed by federal investigators, who were trying to find the remaining 10.
The students arrived in the United States on student visas last month, and are being sought by authorities after failing to turn up for an exchange program at Montana State University. remain on site is info already noted
#7
They found him face down drunk on a corner. As the rest wake up from the bender they will get policed up.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/09/2006 16:21
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#8
Minnesota, eh? Probably getting terrorist training from those radical Lutherans.
Posted by: Dar ||
08/09/2006 18:27
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#9
Minnesota was where some 9-1-1 terrorists sought flight training. An FBI agent resigned after HQ ignored their concerns. Many from the ME seek medical treatment at Mayo, including the late Jordanian King Hussein and the Saudis. Ive seen fully veiled women at the Mall of America, arousing my suspicions.
THE McCARTNEY divorce is going to be the most bitter high-profile split since Charles and Dianas ten years ago. Heather Mills, dubbed Lady Mucca after The Sun exposed her porno past, has hired the same lawyers used by the late Princess as she battles Macca for his millions.
Although she once claimed she had no interest in the former Beatles £800million fortune, ex-hooker Heather went to see top divorce firm Mishcon de Reya this week. The Monday meeting she had with SIX of their top legal eagles went on for FIVE HOURS. A source close to the 38-year-old ex-model said: They wanted to go through every minute detail about the marriage and forthcoming divorce. Heather now has a month to get her defence in before the divorce takes place.
She has ordered the London-based legal team to fight Sir Paul for an incredible £200million.
Macca and Mucca went to extraordinary lengths to avoid each other yesterday during the handing over of their daughter Beatrice, two. Heather and Paul, 64, arranged the tot swap with military precision so they wouldnt see each other. Macca swept IN to his London home half an hour after Heather was driven OUT with the pain of the split clearly etched on his face.
The previous night Heather had turned up at the smart address to find the locks had been changed. Police were called by Maccas staff as her security guard tried to climb a fence. A source said: Heather turned up unannounced. She had made no arrangement with Paul to spend the night at the house. She is always breaking the arrangements made for the handover of Beatrice. She seems to do it to create publicity.
Heather later spent the night there with Beatrice but only after police had questioned her and a member of Maccas staff grudgingly allowed her to get inside.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2006
14:44 ||
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A lovely example of invective--and not a swearword in there.
The know-nothing, empty-suit, blue-blood Ned Lamont is now the Democrat party's poster boy. He's sort of a John Kerry, but without the Purple Hearts (and he actually inherited most of his fortune from his own family).
Don't hold back, tell us what you really think of him.
Lamont follows in the great tradition of his uncle, Corliss Lamont, who was a courageous pacifist during the rise of the Nazis, just as Little Neddy has been heroic in his adamant appeasement of the Islamo-Nazis.
And it was impossible to miss some of the Jew-baiters standing behind Little Neddy at the podium last night as he celebrated his landslide (4 percent) victory over a prominent senator of Jewish heritage, e.g., Jesse "Hymietown" Jackson and Al "Interloper" Sharpton.
There's something very French about the modern Democrat party ... or is that Vichy French? It's the party of Jim Moran; John Dingel; the late, great Cynthia McKinney; Robert Byrd ("the Conscience of the Senate"); former elder statesmen Fritz Hollings; and, of course, Joe Kennedy Sr. The party of Harry Truman strong on defense and the first to recognize Israel is dead. It's now the party of Henry Wallace. Blue-bloods have replaced blue-collars. And Lamonts have replaced Liebermans.
Republicans should be ecstatic. The Democrat presidential field was already running left. Now it will run at sprint-speed. The 2008 presidential election is shaping up to be a 1972 rerun. Even Hillary Clinton, former counsel to the Black Panthers, doesn't measure up. "Oh, the times, they are a changin ...."
Posted by: Mike ||
08/09/2006
14:24 ||
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#1
Not Vichy, Copperheads.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copperheads
The Vichy were forced by circumstances to cooperate, but the Copperheads believed in supporting slavery and the other precepts of the Confederacy. Even when the label was applied to them, like the modern left, they wear it proudly.
#2
The Vichy were forced by circumstances to cooperate...
BS. The French were offered union with Britain -- so that the French colonies could stay in the fight, and that the French navy could join with the British. They opted out, and in fact made it quite clear they preferred the Nazi boot to "getting too close" to the Brits.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
08/09/2006 15:03
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#1
"You need to have rules of engagement - to be able to shoot people, if necessary. They need to be able to shoot both the Israelis and the Hezbollah..."
Then, when order is established, make it illegal to own weapons.
"No one must bear arms. Make it a capital offence - if you're carrying a weapon, you get shot on sight. You could do it. The problem is, everybody still has weapons under their bed."
Or the UNFIL could .... nevermind.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/09/2006 17:10
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#5
"In the past we used to oppose or not agree on deployment of the army at the borders," the Hezbollah leader said. Now, he said, "we agree on deployment of the army."
He said before when he did not want the troops deployed it was not because he was afraid of them, but because he was afraid for them.
"Putting a national army on the border is putting the army in the mouths of the dragon. It doesnt have air cover or sufficient artillery, so it could be destroyed easily," Nasrallah said.
He then accused Israel of weak military tactics because Lebanon has suffered a higher number of civilian casualties than Israel.
"We are waiting for you in the battle field. ... You are cowards. You kill our women, our children, our buildings. But we kill your officers and your tanks."
Oh, I'm convinced now. And the French want it too? So what's the problem?
Go IDF!
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/09/2006 17:14
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#6
What's the difference between Hezbo and Lebanese Army? (silence) I didn't think so
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/09/2006 18:20
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HT - DRUDGE
Iranian doctors have overseen the country's first animal cloning _ a lamb that died minutes after birth _ and plan future experiments in genetics and stem cell research, a member of the team said Wednesday.
Iran's program is part of the Islamic regime's ambitions to become a regional center for medical, aerospace and nuclear technology _ which has led to an international showdown over Western claims that Tehran also seeks atomic weapons.
"We learned a lot about cloning during the experiment. It made us more hopeful about further cases," said Dr. Morteza Hosseini, a member of cloning team at Isfahan Royan Institute in central Iran. Hosseini said the cloned sheep died five minutes after birth Aug. 2 due to respiratory problems. The female sheep implanted with the cloned embryo gave birth a week ahead of schedule and was healthy, he said.
Hosseini said Iranian researchers in Tehran and Isfahan expect to carry out more cloning experiments over the coming months.
The program has won backing from Iran's Shiite Muslim religious leaders, who have issued religious decrees authorizing animal cloning but banning any such experiments with humans. A majority of Iran's nearly 70 million people are Shiites, which comprise about 15 percent of the world's 1.2 billion Muslims.
Many Sunni Muslim clerics, however, have spoken against cloning in any form.
British scientists made world headlines a decade ago with the cloned sheep Dolly. Since then, rapid progress in stem cell research and genetics have raised widespread debates about ethics and the boundaries of medicine. Scientists say cloning sheep and other animals could lead to advances in medical research, including using cloned animals to produce human antibodies against diseases. Of course I know what everyone is thinking about "other uses" Shame shame shame....
:)
#12
'This is not good, not good at all.'
Why Tony? the fact is that the best Iranian scientists cannot compare with the west and are at best decades behind our research.
TWELVE trucks crossed the Syrian border into Lebanon and rumbled south. When they were stopped at a checkpoint a few days later, the Lebanese Armed Forces found the trucks were brimming with ammunition and weapons, including Katyusha rockets that have been raining down on Israel since July 12.
What happened next, in this little-reported incident in late January, goes to the heart of the conflict between Israel and Lebanon. The convoy was waved on and travelled unhindered to its final destination: Hezbollah terrorists in southern Lebanon.
The Lebanese army said the transportation and storage of ammunition belonged to the "resistance". Once inside Lebanon it was subject to a ministerial policy statement of the Lebanese Government, which considers the "resistance" to be legitimate. Gives ya kind of a warm feeling towards the so-called Lebanese (read: Hezbo) Government.
"As the Government of Lebanon has confirmed, the Lebanese Armed Forces has thus not been authorised to prevent further movement of the ammunitions, which had been a common practice for more than 15 years," UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a letter to the Security Council in April. "Hezbollah publicly confirmed that the arms were destined for the group."
It's this uninterrupted flow of weapons, mostly made in Iran, under the nose of the Lebanese Government, that has allowed Hezbollah to stockpile some 12,000 Katyusha rockets. Over the past 29 days of conflict, Hezbollah has fired more than 3000 rockets into Israel.
Syrian-made rockets, including mid-range 220mm units, have also fallen on Nazareth and Haifa, Israel's third-largest city. The warheads were filled with ball bearings to maximise civilian casualties.
Aside from rocket launchers, armoured personnel carriers, night vision goggles, aerial drones and motorised gliders make up the hardware for a 3000-strong guerilla unit that some say is in fact a well-organised and fierce military force.
"The fact that Hezbollah is difficult to dislodge from their positions is not a surprise for the Israelis or anyone else," David Schenker, a specialist in Middle East affairs at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, tells The Australian. Schenker also worked for four years at the Pentagon as a Middle East specialist. "Hezbollah fighters are well trained and highly motivated and they are dug in," he adds.
Former CIA officer Robert Baer, who has followed the group since 1983, told US News & World Report he has "a lot of respect for Hezbollah's capabilities". Baer, whose book See No Evil inspired the film Syriana, spent a couple of weeks with Hezbollah last year, touring its facilities. "You've got some of the most experienced operatives in the world there."
Addendum 4:30 pm CDT: link added. Thanks and glad someone got the message! :-) AoS.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/09/2006
13:25 ||
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#4
Iblis, you hit the nail on the head. I used to feel a pang of sympathy for the "civilian" populace in Lebanon. If they are in cahoots with Hezbollah they suffer along side them. Maybe a few weeks without power/water they might have second thoughts?
#8
Lebanese Army "Waves Through" Iranian Missiles to Resistance
Maybe a few bombing "waves through" the government's capital infrastructure might change their way of thinking.
I used to feel a pang of sympathy for the "civilian" populace in Lebanon.
Cyber Sarge, when I first arrived here at Rantburg I, too, still had sympathy for a lot of the civilians caught up in these endless conflicts. The more I've had access to un-spun reporting on this matter, the more I've come to realize that a large portion of these populations are tolerant, supportive or overtly complicit in these terrorist activities.
Both the Palestinians and Lebanon have duly elected governments comprised of terrorist factions. The world can no longer go about pretending that there can be no down side to this. Adulation and empowerment of terrorism must bring swift and harsh penalties.
Due to Islam's overall death obsession, the loss of their own youth means nothing. Elsewise, the adult population might have already had second thoughts. Instead, there is no way to authentically negotiate with those who have nothing to lose or fear. Factor in the dissembling nature of taqiya, and suddenly all cease-fires, truces and even negotiations themselves merely become hudnas.
I have come to the conclusion that the only way to end terrorism is through the extermination of terrorists and those who support them. There is no perfidy or betrayal too large or small that they will not indulge in to further their own aims.
Israel has known this for some time and has finally concluded that the growing collaboration between her enemies requires decisive action. I can only applaud what is being done and wish them well.
#9
From the fearless leader of the UN -- he knew about these rockets!
"As the Government of Lebanon has confirmed, the Lebanese Armed Forces has thus not been authorised to prevent further movement of the ammunitions, which had been a common practice for more than 15 years," UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a letter to the Security Council in April. "Hezbollah publicly confirmed that the arms were destined for the group."
#12
Former CIA officer Robert Baer, ... whose book See No Evil inspired the film Syriana, spent a couple of weeks with Hezbollah last year, touring its facilities.
Now there's a ringing endorsement. Personally, I don't think I'm gonna take Baer's opinions to the bank - especially since Hezb's banks are in a bit of disarray right now.
#15
Sherry, I think he meant the original link to the news article, not ItM. See post #1, Legolas for linky-poo, looks like Cap'n forgot it, even after the other mods reminding us about posting the links to the news article you're putting up, lol!
Posted by: BA ||
08/09/2006 15:57
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#16
BA -- duh -- yea, on the last day before I leave for few days of vacation -- the brain gones blank! Thanks!!
#19
I have read Mr. Baer's book, it was interesting, it's been at least a year, but as I recall, he tried to be pretty neutral on the israeli/arab issue. seems like if anything I got the idea that he tended to take the arab point of view, but like I said its been awhile.
#22
We were watching a short clip in ABC or NBC (does it matter?) and there, amidst the burned-out rubble of a bombed building in Southern Lebanon, was an "arrangement" of four or five children's stuffed animals. "Wow, those are so nice and clean," thought we, "and look how nicely arranged they are . . . " Believe it or not, the average person would be suseptible to this kind of Hezbo PR, and will turn against Israel. Kind of makes me sick. As does all the talk of allowing Lebanese to police the border. More than half (generous estimate) are in league with the "resistance." Not a good idea at all. Kudos to mcsgeek for the Russell Case quote. Just got done watching that this weekend. Priceless--thanks.
#26
No "gripping" meant, Cap'n. I just personally found it ironic because I'd just finished readin' the mods slap down of US ALL about ensuring the linky-poo is there when you post a story. I post so few, that I've pretty much guaranteed myself to posty linky. Guys/gals like you who post numerous stories/day, I understand missing the linky thingy every once in a while. No harm, no foul.
Posted by: BA ||
08/09/2006 21:02
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IIRC, I've read a long letter by a missionary about these 2001 post-9/11 outbreaks of "interfaith violence", and the bit that stuck to my mind is the jihadis coming into christian town and hamlets parading with swords, banners and giant portraits of OBL, straight out of a medieval jihad... hum, do tell me, what happened to bashir?
TENTENA, Indonesia (AP) -- Three Christian men found guilty of inciting a bloody outbreak of fighting with Muslims in eastern Indonesia in 2000 are to be executed on Saturday, prosecutors have told the men's family.
Fabianus Tibo, Dominggus da Silva and Marinus Riwu were found guilty in 2001 after months of violence on Sulawesi island between Muslim and Christian gangs in which about 1,000 people from both faiths died.
Tibo's son, Robertus, said prosecutors informed him by letter on Tuesday that his father and the two other men would be killed in the early hours of Saturday morning by firing squad.
"I was very shocked to read the letter saying that my father and his friends are scheduled to be executed this weekend," Robertus said in the Sulawesi town of Tentena. "My father is convinced that he is innocent."
All three have said they are not guilty, but their final appeal was turned down by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono last year. A lawyer for the men was quoted in Koran Tempo daily as saying he was trying to win them a last-minute stay of execution based on new evidence.
Several hardline Muslim leaders in Sulawesi have called on the men to executed.
Amnesty International, an international rights group that opposes the death sentence in all cases, said it was concerned at reports indicating that the trial of the three men did not meet international standards of fairness.
#1
Article: Three Christian men found guilty of inciting a bloody outbreak of fighting with Muslims in eastern Indonesia in 2000 are to be executed on Saturday, prosecutors have told the men's family.
I'll bet you dollars to donuts that no Muslim men have been or will be found guilty of incitement.
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Suspected Taliban militants hanged a woman and her son from a tree after accusing them of spying for the government, officials said Wednesday, while the U.S. military reported killing 15 insurgents who attacked a U.S. base in eastern Afghanistan.
Brave, brave Lions of Islam ...
The 70-year-old woman and her 30-year-old son were killed Monday in the village of Daigh, about five miles north of Musa Qala in the southern province of Helmand, said Amir Mohammad Akhunzada, the province's deputy governor.
Akhunzada did not identify the two but said the woman's son-in-law worked for the police. After the slaying, the militants threatened to kill anyone working for the government, he said. "This hanging is totally against Islam," Akhunzada said. "They use the name of Islam to go against Islam." More Mayhem at Link
Scientists and villagers in the shadow of a churning volcano in the central Philippines fear today's full moon could finally spark a violent eruption. Volcanologists have warned that Mount Mayon, in the province of Albay, could explode at any time but that the gravitational pull of a full moon could provide the final push. "To put it in a simple way, it's like it massages a volcano," Ernesto Corpuz, head of monitoring and eruption prediction at the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, told Reuters.
A full moon coincided with at least three of Mayon's nearly 50 explosions over the last four centuries, including the two most recent in 2000 and 2001, Corpuz said.
Nearly 40,000 people have been moved from an 8-km (5-mile) danger zone on the southeast flank of the volcano, which has been quaking and spitting plumes of ash since July, a member of the provincial disaster council said. But some have not yet left their livestock and vegetable plots despite an encroaching four-storey wall of scalding lava that has streamed more than 6 km from Mayon's crater.
The military said communist rebels in the area had been taking advantage of the situation to stage hit-and-run attacks on army units involved in the evacuation. Five soldiers were wounded in a shoot-out near the volcano late yesterday. "It's the highest form of treachery because we are providing assistance to our countrymen yet the rebels were attacking us," Lieutenant-Colonel Bartolome Bacarro told reporters.
Filipino and foreign tourists meanwhile have flocked to the city of Legazpi to watch nature's fire show. "This is one of the great wonders of the world. I want to show my kids what Mayon volcano is," said Eve Talavera, a Filipino immigrant to the United States, as she and her five children watched from a hill.
The 2,462-metre (8,077-foot) mountain is the most active of 22 volcanoes in the Philippines. Its most destructive eruption in 1841 buried a town and killed 1,200 people.
The mastermind behind the coordinated Arab demand for an immediate Israeli troop withdrawal from Lebanon is China's special envoy to the Middle East, Sun Bigan, who is currently visiting the region.
Sun, who is a veteran diplomat and one of China's leading Arabists, called Monday for an immediate unconditional ceasefire in the war between Israel and the Lebanese proxy army of Beijing's non-Arab Islamist ally, Iran. "Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah should end hostilities immediately to avoid further deterioration of humanitarian crisis in Lebanon," Sun told a press conference in Damascus following a closed-door meeting with Syrian Vice President Farouk al-Shara.
Sun expressed China's willingness to intensify "consultation and coordination" with Arab nations.
As China Confidential reported on Sunday, Beijing is maneuvering to become a trusted intermediary--and maybe even a mediator--in the Middle East conflict. Sun is advancing the argument that the United States has lost credibility and influence in the region as a result of its steadfast support for Israel, and that a more neutral power--such as China-- is urgently needed to help end the fighting and reduce regional tensions.
The real objective is to weaken the U.S. position--and ultimately drive the US from the region altogether. Toward this end, China has been a major arms supplier to Hezbollah's sponsor. In the context of energy deals, Beijing has sold Iran tanks, planes, artillery, and cruise, anti-tank, surface-to-surface and anti-aircraft missiles. Chinese-designed missiles--including some that have been upgraded and improved by North Korea--have found their way into Hezbollah's arsenal of aerial terror.
China is also providing covert technical assistance to Iran's disputed nuclear development program--and supporting Iran diplomatically with a promise to block meaningful United Nations Security Council sanctions against the wannabe nuclear power.
Yesterday, I watched the Israeli ambassador and the Lebanon designee speak to the UN.
Afterwards, the ChiCom ambassador was doing liplocks with the Lebanese delegation while the Israel group got zero attention from outside their own delegation.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/09/2006 14:07
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#3
The mastermind behind the coordinated Arab demand for an immediate Israeli troop withdrawal from Lebanon is China's special envoy to the Middle East, Sun Bigan, who is currently visiting the region.
Concerned about the ever-increasing blowback that will finally result in their biggest oil supply, namely Iran, being taken off line, is he? China has spent so much time pouring gasoline on regional fires (North Korea, for instance) that they well and truly need a solid object lesson in global manners. Choking off Iran's oil production would be an ideal demonstration of consequences.
#4
You have peripheral dupes like Kimmie and Pervert in Pakland providing support, but is there any real doubt that the principals are China and Russia ?
#5
Yeah. The Iranians were doing this long ago without any assistance. They may be getting assistance now and then, but they are calling the shots, not Moscow or Peking.
WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand's indigenous Maori population reacted angrily on Wednesday to a researcher's findings that Maori have a high representation of a gene linked to aggression, as the nation faces a domestic violence crisis. Sounds like evidence in support of the theory to me.
Rod Lea told a genetics conference in Australia that Maori men were twice as likely as European men to carry monoamine oxidase, describing it as a "striking over-representation" of what has been described as the warrior gene. How do the Scots-Irish score, I wonder.
Media reports of Lea's findings outraged Maori leaders who said they only reinforced "Once Were Warriors" cultural stereotypes, a reference to a harrowing 1994 movie about domestic violence in poor Maori families.
"I've been asked by reporters whether this gene is the reason why we're a violent race, why we feature so highly in criminality rates, that we're predisposed toward aggression," Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia said in a statement. "Once were gardeners, once were astronomers, once were philosophers, once were lovers," she said.
Lea, a genetic epidemiologist at the Institute of Environmental Science and Research in the New Zealand capital, Wellington, said the gene had also been linked to such risk-taking behavior as smoking and gambling. Check the Vegas population
"I believe this gene has an influence on behavior of humans in general, but I also believe that the influence is rather small," Lea told New Zealand's National Radio on Wednesday.
If the influence is rather small, why are you yammering at a press conference?
"We have to be clear that behavioral traits such as susceptibility to addiction, aggressive behavior, risk taking, all those sort of things, are extremely complex and they are due to numerous factors including non-genetic environmental factors like upbringing and other lifestyle factors," he said. Taking a knock at their culture, too? And on National Public Radio!
Maori lawmaker Hone Harawira said he had been hearing similar descriptions for decades about New Zealand's indigenous people, who make up about eight percent of the 4.1 million population. "I've stopped listening to all that sort of carry on," Harawira said.
New Zealand's domestic violence problem, described by a government report as endemic and shameful, was highlighted by the deaths of three-month old Maori twins in Auckland, the nation's largest city, in June. End snark. They've got a real problem.
Chris and Cru Kahui had both suffered severe head injuries but their Maori family has refused to cooperate with police. Prime Minister Helen Clark described the Kahui twins' family as a "'Once Were Warriors' type family".
Helen is a dufus. Correction: she's a socialist dufus. This is a classic example of an 'N = 1' problem: you single out one particular instance of a problem and generalize from there. How about the Maori families on either side of this one that didn't beat their kids?
A UNICEF report last month found that between 18,000 and 35,000 children are exposed to domestic violence each year. The problem is so common that most New Zealanders know a child who has witnessed violence at home, it said. Real Warriors don't take it out on the kids. Overgrown bullies do that.
