#2
I have been calling this one out (Hillaryin 2012) ever since she got jobbed by Obama.
If Obama loses, the bloodletting in revenge by the Clinton machine will be terrible and widespread in the Dem party. And the Kos & MoveOn types will be the first one to feel the Clinton knife at their throat.
#3
anonymous2u, yes....he said that, but he didn't say anything in the article that contradicts that.
I just kind of hope OS is right. Anything that puts those cretins at Kos & MoveOn back in their cage is ultimately a good thing for everybody, not just the Dems.
Posted by: Swamp Blondie in the Cornfields ||
09/12/2008 22:42
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#4
And the Kos & MoveOn types will be the first one to feel the Clinton knife at their throat.
From your lips to God's ears, Spook. I don't like either faction within the Donks (which is why I'm a Trunk), but let's face it...the nation is not served well when one of its two parties is (usually) sober and responsible and the other is just barking, bats**t, howling-at-the moon crazy.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
09/12/2008 23:40
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#5
As for Morris' prognostications...given this as an example of his track record, I wouldn't want him tinkering with my 401K.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
09/12/2008 23:44
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From NRO - Because we can't have too many sane people reminding us the Obama campaign is full of idiots:
The day after 9/11, as part of its "get tough" makeover, the Obama campaign is mocking John McCain for not using a computer, without caring why he doesn't use a computer. From the AP story about the computer illiterate ad:
"Our economy wouldn't survive without the Internet, and cyber-security continues to represent one our most serious national security threats," [Obama spokesman Dan] Pfeiffer said. "It's extraordinary that someone who wants to be our president and our commander in chief doesn't know how to send an e-mail." What? The POTUS can't find anyone in all America to do that for him? Should the POTUS type and mail his own letters too?
Well, I guess it depends on what you mean by "extraordinary." The reason he doesn't send email is that he can't use a keyboard because of the relentless beatings he received from the Viet Cong in service to our country. From the Boston Globe (March 4, 2000):
McCain gets emotional at the mention of military families needing food stamps or veterans lacking health care. The outrage comes from inside: McCain's severe war injuries prevent him from combing his hair, typing on a keyboard, or tying his shoes. Friends marvel at McCain's encyclopedic knowledge of sports. He's an avid fan - Ted Williams is his hero - but he can't raise his arm above his shoulder to throw a baseball. Emphasis added.
In a similar vein I guess it's an outrage that the blind governor of New York David Patterson doesn't know how to drive a car. After all, transportation issues are pretty important. How dare he serve as governor while being ignorant of what it's like to navigate New York's highways. Works for me. And I'm sure Mr. Idiot Pfeiffer would be glad to contribute to that commercial too, right? What's that I hear - crickets?
There are myriad reasons not to vote for the manchurian candidate Obama, not the least of which is he surrounds himself with people as clueless and classless as himself.
Ptui.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/12/2008
20:33 ||
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#1
Barack's staff is doing great work .....for McCain
"Morons, I'm surrounded by morons"
/Strother Martin
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/12/2008 20:48
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#2
Barack should can every last one of these morons and hire whoever else he can immediately.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
09/12/2008 20:55
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#3
So, it turns out that the pig is Obama's staff.
#4
They're doing exactly what Obama said he would do: strike hard and personal. Today Obama himself said it's fair to question just which country McCain puts first.
#5
Mike, you're assuming he disapproves of the commercial's message.
I suspect he does disapprove - but only of getting caught with his zipper down. Again.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/12/2008 21:04
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#6
The NRO article links to an AP story. That story reveals more idiot Obama camp moves. Get this, they're going to run an ad knocking McCain for how long he's been in Washington.
Gosh, Molly, I wonder what the McCain camp can use to counter that.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
09/12/2008 21:08
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#7
Keeping Karl Rove busy, writing the scripts for both sides, though he only wants one side to win.
#12
I'd really like to believe that Obama's staff is inept, and that's all that's behind this.
But think about this for a second. You have the "flip Hillary the bird--oops, I was just scratching my ear" incident in the primaries. Then you have the lipstick on a pig thing. Now this.
Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is deliberate action.
I'm starting to come 'round to the sense that beneath that smooth, sophisticated, very polished exterior Obama, there's a truly nasty s.o.b. that sneaks out through the cracks now and again. If I'm right--I'd prefer not to be, I'd rather assume the best about people, even ones I'd crawl over broken glass to vote against--expect to see more of the same, especially if the polls keep trending against him.
Posted by: Mike ||
09/12/2008 23:30
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#13
"expect to see more of the same, especially if the polls keep trending against [Obama]"
I sincerely hope so, Mike.
Disgusting as it is, McCain and Palin, being adults, can take it.
Nobama, being a whiney-assed communist mental 4th grader, can't.
It's entertaining watching him implode, even if in so doing he and the MSM his camp insult and trash McCain and Palin. As I said, they can take it, and are probably enjoying the spectacle of his ignoring the First Rule of Holes as much as we are.
In fact, I'm pretty sure that was Governor Palin delivering the last shipment of fuel for the DNC backhoe fleet. :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/12/2008 23:45
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#14
I think that at least a significant portion of the MSM will turn on Obama if this goes on much longer. When it becomes obvious that he's going down they'll try to salvage something of their reputations by ripping him apart.
A gruesome crime wave is shaking Mexico to its core, with children murdered, headless bodies left in piles and ordinary Mexicans losing the little faith they have in the police and government.
While violent crime has long been rampant in Mexico, a spate of recent killings have gone beyond anything seen before as drug smugglers slaughter rivals and common criminals, often helped by corrupt police, turn more brutal.
Hitmen from the Gulf cartel drug gang left a pile of 11 headless corpses piled up near the city of Merida and police say the victims were likely still alive when decapitated.
Drug gunmen killed 13 people including a baby and a university professor at a party in the picturesque tourist town of Creel, breaking a taboo against killing children.
You are seeing a deterioration, and a very drastic and violent terrorizing factor, said Fred Burton, an analyst for the U.S.-based Stratfor security consultancy.
President Felipe Calderón, a strong-willed conservative, made the fight against crime his top priority when he came to office in 2006 but drug murders have soared to a record 2,700 so far this year in a war between gangs.
August was the bloodiest month in three years of clashes that began when Mexico's most-wanted man Joaquin Shorty Guzman took on rival traffickers for control of smuggling routes. About 450 people were killed last month, most of them in the border states of Chihuahua and Baja California.
Natividad Gonzalez, governor of the northern state of Nuevo Leon, warned last week that drug gangs were holding greater sway over town and village authorities, threatening a collapse of the basic government structure in our country.
Calderón is now under pressure to crack down after 150,000 people marched through Mexico City in an anti-crime protest and his National Action Party may suffer at mid-term legislative elections next year.
Even crime-hardened Mexicans were shocked by the kidnapping and murder of a 14-year-old boy whose body was found on Aug. 1 in the trunk of a car in Mexico City despite his father paying a ransom.
Increasing numbers of people are asking for protection against armed robbery and kidnapping at a shrine to Saint Sharbel, said to help desperate causes, at a church in the capital's middle class area of Polanco.
Terrible crime is the main worry in our country today, housewife Francisca Hernandez, 53, said at the shrine this week. I come to pray for my children, who have to go out to the street to work every day, said Hernandez. Her daughter was robbed gunpoint on a bus recently.
Mexican drug gangs have yet to launch major terror attacks like Colombian traffickers who murdered 107 people in bombing a commercial airliner in 1989, and killed over 60 more in a car bomb attack on the headquarters of the DAS security police.
But Stratfor's Burton said Mexico's Sinaloa and Gulf cartels probably have the necessary weapons, communications and intelligence to launch spectacular attacks in retaliation for Calderón sending thousands of troops against them.
Could you see them placing a large car bomb next and start killing a lot of people or start killing elected officials including Calderón himself and the attorney general? he said. It's not a bold leap, especially with the kind of money and resources they have.
Calderón, state governors and the mayor of Mexico City held a summit last month and agreed on a long list of anti-crime measures but many of their promises, like a vow to rid Mexico's underpaid police forces of corrupt cops, are not new.
Calderón is coming under fire for the crime wave although his popularity rating is still high at above 60 percent.
Local and state governments are also facing much of the blame. Voter disapproval of Mexico City's leftist mayor, Marcelo Ebrard, a possible presidential candidate in 2012, rose to 45 percent from 37 percent in June mostly due to his failure to reduce crime, a poll in the Reforma newspaper showed this week.
There is mistrust of the police mostly but also of the political class in general, said human rights worker Victor Clarke Alfaro in the violent northern city of Tijuana near the U.S. border.
The opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which ruled Mexico for 71 years until 2000, may pick up votes in next year's elections, said political analyst Ana Laura Magaloni.
Calderón's anti-crime plan seems unclear to many people, she said. As long as it's not clarified then voters are going to reject that and give an advantage to the PRI, she said.
(Except the media have picked it up as their Important Story du jour.)
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/12/2008 19:34
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#3
The cartel have a balancing act to play. If they reduce the Mexican government to ineffectiveness, the Yankee will be on their back [along with the hunting skills developed in Iraq]. Regardless of Justice Kennedy's personal belief, Mexicans within their own border are not afforded the US Constitutional protection. Pancho Villa couldn't operate today like he did back a hundred years ago. The American military let lose like that then would have him today. At the same time, focusing the effort on each separate cartel will weaken them vis a vis their competitors who'll be sure to pick up the remains. The again, no one said they look far beyond their immediate bank account.
When it comes to launching missiles in the Mommy Wars, Sarah Palin has nothing on Christopher Ruhm. On Thursday, the University of North Carolina, Greenboro, economist published a study showing that kids from high-socioeconomic-status families take a long-term hit when their moms work outside the home--at ages 10 and 11, they perform more poorly on cognitive tests and are also more likely to be overweight than those whose high-status mothers leave the workforce.
Children from low-status families, on the other hand, don't seem to suffer as much when their moms work. In fact, many of them do better on the same tests, and they're more fit, than similarly disadvantaged kids with stay-at-home moms.
The findings are surprising, and it's easy to read them as a warning to affluent, educated mothers: if you want the best for your child, don't work. (Conversely, if you're not well-off: get your kid to day care.) But those are dangerous conclusions to draw from the study, and even Ruhm--whose own wife worked while raising their children--says so. "This comes down to a fundamental principle of economics: something has to give. We can't have it all," he says. "But I would never tell anybody what to do or not do about that. I certainly wouldn't tell my wife."
So what are women facing a choice between work and home--and those many more for whom work is an economic necessity--supposed to make of these findings?
The study, published in the journal Labour Economics, divided women into two socioeconomic groups, based on several variables (including education levels, income prior to pregnancy, ethnicity and whether a spouse was present at home). The kids from families in the "lower" group generally fared fine if their moms worked for the majority of their childhoods--at ages 10 and 11, they either scored about the same on cognitive tests, or better, than disadvantaged kids whose mothers stayed home. For kids from high-status families, though, the pattern flipped. The more these affluent moms worked--especially if they went back to their jobs while their children were still very young--the less well their kids did on cognitive tests later in childhood. (The high-status children with working moms still did better overall than all the low-status children--so class, not employment, was ultimately the stronger factor in their well-being.) More at the link. I wonder why this comes out now? Coincidence?.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
09/12/2008
18:39 ||
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#1
"I wonder why this comes out now?"
I wonder if they thought this through.
Lessee - what other woman in the public political eye right now has young children and works outside the home?
Don't tell me - I'll remember it in a minute - first name Michelle....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/12/2008 21:02
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Barbara gets the Kewpie Doll.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
09/12/2008 21:12
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#3
weelllllll I don't think Michelle's working too much right now, but I bet she's still getting paid
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/12/2008 21:42
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#4
Why do you think they kept her at home yesterday, well away from Ground Zero? The mom meme, of course ... that and the fact that she probably couldn't have kept a bitter smirk off of her face when all those stupid people got all solemn about a no-big-deal criminal act we deserved anyway.
#2
Good heavens. I had no idea things had gotten so bad in Australia re: self-defense. Sounds even more extreme than the UK. Weren't you guys allowed to own guns not-that-long-ago??? Wot happened?
#3
"QUEENSLAND shopkeepers are demanding the right to arm themselves with clubs, Tasers and capsicum spray to fight back against violent robbers."
If the shopkeepers just had some small, hand held device that would propel say, pellets of some heavy metal at high speed, they would be more than capable of defending themselves.
#4
Lets not get too excited. Stats from the Australian Institute of Ciminology (here http://www.aic.gov.au/topics/violence/robbery/stats/) show that there are about 600 armed robberies per month in across Australia. That is about 20 per day. In Australia, "Armed" means any sort of weapon, including guns, knives, blunt instruments, hands, feet, sticks and so on. Robberies using guns add up to around 10% of the total, so that is 2 or 3 per day, across the whole of Australia.
In the 1990s, there were a series of events where some fool would go postal, take one or more guns into a public place, and start shooting until they were taken down. The worst of these, at Port Arthur in Tasmania in 1996, cost us 35 lives. To put that in perspective, the total number of firearm deaths that year was 105 across the whole country, including the 35 from the Port Arthur massacre.
John Howard, our Prime Minister at the time, instituted a scheme to reduce the number of guns in the community. He set up a gun-buyback scheme, so that the government compulsorily purchased weapons legally held by citizens. I thought (and still think) that it was a reasonable response.
My own family sold back to the government a nice Browning automatic shotgun, an old double barrel shotgun with a damascus woven wire barrel, a .410 snake gun, and a single shot 22. Just the normal guns that families tended to have back then.
The result? Since then, homocides with long guns reduced by about 45%, homocides with handguns doubled (from about 15 to about 30 per year, Australia wide), suicides with guns halved (although it was already trending down from about 1990).
So, judge for yourself. One thing I do know. The degree and history of guns in the community in Australia is different to that in the US.
AN Afghan court has sentenced an ex-journalist and a mullah to 20 years in prison each for publishing a translation of the Koran alleged to contain errors, friends and media rights groups said today. Afghan and international media rights organisations condemned the sentences handed down yesterday and called on President Hamid Karzai to intervene.
Former journalist Ahmed Ghous Zalmai was arrested in November trying to escape into Pakistan as religious clerics and parliament were in an uproar about a Dari-language version of the Muslim holy book he had published. Mullah Qari Mushtaq, who was sentenced with him, had approved the version which other clerics and parliamentarians claimed contained errors and misunderstandings about issues such as homosexuality and adultery.
Critics also complained the book did not include the original Arabic text as required by Islamic law.
"We appeal to the President's spirit of tolerance and ask him to intercede on behalf of two men who have been given extremely severe sentences," said Paris-based Reporters Without Borders and Article 19, another rights watchdog. "Their aim was not to violate Islamic law, but only to promote the Koran among the Persian-speaking peoples," they said in a statement.
Afghanistan's judicial system is based on Islamic Sharia law which forbids criticism of Islam and rules that the death penalty should be applied in cases of blasphemy.
Afghan media unions have also called on Mr Karzai to intervene, said Hafiz Barakzai from the National Union of Journalists. "This is an academic issue .... (Islamic) scholars should sit and discuss it," he told AFP.
Two brothers of Zalmai who had been arrested with him on charges of trying to help him flee the country were freed yesterday after being held in jail for seven-and-a-half months, a friend said, labelling the detentions illegal.
Zalmai, expected to appeal, had been a fairly outspoken TV journalist in the 1980s, Reporters Without Borders said. At the time of his arrest, he was a spokesman in the office of the attorney-general.
Another journalist is appealing a death sentence handed down by a primary provincial court in January for distributing an article downloaded from the internet which questions the Koran, particularly its views on women. Perwiz Kambakhsh, 23, has been in jail for nearly a year.
Afghanistan's judicial system is based on Islamic Sharia law which forbids criticism of Islam and rules that the death penalty should be applied in cases of blasphemy.
Senator Joseph Biden Jr., the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, is an experienced, serious and smart man. But he does say some curious things. A day on the campaign trail without some cringe-inducing gaffe is a rare blessing. He has not been too blessed lately.
Just this week, he mused that Senator Barack Obama might have been better off with Hillary Rodham Clinton as his running mate.
"Hillary Clinton is as qualified or more qualified than I am to be vice president of the United States of America," Biden said Wednesday in Nashua, New Hampshire. "Quite frankly it might have been a better pick than me."
Earlier in the week, in Columbia, Missouri, Biden urged a paraplegic state official to stand up to be recognized.
"Chuck, stand up, let the people see you," Biden shouted to State Senator Chuck Graham, before realizing, to his horror, that Graham uses a wheelchair. "Oh, God love ya," Biden said. "What am I talking about?"
But it was the Clinton remarks that touched a potentially sensitive spot for the Obama-Biden ticket. With Sarah Palin's addition to the Republican ticket potentially energizing some women voters, Biden's remarks raised anew a legitimate question of whether Obama would have been better off picking the former first lady as his running mate. One could imagine Senator John McCain's campaign even using Biden's remarks in their own ads to exploit female misgivings about the Democratic ticket.
Obama knew what he was getting when he picked Biden as his running mate: A veteran of six terms in the Senate, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and former chairman of the Judiciary Committee, an Irish Catholic with working-class roots, a guy who had twice been tested in the arena of presidential politics.
And a human verbal wrecking crew. This is the fellow who nearly derailed his nascent presidential campaign last year by calling Obama bright and clean and articulate and who noted that you needed a slight Indian accent to walk into a Dunkin' Donuts or 7-11 in Delaware.
The guy who, reading his vice-presidential acceptance speech from a TelePrompter, bungled McCain's name, calling him "George" ("Freudian slip, folks, Freudian slip," he explained).
The guy who, on the day Obama announced him as his running mate, referred to his party's presidential nominee as "Barack America" and noted that his own wife, Jill, a college professor, was "drop-dead gorgeous" but who, problematically, possessed a doctorate.
The guy who has said he is running for president (not vice president) and who confused army brigades with battalions. Who referred to his Republican vice-presidential opponent as the lieutenant governor of Alaska.
Aides to Obama said that Biden's propensity to misspeak could pose problems, particularly in the vice-presidential debate on Oct. 2. They are watching his performance on the trail warily, but so far have not tried to rein him in.
But they have assigned a couple of veteran minders to travel with him - David Wilhelm, the former Democratic National Committee chairman, and David Wade, former spokesman for Senator John Kerry. Wade said that Biden's occasional stumbles prove to voters that he is human and that they help them relate to the candidate.
"It would be a huge mistake to try to strip away the authenticity that's been his greatest strength for 35 years," Wade said. "For anybody who's gone to Joe Biden events and watched how voters connect with him, there's a pretty big gap between the expectations of the elite media who seem to crave scripted, blow-dried drones out of central casting instead of regular folks who want to see some honesty and candor. They appreciate it that he takes the voters seriously and doesn't take himself too seriously."
Wade added: "I've never heard a voter say they wanted someone who was more scripted, more slick and who talks to me in sound bites. If they wanted stuffed shirts, we'd be preparing for an October debate with Mitt Romney."
Those who have known Biden for a long time say they see him as a man with an equally big heart and mouth.
"He has overwhelming support here, he's well liked," said James Baker, mayor of Wilmington, Delaware, Biden's home. "We forgive him every once in a while when he says something dumb - 'Oh, that's just Joe."'
Biden recognizes that his tongue sometimes ventures ahead of his brain and often catches himself with a smile.
In Fort Myers, Florida, last week, he referred to the "Biden administration," before quickly correcting himself to say the "Obama-Biden administration."
"Believe me, that wasn't a Freudian slip," he said, laughing and crossing himself. "Oh lordy day, I tell ya."
SRINAGAR: Israel's Army chief, Major General Avi Mizrahi has arrived in Kashmir on an unscheduled visit, reports said.
However authorities here are tightlipped about the visit and they neither confirm nor deny the reports.
Maj Gen Avi Mizrahi, the chief of the Israeli ground forces, arrived in New Delhi on Tuesday on a three-day visit. He met the chiefs of India's army, navy and air force and discussed matters of mutual concern, including joint military training and exercises for the two armed forces.
Posted by: john frum ||
09/12/2008
16:22 ||
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Sean Hannity took issue with Charlie Gibson's interview with Gov. Sarah Palin yesterday, calling his question on her religious comments "out of context" and "totally misconstrued."
Now, he'll get the chance to conduct his own interview.
Hannity will interview Palin on Tuesday in Cincinnati on the campaign trail. The interview will air in two parts on Hannity & Colmes on Tuesday and Wednesday at 9pmET. It will be Palin's first cable news interview, and second after Gibson's.
Greta Gets First Interview with 'First Dude'
While ABC's Charlie Gibson is busy with Gov. Sarah Palin's first interview, FNC's Greta Van Susteren can claim a related "first." She sits down with Palin's husband, Todd Palin, for his first mainstream media interview since his wife was named VP.
Van Susteren interviews Palin later today and it will air in two parts, on Monday and Tuesday, on On the Record at 10pmET.
She has been anchoring her program from Alaska all week, the only anchor on cable news to do so. Earlier this week she interviewed Palin's sister, Heather Bruce, and she has posted behind-the-scenes pictures and information on her blog (including a look at Palin's old office as Mayor of Wasilla).
#4
I love the "never voted for the worknig guy in his life."
IMO, if flying off a boat with bombs to deliver on the bad guy to protect the American way of life isn't voting, then I'll wear a hemet 3 sizes too big and drive a tank.
#5
"I think it's important that he emphasizes that McCain has never voted for the working guy in his life. It's not just minimum wage votes; it's everything: Privatizing Social Security and Medicare, he's anti-union, he hasn't lifted a finger for public education, his health plan is a joke. I mean, this guy--he doesn't really believe that working people and their families in this country ought to be guaranteed basic health insurance. So, I think you want to draw those contrasts, and I think he will do so and has already begun to do so."
-Let's see...Anti-union: check. Anti-gov't ed: check. Pro privatization of social security: check. Anti-gov't running Health Care: check. Anti-minimum wage: double check. Well, if you put it that way, Johnny Mac just went up a few notches in my opinion.
#11
I'm starting to think that either Karl Rove is the most cunning political genius of the last 200 years or that the Democrats collectively could not outsmart a box of hammers.
KABUL, Afghanistan - Taliban militants attacked a logistics convoy in western Afghanistan on Friday, sparking a clash that killed 10 insurgents and five Afghan guards, an official said. Another 10 militants were killed by U.S.-led coalition troops north of Kabul.
The militants attacked the convoy in the western Farah province, said Farah's Gov. Roohulla Amin. In the ensuing gunfight with the guards protecting the trucks, 10 militants and five Afghan private security guards were killed, Amin said. Three other guards were missing following the clash, believed captured by the Taliban, he said.
Separately, U.S.-led coalition troops killed more than 10 militants and detained two others during two separate raids, the coalition said in a statement. The militants were killed in Tagab district of northern Kapisa province during a Thursday raid on an insurgent commander involved in roadside bomb attacks, according to the statement. "Coalition forces were engaged with small-arms fire from multiple groups of armed militants as they entered a compound. The force returned fire, killing the militants," it said.
Separately, coalition troops detained two militants in the eastern Khost province during a raid on the network of Siraj Haqqani, the son of longtime warlord Jalalludin Haqqani. The U.S. has called Siraq Haqqani a ruthless new brand of militant leader and last year announced a $200,000 reward for his capture. Haqqani, a Taliban-associated militant with close ties to al-Qaida, is accused of masterminding beheadings and massive bombings. He is believed to be in Pakistan.
MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (AFP) - A missile from a suspected US drone killed 12 people Friday in a Pakistani tribal area where US forces have been aggressively targeting Al-Qaeda militants -- fuelling anger from Washington's key "war on terror" ally.
Yet another smoking hole in the ground? Do tell? Y'don't think G.W.'s tired of the duplicity ooooooozing from Islamabad, do ya?
The missile hit a house on the outskirts of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, a local official said, in the fourth such strike in a week aimed at Taliban or Al-Qaeda fighters hiding out in the rugged tribal area."The pre-dawn strike destroyed the house and 12 people were killed," the official told AFP, adding that another 14 people were wounded.
