Of natural causes, one presumes (of course high explosives should qualify as 'natural' for such people, making it a fair presumption.)
The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan has announced that its emir, Abu Usman Adil, has died, and named Uthman Ghazi as the new leader of the al Qaeda-linked terror group. Does the promotion include generous life insurance benefits? They always receive a generous pension plan, paid when they reach 65 years old...
Adil replaced Tahir Yuldashev, the IMU's emir and co-founder, who was drone-zapped killed in a US Predator airstrike in September 2009. Before his death, Yuldashev sat on al Qaeda's top council, the Shura Majlis.
Adil is credited with increasing the IMU's profile in Pakistan and Afghanistan after the death of Yuldashev, US intelligence officials have told The Long War Journal. Whereas Yuldashev had been content with confining the group's operations largely to Pakistan's tribal areas, Adil pushed to expand operations in northern and eastern Afghanistan, as well is in the Central Asian republics. The IMU is the most heavily targeted foreign terrorist group in Afghanistan and is also frequently targeted in US drone strikes in Pakistan's tribal areas, according to data compiled by The Long War Journal.
Afghanistan's parliament voted Saturday to dismiss the country's defense and interior ministers.
Parliament had expressed concern ...meaning the brow was mildly wrinkled, the eyebrows drawn slightly together, and a thoughtful expression assumed, not that anything was actually done or indeed that any thought was actually expended... s after questioning the two about security lapses, including cross-border attacks blamed on Pakistain.
Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak and Interior Minister Bismullah Mohammadi were the top ministers in President Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... 's Cabinet. Their dismissal comes even as Karzai is trying to show stability in his government ahead of the withdrawal of international forces from Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2012
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#1
I'm not clear on this: Were they dismissed because the Taliban attacks occurred? Or because the attacks were opposed?
The U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly passed a resolution Friday criticizing the Security Council's failure to act on the Syria conflict, which U.N. leader the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... said has become a "proxy war".
The resolution, which condemned Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Lord of the Baath... 's use of "heavy weapons" in his battle against the rebellion against his rule, was passed by 133 votes with 12 countries against and 31 abstaining.
Russia and China, which have vetoed three U.N. Security Council resolutions on Syria, were among high profile opponents of the resolution.
Many diplomats said Friday's vote was a show of frustration and anger at the lack of international action on the conflict.
Though the resolution is not legally binding, there was increased attention on the General Assembly action after the resignation of U.N.-Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... envoy Kofi Annan ...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo... and the mounting battle for the Syrian city of Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins...
The resolution said members deplored "the Security Council failure to agree on measures" to make the Syrian government carry out U.N. demands to end almost 18 months of fighting.
It condemned "the Syrian authorities use of heavy weapons including indiscriminate shelling from tanks and helicopters" and demanded that the government refrain from using its chemical weapons.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2012
11:01 ||
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#1
Have we reached the terminal League of Nations Ethiopian/Spanish Malaise yet? As the Instaprof says - Faster Please.
#6
133 nations want to fight Pencil-Neck? I say just leave us out and let them go for it. I'd support the arms dealers who supply whichever side is losing at any given moment.
Protesters in Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... erupted into the streets Friday to demand death for Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Horror of Homs... even as violence raged there and 90 people were killed nationwide.
The Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, said regime forces rubbed out at least 90 people across the country, among them 66 in Hama that witnessed a massacre in its al-Arbaeen neighborhood.
Ten people were killed in Idlib, nine in Damascus ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... and its countryside, three in Deir Ezzor, one in Homs and one in Daraa, the LCC added.
Hundreds of protesters gathered in al-Shaar neighborhood of the country's economic capital, chanting: "The people want the execution of Bashar!" and "The people want freedom and peace."
"We go down the street with a single objective: the liberation of the country," said 20-year-old protester Abu Ahmed.
"Today you can take to the streets. Before there were shabiha" pro-regime militiamen, he said. "For 20 years we supported the military, but in fact this army is against us."
The Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported demonstrations in the Saif al-Dawla, Furqan and New Aleppo neighborhoods in western Aleppo, as well as in Sukari, Bustan al-Qasr and Fardoss in the south.
It also reported protests in the Kurdish region of Hasakeh, Daraa province of southern Syria and Idlib province to the northwest, where one demonstrator was rubbed out by regime forces.
Also in Idlib, five rebels were killed in an army ambush, the Observatory said.
Shells rained down on rebel positions in the northern city of Aleppo ahead of a U.N. vote on Friday to deplore both the regime's use of heavy weaponry and world powers for failing to agree on steps to end the conflict.
Fierce festivities broke out between regime troops and rebels in the opposition stronghold of Salaheddin as well as in Martini in central Aleppo, while four non-combatants were killed elsewhere in the province, the Observatory said.
The official SANA news agency said the army and police potted 17 "terrorists" in the city, where the regime and rebels have been battling for control since July 20.
The army "is attempting to storm Salaheddin with tanks from the Hamdaniyeh side of the highway, while aircraft are shelling from above," according to media activist Mohamed Hassan, who said he was calling from the embattled district.
"The regime no longer has real power in Aleppo," Hassan told Agence La Belle France Presse, pointing out that security forces do not leave their posts and municipal functions like garbage collection have stopped.
"Waste fills the streets and the Free (Syrian) Army cleans it," he said.
The rebel Free Syrian Army has said it now controls "50 percent" of Aleppo, where the army has brought in a large number of reinforcements, but has yet to advance on the ground.
Security forces on Friday suppressed protests in the coastal city of Tartus and in the central city of Hama, with security forces and pro-regime gunnies blocking off mosques in a bid to prevent protests, the Observatory said.
Elsewhere in central Syria, three people were killed in heavy shelling overnight near Houla, a town in Homs province where at least 108 people were reported to have been massacred at the end of May.
In Damascus, six people were killed in the Tadamun district in fierce festivities between rebels and the army, which shelled the area, the Observatory said.
It also reported shelling of the Jdaidet Artuz district, southwest of the city, where fighting had erupted around Marj al-Sultan military airport.
The Observatory said Jdaidet Artuz was the scene of a deadly raid on Wednesday by security forces which left 43 people dead, some of whom were summarily executed.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2012
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When I testified before the Senate in the hot summer of 1988 , I warned of the kind of future that climate change would bring to us and our planet. I painted a grim picture of the consequences of steadily increasing temperatures, driven by mankind's use of fossil fuels.
But I have a confession to make: I was too optimistic.
My projections about increasing global temperature have been proved true to the faithful. But I failed to fully explore how quickly that average rise would drive an increase in extreme weather. Not the sun, or sunspots, or El Nino, or la Nina or any of that other natural stuff. Just man-made carbon.
In a new analysis of the past six decades of global temperatures, which will be published Monday, my colleagues and I have revealed a stunning increase in the frequency of extremely hot summers, with deeply troubling ramifications for not only our future but also for our present. Why only sixty years, Doc? I see a lot of records were set in the 1930's.
This is not a climate model or a prediction but actual observations of weather events and temperatures that have happened. Our analysis shows that it is no longer enough to say that global warming will increase the likelihood of extreme weather and to repeat the caveat that no individual weather event can be directly linked to climate change. To the contrary, our analysis shows that, for the extreme hot weather of the recent past, there is virtually no explanation other than climate change.
Such events used to be exceedingly rare. Extremely hot temperatures covered about 0.1 percent to 0.2 percent of the globe in the base period of our study, from 1951 to 1980. In the last three decades, while the average temperature has slowly risen, the extremes have soared and now cover about 10 percent of the globe. Little Ice Age? Never heard of it. Medieval Warm Period? Nope. Fortunately for Doc Hansen, much of the younger generation has never heard of it, either.
