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Syria Fires Scud Missiles at Insurgents, U.S. Says
Today's Headlines
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Home Front: Culture Wars
And here it is: Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee: Entitlements Are 'Earned'
Medicare? Sure. Social Security? If you have contributed, absolutely. WIC, AFDC, Social Security "Disability" in lieu of UC, etc? Gimme a break.....
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 12/12/2012 15:50 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336086 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Social Security earnt? The letter I get annually from them informs me that unless I work eighteen more months, I will get nothing from Social Security when I reach retirement age. So everything taken from my paychecks has gone to support others without recompense. That I am promised some amount should I be widowed is a separate issue, and is expressly explained as not earnt.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/12/2012 19:25 Comments || Top||

#2  As many of you know I have a daughter with Down syndrome. When she turns 18, she will be automatically eligable for Social Security Disability so long as her income falls below a certain level. I'm frankly hoping that she *won't* qualify due to her own efforts (Cassidy is high functioning), but one never knows.

But has my daughter earned it? Is she morally entitled to it? No. As a society we have decided that certain individuals should recieve collective help. Hopefully we select such individuals for this on moral grounds - they were born with no arms, or have an incurable genetic disorder, or for some other reason cannot provide for themselves - but more often then not we select them on political grounds instead. It's sad, but typical, and will eventually be our undoing.
Posted by: Secret Master || 12/12/2012 20:26 Comments || Top||

#3  Well said, Secret Master.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/12/2012 20:51 Comments || Top||

#4  Here, here. Great points, both of you.
Posted by: Broadhead6 || 12/12/2012 20:58 Comments || Top||

#5  this frog was pithed at birth
Posted by: Frank G || 12/12/2012 21:32 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syria Fires Scud Missiles at Insurgents, U.S. Says
[NY Times] Syrian forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have fired Scud missiles at rebel fighters in recent days, Obama administration officials said on Wednesday.
Assuming the report is true, it's not surprising. Iran and Iraq had a good time Scudding each other during their eight-year-war, and then Sammy had a good time popping them off in the early '90s, at the Zionist Entity® and Soddy Arabia. Using Scuds is a mark of Islamic manliness.
I get that you can Scud an opposing nation-state, but Scudding insurgents? Isn't that like using a blunderbuss to kill the proverbial pesky insect?
The move represents a significant escalation in the fighting, which has already killed more than 40,000 civilians in a nearly two-year-old conflict that has threatened to destabilize the Middle East, and suggests increased desperation on the part of the Assad government.
Not an unexpected escalation, mind you. Although Pencilneck does take the prize for being the first govt to Scud its own people. Even Hitler didn't think of that one.
One American official, who asked not to be identified because he was discussing classified information,
... in which case he shoulda kept his fat trap shut...
said that missiles had been fired from the Damascus area at targets in northern Syria.
That'd be the Damascus areas where Pencilneck's Fuehrerbunker's located and the areas in northern Syria where the rebels have kicked him out.
"The total number is probably north of six now," said another American official, adding that the targets were in areas controlled by the Free Syrian Army, the main armed insurgent group.
It kinda stands to reason, doesn't it?
It is not clear how many casualties resulted from the attacks by the Scuds -- a class of Soviet-era missiles made famous by Saddam Hussein of Iraq during the first Persian Gulf war. But it appeared to be the first time that the Assad government had fired the missiles at targets inside Syria.
Where have they fired them outside of Syria? Who the hell writes this stuff?
American officials did not say how they had monitored the missile firings,
Probably the usual ways. They work pretty well.
but American intelligence has been closely following developments in Syria through aerial surveillance and other methods, partly out of concern that Mr. Assad may resort to the use of chemical weapons in the conflict.
Sammy resorted to them at Halabja and the Kurds weren't even about to do a Mussolini on him...
The Obama administration views the Assad government's use of Scud missiles as a "significant escalation" of the conflict,
No! Re-e-e-e-eally?
said a senior official. It also shows, he said, the increasing pressure on Mr. Assad, since Scuds are primarily defensive weapons, being used by the government offensively against a counterinsurgency.
How are Scuds "defensive" weapons? V1's and V2's were used WWII because the Germans were burning through a lot of air crews to stomp Britain to rubble. But I don't see that as "defensive." I'd call them theater weapons. In Soviet doctrine they were held at field army level.
"Using Scuds to target tanks or military bases is one thing," the official said,
Targeting tanks with Scuds is something I doubt we'll ever see. For one thing, it'd be overkill. "Military bases" is another matter. I think "populated areas" is the usual target.
Though for the North Koreans a large patch of ocean would do...
speaking on condition of anonymity. "Using them to target rebels hiding in playgrounds at schools is something else."
He means that using them as normally used is something else, no saying of what.
Forgive me, please, for interjecting, but isn't hiding your fighting men in civilian areas like school playgrounds a heinous war crime or something? And if horrible things happen to the civilians in said area, isn't that the fault of the military people using them as human shields, not the military people who shot through them to get at the bad guys?
Among other repercussions the Obama administration fears is the possibility that Mr. Assad's military could fire Scuds near, or over, the border with Turkey,
... which would, in a logical world, lead to a declaration of war by the Turks...
which has become one of the Syrian president's most ardent foes. That could result in Turkey firing its Patriot antimissile batteries, the administration official said.
Firing Patriot missiles? Oh, noze!... Ummm... That's what they're designed for, fer Cat's sake!
Military experts said that move might reflect the Assad government's worries that its aircraft have been vulnerable to rebel air defenses. In recent weeks, rebel forces have captured Syrian military bases, seized air-defense weapons and used some of them to fire at Syria warplanes. But one expert said that the government may have decided to use large missiles in order to wipe out military bases -- and the arsenals they hold -- that had been taken over by the opposition.
And when Scud units fall to the rebels? Wonder what happens then?
Posted by: Fred || 12/12/2012 15:16 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336099 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  I guess that Pencil Neck believes in the axiom, launch em if you got em.......Place is insane. US does not belong there......
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 12/12/2012 15:58 Comments || Top||

#2  According to Wikipedia, the Scud has an accuracy (CEP) of betwee 50 and 700 meters. So it is useful for hitting area targets like airfields and military bases. (Or civilian areas)

Pretty useless for hitting tanks, except by luck.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 12/12/2012 16:01 Comments || Top||

#3  SCUDS are pretty much a fire in the general direction and pray to Allan it hits something. Hell, the Iraqis would miss Tel Aviv on a regular basis with those things during GWI.

So pencilneck launching these things at the rebels is the equivalent of the kid jumping out of the bathroom in Pulp Fictions, firing a hand cannon and yelling "DIE MOTHERFUCKERS!!!". Except the targets are in another room.
Posted by: DarthVader || 12/12/2012 16:37 Comments || Top||

#4  He is getting to the point where he has to use them or lose them to the enemy. We will see a bunch of crazy stuff unloaded over the next couple weeks.

Smoke 'em if you got 'em boys.
Posted by: rammer || 12/12/2012 17:47 Comments || Top||

#5  Frankly, SCUD have a CEP that is only 40 or 50 percent smaller than range. It's sorta like the 10 day hurricane bubble.

Posted by: Shipman || 12/12/2012 17:52 Comments || Top||

#6  We used to have an artillery piece that fired tactical nuke shells. Range and blast radius were pretty much the same, IIRC. Don't think it ever got much use.
Posted by: SteveS || 12/12/2012 18:28 Comments || Top||

#7  And when Scud units fall to the rebels? Wonder what happens then?

They make Scud IEDs?
Posted by: Water Modem || 12/12/2012 18:36 Comments || Top||

#8  And the USA makes three ...

In summary,

- JAPAN didn't shootdown the DPRK's rocket.
- The ROK = SOKOR didn't shootdown the DPRK's rocket.
- At last check, the MSM-Net says there are 17 USN ships off Syria includ the USS "Dwight E. Eisenhower" CVBG, none of whom apparently shot down this alleged SCUD(S) fired by Baby Assad.

DPRK + ASSAD = 3, US-ALLIES + AEGIS BMD = 0.
It'll be 9-0 iff Repors that Baby Assad's Boyz fired up to SIX SCUDS are true.

DRUDGE repors that North Korea's alleged satellite is seemingly having trouble + is starting to tumble out of orbit, but thats beside the point.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/12/2012 19:19 Comments || Top||

#9  The Atomic Cannon SteveS
Posted by: Skidmark || 12/12/2012 21:19 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
2 Ala. men arrested on federal terrorism charges
Two Alabama men who federal investigators say wanted to wage violent jihad overseas have been arrested in Georgia on terrorism charges, and one has close ties to another man previously identified as an Islamic terror leader, authorities said Tuesday.

Mohammad Abdul Rahman Abukhdair and Randy "Rasheed" Wilson, both 25 and from Mobile, were named in terrorism charges filed Monday, according to Kenyen R. Brown, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama.

Prosecutors said Abukhdair was arrested at a bus terminal in Augusta, Ga., and Wilson was stopped in Atlanta while attempting to board a flight for the first leg of a trip to Morocco.

A sworn statement from an FBI agent said Wilson is a close friend and former roommate of Alabama native Omar Hammami, who was recently added to the list of the FBI's most-wanted terror suspects.

"The law enforcement actions of today should send a clear warning to those who would consider engaging in violent jihad, either at home or abroad, that their future is bleak: they may end up in a U.S. prison cell or a casualty on a foreign battlefield," Brown said in a statement.

Court records did not indicate whether Abukhdair or Wilson has an attorney.
Posted by: tipper || 12/12/2012 13:16 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336103 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ah yes, Mohammad & Rasheed to good ole redneck names. Wouldn't be surprised to see the feds try and tie them to the Tea Party.
Posted by: AlanC || 12/12/2012 14:35 Comments || Top||

#2  Check the progressive blogs today and you'll see them trying out the memes that Journolist will use in the MSM tomorrow, and the Feds the day after...
Posted by: Steve White || 12/12/2012 14:47 Comments || Top||

#3  Alabama native Omar Hammami, who was recently added to the list of the FBI's most-wanted terror suspects.

One of these things is not like the other......
Posted by: BA || 12/12/2012 15:07 Comments || Top||

#4  One of these things is not like the other......

I could maybe buy the Alabama part if it was Abul, his brother Omar, and his other brother Omar.
Posted by: SteveS || 12/12/2012 16:13 Comments || Top||

#5  There's supposed to be a Bubba in there somewhere.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 12/12/2012 16:24 Comments || Top||

#6  i dunno about the Alabama part; play NASCAR word association games with them and see what they respond with when you ask them "who is Awesome Bill from Dawsonville." if'n the answer is anything other than Bill Elliott, then "...get a rope."
Posted by: USN,Ret. || 12/12/2012 21:37 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran indicts 18 American officials, ex-officials
There, there dear. Have a nice cup of chamomile tea and a cookie, and you'll feel a lot better.
Iran's deputy judiciary chief says the Islamic Republic has issued indictments against 18 unnamed current and former American officials on charges of involvement in "crimes against Iran." His remarks did not indicate that any of the men were present in Iran.

Ebrahim Raisi is quoted by the semiofficial Fars news agency Wednesday as saying that charges against the Americans include involvement in terrorist attacks.

Raisi didn't provide any further details, but Iran has said it plans to complain to the United Nations about alleged U.S. "terror" operations including assassinations of its nuclear scientists.

The Iranian media has hinted that those charged include several American neoconservatives. Tehran last year asked Interpol to help seek the arrest of two former U.S. officials it accuses of supporting assassinations of Iranian officials.

Posted by: tipper || 12/12/2012 13:10 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336085 views] Top|| File under:

#1  18 unnamed current and former American officials on charges of involvement in "crimes against Iran."

Which of course can be for anything that offends us which is everything (This would seem like far more of an honor than receiving the Nobel Peace Prize).
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/12/2012 18:55 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Zero Dark Thirty: Did the real woman behind the bin Laden raid get passed over for promotion
In No Easy Day, Matt Bissonnette, the Navy SEAL who wrote the book detailing the assassination of Osama bin Laden, credits "Jen" a feisty female CIA analyst for leading them to the al-Qaeda leader.

In Zero Dark Thirty, the movie out next week on the hunt for bin Laden, the agent is named "Maya" and focuses on her decade-long hunt for the elusive terrorist.

A U.S. Navy SEAL team shot the al-Qaeda mastermind dead in May 2011 after a stealth raid on his compound in Pakistan.

No one knows the female agent's real name, but The Washington Post revealed Tuesday that all the attention she is getting is annoying colleagues at the Central Intelligence Agency. The operative, who remains undercover, was passed over for a promotion many in the agency thought would be impossible to withhold from someone who played such a key role in one of the most successful operations in agency history, the paper reported.

The Washington Post profile says colleagues were jealous of the attention she was getting. The woman has also sparred with colleagues over credit for the bin Laden mission.

The Washington Post said this spring she was awarded the agency's Distinguished Intelligence Medal while dozens of others were given lesser awards.

A former CIA official told the paper that the agent hit "reply all" and in essence said, "You guys tried to obstruct me. You fought me. Only I deserve the award."

The agent has also come under scrutiny for her contacts with filmmakers and others about the bin Laden mission, part of a broader internal inquiry into the agency's cooperation on the new movie and other projects.
Posted by: tipper || 12/12/2012 12:57 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336102 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I haven't seen the movie but usually I don't think much of Hollywood's version of anything. Read the book "No Easy Day" and found it an interesting read.

I don't know much about the legalities of writing the book but there really didn't seem to be anything that rose to the level of violating national security--it seemed to be fairly sanitized and as the book said everything was in open sources.

Fox is credited (maybe discredited would be more appropriate) for "outing" the author. If true, that should not have been done. It also seems like there are a lot of people trying to claim to be the equivalent of the "trigger pullers" after the mission such as "Jen" and the Champ.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/12/2012 18:10 Comments || Top||

#2  **** cough **** cough **** cough ***...

To paraph ELMER FUDD OR ORVILLE RICKENBACHER,
"WWWEEELLLL NNNOOOWWWW, I WOULDN'T SAY THAT"!

My mind is torn - Osama, or loyalty as an American + Soldier to the Fed.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/12/2012 19:37 Comments || Top||

#3  JohnQC; she doesn't claim to be a trigger puller but she does seem to think that she isn't getting proper credit for her work and that others are getting credit for what she did even as they initially resisted her theory's.
Posted by: tipover || 12/12/2012 23:36 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Panetta in Afghanistan to meet with Karzai
President Barack Obama will decide shortly how many U.S. troops he wants to keep in Afghanistan after the U.S.-led coalition military mission ends in December 2014, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Wednesday as he opened two days of consultations with top U.S. commanders and Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Panetta offered no clues to what Obama may decide, but other officials have indicated the White House is considering plans that call for between 6,000 and 10,000 U.S. troops to stay for several years after 2014 in order to keep Afghanistan on a path toward stability and to prevent al-Qaida and affiliated terrorist groups from re-emerging as a significant force here. The U.S. now has about 66,000 troops here, along with about 35,000 from allied nations.

Obama also must decide how quickly to reduce the U.S. force from 66,000 to whatever post-2014 level he deems necessary and Karzai considers acceptable.

White House officials said the president's decision on both matters was not expected before the end of the year. His announcement could be timed to a meeting with Karzai in Washington early in 2013. The Afghan leader said last month that he had accepted Obama's invitation to visit the White House "at his earliest convenience."

Posted by: tipper || 12/12/2012 12:51 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336083 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I wish the graphic of the horse's head was appropriate here, but it probably isn't.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 12/12/2012 15:29 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Border Patrol: Smugglers Use Cannon To Launch Cans Of Marijuana Into US
HT: Drudge

Maybe we could use a similar approach to returning Illegal Aliens Undocumented Workers.....

Posted by: Uncle Phester || 12/12/2012 12:48 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336121 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Five hundred feet? Pikers! Paging Gerald Bull to the white courtesy phone.
Posted by: SteveS || 12/12/2012 16:18 Comments || Top||

#2  Right on over that moat filled with alligators.

Srszly, seen potato guns do this range.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 12/12/2012 16:49 Comments || Top||

#3  I pray to someday see a can of Marijuana, I just know I'll either break the pull top, or forget the can opener or both.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/12/2012 18:09 Comments || Top||

#4  Smuggling...

It's a blast!
Posted by: DarthVader || 12/12/2012 18:18 Comments || Top||

#5  So, now that we know about it, we should do counter-battery fire.
Posted by: Silentbrick - Schlumberger Squishy Mud Division || 12/12/2012 19:12 Comments || Top||

#6  Cans o' Mary J
Fallin from pneumatic ways
Don't know where they come from
But thank them just the same
-Rev. Heat
Posted by: swksvolFF || 12/12/2012 20:38 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Afghan and coalition forces capture Taliban leaders during combat operations
“An Afghan and coalition security force arrested a Taliban leader and detained two suspected insurgents during an operation in Panjwa’i district, Kandahar province, today. The leader emplaced improvised explosive devices (IED’s) and coordinated attacks against Afghan and coalition forces. Yesterday, Afghan and coalition officials confirmed that the Taliban leader, Luqman, was arrested during an operation in Shahid-e-Hasas district, Uruzgan province, Dec 6. Lugman controlled a group of insurgents who operated in the district and was directly involved in the acquisition of weapons”
Posted by: tipper || 12/12/2012 12:42 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336085 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: WoT
Chicago Man Gets 10 Years In Suicide-Bomber Plot
A Chicago man has been sentenced to nearly 10 years in prison for plotting to attend a Somalia training camp with dreams of becoming a suicide bomber for al-Qaida and another terrorist group, al-Shabab.

Shaker Masri's sentencing yesterday came two years after his arrest that relied heavily on an FBI informant. He pleaded guilty in July to attempting to provide material support and resources to a terrorist organization.

Prosecutors say the 29-year-old Alabama-born Masri talked about the possibility of killing a busload of U.S. soldiers and, in their words, spoke of the "heavenly rewards one would receive for martyrdom."

