...might be interesting to see who gets cut... I'm guessing it'll only start with Publicans.
The Obama administration has ordered a government-wide reassessment of how almost 5 million Americans have been granted classified information security clearances and whether each person currently approved to see sensitive national security secrets truly has a need for such access.
Reeling from National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowdens leaks of top-secret surveillance programs and mentally computer contractor Aaron Alexiss deadly shooting rampage at the Washington Navy Yard, the intelligence community is coming to the conclusion that the sheer number of personnel with clearances is making the government and the country as a whole vulnerable to a slew of dangers.
A liberal blogger and representative on the health care committee at the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), turned to the liberal blog The Daily Kos, on Monday to decry the negative impact he says President Barack Obama If you have a small business, you didn't build that... 's signature health care law is having on grad students at his Ivy League school.
"For us, at least in the college health insurance market, the ACA has truly been the 'law of unintended consequences,' wrote Michael Convente on The Daily Kos,
on Monday.
"[R]elying on marketing slogans, some of which turned out not to be so correct, is turning out to be problematic," he lamented.
Convente said the "progressive" UPenn Student Health Insurance Advisory Committee (SHIAC), on which he serves, doesn't mind funding artificial limbs or even gender reassignment surgery, but that forcing poor college students to pay for health care for children, which most don't use, is becoming a burden.
The Senate has voted to change its rules so that a simple majority is required to confirm judicial nominations and executive branch picks -- the so-called "nuclear option."
The final vote was 52-48. The previous threshold was 60 votes to bring such nominations to a final up-or-down vote.
"The threshold for cloture on nominations not including the Supreme Court, is now a majority," Sen Pat Leahy (D-Vt.), the Senate president pro tempore, declared after the vote.
Three Democrats voted with Republicans against the change: Carl Levin (D-Mich.), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Mark Pryor (D-Ark.). Levin is a longtime senator; Manchin and Pryor come from red states.
To about 1840 or so the House also had a version of the filibuster. It wasnt quite the same as the Senate but by rule and decorum, one needed a super-majority to move bills through.
From then up to the 1890s there was a variant of this called the disappearing quorum: the House needed a super-majority to make a quorum, so the minority party if disciplined enough would refuse to answer whenever a quorum just happened to be called, causing everything to stop. Then House Speaker Reed (a Pub) said, The best system is to have one party govern and the other party watch, and set about to eliminate this, and he did. The Democrats howled but the Pubs prevailed, and so now we have a modern House in which 218 yea votes makes things happen.
I shall suggest that it is time for the Senate filibuster to disappear completely.
Yes, I believe that major changes in our government should be done on a bipartisan basis: Social Security. Medicare. Civil Rights Bill. Decision to go to war in Iraq. And so on. Our countrys parties should agree on the big things.
But if the Democrats are going to behave like monkeys at a zoo then Speaker Reed is right: one party governs, the other opposes. And the party that is in power has the RESPONSIBILITY to govern wisely or else end up out of power.
The lack of a filibuster will hurt the next fourteen months. But the public (I predict) will see how the Democrats govern, and in a year the public shall vote. Eliminating the filibuster removes the one big excuse Harry Reid has had in his time as majority leader, that he couldnt get anything done because those eeeeeevil Rethuglicans wouldnt let him.
Okay Harry, lets see your real agenda. I think the American people will figure out what youre up to and will decide to oppose you, particularly if the Pubs are smart enough (and remember, were called the Stupid Party for a reason) to hoist him on his petard next October.
Budget? No excuse now, they have to pass a budget. Raving red lunatics for the appeals courts? Make clear that theyre loonies. And so on.
How is it the Pubs can win the House and win most state district and senate races (the Pubs do hold a sizable majority in the state legislatures right now), and yet lose Senate races? Because Dingy Harry, Chuckles Schumer, and Dirty Dick Durbin have managed to keep power and avoid responsibility.
No longer. Now theyre responsible, 50% + 1.
I predict they shall be called on it in November 2014.
#1
I can only hope the moderator comments are right. But at this point I believe everything is fucked too badly to be fixed. It needs completely torn down and started over.
#2
Harry Reid seems to assume that the Dems will have a permanent majority in the Senate. Payback is a hitch.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
11/21/2013 15:10
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The beauty of the filibuster is that it slows things down - and often stops them. That's a good thing. The less government does the better. If something really needs to be done then it will get 60 votes in favor.
Obviously we can use this too, but I suspect that McConnell is stupid enough to reinstate the filibuster if he's handed the reins.
#7
The system of the 60% majority was not really bad. I did not like the filibuster. How about this for your Rantburg consideration:
How about a 60% majority voting on everything but treaties? Then a lot of chaff falls by the wayside. The only weakness is vote trading, but we have that anyway.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/21/2013 18:02
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#8
I'll do you one better AP. How about 2/3 to pass anything and a bare majority to repeal.
#11
I think that a lot of suggestions are valid. The problem is the personnel in the Senate and the House. They cannot reform themselves. They are too vested in the logrolling vote buying way of doing business. They need to be gone and replaced with independents. We literally cannot afford the current crop any more.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/21/2013 19:57
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Senator Carl Levin quoted today:
"But Democrats have used the filibuster in the past, and changing the rules by fiat means that there are no rules in the Senate any longer, he said. Today we are once again moving down a destructive path, Levin said.
Yes indeed. One need only read a history of the transition of Rome from republic to empire to understand this very point. It didn't happen in a day or a decade; it took about a century. But it happened because very partisan people were willing to change the rules of the game to take care of their own short-term interests, and locked themselves into patron-client relationships to distribute power and spoils, and were willing to use violence and the ruination of fortune and reputation against others to get what they wanted.
Sound familiar?
To borrow from Mr. Twain, history may not repeat but it sure does rhyme.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/21/2013 21:17
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#13
Remember, Harry. The wheel turns. The wheel turns...
In an effort to combat perceived discrimination, one Portland school seems to have gone off the deep end by suggesting peanut butter and jelly sandwiches carry racist connotations, Twitchy reported Monday.
According to the Portland Tribune, Verenice Gutierrez, principal of Harvey Scott K-8 School, "picks up on the subtle language of racism" on a daily basis.
"Take the peanut butter sandwich, a seemingly innocent example a teacher used in a lesson last school year," the Tribune said.
What about Somali or Hispanic students, who might not eat sandwiches? Gutierrez asked. Another way would be to say: Americans eat peanut butter and jelly, do you have anything like that? Let them tell you. Maybe they eat torta. Or pita.
"Insert flabbergasted face," the Twitchy staff wrote.
One person asked on Twitter: "[W]hat's the verdict on grilled cheese? Racist? Sexist?"
"The food at my kids' schools hates everyone," tweeted Melissa Clouthier.
With the suggestion that a sandwich is racist, Twitchy said the discussion on race "has moved beyond slack-jawed incredulity into total self-parody territory."
"What is racist about a childs lunch, one might ask? Peanut butter and jelly, of course! You racists probably even use black currant jelly sometimes. On white bread," Twitchy added.
#3
Then again, who's insane here? The PC lunatic Gutierrez who "picks up on the subtle language of racism" on a daily basis. Or the sheeple idiots that bend over and allow her to get away with it?
The highest honor bestowed by Congress, the Congressional Gold Medal, was awarded to the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska in appreciation for the selfless code-talking work done by five Tlingits during both world wars.
Posted by: Au Auric ||
11/21/2013
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A massive cargo plane bound for McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita, Kan., from New York City landed at the wrong airport late Wednesday and is now temporarily stuck there.
The Boeing 747 LCF Dreamlifter took off from John F. Kennedy International Airport at 7:26 p.m. and was cleared to land at McConnell, but instead landed at the much smaller Jabara Airport about 10 miles north.
It's not entirely clear whether the Atlas Air flight landed at Jabara on purpose or by mistake. But audio captured by LiveATC.net suggests the Dreamlifter pilots informed McConnell's tower controller after the plane touched down, and did not realize where they were.
Posted by: Au Auric ||
11/21/2013
10:26 ||
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#1
Seattletimes.com has a video of it taking off; used every bit of that 6100 foot runway and did not have a lot of flaps deployed. sucked the gear up as soon as he had a positive rate of climb.
think it was just a case of not liking the IAM, Kansas is a Right to Land state i believe,
#2
...although somewhat spectacular because it was a "74" and an actual landing occurred, mistaking these two airports is somewhat common. Night approach and landing to an (assumably) unfamiliar area and airport that looks, aside of size, remarkably similar to McConnell. Although the Left-Seater will have some 'splainin to do, ATC and their clearance procedures, given the above, will be looked at also...
#3
IANAP (I am not a pilot), but doesn't each runway have a unique frequency so that the pilot can tell when he is on the correct glide path?
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
11/21/2013 21:33
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I read in one story that the tower actually asked the pilot if he was landing at the right airport.
I suspect a pilot can always ask the name of the airport before setting down.
Posted by: Barbara ||
11/21/2013 22:28
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#5
Happened in Portland Ore years ago (early 80's), an airliner missed PDX and landed at little Troutdale Municipal Airport. They had to strip the entire interior out of it and absolute minimal fuel to fly it out and get the 10 miles to PDX.
#6
Had a Tomkitty pilot land on the USS Nimitz. Nice 3 wire. Only thing is, he was looking for the Vinson, about 50 miles away. Those turn in the wind runways have big ol' numbers on them as well as the island.
Tom Cruise not only has some 'splainin' to do, he had to buy the Line crew adult beverages cuz they had to remove all the zaps(stickers, paint flashes, etc) we put on that bird.
An LG Smart TV owner in the United Kingdom has shockingly discovered that his device is sending unencrypted data over Wi-Fi containing TV watching habits, as well as file names from external storage units hooked up to the TV to an LG website, even though the TVs privacy settings should have prevented such behavior.
Posted by: Au Auric ||
11/21/2013
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The Republican National Committee announced today that it is hosting a press conference for Democrats who will be running on Obamacare. They've invited a host of Democratic politicians who think Obamacare is a good idea, though it's likely none will show up:
WASHINGTON -- Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Reince Priebus has invited Democrats running for the Senate in 2014, along with a number of Democrats running for reelection to the House, to participate in a "We're Running On ObamaCare" press conference on Thursday.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) says they are "eager and proud to run on ObamaCare," and Nancy Pelosi says Democrats will "stand tall" on ObamaCare. Because Republicans also look forward to making the 2014 election about ObamaCare, the RNC has offered to give individual candidates a platform to speak for themselves and voice their support for the unpopular law.
They will also have the opportunity to take a picture in front of a banner reading "Eager and Proud to Run on ObamaCare in 2014," which the RNC will be happy to post online and use in advertisements.
The RNC has also purchased web domain names for each Democrat (PryorLovesObamaCare.com for example) and will donate them to the campaigns of candidates in attendance so they can publicly "stand tall" on the law a majority of Americans oppose.
Details of the press conference are as follows:
WHO:RNC Chairman Reince Priebus
Sen. Mark Begich (D- AK)*
Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR)*
Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO)*
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL)*
Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA)*
Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) *
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH)*
Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM)*
Sen. Kay Hagan (D-NC)*
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) *
Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (AZ-01)*
Rep. Ron Barber (AZ-02)*
Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (AZ-09)*
Rep. Ami Bera (CA-07)*
Rep. Raul Ruiz (CA-36)*
Rep. Scott Peters (CA-52)*
Rep. Elizabeth Esty (CT-05)*
Rep. Patrick Murphy (FL-18)*
Rep. Joe Garcia (FL-26)*
Rep. Brad Schneider (IL-10)*
Rep. Bill Foster (IL-11)*
Rep. Bill Enyart (IL-12)*
Rep. Cheri Bustos (IL-17)*
Rep. Bruce Braley (IA-01)*
Rep. Dave Loebsack (IA-02)*
Rep. John Tierney (MA-06)*
Rep. Gary Peters (MI-14)*
Rep. Tim Walz (MN-01)*
Rep. Collin Peterson (MN-07)*
Rep. Rick Nolan (MN-08)*
Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (NH-01) *
Rep. Ann McLane Kuster (NH-02) *
Rep. Tim Bishop (NY-01)*
Rep. Steve Israel (NY-03)*
Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (NY-18)*
Rep. Bill Owens (NY-21)*
Rep. Dan Maffei (NY-24)*
Rep. Pete Gallego (TX-23)*
Rep. Jim Matheson (UT-04)*
Rep. Nick Rahall (WV-03)*
...Russia, which many people a few months ago said was clinging onto Syria for dear life because it was its last foothold in the Middle East, is now actively sought after by regional leaders.