Government figures show that Maori children under five years old are being admitted to hospital with "intentional injury" at twice the rate of other ethnic groups.
Maoris are also in the lowest socioeconomic group in NZ and have been discriminated against for decades. I have data that I obtained from the NZ government showing that the asthma death rate in Maoris in the early to mid 1980s was 6-fold higher than that of whites. When the NZ government finally extended their national health service to the Maori population, the disparity nearly completely disappeared. No doubt Helen the Socialist Dufus would have blamed Maori genetics for the higher death rate.
#1
only reinforced "Once Were Warriors" cultural stereotypes
Cultural Stereotypes? More like a slice of life, I'm thinking. "Once Were Warriors" is a powerful, emotional film about a tragic side of modern Maori culture. Most of the actors are Maori, as was the director's father. Not exactly the people you would suspect for propagating cultural stereotypes.
#2
If the NZ government wasn't so 'soft' they'd be able to take advantage of that big pool of warrior-gened men and build an army of warriors, and put them to work in the war on Islamofacsism. If the Europeans who went to NZ 200 years ago were like those in power there today the Maori would still be running the place - without Eurocultural interference.
#3
Interesting. I had my unusual indigenous mix of DNA tested for the Genographic study and had few matches. One I did have was a Maori match, as well as a Siberian, among a few others such as in Mexico. We were trying to figure out how my ancestors migrated to North America. I am part Sioux, a known warrior Indian tribe!
A US Navy sailor, Ariel J. Weinmann, is suspected of spying for Israel and has been held in prison for four months, according to an article published Monday in the Saudi daily Al-Watan. It reported that Weinmann is being held at a military base in Virginia on suspicion of espionage and desertion.
Published in a Saooodi paper but not the NYT or WaPo? 24 hour rule, folks.
According to the navy, Weinmann was apprehended on March 26 "after it was learned that he had been listed as a deserter by his command." Though initial information released by the navy makes no mention of it, Al-Watan reported that he was returning from an undisclosed "foreign country." American sources close to the Defense Department told Al-Watan that Israel was the country in question.
"The US Navy concluded Article 32 proceedings in the case of Fire Control Technician Third Class Ariel J. Weinmann on July 26, 2006," Ted Brown, a media relations officer at the US Fleet Forces Command, told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday. The US Fleet Forces Command is the "convening authority of the case... and will make the decision with respect to what charges, if any, will be referred to a general court-martial."
The veracity of Al-Watan's claim that Weinmann is suspected of spying for Israel remains in question, and military and Pentagon spokesmen are remaining tightlipped. A public affairs officer at the Office of Naval Intelligence told the Post that he was unaware of the allegations against Weinmann.
"No comment. Go away."
Al-Watan speculated that if Weinmann spied on behalf of the Mossad, it would be the biggest espionage case since Jonathan Pollard's arrest. Pollard, who worked as a civilian intelligence analyst for the US Navy, was caught in 1985 and convicted of spying for Israel. He is currently serving a life sentence in the US.
And deservedly so.
According to the navy, "Weinmann was assigned to the USS Albuquerque (SSN 706) and had deserted on or about July 3, 2005." The Albuquerque is a Los Angeles-class attack submarine.
Though the navy's initial press release contained no reference to Israel, Brown stated that more detailed information about the case would be released shortly.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/09/2006
11:09 ||
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#6
From the Navy Times:
August 09, 2006 Sailor charged with espionage
NORFOLK NAVAL STATION, Va. The Navy has charged a sailor who allegedly deserted his submarine last year with trying to pass secret documents contained in a stolen laptop to an unspecified foreign government possibly more than one. Fire Control Technician 3rd Class Ariel J. Weinmann, 21, has been charged with three counts of espionage, as well as desertion, larceny, failure to obey a lawful order, copying classified information and destruction of military property.
The Navy has not said which nation or nations are involved. A story in Wednesdays Jerusalem Post alleged that one of the countries involved is Israel. A Navy official, who asked not to be identified due to the sensitive nature of the charges, said Wednesday that it is definitely not Israel.
The case was heard July 26 in an Article 32 hearing by an investigating officer who will prepare recommendations for Adm. John Nathman, commander of Norfolk, Va.-based Fleet Forces Command, the convening authority for the case. Nathman will decide which charges, if any, will be referred to court-martial. That hearing was not publicized or open to the press. If tried and convicted of espionage, Weinmann could be executed, according to the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
Weinmann, who joined the Navy in July 2003, was assigned in October 2004 to the attack submarine Albuquerque, then located at New London Submarine Base, Conn.. The Navy says he deserted the sub in July 2005, taking a government-owned laptop computer that apparently contained data classified as confidential and secret, according to the charge sheets supplied by Fleet Forces Command. The Navy alleges that Weinmann tried to pass the classified information to representatives of a foreign government multiple times: in March 2005, before he allegedly deserted, at or near Manama, Bahrain; in October 2005 in Vienna, Austria; and this past March in Mexico City.
Weinmann was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport on March 26. Hes been held in the Norfolk Naval Station brig ever since.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/09/2006 13:18
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#7
He just got lost, took a wrong turn
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/09/2006 13:39
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#8
However valid Israel's battle against terrorism might be, they continue to maintain a pattern of deceit and betrayal against American interests (espionage, sale of arms to China) that will, one day, come back to haunt them.
For how often in history that the Jews have been hung out to dry, an "us against them" on their part is somewhat understandable. However, the USA has proven itself, time and again, to be Israel's staunchest ally and deserves better treatment as such.
#9
A Navy official, who asked not to be identified due to the sensitive nature of the charges, said Wednesday that it is definitely not Israel.
I would interpret that statement to indicate that Israel is likely neither involved nor the recipient.
The Navy alleges that Weinmann tried to pass the classified information to representatives of a foreign government multiple times: in March 2005, before he allegedly deserted, at or near Manama, Bahrain; in October 2005 in Vienna, Austria; and this past March in Mexico City.
In fact, it sounds like the gentleman was shopping the information around for buyers. "Spy on spec." so to say. Thanks for finding that, Steve.
Sources: Navy sailor suspected of spying for Russia
From Barbara Starr
CNN Washington Bureau
Wednesday, August 9, 2006; Posted: 4:34 p.m. EDT (20:34 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A sailor facing espionage and desertion charges has been held at a Norfolk, Virginia, brig since March, the U.S. Navy said Wednesday.
Ariel Weinmann, 21, is suspected of having worked on behalf of Russia, said military sources close to the case.
He was likely to have had access to technical manuals and other material on submarine systems, Navy sources said. No one else in the Navy is suspected of having worked with Weinmann, they said.
The fire control technician third class, assigned to the submarine USS Albuquerque, attempted on three occasions to pass classified information to foreign agents, the charges against him state.
Those incidents occurred in March 2005 in Bahrain; October 2005 in Vienna, Austria; and March 2006 in Mexico City, Mexico, according to the charges.
In addition to the espionage allegations, Weinmann also faces desertion charges, which could result in the death penalty. He is accused of deserting in July 2005 during his first tour of duty.
A customs agent took Weinmann into custody March 26 at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport when he tried to re-enter the United States.
The case is the second involving allegations of military spying by Russia. The Defense Department has said it suspects Russia collected information about American intelligence in Iraq from U.S. Central Command in Doha, Qatar, in 2003.
Somebody had better tell me that they have been keeping an eye on this moron and we've been feeding the badguys bad info - because if not, some Admirals need to lose their jobs.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/09/2006 16:39
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We're getting a number of posts without proper links. We mods don't have the time to ferret out links to stories. Therefore, posts without links are VERY likely to be deleted, even if they already have comments attached.
Links are one of the vital resources of a weblog. It allows readers to double-check what is written about the story. Many of our readers hit the link to learn more or to move on to related stories. Posts without links hamstring our ability to provide you with the news you want.
Copy the link from your source. Paste it into the 'source' link at the Poster page. Eyeball the link to make sure it's right.
Again: posts without links are going to be deleted. Pass it on. AoS.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/09/2006
10:59 ||
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#1
I wuz bad yesterday, but it wuz the foist time.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/09/2006 11:18
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#2
I wuz bad yesterday, but it wuz the foist time.
#9
We've got three Steves, you see: Dr. White, SteveS and Green Sgt. Steve (I think. They're all so Steveish that I get confused). For a while it seemed like all the exciting things being done in Iraq also had a Steve involved -- there was a Lt. Col. of the 101st Paratroopers (or something like that. Army things confuse me, too), and so forth. Army of Steves just followed naturally, although we also briefly had a Tribe of Jennys as well -- and one was wise to speak politely to them. ;-)
#17
watch out - she's on a caffeine bender and little sleep
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/09/2006 21:16
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#18
Sometimes AOL doesn't co-operate. I only use those sleezebags because I was given 6 months free when I bought a computer. Html tags don't work on my system, and it is brand new. But you can't be expected to accomodate people who ride the AOL beast.
(IsraelNN.com) The security cabinet has approved at this time an expanded military campaign in southern Lebanon. Most of the ministers in the cabinet expressed support for the decision, with no votes against it.
Ministers Ofir Pines, Eli Yishai and Shimon Peres abstained from the vote.
Update From Lebanon
(IsraelNN.com) IDF forces in the area of Bint Jbeil killed at least 20 Hizbullah terrorist guerillas in the past 24 hours and located command post, which later was targeted from the air.
The Air Force carried out more than 200 missions in the past 24 hours, striking Hizbullah offices and rocket launching areas.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/09/2006
09:52 ||
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Bernard Lewis is said to be the greatest living Western scholar of Islam, someone with deep sympathy for the Muslim world, without forgetting its dark side. Writing in the Wall Street Journal online edition today, Lewis now expresses deep concern over an apocalyptic Iran armed with nukes.
It seems increasingly likely that the Iranians either have or very soon will have nuclear weapons at their disposal The language used by Iranian President Ahmadinejad would seem to indicate the reality and indeed the imminence of this threat.
Would the fear of mutual assured destruction, restrain a nuclear-armed Iran from using such weapons against the U.S. or against Israel?
...The phrase Allah will know his own is usually used to explain such apparently callous unconcern; it means that while infidel, i.e., non-Muslim, victims will go to a well-deserved punishment in hell, Muslims will be sent straight to heaven. ... the threat of direct retaliation on Iran- is already weakened by the suicide or martyrdom complex that plagues parts of the Islamic world today
... Mr. Ahmadinejad and his followers clearly believe that this time is now, and that the terminal struggle has already begun and is indeed well advanced. It may even have a date, indicated by several references by the Iranian president to giving his final answer to the U.S. about nuclear development by Aug. 22.
What is the significance of Aug. 22? ... This, by tradition, is the night when many Muslims commemorate the night flight of the prophet Muhammad on the winged horse Buraq, first to the farthest mosque, usually identified with Jerusalem, and then to heaven and back (c.f., Koran XVII.1). This might well be deemed an appropriate date for the apocalyptic ending of Israel and if necessary of the world.
It is far from certain that Mr. Ahmadinejad plans any such cataclysmic events precisely for Aug. 22. But it would be wise to bear the possibility in mind.
This is alarming. It seems clear that other nations should be ready for some kind of Iranian strike on August 22. The best current guess is that Iran does not yet have a nuclear device, based on the public record, although Tehran could have the ingredients of a dirty bomb. Irans neighbors, like the Saudis, are beginning to arm themselves with anti-missile systems. They should put themselves on high alert very soon.
It is even possible that Iran may send a team of suiciders with a dirty radioactive device to Lebanon, to place in the path of Israeli troops. There is no foolproof defense against such a move they could simply load up a small ship or plane with a simple device. However, there is no evidence in the public record that the Iranians have actually tested a radioactive device, though they could have exploded a mockup. If there is any Iranian attempt to strike at Israel or US forces, it would be a nuclear asus belli . The Iranian regime would be rapidly destroyed, and achieve its eagerly-sought martyrdom, taking along innocent bystanders.
Ahmadinejad may be mad, but hes cleverly mad. Todays Iranian proxy war on Israel was cleverly designed, both strategically and tactically. The mullahs may therefore wait a few years until they have their nukes all lined up. August 22 comes once a year, and 2006 may not be the time they choose. Or they might fire their long-range missiles at Tel Aviv or even Jerusalem on August 22. GPS-guided missiles could be devastating. However, no doubt Israel has make it unmistakably clear what kind of action would trigger massive retaliation. The Syrians at least are not eager for martyrdom.
Hitler overreached when he attacked Russia. Ahmadinejad may also overreach. It fits his malevolent paranoid style. The big question today is how many people he will take with him if he does overreach.
If the Bush doctrine of nuclear preemption is ever justified, it would be in cases like this. But there are no easy answers. We are just lucky to have a tough-minded administration in Washington, and not the flabby thinkers of the Carter and Clinton years.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/09/2006
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#1
MAD doesn't apply since there is just one side that's going to get destroyed. Maybe "suicide by police"* is a better analogy.
* When someone purposely provokes the police into killing him with the intent of suicide.
#2
The reason MAD breaks down as a strategy here is because one side does not care if it gets destroyed. People have sneered at MAD for being madness, but it was a rational strategy against an opponent who shared a similar view of the possible outcomes - we both had the same evaluation function, to use the game theory term. If Ahmadinejad is the apocalyptic nutjob he appears to be then we have a completely different game.
Maybe it is time for Herman Kahn to do an update to 'On Thermonuclear War' for the new strategic situation. Yes, this would require re-animating the dead, but isn't that why we have DARPA and the Internet?
#3
I would suggest reviving Dulles' Massive Retaliation doctrine. You so much as touch us with a WMD, then you as a nation or sponsor of a WMD-using terror organization will cease to exist.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/09/2006 13:19
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#5
You so much as touch us with a WMD, then you as a nation or sponsor of a WMD-using terror organization will cease to exist.
That's the problem, the enemy doesn't care if we nuke them. Ahmadinutjob thinks being destroyed will summon the Islamic messiah to save them and bring about the end of the world. Threats don't work against a guy with a death wish.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/09/2006 13:34
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#6
I'm not talking about threats. I know that the West will lose a city or > 10^7 people to a biowar attack sometime in the next few years. I just want to make sure that there is nothing left of the attackers or their civilization afterwards. I want the policy and targeting to be in place. I don't want there to be any hesitation when the moment comes.
#8
The first round will probably be states. The second will probably be the civilization.
Put yourself in Roosevelt's shoes in 1941 or Wilson's in 1917. There is a terrible war going on. You need to intervene and end it, but the American people are too divided to get involved. The people you need to fight are barbarians really -- crude and greedy. Sometime soon, they are going to come and try to take a chunk out of your ass. Until that time, you won't be able to rally the American people. So you sit tight and wait for a Lusitania or Zimmerman Letter or Pearl Harbor. (IMHO, Roosevelt probably thought that the attack would be on the Philipines or something in the North Atlantic. PH was a miscalculation, but obviously worked to his advantage.)
Losing a city will give us the will to destroy a state. The second attack will give us the will to finish the job.
#10
Which is why I will once again recall Mrs. Davis' splendid solution to this niggling problem.
Simply issue a statement that even a single NBC (Nuclear, Biological or Chemical) attack on American soil will result in all of the Islamic countries getting glassed over. Then sit back and watch the fun as they try to rein in a renegade lunatic like Ahmadinejad.
#11
Reminds me of a Galligar joke I hear a long time ago. Goes something like this (correct me if I'm wrong):
We should strap our ICBM to the back of RVs. It will give the soviets nightmares thinking of the average joe-blow out in the wilderness with his drinking buddies, a six-pack, and a polaris.
#12
I prefer the 'Nuke the Moon' scenario. But Mrs Davis's idea works for me too.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
08/09/2006 16:10
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#13
I'm sorry to be so glum. I honestly feel that Wretchard's so called Golden Moment has passed if in fact there ever was one. That Iran is doing cloning experiments scares the pants off of me. If they are cloning, you know that they are doing recombinant DNA and gene splicing.
#15
Hmmm, I hadn't made the obvious connection from the cloning to full-on bionasties 11A5S, 'thanks' for that...
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
08/09/2006 16:35
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#16
Sorry, Tony. They've gotta be though. It fits in with the trends. The Iranians are looking for disruptive technologies that will negate Dar al Harb's edge in weaponry. Nukes, WiG, rocket propelled torpedoes, MaRVs, GPS guided tactical missiles, etc. The _have_ to have a bio weapons research program.
#17
I think that future Americans will be thankful that GWB attempted to bring something better to Iraq. The fact that the asshats wouldn't take it when it was handed to them doesn't devalue the effort.
I fully expect that the USA will end up killing massive numbers of these people. We will lose a city or two, but the Umma will lose 100 million. The Iraq War will allow Americans to believe that we tried everything else first.
#18
I hear a lot of people talking about *a* dirty bomb, *a* nuke, *a* city, and others saying that if they (mostly referring to Al Qaeda but sometimes to Iran) had *a* nuke that they'd use it right away. My fear is that we in fact overestimate their irrationality - that when it does happen, it won't be *a* nuke; it will be a very well chosen multiple strike. If I were Ahmadinejad and I wanted to bring about the post-apocalyptic dominance of Islam, of course I'd strike Tel Aviv or Jerusalem, but I'd certainly not neglect the heart of Christianity - Rome (yes, Protestants might disagree, but Crusade-obsessed Muslims surely wouldn't). There are several other targets that would be high on my list, if I were sufficiently sane to wait until I had more than one deliverable warhead.
#25
what's that got to do with today's arsenal/plans? Or Iran's? You lost me... If Iran had 10 nukes, and launched one or all, they'd get 20 back from Israel alone
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/09/2006 20:54
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#26
My fear is that we in fact overestimate their irrationality - that when it does happen, it won't be *a* nuke; it will be a very well chosen multiple strike.
My point is that in the only real world use of nukes, the power that did it had only two nukes. Granted no one else had any. But once Iran is known to have nukes, the rules will change. They have a window between having them and the world knowing they have them in which to use them. So that window closing puts pressure on Iran to use them before they have built a lot of them. I think they'll be burning a hole in Ahmedinajihad's pocket.
#27
Me too, NS. Once he gets two or three he will use them.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
08/09/2006 21:07
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#28
OK - understood, and I'd have to agree that he'd use as many as they have, inasmuch we could only guess whether he had more, or had allowed them to be shipped to Jersey or Long Beach for detonation. Once you demonstrate you have nukes, are whacko, and willing to use them without fear of retribution ("protect us, hidden imam!"), then all plans are just trash
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/09/2006 21:12
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#29
I'd plant two in ships, have one in reserve on the ocean. Make demands. Detonate one. Make demands, If not met, place reserve and detonate second. Reiterate demands. Target London and NYC. Back up target?
#32
I think NS is spot on with the ship event. Assmanjohnny constantly talks about blowing ships up to close the flow of oil. But I disagree on the target. I think they will hit Israel, to free Islam of the infadels and get support and ignight fighting from all of Islam. Detonate a diry bomb in an oil tanker in a Israeli port. Then attack from Gaza, Syria, Leb. Israel will be dealing with a disaster and having to defend itself. Then we will come to their aid, of course, exposing us as lackies for jooos and turning Iraq, Afghan, and the Soddies against us. He's a nut case crazy enough to think that this could work and do it.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/09/2006 22:06
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#33
how many Iranian tankers/cargo ships pull into Haifa or any other Israeli port?....
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/09/2006 22:08
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#34
chartered or owned or just a stray container, I'd think the Israelis would detect it before it hit port - they don't get the sheer numbers we get
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/09/2006 22:09
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#35
#29: I'd plant two in ships, have one in reserve on the ocean. Make demands. Detonate one. Make demands, If not met, place reserve and detonate second. Reiterate demands. Target London and NYC. Back up target?
Sorry that has NO chance of working, truer scenario, step one,detonate one,
step rwo, make demands
THIS IDENTIFIES YOU,
step 3 now you cease to exist
step 4, there is no step 4, any ships you may have in reserve simply vamish in a big hole in the water.
If you think this implausable, remember that when FAA realized that aircraft were being used as weapons, they ordered an IMMEDIATE GROUNDING OF ALL AIRCRAFT a thing never done before, giving ALL aircraft 30 minutes to land or be shot down will work on shipping as well.
Stating Flatly that "If any vessel aproaches the US coast, it WILL be destroyed" is a huge incentive to all ships to stop right now, those who don't are then easily identified.
Boom, instant (Relatively Speaking) sinking.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/09/2006 22:13
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#36
None with Iranian flags, of course, but most tankers don't carry flags of origin rather flags of nations that charge less tax. I hope your right on the numbers of ships and containers and their ability to screen them. Israel just has to know if there is a big event such as a dirty bomb or a clean one it is aimed at them.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/09/2006 22:22
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#37
yep
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/09/2006 22:28
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#38
I'm cringing but wouldn't an airliner suffice and not sit there like a ship. ?
Also NS, what demands could they make ?
Seriously I'm asking what you think.
Posted by: J. D. Lux ||
08/09/2006 22:32
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#39
Not really, an airliner is spectacular but the damage is minimal, on the scale of WMD's. An oil tanker/dirty nuke would be catastrophic on a large scale and lay a large portion of the coast and downwind area to waste. Where does Israel get it's fuel and oil?
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/09/2006 22:51
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#41
Simply issue a statement that even a single NBC (Nuclear, Biological or Chemical) attack on American soil will result in all of the Islamic countries getting glassed over. Then sit back and watch the fun as they try to rein in a renegade lunatic like Ahmadinejad.
And therein lies the root of the problem - NOBODY believes the United States would actually do such a thing - least of all the Iranians or the terrorists.
#42
#39. No . I meant an airliner with like all the seats and flooras removed and some massive bomb (Dirty or nuclear) inside.
LAnd it, crash it ,blow it up low, wherever. ISn't that a viable delivery system, posssibly harder (at least the first time) to innterdict than a ship ?
Where does Israel get it's oil ?
Posted by: J. D. Lux ||
08/09/2006 23:29
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#43
Where does Israel get it's oil ?
from dead Paleo puppies and kittens? Don't you get the newspapers??