There is still time to act and avoid a worsening climate, but we are wasting precious time. We can solve the challenge of climate change with a gradually rising fee on carbon collected from fossil-fuel companies, with 100 percent of the money rebated to all legal residents on a per capita basis. This would stimulate innovations and create a robust clean-energy economy with millions of new jobs. It is a simple, honest and effective solution. And vote for Obama, because the other guy is only gonna make it worse!
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/04/2012
10:23 ||
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#2
Running a bit below normal in the UK. That's the problem with modern communications, as millions tune in they actually see other 'weather'. Over the month as a whole temperatures were over 1C below average, despite the very warm last week. The Central England Temperature (CET) was 15.5C which is 1.2C below the mean for 1981-2010, the lowest in July only since 2011 with a run of cool Julys recently. - from the MMGW obsessed Weather Channel.
#4
Doom is always upon us, but it never quite gets to the point of being beyond the ability of wealth transfers to reverse. That's know as the "climatology sweet spot."
Posted by: Matt ||
08/04/2012 11:18
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Here's an offer for Mr. Hansen. He predicts climate over the next 5 years. If he's right, we'll do whatever he says. If he's wrong, we flay him and feed him to the dolphins.
Of course, if he predicts no significant change over 5 years, we just flay him now. It's called having skin in the game :-)
Since V isn't bounded, and thus pressure is going to merely mix, and R is just a constant, then it all boils down to
T=N which makes sense as the more molecules there are the more they can hold energy which is measured as heat. Which we then measure as the increase over the black body temp.
Intercepting solar energy higher in the atmosphere will make it colder not warmer.
It was right there on the label of the white tuna salad, an outlawed ingredient: "partially hydrogenated soybean oil." A customer filed a formal complaint with the authorities. A Montgomery County (immediately northeast of D.C.)
health inspector arrived on the scene. He reviewed the evidence and handed down his verdict: The fish was guilty. "Wrote them up for a labeling violation and made them aware that Montgomery County is a Trans Fat Free county," he wrote in his report. This time the deli would get off with a warning.
But is Montgomery County any healthier? Or safer? Or more equitable? The results are mixed. There have been significant improvements. The bag tax on plastic bags, I guess
is generating hundreds of thousands of dollars for water-quality programs. Major traffic collisions are down, according to county police, and federal studies show that the rate of diabetes is decreasing in the county. I think traffic incidents are down everywhere, for at least two reasons - safer roads, and less driving.
There are troubling signs as well. Obesity has worsened in the progressive county compared to the rest of the state, and federal data show that fewer residents feel healthier than just a few years ago. That because the progressives are winning the propaganda war.
But the effect of much of the legislation remains a mystery, in large part because the county often does not measure whether the laws have any impact. Many of the health regulations "were put into place without much thinking about evaluation," said Ulder J. Tillman, the county's health officer.
Another problem is that, while the county has spent a lot of time and resources passing these regulations, there has been little to no enforcement of some of them.
Take the law passed in 2008 requiring residents to offer domestic workers a written contract. At the time, Council member Roger Berliner (D) said he was worried about "whether we would be deemed to be the nanny government of all time."
Still, the bill passed unanimously.
Since then, it's been enforced once. California here we come!
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/04/2012
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Shut down the deli, nobody drives there, traffic decreases. No work, people leave, fewer health incidents. Sit on your ass, wait for the gov cheesy checks to show up, get fat.
"We spent four years coming up with a series of laws nobody wanted and we are worried whether we would be deemed a nanniest; because if not we are not, we are not sure what it will take."
#3
I think traffic incidents are down everywhere, for at least two reasons - safer roads, and less driving.
You forgot the assholes, I count st least four per trip around her, their favorite os cutting in front and dragging their ass slowly.
At least they don't cut in front and slam on the brakes.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/04/2012 13:09
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RJ, my #1 worst driving without causing an accident goes to this little gal driving a large vehicle in Denver, CO, who thinks nothing is wrong with driving 80 and merging into the Interstate while texting.
Released man said behind 2006 Dahab bombings, and 2011 murder of Italian in Gazoo; Israel has urged citizens to leave peninsula for fear of attacks
Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, freed a Salafi leader of an al-Qaeda affiliated terror group, it was reported Friday. His group is believed to have close ties with terror cells currently operating in the Sinai.
Israel reportedly believes the terrorist, Abu Walid Al-Maqdisi, who was set free after some 17 months on Thursday, was the criminal mastermind of three bombings in Dahab in Egypt's SInai Peninsula that killed more than 20 people in 2006 and fears his release could lead to more such attacks.
Channel 2 News analyst Ehud Ya'ari said Friday that Hamas had released an individual who may carry out terror attacks in Sinai.
Al-Maqdisi, an Egyptian previously residing in Gazoo whose real name is Hisham al-Saidni, is the head of Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad, an Islamic thug group that also is believed to have kidnapped, and killed, Italian peace activist Vittorio Arrigoni in Gazoo in April 2011. The release of al-Maqdisi had been one of the conditions set forth by the terror group when it seized Arrigoni.
Gazoo's Hamas rulers had incarcerated Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! al-Maqdisi in March 2011 for attempting to disrupt public order.
On Thursday, Israel's Counterterrorism Bureau warned its citizens to leave Sinai immediately.
"We possess information that Gazoo terror groups and others are planning attacks on Israeli tourists in the immediate future," the government agency said in a statement.
Based on intelligence collected by the bureau, faceless myrmidons belonging to global Jihad organizations and Paleostinian terror groups plan to kill or abduct Israeli tourists and will target beaches and resorts known to be favored by them.
The travel warning instructed Israelis planning to travel to Sinai not to go -- and called on families to make immediate contact with relatives who are currently there to try to bring them back to Israel.
According to Channel 2 News, there are currently several hundred Israelis vacationing in the Sinai, most of them Arab Israelis.
Israel has issued travel advisories for Sinai before. But the security warnings and travel notices have increased since Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... was toppled in 2011 and amid rising lawlessness among Bedouin tribes.
Egyptian officials dismissed the Israeli warning on Friday, claiming it was concocted by Israeli tourism companies in an effort to scare Israelis out of Egyptian hotels and draw them to Israeli ones.
An unnamed Egyptian official told the German news agency that the Sinai Peninsula was under the control of Egyptian authorities and that there are no faceless myrmidons operating there.
The Dahab bombings took place on April 24, 2006, at a restaurant, a cafe and a market. A reported 23 people were killed -- mainly Egyptians, but also a German, Lebanese, Russian, Swiss, and a Hungarian. Dozens were maimed, including Israeli, American and Paleostinian tourists. The blasts were said to be suicide kabooms, carried out by Bedouin, orchestrated by Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad.
#7
Blah, blah, blah. So much for that promise and the rest of them too. That is about all he delivered on: A lot of hopeless promises, no jobs, cronyism, and a tanked economy.
The girl was murdered by her Pak parents for her Western ways. And it was her little sister who bravely told jurors how her mother and father suffocated the 17-year-old with a plastic bag -- gripping testimony that led to her parents' murder conviction on Friday.
Justice Roderick Evans sentenced Iftikhar, 52, and Farzana Ahmed, 49, to life in prison for killing their daughter, Shafilea Ahmed, in 2003. The couple -- first cousins from the Pak village of Uttam -- were ordered to serve a minimum of 25 years in prison.
Convicted by the diary of a friend of one of the sisters. Contemporaneous diary entries corroborated the witness of the little sister, who was only ten when it happened. More details at the link.
Oscar-winning actor and director Clint Eastwood has endorsed Republican Mitt Romney in the race the White House.
Eastwood attended a Romney fundraiser in Sun Valley, Idaho, said to have raised over $2m (£1.29m). The Dirty Harry star said he was endorsing the Republican because "the country needs a boost somewhere".