Americas Middle East policies its hesitancy, its lack of clear redlines, its apparent weakness have set its allies scurrying about looking for other partners.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman could have been speaking for many countries in the region when he said at the Sderot Conference Wednesday that it was unwise to rely on the US as much as Israel has in the past, and that Israels foreign policy should not look only in one direction: toward Washington.
Indeed, with some major US missteps in the Middle East over the last three years raising questions for many regional actors about Washingtons reliability, many of Israels neighbors are looking in other directions.
#1
The fallacy of this article is the assumption the US HAS a foreign policy.
Following the thread and trying to connect the dots on what the current ME policy leads to only two conclusions:
1. The US has no coherent foreign policy
2. The US has a coherent foreign policy designed to foment a disastrous nuclear war in the ME so that the ONE can divert attention away from his efforts to convert the US to the CSSR2.0
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
11/21/2013 11:58
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You left one out:
3. The US has a foreign policy with the objective of upending the status-quo, regardless of whether its aspects are useful or effective.
[The Hindu] Based on inputs from surveillance teams, the Chhattisgarh police have jugged Please don't kill me! many suspected operatives of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India.
According to Director-General of Police (DGP) Ram Niwas, surveillance inputs suggested that the alleged SIMI members were hatching a plan to sabotage meetings of Bharatiya Janata Party's prime-ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and other important leaders.
Among those arrested so far are Sheikh Azijullah, Mohinuddin Qureishi, Abdul Wahid Khan, Umer Siddqui, Sheikh Habibullah, Roshan Sheikh and Raju Mistry.
Mr. Niwas said some telephone numbers were kept under surveillance over a period of time, recorded conversations analysed and suspected persons tracked. Mr. Niwas said the men were observed travelling secretly to many locations around the city.
From a series of telephone conversations, the team discovered that the SIMI activists were discussing Mr. Modi's scheduled rally locations. "They spoke in Arabic in the telephone conversation [...] and we confiscated [a] few letters which were sent to other [intelligence] agencies [to confirm their association with SIMI]," Mr. Niwas said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2013
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[Pak Daily Times] The Federal Investigation Agency's (FIA) inquiry committee has so for failed to collect concrete evidence against Pervez Perv Musharraf ... former dictator of Pakistain, who was less dictatorial and corrupt than any Pak civilian government to date ... .
One of the members of the FIA investigation team which was tasked with probing the high treason case, told Daily Times: "They have recorded the statements of many persons, directly or indirectly involved in the promulgation of November 3, 2007 emergency, but so far no concrete evidence could be collected against Pervez Musharraf regarding high treason." The investigation officer also admitted that they could not collect solid evidences due to the non-cooperation of several officials during the investigation, saying the team had no power to compel them in this regard.
"There is need of special court's assistance to get solid evidences in high treason case and we are filing a very brief complaint against the former army chief," he added. A four-member FIA committee comprising Khalid Qureshi, Azam Khan, Hussain Asghar and Maqsoodul Hassan is collecting evidences against Musharraf in the treason case since July 3. Sources have said that the FIA team had not declared the former military dictator as lone accused in the treason case, and has mentioned 'others' in the complaint. They also said that despite sending three reminders, the defence secretary did not provide details of the meeting of core commanders of Pakistain Army in which the November 3, 2007 emergency was approved.
The FIA official said that they had intimated the Interior Ministry every week about the non-cooperation of the Defence Ministry but Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan did not take any action in this regard. The sources also said that no FIR would be registered against Musharraf during the trial of that case. On the other hand, Attorney General of Pakistain Muneer A Malik has claimed that Sherlocks have solid evidence against Musharraf in the high treason case and he might face capital punishment or life imprisonment.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2013
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[An Nahar] Jordanian military prosecutors on Wednesday charged 15 men, including students, with carrying out "terrorist acts" over festivities on a university campus that injured four people, a judicial official said.
"State security court prosecutors accused the suspects of carrying out terrorist acts and possessing automatic weapons with intent to use them illicitly," the official told AFP.
"They took part on Tuesday in a brawl in the Al-Balqaa Applied University," he added in reference to the campus in Salat, a city northeast the capital Amman.
The suspects face life prison sentences if convicted.
The reasons behind the clash are still unclear as officials declined to give details.
Riot police fired tear gas on Tuesday to break up the fight and prevent people from outside the university from entering to take part.
Four people, including a woman, were maimed, police said.
Violence occurs frequently at Jordanian universities, and sometimes spreads beyond campus grounds.
In April, armed festivities between students at the King Hussein bin Talal University in the southern city of Maan killed four people and maimed more than 25, provoking a public outcry and royal fury.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Pak Daily Times] Terrorists attacked a police checkpost in Swabi but were repulsed by the coppers stationed there, who killed four of the assailants. Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... Police chief Nasir Khan Durrani Wednesday announced Rs 100,000 cash award and commendation certificates for the police party that repulsed the attack. A group of about 20 snuffies equipped with heavy weapons attacked the Natyan police-post in Swabi District. The police jawans deputed at the post fought back after getting reinforcements. The fierce fighting between police and snuffies continued for about two hours, leaving four snuffies dead. While praising the unparallel performance of Swabi police, Nasir Khan Durrani announced Rs 100,000 cash award and commendation certificates for the police party. According to Swabi police, the Death Eaters were equipped with rocket launchers and automatic weapons and ambushed the police checkpost. During the exchange of firing, four attackers were killed, while their accomplices escaped.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2013
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Suspected Abu Sayyaf militants kidnapped a ranking official of Sulu province in Mindanao, police said on Wednesday. Senior Superintendent Abraham Orbito, Sulu's police chief, said the suspects kidnapped Jess Cabelin, the Sulu provincial treasurer from his quarters near the provincial capital early on Monday evening.
Orbito cited witness testimony reporting heavily armed men, believed to be followers of Abu Sayyaf leaders Sawadjaan and Julli Ikit, dragged Cabelin to a waiting van after which they sped away. He said the abductors have not yet contacted the family of Cabelin who was believed to have been brought to the jungles of Patikul town, an Abu Sayyaf stronghold.
Also in Mindanao, police and the Marines have been alerted after reports that the Abu Sayyaf have taken to Sulus neighboring island province of Tawi-Tawi the wife of a Taiwanese tourist who was abducted from a resort in Sabah, Malaysia on November 15.
Malaysian officials have sought the help of Philippine security forces for the rescue of Chang An Wei, the wife of a Taiwanese tourist who was gunned down while they were vacationing. The authorities believe the abductors were from the Abu Sayyaf.
Posted by: ryuge ||
11/21/2013
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[An Nahar] U.S. Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... on Wednesday accused the Moslem Brüderbund of stealing Egypt's revolution, in some of his toughest comments yet about the party that took power in the nation's first democratic election.
In a speech to a forum on enhancing links between private sector businesses and diplomatic security agencies, Kerry said "the best antidote to extremism is opportunity."
"Those kids in Tahrir Square, they were not motivated by any religion or ideology.
"They were motivated by what they saw through this interconnected world, and they wanted a piece of the opportunity and a chance to get an education and have a job and have a future, and not have a corrupt government that deprived them of all of that and more," the top U.S. diplomat said.
"They tweeted their ways and Facetimed their ways and talked to each other, and that's what drove that revolution.
"And then it got stolen by the one single-most organized entity in the state, which was the Brotherhood."
Since Islamist president Mohammed Morsi ...the former president of Egypt. A proponent of the One Man, One Vote, One Time principle, Morsi won election after the deposal of Hosni Mubarak and jumped to the conclusion it was his turn to be dictator... was ousted by the military in July a year after coming to power, the United States has repeatedly said that he had failed to live up to calls for an inclusive, transparent government.
And Kerry in August defended the army's action to remove Morsi, saying it had moved as a bid at "restoring democracy."
But as the military-led interim government has moved only slowly towards new elections, the U.S. in October suspended a part of its $1.5 billion in annual aid to Egypt.
Kerry vowed earlier this month during a brief, surprise visit to Cairo that the United States would work with Egypt's interim leaders and called on them to press ahead with reforms.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2013
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#1
Its difficult to believe Kerry really came into a sense of clarity. Probably the Saudis gave him a push.
Posted by: lord garth ||
11/21/2013 0:08
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#2
Moslems don't do Democracy. They prefer stinky old boots and a big mustache.. It has something to do with their inner being.
#4
Susan Rice and ValJar ain't gonna be happy with Lurch
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/21/2013 9:09
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For a group of people who issue cooked statistics and manipulates the media to suppress truth, I'd think that a representative of President Asterisk would be careful about using the word 'steal' in connection with an election.
That is amazing rational thinking for someone with a long history of irrational oblique thinking.
Of course, the idea that Muslim Brotherhood stole the Egyptian revolution is not an original thought, every Egyptian I talked to when I was in Libya thought the same. Most Libyans and most Egyptians I knew LOATHED the Brotherhood. The Libyans lived in fear of the Brotherhood usurping the Libyan independence. And most were joyous when the military took over and the Brotherhood showed their true colors.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
11/21/2013 11:31
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#7
That is amazing rational thinking for someone with a long history of irrational oblique thinking.
A militant wanted for his alleged involvement in a number of terrorist acts was killed by police in the Russian republic of Dagestan.
Ruslan Kazanbiev was killed in a shootout in Dagestan's capital, Makhachkala, on November 19, after he and his associates reportedly attacked two separate police patrols killing two police officers, and injuring one. A bystander was also killed in a shootout.
Police in Dagestan say Kazanbiev's three associates are now hiding in a home in Makhachkala, which is surrounded by security forces and police. The special operation continues.
[THEHILL] Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.) was hit over the head and robbed Tuesday night near the Capitol.
An attacker knocked Meng to the ground with a hit to the head while she was walking back to her apartment after eating dinner. The attacker took her bag and bravely ran away near 6th St. and Pennsylvania Ave -- a little less than a mile from the Capitol building.
"While this was a frightening ordeal, I fortunately was not seriously injured," Meng said. "Obviously, things could have been much worse. I thank the U.S. Capitol Police and the District of Columbia Police for responding quickly and professionally."
Meng sustained minor injuries, including a bruise to her chin. She was taken to George Washington University Hospital where she underwent a CAT scan. Meng missed the first two votes on Wednesday but was present for subsequent votes.
The New York Democrat is a freshman elected in 2012.
U.S. Capitol Police, which is leading the "open" and "active" investigation, said no arrests have yet been made. Metro police directed questions to Capitol police.
The politician told news hounds Wednesday evening that police are scrubbing for fingerprints on an old cell phone of hers that was found at the scene. The phone was in Meng's bag but was apparently discarded by her attacker.
She said she was fortunate to be carrying her wallet and credit cards in her coat pocket at the time and not in the bag that was stolen.
"I'm lucky," she said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
while she was walking back to her apartment after eating dinner
Umm...nobody walks after dark in DC. The New York Democrat is a freshman elected in 2012.
Oh, that explains it. Naively she expected DC to be as safe as NYC.
#4
If it's 6th and Penn NW, then it's right at the Canadian Embassy. Hmmmmm.....
Posted by: Bobby ||
11/21/2013 8:14
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#5
I've lived in DC for the past 14+ years. Up until 2009-10, crime overall was on the decline. But starting around 2011 sometime, I've noticed a significant uptick in these types of "hit and run" assaults/robberies (including the recently termed, "knock out game" types of assaults).
As one might expect, the vast majority of these types of crimes appear to be black-on-white/asian/latino insofar as what gets reported to the police. Of course, I'm the racist for pointing out the obvious rather than the perps who clearly target non-blacks when it comes to victim selection.
For the most part, I blame the 0bama admin for the way it's economically devastated urban minority communities like we have in DC not to mention the stonewalling of school choice that has gone on during this administration's tenure. The persistently high-levels of minority unemployment in this country, particularly for blacks, is beyond shameful. It is a disgrace, a travesty and deserves to be pointed out at every opportunity if only to prove the utter failure of this admin's anti-free enterprise and distributive economic policies which end up hurting the working poor the most. Of course, this is something POTUS will never be held accountable for and will only be blamed on fiscal conservatives for their "favor the rich" and "obstructionist" positions.
[BREITBART] "So, 4000 rubes are dead. Cry me the Tigris. Another 30,000 have been seriously wounded. Boo f*cking hoo. They got what they asked for--and cool robotic limbs too."
Thus begins a virulent anti-American soldier screed titled "F*ck the Troops," written by Politico Magazine reporter Ian Murphy during the Iraq War. His current offering for Politico, "How I Punked Scott Walker," appeared yesterday as the number two profiled story in the website's new magazine. It describes Murphy's failed attempt to upend the Wisconsin Governor's historic battle against public service union collective bargaining rights.
