#1
The article is more dubious (rightly) than the headline:
But while Mr Mugabe was prepared to see Mr Tsvangirai become prime minister, he was not prepared to surrender power, and it remains unclear whether he has agreed to do so. The 84-year-old dictator is a master tactician who has repeatedly outwitted his younger opponent.
The two men were also unable to agree which party should control the security forces, ...
Posted by: James ||
09/11/2008 22:20
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On the anniversary of the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history, Gov. Sarah Palin took a hard-line approach on national security and said that war with Russia may be necessary if that nation invades another country.
Charles Gibson asks Gov. Sarah Palin if she's prepared to be vice president.
In her first of three interviews with ABC News's Charles Gibson and the only interview since being picked by Sen. John McCain as his Republican vice presidential nominee, Palin categorized the Russian invasion of Georgia as "unacceptable" and warned of the threats from Islamic terrorists and a nuclear Iran.
The Governor advocated the accession of Georgia and Ukraine into NATO.
When asked by Gibson if under the NATO treaty, the U.S. would have to go to war if Russia again invaded Georgia, Palin responded: "Perhaps so. I mean, that is the agreement when you are a NATO ally, is if another country is attacked, you're going to be expected to be called upon and help.
"And we've got to keep an eye on Russia. For Russia to have exerted such pressure in terms of invading a smaller democratic country, unprovoked, is unacceptable," she told ABC News' Charles Gibson in an exclusive interview.
Watch Charles Gibson's exclusive interviews with Gov. Sarah Palin beginning tonight on "World News" and "Nightline." Charles Gibson will do three interviews with Palin today and tomorrow. More Friday on "Good Morning America " at 7 a.m. ET," "World News" and on "20/20," which will broadcast a one-hour special edition at 10 p.m. ET/9 p.m. CT.
Palin advocated the accession of Georgia and Ukraine into NATO, meaning that if attacked again in the future, the United States would be bound to go to war.
"I mean, that is the agreement when you are a NATO ally, is if another country is attacked, you're going to be expected to be called upon and help," she said.
Palin, who obtained her first passport this year and who has served just two years as Alaska's governor, told Gibson that she was up to the challenge of being Sen. John McCain's vice president.
"I answered [McCain]'yes' because I have the confidence in that readiness and knowing that you can't blink, you have to be wired in a way of being so committed to the mission, the mission that we're on, reform of this country and victory in the war, you can't blink.
Palin sat down with Gibson on a day that was filled with wrenching memories and solemn ceremonies for the nearly 3,000 people who died in the 9/11 attacks.
It was also the day that Palin, the mother of five, attended a deployment ceremony for her oldest son, Track, an Army infantryman whose Stryker unit is being shipped off to Iraq later this month.
Palin defended a previous statement in which she reportedly characterized the war in Iraq as "task from God".
Gibson quoted her as saying: "Our national leaders are sending U.S. soldiers on a task that is from God."
But Palin said she was referencing a famous quote by Abraham Lincoln.
"I would never presume to know God's will or to speak God's words. But what Abraham Lincoln had said, and that's a repeat in my comments, was let us not pray that God is on our side in a war or any other time, but let us pray that we are on God's side."
When asked if she believed she was "sending [her] son on a task that is from God," Palin said: "I don't know if the task is from God, Charlie. What I know is that my son has made a decision. I am so proud of his independent and strong decision he has made, what he decided to do and serving for the right reasons and serving something greater than himself and not choosing a real easy path where he could be more comfortable and certainly safer."
#1
I'm sure that headline will get a lot of play in the liberal press. Here's what she actually said:
GIBSON: And you think it would be worth it to the United States, Georgia is worth it to the United States to go to war if Russia were to invade.
PALIN: What I think is that smaller democratic countries that are invaded by a larger power is something for us to be vigilant against. We have got to be cognizant of what the consequences are if a larger power is able to take over smaller democratic countries.
And we have got to be vigilant. We have got to show the support, in this case, for Georgia. The support that we can show is economic sanctions perhaps against Russia, if this is what it leads to.
It doesn't have to lead to war and it doesn't have to lead, as I said, to a Cold War, but economic sanctions, diplomatic pressure, again, counting on our allies to help us do that in this mission of keeping our eye on Russia and Putin and some of his desire to control and to control much more than smaller democratic countries.
#2
Again, e.g. USDODBUZZ > Former USAF SecAF had argued that the US could've and should've given more substantive MILPOL AID to GEORGIA AGZ RUSSIA, INCLUD BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE FORMAL DEPLOYMENT OF US SPECOPS + MARINES, etc. TO PRECLUDE IFF NOT MIL STOP RUSS MILOPS!?
IOW, BLOG > DIRECT US- OR US-LED UNSC MIL ASSISTANCE + FORCE INTERVENTION???
* Bombers want proof death by firing squad hurts
* Attempting to delay their executions
* They argue they should die 'humanely'
LAWYERS for the three death-row Bali bombers will call former East Timor militia leader Eurico Guterres to testify that death by firing squad would constitute torture.
Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, Ali Ghufron, also known as Mukhlas, and Imam Samudra are expected to be put to death some time after Idul Fitri, the early-October conclusion to the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, The Australian reports.
But they are trying to delay their deaths with a constitutional court appeal that argues they should be allowed to die by beheading, lethal injection or some other, more humane means.
The trio was responsible for the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings in which 202 people, including 88 Australians, were killed.
They want Guterres, the only person to have been convicted over the 1999 Indonesian-led rampage in East Timor in which thousands died, to describe how painful various shooting deaths he witnessed were.
"We want him to demonstrate that being shot dead constitutes torture, because he's been to war and he's seen that people who are shot do not die straight away," lawyer Wirawan Adnan said.
Guterres was released from jail last year when his conviction for crimes against humanity, based on his leadership of pro-Indonesian militias in East Timor, was overturned.
The bombers' lawyers are arguing that even though members of a firing squad aim directly at the condemned person's heart, there can still be a delay before they are dead.
#2
It's a tantrum thrown by Edward R Olbermann in the face of his demotion for anchoring election coverage (for good reasons). He's pushing GE and NBC to accept his bombastic asshole behavior or fire him. I'm all for firing his ass. Worthless Kos-sucking POS
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/11/2008 19:01
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#3
F*ck that idiot and the camel he rode in on.
I'm beginning to think being a DemoncRat really is a mental disease....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/11/2008 19:44
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#4
Olbermann calls bin Laden the world's most hated man. Here is the thing. I do not hate bin Laden. I pity him in much the same way I pity Jefferson Davis. Their actions were twisted and evil, subject to a twisted and evil ideology. Bin Laden needs to be put down like a rabid dog in exactly the same way the economic and political basis of slavery had to be annihilated.
But I do hate Copperheads. And I hate Keith Olbermann.
#9
That's the most biased and politically motivated news bit I've ever seen. The venom and sneer is incredible, why do they let him do this? They have no credibility left, none. They are a mouthpiece of the democratic party, they are as bad as Pravda.
Knowing since 1974 of India's nuclear ambitions, other American presidents and I have maintained a consistent global policy: no sales of nuclear technology or uncontrolled fuel to any country that refuses to sign the 1970 Non-Proliferation Treaty, or NPT. To imbed this concept as official national policy, I worked closely with bipartisan leaders in the U.S. Congress to pass the Non-Proliferation Act of 1978.
More recently, in 2006, the Hyde Act was passed and signed by President George W. Bush to define appropriate terms of the proposed U.S.-India nuclear agreement. Both laws were designed to encourage universal compliance with basic terms of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, which has been accepted by more than 180 nations. Only Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea are not participating, the first three having nuclear arsenals that are advanced, and the fourth's being embryonic. Today, these global restraints are in the process of being abandoned.
In recent years the U.S. government has not set a good example, having abandoned the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty; binding limitations on testing nuclear weapons and development of new ones; and a long-standing policy of foregoing threats of "first use" of nuclear weapons against nonnuclear states. These decisions have encouraged China, Russia and other nuclear powers to respond with similar retrogressive actions.
This has sent mixed signals to North Korea, Iran and other nations with the technical knowledge to create nuclear weapons. The currently proposed agreement with India compounds this challenge and further undermines the global pact for restraint represented by the nuclear nonproliferation regime. If India's unique demands are acceptable, why should other technologically advanced NPT signatories, such as Brazil, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Japan - to say nothing of less responsible nations - continue to restrain themselves?
I have no doubt that India's political leaders are just as responsible in handling their country's arsenal as leaders of the five original nuclear powers. But there is a significant difference: the original five have signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty and strive to stop producing fissile material for weapons.
The Nuclear Suppliers Group is a 45-nation body that - until now - has barred nuclear trade with any nation that refuses to accept international nuclear standards. Tremendous political pressure from the United States and India has recently induced the group's members to reverse their historic position; they even declined to clarify penalties in the event of a resumption of nuclear testing by India. No one knows what secret deals were made to gain the necessary votes. Specific information about all facets of the agreement needs to be shared with the U.S. Congress to assure full conformance of the U.S.-Indian agreement with the Hyde Act and other laws.
There is a farcical disparity between public and private claims being made to the U.S. Congress about imposed nuclear safeguards and those being made, at the same time to the Indian parliament that no such restraints will be acceptable. When Congress passed the Hyde Act endorsing the exception to Nuclear Suppliers Group guidelines for India, there were specific conditions, including clear penalties in the event of a resumption of Indian nuclear testing, constraints against selling equipment used to make bomb-grade material and limits on the refueling of Indian nuclear power plants. A key condition under the law is immediate termination of all nuclear commerce by the group's member states if India detonates a nuclear explosive device.
Indian officials publicly deny that they will accept these restraints. I have discussed these conflicting claims with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his response, with a smile, was that U.S. and Indian politics are different.
India's leaders' accepting the NPT and joining other nuclear powers in signing the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty would greatly strengthen the global effort to control proliferation. Instead, India insists on unrestricted access to international assistance in producing fissile material for as many as 50 weapons a year, perhaps doubling what is believed to be India's current capacity. Meanwhile, other major nuclear powers, including the United States, Russia, France and Britain, are moving to limit their production.
It would be advantageous to have improved diplomatic relations between the United States and India that could result from a clearly understood nuclear agreement, and I would fully support such a move. However, different interpretations of the same pact can lead only to harsh confrontations if future decisions are made in New Delhi that contravene what has been understood in our country. The time for the U.S. Congress to clarify these issues is now, before a tragic mistake is made.
Former President Jimmy Carter is founder of The Carter Center, which works to advance world peace and health.
Posted by: john frum ||
09/11/2008
17:09 ||
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St. Paul businessman, Mike Costello said he got upset last week when he saw City Councilman David Thune protesting at the Republican National Convention.
"I sent him an email saying how disgusted I was and that I thought he was a disgrace to the city and I asked him for his resignation. I said you should resign," said Costello.
Thune responded with an email that said "[expletive] you little [expletive]".
5 EYEWITNESS NEWS obtained a copy of the profanity-filled email which shows it was sent from Thune's official city council email address.
When asked if that was a respectful way to deal with a citizen of St. Paul Thune said, "It is a respectful way to deal with someone of the low class that he is." "He's a m----- f------ Ref---liKKKan, and the only f------ way to deal with f----- s--- like him is to f------ cuss his little c---------- a-- sideways!"
Thune told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS he stands behind his four-letter words, . . . . "I've got a '10,000 posts' star next to my name at Democratic Underground, and I'm f------ proud of it!"
Posted by: Mike ||
09/11/2008
16:36 ||
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#1
"It is a respectful way to deal with someone of the low class that he is."
#6
Thune is in the top ten percent of assholes. One of the few that deserves to be tarred and feathered. Saw him in action on time at the St. Paul Grill. He was being a complete dickhead to the waitress because his order wasn't correct. He went so far as to speak really loud in order make sure she heard him bitch about her when she brought his food back to the kitchen. "Hope she isnt expecting a tip!"
Posted by: Mike N. ||
09/11/2008 20:07
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#7
Thune's favorite dinner entree must be spit.
Posted by: ed ||
09/11/2008 20:30
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#8
there are standards of usage in email at all public (and most private) institution. This clearly violated what most have as TOS. FRY HIM
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/11/2008 21:00
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#9
I guess he doesn't need Powdermilk Biscuits.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
09/11/2008 21:51
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#10
When he orders his banana cream pie, load it up with Ex-Lax and serve it to him with a smile, and a "here you go, sir." That will take some of the bitterness out of his speech while he is dealing with his scuppers.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/11/2008 22:16
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#11
That sort of behavior is totally cool with todays liberals. The end justifies the means type thinking. They are going into the abyss.
Saudi Arabia walked out on OPEC yesterday, saying it would not honor the cartel's production cut. It was tired of rants from Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and the well-dressed oil minister from Iran.
As the world's largest crude exporter, the kingdom in the desert took its ball and went home.
As the Saudis left the building, the message was shockingly clear. “Saudi Arabia will meet the market’s demand,” a senior OPEC delegate told the New York Times. “We will see what the market requires and we will not leave a customer without oil."
Wonder what's in it for them (besides more money)?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/11/2008 19:45
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#3
Maybe the nuclear breath of Iran is breathing down their neck and they feel better knowing that the west is so dependent on them that it will save their ass.
#4
Hugo: "but I get to ride on a Russian Bomber"!!11!!!!
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/11/2008 21:01
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#5
"Wonder what's in it for them (besides more money)?"
Several possibilities:
a. Squeeze us hard enough and we get serious about alternative oil sources and alternative energy, thus hurting their market.
b. Squeeze us hard enough and we do to the governments of Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, and Iran what we've already done to the governments of Iraq and Afghanistan -- only this time it's ONLY about oil.
Unlike Iran and Venezuela, Saudi Arabia can see that provoking the sleeping giant could re-make the map. Another 9/11 type incident or a temporary closure of the Persian Gulf could turn us quite nasty, and we have the power to be very nasty indeed.
Imagine another 3,000 innocents dead in the U.S., the northeast short on home heating oil, and gasoline rationing: the U.S. could get very nasty indeed.
#6
The Saudis are smart enough to realize that they don't really want to pi$$ of crude oil consumers, or the consumers will really accelerate alternative fuels. The Saudis want stability in the market. Other members of OPEC, like Iran and Venezuela, are cash flow driven morons.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/11/2008 21:33
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#7
I am surprised by the Saudi position. I guess they think Iran is unstable and unpredictable also. Or they realize Hugo and Dinnerjacket are idiots as do we.
#9
The Saudis are smart enough to realize that they don't really want to pi$$ of crude oil consumers, or the consumers will really accelerate alternative fuels. The Saudis want stability in the market. Other members of OPEC, like Iran and Venezuela, are cash flow driven morons.
FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE THE PEOPLE HERE AT HOME [USA] SEEM SERIOUS ABOUT SYN-FUELS [OR MORE ACCURATELY, THEY SEEM SERIOUS ABOUT USING ANYTHING THAT WILL REPLACE FOREIGN PETROL-BASED FUELS]!
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
09/11/2008 22:37
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LA Times. This is most of it.
The television ad shows John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, in scenic desert landscapes as he talks about the dangers of global warming. "We have an obligation to future generations to take action and fix it," he says. Striving to appeal to loony leftists moderate voters, McCain has frequently highlighted his bipartisan proposal to clamp down on greenhouse gas emissions.
But by naming Sarah Palin as his running mate, McCain has aligned himself with a Republican whose record as governor of Alaska has drawn scorn from environmentalists, most notably for her denial that humans are causing climate change. So that means he's completely changed his spots, swayed by the magnetic appeal of the beauty queen.
That, combined with McCain's call for opening new stretches of coastline to oil drilling, risks undercutting his standing on the environment.
Global warming has been one of the main issues McCain has used to put distance between himself and his party's tarnished brand. In pursuit of that goal, he and Palin also have cast themselves in recent days as reformers who would shake up Washington.
In a time of war and economic troubles, the environment ranks low on the list of voter priorities. But it carries symbolic value and offers McCain a way to suggest that he would break with the unpopular Bush administration. Given the scant contrasts between McCain and President Bush on Iraq and the economy, anything that helps the Arizona senator distinguish himself could prove crucial.
"The environment is important to many of the groups of people that McCain has to make some progress with -- especially to many independents," said pollster Andrew Kohut, president of the nonpartisan Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.
Doug Holtz-Eakin, a senior McCain policy advisor, said that neither Palin's presence on the ticket nor McCain's shift on oil drilling would harm his standing as a champion of the environment. Environmentalists who criticize McCain "don't represent the entire spectrum" of opinion, he said, and others recognize that coal, nuclear power, gas and oil must be part of any "thoughtful approach" to global warming.
The major environmental groups, however, favor Illinois Sen. Barack Obama over McCain. The League of Conservation Voters gives the Democratic presidential nominee a lifetime score of 86% on environmental votes. McCain's score is 24%. That's because The One thinks you should pay more for luxury goods - like gas.
Nonetheless, environmentalists have cheered McCain for backing a cap on carbon emissions that contribute to global warming, a position not shared by many in his party. They have also applauded him for opposing oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a longtime goal of Bush and other Republicans, including Palin.
"To his credit, we've always said that John McCain was better on the environment than George Bush, but that's an incredibly low bar because Bush was the most anti-environment president we've ever seen," said Gene Karpinski, president of the League of Conservation Voters. Yet he couldn't manage to find any more oil in this country...
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/11/2008
15:04 ||
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#1
Sorry, Mods, I swore I clicked "Local".
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/11/2008 15:10
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#2
...most notably for her denial that humans are causing climate change.
Stupid, brain-dead, scientific-illiterate journalist. As one of hundreds, if not thousands of individuals in atmospheric science who are at a minimum, skeptical of a dominant anthropogenic mode to climate change...I am incensed by these idiots.
#3
A few simple control tests cover these issues. First, if it's a classic MSM outlet, assume all assertions are reversed - insert or delete "not" whenever applicable. Second, any reference to "climate" and or "global warming/cooling/change" should be changed to "weather".
Basically, it makes it one big argument about the weather - if the democrats think that's a winner, more power to them. Elections are self-correcting mechanisms, and weather is a constant topic subject to adjustment, only rarely by humans. Complaining about it is one thing, doing something is another, and having any effect is yet a third.
#6
She tarnishes his environmental luster and puts a beautiful shine on the energy side of things.
I hope man made global warming comes up in the VP debates and she can ask Biden how he can explain that fact that Mars got warm at the same time. Let everyone watching get that tid-bit of data as she rams it down Biden's throat because coincidence doesn't really cut it when we're talking about screwing our economy beyond all recognition to solve a problem that may not even be caused by that.
#10
You don't have to be a PhD. in Physics or Weather to realize that less than 1/3 of 1% of the "greenhouse gasses" produced each year are human made and have negligible impact on the climate.
The threat of global warming is so great that campaigners were justified in causing more than £35,000 worth of damage to a coal-fired power station, a jury decided yesterday. In a verdict that will have shocked ministers and energy companies the jury at Maidstone Crown Court cleared six Greenpeace activists of criminal damage....During the eight-day trial, the world's leading climate scientist, Professor James Hansen of Nasa, who had flown from American to give evidence, appealed to the Prime Minister personally to "take a leadership role" in cancelling the plan and scrapping the idea of a coal-fired future for Britain....
The acquittal was the second time in a decade that the "lawful excuse" defence has been successfully used by Greenpeace activists. In 1999, 28 Greenpeace campaigners... were cleared of criminal damage after trashing an experimental field of GM crops in Norfolk. In each case the damage was not disputed – the point at issue was the motive.
[The US doesn't have the "lawful excuse" defense but we do have gullible juries]
#4
tipover...Hansen's credibility is shrinking. Only the ecozealots worship him anymore. He has been caught fudging data, lying about techniques and algorithms, and abusing his position for political and personal gain.
#6
Anymouse, I would prefer he be fired but I figure a resignation might give cover to his supervisors (probably politicians) for their management incompetence and cowardice for not firing him sooner.
#11
Questions
1 does Britain have any nuke powr plants?
2 What is Britian going to do without Electrical power?
3 Do environmentalist morons plan to run Megawatt Generators by turning giant cranks?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/11/2008 19:05
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#12
From Al Guardian:
British Energy, which is 35% owned by the government, operates one coal-fired and eight ageing nuclear power stations, including Hinkley Point, Torness and Dungeness. Together, they produce one sixth of Britain's electricity.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/11/2008 21:40
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Think about this Mr Syrian Information Minister: If we are sooo ruthless that we would murder 3,000 of our own citizens in cold blood, think about what we might do to people that we don't like when they annoy us.
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. — An aircraft-mounted laser designed to shoot down missiles has been fired for the first time in a ground test aboard the jet, prime contractor Boeing Co. said.
The test of the high-energy chemical laser was conducted Sunday by the contractors and the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, the company said.
"The program remains on track to reach the missile shoot-down demonstration planned for 2009," said Scott Fancher, vice president and general manager of Boeing Missile Defense Systems.
The laser is in the back half of a Boeing 747-400F jumbo jet. Subsequent tests will increase duration and power before the beam is sent through a fire control system to a turret mounted in the nose of the aircraft.
Ground firings will be followed by flight tests of the system, which is intended to be capable of destroying all classes of ballistic missiles in the boost phase of flight.
The laser was designed and built by Northrop Grumman Corp. Lockheed Martin Corp. developed the beam control-fire control system, and Boeing provided the battle management system.
Boeing conducted a ground test of a laser mounted aboard a C-130H aircraft at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M. The Advanced Tactical Laser aircraft is intended for use against ground targets.
A 10-year-old boy here has been suspended from school for having something most students carry in their supply boxes: a pencil sharpener. The problem was his sharpener had broken, but he decided to use it anyway.
A teacher at Hilton Head Island International Baccalaureate Elementary School noticed the boy had what appeared to be a small razor blade during class on Tuesday, according to a Beaufort County sheriff's report. It was obvious that the blade was the metal insert commonly found in a child's small, plastic pencil sharpener, the deputy noted. Which says that the teacher has no common sense, is stupid, and has no business in a classroom.
The boy -- a fourth-grader described as a well-behaved and good student -- cried during the meeting with his mom, the deputy and the school's assistant principal. He had no criminal intent in having the blade at school, the sheriff's report stated, but was suspended for at least two days and could face further disciplinary action. Has the whole world gone mad? Or is it just "educators"?
District spokesman Randy Wall said school administrators are stuck in the precarious position between the district's zero tolerance policy against having weapons at school and common sense. But nobody has said how the blade from a broken sharpener could be used as a weapon.
"We're always going to do something to make sure the child understands the seriousness of having something that could potentially harm another student, but we're going to be reasonable," he said. I am telling you...no wonder the Public Education System is broken. It is run by idiots.
#1
" Has the whole world gone mad? or is it just 'educators?'"
see this article to confirm the second part of the question:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/378561_coldlunch11.html
#2
District spokesman Randy Wall said school administrators are stuck in the precarious position between the district's zero tolerance policy against having weapons at school and common sense.
I'll bet we can guess which one's gonna come out on the short end here.
#7
How about a zero tolerance policy for school administrators and boards that have minimal intelligence. Here's the test - if your job can be done by a flow chart diagram composed of 'Yes' and 'No' requiring no use of critical analysis, you are replaced by the receptionist.
#8
Wow! When I think back to all those sharp objects we used in shop class, art class, and the school cafeteria, I'm just amazed that I lived to tell about it!
#12
How about saying "Jimmy--that's not safe anymore. Please deposit your broken sharpener in the teacher's trash. And here's one you can use instead . . . "
Sheesh.
You know, cingold just got defending a boy of same age who took a small boyscout knife to school to show it off (not as a weapon). They almost threw him in the slammer for good, and he was just a nice kid with a cool pocket knife. Some guy at the DA's office went ape on the kid, and even the principal, who did NOT think it was a big deal (and remember we're in the Columbine HS state), could dissuade him. cingold realized the guy was probably trying to make his career at the expense of this poor kid, and stepped in to try and stop it.
The kid is from a good family, is okay, and now knows not to bring the pocket knife to school, thanks to cingold . . . one of those blood sucking rich (not) trial lawyers.
But guess we can all do without lawyers cuz' the conservative talk show parrots say we can, right? Same goes for jury trials and verdicts. Forget the right to jury. One of those nasty constitutional principles we can do without. Bad for business so much of the time, don't ya know.
Stupidity all around.
P.S. cingold spent hours on the case and did not charge the family a dime. The kid was really grateful for the help and was scared out of his wits when they put him in jail with toughened juvenile criminal thugs.
Every now and then, in walks a man or woman who turns the world inside out and upside down.
Barack Obama was such a man.
And now, Sarah Palin is such a woman.
