#7
when you show up prepared with your sample ballot filled out, it takes the same 5 minutes here. It's the fools and tools that don't take it seriously and have to actually "read" in the booth
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/05/2012 22:01
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#8
EC, you realize that we just don't vote on candidates. Most locales have just as many 'initiatives' and new/renewal tax levies to vote on as people running for office. Many of those initiatives haven't been aired or distributed to the public prior to arriving at the booths. Often their titles are misleading requiring a voter to take time to read literally a paragraph for each issue to discern what the intent of the proposed action is.
#9
Procopius, we have that too in regional elections. Still I have never seen a line. The reason? We have a lot more polling stations, the polling stations have more voting booths, and people don't need to figure out machines or the like.
Of course if you start reading the initiatives when in the voting booth only you deserve to be shot.
And really voting should be on weekends.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
11/05/2012 23:44
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#10
Unfortunately I believe that we won't know who has won tomorrow. I see endless litigation coming up because results are likely to be close.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
11/05/2012 23:46
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#1
any chance this is related to the shoot down of one of their Air Force planes?
I can't help thinking Benghazi 15,000 SA-7s missing and possibly some showing up in Gaza would make them look responsible if a SA-7 took out a Syrian warplane.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
11/05/2012 23:29
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Hard to believe. Wonder if they are paying her danger money for this job ... she'll be doing time in a rotten jail cell in Tehran if bombs start falling.
A Chicago lawyer is the key player behind the secret talks between the US and Iran. Yedioth Ahronoth reported Monday. A close friend of Michelle Obama, Valerie Jarrett is assisting the US government communicate behind the scenes with the representatives of Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
Jarret, who was born in the Iranian city of Shiraz, is a senior advisor to US President Barack Obama.
Last month, The New York Times reported that the US government is engaged in secret talks with Iran aimed at establishing a direct line of communication once the US presidential elections are over.
The National Security Council's spokesperson denied there is any agreement between the US and Iran regarding direct talks, but the following day senior government officials confirmed that talks took place though no future meeting was scheduled.
The US has tried to keep the secret contacts under wraps since some of the countries involved in the public negotiations, such as Russia, were excluded from them. Israel was originally surprised to learn of the talks, but state officials now reveal that they were going on for several months. The talks, they claim, were initiated and led by Jarret, and took place in Bahrain.
The US State Department estimated the economic pressure on Iran will peek in February or March, immidiately after the president-elect takes office, rendering the talks over Iran's nuclear program -- in case they materialize -- with potentially positive results.
A couple arrested in Pakistan on suspicion of killing their 15-year-old daughter with acid say they carried out the attack because she looked at a boy. The girl's father told the BBC that they feared she would bring dishonour on their family. Her mother said it was her "destiny" to die that way.
The couple were arrested in Pakistani-administered Kashmir last week.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan reported 943 women were killed in honour killings last year. That represented an increase of more than 100 from 2010.
The question, and remember death is not an option: are Pakistani families becoming bolder, are the Pakistani police being more incompetent, or is Pakistani society becoming more perverted? Discuss...
Police say that the incident took place in a remote village in the southern district of Kotli. They say that the case was brought to their attention by the couple's eldest daughter.
The girl, known only as Anusha, was found to have burns over 60% of her body. Her father Muhammad Zafar told the BBC what happened:
"There was a boy who came by on a motorcycle. She (Anusha) turned to look at him twice. I told her before not to do that, it's wrong. People talk about us because our older daughter was the same way," he said.
Her mother Zaheen described the aftermath: "She said 'I didn't do it on purpose. I won't look again.' By then I had already thrown the acid. It was her destiny to die this way."
Anusha's father is reported to have taken his daughter inside, beaten her and then acid was poured over her with the help of his wife. Officials say that the couple did not take their daughter to hospital until the following morning. The couple say that an older daughter had already disgraced the family and they did not want to be dishonoured again.
The best hope for a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff may lie with the alternative minimum tax, an obscure provision of the tax code that is about to become alarmingly relevant to millions of middle-class taxpayers.
Unless Congress acts by the end of the year, more than 26 million households will for the first time face the AMT, which threatens to tack $3,700, on average, onto taxpayers bills for the current tax year. Because those people have never paid the AMT, they have no idea they are in its crosshairs put there by a broader stalemate over tax policy that has kept Congress from limiting the AMTs reach.
Forget about the much-publicized tax hikes set to take effect for 2013 if you have a couple of children and annual income over $75,000, chances are good that your taxes are on track to go up substantially for 2012.
Residents of high-cost urban areas, including Washington, would be hit hardest, with about 2 million households in Maryland, Virginia and the District in line to face the AMT for the first time, by official estimates.
Unlike most tax increases in the fiscal cliff, including the expiration of the George W. Bush-era income tax cuts, the AMT bill would come due almost immediately. And tax experts say it would be extremely disruptive to try to fix the AMT after the 2012 tax year closes Dec. 31.
Officials with the Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department declined to comment on the impact of adjusting the AMT after December. But congressional tax aides said the IRS has advised Congress that trying to fix the AMT after the filing season begins in January would lead to processing delays of more than two months for nearly half of all returns significantly postponing the delivery of refunds.
Posted by: Au Auric ||
11/05/2012
11:22 ||
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But congressional tax aides said the IRS has advised Congress that trying to fix the AMT after the filing season begins in January would lead to processing delays of more than two months for nearly half of all returns -- significantly postponing the delivery of refunds.
Who is going to have any refunds after AMT kicks in? And WHO runs this country? The IRS or Congress? This thing is going to get ugly.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/05/2012 13:47
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#2
The AMT is covered by an inflator, on the hedonist will be affected.
No wait!
AMT Exemption Amounts for 2011
Legislated as part of the 2010 Tax Relief Act:
$48,450 for single and head of household filers,
$74,450 for married people filing jointly and for qualifying widows or widowers, and
$37,225 for married people filing separately.
AMT Exemption Amounts for 2012
The alternative minimum tax exemption amounts for 2012 are scheduled to revert to the following levels:
$33,750 for single and head of household filers,
$45,000 for married people filing jointly and for qualifying widows or widowers, and
$22,500 for married people filing separately.
Source: Code Section 55(d)(1). Lower exemption levels mean that more taxpayers will be subject to the alternative minimum tax calculations.
AMT Tax Rates
The exemption amounts mean that this amount of AMT taxable income is not subject to the AMT. Income over these amounts may be subject to AMT. Unlike the ordinary tax rates, the AMT has only two tax brackets. The AMT tax rate is assessed only on AMT income over the exemption amount. The AMT tax rates are:
26% on the first $175,000 of AMT taxable income, and
28% on the remainder of AMT taxable income
#6
Really, somebody should make a 50% new income tax for politicians. That would should alot of them up.
Posted by: Charles ||
11/05/2012 19:24
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#7
yeah right. I'd just ask they pay what they owe, right, Charlie Rangel?
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/05/2012 19:27
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#8
See, the politicians and bureaucrats in the Feral Federal Government want to say that without a tax increase the existence of the present government is threatened by bankruptcy. The main issue is the size of government.
It will expand to meet the space it is allowed to inhabit, like a gas. The size of the container needs to be decreased, and the pressure needs to be brought down to safe levels.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/05/2012 20:13
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#9
"It will expand to meet the space it is allowed to inhabit"
I think the phrase is, "The junk you have will expand to fit the available space," Paul.
Posted by: Barbara ||
11/05/2012 23:10
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FRANCE'S first woman justice minister had up to EIGHT lovers on the go, it was claimed yesterday.
Rachida Dati is in a legal battle to try to force tycoon Dominique Desseigne to say he fathered her daughter Zohra, three.
Desseigne, 68, who is refusing to take a DNA test, insists he is one of many who had an "adventure" with Ms Dati, 47 -- which will further the philandering reputation of French politicians.
And his lawyers have claimed she was involved in up to eight relationships at the time.
It is claimed her boyfriends included a TV host, a Spanish PM, a Qatari politician and a brother of ex-French president Nicolas Sarkozy.
Those previously suspected of being Zohra's father include Mr Sarkozy himself.
Ms Dati, who has a reputation as a self-publicist, is said to have encouraged the speculation during interviews.
NHA TRANG, Vietnam A peculiar strand of literature on North Korea has been published in recent years, with the authors drawing heavily on interviews with defectors. Sure, North Korea has been a horrific place with famine and prison camps, but these books reveal a single slice of North Korean society. And it's dangerous that they're taken so frequently at face value when they remain unverifiable.
The stories these authors tell are indeed heart-wrenching. Journalist Blaine Harding, formerly at the Washington Post, wrote a biography of Shin Dong Hyuk in the 2012 book "Escape from Camp 14." Shin was a famous defector born and raised into the brutal environment of a labor camp from where he later escaped.
Unfortunately, there's a big flaw. The defector initially presented his story differently from what he later told to the author. Harden acknowledges in his book that the defector lied to him about his experiences, but decided to believe him anyway.
For seven years, I made a living in the world's most closed off communist country as of all careers there a businessman. Now living a comfortable life as an entrepreneur in Vietnam, I have all sorts of stories to tell that contradict these tales.
One of the most widely acclaimed works was Barbara Demicks 2010 book "Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea." She tells the stories of six different refugees who had lived through the hermit state's famine, known as the "Arduous March," during the 1990s, and who came from one of its poorest industrial cities, Chongjin. During the late 1990s, this city with no arable land was one of the most afflicted regions and witnessed mass starvation.
Bloomberg praised Demicks account of Nothing to Envy as a superbly reported account of life in North Korea." That's a misnomer. The book is an oral history not a marker of current events and I would call it superbly reported account of life in a single city, Chongjin, in the 1990s."
During the Cold War, Chongjin was a hub for steel, machinery and ship manufacturing and its port saw significant trade with the Soviet Union. I have visited numerous cities in North Korea, but no other city suffered such a massive industrial decline and ensuing mass unemployment after the Soviet collapse.
About six years after the six defectors suffered through food shortages, I visited Chongjin for the first time. Badly damaged infrastructures during the floods had been repaired, a number of withering and dilapidated factories had resumed operation after being abandoned, street markets had expanded and a good number of new buildings had been built.
Chongjin, no doubt, was still a poor and rugged city. But the residents told me that the 1990s had been the worst period in their lifetime worse than the Korean War and that the situation had improved considerably. Even the prolific North Korea historian Andrei Lankov wrote in Asia Times Online in September 2011 that:
... actually, from around 2002-2003, we have seen a steady but clear improvement in North Koreas economic situation. North Koreans are still malnourished, and likely to remain so for the foreseeable future. Nonetheless, they are not starving anymore at least not in significant numbers.
There are other examples of blatant academic deception. In 2012, Stanford professor Adam Johnson wrote the novel "The Orphan Master's Son" set in North Korea, but included just about every negative generalization he could find on the country. So much for "insight": he claimed, in a blatant and poorly researched falsehood, that in North Korea "no one has read a book that's not propaganda for 60 years.
Sure, propaganda is abound in North Korea, but patronizing literature like this doesn't give credit to the North Korean people where it's due. When I traveled around the countryside, school children narrated old Korean folktales to me, rather than regime propaganda. And my staff, along with all sorts of other North Koreans Ive met, have read foreign books such as Alexandre Dumass thriller "The Count of Monte Cristo" or Ernest Hemingways "Men Without Women." Some of them could even recite lengthy passages from the works. At home and sometimes at their universities, they watched foreign movies like "Gone with the Wind" and "Titanic."
