Israel is under heavy international pressure to attend a review by a United Nations agency scheduled for Tuesday in Geneva. On Friday, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle sent a personal letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, warning that Israels failure to attend the Human Rights Councils Universal Periodic Review would cause the country severe diplomatic damage and Israels allies around the world would be hard-pressed to help it.
I'm not going to comment on the special quality of a German government official's thuggish threat against Israel. I'm also not going to expand on the contrast between thuggish anti Israel rhetoric and trembling submission in the face of islamofascism.
My point is that any reasonably sane and reasonably moral actor should be doing whatever is in his power to disempower, delegitimize and ultimately dissolve the abomination that calls itself UNHRC.
The gift that keeps on giving. It would take a heart of stone not to laugh. Via Weasel Zippers.
A British journalist detained in Russia after a Greenpeace protest has said he fears "losing years of his life" being kept away from his family and friends.
Video journalist Kieron Bryan, 29, from London, was one of 30 people arrested on boat Arctic Sunrise at an offshore oil drilling rig on 18 September.
He is one of six Britons charged with hooliganism.
In a letter to the Sunday Times, Mr Bryan, originally from Devon, described his treatment as "ludicrous".
The group of 30 - 28 activists, a photographer and video journalist Mr Bryan - had originally been charged with piracy, but Russian authorities dropped the charges last week, replacing them with hooliganism charges.
That new charge has a maximum penalty of seven years rather than 15.
Greenpeace denies any wrongdoing and is calling for the release of the detainees - who come from 18 countries - and the Arctic Sunrise.
So far all bail applications in the case have been refused.
'Terrifying'
In his letter, Mr Bryan said: "My greatest fear is being kept from my family, my friends and my girlfriend for any great length of time.
"In many ways I'm lucky I don't have children who depend on me, but the fear of losing years of my life and the opportunity to perhaps start a family is terrifying."
He said the hardest moment he had faced was his first night in prison when the group was split up and placed in different cells.
"Now the difficulty is the silence and ignorance imposed by our detention," he said.
He described his cell as 26ft long, 13ft wide and 20ft high.
"I spend 23 hours a day in here with nothing but the occasional book and my thoughts," he wrote. "We are granted an hour a day for exercise which is held in a shed about 30 metres from my cell. If I'm lucky I might get to shout a quick hello to an English speaker."
He also described some of the food provided. Lunch - soup and a fish stew - "tastes like an ashtray full of seawater," he said. Another dish "is clearly boiled from breakfast onwards".
#4
Typical for that age, "We are doing what we think is good! How dare they even consider it against the law!" Just like the occupy crowd, except these clowns are going to get justice.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
10/27/2013 16:07
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Well AP. I would suggest trying e first. The Maclauren series for e^^x converges quite rapidly when x=1. To get pi requires some tricks. You can't just do a series for arctan(1) because it converges very very slowly. 10 decimal places would require a billion terms or so. Perhaps some continued fraction or such might help to complete the task in seven years.
#11
#6 My greatest fear is being kept from my family, my friends and my girlfriend for any great length of time.
Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of young men and women have been doing that since 9/11. They knew it wasn't a game. Many will not see their families, friends or girlfriend again.
When close to two thousand people marched to the Capitol Reflecting Pool Saturday afternoon to protest the National Security Agencys surveillance programs, it was if the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street had clasped hands.
Its very important that the American people be allowed to talk about what they want to talk about, with whom they want to talk about it, and not have the government paying attention to anything, said David, a consultant with the Public Health Service who described himself as more Tea Party than Occupy.
The rally was sponsored by Stop Watching Us, a coalition of groups as diverse as the American Civil Liberties Union and the conservative advocacy group FreedomWorks, was meant to build support for forthcoming legislation that would end the National Security Agencys bulk collection of communications data under the Patriot Act. Reauthorized several times by Congress, the full scope of the programs were not known to the public until the leak of a secret surveillance court order by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
o Town's mixed schools segregated and shop businesses intimidated
o 200 residents have pledged loyalty to the group as rebels face arrest
[DailyMail] Sixty Syrians have been kidnapped and imprisoned by Al-Qaeda bully boyz trying to set up a state ruled by a supreme religious and political leader across the country.
Fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) have targeted a town near the Turkish border where 200 residents have already pledged loyalty to the group.
The local sharia court has been taken over by 'foreigners', schools with mixed sexes up to the age of six have been segregated and businesses intimidated.
Last month, al-Qaeda seized the town of Azaz, - until recently the main centre for foreign aid delivery - from a moderate rebels, the Times reported.
Speaking by Skype, activist Mahmoud told the paper: 'People are afraid. If ISIS knows you hate them, they will arrest you.'
There are signs and wall murals heralding the coming of the caliphate, or religious state.
'They have been visiting people in their shops, telling them they have to work to make the caliphate," added Mahmoud.
ISIS, believed to number up to 8,000 fighters, have learned from their mistakes in Libya where they fought against Colonel Gadaffi's army but won no land when he was defeated.
Now they hand out free food and petrol and pay for streets to be cleaned as they woo the 40,000 residents.
In local squares, speakers promote Jihad, resisting President Assad's regime and offering activities for children.
ISIS also picks fights with rival rebel groups, attacking them then ruthlessly taking control of their territories.
Another activist Mohannad, who spoke in Turkey after leaving Syria the previous day told the Times: 'If ISIS have a problem with you, they say you are a kaffir [infidel] and they kill you. None of the other brigades would do this.'
[Jpost] Many senior IDF officers reject speculation that a third intifada could soon break out, while acknowledging a limited upsurge in Paleostinian attacks throughout the West Bank.
Lt.-Col. Eyal Embon, commander of the Artillery Corps' 411th Battalion, is stationed at an IDF base near Ramallah.
Paleostinians often riot there, and the base itself came under attack on October 17 when a Paleostinian driving a bulldozer smashed his way through the gate and tried to run down soldiers.
"I don't think things are heating up. Riots occur on a weekly basis, regularly, usually on a Thursday night and Friday afternoons," Embon told The Jerusalem Post over the weekend.
"Usually, I can tell it's the same people who take part. They're young guys, not members of the older population. The terror attacks are being carried out by lone-wolves," he said. "I don't think we're headed toward an intifada. It's the same crowd coming back every week. There are other Paleostinians who are opposed to it, and want to live quietly."
Embon's battalion has been stationed in the West Bank for seven months, and its members have been dealing with riots in nearby Beitunya and in the Kalandiya area, as well as in the adjacent town of a-Ram, just north of Jerusalem's Neveh Ya'acov neighborhood.
"We're some sort of enclave inside all this," he said.
"Many incidents break out on Thursday nights, from Molotov cocktailings to rock-throwing, against us and the [Israeli] population we protect in this area," Embon said.
Last week, soldiers shot and killed Yunis Obaidi, from Jerusalem's Beit Hanina neighborhood, after he repeatedly tried to run over soldiers in Embon's base.
In March 2009, Obaidi's brother, construction worker Marei Radaydeh, tried to run over two coppers in a patrol car near the Malha Mall, on Menachem Begin Boulevard in southern Jerusalem, with a bulldozer. Police and an armed taxi driver killed him. The two officers were lightly maimed.
Embon noted that his base is located near a busy road near Kalandiya, with many vehicles passing through. Usually, drivers who mistakenly pull up at the base turn around.
Last week, "the tractor stood opposite the gate, unloaded its digger, and waited for someone to arrive. The regimental policeman [who guards the gate] came over to check him out," Embon said.
"When the soldier was a few meters away, the tractor driver hit the gas and tried to run him over. He managed to escape. The tractor continued toward the gate, which is made out of iron and is very strong, but can't withstand a tractor. The vehicle entered the gate, and closed in on a soldier, brushing against him and sending him flying. He then entered the base and turned into a parking lot, before smashing into a battalion truck," the lieutenant-colonel said.
At this point, a munitions officer and two soldiers who were in a car exited their vehicle and aimed their weapons at the terrorist.
"They saw Arabic signs on the tractor and the damage, and realized he had come to kill," Embon said. "A soldier and the munitions officer both opened fire, shooting the terrorist dead."
In recent months, the 411th Battalion has played a central role in dispersing Paleostinian rioters. In August, men from the unit formed part of a force that rubbed out three rioters seeking to attack soldiers.
"We've got a lot of experience in the West Bank. But our central mission is to maintain battle readiness, to be prepared for war. In a conflict, we would fire artillery and provide assistance to other forces. We have to be ready for that, and to do that, we take part in exercises with other forces. We can leave our sector, take part in a drill, fire [artillery], and then come back," Embon said.
#4
Interesting. I've heard the claim that 80% of criminal activity comes from 20% of the criminal population (Pareto Rule). Not that I'm suggesting that the Paleostinians are an on-going criminal enterprise, but I wonder how unusual this distribution is in 'resistance' activities.
Sen. John McCains daughter says her dad is depressed and frustrated with the tea party faction of the Republican Party, which she called the hyper-conservative wing.
A state of mind many in the tea party can relate to in their radical pursuit of a more fiscally responsible, limited federal government.
Were both frustrated with the idea that only the hyper-conservative wing of the party is going to represent the masses, Meghan McCain said during an interview with ABC and Yahoo News.
Ms. McCain, who has her own reality show Raising McCain, said the last time her father was so depressed about the state of politics was after his failed 2008 presidential bid, according to the Washington Times.
He is so depressed. He is so downtrodden, Ms. McCain said. The way hes talking about it, how hes never seen it this bad in his 30-plus years in office. There's more at the link
#1
Well, when viewed by a RINO, it probably does look like "the hyper-conservative wing" cause they actually have principles (ie adherence to the Constitution, balance budgets). I'm sure to the Socialists, he looks the same or a useful idiot. The problem is perspective. Most of the non-Beltway Blend Party types think John and his cohorts are just, at best, the Stupid Party - "Look I'm just like the guys across the aisle".
#5
How a Rino can sire a heifer baffles Zoologists
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/27/2013 11:28
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Ref #4.
The yawning boy in his one-piece sleeper was the creation in 1907 of Burr E. Giffen, an eighteen year old artist who worked in the advertising agency employed by Fisk Rubber Corporation. The slogan "Time to Re-Tire" and the drawing of the sleepy boy were copyrighted in 1910 and first appeared in an advertisement in the Saturday Evening Post on March 7, 1914. In 1918, another professional artist, Edward M. Eggleston, made an oil painting of the boy. Fisk spent millions of dollars publicizing the trademark, which was registered in over ninety countries. Publicity releases prior to 1928 said the Fisk boy, sometimes called "America's Favorite Son", ranked among the leading trademarks and was as well known universally as "The Little Dutch Boy". In 1930 the Fisk boy"s yawn was changed to a smile, but in 1934 he was changed back to his sleepy self. The original artwork had been so changed by all the retouching that in 1941 the Metropolitan Museum was commissioned to restore the painting. A number of artists were consulted as to whether a new boy should be painted, but they were unanimous that the charm of the original could not be improved upon.
Posted by: Barbara ||
10/27/2013 12:55
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#10
I find it interesting that a part of the party that wans fiscal accountability, less government, less intrusion, is viewed as radical. Along with the vilification of anyone who feels our government should act responsibly is just astounding. When both sides are so corrupt that they attack together against the Tea Party, we know the Tea Party is making headway.
I think we all now know how our founding fathers felt before the revolution or how the peasants of France felt during the time of Marie Antoinette.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
10/27/2013 13:12
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#11
Should have retired when he went against Obama in 08. Country did not want him, bigger hint not possible.
#15
Most Statesmen - after running and losing for the top spot, leave the limelight. McCain is no Statesman. He loves his Mavericky image, the press accolades (except when he ran against their Demi-God) and all the attention he gets as the MSM-anointed "Republican face".
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/27/2013 17:56
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#16
Well John-Boy, the Tea Party WAS in response to statesmen like you.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
10/27/2013 18:19
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#17
Johnny boy, if you're that depressed, you know what to do, just be sure to put the muzzle firmly in your mouth.
#18
"Well John-Boy, the Tea Party WAS in response to statesmen like you."
I will restate what I said yesterday slightly differently...The Tea Party was in response to those people in the Republican Party who have a conscience. Clearly the Tea Party caucus has no conscience and no brains. God, I hope the Republicans run on the Tea Party platform...they will be out of office for another 8 years LMAO....
Posted by: Barbara ||
10/27/2013 19:23
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Clearly the Tea Party caucus has no conscience
Sorry, Jerkface, I am quite certain that the average Tea Party member personally donates to charity an order of magnitude higher percent of income than the top half of the Democratic party, and significantly more than the typical Republican. They just understand that you cannot spend other peoples' money forever.
#23
Clearly the Tea Party caucus has no conscience and no brains.
Seriously, dude. Is this your A game? If you hang around here long enough, you will notice that the prized qualities are insightful analysis, wit and the ability to spin up a good rant. All we have seen so far could come from a Web-based Insult Generator.
Personally, I find it curious that an alleged Canadian has such a hardon for the Tea Party, given they are not exactly a threat to your way of life.
#24
And my contention as yesterday was that the death toll rung up by the Socialist left in the 20th century demonstrates they never had a conscience. They're their own god.
#25
Time for the dog track gramps. Don't get your Depends in a bunch.
Posted by: regular joe ||
10/27/2013 19:55
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#26
Canafa does make a lot of money from Commander Zero's cold war against drilling. If we were more independent-minded they'd have a big budget shortfall.
#27
The whole of the left argument is to make up a lie and repeat it, no matter how many facts to the contrary are presented. It worked for Goebbels, a historical socialist of note.
a little Steyn for our latest douchebag troll - Jerk
Normally we wouldn't publish an article labeled "Dupe entry", but the cause is a noble one. One can hope Mr. Killa will learn from the experience, remaining to widen our count of valued Canadian participants. It has, after all, happened before -- for those of you who remember him, muck4doo original came to mock what he thought were unthinking right-wing idiots, but stayed because Rantburg was one if the few places he could enjoy challenging discussions on issues he concluded were important.
The witness who coughed up the intriguing tidbit about Obamacare's exemption from privacy protections was one Cheryl Campbell of something called CGI. This rang a vague bell with me. CGI is not a creative free spirit from Jersey City with an impressive mastery of Twitter, but a Canadian corporate behemoth. Indeed, CGI is so Canadian their name is French: Conseillers en Gestion et Informatique. Their most famous government project was for the Canadian Firearms Registry. The registry was estimated to cost in total $119 million, which would be offset by $117 million in fees. That's a net cost of $2 million. Instead, by 2004 the CBC (Canada's PBS) was reporting costs of some $2 billion -- or a thousand times more expensive.
Yeah, yeah, I know, we've all had bathroom remodelers like that. But in this case the database had to register some 7 million long guns belonging to some two-and-a-half to three million Canadians. That works out to almost $300 per gun -- or somewhat higher than the original estimate for processing a firearm registration of $4.60. Of those $300 gun registrations, Canada's auditor general reported to parliament that much of the information was either duplicated or wrong in respect to basic information such as names and addresses.
Sound familiar?
Also, there was a 1-800 number, but it wasn't any use.
Sound familiar?
So it was decided that the sclerotic database needed to be improved.
Sound familiar?
But it proved impossible to "improve" CFIS (the Canadian Firearms Information System). So CGI was hired to create an entirely new CFIS II, which would operate alongside CFIS I until the old system could be scrapped. CFIS II was supposed to go operational on January 9, 2003, but the January date got postponed to June, and 2003 to 2004, and $81 million was thrown at it before a new Conservative government scrapped the fiasco in 2007. Last year, the government of Ontario canceled another CGI registry that never saw the light of day -- just for one disease, diabetes, and costing a mere $46 million.
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But there's always America! "We continue to view U.S. federal government as a significant growth opportunity," declared CGI's chief exec, in what would also make a fine epitaph for the republic. Pizza and Mountain Dew isn't very Montreal, and on the evidence of three years of missed deadlines in Ontario and the four-year overrun on the firearms database CGI don't sound like they're pulling that many all-nighters. Was the government of the United States aware that CGI had been fired by the government of Canada and the government of Ontario (and the government of New Brunswick)? Nobody's saying. But I doubt it would make much difference. Asked by Mother Jones to explain why Obama the candidate uses the Internet so effectively but Obama the government is a bust, his 2008 tech maestro Clay Johnson put it this way: "The first person that you need in order to start a Web company would be a Web developer; the first person you need to start a government-contracting firm is an attorney." The problem with Obamacare isn't the website design, it's the nature of government procurement in an unaccountable bureaucracy serving 300 million people.
