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Norks confirm Sonny Jong Un's succession
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Caribbean-Latin America
Ecuador court orders 13 police held during probe
[Arab News] A court issued an order Thursday authorizing the jailing of 12 police officers and a police colonel while prosecutors investigate last week's police uprising that resulted in five deaths.

After a seven-hour hearing, Criminal Court Judge Tania Molina ratified an arrest warrant that will let authorities hold the 13 police personnel for 90 days.

Defense lawyer Patricio Armijos said he would file an appeal seeking to overturn the detention order with the Provincial Court of Justice.

Armijos said three other officers were dropped from the proceedings and 27 were released but must appear before the judge once a week while authorities look into the revolt against President Rafael Correa over a new law that would strip police of promotion bonuses.
Posted by: Fred || 10/09/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Commies


Europe
Keep deficits to less than 3% GDP or scram sez EU MEP Carl Haglund
“The ones who do not want to adhere to the rules can revert back to their national currencies”, Haglund says bluntly.
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/09/2010 09:09 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yeah, right. Like the bureaucrats running the EU will just let others walk away. Too much power to lose.
Posted by: DarthVader || 10/09/2010 10:22 Comments || Top||

#2  He's got a definate up-hill pull with that one.
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/09/2010 10:31 Comments || Top||

#3  He's just an MEP. It's not like he has any power or anything ...
Posted by: Steve White || 10/09/2010 10:48 Comments || Top||

#4  Yes, at 30 something, very young and only an MEP, but I suspect his fiscal views may reflect a prevailing attitude among EU youth and conservatives...those that yet remain. I am encouraged.
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/09/2010 11:01 Comments || Top||

#5  The Greek deficits didn't look all that bad until the new government started digging into the books...

It seems to me that "Keep deficits less than 3% and don't lie at all about matters financial" is where that needs to head. Although if that were the rule, America wouldn't be let in at this point, either.
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/09/2010 12:23 Comments || Top||

#6  "The Greek deficits didn't look all that bad until the new government started digging into the books..."

Not exactly true. The IMF suspected the new administration was still "lowballing" deficit projections and went digging. They discovered that to be the case.
Posted by: crosspatch || 10/09/2010 14:03 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Surprise surprise: Donks planted NJ tea-party candidate
Joe Runyan: "My opponent, John Adler, represents everything that is wrong with politics in our country today. I would ask for an apology. But frankly, an apology from someone like Congressman Adler would be so meaningless that it's not worth seeking."
Ever wonder why Donks kept accusing Trunks of fraud during W's second election? Because they can't imagine any other way of doing business.

Let's see if this guy followed the rules or gets pulled.
Posted by: gorb || 10/09/2010 00:25 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


ClimateGate corrupts physics: Hal Lewis resigns from APS
I do feel the need to add one note, and this is conjecture, since it is always risky to discuss other people's motives. This scheming at APS HQ is so bizarre that there cannot be a simple explanation for it. Some have held that the physicists of today are not as smart as they used to be, but I don't think that is an issue. I think it is the money, exactly what Eisenhower warned about a half-century ago. There are indeed trillions of dollars involved, to say nothing of the fame and glory (and frequent trips to exotic islands) that go with being a member of the club. Your own Physics Department (of which you are chairman) would lose millions a year if the global warming bubble burst. When Penn State absolved Mike Mann of wrongdoing, and the University of East Anglia did the same for Phil Jones, they cannot have been unaware of the financial penalty for doing otherwise. As the old saying goes, you don't have to be a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing. Since I am no philosopher, I'm not going to explore at just which point enlightened self-interest crosses the line into corruption, but a careful reading of the ClimateGate releases makes it clear that this is not an academic question.

I want no part of it, so please accept my resignation. APS no longer represents me, but I hope we are still friends.