Ah, carnage. I like it.
The 12 were believed to be rebel fighters, locals said, adding that the house hit in the Tol Khel area had been rented by an Afghan militant organisation, Al Badar, and was being used as an office. Al Badar, backed by former guerrilla leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, has previously conducted operations against Afghan and international forces based across the border in Afghanistan, residents and a security official said.
Hek is formerly the Most Evil Man in the World. I haven't heard of al-Badar, at least not in an Afghan context. Golly, gosh and shucks. I wonder where Hek gets all that money to run all those terror orgs?
Hekmatyar was briefly prime minister of Afghanistan in the 1990s after the end of its Soviet occupation.
He was the brown mastiff in the Dog Eat Dog episode.
He has backed the Taliban since the regime was removed from power following the US-led invasion of the country in 2001, after the September 11 attacks in the United States, and has demanded the withdrawal of foreign forces.
... in the hope of resuming his former brief but vaunted position.
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.
I don't believe it, myself. It think it might be a resurgence of Dahomey and Upper Volta. The U.S. is just good-naturedly taking the blame for what they're doing, and I think it should stop. From now on, I think we should unequivocally blame Dahomey for every outrage like this one.
Are you sure it wasn't the Ruritanians?
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani hit out at the strike, saying that only Pakistani forces have the right to act on its territory.
"And they ain't gonna do it unless the bad guyz try to gnaw off too much of the pie."
"We strongly condemn this attack and the government will raise this issue at diplomatic level," he told reporters.
I agree. It's terrible. Just terrible. Damn that Dahomey!
Thirty-eight people, including women and children, have been killed in the past week's missile attacks.
Along with uncounted puppies, kittens, baby ducks and fluffy bunnies! Oh, the human toll! Really, the Paks should send a strongly worded letter to the Upper Voltan ambassador. I'm sure he'd know what to do with it.
Pakistan and the United States have been drawn into a row over the strikes, with Pakistan army chief General Ashfaq Kayani this week strongly criticising them and insisting no deal existed to allow foreign troops to conduct them.
"Yeah. No way are we lettin' them in to throw missiles around! I'd hate to think of how many of our people they've killed!"
As well as missile strikes, Pakistan last week for the first time accused Afghanistan-based troops of carrying out a direct attack on its territory, a raid in the South Waziristan tribal zone that left 15 people dead. The Pakistani army reiterated its position Friday, with an official statement, quoting Kayani, pledging to safeguard the country's "territorial integrity."
Well, I'm sure it wasn't us. I don't even think we were in town that day, and if we were, we were washing our hair.
US and Afghan officials say Pakistan's tribal areas are a safe haven for Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants who sneaked into the rugged region after the fall of the Taliban regime in late 2001. Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, are widely believed to be hiding in the mountainous region.
We don't know where within targeting accuracy requirements.
A separate strike in North Waziristan on Monday targeted but failed to hit top Taliban commander Jalaluddin Haqqani, but did kill four mid-level Al-Qaeda operatives, a security official and a militant source said.
"That dudn't mean nuttin'. Around here, y'can't throw a rock without hittin' at least four al-Qaeda operatives."
With tens of thousands of US and other international troops locked down in Afghanistan, US Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Admiral Michael Mullen said Wednesday he had ordered a new strategy covering both sides of the border with Pakistan. The New York Times also reported that US President George W. Bush in July secretly approved orders enabling Special Operations forces to conduct ground operations in Pakistan without Islamabad's prior approval.
#2
"The 12 were believed to be rebel fighters, locals said, adding that the house hit in the Tol Khel area had been rented by an Afghan militant organisation"
Good job! More missiles, please.
"aggressively targeting Al-Qaeda militants -- fuelling anger from Washington's key 'war on terror' ally"
Anger? Some key ally. More missiles, please.
The Prime Minister needs to review tapes of carpet bombing in Afghanistan in late 2001. A little perspective would do him good.
#3
only Pakistani forces have the right to act on its territory
By that logic the we could not have gone into A'stan to attack AQ there, but would have to let their then-government, the Taliban take care of the problem. We actually gave the 'bunnies that chance but they declined. Pakistan might want to check out that precedent.
#3
I can't imagine that serious and binding negotiations with the current Israeli government are possible. Olmert can't guarantee any agreements he makes and the US certainly can't force an agreement on the soon to be new Israeli government.
#4
To guarantee the Palestinian State is like trying to promise an extended warranty for a car hit by flooding and salt water bath from a coastal hurricane. STUPID!
Of coarse if the car is shipped inland for sale as is .....
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) -- Saudi Arabia's top judiciary official has issued a religious decree saying it is permissible to kill the owners of satellite TV networks that broadcast immoral content.
Along with just about anyone else they disagree with ...
The 79-year-old Sheik Saleh al-Lohan Lihedan said Thursday that satellite channels cause the "deviance of thousands of people."
Many of the most popular Arab satellite networks -- which include channels showing music videos often denounced as obscene by Muslim conservatives -- are owned by Saudi princes and well-connected Saudi businessmen. Al-Lihedan did not specify any particular channels.
Al-Lihedan is chief of the kingdom's highest tribunal, the Supreme Judiciary Council. Saudi Arabia's judiciary is made up of Islamic clerics whose decrees, or fatwas, on everyday issues are widely respected. Their fatwas do not have the weight of law. In the courts, cleric-judges rule according to Islamic law, but interpretations can vary.
Al-Lihedan was answering listeners' questions during the daily "Light in the Path" radio program in which he and others make rulings on what is permissible under Islamic law. One caller asked about Islam's view of the owners of satellite TV channels that show "bad programs" during Ramadan.
"I want to advise the owners of these channels, who broadcast calls for such indecency and impudence ... and I warn them of the consequences," he said. "What does the owner of these networks think, when he provides seduction, obscenity and vulgarity?"
"Those calling for corrupt beliefs, certainly it's permissible to kill them," he said. "Those calling for sedition, those who are able to prevent it but don't, it is permissible to kill them."
Among the most viewed Arabic satellite networks is Rotana, which airs movies and music videos. It is owned by Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, a billionaire businessman and member of the royal family whom Forbes ranks as the world's 13th richest person.
Al-Lihedan sparked controversy in the past by issuing a decree that Saudis can join jihadists to fight U.S. troops in Iraq.
#1
Ordinarily, I'd be outraged..... but the letters MSNBC keep appearing in my head.....
Posted by: Caesar Sperelet6449 ||
09/12/2008 14:33
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Ted Turner, Leslie Moonves (CBS), Jeff Zucker (NBC), Stephen McPherson (ABC), Peter Liguori (FOX), Judy McGrath (MTV), Jonathan Klein (CNN), Dan Abrams (MSNBC).
For three decades, deep tectonic forces have been silently tearing Pakistan away from the Subcontinent and driving it towards the Arabian Peninsula. This continental drift is not geophysical but cultural, driven by a belief that Pakistan must exchange its Southasian identity for an Arab-Muslim one. Grain by grain, the desert sands of Saudi Arabia are replacing the alluvium that had nurtured Muslim culture in the Indian Subcontinent for over a thousand years. A stern, unyielding version of Islam Wahhabism is replacing the kinder, gentler Islam of the Sufis and saints.
This drift is by design. Twenty-five years ago, the Pakistani state pushed Islam onto its people. Prayers in government departments were deemed compulsory; floggings were carried out publicly; punishments were meted out to those who did not fast during Ramadan; selection for academic posts required that the candidates demonstrate knowledge of Islamic teachings, and the jihad was emphasised as essential for every Muslim. Today, such government intervention is no longer needed due to the spontaneous groundswell of Islamic zeal. The notion of an Islamic state as yet in some amorphous and diffused form is more popular than ever before, as people look desperately for miracles to rescue a failing state. Across the country, there has been a spectacular increase in the power and prestige of the clerics, attendance in mosques, home prayer meetings (dars and zikr), observance of special religious festivals, and fasting during Ramadan.
Villages have changed drastically, driven in part by Pakistani workers returning from Arab countries. Many village mosques are now giant madrassas that propagate hard-line Salafi and Deobandi beliefs through oversized loudspeakers. They are bitterly opposed to Barelvis, Shias and other Muslims who they do not consider to be Muslims. Punjabis, who were far more liberal towards women than were the Pashtuns, are now beginning to embrace the line of thought resembling that of the Taliban. Hanafi law (from one of the four schools of thought or jurisprudence within Sunni Islam) has begun to prevail over tradition and civil law.
Among the Pakistani lower-middle and middle classes lurks a grim and humourless Saudi-inspired revivalist movement (which can be called Saudi-isation) that frowns upon every form of joyous expression. Lacking any positive connection to culture and knowledge, it seeks to eliminate corruption by strictly regulating cultural life and seizing absolute control of the education system. Classical music is on its last legs in Pakistan; the sarangi and vichtarveena are completely dead, laments Mohammad Shehzad, a student of music. Indeed, teaching music in public universities is vehemently opposed by students of the Islami Jamaat-e-Talaba, religious fundamentalists who consider music haram. Kathak dancing, once popular among the Muslim elite of India, has no teachers left in Pakistan, and the feature films produced in the country are of next to no consequence. Meanwhile the Pakistani elites, disconnected from the rest of the population, comfortably live their lives through their vicarious proximity to the West.
School militarism
More than a quarter-century after the state-sponsored Islamisation of the country, the state in Pakistan is itself under attack from religious militants, and rival Islamic groups battle each other with heavy weapons. Ironically, the same army whose men were recruited under the banner of jihad, and which saw itself as the fighting arm of Islam today stands accused of betrayal, and is targeted by Islamist suicide bombers on an almost daily basis. The militancy that bedevils Pakistan is by no means confined to the tribal areas; it breeds feverishly in the cities as well. Pakistans self-inflicted suffering comes from an education system that propagates the jihad culture, which ceaselessly demands that Islam be understood as a complete code of life, designed to create in the minds of the school child a sense of siege and embattlement.
The process begins early. For example, the government-approved curriculum of a Class V Social Studies textbook prescribes that the child should be able to Make speeches on Jehad and Shahadat, and Understand Hindu-Muslim differences and the resultant need for Pakistan. The material placed before the Pakistani schoolchild has remained largely unchanged even after the attacks of 11 September 2001, which led to Pakistans abrupt desertion of the Taliban and the slackening of the Kashmir jihad. Indeed, for all the talk of enlightened moderation, then-General Pervez Musharrafs educational curriculum, passed down with some dilution from the time of Zia ul-Haq, was far from enlightening. Fearful of taking on powerful religious forces, every incumbent government has refused to take a position on the curriculum. Thus, successive administrations have quietly allowed the young minds to be moulded by fanatics.
As such, the promotion of militarism in Pakistans schools, colleges and universities has had a profound effect on young people. Militant jihad has become a part of the culture in college and university campuses, with armed groups inviting students for jihad in Kashmir and Afghanistan. The primary vehicle for Saudi-ising Pakistans education has been the madrassa. During the war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, madrassas provided the US-Saudi-Pakistan alliance that recruits needed for fighting a holy war. Earlier on, this role had been limited to turning out the occasional Islamic scholar, using a curriculum dating back to the 11th century with minor subsequent revisions. The principal function of the madrassas had been to produce imams and muezzins for mosques.
The Afghan jihad changed everything. Under Zia, with active assistance from Saudi Arabia, madrassas sprang up across the length and breadth of Pakistan, and now number about 22,000. The free room, board and supplies provided to students has always constituted a key part of the appeal to join these madrassas. But the desire of parents across the country for their children to be disciplined, and to be given a thorough Islamic education, is also a major contributing factor.
One of the chief goals of the Islamists is to bring about a complete separation of the sexes, the consequences of which have been catastrophic. Take the tragic example of the stampede in a madrassa in Karachi in April 2006, in which 21 women and eight children were crushed to death, and scores more injured; all the while, male rescuers were prevented from assisting. Likewise, after the October 2005 earthquake, as this writer walked through the destroyed city of Balakot, a student of the Frontier Medical College described how he and his male colleagues were stopped by religious elders from digging out injured girls from under the rubble of their school building.
The drive to segregate the sexes is now also influencing educated women. Vigorous proselytisers of this message, such as Farhat Hashmi one of the most influential contemporary Muslim scholars, or ulema, particularly in Pakistan, the UK and the US have become massively successful, and have been catapulted to heights of fame and fortune. Two decades ago, the fully veiled student was a rarity on any university or college campus in Pakistan. Abaya was once an unknown word in Urdu, but today many shops in Islamabad specialise in these dreary robes, which cover the entire body except the face, feet and hands. At colleges and universities across Pakistan, female students are today seeking the anonymity of the burqa, outnumbering their sisters who still dare to show their faces.
The immediate future of Pakistan looks grim, as increasing numbers of mullahs are creating cults around themselves and seizing control over the minds of their worshippers. In the tribal areas, a string of new Islamist leaders have suddenly emerged Baituallah Mehsud, Fazlullah, Mangal Bagh and Haji Namdar among others feeding on the environment of poverty, deprivation, lack of justice, and extreme disparities in wealth.
In the long term, Pakistans future will be determined by the ideological and political battle between citizens who want an Islamist theocratic state, and citizens who want a modern Islamic republic. It may yet be possible to roll back the Islamist laws and institutions that have corroded Pakistani society for over 30 years, and defeat the holy warriors. However, this can only happen if Pakistans elected leaders acquire the trust of the citizens. To do this, political parties, government officials and, yes, even generals will have to embrace democracy, in both word and deed.
Pervez Hoodbhoy is a physicist at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad.
Posted by: john frum ||
09/12/2008
12:36 ||
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#1
Take away their nukes and build a wall around the place and they can do whatever they want. As soon as they step foot out of the place, shoot them.
Right outta the playbook...
A Muslim advocacy group that last year helped mediate a worker dispute at a JBS Swift & Co. packing plant in Nebraska on Thursday said it hopes to do the same in Greeley where 103 Muslim workers were fired.
Officials at the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington, D.C.-based civil-rights group, said the dispute over prayer time at the Greeley slaughterhouse is the worst they've seen in the country. "We've never seen anything like the wholesale firings to this degree, and it makes me wonder what's really going on there," council spokesman Ibrahim Hooper said Thursday. Ummmmm... they don't follow the rules of the company they work for so they got fired? You can thank me later, Ibby.
A nearly identical rift occurred last year at a JBS packing plant in Grand Island, Neb., when Muslim workers walked off the job when they were refused prayer time. Three workers were fired for leaving stations without permission, and 90 quit.
The council filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on behalf of the workers, which is pending. Workers in Nebraska gave managers a 45-minute window in which prayer breaks were necessary; in Greeley the workers offered a 10-minute window, according to people familiar with the discussions.
The Greeley workers, all Muslim and many Somalian, were fired Wednesday for not reporting to work after nearly 400 walked off the job Friday saying they were denied prayer time. At issue is a request by the workers for a 10-minute prayer break at sundown. Workers said they were refused the break on Friday but had been allowed the break previously.
About 120 employees returned to work Tuesday after JBS officials said they'd accommodate the need for Muslim prayers, but only during a universal meal break that turns out to be too late for the religious practice and too early for other workers.
Ahmed Mohamud, one of the fired workers and a spokesman for the group, said the workers told JBS managers "we would take pay cuts for the time we are praying, but they refused."
A JBS spokeswoman said she was unaware of the civil rights group's desire to help the Greeley workers.
Disputes between companies and Muslim employees over time to pray are nothing new, Hooper said. "The problems we've seen in the past involved the sunset prayer, which is only one of five that is specifically tied to a time of day," he said. "The other four are general times with a window of opportunity. But the sunset prayer is, by definition, at sunset." So suck it up...INFIDEL!
The most friction occurs during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which began Sept. 1, where practitioners fast from sunrise to sunset and break the fast just ahead of evening prayers.
Highest levels of Pakistan's security apparatus, including the army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, might have been aware of the plot to bomb the Indian embassy in Kabul in July this year, US intelligence and security officials believe, a media report has said.
They also believe that the attack was aided by Pakistan's infamous intelligence agency, ISI.
That's at least a semi-finalist for "Understated comment of 2008" ...
"It's very difficult to imagine he (Gen Kayani) was not aware," a senior American official told the New York Times.
American intelligence agencies were quoted as saying that senior Pakistani national security officials favour the use of militant groups to preserve Pakistan's influence in the region, as a hedge against India and Afghanistan. In fact, some analysts believe that ISI operatives did not mind when their role in the July bombing in Kabul became known, the paper added.
"They didn't cover their tracks very well," a senior Defense Department official told the paper, "and I think the embassy bombing was the ISI drawing a line in the sand."
Posted by: john frum ||
09/12/2008
12:16 ||
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#1
"A senior official said..." in other words, this guy is just making up stuff. While it is probably true, my guess is that the rapporteur spoke to no one except perhaps the barrista at the local coffee house.
#2
Actually, we are well into the middle of an unfolding economic nightmare. The US has been living beyond its means for years, with negative domestic savings and reliance on foreign purchases of its debt. If its credit markets should lock up, large numbers of businesses will close and large numbers will be thrown out of work -- that was the essence of the Great Depression and the many previous financial Panics in US history. The US Treasury & the Fed are trying to prevent that, or at least mitigate the pain.
#3
What is disappointing is that both political parties are so intertwined with, and willing to be bribed out of making, the parasites who created this mess the political issue they ought to be that the topic is unaddressed in this election. No change.
#4
What is disappointing is that no political candidate, who plainly names and blames the institutions and attitudes that produced the current crisis, can be elected to office.
The US media & intelligentsia could have informed the electorate on this problem far better than they have so far done, but they have other fish to fry.
Eventually the current economic crisis will occupy the national attention, when sufficient pain is felt. This far transcends party politics.
#5
AH, when you say "US media & intelligentsia" you could substitute "liberal elite". With the collusion of the Republican RINO's.
Their political policy's and regulations w/r risky home loans for minorities created the environment for much of this and in addition a shaky economy benefits them in this election year. There is no incentive for the leadership of the congress (Democrats?) to truly solve anything until after Nov 4.
#6
What is disappointing is that no political candidate, who plainly names and blames the institutions and attitudes that produced the current crisis, can be elected to office.
That's because both parties are dirty up to their necks on this.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
09/12/2008 18:51
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How about you name it something like...the Strategic Air Command maybe?
WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Robert Gates says the Air Force will consider consolidating under a single command all responsibility for management of its nuclear weapons arsenal.
Gates made the statement at a Pentagon news conference where an advisory group was releasing its recommendations on ways to improve the Air Force's handling of its nuclear weapons mission.
He said the advisory group, led by former defense secretary James Schlesinger, is recommending that a new Air Force command be created to consolidate the nuclear weapons responsibilities. Gates also said that while the Schlesinger panel makes a convincing argument for this, he is not certain about it. He said it will be a matter for Air Force leaders to consider and decide.
#2
Here's a basic, perhaps stupidly so, question -
Does the Army have any nuclear arsenal? I recall the nuclear artillery shells from decades ago, but does the current Army command have a separate nuclear component, or is it left to the USAF, and USN-sub service?
#5
Good news is that an USMC NCO Cabal strike force retrived a good deal of the US Army fissile material, most of it is hidden in holes various on Paris Island Depot. Moved each day, sometimes more than once.
Adam Gadahn, a Winchester native who became a top al-Qaida operative and the first American to be indicted for treason since 1952, may have been killed in an airstrike, according to intelligence experts cited by a British newspaper.
Gadahn is thought to have been killed in an attack launched from a remotely piloted aircraft in January, according to London's Daily Telegraph newspaper, which cited unnamed Western intelligence sources in Pakistan. It's September, if no rumbles from him since then, then he's dead.
Internet rumors have circulated about Gadahn's death since February, pointing to a well-trusted Pakistani news report that Gadahn was killed in the same attack that killed high-profile al-Qaida commander Abu Laith al-Libi in Waziristanin January. That's so awesome that he was in the little group. What a lovely little surprise to get in your strike assessment!
The Telegraph article, published Sunday, also cites that late-January attack as the probable demise of Gadahn, who grew up in a reclusive family on a goat farm in the hills of Winchester. At age 17, he converted to Islam and subsequently joined al-Qaida, becoming its top propagandist.
Another telltale sign that Gadahn could be dead is that he has not produced a new video message this week to mark the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, departing from an annual tradition he launched in 2003. Yeah, that's pretty conclusive.
"If there is no message, it will be taken as near-certain confirmation that he is dead ---- killed either in a strike by Hellfire missiles, or perhaps by jihadi colleagues who have grown jealous of his success," the Telegraph reported. Islamo-terr office politics.
In May, several months after initial reports circulated that Gadahn might be dead, the FBI and State Department launched a publicity campaign to spread the word in Afghanistan about a $1 million reward for information on Gadahn's whereabouts. "We produced posters and matchbooks, radio ads, requesting information from anyone who might have it," Eimiller said. "There's been some information that has come in, but clearly he's not been located at this point. We are continuing to take calls and check out every lead." They're looking for him. Can't find him. Matchbooks? I'd like to get my hands on a few of those.
#3
Well I got to celebrate this one with a feast. I'll serve roasted pork, all the beer a man could want, and the ladies around the pool will all be wearin' bikini swim suits. Not a burka in sight. Damn I love the West.
#6
prepare to receive gate crashers for Rantburger pot-luck picnic, Tiny -- such a special occasion simply requires, nay, demands that i bake a cake...
and if Barbara brings the popcorn wagon, i'll bring the ice cream maker...
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
09/12/2008 17:15
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#9
Party Pooper Alert:
Perhaps al-Qs higher eschelon patched up Adam the-Brown-mouth Gadan and has sent him back to his former home [USA], where he now awaits further instruction for a WMD attack?
/booo dooom... come on he's dead!
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
09/12/2008 17:51
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#10
"Them that dance with the devil are bound to get scorched."
#1
This is the most biased crap I have ever read, I'm amazed they claim to have advanced degrees.
Posted by: Bill Claiter9194 ||
09/12/2008 10:50
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#2
Hard-working people vote Republican for a variety of reasons. One being they believe they can spend ther hard-earned money better than the government.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
09/12/2008 10:51
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#4
We psychologists have been examining the origins of ideology ever since Hitler sent us Germany's best psychologists, and we long ago reported that strict parenting and a variety of personal insecurities work together to turn people against liberalism, diversity, and progress.
#5
I think it really gets down to Liberals tend to prefer people stay in there place and be happy milking the rich but a lot of America simply aren't satisfied with that and it feels unfair. They want to be rich (even if the odds are against them) so fleecing the rich doesn't really make sense.
A careful distinction that is rarely made is the idea of taxing wealth creation vs idle wealth. If we were to eliminate the taxes on hard working wealthy folks and up them on the trust-fund babies more Americans would be in favor of that than not. But you'd be defunding a lot of prominent politicians and their donors in the process so it won't happen.
have been examining the origins of ideology ever since Hitler sent us Germany's best psychologists
Freud? He was a vast fraud: in fact there was a research on the people he allegedly cured and in fact none of them had his condition improved. In fact several of them had it worsened after visiting Dr Frud (logic; after a traumatic experince the peole who fare better are those who let it behind them not those who remember it) when
it wasn't simply creted by Freud's proding.
So we have it, a soft scientist, a guy who swallows a fraud bait and hook and, he is a Democrat.
#9
This is the first rule of moral psychology: feelings come first and tilt the mental playing field on which reasons and arguments compete. If people want to reach a conclusion, they can usually find a way to do so. The Democrats have historically failed to grasp this rule, choosing uninspiring and aloof candidates who thought that policy arguments were forms of persuasion.
and ...
When Democrats try to explain away these positions using pop psychology they err, they alienate, and they earn the label "elitist." But how can Democrats learn to seelet alone respecta moral order they regard as narrow-minded, racist, and dumb?
not to mention ...
Conservatives think that welfare programs and feminism increase rates of single motherhood and weaken the traditional social structures that compel men to support their own children? Hmm, that may be true, even if there are also many good effects of liberating women from dependence on men.
But then ...