Investigators also allegedly found Osama bin Laden's 1996 manifesto, "The Declaration of War Against the Americans," on Masri's computer.


This article starring:
Shaker Masri'
Posted by: tipper || 12/12/2012 12:35 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336087 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Give the feller what he desires. Mostly. Rig him in explosives out in a field where he can't hurt anyone but himself.

Gourd Head.
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 12/12/2012 20:31 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Canada tells Syrian Opposition No. Must Reject Extremism First
Canada told the Syrian opposition Tuesday it must reject extremism and embrace minorities before Ottawa will recognize its legitimacy as a successor to President Bashar Al-Assad, according to a federal official.
Wow. Go Canada!
Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird explained Canada's preconditions for official recognition at a meeting with representatives of the opposition Syrian National Coalition in Morocco on Tuesday, the official said.

"He outlined the importance of rejecting extremism, the inclusion of minorities, and the importance of the role of women in a post-Assad era," said the official, who did not want to be named.

On Wednesday, Mr. Baird will publicly spell out those preconditions during an address before the Friends of the Syrian People meeting -- a gathering of more than 100 countries in Morocco's Marrakesh working to bolster legitimate opposition to the Assad regime.

While France, Britain, Turkey and the Gulf Cooperation Council have already recognized the newly formed Syrian National Coalition, and President Barack Obama confirmed Tuesday the U.S. would do the same, Mr. Baird was taking a more cautious approach.
Posted by: Sherry || 12/12/2012 12:22 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336110 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sure we can't swap regimes. Zero and all his clique for Harper and his buddies straight up?
Posted by: AlanC || 12/12/2012 14:33 Comments || Top||

#2  1 toe in the snow, that's all 'ya need. Then BOOM! landed immigrant. Looking good.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/12/2012 18:02 Comments || Top||

#3  Ever since that big maple syrup theft, Canada has been the stand-up guy on the international scene. On, King! On, you huskies!
Posted by: SteveS || 12/12/2012 18:34 Comments || Top||

#4  Sorry, no swap, guys. But if you happen to pop by because of circumstances at some point... I'll leave contact info with Fred.

Lately, I am recounting my lucky stars. You see, I was in a process of applying for a green card in 2007. And then I saw this TV movie (it was made late 90's), a canuck production, about a couple going to US to smuggle out someone. The border crossing looked like East Germany--barbed wire, guards with submachine guns and trigger-happy... It scared the hell out of me. Not because of it fictional settings, but because I was starting to see trends in US political scene that I was not acknowledging before.

I decided to ICE the application for a few years to see if my impressions are baseless or not.

Unfortunately, the flick now seems prophetic. The GC app is ICEd indefinitely and I am planing to reunite with my daughter on this very Great White North soil.
Posted by: twobyfour || 12/12/2012 20:31 Comments || Top||


Economy
How A Handful Of Unsupervised MIT Economists Run The World
Posted by: tipper || 12/12/2012 11:34 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336068 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I think we might do better with someone who actually ran a business who keeps an eye on the cash register and watches what comes in and what goes out.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/12/2012 18:41 Comments || Top||

#2  ...and doesn't spend more than they have.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/12/2012 18:42 Comments || Top||

#3  That's comforting.
Posted by: Unererong Spawn of the Pixies4293 || 12/12/2012 19:09 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Egypt Christian sentenced over anti-Islam film
A Cairo court on Wednesday sentenced an Egyptian Coptic Christian to three years in prison for posting online parts of a US-made anti-Islam film blamed for deadly unrest in the Muslim world.

Albert Saber, 27, was convicted of "denigrating religions," a court official said.

He was arrested in September after neighbours called authorities to say he had posted to the Internet extracts of "Innocence of Muslims," an amateur film depicting the Prophet Mohammed as a thuggish deviant which triggered a wave of violent protests that left dozens dead in Muslim countries that month.

During his trial, Saber denied the charges against him, which at the time included blasphemy and incitement to sedition.

Last month, a US court sent the man behind the controversial film, an Egyptian-born Coptic Christian named Mark Basseley Youssef, 55, to prison for breaching probation in an unrelated case, over a 2010 bank fraud conviction.

According to court papers, Youssef wrote and produced the trailer of the anti-Islam film, and uploaded an English-language version of it onto YouTube in July 2, followed by a version dubbed into Arabic in September.
Posted by: tipper || 12/12/2012 11:14 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336081 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
U.S. blacklists radical Islamist Syrian rebel group
[Al Ahram] The United States has designated the radical Islamist Syrian rebel group Jabhat al-Nusra, which is suspected of ties to al Qaeda, as a foreign terrorist organization.

In an order released on Tuesday, the U.S. State Department essentially classified the group, which has advocated for an Islamic state in Syria, as an affiliate of al Qaeda in Iraq.

By blacklisting al-Nusra, authorities now can freeze any assets the group or its members have in U.S. jurisdictions. The designation also prohibits Americans from giving it any material support.

The group has been accused by other rebel factions of indiscriminate tactics in the bloody civil war aimed at ousting Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad.
Light of the Alawites...

"The secretary of state concludes that there is a sufficient factual basis to find that al-Qaeda in Iraq ... uses or has used additional aliases," including Jabhat al-Nusra, the State Department statement said.

Tuesday's action comes as U.S. officials attend the Friends of Syria meeting in Marrakesh, Morocco, to discuss the 20-month-old crisis in Syria as rebels push forward on the battlefield and move to unify the political opposition.

U.S. officials have stressed their concern about the rising influence of thug elements in the Syrian war.
Posted by: Fred || 12/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336083 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda


Idea of US coming to terms with Islam, wrong: Khamenei
[Iran Press TV] Fearless Leader of the Islamic Revolution
...Iran's doddering head theocrat...
Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei
...the successor to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and the actual dictator of Iran...
says the notion that the US may come to terms with Islam and Islamic movements is a mistake.

In a meeting with hundreds of scholars, academics, thinkers and researchers participating in the International Conference of Moslem University Professors and Islamic Awakening, Ayatollah Khamenei said that 'any notion that the global arrogance
That'd be us. They get tired of bitching about the Great Satan™ sometimes.
, led by the US, may come to terms with Islamic movements is wrong.'

"Wherever Islam and Islamic movements are present, the US will make every effort to eliminate them."

Referring to the violence in Syria, the Leader said, "Those who are driving Syria toward civil war and fratricide are to blame."

Ayatollah Khamenei added that all the demands of the Moslems must be resolved peacefully.

Hailing the Paleostinian people as well as the resistance movements of Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, and Islamic Jihad
...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the liquidation of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah...
, the Leader said no one could believe that in a war between the Gazooks and the Israeli regime, "the Paleostinian side would be the one to set conditions for ceasefire."

"The enemies are afraid of the phrase Islamic Awakening and try not to use it," Ayatollah Khamenei said, adding that the enemies also fear an Islam which is practiced by large numbers of people.

The two-day International Conference of Moslem University Professors and Islamic Awakening began in Iran's capital, Tehran, on Monday with the theme of advancing justice and religious democracy.
Posted by: Fred || 12/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336088 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  IOW, Ayatollah EL Supremo Khamenei has confirmed the Mad Mullah adage "ISLAM RULES, OR ISLAM IS DESTROYED".

SUB-IOW, by the abovesame, + contrary to recent US Officio, MSM Rhetoric, THERE CAN BE NO PEACE BETWEEN THE US-WEST + ISLAM, OR BETWEEN ISLAM AND NON-ISLAM, BECAUSE THERE CAN'T BE.

SUB-SUB-IOW = SSSSSHHHH ... CCCCCC "There can only be One".

* 1990's > "THE US MUST ACCEPT SOCIALISM, OR THE US WILL BE DESTROYED"!

cometh now

* POST-9-11 > "THE US MUST ACCEPT ISLAM, OR THE US WILL BE DESTROYED"!

The choice for the US-West includ NAM remains that we + they all have no choice.

But I digress ...

GOTTA RUN, THE MCDONALD'S MCRIB IS BACK IN TOWN + LINDSAY LOHAN IS ONCE AGAIN IN LEGAL TROUBLE!
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/12/2012 0:22 Comments || Top||

#2  So, America's the "Great Satan", My how we've prospered, Odd No?
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/12/2012 1:18 Comments || Top||

#3  Go easy on those McRibs, Joe.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 12/12/2012 1:21 Comments || Top||

#4  Well, as a man said "It's ain't America anymore".
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/12/2012 2:28 Comments || Top||

#5  Good advice to heed Joe, back off from the McRibs.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/12/2012 18:07 Comments || Top||

#6  FREEREPUBLIC, WORLD NEWS > [WND.com] NEXT 9-11: IRAN'S DEATH SQUAD IS HERE, waiting to cause anarchy + mayhem in CONUS in 2013.

Bammer's March 2013 deadline + US-Iran Summer War; or Iran saving the Bammer from Sen. John McCain's potential anti-Admin invesigative panel [impeachment?] over Benghazi-gate???

WASHINGTON DC - WH + CONGRESS, ETC. AKA THROAT OF THE US GOVT WILL BE ATTACKED.

and

* WORLD NEWS > IRAN SAYS WESTERN SANCTIONS HARM SAFETY OF SHIPS.

HHHHMMMMMM, NucProg versus Trade Threat.

Just when the Bammer had no reason to attack or invade Iran due to Iran not being an immediate or near-term threat to world trade by its non-closure of the Strait of Hormuz, IRAN COMES ALONG AND SSSSSSHHHHH .... CCCCCCC RENEWS THE THREAT.

YOOHOO, MOUD + KHAMENEI, WE'RE TRYING TO PREVENT A US GROUND WAR AND OCCUPATION BY DEMANDING THE US ATTACK IRAN, AREN'T WE???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/12/2012 22:30 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Morsi's call for constitutional poll cannot be overruled
[Al Ahram] Court says it cannot issue ruling in case against Egypt's Saturday referendum, stating that such a move would violate president's sovereignty
Posted by: Fred || 12/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336071 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Suspected terrorist killed in North Caucasus
A suspected terrorist militant was killed in a gun battle with security forces on Tuesday evening in Russia’s North Caucasus Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria. A spokesman for the local investigation department said, "During a special operation in the city of Tyrnyauz, at about 21:20 Moscow time, law enforcers killed a militant who put up strong armed resistance."

An anti-terrorism officer received a head injury during the shootout and is currently under medical supervision.
Posted by: ryuge || 12/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336072 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
Egyptians arrested by military during poll to face civil courts: Presidency
[Al Ahram] New law granting the military powers of arrest will not mean referral of civilians to military courts, clarifies Egypt's presidency
Posted by: Fred || 12/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336066 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
California's Population Is Moving Out, Census Report Shows
[NBC Los Angeles] About 100,000 more people moved away from Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, in 2011 than relocated to the Golden State, according to the latest report from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The trend can be explained, in part, in monetary terms. Even in an economic boom, the cost of living in Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, has increased, prompting people to move out, and, in recent years, unemployment in the state has skyrocketed.

So, where are these former Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party,ns going?

The Census Bureau calculates that the most popular destination is Texas (58,992), a state that is luring Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, companies. That's followed by Arizona (49,635), Nevada (40,114), Washington (38,421) and Oregon (34,214).

Although in smaller numbers, people are still relocating to the Golden State.

Texans make up the largest number of translates to Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, with 37,387 people, according to the report. That is followed by people from Washington (36,481), Nevada (36,159), Arizona (35,650), and New York (25,269).

Economic experts are optimistic that Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party,'s economy has started picking up steam, and may reverse the movement out of the state.

"We expect over the next couple of years that we will add jobs," said Robert Kleinhenz, chief economist with the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation. "This year, we've added jobs in Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, at a faster pace than in the nation as a whole. So, we are moving in right direction. As that happens, we'll see the migration numbers turn around some."
Posted by: Fred || 12/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336089 views] Top|| File under:

#1  No mention of the fact that not a few Mexicans are going home?
Posted by: Menhadden Sproing2146 || 12/12/2012 0:36 Comments || Top||

#2  No mention of the fact that not a few Mexicans are going home? Obama is doing something about illegal immigration. He's making the country so much worse they don't want to sneak in or stick around!
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 12/12/2012 1:06 Comments || Top||

#3  I came to California following my job. Actually turned out pretty well. Can't blame those that are leaving though. Just don't blue up and fuck up the state you transplant too. You did that with Colorado and look at the shit it is in. Your policies failed for a reason. Leave them with the failed state and embrace new ones.
Posted by: DarthVader || 12/12/2012 2:25 Comments || Top||

#4  Congrats to you Darth.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/12/2012 2:33 Comments || Top||

#5  raw population numbers are only part of the situation

the more important numbers are business relocations, business incorporations, professional license renewals


Posted by: lord garth || 12/12/2012 7:15 Comments || Top||

#6  Just don't blue up and fuck up the state you transplant too.

Saw a pic (likely photoshopped) of a West Texas billboard:

WELCOME TO TEXAS
Remember why you left home?
We don't do that here
Posted by: SteveS || 12/12/2012 7:46 Comments || Top||

#7  Yep, They immigrated, and home developed an inferior entitlement culture, I suspect they'll leave with it to parasite from other productive people.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 12/12/2012 7:54 Comments || Top||

#8  The only true democracy is the ability to vote with your feet.
Posted by: Iblis || 12/12/2012 11:01 Comments || Top||

#9  RE: The only true democracy is the ability to vote with your feet.

And move where? The UN is working hard to make sure "rich Americans" have no where to go, proposing new global taxes and regulations, even confiscating wealth to pay for their boondoggles. O is trashing the Constitution so America will no longer be an exceptional sovereign nation and we will no longer be a desirable destination for anyone and democratic mob rule will be controlled with hollow points.
Posted by: Kojo Wholuse5660 || 12/12/2012 13:11 Comments || Top||

#10  The auto-snark in all these articles has long since lost its humor value. It just makes them more cumbersome to read. I'd like to offer the suggestion that it be turned off in the new year.
Posted by: remoteman || 12/12/2012 13:14 Comments || Top||

#11  Not the first time and won't be the last.
Posted by: crazyhorse || 12/12/2012 13:50 Comments || Top||

#12  The auto-snark in all these articles has long since lost its humor value.

The 'snark' was placed there to deflect the copyright trolls (think (R1ghthaven), and not for its "humor value".

If you're willing to foot the bill the next time Fred gets hit with a lawsuit, then it can be ditched. Otherwise, live with it (and knock off the spam repeated commentary).
Posted by: Pappy || 12/12/2012 15:40 Comments || Top||

#13  Hiring managers in other states need to pay to attention to the resume's of california refugees. If they worked at city, county, or state jobs for 10+ years, they're likely a lefty. Same for school teachers - you're better off hiring local teachers than importing them from California. Same idea with property managers - don't rent to anyone without a local job first - that should go a long way towards keeping the lefty vermin in their pen. It would also allow me to escape when my parents don't need me anymore. I pray there's still a place for me when I do get the opportunity.
Posted by: Rob06 || 12/12/2012 15:54 Comments || Top||

#14  I like where I'm at in California (way out in the Mojave). That said, I'm still outa here.
Posted by: Pappy || 12/12/2012 15:58 Comments || Top||

#15  C'mon, people. Where do you go after they've ruined California? Snow? Brrrr. And whatever tax increases we get won't be as bad as paying for home heating oil. Heat and humidity? The missus would be miserable and then she'd make me miserable. And whatever tax increases we get won't be as bad as paying for AC. You can't find decent restaurants in flyover country. Well, maybe you can but I never could.

So I'm screwed.

Why do you think I was so pissed at Bush for letting all those illegals in here? I saw this coming. We got the D bomb, big time. But there was nothing I could do about.

Good luck, Texas. I don't know how many years behind California you are but I wouldn't be so smug if I were you.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 12/12/2012 17:44 Comments || Top||

#16  And now, this just in....

Proposed CA Law Would Grant Homeless the Right to Urinate on Sidwalks
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 12/12/2012 19:18 Comments || Top||

#17  Too damn many peoples here anyway.

Keep movin', movin', movin',
Though they're disapprovin',
Keep them peoples movin' Outside!
Don't try to understand 'em,
Just rope and throw and grab 'em,
Soon we'll be living high and wide.


Posted by: Dopey Sinatra9196 || 12/12/2012 19:20 Comments || Top||

#18  I was reading yesterday that the Feds have a fix for this. They are going to stop publishing the data on inter-state moves. You know, the census they made such a fuss about.
Posted by: KBK || 12/12/2012 22:00 Comments || Top||


Vatican: World not ending, despite Maya prediction
[My Fox NY] The Vatican's top astronomer has some assurances to offer: The world won't be ending in about two weeks, despite predictions to the contrary.

The Rev. Jose Funes, director of the Vatican Observatory, wrote in Wednesday's Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano that "it's not even worth discussing" doomsday scenarios based on the Mayan calendar that are flooding the Internet ahead of the purported Dec. 21 apocalypse.

Yes, Funes wrote, the universe is expanding and if some models are correct, will at one point "break away" -- but not for billions of years. But he said Christians profoundly believe that "death can never have the last word."

The Mayan Long Count calendar begins in 3,114 B.C., marking time in roughly 394-year periods known as Baktuns. The Mayans wrote that the significant 13th Baktun ends Dec. 21.
Posted by: Fred || 12/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336075 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Mayans didn't know about Adjusting the days (EG every four years we add a day)
The time they predicted Passed in August 2012.

Sorry, already happened, Oh you missed it?
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/12/2012 1:01 Comments || Top||

#2  Bilyuhns + Dilyuhns + ...

OTOH, I'm still waiting for NASA-JPL or the Pope, etc. to verify iff Shoemaker-Levy 9's impact threw chunks of Jupiter into high orbit + ultimately deep space [read, toward Earth], + why is background/normal reality being visibly distorted or bent by EM during Solar activity.