Just as the first African American on a presidential ticket revealed to us how little we have come to terms with race in this country, the first woman in the Republican vice presidential slot has revealed how far we still have to go in our gender reckoning.
To put it plainly, Palin is seriously messing with our templates. We know what political women in the USA are supposed to look like -- and she's not it.
Palin fits no model we've ever seen, and we're not sure what to do with her. Equal parts Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman and Stands With A Fist -- with a little Barbarella thrown in -- Palin is a unique and unfamiliar brand.
She's what some might call "Trouble." And proud of it, too.
Reactions from all sides have fallen somewhere in the realm of hysteria. Republicans, 85% of whom view Palin favorably, are delirious that they -- the maligned party of traditional family values -- have produced the most credible, kick-caribou female candidate in U.S. history.
Democrats, only 24% of whom view Palin favorably, are dumbfounded -- sort of the way Republicans were when a new guy named Obama edged out a stable of Democratic veterans for the presidential nomination.
Who is this woman who could be only a heartbeat away from the presidency? Where did she come from? How could John McCain do such a thing?
Talk about the audacity of hope.
A winning gamble
McCain can hardly wipe the grin off his face. He gambled and won -- Big Time. His biggest score has been among white women, who have abandoned the Obama camp and hauled their teepees over to the McCain reservation. Before the Republican convention, white women were leaning 50% for Obama to 42% for McCain, according to ABC News/Washington Post polling. Post-convention, the numbers have shifted to 53% for McCain and just 41% for Obama among white women.
That big shift suggests a new political timeline: BP and AP. Before Palin and After Palin.
In the relatively few days since McCain announced the Palin pick, little has been left unsaid about this youngish (44), attractive, athletic woman who wears librarian glasses and a retro hairdo.
Most Americans -- and, plausibly, most Martians -- by now know her narrative, as they say. Frontier huntress, "Sarah Barracuda" basketball star, erstwhile beauty queen, hockey mom, government reformer, mother of five, including a 5-month-old special needs child. And, oh yeah, her unmarried 17-year-old daughter is five months pregnant. Whatever. Life's a trip, right?
Palin is demonstrably pro-life, even to the extent of protecting those conceived through rape or incest. She's an evangelical Christian who speaks fluent God. She doesn't mind the idea of culling wolves with rifles from helicopters, though she hasn't shot any herself. She wants to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
And those are just the facts. A full accounting of the rumors and myths circulating about Palin would fill this page. Briefly, she didn't pose in a bikini with a rifle, doesn't want to teach creationism in school, isn't a secessionist and didn't ban books. Palin did ask the librarian in Wasilla (twice) how she would respond if the community wanted some books excluded from the library.
Palin either will be the new Margaret Thatcher or the old Harriet Miers -- either a rock-'em-sock-'em stroke of Churchillian genius or a tail-dragging, head-banging Baghdad blunder.
What has become abundantly clear in the meantime is that we have reached a crossroads in our nation's gender trajectory. Always burbling beneath the surface of American life and politics, gender has erupted the past few days into a geyser of emotion and vitriol.
What kind of woman do we want in high office? What kind of woman is acceptable?
Feminists have always called the shots on this question. The quintessential woman was pro-choice, interchangeable with any man -- and her name was Hillary Rodham Clinton. Feminists necessarily have viewed Clinton's defeat as a sexist manifestation of patriarchal betrayal because, really, what other explanation could there be? Clinton was perfectly molded according to the feminist template. Clearly, she lost because she's a woman, disappointed women told themselves.
But the greatest insult was yet to come. Republicans -- those anti-woman, patriarchal Neanderthalian gun-clingers -- nominated a woman whom Democrats would call a "Stepford wife," except she'd beat them to a bloody pulp with a moose antler.
The irony is almost too on-the-nose to be enjoyable, but there is other cause for satisfaction. Even if Sarah Palin ultimately fails to prove herself worthy of second-in-command, her enthusiastic reception has proved that there are other kinds of women in the USA -- lots of them -- who have a different idea about what's best for womankind.
#2
The reason the Libs are so terrified of Pain is she's so obviously unafraid to be both a woman and a conservative. She has succeeded in a manner they've preached couldn't be done. In short order she's proven Libs to be the uniformed twits we've always known them to be. The humorous part is the MSM can't ignore her as she over turns the lefty applecart.
Posted by: Jefferson ||
09/11/2008 16:44
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#3
I read a John Wayne story that's worth repeating.
Wayne and some friends were bird hunting and Wayne accidentaly shot a friend in the back (Shotgun,Birdshot) he ran over and ripped his friend,s shirt off to see the damage, finding only a light injury he said.
"Damn, I know it hurts, but I wish you could see the beautiful pattern this gun throws"
( Friend was NOT amused)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/11/2008 19:31
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Polls showing John McCain tied or even ahead of Barack Obama are stirring angst and second-guessing among some of the Democratic Party's most experienced operatives, who worry that Obama squandered opportunities over the summer and may still be underestimating his challenges this fall.
"It's more than an increased anxiety," said Doug Schoen, who worked as one of Bill Clinton's lead pollsters during his 1996 reelection and has worked for both Democrats and independents in recent years. "It's a palpable frustration. Deep-seated unease in the sense that the message has gotten away from them."
Joe Trippi, a consultant behind Howard Dean's flash-in-the-pan presidential campaign in 2004 and John Edwards' race in 2008, said the Obama campaign was slow to recognize how the selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as McCain's running mate would change the dynamic of the race. "They were set up to run 'experience versus change,' what they had run [against Hillary] Clinton," Trippi said. "And I think Palin clearly moved that to be change [and] reform, versus change. They are adjusting to that and that threw them off balance a little bit."
A major Democratic fundraiser described it a good bit more starkly after digesting the polls of recent days: "I'm so depressed. It's happening again. It's a nightmare."
Adding to Democratic restlessness, McCain has largely neutralized some issue advantages that have long favored Democrats. This week's USA Today/Gallup poll reported a split on which candidate "can better handle the economy"; 48 percent chose Obama while 45 percent said McCain. In late August, Obama had a 16-point edge on the issue.
Also this week, an ABC News/Washington Post poll reported that when voters are asked "who can bring about needed change to Washington," McCain still trails Obama by 12 points. But in June, McCain trailed by 32 points.
That shift in the public's perception of the issues, in Democratic pollster Celinda Lake's words, "tremendously concerns me."
Lake joined other Democratic veterans, some speaking not for attribution, in emphasizing a classic liberal woe: that the Democrat let the Republican define him. "Obama needed to define himself," Lake said. "I do think that during the Democratic convention we should have done a better job of defining McCain."
Steve Rosenthal, a veteran field organizer for Democrats and organized labor, said that some entrenched Democratic vulnerabilities never receded this year. And in his view, Palin has reawakened those liberal weaknesses. "For some white, working-class voters who don't want to vote for Barack Obama but weren't sure about McCain, Palin gave them a good reason to take another look and consider supporting McCain," Rosenthal said.
"On the one hand, it could be a temporary reshuffling of the deck," he added. "And on the other hand, it underscores the deep-seated problems we have in this race with race, class and culture.
#1
For like the last three or five presidential races, the Democrats were always ahead of the Republicans by at least ten points right after the conventions. For them to be tied right now is starting to look like Obama is going to tank, if not as badly as McGovern, then close.
#3
"Obama needed to define himself," Lake said. "I do think that during the Democratic convention we should have done a better job of defining McCain."
he's had 19 months - now it's John's job - Mr. Alinsky.
Now that's an accurate assessment. If anyone knows who the real OB is, will you please stand up? OB is a characature, and the donks are worshiping what and who they think he is and represents.
The real OB is starting to surface, I think. Those "GW flubs" in front of the microphone are as much part of who he really is as the weariness of the campaign trail. I thought it interesting when the debates started...what was it 10 years ago?...that he was consistently unimpressive. I attributed it to unease on the national stage, not quite having the talking points down, etc..
I now think that that is who he is. He may be shallower than even the trunks think. We will see.
#7
Obama is generic democrat + non-threatening black. The combination really appealed to some folks but at the end of the day they want to know who the person is and obama has yet to really provide that. To even mention anything on his resume is played as if he were being attacked leaving nothing to talk about except hope.
Direct link to footage: LINK
Sweden's national television broadcaster announced on Thursday the release of previously unpublished film footage of US Republican Party presidential candidate John McCain leaving North Vietnam following his release from a prisoner of war camp. The footage has been in the archives of Sveriges Television (SVT) for the last 35 years, but has just been released on a DVD accompanying a book about the Vietnam War written by Swedish author Erik Eriksson, reports the Dagens Nyheter (DN) newspaper.
The footage shows McCain and other former POWs exiting a bus and standing on the tarmac at Hanoi's airport. McCain's name is heard being called out by a voice with a strong Vietnamese accent, after which a slightly limping McCain is greeted by a high ranking US military officer on his way to an airplane after more than five years of captivity as a prisoner of war.
Eriksson covered the conflict in Vietnam from 1968 through 1979 for both Swedish and American news outlets. Altogether he spent 12 months in the country, a period in his life he revisits in his new book, Jag såg kärleken och döden ('I Saw Love and Death'). Included with the book is a 30 minute DVD containing the previously unreleased footage of McCain.
"In February 1973 photographer Björn Henriksson and I were sent to Hanoi by SVT. We were filming when the first American prisoners of war, pilots, were released," Eriksson told DN.
He explained that he soon returned to Stockholm to edit the film, but left a camera behind with a North Vietnamese photographer who had access to the airport and asked him to film all the prisoner releases and then send the film back to Sweden. Several hundred prisoner releases were filmed.
"But there wasn't anyone that we recognized, not even McCain. Of course he was the son of a well known admiral, but he was one of many, a young pilot. But the cameraman stayed with McCain and took close ups. And everything ended up in a box in the archives," explained Eriksson.
During the summer as he was working on his book, Eriksson went back into the archives to find footage for the accompanying DVD and discovered the sequence with McCain. "As far as we know, these are the only images that exist from when McCain was released in Hanoi," said Eriksson. "In American descriptions of the event, it is often said that he returned to the US on crutches. But he certainly didn't leave North Vietnam on crutches." Swedes don't understand. Our American warriors in the Hanoi Hilton never quit - never gave up. They stood tall for the United States of America.
The Obama camp has been working the "lipstick meme" for days.
Yesterday afternoon I spent two hours in the parking lot of a restaurant in the Boston suburbs collecting lipsticks from angry voters who want to send a message to Sen. Obama. I was expecting maybe 50 people to stop by. Instead, about 200 angry, horn-honking, fired up listeners — mostly women — helped me fill an entire bulk mail bin with lipsticks.
They aren't nit-picking over exactly what was on Sen. Obama's mind when he made the crack about lipstick.
They heard it, and they got the message.
Usually when a talk radio host does a station event, the attendees are overwhelmingly male, as is our listenership. But 75% or more of the folks who came by yesterday were women. And they aren't nit-picking over exactly what was on Sen. Obama's mind when he made the crack about lipstick. They heard it, and they got the message.
One woman, who identified herself as a Hillary supporter, drove in from Rhode Island. Another — a mother in her late 40s — drove 42 miles each way to bring me one lipstick.
I know there are conservatives who think this controversy is a campaign fiction being cleverly exploited by the McCain campaign. But as I wrote in the Boston Herald today, I think they're wrong. The Obama campaign has been working the "lipstick" meme for days. Sen. Obama should have left it to his surrogates, but instead gave into a moment of unbecoming snarkiness towards Gov. Palin.
The crowd knew it, and the women I'm hearing from — I've gotten several hundred emails from them in 24 hours — heard it, too.
#2
That's why Barak thought he could get away with it.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
09/11/2008 12:36
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#3
I guess Obama forgot one cardinal rule: NEVER piss women off.
Stick a fork in him, he's done.
Posted by: Swamp Blondie in the Cornfields ||
09/11/2008 13:10
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#4
I imagine that the major cosmetics companies are offering enormous sums to the Republicans just for Sarah Palin to say what her brand and color of lipstick are. It could be worth literally hundreds of millions of dollars to them.
#6
I'd discussed Obama's alleged "lipstick" gaffe. among other, wid a couple of local femme restaurant patrons here on Guam - although they don't care nor mind about the gaffe, ITS OKAY WID THEM FOR A WOMAN TO BE VPOTUS GIVEN THE CURR US ECON + GENER INTERNATIONAL SITUATION [believe both will get worse], BUT NOT TO BE POTUS PER SE.
IOW, SARAH = HILLARY, etc > SARAH PALIN still has to prove her mettle to US FEMME VOTERS whom still prefer Men to be the TOP LEADER(S) IN TIMES OF WAR OR OTHER FEMME/VOTER-PERCEIVED SERIOUS NATIONAL CRISES-PROBS.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/11/2008 16:09
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#2
Never forgive,
Never forget,
Never "understand".
(as in, "We have to understand why they hate us".)
Posted by: Steve ||
09/11/2008 20:16
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#3
30 years ago the Iranian students were telling me they were going to blow up the World Trade Center because they believed it to be a secret staging ground of the US government, which housed the offices the US government used to control the world economy and suppress the Palestinians. All PhD students. The best of their country. No amount of education could persuade them differently. When I saw the towers fall, I thought to myself, "Those little sh*ts--they did it."
We can't forget, because it's a sickness with these people. They are not open to reason.
#4
Seven years later, and it still feels raw. I could not watch the whole video, but it did make me think of this from another time when America was underestimated:
"I fear that we have awakened a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve."
-- Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto December 7th, 1941
Go ask the corpse of the dead Admiral how that turned out.
#5
"as in, 'We have to understand why they hate us'."
FF chance of that for all us non-leftoids.
We'd rather they have to understand why we hate them. For the last few seconds of their worthless lives.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/11/2008 21:45
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#6
NEVER FORGIVE, NEVER FORGET. Hulk smash is right. F'em, their surviving gene line and aspirants. Kill em all. I'm not in the forgiving mood. BTW ? what kinda muslisluts hang out in a unsupervised structure with Arabs and Chechens (not (yet) of their family lines)??? Better Sharia (as I interprete) for thee than for me?
Sounds like whores and infidels got killded.
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/11/2008 22:34
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#7
I say we kill only as many as we have to in order to steal their fucking oil. Any more than that is a waste of otherwise potentially useful ordnance. Once we get all the oil, the rest will take care of itself for us.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
09/11/2008 23:14
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According to many in the media, we truly have discovered someone worse than Hitler — and it's Sarah Palin. Head to any left-wing blog or even CNN for that matter and you'll find the zaniest of conspiracies -- froth that even a dude with rabies would find unseemly.
So how can one person create so much bile among folks who claim to be the most tolerant in the universe? I mean, liberals are the good people: They're open-minded, caring and of course, fair.
But somehow, a Republican lady in her 40s is exempt from this treatment. Perhaps, she truly is the devil in a dress, a ghoul that eats children and pollutes the planet and possibly beats Barack Obama, the patron saint of every customer buying wheat germ in bulk at GNC.
But I know the real reason why every single elitist media type is terrified of her. They've never met her. And by "her," I don't mean Sarah Palin. I mean "her", an actual normal woman with a bunch of kids, an average husband and no desire to watch "The L Word."
She's scary to these folks the way Wal-Mart is scary to them: Both are alien to someone who blogs about their chakras. They won't go there, because they've never been there.
To them, hating Sarah Palin is a symptom of larger bigotry against the rest of us, the normal. If they saw her at a party, they would wonder how she got in. She's the anti-Obama, the anti-New York Times, the anti-everything that Tim Robbins loves, which is why I love her — and you should too.
And if you disagree with me, then you sir are worse than Hitler.
Posted by: Mike ||
09/11/2008
11:50 ||
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#1
Anymouse: Alex, I'll take Loony Liberals for $100.
Alex: And if you disagree with me, then you sir are worse than Hitler.
Anymouse: Alex, Who is "Keith Olberman!"
Alex: Correct. But we would have accepted anyone from a long list of Loony Liberals.
#4
I wandered into Slate and read the most vile sexist venom I have ever encountered in my entire life. The women who wrote it all justified it because Sarah Palin did not support abortion and because she was a Christian.
Check out this one feminism today And that blog just gives an appetiser. The woman writer invoked any and every sexist slur that I think has ever been used in the history of mankind.
The hate that these people harbor reminds me of the same we saw in those videos when they began bussing blacks into white schools. It is the same fear. The fear of unknown others whom the left believes to be so inferior that they barely see as human.
#5
A few days ago I wrote how I notice the incidence of the F word is much higher on some of these lefty blogs than it is here. Now I notice even further the much higher incidence of the H word, H being for hate, of course, coming from the left. I won't even spell it out again. IMHO it's even worse than the F word. How many times do you see Rantburgers declaring that they feel that way about anybody? Even the jihadis? Not very often if ever. They might call in an arclight but they don't use the H word. But put a hockey mom from Alaska in the national spotlight and the loony liberals start foaming at the mouth. Can't we get some civil, well reasoned discourse from these people?
#7
"Can't we get some civil, well reasoned discourse from these people?"
To do that, you'd first need some civil, well-reasoned people, EU.
And they ain't got any. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/11/2008 16:35
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#8
They're on their Heroin Power trip. It looks like their source is going to dry up. They'll do just about anything for another hit. It's that level of frantic. The irony is that the mask has fallen and in their drowning among their own atmosphere of hate and intolerance, they surpass the stereotype they've projected for years upon the right with images of David Duke et al. They are not the betters, they are not the moral, they are not the godly. They are just as human as anything they've despised. Or in more contemporary vernacular, they've worn the ring and have become the evil they claim they opposed.
About 100 Muslim workers at the north Greeley JBS Swift & Co. plant were let go Wednesday afternoon.
About 15 Greeley police officers were called to the scene by a Swift security guard as part of the termination. The security guard told police one terminated Swift worker had tried to hit him.
No arrests were made. The worker was escorted off the premises and police remained on the scene for peace keeping purposes.
The workers appeared to be all African. The termination appears to be related to the walkout of Muslim employees on Friday. The workers left their jobs Friday night after they were told they would not be given a break to observe the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Swift issued a statement via e-mail Friday evening about the terminations. The statement said the workers were let go as a result of the Ramadan-related work stoppage last week."For the past week, JBS management has met with union leadership and local Muslim leaders to address the timing of our second shift lunch break. As a result of those discussions we adjusted the lunch period by over one hour earlier to address their concerns. On Friday many employees walked off of the job without proper authorization," the statement read.
According to the statement, this action resulted in a number of workers being suspended. "A majority of the suspended employees returned to work last night and those that did not were notified this afternoon of their termination," according to the statement.
The statement also said Swift works closely with employees and their union representatives to accommodate religious practices.
Some East African workers say Swift officials initially agreed to move the break time, but then changed their minds and would not let them break their Ramadan fast at 7:30 p.m. on Friday.
#1
If you haven't seen pictures of this crowd, go to the Denver Post. It is scary. As I said, if these meat plants can't employ American workers at union wages, they should be shut down. Not only do they not benefit the communities they operate in, they are highly destructive. Once you see these goat herders, you won't be eager to bite into anything they've handled. I am fortunate that I can get meat from a local butcher shop. There's no way I would eat anything from over the counter any longer. I would rather be forced into vegetarianism. Yuck. These bastards have no place in our society. None. Thanks very much Hill & Bill. You two shitbombs.
#2
I understand your concern Woozle Elmeter 2700, but just remember that pork from these packing plants is still safe.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
09/11/2008 12:15
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#3
Ahem. Let's not condemn an entire group on the basis of the acts of some. As the article notes, some of the employees returned to work, some didn't.
We're not about group identity here at the Burg. Let Kos do that.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/11/2008 12:15
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#4
But many of the workers who gathered at a Greeley park Tuesday expressed their dissatisfaction with negotiations by saying, “No prayer, no work.”
Many (probably most) large plants in the country are having trouble finding workers at prevailing wages ($6 to $10/hour to start and about 30% better than that with experience).
What the market clearing wage rate would be so that non citizens would take the job is anyone's guess but probably at least twice prevailing rates.
#6
Being a butcher was once a noble profession, often involving and employing an entire family, sometimes for a couple of generations.
Skinnier and skinnier profit margins, driven by the mega producers like Swift, flipped the price where a local butcher was paying more per lb.for "wholecows" than the prices on finished goods from the big boys.
It was a Walmartization of an industry but it took place outside the view of many Americans.
You local butcher shop is now simply a boutique market.
TODAY's joint visit to Ground Zero may give the impression that John McCain and Barack Obama share a common analysis of the causes of 9/11 and how to deal with its legacy. They don't.
The divide starts with the question: Why was America attacked?
McCain's answer is simple (or, as Obama might suggest, simplistic): The United States was attacked because a resurgent Islam has produced a radicalism that dreams of world conquest and sees America as the enemy. In different shapes and sizes and under a range of labels, that radical streak of Islam has waged war on America since 1979, when Khomeinists seized the US embassy in Tehran and held its diplomats hostage for 444 days. The killing of 241 Marines in Beirut in 1983, the first World Trade Center attack in 1993 and a host of other operations that claimed more American lives were episodes in a war - the reality of which the United States faced only after 9/11.
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#1
You cannot ignore the trouble these islamonuts have done to us over the years and not respond and hope that it will go away. You have to deal with it such that it hits them where they live.
WASHINGTON, Sept 10 (Reuters) - President George W. Bush secretly approved orders in July that for the first time allow U.S. special forces to carry out ground assaults inside Pakistan without the approval of the Pakistani government, The New York Times reported on Thursday.
The new orders reflect concern about safe havens for Al Qaeda and the Taliban inside Pakistan, as well as an American view that Pakistan lacks the will and ability to combat militants, the paper said. "The situation in the tribal areas is not tolerable," said a senior U.S. official who spoke to the Times on condition of anonymity. "We have to be more assertive. Orders have been issued."
The newspaper said the orders also illustrated lingering distrust of the Pakistani military and intelligence agencies and a belief some U.S. operations had been compromised once Pakistanis were advised of the details. U.S. officials told the Times they would notify Pakistan when they conduct limited ground attacks like the Special Operations raid last week in a Pakistani village near the Afghanistan border, but they would not ask for its permission.
Pakistan army chief Gen. Ashfaq Kayani said on Wednesday Pakistan would not allow foreign troops to conduct operations on its soil. "The sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country will be defended at all cost and no external force is allowed to conduct operations ... inside Pakistan," a military statement quoted Kayani as saying.
A senior U.S. official told the Times the Pakistani government had assented privately to the general concept of limited ground assaults by U.S. forces against significant militant targets, but that it did not approve each mission.
The top U.S. military officer told Congress on Wednesday the military was not winning the fight against the insurgency in Afghanistan and said it would revise its strategy to combat militant safe havens in Pakistan. "I'm not convinced we are winning it in Afghanistan. I am convinced we can," Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a congressional committee nearly seven years after U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban. He said he was "looking at a new, more comprehensive strategy for the region" that would cover both sides of the border, including Pakistan's tribal areas.
Violence in Afghanistan has soared over the past two years as al Qaeda and Taliban fighters have regrouped in the remote region between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The United States has stepped up attacks against militant targets inside Pakistan this year with a series of missile strikes from unmanned drones and a raid by helicopter-borne U.S. commandos in recent days. The attacks have been denounced by Pakistani leaders.
#3
If the Mexican Army can operate across our Southern border with impunity, what's a couple SF troops to the Pakistanis, more or less? Have em' take a cue from our DoS to learn how to tolerate foreign incursions without blowing an aneurysm.
#4
Looks to me like he had some sort of deal with Perv. Since Perv is out of the way, it's open season on jihadis in Pakiwakiland - and about time, too.
#5
It was the low cost bid on GPS systems. Nah, we are just taking care of a long festering problem. Pakistan is one of the bee hives from whence terrorism comes. Hope Bush told the Pakis, since you didn't take of the problem, we are.
I cannot imagine Barack Obama as President during the WOT despite whatever he says.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
09/11/2008 11:42
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#9
A senior U.S. official told the Times
One wonders who the open mouth belongs to and why he spoke. Sometimes it's ego, and unauthorized, but sometimes it's purposeful use of the media to send a message. If the former, he might should be hanged for treason.
#10
Five will get you ten that it was Mullin speaking "not for attribution." He is a bozo, does not inspire confidence, and should be dumped right now.
#11
Cross border commando operations are obvious. What isn't obvious, and was probably not seen by the NYT, was the additional secret authorization to SOCOM.
Which orders might have been best summarized by the Thuggee Guru in the move Gunga Din:
"Rise and kill. Kill, lest you be killed yourselves. Kill for the love of killing. Kill for the love of Kali. Kill! Kill! Kill!"
While not exactly an operations order, I'm sure that it would be appreciated by SOCOM types, in the current context.