Journalist Melanie Kirkpatrick, a longtime member of the editorial board of The Wall Street Journal, published another North Korea book in September 2012 called "Escape From North Korea." She portrays North Korea as a hellhole" that is rife with suffering and starvation. The country, she added, keeps its citizens in the dark ages." Foreigners and foreign goods are kept out," was another tall claim of hers.
Had that been true, I would, of course, not have been able to sell foreign goods like mining equipment, foodstuffs, and medicine in North Korea. I once even met an unemployed steel worker who migrated from an industrial city to the countryside, where he began cultivating his own private plot on a slope. He proudly told me that his family now earns enough money so that, within two years, they could buy a motorbike. Even though that's not a sign of enormous wealth, it puts North Korea on par with other developing countries like Cambodia which have undertaken market reforms.
Had I told my friend that, in Kirkpatricks words, North Koreans were rife with suffering and starvation, he would have felt insulted.
Felix Abt, a Swiss businessman, lived and worked in Pyongyang for seven years. He helped found the Pyongyang Business School, the European Business Association of Pyongyang (a de facto Chamber of Commerce), and other ventures. He has visited seven out of nine provinces and more than two dozen cities in North Korea.
* WORLD MIL FORUM > PUTIN TURNS HOSTILE AGZ CHINA, NORTH KOREA SHOT, CHINA SENDS ARMORED UNITS/COLUMNS TO ITS GARRISON IN NORTH KOREA TO CHALLENGE RUSSIA. Vlad's recent remarks on Russia's preferences as per the strategic situation + desired outcome on the Korean Peninsula.
IIUC, SINO-DPRK FTAS = China is quietly reinforcing its MilFors in the DPRK???
Espec iff a Chinese shooting war wid Japan oer disputed East China Sea islands begins.
* ION IIRC GUAM PDN > CHINESE BOATS RELENTLESSLY HARASS JAPAN IN DISPUTED ISLANDS WATERS.
* PRAVDA > CHINA + JAPAN: WHO WILL LOSE ITS PATIENCE FIRST?
[Arab News] Gunmen hurled a grenade at a Kenyan church in a town near the Somali border yesterday, killing one policeman and wounding another 14 people, the latest such strike in the volatile area since Nairobi sent troops into Somalia to fight Al-Qaeda-linked insurgents.
The attack occurred during morning prayers at the church in the northeastern town of Garissa, which is home to a large number of Somalis and where 18 people were killed in similar grenade blasts in July.
We have one fatality, said regional police chief Philip Tuimur after a policeman died of his wounds in the attack on the Utawala church at a police camp in Garissa, which lies about 140 kilometers (90 miles) from the Somali border. We have mobilized our officers to track down the attackers, Tuimur added, without giving further details.
Kenya has been rocked by a wave of grenade attacks on cities including the capital Nairobi and the key port of Mombasa since the country sent troops into its troubled neighbor in October last year to fight the Al-Qaeda linked Shebab.
Fourteen people were also wounded in yesterdays attack, which police said was carried out by two armed men. Most of the victims were policemen.
We are attending victims mostly suffering from shrapnel wounds and burns, and we are evacuating to Nairobi three of the victims due to the nature of their injuries, Dr. Mohamed Sheikh, medical director at the Garissa Hospital said.
The grenade ripped through the roof during prayer session, said a police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity, while witnesses cited by police said the attackers also fired gunshots.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/05/2012
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#2
Famke Beumer Janssen ( /ˈfɑːmkə ˈdʒænsən/; born 5 November 1964) is a Dutch actress and former fashion model. She is known for playing the villainous Bond girl Xenia Onatopp in GoldenEye (1995), Evelyn Stockard-Price in House on Haunted Hill (1999), and Jean Grey/Phoenix in the X-Men film series (20002006).
Janssen was married to writer and director Kip Williams, son of architect Tod Williams, from 1995 to 2000. On 28 January 2008, she was appointed a Goodwill Ambassador for Integrity for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime at a United Nations anti-corruption conference held in Nusa Dua, Bali
Looks like party time in Vladivostok!
SAN DIEGO The commanding officer of the frigate USS Vandegrift was fired and three key officers were removed from the ship after an investigation found drunken behavior and inappropriate misconduct during a September port visit in Russia, the Navy announced late Friday.
Cmdr. Joseph R. Darlak, who has commanded the San Diego-based frigate since July 27, was relieved of command Friday by Capt. John L. Schultz due to a loss of confidence after displaying poor leadership and failure to ensure the conduct of his wardroom officers while visiting the Russian port of Vladivostok, said Cmdr. Tamsen Reese, a Naval Surface Force-Pacific spokeswoman in Coronado, Calif. Schultz, who commands Destroyer Squadron 15, also fired the ships executive officer, Cmdr. Ivan Jimenez, and he also detached the ships operations officer and chief engineer for personal conduct and use of alcohol, Reese said.
During the visit, Vandegrift sailors visited a local childrens rehabilitation center, where they brought puzzles, toys and balloons, according to a news release by the U.S. consulate in Vladivostok. Sailors hosted children the following day in a tour of the frigate, where they dined on cake and snacks.
But some officers got out of hand while in Vladivostok.
The investigation, which is completed but not yet adjudicated, found misconduct happened during that port visit, including some officers being drunk, disorderly and not adhering to established liberty policies, Reese said.
[An Nahar] Gunmen with explosives attacked a cop shoppe, a primary school and two cellphone towers in a town in Nigeria's restive northeast early Sunday and set them ablaze, the military and residents said.
"We heard that there were some attacks in Fika by suspected 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... terrorists. They attacked two telecommunication masts, a cop shoppe and a primary school," Lazarus Eli, military front man in Yobe State, told Agence La Belle France Presse.
A resident said he had seen the bodies of two coppers being brought out of the razed cop shoppe, but Eli said he could not immediately confirm whether there were casualties.
Eli said troops had deployed to the town to contain the violence. Fika is located some 170 kilometers (110 miles) from Damaturu, the capital of Yobe State and a hotbed of Islamist cut-thoat group Boko Haram.
Residents said the gunnies attacked their targets with explosives at around 4:30 am.
"They threw explosives and fired gunshots at their targets, setting them ablaze, and fled after the attack," Tanimu Mani told AFP.
"Soldiers who arrived in the town went inside the burnt cop shoppe and brought out the bodies of two coppers killed in the attack," he said.
Another resident, Hassan Gaji, a student, said he had heard blasts and gunshots during his early morning prayers.
"They were shooting seriously for about one hour," he said, adding that the town had been taken over by police and soldiers.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/05/2012
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Security has been tightened after a series of deadly blasts in Narathiwat province on Saturday. Two bomb explosions killed two people and wounded more than ten.
Police will release sketches of two suspects seen on security camera footage near a house behind Rueso district police station - the site of a car bomb that killed two people. Police will seek arrest warrants for the pair. The second blast, which involved a motorcycle, took place near a school.
Both attacks happened a day after Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra took charge of national security operations.
Violence continued in the South yesterday. Chula Woma, a school teacher in Pattani province, was shot by a pillion rider on a motorcycle as he waited at a bus stop. He was seriously injured and taken to hospital.
Also in Pattani, Tasmi Kabae was gunned down while riding a motorcycle. An unknown number of people opened fire at him with a 9 mm pistol about 1 a.m. He died at the scene.
Meanwhile, government forces killed a suspected terrorist militant during a shootout in Songkhla province early yesterday morning. The clash occurred when police surrounded a house after getting word that a number of terrorists militants were hiding there. A 10-minute exchange of fire took place. The deceased was identified as Mayuding Sama. Two others in the house escaped.
Authorities said a bomb was found in Narathiwat province, which was successfully defused. Two fake bombs were also found in another district of Narathiwat yesterday morning.
As part of an Investigative Project report on a May Democratic fundraiser featuring House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi as well as U.S. Muslim Brotherhood leaders, the IP also reported that former Obama campaign coordinator Mazen Asbahi announced the creation of a new organization called the National Muslim Democratic Council (NMDC). According to the report:
"Following the speeches, a prominent attorney, Mazen Asbahi publicly rose to announce the creation of a new organization called the National Muslim Democratic Council (NMDC). Asbahi was Obama's 2008 Muslim outreach director but was forced to step down when his prior association with a radical Muslim cleric, Jamal Said, became public. Said was an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing trial. The NMDC seeks to 'maximize American Muslim support for Democratic candidates and policies.' The IPT has obtained a memo detailing the creation and agenda of the National Muslim Democratic Council that is marked 'CONFIDENTIAL; NOT FOR PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION' In the section marked '2012 election strategy' the group specifically spelled out detailed plans to support the Democrats and target Republicans in 'key races where American Muslims can make a difference.'
According to the document, these races included:
Defeating Rep. Allen West, R-Fla., in his race against Patrick Murphy, D-Fla.; Supporting former Gov. Tim Kaine, D-Va., in his race against former Sen. George Allen, R-Va., in the race for Virginia's vacant Senate seat; Supporting Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., in her bid for re-election against former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich.; And, supporting Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, in her bid to capture the state's 3rd congressional district. The confidential NMDC document was signed by several known radical Islamists such as Asbahi, CAIR's Basim Elkarra; Jihad Saleh Williams of Islamic Relief USA; and Linda Sarsour of the Arab American Association of New York.
Mazen Asbahi officially resigned from the Obama campaign following inquiries from the Wall Street Journal about his ties to the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood that were first reported by the GMBDR.
Posted by: Au Auric ||
11/05/2012
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Interesting. Australia's economy is in relatively good shape, and they know they live in a somewhat dodgy neighborhood with a really big mook a few doors down who keeps pit bulls in his front yard. So what to do when you have a small population but need folks NOW who have technical training and experience? Get resourceful and hang out the "Help Wanted" sign, of course...
U.S. servicemembers looking at career options in this era of shrinking military budgets and force drawdowns might want to take a look Down Under.
The Australian government is recruiting experienced U.S. enlisted personnel and officers to fill a range of positions -- from submariners to doctors -- in its military, according to a posting on the Australian Defence Force website.
"The Australian Defence Force looks to overseas candidates to fill gaps in our Services, which can't currently be satisfied by standard recruitment," reads the intro for overseas applicants on the Defence Force's recruitment website. "We recognise that these candidates can bring skills and attributes to the Navy, Army and Air Force that will strengthen their overall operation and success rate."
The job offers could be tempting for U.S. troops as the Afghan War winds down and the Department of Defense looks to trim billions of dollars and more than 100,000 uniformed personnel from its books.
At a time when other Western countries have slashed spending, the prosperous Australians have been growing their military. In the past five years, the Australian military has recruited more than 500 personnel from the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom and New Zealand. Applicants have to meet certain minimum rank levels, as well as medical and interview requirements, Australian defense officials said in an email this week.
The U.S. Air Force website lists the annual base pay for an E-5, staff sergeant, with six-years' service at $31,946. An O-3, captain, with six years' service makes $63,263.
