DANNY BONADUCCE: At this point, I think, if anybody had a rope strong enough, Rosie should be strung up for treason.
Posted by: Mike ||
04/03/2007 6:56 Comments ||
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#2
I wish the American people had the intestinal fortitude to treat people like Rosie, Nancy, Harry, Hillary, Tom, John, Ted, Sean, and dozens of others with the contempt and utter disgust they so richly deserve. They should be so marginalized they couldn't draw attention from a five-year-old.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/03/2007 11:33 Comments ||
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#3
Mike you are right but this is a nation whose liberals and MSM anti American propaganda machine refuse to recognize we are at war with Islam. For that matter not ONE SINGLE MUSLIM TERRORIST has been hung yet.
After 9-11 Bush should have built a gallows in the bottom of the NY hole.
#6
And nuke Mecca and Troy and ummm.... wait, where's my damn script! Okay, Nuke Mecca and that other city and then that Iranian place Qom? Yeah! That's the ticket, do we nuke Amman? Ah hell, why not. Wait a second! Troy's in New York! AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
Strongmen from Afghanistan's war-filled past, some of them once staunch enemies, launched a new political coalition Tuesday saying they wanted to build unity in the divided country. About 300 people, many of them key players in the country's turbulent past, gathered at a ceremony to launch the United National Front with former president Burhanuddin Rabbani as its leader.
The new coalition is perhaps the most significant political group to emerge since the fall of the extremist Taliban government in 2001 set the country on an internationally agreed path to democracy. Coalition member Prince Mustafa Zahir, grandson of ailing former king Mohammad Zahir Shah, said the front would promote unity. "It's important to bring different people and factions together for peace in the shattered country," he said at the event attended by heavyweights like ex-defence minister Mohammad Qasim Fahim and parliamentary speaker Yonous Qanooni.
Among its goals is to change the 2003 constitution to allow for political parties to stand for proportional representation in parliament and for the appointment of a prime minister, Rabbani said. The 2005 parliamentary election, the first to be fully democratic, used the "single non-transferable vote" system in which ballots are cast for an individual and not political parties. The next legislative vote is due in 2010. The president is elected separately. "We are in favour of a parliamentary system under which both individuals and parties could be candidates for election," Rabbani said.
The new front also wanted governors of the 34 provinces to be elected by direct vote rather than appointed by the president, said Rabbani, a parliamentarian. It would "not work against the government. It will work besides the government for the betterment of the nation," he said.
The front is mainly made up of various leaders of the armed resistance to the 1979-1989 Soviet occupation who turned on each other in a 1992-1996 civil war that was fought along ethnic lines. It includes former communists.
Many of the men in the new alliance were behind a rally of up to 25,000 people in Kabul late February that backed parliamentarians' demands for an amnesty for crimes and abuses committed in wars and conflict since 1979. Karzai later agreed to allow amnesty for groups but said individuals still had the right seek redress for atrocities.
I have to admit to rooting for the new group, mainly, I suppose, because I have a soft spot for the majority of these guys - the Northern Alliance "warlords." Rabbani showed a lot of class when he stepped out of the way for Karzai, and for all their fractiousness the north is a lot more stable than the south, where the Pashtuns live.
This article starring:
Burhanuddin Rabbani
former king Mohammad Zahir Shah
Mohammad Qasim Fahim
Prince Mustafa Zahir
United National Front
Yonous Qanooni
Posted by: ed ||
04/03/2007 12:49 ||
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#1
The devil is in the details. Undoubtedly, the war lords are hoping to set up a weak federation, so that they can again turn to "might makes right" in their little princedoms. If, however, the central government can assert control over certain aspects of the federation, like secret elections, largesse and the tight control of local patronage and private armies, then it might have a chance.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai in an interview published on Sunday accused Pakistans intelligence agencies of sheltering fugitive Taliban leader Mulla Mohammad Omar.
Karzai said Omar, who has been on the run since being toppled by a US-led coalition some five years ago, is being harboured in Quetta. We have solid, clear information indicating that, he told the New York Times. And Im sorry I cannot be silent about this, as much as our friends in Pakistan may not like my saying that, he said.
Karzai also blamed Islamabad for a resurgence of violence along their common border. We have almost daily reports of suicide bombers coming from there, he told the newspaper. If we have better cooperation from Pakistan, a great many of these cross-border crossings would stop.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Send Pelosi over to talk to Blinky. I'm sure he'd love to see her.
"Oh, my. What happened to your eye?"
Thousands of Taliban bombers have been deployed across Afghanistan to attack Western troops and the government, the group's military chief said on Monday. Following last year's violence, the worst since the Taliban's ouster in 2001, this year is regarded as the crunch period both for the Taliban and U.S.-led Western troops. Speaking by satellite phone from Quetta an undisclosed location, Mullah Dadullah, the Taliban's military head, also said the Islamic militants had the ability and the weapons to fight foreign troops for a long time.
"We have sent thousands of Taliban suicide bombers to all Afghan cities for attacks on foreign troops and their Afghan puppets," Dadullah said. "And we will turn our motherland into the graveyard of the U.S forces and their families should wait for their dead bodies. The Taliban's war is only for the freedom of Afghanistan from the enemies of Muslims."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
I dunno about "thousands," but we can deploy scores of bombers to the Pak border. Ours are bigger.
#2
I assumed you guys have made up Mullah Dadullah but now I see that is his real name. I can imagine the young Bob Dadullah wondering what to do when he grew up. "I know! I'll be a mullah.. get it? Get it?"
The person convicted of the assassination of former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, Nabil Bakr, was released from prison recently, local Egyptian newspapers reported. Bakr, a member of Islamic Jihad, was sentenced to life in prison by a military tribunal in 1982 for his participation in planning the attack on Sadat. Under Egyptian law, a life prison term is 15 years, but Bakr was kept in jail ten years longer because the Egyptian government said he was too dangerous to be released.
The group's leader, Aboud El Zomor, who is also a former ex-intelligence officer, over and over contested the legality of keeping Bakr in prison. El Zomor is believed to be the mastermind behind the Sadat assassination, according to the Egyptian security authorities. According to reports, Bakr and four other members of the Jihad group were released.
For what it's worth, the gentleman named in this prison release story doesn't seem to be named in any of the linked links. Maybe he used aliases, maybe he was the day player in the red shirt beaming down with the away team.
Algeria has found out that the Islamist movement has largely replaced its Al Qaeda-aligned leadership. Algerian security sources said that under its new name, Al Qaida Organization in Islamic Maghreb, the Salafists have replaced much of their longtime leadership. The security sources said many of the field commanders and operatives were removed and militants trained in Iraq were appointed. "We are seeing new faces among the Salafists captured by security forces and many, if not, most of them, received their training in Iraq," a security source said.
Over the last month, Algerian authorities arrested more than 30 suspected Al Qaida operatives, formerly named the Salafist Brigade for Combat and Call. The sources said the detainees marked a new generation of Islamic militants who refused an amnesty offer by President Abdul Aziz Bouteflika. Al Qaeda Organisation of the Islamic Maghreb, a group of Algerian Islamist rebels formerly known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) has waged fierce attacks on different targets in Algeria in March. The death toll from political violence in Algeria more than doubled to 45 in March from February as the army stepped up attacks on Islamist militants, according to a count based on newspaper reports.
The increase in casualties stems from a military push in the Kabylie region east of the capital in which helicopter gunships, armoured vehicles and thousands of troops were deployed against rebels holed up in mountains and forests, the newspapers said. Of the 45 dead, 33 were rebels, 11 were soldiers and one was a foreigner, a Russian, the newspapers reported. The toll compares with 18 dead in February and 21 dead in January, bringing to 84 the number of people killed in political conflict in the first quarter of the year, according to the newspapers which have correspondents in the Kabylie region. No comparative figures were available for the same period last year.
The Russian was killed on March 3 in a bomb attack on a bus carrying workers for a Russian gas pipeline construction firm. The attack was claimed by the al Qaeda Organisation of the Islamic Maghreb, a group of Algerian Islamist rebels formerly known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) who adopted the new name in January to deepen ties to al Qaeda.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2007 00:00 ||
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RAF Top Guns were stunned last night after being asked to think of being Kamikaze pilots in the war on terror. Elite fliers were shocked into silence when a senior RAF chief said they should consider suicide missions as a last resort against terrorist targets.
