A senior Muslim Brotherhood official has said that Israel will cease to exist within a decade, the latest in a series of inflammatory comments by figures close to Egypt's Mohammed Morsi.
Essam el-Erian, deputy head of the Brotherhood's political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party, was trying to lay to rest a controversy over comments he made in an interview last week, in which he invited Egyptian-born Jews to return to the country.
In an interview with the Saudi-backed newspaper Al-Sharq al-Awsat, Mr Erian said that the "ideology of Zionism" had ended in failure and that "Palestine's occupiers" should leave to make way for the return of Palestinians.
"Jewish occupiers of the territory of historic Palestine are an obstacle to the Palestinians' right of return," he said. "Anyone who can read the future can see that this project has a decade, less than a decade to go, and it is our faith that the people of Palestine can then return to Palestine."
He said a future state would include Muslim, Christians, Jews and Druze as Palestinian citizens.
#1
Israel will cease to exist within a decade, says Muslim Brotherhood official
Yeah, but if it comes to that, Snookums, they're takin' you with 'em.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/01/2013 20:12
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#2
Prolly the same time [2025?] that China + PLA conquer Okinawa from Japan + US ...
To wit,
* CHINA DAILY FORUM > US PENTAGON TO COMPLETE MISSLE DEFENSE ISOLATION OF CHINA BY 2017.
* WORLD MILITARY FORUM > EX-JGSDF GENERAL YANO YOSHIAKI: CHINA'S PLA WILL NEED 15 DAYS TO CAPTURE OKINAWA IN A FULL-SCALE CONVENTIONAL WAR DESPITE STUBBORN MILITARY RESISTANCE FROM JSDF + INTERVENTION BY US FORCES. "2025 CHINESE OCCUPATION OF OKINAWA" REPORT - DENOTES HEAVY USE OF CONVENTIONAL AIRPOWER + MISSLE-BASED SATURATION STRIKES/BARRAGES BY CHINA AGZ OKINAWA AND MAINLAND JAPAN.
MAP = Military, Civilian areas all around Japan are possible targets for China + PLA.
* Also from SAME > EXPERTS: RUSSIA TO CONSIDER ONLY ITS OWN INTERESTS IN EAST ASIA AND PACIFIC, RUSSIA UNLIKELY TO INTERVENE OR FIGHT THE US in NE ASIA OVER CHINA, JAPAN-CLAIMED ISLANDS.
Read, UNLESS THE US + CHINA + JAPAN, etc. DOES SOMETHING STUPID.
* SAME > ZHANG ZHAOZHONG: CHINA MUST USE ITS MILITARY AIRCRAFT TO BREAK JAPAN'S ILLEGAL AIR DEFENSE IDENTIFICATION ZONES AROUND THE DISPUTED DAOYUS, CHINA CANNOT ALLOW THE US TO SURROUND IT WID ADVANCED STEALTH BOMBER, STRIKE AIRCRAFT.
* SAME > RUSSIAN VETERANS: CHINESE ECONOMIC WORKERS IN MONGOLIA DO A BETTER JOB ON TIGHT BORDER SECURITY THAN POST-SOVIET RUSSIA. MONGOLIA SLOWLY TURNING INTO A DISPUTE ZONE DUE TO SINO-RUSSIAN FREE TRADE.
Another TOO-MANY-CHINESE-IN-SIBERIA "SIBERIA" SCENARIO FOR RUSSIA IN MONGOLIA???
* SAME > RETIRED RUSSIAN MAJOR GENERAL: CHINA WANTS TO TAKE BACK RUSSIAN-OCCUPIED TERRITORIES [Siberia + RFE]. RUSSIA SHOULD USE INDIA, VIETNAM, + JAPAN TO CONTAIN CHINA.
* SAME > CHINA'S FEAR OF US-JAPAN AXIS IN DAOYU ISLANDS DISPUTE WILL INDUCE CHINA'S DEVELOPMENT OF A MODERN AND POWERFUL CHINESE AIR FORCE. PLAAF STUDYING EMPLOYMENT AND CAMPAIGNS OF US, WESTERN AIR FORCES DURING US-LED "OPERATION DESERT SHIELD/STORM", ISRAELI ATTACK ON IRAQI AND SYRIAN NUCLEAR REACTORS, US INVASION OF PANAMA, + WAR ON TERROR [2003 Iraqi Freedom, Drones].
* WAFF > JAPAN'S NEW PM [Shinzo Abe] TO TAKE KURILE ISLANDS AWAY FROM RUSSIA.
* CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > US IS THE DEVIL BEHIND THE PROBLEMS CHINA FACES IN ASIA.
#3
Prolly the same time [2025?] that China + PLA conquer Okinawa from Japan + US ...
To wit,
* CHINA DAILY FORUM > US PENTAGON TO COMPLETE MISSLE DEFENSE ISOLATION OF CHINA BY 2017.
* WORLD MILITARY FORUM > EX-JGSDF GENERAL YANO YOSHIAKI: CHINA'S PLA WILL NEED 15 DAYS TO CAPTURE OKINAWA IN A FULL-SCALE CONVENTIONAL WAR DESPITE STUBBORN MILITARY RESISTANCE FROM JSDF + INTERVENTION BY US FORCES. "2025 CHINESE OCCUPATION OF OKINAWA" REPORT - DENOTES HEAVY USE OF CONVENTIONAL AIRPOWER + MISSLE-BASED SATURATION STRIKES/BARRAGES BY CHINA AGZ OKINAWA AND MAINLAND JAPAN.
MAP = Military, Civilian areas all around Japan are possible targets for China + PLA.
* Also from SAME > EXPERTS: RUSSIA TO CONSIDER ONLY ITS OWN INTERESTS IN EAST ASIA AND PACIFIC, RUSSIA UNLIKELY TO INTERVENE OR FIGHT THE US in NE ASIA OVER CHINA, JAPAN-CLAIMED ISLANDS.
Read, UNLESS THE US + CHINA + JAPAN, etc. DOES SOMETHING STUPID.
* SAME > ZHANG ZHAOZHONG: CHINA MUST USE ITS MILITARY AIRCRAFT TO BREAK JAPAN'S ILLEGAL AIR DEFENSE IDENTIFICATION ZONES AROUND THE DISPUTED DAOYUS, CHINA CANNOT ALLOW THE US TO SURROUND IT WID ADVANCED STEALTH BOMBER, STRIKE AIRCRAFT.
* SAME > RUSSIAN VETERANS: CHINESE ECONOMIC WORKERS IN MONGOLIA DO A BETTER JOB ON TIGHT BORDER SECURITY THAN POST-SOVIET RUSSIA. MONGOLIA SLOWLY TURNING INTO A DISPUTE ZONE DUE TO SINO-RUSSIAN FREE TRADE.
Another TOO-MANY-CHINESE-IN-SIBERIA "SIBERIA" SCENARIO FOR RUSSIA IN MONGOLIA???
* SAME > RETIRED RUSSIAN MAJOR GENERAL: CHINA WANTS TO TAKE BACK RUSSIAN-OCCUPIED TERRITORIES [Siberia + RFE]. RUSSIA SHOULD USE INDIA, VIETNAM, + JAPAN TO CONTAIN CHINA.
* SAME > CHINA'S FEAR OF US-JAPAN AXIS IN DAOYU ISLANDS DISPUTE WILL INDUCE CHINA'S DEVELOPMENT OF A MODERN AND POWERFUL CHINESE AIR FORCE. PLAAF STUDYING EMPLOYMENT AND CAMPAIGNS OF US, WESTERN AIR FORCES DURING US-LED "OPERATION DESERT SHIELD/STORM", ISRAELI ATTACK ON IRAQI AND SYRIAN NUCLEAR REACTORS, US INVASION OF PANAMA, + WAR ON TERROR [2003 Iraqi Freedom, Drones].
* WAFF > JAPAN'S NEW PM [Shinzo Abe] TO TAKE KURILE ISLANDS AWAY FROM RUSSIA.
* CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > US IS THE DEVIL BEHIND THE PROBLEMS CHINA FACES IN ASIA.
Splitters!
The leader of Egypt's largest Islamist ultraconservative party has announced he is forming a new political party, splitting from the Salafi Al-Nour party, which has emerged as the country's second strongest political group.
Al-Nour has been locked in an internal power struggle since October because its leaders disagreed over the role of a body of clerics in the party's politics. We wear the curly-toed slippers!
Emad Abdel-Ghaffour, who headed al-Nour, said Tuesday he is forming the Al-Watan (Homeland) party and "opening a new page." "bring me a page. A young one, with cherubic cheeks!"
Abdel-Ghaffour, also a presidential adviser, has been an advocate of separating the party from the Salafi clerical body which backed the party's creation. He has the backing of key Salafi clerics and politicians.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/01/2013
14:41 ||
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#1
I dislike seeing these wackjobs described as "conservative."
Investigators say they believe 27-year-old Morgan Gliedman and 31-year-old Aaron Greene are just two more products of privilege squandering their advantages on drugs.
"It looks like they're junkies," a high-level police source says. "Well-to-do junkies, not terrorists."
Indeed, in the first days of the investigation police reached the tentative conclusion that the explosives and weapons were just part of a drug-fueled, twisted sense of what constitutes cool. A neighbor lends credence to the police view when he adds, "There was always a heavy cloud of smoke emanating from the place, and one got the sense that they were both heavily into drugs."
Green's personal hygiene, cops say, is what might have been expected of a junkie."To be honest, you could smell him before you saw him," the neighbor says.
By midday Sunday, police had reached the tentative conclusion that the explosives and weapons were part of some drug-fueled fantasy life. To cops, Greene appears to be living proof that going to Harvard does not necessarily make you any less a knucklehead. As for Gliedman, it may turn out that the raid on the apartment was the best thing that could have happened for her child, who can now expect to begin life in the New Year away from explosives and guns. So it's "move it along, nuthin to see here" time. Made official by the fact that the Times actually had something on it this morning... But we could still give then ten years each just for being rich, spoiled morons with explosives...
#1
A "Drug-fueled fantasy life" seems to have been a strong factor in most of the mass murders of recent years, to the point where I think the ones where I haven't heard it's a factor are only the ones where it's been suppressed.
In addition to that, there seems to be a strong overlap between drug use and terrorism, as well as drug trafficking and terrorism, not to mention drug manufacturing and terrorism...
#9
police also found the makings for more of the stuff, as well as a sawed-off 12-gauge Mossberg 500 shotgun, a Ruger 12-gauge shotgun, a dozen 12-gauge shotgun shells, 9 high-capacity rifle magazines, and 60 5.56-caliber tracer rounds. There was also a 37mm flare launcher, a replica of a M203 grenade launcher.
Plus a whole pile of manuals and books. That's a lot of initiative for 'junkies' whose main focus oscillates between being high and trying to get high. Maybe the cops are using 'junkie' as a generic term for druggies, but I'm not buying it. Definitely a "nothing to see here" cover story.
#1
Back when I was a kid in the South, you could get a pile of "collector's item" Confederate dollars for a few pennies. Wish I had picked up some more, since their exchange rate with USD's is heading toward parity.
Posted by: Matt ||
01/01/2013 14:23
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With those words to an endangered U.S. diplomat in November 1979, John Sheardown, then Canadas top immigration official in Iran, launched what would become known as the Canadian Caper.
For the next three months, Sheardown and Canadian Ambassador Ken Taylor sheltered six U.S. diplomats in their private homes.
The six Americans were spirited out of Iran in January 1980.
Sheardown, a Second World War bomber pilot and an Order of Canada recipient, died Sunday at The Ottawa Hospital. He was 88.
#4
Canadians can still buy beer at par in the bars in Buffalo, NY by way of thanks for Ambassador Sheardown's heroism. Granted, now that the Canadian dollar is stronger than ours, it's not quite the special treatment it was when the ratio was the other way round, but even so.
Rolled over to the New Year by request.
...As someone who has taught constitutional law for almost 40 years, I am ashamed it took me so long to see how bizarre all this is. Imagine that after careful study a government official -- say, the president or one of the party leaders in Congress -- reaches a considered judgment that a particular course of action is best for the country. Suddenly, someone bursts into the room with new information: a group of white propertied men who have been dead for two centuries, knew nothing of our present situation, acted illegally under existing law and thought it was fine to own slaves might have disagreed with this course of action. Is it even remotely rational that the official should change his or her mind because of this divination?
Louis Michael Seidman, a professor of constitutional law at Georgetown University, is the author of the forthcoming book "On Constitutional Disobedience."
We're getting used to being ruled, rather than governed. And we're getting real used to rule by decree.
