Hey, I'm a grade a news junkie, but do we have to see a SWAT move live on TV as it unfolds in Rochester NH, just as the HOSTAGE TAKER COULD BE easily tuned into using an XM portable radio, or if a TV is on in the Hillary campaign HQ (how likely is that, 60%, 80%, 100% tuned to CNN?)

Fox, PLEEEEEEEEEEEEZE, insert a delay.
Somebody has to be grownup

China’s anti-satellite and space warfare program includes plans to destroy or incapacitate 'every enemy space vehicle' that passes over China.

The annual report of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, released last week, listed among Beijing's goals that of ensuring that Chinese space weapons are “conducted covertly so China can maintain a positive international image.”

China has called for a ban on space weapons at the United Nations.

The report said that China also is developing civilian technology that can be applied to military space programs and is acquiring the “ability to destroy or temporarily incapacitate every enemy space vehicle when it is located above China,” the report said.

The Chinese also plan to attack U.S. global positioning system (GPS) satellites through various means, including anti-satellite weapons, high-energy weapons, high-energy weather monitoring rockets and ground attacks on earth-based stations.

One section of the report, based on public and classified briefings, concluded there was a need for more information about Chinese activities and intentions.

Research from nearly 100 Chinese sources identified 30 proposals and recommendations by Chinese military leaders “regarding the development of space and counter-space weapons and programs.”

The military is also developing stealth satellites and a space program that will “provide key support for Chinese combat forces.”

“Some of these proposals appear to have been implemented already, as evidenced by January’s kinetic anti-satellite test and earlier laser incidents involving American satellites,” the report said.

France's Foreign Ministry expressed surprise on Wednesday over an Algerian government minister's remarks about a "Jewish lobby" being behind French President Nicolas Sarkozy's rise to power.

The flap came as Sarkozy was preparing to visit Algeria next week.

Muhammad Cherif Abbas, Algeria's minister for veterans, was quoted Monday in the daily El Khabar as saying that Sarkozy had been brought to power by a "Jewish lobby that has a monopoly on French industry."

Abbas also mentioned Sarkozy's "roots," an apparent reference to the French president's maternal grandfather, who was Jewish.

French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Pascale Andreani responded Wednesday: "We are surprised about these remarks that appeared in the press, which do not correspond to the climate of confidence and cooperation in which we are preparing the president's state visit."

Galactically stupid morons hoping for actual progess in the middle east, please take note

She remained upbeat about the visit, however, saying it would show that relations "have progressed in many sectors."

The December 3-5 visit will be Sarkozy's second to Algeria, the former jewel in France's colonial crown, since his election in May.

On Wednesday, Abbas told the Algerian state news agency APS that he "never had the intention... of attacking the image of a foreign head of state." He did not deny making the comments.

In the original interview, Abbas also demanded that France repent for its past actions in Algeria.

Relations between the two countries have been strained in recent years, particularly since France's parliament passed a law in 2005 noting the "positive" effects of colonialism. The language was later removed, but a long-awaited friendship treaty between the two countries remains stalled.

Mark Johnson, The Charlotte Observer

RALEIGH - North Carolina's community college system has ordered the state's 58 campuses to admit illegal immigrants, overturning a policy of letting the heavily enrolled schools set their own rules for handling undocumented applicants.

David Sullivan, the system's top lawyer, dispatched a memo this month telling the community colleges that state regulations require the schools to admit illegal immigrants who meet the schools' basic requirements of being either a high school graduate or an adult in need of skills training.

"That's just wrong," said Sen. Richard Stevens, a Cary Republican and co-chairman of the higher education committee. "I can't believe North Carolina taxpayers would be asked to pay for the education of people who are in this state illegally."

Rep. Winkie Wilkins, a Democrat from Person County who is the head of the House committee on community colleges, said he was "blindsided" by the news.

Why have a border at all? Or states?

I would hate to suggest something like.....the state legislature passing a law enforcing financial aid in terms of loans, grants and scholarships be available to ONLY legal residents.

GET THIS:

The state's community colleges focus on training and retraining the work force, usually through skills and trade education. Melinda Wiggins is executive director of Student Action with Farmworkers, which helps children of migrant agriculture laborers get into high school and college. She said barring illegal immigrants from community colleges penalizes youths who were brought to the United States as children.

"North Carolina is their home. It's where they've been raised and lived," Wiggins said. "By denying them an education, we're really creating an underclass of folks here in the state who cannot contribute to society."

They are illegal aliens, dear, and simply have not immigrated. They belong back wherever they came from. Not here. They are the living result of insecure borders, and a broken system.

State public schools must accept children of illegal immigrants under federal regulations. The University of North Carolina system admits undocumented applicants, but a bill to provide in-state tuition to some was quickly shot down in 2005.

Robert Luebke, an education policy analyst with the conservative Civitas Institute in Raleigh, said the new community college directive orders the schools to ignore the fact that the prospective students are breaking the law.

"These students cannot legally work in North Carolina," Luebke said in a prepared statement. "Subsidizing the education of students who can only work using a forged or stolen Social Security card is absurd."

Sen. Fred Smith and Salisbury lawyer Bill Graham, both Republican candidates for governor, said they oppose admitting illegal immigrants.

"People can't pick and choose which laws they're going to follow," Smith said, "and which laws they're not going to follow."

Mike Taylor, president of Stanly Community College, said out-of-state tuition effectively excludes illegal immigrants because many cannot afford it.

"We're put between a rock and a hard place on this," Taylor said. "These same people we can't admit without paying out-of-state tuition can graduate as valedictorian from any high school in Stanly County."

That is, believers in a threat from Iran, apparently
Four stories from GERTZ:

1. Saudis assembling 35,000-member oil security force
2. Gulf leader appeals for a resolution to Iran crisis
3. Fearing Iran, Saudis buy more jet fighters
4. Kuwait plans response to Iran missile strike resulting from U.S. attack

ABU DHABI — Saudi Arabia's new rapid reaction force has installed radars, sensors and night-vision systems to prevent attacks by Al Qaida and Iranian-aligned Shi'ite insurgents.

"Have you heard of any attacks lately?" Saudi Deputy Oil Minister Prince Abdul Aziz Bin Salman asked in mid-November. "We believe we have taken every measure necessary to protect facilities and pre-empt any attempt. We take a great deal of pride in being a secure and reliable producer."

That would be nice, but I have a low degree of confidence

Officials said the Interior Ministry has been organizing a 35,000-member force with a separate budget to protect energy facilities.

In February 2006, Saudi forces repulsed an Al Qaida strike on the world's largest oil processing plant at Abqaiq. Officials said the new rapid reaction force has recruited nearly 10,000 troops. They said the force would reach its full strength by 2011.

Until then, what, nothing to worry about? What's the plan Stan?

The security force was meant to protect the state-owned Saudi Aramco, which produces crude oil and natural gas. On Nov. 18, fire swept through Aramco's Hawiyah gas liquids recovery plant and at least 28 people were killed in one of the worst incidents that involved the kingdom's energy sector.

"Twenty-eight have lost their lives and 12 are still missing," Saudi Oil Minister Ali Al Naimi said.

Aramco has sought to bolster output at Hawiyah to 310,000 barrels of ethane and natural gas liquids products by 2008. Neither Aramco nor Saudi officials disclosed whether the facility might have been attacked by Al Qaida.

"Necessary operational adjustments have been made to the gas system to normalise operations to ensure continuity of fuel supply," Aramco said.

ABU DHABI — The Gulf states have appealed for a resolution to the Iranian nuclear crisis, warning that an arms race could set back the region.

Gulf Cooperation Council secretary-general Abdul Rahman Al Attiyah said any plan to block an Iranian confrontation with the United States required what he termed a bold and unconventional vision.

"We believe that there is still a good opportunity for a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear crisis, but we require a bold vision outside of conventional parameters," Al Attiyah said on Nov. 19.

What planet are they on?

Al Attiyah said an arms race in the Gulf would hurt the six GCC member states.

Neither did I.
Thundering silence.

MEMRI:
Iran's Response to Western Warnings: 'First Strike,' 'Preemptive Attack,' Long-Range Ballistic Missiles, 'Asymmetric [Guerilla] Warfare'

As the Iranian nuclear crisis escalates, Iranian officials have stepped up their threats against the West. Although regime spokesmen have stressed that Iran's security doctrine is defensive,(1) the threats issued by senior Iranian leaders and officials indicate that Iran's actual strategy for responding to a Western attack is taking on increasingly offensive and deterrent characteristics.

While in February 2003, then-defense minister Ali Shamkhani stated, "Iran has a deterrent defensive doctrine, which means that it will in no way take an offensive measure... Iran's objectives are of a defensive nature,"(2) - the new strategy is gradually revealed in both deeds and statements by regime spokesmen.(3)

The offensive elements of this doctrine include a "first strike" and "preemptive attack"; the development of long-range ballistic missiles (the Qadr and the Ashura(4)) with ranges of up to 2,000 km; and the development of an "asymmetrical [guerilla] warfare" tactic – that is, suicide bombings in the Persian Gulf, whether to close off the Strait of Hormuz or to hit targets in the Gulf countries.

A September 24, 2007 article published in Sobh-e Sadeq, the mouthpiece of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei among Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), discussed economic and security threats issued by the West, particularly the U.S. The article stressed that following the West's escalation of threats, Iran had upgraded its military strategy to incorporate a doctrine of offense, including "first strike" and "preemptive attack" capabilities.

the principle of surprising the enemy is one of the best-known,
most accepted, and most logical tactics
that a country can adopt when facing imminent threats ...

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iran has built a new longer-range missile named "Ashura" with a range of 2,000 kilometers, (1,240 miles), the defense minister announced on Tuesday.

"The construction of the Ashura missile with a range of 2,000 kilometers is one of the accomplishments of the ministry of defense," Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said.

The missile is named after the holy Ashura mourning ceremony that marks the death of Shiite imam Hossein.

Iran in September unveiled a missile labeled Ghadr-1 (Power) with a range of 1,800 kilometers (1,100 miles).
l

JPOST:

Days ahead of the Annapolis peace conference, Iran flexed its military muscles on Saturday, announcing plans to unveil a new homemade submarine and navy destroyer later this week.

Iranian Naval Commander Admiral Habib Sayyari said Saturday that the navy would launch a homemade destroyer called Jamaran and a submarine called Ghadir on November 28.

Ghadir is a religious holiday which marks the day Shi'ite Muslims believe the prophet Muhammad gave his last sermon and confirmed Ali ibn Abi Talib's appointment as his successor.

Sayyari told the Iranian Fars News Agency that Iran's military capabilities served as a deterrent, but: "If the enemy makes a mistake, he will receive such a powerful second strike that he won't be able to stand up."

Iran has boasted in the past that its new Ghadir-class submarine could not be detected and was capable of firing missiles and torpedoes simultaneously. According to Globalsecurity.org, Iran's Navy has at least three Russian-built SSK Kilo-class submarines.

In August, Iran test-fired a new submarine-to-surface missile during war games in the Persian Gulf. Iran's current arsenal includes several types of torpedoes, including the Hoot, Farsi for "whale," which was tested for the first time in April and is capable of moving at some 357 kph, up to four times faster than a normal torpedo.

Sayyari told the news agency that his troops were closely monitoring US maneuvers in the region. "No move in the Sea of Oman, the Persian Gulf or the Strait of Hormoz could remain hidden from our eyes. The naval force is in full control over the region and monitors all the military moves of the enemies in the region," he said.

1. Saudi official rules out handshake with Israelis
2. Saudis Object to USA being aghast at 200 lashes for objecting to gang rape
3. 1,500 Saudi terrorists 'militants' freed after counselling
4. Terrorists target Army base — in Arizona

And let's remember....

Republican or democrat doesn't seem to  matter.
With such priorities and common sense, what is the future?

Let's get this straight...if Saudis continue to teach hate in school, NOTHING IS DIFFERENT.
They are the enemy.
The heart of its motive force.
The Iranians are the adrenals.
There appears to be no brain since the ultimate outcome is cockroaches will win from Morocco to the Chinese border.

Teacher In Teddy 'Insult' Faces 40 Lashes

Updated:19:32, Monday November 26, 2007

A British teacher is facing 40 lashes in a Sudanese jail if convicted of insulting Islam's prophet by letting children name a teddy bear Mohammed.

Gillian Gibbons, 54, from Liverpool, was arrested on suspicion of blasphemy on Sunday.

Ms Gibbons allowed her class of seven-year-olds at the Unity High School in Khartoum to name a teddy bear Mohammed as part of a lesson about animals' habitats.

Mohammed is sacred to Islamic philosophy and the penalty for blasphemy is 40 lashes, a large fine or a jail term. The British Embassy in Khartoum confirmed the arrest.

A source close to the school said one teacher was angered by the naming of the teddy bear and complained to the headmistress.

Ms Gibbons was a deputy headteacher at Liverpool's Dovecot Primary School from 2002 to this July when she left for Sudan.

Her MP, Louise Ellman, told Sky News: "This is very worrying. I understand Ms Gibbons is a very respected person, she is held in the highest regard and is seen as a person of the highest integrity.

"I'm in touch with the Foreign Office and it's right that they should be working hard to bring about a positive end."

There is no specific, or explicit ban in the Koran on images of Allah or the Prophet Mohammed - be they carved, painted or drawn.

However, chapter 42, verse 11 of the Koran does say: "[Allah is] the originator of the heavens and the earth... [there is] nothing like a likeness of Him."

The fear is that images could give rise to idolatry but in this case the response in Sudan, which has been governed by strict Islamic Sharia law since 1983, has been unusually harsh, said Hassan Aberdeen, a researcher at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies.

"It seems that the parents made an issue of the teacher calling an animal Mohammed," he said. "Calling him a dog or a pig is insulting, but this is just a teddy bear."

"This could be more to do with who is saying it than what is being said. It might not have been an issue if this was a Sudanese person.

"The fact that this was a European teacher is highly likely to be one of the key causes."

DUH, YATHINK?

Ever wonder how a bureaucracy day by day grinds away at a presidential directive?
Ever wonder why a guy fighting the good fight gets sentenced to 12 years for living 5 miles from the Maryland border?
Ever wonder how Levin et al run the show to maximize political damage, even though it damages america?
Ever wonder how Chalabi got to be seen as slime?
Ever wonder why certain leaks which are always damaging to America keep coming up?
Ever think about how senior officials undermine actions they disagree with?

Ever wonder why a Jay Garner who aided a kurdistan for 10 years got fired for the same job in Iraq?
Ever wonder how Bremer managed to screw it all up in a few weeks?

Ever want to know just how much domestic political considerations really trump victory over jihad?

The jewish people.

But according to Duke, this week, just the extreme jews. (He insisted that his words only target "Jewish extremists")
Any buyers?
I thought not.

However, according to some, jewish people are not exactly running out to support (that's double sourced below) Vlaams Belang and Mr DeWinter
October 2006:

"Orthodox Jewish residents packing the streets of Antwerp's diamond-trading quarter scorned the idea that Vlaams Belang would win up to a third of their community's votes, as party mayor candidate Filip Dewinter said last week.

Wearing Orthodox black suits and Homburg hats, the men were carrying palm fronds in honor of the feast of Sukkot, celebrated this weekend. That festival meant it was forbidden for Jews to cast their votes, Jeremy Sulzbacher said, unless they had organized a proxy vote. "Vlaams Belang doesn't convince Jewish people," he said."

"Once they've finished with the Muslims and the North Africans, who will they start on next? They'll start on us, the Jews."

So last night I was re-listening to the marvelous debate.
Resolved - we should not be reticent to assert the superiority of western values

Ibn Warraq wins it outright with his introducing position.
So what are we asserting.

