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Mexican police charged over US embassy staff shooting
Today's Headlines
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Israeli attack in Gaza Strip kills several, wounds at least 20
Palestinian medical sources told the Associated Press today Israeli fire killed at least two Palestinians and wounded dozens in cross-border violence in Gaza Strip.

Dr. Ayman al-Sahbani of Gaza's Shifa hospital said fatalities were all civilian and children were among those injured. Witnesses described an explosion followed by tank and machine gun fire, reported AP.

Witnesses also told Lebanon's Naharnet that militants had fired a rocket at an Israeli vehicle, reportedly provoking the deadly return fire from Israel. Naharnet cited Hamas' emergency services spokesman, Yahya Khader, as confirming that two people had been killed and saying six of those wounded had been seriously hurt.

The Israeli military has not commented on the incident, but AP said they were investigating.
Posted by: tipper || 11/10/2012 13:33 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  only two? Hope for sepsis
Posted by: Frank G || 11/10/2012 16:18 Comments || Top||

#2  See? Progress IS possible in Gaza.
Posted by: Grunter || 11/10/2012 17:30 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Russia wants John Kerry, not Susan Rice
Russia would like to see US Senator John Kerry replace Hillary Clinton once the US Secretary of State steps down at the start of President Barack Obama's second term, a news report said on Thursday.

US officials said on Wednesday that Mrs Clinton intended to keep her promise to leave the White House administration after the presidential ballot, despite her boss having firmly secured a new four years in office.

Speculation has been rife that Washington's top foreign policy assignment may go to either the Senate Foreign Affairs committee chairman Kerry or Washington's UN ambassador Susan Rice.

An unnamed source in the Russian foreign ministry told the Kommersant business daily that Moscow would "much prefer" to see Mr Kerry take the post.

The source said Ms Rice was viewed as "too ambitious and aggressive" in Russian diplomatic circles. The UN ambassador had fought fiercely with Moscow over its refusal to back firmer action in the Syria crisis in the past year.

"It would be more difficult for Moscow to work with Washington" if Ms Rice became Secretary of State, the unnamed Russian official said.

The source added that Moscow's only fear was that Mr Obama may choose against naming Mr Kerry because this could see the Democratic Party lose an important Senate seat.
Posted by: Sherry || 11/10/2012 13:20 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The source said Ms Rice was viewed as "too ambitious and aggressive" in Russian diplomatic circles.

I suspect these are politically correct, lesser reasons.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/10/2012 13:59 Comments || Top||

#2  Ms Rice speaks Russian. She may understand a thing or two about Russia.
Posted by: European Conservative || 11/10/2012 14:03 Comments || Top||

#3  Oh wait. That was another Rice. Never mind.
Posted by: European Conservative || 11/10/2012 14:04 Comments || Top||

#4  Kerry's helped them pick up two countries' worth of serfs before with his congressional testimony, they know he's probably good for more.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 11/10/2012 14:55 Comments || Top||

#5  Kerry has shown his worth to them since Viet Nam. You do know he served, right? Got the Lucky Hat™ and all
Posted by: Frank G || 11/10/2012 16:17 Comments || Top||

#6  Well, I kinda hope JFK gets it, otherwise the




LOL





No....





Jhon why the long face™?


tu122
Posted by: Shipman || 11/10/2012 19:01 Comments || Top||

#7  I'm quite sure Russia would prefer Kerry, as similar to China's great "respect" for John McCain's "openness/candor".
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 11/10/2012 20:53 Comments || Top||

#8  Uh,Um...Huh?

You Rang?
Posted by: canalzone || 11/10/2012 22:43 Comments || Top||


Obamacare Is Still Vulnerable
For educational purposes
President Obama has won reelection, and his administration has asked state officials to decide by Friday, November 16, whether their state will create one of Obamacare's health-insurance "exchanges." States also have to decide whether to implement the law's massive expansion of Medicaid. The correct answer to both questions remains a resounding no.

State-created exchanges mean higher taxes, fewer jobs, and less protection of religious freedom. States are better off defaulting to a federal exchange. The Medicaid expansion is likewise too costly and risky a proposition. Republican Governors Association chairman Bob McDonnell (R.,Va.) agrees, and has announced that Virginia will implement neither provision.

There are many arguments against creating exchanges.
I'm still not clear on what these "exchanges" are and what they do
First, states are under no obligation to create one.

Second, operating an Obamacare exchange would be illegal in 14 states. Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, and Virginia have enacted either statutes or constitutional amendments (or both) forbidding state employees to participate in an essential exchange function: implementing Obamacare's individual and employer mandates.

Third, each exchange would cost its state an estimated $10 million to $100 million per year, necessitating tax increases.

Fourth, the November 16 deadline is no more real than the "deadlines" for implementing REAL ID, which have been pushed back repeatedly since 2008.

Fifth, states can always create an exchange later if they choose.
Posted by: Sherry || 11/10/2012 13:05 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  They should named the federal exchange (and every state exchange) 'The John Roberts Federal BOHICA health and tax exchange'
Posted by: Airandee || 11/10/2012 15:31 Comments || Top||

#2  uspected it was a trial balloon on the part of Hillary for something grander like ObamaCare. TennCare was a failure that nearly bankrupted the state. Interestingly, Gov. Bredesen (a Democrat) reformed TennCare and cut way back on eligibility and benefits. I suspect the torpedoed him from being considered from Secretary of HHS--he is a reasonable person and fiscally conservative believe it or not.
Posted by: JohnQC || 11/10/2012 17:46 Comments || Top||

#3  Things got truncated. Should read "I suspected."
Posted by: JohnQC || 11/10/2012 17:47 Comments || Top||

#4  I got this all botched up. Tennessee had a program called TennCare that was implemented during the Clinton administration.
Posted by: JohnQC || 11/10/2012 17:48 Comments || Top||

#5  NukeObamaCareNow™

There, I got muh copyright, right?
Posted by: Shipman || 11/10/2012 19:03 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
In France, a Mission to Return the Military's Carrier Pigeons to Active Duty
Lots of history about these birds in this article. Enjoy -- even the Syrian rebels are using them...
The French military boasts a powerful army with nuclear submarines, ballistic missiles and spy satellites. For lawmaker Jean-Pierre Decool, however, the country is neglecting one of its mightiest weapons: its flock of carrier pigeons.

Glorified for their roles in World War I, pigeon squadrons have long been removed from active duty because of the introduction of more reliable, all-weather communication systems.

And yet the French Defense Ministry still operates a military dovecote--Europe's last--with 150 birds drafted into the 8th regiment for communication and transmission. The birds reside at the Mont-Valérien fortress in Suresnes, to the west of Paris. While a corporal sees to their upkeep and training, they are not ranked as a strategic asset.

"That's a big mistake," says Mr. Decool, who visits the birds at their home near a pigeon-post museum dedicated to the history of the winged servants.

The center-right lawmaker draws hawkish scenarios--a nuclear catastrophe, a hurricane, a war--where racing homers would be the last-resort messaging network. In the Syrian city of Homs, insurgents defying the regime of President Bashar al-Assad are relying on carrier pigeons to communicate because their walkie-talkies are out of reach, he says.

"Where modernity stops, pigeons can still go through," Mr. Decool says.

In July, the 60-year-old sent French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian a letter asking him to clarify France's carrier-pigeon strategy. Two weeks later, the response arrived in the mail.

The minister said that French forces were equipped with self-sufficient communications systems that could resist power failure, cyber or electromagnetic attacks. Should France face a real need for carrier pigeons, the minister said, it could rely on "the precious support" of the country's pigeon fanciers--a flock of folks he estimates to number about 20,000.

Last year, Mr. Decool became concerned that France could be outdone in carrier-pigeon expertise by China, which maintains a platoon of 50,000 birds with 1,100 trainers for communication in border and coastal areas, according to the Chinese Ministry of National Defense.

But a plan to hatch ideas with the Chinese landed on deaf ears. Then-French Defense Minister Gérard Longuet said the country couldn't stoop to such tactics. In response, he said there was a risk Chinese pigeons would "carry French messages back to China!"
Posted by: Sherry || 11/10/2012 12:58 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I think it's always good to have a low tech backup plan for when the high tech stuff gets buggy.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 11/10/2012 13:12 Comments || Top||

#2  Just another reason I gave up FrancoPHooooobia.

I then there was this Wop what left Paris under siege in his balloon vowing to save the Republic... and he gave it a damn good shot too.
Posted by: Shipman || 11/10/2012 18:57 Comments || Top||

#3  It been many decades since the Baron + Muttley - I'm not sure iff the Baron kept their Biplane up to par, wid GPS, + Stealth + all.

However, I do know for fact that Snoopy is ready iff the Baron comes out of retirement.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 11/10/2012 20:59 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Hurricane Sandy before and after pics
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/10/2012 09:45 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Politix
Petraeus’s Sudden Resignation
Republican lawmakers considered calling for his resignation in late October.
Posted by: tipper || 11/10/2012 04:50 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Congressional Republicans were furious with Petraeus for what they described to THE WEEKLY STANDARD as “misleading” testimony he gave to the House Intelligence Committee on September 14.

Champ had him by the knaters and used the Benghazi testimony and timing to his advantage.

"You never let a crisis go to waste".
Rahm Emanuel
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/10/2012 6:45 Comments || Top||

#2  Breitbart story.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/10/2012 7:06 Comments || Top||

#3  Bad link, try this Breitbart story
Posted by: JohnQC || 11/10/2012 7:11 Comments || Top||

#4  I cannot believe Petraeus was naive enough to have left a trail of what has been called steamy personal emails which the FBI then investigated related to a bigger investigation. C'mon, the guy was the head of the CIA. I've also heard that CIA insiders were never happy with his promotion to top spook over long time career people. He said he was happy to testify before Congress and all of a sudden he is not going to testify. Sounds like the kind of choice Rommel was given by Hitler, a brutal death and an ignonimy or cyanide and a heroes funeral--Rommel chose cyanide. We have had famous generals in the past who had affairs in theater such as Eisenhower and others. These things don't make a big splash. Was Obama trying to groom the Democratic Party for its candidate whoever it is in 2016 by knocking off a possible Republican contender, Petraeus. Don't know, just asking.
Posted by: JohnQC || 11/10/2012 7:25 Comments || Top||

#5  Paula Broadwell is a ring knocker from West Point. Author of "All In." Married, mother of two. Lives in Charlotte, N.C. Ph.D. candidate at London school. Fitness buff. Doesn't seem like a security threat. Michael Yon said he knew her in Afghanistan and there were rumors then.
Posted by: JohnQC || 11/10/2012 8:20 Comments || Top||

#6  Second letter down (note the date)....

MY WIFE’S LOVER
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 11/10/2012 9:09 Comments || Top||

#7  I cannot believe Petraeus was naive enough

I can. He served liberal elites faithfully---only natural to assume that he enjoys their immunity.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/10/2012 9:17 Comments || Top||

#8  "All In".... book title or question?
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/10/2012 9:32 Comments || Top||

#9  Update
Sex under the desk
Posted by: tipper || 11/10/2012 9:47 Comments || Top||

#10  "he knew her in Afghanistan and there were rumors then."

It may be why Petraeus was appointed in the first place. Obama likes to have something to hold over everybody.
Posted by: Marilyn Thaitch6932 || 11/10/2012 10:04 Comments || Top||

#11  It may be why Petraeus was appointed in the first place. Obama likes to have something to hold over everybody.
Posted by Marilyn Thaitch6932


She's hotter than a Franklin stove. Perhaps the book was simply a convenient cover for action.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/10/2012 10:10 Comments || Top||

#12  For those like me, that don' know these things, from a comment at Lucianne.com:

Some posters wonder how to threaten a 4-star who is a Ranger and has seen combat.