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/27/2013
09:51 ||
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#1
apologies - looked for this in Opinion before posting
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/27/2013 10:31
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#2
It must have been on a previous day, Frank. As I wrote, above, I believe the purpose is important enough to justify the repeat.
#3
Their most famous government project was for the Canadian Firearms Registry. The registry was estimated to cost in total $119 million, which would be offset by $117 million in fees.
Ten cars rigged with explosives detonated in Shi'ite Muslim areas in and around Baghdad Oct. 27 , and a suicide bomber attacked soldiers lined up for their pay in northern Iraq, killing 49 people in total, police said.
Sunday's deadliest attack happened in Mosul, when a man driving a car blew himself up outside a government bank where soldiers were waiting to collect their salaries. Twelve people were killed.
37 more people died in seemingly coordinated blasts in and around Baghdad. In the worst of those, two car bombs blew up moments apart near a busy market in the town of Nahrawan, south of Baghdad, killing seven.
In Baladiyat, where another car bomb killed three people, eyewitness Suad Ahmed said, "I was eating my breakfast when a powerful blast shook the building, shattering the window of my apartment and covering the dining table with pieces of glass. I was terrified, I heard women and children shouting next door. I started to cry. I was afraid of death."
#2
The bright side is that no Americans were within miles of the place and everybody dripping down the walls today were all Moslems. AND they paid for it themselves and it didn't cost us a damn dime.
h/t Instapundit
If youre looking for an epitaph for the republic (and these days who isnt?) try this from August 2010 and TechCrunchs delirious preview of Healthcare.gov:
We were working in a very very nimble hyper-consumer-focused way, explained Todd Park, the chief technology officer of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, all fused in this kind of maelstrom of pizza, Mountain Dew, and all-nighters . . . and, you know, idealism. That kind of led to the magic that was produced.
Wow. Think of the magic that Madison, Hamilton, and the rest of those schlubs could have produced if theyd only had pizza and Mountain Dew and been willing to pull a few all-nighters at Philadelphia in 1787. Somewhere between the idealism and the curling slice of last nights pepperoni, Macon Phillips, the administrations director of new media, happened to come across a tweet by Edward Mullen of Jersey City in which he twitpiced his design for what a health-insurance exchange could look like. So Phillips printed it out to show his fellow administration officials: Look, this is the sort of creativity that is out there, he said. One thing led to another and he left Jersey City to come to D.C. and helped push us through an information architectural process.
Dont you just love it! This is way cooler than the decline and fall of the Roman Empire: The only architectural process they had was crumbling viaducts. I think we can all agree that Barack Obama is hipper than all other government leaders anywhere, ever, combined. Unfortunately, the dogs bark and the pizza-delivery bike moves on, and, in the cold grey morning after of the grease-stained cardboard box with the rubberized cheese stuck to it, Obamacare wound up somewhat less hipper and, in fact, not even HIPAA the unpersuasively groovy acronym for federally mandated medical privacy in America. Appearing before Congress on Thursday, the magicians of Obamacare eventually conceded that, on their supposedly HIPAA-compliant database, deep in the information architectural process is a teensy-weensy little bit of source code that reads, You have no reasonable expectation of privacy regarding any communication of any data transmitted or stored on this information system.
#2
whoops! hopefully the hopper caught my double post
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/27/2013 9:56
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#3
all fused in this kind of maelstrom of pizza, Mountain Dew, and all-nighters . . . and, you know, idealism.
I have a suggestion as to what this choom gang of spaced out sophomoric ideaologues can do with their pizza and Mountain Dew in their all night sessions.
#5
All-nighters have never produce anything noteworthy other than a hangover. What America need is certainly not some "instant Gratification" event. We need people of quality willing to sit down and methodically work through all the issues and develop a plan that will work. Sorry Obamacare your late night attempt to be a hero has been weighed and found lacking...
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
10/27/2013 13:34
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...for an excellent (imho) analysis , click here...
Germanys main political parties transferred public funds through their foundations to Israel-based NGOs, as well as to organizations in the disputed territories, that are rife with bias against the Jewish state and, in some cases, anti-Semitism.
This according to a study released last week.
As NGO Monitors detailed report shows, while German political foundations claim a mandate for promoting democracy, peace and human rights, a significant portion of their activities related to Israel are immoral, Prof. Gerald Steinberg, head of the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor, told The Jerusalem Post. Leopard, spots.
#1
When the Mooslim Broederbond and their operatives are fully removed from the Obama administration, perhaps we can have a look at the German issue. Until then, I'm lumping it into routine genocidal paranoia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is planning a possible state visit to Egypt in order to take advantage of frayed ties between Washington and Cairo and possibly gain access to Egypt's Mediterranean ports, The Sunday Times reported.
The United States announced October 9 that it had decided to "hold the delivery of certain large-scale military systems and cash assistance to the [Egyptian] government pending credible progress toward an inclusive, democratically elected civilian government through free and fair elections." Puti seeks to resume Russia-Egypt ties. Ear leader seeks to terminate USA - Israel ties.
(Reuters) - Fresh human cases in eastern China of a deadly new strain of bird flu signal the potential for "a new epidemic wave" of the disease in coming winter months, scientists said on Thursday.
The strain, known as H7N9, emerged for the first time in humans earlier this year and killed around 45 of the some 135 people it infected before appearing to peter out in China During the summer.
But a new case in October in a 35-year-old man from China's eastern Zhejiang province shows that the virus "has re-emerged in winter 2013" and "indicates a possible risk of a larger outbreak of H7N9 this winter," according to Chinese researchers writing in the online journal Euro surveillance.
Flu experts around the world have been warning that despite the marked drop off in cases during the summer months, the threat posed by H7N9 bird flu has not passed.
Ab Osterhaus, a leading virologist based at the Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands who has been tracking the virus, told Reuters earlier this month: "We're bracing for what's going to happen next."
The first scientific analysis of probable transmission of the new flu from person to person, published in the British Medical Journal in August, gave the strongest proof yet that it can jump between people and so could potentially cause a human pandemic.
And another study published in August identified several other H7 flu viruses circulating in birds that "may pose threats beyond the current outbreak". One advantage of living in the southern hemisphere is we get 6 months to prepare if this shit actually happens.
[An Nahar] Armed gunnies attacked a civilian convoy including a passenger bus in central Mozambique early Saturday, killing one and wounding at least 10, a witness and hospital worker said.
It was the second attack this week after the former rebel movement Renamo on Monday declared that a 1992 peace deal was over after government forces took over their military base in central Mozambique's Gorongosa mountains.
"Armed men came out of the woods, opened fire and hit the driver in the forehead or the face," said Felisberta Moutinho, a survivor of the attack.
A source at the Muxungue rural hospital confirmed one dead and at least nine maimed. Moutinho said 10 were maimed.
She attributed the assault to Renamo, now an official opposition party, whose bully boyz have been attacking civilian vehicles travelling along this stretch of the north-south highway over the past six months.
Renamo spokesmen declined to comment.
A group of cars had been travelling northbound from the Machanga district towards the coastal city Beira when the gunnies attacked three vehicles.
"They kept shooting at the passengers. We left the bus and fled. Some fled through the windows, others were hit by bullets," Moutinho told Agence La Belle France Presse.
She said she ran into the woods with her two children until she found a group of police vehicles.
"A while later we heard kabooms," she said.
"They stole all our things and then set fire to the bus."
Four people were seriously maimed and six others had light injuries, she said.
"Some children have serious wounds and are now in hospital," Moutinho said.
The attack came a day after Renamo announced its leader's right-hand man and member of parliament Armindo Milaco had been killed by a howitzer in Monday's assault on the group's base.
Milaco, a former child soldier, was head of national recruitment for the movement.
A day after the base fell, armed gunnies assaulted a cop shoppe in nearby Maringue district.
Renamo took up arms against the then-communist government of Frelimo -- the Mozambique Liberation Front -- after independence from Portugal in 1975.
It became the official opposition party after a 1992 peace agreement, but has lost every national election since.
Last November Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama returned to his bush camp Sathundjira near the Gorongosa mountains, saying he would retrain his soldiers for a revolution.
Government forces have been reinforced in the area since then, and the opposing bully boyz have clashed repeatedly in the past six months.
In April four coppers and a Renamo fighter were killed when the group attacked a policeman in Muxungue, the area of Saturday's attack.
Mozambicans have taken to travelling in convoys along this stretch of highway to protect themselves against potential attacks.
Officially Renamo is demanding a bigger role in electoral bodies and its fighters' integration into the government forces. But analysts say it wants a cut of lucrative revenues from new coal mines and upcoming offshore gas exploitation.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/27/2013
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[An Nahar] Hundreds of vigilantes armed with machetes and firearms attacked the town of Bouar in western Central African Republic on Saturday, forcing civilians to flee the area, a military source and residents said.
Self-defense groups called "Anti-balakas, equipped with weapons of war and machetes surrounded the town early this morning and shots from light and heavy firearms could be heard in several areas of Bouar," the military source said.
"We do not know what is happening in the different neighborhoods right now," said the source, adding that "the local authorities have left the town".
Awalou Mamadou, a local shopkeeper in Bouar, which is located some 400 kilometers (250 miles) northwest of the capital Bangui, estimated the number of attackers at between 300 and 500 men.
Maxime Lalai, a local civilian who spoke to Agence La Belle France Presse by telephone, said "the attackers have surrounded the town, we are trapped, we don't know which direction to flee to."
Ali Camara, who works for the international NGO Cordaid, said he went to take refuge in a church, "but it is full there... I went back to my home where I stayed on the floor with my family."
The anti-balaka ("anti-machete" in the local Sango language) groups were formed by local residents exasperated by the abuses committed by members of the former rebel Seleka group.
The now disbanded Seleka toppled Francois Bozize in March, plunging the country into chaos, and its leader Michel Djotodia was formally installed as interim president in August to lead an 18-month transition.
Cases of executions, rape and looting by ex-Seleka fighters in the aftermath of the coup have stoked sectarian tension in the former French colony, where the population is 80 percent Christian.
Bouar has some 40,000 inhabitants and is located on the strategic axis connecting landlocked Central African Republic with Cameroon, where its main imports come through.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/27/2013
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#1
This is not news, it's.... like football, a national sport.
Bossangoa - Framing the deserted streets, the burned roofs of Bossangoa's destroyed neighbourhoods are a stark reminder of the violence that has recently unfolded in this Central African town.
Bossangoa's residents have fled in three directions: Christians have occupied the Catholic church, Muslims a local school, and the Fula people, a distinct Muslim group, have taken over an airfield.
It is the latest sign of a worrying new turn in the increasingly sectarian conflict between the area's Christian majority and fighters from the former Seleka rebel alliance who are largely drawn from the country's Muslim minority.
All around Bossangoa, Christian vigilante groups are springing up, bent on defending their villages from further atrocities.
Armed with home-made guns, machetes, or simply holding clubs, these villagers proclaim themselves "ready to die" to defend their land from the relentless attacks by the fighters.
"Our women and girls were raped," a villager told AFP on condition of anonymity. "They took everything, even our grain, and we no longer have anything to eat. Our children have no drinking water, and we live in the bush like animals," he said, in a voice shaking with fear and anger.
#3
What I'd like to know is who is funding, arming, training and feeding the Muslim minority that is now lording it over the country's 80% Christian population.
by Pappy This is a slight elaboration on a comment I made yesterday, so please don't go looking for a link. Healthcare insurance is not the healthcare industry, just as automobile insurance is not the automobile industry. What we're seeing with the Affordable Care Act is not healthcare reform, because it's not really reforming the business of healthcare. It's technically healthcare insurance reform. But it isn't even that.
Hear, hear!!
First let's understand what insurance is. I've included the Wikipedia entry for Insurance, so that we are all on the 'same page'. Go ahead and read it, please. I'll wait...
In world ruled by mathematics, the insured are therefore protected from a specific risk event, or risk events for a fee, with the fee being dependent upon the frequency and severity of the event(s) occurring.
Example: A cargo from Singapore bound for Amsterdam in the hull of a ship certified by a host nation whose flag it flies, sailing with a competent and certified crew, traveling on a safe route, will have a lower risk-level than a cargo traveling from Singapore to, say, Mombasa, in the hull of a ship flying a flag-of-convenience, with a pick-up crew, with the route traversing down the coast of Somalia.
Hence the people that are shipping the cargo on the latter ship will pay higher fees for insurance against loss of the cargo than would the shippers on the former vessel (the shippers in the latter instance would likely pay lower shipping costs, but that's for another time.)
Back to healthcare insurance.
What the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is, is a mandate that healthcare insurance be purchased by the denizens of the United States for themselves and their dependents, hence creating a 'risk pool', i.e., a fund for transferring or distributing risk among those mandated to buy healthcare insurance.
In the case of health risks it depends on a lot of factors as well. For example, if you're older, you'll likely have knee problems. If you're overweight, you'll likely have cardiac issues in addition to knee problems. And so forth.
In order for an insurer (private or governmental entity) to not lose their metaphorical shirt paying out on claims, they attempt to manage the risk. That could be done by increasing the risk pool (the purpose of the Affordable Care Act (ACA)) using statistics to determine the risk of loss or an event, or establishing loss or event parameters up front - suicide not being covered by life insurance, for example. Additionally, certain items may either be not covered or reimbursement schedules will be at the insurer's discretion.
The "tweak" here with the ACA is that the risk pool has deep-shallow payment. Low-risk insurance purchasers. like the young or very healthy, or earning a decent income will pay more for their low risk of incurring a medical event (pay more for being in the shallow end of the risk pool), in order to subsidize the insurance of those with high risk factors or lower incomes (being in the risk pool's deep end). The need for healthy young people with low health risks to purchase health insurance is thus required in order to financially cover the health care costs of their statistical opposites.
In essence, it is a perversion of what would normally and sanely be defined as "insurance." But this isn't a normal and sane situation.
Additionally there is a social engineering aspect applied to the ACA. Income is a factor in what one will pay for a policy. If one looks at the the Wikipedia entry on insurance again (go ahead, I'll wait,) one doesn't see where one's bank account or annual income should be a factor. In essence and stripped of politics, it's a redistribution of assets.
Another social engineering factor is the ACA addressing social/economic inequities. There is a high healthcare risk among pregnant lower-income women both prepartum and postpartum due to many economic, geographical, and most important, social factors. In order to cover this tragic problem and to standardize policies (as a way to keep administrative costs low) people are being mandated to pay for insurance policy features they may not or will not need, i.e., a post-menopausal woman being required to pay for maternity care features provided in her policy.
The other problem with this so-called healthcare reform is that it has the same issues as Medicaid and Medicare. It is payment-reimbursement driven. There really is no reform of actual healthcare-business issues.
Take for example, the legal side of healthcare. Obstetrics is a high-risk medical field; factor in the conditions of increased risks from social conditions (lack of or ignoring prenatal care, use of drugs during the pregnancy, poor physical health, etc.) and the risks become higher.
However, the legal system does not necessarily take those factors into account when a malpractice suit is filed. Insurance fees for insuring against malpractice claims in fields like obstetrics, neonatal medicine, and cardiology are astronomically high. Practitioners in those fields will then take steps to mitigate the risk of a lawsuit, adding to healthcare costs.
Another issue is that nowhere in the ACA (so far) is a list of defined costs for medical procedures, tests, treatment, etc. In fact, medical costs for the same procedure vary widely across the United States. That too is based on risks, on how expensive it is to "do business" in a given locale and also socially-imposed costs that have to be absorbed until reimbursement is made (if it ever is made). The mandate that treatment must be provided at emergency rooms regardless of ability to pay, for example. Southern California, particularly the Los Angeles area, has had hospitals close because the costs of operating them are not reimbursed or covered by incoming payments for treatment. Demographics also factors in heavily.
What is covered and not covered, and the quantity and quality also varies widely. Taking the maternity care cost issue, for example, is partially addressed by standardization under ACA, but imposes costs on those insured that will never use maternity care. It also leaves open what will be covered and not covered, and what will be paid for and not paid for.
