Appears to be stupidity, but a very dangerous idea.
It may have seemed like a good idea -- just a harmless stunt -- at the time.
But the pointing of a green laser at both a FedEx airliner and the Erie County Sheriff's helicopter multiple times Thursday night has led to felony criminal charges against three men, and a strong rebuke from a group of top local officials today.
The pilot of the sheriff's Air One helicopter, Capt. Kevin Caffery, cited the risks people take if they point a laser into a pilot's eyes. "There's a good chance you're going to wind up in jail," he said following an afternoon press conference. "At the worst, you could bring down an aircraft and kill a lot of people."
Caffery was joined today near the Erie Basin Marina by Mayor Byron W. Brown, Police Commissioner H. McCarthy Gipson and Sheriff Timothy B. Howard. Those officials praised the efforts that led to the arrest of three individuals.
"Due to the collaboration and excellent police work, we were able to apprehend three individuals on the ground in the Kaisertown area of the city," Brown told reporters. "This is a strong partnership, a partnership that already is paying dividends."
Timothy J. Voigt, 42, his son, Eric Voigt, 20, both of Griswold Street, and Bradley J. Campbell, 28, of Barnard Street, all face multiple counts of felony reckless endangerment.
The green laser first was pointed at a FedEx plane at about 8:45 p.m. Thursday. Those pilots contacted air-traffic controllers, who alerted Buffalo police. Then, as the sheriff's Air One helicopter searched the Kaisertown neighborhood, it was "hit" six times by the laser.
Caffery compared the laser light to a lightning strike, saying it lit up the entire aircraft. A direct hit into your eyes can be blinding, he and others pointed out.
"It was a slight disorientation and really a burning sensation in your eyes," Caffery said. "I looked away and turned the aircraft away from it."
Co-pilot Art Litzinger then used an infrared camera system to pinpoint the laser's location and help Buffalo police make the arrests.
Howard called the laser pointing into pilots' eyes "extremely dangerous," citing studies that have been done for about the last 10 years.
"This wasn't just a playful stunt, [even though] that may have been on the minds of the individuals," he said. "Especially during takeoffs and landings, this could have caused a plane to crash."
Thursday night's incident forced authorities to close a runway at Buffalo Niagara International Airport, because the sheriff's helicopter was forced to fly into otherwise restricted airspace.
Law enforcement officials cited possible federal charges in this case. "Right now, this crime is being reviewed by the FAA and the FBI," Gipson said.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/21/2009 15:25 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] A father in eastern India gave away his teenage daughter to a fellow gambler after he lost a card game, media reported on Sunday, with police launching a hunt to retrieve the girl.
Ismail Sheikh, from a village in West Bengal, used his 18-year-old daughter as a stake after he lost all his money, The Times of India said.
"Ismail lost the game again and Mustafa walked away with the girl"
Satyajit Bandhopadhyay, police officer
"Ismail lost the game again and Mustafa walked away with the girl," said Satyajit Bandhopadhyay, a senior police officer investigating the case.
The girl protested but the victorious Mustafa dragged her out of the village, the report said.
Family members were quoted as saying the father was a compulsive gambler with a drink problem and they had thrown him out the house after losing the teenager.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/21/2009 00:00 ||
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Guess what everyone! 'Sheikh' and 'Mustafa' aren't Hindu names!
#2
In rural India it's as likely to have been Hindu names, Free Radical. This is indicative only of personal evil exercised at the family level, nothing more.
#3
Haryana police arrested a 19-year-old girl for allegedly murdering seven of her family members, including her parents and brother, in connivance with her 20-year-old boyfriend on Saturday evening at a village near Rohtak.
Sonam and her paramour Naveen have been arrested for allegedly poisoning and strangling to death seven members of her family as they objected to their relationship on the grounds that the couple belonged to the same sub-caste.
Sonam confessed to mixing poison in the food she served to her family. Sonam mixed some intoxicant in the flour before the dinner Monday night. After eating the chapattis made from it, all the family members fell unconscious," Rohtak Superintendent of Police Anil Kumar Rao said.