In several large internet surveys, my collaborators Jesse Graham, Brian Nosek and I have found that people who call themselves strongly liberal endorse statements related to the harm/care and fairness/reciprocity foundations, and they largely reject statements related to ingroup/loyalty, authority/respect, and purity/sanctity. People who call themselves strongly conservative, in contrast, endorse statements related to all five foundations more or less equally. (You can test yourself at www.YourMorals.org.)
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/12/2008 13:16
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#10
Redefine things. Peace is war. Love is hate. Sane is insane. Come on, its newspeak and everyone is doing it.
#11
I don't know... let's depart from Ideology of anything for a second.
Say Abortion on Demand
Say most of San Fran who votes for Pelosi are non-reproducing drones with conflicted sex sense.
Say as they always insist that it is genetic and a test could determine it before birth.
What Hetro-Sexual breeding couple would want to give birth to a drone?
Say the same thing about chattering classes...
What couple would want to raise perpetually angry self-centered narcissists?
Isn't this eugenics?
....
Now how I started voting Republican....
One word - Carter
#12
To answer the original question...maybe because the current crop of prominent Dems (Joe Lieberman being an exception)look like such $%*#ing douches?
#14
In the psychological community, where almost all of us are politically liberal, our diagnosis of conservatism gives us the additional pleasure of shared righteous anger. We can explain how Republicans exploit frames, phrases, and fears to trick Americans into supporting policies (such as the "war on terror" and repeal of the "death tax") that damage the national interest for partisan advantage.
But with pleasure comes seduction, and with righteous pleasure comes seduction wearing a halo. Our diagnosis explains away Republican successes while convincing us and our fellow liberals that we hold the moral high ground. Our diagnosis tells us that we have nothing to learn from other ideologies, and it blinds us to what I think is one of the main reasons that so many Americans voted Republican over the last 30 years: they honestly prefer the Republican vision of a moral order to the one offered by Democrats. To see what Democrats have been missing, it helps to take off the halo, step back for a moment, and think about what morality really is.
To me this is the key bit of the paper. He's saying that as long as Progressives ignore the key cultural concerns of what is functionally another culture within the U.S., they will continue losing elections... and finding themselves in conversations with others who become inexplicably furious at them. Something like what those with Asperger's Syndrome experience.
The second conclusion was that the moral domain varies across cultures. [M]orality being about justice, rights, and human welfare worked perfectly for the college students I interviewed at Penn, but it simply did not capture the moral concerns of the less elite groups... [T]he second rule of moral psychology is that morality is not just about how we treat each other (as most liberals think); it is also about binding groups together, supporting essential institutions, and living in a sanctified and noble way.
When Republicans say that Democrats "just don't get it," this is the "it" to which they refer. When Democrats try to explain away these positions using pop psychology they err, they alienate, and they earn the label "elitist."
And here's the other key bit, his conclusion from his mugged-by-reality excursion into Indian society:
On Turiel's definition of morality ("justice, rights, and welfare"), Christian and Hindu communities don't look good. They restrict people's rights (especially sexual rights), encourage hierarchy and conformity to gender roles, and make people spend extraordinary amounts of time in prayer and ritual practices that seem to have nothing to do with "real" morality. But isn't it unfair to impose on all cultures a definition of morality drawn from the European Enlightenment tradition? Might we do better with an approach that defines moral systems by what they do rather than by what they value?
Here's my alternative definition: morality is any system of interlocking values, practices, institutions, and psychological mechanisms that work together to suppress or regulate selfishness and make social life possible. It turns out that human societies have found several radically different approaches to suppressing selfishness, two of which are most relevant for understanding what Democrats don't understand about morality.
the author then goes on to expand the point, hoping to help Democrats understand what they must do (address the sacred, not merely the consumerist profane) in order to win over those who they think ought not be voting Republican. It's actually a good paper, if one reads it dispassionately.
Severe Acquired Leftist Anencephalic Dementia (SALAD).
"I wish I could tell you that the political left in this country was out of its friggin' mind...but I can't, because it is increasingly clear that if you could put all the combined synapses of all the the above bloggers together you would not get a single logical or coherent thought about the war that is being waged against the West by the religion of peace.
These bloggers and many of their readers are on a mission to go where no human has gone before. They are beyond mere denial and delusion; beyond psychosis even. I regularly treat schizophrenics who have more respect for reality.
Sadly, they suffer from a totally debilitating disorder: Severe Acquired Leftist Anencephalic Dementia (SALAD). Their minds are simply not there any more! The cognitive dissonance of believing so many bizarre and contradictory fantasies; the mental contortions and fits necessary for them to retain their ideological myths has caused their minds to softly and silently vanish away (that's what happens when the snark is a boojum, you see).
It's a terrible and agonizing affliction. And I feel for them--a mind is a terrible thing to waste, after all; but we can rejoice because I am certain they haven't noticed and therfore feel no pain whatsoever."
"And, as a parallel, there is something terribly wrong with the political left and anyone who is able to continue to pretend that terrorism is just some vast right wing conspiracy promulgated by the Bu$hies and Big Business to oppress the masses. They can rationalize, minimize, distort, deny, ignore, and delude themselves all they want; they can add some mixed-up Greens to the SALAD and scream about global warming; but it is very hard not to laugh--and they really do suffer from a debilitating and crippling cognitive malfunction."
#19
In the old Soviet system people were sent to 'professional care' institutes who disagreed with the dialectic of the party. They were obviously mentally ill because they didn't grasp the fundamental perfection of the socialist dogma. Any surprise the left remains the left even in the 21st Century?
Concepts like human free will are an anathema to their basic constructs of their preconceived universe. Where as those towards the right believe man is unique above the animals and able to make cognizant choices, the left treats the whole as just another social organism inhabiting the planet. That's why the left believes and acts upon the concept of a territorial hierarchical arrangement of the rulers [them - the inner party] and the ruled [everyone else - the outer party]. When Americans make decisions that don't conform to the secularist/socialist non-unique world construct, they see it as a neurosis while the other group simply looks upon it as natural 'human' behavior.
#21
"Why in particular do working class and rural Americans usually vote for pro-business Republicans when their economic interests would seem better served by Democratic policies?"
-you mean like the socialist policy of taking money away from other honest hard working Americans? My grandparents were rural based hard workers and they didn't want a hand out from anyone. Or is he referring to the open borders or giving illegals a road to citizenship? (honestly a dem & mccain policy) Yeah, that really helps rural Americans or even dem Union voters. By flooding the country w/other cheap labor competition you essentially hurt those you claim to want to help. This guy's an idiot. I caught it in the first paragraph but I guess even a blind squirrel gets a nut as I tend to vote GOP.
#22
Ever note the story lines that run the fantasy that the hero/heroine is defeats the bad guy and all in the land acknowledge them as ruler. Perhaps the primary mindset of a liberal that he is the nobility and all others should be subservient to the greater knowledge and moral authority he/she exhibits.
#23
"Perhaps the primary mindset of a liberal that he is the nobility and all others should be subservient to the greater knowledge and moral authority he/she exhibits."
Fixed that for ya', tipper.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/12/2008 19:28
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#24
I found this on a left-wing-nut site which referenced this article, which I thought was interesting. Palin Power isnt just about making hockey moms feel important. Its not just about giving abortion rights opponents their due. Its also, in obscure ways, about making yearnings come true deep, inchoate desires about respect and service, hierarchy and family that have somehow been successfully projected onto the figure of this unlikely woman and have stuck.
For those of us who cant tap into those yearnings, it seems the Palin faithful are blind to the contradictions between her stated positions and the truth of the policies she espouses, to the contradictions between her ideology and their interests. But Jonathan Haidt, an associate professor of moral psychology at the University of Virginia, argues in an essay this month, What Makes People Vote Republican?, that its liberals, in fact, who are dangerously blind.
Haidt has conducted research in which liberals and conservatives were asked to project themselves into the minds of their opponents and answer questions about their moral reasoning. Conservatives, he said, prove quite adept at thinking like liberals, but liberals are consistently incapable of understanding the conservative point of view. Liberals feel contempt for the conservative moral view, and that is very, very angering. Republicans are good at exploiting that anger, he told me in a phone interview.
Perhaps thats why the conservatives can so successfully get under liberals skin. And why liberals need to start working harder at breaking through the empathy barrier.
Bingo!
As Sun Tzu would say: It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one; if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle.
"Now is the time to keep the promise of equal pay for an equal day's work," Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama said Aug. 28 in his convention acceptance speech. He told the crowd in Denver: "I want my daughters to have exactly the same opportunities as your sons."
Obama's campaign website is even more specific. Under the heading "Fighting for Pay Equity," the women's issues page laments that, "Despite decades of progress, women still make only 77 cents for every dollar a man makes. A recent study estimates it will take another 47 years for women to close the wage gap with men at Fortune 500 corporate offices. Barack Obama believes the government needs to take steps to better enforce the Equal Pay Act..."
Obama's commitment to federally mandated pay equity stretches from the Rockies to Wall Street and beyond. And yet it seems to have eluded his Senate office. Compensation figures for his legislative staff reveal that Obama pays women just 83 cents for every dollar his men make.
A watchdog group called LegiStorm posts online the salaries for Capitol Hill staffers. "We have no political affiliations and no political purpose except to make the workings of Congress as transparent as possible," its website explains. Parsing LegiStorm's official data, gleaned from the Secretary of the Senate, offers a fascinating glimpse at pay equity in the World's Greatest Deliberative Body.
The most recent statistics are for the half-year from Oct. 1, 2007 to March 31, 2008, excluding interns and focusing on full-time personnel. For someone who worked only until, say, last Feb. 29, extrapolating up to six months' service simplifies this analysis. Doubling these half-year figures illustrates how a year's worth of Senate employees' paychecks should look.
Based on these calculations, Obama's 28 male staffers divided among themselves total payroll expenditures of $1,523,120. Thus, Obama's average male employee earned $54,397.
Obama's 30 female employees split $1,354,580 among themselves, or $45,152, on average.
Why this disparity? One reason may be the under-representation of women in Obama's highest-compensated ranks. Among Obama's five best-paid advisors, only one was a woman. Among his top 20, seven were women.
Again, on average, Obama's female staffers earn just 83 cents for every dollar his male staffers make. This figure certainly exceeds the 77-cent threshold that Obama's campaign website condemns. However, 83 cents do not equal $1. In spite of this 17-cent gap between Obama's rhetoric and reality, he chose to chide GOP presidential contender John McCain on this issue.
Obama responded Aug. 31 to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's Republican vice-presidential nomination. Palin "seems like a very engaging person," Obama told voters in Toledo, Ohio. "But I've got to say, she's opposed -- like John McCain is -- to equal pay for equal work. That doesn't make much sense to me."
Obama's criticism notwithstanding, McCain's payment patterns are the stuff of feminist dreams. McCain's 17 male staffers split $916,914, thus averaging $53,936. His 25 female employees divided $1,396,958 and averaged $55,878.
On average, according to these data, women in John McCain's office make $1.04 for every dollar a man makes. In fact, all other things being equal, a typical female staffer could earn 21 cents more per dollar paid to her male counterpart -- while adding $10,726 to her annual income -- by leaving Barack Obama's office and going to work for John McCain.
How could this be? Uhh....ahh....he's a hypocrite?
One explanation could be that women compose a majority of McCain's highest-paid aides. Among his top-five best-compensated staffers, three are women. Of his 20-highest-salaried employees, 13 are women. The Republican presidential nominee relies on women -- much more than men -- for advice at the highest, and thus, best-paid levels.
If anyone on McCain's Senate staff is unhappy, McCain's male staffers might complain they seem to get a slightly raw deal.
In short, these statistics suggest that John McCain is more than fair with his female employees, while Barack Obama -- at the expense of the women who work for him -- quietly perpetuates the very same pay-equity divide that he loudly denounces. Of all people, the Democratic standard bearer should understand that equal pay begins at home.
Posted by: Swamp Blondie in the Cornfields ||
09/12/2008
09:57 ||
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#1
Not to be picky, but suppose one controls for seniority? Obama's female staff may be younger than his male staff. Of course, that begs another question.
#6
interesting that the Seattle PI would comment on this. Hmmm. It could be that McCain's team is about to get this information out and Obama's apologists are trying to get ahead of it? Since there wasn't a defense for Obama in the article, I have to think that the female editors at the Seattle PI found this fit for print. Bad news for Obama that they dared to do so.
Democratic jitters about the US presidential race have spread to Capitol Hill, where some members of Congress are worried that Barack Obama's faltering campaign could hurt their chances of re-election. Party leaders have been hoping to strengthen Democratic control of the House and Senate in November, but John McCain's jump in the polls has stoked fears of a Republican resurgence.
A Democratic fundraiser for Congressional candidates said some planned to distance themselves from Mr Obama and not attack Mr McCain. "If people are voting for McCain it could help Republicans all the way down the ticket, even in a year when the Democrats should be sweeping all before us," said the fundraiser, a former Hillary Clinton supporter. "There is a growing sense of doom among Democrats I have spoken to . . . People are going crazy, telling the campaign 'you've got to do something'." Yeah...but I don't think Obama's likely to put a sock in it any time soon...
Concern was greatest among first-term representatives who won seats in traditionally Republican districts in the landslide of 2006. "Several of them face a real fight to hold on to those seats," the fundraiser said.
Tony Podesta, a senior Democratic lobbyist, said members of Congress were "a little nervous" after Mr McCain shook up the race with his choice of Sarah Palin as running mate and intensified attacks on Mr Obama. "Republicans have been on the offensive for the past two weeks . . . You don't win elections on the defensive." Or on the offensive as practiced by the DailyKos/DU crowd, either....
The campaign manager for a first-term Democratic congressman from a blue-collar district in the north-east rejected suggestions that Mr Obama had become a liability. He said his candidate would reach out to Republicans and avoid attacks on Mr McCain.
Posted by: Swamp Blondie in the Cornfields ||
09/12/2008
09:35 ||
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#1
By a starnbge coincidence, jus today Gallup's poll for Congrees gives the Democrat having a mere 3% lead down from double digits just a few weeks ago.
#3
It couldn't be because they haven't done a goddamned thing since being elected could it? They had their chance to craft an energy bill and other things that would have had some impact on voters, but they didn't. So screw em.
#4
Intrade.com has McCain winning. They have a better prediction record than the polls.
Posted by: Formerly Dan ||
09/12/2008 13:01
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#5
The Trunks don't have to win Congress, just whittle it down to a margin filled with DINOs. Then if the Congressional Trunk leadership [I know an oxymoron] showed as much imagination as McCain, they'd back one of the DINOs as Speaker [DINOs + Trunks = dethroned Nancy]. Saw that done in the NM Statehouse. Cleared the place of some old hacks, who decided to pack it in after that.
#8
Get some Republican newcomers to ride into office on McCain's coattails and suddenly you have the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives all turning red. Get enough Republican senators and McCain has an easy time with SCOTUS appointees. And there'd be nothing like a bumper crop of freshmen representatives to keep McCain honest about immigration. OK, folks. I'm beginning to come around.
HOUSTON - A sprawling and strengthening Hurricane Ike steamed through the Gulf of Mexico on Friday on a track toward the nation's fourth-largest city, where authorities told residents to brace rather than flee. Closer to the coast, small towns were mostly empty after forecasters issued dire warnings the storm could kill.
Ike's 105-mph winds and potential 50-foot waves stopped the Coast Guard from attempting a risky helicopter rescue of 22 people aboard a 584-foot freighter that broke down in the path of the storm about 90 miles southeast of Galveston, Chief Petty Officer Mike O'Berry said. The ship was hauling petroleum coke used to fuel furnaces at steel plants.
Ike's eye was forecast to strike somewhere near Galveston late Friday or early Saturday, but the massive system was already buffeting Texas and Louisiana, causing flooding along the Louisiana coast still recovering from Labor Day's Hurricane Gustav. The National Weather Service warned residents of smaller structures on Galveston they could "face certain death" if they ignored an order to evacuate; most had complied, along with hundreds of thousands of fellow Texans in counties up and down the coastline.
Continued on Page 49
#1
My boyfriend Niles still lives in Houston. He's safe from flooding but we're worried about the wind. There's no knowing how well his apartment building is constructed. He sent me email at 4:30pm CDT and said the wind had picked up, and the power is already flickering. He figures he's going to lose it, which will be very unpleasant.
To comfort him, I sent him this clip (scroll down to bottom) of Geraldo Rivera being knocked on his ass by a wave.
The Pakistani Army has been given orders to retaliate against any unilateral strike by the Afghanistan-based US troops inside the country. Army Spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas confirmed the orders in a brief interview with Geo News on late Thursday night.
The decision was made on the first day of the two-day meeting of Pakistan's top military commanders to discuss the US coalition's ground and air assault in Waziristan region which killed dozens of civilians.
Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani chaired the meeting which began in Rawalpindi on Thursday at the Army General Headquarters. Pakistan's military commanders expressed their determination to defend the country's borders without allowing any external forces to conduct operations inside the tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, sources said.
A senior official said the military commanders also discussed the implications of the American attacks inside Pakistan and took stock of the public feeling. "In his statement, Genral Kayani has represented the feeling of the entire nation, as random attacks inside Pakistan have angered each and every Pakistani," he said.
Earlier on Wednesday, Kayani rebuffed the American policy of including Pakistani territory in their operations against the al-Qaeda and Taliban linked militants hiding in the areas near Afghan border.
Also, Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani noted that Kayani's remarks on country's defense were true reflection of the government policy.
The army decision followed bloody incursions by the US ground troops into tribal belt as well as a string of missile strikes by CIA-operated drone aircraft. The reaction also comes after US President George W. Bush approved US military raids on militants inside Pakistan without Islamabad's agreement.
The development also brought into the open the increasing mistrust between the Americans and the Pakistanis over how to handle the Taliban and al-Qaeda linked militants in Pakistan's tribal areas. Some political expert predict the break out of an all-out war between the United States troops and Pakistani army following the Bush administration's approval of ground and air assaults inside the country.
Wonder if anyone in the Pak leadership knows the concept of the 'kill switch' ...
Posted by: Anonymoose ||
09/12/2008
09:01 ||
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#1
If the Paki's put enough army in the tribal areas to be noticeable by US forces they can stop the incursions into Afghanistan them selves.
In fact, they'll have to because they've just lost plausible deniability of Taliban/al Queda activity in that area.
#2
This is a full-blown propaganda war being waged inside Pakistan. They already toppled Musharraf.
While we are not ignorant of the fact that the propaganda is fake, Pakistanis absorb it as truth. Turning the tables on Pak/US relations is AQ strategy.
#4
First they have to find us inside Pakistan. Then they have to be willing to actually attack us. Then they have to survive the return fire to be able to tell about it.
My view: if they would fire on us, they're essentially Taliban too.
And I agree, it's time to turn off the $$$ pipeline.
#5
I sure hope we don't end up invading and occupying Pakistan; that would require a draft. The right strategy would be to destroy Pakistan's military, carve out a supply route to Afghanistan, and designated the rest of Pakistan a free-fire zone.
#12
Reminds me of the old Cheech & Chong bit about Kamikazi's:
"You will fly HIGH up in the sky. You find American carrier and dive down, killing yourself and all aboard!"
"Honorable Captain!"
"Yes, you in the back."
"ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR FUCKING MIND?"
#13
I'm soooo glad Little Georgie allowed the transfer of 'sniper pods' for F-16's to Pakistan earlier this year. Dumbass.
Actually, that's the best thing he could have done. If there's one thing we can do with few losses, it's knock enemy planes out of the sky. The money they spent on an F-16 would have bought 100,000 AK's or millions of mines.
It's not clear to me why India would invade Pakistan and risk Chinese intervention, when it can just sit back and wait for Uncle Sam to act. Remember - if it had been up to Gandhi, India would have sat out WWII.
#15
But ZF - on who's side would China intervene? They want to upset the applecart they've built around Nepal, Burma, the Stans? They want to drive Vietnam and India into a strategic partnership?
Besides, how would they even achieve force projection? How do they get any troops anywhere, over any distance?
They'll be busy enough, soon enough on the Korean peninsula, that they won't even be bothered with any action to their west.
#17
But ZF - on who's side would China intervene? They want to upset the applecart they've built around Nepal, Burma, the Stans? They want to drive Vietnam and India into a strategic partnership?
I don't think they have to worry about India or Vietnam allying with anyone. The last time *any* Asian alliance has seen action was when the Chinese sent 100,000 troops to North Vietnam during the Vietnam War to deter an American invasion. In recent history, India and Vietnam have not been known for getting involved in anyone else's wars - India's philosophy, in particular, seems to be to let other countries duke it out while criticizing whichever country leans West. In fact, China's relationship with Burma, Nepal and so on would be bolstered by a Chinese intervention against India over Pakistan - it would reinforce the idea that China takes care of its allies. Note that this would be the third time in the last 100 years that China has sent troops in defense of an ally/buffer state (the first two times were in North Korea and North Vietnam).
#20
But ZF - maybe here's another angle to my point - China seems to finally have figured out the peace and prosperity thing, even though they need to work on the government transparency and rule of law aspects.
Given their past 100 years, and relations with neighbors, I wonder if they're all that interested in the buffer state concept anymore. Japan doesn't seem to be a threat, nor Korea, and given the skirmish/campaigns into Vietnam and India, what do they gain there?
The strategic resources are in Siberia, and the cultural interests don't seem anywhere near Pakistan.
Perhaps they have naval interests in south asian sea lanes, for oil and commerce, but again, Pakistan doesn't figure in that.
Unless they're going for overland pipeline/transport through the stans, it seems their interests are more global and oceanic, than local and military.
#25
DRUDGEREPORT > RUSSIA must Must MUST M-U-S-T STAKE A FORMAL CLAIM TO ARTIC RESOURCES.
VARIOUS NET POSTERS > broadly argue that iff Russ needs to make war agz anyone, it'll likely be agz CANADA + DENMARK over the ARCTIC RESOURCES, and agz CHINA + IRAN oer SPREADING NUCLEAR ISLAMISM, CENTRAL ASIA, + RUSS FAR EAST, NOT AGZ THE US-NATO/EU over US GMD = US-NATO EXPANSION INTO ASIA.
SAME > RUSSIA FEARS ASIA-WIDE CHINESE, JAPANESE, + INDIAN MIL REACTION, espec CHINESE, agz the spread of ISLAMIST DESTABILIZ, MILITANCY, + NUCLEARIZATION.
#27
Unless they're going for overland pipeline/transport through the stans, it seems their interests are more global and oceanic, than local and military.
Pakistan gives them a port in the Indian Ocean, and a straight shot to the Persian Gulf without having to deal with the South China Sea or the Straits of Malacca.
Tens of thousands of Muslim protesters gathered in Kashmir's biggest city Friday for a pro-independence rally calling for Indian authorities to leave the troubled region. "Oppressors, get out of Kashmir," shouted protesters in the heart of Srinagar, Kashmir's summer capital.
A prominent leader, Mohammed Yasin Malik, was injured in the protest after police swung batons and fired tear gas at the crowd, said Altaf Khan, a spokesman for Malik's group, the Jammu-Kashmir Liberation Front. It was not immediately clear how Malik was injured or how badly, but he was rushed to a hospital, Khan said. Dozens of others also sustained injuries, he added.
This article starring:
MOHAMED YASIN MALIK
Jammu-Kashmir Liberation Front
Posted by: ryuge ||
09/12/2008
07:59 ||
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#1
I wonder how many close-cousin marriages that man resulted from? His face is disturbingly asymmetrical, which generally indicates some other developmental problem, I believe.
A small remote-controlled bomb exploded in Thailand's predominately Muslim deep south on Friday, killing a suspected bomber and wounding four policemen, police said.
The police officers were escorting a group of teachers home when the 5-kg (11 lb) bomb exploded on a road in Narathiwat, one of the four provinces where more than 3,100 people have been killed in four years of violence. "The terrorists militants were speeding away after detonating the bomb and one of them was hit by shrapnel and killed," a policeman at the scene told Reuters. Two of the four wounded police officers were in critical condition. Another man suspected of being an accomplice to the bomber was also wounded.