Murphy's May 2008 column appeared as the intense combat of "the surge" was winding down. As Murphy said
"...our soldiers are lauded by all as saints. Why? They volunteered to partake in this savage idiocy, and for this they deserve our utmost repsect. I think not... stop sucking off the troops. They get enough action raping female soldiers and sodomizing Iraqi detainees."
Murphy goes on to question young Americans' service in defense of their country:
As a society we need to discard our blind deference to military service. There's nothing admirable about voluteering to murder people... but what kind of world would we rather live in: one where fools are admired for being fooled and murderers are extolled for murdering, or one where we have the capacity to step back and say, "I don't care who told you to do what and why; you're still an asshole!"
Murphy admits that he is not certain about particular basic facts surrounding the authorization for the use of combat troops in the Iraq War because "I was doing a lot of heavy narcotics back in '03."
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Seems to me that Ian "F**king" Murphy needs to be visited by a few "good"old boys and made to understand that words have consequences.
Then arrest what's left of his ass for trying to fix an election.
#2
When the next civil war comes around, this is some of the cannon fodder the Left is going to be expecting to use to keep their ill gotten power. One could see his unit political commissar may have to use Ian was an 'example' to encourage others to move forward. It'll save every else from wasting ammo.
It's the 50th anniversary of the medal created by President Kennedy, and President Obama included a tribute to JFK in his remarks. The award is "presented to individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors," says the White House.
The American version of being knighted by the Queen.
"Individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States." Perhaps we'll see Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, Sean Smith, Tyrone Woods, and Glen Doherty honored in 2017...
#2
Apparently the Presidential Medal of Freedom has become a trophy you get for just showing up.
Perhaps we'll see Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, Sean Smith, Tyrone Woods, and Glen Doherty honored in 2017.
[An Nahar] Awshalim Benjamin is desperate to leave Iraq, where a sack of faded photographs is all that remains of the happy life he and his ancient, dwindling Christian community once knew.
The 74-year-old waits by the phone for the call that will tell him he can finally depart Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... to join his family in the United States -- and leave behind a 2,000-year-old community that has shrunk by more than half since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
Continued on Page 49
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#1
If you like your religion, you can keep it. Period ( unless its an inferior product like Christianity is in a Moslem society)
The invasion of Tarawa Atoll was the second American offensive in the Pacific after Guadalcanal. On 20 November 1943, an aerial bombardment of carrier-based Dauntless dive bombers preceded the amphibious landings. The shore was defended by a maze of bunkers and interlocking gun positions so well-entrenched that the preliminary bombardment had little effect. Once the bombing lifted, the island's defenders were able to take up defensive positions and began repelling incoming landing craft. The majority of the Higgins boats got hung up on the barrier reef surrounding the island, forcing the Marines inside to jump over the side into neck-high water and wade hundreds of yards to shore, all the while under constant machine gun and artillery fire. Amphibious tractors, also known as Amtrak's or LVTs (Landing Vehicle Tracked) fared slightly better as they were designed to climb over obstacles and land on shore. Over the course of the day, more than half of the Allied landing craft were destroyed by Japanese mortars and light artillery.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Turkey's parliament is deadlocked over efforts to draw up a new constitution aimed at enshrining democratic values and replace a military-drafted charter, a ruling party politician said Wednesday.
A special cross-party parliamentary commission set up to write a replacement for the charter introduced by the military junta after a 1980 coup is set to be formally dissolved after failing to make any significant progress.
"The parliamentary commission tasked with writing a new constitution could not produce any article over the last four months," Ahmet Iyimaya of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) told AFP.
He said it was unlikely a new constitution -- a key pledge of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's latest term in office -- would be ready before a general election in 2015.
One of the major disputes over the constitution lies with plans by Erdogan's AKP to introduce an executive presidential system in the predominantly Moslem but staunchly secular state.
Observers say Erdogan -- who has been prime minister for 11 years -- is hoping to change the constitution to give the president U.S.-style executive powers before running for the post himself next year.
The current presidency, held by Abdullah Gul since 2007, is largely a symbolic post.
Political parties in the 550-seat parliament have been working since 2011 to replace the current constitution which was drafted by the powerful military after the 1980 coup.
But little progress has been made.
"It looks difficult to write a new constitution before the general elections," Iyimaya said.
The commission has succeeded in reaching a compromise on 62 articles but discord remains on numerous articles including citizenship and language rights.
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[Pak Daily TimePrime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... on Wednesday talked tough on Muharram 10 violence in Rawalpindi that killed a dozen people and injured more than 50, charging the law enforcement agencies with 'criminal inaction' over 'unacceptable crimes'.
"Speech inciting hatred, firing, torching properties, stone pelting and killing innocent people are unacceptable crimes. Criminal silence of administration as well as police on the propagation of sectarian hatred through loudspeakers and graffiti cannot be tolerated," Nawaz told a meeting called at the Prime Minister's House to review post-violence situation. He ordered an immediate ban on wall chalking as well as use of loud speakers for hate speech in the country.
The prime minister said what happened in Rawalpindi was 'criminal negligence' and law enforcement agencies should not have shown such slackness. "Police should have taken pre-emptive action to avert the incident," he said.
The prime minister made it clear that any one-sided action by the administration would not be tolerated. He directed police to fix responsibility by holding a fair and neutral investigation into the Rawalpindi incident. "Hate speeches and killing people are equally criminal. I want strict action against those who have no regard for law and order," he told the meeting.
The prime minister also came hard on social media and accused it of playing 'negative role' during the festivities. He directed the authorities concerned to prepare a draft cyber law to tackle such matters 'within days'.
Punjab Inspector General of Police Khan Baig admitted the failure of local police authorities as he briefed the meeting over the Rawalpindi incident. The IGP said the deadly violence had claimed lives of at least 11 people besides injuries to 56 others. "All deaths resulted due to use of firearms," the IGP said, as he rejected claims that several people were missing after the incident.
Baig said police had placed in durance vile Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! nine 'perpetrators' of the incident. He said the arrests were made after their identification with the help of CCTV as well as video footages obtained from media organizations.
Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar, Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Punjab Law Law Rana Sanaullah, DG ISI Lt Gen Zaheer-ul-Islam, DG IB Aftab Sultan attended.s]
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[An Nahar] The head of the U.S. military's Africa Command held talks with Tunisia's Prime Minister Ali Larayedh on security cooperation, notably to stem arms trafficking, the government said Wednesday.
The meeting with General David Rodriguez "was an opportunity to discuss the security issue, ways of cooperating and how the United States can support Tunisia, in terms of equipment and training," Larayedh's office said.
The talks focused on "supporting efforts to combat trafficking, particularly of arms, and on ways of helping Tunisia to secure its borders."
Since Arab Spring uprisings swept the region, Tunisia has witnessed a sharp rise in activity by armed Salafist groups and in weapons trafficking.
Deadly violence blamed on hardline Islamists has rocked Tunisia since the 2011 revolution, with an attack on the U.S. embassy last year heightening international concerns about the country's deteriorating security.
The largely empty southern desert region has also become a key transit route for Libyan weapons being smuggled across the Sahara since the downfall of strongman Muammar Qadaffy ... who had more funny outfits than Louis XIV... .
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[Pak Daily Times] At least five students were wounded during the clash between two rival groups in University of Karachi on Wednesday. The clash occurred between two rival groups at the university and later both the groups resorted to baton charge on each other, thus resulting injuries to at least five of them. Later both the groups dispersed, as the Rangers personnel reached the site. Police said some miscreants were taken into custody and later released because no complaints were lodged by anyone.
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#1
Not an issue of which wine & cheese serves best with Iona?
Posted by: Barbara ||
11/21/2013 18:43
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#5
Maybe this is it is worth noting that the design of the modern bra was undertaken by a civil engineer, that specialized in suspension bridges.
Rantburg University Engineering class, dismissed.
Don't forget your homework is to go out and observe and report back the similarities between the modern bridge and the bra.
Pictures and diagrams receive extra credit. This could be a practical hands on application.
#9
#5 Maybe this is it is worth noting that the design of the modern bra was undertaken by a civil engineer, that specialized in suspension bridges.
I'd give a lot to see the look(s) on the great bossomometrist's face if he could be transported to a certain spot next... ummm... May 18th. Would he laugh? Cry? Jump? Run around like a mad piggy trying to hug every woman at once? Me, I'll be gaping and gasping like a fish, and probably shedding a tear for my pop and bridges past. And maybe ogling just a little bit (roomful of bouncing eyeball-painted ping-pong balls graphic here), strictly in the interest of science. Suave, I am.
[Pak Daily Times] The unending spate of violence claimed three more lives in restive Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... on Wednesday.
In the first incident, a man was killed and another maimed in Gulshan-e-Iqbal, within the jurisdiction of Mobina Town cop shoppe.
Continued on Page 49
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[Pak Daily Times] International Islamic University (IIU) President Prof Dr Ahmed Yousaf al-Draiweesh on Wednesday said Islam provided equal rights and opportunities to women so that they could excel and contribute to the development of the society.
He was speaking at a seminar titled 'Women Entrepreneurship in Pakistain; Opportunity and Challenges' organised by the IIU Faculty of Management Sciences (FMS).
He said there was no disparity based on gender in Islam and women had equal rights to groom themselves in all walks of life, following the core tenets of Islam.
Continued on Page 49
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#1
Some countries knock off folks they don't agree with and try to make it look like an accident. Some folks (Al Capone included) have to deliver a message. This guy will probably get blown to smithereens, and nobody will mistake it for a gas leak.
Posted by: Bobby ||
11/21/2013 7:56
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He's right, its right there in the Quran (if my English language translation of the Quran is correct).
Because most Muslims and like most Christians in that they don't read the Quran or the Bible and rely on the Imam or Pastor to give them the true skinny on what is contained there in, most Muslims, particularly the semi-illiterate and isolated, believe women are breeding stock and farm labor...according to their Imam.
Islam is infected with a lot of Imams who are misogynists and xenophobes. The lack of a viable central authority to bring the idiots to heel means it only takes one nutjob Imam to pollute the theology. AND this leads to Islam being a backward looking and reactionary religion.
Most of the problem with Islam is the most vocal are the most irrational...computers, science, medicine, vaccines, if it is not in the Quran, it is unIslamic...geez the Quran was written over 1200 years ago...
Islam will always have this problem until the more literate and more rational start policing the faith for those whose delusional ramblings and crazy fatwss discredit the rest.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
11/21/2013 11:44
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I think the crayon means the 72 virgins (which are always 'virgin' and don't have menstrual periods) are much like a brick or a rock is a 'virgin' - it simply doesn't have the equipment to be 'deflowered'.
[Bangla Daily Star] An Afghan district police chief was killed in an ambush by faceless myrmidons in the volatile southern province of Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... yesterday, officials said.
Tooryalai Khan, police chief of Helmand's Marjah district, was leading an operation against Taliban faceless myrmidons in the area when he was ambushed early in the morning, said provincial front man Omar Zewak.
His bodyguard was maimed in the attack.
Ismael Hotak, a senior provincial police officer, confirmed the incident and said Khan was appointed in the district six months ago.
No one has grabbed credit for the attack. But the Taliban, who are waging an insurgency against the US-backed Afghan government, have a strong presence in southern provinces.
Helmand is one of the most volatile provinces, and the heart of the opium trade. About half of the poppies grown in the country are planted in Helmand.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#3
No, no, no ... not under the bus, it's all consistent. Just listen very carefully -
But he said the president's familiarity with the report and recommendations did not contradict previous statements from the White House that described Obama as surprised by the scope of flaws in HealthCare.gov.
Obama was told that the problems identified by McKinsey were being addressed, Carney said. And Obama had never claimed to be unaware of "red flags" about the site, only of their seriousness.
O prolly said, "I know you guys can fix it, so just make it happen." THEN he played another round of golf.
Posted by: Bobby ||
11/21/2013 7:30
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#4
O prolly said, "I know you guys can fix it, so just make it happen." THEN he played another round of golf.
Everything is easy for the man who doesn't have to do it himself.
[An Nahar] Iran's diminutive President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday commented on the double blast that rocked the Beirut neighborhood of Bir Hassan, stating that whomever thinks terrorism achieves its goals "is mistaken."
"Those who believe through terrorism and liquidations and violence can achieve their goals are mistaken," Rouhani said at a meeting of the Iranian cabinet.
He added: "This time again they are committing a mistake."
"We must say to the attackers that the people of the region have adopted a united stand of solidarity and resilience in front of aggressions and we will not abandon this path."
The Iranian leader continued: "It appears that regimes that could not deliver their intended messages through other means, and that could not get anyone to listen to them ware seeking this through terrorism, violence and fear."