#12
secretly approved orders in July that for the first time allow
For the first time in July? There have been complaints about ghosts killing jihadis for several years in that part of the world. I find it very hard to believe the president only recently authorized it... unless it was the CIA doing it before, and it's the DoD now.
#13
Screw Pakistan, when is W going to issue a secret order to infiltrate the NY Times and get me the clues to the Sunday crossword puzzle ahead of time.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
09/11/2008 13:46
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#14
Pakistan army chief Gen. Ashfaq Kayani said on Wednesday Pakistan would not allow foreign troops to conduct operations on its soil.
He doesn't consider Binny and Knothead to be foreigners?
#15
There's been a low-level war going on between President Bush and the bureaucracies in Washington since he took office. Washington needs a thorough house-cleaning, but it would take ARCLIGHT strikes, napalm, and maybe a nuke or two to get some of those entrenched a$$holes out of their offices. Two divisions of Marines wouldn't be enough. Everyone who belongs to AFSCME needs to be fired - ALL employees of the Federal Government serve "at the convenience of the President", and they need to learn that. Unfortunately, the Donks have passed enough laws that it's virtually impossible to clean house without military intervention.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
09/11/2008 14:32
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#18
PLZ write the advertisers for the NYSLIMES and the other Traitorous Rags.
FACT #1. for every one letter received from a consumer of a product, it is counted as representing 1000 other couch potatoes or bizzy bees who are either too lazy or too bizzy to write, but do consume the advertisers product/s.
Ima not sure whether Old fashion Letters are better than e-mails.
It doesn't take many Citizens to change economic pressure on Manufactures.
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
09/11/2008 16:07
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#19
Good.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
09/11/2008 20:04
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#20
Good.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
09/11/2008 20:04
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#21
President George W. Bush secretly approved ...
Thanks a heap NYT! But don't question the their patriotism.
#22
E-mails pretty much don't rate, Red Dawg - they pretty much count as one for one Old-fashioned snail mail is the way to go if you want it to count as multiples.
#23
CNN BLITZER > THE SEARCH FOR OSAMA BIN LADEN > reminded that Osama's fromer driver argued OBL was alive as of 2005 [few years after TORA BORA] and was actively recruiting for AQ in Afghanistan when Dubya invaded Iraq in 2003. CNN BLITZER > ITS NOT JUST THE TALIBAN BUT ALSO AL QAEDA THAT IS REFORMING AND STRENGTHENING/RE-ARMING INSIDE PAKISTAN.
It remains my belief that even iff US SPECOPS, etc. did finally capture or kill OBL, espec by 11/08 Elex or Jan 2009, or even 2010 [post-Dubya], IT MAY NO LONGER BE ENUFF TO STOP THE ISLAMIST THREAT, IRAN, andor PAN-ISLAMIST NUCLEARIZATION. THE US GOVT-DOD MAY HAVE TO DUST OFF ANY PRE-SHELVED PLANS FOR A NEW NATIONAL DRAFT WHETHER THEY LIKE IT OR NOT, WANT A DRAFT OR NOT.
I am unusual, apparently. It's not because I am a coffeehouse dweller, or an NPR listener, or prone to wear loafers with jeans. In the world I inhabited until recently, all of these are quite normal. Rather, it is that I am also a field artillery officer in the U.S. Army. Which places me in that subdemographic of New York lawyers who wear suits and work in office buildings until they decide to join the military and blow things up. (Trust me, there are some; just not many.) For this decision, I now endure lingering looks of concern from people who care about me.
I knew that friends and colleagues would be surprised. Prior to 2004, the year I left for basic training, I had shown no tendency toward reckless acts like joining the military. Nor did my colleagues know that members of my family had, in previous generations, routinely done stints in the armed services during times of national need. So I was prepared for a certain range of responses in New York, from puzzlement to backslapping support to outrage.
What I wasn't prepared for was the quality of some people's reactions--not simply surprise or distress, but something deeper and more permanent. People I had known for years started behaving differently toward me. This is a tough thing to put your finger on--but you can sense it. You can tell when you are being discussed, when people are trying to decide if they know you as well as they had thought.
Continued on Page 49
#1
No, at the end of the day, the issue was simply that I had joined the military.
Just understand in our society where there are words to define racists and sexists and anti-Semitic, the language has yet to coin a descriptive to tag those with a gut level intolerance and bigotry towards those who serve. The word may not be there yet, but the condition has been there for a long time. And for some reason it correlates to those maps with color coded boundaries of counties and elections.
The frenzy about Sarah Palin has changed things, maybe permanently. It was (and is) a reflex spasm of hatred, coming from people - obviously including lots and lots of the media - who had never heard of Sarah Palin until McCain announced her. (Just a week ago Friday: it seems longer ago than that, doesn't it?) It almost instantly went far beyond an inquiry into her qualifications and fitness for the vice presidency - about which reasonable people can certainly differ. The unhinged animus (good word; nothing to do with pigs) is too obvious for anyone to miss. And instead of carefully ignoring it or smoothing it over with public-relations cover, as the media usually do with anything ugly on the left, this time the media openly joined in and led the crazy charge.
For once, there seems to be a price to be paid. Suddenly the political race is tied, or Obama is even falling behind. Ballistic left-liberalism hasn't been politely ignored this time. It's as though the country is suddenly asking "Do we really want to be ruled by armies of people with this outlook, whom Obama would bring in, all up and down the federal government?"
If the fallout - dangerous, if not fatal, to their political hopes - helps bring mainstream liberalism back to a less paranoid, less angry and sneering, and generally less crazed way of talking and feeling, it will be a very good thing for the country and for all concerned. Crazy political talk, after all, can start out as just a fashion, a way of talking that nobody necessarily means very seriously. But words, and ways of talking, take on a life of their own: after a while you start believing what you say, and even acting on it.
It's all much more in the open now than it was a week and a half ago. That's a good thing.
Posted by: Mike ||
09/11/2008
09:32 ||
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If McCain wins the icing on the cake will be watching the these people turn on Obama, Clinton and each other.
#2
If Obama wins we're gonna be ruled, not governed.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2008 12:39
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"Do we really want to be ruled by armies of people with this outlook, whom Obama would bring in, all up and down the federal government?"
Are you referring to people like Michelle Obama, only 175 lbs heavier, who park their Escalade in handicapped parking, are constantly angry, who take rotating Monday's and Friday's off on sick leave, take extended lunch hours to attend every liberal commemorative event, have two or three on-going employment grievances or claims of workplace discrimination, and eat at their desks all day long? Is this who you are referring to?
Biden may be arrogant and vain, but he has an odd charm as everyman's nightmare when we root for him not to say something embarrassing, know that when his eyes start spinning he will and can't stop—and know that we will end up either not taking it too seriously or feeling bad for him that he did. I have heard a lot of conservatives rattle off all the reasons why Biden is duplicitious, a bully, and often mean-spirited—before ending up with an inexplicable sigh, "But I sort of like Joe Biden." Even weirder—I sort of do too, but don't know quite why either.
Posted by: Mike ||
09/11/2008
09:00 ||
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Ah..I sort of like Stupid Joe too, probably because I feel a bit sorry for the dumbest man in the Senate.
The world watched as the horror of September 11 unfolded. The attacks were filmed in real time; mass murder played out on our televisions and computer screens in what must be the most digitally documented loss of human life in history. Yet an Internet-driven conspiracy theory soon emerged, maintaining that the American government, and not al-Qaida, was behind the attacks. To quote from one online screed: "The actual forces behind the conception, planning, and execution of this seminal event came not from bearded Islamic extremists living in a cave in Afghanistan, but from within high-level rogue elements of our own government."
Such claims would be dismissible, somewhere between offensive and absurd, if not for the fact that in the seven years since the attacks, the conspiracy theory has steadily won converts. In a September 2007 Scripps Howard poll, 62 percent of Americans surveyed said that it was either "very likely" or "somewhat likely" that the federal government "had specific warnings of the 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington, but chose to ignore those warnings"--phrasing that might include government incompetence as well as outright conspiracy. But in another poll in July 2006, Scripps had already found that 36 percent of Americans believed the federal government "either assisted in the 9/11 attacks or took no action" because it "wanted to go to war in the Middle East." Sixteen percent, meanwhile, thought that it might have been secret explosives that brought down the World Trade Center, while 12 percent said that a U.S. cruise missile--and not a hijacked airplane--hit the Pentagon.
Type "9/11" and "conspiracy" into Google and you'll get over 8 million page matches. Purple bumper stickers reading 9/11 WAS AN INSIDE JOB have become ubiquitous. The documentary Loose Change, an account of the supposed conspiracy produced by upstate New York twentysomethings, has been viewed on YouTube more than 1.5 million times. And this summer, petitioners have been stopping New Yorkers on street corners, seeking signatures for a ballot initiative that would create "a new, independent investigation of the attacks" to "follow the evidence wherever it might lead." These folks seem more earnest and engaged than the grim, grizzled, Lyndon LaRouche--inspired conspiracists of the past, perhaps because they're surfing a pop-culture wave of validation. Like characters in The X Files, they believe that "the truth is out there."
Continued on Page 49
#1
The problem is that the liberal elites can not handle moral clarity and can not deal with simple evil.
Instead they want to deal with shades of grey and "It's partly our fault".
It's much easier to believe that there is a rogue conspiracy in the white house than to believe that some goat f**king camel herders are trying to bring us back to a 7th century standard of living. Yet that is exactly what they are doing and are willing to die trying.
These liberal elites are willing to do anything to avoid looking at the real world, and I don't know if anything can be done to change their mind.
For them to change they'd have to admit that evil exists in this world and George W. Bush didn't create it. It also means you might have to protect your friends and family and military training might be useful. It also means admitting that our NCOs and officers know what they are doing and are trying to save your life.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
09/11/2008 12:32
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Here are a few thoughts of my own on the lipstick on a pig moment . . . .
First, demonstrating that McCain had used the same phrase before doesn't cut it. The reason the pig idea popped into Barack Obama's mouth is that Palin had used the pitbull and lipstick joke in her speech. Can anyone doubt that? So Obama was using it as a jibe against her. This was monumentally foolish. And this raises questions about Obama's character.
Second, the character question it raises is not that he is a sexist or that he lacks courtesy. It is that he folds under pressure. Obama has looked amazingly uncomfortable under the pressure that Palin has put him under. He relies on his cool - it is a core part of his appeal. So he looks bad when he loses it. During the Hillary contest he rarely came under any pressure from the media. When he did he reacted badly.
So the problem caused by Palin isn't really about Palin - it's about Obama.
Which brings me to the third point. Obama cannot change how Palin is seen anywhere near as much as he thinks he can. He needs to work on how he is seen. But, as Jay Cost argues, he hasn't been disciplined enough to do this.
Posted by: Mike ||
09/11/2008
08:46 ||
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#1
And this raises questions about Obama's character.
Not for me it hasn't. I never had a question, none at all.
#4
I guess Barry was literally screaming into the mike at one Michigan appearance yesterday. Wonderful. The asshat's nerves are really going to fray as the day of the first debate, Sept. 26, approaches. The two bit fraud and liar is starting to unravel. And, yeah, Slow Joe, is bound to shit in his shoe on a daily basis. They ought to announce that due to an unsuspected infection, they've had to wire his jaws shut.
That's the point. Obama was trying to be clever. And wasn't. He was trying to return a jibe. And didn't. He wasn't being nasty, he was just being clumsy.
That's the real problem for the Democrats: they have a clumsy candidate who isn't ready for prime time. Again.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/11/2008 11:31
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#6
By the right putting lipstick on a pig, they've exposed the left for polishing a turd.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
09/11/2008 11:45
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#8
Lest we forget. You put lipstick on a pig and it's still lipstick. Obama is what he is, lipstick or no. This little mistatement on his part helps bring out the true inner man in Obama. The debates are likely to bring out a thousand little flashlights probing the depths of his character.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
09/11/2008 12:03
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#9
Someone the other day, might've been Hewitt, was calling him "Glass Jaw Obama". Given his performance over the past week or so that strikes me as very appropriate.
#10
Well, ole' BS Biden might not be around for too much longer if the rumors flying around are true - Obamessiah might dump him for Queen Hill.
I laugh because I wouldn't give good odds on Obamessiah surviving his first term with Hillary as his VP - just a heartbeat away from the Oval Office, if you get what I mean...
The rally was extremely crowded, long lines, etc., so my cousin put A up on her shoulders to see the goings on. At one point, they were approached by a McCain/Palin aide who asked if theyÂ’d like to meet Sarah Palin. Uhm, yes, please, they said, and were led behind a black stage curtain to wait.
As the rally was breaking up, John McCain made his way to their area. My cousin said he approached, greeted them, patted AÂ’s head, but then, with the crush of people, was quickly swept away. Cousin was hoping to get a picture with him, but there he went, so they just focused on waiting for Sarah. Moments later, though, McCain made his way back through that sea of people to my cousin, my aunt, and little A. HereÂ’s what my cousin said about that:
I have to say that my Mom and I were both impressed with him so much. You would have to experience it. I donÂ’t know that I can put words to it, but he was so kind, humble, gentle, and compassionate. When he spoke to us he looked right in our eyes. He thanked us with such gratitude and told us that Sarah really wanted to see us. He posed for a picture and then he was gone.
Finally, Sarah approached. More from my cousin:
I can’t give you the conversation by word, but she said, “Awwww” and kind of melted when she saw A. She asked her name and age. Then she hugged her. She actually got watery eyes (ed. 3rd and 4th pictures below, you can kind of see that). Remember, even though she is Governor, VP candidate, she is still new to the world of DS. She said she was so glad we brought A to see her. She just kept smiling and looking at A. I told her we brought a gift for Trig and gave her the t-shirt. (ed. Cousin ordered a t-shirt for Trig that said “fearfully and wonderfully made.” I thought that was sweet.) I told her that I have such admiration for her because when A was Trig’s age, I was still crying …. Oh yeah, I just remembered - A blew kisses to both John McCain and to Sarah during our little visits.
Here is the 2008 edition of the "Never Forget" archive. This collection has been assembled over the years, with much input from other Rantburgers. Feel free to add to the list in the comments section.
Jim Dwyer, Eric Lipton, Kevin Flynn, James Glanz and Ford Fessenden. "Fighting to Live as the Towers Died"New York Times (LRR) -- an incredibly detailed reconstruction of the 102 minutes between the first attack and the final collapse.
Editorial, "Common Valor"Wall Street Journal -- ". . . in the midst of tragedy we do well to recognize that these firefighters did not lose their lives. They gave them."
Peggy Noonan, "Courage Under Fire"Wall Street Journal -- "Three hundred firemen. This is the part that reorders your mind when you think of it. For most of the 5,000 dead were there--they just happened to be there, in the buildings, at their desks or selling coffee or returning e-mail. But the 300 didn't happen to be there, they went there. In the now-famous phrase, they ran into the burning building and not out of the burning building. They ran up the stairs, not down, they went into it and not out of it. They didn't flee, they charged. "
"Mysterious Â’Red BandannaÂ’ Man Is 9/11 Hero" WNBC-TV -- The story of Wells Crowther, an equities trader and volunteer firefighter who worked in 2 WTC, and was as much a hero as anyone that day.
Vincent Druding, "Ground Zero: a Journal"First Things -- account of an early volunteer in the recovery effort
Rod Dreher, "The Hole in the Skyline"National Review Online -- "Every morning when I open the door to go to work, there is a hole in the sky where the World Trade Center used to be, a memento mori, a reminder of death. Not just the death of the 2,800, but of death itself, and the impermanence of all things human. That hole is the first thing I see in the morning when I leave my house, and the last thing I see at night before I come inside for my supper."
Bruce Springsteen, "The Rising" -- About a firefighter at the WTC. I can't forgive Springsteen his later embrace of moonbattery, but he's a talented songwriter, and this is one time he got it exactly right.
Steven Den Beste, "The First Anniversary" -- "In America we remember. We remember people who made choices. We remember an unforgivable attack. We remember people who refused to submit, and chose to die well, defiant to the end. We remember two words: Let's roll."
James Lileks, "The Daily Bleat" 9/13/01 -- "The men on the plane decided to attack the hijackers. They learned what had happened in New York with the other hijacked planes; they figured their lives were lost already. They fought back. What itÂ’s like to swallow your terror and act is beyond the imagination of most ordinary folks - but the point is, they were ordinary folks. WeÂ’re all on that plane now." 9/14/01 -- "The planes are landing again. I saw them fly over the house tonight and I wanted to, and did, cheer. Waved them past. Gnat waved hello as well. ItÂ’s a heartening sight." the week of 9/17-21/01 -- "IÂ’m tired of people who can watch 5,000 people from 62 nations burned alive and crushed to death, and think: well, you know you had this coming." 9/11/02 -- "WeÂ’re going to win. We donÂ’t have any choice." 9/11/03 -- "Two years in; the rest of our lives to go." 9/8/06 -- "Just so you know: 9/11 reset the clock for me. All hands went to midnight. IÂ’m interested in what people did after that date, and if the movie [The Path to 9/11] shows that before the attack one side lacked feck and the other was feck-deficient, I don't worry about it. It's like revisiting Congressional debates about Hawaiian harbor security in November 1941. Y'all get a pass. The Etch-A-Sketch's turned over. Now: what have you said lately?"
James Lileks, "Buzz.mn" 9/11/07 -- "For my birthday my daughter gave me a deck of cards: Go Ask Dad. Each card has a question about what I liked when I was a kid, what I wanted to be, what music I liked. Every night we read a few cards. Last night's question: what was the most important event that had taken place in my lifetime? I couldn't answer that one. Not yet. She's only seven."
John Derbyshire, "Two years on"National Review -- a tribute to "small teams of inconceivably brave men and women, working in strange places, unknown and unacknowledged"
Larry Miller, "Two Years"Weekly Standard -- "That's the choice: Stop, or keep going; keep our promises, or forget we made them; be responsible, or irresponsible; face facts, or ignore them. It's easier to stop, you know. Beating these folks will take a very long time. Decades, probably, and that's if we do everything right."
Steven Green, "Terrorized? Hell No!"VodkaPundit (blog posting) -- "Remember, too, our just vengeance. Our president told us, 'I hear you, the rest of the world hears you, and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.' And they do hear us, in Iraq and in Afghanistan. They hear us, not because we used our weapons to murder their civilians, but to bring down their tyrants. From our loss, we gave them hope. The loss felt in Baghdad and Kabul is that of Sisyphus without his stone. The sound they hear is the ring of freedom. And they hear us, even if only a whisper, in Syria, in Iran, and - yes - they hear us in Saudi Arabia, too."
Peggy Noonan, "A Heart, a Cross, a Flag"Wall Street Journal -- "On Sept. 10, 2001 we were, a lot of us, immersed in a national culture--a big, vivid, full-network, broadband, opens-soon-at-a-theater-near-you culture--that allowed us to live knee deep in distraction. . . . And then Sept. 11 came." "I Just Called to Say I Love You,"Wall Street Journal -- "This is what I get from the last messages. People are often stronger than they know, bigger, more gallant than they'd guess. And this: We're all lucky to be here today and able to say what deserves saying, and if you say it a lot, it won't make it common and so unheard, but known and absorbed. I think the sound of the last messages, of what was said, will live as long in human history, and contain within it as much of human history, as any old metallic roar."
Victor Davis Hanson, "The Great Divide"National Review -- "It will require an economist, politician, historian, philosopher, and artist to make sense of the world turned upside down after September 11, which unlike Y2K really did prove to be the abyss between the millennia." "Lessons in War"National Review -- "Bin Laden’s killers tore off a great scab on September 11; at once they exposed to billions the evil of radical Islam and with it the Western world’s shock, fright, and difficulty in confronting it and defeating it. That uncertainty ultimately does not arise from our enemies, but from within ourselves — this strange disease of thinking we fight back too much when we often do too little."
George W. Bush, Address to a Joint Session of Congress and the American People September 20, 2001 -- "The course of this conflict is not known, yet its outcome is certain. Freedom and fear, justice and cruelty, have always been at war, and we know that God is not neutral between them."
Never forgive, never forget, never excuse.
Posted by: Mike ||
09/11/2008
08:29 ||
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#1
The day 7th century barbarism came to the US.
I hate those guys to this day and sincerly hope they are rotting in hell.
Pigs.
JEDDAH: Outstanding memorizers of the holy QurÂ’an from centers in Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia and South America were honored during a ceremony organized by the Holy QurÂ’an Memorization International (HQMI) at Lailaty Hall here.
Makkah Gov. Prince Khaled Al-Faisal distributed gifts to memorizers and supervisors of the QurÂ’an study centers run by the organization in the five continents. The melodious QurÂ’an recitation by children from different countries added color to the event.
Abdullah Basfar, secretary-general of HQMI, said an international conference on the Holy Qur'an would be held in Makkah next year.
He said Crown Prince Sultan has donated SR25 million to HQMI in the form of an endowment. As many as 3,090 students have graduated from HQMIÂ’s QurÂ’an study centers in different parts of the world this year, he added.
“We have conducted nearly 200 local Qur’an recitation competitions and 71 training courses for teachers, sent 4,478 imams to different countries to lead Taraweeh prayers, and distributed 280,000 Qur’an copies and cassettes,” Basfar said.
Ahmed Mohammad Ali, president of the Islamic Development Bank and a member of HQMIÂ’s board of directors, said the organization runs 69 QurÂ’an learning institutes in 60 countries with more than 5,000 students. It also sponsors 952 QurÂ’an study classes.
“The organization has set out a strategic plan for the next 10 years,” Basfar said, adding that the plan would be a good reference for Qur’an memorization centers in different parts of the world. He said HQMI had given scholarships to 237 students for higher studies.
Basfar said as many as 20,683 students have so far graduated from the QurÂ’an study centers and institutes run by the organization in different countries.
A scientific forum titled “Toward developing an international reference for Qur’an teaching” was held as part of HQMI’s annual event with the participation of scholars from different parts of the Islamic world.
HQMI, which is an affiliate of the Makkah-based Muslim World League, is the first such organization formed to take care of the QurÂ’an and promote its message. The organization also has a ladiesÂ’ wing in order to conduct various activities among women.
#1
Ah yes, seems the moderators here are allowing pro-Islamic propaganda for the Religion of Terror.
Posted by: Grins Oppressor of the Pixies4430 ||
09/11/2008 9:25
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#2
Hey. Moderators. Is this how you plan to remember 9/11 all day today? By posting propaganda crap brought to you by the same people who brought us 9/11????????????????
#4
This is not propaganda. It is more like anti-propaganda and has its place in Rantburg. JFM
WTF!
3000 people were killed in America this date 7 years ago. 4000 of our troops have been killed fighting these cockroaches. And Rantburg is celebrating this carnage by posting numerous pro-Islamic propaganda.
#8
Never underestimate the power of one false prophet. If a billion people follow this mohammed, a billion people are wrong. The people with the ignorance to follow it now deserve what they will get.
#9
And Rantburg is celebrating this carnage by posting numerous pro-Islamic propaganda.
Hearing of people mehcanically memorizing a book (sometimes without even understanding a word: many
of those memorizers don't speak arabic) is to me and to every regular Rantburger something who makes hate still more the opression in Inslamic countries.
Not even in Stalin's Russia, in Mao's China or in Kim Jong Il's North Kora was such madneds and personality cult.
Anyone who has done intel or engaged in combat at a large-unit level knows that if you don't understand your enemy (as well as 'yourself'), you will lose.
That means you have to wade through a lot of propogand, action reports, interviews, and other information you will find distasteful and revolting.
If you can't understand that, I suggest going to LGF, or the Freepers, or any orther site where you can engage and entertain yourself in the security of your self-imposed comfort zone.
#11
I think it is particularly appropriate that we note what is going on in Saudi Arabia today. As far as I'm concerned, Saudi Arabia has never been appropriately punished for its contributions to 9/11 and the WOT.
#14
The entire Middle East needs to be picked up and shaken like a carpet. In a just world, we would have started with Saudi Arabia. Iraq was a convenient corner to grab ahold of.
#15
holy QurÂ’an from centers in Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia and South America and http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=249709&D=2008-09-11&SO=&HC=5 need to read with the understanding that the Saudis are pushing this into traditional non islamic countries, and spending billions to get their message out there.
When a proposed islamic school is planned in your neighbourhood I want to to know what they are teaching.
The root of islamic terrorism is the Qur'an.
To not understand this means you will be coninually have your freedoms pushed to the limit.
I get pissed off ever time I have to take my shoes off at the airport fully due to the religion of peace. Understanding this is vital.
Instead of asking the hard questions about what is going on in Sydney or Melbourne muslim ghettos we get told that we are racist rednecks.
These people are pushing the UN to make it illegal to even question if their idology is legitimate.