Why did I see Planet Nibiru/X's purplish sphere in not-three-dimensions over Guam's Agana Bay - I KNOW LINDSAY DYED HER HAIR, BUT THATS BESIDE THE POINT.

Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/12/2012 1:08 Comments || Top||

#3  Forgive me, Madonna, but I have to admit I just lllluuuuuuuuvvvvvv Lindsay's new hair color.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/12/2012 1:09 Comments || Top||

#4  CRAP! Now whatamIgonnado with all this jerky....?
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 12/12/2012 13:58 Comments || Top||

#5  "Idiot-Moron Community Hardest Hit"
Posted by: Muggsy Mussolini1226 || 12/12/2012 15:32 Comments || Top||

#6  Meanwhile, an asteroid the size of the one which caused the Tunguska event passed halfway between the earth and the moon yesterday. We didn't know about it until last Sunday...
Posted by: KBK || 12/12/2012 21:50 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
S.Sudan army kills 13 suspected rebels in oil-rich east-official
[Al Ahram] South Sudan's army has killed 13 people suspected of belonging to a rebel militia in the troubled eastern state of Jonglei, a local official said on Tuesday, the latest violence threatening government plans to explore a huge oilfield.

South Sudan won independence from Sudan last year but its government has struggled to assert control over vast territories where many people have weapons after decades of civil war with Khartoum ending in 2005.

In Jonglei a cycle of Dire Revenge™ killings between the Murle and Lou Nuer tribes and a heavy-handed government disarmament campaign have eroded hopes that independence would bring peace.

The government plans to explore a vast oilfield in Jonglei with the help of La Belle France's Total and other foreign oil firms.

The army, composed of poorly trained former gunnies and guerrillas, rubbed out 13 people on Dec. 4 near the town of Gumuruk in Pibor county, local commissioner Joseph Konyi said.

"According to the army they were ambushed by the rebels. But locals said (those killed) were civilians. We don't know which is true," Konyi told Rooters.

The army was not available to comment despite repeated attempts to reach it. The government has played down accusations by rights groups that its security forces committed abuses against civilians during a campaign to disarm civilians and end cattle raiding.

Pibor's former human rights
One man's rights are another man's existential threat.
commissioner, Peter Gazulu, said the dead were civilians and were not members of a local insurgency run by David Yau Yau, a former theology student.

"My brother in law was killed there. Also a young boy related to my wife was killed," Gazulu told Rooters.

Human rights groups accuse the army of fuelling dissent by committing abuses including rape and torture when it launched a disarmament of the Murle and Lou Nuer early this year aimed at ending bloodshed between the two groups.

The army denies the charges. Many Murle resisted disarmament and fled into the bush where they joined the Yau Yau, residents in Jonglei say.

A shortwave radio station with links to the Yau Yau rebellion said the group was fighting the government in reaction to abuses committed during the disarmament programme.

Nearly 900 people died when about 7,000 armed youths of the Lou Nuer attacked Murle villages in the Pibor area at the end of last year, according to the United Nations
...what started out as a a diplomatic initiative, now trying to edge its way into legislative, judicial, and executive areas...
Posted by: Fred || 12/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336071 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syria Issues Arrest Warrants against Leb Pols
[An Nahar] Syria issued on Tuesday arrest warrants against former Prime Minister Saad Hariri
Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's liquidation. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too.
, Mustaqbal
... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri...
MP Oqab Saqr, and Syrian opposition member Louay al-Meqdad.

MTV said the arrest warrants were issued on charges of "arming and financing terrorist groups in Syria."

According to information obtained by the TV network, the Syrian judiciary sent the warrants to the Damascus
...The capital of Iran's Syrian satrapy...
-based criminal investigations office of the Arab Interior Ministers Council. The office in turn emailed the warrants to the Interpol office of Leb's Internal Security Forces which submitted them to Interior Minister Marwan Charbel.

For his part, the minister informed State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr of the content of the warrants, MTV added.

The development came a day after Judge Saqr requested the questioning of Syrian security chief Ali Mamlouk and a colonel identified only as Adnan as suspects in the case of former Minister Michel Samaha.

He also summoned Buthaina Shaaban, Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Terror of Aleppo
...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins...
...

's media adviser, to be questioned as a witness in the case.

Samaha was tossed in the slammer
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
in August on charges of forming a criminal gang aimed at carrying out attacks in Leb at Syria's behest.

Mamlouk and Syrian colonel Adnan have been also charged in the affair.

OTV and al-Akhbar newspaper recently revealed that MP Saqr had been carrying out arms deals with Syrian opposition members, with the television station airing leaked recordings of conversations between the politician and Meqdad.

MP Saqr last week gave a presser, accusing OTV and al-Akhbar of tampering with the audiotapes and saying that he will file a lawsuit against them.

In October 2010, Syria ordered the arrest of 33 people over alleged false testimonies given in the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Leb, which is probing the liquidation of Lebanese former Premier Rafik Hariri.

The Lebanese defendants include Internal Security Forces chief Ashraf Rifi, MP Marwan Hamadeh, former General Prosecutor Saeed Mirza and former Justice Minister Charles Rizk, as well as politicians, journalists and other Lebanese, Arab and foreign officials.
Posted by: Fred || 12/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336067 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Africa North
Al-Mahmoudi trial adjourned
[Magharebia] The trial of former Libyan Prime Minister Al-Baghdadi Ali Al-Mahmoudi resumed Monday (December 10th) in Tripoli
...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
. It was later adjourned to January 14th.

Al-Mahmoudi and his co-defendants Adel Terfas and al-Mabrouk Zahmoul Zahmoul allegedly funnelled 19 million euros to private accounts in Tunisia, with the money used for logistical support to former regime forces as they sought to crush last year's revolt.

The trial of former Parliament speaker Mohamed al-Zwai and former foreign minister Abdul Ati al-Obeidi was held simultaneously at the Tripoli Appeal Court. They stand accused of financial corruption.

Their case was adjourned until January 7th.
Posted by: Fred || 12/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336071 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Django Sissoko named as Mali prime minister
[BBC.CO.UK] Malian interim President Diouncounda Traore has appointed a new PM, less than 24 hours after his predecessor was forced to resign by the military.

Django Sissoko, an official in the presidency, has been named to succeed Cheick Modibo Diarra, who has been under arrest since his resignation.

The appointment was announced on state television.
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
The role of the military in the forced resignation of Mr Diarra has been condemned by the UN and many countries.

But Capt Amadou Sanogo, who led a coup in March, said Mr Diarra had not been forced to quit and the military had only facilitated his resignation.

Mali has been in disarray for much of the year. Islamist and Tuareg separatists seized control of the north of the country and discontented soldiers staged a coup after the civilian administration was unable to regain control of all of the country.
Posted by: Fred || 12/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336064 views] Top|| File under:


China-Japan-Koreas
Norks launch missile
The BBC article has a map showing the polar launch trajectory.
Isolated and starving impoverished North Korea has launched its second long-range rocket of 2012 in what it said was a bid to put a satellite into space. The North launched the rocket close to the first anniversary of the death of former leader Kim Jong-il and as elections loom in South Korea and Japan.

The launch, reported by South Korean media, was confirmed by South Korea's Defence Ministry.

The latest launch comes after a failed attempt in April that fizzled less than two minutes after blast-off.

Japan and South Korea put their armed forces on alert prior to the launch. The rocket is scheduled to pass between the Korean peninsula and China, with a second stage splashing down off the Philippines before launching the satellite into orbit.

Most political analysts believe the launch is designed to bolster the credentials of new leader Pudgy Kim Jong-un as he cements his rule over the country of 22 million people.
Exactly how that works in a country of starving people I'm not sure...
Plans for the launch has drawn criticism from South Korea, Russia, Japan and the United States as well as NATO and the United Nations. The North's only major diplomatic ally, China, has expressed "deep concern" over the launch but is thought unlikely to back any further sanctions against its ally.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336073 views] Top|| File under:

#1  FTA: North Korea's only major diplomatic ally, China, has expressed BS over the launch.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 12/12/2012 1:26 Comments || Top||

#2  Unmanned US shuttle X37-B launched on 3rd flight 12/11/12.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 12/12/2012 2:04 Comments || Top||

#3  I ASSUME the X37-B has a smallish laser that'll snip a few wires.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/12/2012 3:14 Comments || Top||

#4  Surely?

Isolated and ronery impoverished North Korea
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 12/12/2012 13:21 Comments || Top||

#5  Hey ... some kinda' fortune cookie just landed in my backyard and it's still smoking. Do ya' think I should try to touch it?!
Posted by: Raider || 12/12/2012 16:27 Comments || Top||

#6  With a polar trajectory the Norks can at least pretend it was a satellite launch. And keep the Nipponese from shooting it down.
Posted by: SteveS || 12/12/2012 16:28 Comments || Top||

#7  The PRE-DRUDGE Latest ..

* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > NORTH KOREA LAUNCHES ITS FIRST NATIONAL SATELLITE SUCCESSFULLY.

* SAME > NO DEBRIS FELL INTO JAPAN'S TERRITORY - XINHUA: JAPAN'S GOVT.

* SAME > JAPAN TO CONVENE [UNO]SECURITY COUNCIL ON DPRK'S ROCKET LAUNCH.

Both China + Russia have expressed their formal
"regrets" about North Korea's wily dastardly contrary-to-the-UN action.

* SAME > FIRST STAGE OF DPRK'S ROCKET LAUNCH LANDED ON WEST SIDE OF SOUTH KOREA'S BYEONGSAN BANDO - YONHAP.

* SAME > NORAD: NORTH KOREA APPEARS TO HAVE ORBITED "AN OBJECT".

* SAME > DPRK'S SATELLITE KWANGMYONGSONG-3 ["Optical Star-3"] ENTERS PRE-SET ORBIT: KCNA.


versus

* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [Asahi News = AJW] SUCCESSFUL LAUNCH INDICATES NORTH KOREA ADVANCING ON MISSLE TECHNOLOGY, espec Military-oriented Techs = ICBM?

* SAME > NORTH KOREA ROCKET LAUNCH DEMONSTRATES KEY ELEMENTS FOR ICBM.

* SAME > [Washington Times] NORTH KOREA ROCKET LAUNCH SETS STAGE FOR [future] MISSLE THAT COULD HIT ALASKA, HAWAII.

And by definition also SSSSSSHHHH ...CCCCCC MOSCOW + [*** cough *** cough **] BEIJING.

* SAME > [Chosun Ilbo] US CURBS ON SOUTH KOREAN MISSLES ARE ABSURD AND RISKY. US indirectly putting Balance of Power in NE Asia in jeopardy.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/12/2012 23:32 Comments || Top||


The Grand Turk
Gunmen kill policeman, injure 3 civilians in Istanbul
[Iran Press TV] A Turkish policeman has been killed and three civilians have been injured in an attack targeting the security forces in Istanbul.

On Tuesday, in the Gaziosmanpasa district of the city, unidentified gunnies opened fire on a police officer, fatally injuring him, the English-language Turkish newspaper Today's Zaman reported. Three civilians were also hurt in the incident.

Paramedics rushed to the scene and took the injured to nearby hospitals.

Police officer Mucahit Dasdan later died at the hospital.

A bomb disposal unit was also summoned to the site after police noticed a suspicious package.

One of the attackers, a woman, was captured with a grenade in her pocket soon after the attack.

The police have launched an operation to apprehend the other assailants, who expeditiously departed at a goodly pace.

The motive behind the attack remains unknown and no group has grabbed credit for the incident.
Posted by: Fred || 12/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336083 views] Top|| File under:

#1  One possible group, especially given Ergodan's antics of late..
Posted by: Pappy || 12/12/2012 15:20 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
China's Xi leads campaign to cut pomp
[Mercury News] New communist leader Xi Jinping is on a mission to soften the image of Chinese officialdom, winning kudos for his breezy personal style and ordering leaders to take a knife to the pomp, formality and waste that have alienated many among the public.

With his silky baritone, glamorous wife and daughter at Harvard, Xi cuts a very different figure from the staid, hyper-private leaders of the past. Even his posture, more like that of a slouchy college professor than a stiff party cadre, has won him plaudits.

Xi took the new informality a step further at a Tuesday meeting of the 25-member Politburo, ordering that arrangements for leaders' visits and the trappings of power be drastically pared back. Elaborate welcoming ceremonies will be eliminated, traffic disruptions avoided, and staid, often worthless reporting on the doings of the leadership dispensed with. Even red carpets are to go.

And according to Hong Kong media that is what happened on Xi's first trip outside Beijing since he took over as party leader. When Xi arrived in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen on Friday there were no welcome banners, and the red carpet was gone when he laid a wreath to the statute of the former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping on Saturday, according to footage by Hong Kong-based Phoenix Television.

It's still unclear whether the tonal change will boost transparency and bring meaningful administrative reforms that many say are needed to sustain China's economic and social development. The son of a communist elder, Xi has also gained a reputation as a nationalist hardliner with earlier comments blasting foreigners for criticizing China's human rights
When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much...
record.

Yet his direct approach seems to be winning Xi fans among a public with whom he remains largely unfamiliar, despite his long career in public service and five years serving as the country's vice president.

"Xi has made a positive first impression, which is going to be a big help given the tough job he faces," said Edward Huang, a Beijing financier who recently returned to China after almost a decade in Britannia.

As evidence, Huang cites Xi's upbeat, relaxed demeanor in his public appearances and his unwillingness to use communist buzzwords as a crutch. "It inspires confidence," Huang said.

Posted by: Fred || 12/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336064 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Elaborate welcoming ceremonies will be eliminated, traffic disruptions avoided, and staid, often worthless reporting on the doings of the leadership dispensed with. Even red carpets are to go.

Never happen here.
Posted by: Pappy || 12/12/2012 15:34 Comments || Top||

#2  Never happen here.

It already does whenever Netanyahu is in town, Pappy.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/12/2012 19:14 Comments || Top||


Bangladesh
Bangladesh war crimes chief judge resigns over hacked calls
[Dawn] The chief judge of Bangladesh's war crimes court resigned on Tuesday after calls over the Internet in which he shared details of cases were published in the press.

"Judge Nizamul Huq tendered his resignation to the law secretary. He has cited personal reasons," Bangladesh's deputy law minister Quamrul Islam told AFP.

Huq stepped down after unidentified hackers last week posted on YouTube 17 hours of conversations which were then published by Amar Desh, a pro-opposition newspaper.

In the calls, Huq allegedly suggested that he was under pressure from the government to reach a quick verdict in the ongoing 1971 war crime cases against the country's senior opposition leaders.

He was quoted as telling a legal expert that the "government has gone mad and it wants a verdict", according to a transcript printed by Amar Desh.

Huq presides over the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT), which was created in 2010 to try war crimes suspects.

It has been widely criticised as being a political tool for the ruling Awami League government to target its opponents.

Nine leaders of the Jamaat-e-Islami
...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores...
, the nation's largest Islamic party, and two from the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), are being tried for genocide and crimes committed in the liberation war against Pakistain.
Posted by: Fred || 12/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336065 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami


Home Front: Politix
Democrats threaten violence on Michigan House floor
[Washington Examiner] "There will be blood," State Representative Douglas Geiss threatened from the floor of the Michigan House of Representatives today as the body debated legislation that would make Michigan the nation's 24th right to work state.

"I really wish we had not gone here," Geiss continued. "It is the leadership in this house that has led us here. The same leadership that tried to throw a bomb right on election day, leading to a member switching parties, and came in at the 11th hour with a gotcha bill. For that, I do not see solace, I do not see peace."

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder had previously said he had no interest in signing right to work legislation this term, but that has changed as unions have made it increasingly more difficult to govern the state. The bankrupt, but reliably Democrat Detroit Free Press' Tom Walsh explains:

Public employee unions opposed Snyder's moves to put more teeth into emergency manager laws that would enable swifter action to rescue cities and school districts that bungled themselves into insolvency.

In bankrupt, but reliably Democrat Detroit, Mayor Dave Bing and a spineless City Council were stonewalled by employee unions at every turn, slow-walking needed reforms and cost-cutting while the city burned through cash at a frightening rate.

As a result, Snyder's patient attempt to help fix bankrupt, but reliably Democrat Detroit via consent agreement instead of imposing an emergency manager has failed.

To top it off, Snyder found himself having to fight off Proposal 2, the ill-advised November ballot attempt to stuff a bag of goodies for organized labor into the Michigan Constitution.

Michigan has both the highest unionization and unemployment rates in the Midwest. Video above via YouTube's dentonexable. You can watch the House debate live here.
Posted by: Fred || 12/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336093 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Michigan becomes 24th right-to-work state
Lansing — Gov. Rick Snyder has signed legislation making Michigan the nation's 24th right-to-work state.

In dramatic fashion, the Michigan House of Representatives on Tuesday afternoon sent Snyder two controversial right-to-work bills as thousands of rowdy protesters demonstrated outside the Capitol. The House first approved House Bill 4003, 58-51, establishing a right-to-work law for public sector unions. A second bill, Senate Bill 116, which applies to private sector unions, was approved more than an hour later, 58-52.

The Michigan governor cited the daylong Capitol protests as a reason why he signed the landmark legislation in private.

"I don't see the need to have a public signing ceremony to overemphasize that, because this isn't us verses them," Snyder said while Michigan State Police troopers in riot gear continued to guard his Romney building office. Spokeswoman Sara Wurfel said protesters were an impediment to safely holding a bill-signing ceremony at the governor's office in the Romney building, where union members held a sit-in earlier Tuesday afternoon until Michigan State Police formed a human wall around the front of the building.

Rep. Brandon Dillon, D-Grand Rapids, called the bills "petty retribution" to labor unions that tried to amend the state constitution to enshrine collective bargaining in Proposal 2, a measure voters defeated on Nov. 6.

