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Mufti warns of revolution in Saudi Arabia
Today's Headlines
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Page 6: Politix
20 00:00 Secret Master [8] 
8 00:00 Fire and Ice [2] 
13 00:00 Anguper Hupomosing9418 [1] 
Page 1: WoT Operations
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Page 4: Opinion
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China-Japan-Koreas
No Rebirth?

Beijing, already charged for spying against the 17th Karmapa, has banned the reincarnation of HH the Dalai Lama. China has also banned Buddhist monks in Tibet from reincarnating without government permission.
Posted by: Water Modem || 02/15/2011 19:05 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  RELIGION will likely argue that BEIJING = CHINA's new regulation will fail because neither the State nor the mortal = Human Individual can hope to ever defeat GOD = HEAVEN.

As for SECULAR SCIENCE, a leading theory suggests that paranormal Activities, i.e. GHOSTS-N-SPIRITS, etc. tend to occur during INTENSE SOLAR + EM ACTIVITIES, i.e. TEARS/BREAKS IN THE SO-CALLED "SPACE-TIME CONTINUUM" OCCUR SUCH THAT THE DEAD, AKA "COLD ENERGY", IS ABLE TO CROSS FROM THEIR DIMENSION BACK INTO THE EXISTING ONE, AKA "LIVE/HOT ENERGY", where they can be physically seen, "communicate", move objects, etc.

JUST BECAUSE ONE OR MORE CAN'T PHYSICALLY = VISIBLY SEE THEM DOE NOT MEAN THEY DON'T EXIST, NOR DOES IT MEAN THEY LACK THE INTELLIGENCE = ABILITY TO REASON, ETC. THEY HAD IN LIFE.

NUTSHELL > IOW, SCIENCE itself makes the covert proposition that RE-INCARNATION MAY INDEED BE POSSIBLE.

And iff RE-INCARNATION, WHY NOT JUDEO-CHRISTIAN "RESURRECTION", OR HIGHER???

IFF GUAM TAOTAMONAS + BUDDHA, Etal. CAN DO IT, SO CAN JUDEOCHRISTIAN ANGELS, DEMONS + of course JESUS CHRIST DO IT.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/15/2011 19:52 Comments || Top||

#2  SCIENCE = THE CAUSE, SOLUTION, + PROOF OF RELIGION.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/15/2011 19:54 Comments || Top||

#3  JOE IS SPOT ON, AS YOU SHALL. AS THOMAS DOLBY SED> SCIENCE!

PLUS THE 1ST(?) LAW OF THERMODYNAMIX -- IF ENERGY IS CONSERVED, THEREFORE SO ARE SOULS. I THINK, ERGO YOU ARE STUCK WITH ME.
Posted by: Pollyandrew || 02/15/2011 20:16 Comments || Top||

#4  JOE HAS A DISCIPLE
Posted by: Fire and Ice || 02/15/2011 20:17 Comments || Top||

#5  LET'S ALL WRITE THIS WAY <-

IT'S IMPORTAT _N##N@@"" FOR LEGIBLTY-N-COMPREHENDNESS * GETT POINTS ACROSS!!!!!@#@#!!!!!

===--- WHY IS THERE A CAPS LOCK ON THE KEYBOARD UNLESS WE WERE MEANT TO USE IT EVERY DAY??? ===---- _gN##@P
Posted by: gromky || 02/15/2011 20:44 Comments || Top||

#6  DAMN YOU BEIJING = I WILL NEVER LOOK AT FIST OF FURY THE SAME AGAIN! *&^():(
Posted by: Broadhead6 || 02/15/2011 21:00 Comments || Top||

#7  I'm up for a WRITE LIKE JOE DAY. ANYONE KNOW HIS BIRTHDAY VISA VEE=THE DATE OF HIS BIRTH?

Of course, since he's across the International Dateline, would or could such a day EVER EXIST FROM AN EINSTEINIAN/RELATIVITY-WISE-SPEAKING perspective?

