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Somalia's al-Shabab commanders 'killed' in strike
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-Short Attention Span Theater-
The race hustlers among us
Posted by: DarthVader || 10/29/2013 12:49 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  That may be true, but their success may also be a result of what they [Asian-Americans] do not have; namely, “leaders” who tell them that the deck is so stacked against them that they cannot rise, or at least not without depending on “leaders.”

Not all African-Americans buy into the race hustlers. For some, the American Dream is alive for them and they realize what it takes to realize it. They realize the American Dream is only an opportunity and not a guarantee.

Conversely, we know has a woman who happens to be African-American. This woman harbors many myths about white people. This particular woman thinks white people get ahead by taking from the poor, having doors opened for them, not having to work, not having to sacrifice, never working hard, knowing the right person, or inheriting money that was taken from someone else. She has not worked most of her life and has a rather jaundiced view of white folks. Unfortunately, I think her view is all too common. I wonder how she explains Obama.

My family was extremely poor although I don't think we ever bought into that concept of institutionalized poverty--that just didn't exist at the time. I followed the the Asian-American path early on as did many others--hard work, education, more hard work, more education and then more hard work. The road was often bumpy but the bumps were usually of my own making.


Posted by: JohnQC || 10/29/2013 15:52 Comments || Top||

#2  Well said, John.
Posted by: Barbara || 10/29/2013 18:01 Comments || Top||

#3  It's the culture, and it eats kids up.

I know a lady who immigrated from Ghana. She worked like a dog to get a nice house in a nice neighborhood. Her son grew up here. He's a useless street yo.
Posted by: Fred || 10/29/2013 19:13 Comments || Top||


Economy
Oh, Buck Up!
By Sarah Hoyt

I can’t tell you how our character will affect an economic crash (and if you don’t think an economic crash is coming, kindly do wake up) – because we’re different, and we haven’t fallen yet. We can guess how it will affect it, but not KNOW — all I can say is it will be interesting.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 10/29/2013 05:22 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
Bottom of the list: Gender report
[Dawn] THE World Economic Forum's annual gender gap report is out and, like every year since its inception in 2006, it makes for very grim reading for Pakistain. In 2013, Pakistain has been ranked 135 out of 136 countries surveyed. If that is not bad enough, Pakistain's best performance was being ranked 112 out of 115 countries in the inaugural report in 2006. Of course, when dealing with the results of any survey, let alone one dealing with the population of 136 countries, much depends on the methodology used, the accuracy of the data being studied and a clear understanding of what the report is trying to study and present. Having said that, even if there are legitimate questions about whether the overall position of women in Pakistain is really worse than every single one of the 135 countries surveyed barring one -- Yemen -- it is safe to say that the situation of women in Pakistain is deeply problematic and far from where it ought to be to achieve some semblance of equality with the male population in the crucial areas of health, education, economics and politics.

The straightforward, though important, reason for a society needing to close the gaps between men and women in the areas of health, education, economics and politics is explained in the very first line of the report: "Countries and companies can be competitive only if they develop, attract and retain the best talent, both male and female." Let half of a country's population lag behind -- enormously behind, in Pakistain's case -- behind the other, male half and the simple fact of the matter is that everyone loses, because society as a whole is unable to achieve its potential. In Pakistain's case, when it comes to systemic interventions by the state to improve the relative standing of women, the problem is less that as a group the country's leadership does not acknowledge the need to improve women's access, opportunities and core entitlements, but that the leadership is all too willing to defer to tradition and antediluvian cultural norms.

Consider the area of political empowerment, where Pakistain ranks a less terrifyingly poor 64th. Women in parliament, women in ministerial positions and a female head of state in less than 50 years -- all of this Pakistain has managed to do. But how many parties make it a point to have more women candidates on directly elected seats or groom women for leadership positions? Barring one or two parties, none do. So even where Pakistain appears to be doing well, it isn't really.
Posted by: Fred || 10/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Criminality & terrorism
[Dawn] MORE than 10 members of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) faction led by Hakeemullah Mehsud have reportedly been killed 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...
since August.

According to news reports, these deaths are the result of festivities with the TTP faction loyal to Waliur Rehman, the TTP commander who was killed by a drone strike earlier this year.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 10/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Polio: turning point
[Dawn] AROUND this time last year, approximately 48,000 families in Pakistain had refused vaccinations. In 2013, that number stands at 65,947.

On the eve of World Polio Day 2013, this highlighted an ever-increasing trust deficit between the government and the parents of at-risk children in outlying communities, a deficit that is costing Pak lives. We are at a strange turning point, where our indisputable success is marred by our unfortunate failures.

The polio
...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set...
eradication campaign's numbers are certainly impressive on paper. 33.4 million children under the age of five are targeted for vaccinations. Over 200,000 people assist in a campaign that stretches across the country in 102 districts.