Air Vice Marshal David Walker put forward the attacks like those flown by desperate Japanese pilots in World War Two as a worst case scenario should they run out of ammo or their weapons failed. He asked aircrews at a conference: Would you think it unreasonable if I ordered you to fly your aircraft into the ground in order to destroy a vehicle carrying a Taliban or al-Qaeda commander? Such an order would mean certain death for a pilot who cost £6million to train and the loss of a £50million jet.
Last night pilots slammed the suggestion as utter madness. One summing up a flabbergasted After you, Sir reaction said: Im prepared to give it a go but only if the Air Vice Marshal shows me how to do it first. Another added: The idea of officers ordering personnel to commit suicide is disgusting.
Air Vice Marshal Walker is head of the RAFs elite One Group and in operational control of all our Typhoon, Tornado, Jaguar, and Harrier fighters and bombers. The crews he was addressing included newly-qualified pilots of the Typhoon, Britains latest state-of-the-art fighter.
The officer, based in the Air Command bunker at High Wycombe, Bucks, gave an example of the sacrifice to be expected from a wartime Spitfire pilot if his guns had jammed and Nazi leader Adolf Hitler was in a car below. Air Vice Marshal Walker himself a former Top Gun Harrier pilot who had his cockpit canopy shot out in action over Iraq told crews they knew when they joined up they would have to risk their lives.
But one Top Gun stormed: His idea of leadership is to suggest that it is within his power to authorise the first example of an ordered Kamikaze attack in the RAFs 89-year history.
He is subtly suggesting that if he wished he could order anyone in his command to die.
Another said: Imagine, as you are floating skyward towards the pearly gates having parked your jet in the desert at 500 knots, that intelligence had it wrong and that the bloke driving the car was actually a plumber taking his children to school?
Imagine trying to fly your fast pointy thing at an evading car. The bloke driving only has to swerve at the last minute and its Goodnight Vienna, mission failed.
A third said: The politicians tell us that we have the right troops and equipment for the job. Surely such tactics, not to mention the loss of expensive equipment and manpower, are not required.
A Top Gun who was at the conference likened it to a scene from Rowan Atkinsons madcap historical comedy, saying: It was a true Blackadder moment a huge shock.
A military source said: The need to do a kamikaze attack would probably only arise if a very high-value target was to suddenly appear and the jet was out of ammo.
There would be no way for a pilot to survive if he wanted to hit a vehicle.
A senior MoD source said: Air Vice Marshal Walker was not saying that he would order his crews to sacrifice their lives in order to kill a high-value al-Qaeda target or stop a suicide airliner. He was trying to be provocative and make them think the unthinkable, the worst-case scenario.
He was making clear that all Service personnel can be asked to sacrifice themselves. Indeed, there have been occasions when soldiers, sailors and airmen have done just that.
He wanted crews to understand that he, too, could be faced with terrible decisions.
In an official statement to The Sun, the MoD said: Air Vice Marshal Walker did not say he would order his crews on suicide missions.
He wanted them to think about how they would react faced with an extreme life or death decision for example terrorists trying to fly an aircraft into a British city, being followed by an RAF fighter which suffers weapons failure.
Ex-RAF hero John Nichol shot down and captured in the first Gulf War in 1991 said: Being asked to commit suicide is ridiculous. I find it difficult to believe he meant it.
#4
Drat it all. I was going to make a wisecrack about "tarang" being difficult to do in a jet, but Google only turns up hits for a new Russian radar with that name.
Anyone else here familiar with how Russian prop-craft pilots were instructed, as a last resort, to use their plane's propeller to chew into an enemy aircraft? I recall this maneuver being called "tarang".
As to this RAF nonsense, the pilots have every right to be absolutely outraged.
Would you think it unreasonable if I ordered you to fly your aircraft into the ground in order to destroy a vehicle carrying a Taliban or al-Qaeda commander?
Ummmm ... yes. The vehicle convoys of most top officials have numerous decoy cars specifically to reduce the effectiveness of such a threat. Wotta rectal cavity!
#5
...I've worked with the RAF and I know their history - if these men saw a target whose survival would mean the death of hundreds or thousands or millions of Britons, they wouldn't hesitate to firewall the throttles and dive into it. It sounds to me like AVM Walker managed to word it like he was suggesting the possibility of ordered suicide attacks as a part of routine combat ops. I can't imagine ordering anyone to dive into a car carrying Bin Laden - it would be a LOT more valuable to have them follow the vehicle.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
04/03/2007 16:42 Comments ||
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#6
Is this the same Britain that would not or stopped an order to rescue 15 of its personnel being abducted on the high seas?
Sounds like the top dogs over there are both out of touch, one with a terminal case of testicular atrophy, the other with a severe case of the vapors.
(WWWD: What Would Winston Do?)
#7
How hard would it be to set up an F-14 to fly by remote control from an AWACs.
Paint the thing with Iranian markings and smash it into the target of choice. Make sure cameras are there so everyone sees the markings and assumes it's an accident.
Do it twice and the Iranian people might start to think that their own Air Force is in rebellion. I'd bet Ahmadajad would start a purge, blaming his own officers.
#9
Russian prop-craft pilots were instructed, as a last resort, to use their plane's propeller to chew into an enemy aircraft
Chewing my ass. They rammed German combat aircraft...
Instructions were not necessary, Russians are hardwired.
Indeed. Soviet pilot SOP was when in combat and they ran out of ordnance, they did have the option of ramming enemy aircraft. While it wasn't common, it did happen. Some pilots even survived the ramming.
#11
Back in the day, if a soviet boomer were on the surface and getting ready to fire its nukes and there were no other way to take it out, it was just understood that the ASW aircraft involved would crash directly into it. That's just the way it was, and everybody on board knew it.
#12
Bigfoot - that makes sense, and I'm sure those willingly giving their lives to save entire American cities would volunteer. That's why they deserve our praise and support
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/03/2007 21:29 Comments ||
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Seventeen suspected members of the Tamil Tigers rebel group were detained Sunday in Paris during an investigation into terrorist financing activities, sources close to the case said. Police made the arrests under the direction of anti-terrorist judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere, the sources said.
The suspects are alleged to be involved in extortion, violence and detentions as part of fundraising activities for the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, who are fighting a separatist war in Sri Lanka. The Tigers were put on the EU terrorist list in May last year.
Those detained are suspected of having raised six million euros (eight million dollars) in France last year. Families were required to send 2,000 euros (2,700 dollars) per year to the organisation, and merchants had to pay up to 6,000 euros, sources said. Those who did not pay were threatened or detained, they said. Those in charge of raising the money were allowed to keep 20 percent as payment, the sources said. The Tamil community in France includes about 70,000 people.
Seeking to boost the movement to reinstitute a military draft, Rep. John Murtha is arguing that the U.S. should have a "citizen's army" in addition to a "volunteer, professional army." However, a critic of the Pennsylvania Democrat on Monday called his statement "ridiculous" and "without merit."
"I voted against the volunteer army because I felt if we ever had a war, we wouldn't be able to sustain [it]," Murtha said during the March 29 edition of CNN's "The Situation Room."
"This is one of the smallest armies we've had since before World War II, right before the Korean War," added the congressman. Murtha, a frequent critic of the war in Iraq, claimed that the president's handling of the war has depleted the country's strategic reserve.
"And I think also, everybody ought to be able to serve in this country," Murtha said. "I think we ought to not just have a select few who volunteer. I think everybody ought to be obligated to serve.
"We'd do it by lottery, and we'd call everybody up," he continued. "I think we have a citizen's army is what it ought to be, not just a volunteer professional army."
When host Wolf Blitzer noted that most members of Congress, the military and the American public don't want to bring back the draft, Murtha responded, "I think it's absolutely needed."
Murtha's comments make him the latest member of the U.S. House of Representatives to support a return of the draft, which is also the focus of a bill sponsored by Rep. Charlie Rangel.
On January 10, the New York Democrat introduced H.R. 393, which would "require all persons in the United States between the ages of 18 and 42 to perform national service, either as a member of the uniformed services or in civilian service in furtherance of the national defense and homeland security."
The bill would also "authorize the induction of persons in the uniformed services during wartime to meet end-strength requirements of the uniformed services."
As Cybercast News Service previously reported, Rangel and Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) in Dec. 2002 proposed a reinstatement of the military draft in an attempt to stall possible military action against Iraq.