Posted by: Pollyandrew || 02/15/2011 21:07 Comments || Top||

#8  do not taunt the Joe. Unhappy tsunamis may result, even if you are comfortably ensconced in Wyoming or Tennessee. He has that power
Posted by: Frank G || 02/15/2011 21:17 Comments || Top||

#9  HEAR HEAR! VIS A VIS JOE, YOUR DISCIPLE AKA ANONYMOUS USA INTERNET USER WID INTERNET ACXee..ss

WE< ANONYMOUS INTERNETS WID INTERNET REQUEST CONFIRMATION OF A DATE WE CAN HAVE WRITE LIKE JOE DAY!!=======>>>More fun than not>??? CAN PEOPLE HANDLE THE TRUTH? ACCESS CAN WRITE= SENT VIA WIRELESS ROUTER AND KEYBOARD. THANK YOU.
Posted by: Fire and Ice || 02/15/2011 21:27 Comments || Top||

#10  Crepe!

There's no street west of me, and the sandspit gets lower every year! I'd be easy pickin's.

(Joe, you'e the bomb!)
Posted by: Pollyandrew || 02/15/2011 21:35 Comments || Top||

#11  one more reason Rantburg is my go-to site.
Posted by: Broadhead6 || 02/15/2011 21:57 Comments || Top||

#12  ALL THAT 'DARK' MATTER OUT THERE == STARS PEOPLE ENTITIES THAT HAVE GONE BEFORE/AFTER NOW IN OTHER 'DIMENSIONS'/MULTIVERSES ===> IFF DARK MATTER != dark ENERGY but E == MCC = M modulo conversion factor = 1200 then HORATIO "things" ARE STRANGER THAN THEY SEEM
Posted by: KBK || 02/15/2011 22:11 Comments || Top||

#13  Forgive them, Joseph Mendiola, for they knowest not what they do.
Posted by: Swamp Blondie || 02/15/2011 22:40 Comments || Top||

#14  I had to work 12AM-6AM, then my regular shirt on Monday. Listened to "Coast to Coast AM" with George Noury. If Joe wasn't actually one of the callers... I suspect some of his minions were
Posted by: Frank G || 02/15/2011 22:41 Comments || Top||

#15  shift, not shirt.... I also wore a regular shirt but that had no bearing on it....
Posted by: Frank G || 02/15/2011 22:43 Comments || Top||

#16  Forgive them, Joseph Mendiola, for they knowest not what they do.

That's one of the coolest things about Joseph M -- he is among us, yet not with us. He advises us from afar. He watches over us, but does not directly respond to our entreaties. He is the Oracle of the Laptop in the F 150 (just a guess).
Posted by: Pollyandrew || 02/15/2011 23:10 Comments || Top||

#17  I also wore a regular shirt

If you consider an 'inside-out' Hawaiian shirt as "regular"...

(which is why I have a half-dozen)
Posted by: Pappy || 02/15/2011 23:32 Comments || Top||

#18  SO WHAT ARE THE CHI-COMMINTERN RAT-CHICKS BEING REINCARNATED AS???? ====>>>HMMMMMMM?

ERGO>>>>>>WHO RUNS KARMA REINCARNATION TOWN? HOLY HUBRIS===IT AIN'T BEIJING!

WE USED TO WRITE LIKE THIS IN MORSE CODE PRACTICE.
Ima tahrd......my haid hurts.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 02/15/2011 23:52 Comments || Top||

#19  Poor Alaska Paul. It takes a lot of energy to be JosephMendiola. I notice that not a single one of you made a television or film reference, and not a peep about Madonna or his other fave singer -- I'm sorry, JosephM, but is it Beyonce that your friend Osama bin Laden is so fond of?
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/15/2011 23:58 Comments || Top||