"Petty retribution" -- no, this is a MAJOR (and well deserved) SMACKDOWN!
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 12/12/2012 0:14 Comments || Top||

#2  Excluded from the new right-to-work legislation are police & firefighters unions. Also excluded are all state of Michigan employees, who are covered by the state civil service commission which alone has the constitutional power to set state employment practices.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 12/12/2012 1:15 Comments || Top||

#3  James P. Hoffa declares 'civil war'.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 12/12/2012 1:17 Comments || Top||

#4  Michigan has both the highest unionization and unemployment rates in the Midwest.

Gee I wonder if those two things re related? /sarc
Posted by: OldSpook || 12/12/2012 2:23 Comments || Top||

#5  Already have violence caught on camera. It is long past time to carry guns and when the union thugs try to beat you and chase you away, shoot them. Dead.

Do not give these brownshirts a goddamn inch.
Posted by: DarthVader || 12/12/2012 2:27 Comments || Top||

#6  I don't call it the extortion funded sector for nothing.

America Needs a "Robin Hood" to take from the over-large state and give back to the taxpayers.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 12/12/2012 7:57 Comments || Top||

#7  Next comes the multiple and continuous court challenges instigated by the unions and selected lefty judges.

Same MO as the leftards used in Wisconsin and elsewhere.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 12/12/2012 8:54 Comments || Top||

#8  The Maha-Rushian Questionne' is to decide iff, under conditions of OWG-NWO + US-speciifc, extra/post-Nationalist, Sovereign OWG NAU starting in 2015 or ASAP afterward, DOES "RIGHT-TO-WORK" STILL HAVE A PLACE VEE "MANDATORY/
UNIVERSAL UNIONIZATION" IN THE GLOBALIST-SOCIALIST ECONOMY PREFERRED BY THE POWERS THAT BE.

Its been long obvious that Washington DC = USA is intended to [voluntarily?] give up sovereign power-n-suthority to the proposed OWG NAU - WHAT IS NOT CLEAR IS HOW MUCH POWER-N-AUTHORITY IS TO BE GIVEN UP WIDOUT DAMAGE TO THIS US CONSTITUTION, THE REPUBLIC, + LIBERAL OR PLURALIST DEMOCRACY, ETC.

ESPEC SINCE "VOLUNTARILY" IN MANY GLOBALISTS' VIEW DOESN'T SEEM TO BE SYNONYMOUS WID "NATIONAL VOTE/REFERENDUM" ON SAME BEFORE THE ELECTORATE OR MAINSTREAM - YOU KNOW, SOCIALIST-BELOVED "WILL OF THE PEOPLE".

Again, the US has NOT been in direct military confrontation wid a major nuclear power since the then-USSR back in the 1962 Cuban MIssle Crisis [under POTUS JFK], + the 1973 Yom Kippur War [under POTUS Nixon].

> CHINA in East Asia - East China Sea + South China Sea [+ Himalayas? DPRK/ Taiwan?].
> RUSSIA, + CHINA, oer Syria + Iran.
> IN FUTURE > OWG PRO-SHIA CALIPHATE/MUSLIM GLOBAL NUCLEAR SUPERPOWER WANNABE "NEO-PERSIANIST"? IRAN???

The assault of "Right-to-Work" vee Mandatory "National/Global Unionization"
is because the US Govt, Perts are uncertain how-n-iff a USA suborned under OWG NAU will be able to maintain the normal quality-of-life + econ productivity + prosperity as ordinary or mainstream Americans have known it under contemporary Nationalism + "Sole Sovereignty".

[2013 > "HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER" = "THIS WILL GET OUT OF CONTROL ... THIS WILL GET OUT OF CONTROL AND WE'LL [all] BE LUCKY JUST TO LIVE THROUGH IT"!].

Depending on what happens econ + overseas in "Perfect Storm" in 2013, 2014 = MAY SEE A NUMBER OF US STATE GOVTS, NOT JUST INDIVIDUAL US CITIZENS, DE FACTO PETITION THE BAMMER WHITE HOUSE + CONGRESS FOR FORMAL SECESSION = BREAKUP OF THE FEDERAL UNION OF THE STATES???

I've said it many times before - THE US AS A NATION OR GLOBAL SUPERPOWER, ETC. IS NOT IMMUNE OR INVINCIBLE FROM THE DYNAMIC FORCES OF HISTORY OR HUMANITY.

"Smart" Politics is NOT always good or proper Leadership, + under the right conditions or circumstances can be existentially dangerous.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/12/2012 20:20 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Belmokhtar breaks away from AQIM
[Magharebia] Dissent is growing among terrorist groups controlling the Sahel. Former Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) emir Mokhtar Belmokhtar (aka "Laaouar") quit the group to assemble his own band of jacket wallahs in northern Mali.

In a video statement obtained by ANI on December 6th, Belmokhtar said that his new katibat included foreign jihadists.

The Algerian terrorist (real name Khaled Abou El Abass) reportedly left AQIM after his demotion as head of the El Moulethemine katibat ("Brigade of the Veiled Ones")

"The Algerian believed to have been behind the kidnapping and deaths of several Frenchies in the countries of the Sahel, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, has announced in a video statement...that he is creating a new armed Islamist group called the Signers in Blood," Libération reported on Sunday (December 9th).

The new terrorist group "is headquartered in the Malian city of Gao, which is under the control of Islamists from the Movement for Tawhid and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), an offshoot of AQIM".

Through the creation of the new group, Belmokhtar wants "to help to consolidate Sharia rule in northern Mali, where armed Islamists are enforcing Islamic law very strictly after having driven the Malian army out in the spring," the French daily added.

Belmokhtar will finance his activities "including the purchase of weapons" by "specialising in the kidnapping of Westerners, whom he usually frees in return for large ransoms".

"The differences which already existed between Laaouar and the Algerian leaders of AQIM led to him being ousted as leader of his brigade," terrorism expert Sidati Ould Cheikh said.

"AQIM recently decided to oust Laaouar and make Abou El Hammam head of the Emirate of the Sahara," he added.

Ould Cheikh explained that tensions have existed for some time within AQIM between Abou Zeid and Belmokhtar.

"One of the reasons for this dissent is the disagreement between these leaders over how to share the ransoms paid for the release of Western hostages," said Abdalahi Ould Ahmed, editor-in-chief of the daily newspaper Chouhoud.

"As the organization has grown and incorporated fighters of different origins, conflicts of interests have become increasingly frequent," he added.

Journalist Hamid Fekhart argued that "Droukdel's decision was motivated by the unruliness of his junior, who is thought to have been gunning for him over the past few months. Security sources say that the supreme leader, who tried in vain to bring Mokhtar Belmokhtar to heel, simply decided to relieve him of his duties as part of a bid to reorganise AQIM."

Fekhart noted that his successor, thirty-six year old Abou El Hammam, was reportedly "behind the kidnapping of an Italian-Burkina Faso
...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and may be in the process of being chased out now...
couple in the Sahel in December 2010". Belmokhtar joined the Afghan mujahideen fighting against the Soviet Union at the age of 19. He returned to Algeria at the end of 1992 and help found the Armed Islamic Group (GIA). He joined the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat
... now known as al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb...
(GSPC) in 1998.
Posted by: Fred || 12/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336071 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa


Caribbean-Latin America
Chavez health crisis has dependent Cubans on edge
Cuba was on edge as Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez underwent more cancer surgery Tuesday, with many here worried that if he dies, deeply dependent Cuba will plunge into economic disarray.
CUBA is worried? What about Venezuela?
"Venezuela today represents what the Soviet Union used to until 1990," said Oscar Espinosa Chepe, a dissident economist in Cuba, the Americas' only one of four Communist-ruled one-party states.
Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador are close enough to communist that the difference doesn't matter. And Argentina is close enough to fascist so as to be almost national socialist.
"But the difference is that if aid were to end now, the consequences would be much worse since Cuba's infrastructure is in much worse shape now than it was back then," he warned.

Cuban authorities, Chavez's closest allies in the region, have not commented on the health of the man who for more than a decade has ensured Havana gets more than half of the oil it uses every day at a deeply subsidized rate.
Just drill, baby...
"How could Cuba pay international market prices for these 100,000 barrels a day?" demanded Espinosa Chepe.
Perhaps we could make a deal...
Cuba, which two decades ago abruptly lost 85 percent of the foreign trade it largely conducted with its former socialist allies, still has a cash-strapped centrally-planned government-run economy. The main difference now is that it has a new sponsor footing the bill.

When the Soviet Union came crumbling down, Cuba's economy hit a standstill as subsidized food, fuel and raw materials all suddenly stopped arriving -- while the island remained under the same US trade sanctions as before.
Fitting, since it remained under the same Castro government as before...
Cuba's government called it the "Special Period" and Cubans remember it as a time when food was in such short supply that hungry parents passed anything they could get on to their children.

In an often sweltering Caribbean nation of 11 million, blackouts became so much the norm that Cubans coined the phrase "Light-ons" to refer to periods when oil-powered plants were switched back on.

Cuba's revolutionary leader Fidel Castro -- now retired but then still president -- presided over what amounted to wartime crisis economy. Fuel was rationed; food grown in the countryside was rotting there and not making it to cities; long lines snaked around blocks for public transport, and shortages of food, clothing and soap were common.

Some women shaved their heads in dismay when they had no shampoo or conditioner to care for it.

Though the government never officially declared the Special Period over, once Castro-ally Chavez had come to power in Venezuela in 1999, the Cuban economy edged towards stability.

President Raul Castro, who stepped in for his brother in 2006, has introduced minor reforms on self-employment and ownership. But Cuba is isolated and cash-strapped, making ends meet with funds from Venezuelan aid, the "export" of government health workers to allied countries like Venezuela and from remittances from emigrants.

A Cuban worker's average wages are under 20 dollars a month.

"Even that (system of exported health workers) could be in danger now," said dissident Manuel Cuesta Morua, noting that a successor to Chavez may well dedicate more resources to domestic crises.

"I think the average Cuban, whatever they think about politics, is feeling the potential loss of the bolstering of the Cuban regime that Venezuela does," he said. "Cubans really do not want to go through the Special Period's really tough times again, with blackouts and all that."
Your move, Raul. Come talk to us. Don't bother with Champ, make a deal with America in general. You have great people, white sand beaches, and sugar cane. We have great people, dollars and oil. And we're a bunch of forgiving saps...
Posted by: Steve White || 12/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336065 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The good news is, Apple, Nike and GM are all extremely interested in opening factories there now that they know they will work for $20 a month.
Posted by: bigjim-CA || 12/12/2012 9:07 Comments || Top||

#2  and 15 people in line per job.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/12/2012 9:27 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Malian prime minister, government resign after premier's arrest
[Iran Press TV] Malian Prime Minister Cheikh Modibo Diarra has resigned along with his government hours after he was tossed in the calaboose
Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit!
by the forces of the junta, which led a recent coup in the country.

"Men and women who are worried about the future of our nation, you are hoping for peace. It's for this reason that I, Cheikh Modibo Diarra, am resigning along with my entire government," Diarra said in a brief statement on Tuesday.

Members of Diarra's entourage said that the prime minister was arrested at his home in Bamako on Monday on orders from Malian military officer Captain Amadou Haya Sanogo, who led the coup, while the premier was preparing to leave for Gay Paree for a "medical check-up."
Posted by: Fred || 12/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336065 views] Top|| File under:


Caribbean-Latin America
Chavez Readied for Surgery, Doctors Optimistic
[An Nahar] His Excellency President-for-Life, Caudillo of the Bolivarians Hugo Chavez' medical team expressed "optimism" on Tuesday as the cancer-stricken Venezuelan president prepared to undergo a fourth round of surgery in Cuba.

Communications Minister Ernesto Villegas said doctors had begun pre-surgery protocols and would operate later in the day in Havana, where Chavez had arrived on Monday after revealing that his cancer had returned.

"The medical team has transmitted its optimism about the success of this operation, which is part of the treatment plan that commandante Hugo Chavez is following to recover his health," Villegas said, in a televised statement.

Ecuador's President Rafael Correa, who visited Chavez on Monday, had earlier said the surgery was already underway, calling it "a very delicate operation."

"He is going through one of the most difficult moments of his life, this dear friend, colleague and Latin American leader, commandante Chavez," Correa said in the border town of Tulcan, Ecuador.

"Truly, he is a historic president and let's hope he comes through this health problem totally reestablished," said Correa, who was meeting with Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos.

Chavez flew to Havana for his fourth round of surgery after revealing to his stunned countrymen Saturday that his cancer had returned just two months after his re-election to a six-year term.

Chavez, who was first diagnosed with cancer in June 2011, had assured Venezuelans that he was cancer free after three surgeries and debilitating rounds of chemo and radiation therapy.

Significant aspects of Chavez condition -- including the type, location and severity of his cancer -- have been kept secret over the past 18 months, fueling rumors and uncertainty about Venezuela's future.

But Chavez made clear before his departure to Havana that he was facing a serious setback, publicly naming Vice President Nicolas Maduro as his preferred successor for the first time.

Without formally handing over the presidency, Chavez said he was delegating the country's "high political command" to Maduro while he was gone and said the vice president would succeed him if he were incapacitated.
Posted by: Fred || 12/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336069 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So die already.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/12/2012 1:04 Comments || Top||

#2  He's marxist so he should cut out to Chavez to save the cancer.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 12/12/2012 8:01 Comments || Top||

#3  Chavez Readied for Surgery, Doctors Optimistic
Doctors are slways "Optomistic" it's when they're not, worry.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/12/2012 9:21 Comments || Top||

#4  There's ten grand in it for ya if you happen to nick an artery, doc...
Posted by: Muggsy Mussolini1226 || 12/12/2012 10:46 Comments || Top||

#5  Nice little surgical instrument for ya here, Doc!
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 12/12/2012 12:34 Comments || Top||

#6  Given Hugo frequency of outside treatments + surgeries, this is starting to remind me of the massive effort to save elderly Spanish dictator Ferdinand Franco's life back in the '70's, where FRANCO'S BLOOD TRANSFUSIONS HAD BLOOD TRANSFUSIONS HAD A .....@etc.

Franco had so many Doctors + Tubes stuck into him he could've easily passed the PROOFS FOR BEING THE WORLD'S FIRST TELEVISED DE FACTO ZOMBIE.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/12/2012 19:30 Comments || Top||


Europe
Annul Le Pen immunity over Islamophobia: French lawyers
[Iran Press TV] French prosecutors have requested the European Parliament (EP) to annul the immunity of far-right leader Marine Le Pen over an impeachment of racial hatred against Islam.

Justice ministry front man Pierre Rance said on Tuesday the request to lift the immunity protection of La Belle France's National Front's leader was sent to EP's President Martin Schultz, a 2012 Nobel Prize medalist.

The EP, which received the request on November 26, said the vote would be cast in consideration to the case after three to four months.

The move comes as politicians in Lyon seek to prosecute Le Pen for comparing Mohammedan prayers on the streets to Nazi occupation.

The leader of La Belle France's extreme-right party has been under a judicial probe since an anti-racial group filed a complaint against the comments made at a political speech.

Le Pen in the speech on December 2010, denounced public street prayers and said, "For those who like to talk about World War II, to talk about occupation, we could talk about, for once, the occupation of our territory."

In light of her views about the Mohammedan community, she added, "There are no armored vehicles, no soldiers, but it is an occupation all the same and it weighs on people."

It seems that Marine Le Pen could truly be following in the footsteps of her father, who has several convictions for inciting racial hatred.

Some Mohammedan leaders are saying that the rise of Le Pen could precede a rise in the difficulties Mohammedans face in their quest for integration.

La Belle France has around 2,000 mosques for more than 5 million Mohammedan worshipers; many of them therefore are forced to pray on the streets, due to the inadequate space. That privilege was taken away on September 16, last year, when the government enforced a ban on street prayers.
Posted by: Fred || 12/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336070 views] Top|| File under: Global Jihad

#1  over an impeachment of racial hatred against Islam.

since when is Islam a race?
Posted by: Frank G || 12/12/2012 12:22 Comments || Top||

#2  They hope if they say it often enough it magically becomes true.
Posted by: Dopey Sinatra9196 || 12/12/2012 14:34 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Two Israeli jets violate Lebanese airspace
[Iran Press TV] Two Israeli fighter jets have penetrated Lebanese airspace and flown over several areas of the country in blatant violation of a UN Security Council resolution.


The military aircraft crossed into Leb's airspace over the southern border village of Kfar Kila, located 96 kilometers (59 miles) south of Beirut, at 1 p.m. local time (1000 GMT) on Tuesday, according to a statement issued by the Lebanese military.

The warplanes flew over several areas in Leb before leaving Lebanese airspace at 3 p.m. local time (1200 GMT) while flying over the southern border town of Alma al-Shaab.

Israel violates Leb's airspace on an almost daily basis, claiming the flights serve surveillance purposes.

Leb's government, the Hezbollah resistance movement, and the UN Interim Force in Leb, known as UNIFIL, have repeatedly condemned the overflights, saying they are in clear violation of UN Resolution 1701 and the country's illusory sovereignty.
Posted by: Fred || 12/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336082 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah

#1  when you're "violated" as frequently as has happened from Iran and Syria, you've earned teh designation of "easy" and your virtuous outrage has a touch of hypocrisy. If you don't want to be treated like a whore, doen't act like one
Posted by: Frank G || 12/12/2012 11:55 Comments || Top||

#2  Just tell em it was 12/12/12, sunspots, or navigation errors--some sort of pucky like that.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/12/2012 18:46 Comments || Top||

#3  I'm reminded of an old Woody Allen joke (back when he was funny, not pathetic):

It wasn't a moving violation.
Posted by: Eric Jablow || 12/12/2012 20:13 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Collection of hides
[Dawn] THE strange case of the hides has not been brought to the fore by Robert Louis Stevenson but it does feature a split personality belonging to none other than the government. On the one hand, rulers instruct officials to stop banned faith-based groups from collecting the skins of sacrificial animals on Eidul Azha. On the other, members of these, often pro-militancy, groups freely roam the streets, collecting hides. An intelligence report prepared in Punjab says the hides collected by some groups that have been proscribed or are under watch sold for more than Rs78m on the market last Eid. The actual figure may be much higher since it is almost impossible to verify the number of hides sold. An effort seems to have been made to come up with round figures. For instance, one group is said to have collected 60,000 hides in Lahore alone. But whatever the estimates, they piece together a picture that is disturbing and calls for action. Also mentioned in the intelligence report are specific instances which bring out the dangers of carrying out directives to keep these banned
...the word banned seems to have a different meaning in Pakistain than it does in most other places. Or maybe it simply lacks any meaning at all...
organization
s from the lucrative business of hide collection.