Mr. Rao added that, after the family fell unconscious Sonam called Naveen, who lives in the neighbourhood, and both of them killed the seven people by strangling them.
He added that the young woman admitted that she hated her family for opposing her love affair on the grounds of India's strict caste system. The couple hail from the same caste and were prohibited to marry under guidelines enforced by a village social council. The two feared that they could be badly beaten or even killed for ignoring caste and social dictum, so they decided to kill the family before eloping to get married, he added.
Posted by: john frum ||
09/21/2009 15:48 Comments ||
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#4
John, I thought the caste system was outlawed at the national level.
I realize that what happens at the local village level may have very little to do with the national laws.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
09/21/2009 21:07 Comments ||
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NASA says it successfully launched a rocket in Virginia as part of an experiment, and the blast may have caused dozens of people to report seeing strange lights in the sky.
The space agency said it launched the Black Brant XII on Saturday evening to gather data on the highest clouds in the Earth's atmosphere. About the time of the launch, dozens of people in the Northeast started calling local television stations to report seeing strange lights.
The calls came from as far away as Boston, which is about 380 miles northeast of the launch site.
The rocket is designed to create an artificial cloud. NASA hopes the experiment will provide information on the formation and properties of noctilucent clouds, which occur at high altitudes.
#1
Yeah, saw that; too bad, I kinda hoped it would be the supposedly soon-upcoming lightshow signaling benjamin creme's channeled Maitreya coming back, to guide us into a New Age of Peace and Enlightement.
At least for 3 and an half years, that is.
Oh, well, I still can fall back to the Mahdi card. Hey, dude, come out of that dwell almready, I want that Game over...
#3
George Noory's phones must have lit up like crazy.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
09/21/2009 9:33 Comments ||
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#4
There's a cute NASA museum there. You ought to go if you're in the area.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
09/21/2009 20:04 Comments ||
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#5
REDDIT > NASA IS GOING TO BLOW A HUGE HOLE IN THE MOON.
Why wait for Year 2030 + OWG-NWO GLOBAL-SPACE DEFENSE TO MISS COMET APHOPHIS, or CHINA = LUNAR ENGINEERING - WE WANT THE MOON WIPED OUT NOW, AND ITS RIGHT TO DO SO! THE SUN WON'T SURRENDER UNLESS WE SHOW WE'RE SERIEUSE!
Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya has taken refuge inside the Brazilian embassy in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa, Telesur television network reported on Monday.
And if pigs could fly..
IF the world fails to reach agreement on tackling climate change soon then it could end in war, climate scientist Tim Flannery has warned.
And if that doesn't motivate us to do things his way, he'll threaten us with plagues, boils, locusts, bats, rats, salamanders and newts ...
*shrug* Water shortages are already leading to war, at least on a small scale. This is not new.
Like many others, he is concerned at a lack of progress ahead of a crucial UN climate summit in Copenhagen in December. If there is no deal some time in the next year then there is a risk of momentum fading and the problem getting beyond the reach of world leaders, said Prof Flannery, who is in New York for climate talks.
"My greatest fear is that once people stop negotiating, once diplomacy fails, that's potentially a prelude for war."
Only if someone sees war as being in their best interest. Humankind is screwy and I suppose it's possible that someone would go to war over not getting their way on 'climate-change'. Heck, look at Pakistain where people go to war over someone looking cross-eyed at someone else's cousin. But it's a real stretch to imagine that the progressive Left would go to war since that means that they'd have to do something other than talk and bluster. I don't see European or American leftist invertebrates as having the, er, spine for that.
That could mean conflict over carbon tariffs, over the mass migration of climate-affected people or over serious water shortages, Prof Flannery said.
It might not happen for decades but it was a real threat if Copenhagen failed. "The triggers are there for conflict," the former Australian of the year said.
He gave some support for Australia's proposal to go easier on developing countries in the Copenhagen process, by exempting them from having to make economy-wide commitments to restrain emissions growth.