1. You fire gum [sic] from his civil-service CIA job without a pension.

2. You threaten to stop his 4-star retirement income.

3. You tell him it will cost him millions and millions in defense attorney costs.

Get the picture.
Posted by: Sherry || 11/10/2012 11:33 Comments || Top||

#13  4. You threaten to go public and destroy his family and reputation.

Lot's of dust being kicked up. The truth will take a while to emerge. But, it's looking like the biggest problem may not be Petraeus'.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 11/10/2012 11:46 Comments || Top||

#14  Interesting school, no?

Korbel alumni

Many of the school's alumni have gone on to careers in international service:
Condoleezza Rice - 66th U.S. Secretary of State; former National Security Advisor; former provost, Stanford University[20]
George W. Casey, Jr. - Chief of Staff of the United States Army.[21]
Cindy Courville - U.S. Ambassador to the African Union; former special assistant to President George W. Bush and senior director for African Affairs, National Security Council; former senior intelligence officer, Office of the Chief of Staff, Defense Intelligence Agency[22]
Captain Gail Harris - Former U.S. naval officer, the highest-ranking African American female in the United States Navy upon her retirement in December 2001.[23]
Jami Miscik - Former Deputy Director for Intelligence at the CIA, Vice-Chairman of Kissinger Associates, Inc. in New York.
Masouma Al-Mubarak - Minister of Communications and former Minister of Planning & Minister of State for Administrative Development Affairs of Kuwait.
Heraldo Muñoz - Permanent Representative of Chile to the United Nations; Assistant Secretary-General and Director of the Regional Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
Paul Trivelli - Former U.S. Ambassador to Nicaragua.
Susan Waltz - Professor of public policy, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan; former chair, Amnesty International, International Executive Committee; board member, American Friends Service Committee.
M. Javad Zarif - Former Permanent Representative of Iran to the United Nations.
Paula Dean Kranz Broadwell - Author, archivist and biographer of retired General and former CIA director David Petraeus
Michelle Kwan - U.S. Olympic Figure Skater and current State Department employee.
Guy Padgett - Former mayor of Casper, Wyoming; the state's first openly-gay elected official
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/10/2012 12:07 Comments || Top||

#15  To me it seems pretty obvious that Ogabe attempted to blackmail Petraeus. Because what he knows could get Ogabe impeached. Petraeus had to come clean to have any credibility as a witness, if he is ever to assist in bringing that about. I think Ogabe's probable malfeasance is the real issue - the affair is just a distraction. A man doesn't just suddenly burn his whole life to the ground unless he has something very important to say.
Posted by: RandomJD || 11/10/2012 12:51 Comments || Top||

#16  two possibilities ...

1. the Administration knew the inside story, but did not want this thing to surface until after the Nov election.

Or, as some here are speculating -

2. Patraeus is a fall guy because of Benghazi and internal CIA politics.

too early to tell which is right. but the truth will come out sooner or later.
Posted by: Raider || 11/10/2012 13:24 Comments || Top||

#17  You can bet your ass the Director of the FBI informed POTUS the instant a cloud came over General Petreaus. The narrative that somehow POTUS knew nothing until Petreaus contacted him this week is nonsensical.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/10/2012 13:31 Comments || Top||

#18  Has he ever heard of PGP?
Posted by: European Conservative || 11/10/2012 13:46 Comments || Top||

#19  #16: the link in #9 strongly suggests the first possibility. But what is the FBI doing spying on the CIA?
Posted by: RandomJD || 11/10/2012 14:11 Comments || Top||

#20  The director of the FBI did not inform the President directly. He informed his boss, the Attorney General, Herr Halter, and the AG informed POTUS
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 11/10/2012 14:48 Comments || Top||

#21  "Ahhh excuse me Chief. I think we're gonna need the Cone of Silence for this one".
Posted by: Raider || 11/10/2012 16:53 Comments || Top||

#22  Pretty simple - I've been saying this here for how long? The CIA needs to be dismantled and rebuilt properly - there are too much politics and empire/silo building going on.
Posted by: OldSpook || 11/10/2012 17:03 Comments || Top||

#23  FBI had to know about this before he was confirmed CIA. Which means AG knew. which means Zero knew. He was probably even nominated with that knowledge in pocket, meaning they would always have leverage over him if they needed it.
Now that it's out and he's out, they still have leverage - his pension, and conceivably jail time or other punishment if he testifies without permission (NDA) which he won't get. So they probably won't subpoena him.
Next 'coincidence' - seems his wife works in the WH - did she know and exert revenge?
Posted by: Glenmore || 11/10/2012 17:17 Comments || Top||

#24  From a Chicago Tribune story about Ms. Broadwell:

The book began as research for her dissertation, a case study of Petraeus' leadership. It evolved into an authorized biography written with Washington Post editor Vernon Loeb after President Barack Obama put Petraeus in charge of Afghanistan in 2010.

Hmmm. MSM involvement. Does anyone else smell a media-directed honey trap here?
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) || 11/10/2012 17:31 Comments || Top||

#25  In one of threads of one of the links, I read Ms. Broadwell did a stint with black ops. No much more was mentioned. Maybe that meant the lights were out in this entire steamy affair. Or maybe she did do a stint with the CIA at some time. The FBI had to know Petraeus had this in his background prior to confirmation. They do a fairly thorough job when vetting. Its just elected presidents who don't get vetted.
Posted by: JohnQC || 11/10/2012 18:15 Comments || Top||

#26  She's hotter than a Franklin stove.

Good one, Besoeker. That's even more creative than a description I read of Courtney Love being "as crazy as a wolverine in a sleeping bag."

At least Petraeus had better taste in side dishes than this guy.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) || 11/10/2012 18:25 Comments || Top||

#27  The thing is ... that they could have given Petraeus a graceful exit - especially this past week. He could have been allowed to step down quietly. With all the changes in the Administration after the election - it would have gone unnoticed.

They decided to let him take a stake through the heart instead.
Posted by: Raider || 11/10/2012 18:30 Comments || Top||

#28  If the affair started before Petraeus was appointed D/CIA, how could the FBI not have found out during the routine background check?

If they found out then Obama knew about it and might have chosen Petraeus anyway because he could be blackmailed by the Obama administration.

However D/CIA must be confirmed by the Senate. Doesn't the Senate Intelligence Committee get the same FBI background check report as the President?
Why is this news to the senators then?

So did the FBI miss an affair (not hidden too well) of a prospective D/CIA, or did the FBI actually lie to the Senate?

Something doesn't add up.
Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660 || 11/10/2012 18:57 Comments || Top||

#29  Discredit the witness.

If the witness goes ahead and testifies with negatives against Hussein, blame it on a now "disgruntled former employee". After all, it is all about Obama and not the lifetime service of a US Military 4 Star General who did more for America, which is less important to this corrupt regine that is harboring Obama who is doing all he can to complete the total destruction of America.
Posted by: Bugs Uleger6376 || 11/10/2012 18:58 Comments || Top||

#30  If he can't keep one oath (Love, Honor and Cherish) how can we trust that he'll keep another (Defend and Protect)? Same grievance I had with WJ Clinton. Me, I'd prosecute to the full extent of the law.
Posted by: Glenmore || 11/10/2012 20:05 Comments || Top||

#31  If he can't keep one oath (Love, Honor and Cherish) how can we trust that he'll keep another (Defend and Protect)?

The weight of history is against you, Glenmore. History is full of men who held fast to their duty, giving even the last, full measure of devotion, while having a little somethin-somethin on the side.
Posted by: Angie Schultz || 11/10/2012 21:00 Comments || Top||

#32  they could have given Petraeus a graceful exit

pour encourager les autres
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 11/10/2012 22:04 Comments || Top||

#33  "lifetime service of a US Military 4 Star General"

that's the part i'm having a big problem with. Here's a man who dedicated his life to his country and served us overseas with distinction. Yet he gets fed to the wolves like this?? It shows a singular lack of respect for a lifetime of honorable service. OK - he messed up. But it could have been handled quietly and let the man retain some dignity.
Posted by: Raider || 11/10/2012 23:57 Comments || Top||

#34  The purpose of PAtreus' resignation in this fashion is to suck up the news cycle. It gets the ones focused on Benghazi off track and provides "blocking" for all the other dopes in America that voted for the guy. He is impeachable overt this, but to impeach you will need popular support. Look for another cycle sucker in a few days.
Posted by: jefe101 || 11/11/2012 0:07 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Happy birthday, USMC!
MARINE CORPS ORDERS
No. 47 (Series 1921)
HEADQUARTERS U.S. MARINE CORPS
Washington, November 1, 1921

759. The following will be read to the command on the 10th of November, 1921, and hereafter on the
10 November of every year. Should the order not be received by the 10th of November, 1921, it
will be read upon receipt.

(1) On November 10, 1775, a Corps of Marines was created by a resolution of Continental
Congress. Since that date many thousand men have borne the name "Marine". In memory of them it is
fitting that we who are Marines should commemorate the birthday of our corps by calling to mind the
glories of its long and illustrious history.

(2) The record of our corps is one which will bear comparison with that of the most famous
military organizations in the world's history. During 90 of the 146 years of its existence the
Marine Corps has been in action against the Nation's foes. From the Battle of Trenton to the
Argonne, Marines have won foremost honors in war, and in the long eras of tranquility at home,
generation after generation of Marines have grown gray in war in both hemispheres and in every
corner of the seven seas, that our country and its citizens might enjoy peace and security.

(3) In every battle and skirmish since the birth of our corps, Marines have acquitted themselves
with the greatest distinction, winning new honors on each occasion until the term "Marine" has come
to signify all that is highest in military efficiency and soldierly virtue.

(4) This high name of distinction and soldierly repute we who are Marines today have received
from those who preceded us in the corps. With it we have also received from them the eternal spirit
which has animated our corps from generation to generation and has been the distinguishing mark of
the Marines in every age. So long as that spirit continues to flourish Marines will be found equal
to every emergency in the future as they have been in the past, and the men of our Nation will
regard us as worthy successors to the long line of illustrious men who have served as "Soldiers of
the Sea" since the founding of the Corps.

JOHN A. LEJEUNE,
Major General Commandant
75705—21
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 11/10/2012 02:17 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Semper Fi! Fox is covering it
Posted by: Frank G || 11/10/2012 9:55 Comments || Top||

#2  A special thanks to the brave Marines who served fought along AFG Highway-611 up to the Kajaki dam.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/10/2012 10:00 Comments || Top||

#3  I need to call Dad, Steven and Kelly.
Posted by: Shipman || 11/10/2012 10:00 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
"Malala Day" in Pakistan
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 11/10/2012 02:12 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Pakistan MP Survives Shoe Bomb Attack
[An Nahar] A Pakistain MP escaped an liquidation attempt on Friday when a bomb planted in his shoe went kaboom! as he put them on outside a mosque after prayers, officials said.

The blast in Dera Bugti, about 500 kilometers east of Quetta, capital of the restive province of Balochistan
...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it...
, maimed 12 people, but their injuries were not life-threatening, police and local officials said.

Ahmedan Bugti, a politician with the Pakistain Moslem League-Q party, which is part of the ruling national coalition, left his shoes outside the mosque while he was offering Friday prayers, provincial home secretary Akbar Durrani told Agence La Belle France Presse.

Someone planted an bomb in one of them which detonated as he put the shoe back on.