:-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/09/2006 23:32
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#44
What scares the hell out of me is that Israel will face a challenge so severe it sees no way of winning. The Arabs can afford to lose many times, but Israel cannot afford to lose, even once. The actual threat of losing would be enough for Israel to "go nuclear". The result would be the launch of between 100 and 200 nuclear weapons, ranging from 50Kt to 500Kt, on the major cities of the Arab middle east. Not only would it kill several hundred million Arabs, it would make large portions of the Middle East a not very nice place to live in. I don't believe Iran would be spared. A radioactive "12th Imam" wouldn't do Islam much good, especially if Mecca and Medina were radioactive graveyards.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/09/2006 23:33
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MANILA - Five Filipino Islamic militants were detained on Wednesday in a military operation against two suspected Bali bombers said to be sheltering with local allies in the southern Philippines, the military said. The Abu Sayyaf gunmen were arrested after a brief dawn clash between the group and a unit of Marines near the town of Patikul on Jolo island, military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Bartolome Bacarro told reporters. Those arrested do not include Jemaah Islamiyah suspects Umar Patek and Dulmatin who are wanted in connection with the 2002 Bali nightclub attacks, he added.
As to their identities, we cannot yet disclose (the names of those arrested) because our troops are still in the area, Bacarro said.
The military launched the manhunt last week after receiving intelligence that the two Indonesian fugitives were sheltering with an Abu Sayyaf band led by its senior leader Khadaffy Janjalani. The Philippine military has acknowledged receiving surveillance help for this operation from the US military, which has deployed small numbers of Special Forces operatives in the southern Philippines.
Janjalani is among five Abu Sayyaf leaders wanted by the United States government for the 2001 kidnapping of three of its citizens, including a Christian missionary couple. Two of the Americans died in Abu Sayyaf captivity.
Asked if the military thought their principal quarry were still in the area, Bacarro said: We do believe that they are still in the area. As to the areas where they were sighted, those we cannot disclose.
"I can say no more"
The military said last week that seven Abu Sayyaf members were killed in the land, air and sea operation. Three other suspected Abu Sayyaf members were also arrested last week as they tried to flee by boat.
The US government has offered up to 10 million dollars for the capture of Dulmatin and one million dollars for Patek for their roles in the Bali bombings, which left more than 200 mostly foreign tourists dead. Filipino intelligence officials have said JI was building up links with Abu Sayyaf, considered a terrorist organization by the United States. The Abu Sayyaf is also believed to have ties with Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/09/2006
09:33 ||
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KABUL -US-led soldiers and warplanes killed 12 Taliban militants who ambushed coalition forces in mountainous eastern Afghanistan, a US military spokesman said on Wednesday. Two US soldiers and an Afghan soldier were wounded in Tuesdays battle in the remote province of Nuristan which borders Pakistan, Colonel Tom Collins told a press conference in Kabul.
There was a significant coalition engagement yesterday in Nuristan, in which enemy extremists attacked our forces with rockets and rifle fire, Collins said. Through the actions of our forces on the ground and the use of air support we killed 12 enemy extremists, Collins said.
"Keep firing Ahmed, we've got the infidels pinned......KABOOM! .....down."
He gave no further details about the wounded soldiers.
Nuristan is one of the provinces where Taliban-led militants are most active. It is a wooded mountainous area where they find it easy to hide.
Well, no
Posted by: Steve ||
08/09/2006
09:03 ||
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#1
Hope for quick and complete recovery for the soldiers. Hope they have the chance to kill many more terrorists.
Hope for grief and suffering for the families of the Talibanies.
#6
Interestingly, Nuristan was once called KAFIRistan. It was kafir because the locals refused to convert to islam in spite of centuries of jihad against them. In 1895, the brave lions of islam finally forcibly converted the kafirs. The name was changed to nuristan because that mean land of light or something. Like all recent converts, the nuristanis are especially fanatical and were the ones who fought the Russians most ferociously. So, I suppose that when the rest of us are forced to convert to islam because we won't fight it in a united manner (and in its practitioners fashion), we will be ferocious too. I feel ferocious already!
August 9, 2006: In Lebanon, Hizbollah found an interesting, if expensive, way to minimize the advantages Israeli infantry possess. The Israeli troops are much better trained, disciplined and led than the Hizbollah gunmen, so Hizbollah trained their fighters to try and stay away from Israeli infantry, and instead use ATGMs (Anti-Tank Guided Missiles) to fire at the Israelis from a long distance. This tactic has worked quite well, accounting for most of the Israeli casualties. Hizbollah has even hit a few tanks, but most of the ATGMs they are using are not powerful enough to do much damage to the Israeli Merkava tank. Other armored vehicles, and trucks, are much more vulnerable. Usually, however, the missiles are just fired at where the Israeli infantry are, in houses or trenches.
Hizbollah was known to have received several thousand ATGMs over the years. Many of them are elderly, like the Russian Sagger. This is a 1960s design. It's a 24 pound missile, with a range of 3,000 meters, that must be carefully "driven" to its target via a joy stick controller. Requires a lot of practice to do right. The warhead is not very effective against tanks, but can do a lot of damage to buildings. Iran also sent some elderly TOW missiles, dating from the 1970s. These are too heavy to haul around. Lighter systems have proved more useful.
The French made MILAN ATGM, a 1970s design, has a 35 pound launch unit, firing a 16 pound, wire guided missile, with a maximum range of 2,000 meters. The Syrians got MILAN from France, and passed them on to Hizbollah. A similar Russian system, the 9M111 Fagot, has a 25 pound missile fired from a 24 pound launch unit. An even more modern Russian system, the Kornet E, is a laser guided missile with a range of 5,000 meters. The launcher has a thermal sight for use at night or in fog. The missile's warhead can penetrate 1200 mm of armor, which means that the front and side armor of the Israeli Merkava tank would be vulnerable. The missile weighs 18 pounds and the launcher 42 pounds. The system was introduced in 1994 and has been sold to Syria (who apparently passed them on to Hizbollah).
The Israelis quickly adapted to this Hizbollah tactic. The missiles are hidden all over southern Lebanon (buried, or tucked away in caves or buildings.) The Israelis have learned to get their snipers out, with their night vision equipment, to keep an eye on the most likely approach routes to the best firing positions. Hizbollah has been taking heavier losses than the Israelis, but neither Hizbollah, nor the Israelis want to talk about it. For Hizbollah, it's embarrassing to admit that, even with long range weapons, the Israelis nail their guys. For the Israelis, they don't want Hizbollah to know about new tricks, before those new ideas can be used at bit to find and kill the Hizbollah ATGM teams.
#1
"For the Israelis, they don't want Hizbollah to know about new tricks, before those new ideas can be used at bit to find and kill the Hizbollah ATGM teams."
#8
All anyone on Rantburg has read about is that the Israelis have developed new strategies, and use snipers to hunt hezbollocks ATGM teams. I'm sure the splodeydopes know that by now. They don't know exactly what tactics are being used, or how effective they really are. That's another reason Israel isn't saying much about hez casualties. Don't let the enemy know how badly you're hurting him until there's only one or two left standing.
I'm sure carpet-bombing Tyre and a few other places would result in some amazing secondaries...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/09/2006 15:20
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#9
An Israel blogger told me: if a single large Israeli power plant is destroyed, the nukes will fly. Why? Because full security would be required to re-build same. Israelis are extremely unhappy with Condi's cease fire dealing with a French Minister. Cease fire = 5 years of missile buildup, and these would be long range and accurate, and in sufficient numbers to blackmail Israel pending its destruction.
Americans are still with Israel, but against phony peace. Israel needs to deal decisively with Syria and Iran, while the US makes al-Sadr' Iraq look like the Moon. This is not a time to talk; it is time to slaughter.
Chapter 1: Hiroshima Chapter 2: Nagasaki Chapter 3:..........ask me after Sept. 1.
TERRIFIED and exhausted residents of Kiryat Shmona were fleeing today from the daily rain of Hezbollah rockets in the first evacuation of an entire town since the creation of Israel. The sirens went off again this morning as two more Katyusha rockets came crashing down into the northern Israeli town, which lies around five kilometres from the Lebanese border.
"Get us out of this hell," an angry Israeli man told Mayor Haim Barvivai, as the remaining residents scrambled to be included in the evacuation plans.
Of the town's 24,000 inhabitants, "around 15,000 have already fled to the south, in hotels, in kibbutz or found refuge with their families," Mr Barvivai told AFP. "Most of the 9000 residents who are still here want to leave," he added.
Those wishing to be evacuated were invited to inform the authorities of their desire following Israel's announcement that it would widen its ground offensive in southern Lebanon. "But we lack the means" to accommodate everybody, "and we had to make decisions," said the mayor.
Shimrit, clutching her 18-month-old boy against her bosom, said: "I cried and I cried and I cried. I don't want to stay here. The children cannot stay in the shelter any longer. The distressed 25-year-old asked why she and her two children were not included in the list of 500 slated for evacuation in the next batch. Miriam, who has two children and is pregnant with a third, was also denied a place on the coveted list.
The 500 residents did make the list were evacuated overnight and bused to the coastal city of Netanya, north of Tel Aviv. They will be temporarily housed on an army base.
Some of those of had decided to stick it out when Hezbollah started firing rockets in the area four weeks ago are now desperate to find shelter elsewhere in Israel as the daily barrage of Katyusha shows no sign of receding.
Esther, 57, is in an almost constant state of panic. Shortly before the buses carrying the evacuees left the town, three rockets ploughed into a nearby neighbourhood. She ran to her building's shelter. "It's dirty here; there are rats here," she said, her entire body shaking in fear.
This usually peaceful community at the foot of the Golan Heights has been engulfed in violence since Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers on the border on July 12. Israel responded by launching its largest military offensive since the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, drawing a rain of rocket fire from the well-armed Shiite guerrilla group.
But Kiryat Shmona residents remained unanimous in rejecting a ceasefire with the fundamentalist militia. "Hezbollah terrorists have been firing at us for three years," Esther explained. "We have to go all the way now and wipe them out. Otherwise, all this will never stop."
Seven Katyusha rockets landed near Nahariya on Tuesday evening. One of the rockets struck a chicken coop. Another rocket landed in an open area where cows were grazing, killing two of the animals. Apropos of not much at all. This reminds me of a heated debate in Belfast 1972 when we habitually listened to the late news bulletin around midnight. A bomb had hit a car, or a cow, we couldn't decide which based on the accent of the news reporter. Then we just carried on with our all night poker game.
#8
One of the rockets struck a chicken coop. Another rocket landed in an open area where cows were grazing, killing two of the animals.
It's OK, Mr. Farmer. You can be happy that your cows and chickens are now martyrs. They are enjoying their afterlife with 72 mansions each with 72 enormous beds each with 72 underage virgins. I hope this promise is good enough to make you forget all logic and be happy with our murderous behavior and with your life without your beloved cows and chickens. And even though it's complete BS, you know it must be true because we have told you so many times.
A convicted Islamic militant in Pakistan has been executed by hanging after President Pervez Musharraf rejected his mercy plea. The Sunni Muslim man, Hafiz Shafiur Rahman of the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi group, had been sentenced for killing a Shia Muslim politician 10 years ago.
The Pakistani authorities say that Lashkar-e-Jhangvi is linked to the al-Qaeda network. They accuse it of being responsible for the killings of hundreds of Shias.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/09/2006
08:48 ||
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North Korea has asked Seoul for aid to repair damage from floods that could tip the impoverished state into famine, a South Korean group said on Wednesday.
It is the first time a North Korean organization has formally requested help from the South for help for the flooding, which destroyed roads, railways and homes.
South Korea has said it is considering a one-time package of aid to avert a crisis in North Korea despite strains between the neighbors over Pyongyang's July 5 missile tests.
Three major storms hit North Korea last month, causing floods that killed at least 151 people, and possibly more.
The secretive state is suspicious of outside aid workers and limits their access to people and places, making it difficult to receive a clear picture of the extent of the damage. It has said the storms left hundreds dead or missing.
A North Korean committee on reconciliation sent a fax to its counterpart in the South requesting building material, machinery, food, blankets and medication to help it cope with a disaster international aid agencies say left tens of thousands homeless.
"We express our appreciation for the efforts by the ... (South Korean) committee and other groups to overcome the difficulties with brotherly love faced together by the North and the South due to the unexpected floods," it said in the message.
The North, which battles chronic food shortages, has relied on food handouts from Seoul for years.
The South suspended regular food aid last month after Pyongyang officials stormed out of an inter-Korean meeting at which Seoul asked the North to explain why it defied international warnings and test-fired seven missiles.
The North has halted several inter-Korean cooperation projects in retaliation for the collapsed discussions.
The South said it could resume food aid if the North returned to stalled talks on ending its nuclear weapons program.
More
#1
Remains to be seen if the South will be foolish enough to once again bail out the NorKs. However, I'm inclined to believe they will. As people who actually remember the Korean war start to shuffle off this mortal coil in increasing numbers, the tendency towards wishful thinking on the part of South Korean politicians grows.
#2
Where is all the Love from the cadre of communist states? Why isnt hugo on a plane promising billions to the afflicted masses living under lilkims boots?
hugo will turn venezuela into the same kind of tyranical state as n korea is, count the minutes, these two have everything in common, loot loot loot....excuse excuse excuse....as they use use use....the lives and property of everyone living under the retrograde pathology of the socialist international.
#4
Finish them, finish them! Korea pulled their aid from the chinese satalite in hopes of getting them back up to the table to talk about settling concerns over the errors in the Norks ways. Don't waffle know!!!!! If they want to eat, they need to come to the table - no more food scraps thrown to the wind less you want a tom cat meowing beneath your window and raping your new pet kitten.
Posted by: Rick ||
08/09/2006 12:53
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#7
SKOR will bail them out. They still have relatives there and despite Kim's lack of concern for the lower class SKOR won't want peasants to starve. As much as I hate that F&%k using food against the peasants seems to me not the right answer.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/09/2006 21:26
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#1
The Israelis really get it. The rest of the West needs to wake up before a 911 or a London or a Barcelona occurs again. The islamo crazies would like nothing more than to use a nuclear weapon or dirty bomb or some other form of mass murder. It is best to stop it now. Wishing the danger wasn't true does not make it go away.
Mogadishu, 9 August (AKI) - A campaign by an Islamist group in Somalia to extend its control over the country is meeting some resistance in some areas such as the central city of Galkayo, where demonstrators have staged protests. On Tuesday three people were wounded when supporters of the Union of Islamic Courts opened fire on a crowd protesting against the Islamists' attempts to control the city.
How dare you protest! Don't ya know, they're on a Mission from God
According to the news portal, Somalinet, the protest was organised by supporters of Abdi Qeydid, who along with other warlords controlled larger parts of Somalia before they were defeated by Union of Islamic Courts fighters this year. The protestors chanted slogans against the Union of Islamic Courts which controls the capital Mogadishu.
Additional: Tension is high in a central Somali town after protests against Islamists who now control the capital, Mogadishu, and much of southern Somalia. Correspondents say residents in Galkayo, 600km north west of Mogadisu, are divided about whether to support the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC). Two people were injured in Tuesday's protest, led by clerics who say the UIC's brand of Islam is too militant.
Galkayo borders Puntland, a region believed to be against the courts.
They've broken from Somalia and set up their own country
And it's worrisome that the Islamicists could be next to Puntland any time now ...
The transitional government of Somalia, based in Baidoa, is also divided about whether to negotiate with the courts.
Hundreds of people carrying placards and shouting anti-UIC slogans took part in the demonstations before scuffles broke out, Somalia's Shabelle website reports. UIC militia are reported to be controlling a main road outside Galkayo. They have sent representatives into the town to see about setting up an Islamic court there.
In Baidoa, Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Ghedi is attempting to form a new 31-member cabinet after the previous cabinet was dissolved on Monday. President Abdullahi Yusuf has given him a week to form a new government. The two agreed on Monday to put aside their differences, after divisions on the question of possible talks with the Islamists sparked a crisis in the government. The interim cabinet originally had more than 100 members, not all of whom had been approved by parliament.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/09/2006
08:30 ||
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#1
The judges on Islamic Idol are tough, but fair.
Posted by: ed ||
08/09/2006 9:18
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#2
OH NO!!!! No doubt the UN will condemn this brutal action. They'll demand that action be taken immediately. They'll insist that innocents were targeted intentionally. They'll propose that sanctions be implemented.
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (Reuters) - A Brazilian man died Tuesday when he tried to open what police believe was a rocket-propelled grenade with a sledgehammer in a mechanical workshop on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. Hey, I wonder what happens when I do THIS.
Another man who was in the workshop at the time of the explosion was rushed to a hospital with severe burns, a police officer told Reuters. The workshop was destroyed and several cars parked outside caught fire. I'm reminded of the Bugs Bunny cartoon where the Gremlin is pounding on the nose of a bomb with a big hammer.
Police found several unexploded army issue rocket-propelled grenades in the workshop. Must have been out metal-detecting.
They believe the ammunition had been brought there by scavengers wanting to sell them as scrap metal, but they also are investigating a possible link to Rio's heavily armed drug gangs who often raid military bases.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
08/09/2006
08:27 ||
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#2
We do this because one of four are known to fail. Just a little oursoucing on our part to a subcontractor.
Posted by: Rio Quality Control ||
08/09/2006 11:46
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A Brazilian man died Tuesday when he tried to open what police believe was a rocket-propelled grenade with a sledgehammer in a mechanical workshop on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro.
The President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, has said his country is likely to sever ties with Israel in protest at its military offensive in Lebanon. Venezuela recalled its charge d'affaires to Israel last week, prompting Israel to withdraw its ambassador to Caracas on Monday.
In a televised speech, Mr Chavez said he had "no interest in maintaining diplomatic relations, or offices, or businesses, or anything with a state like Israel". Mr Chavez rounded on Israel at the weekend, accusing the Jewish state of committing a "new Holocaust".
"Israel has gone mad. It's attacking, doing the same thing to the Palestinian and Lebanese people that they have criticised - and with reason - the Holocaust. But this is a new Holocaust."
The Venezuelan president has also angered Israel by showing support for Iran, which backs Hezbollah and has said the answer to the crisis in Lebanon is the elimination of Israel. During a visit to Tehran at the end of last month, Mr Chavez said Venezuela would "stand by Iran at any time and under any condition".
Israel said it had withdrawn its ambassador to Venezuela "as an act of protest against the one-sided policy of the president of Venezuela and in light of his wild slurs against the State of Israel".
#3
So, the Lebanese are being used for slave labor in concentration camps? They're being herded into gas chambers and shovelled into crematoria? The plan is to eliminate every man, woman and child from the face of the earth?
If not, Hugo, you would be well advised to STFU.
Posted by: Baba Tutu ||
08/09/2006 11:53
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#4
Venezuela had ties with Israel?
Who knew?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/09/2006 13:11
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#5
The irony is that his buddy, Ahm-a-dinna-jaket, wants to commit genocide, but, at the moment, can't.
#6
Chavez' behavior is getting so outrageous it will probably end up isolating him from even his closest neighbors. There are rumors that the Bolivians are already trying to put a little distance between themselves and Hugo. Hugo and Amedinejad are cut from the same cloth, and both more than a little insane.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/09/2006 15:44
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#7
This is BS considering yesterday we had a story about Israel recalling their mission, this is just the response. Have to show them up after all.
I'm going to email this with my comments to John Howard. I suggest others do as well (to their elected representive). And go read the whole thing
Snip. We did this yesterday. There's no link. We mods don't have the time to ferret out links. New posts without links are going to be deleted even if they already have comments.
Please provide links if you want your posts to stick. AoS.
#1
Yeah, well I remember after Oklahoma City, the MSM spent months on white underclass males with a media fixation for 'militia'. Then they were more than willing to group and stereotype a whole lot of people based upon one event. Now they seem to have difficulty connecting the dots on the numerous actions from other people.
You must be from back East Mr.ryuge, NYC isn't it? The name of the Rag you linked to is actually called the SF Comical as it hasn't been a serious newspaper since at least 1945.
A public opinion poll published on Tuesday showed that support for Hamas and Hizbullah among the Palestinians has increased over the past few weeks and that the number of those who believe in peace with Israel has dropped sharply.
The poll, conducted by the Ramallah-based Near East Consulting group, covered more than 1,200 Palestinians living in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. Its margin of error is reported to be 3.6%.
The poll was held in the first week of August and is an indication of the growing radicalization of Palestinian society. Its findings also show that support for Hamas has not been affected, despite US-led sanctions against the Hamas government.
Another interesting finding is the fact that the Palestinians in the West Bank appear to be more radical in their views against Israel than their brethren in the Gaza Strip, a traditional stronghold of Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
While about 76% of the Palestinians in June declared their support for a peaceful settlement with Israel, the percentage after five weeks dropped by 25% to reach 51%, according to the results of the latest poll.
Support for peace is stronger among Fatah supporters (63%) than among Hamas supporters (32%). In the Gaza Strip, support for the peace process stood at 63%, while in the West Bank it was only 44%.
The poll found that there was an increase in the number of Palestinians who support Hamas's desire to eliminate Israel.
For the first time, a majority of 55% agreed that Hamas should not change its position regarding the destruction of Israel. Even 29% of the Christian Palestinians share this view.
The war in Lebanon has increased support for Hizbullah, with an overwhelming majority of 97% voicing their backing with the Shiite group. This position, according to the poll, is also held by 95% of the Christians.
Hizbullah's popularity intensified after the war began. More than 56% of the Palestinians said that their support for Hizbullah has increased over the past month, while 30% said it remained the same.
Again, the Christian minority also appears to have been radicalized by the war in Lebanon, as 66% of them said that their support for Hizbullah was now stronger than ever.
In yet another disturbing finding, most Palestinians no longer see Israel as a peace partner. About 75% of those polled said they do not believe there is a peace partner for the Palestinians in Israel, as opposed to 71% who said that Israel does have a partner on the Palestinian side.
Among Palestinian Christians, 63% also do not believe that the Palestinians have a peace partner in Israel.
Asked about kidnapped IDF soldier Cpl Gilad Shalit, who is being held in the Gaza Strip by Hamas and other armed militias, about 91% of the Palestinian public does not believe he should be released unconditionally. The vast majority of the Palestinians, 70%, believe that an unconditional release will not make any difference as far as the Israeli attacks are concerned.
A report in the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper claimed on Tuesday that Shalit's kidnappers were seeking the release of jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti, as well as leaders of other factions, including Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
The paper quoted Abu Mujahid, a spokesman for the kidnappers, as saying that they had prepared a list with the names of Barghouti and 11 other top leaders who should be included in a prisoner exchange.