He'd rather throw a thousand ropes over the American Gulliver ...
The Greens say the plan is a cop-out but Prof Flannery said it should be looked at because current approaches were not working.
"It does hold the promise at least of unlocking further cooperation from those so-called developing countries," he said, adding that countries like China and Brazil were not really developing countries any more. "We haven't got time to let the perfect be the enemy of the good."
Prof Flannery strongly backed Australia voting in its emissions trading scheme before Copenhagen. The Opposition wants a vote delayed. But Prof Flannery also said Australia must cut emissions by at least 25 per cent. The Government's target is a 5 to 25 per cent cut.
A 25% cut in emissions means either a 25% improvement in industrial efficiency, so as to make the cuts painless, or a 25% reduction in carbon energy use. Efficiency is something that happens incrementally and can't be scheduled. A 25% cut in energy usage would put the average first world country back to the 1950s or so in their economy and lives. I welcome someone else going first.
#2
Well it's good to be a superpower in that case.
Personally I think failed states will continue to happen and thus everything he predicts will happen. But they won't happen because of climate, folks like this guy will blame the climate of course, but fact is the third world is corrupt and run by total idiots (as opposed to the first world which is semi-corrupt and semi-run by total idiots).
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/21/2009 14:59 Comments ||
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Flannery predicted the city of Perth would have to be abandoned because climate change would mean we would run out of water.
We have just had a record number of consecutive days of rain.
BTW Flannery isn't a climate scientist. His degree was in English Literature and he worked most of his life as a museum administrator. Until he discovered the climate pundit gig.
#5
His degree was in English Literature and he worked most of his life as a museum administrator. Until he discovered the climate pundit gig
sounds like the exacting life experience and training necessary to be a geopolitical nostradamus
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/21/2009 15:42 Comments ||
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#6
"Climate deal failure 'could mean war'"
Promises, promises....
As philb says, Flannery's an uninformed idiot who's hopped on the bandwagon he thinks will bring him fame and fortune. Tim Blair may have something to say about that. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/21/2009 15:43 Comments ||
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#7
Climate Change has become a war ... on Science itself.
#8
"Climate Change has become always has been a war ... on Science itself."
Fixed that for ya', Bart.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/21/2009 18:17 Comments ||
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#9
BTW Flannery isn't a climate scientist. His degree was in English Literature and he worked most of his life as a museum administrator.
From Wikipedia:
In 1985, Flannery earned a doctorate at the University of New South Wales for his work on the evolution of macropods. Prior to this, he completed a Bachelor of Arts degree (1977) at La Trobe University [2] and a masters degree in earth sciences at Monash University. He holds bachelor degrees in English and Earth Science, a doctorate in Palaeontology, and has contributed to over 90 scientific papers.
Go read the rest. I don't see any sign of a weak career. Leave the ad hominems to the leftists.
He's right that the climate changes abruptly, and that that's a worry. He's wrong to think we understand the reasons. He seems like a pretty bright guy, and I suspect he'll modulate his opinion soon enough as the evidence piles up.
#10
SOUTH ASIA > high risk for both REGIO "WATER WAR(S) + GEOPOL MUSCLE-FLEXING [read, CHIN-INDIA-PAK] + NEWLY NUKULAARIZED MILITS-TERRS???
E.g. PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUMS > seems the PM of PAKLAND has already told his Nation-People to be prepared for VARIOUS LOOMING, MOSTLY ENVIRON CRISES ALA RESOURCES [Water, Gas-Energy, Food], which in turn may lead to GEOPOL CRISIS[ES]???
* TOPIX > VARIOUS > SCIENTISTS: GLOBAL WARMING COULD LEAD TO TSUNAMIS AND EARTHQUAKES.
PLus SEASLIDES + LANDSLIDES + METHANE BUBBLES +....@.
#11
Flannery made a name for himself digging up kangaroo fossils and we can debate if paleontology is a real science or not. Wikipedia describes it as a "historical science".