Rouhani offered his condolences to the families of the victims and to the relatives of Iranian embassy's cultural adviser Sheikh Ibrahim al-Ansari.
At least 23 people were killed and more than 145 others were maimed in a twin blast that took place on Tuesday morning near the Iranian Embassy ...You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy!... in the neighborhood of Bir Hassan in Beirut's southern suburbs.
A security official said the first suicide kaboomer was on a cycle of violence that carried two kilograms of explosives. He went kaboom! at the large black main gate of the Iranian mission, damaging the three-story facility.
Less than two minutes later, the second suicide attacker driving a car rigged with 50 kilograms of explosives struck about 10 meters away, the official said.
The al-Qaeda-linked Abdullah Azzam Brigades grabbed credit for the bombings, according to the Twitter page of a holy man linked to the group.
"The Abdullah Azzam brigades - the Hussein bin Ali cells - are behind the attack on the Iranian embassy in Beirut," Sheikh Sirajeddine Zuraiqat, the group's religious guide, posted on Twitter.
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#10
#6 Nature will retire this man before his constituents do it.
Probably right, but let me just say as one of those constituents I'll vote to primary him out, and if that doesn't work I'll hold my nose and vote for his Dim opponent, since McStain's a closet Dim anyway.
Tried it with Hayworth last time but failed, dammit.
[Libya Herald] Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... was relatively quiet today with schools, state organizations and many government offices as well as ordinary businesses and shops closed following the call last night by Sadat Elbadri, head of the Tripoli Local Council (TLC), for the three-day strike over the Gharghour carnage to continue until Friday. It should have ended yesterday.
El Badri also called for renewed protests against the presence of all militias in Tripoli to take place at Martyrs Square on Friday after Jummah prayers.
His call followed the breakthrough in getting militias to quit the capital with the announcement on Sunday night by Misrata leaders that all its forces would depart the city within three days. The last brigade met the deadline today.
The Misratan decision was a response to the rising public anger in Tripoli following last Friday's massacre.
Speaking to the Libya Herald today, Salah Abugrain, TLC security coordinator, confirmed the call for further protests, stating they was needed because not all militias had pulled out of Tripoli.
"The protest will take place after Jummah prayers at the Martyrs Square. This will continue until the implementation of Law No. 27," Abugrain said. "So far, there has been no confirmation about brigades from any other towns leaving Tripoli, other than those from Misrata and Ghariyan."
Law No. 27 ordered the removal of all gangs from the capital.
Earlier today there were reports of Zintan's Qaaqaa and Al-Sawaq brigades pulling out of the capital voluntarily, but it did not happen. Their vehicles were seen in the bases late this evening.
Meanwhile, ...back at the barn, Bossy was furiously chewing her cud and thinking... the protests in Algeria Square continued during the day as demonstrators demanded the implementation of the Law No. 27 and that those responsible for the Gharghour slaughter be brought to justice. A number of meetings also took place today both in Misrata and Tripoli to reduce the tensions in the wake of the Gharghour tragedy and the Misrata pull-out.
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Iran is forcefully deporting Afghans by the thousands in violation of its international obligation to protect refugees, a rights group said Wednesday in a report.
The Human Rights Watch ... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world... report included stories of fathers deported without being given a chance to tell the families they leave behind. It said a 12-year old boy was left without money at the border, forced to beg for bus fare to Afghanistan.
Millions of Afghans fled to Iran and Pakistain in the 1980s to flee a bloody anti-Communist insurgency. At the peak of the war, roughly 5 million refugees lived in Pakistain and nearly 4 million in Iran. Currently, Human Rights Watch estimates about 2 million Afghans still live in Iran as unregistered refugees - some having returned to Afghanistan only to come back once again to Iran driven back by lack of jobs and a deteriorating security situation in their homeland.
But Iran has refused to register many of them, said Faraz Sanei, Human Rights Watch researcher for Middle East and North Africa. Roughly another 840,000 Afghans live in Iran as registered refugees.
Sanei said the report's authors spent more than a year on Afghanistan's western border with Iran interviewing refugees as they straggled across the border, some telling horrific tales of beating and abuse.
Families have often been broken up. Two teenage Afghan girls were incarcerated Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! in the Iranian holy city of Qom, the report said. The reason: One of them was wearing pink sneakers. When their father and a fiancé of one of the girls came to help them, the police discovered they were Afghans and immediately deported all four of them. Their mother and three other children were left behind in Iran.
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[Pak Daily Times] "How, think you, will the Mohurrum go this year? I think that there will be trouble" -- On the City Wall, Rudyard Kipling, 1888.
This Moharram was one of those, after many years, in which there was trouble. The tragic turn of events this past Ashura day in Rawalpindi overshadowed an otherwise peaceful mourning season countrywide. The destruction of the mosque-madrassa complex and murder of 10 men associated with that entity, apparently by some from within the procession, must be squarely condemned. There is no excuse for murder and mayhem. The same goes for those who ravaged several imambargahs later on. As abhorrent as the incidents were, they still seem to have happened because of a breakdown in law and order and classic tit-for-tat sectarian rioting rather than an elaborate CIA/RAW/Mossad plot or Saudi-Iran proxy war that many leaders and analysts in Pakistain are portraying them as. Nonetheless, domestic and transnational jihadists have already pounced on them to exploit the sectarian fault line. Omar Sheikh Khorasani of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP), Mohmand Agency ... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar... wing, in an Urdu video statement, has vowed a Syria-like revolt to exact Dire Revenge™ on the 'apostate' Shia, ostensibly on behalf of the Sunnis. The banned sectarian outfit Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain
Continued on Page 49
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BELEDWEYNE, Somalia -- At least 20 people were reportedly killed when Al Shabaab militants stormed a police station in Beledweyne town of central Somalia, with a suicide bomber firstly ramming an explosive-laden car into the compound on Tuesday, Garowe Online reports.
Witnesses say a thunderous explosion had taken place at the police compound where Somali government troops and Djiboutian contingent are co-located, followed by heavy gunfire between armed militiamen estimated to be 10 and Somali-AMISOM forces at 10:05 AM in the morning.
I saw a car rushing toward the gate of the police station and exploded inside there. I immediately headed back to my shop, a nearby shop keeper told the media shortly after the assault on the policemen ended.
AMISOM commander in Hiraan regional capital of Beledweyne Col. Osman Dubad Sugulle said they have killed 10 Al Shabaab attackers in the shootout.
Al Shabaab claimed the responsibility for the deadly assault, boasting that the attack is a clear testament to their strength.
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11/21/2013
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[Pak Daily Times] The Pakistain Ulema Council (PUC) on Wednesday urged speedy and fair trial of those responsible for the killing of innocent people in Rawalpindi last Friday.
Addressing a presser at the National Press Club, PUC Chairman Hafiz Tahir Mahmood Ashrafi called for arresting all the culprits.
He announced that a "Condemnation Day" will be observed on November 22 to denounce the plans of some evil forces to fuel sectarian hatred in the country. He called for imposing a ban on the use of loud speakers in mosques and sacred places of all religions.
The PUC will appear before the judicial commission set up over the Rawalpindi incident and provide evidence, he added. Ashrafi said the whole nation was expecting the religious scholars to play their role in restricting hate material. He appealed to Learned Elders of Islam and mashaikh belonging to all schools of thought to show tolerance and acceptance, and create an atmosphere of harmony and understanding.
"The enemies of Ummah and Islam had succeeded to strike only because of slackness on the part of the local administration," said Ashrafi, who is also a member of the Council of Islamic Ideology. "To prevent the flames of sectarianism and hatred flare up any further all of us need to make every effort to calm down the emotions."
He appealed to the people to show restraint and not get swayed by any kind of adverse instigation or incitement to resort to violence. He said a counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency operation be launched forthwith to eliminate the terrorists.
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[ABCNEWS.GO] An al Qaeda-linked terrorist, who was resettled in the U.S. as an Iraq War refugee after allegedly killing American soldiers, was caught on camera in Kentucky handling heavy weapons that the FBI said he believed would be sent to snuffies back in Iraq.
The 2010 video, obtained exclusively by ABC News, was part of a broader ABC News investigation into the flawed refugee vetting program, which officials said may have let "dozens" of Death Eaters into the country.
In the video, Waad Ramadan Alwan is seen expertly field stripping what the FBI identified as a Russian PKM machine gun. Other still images provided by the FBI from hours-worth of surveillance footage show Alwan and an accomplice, Mohanad Shareef Hammadi, handling a Stinger missile launcher and a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) launcher.
An FBI agent assigned to the sting operation that captured the video told ABC News that Alwan had bragged to an informant about killing American soldiers in Iraq. "He said he had them 'for lunch and dinner,'" FBI Louisville Supervisory Special Agent Tim Beam said.
The FBI said that beyond sending the arms back to gunnies in Iraq, Alwan spoke of targeting a specific American soldier in the U.S. and possibly attacking other homeland targets.
The weapons seen in the video, however, were supplied by the FBI after being rendered inoperable. Alwan and Hammadi were tossed in the calaboose Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! in 2011 and later pleaded guilty to terror-related crimes.
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#1
"dozens"?
Missing some digits I think.
More like thousands of sleepers trained to softly recruit and then focus the disenfranchised onto targets of opportunity, which may be more recruitment.
#4
The Bureau just stumbled upon these hapless fellows did they ?
Importing renegade misfits and terrorists as unwitting bait for sting operations is great for your crime solving statistics and budget, until they go Tsarnov Bros. on you.
Running the sting in Kentucky was probably a good idea. Local Law Enforcement near Fort Hood, Boston, and New York are probably wise to this sort of thing.
#8
So, why are we deporting 80 to 90 year old SS personnel 'discovered' in America and not following this s**t up?
probably because old geezers don't put up much of a fight; easy pickin's.
[FOXNEWS] It's no secret that Sarah Mama Grizzly Palin ... the babe libs love to hate ... is mighty steamed at MSNBC and Martin Bashir over his despicable remarks about the abusive treatment he imagines for her.
And now she's doing something about it.
The former Alaska governor and Fox News contributor was scheduled to sit down with Matt Lauer for a Christmas season interview. That's now toast.
Palin has now canceled Lauer's scheduled trip to Wasilla, a source close to her tells me. It's not because Palin is upset with Lauer or the "Today" show, but as a protest against NBC for not taking action against Bashir. In fact, Palin once sat in as a "Today"co-host.
Tim Crawford, treasurer of Palin's political action committee, had told NBC News President Deborah Turness and MSNBC President Phil Griffin that "Americans deserve to know that your network doesn't condone violent and hateful rhetoric."
Bashir apologized to Palin and to viewers Monday for his comments, which he called "totally unacceptable." In response to a speech in which she likened the national debt to slavery, the onetime "Nightline" co-anchor said Palin should be subjected to an ancient slavery punishment in which someone would defecate and urinate in her mouth.
MSNBC has not suspended Bashir, despite imposing a two-week suspension on another talk show host, actor Alec Baldwin, for hurling an anti-gay slur at a photographer outside his New York apartment. The network has had nothing to say publicly about Bashir's sliming of Palin.
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#1
She should have waited until Lauer was switching planes in Vancouver to cancel.
Bashir didn't say it in a vacuum. The show has a producer. There is a production staff. There is a control room. There are broadcast procedures in place to deal with issues like this.
Apparently no one saw a problem with Bashir's diatribe.
Posted by: Barbara ||
11/21/2013 18:47
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#6
Couldn't this be regarded as a rational gamble on their part? I haven't kept up with who's who, but MSNBC must know pretty much what they are. Bashir must know pretty much what he is. What do they have to lose? They run their little "Look, I made poopie!" bit, and what happens? Folks like y'all loathe 'em asymptotically more than you did before? They worry more about butterflies flapping up the Amazon. Moderate lefties hoot "Oh no he dint!" and get their usual self-congratulatory jollies: looking at Mapplethorpe and feeling like they wrote Pynchon. But the principled left might love it. Suddenly they're in like Fisk with keffiyeh-wearing college les6ians. Rappers call 'em n----. Sly fist-bump with a Clinton at the next WHCD. High tea and prison stories with Greyson and Loubani. The sky's the limit. But the real point is to bait Palin. If she fires back something a tenth as edgy or creepy or angry... all of the above and big bucks too. Cr-p. Think I'll go get me a leather coat and a mimeograph machine. The good old days.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Syria's over 1,000 tonnes of chemical weapons and precursors could be destroyed at sea if no country agrees to dispose of them on its soil, the world's chemical watchdog said Wednesday.
"This possibility has been looked at for some time already," Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) front man Christian Chartier told AFP of destroying the chemicals at sea.