#4
Speaking of the Paleos backing losers, the Arafish publicly supported Sammy in GW1. Now he is dead, so I won't be able to get his advice anymore on picking winners at Belmont. Tried to contact him in a seance, but I just get snapping and crackling noises (and muffled screams).
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/09/2006 12:06
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#5
They are not going to like us no matter what. Who cares? Might as well kick their a*sses and be done with. That is all they respect.
#6
If you can't believe PalliPolls who can you believe?
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/09/2006 14:04
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#7
Further proof that the only resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will involve massive fatalities, and they won't be Israeli. I have never seen such a combination of blinding stupidity and outright suicidal death-wish in my entire life. May the Palestinians' dreams of martyrdom all come true. They are well and truly worthless.
Despite her defeat, McKinney was unbowed, unleashing a stemwinder of a concession speech in which she barely mentioned her opponent but praised leftist leaders in Cuba and Venezuela, took aim at the efficacy of electronic voting machines and offered several swipes at the media.
"Members of the press, as well as our political leaders, don't give us explanations that explain, or conclusions that conclude," McKinney said. "There comes a time when people of conscience are compelled to dissent."
Before she began her remarks, she played the song "Dear Mr. President," an anti-Bush anthem by Pink, and sang along, somewhat out of tune, with its critical lyrics.
"We love our country, and that is why we dissent, because we care," she said. "Either we can be a force for good, or we can rely on force and upset the world. Sadly, this administration has chosen the latter."
#1
Have the Cap Hill Cops filed a charge yet? What is the statute of limitations on assaulting an officer? Will Cynthia return to DC to clean out her office?
Glad the voters rejected this wingnut. We don't need someone encouraging our enemies. Maybe she could run for office in Cuba or Venezuela. If we are lucky she might get elected and we would not have to look at her commie mug in the States.
Come and listen to a story 'bout a ho named Cyn
Poor congresswoman who police wouldn't let in
When one day she was slapping at some cop,
Didn't pay attention and her election was a flop.
(Rejected that is, To the unemployment line)
Well the first thing you know old Cynthia's out on bail
Kin folk said Cyn, skip town and avoid jail
Said Harare is the place you oughta be,
So they loaded up the truck and they moved to Zimbabwe.
(ZimBOBwe that is, arbitrary rule, starving peasants)
Posted by: ed ||
08/09/2006 10:08
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#6
I'll bet taht she joins Sheehan and company. there is always room for one more LLL Mo0b@+ idiot in that circle.
#9
Soccer is a borefest. It is unusual if there are 5 shots in a game. Pass the ball around center field...lose the ball...other team passes the ball around...the crowd waits for a rare goal. Yawn.
We, the undersigned, believe that Israels military operation to remove Hezbollah from southern Lebanon is a correct and legitimate response to the creation of an armed force accountable to Syria and Iran residing within the boundaries of Lebanon and using Lebanese territory to engage in cross-border warfare. Israel voluntarily withdrew completely from Lebanese territory in 2000 under the terms of UN Resolution 1559, but the Government of Lebanon was unable or unwilling to assert its sovereignty in the area Israel vacated.
#4
Israel voluntarily withdrew completely from Lebanese territory in 2000 under the terms of UN Resolution 1559, but the Government of Lebanon was unable or unwilling to assert its sovereignty in the area Israel vacated.
"The Hezballah missile attacks in the north are a direct result of Israel's disastrous retreat from southern Lebanon in May 2000, and the Hamas missile attacks in the south are a direct result of Israel's insane surrender of Gush Katif in the Gaza District last summer. After the missile attacks started, most Israelis began to see that Israeli retreats always lead to more war, more bloodshed, and more terrorism. As a result, polls showed most Israelis opposed any further retreats."
And the Hezbos have been weaponizing in non-Lebanon unchecked since they killed our marines. Israelis paid in blood already in Leba-none alone with no help only criticism.
Israel needs to annex Lebanon. You can't match the Hezbos takeover of Lebanon with half measures.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/09/2006 13:59
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#10
Israel needs to annex Lebanon. You can't match the Hezbos takeover of Lebanon with half measures.
I've got to agree with you on this one, Cap. The terrorist supporting terrortories need an object lesson with respect to consequences. Much like our own beleaguered attempts in Iraq, there is the glimmer of a chance that local Arabs might come to realize that life under Israeli control could be more stable and fruitful (no, I'm not kidding).
Sadly, I have to remain equally confident that any improvement in their quality of life would be utterly negated by the humiliation factor alone.
That all said, Israel is fully deserving of taking control of whatever region it d@mn well feels like if those areas persist in supporting terrorism. All of the Arabs are so bloody attached to their land that only loss of ownership (well, that and slow painful death, maybe) will ever convince them of the error of their ways.
#11
Israel has already tried governing the unruleable, in the Palestinian territories. They spent a full generation proving it pointless, as the improvements for the Arabs aren't worth the cost to Israeli society. For that matter, Israel spent twenty years in southern Lebanon, having only pulled back in 2000. The Lebanese on the whole are more mercantile and less concept-driven than the Palestinians, but mercantile becomes venal when they aren't responsible for themselves, and bootlessly Byzantine when they are. We can give it an effort halfway round the world in Iraq, where the heartland is not at risk; they are cheek by jowl with those who wish to destroy them and those willing to allow it to happen, so long as it doesn't interfere with teatime. I fear Israel is going to have to make a security zone empty of people in order to have some safety, since clearly neither the Lebanese government, the Lebanese people, nor the Lebanese Army are willing to do the work.
I'm talking a complete annexation. This is not "occupation" but a complete overtaking of the government, military, etc. Only after such a takeover can you rid the country of the Hezbo-Syrian-Iranian control. Think of the removal of Nazis after Victory in Europe, same with the Japanese.
Until a complete annexation, there will be no way to remove the Hezbo-Syrian-Iranian control of Lebanon.
The Pali terrorities is a very poor analogy of an annexation, but a good illustration of how half measures (i.e., Paliworld) have gone so tragically wrong.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/09/2006 18:16
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#15
I guess I'm slow today, guys; perhaps I'm not dealing with the situation as well as I thought.
What began as a "technical procedure" of appointing Deputy IDF Chief of Staff Major-General Moshe Kaplinksy to the Northern Command, on Wednesday turned into a true shake-up in the upper rungs of the Israel Defense Forces. As things currently stand, it appears that Northern Command Chief Major-General Udi Adam will not be able to continue in his post for much longer. A senior IDF official told Ynet that "at the end of the war Udi Adam will no longer have a choice, and he will have to leave his post."
According to the official, IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Dan Halutz "can't dismiss such a high-ranking officer during wartime. Therefore he adopted a procedure which moves him away from the frontlines, with a heavy hint towards the future."
Halutz issued a statement in which he expressed full faith in the Northern Command and in Major-General Adam, however, according to the official, "If the chief of staff really supported Major-General Adam, he would say so in front of the cameras, in his own voice. The fact that he didn't says everything."
Major-General Adam was appointed to lead the Northern Command in the beginning of October 2005. His appointment surprised many in the ranks of the army. Adam, head of the Technology and Logistics department of the IDF, was not considered one of the leading candidates for the post. "Everyone thought that Udi Adam would enjoy operational quiet like during the period of (his predecessor) Benny Ganz, and he would have no problem fulfilling the role. People forgot that the north can ignite at any moment because there's an enemy sitting right there across the border, and then things would erupt in turmoil," a military official explained.
IDF sources noted problems arising from Adam's reserved character. "He is a closed person, rather stubborn, and not particularly well-liked," he said. Adam, who came from the armored tank corps, was described as "a direct man, hard-working, who keeps away from cameras and headlines, meticulous and impressive."
Those among both the lower and upper echelons of the IDF recognized the awkwardness of the situation. One officer said, "Chief of Staff Halutz appointed him to the position; he was the one who picked him so he's the one who should stand behind him and back him up fully. He can add all sorts of senior officers to the Command to help and coordinate, but to appoint the deputy chief of staff that's a slap in the face. It creates a problematic situation. Who makes the decisions in the Northern Command now? Adam or Kaplinsky? Who bangs his fist on the table and decides?"
Officers in the Northern Command revealed that lately difficult conversations have taken place between Adam and Halutz, chiefly regarding the Northern Command's operations, or rather, their inactivity. On the other hand, the question must be asked why is it that Maj. Gen. Adam is being held accountable for the situation.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2006
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#1
This is the lack of leadership of by Olmert's incompetents. Passing the blame down the line to the fighting men.
#3
Of course, LH. They're the ones who make the ultimate decision to go to war.
Few people here at the Burg give GWB a complete, free pass on Iraq. We've been critical of a number of decisions and we've said so. Most of us also believe that it was the right thing to do, and there are (as you know) a number of people here whose beliefs are codified in the phrase, "faster, please."
We're also smart enough to assign responsibility to those politicans who pander to the anti-war crowd.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/09/2006 10:54
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#4
so you agree that politicians should take full responsibilty for mistakes in war?
That's why we have elections, and why the 22nd Amendment is a mistake.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/09/2006 13:50
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SW,
Actually I was thinking less of GWB, directly, whose main job is the decision to go to war, and the picking of the right people, and who for good or ill (and ive seen serious arguements both ways) clearly did NOT micromanage Iraq or any other defense issues, as I was of the SecDef, who clearly has had an intimate involvement with a range of operational and strategic issues. And who, oddly, (or not so oddly) seems rather more above criticism around here than POTUS.
#8
I'm a Rummy fan - still - all the snarking comes from people who have no better ideas to offer: "More troops!" "withdraw troops!"
He took on a task with impossible goals, lack of tools, ankle-biting opportunistic 20/20 hindsight politicos and their useful tools (yes, you, LH), a no-notice attack, and responded. We have had no attacks on US soil, wrested the Taliban from a country thought "impossible to take", killed Saddam's sons, arrested him, and took Iraq, and the assholes continue to bray and whine. F*&K em
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/09/2006 21:26
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And, most galling to his enemies, he will be the only SecDef to serve two full terms.
What are we going to do for entertainment now? Cynthia McKinney, the dipsy doodle fiery Georgia congresswoman known for her conspiracy theories about the Sept. 11 attacks and the scuffle she had earlier this year with a U.S. Capitol police officer, lost a runoff election Tuesday for her district's Democratic nomination. Attorney Hank Johnson, a black former DeKalb County commissioner, won the nomination with 59 percent of the vote, surpassing McKinney by more than 11,000 votes.
#3
Unfoturnately, she is still a Frank H. T. Rhodes Class of '56 Professor at Cornell, along with the legendary propagandist John Pilger.
I'm sure the old Rantburg surprise meter won't even register a twitch, but McKinney's faculty sponsor is Salah Hassan, a graduate of the prestigious University of Khartoum.
Posted by: ST ||
08/09/2006 5:57
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...Any bets that she will declare herself the victim of An Evil Conspiracy(TM)? (I'm taking side bets that she refuses to step down.)
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/09/2006 7:28
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#5
I blame voodoo.
Posted by: ed ||
08/09/2006 7:40
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#11
McKinney for Lamont? Bad trade.
I agree, NS, but it's not McK for LaM.
McKinney has lost. She will not be in the House of reps next term, period.
If Lieberman runs, Lamont cannot win, therefore, it's McKinney for a republican senator. Or, Lieberman wins, which I doubt that is unless the republican is a total loser.
The left is in a downward spiral. They need a savy pilot to pull them out of it, but all they have is the Cheeseburgler, MM and socialism.
#13
It's amazing to me just how much of a complete nutjob you have to be before the Dems turn on you. I mean, she did everything in her power, for years, to appear as the most unhinged, racist, bigoted, foul-mouthed stark raving lunatic, and it just increased her support. Not until she assaulted a police officer did the straw finally break the camel's back. Dem tolerance for evil is now at an all time high.
Still, I can't say how happy I am she's gone. Go to Hell, Ms McKinney. Go to hell.
(IsraelNN.com) A howling mob stone throwing attack on IDF soldiers by Palestinian Authority Arabs prompted troops to fire at the attackers' feet. Three of the attackers were shot and treated at the scene by Red Moon-Shaped Thingy Crescent medics. No soldiers were injured in the incident which occurred near Shechem.
Brought rocks to a gunfight, did they?
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2006
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I think the Israelis ain't really in the mood for effin' around right now, boys.
#3
Israelis will run out of PC arrogance as the going gets tougher and with a quarter of the population hiding in basements the time is now. And they might throw Olmert out and get some leadership.
(CNN) -- Officials with U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman's re-election campaign say that "dirty politics" and "Rovian tactics" are to blame for what they call an online attack on their campaign Web site as Connecticut voters headed to the polls Tuesday. The Web site, http://www.joe2006.com, has been unavailable since Monday afternoon, and Lieberman campaign manager Sean Smith suggested that the campaign of senator's primary opponent, Ned Lamont, or his supporters were responsible for the disruption.
That'd pretty much be my first guess, too. Prob'ly my second guess, too...
"This type of dirty politics has been a staple of the Lamont campaign from the beginning, from the nonstop personal attacks to the intimidation tactics and offensive displays to these coordinated efforts to disable our Web site," said Smith in a statement e-mailed to reporters Monday evening. "There is no place for these Rovian tactics in Democratic politics, and we demand that our opponent calls off his supporters and their online attack dogs."
Karl is no doubt enjoying a Rovian chuckle at this very moment as his political opposition gnaws each other...
The Lamont campaign has denied any involvement.
"No, no! Certainly not!"
When asked by reporters at a campaign stop Tuesday if he or his campaign was responsible for the incident, Lamont said, "No, it's just another scurrilous charge."
"Yasss! A scurrilous charge made up out of whole cloth by my enemies!"
Liz Dupont-Diehl, a Lamont spokeswoman, told CNN that the campaign "denounced and condemned" the action, and denied any involvement by Lamont or members of his campaign. She added that the Lamont campaign did not know who was behind the incident.
"Wudn't us!"
The site became unavailable at some point Monday afternoon and features the message: "This account is under construction. Please check back soon. It will be available shortly. Thank you." Various messages have appeared since Monday night in place of the Lieberman Web site, including "There is no Web site configured at this address" and "This account has been suspended. Please contact the billing/support department as soon as possible."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2006
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Is your IT department full of treason? Did you know the IT industry is full of full of moobats and leftoids that just love to do this "hacktivist" crap? Are you going to trust a Democrat Leftist with your companies or agencies data and online presence? Better think about his very well.
#2
Oh, the old plausible deniability claim. Wuldn't us, but we just kowtow to the DU/Daily Kos Kiddies to (wink, wink) "Take Joe down." But, hey, in the end, if Karl Rove hadn't come up with these tactics, none of this woulda happened. Yeesh!
Posted by: BA ||
08/09/2006 9:31
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In 2000, the moonbats accused the Bush campaign of conspiring to suppress the vote for Gore-Lieberman.
In 2006, the moonbats (well, at least one of 'em!) disrupt their political opponent Joe Lieberman's IT services, thereby interfering with his election day GOTV effort and suppressing his vote.
Irony readings are off the scale.
Posted by: Mike ||
08/09/2006 13:48
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The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s publishing arm has released a book that says President Bush organized New York's Sept. 11 attacks.
The decision by the 160-year-old Westminster John Knox Press, the trade and academic publishing imprint of the Presbyterian Publishing Corp., to attribute the attacks on the World Trade Center brings into the U.S. religious mainstream a conspiracy theory long held by the world's jihadists.
In 'Christian Faith and the Truth behind 9/11: A Call to Reflection and Action,' author David Ray Griffin calls the United States the world's 'chief embodiment of demonic power, says he initially scoffed at 9/11 conspiracy theories.
But after investigating he concluded that the Twin Towers were brought down by controlled demolition, military personnel were given stand-down orders not to intercept hijacked flights and the 9/11 Commission, ostensibly created to uncover the truth behind the events of 9/11, 'simply ignored evidence' that the administration was involved in the attacks.
Griffin further asserts that such events such as that of 9/11 are part of a long history of 'false-flag attacks,' attacks orchestrated by governments against their own people to garner popular support for military action.
Griffin is a professor at California's Claremont School of Theology and Claremont Graduate University, and a codirector of the Center for Process Studies.
#3
Make d *** sure you are correct Presbys - the meaning of Gabriel's Sword ala FATIMA'S THIRD VISION is that the earth will lose a portion of its physical/geologic sphere, cut out and excised iff you will by the Archangel Gabriel like a farmer cutting off bad parts of any good fruit or food, the chaff from the grain. THE EARTH WILL BE HEAVILY DAMAGED, MILYUHNS-ZILYUHNS WILL DIE OR BE INJURED, NATIONS + GOVTS WILL BE DESTROYED-DAMAGED, BUT HUMANITY + LIFE WILL STILL SURVIVE. THE WHOLE WORLD WILL WITNESS = SUFFER THE POWER OF GOD. Iff Christ be GOD INTO MAN, the ANTICHRIST is MAN INTO GOD - don't go around pissing the Big Guy off by saying Secularist "Man is God", "Man must control God", or "God is a Fake", then when S*** hits the fan not do godly things. God himself will give you the tests to prove before the world you Secular Atheist Scientifist Dialectic, etc. Man are his Equal let alone his Superior. "EMBODIMENT OF DEMONIC POWER" > be right, Presbys, becuz iff Gabriel excises America = Amerika your Presby Church will go with the space rocks formerly known as America = Amerika. When the last Roman Pope dies, then Gabriel's Sword shall strike.
#5
What the hell this Griffin guy is smoking and who gave this guy a degree to teach. Folks, I did not earned my degree of PhD in science in USA simply because I learned the science. I had to prove that I had the ability to think rationally and behave civilized under high stress. I understand some people like Griffin may go crazy but they must surrender the certificate of high education and refrain from teaching. The certificates of high education were never meant to be given to mental fruit-cakes.
#7
It might be better to look into the motivations of people who like and beleive in conspiracy theories, then write a book about the conspiracy to make them beleive it wasn't Lynne-Baden who organised 9/11.
#12
My bro-in-law is die-hard Prez, but the other side of the fence. Very devout, strong supporter of Israel. We disagree on (minor) theological issues (I'm Southern Baptist, but Christian first), but on the whole, the PCA (Pres. Church of America, I believe) is a lot more conservative than PCUSA. I can't believe any religion would use conspiracy theories like this, though, to sell books. I'd also note where he got his "theology" degree and other degrees. Probably moonbat central/Jesus was a homo type school. Not much TRUE theology there.
Posted by: BA ||
08/09/2006 10:07
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And, oh yeah, those must be some powerful meds Joe's takin. Cleaned him up in eight minutes straight!
Posted by: BA ||
08/09/2006 10:08
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#15
Bringing in the sheep, bringing in the sheep, we will go rejoicing...
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/09/2006 14:01
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#16
IIRC, the Presbys also claim to have a document detailing Mary Magdalene simultaneously doing Jesus, Saul and John soon after the Last Supper. F**k the Presbys.
Posted by: Mark Z ||
08/09/2006 14:35
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Well if the Presby C-USA put their stamp of approval on this I would imagine the Catholic, Baptist, & Methodist churches, (etc) will have some new members soon. I wonder how many Presby C-USA members have already fled that organization because of this type of stupid sh*t.
Mark Z - where did you hear that about Magdalene? I've never heard that story before. Seems even a stretch by Presby CUSA standards.
(IsraelNN.com) Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who recently appeared at a pro-Israel rally, has apologized to Muslim leaders. He explained to them he did not attend Muslim peace rallies because of a lack of communication in his office. The mayor initiated a meeting with 10 Muslim leaders who were angry with him. The mayor attended a pro-Israel July 23, several days after Israel retaliated to Hizbullah terrorist attacks on the Galilee.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2006
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Wait a minute, if they're so peaceful and want peace rallies, how can they be ANGRY at the Mayor? Oh, that's right, I'ma thinkin' logically. One has to wonder when a Hispanic on Muslim or Black on Muslim "race" riot will break out, as they're all competing for the "minority of the year" status.
Posted by: BA ||
08/09/2006 9:35
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#4
Viva La RazaCaliphate!
Posted by: Antonio Villaraigosa ||
08/09/2006 12:50
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(Roooters, of course) BEIRUT - International and local activists are planning on Saturday to bring a civilian convoy to southern Lebanon, worst hit by Israel's 28-day-old war on Hizbollah, to deliver aid and show solidarity with suffering residents. "We hope this will be the first of what will become continuous convoys to show that there are civilians being killed and affected by this war," Adam Shapiro, an American documentary filmmaker and human rights activist, told Reuters.
He's also big heat at the ISM and has his hand in any number of other hard-left, 'progressive' organizations. He's also really nuts.
Shapiro the Hero is back. If we're lucky, he'll manage to get himself trapped in a bunker with Hassan, like he did with Yasser.
"If governments are failing to act, we as terrorist enablers citizens will."
"Because we're important. We count for something. You betcha."
Shapiro, 34, is among several activists from the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a pro-terrorist pro-Palestinian group that usually works to bring attention to Israeli occupation of Palestinian land, who have traveled to Lebanon seeking non-violent ways to support local groups as they try to kill all the Joooz protesting the war. This time, however, the activists will not be facing Israeli soldiers, tanks or Rachel Corrie memorial D9 bulldozers but aerial bombardment.
Splendid idea!
One idea they are considering is to bring large numbers of people, rather than a few activists, to the Hizbollah strongholds of south Lebanon or south Beirut to try to protect them or draw attention to the plight of civilians there.
I like the idea of wiping out large numbers of terrorist abettors at one time. Or at least having them all mess their drawers when an IAF F-15 shows up.
So far, activists who have shown up in Lebanon from the United States and Europe are part of an exploratory group, but Shapiro believes they can attract hundreds more, including from Arab states, once they come up with a strategy.
The ones from Arab states will even bring their own guns and ammo.
"In the United States people were already contacting us, Lebanese and internationals interested in coming to Lebanon to see how we could help," Shapiro said.
The Berkeley contingent should be good for a hundred.
Lebanon will be the first time the ISM has worked outside the Palestinian territories, though individual activists have been to other war zones such as Iraq as human shields. Israeli authorities view them as terrorist enablers trouble makers and sometimes accuse them of inciting violence.
"I'm not sure we can be as ambitious as to end the war but certainly we can change the dynamic," Shapiro said. "In the media this has so far been portrayed as a war between Israel and Hizbollah. Maybe we can change the dynamic so it is seen as what it is, Israel versus all of Lebanon."