Anyway he is not a climate scientist.
I've read excerpts from his book - The Weather Makers - and the guy is certainly a lot brighter than Al Gore. In summary the book draws the most alarmist conclusions from the flimsiest of evidence.
To be fair, I suspect he wrote the book as a money making venture and consequently made it as dramatic as possible.
I suspect he'll modulate his opinion soon enough as the evidence piles up
I see no evidence to date. Climate alarmism has made him rich, famous and consulted by the powerful.
It has been nearly a month since the car-buying frenzy of the Cash for Clunkers program ended, and many area auto dealers are longing for the good old days of July and August.
Like consumers nationwide, Massachusetts residents rushed to take advantage of the federal voucher program, which offered them up to $4,500 on old gas-guzzlers to be put toward the purchase of new, more fuel-efficient vehicles. About $65 million worth of vouchers were handed out statewide during the monthlong program that ended Aug. 24.
But once the federal money dried up, so did the sales rally. Now, customers at dealerships like Silko Honda in Raynham are few and far between, and inventory is once again accumulating.
Manager Adam Silverleib said business was pretty intense as a result of the federal stimulus program, with the dealership hustling to accommodate customers and handle the piles of paperwork required for them to receive reimbursement on vouchers. Now were kind of back to where we were in the spring, he said.
In an attempt to draw customers back to showrooms, some dealers are offering new incentives, albeit none as enticing as a $4,500 for a rusting junker. Silko, for example, is promoting 2.9 percent financing on new Accords, along with other deals on its website.
Nationwide, customers snatched up 700,000 new cars, most of them foreign-made, and the government ended up paying out nearly $3 billion toward the purchases. But from the start, analysts predicted that Cash for Clunkers would not boost sales for the year. Septembers sales swoon seems to be making their case. Car sales are usually slow after Labor Day, but because of the recession consumers this year are especially reluctant to say yes to major purchases. To make matters worse for dealers, most are still waiting for voucher reimbursements.
It was probably, in the end, a complete waste of taxpayer money, said John Wolkonowicz, a senior auto analyst at IHS Global Insight, Lexington forecasting firm. The dealers, who were supposed to be the primary beneficiaries, many were forced into cash flow problems because the government didnt pay them in a timely fashion.
From the outset, there were problems with the Car Allowance Rebate System. It was supposed to start July 1 but was delayed until July 24. The rules were complicated, and the list of qualifying vehicles and other requirements changed repeatedly. And in addition to the formidable paperwork, the government website set up to process the deals kept crashing, creating a backlog.
Ray Ciccolo, president of Village Automotive Group, which operates eight Boston-area dealerships, said he has received $400,000 from the government, but that is only half of what he is owed. Ciccolo was in Washington last week to hear Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood address the National Automobile Dealers Association. Ciccolo said LaHood pledged to have all claims paid by the end of this month.
There isnt much you can do except wait, Ciccolo said.
That does not mean that Ciccolo and other dealers in Massachusetts condemn the program. Several said they were grateful for it because it helped them quickly move inventory and brought in a barrage of unexpected customers.
Richard White, general manager at Cityside Subaru in Belmont, said the dealership sold 52 cars through the program and that he has been reimbursed for 51. His biggest problem has been trying to rebuild inventory since it ended. By every measure, the program was extremely successful for us, he said.
The Department of Transportation said it has approved 83 percent of dealer rebate applications and was working through snags to process the rest.
Robert OKoniewski, executive vice president of the Massachusetts State Automobile Dealers Association, which represents 441 dealerships, estimated that most are probably still owed money.
This program was very good at getting product off the lot, but there havent been long-term benefits, he said. Dealers are reporting that showrooms are pretty dead right now.
Wolkonowicz said the fall slowdown may have been worsened by the program because many buyers came out early to take advantage of the program instead of waiting until now to shop.
In Raynham, Silverleib is relying heavily on longtime customers ready for a new model. But he is realistic about the state of the auto business, and skeptical that the economy is out of the woods.