"It's still being looked at and is one of several solutions envisaged by member states and as long as a decision has not been taken, it remains a possibility," Chartier said.
The OPCW's Executive Council on Friday approved a final roadmap for ridding Syria of its arsenal by mid-2014, with a plan on how to destroy them out of the country, on land or at sea, to be approved by December 17.
The world is in agreement about destroying Syria's chemical weapons as part of a U.S.-Russia deal aimed at heading off strikes on the Damascus regime after deadly chemical attacks in August.
But despite consensus on destroying the chemicals outside war-wracked Syria, no country has yet been found ready to have them destroyed on its soil.
Belgium said on Monday that it was not favorable to destroying the chemicals on its soil. Albania also rejected such a possibility on Friday after a string of protests.
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[Pak Daily Times] Talibs launched two separate attacks on security checkpoints in the tribal areas Wednesday, killing at least two security personnel and wounding seven others, officials said.
In the first attack, a jacket wallah rammed his explosives-filled car into a security checkpoint as snuffies armed with guns stormed a nearby building in Shawa area of North Wazoo Agency, killing two personnel, officials said. The post is run jointly by the paramilitary Frontier Corps and tribal police and the adjacent building houses more than 40 security forces. In a second attack in Swabi district, around a dozen snuffies launched an attack at a police checkpoint before dawn on Wednesday, police said. "The attack was successfully thwarted and four snuffies were killed in the retaliatory fire by police," Sajjad Khan, district police chief told AFP.
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The biggest fear of Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... 's regime prior to his ouster on Feb. 11, 2011 was the escape of dozens of Jihadists from Egyptian jails, late vice president Omar Suleiman ... Now former Vice president of Egypt. From 1993 until his appointment to that office in 2011 he was Minister without Portfolio and Director of the Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate (EGID)... said in a recording released on Tuesday.
"Jihadis view the society as an infidel one. Their (escape) from prison is very dangerous. I am afraid of the jihadis who refused the initiative to halt violence," Suleiman said in the recording published by Egyptian news website Youm7.
The former intelligence chief is believed to have made the statement during a meeting in the presidential palace a few days after the deadly violence took place in Tahrir square. The violence was later known as the "Battle of the Camel" because camels were used by anti-revolution forces to attack protesters in Tahrir.
Suleiman, who died on July 2012 in a hospital in the United States, noted in the recording that jihadist prisoners were linked to foreign groups and particularly al-Qaeda and are "exploiting the revolution's youths to cause chaos and impoverish Egypt."
Mubarak's closest deputy was also reportedly saying that ousted President Mubarak was willing to respond to the protesters' demands at the time of the January 2011 uprisings.
"The youth's revolution has its advantages. But we (must not) forget our history. The word 'leave' does not (match) with people's morals," he said in reference to protesters' chant against Mubarakdemanding he leaves and exits power.
He also added during the January 2011 uprising "foreign parties were supporting the revolution to threaten the country's security."
Suleiman was also reportedly discussing amending Article 76 of the Egyptian constitution, which addresses presidential elections. He said there needs to be an amendment in which "the president remains for two terms and that would enable a real decentralization of power."
The intelligence chief also warned about holding early elections in the absence of security which could lead to "massacres."
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[Pak Daily Times] Senior Afghan officials arrived in Pakistain to initiate peace talks with the Afghan Taliban following a breakthrough in negotiations during last month's summit in Britannia, officials from both countries said on Wednesday.
The delegation was in Pakistain to meet former Taliban No 2 Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a man seen by Kabul as the key to restarting peace talks with the Taliban, said a front man for Afghanistan's High Peace Council, Mohammed Anwar Eshaaqzai. Eshaaqzai was unable to say if the group had already met Baradar or would do so in coming days. Baradar has been held in some holy man's guesthouse an undisclosed location in Pakistain since Islamabad announced in September that it would release him in order to facilitate the Afghan grinding of the peace processor.
"The Afghan peace council has arrived in Islamabad accompanied by some other foreign and Interior Ministry officials," a Pak official with knowledge of the peace talks told Rooters. "This is a followup of what was decided in London and they will meet officials in the ministries of interior and foreign," the official said. British Prime Minister David Cameron ... has stated that he is certainly a big Thatcher fan, but I don't know whether that makes me a Thatcherite, which means he's not. Since he is not deeply ideological he lacks core principles and is easily led. He has been described as certainly not a Pitt, Elder or Younger, but he does wear a nice suit so maybe he's Beau Brummel ... hosted Afghanistan's Caped PresidentHamid 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... and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... in London last month to discuss ways to kickstart the stalled process.
Karzai formed the Afghan High Peace Council in 2010 to pursue a negotiated peace with the Taliban, who have been leading an insurgency since being ousted from power by US-led forces in 2001. Baradar is a long-time friend of the reclusive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and Afghanistan believes he is still powerful enough to persuade the gunnies to lay down their weapons and make peace.
He was the Taliban's deputy leader and one of their most influential commanders until he was tossed in the slammer Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! in Pakistain in 2010. Pakistain announced his release last month but Baradar remains in the country under close supervision.
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[USATODAY] Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... said Wednesday that the U.S. and Afghan governments have agreed on terms for a security arrangement that could clear the way for a long-term U.S. military presence in Afghanistan.
The agreement must be reviewed by a loya jirga, or tribal council, that Afghanistan's Caped PresidentHamid 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... has convened this week in Kabul. The council could raise objections that might delay or even prevent a signing.
"We have agreed on the language that would be submitted to a loya jirga, but they have to pass it," Kerry said.
The military coalition's mission will wind down at the end of 2014, when most U.S. forces are supposed to leave. The security agreement is designed to provide a legal framework for an American presence after that.
The United States has said a post-2014 mission would include advisers for Afghanistan's young military and a counterterrorism force that would be authorized to target al-Qaeda and its affiliates.
"There is no combat role for United States forces," Kerry said of a follow-on force.
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#1
We are putting together an agreement that has to be ratified by a tribal council. Please note the term tribal. It is the big red arrow pointing to the obvious fact that these people are not going to develop a nation or any other structure that could be called stable. This proposed agreement means that the US will continue to pour $$billions down this rat hole for years to come. It is beyond stupid. Get out, stay out, nuke from orbit if necessary.
[Libya Herald] Reports that Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... Congresswoman Soad Sultan was briefly placed in durance vile I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece! today after being discovered to be carrying a hand grenade in her handbag are true, the Congresswomen has told the Libya Herald.
The incident happened when she went to the Tripoli Local Council in Algeria Square to meet with officials, she says, explaining that she always carries a grenade to defend herself. "I receive threats on a daily basis," she explains. Her son had even been kidnapped to get at her, she adds.
When she arrived at the council building, she says, she handed the grenade to security staff telling them what it was but that she was authorised to carry a weapon.
The next thing that happened, she told this paper, was that Tripoli Council Leader Sadat Elbadri phoned the security authorities and men from Tripoli Security Directorate quickly came to investigate.
Given reports of attempts to assassinate him, he was perhaps understandably concerned.
According to the Council Facebook page, "she walked through the metal detector and put her handbag in the scanning machine. The siren went off, detecting explosive. Security asked the congresswoman about it and she replied it was a grenade that she carries for personal protection. She left the grenade with the security official and went in for her meeting.
"Security in charge called the concerned security authorities. Police directorate sent the Criminal Investigation Department to the scene."
There was no investigation, however. She says she told them they had no right to investigate because she was a member of Congress. This was apparently accepted.
She then insisted she be given back her grenade. It was. She left.
Congresswomen Sultan was elected as a National Forces Alliance member for Tripoli but became an independent, she says, after the Alliance withdrew from Congress.
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#1
she always carries a grenade to defend herself
What does she do - pull the pin, hold it up and scream "Don't move, or the Congresswoman gets it?"
[Pak Daily Times] The dangerous thing about sectarian violence is that it is a contagion that must inherently spread in a multi-denominational society with the state's preventive and law enforcement capacity questionable. After the bloody festivities that unfolded in Rawalpindi on Friday, the 10th of Moharram, hatred and strife have spread more and more and there seems to be no sign of it abating any time soon. The festivities in Rawalpindi saw as many as ten murdered followed by a curfew being imposed. The tensions spread to Multan, Chishtian, Kohat and Hangu in a matter of days and now, on Tuesday, a Shia professor was bumped off ruthlessly in Gujrat by person or persons unknown in what can only be described as a hate crime of the most despicable kind. The professor was the victim of a murder; his only crime was that he was a Shia and his gunning down was in retaliation for the Rawalpindi incident in which Shia mourners beat up and killed Sunni seminary students after being provoked by a hate-sermon from a mosque. One shudders to think what to expect next. That is why it is of the utmost importance now that the government stop taking half-baked measures and actually do something about what could be a potentially explosive situation, ready to engulf the country as a whole.
The government has proposed monitoring all forms of hate speech on social media networking websites in a bid to tackle this menace. It has issued directives to the Ministry of Information Technology and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to monitor all controversial statements made online on these popular sites as well as in text messages. While this is a noteworthy step because monitoring statements intended to provoke will help lead to the perpetrators of such sentiments, there are reservations because of the manner in which governments have tackled such problems in the past. The inclination of our governments for some years has been to ban or suspend anything on the modern means of communication that may cause it the slightest unease, e.g. YouTube and cellular services. It must not fall prey to this device when it comes to social media because apart from being a retrograde step, it will also deprive the authorities of the source of online hate speech and incitement. Monitoring is a step in the right direction but it should stay at that. The government must not limit itself to the confines of online instigation; it must also tackle the pulpit. Hate speeches are delivered across the land in various mosques and seminaries, especially on Fridays, calling on the 'faithful' to take up arms against minority communities like the Shias and Ahmedis. This has to be stopped. The blatant use of the loudspeaker in mosques to reach audiences far and wide with this vitriol must be halted. Hate literature that is distributed in every nook and cranny must be banned and taken away out of the public space. These are steps that must be taken immediately.
After the trouble in Rawalpindi, we are witnessing a spate of attacks and protests, which may seem like small, insignificant incidents in themselves but one must remember that they have the potential to grow all over the country on a very wide scale. The government cannot allow this to happen and must intervene at all costs. It must call together the Learned Elders of Islam (holy mans) from both sects and ask them to talk some sense into their followers, calming them down in this emotionally flammable time. It is also time for the authorities to take a tough line on all those who seek to deepen the sectarian divide through violence. If this plague is not nipped in the bud, the country could have a lot to lose.
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[Washington Post] Two separate kabooms in the Egyptian capital and the restive border province of North Sinai killed 11 soldiers and maimed at least two coppers early Wednesday, underscoring the country's struggle to rein in rising myrmidon violence following the military coup against Islamist President Mohammed Morsi ...the former president of Egypt. A proponent of the One Man, One Vote, One Time principle, Morsi won election after the deposal of Hosni Mubarak and jumped to the conclusion it was his turn to be dictator... .
A jacket wallah drove a boom-mobile into a convoy of buses transporting army conscripts near the North Sinai city of el-Arish, killing 11 troops headed home on leave and wounding an additional 35, army front man Ahmed Ali said in a post on his Facebook page. It was one of the deadliest attacks on security forces there since 25 coppers were executed near the town of Rafah in August.
Earlier Wednesday, assailants driving a white Hyundai lobbed a homemade bomb packed with nails at a police checkpoint on a road in north Cairo, wounding two coppers, including a supervisor, an Interior Ministry front man said.
The Egyptian armed forces "assure the great Egyptian people of the determination of its men to continue the war against black terrorism," Ali said in his Facebook post, in reference to the Sinai attack. The military then swept through the area surrounding the bomb site, but no one was immediately jugged Book 'im, Mahmoud! , according to an Arish-based local journalist who asked not to be named for security reasons.
Although there was no evidence that Wednesday's attacks on the security forces were coordinated, they highlighted the broadening nature of a budding Islamist insurgency here. Attacks have been largely concentrated in the already volatile areas of the Sinai Peninsula, but have recently spread to the Egyptian mainland and include several in Cairo.
Small, diffuse cells of bully boyz are stepping up attacks such as the one on the police checkpoint in Cairo, analysts and security officials said, although no group grabbed credit for that assault. Last month, a previously unheard- of group called the al-Furqan Brigades posted a video on YouTube that allegedly showed two of its members firing a rocket-propelled grenade at a satellite communications center in the Cairo suburb of Maadi.
Attacks like these "are likely the work of many different, scattered entities -- different cells that are not communicating, not coordinating," said Ziad Akl, a political analyst at the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo.
But cohesive, battle-hardened groups such as Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, an hard boy organization formed in Sinai, also boast of having launched sophisticated myrmidon operations against major military and police targets in Cairo and in the increasingly volatile Suez Canal city of Ismailia in recent months.