Hal

Harold Lewis is Emeritus Professor of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, former Chairman; Former member Defense Science Board, chmn of Technology panel; Chairman DSB study on Nuclear Winter; Former member Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards; Former member, President's Nuclear Safety Oversight Committee; Chairman APS study on Nuclear Reactor Safety Chairman Risk Assessment Review Group; Co-founder and former Chairman of JASON; Former member USAF Scientific Advisory Board; Served in US Navy in WW II; books: Technological Risk (about, surprise, technological risk) and Why Flip a Coin (about decision making)
It sounds like he's been having fun. Except for feeling compelled to resign from APS. And believing that, while Science is incorruptible, scientists have chosen to be all to human.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 10/09/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It would be worth your time to read the whole thing at the link. Rather scathing.
Posted by: tipover || 10/09/2010 2:19 Comments || Top||

#2  Once again, government money and the pagan worship of permanent perfect income stream security combine as the ultimate corrupting forces.

These folks aren't scientists, they're no different than big city public sector union flunkies, collecting their thirty years guaranteed pay with a guaranteed pension.
Posted by: no mo uro || 10/09/2010 5:55 Comments || Top||

#3  It also points to where cutting can start in the budget. Time to end welfare to the 'gifted'.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 10/09/2010 8:21 Comments || Top||

#4  It would be worth your time to read the whole thing at the link. Rather scathing.

Scrumptious, in fact.
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/09/2010 12:25 Comments || Top||

#5  WOW!
Posted by: anonymous2u || 10/09/2010 13:39 Comments || Top||

#6  I want no part of it, so please accept my resignation. APS no longer represents me, but I hope we are still friends.

Physics and the scientific process still remains the same. It is a few physicists along with the government who have corrupted the profession. I wouldn't worry for a minute about remaining friends with these crooks. Friends like these you don't need. What Professor Lewis points out is rampant in our scientific disciplines and government. The current push-back by citizens is a reaction to widespread corruption and deception in government. Few trust their government.
Posted by: JohnQC || 10/09/2010 16:26 Comments || Top||

#7  should've quit APSHQ and switched to AOS HQ
Posted by: Frank G || 10/09/2010 17:18 Comments || Top||

#8  That was as eloquent a smackdown as you could ask for.
I once was a research assistant in grad school to a woman who researched second-hand smoke. You ever think any of her studies indicated it wasn't a health risk? That's when I caught onto the funding game.
By the wildest stroke of luck, the week before climate-gate blew up, I gave a research methods lecture casting doubt on the whole affair.
Posted by: Mizzou Mafia || 10/09/2010 17:56 Comments || Top||

#9  "There will be, I'm afraid, no real expansion of the carbon markets to their global potential without movement in the U.S.," said Henry Derwent, chief executive and president of the International Emissions Trading Association.

"Until someone explains to them (the U.S.) how wrong they are, we will be stuck with a comfortable living in the European market but nothing, nothing near the potential we should be earning," he added.

No carbon market boom without U.S
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6932LZ20101004

Posted by: Black Charlie Chinemble5313 || 10/09/2010 18:07 Comments || Top||

#10  "There are not enough angry voters. The numbers are not enough for senators or congressman to think it's worth taking political flak over," he added.

On the contrary. There are lots and lots of angry voters.
Posted by: KBK || 10/09/2010 19:07 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Yasir Finds one of FBI's GPS Trackers on his Car

A California student got a visit from the FBI this week after he found a secret GPS tracking device on his car, and a friend posted photos of it online. The post prompted wide speculation about whether the device was real, whether the young Arab-American was being targeted in a terrorism investigation and what the authorities would do.