You guys did a great job in Iraq.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/09/2006
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Oh, pretty please, can they wear hats with a target printed on them?
#7
I'll never forget how when that asswipe Shapiro was in the news for his paleo antics, his parents in Brooklyn (who were supporting him 100%) received death threats and were absolutely shocked!. Just goes to show how absolutely out of touch these people are. Did they think they had a monopoly on outrage? They were so sure they were "right" they had no idea that there was any other way to think about paleo issues. F**k them, and F**k their son.
Let's just say I hope their son chooses not to comply with an Israeli leaflet.
What would really be interesting is if they get in the way of a katyusha
#9
lol, perfect timing. On the very day Israel announces it's shutting down all traffic south of the Litani River, and that they'll shoot/bomb any car travelling in this area. Hey, Adam, times a tickin'...head on out to Tyre, baby!
Posted by: BA ||
08/09/2006 10:16
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CNN: Isn't that Rachel Corrie? Who'll believe that is someone killed by an airstrike in a peace demonstration in Beiruit?
Reuters: Shhh! No one will know the difference. We'll say it is an anonymous "American Peace Activist killed by Zionist Aggressors, Ummm I mean the Isralei Military". We don't have to say when...
Everyone will assume it is current and in Beiruit.
SEOUL: North Korean workers risked their lives to protect pictures of their leader when the communist country was hit by devastating floods last month, state media said Tuesday. The official Korean Central News Agency, monitored by South Korea's Yonhap news agency, reported tales of the bravery of North Koreans dedicated to saving Kim Jong-Il's images from harm. A forestry research institute official died after saving portraits of Kim Jong-Il and his late father Kim Il-Sung on July 16 when a landslide hit his home in the eastern county of Yangdok, it said. On another occasion, a miner fled to the rooftop of his house but was swept away by floods after handing over Kim Jong-Il's portrait to his colleages, KCNA said. "Such impressive stories are common in many flood-hit areas. Our people are faithful to the Dear Leader as they are willing to risk their lives for him," KCNA said in a commentary.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2006
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Perhaps the paper Dear Leader ws printed on was made from soybeans and thus had nutritional value
#2
Iff memory is correct, its Norkie law that every North Korean home have one or more pictures of "the Great/Dear Leader" lest they be viewed as traitors to the anti-Chinese Chinese kimchee-land.
The threat of the gulag andor death camp, etc, naturally has nothing to do wid anything.
#5
I'd not be surprised if this is absolutely true. If you read accounts of the sinking of Imperial Japanese Navy warships in WWII, you'll notice there's always some guy who gets detailed to rescue the emperor's portrait. If the emperor--ooops, excuse me, I meant Dear Leader--is a living god, it's the least you can do.
Posted by: Mike ||
08/09/2006 7:09
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Gotta wonder if they could've floated out of there and made some money off the portraits on Ebay.
Posted by: BA ||
08/09/2006 9:46
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It's just not the same as reading the unexpurgated KCNA version:
Spirit of Defending Leader with Life Displayed by Flood Victims
Pyongyang, August 8 (KCNA) --The Korean People are willing to dedicate their lives for guarding the leader. The lofty spirit of defending the leader with the very life was given full play among the people in the flood-hit areas of the DPRK including South Phyongan, Kangwon and North Hwanghae Provinces in the middle of July.
Kim Tok Chan who was a designer of the Yangdok Forestry Designing Institute, South Phyongan Province, awoke from a sound sleep by a roaring sound of landslide triggered by torrential rains on the dead night of July 16.
He brought down the portraits of President Kim Il Sung and General Secretary Kim Jong Il from a wall of his house, wrapped them with care and tried to evacuate. Having lost time to do so, he handed them over to his wife and pushed her to a safe place before he was buried in the landslide.
That's gotta be the slowest moving landslide in history...
There are so many similar stories in the flood-damaged areas.
The Piryu River flooded to inundate some parts of the Jangrim workers' district in Songchon County, South Phyongan Province. The house of Kim Sung Jin, a tunneling worker of the Unsu Pit of the Songchon Mine, was waterlogged. His family members were stranded on the roof. Seeing this scene, head of the production workshop Ri Sang Son and rock-drill operator Jon Tae Yong swam to them. Kim Sung Jin gave them the portraits of the President and the leader, not his children.
Yeah, well ya can't eat Kimmie portraits...
Ri Hak Chol, manager of the Songchon Mine, told KCNA on the spot: "We suffered a serious flood damage this time. However, the workers of the mine and the residents displayed the noble spirit of defending the leader with their lives during the natural disaster. As the saying goes that the hard time tests a man, our people put the Party and the leader above their lives and property on the crossroads of life and death."
And, in the immortal words of Roseanne Rosanadana, as the saying goes, "It just goes to show ya, it's always sumthin!"
#8
I don't think they save their pictures out of admiration. It's total fear. They all wear a lapel pin with his picture all the time. And I mean all the time. My friend that was there last year said not one person the entire time was without the lapel pin. Not one person forgot it at home. Not one person's pin was lost in the laundry. Not one person had their pin fall off inadvertently. Pretty harsh control eh?
#9
Do not imagine, comrades, that leadership is a pleasure. On the contrary, it is a deep and heavy responsibility. No one believes more firmly than Comrade Napoleon that all animals are equal. He would be only too happy to let you make your decisions for yourselves. But sometimes you might make the wrong decisions, comrades, and then where should we be?
#10
Do not imagine, comrades, that leadership is a pleasure. On the contrary, it is a deep and heavy responsibility. No one believes more firmly than Comrade Napoleon that all animals are equal. He would be only too happy to let you make your decisions for yourselves. But sometimes you might make the wrong decisions, comrades, and then where should we be?
Supporters of leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador took over toll booths surrounding Mexico City for several hours Tuesday, giving motorists free passage into the metropolis.
We are going to transform our country and this is going to happen one way or the other...
The takover came a day after the former Mexico City mayor said his protests over alleged fraud in July 2 presidential elections, which have already clogged the city's center, will transform into a long-term radical movement to change the nation.
Lopez Obrador, who claims electoral officials tried to rig the vote, told a crowd of about 5,000 supporters on Monday that his movement is just beginning. "We are going to start a movement for the transformation of the nation's institutions," Lopez Obrador said. "We are going to transform our country and this is going to happen one way or the other."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2006
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Shhhh... No one tell them the election is over...They get to vote all over again....campaign time...
#4
"we will take our protest from the voting booths to the...uh...toll booths...to the....um...phone booths...to the ...'4 pictures on a strip of film' tourist booths...to the ....Yeeaarrggghhhh!!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/09/2006 22:59
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KARACHI - A gas pipeline was blown up in southwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, officials said, in the latest attack in the troubled Baluchistan province where rebels are fighting for greater autonomy.
The pipeline is owned by state-run Sui Southern Gas Co Ltd SUIS.KA and feeds gas to southern port city of Karachi. A company official said an 18-inch diameter pipeline was blown up in Pat Feeder area near Sui, the town where the main production plant for Pakistans largest gas field is located. The damage has caused a shortfall of 110 mcdf of gas per day but we have made up the deficiency from other supply lines, the official added.
He said supplies to consumers remained unaffected and the repair work on the damaged pipeline was likely to be completed within 48 hours.
Nobody has claimed responsibility for the attacks on the pipelines, but officials said they suspected Baluch militants were responsible.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/09/2006
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Cuba's allies urged the United States not to interfere with the communist country during Fidel Castro's absence from power, while the U.S. increased its television transmissions to the island and encouraged anti-Castro activists to push for change.
"Manuel! Manuel! Look! Ricky Ricardo's back on!"
Cuban Parliament Speaker Ricardo Alarcon warned that the United States would face "hell" if it meddled with the Caribbean island. "We demand that the government of the United States respect Cuba's sovereignty," read a letter from 400 leftist intellectuals and human rights activists published Tuesday in Cuba's state-run newspapers. "We must prevent a new aggression at all costs."
Posted by: Fred ||
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Great photo. Whatever the topic how can you not smile at that!
Seven Taliban were killed and a commander was captured in the latest spate of attacks in Afghanistan, officials said Tuesday. Four Taliban were killed in a clash in the Andar district of Ghazni province. Two militants were killed when the Taliban attacked a police post late on Monday in Garmser district in the Helmand province. In the north of the province, British troops shot dead an armed Afghan policeman outside a base in Musa Qula. The Afghan was in civilian clothes and was mistaken for an insurgent.
In another attack late on Monday in Paktika province, one insurgent was killed while four others and a policeman were wounded following a short battle, said provincial spokesman Sayed Jamal. He said that around 50 Taliban crossed into a remote area of the Paktika province from Pakistan and traded heavy machine gun fire with police. The militants slipped back into Pakistan after the fight, he added.
Three Afghan soldiers and a civilian were wounded in Khost on Tuesday when an army vehicle headed for Kabul was struck by a roadside remote-controlled bomb, police said. In another part of Paktika, police arrested Mullah Akhtar Mohammad, a former director of refugee affairs, along with a group of five other men fleeing from Helmand province overnight, he said. One of the men was wounded, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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British troops shot dead an armed Afghan policeman outside a base in Musa Qula. The Afghan was in civilian clothes and was mistaken for an insurgent.
Uf da! I wonder if this means the police are relaxing, or if they still can't stand out in front of their houses in uniform.
Posted by: Andy Dufresne ||
08/09/2006 8:20
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#4
YOU try smiling into the bright California sunshine at the friggin' camera for the upteenth take while simultaneously not falling out of your topless lowcut swimsuit AND perching your lovely footsies in high-heeled, small-strapped slideons.
#6
Good morning, there is a war going on, so why no war news ?
Can we have a war map with the front shown and the various positions colored and town names and such so we can follow the progess of the Israeli northward push ?
I'm bored. The law won't let me shoot muzzies, so what can I do to secure my future peace of mind ?
#7
All that squiggly stuff to the left of the babe picture is linked to war news. If you hold your mouse over a headline it'll take you directly to that article.
I consider Rita Hayworth to be much more fun to look at than yet another picture of Hassan Nastyraller.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2006 13:41
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#8
You keep going back under the hood and improving things, Fred. What does she do now, 0-200 in under 60 seconds? Ferrari and Porsche must be green with envy! ;-)
Havana, Cuba (AHN) - Cuban leaders are warning the United States against any interference in the possible transition within Havana after the death of President Fidel Castro. The U.S., however, has increased its television transmissions to Cuba, and has said it would help fund those working for change, on and off the communist island.
Cuban Parliament Speaker Ricardo Alarcon led the charge against American involvement in any regime change, saying the U.S. would face "hell" if it interfered.
A real sea of fire!
While the U.S. has denied talk of an invasion, President George Bush has said "Our desire is for the Cuban people to choose their own form of government."
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/09/2006
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#2
Here we go again I just love the way we are going to get hell evertime we piss these tin horn dictators off, if the US sneezed in their general direction they would fall over.
#6
Notice that they're talking about transition though.
I wonder if they picked up any of King Fahd's old used ice machines at some Saudi royal's yard sale?
A man who said he worshipped Satan and enjoyed killing three people, stabbing and beating them and stomping on them with steel-toed boots, was executed Tuesday.
Zark's probably found him a nice seat by the fire by now, if he hasn't cut his postmortem head off...
Darrell Ferguson, 28, the youngest person put to death in Ohio since 1962, died by injection at 10:21 a.m. at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility. He had asked for the death penalty and chose not to pursue appeals, which could have delayed his execution for years.
Good for him. Now he can get on with decomposing...
King was disabled and used crutches, Arlie Fugate had cancer and Mae Fugate took meals to wheelchair-using neighbors.
He was convicted of three counts of aggravated murder in the Christmas Day killing of Thomas King, 61, in 2001 and the deaths the next day of Arlie Fugate, 68, and his wife Mae, 69. King was disabled and used crutches, Arlie Fugate had cancer and Mae Fugate took meals to wheelchair-using neighbors.
Aged and infirm they're less likely to fight back, y'know...
The victims let Ferguson into their homes in Dayton because they knew him. Ferguson's mother had been married to King's brother, and Ferguson's family had once lived near the Fugates. Ferguson committed the murders after getting a two-day pass from a drug treatment program he had been ordered to attend following a burglary conviction. At his sentencing, he taunted the victims' families, saying he worshipped Satan, enjoyed the killings, had no remorse, and, if released from prison, would pick up where he left off.
So now he won't. Somebody else will have to do it.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2006
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#1
Unfortunately Thomas, Arlie, and Mae are still dead and died much more horribly than this p.o.s. did.
Burn in Hell, Darrell. I hope they roast you on a spit.
Posted by: Dar ||
08/09/2006 0:32
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There are some souls that are tortured for unknown reasons. Darrell was one. I'm not excusing what he did, he obviously knew what he did was very wrong. He finally got what he wanted. Death and eternal damnation.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
08/09/2006 21:21
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Joe Lieberman said that if he wins reelection as an independent, he'll still caucus with the Donks, and there's no reason to doubt that he meant what he said. However, the Instapundit notes that Lieberman (see news article at the link) was sympathetic to Jim Jeffords when Jeffords made the jump back before the war.
You also have to wonder how long a sincere, believing Orthodox Jew can pretend solidarity with the viciously anti-Semitic elements that seem to have taken over his party. Plus, if he beats Lamont in the general election despite the party turning on him in such spectacular fashion, I can't imagine he'd feel like he owes them anything.
It wouldn't surprise me if Lieberman, if he wins in November, were to announce that he won't caucus with either party.
Posted by: Mike ||
08/09/2006
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#1
If Lieberman switched parties, he'd be the most liberal Republican in the Senate. And that's saying something, when we have people like Lincoln Chafee and Olympia Snowe in the party. Lieberman would out-RINO every other Republican senator in office.
Liberman has some principles, unlike that slut Jeffords. Lieberman may have to run as an independent, but the donks will welcome him with open arms into the Senate Caucus when he wins in November. They need every vote they can get. He those profitable committee assignments to take care of keeping the constituents in the pork.
As for the Jewish part, when Jewish voters start voting Republican, I'll not be surpised to see Jewish politicians run as trunks. But that day is far away. Don't ask me to explain why. That's for TW and LH.
#4
1. He wouldnt fit to well into the GOP caucus (thought I dont know hes THAT much more liberal than Lincoln Chafee) The GOP can offer commit assignments as well. If he stays in the Dem caucus, Id expect him to be even more independent of it than in the past.
2. Some Jews do vote Republican. Many if not most Orthodox Jews do, and even among non-O theres a considerable group that vote GOP. I personally know a Jewish House GOP staffer, and have a friend whos a stockbroker and longtime GOP, a donor I think. OTOH, its my strong impression that most Republican Jews (some of the Orthodox aside) lean toward the RINO-centrist-neocon-McCain end of the GOP spectrum.
There are also Jewish independents.
And increasingly most Jewish Dems, aside from the Upper West Side lefties, and a few others, lean new Democrat Clintonian politics - the kind of outlook that would have been VERY acceptable in the Republican party in the 1950s and 1960s
While I consider myself a third way Clintonian Democrat, I dont know that I can speak for the mass of Clintonian Jewish Democrats, as I am to their left on economic issues, and a tad to their right on cultural-social issues. They are reluctant to go GOP for the same reason other upper middle class soccer mom voters are - theyre scared of the religious right. My motives have more to do with my beliefs in economic justice. A John McCain could be very appealing to them - but so could a Hilary Clinton. Again, not for quite the same reasons as for me.
#5
The word I get from my friends in CT and NY is that Leiberman is something of an opertunist. Some of the liberal positions he's taken are at odds with the Orthodox Jewish community and is done to placate wealthy Dem liberal doners.
If he were to switch parties, I could easily see him becoming more conservative.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
08/09/2006 11:24
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#6
If he were to become more conservative, I could see Lamont winning.
#7
Assuming he wins in November, the more interesting question is which party caucas he affiliates with?
The donks have disowned him.
For instance, Jeffers hangs with the donks.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/09/2006 14:18
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#8
He has said that he'd caucus with the Democrats. Of course, this morning Kos is demanding that Harry Reid remove Joe from all his committee assignments (which Harry can do as minority leader). If the Dhimmis did that, I think Joe would become a true independent. He might choose to caucus with neither party (assuming he wins in November, which he won't).
As noted the Repub candidate is a total loser -- he's got this leee-tle gambling problem. Thanks for playing, back into obscurity you go.
Unfortunately, I think we're going to see Senator Ned Lamont, just another rich boy who inherited his money from grandpa and decided to buy himself a Senate seat.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/09/2006 17:17
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#9
Joe's campaign should have been 'Even a stopped clock (Bush) is right twice a day, and I know what time it is.'
#10
LH, it's my belief that the "Religious Right" is given waaaaay to much clout by the MSM in order to "energize the masses" in response to ANYTHING the Republicans do. I disagree with the President on stem-cell research but I do have some moral issues with using embryos. I live in the heart of the Bible Belt and have lived here most of my life. The vast majority of people here who identify themselves as Christians DO NOT want any type of Theocracy. They are people with certain moral principles but do not want laws forcing their morals on others just as they don't want laws forcing other people's lack of morals on them. They believe things have moral consequences. They don't hate homosexuals and certainly don't fear them (the definition of homophobic is fear of homosexuals) but they also don't want that lifestyle forced down their throats. They prefer for most things to be up to the individual. No doubht there are some religious leaders who would like to see a theocracy. They are the vocal ones. You don't see them being elected to public office. I recall Cher telling homosexuals to vote against Bush if they wanted to remain free. This type of bullshit has got to stop. Both on the Far Right and the Far Left. My 2 cents.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
08/09/2006 20:17
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#11
Hey DB - everyone's gotta have a straw-horse to beat.
A counter-terror operation by the Jammu and Kashmir police on Tuesday resulted in the killing of two militants, allegedly planning a suicide attack in the State on the eve of the Independence Day celebrations. Senior Superintendent of Police, Jammu, Mukesh Singh said the operation was mounted after an intelligence input that the two were hiding in the Jakti forest area. After an hour-long battle they were shot dead. The militants have been identified as cadre of the Jaish-e-Mohammad militant outfit. A huge amount of weaponry was recovered from the possession of the slain militants, including two AK-47 rifles, seven magazines, five grenades, several AK rounds and RDX explosives. One of the militants has been identified as Mohammad Basharat, resident of Manshera area of the North-West Frontier Province.
In another encounter, a divisional commander of the Jaish-e-Mohammad was gunned down in Kishtwar area of Doda district. The militant has been identified as Abu Hasan, resident of Shekupura area situated in the Punjab province of Pakistan. Hasan was active in this belt for the past eight years.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2006
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Aug. 8 (Bloomberg) -- The Bush administration may change some immigration rules to make it easier for Cubans with relatives in the U.S. to enter the country, two administration officials familiar with the plans said. The administration also is considering refusing visa applications from any Cuban caught trying to sneak into the U.S. by sea. Under the current policy, such people aren't penalized if they later apply for a visa, the officials said.
The U.S. seeks to curb any surge of Cubans to the U.S. following Fidel Castro's handoff of power. The 79-year-old dictator fell ill last week and temporarily turned control of the Caribbean nation over to his brother, Raul. President George W. Bush yesterday urged Cubans to pull away from Castro's ``tyrannical'' grip and create a new government.
``The U.S. realizes that the unfolding events in Cuba might potentially lead to an immigration crisis,'' said Paolo Spadoni, a professor at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, who specializes in Cuban issues.
White House spokesman Tony Snow confirmed today that the administration is thinking about ``what might happen'' in Cuba and how the U.S. should respond. Still, he said there's been no change in policy, and the administration is urging Cubans ``to stay put.''
A policy shift would reflect the administration's desire to prevent a mass migration, yet at the same time send a message that it cares about the Cuban people, including Cuban-Americans and their families, Spadoni said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/09/2006
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Hey Hillary, Bushie is setting you up for Haiti Part Deux. Mahwahahahahahaha.
Pakistan and Egypt strongly condemned the Israeli attacks on Lebanon and Gaza on Tuesday and called for an immediate ceasefire and withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanese territory. The two countries voiced concern over the deteriorating situation in the Middle East during the third round of two-day political consultations. During the talks, they vowed to bolster bilateral relations in all areas and agreed to convene the second joint ministerial commission meeting in Islamabad before the end of this year and to speed up the process of setting up a joint business council.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2006
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#1
How 'bout strongly condemning the terrorist attacks? Or is that what they think they just did?
Six years after Democrats backed him for vice president, Sen. Joe Lieberman struggled to overcome a tough challenge in Tuesday's primary and escape payback from his own party for supporting the Iraq war. In Georgia, Rep. Cynthia McKinney, the dipshit fiery congresswoman who scuffled with a U.S. Capitol police officer earlier this year, was trailing in very early returns in a runoff for the Democratic nomination. Elsewhere, voters in Colorado, Missouri and Michigan also chose candidates for the fall elections.
The Connecticut Senate race dominated the political landscape in recent weeks, as political novice Ned Lamont demonstrated the power of anti-war sentiment among Democrats with his campaign. Lamont is the millionaire owner of a cable television company but his political career is limited to serving as a town selectman and member of the town tax board. Still, he brought himself to the brink of defeating three-term incumbent Lieberman, the Democrats' vice presidential candidate in 2000. It was a race watched closely by the liberal, Internet-savvy Democrats who lead the party's emerging "netroots" movement, groups such as Moveon.org that played a big role in pushing Lamont's candidacy.
On the final day of the race, Lieberman accused his opponent's supporters of hacking his campaign Web site and e-mail system. Campaign manager Sean Smith said the site began having problems Monday night and crashed for good at 7 a.m., denying voters information about the candidate. "It is a deliberate attempt to disenfranchise voters," Smith said.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2006
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Okay, Im calling it. Its over. Ned Lamont has won the primary. . . . the hard reality is that the voters have spoken, and their message was loud and clear: theres no longer room for Joe Lieberman in the Democratic Party. And alas, tonights result will reverberate through the November elections and into the 2008 presidential campaign. Its really much more than just a single primary in a single state; its a shot across the bow of moderate Democrats everywhere. And so, whatever further ramifications this result might have, theres one thing it definitely means, one result that is officially cast in stone, as of today:
I am no longer a Democrat.
Hope your resolve lasts.