"I think if [members of Congress] went home and found out that there were families concerned about their kids going off to war," Rangel said at the time, "there would be more cautiousness and more willingness to work with the international community than to say, 'Our way or the highway.'"
Rangel's proposal was voted down 402 to two despite his claims that the current volunteer military was the only employment option for minority youths living in impoverished areas.
However, the situation on Capitol Hill changed when Democrats won marginal control of both houses of Congress in November of 2006. As a result, Rangel now serves as chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, while Murtha chairs the Appropriations Committee's subcommittee on defense.
The concept of restoring the draft has received support from such individuals as John Roper, professor of history at Emory & Henry College in Emory, Va.
#2
There are a lot of people who could seriously benefit from getting drafted - but only if the military puts away all its PCBS and trains like it did in the olden days. Run those butter butts into shape. Enforce serious discipline. Learn teamwork. Lots of transferrable skills. All on top of getting to kill some terrorists. What's not to like?
#3
However, the situation on Capitol Hill changed when Democrats won marginal control of both houses of Congress in November of 2006. As a result, Rangel now serves as chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, while Murtha chairs the Appropriations Committee's subcommittee on defense.
i.e. : more pork for votes - political whoreing. How appropriate that they recognize the Donk's penchant to throw national security and common sense away for political pork/vote buying. Disgusting assholes
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/03/2007 20:41 Comments ||
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Posted by: Hupique Protector of the Geats1059 ||
04/03/2007 21:17 Comments ||
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#8
Draftees could not learn to be proficient on modern weapons systems unless they were drafted for 4 to 6 years. All they would do would be suck up the money and prevent the regulars from being well armed, well equipped and well trained. Basically this is just another Democrat scheme to emasculate our military.
#9
We have a very small military, compared to the military after WWII to Vietnam. Small, and a hell of a lot better. The bang for the buck is mind boggling and the quality is far better than any other military in the history of the world. And while it may not be able to cover as much, it can do it a hell of a lot better with a hell of a lot less loss of innocent life and soldiers.
As the fella said, "you just can't make this shit up".
TACOMA -- Tacoma police say last month's 12-day anti-war protests cost the city an unbudgeted $500,000 to provide a large-scale law enforcement presence. Malkin linked a video of lefties in full taunting mode.
The rough estimate covers overtime, regular compensation, equipment and food for hundreds of workers from Tacoma police and other agencies, Assistant Chief Bob Sheehan said. The city plans to ask the Port of Tacoma and the military to cover some of the costs. "That's a tremendous hit on our budget -- a half-million dollars of unexpected expense," said Tacoma Mayor Bill Baarsma, adding that the military would get the first invoice. "I think our request is justifiable," Baarsma said. "I would expect that we would be reimbursed. I would be surprised if we weren't."
Police increased law enforcement at the Port of Tacoma during the convoying and storage of Army Stryker vehicles from March 3 until a ship carrying the military equipment left for Iraq on March 14. Protesters were there each night. I trust in the future Tacoma will be charging victims of crimes for the incarcerations of criminals.
info@billbaarsma.com
bbaarsma@cityoftacoma.org
747 Market Street, Suite 1200
Tacoma, WA 98402-3766
253.591.5100
By the way don't visit his re-election website. It tries to download a trojan to your browser.
The military could handle their own security, though some might not like the methods. Of course I'm one who thinks we could save a lot of illegal immigrant lives by gunning a few down on the border and leaving their bones for the buzzards - might discourage some of the scores who die of dehydration or exhaustion etc. trying to cross the desert.
#2
Tacoma coddles em, Tacoma pays for em. So sad, STFU and suck it up, Bob. Otherwise, you might actually have to charge the actual disrupters with the costs.... heaven forbid! IIRC we had a Tacoma troll here - so I'm not feeling real accomodationist-like. F*ck em. Ask St. Pancake's parental-unit's fund for the coin
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/03/2007 20:37 Comments ||
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#3
Just take it out of all the federal money the city already gets in pork and other programs.
President Bush and Congress are wrestling for the upper hand in the Iraq war debate, with neither side willing to back down and a top Democrat saying for the first time he wants to yank money for combat. Bush was expected to speak Tuesday to reporters at the White House on Iraq war funding.
The president's remarks come one day after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who previously has stopped short of saying he would support measures to cut off funds, announced he would try to eliminate money for the war if Bush rejects Congress' proposal to set a deadline to end combat.
"If the president vetoes the supplemental appropriations bill and continues to resist changing course in Iraq, I will work to ensure this legislation receives a vote in the Senate in the next work period," Reid said in a statement.
Reid spokesman Jim Manley said the bill to cut off funds for the war would likely be introduced as standalone legislation and would not be tied to the supplemental spending bill. No pork attached to garner votes, Harry?
Reid's proposal would be the most extreme and divisive measure to be considered by Democrats to try to force Bush's hand on the war.
Most Republicans and many conservative Democratic senators, including Ben Nelson of Nebraska, have been reluctant to embrace a timetable in Iraq. Nelson agreed last week to swing behind the Senate spending bill, which calls for troops to leave by March 31, 2008, only because the date was nonbinding and not a firm deadline. Nelson also agreed to vote for the measure because Reid added language Nelson wanted outlining steps the Iraqi government should take to improve stability in Iraq.
Reid's promise marks a new shift in strategy for Democrats. Reid was previously reluctant to embrace the suggestion of using Congress' power of the purse and deflected questions on the matter by saying Democrats would provide troops with what they need to be safe. The safest place is at their home base, eh Harry?
His latest proposal would give the president one year to get troops out, ending funding for combat operations after March 31, 2008, and allowing troops to conduct only counterterrorism operations, train Iraqi forces and provide security for U.S. infrastructure and personnel.
This latest challenge indicates Reid is likely both frustrated by Bush's insistence on the war and his own shaky majority in Congress. Unable to override a presidential veto because he lacks the necessary two-thirds majority support, Reid is trying to ratchet up the pressure on Bush in the hopes the president will cave. A political expert on the radio this morning said the Dems were "caught between a rock and a hard place. The rock is the President and the hard place is the antiwar activists." [wipes tear]
While Bush has remained steadfast in his insistence on keeping U.S. troops inside Iraq in large numbers, he does so without the blessing of voters. Six in 10 Americans say they favor a timetable to remove all troops within six months, and the number grows to 71 percent if all troops are removed within two years, according to recent completely fair and unbiased AP-Ipsos polling.
But threatening to cut off funding for the troops makes Democrats a target for criticisms that they have turned their backs on the military a charge administration officials and Vice President Dick Cheney made Monday. "Standing with the troops means getting them the money that they need now," said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino.
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/03/2007 05:56 ||
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Unlike Queen Nancy, who claims to represent everybody, but only listens to her local constituents, Harry accepts e-mails from outlanders.
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/03/2007 6:14 Comments ||
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#2
When you show weakness or lack of resolve in the face of aggression, you get more aggression.
This is such a universal and invariant truth that it may as well be a fundamental principle of Newtonian physics. And any society that fails to muster a near-unanimous recognition of this principle is doomed.
Fucking liberal idiots...
Posted by: Dave D. ||
04/03/2007 7:11 Comments ||
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#3
I just wrote him to tell him what I think of his cowardice and treason. He's a contemptible whelp. Better he should stick to fraudulent land deals.
Posted by: Mac ||
04/03/2007 8:13 Comments ||
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#4
I blame THIS on Nevada. Time to hold the population responsible for their representation. FU nevada for putting this trash into office. FU and Vegas.
#6
In the short term, the Pentagon has considerable fat stores laid up to keep the troops going for at least a year. However, this is dependent on Bush just punishing the democrats--making them bleed out the ears--for cutting off the troops.
I'm taking a political attack campaign that would make Karl Rove as much a general as Norman Schwartzkopf. Incredible pressure put on every single democrat in the country until they are pleading to give the Pentagon more money.
#7
it started this morning with W's press conference
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/03/2007 10:20 Comments ||
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#8
That'd be great, 'Moose, but I don't think Bush & Co. possess the kind of callous brutality it would take to do that. Casper Milquetoast is not going to be slicing off any Democrat's balls; he going to be trying to "work with them to find a bipartisan solution". Barf...