The obsessing on the fact that those who wrote the Constitution were white -- usually by white liberals like the writer -- kind of turns my stomach. So was Julius Caesar white. So was Aristotle. So was Sir Walter Raleigh. So was Al Capone and Wyatt Earp and Horatio Nelson and Eddie Rickenbacker. And, with special significance for an argument on the Constitution, John Locke. Somehow in the process of attempting to overcome the racial animus that prevailed up until the early 1960s, we've (or some of us have) become hyper-race conscious, and being white has become a point against a person. These are the seeds that in our grandchildren's or great-grandchildren' time will grow into some nasty ethnic conflict. Since they'll be busy paying off an enormous national debt at the time in eentsy-weentsy dollars they're going to be pretty irritable and the conflict won't be pretty.
Mr. Constitutional Law Perfessor doesn't appear to realize that the Constitution is a framework of government and that it has been adjusted to meet changing conditions over the years -- that's why we inaugurate the president in January, rather than in March. It's also how we ended up with the income tax despite the provision in the body of the Constitution against a head tax, and how we ended up with women's sufferage and with the Volstead Act and no beer. It's intentionally designed to be hard to amend -- just about everybody has to support the change, rather than just a bare majority of congressmen. But the House still maintains control of the public purse and there's still a requirement to come up with a budget every now and then, whether they want to or not.
The bitch often centers on the Bill of Rights, which are safeguards against dictatorial rule. They are restrictions on government, so naturally as government grows more rapacious and dictatorial it will attempt to remove or overcome those restrictions. There's probably a reason for that.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
That means you can take Sunday off -- it's the Lord's Day, when it's forbidden to do any work. It means that you can belong to a church of ludicrous doctrine, worship Baal if you please, or believe in nothing at all. You can be a complete solipsist if it pleases you. It says -- remember it starts "Congress shall make no law..." -- you can be a member of the Tea Party or Occupy Wall Street or both if you're a contortionist and government shall not say thee nay. And if you want your taxes reduced you have a perfect right to turn up in front of the Capitol and holler about it, even though a few thousand letters would do more good. And you can make fun of Mohammad or the Pope or Chairman Mao all you want. What's complicated about all that?
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed
The militia in 1776 was the army. It was called out in the case of Injun attacks or to fight the Redcoats. Its members brought their own weapons. We don't have many Injun attacks nowadays and the Redcoats are friends and allies. But if you read the Declaration of Independence, another legal document forming the government, you read
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government
to whit, that the citizenry has the right to abolish or modify a government that becomes, let us say, rapacious and arrogant. Requiring that tea sold bear a stamp from the government, or that everybody has to buy health insurance, want it or not, for instance. The right to bear arms is the right to keep government honest, and the higher capacity the magazines the more honest they'll tend to be.
No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
Troops used to be put up in citizens' houses. The citizen got to feed them and take care of them until they moved on. "Quartering" often looked more like "looting." It's not a problem we have at the moment, but there's nothing to say it won't come back fifty or a hundred years from now.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
A certain amount of search and seizure is required to maintain a civil society -- otherwise crooks could just step inside their doors and remain undisturbed. The key word, I'd think, not being a hotshot Constitutional scholar, is "unreasonable." For instance, crashing through a citizen's front door at 2:30 in the morning, hollering and waving guns, doesn't seem all that reasonable. Maybe six or seven a.m. if the guy's a bail jumper or an escapee. And when the cops leave, possibly with their prisoner cuffed and on his way to jug, they should have to clean up when they leave, or at least leave the place like they found it. And the sight of an armed and armored SWAT cop holding a gun on a screaming six-year-old boy should be a sight that would have the citizenry up in arms. Even Alexander Hamilton would choke on that one. He and Aaron Burr would show up arm in arm, leading the charge to be out in front of the Capitol, demanding the dissolution of whatever agency the Storm Trooper belonged to.
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
We now live in an age where a Grand Jury "will indict a ham sandwich." The purpose of the Grand Jury is to look at the evidence and determine whether the case against the accused looks reasonable. If not, the prisoner should be released, possibly until the Feds can come up with better evidence, probably for good. There's an exception for wartime, since (oh, dear!) military tribunals might be operating in different circumstances. And there's a provision against double jeopardy to keep the Feds from bringing the same charge based on the same evidence over and over, impoverishing the accused while they rely on a crap against the wall technique. He can't be made to testify against himself, either, and he's entitled to due process of law, which means the cops can't be judge, jury and executioner. Nor can his property can be grabbed for some Congressman's project, to be paid nothing or a pittance.
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.
Now we're getting into the "Due Process of Law" part of it. The Constitution that this guy's in favor of discarding, has a provision in it that would look to any normal person like it forbids indicting a guy in May and starting his trial not even the next September but the one after that. I'm not too sure how you'd define sixteen months as "speedy." Go to your local federal prison and pick a case at random and count the number of months, not days, between arrest and verdict, then add another six months for sentencing. The jury has to come from the same area that the alleged crime took place, even if there's a change of venue to Caliphornia so they can maybe get the Ninth Circuit. The jurors would have to be transported from Minnesota or wherever. I'm not even sure if it's within the bounds of the Sixth Amendment for a person to face 120 separate counts of mopery or something. One thing at a time would seem less overwhelming and wouldn't allow that crap against the wall approach by a bloodthirsty prosecutor.
In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.
Seventh amendment establishes English common law, which stretches at least as far back as King Alfred, for use in civil trials concerning values greater than twenty bucks. You get a trial by jury, not "if you want one" but a trial by jury. You can't kneel before the local satrap and describe your complaint or have some party hack alderman decide it. And that last bit means that if a jury comes up with an outlandish interpretation of the facts in a case they'll have to be examined in an appeals court in accordance with that same common law. Of course, King Alfred was white, and so was King John, and so were each and every one of the King Henrys. And all the King Georges. And common law recognizes corporations as persons in a limited manner -- GM can't vote, for instance, but it can and does own lots of property.
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
The Feds are forbidden to impoverish an accused. The definition of "cruel and unusual punishment" can change over the years, so I guess in this respect the Constitution's a "living document." Those Dead White Guys were thinking of the rack and the bastinado and drawing and quartering. Nowadays we think how cruel and unusual a ball and chain would be. Or hanging.
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Anything else that we, the people, decide are rights are our rights, not the government's to give or take away. Those old white guys are saying here that if they left out any positive rights on a par with protection against unreasonable search and seizure, that's forbidden to government, too.
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
The tenth amendment is a second whack at the rights protected by the ninth. The ninth says that any rights not enumerated belong to the people upon discovery. The tenth says that anything the Constitution doesn't say the government can do, it can't do. To whit, education or environmental protection, or health and human services or housing or urban development. And public television and radio. As far as I know, and I've read the whole document two or three times, maybe more, there's no provision in there for executive orders, either.
And no tsars. The Dead White Guys really didn't like tsars.
The real gripe we're seeing here is that the Constitution establishes a republic and we've evolved into a democracy, with all the faults that inevitably accrue -- most strikingly the majority voting themselves the minority's money. There's no Constitutional provision for that, and the Lockean provisions for protection of life, liberty, and property loudly argue against it.
The stop at democracy, I believe, is always a short one. It inevitably devolves into oligarchy. Explain to me, please, the differences between the Kennedies, the Dalys, the Cuomos, the Bhuttos, the Ghandis, and the Sharifs? And the al-Thanis and the Sauds. Oligarchies can last for years and years but eventually they decay is into dictatorship or anarchy.
#2
Here's my response as sent to the New York Sun editorial that in turn commented on this piece --
The editorial by the Sun, well-written as it is, spends a little too much time apologizing for the great sin of slavery and not enough time responding to what is Professor Louis Seidman's central point in his piece in the New York Times.
To be clear, slavery was indeed a horrible wrong, and all Americans today rightly condemn it, and work for the day when the lasting effects of slavery are finally expunged from our society.
But just as importantly, Professor Seidman complains about the Constitution today. He apparently is of the belief (as best I can tell from his op-ed piece) that the Constitution should be respected only if it is a 'living' document; which is to say that it should mean what society (and particularly, people of his beliefs) say it should mean.
In this belief the good Professor misses two key points: the first is that a charter, which is what the Constitution is, deliberately binds a people to history. Be the charter a generation or a millenium old, the whole point is to condition our behavior today on a proper respect for the past, warts and all. There are plenty of specific terms and items in the Magna Carta that certainly would be out of place in the modern world, but we (and the British) still give it reverence for what it did at that time to make us what we are today. So too the Constitution provides an enduring framework that made us the republic we are today, and channels our work, our energy and even our protests in ways that benefit our society.
The second point is even simpler: our elected leaders take an oath to defend the Constitution as their first act of office. Even if Professor Seidman believes the Constitution to be a dead piece of parchment, does he not understand and respect what an oath is, and what it is supposed to do to those who swear one? Like a written charter, an oath conditions and channels us by providing a framework for our subsequent acts. That is precisely why our Constitution, for example, requires our President to take an oath.
If Professor Seidman believes the Constitution to be fatally flawed for today's world, then he should propose a replacement. He and like-minded citizens could then try to persuade the rest of us as to the wisdom of a new charter. To ignore the Constitution and the oaths taken to defend it, however, rapidly leads to anarchy. In the end, such a society would be based on the very simple, brutish charter of human nature: might makes right.
I shall bet that Professor Seidman does not want that sort of replacement charter in the modern world.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/31/2012 11:30
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#3
A conversation by a learned man against himself and the fireplace, third bottle down.
I would demand my money back, even if I supported this position. And for the record, I believe those founders would see quite clearly our current situation.
If even this change is impossible, perhaps the dream of a country ruled by We the people is impossibly utopian. If so, we have to give up on the claim that we are a self-governing people who can settle our disagreements through mature and tolerant debate.
#4
It's interesting that the good professor did not come to this realization while W was president. As I recall, the Constitution was quite in vogue back then. What he is really saying is that the results the Constitution is currently producing -- i.e., a limit on Champ's power-- are not to his liking. Which reminds me of this exchange in :
#8
So, that means we default back to the Articles of Confederation or simply become the Disunited States, each of individual sovereignty. Otherwise, power comes from the barrel of a gun. Don't count on the military to back you up professor, the mid-ranks are relieved of their oaths and the bulk will not break for your tribe side. Meanwhile, with 3 million arms in private hands you won't have much in the way of Constitutional protection of your 'civil rights' that you obviously don't extend to others.
Posted by: Barbara ||
12/31/2012 12:10
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#10
Very well saiD, Dr. White!
Posted by: Barbara ||
12/31/2012 12:11
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#11
Our Constitution does address some forms of slavery but not others. It does not address tax slavery. Every year, the tax anniversary date keeps getting pushed further and further into the year; essentially creating a kind of economic servitude.
If an amendment were proposed to our Constitution which would basically aim at controlling fiscal messes that our government gets us into and taxes, I wonder if 3/4th of the states would ratify such an amendment? Presently, such an amendment would never get out of Congress the way things are going.
#14
Boy! After reading all the comentary, do I need to read the original piece of ... article?
Fred and Steve - my compliments. You guys ought to be in another line of work! The rest of you -- well, you're just way above average. Have a Happy New Year!
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/31/2012 14:48
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#15
My reply now is on line at the Sun. Apparently the Sun doesn't have the readership the Times has, which is a shame.
I would have posted my reply at the Times but as a non-subscriber one only gets to view and comment on 10 free articles a month and I am over my limit.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/31/2012 14:53
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#17
Between all the liberal calls for the dismantling of the constitution, and the execution and imprisonment of NRA and gun owners, can we see a major push for a dictatorship in 2013?
Either way, I believe the Republic is finished. Either a push for dictatorship or a push for Federalism will be our path for the next century.
#20
Yeah--he was always aiming for that. The pattern is clear. I used to run around with the Commies in college, and O is wiping the Republic off the board--all according the playbook, with some help from Alynski and the NWO handlers. Adherence to the Constitution is one of the cornerstones of American national identity, which is what must be eliminated according to the Big Money guys.
I used to think that stuff was nonsense, but the more I find out and analyze....oh boy. NOT good.
#21
The US Constitution will have to be formally amended to accomodate the Globalists' desired OWG + OWG GFUS e.g. NAU, etc.
To just bypass = "give up" on the Constitution, aka the "Law of the Land", is to basically admit that mainstream America has grown soft or is too lazy to stand up for its own Freedoms + Rights.