Never stop understanding what they are trying to achieve.
Grins Oppressor of the Pixies4430 you need to get your head out of your arse.
I know what is in the Quran. I have read the piece of trash from front to back. I am aware of the more militant verses:
Fight strenuously against the unbelievers. . . .
Fight those who believe not in Allah. . . .
Verily, Allah loves those who fight in his cause. . . .
The sword is the key to heaven. . . .
A drop of blood shed in the cause of Allah. . . .
A night spent in arms is of more avail than two months of fasting. . .
Whosoever falls in battle, his sins are forgiven. . . .
Allah loveth not the transgressors; kill them wheresoever you find them. . .
Take not a Jew or a Christian for your friend or protector. . . .
It hath not been granted unto any prophet that he should possess captives; until he hath made a great slaughter of the infidels in the earth. .
Make war on unbelievers until AllahÂ’s religion reigns supreme.
And I did not find those verses at Rantburg. I am aware of, by name many of the Saracens (Fatimids) of the Middle Ages, the various Islams (salafi, sunni, shia) of today, and what they did to the home, the Christian home of Clement, of Origen, of Tertullian, of Augustine, destroying the entire Christian populations of those civilizations and that now there is no longer a cross over the church of Saint John in Damascus. The cross there having been replaced with the scimitar.
On this day (today) when we are commemorating the lost lives of many thousands of Americans that these Mohammedans took from us in Manhattan, the Pentagon, Pennsylvania, the battle fields of Iraq, and Afghanistan, I don't care to hear of the "Outstanding memorizers of the Quran". ESPECIALLY on this day when we have 364 other days of the year to post such trash as the distribution of 280,000 QurÂ’ans, that even if one is handled improperly will result in jihad around the world.
I will not stoop to your level of penchant for the personal insult, either. That alone says enough about you.
Posted by: Grins Oppressor of the Pixies4430 ||
09/11/2008 20:45
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#17
On this day (today) when we are commemorating the lost lives of many thousands of Americans that these Mohammedans took from us in Manhattan, the Pentagon, Pennsylvania, the battle fields of Iraq, and Afghanistan, I don't care to hear of the "Outstanding memorizers of the Quran"...
I've already told you why it and articles of that type are posted. Even on 9-11. If you're too stupid or too angry to understand why, then that's your problem.
Thank G-d you're not in charge. You'd get me and my Marines killed just as easily due to your anger and stupidity and blindness as any it's-our-fault-leftist would.
I already suggested to you if you don't like it here, go elsewhere.
On why the Islamic world fell into backwardness, and the key to future success.
Addressing a meeting of the Indonesian Islamic Society of Brisbane (IISB) in Australia on 7th September Heru Sriwidodo Sari, founder of the Trainer Muslim Indonesia Association, worried that many parents today regarded their children's school textbooks as being more worthy of mastering than the Quran, more likely to bring success for their children later in life.
Boy howdy, there's a heretical idea. Let the young'ins learn math, science, accounting and English?
Heru said this was wrong-headed, and that for seven hundred years after the time of Muhammad the Muslim world dominated world culture and learning while at the same time the European peoples had not advanced, precisely because people held fast to Quranic study and principles.
Also because the Euros were trying to sort who the hell they were, and had to deal with a number of invasions from the east. Notice what happened after the Euros managed to get their own houses in order.
After this period of dominance, and likely near-coinciding with what is called "the great divergence" - when northern/western Europe began streaking ahead of the Arab and Asian worlds in scientific, technological, and economic achievements - Heru says Muslims neglected the Quran and herein lay the seeds of their failure until today.
They also neglected science, trade and economics, and let a bunch of fundies, suck-ups, grand viziers and fools run their governments, with the predictable results ...
In order to achieve success in this life and the next Heru said only seven verses of the Al Fatihah chapter of the Quran were necessary to be learned and repeated every time one prayed, these being:
In the name of God, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful:
Praise be to God, the Lord of the Universe.
The Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Master of the Day of Judgment.
You alone we worship, and You alone we ask for help
Guide us to the straight path;
The path of those whom You have favoured, not of those who have deserved Your anger, nor of those who stray.
This could be formulated or summarised into the following, by some uncertain process:
" vision
" potential
" opportunity
" motivation
" mission
" strategy
" action
I could turn that into a Powerpoint slide! Mebbe pink text on a green background ...
Reading the above verses would bring understanding, visualisation of goals, and obedience to God, the keys to success, Heru said.
#1
Yes, yes, yes Classer. You have won the admiration and respect of the moderators here! Congratulations on your now prolific pro-Islamic propaganda for the Religion of Terror at Rantburg!
In-Shalah!!!
Posted by: Grins Oppressor of the Pixies4430 ||
09/11/2008 9:26
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#2
I'm very confused, Grins Oppressor of the Pixies4430.
#3
Heru said this was wrong-headed, and that for seven hundred years after the time of Muhammad the Muslim world dominated world culture and learning while at the same time the European peoples had not advanced,
Thats because the muslims captured and translated all that Greek knowledge. Once we got ahold of it, it started the renissance, while the islamic world failed to keep up.
#4
I'll share an example of the Islamic world vs the Christian one. Glass was known in Roman times. After the fall of the western empire, the making of glass was forgotten in western Europe. The Islamic world still knew how to make glass and used it as decoration and fancy table sets. The Islamic world had the recipe for glass for a thousand years altogether.
Europe rediscovered how to make glass with the influx of knowledge. In less than 400 years, they improved the formula to make clear glass, large pieces of glass, lenses and other useful and scientific gadgets. It allowed them to discover the properties of light, allowed them to see planets and moons, allowed reading glasses, beakers for chemistry, protective but transparent covers for compasses to travel the world, etc.
The Islamic world continued to use it to decorate their mosques. The Islamic world fell into "backwardness" because they refused to go forward. They stayed in the 7-9th century. The rest of the world moved on into the 21st century, the Islamic world hasn't.
So, continue to cling bitterly to your religion boys. It has gotten you this far, hasn't it?
#6
It seems to me that when the Islamic world was advanced it was more to do with EUrope falling by comparison than any great achievments the Islamic world managed. It's pretty sad really but Islamic thinking is not really compatible with science. Christian thinking once had a similar problem but the Europeans got their brains around the problem (mostly) and continued advancing.
#7
When the Muslims overran the middle east they acquired the existent knowledge and people, who already dominated culture and learning. They did not force conversions, but did discriminate against non-believers and forced non-muslims to pay the special tax, jizya.
Knowledge and technilogical advance was centered in the non-muslim population, and in the educated children of recent converts (conversions to avoid discrimination and tax). When the non-muslim population dissappeared culture and progress in the middle east not only stopped, but devolved.
#9
Islamic advancement ended cold with the Persian philosopher al-Ghazali (there were several with about that spelling), in the 11th-12th Centuries. While he wrote about all sorts of sciences, the end result was that Islamic science was "frozen in time". It is still debated whether this was his intent, but it was the result.
A combination of Persian xenophobia and Koranic fundamentalism then took hold and spread through the Muslim empire. Spain was the last stronghold of innovation, before the Christians kicked out the Muslims and acquired their libraries.
Much later, fundamentalist revivals, such as Sufism and Wahabbism decreed that *only* the knowledge found in the Koran was legitimate, and that all other knowledge was corrupt, and should be ignored at worst and destroyed at best.
This was the start of the real descent of Islam into barbarism.
#14
About Muslim Golden Age. A French book who delas about transmisision of Greek culture to the West notes for one part that the work in Western (Mount Saint Micxhel Abbey between others) and Bysancian
work was much more important than the Oriental one for Europe. Also it notes that when they say you that caliphs surrounded themselves with "scinetis" the Arab word used is not the one used for mathematicians, physicists or chemists but the one for... doctors in Islamic law, Koranic studies or experts about Muhammad's life.
A defence volunteer was shot dead while he was driving students to school in the violence-plagued province of Narathiwat on Wednesday. Jeasae Dasae, 44, was shot by a gunman on a motorcycle when he stopped his vehicle, waiting for more students, to drive them to school. The attack took place about 200 meters away from Kalisa School in Rangae district. About 10 students in the pick-up truck screamed when they saw the shooting taking place. The gunman escaped and the victim was pronounced dead at hospital.
#1
Classer. Would you care to elaborate on the wonderful Islamic Religion of Terror "virtue" that justifies this murder by your fellow Mohammedans? The moderators here would seem to whole heartedly agree since they posted your wonderful, glowing, propaganda below regarding The Religion of Terror.
In an opinion piece in Commentary magazine, writer Abe Greenwald commented on Obama's belief that the 9/11 attacks were rooted in poverty and despair. "Strange," he called it, "considering our attackers were wealthy and educated, connected and ecstatic."
As Greenwald put it, Obama "could have asked (terrorist and colleague) Bill Ayers, 'Bill, did your 'failure of empathy' stem from your impoverished upbringing as the son of the CEO of Commonwealth Edison?" Did poverty and despair also cause the Weather Underground member and host of Obama's first fundraiser to bomb government buildings?
Fact is, the roster of terrorists and their handlers reads like a list of of Ivy Leaguers ....
Another in a long line of IBD editorials hammering Obama, read the whole thing. If you haven't done so, be sure to read their "Audacity of Socialism" series as well.
#1
According to Barack Obama, the madness that drove terrorists to turn passenger jets into manned cruise missiles aimed at our centers of finance, government and military power "grows out of a climate of poverty and ignorance, helplessness and despair."
BULLSHIT! 17 of the 19 of these asshats were from Saudi Arabia and they came from a privileged background. It was religious muslim ideology, fervor, a desire to take over the world and re-make it in the mold of islam, and a hatred of freedom that drove these people.
#3
poverty and ignorance, helplessness and despair."
would anyone deny that they were ignorant?
And helplessness and despair are more than economic. I thought we went into Iraq, in part, because dictatorship breeds terrorism. It does so, because the society it creates is a failure as a society, and that failure leads to humiliation of those who identify with it, even if they personally have decent jobs. And the humiliated are a recruiting ground for terrorists. thats the point of Bernard Lewis' "What went wrong" and of much pre-2003 neocon discussion of Iraq and the GWOT.
Now the above may be wrong. But its hardly the "vulgar marxism" that Greenwald implies Obamas statement is.
And helplessness and despair are more than economic.
I agree. For instance when you consider yourself to be the master race/religion and denied your rightful place as herresnvolk due to a conspuiacy of Jews/Americans.
In case my transparent alliusions aren't transparent enough this is more or less what SS believed.
So, Obama, has been tried to justify SS-like people.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/11/2008 12:45
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#6
So, Obama, has been tried to justify SS-like people
Shoud have read Obama has tried to justify SS-like people
Now, remind the "We should ask ourselves about Why they hate us?". Do you think that the people who told that idiocy would have accepted any other answer that "Baecause we are bad, bad, bad with them?"". Like "They hate us because they are bastards, bastards who think they are the master race".? Do you think any of them was indignant because Saudis, those saudis who a
mere ten yeas earlier were shaking at the knees
in front of Saddama and hiding behind American bayonets, after 9/11 beagan to wear Bin Laden T-shirts"?
I remind visting the blog of a Jewish, yes Jewish, American, female, yes female; pop singer and she told about telling to her msuicians after 9/11: "We should ask ourselves why they hate us?"
Had I had a chance of being read by her I would have told: "So the Jews, even the children, who were being gassed at Auschwitz should have twisted their hands, asked themselves Why the Nazis hate us and atoned about what they, children included, had done to the Nazis? Is that what you are saying? Couldn't thet thay hate us just be because likde the Nazis they are evil?"
And now I have heard many people tell the meme about empoverished and despaired Saudis becoming suicide bombres, but none of them was friend of teh United Sates and If I were Amaerican, even for purely egoistical reasons, the first quality I would care for a President is for him loving his country and willing teh best for it.
I would, they were well-informed and purposeful. Ignorant perhaps of the good America does in the world but that's obviously not what you're implying.
And helplessness and despair are more than economic.
A fact that right has always know but one to which the left has blinded itself post-JFK. Nice to see you coming around, bring a few of your fellow kooks with you would you please.
#8
REDDIT > RUSSIA TODAY - seems SOUTH OSSETIA's President had inferred that the US-West promised to recognize SOssetia iff it joined wid NORTH OSSETIA AND SECEDED FROM THE RUSS FEDERATION???; + WILL THE US INVADE IRAN ANY DAY NOW [Signs of coming US-Iran War]? Alleged covert, escalatory US mil buildup of MBTS + other AFVS in Afghanistan - Vehicles are considered unsuitable for any Afghan-Paki milops, but is suitable for the flat terrain of IRAN???
U.S. General David Perkins told FOX News Wednesday that the military has intercepted a letter in which senior Al Qaeda operatives reveal their fury over militants' failure to keep up with the campaign against U.S.-led forces in Iraq.
The letter, dated March 6, 2008, has been reproduced with select quotes in English. It was found on the body of Abu Nizar, believed to be the go-between between Al Qaeda's second in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and Abu Ayyub al-Masri, his leader in Iraq. Nazir was killed by Coalition Forces in Baghdad on April 24.
The letter blasts Al Qaeda in Iraq for failing to maintain communication and for poorly-planned attacks. Al Qaeda leaders also slam operatives for sending fighters into battle alone, without direction. Al-Zawahiri also criticizes them for posting videos online using archive footage of violent attacks, yet presenting them as new evidence of their success.
The letter reads, "[Abu Ayyub al-Masri]... is not strong enough to bear this great great responsibility, and is weak at [...] decision making. He is weak [...] he is totally isolated [..] this is affecting his grip on reality." The United States military said Al Qaeda in Iraq responded to the criticism with claims of being financially cut off, and unable to recruit capable new members.
Perkins told FOX News the communications show that Al Qaeda in Iraq is "psychologically bankrupt," and that it cannot raise meaningful support within in the country. He added that the numbers of Al Qaeda operatives in Iraq are a third of what they were previously. When asked what those levels were, Perkins would not release numbers.
Personally, I'm more interested in seeing iff the ISLAMIST HIDDEN IMAM-MAHDI will make an Appearance 2008-2010, Maxi NLT 2012[Mutiple Best/Opportune Conditions to do so], NOW ADD WID "HADRON" GOODNESS.
D *** NG IT, POSH SPICE = VICTORIA BECKHAM CUT HER HAIR SHORT [I Like], BUT I NEED A HAIRCUT MYSELF [theme from DRAGNET here]!
Of all the advantages Gov. Sarah Palin has brought to the GOP ticket, the most important may be that she has gotten into Barack Obama's head. How else to explain Sen. Obama's decision to go one-on-one against "Sarah Barracuda," captain of the Wasilla High state basketball champs?
It's a matchup he'll lose. If Mr. Obama wants to win, he needs to remember he's running against John McCain for president, not Mrs. Palin for vice president.
Michael Dukakis spent the last months of the 1988 campaign calling his opponent's running mate, Dan Quayle, a risky choice and even ran a TV ad blasting Mr. Quayle. The Bush/Quayle ticket carried 40 states.
Adlai Stevenson spent the fall of 1952 bashing Dwight Eisenhower's running mate, Richard Nixon, calling him "the kind of politician who would cut down a redwood tree, and then mount the stump and make a speech for conservation." The Republican ticket carried 39 of 48 states.
Consider Mr. Obama's response to CNN's Anderson Cooper, who asked him about Republican claims that Mrs. Palin beats him on executive experience. Mr. Obama responded by comparing Wasilla's 50 city workers with his campaign's 2,500 employees and dismissed its budget of about $12 million a year by saying "we have a budget of about three times that just for the month." He claimed his campaign "made clear" his "ability to manage large systems and to execute."
Of course, this ignores the fact that Mrs. Palin is now governor. She manages an $11 billion operating budget, a $1.7 billion capital expenditure budget, and nearly 29,000 full- and part-time state employees. In two years as governor, she's vetoed over $499 million from Alaska's capital budget -- more money than Mr. Obama is likely to spend on his entire campaign.
And Mr. Obama is not running his campaign's day-to-day operation. His manager, David Plouffe, assisted by others, makes the decisions about the $335 million the campaign has spent. Even if Mr. Obama is his own campaign manager, does that qualify him for president?
A debate between Mr. Obama and Mrs. Palin over executive experience also isn't smart politics for Democrats. As Mr. Obama talks down Mrs. Palin's record, voters may start comparing backgrounds. He won't come off well.
Then there was Mr. Obama's blast Saturday about Mrs. Palin's record on earmarks. He went at her personally, saying, "you been taking all these earmarks when it is convenient and then suddenly you are the champion anti-earmark person."
It's true. Mrs. Palin did seek earmarks as Wasilla's mayor. But as governor, she ratcheted down the state's requests for federal dollars, telling the legislature last year Alaska "cannot and must not rely so heavily on federal government earmarks." Her budget chief directed state agencies to reduce earmark requests to only "the most compelling needs" with "a strong national purpose," explaining to reporters "we really want to skinny it down."
Mr. Obama has again started a debate he can't win. As senator, he has requested nearly $936 million in earmarks, ratcheting up his requests each year he's been in the Senate. If voters dislike earmarks -- and they do -- they may conclude Mrs. Palin cut them, while Mr. Obama grabs for more each year.
Mr. Obama may also pay a price for his "lipstick on a pig" comment. The last time the word "lipstick" showed up in this campaign was during Mrs. Palin's memorable ad-lib in her acceptance speech. Mr. Obama says he didn't mean to aim the comment at Mrs. Palin, but he deserves all the negative flashback he gets from the snarky aside.
Sen. Joe Biden has now joined the attack on Mrs. Palin, saying this week that her views on issues show she's "obviously a backwards step for women." This is a mistake. Mr. Obama is already finding it difficult to win over independent women and Hillary Clinton voters. If it looks like he's going out of his way to attack Mrs. Palin, these voters may conclude it's because he has a problem with strong women.
In Denver two weeks ago, Mr. Obama said, "If you don't have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from." That's what he's trying to do, only the object of his painting is Sarah Palin, not John McCain.
In Mrs. Palin, Mr. Obama faces a political phenomenon who has altered the election's dynamics. Americans have rarely seen someone who immediately connects with large numbers of voters at such a visceral level. Mrs. Palin may be the first vice presidential candidate since Lyndon B. Johnson to change an election's outcome. If Mr. Obama keeps attacking her, the odds of Gov. Palin becoming Vice President Palin increase significantly.
ANd despite the title fo the article, yes Obama can still win.
Never underestimate the stupidity and cattle-like capabilities of the left. They can be driven by ferar and may cause others to join the stampede when the MSM ups the volume.
Another thing ot remember - the Obama vote is counging on "I feel" rather than "I think" voters, and there sure are a lot of them that can be bamboozled by Obama and the fear-mongering negative campaign he has gone to - and they are too stupid to genuinely scrutinize the actual sparse and poor record of Obama.
So no, don't bet on it, but keep worling ike hell to make it happen.
#7
Palin and Bolton vs Obama and Biden? Wow! Two marshmellows fighting for justice and freedom against a couple of wienies defending same old class/racial strife. Gimme a ringside seat. Doesn't get any better.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
09/11/2008 4:49
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#8
I think I've figured out What Palin contributes to McCain's campaign, and I run this by Rantburgers for comment.
It's classical WWII fighter pilot tactics: the Thatch Weave. Palin and McCain are the wingmen, with Palin the bait and McCain the hook.
#10
There really ARE two Americas. The one people live in and the media bubble one. Democrats interact with the media bubble and think they are doing well.
That is why they have so many problems with the "absurd" Sarah.
That is why they have "blown" so many elections that they, by all rights, should have won.
There is no free lunch, and the media bubble of the Democrats hurt them far more help.
Posted by: Minister of funny walks ||
09/11/2008 8:03
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#11
Bolton is advising Palin on foreign Policy?
Darth Bolton now has an apprentice! Cool!
I think the VP debates are going to be a bloodbath - especially when Biden gets all condescending.
#12
Democrats interact with the media bubble and think they are doing well.
That's the problem with monopolies. They stagnate. They lack innovation created by real competition. So when a real alternative arrives [not just some new cosmetic fins on the tail], they're unprepared. Warning. The first instinct of any monopoly so threatened is not to alter behavior and become a competitor but to garner and employ force to keep the innovators out. This usually involves political muscle with 'regulations and laws' which serve no other purpose than to continue the monopoly. Monopolies resist altering behavior to adapt to new environments. Bail outs for the bank, bail outs for the Big Three, lead logically to bail outs for the MSM by their fellow travelers.
#13
While the election is still winnable for Bambi, I think he will continue the old liberal playbook. Attack and smear. This will continue to piss off people and I think we can (and hope) see the dhimocrats taken to the woodshed this year.
Anti-government protesters have stormed public buildings in eastern Bolivia amid a deepening row between President Evo Morales and his opponents. The biggest protest was in Santa Cruz, where demonstrators raided several offices and clashed with riot police. Bolivia's energy-rich eastern provinces oppose Mr Morales's attempts to redirect gas revenues to poorer areas.
Troops have meanwhile been deployed to guard gas pipelines to guarantee exports to Brazil and Argentina.
Since last week, anti-government demonstrators have been blocking roads and occupying buildings in eastern regions, which are home to Bolivia's important natural gas reserves. But Tuesday saw an escalation of their action and some of the worst violence in the country for several months.
Hundreds of people raided the state-run telecommunications company, the tax agency, the local state TV network and the land reform institute in the city of Santa Cruz. Clashes broke out between the protesters and riot police, who were forced to take cover. Trouble also flared in the provinces of Beni, Pando, and Tarija as opposition activists raided public buildings.
"Fascist, violent and racist people attacked institutions...that belong to all Bolivians," said Interior Minister Alfredo Rada. In the Chaco area, protesters stormed a station controlling a natural gas pipeline and tried unsuccessfully to cut exports to Brazil, officials quoted by Reuters news agency said.
Bolivia has the second largest natural gas reserves in South America but they are situated in the east of the country, where Mr Morales faces his fiercest opponents. Brazil, and to a lesser extent Argentina, are Bolivia's major gas customers and any interruption to supply would have a serious effect on both economies as well as damaging Bolivia's reputation as a reliable supplier, says the BBC's Daniel Schweimler in Buenos Aires. On Monday, the government announced that soldiers were being sent to guard natural gas fields and pipelines.
"The government will not allow the interruption of natural gas exports," said Energy Secretary Carlos Villegas. Shortly afterwards Mr Villegas was moved to the development planning ministry while Saul Avalos took over at the energy ministry. The changes were part of a cabinet reshuffle seen as an attempt by President Morales to tackle the growing opposition to his plans to radically reform the way Bolivia is governed. The president wants to give more power to the country's indigenous and poor communities, by carrying out land reform and redistributing gas revenues.
Mr Morales's attempts to change the constitution are fiercely opposed by opposition governors who run five of Bolivia's nine regions. They and their supporters want greater autonomy as well as more control over revenues of natural gas in their areas.
Mr Morales is seeking approval in Congress to hold a referendum on 7 December on his proposed constitutional changes.
#1
That picture is an example of Bolivian revolution? Viva la revolution! or something like that. Maybe one of those ladies can help me with my Spanish.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
09/11/2008 5:16
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#2
Well Santa Cruz is known for its beautiful women but this photo is actually from the Autonomia Rally's Santa Cruz has been having over the past year or so.
Iran warned Tuesday that it would not hesitate to act in self-defense against Israeli threats. The Islamic Republic demanded a "resolute and clear response" from the United Nations to what it called dangerous threats against it by Israel.
A letter from Iran's U.N. Ambassador Mohammad Khazaee to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described comments by two Israeli ministers as "vicious threats ... in blatant violation of the most fundamental principles of international law."
Israel, which has the Middle East's only atomic arsenal, believes Iran could have a nuclear bomb by 2010; a development it says would threaten the existence of the Jewish state.
Khazaee said remarks attributed to Cabinet Minister Rafi Eitan by German magazine Der Spiegel this week "yet again put on display the aggressive and terrorist nature of the Israeli regime."
Der Spiegel quoted Eitan as saying in an interview that while the era of Israel hunting down former Nazi officials abroad was over, "that's not to say that such operations are a thing of the past."
Asked to explain, he was quoted as saying, "It could very well be that a leader such as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad suddenly finds himself before the International Criminal Court in The Hague."
Ahmadinejad is feared and reviled in Israel because of his repeated calls to wipe the Jewish state off the map. His aggressive pursuit of nuclear technology has only fueled Israel's fears. Iran insists its nuclear program is purely for civilian purposes. The United States, Israel and key European nations suspect its real aim is to produce atomic weapons.
Last week, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said in a televised interview that Israel was serious about using "any option" if diplomacy did not curb Iran's nuclear program.