We haven't even touched on reimbursement. That too varies widely. Nor are there transparent and publicly available defined reimbursement definitions and schedules available.
A nationalized health care plan adds in healthcare management, but that does not remove managing the risks or mitigating the costs of healthcare. Two things must still be controlled: expenses and income. I'll leave it to the reader to elaborate on both, but demographics, politics, and social engineering factors still play a role.
To repeat: A healthcare system is not healthcare insurance. What is being called healthcare insurance under the Affordable Care Act, is, for the most part, presently neither healthcare reform nor insurance reform.
#1
Yep, I've been saying that since the bill was proposed.
AND its bad health insurance reform.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
10/27/2013 1:02
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#2
I believe Katie Pavlich is now saying the Website debacle is due to the Regime NOT WANTING knowledge of the plan's actual costs to be fully revealed just yet.
Excellent piece Pappy. It's not "insurance", when you have a $5000. annual deductible. You don't have insurance, you have a tax. The so-call reimbursement is simply another name for welfare and resources transfer. ACA is a cover for a new ponzi, tax scheme, nothing more.
#3
A key indicator of a national population's health is life expectancy. When the greatest improvement would occur when young males quit killing themselves, you quickly understand that the solution isn't science, administration, or more programs. The Blue models have only heightened the effect rather than mitigated it. This is one big distraction from the social malaise that creates the symptoms that social engineers want to throw (other people's) money at. Until there is an awakening within the social swamps created by the Blue model, done to sustain its power, that the only real solution is a change in personal behavior, nothing is going to alter those numbers significantly.
#4
One would think that the "Blue Model" planners would wise up. Rowe vs Wade and abortion on demand is decimating entire generations of ACA paying subscribers. Appears to be counterintuitive, until you realize denying services to seniors and programmed attrition are actually designed to eventually counter-balance the numbers.
Unless you are hitched to the plow and pulling, you're no long needed.
It seems to be a common practice to misname so-called 'reforms'.
Likewise: so-called 'Immigration Reform' has absolutely nothing to do with immigration and everything to do with Granting amnesty to people who broke the law (ILLEGAL Aliens). Gun Control has nothing to do with Guns and everything to do with control.
It's the deliberate misnaming of things to make them sound more digestable. Everyone is concerned about their 'Healthcare' right? Not so much 'Insurance'. Everyone wants to welcome 'Immigrants' right - they built this country. No so much ILLEGALs.
There is a method to their madness.
#6
Another issue is that nowhere in the ACA (so far) is a list of defined costs for medical procedures, tests, treatment, etc.
The Central Planners have to game the system and its not even half-time yet. Contrary to all the benevolent hub-bub about affordability or availability the current monkey in the wrench is the concept of Adverse Selection. The term describes how ones propensity to purchase insurance is primarily associated with degree of risk - not ability to purchase. If not for traditional insurance controls such as underwriting the greatest payout would be to those most risk adverse. Can you say Death Spiral? The Statists recognize mandates that require people to purchase coverage will only mitigate a portion of the problems. The predictable next step will be price controls and dare we say rationing. Folks, the games called Equilibrium and its going to be quite mediocre.
Saudi activists said more than 60 women claimed to have answered their call on Saturday to get behind the wheel in a rare show of defiance against a ban on female driving. Saudi professor and campaigner Aziza Youssef said the group has received 13 videos and another 50 phone messages from women showing or claiming they had driven. She said they have no way to verify the messages.
If the numbers are accurate, this years campaign is the most successful effort yet by Saudi women demanding the right to drive. Youssef said they have not received any reports of arrests or women being ticketed by police.
A security official said that authorities did not arrest or fine any female drivers on Saturday. However, there have been a few roadblocks along the way.
Youssef said she and four other prominent women activists received phone calls this week from a top official with close links to Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, warning them not to drive on Saturday, the day the campaign set for womens driving.
She also said that two suspicious cars have been following her everywhere all day. I dont know from which party they are from. They are not in a government car, she said.
Of course not. The religious police have their own cars...
Though no specific Saudi law bans women from driving, women are not issued licences. They mostly rely on drivers or male relatives to move around.
Powerful clerics who hold far-reaching influence over the government enforce the driving ban, warning that breaking it will spread licentiousness. A prominent cleric caused a stir when he said last month that medical studies show that driving a car harms a womans ovaries.
The kingdoms first major driving protest came in 1990 when some 50 women drove their cars. They were jailed for a day, had their passports confiscated and lost their jobs. In June 2011, about 40 women got behind the wheel in several cities in a protest sparked when a woman was arrested after posting a video of herself driving.
The atmosphere appeared more tolerant this year and state newspapers for the first time have run near daily commentary on the issue. Reforms made by the government since the last 2011 driving campaign may have readied the nation for change. Changes include allowing women to sit on the national advisory council and a decision to permit women to vote and run in municipal elections in 2015.
May Al Sawyan, a 32-year-old mother of two and an economic researcher, said that she drove from her home in Riyadh to the grocery store and back. Like other female drivers defying the ban in Saudi Arabia, Al Sawyan said she has obtained a drivers licence from abroad.
I am very happy and proud that there was no reaction against me, she said. There were some cars that drove by. They were surprised, but it was just a glance. It is fine ... They are not used to seeing women driving here.
In the run-up to the October 26 driving campaign, Interior Ministry spokesman Mansour Al Turki warned that anyone disturbing public order would be dealt with forcefully. That same language was used in charges levied against a female driver in 2011.
Women have been posting videos almost daily of themselves driving since the campaigns website was launched in late September, enraging conservatives in the country who accused the government of not doing anything to stop them from flouting the ban. In one incident this month, two women were pulled over by police who made them sign a letter stating they would not drive or be in the car with a female driver. Their husbands were called to pick them up.
Ultraconservative clerics, angry that the government is not cracking down harder, protested earlier in the week against the online petition campaign, which claims to have more than 16,000 signatures. The accounts website, oct26driving.org, and official English language YouTube account were hacked on Friday, according to activists.
The four-minute video uploaded on Saturday of Al Sawyan showed her wearing sunglasses and her face was visible. Her hair was covered by the traditional black headscarf worn by Saudi women.
Pic at the link. Nice cheekbones...
Al Sawyan said she was prepared for the risk of detention if caught. She said she was far enough from a police car that she was not spotted.
I just took a small loop. I didnt drive for a long way, but it was fine. I went to the grocery store, she said.
Her husband and family waited at home and called her nervously when she arrived at the store to check on her, she said. She drove with a local female television reporter in the car. They were both without male relatives in the vehicle, which in itself defies the countrys strict norms requiring women to have a male guardian in public.
Deputy editor-in-chief of the state-backed newspaper Saudi Gazette Somayya Jabarti said she envies her male co-workers who can jump in their cars and leave the office while she has to coordinate ahead of time for a driver or relative.
The struggle is more that people should have the option to choose, she said. The logo of this current driving campaign is that womens driving is a choice.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/27/2013
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BELED HAWO, Somalia -- Ethiopian troops in armored fighting vehicles reached Gedo region town of Beled Hawo in the early hours of Saturday morning to resolve grudges between Somali government forces and pro-government militia of Ahlu Sunah Wal Jamea , Garowe Online reports.
"Don't make us come up there!"
Witnesses reported that Ethiopian soldiers have made temporary positions on the outskirts of Beled Hawo where Ethiopian force commanders are discussing the Friday clashes between Somali government forces and Ahlu Sunah Wal Jamea militia with the Somali Federal Government officials including Beled Hawo mayor and Somali National Army (SNA) commanders in the border region.
Independent sources in Beled Hawo confirmed to Garowe Online that Ethiopians requested to both sides to arrange ceasefire and proceed to holding negotiations over the matter with Mogadishu-based Federal Government and Ahlu Sunah representatives present.
"Youse guys had better starting negotiating. Or else..."
On Friday, Somali Federal Government forces and Ahlu Sunah militia clashed in Gedo regional district of Beled Hawo, leaving three fighters from the opposing sides dead according to the residents.
Wrangles over looming threats of instability in the town of Beled Hawo yesterday degenerated into deadly fighting, sources said.
Ahlu Sunah Wal Jamea spokesman, Sheikh Mohamed Hussein Al Qaadi told the media that the clashes erupted between Ahlu Sunah militia backed by Somali government soldiers and illegal militiamen from Doolow district.
Beled Hawo witnesses grenade attacks which mainly targeted the Somali government officials.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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[Al Ahram] Hundreds demonstrated on Saturday in downtown's Talaat Harb square against the newly proposed draft protest law, rallying under the banner "the street is ours."
Following a call to protest made by the 'Way of the Revolution Front,' demonstrators chanted "Down with the rule of the Interior Ministry...down with military rule" as they marched through the streets of downtown Cairo.
Meanwhile, in the same Talaat Harb square, tens demonstrated under the banner "No to terrorism," referring to the escalating militant attacks targeting police and military since the ouster of Mohamed Morsi on 3 July.
As the anti-protest law demonstration chanted against the military, the 'No to terrorism' protesters rallied in the military's favor. Arguments and minor scuffles erupted between the two groups.
The anti-protest law march ended at Mohamed Mahmoud Street, the street leading to the Ministry of Interior headquarters.
The draft law, which was proposed by the cabinet in mid-February, has ignited public debate, with critics arguing that it infringes on Egyptian citizens' basic rights and freedoms.
Among the law's most controversial measures is a proposed clause allowing the interior minister or senior police officials to cancel, postpone or change the location of a protest. The law also permits governors to designate "protest-free" areas near state buildings.
Responding to growing criticism, Prime Minister Hazem El-Beblawi said last week that the draft law could be amended after dialogue with political forces and parties.
The Way of the Revolution Front, which called for the anti-protest law demonstration, was launched on 24 September, aiming to provide an alternative to the current "polarisation" between the military and Muslim Brotherhood.
The Front coalition includes leading members of the April 6 Youth Movement, the Strong Egypt Party, the Revolutionary Socialists and the Justice and Freedom Youth.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/27/2013
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[DAILYCALLER] First Lady Michelle Obama's Princeton classmate is a top executive at the company that earned the contract to build the failed Obamacare website.
Toni Townes-Whitley, Princeton class of '85, is senior vice president at CGI Federal, which earned the no-bid contract to build the $678 million Obamacare enrollment website at Healthcare.gov. CGI Federal is the U.S. arm of a Canadian company.
Townes-Whitley and her Princeton classmate Michelle Obama are both members of the Association of Black Princeton Alumni.
Toni Townes '85 is a onetime policy analyst with the General Accounting Office and previously served in the Peace Corps in Gabon, West Africa. Her decision to return to work, as an African-American woman, after six years of raising kids was applauded by a Princeton alumni publication in 1998
George Schindler, the president for U.S. and Canada of the Canadian-based CGI Group, CGI Federal's parent company, became an Obama 2012 campaign donor after his company gained the Obamacare website contract.
As reported by the Washington Examiner in early October, the Department of Health and Human Services reviewed only CGI's bid for the Obamacare account. CGI was one of 16 companies qualified under the Bush administration to provide certain tech services to the federal government. A senior vice president for the company testified this week before The House Committee on Energy and Commerce that four companies submitted bids, but did not name those companies or explain why only CGI's bid was considered.
On the government end, construction of the disastrous Healthcare.gov website was overseen by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), a division of longtime failed website-builder Kathleen Sebelius' Department of Health and Human Services.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/27/2013
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#1
Ok, so now we know the WHY CGI was involved. The FLOTUS connection explains the FUBAR. All that's left is the question of WHERE did all that money go ?
#3
This needs a surprise meter because its no surprise that they sole sourced this contract without competition, and gave it to a friend from her college classmate and alumni of a racist organization.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
10/27/2013 13:15
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The BNP-led 18-party alliance is set to enforce the 60-hour non-stop countrywide hartal from today dawn to mount pressure on the government to realise the key demand for a non-party poll-time government to oversee the next general elections.
BNP Chairperson and Leader of the Opposition Begum Khaleda Zia from the much- talked about October 25 grand rally announced the hartal, giving the government time until yesterday (Saturday) to initiate dialogue over the issue. According to her announcement, the hartal will end on Tuesday dusk.
Terming the government as 'illegal', she at that rally warned the Opposition would go for tougher programme if the demand goes unheeded. She also invited all to join the 18-party's next street movement. "From October 27, the present government will be illegal. If the negotiation is not held within the time, the government will be responsible for all the consequences," she had said.
In this backdrop, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday evening phoned Khaleda Zia and invited her at a dinner at Gono Bhaban, the official residence of the PM, on Monday to discuss the poll-time government issue. The PM in the telephonic conversation also requested her counterpart to withdraw the hartal.
The BNP, however, did not withdraw the hartal, saying that they would take decision in this regard after holding dialogue. If the issue of the poll-time government is resolved through holding discussions, then the Opposition will think positively about not enforcing hartal, said a source at BNP Chairperson's office.
At an urgent press briefing at BNP Chairperson's Gulshan office after the telephonic conversation, she said the shutdown can't be called off. Briefing about the conversation, she said that the talks with the ruling party could take place after the strike ends on Tuesday.
In reply to PM's request of withdrawing hartal, Khaleda Zia told her counterpart that as the 18-party has called the shutdown, so the BNP can't take any unilateral decision in this regard without discussing it in the forum of 18-party, Sohel said, quoting the BNP Chief.
Ahead of the hartal, the BNP and alliance partners on Saturday brought out a processions in the city and other parts of the country in support of the hartal. In different parts, leaders and workers of the Opposition alliance engaged in clashes with police and the ruling party men. They also torched and vandalised vehicles.
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[Pak Daily Times] Clashes between two rival groups in Lyari ...one of the eighteen constituent towns of the city of Karachi. It is the smallest town by area in the city but also the most densely populated. Lyari has few schools, substandard hospitals, a poor water system, limited infrastructure, and broken roads. It is a stronghold of ruling Pakistan Peoples Party. Ubiquitous gang activity and a thriving narcotics industry make Lyari one of the most disturbed places in Karachi, which is really saying a lot.... continued on the third consecutive day and claimed the lives of at least eleven more people and maimed around one dozen, on Saturday.
Meanwhile, ...back at the palazzo, Count Guido stepped from behind the suit of armor, rapier in hand. Ciccolini snarled and reached for his own weapon... law enforcers claimed to have killed an alleged gangster and tossed in the calaboose Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! several. As per details, gunfire and kabooms continued on the third consecutive day between the gang of notorious gangster Baba Ladla and the outlawed Peoples Amn Committee (PAC). On Thursday three innocent people were killed, however, on the second consecutive day of gang war, two members of Baba Ladla, one of Uzair Baloch and one innocent person was killed during the festivities. A notorious gangster, Jabbar Langra of Ladla's group, was killed in an alleged encounter with the Rangers.
The gang war worsened on the third day and claimed the lives of at least eleven people. The bodies of four men were found from separate areas of Baghdadi Police Station. Three of them were identified as those of Younus Masih, Fahim Baloch, Mohsin. According to Baghdadi SHO all the dear departed belonged to a gang. They were believed to have been killed after being kidnapped, and all of them had torture marks and multiple bullets wounds. Four more bodies were found from separate areas of Kalakot Police Station, while three Baloch men were found dead from Atah Chowk. However, Switzerland makes more than cheese... their identities have yet to be ascertained. Three more people were killed in Agra Taj Colony and Kharadar localities. The routine and commercials activities were suspended in Lyari as armed gangs clashed in narrow streets, hurling hand grenades on each other and compelling the residents to stay inside their homes. Both groups' members resorted to indiscriminate firing as well as use of hand grenades, rockets and mortal shells.
Residents of the affected area confirmed that they have been restricted to their houses following the intense violence. Along with food shortage, the residents also faced power blackouts as several electricity PMTs were damaged in the ongoing fighting. Earlier, on the night between Friday and Saturday, an alleged gangster, Yousuf Shah, who belonged to the Baba Ladla group, was killed during an alleged encounter when police and Rangers conducted an operation in Lyari.
Meanwhile, ...back at the barn, Bossy had come up with a new idea, one that didn't involve kerosene... four alleged gangsters associated with the Wasihullah Lakho group of Lyari gangsters were also apprehended. A huge cache of hand grenades, weapons and ammunitions was also recovered. Law enforcers, including Rangers and police, have been patrolling the affected areas but the firing from the groups continued.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[THEAUSTRALIAN.AU] AN Australian soldier and a New Zealand soldier have been maimed in an "insider attack" after an Afghan soldier opened fire during a meeting in northern Afghanistan.