IMO the sooner the US goes over the "fiscal cliff" + Moodys, Fitch, etc. seriously degrade the US credit ratings, andor China MilPol publicly humiliates the US in East Asia [ECS + SCS, Taiwan, Himalayas] the better for Americans' + America's soul.
#23
I'll restart by wishing all Rantburgers and those serving our country a very Happy New Year.
Mr. Seidman has squandered his 40 years. He should know that the Constitution as adopted by those slave holding white men was pretty well eviscerated by the 16th and 17th amendments adopted 100 years ago that fundamentally altered the balance of power among the people, the states, and the federal government, and the unauthorized amendments adopted by the Supreme Court since 1937.
It is unfortunate, because those white men understood our present situation better than those governing us today, for there is nothing new under the Sun. 1913 was a very bad year, leading to many worse. 2012 looks to have produced an evil as bad. Our chance to reverse the evils of 1913 may have disappeared. We shall see.
#24
Injecting the language of slavery always validates the argument and provides cover for progressives. Thanks for the guilt booster shot professor, but I'm allergic to the serum. Please forgive me for my involvement as a horse holder at Wounded Knee. I still have nightmares by the way.
#25
It HAS been given up on, to a large degree. I can read, and lots of stuff government does is unconstitutional, but even the Supreme Court lets it go on.
#28
No Constitution. Okay. Then the Federal Government loses whatever pretense of legitimacy it had left and it is lock and load time.
Posted by: Secret Asian Man ||
01/01/2013 11:13
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#29
While we are on the subject of the Constitution can someone tell me how John Kerry was able to circumvent Article 3 of the 14th Amendment? Did he not give both verbal and visual "aid and comfort" to the enemy?
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
01/01/2013 11:14
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#30
That "aid and comfort" bit was cancelled out by the shooting of a wounded VC with his .45 auto.
#33
The oath of office of the President of the United States is an oath or affirmation required by the United States Constitution before the President begins the execution of the office. The wording is specified in Article Two, Section One, Clause Eight:
Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:--"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."
President Franklin D. Roosevelt was administered the oath of office four times, more than any other president. However, since President Barack Obama's second inaugural is to fall on a Sunday, he is likely to be sworn in twice for his second inauguration with the second falling on Monday. If this occurs as expected, Obama will also have been sworn in four times counting the two from his first inauguration, due to Chief Justice John Roberts misstating the wording of the oath on his first attempt, thereby causing a request for a re-administration of the oath shortly after in private quarters.
So in taking the Oath of Office and then advocating the dismisal of the very document by which he holds office presents the American People with what ?
The big "T" word....Treason ? No, the Constitution having been dismissed, invalidated, holds that the "T" is the impeachable offense; no Constitution, no offense.
Sweet. Herzlich Willkommen Sie auf der neuen America
Posted by: Au Auric ||
01/01/2013 11:55
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The bill raised taxes by over $600 billion, in addition to Obamacare taxes already coming on line, yet the Senators can claim it was a massive tax cut because the vote took place after midnight, so technically the Bush tax cuts already had expired.
#3
So much for any recovery hopes. I gave up my 'recovery hopes' in 2008 or so. I am just praying we avoid a catastrophic economic collapse with widespread destitution.
#4
Destitution yes, economic collapse no. It won't be 1930's level, our standard of living has just risen to much I think to fall that much with JUST economics. Though this still has to get through the House. There's palatable, then there's stupid. 41-1. Will mean quite a few ends to congressional careers. 2014 will see ALOT of Primary challenges.
Posted by: Charles ||
01/01/2013 10:23
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#5
Wish I'd hit preview, Destituation NO, Economic collapse YES. Ugh.
Posted by: Charles ||
01/01/2013 10:24
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#6
Bottom line: The term and threat of "sequester" as applied to the gov't budget and spending means absolutely nothing.
#7
Jerry Pournelle made some relevant comments: I note that there is frantic last minute activity in Congress, but I also note that it is more devoted to turning off the sequester which is the only real spending cut in the future. No one is looking at fraud and waste, bunny inspectors, government activities we would be better off without. Soak the rich is now the goal for a lot of Democrats. By the rich is generally meant those whose income is salaries and bonuses, people paid through stock options for engaging in high risk enterprises, etc. People who move money around in circles generally find ways to defer income in ways that dont get hit with income taxes. And of course there are many perks that come with wealth but which dont look like income.
The President wants to pound the rich. He doesnt care what that does to investment climates. And no one is going to make any cuts to entitlements.
At some point, one would suspect, the American people will have had enough; but that will take a while. And Congress gets a raise. Their staffers get a raise. Government employee pensions continue to rise, and the courts are now saying that cities cant stop paying into pension funds even if they go bankrupt, and the idiots who bought city bonds have less claim on a bankrupt citys money than the pensioned off employees.
#9
assuming HR8, aka the American Tax Relief Act of 2012, passes the house and is signed, the spending battle will be fought two months from now when the sequesters kick in certain Treasury measures that are being used to manage the national debt run out.
this isn't over, not by a long shot
Posted by: lord garth ||
01/01/2013 13:49
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#10
Do we have to "read the bill to find out what's really in it?" The full impact, it this passes will be painful. The current complexion of the House is, in a big way, due to people feeling 'taxed enough already'. I hope that membership, Mr. Boehner included, remembers that and acts accordingly when it gets to them for a vote.
#11
With some exceptions, the entire Congressional establishment is pavlovian now on polling (thanks Clintons) and cannot understand push polling adequately to dismiss much of what is responsive to it. We are governed almost exclusively now by perception not principle, and careerism not commitment, so sadly, the Republic has drifted to the rapacious democracy that will want all that is promised like the mob in Rome. Bread and circuses and no understanding of the destruction that is rendering the future more and more impoverished and bleak. I never imagined the rot would be so fast.....
State security in the UAE have detained more than 10 people, including three doctors, accused of having links to the Muslim Brotherood in Egypt.
The Sharjah-based Al Khaleej newspaper quoted an "authorised source" as saying that state security had been monitoring the men's movements for several years, and believed they had formed their own network in the UAE.
The source said they were organising well-planned and organised activities "on state land". They held secret meetings in various "administrative offices" around the country and recruiting UAE-based Egyptians to their organisation.
The group is also said to have set up UAE companies to support it financially, collecting large sums of money to send illegally to its parent organsiation in Egypt.
It is also believed to have collected confidential information about the UAE's defence capabilities.
UAE state security found a close relationship between the group and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. There was continuous coordination between the two, secret meetings, and exchange of classified information.
The group also organised many lectures about elections and ways to change Arab regimes.
"Stop confronting me. You wouldn't like me when I'm confronted."
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has used a New Year speech to call for the development of more advanced weapons, as well as an "end to confrontation" on the Korean peninsula.
In the surprise address broadcast Tuesday on state television, Kim called on his country to hold fast "to the ideals of independence, peace and friendship."
"This year, the entire Korean nation should turn out in a nationwide patriotic struggle for reunification in unity so as to usher in a new phase in the reunification movement," he said. "An important issue in putting an end to the division of the country and achieving reunification is to remove confrontation between the north and the south."
Kim, whose government provoked international condemnation by carrying out a successful long-range rocket launch in December, also called for the development of more "cutting edge arms and equipment."
The speech was the first televised New Year address by a North Korean leader in 19 years. During the leadership of Kim's late father, Kim Jong Il, the New Year message was delivered in the form of a state media editorial.
Kim's speech also called for an improvement in living standards in the impoverished communist country. He said bolstering farming would "provide the people with a better, more bountiful diet."
"Becoming an economic power is the most important task in our efforts to follow our great work of establishing a strong communist country," he said.
But he made no mention of his country's nuclear weapons program, which has landed in the country under devastating international sanctions.
#1
Kim's speech also called for an improvement in living standards in the impoverished communist country. He said bolstering farming would "provide the people with a better, more bountiful diet."
"until then, we will broadcast video of me gorging. That will have to suffice"
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/01/2013 9:50
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#2
Failed state leaders always have such nice speeches.
#3
I've been expecting this for a while - IMO the Kim family + Pyongyang Boyz well-recognize that China's econ influence in their country will increase wid the new Sino-DPRK FTAS, hence also China's political + military influence in time.
IN SHORT, THE DYNASTY + DPRK-SPECIFIC COMMIE PARTY'S DAYS ARE NUMBERED, NATURALLY OR FORCIBLY, UNLESS SOMETHING CHANGES N-O-W, NOT TOMORROW.
The DPRK desires German-style peaceful reunification, but at the same time demand that the DPRK Commie Party be guaranteed permaNent half-share or more in the post-reunification inter-Korean Govt. IOW, THE KIMMIES + PYONGYANG BOYZ PER SE WILL COVERTLY INDIRECTLY CONTROL ANY REUNIFICATION GOVT = SOUTH KOREA, WHICH THE ROK'S DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS ARE AGAINST.
#1
1. All-time record annual average gas price.
2. All-time record food stamp participation.
3. All-time high youth unemployment.
4. All-time high number of Americans no longer in the labor force.
5. All-time record number of Americans collecting disability.
6. All-time record number of Americans living in poverty.
7. All-time record U.S. debt.
#2
#8 Majority of US electorate thinks #1-#7 don't matter & that Obama has been doing a wonderful job & will do even better in the next 4 years.
#8 is the most devastating fact of all.
#4
I don't believe the money actually runs out. The dollar just gets dinkier and dinkier as they print more and more of them and the national credit rating gets lower and lower. Same thing as Zim-bob-we. Buy a wheelbarrow while you still can.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2013 10:46
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#5
A brand new 1963 Chevy or Ford pickup truck, short box, straight six, 4 speed trans...cost: Approx $1800.
Similar vehicle 50 years later ... Approx $23,000.
You do the math. Inflation is a tool of a ponzi scheme, debtor nation. Has been for a very long time.
#6
Of course, Besoeker, you had to change the spark plugs in that '63 once or twice a year. And got 15 mpg. The new one's plugs last 80,000 miles and you get 20 mpg. Plus it handles better and has airbags so you stand a better chance of surviving a bad wreck. SOME of the price increase is not inflation. A better indicator is postage stamps - 3 or 4 cents to 44 cents or whatever it is now.
#7
Excellent points Glen, but I enjoyed changing points and plugs :-( I'll also give you the gas mileage (even though a gallon of gas was only .21 cents or .20 cents if you didn't take the Green Stamps). I'll take a half-ton vehicle with a cross-braced frame with a speed limit of 80 mph over uni-body with a V6 in the diversity left lane of I-85 going 95+ mph.
#8
Besoeker - I guess that makes you a classic, old-fogy conservative!
I hear ya.
Posted by: Bobby ||
01/01/2013 11:58
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#9
Letters 1st Class 45¢ + 20¢
1 oz $0.45 Bad envelope penalty 20¢
2 ounces $0.65
3 ounces $0.85
3.5 oz $1.05
The First-Class stamp will be 46 cents after the new postage rates begin January 27, 2013. The US Postal Service has officially announced the postage rate increases for the 2013 mailing season. The Post Office has recently switched from doing large postage increases every 4 years to a smaller increase each year to keep up with costs and industry fluctuations.
Posted by: Au Auric ||
01/01/2013 12:12
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#10
but I enjoyed changing points and plugs :-(
Aha! The evidence I've been seeking, there is something wrong with you.
:)
Plugs okay, points not so much, I always screwed up or forgot the lube.
#12
Never liked changing the left front plug in that 425 CUI SuperRocket but once I threw away the air-conditioner over it - not so bad.
Of course then... real premium (now racing fuel under inflationary octane formulas) was 25 cents a gallon and moon missions were affordable to NASA.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
01/01/2013 12:39
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#13
We still have a '79 GMC 1-ton that we took out the HEI and put in a points system. - 100% Analog Doomsday Vehicle. Gets about 19MPG on the road + 2 - 32-gallon saddle tanks (not a great design, but oh well). VERY easy to work on. Tires are a bit pricey, though.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
01/01/2013 12:51
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#14
Changing the plugs and points on an older-model (pre-80's) car was fairly easy and could be enjoyable.
Now of course they have so much crap (of various uselessness) piled on top of it I simply have an expert handle it. Besides the wife and kids don't like me using so many 'bad words'.
Don't know what points are, Mr. B, but I had to change my own plugs many years ago because I couldn't afford to pay a mechanic to do it. Likewise oil changes.
I understand people who like to play with cars can enjoy doing the maintenance on them, but I never liked it and to me having to do maintenance on my own car (other than adding windshield fluid, checking the oil, & stuff like that) is a sign of poverty. As soon as I had a good enough job that I could afford to pay someone else to do oil changes & stuff, I did. Hope I'm never in a position where I have to do it myself again (particularly because of my age).