"These dangerous threats of resorting to criminal acts ... require a resolute and clear response on the part of the United Nations, particularly the Security Council," Khazaee said.
"Iran, in accordance with its inherent right under Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, would not hesitate to act in self-defense to respond to any attack against the Iranian nation and to take appropriate defensive measures to protect itself, its people and its officials."
The Security Council has passed three rounds of sanctions against Iran because of its refusal to stop uranium enrichment, which the West fears is aimed at making atomic bombs but Tehran says is solely for power generation.
Khazaee demanded "firm action" by the U.N. Security Council over the threats from Israel, regarded by Iran as one of its main enemies along with the United States.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2008
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#1
IRNA > LARIJANI: IRAN'S BASIC POLICY IS TO SUPPORT IRAQI INDEPENDENCE + PALESTINIAN ISSUE [Settlement/Lands + Rights + Govt] IS THE CENTRAL/CRUCIAL ISSUE OF THE MUSLIM WORLD.
HMMMMM, IMO I would argue the ISLAMISTS, etc. ARE SMELLING RUSS + ASIAN "BLOOD IN THE WATER" + GOING FULL MONTY TO LEGALLY FORMALLY ENTRENCH = EXPAND THE MUSLIM-ISLAMIST [Multi]REGIONAL POSITION.
(AKI) - By Syed Saleem Shahzad - The Taliban was fighting a "defensive war" in Afghanistan and had no desire to conduct violent attacks in other countries, a key Taliban leader said on Wednesday. "We just want to be left alone to oppress our people in peace." Mullah Abdul Jalil, former Afghan foreign minister under the Taliban and pioneer of the movement in the 1990s, also told Adnkronos International (AKI) that it had nothing to do with Pakistan's Tehrik-i-Taliban or its violent attacks. "The Taliban are fighting a defensive war in Afghanistan and we don't have any aggressive agenda against any nation," Mullah Jalil told AKI. "We have nothing to do with Al-Qaeda or any other group's agenda. "The occasional Arab, central Asian, Chechen, Mongol, Guantamalan, Urdmurt or Hottentot corpse you see isn't with us. Somebody left it here."
"We abide by our own code of conduct known as Asasi Qanoon (Basic Law) which clearly says that we would not disrupt the normal life in any country of the world. Even tomorrow, if NATO forces withdrew as a result of our resistance, we would keep a peaceful co-existence with all nations of the world," Mullah Jalil elaborated.
Mullah Jalil has always been part of the inner circle of Mullah Omar, the reclusive leader of the Taliban of Afghanistan and the country's de facto head of state from 1996 to 2001. He was deputy foreign minister during the Taliban regime removed in December 2001 and once served as foreign minister. Like many other Taliban, he has reservations about Al-Qaeda. But he preferred not to comment on the issue as Mullah Omar supported Pushtunwali, a tribal code of honor, which defends anyone who seeks protection.
Abdul Jalil said that the Afghan Taliban had nothing to with Pakistan's Tehrik-i-Taliban, the main Taliban militant umbrella group in Pakistan and never approved of violence in Pakistan. "We never approved suicide attacks in Pakistan or Gulf countries," he said. "This strategy is only for Afghanistan because of western occupation forces. People were often confused between the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Taliban (led by Baitullah Mehsud) and the Taliban. We have nothing to do with them. "Honest we don't."
"In fact, we individually spoke to every group engaged in violence in Pakistan to stop them fighting against the Pakistani security troops and we don't allow them to come into our areas," Mullah Jalil said.
Mullah Abdul Jalil said that whatever the Taliban did during its rule in Afghanistan was merely upholding Islamic law.
On Tuesday, US President George W. Bush, announced 8,000 troops would be withdrawn from Iraq while an extra 4,500 would be sent to Afghanistan within the next few months to counter an increasing number of attacks by the Taliban. Bush said Afghan soldiers were "courageous" but needed help and that it was important to rebuild education and infrastructure in the country.
This article starring:
Tehrik-i-Taliban
Baitullah Mehsud
Tehrik-i-Taliban
Mullah Abdul Jalil
Taliban
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2008
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#1
Yeah, that's why you send suicide bombers into market places full of women and children. It's defensive. That's why you use woman and children as human shields to hide behind. That's defensive. That's why you have to travel from Pakistan into Afghanistan with Pakistani and other non-Afghan recruits to spread your death. That's defensive.
#3
"We abide by our own code of conduct known as Asasi Qanoon (Basic Law) which clearly says that we would not disrupt the normal life in any country of the world."
You aided and abetted Osama bin Laden to disrupt the normal life in my country seven years ago today, you lying son of a b*tch, so you can hide in a cave or face your death sentence from the air. Seven years and two hours ago I was on an airplane backing away from the terminal when my normal life was disrupted.
(VOI) - National police forces on Wednesday arrested 15 wanted gunmen during military operations conducted in Diala, a security source said. "National police forces conducted a military operation in Buhriz, 5 km south of Baaquba, capturing 15 gunmen on a wanted list including a commander of the self-proclaimed Army of Mujaheddin." Since July, Iraqi security forces have conducted a large-scale operation codenamed as Bashaer al-Kheer (Promise of Good) to crack down on gunmen and to assert the rule of law in Diala. The self-proclaimed Army of Mujaheddin is an armed groups that has come to the front since 2003. It claimed responsibility for a number of attacks.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2008
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The windows are wide open and birds are singing in the trees outside. The Kabul traffic hums in the distance. Abit (21) and not looking a year more in his jaunty cap and black shalwar kameez, is sitting in the headquarters of the National Security Directorate, the Afghan intelligence service, and talking about how he became a suicide bomber.
"So I drove the truck towards the base," he says. "I was not thinking of anything. I just kept saying 'allahu akbar, allahu akbar' [God is great, God is great]."
He is not from these parts, Abit says, and that is part of the reason he is talking. The Afghan government is keen to underline the role that they say Pakistan -- or at least some Pakistanis -- play in the violence in Afghanistan. Foreign journalists who struggle through the bureaucracy and can pull a few strings can get interviews with detainees, in the company of their jailers. The conditions are not ideal but the stories of young men like Abit are revealing nonetheless, not least for the number of common elements they share with other accounts from suicide bombers interviewed elsewhere. Abit comes from Bahwalpur, in the eastern Pakistani province of Punjab. He is not, therefore, Afghan nor even from the Pashtun tribes that straddle the Afghan-Pakistani frontier like the majority of average Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2008
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A South Korean cargo ship with Korean and Myanmarese sailors aboard was seized by pirates off the coast of Somalia Wednesday, diplomatic sources said. Eight Koreans and 13 Myanmarese were on the 15,000-ton ship when it was seized at 0700 GMT, the sources told the Yonhap news agency.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2008
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#1
They had better pray the South Korea doesnt send the ROK Marines to get it back. ROK Marines are some of the toughest SOBs on the planet. Ask anyone that's served with them.
#3
Okay, as much money as there is in international shipping, I guess the owners aka morons have never heard of decoy ships or the trojan ships. How about sending an innocent looking boat and filling it with troops. As soon as the schmucks come on board, everyone can yell surprise!!!
#6
Are the Somali pirates just grabbing anything heading towards the Suez? Perhaps we need to either (a) blow the crap out of them (b) start convoys for safety.
Naturally I prefer option (a). It also gives a chance for a smaller nation to step up.
#7
The closest I've ever come to dying in this world was the day I walked up behind a ROK Marine, and said "excuse me". My dad taught me to walk quietly in the woods back home when we'd go hunting together. It's NOT a good thing to do around ROK Marines. At least MSgt Ho had a sense of humor.
This is one of those times when there still needs to be a couple of battleships afloat. Let one of those stand off and start shelling the port where these ships are taken. It's almost as satisfying an experience as an ARCLIGHT strike - except for those on the receiving end.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
09/11/2008 14:17
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#8
I like the idea of a transport ship full of Marines. ROK, UK, USA whatever. That would board random ships and then ride them through the straights hoping the ship is attacked.
Either that or a few forward air spotters aboard ships and a spooky gunship above. If pirate ships started disappearing in a spray of saltwater and blood it wouldn't be long before the problem sort of stopped.
#9
The West needs to setup a couple of dozen Q-ships and send them into the worst of the areas infested with pirates. After the first dozen or so slaughters of the attacking pirates, piracy will quiet down again. International law is quite clear on the permissible level of force against pirates -- whatever it takes to stop them is the standard that has been in operation since the 1630s.
The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff has called for a new strategy in Afghanistan which will deny militants bases across the border in Pakistan.
Adm Mike Mullen said he had asked for a "a new, more comprehensive military strategy for the region that covers both sides of that border". The US must work closely with Pakistan to "eliminate [the enemy's] safe havens", he told Congress.
Pakistan insists it will not allow foreign forces on to its territory. "There is no question of any agreement or understanding with the coalition forces whereby they are allowed to conduct operations on our side of the border," said Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff, Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.
A surge of US attacks in Pakistan's border region over the past week has prompted outrage from the government and army.
Now stating it as a strategy will only add to the pressure on Pakistan's new President, Asif Ali Zardari, as he grapples with the militants, the BBC's James Coomarasamy reports from Washington.
'Inextricably linked'
Adm Mullen was speaking a day after US President George W Bush announced that about 4,500 extra US troops would be sent to Afghanistan by February 2009, boosting the 33,000 currently in the country.
Addressing the House Armed Services Committee, he argued that militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan were waging a common fight. "In my view, these two nations are inextricably linked in a common insurgency that crosses the border between them," he said. "We can hunt down and kill extremists as they cross over the border from Pakistan... but until we work more closely with the Pakistani government to eliminate the safe havens from which they operate, the enemy will only keep coming."
Adm Mullen conceded the challenge was great, pointing to Afghanistan's drugs and economic problems, and the "significant political uncertainty" in Pakistan.
'Reckless actions'
However, Pakistan's military chief said in a statement that his country's "sovereignty and territorial integrity" would be "defended at all cost".
Gen Kayani also expressed concern about a cross-border raid by foreign troops on 4 September in which at least 15 Pakistani villagers were killed. "Such reckless actions only help the militants and further fuel the militancy in the area," he was quoted as saying. The army spokesman said the general had aimed to dispel impressions in the media that he had granted permission for US raids.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2008
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Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
09/11/2008 5:55
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#3
Yeah. When they raise his hand and let go, he is able to flop it back down on the bed unassisted.
LOL Gorb! It's tough being at the Top...
Being a Great Leader is no picnic. The sacrifices I make for the people gives me one hell of an appetite, but life can be so unfair.
The damnable Drs. say I shouldn't be eating so many rare fattened green peasants children but I was famished. You know they gave my father [Great Leader l] one hell of lot of gas too.
Posted by: The Great Leader ll ||
09/11/2008 6:19
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#4
You never really "recover" from a stroke. It's going to be a council of generals if he's too slow to keep on top.
#5
While I sincerely hope Kim Jong is a vegetable I have to take issue with the statement that " You never really "recover" from a stroke.
I have, as completely as if there never was one in the first place, all that continues to be affected is my wallet.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/11/2008 12:40
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#6
I heard he had lunch with Yasser Arafat and Fidel Castro yesterday
Posted by: James Carville ||
09/11/2008 15:28
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#7
#5 While I sincerely hope Kim Jong is a vegetable I have to take issue with the statement that " You never really "recover" from a stroke.
I have, as completely as if there never was one in the first place, all that continues to be affected is my wallet.
I agree Redneck Jim there are lots of folks who make complete recoveries from strokes.
During one of my abdominal reconstruction surgeries "I threw some blood clots" into my left lung? [or right one?]. Well I didn't feel a thing but still had to take Coumadin for 6 months.
Watching paint dry is way more exciting than Watching clots dissolve.
>;)
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
09/11/2008 22:08
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#8
IMA NOT SAYIN THAT A BRAIN STROKE IS THE SAME AS CLOTS IN THE LUNG.
NOPERS... A BRAIN STROKE IS WORSER... ~:)
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
09/11/2008 22:14
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#9
Tonight Jay Leno showed the trailer for the new movie "Weekend at Kim Jong-il's"
When Palin was announced, people have been saying Obama would throw Biden under the bus. Sounds like that is about to happen. Prepare for Obama to announce Hillary as VP. And I think Hillary would do it before allowing another woman to take the White House before her.
ABC News' Matthew Jaffe Reports: Barack Obama's vice-presidential nominee Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., Wednesday said that Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, might have been a better pick for the position than him.
At a rally in Nashua, New Hampshire, a man in the audience told Biden how glad he was that Obama picked him over Hillary "not because she's a woman, but because look at the things she did in the past."
"Make no mistake about this," Biden responded. "Hillary Clinton is as qualified or more qualified than I am to be vice president of the United States of America. LetÂ’s get that straight. SheÂ’s a truly close personal friend, she is qualified to be president of the United States of America, sheÂ’s easily qualified to be vice president of the United States of America and quite frankly it might have been a better pick than me.
#1
It's probably phishing. They want to halt the flow of women voters towards McCain/Palin camp. A carrot, as it were. I doubt that Hillary would take it. Her ego is not diminutive by any meter and she probably already assessed that the ship is sinking and she'd blow her chances for the top prize in 2012.
#4
Hmmm...anyone know if hairplugs can create a "sudden medical crisis?"
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
09/11/2008 2:25
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#5
Biden had a leaking brain aneurysm in 1988 which put him out of action for seven months. If one were deceptive enough to be looking for a convenient excuse to drop out of the race, that would be it. (It's also a deadly serious medical problem, which I would not wish on him.)
Posted by: Mike ||
09/11/2008 7:58
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#6
It's probably phishing. They want to halt the flow of women voters towards McCain/Palin camp. A carrot, as it were
Biden made a point of also saying he and Clinton were close. That's pitching himself as her surrogate on the ticket, not setting himself up for leaving.
#7
Throwing Biden under the bus will play into the hands of those who deride Obama's lack of experience. If you can't figure out who your VP should be, maybe you should look for another line of work.
#8
I agree, changing VPs now would be stupid. What Obama needs to do is stop worrying about Palin and get Biden to deal with her. That way it's vp to vp and he's insulated. That's what he should have done since she was announced but she really got under his skin.
#10
"It's probably phishing. They want to halt the flow of women voters towards McCain/Palin camp."
Good point. Of course, if they don't follow through, it'll only make matters worse come November. But that's then. Right now, Obama is scrambling, improvising, and floundering from one news cycle to the next. It's not pretty.
Posted by: Minister of funny walks ||
09/11/2008 11:43
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#11
Right now, Obama is scrambling, improvising, and floundering from one news cycle to the next. It's not pretty.
What do you mean it's "not pretty"? I think it is glorious! I haven't enjoyed an election this much in a long time.
I can't wait for election day, I'm almost giddy thinking about how despondent the Dims will be when the Zero crashes and burns.
#15
Not gonna happen, not considering how the donation flow has dried up and they cannot even afford to give a few stickers or buttons the Girl Scouts for crissakes, how do you expect them to rationalze tossing all the Messiah/Plug stuff for Zero/Pantsuit? Whiteout costs alone would be huge......
#16
Throwing Biden under the bus will play into the hands of those who deride Obama's lack of experience.
Yep but that doesn't mean that he won't panic and try it anyway. More likely he'll announce that he'll appoint the Hildebeeste to the S.Ct. or a cabinet post.
#17
Yep but that doesn't mean that he won't panic and try it anyway [Thrown Under The Bus]. More likely he'll announce that he'll appoint the Hildebeeste to the Supreme Court or a cabinet post.
They [Obama's Camp] better never run out of Beano or Hiz Vice Presidential Gas Bag poofter will disapear in one long fart.
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
09/11/2008 16:33
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#18
Biden just blabs constantly, nothing he says means anything. And I agree that Clinton would never take second-banana to Obama; he won't win and that would tank Hillary for 2012.
Posted by: Chris W. ||
09/11/2008 17:44
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Biden may be the first Obamanaut to climb under the bus willingly. Given that a bus is pretty massive, it may not be the worst place to hide when faced with incoming lipstick-coated rounds.
CARACAS (AFP) -- Two Russian Tu-160 strategic bombers were in Venezuela on Wednesday for "training flights," Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said, adding he would be piloting one of the aircraft.
"I hope that stings, 'pitiyanquis'," he said, using a derogatory term for Venezuelan opponents who have perceived US sympathies.
"What's more, I'm going to take the controls of one of these monsters," boasted the president, a former paratrooper and left-wing politician who has avowed antagonism towards the United States. "It's been a while since these planes have been around these parts, and Russia decided a couple of years ago to revive its strategic aviation program," Chavez said during the inauguration of a medical center.
Chavez also said plans for joint Russian-Venezuelan naval exercises in the region in November were currently being worked out, and said his closeness to the Kremlin would result in a cooperation that would "strengthen the country."
His announcement confirmed an Interfax report in Russia citing the Russian defense ministry saying the bombers would be in Venezuela for training flights over "neutral waters."
Russia said Monday it was dispatching a nuclear cruiser and other warships and planes to the Caribbean for the joint exercises with Venezuela -- the first such maneuvers in the US vicinity since the Cold War. A spokesman for the Russian navy said Monday that the November maneuvers would take place under an agreement sealed when the leaders of the two countries met in Moscow in July.
Among the Russian ships to take part in the exercises would be the heavy nuclear-powered guided missile cruiser Peter the Great, a vessel with massive firepower whose cruise missiles can deliver nuclear or conventional warheads.
Foreign ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said Monday that the exercises were "not in any way connected to the current situation in the Caucasus," and were "not aimed at any third country."
Analysts said the Russian navy presence in Venezuela was more symbolic than military, though it did nothing assuage fears that Cold War-type tensions were building.
Thomas Gomart of the Paris-based French Institute of International Relations noted that, up to now, Russia had contented itself with selling arms, notably fighter-bombers, to Caracas. But the announcement of the Caribbean maneuvres seemed to be both an overt challenge to US power and a gesture of support to Chavez's radical policies, he said.
The Tupolev Tu-160 bombers were tracked by NATO jets on their flight to Venezuela, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported, citing the defense ministry.
The planes -- huge supersonic combat aircraft similar to the US B1 bombers, capable of flying long missions with a heavy payload -- are capable of carrying nuclear or conventional bombs and/or cruise and guided missiles. According to a specialist military website, Globalsecurity.org, there are 14 of the bombers in the Russian air force, after a 2003 crash destroyed one of them.
Sources in the Venezuelan defense ministry told AFP the Russian bombers were currently at El Libertador air base in the northern town of Palo Negro, in Aragua state.
Posted by: john frum ||
09/11/2008
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#2
RUSSIA is reportedly interested in "TEMPORARILY BASING" ASW AIRCRAFT in the area, and allegedly one or a few surface warships includ at least one NUKE MISSLE-ARMED VESSEL???
#3
Two Russian Tu-160 strategic bombers were in Venezuela on Wednesday for "training flights," Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said, adding he would be piloting one of the aircraft.
"I hope that stings, 'pitiyanquis'," he said, using a derogatory term for Venezuelan opponents who have perceived US sympathies.
"What's more, I'm going to take the controls of one of these monsters," boasted the president...
Hugo, monsters don't scare Americans. Not even our women. This is what our American women do to monsters. Our babes will just "kill-it and grill-it", chump!!
#10
Along with all this crap comes the news from the FAA that direct flights from Venezula to the US cannot be guaranteed safe since Venezula will not allow our security measures to be enacted on those flights.
Seems to me that if the FAA knows this they should be able to deny entry into US airspace. More testicular atrophy from the second most useless governmental agency(TSA owns the top spot, IMHO).
#12
per this link, FAA clearance is needed to enter controlled airspace. that clearance is granted by the respective air traffic control center. that doesn't prevent an unauthorized entry, but upon landing there will be 'dire consequences.'
http://www.gaservingamerica.org/how_work/work_airspace.htm
#13
From TSA Website: September 8, 2008
Contact: TSA Public Affairs
571-227-2829
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Transportation Security Administration (TSA) today announced that the agency has been unable to assess security measures at international airports in Venezuela that serve as the last point of departure for nonstop flights to the United States. Venezuela has refused multiple requests to allow for such assessments, which are required by U.S. law, and the agency is taking action to warn travelers of this security deficiency.
Air carriers issuing tickets for travel between the United States and Venezuela are directed to notify ticket purchasers in writing of the situation. TSA also directed that this advisory be displayed prominently at all U.S. airports and published in the Federal Register, pursuant to Title 49 U.S.C., Section 114. The order is effective immediately.
Under Title 49 of the U.S. Code, Section 44907, the Department of Homeland Security is required to assess security at foreign airports with direct service to the United States to determine compliance with standards established by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
There is a critical need for TSA officials to visit Venezuela's airports to determine both the full compliance with ICAO standards and the ability to maintain the standards. The agency will continue to work with the authorities in Venezuela to schedule visits in a timely manner.
For more information about TSA, please visit our Web site at www.tsa.gov.
Airport security may be a minor issue, compared to getting to the airport or leaving for town. Here is an excerpt of a US Dept of State advisory on their website:
SAFETY AND SECURITY: Violent crime in Venezuela is pervasive, both in the capital, Caracas, and in the interior. The country has one of the highest per-capita murder rates in the world. Armed robberies take place in broad daylight throughout the city, including areas generally presumed safe and frequented by tourists. A common technique is to choke the victim into unconsciousness and then rob them of all they are carrying. Well-armed criminal gangs operate with impunity, often setting up fake police checkpoints. Kidnapping is a particularly serious problem, with more than 1,000 reported during the past year alone. Investigation of all crime is haphazard and ineffective. In the case of high-profile killings, the authorities quickly round up suspects, but rarely produce evidence linking these individuals to the crime. Only a very small percentage of criminals are tried and convicted.
Travel to and from MaiquetÃa Airport, the international airport serving Caracas, can be dangerous and corruption at the airport itself is rampant. Travelers at the airport have been victims of personal property theft, as well as mugging and “express kidnapping” in which individuals are taken to make purchases or to withdraw as much money as possible from ATMs, often at gunpoint. The Embassy has received multiple, credible reports that individuals with what appear to be official uniforms or other credentials are involved in facilitating or perpetrating these crimes. For this reason, American citizen travelers should be wary of all strangers, even those in official uniform or carrying official identification. There are also known drug trafficking groups working from the airport. Travelers should not accept packages from anyone and should keep their luggage with them at all times.
Because of the frequency of robberies at gunpoint, travelers are encouraged to arrive during daylight hours. If not, travelers should use extra care both within and outside the airport. The Embassy strongly advises that all arriving passengers make advance plans for transportation from the airport to their place of lodging. If possible, travelers should arrange to be picked up at the airport by someone who is known to them. The Embassy has received frequent reports of armed robberies in taxicabs going to and from the airport at MaiquetÃa. There is no foolproof method of knowing whether a taxi driver at the airport is reliable. The fact that a taxi driver presents a credential or drives an automobile with official taxi license plates marked “libre” is no longer an indication of reliability. Incidents of taxi drivers in Caracas overcharging, robbing, and injuring passengers are common. Travelers should take care to use radio-dispatched taxis or those from reputable hotels. Travelers should call a 24-hour radio-dispatched taxi service from a public phone lobby or ask hotel, restaurant, or airline representatives to contact a licensed cab company for them.
Sounds like a chapter from "World's Most Dangerous Places." Heh.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/11/2008 21:53
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I was tempted to place this under WOT Operations since Jim McDermott is operating more as an enemy agent than a representive.
That's why we have 'Fifth Column' -- AoS.
Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., delivered these remarks on the House floor Tuesday:
Mr. Speaker:
For the last two years I have struggled with the issue of whether the House should consider impeachment of a sitting President.
Next to declaring war, impeachment is the gravest matter the House of Representatives must consider. I fully understand the gut-wrenching consequences such a national debate could precipitate. Yet, there is one fact we cannot overlook or escape.
American cannot regain its moral leadership in the world if America cannot hold its leaders accountable for their actions at home.
The allegations that would warrant impeachment keep growing.
They have been illuminated in many recent books including The Way of the World by Ron Suskind, the book by Vincent Bugliosi, and the new book by Bob Woodward, The War Within. None of which have much bearing in reality - and definately not admissable to any fair court.
Over five years ago, I tried to place an asterisk in the Congressional Record next to the statements about Iraq the President made to Congress. I was attacked for saying the President would mislead us into the war, but the American people ultimately learned the truth. You're right - several Investigations have shown that the President did *NOT* mislead the nation. I guess the truth you're talking about is that your an idiot.
There seems to be no end to the allegations and we have a responsibility to investigate their authenticity. That's why I am signing onto a resolution to consider impeachment of the President. Don't mind poor Jim. He has a hard time counting past 1 - never mind the number of 'investigations' which have been done into the lead-up to the war in Iraq.