In the last few days as the issues have become much more tightly focused, the defense of european rightist movement of ethnic nationality as an ally of those who DO assert the above, breaks down to one thing only...Phillip Dewinter (Vlaams Belang).."would consider them (insistence and demands on outright repudiation of the white europe he called for as a goal) impertinent and irrelevant to his cause if he were aware of them."

Is that the superiority we shall assert?

Shall we assert PRECISELY that we can't help it if white power is among our allies?
Shall we assert that white power is a natural cultural defense because europe was all white, against all demographic perils as we fight off sharia and 9:29 and 9:5?

This is precisely what I have been told in the last few days, and precisely what David Duke says. He just likes the jews less than Mr. DeWinter.

Shall we assert that Le Pen might really be so bad after all? Is that a superiority of western values?

Is there anyone who thinks the mantle of god's blessing will fall on them simply because they are NOT anti semitic?

I assert that it is the GOOD FIGHT to oppose those who believe these things. I assert that to be for white europe as a metaphor or in reality is equal in every single way equal to what Stormfront and David Duke proselytize, regardless of what one thinks of the existence of Israel, and as a jew I can tell you IT SHAMES ME PERSONALLY to have the support of these people in the belief that Israel must exist.

David Duke, Le Pen, and Phillip DeWinter all want the same thing.
It is indefensible.
It i not a western value which can be defended let alone asserted, and I'm sure people I see as allies in the fight I am a part of, such as Ibn Warraq would agree.
Robert Spencer already does.

The very factors which caused europe to be unable to assimilate these mass immigrants, and grant them complete social mobility places them in the position of defending the indefensible.

To such people the only defense left is to brand such as me self righteous do gooder multiculturalists.
I wonder if they understand the irony, and the joke.

They complain that in being called neo nazis by some (not me btw), this ends all rational debate. But now because it really IS impossible to defend racial culture as a political program, they perform exactly the same act.

That's okay.

Rational debate is over. We now have two completely separate anti-salafist and anti khomeinist movements. One of them accepts white europe as valid, with an excuse.

I assert that theirs is going to be in more and more trouble, as those values receive more and more sunshine. Just as more exposure has damaged the the idea that Islam is a religion of peace, and demonstrated the kind of thing taught in too many mosques, so now to white europe.

I hope this is my last post on this subject.

GERTZ:Saeed Jalili believes he is negotiating to maintain Iran's nuclear weapons program from a position of strength. Unlike his predecessor, Ali Larijani, Jalili believes that nuclear weapons are the key to the Armegeddon that will usher in the Shi'ite messiah.

Larijani was replaced because of his criticism of Teheran's nuclear policy and the hardline approach of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Oh, so Larijani is a MODERATE?

Jalili does not have that problem. He is a firm loyalist of Ahmadinejad and his spiritual guide, Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi. Mesbah believes Iran requires nuclear weapons in an Islamic global war that would finally demonstrate the Shi'ite claim of divine right.

Ayatollah Mesbah "If someone tells you he has a new interpretation of Islam, sock him in the mouth.", Yazdi? That guy again?

"This [Jalili] is a man not paid to think but to repeat the same Iranian mantra," a Western intelligence source said.

Jalili lost his leg in the Iran-Iraq war and soon became a devout follower of the mullah regime who rejected material benefits, such as a luxury cars. Over the last two years, Jalili, who received a doctorate from Imam Sadegh University in Teheran, has been regarded as a key adviser to Ahmadinejad on foreign affairs, particularly relations with the United States and Venezuela.

Indeed, earlier this year Jalili, a former IRGC senior officer, urged Ahmadinejad to write an 18-page letter to President George Bush that sought to justify Iran's nuclear program and domination of the Gulf. The letter referred to the messianic philosophy held by many supporters of Ahmadinejad.

Under Ahmadinejad, membership in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has become a virtual requirement to attain a senior position in government.

Who believes that these guys can be deterred in any way from obtaining nuclear weapons?

Who believes that these guys can be deterred from FIRST USE, either via Hizballah or outright?

Here's a memo to President Bush: Remember that pro-democracy drive pitched when Condi Rice was appointed secretary of state? Well, Arab states are about to show what they really think of democracy.

Arab League states have agreed to restrict satellite-based media. They plan to seek technological ways to block satellite media broadcasts under the guise of a campaign to boost morality.

"The privately owned channels broadcast a lot of immoral material that harm the youngsters across the Arab world," Mohammed Al Ghazali, an official of the Supreme Authority for Audio and Video Communication, told the "Challenges of Arab Satellite Media" symposium on Nov. 17 in Tunis.

Arab information ministers could formulate controls on the Arab satellite media sector at their forthcoming meeting in Cairo in January 2008. One proposal was for Arab states to standardize restrictions on the satellite media.

Still, delegates acknowledged the difficulty of controlling a sector with more than 30 Arabic-speaking satellite channels. Maybe that's where the United States comes in: American companies could sell the latest technology that could block or ensure government monitoring of satellite channels.

A check to each palestinian family, directly, not thru the PA.

What would happen if Israel started sending out checks with legal agreements to each palestinian family for whom records exist (and they are there). What would happen if some family living in fear of their existence, struggling for job, cut off from hope gets a 6 figure check along with a...'we wave all future claims' which much be returned signed for the check to be active? Why not throw these folks a lifeline? Would the EU help the USA and Israel to ensure that each palestinian family gets a chance to solve the right of return individually?

When the Intifada made it apparent that no agreement could possibly be in the offing, and repeated lengthy sweeps thru the west bank and gaza proved that destruction and death on the scale Israel was willing to deal it out was not going to do it, and that international calumny was never going to end, they just went ahead an built the wall to keep then murderers out.

Time for a legal wall of action against the right of return.

Without an idea to avoid this problem, then just as in 2000, as we come back and back and back to this same conundrum, and just as a leader of undoubted authority such as an Arafat could not dump the Right of Return, perhaps each family in the quiet of their own conscience deserves the ability to do so, and determine for themselves their own future.

And break down this problem in an equitable fashion.

There are some publications it pays to go thru slowly. Commentary is just such a one.
Norman "Bush please bomb Iran" Podhoretz, and unrepentant believer that all men want to be free, REALLY FREE, not free like in certain places where the people cannot be sovereign EVER because of a certain book, writes in Commentary a few words of import.
The upshot is an argument that Iran CANNOT be deterred, certainly from pursuit and acquisition of nuclear weapons, but also more probably of first use of same on their own, or by hand off in their pursuit of what every leader of Iran has uttered since 1979.
____________________________________________________________________________________________

In my article “The Case for Bombing Iran” (COMMENTARY, June 2007), in my book World War IV: The Long Struggle Against Islamofascism, and in various public appearances (including a televised debate with Fareed Zakaria of Newsweek), I quoted the Ayatollah Khomeini as having said the following:

We do not worship Iran, we worship Allah. For patriotism is another name for paganism. I say let this land [Iran] burn. I say let this land go up in smoke, provided Islam emerges triumphant in the rest of the world.

My source for this statement was Amir Taheri, the prolific Iranian-born journalist now living in London, who has also contributed a number of articles to COMMENTARY. Now, however, the Economist, relying on another Iranian-born writer, Shaul Bakhash of George Mason University, has alleged on its blog “Democracy in America” that Khomeini never said any such thing. “Someone,” says Mr. Bakhash, “should inform Mr. Podhoretz he is citing a non-existent statement.”

That “someone” has turned out to be Andrew Sullivan in his widely read blog, “The Daily Dish.” Linking to the Economist post, Sullivan accuses me of intellectual dishonesty for failing to admit that I have made an “error” in relying on a “bogus quotation” to bolster my argument that if Iran were to acquire nuclear weapons, it would not be deterred from using them by the fear of retaliation.

I do not usually bother responding to Sullivan’s frequent attacks on me, which are fueled by the same shrill hysteria that, as has often been pointed out, deforms most of what he “dishes” out on a daily basis. But in this case I have decided to respond because, by linking to a sober source like the Economist, he may for a change seem credible.

The Economist concludes its piece by challenging Amir Taheri to produce “the original source for this quote.” In response to a query from me, Mr. Taheri has now met that challenge. He writes:

The quote can be found in several editions of Khomeini’s speeches and messages. Here is one edition:

Paymaha va Sokhanraniyha-yi Imam Khomeini (“Messages and Speeches of Imam Khomeini”) published by Nur Research and Publication Institute (Tehran, 1981).

The quote, along with many other passages, disappeared from several subsequent editions as the Islamic Republic tried to mobilize nationalistic feelings against Iraq, which had invaded Iran in 1980.

The practice of editing and even censoring Khomeini to suit the circumstances is widely known by Iranian scholars. This is how Professor Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak, the Director of the Center for Persian Studies at the University of Maryland and a specialist in Islamic censorship, states the problem: “Khumayni’s [sic] speeches are regularly published in fresh editions wherein new selections are made, certain references deleted, and various adjustments introduced depending on the state’s current preoccupation” (Persian Studies in North America, 1994).

In any case, Mr. Taheri continues in his letter to me:

Your real argument is that Khomeini is not an Iranian nationalist but a pan-Islamist and thus would not have been affected by ordinary nationalistic considerations, including the safety of any “motherland.” This is known to Iranians as a matter of fact. Khomeini opposed the use of the words mellat (“nation”) and melli (“national”), replacing them with Ummat (“the Islamic community”) and ummati (“pertaining to the Islamic community”).

Thus, Majlis Shuray e Melli (“The National Consultative Assembly”) was renamed by Khomeini as Majlis Shuray Islami (“Islamic Consultative Assembly”). He also replaced the Iranian national insignia of Lion and Sun with a stylized calligraphy of the word Allah.

Mankind 'shortening the universe's life'

TELEGRAPH, UK By Roger Highfield, Science Editor

Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 21/11/2007

Forget about the threat that mankind poses to the Earth: our activities may be shortening the life of the universe too.

The startling claim is made by a pair of American cosmologists investigating the consequences for the cosmos of quantum theory, the most successful theory we have. Over the past few years, cosmologists have taken this powerful theory of what happens at the level of subatomic particles and tried to extend it to understand the universe, since it began in the subatomic realm during the Big Bang.But there is an odd feature of the theory that philosophers and scientists still argue about. In a nutshell, the theory suggests that we change things simply by looking at them and theorists have puzzled over the implications for years.

They often illustrate their concerns about what the theory means with boggling mind experiments, notably Schrodinger's cat in which, thanks to a fancy experimental set up, the moggy is both alive and dead until someone decides to look, when it either carries on living, or dies. That is, by one interpetation (by another, the universe splits into two, one with a live cat and one with a dead one.)

New Scientist reports a worrying new variant as the cosmologists claim that astronomers may have accidentally nudged the universe closer to its death by observing dark energy, a mysterious anti gravity force which is thought to be speeding up the expansion of the cosmos.

I think these guys have seen the 5th Element too many times.

The damaging allegations are made by Profs Lawrence Krauss of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, and James Dent of Vanderbilt University, Nashville, who suggest that by making this observation in 1998 we may have caused the cosmos to revert to an earlier state when it was more likely to end. "Incredible as it seems, our detection of the dark energy may have reduced the life-expectancy of the universe," Prof Krauss tells New Scientist.

I calculate that James Dobson will say this is god's punishment for homosexuality and abortion.

Of course even by having this discussion, we are probably dooming ourselves to a 1.3 microsecond earlier demise

DUBAI - A recent Saudi court ruling sentencing a woman to six months in jail and 200 lashes despite being gang-raped highlights the injustice faced by women in the ultra-conservative kingdom, women rights activists said

Well, since the punishment was doubled because the victim complained publicly complaining by women's rights activists is a pretty brave thing to do.

‘Sure, there is injustice against women in courts. It is a bitter situation that Saudi women have to endure,’ Saudi activist Wajiha Al Hweider said on Thursday, after the court ruling received widespread publicity.

‘The kingdom is in an embarrassing position. King (Abdullah) should step in and stop this farce,’ Hweider told AFP, adding that the judicial system, which is based on Islamic law, should be reformed.

Despite being raped by seven men who kidnapped her with a male companion at knife-point, the 19-year-old woman was sentenced in November 2006 to 90 lashes.

The judge sentenced her for being in a car with a man who was not her relative, a taboo in the ultra-conservative desert kingdom.

‘The judge does not have a written law. It is a matter of luck. You are lucky if the judge is a moderate and fears God,’ said Hweider, an outspoken US-educated activist who leads a group of women demanding the right to drive.

Hatoon Al Fassi, a history lecturer at King Saud university in Riyadh and another women rights activist, agreed that women suffer from the lack of written laws, which subjects rulings to the discretion of judges.

‘It all depends on the reasoning of the judge,’ she told AFP.

‘It is good that the case has taken an international dimension. It is shameful that such a case could have stayed unspoken of... This is a ruling that has treated the victim as a culprit,’ she said.

‘Such logic is so distant from Islam. It is the result of a male-chauvinist reasoning,’ she charged.

Oh really?

Then why do I keep hearing otherwise.It must be Islamophobic propaganda

Hweider highlighted the humiliation faced by women inside the courtroom, saying that a judge, who is always a clergyman, addresses only her male guardian.

‘The woman does not have the right to represent herself in a court. She enters the court covered entirely in black. Some judges do not even allow her to speak,’ she said.

She pointed out cases of forgery where men took women to court to impersonate others only to make false claims. ‘It helped some men in stripping their sisters of inheritance, for example,’ she said.

A male guardian, who could be the woman’s father, brother, husband, uncle, son, grandfather or grandson, literally controls her life.

‘A woman is treated always as a minor and as a second-class citizen. She needs a male guardian,’ Fassi said.

She pointed out that she even needs her male guardian to obtain her identity card or passport and that women are not allowed to enter government departments.

‘Here, the son is the male guardian of his mother if she is a widow or divorced. She would need his written approval for anything... She has no value,’ said Hweider.

Although she acknowledges that some Saudi women have been successful in some professions, she said that a woman ‘would lose everything if the male guardian decided that she had to stay home.’

‘And for a Saudi judge, I am part of the property of my male guardian,’ she lamented.

I'm sorry Ms. Heider, you have got a lot of guts, but you are going to have to take this ALL THE WAY. As long as the Quran is regarded as the immutable revealed word of God, your position will be untenable. That is to say, human rights, equal protection under the law and other radical ideas will be in abeyance to the sovereign word of God. If you have a better answer, I'd love to hear it.

Saudis make up 41% of foreign fighters in Iraq

More than 40% of the foreign fighters who entered Iraq to join the insurgency in the past year were citizens of Saudi Arabia, America's key partner in the Middle East, according to detailed information seized from a camp used by them. Documents and computers found by the US army at Sinjar, on the Iraqi-Syrian border, revealed that the other single largest group came from Libya, which is now being rehabilitated as a reliable western ally.

Overall, US officials reported that the number of foreign fighters entering Iraq this year dropped from 80-110 a month in the first half of the year to around 40 in October, partly due to the Sinjar raid.

After the raid the number of suicide bombings in Iraq fell to 16 in October - half the number seen during the summer months and down from a peak of 59 in March. US military officials believe that 90% of such bombings are by foreigners.

The captured data has been described as an intelligence treasure trove that included biographical details and the hometowns of the more than 700 fighters who entered Iraq since August 2006. Of those 307, or 41%, were Saudis and 137, or 18%, Libyans, senior US military sources told the New York Times.

What are they teaching the kids today?

Anything different?

Let's even assume they cracked down on the border. If the schools are no different then we go on and on.

Which of course, is exactly the plan.