Posted by: Dave D. ||
04/03/2007 10:20 Comments ||
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#9
Please of PLEASE let Bush play hardball with the Donks on this. They don't appear to have turned their backs on the Military, THEY HAVE TURNED their backs on the military. Shame on them.
#10
Reid is a major dick head. This strays from their game plan of carping, critisizing, having no plan, and never being responsible for anything. If they roll the dice and pull funding, they will lose later. In the mean time they are providing comfort and encouragement for the enemy and being a major pain in the ass.
#11
I sent my letter to the President on Sunday via fax, but I have not heard from the WH yet, heh. The WH needs some fire in its belly, or the dems will run all over them. This play by the dems is as much an act of war against this country as al Q. And I am not going for hyperbole here.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/03/2007 10:45 Comments ||
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#12
Need to bitch slap the donks hard and make it hurt.
#14
Sent my email via King Reid (via the address given above by Bobby), that is to be published on Leaders something??? It was part of the process of chosing, so I chose it!
#15
If Bush will man up, the donks will have their collective cajones painfully squeezed. But, I am not convineced Bush will call their bluff. I think he will blink.
#18
Thanks for the link, Bobby. I wrote a brief note to Senator Reid, explaining that if he even tries to push through his bill to cut off funds for the war in Iraq, I would actively work against Democratic candidates and issues at the local and state levels -- as well as national -- for the next 10 years. Ohio is a swing state, so that might pique his interest.
I may pop by later to share some interesting survey statistics I saw at the NRO's The Corner:
*A Bloomberg poll last month found that 61% of Americans believe withholding funding for the war is a bad idea, while only 28% believe it is a good idea.
*According to a March USA Today/Gallup poll, 61% of Americans oppose denying the funding needed to send any additional troops to Iraq.
*That poll also showed that only 20% of Americans want to withdraw the troops immediately.
*Public Opinion Strategies (POS) recently reported that a majority of voters (54%) oppose the Democrats imposing a reduction in troops below the level military commanders requested.
*A POS poll in February found that 59% of voters believe pulling out of Iraq immediately would do more to harm Americas reputation in the world than staying until order is restored.
*That POS poll also finds 57% of voters support staying in Iraq until the job is finished and the Iraqi government can maintain control and provide security for its people.
*According to a Time magazine poll also taken in March, only 32% want to withdraw the troops within the next year no matter what happens.
#20
If Bush will man up, the donks will have their collective cajones painfully squeezed. But, I am not convineced Bush will call their bluff. I think he will blink.
Confrontation isn't Bush's style... or rather President Bush's style. I think he's one of those "The office is too dignified for that kind of behavior" Presidents.
On the other hand he can be unbelievably loyal to people and ideas--even when his supporters would rather he not be (most notably on immigration from Mexico).
I don't think he'll blink on this, but nor do I think he'll ever be as roll-up-the-sleeves, in-your-face confrontational with the Democratniks as you, I or any other Red-Blooded Conservative would want.
#21
This plus Drudges picture of Pelosi in Syria today make me want to puke with disgust. We either need a total re-haul of the House and Senate or someway to allow the citizens of their districts to have an IMMEDIATE VOTE to remove them from office. I know they were elected in the latter solution but with this traitorism in the forefront of their minds maybe the vote would be different.
Posted by: Charles ||
04/03/2007 17:11 Comments ||
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#22
I bet you everything that Dingus Harry will lose. The Prez will whip his ass like the mule he is.
Yeeha!
The Prez has the bully pulpit. The generals will begin talking about what's not being provided and Dingus Harry will end up looking like a used condom.
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/03/2007 19:06 Comments ||
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ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Maryland is poised to become the first state to approve giving its electoral votes for president to the winner of the national popular vote, rather than to the candidate chosen by state voters.
"Ya'll go ahead and vote. Whatever you decide's good with us."
The plan, passed Monday by the state House, would take effect only if states representing a majority of the nation's 538 electoral votes adopted the same change. Some states are considering the move as a way to avoid a scenario in which a candidate wins the national popular vote but loses in the Electoral College, as Democrat Al Gore lost to George W. Bush in 2000.
They'll change their minds when the party designations are reversed...
Supporters of the Maryland bill said the state, which has 10 electoral votes, gets passed over by presidential candidates who head to larger battleground states. Opponents say the change is unnecessary and constitutionally questionable. The final vote in the Democrat-controlled House of Delegates was 85-54, with only one Republican endorsing it. The Senate has already passed the bill, and Gov. Martin O'Malley, a pretty boy Democrat, plans to sign it, said spokesman Rick Abbruzzese.
"I like signin' things. Makes me look decisive!"
Delegate Jon Cardin argued that the measure would make Maryland more relevant in the presidential campaign. "If you want Florida and Ohio to continue to have all the attention, all the money and all the interaction with presidential candidates, and have us be overlooked, then don't vote for this bill," said Cardin, a Democrat.
You idiot. Maryland gets overlooked because it was and is (for a reason that escapes me entirely) solidly blue, with the Big Blue Baltimore Machine ensuring that things will stay that way for years to come. Maryland's proximity to Washington DC and ample supply of bureaucrats and rich lobbists ensures that Maryland is always first in line for goodies like highway money and pretty marble buildings. I despise this bill and all y'all RB'ers not in MD please go tell your state legicritters to VOTE NO. Gah.
I fail to see the logic of why this bill would make anybody at all pay attention to Maryland. Get the rest of the country and Maryland will come along.
But House Republican Leader Anthony O'Donnell called on lawmakers to reject the measure, which he argued would allow people outside Maryland to dictate the voters' choice and turn the state away from constitutional safeguards designed to protect smaller states. "In fact, the citizens of Maryland could vote overwhelmingly, 100 percent, for one candidate, and yet the electors of Maryland the 10 electoral votes could go for another candidate," O'Donnell said.
But that'd be because more decisive states had made a different decision.
Under the present system, voters support slates of electors, who then meet to choose the president. The Electoral College has 538 members, and the winning candidate needs at least 270 votes. National Popular Vote, a group that supports the change, says bills have been introduced in 22 states. The Arkansas House and Hawaii and Colorado senates have voted for the change. North Dakota and Montana voted against it this year.
Pretty much comes down to an attempt to overturn the electoral college and make Wyoming irrelevant.
California lawmakers adopted the measure last year, but Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed it. "This opens the door to a national popular vote for president, which is something that people have wanted for a long time," Ryan O'Donnell, a spokesman for the group, said of the Maryland bill.
Some people have. The rest of us have been content with a republic. Rather proud of it, in fact. Bangladesh had a democracy up until a month or two ago.
#1
What the hell. SCOTUS just makes stuff up all the time - why not toss out one more of the key design features of our union? It's only been one of the key stabilizers for most of our history.
If the concept and clause of equal protection can be waived whenever we feel like it, and penumbras found to justify any ruling that feels good at the time, why not dynamite the architecture of our elected government as well? While we're at it, let's make the Senate proportional to population - that way useless coastal and urban populations can hasten the decline of the country into economic mediocrity and international insecurity. Not that the senators from small states - esp. GOPers - have been of much use for some time either.
#2
IOW, a CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT - problem is my raedings of the legislation > does NOT call for per se elimination of State-controlled electoral colleges, but ONLY A PC TRANSFER OF EC POWER-AUTHOR AT ELEX TIME TO THE FEDERAL-LEVEL. Must either Constitutionally eliminate EC's or don't, as the Feds can use this to deny any and all Federal funding-suppor for State EColleges, ergo less $$$ for State budgets, espec smaller states. Remember, one of the original premises for the EC was to BALANCE OUT DIFFERENTIATIONS IN CONGRESSIONAL-USG INFLUENCE BETWEEN SMALL STATES + LARGE STATES, as well as CURRENT STATES vv NEW STATES.
#3
Just watch . . . thanks to this legislation, in the '08 election, the blue blue state of Maryland's electoral votes go to (choose one) Rudy Guliani/Fred Thompson/John McCain even though (choose one) Hillary!/Obama! carried the state with 64%, providing the Republican with the margin of victory in the Electoral College.
Just imagine how the MoveOn crowd would react!
Posted by: Mike ||
04/03/2007 6:38 Comments ||
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#4
That's my prediction, too, Mike. A Republican will win the popular vote and all the normally blue states who took up this idiocy will go red. Maybe not in 2008, but eventually.