Australian soldiers returned fire and shot the Afghan National Security Force soldier, the Defence Department said in a statement. It's not clear if the Afghan soldier was killed, Defence says, however, news agencies report he was rubbed out.
The attack happened on Saturday morning in the Qargha region near Kabul as Australian soldiers were meeting with trainee Afghan officers.
Australian and other ISAF personnel are helping to train and skill those attending the Afghan National Army Officer Academy there.
The New Zealand soldier was maimed in the initial attack, with reports saying he was shot in the leg, while the Australian suffered minor fragmentation wounds while providing protection. He is expected to return to duty shortly.
Acting Chief of the Defence Force, Air Marshal Mark Binskin, says others could have been hit if not for the quick response of Australian soldiers at the meeting.
"From initial reporting, it would appear that our soldiers reacted promptly and professionally, potentially saving any other ISAF or Afghan personnel from sustaining wounds or worse," Air Marshal Binskin said. "It is impossible to completely remove the threat of insider attacks, but the actions of the ADF Force Protection soldiers demonstrate that our training and force protection techniques are appropriate and prepared to respond, when incidents such as this occur."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/27/2013
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#1
Good thing the ANZ soldiers were allowed to have guns - loaded - at the meeting.
[Al Ahram] Germany's domestic intelligence chief says more than 210 people are known to have traveled from Germany to Syria, and at least 15 have returned from the country's civil war with battle experience.
Hans-Georg Maassen told German news agency dpa in an interview published Saturday that he believes "significantly more" people have traveled to Syria than authorities have identified but he can't estimate how many.
Maassen says that 10 people from Germany apparently have died in Syria and about 50 people are believed to have returned -- including 15 or 16 Islamic snuffies with fighting experience. He says they're capable of "committing serious acts of violence, and we will have to watch them closely."
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Al Ahram] Two UN human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... Sherlocks called for more transparency from the United States and other countries about their drone strikes program, saying their secrecy is the biggest obstacle to determining the impact pact on civilian casualties.
Ben Emmerson and Christof Heyns, who presented two reports on the subject at the United Nations ...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships... on Friday, also called on other countries to speak up about when deadly drone strikes are acceptable. They said the lack of consensus risks creating anarchy as more countries acquire the technology.
Emmerson said the US has justified some drone strikes against terrorist targets in other countries by arguing that it is engaged in an armed conflict with al-Qaeda with no boundaries. He said other countries disagree with that analysis but few have spelled out their own positions.
"We all recognize that the moment other states start to use this technology in similar ways, we are facing a situation which could escalate into a breakdown of peace and security," said Emmerson, the UN special rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism.
In his report, Emmerson said he received statistics from the Pak government indicating that at least 2,200 people have been killed in drone strikes in that country since 2004. Of those, at least 400 were civilians. But Emmerson said independent verification is difficult and the involvement of the CIA in counter-terrorism operations in both Pakistain and Yemen "has created an almost insurmountable obstacle to transparency."
Emerson said that any time civilians are killed "the state responsible is under an obligation to conduct a prompt, independent and impartial fact-finding inquiry and to provide a detailed and public explanation."
The US considers its drone program in Pakistain to be a key weapon against bully boy groups that it says stages cross-border forays into neighboring Afghanistan. But many Paks believe the strikes kill large numbers of civilians, raising tensions between the two countries and complicating their cooperation in the fight against bad boys.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/27/2013
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#1
Good idea, transparent drones. Cellophane covered wings, perhaps?
[WashingtonFreeBeacon] Working with Russia to boost nuclear program
Iran plans to build many new nuclear plants with atomic reactors along its coastlines with the Persian Gulf and Caspian Sea, Iran's top nuclear official announced on Thursday.
The announcement comes just a week after Western nuclear negotiators claimed that Iran was giving ground in talks aimed at ending Tehran's contested enrichment program.
Iranian leaders, however, have remained defiant in the face of talks, announcing on Thursday that Tehran will build "enough atomic reactors to generate a total of 20,000 megawatts of electricity by 2020," according to the country's state-run Fars News Agency.
Top Iranian leaders and those involved with negotiations have also been quoted in the Persian language press as rejecting key details of the proposed nuclear deal.
Iran also announced that it was China's largest oil supplier in the month of September.
Additionally, Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization (IAEO), announced just two days after nuclear negotiations ended that Russia would help Iran build new nuclear power plants across the country, according to Persian language press reports.
#4
Either Iran keeps its Nucprogs, or the Bad Econ, Sequester, Shutdown + post-Shutdown, etc. to come hit USA puts its own boots on the ground to fight Al-Qaeda, etal. foreign militant-jihadist groups in Syria + ME.
ALSO GOOD FOR ANTI-US OWG-NWO "GLOBALISM" = MULTIPOLAR/POLYCENTRIC WORLD OF MULTIPLE GLOBAL PAR "CO-SUPERPOWERS".
SEVEN OWG "CO-SUPERPOWERS" FOR SEVEN OWG GLOBAL FEDERAL UNIONS FOR SEVEN CONTINENTS, at least to start.
POTUS Obama is a LOUSY NATIONALIST = AMERICAN, BUT ONE HELLUVA MIGHTY OUTSTANDING ANTI-NATIONALIST/GLOBALIST = AMERIKAN!
#5
Pentagon top eggs have said it - the only real way to stop Iran = "Rogue State" Nucprogs is to attack + occupy the country - ONCE A NT IS LEARNED, HOWEVER IMPERFECT ITS L-E-A-R-N-E-D PERIOD + NOTHING BUT A MAJOR WAR OF ANNIHILATION OR GENOCIDE AGZ IRAN OR SIMILAR WILL STOP IT.
To paraph GEN. MACARTHUR = PROLONGED INDECISION [Wafflism] IN WAR ONLY RESULTS IN MORE CHAOS = MORE CASUALTIES.
Iran can now be safely ascribed as being Nukulaar - the only way for the Bammer + POTUS successor to stop it is to attack-n-occupy while also risking GLOBAL WAR AMONGST GREAT POWERS.
The US-NATO/EU + Israel know it, + Russia + China, + so does Iran + Radical Islam.
PCORRECTNESS IS FOOLING NOBODY, + STOPPING NOTHING.
* TOPIX > [Daily Times] IRAN MP SAYS FORDO NUCLEAR SITE A "RED LINE" - read, agz the Bammer + Israel.
I'm sure someone will eventually notice how the Bammer = SUperpower USA unilaterally breaks his own "red lines" while NOT breaking those of US protagonists???
* SAME > IRAN TO DEVELOP NUCLEAR PROGRAM [NucEnergy?] - WILL COOPERATE WID IAEA.
There goes the US attack on Iran + Syria, at least thru Summer 2014.
* SAME > [Commentary Magz] OBAMA "MODEST STRATEGY" GOOD FOR PUTIN.
"RETREAT", after all, can be PC ascribed as "ATTACKING IN THE OPPOSITE = SAME DIRECTION WE CAME FROM"???
Espec iff the OWG Mighty USSA = OWG Weak USRoA SSR can't econ afford to attack anymore???
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* FYI TOPIX > [BreitBart] JAPAN, CHINA EXCHANGE THREATS AS RELATIONS DTETERIORATE. | VIDEO: IFF JAPAN SHOOTS DOWN OUR [Chinese] DRONES, IT WILL BE CONSIDERED "AN ACT OF WAR" BY JAPAN.
PRC DM Spox Geng Yansheng.
* RELATED ...
> DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS = [BBC News] JAPAN WILL STAND UP TO CHINA [on Domestic + East Asian Econ, Security], SAYS PM SHINZO ABE.
> SAME > [Xinhua] CHINESE DRONE TRAINING IS WIDIN INTERNATIONAL LAW, PRACTICE.
China = Its our own Drones = UAVS flying over our own sovereign territory, not Japan's.
> CHINESE MILITARY FORUM = JAPAN READY TO BE MORE ASSERTIVE AGZ CHINA, SAYS JAPAN PM.
> TOPIX, WORLD NEWS = CHINA: JAPAN SHOOTDOWN OF DRONES TO BE CONSIDERED AN "ACT OF WAR".
China for all intrinsic purposes has set a "red line" of its own agz Japan + very likely POTUS Bammer = Bad Econ, Sequester, Shutdown, + post-Shutdown affected USA.
MIDDLE EAST = "FIRST ISLAND CHAIN" = LONG-STANDING US ALLIES + ANTI-CHINA [ANTI-Islamist-Jihadist] NEUTRALS.
[An Nahar] A bomb went kaboom! Saturday in the car of an electoral official in Libya's eastern city of Benghazi causing damage but no casualties, an official said.
"The car that blew up belongs to Idriss al-Ghadi, an official with the municipal elections committee," said the official who declined to be named.
"The car was parked in a lot outside a school in the Majuri district which is being used as center for the committee organizing the elections," he told Agence La Belle France Presse.
No one was hurt in the blast but five cars belonging to committee members, who were attending a training session in the school, were damaged.
Libya is planning to hold municipal elections in Benghazi but no date has yet been set.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/27/2013
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#1
To a true Moslems Elections are dirty, dirty, dirty. Allah hates that sort of thing. Go wash your hands.
Weinstein, a frequent critic of Christianity in the armed forces, wrote a letter to Academy Superintendent Lt. Gen. Michelle Johnson. Weinstein said she responded 68 minutes later (emph added - UP). ...the USAF may be spring-loaded for some things, but 68 minutes is really really fast (in normal times) for something like this...almost like she had her response already in mind / prepared...
#3
....I would point out that, at least in the USAF, the option of 'affirming' - as opposed to swearing, so help you God - has been permitted for official testimony at court martials an inquries for decades now. Not that it doesn't matter; the problem here is that the USAF let the Academy turn dangerously close to a Christian military school and now they're feverishly trying to throttle it back, with all the collateral damage that will entail.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
10/27/2013 8:52
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[NY Times] The Iranian authorities executed 16 Sunni hard boyz on Saturday, Iranian media reported, in retaliation for an attack a day earlier that killed 14 guards on the volatile southeastern border with Pakistain.
The 14 soldiers, most of them conscripts, were killed at dusk on Friday at a border post near the city of Saravan when a group of gunnies crossing the border gunned them down using automatic weapons, the semiofficial Iranian Students' News Agency reported on Saturday. Seven other soldiers were maimed, the news agency said, and some local reports said the attackers also took three guards hostage.
In retaliation, 16 "bandidos linked to groups against the system" were hanged early Saturday, Mohammad Marzieh, the chief prosecutor in Zahedan, the capital of Sistan and Baluchestan Province, told the semiofficial Fars news agency. It is unclear whether the executed men were already in jug in the province or were rounded up, but they were not believed to be connected to the border attack.
"We had issued warnings previously that bandidos and anti-Iran group members who commit acts causing damage to innocent people or security and military personnel will face reciprocal action by us," Mr. Marzieh said. "This morning, in retaliation for the martyrdom of border guards at the town of Saravan, we hanged 16 members of these anti-Iran groups. The judiciary will absolutely not tolerate such actions by these groups."
The retaliatory response highlights the deep tensions in Sistan and Baluchestan Province, a hotbed of Sunni resistance against the Shiite Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran. The border area shared by Iran, Pakistain and Afghanistan has long resembled a war zone, and more than 3,500 members of Iranian security forces have been killed in festivities with smugglers transporting heroin and opium to Iran, Turkey and Europe.
The attack on the border guards was preceded by the killing of two members of the influential Rigi family, who in the past decade have led an armed separatist struggle in the province seeking independence from Iran and involving suicide kabooms, liquidations and abductions.
Web sites connected to separatist groups said the men, Karim Rigi and Gholamreza Rigi, were killed on Oct. 16 by local Iranian security forces, although official Web sites deny involvement.
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10/27/2013
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Turkish riot police fired teargas and halted a march by some 100 students on Saturday protesting against the clearance of trees on an Ankara university campus to make way for a controversial road development.
According to the left-wing student group, Genc-Der, which organised the demonstration, 26 people were arrested as they tried to march to the campus of the Middle East Technical University from Ankara city centre. The protesters were attempting to plant trees in the garden of a public building, a Genc-Der representative told AFP, adding that police prevented them from doing so.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose rule was hit by an unprecedented wave of protests during the summer over an urban development plan in Istanbul, last week denounced those who opposed the project in Ankara as modern bandits.
According to estimates the protests in the summer saw some 2.5 million people take to the streets over a three-week period to demand the resignation of Erdogan, seen by many as an authoritarian leader trying to Islamise Turkey. The clashes left six people dead.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/27/2013
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"But ponder this: Had Obamacare been created (by O'Divine Intervention, no doubt)
as a private enterprise with Obama as CEO, it wouldn't have lasted a week. Not only would the stumbling company have been put out of business, so would its incompetent CEO. And we'd all--well, most of us--be better off." HT: Drudge
#1
It was inevitable. There really is no fixing stupid. In Chicago, operators like the Champ have local democratic machine coverage. Failing that, they are simply sent down-state to a Federal Pen.
On the national stage, Champ's sorry ass is just hanging out. This latest ACA software scandal should be a white house clearer, an opportunity to tear out the Islamic décor, call in the 'bug man' and fumigate.
#2
We should be preparing and presenting Plan C as an alternative to the Plan B (single payer national health system) that is already planned and waiting for presentation as soon as Plan A (the current Obamacrap) fails, as it must (and as it must have been intended to, because no one can possibly think it could have succeeded.)
Plan C needs to include transparency, free market and de-protection of medical monopoly/trust violations. But it may not matter, since too many people now believe 'free' health care is their right. Think it's expensive now - wait 'til you see what it costs when it's free.
#3
Oh God, its the New England Patriots versus the Chicago Bears VIDEO again, playing for the Superbowl championship wid the Bammer = USA as McMann + New England, + CHINA as the Bears.
China wants its strategic access + "sole" overseas milbases for its PLA - unless Caroline Kennedy, Bammer + DepState, can give it that, espec as per setting a formal or pro-forma date for NEAR-TERM REUNIFICATION WID TAIWAN, THE BEST CAROLINE + OBAMA CAN DO IS DELAY A MAJOR MIL CONFLICT, POSSIBLY EVEN NUCLEAR CONFRONTATION [Limited Tac NucWar only?] INVOL CHINA, N-O-T PEVENT ONE.
Histoire' says so-called MUTUAL DEFENSE-SECURITY TREATIES BETWEEN ALLIES have been broken times before, hence can be broken times again - OBAMA HAS ALREADY UNILATERALLY BROKEN HIS OWN "RED LINES" SEVERAL TIMES.
'Tis a major reason why US Allies are feeling nervousy twitchy at this trime.
[Pak Daily Times] Afghanistan will demand an explanation from Pakistain on the whereabouts of a former Taliban second-in-command when the leaders of both countries meet next week to discuss how to end years of insurgency, an Afghan official said on Saturday.
The whereabouts of Mullah Baradar has been the source of intense speculation since Pakistain announced his release on September 20. Pak sources say he is still kept in a safe house and is closely watched by his Pak handlers. Afghanistan believes Baradar, who was once a close friend of the reclusive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, has enough clout to persuade the Taliban to make peace, but his prolonged stay in Pakistain may have marred his reputation among fighters.
"Mullah Baradar is still under strict supervision," said Aimal Faizi, a front man for Afghanistan's Caped PresidentHamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... . "We will be seeking an explanation from Pakistain on the whereabouts of Mullah Baradar and how Pakistain can facilitate direct talks between him and the High Peace Council." Faizi said Karzai would raise the issue when he meets Pak Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... in London next week for a summit hosted by Britannia's Prime Minister David Cameron ... has stated that he is certainly a big Thatcher fan, but I don't know whether that makes me a Thatcherite, which means he's not. Since he is not deeply ideological he lacks core principles and is easily led. He has been described as certainly not a Pitt, Elder or Younger, but he does wear a nice suit so maybe he's Beau Brummel ... .
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10/27/2013
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For a map, click here.
By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
The latest data on murders in Mexico are in and whatever the administration of Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto is doing to deal with its pervasive organized crime problem, the results are mixed.