The police have encountered the might of political groups over claims to hides. But in this case, they appear to shy away from their duties in the face of threats by banned faith-based groups. Indeed, the instance where police in a Punjab district are shown to have quickly released three men incarcerated
Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try!
for gathering hides is a true manifestation of the influence, actually fear, that some banned organizations exercise over the whole system. The report says the release came on the orders of senior coppers who are in turn answerable to the rulers.

Reflective of the general approach that manifests itself in other instances too, it seems it is the rulers who do not want to take on the might of such groups. There is a tendency to explain away this matter in terms of the growing religiosity in Pak society. This is something that cannot be denied; but what we have here is a classic case of camouflaging what is essentially a law and order issue. Just as coppers are inclined to blame petty crimes on poverty, the administration chooses to explain the leeway it allows banned groups on hides and the collection of cash donations by referring to the religious choices of the people. It is a simple problem: what is legally banned cannot be allowed. Unless we truly want this practice stopped, there is no use having intelligence officials trace all these hides to the market.
Posted by: Fred || 12/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336072 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Indirectly, the Artic does give reason why hunger is on the steep rise in Pakland.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/12/2012 0:05 Comments || Top||

#2  Indirectly, the Artic does give reason why hunger is on the steep rise in Pakland

Could you expand on that thought, JosephM? I don't see it.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/12/2012 19:30 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Egypt protesters breach palace barricade as Morsi supporters mass
[Dawn] Thousands of protesters breached a barricade outside the Egyptian presidential palace in Cairo on Tuesday, as even more supporters of President Mohamed Morsi massed just a few kilometres (miles) away.

There were fears the rival rallies could mix, sparking festivities like those seen outside the palace last week, when seven people were killed and hundreds injured in a melee between mobs wielding metal bars, petrol bombs and handguns.

Troops have orders from the president to use police powers to protect "vital state institutions".

Morsi is determined to press ahead with a referendum next Saturday on a controversial draft constitution drawn up by a panel dominated by his Islamic allies and bitterly opposed by his mainly secular opponents.

There was no immediate violent confrontation as anti-Morsi protesters pulled apart a high metal gate and toppled concrete blocks, forcing hundreds of soldiers to pull back closer to the walled presidential palace compound where six tanks were stationed.

At the counter-demonstration, the huge crowd held up banners saying: "Yes to the constitution," and waved Saudi and black Islamic flags as well as the national emblem.

"There's a war against religion," said one participant, Mohamed Shehata.

"We must vote yes for the referendum as it is the best written constitution in our history," said Ahmed Youssef, a council member of the fundamentalist Gamaa Islamiya party.

Many of the pro-referendum demonstrators were bussed in from the provinces, AFP correspondents reported.

The military has vowed to carry out its duty to maintain stability within democratic rules.
Posted by: Fred || 12/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336065 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


India-Pakistan
Passenger killed in Kurram ambush
[Dawn] One person was killed and three others were maimed when unknown myrmidons opened fire on a vehicle at Kaka Waka locality on Monday.

The political administration in a crackdown after the incident jugged
Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try!
over 30 people under the Collective Territorial Responsibility Act.

Noor Jamal was killed while Ihsanullha, Noor Jana, and Gohar Zaman sustained injuries when unknown assailants opened fire on the vehicle. Tribal leader Bakht Jamal, who was travelling in the vehicle, narrowly escaped. The attackers fled after his guards retaliated. The injured persons were taken to DHQ hospital Parachinar.
Posted by: Fred || 12/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336079 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Africa North
U.N. Security Council Condemns Mali PM Arrest
[An Nahar] The U.N. Security Council on Tuesday condemned the arrest of Mali's prime minister by the armed forces and renewed a threat to impose sanctions on those who threaten the country's "constitutional order."

U.N. leader the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan...
is also "troubled" by the new turmoil in the African nation, where Islamist beturbanned goons and rebels have taken over half the country, his front man said.

"The members of the Security Council condemn the arrest, on December 10, 2012, of the prime minister of Mali, Mr Cheick Modibo Diarra, by members of the Malian Armed Forces," said a council statement.

The 15-nation body said the action contravenes repeated U.N. calls for the Malian military to stop interfering in the west African nation's transition.

"The members of the Security Council express their readiness to consider appropriate measures, including targeted sanctions, against those who prevent the restoration of the constitutional order and take actions that undermine stability in Mali," added the statement.

The U.N. council called on interim president Dioncounda Traore to "swiftly reappoint an inclusive government of national unity."

Islamists and rebels took over the northern half of Mali in March, taking advantage of a military coup in Bamako. Despite the appointment of an interim government the army has been accused of continually holding on to power.

Cheick Modibo Diarra quit Tuesday under pressure from the coup leaders, who oppose a foreign-aided military intervention to drive out Islamists.
Posted by: Fred || 12/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336081 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq
Top al-Qaeda commander in Iraq escapes from prison
[Iran Press TV] Iraqi security sources say a top leader of al-Qaeda-inspired Islamic State of Iraq network has managed to escape from a detention facility in the western province of al-Anbar.

A police official, speaking on condition of anonymity
... for fear of being murdered...
, said the man -- identified as Ali Farhan -- fled the anti-terrorism prison in the city of Fallujah,
... the City of Mosques, which might have somthing to do with why it's not called Center of Prosperity or a really nice place to raise your kids...
located roughly 69 kilometers (43 miles) west of Storied Baghdad,
...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate...
on Tuesday, the Aswat al-Iraq news agency reported.

He added the senior al-Qaeda had been involved in terrorist activities, and was locked away
Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please!
in Syria by the Interpol a few months ago.

The official said police have launched a hunt for the top terrorist.

Al-Qaeda in Iraq is a shadowy group that was once allegedly led by Jordanian myrmidon Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Zarqawi was reportedly killed in June 2006.

According to US government and military officials, the group was then led by Ayyub al-Masri, who was killed along with Abu Omar al-Baghdadi -- another leader of the group -- in a joint Iraqi-US operation in Salahuddin province in April 2010.
Posted by: Fred || 12/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336071 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Iraq


Europe
Greece borrows at steady rates amid buy-back delay
[Al Ahram] Greece raised 4.387 billion euros ($5.7 billion) at little-changed interest rates on Tuesday with a special bond issue to pay current bills as the country's debt agency tries to finalise a debt buy-back having extended the deadline.

The debt agency borrowed the money via a one-month issue at 3.99 percent, a slightly higher rate than during its last comparable issue, and via a six-month issue at a slightly lower rate of 4.38 percent.

Meanwhile,
...back at the hoedown, the fiddler suddenly struck a sour note. The dancing stopped abruptly. Everyone looked at Bob!...
the agency is due to conclude the Greek debt buy-back later on Tuesday, to unlock the latest instalment of urgently needed bailout funding from international creditors.
Posted by: Fred || 12/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336066 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Schengenonite masters know it's theft. The Greeks know it's theft, but they are permitted to continue stealing. All too familiar.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/12/2012 1:58 Comments || Top||

#2  The only thing that matters is a steady income stream to fund the Oligarchs. It matters not a whit whether the funds are the result of borrowing, theft or printing.

Posted by: AlanC || 12/12/2012 8:09 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Tunisian guards face gunfight near Algeria border
[Magharebia] A Tunisian National Guard officer died Monday (December 10th) in festivities with armed gun-hung tough guys near the Algerian border.

The incident began when a guard at an oil company spotted "suspicious bearded men" near the Kasserine town of Bou Chebka. The border post chief in Feriana, 27-year-old Anis Jlassi, was killed in the shootout.

The four attackers got away.

Within the past week, Tunisian forces tossed in the clink
Book 'im, Mahmoud!
two alleged salafist jihadists in Jendouba, also along the Algeria border. A search of the suspects' all-terrain vehicle uncovered weapons, ammunition and explosives.

The suspects were also reportedly carrying hand-drawn maps showing the locations of military and security patrols.

Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki on December 7th voiced concern over jihadist incursions into his country.

"The persons who go to Mali for training in jihad, as was the case in the past with Afghanistan, pose a threat because they return to Tunisia afterwards," he said in an interview with London's The World Today.

Asked about the September 14th attack on the US Embassy in Tunis, he said: "I was surprised, like the government, with the attack. We didn't expect the extent of danger that the salafist jihadist could pose."
Posted by: Fred || 12/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336092 views] Top|| File under: Salafists

#1  "suspicious bearded men"

Those darned Amish.
Posted by: Pappy || 12/12/2012 21:13 Comments || Top||

#2  Santa!!!
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/12/2012 21:17 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Only 7% of Detroit Public-School 8th Graders Proficient in Reading
[CNS News] In the public schools in bankrupt, but reliably Democrat Detroit, Mich., according to the U.S. Department of Education, only 7 percent of the eighth graders are grade-level proficient or better in reading.

Some public school teachers in the City of bankrupt, but reliably Democrat Detroit and around the state of Michigan are reportedly taking a vacation or a sick day today to protest right-to-work legislation likely to be approved by the state legislature. Under current law, Michigan public school teachers must pay dues to the teachers' union. If the right-to-work law is enacted, Michigan public-school teachers will be free to join the union and pay dues to it if they wish, but they will also be free not to join the union and not to pay it dues.

Bankrupt, but reliably Democrat Detroit public-school eighth graders do even worse in math than they do in reading, according to the Department of Education. While only 7 percent scored highly enough on the department's National Assessment of Educational Progress test in 2011 to be rated "proficient" or better in reading, only 4 percent scored highly enough to be rated "proficient" or better in math.

Statewide in Michigan, only 32 percent of public-school eighth graders scored grade-level proficient or better in reading, and only 31 percent scored grade-level proficient or better in math.
Posted by: Fred || 12/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336100 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Oddly enough, I astounded my teachers when I could read and write starting school (Thanks Mom) .
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/12/2012 0:52 Comments || Top||

#2  Higher taxes will solve everything.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 12/12/2012 1:58 Comments || Top||

#3  Under 'No Groceries Left Behind' recognition of only three letters of alphabet are actually necessary, E - B and T. Communication skills and knowledge of simple math are an anti-cultural stigma, and are discouraged.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/12/2012 2:06 Comments || Top||

#4  All Detroit public school workers will receive a bonus this year.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 12/12/2012 2:07 Comments || Top||

#5  At least three school districts in Metro Detroit closed Tuesday after hundreds of teachers called in sick to join union rallies in Lansing against right-to-work legislation passed by lawmakers.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 12/12/2012 2:11 Comments || Top||

#6  Narcissism is a "sickness". But not one easily cured by a couple of days off.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/12/2012 2:20 Comments || Top||

#7  Narcissism hell---they're fighting for their livelihood, Besoeker. Without teachers' union most of them will be on the street---without any skills whatsoever (I know whereon I speak: I taught high school, and I teach private now).
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/12/2012 2:33 Comments || Top||

#8  You recognized change and as a survivor, made a change and moved to greener pastures. They need to recognize change as well, and move accordingly. Few in American society (the working class anyway) get a gold watch and a free luncheon at age 65. Those days be over. Nothing says bully like a profane, fist swinging, fat 60 year old filmed on the nightly nuus. He might very well have been shot dead in Georgia.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/12/2012 2:45 Comments || Top||

#9  I didn't "move out", Besoeker---I was fired after subbing as a chem teacher for 2 months. Apparently, one is not supposed to 'injure students' self-esteem (forcing them to do homework, etc...: these kids operated on the principle that, as long as they show up, they deserve good grades)". Nowadays I tutor students (mostly post obligatory IDF service---wonderful that going through basic can do to definitions of "self-esteem") who were like the above and now want to get into college.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/12/2012 3:15 Comments || Top||

#10  Great commentary, guys.

AH, your link gives perhaps the best reason to have a glimmer of hope in all of what is happening to our beloved republic. At some point, even with the MSM and NPR and PBS running air cover, it will become readily apparent to everyone that the public unions and indeed nearly all nonmilitary recipients of the magic checks (whether through welfare or public employment, it matters not) are far greedier than the "1%" and far less likely to share in any sacrifice necessary to restore balance and vigor to our country. Indeed, when you get right down to it, they would rather sacrifice the country to get a little more pay. I believe the working term is "twenty-dollar Democrats".

Gromguru, you have identified the truth about the vast bulk of public school teachers. While it is certainly possible for a very smart person to pursue and get an education degree, the reality is that most ed majors aren't very bright and that an ed degree (even an MA) is a degree that a chimp could get at most of the schools which offer the major. In the absence of their teaching or administrative job they have few or no skills and lack the work ethic and attitude required to make anything near what they do as teachers. More importantly, however, they would not have the thing they crave even more than the money itself, which is the complete lack of anxiety about whether or not the income stream will be there in a year or ten or twenty. It is the security of the income as much or more than the income itself that they fight for. Never forget that.

The public work force violated the social contract that was established between public and private sectors slowly but surely over the past eighty years. A good contract is when the things that each party gives up and the things that they receive are of equal value, so that the contract is a fair and equal exchange. The original agreement was that in exchange for perfect income stream security, the public worker would accept an income that was VASTLY less than that of the average private sector worker and would be given a MODEST pension. Like the proverbial frog in the slowly heated pot, over the past few decades the public work force has forced the private sector to pay them MORE than what a private worker gets and has not given up any of the good things they always received in the social contract like the bulletproof job security. They violated the contract, so they are the ones who must remedy the situation.

And teachers really, really need to stop using the line "we have more education than the average private worker so it's not fair to compare us to them, only to people with and MA in education". Spare me, honey. You weren't hired to serve only the kids of people with masters degrees, you were hired to serve the children of all the people in your district. Therefore that is the population to which your pay must be compared.

I would add that with few exceptions the public work force is in the jobs they have for this reason (bulletproof job security and an unalterably increasing pay level) primarily or solely, so you can expect very bad behavior on their part should that be challenged.

Besoeker, hats off to you for recognizing the need to change. I've done a lot of things in my life, mnaul labor jobs, retail, science, small business. No tears shed for any of it. The concepts of work followed by universal retirement and a life of unproductive leisure at an age fairly young in relation to the average lifespan - with everything paid for whether or not enough money was generated during your working years to cover it all - is a social construct of the 1930's. It has failed miserably in EUroland and is teetering on the edge (dare I say cliff?) here in the U.S. now as well. Mead's essays about the failure of the Blue Model are an excellent primer on both the what and why of this change. Good luck, though, getting the union thugs wo are beating up reporters and knocking down tents onto women and old people to read and understand it.
Posted by: no mo uro || 12/12/2012 6:33 Comments || Top||

#11  Or, as Mickey Kaus once said, 'The deal used to be lower wages relative to others in exchange for job security.'
Posted by: Raj || 12/12/2012 7:46 Comments || Top||

#12  Bet you they can fill in the forms for their obama phones.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 12/12/2012 7:55 Comments || Top||

#13  I once picked up a Hitch-hiking couple going to Biemingham, a coup;e of Questioning revealed they didn't have Jobs, No skills, and were going to live at a friend's house.I gave them $20 each and let them off at a Major truck stop. not a chance.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/12/2012 9:16 Comments || Top||

#14  BP, it might be what the democrat election-voter escorts do in the off season.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 12/12/2012 12:43 Comments || Top||

#15  unfortunately if the escaping crabs (the 7%) are not pulled free, the other crabs will pull them back into the boiling water
Posted by: Frank G || 12/12/2012 21:36 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Obama Recognizes Syrian Opposition Group
[ABC News.GO] In a diplomatic shift, President B.O. said today his administration now formally recognizes the newly-formed, leading coalition of Syrian rebels who are fighting to topple Syria's embattled Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad.
Terror of Aleppo
...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins...
...

"We've made a decision that the Syrian Opposition Coalition is now inclusive enough, is reflective and representative enough of the Syrian population that we consider them the legitimate representative of the Syrian people in opposition to the Assad regime," Obama said.

The announcement, made during an exclusive interview with ABC News' Barbara Walters, grants new legitimacy to the rebel group and marks a new phase in U.S. efforts to isolate the Assad regime.

"It's a big step," Obama said of the decision. The United States follows Britannia and the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
, both of which last month recognized the Syrian opposition group.
Posted by: Fred || 12/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336072 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  "We've [Obama administration] made a decision that the Syrian Opposition Coalition is now inclusive enough, is reflective and representative enough

We did or you did?
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/12/2012 18:50 Comments || Top||


Europe
France's Jean-Marc Ayrault slams flight of the 'greedy rich'
[Telegraph.Co.UK] Jean-Marc Ayrault's outburst came after La Belle France's best-known actor, Gerard Dépardieu, took up legal residence in a small village just over the border in Belgium, alongside hundreds of other wealthy Frenchies seeking lower taxes.

"Those who are seeking exile abroad are not those who are scared of becoming poor," the prime minister declared after unveiling sweeping anti-poverty measures to help those hit by the economic crisis.

These individuals are leaving "because they want to get even richer," he said. "We cannot fight poverty if those with the most, and sometimes with a lot, do not show solidarity and a bit of generosity," he added.

"Thankfully, few are seeking exile to exempt themselves from being in solidarity with fellow Frenchies."