By comparison, a newly promoted E-5, corporal, in the Australian air force makes $57,277, when converted to U.S. dollars, while newly promoted O-3, flight lieutenant, takes home $66,417.
#3
The gendor and demographics of the 500 who have departed the US for OZ might make an interesting study. I am old enough to remember a day when men from all over the world came to the United States to enlist in our armed forces. Nothing against the Australians, thank God they've made a place for our poeple. But it is a sad day indeed.
#6
"better than ending up in some cheap gin joint in Casablanca after running guns in Spain, a Mr. Blaine? "
Really? With the economy the way it is now, I was thinkin' that the whole "Rick's Place" operation is lookin' kinda sweet. Know any good piano players??? HAHAHA!!!
Produced an anemic recovery. Economic growth and job gains have been slower than in almost every other recovery on record. Had this rebound merely matched the post-World War II average, 8 million more people would have jobs and the GDP would be $1.2 trillion bigger. Since the recovery began, real GDP has expanded 7.2% vs. an average at this point since World War II of 15.8%. Put another way, since the start of the recovery, real GDP per person -- a measure both of productivity and standard of living -- has fallen an unprecedented 1.5%.
Created a large pool of unemployed. Official figures vastly underestimate the severity of joblessness on Obama's watch. Millions have given up looking for work, for example, and don't get counted as unemployed. Between January 2009 and September 2012, the number of people who aren't in the labor force shot up 8.2 million, while the number of employed rose just 787,000. Unemployment today is 7.9% -- higher than when Obama entered office.
Vastly expanded the disability rolls. As job prospects diminished, millions of workers applied for federal disability benefits and more than 3.8 million were approved. Today, a record 8.3 million workers are on disability. The result is millions of workers who are likely never to return to the workforce, and billions of dollars in new Social Security and Medicare costs.
Created a food stamp nation. In less than four years, the number of people receiving food stamps has shot up by 15 million. Today, almost one in six Americans is on food stamps. The lousy economy is one reason, but the Obama administration has also pushed to get more people enrolled.
Posted by: Au Auric ||
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The larger mistake, the mistake we all knew would cost us dearly, the mistake that may cost us the Republic, was that made nearly 4 years ago to the day.
#3
>, real GDP has expanded 7.2% vs. an average at this point since World War II of 15.8%. Put another way, since the start of the recovery, real GDP per person -- a measure both of productivity and standard of living -- has fallen an unprecedented 1.5%.
The standard of living has fallen A LOT more than that when you subtract in the "stimulus" growth of debt.
[Dawn] PESHAWAR: Suspected Islamic fascistiblew up a portion of the historical Phandu Baba shrine in the suburban area of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. on Saturday evening.
However, it was a brave man who first ate an oyster... police failed to decide if the scene of occurrence was situated in the limits of Badhber cop shoppe or it fell in the jurisdiction of Chamkani cop shoppe.
A police official of the rural circle said that explosives were planted on the premises of the shrine that went off at 7:45pm. The entire building was damaged in the blast but there was no report of casualties, he added.
Officials of Chamkani cop shoppe, when contacted, said the area fell in the jurisdiction of Badhber cop shoppe.
The Badhber police also didnt provide any information about the blast.
No case was registered till filing of this report owing to jurisdiction dispute between the two cop shoppes.
MAN KILLED: One person was killed and his house got damaged in an kaboom at Wadpaga village on the outskirts of Peshawar on Saturday.
The officials of Chamkani cop shoppe said that the blast took place at about 10am. The blast site was away from the main population, they added.
DSP Fazl Wahid Khan said that Omar was injured seriously in the blast. He departed this vale of tears when he was being shifted to Lady Reading Hospital.
The DSP said that the victims father was taken into custody for interrogation because they had dumped 22 shells of mortar and about 1,000 kilograms of explosives inside the building.
The victims family, he said, belonged to Kajori area of Khyber Agency and it was yet to be ascertained as if the dear departed was associated with Islamic fascistior not.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/05/2012
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#1
You really gotta wonder how many shrines are left.
[An Nahar] An kaboom shook the area near the Dama Rose hotel in the heart of the Syrian capital on Sunday, wounding 11 civilians, state media reported.
"An kaboom caused by cut-throats went off near to the Dama Rose hotel and the union federation, which left a number of people maimed and causing damage to the area," Syrian TV said, using the regime's term for armed rebels.
State news agency SANA said the blast maimed 11 people, adding that the explosive "planted by terrorists" weighed about 50 kilos (30 pounds).
The Dama Rose hotel hosted U.N.-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... envoy Lakhdar Brahimi during his visits to Damascus ...The place where Pencilneck hangs his brass hat... . The office of the Ombudsman, headed by diplomat Mokhtar Lamani, is also located there.
The Local Coordination Committees, a network of activists on the ground, also reported plumes of smoke rising near Ommayad Square after a "powerful kaboom" rocked the area close to the hotel.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/05/2012
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With the Presidential election days (one week) away, its worth reviewing how Obamacare will impact the residents of key swing states. In Ohio, as elsewhere, Obamacare will drive up the cost of private health coverage, especially for those who buy insurance on their own. A non-partisan study found that, by 2017, individual premiums in Ohio will increase by as much as 85 percent. In addition, Obamacare will deeply cut Medicare Advantage for more than 700,000 Ohio seniors enrolled in the program. And more than 30 percent of Ohio physicians say that they will place new or additional limits on accepting Medicare patients.
Posted by: Au Auric ||
11/05/2012
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Looks like Obama is trying to make Medicare look like Medicaid and both like Obamacare plus boost premiums. People who are getting others to pay for their stuff don't care that the premiums are going up, someone else will foot the bill.
#3
The 741 billion had to come from somewhere to finance Obamacare. Look for hospitals and doctors to refuse to take Medicare patients because of significantly reduced reimbursement rates. It's that social justice and redistribution thing that "O" believes in--the legalized stealing thingee.
[Dawn] India, an aspirant for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, says the 15-member body is completely out of tune on what is happening in the world, while pushing for its expansion.
I have absolutely no doubt that the Council, as it is presently structured, serves no ones purpose You need to coop other countries which carry weight, Ambassador Hardeep Sing Puri of India, which holds the Security Councils presidency for November, told presser at which he briefed journalists about its programme for this month.
Indias intensive bid for the Councils permanent membership seems to have come to a halt, at least for the time being, after failing to muster majority support in the 193-member General Assembly. Even a year after claiming the support of 80 members for its proposals to restructure it, New Delhi has failed to prove it.
The figure given by India is also well short the twothird majority, 128 votes, required for any proposal to succeed in the Assembly.
Indias two-year term as a non-permanent member of the Security Council would end at the end of this year.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/05/2012
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So, is he saying that others should match their 'contributions' to the seats they permanently hold on the council or that its time to just end the whole farce? /rhet question
President Obamas Environmental Protection Agency has devoted an unprecedented number of bureaucrats to finalizing new anti-coal regulations that are set to be released at the end of November, according to a source inside the EPA.
More than 50 EPA staff are now crashing to finish greenhouse gas emission standards that would essentially ban all construction of new coal-fired power plants. Never before have so many EPA resources been devoted to a single regulation. The independent and non-partisan Manhattan Institute estimates that the EPAs greenhouse gas coal regulation will cost the U.S. economy $700 billion.
The rush is a major sign of panic by environmentalists inside the Obama administration. If Obama wins, the EPA would have another four full years to implement their anti-fossil fuel agenda. But if Romney wins, regulators will have a very narrow window to enact a select few costly regulations that would then be very hard for a President Romney to undo.
Environmentalists at the EPA pulled this trick before in 2000 when the Clinton administration rushed out a finding that Mercury emissions from power plants were a growing public health threat pursuant to the Clean Air Act. That finding did not regulate power plants itself, but it did force the Bush administration to begin a lengthy regulatory process. The Obama EPA has estimated that this regulation alone will cost the U.S. economy $10.9 billion a year.
Posted by: Au Auric ||
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#1
Time to rid ourselves of this useless group. Coal miners are going to vote this useless group out.
#3
Maybe if they release enough heating oil on the market for free they'll be able to convince everyone in the northeast that all these regulatioons are a good idea.
#4
So retaining control of the House (and the purse), why will the Trunks even fund the organization next year? If you can get away without enforcing immigration laws, why aren't these regulations anymore important?
#5
Environmentalists at the EPA pulled this trick before in 2000 when the Clinton administration rushed out a finding that Mercury emissions from power plants were a growing public health threat pursuant to the Clean Air Act.
Funny that such a thing would come out of the Clinton administration when you consider that China now emits more coal pollution than the US and it was Clinton who granted China most favored nation trading status in spite of their human rights violations. But the thing about pollution is that it doesn't stay in the country of origin. The way the jet stream blows we get a lot of that stuff here. Not only that but the mercury falls into the ocean and poisons the fish. But I guess it's OK to pollute if you do it in the name of socialism so maybe I should just eat tofu and shut up.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
11/05/2012 9:06
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Because we are more honest and have too much integrity to do what the Donks do?
I favor a firestorm of protest when the review period opens up.
There is a comment period for new regs, right?
Posted by: Bobby ||
11/05/2012 9:10
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Heard Romney say, they would be going through regulations, looking for those that deter business growth and removing them. Kinda like his teams would do when they were taking over a company....
#9
you also need to remove the EPA/DOJ/IS/etc. people with the Obama agenda. Strip them from their political jobs. The ones in civil service? Move them to penguin counting in the Antarctic. Burn it down
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/05/2012 14:59
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Burn it down and use the site as a toxic waste dump.
[An Nahar] The Israeli air force has successfully tested an upgraded version of its "Iron Dome" missile defense system, the defense ministry said on Sunday.
"This test constitutes a new success in the project to strengthen the Iron Dome's performance," Defense Minister Ehud Barak said in a statement.
"Israel has invested an enormous budget to finance the different missile defense systems that should allow us to protect the whole of our territory within a few years," he added.
Israeli television said the latest version of the Iron Dome is designed to intercept medium-range missiles, such as those possessed by Syria and Hizbullah.
The first Iron Dome battery was installed in March 2011 near Beersheva in the Negev desert region, 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the Gazoo Strip, and has intercepted more than 100 rockets since then.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/05/2012
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Dome
I wonder if the control systems can't be modified to target aircraft, which provide a much larger signature (for the most part) and move slower(?) than a rocket.
Iranian experts have succeeded to build a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) drone which will be unveiled in the coming months, Mehr reported.
So they have an unmanned helicopter, and this is news...
The drone is being manufactured by researchers from the Mazandaran Science and Technology Park. It is the first time that such a drone is being manufactured in the world. It will be unveiled during the festivities marking the 34th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in mid-winter.
"This drone which enjoys ultra-modern technology and is being built for the first time in the world will be unveiled in Bahman (Jan. 20-Feb. 18), concurrent with the ten-day dawn celebrations," Abbas Jam, the lead researcher, told the Mehr News Agency.
The drone does not require runways at all and can take off and land vertically.
Just like a helicopter, in fact...
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/05/2012
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Oh, I don't know, Steve.
Sounding rockets go vertical both ways.
A crocodile has been roaming the pipes of the sewer network in the besieged Gaza Strip and all attempts to capture him have failed, according to residents. Mahmoud! Bring the flaming hoops!!!