On Tuesday, Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis grabbed credit for Sunday's targeted liquidation of a high-ranking security official in the Cairo suburb of Nasr City. In a statement posted on jihadist forums, it said its fighters had targeted the officer, Mohammed Mabrouk, in Dire Revenge™ for security agencies arresting and interrogating Moslem women, according to the SITE monitoring group, which tracks hard boy Web sites.
Mabrouk, a lieutenant colonel in Egypt's powerful internal security service, was also in charge of monitoring Islamist groups, security officials said.
Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis -- which is made up of nomadic Bedouin rustics from Sinai, Egyptians from the Nile Delta region and some imported muscle -- escalated its attacks on Egyptian security forces after the violent dispersal of two mass, pro-Morsi sit-ins in Cairo in August.
According to the New York-based Human Rights Watch ... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world... , about 1,000 people were killed in that security operation, which marked the country's worst mass killing in its modern history. The military also led a sweeping crackdown on the Moslem Brüderbund group from which Morsi hails, rounding up its leaders and other Islamist activists on charges that many regard as serious. Many of the leaders who evaded arrest have since fled Egypt.
Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis "has consistently said [its] attacks are a response to the crackdown by Egyptian security forces," said David Barnett, a researcher at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies think tank in Washington and a contributor to the organization's Long War Journal, a daily online publication focusing on global terrorism.
On Sept. 5, the group urged Egyptian Moslems "to stay away from the installations and headquarters of the ministries of Defense and Interior," according to a statement.
"We should definitely expect more bombings," Barnett said.
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[An Nahar] Four suicide boom-mobiles struck Syrian regime targets Wednesday in the Qalamoun region near Leb, killing at least seven soldiers, a monitor and state news agency SANA said.
The attacks come a day after troops loyal to Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Scourge of Qusayr... made gains in the Qalamoun area north of Damascus.
The attacks by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and Al-Nusra Front, two Al-Qaeda-affiliated groups, came after rebels were driven out of nearby Qara village on Tuesday, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The Observatory reported two attacks in the town of Nabek, while SANA reported two others in Deir Attiya.
"At least seven regime troops were killed in the two attacks (in Nabek) and five others are at death's door," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said.
A Syrian security source told AFP there was just one kaboom at a checkpoint in Nabek.
"The soldiers at the checkpoint stopped a suspicious car and the driver, who was a jacket wallah wearing an boom belt, tried to escape but was rubbed out by soldiers," the source said.
"However, the difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits... the vehicle went kaboom!," the source added, saying there had been "victims."
Meanwhile, ...back at the shouting match, a new, even louder, voice was to be heard... SANA reported two suicide kabooms in front of the Bassel hospital in Deir Attiya, a majority Christian town in army control north of Nabek.
"Several guards were killed, then the forces of Evil broke into the hospital and tried to destroy the equipment but the army managed to chase them down," said SANA.
The Observatory said the rebels had entered the hospital and captured a maimed officer, before being thrown out by the army, leaving the man behind.
The Britannia-based group did not report the two boom-mobiles at Deir Attiya.
Loyalists backed by Leb's Hizbullah have launched a major assault on Qalamoun, a mountainous region straddling key supply lines between Damascus and Homs, as well as rebel smuggling routes criss-crossing the border with Leb.
Fighting raged elsewhere in Qalamoun, mainly around the rebel bastion of Yabrud, which the army shelled Wednesday, and Deir Attiya.
Warplanes launched air strikes on rebel positions around Deir Attiya, said the Observatory, while ongoing festivities killed at least eight opposition fighters.
The army had earlier said it was hunting jihadists across the region, while rebels vowed to return to Qara.
Elsewhere, a mortar round struck near central Damascus's Umayyad square, and two others hit the capital's Kassaa neighborhood, said the Observatory.
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[SkyNews] Police arrest a man named as Abdelhakim Dekhar, who sources say was jugged Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! in 1998 for links to a French "Bonnie and Clyde" case.
DNA collected at one of the scenes of the Gay Paree shootings is a match to a suspect locked away
Continued on Page 49
[An Nahar] Three French soldiers were maimed Wednesday in rebel-infested northern Mali when their armored truck hit a landmine, military sources said.
"A vehicle of the French army was hit by an kaboom likely caused by a bomb, a mine on which the vehicle drove, around 1:00 am (0100 GMT) on Wednesday. Three French soldiers were maimed but their lives are not in danger," a Malian security source told Agence La Belle France Presse.
The incident in the bad boy bastion of Kidal and its cause were confirmed by a bigwig from Operation Serval, the French-led military intervention launched in January to drive out Islamists who had occupied northern Mali.
He said the casualties were being treated in Gao, the largest city in northern Mali.
French armed forces front man Gilles Jaron said the soldiers were suffering from noise trauma caused by the loud blast and "should be able to resume their activities in the coming days".
The kaboom blew a wheel on the truck at the southeast exit of Kidal as it was returning from patrol to the barracks, he added.
He didn't confirm the presence of a roadside kaboom, saying the army was investigating the cause.
The kaboom came a week after Tuareg demonstrators laid waste to public buildings in Kidal in protest at a decision by separatist leaders to end their occupation of state premises.
Young people set fire to part of the governor's offices and sacked the public treasury and a nearby state education facility, according to witnesses.
The separatist National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) pledged two weeks ago to leave the governor's offices and radio station, in line with the terms of a June peace deal.
The accord, signed in Burkina Faso ...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and will leave office feet first, one way or the other... 's capital Ouagadougou, opened the way for a presidential election to be held in Kidal along with the rest of the turbulent west African country in two rounds in July and August.
Up until the agreement, the MNLA -- whose ultimate goal is the independence of Azawad, the name the Tuaregs give to their homeland in northern Mali -- had refused to allow any government soldiers or civil servants into the desert town.
In January 2012, the MNLA launched an insurgency to take control of the north. A subsequent coup in the Malian capital Bamako led to chaos, and armed Islamist gunnies linked to al-Qaeda overpowered the Tuaregs and seized control of Mali's northern half.
La Belle France's operation ousted the Death Eaters, but sporadic attacks have continued, resulting in the kidnap and murder of two French journalists on November 2, and the Tuareg demand for autonomy has not been resolved.
About 200 French soldiers remain in Kidal, the army confirmed on Wednesday.
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[An Nahar] A Jordanian jihadist died on Wednesday of gunfire wounds he suffered as he tried to cross into the kingdom from war-torn Syria, a security official said.
"Ahmad Fakhuri, a jihadist, was maimed by gunfire from the Syrian side as he tried to return to Jordan from Syria on Sunday night," the official told AFP.
"He died in hospital today of wounds in the stomach and chest. Fellow jihadist Belal Feisal, who was maimed in the same shooting, is still in hospital."
Home to more than half a million refugees from Syria, Jordan has tightened its northern border and locked away ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... scores of men, mostly jihadists, for entering the war-ravaged country or trying to go to fight alongside rebels.
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[An Nahar] Bombs targeting Iran's embassy in Hizbullah's Beirut stronghold point to a confrontation between Tehran and al-Qaeda in Leb, which is paying a heavy price for the war in neighboring Syria, analysts said.
At least 23 people were killed and nearly 150 maimed in Tuesday's double suicide kaboom on the embassy of Iran.
The al-Qaeda-linked Abdullah Azzam brigade grabbed credit for the attack.
"It is a direct confrontation between al-Qaeda on one side, and all those who back the Syrian regime and Iran on the other," said Hilal al-Khashan, a political science professor at the American University of Beirut.
"The two blasts are a direct message to Iran that says: 'You are the origin of the problem in Syria, we will face you directly, not by proxy.'"
Iran's embassy is in south Beirut, a stronghold of Hizbullah.
The brigade that claimed the bombings is backed by Iranian financing and weapons. It has sent fighters to support Syrian troops against rebels, including Sunni jihadists.
The attack came after two boom-mobiles in south Beirut in summer. One of them, on August 15, killed 27 people.
"Despite the tight, effective security measures taken by the authorities in Leb, Leb and Syria's (territories) are open to each other via uncontrolled borders. It is not difficult for gunnies to cross over," said Khashan.
The professor pointed to recent reports that "large numbers of fighters from the (jihadist) Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and al-Qaeda have crossed over into Leb and specifically Beirut".
Army and security forces have in recent months defused several explosives-laden cars.
Political tensions in the country have soared in recent months, as the Syrian war has raged on.
Because of the divisions, Leb has been unable for seven months to appoint a new government that all sides can agree on.
Leb's "fragility" is what allows al-Qaeda to infiltrate the country, Brookings Doha Center director Salman Sheikh told Agence La Belle France Presse.
This was due to the influence of Hizbullah, which has grown stronger in the past three years, while the Syrian conflict has "paralyzed the Lebanese institutions".
As Syria's war has escalated and increasingly involved regional powers, al-Qaeda has been trying to "take advantage... as usual", said Sheikh.
The Sunni bad turban group "comes in and does some horrible things", trying to benefit from "the Syrian vacuum," he added, comparing the situation to that of Iraq.
The rebels fighting to topple Assad are backed by Gulf states, chiefly Iran's regional rival Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... and Qatar.
The kingdom's media has been waging a fierce campaign against Iran over its role in Syria, while Tehran has adopted Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Horror of Homs... 's accusations against Riyadh and Doha that they back "terrorists" in Syria.
Francois Burgat, former head of the French Institute of the Near East, said the Beirut blasts were "a sign of the demoralization and rage of bad turbans... over the involvement of Hizbullah and Iran on the side of the Syrian regime."
Hizbullah and Iran's involvement in the war have played a "defining" role in the struggle, helping Assad's troops to advance towards Damascus and Aleppo.
As Sunni-Shiite tensions escalate, there are fears of the return of violence similar to the country's 1975-1990 civil war.
"Al-Qaeda vs Iran: the face-off in Leb," read a headline in the An-Nahar newspaper, warning such a confrontation risks pushing the country to the brink.
"This latest terrorist (act) represents a... dangerous turning point" that throws Leb "into an open regional confrontation," it said.
Khashan said the consequences of Tuesday's attack would affect Syria as well as Leb.
"Al-Qaeda wants a security vacuum, but that benefits neither Iran nor Saudi Arabia," he told AFP.
According to Sheikh, the Lebanese "have no interest in this becoming an intra-Lebanese civil conflict".
He explained that while it was the Arab-Israeli conflict that led the Lebanese to all-out war in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Syrian conflict is pushing Leb in that direction today.
"We may get there in the future... (But) we are not there yet and we have to hold our breath," Sheikh said.
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[POLITICALWIRE] "George Prescott Bush, a political newcomer who is the grandson and nephew of U.S. presidents, filed to run for Texas land commissioner on Tuesday -- a move that officially begins the continuation of his family's political dynasty with a young, Hispanic, Spanish-speaking candidate.
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Conservative or merely the next silver spoon dynastic republican?
[Bangla Daily Star] Uganda's government risked spurring further opposition protests on Tuesday by signalling it would bring charges against a former presidential candidate at the heart of violent unrest in 2011.
Kizza Besigye, who has lost to President Yoweri Museveni in three elections, led protests after the last presidential poll in early 2011 which were fuelled by alleged vote-rigging, corruption and high commodity prices.
He has since been jugged Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! several times at public rallies and although he stepped down last year as leader of Uganda's biggest opposition party, Forum for Democratic Change, police have kept him under close scrutiny.
Besigye was arrested along with Kampala mayor Erias Lukwago on Tuesday evening as he addressed supporters in the capital.
"He's still with us and we're preparing charges related to inciting violence," police front man Ibn Ssekumbi said yesterday. "We'll take him to court any time from now."
Police said Lukwago would also be charged with inciting violence.
Besigye and other opposition figures has said he intends to speak at rallies in support of Lukwago after a judicial tribunal declared him incompetent and recommended that he be impeached.
The tribunal, which was appointed by a minister, has been widely criticized by the media as partisan and aimed at thwarting opposition influence in Kampala's administration.
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[Washington Post] Christmas came early here in Venezuela, thanks to President Nicolas Maduro, who has slashed the prices of big-screen televisions and appliances by 60 percent or more for his overjoyed followers.
On Wednesday, a day after being granted extraordinary powers to enact broad measures without congressional approval, the leftist government began moving quickly to combat skyrocketing inflation and shortages of basic goods. But in deepening a socialist experiment begun by his late predecessor, Hugo Chavez, Maduro is taking Venezuela on a new, uncertain course that economists and political analysts say could make matters far worse.