"Bugti's leg was badly maimed, a helicopter has been arranged to fly him to Quetta," Durrani said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Balochistan is plagued by Islamist militancy, sectarian violence between majority Sunnis and minority Shiite Moslems and a separatist insurgency.
Posted by: Fred || 11/10/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan

#1  someone switched the lifts in his curly-toed slippers?
Posted by: Frank G || 11/10/2012 11:42 Comments || Top||

#2  Prolly need to ban shoes to put a stop to this outrage, just like they did with pillion-riding and scooters without registration tags.
Posted by: SteveS || 11/10/2012 12:22 Comments || Top||

#3  Flash fire in deh Florsheims?
Meh, like Joe says... got nuttin.
Posted by: Shipman || 11/10/2012 16:32 Comments || Top||


Bangladesh
Bangladesh seeks Pakistan apology for 1971 war crimes
[Dawn] Bangladesh's foreign minister on Friday asked his Pak counterpart to apologise for war crimes allegedly committed by the army during Bangladesh's bloody liberation struggle in 1971, a Bangladeshi ministry official said.

Dipu Moni made the request during a meeting in Dhaka with Pakistain's Hina Rabbani Khar following previous discussions about the issue between the two countries, said Bangladesh's Foreign Secretary Mijarul Quayes.

"The foreign minister has raised the 1971 issue and expected that Pakistain would apologise at one stage," Quayes told news hounds after the meeting.

"There are some unresolved issues between the two governments and she expects that Pakistain would come forward to resolve them," Quayes said.

Khar was on a six-hour visit to Bangladesh to formally invite Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
...Bangla dynastic politician and current Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She has been the President of the Bangla Awami League since 1981. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangladesh. Her party defeated the BNP-led Four-Party Alliance in the 2008 parliamentary elections. She has once before held the office, from 1996 to 2001, when she was defeated in a landslide...
to a summit scheduled to be held in Islamabad on November 22.

"The Pak foreign minister said that they have regretted in different forms in the past and that it was time to move forward," Quayes said.
Posted by: Fred || 11/10/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Caribbean-Latin America
Mexican police charged over US embassy staff shooting
Fourteen Mexican police officers have been charged with attempted murder over the shooting of two US government officials and a Mexican marine.

The three were wounded in August, when federal police officers opened fire on their diplomatic car near the town of Tres Marias, leaving their car riddled with 150 bullet holes.

At first, Mexican officials said it was a case of mistaken identity.

Prosecutors have since said they think it may have been a targeted attack.

The attorney general's office said the police officers involved in the shooting "attempted to take the life of two employees of the US embassy and a Mexican marine" travelling with them.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 11/10/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  About time someone got rung up on this one.
Posted by: rammer || 11/10/2012 11:09 Comments || Top||

#2  Have to wonder if the victims were getting a little too close to the truth about something.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 11/10/2012 13:06 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran Defends Attack on U.S. Drone
[WSJ] Iran's defense minister confirmed that Iranian jets fired at a U.S. drone last week and said Tehran would do it again, disputing the Pentagon's statement that the American aircraft was flying in international airspace.

"Last week an unidentified aircraft entered the airspace over Iran's territorial waters in the Persian Gulf, which was forced to flee due to the prompt, smart and decisive action of the Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran's armed forces," Brig Gen. Ahmad Vahidi told Iranian state media Friday.
Posted by: Fred || 11/10/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  They really do believe what they say, don't they? Just not in my DNA to understand, how anyone can make such outrageous claims.... yes, there are cultural differences....
Posted by: Sherry || 11/10/2012 0:33 Comments || Top||

#2  IMO Iran is once again testing the Bammer now that he has been formally reelected in the US.

* TOPIX > [AlbaWaba News] WORLD OIL USERS WILL BE LEFT HIGH AND DRY IFF IRAN CLOSES STRAIT OF HORMUZ WATER PASSAGE.
ARTIC = ...
- Major land-based oil pipelines can carry or handle only 1/3 of the world's requirements.
- Oil prces will skyrocket in a time of poorly-perfroming International economies.
- Many of the VLCC Oil tankers that use the SoH end up in South + SE Asia - CHINA, INDIA, THAILAND, + INDONESIA ECONS TO BE HEAVILY AFFECTED.

HHHMMM, HHHMMM, ANOTHER "PEAK OIL/ENERGY" TEST FOR RISING CHINA + ITS "MANIFEST DESTINY".
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 11/10/2012 0:39 Comments || Top||

#3  Iran Defends Attack on U.S. Drone

Like they need to....
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 11/10/2012 8:29 Comments || Top||

#4  Look, I'd fired on it too, we're in combat here, don't be surprised if the other side fires back when you least expect it.
Posted by: Shipman || 11/10/2012 10:04 Comments || Top||

#5  They spent the entire Iraq War shooting at us while we didn't shoot back, Ship. I think Bush's unwillingness to tell the truth about the situation is a large part of why we're in the political mess we're in now.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 11/10/2012 10:15 Comments || Top||

#6  So who's in charge of the drones?
At CIA, a convert to Islam leads the terrorism hunt
Posted by: tipper || 11/10/2012 12:48 Comments || Top||

#7  Well I guess they better try again. It doesn't look like they've got any Top Guns over in the Iranian Air Force. It asin't much of an attack when you can hit a slow-moving target.

My suggestion boyz is that you start renting some old Tom Cruise movies :-)
Posted by: Raider || 11/10/2012 13:18 Comments || Top||

#8  and that sentence should have said ... when you CAN'T hit a slow-moving target.
Posted by: Raider || 11/10/2012 13:19 Comments || Top||

#9  Maybe they are thinking that their territory extends as far as the old Persian empire did.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 11/10/2012 13:32 Comments || Top||

#10  time to double up on the drones, one unarmed, and one with heat-seekers. Splash their jets and say they shot each other down
Posted by: Frank G || 11/10/2012 16:10 Comments || Top||

#11  You're right Snowy, I didn't inspect that angle.
Posted by: Shipman || 11/10/2012 16:40 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Al-Fadhali appeals to lift his siege
[Yemen Post] A tribal leader and a former jihadist in Afghanistan, Tariq Al-Fadhali, has appealed to lift a siege laid to him by fighters of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) in Abyan.
...a governorate of Yemen. The region was a base to the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army terrorist group until it dropped the name and joined al-Qaeda. Its capital is Zinjibar. In March 2011, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula declared the governate an Islamic Emirate after seizing control of the region. The New York Times fastidiously reported that those in control, while Islamic hard boyz, are not in fact al-Qaeda, but something else that looks, tastes, smells, and acts the same. Yemeni government forces launched an effort to re-establish control of the region when President-for-Life Saleh was tossed and the carnage continues...

Al-Fadhali told Al-Masdar Online that the siege resulted in suffering to his family, dubbing it as illegal.

He reiterated that fighters of the Popular Resistance Committees still surround his home, appealing to help him bring food and medicine to his family.

Sources of PRC told Al-Masdar Online that al-Fadhali is still under the siege and that they will allow a doctor to go to al-Fadhali's house.

Fighters of PRC have been surrounding al-Fadhali inside his home since last Monday and accusing him of affiliation to Al-Qaeda. A tribal leader of Abyan, Tariq Al-Fadhali, was given a 24 ultimatum to surrender himself after fighters of the Popular Resistance Committees encircled him inside his house in Zinjibar of Abyan.

Al-Fadhali who returned to Zinjibar on Monday after military commanders helped him to come back insisted that he would not surrender himself.

He had left Zinjibar of Abya after festivities escalated between the army and al-Qaeda cut-throats in last June.

Military sources said that the commander of the 115th brigade was suspended on ground of allowing al-Fadhali to return to Abyan.

Al-Fadhali, who is a son of a former sultan of Abyan, is accused of inciting against leaders and cadres of the Yemeni Socialist Party.

The General Secretariat of YSP had dubbed him as al-Qaeda terrorist and asking the authorities to swiftly arrest and prosecute him.

Posted by: Fred || 11/10/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia


Southeast Asia
U.N. Calls on Myanmar to Offer Citizenship to Muslim Rohingya
[An Nahar] The U.N. human rights
When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much...
chief called on Myanmar Friday to allow Moslem Rohingya to become citizens after deadly sectarian violence in recent months in the western state of Rakhine.

The group's statelessness is at the heart of two major outbreaks of unrest between Buddhist and Moslem communities that has left 180 dead and forced more than 110,000, mainly Rohingya, into makeshift camps since June.

The Rohingya have no legal status, with the government and many Burmese regarding them as undocumented Democrats from neighboring Bangladesh.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay added her voice to calls for the problem to be resolved and urged a change in the law, saying the Rohingya had been excluded from the reform process.

"This should include a review of the citizenship law to ensure that Rohingya have equal access to citizenship," Pillay told Agence La Belle France Presse at the Bali Democracy Forum in Indonesia.

She also warned that the violence could hinder Myanmar's much-heralded reform drive.

"While we can positively commend the government for the progress made towards democratic transition and national reconciliation, the communal violence, if not resolved, can undermine the reform process," she said.

Local authorities in Rakhine told AFP Wednesday they had begun a process of verifying the nationality of all the state's Moslems, amid widespread calls for those deemed "illegal" to be sent to another country.

The precise goal of the survey was unclear.

The 800,000 Rohingya in the state are considered by the U.N. to be one of the most persecuted minorities in the world.

Separately, Pillay said she pressed Myanmar's Deputy Foreign Minister U Thant Kyaw at the Bali meeting to secure the release of a local U.N. refugee agency employee incarcerated
Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try!
in Myanmar for almost five months. He gave her no response.

"If the government detains U.N. people carrying out their professional functions, it doesn't sit very well with their reform agenda," she said.

Vivian Tan, a spokeswoman for the United Nations
...an organization whose definition of human rights is interesting, to say the least...
High Commissioner for Refugees, told AFP that the agency had asked Myanmar for details of the charges but received no response.
Posted by: Fred || 11/10/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa Horn
Two people gunned down in Somali capital
[Shabelle] At least two people were bumped off in Mogadishu overnight by unidentified gangs, the latest in string of coordinated killings in the capital for the last few months.

Eyewitnesses said assailants armed with pistols have killed a soldier and a civilian at Turcaye village inside the volatile Huriwa district, north of Mogadishu on Thursday night at about 9pm local time and fled from the shooting zone.

The motive and the identity of the assassins were not established yet by the authority in the area. Such incidents have been on the rise as a new federal government took the helm of the horn of Africa strife-town country.

Following the killings Somali government forces mounting in pick-ups have moved in the area and searched all houses to arrest the killers, according to the local residents.
Posted by: Fred || 11/10/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab


Africa North
Close shops early, sleep early, pray early: Salafist holy man
[Al Ahram] A controversial government decision to close shops early has stirred a heated debate over whether it would be efficient to save energy. A hardline Islamist preacher had a totally new perspective.

"The decision is correct and coincides with Islamic Sharia law, as it will make people sleep earlier and therefore they will be able to wake up early to pray at dawn," preacher Ahmed El-Mahalawy, who was banned from giving sermons under former Egyptian presidents Anwar El-Sadat and Hosni Mubarak
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
, said in Alexandria.

El-Mahalawy was given the weekly Friday sermon in the famous Al-Qaed Ibrahim mosque, which was the hub of the Alexandria protests against Mubarak during last year's popular 18-day uprising.

He was only allowed to resume his preaching activities after Mubarak was driven from office. He is now a staunch supporter of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, who hails from the Moslem Brüderbund.

The decision to close shops by 12 PM and restaurants by 2 AM was heavy criticized by many political figures and activists, who argue that it would affect the income of many people who are reliant on late-hours work.

Other also said it would deprive Cairo from one of its most prominent features as a city that never sleeps.

El-Mahalawy stopped short of echoing the government's defence, turning a blind eye towards the rhetoric of saving energy and focusing instead on the spiritual side of the saga.

"Those who object to the decision are imbeciles. They are against the implementation of Islamic law that will help build the society in a truly Islamic way," he added.
Posted by: Fred || 11/10/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  I'm sure the SBA would fund a business plan that includes "The decision is correct and coincides with Islamic Sharia law, as it will make people sleep earlier and therefore they will be able to wake up early to pray at dawn."