Former Ku Klux Klan leader's Spanish visit sparks outrage

22 November 2007

Madrid - US historian and former congressman for Louisiana David Duke is touring Spain this week to promote his latest book, 'Jewish Supremacism. My Awakening on the Jewish Question', which has recently been translated into Spanish and released by Ojeda Publishers.

Hello...that is FACTUALLY INCORRECT, people at Expatica News. David Duke NEVER SERVED in the US House, he was in the Louisiana State legislature, and if he is an american historian I am Will Durant and Michael Beschloss rolled in to one.

This former leader of the Ku Klux Klan, who founded the white supremacist group National Association for the Advancement of White People (NAAWP) in 1980, visited Valladolid on Monday and Zaragoza on Wednesday to give conferences organized by the Spanish far-right political and social movements National Alliance and National Democracy.

Speaking on Monday before a packed auditorium in Valladolid, Duke denied being a white supremacist, and spoke up in favor of freedom of speech.

What a farce! Is there any american who doesn't understand clearly what Mr. Duke really wants?

  I guess he's been taking Nick Griffin lessons.

"No people or nation should oppress others. Every country has the right to be independent and to preserve its heritage" in areas such as art and cultural and artistic development, argued Duke.

Where have I heard this before? Hmmmmm......I wonder if Vlaams defenders would claim that people such as Duke shouldn't taint their quest for cultural survival, for DeWinter's metaphorical 'white europe', that is to say. I mean it's no the same thing at all, "not at all" as Mr. DeWinter would say.

The former Congressman also explained that when he speaks "of Jewish supremacism" he is not referring to all Jewish people. Instead, he insisted that his words only target "Jewish extremists and those who try to impose their supremacy."

You knows, those hook nosers who keep insisting that bagels make it onto the Dunkin' Donuts menus.

Duke's arrival in Spain coincides with a growing debate on the rising presence of extremist far-right groups with a racist agenda in the country.

Well, well. Perhaps an impression is being made after all.

Duke sails even closer to the wind and to every argument I have heard defending DeWinter........

Say WHAT?

Associated Press

Nov. 22, 2007

---

A Syrian site that Israeli aircraft bombed on Sept. 6 was most likely a plant for assembling a nuclear bomb, an Israeli nuclear expert said Thursday, challenging other analysts' conclusions that it housed a North Korean-style nuclear reactor.

Tel Aviv University chemistry professor Uzi Even, who worked in the past at Israel's Dimona nuclear reactor, said satellite pictures of the site taken before the Israeli strike showed no sign of the cooling towers and chimneys characteristic of reactors.

The absence of telltale features of a reactor convinced him the building must have housed something else, he said. And a rush by the Syrians after the attack to bury the site under tons of soil suggests that the facility was a bomb-assembly plant left leaking lethal doses of radiation by the Israeli attack.

Israel has maintained an almost total official silence over the strike, which Syria said hit an unused military installation. But foreign media reports, some quoting unidentified US officials, have said the strike hit a nuclear

facility linked to North Korea.

Damascus denies it has an undeclared nuclear program, and North Korea has said it was not involved in any Syrian nuclear project.

Last month, American analyst David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, said commercial satellite images taken before and after the Israeli raid supported suspicions that the target was indeed a reactor and that the site was given a hasty cleanup by the Syrians to remove incriminating evidence.

Albright saw a clue in the fact that the structure was roofed at an early stage in its construction.

"From what we understand, North Korea builds reactors in an old-fashioned way; the roof goes on early." he said at the time.

Other analysts have said the satellite images are too grainy to make any conclusive judgment.

Even told The Associated Press that evidence against the reactor theory could be found in satellite pictures of the Syrian installation taken since 2003, which showed no sign of a plutonium separation facility, an essential component, typically of large size with visible ventilation openings.

"It's very difficult to hide a separation plant," he said. "It's more difficult to hide a separation plant than to hide a nuclear reactor."

"In Yongbyon, the supposed sister facility in North Korea, you can see all those signs that I am pointing out that are missing in the Syrian place," Even added. "You can see the chimneys, you can see the ventilation, you can see the cooling towers, you can see the separation plant. All of that is missing from the building in Syria."

Even believes the Syrian cleanup, in which large quantities of soil were bulldozed over the site, was an attempt to smother lethal radiation from a plutonium processing plant.

"Somebody made a lot of effort to bury deeply whatever remains of this facility," he told The AP. "Not just to hide it but to pile up a large mound of dirt on top of it."

Even said Syrian authorities might have taken similar cleanup action if the site had held chemical or biological weapons, but it would not have made sense for Israel to have taken the military and diplomatic risk of attacking such a facility, long a known part of Syria's arsenal.

"We know already that the Syrians have in place armed missiles with chemical weapons," he said. "They are already well-equipped in that department."

U.S. warns its diplomats in Beirut, EU peace-keepers plan exit

WASHINGTON — The United States has restricted the movement of its diplomats in Lebanon and European Union states are preparing to pull out from its peace-keeping mission as the Hizbullah threat to the Beirut government increases.

Officials said EU states have concluded that Lebanon would become much more dangerous amid the resurgence of Hizbullah and the collapse of the government of Prime Minister Fuad Siniora.

They said the Lebanese Army, particularly in the south, was increasingly regarded as aligned with Hizbullah and could no longer be relied upon to protect the 13,500 UN Interim Force in Lebanon.

DUH! I hate it when the obvious is denied for so long.

Officials said the U.S. embassy in Beirut has banned staffers from traveling throughout most of Lebanon, including its capital. They said the embassy has concluded that Americans could come under attack amid a confrontation between the government of Prime Minister Fuad Siniora and pro-Syrian elements.

"The embassy is limiting the movement of embassy personnel during this time, specifically in downtown Beirut near the parliament building and other government offices," the embassy said in a warden message on Nov. 17.

The warden message said the embassy was restricting all but essential travel to Beirut International Airport from Nov. 20 to Nov. 26. During this period, Siniora was expected to convene parliament for a vote on a successor to pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud.

After being deployed for nearly 14 months, European Union states were examining a timetable for a withdrawal from a United Nations peace-keeping mission in Lebanon.

"There could be a withdrawal in early 2008," an official said. "It's very much on the agenda."

[On Nov. 12, a French soldier in UNIFIL was killed in what was termed an accidental weapon discharge. Another soldier was wounded in the incident.]

In mid-2007, at least six UNIFIL troops were killed in bombings attributed to Al Qaida or other insurgents in southern Lebanon. Since then, UNIFIL has significantly reduced its activities in southern Lebanon and coordinates all patrols with the Lebanese Army.

On Nov. 15, a Lebanese newspaper, A-Safir, reported that Al Qaida struck UN troops in an effort to sow discord between peace-keepers and the Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah. The pro-Hizbullah newspaper also said an Al Qaida cell, which included a Libyan national, also sought to assassinate Hizbullah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah.

CHINA
A congressional commission on China reported last week that U.S. intelligence agencies have failed to properly assess Beijing's military buildup and capabilities and were taken by surprise on key developments, including new submarines built in secret.

“The pace and success of China’s military modernization continue to exceed U.S. government estimates,” stated the annual report of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

“Indeed, on occasion the U.S. defense and intelligence communities have been taken by surprise, as in the case of the launching of the Jin class submarine by the navy of the People’s Liberation Army.”

I mean the base was only on GOOGLE EARTH, north of Qingdao ..check it out yourself, click the pic. I have complained about all this before

The criticism was a slap at pro-China U.S. intelligence officials, including Thomas Fingar, deputy director of national intelligence for analysis, National Intelligence Officer for East Asia Lonnie Henley, a protégé of convicted China spy Ronald Montaperto, and Dennis Wilder, a CIA official who is now the National Security Council staff senior director for Asia.

“Several Chinese advances have surprised U.S. defense and intelligence officials, and raised questions about the quality of our assessments of China’s military capabilities,” the commission report said.

China also could launch up to 10 new Shang-class nuclear attack submarines by next year.

The Jin submarine, also known as the Type 094, is a new class of ballistic missile submarine. It was first photographed in the water in late 2006 moored in Xiaopingdao Submarine Base.

The submarine is believed to be equipped with 12 advanced JL-2 SLBMs with a range of about 8,000 kilometers.

“China’s defense industry is producing new generations of weapons platforms with impressive speed and quality, and these advancements are due in part to the highly effective manner in which Chinese defense companies are integrating commercial technologies into military systems,” the report said.

“Industrial espionage provides Chinese companies an added source of new technology without the necessity of investing time or money to perform research.”

So on the way down to the family thanksgiving turkey gathering my wife asked me again, what the hell I was typing over so furiously in the week before. At the time I had answered, it's 1966 again and left her non plussed.

So this time I pulled out the old IPOD, and plugged in to the AUX INPUT and said, 'let's listen to Phillip Dewinter explain himself' and she said 'who?'. All I said was, he was the head of the largest political party in northern Belgium, and wanted to preserve his culture in schools, and in church and in practice. I then played the Shire Network News interview, but cut it off before Tom Paine explained himself and his views a bit.

Mrs. Epa did not hesitate to sneer at the moment when the non denial of Vlaams leader morphed into his poetic challenge of 'it's a metaphor'.


For all Americans who have really been THERE during civil rights, this is a crystallizing statement from which there is no going back. It differentiates between the fear of loss of historic culture and its wonderful traditions, and the inner compulsions which force humans to do the ugliest things imaginable, one tiny step in descent at a time.

No Charles Johnson, No Gates of Vienna, No Atlas, no other explanations needed. No worries about smears, just the leading light of Vlaams Belang and all the time in the world to explain himself, any way he pleased, uninterrupted. He could have repudiated this statement. HE could have said a million things, instead he was Hillary Clinton treading a narrow path between the base and the necessity of not losing the center, wink wink nod nod.

Simultaneous to all of this, was the self bukake experiment of the conservative (republican) group Young Americans for Freedom who had invited Mr. Nick 'Holohoax' Griffin (now I'm sorry to use wiki right there, but for those who wish to find excuses for this scum, there are a million resource out there which will negate that, including the BBC interview in which he utters his infamous little ditties). There are claims that he has 'modified' his stance now. Sure. Maybe he got a good look in his funhouse fringe mirror inside some English hoosegow. However, joyously holding hands with David Duke (another 'culture defender') in 2005 at a party celebration yields doubt as to this. Now as to the YAF, take a good look at their history. Is their any doubt what Barry Goldwater (who wanted to kick Jerry Falwell's ass), or Bill Buckley who STARTED the modern conservative movement by driving the racists from the 'temple' would have to say?

Meanwhile the inimitable Republican sliding  to Larouchedom in Dukeland, Ron Paul, has gone from praising The John "fluoride in the water is a commi plot" Birch Society as savior of the Constitution to accepting money, support and endorsements from Stormfront, whose symbol by the way appears in Mr. Dewinter's home (but maybe he is Druid afficianado).

Now I'm not someone to make everything left and right, but I can tell the difference between cultural defense (which is what Bill Cosby does) and racism (which is a call for white europe, which BTW can be construed to have as a side effect, cultural defense). I don't need to hear the claims and counterclaims about neo nazi, white power is sufficient, thank you.

I just can't help it, every time I hear more and see more, it gets worse and worse.

Counter jihadism, and realism about the Khomeinist and Salafist freaks makes one seem crazy enough to the vast majority who are simply worried about $3.20/gallon gas headed to $5, and VERY secondarily about being blown up in a mall.

The taint of racism in any way, like Stormfront and Ron Paul, like Nick Griffin at the erstwhile 'conservative' YAF, de-legitimizes VALID defense of american liberal values, and individual rights to such a large extent that WE WILL LOSE. If we accept these kinds of allies, WE WILL LOSE.

I don't want these people on my side, and in fact have decided I am not happy to have two movement come out of this.

One movement is UNABLE to accept the taint of white power as part of its recipe to defend against Achmadinejad, Qaradawi, HAMAS, Bakri, and the Nasrallah's, and one movement who has some problem searching for excuses for it, but WILL excuse the questionable in OTHER PLACES on 'practical grounds'. The defense I hear is, 'Europe is so far gone, we have to accept the help of ...........( Fill in with anything). I've heard it ALL BEFORE.

Phillip DeWinter said what he did, and there is no way back. No Vlaams Belang defender has yet been able to defend Mr. DeWinter's currency, currently in this signal statement.

White Europe is plain enough. He did not complain of translation error or any other inaccuracies, merely tried to sidestep in a way that would make Bill Clinton PROUD (though Mr. Clinton for all his faults, and they are unacceptable ones does not fall close to the category of the apparent inner problems of Mr. DeWinter).

By MIKE CORDER,Associated Press Writer AP - Thursday, November 22

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - One was a Somali refugee, the other an Argentine investment banker. Both are now high-profile Dutch women challenging this country to rethink its national identity.

Princess Maxima, the Argentine-born wife of Crown Prince Willem Alexander, triggered a round of national soul-searching with a speech last month about what exactly it means to be Dutch in an age of mass migration.

"The Netherlands is too complex to sum up in one cliche," she said. "A typical Dutch person doesn't exist."

Her comments have tapped into an unsettled feeling among many Dutch who fear traditional values have been eroded in a country roiled by a rise in Muslim extremism. It's a view espoused by Somali-born Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who has turned her back on her Islamic roots.

Conservatives in this nation of 16 million say the long Dutch tradition of welcoming immigrants and putting little or no pressure on them to integrate undermines Western values.

"Unfortunately, the debate about Dutch identity is too often held at a very trite and trivial level _ as if the discussion is between Brussels sprouts and wooden shoes on the one hand, and couscous and caftans on the other," said Bart Jan Spruyt, founder of The Edmund Burke Foundation, a conservative think tank.

"What is really at stake, due to a frivolous immigration policies and decades of multicultural indifference, is the identity of the Dutch nation, Dutch history and culture as a part of the history of Western civilization."

BINGO, so just change the rules. This didn't happen overnight. This is all due to changes wrought after 1973. Change immigration priorities. Establish assimilation goals and norms.

Han van der Horst, author of a popular book on Dutch culture and history, staunchly defends the nation's live-and-let-live traditions. He points to an old Dutch saying that translates as "everybody is entitled to his own views," but hastens to add: "It doesn't mean you respect those views or share" them.

That attitude historically allowed rigidly separated groupings known as "pillars" to form in society, meaning people of different faiths or political persuasion had their own churches, schools, newspapers, television and radio broadcasters and labor unions.

The system began to unravel in the 1960s, but some observers see the rise of Islam as a new pillar in Dutch society _ mosques are springing up around the country and Muslims have their own schools and Web sites.

Hirsi Ali, the former Somali refugee, is one of the success stories of Dutch immigration policy, but also one of its fiercest critics. She condemns the Dutch tradition of multiculturalism, saying tolerance for the intolerant has provided a dangerous breeding ground for Islamic radicalism.

In summarizing the events that led up to the men's removal from the November 2006 flight from Minnesota to Phoenix, the judge wrote that "it is dubious that these facts would lead a reasonable person to conclude that plaintiffs were about to interfere with the crew of Flight 300."

Well, let's see.

A federal judge has ruled that a lawsuit filed by a group of imams against US Airways and a Minneapolis airport can proceed.

U.S. District Judge Ann Montgomery said in a 41-page opinion late yesterday that the imams, who say they were discriminated against when they were removed from a flight last year, have a plausible claim that their constitutional rights may have been violated.

The imams "have adequately stated a claim" that airport police may have "seized plaintiffs in violation of their Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures," Judge Montgomery ruled.

"This preliminary victory shows that any American can have a day in court," said Omar Mohammedi, attorney for the imams.