"The crocodile most likely escaped from one of the nearby zoos and sought refuge in the sewers," said Rajab al-Ankah, head of the Northern Gaza Sewage Station. ...or the Mossad put him there.
Ankah added that the crocodile, whose length is estimated at 1.7 meters, escaped capture several times. "The nets were set up to capture the crocodile, but it managed to escape. The slippery ground in the area around the swamps near Beit Lahia in northern Gaza made the escape easier and the crocodile disappeared once more." Damn you! FILTHY INFIDEL BEAST!
According to local residents, the crocodile comes out of the sewage basins to look for food then disappears quickly for fear of being captured. It's like he's got a mind of his own!
According to Ankah, the crocodile has been living in the sewage network for two whole years. "It came as a baby and now it is huge and the more it grows the more dangerous it becomes for the residents of the area and their livestock." Soon, our weapons will be useless against it...
One of the farmers in Beit Lahia had already reported that the crocodile ate two of his goats when they were grazing near one of the sewage basins. Right over there. It was baaaaaad...
This raised concerns about the possibility of the crocodile attacking human beings in the future if it is not captured shortly. Yeah, we've all seen that movie...
Civil service documents show the previous coalition government, which involved Geert Wilders anti-Islam PVV in a supporting role, had an image problem abroad.
Ministers said foreign governments understood that Wilders was not officially part of government. However, official papers show that time after time diplomats wanted instructions on how to avoid reputation damage as much as possible for example, when Wilders published a new book. Often this did not work, the documents state.
Rob de Wijk, director of research institute HCCS and an expert on international relations, said this should be no surprise. He said, "Wilders position was impossible to explain abroad."
All the problems have not been solved now that Wilders is no longer part of the alliance. "He was a symbol of the way the Netherlands had turned in on itself," added de Wijk.
Former Dutch foreign minister Ben Bot told a television show last month The Netherlands can regain its previous influence in the world if the new government ditches its current surly image. He said that over the past few years, the Netherlands has become known as the country which opposes everything. "Diplomacy with a smile and a soft voice" will put the Netherlands back on the map, Bot stated.
[Dawn] The opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) begins a four-day meeting Sunday in Doha, where the United States will reportedly press for an overhaul of the coalition aiming to topple Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Horror of Homs... Details have emerged of plans to reshape the opposition into a representative government-in-exile, after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as For a good time at 3 a.m. call Hillary and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another John Jay ... charged that the SNC was not representative.
Rebel forces in Syria have criticised the SNC as out of touch, and the opposition is also split ideologically.
The Doha talks come a day after rebels in northern Syria launched an offensive to take control of a key airbase.
Washington is pressing for a makeover of the opposition, with long-time dissident Riad Seif reportedly touted as the potential head of a new government-in-exile dubbed the Syrian National Initiative.Seif and about two dozen other leading opposition fiures gathered in Amman on Thursday and came up with proposals for a new body to represent the disparate groups opposing Assad.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
where the United States will reportedly press for an overhaul of the coalition aiming to topple Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir
A story of no leverage, no clue and no thought. They're killing each other and we're trying to stop them... do you see the error?
[An Nahar] Paleostinian leader the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... has denied giving up on the refugees' right of return, saying remarks about not returning to his home town, which is now in Israel, was a "personal position."
"I have never and will never give up the right of return," he told Egypt's al-Hayatt Egyptian satellite channel late on Saturday, according to a transcript released on Sunday.
In the interview, Abbas sought to explain remarks he made in an interview with Israel's Channel 2 television on Friday in which he appeared to renege on the right of Paleostinian refugees to return to homes they either fled from or were forced out of during the 1948 war which attended Israel's creation.
"I want to see Safed," he told Channel 2, referring to the town where he grew up which is now in northern Israel. "It's my right to see it but not to live there."
His remarks were hailed as "courageous" by Israeli President Shimon Peres but sparked fury in the Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,-run Gazoo Strip where thousands poured onto the streets in protest.
"Talking about Safed is a personal position and does not mean giving up the right of return," he told al-Hayatt.
"No-one can give up the right of return as all international texts and Arab and Islamic decisions refer to a just and agreed solution to the refugee issue, according to U.N. Resolution 194, with the term 'agreed on' meaning agreed with the Israeli side," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/05/2012
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#1
Whose PHateD thesis from PLU was "The Other Side: the Secret Relationship Between Nazism and Zionism".
#3
Your 'Right of Return' was contingent on the 'Islamic states' winning the war back in '48 (where you would then have gleefully participated in the sack and rape of Israel and the Jews).
That *WAS* what you were betting on.
*YOU* lost. Losing has a price - you no longer have a 'right of return'.
[Bangla Daily Star] The Election Commission yesterday asked Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami ... a Pakistani catspaw remaining active in Bangla politix, loosely affiliated with the Pak religious party of the same name and closely affiliated with most of the terror organizations in Bangla. A member of the BNP's four party governing coalition.... to bring some more changes in its constitution and submit those to the EC by December 5 to meet the criteria for retaining its registration.
In a letter to the Jamaat secretary general, the EC specified some provisions stipulated in the party's charter which do not conform to the country's constitution and Representation of the People Order (RPO), sources in the commission said.
The RPO clearly stipulates that a political party will be disqualified from getting registered if any provision in its charter contradicts the country's constitution and the RPO.
Registration with the EC is a prerequisite for any political party to contest parliamentary polls.
The commission gave the Jamaat a fresh time frame as it did not make the necessary changes although the deadline for doing so expired around three years ago.
Jamaat, however, still remains a registered political party due to inaction of the EC.
The commission has the authority to cancel the registration of Jamaat if it fails to amend the constitution as required.
Several clauses in the Jamaat charter of call for establishing the rule of Islam in the country through organised efforts. The party also refuses to accept parliament's plenary powers to formulate laws, saying people must not accept anyone except Allah as the maker of laws.
Like other political parties, Jamaat got registered with the EC before the December 29, 2008, parliamentary polls after bringing some provisional changes in its constitution.
Just as the 38 other registered parties, Jamaat was supposed to submit its amended constitution to the EC by January 24, 2010.
On expiry of the deadline, the commission asked Jamaat twice -- in January and April, 2010 -- to amend the charter. But Jamaat did not respond.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[An Nahar] A car went kaboom! on Sunday in a town in Turkey's Kurdish-majority southeast, killing an 11-year-old child and wounding 18 others, in an attack blamed on Kurdish rebels, officials and security sources said.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan slammed the "heinous attack" which caused a civilian death as it happened close to a wedding gathering, reported the Anatolia news agency.
Erdogan strongly condemned the attack which he said was carried out by the "terrorist organization," referring to the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
The blast which shattered windows of the nearby shops occurred in the Semdinli town of Hakkari province bordering Iraq and Iran, as an armored police vehicle passed by, said security sources.
Kurdish rebels have carried out similar attacks on security targets in the past.
Semdinli is the scene of frequent festivities between Turkish security forces and PKK members.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Dawn] PESHAWAR: A bomb kaboom near a police check post in Jala Bela, Charsadda has left eight people injured, including five coppers and three civilians, officials said. One of the injured was a child.
SHO Daudzai Police Station, Amir Amir Sultan confirmed that a bomb had been fixed on a cycle next to the police check post, when it went kaboom!.
SP Javed Khan said that three kilograms of explosives had been used in the blast. The kaboom has destroyed the check post, sources said.
The injured have been shifted to hospital, where two of the injured are said to be at death's door, Charsadda hospital sources said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/05/2012
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After half a century on the high seas, the oldest warship in the American fleet, the USS Enterprise, will return to port Sunday for the last time.
From the Cuban Missile Crisis to the war in Afghanistan, the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier has played a part in every conflict involving the United States since she was commissioned in 1961.
But when the massive vessel glides into the US naval base in Norfolk, Virginia on Sunday morning, with sailors in white uniforms standing on deck, it will mark the end of her 25th and final deployment after an eight month tour in the Mediterranean and the Gulf, the Navy said.
"Homecoming will no doubt be a bittersweet day," said Captain William Hamilton, the ship's commanding officer. "We are pleased to be returning to our families after a very successful deployment, but to know that it is the last time Enterprise will be underway through her own power makes our return very sentimental."
The ship will be formally retired at a ceremony on December 1 but the vessel known as the "Big E" already relinquished its ammunition and ordnance last week at sea, with helicopters ferrying more than 1,500 tonnes of missiles and bombs to cargo ships nearby.
With a length of 342 meters (1,123 feet), the Enterprise is the longest naval ship in the world, and has a displacement of nearly 95,000 tonnes. The floating base can accommodate 4,500 sailors and aviators, as well as 72 planes and helicopters.
With its distinctive design and four rudders instead of two, the supercarrier occupies a special place in American maritime history and is the eighth ship that bears the name. The first Enterprise was a British vessel captured during the American war of Independence.
The ship features in the 1986 hit film "Top Gun," as well as in "The Hunt for Red October," and served as inspiration for Captain Kirk's spaceship in the Star Trek television series.
On 20 February 1962, the Enterprise operated as a tracking station for the Project Mercury space capsule that saw astronaut John Glenn make the first American orbital spaceflight.
Later that year, the ship was ordered on its first military mission, taking part in a blockade of Cuba during the missile crisis that nearly triggered a nuclear conflagration.
Two years later, the carrier took a global tour in a show of US naval power and later saw action in the Vietnam war, culminating in the US evacuation out of Saigon in 1975.
In the 1980s, the Enterprise sailed in the Gulf in confrontations with Iran, while in the 1990s its aircraft helped impose no-fly zones on Iraq and Bosnia.
After the attacks of September 11, 2001, the Navy turned to the supercarrier to launch bombing runs, first in Afghanistan and later in the Iraq war.
On its final deployment, the ship's warplanes carried out 8,000 sorties for the NATO-led coalition in Afghanistan, officers said.
With the Enterprise sailing into retirement and a new aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald Ford, not due to be completed until 2015, the US naval fleet will be reduced temporarily from 11 to ten carriers
Posted by: Au Auric ||
11/05/2012
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#1
"Big E" already relinquished its ammunition and ordnance
I'm thinkin they should be loadin er up!
#2
Aging Navy. Big expense to maintain. Sorry to see this happen but not much you can do. Compromise for sure. When you get old it is a series of compromises.
#8
Neighbor: "What the heck is THAT?"
You: "It's the USS Enterprise. I bought it on Ebay!"
Neighbor: "Want to get it out of my driveway? I gotta go to work!"
#11
I still say give it to the Brits - IIRC, in histoire' the very first USS Enterprise was a captured British vessel, originally already famous or notorious? in Amer eyes under the Brits, later to be so again under American control.
The Brits = NATO-EU need a CV until the "Queen Liz" CVFS come online, preferably one whose propellers won't keep falling off in righteous French resistance.
[Dawn] QUETTA: Unidentified gunniesshot up a restaurant in Mand Blo town of Turbat killing three people and injuring another on Sunday, DawnNews reported.
The gunnies managed to escape from the scene after the attack.
Levies sources said that the attack took place in the Pak-Iran border town of Mand Blo, when unknown attackers riding on cycle of violences shot up a group of people sitting at a roadside restaurant, killing three persons and injuring another person.
The security sources added that all the victims hailed from Punjab and were allegedly trying to travel to Europe illegally via Iran.