It took just 48 hours to find out: The device was real, the student was being secretly tracked and the FBI wanted its expensive device back, the student told Wired.com in an interview Wednesday.
--
Afifi said he often travels for business

What kind of business would a college student have, and how does he afford to travel often?
and has two teenage brothers in Egypt whom he supports financially. They live with an aunt. His U.S.-born mother, who divorced his father five years ago, lives in Arizona.
She didn't like living in Egypt? How very odd. I assume that Egyptian/Muslim law decreed the boys belonged to the father, who then refused to care for them.
So he can afford travel and he can afford to support his brothers. In Egypt. Hooookay, it's time to inspect the accounts ...
Afifi's father, Aladdin Afifi, was a U.S. citizen
Through marriage to an American woman?
and former president of the Muslim Community Association here,
Never a good sign...
before his family moved to Egypt in 2003. Yasir Afifi returned to the United States alone in 2008, while his father and brothers stayed in Egypt, to further his education he said. He knows he's on a federal watchlist and is regularly taken aside at airports for secondary screening.
So many questions -- and no doubt the answers are quite interesting. We didn't even get as far as asking who his cell phone and internet buddies are... And does anyone here recognize the device in the photo at the link?
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 10/09/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So those things are probably hard to spot. What would have caused them to even look for such a device in the first place?

Posted by: crosspatch || 10/09/2010 12:08 Comments || Top||

#2  The cited article & links ID the device as an Orion Guardian ST820 made by Cambion, sold only to mil & LE types. Google search using "Orion Guardian ST820 " gives 665 hits, bulk are related to this article, others are gov't price lists & auction sites for used gear. Cost new $6000, subscription (? 2-year) for its use is about $860.
Story was that he took his car to a mechanic who recognized something unusual attached to the undercarriage & asked Yasir about whether to leave it alone or not. A backyard mechanic with a little knowledge of his vehicle would spot this immediately once vehicle was raised up for inspection.
Device is attached under a vehicle with magnets using method similar to that used by O.J.Simpson's character in movie "The Naked Gun 21/2" Stealthier devices are attached in areas harder to see and directly wired to car battery for longer-term surveillance.
It would be amusing to plant a few thousand dummy devices on vehicles at a CAIR convention & then listen to the uproar.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 10/09/2010 13:49 Comments || Top||

#3  The new, Orion Guardian ST820XP comes with it's anti-tamper device. Best thing to do is just finish checking the tires, leave it the phuech alone and.... not mention it to anyone. The kill radius is classified. [snark off]

Posted by: Besoeker || 10/09/2010 13:57 Comments || Top||

#4  Whether or not the guy should be under surveillance, I don't know.

However, in the case of the FBI putting one of these on a car and it getting found, well, I'd say that qualifies as them giving him a free toy to sell or smash as he chooses. Getting seen or tagged by the person you've got under surveillance is a big huge fail. So for the FBI, this is a $6000, lesson in "How Not To Be Seen!"
Posted by: Silentbrick || 10/09/2010 15:06 Comments || Top||

#5  “We have all the information we needed,” they told him. “You don’t need to call your lawyer. Don’t worry, you’re boring.“
Posted by: KBK || 10/09/2010 17:15 Comments || Top||


International-UN-NGOs
Raped Under UN Auspices
At least they weren't raped by the UN auspices that time. Which means all the diseases they were given were local, not foreign. :-(
Posted by: Q || 10/09/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Obama leads calls for Liu Xiaobo's release
WASHINGTON — US President Barack Obama led international calls Friday for the release of jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, after the veteran democracy campaigner was awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. Obama, last year’s Nobel peace laureate, joined European powers in condemning China’s human rights record, and criticised Beijing for failing to match economic growth with political reform.
Good. That's the right thing to do.
“The Nobel Committee has chosen someone who has been an eloquent and courageous spokesman for the advance of universal values through peaceful and non-violent means, including his support for democracy, human rights, and the rule of law,” Obama said in a written statement hours after the announcement by the Norwegian committee.

While China had made dramatic progress in economic reform in the past 30 years, “this award reminds us that political reform has not kept pace,” said Obama, who called on the Chinese government to release Liu as soon as possible.

Liu was sentenced last December to 11 years behind bars for subversion, following the 2008 release of “Charter 08”, a manifesto for reform signed by more than 300 Chinese intellectuals, academics and writers.