Then we'll hear wailing and gnashing -- possibly rioting -- like we've never heard before.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
04/03/2007 7:39 Comments ||
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The stand off between two powerful clerics and their followers at Islamabad's Lal Masjid mosque and the Pakistani government is entering a new phase after last week's showdown over a local brothel and the clerics' anti-vice campaign.
President Pervez Musharraf is seeking to isolate the brothers politically with a view to then ordering their arrest. Many religious scholars came forward to Musharraf's call Sunday and condemned the radical brothers, Ghazi Abdul Rasheed and Maulana Abdul Azi.
But the men are adamant their students' action against an alleged brothel owner was legitimate and supported by the masses.
The woman was held captive for three days and several policemen were also seized. Students from the two madrassas or Islamic seminaries associated with Lal Masjid - one male and one female - were closely involved in the clashes with the security forces.
In January hundreds of burqa clad women from the female seminary occupied a children's library in Islamabad, to protest against the demolition of unauthorised mosques in the capital.
The action against the brothel was part of the mosque's recent "anti vice campaign" which critics say is a clear sign that lal Majid has become the heart of the pro-Taliban movement in Islamabad.
Lal Masjid on Monday was once again surrounded by para-military troops and female police, an indication that a major operation is imminent. However the two brothers - both wanted by Pakistan's interior ministry - are still defiant.
Maulana Abdul Aziz gave the federal government a week within which to "enforce Sharia", saying that if it failed "clerics will Islamise society themselves."
"Today 26 people in the neighborhood where the prostitution den was situated, wrote a letter to the ministry of interior and asking them to prevent the return of the women" Ghazi Abdul Rasheed told Adnkronos International (AKI) by telephone on Monday evening after a press conference in Islamabad inside the four walls of Lal Masjid.
"What the students of our seminary did was basically a popular demand and the neighborhood also applauded that. Now the issue is over. We have released the woman [alleged brothel owner] after her confessions. We have moved on and the government should also move on" Ghazi Abdul Rasheed asserted.
Nevertheless, interior minister Aftab Sherpao said the government would maintain the rule of law at all cost.
"We have a deep regard that it is a womens seminary so we would not go blindly inside the premises but there are cases registered against the management of the seminary for abduction of a women so we would obviously pursue those cases at all cost," Sherpao briefed AKI from Islamabad by phone.
In a speech to mark Sunday's celebrations of the birth of the Prophet Mohammed, President Musharraf called on religious scholars in Pakistan to come forward and decide whether what Lal Masjid people had done was right or wrong, and if they find it wrong to then take up action against them.
"I disagree with the actions conducted by the female students of Jamia Hafsa [the women's seminary managed by Lal Masjid]. Nobody has the right to take the law into their hands. Even if they found anything wrong they should have apprised the state machinery," Mufti Naeem of Jamia Binoria Karachi, told AdnKronos International.
But Ghazi Abdul Rasheed was adamant that, according to the Prophet Mohammeds traditions, any vice should be stopped by force or, if there is not enough strength, Muslims should speak out against sin.
"The government is considering isolating Jamia Hafsa through political manipulations and is intending to use force but we rest assured that if anybody tried to use any force against Jamia Hafsa we would resist," a top leader of Jamaat-i-Islami, Dr Merajul Huda, told AKI. Another dangerous gambit against his political enemies.
There are no more than 1,400 fighters in the Kashmir Valley, compared to an estimated figure of 14,000 in the 1990s, according to a report published here on Monday.
Filed from Srinagar by a Christian Science Monitor correspondent, the report says that for the first time in several years, the Indian government has given indications that it might finally consider the longstanding demands of Kashmiris to reduce its troop presence in the Kashmir Valley. The Indian defence ministry, under instructions from the prime minister, has convened a committee of experts to study plans for demilitarising the region. The number of Indian troops in Kashmir is believed to be around 600,000, having risen from 36,000 in 1989, the year of the Kashmiri uprising against Indian rule.
According to Srinagar-based human rights activist Khurram Pervez, It is unjustified having so many troops here. Its understandable to have, say, 100,000 troops to fight a few hundred militants. Not 600,000.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Reminds me of that line in Manchurian Candidate (the original, not the crappy remake) "There are exactly 57 card-carrying members of the communist party in the defense department..."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/03/2007 9:59 Comments ||
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Shopkeepers selling CDs and DVDs in the city fear religious extremists will force them to close. Groups of madrassa students have been going around markets, especially Aabpara Market, in recent days warning shops to shut down because they were corrupting society. Shaikh Adnan, who runs a shop in Aabpara Market, told Daily Times that some 10 to 15 male students from a local madrassa had asked him to shut down his business and take up something else. They came here a few days ago and told me quite politely to get into some other business, he said. He in turn asked them for financial assistance. They directed me to go see the head of the madrassa in this regard but I have not had the time to do so, he said.
Most shop owners were reluctant to talk about the threat from madrassa students. One shop owner, asking to remain anonymous, said he had been sent a written notice by madrassa students telling him to close his business. They have given me a one-month deadline, he said.
He said this was the first time he had received such a threat in 25 years in the business. I have invested about Rs 1,200,000 and I fail to understand where I can go if I have to do some other thing, he said. A salesman at one of Islamabads leading CD and DVD centers also reported that three religious students had come to his shop. They told us that this was not an appropriate business, he said and added that the police came in shortly after they left.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Given that the majority of DVD sales are of Bollywood movies and these are all pirated, I imagine the Indian movie producers may want to fund these "activists" - RIAA on steroids in full burqa...
Posted by: John Frum ||
04/03/2007 19:54 Comments ||
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An all-tribes jirga threw its support behind the government on Monday to restore peace in Tank city following pro-Taliban militants attacks on March 28. The jirga banned offices of militant groups in the city, and pledged to fight and expel foreign militants, said elders and the district nazim. All tribes have agreed that they will collectively work to restore the districts peace, Tank Nazim Riaz Kundi told Daily Times. Dera Ismail Khan DIG Zulfiqar Cheema said the jirga was successful, as participants approved the governments 10-point agenda. A peace committee was set up to look into ways to guard peace in the district on a permanent basis, he told reporters.
Senator Saleh Shah and MNA Maulana Mirajuddin also participated in the jirga of Mehsud, Bhittani and other tribes. No one will enter Tank district with unlicensed weapons. No banned or illegal militant organisation will be allowed to open offices here, according to decisions made at the jirga. The nazim said, The jirga also made tribesmen living in the district bound to not shelter militants. Houses where militants were being sheltered would be demolished, the jirga warned. All participants of the jirga opposed religious extremism. Also, DIG Cheema agreed to extend a relaxation in the curfew imposed in the area from 8am to 5pm, and said that after two days, the curfew would be relaxed from 8am to 8pm.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2007 00:00 ||
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A group of parents of girl students of Jamia Hafsa from the NWFP have decided to take their daughters out of the madrassa, which has been leading a Talibanisation drive here in the capital. Sources told Daily Times on Monday that Gul Waheed, Abdul Sattar, Sher Alam Khan, Wakil Ahmed, Nazar Kakakhel and Akram Khan met Jamia Hafsa principal Maulana Abdul Aziz and told him they were taking their daughters home. The sources said the parents came to the seminary from Peshawar, Nowshera, Sawabi, Charsadda and Mardan. The parents have told the seminary management that they had sent their daughters to learn Islam, not to disrupt peace, they said.
This article starring:
MAULANA ABDUL AZIZ
Jamia Hafsa
Jamia Hafsa
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
It will be interesting to see if any of these families get visited by the Taliban and instructed in the counter-Islamic nature of this act. It's a clear threat to the authority of the Taliban, and I would not be surprised to see somebody executed for Allan if the girls are not re-enrolled.
#2
Upon further review, a visit by the Taliban was probably WHY they pulled their girls out of school; seeing as how the Taliban doesn't approve of educating girls, I would guess that includes madrassa schools.
As federal investigators examine how the leading U.N. agency in North Korea illegally kept 35 counterfeit American $100 bills in its possession for 12 years, documents indicate that more officials were aware of the existence of the fake currency and earlier than the agency has reported.
Spokesmen for the United Nations Development Program have said top officials at the agency's New York headquarters learned in February that their safe in Pyongyang contained the counterfeit bills and immediately reported it to American authorities. But several documents shown recently to The New York Sun indicate that higher-ups knew much earlier that the safe held counterfeit money.