Posted by: Barbara ||
01/01/2013 13:12
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#17
F-150! Drink up!
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/01/2013 13:47
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#18
What's this plugs and points you speak of? I miss those good old days; especially the mid-January starter replacement in Michigan because they didn't last for crap back then.
Bought a new Camry last August and a service manual from the dealer is not available to us wrench twisters.
Of course the 63 short box (or any points and plug vehicle) will not be affected by any EMP, so that may be a good reason to have an old car project--just for mobility. (will need to put hardened valve seata in to handle unleaded fuel however)
#19
Rough put, automotive ignition points regulate the flow of electricity to the plugs which fire and create combustion. Mostly done electronically today however.
As I heard an old tradesman tell a very infuriated foreman many years ago..."Don, I don't get paid for what I'd doing, I get paid for what I know how to do. Right now I'm having a Lucky Strike". If you had to change your own oil again Barb, there is little doubt in my mind that you could accomplish the task. :-)
#20
Been there USN - still remember being stuck in the middle of nowhere. Finally jamming a penny between the solenoid and starter to make a connection so the '63 Rambler would start.
It was always either the starter or the generator. Except for replacing some U-joints on the side of I-5.
#21
Full Service Circa 1960's = Guy in a bowtie comes out to your car, washes your windshield, checks the oil level and air pressure of the tires all for paying 22 cents a gallon for gas.
#22
CF-LOL: my persoanl fave is when my 57 Olds ( one of 3 i had @ the time) blew a heater hose in the middle of 'Resume Speed' Allegean, MI in December. no spare, but in the yard nearby was some kid's tricycle and I had a hacksaw and a couple of hose clamps. handlebar tubing was perfect fit for getting it home.
#25
"If I could pick out Satan, as he really is, I would picture him as a great, popular leader of government. And he comes forth as the champion of the people and rather than face the harsh realities and stubborn facts of economic life, he soothes the people into the persuasion that he is their great benefactor and patron, and he looks at the printing press making money ; thousands of dollars, millions of dollars. And he gives order through the instruments of government for deficit financing, and the pressesit is that simpleand they print money, and print money, and the government goes in debt and what finally happens is: it's a painless way to rob the poor, and to destroy the pensioner, and finally to bring the country into economic collapse and chaos. That is Satan! Smart, shrewd, deceptive, but beyond his soft and mellifluous voice there is destruction and ruin: that is Satan."
The U.S. Senate passed a plan to avert the "fiscal cliff" at midnight Monday, which would extend current tax rates for most American households and postpone the automatic spending cuts that threaten a new recession.
The bill came too late for the Congress to meet its deadline of New Year's Eve for passing laws to halt a combination of tax increases and spending cuts totaling more than 600 billion dollars, which strictly speaking came into force on Tuesday.
The bill cleared the Senate with a 89-8 vote, while its fate in the House of Representatives is uncertain.
The agreement emerged at Monday night after a day of intensive negotiations as both parties made last-ditch efforts to bridge differences.
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, who negotiated the deal with the Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, went to Capitol Hill Monday night to build support among senators.
The plan would prevent a tax rate rise on individuals with an annual income below 400,000 U.S. dollars and households making up to 450,000 dollars.
Meanwhile, the start of 1.2 trillion dollars in automatic spending cuts over 10 years, known as the "sequester," would be put off for two months. It had been scheduled to begin with the new year.
Under the deal, jobless insurance benefits for about 2 million long-term unemployed would be extended for a year.
The Republicans dropped their long-term resistance to higher tax rates and accepted a delay in spending cuts, while the Democrats compromised on the income threshold for tax rise and softened their stance on estate taxes.
The plan still needs approval from the House of Representatives that adjourns till Tuesday noon and a vote is expected on Tuesday at the earliest. It is uncertain whether it would get enough GOP support.
#8
A number of Guam patrons, both local + stateside, argue that only the outbreak of a major war can save the US Economy from the US Govt, as the GOP-DEMS have shown its more important to get re-elected + NOT be held accountable for anything bad than to effec or permanently solve a Prob(s).
SNAFU > CHINA-VS-JAPAN IN EAST ASIA = Once again, the US has NOT been in a direct military confrontation wid a major Nuclear Power since 1962 [Cuba = POTUS JFK] + 1973 [Yom Kippur = POTUS Nixon], both vee the then-USSR. HISTORY SUGGESTS THAT CHINA WILL LIKELY UNILATER SHOOT FIRST - THERE WILL BE JAPANESE CASUALTIES + QUITE POSSIBLY US CASUALTIES.
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > CHINESE THINK-TANK: WAR IS INEVITABLE BETWEEN CHINA + JAPAN.
IIUC ARTIC = CHINA is willing to attack Japan unless Japan makes concessions on the Senkakus + Okinawa. China wants unchallenged "strategic access" for the PLA into WESTPAC from NE Asia = Okinawa-Taiwan Straits + ITS NOT TAKING "NO" FOR AN ANSWER.
#5
See also BHARAT RAKSHAK > KILLING CHARITY WORKERS AND WOMEN IN THE NAME OF JIHAD IN PAKISTAN: SAME HATRED SUPPORTED IN SYRIA.
As well as in many Muslim Nations around the World, includ those whom directly or broadly supported the US-West agz the USSR = Commie Bloc during the Cold War.
IIUC ARTIC = the US has put itself in a hypocritical situation of seemingly supporting those Govts. or Nations whom abuse Women's + Human Rights, or in the alternate deliberat fail to protect same, at least in the local or regional view.
versus
* SAME > [Modern Tokyo Times]ISLAMISTS START DESTROYING MORE AFRICAN ISLAMIC CULTURE IN MALI: [destruction has spread to] SAUDI ARABIA AND SYRIA. Mali as symbol of a larger-scale destruction, as due to the pervasive influence of draconian, totalitarian or near-totalitarian, SALAFISM.
Any + all Non-Muslim, non-Sharia, non-Sunni, + non-Salafist cultural works + heritage to be destroyed or "rewritten/redone", INCLUD WIDIN WELL-ESTABLISHED MUSLIM STATES.
#1
Road Runner and Bugs Bunny were at least as violent as today's Hollywood movies. That probably explains what's wrong with me.
Seriously though, I've seen it discussed that the lack of killing in real life - in the form of killing a chicken for Sunday dinner, etc. - could be as big a contributor to our modern 'de-real-ization' of death.
#2
Guess that explains why I own a firearm, but haven't gone a murderous rampage, Glenmore.
I helped Nannie kill the chicken for Sunday dinner when I was a little kid. (Sat on the galvanized bucket she flung the headless chicken under until it quit flapping. Didn't want it running around damaging her flowers after she cut its head off.)
Posted by: Barbara ||
01/01/2013 10:04
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#3
I say look to the three stooges. So far there have been few hacksaw to the nose copy-cat attacks despite the stooges films being around for decades.
#4
I think the problem has been well discussed and we basically know the problem.
* We as a culture are unwilling to label the unstable as unstable and lock them in a facility to get help until after the fact.
* We as a culture are unwilling to look at what medication the unstable had and hold Psychologists accountable (possibly just questioning, possibly malpractice) for not adjusting dosages.
* We have elites (and some are simply voters that think they are better) that do not trust the electorate with weapons despite the fact that an insanely large majority have proven to be safe.
* We have an easily distracted electorate that wants easy solutions and politicians willing to exploit that fact to ram pet projects through during a crisis.
#5
Hollywood is a garbage product. If your building maintenence or auto shop performed as well as a good movie comes about (entertaining is different rating) they would be out of business; how many movies do you not go see for whatever reason compared to the ones you actually make plans for, and then for the planned ones how many of those do you leave satisfied? Even when I lived basically next to a top-line theatre, liked going to movies, and had to money and time to do so, my participation was very low compared to volume of product. Every cycle to movies seem to become more violent at a faster pace. This new movie, johnson reacher, really what is the point? Jenga Unchained, I generally like Tarentino movies, but this one seems so plain compared to his other ideas. I point at them because they have been pointed at recently.
That being said, yes Hollywood is producing a product based mostly on sex and violence, with plot being a distant third and those based on plot still have their amount of sex and violence.
No, I do not think Hollywood causes these problems. I do not think anything causes these problems, I believe there are a myriad of contributors, so more so than others.
Being such visual creatures it is wrong to say that movies/media do not have some sort of effect. Propagandists count on that, as do advertisers. It is the director's sole job, as well as the editor's. Its why the USA domestic market has become so squishy because there is more money internationally with generic films; why would the Chinese watch or buy a movie which makes them look like jerks when they can pin a North Korean flag its not like they have any power for a movie theatre anyways.
The evidence is so obvious, this should not even be a question. If movies had little appeal the industry would have quit generations ago.
So it comes down to the participant, and how that person reacts. Do they leave the theatre thinking "That was fun/not fun", "Wow what effects" etc. or do they believe they are navii or go lay in the middle of the road like in that football movie.
Same opinion with video games, which are now more like interactive movies so there is more stickyness there IMO. I managed to grow up and not jump on every turtle I come across (unless its innards are caramel and pecans). Yet last I played a shooter game on-line I was appalled by the pre-teens and their language. But I put that square on the parents. Old enough to earn half a g and blow it on video games, old enough to play cuss soldier. These kids I don't think were even in puberty.
Worst is the Television. It is everywhere, completely over the top, just horrible production. Can't even watch a game without getting some crap about how home runs are up because of global warming or how I murdered Jovan Belcher because I let me kid watch McClintok! Those are sports, turn the camera on and try not to say anything dumb, yet still it happens. One channel which starts with an M has showed targeting young high school students, one was based purely on a kid with a big c#ck and the other is about a gal who is trying to figure out which of her friends is the best lay. It is shown so casually and glorified. Used to be to see stuff like that you had to peek through the scrambling. This is standard tv package stuff now.
Music, I stopped listening to modern music back when people though Oasis was good stuff. Before I left here is a gem I heard by Three 6 Mafia: (Wiki page with some background and something very interesting connected with our young and old news hoodie from FloRida. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sizzurp
It still comes down to the individual and choice. But the media sure makes being a loser look fun, the parents allow it to happen, and now the government is making it affordable.
#6
"This new movie, johnson reacher, really what is the point?"
That would be Jack Reacher, swksvolFF. Reacher is the lead character in Lee Child's "Reacher" series, which is excellent (I'm working my way through them now, having come upon them only a year or so ago). It's a stupid name for the movie; I can only presume it's to broadcast to fans of the books what/who the movie is about. I'd rather they used the name of the book it's based on (assuming they based it on one of the books, which I would think they did.)
And as many others have observed, Tom Cruise is way too SHORT to be Reacher (who in the books is 6'5" or so and proportionately muscled).
But one thing the book series has to make Hollyweird embrace it: it's violent, of the "I'm trying to mind my own business and live my life, but you f*cked with me or with some innocent party and I'm going to put a permanent stop to it" type.
I won't go see the movie, though, much as I like the books. Screw Cruise and his Hollyweird ilk; I don't need to see a movie to have a picture in my mind of whichever book I'm reading, or listening too.
Posted by: Barbara ||
01/01/2013 20:11
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#7
Glenmore, if you think Roadrunner is as violent as that YouTube clip, you didn't watch it. Training flicks for murderers.
#8
Meant no offense to the book series Barbara; admittedly knew nothing of it, that was a slight on cruise. All I saw during the ad was cruise trying to be Charles Bronson with a bulletproof kia. It is either a hoot or a nightmare doing the make him look tall set tricks. How they made that wash basin look like a bathtub is amazing ;)
To share, I read Sum of All Fears when it came out. Like the book, liked Clancy. The movie....wth?!
#9
No offense taken, swksvolFF. When you got the name of the movie wrong, I figured you'd never heard of the books. (I can recommend them, by the way, if you're looking for a good read. It's not really necessary, but try to start with the first book to get the full flavor of the main character and understand him and his evolution through the books/years. And even thought I'm female, you can bet they not romances - yuck!)
I agree with you - Hollyweird can F up a wet dream. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara ||
01/01/2013 21:22
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[Breitbart] More than 800 new laws will go into effect in 2013 in Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party,. The new laws cover a vast array of issues including internet privacy, giving drivers licenses to children of undocumented Democrats, banning psychotherapy for young gay teens and the use of dogs when hunting bobcats or bears.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2013
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#1
"We were the first to assert the more complicated the forms assumed by civilization, the more restricted the freedom of the individual must become".
-- Benito Mussolini
[Dawn] Two bullet-riddled bodies were found in Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency while a woman was killed when a mortar shell hit a house in the same area on Sunday.