Among his plans is to limit profit margins across broad sectors of the economy, a course that some analysts say is more radical than Chavez-era policies.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2013
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[5 views]
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#1
and when the shelves are empty cause all the existing goods are gone ("looted" at low prices by the commies), where are the goods coming from to restock the shelves? Is anyone stupid enough to pay X$ for an item only to be force to resell it at X-Y$?
When does the decree come to force everyone into slave labor?
#5
..about as close as you can get would probably be Pinochet. Though the immodest behavior of others concerning that 'retirement' will probably cause all others to give up only when they die.
[Ynet] New US-Israel-developed inpterceptor Magic Wand successfully trialed; Defense Ministry says system 'provides confidence in future Israeli capabilities to defeat developing ballistic missile threat'
A new Israeli interceptor being developed in partnership with the United States to counter missiles held by Syria and Leb's Iranian-backed Hezbollah passed its second live trial on Wednesday, officials said.
Magic Wand, which Israeli officials say could be ready for deployment next year after being rushed through production, is designed to shoot down missiles with ranges of between 100 km and 200 km (63 miles and 125 miles).
"The Israel Missile Defense Organization and the US Missile Defense Agency completed a successful intercept test of the Magic Wand Weapon System against a short-range ballistic missile today," the Defense Ministry said in a statement.
"This is the second intercept test of the Stunner interceptor for the DSWS. The intercept test was conducted at a test range in southern Israel," it said.
It will bridge the Iron Dome short-range rocket interceptor and the Arrow ballistic missile interceptor, both already operational, to form a multi-level shield that the Israelis are developing with Washington's help as a bulwark against Iran and its allies on the Israeli border.
The latest test comes at a time of renewed Israeli threats to attack Iran should it continue to resist international pressure to shut nuclear projects with bomb making potential.
Iran, which says its nuclear program is peaceful, resumes talks with world powers in Geneva on Wednesday.
Also known as David's Sling, Magic Wand downed a "short-range ballistic missile" in the morning trial in south Israel, the Defense Ministry said.
"The successful test is a major milestone in the development of the Magic Wand Weapon System and provides confidence in future Israeli capabilities to defeat the developing ballistic missile threat," it said in a statement.
The interceptor underwent its first operational test a year ago. It is being manufactured jointly by Israel's state-owned Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd and US firm Raytheon Co.
The IDF already drafted an initial corps of warriors and commanders to oversee the system. The IDF is set for immediate operation of at least parts of Magic Wand in case of increased security threats. It will be able to deal with drones and missiles and might be crucial in the conflict with Hezbollah and Syrian forces.
Clients
Rafael also makes Iron Dome, which has been extensively bankrolled by the US Congress. Israel and the United States say Iron Dome batteries downed around 85% of Paleostinian rockets fired at Israeli towns during the Gazoo war a year ago.
Like Iron Dome and Arrow, Magic Wand has drawn interest from prospective foreign clients, especially as it is also billed as being capable of intercepting cruise missiles.
Among potential customers have been at least two former Soviet satellite states in the Balkans which worry about possible future confrontations with Russia, their diplomats told Rooters on condition they would not be identified.
Of more immediate concern for Israel is the Hezbollah arsenal which it believes includes as many as 70,000 rockets and missiles. Though massively outgunned by Israel, Hezbollah fought its troops to a standstill while firing some 4,000 rockets at its interior during the 2006 Leb war.
Magic Wand, once fielded, could also block any ballistic missiles - such as Iran's Shehabs or Syria's Scuds - that might be launched at Israel and missed by Arrow in a future showdown.
Syria's more than 2-1/2-year-old civil war may have sapped Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Supressor of the Damascenes... 's ability to menace Israel, however.
"He is firing missiles on his citizens, and the number of his missiles, Scuds included, is down to half," the defense minister said.
[WASHINGTONEXAMINER] Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio thinks Democrats might be ready to repeal Obamacare in eight weeks.
"Look, this law cannot be saved. It will have to be repealed and the question is how long will it take for Democrats to realize that and cooperate in that endeavor," Rubio told Bill O'Reilly on Fox News Tuesday.
"So far I think upper echelons of the Democratic party, they're still being very stubborn about it. My prediction is check back in eight weeks," Rubio said.
Rubio promoted a bill he introduced to prevent the federal government from subsidizing insurance companies if they don't profit from health care plans during the first three years of Obamacare.
"The idea that the federal government should be bailing out insurance companies in order to make Obamacare work, that's not something a lot of people are aware of and I haven't taken a poll on it but I guarantee you it would be hugely unpopular," Rubio said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2013
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[4 views]
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#1
Wishful thinking. 0-Care was designed to fail. The problem, if you can call it that, is that it has been too successful. Dems won't quit while they are ahead, and they won't cry over losing a few elections in the short terms when 0-Care means a Left majority for the next hundred years.
#2
I don't know, I'm thinking some of the Dems can hear the chickens being plucked and smell the tar heating.
Posted by: Secret Asian Man ||
11/21/2013 12:04
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#3
If there is a vote it will be to provide cover for vulnerable Dems. It will fail by a couple of votes -- the entire show having planned out in advance.
#4
The problem is that even repealing the law won't really help. If the law were repealed today, things would not immediately go back to the sraus quo ante. Insurance companies have written policies, and updated their systems to comply with the law. Rules and regulations have been promulgated. These things cannot be turned off like a light switch.
Of course, Obama would veto any resolution to repeal. He has too much ego invested to allow it to go away.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
11/21/2013 15:23
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#5
They have to kill it in order to save it.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/21/2013 19:59
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#6
Bah, the guy misses the point, the second simpler software was intended to be found to explain the problems the first caused. It was not a second attack.
Of course, in my devious little mind, I think the second software is a red herring for something far more dangerous and insidious lurking under cover. If the first attack was so well configured it could hide itself and turn itself on and off, what's to stop the existence of a hidden set of code writing a more obvious set of code to hide itself? That would explain why the second code was so much simpler.
I shutter to think of what happens in central Iran when all of that uranium hexafluoride goes splat all over the facility...it will make Three Mile Island, Fukashima and Chernobyl look like a diesel spill on I-35.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
11/21/2013 11:27
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#7
Bill, as a gesture of good Wii, Obama will probably provide Iran with information on how to detect and disable or remove the virus.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
11/21/2013 12:15
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Posted by: Barbara ||
11/21/2013 18:51
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#14
I humbly thank you, USN & B, for your correction.
I will now retire to contemplate my mistakes through the bottom of my scotch glass.........unfortunately the Old Fettercairn is gone, as is the MacAllan. I do however have sufficient Ardmore to provide me suitable penance. ;^)
#5
It's the natural conclusion of entitlement mentality. They want us to give them money to help them protect themselves from themselves. The problem is, I can see our side capitulating out of perceived guilt.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The Lebanese branch of Abdallah Azzam Brigades, which claimed responsibility for two blasts at the Iranian embassy in Beirut on Tuesday, was established by Iranian intelligence services after 2003, a Middle East counter terrorism expert said.
Speaking to Al Arabiya News Channel, Mustafa Alani, a senior advisor and program director in security and terrorism studies at the Gulf Research Center, said the Lebanese branch of Abdullah Azzam Brigades is named Ziad al-Jarrah Battalion.
Al-Jarrah was the Lebanese citizen behind one of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. He was the pilot of United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed into a field in Shanksville, Penn.
Abdullah Azzam Brigades also operated a branch in Gulf Peninsula named Yusuf al-Uyayree Battalion, suspected behind the 2010 attack on a Japanese tanker in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran had previously threatened to block the strait if the United States or Israel attacked its nuclear facilities.
Alani, the counter terrorism expert, said the Abdallah Azzam Brigades was originally formed by Saleh al-Qaraawi in 2009 as an offshoot of al-Qaeda in Iraq. It then embraced the previously existing Ziad al-Jarrah Battalion.
Qarawi is a Saudi citizen holds number 43 in the list 85 most-wanted terrorists issued by the Saudi Interior Ministry in 2009.
Qarawi had moved between Iran, Afghanistan and Waziristan, a mountainous region of northeast Pakistan. He was arrested in June 2009 after returning to Saudi Arabia from Pakistan where he was reportedly wounded in a drone strike.
After Qarawi's arrest, Majid bin Muhammad al-Majid, took over the Abdullah Azzam Brigades. Majid, a Saudi citizen, is the wanted number 70 in Saudi Arabia's most wanted terrorists.
Majed al-Majed previously worked with Osbat al-Ansar, a terrorist group that operates in Lebanon.
The brigades' name was linked to several operations, including a 2005 attack on two U.S. warships at the port of Aqaba in Jordan, Jordan.
In 2011, and amid a wave of uprisings across the Middle East, Abdullah Azzam Brigades issued a statement urging Saudis to rise up against their monarchy and threatened attacks against the kingdom.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2013
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[6 views]
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#1
REALLY???
I am shocked I tell you shocked.
I would have never thought the Iranians would bomb a major Mosque in Lebanon to terrorize and rub out opponents of Hezbollah.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
11/21/2013 11:35
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[Pak Daily Times] As many as six people were killed and five others sustained injures in an armed clash between two groups of the Khosa tribe near the Manjhad Town of District Jamshoro on Wednesday. According to police, the armed clash took place over a dispute of property in which six people identified as Anwar Khosa, Mumtaz, Ali Akbar, Javaid, Abdullah and one unidentified person were killed while five others sustained injuries. The bodies of the dear departed and the injured were shifted to the Civil Hospital, Hyderabad. The police have registered cases against men from both groups.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2013
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[10 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
It began thousands of years ago with something called the.....knockout game.
[DAILYCALLER] An official with the nonprofit Obamacare enrollment group Enroll America conspired to give people's personal information to what he thought was a political action committee, according to James O'Keefe's latest video, provided to The Daily Caller.
Enroll America, which Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius admitted to fundraising for, is a "nonpartisan" 501(c)(3) nonprofit that critics accuse of working as an unofficial Obamacare navigator across the country.
Enroll America's Texas state communications lead Christopher Tarango conspired to provide a list of potential Obamacare enrollees, obtained through the "commit cards" that the group hands out door to door to help them pick insurance plans, to an O'Keefe investigator posing as the representative of a political action committee.
Tarango also admitted that someone tried to export a list from the nonprofit pro-Obama advocacy group Organizing for Action [OFA] to a political campaign, but that the attempted leaker was caught.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2013
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[4 views]
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#1
You wonder where ACORN went? Here's your answer.
[Chicago Tribune] Oregon, a state that fully embraced the Affordable Care Act, is enduring one of the rockiest rollouts of President Back Obama's signature health care law, with an inoperative online exchange that has yet to enroll a single subscriber, requiring thousands to apply on paper instead.
Unlike most other states, Oregon set an ambitious course to make its insurance exchange, dubbed Cover Oregon, an "all-in-one" website for every individual seeking health coverage, including those who are eligible for Medicaid.
But instead of serving as a national model, Oregon's experience has emerged as a cautionary tale, inviting comparisons to technical glitches that have plagued other state-run portals and the federal government's website for those states lacking exchanges of their own.
Oregon's online exchange has remained inaccessible to the public, requiring the state to sign up applicants the old-fashioned way, using paper forms. This has made comparison shopping more difficult for consumers and severely slowed the enrollment process.
"Oregonians have questions," said state Senate President Peter Courtney, a Democrat, in a written statement on Tuesday. "What went wrong with the rollout? How are they going to fix it? When are they going to get it right? Is the website contractor doing everything it can? Our people need to know."
Courtney urged state politicians to "ask the hard questions" of officials overseeing the state's healthcare exchange, and the Oregon Health Authority, at a pair of legislative hearings on the program scheduled for Wednesday.
With its online insurance marketplace out of commission and unavailable to the public indefinitely, the state has resorted to urging would-be subscribers to fill out applications that are between nine and 19 pages long by hand, said Michael Cox, a front man for Cover Oregon.
In the meantime, the program has hired about 400 temporary workers to help process those applications before January 1, when the new plans are due to take effect, Cox said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2013
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[1 views]
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#1
Once upon a time a man appeared in a village and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each.
The villagers, seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest and started catching them.
The man bought thousands at $10, and, as supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their effort.
He next announced that he would now buy monkeys at $20 each. This renewed the efforts of the villagers, and they started catching monkeys again.
Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms.
The offer increased to $25 each and the supply of monkeys became so scarce it was an effort to even find a monkey, let alone catch it!
The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50 each! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would buy on his behalf.
In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers, "Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has already collected. I will sell them to you at $35, and when the man returns from the city, you can sell them to him for $50
each."
The villagers rounded up all their savings and bought all the monkeys for 700 billion dollars.
They never saw the man or his assistant again, only lots and lots of monkeys!
Now you have a better understanding of how the Obama Health Care PLAN WILL WORK!!!!