According to data supplied the the Secretaria de Gobernacion (SEGOB), or interior ministry, the total of murders nationwide reached more 15,000 since December 2012, the first full month of the new administration. Intentional homicides totaled 1,478 for the month of September, 2013. The total number of murders since December, 2012 was 15,352. The average for the previous ten months is more than 1,535. The average for the previous nine months of 2013 is 1,487.
At the current average rate, the total of intentional homicides in Mexico could reach more than 17,000, which would be the lowest number for homicides since 2009, when 16,118 murders took place.
In 2010 through 2012, including the month of December 2012, homicides were at an all time high of 20,681, 22,856 and 21,768, respectively
President Peña came into office ten months ago with promises of dealing more effectively with organized crime, first by moving all federal law enforcement and military counternarcotics activities under the auspices of its interior ministry. Since that time every crime, especially violent crime reported through the federal government became a statistic, with no or few details.
Despite Mexico's transparency requirements at the federal level, Peña administration officials have interpreted the transparency requirements to reporting only the statistics of crime, not the details.
Since the start, it has been clear that some Mexican news outlets, most of which rely heavily on the federal and state governments for their crime news, were willing to self-censor crime news.
Some government officials, for example last July in Coahuila, have deliberately distorted crime statistics, only to be called on it by private organizations.
Whatever other efforts have been made to spike crime news in Mexico, the statistics that have been compiled by SEGOB are grim.
According to data supplied by Animal Politico news website, kidnappings and extortion attempts have soared in Mexico to all time highs. In September a total of 135 kidnappings were reported, a number exceeded twice since December 2012 -- in March (141) and April, 2013 (136) -- and matched in two other months, June and July.
Going by an annualized rate, the rate of kidnappings will exceed 1,606, an increase of about 10 percent from the previous year and an all time record.
Similarly, the crime of extortion going by its average current rate could reach almost 8,000 by the end of the November, 2013, another all time record. The year 2013 totals could exceed the last highest year, 2012 (7,272), by more than 700 cases.
As with homicides, two other crime categories have been reduced, albeit showing downward trends which began in 2011, in carjackings and auto theft.
In the previous three years, carjackings hit an all time high averaging more than 65,000 with 2011 being the high mark at 71,784. So far in 2013, total carjackings are down 41,916 for the calendar year. At the current annualized rate total carjackings could reach 55,887, the lowest number since 2009 when 42,673 were reported.
Auto theft is also showing a dramatic drop with a projected number of 132,941 for 2013, the lowest number since 2006, before the start of the previous Calderon administration.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com and BorderlandBeat.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com
At least five people were killed and hundreds others injured in sporadic clashes between BNP-Jamaat activists and Police-Awami League activists in three districts centering 18-partys rally Friday.
In Coxs Bazar, at least two people killed and many others injured at Chakaria upazila in a clash between BNP-Jamaat and law enforcers on Friday. The clash triggered while BNP broke out procession amid section 144 in the district. Chakaria Thana Officer-in-Charge Ranajit Kumar confirmed the death of two persons.
In Chandpur, two people were killed and 25 people others were injured including three cops and a journalist in a triangular clash near bus stand area under Faridganj upazila of the district in the afternoon.
In Nilphamari, a Shibir activist was killed in a clash with police.
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[An Nahar] Al-Mustaqbal ... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri... movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's assassination. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too. accused Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Horror of Homs... of being the criminal mastermind of all crimes in Leb, and held the state responsible for the deteriorating security situation in the northern city of Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... .
In a statement issued by his press office, Hariri said it was "useless" to find ways to resolve the cabinet crisis, or hold a parliamentary session or resume the national dialogue after Tripoli has come under attack in a "suspicions war."
"There is a dirty war that the Syrian regime has launched on Tripoli and its residents through its local partners," he said.
The city has been engulfed in fighting between the rival neighborhoods of Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen since Monday. The festivities have left scores of casualties.
The two districts have for years witnessed deadly gunbattles. But skirmishes began to flare with increasing intensity after the Syrian uprising began in March 2011.
Bab al-Tabbaneh's residents are mostly Sunni, like Syria's rebels. Jabal Mohsen has residents of Assad's Alawite sect.
Hariri said in his statement that the order to punish Tripoli was issued as soon as the Internal Security Forces Intelligence Branch jugged Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! a network responsible for deadly car kabooms that targeted two Sunni mosques in the city.
Hariri accused the "criminal mastermind of all crimes who lies in Damascus," of "seeking to drown the city of Tripoli in the chaos of arms."
The president, prime minister and army commander, in addition to all security leaderships know the truth, but they "bury their heads in the sand," he said.
He also criticized them for holding in vain security meetings.
"From now on, we will not stand idle to watch the city burn," he warned.
The Mustaqbal movement chief held the state responsible for "giving up the protection of the city and its residents and leaving it to become a ground for armed chaos."
"The state should take the initiative to settle things and ... salvage Tripoli from the plot that the Syrian intelligence's agents are executing," he said.
"Otherwise, the state and its agencies ... would be a partner in the war that the Syrian regime has launched on the city," Hariri added.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/27/2013
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[Pak Daily Times] There are few places where the former majesty of the US auto industry is more keenly captured than among the Diego Rivera murals at the bankrupt, increasingly impoverished, reliably Democrat, Detroit ... ruled by Democrats since 1962. A city whose Golden Age included the Purple Gang... Institute of Arts.
Those stunning, sun-drenched walls could be lost to public view if the museum's collection is allowed to be even partially sold to pay off Detroit's creditors during the city's bankruptcy proceedings.
"This is really an existential threat," warned Annmarie Erickson, the museum's chief operating officer.
"Selling art could close the museum." Founded in 1885, the museum has amassed a world-class collection through the patronage of press barons and auto industry giants.
It was the first American museum to buy works by Van Gogh and Matisse. It has one of just two works by the Dutch master Bruegel that can be viewed in the United States.
There are galleries devoted to African American, Asian and Native American art and others containing modern works by Picasso, Warhol and Rothko.
Rivera's "Detroit Industry" frescos -- a grand vision depicting the benefits and harm of industry and the beautiful complexity of Ford's Rouge plant -- are the heart of the Beaux-Arts temple that draws nearly 600,000 visitors a year.
But, like the Motor City itself, the museum has a troubled history.
The city -- which owns the building and the collection -- stopped providing funds to buy art in the 1950s and eventually withdrew support for daily operations. The state of Michigan stepped in to help fund the museum in the 1980s and early 1990's and then in 1997 a non-profit took over.
The museum finally got on sound financial footing last year when voters in three counties agreed to a new tax that provides $23 million a year to fund its operations.
"Two of those counties have said that if we sell art they will stop the property tax," Erickson told AFP.
"That represents about two thirds of our annual operating budget. If they stop that tax we will be sent into a death spiral." It could take months or even years for the complex case to make its way through bankruptcy court.
Detroit became the largest US city to declare bankruptcy on July 18. A federal judge will continue to hear arguments next week as to whether it even has the legal standing to do so.
"It's very hard to predict what's going to happen to that art work," said John Pottow, a bankruptcy expert at the University of Michigan's law school.
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10/27/2013
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#1
"This is really an existential threat," warned Annmarie Erickson, the museum's chief operating officer.
#2
A sorry state of affairs, but you know where you can 'sorry' in the dictionary. Let the 'no reserve' bidding begin before the stuff mysteriously disappears.
#3
...Yeah, this ain't happening. The DIA hasn't relied on city funds for decades as far as acquisitions are concerned, and it would take a remarkably generous (as in appealed immediately to SCOTUS and overturned with hysterical laughter)reading of the law to rule that DIAs possessions could be sold off. The real problem here is that DIA has been a Seriously Big Dog in Detroit for nearly 75 years, and if the restructuring plans go through, they won't be any more. At the very least, the overpaid art majors who run the place will lose, as tu1031 pointed out, "their phoney baloney jobs." And these folks will fight just as hard and viciously for their rice bowls as the union thugs.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
10/27/2013 7:21
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Sometimes its hard to tell what city Mike Duggan and Benny Napoleon are talking about on the campaign trail. Twice last week I heard the two Detroit mayoral candidates say the city has no business in bankruptcy court, doesnt need an emergency manager, shouldnt touch pensions or sell assets and doesnt need to rewrite labor contracts. It makes me wonder if candidates so detached from the reality of Detroits financial crisis can make legitimate claims to being capable of leading Detroit out of this crisis.
Workers next door at ABE Auto Service heard the shots and stopped their work Friday. "We heard pop, pop, pop, pop about five or six rounds," said Mark Mayer, a St. Clair Shores resident who works at the shop. His co-worker, Detroit resident Jerry Miller, instinctively threw himself on the ground when he heard the shots. "I grew up on the northwest side of town," he said. "It's a natural reaction."
[ALLAFRICA] The United Nations ...the Oyster Bay money pit... stabilization mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo aka Republic of Congo, which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material... (DRC) is on "high alert" following early morning festivities between Congolese Government forces and M23 rebels in the vast country's restive eastern region.
UN spokesperson Martin Nesirky said that the mission - known by the acronym MONUSCO - reported that early today, the Congolese army (FARDC) and M23 exchanged mortar and machine gun fire near Kibumba, around 15 km north of the flashpoint city of Goma.
The UN mission reported that, "approximately 5,000 civilians from Kibumba crossed the border into Rwanda this morning."
As the fighting continues, MONUSCO continues to closely monitor the situation, the UN front man added.
The Mission is carrying out aerial reconnaissance of the area and has also asked that the Extended Joint Verification Mechanism investigates reports of a shell landing in Kageyo, Rwanda, he said.
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[ABCNEWS.GO] Egypt's top prosecutor received complaints Saturday against a popular television satirist less than 24 hours after he returned to air, highlighting the low tolerance this deeply divided country has for criticism of the military and its leaders.
Bassem Youssef, often compared to U.S. comedian Jon Stewart, mocked the new pro-military fervor gripping Egypt in his program that aired Friday night. He also took jabs at the country's powerful military chief, Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, lionized in the Egyptian media as a hero after leading a July 3 coup that ousted the country's elected Islamist president following massive protests.
By Saturday, at least four complaints had been filed with the country's top prosecutor, accusing Youssef of defaming the military in his show, a judicial official said. One of the complaints accused Youssef of using phrases that "undermine the honor and dignity of Egypt and its people" in a manner sowing sedition and spreads lies.
The official said no investigation into the complaints had started yet. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to journalists. Such complaints, common under Egyptian law, are often shelved until prosecutors decide to start an investigation.
During Friday's show, Youssef imitated the general's soft-spoken, affectionate way of addressing the public, turning it into a lover's romantic groove. In one skit, a woman named "the Public" calls into a love advice show raving about the love of her life who saved her from an abusive husband.
"He's an officer as big as the world," she coos adoringly, making a pun on a slogan el-Sissi uses in nearly every speech -- "Egypt will be big enough to face down the world." Then she adds, "He does have a sovereign streak."
One complainant, well-known politician Ahmed el-Fadaly, referred to the skit of the adoring woman, accusing Youssef of portraying Egypt as a "dallying woman who betrays her husband with military men."
El-Fadaly, who heads an association of young Mohammedans, also accused the satirist of belittling the armed forces' efforts dealing with terrorism, and of misrepresenting the popular protests against Morsi as a coup, according to a copy of the complaint obtained by The News Agency that Dare Not be Named.
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[Pak Daily Times] Indian troops rubbed out three Pak smugglers carrying drugs worth millions of dollars as they sought to sneak into India through Punjab, a border security official said Saturday. India's paramilitary Border Security Force (BSF), which patrols the India-Pakistain border, said it found 24 kilogrammes of heroin worth 1.2 billion rupees ($19.5 million), along with weapons, ammunition and Pakistain mobile phones late Friday. "Last night, three Pak intruders crossed over to the Indian territory and were challenged by the BSF night patrol, but the intruders declined to surrender and fired gun shots at the BSF," Ajay Tomar, Punjab BSF Inspector General, told news hounds. "In retaliation, BSF troops fired 19 rounds and the intruders were killed on the spot." A massive search has been launched to check for any other people crossing illegally from Pakistain in the area near the Wagah international border crossing, he said. Wagah is the only road border crossing between the Indian city of Amritsar and Lahore. Local media reported last week that the BSF had seized 100 kilogrammes of heroin worth five billion rupees ($81 million) in the last two months, adding that drug trafficking had spiked at the border, which prompted BSF to increase round-the-clock patrolling. Punjab, once the wealthiest state in Asia's third-largest economy, has now become a key smuggling route for drugs that come in from Pakistain and Afghanistan.
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[BREITBART] Students in San Jose, Calif., can no longer hold car washes to raise for money for school events because city officials say they endanger the environment.
Cheerleaders at Lincoln High School had to cancel a scheduled Oct. 20 car wash after a visit from the city's Environmental Services Department, the San Jose Mercury News reported Friday.
"Anything that is not storm water or rain water is considered a pollutant," said Jennie Loft, the department's acting communications manager. "If it goes into a storm drain, that pollutant will harm wildlife and habitats in the creeks."
Loft said school groups could still hold car washes if they were conducted under certain conditions. Those include washing vehicles over grassy or gravel areas, ensuring wash water doesn't go into the street, gutter or storm drain and leaving no soap stains on the ground.
The same rules apply to cars washed by their owners.
Cars can be washed with a solution that requires no water, but the concentrate costs $159 a gallon.
Lincoln cheerleaders had hoped to raise money from the car wash to fund a trip to a national competition in April.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Not a surprise...a symbol of why I left that upholstered cesspool this year.
#2
Not surprised; it is Kalifornia. Damned bunch of control freaks there--presently a microcosm of Washington, DC--the non-freedom party in power--broke while trying to control everything.
[Shabelle] Heavy fighting ... as opposed to the more usual name-calling or slapsy... between Somali federal government and AL-Shabaab hard boyz broke out in Lower Shabelle province.
Eyewitnesses told Shabelle Media Network by phone that confrontation occurred at checkpoint patrolled by Somali federal government troops in highway links Afgoye to Walaweyn in lower Shabelle region.
Somali military Officials in Afgoye who contacted to Shabelle Media Network stated that Somali forces were ambushed by Al-Shabaab ... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda... fighters and repulsed by government forces but declined to discover the casualty figures on their side.
Districts and residences in lower Shabelle region witnessed battles in the past days.
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[Pak Daily Times] Two personnel of Frontier Corps (FC) who were escorting buses of Shia pilgrims were killed in a boom-mobile in Mastung district of Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... , some 40 kilometres southwest of Quetta, on Saturday. According to Levies officials, a convoy of FC and Levies was escorting Iran-bound buses of Shia pilgrims on Quetta-Taftan Highway when security personnel spotted a suspicious vehicle parked along the road in Dringar area of Mastung. The FC personnel stopped the convoy and got off to search the vehicle. As they reached closer to the vehicle a huge blast occurred, killing two FC personnel on the spot, Levies officials said, adding that the pilgrims remained unharmed in the attack. Talking to newsmen, Mastung Assistant Commissioner Shafqat Anwar confirmed the incident and said that it was a remote-controlled kaboom and apparently the Shia pilgrims were the prime target. After the incident, the security personnel cordoned off the area and the pilgrims were safely escorted from the area to their destination. The dear departed FC personnel were identified as Subadar Farhatullah and Sepoy Farman. No group had grabbed credit for the attack until the filing of this report.
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[Shabelle] News sources from Barawe town in lower Shabelle region suggest that AL-Shabaab hard boyz in Barawe town again allowed importing charcoal from Barawe town in lower province.
Al-Shabaab ... the personification of Somali state failure... officials who spoke to radio speaks with AL-Shabaab's mouth located in Barawe town broadcast that AL-Shabaab freed charcoal importing from coastal city of Barawe .
Somali's AL-Qaeda linked group of Al-shabab recently stopped importing charcoal from Barawe town in lower Shabelle province.
Local residents in Barawe town told Shabelle Media station in Mogadishu that following allowance of AL-Shabaab importing charcoal from the town that loaded trucks with charcoal reached at the town.
AL-Shabaab rejected already importing charcoal from the port city of Kismayo in lower Juba region.
United nation imposed ban on Somali charcoal trade after the charcoal business had become Al-Shabaab's most lucrative source of income, according to the UN Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea ...is run by the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), with about the amounts of democracy and justice you'd expect from a party with that name. National elections have been periodically scheduled and cancelled; none have ever been held in the country. The president, Isaias Afewerki, has been in office since independence in 1993 and will probably die there of old age... .