Sound business practice, this limiting of business hours because the "Islamic law will help build the society in a truly Islamic way."

Sound business plan, is this plan to "save energy."/sarc

Business plan could be titled, "How to increase prayer time while driving away business."
Posted by: Sherry || 11/10/2012 0:57 Comments || Top||

#2  Sounds very green.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 11/10/2012 5:48 Comments || Top||

#3  ALLAH AKUABAR'
SLEEP IT'S GOOD FOR U~
or die
Posted by: Shipman || 11/10/2012 10:02 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Nine year old girl awarded as dispute 'compensation' in Punjab
[Dawn] Police in Pakistain have cooled for a few years
Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages!
five men after a village council ordered a father to hand over his nine-year-old daughter as compensation in a rape case, officers said Friday.
But she's got the body of a twelve-year-old...
A group of elders in the remote rural area of Bahalak in Punjab province made the ruling to settle a year-long dispute between a farm worker and an influential local landowner, local cop shoppe chief Mohammad Khalid told AFP.

The worker, Arshad, who goes by one name, was accused of involvement in the abduction and rape of landowner Ali Sher's daughter, Khalid said.

"The jury on Sunday decreed that Arshad would marry (off) his daughter Sidra to Ali Sher's 22-year old son Maqsood," he explained.

"Arshad agreed verbally but Sidra, who is too young, remains with her family," he said.

The marriage was not formally solemnised but the village council made Arshad agree to pay Sher 400,000 rupees ($4,000) -- a vast sum for a farm labourer in Pakistain -- if he did not honour the ruling.

Khalid said Arshad and four council members had been locked away
Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages!
The practice of "Wani", giving daughters as compensation to end vendettas, is illegal and punishable by up to seven years in jail.
Posted by: Fred || 11/10/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'm going to go out on a limb + quess that the poor girl biologically had already begun having her period, thus technically making her eligible for this particular swap + marriage, even though Western + prolly many Paki Perts would commonly agree she's too young for marriage???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 11/10/2012 21:06 Comments || Top||


Pillion riding banned in Karachi, Khairpur
[Dawn] The government of Sindh has placed a ban on riding double in Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
and Khairpur as part of its security measures ahead of the holy month of Muharram starting next week.

The ban will come into effect from midnight Friday and will stay in place until Muharram 11, according to a notification issued by the Sindh Home Ministry. A ban on riding double had already been imposed in Hyderabad earlier this week.
Posted by: Fred || 11/10/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Aaaaagain?
Posted by: M. Murcek || 11/10/2012 16:40 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Rafsanjani's son denies being charged with spying
[Al Ahram] The jailed son of Iran's ex-President denies the reality of news-reported accusations of 'spying and of having provided sensitive information to foreigners'
Posted by: Fred || 11/10/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


India-Pakistan
Nawaz also blames 'generals' for conspiring against his govt
[Dawn] Pakistain Mohammedan League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif
... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf...
on Friday blamed 'army generals' for conspiring against his elected government in the past saying gunny bags full of money were brought in Punjab to topple his rule, DawnNews reported.

Speaking during an interview to a private news channel, Sharif declared the task of bringing law and situation of the country to normality an uphill task. Situation in Balochistan
...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it...
, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
and in Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
is getting out of control, he said.

Sharif said that his party will form an electoral alliance with a political party which would ensure peace in Bloody Karachi. "We might not need any alliance prior to elections anyway," he added.

The former prime minister dismissed the allegations that he received money from former Mehran Bank head Younis Habib. "Had I received money and had he been kind enough to us, my government would have not fired him from his post," he added.

Commenting on the Supreme Court's verdict on Asghar Khan case and potential investigation by the FIA against him, Sharif said that he would accept the probe despite the fact that the agency reports to Interior Minister Rehman Malik
Pak politician, Interior Minister under the Gilani government. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Nawaz Sharif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. He had to give up the interior ministry job because he held dual Brit citizenship.
. He stressed that the government should implement the apex court orders in letter and spirit.
Posted by: Fred || 11/10/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Bomb-Laden Car Driver 'Covered Head with Hat'
[An Nahar] The latest investigations into the liquidation of Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau chief Wissam al-Hasan have revealed that the driver of the booby-trapped car used in the attack had "covered his head with a hat" in order to prevent security cameras installed in the area from taking footage of his face, a media report said on Friday, as State Prosecutor Hatem Madi said the possibilities "have been narrowed down."

"One of the culprits of the Ashrafiyeh blast that killed martyr Major General Wissam al-Hasan parked the booby-trapped car -- a Toyota RAV4 carrying no other passengers -- on Ibrahim al-Monzer Street," LBCI television reported.

"He then stepped out of the car, wearing a jacket with a popped collar and covering his head with a hat," LBCI added.

The TV network quoted security sources as saying that Sherlocks have not yet managed to identify the aforementioned person and that they are analyzing other footage in a bid to achieve some progress.

The sources also denied that Sherlocks have interrogated a journalist whose name has been linked to the case.

Earlier on Friday, Prosecutor Madi said the "possibilities in the liquidation of Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau chief Major General Wissam al-Hasan have been narrowed down."

He added to Turkey's Anatolia News Agency that "no suspects have yet been identified."

"The investigations are going ahead at a good pace and they are taking their natural course," he said.

The investigations have managed to narrow down the possibilities and the Sherlocks will soon complete analyzing the evidence obtained from the scene of the crime, he revealed.

Madi refused to comment however on media claims that some "known individuals, such as Hizbullah security official Salim Ayyash, were present at the scene of the crime."

Ayyash is among the four Hizbullah members accused of being involved in the 2005 liquidation of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in Beirut.

Madi added that he has not yet received the FBI team report on Hasan's scene of the crime.

An FBI team had headed to Leb in the wake of the liquidation to examine the scene.

Analysis of its findings are being conducted in the United States.
Posted by: Fred || 11/10/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  "He then stepped out of the car, wearing a jacket with a popped collar and covering his head with a hat"

Been watching too much American TV....
Posted by: Sherry || 11/10/2012 1:00 Comments || Top||

#2  The sinister Zionist connection?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/10/2012 8:45 Comments || Top||

#3  Hats. Joooos wear them, you make the connection.
Posted by: Shipman || 11/10/2012 16:41 Comments || Top||

#4  "The Cat in the Hat went Boom", by Abu al Suess, a beloved children's story throughout the ME.
Posted by: SteveS || 11/10/2012 18:48 Comments || Top||

#5  Thing 1 and Thing 2 are straight outta Mecca.
Posted by: Shipman || 11/10/2012 18:52 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Pro-revolutionary group questions credentials of Friday's Sharia protest
[Al Ahram] In reaction to the Salafist organised protest in Tahrir on Friday for the implementation of Sharia law, the Egyptian "Second Revolution of Rage Movement" said though it believed all Egyptians have the right of "freedom of assembly and expression," protesters should not aim to change life as most Egyptians know it.

Hisham Al-Shal, the coordinator of the pro-revolutionary web-based movement, questioned what he sees as the vague and myrmidon nature of the Salafist interpretation of Islam.

"Which Sharia are they talking about, a Salafist, Moslem Brüderbund or Sufist-influenced law? We need to receive precise answers about that," Al-Shal added.

Al-Shal said many people dislike the way Salafists
...Salafists are ostentatiously devout Moslems who figure the ostentation of their piety gives them the right to tell others how to do it and to kill those who don't listen to them...
speak about Islam accusing Salafism of being an "undesirable model" for Mohammedans who follow the Koran and teachings of the Prophet Mohamed.

"The core of Islam is to uphold religion through wisdom and valuable advice; the Salafists are not aware of this until now," Al-Shal sarcastically said.
Posted by: Fred || 11/10/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Former Trustee Launders $ 0.6 Billion
Another mighty one has fallen. A former trustee of Carnegie Mellon Univ. is convicted of laundering $0.6 billion - not exactly chump change. Do you know where your savings are today, Rantburgers??
EL PASO, TEXAS -- A Texas lawyer and former Carnegie Mellon University trustee pleaded not guilty Thursday to laundering more than $600 million for a Mexican drug cartel. Marco Antonio Delgado waived his arraignment Thursday, essentially entering a not guilty plea, during a hearing in federal court in El Paso.
Posted by: Raider || 11/10/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Former Carnegie Mellon Univ. lawyer and trustee launders money for the drug cartel? He must have been watching Breaking Bad. Universities just aren't what they used to be.
Posted by: JohnQC || 11/10/2012 7:42 Comments || Top||

#2  He look like such a nice Italian boy.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/10/2012 7:48 Comments || Top||

#3  Now...don't be profiling B!
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/10/2012 12:13 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
114 Dead in Clashes, Blast as Protesters Tell Assad 'You'll Die in Syria'
[An Nahar] At least 114 people were killed in violence across Syria on Friday as thousands of anti-regime protesters erupted into the streets, monitors said.

The Local Coordination Committees, a network of activists on the ground, said regime forces killed at least 90 people in several regions.

Thirty people were killed in Deir Ezzor in the east, 16 in Damascus
...The capital of Iran's Syrian satrapy...
and its countryside, 13 in 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...
in the north, eight in Daraa in the south, eight in the central province of Hama, six in the central province of Homs, six in the northwestern Idlib, one in al-Raqqa in the northeast, one in the neighboring al-Hasakeh and one in Quneitra which is located in the small part of the Golan Heights that is not occupied by Israel, the LCC said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 12 non-combatants were killed in shelling of a village in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, with a video released by activists showing bloodied corpses, including at least one of a child, lying in the middle of a road.

Warplanes were meanwhile flying over Damascus to bomb targets in rebel-held suburbs, an Agence La Belle France Presse correspondent said, and heavy kabooms could be heard around the capital in the early morning.

Some of the heaviest fighting saw at least 20 Syrian soldiers killed over the Ras al-Ain border post, one of only two crossings on the Turkish border still in regime hands, the Observatory said.

Fighting over the post left at least 16 Syrian soldiers and 10 rebels dead on Thursday, the Observatory said, and forced thousands to flee.

Meanwhile,
...back at the Hubba Hubba Club, Nunzio had his hands full of angry bleached blonde...
a car boom outside a mayor's office in the town of Muadamiyat al-Sham south of Damascus killed four civilians, according to the Britannia-based rights group.

A woman was among those killed in the town, about 10 kilometers (six miles) south of the Syrian capital.

Despite the raging violence, thousands of protesters rallied on Friday, with many mocking Assad's "live and die" remarks.

"Bashar, you will die in Syria, but you won't be buried in the ground, you will be thrown in the dustbin of history!" read one sign held by protesters in the central city of Hama.

On Thursday, 142 people were killed in violence across the country, including 56 civilians, said the Britannia-based Observatory, which relies on a network of activists and medics on the ground.

Among the heaviest festivities on Thursday were battles for control of the mainly Kurdish northeastern town of Ras al-Ain on the Turkish border that killed 16 soldiers and 10 rebels, according to the Observatory.

A Turkish foreign ministry official told AFP that 8,000 refugees had fled to Turkey from the area overnight and that six Turkish civilians had been maimed by shots from across the border.
Posted by: Fred || 11/10/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Africa North
Salafist protesters sign petition for Sharia-based constitution
[Al Ahram] Islamist protesters collect signatures to petition for the implementation of Sharia law in Egypt's Tahrir Square on Friday
Posted by: Fred || 11/10/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Hate-Crime Killing of Iraqi Woman in San Diego? Not So Much
The husband of an Iraqi woman who was found beaten to death in March in their El Cajon home has been arrested in connection with her death, El Cajon police said Friday.

Kassim Alhimidi, 48, was booked into jail Thursday evening on one count of first degree murder in the death of Shaima Alawadi, a 32-year-old mother of five. He was arrested at the El Cajon police station, authorities said.