Ive been calling myself a Democrat since I was ten years old, . . . In recent years, Ive seen the base of the Democratic Party drifting away from sense and sanity, and at the same time, Ive felt my own ideological compass pulled somewhat to the right by world events. Yet I remain profoundly uncomfortable with the Republican Party for a variety of reasons, and Ive never much liked the idea of being an independent, considering it with all due respect to those who wear the label proudly something of a cop-out in many cases.
You might consider becoming a member of the libertarian wing of the Publican party. We're not all the same, you know. You can be a Publican and be particularly concerned about your civil liberties — which is pretty distinct from the ACLU approach. We're concerned about many of the same issues as Dummycrats; the distinction is that we try not to go overboard on them. Teddy Roosevelt was the original conservationist, for instance, long before it turned into The Environment™.
So Ive continued to cling to the label of Democrat, and to the hope that the party would somehow save itself from the tired orthodoxies of its interest groups and the execrable excesses of its far-left wing. Ive shaken my head at the irrational policies and irresponsible rhetoric coming from so many corners of the party, comforting myself with the thought that while Dennis Kucinich may be a nutjob and Al Sharpton may be a charlatan and Howard Dean may be an idiot and Dick Durbin may be, well, a dick, at least theres still Joe Lieberman.
The lone voice in the wilderness, the last surviving Jackson Democrat. Notice the divergence between him and his 2000 running mate. That's the evolution of the Democrat party in a nutshell.
Lieberman stood for just about everything good in the Democratic Party, while shunning most of the bad. He was he is an honest, decent and rational progressive, a moral but not overly moralistic man, a loyal but not blindly loyal Democrat. He agreed with the party most of the time, but he was willing to disagree when he felt his collegues were wrong. He was also willing to challenge liberal orthodoxies when they needed to be challenged, a rare and crucial trait. . . . But he was he is usually right, especially on the big issues, particularly the global war on terrorism and the conflict in Iraq.
The Dems as they are today were made in 1968. The wind that filled their sails came out of Vietnam. Today's party is the McGovern wing, writ large.
Perhaps, I told myself, despite the ascendancy of Nancy Pelosi, the Deaniacs and the Kos Kidz, perhaps Liebermans side could still somehow win the struggle for the partys soul. As long as that hope remained viable, I could continue to be a Democrat. A Lieberman Democrat, I called myself, and I was proud.
The Dems are a party that's driven by a vague ideology. They want to be Social Democrats, but Social Democrats are (Second International) Marxists. Marx is still, despite 60 or 70 years of effort on the part of the educational establishment, held in low regard in this country. That Marxist undercurrent has become more evident with the rise of the McGovern kiddies and grandkiddies. We're the world's leading exemplar of capitalism, and they're the anticapitalist counterstream. Anticapitalism translates into anti-Americanism. That's why the abhorrence for flag displays and other patriotic symbolism. Beneath the surface of Social Democracy there's the idea of the managed state, which isn't the ideal of individual liberty and personal accomplishment.
But now the voters have spoken. Lieberman may still consider himself a Democrat he says that, if elected as an independent, hell vote to organize with the Dems, and I believe him but the Democrats dont consider Lieberman a Democrat anymore. Thats the cold, hard truth of todays results. Hes been kicked out of the big tent because his loyalty wasnt blind enough, because his conscience wasnt pliable enough.
They weren't quite able to do the Yezhov thing on him, but he's become a Trotskyite.
Hes been replaced by the shiny new millionaire who said all the right things to win over the hearts and minds of the netroots. The war in Iraq is wrong, wrong, wrong; President Bush is bad, bad, bad; and Joe Lieberman is a traitor, a traitor, a traitor. Thats the undeniable message that Democratic voters from my home state have sent out across the land this fateful day.
He's been read out of the party, purged. Unless he wins in November, of course. Then it'll be all in the past.
Well, if theres no room in the Democratic Party for Joe Lieberman, then theres no room in it for me. So Im done. Im out. See ya later. Sayonara.
Posted by: Mike ||
08/09/2006
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#1
Welcome to the Real World, Brendan. Yes, being a leftist sucks.
#2
Just read an interesting comment on the Ynetnews in response to the WaPo diatribe about Israel avoiding taking out HA launchers.
First of all:
Journalism is long dead. Esp. American journalism. It's just another business, like any other business that only exists because suckers exist.
Sucker-based businesses probably comprise 60% or more of the US economy.
Secondly:
As an old-style leftist, I'm absolutely disgusted with the New Left - all style, no subtance. And a dusgusting style at that. What used to be a movement for equitable distribution of economic output and political power and social progress has become a weird subculture of neurotics, gays, over-educated idiots, bored and sate European pseudo-intellectuals and their
Yank followers, typically
empty-headed poseurs like Mr. Ricks.
It's got its own "intellectual" fashion waves, such as intellectual sadomasochism in the form of Arab fetishism and Antisemitism in the form of Anti-Zionism. The worst offence one can commit against these new leftists is to bore them.
Holocaust is no longer relevant to them and BORING. Hence, Jews are boring. The Arabs are exciting -they blow themselves up and riot on the streets.
I disagree that 60% of US economy comprising of a sucker-based business, probably 15% would be a more realistic figure and with What used to be a movement for equitable distribution of economic output and political power and social progress--it was always a movement for redistribution of economic output and political power as I had the opportunity to observe its implementation from within. There was nothing equitable about it, nor could I observe any signs of social progress, whatever that is supposed to mean.
Everything else this poster nailed right smack on the head.
#3
The MSM will spin this as the end of conservatism, capitalism, etc., and America is poised to finally grow up and be just like Western Europe.
They will have gotten it wrong, of course. This primary just lost the Dems whatever chance it had of winning over the middle in 2006. Doesn't exactly advance their cause.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
08/09/2006 6:17
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#4
This is a sad day for the Democratic Party; in fact, pathetic. It's a sad day for America, too.
But it's a great day, a triumphant day, for Islamic terrorists: for them, Lieberman's defeat is a solid datum that confirms for them that America really is losing the will to fight and that they will-- soon perhaps-- succeed in getting us to slink home from Iraq in defeat, with our tails between our legs.
On this day, weakness and stupidity have triumphed.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
08/09/2006 6:18
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#5
"But it's a great day, a triumphant day, for Islamic terrorists"
Connecticut has its Zapatero moment.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
08/09/2006 6:25
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#6
10% of the population never had the balls to fight. They rely on their betters to protect them while they scream and fling feces. Those are who voted for Lamont in the Democratic primary. I predict Lamont will lose the general election, even in a bloodless, pussified state like Connecticut where the Republican candidate could be the idiot bastard of John Kerry.
Posted by: ed ||
08/09/2006 8:27
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#7
twobyfour, great comment. Nailed a number of issues.
1. Teddy Roosevelt was no libertarian. Id be interested in a TR Republican. McCain looks more like that than any libertarians.
2. Jackson (Scoop) was no libertarian either. He was a friend of the Labor movement. I resent that Lieberman was beaten by a billionaire, with the support of Conn coast snobs, but that hardly means Id be comfortable in a party that still despises organized labor.
3. Mr Loys article misses two things. A. Joe isnt finished - hes running as an independent Democrat, and may yet win. B. Theres one bane he doesnt mention - Hilary. She may not be as gentle as Joe, but despite that, or because of that, shes still Kos' worst nightmare.
4. For now, put me down as an independent leaning Democrat. Whether that will change to Democrat leaning independent will depend on the events of the next 2 years.
#9
Lieberman is a maniac liberal on every issue. He is a flipflop artist witness his algore fiasco. He does have sanity attacks on national security. This makes him interesting to me but anathema to anti-semites and self-haters in the dhimmicrat party;
#10
"They want to be Social Democrats, but Social Democrats are (Second International) Marxists. Marx is still, despite 60 or 70 years of effort on the part of the educational establishment, held in low regard in this country. That Marxist undercurrent has become more evident with the rise of the McGovern kiddies and grandkiddies. We're the world's leading exemplar of capitalism, and they're the anticapitalist counterstream. Anticapitalism translates into anti-Americanism. That's why the abhorrence for flag displays and other patriotic symbolism. Beneath the surface of Social Democracy there's the idea of the managed state, which isn't the ideal of individual liberty and personal accomplishment"
Youve got the ass backwards. The Social Democrat - Labor movement wing of the Dem party is the Truman-Humphrey-Scoop Jackson wing. I know, I was there, when the Coalition for a Democratic Majority was formed, and we had BOTH the Podhoretzs and other future Reaganites AND members of YPSL (the Young Peoples Socialist League) and SDUSA (Social Democrats USA). The McGovernites despised the AFL CIO, and not all of them did so just for reasons of foriegn policy. Read the McGovernite leaning Guide to American Politics of those years - its bitter at Nixon, but more so at labor type Dems, its heros are clean, middle class WASPY types from Iowa. Thats where Michael Barone came from, by the way (The almanace - i have no idea if hes from Iowa)
What youre missing is the division within the American left (and the European left too, btw) between anti-communist social democrats (generally, but not always, non-Marxist) and fellow traveler/progressive/democratic socialist types who were sympathetic to communism - some were Marxist/socialist but some were bourgeoie more interested in pacifism/atheism with little real interest in the material advancement of the working class. The class split was 1948, the Truman wing vs the Henry Wallace wing. Now the McGovern movement took BOTH the non-working class elements from the Wallace wing, the more left unions (like the west coast longshore, the drug and hospital workers, and some others) and combine that (in uneasy coalition) with bourgeois "progressive" students, berkeley types, etc who had at best a superficial interest in Marxism, and no interest in the labor movement or working class politics.
That coalion does seem to be back.
But its not the only uneasy coalition. The Podhoretzs and many of the Scoop Jackson Dems became Reaganites, and neocons, as is well known. But they are still, I think, profoundly uneasy in the GOP, and the GOP of George Will and William Buckley is profoundly uneasy with them. The GOP liked them cause they won elections, as paleocons couldnt. With an electoral defeat staring them in the face, they will have problems. They have themselves split into the harder line folks at National Review, and the mainstream neocons at Weekly Standard. The latter are behind McCain, who makes many old line Republicans nervous. We shall see how they do.
The new Democrat movement was an odd combination of Humphrey type Social Democrats (those who never became neocons) and Southern democrats who were never all that pro-Labor, including some newly pragmatic former McGovernites, like the Clintons. Just as "nation-building" splits the GOP, free trade tends to split the new Democrats (the Clintonian wing for it, the old labor types - perhaps best represented recently by Gephardt - are against it) The new democrats captured the Dems by winning - the lossed of the last few years have weakened them.
These are difficult issues, but to analyze them properly one needs to start with a well grounded historical analysis. Not all welfare state advocates were social democrats (see Lloyd George) not all Social Democrats, even in the era of the 2nd international, were Marxists (see Fabians, etc) And even the descendents of the 2nd international have divided in many complex ways, which dont map well to the current debate over american foreign policy. REAL social democrats, were able to see how Communist societies crushed free labor unions. Real Social democrats can see how socially reactionary Islamofascism is. Real Social Democrats can see that China has emerged as a Dickensian capitalist hell.
A good example of a third wayer with genuine Real Social Democrat roots is Tony Blair.
#12
There is no third way. It's a myth. There is capitalism and there is socialism. One can argue about the merits and relative importance of each, but to say there is another alternative is Unicorn sighting.
#17
If Leberman wins the election it will be good for the country as it will show that even when presented with the full-left wing agenda American voters said no. Then Lamont will take the heat for being a billionare who bought an election.
Look, im unhappy with last nights result sure, and it may well lead me one step further away from my lifelong allegiance to my party, and thats NOT a happy thought - like when you start to think that counseling WONT help your marriage, and you need to talk to a lawyer.
But thats quite apart from my views on the history of socialism, social democracy, welfare statism etc. The comments i responded to were just ignorant, and flew against both my historical knowledge and my personal experience, and that is something up with which I will not put.
#23
Heh. Michael Moore is feeling his oats after last night's Lieberman loss, and he's got words for poor, helpless Hillary:
"To Hillary, our first best hope for a woman to become president, I cannot for the life of me figure out why you continue to support Bush and his war. I'm sure someone has advised you that a woman can't be elected unless she proves she can kick ass just as crazy as any man. I'm here to tell you that you will never make it through the Democratic primaries unless you start now by strongly opposing the war. It is your only hope. You and Joe have been Bush's biggest Democratic supporters of the war. Last night's voter revolt took place just a few miles from your home in Chappaqua. Did you hear the noise? Can you read the writing on the wall?"
Welcome to your new masters, Hillary... LOL!
Posted by: Dave D. ||
08/09/2006 15:47
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#24
Moore is a certified Putz.
Posted by: J. D. Lux ||
08/09/2006 15:57
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#25
My reading on the Social Democrats is similar to that of LH.
Love the connection between marital counseling, divorce and your present conflict with your party ;-)
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/09/2006 17:21
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#26
As someone who is fed up with both parties (I've never been a registered Democrat OR Republican, and won't change any time soon), this nation has lost its political underpinning and needs to make some significant changes. The Looney Left is taking one party to the dung heap. The spendthrift Republicans are undermining their party to the point of collapse. Both parties need to grow up and stop acting like two-year-olds. Unfortunately, I don't see much hope for that. I'm beginning to think my only option is to buy 40 acres in the mountains and a couple of truck-loads of ammunition.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/09/2006 22:57
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#27
LH's cringing in pain - his entire worldview as an accepted member of the Donk party was rejected. Give him a couple days to recover
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/09/2006 23:08
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#28
#23 Dave - Moore publicly threatens the Hildebeast?
He'd better stay out of parks at night and triple his bodyguards.
Just sayin', 's all....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/09/2006 23:11
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DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Suspected militants fired a rocket that landed near a military base in Wana but no one was hurt, an official said on Tuesday. The rocket slammed into a field close to the base housing army and paramilitary troops, said an official asking not to be named. He said that troops combed the area around the base following the attack on Monday, finding three other rockets positioned to be launched toward the military facility but they were defused.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2006
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UNITED NATIONS Israel is preparing for an "epic battle" during Tuesday's meeting of the United Nations Security Council where diplomats will discuss the best possible solution for a cease-fire, sources tell FOX News. Syria, Iran and Hezbollah are pushing to take Lebanon's offer to deploy 15,000 forces into the embattled southern region along with UNIFIL forces to gain stability without an international force there after more than three weeks of intense fighting.
The diplomatic efforts came as thirteen Lebanese fell victim to Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon as Israel announced it was planning to push further into Lebanon Military to target rocket sites.
The United States State Department said Lebanon's proposal was "an important proposal," but one Bush administration official told FOX News that the United States is drawing a "line in the sand," saying that an international force has to deployed alongside the Lebanese forces. The United States and France wrangled Tuesday over ways to allay Lebanon's fears that Israel would win too much from a draft U.N. Security Council cease-fire resolution, as three Arab foreign ministers argued for changes to the text. In a private meeting, the Americans and French considered two tentative proposals they hoped would both accommodate Lebanon's demands and revive diplomatic efforts to end the Israel-Hezbollah fighting.
Both nations agree on one proposal: that the resolution should support Lebanon's offer Monday to deploy 15,000 troops to monitor a buffer zone in the south, once under de facto Hezbollah control and now partly occupied by Israeli troops, diplomats said. The other proposal, still in the early stages, was to deploy some sort of international force to Chebaa Farms, an area along the Lebanese and Syrian borders occupied by Israeli troops, diplomats said. Lebanon had made that demand previously and was upset when the original draft resolution did not reflect it.
The discussions were held ahead of a Security Council meeting set for later Tuesday in which a delegation of three top Arab officials were to spell out their objections to the U.S.-French draft resolution. After that, the delegation planned to meet privately with U.S. and French diplomats to discuss concrete changes to the draft. On Monday, Arab ministers agreed to send a delegation consisting of the foreign ministers of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, and Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa to plead Lebanon's case.
Washington and Paris had been expected to circulate a new draft of the resolution Monday but decided to wait to hear from the Arab delegation. The council planned to hold closed consultations after hearing from the delegation, and could introduce a new draft late in the day or on Wednesday. Because of Security Council rules, 24 hours must pass before a resolution can be voted on. That means any vote probably won't occur until Thursday at the earliest.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2006
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#1
The Chebaa Farms proposal is a non-starter. Israel won't allow foreign troops on its territory.
This UNSC thing could drag on for weeks. Trust the Arabs to screw things up to their own detriment.
Now, FoxNews is saying that "The French U.N. delegation has joined with Arab nations and is now calling for a complete and immediate Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon as a condition of any cease-fire",
and that "In addition, the French have reportedly agreed with Arab demands that the Lebanese force be accompanied only by UNIFIL, with no international force to be deployed".
#3
leroidavid
Maybe not as reported. "My goal is to incorporate in the text some ideas that have been proposed in recent days," France's U.N. ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere told reporters.
His spokesman firmly denied unconfirmed reports that France had broken with the United States and was calling for an immediate Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon. The spokesman said U.S.-French negotiations were continuing.
No action is expected until Thursday at the earliest. The document has not yet been introduced to the 15-member council, which usually happens 24 hours before a vote.
#4
I was happy to read the proposed draft on the Lebanon war, presented by the US and France, as it was not bad for Israel (although it did mention the Shebaa Farms, which are totally irrelevant to the present crisis, and whose fate shall not be discussed now, because that would be a reward for the Hezbollah and the Lebaneses), but I am now disgusted and infuriated to see that France has that fast returned to its usual cowardice and twisted ethics, and is once again siding with those disgusting arab dictatorships.
Tuesday, the German FM, Steinmeier, was in Beyrouth, and he was able to say the right thing: "Lebanon is not in a position to impose its conditions".
I hoped that maybe Chirac and the French authorities suddenly got a brain and backbone, but obviously this isnt the case.
So, maybe those 'unconfirmed sources' are of the same kind as the one who said, after the US-French draft was released, that Lebanon was rejecting it, whereas it was dissatisfied with it.
Maybe France and the US are buying time for Israel ? That would be a good news, coming from Chirac's France...
#6
Dubya has made it clear that the USA = his Admin will NOT accept any agreement where the terror groups share "State-within-a-State" power and authority wid the Lebanese govt - Israel is thus assured of a US veto in the UNSC where the pre-kidnap "status quo" is preserved, so also for any surreal "democratic/sovereign" Lebanese govt vv the terror groups. Lebanon must decide what it wants to be becuz any defeat, destruction, or withdrawal of Israel does NOT mean Lebanon = Syria = Jordan, etal. will be free from Radical Iran nor treated as equals by Radical Iran. MADMOUD + MULLAHS MAY BE MUSLIM BUT POST-ISRAEL [USA/WEST] ARE NOT THEIR FRIENDS-ALLIES.
#7
The most comforting is indeed that the US and G. W. Bush are firmly supporting Israel.
As always, Bush says clearly what he wants, and uphold his will. Its very rare in politics,and in France mostly uncommon.
Here, almost 99% of the people think that Bush is just 'another stupid cowboy' like Reagan. But nobody mentions that this 'stupid cowboy' won the Cold War, while the French self-proclamed bright intellectuals where trying hard to destroy the economy. And now, none of them would acknowledge that Bush is winning the War on Terror, because for those eggheads, there simply is no War on Terror...
#9
I doubt there will be any diminishing of hostilities with amost couple of weeks. Perhaps the realities after a couple more weeks of Hezb'Allah will force a rehash of whatever crap manages to ooze its way into any resolution, or perhaps that is already starting to happen.
#10
What epic battle? Either US will veto the Franco-Muslim revised version, or it will not. Reason, logic, justice, and common sense have no place in the UN.
#11
Sop35/Rat, I agree, John Bolton is great too. I have read some of his UN speeches, they are really exciting. He is a strong American liberty fighter sent to the World Assembly of Dictatorships, also called United Nuts.
#12
Of course, I don't need to add that in France, John Bolton has been depicted as a far-right republican with almost-fascit-ties, and so on. In the US, the Democrats have said the same, but in France, all the medias (left, right, center, half-leftist-right, middle-rightist-left...) I have read or heard have vilified him.
#13
Its a shame we're at a point in history where that cesspit of thieving, American, & Jew-hating despots at Turtle bay opinions are treated as if they are credible.
#14
A couple of weeks? I can foresee this lasting indefinitely. There is no reason for the UN or anybody else to get involved until this thing is settled the best way possible, with violence. One guy needs to get so beat up he gives up. And I ho0pe that's Hezb'Allah-Lebanon. But if Israel cries uncle first, they can't complain about the consequences either.
#15
Will we learn a lesson from tangoing with France again? And with Turkey, after what they pulled pre-Iraq Action #2? We keep pining for relationships that were ruined and over long ago.
It appears Israel and the US will be isolated-the only nations fighting for the principles of decency and moral clarity in the Security Council. I just hope Mr. Bolton finds a concise and devastating way to name how abominable the behavior coming out of SC is-I'm sure he will, he's the best. He should slide in a little public guilt slap to Europe for trying to finish what it started in WWII-the extermination of Jews.
Those who are working hard to find commonality with the French are not serving the interests of the US-the French only want a restoration of reputation and the "Jewish problem" to disappear so that their financial stream can proceed unimpeded. They are not fighting for the same principles as the US. We had better realize that.
Posted by: Jules in the Hinterlands ||
08/09/2006 9:20
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#20
Look, the Israelis should do exactly what the Lebanese-Syrians-Iranians do with UNSC resolutions....ignore them.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/09/2006 14:12
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#21
EoZ, I wouldn't be bothered by having Paris nuked. In fact, I might enjoy it, knowing working and middle class has left it, and that only green bobos and parisian elitists remain, with a few "ethnic" hoods.
BUT, I'll bet that my IP logistical HQ is located there, and anyway, it would really screw up telecoms and all.
French are not fighting for the same principles as the US
French only want a restoration of reputation and the "Jewish problem" to disappear
It's not the French people, but the French government and the French media that are acting as you say.
I would say that, according a lot of surveys on the US, the War on Terror, the death of Arafat, and so on, that I have seen, that around 60% of the French people are anti-American. That's very bad, but that means, too, that at least 20 to 30% are NOT anti-American (I count the undecided out).
Fidel Castro is expected to recover from surgery for intestinal bleeding and play a public role in the future, according to a host of senior Cuban officials and other sources this week. However, with his 80th birthday looming and the need to resolve the succession in his lifetime to ensure an orderly transition, that role will never be the same.