The documents are part of a worldwide reporting system that allows the agency to keep track of the contents of its office safes.
One "safe contents count record" shown to the Sun with the stipulation that the paper omit such details as the exact issuing date, which was before February confirms that fake money was in the safe in Pyongyang. According to a source familiar with the system, this and similar records were filed with UNDP headquarters twice a year.
Internal UNDP communication shown to the Sun also indicates that in at least one incident, a Pyongyang office manager reported the existence of the counterfeit money to his successor. Similar reports were filed with the seven managers that have served in North Korea since 1995. Some of these managers have returned to UNDP headquarters since then and now serve as top officials there.
The Secret Service and federal prosecutors in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York are investigating the matter and have sought out at least 13 UNDP officials for interviews. But questions about diplomatic immunity and whether lawyers can represent the officials during those interviews have yet to be resolved.
"We are cooperating with the Southern District," a senior U.N. official said yesterday, and added, "We are currently working out the modalities." The official, who requested anonymity because the matter is under investigation, said that in the past, immunity has been lifted only when criminal indictments are handed out.
According to Title 18, Section 472 of the U.S. Code, whoever "keeps in possession or conceals any falsely made, forged, counterfeited, or altered obligation or other security of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 15 years, or both."
The safe contents record shown to the Sun includes such items as a "petty cash box," its keys, a zip drive containing finance-software data backup, an official U.N. stamp, identity cards, a log for checks, and a long list of checkbooks in euros, dollars, and North Korean won. One line in the record itemizes $3,500 in " Counterfeit US Dollar Bank Notes (given by FTB)."
A UNDP spokesman, David Morrison, declined to provide the Sun with the agency's rules governing the tracking of safe contents and how regional offices report on them, citing the ongoing probe.
Mr. Morrison explained the presence of the counterfeit currency in the safe by saying an unidentified Egyptian consultant did some work for the UNDP in North Korea and as payment was given a check equal to $3,500 in North Korean won. The Egyptian consultant then cashed the check at the Foreign Trade Bank in Pyongyang, received American bills, and left the country.
Once abroad, the Egyptian consultant tried to deposit the bills, but was told they were suspect. He then returned the bills to the UNDP office in Pyongyang, where they were kept since 1995 in a safe, unnoticed, until February, the spokesman said.
The February date came shortly after the Wall Street Journal published a story, "Cash for Kim," which reported that the UNDP violated its own rules by providing the North Korean dictator, Kim Jong Il, with hard currency. The agency's board of directors, under American pressure, then instructed the UNDP to suspend its North Korean operation, and it was shuttered March 1.
UNDP officials concede that the increased outside scrutiny that resulted from the Journal article could have led the agency to examine its Pyongyang office more closely, which may have led to the discovery of the counterfeit cash.
Critics, however, allege that top officials deliberately concealed the existence of the counterfeit currency out of concern that the operation would be shut down, and that they reported it to the American authorities only after they realized that it would be suspended anyway.
#2
If any President ever called speech and recounted these kinds of anti American stories about the U.N., he would have overwhelming support for getting out of the U.N.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
04/03/2007 18:17 Comments ||
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#3
Shocker? Shit, this would be more remarkable if they didn't know. Remember oil for food?
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/03/2007 19:08 Comments ||
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A Shiite newspaper published in Baghdad reported Tuesday that Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani had turned down a 2-billion-dollar offer from the Saudis in return for giving up demands to have oil-rich Kirkuk as the capital of Kurdistan.
Al-Bianh al-Jadidah newspaper said that the Saudi offer was made to Barzani and Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Borham Saleh when they visited Saudi Arabia last month.
The Saudis asked for a 10-year freeze on the Kurdish demand to incorporate Kirkuk in the north of Iraq into Kurdistan.
The newspaper said that an Iraqi government source, who did not want to be named, said both Barzani and Saleh had declined to give in to Saudi pressure to give up the "Kurds' historical rights to the city."
In another development, US-led coalition forces killed six terrorist suspects and captured 13 others Tuesday during operations targeting the al-Qaeda terrorist network in Iraq and those helping them, the US military reported.
During an operation south of Fallujah, 70 kilometres west of Baghdad, coalition forces killed six terrorist suspects and detained seven others with alleged links to their support network, the statement added.
A separate raid in Qaim, 500 kilometres west of Baghdad and near the Syrian border, resulted in the capture of six suspected terror suspects.
#2
The main Iraqi oil reserves lie in Kurd and Shiite areas. A major part of the Saudi reserves lie in their Shia dominated areas.
Post-regime change in Iran, you'll have the Shia minority controlling the oil with the sunni back to mining sand... no money for the wahabi death cult.
Watch the fireworks and share the popcorn as the two main muslim groups fight it out...
Posted by: John Frum ||
04/03/2007 14:26 Comments ||
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#3
Saudi Arabia should be cutting a deal to get shia in Saudi Arabia to emigrate into the new Iraq while convincing the Sunni in Iraq (who will soon have nothing but tribal history and dirt) to move to Saudi Arabia.
Secure their own resources rather than try to secure the Sunni in Iraq's oil future.
If Saudi Arabia played the Arab card right they could befriend Shia Iraq then without fear of their own oil-rich areas leaving and they could use this as a lever agains the Iranians.
Of course they'd have to swallow their bile and deal with Shia heretics. No plan is perfect.
#4
This could explain why a couple of senior Iranian honchos were ostensibly meeting with top Kurdish leaders. If the Saudis are negotiating for the disposition of Kirkuk, the Iranians probably have an angle to play.
#7
Although they can stick Sunni their meddling where the sun doesn't shine, it's nice to see the Saudis beginning to get a bit jumpy. The House of Saud is built on sand.
#9
Reading the Kurdish media, the Kurds position is that Kirkuk is ours, whether we get it through constititional means or military means is up to the rest of Iraq.
PCHRs preliminary investigation indicates that at approximately 14:30 on Thursday, 29 March 2007, the child Amer Nidal Kullab (6) was killed by the detonation of an explosive device he was playing with inside his house in Khan Yunis refugee camp. The childs sister, Fatima (5) was injured by shrapnel in the hands; and his brother Ahmad (2) suffered a shrapnel injury in the right thigh. The injuries of the wounded children were listed as moderate in Naser Hospital in Khan Yunis. My dad always told us to stay away from his grenades...
At approximately 16:45 on Thursday, Abdel Hai Ali Oksheyya (61) was injured by bullets in the feet. Unknown gunmen fired at him near his house in Tal El-Hawa Quarter in Gaza City. I think Gaza now has the finest trauma podiatrists in the world...
At approximately 21:00 on Thursday, Maher Yousef El-Maqadma (35, from Sabra Quarter in Gaza City) was admitted to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. He was suffering from shrapnel injuries in the face and extremities as a result of the explosion of a device in a farm east of Gaza City. Probably his 81mm post hole digger...
At approximately 2:30 on Friday, 30 March 2007, unknown gunmen fired at Medhat Nawwaf Abel Raziq (23) near El-Ghofran Mosque in Nafaq Street in Gaza City. He was injured by several bullets in the feet. You know, a guy could make millions selling bulletproof shoes over there...
At approximately 13:00 on Friday, Mohammad Wajih Awad (20, from Sheikh Radwan Quarter in Gaza City) was admitted to Shifa Hospital suffering from shrapnel wounds in the face and hands. He was injured when he mishandled a grenade near his house. Here. Hold my Zam-Zam...
At approximately 14:00 on Friday, unknown gunmen traveling in a car fired at the brothers Emad and Eyad Hasan El-Hayek (35 and 38 respectively) near their house in Tuffah Quarter in Gaza City. The shots were fired after a failed abduction attempt targeting Emad. Both were injured by bullets in the feet. Screw it. I'm scrounging up some money. Hello, Achmed! Welcome to Bulletproof Shoes R' Us! You're about a nine, yes?
At approximately 15:00, an explosion was heard in a training area for Izzedeen El-Qassam Battalions, the armed wing of Hamas. The explosion occurred as members were training in the area located to the northwest of Khan Yunis. Okay, men. You don't do this...
As a result, Kamel Kamal Mousa (22, from El-Maghazi) was killed by shrapnel to the chest and hands. Nine others, all of them from the center of the Gaza Strip were injured by shrapnel. In addition, the child Mohammad Yousef Abu Juweid (13) was injured by shrapnel in the face as he was watching the training. The injured were taken to Naser Hospital in Khan Yunis, where their injuries were listed as moderate. Remember how impressive that training was, Mohammad, when you're old enough to sign up...