"The case is about civil rights violations and constitutional principles that we all cherish. Our judicial system has always been, and will remain, the hope for all minorities who seek to redress civil rights violations," Mr. Mohammedi said.

However, the judge dismissed two of the imams' complaints. The imams had argued that they suffered from emotional distress as a result of the incident, and one of the imams said he was discriminated against because he is blind.

US Airways says the captain's decision to remove the men from the flight "was not arbitrary and capricious" but that he relied on a passenger's note saying the men had made anti-American comments and sat in a "dispersed seating arrangement" and on a flight attendant's observation that two of the imams "had asked for seat-belt extensions, but only one seemed to need one." Passenger records also indicated that three of the men were flying on one-way tickets.

Now, knowing what I know, if I observed all this, would I believe out of caution that these guys should be removed from the flight?

One way tickets, and the unused seat extension(s) would do the trick, in combination.

USAIR was right.

I hate economics. I never took it. It begs us to accept that, in the end government can do something other than screw it up.

Yet as we look around amid the incredible stories about the dollar, and the price of oil and gold, and the actions of Chavez, the Iranians, the OPEC we are all about the dollar, the Chinese who can't decide if they want out of the dollar, or if doing so would destroy their holdings before they could act completely we can see two threads which twine together into a world spanning cable.

1. The USA remains completely dependent on oil.
2. The world no longer has confidence in the actions or fortitude of the American people (take that any way you want it)

This past week, the Honda commercial hit the air. GM apparently has a concept vehicle. I will probably buy the first to market vehicle. It looks to be Japanese technology.
Fine.

There are many who think that this doesn't matter. But it does.

Japan can solve that issue, but they cannot instill in this world the renewed confidence it needs (for reasons of its present military, history and national policies today), for despite the anti Americanism RAMPANT on this planet, beneath all is a realization that whatever it is individual nations and groups want us to do or not do, only WE can do it, or make it better without doing it, in the end.

Russia is, well, they will be Ivan IV. China won't, despite a freer economy, let people bring 2 bibles to  the olympics, and Japan just wants a low profile and economic success. Europe despite economic might has neither the military will, the political stability, the resources, or the UNITY to carry out a coherent future plan right now.

Despite all our faults, and by process of elimination, that leaves us. Like it or not, for all.

Since 1973 the handwriting has been on the wall for the USA (and the world). Oil is done. That's it. There IS no argument. The arbitrary nature of where it is, is found in the future, and can be retrieved eliminate it as a force for economic or political stability or predictability. More, there's got to be a better way.

The failure of first, the commercial system here to generate the momentum for the inevitable, and then the govt to tax break and demand, and fund and CREATE the research to create the FEASIBLE technologies is a manifest and COMPLETE failure of the both American economic and political system.

Around Baghdad, Signs of Normal Life Creep Back

With security in Baghdad improving, residents across the city are taking steps to return to normalcy. More Iraqis are traveling between Shiite and Sunni areas to shop, work and go to school. While there are still neighborhoods too dangerous to enter, interviews across the city reveal the personal ways Baghdad residents are fighting to reclaim the lives they lost. Select below to see videos, photos and written reports from locations around the city.

"Look at all the people that have been displaced, all the [lost] oil production, unemployment, all those type of things," said Rep. John P. Murtha, chairman of Appropriations defense subcommittee. "We can't win militarily."

The Pennsylvania Democrat conceded violence was down dramatically and some normalcy restored on Iraq's streets, but he said U.S. victory remains unattainable as long as Baghdad fails to pass national reconciliation laws.

Even at the worst of the carnage Baghdad's Manufacturing Street — or Computer Street, as it is widely known to foreigners — never logged off completely. In electricity-deprived storefronts, some little bigger than newspaper kiosks, a determined but dwindling residue of the city's hardware engineers and software suppliers arrived for work, commuting past suicide bombings and roadside explosions.

Now traffic is up, on the street and online. One of the first encouraging signs in fact was long-absent friends' names — Ilove_Baghdad and Neighbour of the Moon — suddenly appearing back on the screen on Arabic chat sites.

The dim view of U.S. military progress in Iraq and a resolve to force a pullout have been echoed by the two top Democrats on Capitol Hill — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California.

The funding standoff will force the Pentagon to make budget cuts at bases in the U.S. to cover the costs of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, including sending furlough notices to as many as 100,000 civilian employees, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said.

Would they really rather lose than be wrong?

The troop-surge strategy implemented this summer by Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, U.S. commander in Iraq, has produced measurable security gains, although the fledgling Iraqi government continues to move sluggishly to adopt national reconciliation laws.

U.S. military fatalities dropped sharply, from 101 in June to 39 in October. Iraqi civilian deaths also declined markedly, from 1,791 in August to 750 in October, Associated Press reported. Mortar rocket attacks by insurgents last month were the lowest since February 2006, as were the number of "indirect-fire" attacks on coalition forces.

Iraqi officials plan to reduce checkpoints, ease curfews and reopen some roads in and around Baghdad because of improving security. Sunni Arab tribal leaders in western Anbar province, now allied with the U.S. military, say al Qaeda is "almost defeated" in their once-chaotic region.

FROM BREIRBART: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement Tuesday that Democrats will always insist that troops get what they need.

"If there is any delay in funding for our men and women in uniform, the responsibility will squarely lie with the president and Senate Republicans who are blocking the bill," Pelosi, D-Calif., said.

Obey and Murtha said they calculate the military has enough money to continue operations through March by eating into its $471 billion annual budget.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the military has only limited transfer authority.

"Those who think we have some sort of flexibility here are simply misinformed," Whitman told reporters on Tuesday. "We've entered into a very serious period here."

Murtha said the Pentagon was issuing "irresponsible" propaganda.

"They're scaring people," he said. "They're scaring the families of the troops. . .That's the thing that's so despicable."

Can you believe this? How transparent

---

November 20, 2007

Baghdad’s Weary Start to Exhale as Security Improves

By DAMIEN CAVE and ALISSA J. RUBIN

BAGHDAD, Nov. 19 — Five months ago, Suhaila al-Aasan lived in an oxygen tank factory with her husband and two sons, convinced that they would never go back to their apartment in Dora, a middle-class neighborhood in southern Baghdad.

Today she is home again, cooking by a sunlit window, sleeping beneath her favorite wedding picture. And yet, she and her family are remarkably alone. The half-dozen other apartments in her building echo with emptiness and, on most days, Iraqi soldiers are the only neighbors she sees.

“I feel happy,” she said, standing in her bedroom, between a flowered bedspread and a bullet hole in the wall. “But my happiness is not complete. We need more people to come back. We need more people to feel safe.”

How pathetic for the democrats. Can you imagine what Harry Truman would say about this?

How on earth does Condi sit down with these guys?

A court in Saudi Arabia doubled its sentence of lashings for a rape victim who had spoken out in public about her case and her efforts to seek justice, Human Rights Watch said today.

The court also harassed her lawyer, banning him from the case and confiscating his professional license. 

An official at the General Court of Qatif, which handed down the sentence on November 14, said the court had increased the woman's sentence because of "her attempt to aggravate and influence the judiciary through the media." The court sentenced the rape victim to six months in prison and 200 lashes, more than double its October 2006 sentence after its earlier verdict was reviewed by Saudi Arabia's highest court, the Supreme Council of the Judiciary. 

"A courageous young woman faces lashing and prison for speaking out about her efforts to find justice," said Farida Deif, researcher in the women's rights division of Human Rights Watch. "This verdict not only sends victims of sexual violence the message that they should not press

charges, but in effect offers protection and impunity to the perpetrators."   

The young woman, who is married, said she had met with a male acquaintance who had promised to give her back an old photograph of herself. After she met her acquaintance in his car in Qatif, a gang of seven men then attacked and raped both of them, multiple times. Despite the prosecution's requests for the maximum penalty for the rapists, the Qatif court sentenced four of them to between one and five years in prison and between 80 and 1,000 lashes. They were convicted of kidnapping, apparently because prosecutors could not prove rape. The judges reportedly ignored evidence from a mobile phone video in which the attackers recorded the assault.  

Chavez Tells OPEC to Use Politics, Curb `Imperialism' (Update1)

By Daniel Williams and Maher Chmaytelli

Nov. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez brought his revolutionary zeal to the cartel that controls 40 percent of the world's oil, urging fellow members at a weekend summit to fight against ``imperialism'' and ``exploitation.''

Chavez used the Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to advance a struggle for the soul of the cartel. Countering him was the conference host, Saudi King Abdullah, who said the organization's goal was simply to produce prosperity.

Their contrasting visions elbowed aside the usual OPEC talk about production quotas and currency fluctuations. In the short term at least, Abdullah's vision is likely to prevail, said Ihsan Bu-Hulaiga, who runs a private business consulting firm in Riyadh and advises the Saudi government.

``OPEC has to do with oil; it cannot solve the world's problems with a political agenda,'' he said. ``It would be putting its bread and butter at risk.''

Chavez, Ahmadinejad to Work Against US

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - The presidents of Venezuela and Iran boasted Monday that they will defeat U.S. imperialism together, saying the fall of the dollar is a prelude to the end of Washington's global dominance.

Hugo Chavez's visit to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Tehran followed a failed weekend attempt by the firebrand duo to push the Organization of Petroleum Exporting States away from trading in the slumping greenback.

Their proposal at an OPEC summit was overruled by other cartel members led by Saudi Arabia, a strong U.S. ally. But the cartel agreed to have OPEC finance ministers discuss the idea, and the two allies' move showed their potential for stirring up problems for the U.S.

The alliance between Chavez and Ahmadinejad has blossomed with several

exchanged visits—Monday's was Chavez's fourth time in Tehran in two years—a string of technical agreements and a torrent of rhetoric presenting their two countries as an example of how smaller nations can stand up to the superpower.

"Here are two brother countries, united like a single fist," Chavez said upon his arrival in Tehran, according to Venezuela's state-run Bolivarian News Agency.

How do you get to be a values CIA analyst and agent?
Have a sham marriage, be related to a bunch of racist,genocidal terrorists, and one of the following...speak arabic,  or have said the pledge of allegiance.

NY Post - FBI fraudster Nada Nadim Prouty not only used a sham marriage to get jobs with access to secret terrorist intelligence - her current husband is a State Department employee who has held sensitive posts in Middle Eastern embassies, The Post has learned.

Her third hubby, Gordon Prouty, 40, now works for the State Department in Washington, a spokesman confirmed Friday night. He had been stationed at American embassies in Egypt and Pakistan.

You know, I won't dismiss her defenders out of hand.

Maybe she despises the rest of her family for what they are.

Maybe she is an exception, and even as a muslim is a Brigitte Gabriel

Maybe she created a fictional relationship with an american to become american to fight this fight

Maybe she lied to the FBI and CIA about her past in order to achieve that same end, knowing the truth would be 'damaging'

Maybe her defenders aren't duped fools, or selfish careerists worried if she gets what she deserves they are done.

But if she is a patriot, all of the above excuses have to be believed.

Vlaams Belang supporters, are you paying attention?

A growing focus on fresh ideas coupled with lingering doubts about Hillary Clinton's honesty and forthrightness are keeping the Democratic presidential contest close in Iowa, with Barack Obama in particular mounting a strong race against the national front-runner.

Most Democratic likely voters in Iowa, 55 percent, say they're more interested in a "new direction and new ideas" than in strength and experience, compared with 49 percent in July -- a help to Obama, who holds a substantial lead among "new direction" voters.

Like what south south east? What the hell does 'new direction' mean?

Fresh Ideas? What. Romaine hearts from Foxy?

Spiffy words to make people feel good, and then nothing?

Very disappointed in this individual. Especially considering the history of intelligence accuracy on this subject, i.e. no one has every gotten this correct..every nation which developed nuclear arms did it FASTER than any western intelligence agency predicted.

But over the edge he goes.

Powell: Iran far from nuclear weapon

By DIANA ELIAS, Associated Press Writer Mon Nov 19, 1:56 AM ET

KUWAIT CITY - Iran is far from acquiring a nuclear weapon, and despite U.S. fears about its atomic intentions, an American military strike against the Islamic Republic is unlikely, former Secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday.

Tehran rejects claims by the United States and some European Union countries that its nuclear program is aimed at secretly producing weapons, insisting it is for peaceful purposes only.

"I think Iran is a long way from having anything that could be anything like a nuclear weapon," said Powell, who was invited by the National Bank of Kuwait to speak on economic opportunity and crisis in the Middle East.

A recent report by the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog found Iran has been generally truthful in the information it has provided the agency about aspects of its past nuclear activities.

But the International Atomic Energy Agency said it could not rule out that Iran had a secret weapons program because of restrictions Tehran placed on its inspectors two years ago.

Asked if he sees a U.S. war on Iran coming, the retired U.S. general said although no American official will say the option was "off the table," he did not see prospects of a military conflict.

There is no base of support among Americans for such an action, Powell said, adding that the U.S. military already has enough on its hands in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Powell was the secretary of state under President Bush from 2001 to 2005. In September 2004, Powell said Iran's nuclear program was a growing threat and he called for international sanctions.

Just say, 'I wouldn't want to comment on that' ....FOR A MILLION REASONS.

Ma'an News Agency
Bethlehem – Ma'an – Fatah Central Committee member Abbas Zaki said on Sunday that a "modern Palestinian revolution" has erupted to demand the right of return for Palestinian refugees.

Those who believe a resolution to the Palestinian - Israeli conflict can be reached without the right of return according to UN resolution 194, he said, are "insane."

Therefore, except merely as another truce to be broken due to lack of control of 'activists', or a one sided PR session, what is the point of talking? Since right of return means no Israel, and since Rice is rushing headlong into this insisting Israel make gestures, maybe we should start reserving land in Idaho now. 6 million could fit there easily. Maybe that's the gesture that should be made. I wonder what 6 million voting ethnically cleansed jewish exiles would do here? Hey, maybe Rove......naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah !

Zaki, who is also the Palestine Liberation Organization's (PLO) representative in Lebanon, was speaking at a panel discussion in the southern West Bank city of Hebron, along with the city's mayor, Khalid Asila, and governor Hussain Al-A'raj.

On the subject of the upcoming US-backed peace conference, he said: "We will go to Annapolis and surprise those who criticize Fatah and the PLO that it was us who initiated the idea of an independent state and the pursuers of freedom."

With regards to Hamas' June takeover of the Gaza Strip, Zaki said, "Had Hamas assaulted Fatah alone, we would have pardoned them; but they had lowered the Palestinian flag, demolished the Unknown Soldier's monument, entered homes of PLO's leaders Abu Jihad and Yasser Arafat; they sold Arafat's uniform for 200 NIS."

The New York Post this morning states that the Yanks have recognized that their rotation, which at this moment is  Pettite angling towards retirement, Mussina who should be in retirement, Wang, Hughes, Kennedy and Chamberlain, is at this moment lacking a stopper such as Beckett. Absolutely true. TODAY.

They then postulate as to the availability of Johan Santana of the Twins who, in numbers is in the category of a Beckett.

They also say the twins are looking for Wang, Hughes, Cano and probably Cabrera for Johan Santana.

Don't do it, but not for the ridiculous demands.






Don't do it because of the following list- in just the last few years:

Neagle
Weaver
Vazquez
Wright
Pavano
Contreras
Brown
Johnson
Loaiza

The mound at 161 and River has to be added into the performance and history of any pitcher traded into the Bronx. Something happens out there. Something 'else'. Any pitcher who goes out to that mound in a Yankee uniform and shows he can pitch every 5th day without doing the el foldo has something you can't see in the numbers.