But inefficiency, deep-seated corruption, lack of proper security for health workers and inaccessibility to certain regions continue to act as a debilitating counterweight to the immunisation efforts. Chief among these, compromised access between children and health workers is what truly gives polio free rein.

Pages 115 through 127 of the Abbottabad
... A pleasant city located only 30 convenient miles from Islamabad. The city is noted for its nice weather and good schools. It is the site of Pakistain's military academy, which was within comfortable walking distance of the residence of the late Osama bin Laden....
Commission Report narrate how Dr Shakeel Afridi latched his work on hepatitis with local vaccination campaigns.

The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) has mandated that they are not against vaccinations in general, nor do they oppose comprehensive health for Mohammedans. Instead, they are wary of potential spying being conducted under the ruse of vaccinations.

But the truth, as always, goes deeper than that. State Minister for Health Services, Regulations and Coordination Saira Tarrar recognises the political acumen behind this narrative.

"The Death Eater elements recognise that there is a lot of international pressure on Pakistain to eradicate polio, and so they are using this to their advantage by clubbing other demands with this issue," she says. "Through peace talks or any other means, immunisation must start in the tribal belt, or this problem will rapidly get out of control."
Posted by: Fred || 10/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  On the eve of World Polio Day 2013,

They do understand that World Polio Day is *not* the day everyone is supposed to get polio, right?
Posted by: SteveS || 10/29/2013 19:49 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Time for China to Assume The Position: A Pax Sinica in the Middle East?
by Spengler

I have no idea how China envisions its future role in the Middle East. Americans will learn the intentions of the powers who gradually fill the vacuum left by Washington's withdrawal from the world "well after the fact, if ever", as I wrote on September 16 (See US plays Monopoly, Russia plays chess, Asia Times Online). That is why I have retired from foreign policy analysis. It is helpful, though, to take note of what the rest of the world is saying, particularly when not a single English-language source made reference to it. Der Spiegel's public call for China to assume a leading geopolitical role in the Middle East, though, did not appear out of context.

American commentators have regarded China as a spoiler, the source of Pakistan's nuclear weapons technology, Iran's ballistic missiles, and other alarming instances of proliferation. It is worth considering a radically different view of China's interests in the lands between the Himalayas and the Mediterranean: no world power has more to lose from instability than does China.
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 10/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  How do you say "seek your suckers elsewhere" in Mandarin?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 10/29/2013 5:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Methinks Beijing will be focusing eastward toward East Asia + WESTPAC very soon, + for violent reasons.

To wit,

* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [People'S Daily Online] PEOPLE'S DAILY: OUTBREAK OF REGIONAL WAR [China-vs-Japan] IS POSSIBLE.

* RELATED SAME > [FNOTW.org] SINO-JAPANESE WAR OR CHINESE-JAPANESE WAR. STRUGGLE IN THE 19TH + 20TH CENTURY [now 21st?] BETWEEN CHINA + JAPAN OVER PREDOMINANCE IN ASIA.

"There can only be One"???

* SAME > [Yahoo News = AFP] CHINA COAST GUARD KEEPS HEAT ON JAPAN IN ISLAND ROW.

* INDIAN DEFENCE FORUM > CHINA MILITARY VOW "COUNTERATTACKS" IFF JAPAN SHOOTDOWNS ITS DRONES | IRDW.org.

* SAME > [NDTV] JAPAN SCRAMBLES FIGHTERS AFTER CHINA [PLA] FLIGHTS TWO DAYS IN A ROW.

2 H-6 Bombers, 2 Y-8 Recce get too close to Okinawa + Miyako Island FOR Japan's comfort.

* SAME > CHINA: JAPAN BREAKING "STATUS QUO" OVER DISPUTED ISLANDS.

versus

* CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > POSTER THREAD: ENEMY AT THE GATE ... NOW YOU PEOPLE ARGUE WITH ME THAT CHINA DOES NOT NEED A "BREZHNEV-STYLE" [massive Soviet = Cold War] MILITARY BUILDUP, agz the US-Allies; CHINA NEEDS A [hardline] LEADER LIKE LEONID BREZHNEV 1964-1982 | US "PIVOT TO ASIA GAINING STRENGTH: US ADMIRAL.

USN RADM. Mark C> Montgomery.

* SAME > SHOULD CHINA CONSIDER EVACUATION PLAN [all Chinese citizens-nationals] FROM JAPAN?

* TOPIX > [Korea Herald] CHINA FLEXES MIGHT WID SHOW OF [long-secret] SUBMARINE FORCE.