Sources said that bodies of two persons were spotted by local people in Kohi Sher Haider area on Sunday morning but they could not pick them owing to imposition of curfew in the locality. People removed the bodies from the spot when they were allowed by security forces.
The dear departed identified as Ejaz and Najeebullah had gone missing few days ago. Both of them were relatives and belonged to Malikdinkhel tribe, sources said. Nobody grabbed credit for their killing.
Scores of families vacated their houses in Kohi Sher Haider after security forces ordered them to leave the area in anticipation of a cleanup operation. In Malikdinkhel and Sipah areas, forces demolished the houses of four suspected faceless myrmidons on Sunday.
Meanwhile, ...back at the wrecked scow, a single surviver held tightly to the smashed prow... a woman was killed and four of her siblings received injuries when a mortar shell hit the house of Bagh Wali in Dura Nehar
locality of Sipah on Sunday.
Sources said that the mortar shell, fired from an unknown direction, also damaged a portion of the house. Nearly 12 residents of Bara, mostly women and kiddies, had fallen prey to mortar attacks during the last one week. Authorities are yet to establish as to who fire the mortar shells. In Mohmand Agency ... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar... and Swabi district, two improvised bombs were defused on Sunday.
In Swabi, traders informed police about the device that was planted at the tower of a cellular phone company. Police and bomb disposal squad reached the spot and defused the device.
The other bomb was planted at Ghanam Shah telephone exchange in Mohmand Agency. The residents of the area informed security forces about the device. The device was defused safely.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2013
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[An Nahar] Turkey's intelligence agency has discussed the issue of disarmament with the incarcerated Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! Kurdish leader in a bid to bring an end to the nearly three-decade old insurgency, a newspaper reported on Monday.
Officials from the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) held a four-hour meeting with Abdullah Ocalan on December 23 to urge outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) Orcs and similar vermin to lay down their arms, the Hurriyet newspaper reported.
But Ocalan demanded that he must have a direct contact with the PKK and his detention conditions must be improved, according to the paper.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a televised interview Friday that his agents were meeting with Ocalan, who is being held in solitary confinement on a remote island prison off Istanbul.
"I cannot hold such meetings myself as a politician but the state has agents ... and they do (hold talks)," Erdogan told the state-run TRT television.
"The meetings on the island are still under way because we must get a result. If we see a light (for a result), we continue to take steps," he said, referring to the meetings with Ocalan.
Ankara initiated clandestine talks with the prominent figures of the rebel group in 2009 to negotiate peace, but the talks failed.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2013
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[Magharebia] An Algerian imam who publicly denounced extremism escaped an assassination attempt on Sunday (December 30th), Tout sur l'Algerie reported. An unknown assailant reportedly stabbed the imam of the mosque in Mellakou, southwest of Tiaret.
In his Friday sermon, the victim reportedly condemned "salafist obscurantists". Sources said he later received a threatening phone call.
The imam is recovering in a Tiaret hospital.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2013
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa
[Dawn] The Government of Sindh on Monday imposed a ban on riding double in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... for three days as a measure for maintaining peace in the commercial capital as the year draws to a close.
The ban will be effective from 5 pm today, Dec 31, 2012 and will be effective until Jan 3, 2013, according to a notification issued by provincial home department.
The ban has been imposed in view of maintaining peace on the eve of new-year while the religious day of Chehlum will also be observed on Thursday, Jan 03, said the notification.
The ban shall not be applicable to women, children below the age of 12 years, senior citizens, disabled persons, journalists, personnel of law enforcing agencies in uniform and employees of essential services.
According to the notification, violation of the order shall be liable to penal action under Section 188 of the Pakistain Penal Code (PPC). Police personnel are authorised to take legal action against the violators under the applicable law.
Through another order, the government has also prohibited plying cycle of violences without silencers or mufflers besides a ban on crackers and gun sex, said the notification.
The provincial home department has also suspended all the letters issued by it to various persons allowing them to carry weapons in relaxation of the ban.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2013
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[An Nahar] An improvised bomb went kaboom! outside the headquarters of the public prosecutor in the Libyan city of Benghazi causing material damage but no fatalities, a security source said Monday.
"Initial evidence suggests the device was a suitcase packed with high yield explosives (TNT)," an investigator at the scene told Agence La Belle France Presse, adding that there were no casualties.
The overnight blast marked the third attack on the site in 2012, he said.
It damaged the front of the recently renovated building, which once held the people's court, a special tribunal created by the former regime of Muammar Qadaffy ...whose instability was an inspiration to dictators everywhere, but whose end couldn't possibly happen to them... to crack down on opponents, particularly Islamists.
The bomb also punched a hole in the ground and shattered the glass of adjacent vehicles and properties.
December marked a tumultuous month for Benghazi, cradle of the 2011 NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... -backed uprising that toppled the Qadaffy regime and ended in the killing of one of the region's veteran dictators.
A spate of attacks targeting cop shoppes claimed the lives of seven officers this month and pushed the chief of staff to send reinforcements to bolster security there.
In 2012, Libya's second city witnessed a series of liquidations targeting security officials and judges, many of whom had served under the previous regime.
Benghazi has also emerged as a hub for jihadist groups, including forces of Evil who killed ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans in a September 11 attack on the U.S. consulate.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[An Nahar] Bullet-ridden bodies of nine Taliban fighters were found dumped in Pakistain's northwestern tribal belt near the Afghan border on Monday, officials said.
The bodies were found on the side of the road in Peer Kaley village in North Wazoo, a stronghold of al-Qaeda-linked groups, 10 kilometers (six miles) east of the district's main town of Miranshah. ... headquarters of al-Qaeda in Pakistain and likely location of Ayman al-Zawahiri. The Haqqani network has established a ministate in centered on the town with courts, tax offices and lots of madrassas... "Unidentified people threw away these nine bodies. No one knows who killed them," a security official based in Miranshah told Agence La Belle France Presse.
Local residents confirmed that the bodies had been discovered and a second security official in Miranshah said the identity of the dead was yet not known.
But Ehsanullah Ehsan, a front man for the umbrella Taliban faction in Pakistain, told AFP that all nine were Taliban fighters and accused government security forces of killing them.
"We are proud of their martyrdom, soon we will take Dire Revenge™ for this killing," he told AFP from Qazi's guesthouse an undisclosed location.
#3
There's a difference here. Afghan Taliban are an Pak-intelligence-supported asset, while Pak Taliban are viewed as feral.
Pakistan considers Afghanistan to be within its sphere of influence; releasing these prisoners makes the Pakistan government look magnanimous, while putting Taliban elements back into play if events don't go according to Pakistan's preferences.
A former Israeli soldier, 24, known in Israel for his pro-Palestinian activism and radical views, was detained in Egypt, apparently having entered the country without travel documents, Israeli news media reported on Monday. The man, identified as Andrey Pshenichnikov, was recently detained in Israel after residing for a while in a Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank; he was charged with entering Palestinian territory, which is off limits to Israeli citizens. After his release he told the newspaper Haaretz that he supported the armed Palestinian resistance. Israeli Foreign Ministry officials said that they had requested information from the Egyptian authorities and were awaiting a response. Citing unnamed Egyptian officials, The Associated Press reported that Mr. Pshenichnikov was trying to reach Gaza through Sinai to fight alongside Palestinians.
[Dawn] A boom-mobile hit a convoy of three Iran-bound buses in Mastung district on Sunday, setting one of the buses on fire and killing at least 20 Shia pilgrims and injuring 25 others.
The pilgrims belonged to different parts of Punjab. The other two buses were partially damaged.
According to official sources, the bomb hit the convoy on the RCD Highway in the Dringer area, some 60km from here.
A hitherto unknown organization, Jaish-ul-Islam, has grabbed credit for the attack in phone calls made to news hounds by its front man Ghazi Haq Nawaz from an unspecified place.
Witnesses and government officials claimed it was a suicide kaboom because the driver of the car had rammed his vehicle into one bus in the convoy.
But some other officials said the kaboom had been triggered by a remote-controlled device. The bomb disposal squad held the same view.
Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... Home Secretary Capt (retd) Akbar Hussain Durrani said criminals had planted explosives in a small car and parked it on the highway in Dringer area.
They detonated the explosives with a remote control when the convoy reached there, he said.
He said the bus which bore the impact of the blast carried 43 pilgrims and 20 of them were burned to death.
Their bodies have been charred beyond recognition.
He said 20 bodies and 25 injured had been taken to hospitals.
He also said a contingent of Levies escorting the three buses had not been affected.According to the bomb disposal squad, 80kg to 100kg of explosives were used in the kaboom.
The three buses were overtaking the car when we suddenly heard a huge blast and the bus next to ours caught fire, Hussain Ali, a pilgrim said. He said people in the other two buses had tried to rescue the pilgrims in the burning bus they were deterred by heat generated by the fire.
Officials said some of the injured were at death's door and they were referred to Combined Military Hospital in Quetta.
The bodies were taken to Bolan Medical Complex in Quetta and later to Nichari Imambargah after legal formalities.
Subsequently, the bodies were sent to Punjab.
Source in the BMC said 18 bodies and 23 injured had been brought to the hospital.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Jaish ul islam = army of (or for) Islam
Posted by: lord garth ||
01/01/2013 14:13
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#2
The question for a future Taliban-shared/
controlled Pak Govt. is whether the pro-Sunni Taliban can stop the persecution + killings of local Shias - iff not, there's going to be trubles wid BFF Rising Iran.
[An Nahar] Thirty tortured and disfigured bodies have been found in the northern Damascus ...The capital of Iran's Syrian satrapy... neighborhood of Barzeh, the scene of regular festivities between regime troops and rebels, a watchdog said on Monday.
"Thirty bodies were found in the Barzeh district. They bore signs of torture and have so far not been identified," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on medics and activists on the ground in compiling its tolls.
The Syrian Revolution General Commission, a grassroots network of anti-regime activists, estimated that there were 50 bodies, adding that "their heads were cut and disfigured to the point that it was no longer possible to identify" them.
These reports could not be verified independently because of restrictions on the international media by the Syrian authorities.
The gruesome discovery was made on Sunday, the day U.N. and Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said he has a plan to end the conflict that could be acceptable to world powers.
The Syrian conflict, which erupted in March 2011, has claimed more than 45,000 lives, according to Observatory estimates.
On Sunday itself 160 people were killed nationwide -- 78 civilians, 41 soldiers and 41 revels, the Observatory said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
But remember, we here in America are the world's most blood soaked, wild west savages. Our media and political betters tell us so. The Eurines and Rooshians recoil from Assad's doings, to the extent that they do, only because it impedes "business as usual..."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/01/2013 11:30
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#2
Oh, and, it IS the doings of several factions, not just Assad...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/01/2013 11:31
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#3
It's a Moslem thing.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2013 12:10
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#4
Hey Fred. You're correct but you forgot the RoP.
[Dawn] Federal Railways Minister Ghulam Bilour, elder brother of assassinated minister Bashir Bilour, on Monday said his brothers liquidation had united the nation, DawnNews reported. Ghulam's the guy that offered $100,000 for the assassination of the guys who made a movie making fun of The Profit (PTUI)...
Speaking at a public gathering in 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. , the federal minister said although the Pak Taliban had taken his brothers life, they would not be able to evade the consequences.
During the course of the gathering called to commemorate Bashir Bilour, the federal minister said he could not be intimidated, nor would he cave in before the Taliban.
He added that the reaction in the wake of Bashir Bilours death had shaken the Taliban.
On the occasion, Awami National Party (ANP) chief Asfandyar Wali Khan paid tribute to the assassinated minister, adding that, Bashir Bilour was a brave man who would be the first to reach the site of a blast.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Dawn] THE heart-wrenching, nerve-shattering attack in 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. s Qissa Khwani Bazaar on Dec 22, must be a defining moment for the state of Pakistain, Pak and Pakhtun society and the democratic political process in Pakistain.
This attack killed Bashir Bilour, one of the daring voices of the Awami National Party and a proud son of Peshawar, along with others. More than three dozen people were maimed.
Besides once again bringing to light the fact that the cut-thoat network, both ideological and strategic, is intact and that the ideological, strategic and tactical alliance of various cut-thoat groups has matured, the attack has also raised crucial questions in the minds of common Paks, those belonging to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... in particular.
The first set of questions is related to the state of Pakistain. Will the security state now shed the mantle of elitism, its centrist mindset and its colonial approach towards the common people of Pakistain? Will it now decide to build on the pluralist, indigenous legacy of the land or continue to maintain a colonial legacy by keeping people hostage to an imposed identity based on a parochial interpretation of religion?