In February Eastwood starred in a Chrysler Superbowl advert, Halftime in America, sparking debate over whether he backed President Barack Obama.
At the time, Eastwood had said he was not endorsing either candidate and, speaking to Fox News, said he was "certainly not politically affiliated with Mr Obama".
"It was meant to be a message about just about job growth and the spirit of America," Eastwood said in February of the Super Bowl advert. "I think all politicians will agree with it. I thought the spirit was OK. I am not supporting any candidate at this time."
On Friday Mr Romney said of Eastwood's endorsement: "He just made my day. What a guy."
Like so many Americans, I've been periodically tuning in to the Olympic Games. I'm not a serious sports enthusiast, but I pay casual attention -- and when I do, I, like you, instantly scan the screen for the American flag icon among the competitors so that I know which athlete to cheer on. This, no doubt, is one of the appealing qualities of the Olympics. In a world of "asymmetrical" threats and shifting geopolitics, Olympic fandom is a haven for the simpleton in all of us. That Old Glory icon next to an athlete's name distills the games into the good-versus-bad terms that are so elusive in the real world. Get that? You're a simpleton for seeing how the US does in competition, not like Sirota, who merely entertains his inner simpleton.
And yet, as I've grown older, I find my "U.S.A.!"-chanting reflex increasingly interrupted by pangs of discomfort, and not because I'm ashamed of our country or our Olympians, but because the relationship between American nationalism and the Olympics has been slowly infused with a different -- and politicized -- meaning. He didn't just infuse a different -- politicized --meaning , did he? I believe he did!
In short, chanting the initials of our nation seems less like it did in 1984 than it has since 1992. Hint: He's trying to sell a 2011 book on his personal thoughts on the 1980s
The former, held in Los Angeles, was a Cold War spectacle of hyper-patriotism deliberately orchestrated to give the big middle finger to the boycotting Soviets and their allies. As ESPN's Michael Weinreb recounted, "Spectators quite literally wrapped themselves in the flag" and "chants of 'U.S.A.!' became so jarring for the foreigners present that IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch wrote a letter complaining about ABC's unabashedly patriotic coverage of the games." How awful! That does it. Next time, no spectators, that'll fix their bitter clinging asses, won't it?
Such (legitimate and prescient) concerns aside, Weinreb notes, "This was precisely the purpose of the '84 Olympics -- it was a one-sided showcase of American superiority." And as a child, I proudly joined in with the flag waving and fist pumping. In the heat of the Cold War, blatantly mixing sports enthusiasm with not-so-subtle saber rattling felt entirely legitimate and righteous -- especially to my 9-year-old mind. Get that? When they hold the Olympics in Beijing or London, it's about international sports and goodwill, but in the USA, it is only about flag waving and fist pumping!
Then came the 1992 games -- the first after the fall of the Berlin Wall. America was at its geopolitical and economic zenith, able to claim the title of "world's sole superpower." But instead of projecting a ray of humility in the "with-great-power-comes-great-responsibility" spirit, we instead used the Olympics to spike the ball in the end zone -- or, more accurately, 360 windmill dunk over the rest of the planet. That was the year we used a change in Olympic rules to deploy what Sports Illustrated called "arguably the most dominant squad ever assembled in any sport" -- the 1992 Dream Team. How horrible!
While the NBA fan in me was certainly excited to see some of the greatest pro basketball players of all time play on one squad, I also felt that first twinge of doubt when the competition turned into an international version of the Globetrotters playing the Washington Generals. Why, I wondered, do we have to rub our strength in? Why, when we are so dominant, do we have to preen on the world stage in such cartoonish fashion? Because we can?
Since those games two decades ago, those questions have transcended sport and become bigger than ever.
Whereas 1984 turned Julius Caesar's "Veni, vidi, vici" into an Olympic posture and a comedic Ghostbusters riff, post-1992 has seen that posture and that comedic riff become both a grand self-image and a dead-serious foreign policy doctrine. From presidential taunts of "bring it on," to televised "shock and awe" campaigns, to flag-draped statue spectacles, to "Top Gun"-style aircraft carrier celebrations, to the rip-roaring parties and pompous political declarations that accompany our escalation of foreign wars, we present ourselves as Caesars -- but with none of Peter Venkman's self-effacing cheekiness and all of the Dream Team's arrogance. Translation: It's all Bush's fault
Predictably, such an attitude has infected our political vernacular to the point where the parameters of the discourse are now narrowly defined by a reductionist argument over "American exceptionalism" -- that is, a Colbert-ian throwdown over whether America is great, or the greatest. This has, not surprisingly, led us to assume not merely that American hegemony is permanent and meritorious, but to further assume that specifically flamboyant, in-your-face, happily-pressing-my-boot-to-your-neck dominance is warranted. Indeed, as Frank Rich notes in his must-read New York magazine piece: "We're not Greece. We're not even post-empire England. But if we were to slip into so much as a tie for No. 1, that would drive many Americans nuts, because if anything is baked into the national character, it is that we must be the alpha dog, the leader of the pack, the undisputed world champion." Translation: Something is wrong when Americans want to be the best.
The hyper-patriotism surrounding the modern Olympics, then, is just a reflection of that national character. When that TV screen flashes the list of athletes and we inevitably profile the competitors by nation, we do so not just because we experience natural feelings of solidarity with fellow countrymen. We likely do so also because of that deeper desire to publicly showcase American preeminence -- a desire we've been programmed to haughtily express since the end of the Cold War, a desire we're led to believe we must express in this "love it or leave it" era for fear of being labeled traitors. Get that? It's fear that drives Americans to be patriotic, not love of country. Sirota wouldn't know love for one's country if it boned him hard up his six.
Missed in the ensuing red-white-and-blue hoopla, of course, is the fact that we are not so exceptional outside the Olympic village. While Wall Street 24/7 is accurate in reporting that medal-wise, "the United States is irrefutably the most dominant participating country in Olympic history," our athletic victories seem to have an inverse relationship with our standing in other measurements of national success.
For instance, we are not gold, silver or even bronze medalists when it comes to healthcare; sadly, we are 39th for infant mortality, 43rd for female mortality, 42nd for adult male mortality and 36th for life expectancy. Likewise, we are not champions when it comes to basic equality; we are one of the most economically unequal nations in the industrialized world. In fact, if we do stand atop a dais anywhere other than at a sporting event, it is for military spending, carbon emissions and incarceration rates. Yet, immigrants from the world over seek to come to the USA to better their lives. Wonder why that is? Maybe it's because those people are sick of living under governments that pursue those false metrics for national success? Maybe they want to live in a nation that extols free enterprise, military might and a deep driving desire to reign in our out of control governments' size and scope.
In this sense, the shrieks of "USA!" for our athletes take on a "doth protest too much" quality. Our shiny medallions and our patriotic braying reassure us that, despite our slipping world standing, we at least still kick international ass in the competition that gets the highest Nielsen ratings. Meanwhile, the downward standard of living trends persist at home and anti-Americanism festers abroad among a community of nations that often perceives us to be more trash-talking aggressor than humble friend. As if deliberately perpetuating the cycle, our Olympic victories -- and celebrations of those wins -- then (wrongly) convince us of our ongoing superiority, while robbing those weaker nations of any wins that might give them a fleeting feeling of self-empowerment or sovereignty against us. In other words, we are further distracted, and they further emasculated by us militarily, economically, geopolitically and, every four years, athletically. And so the cycle continues... Sovereignty is a condition, not a feeling, you jerk.