Speaking as someone on the front lines, were still in a recession, he said.
#4
Massachusetts residents rushed to take advantage of the federal voucher program, which offered them up to $4,500 on old gas-guzzlers to be put toward the purchase of new, more fuel-efficient vehicles.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Germany's Free Democrats (FDP) have turned a cold shoulder to the main challengers of Chancellor Angela Merkel, the Social Democrats (SDP), ahead of the September 27 vote.
Dismissing indications that they would join the SPD in a coalition that could try to replace Merkel's Conservative-led coalition, the FDP said they would only rule in partnership with Merkel's CDU. FDP leader Guido Westerwelle announced the decision at an extraordinary congress of the party in Potsdam, one week before federal elections in Germany.
A coalition comprising of the SPD, FDP and the Greens is the only apparent formula that could stop Merkel from winning a second term.
The business oriented FDP said they had arrived at the decision not to help the other parties gain majority over concerns that "the manifestos of the SPD and the Greens will raise the burden on the taxpayer."
This dashes SPD's hopes for a so-called "traffic light" coalition -- named after the colors of the parties.
Pre-election polls suggest Merkel in the lead, predicting the conservatives and the FDP to secure a narrow parliamentary majority in the election, although the race has been tightening.
Free from long-time rivals, the SPD, which have been part of her "grand coalition" since 2005, Merkel's center-right party would likely seek tax cuts and extend the life of Germany's unpopular nuclear power stations, bypassing a law that orders the complete shut down of the country's aging nuclear power plants by 2020.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/21/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
I'm going to take a gamble and I think Merkel will win easily and extend her margin.
The United States is moving toward enshrining a free and open internet with six proposed rules designed to prevent telecommunications companies from interfering with how people use their connections. Color me skeptical.
The rules are needed because American internet providers have interfered with internet traffic on a number of occasions and they must be prevented from doing so in the future, said Federal Communications Commission chairman Julius Genachowski in a speech at the Brookings Institution in Washington.
"The rise of serious challenges to the free and open internet puts us at a crossroads. We could see the internet's doors shut to entrepreneurs, the spirit of innovation stifled, a full and free flow of information compromised. Or we could take steps to preserve internet openness, helping ensure a future of opportunity, innovation, and a vibrant marketplace of ideas," he said.
The FCC, the United States' counterpart to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, has since 2005 applied four so-called net neutrality principles in its decision-making.
Two new principles will join those original four and be formalized as official rules that will apply to both wired and wireless networks:
1. Consumers are entitled to access whatever lawful internet content they want.
2. Consumers are entitled to run whatever applications and services they want, subject to the needs of law enforcement.
3. Consumers can connect to networks whatever legal devices they want, so long as they do not harm them.
4. Consumers are entitled to competition between networks, applications, services and content providers.
5. Service providers are not allowed to discriminate between applications, services and content outside of reasonable network management.
6. Service providers must be transparent about the network management practices they use. I wonder how many regulators will need to be hired to enforce all this?
Genachowski, who was appointed to his job this summer by President Barack Obama -- a fellow net neutrality supporter -- said the FCC will launch its rule-making process in October and will seek input from the public and interested companies. The rules will have to be approved by the FCC's five commissioners, three of which are Democrats and supporters of net neutrality.
Net neutrality supporters cheered the news. Vint Cerf, the Google vice-president who helped created the internet in the 1970s and 1980s with Al Gore, said the rules are needed because internet providers have recently started blocking applications -- such as peer-to-peer software -- and favouring certain websites. Ahhh, that paragon of capitalism, Google.
One of the instances Cerf was referring to was cable provider Comcast's blocking of peer-to-peer traffic last year. The company was sanctioned by the FCC and ordered to stop the practice, but Comcast filed a lawsuit against the regulator saying it didn't have the authority to make such demands. The lawsuit is still pending.