Will the establishment decide to put a full stop to the geo-strategic paradigm that has cost thousands of lives? Will it ever allow elected parliaments to form foreign policy in consonance with the desires, aspirations and needs of the common people? Will it let civil society and the government machinery overhaul an education system that is spreading hate?
Answers to the above questions might lead towards ideological clarity with respect to religious militancy and terrorism that have endangered the state of Pakistain.
The majority of the people of Pakistain look at cut-thoat attacks with disgust and abhorrence. Not so the security state along with the rightist religio-political parties, that are in a minority. It is their mindset that has to be deconstructed as a first step towards defeating the menace of terrorism.
The menace is now well-entrenched both ideologically and strategically and is strong enough to strike at the vitals of the state.
Political parties, elected governments, civil society organizations, the military and intelligentsia have to take responsibility for deconstructing the cut-thoat ideology, decoding their strategies and defeating their tactics. Collective responsibility is to be taken for collective survival.
The second set of questions relates to Pak society in general and Pakhtun society in particular. Will the common masses allow their worldview and way of thinking and lifestyle to be hijacked by a handful of zealots?
Will Pak culture which is a repository of multi-lingual, multi-cultural, multi-religious and multi-ethnic values become hostage to the culture of violence inspired by Salafi jihadist ideology?
Will an identity based on indigenous historical continuity and diversity of worldviews, lifestyles and thoughts of 180 million people be stifled by groups of zealots who believe in a uni-dimensional reality?
Will these 180 million be pushed into a black hole cutting them off from modern human civilisation and cultural continuity by a minority?
In terms of Pakhtun society, will the Pakhtuns allow their music, aesthetics, folklore, poetry, history and culture to be demolished through a particular religious interpretation? Will they let themselves be deprived of the teachings of the humanist Rahman Baba and legends like Bayazid Ansari, Khushal Khan Khattak and Baacha Khan who preached human dignity, a pluralist democracy and an indigenous cultural identity linked with the values of modern civilisation?
The future of a harmonious Pak society in general and the Pakhtun society in particular will largely depend on the answers to the above questions. Civil society organizations, academia and professional organizations (consisting of lawyers, doctors and teachers etc) as well as youth networks have to reflect on this sliding of a pluralist society into the abyss of obscurantism and barbarity.
Their deliberations might lead them to leave their comfort zone and initiate an across-the-board dialogue among various segments of society. This in turn may lead to civil society asserting itself to help determine state policy and direct state machinery on the basis of a social contract between the state and its citizens.
The third set of questions is related to the future of a democratic and pro-people political process in Pakistain. The struggle of the ANP is a continuation of the Khudai Khidmatgar movement from the 1920s to the 1950s giving shape to the National Awami Party in the 1950s until the late 1970s.
At the core of its struggle professedly lie decolonisation, de-tribalisation and de-weaponisation. Its manifesto shows adherence to liberal democracy and the pro-people nature of the political process in Pakistain.
Besides some other liberal democratic nationalist political parties, the ANP has taken an unambiguous stand against cut-thoat ideology and state policies that promote it. In the process, the ANP has sacrificed more than 1,500 party cadres and four elected members besides sustaining losses to their land and property.
Militant ideology and tactics will not only target ANP workers and leaders. The space for a pro-democratic political process has been continuously shrinking for all political parties who adhere to constitutional democracy in Pakistain.
The PPP, ANP, PML-N and Q, the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party, National Party, JUI-F and others have to put their heads together to develop a comprehensive, coordinated, objective and clear strategy for defeating cut-thoat ideology and cut-thoat tactics.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2013
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Ibrahim Magag absconded on Boxing Day after failing to show up at the address where he must spend the night under the conditions of his Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures (Tpims) notice.
The 28-year-old is the first person to go missing while subject to a Tpims notice, a monitoring system that replaced control orders.
The notice was imposed on him in court to prevent him from fundraising and travelling overseas but it is now feared the Somali could have tried to flee the country.
Magag is described as a 6ft 2in black man of slim to medium build. He has a beard, but detectives warned he may try to change his appearance.
He was last seen in the Camden area of north London at 5.20pm on December 26 wearing a khaki robe, a black Berghaus windcheater and navy Converse trainers.
The suspects identity had not previously been revealed as those subject to a Tpims notice are normally permitted to retain their anonymity.
But on the advice of police, Theresa May, the Home Secretary, yesterday applied to the High Court for his anonymity to be lifted to help with the investigation.
Police have alerted borders agencies to Magags disappearance in case he tries to leave the country and travel to his native Somalia or elsewhere.
But Magag was not considered at this time to represent a direct threat to the British public, the Met spokesman said.
[An Nahar] Last minute talks stalled Sunday between top U.S. politicians aimed at averting a fiscal calamity due to hit within hours, as Democrats and Republicans blamed each other for a lack of progress. It's about what I thought would happen. The Dems are sticking with their spend, spend, spend position and making the "fiscal cliff" happen. When it does, taxes go up, up, up, and they'll do their best to hang the blame on the Publicans. The Publicans being as inept as they are, they'll end up with it.
Top Democrats and Republicans groped for a compromise before a punishing package of government spending cuts and tax hikes come into force on January 1 which could roil global markets and send the U.S. economy back into recession.
Senate Republican minority leader Mitch McConnell warned that, despite through-the-night talks, negotiators were still a long way from success, as they raced against the ebbing 2012 calendar in search of a compromise.
McConnell said he had got no response to a "good faith offer" to Senate Democrats, and called on his old friend and sparring partner Vice President Joe Foreign Policy Whiz Kid Biden The former Senator-for-Life from Delaware, an example of the kind of top-notch Washington intellect to be found in the World's Greatest Deliberative Body... to join the fray in the hope of breaking the stalemate.
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid ... the charismatic senator-for-life from Nevada, currently majority leader ... agreed talks were at a standstill, raising the prospect that Americans will ring in the New Year with no deal to avert a budget disaster known as the "fiscal cliff."
Reid said Democrats were unwilling to brook talk of social security cuts.
"This morning, we have been trying to come up with some counteroffer to my friend's proposal," Reid told the Senate. "We have been unable to do that."
Earlier, Democratic President Barack Obama On this Memorial Day, as our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes -- and I see many of them in the audience here today... , accused Republicans of causing the mess, saying they had refused to move on what he said were genuine offers of compromise from Democrats.
"Now the pressure's on Congress to produce," Obama said, in an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press" that was recorded on Saturday, a day after he expressed modest optimism that a deal could be reached.
Obama said it had been "very hard" for top Republican leaders to accept that "taxes on the wealthiest Americans should go up a little bit, as part of an overall deficit reduction package."
But Republicans were irked by Obama's tone and matched his accusations. The ugly mood could suggest that hopes for a consensus are fading -- or be the kind of political-base pleasing rhetoric that sometimes heralds a compromise.
"Americans elected President B.O. to lead, not cast blame," said House Republican speaker John It is not pronounced 'Boner!' Boehner ... the occasionally weepy leader of House Republicans... , arguing Republicans sought a 'balanced' deficit deal while Obama insisted on higher taxes that would kill jobs.
"We've been reasonable and responsible. The president is the one who has never been able to get to 'yes.'"
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2013
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#1
Its actually Harry Reid who should be hung for this one. He has not passed a budget in over 3 years in the senate, and is blocking any consideration of the house budget.
#4
Obama Blames Republicans as Fiscal Cliff Looms
And the sad thing is that the entire Repub party doesn't have the balls to stand up and turn the entire thing around; this was pretty appearent during the election and the same bunch of enuchs are still running the gop.
Bammy and company are playing them for the pussies they are.
[An Nahar] Attackers have stormed a church service in a town in Nigeria's volatile northeast and killed 15 people in the latest such violence targeting Christians in recent days, an official said Monday.
News of the killings emerged after Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan ... 14th President of Nigeria. He was Governor of Bayelsa State from 9 December 2005 to 28 May 2007, and was sworn in as Vice President on 29 May 2007. Jonathan is a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). He is a lover of nifty hats, which makes him easily recognizable unless someone else in the room is wearing a neat chapeau... questioned whether deadly Islamist attacks on churches in his country and other violence worldwide could be signs of coming "end times".
Jonathan also suggested that the Islamist turban group Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... aimed to take over the Nigerian capital Abuja, but vowed the group would be defeated and claimed that progress had been made in thwarting attacks.
Details were still being confirmed from the remote area where the latest church attack occurred, but it appeared the victims had been shot, said Mohammed Kanar, regional coordinator for the National Emergency Management Agency.
"We received information from our personnel in Chibok that some attackers stormed a church during Sunday service yesterday and killed 15 people," Kanar told Agence La Belle France Presse.
The attack followed violence on Friday that saw attackers slit the throats of 15 Christians in a pre-dawn raid in Musari, also in the northeast. Musari and Chibok are located in Nigeria's Borno state, where Boko Haram has been based.
During a Christmas Eve service last week, gunnies attacked a church in northeastern Yobe state, killing six people, including the pastor, before setting the building ablaze.
Violence linked to Boko Haram's insurgency in northern and central Nigeria is believed to have left some 3,000 people dead since 2009, including killings by the security forces.
Nigeria is Africa's most populous nation, roughly divided between a mainly Moslem north and predominately Christian south.
While the violence has been severe in certain areas this Christmas season, it has been less bloody than in 2011, when scores were killed in bombings and shootings at churches and other locations.
Last year's violence had prompted Jonathan to declare a state of emergency in the hardest-hit areas.
During comments Sunday in which he mentioned attacks on churches in Nigeria, Syria's war and the situation in the Central African Republic, where rebels have pushed their way across the impoverished country, Jonathan spoke of the Biblical end times.
"I was just wondering, could this be a clear way of telling us that the end times are so close?" he told the church congregation.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[NY Times] Doctors treating Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton ... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Elihu Root ... on Monday said that she suffered a blood clot in a vein between her brain and skull behind her right ear but predicted that she would make a full recovery.
Mrs. Clinton was hospitalized on Sunday with a blood clot stemming from a concussion she suffered earlier this month, a State Department front man said.
Her doctors said in a statement on Monday that the clot did not result in a stroke or neurological damage and that she was being treated with blood thinners.
In a statement, Drs. Lisa Bardack and Gigi El-Bayoumi, who are treating Mrs. Clinton, said: She will be released once the medication dose has been established. In all other aspects of her recovery, the secretary is making excellent progress and we are confident she will make a full recovery. She is in good spirits, engaging with her doctors, her family, and her staff.
Mrs. Clinton, who had canceled most of her public events in recent weeks because of the injury, was at a follow-up examination on Sunday when doctors discovered the blood clot, according to Philippe Reines, her longtime front man.
Aides said that Mrs. Clinton, 65, had become dehydrated this month because of a stomach virus she contracted during a trip to Europe. She fainted and struck her head, causing the concussion.
Among the events she missed because of the injury was a Congressional hearing for the September attack on the United States Mission in Benghazi, Libya.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#2
Among the events she missed because of the injury was a Congressional hearing for the September attack on the United States Mission in Benghazi, Libya.
...and a secret meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
#3
Congratulations to her doctors for actually finding her brain. And in the same location as the rest of us.
I always thought her (and others of her ilk) brain was firmly planted lower down, and to the rear. We know where Bill's brain is located. :-(
Posted by: Barbara ||
01/01/2013 9:52
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#4
Bill reminds me of the old Woody Allen line, My brain! That's my second-favorite organ.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
01/01/2013 9:59
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#5
Drs. Lisa Bardack and Gigi El-Bayoumi
Dr. Gigi?
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/01/2013 10:28
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#6
The State Department first reported a concussion from a fall. Now it is a blood clot. State Department continues to waffle on what really happened on anything since the Al Qaeda assault on Benghazi. Bill Clinton is strangely quiet about it all... And the OPM seems uninterested in asking him one question about the Mrs...
#12
with her history of lies, prevarication, corruption and partisan hackery, she has earned our skepticism.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/01/2013 11:29
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#13
I have strong feelings of indifference.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2013 12:11
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#14
Modern science has suggested that humans are chimera with significant numbers cells from playmates and others close to you living quite finely. Perhaps MZ Clinton's "Foster" cells decided to join their namesake?
Posted by: Water Modem ||
01/01/2013 12:32
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#15
The State Department first reported a concussion from a fall. Now it is a blood clot.
Blood clots as well as concussions can result from falls, or many other types of trauma to the head.
And yes, State has been rather quiet.