Alhimidi is being held without bail and is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday.

“After months of hard work, we determined this homicide was the result of domestic violence and not a hate crime,” El Cajon Police Chief Jim Redman said at a news conference.

Alawadi was attacked at the family’s Skyview Street home March 21. She was struck on the head at least six times and suffered four skull fractures, according to court records. She died in a hospital three days later.
"she fell, I tried to catch her with a hammer. It was an accident. I panicked"
Her family said a note was found near her body, telling them to go back where they came from. The family said a similar note had been left on their door weeks earlier, but they did not report the incident or keep the note.

The early implications that the slaying was a possible hate crime spawned international attention, especially among the Muslim community. Peace rallies and candlelight vigils promoting peace and a Muslim woman’s right to wear a head scarf spread throughout the world.
CAIR rejoiced
In an interview a week after the killing, her husband told the Arabic Al Arabiya News: “My wife was a victim of xenophobia.”
"and the fact she wanted to divorce me. ME! A loving and benevolent wife killer! I couldn't stand the insult"
But court records obtained at El Cajon Superior Court showed a family in turmoil.
Posted by: Frank G || 11/10/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  How is an Islamic honor killing not a hate crime? Four skull fractures sure sounds like "hate" to me.
Posted by: RandomJD || 11/10/2012 5:42 Comments || Top||

#2  "she fell, I tried to catch her with a hammer. It was an accident. I panicked"

:)
Just when you think RB Snark is fail...
Posted by: Shipman || 11/10/2012 10:06 Comments || Top||

#3  killing not a hate crime?

Cause it wasn't a white guy named Ray Earl Smith killing the nice Islamic lady. That's how...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 11/10/2012 12:44 Comments || Top||

#4  "My wife was a victim of xenophobia." Is that like being islamophobic? Two of CAIR's favorite terms to describe us infidels. The husband who accident "dropped the hammer" on his wife has picked up on these terms of endearment.
Posted by: JohnQC || 11/10/2012 17:34 Comments || Top||

#5  accidently
Posted by: JohnQC || 11/10/2012 17:34 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
UN rejects move to fund Kenyan Naval forces in Somalia
[Shabelle] The United Nations
...an international organization whose stated aims of facilitating interational security involves making sure that nobody with live ammo is offended unless it's a civilized country...
Security Council on Wednesday shelved a request by the African Union
...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
for UN funding of Kenya's naval forces operating off the coast of Somalia.

"Three or four members" of the 15-nation Security Council blocked the effort to secure financial support for a Kenyan naval component of the AU military mission in Somalia, said Doctor Mashabane, South Africa's deputy UN ambassador.

La Belle France, one of the five veto-wielding members of the council, was identified in some reports as a leading opponent of the AU request.

The council was acting to preserve its unity on Somalia-related issues when it subsequently gave unanimous support on Wednesday to a resolution that does not include naval funding and that extends Amisom's mandate for four months, Mr Mashabane said.

India, which currently holds the presidency of the Security Council, said at the session that it is "disappointed" at the exclusion of a maritime component from Amisom's mandate.

India's representative added that his country hopes the matter will again be considered as part of a strategic review of the hybrid AU-UN military force in Somalia.

In a report to the Security Council last month, the AU pointed to an "urgent need" to include naval resources under Amisom's aegis.

The AU said naval power, supplied exclusively by Kenya, had been crucial in "preventing Al-Shabaab
... Harakat ash-Shabaab al-Mujahidin aka the Mujahideen Youth Movement. It was originally the youth movement of the Islamic Courts, now pretty much all of what's left of it. They are aligned with al-Qaeda but operate more like the Afghan or Pakistani Taliban...
from benefiting from illegal maritime trade or piracy."

Kenyan sea forces also played a key role in routing Al-Shabaab from Kismayu, its stronghold on the southern Somalia coast, diplomats noted.

US Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman said earlier this week in Nairobi that "the US was extremely pleased that Kenya forces joined Amisom and took such decisive action to free large areas of Somalia from Al-Shabaab control."
Posted by: Fred || 11/10/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab


Home Front: Culture Wars
Unbordered Docs on the East Coast
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/10/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  How delightfully Third World. Someone remind me again how well Obama is managing Sandy.
Posted by: SteveS || 11/10/2012 0:54 Comments || Top||

#2  No, they've found a foreign shore alright and a much less rewarding assignment I'd wager. Their standard African clients probably do not share the same riotous sense of of entitlement.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/10/2012 2:22 Comments || Top||

#3  >high-rises don't have working elevators, street lights are dark and until a day or two ago, pharmacies had either been destroyed or were shuttered.

Looks like they shat on their own doorstep then... I'm guessing looting caused more damage than sandy.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 11/10/2012 11:04 Comments || Top||

#4  All that Oxy just waiting to be looted...
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 11/10/2012 13:32 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Blockades of roads largely increase
[Yemen Post] Road blockades made by rustics caused the killing of eight persons and wounding of 17 others across Yemen in October.

Blockades targeted gas, oil and goods trucks that were sometimes seized for several days.

According to the state news agency, Saba, more than 130 road blockades occurred in different Yemeni governorates in October, pointing out that attempts of security forces to remove such blockades led to the killing of eight persons and wounding more others.

Some tribes try to put pressures on the government through blockading roads, particularly after the eruption of Yemen's uprising in 2011.

Killings and other criminal acts have remarkably increased in some governorates due to Dire Revenge™ and armed disputes as gunnies exploited insecurity in Sana'a to carry out killings and tribal Dire Revenge™.

Major cities witnessed a state of loose security following the ouster of the former president 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...
who some of his relatives still run military services.

The Interior Ministry has declared a ban on weapons carrying inside cities, but gunnies are still seen roaming with AK-47 assault rifles, hunting rifles and pistols inside Sana'a streets.

Yemeni political sides exchange accusations about inflaming instability and tensions in light of divisions among military units.

Yemeni politicians always demand to end the division of the military, stressing that the division endangers the political settlement.

High ranking officials including party leaders, ministers and military commanders were subjected to liquidation attempts during the past months.

Posted by: Fred || 11/10/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia


Economy
Fiscal Cliff: 54 Days Until $7 Trillion Tax Hike
In 54 days, $7 trillion in tax hikes and spending cuts over the next decade will automatically go into effect. If America goes over this "fiscal cliff," experts say the already rickety U.S. economy could implode.

To avert the economic calamity, on Wednesday Speaker John Boehner offered President Barack Obama a "bridge" to help the nation safely cross the fiscal cliff.

"Mr. President, this is your moment. We're ready to be led--not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans," said Mr. Boehner. "We want you to lead, not as a liberal or a conservative, but as president of the United States of America."

Mr. Boehner said he sought "common ground" with Mr. Obama and was open to "new revenues.":

"In order to garner Republican support for new revenues, the president must be willing to reduce spending and shore up the entitlement programs that are the primary drivers of our debt."
Posted by: Au Auric || 11/10/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Shore up" > Yokay, I'll bite, is Boehner saying the Bammer needs to increase or expand the entitlement spending "that are the primary drivers of our debt"???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 11/10/2012 0:25 Comments || Top||

#2  I doubt Boehner means increase or expand. But taking the long view, I think that is exactly what Republicans should encourage. Not to rock the boat: but to sink it. Give people what they voted for, good and hard. Don't just compromise; grant Dems' every wish and stand aside, to Make. Them. Own. It. To stave off a repeat of this plague for a good long time. Whoever is in charge when the music stops will be radioactive forever - a far better time to be spectators than participants.
Posted by: RandomJD || 11/10/2012 0:46 Comments || Top||

#3  I doubt much will be accomplished prior to the holiday recess. They have so little time remaining. Obama has nothing to gain from compromise. I fully expect the clock to run out and both parties will blame each another. Investment income from the boomers is the target, and they will get it through increased taxes and indirect taxes (gov't insurance schemes).

Posted by: Besoeker || 11/10/2012 2:07 Comments || Top||

#4  Mr. President there is message from some one called
Keyser Söze in the secured mail. It says you cost him money and he want's it back with interest.
Posted by: Vortigern Hupoluse1541 || 11/10/2012 2:41 Comments || Top||

#5  Why does Obama have any motivation to reach a compromise?
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 11/10/2012 7:18 Comments || Top||

#6  Washington (and the country) always seems to do better when its on recess or Champ is on vacation. That ought to tell us something.
Posted by: JohnQC || 11/10/2012 7:40 Comments || Top||

#7  Wild Guess on deal: cut defense and raise taxes for the next 4 years and all proposed 'cuts' start in 2017.

Note: obama is in Asia requesting a credit line increase from the chinese credit card company.
Posted by: Airandee || 11/10/2012 15:37 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Assad Says Only 'Ballot Box' Can Decide his Future
[An Nahar] Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Horror of Homs...
said his future could only be decided through the ballot box, in an interview with Russian television where he warned the country could face a protracted war.

Assad told state-run Russia Today (RT) that whether the president can "stay or leave" is a "popular issue" and "the only way (it) can be done (is) through the ballot boxes."

"It is not about what we hear. It is about what we can get through that box and that box will tell any president to stay or leave very simply," said the president, speaking in English.

In the interview with a Russia Today correspondent recorded in Damascus
...Home to a staggering array of terrorist organizations...
, he said the conflict with rebels could be "a long-term war" if they continued to receive support from abroad.

Assad described as "unprecedented" the support which he said the rebels were receiving from abroad in terms of arms, money and political backing.

"So, you have to expect that it is going to be a tough war and a difficult war. You do not expect a small country like Syria to defeat all those countries that have been fighting us through proxies just in days or weeks."

If the support for rebels from abroad stopped, he said, "I can tell that in weeks we can finish everything."

"But as long as you have a continuous supply in terrorists, armaments, logistics and everything else, it is going to be a long-term war."

But Assad denied that the country was in civil war as such conflicts should be "based on ethnic problems or sectarian problems".

"You have divisions, but division does not mean civil war," he added.

Assad lashed out at Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, accusing him of behaving like an Ottoman sultan and thinking he is a "caliph."

Ties between the one-time allies Syria and Turkey have soured dramatically over the conflict between Assad's regime and rebels openly supported by Ankara that activists say has now claimed 37,000 lives.

"He (Erdogan) personally thinks that he is the new sultan of the Ottoman (empire) and he can control the region as it was during the Ottoman empire, under a new umbrella," Assad told Russia Today television.

"In his heart he thinks he is a caliph," said Assad, referring to the title used by leaders of the Islamic world from the early Arab Islamic dynasties up to the Ottoman empire.

Assad said that the mentality of Erdogan -- who leads the Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) -- was to blame for collapse of relations between the Damascus regime and Ankara.

Erdogan has shifted his policy on Syria from "zero problems to zero friends," said Assad, who noted that he last spoke with Erdogan in May 2011.

Assad accused Erdogan of wanting the Moslem Brüderbund to take over the Middle East region so that "he (Erdogan) can guarantee his political future."
Posted by: Fred || 11/10/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  Yea, let's count those votes, "one for you, two for me --- one for you, two for me, and one for you".... you get the picture... Chavez prolly has some "Master Trainers" for the three day seminar entitled the "Art of Counting Votes."
Posted by: Sherry || 11/10/2012 0:50 Comments || Top||

#2  No doubt he meant "bullet box." English can be confusing.
Posted by: PBMcL || 11/10/2012 9:08 Comments || Top||

#3  Road, camera, car, telephone or ballot box. Same shit. Same dead.
Posted by: Shipman || 11/10/2012 16:43 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Mexican Pot Plans Go Up In A Puff Of Smoke
2 states' votes change the rules
Consequences.
A top aide to Mexican President-elect Enrique Pena Nieto says votes to legalize the recreational use of marijuana in Colorado and Washington state will force the Mexican government to rethink its efforts at trying to halt marijuana smuggling across the southwestern border.