At approximately 15:40 on Friday, three people from Gaza City were injured by the explosion of a device they mishandled in the Rafah Mawasi area. They were taken to Mohammad Yousef El-Najjar Hospital in Rafah for treatment. From there they were transferred to the European Hospital in Khan Yunis. Their injuries were listed as moderate to serious. Fummmmmmble!
At approximately 17:00 on Friday, Ahmad Jamal Awad (22, from Jabalia refugee camp) was injured by a bullet in the left thigh. The bullet was accidentally fired from a firearm he mishandled while on duty in the Security Forces Compound (Saraya) in Gaza City. Wonder if he was aiming at his foot?
At approximately 18:30 on Friday, Ayman Talal El-Hawajri (17) and Rami Khalil Helayel (32), both from Nuseirat refugee cmap, were admitted to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir El-Balah. El-Hawajri was injured by a bullet in the shoulder; and Helayel was injured by shrapnel in the right hand. They suffered the injuries as a result of shots fired in a Hamas rally in Nuseirat refugee camp. Oh, go ahead! Do the gun sex! Everybody knows those bullets never come down!
At approximately 20:30 on Friday, unknown gunmen in a car fired at Adnan Mansour El-Manasra (35) and Ahed Medhat El-Manasra (22), both from Shejaeya Quarter in Gaza City. The shooting took place in El-Mentar Street in Shejaeya. Adnan was killed by several bullets and Ahed was injured by a bullet in the right foot. Don't let this happen to you!Visit Bulletproof Shoes R' Us! Opening soon! In Gaza, Rafah, and Secaucus!
At approximately 23:00, the child Bashar Izzedeen Shuweideh (4) from Shejaeya Quarter in Gaza City was injured by a bullet in the chest. The source of the bullet was not known. Nobody saw nuthin? Hokay, blame it on the Jews...
At approximately 18:40 on Saturday, 31 March 2007, the child Yousef Salim Abu Ajwa (9) was playing with a firearm in his house in El-Bureij refugee camp. Bullets were accidentally fired and injured the following family members: You're gonna get it when your father comes home, Yousef!
Think he'll make a squad leader in the Al Aqsa Brigade, mom?
- Salma Zeyad Abu Ajwa (7 months), injured by a bullet in the left foot;
- Asma Salem Abu Ajwa (12), injured by a bullet in the right foot;
- Sabrin Salem Abu Ajwa (13), injured by a bullet in the left hand; and
- Haijar Hammad Abu Ajwa (25), injured by a bullet in the left foot.
The injured were taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir El-Balah, where the injuries were listed as moderate. Coming soon Baby Bulletproof Shoes R' Us...
At approximately 23:45 on Saturday, gunmen in a car fired at Fadel Mahmoud El-Sayyed (20, from El-Bureij refugee camp) after they failed to abduct him near his house. He was moderately injured by a bullet in the right hand, and was taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir El-Balah for treatment. Hey, you're comin with us.
Why?
BANG!
At approximately 21:00 on Sunday, 1 April 2007, Nabil Yousef Abu Younis (18, from Khan Yunis) was injured by a bullet in the left leg. He works in the Executive Force, and was injured by the accidental firing of a bullet in the Forces compound west of the city. Look at that! Four aces!
BANG!
The prevalence of foot injuries is probably due to punishment shootings. The vic not wanting to say who did it, cos he will get a bullet in the head if he does, says unknown gunmen.
Palestinian journalists began a three-day strike yesterday to protest over the "insufficient" response by the Palestinian government to the kidnapping of BBC journalist Alan Johnston, who yesterday entered his fourth week of captivity.
The surprise meter pinged a bit.
Several dozen Palestinian journalists, were joined by a handful of colleagues from the international press, holding placards that read: "Free Alan Johnston" and "Kidnapping is a sin".
The chairman of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS), Naim Toubassi, told the gathering: "Where is the government today? Why, during three weeks, can't it free a guest journalist, a British colleague? I put full responsibility on the government."
It takes guts to hold anything but a antiisraeldeathtoamerica rally in the PA. I give them a little credit.
A statement by the PJS described Mr Johnston, 44, who was educated at Dollar Academy and Dundee University, as "a friend of the Palestinians and conveyor of the truth".
And Majed Said, the Ramallah correspondent for Abu Dhabi Television, even threatened to stop reporting on the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, if more was not done. "This is unacceptable for us. We will boycott the coverage of Abbas if Johnston is not released," he said.
With no group claiming responsibility, there is speculation that members of a powerful clan in Gaza City, the Dogmush family, are holding Mr Johnston. According to one theory, both Fatah and Hamas are reluctant to antagonise the heavily armed clan in case factional fighting between Fatah and Hamas resumes.
Jonathan Baker, deputy head of news gathering for the BBC, said: "Each day we are more worried. We don't know who is holding him or why. "We have had no contact directly [with the kidnappers] or with anyone who says they are in direct contact. We have no hard information at all. There have been no demands and no claims of responsibility."
Mohammed Henihen, an official in President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement, predicted the Palestinian cause will be badly damaged by the kidnapping. "My fear is that journalists won't visit the Gaza Strip and West Bank anymore," he said. "They will not be able to report the suffering and the truth of what is happening. We need journalists to be here and demand these kidnappers free this journalist."
#4
Maan had this interesting little tidbit yeaterday..
Local collaboration
Israeli media sources have claimed that Johnston is being held by the Dughmush clan in the Gaza Strip, with the cooperation of local Gaza photographers.
In the Friday edition of the Israeli daily 'Maariv', it was alleged that "a spontaneous amalgamation of local Gaza photographers" are behind the kidnapping of foreign photo-journalists. The presence of foreign journalists threatens the local journalists' livelihoods as freelance work is taken away from them and carried out by foreign, highly-paid, correspondents.
However, Maariv adds that Johnston appears to have the support of the majority of the local Palestinian journalists. Fran Unsworth, the head of BBC news-gathering, told Maariv that local journalists "are helping very much to secure his release." Abd Al-Askar, who, according to Maariv, represents several foreign media organizations in Gaza, said, "Johnston is a friend of the Palestinian journalists."
Unsworth would not confirm that Johnston was being held by the Dughmush family. Maariv claimed that the Dughmush family is the main beneficiary from these kidnapping operations, alleging that they receive up to US $2 million in ransom money for the release of a foreign journalist. Maariv alleges that the American news network, Fox News, paid out this amount to secure the release of US correspondent Steve Centanni and New Zealander photographer Olaf Wiig last summer.
Saudi Arabia signaled on Monday that it is unlikely to accept an Israeli invitation to a regional peace conference, saying that Israeli regime must first stop mistreating Palestinians and move to withdraw from Arab lands.
A strongly worded statement by the Saudi Cabinet said the Arabs made their commitment to peace clear at a summit last week in Riyadh, where they renewed a broad land-for-peace offer to Israel, AP reported. "Israel should understand that peace requires it to put an end to violations, repression and constant inhuman practices against the Palestinian people before any other matter," the Cabinet said.
The statement did not refer directly to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's public invitation to Saudi King Abdullah and other "moderate" Arab leaders to meet with him and discuss their ideas for peace. But the Saudi Cabinet made clear the kingdom is not likely to make any gesture toward Israel unless it initiates significant progress toward establishing a Palestinian state and giving up captured Arab lands.
Olmert specifically called on Saudi Arabia on Sunday to take the lead in holding a regional conference, the first time Israeli regime has made such a request of the Saudis, who maintain a state of war with Israel but are pushing for a peace deal.
The Arab peace initiative offers Israel a comprehensive peace with all Arab states if it withdraws from lands seized in the 1967 war and allows the creation of a Palestinian state with its capital in east Al-Quds (Jerusalem). It also calls for a "just solution" for Palestinian refugees. Olmert welcomed the summit's renewal of the offer but said Israel did not accept all parts of the plan. Israel wants to retain some settlements in the West Bank, objects to a Palestinian capital in east Al-Quds and opposes the return of Palestinian refugees to their homeland.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2007 00:00 ||
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French presidential frontrunner Nicolas Sarkozy has said military action against Iran would not help resolve the Tehran-London standoff over the detention of British soldiers who entered Iranian waters illegally. "I do not think that a strike on Iran would help in the least bit a situation that is already very complex and very dangerous," Sarkozy told a news conference in Paris.