An extremist group which murdered a US diplomat earlier this year originally had plans to kill a British one, a Sudanese police officer said today.
Sudanese Islamists accused of killing a US diplomat and his driver attend their trial in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on August 31, 2008 (AFP) John Granville, 33, who worked for the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and his 40-year-old Sudanese driver Abdel-Rahman Abbas were hit in their car by a hail of bullets before dawn on New Years Day. There are five suspects currently standing trial for allegedly carrying out the assassination.
Police General Abdel-Rahim Ahmed Abdel-Rahim told the judges today that the suspects planned to kill an unidentified British diplomat to revenge for a British schoolteachers Gillian Gibbons decision to let her young students to name a toy bear Muhammad. Gibbons received a jail sentence of 15 days but was pardoned by Al-Bashir. The suspects failed to corner the British diplomat to shoot him, the police officer said.
In the preliminary hearing on August 31st the Sudanese prosecutor Mohamed Al-Mustafa Musa said that the group came from the town of Atbara, north of the capital Khartoum, with the intention of striking Western targets on New Years Eve.
Among those in the dock was a 23-year-old son of the head of Ansar al-Sunna, a pacifist Muslim sect in Sudan that has no political affiliations but has links to the orthodox Wahhabi sect dominant in Saudi Arabia. The others were listed as an engineering student, a merchant and a former security officer from Khartoum and a driver from Atbara, in northern Sudan. The suspects were part of a cell that is believed to have been formed last year after Sudans president, Omer Al-Bashir, vehemently rejected the idea of a United Nations peacekeeping mission to Darfur.
Sudanese police said that the suspects received 5,000 Saudi riyals ($9,300) to travel to Somalia and launch Jihad (Islamic holy war) there. However the group members changed their minds for unknown reasons. But the defendants told the judge that the police extracted confessions from them by force. The group members could face the death sentence if found guilty. The hearing has been adjourned until September 21st.
"Would you, as president, do the same and would you name Senator Obama to your cabinet for National Service?" McCain paused for a beat before replying with a smile: "Yes
I've been searching for ways to vote for this duplicitous RINO old coot, and Palin had me nearly swayed. Now this, given his history of chasing the ridiculous idea of bi-partisanship I would think he is at least half serious.
You're not making this easy on me John.
It takes congressional action to create a cabinet position. And then it has to have appropriations to fund it. It'll be a while ....
#3
Face it, a "National Service" cabinet post would be one of the most useless, meaningless, toothless places you could put the Godly Community Organizer. It would turn up sweet the maniacs who would otherwise be screaming conspiracy and vote-theft and trying to gin up riots on university campuses.
But yeah, it's a 'get drunk and vote for McCain' morning. Didn't help that they weren't letting us make campaign calls yesterday on account of the 9/11 remembrance.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
09/12/2008 8:54
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#4
Remember the Surgeon General? You get a fancy uniform, an office and requisite number of secretaries, and make public service announcements. IIRC, iaw the Constitution, you can only hold one federal office at a time, that would mean the Senate seat would open up from IL. You guys didn't catch that one. :)
Move the man to someplace where he can do less damage and make way for the opportunity to throw the dice for something better. Ambassador to Belgium would be another good job opportunity as well.
#5
I listened to that exchange last night. McCain wasn't (I think) serious. The moderator was pushing for the idea of a cabinet-level national service position and asked "would you appoint Barack Obama to that position in your cabinet?" McCain's response was more along the lines of "As long as I'm president, yeah, he can have the job of National Community Organizer."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2008 9:22
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#6
Secretary of the Department of Shucking and Jiving.
Heaped haphazardly into twin cardboard boxes, the hundreds of audiocassette tapes looked more like a baby boomer's teenage detritus than a historical link to Osama bin Laden. Flagg Miller knew their value. The tapes were the UC Davis Arabic scholar's portal into the early years of the Al Qaeda leader behind the Sept. 11 attacks who became the world's most wanted terrorist.
On the seventh anniversary of 9/11, Miller has pulled back the curtain on the more than 1,500 tapes retrieved after Bin Laden fled U.S. troops advancing on his residential compound in Afghanistan's Kandahar province. They feature Bin Laden talking off the cuff at weddings, delivering cajoling recruitment pitches, extolling true believers and dishing up poetry. Taken together, Miller says, the tapes show the evolution of history's most infamous terrorist -- his metamorphosis from the black sheep of a wealthy Saudi family to a "freedom fighter" during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s to his exile in Sudan and ultimately to becoming the leader of Al Qaeda. Miller calls it the most complete audio library of Bin Laden's past. Compared to the stiff, taped pronouncements the terrorist leader delivers these days from hiding, "it is all far less formal and official -- and in that way is very valuable," said Miller, an assistant religious studies professor.
But these tapes took a slow and somewhat miraculous route to Miller's hands. After Bin Laden fled his walled Kandahar compound in December 2001, locals looted the residence. When they were done, all that was left were a few boxes brimming with audio and video tapes. In the weeks that followed, CNN procured the tapes and aired the videos. But the cable network turned over the hundreds of audiocassettes to U.S. intelligence agents. Then, after the FBI determined them free of "any smoking guns" that would indicate future security threats, the tapes found their way to the Williams Afghan Media Project at Williams College in Massachusetts. Experts there called in Miller.
He flew east, bleary from insomnia born of scholarly anticipation. In a spare room on campus, he opened the shipping boxes to lay eyes on the tapes, still bearing the dust of Afghanistan. Many were battered, in need of repair. He gently laid them out on tables, sorting and cataloging. In the coming days, the lanky academician would fold himself into a chair for hours, hungry to listen and transcribe. "It was daunting," he recalled. And it would go on, in session after session, for another five years.
The collection included tapes from more than 200 speakers from a dozen countries. A few of them dated as far back as the late 1960s. Identified on the labels, the speakers included Islamic scholars and some of the men who would become Al Qaeda's operational leaders. Miller waded through sermons, political speeches, lectures, telephone conversations, radio broadcasts, Islamic anthems, even recordings of live battles. Bin Laden, in fact, is featured on just 20 of the tapes, a dozen of them never before published in any language. Miller said they offer unprecedented insight into the wrangling going on among Bin Laden's allies and critics in the five years before 9/11. They also show his development from a relatively unpolished Muslim orator and jihad recruiter to a leader.
The earliest Bin Laden recordings are from the late 1980s, when he was fresh from battling the Soviets in Afghanistan. In sometimes gory detail, he recounted the battlefield death of a close comrade, but noted how at peace the man seemed near the end and how such bravery can be a lesson. In each recording, "he remains very even-keeled, very measured," Miller said. "But he's a militant above all. This is what comes across. And he's a very good recruiter."
Even a poet. Bin Laden's poems are "embedded" into his speeches at times, offering sometimes macabre insights into battle and death, Miller said: "He coaches his audiences through their fears about dying in a violent way. He coaches them to consider such an end as noble and potentially beneficial to a larger purpose."
Miller's first research paper from the tapes will appear in the October issue of the journal Language & Communication. The tapes, meanwhile, have been moved to Yale University, where they are being cleaned and digitally rerecorded, a process that will take several years to complete.
#1
It was previously known that Obama tapes circulated in Saudi Arabia as early as 1980. In the years that followed he sent tapes from Pakistan and during his visits to Saudi Arabia was taped giving lectures at mosques and in informal meetings. According to Saudis the number of tapes increased in 1988, at a time when Bin Laden was considering the creation of his own charity, the Lanat al-Birr (Benevolence). It has been argued by some (including yours truly) that there were enough tapes outstanding to create new tapes from thin air in the post 9/11 period. Meanwhile, the CIA was loathe to share information with analysts and historians regarding the existance of an OBL tape and audio library it might have created. For those who have argued that OBL is dead (including yours truly) these "abandoned" tapes just might eventually help prove the point. It is a shame that they have not been copied and placed on the web.
The Muslim Fatah-controlled authority in Judea and Samaria is encouraging a "sharp demographic shift" in Bethlehem, where the Christian population went from a 60 percent majority in 1990 to a 40 percent minority in 2000, to about 15 percent of the city's total population today.
It is estimated that, for the past seven years, more than one thousand Christians have been emigrating from the Bethlehem area annually and that only 10,000 to 13,000 Christians remain in the city. International human rights lawyer Justus Reid Weiner, who teaches at Hebrew University, told the Jerusalem Institute for Global Jewish Affairs that, under the PA-Fatah regime, Christian Arabs have been victims of frequent human rights abuses by Muslims. "There are many examples of intimidation, beatings, land theft, firebombing of churches and other Christian institutions, denial of employment, economic boycotts, torture, kidnapping, forced marriage, sexual harassment, and extortion," he said. PA officials are directly responsible for many of the attacks, and some Muslims who have converted to Christianity have been murdered.
As people with "dhimmi" status, Christians living in Palestinian-controlled territories are not treated as the equals of Muslims. He says: "They are subjected to debilitating legal, political, cultural, and religious restrictions. This has become a critical problem for the Palestinian Christians in the West Bank and Gaza. Muslim groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad have built a culture of hatred upon the age-old foundations of Islamic society. Moreover, the PA has adopted Islamic law into its draft constitution."
In 2006, Hassan El-Masalmeh, a member of the Bethlehem City Council and local Hamas leader, publicly advocated implementing a discriminatory tax on non-Muslim residents. In late 2007 an evangelical pastor was forced to leave Ramallah under threats from Fatah gunmen, and soon after, his congregation dispersed.
"Tens of thousands of Palestinian Christians have left their ancestral homes and emigrated to North America, Central America, South America, Europe, and Australia. They flee to almost any country that will issue them a visa," Weiner said. "Neither the Palestinian Christian leaders nor the PA want to reveal accurate statistics. That would mean the extent of the emigration would become publicly known. They would then have to face questions about the reasons for this decline. It is currently estimated that the number of Christians living in Gaza totals only 1,500-3,000 amid 1.2 million Muslims. Probably less than fifty thousand Christians remain in all of East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza together," he estimated. "Taybeh, a village located deep in the West Bank, is the only all-Christian village left in the PA. As a result of the perpetual violence, many residents of Taybeh have gone abroad and only 1,300 remain. The situation of these Christians has become grim."
"Incidents of Muslim men seducing' or kidnapping Christian girls have caused growing anxiety among the Christian population. In May 2004, a sixteen-year-old Christian girl from Bethlehem, who was a U.S. citizen, went missing for five days after being kidnapped by a 23 year-old Muslim. " The girl's family contacted the American Consulate in Jerusalem, and it was only thanks to their intervention that she was rescued and left with her family for the United States. The episode received virtually no international media coverage.
In another case, a Muslim family appeared uninvited on the doorstep of a wealthy Christian family in Judea and Samaria and demanded that the Christian family's daughter, known for her beauty, marry their son. Their son was already dressed up for his wedding, accompanied by the sheikh and fifteen Muslim men. To protect his family the Christian girl's father opened fire on the Muslim entourage, killing three and wounding ten. The girl's family immediately abandoned their home and fled abroad."
The PA was involved in the torture of two Muslim brothers from Samaria who adopted the Christian faith. The first brother was arrested by the PA secret police and accused of collaborating with Israeli and American intelligence. After the interrogation the police placed a cardboard sign on his back upon which was written, Najib the Christian.' Then he was told to curse Jesus.'" He eventually made contact with Israelis who arranged for him to hide in a bomb shelter in a Jewish community and was finally granted asylum in Norway.
His brother spent 21 months in a PA prison after being arrested on fabricated charges. He was held for seven months in underground solitary confinement. Weiner quotes his testimony before him thus: "I was beaten with sticks; they stripped me naked and made me sit on bottles, and on the legs of chairs that they turned upside down, and many, many other sadistic things that I am even ashamed to say. Many times they allowed lynch mobs like the Al-Aksa Brigades to come in and pull prisoners out of the cells. They were taken out and shot on the spot, their bodies then dragged through the streets for all to see." The young man was sentenced to be executed but was liberated from prison by the Israel Defense Forces. He lives in Israel but his wife and eight children remained behind and are under constant threat of harassment. He hopes to find asylum in Norway.
Another Christian convert, El-Achwal, was initially arrested on fabricated charges of stealing gold. He was kept in a tiny cell and regularly left without food or water for days on end. The torture he sustained during the interrogation required lengthy hospitalization. Weiner, who interviewed El-Achwal, said Ahmed "had suffered extensive and serious burns on his back, buttocks, and legs. The heated torture implement that was applied to his skin reminded me of similar medieval instruments." He was eventually freed but refused to renounce his Christian faith. One day he was beaten by a group of masked men affiliated with the PA security services, who also torched his car. His residence was firebombed and on January 21 2004, he was shot dead by masked gunmen who have never been arrested.
#1
Of course we'll ignore the unspoken campaign by the Saudi government to send their jihadists off to Iraq to be slaughtered like pigs to a packing house, care of the US Armed Forces. The ruling family's hands are technically clean and the cancer is removed as a significant threat to their station. Saudi Arabia walking out of the OPEC cabal appears to be one of their 'paybacks' for allowing us to let them play that game. In a cynical geo-political sense, its a win-win outcome for both countries.
#2
Saudi Arabia walking out of the OPEC cabal appears to be one of their 'paybacks' for allowing us to let them play that game.
We don't "allow" them to play that game. And it's not a game - it's a balancing act the rulers have to manage in order to prevent the kind of full-out internal revolt that happened to the Shah. Our enemies are the people of Saudi Arabia, not the rulers. It's not physically possible to prevent the Saudi population from perpetually working themselves up into a frenzy. Sayyid Qutb wasn't an agent of the Egyptian government, and he came up in an era when Nasser was spouting socialist slogans, not praises of Allah. The fact is that Muslims around the world recognize a higher power, and that higher power is not the rulers of the nations they inhabit. The people they recognize as taking dictation from that higher power is clerics, and the reality is that Islamic clerics are very, very hard to control, given that one of the principal tenets of Islam is that any Muslim ruler who acts against Islam is himself an infidel and must be slaughtered like an infidel.
#1
Low class, she proves it time after time. The left is degenerating to the point where violence is their next step. It has gone way past speaking their minds, I see bad things in the not so far off future from that bunch.
#2
They do talk a good game, and I hear what you're saying, but "RECREATE '68" kinda fizzled. It looks, and I do hope, that the only thing these idiots can do is run their collective mouths.
Posted by: Minister of funny walks ||
09/12/2008 7:23
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#3
They are fucking deranged and are as every bit as dangerous as the fools running after the Nazis, Lenin, and Mao. They follow a "Great Leader" and a "Glorious Cause". Those that don't need to be "re-educated" or removed so not to taint the common man.
They are getting to the point of being like a rabid dog.
Posted by: Swamp Blondie in the Cornfields ||
09/12/2008 9:22
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#9
Le's remeber that quote from the third season of "Friends":
"Baywatch is just a bunch of pretty people running"
Apparently she thinks that stooping while wearing a low cut swimsuit made her a great actrees and that a beging a great actress made them a superior person.
She became an American Citizen in late April 2008.
IIRC, in her autobiography there is a chapter entitled "A History of My Breasts" in which she states that all the cosmetic surgery there was done in the US using american made parts (she has had more than one operation so I'm not sure which one she was talking about).
#11
OKay, lets start with the fact that she's with PETA which indicates she really doesn't question what she's been told but reacts emotionally. Second we have the fact that she did not offer her opinion on Palin until asked (unlike Matt Damon, at least the clip of his seems to indicate he's volunteering the info or pitching a movie to Disney).
So Pam's emotional, not that smart, and was asked a loaded question that was guaranteed to get on national news. That doesn't make her a bad person, just easily led and misled.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/12/2008 12:50
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#13
Maybe she thought The One's reply of 'its a paygrade above me' didn't work either. It's context Pam, context. It probably would have worked for you. /snark off
#14
Gag me, Swamp Blondie. I looked at your link out of curiosity and now I wish I hadn't. I am fully aware that low life like that exists. Looking at their websites just depresses me.
#16
And bigjim, I don't think you need to worry about these people becoming violent. That'd be much too inconvenient for them. What? You think you could get these airheads outta bed, away from their drugs, their mansions, their limos, their wine and cheese parties long enough to do anything but whine about Sarah? These people are degenerate, get it? Sick, twisted and weak. The danger is that their illness will spread to healthy people who will then end up unable to do anything but watch it on TV.
#19
For any mouse: First there were the matching tattoos, then the public declarations of love and now it seems Lindsay Lohan will marry her le$bian lover.
Just days after DJ Samantha Ronson announced at a gig that Lindsay would be her wife by the end of year, the Mean Girls star is sporting this sparkler on her wedding finger.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
09/12/2008 17:54
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#20
CHEERS TV SHow > NORM + CLIFFIE > "CATFIGHT vs. KITTENFIGHT" episode.
Separatist terrorists militants have shot dead three people in a spate of attacks across Thailand's Muslim-majority south, police said Friday. A 45-year-old village chief was killed in a drive-by shooting late Thursday in Narathiwat, one of three provinces hit by four years of separatist unrest along the southern border with Malaysia, police said. In nearby Pattani province, a 25-year-old Buddhist man was shot dead in another drive by late Thursday, while a 39-year-old Muslim man was killed in front of a teashop, they added.
Note - This happened during Katrina when somebody realized that SC is at the end of one of the bigger pipelines. There's been no panic, and the price hikes have been minimal so far...but it's coming. What was kind of interesting though were the rumors that swept through here Thursday night that Venezuela and the Magic Kingdom had cut off our oil supply.
COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) - The impending landfall of Hurricane Ike has caused issues with the price of gas and limits on the amount you can buy, according to officials.
"Hurricane Ike is projected to hit landfall in Texas Friday or Saturday and in anticipation of its storm path, refineries in the Gulf of Mexico have closed," said David E. Parsons, CEO and President of AAA Carolinas.
Michael Fields with the South Carolina Petroleum Marketers Association says gas prices have risen throughout the day and will continue to do so on the wholesale and retail level. "Gas prices have gone up and some stations have placed a restriction on the number of gallons customers can buy because it is unclear right now how long the refineries will remain closed or if they will sustain any damage," Parsons said.
Fields has also heard of several stations in the state such as the Pee Dee, the Lowcountry and the Upstate that are rationing gas out to customers.
In Sumter, all Kangaroo gas stations are imposing at 10 gallon limit. At the Kangaroo on Broad Street, they have put up a sign asking customers to limit their gas purchases. An attendant at the station says they aren't enforcing the limit at the moment, but may have to Friday and over the weekend.
Fields adds that all this is a preemptive move with Ike because of what happened with Hurricane Katrina. He calls the current situation "volatile" and says there is a concern about how much fuel will be available after Ike hits. "The worst thing that could happen would be for motorists to flock to gas stations to top off their tanks," said Parsons. "That will worsen the situation before anyone knows what the damage will be. We encourage people not to panic, drive conservatively and don't take unnecessary trips until the damage assessment is completed early next week."
Parsons says this gas spike comes on the heels of the closing of some refineries in the past few days based on the expected path of Hurricane Gustav, which did not cause any major damage and the refineries reopened and put more oil into the pipeline.
Parsons said most refineries made significant changes to their oil rigs after Hurricane Katrina three years ago and these upgrades are designed to protect against hurricanes.
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
09/12/2008
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#1
Vancouver BC radio this morning was saying that prices in Ontario had jumped ~ 13 cents a leter overnight, 'due to Ike.' no price change here north of Seattle this morning.
#6
My tank was alomost empty so I stopped to fill up as usual. Lines of cars and people filling every gas can they can get their hands on. Bugwits. It's up to 3.80 here (East Tennessee).
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
09/12/2008 12:54
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#7
So is there oil off the SC coast?
And with all the states gas tax revenues down, would drilling put some cash in state coffers?
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/12/2008 12:59
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#8
I went back to the same gas station where I filled my car at noon and now gas is4 bucks a gallon. Jeebus!
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
09/12/2008 16:08
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#9
DeaconMan, why did you go back? To get in line to top off?
#10
No, my truck had less than a quarter tank and I have to haul 2 horses to North Georgia on Thursday.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
09/12/2008 17:16
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#11
We were up $0.13, 3.29 to 3.42. This could last a long time, also. 30% of US gasoline comes from Houston. Not only does banking and restarting refineries cause lots of problems, the silting of the Houston ship channel may take quite a while. This could be ugly. Unless your campaign slogan is drill here, drill now. Refine here, build now.
#12
Last night Charlie Gibson cut Gov. Palin off when she started to say that her energy industry experience is directly relevant to national security. A quick look at Iran and Venezuela on the one hand and at the economic impact of high gas prices on the other hand makes it clear she was right and he was covering for the O.
Today's venture begins in the pigpen, where liberals wallow in lies, innuendos and depravity unfitting of even the lowliest swine.
We've all by now heard about Barack Obama's " lipstick" jab of Gov. Sarah Palin. "You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig." That was the line that got his supporters howling with laughter. They understood that it was a slight at the woman who has stolen his thunder.
No longer are women fainting at Obama's feet as he yammers about change. Instead they are buying up Palin-style Kazuo Kawasaki glasses and getting their hair cut like the Alaska governor.
One TV station in Chicago asked women to comment on Obama's "lipstick" comments, and here are a couple of responses:
"It's definitely inappropriate -- we also seem to be ignoring the second comment that he made. The comment regarding a fish that stinks and wrapping it in paper -- I'm sorry but any 'lady' would find that comment truly offensive. How would Barack like someone saying that comment when referring to anything to do with his wife? Give me a break. ... I don't know of any woman that would. As a lady I find this disgusting." -- Kim Piskorowski, Des Plaines
#1
Real women, the soccer and hockey moms, working women who run to the store after work and those whose work is at home, see something else in Palin. They see real hope, not that mystical snake oil Obama is pushing from atop his Barackopolis.
Palin stands for family and she shows it. She stands for those with disabilities instead of standing with those who encourage abortion of those with disabilities. She stands for fewer taxes on working families, and freedom from foreign oil. She stands for all of the Constitution including the Second Amendment.
The vicious and slanderous attacks will continue. Gov. Palin knows it and so does her family. As somebody who has faced the hateful left, I know how brutal the onslaught can be on a day-to-day basis.
The attacks have changed the face of this presidential election and laid bare the true intents of Gloria Steinem, Obama and the rest of the two-faced liberals who've marched all over this country for far too long.
Obama, the self-described "feminists" and the sinking Democrats are going to have to find another act. The lipstick's off the pigs, and it ain't pretty.
#2
Isn't it enough to dislike him because he's a communist that probably wasn't even born in this country? Or because he's spent his life in the company of radical anti-American elements? Just throw this on top of the heap of reasons not to vote for him.
#7
I have to agree with Clownfish on this one. Some of the women who support Obama are definitely not ladies, eg the Misses Pamela Anderson and Lindsay Lohan, but Obama is not a defining characteristic. On the other hand, I recall being chastised by one of my colleagues at the lab for calling myself a lady. She thought that having a career and being a lady were mutually exclusive endeavours, which demonstrates her incomplete understanding. Sarah Palin is forcing a reassessment of that for some, which is always uncomfortable. They'll come to terms with it eventually, although not in time to get their man elected.
#8
Fox just said there are now over 2000 products you can buy promoting Palin..
From thongs and boxers to exercise suits....
buttons, ...
(pit bulls for Palin)
(Puck Obama)
etc...
#9
Trailing Wife and Clownfish,
I remember distinctly a group of NOW representatives testifying before the Senate. An elderly Southern senator referred to them as "ladies". The women got all insulted and the Senators wound up apoligizing for calling them ladies.
Thus: Not only are they not ladies, but they are proud of not being ladies.
Sad but true.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
09/12/2008 17:09
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#10
"White trash in the White House?"
Been there, done that.
Nobody can out-trash Clinton, the clap gift that keeps on giving.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/12/2008 21:11
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Posted by: Total War ||
09/12/2008 13:07
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#2
Phillips' main point is that the UK political establishment refuses to correctly identify the threat it is fighting. Now the US political establishment is not much better at identifying its domestic threats in so many words, but then the US is well supplied with white trash Jacksonians with guns, Bibles & whiskey jugs on the shelf who tend to do their own thinking & reading between the lines, whose ancestors bugged out of Europe a long time ago, for very good reasons.