Noting all of this isn't to pretend I'll be rooting for some other nation. A boy can mature beyond his infantile displays of hyper-patriotism, but the sense of American solidarity will always remain. That means in every individual contest I watch, I'll almost certainly be pulling for the red-white-and-blue (and probably with the occasional "USA!" outburst). How brave of you not to root for another nation, even an ally! Siorta needs to grow up. I root for Florida, but I live in Oklahoma. The same for Georgia.
More liberal crap at the link
#2
Perhaps it takes an "asymmetrical threat" to know an "asymmetrical threat".
From his on-line bio:
Sirota has contributed to The New York Times Magazine, Wired, Salon and The Nation. He is also senior editor at In These Times magazine and Huffington Post contributor, and appears periodically on CNN, Comedy Centrals Colbert Report, MSNBC, and National Public Radio.
#4
Just listened to "Only a Game" on The Commie radio station (should I admit that here?) One segment credited the 1992 Dream Team with helping spread the popularity of basketball around the world, and increasing the number of countries represented in the NBA to 75. Or is that another example of US hegemony?
#6
If the US Olympic team were performing poorly, we'd see all manner of articles from people like this guy saying it was a symbol of US decline, our national malaise, the ability of China to get things done better etc. So, let's extend the sportsman's hand of friendship to the Chinese athletes and kick their little Commie asses.
Posted by: Matt ||
08/04/2012 9:22
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#7
Well right now Lithuania is staying with the U.S. basket for basket. The decline has begun!
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/04/2012 10:17
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#8
It's liberal Americans' Olympic dilemma: How do they root for their countrymen without being jingoistic?
Oh Dave, buck up. You really are just another little postmodernist moth thats drawn to the paradoxical flame arent you? Perhaps you can take comfort in the knowledge theres others out there that share your sensitivities. For instance, take one succinct reply from the comment section.
How do you root for the USA without being jingoistic? You can't, because the USA is jingoistic. Yes, I am ashamed for my country. I just wish a lot more US citizens were ashamed too. Then things might start to change for the better.
See you've managed to harness your self-loathing into something positive collective guilt. Feel better now?
#9
ABC's coverage? Not here, got the rainbow peacock.
Know what else shows USA's chanting reflex - winnning. As far as I can tell, nobody else's fans travel as well as the USA. I would have loved to go, take the family, have the money not the time.
But if he has real issue, take it up with Obama who blew $50million in a lobby effort to have Chicago host the damned thing.
Oh I see, if we had better health care we would win at men's trampoline. Whatta tart.
#10
#7 Damn, Steve, that were close. White men can jump after all.
Posted by: Matt ||
08/04/2012 11:14
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#11
This weenie has never competed for anything in his life. He has no concept of sportsmanship or athleticism. He can probably type faster than me though.
LONDON - Somalias pirates could be granted an amnesty if they release hostages and return captured vessels to their owners, transitional president Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed told the London Times.
The head of Somalias corruption-riddled government, whose current mandate expires next month, said he was prepared to let off the 2,000 pirates thought to be operating off the troubled nations coast in comments published in Fridays Times.
Those who leave behind what they have done will be forgiven, he said, after campaigning in Balad, 40 kilometres north of Mogadishu. The government will make clear that the doors are open, if they want to come in."
Sharif, who faces competition for the presidency from parliament speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan, was linked to alleged graft in a UN report leaked earlier this month that called for corrupt leaders to face Security Council sanctions. The report contained claims that Sharif had given a diplomatic passport to pirate ringleader Mohamed Abide Hassan as an inducement to wind down his network.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/04/2012
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#1
Local tax collections from pirates are down. Panic stations, men - where did our hard currency go? How do we import all those TV's and iPad's from Nairobi ... without these pirates??? Get back in business matey's!!!
Your daily technically-accurate-but-politically-cringe-inducing spin moment came courtesy of the chairman of President Barack Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, Alan Krueger, who took issue Friday with reports that the unemployment rate rose in July from 8.2 percent to 8.3 percent.
"More precisely, the rate rose from 8.217% in June to 8.254% in July," Krueger wrote on the official White House blog, adding that acting Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner John Galvin "noted in his statement that the unemployment rate was 'essentially unchanged' from June to July."
Krueger was technically accurate. But his comment raised eyebrows. Republican National Committee spokesman Tim Miller called it "the dumbest spin I've seen in ages."
Obama's chief weakness ahead of November is the still-sputtering economy. No president since World War II has been re-elected with unemployment above 8 percent.
Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) on Friday sent back 10 Rohingyas to Myanmar from Teknaf in Cox's Bazar.
I'm beginning to wonder if 'Rohingya' is the Burmese word for 'Palestinian'...
The BGB on two occasions sent back three males at about 2:00pm and one male, three females and three children at about 6:15pm to Myanmar, our Chittagong correspondent reports, quoting Commanding Officer Lt Col Zahid Hasan of BGB 42 battalion at Teknaf.
The BGB in separate drives detained the 10 Rohingya refugees in Teknaf upazila of Cox's Bazar early Friday on charge of trespassing on Bangladesh territory. A patrol team of BGB held seven Rohingyas -- one male, three females and three children -- from Shah Pori Island around 5:00am. Earlier around 1:00am, BGB men conducted another drive at Naikkhong Para village and held three male Rohingyas, the BGB official said.
Zahid said Myanmar citizens and Rohingyas usually try to enter Bangladesh before Ramadan every year to earn money.
The BGB sent back a total of 1,279 Rohingya refugees until Friday since sectarian violence broke out in the Rakhine state of Myanmar on June 11, he added.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#1
I would suggest reading up on "past" conflicts in Burma, such as reading the wikipedia entry on the Shan people.
#2
Perhaps a merchantile shrinkage related problem in Cox's Bazar. I recommend we leave it to Lt Col Zahid Hasan, his able staff, and the Rohingyalanders to sort out.
North Korean leader Fat Boy Kim Jong-un has held his first meeting with a foreign delegation since he took power after the death of his father, Kim Jong Il.
China's official Xinhua news agency and the North's state-run Korean Central News Agency said Kim held talks Thursday with Wang Jiarui, head of the International Liaison Department of China's Communist Party, and other Chinese officials. Xinhua quoted Wang as saying Beijing is ready to work jointly to maintain high-level contacts and boost practical cooperation.
Kim was cited as saying his government is focused on developing the economy and improving people's livelihoods.
It is not known whether the two sides discussed six-party talks on the North's nuclear disarmament.
Pudgy said whatever he was told to say...
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#1
ION WORLD NEWS > US WARNS CHINA ON MOVES TO DOMINATE SOUTH CHINA SEA.
Recovery of ancient or alleged lost territories, massive new UW resources, control or blockade of world-votal Strait of Malaccas, + set up of PLA Naval, Air bridgehead to the Philipines, Indonesia, PNG, + bulk if SE Asia.
* TOPIX > STROM WARNINGS: SOUTH CHINA SEA REFLECTS DANGER OF [proposed US] DEFENCE CUTS.
* SAME > [US]EXPERT: CHINA MUST ABIDE BY UNCLOS.
versus
* TOPIX, WORLD NEWS > FACTBOX: JAPAN MILITARY WELL-ARMED [+ well-trained], BUT UNTESTED IN BATTLE, since 1945.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
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#1
Article credits this in part to increasing Canadian consumer confidence. Don't quite remember consumer confidence sd s source of economic growth, but then again, I didn't specialize in economic psychology.
#2
Who needs consumer confidence when the economy is centrally managed by Big "you didn't build that" Government which drives the economy by unrestricted printing of paper money and regulation by minutia? No one in the Beltway/Inner Party truly believes that small business drives such a large portion of the overall economy to be an engine of prosperity. So why be concerned with an consumer atmosphere that encourages them to spend on anything but just what they need day to day and week to week. That's all taken care of by the big campaign contributors and lobbyists box stores these days.