Luis Videgaray, former general coordinator of Mr. Pena Nieto's presidential campaign this year and now head of the transition team, told Radio Formula 970 in Mexico City that the new administration has consistently opposed the legalization of drugs, and the Colorado and Washington votes conflict with his government's long-standing and costly efforts to eradicate the cultivation and smuggling of marijuana.

"These important modifications change somewhat the rules of the game in the relationship with the United States," Mr. Videgaray said. "I think we have to carry out a review of our joint policies in regard to drug trafficking and security in general.

"Obviously, we can't handle a product that is illegal in Mexico, trying to stop its transfer to the United States, when in the United States, at least in part of the United States, it now has a different status," he said.

Mr. Videgaray is expected to play a significant role in the Pena Nieto administration. The president-elect, who will assume office Dec. 1, said in September that Mr. Videgaray would head the team that will set policy direction for the new government.

More than 47,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence in Mexico since President Felipe Calderon began a military assault on violent narco mobs in 2006. Many of the dead have included Mexican military personnel and police.

During his presidential campaign, Mr. Pena Nieto vowed to continue Mexico's fight against drug trafficking, although he said he would revise strategies and work to reduce violence. Some U.S. policymakers have expressed concern
...meaning the brow was mildly wrinkled, the eyebrows drawn slightly together, and a thoughtful expression assumed, not that anything was actually done or indeed that any thought was actually expended...
s that his Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) had been known for allowing drug-trafficking cartels semiautonomous control of certain regions.

The topic of legalized marijuana is sure to come up during Mr. Pena Nieto's planned Nov. 27 trip to the U.S., when he will visit the White House.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/10/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Narcos

#1  I think we have to carry out a review of our joint policies

(cue beavis & butthead laughter) hunh-hunh, hunh-hunh
Posted by: SteveS || 11/10/2012 0:32 Comments || Top||

#2  More than 47,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence in Mexico since President Felipe Calderon began a military assault on violent narco mobs in 2006. Many of the dead have included Mexican military personnel and police.

Musta pulled that "fact" out of the writer's ass. 90 percent of the dead in Mexico's drug war were narcos killed by other narcos.
Posted by: badanov || 11/10/2012 3:39 Comments || Top||

#3  "will force the Mexican government to rethink its efforts at trying to halt marijuana smuggling across the southwestern border."

We must do something about that border between Tijuana and Denver
Posted by: European Conservative || 11/10/2012 5:20 Comments || Top||

#4  The topic of legalized marijuana is sure to come up during Mr. Pena Nieto's planned Nov. 27 trip to the U.S., when he will visit the White House.

Don't forget the dealer samples.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/10/2012 6:32 Comments || Top||

#5  Being a narco and being a policeman are notmutually exclusive.
Posted by: Eric Jablow || 11/10/2012 8:39 Comments || Top||

#6  More potential democratic voters for the donks to harvest. Legally stoned ones at that. I can picture a stoned voter dealing with complex amendment issues on the ballot. Eenie, meanie, minie, moe, I'll select the one that's easiest to read or the one that just feels good. Or maybe they are provided with a cheat sheet of which alternatives or candidates to which to vote for free Maui Wowee or Acupalco Gold. Ah, what have we come to in this country? Just a rhetorical question.
Posted by: JohnQC || 11/10/2012 8:39 Comments || Top||

#7  These Mexican officials' understanding of the problem is exactly backwards. They don't have massive violence, because they are succeeding at controlling growing and trafficking in pot. They have massive violence, because the the U.S. growers of pot are stealing their business in CA,CO, and now WA.

Last year on vacation I passed a number of rural greenhouses growing the stuff for "medical" use.

These poor Mexican drug dealers' customers are buying less and less and less; so, they have to downsize their business. And they are downsizing in the way they understand best, by shooting the opposition.

At the rate we are going, soon all those small business people will all be dead or out of business, and California will be exporting corporately grown weed to them.
Posted by: rammer || 11/10/2012 11:04 Comments || Top||

#8  I suspect the narco-violence is more over turf than reefer. A shoe box of pretty much anything is worth a lot more than a shoe box full of pot.
Posted by: SteveS || 11/10/2012 12:31 Comments || Top||

#9  The Rocky Mountain Way...
Posted by: Water Modem || 11/10/2012 12:32 Comments || Top||

#10  A shoe box of pretty much anything is worth a lot more than a shoe box full of pot.

I am restraining .5mt.
Posted by: Shipman || 11/10/2012 18:51 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
George Sabra Elected Head of Opposition Syrian National Council
[An Nahar] Veteran dissident George Sabra, a Christian former communist, was elected president of the Syrian National Council opposition bloc at a meeting in Doha on Friday.

The SNC's 41-member general secretariat, itself newly elected, chose Sabra, who garnered 28 votes, as part of efforts to revamp the group working to oust Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad.
Leveler of Latakia...
Sabra, in his first statement as SNC chief, vowed to "work with other components of the Syrian opposition to accelerate the fall of the (president's) criminal regime."

Asked what he wanted from the international community, he said: "We have only one demand, and that is to stop the bloodbath and help the Syrian people chase out this bloody regime by providing us with weapons.

"We want arms," Sabra said three times.

However,
some men learn by reading. A few learn by observation. The rest have to pee on the electric fence for themselves...
a major activist network quit the bloc on Friday amid divisions between the opposition, and other anti-Assad groups went ahead with a unity meeting in Doha even though the SNC had asked for a delay.

The SNC had sought to meet on Saturday after choosing a new chief, having already elected the secretariat, a third of them Islamists, and as it faced charges of not being representative enough.
Posted by: Fred || 11/10/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Home Front: Culture Wars
Detroit: World capitol of staring at ruins
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 11/10/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  In the 1950s, a prosperous city of nearly two million people, with the highest per capita income in the nation. Today, after a half century of Blue State policies and leadership, the place looks like Detroit.
Posted by: SteveS || 11/10/2012 0:48 Comments || Top||

#2 







Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 11/10/2012 3:05 Comments || Top||

#3  Bodie is in better shape. But this is what happens to all ghost towns that lost their economic reason for being.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 11/10/2012 7:22 Comments || Top||

#4  New tourist attraction of how not to manage a city? Better come armed. What'd they do in Detroit, bring in Zimbabwe consultants and then hire them to run the city?
Posted by: JohnQC || 11/10/2012 7:28 Comments || Top||

#5  Remember "Escape from New York"?
Maybe make it a prison.
Posted by: Spert Trotsky2693 || 11/10/2012 13:58 Comments || Top||

#6  But taking away detoilet dwellers rights to make bad decisions would be -- un-democratic. And racist!
Posted by: M. Murcek || 11/10/2012 16:37 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Karachi's violence claim five lives
[Dawn] At least five people lost their lives on Friday in different incidents of violence in the city, DawnNews reported.

Two people were shot dead in the areas of Mauripur and Sher Shah.

A man was killed on Abul-Hassan Asfahani road near Gulshan-i-Iqbal.

Two men were shot dead in the area of Quiadabad.
Posted by: Fred || 11/10/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Barak Pledges Response to Gaza Tunnel Blast
[An Nahar] Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak blamed Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, on Friday for the detonation of an explosives tunnel along the Gazoo border which maimed a soldier, and said he was mulling how and when to respond.

The blast, which was claimed by the armed wing of the ruling Islamist Hamas movement, took place several hours after a Paleostinian teenager was rubbed out by troops in the same area, just east of the southern city of Khan Yunis, Paleostinian medical officials and witnesses said.

"Israel views with great seriousness the detonation of an explosive tunnel along the border with the Gazoo Strip, south of Kissufim," he said in a statement issued by his office early on Friday, just hours after the blast struck.

"Defence Minister Barak said that Israel sees Hamas as responsible for the incident and will examine how and when to respond."

The Israeli military said the blast had thrown an army vehicle 20 meters into the air, although no one was inside it at the time.

"During routine activity just inside the security fence, there was a large kaboom that caused a vehicle to be thrown into the air. Luckily no one was in the vehicle at the time," a front man said.

A nearby soldier suffered minor injuries, probably from shrapnel, the front man said.

Military spokeswoman Avital Leibovich said the blast had "left a crater which was five meters deep and four meters wide."

"This tunnel is one of the most important discoveries in recent years. It contained a huge quantity of explosives," she told news hounds late on Thursday.

She said a group of soldiers had gone some 200 meters into Gazoo territory in order to dismantle bombs in the sector and were about to return when the blast hit.

"The kaboom took place as the soldiers were getting ready to go back and fix a section of the fence which had been damaged," she said. "A military vehicle was thrown 20 meters into the air by the kaboom."

The blast was claimed in a statement by Hamas gunnies from the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades who said they were responsible for "an attack with explosives which maimed a Zionist soldier."

Several hours earlier, Hmeid Abu Daqqa, 13, was killed by bullets fired from an Israeli helicopter in the same area, health ministry front man Ashraf al-Qudra told Agence La Belle France Presse.

"Thirteen-year-old Hmeid Yunes Abu Daqqa was killed by bullets fired from an Israeli helicopter during an incursion in Abasan and Al-Qarara," he said, referring to two neighborhoods east of Khan Yunis.

Witnesses confirmed that Israeli helicopters had opened fire as tanks carried out an incursion, sparking a brief exchange of fire with cut-thoats.

A military front man on Friday confirmed troops had been operating in the area and had fired "towards open areas in the vicinity" after coming under attack by gunnies.

"During a routine activity west of Nirim, troops found a number of bombs and detonated them in a controlled manner. As a result of earlier fire toward them, they fired towards open areas in the vicinity," he said.

He refused to confirm or deny whether a helicopter had been involved in the incident.

In recent weeks, gunnies have detonated several bombs against Israeli troops operating in the area east of Khan Yunis.

On October 23, a soldier was seriously hurt and two others lightly maimed by a device attached to a gate in the border fence. Four days earlier, a military vehicle and a section of the fence were damaged by another bomb.

"During the past two weeks, a number of bombs were uncovered in the area adjacent to the security fence in the southern Gazoo Strip," an army statement said.

Following the October 23 blast, the army stepped up its activity in the area "in order to uncover additional bombs and fix the security fence."
Posted by: Fred || 11/10/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  Oh, the other Barak.
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/10/2012 11:16 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
More Than 30 Syrians Killed on Demilitarized Golan
[An Nahar] More than 30 Syrian soldiers and rebels have been killed in festivities over the past week in a demilitarized zone of the Golan Heights facing Israeli-held territory, a monitoring group reported on Friday.

Israel's deputy prime minister Moshe Yaalon, meanwhile, warned Damascus
...The place where Pencilneck hangs his brass hat...
it would act to defend its illusory sovereignty if the fighting continued to spill over into the Israeli-occupied part of the Golan.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the army and rebels have clashed in the Briqa, Bir Ajam and al-Hersh regions of Quneitra province.

Three rebels and a soldier died on Friday, the Britannia-based group's director Rami Abdel Rahman told Agence La Belle France Presse, raising to more than 30 killed on the two sides in the past week.

Quneitra province, southwest of Damascus, incorporates the Golan Heights, of which a part is occupied and annexed by Israel, which has been officially in a state of war with Syria since its 1967 seizure of the territory.

Yaalon's comments on his Twitter account came a day after three stray mortar rounds fired from Syria hit the occupied Golan.

"We see the Syrian regime as responsible for what is happening along the border," said Yaalon, a senior cabinet minister and former armed forces chief of staff.

"If we see that it spills over in our direction, we know how to defend the citizens and the illusory sovereignty of the State of Israel," said the minister.

"The other side has received a lot of messages recently and until now, has acted accordingly in Syria. I hope that in this incident too, there will be someone who takes this in hand."