I suspect we'll see a full court press by the White House within the next two weeks (possibly less) for an expedited confirmation of Monsieur Jawn.
#2
I can predict the end of the world and it will be right. In 4.5 to 5 billion years from now, our world will end when the Sun turns into a Red Giant and destroys our planet.
Repent now. And send all donations for your deliverance to iwannagoldyaht@cultsrus.com
#4
No doubt 2013 will be at least as exciting as the year just complete, if not more so. Wishing you and yours health, happiness, and success however you might define it, as we head once more into the breach, dear friends, each in our diverse ways.
#11
Happy New Year Rantburgers. Hoping you a happy and prosperous new year.
I predict that, unfortunately, a lot of people are going to 'unexpectedly' find out exactly what they voted for in '12. Others.... well you just can't fix stupid :(.
[An Nahar] Nearly 300 Paleostinians staged a demonstration in the northern West Bank town of Nablus Monday, protesting against the economic situation and against Paleostinian prime minister Salam Fayyad ...Fayyad's political agenda holds that neither violence nor peaceful negotiations have brought the Paleostinians any closer to an independent state. The alternative to both, violent negotiations, doesn't seem to be working too well, either... An Agence La Belle France Presse correspondent said the protest came after Fayyad on Sunday announced that the Paleostinian Authority would as of 2013 enforce the payment of electricity bills by refugee camp residents, who have so far not had to pay them.
The demonstrators rolled their eyes, jumped up and down, and hollered poorly rhymed slogans real loud accusing Fayyad of "starving" them, the correspondent said, and one protester tried to set himself on fire.
The government of the West Bank has been mired for months in financial crisis. Earlier this month Paleostinian government employees across the West Bank went on strike over unpaid salaries.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2013
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[Magharebia] An Algerian soldier and a terrorist died Saturday night during a fight between ANP troops and an armed group near Boumerdès, El Watan reported on Sunday (December 30th).
In related news Saturday, Bouira police went on high alert after receiving information about possible suicide attacks on public buildings and security services during the New Year holidays.
ANP troops have also launched combing operations in the mountainous areas of Bordj Bou Arreridj, Bejaia and Tizi Ouzou.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2013
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[An Nahar] In La Belle France's rundown suburbs, it has become as much of a New Year tradition as champagne and fireworks in more affluent neighborhoods.
Every year, the night of December 31-January 1 sees more than 1,000 cars set ablaze across the country in an orgy of vandalism to which the authorities have, until now, largely turned a blind eye.
Since 2010, no official figures on the number of vehicles torched have been published, after it was discovered that a district-by-district breakdown was fueling a destructive competition between rival gangs.
But Interior Minister Manuel Valls on Monday promised that this year's figures would be released as soon as they had been collated.
"Because a problem is hidden, it doesn't mean it doesn't exist," Valls said.
"We have to have transparency. I don't want the count of burnt cars stopping at 6:00 am, as it often did in the past to reduce the total. The French have the right to know the reality."
La Belle France will have 65,000 police and other emergency workers on duty for Monday night's end-of-year celebrations.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2013
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#1
I'm surprised Hollande hasn't tried taxing the activity.
[NY Times] Like many public schools here, University City High School is underused, underfinanced and underperforming.
In other words, physical consolidation is overdue. Rightsizing, as they call it nowadays in the private sector.
Nearly 80 percent of its 11th-grade students read below grade level in statewide tests this year, while 85 percent failed to make the grade in math. Last year, about only a quarter of its students participated in precollege testing like the SAT.
Largely because of the lure of local charter schools, the school is one-quarter full, with fewer than 600 students for its nearly 2,200 seats. It needs major work on its infrastructure, including lighting and heating systems, that would cost an estimated $30 million.
Now, facing deep financial problems, the Philadelphia School District has proposed an unprecedented downsizing that would close 37 campuses by June -- roughly one out of six public schools, including University City. If the sweeping plan is approved, the district says it will improve academic standards by diverting money used for maintaining crumbling buildings to hire teachers and improve classroom equipment.
The 237-school district faces a cumulative budget deficit of $1.1 billion over the next five years, after $419 million in state cuts to educational financing this year. The district's problems are compounded by the end of federal stimulus money and rising pension costs.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2013
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#2
I didn't want to read the source article since I might exceed my quota of NYT articles. I would bet the source does not mention the average $ spent/ student 'educated' in the Philly school district. In general, a vast amount of funds are paid per primary & high school student, with poor and ever diminishing returns.
A coalition of community groups that includes the city's teachers union is calling for a temporary halt to the Philadelphia School District's plans to close 37 schools. District officials say they welcome the group's input, but that it's too late to stop the closures.
"If we restored the 2008 funding formula, we would not be in this deficit," said Andi Perez, head of Students United for Change and part of PCAPS. "If we closed tax loopholes. If we collected more property taxes [Philadelphia already has 96,000-plus tax delinquent property owners], the citizens who actually pay their taxes will have to shell out even more. already as . There's series of things that the city and state could do to increase revenue for Philadelphia public schools, and for public schools around the state."
Members of the PCAPS coalition include: Youth United For Change, Philadelphia Student Union, ACTION United, Philadelphia Federation Of Teachers, Philadelphia Home And School Council, UNITE HERE, SEIU 32BJ, Fight For Philly, Philadelphians Allied For a Responsible Economy, American Federation Of Teachers PA, Jobs With Justice, Teacher Action Group, Coalition Of Labor Union Women, Occupy Philadelphia Labor Work Group, Decarcerate PA, Association of Philadelphia School Librarians.
[An Nahar] The Iraqi authorities on Monday called for an end to what a bigwig said were illegal and illegitimate protest rallies in Sunni-majority provinces that have cut key trade routes.
The remarks released by the office of Ali al-Alaak, cabinet secretary general, came as protests blocking a key highway linking Iraq to Syria and Jordan entered a ninth day and authorities north of Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... declared general strikes.
The protests were sparked by the arrest on December 20 of at least nine of Finance Minister Rafa al-Essawi's guards, and have spurred allegations that the Shiite-led government uses anti-terror legislation to target the Sunni minority.
A statement posted on Alaak's office website acknowledged that the constitution guaranteed freedom of expression, assembly and dissent, but added that such freedoms must be practiced "in a way that does not oppose public order."
"These should not be carried out without the knowledge of authorities and their permission," it said. "What is happening now... is breaking the law and the constitution."
It said government employees must disregard a call from provincial authorities for a general strike aimed at pushing for the release of prisoners.
"All government offices in the provinces should not obey these illegitimate orders, or they will be held legally responsible," it said.
Nineveh province's three-day general strike extends to Tuesday, while Samarra, in Salaheddin province, began its own strike on Monday.
Protesters in Anbar province, meanwhile, blocked off the country's main highway to Syria and Jordan for a ninth straight day.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[An Nahar] Bosnian prosecutors on Monday charged eight former members of Moslem armed and police forces with committing war crimes against ethnic Serb civilians during the country's 1990s conflict.
The eight were charged with "taking part in illegal detention of Serb civilians, their inhuman treatment, beating and inflicting of serious bodily injuries... and other inhuman acts," a national prosecutor's office statement said.
The crimes were committed in the region of the eastern town of Kladanj between May 1992 and July 1993, it said.
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[Dawn] A prayer leader was rubbed out in a targeted attack apparently on sectarian grounds near Hill Park on Sunday, police said.
Maulana Rafiqul Khalil, 35, was heading to the Alamgir Masjid in Bahdurabad from his Korangi seminary in his car when assailants riding a cycle of violence sprayed his vehicles with bullets near Hill Park on Shaheed-e-Millat Road and escaped.
"His driver noticed that two men on a cycle of violence were following them and he tried to speed away. However, denial ain't just a river in Egypt... the assailants started firing near Hill Park and the Maulana suffered a single shot in the neck," DIG-East Aleem Jafri said. "The driver didn't stop and drove the car straight to the Alamgir Masjid from where the victim was rushed to the Liaquat National Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. He's dead, Jim! The police said Maulana Khalil was the prayer leader of the Alamgir Masjid and was coming from his seminary located in Korangi.
A senior police officer associated with the investigation of the case said Maulana Khalil was formally associated with a banned religious outfit.
Considering his background, the police were of the opinion that the attack on Maulana Khalil had a sectarian motive and was related to the ongoing spate of sectarian strife taking place in the city.
In 2001, Anwar Naseem Chandna, the chief of one of the country's major social welfare organizations, Alamgir Welfare Trust, was rubbed out in a similar manner near Alamgir mosque in Bahadurabad.
Young man rubbed out
A young man was rubbed out in Baldia Town on Sunday.
Police said that the incident took place in Ghazi Goth near Bismillah Chowk within the remit of the Baldia Town cop shoppe, where unknown assailants riding a motorbike targeted Sher Khan, 35, who was also riding a cycle of violence.
They said the victim suffered two bullet wounds in the chest and head and was struck down in his prime.
The police shifted the body to the Civil Hospital for medico-legal formalities.
The Sherlocks suspected some personal enmity as a likely motive for the killing.
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[The Globe And Mail] The family of an Indian gang-rape victim said they would not rest until her killers are hanged as they spoke of their own pain and trauma over a crime that has united the country in grief.
As the ruling Congress party reportedly pushed for tougher punishments for sex crimes, including chemical castration, authorities in New Delhi launched a hotline to improve safety for women in a city dubbed "India's rape capital."
And while the country returned to work after a weekend marked by candlelit vigils and street protests following the 23-year-old's death, few people were in the mood to celebrate the new year. Even the army ordered a halt to its festivities.
The woman, who friends say was planning to marry in February, died of her injuries on Saturday in a Singapore hospital, nearly two weeks after being savagely attacked by a group of men on a bus in New Delhi. She was cremated on Sunday.
In an interview published Monday, her brother said that although the unidentified medical student could now rest in peace, the family would not relent in their fight for justice.
"The fight has just begun. We want all the accused hanged and we will fight for that, till the end," he told The Indian Express.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2013
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#1
And drawn and quartered?
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
01/01/2013 0:57
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[Daily Mail.CO.UK] Followers of cult leader, Warren Jeffs, who is behind bars for sexually assaulting young girls, are reportedly preparing for the end of the world tomorrow, after their former leader warned of Armageddon before midnight.
The only supermarket and major meeting point of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints community across the movement's key sites - Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah - has been closed, and an expert in the sect has warned CNN the preparations could be a dangerous signal.
Sam Brower, a private investigator who represents more than 100 former FLDS members, said law enforcement officers will monitor the situation in Jeffs' community closely - rather than just dismissing it as another false Armageddon warning from the radical preacher.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2013
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#1
So how many times have I survived the End of the World? And I'm talking just this year...
#2
You know the "end is NOT near" when a Kroger coin machine charges .09% to cash in your small change jar, but freely accepts EBT cards at no additional charge for prime rib, fresh produce, and Deli treats.
Posted by: Barbara ||
01/01/2013 10:08
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#6
It didn't end. It just rebooted.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2013 10:42
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#7
This rebooted world seems to have the same conditions & cast of characters as the previous one had. This brave new world is, however, deeper in debt than the previous one was.
#8
This rebooted world seems to have the same conditions & cast of characters as the previous one had. This brave new world is, however, deeper in debt than the previous one was.
Well, OTOH Russia and China seem to be doing just fine.
#10
D *** NG IT, the World can't end tonite - I haven't exploited McDonald's MCRIB Promo yet! I DEMAND A RECOUNT!
> MASSIVE SOLAR FLARE - the Sun. EARLY/SUDDEN
"RED GIANT" PHASE = SOLAR EXPANSION???
> GLOBAL VOLCANISM = HIMALAYAN SUPER-CALDERA - mostly the Sun [again].
> COMET APOPHIS + GUAM, EARTH-VISIBLE MOON EXPLOSIONS = lack of effec OWG Space Defense because there is reliable OWG because US-World Govts-Perts are still arguing about everything, i.e. "who pays". The International Community mightiest achievemnet is "agreeing to "disagee" hence little or nothing gets done. See also above for SOLAR FLARE/STORM.
> PLANET X/NIBIRU - challenge to the "status quo" of prevailing theories, includ Archaeo-Astronomy, as per our Planetary System.
> 1990'S COMET SHOEMAKER-LEVY 9 BREAKUP + JUPITER IMPACT - did Comet SL9 impact displace surface debris = chunks from Jupiter's surface into its high atmosphere iff not space orbit such as to threaten Earth??? AFAIK, NASA-JPL + UNIVERSITY STAR/SPACE BOYZ HAVE N-O-T ANSWERED THE QUESTION.