Does anyone else remember the excitement when Vazquez seemed to be coming here? How about watching the ball leave Damon's bat in game 7, 2004?

Remember the huge maneuvering to get Contreras? Electric stuff ...until men got on base and 50,000 stared at him sweating.

I'm trying to think of the big winners traded or signed into the Yanks as STOPPERS (of course that guy from Boston didn't pitch in the Bronx). Okay there are none.

Guys who worked out really well?
Catfish (3 rings before appearing here). Free Agent
Cone (pitched in NY) Free Agent
Wells (truly did from outside) Trade early in career
El Duque (a freak story, and maybe the best one) Free Agent
Clemens (borderline ...one great year, and one of the greatest of all time. But not, in the Bronx, a STOPPER) Trade for Wells

On this list we have free agents, and NO ONE who cost much. Wells <> Clemens trade was fair.

Here's my take, all three baby pitchers have already pitched in the Bronx. We have a better chance of one or two of those guys falling into the category just above, and Joba being a Beckett than we do selling people to the Twins for the ephemeral chance that Santana will do what NO OTHER MAN has ever done.


FORGET IT.
Fix the Bullpen. COMPLETELY. Concentrate on that.That will be hard enough, rather than give up proven position talent for the hope that Johan Santana can come to the Bronx and be a BASEBALL FIRST

A U.S. government report revealed last week that Russia provided Iran with secret high-technology related to a high-speed, rocket powered torpedo that Iran recently demonstrated.

The Shkval rocket powered torpedo was developed by Russian weapons researchers at facilities in Kyrgyzstan, or Kazakhstan and the technology was transferred with the knowledge of Moscow and those governments, said the unclassified report by the U.S. Open Source Center, an intelligence unit that analyzes foreign news media.

Shkval high-speed torpedo

The government-owned facilities connected to the Shkval development program had continuing contacts with Iran, and likely cooperated with illicit arms dealers to transfer the weapon or its documentation, the report said.

The report stated that published reports revealed that an international consulting firm called FarWest provided Iran with Shkval documents.

Iran’s navy in April 2006 conducted a test of a high-speed torpedo capable of moving underwater at speeds up to 100 meters per second.

The torpedo was assessed to be an Iranian version of the Shkval-E. Video of the test was widely reported in the West and the Pentagon discounted the development as Iranian propaganda.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran called on its Western foes on Friday to apologize to the Islamic Republic after the release of a U.N. nuclear agency report which Tehran said showed it had been telling the truth about its atomic plans, according to state media.

whoopsi.....

The International Atomic Energy Agency also said restrictions the Iranians put on U.N. inspectors two years ago mean it still cannot rule out that Iran has a secret weapons program, as suspected by Washington and its allies.

An Iranian envoy denounced the idea of further U.N. Security Council sanctions, saying the IAEA assessment shows it is cooperating.

The United States and Britain noted the report confirmed that Iran continues to ignore the Security Council's demands that it suspend uranium enrichment until questions about the nuclear program's intent are resolved.

Whoopsi....

VIENNA, Austria —  Iran has met a key demand of the U.N. nuclear agency, handing over long-sought blueprints showing how to mold uranium metal into the shape of warheads, diplomats said Tuesday.

Iran's decision to release the documents, which were seen by U.N. inspectors two years ago, was seen as a concession designed to head off the threat of new U.N. sanctions.

But the diplomats said Tehran has failed to meet other requests made by the International Atomic Energy Agency in its attempts to end nearly two decades of nuclear secrecy on the part of Iran.The agency has been seeking possession of the blueprints since 2005, when it stumbled upon them among a batch of other documents during its examination of suspect Iranian nuclear activities. While agency inspectors had been allowed to examine them in the country, Tehran had up to now refused to let the IAEA have a copy for closer perusal.

This does not sound especially like this cretin was a double agent being managed by us.

By Andrea Mitchell and Robert Windrem

NBC News

updated 6:21 p.m. ET, Thurs., Nov. 15, 2007

Andrea Mitchell Chief foreign affairs correspondent • Profile

There’s new information about the young Lebanese woman who pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges she lied about her background to get jobs at the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Central Intelligence Agency.

Current and former intelligence officials tell NBC News that Nada Nadim Prouty had a much bigger role than officials at the FBI and CIA first acknowledged. In fact, Prouty was assigned to the CIA’s most sensitive post, Baghdad, and participated in the debriefings of high-ranking al-Qaida detainees.

A former colleague called Prouty “among the best and the brightest” CIA officers at the government's most sensitive post - Baghdad. A second colleague added she was "quite highly thought of: and had received some prime assignments.

Yeah, and I'm really a secret agent.

Among them: the investigation of the USS Cole bombing in Yemen and the investigation of war crimes in Rwanda, the East African nation racked by genocide.

So exceptional was her work, agree officials of both agencies, the CIA recruited her from the FBI to work for the agency’s clandestine service at Langley, Va., in June 2003. She then went to Iraq for the agency to work with the U.S. military on the debriefings.

“Early on, she was an active agent in the debriefings,” said one former intelligence official. “It was more than translation.”

We don't have to worry about Hizballah coming over the Mexican or Canadian Borders, we are taking Hizballah into the FBI and CIA, AND PAYING THEM.

On Tuesday, she pleaded guilty to conspiracy to illegally search FBI computers for classified information about Hezbollah and to naturalization fraud — a sham marriage to a former husband just to become a U.S. citizen.

The rise of the right within various political movements worldwide CANNOT be denied, and must be opposed ALONG WITH IT'S PARALLEL and equally intolerant ISLAMOFASCIST AGGRESSIONS AND MASS MURDERS.

Speechless....

Women get 'virginity fix' NHS operations in Muslim-driven trend

Women are being given controversial "virginity repair" operations on the NHS, it emerged last night.

Taxpayers funded 24 hymen replacement operations between 2005 and 2006, official figures revealed.

And increasing numbers of women are paying up to £4,000 in private clinics for the procedure apparently under pressure from future spouses or in-laws who believe they should be virgins on their wedding night.

Doctors said most patients are immigrants or British of ethnic origin.

The popularity of the operation is said to be the result of social regression caused by Islamic fundamentalism

The trend has been condemned by critics as a sign of social regression driven by Islamic fundamentalists. Some countries have made hymen reconstruction operations illegal.

Dr Magdy Hend, consultant gynaecologist at the Regency Clinic, Harley Street, London, who started hymen reconstruction more than 18 years ago in the Middle East and the Gulf, said: "In some cultures they like to see that the women will bleed on the wedding night. If the wife or bride is not a virgin, it is a big shame on the family."

Dr Hend said he was surprised by the "very good response" to the service and said there is "big competition on the market".

Pakistan Loses Swat to Local Taliban

In recent weeks large swathes of Pakistan’s idyllic mountainous region of Swat—a mere 90 miles from Islamabad—have fallen to militants purportedly led by Maulana Fazlullah, whose Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shari’at-e-Mohammad (Movement for the Enforcement of Islamic Laws, or TNSM) shaheen (fighters) may number as many as 4,500. Swat’s residents are fleeing to safer ground as the security forces, largely comprised of the poorly trained and under-equipped Frontier Corps, are no match for Fazlullah and his following of belligerents. With Swat and other areas increasingly in the hands of militants, Pakistanis must rise to the challenge of combating an ideology that is fast encroaching into more settled areas.

Romanticized notions of Swat notwithstanding, several factors made this region—like Chitral—vulnerable to Talibanization. Swat has always been religiously conservative, with some parts of it influenced by the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), which has many ideological commonalities with the Muslim Brotherhood. Other areas are inclined towards the Deobandi political party, Jamiat-ul-Ulama-i-Islam (JUI). The TNSM group of militants, which originated in Malakand, has also entrenched itself within Swat over the last eight years.

Maulana Sufi Mohammad, an active leader in JI throughout the 1980s, founded TNSM in the early 1990s and demanded the enforcement of Shari’a law contemporaneous with the rise of the Taliban. With the October 2001 launch of U.S. Operation Enduring Freedom, Sufi Mohammad dispatched thousands of fighters to support the Taliban against the United States and Northern Alliance, most of whom were killed, soundly defeated or captured. Sufi Mohammad was arrested, disgraced and blamed for the ignominious rout of the locals. After his imprisonment, his son-in-law Fazlullah took over the organization. Famous for his FM radio broadcasts, Fazlullah became known as “Maulana Radio” and spread the message of Islamization and pro-Taliban ideology. TNSM then used the 2005 earthquake to reposition itself and revive the movement (Terrorism Focus, May 17, 2006; Guardian, November 5).

Melanie Phillips:

Suffice it to say here that the iconic image of the child Mohammed al Durah, pictured crouching with his father behind a barrel next to a concrete wall in an apparently vain attempt to shelter from the gun-battle between Israel and the Palestinians that was raging around them before he was allegedly shot dead by the Israelis, served to incite terrorist violence and atrocities around the world after it was transmitted by France 2 at the beginning of the second intifada. Yet it is clear to anyone looking at this in detail that the whole thing was staged, not least from the devastating evidence here which shows the boy raising his arm and peeping through his fingers seconds after the France 2 correspondent Charles Enderlin said he had been shot dead.

If this had only been the first such example, as we see to the right from 2000.

There is no evidence that anyone at all was killed or injured -- including Mohammed al Durah who by the end of the frames in which he figured seemed to be still very much alive and unmarked by any wound whatsoever.

Is this actually a surprise? But now, so what? The farce is complete.

The drama of today’s hearing was enhanced by the appearance of Enderlin himself, who until today had not graced this case with his presence. As the film was shown to a packed and overheated (in every sense) courtroom, Enderlin and Karsenty offered rival interpretations of the images on the screen. If Enderlin thought he would thus demonstrate the inadequacy of Karsenty’s case, he was very much mistaken. On the contrary, parts of his commentary were so absurd that the courtroom several times burst into incredulous laughter.

Enderlin offered only a vague, rambling and unconvincing explanation of why he had only produced 18 minutes of footage rather than the 27 he claimed to have received from his cameraman in Gaza (Enderlin himself was not in Gaza when these events occurred). After the hearing Professor Richard Landes, one of the people who had already seen the contested footage, said that two scenes had been cut out which clearly showed that the violence had been staged -- including one in which a Palestinian preparing to throw a missile is suddenly picked up and carried into an ambulance despite showing no signs of injury. This scene, said Landes, was filmed by Reuters, who actually filmed the France 2 cameraman filming it. Yet there was no sign of it today.

Dear Fellow Bloggers:

The Religion of Peace Needs Our Help!

http://www.thereligionofpeace.com

An individual by the name of (Rev.) Jim Sutter targeted our good friends at The Religion of Peace in an effort to shut down the site. The results of Sutter’s actions provoked a number of internet companies to incorrectly categorize The Religion of Peace. These incorrect categories have caused the site to be listed as a hate site, and consequently blocked by some servers. We know that the accusations made by Sutter, and the various companies are untrue. The Religion of Peace provides accurate facts about Islam -- not lies. Nor can the site be accused of being racist. First of all Islam is not a race, it is a political religious ideology. Secondly, The Religion of Peace speaks out against all violence that is directed towards Non-Muslims and Muslims.

Anyone who has a blog that attempts to defend the west from radical Islam or Marxists knows that they are constantly at risk of being labeled racist, and shut down by individuals and organizations who do not want the truth to be known. The efforts to silence our voices will increase. We are all in this fight together. Therefore, it would be
greatly appreciated if all of you would post a notice on your blogs, urging your readers to support The Religion of Peace by sending protest e-mails to the offending companies. Islam and the thought police are coming after all of us. Free speech is in jeopardy. We need to pull together into a strong and united force to combat those who intend to crush us.

Out of respect for others The Religion of Peace has avoided asking for assistance. They did not want to impose their problems onto anyone else. I have permission to make this appeal on their behalf.

Please ask your readers to contact the following companies with a short polite e-mail clearly stating that The Religion of Peace -- http://www.thereligionofpeace.com (include the url in the e-mails) is against violence, not racist and should be categorized appropriately under labels such as General News, Politics and Religion.

To the best of our knowledge the e-mail addresses are correct. If anyone encounters problems please contact The Religion of Peace:

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Your assistance is greatly appreciated. Further background information is provided here.

Clinton Says No to Licenses for Illegals

WASHINGTON (AP) - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday came out against granting driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, after weeks of pressure in the presidential race to take a position on a now-failed ID plan from her home state governor.

Clinton has faced criticism from candidates in both parties for her noncommittal answers on New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's attempt to allow illegal immigrants in his state to receive driver's licenses. Spitzer abandoned the effort Wednesday.

"I support Governor Spitzer's decision today to withdraw his proposal," Clinton said in a statement. "As president, I will not support driver's licenses for undocumented people and will press for comprehensive immigration reform that deals with all of the issues around illegal immigration including border security and fixing our broken system."

Honey you were asked about this by Russert, and you couldn't answer for saying something wrong. Now after Spitzer gives in, you come out? What a joke.

Go shopping or something. Forget this gig.

Just as there are outright racists hiding among those who are for a secure border, there are ethnic cleansers among the those for whom the EU has become a Brussels bureaucrat nightmare of lost nations, and washed out history.

The LGF initiated Vlams Belang racism claims thing is impossible to pull apart with any certainty. So I am going to put them aside. But they are disquieting, and reverse smears and insults have turnedit all into a fur ball of personal vitriol.

But the denials (from Dewinter, the leader, in his own words) are clearly obfuscatory and uncomfortable.
Some of Vlaams Belang's ideas:

1. Deportation of economic immigrants who have failed to assimilate (then dropped)
2. Full amnesty for all nazi collaborators in WW2
3. Repeal of anti racism legislation
4. Calls for a white europe and white flanders

Oh there are explanations, and metaphors, and non denial denials, and excuses for why Ayaan Hirsi Ali thinks they should be illegal. But when every little thing, and claim like this (when the BDS morons claim Bush is a fascist) is not on its face ridiculous, and is accompanied by the same explanation...When faced with criticism of Vlaams by Pim Fortuyn, and Ayann Hirsi Ali, and others Dewinter claimed that their left wing opponents try to demonize them, and by calling them fascists, then end the discussion without debate on what they have to say ....(he answered questions about this the SAME WAY, rather than actually rebut the criticism) Three times when questioned as to the (admited) neo nazi heritage and WW2 collaboration he returned to this theme..you add this up and you are getting that queazy feeling. Calls for a white Europe, nazi collaboration (JUST LIKE THE GRAND MUFTI OF JERUSALEM) in WW2 (not denied) all excusable, metaphors, need to be understood?

I UNDERSTAND PERFECTLY.

I last had this feeling when visiting my German representative, and he introduced me to his father who was head of the company, he was 18 in 1943. My name is an INSTANT revelation of my heritage. He took one look at me, and I know he knew that I knew he was 18, and that I was wondering WHAT HE WAS DOING. He went out of his way to be friendly and I constantly wanted to wash myself.Anecdotal overreaction? Maybe. Maybe not.

I couldn't work with these guys.But I don't have to. Time will reveal who Vlaams Belang is.

The BNP and Nick Griffin, appearing here with the CCC are another story. There is no question there.

In this argument in the last few days at various places, good places, like Gates of Vienna, and Infidel Blogger's Alliance, I have had hte arguments of the CCC and KKK used in favor of Vlaams by europeans (and one American) who had no idea what they were saying.

This is disquieting as well.

I cannot hold hands with the racists who want our border closed because they don't want any more mud people. They are all David Duke, but cuter. They are not for a secure border, they want a closed border with NO immigration BECAUSE they are racists. I want a secure border and REAL immigration by people who want to be americans.