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[Ynet] New chapter in Edward Snowden leaks entangles Israel: Le Monde releases secret file noting Americans say they did not hack into Elysee Palace systems, suggest Mossad is responsible
La Belle France believed the United States attempted to hack into its president's communications network, a leaked US intelligence document published on Friday suggests.
US agents denied having anything to do with the May 2012 cyber attack on the Elysee Palace, the official residence of French presidents, and appeared to hint at the possible involvement of Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency, a classified internal note from the US National Security Agency suggests.
Golly. Thanks guys -- another example of this administration having Israel's back, as the president promised.
Extracts from the document, the latest to emerge from the NSA via former contractor Edward Snowden, were published by Le Monde newspaper alongside an article jointly authored by Glenn Greenwald, the US journalist who has been principally responsible for a still-unraveling scandal over large-scale US snooping on individuals and politicians all over the world.
The document is a briefing note prepared in April this year for NSA officials who were due to meet two senior figures from La Belle France's external intelligence agency, the DGSE.
The French agents had travelled to Washington to demand explanations over their discovery in May 2012 of attempts to compromise the Elysee's communications systems.
The note says that the branch of the NSA which handles cyber attacks, Tailored Access Operations (TAO), had confirmed that it had not carried out the attack and says that most of its closest allies (Australia, Britannia, Canada and New Zealand) had also denied involvement.
It goes on to note: "TAO intentionally did not ask either Mossad or (Israel's cyber intelligence unit) ISNU whether they were involved as La Belle France is not an approved target for joint discussions."
Le Monde interpreted this sentence as being an ironic reference to a strong likelihood that Mossad had been behind the attack.
The cyber attacks on the Elysee took place in the final weeks of Nicolas Sarkozy ...23rd President of the French Republic. Sarkozy is married to singer-songwriter Carla Bruni, who has a really nice birthday suit... 's term, between the two rounds of the presidential election which he ended up losing to Francois Hollande ...the Socialist president of La Belle France, an economic bad joke for la Belle France but seemingly a foreign policy realist... The attacks had been previously reported by French media, who have described them as an attempt to insert monitoring devices into the system but it remains unclear whether the presidential networks were compromised for any time.
Hollande: 'Several leads' for attacks
Sarkozy enjoyed warmer relations with the United States than any French president of recent times, to the extent that the media sometimes referred to him as "Sarko the American".
Hollande said Friday that French intelligence services had identified "several leads" for the attacks, speaking in Brussels after EU summit talks.
He did not elaborate further, but his comments came after he and German Chancellor Angela Merkel ...current chancellor of Germany. She was educated in East Germany when is was still run by commies, but in 1989 got involved with the growing democracy movement when the Berlin Wall fell. Merkel is sometimes referred to by Germans as Mom... pushed for Washington to agree on new rules on the conduct of intelligence gathering among allies.
Merkel herself has also reportedly been the target of US espionage, with claims emerging this week the US tapped her mobile phone and spied on other allies.
"Spying between friends, that's just not done," an angry Merkel said Thursday at the start of the summit of European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... leaders, which was overshadowed by the issue.
The latest Le Monde report follows revelations published earlier this week that the NSA collected more than 70 million recordings of French citizens' telephone data -- a claim contested by the top US intelligence chief.
On a lighter note, the leaked document published by Le Monde on Friday underlines NSA officials were anxious not to cause any further offence to their angry French counterparts.
Along with the technical details, the briefing note contains a phonetic guide to the pronunciation of the names of the French visitors.
They included DGSE technical director Bernard Barbier and Patrick Pailloux, head of the National Agency for the Security of Information Systems (ANSSI).
Both the DGSE and ANSSI refused to comment when contacted by AFP.
#3
Get real - FRANCE is one of the top/worst spiers agz the USA whom just happens to also be our ally.
IMO this brouhaha is about SPYTECH-SHARING, i.e. forcing the US to share its super-advanced techs, etc. wid its inferior-tech Allies, NOT BECAUSE PARIS OR BRUSSELS OR EVEN MOSCOW, BEIJING IS GENUINELY WORRIED ABOUT THE US COVERTLY MONITORING HOLLANDE + MERKEL,...@ETAL. NATO-EU POLITICOS.
* RELATED ISSUE = US-ALLIED "SHARING" UNDER POST-2015, POST/EXTRA-SOVEREIGN, COMPETITIVE, "CO-SUPERPOWER" GLOBALIST CONDITIONS.
Personally, as a Clintonian "arrogant Fascist Male Brute", to include "Zionist-Crusader-Imperialist Capitalist Pig", I'm more interested in the new "MACHETE KILLS AGAIN" flick + the new McDonald's McRib promo.
[An Nahar] The Paleostinians denied Saturday that a mooted Israeli release of Paleostinian prisoners is part of understandings in peace talks under which Israel would be allowed to build more settlements in exchange.
The media said this week that Israeli ministers were to meet Sunday to approve the release of a second batch of Paleostinian prisoners under the terms of the renewed peace talks.
Public radio said that, in tandem with confirming the release, Israeli authorities would announce a new swathe of settler housing to be built in the occupied West Bank or annexed east Jerusalem.
An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... , said in a text message Thursday that such continued construction was part of "understandings" reached with the Paleostinians and the Americans ahead of the renewal of talks.
"Israel will continue in the coming months to announce building in the settlement blocs and in Jerusalem," he wrote.
"Both the Americans and the Paleostinians were aware in advance of these understandings."
But Yasser Abed Rabbo ... Paleostinian politician and a member of the Paleostine Liberation Organization's (PLO) Executive Committee. He holds an M.A. in economics and political science from the American University in Cairo..... , secretary general of the Paleostine Liberation Organisation, denied such understandings exist.
"Establishing a link between settlements and the freeing of prisoners goes against all the undertakings made," he told AFP. It would "create a very dangerous situation that we would not accept at any cost."
He added that the United States, which is sponsoring the talks, had actually "promised that it would manage to reduce Israeli settlement activities to a minimum.
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[Al Ahram] Residents in the disputed region of Abyei are celebrating ahead of the upcoming referendum on whether they want to join Sudan or South Sudan, an exercise some fear could trigger violence.
Luka Biong, the front man for a civic group that is organizing the vote, said Saturday that the area's Ngok Dinka people have been "singing and dancing" as they wait to cast ballots Sunday. He said the Sudan-allied Misseriya nomads, who come to Abyei to find pasture for their cattle, will not be allowed to participate.
Both Sudan and South Sudan claim ownership of oil-rich Abyei, whose status was unresolved after South Sudan became independent from its northern neighbor in 2011. Abyei's majority Ngok Dinka people are believed to be in favor of joining South Sudan.
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[MAGHAREBIA] Residents in Zawia have been staging a protest in its main square, Martyrs Square, against the local council, the General National Congress and the government. Protestors claim that the council and Congress, in particular, are dominated by the Moslem Brüderbund.
Demonstrations were said to have been launched from several mosques in the town against the Moslem Brüderbund after Friday prayers yesterday, demanding changes in both bodies.
According to former Zawia Local Council member Abdulfattah Ammar, the protests started on Wednesday afternoon, after Dhuhur prayers with "hundreds of people" converging on the square. "There were young and old people at the protest from all walks of life with no political orientation demanding the GNC a change course," he stressed.
However, some people cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go... according to the head of Zawia Local Council, Mohammed Khathrawi, the protestors, who he said had been attending the funeral of one of the town's revolutionaries, were not against the Brotherhood. Rather they were calling for better performances by the council and government and changes in the GNC. Members of the council, he told the Libya Herald, had gone to the square to negotiate with them.
This latter is denied by Ammar who insists that the local council did not react to the protests nor did it enter into dialogue with the protesters.
The French are mobilising around 600 troops from the "Desert" joint tactical group, supported by Tiger and Gazelle attack helicopters.
The chief of staff of the French armed forces, Admiral Edouard Guillaud, was quoted by AFP as saying that the "disorganization of the terrorist networks" was a priority for the Serval troops.
"There are still areas where terrorist groups are gathering residually," one officer revealed. "We must explore them in depth in order to reduce their logistical potential by intercepting their supply chains."
According to analyst Daha Ould Sidi Ali, "the upsurge in activity on the part of terrorist groups in northern Mali proves that they are still there".
"Over the past few weeks, pick-up trucks laden with explosives, shells and large quantities of handguns and assault weapons have been discovered," he noted.
According to observers, the recent Tessalit attack means that the number of MINUSMA troops, currently at 6,000, urgently needs to be increased to more than 12,000 by the end of the year. Yet La Belle France plans to reduce the number of its soldiers from 3,000 to 1,000 by the end of January 2014.
Kadré Desiré Ouedraogo, the president of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), said Wednesday that the organization needed "to encourage the member states and other countries to respond to the call to reinforce MINUSMA".
Meanwhile, ...back at the comedy club, Boogie sadly admitted that he was a better peeping Tom than he was a comedian... the inhabitants of northern Mali are exasperated at the return of violence. Myriam Toure, a trader in Gao, said: "The north has been ravaged and abandoned. What worries us the most is the weakness of the Malian state."
"What will happen to us if the foreign troops pull out? In any case, they are our only hope now. And because of all that, we don't feel safe at the moment and we're really losing sleep over this rise in the number of attacks," she told Magharebia.
Terrorism expert Sidati Ould Cheikh said: "In the current situation, it is clear that the central Malian authorities lack the means and the capacity to tackle the big security challenge single-handedly, so the international community must continue to provide support for some time to come"
"The international troops should double their efforts to eradicate these groups, which are completely unpredictable and very difficult to fight," he added.
Due to the deteriorating security situation in Mali and the region as a whole, the terrorist threat faced by Niger has become more serious. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Mali's Movement for Tawhid and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), and Nigeria's Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... have also conducted operations in Niger.
Niger has been on high alert since June. After the attacks in Arlit and Agadez, the jihadists are now turning their attention to the capital. Confrontations have taken place in Niamey Prison.
Nigerien Justice Minister and government front man Marou Amadou said, "There needs to be a sense of responsibility, because Niger is now at war. We need there to be a sense of responsibility for our compatriots."
People in Niamey are living in fear. But there are signs that the country may turn the tide.
"In August, a broad-based national unity government was created in Niger by a Touareg prime minister, Brigi Rafini, at the behest of President Mahamadou Issoufou. The main task of this government is to resolve the problem of insecurity in the country with the jihadist threat and the kidnappings in the north of the country," Sidati Ould Cheikh said.
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[An Nahar] Americans may insist on the right to pursue happiness, but Venezuela now has a formal government agency in charge of enforcing it.
President Nicolas Maduro says the new Vice Ministry of Supreme Social Happiness will coordinate all the "mission" programs created by the late His Excellency President-for-Life, Caudillo of the Bolivarians Hugo Chavez to alleviate poverty.
Wags had a field day Friday, waxing sarcastic on Twitter about how happy they felt less than 24 hours after the announcement.
Oil-rich Venezuela is chronically short of basic goods and medical supplies. Annual inflation is running officially at near 50 percent and the U.S. dollar now fetches more than seven times the official rate on the black market.
In downtown Caracas, fruit vendor Victor Rey said he's now waiting for Maduro to create a vice ministry of beer.
"That would make me, and all the drunks, happy," he said.
A TV journalist whose show was recently forced off the air after he refused to censor political opponents of the ruling socialists, Leopoldo Castillo, called Maduro's announcement an international embarrassment.
Housewife Liliana Alfonzo, 31, said that instead of a Supreme Happiness agency she'd prefer being able to get milk and toilet paper, which disappear off store shelves minutes after arriving at stores.
"It's a Calvary getting the ingredients for any meal," she said.
Maduro blames the shortages on speculation and hoarding, but merchants say they would go broke if they adhered to government price controls.
Chavez spent billions on social programs, from benefits for single mothers to handouts of apartments and major appliances.
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#1
I'm happy, happy, happy! It's working for me already!
#9
For the sake of your generic Venezuelan, I hope the Social Happiness agency has more success than the Ministry of Toilet Paper. Not that I would bet on it.
[Al Ahram] A Cairo misdemeanors court dismissed a lawsuit on Saturday accusing former vice president Mohamed ElBaradei of "breaching national trust."
The lawsuit was filed by a number of Egyptian lawyers after ElBaradei resigned from the vice presidency in protest of the violent dispersal of two sit-ins supporting former president Mohamed Morsi on 14 August.
Following Saturday's decision, ElBaradei criticised the "malicious and absurd lawsuits" filed against him.
"Are lies and hypocrisy becoming a hobby for some?" asked ElBaradei via Twitter.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has been subject to a smear campaign by a number of journalists and politicians who charge that his resignation was "unpatriotic" and accuse him of abandoning the government at a critical moment.
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[Al Ahram] Students at Al-Azhar University in Cairo's Nasr City district staged what they called "anti-coup" demonstrations on campus Saturday as tensions rise between them and security forces.
Groups of students have been protesting what they call a "military coup" that toppled Islamist president Mohammed Morsi ...the former president of Egypt. A proponent of the One Man, One Vote, One Time principle, Morsi won election after the deposal of Hosni Mubarak and jumped to the conclusion it was his turn to be dictator... . They reject the country's interim leadership and call for Morsi's reinstatement.
On Saturday, dozens of students protested at Al-Azhar's Faculty of Arabic Language, chanting slogans like "One word, always remember ... The soldiers will not rule us."
Meanwhile, ...back at the alley, Bugs Moroni was holding Slats from behind while his brother Greasy Thumb was pounding his face into paste ... the university closed down its administration building, where students had been protesting for a week, for "renovations," Al-Ahram Arabic news website reported.
Pro-Morsi students continue to vow more action. They announced on social media websites that they are planning "a surprise" move on Monday, saying it will be an escalation in their protest.
On 17 October, students' protests at Al-Azhar broke into violence when police intervened to disperse what they said was a non-peaceful demonstration. The interior ministry said in a statement that police only fired teargas at students after they rioted outside the university gates and blocked roads around campus to traffic.
At least seven students were tossed in the calaboose Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! and a policeman was injured, according to security sources.
The university's student union, however, said that 30 students were arrested.
Al-Azhar University belongs to Al-Azhar Institution, Egypt's highest Sunni-Islam authority.
Mohammed Morsi was deposed by the armed forces 3 July after mass nationwide protests against his rule. The ouster was part of a roadmap agreed upon by many political forces, including Al-Azhar and the Coptic Church.
Morsi's supporters, led by the Moslem Brüderbund from which he hails, have been protesting since, calling for his reinstatement.
Tensions have been building between pro-Morsi protesters and the police amid a crackdown by security forces on the Moslem Brüderbund, with hundreds killed or nabbed Book 'im, Mahmoud! since pro-Morsi sit-ins were forcibly dispersed mid-August.
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[Al Ahram] The United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... peace envoy for Syria said on Saturday Iran should be invited to planned peace talks in Geneva, Iran's English-language Press TV reported, in comments sure to rile Gulf Arab states.
Iran has strongly backed Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... in Syria's civil war while Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... and other Gulf Arab states support the Syrian leader's mainly Sunni rebel foes.
The Saudis are also deeply worried by signs of a tentative reconciliation between its ally the United States and its regional rival Iran.
"We believe that the participation of Iran in the Geneva conference is natural and necessary as well as fruitful, so we are hopeful that this invitation is made," Lakhdar Brahimi told a news conference in Tehran, according to Press TV, which translated his live remarks into English.
"The secretary-general of the United Nations, I and lots of other people, we are waiting, we want to see Iran take part in the conference," he said.
Several officials, including Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... chief Nabil Elaraby, have said they expect the Geneva 2 conference to convene on Nov. 23, though the United States, Russia and the United Nations have all said no date has been officially set.
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#1
But-t-t ... ...
* TOPIX > [Daily Times] SYRIA REBEL GROUPS BRAND GENEVA TALKS AS "TREASON".
That used to be all-or-nothing Baby Assad versus the all-or-nothing Syrian Rebs, is now increasingly Assad versus the all-or-nothing Al-Qaeda Affiliates + other For'eners.
Again, Iran gets its Nukes, which means Assad + Boyz stay; or the Bammer invades, occupies Syria + turns the country into Not-Iraq "Afghanistan/
AFPAK II", NOW WID RUSSIANS + IRATE IRANIANS.