#20  I seem to remember that Joe lives in ether Guam or Samoa... I can't remember which one. In any case, if the virtual community that is Rantburg has an oracle, it's him. He sends us desperate, hard to understand messages ==>FROM BEYOND!
Posted by: Secret Master || 02/16/2011 0:04 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
New federal Budget Contains Hidden Tax Hikes!
Say it ain't so! Captain Zero proposes to cut the deficit by 1.1 tril by adding 1.5 tril in new taxes. Why ... that leaves $400 bil for ... NEW PROGRAMS!!!
The White House is billing its $3.7 trillion budget as a package of cuts that will reduce the deficit by $1.1 trillion over ten years. But at closer inspection this budget is as much about tax hikes as cuts.
I'm shocked. Shocked! There's a lot you can hide in 2,000 page documents!
Here are the 15 taxes identified by Americans For Tax Reform:

1. Raising the top marginal income tax rate (at which a majority of small business profits face taxation) from 35% to 39.6%. This is a $709 billion/10 year tax hike.

2. Raising the capital gains and dividends rate from 15% to 20%, raising the death tax rate from 35% to 45% and lowering the death tax exemption amount from $5 million ($10 million for couples) to $3.5 million. This is a $98 billion/ten year tax hike.

3. Capping the value of itemized deductions at the 28% bracket rate. This will effectively cut tax deductions for mortgage interest, charitable contributions, property taxes, state and local income or sales taxes, out-of-pocket medical expenses, and unreimbursed employee business expenses. A new means-tested phaseout of itemized deductions limits them even more. This is a $321 billion/ten year tax hike
Then several chump-change changes he's hoping for. And finally -

14. A giveaway to the trial lawyers -- not letting companies deduct the cost of punitive damages from a lawsuit settlement. This is a tax hike of $300 million over ten years

15. Increasing tax penalties, information reporting, and IRS information sharing. This is a ten-year tax hike of $20 billion.
But the IRS agents to enforce it probably add up to $40 bil. Cost-benefit ration, ya know.
Posted by: Bobby || 02/15/2011 10:51 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If the house Republicans let this go forward our Republic is finished. We will be broke and we have no real leadership we can turn to for help. We will have to find our own leadership or accept our role as serfs.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/15/2011 11:22 Comments || Top||

#2  If a tree falls alone in a forest, does it make any sound?

If you assume that a 2,700 page budget is full of new taxes and tax hikes, are they truly hidden?
Posted by: gorb || 02/15/2011 12:52 Comments || Top||

#3  I finally found THE word for Obama: Mumpsimus


Definition:a stubborn person who insists on making an error in spite of being shown that it is wrong.

God, save us from this Mumpsimus.
Posted by: Fire and Ice || 02/15/2011 15:13 Comments || Top||

#4  Origin:
1520–30; from a story, which perhaps originated with Erasmus, of an illiterate priest who said mumpsimus rather than sûmpsimus (1st plural perfect indicative of Latin sûmere to pick up; see consume) while reciting the liturgy, and refused to change the word when corrected

My day is not done until I learn something new.

I can go home now. :-)
Posted by: gorb || 02/15/2011 16:07 Comments || Top||

#5  Let it be known that on this day, Emperor Obama shall know be know forthwith as:

Emperor Obama the Mumpsimus!
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/15/2011 17:09 Comments || Top||

#6  Mumpsimuslims...
Posted by: Broadhead6 || 02/15/2011 17:36 Comments || Top||

#7  Emperor Obama the Mumpsimus!

Hear hear!
Posted by: Fire and Ice || 02/15/2011 17:48 Comments || Top||

#8  Michele, when asked how tight her husband Emporer Mumpsimus' game is, exclaimed to reporters:

"............!"
Posted by: Fire and Ice || 02/15/2011 17:59 Comments || Top||


Obama aims for $1.1tn deficit cut
[Al Jazeera] Barack B.O. Obama has proposed a budget that would cut the US deficit by $1.1 trillion over 10 years, setting the stage for a tough fight with Republicans who vow even tougher spending controls.
Which is really only $110 billion per year... and he'd only be writing budgets for this year and next year anyway. Beyond that it will be up to the new president and his/her new Congress.
Obama sent congress a $3.73tn spending plan on Monday that holds out the prospect of eventually bringing deficits under control through spending cuts and tax increases.