Announcing plans to spend up to 2.5 billion euros by 2017 to help the poor, Mr Ayrault said that poverty affected 12.9 percent of the population in 2002 and rose to 14.1 percent in 2010.
Posted by: Fred || 12/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336080 views] Top|| File under:

#1  HPW Dare you leave with any money, this, this is PROPITEERING and we won't stand for it, It doesn't count that you earned it, WE WANT IT, and it's OUR RIGHT.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/12/2012 0:49 Comments || Top||

#2  These individuals are leaving "because they want to get even richer," he said. "We cannot fight poverty if those with the most, and sometimes with a lot, do not show solidarity and a bit of generosity," he added.

At a 75% tax rate? Fuck off and die, Froggy...I'm outta here. Why? Because I can.
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/12/2012 1:06 Comments || Top||

#3  It ain't generosity when wealth is confiscated by the government. Wasn't 50% pretty generous already?
Posted by: Perfesser || 12/12/2012 2:03 Comments || Top||

#4  I suspect a wealthy Frenchman could get along in Vlaams quite well. In fact I know he could, and so could most of us. Too easy, and a hat tip to Gerard Depardieu.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/12/2012 2:15 Comments || Top||

#5  They know their theories are right. So, if things don't work out as the theory predicts, it must be sabotage.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/12/2012 2:16 Comments || Top||

#6  So... being productive is wrong. All your goods belong to the state and failure to produce them on demand is treason.

Yeah... good luck with that chuckles. The black market and off shore banks thank you. The Soviets tried something like this. Didn't work then either.

Any bets on how fast the French economy completely collapses? I bet 4 years, tops.
Posted by: DarthVader || 12/12/2012 2:23 Comments || Top||

#7  Rural France and Germany have been suspect of the Euro since it was first introduced, and rightly so. The European underground economy is flourishing and will continue to do so. These people are survivors I can assure you. We might learn a thing or two from them if we watch closely.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/12/2012 2:30 Comments || Top||

#8  He wants to take their money, but somehow they are the greedy ones. What am I missing here?
Posted by: AuburnTom || 12/12/2012 4:05 Comments || Top||

#9  "Announcing plans to spend up to 2.5 billion euros by 2017 to help the poor"

Oh really? That would come to 500 million euros per year. France has about 65 million people, and that would come to 9 million who are poor.

So you're spending... lemme see, a bit more than 50 euros per year for each poor, which will come to 4 euros a month.

So where does the rest of the 75% taxes go you plan to collect from the "rich"?
Posted by: European Conservative || 12/12/2012 5:01 Comments || Top||

#10  Robber slams greedy rich for securing houses.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 12/12/2012 7:51 Comments || Top||

#11  In other news, lions bash 'greedy' wildebeests. "Stand still and be eaten, you greedy sumbitches."
Posted by: SteveS || 12/12/2012 8:04 Comments || Top||

#12  Well, the next logical step will be to CONFISCATE, not just tax. Taxing is so hit and miss.
Posted by: bigjim-CA || 12/12/2012 9:22 Comments || Top||

#13  Election season?
Posted by: Broadhead6 || 12/12/2012 11:01 Comments || Top||

#14  Election season?

No, they had elections a few months ago, Broadhead6. The Socialist, Hollande won, on promises to raise taxes on the rich and restore all the workers' benefits that his predecessor had ended. Now comes delivery on those promises, and it turns out the rich aren't sitting still for the shearing.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/12/2012 11:53 Comments || Top||

#15  There is a reason the guilllotine had a head lock on it, even if called something as pretty as lunette.

I was once told that Gerard Depardieu was considered the epitomy of what is Frenchness in the cinema; any insight as to this? If so it would be like, say, Harrison Ford quitting to Canada and stating that none of the characters he has ever portrayed would be in-line with this government. "Jack Ryan wouldn't put up with this sh!t, and neither am I" kind of deal.

*not that I know or care to know Mr. Ford's politics, just reaching for an example/complete understanding.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 12/12/2012 12:26 Comments || Top||

#16  I have read that Harrison Ford's politics are to the left. I also read he is a fair carpenter. Maybe if America became unrecognizable as America, H. Ford might consider leaving for Canada--hard to say.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/12/2012 18:37 Comments || Top||

#17  And a mighty 4.0 Euros per month it is - how can we argue wid someone named "Jean-Marc"?

Personally, I practicing my deep-voice "JEAN-MARC, JEAN-MARC" instead of "DEGAULLE, DEGAULLE".
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/12/2012 23:45 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Cellphone company tower blown up in Mohmand
[Dawn] Militants in Mohmand tribal region's Haleemzai Tehsil blew up a private cellphone company's tower on Tuesday morning.

The snuffies had planted home-made explosives at the company's tower in the tehsil's Mian Mandi area and destroyed it. However,
a clean conscience makes a soft pillow...
no loss of life was reported in the kaboom in the Kassai area in Mian Mandi, officials said.

Following the blast, the Frontier Corps launched search operations in the area and placed in durance vile
Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit!
scores of rustics. Two journalists were also detained in Ghalanai because the tower was said to be installed on their property.

A local journalist also said two newsmen were detained from the Ghalanai press club under the collective and territorial responsibility law.

Journalists in Ghalanai blocked the Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
-Ghalanai Road for traffic to protest against the detaining of their colleagues. The road was opened after assurance given by Assistant Political Agent, Ghalanai, Jamshed Khan that he would be taking up the case for the detainees' release.
Posted by: Fred || 12/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336066 views] Top|| File under: TTP

#1  Cell Phones are Un Islamic?
(Except for bombers)
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/12/2012 1:28 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Yemeni Counterterrorism Officer Escapes Assassination Attempt
[Yemen Post] A Yemeni counterterrorism officer was injured after he was attacked by a suspected Al-Qaeda myrmidon in Yemen's capital Sanaa on Monday, the state agency Saba reported quoting a statement by a security source.

Captain Muhsen Homran, the officer in the counterterrorism unit of the central security organization, escaped an apparent liquidation attempt while he was at the Berlin roundabout in the Noqom district this after noon, the security source was quoted as saying.
"He came under fire while on his cycle of violence and got two bullets one hit his neck and the second hit his leg," the source said, adding the officer was admitted to hospital.

The suspected myrmidon, who was behind the attack, was on a motorbike and bravely ran away before the authorities rushed to the site, according to Saba.

Tens of Yemeni military and security officers, mostly intelligence officers, have been killed since the Yemeni army launched a US-backed offensive and drove Al-Qaeda Death Eaters out of their strongholds in the south earlier this year.

The killings including those by suicide kabooms occurred in main cities including the capital Sanaa which has seen the deadliest ever suicide kabooms against military and security targets.

Meanwhile,
...back at the argument, Jane reached into her purse for her .38...
key parts of Yemen are experiencing alarming security disorder amid continuous division of the armed forces. Concerns are growing the security situation may cast a cloud on the political transition under a West-backed power-transfer deal which was reached after the 2011 unrest.
Posted by: Fred || 12/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336069 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia


Africa Horn
Campus dorm 'burned' in Sudan protest clash
[Al Ahram] A Sudan university dorm caught fire on Tuesday during a clash between protesters and plain-clothed attackers, students said, on the fourth day of unrest sparked by the death of four students.

Students at Omdurman University, in Khartoum's twin city, said they were preparing to demonstrate when government supporters arrived and beat them while police fired tear gas.

During the melee a low-rise residence building burned down, they said, but the cause of the blaze was unclear.

Hundreds of students were then ordered to leave the residential compound which members of the security forces surrounded, an AFP news hound witnessed.

Around the same campus earlier Tuesday, police immediately moved in with batons when about 300 people gathered for a protest in support of the dead youths who were originally from the conflict-plagued Darfur region.

Their deaths, following a crackdown on a tuition protest at Gezira University south of Khartoum, have sparked the largest outpouring of Arab Spring-style discontent since anti-regime protests in June and July.
Posted by: Fred || 12/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336069 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: WoT
U.S. Intelligence Report Says Islamist Terrorism 'Could End by 2030'
Most anything could happen. The question is, what is the probability?
[CNSNews] The wave of Islamist terrorism is receding and "could end by 2030," according to a new long-term assessment by the U.S. intelligence community.
The greying of the Ummah as birth rates continue their precipitous drop since the 1970s should have an impact. Also the killing of so many whose first impulse is to violence, first attacking the unbelievers in Afghanistan and Iraq, but second among themselves as the Arab Spring turns into bloody revolution, and all the various factions of Muslim fanaticism tear and claw at each other when they cannot reach further... But will the call to jihad really succumb to a rising tide of age and despair? What say you, O Rantburgers?
In support of that projection, the study released on Monday said the view of America as the "great enemy" was becoming less appealing, resulting in part from the departure of U.S. forces from Iraq and Afghanistan.
See full report here.
It also cited political upheavals in the Arab world, and said that a new generation of young Moslems may be less interested in the narrative of a "conflict between fundamental values."

"Several circumstances are ending the current Islamist phase of terrorism, which suggest that as with other terrorist waves -- the Anarchists in the 1880s and 90s, the postwar anti-colonial terrorist movements, the New Left in 1970s -- the recent religious wave is receding and could end by 2030," said the National Intelligence Council's Global Trends 2030 report.

Since 1996 the NIC, which reports to the director of national intelligence, has prepared a trends analysis roughly every four years for the incoming president. This time it discussed the draft with experts in almost 20 countries, and the views of those "interlocutors" are reflected in the final 166-page document.

Despite the upbeat assessment on the likelihood of an end to Islamist terrorism, the report conceded that terror would probably not die out altogether.

Some al-Qaeda affiliates and groups like Hezbollah may continue to pose threats, and states like Iran and Pakistain could continue to use terror groups as proxies, it said.

In the years to come, the study said, Death Eaters may focus less on trying to inflict mass casualties and more on causing widespread economic chaos by targeting critical cyber systems.

A headline projection in Global Trends 2030 is an end to the post-Cold War "unipolar" order, with power shifting away from a single "hegemonic power" towards "networks and coalitions in a multipolar world."

"By 2030, no country -- whether the U.S., China, or any other large country -- will be a hegemonic power," it said, but predicted the U.S. would probably remain "first among equals."
More at the link.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336077 views] Top|| File under:

#1  See also RELATED DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > ASIA TO OVERTAKE NORTH AMERICA AND EUROPE IN COMBINED GLOBAL POWER BY 2030 | [China Post] INDIA TO OUTPACE CHINA BY 2030: US INTELLIGENCE REPORT.

* SAME > ASIA TO BE GLOBAL POWER BY 2030: US REPORT.

versus

* WAFF > US SECRET SERVICE TALKS ABOUT AMPUTATION OF TURKEY IN 2030 | US INTEL PREDICTS KURDISH SECESSION FROM TURKEY [etal.] AROUND 2030.

Potential loss of sovereign land by Turkey + other ME Countries to new Kurdistan State

* SAME > FAILED RESET? US DECRIES [Re]
"SOVIETIZATION" OF FORMER USSR STATES, as under the guise = false/broad cover of Vlad-proposed "EURASIAN UNION", Customs Union, or similar label, notsomuch a formal return of the "USSR" proper.

RELATED WAFF > CLINTON [SecState Hillary] FEARS EFFORT TO "RE-SOVIETIZE" IN EUROPE, i.e. much of Eastern Europe [ex-Soviet Bloc = Warsaw Pact] + Central Asia Region [ex-Soviet Stans].

* INDEPENDENT.UK > PRESSURE ON DWINDLING RESOURCES THREATENS "GLOBAL CHAOS" [consequent rise in Hunger and ultimately Warfare]. DEMAND FOR BASIC COMMODITIES TO SOAR OVER NEXT 20 YEARS.

* REDIFF > BY 2050. 20% OF INDIA'S POPULATION WILL BE OLD.

Lest we fergit, roughly ditto for JAPAN + ROK + SE ASIA.

* CHINA DAILY FORUM > UK-STYLE SECRETARY OF LABOUR FOR OBAMA ADMINISTRATION STARTING IN 2013?
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/12/2012 0:46 Comments || Top||

#2  Ah yes, Year 2030 ...
> USA may no longer be the World's Sole Superpower, or even to be a Superpower.
> Radical Islam may or may NOT have lost the GWOT = Global Jihad???
> Comet Apophis 2029-2036 = Moon wiped out, as due to lack of effective OWG Space Defense as due to lack of reliable or effective OWG.
> As linked or related to "Peak Oil/Resources" + BP Deepwater Horizon [Gulf of Mexico spill], UNO declares "Fracking" an International Crime agz the Planet-Humanity.

Basically because in coming decades certain or select aspects of "Peak Everything" was found to be more accurate than realized today, as per "OWG Consensus is that there is such Consensus".
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/12/2012 0:57 Comments || Top||

#3  Say it wid me Amerikka - YA SEE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN LINDSAY DYES HER HAIR PURPLE!
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/12/2012 0:59 Comments || Top||

#4  COASTTOCOASTAM > [Wired.com] US SPIES SEE SUPERHUMANS, INSTANT CITIES BY 2030.

Mega-Cities [Super City-States] to steadily take the realms from traditional organized Nation-States???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/12/2012 1:30 Comments || Top||

#5  By 2030 Dar will either.
(1) Win---in which case terrorism will stop.
(2) Be reduced to its natural state of bunch of savages on the outskirts of civilization---in which case terrorism will stop.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/12/2012 1:40 Comments || Top||

#6  It could be over for the most part tomorrow evening if an effective kinetic example were made of a few of key and strategic cities. I might proffer a list, but it would be unnecessary with this audience. If my history is correct, none of the major or lesser campaigns of WWII were won through targeting assignation of the enemy.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/12/2012 1:51 Comments || Top||

#7  If the Dar wins, terrorism will simply continue under another name and perhaps new management.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 12/12/2012 2:17 Comments || Top||

#8  No it will not. There'll be plenty of murder---but without risk to the murderers.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/12/2012 2:18 Comments || Top||

#9  Basically because in coming decades certain or select aspects of "Peak Everything" was found to be more accurate than realized today

Include peak government in that, and, well..
Posted by: no mo uro || 12/12/2012 5:59 Comments || Top||

#10  Wow! It only took 1600+ years. The only time 'Radical Islamists' have been peaceful over that time period was when they were sent to meet Allah. It's gonna take a whole lot more drones for this to occur by 2030.
Posted by: Past Master of the Obvious || 12/12/2012 7:39 Comments || Top||

#11  Really?

This kind of intelligence should be good reason for discharge with cause for incompetence.

My word this is either a highly politicized report or these guys are another bunch of intell weenies locked in their office with too little experience in the ME.

When they kill each other over the succession to Mohammed who died in 832, and kill everyone else over the First Crusade which occured in 1045, it is obvious they are just all completely nuts.
Posted by: Bill Clinton || 12/12/2012 10:43 Comments || Top||

#12  Strategypage.com has commented several times about how Islamic terrorism seems to come in waves. It flares up, kills mostly other muslims, then trails off.

The problem is nothing is solved. The same conditions that angered the jihadis continue, and the Ummah refuses to renounce terrorism as a way to get unbelievers to convert.

I believe the Ummah is producing a large number of young men who are sexually frustrated sadists. As long as these men can mumble a few lines from the Koran and get support from the ummah, Islamist terrorism is never going to end. In 2030 or any other year.

Al
Posted by: Frozen Al || 12/12/2012 11:41 Comments || Top||

#13  Why did they stop reproducing?
Posted by: Hellfish || 12/12/2012 12:18 Comments || Top||

#14  Why did they stop reproducing?

Do you mean the Muslims, Hellfish? According to Spengler, two reasons:

1) educated women have fewer offspring, and have them later, whether or not they work outside the home, and

2) the response of a culture unable to compete, whether because it is conquered in war or visibly less effective in delivering health, wealth, and happiness in peace is despair, which leads to a reduction in those activities which express trust in the future: innovation and starting new businesses, marriage, and having children.

The Medes and the Persians in Iran, for instance, have a birthrate somewhere around 1.2, as I recall, where simple replacement is 2.1. The Turks of Turkey, ditto -- or at least the Western, educated ones -- whereas the Kurds in both countries, as well as in Iraq have a birthrate around 4. Even the Palestinians are having significantly fewer children than a generation ago, such that the population in the territories a few years ago was discovered to be about a million less than claimed.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/12/2012 15:45 Comments || Top||

#15  Utah Uber Alles!
Posted by: Shipman || 12/12/2012 18:05 Comments || Top||

#16  WORLD NEWS > [Washinton Times] END OF THE AMERICAN SUPERPOWER, vee NIC's "Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds" Report.

ARTIC > USA = OBAMA Admin is intentionally choosing to empower or induce US DECLINE, FUTURE WILL INDEED "BELONG TO CHINA" OR OTHER NON-US UNLESS SOMETHING CHANGES.

and

* SAME > [CNN.com] US TO FACE 2030 AS "FIRST AMONG EQUALS".

That remains to be seen, as per the old saying "Some may be/end up being more 'Equal' than Others" - THE SO-CALLED "UNIPOLAR WORLD" OF THE 20TH CENTURY + COLD WAR MAY ENDING, BUTS ITS NOT CLEAR WHAT IS REPLACING IT, OR IFF GENUINE WORLD PEACE WILL BE THE OUTCOME???

* WAFF > [StrategyPage] THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING US NAVY.

ARTIC = denotes that current + future USDOD budgets will not be enough to support either the US Gepol agenda or that of the Navy as a uniformed service, THE BIGGEST PROB FOR THE US NAVY LEADERSHIP IS THE NAVY LEADERSHIP.

Iff Navy vessels were "oily" before, they may be moreso as per anti-GWCC special lubes, paints, + cleaners???

* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > THE US WANTS OUT OF [China-vs-Japan] PACIFIC ISLANDS MESSES.

Once again, either China backs down, or China + PLA will start shooting, to which History suggests the latter is more likely.

D *** NG IT, WHATS THE US GONNA DO - SINK STRATEGIC PACIFIC ISLANDS, E.G. GUAM, WID EARTHQUAKE/TECTONIC BOMBS AS IT RETREATS OR PULLS BACK ACROSS THE PACIFIC TO CONUS!