The move is a major blow to phone and cable companies, who have argued that they need to manage their networks as they see fit. They have also said that further regulation of their networks will discourage investment in them. Wireless companies will be particularly opposed as so far, they have been able to call the shots on what applications and services consumers can use on their devices. It sounds liike a good idea, but I consider the source.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/21/2009 14:00 ||
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#1
1. Consumers are entitled to access whatever lawful internet content they want.
Depending in what "Lawful" is defined as.
I wonder how many regulators will need to be hired to enforce all this?
Bunch of folks over at ACORN needin' work, ya know.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
09/21/2009 14:38 Comments ||
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#2
Sounds like Disinformation to me, something unneeded and unwanted pushed as a "Necessity" In a panick stricken voice.
The only "Benefit" I see is Obama getting a stranglehold on the Internet.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/21/2009 14:57 Comments ||
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#1
For vehicle extrications we have been warned that if dealing with a hybrid or electric car post wreck we should be aware of the possibility of the frame being electrified.
Cyber criminals have created a highly sophisticated Trojan virus that steals online banking log-in details from infected computers.
The Clampi virus, which is spreading rapidly across hundreds of thousands of computers in Britain and the United States, infects computers when users visit websites that host a malicious code.
Once on the computer, the virus sits unnoticed until the user logs on to bank, credit card or other financial websites. It then captures log-in and password information and sends it to a server run by the attackers. They can then tell the compromised computer to send money to accounts that they control, or they can buy goods with the stolen credit card details.
Continued on Page 49
Marx would have delighted in the events of the 18th, all over Iran. Groucho, that is, for on the 18th the supreme leader and all his co-conspirators were transformed from figures of awe to objects of ridicule. As Machiavelli likes to remind us, the most dangerous thing for any leader is to earn the contempt of his followers, and the Iranian people made it luminously clear that they would no longer be intimidated. The regime had launched a vicious repression following the challenges to the "election results" of June 12th. For a hundred days they had killed, raped, tortured and threatened. In the runup to the 18th, the stern face of the leader of the Revolutionary Guards had appeared on television and his confident voice had been heard on the radio, warning that anyone who dared wear green, or carry protest signs, or chant criticism of the Islamic Republic, would be treated "very harshly." His words were like so much spittle in a storm; among the many chants in the streets that day, you could hear "rape, murder and torture will not silence us."
When a tyrannical regime dies, you can see the symptoms in the little things. Late Friday afternoon, after millions (yes, millions--this according to Le Monde, France 2, and L'Express, with the BBC saying that the demonstrations were bigger than those at the time of the Revolution) of Greens mobbed the streets and squares of more than thirty towns and cities to call for the end of the regime, there was a soccer game in Azadi Stadium in Tehran. It holds about a hundred thousand fans, and it was full of men wearing green and carrying green balloons. When state-run tv saw what was happening, the color was drained from the broadcast, and viewers saw the game in black and white. And when the fans began to chant "Death to the Dictator," "Death to Russia," and "Death to Putin, Chavez and Nasrallah, enemies of Iran," the sound was shut off. So the game turned into a silent movie.
But the censors forgot about the radio, and the microphones stayed open, so that millions of listeners could hear the sounds of the revolution. And in Azadi Stadium, as in most parts of the country, the security officers either walked away or joined the party.
You will not have heard such stories, nor read about them in our "media," which have raised denial of the day's major events to an art form of late. Rather like the Iranian regime, which used to have an enormous influence on the way citizens thought, the major broadcasters and dead-tree scribblers have also become objects of ridicule. On Sunday morning, Supreme Leader Khamenei proclaimed that the demonstrations had been an enormous success for the regime, but anyone looking at the pictures could see that he was short on sleep. So would you if you had heard the thunderous shouts of "Death to the Dictator" during the night. Khamenei's claim was greeted with ridicule.