#4
As a Canadian I can suggest the US put in place some kind of single payer health care system. No, it's not perfect but if you are pro-business it's a must. Companies here, large to the very small, no longer even have to think about health care when running or starting a business. It's a huge advantage. I doubt you could find even one pro-business person in the whole country who would trade it it in for a private insurance system.
#6
I seem to recall a time (yes I'm that old) that companies didn't have to worry about healthcare. People took care of their own.
That was the same time though that tax-rates were so high that you got to keep about 20 cents on the dollar of a raise. So, non-taxable health care benefits became a selling point for companies looking for good employees. Hey, presto, employers were in the healthcare business.
How about we get all companies to spread their health care spending directly to the workers and let them figure out their own needs. Oh, cut taxes too.
#11
Gromgoru,
That is true. As a resident of Minnesota, many Canadians have told me they get their checkups etc. done in Canada, but when they need "real medical care", they fly to the United States.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
08/04/2012 13:32
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Well, no more---not with Obamacare, Frozen Al.
#13
That is true. As a resident of Minnesota, many Canadians have told me they get their checkups etc. done in Canada, but when they need "real medical care", they fly to the United States.
#15
Oh, and THAT is the one who was important enough to rate a mention in the news. The claim that there are no such people can only be supported by a demonstration of omniscience.
I would suggest posting next month's winning number of the national lottery of your choice.
Until then, the claim of canadians coming to america for health care is much more plausible...
#16
"I can suggest the US put in place some kind of single payer health care system."
Always making government god of all of mans affairs. BTW, we just did just what you suggested. The government bankrupts all the private insurers - it strangles them, they pass the expense onto business.
#18
I can't speak from personal knowledge about Canadians coming south for health care. But I grew up in Buffalo, NY, and plenty of Canadians came down for the shopping and the beer sold to them at par in thanks for sheltering our people in their embassy in Iran in 1979 -- though that last isn't worth as much these days. I've a friend from Toronto, and she can still recite the layout of the shops in the mall near my parents' house.
#19
My daughter's in-laws are Canadian, and don't go to Winnipeg for health care. In fact, they retired to Texas.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/04/2012 17:34
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Not particularly surprising, given that Canada has plenty of natural resources, and very few people. Australia's been similarly endowed. If we had Canada's population, we'd be richer than Canada.
CAIRO: Egypts President Muhammed Mursi has pledged to guarantee security for tourists.
Talk is cheap...
After the revolution, Egyptians are intent on assuring security for all visitors, the president said on a visit to Luxor in southern Egypt, quoted by the MENA news agency. Egypt is safer than before and open to all, and Luxor will remain the capital of tourism and antiquities."
Mursi promised tourists visiting the temples of Luxor and Karnak to make every effort to prevent anything that could damage tourism again.
Here, you have security. Move around freely and make the most of Egypts climate and ancient civilization. We will do everything possible to ensure you enjoy your stay in Egypt, he said, voicing optimism for the winter season.
So they need the foreign exchange more than they need the religious purity, do they...
Tourism, one of the main sources of Egypts revenue and employment, was badly hit during and after the popular uprising which ousted president Hosni Mubarak in February 2011. However, the sector has been recovering with the number of tourists rising 32 percent in the first quarter of 2012, industry officials said, as compared to the same period last year.
Despite the recovery, the first-quarter figures were a sharp 27.8 percent lower than those registered in the same period of 2010. The recovery has been faster in Sinai and at the Red Sea resorts.
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RAWALPINDI: The Field General Court Marshal (FGCM) on Friday awarded a sentence of five-year rigorous imprisonment to Brigadier Ali Khan for having links with a banned organisation, said an ISPR statement. The officers were arrested under charges of having links with Hizbut Tahrir, a banned organisation in Pakistan.
Four others accused in the case were also awarded punishments. Major Sohail Akbar was handed down three-year rigorous imprisonment, Major Jawwad Baseer was sentenced to two-year rigorous imprisonment, whereas Major Inayat Aziz and Major Iftikhar were awarded one- and six-year rigorous imprisonments.
Officials said that proceedings against Brigadier Ali, Major Inayat, Major Iftikhar, Major Sohail and Major Jawwad had been completed. The accused have been convicted for having links with a proscribed organisation, they added.
The convicts have the right to appeal against the conviction before the Army Court of Appeals as provided in the Pakistan Army Act.
Brigadier Ali was detained days after US Navy SEALs found and killed Osama bin Laden in the military town of Abbottabad on May 2, 2011, reviving disturbing questions about ignorance or complicity within Pakistan's military.
Hizbut Tahrir is not banned in Britain, but has been outlawed in Pakistan and lies on the fringes of Western concerns about links between the military and terror groups.
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British public opinion regarding Israel is turning because of its hardline policies towards the Palestinians, the UK ambassador has warned. In an unusually forthright interview on Israeli television, Matthew Gould said that an increasing number of Britons see Israel as "Goliath" and the Palestinians as "David" a mirror image of the Jewish state's narrative of itself.
"Support for Israel is starting to erode and that's not about these people on the fringe who are shouting loudly and calling for boycotts and all the rest of it," he told the Channel 10 television station. "The centre ground, the majority, the British public may not be expert but they are not stupid and they see a stream of announcements about new building in settlements, they read stories about what's going on the West Bank, they read about restrictions in Gaza."
Mr Gould also said he had detected a shift in attitude against Israel among centrist MPs in Britain amid growing frustration with the lack of progress in the peace process.
Although his comments will irritate the Israeli right, which has always viewed Britain as pro-Palestinian, they have prompted a debate in the country, not least because Mr Gould is Jewish and is seen as a friend of Israel. Government officials said they had "taken note" of his message.
Israelis are well aware that international support for their country has dwindled, but many are convinced that the problem is one of image rather than substance. Frequent seminars are held to find ways of improving the perception of Israel abroad, something Israelis call "hasbara".
But Mr Gould said that public relations campaigns to justify Israeli policies would not remedy the problem.
Although many older Britons remain bitter over Jewish terrorist attacks against British servicemen in mandate-era Palestine in the 1940s, the post-war generation warmed to Israel, admiring its perceived pluck during conflicts with the Arab world in the 1960s and 1970s that called into question the Jewish states survival.
But buoyed by vast sums of US aid, Israel is now the unquestioned military powerhouse in the Middle East, while the Palestinians seem no closer to achieving a state of their own years after the last suicide bombing in Israel.
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Tell me again, why when the Wall came down, we didn't pull out of the place every last soldier, sailor, marine and airman? Haven't we buried enough there already?
BEIJING: China is discouraging some Muslims in the far western region of Xinjiang from fasting during Ramadan. The government says the move is motivated by health concerns, but others said yesterday that its a risky campaign to secularize the Muslim minority.
Several city, county and village governments in Xinjiang have posted notices on their websites banning or discouraging Communist Party members, civil servants, students and teachers from fasting during the religious holiday. Muslims around the world abstain from food and drink from dawn to dusk during the 30-day period.
Regional spokeswoman Hou Hanmin was quoted in the state-run Global Times newspaper yesterday as saying authorities encourage people to eat properly for study and work but dont force anyone to eat during Ramadan.
Xinjiang is home to the traditionally Muslim Uighur ethnic group. Long-simmering resentment among Uighurs over rule by Chinas Han majority and an influx of migrants has sporadically erupted into violence. Separatist sentiment is rife, with some Uighurs advocating armed rebellion. A smaller fringe has been radicalized by militant calls for Muslim holy war and trained in camps across the border in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#1
Chairman Mao said that religion is poison. I think it depends on the religion...and I think Chairman Mao was a mass murdering, thieving, commie bastard.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
08/04/2012 19:34
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ISLAMABAD: Pakistans top court yesterday struck down a new law exempting members of the government from being tried for contempt, clearing the way for legal proceedings against the prime minister.