Without accountability, a Democracy will fail. Does this mean that your going to resign Jim?
Thank you.
IMpeach Bush and let the energy bill rot, let the budget rot, let the war rot. Show the nation and prove without a dobut that the idiot moonbat leftys and kos kids and Moveon truly own the Democrat party now.
#3
Nothing short of another Continetal Congress will fix our problems. Without it, We'll always get sone partisan asshat whom thinks some books they got at Barnes and Noble are reason to impeach a President.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
09/11/2008 1:08
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#4
Ok, I understand why we have 'Fifth Column', but why do we have 'Jim McDermott'?
#5
American voters elected George Bush who in the first term launched the war on Iraq and took out Saddam and has fought his Al Qaeda allies there ever since. The re-election of George Bush by the American voter confirmed the American people's support of this war on terror.
When individuals in the losing party trys not only to remove that elected official, they are telling America that we have no respect for elections, and if we don't like who you elect, we will imprison them.
Jim McDermott IS no less than a third world TYRANT within our borders. They are anti-American traitors.
#6
If we can't win an election there is impeachment.
The election was stolen any how.
Under the wicked crusader George W. Bush, the United States has become the mother of all terrorism and anti-americanism.
America must be "changed" under a great leader, like Barack Obama, to be a kinder, gentler nation.
Men wearing black robes must determine and interpret law and truth and rid all crusader oppression.
When the crusaders have been judged wrong and destroyed then all will be united under one muslim brotherhood.
Our muslim friends will then hammer their swords into plow sheares.
Then every man will do what is right and best in his own eye.
Earth will be our heaven.
And, I, Jim McDermott, approve this propaganda vision.
#7
Unfortunately a Large segment of the DemoC*rap Party doesn't believe in America or our system of governance/Government.
Since the days of Nixon, The Totalitarian MSM and demoC*RAPS have stooped to criminalizing politics when they lose elections.
And If that weren't galling enough for we 'Citizens', the squeamish Pubs lie down for the most part REFUSING to recognize the character of America's **ENEMY within. (**"demoC*rap Party")
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
09/11/2008 3:08
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#8
Did McDermott talk to Kucinich about his attempt at impeachment? How'd that work out for you Dems?
I am a crack dealer in Beaumont, Texas, who has recently been diagnosed as a carrier of HIV virus. My parents live in Fort Worth.
One of my sisters lives in Pflugerville and is married to a transvestite.
My father and mother have recently been arrested for growing and selling marijuana. They are financially dependent on my other two sisters, who are prostitutes in Dallas .
I have two brothers: one is currently serving a life sentence at Huntsville for the murder of a teenage boy in 1994. My other brother is currently in jail awaiting charges of sexual misconduct with his three children.
Talk about putting lipstick on mammals...
The Pentagon said it plans to push back the decision to award a $40 billion contract to build new aerial refueling tankers until the next administration -- a move that is a significant shift from its earlier decision to move at lightning speed to pick a new winner by the end of the year.
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said he and other Pentagon officials realized the award could not be made by the end of the year as he had previously wanted. "Over the past seven years the process has become enormously complex and emotional -- in no small part because of mistakes and missteps along the way by the Department of Defense," Gates said in his opening statement this morning before the House Armed Services Committee. "It is my judgment that in the time remaining to us, we can no longer complete a competition that would be viewed as fair and objective in this highly charged environment."
He said having a "cooling-off period will allow the next administration to review objectively the military requirements and craft a new acquisition strategy for the KC-X."
Most likely he figures, and rightly so I think, that the current contract specifications have become so tainted any award would be fought in court. Expect a cooling off period, a new set of specs, and a new Air Force team writing them.
Former Spook has some interesting insights on this; he's been following the story for quite a while and is the first blog I turn to for all things Air Force.
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
09/11/2008 6:49
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#2
Old Spook's being a bit tough on Gates for kicking the can. Gates is removing the tanker issue from the election, not a bureaucratic decision, but a pretty savvy political one.
Posted by: Minister of funny walks ||
09/11/2008 10:59
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#4
WA state's Congresscritters are all saying this is good for Boeing. It gives them time to analyze the 'nes and revised' specs. Seems to me that if the USAF really needed the tankers they would have resubmitted the same specs, so that leads me to belive this is just window dressing before they pick Airbust.
Boeing didn't do itself any good when they didn't set up a second team to do a 777-sized bird.
And 787 tankers are way down the list, don't even think about them, as told to me by more than one Boeing insider.
Beldar is the expert on all-things-Palin. He was fisking the advice in Slate.com's by Dahlia Lithwick to Slow Joe on the debate. Good stuff. But this last part is, ummmm, devastating. Agreed?
[cut to the last paragraph]
...
"I'm pretty sure, though, that that's expecting the impossible of Joe Biden. A senator of smaller ego (say, Chris Dodd) might have managed that; Hillary might have, if that were the message discipline of the day programmed into her by her team. But asking Joe Biden to (a) accept Sarah Palin as a genuine equal and also (b) mostly shut the hell up is like asking a dog to stop licking its genitals: Even if he could understand why you wanted him to do that, and even if he wanted to please you, he just couldn't sustain the effort to resist. Eventually he'd give in -- doing it is in his nature, and besides, it just feels so good.".
He almost wrecked Barack Obama's presidential dreams, and now firebrand pastor Jeremiah Wright has helped destroy a Dallas church worker's marriage - and her job, The Post has learned.
When word of the unholy alliance got out, Payne's husband dumped her, and she was canned from the plum job at Friendship-West Baptist Church, she told The Post. "I was involved with Rev. Wright, and that's why I lost my job and why my husband divorced me," Payne said.
She refused to reveal when the adulterous affair started or how she met Wright. But fellow churchgoers at Friendship-West "found out about the affair in the spring," Payne said.
At the time, she was secretary to the Rev. Frederick Haynes III, a longtime Wright disciple. In April, Payne organized a series of Texas public appearances by Wright, 67. Weeks before, Obama had disavowed his preacher of 20 years after Wright's anti-government rants came to light.
"Liz was by Rev. Wright's side day and night during those days," a church source said.
"It's all true," said Payne, adding that she has filed a wrongful-dismissal claim with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to get her job back.
In an ironic twist, Wright last night spoke at an East Orange, NJ, church revival on the subject of "unexpected problems." "There's no such thing as a problem-free relationship," he told a packed Elmwood United Presbyterian Church. "In life, you'll have unexpected problems."
He punctuated his 45-minute sermon with evocative 1960s hits, including the Supremes' "Where Did Our Love Go," Frankie Beverley's "Joy and Pain," and the Temptations' "Ain't Too Proud to Beg." He's set to speak there again tonight.
Payne's husband, Fred Payne, 64, said he learned of the affair in late February, when he discovered e-mails between his wife and Wright. "There must have been about 80 of them, back and forth," he said. "Wright said things like he was going to leave his wife for Elizabeth."
Wright has been married to his second wife, Ramah, for more than 20 years. The preacher reportedly wooed Ramah away from her first husband in the 1980s, when the couple came to marriage counseling at Wright's Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.
After discovering he had been cuckolded, Fred Payne, who had married Elizabeth in October 2006, headed straight for divorce court. "I was downright mad about this bull- - - -," said Fred, who said he is "in the oil and gas business," belongs to a hunting club and makes his own bullets in his garage.
"People wouldn't be happy to know that my wife was sleeping with a black man."
He added, "Rev. Haynes doesn't like the interracial thing, either. This was quite an issue for him."
Elizabeth Payne said she has been banished by Haynes and the flock at Friendship-West. "I'm not a member of the congregation anymore; I'm not even allowed on the premises," she said. Pics at link of the lass
The United States on Wednesday announced the sale of two dozen Harpoon II anti-ship missiles to India. The deal, worth over $170 million, was made public as Defence Minister A.K. Antony began a high-level visit to the U.S. This would be the first sale of American missiles to India.
The Pentagon has notified Congress of a possible sale to India of the Harpoon Block II missiles, which would arm squadrons of the maritime-role version of Jaguar warplanes of the Indian Air Force.
The Pentagon's Defence Security Cooperation Agency said India had sought 20 AGM-84L Harpoon missiles, which are fired from fixed-wing aircraft, and four ATM-84L Harpoon Block II Exercise missiles, containers, training devices, spare and repair parts.
If the Harpoon deal goes through, it would be the fourth major U.S. arms sales to India over the last three years. Washington has already sold to India ANTPQ37 weapon-locating radars, six Hercules C-130J transport aircraft and eight maritime P-8 reconnaissance aircraft. India has also asked for supply/technical support, support equipment, personnel training and training equipment, technical data and publications, U.S. government and contractor engineering and logistics support services, the DSCA said.
"This proposed sale will contribute to the foreign policy and national security of the U.S. by helping to improve the security of an important partner and to strengthen the U.S.-India strategic relationship, which continues to be an important force for political stability, peace and economic progress in South Asia," the Pentagon said.
"India intends to use the Harpoon missiles to modernise its Air Force's Anti-Surface Warfare mission capabilities and improve its naval operational flexibility. The missiles will assist the Indian Navy to develop and enhance standardisation and operational ability with the United States. India will have no difficulty absorbing these missiles into its armed forces," the Pentagon added.
The Department of Defence said the proposed sale and support would not affect the basic military balance in the region.
The prime contractor will be the Boeing Company of St Louis, Missouri, and there are no known offset agreements proposed in connection with this potential sale.
The Pentagon said: "Implementation of this proposed sale will not require the assignment of any additional U.S. government or contractor representatives to India permanently.
"There may be U.S. government or contractor personnel in the country on a temporary basis in conjunction with program technical and management oversight and support requirements."
U.S. defence majors such as Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon and others are also bidding for other lucrative Indian contracts, including an estimated $10 billion sale of 126 fighter jets, $3 billion sale of 246 light helicopters. Also companies such as General Electric and Westinghouse would be bidding for sale of nuclear reactors to India.
Posted by: john frum ||
09/11/2008
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#1
When do the P-8s get delivered? The first production ones for the USN aren't even done yet.
I think the author meant the venerable P-3 instead.
#3
Nope, P-8. India is getting a few right after they go IOC wiht the Navy.
737-800 based, better engines, more composites, better cruise and low altitude performance than stock 7373 due to raked wingtips and better flaps and slats.
Carries 4 pods 2 Harpoon each or 1 Tomahawk.
IN addition to sonar and elint gear and droppable torpedoes and sonobouys. MAD gear allegedly removed for pricing, but will be added back in before it goes to full IOC, like the Growler stuff on the FA/-18 E/F models.
#4
I hear you can pick up some neat Russian radar equipment from Syria cheap. Like new. hardly used.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
09/11/2008 4:54
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Thanks, OS. The wording sounded like the hardware was already in hand. The P-8 is a pretty amazing airplane; the demonstator has been at NAS Whidbey several times and always has a crowd. Its a pretty bird.
Biden told the heavy-hitter donors in backyards of Barbara Goodman Manilow and Steve Koch that he doesn't care about the passing controversies like whether Palin sold her predecessor's plane or not or whether or when she supported or opposed the "Bridge to Nowhere" in Alaska.
"What I care about is: What in God's name is she going to do — along with John McCain — about the thousands of people who don't have health care?" Biden asked. He'll ask her about "The superhighway of terror between Pakistan and Afghanistan where my helicopter was forced down...John McCain wants to know where Bin Ladin and the gates of Hell are? I can tell him where. That's where Al Quaida is. That's where Bin Ladin is. It's not in the country of Iraq."
In February, Joe Biden was one of several U.S. senators rescued by Dempsey and other members of the Phoenix-based 158th Infantry Battalion when the helicopter carrying the senators made a emergency landing in the mountains of Afghanistan in a snowstorm.
Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, announced Saturday that he had picked Joe Biden of Delaware as his running mate.
"When I heard, I said to myself, 'That is crazy,'" said Dempsey, the National Guard recruiter here in Yuma. "He could be the next vice president, and there I was, helping scoop him up on a cold, dark, snowy night in Afghanistan."
The snowstorm happened as the helicopter carrying the senators was flying over some dangerous ridges, Dempsey said, and the pilot decided to land.
Biden, along with U.S. Sens. John Kerry of Massachusetts and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, were traveling with Maj. Gen. David Rodriguez, Combined Joint Task Force commander, when the Blackhawk helicopter made an emergency landing on top of a mountain about 14 miles from Bagram Air Base. A second Blackhawk helicopter, which was carrying staffers, was also forced to land.
#1
Speaking of embellishing; Biden is quoted over at Drudge that Hillary would have been a better VP pick than himself. That has to be leaving some marks somewhere in Obamaville.....
Bolivian President Evo Morales on Wednesday requested U.S. ambassador to Bolivia Philip Goldberg to leave the country immediately, accusing him of "heading the division" inside Bolivia by encouraging, together with the opposition, the protests against his government. According to reports reaching here from La Paz, administrative capital of Bolivia, Bolivian President Morales declared Goldberg as "persona non grata" at a ceremony in the Government Palace. He told Bolivian Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca to notify him to leave the country immediately.
"Without fear of anybody, without fear of the empire (U.S) today in front of the Bolivian people I declare Mr. (Philip) Goldberg, U.S. ambassador persona non grata," Morales said when he launched the program "Mi primer empleo (my first job)". Morales instructed Choquehuanca to inform Goldberg, according to the legal and diplomatic frames, about the decision made by the Bolivian government.
"We don't want separatist or divisive people or people conspiring against national unity. We do not want people who attempt to sabotage democracy," Morales said. Morales said that before being accredited as ambassador to Bolivia, Goldberg was chief of the U.S. mission in Pristina, Kosovo, and there he consolidated the region's separation, leaving thousands of people dead.
According to the Bolivian government, hours before the civic leader of the southeastern province of Santa Cruz Branco Marinkovic returned from his trip to Miami, U.S. groups of autonomists and criminals staged plundering, beatings and all sorts of other terrorist activities in the center of the city Santa Cruz, capital of the Santa Cruz province. They also occupied state facilities and practically destroyed them.
Before the midday of Tuesday, the unionists started a march around the center of the city and later stormed the National Taxes building, stole equipment and destroyed everything they could lay hands on. The violence spread to the building of the National Institute of Agrarian Reform (INRA) and later to the facilities of the National Company of Telecommunications (Entel), where they plundered and destroyed the facilities.
Morales said that the decision to expel Goldberg is a tribute to the historical struggle of the Bolivian people against the neo-liberal model and against all kinds of foreign interference.
"I want to tell you, brothers and sisters, the Bolivian people that it is the obligation of the national government and of the Bolivian people to defend our national unity," Morales said. Morales said only organized people can defend and recover democracy from the separatists. He called on the social movements and the people to defend Bolivia's unity.
During the past few weeks, violent acts have increased in opposition-controlled provinces of Santa Cruz, Tarija, Beni and Pando. The opposition rightists demand full restitution of the Direct Tax on Hydrocarbons (IDH), which Morales reduced 30 percent to found the so-called Rent of Dignity, which is aimed at helping people over 60 years old who do not have a pension. The opposition is also against holding a referendum to approve the new Political Constitution, which was already approved by parliament in December 2007.
#1
Getting sent home serves no purpose to the American government. This is a black eye on us. Involved or not in the opposition, Goldberg should have been politically good enough to distance his name from and seperatist movement. Now "we" are the enemy that unites Bolivia.
Beside, with Goldberg gone, how is that hottie in the picture going to get a US visa??
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
09/11/2008 1:38
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#2
I am volunteering to jet down there and hold direct, and Frank, relations with that young lady.
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/11/2008 5:35
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#3
49 Pan: Beside, with Goldberg gone, how is that hottie in the picture going to get a US visa??
Which Hottie Pan?
The brunette with the sash & medal looks plenty game!
>:) YOW!
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
09/11/2008 6:30
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#4
No thanks red Dog, I'm not into trannies! But the other three, now thats worth a little visa fraud!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
09/11/2008 7:04
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#7
"According to the Bolivian government, hours before the civic leader of the southeastern province of Santa Cruz Branco Marinkovic returned from his trip to Miami, U.S. groups of autonomists and criminals staged plundering, beatings and all sorts of other terrorist activities in the center of the city Santa Cruz, capital of the Santa Cruz province"
So I am here in Santa Cruz right now. Dont remember seeing any US citizens doing plundering. Just the president changing the truth to better him.
#12
Getting sent home serves no purpose to the American government. This is a black eye on us.
Not really. Goldberg was going to get PNG'd for any excuse Morales could find.
Involved or not in the opposition, Goldberg should have been politically good enough to distance his name from and seperatist movement.
Again, he would likely have been PNG'd for jaywalking. Morales needs a scapegoat; the US ambassador would have been PNG'd whether his name was Goldberg or Sanchez.
Now "we" are the enemy that unites Bolivia.
*Snort* Hardly.
Do a search on 'Bolivian riots'. It's the second biggest sport there next to futbol.
#13
49 Pan: I was posting some links regarding this last night at the bb page; apparently the trigger in this wasn't anything to do with the United States but some statements made by Brazil's President Lula. I don't know the details because the link was to a poorly done google news translation of the page.
Here's the thread on the recent news there at Discarded Lies: [link].
Gov. Jennifer Granholm has agreed to help vice presidential candidate Joe Biden prepare for his Oct. 2 debate with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Biden told a group of supporters at a fund-raiser Tuesday night in Chicago that Granholm will spend four days with him as a stand-in for Palin to prepare for the debate. If she manages to get five words in the entire time, it will be a victory against His Verbosity....
The two women have more than just being governors in common. They're close to each other in age. Granholm is 49 and Palin is 44. And both competed in beauty pageants in their youth. Granholm went to a Hollywood acting school and appeared once on ''The Dating Game'' TV show. She later decided to go to college at the University of California-Berkeley.
Liz Boyd, spokeswoman for the governor confirmed that "The governor has been asked to help and is pleased to accept." The debate will be held at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo.
Posted by: Swamp Blondie in the Cornfields ||
09/11/2008
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#1
With any luck, Granholm will do for Biden what she has done for Michigan.
And what's up with Michigan having a Canadian governor? Anybody I ask about this just looks down at their shoes and mumbles something about "we do not discuss it with outsiders".
BRUSSELS: Advertisers have known this all along, but now it is scientifically proven: men who are exposed to naked women stop paying attention to prices. According to a report on Tuesday by Flemish broadcaster VRT, a study by the University of Leuven found an inverse relationship between testosterone levels and price awareness among males.
The "naked women" effect is particularly strong among machos, the study found. "Machos usually tend to be tough negotiators, but advertisements featuring naked women turn them into gullible sheep," said Siegfried Dewitte, a professor of economics who carried out the study.
The study also found a similar effect on women exposed to scantily-clad men. However, it also found that women generally tend to be more sensitive to the touch, rather than to such visual stimuli.
According to Dewitte, the message for shopkeepers is clear: if you want to sell more products, put up a sexy picture in your shop. And for shoppers, keep your eyes off those pretty salesgirls or you may end up with burning a large hole in your pocket.
Posted by: john frum ||
09/11/2008
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#1
I also tend to lose interest in the merchandise when a naked woman is nearby, so it's a wash.
Posted by: ed ||
09/11/2008 1:32
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#2
Well, sometimes we follow our little captains into battle...
The NWFP government will enforce shariah in Malakand Division during Ramazan, a government spokesman said on Wednesday.
"We are trying to implement the Nizam-e-Adl Regulations," Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain told journalists after a meeting of the provincial cabinet, which was chaired by Chief Minister Ameer Haider Hoti.
Iftikhar said the CM would soon meet the representatives from Malakand, following which shariah laws would be implemented. He also said that a jirga of NWFP legislators, to be led by the CM, would call on the prime minister and demand Rs 110 billion as the province's share on account of net hydel profit. "A five percent royalty will be given to the district where natural resources were discovered," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2008
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It's been a shaky 24 hours along the Pacific "Ring of Fire," with major earthquakes in Japan and Indonesia prompting tsunami warnings and an earlier quake causing landslides in Chile.
The earthquake Thursday in northeastern Indonesia had a preliminary magnitude of 6.6 and struck 55 miles beneath the Molucca Sea, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
The earthquake that hit Thursday morning in northern Japan registered a magnitude of 7, Japan's Meteorological Agency said. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage. The agency said the quake hit off the eastern coast Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost island, at a depth of about 12 miles.
And in Chile's northernmost province of Tarapaca, a magnitude-5.8 earthquake Wednesday caused landslides.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2008
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#1
In a few hours I'll be leaving for a trip to San Francisco. On the occasion of the seventh anniversary of that awful day, I will be boarding a plane that is fully loaded with Jet-A in preparation for a transcontinental flight. I will have had to take my shoes off for inspection, I will have had to stow all fluids and gels in my checked baggage, I will have had to deal with long lines, TSA functionaries and a malignant abundance of silly 'security' measures.
I will remember *why* I will have been inconvenienced.
I will give silent thanks to the greatness of America, our President, the men and women bravely standing between us and the bloody borders...to include the fine publisher, staff, and readers of this very website.
Thank you Fred - Rantburg allows me to make a difference.
Never forget, never forgive, never *understand*.
Emily
PS Almost forgot. I shall be reading Orianna Fallaci's The Rage and the Pride while in the air.
#2
Thank you Fred - Rantburg allows me to make a difference.
Never forget, never forgive, never *understand*.
Emily
PS Almost forgot. I shall be reading Orianna Fallaci's The Rage and the Pride while in the air.
Beautifully said Emily... by a true American Beauty...
Damn Em although we've never met I'm proud as hell of you and feel humbled and lucky as hell to know you are my fellow Citizen.
Rick S.
ps. please permit me to associate myself with your sentiments...
"I will give silent thanks to the greatness of America, our President, the men and women bravely standing between us and the bloody borders...to include the fine publisher, staff, and readers of this very website."
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
09/11/2008 2:02
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#3
Its been a seven years since I started trying to understand what drives people to commit atrocities like Sept 11.
Rantburg has been the best tool for me and with the power of the internet I have gained knowledge from those who frequent this site.
It has been invaluable in my quest to educate people I come into contact with the truth about a real evil that is in the world.
Seven years now, but it seems like yesterday until I think about it has changed my life. That evening I wrote:
"This is a war like no other. It will be a war of extermination, and it will continue until the last terrorist rat is driven from his hole and killed."
I have never deviated from that position.
I had never heard of Rantburg or Little Green Footballs but I found them a few weeks later. I thought "these people get it."
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/11/2008 4:54
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#7
Fred, this place is a beacon of light for us out here, thanks for keeping it running.
Kurt, Jaimie and the rest of my brothers that have paid the toll for me I thank you. I will never forget and I will never quit.
NSDQ!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
09/11/2008 5:57
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#8
The seldom heard second and third verses of the Battle Hymn of the Republic:
I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps
His day is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.
I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnish`d rows of steel, "As ye deal with my contemners, So with you my grace shall deal;" Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel Since God is marching on.
I am in fact agnostic, but this glorious song perfectly summarizes the righteousness and justice of our cause, and the steadfastness that will bring final victory.
I am heartsick at the killing and the grief, but let it continue until the last terrorist is in fact dragged from his hole and killed; and until the last traitor is sentenced, and the last enabler reduced to poverty and disgrace.
#9
Thank you Fred and friends for doing a great job on tracking the WOT news. I learn a lot from you daily. Just one little bitty suggestion on the daily beauties. More breasts, less high heels.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
09/11/2008 6:22
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#10
And the rarely-sung fourth verse of America the Beautiful:
O beautiful, for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years,
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America! God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea!
I usually make its fourth line a lie.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
09/11/2008 7:13
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#11
The battlespace in this war spans more than just the physical and military.
There is the intellectual and the spiritual as well.
Both Fred and charles have done admirably in fighting the battle in the intellectual front. Keep it up, and God bless you!
I've been hard at work coming up with the counterpunch on the spiritual front. Had a breakthrough 04/08 that gave a few of the regulars here heartburn. Not at all sorry about that, since the next seven years will prove different.
#12
9-11 troofers are already busy desecrating this day with their foul droppings.
Troofers sorely test my commitment to the First Amendment. They should pray to Cthulhu or Satan or whomever they worship that I don't wake up some morning and find myself appointed dictator.
Clear blue sky today; not a cloud in it. Damn.
Today's read: Defending the West by Ibn Warraq.
Posted by: Minister of funny walks ||
09/11/2008 7:47
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#14
President Bush said this is going to be a long war, and so it is. My gratitude to those here and elsewhere who strap on body armor to face the foe, those who slip like ghosts toward targets of evil men or machines in need of damaging, those who track down the whispers of jihadi plotting on the internet, those who analyze and strategize and otherwise do all the things I can't even imagine. I will do my bit at home and here at Rantburg to make sure that what you defend remains worth defending. For faith given, faith returned.