#3
As best illustrated in World Religious Texts themselves, > WARFARE > GENERATIONAL = FOUGHT OVER A NUMBER OR MANY GENERATIONS.
The RUSSO-GEORGIAN Conflict > the US-ALLIES ARE NOW IN A WAR AGZ RADICAL ISLAM FOR CONTROL-DOMIN OF CENTRAL = MAINLAND ASIA/ASIA-PACIFIC [e.g. Philippines, SE Asia], ESPEC FOR PAN-ASIAN NUKES + ADVANC TECHS, wid large parts of AFRICA as a SUPPORT/SECONDARY FRONT.
Any US-desired capture or death of OSAMA BIN LADEN + other TOP ISLAMIST LEADERS, while certainly another great achievement for Dubya-USA, is in reality only A PART OF THE TOTAL/GROSS EQUATION = STRATEGIC PICTURE.
WOT > WAR FOR PRO/ANTI-US OWG-NWO INCLUD SOCIALIST-GOVTIST WORLD ORDER [e.g. FASCISM = LIMITED COMMUNISM, etc.], of which the WAR AGZ RADICAL ISLAM IS ONLY ONE WAR WITHIN SAME [e.g. SECULAR COMMIE SUPPORT of ISLAMIST MILITANTS].
Pakistans low-intensity war against India which, while long ongoing, has been effectively broadened since the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan and Indias expanding presence there. Pakistani covert operations alone would never have posed a threat to Indian security and stability, but rising anti-Hindu sentiments among Indias 150-million-strong Muslim community have complemented Pakistani operations and enhanced the threat posed to Indias communal harmony and economy, a result that likewise increases the chances of an unintended India-Pakistan war. Since Pakistans independence in 1947, a central goal of Pakistani governments has been bringing an end to New Delhis political control of the Muslim-dominated Kashmir region of Indias Jammu and Kashmir state (J&K).
#1
Notice the efforts of whitewash Mulims respnaibility in the increasingly tense situation. "Muslims have been treatas second class citizens in India" (that is depsite they can vote and that teh President is a Mauslim. In the meayime Hindus in Pakistan have diasppeared. But that the article doesn't tell about it.
China's current pace of wind development will bring 10,000 MW by the end of this year, two years ahead of schedule. What's more, they foresee a total of 100,000 MW by 2020, an increase in wind energy of 1667%. And, they add, this may be a conservative estimate. The region of Inner Mongolia, site for this current project, is estimated to have sufficient wind resources to supply up to 40% of China's ultimate wind energy potential.
#1
To put this into perspective, the U.S. electric power industry's total installed generating capacity was 1,089,807 megawatts (MW) as of December 31, 2007. This includes all sources.
Large flightless birds of the southern continents - African ostriches, Australian emus and cassowaries, South American rheas and the New Zealand kiwi - do not share a common flightless ancestor as once believed.
Instead, each species individually lost its flight after diverging from ancestors that did have the ability to fly, according to new research conducted in part by University of Florida zoology professor Edward Braun.
#1
What about the giant, carnivorous, flightless birds of South America? Called "terror birds", they were 3-10 feet in height, and would think a human was a yummy snack:
In 1951, Morton Sobell was tried and convicted with Julius and Ethel Rosenberg on espionage charges. He served more than 18 years in prison.. Through it all, he maintained his innocence. But on Thursday, Mr. Sobell, 91, dramatically reversed himself. In an interview, he admitted for the first time that he had been a Soviet spy...
Mr. Sobell also concurred in what has become a consensus among historians: that Ethel Rosenberg, who was executed with her husband, was aware of Julius's espionage, but did not actively participate. "She knew what he was doing," he said, "but what was she guilty of?"
Duh, conspiracy?
Government prosecutors later acknowledged that they had hoped that a conviction and the possibility of a death sentence against Ethel Rosenberg would persuade her husband to confess and implicate others, including some agents known to investigators through secretly intercepted Soviet cables.
The prosecutors' strategy failed. Julius never implicated anyone & he and Ethel were both executed. After reading what I could about the Soviet espionage records publicized after 1990, I believe many of the other Soviet agents completed their careers in the US, retired on pensions & either died of old age or are still living. The NYT article is mostly an attempt to change the subject of the disclosure, that Morton & Julius were guilty, and that Ethel went along with it, which, I guess, is conspiracy, but IANAL.
#9
Mrs. Rosenberg could also have chosen to reveal what she knew to the prosecutors, and gotten a sentence less than death. Given that they knew she was not a conspirator, I imagine they would have happily cut a deal. But she also chose to say nothing, and so she also chose to orphan her children.
#11
All comments have been most interesting. Would like a Rantburg lawyer to chime in on the meaning of "conspiracy." AFAICT, Ethel was a conspirator by the sum total of her actions. Whether or not she actually typed material that was passed on the to Soviets is not critical.
I believe the Venona declassified stuff did nail the Rosenbergs, but modern fellow travelers continue to pretend the stuff doesn't exist. This is more than a reference to modern 'truthers'. The Rosenberg orphans changed their surnames but continue to defend their parents' memories, and deserve a measure of sympathy for what happened to them. At least they were totally innocent. I doubt any amount of evidence will ever change their minds.
Sobell continues to believe he did the right thing, and he continues to be disloyal to the United States. This bad attitude permeates much of the modern domestic left establishment.
Latin conspiratio, from conspirare to conspire see conspire
1: an agreement between two or more people to commit an act prohibited by law or to commit a lawful act by means prohibited by law
also
: the crime or tort of participating in a conspiracy
(compare substantive crime)
Note: Some states require an overt act in addition to the agreement to constitute conspiracy.
2: a group of conspirators
chain conspiracy
: a conspiracy in which the conspirators act separately and successively (as in distributing narcotics)
civil conspiracy
: a conspiracy that is not prosecuted as a crime but that forms the grounds for a lawsuit
criminal conspiracy
: a conspiracy prosecuted as a crime
In the case of the Rosenberg's, Ethel's agreement (tacit or otherwise) was sufficient -- she did not need to engage in any overt act to further the conspiracy.
BURN THEM Now That's a Sweet Sound When Dealing with Traitors.
Of all our institutions under the corrosive Lefty Tides our Legal System has to be the worse off since the 50s when Ethel and Julius took steps to destroy our Nation thru sabotage and collusion with the Soviet Union.
Unfortunately we still have a few million dangerous LEFTY Whack Jobs doing their best to destroy our Courts; State and Federal all the way up to the Supreme Court with Ruth Bader Ginsberg types for instance.
Justices like Ginsberg believe by written statement & by verbal statements that some of our Constitutional Rights are out-dated and need a little or alot of work**. BUT she is so mealy mouth and obtuse that her "statements" are more like Gobley Gook ramblings substituting instead for simple direct logic.
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
09/12/2008 18:46
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#15
I have to tell my 84 year old mom. She took dictation on this case in the New Haven FBI office when Whitacre Chambers first approached them. The agents there didn't believe him but mom did. It took the NYNY office to act on it.
#1
A Tiny Ancestral Remnant Lends Developmental Edge To Humans
Not so tiny at first, but still an elegant remote kindling/log finder.
Back in the day, couples had arguments over who could have/control over the remote which lead to developing all sorts of skills and further development of Human's fore brains.
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
09/12/2008 2:50
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#2
Now if we can just stimulate that area of Africans' brains they may quit eating our closest genetic relatives for lunch.
#3
like elephants, chimps and gorillas are food on the hoof (or target practice) to the locals. Like elephants they must be made to benefit the locals to gain the locals protection. Benefiting the locals, however, is not usually on the agenda of the "powers that be" or the NGO's. Oh Well!
#2
Maybe, just maybe its time for Cuba to show some political flexibility. We're not the ones that are broke. We can carry on with the standoff quite comfortably.
#3
Lehman is already dead. Let's not go throwing cash into their coffin. When their stock gets cheap enough, someone will buy them. If not, who cares. Lehman means nothing.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
09/12/2008 11:35
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#4
Exactly Mike.
Saw a vid of Jamie Dimon (JPMorgan) say about buying Bear Sterns "There's a difference between buying a house and buying a house on fire."
#5
I hope the home loan business doesn't go back to the way it used to be, where you couldn't get a loan unless you could prove you didn't even need one. That would be a pretty big price to pay for all these assholes to do the biggest smash and grab I've ever seen. They get the money, we get screwed, how much more capitalist can you get Pebbles?
(AKI) - Sixteen intellectuals from Azerbaijan were arrested in the Iranian capital, Tehran, on Wednesday night as they met to celebrate Ramadan at the end of the day.
Among them were journalists, poets and writers, including Ali Reza Sarrafi, editor of the weekly Dilmaj, which was withdrawn from publication after a court order several months ago.
After their arrest, all members of the group were transferred to Evin prison.
In Brussels on Wednesday, 100 Iranian Azerbaijanis protested outside the European Commission against the arrest, detention and heavy sentences given to members of ethnic minorities in Iran and calling for intervention by public institutions.
"The arrests last night in Tehran send a direct warning to European institutions, in order to convince them non to intervene in defending the rights of ethnic minorities in the Islamic republic," said a spokesman for Iranian Azerbaijanis in exile.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2008
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Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2008
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#1
Fred,
Please concider loading yesterdays "seven years of WOT" to the classics. Lot of heart felt comments there to look back at next year.
Thanks
Don
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
09/12/2008 1:30
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#2
That is one lucky stiff in the middle. Thanks, Fred for bringing us a bevey of top-of-the-line beauties. He is dead by now, isn't he?
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
09/12/2008 9:38
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#3
First glance at all these top hats made me think of the synchronized swimming scene in "Blazing Saddles;" these ladies would have been much more appealing than the guys. Maybe not as funny, but easier on the eyes......
Turkish President Abdullah Gul said Armenia and Azerbaijan are willing to resolve their conflict over the Nagorny Karabakh region after talks in the two countries, Anatolia news agency reported Thursday. Armenia and Azerbaijan both have "an honest and sincere desire for a settlement," Gul told reporters on a flight back from talks in Baku.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2008
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Seriously? That sounds unlikely.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
09/12/2008 9:09
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#2
Unlikely, yes, but if it comes to pass it is of enormous consequence.
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Legendary Beatles star Paul McCartney said he was pressed to cancel his upcoming performance in Israel, but reassured Israeli fans in comments published on Thursday he would go ahead with the planned concert.
"I was approached by different groups and political bodies who asked me not to come here. I refused. I do what I think, and I have many friends who support Israel," McCartney said in an interview with Israel's Yedioth Ahronoth. Who would have thought? I guess if you're that famous for this long, you can afford to ignore the whine-block.
Pro-Palestinian groups have frequently called on international academics and prominent cultural figures to boycott Israel over its occupation of the West Bank and blockade of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
Jewish groups have condemned cultural and academic boycotts as anti-Semitic. I wonder why? Maybe because it IS?
McCartney will perform hits from his Beatles days and his solo career during a September 25 concert in Tel Aviv as part of a series of shows that has taken McCartney to cities he never visited before. His security detail will be really something.
#2
Good for him, I guess. The best course would have been to completely ignore the threats and refrain from patting yourself on the back for going forward with the show.
Posted by: Chris W. ||
09/12/2008 12:16
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#3
Pro-Palestinian groups have frequently called on international academics and prominent cultural figures to boycott Israel over its occupation of the West Bank and blockade of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
After reading the previous article I'd like to call on Israel to extend its occupation to include total control of Bethlehem until such time as the religion of Islam no longer has any adherents.
Eight militants were killed on Thursday when security forces pounded their hideouts in the restive Swat valley, AFP reported the military as saying. Six of the militants died when helicopter gunships fired missiles in Ningolai Kabal area, hitting the house of local militant commander Khurshid Shah, military spokesman Nadeem Anwar said.
In a separate incident, in the Sher Palam area of Swat, two militants were killed in clashes between security forces and militants. "The bodies of those two have been handed over to the local elders," Anwar said, adding that rifles, grenades and radio sets had been recovered in the area.
Constable killed: Meanwhile, militants killed a police constable and his daughter in Matta tehsil, official sources told Daily Times. They said the militants opened fire and killed Constable Dost Mohammad Khan and his nine-year old daughter when they were returning home in Kooza Bamkhela in Swat district.
The militants blew up a telephone exchange and several houses in Kabal tehsil.
The security forces fired around 200 artillery shells on the militants' hideouts on Thursday. Despite heavy pounding through fighter and spy planes and heavy artillery, the security forces have not fully taken control of the area, locals said.
Sources said the government was intensifying the Swat operation as additional troops were deployed in most of the affected areas of the violence-hit district. Locals said the security forces continued an unannounced curfew in Kabal tehsil, due to which about 100,000 people have fled to safer places. The government had cut off electricity and telephone lines in Kooza Bandai.
The operation and the continued curfew have added to the problems of the residents and created a shortage of edibles and medicines. The security forces have asked the people to vacate the area but have closed the Ayub Bridge checkpost and Bara Banda checkpost. Many of the fleeing people, including children and elders, had to swim across the River Swat. Thousands of people have taken refuge in Malakand division where they are forced to spend nights under the open sky.
The people of Kabal tehsil warned to undertake a long march towards Islamabad if the government did not stop the military operation in Swat.
This article starring:
Ayub Bridge checkpost
Bara Banda checkpost
Kabal tehsil
Kooza Bamkhela in Swat district
Kooza Bandai
Matta tehsil
Ningolai Kabal area
Sher Palam area of Swat
KHURSHID SHAH
TTP
military spokesman Nadeem Anwar
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2008
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Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah said in a recent interview that as long as Israel exists, there will be no peace in the Middle East. "The region will not see the light of peace or any stability because of Israel's aggressiveness and militant nature," Nasrallah said.
Despite hiding out in a bunker since 2006's Second Lebanon War, Nasrallah recently spoke to the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting radio station, Army Radio reported. The Hezbollah leader went on to say that his Lebanon-based guerilla group is stronger than ever and is prepared for its next confrontation with Israel. "Any Israeli attack on Lebanon, Iran, Syria or Gaza will be met with a fierce response," Nasrallah said.
He added that Hezbollah has grown logistically and militarily stronger, claiming that all of Lebanon has united against a common enemy - Israel.
One subject Nasrallah did not broach in the interview is the assassination last February of the group's second-in-command, Imad Mughniyeh. Nasrallah did not discuss how or when his group would avenge the killing. Recent Israeli intelligence reports, however, have suggested that Hezbollah is planning to abduct Israelis abroad as revenge for Mughniyeh's assassination.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2008
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#1
Nasrallah: "No peace in Middle East as long as Israel exists"
And a hearty Fuck You! You Fat ASS Shit Bucket!
_____________________________________________ 9/11
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's (Heavy) Hand in Government Affairs
This week's government takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac marked the shutdown, apparently, of one of Washington's most robust influence machines. Together, the two mortgage buyers spent nearly $200 million on lobbying and campaign contributions over the last two decades, throwing their weight around more like corporations than the government-sponsored enterprises they were. And when Fannie and Freddie faced collapse, those in government were there to help, ironic considering that for so many years the companies' political strategy was to avoid government involvement in their business. So how much did Fannie and Freddie's contributions and lobbying contribute to Congress's hands-off approach? That's hard to determine, but we do have hard data to measure the companies' investment in politicians. Not only have more than 350 current members of Congress collected a total of $4.8 million in campaign contributions associated with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac since 1989, but 28 lawmakers had up to $1.7 million of their own money invested in the companies last year.
#1
Many people had portions of their retirement plans invested in Fannie & Freddie, e.g. S&P500 index plans, and so lost a portion of those savings when the two stocks fell to zip. The two companies were dumped off the S&P500 2 days ago without ceremony. They've been a fiasco for a very long time.
#2
The market cap on the two companies has been shrinking for months, if not years. The damage to stockholders is a fact on the ground. Part of the reason for the government intervention was to maintain the two companies' required capitalization by injecting government money via new preferred-stock purchase.
If our mutual fund managers were invested in those dogs, it's our own damned fault. I'll have to see what kind of damage my 401k took in the next quarterly report. Hopefully not too much. I don't pay too much attention to the precise investments of my mutual funds, but since I tend more towards utility, energy, index, and international growth funds, I can hope that the damage was limited to the index funds.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
09/12/2008 9:03
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#3
The only thinking index fund managers are supposed to do is to rebalance the stock holdings as company stock values increase or decrease, or companies are added or subtracted from the index. I'm just glad the management team that got the organizations into trouble -- and spent so much of the profits on lobbying -- are gone. Despite their golden parachutes, we can hope they'll be prosecuted for their demonstrated malfeasance.
#4
-- There is a school of thought for investors saying things like the S&P500 index funds were good basic investments for the long-term, due to very low expenses. This was probably good advice for a stable economy, however, this has not panned out over the last 10 years or so -- the S&P 500 has underperformed simple things like Tbills & CDs.
--- I could see the real estate crisis coming over a year ago. When I saw FNM & FRE in the S&P500 along with financial institutions deeply implicated in the upcoming collapse, I bailed in 8/2007 & sold all my 401X & IRA stock mutual funds, saving myself quite a bit. I had lost money with the dot com bust & was determined not to let it happen again.
We're in for a very bumpy ride. Make sure your bank deposits are under the FDIC limit & diversify your bank accounts.
#9
I'm afraid our amns retirement fund is going to suffer due to bias confirmation via some nifty data mining.
You cherry picked your years of comparison. You chose a ten year period (for shorter than most anyones investment horizon) with a bastard of a bear market. Now go back and check the ten years before that. Or better yet, check it against a more normal 30+ year time horizon.
From 1972-2005 the S&P has had an annualized return of 12.7%. Comparing that with bond returns and the huge penalties from cashing out of retirement funds early......
Posted by: Mike N. ||
09/12/2008 21:35
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#10
Past Performance is No Guarantee of Future Results is on most printed investment advice I've read. Everyone seems to ignore it.
-- A 30 year investment horizon is nice for people who expect to live longer than that. I don't. It is a nice debating point for people who profit from selling financial instruments.
-- The levels of corruption and self-dealing in many publicly held companies have not fully surfaced.
-- I did not cash out of my retirement funds early. I just sold my S&P 500 index investments & shifted the $ to equally protected CDs and Tbills, all within my retirement funds which remain untouched and untaxed. If other investments look better in the future, I'll buy some. I won't be buying anything contaminated with housing or financial institutions for a few years, at least.
At least 100 militants were killed and around 25 injured on Thursday in the continued military offensive in Bajaur while airstrikes targeted Taliban command centres, official sources and local residents said.
"Eighty to 100 militants were killed in Bajaur today. Most of them are foreigners," the official said on condition of anonymity, Reuters reported The Taliban casualties were reported in Loyesam, Tangkhata, Rashakai, Khazana and Banda areas following airstrikes, artillery and mortar fires.
Several militant hideouts were also destroyed in the offensive, they added.
Main office: Taliban's main office in Inayat Killi, nine kilometres off Khar, was targeted in an airstrike while 200 shops in a commercial market were also destroyed, eyewitnesses told Daily Times.
According to witnesses, the whole market was in flames following the attack, causing damage worth millions of rupees. No official confirmation was available. After taking control of militants' stronghold in Loyesam, the government forces prepared to march towards the militant-controlled areas in Charmang and Nawagai.
"Life is completely paralysed and we feel as if we are lifeless," residents said as curfew was adding to the local population's problems and a creating food shortage in the area.
The operation against militants was launched on August 6 but the authorities have failed to arrest any known militant leader, the local residents added.
Tribal regions have been wrecked by violence since hundreds of Taliban and Al Qaeda militants fled there after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001.
US and Afghan officials have repeatedly claimed the tribal region is used by militants to launch cross-border attacks on international coalition troops deployed in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2008
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#1
It is nice that the press is distracted by lipstick as GWB mopps up before he leaves office.
North Korea's Kim Jong Il had brain surgery after a stroke last month and could have partial paralysis on one side, media reports said Thursday, after the South Korean government said the communist leader remained in control of his country.
Foreign doctors, possibly from China and France, performed the operation after Kim, 66, collapsed about Aug. 15, the newspapers Dong-a Ilbo and JoongAng Ilbo reported, citing unidentified government officials.
Kim's condition has improved and he is not suffering from slurred speech, a disability often associated with a stroke, the reports said.
If Kim were incapacitated, it could have serious implications for international negotiations on North Korea's nuclear disarmament. The talks recently hit a snag because of a dispute between North Korea and the U.S. over how to verify the North's nuclear programs, and a delay by Washington in its promised removal of North Korea from a list of nations that sponsor terrorism.
"I only hope that any situation happening in DPRK should not affect negatively what has been going on in terms of denuclearization process" U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told a news conference on Thursday at the United Nations, using the initials of North Korea's official name.
"I'm also concerned deeply by DPRK's decision to go back to reassembling the nuclear facilities. They must commit to their agreement among the six-party talks for the early realization of the denuclearization process," said Ban, who was South Korea's foreign minister before taking the helm of the U.N. in January 2007.
Lee Cheol-woo, a South Korean ruling party lawmaker, said in a radio interview Thursday that Kim is "recovering fast," has "no problem speaking and communicating," and is "able to stand if assisted."
The lawmaker, a leader of the parliamentary intelligence committee briefed by the country's spy agency Wednesday, did not give further details.
However, South Korea's largest newspaper, Chosun Ilbo, said the stroke had left Kim with "partial paralysis." It quoted an unidentified senior government official as saying, "I understand that he is suffering inconvenience on the left part of his body."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2008
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#18
TOPIX > KIM'S CONCUBINE EMERGING AS A FORCE IN THE NORTH'S LEADERSHIP. D *** NG IT, does this mean KIM has discovered GIRLS = WUHMIN, + NOKOR THE NEW GIRL ORDER???
Also from TOPIX > ANALYSTS: A MILITARY-LED COLLECTIVE [DPRK Generals-Admirals] IS MOST LIKELY TO SUCCEED KIM; + NORTH KOREA MAY USE ITS SECRET BASE TO LAUNCH ICBMS + DELAYED SEOUL-INCHON CANAL PROJECT FINDS NEW LIFE.
At least three tribesmen were killed and one injured when the local Taliban clashed with residents in Mohmand Agency late on Wednesday. The political administration said the clash took place in the Mian Mandi area when the local shopkeepers resisted the Taliban from searching shops in the area for illegal drugs, resulted in an exchange of fire. The deceased were identified as Qadeem, Nasaro Ali and Nadeem. Quwat Khan was injured.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2008
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Seven years after the attacks on the United States on September 11 that left nearly 3,000 dead many people do not believe that al-Qaeda was responsible or do not know who to blame, according to a survey released Wednesday. This crap passes for thought in Arab countries. I find it insulting, especially on September 11th. But that's the whole idea, natch.
The global public opinion survey found that majorities in eight out of the 17 nations polled did not believe al-Qaeda was behind the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington.
Nor was there any consensus on another possible perpetrator, although significant minorities in many countries blamed the U.S. government itself, and in a few Israel. In the Arab and Muslim countries polled majorities attributed the attacks to the U.S. government, Israel, or simply had no answer.
43 percent of Egyptians and 31 percent of Jordanians blame Israel.
Jordan and Israel had the smallest percentage of people who believed al-Qaeda was "behind the 9/11 attacks" as the question was phrased, with 43 percent of Egyptians and 31 percent of Jordanians blaming Israel.
Kenya and Nigeria, the only African countries surveyed, expressed the greatest belief, 77 and 71 percent respectively, that Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda organization was behind the attacks. "The level of confidence that people have in the U.S. is an indicator of how acceptable they are to American narrative, the way of framing it," Steven Kull, director of WorldOpinion.org, told AlArabiya.net. He found the strongest correlation between feelings toward the U.S and belief that al-Qaeda perpetrated the attacks, and therefore that belief is highest in countries friendlier towards the U.S. "But it is striking that even among our allies it was not overwhelming," said Kull.