[Ynet] Kurdish snuffies seized a Syrian border post on the frontier with Iraq early on Saturday, a monitoring group said, after three days of festivities with an al Qaeda-linked group which had held the crossing for more than a year.
The Yarubiya post and surrounding areas in the northeast were taken from the Islamist State of Iraq and the Levant rebel group, who had seized it from the army, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
#6
Tell your 'liberal' guilt ridden friends that in a world in which slavery had been the norm for all of recorded human history, the Free States paid in blood to the tune of 250,000 white men to put the 13th Amendment on the American Constitution. That was in an American population one tenth the size of today. Ask them, in comparison, if they could comprehend something for which anyone today is willing to sacrifice two and half million just as righteous.
#7
...slavery was, is and always shall be a very bad place, irrespective of form. That said, and, please, feel free to bash me for unintended raaaaacial undertones, had it not been for slavery, JJ and company would probably be living in one of our present-day African Edens, marveling in disbelief that here is a place in the world where clean, fresh water may be obtained at any time merely by turning a handle...
[Libya Herald] Residents in Zawia have been staging a protest in its main square, Martyrs Square, against the local council, the General National Congress and the government. Protestors claim that the council and Congress, in particular, are dominated by the Moslem Brüderbund.
Demonstrations were said to have been launched from several mosques in the town against the Moslem Brüderbund after Friday prayers yesterday, demanding changes in both bodies.
According to former Zawia Local Council member Abdulfattah Ammar, the protests started on Wednesday afternoon, after Dhuhur prayers with "hundreds of people" converging on the square. "There were young and old people at the protest from all walks of life with no political orientation demanding the GNC a change course," he stressed.
However, a good lie finds more believers than a bad truth... according to the head of Zawia Local Council, Mohammed Khathrawi, the protestors, who he said had been attending the funeral of one of the town's revolutionaries, were not against the Brotherhood. Rather they were calling for better performances by the council and government and changes in the GNC. Members of the council, he told the Libya Herald, had gone to the square to negotiate with them.
This latter is denied by Ammar who insists that the local council did not react to the protests nor did it enter into dialogue with the protesters.
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[An Nahar] The Mufti of Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... and the north, Sheikh Malek al-Shaar, stressed on Saturday that the situation in Tripoli is not sectarian but rather is based on a side's allegiance to a foreigner country.
"We reject to slip into any sectarian strife," Shaar said during a meeting for the Higher Islamic Council at the Dar al-Fatwa in the northern city of Tripoli.
He called on the security forces to end the battles between the rival neighborhoods of Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tabbaneh.
Al-Shaar also demanded the arrest of "the criminals," praising the efforts undertaken by the Lebanese judiciary to unveil the violators.
The corpse count from five days of festivities in Tripoli between supporters and opponents of the Syrian regime has climbed to at least six.
The latest casualty was a 22-year-old mother of two, who died from gunshot wounds she suffered on Thursday, a security official said, adding that another 49 people have been maimed.
Sunni and Alawite gunnies have been fighting in the Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen districts of Tripoli since Monday and were still exchanging gunfire on Friday afternoon.
The Lebanese army meanwhile set up barricades to separate them.
The fighting broke out Monday while an interview with Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor. If he'd stuck with it he'd have had a good practice by now... was being aired on television.
Residents of Bab al-Tabbaneh support the anti-Assad revolt, while those in Jabal Mohsen back Assad, and both sides have fought frequently since the Syrian conflict erupted in March 2011.
The latest fighting has prompted residents to flee the impoverished neighborhoods while schools and universities have been closed in Tripoli since mid-week.
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[An Nahar] EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton urged rebels in the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo aka Republic of Congo, which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material... and regional players to commit to peace Saturday as fighting flared again, days after peace talks failed.
A statement from Ashton's office expressing strong concern over a second day of festivities in the northeast urged "the M23 to commit urgently to a peaceful solution based on the provisions" laid out in peace talks in Kampala that broke down on Monday.
She also called on "all actors in the region to prevent further escalation and internationalization of the conflict."
"The reported impact across the border in Rwanda of recent actions should also be jointly investigated," she said.
Neighboring Rwanda has accused DR Congo troops of firing three shells over the border into its territory and threatened to retaliate if the firing continued.
Rebels claimed the army attacked their positions early Friday, but the military insisted it came under attack first -- a claim supported by a source from the U.N. peacekeeping mission in the country, MONUSCO.
Ashton reiterated that the region had agreed to a framework calling for an end to support for gangs and urged "all actors to live up to their responsibilities to ensure peace."
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[Al Ahram] Tunisia's ruling Islamist party and the opposition began talks on Friday to form a caretaker government and prepare for elections under an agreement to end months of unrest in the country that inspired the "Arab Spring" revolts.
The North African nation has been in turmoil since July when the liquidation of an opposition leader ignited anti-government protests that threatened to derail a democratic transition once seen as a model for the region.
Moderate Islamist party Ennahda has agreed its government will resign after three weeks of talks to appoint a non-partisan cabinet to govern until elections. The two sides will also decide on a vote date and appoint an electoral commission.
"The train out of this crisis is on the tracks, and we are now on the way to finishing our transition to elections," Ennahda chairman Rached Ghannouchi told news hounds.
Tunisia's post-revolt path has been less violent than those of its neighbours: Egypt's military ousted an elected Islamist leader and Libya's fragile government seems impotent against many groups of powerful former militiamen, who overthrew former ruler Muammar Qadaffy ...a reminder that a single man with an idea can change an entire nation, usually for the worse... .
But since the fall of autocratic leader Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia has seen a growing split between Islamists and their opponents over the place of Islam in one of the Mohammedan world's most secular countries.
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[An Nahar] Syria's jihadist al-Nusra Front said in a statement on Saturday that its leader was in good health, after state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
had reported his death.
"What was claimed by one channel alone, regarding what it claimed was the killing of the emir of al-Nusra Front, was a lie," said the group.
On Friday night, Syrian state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
said Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani had been killed in coastal Latakia province, but state news agency SANA quickly withdrew an alert saying the same thing.
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Three people died overnight in Lebanons northern city of Tripoli in clashes between supporters and opponents of Syrias regime, bringing to nine the toll this week, an official said on Saturday. Two of the casualties were Sunnis, said the security official. The third, an Alawi, died after he and an accomplice on a moped opened fire on an army roadblock and he was hit by return fire.
Sunni and Alawi gunmen have been fighting in the Bab Al Tebbaneh and Jabal Mohsen districts of Tripoli since Monday. Residents of Bab al-Tebbaneh support the revolt against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, while those in Jabal Mohsen back Assad. They have fought frequently since the Syrian conflict erupted in March 2011.
Since the latest fighting broke out, six Sunnis have died and three Alawis. The higher Sunni toll is explained by the fact that Jabal Mohsen overlooks much more densely populated Bab Al Tebbaneh and because the Alawis are better organised, security sources said.
The northern port city is 80 per cent Sunni, with Christians and a smaller number of Alawis making up the balance.
Acting Prime Minister Najib Mikati said on Saturday that security forces will take every step to put an end to the violence and chaos in the city of 200,000. They will be strict and impartial.
As impartial as security forces could ever be...
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The Philippine military on Friday reported that heavily-armed guerrillas from the communist New People's Army (NPA) kidnapped six candidates in Agusan del Sur province who are running in the Oct.28 barangay (village) election just three days away.
Lieutenant General Rainer Cruz also said a soldier was injured during a clash in their pursuit operation against the 30 NPA militants who abducted the candidates in the town of Loreto on Thursday morning.
Cruz said the abduction was the latest indication of the NPA's desire to influence the Oct.28 election in which the positions at stake are those for village chairmen and councilmen. To achieve this the militants would harass candidates who either refused their promise of support or rejected their demand for the payment of fees so they could campaign in "NPA-controlled areas".
This practice was not new, but Cruz noted the militants have introduced a new twist based on military intelligence information and captured NPA documents. He said the NPA promised to ensure the victory in the polls of candidates willing to pay them various amounts every month -- $12 each for village chairmen and $5 for councilmen.
[Al Ahram] Attacks in Iraq killed 10 people on Saturday, seven of them from the same family, security and medical officials said.
In the Dura area of southern Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... , gunnies armed with silenced weapons rubbed out a father, mother, four sons and the wife of one of them at their home, the officials said.
The father was a member of the Sahwa anti-Al-Qaeda militia, who joined forces with the United States from late 2006 and are frequently targeted by Sunni Death Eaters, who view them as traitors.
In the Mansur area of west Storied Baghdad, a lawyer was killed by a magnetic "sticky bomb" attached to his car.
And gunnies opened fire on a bus carrying Shia pilgrims in Balad, north of Storied Baghdad, killing two people and wounding 11. It was unclear if they were Iraqis or not.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/27/2013
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[Pak Daily Times] A day after returning from the high-profile four-day US visit, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... on Saturday picked up his pen to muster support of the political parties for passage of a new law that is being dubbed as a 'single-pill cure' to all the challenges to illusory sovereignty and integrity of the country.
"I am sure that you will spare some time to give it a reading and support the government in its passage through the parliament in due course with the same spirit and determination that you exhibited during the recent All Parties Conference," the prime minister said as he sent separate letters to heads of all the political parties, enclosed with a copy of the "Protection of Pakistain Ordinance 2013".
The prime minister held dictators and the misgovernance by successive governments responsible for 'erosion' of the writ and authority of the state. "Decades of dictatorial regime and misgovernance have resulted in complete erosion of the state writ and authority. Apart from the remote areas, safe havens in urban centres and towns have also become a cause of serious concern," he said, as in the same breath, he took law enforcement agencies to task for failing to maintain internal security and effectively prosecute the criminals. "Coupled with the failure of law enforcement agencies responsible for internal security and prosecution of crime, due to a variety of reasons, we are currently facing a situation where life and property of the people is in grave danger."
Ineffective legislation is another factor the prime minister counted for pushing the country into a situation where the life and property of the citizens is not safe. "On the other hand, the organised mafia is roaming free due to legal vacuum created by constant tampering with different legislations over an extended period of time," he said and added that the socio-economic fabric of our society as well as the age-old value system binding this nation is in danger of disintegration. Unveiling the rationale behind the promulgation of the new laws, the prime minister said, "This ordinance is being promulgated with a view to give a strong message to the organised crime and anti-state elements regarding the will and determination of the state and the people of Pakistain to face and eliminate all challenges to illusory sovereignty and integrity of this country."
The prime minister reminded the political parties in the letter that they had been elected by the people to rid the country of the menace of terrorism that has inflicted heavy losses on the nation since the adoption of post 9/11 policies," he said. "It is in this context and with a view to the potential unfolding of events in post-2014 Afghanistan that the federal government considered it imperative to put in place a legal mechanism for intervention to protect the right and liberty of the common man as well as the illusory sovereignty and integrity of the state of Pakistain," the prime minister said and assured the political parties that the effort was within the parameters of the constitution of the country.
"A team of legal and security experts have worked diligently to ensure that the new law is in complete consonance with the constitution of Pakistain," he assured.
Separately, the prime minister ordered Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar to keep all political parties in the loop regarding the status of the dialogue with the Taliban.
"The representatives of different parliamentary parties should feel themselves as part and parcel of the process," he said. The prime minister's directions coincide with another letter written by opposition leader Khursheed Shah to him, questioning unnecessary delays in starting dialogue with the Taliban. He also demanded of the government to implement the decisions taken by the All Parties Conference. "Parliament and masses should be taken in confidence over implementation of the decisions of the APC," he demanded.
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10/27/2013
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[An Nahar] Fierce festivities raged Saturday after Syrian Kurds seized from jihadists a crossing on the Iraqi border, a key supply route for weapons and fighters in the 31-month war, activists said.
Fighters from both sides were killed in the border festivities, which came a day after Syria's regime and its opponents traded blame for a car kaboom on a mosque that left dozens dead.
The Kurds "took control of the Al-Yaarubia border crossing with Iraq at dawn after festivities with the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, the Al-Nusra Front and other rebels," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, citing activists.
The Kurds have been struggling to carve out an autonomous northeastern region similar to one in northern Iraq, further complicating the Syrian war.
Rebels battling to oust Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Horror of Homs... have increasingly turned their guns on each other in the past few months, with jihadists fighting the mainstream Free Syrian Army in the north, where the snuffies control vast swathes of territory.
The seizure of the border post would be another blow for the Islamists. State television said late Friday that Al-Nusra leader Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani had been killed, but the Al-Qaeda-linked group said he was in good health.
The conflict flared when Assad's opponents took up arms in response to his regime's brutal crackdown on Arab Spring-inspired protests that erupted in March 2011.
More than 115,000 people are estimated to have been killed, millions uprooted from their homes and tens of thousands trapped by the relentless fighting.
Saturday's violence comes a day after a boom-mobile outside a mosque in Suq Wadi Barada, a town near Damascus, killed at least 40 people and maimed dozens more, according to the Observatory.
State news agency SANA said "the car went kaboom! while the snuffies were packing it with explosives," using the regime term for rebels.
The opposition National Coalition blamed the regime for the "massacre" caused by what it said were two boom-mobiles placed outside the Osama Bin Zeid mosque.
Elsewhere an army ambush killed about 24 rebels on the outskirts of Damascus, said the Observatory. SANA put the toll at 40.
The army has closed in on Eastern Ghouta, a ring of rebel-held suburbs it has besieged for months and which was targeted in an August chemical attack that killed hundreds of people and almost led to punitive U.S. strikes.
UN and U.S. officials have expressed concern ...meaning the brow was mildly wrinkled, the eyebrows drawn slightly together, and a thoughtful expression assumed, not that anything was actually done or indeed that any thought was actually expended... about Eastern Ghouta and other besieged Damascus suburbs, following reports of severe food shortages and rising malnutrition there.
Mushrooming humanitarian crisis
On Friday, U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos urged the Security Council to put "sustained pressure" on Syria to allow access to some 2.5 million trapped civilians.
The Observatory described a similarly dire situation in the central city of Homs, where it said some 3,000 civilians were trapped in an area sealed off by regime forces for more than a year.
"Three thousands civilians, among them 500 aged over 70, are living exclusively off the little food that had been stored in the besieged districts of Homs," said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman.
Further north, in the Sfeirah district near Aleppo, some 130,000 Syrians have fled non-stop heavy bombing in a "massive exodus" this month, said Doctors Without Borders.
A U.N.-commissioned report said more than half of Syria's population is living in poverty and warned that the economic devastation could last for years.
UN agencies said they were racing to vaccinate children against a host of diseases amid fears of a polio ...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set... outbreak, which would be the country's first since 1999.
The mushrooming humanitarian crisis, and the initial success in implementing a U.S.-Russian accord to dismantle Syria's chemical arsenal, have spurred renewed efforts to convene peace talks.
But despite pressure from its Western and Arab backers, the fractured Syrian opposition has yet to decide whether to attend the so-called Geneva 2 conference proposed for next month.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/27/2013
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#1
"More than 115,000 people are estimated to have been killed, millions uprooted from their homes and tens of thousands trapped by the relentless fighting.
All of them Moslems. ( doing it to one another too ) But then....it IS the Religion of Peace.
#2
Money wins wars. If SA and the Gulf are willing to pony up the cash, the rebels still win.
In other news, a Druze has been appointed to lead Israel's Golani Brigade. Straws in the wind for a Druzistan from the Jordan border to well in Leb. Which mightely screws Hizbullah.
But the other problem with the website launch is that ObamaCare's structural problems run even deeper than the worst of its information technology failures. The evidence continues to mount that the vast majority of people "enrolling" in ObamaCare this month have been going onto Medicaid, not purchasing insurance policies. Of course, since this titanic fraud of an Administration refuses to release the actual enrollment figures, there's a lot of guesswork going on.
The hard numbers we do have are "surprising" to Medicaid officials and state administrators,
who are so easily surprised I'm amazed that they're alive...
according to CBS News: "In Washington, of the more than 35,000 people newly enrolled, 87 percent signed up for Medicaid. In Kentucky, out of 26,000 new enrollments, 82 percent are in Medicaid. And in New York, of 37,000 enrollments, Medicaid accounts for 64 percent. And there are similar stories across the country in nearly half of the states that run their own exchanges."