#17
Thanks Fred for what you have done here. You have provided an invaluable service to many. It was shortly after 911 that I discovered Rantburg. Rantburg has served as a vehicle to express my good feelings at our successes in this WOT and my anger at the truly evil and despicable people that caused 911 that precipitated the WOT. This is a time to re-dedicate ourselves to winning the war against these evil and despicable people. My sorrow heartfelt sorrow to all the victims of 911 and brave men and women who gave their lives in the WOT. There is no forgetting and no forgiving. This war will go on as long as is necessary.
#18
I still won't forget the first two thoughts that flashed through my mind when I saw the second plane hit the tower and realized this was a terrorist strike.
"This means a long and bloody war."
"Thank God Gore is not in the white house."
#19
Thank God we have our brave soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines.
Thank God we had a war president for these hard years.
Thank God for Fred and all the loyal Rantburgers for helping to keep this (admittedly rather mad) reader sane.
God bless America and her gallant allies.
Posted by: Jonathan ||
09/11/2008 10:54
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#20
Fred---Thank you so much for this site. It has been so helpful in a number of ways to educate us on what we face, as well as to get to know others with similar concerns. Some of these people I have met, like Frank G and Anymouse. Some I regularly correspond or talk with, like Deacon, Dave D, Seafarious, 49 Pan, and others.
There are many lessons I have learned from 9-11. I have been following the cancer of terrorism from the ME ever since the US Embassy hijacking in Teheran, where my friend went in behind the mountains behind the capital in support of the aborted rescue attempt. I don't think that people in general could fathom the evil and hatred of others that exist toward this country. Some people get it. But today, a lot don't, sadly.
I was at a Christmas get together one evening in New Zealand in 1994, and one of the ladies there stated that in some ways, the US got what it deserved at 9-11. I was angered and hurt at that statement. Then she went on about the US dropping the atomic bombs on Japan. Nothing I said would she listen to. Her mind was closed.
I realized that we have many allies, but with allies or not, it would be up to us to protect this country and root out this evil, from without and within.
Again, thanks Fred, for all you have done in creating this forum, and for providing a place for others, which we now call fellow Rantburgers.
And pray for the souls of those people who did not make it out that day, 7 years ago, and those that did not make it back from the battlefields.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/11/2008 11:13
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#21
Adding my name in thanks for Rantburg University, for all the understanding and knowledge it has provided to me throughout the years. And the love, care and understanding given to all of those who serve on the battle fronts.
#25
Rantburg is freedom. Freedom to rant, to read, to agree or disagree. Heck, they even let me post here even when I disagree and even when I'm wrong. Our enemies fear that because a free exchange of ideas exposes their ideology for the fraud that it is. They would destroy it if they could and I thank the people who keep me safe from them. Sometimes our enemies post here which leads me to wonder if some of them might secretly read it and if some of the truth gets through to them. Last time Fred asked for tips I was a little low on dough. Today I think I'll make up for it. It's the least I can do.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
09/11/2008 12:52
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#27
Fred, and everyone here, thanks so much for what you've provided me these past seven years. You've informed me, you've cheered me and you've humbled me. I want to give special thanks to those who've gone into harm's way. I am awed by your courage and resolve. We remain free because of men and women like you.
This will be a long fight. We will have to be patient and steadfast. A complete understanding of our enemy will only bolster this resolve.
Fred, thank you again for creating this wonderful forum.
#28
Found this site about a year ago; Fred, thanks.
I will never forget what came over the radio that morning, regarding the first tower strike. I had just finished reading a book titled ' The Sky is Falling," and my first instinct was that it had happened again (In 1945 the Empire State Building was hit by a USAAF plane in heavy fog). We had the TV on @ work to see the second hit. All day was a daze. I still have the newspapers from that day, and the burning Towers are part of my screensavers.
Today, we had our planning meeting for our Veteran's Muster that we have every year on November 11th at our club. One of our committee members is an 88 year old WW2 army vet of the PTO. He is our last WW2 member, we lost 3 last year including and ex-British Army Major who rescued a small Italian town that was the birthplace of the other army vet I mentioned before. Smaller world back then. I bring this up to remind everyone that in 2 months time we will know who our new leader will be and we will later pause to reflect on our veteran's and the price they have paid to make us so free that those who aren't look to us for inspiration. Rantburg in many ways memorializes that inspiration by pointing out every day that freedom is not free the home of the brave is exactly that. Thank you Fred - hitting the tip jar as a result.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
09/11/2008 13:38
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#30
9/11 changed things for most Americans, waking them up to the fact that there were people waging war against us, and getting the average American involved. It wasn't the start of this war, however. The war started long before that. Even Munich 72 wasn't the beginning, but one of the first International signs of the war. I happened to be in Germany that day. I KNOW the US military began keeping close track of as many terrorist groups as possible, beginning back then. There were other attrocities committed against us - the Achillea Lauro, the Lockerbie bombing, the disco in Berlin, attacks on our embassies (especially the capture of our embassy in Tehran), the Kenya bombing, the Cole... the list is long, and the price high. After 9/11, we finally decided to fight back. It's making a difference - no attack on American soil in seven years. It's been expensive, both in dollars and lives, but we've bought ourselves some breathing room, and pushed our enemies to flee their prior sanctuaries. The job's not done - there is more ahead of us. It may take three decades to reduce the threat to the world to something that police forces can contend with. Places like Rantburg allow old warriors like me to have a say in that battle, and perhaps actually contribute to the defeat of our enemies, both at home and abroad. Thank you, Fred, for that opportunity, and for all you do to keep Rantburg the premier site putting the truth out there for all of us to read and understand.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
09/11/2008 14:11
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#31
Daily reader, occasional poster, thought the below from the Middle East Conflicts Memorial taken by a friend of mine would be appropriate today.
Thanks to you, and all the mods, and particularly to Fred, for this beacon of light called Rantburg. It is a true blessing, and I can't hope to express my gratitude enough - though I will continue to try.
Always be grateful. Never forget. Never forgive.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/11/2008 16:19
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#35
For Alaska Paul about your New Zealander.
You could hav reminded her that 300,00 chinese and about as many other inhabitants of Asia were dying every month either due to direct murder by
the Japanese Army or due to starving after the Japanese stole their food. And in case she tried to continue arguing then you could have gone for the jugular and caller her/yelled her a racist who doesn't give a damn about Chinese lives (and Japanese ones only to bash America)
#36
Yes, JFM, I could have reminded her of that, and a number of items like that in the ammo locker. But I could see that her mind was closed. My wife said, look, if you get attacked by a bunch of criminals, thieves, murderers, or rabid dogs, who are you going to call? Will you call the psychologist, a minister, or will you call the police? The problem was that these people will not accept that these terrorists are terrorists and nutbags that need to be put down. They look to liberals like misunderstood victims of injustice, poverty, etc etc. The gulf is too wide, JFM. They cannot and will not use reason to understand.
I will tell you one thing. On 9-11, I had Canadian friends and business associates call me and express their anger, hurt, and outrage over this event. That was reassuring.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/11/2008 19:29
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#37
Thanks to Fred, and all other who come to pay tribute. And the video, Spook.
[wipes tear, hits tipjar]
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/11/2008 20:04
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#38
Thank you for the video, Old Spook.
I'm glad I didn't try to watch it at work. It really doesn't look professional to cry.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/11/2008 20:12
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#39
Thank you Fred, Barbara, Trailing Wife, Old Patriot, Old Spook, Atomic Conspiracy, ptah, lotp, badanov, Broadhead 6 (Semper Fi sir!) and everyone else here at Rantburg. Thanks to my brother and sister Marines, soldiers, salors, airmen, Coast Guard, and first responders. That day and the sacrifice will never be forgotten.
The United States is now in the "end game" in Iraq but should proceed cautiously with further reductions in troops in Iraq, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday in a congressional briefing. Gates said President George W. Bush's decision to draw down only 8,000 troops from Iraq by February "represents not only the right direction but the right course of action."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2008
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#1
But-t-t, "WAR OUTSIDE IRAQ" > the USA-Allies are now in WAR FOR CONTROL OF MAINLAND ASIA/ASIA-PACIFIC [Philippines]!?
Japan will withdraw the troops it had based in the Middle East in support of the US-led coalition.
Government officials said that some 200 air force troops would be brought home from Kuwait by the end of the year. They have been deployed to fly goods and personnel into Iraq since Japan withdrew its ground forces from the country two years ago.
Japan's pacifist constitution blocks military operations, but humanitarian troops served for two years. After the ground deployment from 2004 to 2006, the current supply mission began, despite opposition disapproval.
US President George W Bush said on Wednesday that most of the international forces in Iraq were preparing to pull out as the US begins to withdraw some of its own units.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/11/2008
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Something tells me we won this war. I want to know when we get our victory parade. I want a parade!
Kuwait security has arrested a senior intelligence officer for allegedly altering files to enable people from Iraq to enter the Gulf state despite being barred, newspapers reported on Wednesday. Interior Minister Sheikh Jaber Khaled al-Sabah was quoted as saying that the lieutenant colonel had been referred to the public prosecution for legal action after an internal probe found he had "collaborated with a neighboring country."
The minister did not name the country but local media said it was Iraq.
Security service chief Major General Suleiman al-Muhailan told As-Siyassah newspaper that the officer was accused of "facilitating the entry of an Iraqi national" banned from entering Kuwait, by altering confidential security files. Muhailan said the officer is accused of receiving a 6,000 dinar (about $22,400 ) bribe to delete a security ban against the unnamed Iraqi, a charge he has denied.
Several newspapers quoted sources as saying the officer is accused of assisting a number of pro-Iranian Iraqi nationals to enter Kuwait by removing security bans against them.
A retired army officer was also arrested for acting as a "middle-man," they said.
Under then-President Saddam Hussein, Iraqi forces invaded Kuwait in August 1990 and occupied it for seven months before being driven out by a US-led coalition. Ties between the two Arab nations have been improving rapidly since Saddam was toppled after the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq and executed for crimes against humanity in December 2006.
On Monday, Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammad al-Ahmad al-Sabah accepted an invitation to visit Baghdad in what would be the first such trip in 18 years.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2008
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KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait security has arrested a senior intelligence officer for allegedly altering files to enable people from Iraq to enter the Gulf state despite being barred, newspapers reported on Wednesday. Interior Minister Sheikh Jaber Khaled al-Sabah was quoted as saying that the lieutenant colonel had been referred to the public prosecution for legal action after an internal probe found he had "collaborated with a neighboring country."
Several newspapers quoted sources as saying the officer is accused of assisting a number of pro-Iranian Iraqi nationals to enter Kuwait by removing security bans against them.
A retired army officer was also arrested for acting as a "middle-man," they said.
The Middle East.. And Corruption? with a Payoff?
you mean a Spy Ring in Kuwait? including Baksheesh!!!.. To A MOLE!?!..
Ima Shocked!!! Intells ya.. Just Shocked!!!....*&^%$#@!!!
/yea just shocked
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
09/11/2008 2:23
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#2
When the rest of the Gulf states start doing the same thing, you'll know something is about to go down.
#3
When the rest of the Gulf states start doing the same thing, you'll know something is about to go down.
¿Pappy, An uptick in rolled up cells and spy rings thru-out the Gulf States, Egypt, Turkey, Jordon, Cyprus, Crete, Malta, Eurabia, and secretly in Lebanon? away from Hezbollah's vigilant breed gaze?
Hummm I assume that you are referring to the one BIG ONE! which will save the World from the HUGE ONE ie:
The BIG ONE!: WHEN Iran's widely dispersed Nuclear production facilities are destroyed by Israel and the USA.
The HUGE ONE: In 7 to 10 years a Nuclear Exchange between Iran VS It's Middle East neighbors, Eurabia, Israel, and the USA.
Other States like O'Canada might permit overflights etc. to help the GOOD CAUSE along.
Eventually all Nations could become possible targets of Iranian Nuclear weapons & other WMDs if nothing is done to stop their filthy religion and the Twelfth Imami.
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
09/11/2008 15:37
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(VOI) -- Two gunmen believed to belong to the self-styled 'Islamic State of Iraq' were arrested in Huweija with a cart bomb and TNT explosives in their possession, a local police chief in Kirkuk said on Wednesday. "On Wednesday, Police forces in Kirkuk detained two gunmen, who belong to the so-called 'Islamic State of Iraq' in al-Sina'I (Industrial) neighborhood, Huweija district (65 km southwest of Kirkuk city)," Brigadier Sarhad Qadir told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq - (VOI). "In their possession, a cart bomb and TNT explosives were found," the brigadier noted. "The two confessed during preliminary interrogation that they were planning to target a demonstration or a march in the district," Qadir noted.
The Islamic State of Iraq is an armed organization that was set up in October 2006. Most prominent of its groups is al-Qaeda in Iraq, led by a man called Abu Omar al-Boghdadi.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2008
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#1
Cart bomb, huh? Anyone ever try a stink bomb. The kind where you drop a bomb down the hole in a public toilet and wait for the target fellow to go in. Once he is in position, kaboom! The body comes out the walls and lays on the street. Nobody can touch him because he truely is 'unclean'.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
09/11/2008 6:08
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#2
Palin's son is going there with his Stryker brigade. Hope he isn't bait for some special trap. God bless this young man and keep him safe (but not safer than anyone else, know what I mean).
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
09/11/2008 13:48
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#3
They couldn't even steal a car so they did a cart?
Getting lame...
(AKI) - Israel is expected to free the 40 Hamas Palestinian parliament members held in Israeli prisons, as part of a deal to release captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. The Israeli daily, Haaretz, said if Israel freed the prisoners before the end of 2009, the move would bring Mahmoud Abbas' term as Palestinian president to an early close in a legal sense, though not necessarily in practice.
The legislators' release would give Hamas a majority - 74 out of 132 seats - in the Palestinian Legislative Council.
The parliament is expected to convene after its Hamas-affiliated members are released, and to decide not to extend Abbas' term beyond January. Abbas is not expected to resign, although the Hamas position would seriously threaten his legitimacy.
Hamas is demanding the lawmakers' release as part of the first stage of a deal to release Shalit. Most of the 40 legislators were arrested after the 25 June 2006 cross-border raid near the Gaza Strip that resulted in Shalit's abduction, although some were elected while serving time in prison.
Israel is expected to allow the release of the legislators, since most were arrested because they are members of Hamas, and are not considered terrorists.
According to Haaretz, the previous Fatah-run parliament passed a law shortly before the 2006 elections won by Hamas stipulating that Abbas' term should run five years - until January 2010 when both parliamentary and presidential elections would be held. But Hamas and several experts in Palestinian law say that the Palestinian election law can be amended by a two-thirds majority, rendering the one-year extension unconstitutional.
Hamas says that Abbas' presidency should end this January, unless he wins a new presidential election.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2008
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Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
I'm with Dr. Steve from yesterday. Any exchanges should be done in kind: an alive Shalit for X number of alive Paleos. If he's dead, kill the Paleos...so, how many you wanna exchange now?
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/11/2008 5:22
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#2
I read steves comment is that if Hamas gives remains, Israel should give remains it already has, not that they should kill prisoners.
Anyway, some interesting stuff on the politics. Time for Abbas to simply dissolve the Pal Parliament, I think.
#3
That's what I said, and while mostly rhetorical I am just firm enough about this to make the point: Israel should not play the sucker's game of prisoner exchange. What has happened in the past is that Israel gives up hundreds of live terrorists and agitators in return for the remains of an Israeli soldier who was tortured and murdered some years before.
Now, it's admirable that the Israelis will go to almost any length to get their own back. I appreciate it, and if I were in charge I'd understand the temptation to 'negotiate'. But I also understand that in the end, it's a sucker's game. The more I negotiate, the more I encourage the murderous scum to take more of my people prisoner. And worse.
So, you wanna exchange prisoners Mahmoud? Fine and dandy: like for like. You give me the remains of one of my dead soliders, and in return I give you the remains of a thousand of yours. If I don't have a thousand, I'll make them, and you won't like that one bit. Now then, deal or no deal?
I'm guessing all talk of these asinine 'exchanges' would shortly thereafter end.
Yes, it's a cold, brutal, even bloodthirsty thought. Then again, I'm dealing with the Paleos, today's version of the Thuggees.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/11/2008 11:51
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#4
I'm a barbarian, this I know, I firmly believe that if you hurt me or mine, you die, I'm NOT aiming to torture, just eliminate.
Having said that WHY do the Israellis NOT grab the negotiator, and swap him for Shalit, if remains are presented, kill the negotiator/extortionist, and rturn remains for remains.
Shortly they'll have a severe shortage of "Negotiators" no one will take the job.
Phase two, when "Negotiators" are coerced (Kidnap families, Etc.) provide the negotiator with protection, recover their families, (Unharmed if possible) and kill the kidnappers PUBLICLY.(Anyone going to the kidnappers aid, dies instantly as can be managed)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/11/2008 13:04
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Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2008
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
#1
This is a make work project for an unemployed socialized government worker, right?
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
09/11/2008 5:19
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#2
Well, root out the terrorists and kill them. That will alleviate the problem. Jeez, Some (not all) of these folks from across the pond lack spine. Quit making a haven for these terrorists and making it so easy for them. Mollycoddling terrorists will get you nothing but more problems.
Algerian men flock to mosques during Ramadan to perform the extended taraweeh prayers, a nightly prayer in which a section of the Quran is recited until the entire book is completed by the end of the holy month.
This year, however, there has been a remarkable increase in the number of women attending mosques to perform taraweeh, turning the mosque into a somewhat unlikely matchmaking center. This Ramadan mosques have become a favored venue for men seeking wives and mothers seeking future daughter-in-laws.
"It's true I come here for prayer in the first place, but this doesn't stop me from taking a quick look at women for the purpose of marriage," Amin told AlArabiya.net after hesitating for a while. "They are dressed decently and come with male guardians, and this encourages me to look. Any one of them could be my future wife."
But men are not the only ones doing the choosing. Some mothers look for brides for their sons among the faithful, like Miriam F. who said she noticed that women who come to the mosque for taraweeh are dressed decently, yet elegantly, and she was thinking of choosing a wife for her son from among them.
Sisters do the same. Khair al-Din Mazgheesh, a civil servant, told AlArabiya.net that his uncle got married this way when his sister saw a girl in the mosque and introduced her to her brother: "He is now father to a 6 year old boy," she said.
When asked about how appropriate it is from the Islamic point to look at women in the mosque, Sheikh Youssef told AlArabiya.net that looking is allowed as long as it is for the purpose of marriage and not for sensual reasons. "I remind the people of the prophet's saying that actions are measured by the intentions behind them."
There are more than 15 million worshippers who attend the more than 15,000 mosques in Algeria, according to statistics published by the Ministry of Religious Affairs.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2008
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Saleh Aridi, a member of Lebanon's opposition Democratic party, was killed Wednesday in a car bomb explosion in the vicinity of Aley town, southeast of Beirut, officials said. "Aridi was killed in the explosion in Baysur, near Aley," a security official told AFP on condition of anonymity. "The initial probe indicates that the bomb was placed inside his Mercedes." A Lebanese army spokesman said three other people were injured.
The incident comes as Lebanon's political parties prepare for a national dialogue next week aimed at reconciling their differences, which in May brought the country close to civil war.
Aridi, in his 50s, was a top advisor to Druze leader Talal Arslan, a rival to Walid Jumblatt, a leading member of the Western-backed parliamentary majority.
The last car bombing in Lebanon dates back to January, when a senior intelligence officer investigating killings largely blamed on Syria was slain with three other people in the Lebanese capital.
This article starring:
Saleh Aridi
Talal Arslan
Walid Jumblatt
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2008
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An Israeli military helicopter with a two-man crew crashed near the northern town of Afula and burst into flames on Wednesday, army radio said.
Emergency teams were scrambled to the scene to try to save the pilot and navigator, the radio said. Reports said the crew was feared dead but there was no official word.
The Cobra helicopter was on a training exercise with a second aircraft of the same type at the time of the accident and was carrying a significant quantity of explosives. Army radio said it was thought the crash might have been sparked by a mid-air collision between the two aircraft.
A witness told public radio that he had seen the helicopter lose a rotor before hitting the ground.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2008
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Militants in North Waziristan have threatened to target girls' schools and government offices unless madrassas destroyed in military operations were reconstructed. An unsigned message distributed here on Wednesday says the Pakistan Army had destroyed Islamabad's Jamia Hafsa and several other madrassas in North Waziristan and Swat. "We have received authenticated information that the present government is constructing girls schools and other buildings in North Waziristan with the support of Jews and Christians," the message said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2008
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Top|| File under: TTP
#1
So now they want government built madrasses? Pity, deadline for turning in grant requests for fanatical schools ended at rhe beginning of Ramadom. Next year, maybe.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
09/11/2008 5:23
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The sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country would be defended at all costs and "no external force is allowed to conduct operations inside Pakistan", Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Kayani said on Wednesday.
According to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Gen Kayani said that the rules of engagement with the coalition forces were well defined and "within that, the right to conduct operations against the militants inside own territory is solely the responsibility of the respective armed forces". The ISPR quoted Gen Kayani as saying, "There is no question of any agreement or understanding with the coalition forces whereby they are allowed to conduct operations on our side of the border."
Referring to his meeting with the United States Army's senior officials aboard USS Abraham Lincoln on August 27, he said that they were informed about the complexity of the issue that required deeper understanding and more patience for evolving a comprehensive solution.
The army chief said he had elaborated Pakistan's viewpoint in detail and it was urged that in such situations "military action alone cannot solve the problem. Political reconciliatory effort is required to go along with the military prong to win hearts and minds of the people".
The ISPR said US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen acknowledged the better understanding of ground realities explained by the COAS, and remarked: "He (the COAS) is committed to doing what is best for Pakistan and he is going to stay the same. He reiterated that ultimately it is our national interest which would always guide our policy."
Commitment: Gen Kayani said that Pakistan Army had conducted successful operations against militants in the past and was presently committed to eliminating them from the affected areas of FATA and Swat, according to the ISPR.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2008
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
He is absolutely right. Its an issue of national defence. The US is not and should not be welcome to perform combat operation in Pakistan. Welcoming us would destablize the two day old government and president. With that said we will still go after our enemies in any country they are hiding in. Pakistan should complain to the UN and be thankfull we do not invade their country in mass.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
09/11/2008 1:45
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#2
We promise not to send any more into Pakistan than Pakistanis do into Afghanistan.
Posted by: ed ||
09/11/2008 2:04
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#3
I see this as an announcement for public consumption, not meant to be taken seriously, but more a CYA.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/11/2008 12:50
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#4
What else can he say? "I, for one, welcome our new Crusader Overlords"? I suspect there's a few $B riding on how vigorously the Pak gov't decides not to pursue the issue.
Israeli Cabinet Minister Rafi Eitan, a one-time spy involved in the operation to kidnap Nazi mastermind Adolf Eichmann and bring him to trial, thinks the same tactic could be used in the case of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
"A man like Ahmadinejad who threatens genocide has to be brought for trial in The Hague, seat of the international war crimes tribunal," Eitan said yesterday. "And all options are open in terms of how he should be brought."
Asked if kidnapping was acceptable, Eitan replied, "Yes. Any way to bring him for trial in The Hague is a possibility."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2008
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
Egyptian authorities on Wednesday blocked an opposition convoy headed for the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip to protest its continued closure and protest Israel's punishing blockade, a security official said.
Another security official said police had stopped an initial part of the convoy, made of about 50 judges, independent MPs, members of the main opposition Muslim Brotherhood and activists from other parties, in Ismailiya, on the Suez Canal, with a second part of the convoy set to leave Cairo in the afternoon.
Police have set up further checkpoints on the road between
Ismailiya and the town of al-Arish in northern Sinai, about 30 miles (45 kilometers) from Rafah, the security official said. "The authorities have reinforced security measures on ferries crossing the Suez Canal into the Sinai peninsula," he added.
The Rafah crossing in southern Gaza is the territory's only one that is not under the control of Israel, which sealed off the coastal strip after the democratically-elected Hamas seized power there in June 2007 in a move that aid agencies say has created a humanitarian crisis.
"We want the Israeli blockade that is making our Palestinian brothers live in inhuman conditions to be lifted," said Muslim Brother MP and convoy spokesman Hamdi Hassan before leaving Cairo. "We also want to denounce the Egyptian government which is keeping the Rafah crossing closed in agreement with Israel, which makes life even more difficult for the Palestinians," he added, noting that the Egyptian government has destroyed tunnels that were the only means the Gaza Strip had to receive aid.