I cannot hold hands with people who want to excuse nazi collaborators and use as a reason that even the USSR did this (did they?), and also call for a white europe then weasel on that by saying it was only metaphor.If these guys were in my foxhole, I'd want them in front me, with one less bullet than I have. No way to go to war.

This issue is settled here

INTERPOL ISSUES WARRANTS FOR IRANIAN BOMBING SUSPECTS

On November 7 the Interpol General Assembly issued warrants for one Lebanese and five Iranians suspects in connection with the 1994 bombing of the Argentine-Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) building in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people.

Argentine prosecutors claim to have evidence that Lebanese Hezbollah operatives carried out the bombing on the orders of senior Iranian officials.

The move was applauded by Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni: “The link between Iran and world terrorism… has long been proven, and the time had come for this decision” (Communiqué of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, November 8).

An Iranian foreign ministry spokesman suggested the case had remained open for 13 years only because of “corruption” in the Argentine judiciary, and further claimed that the same judiciary had been “influenced by the Zionist lobby and community based in Argentina” (Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran, November 8). Iranian State Prosecutor-General Qorban Ali Dorri-Najafabadi spoke of “psychological pressure” exerted on Interpol by “Zionist lobbies,” noting that Iran is itself “one of the major victims of terrorism” (Fars News Agency, November 8).

The suspects include Lebanese terrorist Imad Moughnieh, the former chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Mohsen Rezaei and former Iranian intelligence chief Ali Fallahian. Though frequently described as “international arrest warrants,” the documents issued by Interpol are actually “red notices,” which identify individuals as being wanted for extradition without compelling the state to actually arrest or extradite the subject.

The Synagogue in Baghdad, before Israel

A NEW DISCOVERY in the archives at the United Nations has drastically altered the historical narrative of the exile of Jews from Arab countries.

Conventional wisdom had long held that the exile was the result of isolated incidents of anti-Semitism. But the newly discovered document reveals that it was, in fact, the result of concerted efforts by Arab countries, amounting to what is essentially a standard multinational policy of discrimination.

The document was released by the human rights group Justice for Jews from Arab Countries (JFJ) at a conference this past weekend, and includes the following:

" . . . every Jew whose activities reveal that he is an active Zionist will be considered as a political prisoner and will be interned in places specifically designated for that purpose . . . his financial resources . . . will be frozen."

No one at the Arab League was available to speak on record about the document despite repeated call to the

organization over a four-day period. But an unnamed source there claimed that any document explaining such repression is "pretty questionable," given that there is no record of it in Arab League files.

The source said that, due to the lack of computers, there had not been any record-keeping that long ago.

PUULLLEEEEEZE !
Where can I go to begin laughing?

University of Miami professor Henry Green, an attendee at the JFJ conference, said "the historical record regarding the United Nations partition vote and the ongoing issue of refugees includes archival information that is accessible to anyone," and that he would invite the Arab League "to join me and review the records so we can bring the historical documents to bear."

Don't hold your breath, Hank. despite conspiracists complaining over zionist control of the media, where has anyone seen this story? It's anti jihadi chic, no?

Update at bottom ...this gets WORSE AND WORSE....

Former FBI Agent Accused Of Leaking Info
(CBS) A woman who previously worked as an FBI agent and a CIA analyst is expected to plead guilty to charges she disclosed unauthorized information to people outside the government, CBS News has learned.

Sources say the woman, from Lebanon, entered the United States on a student visa and earned citizenship through a sham marriage.

While officials say there is no evidence of actual espionage and no evidence that she was working as a spy, she is accused of passing information to sympathizers of Hezbollah, a group the U.S. has labeled a terrorist organization.

Sources say she came under suspicion after performing a number of computer searches unrelated to cases she had been assigned to.

The woman is expected to appear in court this afternoon in Detroit.

Who vetted this woman, and what have they done about the failure in process?

Update From Debbie Schlussel:
I was right, yet again. I've read Muslim FBI Agent/Hezbollah spy Nada Nadim Prouty's plea agreement (read it here). And guess what? Surprise!--She's the sister-in-law of Hezbollah's $20 million dollar financier Talal Khalil Chahine (owner of "La Shish" restaurants which remain open!), whom U.S. Attorney Stephen Murphy allowed to flee the country. Prouty is the SISTER of Chahine's wife, Elfat El-Aouar. Yup, LUUUV those great FBI and CIA Background Checks of agents.

And get this: The FBI and U.S. Attorney Stephen Murphy (and before him, U.S. Attorneys Craig Morford and Jeffrey Collins) knew Prouty was a spy for Hezbollah back in 2003, but they allowed her to work for the FBI and CIA for over FOUR Years! They did not remove her from the job until the end of this past September--1.5 years after her brother-in-law was indicted for financing Hezbollah!!!!!!

And I was right on another thing. She will do no or almost no jail time. Read the plea agreement, linked above. As reader Tim points out:

Nada Nadim Prouty is facing less than 12 months of jail time, or no jailtime at all, and three years of supervised probation and a fine totaling $2,225 under the plea agreement.

For infiltrating the FBI and CIA and spying for Hezbollah.

How FREAKING stupid can we be?

Ashcroft's Justice Dept couldn't convict ANYONE out of Al Qaeda. They have BLOWN effort after effort. The FBI is probably still doing its searches on their Data General Q-1 2 bit, 12 kilohertz, 64 bytes memory, 8 inch floppy 2 story high big deal system they bought at flying toilet prices.

Who the hell can we vote for that can CLEAN HOUSE?

I admire the main cause of Paul Belien (yes, Virginia this all ends with a but). I admire his fortitude thru what the idiotic Belgian govt has put him thru. He seems to be fighting the good fight for the right things.

So what is this about?

But now there are those firing bolts back and forth across the Atlantic, including him in this goop melange of truth and fiction, of fascist heritage and racial discrimination, of deniers, and genocide, of defense of liberal western values, of wedges between america and her allies, and of nationalism, and racism, of borders and security and WHAT?

This surprise, but not, issue has raised it's very ugly head when Vlams Belang which seemed to me to be defending western values (whatever that means IS the issue, BTW) was rapped by a racist, neo nazi claim.

There is no doubt that their heritage looks to be that, and what they are now, in terms of individuals is at best a very serious question. Serious enough that they should, selflessly, if they are innocent and truly concerned, like Thomas Eagleton, step out of the way. BNP is another story and is past contamination as is truly on the other side. I will never pal up with them under any circumstances. What they are defending is not anything I value, not even peripherally.

In Europe we have "nationalists" who are essentially defending ethnic purity, and NOT values. We also have nationalists defending liberal western values, like the Bill of Rights.

Here we have men like Tom Tancredo, valuable honest, and defending SECURE BORDERS, tainted by things like this. Now I just don't buy that Tancredo is for a secure border because he thinks Mexicans not white enough to get across the border. IS THAT the confusion over Vlams Belang? Well we don't have pix of Tancredo with white power symbols in his home, 'paling up' with the CCC repeatedly, and other indicators, such as those we saw with the senator from Mississippi, Mr.Lott that differentiated him from us when the stupid Strom Thurmond birthday party burst over us.

Then comes Mr. Belien today with a somewhat ignorant of american minutiae (that's okay, believe me I'm sure I can't place Belgium politicians in the full spectrum of left to right either) defending himself somewhat and others a bit more forcefully in the racist claim counterclaim, and suddenly comes a money line of a Freudian moment (???) ....

Sorry, Paul, but I DON'T GIVE  SHIT ABOUT ETHNIC EURO'S.
I never did. I never will.
I care about the folks who want the PEOPLE to be sovereign, not some book. I don;t care if those people who defend my individual right to bear arms, and tell everyone to go to hell, are WHAT SOME WOULD CALL MUSLIMS, or SHINTO, or ZULU.If other ethnicities will benefit america (and THEY FREAKING DO)..I am all for it, as long as they BUY INTO THE PROGRAM. Written in 1789 and amended at our pleasure.

Shockingly, I would have to say that line says for you, defending the position of  ETHNIC EURO'S is a western value. I'm not going to defend Theo Van Gogh because he is a European ethnic, and he was defending his ethnicity by whacking Islam's intolerance.

Maybe defending the position of  ETHNIC EURO'S in a growing deluge of other cultured and colored muslims is a western value, but it is NOT an american one, unless of course you are a member of the CCC

Do I have this all wrong? This is highly disappointing from Mr Belien.

This argument is sapping. These other forces such as Vlams Belang, BNP should SLINK away, reorganize, make penance without question, hesitation or equivocation, and quietly get out from under the weight of the past, if it is possible. They can contribute in their present form, and heritage ONLY NEGATIVE ENERGY

Iranian police have unveiled a list of "vices" -- including makeup, un-Islamic dress and decadent movies -- being targeted in an ongoing moral crackdown, a conservative newspaper reported on Monday.

The list was published in the Jomhuri Eslami newspaper as part of a police drive launched in April which has seen the arrest of "thugs", raids on underground parties, seizures of satellite dishes, and street checks of improperly dressed individuals.

Wait till they begin checking american high schools.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei last week urged police to keep up its crackdown on social vices, saying they must "fulfill their duties regardless of some opposition and propaganda."

Achmadinejad is NOT the problem. He is a SYMPTOM. He has said and done nothing different from ANY of their leaders since 1979, he is just more noticed

Some moderates have questioned the need for the moral crackdown but conservatives have applauded police for a drive they say is popular with the public and necessary to improve security in society.

"The list of illegal behaviour against the security and morality of society which will be pursued by police... has been announced," the Jomhuri Eslami said.

The list, which does not make any reference to gender, highlights the fight against extortionists and drug dealers as well as what it terms "inappropriate" clothing which is short, tight or seethrough.

Thousands of women have been warned for wearing tight, short coats and skimpy headscarves and for flouting the Islamic dress code, which requires every post-pubescent woman to cover their hair and body contours.

Yes it's now mutated from Bush derangement syndrome to republican derangement syndrome (after all, I suppose, since all those repubs cheated america out of Al Gore in 2000...)
I've seen some convoluted ethical and philosophical gymnastics to paint the opposition into some kind of imagined partisan corner before, but this one takes the cake.
I know the LA Times in getting rid of Robert Scheer was setting a tone of less real stupidity in the op-ed area, but now Rosa Brooks moves in to claim the mantle of galactically stupid comparisons.

Rosa Brooks:

Torture: the new abortion

The legality of torture takes over as the political litmus test in campaigns and confirmation hearings.

November 8, 2007

Remember that golden, innocent time -- the 1980s and '90s -- when the phrase "political litmus test" was associated with the debate about abortion rights, and torture was associated with the Spanish Inquisition?

Those days are gone. And, as usual in life, there's good news and bad news. The good news? Abortion isn't nearly as divisive an issue as it used to be. The bad news? For the GOP, torture is the new abortion.

Not too long ago, judicial nominees and political candidates could expect to be grilled on abortion. As the Republican leadership became dominated by right-wing evangelicals, staunch opposition to abortion became a precondition for those seeking support from GOP insiders. Soon, abortion was a litmus test for both parties. Just as Republicans would oppose any candidate or nominee who supported abortion rights, Democrats would oppose anyone who wanted Roe vs. Wade overturned.

Everyone getting it? If you want to be a republican, the litmus test is if you are willing to sanction breaking arms, hot irons, and electrical stimulation of certain parts.


That's the painting progressives want to complete of those who in some ways may be to THEIR right, if not on THE right. I feel like I am listening to the truly sci-fi commissars of Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili. Is it supposed to be believable?

Is this the real conclusion of serious people, when it's really waterboarding we're talking about and the 3 men waterboarded in american history since 2001 are ALL mass murderers with 3000 american dead on their hands and active operational knowledge of more operations? Operations not on what we think of as the field of battle, but operations which are aimed at where we live in our quiet little capitalistic, selfish, propertied, privileged,  mini-Eichmann lives, eh?

If methods which some consider distasteful, and others consider illegal, if not torture, lasting AT A MAXIMUM slightly over  140 seconds, on three men, like Khalid Sheik Mohammad, and Ramzi Bin Alshib ...excuse, me but the only way way this is worth getting worked up over, is if people like YOU Rosa Brooks, seek to manufacture  attempts to uncover operations meant to  kill innocent american civilians (like you), into a method to make people on YOUR right, into the Reynhard Heydrich.

Spanish King Tells Chavez to "Shut Up"

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) - The king of Spain told Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to "shut up" Saturday during a heated exchange at a summit of leaders from Latin America, Spain and Portugal.

Chavez, who called President Bush the "devil" on the floor of the United Nations last year, triggered the exchange by repeatedly referring to former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar as a "fascist."

Aznar, a conservative who was an ally of Bush as prime minister, "is a fascist," Chavez said in a speech at the Ibero-American summit in Santiago, Chile. "Fascists are not human. A snake is more human."

Spain's current socialist prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, responded during his own allotted time by urging Chavez to be more diplomatic in his words and respect other leaders despite political differences.

"Former President Aznar was democratically elected by the Spanish people and was a legitimate representative of the Spanish people," he said, eliciting applause from the gathered heads of state.

Chavez repeatedly tried to interrupt, but his microphone was off.

Spanish King Juan Carlos, seated next to Zapatero, angrily turned to Chavez and said, "Why don't you shut up?"

The Venezuelan leader did not immediately respond, but later used time ceded to him by his close ally Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega to answer Zapatero's speech.

"I do not offend by telling the truth," he said. "The Venezuelan government reserves the right to respond to any aggression, anywhere, in any space and in any manner."

Here's how it works. Saudi Arabia reaps windfall revenues from the sale of crude oil, now hurtling toward $100 a barrel. And the kingdom returns the petrodollars to fund weapons sales from and hate in the West.

The weapons are known. Riyad plans to purchase at least some $50 billion over the next five years. More than $40 billion of this will come in aircraft and related purchases from Britain and the United States. The rest will go to France, Russia and Pakistan.

The Saudis plan to export something in exchange for weapons: hate. Riyad has been financing the most virulent anti-Western literature that preaches jihad against non-Muslims.

You'd think that Riyad would be careful where it funds the hate literature. No way. The kingdom's focus has been Britain and the United States, essentially the Western backers of the house of Saud.

In London, Saudi-financed mosques are the key distributors of literature against Christians, Jews, Shi'ites and even moderate Muslims. The British think tank Policy Exchange visited 100 mosques and Islamic institutions funded by Saudi Arabia. Most of the books and pamphlets were in English and they called openly for the murder of gays and others who did not confirm to the Wahabi sect of Islam that dominates the kingdom.

"Saudi Arabia is the ideological source of much of this sectarianism — and must be held to account for it," Policy Exchange said in a report.

The government of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was briefed on the Saudi hate literature. But Abdullah didn't hear a word of this from his hosts during his visit to London last week. Brown was too busy trying to sell new weapons to Riyad while Queen Elizabeth was working on protocol with the Arab monarch.

For all the Dems, and Ron Paul -ite morons who think if we simply mind our own business we will all sing cumbaya, WAKE UP. And to all the absolute idiots in the admin who think we have 'allies' in the Al Saud, either you are paid off, petrified, or so incompetent we should coat you with tar and feathers. There IS no business relationship, or alliance possible with those who think they are fulfilling god's order to wipe out kufr-dom, one way or the other.

TEL AVIV — Gertz -Israeli military sources said Hamas combatants, trained by Hizbullah and Iran, have developed capabilities in intelligence, reconnaissance and guerrilla tactics that were taking an increasing toll on Israeli forces.

The sources said Hamas, with a 10,000-member army, has succeeded in studying and rapidly responding to Israeli combat tactics.