Kull noted that in the Middle East, where he has done focus groups with Muslim groups, people have difficulty accepting the idea that an ostensibly Islamic group could carry out such violence. "It's very hard for people in Muslim countries to accept the idea that a Muslim could do such a thing, the strongest factor is that killing civilians is contrary to islam -- that's the key factor," he said.
Yet on average one in four people do not know who to hold responsible for the attacks. An average of 46 percent cited al-Qaeda, 15 percent the U.S. government, with the Israeli government or some other perpetrator tied at seven percent.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2008
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#1
Isn't Bin Laden boasting about the attack on video enough to convince ANYBODY?
Not being able to see this is some sort of mental illness I think.
#5
It's all CIA-CGI just like Toy Story. So is "Osama" and his so-called video claiming responsbility. Folks this is where our FIAT money is going, to fund anti Islamic propaganda for the Bilderburgers and the CFR who forced thru the Federal Reserve (privately owned by Martians) System and inflicted Wonder Bread and the Milwaukee Brewers up America.
#6
"It's very hard for people in Muslim countries to accept the idea that a Muslim could do such a thing, the strongest factor is that killing civilians is contrary to islam -- that's the key factor," he said.
Yeah, really. We see so much evidence of that. Every day.
#7
This really shows how far Al Queda has fallen that nobody, not even Muslims believe they could have pulled it off. Only the US government (got people on the moon) or Mossad (can control lightening and dreams) could possibly have pulled this off.
It's sad but this is probably a good thing for Muslims to believe.
#8
the strongest factor is that killing civilians is contrary to Islam
ROTFLMAO!
Oh, wait. You mean he was serious?
I guess blowing up a group of civilians in a crowded plaza in the middle of Baghdad, ramming planes full of civilians into buildings in the middle of Manhattan, driving a gasoline tanker into a synagogue in Morocco, shooting down a civilian aircraft in Kenya, blowing up an embassy in Kenya, blowing up a civilian aircraft over Scotland, and a thousand other examples don't count, huh?
This statement should have been "the strongest factor is that the killing of civilians is one of the strongest and most fundamental concepts of Islam"
#9
Sadly it's not just muslim countries. My son told me about his history class yesterday in high school where the teacher was discussing 9/11. When he asked who caused 9/11 a sizeable majority of the students said it was our own government (read: that eeevil Bush) who either did it directly or deliberately allowed it to happen.* Kudos to his teacher who has a policy of allowing debate, but insists that any opinion must be backed up by facts. My son said his piece, complete with supporting facts, but wasn't sure if he should laugh or cry.
* Granted these are students in deep-blue Mass., but such widespread pervasive idiocy doesn't bode well for our republic.
The US has ordered the expulsion of Bolivia's envoy to Washington after Bolivian President Evo Morales ordered the US ambassador to La Paz to leave the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2008
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#1
War is the option when the political side fails. The State dept needs to get going on this before we find all our ambasadors in South America on a plane. Liking the new leader or not, we need to keep talking.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
09/12/2008 1:35
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#2
Garbage - these tinhorn South American dictators are stamping their feet and holding their breath. No reason to pay special attention to them, unless you are suggesting that we lick their boots.
#4
Talking, what have we obtained from it in the past?
Very little. It wasn't talking that won WWI, WWII or the Cold War. We're not really that good at talking. But we're good at other, more direct measures.
#5
Shieldwolf, I would never kiss anyones ass or expect our ambassadors to. Nor was I sugesting an covert operation to overthrow this goon be curtailed. We have a diplomatic process, it is one of our elements of power, remember the DIME, and it does work well.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
09/12/2008 8:25
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#6
More players being kicked out here than at a RedSox-Yankees game......
amlost need a program.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand: New Zealand's prime minister called elections for Nov. 8, setting a relatively long campaign period to give her Labor Party a chance to win back the many voters who have switched their loyalties to the conservative opposition. Recent opinion polls have shown that the conservative National Party has its best chance in a decade of being victorious in the South Pacific nation of about 4.1 million people.
A change of government would not signal any major turnover in foreign policy, including the country's long-standing anti-nuclear stance and opposition to the Iraq war, but would indicate strong dissatisfaction with Labor after nearly 10 years in power.
Prime Minister Helen Clark's government is being blamed in part for a severe economic downturn, and has been hit by scandals including campaign finance investigations into Foreign Minister Winston Peters, who leads a party that is a junior member of the ruling coalition. New Zealand politics is dominated by the two largest parties --— Labor and National —-- though the political landscape is full of smaller players that often snare significant portions of the vote.
"I do believe the future of New Zealand is at stake," Clark said in a televised news conference to announce the election date. "I believe that Labor has shown through its record in office that we can be trusted with the future of New Zealand."
National leader John Key did not immediately comment.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/12/2008
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#1
Compare wid TOPIX > AUSTRALIA PLANS MILITARY MODERNIZATION AND BUILDUP TO COUNTER "ASIAN THREATS".
Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and President Robert Mugabe have reached a deal to share power. After mediating four days of talks in Harare, South African President Thabo Mbeki said the agreement would be signed and made public on Monday. Mr Mbeki did not give any details. Mr Tsvangirai has confirmed the deal, but Mr Mugabe has yet to comment.
The government and MDC had already agreed that Mr Tsvangirai would be PM with Mr Mugabe staying on as president.
Negotiations have been on-off since the end of July, but have stalled over the allocation of executive power between Mr Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai, bitter rivals for a decade.
Aid hopes
Mr Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), was first to announce the breakthrough, telling reporters simply: "We've got a deal."
Later, Mr Mbeki told a news conference the two sides had agreed unanimously to form an inclusive government. He said: "I am absolutely certain that the leadership of Zimbabwe is committed to implementing these agreements."
The discussions are thought to have been deadlocked over how many ministries each party should have in a unity government, and how much power Mr Mugabe should retain.
MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa told the BBC: "Both political parties are committed, it's our wish that the deal will be successful."
BBC Africa editor Martin Plaut says the agreement opens the way for international donors to help to revive Zimbabwe's economy. It is now the fastest shrinking in the world with inflation galloping to more than 11m%.
Mr Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, won a controversial June presidential run-off election unopposed after Mr Tsvangirai withdrew, claiming the MDC was the target of state-sponsored violence. In the first presidential election in March, Mr Tsvangirai gained more votes than Mr Mugabe, but official results say he did not pass the 50% threshold for outright victory.
Citing March's results, Mr Tsvangirai has said he should be head of government and lead cabinet meetings, while Mr Mugabe should be relegated to a ceremonial position.
Earlier on Thursday Gordon Brown, prime minister of the UK, the country's former colonial ruler, said any power-sharing deal in Zimbabwe would be judged by how much it reflected legitimate election results.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2008
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#1
" And Morgan Tsvangirai will be Inspector of Latrines..."
Local Chinese authorities in Xinjiang province said that Chinese authorities have imposed new restrictions on Muslim practices during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. The restrictions include banning men from growing beards and women from wearing face veils as well as prohibiting local officials from fasting during the holy month, according to a report in the London-based Asharq Al-Awsat.
The article said that local authorities visit mosques twice a week to make sure the new rules are being followed.
According to local websites in China, other laws have been imposed ostensibly to maintain security and stability during the month of Ramadan. These include forbidding students and teachers from fasting, preventing retired civil servants from entering mosques, and banning restaurant closures during typical fasting hours.
A statement posted on Xinjiang's official website defended these measures as a way to combat terrorism and the prevalence of religious education that they say incites violence. "We have to prevent religious people from communal rituals [like the daily taraweeh prayers] and religious gatherings that could destabilize the region," said the statement.
The government also warned against trying to force anyone to fast, in reference to preachers who discuss the Muslim obligation of fasting and the benefits it entails.
The restrictive measures came in the wake of recent violent attacks in the province that left 20 policemen dead. The authorities blamed fundamentalist groups who fight for the independence of the province and the declaration of an Islamic state. One such group, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, is considered a terrorist organization by the government of China, the United States, and the United Nations.
China accuses Islamists of trying to restore the 19th century Islamic nation of East Turkestan, which China annexed in the 1880s, in Xinjiang province. After the Communists came to power in 1949, the Chinese government tightened its grip on the province and changed it name to Xinjiang, which means "the new city," in reference to turning it away from Islam towards atheist Communism.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2008
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The chicoms are assholes, but we could learn a few things from them. Like how to be bigger assholes. That probably wouldn't hurt us a bit.
Islmabad President Asif Zardaris hint at some good news about Kashmir has triggered speculations in diplomatic and political circles here about the nature of the upcoming initiative between Pakistan and India. In his maiden news conference after being sworn in President of Pakistan on Tuesday Zardari referred to back-channel dialogue between the two countries and promised some good news before the term of the ruling Congress Party in India expires (in May 2009). He said he has talked to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif and also taken into confidence other mainstream leaders on the issue.
While Indias External Affairs Ministry expressed surprise and lack of knowledge on Zardaris promise, Pakistans Foreign Office was equally taken off-guard and could not make any comment.
The president spent about two hours at the Foreign Office on Thursday to receive briefings on major issues but had little to offer to explain his remarks at the news conference.
The officials later tried to lower the expectations raised by the presidents statement. There is not going to be any major breakthrough on the Kashmir issue in coming months, a senior Pakistani diplomat said. The composite dialogue process initiated by former Indian premier Atal Bihari Vajpayee and ex-president Pervez Musharraf would continue under the new government, with greater vigour and much better atmospherics, he said.
"Never mind him, he's just a rookie!"
Informed sources say Zardari was referring to a possible progress in talks on augmenting bilateral trade not only along international borders but the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir as well. Zardari has suggested that this question be taken up with a sense of urgency because of continued blockade of trade by extremists in Jammu between Indiah-held Kashmir and the rest of the country. The Indian government has also responded positively.
Both governments are reportedly working on a plan to launch flow of goods trucks between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad, capital of Azad Kashmir. Perishable fruits and vegetables, besides furniture and other goods could be moved between the two points. Both sides are also actively considering the proposal for exchange of visits by members of chambers of commerce and industry of Indian- and Pakistani-administered Kashmir.
The Azad Kashmir chamber has already sent to the Indian government the list of members of its delegation who want to visit Srinagar.
The new Pakistani President is also on record that he wants to give pre-eminence to expanding bilateral trade and economic cooperation hoping that it would help foster progress on the more intractable issues like Kashmir.
Nawaz Sharif also supports improved ties with India while Zardaris other coalition partners including ANP, the JUI and MQM are equally enthusiastic about augmenting the peace talks. The liberal media has extended full support to this thinking. Now is the time to push for real progress in the long-running but wobbly peace process, daily Dawn said while editorially commenting on Zardaris news conference.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/12/2008
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Kamran accused the US of inciting civil war in Pakistan. The tribal people were patriotic and had never ever indulged in terrorist activities.
The people of tribal areas will fight along with the armed forces if the United States (US) forces enter Pakistan in pursuit of attacking Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, said Kamran Khan, a tribal parliamentarian, here on Thursday. Addressing a press conference, Kamran accused the US of inciting civil war in Pakistan. He said patriotic tribal people would foil every bid of the US to incite civil war in the country. Kamran said US was taking the war to Pakistan to cover its own failures in Afghanistan. The tribal people, he added, were patriotic and had never ever indulged in terrorist activities. He hoped the government would soon compensate the people affected by military operation in tribal areas.
This article starring:
Kamran Khan, a tribal parliamentarian
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2008
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#1
a tribal parliamentarian and patriotic tribal people?
There you have Pa-ki-stan in all its miserable glory.
Are you tribal or parliamentary? And he accuses us of bringing civil war to the neighborhood. Light in day, dark at night logic at work there.
#9
I thought Afghanistan was going to be the "GRAVEYARD OF THE AMERICANS". Now its Wakiland? I wish they'd make up their minds where they are going to annihilate us.
The United States has turned down an Israeli request for "bunker buster" bombs and mid-air refueling planes for fear they could be used to attack Iran, according to the Israeli Haaretz newspaper.
The U.S. administration also refused to give permission for Israeli fighter jets to fly over Iraq -- the quickest route to Iran, it said.
Military experts believe the GBU-28 "bunker busters" Israel had requested could be effective against Iran's underground uranium enrichment facility at Natanz in central Iran. The GBU-28 is a 2.2-ton, laser-guided, conventional munition equipped with a powerful warhead that can burrow through more than six meters (20 feet) of concrete and up to 30.5 meters (100 feet) of hard ground.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said after a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last month that the United States "do not want, for the time being, any (military) action against Iran" but that Israel kept all options open.
While denying the requests for "bunker-buster" bombs and refueling planes, the U.S. administration has agreed to help reinforce Israel's defenses. An advanced U.S. radar system is to be stationed in Israel which would double the 2,000-kilometer (1,250-mile) detection range of missiles launched from Iran.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2008
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#1
Nope, you can't have any. And don't be taking any when we go to lunch in 15 minutes. And put that hand cart back when you're done with it.
So, given that we have Al Arabiya, the Israeli Defense Minister and the US State Dept all together here, is the story they are presenting true, false or maskirova and how do you tell? They are quite specific about the capabilities of the GBU-28 and it's (published) penetration depth.
#4
Yea the legs of the merlot reflect off the stealth cants and drive you thirsty AS HELL BY DESIGN.... I sTHINK Anyways!
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
09/12/2008 3:33
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#5
SOBER AS A JUDGE:
WE MUST GIVE THE ISRAELIS ALL THE "STUFF" THEY NEED FOR SUCCESSFUL RAIDS ON IRAN.
The failure to do so will lead directly to a Holocaust AGAIN!
NEVER AGAIN!!
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
09/12/2008 3:42
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#6
Maybe Israel should consider buying that stuff from Russia, or China, or France. We interfere with Israeli politics too much, and not just on this issue. That damned middle east peace "road map" will be the death of them all.
#7
I thought we sold Israel bunker busters following that little excitement in Lebanon, back when we didn't realize what a limp noodle Prime Minister Olmert really was.
#8
This is just propaganda for the middle east. To think that Israelie intel can not get their hands on the build spec and produce them is foolish. But then probably put the specs in the official denial letter.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
09/12/2008 8:35
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#9
United States has turned down an Israeli request for "bunker buster" bombs and mid-air refueling planes
Wasn't Israel already working on developing mid-air refueling platforms? I think we already gave them a few KC-10s???, and were just working on training them.
This has 'plausible deniability' written all over it.
#10
This is ridiculous. At least two years ago we gave them a butt-load of bunker busters, and I think it is highly unlikely that they converted them into attractive and useful flowerpots.
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
09/12/2008 22:04
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#18
Mercutio,
You obviously haven't been here long. TW is the soul of decorum, tact and politesse...until a commenter goes too far. Go read Kipling's "The Female of the Species" for some insight here. I've never actually seen anyone make a garrote from a tea cozy. With TW however, I wouldn't put it past that lady a bit should she deem such an action necessary. She doesn't go off very often but when she does it's a clinic on how to do verbal vivisection. The regular posters here just stand back and watch with great respect. The trolls who are on the receiving end...well, we don't usually ever see them again.
#5
ION RUSSIA KOMMERSANT > ROMANIA WANTS ANTI-MISSLE SYSTEM TOO, ostensib to protect the EU Countries, or at least BULGARIA, GREECE, + ITSELF; + CSTO TO CREATE BIG GROUP OF FORCES IN CENTRAL ASIA. Proto-planning for TEN RAPID REACTION BATTALIONS drawn from RUSSIA, KAZAKHISTAN, UZBEKISTAN, KRGYZHISTAN, + TADJIKISTAN.
* TOPIX > MEDVEDEV: WEST LINKS IN ASIA TO GET STRONGER, SSSSSHHHHHH via Russia.
HMMMMM, RUSSIA = the EU-WEST [but NOT NATO]???
* RIAN > RUSSIA'S SUBMARINES TO TEST-FIRE BALLISTIC MISSLES IN PACIFIC.
(SomaliNet) A gunman has shot and killed a Member of Parliament (MP) in the southwestern Somali city of Baidoa, witnesses said. Legislator Mohammed Osman Maye was killed late Tuesday as he was leaving a mosque in Baidoa, where the Somali parliament meets, the witnesses said.
In a statement posted Wednesday on its Web site, the Islamist militant group El-Kabong al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the killing. It said Maye was one of the staunchest supporters of Ethiopian troops in Somalia. The group says the killing should be a warning to other members of parliament.
Heavy fighting broke out today between Islamist insurgents and Ethiopian-backed government troops in parts of the capital, Mogadishu. Deaths and injuries were reported, although casualty figures are not available.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2008
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#1
[online poker has been pooplisted.]
Posted by: online poker ||
09/12/2008 14:21
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WASHINGTON (AP) The Senate's top Democrat will press for passage this year of a U.S.-Indian civil nuclear cooperation accord, his spokesman said Thursday, boosting prospects for the landmark agreement to be ratified before President Bush leaves office. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who met Wednesday with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, "will try to find a way to move it forward" this year, spokesman Jim Manley said. The accord, one of Bush's top foreign policy initiatives, would reverse three decades of U.S. policy by shipping atomic fuel to India in return for international inspections of India's civilian reactors.
The support of lawmakers in the Democratic-controlled Senate and House is crucial because only about three weeks remain before Congress is scheduled to recess for the year to campaign for Nov. 4 elections. The Bush administration needs lawmakers' help to overcome a law that says Congress may not ratify the accord for 30 working days after receiving it. Without passage of legislation to scrap the waiting period, Congress does not appear to have enough days left to ratify the deal.
The House's top lawmaker, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, mentioned the requirement of a "waiver" to strike the 30-day waiting period and said Thursday: "I hope that that work can be done so we can take it up." Pelosi, a supporter of the agreement, noted, however, "We don't want it to be a precedent for saying many more countries will join" the nuclear club.
Sen. Joe Biden, the Democrats' vice presidential candidate and a supporter of nuclear cooperation with India, said the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which he chairs, could review the agreement in a hearing as soon as next week.
Also Thursday, the White House announced that Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will meet with Bush later this month in Washington as the two leaders push for approval of the accord.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/12/2008
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(AKI) - President Bush secretly approved orders in July to allow US forces to carry out ground assaults inside Pakistan without the approval of the Pakistani government, according to senior American officials.
US officials told The New York Times newspaper that they will notify Pakistan when they conduct limited ground attacks like the Special Operations raid last Wednesday in a Pakistani village near the Afghanistan border, but that they will not ask for its permission. It is considered a major policy change after nearly seven years of cooperation with Pakistan to combat the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in the country's volatile tribal areas.
"The situation in the tribal areas is not tolerable," said a senior US official who spoke on condition of anonymity . "We have to be more assertive. Orders have been issued."
The new orders reflect concern about safe havens for Al- Qaeda and the Taliban inside Pakistan, as well as American concern that Pakistan lacks the will and ability to combat militants.
The Times reports there is also a "lingering distrust" of the Pakistani military and intelligence agencies and a belief that some American operations had been compromised when Pakistanis were advised of the details.
The Central Intelligence Agency has for several years fired missiles at militants inside Pakistan from remotely piloted Predator aircraft. But the new orders for the military's Special Operations forces relaxed firm restrictions on conducting raids on the soil of an important ally without its permission.
Pakistan's top army officer said Wednesday that his forces would not tolerate American incursions like the one that took place last week and the Pakistani government lodged a strong protest with the US Ambassador in Islamabad. Last week's raid also presents a major test for Pakistan's new president, Asif Ali Zardari, who supports more aggressive action by his army but faces increasing opposition internally to autonomous US military action.
The Times reported more than 25 Al-Qaeda suspects were killed in the pre-planned ground attack that was conducted on 3 September.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2008
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Adds some more details with state dept reaction
The United States said Thursday it will monitor two Russian Tu-160 strategic bombers, which it described as "Cold War era assets," following their deployment to Venezuela. "It is something that we will watch very closely, as we have with the movements of other military assets for the stated purpose of this joint exercise," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.
Besides the warplanes, Russia also plans to send warships to Venezuela for joint naval exercises in November.
"I would just note, for example, that our military assets in the region of the Black Sea, for example, are there to deliver humanitarian assistance," McCormack said. "I will leave it to the Russians and the Venezuelans to describe the purpose of their activities," he added.
The United States sent warships to the Black Sea to deliver humanitarian aid to Georgia after Russia launched a military incursion there last month that has inflamed US-Russian tensions.
Asked if he was making a link between events on both continents, McCormack replied: "I am making no linkage whatsoever. I am just pointing out an interesting data point."
#6
MEDVEDEV now weighs in > warns that GEORGIA would've been attacked even iff Georgia was on a firm path to NATO Membership. Also claims that NATO is getting WEAKER as it gets closer to RUSSIA [Asia]???
(AKI) - The Taliban are trying to induce American forces to kill civilians, including women and children, in Afghanistan, a senior US government official said on Thursday.
James Glassman, the US State Department's under secretary for public diplomacy, was speaking in response to the controversial air strike carried out by American forces that allegedly killed at least 90 civilians in western Afghanistan in August. "The problem of civilian casualties is a big one," he said in a television interview broadcast on the BBC.
Referring to the attack in Azizabad village in the province of Herat on 22 August, he said the issue was being investigated. "We don't really know how many people were killed. But there is no doubt that some civilians were killed in a strike against military targets."
But Glassman also used the TV interview to condemn the Taliban and accused militants of deliberately provoking attacks that targeted civilians. "Let me tell you the difference between the United States and its allies, including Britain and including NATO, and the Taliban," he said. "The difference is when we kill civilians we do it by mistake. We don't want to kill civilians, absolutely not.
"They kill civilians on purpose. Not only that, they try and lead us to kill civilians because then they can use that in their propaganda war against us."
He said that it was time to clarify the difference between the American approach and that of the militants. "They try to get us to kill civilians," he said. "They try to induce us to shoot at targets that include women and children who are completely innocent."
"But the Taliban on the other hand are trying to kill people. They are trying to kill civilians."
He said it was important to remember that Afghanistan wanted to be free and wanted to democracy after living under a vicious Taliban regime. But he recognised that the deaths of civilians hurt the US cause there. "I think we are doing the right thing. The fact that civilians are dying hurts our cause," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2008
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Top|| File under: Taliban
#1
Were the REALLY civilians? They live with the Taliwackers. The whole thing didn't really resonate with me at all. If the taliban come to your house to flop for the night, your best bet is to sleep at a friends house.
#2
"They kill civilians on purpose. Not only that, they try and lead us to kill civilians because then they can use that in their propaganda war against us."
Of which the media and the tranzis are willing accomplices.
#3
They also hide in the Civilian population and shoot from within crowds of civilians. This is against the Geneva Convention and makes them illegal combatants.
All of which makes them _responsible_ for any civilian deaths.
Stuff like this is why they pay experts such big bucks. (AKI) - Osama Bin Laden is still alive but Al-Qaeda has lost the capacity to organise large-scale attacks, according to Italy's leading anti-terrorism expert, Stefano Dambruoso.
Nevetheless, Dambruoso told Adnkronos on the anniversary of the 11 September attacks in the United States that Al-Qaeda was still a dangerous and widespread phenomenon that we would have to face for many years.
"Since then we have learned a lot, we have far more experience and capacity to better monitor sources of risk from this phenomenon with which we live, but we must remain on high alert," he said. "Italy, like many European countries, is certainly more secure because it has increased the capacity of the security forces to prevent organised attacks.
"However, it should be said, without generating alarm, that security forces would find it difficult to prevent a single Al-Qaeda member or small groups, that are not directly linked to a central terror group."
If the risk of destructive attacks like 11 September has fallen in the West, the phenomenon of 'Al-Qaeda franchising' is developing due to the widespread use of the internet. "Analysts believe today while Al-Qaeda has less capacity to organise events like 11 September, Al-Qaeda has grown so much that many have never met Bin Laden, been to a training camp in Pakistan or Afghanistan.
"Instead, thanks to proselytism they continue to feed themselves via the internet, decide to become martyrs, make individual Jihad and cause hundreds of deaths like what happened in Madrid."