As Beijing fumed that the Norwegian committee had “violated” the integrity of its award, a string of criticism from the US and Europe and calls for Liu’s release did little to soothe its anger.

“This decision embodies the defence of human rights everywhere in the world,” said France’s Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner. “France, like the European Union, expressed its concern after his arrest and has called for him to be released on a number of occasions. She repeats that call.”

There was a similar response from the German government.

“The (German) government would like to see him released soon and receive his prize in person,” spokesman Steffen Seibert told reporters. “The government has pressed for his release in the past and will continue to do so.”

The award, news of which was widely blocked in China, was hailed as recognition of “a very prominent human rights defender” by the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay.

“We welcome this recognition of the very important role human rights defenders play in China and in many other countries, as well as the challenges they face,” said Pillay. “Advocates like Liu Xiaobo can make an important contribution to China’s development,” she said.
Posted by: Steve White || 10/09/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Azhar scholars slam meeting with Iran officials
[Al Arabiya] A block of scholars from al-Azhar has welcomed the decision of their grand Sheikh Ahmed Mohammed al-Tayyeb to cancel a meeting with the Iranian vice president and tourism minister Hamid Baghai.

Al-Azhar, which is the world's center of Sunni Islam, has also called to blockade any meeting with Iranian officials unless the Islamic Theocratic Republic changes course and destroys the shrine of Abi Lulu'a al-Majusi, the killer of the second caliph (Prophet's companion) Omar bin al-Khatab.

Sunni Mohammedans believe that the first four caliphs after Mohammed have rightfully took his place as the leaders of Mohammedans, leaving a huge contrast with Shiite Mohammedans who believe that the only heirs of the fourth companion, Ali, are the legitimate successors to lead Mohammedans.

But in 2007 Ayatollah Mohammed Ali Taskhiri, secretary-general of the Tehran-based World Assembly for Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought sent a letter to the International Union of Mohammedan Scholars saying that the Iranian authorities have closed the tomb.

Rifaa al-Tahtawi, a front man of al-Azhar said al-Tayyeb lectures every Tuesday and is keen to keep his schedule on time, and the Iranian delegation was late in requesting a meeting with al-Tayyeb despite their four days stay in Egypt to sign the airline agreement, connecting Cairo and Tehran for the first time after 30 years of severed relations.

Al-Tahtawi also pointed out that Baghai has visited a couple of mosques highly revered by Shiite Mohammedans, including al-Sayyeda Zainab (the daughter of the Prophet), al-Sayyeda Nafisa (Prophet's granddaughter from Hussain), and Imam Hussain (son of the Prophet).

Head of the scholar's block, Dr. Mohammed al-Biri said that Iran did not offer much to close the gap between the two sects, and called Iran to erase what is offensive to Sunni Mohammedans.

Abu Lulu'a tomb is in the city of Kashan and has few visitors, and is only symbolic as his body was buried in Madina, in Saudi Arabia.

Islamic Action Front, the arm of the Mohammedan Brotherhood in Jordan has sent a letter to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei to destroy the tomb to mitigate Sunni-Shiite relation.

Islamic Action Front's secretary general Hamza Mansour has also emphasized his Fatwa in a letter to Khamenei to forbid insults and tirades on the Prophet's companions.

Mansour also commented on Yasir al-Habib, whose Kuwaiti citizenship was stripped after he made derogatory statements about al-Sayyeda Aysha, (Prophet Mohammed's wife) and several of the prophet's companions.

He said that al-Habib's comments are no different than what Islam is facing from slander in Europe and Tel-Aviv, and taking the same mode of assaults Mohammedans are enduring in Paleostine, Leb and Afghanistan.

He also called for Sunnis to be able to build their mosques wherever they please in Tehran, just as Shiite Mohammedans can build their mosques anywhere.