This really has become a cage match...
Parliament passed the bill last month after the Supreme Court dismissed Yousaf Raza Gilani as prime minister and convicted him of contempt for refusing to reopen multi-million-dollar corruption cases against President Asif Ali Zardari.
But on Friday, a five-member bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry declared the law unconstitutional.
New Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf now has until Aug. 8 to indicate whether he will follow a court order to write to authorities in Switzerland, asking them to reopen the cases against Zardari. Last month, the Supreme Court made veiled threats Ashraf could suffer the same fate as Gilani if he refuses to do so.
For more than two years, the government has resisted judges demands to reopen investigations into Zardari, arguing he enjoys immunity as head of state. The showdown could force elections before February 2013 when the government would become the first in Pakistans history to complete an elected, full five-year mandate.
The allegations against Zardari date back to the 1990s, when he and his wife, late premier Benazir Bhutto, are suspected of using Swiss bank accounts to launder $12 million allegedly paid in bribes by companies seeking customs inspection contracts.
The Swiss shelved the cases in 2008 when Zardari became president and the government insists the president has full immunity as head of state. mBut in 2009 the Supreme Court overturned a political amnesty that had frozen investigations into the president and other politicians, ordering that the cases be reopened.
Zardari had already signed the contempt law, which sought to exempt government figures, including the president, prime minister and cabinet ministers from contempt for acts performed as part of their job.
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ALEPPO, Syria: A long-expected Syrian army onslaught to drive rebel forces out of Aleppo is imminent, following a military build-up around the countrys biggest city, a senior United Nations official said.
Boy howdy, you just can't slip anything, anything past the UN, can you...
President Bashar Assads forces killed more than 80 people in a series of attacks across the country yesterday and late on Thursday, opposition sources said, reporting intensified fighting in several cities.
The fighting has spread to Aleppo from Damascus after a bomb attack on Assads security headquarters in the capital on July 18, which killed four of the presidents senior aides and encouraged rebels to step up hostilities. The Syrian army has reinforced its positions in and around Aleppo over the past two weeks, while conducting daily artillery and aerial bombardments of rebel forces in the city.
The focus two weeks ago was on Damascus. The focus is now on Aleppo, where there has been a considerable build-up of military means, and where we have reason to believe that the main battle is about to start, Herve Ladsous, the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, said in New York.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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there appears to be a rapidly growing presence of all kinds of ragtag militia's in Aleppo and elsewhere in Syria. the country could well become another free-for-all if Assad is toppled. If Sytia becomes another Libya - it is nigh on impossible to control what happens to all the weapons in that country, or whose hands they wind up in. All kinds of hardware could make its way to AQ, the Palestinians and Hezbollah. Syria is a one-stop supermarket for these people.
Britain will provide more "non-lethal support" for Syria's rebels as the bloodshed inside the country worsens, William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, said.
In the aftermath of Kofi Annan's resignation as peace envoy which Mr Hague termed a "bleak moment, not only for the country's people but for our diplomatic efforts" Britain would do more to hasten the downfall of President Bashar al-Assad's regime.
A European Union arms embargo prevents the export of weapons to any party in Syria's conflict, but Britain is helping the rebels in other ways. "Given the scale of death and suffering and the failure so far of the diplomatic process, we will, over the coming weeks, increase our practical but non-lethal support," said Mr Hague. "We have helped them with communications and matters of that kind, and we will help them more."
But the Foreign Secretary ruled out sending armaments.
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There is no military solution for Syria crisis and the issue can be resolved through a political approach, visiting Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said here on Friday, IRNA reported. Speaking to reporters at a press conference, he noted that Iran supports peaceful solution for Syrian crisis.
"Middle East is engaged in deep and speedy developments, including the Syria and Bahrain unrests; although Bashar Al-Assad's reform plan is in progress speedily but Syria is still involved in a war with terrorist gangs supported by outside countries; some US officials and regional countries are pursuing ways to equip rebels with semi-heavy weapons; sorely weaponization of various terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda members in Syria, by US and some regional countries still continues."
The high-ranking official underlined that the Syrian army was successful in its defense of Damascus and clearing of the Aleppo from terrorist gangs.
"Iran and Russia have similar stance toward the Syrian crisis and both stress the fulfillment of Bashar al-Assad's reform plan; Moscow and Tehran condemn foreign interference in Syria and warn about spreading of Syrian unrest to the other parts of the region; the efforts done by some UN Security Council member states and regional countries to bring Kofi Annan's peace mission to an end is sorrowful; Tehran and Moscow are still firm about their support for Annan's peace plan."
Amir-Abdollahian underscored that foreign military invasion against Syria is unlikely and Damascus is needless of Iran's military support, noting that it has been years that Damascus has been fully prepared to respond to any foreign raid, including war with Zionist regime.
Amir-Abdollahian is in Russia for a one day visit to the country.
The statement added that the foreign countries have never been sincere about their claims on trying to help the Syrian government to pass through the crisis and they have even tried to make Annan's plan to fail by supporting the terrorist groups and giving shelter to them.
Meantime, the statement stressed that Syria has always proven its commitment to Annan's plan and it has always cooperated with the international observers in Syria.
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Thats funny coming from the Iranian FM as plane loads of Iranian weapons and riot containment personal are flooding into Syria on a daily basis.
A couple of those planes need to be hit with mortar fire upon approach. just sayin
At least one person has been killed in an explosion in a Somali suburb of the Kenyan capital Nairobi, on the eve of a visit by Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State. A dozen more were reportedly injured in the blast, which hit Nairobi's Eastleigh neighbourhood. There were conflict reports of a grenade attack and suicide bomber.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the blast, the latest in a string of attacks in Kenya.
Mrs Clinton, on an 11-day, seven-nation Africa tour, is due to travel to Kenya on Saturday, where she is due to meet with Kenyan leaders and officials from Somalia's government, which is preparing to end its mandate later this month.
Nairobi's Eastleigh district is home to thousands of Kenyan ethnic Somalis, as well as Somalis who have fled more than two decades of war in their nation.
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Can't say much there - and Hillary is not endangered by this particular incident (although Nairobi is obviously at elevated risk). Eastleigh is a major ghetto populated largely by Somali's, and there has been a strong element of undergound support for hard line Islamists and al-Shabaab there. Kenyan and US intel are well aware of it. It's unclear why militants would explode a genade in their own backyard - but perhaps there was an internal rift, or maybe it was a personal vendetta.
SAMARRA, Iraq: A bombing and a shooting killed four soldiers and four police yesterday, security and medical officials said a day after 33 people were killed in attacks mainly targeting the security forces.
At least 47 people, among them 34 members of the security forces, have been killed in violence in the first three days of August, which have seen a number of attacks on soldiers, police and anti-Al-Qaeda militiamen, and their facilities.
A roadside bomb targeted an army patrol east of Dhuluiyah, killing four soldiers, among them a major, and wounding four others, an army captain and a medical source said.
Insurgents had attacked a military base near Dhuluiyah on July 23, killing at least 15 soldiers and wounding two more.
And gunmen opened fire on a police checkpoint in Baquba, killing four policemen and wounding two more, a police major and Dr. Ahmed Ibrahim of Baquba General Hospital said.
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JAKARTA: Jailed radical cleric Abu Bakar Bashir threatened to wage war if Myanmar continues to harm Muslim Rohingyas, in a letter to the countrys president Thein Sein seen on a website yesterday.
The 74-year-old is widely regarded as a nutter spiritual leader of terrorist radicals in Indonesia the worlds most populous Muslim country and is currently serving a 15-year-jail term for funding terror.