[1960's = 1990's DESTRUCTION OF THE BATTLESHIP OKLAHOMA: THEME FROM "TITANIC" [Celine Dion] = "GUAM WILL CAPSIZE" FROM MARINE BUILDUP
here].

Milwaukee + Michelle's Brigade paging HUGO ...
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/12/2012 23:10 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Mauritanian terrorist surrenders to Algerian authorities
[Magharebia] A terrorist claiming to be an emir surrendered to Algerian police in Timimoun, Adrar wilaya, ANI reported on Monday (December 10th). The Mauritanian national handed over his all-terrain vehicle loaded with small arms, including rocket launchers and machine guns.

He informed the police about the presence of a terrorist group in the region, which planned to attack and kidnap civilians during the holiday season. A large ANP operation was launched in the area.
Posted by: Fred || 12/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336066 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran says 28 arrested with 'links to satellite channels'
[Al Ahram] Iran has tossed in the clink
Please don't kill me!
28 people, some with links to the Bahai faith, on charges of working with "anti-revolutionary" satellite channels, Tehran's prosecutor said on Tuesday.
"Twenty-eight people were arrested across Tehran last night for cooperating with anti-revolutionary networks," Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi said in remarks reported by the ISNA news agency.

"They are accused of involvement with immoral and anti-revolutionary networks, which they helped to keep on air by doing translations and dubbing in underground studios," Jafari Dolatabadi said.

He did not identify the networks, which broadcasted from abroad and are watched via satellite receivers that are illegal in Iran.

Dolatabadi said "some of those arrested cooperated with Bahai networks." He did not elaborate.

In September 2011, Iran arrested six people accused of gathering information for the BBC's Farsi language service, which Tehran deems hostile to its regime.

The Bahais, who are barred from higher education and government posts in staunchly Shiite Moslem Iran, are regarded as infidels by the majority community and have been persecuted both before and after the country's 1979 Islamic revolution.

The Bahais consider Bahaullah, born in 1817, to be the latest prophet sent by God and believe in the spiritual unity of all religions and all mankind.
Yes, they do. Their world headquarters is in Haifa, queerly enough, because Iran isn't safe. Every Baha'i is supposed to make a pilgrimage there once in his or her lifetime. But because the center is much smaller than, say, Mecca and Medina, once they have the money saved up they have to register for an appointment, then make arrangements to be there on the assigned date and time.
Posted by: Fred || 12/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336067 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


India-Pakistan
Faulty investigation helps terrorists go scot free
[Dawn] Police are finding it difficult to prepare cases against the suspects involved in terrorism as the lone Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) set up over three decades ago is ill-equipped and facing shortage of staff, badly affecting investigation by the law enforcers.

"We need to put the investigation system on scientific lines and prepare solid cases against the people incarcerated
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
with explosives, firearms and contrabands as they often walk free from courts when police fail to present evidence that proves their linkage with the crime," official sources said.

They said that police were mostly relying on torturing a suspect during interrogation for extracting facts owing to old and outdated investigation system.

They said that presently only four per cent accused were sentenced in terrorism related cases.

The Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
High Court on several occasions had directed police department to improve its investigation so that
solid cases could be framed and accused could be convicted.

Police got assistance from the US and other donors for their role against terrorism, but the Forensic Science Laboratory was still ill-equipped and short of employees to trace terrorists, officials said.

The FSL, established in 1976, was supposed to carry out scientific investigations to substantiate field probe into crimes and ensure dispensation of justice but it was becoming redundant, they said.

The officials said that some sections of the laboratory such as firearms, finger and footprints were in bad shape owing to shortage of staff and outdated equipment.

In many cases, police told the court that the accused in certain cases were very dangerous and should not be released because their freedom could jeopardise the lives of others but in the absence of any proof they were acquitted, officials said.

"The FSL is heading for a collapse. No employees have been inducted since its establishment. Many experts in other important sections like chemical analysis of rape victims, vehicle examination, drawing sketches of suspected jacket wallahs, narcotics, documents' examinations and finger and foot printing have retired and some are nearing age of superannuation," they said.

They said that they had no technical people to replace the retiring lot because people were not joining FSL, which worked under police department.

"During the past few months, at least five experts from different sections retired. Workload has been increased from 2,500 in 1976 to 60,000 cases per year but new people haven't been recruited by the government to save FSL from becoming ineffective," officials said.

They said that some efforts to upgrade the laboratory proved fruitless. A few years ago, the government planned a proper service structure for about 80 staffers of the laboratory but the plan couldn't see light of the day. The employees of the laboratory await promotion.

The officials said that FSL received specimen from the cop shoppes and political authorities of the entire
province and Federally Administered Tribal Areas. It required to dispose of al cases within due times but the same were often delayed, they added.

Home and Tribal Affairs Secretary Azam Khan told Dawn that upgradation of FSL was part of recommendations to improve conviction rate in Anti-Terrorism Court.

"Strengthening of scientific investigation is most important in terrorism cases. Along with the operational side the investigation aspect is very important," he said.

Mr Khan said that they needed transparent scientific and independent investigation to ensure its credibility. "A research cell has also been established that monitors the progress in terrorism-related cases," he said.
Posted by: Fred || 12/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336068 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Uh, uh, ZO NOES, NOT IN NOT-SCOTLAND, SAY IT TAINT SO!

gut nuthin - serusly.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/12/2012 0:07 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Attack on spymaster hatched in Quetta; Karzai to submit evidence: spokesman
[Dawn] Afghanistan's Caped President Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai
... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use...
will submit documents and evidence to Pak President Asif Ali Ten Percent Zardari
... husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, who has been singularly lacking in curiosity about who done her in ...
at a meeting in Turkey on Tuesday over the wounding of his intelligence director in a suicide kaboom which he says was planned in Pakistain, his front man said.

"President Karzai will submit all the documents and evidence in hand to Pakistain President Asif Ali Zardari, which suggest the attack was hatched in Quetta in Pakistain, and follow this up seriously," said Siamak Herawi, a front man for Karzai.

The bomber, who hid explosives inside his underwear and posed as a peace messenger, maimed spy chief Asadullah Khalid last Thursday in a brazen attack that set back a nascent, already fragile reconciliation process.

While the Taliban have grabbed credit for the bombing, Karzai has said the raid was too sophisticated to have been carried out by the Islamist krazed killer group.

"Bigger hands are involved," said Herawi, repeating a phrase often used by the Afghan leader after high-profile attacks.

Speaking after the attack, Karzai stopped short of directly blaming the neighbouring country but said he knew "for a fact" the bomber came from Pakistain and that Kabul would seek clarification from Islamabad during meetings in Turkey.

Karzai was to hold talks with Zardari at a trilateral summit hosted by Turkish President Abdullah Gul in Ankara on Tuesday and Wednesday. Foreign ministers and bigwigs from both countries will also meet at the summit, the seventh of its kind in Turkey.

Pakistain has said it would assist in any investigation into the bombing, but also urged Karzai to provide evidence before "leveling charges", and suggested Kabul look into any lapses in its own security arrangements that may have led to the raid.

Turkey, a NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis....
member that has troops stationed in Afghanistan, has sought to raise its international standing in recent years, playing host to high-level diplomatic events and attempting to act as a broker in conflict resolution.

Turkey's foreign minister has said he wants its largest city, Istanbul, to be a "UN city".

A Turkish official said on Monday a special hotline had been set up to allow Turkey, Afghanistan and Pakistain to communicate better during times of crisis.
Posted by: Fred || 12/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336065 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Palestinians consider ICC if Israel pursues settlements
[Al Ahram] Palestine to consider pursuing trial at International Criminal Court, as an attempt to pursue all peaceful methods over Israel's decision to build 3,000 new settler units
Posted by: Fred || 12/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336069 views] Top|| File under: Palestinian Authority

#1  The ICC is a joke, and not even a funny one. And there are always counter-complaints of terrorism and corruption, with mounds of evidence available.

So, hey, have at it. Wake me when the indictments come down in, oh, 20 years or so.
Posted by: Muggsy Mussolini1226 || 12/12/2012 10:44 Comments || Top||

#2  I saw a comment somewhere in response to this idea along the lines of,"Not to promulgate stereotypes or anything, but they're seriously going to go up against the people who invented clever lawyers?"

Not much different than what Muggsy Mussolini1226 said, as I think about it.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/12/2012 11:47 Comments || Top||


International-UN-NGOs
Civilian deaths cause by US terror drone hits spur UN concerns
[Iran Press TV] A recent US liquidation drone in Pakistain has again killed a number of civilians as the surging frequency of such strikes raises growing concerns at the United Nations
...Parkinson's Law on an international scale...
, Press TV reports.

Confirming the civilian fatalities, unnamed US officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity also claimed this week that two missile strikes fired from the American terror drones killed a couple of al-Qaeda leaders.

Targeting and killing of civilians in military operations is a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Additionally, the aerial operation of the liquidation aircraft over the sovereign nation of Pakistain by the US also violates the international treaty.

In response to a question by Press TV's New York correspondent regarding the most recent US drone strike in Pakistain, UN Secretary General the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan...
's front man Martin Nesirky noted his growing concerns regarding the civilian casualties caused by American liquidation drone strikes.

"I think the secretary general is on record with regards to the drones; if you look at his most recent report on protection of civilians, you'll find there is ample reference to the use of such unmanned aerial vehicles or drones," said Nesirky.

In that report, the secretary general points directly to the use of liquidation drones without mentioning any member states by name, acknowledging that "Drones have reportedly caused hundreds of civilian casualties."

He further notes that ensuring accountability with international law is "difficult when drone attacks are conducted outside the military chain of command and beyond effective and transparent mechanisms" of control as is the US assassination program, which is principally operated by the American spy agency, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Reports on the extensive damages caused by the American liquidation drones are widespread, including a recent Stanford University
...contributed $595,716 to the 2008 Obama campaign. Is there a reason universities are among the top financiers of political campaigns?
study that puts civilians killed at between 1,500 and 2,500 people.

It further adds that merely 2 percent of those killed constitute the military targets that US authorities claim to be after, meaning that 49 of every 50 drone strike victims are civilians.
Posted by: Fred || 12/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336068 views] Top|| File under:

#1  US terror drone hits spur UN concerns
Nothing like some slanted "News" to stir up the people.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/12/2012 1:12 Comments || Top||

#2  If it was me, I'd have one orbiting the Turtle Bay Whorehouse. 24/7/365...
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/12/2012 1:16 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Sean Penn Attends Vigil for Hugo Chavez in Bolivia
The vulture is doing double duty, for Hugo and for Sean's career...
BUENOS AIRES -- Actor Sean Penn made a surprise appearance yesterday in Bolivia as he attended a candlelight vigil for the health of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who is currently in Cuba undergoing his fourth cancer surgery.
Bolivia? Isn't Hugo in Havana right now?
The event attracted Chavez supporters as well as Bolivian officials, and took place in a diplomatic location in La Paz. Penn joined Venezuelan ambassador Crisbeylee Gonzalez and took the stage wearing a Venezuelan flag jacket, according to a report by EFE.

"Thank you, Sean," said Gonzalez, "for joining us and for wanting to be here. We know President Chavez is a good friend of yours, and you didn't hesitate one second about coming here with us to this vigil."

"He's one of the most important forces we've had on this planet," said Penn. "And I'll wish him nothing but that great strength he has shown over and over again. I do it in love, and I do it in gratitude.

"I just want to say, from my very American point of view, of my friend President Chavez: It is only possible to be so inspiring as he is, as a two-way street. And he would say that his inspiration is the people."

Penn has openly expressed his admiration and support for the left-wing government of Venezuela in the past, and declared U.S. audiences have been "hypnotized" by big media corporations regarding Chavez's democratic credentials. "Who do you know here who's gone through 14 of the most transparent elections on the globe and has been elected democratically, as Hugo Chavez?" he stated in 2010. Since then, Chavez has won yet another presidential election this year against opposition candidate Henrique Capriles.

Penn was in Bolivia this week to attend a hearing for the release of businessman Jacob Ostreicher, who has spent 18 months in a maximum security local prison with no trial or sentence, under charges of money laundering.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336095 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Spicoli's old teacher Mr. Hand weighs in...
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/12/2012 1:11 Comments || Top||

#2  Fun fact:

Sean Penn is the guy who wished his critics would "die screaming of rectal cancer."

That was in 2010, a year before Chavez was diagnosed.

Karma!
Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660 || 12/12/2012 7:55 Comments || Top||

#3  watch out Danny Glover! Somebody else really wants that useful idiot of the year award...
Posted by: Broadhead6 || 12/12/2012 11:21 Comments || Top||

#4  ???????????????????????????
That's all I've got to say :-)
Posted by: Raider || 12/12/2012 12:47 Comments || Top||

#5  Awwww

Prog and Toad are friends.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 12/12/2012 20:35 Comments || Top||

#6  Sean who?
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 12/12/2012 21:07 Comments || Top||

#7  #4,672 in the line to bang Madonna
Posted by: Frank G || 12/12/2012 21:37 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syrian Alawite village attacked, rebels fight around capital
[Reuters] Up to 200 members of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Supressor of the Damascenes...
's Alawite minority were maimed or killed in an attack on their central Syrian village on Tuesday, activists said, while to the south rebels and state forces battled for the outskirts of Damascus
...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti...

With a broad grouping of governments opposed to Assad meeting in Morocco on Wednesday, an official in the Syrian Moslem Brüderbund criticized the United States for designating an Islamist rebel group as a terrorist organization, meaning it would get no American help in the fight against Assad.

Casualty counts varied for the attack on the village of Aqrab in Hama province, but several activists said they could confirm 10 dead. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the casualties came during a series of kabooms in the town.

Opposition activists posted videos on YouTube in which survivors said pro-Assad militias had used children as human shields in the village. However,
you can observe a lot just by watching...
the accounts could not be independently verified and the events remained unclear.

Syria's upheaval, which began as a protest movement against Assad 20 months ago, has turned into a civil war which has now has killed more than 40,000 people. Majority Sunni Mohammedans have mostly led the revolt against Assad while minorities such as the Alawites, from an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, have largely stood by the president.

Sectarian bloodshed has previously hit both Hama province, where Aqrab is located, and neighboring Homs province. Both witnessed massacres of hundreds of Sunni residents but Tuesday's incident, if confirmed, would be the first known large-scale attack on Alawites.

The opposition-linked Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 125 had been hurt or killed but said it was still trying to find out what happened. There were no reports on Syria's state media.

An Alawite resident of a nearby village said the violence began in Aqrab when rebels attacked a checkpoint run by pro-Assad militiamen, known as shabbiha.

"We don't believe there was a massacre but we think there are a number of hostages being held. Clashes began when rebels started shelling the shabbiha checkpoint," he said by Skype. "But now the phone lines seem to be down in Aqrab so that's all we know."

The circumstances of the attacks are difficult to verify independently as Syrian authorities tightly restrict the activities of journalists.

A rebel who said he fought in Aqrab told Rooters that fighters had surrounded a house with more than 200 people because shabbiha were there. The beturbanned goons had used women and kiddies as human shields and the house had been shelled by Assad's forces, he said, without explaining why they would attack their own side.

Wounded children, apparently Alawites from Aqrab, appeared at an opposition field hospital in the nearby town of al-Houla, where they were interviewed by rebels in videos published on YouTube. Three young boys gave a similar account as the rebel, but did not say whether they were hiding in the house fearing government shelling or rebel attack.

"We were inside the house with shabbiha, they said they were protecting us from the rebels. The rebels started telling us come out, no one will hurt you. The shabbiha wouldn't let us leave," said Mohamed Judl, a young boy covered in a blanket, shivering as he was interviewed by an activist at the clinic.

It was not clear whether the boy was speaking freely.

AIRPORT CLASHES

Rebels clashed on Tuesday with government forces near Damascus airport, battling for the capital's outskirts in a conflict which the United Nations
...an idea whose time has gone...
said has driven half a million people from the country since it began in March 2011.

Fighting near the airport, 20 km (12 miles) southeast of Damascus city centre, is part of a broader confrontation between the army and rebels who hold a near continuous arc of territory from the east to the southwest of Assad's power base.

The growing military power of the rebels is matched by the increasing foreign support for Syria's political opposition coalition, which expects to win broad recognition at the international meeting in Marrakech on Wednesday.

The centre of Damascus, shielded for months from the violence, echoed to the sound of shelling from Monday evening, residents said. "There were very heavy festivities since yesterday in the town of Haran, on the eastern side of the airport," said rebel front man Mussab Abu Qitada by Skype from Damascus.

The rebels have seized several military bases across the country in the last month and are trying to encircle the capital, where power cuts and food shortages are hurting residents bracing for winter.

SEEKING WORLD SUPPORT

Assad's political and armed opponents, dogged by splits and rivalries throughout their battle to end his family's 42-year rule, have established a more unified political opposition and military command, hoping to win international recognition and stronger support on the battlefield.

"All indications on the ground signal the end of the regime of Bashir al-Assad," leading opposition figure Riad Seif said on the eve of the Marrakech talks. "We expect this meeting to fully recognize the coalition as the sole representative of the Syrian people," he told Rooters.

La Belle France, Britannia, Turkey and the Gulf states have already granted the formal recognition. The European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
, in a meeting on Monday, moved a step closer towards recognition and the United States has suggested it could also endorse the coalition.

"We are telling the international community that we don't want their military intervention but we want them to supply us with a developed anti-aircraft defense systems," Seif added. "The Syrian people can finish off the battle within weeks if we get this support."

But little in the way of direct military or financial support is expected to be channeled to the coalition at the Morocco meeting, partly because it lacks the ability to act as a provisional government and because Western powers are still wary of backing Islamist fighters in the rebel ranks.

Washington announced it had designated the radical Islamist rebel group Jabhat al-Nusra, which has grabbed credit for dozens of car booms and also fights alongside other rebel Syrian brigades, as a terrorist organization.