A week into Cuba's leadership crisis and after decades in which man and country have meant practically the same thing, a new dimension has clearly been added by the health problems and the provisional handing of authority to his brother Raúl though exactly what the final equation will look like remains unclear. "After 47 plus years of one man symbolising the revolution and with near absolute control, it is hard to think of a Cuba without Fidel," says Frank Mora, a national security and Cuba expert at the National War College in Washington. "But that is certainly what everyone in Cuba and outside has been forced to do."
His sense of strategy and tactics have kept the Cuban process alive when logic indicated that it was doomed to failure...
"It should be noted that Fidel indeed possesses political headlights that see far beyond those of the average human," says John Kirk, a Canadian professor of Latin America affairs. "His sense of strategy and tactics have kept the Cuban process alive when logic indicated that it was doomed to failure particularly after the demise of the Soviet Union. Aware now, following earlier health problems, that his body is warning him in no uncertain terms that he cannot continue with the same pace as before, the passing of power to Raúl Castro illustrates both a temporary political shift and a line in the sand that shows how a different strategy is called for."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2006
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#1
Can't have a transition without a waxy looking guy sleeping in a sealed plexiglass box, now can we?
A barrage of rockets were fired at Nahariya and Kiryat Shmona by Hizbullah terrorists Tuesday night. Rockets landed in open areas near Kiryat Shmona and Nahariya. No one was hurt and no injuries were reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Two IDF soldiers were killed in an operation in the south Lebanese village of Bint Jbail on Tuesday night, the IDF released for publication early Wednesday. The two were identified as St.-Sgt. Oren Lifshitz, 21, of Gazit and St.-Sgt. Moran Cohen, 21, of Ashdot Ya'akov. The two belonged to a force from the Paratroopers Brigade that was conducting fierce firefights in the village.
The second soldier was hit during the evacuation of the first when Hizbullah forces fired at the rescue squad.
One of the soldiers was seriously wounded when the force came under heavy fire from a group of Hizbullah guerrillas. The second soldier was hit during the evacuation of the first when Hizbullah forces fired at the rescue squad. A third soldier was lightly wounded in the second gun battle. The rescue operation lasted several hours, during which the soldier who was seriously wounded died of his wounds. At least 20 Hizbullah guerrillas were killed in the operation.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
More casualties here. Level this shithole to bare ground.
#2
It seems to me that due to the rise of non-state military forces, the end of asymmetric warfare is coming. When these non-state actors can field larger more formidable fighting forces than states, such as Lebanon, they become the defacto arbiter of organized violence within that state. Pity the civilians, but they are complicit, forced or voluntarily, by their presence and the supposed shield it offers to the provocateurs. Functional states will cease to restrain their militaries since it directly leads to their losing the conflict and failing in their policy goals. A much more brutal century of total warfare is coming.
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - Zimbabwean authorities have arrested more than 2,000 people accused of money laundering since the introduction last week of a currency reform intended to tame the world's highest inflation rate and prop up the teetering economy. The Reserve Bank last week knocked off the final three digits from the currency - thus 100,000 Zimbabwe dollars became 100 Zimbabwe dollars.
The lira, I knew it well.
It also gave a deadline of Aug. 21 for exchanging the old notes but set limits on how much individuals and businesses could deposit without having to answer questions about the origins of the money.
"Where'dja get the wheelbarrow of money?"
"I earned the money, honest!"
"Nevermind the money, where'dja get the wheelbarrow?"
The government also warned it would not tolerate threats against Central Bank chief Gideon Gono, who pushed through the reforms last week, the Herald reported. Gono said the reforms are vital to try to bring down inflation, the highest in the world at nearly 1,200 percent. The measures - which have caused confusion among beleaguered Zimbabweans about the real worth of their money - have met with opposition.
Maybe if he stopped printing money, put a cork on corruption and persuaded Bob to take an extended vacation he'd be seen as doing his job.
On Thursday, a gang of four armed men in an unregistered sports utility vehicle tried to storm a business project of Gono, demanding his residential address. On Friday, a fire gutted part of his farm, destroying some of his maize crop, according to the Herald. Gono said he would not be deterred. "There is no amount of intimidation that will force me to abandon the task at hand," the newspaper quoted him as saying.
State Security Minister Didymus Mutasa pledged full support for Gono. "Government is not happy with the threats directed at Dr. Gono," Mutasa said. "The actions are very deplorable. We take the threats very seriously and let me warn those who want to derail our economic recovery program that they will be arrested and brought to justice."
"He's one of our boyz, so don't mess with him!"
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/09/2006
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#1
I read this as 'Monkey Launderers'. I thought people kept monkeys as pets and others were showing entreprenial talent by running washing services. Monkeys smell, worse than dogs.
Then of course zimbob socialism cracks down on capitalism on its way to the socialist utopia.
JERUSALEM (AP) - The commander of the Israeli military on Tuesday appointed his deputy to oversee Israel's battles in Lebanon, a dramatic mid-offensive shift sidelining the head of the northern command. The military announced the appointment of Maj. Gen. Moshe Kaplinksi in a statement on Tuesday. Israeli media linked it to plans to intensify the offensive in Lebanon as well as to mounting public criticism of the army's handling of the conflict with Hezbollah guerrillas.
Though the military denied it, the appointment looked like a shake-up of the top command on the Lebanon front in the midst of a campaign, a highly unusual move.
Writing in the Haaretz daily, veteran military analyst Zeev Schiff said the new appointment signaled serious command problems. "Clearly, the change in the command leadership is not good for Adam personally," he wrote, referring to the head of the northern command, Maj. Gen. Udi Adam. "But it also sends a negative signal to the army and the public at large."
The last time a similar switch was made was during the 1973 Mideast war, when generals in the army reserves, including former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, were sent to the southern command to effectively take over from the general in charge, Shmuel Gorodish, in the battle against Egypt.
The army statement said the chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, retained "complete confidence" in Adam, and the military would not comment further on the reasons for Kaplinski's appointment. But Adam was clearly dispirited by the news.
Asked by Israel TV whether he would resign, Adam said he did not intend to quit while the fighting still raged, but said he would "consider his position" if it became clear he was being supplanted. "At this stage, one has to rise above it," he said. "I have to keep my head clear for the war. There are soldiers in the field who are fighting with courage ... soldiers are being killed, I don't think I can abandon them now."
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#1
Another possibility is that this signals a very significant expansion of operations. When you commit a much larger force, it is generally commanded by a more senior officer. So what we might be seeing here is the command infrastructure being put into place for a much larger force. It could be that Adam will still command a force the size he is now, with another officer commanding another force and both reporting to Kaplinksi. This would tend to lead me to speculate that a new command might be formed to thrust into the Bekaa while Adam controls Southern Lebanon.
You would possibly also place a more senior commander in the operation if you were concerned that your actions might spark a widening of the conflict such as possibly causing Syria to make a move.
#5
It's looking more like it with every leak. A lousy way to run a war. If they've lost confidence in him, sack him. If not, leave him alone. What a message to the guys underneath; you can be commanded in combat by a guy we don't even want to talk to.
Three-term Sen. Joe Lieberman struggled to overcome a ferocious primary challenger Tuesday, battling to escape payback from his own party for his patriotism supporting the Iraq war. With 89 percent of precincts counted, Lamont led with 52 percent, or 127,786 votes, to Lieberman's 48 percent, or 119,867 votes. Turnout was projected at twice the norm for a primary.
Officials said turnout up to 50 percent when primaries usually own draw 25 percent of voters. And vote totals showed roughly 12,000 more ballots cast for the Democratic Senate primary than the party primary for governor, reflecting the extra attention to the Lieberman-Lamont battle.
Jubilant Lamont supporters predicted victory. "People are going to look back and say the American dream Bush years started to end in Connecticut," said Avi Green, a volunteer from Boston. "The Republicans are going to look at tonight and realize there's blood in the water." Probably literally so, considering how the left siezes power in most countries.
Democratic critics targeted Lieberman for his strong support for defeating our enemies the Iraq war and for letting decency override politics his close ties to President Bush. They played and replayed video of the kiss President Bush planted on Lieberman's cheek after the 2005 State of the Union address.
Lieberman has said he will run as an independent in the fall if defeated in the primary. His falling poll numbers spurred some Democratic colleagues to make last-minute campaign appearances, including former President Clinton, Sen. Barbara Boxer of California and others. This means that Daily Cooz has gone from 0/20 to 1/21. He's on a roll!
We need to get the Repub candidate, a gold-plated loser, out of the way, and offer the ballot slot to Joe. Let him keep the independent slot as well. Dems who can't vote Repub can pull that lever, and Repubs can pull the other. Either way we get Joe instead of Ned.
#3
Connecticut Democrats get to choose between another millionaire one-trick-pony with a populist message versus a decent incumbent that would be assigned a committee chairmanship should the minority party regain the Senate.
Rove you magnificent Bastard!
#4
A clear example that the Republican Party is fractured and falling apart. Oh right this is a Dhimicrat horse race. (getting popcorn and beer) Joe is still every bit a Liberal he was before he loast the election, nothing more than party in-fighting. Nice to see the Kooks and Liberals go at it as long as it keeps them from winning election. This will not be true in CT (whomever wins will have 'D' after there name), but this could lend to division in other states where a Republican might benifit. California comes to mind right off the top of my head.
QUETTA: A Frontier Corps (FC) team on Tuesday seized weapons and explosives during a search operation in the Margzai area of Dera Bugti district, while a tribal commander and his aides surrendered to the government. FC's Bambor Rifles seized several rifles, rockets launchers, anti-tank shells, rockets, mortar bombs and other ammunition from various parts of the district. It was not clear if any militants were arrested. Meanwhile, the commander of a militant training camp and a key man of Akbar Bugti's force, Sher Dil Khan, and his several aides surrendered to the government and announced they would not take part in any subversive activities in the future.
Posted by: Fred ||
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With the French reportedly weighing changes to the UN cease-fire resolution that would tilt it in Lebanon's favor and a "war of the generals" taking place in the Northern Command, the security cabinet is expected Wednesday morning to approve an expanded ground operation up to the Litani River, and perhaps beyond. Government sources said that the 12-person security cabinet, which Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Tuesday had so far okayed all plans the IDF had brought for approval, would not likely reject plans for a wider operation, especially amid growing public impatience with the pace of the war.
Defense officials said that the IDF could be ready to push further into southern Lebanon within hours of the security cabinet decision...
Diplomatic officials said that Israel had not come under any US pressure to shelve plans for an expanded operation as various drafts of a US-French cease-fire resolution were being considered in the UN. According to these officials, the US position that Israel has the right to defend itself was as firm today, with the country coming under a daily barrage of Katyusha fire, as it was during the first days of the war. This position would only change, they said, once the UN cease-fire resolution has been voted upon. This is not expected until Thursday at the earliest. Defense officials said that the IDF could be ready to push further into southern Lebanon within hours of the security cabinet decision.
Channel 1 reported Tuesday night that the government was considering sending Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni to the UN Security Council debate on the cease-fire resolution, but this could not be confirmed by the ministry. Jerusalem is concerned that detrimental changes may be made in the resolution, especially considering the timing of an IDF withdrawal. The draft resolution circulated on Saturday did not call for a withdrawal until an international force arrived.
Israel has made it clear that it would not accept a call for an immediate withdrawal of IDF troops...
The Arab League is expected to try to alter the resolution, and government officials said the specter of the security cabinet debating the widening of the operation was being used as a threat to the Lebanese that it would not be in their best interest to push for a proposal with which Israel would be unable to live. Israel has made it clear that it would not accept a call for an immediate withdrawal of IDF troops.
There are different opinions in Jerusalem, however, about the decision to deploy 15,000 Lebanese army troops in the south announced Sunday by Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, and how this could come into play in the new wording of the cease-fire resolution. While some expressed concern that this was just a ploy to get the IDF to withdraw, while forestalling the deployment of a significant multinational force that would keep Hizbullah from redeploying in the south, others said it could presage a significant change in Lebanon's reality. Olmert, at a press conference after meeting President Moshe Katsav Tuesday, termed the decision an "interesting" one that needed careful consideration.
He said that since the beginning of the military operation, Israel has said its goals were the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1559, which calls for the deployment of the Lebanese army on the border, and the dismantling of Hizbullah. Olmert also said Israel must carefully weigh to what extent this deployment is practical. Attention should be paid to the fact that Hizbullah agreed to the deployment of the Lebanese army, he said, as it indicated recognition by Hizbullah that its position in the region has been severely weakened. "The faster we leave south Lebanon, the happier we will be," Olmert said. "Of course we will only do this if we can ensure that we have achieved our goals."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2006
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#1
The IDF must make certain of the loyalties, or neutralities, of the Lebanese forces. Despite what has been happening in Lebanon, IRAN continues to push its dev of nuclear programs-techs. Lest we fergit, Moud's rants about August 22nd doesn't bode well for the world - could be anything from blowhard do-nuthingness to a WMD/Nuke-attack, solely or jointly wid Islamist Terror groups, on Jerusalem [or more likely Tel Aviv], or even sole-joint attack against Dubya-GOP = USA. AMERICA'S ENEMIES > USA CAN WAR FOR EMPIRE BUT NOT RULE SAME = USA CAN BE ATTACKED BUT NOT RETALIATE. COLD WAR > MARXISM-COMMUNISM viewed itself as BOTH A WAR = OFFENSIVE IDEO, as well as REACTIONARY-DEFENSIVE IDEO, AND SO DOES RADICAL ISLAM. SAVING THE WORLD FROM GOP-BLAMED AMER "IMPERIALISM" + AGGRESSION = same as SURVIVING SAME. The DemoLefties care/give a damn about whom gets the blame = credit for anything and everything.
#3
would not likely reject plans for a wider operation, especially amid growing public impatience with the pace of the war.
And that's the key. No failure of nerve on the part of the Israeli public despite the hardships they suffer bodes ill for Hizb'allah/Syrian/Iranian plans. Osama bin Laden's son may find himself considerably busier and less successful than intended.
#4
So lebanon is gonna basically augment/reinforce hezbollah with 15,000 troops and that helps the peace/security process ... howwwwwwwwwwwwwwww???????? What a freakin joke ... what % of the lebaneses army is loyal to the hamboollahs ... 40-60%???
#6
It's better if the Lebanese army is opposite the Israeli army. Then there is no doubt any cross border attack will be a state vs state war. Currently, by supporting or tolerating Hebz'allah, a lot of the Lebanese population thinks it can make war without suffering the consequences.
Posted by: ed ||
08/09/2006 7:43
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#7
I understand the concept fully .. its just not going to work; if there is a problem Israel has to attack the army of a sovereign state in order to get to hezbollah, the only thing that will settle this is a clear decisive ass kicking victory over hezbollah that says do not screw with us or we will destroy you with no mercy. Remember all those Iraqi troops who we let just walk off the battle field cuz they laid down their weapons, how many of them are in the insurgency, how many of our troops have died because of our mercy. No more minimalist BS, these assholes everywhere and those that support them, should receive the full fury of our might. The lebanese army - may as well send freakin brownie troop 57 from tehran(my apologies to all brownies everywhere)
#8
One more thing-screw the enflamed arab street, they are already enflamed, you know what'll shut them up since they respect only power? Seeing a few terrorist strongpoints removed form the face of the earth, not little precision hits, but crushed beyond all recognition. Then drop a few leaflets that say "you don't like it - great - you are next - go jump around in the street and bitch and make it easy for us to find you."
#9
I agree Hizb'allah needs to be wiped out first. In the medium and long term, foreign troops are not the answer. They will not risk their lives to confront terrorists, therefore they will become expensive human shields and muslim troops will be terrorist allies. That leaves Lebanese troops to control Lebanese territory. If they can't do that, then the Israelis should annex them and deport the muslims to Syria.
Posted by: ed ||
08/09/2006 8:17
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#10
The Arabs aren't enflamed. It full body hemmoroids.
Posted by: ed ||
08/09/2006 8:18
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#11
Black joke making the rounds: "Wake up Ari! Ohmert is in a coma!"
Posted by: john ||
08/09/2006 8:49
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#15
This war needs to resemble the Allied Forces take-down of Germany. No half-measures to the Litani River.
Flush the entire country of Lebanon.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/09/2006 13:55
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#16
delusional
11:45 a.m.: The Israeli military will hold off on a wider ground offensive for two or three days to allow the U.N. Security Council to continue its debate for a cease-fire resolution.
#18
24 Soldiers Wounded in Lebanon on Wednesday
21:21 Aug 09, '06 / 15 Av 5766
(IsraelNN.com) Military officials report 24 IDF soldiers are being treated in northern area hospitals for injuries sustained in southern Lebanon today, Wednesday.
Since the start of the war 29 days ago, 19 soldiers of the 101st Paratrooper Battalion have been injured; including two of Wednesdays wounded.
Just a waste of a lot of good troops for nothing if this is how they are going to prosecute this conflict.
A minister who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give details, said the offensive would not begin for two or three days so as not interfere with efforts to broker a cease-fire at the United Nations. However, senior military officials said it would start far quicker than that.
#26
I think they offer remedial spelling at the elf academy, already signed up, right after the combat weapons shotgun course ... and thanks trailing wife hahahahah
(Interfax-AVN) - A local resident has voluntarily surrendered 60 kilograms of explosives to police in the village of Khambi-Irze in Chechnya's Achkhoi-Martan district, sources in Chechen law enforcement services told Interfax by phone on Tuesday. "The explosives were afterwards blown up by a field engineering team of the local commandant's office," the source said.
Several militants and their accomplices have turned themselves in to police in Chechnya over the past 24 hours, according to law enforcement services. A resident of the village of Biltoi-Yurt in the Gudermes district told the police that he fought against federal forces as a member of an illegal armed group in 1999. Two residents of the Naura district confessed to having undergone training at a militant training center in the village of Khatuni in 1997. In the Gudermes district, a local resident confessed to serving in the "Ichkeria National Guard" from 1991 to 1994.
The fact that six people have voluntarily reported to law enforcement agencies and applied for amnesty was confirmed to Interfax by Chechen Interior Ministry spokesman Magomed Deniyev on Tuesday morning. Deniyev said that all of those who have given themselves up to the authorities were militants or their collaborators at different times between 1994 and 2006. Two of them underwent military training near the village of Tevzena in Chechnya's Vedeno district.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Three Pakistani terrorists, including a Jaish-e-Mohammad member and two suicide attackers, were killed by the Jammu and Kashmir police who said they were apparently planning an attack ahead of Independence Day on August 15. Two fidayeen (suicide attackers) were killed at the Jagti area near Nagrota in the suburbs of Jammu early on Tuesday. The Jaish-e-Mohammad member, Hassan Pakistani was killed on Monday in an operation in the Keshwan area of Kishtwar in Doda district, northeast of Jammu.
Hassan Pakistani was reportedly Jaish-e-Mohammad's second-in-command and the most trusted lieutenant of Masood Azhar, the terrorist outfit's founder who was set free in exchange of passengers of the hijacked Indian aircraft IC 814 in Kandhar in December 1999. Pakistani had been operating in Keshwan area of Doda and was responsible for many strikes and had further plans to execute terrorist attacks in the state. Hassan Pakistani was from the Sheikhpora area of Pakistan, said SP Vaid, inspector general of police (Jammu division).
Vaid said the two fidayeen were spotted while they were making their way towards Jammu. "They were definitely fidayeen. The police had knowledge about their possible entry into Jammu."
One of the two has been identified as Mohammad Basharat of Manshera, Pakistan. The other went by the code name of Hamid but his exact identity is yet to be established. However, according to initial investigations, he too belongs to Pakistan, said the police. Vaid termed the operation as a major success of the police as the fidayeen had plans of a terrorist strike in Jammu ahead of August 15. "We have reports that there are few more fidayeen trying to enter Jammu," said the police official. The police have neutralised several terrorists in the Jammu region in the past few weeks, and recently arrested five major modules of the Lashkar-e-Taiba outfit in Pakistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2006
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A series of bombings and shootings killed at least 33 people Tuesday, most in the Baghdad area, as more American soldiers patrolled the streets of the capital in a make-or-break bid to quell sectarian violence.
Nearly 60 people were wounded in the blasts, police said. The explosions began when three bombs went off simultaneously near the Interior Ministry in central Baghdad, killing 10 people and wounding eight, police Lt. Bilal Ali Majid said. Two more bombs ripped through the main Shurja market, also in central Baghdad, killing 10 more civilians and wounding 50, police Lt. Mohammed Kheyoun said. At least 13 other people were killed or found dead Tuesday, most in the Baghdad area, where tension between Sunnis and Shiites runs the highest.
The violence underscores the security crisis facing Baghdad, which prompted American commanders to send more U.S. soldiers to the capital in a renewed bid to curb sectarian killings and kidnappings. U.S. officials said the latest phase of the security operation was launched Monday "to reduce the level of murders, kidnappings, assassinations, terrorism and sectarian violence in the city and to reinforce the Iraqi government's control of Baghdad." A U.S. statement said about 6,000 additional Iraqi troops were being sent to the Baghdad area, along with 3,500 U.S. soldiers of the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team and 2,000 troops from the U.S. 1st Armored Division, which has served as the theater reserve force since November. "Iraqi and Multinational Division-Baghdad soldiers will not fail the Iraqi people," said Maj. Gen. J.D. Thurman, commander of U.S. forces in the capital.
American officials have released few details of the new campaign, citing security. However, more heavily armed U.S. soldiers were seen Tuesday on the streets of Ghazaliyah, one of the neighborhoods targeted in the first stage of the stabilization effort. Troops were seen patrolling both in vehicles and on foot, hoping to assure residents of the majority Sunni neighborhood they will be protected from criminals and sectarian death squads. "The general priorities are to bring stability to the key neighborhoods where there is sectarian fighting," the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., told reporters in Tikrit. "You'll see us starting there and then gradually expanding across the rest of the city."
Much of the violence has been blamed on sectarian militias that have stepped up a campaign of tit-for-tat killings since the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad. Many militias are linked to political parties that are part of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's national unity government, and they are reluctant to disband their armed wings unless others do the same.
The U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, said there was talk under way among Sunni and Shiite groups to reach agreements and sign pledges to end sectarian fighting. "There's more that needs to be done" Khalilzad told reporters. "There's a need for practical steps to move forward. ... I think they're heading in the right direction and this is the right government ... to tackle this issue of sectarian fighting."