Mohammed Salim al-Awa, secretary general of the International Union of Mohammedan Scholars told Al Arabiya that the "the tomb is for an old Sufi person in Iran, with few visitors, and the Iranian authorities have closed it."
Posted by: Fred || 10/09/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: Muslim Brotherhood


Home Front: Culture Wars
Pack of Unarmed Citizens Stops Mass Murder in its Tracks
The original and utterly pitiful headline was "Shots fired at Carlsbad school; man arrested" which misses the most newsworthy part of the story. The story was not considering a leading headline by the webmasters of the San Diego Union website.
The suspect had parked his car, jumped a school fence and fired on the playground in the beach community north of San Diego, shooting two students in their right arms, police said.

The gunman continued firing rounds as construction workers chased him. One of the workers, Carlos Partida, told KGTV-TV that he ran to his truck and drove into the gunman to stop him.

"I hit him with my truck," Partida said.

"I am so grateful to the construction workers," said the mother of one of the children there. "They deserve lunch and free doughnuts for the rest of the year."
They deserve a helluva lot more than, like one of those Congressional medals for civilians.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 10/09/2010 14:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I agree. These guys prevented a major tragedy. They should get medals and a parade.
Posted by: Penguin || 10/09/2010 18:03 Comments || Top||

#2  The Just Us Department will probably do background checks on them, with an eye to deporting them if they are illegal, or prosecuting them if they have so much as an unpaid parking ticket.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 10/09/2010 18:29 Comments || Top||

#3  Pity he hit the brakes...
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 10/09/2010 18:37 Comments || Top||

#4  Attempts by the MFM to link him to the Tea Party, in 5..4...3...
Posted by: Procopius2k || 10/09/2010 18:49 Comments || Top||

#5  Brendan L. O’Rourke, 41, and apparently lost his job and mind. He was already a racist nonsocial asshole, and angry loner.
Posted by: Frank G || 10/09/2010 19:43 Comments || Top||

#6  FrankG; The bad guy got hit by a Ford F-150, or as it is sometimes known, a Ford Lobo.
Posted by: badanov || 10/09/2010 19:51 Comments || Top||

#7  ahem, unfortunately, not mine... but I'll buy a round in the O Club
Posted by: Frank G || 10/09/2010 20:14 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
36[untagged]
4Govt of Pakistan
2Commies
2Hamas
2Govt of Sudan
1Govt of Iran
1Govt of Syria
1Hezbollah
1Jamaat-e-Ulema Islami
1Jundullah
1Lashkar-e-Islami
1Muslim Brotherhood
1Palestinian Authority
1Thai Insurgency
1al-Qaeda
1al-Qaeda in Arabia
1al-Qaeda in Pakistan
1Chechen Republic of Ichkeria

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In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
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Two weeks of WOT
Sat 2010-10-09
  Norks confirm Sonny Jong Un's succession
Fri 2010-10-08
  Zapee ID'd as Mohammed Usman
Thu 2010-10-07
  US apologizes for attack on Pakistani soldiers
Wed 2010-10-06
  Qari Ziauddin ID'd as a Zap-ee
Tue 2010-10-05
  French police arrest 11 people with suspected Islamic extremists links
Mon 2010-10-04
  Six killed as NATO oil tankers ambushed in Islamabad
Sun 2010-10-03
  Drone strikes kill 18 in North Waziristan
Sat 2010-10-02
  US drone strike kills six in Pakistan
Fri 2010-10-01
  Imagine that: Dozens of NATO oil tankers attacked in Pakistan
Thu 2010-09-30
  'Obama gives Pakistan ultimatum'
Wed 2010-09-29
  Cross-border heli raids kill 9 in Pakistan
Tue 2010-09-28
  Israeli Navy escorts Gaza-bound activist boat to Ashdod
Mon 2010-09-27
  Sonny Jong Un gets promoted!
Sun 2010-09-26
  Drone boys rack up 7 more in North Wazoo
Sat 2010-09-25
  US walks out of Ahmadinejad UN speech


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