So the only people who are signing up are the people who get free stuff. The young people who are supposed to sign up and pay premiums even though they're healthy and in the main don't need health insurance are not signing up. As they say in the MSM, unexpectedly!
Holy cow. That's not only going to break the already broken Medicaid system even further, it's going to bankrupt the insurance companies, which not only must sell millions of ObamaCare policies, but must rope in healthy young suckers to pay sky-high premiums to support the rest of the system.
#1
If the insurance companies don't get folks to sign up then they will be in relatively good shape as they will not have the obligation to provide health care to those who do not sign up. It is the tax payer who will be on the hook for the uninsured. Of course once the medicaid signups are done; if the rest are only the medically needy that will create a problem for them. Then watch them request higher premiums or just withdraw from the insurance pool entirely.
#2
The system was designed to fail: things are proceeding according to plan. Once it fails look for broad-based demands for national single payer medical system and punish those evil one-percenter doctors.
#4
we might be on the verge of seeing Obama demand an even more obvious bailout of the insurance companies We'll be told we must authorize higher taxes and/or more deficit spending to cover the insurance industry's losses, and anyone who refuses is just a greedy SOB who wants poor people to die. That's how the most far-Left anti-capitalist President in U.S. history is going to push a billion-dollar bailout for the same big corporations he demonized when explaining why the government had to seize control of the health insurance industry.
So the uninsured before ObamaCare were not really uninsured as they had access to Medicaid coverage or access to the emergency room--all at taxpayers expense. So now they have access to ObozoCare which is really Medicaid. So what's changed other than the Ferel Govmint has taken over 1/6 of our economy and turned upside down and destroyed a rather good medical system? I have had two physicians in their 50s bale out and quit their practices (and a third considering it). My wife's insurance has changed--she had to change insurance companies. Anyone else have such experiences? Is it not now time to impeach and throw out these communist apparatchiks?
#6
I lost my BC/BS PPO as employees only are now covered, dropping spouses and children because of Obamacare mandates. I know others in the same boat, not qualifying for Medicaid but losing affordable group rates. Even those that say they 'love Obamacare' haven't actually signed up for it or are really on Medicaid and happy to get more free sh*t. Same people that got stimulus funds to fix stuff they didn't know was a problem, like adding insulation or replacing windows because some slick sales person said it was "free".
#10
"With Canada, Europe, and their national defense, it been since the end of WWII."
Bullsh*te...we don't need a massive military because we don't have the rest of the planet hating us, unlike the USA where, well, nobody really likes you, to be diplomatic-like...
"However, Bild is reporting that not only did Obama know about the bugging, but that he himself personally ok'd it in 2010, and stepped up surveillance on Merkel, calling for a "comprehensive dossier" on her."
...hope the US can keep the damage contained to Zero and Company...yes, the program began under Dubya, but Cmdr. Zero stepped up the game and personally directed it...President Nosey Thinskin may be feeling a little lonely of late...
Our intel agencies are supposed to spy on others. That's the whole point, and legality be damned. There's 10,000 years of recorded human history to serve as precedent that governments need intel on those around them. Champ may -- just may -- have gotten this one right. He might have looked at the dossier in question and asked, "where's the good shit?"
#4
Key bit - Couldnt be worse if he were purposely trying to harm the United States credibility with the rest of the world. . But we knew that already...
#5
Please give Champ some slack. It would have been entirely out of character for him to tell the truth.
For the most part the Germans think highly of Merkel. She's no-nonsense, very intelligent, a highly skilled and competent political operative and negotiator, leading a strong, vibrant economy of hard working people. In Champ's view, a "comprehensive dossier" is completely warranted. She's everything that he is NOT or ever will be. He loathes such people.
#8
Would it be unpolitic for someone to point out to Frau Merkel that she and the rest of the EU luvvies played a large part in getting this despicable blackgaurd elected?
This comes under the heading of "be careful what you wish for".
#9
""The Listener at the wall hears his own shame""
Posted by: European Conservative ||
10/27/2013 8:45
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#10
@AlanC
In 2008 Obama wanted to hold his rally in Berlin at the Brandenburg Gate. The leftist Berlin mayor was game, but Merkel said no. Obama never forgot that.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
10/27/2013 8:47
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#11
IIRC she's a solid East German. She's knows a good effective apparatchik and a doofus self absorbed wannabe academic types of the Leftist world when she sees them.
#13
What would be inteesting if to know if Obama showed equal cuioisty for, say, King of Saudi Aabia, Pesident of Palistan, Amid Kaai o Ian's headd honcho.
#14
So who said Merkel was spied on and how? Snowden? To me that's the big issue, not that the spying (may have) happened, but who said so and why were they in a position to be able to credibly say so, and why are they still alive?
She remained as neutral as she could possibly be, but it was pretty clear at the time that Obama would become president.
Don't blame Europe for this one, blame the Republicans with their poor candidate.
Obama DID run an excellent campaign in 2008, making full use of the internet and social media.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
10/27/2013 11:31
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#16
Don't blame Europe for this one, blame the Republicans with their poor candidate.
That would be the same 'candidate' who was a man of honor, of undisputable faith, a class act, successful family man and father. That would be the same 'candidate' that successfully ran a number of businesses and became a wealthy man, not through graft and politics, but through hard work and initiative. That would be the same 'candidate' that promised to end Obamacare.
Nothing wrong with the seed. The soil has suffered severe retrogression and will only support weeds.
#19
I don't doubt that John McCain is a good man. He just run a poor campaign.
And yes, voter fraud is not something you hear a lot about in Germany. The dead don't vote here.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
10/27/2013 11:55
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#20
"I don't doubt that John McCain is a good man."
I'm beginning to wonder, EC. :-(
Posted by: Barbara ||
10/27/2013 13:08
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#21
I don't doubt that John McCain is a good man. He just run a poor campaign.
And you would be wrong. When McVain was cleared to return to duty after his release from the Hanoi Hilton. He ultimately wound up as CO of VA-174, an A7-E FAM (familiarization/training) squadron.
He was known as a buddy fucker. There wasn't a deployed officer/pilots wife he wouldn't try to fuck.
He was a miserable douche bag then, and from what I can see, he hasn't changed much, in fact, I'd say he's gotten worse.
Posted by: Secret Asian Man ||
10/27/2013 14:02
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#22
You probably know better than I do...
As to the spying... there's checking up on foreign leaders to see what they're up to, whom they meet etc.
Listening into their phone calls is not a good idea... I doubt that Merkel said important things on her unsecured phone and the damage when your bugging is found is substantial.
But what is terminally stupid is to lie about it when you must know that evidence exists to disprove you on the spot.
All that NSA spying will have significant economical impact. American software companies already feel it.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
10/27/2013 14:29
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They're upset because the NSA is treating them like common peasants. They got a dose of their own medicine.
As for Obama's 'dossier': If there's good reason to be suspicious of the likes of Huma Abedin or Valerie Jarrett or even B. Hussein Obama then there's also a very good reason to keep an eye on Merkel's activities.
Not to mention that since only months after 9/11 all German administrations have seen to it that there was light between the US and Germany.
I'm no fan of Obama and I don't want to make excuses for him.
The way I see it this is a sort of international game of checks and balances. Two groups' of crooks rivalry keeps them from even more thoroughly screwing the peasants their respective public.
#26
g(r)om, not that I have any knowledge, but I doubt it. The queen of England has almost no real power.
The prime minister on the other hand ...
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
10/27/2013 16:23
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#27
the bug was in the iPod of Obama speeches they gave her. I expect it was in the airport trash before she left the terminal
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/27/2013 16:49
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#28
Europe has an strong aristocratic bent, and aristocrats exempt each other from such nasty business. They assumed Champ was one of them due to his Lefty politics. By breaking the rules he has proven once and for all that he is NOT one of them. Put another way, if you can't abide by a gentleman's agreement then you are, sir, no gentleman.
In Europe, Champ is now a pariah. That's fine with Champ, but bad for the US and for the world. Best case is that the UK and continental press now goes after him. Word will trickle out on this end of the pond once all the stories come out that our worthless press has been hiding.
[An Nahar] Four people were killed in the northern city of Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... in overnight festivities between rival gunnies, the result of the spillover of the Syrian war, the state-run National News Agency reported on Saturday.
NNA said the city witnessed the deadly gunbattles on Friday night, but the festivities subsided after 1:00 am.
And on Saturday, three more people were killed in the fighting as festivities intensified in the evening.
Again, gunnies from the districts of Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen used machine-guns and Rocket Propelled Grenades, leaving four people dead overnight.
But the intensity of the fighting decreased in the early hours of Saturday. The hotspots, including the area of al-Mankoubine witnessed only intermittent gunfire.
The army again responded to the sources of fire and its forces patrolled in the area, NNA said.
But later on Saturday, the NNA reported that Mohammed al-Jundi and Abdul Rahman Hamzeh were maimed in sniper fire in the northern city.
It noted that al-Jundi is at death's door.
But the same source then said the injured man died of his wounds.
Radio Voice of Leb (93.3) remarked that Hamzeh was also killed.
And late on Saturday, the NNA added that Omar Abbas died in Bab al-Tabbaneh.
It noted that the fighting has intensified in the city in the evening.
The deaths have likely brought the toll of the latest round of festivities to 12. Dozens more have been injured.
Three of the injuries were reported early on Saturday when two men were maimed from stray bullets during the funeral of two men killed on Friday.
A third person was maimed from sniper fire.
Meanwhile, ...back at the precinct house, Sergeant Maloney wasn't buying it. It was just too pat. The whole thing smelled phony, kind of like a dead mackeral but without the scales... LBCI television announced that the vehicle of its team covering the festivities in Tripoli was hit by sniper fire.
"But no crew was injured in the incident," it noted.
Civil society activists held a sit-in later in the day, urging the state to impose security in Tripoli and asking the judiciary to issue verdicts against those who plotted and carried out the deadly mosque bombings in August.
Military units were seen on Saturday morning setting up a checkpoint at Abu Ali roundabout that links Tripoli with the northern district of Akkar. It checked IDs and inspected vehicles that took the major international highway.
The market was also open in areas that are not close to the hotspots. Shops, banks and businesses were back to work as usual but the Lebanese University campus in al-Qobbeh and schools near the tense areas remained closed.
Top officials have said that they have given the green light to the armed forces to bring the situation in Tripoli under control.
The fighting broke out Monday while an interview with Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators... was being aired on al-Mayadeen television.
Residents of Bab al-Tabbaneh support the anti-Assad revolt, while those in Jabal Mohsen back Assad, and both sides have fought frequently since the Syrian conflict erupted in March 2011.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/27/2013
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[Al Ahram] Three leading reformers faced with expulsion from Sudan's ruling party have decided to form a new party following a deadly crackdown on protests last month, one of them said Saturday.
"We decided to establish a new party carrying the hopes of the Sudanese people," Fadlallah Ahmed Abdallah, an MP with the governing National Congress Party (NCP), told AFP.
"We have already put in motion a plan to establish this party."
The name and structure of the new organization will be revealed within one week, Abdallah added.
On Thursday, an internal NCP investigative committee ruled that Abdallah, former sports minister Hassan Osman Riziq, and ex-presidential adviser Ghazi Salahuddin Atabani should be ousted after they signed a memorandum criticising the regime's crackdown on protests over price rises in September.
Atabani was the lead signatory but 30 other prominent reformers also signed the memorandum sent to President Omar al-Bashir Head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself president-for-life. He has fallen out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to Arabize Darfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it. that they made public.
They charged the government's response to the demonstrations over fuel price hikes betrayed the regime's Islamic foundations.
Abdallah, a former engineering commissioner in West Darfur state, said all the signatories of the memorandum planned to join the new party.
"The members of parliament in our group are going to resign," he added.
Atabani and Riziq also currently serve as NCP politicians.
Abdallah said retired military officers who signed the memorandum will also join the new group.
These include retired armed forces Brigadier Mohammed Ibrahim, who was sentenced to five years in prison in April for allegedly leading a coup plot against the regime last year.
Bashir later granted amnesty to him and others involved.
In their memorandum, the reformers made a series of recommendations, including for an independent probe of the shooting of civilians during the protests, and for a reversal of the price increases.
Instead, they found themselves under investigation by the party.
Ahmed Ibrahim al-Tahir, who led the internal probe, said Thursday that the NCP membership of Abdallah, Riziq and Atabani would be revoked if a 400-member party council gives final approval.
He said six others who endorsed the memorandum had been suspended from party activities for one year.
They violated party rules by setting up a "parallel organization" and by communicating with other political parties without NCP approval, Tahir said.
He added that the memorandum came at an inappropriate time, on September 27, when security forces were struggling against "criminals" and party unity was required.
"This was not a time to raise such a memorandum," said Tahir, who is speaker of parliament.
Atabani told AFP on Monday that his party membership had already been suspended but the reformers would not back down.
He said the NCP was spending too much time on "this minor internal issue at a time when the country is on the verge of collapse."
Thousands of people, many of them Khartoum-area poor, erupted into the streets when the government cut fuel subsidies, forcing retail prices up by more than 60 percent.
Dozens were killed.
Bashir said the protests were part of an effort to end his 24-year rule, using "agents, thieves and hijackers".
Posted by: Fred ||
10/27/2013
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Top|| File under: Arab Spring
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.
Israel is under heavy international pressure to attend a review by a United Nations agency scheduled for Tuesday in Geneva. On Friday, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle sent a personal letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, warning that Israels failure to attend the Human Rights Councils Universal Periodic Review would cause the country severe diplomatic damage and Israels allies around the world would be hard-pressed to help it.
[An Nahar] Hundreds of vigilantes armed with machetes and firearms attacked the town of Bouar in western Central African Republic on Saturday, forcing civilians to flee the area, a military source and residents said.
Healthcare insurance is not the healthcare industry, just as automobile insurance is not the automobile industry. What we're seeing with the Affordable Care Act is not healthcare reform, because it's not really reforming the business of healthcare. It's technically healthcare insurance reform. But it isn't even that. 
BELED HAWO, Somalia -- Ethiopian troops in armored fighting vehicles reached Gedo region town of Beled Hawo in the early hours of Saturday morning to resolve grudges between Somali government forces and pro-government militia of Ahlu Sunah Wal Jamea , Garowe Online reports.
[Al Ahram] Hundreds demonstrated on Saturday in downtown's Talaat Harb square against the newly proposed draft protest law, rallying under the banner "the street is ours."
[DAILYCALLER] First Lady Michelle Obama's Princeton classmate is a top executive at the company that earned the contract to build the failed Obamacare website.
The BNP-led 18-party alliance is set to enforce the 60-hour non-stop countrywide hartal from today dawn to mount pressure on the government to realise the key demand for a non-party poll-time government to oversee the next general elections. 
[Pak Daily Times] Clashes between two rival groups in 
[THEAUSTRALIAN.AU] AN Australian soldier and a New Zealand soldier have been 
[Al Ahram] Germany's domestic intelligence chief says more than 210 people are known to have traveled from Germany to Syria, and at least 15 have returned from the country's civil war with battle experience.
[An Nahar] A bomb 
Nawaz Sharif
David Cameron
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[ALLAFRICA] The 
[ABCNEWS.GO] Egypt's top prosecutor received complaints Saturday against a popular television satirist less than 24 hours after he returned to air, highlighting the low tolerance this deeply divided country has for criticism of the military and its leaders.
[BREITBART] Students in San Jose, Calif., can no longer hold car washes to raise for money for school events because city officials say they endanger the environment.
Yasser Abed Rabbo
[An Nahar] Americans may insist on the right to pursue happiness, but Venezuela now has a formal government agency in charge of enforcing it.
His Excellency President-for-Life, Caudillo of the Bolivarians Hugo Chavez
[Al Ahram] A Cairo misdemeanors court dismissed a lawsuit on Saturday accusing former vice president Mohamed ElBaradei of "breaching national trust."
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[An Nahar] EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton urged rebels in the 
[Al Ahram] Tunisia's ruling Islamist party and the opposition began talks on Friday to form a caretaker government and prepare for elections under an agreement to end months of unrest in the country that inspired the "Arab Spring" revolts.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[Al Ahram] Three leading reformers faced with expulsion from Sudan's ruling party have decided to form a new party following a deadly crackdown on protests last month, one of them said Saturday.
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