Both Khalilzad and Casey were in Tikrit for ceremonies marking the formal transfer of security responsibility from the 101st Airborne Division to the Iraqi army across a wide area of northern Iraq. U.S. officials emphasized the transfer of authority was on schedule despite the security crisis in Baghdad. Nevertheless, the ambassador warned that if the violence cannot be curbed in the Baghdad area, Iraq "might be in a much more difficult situation" in the coming months. He said al-Maliki understands the threat and "he's determined to succeed."
However, differences have emerged between U.S. and Iraqi officials on tactics. The prime minister, a Shiite, strongly criticized a U.S.-Iraqi raid Monday on Baghdad's Sadr City district, stronghold of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army militia. Al-Maliki complained that the raid used excessive force, and President Jalal Talabani, a Sunni Kurd, warned the Americans it was in "no one's interest" to provoke a showdown with al-Sadr.
For his part, al-Sadr urged his followers to purge their ranks of "all elements that defame the Mahdi Army" and called on his supporters to denounce kidnappings and the "killing of innocent people." But such declarations alone will do little to curb the violence, much of which is believed carried out by criminal gangs and freelance gunmen settling personal scores.
On Tuesday, gunmen in two cars stormed a bank in the Azamiyah district of Baghdad, killing three bank employees before fleeing with the equivalent of $5,500, according to the Defense Ministry. Two Sunni bothers were slain in their car repair shop in southwestern Baghdad and four Shiites were gunned down in a series of attacks in Baqouba and Muqdadiyah, two cities in Diyala province northeast of the capital, police said. Police found two bodies, shot in the head, in Sulla in northwest Baghdad, and a policeman was killed in a bombing in Tikrit, police said. The other victims died in small-scale shootings and bombings in the Baghdad area, police said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2006
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#1
killed at least 33 people Slow day, eh? I remember when 33 people in one blast was concidered routine. Are these not suicide bombers anymore? Is that why the death tolls per bomb are so low? Are there fewer willing 'martyrs'?
a make-or-break bid Ah, yes. This is the last chance, right? What, before the Labor Day holiday?
...security operation was launched Monday "to reduce the level of murders, kidnappings, assassinations, terrorism and sectarian violence in the city and to reinforce the Iraqi government's control of Baghdad." Formerly, it was the government that performed most of the sectarian killing, sort of Soviet-collective style.
Much of the violence has been blamed on sectarian militias that have stepped up a campaign of tit-for-tat killings since the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra So Zarko-boy is still having an effect, it seems. Except for the fewer numbers of really horrific bombings by splodydopes. Maybe there are older, Saddam-era scores to settle? Nah - too complex to get into all those.
...the violence, much of which is believed carried out by criminal gangs and freelance gunmen settling personal scores. So it's not about settling old scores? Does this suggest the war with the insurgents is over, or that the killings at this level will never end? I wish the MSM could stop teasing us this way and be clear!
Analysis by Bobby, but at least it's labeled as such.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/09/2006 6:19
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#2
And nobody is screwing with the Kurds, which is the non-reported news.
(IsraelNN.com) The day after it was revealed that a Reuters News Agency doctored photographs to show an anti-Israel bias, the news service incorrectly reported Tuesday afternoon that the IDF bombed a funeral procession in Lebanon. Reuters has corrected without apology its earlier story that the IDF strafed a funeral procession and updated the report to state that the bombs struck a village at the same time the funeral was taking place, adding that "the air strike was not in the immediate vicinity of the funeral."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2006
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#1
“The last person to write a thing like that was Archie Leach, a week before he cut his throat.”
Okay, so I misquoted. Sue me.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
08/09/2006 0:35
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#2
This is getting to be real BS. Plaster the pages with false crap, and then let out a little memo that it wasn't quite how they reported?
Did we let this kind of propoganda infiltrate our media during world war 2? I find this amazing.
#4
What is it about OWG, Communism-Socialism, and Universal Governmentism-Totalitarianism, etal. that these guys find so fascinating they have to hide it from the Amer people, or at least the Voters!? Be it Radical Intellectuals calling for the extermination of 90% or more of the human race in the name of the enviro, or the Chicommies agz 200Milyuhn Americans = Amerikans, politely but necessarily of course. These agendas make no distinction between US Lefty or US Righty or US Moder-Independent, of any type or form - KRAUTHAMMER > SAY IT WITH ME, THEY/YOU WILL BE GULAGGED OR DESTROYED WITH THE REST OF US. STOP FIGHTING FOR THOSE FEW SPECIAL SEATS ON THE FUTURE AMERIKAN-GLOBAL POLITBURO WHICH RUSSIA-CHINA NEVER PROMISED YOU = or in the alt PROMISED YOU'LL KEEP FOREVER. Tens of 000's of Polish officers went into the Katyn forest to have a coffee, donut, and friendly anti-Hitler/Nazi/
German/Fascist chat with Stalin's boyz and never came back out.
Michelle Malkin's contribution to the lexicon?
1. Look, it's a Zionist bombing inferno! It's a burning F-16. No it's a garbage fire.
2. Dead men don't wear plaid sweat (or hold onto their hat).
Posted by: ed ||
08/09/2006 7:54
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#7
Watch what you say about my friend, Archie.
Posted by: C. H. Dexter Haven ||
08/09/2006 7:56
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#8
Reuters is completely infiltrated by the enemy. While the management is not likely to be Islamist, they have without any doubt bought into one of the Western post-modern philosophies that are allied with Islamism. This influences their hiring and editorial decisions and has directly led to this travesty.
#9
Reuters is the London-based organization that has been having little problems like staffers posting threats on the Little Green Footballs site. It's not about infiltration, but rather a different point of view.
#11
You're a fake too, Haven. Everyone knows the real Haven's initials are C. K. Oh, well, "With the rich and famous, always a little patience," I always say.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
08/09/2006 9:18
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President Vladimir Putin issued an order to the Russian army and police troops to take steps for gradual withdrawal from Chechnya. By a Decree signed today, Putin tasked the Interior and Defense Ministries to work out until 15 December plans for redeployment of the security forces temporarily stationed in Chechnya. The Ministries have been tasked to look into possibilities for gradual withdrawal in the course of 2007 and 2008.
Despite what Kavkaz.com says, the war will probably wind down now that Shamil's dead. Good lesson to take with other conflicts, isn't it?
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2006
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#1
Yes: Kill the charismatic leaders. It's also a lot cheaper. I don't know why we worry about it. Terrorists would kill any head of state in an instant if they could. That world leaders won't be targets due to self-restraint on the part of the civilized world is about 90% self-indulgent fantasy and costs us a lot more opportunities and soldiers' lives than the policy is worth.
#2
Israel did after months of procrastination and debates eliminate "sheikh" Yassin, and in the same breath his successor Rantissi, and what happened? Hamas declared an unilateral cease-fire...
#3
At the very least, it's a lot harder to work from underground than above! And maybe it's best to leave some pitiful excuse for a command that is ineffective so there isn't as much encouragement to form a new command.
#4
I don't think killing Yassin got Hamas to declare a cease-fire. It was their inability to retaliate with suicide bombings that got them to do so. If you can't make good on your threats, you try to save face by saying you're not going to attack anyway.
#5
You're all right. It wasn't just killing the good sheikh. It was killing every leader and cannon fodderling that poked his head up, knocking down houses, and walling up the the suicide wannabes. Cumulative effect is so bad for morale.
#7
The first thing I thought when I read the headline is that even if Russia pulled out and left a moonscape devoid of life the Islamists would proclaim victory at driving the Russians out.
The real lesson of the day is the one that needs to be learned. If you sell arms to bad people those arms can and will be used against you eventually. Its not as if the Islamic world could make the components of a suicide belt by their own, they can only assemble.
With the military controlling a good share of Cuba's tourism, electronics imports and foreign currency reserves, the defense minister is as much entrepreneur as soldier. Now that he's filling in as president for his ailing brother, Fidel, Raul Castro can count on a network of similarly positioned uniformed and retired officers who are as loyal to him from behind their desks as they were on the battlefields of Angola and Ethiopia.
What they are interested in is maintaining their status...
Those generals and colonels are known as "Raulistas," and their loyalty has helped them move into the highest echelons of the government and the economy.
Even dissident Vladimiro Roca, a former fighter pilot under Castro's command before breaking with the government, believes Castro has the military leadership's support. But more than either Castro, they are "committed to the system," Roca said of the generals. "What they are interested in is maintaining their status."
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/09/2006
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IOW, cost-inhibitive imported Hams must keep coming in iff RAUL expects to stay on the top. All the Hams belong to Raul now - the glorious gastro-intestinal struggle of the starving Cuban people in defense of the Great Leader's love of costly imported hams must go on. Its for the People, D *** it, for the children and the Revolution.
#2
Notice in these workers paradises, that when the charismatic or Great Leader passes, that those left in the political position seem to have to negotiate their royal throne with the senior military officers standing around? And from that day on, life is one great Byzantine soap opera of shifting loyalties and intrigue?
Which by the way is a warning [which will be ignored] to the Donks, not to try to use generals as political pawns against a sitting president. Or someday you may end up with the office, but without the power.
SAN ANTONIO, Texas -- Twenty-one penguins were rescued on a hot east Texas highway Tuesday after a truck carrying the wildlife to a temporary home south of Houston overturned, said a state trooper.
The rest of the penguins kind of stayed together in the ditch
Four penguins and some exotic fish were killed in the accident, including three penguins that were hit by passing motorists, said Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper Richard Buchanan. "The rest of the penguins kind of stayed together in the ditch," he said.
The truck, also carrying an octopus that was uninjured, was bound for Moody Gardens, a tourist destination in Galveston, an hour south of Houston, a resort spokeswoman said. The wildlife was being transported to Texas from the Indianapolis Zoo while that zoo's ocean exhibit is being remodeled, said Jerri Hamacheck of Moody Gardens.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2006
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"Whaddawedo?"
"Stay in the ditch."
"Any ice out there?"
"No ice no where."
"Whaddawedo?"
"Stay in the ditch."
"Any ice on the road?"
"No ice on the road."
"Whaddawedo?"
"Stay in the ditch."
What if there are killer whales in the ditch?"
[pause]
"Shaddup."
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/09/2006 0:06
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#3
I clicked on this story on the sidebar and got completely different comments and I had this weird where has Steve's funny comment gone moment. Is Fred censoring mods funnier than him. As I said, weird.
According to today's Chronicle (containing the deathless subhead "Snakes arrived safely"), when they righted the truck a penguin emerged unscathed.
Also according to that article, the two drivers were driving straight from Indianapolis to Houston. I've driven straight between St. Louis and Houston, and it's no stroll in the park, even if you do have two drivers. Of course, it's hard to find a Motel 6 that'll take penguins.
#8
You ever try to move 21 penguin crates into the motel? Or walk them on leads in the approved grassy area and then clean up the grounds afterwards?
Plus, unloading those coolers of fish and washing them out after feeding times -- ugh. And have you ever SEEN 21 penguins hopping from bed to bed in the 2-standard-sized-beds rooms that the company books? IMPOSSIBLE to fall asleep when they really get into it.
Nah ... coffee mainlined beats a stop with penguins any day.
A man driving a truckload of trained penguins to the circus suffers a vehicle breakdown. Another guy drives by in a truck and offers to help. The driver, relieved, tells the man that he simply has to get the penguins to the circus, pronto. So the man loads the penguins on his own truck and takes off.
The first man was frantic. He expected them to return in about 3-4 hours, but it was almost 8 hours when he saw them again. When he looked closer, he saw that the penguins had balloons t-shirts and other stuff. When he asked the 2nd man what took so long, the 2nd man replied "well, they liked the circus so much I thought I'd take them to the zoo."
PARIS - Seventeen employees of a French charity found dead in northeastern Sri Lanka at the weekend were all executed by gunfire, the group confirmed Tuesday, demanding that those responsible be severely punished. A team sent to the scene by Action Contre la Faim (Action Against Hunger, ACF) on Monday was able to confirm the toll and retrievedespite the ongoing fightingthe 17 bodies, it said in a statement.
Most of the victims, 13 men and four women aged 23 to 54, were engineers specialised in water sanitation and agronomy as well as project managers. ACFs entire team in Muttur was assassinated, the charity said. Now that it is clear this was a mass murder targeting clearly identified humanitarian workers, ACF is determined not to settle for vague answers from the parties to the conflict... and will demand exemplary punishment.
But not capital punishment, or a life sentence, or anything beyond three or four years in a prison -- well, a nice prison with lots of work opportunities, entertainment and good food. ACF is Y'urp-peon, after all.
The charity workersall Sri Lankan nationalswere found dead on Sunday in their office in the northeastern town of Muttur, where heavy fighting has pitted Sri Lankan troops against Tamil Tiger rebels. Troops and the Tigers have blamed each other for the execution-style killings. ACF director Benoit Miribel is to head to Sri Lanka Wednesday to attend ceremonies commemorating the dead and oversee the launch of an independent investigation.
Yes indeed, commemorate the dead, that'll show the nasty people who committed murder.
Following the massacre, the charity suspended its local mission to Sri Lanka, whose 15 expatriate and 224 local workers provided humanitarian relief in conflict zones and in areas hit by the December 2004 Tsumani.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/09/2006
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KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said on Tuesday that the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) nations should consider supplying arms to Hezbollah amid anger and frustration over Israel's offensive in Lebanon. Malaysia currently chairs the 57-nation OIC, and Syed Hamid said Israel could not be allowed to act with impunity, although it seemingly had "carte blanche" in its operations.
"Some are suggesting that we supply arms. Okay, we should look at all these things," Syed Hamid was quoted as saying by the state Bernama news agency. "The governments (of OIC) countries should look and we must not allow Israel to do what it wants," he said, but added that Muslim countries had to act according to international norms and principles.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2006
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#1
Malaysia has offered to send 1,000 soldiers for the UN force. Clearly they believe the UN is allied with Hizb'Allah.
#4
Muslims think us fools. They need look no further than the lack of seriousness in how we are persuing our war with them. So they can say and do what they do with impunity and they know it.
#5
Malaysia used to host al Qaeda conferences until the invasion of Afghanistan (which Malaysia opposed) made clear to it that facilitating al Qaeda attacks could be dangerous to the host. This isn't such a big step for Malaysia.
#8
Are we still giving these f&ckwit ingrates American foreign aid? If so, why? We need to pull the plug on these flat-liners and let them submerge in their own cesspits. More tsunamis, faster, please.
#10
Zenster, tsunamis are specially reserved for Indonesia. You can pull Motorola(perhaps Intel too, later)out of Malaysia and there'll be a sobering effect. The Foreign Minister is known for non too bright ejaculations but they reflect the consensus of the PM.
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.
ATLANTA - Following U.S. Rep. 
Members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard have been found among Hizbollah guerrillas slain by Israeli forces in southern Lebanon, Israel's Channel 10 television reported on Wednesday citing diplomatic sources. It said the Iranians were identified by documents found on their bodies, but gave no further details on how many were discovered or when. Neither the Israeli military nor Hizbollah representatives in Beirut had immediate comment on the report.
One of 11 missing Egyptian students has been picked up in Minneapolis, Minn., NBC News Pete Williams reported Wednesday. The student was being interviewed by federal investigators, who were trying to find the remaining 10.
THE McCARTNEY divorce is going to be the most bitter high-profile split since Charles and Dianas ten years ago. Heather Mills, dubbed Lady Mucca after The Sun exposed her porno past, has hired the same lawyers used by the late Princess as she battles Macca for his millions.
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Suspected Taliban militants hanged a woman and her son from a tree after accusing them of spying for the government, officials said Wednesday, while the U.S. military reported killing 15 insurgents who attacked a U.S. base in eastern Afghanistan.
Scientists and villagers in the shadow of a churning volcano in the central Philippines fear today's full moon could finally spark a violent eruption. Volcanologists have warned that Mount Mayon, in the province of Albay, could explode at any time but that the gravitational pull of a full moon could provide the final push. "To put it in a simple way, it's like it massages a volcano," Ernesto Corpuz, head of monitoring and eruption prediction at the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, told Reuters.
A convicted Islamic militant in Pakistan has been executed by hanging after President Pervez Musharraf rejected his mercy plea. The Sunni Muslim man, Hafiz Shafiur Rahman of the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi group, had been sentenced for killing a Shia Muslim politician 10 years ago. 
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (Reuters) - A Brazilian man died Tuesday when he tried to open what police believe was a rocket-propelled grenade with a sledgehammer in a mechanical workshop on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. 
Northern Command Chief Major-General 
(CNN) -- Officials with U.S. Sen. 
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s publishing arm has released a book that says President Bush organized New York's Sept. 11 attacks. 
(IsraelNN.com) Los Angeles Mayor 
SEOUL: North Korean workers risked their lives to protect pictures of their leader when the communist country was hit by devastating floods last month, state media said Tuesday. The official Korean Central News Agency, monitored by South Korea's Yonhap news agency, reported tales of the bravery of North Koreans dedicated to saving Kim Jong-Il's images from harm. A forestry research institute official died after saving portraits of Kim Jong-Il and his late father Kim Il-Sung on July 16 when a landslide hit his home in the eastern county of Yangdok, it said. On another occasion, a miner fled to the rooftop of his house but was swept away by floods after handing over Kim Jong-Il's portrait to his colleages, KCNA said. "Such impressive stories are common in many flood-hit areas. Our people are faithful to the Dear Leader as they are willing to risk their lives for him," KCNA said in a commentary.
Supporters of leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador took over toll booths surrounding Mexico City for several hours Tuesday, giving motorists free passage into the metropolis. 
KARACHI - A gas pipeline was blown up in southwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, officials said, in the latest attack in the troubled Baluchistan province where rebels are fighting for greater autonomy.
Cuba's allies urged the United States not to interfere with the communist country during Fidel Castro's absence from power, while the U.S. increased its television transmissions to the island and encouraged anti-Castro activists to push for change. 
Seven Taliban were killed and a commander was captured in the latest spate of attacks in Afghanistan, officials said Tuesday. Four Taliban were killed in a clash in the Andar district of Ghazni province. Two militants were killed when the Taliban attacked a police post late on Monday in Garmser district in the Helmand province. In the north of the province, British troops shot dead an armed Afghan policeman outside a base in Musa Qula. The Afghan was in civilian clothes and was mistaken for an insurgent.
A man who said he worshipped Satan and enjoyed killing three people, stabbing and beating them and stomping on them with steel-toed boots, was executed Tuesday. 
A counter-terror operation by the Jammu and Kashmir police on Tuesday resulted in the killing of two militants, allegedly planning a suicide attack in the State on the eve of the Independence Day celebrations. Senior Superintendent of Police, Jammu, Mukesh Singh said the operation was mounted after an intelligence input that the two were hiding in the Jakti forest area. After an hour-long battle they were shot dead. The militants have been identified as cadre of the Jaish-e-Mohammad militant outfit. A huge amount of weaponry was recovered from the possession of the slain militants, including two AK-47 rifles, seven magazines, five grenades, several AK rounds and RDX explosives. One of the militants has been identified as Mohammad Basharat, resident of Manshera area of the North-West Frontier Province. 
Aug. 8 (Bloomberg) -- The Bush administration may change some immigration rules to make it easier for Cubans with relatives in the U.S. to enter the country, two administration officials familiar with the plans said. The administration also is considering refusing visa applications from any Cuban caught trying to sneak into the U.S. by sea. Under the current policy, such people aren't penalized if they later apply for a visa, the officials said.
Six years after Democrats backed him for vice president, Sen. 
DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Suspected militants fired a rocket that landed near a military base in Wana but no one was hurt, an official said on Tuesday. The rocket slammed into a field close to the base housing army and paramilitary troops, said an official asking not to be named. He said that troops combed the area around the base following the attack on Monday, finding three other rockets positioned to be launched toward the military facility but they were defused.
UNITED NATIONS Israel is preparing for an "epic battle" during Tuesday's meeting of the United Nations Security Council where diplomats will discuss the best possible solution for a cease-fire, sources tell FOX News. Syria, Iran and Hezbollah are pushing to take Lebanon's offer to deploy 15,000 forces into the embattled southern region along with UNIFIL forces to gain stability without an international force there after more than three weeks of intense fighting.
Fidel Castro is expected to recover from surgery for intestinal bleeding and play a public role in the future, according to a host of senior Cuban officials and other sources this week. However, with his 80th birthday looming and the need to resolve the succession in his lifetime to ensure an orderly transition, that role will never be the same.
A barrage of rockets were fired at Nahariya and Kiryat Shmona by Hizbullah terrorists Tuesday night. Rockets landed in open areas near Kiryat Shmona and Nahariya. No one was hurt and no injuries were reported.
(Interfax-AVN) - A local resident has voluntarily surrendered 60 kilograms of explosives to police in the village of Khambi-Irze in Chechnya's Achkhoi-Martan district, sources in Chechen law enforcement services told Interfax by phone on Tuesday. "The explosives were afterwards blown up by a field engineering team of the local commandant's office," the source said. 
A series of bombings and shootings killed at least 33 people Tuesday, most in the Baghdad area, as more American soldiers patrolled the streets of the capital in a make-or-break bid to quell sectarian violence. 
(IsraelNN.com) The day after it was revealed that a Reuters News Agency doctored photographs to show an anti-Israel bias, the news service incorrectly reported Tuesday afternoon that the IDF bombed a funeral procession in Lebanon. Reuters has corrected without apology its earlier story that the IDF strafed a funeral procession and updated the report to state that the bombs struck a village at the same time the funeral was taking place, adding that "the air strike was not in the immediate vicinity of the funeral."
SAN ANTONIO, Texas -- Twenty-one penguins were rescued on a hot east Texas highway Tuesday after a truck carrying the wildlife to a temporary home south of Houston overturned, said a state trooper. 
PARIS - Seventeen employees of a French charity found dead in northeastern Sri Lanka at the weekend were all executed by gunfire, the group confirmed Tuesday, demanding that those responsible be severely punished. A team sent to the scene by Action Contre la Faim (.JPG)
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said on Tuesday that the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) nations should consider supplying arms to Hezbollah amid anger and frustration over Israel's offensive in Lebanon. Malaysia currently chairs the 57-nation OIC, and Syed Hamid said Israel could not be allowed to act with impunity, although it seemingly had "carte blanche" in its operations. 