The bodies and injured were shifted to a nearby hospital where none of the victims were identified as yet.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/05/2012
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TEHRAN: Irans powerful Revolutionary Guards inaugurated a new naval base yesterday to reinforce Tehrans authority over three Persian Gulf islands also claimed by the neighboring United Arab Emirates, Iranian state TV reported.
The base near the Iranian mainlands southern port of Bandar-e Lengeh some 1,100 kilometers (700 miles) south of Tehran is the Guards fifth in the Gulf. The Guards navy chief Gen. Ali Fadavi said missile and marine units have been deployed there. It lies north of the Iranian-controlled islands of Abu Musa, Greater Tunb and Lesser Tunb that dominate the approach to the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway through which about one-fifth of the worlds oil supply passes.
Iran took control of the Persian Gulf islands in 1971, after British forces left the region. Since 1992, the UAE has repeatedly claimed the islands and last month at the UN General Assembly, it said Irans occupation violates international law. In April, a visit by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the islands inflamed the dispute over the territories and prompted an outcry by UAE and its Arab allies. Tehran later vowed to develop the islands through tourism and other industries, though little has been reported on that since the visit. During the inauguration of the base, Guards chief Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari expressed the hope that new base could support economic development of the islands.
Tehran says the islands have been part of states that existed on the Iranian mainland from antiquity until the British occupied them in the early 20th century.
Tehran also maintains that an agreement signed eight years before its 1979 Islamic Revolution between Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and the ruler of one of the UAEs seven emirates, Sharjah, gives it the right to administer Abu Musa and station troops there. There was no agreement on the other two islands. The UAE insists they belonged to the emirate of Ras Al-Khaimah until Iran captured them by force days before the UAE statehood in 1971.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/05/2012
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How many people live there?
Posted by: American Delight ||
11/05/2012 6:06
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Dunno how many people live there. A couple of other stories: Here and here. Looks like Iran is get itself into a strategic position to block the Strait of Hormuz?
Snorkeling, swimming, para sailing, wind surfing, wide sandy beaches, boating...it's all there. Throw in a four star hotel and a halfway decent nightclub and you just might have something. Can't you imagine all the glistening, wet skin in those bikinis on those beaches? No? I guess the Iranians aren't really famous for that sort of thing.
According to Wikipedia there are 2131 inhabitants. The way the story reads on Wikipedia the UAE claim is based on British occupation that began shortly after the turn of the century when the UAE didn't even exist. Sounds like before then it really was Iranian or Persian or whatever they were calling themselves back then. It has a small harbor that would probably be big enough for the Iranian navy. UAE can make all the claims they want but I think they've lost it.
Posted by: American Delight ||
11/05/2012 19:41
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#7
at the balloon drop, it will be first to go
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/05/2012 19:59
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#8
"Can't you imagine all the glistening, wet skin in those bikinis on those beaches? No? I guess the Iranians aren't really famous for that sort of thing."
Obviously you haven't see Iranian babes partying in Turkey. Not just the hijab comes off.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
11/05/2012 20:25
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#9
ION NAVBASES, FREEREPUBLIC > RED FLAG IN THE ATLANTIC: CHINA IS ANGLING TO TAKEOVER US AIR BASE IN THE AZORES.
The presently unused or under-utilized AB#4, aka Lajes Field.
D *** NG, does the Atlantic command of the Iranian or IRGC Navy know???
versus
* RENSE > [AlexAnsary.TV] CALIFORNIA CITY COUNCIL CANDIDATE WANTS TO LEASE FORMAL/EX-NAVY BASE TO CHINA, at Alameda Point.
ARTIC = denotes that major deal is in the works for China Development Bank to help finance projects at other ex-Navy bases in CA, i.e. Treasure Island + Hunter's Point.
WALL STREET JOURNAL is observing as these Deal(s) could set an important precedent vee other former USDOD sites throughout the USA.
The leader of an Islamic group recently the focus of anti-terror raids has returned from overseas to resume his hardline preaching in Melbourne.
Harun Mehicevic, also known as Abu Talha,
...a common nom de jihad. We've got scads of them in the Rantburg archives...
returned from Bosnia late last month and is again promoting the virtues of jihad at the Al-Furqan Islamic Information Centre in Springvale South. The Australian Federal Police raided the centre and Mehicevic's home in September during an operation that targeted 12 properties, most of them in south-east Melbourne. Mehicevic was in Bosnia at the time.
As a result of the raids, Adnan Karabegovic, 23, was charged with four counts of collecting documents in preparation of a terrorist act. The raids led to the seizure of items including a computer memory stick containing "violent orc materials", as well as imitation firearms and registered guns.
Speaking from a driveway, Mehicevic said he had been silent since the raids because he thought nothing could be gained from speaking while the Al-Furqan centre was being criticised. He said, "With all the hype of raids and everything, you get no benefit of talking. You wait for everything to settle down."
Mehicevic is controversial within the Mohammedan community. The imam of the nearby Bosnian mosque said Mehicevic had led a group of "radical followers" away from the Noble Park mosque about 10 years ago. Another community source who also spoke of Mehicevic soon after the raids said he is not well respected in Melbourne's Islamic community.
There were reports after the raids that sources said Mehicevic had come to Australia from Bosnia in the mid-1990s, and that he had a Pak-born wife and six children. He turned to Salafism and became a follower of hardline Melbourne holy man Sheikh Mohammed Omran, and associated with Abdul Nacer Benbrika, who is serving 15-years' jail for planning a terrorist attack in Melbourne in 2005. When Benbrika split from Omran, Mr Mehicevic remained loyal to the senior holy man.
#4
I don't think this will have any impact this late. It is a nice symbolic gesture.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
11/05/2012 10:33
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#5
@YS - If it pushes just a couple of wavering minds in the right direction, it makes me happy. And Tipper and JQC, I love your "dolled up" girl, O not so much. In fact, not at all. And newc, I'm with you - thanks to all our guys and gals for their service as well as for this ad. And looking towards tomorrow - Go Romney Ryan !!!
[An Nahar] Kuwaiti riot police used stun grenades and smoke bombs against thousands of demonstrators who blocked a major road south of the capital on Sunday as the emir met four leading opposition figures.
After elite special forces and police completely sealed off the original protest site in Kuwait City, organizers told supporters via Twitter to gather instead at Mishref, some 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of the capital.
Although most roads leading to the new location were quickly closed off by police, thousands of people still managed to get through and immediately started marching.
They briefly cut off the sixth ring road, the main motorway in the south of Kuwait before calling off the demonstration barely an hour after it began.
The opposition had called the march to protest against an amendment to an electoral law ordered by the emir last month ahead of a snap December 1 parliamentary election.
"After we have expressed our message of rejecting any play in the constitution, we announce the end of the procession," said the organizers on their Twitter account named "The Dignity of a Nation."
Activists said a number of protesters were rounded up but there were no immediate reports of injuries.
Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah late on Sunday met four opposition figures including two former Islamist MPs in what appeared to be a mediation effort aimed at ending the stalemate.
Posted by: Fred ||
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"For veterans and those interested in the security of America, the question is: Would I want this man with me in combat? Could he be trusted to lead a military squad let alone be commander in chief? Can you picture Obama in a duck blind -- or even holding a gun? Has he ever held a gun? (Be assured he will assault the Second Amendment if he gets a second term.) Can you see him as a fighter pilot a la the Bushes? Or commanding a PT boat as did John Kennedy? This is not a man I would want with me in combat and neither should America."
He continues: "For me and many veterans, President Obama's military priority was initially evident at his Inauguration. One of the inaugural balls honors veterans, including Medal of Honor recipients. For the first time in memory a president, Obama, snubbed that ball. His ignorance and disdain for the military continued when he put victory in the hands of the enemy in Afghanistan by announcing the date we would quit. Weak leaders often try to project an image of toughness by 'kicking ass.' Accordingly, he fired a senior commander for a revealing story in that paragon of journalistic integrity -- Rolling Stone."
But even more to the point, Brady writes: "Under the leadership of the Obama/Gates/Mullen trinity, our military has suffered as never before. Gates supervised the waste and fiscal incompetence at the Pentagon (millions of dollars lost). He instituted an insane op tempo (60 out of 80 months deployed is not unusual), causing unprecedented suicide and PTSD rates among soldiers and depression and anxiety in their families. Military pay cuts are coming, and the administration actually lost graves and urns at Arlington. There is an effort to raise health insurance premiums for retirees. The number of stolen top-secret documents is unmatched in our history. On the silly side, Gates' Pentagon actually considered giving medals to soldiers for not shooting!
Posted by: Au Auric ||
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#1
Last evening's news ran a bit on former President Clinton's recent comment lauding the military for "improvements in homophobia, islamaphobia, and racism".
Damning with faint praise from a draft dodger who never pulled on a pair of boots. Quite impressive that.
#4
Yes it is Skid. Imagine if you will, Clinton making such a comment about any other organization.... say yourself or your family, the Methodist church, the Department of Agriculture, the Senate of the United States. The military has led in areas of racial integration and equality, well predating the sordid career and lunch hour, oval office sex of Bill Clinton.
[Dawn] The Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... has intensified its efforts to form a broader electoral alliance of religious parties to counter Maulana Fazlur Rehman Deobandi holy man, known as Mullah Diesel during the war against the Soviets, his sympathies for the Taliban have never been tempered by honesty ... -led Mutahidda Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) in the next general elections.
The Jamaat organised Ulema and Mashaikh Convention here at Afghan Football Ground on Saturday that was attended by leaders of various religious parties and groups who dont have representation in MMA.
A joint declaration, issued at the end of the convention, said that anti-America religious-political parties should go for a greater cooperation before next general elections to stop growing US interference in internal affairs of the country.
This convention appeals to brave Mohammedans of the country, especially people of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... , to use votes as a weapon in forthcoming elections to defeat the exposed and unexposed agents of America and western powers, said the declaration.
Sources said that crucial meeting of religious parties and personalities would be held in Islamabad soon to decide parameters of the proposed electoral alliance.
An insider said that meeting of the likeminded parties had been delayed owing to absence of Maulana Sameeul Haq, who had gone to 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 their national face... for performing Haj. The source did not rule out induction of other political parties, having anti-US stance, in the proposed alliance.
The convention was addressed by JI chief Syed Munawar Hassan ... The funny-looking Amir of the Pak Jamaat-e-Islami. He joined the National Students Federation (NSF), a lefty student body, and was elected its President in 1959. He came into contact with the Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba (IJT) Pakistan and studied the writings of Mawlana Syed Abul Ala Maududi, The Great Apostasizer. As a result, he joined IJT in 1960 and soon he was elected as President of its University of Karachi Unit and member of the Central Executive Council. He was Assistant Secretary General of Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistain in 1992-93, and became Secretary General in 1993. After years of holding Qazi's camel he was named Amir when the old man stepped down in 2009... , JUI-S provincial chief Maulana Yousaf Shah, former MNA from Karak Maulana Shah Abdul Aziz Mujahid, Maulana Khalil Ahmad Mukhlis of JUI (ideological group), Maulana Mohammad Ismail Derwaish of Ahl-e-Sunnat wal Jamaat, Maulana Pir Mohammad Cheshti, a dissident of Jamaat Ulema-e-Pakistain (Noorani group), World Ulema and Mashiakh Council chairman Maulana Mohammad Shoaib and Jamaat Ittehad Ulema Pakistain president Maulana Abdul Malik.