Weve heard Muslims screaming in your country because of your acts of evil...you have taken them out from their homes and are killing them, he wrote in the letter dated July 22, which was passed on to followers and published on the website voa-islam.com. If you neglect these calls, by Allah our Lord, you have witnessed the fall of proud and conceited countries in the hands of our mujahideen soldiers."
The letter was confirmed as authentic by Son Hadi, the spokesman for Jemaah Anshorut Tauhid (JAT), a group founded by Bashir in 2008.
How was the letter allowed out of prison?
An outspoken supporter of violent jihad, Bashir was convicted in 2010 of financing a teror cell in Aceh province. Earlier this year, the countrys top court overturned a lower courts decision to cut his 15-year term.
You must know that we are brothers as Muslims. Their pains is our pain, their sorrows are our sorrows, and their blood that you shed is our blood too, Bashir wrote. By the will of Allah, we can destroy you and your people.
Son Hadi said Friday that the letter was submitted on Monday to the Myanmar embassy in Jakarta. The embassy was not reachable for comment.
About 100 Muslim extremists from the Indonesian branch of pro-Caliphate organization Hizb ut-Tahrir protested Friday outside the Myanmar embassy and vow a Jihad to stop the Muslim cleansing.
We are ready to shed our blood for you Saddam die to help our fellow Muslims in Myanmar. A Jihad is the only way to stop this massacre, one of the protesters on loudspeaker told the crowd, who shouted Allahu Akbar (God is Greatest).
Violence erupted in June in Rakhine state, in western Myanmar, between Buddhists and Rohingya, leaving about 80 people dead from both sides, according to official estimates deemed low by rights groups. Myanmar security forces opened fire on Rohingya Muslims, committed rape and stood by as rival mobs attacked each other during the recent wave of sectarian violence, New York-based Human Rights Watch said Wednesday.
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BEIRUT Shelling of the Yarmuk Palestinian refugee camp in the Syrian capital killed at least 15 civilians, including two children, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Friday.
Both the rebels and Pencilneck have reasons to shell the Paleos...
The watchdog said the mortar shells slammed into the camp, on the southern outskirts of Damascus, on Thursday night, as President Bashar al-Assads regime pressed its bid to crush an uprising that erupted almost 17 months ago.
Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said the shelling occurred as clashes flared between government troops and opposition fighters in the nearby Damascus neighbourhood of Tadamun.
We demand an international investigation. We do not know the origin of the shelling, Abdel Rahman told AFP in Beirut on the telephone.
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Iraq made a formal protest to Turkey's envoy in Baghdad on Friday after the Turkish foreign minister made a surprise visit to an oil-rich Iraqi city claimed by both the central government and the country's autonomous Kurdistan region, Todays Zaman reported.
The episode, the latest in a series of diplomatic spats and tit-for-tat summonings of envoys between the neighboring countries, is likely to worsen already strained relations.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu had travelled to Kirkuk on Thursday after visiting the regional president in Arbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan.
But Iraq's foreign ministry accused Turkey of violating its constitution with the visit, saying that Davutoğlu had neither asked for nor obtained permission to enter Kirkuk. A junior minister at Iraq's foreign ministry had handed Turkey's charge d'affaires a protest letter on Friday, a strongly-worded statement from the foreign ministry said.
"The note also included a demand by the Iraqi government (for an) urgent explanation from the Turkish government," it added.
Relations between Iraq, close to Shi'ite Iran, and Sunni Muslim regional power Turkey, were tested after US troops pulled out of Iraq last year and the government immediately tried to arrest one of its Sunni vice presidents. He fled first to Kurdistan and later to Ankara, where he was given refuge.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan then traded public insults.
Baghdad's Arab-led central government and ethnic Kurdish officials are locked in a protracted dispute over who controls territory and oilfields along their internal border. Kirkuk, which possesses huge crude oil reserves, is one of those areas.
Iraq and Turkey are also at odds over the worsening conflict in Syria. Turkey has become one of the main backers of the rebels, while Baghdad has refused to support calls for President Bashar al-Assad to step aside.
Iraq is Turkey's second largest trading partner after Germany with trade reaching $12 billion last year, more than half of which was with the Kurdish region.
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On a day that some gay-rights activists are planning a "National Same-Sex Kiss Day," a Chick-fil-A in Torrance was vandalized overnight with hateful graffiti.
Chick-fil-A employees were greeted Fridays morning with the words "Tastes like hate" scrawled in large black lettering mimicking the chain's advertising across the back wall of the restaurant at 182nd Street and Hawthorne Boulevard in Torrance.
With media helicopters hovering overhead and police officers on the scene, one employee said, "I'm just trying to sort everything out."
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#5
The most interesting take I have heard was from a spokesperson for a gay church, Hope Cathedral, who said to a reporter that they had no comment because some of their members were employed by Chick-Fil-A. So much for so called hate at CFA, but the left lives in lala land, not in the real world.
#6
One of the Right's problems is that we "posture" as hypocritically as the Leftists, only in a different way. If this had been on a known Gay bar instead of a Chick-Fil-A, the left would have gone full throttle on this, totally ignoring the fact of its solitariness: an argument that you KNOW they will throw at us concerning THIS if WE go Alinsky on THEM. Thus, we will "nobly" ignore this insult and turn the other cheek, ignoring the fact that Jesus only allowed the wicked ONE slap. Rightist, christian "posturing" in the face of Leftist "posturing".
I am not arguing here that we "go Alinsky" with this, not letting this "crisis" "go to waste": I think we should, but I'm going to argue something different: that Reason and debate as a means of resolving differences, getting buy-in and cooperation works only as long as both sides are committed to the process to the point of ACTING contrary to their previous position if the process goes against them. The left simply does not do this when it comes to debate, so there is no reason to believe they'll acquire integrity when they lose when the stakes are high. One must think of the Left being the Philistines, promising to be the slaves of the Hebrews if Goliath was beaten if the hebrews would agree to be slaves if Goliath won, only to refuse to follow through with the deal when David slew Goliath. What we need to be like is David, not only the man with the RIGHT to destroy the Philistines to the last man because they welshed on their "deal" when he put his life on the line against such odds, but who FOLLOWED THROUGH and did it so effectively that they weren't around to bother Solomon.
I have been reviewing how the Left worked in my case, and the thing that keeps coming up is the outrageous claim, the Big lie, the OFFENDING act. Poop on the police car, because it is so outrageous and irrational an act that your defenders will claim it is too outrageous to be believeable if there's adverse blow-back. Biden succeeded in flustering Palin not because of his brilliancy, but because she was not prepared for the eventuality that he would LIE on national TV. The next GOP VP candidate must NOT be prepared for the eventuality that Biden, or his replacement, will LIE on national TV: They must be prepared for the eventuality that biden, or his replacement, WILL DO WORSE.
Sometimes, the left is predictable enough so that a Bush can smack a Rather with a little pre-preparation, but Tit-for-tat isn't gonna work in these days. What we need is someone to go for the jugular in the way that The Gipper did to Mondale: the left MSM was setting up Reagan on the "oldster vs. youth" issue, framing the debate to prompt Mondale to openly question Reagan on his qualifications due to his age. Reagan's solemn promise not to make an issue of his opponent's "relative youth and inexperience" was, of course, unkind to Mondale because he had been in politics many years and thus wasn't inexperienced, but THAT WAS THE POINT: The previous years of hate and ankle-biting and unreasonable criticism was itself unkind to Reagan, and thus prepared him to respond in kind, but in his own personal style and way.
I have heard this self-defense tip: if you elect to strike at your attacker with the heel of your hand against his nose, don't go for the nose, but for the back of the head. If one aims for the nose, there is a tendency to pull back just before impact that does not exist when aiming for the back of the head.