Posted by: Fred ||
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The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Swat said on Thursday that no shariah law of the NWFP government would be acceptable unless Sufi Muhammad, chief of the banned Tehreek Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi, approved it. Talking to reporters, TTP spokesman Muslim Khan said that the NWFP government must first take Muhammad's approval for imposing the shariah in Malakand division under the Shari Nazam-e-Adle Act 1999, otherwise they would not accept it.
The statement came after an announcement by the NWFP government that it will enforce shariah law in Malakand division during the month of Ramazan. He said the Taliban's aim was to implement the law in letter and spirit in Malakand and all issues will be resolved with the implementation of the Islamic system in the region. Khan said that the TTP was still investigating the charge that the NWFP government had accepted a bounty of Rs 20 million on their members' heads from the United States, adding that they would show 'no leniency' if the allegation proved correct.
This article starring:
MUSLIM KHAN
Tehreek Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2008
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Militants in Hamas-ruled Gaza on Thursday detonated a bomb near an Israeli Army patrol along the border fence, causing no injuries but shaking a fragile truce, an Israeli Army spokeswoman told AFP. "An explosive device was set off against an army force patrolling the fence in central Gaza, south of the Kissufim crossing, causing some damage to the fence but no injuries," the spokeswoman said.
A Gaza witness said that an Israeli ambulance had been at the scene, at the border between Israel and the central Gaza Strip, but the army said nobody was injured. A second explosion went off minutes later in the same area, but also caused no injuries, the Israeli Army said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Five people, including four militants, were killed and seven others injured in clashes between rival tribes in Kurram Agency on Thursday. The political administration said the clashes continued in the Pewar, Teri Mengal, Baghzai, Jalamai, Char Dewal, Inzari, Bilyamin, Bagizai and Alizai areas of the agency. Due to the closure of the Thal-Parachinar road for the last 10 months, residents of the agency are facing an acute shortage of essential commodities, including medicines and fuel during the month of Ramazan.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2008
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#1
Not surprised the NYTs refers to bin Laden as "Mr. bin Laden." They appear to be respectful and reverent. Personally, I think he is one of the most evil men in modern history. He is a stone cold killer of men, women, and children.
South Korea said on Thursday it was cooperating with other countries to secure the release of 21 sailors on a South Korean ship hijacked by pirates off Somalia this week.The Foreign Ministry said there had been no contact so far with the pirates as the hijacked ship was still on the move.
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The discharge of a jury who convicted a Muslim man of writing a terrorist manual but failed to reach a verdict on a second terrorism charge has urged Australia's Muslim leaders to call for a review of anti-terrorism laws.
Belal Saadallah Khazaal, 38, was convicted on Wednesday of assisting terrorism, but the jury was discharged on Thursday after failing to decide on whether he tried to incite a terrorist act. The prosecutor will now decide whether to seek a re-trial.
The guilty verdict shocked Islamic leaders, who warned anti-terrorism laws were making all Muslims potential targets for arrest and called for a review of security laws. The Forum on Australia's Islamic Relations said the conviction of Khazaal, 38, for writing a 110-page guide to terrorism failed to prove he had the intention or capability to carry out a terrorist act.
"These terror laws have specifically made every Muslim a potential target for arrest by police," Forum executive director Kuranda Seyit said in a statement. "There have been many people who have had their homes raided and their passports confiscated and this is simply unconstitutional. These laws are not keeping Australia safe but in fact terrorizing Australian Muslims."
Khazaal was convicted of knowingly making a document connected with assistance in a terrorist act. The book described methods of assassination, including shooting down aircraft and booby trapping rooms.
The prosecutor told the jury during the trial that Khazaal's book was urging others to commit a terrorist act, but his defense lawyer said Khazaal was a journalist who compiled the book from material publicly available on the internet.
Australia has gradually tightened its anti-terrorism laws since the Sept. 11, 2001 airliner attacks on the United States. New laws allow police to detain and question a suspect without charge for extended periods. Many in Australia's Muslim population, which numbers around 280,000, say they have felt under siege in recent years due to tougher security laws, several terrorism cases and a community backlash against Islam.
A judge has told jurors in a trial now under way not to let prejudice cloud their judgment when deciding whether 12 Muslims were guilty of planning an attack in Melbourne.
The New South Wales state Council for Civil Liberties also called for a review of anti-terrorism laws, saying they had circumvented criminal law safeguards that ensured evidence was rigorously tested before a person was arrested and charged. "These terrorism laws allow police extreme powers to detain, question and gather evidence ... and the problem with that is you are removing the accountability measures and safeguards that are in ordinary criminal law," said council president Cameron Murphy. "The problem with the anti-terrorism powers, apart from the impact on people's human rights, is that they allow sloppy policing to occur, which means you will capture, in my view, a number of people who have done nothing wrong," he told reporters.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2008
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Top|| File under: Global Jihad
#1
You need a review of your immigration laws is what you need. Quit letting people in who want to kill you. We could use a little of the same.
#2
Australia afraid of terrorists? That's too bad. Loosen a few silly gun laws, and let folks in the Outback defend themselves, and everybody goes home happy. Nothing worse than a bar full of angry Aussies coming at you, unless those Aussies are packin' heat after you said you wise to convert them. (Source: The Road Warrior)
At least six Ethiopians have been killed and 23 others injured in a new series of clashes in the southern part Mogadishu.
One Ethiopian officer was killed in front of the Ethiopian base of Ifka Halane in the capital, a Press TV correspondent reported on Thursday. More than eight guards of the dead officer were also injured in the fighting.
In another incident, five Ethiopian soldiers were killed in the town of Baletweyn and 15 others injured on Thursday.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Oh. Yeah. That oughta work. Shoulda thought about that before. (AKI) - The top United Nations relief official has voiced deep concern about reports of fresh violence in the north of the war-torn Darfur region of western Sudan amid further attacks on aid workers by armed groups. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes called for all sides in the Darfur conflict, which has pitted rebels against government forces and allied Janjaweed militiamen since 2003, to cease hostilities immediately and engage in meaningful talks towards a lasting settlement.
His comments follow reports from rebels and internally displaced persons that Sudanese government forces launched sustained aerial bomb attacks over the past week near the villages of Birmaza and Disa in North Darfur.
Sudanese military sources told the hybrid UN-African Union peacekeeping mission to Darfur that no offensive against rebel positions was taking place. But the mission has observed the movement of heavily armed men, vehicles and material, and an increase in aircraft traffic, particularly attack helicopters.
UNAMID -- which has not yet established a presence in the area because of security reasons -- said that while it could not confirm that fighting was occurring between the government and rebels, its observations indicated that intense military activity was taking place.
Holmes, who is also Emergency Relief Coordinator for the UN, reminded the parties to the conflict of their responsibilities under international humanitarian law to protect civilians, differentiate between civilian and military targets and ensure unimpeded access for aid workers.
Birmaza and Disa serve as important medical, water and commercial hubs for tens of thousands of people, and the reported military bombardments and the attacks on aid workers by armed groups have relief officials worried.
UN spokeswoman Michele Montas told reporters that cuts in aid were compromising the health and well-being of numerous towns and villages and affecting up to 450,000 people.
The UN estimates about 300,000 people are estimated to have been killed, either through direct combat or as a result of disease, malnutrition or reduced life expectancy, since the Darfur conflict began five years ago. More than 2.7 million others have been displaced from their homes.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2008
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#1
Again?
They must not have gotten the last 200 voicemails.
President Hugo Chavez has ordered the US ambassador to leave the country within 72 hours, in an act of solidarity with Bolivia, which also expelled its US envoy.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
The games have begun. Monday theirs will be gone, Hugo will probably recall his to beat us to the punch. Who will be next??
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
09/12/2008 1:38
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#2
This is about the Saudi walkout. Hugo needs oil to be above 100.
#4
Wait a sec, is this about Bolivia OR Oil?
I'm kinda lost with the whole kicking out of ambassadors. Did we kick out the Bolivian ambassador to US because they kicked out ours?
(SomaliNet) Kenyan President Kibaki on Wednesday appealed to the international community to send peacekeepers to Somalia to save the country from plunging into anarchy.
How about you sending some troops first?
The Kenyan leader expressed concern at recent developments in the strife-torn Horn of Africa country in which several people have been killed.
The Head of State urged the Transition Government in Mogadishu and all the parties involved in the conflict to embrace dialogue so as to guarantee the people of Somalia peace and security. "We must all act to ensure that the pledges for resources made by the international community are fulfilled," he said.
The President spoke when he opened the Association of Military Christian Fellowship Africa Golden Jubilee Conference at the Safari Park Hotel in Nairobi. He praised the role the military had played in peacekeeping programmes.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
How about Operation Hammer-II President Kibaki? Don't count on the following KAR elements however: 1st and 2nd (Nyasaland) Battalions, 3rd (Kenya) Battalion, 4th (Uganda) Battalion, 5th (Uganda) Battalion, 6th (British Somaliland). Have a splendid day in Somaliland.
Taliban militants shot dead three pro-government tribesmen in Bajaur Agency, accusing the victims of spying against them, officials said on Thursday. The bodies of the tribesmen were found on Thursday morning near a road in the Tally area in the Bajaur tribal region, a local government official told AFP. "They were shot in the neck and a note found with their bodies said all those indulging in activities against Taliban and co-operating with the government will suffer the same fate," the official said. Militants have killed several tribesmen, accusing them of spying on their activities on behalf of the Pakistani government and the United States forces operating across the border in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2008
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The Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) on Thursday claimed it had foiled a bid to smuggle 23 kilogrammes of heroin from Afghanistan, and had taken two people into custody. The LI sources said that the organisation's activists stopped a car coming from Afghanistan in the Tirah area in Khyber Agency and found 23 kilogrammes of heroin in a search. They arrested the car's driver and the man who had hired him.
The LI personnel brought the contraband to the LI Spin Qabr Markaz where they set it on fire. LI Ameer Mangal Bagh told reporters that the Afghan and Pakistan border guards were involved in smuggling and received bribes from the smugglers. He said that the LI had destroyed all heroin factories in Khyber Agency and had banned its transportation. He added that the LI would take action against those involved in the business.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#3
My final conclusion of this interview was that I was shocked and disgusted with the sexism displayed. Charlie Gibson's "look me in the eye" immediately offended me on a level I'm not used to being offended on. Where did he get off patting her on the head like that? I tried and could not imagine him asking Obama (or any other professional) that question in that tone.
But in the end, she kicked his behind and left the heel of her stiletto sticking out his, um.. nevermind.
When she gave her comment about Lincoln, I had this sense that Charlie Gibson was just one of many nameless, faceless, opponents whom she had shot down and left strewn upon the roadside.
I had this vision of her stopping briefly as she left the studio to put another notch in her lipstick case.
#4
I thought she was tense and a bit forced in the first questions. Gibson was clearly taken aback that she didn't show any humility about taking the VP / President role. I was expecting some words along the lines of "leading this great country is an honor and a challenge that I believe I'm up for blah blah". She did come across as a bit pitbull-ish in her "I didn't blink" response IMO.
That said, there was a real gotcha tone to the interview. She wasn't given a chance to lay out a position or talk at any length. No doubt Gibson felt that doing so would just allow her to recite memorized speeches. But with the obvious editing in which some of what she had to say was chopped off, combined with his egregious mis-representation of her comments in church about Iraq, I'd have to say that this wasn't Gibson's best performance as an interviewer on the national stage under pressure.
Sarah Palin held her own even with Charlie Gibson's continuous attempts to get her to make a gaffe. She didn't waffles one bit on national security and support of allies.
The whole "Is it worth it to defend Georgia" meme just displays the lack of principles on the leftist MSM plate.
Yes, it is worth it to defend democracy. It is a matter of principle. If you have no principles you are an empty vessel, a hollow shell, which will be filled with whatever the rationalization du jour happens to be.
One wonders exactly what would be 'worth it' to the talking heads of the media.
Go Sarah!
DanNY
Posted by: DanNY ||
09/12/2008 8:57
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#6
Many people in the U.S. don't quite realize what it means to live that close to Russia. I grew up in Anchorage and we understood that Elmendorf and Fort Rich would be targets of any first strike. Russian aircraft often tested the warning systems to the north and west. We had air raid drills in school.
(On the positive side sometimes we would get to see the anti aircraft systems tested against drones over the mountains. Seeing a missile rise and blow up an aircraft is unbelievably cool to 10 year old boys.)
Palin has a completely different mindset than Gibson on security.
#7
Gibson had the opportunity of a lifetime and career to interview her if she becomes Vice-President. He squandered it by coming of as chauvinistic and condescending and being what Hillary supporters see the dhimocrats doing to their spectrum of the voting block.
Good job Charles, you just swung the female voters 10 more points in Palin's direction.
Chauvinistic pig.
#9
charleys 1st segment interview with Sarah, was clouded by charlies ambitious auditioning.
While Sarah wanted to talk about political reform, which is the essence of why Sara is so popular, charlies objective was that of auditioning for water boy, of strident inquisitor. A position open, since the retirement of a string of exit stage left anchors. Someone needs to give ABC, the definition of RO/RS=CF.........
the interview was nothing but a face making audition by charlie.....imagine that....go fish.
#11
Didn't get to see the whole thing. But from what I did see I thought Gibson was just trying really hard not to give the impression that he was pitching softballs. I mean, give him a break. Would you have preferred Katie Couric? And Sarah didn't blink. She has A-type written all over her. Pit bull, indeed. Can't wait to see what she does to Biden.
#12
Aside from misquoting her on the "Holy War" line of questioning and bringing up a very hazy "Bush Doctrine" I thought the content of Gibson's questions was fair.
Gibson's distortion of the quote from Palin's church address was way out of bounds. She did a very nice job of addressing it though and, I think, gave an answer that no one will quibble with outside the looniest of the far left or the ranks of militant athieism.
It wasn't reasonable to expect Gov. Palin to know to which particular incarnation of the Bush Doctrine Gibson was referring; one Bush himself enunciated, something tacked on by the media, his critics, his supporters, or some third party? The question is overbroad, fodder for a library full of dissertations and theses rather than a brief interview response. That said, Gov. Palin did stumble over the question and needs to improve her handling of situations where she's caught flat-footed or where the interviewer is laying an unclever trap.
Gibson's tone is one any attorney will instantly recognize: the petulant judge who might have read the complaint but who probably hasn't read the briefs and who is nevertheless intent on arguing his or her understanding of the issues with the attorneys anyway. The impatience, dismissiveness, condescention, arrogance, contant interruptions, and the like all fit the profile. I thought Gov. Palin did a nice job handling Gibson's attitude, it was intended to throw her off stride in hopes of bringing forth a careless statement and it didn't do so.
Gov. Palin did a nice job of staying on point when Gibson, on multiple occasions, repeated the same question multiple times. That's an attempt to look for internal inconsistencies or to push a speaker off-point. It works when the speaker is speaking not from their own internal convictions but is instead searching for the approval of their questioner (as often happens with the ill-prepared). Gibson had no success with that tactic here which speaks highly of the depth of Gov. Palin's preparation.
Her body language conveyed a bit of nervousness to me but it didn't carry into her voice or facial expressions. To be visibly nervous but so completely in control is brutally difficult, even for professional speakers.
She does have a few verbal habits that she employs to create space while she mentally composes her response. Not nearly as offensive as Obama's constant stream of "well, uhhhhh, y'know, I ahhh" followed byaveryrapidclosetohisthought. Look for repeated phrases and "I do" with Gov. Palin; not offensive but she can clean up her speaking style by slowing down just a bit and avoiding the use of verbal techniques designed to create space.
I thought that overall she acquitted herself fairly well. She probably didn't change anyone's mind one way or another and the sound bites aren't damaging no matter how badly spun. Probably a C+ / B- performance but I expect that she'll improve very rapidly from here, you can see that coming and it's only a matter of time. But then last time I was asked to critique speakers I referred to one as "ill prepared, horribly presented and awfully dull" only to later learn that he was considered quite accomplished ... you should definitely salt my opinion to taste. ;)
Libya did not get nuclear warhead documents from China but from Pakistani nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan's supplier network, Washington Times reported on Thursday, quoting a United States State Department official on condition of anonymity.
China gave Pakistan nuclear weapons technology and equipment in the 1980s as part of a strategic effort to counter India's nuclear weapons. Dr Khan then took the Chinese documents and supplied them to Libya as part of a package provided by his private nuclear supplier network. Iran and North Korea, also Dr Khan's customers, the official was quoted as saying.
The documents are now stored in a secret vault at the Energy Department's Oak Ridge, Tennessee, facility along with other nuclear equipment given up by the Libyans.
The documents were described as large blueprints that technically are considered primitive and are incomplete but explain how to develop a nuclear device small enough to fit on the tip of a missile. If the Libyans had tried to detonate a nuclear device based on the design, they likely would have caused a serious accident, US officials told Washington Times.
Chinese embassy spokesman Wang Baodong said the issue of the documents was "delicate" but that he had no knowledge of whether the matter was investigated by the Chinese government.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said in 2004 that the government was concerned about reports of the documents found in Libya and was trying to learn more.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
I read this somewhere couple months back. Humm... Cargo Cult News maybe?
An Arab League-sponsored initiative, aimed at bringing peace to the war-ravaged western Sudanese region of Darfur was dismissed by Darfur rebel groups on Thursday. They said the move came five years too late.
Arab League foreign ministers decided on Monday to establish a committee headed by Qatar and including Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Syria, Libya and Egypt to sponsor peace talks between rebels and Khartoum. The committee will work alongside the United Nations and African Union, which are charged with mediating the stalled peace talks aimed at ending the five-year conflict.
There you go. A committee. That'll do it.
However, the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) dismissed the committee, saying it would rather see Arab condemnation of Khartoum's "atrocities" in Darfur.
"We welcome any honest attempt at a peace process, but we don't want the Arab League to be exploiting the differences in Darfur," said JEM spokesman Ahmed Hussain. "We are waiting for the Arab League to condemn the atrocities happening on the ground, such as what the government did in Kalma," Hussain said, referring to an attack last month by government forces on a displaced persons' camp that left more than 30 dead.
The Sudan Liberation Army also rejected the League's initiative, claiming it was timed to support Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir in efforts to delay potential charges from the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged war crimes and genocide in Darfur. "It's just a desperate attempt to save the Sudanese president from international justice," said Mahgoub Hussein, a London-based spokesman of the SLA-Unity faction.
"It is five years too late; where have they been until now?" he told reporters. "There cannot be talk of peace deals when the government is attacking civilians."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2008
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#1
Not just a committee, but a committee stuffed with Muslims charged with arbitrating between a muslim state and non-muslim rebels.
Authorities say a bomb concealed in a pickup truck belonging to the Iraqi Housing Ministry has killed three employees and wounded three others, a day after Iraqi soldiers arrested three leaders of Al-Qaeda in a raid in Diyala Province. Police and medics say the bomb went off Thursday morning in Baghdad's Shiite district of Sadr City. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
Late Wednesday, troops had raided two houses in the Kanaan district of Diyala, which lies to the northwest of Baghdad, acting on a tip-off, said General Mohammad al-Askari.
The main object of the mission had been the search for local Al-Qaeda leaders, he added. "We have arrested three, who were wanted and considered among the most dangerous," he said, without giving any other details.
During the raid on the second house, soldiers had killed three suicide bombers armed with explosive belts, he added. They seized about 10 bombs, six vehicles, weapons and other material, said Askari. He did not say if any other people had been arrested during the raid.
In mid-August Iraqi forces were attacked by "Al-Qaeda terrorists" at Kananna, about 10 kilometers north of Baqouba. During the fighting, Iraqi soldiers killed five of the insurgents and arrested 20 people. They subsequently found a village where tens of abandoned houses had been booby-trapped by insurgents.
Iraqi forces have over the past few months stepped up their actions against Al-Qaeda strongholds, notably in Diyala and in the northern city of Mosul. About 50,000 members of Iraq's security forces have been deployed in Diyala since July, backed by US soldiers.
But the province has been rocked by a series of attacks, the result of a deadly struggle between between Al-Qaeda fighters and members of so-called "Awakening" units. -
Posted by: Fred ||
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Japan is considering withdrawing its air force from missions in Iraq, where they have been flying supplies in support of U.S.-led forces, Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said on Thursday.
Japan's air force has airlifted materials and armed troops since 2006 between Kuwait and locations in Iraq, including Baghdad, in support of U.S.-led forces. Japanese troops, however, have not engaged in combat. The mission, based in Kuwait and involving about 210 air force personnel, may finish by the end of the year.
"The purpose, which was to rehabilitate Iraq, is about to be achieved, and the security situation is getting better," Komura told reporters in Tokyo.
A non-binding Japanese court ruling said in April the mission was a breach of the country's pacifist constitution, but the ruling was dismissed by government and military officials.
An end to the mission comes as Tokyo faces difficulty renewing a law authorizing a marine refueling mission in the Indian Ocean in support of U.S.-led military operations in Afghanistan. Japan's opposition, which has been making gains, is staunchly against both missions in Iraq and the Indian Ocean. It briefly forced a halt to the Indian Ocean deployment last year, saying Japan should not be part of "American wars."
Komura said the government came to the decision also because U.N. Security Council resolution 1790, which allows foreign troops to stay in Iraq, will expire at the end of December.
Ending the Iraq operation, launched in 2003, may irritate the United States, Japan's biggest ally, which has urged Japan to continue both the missions.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2008
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#1
They did their part of it. Send em home, the thing is winding down now, we don't need any more Kamikazes.
Or non-solution, as the writer points out. Long as heck article.
It is the regretful opinion of many that the internal Palestinian situation has hit a nadir unprecedented in the history of the Palestinian cause. Compounding their distress is that the Palestinian factions, themselves, are largely responsible for this new calamity that has afflicted the Palestinian people.
In spite of the pessimism surrounding the Cairo-sponsored Palestinian dialogue, there remains a glimmer of hope of imposing an Arab solution that would supersede other proposed solutions and be binding on all sides'
The deepening internal fissure has gravely obstructed the Palestinian national project. To make matters worse, influential forces in the Palestinian factions have deliberately sabotaged all attempts to mend the rift that followed bloody internecine fighting and to restore a minimal level of national unity. Indeed, for reasons of their own, some of these factions or portions of these factions appear determined to entrench and perpetuate the current separation between Gaza and the West Bank and to hamper any initiative aspiring to realise inter- Palestinian reconciliation.
#1
the internal Palestinian situation has hit a nadir unprecedented in the history of the Palestinian cause.
The Fundamental Theorem of Calculus says that for every depth there is one still lower. I have complete confidence in the Palestinian people and their finely honed, inate ability to make things worse. With seething and dedication, with their uncanny knack for acting against their own self interest, one day they will look back on what seems today to be an utter mess and say those were the good old days.
Their distresss? Theiiiiiiiir distreeesssss? Have you everseen a Palestian child who looks undernourished?
Go to Sudan and take a look at the victims of Arab tender attentions. There will you find distress. Distress like in famished, raped, massacred, enslaved.
President Hugo Chavez said his government has uncovered a plot to overthrow him and detained a group of alleged conspirators. The military said more than three suspects were detained, and Chavez accused them of trying to assassinate him with tacit backing from his political opponents and the United States.
A group of current and former military officers were recorded during tapped phone conversations discussing blowing up the presidential jet or bombing the presidential palace, Chavez said. He played some of the recordings during a televised speech.
I thought tapping phone conversations was unconstit ... oh, right, it's okay when Hugo does it.
"They're the same coup-plotters," said Chavez, who survived a failed 2002 coup. Without offering evidence, he said the suspected conspirators had support from "the political opposition ... the U.S. empire."
U.S. officials have repeatedly denied Chavez's accusations that Washington has backed attempts to overthrow him.
While the leftist leader has regularly accused opponents of trying to oust him, he has not recently given such a detailed account of any purported plot.
Chavez ordered his defense minister to investigate the alleged plot involving an active vice admiral and other former military officers. He said his intelligence services had been "following this for some time."