Maulana Fazlur Rehman recently revived MMA without including JI and JUI-S in the alliance. He announced to contest next polls from the platform of MMA. Jamaat Ulema-e-Pakistain (JUP), Markazi Jamaat Ahl-e-Hadith, Islami Tehrik and a faction of JUI-S have joined the MMA.
The speakers at the convention strongly criticised Maulana Fazlur Rehman without mentioning his name and blamed him for sabotaging unity among religious parties.
Munawar Hassan said that MMA was dissolved in 2008 and now the alliance was restored without finding out causes of its dissolution. He said that MMA was formed to forge unity among Mohammedans.
He said that his party wanted to ascertain the reasons and causes, which led to the disintegration of the six-party alliance. One major objective of the formation of MMA was that the component parties of the alliance would not cooperate with Asif Ali Zardari and other agents of America, he added.
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[Dawn] After decades of waging the propaganda war against India for its highhanded treatment of Kashmiris, Pakistain is now the subject of a similar campaign by India who has highlighted the plight of Shias being murdered by sectarian cut-throats in Gilgit-Baltistan.
The Asian News International reported recently that in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistains only Shia dominated province, ethnic cleansing is being carried out systematically. At the same time, the Shia-dominated town of Kargil ... three months of unprovoked Pak aggression, over 4000 dead Paks, another victory for India ... in the Indian controlled Kashmire recently shut down the main bazaar in solidarity with the Shias of Gilgit and Chilas who were murdered in cold blood in early April. Several Sunni Mohammedans also bit the dust a few days later when sectarian violence broke out in the region.
The comparative statistics on terrorist violence between India and Pakistain speak volumes of how the tide has indeed turned against Pakistain. The data compiled by South Asian Terrorism Portal reveals that in the current year alone, approximately 150 civilians, mostly Shias, have died in sectarian violence in Pakistain. In comparison only 23 violent deaths were recorded in the Indian controlled Kashmire in 2012.
Even with a six-times larger demographic footprint, 62 civilians reportedly died in terrorist violence in India in 2012, whereas 734 civilians became victims of terrorist violence in Pakistain during the same time period. For decades, Pakistain had pointed finger at India and accused her of failing to protect the life and property of religious minorities. Today, Pakistain stands accused of the same where Mohammedans belonging to minority sects and others are being murdered while the states machinery has failed miserably to protect their lives and property.
Sectarian violence has spread to all corners of Pakistain. Only last week several Shias belonging to the Hazara tribe were bumped off by the Sunni cut-throats in a crowded market in Quetta. Later, Sunni faceless myrmidons called local newspapers and grabbed credit for their murderous accomplishment. Over the past few years hundreds, if not thousands, of Shias have been murdered in Kurram Agency ...home of an intricately interconnected web of poverty, ignorance, and religious fanaticism, where the laws of cause and effect are assumed to be suspended, conveniently located adjacent to Tora Bora... by Sunni cut-throats and Taliban factions who are reportedly aligned with Pakistains intelligence agencies. In other parts of Pakistain Shias have been taken off buses, lined up, and bumped off.
As of late, the followers of majority Sunni sects, such as Barelvis, have increasingly become targets of faceless myrmidons who are followers of radicalised Sunni sects. The attack on Data Darbar, the mausoleum of Lahores patron saint, in July 2010 left almost 50 moderate Sunni Mohammedans dead. In an earlier post, I reported police statistics which showed that almost 90 per cent of tossed in the calaboose Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! cut-throats in Pakistain were followers of the Deobandi sect.
The widespread distribution of small arms weaponised the Afghan society to such extremes that after the withdrawal of the Soviet Army in 1989 successive Afghan regimes collapsed because of the in-fighting that continued between heavily armed Afghan militias who could not agree on a post-Soviet governance formula. While Afghanistan imploded in the early 90s as a direct result of military interventions by the Soviets, Americans, Saudis, and Paks, several thousand alumni of the Afghan war returned to Pakistain to establish their own mini jihad factories in every nook and corner of Pakistain. For over a decade, the jihadis used Shias for target practice until they waged a full-fledged war against Pakistains establishment in 2001.
The patron-in-chief of the jihadis, including the Taliban, has been General Hamid Gul The nutty former head of Pakistain's ISI, now Godfather to Mullah Omar's Talibs and good buddy and consultant to al-Qaeda's high command... , who headed Pakistains Inter-Services Intelligence during the formative years when Russian-made weapons were shipped from Egypt and elsewhere to equip Afghans and others to fight the Red Army in Afghanistan. General Gul was recently confronted by an inimical group of Shias who were protesting outside the Parliament in Islamabad. As the crowd complained against his longstanding relationship with the faceless myrmidons leading terrorist attacks against Shias, the General instead came off as the biggest dove as he addressed the crowd while his son whispered speaking notes in his ear. General Hamid Gul claimed to have initiated deweaponising the faceless myrmidons before he was removed from ISI in June 1989.
I happened to meet General Hamid Gul in a suburb of Toronto in the mid-90s when he visited Canada. Sitting among a large group of devotees, General Gul spoke with pride of the successes achieved by the Taliban in Afghanistan. I specifically asked the General if he was at all concerned about the excessive spread of small arms and assault weapons in Pakistain and Afghanistan. His answer then was quite different from what he stated on April 10 in Islamabad. General Gul looked at me with barely concealed disgust and observed that weapons were the ornaments for men. It is the same weapons that will come in handy to ward off the enemy, proclaimed General Gul.
Since his proclamation in the mid-90s, the same ornaments have dispatched thousands of Paks to their graves and have brought the state and the society to a near default. In the comity of nations, Pakistain is increasingly being referred to as a pariah state. Even the overseas Paks now march outside Pak embassies to protest against the massacres of minorities that continue unabated. Wherea,s once Pakistain complained of human rights ...which often include carefully measured allowances of freedom at the convenience of the state... violations by India in the United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... , other are now accusing Pakistain of the same.
As the violence increases in Pakistain, the rest of the world loses its confidence in Pakistains ability to meet her economic, legal, and moral obligations. If the sectarian and factional violence, which no longer targets only the Shias and other minorities, continues in Pakistain, it is likely that the state and the society will implode, as it has already in the neighbouring Afghanistan.
It is imperative for Pakistains military and civilian establishment to recognise that the time to act decisively against cut-throats in Pakistain has arrived. There is no room or time to play favourites and support the good bad boys who may side with the establishment for a short while, but the same good faceless myrmidons will most likely turn against their handlers, as they have done so repeatedly in the last few years.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Two separate bomb blasts in Russia's North Caucasus republics left two people wounded on Sunday evening.
One person was wounded when a roadside bomb exploded in Kabardino-Balkaria. The improvised explosive device was planted on the Kavkaz Federal Highway. The blast occured when a car with servicemen was driving by.
A statement by the republics emergencies ministry said, One of them was injured. He is receiving medical treatment at the moment."
In a separate incident, a police officer was wounded in an explosion in Buinaksk, a city in Dagestan. The officer was hospitalized in critical condition. The citys investigation department said the men lost both legs in the explosion.
Dagestan's interior ministry said in a statement, An improvised explosive device went off at 21:15 Moscow time. It was planted under a Lada car owned by an officer of the citys police department.
#4
People who engage in vote fraud--no matter what kind, should never be allowed to vote again, hold a public job or office, or be allowed near a polling site. They should be on a list like a pedophile list or a no fly list. It should be a criminal offense with sentences and penalties enforced. If that doesn't work impalement in public as a fall back position.
[An Nahar] Rebels seized a major oilfield and shot down a warplane in eastern Syria Sunday, a watchdog said, notching up new battlefield successes even as the opposition met in Qatar under U.S. pressure for a makeover.
The rebel advances in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor came as their positions were pounded by warplanes around the capital Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... and in the northern provinces of Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... and Idlib.
State media also reported that a blast near the Dama Rose Hotel in the heart of Damascus maimed 11 civilians. It blamed the kaboom on "terrorists" -- the regime's term for armed rebels.
The hotel hosted U.N.-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... envoy Lakhdar Brahimi during his visits to Damascus. The office of the Ombudsman, headed by diplomat Mokhtar Lamani, is also there.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the seizure of the eastern oilfield marked a first by the opposition since the revolt against Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Horror of Homs... 's regime erupted in March 2011.
"Rebels in the Jaafar Tayyar Brigade took control of al-Ward oilfield, east of the town of Mayadin, after a siege that lasted several days," it said.
"This is the first time the rebels have taken control of an oilfield," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told Agence La Belle France Presse.
The fighting began at dawn and lasted several hours, said Abdel Rahman, adding that 40 soldiers on guard were either killed, maimed or taken prisoner.
The Observatory later announced rebels in Deir Ezzor had shot down a warplane, citing witnesses.
The group, which gathers its information from a network of activists, lawyers and medics in civilian and military hospitals, said initial reports indicated the pilot had been captured.
Fighting also erupted near a political intelligence office in Damascus province, the Observatory said, adding that warplanes later carried out three raids on the Ghuta region northeast of the capital.
An AFP correspondent in Aleppo province reported three air strikes in close succession on the town of Al-Bab, with witnesses saying there were at least four fatalities.
The Observatory gave an initial toll of 96 dead -- 35 civilians, 41 soldiers and 20 rebels -- nationwide on Sunday.
The escalating conflict added urgency to a meeting of the opposition Syrian National Council in the Qatari capital Doha, with the United States reportedly pressing for a new umbrella organization to unite the country's fractured regime opponents.
According to the reports, which emerged after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as The Liberatress of Libya and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another John Quincy Adams ... charged the SNC was not representative, long-time dissident Riad Seif is touted as the potential head of a new government-in-exile dubbed the Syrian National Initiative.
But as the Doha meeting got under way, Seif denied he planned to head a government in exile.
"I shall not be a candidate to lead a government in exile... I am 66 and have health problems," he told news hounds.
SNC chief Abdel Basset Sayda denounced what he called "efforts to bypass the SNC and numerous attempts to find substitutes" for the group, though he recognized that some criticisms of it are "founded."
The SNC lashed out on Friday at alleged U.S. interference in the opposition, accusing Washington of undermining the revolt and "sowing the seeds of division" by seeking its overhaul.
Clinton has voiced frustration with the SNC, calling it unrepresentative of on-the-ground opposition forces and saying it "can no longer be viewed as the visible leader of the opposition."
In his remarks, Sayda also argued military action against the regime must be "organized and unified," so that the various military groups battling the regime can form the "core of the next Syrian army."
On the diplomatic front, French President Francois Hollande ...the Socialist president of La Belle France, and a fine job he's doing of it... visited Leb before traveling to 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 their national face... , and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was on his way to Cairo, with Syria topping the agenda for both.
Israel's armed forces chief Benny Gantz said, meanwhile, that his country could become involved in the conflict, as fighting raged on the strategic Golan Heights.
"This is a Syrian affair that could turn into our affair," the army's website quoted him as saying during a visit to troops on the frontier. It added that he told the soldiers to be alert, but did not elaborate further.