Israeli soldiers are seen returning from the Palestinian Gaza Strip. AFP/Menahem Kahana

"They are using rocket-propelled grenades, sniper fire and reconnaissance to pick off our soldiers," a military source said. "In some cases, they see us better than we see them."

So far, three Israeli soldiers have been killed in the daily clashes along the Israel-Gaza border since August 2007. The sources said the deaths have been troubling to the Israeli military, which deploys elite units to battle Hamas.

The sources said Hamas, guided by Hizbullah, has established forward reconnaissance units, anti-tank units and snipers throughout the Gaza border. They said the network has ensured rapid Hamas response to Israeli incursions in the Gaza Strip.

The daily clashes have exhausted Israeli troops deployed along the Gaza border, the sources said. So far, the government of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has rejected a military appeal for a full-scale invasion of the Gaza Strip.

Not even Hudna ....

For its part, Hamas has vowed to launch an offensive inside Israel. Palestinian sources said Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif returned to the Gaza Strip after 14 months of medical treatment for an injury sustained in an Israeli air strike.

"The Kassam Brigades are preparing within a few weeks to start attacking the Israelis inside their territories instead of taking a defensive position only," Hamas leader Ahmed Hamdan quoted Deif as saying.

Time is NOT in our favor.
Every day that goes by means American action WILL be more costly

MOSCOW — Iran is in negotiations with Russia for an advanced fighter-jet.

Russian industry sources said Teheran has expressed interest in Russia's Su-30 fighter-jet. They said the two countries have been negotiating a major deal and could reach agreement in 2008.

Su-30 fighter-jets trailing a fuel-tanker.

"The Iranians need a fighter-jet that could operate in the same airspace as the U.S. F-15 and F-16," an industry source said. "They also need aircraft that could conduct offensive missions."

The sources said the Iranian Air Force, with 1970s-era fighters, has examined a range of Russian and Chinese aircraft. They cited the Chinese-origin J-10A fighter-jet, said to have been based on technology from Israel's defunct Lavi combat aircraft project in the 1980s.

"Russia is now more prepared to consolidate and promote ties with Iran," a Russian envoy said.

On Oct. 22, the Moscow-based Kommersant business daily reported that China approved the export of 24 J-10 fighters to Iran in a $1 billion deal. The newspaper said deliveries would begin in 2008 and last through 2010.

But a senior industry source said the J-10 contract with Iran has not been signed. The source said Teheran prefers more modern fighters from Russia, particularly the Sukhoi Su-30 Flanker fighter-bombers.

Iran has been negotiating for the procurement of 250 Su-30 fighters from Moscow. A senior Russian diplomat predicted a breakthrough that would result in a major weapons deal between Moscow and Teheran. The diplomat did not elaborate.

More the SU-30 HERE.

More on the sale which got a Russian investigative reporter murdered HERE

Financial Times- Lieberman hits out at 'paranoid' Democrats

By Edward Luce in Washington

Published: November 9 2007 02:00 | Last updated: November 9 2007 02:00

The 2008 Democratic candidates are beholden to a "hyper-partisan, politically paranoid" liberal base that could endanger the final nominee's chances of winning next year's presidential election, Joe Lieberman, the former vice-presidential Democratic candidate, said yesterday.

In his most outspoken attack on fellow Democrats since he was unsuccessfully challenged last year by Ned Lamont, a liberal Democrat, for his Senate seat in Connecticut, Mr Lieberman yesterday said he might not vote for the Democratic presidential nominee next year.

How's that taste, Hill?

He argued that George W. Bush and the Republican presidential candidates remained truer than the Democratic party to its tradition of a "moral, internationalist, liberal and hawkish" foreign policy that was established by presidents Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman and John Kennedy.

"The Democratic party I grew up in was unafraid to make moral judgments about the world beyond our borders," he said.

Is there the slightest shock in that conclusion?

Every republican commercial show demostrate how very much the forces which control the democratic party today dislike the way of life we have been handed, and how much they regard the founding ideas of the nation itself as wrong, and even evil.

Although reviled by many in the Democratic party's base, particularly among the "netroots" of groups such as MoveOn.org and Daily Kos, Mr Lieberman's comments play directly into the increasingly testy exchange between Hillary Clinton, the party's presidential frontrunner, and her principal rivals.

In September, Mrs Clinton voted for a Senate resolution sponsored by Mr Lieberman that called for economic sanctions against the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps for allegedly sponsoring terrorist groups that -target US forces.

Democrats Warn Pakistan Like '70s Iran
MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) - Two Democratic presidential candidates with extensive foreign policy experience warned Thursday that the current unrest in Pakistan is reminiscent of events that led up to the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979-81.

Joe Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Bill Richardson, a former U.N. ambassador during the Clinton administration, said the U.S. is in danger of repeating the mistakes that led to one of the nation's worst international debacles of the last half century.

"We made the mistake years ago of backing a dictatorship in Iran. We're paying for it today. ... Unless we advocate democracy and human rights and a dramatic change in Pakistan, we're in danger of making the same mistake," Richardson said during a general question-and- answer sessions about U.S. security.

Well then I guess they think we are doing correctly in Iraq, huh?

And thus they voice the complaint of 'liberals' (now the neocons) thru the 50's and 60's and 70's. Namely we are backing anti communist dictator bastards in violation of our own heritage just because these sons of bitches claim to be anti communist. The dems today, of course, just want to be on the opposite side from Bush even if that requires some gymnastics

I agreed then. And I agree with the principle today. Today we have the perfect analog. "Apres moi, le deluge" claims Pervez. Maybe he's right, probably not. The thing is, with people ruling themselves all that can be done is to ensure OPPORTUNITY. Sort of like the civil rights movement. We can ensure there is equal opportunity (sometimes), we cannot ensure outcome. Democracy  with guaranteed individual rights is a constant vigilant struggle.

That's why Musharraf's ploy...looks like he is arresting thousands of lawyers, and giving in to thousands of talib's..is anti democratic and not anti terrorist. So what is he about? Preserving personal power? Perhaps Ms Bhutto or some other elected govt will be better equipped, and be more credible to begin to erode the MMA's sway, and the madrassahs' long history of instilling venom.

It's either laws or men, Pervez. You have chosen....poorly.

Al Qaeda May Strike U.S. Shopping Malls in LA, Chicago

The FBI is warning that al Qaeda may be preparing a series of holiday attacks on U.S. shopping malls in Los Angeles and Chicago, according to an intelligence bulletin distributed to law enforcement authorities across the country this morning. (Click here for full text.)

The alert said al Qaeda "hoped to disrupt the U.S. economy and has been planning the attack for the past two

years."

Go ahead, piss off the mommies.

Law enforcement officials tell ABCNews.com that the FBI received the information in late September and declassified it yesterday for wide distribution. 

The alert, like similar FBI and Department of Homeland Security terror alerts issued over the past five years at holiday times, raised questions about the credibility of the information.

The bulletin acknowledges that U.S. intelligence officers are uncertain as to whether the information is real, and intelligence officers say there is a concern that it could be "disinformation."

Law enforcement officials at three different agencies told ABCNews.com the FBI alert was based on a source who has proved reliable in the past.

The source reportedly had only "indirect access" to al Qaeda and word of the actual threat came to U.S. intelligence officers "through a lengthy chain" of contacts.

With the shopping season approaching, however, the FBI officials decided it was necessary to share the information.

For the past few years, jihadist chat rooms have regularly posted comments from anonymous individuals who have suggested or boasted about similar plans to attack such soft targets as shopping malls.

"Portions of an FBI document, called an IIR (Intelligence Information Report) were leaked to the media. This document was intended for law enforcement and intelligence community partners for situational awareness," said FBI Special Agent Richard Kolko. "In the post-9/11 era, sharing information is our top priority. Al-Qa'ida there is no information to messaging has clearly stated they intend to attack the U.S. or its interests; however, state this is a credible threat. We remind people to remain vigilant and report suspicious activity to authorities."

Some men go off to a war having been drafted, have a rifle placed into their hands and fire it under stress to avoid being killed by others trying to murder them and their buddies.

Some men fly fighters blasting away at other pilots trying under duress to kill them, dropping the occasional bomb on enemy troops trying to kill the guys with the rifles on the ground trying to avoid being murdered.

Some men pass the war training others to do that fighting, or moving needed stores to the fighters, or doing guard duty, or guarding the transports taking the fighters to their destination.

But others, find themselves having been placed into eternal peril. Others face conscience, and duty choices which were unimaginable before 1944 and 45.

Paul Tibbetts was asked to kill scores of thousands of people to end a war and perhaps save 3-4 million other casualties, a million of whom would be his fellow Americans. He was asked to do that for us. So was his crew.

It is so easy to forget that the initial projections for the invasion of japan forecast as many deaths as we had suffered so far in the ENTIRE WAR.

Today, 3 generations plus later, many around the world have been falsely taught what he and his men carried out was a war crime. Enough intolerance over the reality of that war exists so that Paul Tibbetts, even in death volunteered again, to forgo funeral, honor and public respect to avoid his grave becoming a marker of obloquy for the critical progressive left.

Paul Tibbetts and others in his crew and the 509th, served this nation from the moment they put on their uniform, and now past death itself.

Their acts, while that of a brutal war, DID save american, AND enemy lives.

These men, and Paul Tibbetts who had command responsibility, have earned our eternal thanks to their immortal souls.

Thank you.

Jamestown:

The 2007 edition of the annual offensive of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) against Turkey has displayed the group’s adaptability and its tenacity. It has included a multi-front strategy, with both urban terrorist-style attacks in cities such as Istanbul (Terrorism Focus, October 10) and the more traditional small-unit guerrilla operations in southeast Turkey. The guerrilla tactics this year, however, encompassed an increase in the use of improvised explosive devices that resulted in an upsurge in Turkish casualties (Terrorism Focus, June 26).

Not very PC, PKK

In just one battle on October 21, more than a dozen Turkish troops were killed, 17 wounded and eight more captured and taken back to the PKK’s Iraqi mountain redoubt (Hurriyet, October 22).

After initially limiting its response to cautioning Turkey not to invade northern Iraq / Kurdistan, U.S. policy shifted and the United States is now providing Turkey with intelligence data on the PKK presence.

Stung by the continuing stream of casualties in higher numbers, Turkey engaged in a very intense public campaign on a worldwide basis, including threats to invade Iraqi territory. Turkey also expressed its outrage at the consideration of a U.S. Congressional Resolution recognizing an alleged genocide campaign against Armenians by Ottoman Turks in the early 20th Century. The combination of these factors, according to Turkey, would severely damage U.S.-Turkish relations.

The damage, primarily to the U.S. military effort in neighboring Iraq, could include decreased access to airfields and roads, according to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates (AP, October 10). A Pentagon press briefing on October 26 by the senior U.S. military official in Northern Iraq, Major General Benjamin Mixon, did little to assuage Turkish fears. In response to a question about his plans vis-à-vis the PKK, General Mixon said that he was planning to do “absolutely nothing” to counter PKK activities in Northern Iraq because he had “not been given any requirements” to do so by higher authorities (www.defenselink.mil, October 26). Simultaneously, though, Washington stated publicly that it was willing to provide “actionable intelligence” to Turkey in countering the PKK (Turkishpress.com, October 23). Subsequently, in a November 2 news conference in Ankara, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stated that Washington was already providing actionable intelligence to Turkey on PKK facilities. Working with the Northern Iraqi provincial government, Secretary Rice said that the number of Turkish-Iraqi border passes has been reduced in an effort to provide more control over the movement of PKK commandos (Asia Times, November 6).

Associated Press:
BIRJAND, Iran - Iran has achieved a landmark with 3,000 centrifuges fully working in its controversial uranium enrichment program, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Wednesday. blah blah blah....HERE. No further words in this story are meaningful.

Jersusalem Post:
"We have now reached 3,000 machines," Ahmadinejad told thousands of Iranians gathered in Birjand, in eastern Iran, in a show of defiance of international demands to halt the program believed to be masking the country's nuclear arms efforts.

Ahmadinejad on Wednesday reiterated his rejection of any suspension of Iran's enrichment activities, or even a compromise over how Teheran will proceed beyond the 3,000 centrifuges.

"They say they've swallowed (bitterly accepted) these 3,000 and want to reach an agreement with us on what to do, at what speed, how many (centrifuges) a day or week," Ahmadinejad said of latest Western pressures.

"Our response is: 'Who are you to make comments about the Iranian nation ... do we ask you how many machines you have,"' Ahmadinejad added.

He also said he had bluntly refused a recent offer to negotiate with the United States over Iran's nuclear activities.

"I, as your representative, told those who brought the message that we didn't ask for talks ... If talks are to be held, it is the Iranian nation that has to set conditions, not the arrogant and the criminals," Ahmadinejad said.

"The world must know that this nation will not give up one iota of its nuclear rights ... if they think they can get concessions from this nation, they are badly mistaken," he concluded.

AND THEN.......

U.S. Fifth Fleet in Gulf exercise for possible war in Iran

ABU DHABI — The U.S. Navy launched a series of exercises in the Gulf to enhance skills required in any war with Iran which, according to British press reports, could occur in early 2008.

The U.S. Fifth Fleet conducted a crisis response exercise that included amphibious, air and medical forces. The five-day exercise by the USS Wasp, led by Commander Task Force 59, was scheduled to end on Nov. 5.

The U.S. Fifth Fleet has been operating two strike groups in the Gulf. The USS Enterprise and USS Kearsarge have also been training in the region.

The U.S. Navy also said it would deploy the Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group in the Middle East. The navy

said the Truman would be accompanied by the guided missile destroyers Oscar Austin and Winston S. Churchill as well as the guided missile cruiser San Jacinto and the submarine Montpelier.

Britain and Canada would also join the U.S. strike group, the navy said.

Officials said the exercise would evaluate the capability of the USS Wasp to respond to oil spills

Too many nations have kurdish people on their land with a contiguously kurdish area that stretches across Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran. More, an independent or even fully autonomous federated kurdish 'state' within Iraq threatens each of the other three nations.

Kurds riot against Syrian support for Turkey's planned offensive
NICOSIA — The large Kurdish minority in Syria has launched a wave of unrest to protest Turkey's plans to invade Iraq.

Kurdish sources said protests have erupted in Kurdish towns in northeastern Syria to protest Turkey's threats to invade neighboring northern Iraq and eradicate the Kurdish Workers Party. The sources said the protesters expressed anger over Syria's support for Ankara.

In some cases, Syrian security forces opened fire against the demonstrators. At least one Kurd was killed and five others were injured in a protest by 200 people in Qamishli on Nov. 2.

CIA MAP OF KURDISH AREAS, 1992

The sources said Kurds hurled rocks toward the Syrian troops. The troops were said to have responded with live fire and teargas.

Qamishli was said to have turned into a hotbed of Kurdish nationalism. In 2004, dozens of Kurds were killed in anti-government clashes in the city that spread throughout northeastern Syria.

The sources said Syrian forces have been rushed to Qamishli to quell the violence. The funeral of the Kurdish victim on Nov. 3 proceeded without incident.

Unrest was also reported in Aleppo, Syria's second largest city. Witnesses said police prevented Kurdish demonstrations against Turkey.

THE PKK AND SYRIAN KURDS

Ha'aretz-Hebrew, 6 Nov 07 -  Excerpts translated to English

It would not be a great exaggeration to conclude that the Palestinian national movement has ceased to exist in recent years. The institutions of the PLO, which were to represent all groups among the Palestinian people, have become outdated and of little importance.

 

One of the clearest signs of the decline of the Palestinian national project is the departure of many of its key figures.

1. Nabil Shaath, a PLO veteran who was a minister in the Palestinian government after returning with Arafat and settling in Gaza, has return to his home in Cairo where he runs a thriving business.
   