Sunday also brought open contempt from some of the most revered leaders of the Shi'ite world. Khamene'i had declared Sunday the end of Ramadan, a day of feasts and prayers, one of the most joyous of the Muslim year. Such a proclamation is supposed to be canonical, for Khamene'i speaks in the name of all Muslims. But fifteen Grand Ayatollahs like Sistani (from Najaf, Iraq), Montazeri, Taheri and Sanei rejected Khamenei's reading of the moon, and said that the feast could not begin until Monday. No one could get away with such an open challenge to the supreme leader's theological authority unless there were a considerable consensus that his rule was illegitimate. And it's even worse for him: across the country, many mosques were closed on Sunday. The faithful were told to go home and fast, and come back the next day for prayer.
No wonder Khamenei looks tired. And in keeping with the avalanche of errors, today the Revolutionary Guards' favorite newspaper kept the whole thing going, insisting that the supreme leader was right after all. Stupid and irrelevant, a classic example of people in a hole who keep digging deeper.
These little stories illustrate a great event, indeed a world-changing event: the death of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Khamenei and Ahmadinejad, and the rest of the evil empire in Tehran, are all dead men walking. We don't know the schedule for the funeral yet, but Iranians know it's on the agenda. One will get you ten at my betting window that, aside from a very thin veneer of top officials (for whom there is no hope, for they will fulfill the demand of the nightly rooftop chants), anyone who is anyone in Iran today is trying to make a deal with Mousavi and Karroubi. They are all whispering that their hearts are green, and always were green.
Khamenei & Co. certainly know this, as they know they are being betrayed by some very high-ranking people. And the exodus is under way; by the end of the week we will see some important representatives of the Islamic Republic resign their posts, for they do not wish to be associated with it any longer.
Look at what didn't happen in the streets last Friday. Not a shot was fired at the millions of demonstrators in Tehran. There are YouTubes of police fraternizing with the Greens. There are stories of Revolutionary Guardsmen helping the demonstrators, and even the Basij didn't dare to attack or arrest, with a handful of exceptions (one of which is notable: in Tabriz, if I remember correctly, they started to round up some people, and the crowd turned on them, freed the would-be victims, and beat the Basijis to death).
And look at what else didn't happen: nobody tried to arrest Mousavi or Karroubi. Somebody tried to stab Khatami in the street, but it was thwarted, and Karroubi has been told to show up at a Revolutionary Tribunal to respond to charges of spreading false claims of rape and murder in the prisons. But this subpoena, which previously terrified the recipient, is no longer threatening. Karroubi has proclaimed it is good news, for it will give him the opportunity to present the evidence, which is iron-clad, and can no longer be destroyed (copies of documents, audios and videos are now in the hands of Green supporters in Europe and the United States).
So we have a regime of zombies in Tehran, but they can still do a lot of damage, to Iranians and to us. Early last week Khamenei summoned Afghan terrorist chieftain Gulbadin Hekhmatiar to Tehran, and told him to step up attacks against American and other Allied forces. Other Iranian-supported terrorist groups have received similar instructions.
Oh. I somehow missed that.
Under the circumstances, you'd think that your government would be talking to the Greens. But you'd be wrong. Perhaps Hillary Clinton thought she was telling the truth when she claimed, a few days after the insurrection of June 12th, that "behind the scenes" we were helping the Iranian opposition. If so, she shouldn't have said anything about it, but I don't think she was well informed. There are no contacts between the American Government and the leaders of the opposition. One should not expect the new government to look kindly upon a President Obama who publicly sweet-talked the Tehran butchers, and all but begged Khamenei for a few minutes of his precious time. The same applies to the Europeans, all of whom scrambled for oil and other commercial contracts, and none of whom talked to the Green leaders.
As so often, Martin Luther King Jr. summed it up perfectly: "In the end we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."
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.
NASA says it successfully launched a rocket in Virginia as part of an experiment, and the blast may have caused dozens of people to report seeing strange lights in the sky.
Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya has taken refuge inside the Brazilian embassy in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa, Telesur television network reported on Monday.
Cyber criminals have created a highly sophisticated Trojan virus that steals online banking log-in details from infected computers. 