Iran says the British servicemen were seized as they were illegally trespassing in its territorial waters. Britain, however; claims they were on a routine anti-smuggling patrol in Iraqi waters. On Monday, Tehran declared that all 15 detainees had confessed to the wrongdoing on videotape. Meanwhile, an Iranian television station showed the remaining naval staff as they were reporting the details of the incident which led to their arrest. Iran said footage of the "confessions" would not be broadcast any longer, following positive changes in Britain's negotiating stance.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2007 00:00 ||
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#2
Sark is an OK guy - esp. by French standards - but of course this is silly. The situation is "complex"? He doesn't believe it, but that sincere belief by so many about all these situations is the main reason that so many contemporary situations featuring the greatest power mismatches in history are not resolved quickly or sometimes at all .....
#4
folloving the long tradition of French military victories.
from the top of my head: Fleurus, Austerlitz, Wagram, Fontenoy, forcing Washington to surrender, Jemmappes, Montmirail, Auerstadt. Tradition of defeats begins only in 1870 but this causes are n no small part due to the "software" installed by Napoleon (eg recruitment of officers and civilian leaders).
Nancy Pelosi arrives in Syria today promising to build bridges between Washington and a state treated as a pariah by the Bush Administration. That's because they use terrorism as a tool of statecraft...
The Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives said it was a good idea to establish some contact, adding that she was travelling with hope, but no illusions. Her visit has been criticised by the White House which has resisted domestic and international pressure for it to talk to Syria about the future of Iraq. I think most Americans would not think that the leader of the Democratic Party in the Congress should be meeting with the heads of a state sponsor of terror, the White House counsellor Dan Bartlett said.
Ms Pelosi said that she would speak to President Assad about two Israeli soldiers captured by the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah and a third captured by Palestinian militants last year. The delegation, which includes Republican Congressman, met the families of the soldiers in Israel.
The Israeli Government has asked Ms Pelosi to tell Syrian leaders that it would engage in peace talks if their regime stopped supporting Palestinian militants. Pelosi is conveying that Israel is willing to talk if they would openly take steps to stop supporting terrorism, a spokesman for the Israeli Prime Minister said. But at this point the Syrian Government, by openly backing terror all around the Middle East, is not a partner for negotiations.
In Washington, her Democratic colleagues in the Senate stepped up the pressure on Mr Bush over Iraq, telling him they would block all war funding if he vetoed a Bill requiring the withdrawal of combat troops next year. But the presidential hopeful Barack Obama was criticised by liberal activists for saying that Congress would provide funding if the President vetoed its legislation, because nobody wants to play chicken with our troops.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
And then there's PRAVDA > George W. Bush MAY NOT LIVE to see his mandates end due to Tecumseh's curse; DRUDGEREPORT > ABCNEWS Breaking > IRAN MAY HAVE NUCLEAR BOMB BY 2009. IMO the Russians are trying hard NOT to say they are well aware Amer Hiroshima remains a viable option for Moud + Radical islam, and that not only possible but likely or realistic inside America iff Dubya refuses to blink.
#4
Nancy "I'm Queen of the World" Pelosi is about as dhimmi as they get. She apparently fails to realize that a woman, especially a woman unaccompanied by her husband or a close male relative, in the Middle East is considered little more than a whore and gets treated about the same way. They may smile and make nice at the dinner parties and meetings at such, but inside their heads the woman is simply a prattling fool.
#6
woman unaccompanied by her husband or a close male relative, in the Middle East is considered little more than a whore and gets treated about the same way
plus, they prolly saw that pork bill she larded up and it only confirmed that
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/03/2007 10:24 Comments ||
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#7
"The Israeli Government has asked Ms Pelosi to tell Syrian leaders that it would engage in peace talks if their regime stopped supporting Palestinian militants." I want to go on record right now that if this comes to pass I will:
1-Change my Political Party
2-Donate my entire military retirement to the DNC
3-Actively campagin for whomever is the Donk Candidate (whatever office)
4-Stop drinking and playing compter games forever
#9
I'ma of the opinion that the moniker "prattling fool" isn't confined to being applied by the Arabs......I looked it up in Webster's and there she was, smiling back at me....
(AHN) - Israeli Military Intelligence Major General Amos Yadlin says Syria, Iran and the Hezbollah terror group are preparing for a summer confrontation with the U.S. General Yadlin tells the Yediot Ahronoth newspaper that, "Their preparation is defensive ahead of war... They fear a war initiated by the Americans because they understand that there might be an attack against Iran over the summer, but not by Israel."
However, the Intelligence Chief said reports from the field indicate that Israel may also be involved in the war, adding "We are closely following these preparations, for fear that one of the sides misinterprets certain moves in the region. I bring up the Six Day War in this context; when you reach a war no one is interested in as a result of the involvement of many players."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2007 00:00 ||
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If only the U.S. Was planning for war against Iran, Syria and Hezbullah.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
04/03/2007 0:11 Comments ||
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What makes you think the US hasn't planned for this contingency? The DOD plans for many contingencies, even the improbable.
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.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai in an interview published on Sunday accused Pakistans intelligence agencies of sheltering fugitive Taliban leader Mulla Mohammad Omar.
Thousands of Taliban bombers have been deployed across Afghanistan to attack Western troops and the government, the group's military chief said on Monday. Following last year's violence, the worst since the Taliban's ouster in 2001, this year is regarded as the crunch period both for the Taliban and U.S.-led Western troops. Speaking by satellite phone from 
Algeria has found out that the Islamist movement has largely replaced its Al Qaeda-aligned leadership. Algerian security sources said that under its new name, Al Qaida Organization in Islamic Maghreb, the Salafists have replaced much of their longtime leadership. The security sources said many of the field commanders and operatives were removed and militants trained in Iraq were appointed. "We are seeing new faces among the Salafists captured by security forces and many, if not, most of them, received their training in Iraq," a security source said. 
Seventeen suspected members of the Tamil Tigers rebel group were detained Sunday in Paris during an investigation into terrorist financing activities, sources close to the case said. Police made the arrests under the direction of anti-terrorist judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere, the sources said.
Police increased law enforcement at the Port of Tacoma during the convoying and storage of Army Stryker vehicles from March 3 until a ship carrying the military equipment left for Iraq on March 14. Protesters were there each night.
The president's remarks come one day after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who previously has stopped short of saying he would support measures to cut off funds, announced he would try to eliminate money for the war if Bush rejects Congress' proposal to set a deadline to end combat.
Shopkeepers selling CDs and DVDs in the city fear religious extremists will force them to close. Groups of madrassa students have been going around markets, especially Aabpara Market, in recent days warning shops to shut down because they were corrupting society. Shaikh Adnan, who runs a shop in Aabpara Market, told Daily Times that some 10 to 15 male students from a local madrassa had asked him to shut down his business and take up something else. They came here a few days ago and told me quite politely to get into some other business, he said. He in turn asked them for financial assistance. They directed me to go see the head of the madrassa in this regard but I have not had the time to do so, he said.
An all-tribes jirga threw its support behind the government on Monday to restore peace in Tank city following pro-Taliban militants attacks on March 28. The jirga banned offices of militant groups in the city, and pledged to fight and expel foreign militants, said elders and the district nazim. All tribes have agreed that they will collectively work to restore the districts peace, Tank Nazim Riaz Kundi told Daily Times. Dera Ismail Khan DIG Zulfiqar Cheema said the jirga was successful, as participants approved the governments 10-point agenda. A peace committee was set up to look into ways to guard peace in the district on a permanent basis, he told reporters. 
Saudi Arabia signaled on Monday that it is unlikely to accept an Israeli invitation to a regional peace conference, saying that Israeli regime must first stop mistreating Palestinians and move to withdraw from Arab lands. 
French presidential frontrunner Nicolas Sarkozy has said military action against Iran would not help resolve the Tehran-London standoff over the detention of British soldiers who entered Iranian waters illegally. "I do not think that a strike on Iran would help in the least bit a situation that is already very complex and very dangerous," Sarkozy told a news conference in Paris. 
Nancy Pelosi arrives in Syria today promising to build bridges between Washington and a state treated as a pariah by the Bush Administration. 