Designating it a terrorist group means Americans are prohibited from giving Jabhat al-Nusra any support.

A high-level official in the Syrian Moslem Brüderbund criticized Washington. "The designation is very wrong and too hasty. I think it is too early to categorize people inside Syria this way, considering the chaos and the grey atmosphere in the country," Farouk Tayfour, deputy leader of the group, told Rooters.

A diplomat attending the meeting said there had been much "jockeying for position within the coalition without addressing the main political issues" including making arrangements to work with the Alawite, Kurdish and Christian minorities and creating a framework for transitional justice.

The fighting has driven hundreds of thousands of Syrians into neighboring countries and the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said on Tuesday more than half a million were either registered or awaiting registration in the region.
Posted by: Fred || 12/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336065 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  an official in the Syrian Moslem Brüderbund criticized the United States for designating an Islamist rebel group as a terrorist organization, meaning it would get no American help in the fight against Assad.

They don't need it, except maybe political approval. If intel is correct,al-Nusra is the best armed, best supplied and best trained independent unit in the rebellion.
Posted by: Pappy || 12/12/2012 15:24 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Tunisia government says draft deal to avoid general strike
[Al Ahram] Tunis says it has reached tentative agreement with country's trade union confederation to call off nationwide strike planned for revolution's second anniversary
Posted by: Fred || 12/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336064 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Afghanistan
Iran Temporarily 'Shuts' Herat Consulate after Afghan Protest
[An Nahar] Iran has temporarily shut its consulate in the Afghan city of Herat
...a venerable old Persian-speaking city in western Afghanistan, populated mostly by Tadjiks, which is why it's not as blood-soaked as areas controlled by Pashtuns...
after protesters there attacked the mission's compound, the official IRNA news agency reported Tuesday quoting a foreign ministry source.

"Iran's consulate in Herat is closed until further notice," an informed source in the ministry was quoted as saying.

The measure came after an anti-Iran protest in front of the Iranian consulate in the western Afghan city on Sunday turned violent and was ultimately confronted by police firing warning shots.

Some 200 Afghans threw rocks and broke consulate windows to protest the alleged killing of 13 Afghan immigrants three months ago by Iranian security forces while trying to illegally cross into Iran.

"Iran has asked Afghan authorities to provide an explanation for the attack on the consulate and to take measures to prevent it from happening again," said the source at the Iranian foreign ministry.

The source added that Kabul was "responsible for the safety of diplomatic buildings, in particular Iran's consulate in Herat."

The source also denied as "false and baseless" reports of killing of Afghan immigrants by Iranian border forces.

A consulate official said Sunday that Tehran and Kabul had cooperated in investigating the alleged incident, but the inquiry gathered to "no proof" that Afghan immigrants had entered the country, legally or illegally, or that they were killed in Iran.
Posted by: Fred || 12/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336084 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 12/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336080 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Birthday Gam Shot

Carrie Ann Westcott [Playmate of the Month in September, 1993][Filmography](age 43)



Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 12/12/2012 2:59 Comments || Top||

#2  Hubba Hubba!
Posted by: Sgt.D.T. || 12/12/2012 10:47 Comments || Top||

#3  Her 'filmography' barely qualifies, but I shouldn't complain...
Posted by: Steve White || 12/12/2012 10:57 Comments || Top||

#4  The auto-snark in all these articles has long since lost its humor value. It just makes them more cumbersome to read. I'd like to offer the suggestion that it be turned off in the new year.
Posted by: remoteman || 12/12/2012 13:14 Comments || Top||

#5  We can do that if desired. Other opinions?
Posted by: Fred || 12/12/2012 15:21 Comments || Top||

#6  Sure, if we aren't gonna get hit with a suit by copyright trolls again and if we do, the complaintant is willing to foot the fees.
Posted by: Pappy || 12/12/2012 16:17 Comments || Top||

#7  Over time, the autosnark has become semi-transparent, but is still moderately funny. As Pappy says, the purpose was not humor, but troll poison. And maybe, making fun of Pakistain.

Would be a fun Natural Language Processing project to write AutoSnarker 2.0.
Posted by: SteveS || 12/12/2012 16:24 Comments || Top||

#8  I like the auto-snark.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 12/12/2012 16:27 Comments || Top||

#9  I like it, but wouldn't die if the majority decided otherwise.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 12/12/2012 16:44 Comments || Top||

#10  If you couldn't tell, I like snark: auto and otherwise
Posted by: Frank G || 12/12/2012 17:05 Comments || Top||

#11  When I get time (at a premium since I retired) I like to work on the autosnarker. Even if we do away with it, I don't think I'd do away with "However," and "Meanwhile,"

In the present instance, I put the Caliphornia in the wrong section of code. It's now been moved so it will only show up the first instance.
Posted by: Fred || 12/12/2012 17:15 Comments || Top||

#12  Besides which, I've been at this so long I found myself repeating myself. Might as well let the software do the typing...
Posted by: Fred || 12/12/2012 17:16 Comments || Top||

#13  So we must eventually prepare for the day when Hamas is no longer the voice of sweet reason.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 12/12/2012 17:23 Comments || Top||

#14  I like most of the AS, but I am guessing that RemoteMan has taking a dislike to the attachments to Califrnia and Detroit. They are a bit cumbersome.

However
(did u c wut i did thar?)
from time to time Fredman syncs up with the autosnark and it is amazing.

I say keep, but prune.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/12/2012 17:47 Comments || Top||

#15  The autosnark is good, we need more of it rather than less.

Hamas could be not just the voice of sweet reason, but the gangsters of gaza, the butchers of Sderot, or the proxyboys.

And goodness knows there are more inserts for however and therefore than rats in New York. They practically write themselves.

So, go gadget snark, go!
Posted by: rammer || 12/12/2012 17:56 Comments || Top||

#16  I too like the "Meanwhile and However" entries. Snark is good and right. Our enemies and those who crawl on their bellies (metaphorically or otherwise) deserve to be mocked. That said, I am painfully aware at this point that Harmid Karzai once ran a restaurant in Baltimore. If some modification can be made without too much trouble, all good. Otherwise, I will continue to read on as before.
Posted by: remoteman || 12/12/2012 19:12 Comments || Top||

#17  If you don't like the auto-snark, skip it. It's not like it's not set out, in color, to distinguish it from the actual story.

I didn't know that fooling the copyright trolls was the reason for the auto-snark, Fred. I thought you were just imaginative and have a sense of humor.
Posted by: Barbara || 12/12/2012 19:42 Comments || Top||

#18  Leave it up. Most of us can work around it.
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/12/2012 19:44 Comments || Top||

#19  "Hamid Karzai, who might be caped but is definately not a crusader..."
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 12/12/2012 21:04 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Six killed in brazen shootings in southern Thailand
Six people have been killed, including two teachers and a toddler, and five others seriously injured in two brazen shooting attacks in southern Thailand.

The first incident happened in Narathiwat's Rangae district Tuesday morning when gunmen in a pickup truck fired AK-47 and M16 assault rifles into a tea shop, killing three people instantly including a toddler, and injuring six others at the scene. One of the injured died at the hospital bringing the number of dead to four.

Pol Capt Boonsak Noomaad said he received a report of the shooting after 7 a.m. He led a team of soldiers and police to the scene and found at least 40 spent cartridges scattered in front of the teashop.

Security forces are hunting for the attackers, believed to be members of a separatist group led by Amran Ming which is thought to have been responsible for much of the violence in the area.

The second attack occured in nearby Pattani province. Police received a report of the shooting before 1 p.m. Gunmen attacked a school in Mayo district.

Police said at least five men in police uniforms burst into Ban Ba-ngo School. They shot and killed the school director and a teacher, before stealing a pickup truck belonging to another teacher and taking off with it. Police said the attackers were terrorists insurgents.
Posted by: ryuge || 12/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336071 views] Top|| File under: Thai Insurgency


Economy
Obama advisor and pal J. Immelt: Communist China 'Works'
"China is changing," said CBS host Charlie Rose. "It may be being stabilized as we speak. What does that mean for China and what does it mean for the United States? Should it change expectations?"

"It is good for China," said Immelt. "To a certain extent, Charlie, 11 percent is unsustainable. You end up getting too much stimulus or a misallocation of resources. They are much better off working on a more consumer-based economy, less dependent on exports. The one thing that actually works, state run communism a bit-- may not be your cup of tea, but their government works."
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336072 views] Top|| File under:

#1  That's true.

China "works." It's a growing economy and it will do well. For one thing, they don't appear to have an EPA.

During the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, and pretty much through the entire Mousie Tongue regime it didn't work. That was back when they were hard-core commies.

Then came Deng Hsiao Ping and economic reform. Along with it came a good deal of reform in the mechanics of the regime. I can remember one girlie saying something to the effect: "They won't repress us! This is China!"

That was about a week before Tien An Mien (I'm not too sure about the spelling anymore and I'm too lazy to look it up.)

China is a demonstration that central planning doesn't work, that collectives don't work, and that Marxism-Leninism-Maoism doesn't work. That way to make an economy work is to put capital in the hands of people who want to make things. Government's function is to make the process easier: cutting red tape for the honest and restraining the dishonest.

On the other hand, China remains a dictatorship. I think that's what B.O.'s buddies are looking forward to: they say "do this" and the rest of us do it. Democracies always degenerate into oligarchies and the oligarchies into dictatorship.
Posted by: Fred || 12/11/2012 16:45 Comments || Top||

#2  To paraph SOKOR Lady Expert Balbina Hwang - CHINA HAS TO ALTER OR CHANGE ITS FORM OF GOVERNMENT IFF IT HOPES TO BECOME A US-STYLE GLOBAL SUPERPOWER, OR EVEN TO REPLACE THE US.

Nuff said.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/12/2012 1:12 Comments || Top||

#3  Which China is unwilling to do ALAP.

That leaves the PLA andor its massive Trade-Currency surplus to use agz the US-West, + of course lessor traditional methods.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/12/2012 1:17 Comments || Top||

#4  Immelt will sell them the rope...
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/12/2012 1:26 Comments || Top||

#5  Major US publication agrees:
The Onion would like to offer the following message to Chinese premier Wen Jiabao:

Peace be with you, glorious comrade of the Far East! It is now but a matter of time until you take ownership of our slovenly American homeland, and we would like to remind you that esteemed journalistic institutions—especially those like ours, which are more than willing to compromise their claim to objectivity—could prove highly useful to your great nation’s sophisticated propaganda wing. Let us help you reeducate the American pig people and spread word of your magnificence.

Sincerely yours,

The Onion Editorial Board
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 12/12/2012 2:26 Comments || Top||

#6  It works in the sense that government officials can do their jobs without thinking about the little people. It must be a wonderful thought to Washington, D.C.
Posted by: gromky || 12/12/2012 3:30 Comments || Top||

#7  It works the way pharaonic Egypt worked.

No sane decent regular person in the Roman republic or Victorian England or even 2012 America would trade places with an average person in ancient Egypt or China now.

Ah, but ask a power obsessed plutocrat like Immelt the same question, and you would get a different answer.
Posted by: no mo uro || 12/12/2012 8:47 Comments || Top||

#8  Fred, I think you're wrong in a couple particulars.

I think part of the reason China works now has nothing to do with "Capitalism" or "Communism," but does have a lot to do with Mao.

He sent a lot of the Mandarin Class and their families out to the rice paddies to get worked to death alongside the peasants; this at least serves as an incentive to that class, to not screw up so badly that there is a collapse, lest another Mao come along and send their kids out to the rice paddies to be worked to death.

That at least gives one reason why they're better at this communist/capitalist combination than the United States is.

I think there are others.

I think their whole system is crazy. BUT... we're busy adopting the worst bits along with the best, and the basic structure. Just without the bits that allow it to work.
Posted by: Jumbo Hatfield2048 || 12/12/2012 9:05 Comments || Top||

#9  Oops. That last poster was me.

Anyway, I'll be back later...
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 12/12/2012 9:06 Comments || Top||

#10  Private unions are illegal in China but the workers to have their own union, because they felt that the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) was not representing them adequately. China has labor laws but they are not strong. However, Credit Suisse estimates these emerging labor laws add 15 percent to 20 percent to the cost of running labor-intensive factories. Still labor costs are way lower than in the U.S. The quality of products in China is starting to improve in China but for the most part Chinese products have difficulty competing in the area of quality in the U.S. Chinese labor unions link.

An article appeared this a.m. in our local paper. A local company, Arctel, makes molded polyurethane medallions, picture and mirror frames. Their only competitor is China. China can make a mirror for about $3 wholesale whereas Arctel can make one and sell it for about $37. Arctel is doing O.K. because the quality is so much better. The Chinese product skimps on urethane and it develops cracks.
Another example is Chinese wallboard that was used in the U.S. Houses that used the wallboard started showing many problems. People who lived in these houses began having allergic reactions to the wallboard. Some people just walked away from these houses because there was little legal recourse. Initiating a products liability lawsuit against a Chinese company is a huge hassle. Usually, attorneys go after the distributor in the U.S.
In addition to ignoring the environment, China also is also lax on workplace safety. Product liability litigation is not what it is in the U.S. All these things add much to product costs. China gets a leg up because they don’t pay as much attention to environment, safety, and product safety.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/12/2012 10:51 Comments || Top||

#11  but the workers but are pushing to have private unions
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/12/2012 10:53 Comments || Top||

#12  The Chinese Labor Law of 2008 gave workers all sorts of rights. Don't think that it didn't.

The drywall thing came about because foreign companies came to China to buy drywall and had this conversation:
Factory: So now you've seen our entire inventory.
Buyer: But what's that over there?
Factory: That? Oh, that's not suitable for export. Only domestic Chinese.
Buyer: How much?
Factory: No, no, you cannot buy this, not suitable for foreign markets.
Buyer: How much?
Factory: No, seriously, this stuff is complete garbage, you should see the crap we make it from, your countries would not accept.
Buyer: No, seriously, how much?
Factory: [tells him]
Buyer: Holy shit, hell yeah! FEMA is going to love this! I want a dozen containers to Long Beach ASAP!
Factory: Paid in advance?
Buyer: Sure thing! I'm going to make a killing off this!

Three years later: newspaper articles about killer drywall and it's all the Chineses' fault
Posted by: gromky || 12/12/2012 11:07 Comments || Top||

#13  You're more than correct about that scenario than most people will admit, Gromky.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 12/12/2012 12:50 Comments || Top||

#14  China is a MASSIVE bubble. Google Hugh Hendry.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 12/12/2012 12:57 Comments || Top||

#15  but the workers but are pushing to have private unions

I wonder if they'll hire Jimmy Hoffa Jr. to go bust their heads.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 12/12/2012 13:00 Comments || Top||

#16  The government, that is. Not the workers.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 12/12/2012 13:00 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Intelligence Officer Shot Dead in Eastern Yemen
[Yemen Post] Gunmen assassinated early Tuesday a Yemeni intelligence officer in the eastern province of Hadramout
...the formerly independent Qu'aiti state and sultanate, annexed by Communist South Yemen in 1968, encompassing a region along the Gulf of Aden, extending eastwards to the borders of the Dhofar region of Oman. The people are called Hadhramis and speak Hadhrami Arabic. The city Tarimis estimated to contain the highest concentration of descendants of the Prophet Muhammad (PTUI) anywhere in the world, approximately seven in every square yard...
, a killing that comes within a series of liquidations targeting key military and security chiefs and officers.

Security officials in the capital Sanaa said Colonel Ahmed Baramada, deputy intelligence office in Hadramout, was rubbed out near his home in Mukalla.

So far this year, several senior Yemeni officers have been killed in Mukalla, the capital of Hadramout where liquidations and drugs trade have thrived.

The gunnies, who carried out the liquidation, were on a cycle of violence and are believed to be from Al-Qaeda orcs, the officials said, adding they had run away before the authorities arrived at the scene.

The liquidation of Baramada came a day after a counterterrorism officer from the central security organization escaped an liquidation plot in the capital Sanaa.

Captain Muhammad Homran was maimed after a suspected Al-Qaeda orc shot him from onboard a motorbike.

Tens of Yemeni military and security officers, mostly intelligence officers, have been killed since the Yemeni army launched a US-backed offensive and drove Al-Qaeda Death Eaters out of their strongholds in the south earlier this year.

The killings including those by suicide kabooms occurred in main cities including the capital Sanaa which has seen the deadliest ever suicide kabooms against military and security targets
Posted by: Fred || 12/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336066 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia



Who's in the News
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Two weeks of WOT
Wed 2012-12-12
  Syria Fires Scud Missiles at Insurgents, U.S. Says
Tue 2012-12-11
  North Korea 'launches long-range rocket'
Mon 2012-12-10
  Rebels Seize Chunk of Aleppo Base as Fighting Rages across Syria
Sun 2012-12-09
  Mohammad Ahmed Almansoor Drone-zapped in North Wazoo
Sat 2012-12-08
  Abu-Zaid al Kuwaiti Drone-zapped During Breakfast
Fri 2012-12-07
  6 dead, 450 injured in clashes at Egypt's presidential palace
Thu 2012-12-06
  Two Dead as Egypt Islamists Overrun Opposition Tents
Wed 2012-12-05
  Hundreds of thousands besiege Egypt's presidential palace to protest draft constitution
Tue 2012-12-04
  Syria FM Spokesman 'Defects' from Regime, Leaves Syria
Mon 2012-12-03
  Car bomb in Syria's Homs kills 15: State media
Sun 2012-12-02
  Mullah Nazir orders out Mehsud Taliban fighters
Sat 2012-12-01
  Egypt assembly approves new draft constitution
Fri 2012-11-30
  Damascus fighting cuts off airport, Emirates suspends flights
Thu 2012-11-29
  Bomb injures top Talibunny Mullah Nazir
Wed 2012-11-28
  Packed Tahrir Square defiant as deadlock prevails

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