#2
In the meantime, the program has hired about 400 temporary workers to help process those applications before January 1, when the new plans are due to take effect, Cox said.
That way, the temporary workers decide who should lie to get the subsidy - the one the taxpayers (or the Chines) fund.
Posted by: Bobby ||
11/21/2013 8:09
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#3
You ain't seen nothing yet - This is just the signup process, just wait until they start handling your healthcare....
[An Nahar] Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Wednesday that Israel needs to seek partners other than Washington, ratcheting up tensions with its closest ally as Iran nuclear talks come to a head.
The hawkish, blunt-talking chief diplomat, who returned to office earlier this month after seeing off graft charges, spoke as major powers, including the United States, sought to seal a deal with Iran on its controversial nuclear program.
"The link between Israel and its main strategic partner the United States has weakened," Lieberman said.
"You can understand that. The Americans have got too may challenges -- North Korea, Afghanistan, Pakistain, Iran, Iraq, and they've got their own domestic economic problems.
"We need to stop demanding, complaining, moaning and instead seek countries that are not dependent on money from the Arab or Islamic world and who want to cooperate with us in the field of innovation."
Lieberman did not elaborate on what alternative partners he had in mind but he has not hesitated in the past to speak out against Washington when he has considered it to be acting against Israeli interests.
The Israeli government has mobilized all of its lobbying power with the US Congress and public in recent weeks against a potential deal with Iran that it sees as deeply damaging to its own interests.
Israel regards Iran as its main strategic threat and is determined to keep it under crippling economic sanctions, despite mounting diplomatic momentum for a deal.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2013
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[5 views]
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#2
"We need to stop demanding, complaining, moaning and instead seek countries that are not dependent on money from the Arab or Islamic world and doesn't condone or engage in Juice hatred.
G(r)imdalf, the enemy is moving. The Ayatollah's forces are massing in the East; his eye is fixed on Tel Aviv. And The West, you tell me, has betrayed us. Our list of allies grows thin.
#1
One might consider her remarks as an objection to the growing language constraint movement of social prescriptivism popularized in the media.
People aren't bad because they use 'bad words'. Words have no good or badness.
She demonstrates the dangerous duality of the First Amendment which demands that 'freedom of speech' and 'freedom of the press' are equally protected.
When properly manipulated any protections can be exploited by the masses to victimize the individual.
While 'sticks and stones can break your bones, but words will never hurt you" remains true, the pen (as read by the masses) is indeed mightier than the sword.
#3
But she's probably right. Bozo celeb being hassled by jerk paparazzi calls one of them a bad name. I 'spose it was meant to be get-outta-my-face offensive, but not - you know - mean and hurtful.
Not that I care.
Posted by: Bobby ||
11/21/2013 7:52
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#4
Coulter advised conservatives against jumping on the anti-Baldwin bandwagon.
I know, but since when do conservatives care about somebody using a word, especially a word that is said in a moment of anger? she said. I think they shouldnt have suspended him, and most I think conservatives should not join the word police. I mean, I understand the instinct to do so.
Malzberg suggested things would be different if she had made the same remarks that Baldwin made, which Coulter conceded was the only argument for conservatives.
Thats the only argument for conservatives, Coulter added. We do not believe in the word police.
I wouldn't throw rocks at Ann when merely going to the link and reading what she actually said refutes B's and Skid's take (which, apparently, they want to be taken at face value by privilege of THEM saying it).
And NO Skid. The Pen is NOT mightier than the Sword. The power of the Pen is its ability to rouse TWO Swords. The power of the Pen is to FAKE being THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE so that those bearing the Sword are fooled into doing the Pen's will.
REFUSE JOINING THE WORD POLICE. Sorry to see B and Skid kissing up...
#5
The feckless media and Coulter giving special gravitas to ungentlemanly conduct. The "[verb you]" to a female news reporter, exactly what Baldwin desires. To these bottom-feeders, all publicity is Dy-no-mite, simply Dy-no-mite.
Anyone remember the media response to Cheney's ["verb you"] a few years back ?
#7
I get what she is saying, and I too am tired of whispering on eggshells.
Thing is, Alec runs his mouth like Charlie Sheen drives a car. The issue here is not the language it is placing Mr., well whatever he is famous for doing, in a motte where others, for fewer offense and more excuse such as Mel Gibson being hammered and arrested, get the branding. Imagine a recording of Cheney railing his daughter like Alec did. Defend the speech, don't defend the little piggy.
Srzly, looking at the filmography, 3/4 of it is self promotion. What is he famous for, episodes of Knot's landing and secondary interest characters?
#8
Well Alex did a bang up job as Jack Ryan in "The Hunt for Red October."
Other than that he is a fringe element loony.
I do think he is getting the "politically correct" treatment from the media who will close ranks around the most heinous of their own in self-protection like Musk Ox against any perceived slighting of their holy pursuit of "truth(?)"
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
11/21/2013 11:55
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#9
What is he famous for, episodes of Knot's landing and secondary interest characters?
Uh, he used to bang Kim Basinger?
Posted by: Secret Asian Man ||
11/21/2013 11:55
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#10
Coulter jumped the shark years ago. Just like Peggy Noonan. Neither of them are worthy of any serious consideration and more.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
11/21/2013 15:28
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#14
I don't care what Baldwin said. So far as I'm concerned it isn't even newsworthy. Somebody gets in your face the way the paparazzi do and you're likely to let loose a few expletives too. This PC business is nothing but a means the liberals have developed to stifle free speech.
It's not like Baldwin's MSLSD colleague who said what he said about Sarah Palin on the air and I don't even care much about that. If you don't like it then don't watch him. I don't. I can't even remember his name right now.
Hell, I think even jerkface has a right to say what he thinks even though I don't believe he thinks very much at all before he starts blithering. But then, if Fred doesn't like it jerkface is outta here because it's Fred's website. That's the American way, jerkface.
[Pak Daily Times] Prime Minister's Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz on Wednesday said the United States has promised that it will not carry out drone strikes in Pakistain during any peace talks with the Talibs in the future.
Briefing a session of the Senate's Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Aziz said a team of government negotiators was prepared to hold talks with Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain's (TTP) former chief Hakimullah Mehsud on November 2, the day after he was killed in a US drone strike in North Wazoo. He said Mehsud had been sent a list of negotiators, and that the ex-TTP chief had himself added the names of two holy mans to the list.
However, ars longa, vita brevis... Aziz said the grinding of the peace processor had been on hold since Mehsud's killing and that the negotiations had been badly affected by the November 1 drone strike. The foreign affairs adviser said the US has now assured that no drone strikes would be carried out during any peace talks. However, Caliphornia hasn't yet slid into the ocean, no matter how hard it's tried... he did not clarify when had the US given this assurance. Aziz also told the committee that the drone issue was raised by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... in his recent visit to US and he called it totally against the illusory sovereignty of Pakistain.
However, women are made to be loved, not understood... the US administration replied that it would target those people who targeted US installations elsewhere in the world. The US also told Islamabad that Hakimullah Mehsud was in the target list of its radar system, which was why he was targeted. However, some people are alive only because it's illegal to kill them... the senators questioned the promise made by the US about halting drone strikes if Pakistain re-started peace negotiations with the TTP.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2013
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[12 views]
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#1
So we need to up the tempo now until the talks start?
[Pak Daily Times] Two men were killed and five others maimed in three back-to-back kabooms in Quetta, on Wednesday.
According to police, two kabooms occurred at Sirki Road and the third at Moti Ram Road. Resultantly, two people were killed and five others sustained injuries. "The third blast damaged electricity cables that plunged the area into darkness," a police official said, adding that one deceased was a rickshaw driver. Rescue workers shifted dead and injured to the Civil Hospital Quetta where one of the dear departed was identified as Shahjahan.
The Bomb Disposal Squad officials said that over two kilogrammes of explosive was used in the bombs, which were detonated remotely. They said ball bearings were used in the bombs due to which several people were maimed. Meanwhile, ...back at the argument, Livia had made her point with her knee to Jane's stomach... two kabooms were heard in Khuzdar town, some 360-km from Quetta. However, some people cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go... no news of damage or casualties was reported immediately.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2013
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A wave of attacks, most of them boom-mobiles targeting Shiite neighborhoods, rocked Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... early on Wednesday, killing at least 24 people in the latest bout of bloodshed to rock Iraq.
The violence, which left 65 others maimed, comes amid a protracted surge in violence just months ahead of general elections that has forced Iraqi officials to appeal for international help in combatting the country's worst unrest since 2008.
At least seven kabooms, including six boom-mobiles, hit Shiite Mohammedan neighborhoods of the Iraqi capital, according to security and medical officials, from about 7:30 am (0430 GMT) onwards.
They come after similarly coordinated bombings in Storied Baghdad on Sunday evening left 21 dead.
Wednesday's attacks occurred in areas ranging from the city's main commercial district of Karrada to the predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Shaab, as well as Sadriyah, one of Storied Baghdad's oldest areas.
One boom-mobile also went off in the Sunni-majority neighborhood of Adhamiyah in north Storied Baghdad, the officials said.
Security forces imposed tough measures in areas hit by attacks, in many cases barring journalists from filming video or taking photographs at bombing sites.
No group immediately grabbed credit for the violence, but Sunni faceless myrmidons linked to Al-Qaeda's front group often set off coordinated bombings across Storied Baghdad, typically targeting Shiites, whom they regard as apostates.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2013
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Top|| File under: Islamic State of Iraq
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.
An LG Smart TV owner in the United Kingdom has shockingly discovered that his device is sending unencrypted data over Wi-Fi containing TV watching habits, as well as file names from external storage units hooked up to the TV to an LG website, even though the TVs privacy settings should have prevented such behavior.
The Republican National Committee announced today that it is hosting a press conference for Democrats who will be running on Obamacare. They've invited a host of Democratic politicians who think Obamacare is a good idea, though it's likely none will show up:
Pervez 
[An Nahar] U.S. Secretary of State 
A militant wanted for his alleged involvement in a number of terrorist acts was killed by police in the Russian republic of Dagestan. 
The invasion of Tarawa Atoll was the second American offensive in the Pacific after Guadalcanal. On 20 November 1943, an aerial bombardment of carrier-based Dauntless dive bombers preceded the amphibious landings. The shore was defended by a maze of bunkers and interlocking gun positions so well-entrenched that the preliminary bombardment had little effect. Once the bombing lifted, the island's defenders were able to take up defensive positions and began repelling incoming landing craft. The majority of the Higgins boats got hung up on the barrier reef surrounding the island, forcing the Marines inside to jump over the side into neck-high water and wade hundreds of yards to shore, all the while under constant machine gun and artillery fire. Amphibious tractors, also known as Amtrak's or LVTs (Landing Vehicle Tracked) fared slightly better as they were designed to climb over obstacles and land on shore. Over the course of the day, more than half of the Allied landing craft were destroyed by Japanese mortars and light artillery.
Nawaz Sharif
[Pak Daily Times] At least five students were wounded during the clash between two rival groups in University of Karachi on Wednesday. The clash occurred between two rival groups at the university and later both the groups resorted to baton charge on each other, thus resulting injuries to at least five of them. Later both the groups dispersed, as the Rangers personnel reached the site. Police said some miscreants were taken into custody and later released because no complaints were lodged by anyone.
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[Pak Daily Times] The unending spate of violence claimed three more lives in restive 
[Pak Daily Times] International Islamic University (IIU) President Prof Dr Ahmed Yousaf al-Draiweesh on Wednesday said Islam provided equal rights and opportunities to women so that they could excel and contribute to the development of the society.
Mohmand Agency
Sarah 
Wazoo
David Cameron
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[Washington Post] Christmas came early here in Venezuela, thanks to President Nicolas Maduro, who has slashed the prices of big-screen televisions and appliances by 60 percent or more for his overjoyed followers.
[WASHINGTONEXAMINER] Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio thinks Democrats might be ready to repeal Obamacare in eight weeks.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The Lebanese branch of Abdallah Azzam Brigades, which claimed responsibility for two blasts at the Iranian embassy in Beirut on Tuesday, was established by Iranian intelligence services after 2003, a Middle East counter terrorism expert said.
[Chicago Tribune] Oregon, a state that fully embraced the Affordable Care Act, is enduring one of the rockiest rollouts of President Back Obama's signature health care law, with an inoperative online exchange that has yet to enroll a single subscriber, requiring thousands to apply on paper instead.
Oregon's online exchange has remained inaccessible to the public, requiring the state to sign up applicants the old-fashioned way, using paper forms. This has made comparison shopping more difficult for consumers and severely slowed the enrollment process.
North Korea
[Pak Daily Times] Two men were killed and five others 