While Israel allows extremely limited amounts of aid through its crossings with the Gaza Strip, Egypt has been clamping down on the tunnels that take many staples from its territory into Gaza.
Earlier this month in honor of Ramadan, Egypt opened Rafah briefly to allow thousands in and out of the besieged Hamas-run territory, including Palestinians requiring treatment in Egyptian hospitals, and Palestinians holding Egyptian passports. Egypt has refused to open the Rafah crossing permanently.
In related news, Egyptian police trying shot dead a Sudanese man who tried to slip across the frontier overnight, medical and security sources said on Wednesday, bringing to 23 the number of African migrants killed at the border this year.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2008
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Top|| File under: Hamas
Italians are quite used to feeling "lo stress", looking forward to "il weekend" or trying to look "cool".
But now an influential cultural institute has asked Italians to protect the language and reject "Anglitaliano". The Dante Alighieri Society asked people for examples of over-used foreign words and "il weekend" emerged as the worst offender.
The society said the results showed that Italians want their language to receive more respect.
For four months, the society asked visitors to its website, 70% of whom were Italians, for inappropriate examples of foreign words being used in everyday Italian, either written or spoken. "Who would have thought it - Italians protesting against 'il weekend'," said the institute, the Italian version of the French language protection body the Academie Francaise
The least popular word was found to be "weekend", receiving 11% of the votes. "Too short? No, just not Italian enough," the society adds. They said it was pointless to use an English word, however elegant, when the Italian expression "fine settimana" means exactly the same thing.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2008
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#1
From now on it's Freedom Pies. Delivered in 30 minutes or less is the American Way.
Posted by: ed ||
09/11/2008 1:30
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#2
Foolish, futile foibles. Can't stop words and expressions from oozing in from areas of dominate cultures. Just be grateful that the words come from American influence and not Arabic Islamic radical influence.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
09/11/2008 4:35
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#3
For four months, the society asked visitors to its website, 70% of whom were Italians, for inappropriate examples of foreign words being used in everyday Italian,
Polls 101. You never, never, never, never even look at polls based on people coming to you. Who visits
the site of the Dan,te Alighieri society? Normal italians or nationalistic losers with too muvch time in their hands? (Let's rember that they use the world calcio instead of football like France, Span, Portugal. A legacy of the Mussoloini era) And then who bothers to answer the question polled?
The only>/b> valid polls are those who are based on the pollster selecting the people and going to them. Also because the people who refuse to answer tend to have different opinions tahnthe ones who do the more compulsive the
poll the better the results: phone, where people can hang on you has greater bias than face to face and nothing beats the suspect citizen being brought handcuffed to the local poll agency, having a ligt on his eyes, slapped a few times and asked "Are you going to vote for Obama or for Mac Cain".
#5
TW, even if the last part was a joke the post had many bits of sound statistician wisdom.
In a less extreme form in Turkey, every so many years they have a Census Day during which everyone
must stay at home and the only people allowed in the streets or roads beyond ambulances, police and fireman are...statisticians.
Troops backed by tanks and heavy artillery attacked militants in the Bajaur tribal agency on Wednesday, and an FC statement said 30 Taliban were killed in a clash in the Rashakai area. Regular army troops have joined paramilitary forces to continue an advance on militant strongholds in the agency, and a jirga (tribal council) vowed to keep terrorists out of the Salarzai tehsil. "Troops pounded artillery and used fighter jets to target militant hideouts," a security official told AFP on condition of anonymity. "Key Taliban strongholds Loyesam, Charmang and Tangkhatta are under the control of security forces, who are setting up checkposts in the areas," security officials told Daily Times. Militants clad as women tried to attack the marching troops, sources said, but the attack was repulsed. Meanwhile, the Salarzai tribe jirga renewed its pledge "to stand by the government" as it announced new sanctions against people supporting militancy in their areas.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2008
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Top|| File under: TTP
At least 25 worshippers were killed and 50 others injured in a grenade-and-gun attack in a mosque in the Maskanai area of lower Dir on Wednesday.
Unidentified militants threw hand grenades in the Sunni mosque in Banai village -- less than three kilometres from the Afghan border -- during Taravih prayers and fired at the worshippers. "The attackers first lobbed grenades into the mosque and then opened fire with Kalashnikovs on the worshippers," Bahadur Khan, the village nazim, told Reuters.
The attack was a rare one in Dir district, which has a majority of Sunni Muslims.
Local official Mahmood Khan told AFP three grenades were thrown into the mosque and hit the last two rows of the congregation. The security official said the attack did not appear to be sectarian. "It is a blatant act of terrorism," he said.
No group or individual has claimed responsibility so far, but Khan said last month a meeting of elders in the area had issued a strongly worded statement against the Taliban and had vowed to act against them entering the area.
Law-enforcement agencies cordoned off the area and beefed up security after the attack.
The injured, most of who Express News reported to be children, were taken to the District Headquarters Hospital in Timar Garah and the Tehsil Headquarters Hospital in Samar Bagh. Dir District Co-ordination Officer Ghulam Muhammad told the state-run APP news agency that a state of emergency had been declared at the Timar Garha hospital. Hospital official said many of the injured were in critical condition and feared the death toll could rise.
APP also said Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani condemned the attack. "The prime minister, in his message, expressed profound grief and sorrow over the loss of life and prayed for the departed souls. He also prayed for the recovery of the injured," the agency said.
NWFP MPA: Unidentified militants shot dead member of provincial assembly (MPA) and former NWFP minister Akhtar Nawaz Khan close to his home in Khalabat on Wednesday evening. The slain MPA was the provincial minister for fisheries in the previous government and had joined the Awami National Party (ANP) after winning the February 18 elections as an independent candidate.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2008
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Sri Lankan jets blasted the Tamil Tigers' intelligence headquarters on Wednesday, striking back the day after a rebel air and ground assault on a major military base killed at least 25 people, the military said.
It also said that soldiers killed 19 guerrillas from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in other skirmishes in the north of the Indian Ocean island nation on Tuesday, bringing the rebel death toll for the day to 30. Two soldiers were killed and eight were wounded in Tuesday's clashes, which took place away from the artillery, air and ground battle that erupted after the Tigers hit the military's Vavuniya base south of the army's frontline.
Responding on Wednesday to the strike, the air force said jets hit the LTTE's intelligence command centre near Kilinochchi. "A high-profile LTTE gathering was taking place at the time of the attack," the military said in a statement.
Claim disputed: The LTTE rejected the military's statement, and accused the air force of hitting civilian homes during Wednesday's raid.
"Sri Lanka's air force bombed civilian settlements near Kilinochchi town centre, destroying 12 homes. No one was hurt because people sought safety in the bunkers," the LTTE said on its official www.ltteps.org website. The site showed photographs of what the guerrillas said were the houses hit by the bombing. The air force dismissed the accusation.
On Monday, the government ordered aid workers out of the battle zone, saying it could not guarantee their security and signalling it planned to give no quarter in its offensive. Rights watchdog Amnesty International warned that the decision could endanger tens of thousands of refugees from the fighting and leave local aid workers vulnerable to abuses by the rebels.
"If the government is telling aid workers to pull back, then it must show it has the capacity to feed and protect its own citizens left behind," Amnesty's Asia-Pacific director, Sam Zarifi, said in a statement. Amnesty also said it has received credible reports that the rebels had prevented civilians from moving to safer government-held areas. The Tigers' ramshackle air wing and a squad of "Black Tiger" suicide commandos carried out Tuesday's coordinated assault on the Vavuniya base, which the military said killed a total of 25 people including 11 rebels.
The rebels said they destroyed a radar installation and wounded two Indian radar operators. The military denied this. The LTTE also denied that the air force had for the first time shot down one of its light aircraft, part of a tiny and elusive fleet that has staged seven attacks since March 2007. No independent confirmation of the downing had emerged by Wednesday.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2008
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#1
Haven't been keeping up much with the Tigers. All the news about them seems to be down. Surprised that they have any intelligence left.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
09/11/2008 6:11
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Russian news agencies Wednesday quoted a top military officer as warning that Russia could target U.S. missile defenses in Europe with ballistic missiles.
Head of strategic missile forces General Nikolai Solovtsov said that Russia could make use of some "counter measures" if the United States goes ahead with plans to place missile defense components in Poland or the Czech Republic, as this could pose a strategic threat to Russia.
The comments were made just one day before Russia's foreign minister visits Poland. "I can't exclude that if such decisions are taken by our military-political leadership, the missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic and other such objects could be chosen as designated targets for some of our inter-continental ballistic missiles," General Nikolai Solovtsov said.
Poland and the United States reached a deal last month on building the site for 10 U.S. missile interceptors by 2012. While the 10 missile interceptors planned for Poland could not themselves undermine Russia's arsenal, Moscow was troubled by a lack of transparency in the project, Solovtsov said.
Moscow sees the plans for new U.S. missile defense facilities in central Europe as part of an effort to encircle Russia.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2008
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#1
I don't think the good general quite understands what anti missile defenses do.
Posted by: ed ||
09/11/2008 2:02
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#2
I'm with you, ed. Sounds like the vodka talking. Seems to be a lot of that going around in Russian circles, lately. Anyone el;se have a better explanation?
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
09/11/2008 5:09
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#3
The statement itself kind of reinforces the argument for the need of a missile defense network, doesn't it?
#4
He's trying to scare Eastern European countries from helping because Missile Defense will stop Russian arms sales and eventually become good enough to stop Russian missile threats.
#7
CNN + MSNBC/CNBC > RUSSIA is reportedly NOT READY to formally integrate or merge SOUTH OSSETIA WID NORTH OSSETIA. nor to allow any UNIFIED OSSETIA to declare local autonomy or independence from Russia.
I'm interpreting this as RUSS, vee its COVERT FEAR of its pres anti-US Ally FUTURE NUCLEAR IRAN/ISLAMISM, PREFERS TO KEEP OSSETIAN MUSLIMS SEPARATE AND LOCALLY MILPOL WEAK, AT LEAST FOR A TIME.
RUSSIA = IMO PREFERS NOT TO HELP ITS ALLY FUTURE NUCLEAR IRAN, ETC. ANY MORE THAN ABSOLUT NECESSARY VV THE US-ALLIES.
#8
As for the above Artic, RUSSIA is threatening to attack not only US GMD MissBases in Poland + Czech but support MissFacs in NATO PROPER - IOW, RUSS IS OVERTLY SUBTLY THREATENING TO ATTACK NATO = WESTERN EUROPE/EU.
That being said, COVERTLY DENIABLY IT IS MY BELIEF RUSS IS INDIR BULLYING NATO + EU TO MODERNIZE AND MILITARIZE AMAP ASAP IN ORDER TO CYA COVER RUSS BACK IN CASE CENTRAL ASIA = LARGE PARTS OF ASIA FALLS TO RADICAL ISLAM [Nukular].
PUT ANOTHER WAY, RUSS IS BULLYING NATO-EU TO ENSURE THE LATTER'S MILPOL + GEOGRAPHICAL? EXPANSION + PRESENCE IN ASIA, on the worse-case scenario where it may have to throw Russ Manifest Destiny to the Four Winds, and formally join NATO-EU to save itself.
#9
The RUSSO-GEORGIAN CONFLICT, perhaps moreso than the anti-Insurgent/Militant efforts in Afghanistan + Pakistan, FORMALLY SIGNALS THE US-ALLIES IS NOW IN A WAR AGZ RADICAL ISLAM FOR THE DE FACTO CONTROL AND DOMINATION OF ASIA, includ Pan-Mainland Local-Regional Enclaves + NORASIA + WESTPAC/SOPAC [e.g. Philippines].
* NEWS > VARIOUS > ANALYSTS: MUSLIM UNREST/STRIFES IN PHILIPPINES CAN SPREAD TO NEIGHBORING COUNTRIES.
As a reminder, Pre- and post-911 [old] > it makes no difference to anti-US Lefties, Globalists, etal. IFF THE US UNILATER VOLUNTEERS TO ACCEPT LEFTISM-SOCIALISM, ETC. OR IS MILPOL FORCED TO DO SO BY THE UNO = WORLD COMMUNITY.
CAN THE FUTURE OWG USSA = OWG GLOBAL SSR/USR SAVE ASIA + WORLD ON A VOLUNTEER ARMY + A NON/SEMI-MILITARIZED-SOCI NATION-SOCIETY???
A US-based think tank says Iran's navy forces are capable of waging a unique asymmetric warfare against larger naval forces.
The report by The Washington Institute for the Near East Policy authored by Fariborz Haghshenas, an expert on the Iranian military, says that in the two decades since the Iran-Iraq War, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Navy (IRGCN) has been transformed into a highly motivated, well-equipped, and well-financed force.
The study sheds light on the historical evolution of Iran's approach to asymmetric warfare, assessing its naval forces and evaluating its plans for a possible war with the US.
The report says Iran, with such a strong navy force, is effectively holding the world's oil lifeline, the Strait of Hormuz.
The study concludes that Iran is capable of taking preemptive action in response to a perceived threat of imminent attack.
In the event of a US attack, the scale of Iran's response would likely be proportional to the scale of the damage inflicted on Iranian assets, the report says.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2008
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#1
All the more reason to do an Alpha strike on ALL their naval forces and facilities.
#3
I don't get it. Recently read that US has half of the world's naval capability. Britaion's previously awesome navy now is mostly paint holding rusty metal together. Russia has much of the remaining world naval capacity. I can see Iran blocking the strait for a week or two, but then what? After we destroy everything bigger than a ski boat of theirs, what do they do next? Maybe they can ski boat sucide bombers in to blow up the oil tankers? Help me out, here military guys. I don't get what Fariborz Haghshenas is talking about.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
09/11/2008 5:36
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#4
And in the two decades since the Iran-Iraq War, the US Navy has added Aegis, Tomahawk, GCCS, etc.
Global Security is currently showing the Iranian naval inventory as such:
I'd suggest Mr. Haghshenas take a look at Operation Praying Mantis. There can be asymmetry in naval warfare (sub vs. surface, mines vs. everything), but boghammers don't get to blend in with the local populace; they kind of stick out on the ocean.
Also, the last line makes no sense. Typically, in warfare, the greater the damage your opponent does to you lessens the scale of your response because, like, you know, your stuff got blown up and isn't around to respond anymore.
#6
Yeah, but we and most other legitimate navies have mine sweepers. Sweeping a sea lane wouldn't be that hard, and ships don't get out of the sea lane. It sounds stupid, but in the middle of the ocean they stay in the sea lanes that are only, say, half a mile wide.
As for the swarming that they plan to do with small boats: 500 marines on the deck of a ship could shoot a lot of rubber dinghies.
#9
Sounds like an OPEC conspiracy. Besides trying to delay any strike against them, the threat of closing the Strait of Hormuz will drive up the price of oil again.
#11
Here's his report if any one wants to read it. If I'm in the Iranian navy, I don't think I would. Words like "martyrdom", "kamikaze", "suicide" and "does not bode well for their survival" show up. A lot.
Missiles and mines. Everybody else seems to end up dead.
#12
our minesweeping capabilities are way down from even Vietnam timeframe. I believe all the MC-53 assets have been retired w/out replacements (H-53 helicopters towing sleds to detect / explode mines) and there are only a few operational minesweepers.
#17
In this context, "asymmetric naval warfare" means kamikaze swarms of small boats and planes to take out US naval vessels. However, against CIWs, 5-inch primary guns, .50 caliber machine guns, Standard missiles, Penguin missiles, and the like, the Iranian swarm rapidly becomes chum. That view of the Iranian ability to attack makes one major assumption : that Iranian assets will be immune from counter-strike operations, both before and during their swarming. Tomahawks and 500-lbs JDAMs make that most unlikely.
A US missile strike targeting a top Taliban commander in Pakistan's restive northwest killed four mid-level Al-Qaeda operatives, a security official and a militant source said Wednesday, as fresh violence erupted in the lawless tribal area. Monday's strike in North Waziristan, however, failed to kill Jalaluddin Haqqani or his son, Sirajuddin, accused by Afghan and Western forces of orchestrating the insurgency across the border in Afghanistan.
The five missiles fired Monday, by suspected US drones, destroyed a seminary and an underground tunnel built by the Haqqanis in Darpa Dandekhen, near Miranshah, the main town in the troubled Pakistani tribal district. The aerial strike was reported to have killed 21.
"According to local sources the strike killed four Al-Qaeda operators and some extended family members of Haqqani's," a security official told
A source in Haqqani's group confirmed the death of four Arabs, identified as Abu Harris, Abu Hamza, Abu Qasim and Abu Musa Alkhyan. The four names are thought to be cover names and neither the security official nor the militant source would reveal their real identities.
The official said Hamza was believed to be an expert in making roadside bombs, while Harris was looking after the group's logistics in the North and South Waziristan areas.
Missile strikes targeting militants in Pakistan in recent weeks have been blamed on US-led coalition forces or CIA drones based in Afghanistan. Pakistan does not have missile-equipped drones.
Did they check with the Ruritanians ...
Haqqani, who was a close aid to fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Omar, has not been seen since the fall of the hard-line regime in Afghanistan in 2001. He is widely believed to be bed-ridden while his son is the main contact between Afghan and Pakistani Taliban militants based in North Waziristan.
Residents said that two pilotless aircraft circled over Dande Darpakhel, about two kilometers north of Miranshah, before at least one drone fired several missiles.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2008
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#1
Seems the US got who it wanted. Haqqani's spawn is just a bonus.
Posted by: ed ||
09/11/2008 1:43
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#2
They war against terrorists just seems to drone on and on, It's wonderful.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
09/11/2008 5:58
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#3
Godfrey Daniel those danged Turks and Caicos guys never get it right.
YOu would think a crack SO group from a military power like Turks and Caicos would have gone in on foot and shot them all at close range.
Missiles at 6000 feet? Bah
Posted by: James Carville ||
09/11/2008 15:21
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#4
'missed Taliban target but killed four Al-Qaeda men'
MINGORA: Eleven militants were killed in security forces' shelling in Kooza Bandai area, local residents and a military spokesman said on Wednesday. Fighter planes were also used to target suspected Taliban positions in the area, locals said, however, military spokesman Col Nadeem denied the statement, saying the planes were on reconnaissance flights over the area. "There has been no aerial bombing today despite planes flying over the area," he told Daily Times and confirmed the 11 Taliban casualties. Swat-based Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan alleged that "jet planes bombed" their positions in Kooza Bandai. Local residents said a large number of militants were 'spotted' early Wednesday morning in the area and were believed killed in the assault. Meanwhile, militants continued to target property of politicians and used bombs to destroy Awami National Party leader Afzal Khan's bus stand and seven shops in Sumbat area of Matta tehsil.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2008
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A man and his two accomplices allegedly raped and disfigured a young girl by throwing acid on her in a Rawalpindi hotel after she refused to marry him, Geo News reported on Wednesday.
According to the channel, the girl, an orphan and an MSc student was a resident of Mandi Bahauddin. The accused 'M', a teacher at a local school in Mandi Bahauddin, kidnapped her and brought her to a hotel in Rawalpindi, where he tried to force her to marry him but she refused. Following this 'M', along with his two accomplices, allegedly raped her and severely burnt her face by throwing acid on her, and left her on a street in Islamabad. The girl has been admitted to hospital and said to be in a critical condition. The girl's brother told the channel that the police did not register the case until seven days after the incident. Gujranwala DIG suspended the investigation officer and formed a team to carry out a detailed investigation.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2008
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#1
And these followers of allah will be unpunished?
The British government has declared Jamiat JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rahman persona non-grata. Sources said the British government imposed a lifetime ban on him from entering the UK on the accusations of supporting terrorist groups and opposing military operations against them. Rehman failed to explain his position when contacted.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2008
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Two Saudi actors and a Kuwaiti singer faced an awkward situation at a charity event for orphans when the organization manager refused to accept their donations under the pretext that their job is forbidden by religion.
The two comedians Hussein Useiri and Fayez al-Malki and Kuwaiti singer Abadi al-Gohar received an invitation from the Saudi magazine Sayedati to attend an iftar, the sundown meal that breaks the day-long Ramadan fast. With more than 80 kids expected to attend the iftar hosted by the Prince Thamer bin Abdul-Aziz Charity Organization, the three entertainers came several hours in advance to hand out donations to the children.
But only a few children showed up. According to report in the electronic journal Elaph, the organization's manager prevented the children from attending the event and refused to accept the food the entertainers brought.
#"These are actors. Their work is against religion," said the manager, whose name was not given. "We don't want them, and we want nothing from them."
The manager also rejected the donations, but the three actors insisted on sending them to the organization, saying they considered this part of their Ramadan duty towards the children.
According to the website, the three actors said they were surprised by "this strange decision," but they decided not to take any measures against the manager, saying they came to cheer the children up, not to engage in useless arguments with the manager. However, they still insisted that what happened was "very unfortunate" and that it tarnishes the image of artists, especially in Saudi Arabia.
Useiri and Malki said they had participated in many charity activities and never faced such a situation.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2008
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. — An aircraft-mounted laser designed to shoot down missiles has been fired for the first time in a ground test aboard the jet, prime contractor Boeing Co. said.
Every now and then, in walks a man or woman who turns the world inside out and upside down.
Eyewitness accounts & actualities
Editorial, 
On why the Islamic world fell into backwardness, and the key to future success.
Anti-government protesters have stormed public buildings in eastern Bolivia amid a deepening row between President Evo Morales and his opponents. The biggest protest was in Santa Cruz, where demonstrators raided several offices and clashed with riot police. Bolivia's energy-rich eastern provinces oppose Mr Morales's attempts to redirect gas revenues to poorer areas.
(AKI) - By Syed Saleem Shahzad - The Taliban was fighting a "defensive war" in Afghanistan and had no desire to conduct violent attacks in other countries, a key Taliban leader said on Wednesday. 
A South Korean cargo ship with Korean and Myanmarese sailors aboard was seized by pirates off the coast of Somalia Wednesday, diplomatic sources said. Eight Koreans and 13 Myanmarese were on the 15,000-ton ship when it was seized at 0700 GMT, the sources told the Yonhap news agency.
He almost wrecked Barack Obama's presidential dreams, and now firebrand pastor Jeremiah Wright has helped destroy a Dallas church worker's marriage - and her job, The Post has learned.
"I want to tell you, brothers and sisters, the Bolivian people that it is the obligation of the national government and of the Bolivian people to defend our national unity," Morales said. Morales said only organized people can defend and recover democracy from the separatists. He called on the social movements and the people to defend Bolivia's unity.
Algerian men flock to mosques during Ramadan to perform the extended taraweeh prayers, a nightly prayer in which a section of the Quran is recited until the entire book is completed by the end of the holy month. 
Troops backed by tanks and heavy artillery attacked militants in the Bajaur tribal agency on Wednesday, and an FC statement said 30 Taliban were killed in a clash in the Rashakai area. Regular army troops have joined paramilitary forces to continue an advance on militant strongholds in the agency, and a jirga (tribal council) vowed to keep terrorists out of the Salarzai tehsil. "Troops pounded artillery and used fighter jets to target militant hideouts," a security official told AFP on condition of anonymity. "Key Taliban strongholds Loyesam, Charmang and Tangkhatta are under the control of security forces, who are setting up checkposts in the areas," security officials told Daily Times. Militants clad as women tried to attack the marching troops, sources said, but the attack was repulsed. Meanwhile, the Salarzai tribe jirga renewed its pledge "to stand by the government" as it announced new sanctions against people supporting militancy in their areas.
At least 25 worshippers were killed and 50 others injured in a grenade-and-gun attack in a mosque in the Maskanai area of lower Dir on Wednesday.
Sri Lankan jets blasted the Tamil Tigers' intelligence headquarters on Wednesday, striking back the day after a rebel air and ground assault on a major military base killed at least 25 people, the military said. 
MINGORA: Eleven militants were killed in security forces' shelling in Kooza Bandai area, local residents and a military spokesman said on Wednesday. Fighter planes were also used to target suspected Taliban positions in the area, locals said, however, military spokesman Col Nadeem denied the statement, saying the planes were on reconnaissance flights over the area. "There has been no aerial bombing today despite planes flying over the area," he told Daily Times and confirmed the 11 Taliban casualties. Swat-based Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan alleged that "jet planes bombed" their positions in Kooza Bandai. Local residents said a large number of militants were 'spotted' early Wednesday morning in the area and were believed killed in the assault. Meanwhile, militants continued to target property of politicians and used bombs to destroy Awami National Party leader Afzal Khan's bus stand and seven shops in Sumbat area of Matta tehsil.
The British government has declared Jamiat JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rahman persona non-grata. Sources said the British government imposed a lifetime ban on him from entering the UK on the accusations of supporting terrorist groups and opposing military operations against them. Rehman failed to explain his position when contacted.