However,
The infamous However...
the fiscal blueprint largely ignores his own deficit commission's plea to lower huge entitlement programmes like Social Security and Medicare.

Obama called his new budget one of "tough choices and sacrifices", but most of those cuts would be held off until after the end of his first term.

Overall, Obama proposed reducing the deficits by $1.1tn over a decade although his changes would actually add to the deficits this year and next.

Republicans aim to make 2012 presidential election a
referendum on Democrat Obama's fiscal track record
He is projecting the deficit will hit an all-time high of $1.65tn this year and then drop sharply to $1.1tn in 2012, with an expected improvement in the economy and as reductions in Social Security withholding and business taxes expire.

Obama's 2012 budget would actually add $8bn to the projected deficit for that year because the bulk of the savings he will achieve through a freeze in many domestic programmes would be devoted to increased spending in areas Obama considers priorities, such as education, clean energy and high-speed rail.

"We have more work to do to live up to our promise by repairing the damage this brutal recession has inflicted on our people," he said.

Republicans, who took control of the House in the November elections and picked up seats in the senate in part because of voter anger over the soaring deficits, called Obama's efforts too timid.

The politicians are set to begin debating on Tuesday $61bn in cuts for the remaining seven months of fiscal 2011.

"Presidents are elected to lead and address big challenges," Paul Ryan, the chairman of the Republican House budget committee of Wisconsin, said.

"The big challenge facing our economy today and our country tomorrow is the debt crisis. He's making it worse, not better."

Al Jizz's John Terrett, reporting from Capitol Hill, said there is "a real war" going on between the Republicans and the Democrats.

"The Republicans would have the Democrats cut far more. President B.O. is not really comfortable about going as far as he has done with the cut backs in this budget, lots of Americans are going to be hurting as a result of it," he said.

"But nonetheless, he has to appeal to two groups: one is the Republicans who control the House of Representatives; and the other is floating voters that have a foot firmly in the Republican camp but who voted for him in 2008," he said.
Posted by: Fred || 02/15/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Deficit is not debt.
Posted by: gorb || 02/15/2011 2:34 Comments || Top||

#2  #1 Deficit is not debt.

When you borrow money to make up a deficit, it becomes debt.
Posted by: Secret Asian Man || 02/15/2011 6:11 Comments || Top||

#3  But not all debt arises from deficit. Change in debt is what is important, and the deficit is not the only contributor. Remember, this is GSM (Government Smoke and Mirrors) not GAAP.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 02/15/2011 7:20 Comments || Top||

#4  The deficit only considers on-budget items; indebtedness should rightly include the much larger amounts of off-budget obligations.
Obama's budget will continue to spend well over a trillion more dollars per year than there is revenue to cover - ultimately that revenue shortfall will be covered by inflation, which is effectively a tax on savings. It continues to be politically impossible for anyone to tell the people the truth - that the 'house of cards' WILL collapse. So the politicians continue to kick the ever-larger can down the road.
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/15/2011 7:54 Comments || Top||

#5  It looks tome that Obullshit's planning to make the NEXT pres(Probably a Repub) Look far worse,(Can't do it Honestly Soooo) It'll only work if it's not figured out by the sheeple.