> RANDOM/MISCELLANEOUS INCOMING SPACE ROCKS. See for OWG + COMET APOPHIS.
CONSIDERING HOW MANY TIMES NASA + PERTS CALCULATIONS HAVE BEEN WAY OFF, AFAIC THE ABOVE SUBJECT MATTER OR QUESTIONS ARE QUITE VALID.
* "KELLY'S HEROES" > GENERAL CARROL O'CONNOR = "YOU GENTLEMAN ARE THE ONES THATS SUPPOSED TO BE MANAGING/FIGHTING THIS WAR - HELL, YOU DON'T DON'T EVEN KNOW WHERE IT IS! WELL I'LL TELL YOU WHERE IT IS - ITS 30 MILES BEYOND WHERE YOU THOUGHT IT WAS ... ... COME ON, NOW, LETS GET THIS ARMY OF MINE [OWG Space Govt] BACK IN THE WAR"!!
#2
This sounds unlikely, except: It seems LESS unlikely than that a SEAL Commander committed suicide. A few weeks ago, I found that report very, very questionable.
#3
I'm no conspiracy theorist, but I have to wonder if somewhere Ron Brown is laughing...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/01/2013 1:54
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#4
Everything was going so well. Meryl Streep had agreed to play Clinton, Paul Ryan had agreed to play Ahmadinejad, Obama had agreed to play Obama.... and then this happened.
#6
Wait, Teddy, now Hillary? I'm not saying I'm HAPPY, but is God starting to get angry?
Posted by: Charles ||
01/01/2013 10:20
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#7
TEHRAN, Iran - A small American commercial plane left Iran on 30 Dec 2012 after it was repaired following an emergency landing at an Iranian airport this month, Iran state TV reported.
#10
Some actual photos of the damaged C-12 on the ground would support this, however the 'suicide' news struck me as funny as well.
perhaps they are with the Bengahzi survivors, for 'safe keeping.'
#12
Clearly not the whole story. I find it curious that a google search didn't find a single hit amongst the main stream media. Must not involve any mud against Republicans.
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
01/01/2013 13:31
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#13
www.rumormills.com sez the plane encountered turbulence after landing and that caused runway departure. i suspect more like wake turbulence just before touching down, no mention of other aircraft in the area, and if they were following a 'heavy,' (compared to the C-12, just about anythig would be a 'heavy')the wing tip vortices could have got 'em when they were on final with no altitude to play with.
#14
Well one thing appears certain. The C-12's flight manifest contained no African Americans. The Black Congressional Caucus, led by Maxine Waters would already be screaming for a full investigation.
#18
I tried to post a question at the O-Club, but it wouldn't 'add'. Question, outside of incompetance and derelection of duty, were any laws broken regarding the Bengazi episode?
#20
I don't know, Mugsy. My gut feeling is they acted incompetent and committed dereliction of duty because they were trying to hide something. What, I don't know, they seem to have succeeded.
[An Nahar] Iran's diminutive PresidentMahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad has again spoken out against the use of pressure to impose Islamic values on people, especially university candidates, media reported on Monday.
"You cannot impose things by issuing decrees and directives -- a choice imposed by force has no value whatsoever," Ahmadinejad said in a speech on Sunday.
"In some universities, female students are forced to wear the chador (covering the whole body, leaving only the face exposed), but the way they are forced to wear it... it is better not worn since it becomes worthless," he said.
He also criticized criteria on the selection of university candidates, citing the case of a student denied university admittance in the 1980s because he had shaved. Being unshaven in Iran is a sign that you are a good Mohammedan.
Ahmadinejad also mentioned another case of a girl refused a university place because she had "talked to a boy in the street and had her headscarf back an inch," thereby showing her hair.
He said that after he intervened in both cases they were granted places.
Ahmadinejad also denounced some of the questions posed to candidates during interviews for government jobs.
"We have asked people if they drank alcohol or have illicit sexual relations. This is an insult and goes against religion," he said.
Ahmadinejad, whose second and final presidential term ends in 2013, has repeatedly drawn the ire of ultra-conservative religious figures in the Islamic republic by advocating a more liberal view of Islam, criticizing in particular the use of force to compel women to cover their hair.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#5
What Ahmadinejad is arguing for is a de-tensioning of the rack. It's not out of any sort of liberalism. It's to keep Iranian society from approaching full-boil discontent.
[Washington Post] His Excellency President-for-Life, Caudillo of the Bolivarians Hugo Chavezs new complications after cancer surgery prompted his closest allies to call for Venezuelans to pray for him on Monday, presenting an increasingly bleak outlook and prompting growing speculation about whether the ailing leader has much longer to live.
Vice President Nicolas Maduro looked weary and spoke with a solemn expression as he announced in a televised address from Havana on Sunday that Chavez now confronts new complications due to a respiratory infection nearly three weeks after his operation. He described Chavezs condition as delicate.
The streets of Caracas were abuzz on Monday with talk of Chavezs increasingly tough fight, while the news topped the front pages of the countrys newspapers.
Hes history now, said Cesar Amaro, a street vendor selling newspapers and snacks at a kiosk in downtown Caracas. He motioned to a daily on the rack showing side-by-side photos of Maduro and National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello, and said politics will now turn to them.
Amaro said he expects a new election soon to replace Chavez. For an illness like the one the president has, his days are numbered now, he said matter-of-factly.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Best Health Care in the Western Hemisphere.
Harry Belafonte told me...
#5
Poor bastid. A very, very bad way to go. Hope he's reconciled everything with his Intelligent Designer. Like him or not, he's a tough old paratrooper.
#6
He's a hell of a politician and knew/knows exactly what his peeps want to hear. But tough? After the first coup they found him in the armed forces museum hiding under a desk in um..... smelly drawers.
But paratrooper counts for something, I ain't ever jumped outta no plane.
[North Jersey] Pakistain released eight Taliban prisoners, including former justice minister Nooruddin Turabi, on Monday in an effort to facilitate the grinding of the peace processor in neighboring Afghanistan.
The announcement by Pakistain's Foreign Ministry also said that 18 Taliban prisoners were released in November at the request of an Afghan High Peace Council delegation during its visit to Islamabad.
But the freed Taliban detainees did not include former deputy leader Abdul Ghani Baradar, tossed in the calaboose ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... in 2010. The release of Baradar and other Taliban leaders from Pakistain's custody has been a long-standing demand of Afghanistan's Caped PresidentHamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... 's government, which believes that their freedom would help convince Taliban leaders to join the sluggish peace and reconciliation process.
The release of prisoners reflects Islamabad's readiness to promote peace in Afghanistan amid concerns that civil war and strife in that nation after the U.S. troop exit scheduled for 2014 would have perilous consequences for Pakistain.
The Taliban did not immediately comment on Monday's release of prisoners, and it was unclear whether such efforts would help bring the cut-throats to the negotiating table.
The release marks incremental progress on an issue that many in Afghanistan view as intractable. The Taliban has repeatedly refused to recognize the legitimacy of Karzai's government. Despite a recent meeting between Afghan officials and alleged members of the Taliban outside of Gay Paree, officials close to Karzai have recently expressed doubts about the state of negotiations.
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[Reuters] At least 23 people were killed and 87 maimed in attacks across Iraq on Monday, police said, underlining sectarian and ethnic divisions that threaten to further destabilize the country a year after U.S. troops left.
Tensions between Shi'ite, Kurdish and Sunni factions in Iraq's power-sharing government have been on the rise this year. Militants strike almost daily and have staged at least one big attack a month.
The latest violence followed more than a week of protests against Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki by thousands of people from the minority Sunni community.
No group grabbed credit for any of Monday's attacks, which targeted government officials, police patrols and members of both the Sunni and Shi'ite communities.
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[An Nahar] Syria's government on Monday welcomed any initiative for talks to end bloodshed in the country, after U.N.-Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said he had a peace plan acceptable to world powers.
The regime's stand, expressed by Prime Minister Wael al-Halaqi, came amid a flurry of diplomacy led by Brahimi to find ways to end the 21-month conflict.
But the violence still raged, with activists reporting the gruesome discovery of dozens of tortured, headless corpses in a Damascus ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... district, adding that nearly 90 percent of the 45,000 people killed so far died in 2012.
"The government is working to support the national reconciliation project and will respond to any regional or international initiative that would solve the current crisis through dialogue and peaceful means and prevent foreign intervention in Syria's internal affairs," Halaqi told parliament.
He said the revolt against Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Leveler of Latakia... 's regime must be resolved only by the Syrian people, "without external pressures or decrees".
Halaqi said the country was "moving toward a historic moment when it will declare victory over its enemies, with the goal of positioning Syria to build a new world order that promotes national illusory sovereignty and the concept of international law".
Brahimi said Sunday he had crafted a ceasefire plan "that could be adopted by the international community".
The proposal involved a ceasefire, the formation of a government, an election plan, and was based on an agreement world powers reached in Geneva in June.
The opposition has already rejected that accord, and insists Assad must go before any dialogue can take place.
Russia and China have so far vetoed three U.N. Security Council draft resolutions seeking to force Assad's hand with the threat of sanctions.
The violence has escalated, with activists reporting the discovery of 30 tortured bodies in a flashpoint district of Damascus, while a gruesome video emerged of a separate slaying of three children in the capital.
"Thirty bodies were found in the Barzeh district. They bore signs of torture and have so far not been identified," said the Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The Syrian Revolution General Commission activist network gave a higher estimate of 50 bodies, saying "their heads were cut and disfigured to the point that it was no longer possible to identify" them.
The video posted online by activists showed the bodies of three young boys with their throats slit open and hands bound behind their backs. Their bodies were discovered on Monday in Jubar.
The Observatory also reported the killing of the boys, who activists said were kidnapped the day before at a checkpoint on their way home from school.
Regime warplanes, meanwhile, bombarded rebel positions on the outskirts of Damascus, killing eight civilians including two children, said the Observatory.
Fighting erupted in Daraya as army reinforcements massed in the contested town where more than 500 people were reportedly killed in the conflict's bloodiest massacre in August.
In central Syria, the army shelled the town of Halfaya in Hama province, where an air strike on a bakery last week killed 60 people, and Houla in Homs province, where pro-regime forces of Evil are suspected of killing more than 100 people in May in another major massacre.
The Observatory said nearly 90 percent of the 45,000 people killed in the conflict died in 2012, putting this year's toll at 39,362 people, mostly civilians.
The uprising began in March 2011 with peaceful protests inspired by the Arab Spring, but morphed into an armed rebellion following a brutal government crackdown.
The sharp increase in fatalities was due to a fierce escalation in the methods of crackdown by the regime, which included air raids on densely populated areas, said the Observatory.
Though rebels now hold vast swathes of territory and have struck the heart of Damascus, the regime has so far stood firm despite Western predictions of its imminent fall.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
PM Says Syria Backs 'Any Initiative' to End Conflict as Fighting Rages
"...as long as it leaves us and Pencilneck with our booty and our lives..."
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/01/2013 20:10
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
State security in the UAE have detained more than 10 people, including three doctors, accused of having links to the Muslim Brotherood in Egypt.
Mohmand Agency
[Magharebia] An Algerian imam who publicly denounced extremism escaped an assassination attempt on Sunday (December 30th), Tout sur l'Algerie reported. An unknown assailant reportedly stabbed the imam of the mosque in Mellakou, southwest of Tiaret.
[An Nahar] An improvised bomb 
Wazoo
[Dawn] A 
[An Nahar] Thirty tortured and disfigured bodies have been found in the northern 
[Dawn] THE heart-wrenching, nerve-shattering attack in 
Harry Reid
Goodluck Jonathan
The attack followed violence on Friday that saw attackers slit the throats of 15 Christians in a pre-dawn raid in Musari, also in the northeast. Musari and Chibok are located in Nigeria's Borno state, where Boko Haram has been based.
[NY Times] Doctors treating Secretary of State 
[An Nahar] In 
[Dawn] A prayer leader was 
[The Globe And Mail] The family of an Indian gang-rape victim said they would not rest until her killers are hanged as they spoke of their own pain and trauma over a crime that has united the country in grief.
[Daily Mail.CO.UK] Followers of cult leader, Warren Jeffs, who is behind bars for sexually assaulting young girls, are reportedly preparing for the end of the world tomorrow, after their former leader warned of Armageddon before midnight. 
Mahmoud 
His Excellency President-for-Life, Caudillo of the Bolivarians Hugo Chavez
[Reuters] At least 23 people were killed and 87 
[An Nahar] Syria's government on Monday welcomed any initiative for talks to end bloodshed in the country, after U.N.-
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