The three mortar rounds which struck the Golan on Thursday were the latest in a string of incidents in which fire has spilled across the ceasefire line onto the Israeli side.

On Monday, an Israeli military vehicle patrolling the buffer zone was hit by gunfire, with the army acknowledging it was caused by "stray bullets."

No one was injured but the incident prompted an Israeli complaint to the United Nations
...a formerly good idea gone bad...
Security Council in which it described the gunfire as a "grave violation" of a 1974 agreement on security in the buffer zone.

"Israel has shown maximum restraint. However,
nothing needs reforming like other people's bad habits...
Israel views the continued violations of the Separation of Forces agreement by the Syrian military forces with the utmost concern," Israel's U.N. ambassador Ron Prosor said.
Posted by: Fred || 11/10/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Arabia
Bahrain police kill Shiite teenager: Opposition
[Al Ahram] Bahraini police potted a 16-year-old Shiite on Friday as security forces attempted to prevent protesters from joining weekly prayers called for by the opposition, Al-Wefaq group said.

Ali Radhi was killed as he headed to the village of Diraz, west of Manama, to attend prayers led by Shiite spiritual leader Sheikh Issa Qassim, answering a call by Al-Wefaq, the main Shiite opposition formation said on its Twitter page.

It was not immediately clear how Radhi was killed, but the opposition said police used tear gas against the worshippers.
Posted by: Fred || 11/10/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Another Affair - This Time a Defense Contractor
Maybe the real title of these times should be ... "How The Mighty Have Fallen" ???
Posted by: Raider || 11/10/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Nothing to do with that kerfuffle over layoff notices. Move along. Nothing to see here.

Shall we have a pool on who is next?
Posted by: SteveS || 11/10/2012 0:38 Comments || Top||

#2  Paging Jeri Ryan....
Posted by: Sherry || 11/10/2012 1:03 Comments || Top||

#3  Photograph of the young lady involved in this affair ?
Posted by: Au Auric || 11/10/2012 1:26 Comments || Top||

#4  It just seems like affairs are a BFD. They have been around forever. The twist today is that they are a political tool for purges of enemies or even possible enemies--this is so communist.
Posted by: JohnQC || 11/10/2012 8:26 Comments || Top||

#5  Affairs are not a BFD. Bonking the hired help is. It creates incredible tension within an organization. And there are lot's of permutations beyond the direct superior-subordinate connection that can create situations an organization cannot allow to fester.

As my father told me when I got my first job, Don't dip your quill in the company inkwell.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 11/10/2012 11:59 Comments || Top||

#6  "As my father told me when I got my first job, Don't dip your quill in the company inkwell."

HAHAHA!!!
Good one Nimble.
The truth is - that these days these contractors have unending "training" about sexual harrassment, equal rights, and legal issues about people in the workplace. There is literally so much of this stuff that it makes you want to puke. Of course, now that Lockheed has had this problem ... it will be cited as a reason to double the ethics training. I feel sorry for all the SOB's who will have to work for them in the future. :-)
Posted by: Raider || 11/10/2012 15:55 Comments || Top||

#7  these days these contractors have unending "training" about sexual harrassment

When all it really takes is a good Sunday School lesson about Uriah.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 11/10/2012 22:17 Comments || Top||


Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 11/10/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Birthday Gam Shot
United States Marine Corps [Birthday Message](age 237)
Happy Birthday and Semper Fi to Marines past and present.

Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 11/10/2012 2:24 Comments || Top||

#2  Birthday Gam Shot

Vanessa Angel [Filmography](age 46)


Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 11/10/2012 2:25 Comments || Top||

#3  Happy Birthday to the United States Marine Corp. Thanks to all those who proudly served. Semper Fi.
Posted by: JohnQC || 11/10/2012 7:06 Comments || Top||

#4  #1 pic, the Cpl needs some work on that uniform and the salute and haircut is not regulation and...oh the heck with it...Happy 237th!
LCpl First Class Slack
Posted by: Mugsy Glink || 11/10/2012 9:04 Comments || Top||

#5  The picture behind the picture needs to lay off the Pogey Bait. Semper Fi
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 11/10/2012 10:01 Comments || Top||

#6  I'd gladly give her my last John Wayne bar. Have you been away too long, or are Army standards just that much lower GB. :-)
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/10/2012 10:05 Comments || Top||

#7  Birthday Gam Shot (For 11/09 Evening Edition)

Gretchen Mol [Filmography](age 40)



Bonus Gam Shot
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 11/10/2012 10:07 Comments || Top||

#8  Besoeker

Too much Pogey Bait has been known to turn the Gams into Cottage Cheese barrels.
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 11/10/2012 10:15 Comments || Top||

#9  Besoeker

John Wayne bar? Perhaps you were thinking of a Big Hunk, or could it be:

Abba-Zaba
Baby Ruth Bar
Bit-O-Honey
Butterfinger
Chick-O-Stick
Choo Choo Bar
Creme Egg Twisted
Curly Wurly
Eat-More
Fun Dip
Good & Plenty
Marathon
Milky Way Bar
Mr. Goodbar
Munch
Nut Goodie
Oh Henry
Push Pops Twisted
Salted Nut Roll
Star Bar
Sugar Mama
Twirl
Wazoo
Whatchamacallit
Wonka Xploder

And hopefully not a ZERO bar
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 11/10/2012 11:25 Comments || Top||

#10  Besoeker, the only John Wayne used in the Marine Corp is a can opener.
Posted by: Mugsy Glink || 11/10/2012 11:57 Comments || Top||

#11  Years ago, C-Rations had a piece of candy in them referred to as a "John Wayne bar". You have to be as tough as John Wayne to bite into it. Canned 'beans and weenies' were called beens and something else also.... but I forget :-)
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/10/2012 12:11 Comments || Top||

#12  "C-Rations had a piece of candy in them referred to as a "John Wayne bar"."

Was that the same as the Hitler's secret weapon cocoa bar? And as for pogey bait, I thought it was all gedunk now.
Posted by: Marilyn Thaitch6932 || 11/10/2012 13:26 Comments || Top||

#13  Pogey bait = snacks and junk food.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/10/2012 13:32 Comments || Top||

#14  As in the Pogey Bait 7th.
Posted by: Shipman || 11/10/2012 16:24 Comments || Top||

#15  That's from Dad, he carries a grudge but none of that girly shoulder braid.
Posted by: Shipman || 11/10/2012 16:25 Comments || Top||

#16  Ya mean a Pogey Bait Whistle, Ship?
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 11/10/2012 18:03 Comments || Top||

#17  LOL Pogey Bait Whistle is #4 at google.
Posted by: Shipman || 11/10/2012 18:47 Comments || Top||

#18  You all a bunch a wooses, we had Tarzan Bars and Jungle Juice, njever did us no harm...
Posted by: Solomon Protector of the Texans5923 || 11/10/2012 19:19 Comments || Top||

#19  Pogies....fattiest fish in the ocean.

It makes striped bass, tuna, and bluefish fat....why not womenfolks, too?
Posted by: no mo uro || 11/10/2012 19:33 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Free Syrian Army to Reorganize, Leaders to Relocate to Frontlines
[An Nahar] Syria's largest armed opposition group is undergoing a drastic reorganization and relocating its leadership to rebel-held territory in a bid to win vital international support, a general told Agence La Belle France Presse.

Mustafa Sheikh heads the military council that presides over the Free Syrian Army (FSA) but which has been criticized for failing to bring order to a chaotic, umbrella group, some of whose members are implicated in suspected war crimes.

Many of the units fighting to bring down Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Despoiler of Deraa...
have little military training, are poorly equipped and resentful of the West for refusing to provide it with heavy weapons or implement a no-fly zone.

But in an interview with AFP in northern Syria, Sheikh said that in the past 10 days the FSA had started to restructure itself into five divisions -- north, south, east and west, and the coast -- and would elect new leaders.

"We are getting closer and closer to becoming organized, so that we can get to a stage that is accepted by the international community," he told AFP.

He said the FSA's priorities were organization and securing heavier weapons than the Kalashnikovs and improvised rockets many units currently make do with.

"This body will operate in an organized and disciplined manner. When this happens, the international community will know where these weapons are going," he told AFP at a house in a rebel-held area.

While he refused to be drawn on contacts with the United States, his remarks dovetail with Washington's efforts to help the opposition unite and its concerns that beturbanned goon Islamist fighters have hijacked the uprising.

He said the FSA leadership, based largely in neighboring Turkey, is countering criticism from its rank and file, by relocating around 200 officers -- including himself -- back to "liberated" parts of Syria.

"Leaders and officers should not be away from the front, away from their soldiers. It's better to stay, for a better organization, for better morale and for better control on the field, it's preferable," he said.

Accurate numbers are impossible to confirm, but Sheikh claimed 70,000 soldiers and 25 percent of the officer class had now defected, although nearly half are in prison.
Posted by: Fred || 11/10/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Meanwhile, "V for Vendetta" fans, not to be outdone by the Syruhn Rebs, now cometh the FREE IRAQI ARMY whose leadership will do their PCorrect darndest to make sure post-Saddam Iraq ends up a proxy/puppet for Iran???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 11/10/2012 0:44 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Karachi situation: Ruling parties blaming Taliban to hide own failings: Sherpao
[Dawn] Qaumi Watan Party chairman Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao has blamed the ruling parties for the deteriorating law and order situation in Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
Both Awami National Party and Mutahidda Qaumi Movement were exploiting people for their ulterior motives by using the name of Taliban, he told a presser at his residence in Hayatabad here on Thursday.

A number of tribal elders belonging to South Wazoo and Orakzai agencies and Dera Ismail Khan
... the Pearl of Pashtunistan ...
announced joining QWP during the presser.

Mr Sherpao alleged that ruling parties including Pakistain People's Party were using the name of Taliban to get more space in Bloody Karachi and hide their weaknesses and mysterious activities.

He said that ultimate sufferers would be Pakhtuns if an operation was launched in Bloody Karachi or in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
and tribal areas. He said that law and order problem was created for political motives and it should be resolved on political basis.

The QWP chief stressed the need for devising an effective strategy for security of the region if NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis....
forces were withdrawn from Afghanistan in 2014. He said that rulers had failed to give proper attention to the post-2014 scenario in the region.

"In case the government fails to devise a plan for the post-withdrawal scenario (in Afghanistan) the result will be devastating for Pakhtuns," Mr Sherpao feared. He said that government had ignored tribal people because neither the president nor prime minister visited Fata during the last four years.

The QWP chief said that government had deliberately given up pursuing the peace policies initiated by him when he was interior minister. He said that Pak-Afghan Jirga had helped in minimising anti-Pakistain sentiments in Afghanistan.

That jirga was helpful in restoration of peace in the region but unfortunately the government did not implement the decisions taken during its different sessions, he said.

Mr Sherpao said that flawed policies of government and military operations in Fata resulted in displacement of about 0.8 million people, who were leading a miserable life.

"Military operations are not solution to the problem. The government must take all political parties and tribal elders on board before taking any decision regarding tribal areas," he said.
Posted by: Fred || 11/10/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Economy
Obama Says Taxes Must Rise on Rich
[An Nahar] U.S. President Barack Obama
How's it going, Sunshine?...
on Friday claimed a mandate to raise taxes on the rich to pay for deficit reductions, firing his first post-election shot in a year-end budget showdown with Republicans.

"We can't just cut our way to prosperity. If we are serious about reducing the deficit, we have to combine spending cuts with revenue, and that means asking the wealthiest Americans to pay a little more in taxes," he said.

The president also announced in a punchy, televised White House statement, his first public appearance since his election night address, that he would call top Republican and Democratic leaders to the White House next week.

The talks will focus on averting the so-called "fiscal cliff" -- a catastrophic blend of automatic tax rises and harsh spending cuts due to come into force on January 1, which could cause a new recession.