Military prosecutors were questioning several officers about their alleged involvement, Defense Minister Gen. Gustavo Rangel Briceno told a news conference. Rangel Briceno said Air Force Lt. Col. Ruperti Sanchez Caceres and Air Force Maj. Helimenas Jose Labarca Soto, along with a general from the National Guard, were among those being questioned. It was not immediately clear if the suspects were active or retired military officers.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2008
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#1
Remember the episode of the Twilight Zone called "The Mirror", with Peter Falk as the Central American dictator and the mirror that reflects the images of his assassins? This is life imitating art I think.
#4
What concerns me is the withdrawal and removal of ambassadors.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Thursday he is recalling his own ambassador from Washington and expelling the U.S. ambassador from Venezuela.
President Hugo Chavez said he was making the moves "in solidarity with Bolivia and the people of Bolivia."
"He has 72 hours, from this moment, the Yankee ambassador in Caracas, to leave Venezuela," Chavez told a crowd of supporters.
BNP Chairperson and former prime minister Khaleda Zia was freed yesterday from her yearlong detention amid huge celebration and a grand reception given by thousands of party leaders, activists and supporters.
Just-released Khaleda announced to join the dialogue with the government and take part in the upcoming elections but asked the caretaker government to hold the stalled parliamentary elections first and withdraw the state of emergency. She just doesn't learn, does she? She's impervious to hints.
Later at a press conference, she also announced that her eldest son and the party's Senior Joint Secretary General Tarique Rahman would remain out of politics for two to three years as he would be abroad for treatment. "You must be thinking that I am very happy that I am free now. But I am not because we as well as the country are not well," a weeping Khaleda told the jam-packed press conference at the party's central office at Naya Paltan yesterday afternoon.
Khaleda, who was detained by the joint forces on September 3 last year, walked out of the makeshift special prison on the parliament building complex at about 11:30am upon getting bail in all the four corruption cases filed against her.
The BNP and its allies have since been demanding her release along with that of Tarique, who was released on bail on September 3.
With Khaleda's release, both the former prime ministers of the country detained in the caretaker government's much-hyped anti-corruption drives are now freed and back to their folds.
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When I was a kid I was terrified of the End of the World. Kids heard things; older kids who'd read that ridiculous end-times tract, "The Late Great Planet Earth" said it foretold a struggle between the "bear" and the "eagle" and we all knew what that meant. One summer at Bible Camp I asked one of the pastors if this bear-eagle end-of-the-world stuff was true, and he said "we know not the day or the time." You know, I thought, but you just won't tell us.
It was 1968. On the night before the last day of camp, a counselor named Charlie Brown interrupted our sunset meeting by the shores of White Bear Lake to tell us the news: Russia had launched their missiles and they would destroy America before the night was out. It was time to get right with God.
Silence; crickets; small sobs. I'm sure no one thought much about Jesus right then. We thought about Mom and Dad and Spot and our room, where we really, really wanted to be right now, with the familiar smell of the goldfish bowl, and -
Charlie Brown guided us through some prayers. We all said Amen, and I'm sure for some it was the least heartfelt Amen we'd ever said. Then Charlie Brown said he had made up the story. Russia hadn't launched the missiles. But what if they had? Were we right with Jesus?
Back at the barracks we were quiet and unnerved. No one wanted to go to sleep. No one wanted to talk, either. Finally John Larson, the bunkhouse bully, broke the silence. He was the mean kid. He was the one who tormented me at home, and had bothered me at camp. Nelson Muntz without the charm. John Larson expressed his simple wish to stab Charlie Brown in the stomach.
A dozen little Lutheran campers nodded in the dark: ya sure, you betcha.
I've thought about Charlie Brown's clueless cruelty whenever I think of summer camp. It's a good story; give me an audience and five minutes and I can spin quite the yarn. I don't know what effect he had on my fear of the Apocalypse, but for decades afterwards I got that bright silver sluice of dread in my gut whenever international tensions "flared up" or US-USSR relations were "frayed." The very words in the headlines made me feel slightly sick, and pitched back to the shores of the lake, sitting on that long painted bench. My future was an either-or thing. Either some stupid event destroys the world . . . or not. Stick around and find out which.
Now I am resigned, in advance, to the loss of an American city by a nuclear weapon. The End of the World now looks like a comic-book premise, a Heston-movie conceit. We feared it would all be gone in a day, our world upended like an Etch-A-Sketch. What we never considered was a long, slow war, a conflict that burned and sputtered, skittered from one spot on the map to the other. The old wars were simple: the other side had accents, uniforms, nations, cruel habits and urbane sneers. The old wars took years. The old wars were in black and white. The old wars were monophonic, scored by Max Steiner, released by Warner Brothers, and the only proof they really happened at all was the small battered box in the back of Dad's sock drawer, the box that held some oddly colored metal bars. The next war would be horrible, total, and short.
Two years ago today I was convinced that every presumption I had about the future was wrong. This war, I feared, would be horrible, total, and long.
Two years later I take a certain grim comfort in some people's disinterest in the war; if you'd told me two years ago that people would be piling on the President and bitching about slow progress in Iraq, I would have known in a second that the nation hadn't suffered another attack. When the precise location of Madonna's tongue is big news, you can bet the hospitals aren't full of smallpox victims. Of course some people are impatient with those who still recall the shock of 9/11; the same people were crowding the message boards of internet sites on the afternoon of the attacks, eager to blame everyone but the hijackers. They hate this nation. In their hearts, they hate humanity. They would rather cheer the perfect devils than come to the aid of a compromised angel. They can talk for hours about how wrong it was to kill babies, busboys, businessmen, receptionists, janitors, fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers - and then they lean towards you, eyes wide, and they say the fatal word:
But.
And then you realize that the eulogy is just a preface. All that concern for the dead is nothing more than the knuckle-cracking of an organist who's going to play an E minor chord until we all agree we had it coming.
I've no doubt that if Seattle or Boston or Manhattan goes up in a bright white flash there will be those who blame it all on Bush. We squandered the world's good will. We threw away the opportunity to atone, and lashed out. Really? You want to see lashing out? Imagine Kabul and Mecca and Baghdad and Tehran on 9/14 crowned with mushroom clouds: that's lashing out. Imagine the President in the National Cathedral castigating Islam instead of sitting next to an Imam who's giving a homily. Mosques burned, oil fields occupied, smart bombs slamming into Syrian palaces. We could have gone full Roman on anyone we wanted, but we didn't. And we won't.
Which is why this war will be long.
The world will not end. It will roll around in its orbit until Sol expires of famine or indigestion. In the end we're all ash anyway - but even as ash, we matter. The picture at the top of this page is a sliver taken from a 9/11 camera feed. It's the cloud that rolled through lower Manhatttan when the towers fell. Paper, steel, furniture, plastic, people. The man who took the picture inhaled the dust of the dead. Somewhere lodged in the lung of a New Yorker is an atom that once belonged to a man who went to work two years ago and never came back. His widow dreads today, because people will be coming and calling, and she'll have to insist that she's okay. It's hard but last year was harder. The kids will be sad and distant, but they take their cues from her, and they sense that it's hard - but that last year was harder. But what really kills her, really really kills her, is knowing that the youngest one doesn't remember daddy at all anymore. And she's the one who has his eyes.
Two years in; the rest of our lives to go.
Posted by: Steve ||
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They would rather cheer the perfect devils than come to the aid of a compromised angel.
Wow, well said!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
09/12/2008 1:44
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#2
Lilek's' reflections on growing up as a tweener during the late Cold War mirror my own. Too young for duck and cover, but old enough for graphic depictions of the apocalypse, via Moscow.
I remember reading this column of his five years ago, and how it galvanized my understanding that my longtime moonbat "friends" were not friends at all, merely acquaintances with whom I had done fun things as a young guy and about whom I had fond memories of good times, and who had never grown - mentally or psychologically - beyond that college sophomore mentality.
Excised from my life, with no regrets.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
09/12/2008 6:01
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But what really kills her, really really kills her, is knowing that the youngest one doesn't remember daddy at all anymore. And she's the one who has his eyes.
wow. That one hit me hard. And not just for the 911 victims, but for all of the military members who died in the war. [wipes away tears]
no mo uro - Very well said and I hear ya. In the last month I finally acknowledged the loss of two people who were once good friends, for the very reasons you describe. I'm still sad over the loss. But the funny thing is that once I let go, I realized that there was a strange sense of relief, as if the weight of an albatross had been lifted from around my neck.
An anti-terrorism court (ATC) granted bail to three Taliban militants whose release was one of the local Taliban's key demands from the government since the men were arrested in July, officials said on Thursday. The officials said that one of the released men, Maulana Rafiuddin from Waziristan Agency, was Baitullah Mehsud's deputy commander. The other two were Muhammad Aziz, an Afghan national, and Naveed Alam from Hangu. While allowing bail to the three men, ATC Judge Muhammad Ayub asked them to submit bail bonds of Rs 200,000 each.
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BAGHDAD - Sunni Arab neighbourhood patrols have been vital to cutting violence in Iraq. But how the Shi'ite-led government handles their future could foster sectarian reconciliation or start a new round of bloodshed. The U.S. military will start handing control of the units to the government from Oct. 1, when Baghdad will begin paying tens of thousands of guards operating in and around the Iraqi capital. At the moment, the U.S. military pays the guards.
But some government officials eye the unofficial forces, which the U.S. military says number 100,000 men across Iraq and include former Sunni Arab insurgents, with suspicion. The government has set limits on how many can be incorporated into the security forces, and some guards fear they may be arrested because of their past as insurgents.
To address those fears, officials have held several meetings with Awakening members, including one on Thursday with the commander of Iraqi security forces in Baghdad and the head of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's reconciliation committee. The government has promised to incorporate 20 percent of the units into the security forces and give the rest civilian jobs or training. That is not good enough, some Sunni leaders say.
"Sahwas sacrificed their lives to impose security and expel armed groups, and they succeeded. If this is not respected, no one knows what will happen," said Aws Mohammed, an Awakening group leader in Baghdad's Adhamiya district.
Both the U.S. military, which has paid guards about $300 a month, and Sunni tribal leaders say al Qaeda's most fertile recruiting grounds are among Iraq's many jobless men.
At Thursday's meeting, Sahwa leaders urged Lieutenant General Abboud Qanbar, head of security in Baghdad, to raise the percentage of those to be incorporated into the security forces. Muhammad Salman, head of the reconciliation committee, later told Reuters the guards should not fear for their future. "This issue has been discussed with the prime minister. Our Sahwa brothers should be at ease, they will not be pursued unless there is a judicial order which is the same for any other ordinary person, not only Sahwas," Salman said.
He also said the number of guards could be less than stated by the U.S. military. He said the total may be closer to 60,000 once errors such as repeated and fake names were removed.
A senior government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Awakening integration would be a test of whether the government could create inclusive institutions or would remain hostage to sectarian interests. But he also expressed distaste for some members of the predominantly Sunni Arab Awakening movement, an aversion shared by some other officials. "There is no doubt Sahwas have had a lot to do with the security gains in Iraq but some of these guys are unsavoury characters. I would not invite them to my home for dinner. But I have to talk to my enemies," he said.
Ali al-Dabbagh, Iraq's government spokesman, praised the Awakening groups in a recent television interview, adding the state would "not let them down".
But he said members would be interviewed to weed out those who conducted "killings and suspicious actions" before jobs could be awarded. Given that many Awakening group members are former insurgents, screening is likely to be hotly disputed.
The United States will closely watch the transition of the Awakening programme, a U.S. embassy official said. It was confident Iraq recognised the achievements of men the U.S. military calls "Sons of Iraq". "Maliki has personally committed to me he will look after the Sons of Iraq," the U.S. commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, was quoted as saying in the Philadelphia Inquirer. "They know if they don't look after the SOIs they could have an insurrection on their hands."
Posted by: Steve White ||
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Former prime minister Khaleda Zia's son Tarique Rahman last night flew to the United Kingdom for treatment hours after his just-freed mother's announcement that he will stay off politics until he recovers fully.
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(SomaliNet) In fighting that erupted after Ethiopia-backed government troops raided a suspected rebel hideout at least eight people were killed in the Somali capital on Wednesday, residents said. Somali government troops and Islamist insurgents clashed using machine-gun fire and rocket-propelled grenades in northern Mogadishu near a military camp, they said.
"I saw four civilians and two Somali soldiers who were killed by mortar shells," said Hassan Abdullahi Abdulle, a resident.
The Somali army said it killed two Islamist insurgents while three of its men were wounded in the clashes. "Two insurgents who were killed in the fighting were carried by their colleagues for burial after fighting stopped," Somali army spokesman Dahir Mohamed Hirsi told AFP.
Residents said stray shells wounded at least 13 civilians -- many of them children -- in Huriwa, one of the most volatile districts in the seaside capital.
Several residents confirmed the clashes that came after days of calm in a city that is contested between the UN-backed government and Islamists accused of links to Al-Qaeda.
In Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian defence ministry said at least 15 insurgents died. "Fifteen Shebab (Islamist) insurgents were killed by the transitional government troops this afternoon in defensive measures taken after an attack on their military barracks in Mogadishu," it said in a statement. "Scores of others were injured while a number of weapons were captured during the attack," it added, but the veracity of the statement could not be confirmed.
In Nairobi, Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki pleaded with the world to help Somalia end nearly two decades of suffering that has been worsened by chronic food shortage. "Indeed, the recent developments in that country will require a new impetus in bringing all the parties in the conflict to a process of dialogue that will guarantee the people of Somalia peace and security that they so much desire," Kibaki said in a statement.
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(AKI) - Penetrating Al-Qaeda is the key challenge for American and other western intelligence services, according to author and commentator Abdel Bari Atwan. Atwan is the Palestinian-born editor of London-based daily al-Quds al-Arabi and author of a successful book on the terror network.
"The United States is well prepared against an Al-Qaeda attack in terms of security at airports and other sensitive sites," Atwan told Adnkronos International (AKI). "But intelligence remains a real problem - penetrating Al-Qaeda is extremely difficult, because of geography, loyalty and ideology," Atwan stated.
No, reeeeeally? I would never have thought of that without expert advice ...
Al-Qaeda has returned to its origins in Afghanistan, and since the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001 its leadership enjoys greater freedom of movement, he noted.
Like the Italian Mafia, Al-Qaeda relies on "one-to-one communication", conversations and verbal and handwritten messages, which make it difficult for intelligence services to eavesdrop, Atwan said. "Al-Qaeda's field commanders are under the direct supervision of its leadership. So it could go back to outside attacks," said Atwan. "It is now more capable of carrying out similar attacks (to the 9/11 attacks on US cities), but with different means.
"Dirty bombs, chemical or biological weapons - these are easier than hijacking aeroplanes," he said.
Atwan said since Al-Qaeda returned to its "safe haven" in Afghanistan, it has enjoyed support from local tribes and from the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban. "Before 9/11 most Taliban were against Al-Qaeda and wanted to surrender Osama Bin Laden to the US, because they wanted to keep control of Afghanistan and gain international recognition."
Only the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, and those close to him objected to handing over Bin Laden and pressured him not to use Afghanistan as a springboard for his attacks, Atwan stated. "Now there is a common enemy - the US and its allies," he said. "Osama Bin Laden and Mullah Omar are still on the run: the US has never managed to capture them. It has had recent successes against the second tier of leadership but the first tier is still at large," Atwan stated.
He said Afghanistan, which is surrounded by seven countries, is "the belly-button of Asia".
Besides freedom of movement, the country's geographical position gives Al-Qaeda's leadership access to the outside world, and allows it to bring in new recruits to be trained and indoctrinated, Atwan pointed out. "This gives the new recruits experience of warfare, of making chemical and other types of bombs, including car bombs," Atwan said.
Before Al-Qaeda's 9/11 attacks on the United States, suicide bomb attacks were unheard of in Afghanistan. Now, the terror network is importing lethal suicide bombings from Iraq, where over 900 have been carried out, he claimed. "This makes it very dangerous. There have been many suicide attacks, both by the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, coordinated between the two groups," he said.
Pakistan's new President, Asif Ali Zardari, is "too weak" to have a major role in the the US-led fight against militants believed to be hiding out in the region bordering Afghanistan. "I predict the army will turn against him. He is in danger, and in the end, the army will take over the country," Atwan concluded.
Atwan is the author of The Secret History of Al-Qaeda, which has been translated into 15 languages. He also interviewed Bin Laden in November 1996.
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#1
Freedom of movement? On a donkey maybe. This guy is giving them way too much credit. They hide in a cave, that's how they have stayed alive. Not really that inspiring of a tale to be honest.
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.
KABUL, Afghanistan - Taliban militants attacked a logistics convoy in western Afghanistan on Friday, sparking a clash that killed 10 insurgents and five Afghan guards, an official said. Another 10 militants were killed by U.S.-led coalition troops north of Kabul. 
MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (AFP) - A missile from a suspected US drone killed 12 people Friday in a Pakistani tribal area where US forces have been aggressively targeting Al-Qaeda militants -- fuelling anger from Washington's key "war on terror" ally.
Democratic jitters about the US presidential race have spread to Capitol Hill, where some members of Congress are worried that Barack Obama's faltering campaign could hurt their chances of re-election. Party leaders have been hoping to strengthen Democratic control of the House and Senate in November, but John McCain's jump in the polls has stoked fears of a Republican resurgence.
HOUSTON - A sprawling and strengthening Hurricane Ike steamed through the Gulf of Mexico on Friday on a track toward the nation's fourth-largest city, where authorities told residents to brace rather than flee. Closer to the coast, small towns were mostly empty after forecasters issued dire warnings the storm could kill. 
The Pakistani Army has been given orders to retaliate against any unilateral strike by the Afghanistan-based US troops inside the country. Army Spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas confirmed the orders in a brief interview with Geo News on late Thursday night.
Tens of thousands of Muslim protesters gathered in Kashmir's biggest city Friday for a pro-independence rally calling for Indian authorities to leave the troubled region. "Oppressors, get out of Kashmir," shouted protesters in the heart of Srinagar, Kashmir's summer capital. 
A small remote-controlled bomb exploded in Thailand's predominately Muslim deep south on Friday, killing a suspected bomber and wounding four policemen, police said.
Heaped haphazardly into twin cardboard boxes, the hundreds of audiocassette tapes looked more like a baby boomer's teenage detritus than a historical link to Osama bin Laden. Flagg Miller knew their value. The tapes were the UC Davis Arabic scholar's portal into the early years of the Al Qaeda leader behind the Sept. 11 attacks who became the world's most wanted terrorist.
The Muslim Fatah-controlled authority in Judea and Samaria is encouraging a "sharp demographic shift" in Bethlehem, where the Christian population went from a 60 percent majority in 1990 to a 40 percent minority in 2000, to about 15 percent of the city's total population today. 
Eight militants were killed on Thursday when security forces pounded their hideouts in the restive Swat valley, AFP reported the military as saying. Six of the militants died when helicopter gunships fired missiles in 
Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah said in a recent interview that as long as Israel exists, there will be no peace in the Middle East. "The region will not see the light of peace or any stability because of Israel's aggressiveness and militant nature," Nasrallah said. 
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's (Heavy) Hand in Government Affairs
At least 100 militants were killed and around 25 injured on Thursday in the continued military offensive in Bajaur while airstrikes targeted Taliban command centres, official sources and local residents said.
North Korea's Kim Jong Il had brain surgery after a stroke last month and could have partial paralysis on one side, media reports said Thursday, after the South Korean government said the communist leader remained in control of his country. 
"I'm also concerned deeply by DPRK's decision to go back to reassembling the nuclear facilities. They must commit to their agreement among the six-party talks for the early realization of the denuclearization process," said Ban, who was South Korea's foreign minister before taking the helm of the U.N. in January 2007.
At least three tribesmen were killed and one injured when the local Taliban clashed with residents in Mohmand Agency late on Wednesday. The political administration said the clash took place in the Mian Mandi area when the local shopkeepers resisted the Taliban from searching shops in the area for illegal drugs, resulted in an exchange of fire. The deceased were identified as Qadeem, Nasaro Ali and Nadeem. Quwat Khan was injured.
Islmabad President Asif Zardaris hint at some good news about Kashmir has triggered speculations in diplomatic and political circles here about the nature of the upcoming initiative between Pakistan and India. In his maiden news conference after being sworn in President of Pakistan on Tuesday Zardari referred to back-channel dialogue between the two countries and promised some good news before the term of the ruling Congress Party in India expires (in May 2009). He said he has talked to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif and also taken into confidence other mainstream leaders on the issue.
(SomaliNet) A gunman has shot and killed a Member of Parliament (MP) in the southwestern Somali city of Baidoa, witnesses said. Legislator Mohammed Osman Maye was killed late Tuesday as he was leaving a mosque in Baidoa, where the Somali parliament meets, the witnesses said. 
WASHINGTON (AP) The Senate's top Democrat will press for passage this year of a U.S.-Indian civil nuclear cooperation accord, his spokesman said Thursday, boosting prospects for the landmark agreement to be ratified before President Bush leaves office. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who met Wednesday with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, "will try to find a way to move it forward" this year, spokesman Jim Manley said. The accord, one of Bush's top foreign policy initiatives, would reverse three decades of U.S. policy by shipping atomic fuel to India in return for international inspections of India's civilian reactors.
(AKI) - The Taliban are trying to induce American forces to kill civilians, including women and children, in Afghanistan, a senior US government official said on Thursday.
(AKI) - Osama Bin Laden is still alive but Al-Qaeda has lost the capacity to organise large-scale attacks, according to Italy's leading anti-terrorism expert, Stefano Dambruoso.
Five people, including four militants, were killed and seven others injured in clashes between rival tribes in Kurram Agency on Thursday. The political administration said the clashes continued in the Pewar, Teri Mengal, Baghzai, Jalamai, Char Dewal, Inzari, Bilyamin, Bagizai and Alizai areas of the agency. Due to the closure of the Thal-Parachinar road for the last 10 months, residents of the agency are facing an acute shortage of essential commodities, including medicines and fuel during the month of Ramazan.
The discharge of a jury who convicted a Muslim man of writing a terrorist manual but failed to reach a verdict on a second terrorism charge has urged Australia's Muslim leaders to call for a review of anti-terrorism laws.
(AKI) - The top United Nations relief official has voiced deep concern about reports of fresh violence in the north of the war-torn Darfur region of western Sudan amid further attacks on aid workers by armed groups. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes called for all sides in the Darfur conflict, which has pitted rebels against government forces and allied Janjaweed militiamen since 2003, to cease hostilities immediately and engage in meaningful talks towards a lasting settlement. 
Libya did not get nuclear warhead documents from China but from Pakistani nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan's supplier network, Washington Times reported on Thursday, quoting a United States State Department official on condition of anonymity.
Authorities say a bomb concealed in a pickup truck belonging to the Iraqi Housing Ministry has killed three employees and wounded three others, a day after Iraqi soldiers arrested three leaders of Al-Qaeda in a raid in Diyala Province. Police and medics say the bomb went off Thursday morning in Baghdad's Shiite district of Sadr City. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
President Hugo Chavez said his government has uncovered a plot to overthrow him and detained a group of alleged conspirators. The military said more than three suspects were detained, and Chavez accused them of trying to assassinate him with tacit backing from his political opponents and the United States.
BNP Chairperson and former prime minister Khaleda Zia was freed yesterday from her yearlong detention amid huge celebration and a grand reception given by thousands of party leaders, activists and supporters.
An anti-terrorism court (ATC) granted bail to three Taliban militants whose release was one of the local Taliban's key demands from the government since the men were arrested in July, officials said on Thursday. The officials said that one of the released men, Maulana Rafiuddin from Waziristan Agency, was Baitullah Mehsud's deputy commander. The other two were Muhammad Aziz, an Afghan national, and Naveed Alam from Hangu. While allowing bail to the three men, ATC Judge Muhammad Ayub asked them to submit bail bonds of Rs 200,000 each.
(SomaliNet) In fighting that erupted after Ethiopia-backed government troops raided a suspected rebel hideout at least eight people were killed in the Somali capital on Wednesday, residents said. Somali government troops and Islamist insurgents clashed using machine-gun fire and rocket-propelled grenades in northern Mogadishu near a military camp, they said. 