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#1
When Hillary Clinton says you need a makeover you know you're ugly.
[An Nahar] Egypt's interior minister on Sunday sacked the head of security in North Sinai, a day after an attack that killed three coppers in the restive peninsula sparked protests by their colleagues.
Interior Minister Ahmed Gamal ordered that the head of security, Ahmed Bakr, be replaced by his deputy in response to complaints from police over lawlessness in the peninsula, security officials said.
Police and the army have become the targets of Death Eaters in the region bordering Israel, and suffered an unprecedented blow in August when gunnies killed 16 soldiers in an attack on a border outpost.
The military launched a wide-ranging campaign after that attack to flush out bad boys, but drive-by shootings such as the one that killed the coppers in el-Arish on Saturday have continued.
Egypt's interior minister on Sunday sacked the head of security in North Sinai, a day after an attack that killed three coppers in the restive peninsula sparked protests by their colleagues.
Interior Minister Ahmed Gamal ordered that the head of security, Ahmed Bakr, be replaced by his deputy in response to complaints from police over lawlessness in the peninsula, security officials said.
Police and the army have become the targets of Death Eaters in the region bordering Israel, and suffered an unprecedented blow in August when gunnies killed 16 soldiers in an attack on a border outpost.
The military launched a wide-ranging campaign after that attack to flush out bad boys, but drive-by shootings such as the one that killed the coppers in el-Arish on Saturday have continued.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Azerbaijan, Baku -- Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi threatened on Saturday that the country will halt all its oil exports if the "external pressures" maintain on the Islamic Republic's oil sector.
Okay. Go ahead. We dare you.
"We have been trying to negotiate to help the oil sector suffer the least losses, but if pressures and restrictions go on, we will revise the policy to supply oil to the industrial world," ISNA quoted Qasemi as saying.
On October 23, Qasemi was quoted by news agencies at the World Energy Forum in Dubai as saying that Iran had contingency plans to survive without any oil revenue if further sanctions were applied. The sanctions are meant to pressure Iran into suspending its uranium enrichment. Western nations suspect that it is meant to enable Iran to produce nuclear weapons.
"If you continue to add to the sanctions, we cut our oil exports to the world," the minister was quoted as saying. "We are hopeful that this doesn't happen, because citizens will suffer. We don't want to see European and U.S. citizens suffer."
Iran's oil crude export has fallen reportedly from 2.3 mbpd in 2011 to above 1 mbpd.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/05/2012
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#1
Let's just call this "The Iranian National Hunger Strike."
Posted by: Matt ||
11/05/2012 9:11
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#2
Not to be confused with that smuggled through Iraq.
#5
Well-l-l, Iran has also repor allegedly suspended uranium enrichment, which histoire' suggests will soon be denied soon enuff by the powers that be in Tehran???
Iff the above is true, it would appear that Iran is playing it "safe" agz both POTUS-Reelect, pro-Diplomacy only Bammer, as well as a possible POTUS-Elect, pro-War/Hardline Romney. NEITHER WILL HAVE CAUSE FOR ANTI-NUCPROG AIR STRIKE(S) OR GROUND WAR, ETC. AGZ IRAN, WHILE MAINTAINING THE BURDEN ON THE US-ALLIES AND ONLY THE US-ALLIES TO ATTACK IRAN FIRST.
[Dawn] Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf ...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations.... chairman Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who who convinced himself that playing cricket qualified him to lead a nuclear-armed nation with severe personality problems... , while addressing a PTI Youth Convention, said that 25 per cent of the party tickets will be given to the youth in the coming elections, DawnNews reported.
The PTI chief urged the youth to come forward and with their help will contest against the other political parties.
Imran Khan said that making a new Pakistain will only be possible with the youth. He said that PTI will be the first party to give tickets to the youth.
He said that the people who are saying that the PTI tsunami has died down, have no idea about the tsunami that is about to come.
The PTI chief also said that people can leave the party whenever they wish to. It doesnt make a difference to the PTI if people join or leave the party, the difference will only come about if the PTI changes its vision for the country, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[An Nahar] Iran's parliament on Sunday summoned President Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad for a grilling over his handling of last month's currency crisis which saw the rial plunge 40 percent against the dollar, state media said.
A total of 77 deputies in the 290-seat conservative-dominated parliament submitted a petition requiring Ahmadinejad to explain the "government's procrastination in managing the forex market," official IRNA news agency said.
According to the constitution, a petition demanding that the president come to the majlis, or parliament, to answer questions must be signed by a minimum of 74 deputies.
The president now has one month to appear before the deputies with his replies.
The petition submitted on Sunday says that rial fell from 22,000 to 40,000 against the dollar in the space of 20 days last month, "due to Central Bank inaction ... which caused inflation along with economic slowdown, disrupting the activities of the economic players."
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[Air Force Times] A new report by a liberal-leaning think tank recommends a dramatic overhaul of military pay, retirement and health care benefits as part of a $1 trillion cut in defense spending over 10 years. War's winding down, so we're not needed anymore. So we'll reduce military pensions but not public employee pensions. That rather makes clear their priorities, doesn't it...
The Center for American Progress calls for capping pay raises, eliminating military health benefits for many retirees who are covered by an employer-provided plan, and reducing the value of military retired pay as well as making retirees wait until age 60 to start receiving it.
Recommendations are included in a report, Rebalancing Our National Security, released Oct. 31 by the progressive think tank and advocacy group. The report opposes across-the-board cuts in defense spending that could occur beginning in January under sequestration but still calls for major reductions in defense spending.
Capping pay raises, the report says, could save $16.5 billion over the next five years. Reducing retiree health care benefits, through a combination of restricting care and raising fees, could save $15 billion a year. Reforming military retired pay could save, in the short term, up to $13 billion a year, and over time could save up to $70 billion a year off the current plan.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Of course it really is the less than 2% that serve their country, and the far lesser number who stay on until retirement.... who are the problem.
Multi-generational welfare, Child farming, Aid to Families with Dependent Children, food stamps, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), skyrocketing social security disabiliity, Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and (WIC), Pell grants, Federal Housing Assistance, UN Welfare, Foreign Aid programs, Gun Running, Foeign Military Assistance programs, paying farmers not to plant crops, Obama phones, and midnight basketball are all of lesser or no impact.
#4
We don't have history, just memory and Desert One is now something in the Dark Ages. That contributed to another President's one term in office. Gut pay, gut training, gut maintenance is a known recipe for just another disaster waiting to happen.
Senator Nunn (D-GA) in the late 80s push through a reform to reduce the retired pay computation from 2.5 to 2 percent for each year served effectively reducing 20 year retirement from 50 to 40 percent of base pay. By the mid-90s retention of mid-grade NCOs and Officers had become a serious problem.
One of the major reforms of the post-Vietnam army was a turn around in treating the organization as a culture composed of humans rather than a machine with interchangeable parts. Bean counters always seem to reduce humans to throw away parts.
The present confusion in the civilian mind and the true military mind respecting the purposes of armies and limits of warfare is attributable to many circumstances. Among them, no doubt, is the character of military history as it has commonly been written. Ordinary citizens are lacking in the raw experience of combat, or deficient in technical knowledge, and inclined to leave the compilation of military records to experts in such affairs. Writers on general history have tended to neglect the broader aspects of military issues; confining themselves to accounts of campaigns and battles, handled often in a cursory fashion, they have usually written on the wars of their respective countries in order to glorify their prowess, with little or no reference to the question whether these wars were conducted in the military way of high efficiency or in the militaristic way, which wastes blood and treasure.
Even more often, in recent times, general historians have neglected military affairs and restricted their reflections to what they are pleased to call the causes and consequences of wars; or they have even omitted them altogether. This neglect may be ascribed to many sources. The first is, perhaps, a recognition of the brutal fact that the old descriptions of campaigns are actually of so little value civilian and military alike. Another has been the growing emphasis on economic and social fields deemed normal and the distaste of economic and social historians for war, which appears so disturbing to the normal course of events. Although Adam Smith included a chapter on the subject of military defense in his Wealth of Nations as a regular part of the subject, modern economists concentrate on capital, wages, interest, rent, and other features of peaceful pursuits, largely forgetting war as a phase of all economy, ancient or modern. When the mention the subject of armies and military defense, these are commonly referred to as institutions and actions which interrupt the regular balance of economic life. And the third source of indifference is the effort of pacifists and peace advocates to exclude wars and military affairs from general histories, with the view to uprooting any military or militaristic tendencies from the public mind, on the curious assumption that by ignoring realties the realties themselves will disappear.
This lack of a general fund of widely disseminated military information is perilous to the maintenance of civilian power in government. The civilian mind, presumably concerned with the maintenance of peace and the shaping of policies by the limits of efficient military defense, can derive no instruction from acrimonious disputes between militarists, limitless in their demands, and pacifists, lost in utopian visions. Where the civilians fail to comprehend and guide military policy, the true military men, distinguished from the militarists, are also imperiled. For these the executioners of civilian will, dedicated to the preparation of defense and war with the utmost regard for efficiency, are dependent upon the former.
Again, and again, the military men have seen themselves hurled into war by ambitions, passions, and blunders of civilian governments, almost wholly uninformed as to the limits of their military potentials and almost recklessly indifferent to the military requirements of the wars they let loose. Aware that they may again be thrown by civilians into an unforeseen conflict, perhaps with a foe they have not envisaged, these realistic military men find themselves unable to do anything save demand all the men, guns, and supplies they can possibly wring from the civilians, in the hope that they may be prepared or half prepared for whatever may befall them. In so doing they inevitably find themselves associated with militaristic military men who demand all they can get merely for the sake of having it without reference to ends.
Vagts, Alfred, History of Militarism, rev. 1959, Free Press, NY, pp 33-34
#6
If I really thought it would help this country and our pork loving congress would do the right thing with it, I would be happy to give it all back. But then, well, a guy can dream...
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
11/05/2012 9:16
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#7
Think you really need to do ALL of the above cuts and a bit more to avoid bankruptcy.
#8
..of course that means responding to events rather than influencing events. It also means ending all those entangling alliances and pulling back to Fortress America cause you don't have the ability to support much beyond it. Could be done by turning the Army into a Swiss home guard reserve system along with downsizing the rest of the Defense establishment. Which of course means your defense starts at your shores rather than on other continents [aka they're in the wire before you act] surrendering the initiative, time and place to your foe.
#9
P2k, I'm afraid its an energy function.
If the walls are pulled in to Fortress America, I think we will see escalated social engagements (gangs/police, kidnappings, home invasion/home defense, drug users/drug providers, etc.) more frequently as the energy cycles within the closer walls(same amount of energy in a smaller space). This will generate more self-defending clusters(citizen patrolled neighborhoods) and eventually the mobile will migrate out of the cities to the 'lesser spaces', mostly bringing their troubles with them.
That's the next generation's problem I think as the institution of centralized government/feed trough decays.
#10
and eventually the mobile will migrate out of the cities to the 'lesser spaces', mostly bringing their troubles with them. Skid
..."troubles", ie, crime, drugs, tribal politics, bad debt, failed lending institutions, foreclosures, poor schools, hate filled pulpits, etc, etc. Welcome to the new neighborhood.