* RELATED SAME > AS TENSIONS WID JAPAN RISE, CHINA SHOWS OFF ITS NUKE SUBS.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 10/29/2013 23:55 Comments || Top||


Government
RFID Mascot Begins Nationwide Tour To Help Alleviate Children’s Fears Of Implantation
“Chippie is my new best friend who lives inside of me!”

...ho-boy...
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 10/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Satire today, reality tomorrow?

Like this story?
Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660 || 10/29/2013 3:55 Comments || Top||

#2  This is satire right?

The sad part - with the condition of our schools and federal government - we have to ask that question.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 10/29/2013 8:30 Comments || Top||

#3  IngSoc cares about me! BigBro lives! Yay!!!!
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 10/29/2013 9:51 Comments || Top||

#4  ...yes, satire...some more of the authors works:

http://nationalreport.net/author/missagni/

...I'm a "hit" whore... ;->
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 10/29/2013 11:46 Comments || Top||

#5  And when they come to take you away (For whatever reason) You can't escape, you're marked.

I would NEVER allow this to take place, candy is just a trap.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 10/29/2013 14:08 Comments || Top||

#6  Like the dear uncle sed, it's satire.

The question is what/who the target of satire is.
Posted by: Pappy || 10/29/2013 14:31 Comments || Top||

#7  Chippie's Grandfather

Posted by: Enver Shaling4364 || 10/29/2013 18:43 Comments || Top||


Washington Examiner discussing ACA web site contract bid process.
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  IDIQ: I Don't Inquire.
Posted by: Skidmark || 10/29/2013 11:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Sounds like a work of Teapot fiction

/joke
Posted by: mossomo || 10/29/2013 20:17 Comments || Top||

#3  Crap mossomo, is that on one of the function keys?

:)
Posted by: swksvolFF || 10/29/2013 21:22 Comments || Top||


Obama Takes Friendly Fire
"Dem Party is F****d." That was the subject line of an email sent to me Sunday by a senior Democratic consultant with strong ties to the White House and Capitol Hill. The body of the email contained a link to this Los Angeles Times story about Obamacare "sticker shock:"

"These middle-class consumers are staring at hefty increases on their insurance bills as the overhaul remakes the healthcare market. Their rates are rising in large part to help offset the higher costs of covering sicker, poorer people who have been shut out of the system for years."

"Although recent criticism of the healthcare law has focused on website glitches and early enrollment snags, experts say sharp price increases for individual policies have the greatest potential to erode public support for President Obama's signature legislation."

In his story, reporter Chad Terhune also quoted a letter sent to a California insurance company executive. "I was all for Obamacare," wrote a young woman complaining about a 50 percent rate hike related to the health care law, "until I found out I was paying for it."

Also of interest to the Democratic consultant: A Josh Barro column on Obama's promise that "if you like your health plan, you can keep your health plan." It was never a reasonable pledge, Barro argues, and it's being proven false. He called this "a good thing" because "a lot of existing health plans were bad." Reforming the nation's health care system "was necessarily going to have to change a lot of people's health plans," Barro wrote.

The Democratic consultant said none of this is news to him, but he wonders why Obama wasn't honest with Americans. He predicted surprise and outrage over higher costs and lesser coverage. "We will own this problem forever," the Democrat wrote.

"I gave you four surplus budgets, all those jobs, declining poverty." According to Philip Rucker of the Washington Post, that is what former President Clinton told Virginia voters while campaigning for his pal, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe. While Clinton was not referencing the current president, it's fair to wonder about Obama's legacy if he leaves office without more progress on jobs and a budget deal that tames the nation's debt. "Clinton didn't have an insane GOP caucus to deal with," said a White House official when posed the comparison. "I know you like to think (Clinton is) the Golden Age of politics but things are different."

Bill Clinton showed "America what can happen when we focus on the economy and work with both parties." That is what McAuliffe said at the same event. Funny how some Democrats think a president can focus on the economy and work with the GOP without getting, well, fooled.
Posted by: Beavis || 10/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  it's fair to wonder about Obama's legacy if he leaves office without more progress on jobs and a budget deal that tames the nation's debt.

Don't know about you, but---far as I'm concerned, as long as he leaves...
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 10/29/2013 5:25 Comments || Top||

#2  "These middle-class consumers are staring at hefty increases on their insurance bills as the overhaul remakes the healthcare market. Their rates are rising in large part to help offset the higher costs of covering sicker, poorer people who have been shut out of the system for years."

Wasn't Sebelius a Insurance Rep?
Posted by: Skidmark || 10/29/2013 11:31 Comments || Top||

#3  "I gave you four surplus budgets, all those jobs, declining poverty." According to Philip Rucker of the Washington Post, that is what former President Clinton told Virginia voters

There was no I, there was a Trunk Congress, one on the cusp of going full hog pork barrel, but still controlling the purse strings to deliver something that implied adults still ran the budget.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 10/29/2013 12:46 Comments || Top||

#4  "These middle-class consumers are staring at hefty increases on their insurance bills as the overhaul remakes the healthcare market..."