Go for the back of their head. It won't hurt since there's nothing inside.
MOSCOW: The Russian Defense Ministry denied reports Friday that the country is sending three warships carrying some 360 marines total to the Syrian port of Tartus.
The reports, which quoted an unnamed military official, said the vessels were sailing to Tartus to pick up supplies.
The vessels were expected to spend several days there before heading back to the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, according to the reports, two of which were from state-owned news agencies.
But the Defense Ministry dismissed the accounts, saying in a statement that it had no such plans and that the ships had enough supplies.
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Azerbaijan, Baku -- Firing damaged some of unites of Iran's biggest Imam Khomeini petrochemical complex, Mehr reported on Friday.
Operation Lemony Snickett continues...
As a result of fire, four killed and 16 people injured, Mehr quoted the governor of the province Mahshehr Manouchehr Hayat. He said the cause of the fire was a gas leak. Fire is extinguished. According to the agency, the number of victims exceeds declared.
It is the second time this year that fire break out at the country's biggest petrochemical facility. Earlier, in February some of units of this complex fired because of "technical reasons".
The complex produces oil byproducts including fuel. It is the biggest petrochemical production complex in Iran with 4 million tons production capacity per year.
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Lemony Snickett or just the nature of the game. The BP refinery outside of Houston seemed to explode with disturbing regularity. Still, this has to create some doubts...
#2
What networks. I haven't watched them in years. This goes back to Vietnam for myself. I don't recall much good said about Korea either. The forgotten war.
#3
..I believe that is covered in the satellite photos. Another "Workers Paradise" free from nighttime light pollution. Think of all the green energy savings there. Sitting on a gold mine of carbon credits for Mr. Gore to huckster broker.
#4
Thanks to Obama, when the Austrians compete I can understand what they are saying.
*people missed the fact Romney took French in school, the very thing Obama did not do (or did he?) and criticized the US students for not having a second language.
QUETTA: Unidentified men, on Friday, set ablaze at least three containers of a private company, en route to Chaman from Karachi, in Tera Meel area of Dasht, Mastung district. According to the Balochistan Levies Force, the three private company containers carrying biscuits were intercepted at Tera Meel area by unidentified armed men and set on fire.
The unknown armed men were on a motorbike. They stopped the containers and set them on fire, Levies official Muhammad Rafiq told Daily Times.
The offenders made their way after committing the offence. A case has been registered against unidentified persons and investigation is underway.
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JUBA: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton yesterday urged South Sudan and Sudan to end an oil dispute that has brought the neighbors to the brink of war, in the highest-level visit of a US official to Juba since its independence a year ago.
Clinton visited Africas newest nation for the first time on Friday, hours after a US Security Council deadline expired for the neighbors to solve a long list of disputes ranging from border security to oil payments. Clinton said both nations should reach an oil agreement as a first step to end hostilities. Juba sent both economies into turmoil when it shut down its oil output in January to stop Khartoum seizing oil for what the latter called unpaid fees.
Now we need to get those (oil) resources flowing again, Clinton told reporters after meeting South Sudans President Salva Kiir for more than one hour in his office where she hugged him upon arrival.
Because the US would rather buy oil from despicable thugs and oil tics than drill for it at home...
A percentage of something is better than a percentage of nothing, she said, referring to the importance of an oil deal.
Both countries will need to compromise to close the remaining gaps between them, she said during her 3-hour visit to Juba, part of an 11-nation African tour.
The African Union has been trying to mediate between the neighbors but talks have made little progress. Both sides have made some concessions in oil talks but remain far apart from a deal. Prior to her Juba visit, Clinton called Sudanese Foreign Minister Ali Ahmed Karti on Wednesday to signal continued US support for both nations to settle all disputes peacefully, Sudanese state news agency SUNA said.
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Supposedly an agreement was reached this morning, while Hilde was in Nairobi.
Community leaders are opposed to the possible imposition of a curfew in southern Thailand in the wake of recent bomb attacks, saying that such drastic action would draw international sanctions against the counterinsurgency operations while also affecting the daily lives of local residents.
Meanwhile, security officials are looking for eight vehicles reported stolen, which they fear may be used in future car bomb attacks, especially in Songkhla and Pattani provinces. In Pattani, three missing vehicles have reportedly been stuffed with explosives and are ready for use.
Army spokesman Colonel Sansern Kaewkamnerd said that curfews were now only an option and would not be imposed entirely in the three southern provinces, but only in areas prone to terrorist insurgent activities or necessary security operations.
Pattani police said one of the three detained suspects allegedly involved with killing four soldiers was cooperating and giving useful information. The unnamed man said newly recruited terrorists insurgents were from three Yawi-speaking districts in Songkhla, Raman district in Yala and Ba Cho district in Narathiwat, under the command of the Runda Kumpalan Kecil (RKK) based in Pattani.
The bomb attack on the CS Pattani Hotel in Pattani was blamed on six terrorists insurgents, including a getaway driver and two lookouts. This attack may have been commanded by Mosoreh Tueramah, a native of Pattani living in Muang district.
A village leader based in Panareh district of Pattani was yesterday gunned down while on his way for a Muslim prayers. Witnesses said that two gunmen on a motorcycle approached Mayusoh Dorloh and fired two shots at him before fleeing. The victim died at the scene.
KAMPALA, Uganda -- Doctors were slow to respond to an outbreak of Ebola in Uganda because symptoms weren't always typical, but a World Health Organization official said Friday that authorities are halting the spread of the deadly disease.
Joaquim Saweka, the WHO representative in Uganda, told reporters in the capital Kampala that everyone known to have had contact with Ebola victims has been isolated. Ugandan health officials have created an "Ebola contact list" with names of people who had even the slightest contact with those who contracted Ebola. The list now bears 176 names.
"The structure put in place is more than adequate," Saweka said. "We are isolating the suspected or confirmed cases."
Ebola was confirmed in Uganda on July 28, several days after villagers were dying in a remote corner of western Uganda. Ugandan officials were slow to investigate possible Ebola because the victims did not show the usual symptoms, such as coughing blood. At least 16 Ugandans have died of the disease.
Delays in confirming Ebola allowed the disease to spread to more villages deep in the western district of Kibaale, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said.
"The doctors in Kibaale say the symptoms were a bit atypical of Ebola," Museveni said in a national address Monday. "They were not clearly like Ebola symptoms. Because of that delay, the sickness spread to another village."
Saweka said that organizations such as Doctors Without Borders and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are helping Ugandan officials to control the spread of Ebola.
This is the fourth outbreak of Ebola in Uganda since 2000, when the disease killed 224 people and left hundreds more traumatized in northern Uganda.
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Possible new case being repor in TANZANIA???
Not like in AFPAK where the Taliban are all but demanding Muslim kiddies' right to dev Politio, etc.
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.
Afghanistan's parliament voted Saturday to dismiss the country's defense and interior ministers. 
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo...
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
It was right there on the label of the white tuna salad, an outlawed ingredient: "partially hydrogenated soybean oil." A customer filed a formal complaint with the authorities. A Montgomery County 
Your daily technically-accurate-but-politically-cringe-inducing spin moment came courtesy of the chairman of President Barack Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, Alan Krueger, who took issue Friday with reports that the unemployment rate rose in July from 8.2 percent to 8.3 percent.
At least one person has been killed in an explosion in a Somali suburb of the Kenyan capital Nairobi, on the eve of a visit by Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State. A dozen more were reportedly injured in the blast, which hit Nairobi's Eastleigh neighbourhood. There were conflict reports of a grenade attack and suicide bomber.
SAMARRA, Iraq: A bombing and a shooting killed four soldiers and four police yesterday, security and medical officials said a day after 33 people were killed in attacks mainly targeting the security forces.