Obama signaled a willingness to compromise on the details of a deficit reduction plan, but he made clear that his bottom line principle involved rejecting the Republicans' flat refusal to raise any taxes.

"This was a central question during the election, it was debated over and over again. On Tuesday night, we found that the majority of Americans agree with my approach."
Posted by: Fred || 11/10/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  'Tis the Bammer's one-n-only Mandate from his campaign agz Mittens.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 11/10/2012 0:20 Comments || Top||

#2  Rich like me, thus saith The One... And thus saith Byonce, demeaning the wealth of The Romney, 'cause his total wealthy if far less than her half billion.... oh, the plight of the poor.

How about channeling some of that angst, backed by funds, to those "I voted for Obama 'cause he so managed Sandy" to those people who may not have voted for Obama, stranded on Long Beach, Staten Island, and other small towns/communities in the North East?

Oh, I forget, ya'll all did a big TV benefit, so others could give of their funds.

Now, go get back into you Prius Limousine.... as you wave your next IRS tax bill that you are so gladly paying for the "Tax on the Rich."
Posted by: Sherry || 11/10/2012 0:45 Comments || Top||

#3  "Obama says fines for working must increase on most productive"

Guess what will happen?

#1 Most productive will work less.
#2 Most productive will employ less.
#3 Most productive will invest abroad.

Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 11/10/2012 5:46 Comments || Top||

#4  Makes one glad they are not rich. However, that will be short-lived, Champ never means what he says.
Posted by: JohnQC || 11/10/2012 7:29 Comments || Top||

#5  Go Galt all you want. Barry will consider you rich if your income exceeds $45,000/yr.

This link from last night convinced me we're done:

Posted by: Gravigum Elmolutch1076 || 11/10/2012 7:56 Comments || Top||

#6  I guess the link would help:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=YwjtgR21nFQ
Posted by: Gravigum Elmolutch1076 || 11/10/2012 7:56 Comments || Top||

#7  There is a point when the howling mobs get out of control.
Posted by: JohnQC || 11/10/2012 8:23 Comments || Top||

#8  Given that Obama won 8 of the 10 wealthiest counties in the US, I'd say make them live up to their own words. Remove all deductions and write-offs on incomes greater than 500K. Oh, and repeal the Hollywood Tax Cuts while you're at it. Do it for the children.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/10/2012 10:00 Comments || Top||

#9  The rich voted for him, let them pay.
Posted by: Spot || 11/10/2012 12:13 Comments || Top||

#10  To Obama, couples making a combined income of $50,000 are "rich"
Posted by: charger || 11/10/2012 15:15 Comments || Top||

#11  If you're working, and not either union or for the government, then you are a target. If you're rich enough you can buy an exemption with appropriate contributions and support.
Posted by: Glenmore || 11/10/2012 17:19 Comments || Top||

#12  I thought tax increases had to be voted by the Congress.
Posted by: JFM || 11/10/2012 18:44 Comments || Top||

#13  ...the 'temporary' Bush era tax cuts end in January and the old rates kick in.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/10/2012 19:28 Comments || Top||

#14  Fuck that and all your systems. I'm outa here.
Posted by: Solomon Protector of the Texans5923 || 11/10/2012 19:29 Comments || Top||

#15  'Fee' increases don't have to be voted on by Congress, just imposed by government agencies, and they can be substantial.
Posted by: Glenmore || 11/10/2012 19:29 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
20 Syrian soldiers dead in fighting near Turkey border
[Al Ahram] At least 20 Syrian soldiers were killed on Friday in fighting over the Ras al-Ain border post, one of only two crossings on the Turkish border still in regime hands, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Fighting over the post left at least 16 Syrian soldiers and 10 rebels dead on Thursday, the Observatory said, and Ankara said some 8,000 refugees had fled the area into Turkey overnight.
Posted by: Fred || 11/10/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  GO GO and Stand strong stalwart guardians of Stability!
GO GO insane beards from overly large families.
Posted by: Shipman || 11/10/2012 16:36 Comments || Top||


Sri Lanka
Former Tamil Tiger Commander Shot Dead in Paris
[An Nahar] A Sri Lankan man who was bumped off in Gay Paree was Friday identified as Nadarajah Mathinthiran, a former Tamil Tiger commander who had been convicted in La Belle France of extortion and raising funds for terrorism.

Mathinthiran, who was born in 1963, was rubbed out on Thursday evening as he came out of the headquarters of the Tamil Coordination Committee in La Belle France (CCTF), an organization regarded as a front for what remains of the Tigers.

The assassin expeditiously departed at a goodly pace and has not been jugged
... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not...

Judicial sources said there was no evidence to link Mathinthiran's killing to his past political activities.

Mathinthiran was sentenced to five years in prison in February following his conviction in a Gay Paree court for extortion, financing terrorism and membership of a criminal gang as part of a broader investigation into racketeering in the Sri Lankan expatriate community.

As he had already served more than three years in prison after first being jugged
... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not...
in 2007, Mathinthiran was able to do a deal with the authorities that avoided him being placed back behind bars.
Posted by: Fred || 11/10/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  there was no evidence to link Mathinthiran's killing to his past political activities.

Payback for his past involvement in a long, nasty little war or disapproval over his current racketeering activities, it matters not to Nadarajah at this point.
Posted by: SteveS || 11/10/2012 12:46 Comments || Top||


Economy
Krugman Tells Obama: DON'T MAKE A DEAL
In his brand new op-ed at the NYT, Paul Krugman makes the loudest case yet that Obama shouldn't rush into any kind of big "deal" with the GOP on averting the fiscal cliff.

Liberals have been going in this direction for awhile, arguing two things: Hitting the fiscal cliff would not be a huge catastrophe right away, and the GOP has lost a lot of leverage, so there's no reason to cave to their insistence on everything.

So Krugman tells Obama not to reach his hand out to far:

In saying this, I don’t mean to minimize the very real economic dangers posed by the so-called fiscal cliff that is looming at the end of this year if the two parties can’t reach a deal. Both the Bush-era tax cuts and the Obama administration’s payroll tax cut are set to expire, even as automatic spending cuts in defense and elsewhere kick in thanks to the deal struck after the 2011 confrontation over the debt ceiling. And the looming combination of tax increases and spending cuts looks easily large enough to push America back into recession.

Nobody wants to see that happen. Yet it may happen all the same, and Mr. Obama has to be willing to let it happen if necessary.

Why? Because Republicans are trying, for the third time since he took office, to use economic blackmail to achieve a goal they lack the votes to achieve through the normal legislative process. In particular, they want to extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, even though the nation can’t afford to make those tax cuts permanent and the public believes that taxes on the rich should go up — and they’re threatening to block any deal on anything else unless they get their way. So they are, in effect, threatening to tank the economy unless their demands are met.

Krugman then goes on to make a very critical point, which is that there's no really a "cliff."
Posted by: Au Auric || 11/10/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Krugman -- give it up --- Obama doesn't listen to anyone, including you.... just his own, inner, smartest man in the world voice...

And let's hear your words, when even the NYTimes decides it can't afford the insurance premiums it is paying for you, thus, takes the Fed's penalty, and each according to his need, you must fork over 7% of your gross income (yes, I know what that means), to pay for your insurance.

But then, prolly, you'll get a waiver from Obama.
Posted by: Sherry || 11/10/2012 0:37 Comments || Top||

#2  Watch you Kenyan puppet closely Mr. Krugman, you may soon have a control problem. His deep seated hatred will cause him to dispise the Hora and inevitably turn on you and your entire Moravian cabol. He dances to a far different drumbeat. Brilliantly executed plan however, I must hand it to you.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/10/2012 3:21 Comments || Top||

#3  Dear Leader does not like those who disagree with him. Sometimes he even jugs some poor schlump for making bad films.
Posted by: JohnQC || 11/10/2012 7:38 Comments || Top||

#4  He's waiting for the aliens to break enough stuff to make socialism work.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 11/10/2012 11:39 Comments || Top||

#5  For once I'm in full agreement with the Krugmaniac. 60 million pseudo-Americans, plus the several million who should have known better but stayed home and denied the good guys their votes, have shat in made their bed and now need to lie in it. The Trunks' official attitude should be that "now that you've told us what you want, we're going to let Ogabe give it to you. Good and hard."
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) || 11/10/2012 13:13 Comments || Top||

#6  Obama surrounded himself with Middle Class Americans at his news conference the other day. I started having deja vous all over again. I recall that prior to our getted hosed with ObamaCare, he surrounded himself with a bunch of phony doctors in white coats. That is usually a prelude to being asked told to bend over, getting it, and being told to like it. If you happen to question things then you are a racist. Or worse you are lectured to extensively that you are an ingrate because you don't happen to appreciate his beneficence.
Posted by: JohnQC || 11/10/2012 18:03 Comments || Top||

#7  They were real doctors, John QC. Obama's people gave every one a white coat.That's how good they are at the visuals of politics.
Posted by: Grunter || 11/10/2012 18:08 Comments || Top||


Africa North
'Secularists' carry a foreign agenda: Salafist holy man tells pro-Sharia protesters
[Al Ahram] Sheikh Mohamed El-Soghyr, member of Al-Gamaa Islamyia, opens fire at "seculars" and liberals at Friday prayer ceremony in Tahrir Square, accusing them of being agents to the West.

"Our Prophet [Mohamed] fought the infidels of Mecca, who are now represented by the Liberals," said El-Soghyr.

The former member of now-disbanded People's Assembly from the Salafist Building and Development Party spoke before several thousands who gathered in the square to demand Egypt's new constitution to be based on the Islamic Sharia law.

El-Soghyr added that it was unacceptable for Egypt, "the beating heart of Islam", to be a place for those who are only concerned with their own interest and agendas.

These "seculars" and liberals do not believe in the things they call for -- like democracy, they only believe in orders that are sent to them through mediators for the West, claimed El-Soghyr.

El-Soghyr claimed that it was "God's will" of granting Mohammedans' wish for a president who is representative of Egyptians and one that will rule by Islamic Sharia law, referring to the Moslem Brüderbund President Mohamed Morsi.

"We are still waiting for more, and will not blink until the law of God is applied. This is a wish we have for so long pursued," the Salafist Imam said.

He further stated that their protest is a "duty towards the book of God [Koran]."

El-Soghyr continued his speech by urging Mohammedans who claim their belief In "Allah and his prophet" to give into his laws, questioning if "there is a better law-maker than God?"
Posted by: Fred || 11/10/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring



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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.
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Two weeks of WOT
Sat 2012-11-10
  Mexican police charged over US embassy staff shooting
Fri 2012-11-09
  David Petraeus resigns from CIA
Thu 2012-11-08
  Syria raids Hamas offices months after group's leaders leave
Wed 2012-11-07
  Bombings, Clashes Kill 131 in Syria as Gunmen Assassinate Parliament Speaker's Brother
Tue 2012-11-06
  Suicide bomber kills at least 27 by army base near Baghdad
Mon 2012-11-05
  Grenade attack on Kenya church kills 1, wounds 14
Sun 2012-11-04
  Two Suicide Bombers Attack Restaurant in Somali Capital
Sat 2012-11-03
  30 people shot dead in Nigeria, rights group says
Fri 2012-11-02
  US withdraws its support for Syrian National Council
Thu 2012-11-01
  Armed Islamists on Tunis streets after clashes
Wed 2012-10-31
  18 militants killed in Khyber, Orakzai
Tue 2012-10-30
  Israel Hit by 18 Rockets as Hamas Seeks Revenge
Mon 2012-10-29
  52 Dead in Syria Clashes, Air Raids after Eid Truce Collapses
Sun 2012-10-28
  Almost 150 Killed on First Day of Syria Truce
Sat 2012-10-27
  Indonesia foils plot to attack US missions

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