Personally, I hope the Dem Party has screwed itself for several centuries because of their shoving this unwanted abortion on us. However, I am pessimistic that this will happen as the number of those receiving government largesse without paying for it has increased under the Dems & Obozo. Big government Pubs might do slightly better but not by much.
Posted by: JohnQC || 10/29/2013 15:28 Comments || Top||

#5  "the Democratic consultant"

Sounds like a work of Teapot fiction...
Posted by: Jerkface Killa || 10/29/2013 16:12 Comments || Top||

#6  Try deviating from your script once in a while.
Posted by: Pappy || 10/29/2013 17:11 Comments || Top||

#7  Sebelius began her Kansas public career as Insurance Commissioner.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 10/29/2013 17:17 Comments || Top||

#8  "Jerkface" from the land of the moose
Wasn't loon or ptarmigan or goose:
With piratical swagger
He squawked out, "Teabagger,
Teabagger!," took wing, and vamoosed.
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 10/29/2013 18:02 Comments || Top||

#9  Zenobia, if this Facebook, I would definitely "like" your limerick.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 10/29/2013 19:18 Comments || Top||

#10  Sounds like a work of Teapot fiction...

Actually, if one looks at Ron Fournier's body of work, it's fairly balanced. Methinks what one is seeing is a supporter gradually becoming frustrated and disillusioned. I didn't vote for Mr. Obama either time, but it is disheartening watching the slow-train-wreck.

Of course actually determining if it is a "Teapot fiction" means perusing Mr. Fournier's work, even if it is just the headlines. Far easier to enjoy the mental m*sturbation in parroting talking points and engaging in primary-school debating tactics.
Posted by: Pappy || 10/29/2013 20:30 Comments || Top||

#11  "Sounds like", not "must be" or "is", I think jerky is a bit too soft to be a tru prog.

Damn fine stuff Zenobia. Damn fine.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 10/29/2013 20:37 Comments || Top||

#12  You know my son has one of those toy where if you press his hand he would say a phrase. I think he only had three or four phrases which he would repeat over and over and over as you press his hand.
That I think is two more than JerkF.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 10/29/2013 20:54 Comments || Top||

#13  Obamacare. Will the monster ever work?
Posted by: Thrans Splat1574 || 10/29/2013 21:27 Comments || Top||


Bob Woodard on the "Secret World" of the CIA, FBI, and other entities.
[CBS News] Woodard's comments are set on the backdrop of recent JFK assassination theories and information.
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Peggy Noonan said if we knew about the corruption of those running the United States at the time of the Kennedy assassination we would have been shocked to paraphrase her comment. Why would we be shocked?Just what party was in power at the time-- just a rhetorical question?
Posted by: JohnQC || 10/29/2013 15:19 Comments || Top||

#2  Looking at Papa Joe.
Posted by: newc || 10/29/2013 17:09 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
23[untagged]
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8Arab Spring
4Govt of Syria
3Hamas
2Hezbollah
2TTP
1al-Nusra
1Govt of Iran
1Palestinian Authority
1Taliban
1Thai Insurgency
1Jamaat-e-Islami
1al-Shabaab

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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.
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Two weeks of WOT
Tue 2013-10-29
  Somalia's al-Shabab commanders 'killed' in strike
Mon 2013-10-28
  Bomb blast kills 18 wedding guests in Afghanistan
Sun 2013-10-27
  Bombings in Baghdad, Mosul kill at least 49
Sat 2013-10-26
  Nigeria says kills 74 'Boko Haram' Islamists in ground, air assault
Fri 2013-10-25
  Algerian troops find huge arms cache on Libyan border
Thu 2013-10-24
  Iraq PM warns of 'war of genocide' as attacks kill 48
Wed 2013-10-23
  Kenya police officers raid nabs 50 Somali aliens
Tue 2013-10-22
  IDF soldiers kill planner of Tel Aviv bus bombing in a raid
Mon 2013-10-21
  Syria: Exploding truck murders 30 in Hama
Sun 2013-10-20
  Report: 400 arrested in Egyptian operation in Sinai
Sat 2013-10-19
  18 Palestinians Charged in Leb Terrorist Plot
Fri 2013-10-18
  At Least 60 Killed, Hundreds Wounded in Iraq Bombs
Thu 2013-10-17
  Logar Governor Killed By Blast in Mosque
Wed 2013-10-16
  Syria fighting rages on despite Muslim holiday
Tue 2013-10-15
  Boko Haram 'kills 24 Nigerian vigilantes in ambush'

Better than the average link...



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