Besoeker ... it's definitely coming. To be honest, I am surprised that US crime rates have stayed as low as they have. I attribute that to spiralling payments in the welfare and food stamp rpograms. At some point those programs will be seriously cut - and when that happens we will see "mean streets" return to America.
[Dawn] At least four people, including a leader of Awami National Party (ANP), bit the dust on Sunday in violence related incidents in the city, DawnNews reported.
Fazal Rabi, a political activist belonging to ANP, was rubbed out in Gulshan-e-Maymar by unidentified gunnies. The dear departed was partys president of the Zareena colony ward.
A dead body was found from Mehran town of the Korangi area.
Two bodies were recovered from the Garden East area. Police claimed that there were signs of torture on the body.
A police official sustained injuries during a firing incident near Bolton Market.
Two people received bullet injuries in the area of Bin Qasim and Garden Usmanabad.
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[An Nahar] South Sudan said Sunday it has expelled a U.N. official who was carrying out a probe on the human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... situation in the fledgling state, accusing her of producing "unjustified" reports.
"It's the first person on human rights to be (declared) persona non grata," government front man Barnaba Marial Benjamin said.
The U.N. official has been "reporting on human rights issues that she could not verify and has been publishing without justifications. This is unethical," said the front man.
The U.N.'s peacekeeping mission in South Sudan confirmed the expulsion. Neither Juba nor the U.N. named the official.
"The order is in breach of the legal obligations of the government of the Republic of South Sudan under the Charter of the United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... ," said Hilde Johnson, special representative of the U.N. to the country which gained independence in July 2011.
She said she has sought explanations from Juba.
"Human rights monitoring, investigation and reporting, and building capacity, is a core element of the mandate of UNMISS which must be protected," Johnson said.
In the statement, the U.N. mission also noted that "human rights violations and discrimination were at the core of the South Sudanese struggle during decades of civil war".
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[Bangla Daily Star] The International Crimes Tribunal-2 yesterday indicted expelled Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... member Abul Kalam Azad with eight charges of crimes against humanity, including genocide, murders, rapes committed during the Liberation War.
The charges were based on eight incidents that left at least 12 unarmed people dead and two women raped in Faridpur during the nine-month-long war.
This is the first time an international crimes tribunal in Bangladesh is holding a trial with the accused absent.
Framing the charges, the three-member tribunal headed by its Chairman Justice ATM Fazle Kabir, with members Justice Obaidul Hassan and Judge M Shahinur Islam, fixed November 14 for the opening statement of the prosecution.
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Yemen's far north has long been wracked by fighting between Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is "God is Great, Death to America™â¢, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews" ... rebels and various foes. From 2004 to 2010, the Houthis were the target of a series of offensives launched by the Yemeni government and their tribal fighter allies, who saw the Houthis as an Iranian-backed group intent on destabilizing the country.
When the government's control over much of Yemen weakened during last year's uprising against President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... , the Houthis were able to effectively gain control over the northern province of Saada and areas of neighboring provinces. Even in the capital, Sanaa, the Houthis have emerged defiantly. Graffiti bearing the group's vitriolic slogan, "God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, Damn the Jews, Victory to Islam," is a frequent sight on the capital's streets.
Representatives and supporters of the Houthis characterize the group's growth as a natural result of their widespread support, saying the group has gained the trust of Yemenis due to its commitment to clean governance and its uncompromising opposition to the current government's alliance with the United States' government.
But many Yemenis insist that the Houthis' gains can be attributed to outside players, characterizing them as a pawn of Iran, citing longstanding accusations that they are receiving funding and possibly arms from the Islamic Theocratic Republic.
"You can see Iran's hands in the growth of the Houthis," says one Yemeni politician, speaking on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the topic. "It's a threat to Yemen, it's a threat to 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 their national face... and it's a threat to American interests." ...
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#1
And here I thought the headlines were about another new class offered somewhere in the University of California system.
I don't think he'll feel a thing after the second death sentence is carried out...
BAGHDAD: An Iraqi court handed the countrys fugitive Sunni vice-president a new death sentence yesterday after finding him guilty of ordering his bodyguards to attack Shiites, the latest verdict in a trial that has fueled resentment among Sunni minority.
It was the third case in which Tariq Al-Hashemi was sentenced to death since last spring. All verdicts have been delivered in absentia, since Al-Hashemi is in exile in Turkey after fleeing in December 2011.
The court also sentenced his son-in-law, Ahmed Qahtan, to death on similar charges: Planning to attack pilgrims by a car bomb last December in southeastern Baghdad.
Security forces reportedly foiled the attack and seized the car. All the five bodyguards who testified said they got their orders from Qahtan, who allegedly told them that he was passing Al-Hashemis orders.
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[Guardian.co.UK] Apparently, Pakistanis don't need the Taliban to destroy their schools any more they can do it themselves. Last week, a girls' high school was set ablaze in Pakistan's second largest city, Lahore. And no, the Taliban were not the culprits. A mob, enraged after allegations of blasphemy against a teacher, carried out the attack. Instead of taking action against them, the police arrested the school's 77-year-old owner.
The accused teacher, who allegedly committed blasphemy by photocopying the wrong page of a book for homework, is in hiding. Pakistan may have declared an "education emergency" earlier this year, but it still fails to protect the schools it already has.
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#2
Pakistan's problem isn't uneducated girls - it's uneducated guys. Without state-funded schools to lean on, parents send their kids to Gulf state-funded madrassas where their principal task is to memorize the Koran from cover to cover, and their room and board is free. It's a colossal waste of human resources, but that is the reality of the Pakistani (and Bangladeshi) state.
#3
Education isn't the problem. The BinLadens and co. were all educated.
The problem is that they are brought up into the death cult that is Islam and that the major players all buy into that cult. Until the cult is broken it will ever be thus.
#6
Once the US-West starts accomodating and emplacing Sharia in "normal" US Society, the Legal System will prolly becom flooded wid pro-Sharia lawsuits demanding that Muslim-specific girls, teens, and young adult women receive little or no education as per the non/anti-Islam specific US Public-Private School Sytem(s). ALL-FEMME ISLAMIC MADRASSAS + SCHOOLS WILL BE INITIALLY SET UP TO APPEASE US POLITICOS + US COURTS, BUT THEN WILL BE QUIETLY OR PCORRECTLY PHASED OUT IN FAVOR MALE-CENTRIC/ONLY INSTITUTIONS.
Espec iff the US Econ still suffers from OWG = "Globalism" led protractive chaos and decline -read, NO $$$ ANYMORE TO EDUCATE EVERYONE, HENCE mst must Must MUST M-U-S-T MMMUUUSSSSTTT, D *** YOU, GIVE "PRIORITY" TO MALES.
MUST, MUST - SPELLED M-U-S-S-K - MUST!
And once again, the Left can't complain because they've been in the forefront of imposing SECULARISM + SUPER_SECULARISM, e.g. Anti-National Identity Universal SocioPolitical
"Stratification" under the auspice of ever Big[ger] Govt + Welfare-Nanny/Entitlement State, on US Govt-Society or Mainstream at large.
SPIT-ON-THE-FLAG, MICRO/TOTALITARIAN CONFEDERATISM = FEDERALISM, NO-NEED-FOR-COMMON-LANGUAGE-OR-EDUCATION-OR-ANYTHING, LEFTY "DIVERSITY" + "PLURALISM" + "TOLERANCE" + "OPPORTUNITY" + ...........@etc. = SHARIA IN AMERICA = JIHAD IN ISLAMO-AMERIKA???
America = Amerika is building OWG-NWO in order to give it up - THE US IS THE ONE THAT MUST GIVE UP ITS NATIONALISM, ITS POWER + INFLUENCE, ETC. NOT THE REST OF THE WORLD.
[Dawn] Bishop Tawadros was chosen as new pope of Egypts Coptic Christians Sunday when a blindfolded altar boy picked his name from a chalice in a ceremony invoking divine guidance for the beleaguered minority.
Acting head of the church Bishop Pachomius took the ballot from the boys hand and, showing it to the throng inside St Marks Cathedral, announced: Bishop Tawadros.
The crowd erupted in cheers and applause as church bells tolled in celebration across the country.
The new Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of All Africa in the Holy See of St Mark the Apostle succeeds pope Shenuda III, who died in March leaving behind a community anxious about its future under an Islamist-led government.
Tawadros, 60, a bishop in the Nile Delta province of Beheira, was among three candidates, the other two being Bishop Rafael, 54, a medical doctor and current assistant bishop for central Cairo, and Father Rafael Ava Mina, 70.
On November 18, Tawadros will assume his new position as spiritual head of the largest Christian minority in the Middle East, becoming the 118th pope in a line dating back to the origins of Christianity and to Saint Mark, the apostle and author of one of the four Gospels, who brought the new faith to Egypt.
The pope is a servant, Tawadros told Egyptian state television after his appointment, adding that he bore the responsibility of love and peace.
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
As part of an Investigative Project report on a May Democratic fundraiser featuring House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi as well as U.S. Muslim Brotherhood leaders, the IP also reported that former Obama campaign coordinator Mazen Asbahi announced the creation of a new organization called the National Muslim Democratic Council (NMDC). According to the report:
MAN KILLED: One person was killed and his house got damaged in an 
[Dawn] India, an aspirant for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, says the 15-member body is completely out of tune on what is happening in the world, while pushing for its expansion.
A crocodile has been roaming the pipes of the sewer network in the besieged Gaza Strip and all attempts to capture him have failed, according to residents.
Civil service documents show the previous coalition government, which involved Geert Wilders anti-Islam PVV in a supporting role, had an image problem abroad. 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
After half a century on the high seas, the oldest warship in the American fleet, the USS Enterprise, will return to port Sunday for the last time.
The leader of an Islamic group recently the focus of anti-terror raids has returned from overseas to resume his hardline preaching in Melbourne.
[Dawn] The 
Maulana Fazlur Rehman
An insider said that meeting of the likeminded parties had been delayed owing to absence of Maulana Sameeul Haq, who had gone to 
Syed Munawar Hassan
Kurram Agency
...the creepy-looking former dictator of Pakistain. Zia was an Islamic nutball who imposed his nutballery on the rest of the country with the enthusiastic assistance of the nation's religious parties, which are populated by other nutballs. He was appointed Chief of Army Staff in 1976 by Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, whom he hanged when he seized power. His time in office was a period of repression, with hundreds of thousands of political rivals, minorities, and journalists executed or tortured, including senior general officers convicted in coup-d'état plots, who would normally be above the law. As part of his alliance with the religious parties, his government helped run the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan, providing safe havens, American equipiment, Saudi money, and Pak handlers to selected mujaheddin. Zia died along with several of his top generals and admirals and the then United States Ambassador to Pakistain Arnold Lewis Raphel when he was assassinated in a suspicious air crash near Bahawalpur in 1988...
Hamid Gul
[An Nahar] Rebels seized a major oilfield and shot down a warplane in eastern Syria Sunday, a watchdog said, notching up new battlefield successes even as the opposition met in Qatar under U.S. pressure for a makeover.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Mahmoud 
[Dawn] At least four people, including a leader of Awami National Party (ANP), 
[Dawn] Bishop Tawadros was chosen as new pope of Egypts Coptic Christians Sunday when a blindfolded altar boy picked his name from a chalice in a ceremony invoking divine guidance for the beleaguered minority.