SO, as much slight of hand as possible is Needed here.
(Old magician's trick an explosion "Over there" and the hand switch is not seen ""Center stage")
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/15/2011 9:34 Comments || Top||

#6  I suspect the next Prez will be Obumble and he will be faced with a very Red house and senate. That way, tackling Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security will be a bi-partisan effort. If he hasn't gotten us into a world war by then. More likely that will start in the second congress of his second administration and he will be hailed as the next FDR.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 02/15/2011 11:16 Comments || Top||

#7  and the debt's not THAT important it's how much it costs to fund, and that's going to steeply rise (once Bernanke has made sure the politically connected are safe, and taxpayers have the bill).
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 02/15/2011 11:44 Comments || Top||

#8  Paul Ryan got it right when he suggested that Oblahblah intends to act obtuse and force the Repubs to do the heavy lifting of budget cutting, and then attack them all along the way for their inhumane cuts and destructive, racist, ageist, facist and what ever other -ist he can use, and offer the affected his welcoming arms (and promises of cash) for his reelection. Since the tipping point between those who pay and those who get is relatively small these days, cuts that create pain to the those who pay and reduce the benies to thoses who get, it should let him pull it off.
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 02/15/2011 14:13 Comments || Top||

#9  There are a few difference between now and '95. First the MSM's monopoly is even more less-perfect than it was back then - more and more people are using the internet to do their own research and get news from other sources. Second the MSM has much, much, less credibility these days than back then. People (at lest the one's who aren't fools) have observed their flat-out treasonous bias during the '08 election and are less likely to take their statements at face value now.

Obumbles might try it - but it could very easily backfire - The democrats are getting less and less return from their propaganda arm these days.

And a lot of people are just plain out of work.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 02/15/2011 15:04 Comments || Top||

#10  @ NMBS

Never let a crisis and a vituperative attack go to waste. F-U Rahm, you POS.

And with dumbs Americans, probability is at 70% that Obama could ride the wave of Republican done cuts right back to the same desk in the same office again.
Posted by: Fire and Ice || 02/15/2011 15:05 Comments || Top||

#11  I was watching a piece on one of the History Channels about the gathering storm--I don't recall the exact title. The show was about the run up to WWII. I was struck by the parallels and similarities between that time and now. People were looking for saviors to save their countries and their economies after the Great Depression. They got Adolph Hitler, Mussolini and a militaristic expansionist Japan. I'm just saying there seems to be parallels. It may be the times and peoples are different.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/15/2011 16:33 Comments || Top||

#12  It may be the times and peoples are different.

Yea, more messed up people. Watching youtube's features of teens eating live goldfish (girls doing it too) I was struck with WTF is wrong with people nowadays?? Its like we're headed into another dark age. I had to stop watching.
Posted by: Fire and Ice || 02/15/2011 16:43 Comments || Top||

#13  This quote from Ortega y Gasset's "Revolt of the Masses" seems appropriate here:
Doubtless the most radical division of humanity that can be made is that between two classes of creatures: those who demand much of themselves and assume a burden of tasks and difficulties, and those who require nothing special of themselves, but rather for whom to live is to be in every instant only what they already are.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 02/15/2011 17:37 Comments || Top||



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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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Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
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Two weeks of WOT
Tue 2011-02-15
  Mufti warns of revolution in Saudi Arabia
Mon 2011-02-14
  Iranian protesters rally as Arab unrest spreads
Sun 2011-02-13
  Saeed Al-Shihri, Deputy Leader of AQAP Dead in Yemen
Sat 2011-02-12
  Police in Aden disperse ‘day of rage’ protests
Fri 2011-02-11
  Mubarak resigns
Thu 2011-02-10
  Mubarak still there
Wed 2011-02-09
  Suleiman: Mubarak Forms Panel to Pilot Constitutional Changes
Tue 2011-02-08
  Egypt sees largest demonstrations since start of revolt
Mon 2011-02-07
  Egypt: beginning of discussions between government and Muslim Brotherhood
Sun 2011-02-06
  Mubarak resigns as ruling party head
Sat 2011-02-05
  U.S. envoy to Egypt: Mubarak 'must stay' for now
Fri 2011-02-04
  Egypt PM Apologizes for Tahrir Square Clashes, Vows Probe
Thu 2011-02-03
  Mubarak's snipers flee Cairo square
Wed 2011-02-02
  Chaos in Cairo as Mubarak backers, opponents clash
Tue 2011-02-01
  Student beaten to death in Khartoum clashes


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