2. Muhammad Dahlan and Hasan Asfor, who not long ago were ministers and powerful advisors in Gaza, now spend most of their time in Cairo with their families.
   
3. In Ramallah, it is estimated that 50,000 residents have left the West Bank in recent years, most to return to their homes and property in Amman. They had come to Ramallah and Nablus to work in PA offices there.

 
With the failure of the PA experiment, the Arab states have begun to return to the scene. The Jordanian government, with the encouragement of Israel, is establishing a renewed presence in the West Bank, especially in eastern Jerusalem. King Abdullah II and government leaders in Amman are careful to publicly announce that they have no designs on the West Bank. While this may be true, there is no doubt that their interest in events there is growing.

There is every reason to expect further cooperation between the West Bank and the East Bank in Jordan, which will also have political consequences. As long as the separation fence between Israel and the West Bank continues to be built, relations between the West Bank and Jordan will strengthen.

The Palestinian terror campaign against Israel continues, even though it's now pretty much nothing but failed terror attempts. Most of this activity is little noticed outside of Israel. Palestinian media cheers on the hapless terrorists, as they head for the cemetery or prison. It's an article of faith among Palestinians that current failures are  a temporary setback and that, long term, they will prevail and destroy Israel.

The Palestinians are particularly eager to keep firing Kassam rockets and mortar shells into southern Israel. While these attacks are largely ineffective, they are less likely to get the attackers killed (compared to any other type of attack.) Several Palestinian groups, including Hamas, are involved here, and so far Israel has been unable to stop them.

Israeli intelligence discovered and Israeli troops destroyed, seven smuggling tunnels between Gaza and Egypt. The tunnels are mostly used to bring in consumer goods (cigarettes, drugs and popular consumer items) and enable terrorists (and anyone else who can pay) to move in and out of Gaza.

In the West Bank, Fatah policemen are arresting Palestinian terrorists, or at least finding out where they are (and letting Israeli police make the arrest). This, and the release of up to 2,000 Palestinians jailed on terrorism charges, is what Fatah wants in return for peace negotiations. Such a "peace" would only be a truce.
Palestinian Arab language propaganda (from Hamas and Fatah) continues to call for the destruction of Israel. Fatah is more peaceful sounding in English
Maybe not.....

With Secretary Rice next to him, "moderate" "peace partner" Mahmoud Abbas shared with the reporters that "I also reiterated to Dr. Rice the need for the Israelis to commit to stop the military aggressions against our people in the West Bank and Gaza, as well as the stopping of incursions and assassinations and the military checkpoints" =  Israel has to stop defending itself.

As for compromise on the return of refugees to within Israel: "We do not want to violate any of these international and legitimate resolutions -- not less, not more." = no compromise on what they see as right of return via 194.

 But hey.  Mahmoud Abbas is a "moderate peace partner".  He is Ms. Rice's great Palestinian hope.

 

Over the weekend, several hundred Hizbollah members carried out military maneuvers in southern Lebanon. The Hizbollah men were unarmed, and moving about as they would if there were another war with Israel. All this was part practical, and part propaganda.
Wha....?

Hezbollah staged secret military maneuvers in south Lebanon
WTF?

I really thought that the idea of 2008, and a wide open presidential election might bring some equilibrium out of lunatic opprobrium.

I mean, every indicator pointed to more left victories.

Every event showed the national polling wanted a 'new direction for the country" (whatever that means...it's beyond me)

Instead, every contemplation by the left of the reasoning (meaning an opinion based on actual facts of history and the world), not of the right, but anyone to THEIR right seems only to egg on a delusional state of venomous hissing, frothing,  foaming and rejectionism, even if the person to the right of the 'progressive' left, is actually left of center.

Take our electronic acquaintance, one Ms. Cinnamon Stillwell, not exactly an Ann Coulter, and hailing from where Cindy Sheehan wants to unseat the reactionary right winger, Nancy Pelosi, the columnist reports this beautiful encomium of Jeffersonian Democracy via email.

"Your 'conservative' voice will hopefully be classified as hate speech in a new America that will be ushered in with a Democratic president and veto proof Democrat congress in 2008. They will appoint the judges to the supreme court that will redefine free speech. Your time is coming. Free speech will remain protected but conservative positions such as your amount to hate speech that WILL BE OUTLAWED. I hope to help ensure you end up in jail to be reeducated with your friends Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter. Leave San Francisco now or you will be rounded up with your filthy hater conservative friends."

Amazingly, Ms. Stillwell has not actually had this descendant of Lincoln, Paine and Franklin rendered to Egypt, or Burkina Faso

We also now have derangement related to that most awful of fascist (pro life, thrice married, weak on immigration, mafia crushing) thinkers, the famous nazi dictator, Giuliani by the righteous (sorry Sir Martin, no insult intended).

From the paragon of preparedness (including plagiarism) Joe Biden:

Rudy Giuliani [is] probably the most underqualified man since George Bush to seek the presidency.

James Carrol of the Boston Globe:

He's like a gang leader now, roving the streets, looking for some punk to bash. Iran will do.

Presumably Mr. Carrol has some negotiating strategy that France, Britain, Germany, the United States and the IAEA have not yet thought of. Or maybe he discounts as well the words of EVERY SINGLE LEADER OF IRAN since 1979 as absurd hyperbole we should just ignore, sort of like this:

The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies -- civilians and military -- is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it

I mean we did well to ignore these crazy hyperbolic threats before, so why change? Maybe he just thinks it was impolite of Giuliani to turn away that check from Talal.

Yglesias:

I know I've said before that Romney's profound and almost incalculable phoniness is a terrifying prospect to behold in a possible president. But the danger of phoniness, aesthetic or otherwise, cannot hold a candle to the truly catastrophic foreign policy Giuliani would likely pursue if he got anywhere near the Oval Office.

Then he quotes another columnist as if reading from the engraved stone of objective history :

Paul Krugman notes that Rudy Giuliani's running around the country saying things about health care policy that aren't true, and wonders "Why isn’t Mr. Giuliani’s behavior here considered not just a case of bad policy analysis but a character issue?" It's a good question.

These guys must be concerned.

Center of Taliban recruitment from day one, Al Qaeda training and anti-Soviet moneys via the ISI, land where an early loonie Islamist dictator Zia ul Haq asked Barbara Walters why on earth she believed OUR democracy would survive, the place where Maududi's Deobandi Islam madrassahs on Saudi money teach a degree of hatred and prejudice seen elsewhere only in Iran, an amazingly sometimes democracy, plagued by a typical third world corruption, with a large portion of the people out of control, literally, and another larger portion wanting to democratically vote out democracy, Pakistan took a step, which way, forward, sideways, but more likely backwards ... I can't tell, but one which was designed to personally benefit the famous author, Pervez Musharraf, who may yet turn out to be more ruthless than hanging on by his finger nails, and who has shown a big EFF YOU streak to everyone.

It's clear that Pakistan is poised, as usual, on a knife edge of supporting anti american terrorism, democratic change, electing a women, and electing people who think women are walking orifices of any sort the men need, who unless covered make legal any use of same the men feel like.

The is no doubt that the MMA, Northwest Territories, and the Pushtuns are the enemies of the american people, and the american way of life, not just as they have been lied to about it (fornicating, alcoholic, drug pushing, MTV watching...) but as WE KNOW IT HERE. There is no doubt they have a lot of support.

StrategyPage puts this mess very aptly:

Some Pakistanis blame Islam, while many more blame foreign conspiracies. An increasing number see internal flaws that must be fixed. There is no general agreement on how to proceed. The majority want democracy, but Pakistani democracy has been crippled by corruption. Military dictators wear out their welcome in a few years. A large minority want an Islamic dictatorship, but after seeing how that worked in Afghanistan, most Pakistanis are very hostile to letting clerics run the country.

But Benazir Bhutto has a lot of freaking guts, and amazingly, a lot of support.

So what do we make of Musharraf, who suspends the freaking constitution over a coming supreme court ruling which mandates, per their own constitution, that a man IN THE MILITARY cannot be president. I guess he likes his uniform.

Pervez says if he steps away, per the requirement of his own constitution from either head of the military or the presidency, the result will be chaos, and i.e. dear america ... the MMA in charge(??) He may be right.

But it will always be a close run thing for democracy. That's just the way it is.

Sorry Pervez, but you just have to make up your mind to chance it and be ready, or forget the charade and just be the Somoza you might be in that portrait of yourself you have in the attic.

Either there IS a constitution, or there is not. Either you are a nation of laws or of men.
While the stakes are high is exactly when politicians or military leaders can become statesmen.

GERTZ:Officials said the administration's decision would affect more than 20 IRGC-owned or -controlled entities, including three Iranian banks.Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson was expected to be the lead official in the U.S. sanctions on Iran in what could determine the effectiveness of the last diplomatic option of the Bush administration. Paulson's job would be to convince U.S. allies, particularly in NATO, to adopt the sanctions to avoid penalties by Washington.

But officials are skeptical.

They said the mild-mannered Paulson would be unable to pull Asian and European states away from trading with Iran. They pointed to even close allies, such as Britain and Germany, who maintain unusually close relations with Iran.

In 2007, the British Foreign Office admitted 60 Iranians to study advanced nuclear physics at British universities. London has also been selling dual-use components that could be used in Iran's nuclear and missile program.

"Given that we need to have tougher sanctions against Iran, it does seem extraordinary that the government is not yet stopping Iranians coming here to study nuclear physics," said David Willetts, the so-called British shadow secretary for innovation, universities and skills. "There is legitimate concern about what some students have been studying."

It is truly amazing to me. Despite the fact that the Iranians have all been consonant in stating their national goal in this regard, that it is non negotiable, that the 'powers of arrogance' will have to get used to them, ...despite the facts of the EFP's avalanching into Iraq from an obvious source, despite the actions of Iran in OUR HEMIPSHERE, and their proudly racist and genocidal religious superiority, supercession cult, and it's apocalyptic guarantee of a better world post armageddon, the west expresses ..SERIOUS CONCERN ...uh oh... this means stern letters will follow.

No intelligence agency (at least in the west) has ever been CLOSE to accurate about the development of nuclear weapons by a potential enemy. EVER. We have been off by years on the long side 100% of the time. INCLUDING IRAQ IN 1991. It took the USA, in 1944-45 TEN MONTHS to go from creating a UF6 diffusion plant to a working , deliverable nuclear weapon with the technology of that time, and NO OUTSIDE technical assistance. The situation could not be more clear.

The ONLY debatable question is if the Iranians are a deterrable nuclear power. I don't hear this debate.

On Oct. 25, following months of debate, the Bush administration announced sanctions against Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as well as related institutions in Iran. Officials said IRGC, the first foreign military penalized by the United States, has been the prime contractor of Teheran's ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs.

"It is increasingly likely that if you are doing business with Iran you are doing business with the IRGC," Paulson said. "It's simply not worth the risk."

Under the latest measure, the United States would impose sanctions on any company or individual that deals with the 125,000-member IRGC or its businesses. Officials said IRGC controls up to 30 percent of Iran's economy, including energy and infrastructure.

Officials said the administration's decision would affect more than 20 IRGC-owned or -controlled entities, including three Iranian banks.

In addition, IRGC's Quds Force would be designated a "specially designated global terrorist," and subject to economic sanctions, officials said. Quds Force was said to be organizing the Shi'ite insurgency in Iraq.

"We have our national interests engaged, on the line, in Iraq," Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns said. "We think that Iranian assistance to the Shia militant groups is providing the technology with which they then subsequently — those Shia terrorist groups — attack American soldiers and kill and maim American soldiers. So that's a serious issue for us, and we have troops there."

Is Paulson the man to get tough with U.S. allies over Iran? So far, Paulson, a former chairman of Goldman Sachs who entered the position in June 2006, has been known as an advocate of big business — particularly with China.

Paulson has sought to prevent U.S. sanctions on China despite major violations in human rights, flouting of economic transparency, proliferation of missiles and nuclear components to Iran and North Korea. He was said to have argued that U.S. sanctions no longer comprise a lever in Chinese or Iranian decisions.

Iran is not waiting for the Bush administration to decide what to do about Teheran's nuclear program. Iran is moving to attack the United States through the back door.

Iranian opposition sources said Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has ordered an acceleration of efforts to expand Teheran's presence in South and Central America. They said Ahmadinejad wants an Iranian presence that would enable massive attacks on U.S. interests in key South American countries as well as the ability to send terrorists into the United States on short notice.

Never mind terrorists, as detailed here the submarines Chavez wants from the Russians (have they refused yet to sell ANYTHING? In 1999 they offered to sell Akula's to China ,and are NOW SELLING THEM TO INDIA..Jane's Defense Weekly), are easily capable of striking the USA from DOCKSIDE.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran has acquired portions of a classified Iranian government report that details Iran's plans to infiltrate many countries south of the U.S. border. The report by Iran's Supreme National Security Council outlines plans for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the nation's elite military unit, to establish a presence within a stone-throw's distance of Arizona, Texas and New Mexico.

The IRGC priority is to build a presence in Mexico. The 125,000-member IRGC, which controls 30 percent of Iran's economy, would deploy within Shi'ite and Alawite communities and buy its way into the corrupt government in Mexico City. IRGC would also infiltrate the Mexican arms, drug and illegal migrant smuggling network that operates along the U.S. border.

This is too obvious to be any kind of surprise to anyone competent enough to place themselves in Iranian shoes.

But IRGC does not want to be confined to Mexico. The plan also called for an Iranian terrorist presence in Bolivia, Columbia, Nicaragua, Uruguay and Venezuela. Venezuela has already become a leading ally of Ahmadinejad, and Caracas was deemed as one of two headquarters for the IRGC in South America. The other was Managua, Nicaragua.

Eugene, Oregon....Home of the University of Orgeon...

Foes target Pacifica Forum

Foes of what, you wonder????

Critics of a speaker widely viewed as one of the nation’s most prominent deniers of the Holocaust say they will counter his talk in Eugene on Friday with a competing event and a later symposium.

Mark Weber, director of the Institute for Historical Review (out of Willis Carto and the 'Liberty Lobby'), will speak on “The Israel Lobby.” His visit comes at the invitation of the Pacifica Forum, a local discussion group founded by retired University of Oregon professor Orval Etter (Orval Etter, associate professor emeritus. B.S., 1937, J.D., 1939, Oregon. (1939)).

Calling the Kennedy School of Govt at Harvard, we have a message for Herr Doktor Smears and Gruppenfuhrer Waltheimer. Advertisements for the event feature the image of a snake in the shape of a Star of David with the legend "The Israel Lobby: How Powerful Is It?"

Weber, a historian who grew up in Portland, describes himself as a Holocaust revisionist. But detractors point to Weber’s own writings in labeling him a white supremacist, racist and anti-Semite.

“People may think I’m wrong or I’m right, but they should have a chance to hear what I have to say,” Weber said in a telephone interview from his institute’s office in Newport Beach, Calif.

Can you imagine? Any view is due equal consideration? Is this the adulterated thinking of university symposiums?

What is this forum anyway ..check out their schedual:

11/17 - Post-Mortem on MARK WEBER visit

11/10 - Orval talks on Kristallnacht anniversary

11/3 - Conferences with Mark Weber

11/2 - The INSTITUTE FOR HISTORICAL REVIEW - (Orval Etter)
7:00 - evening lecture by Mark Weber, Director of the IHR

10/26 - George Beres continues talk on the Mearsheimer-Walt book and recent Portland appearance.

10/19 - A review of Mearsheimer-Walt book, "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy"

10/12 - video - "Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear & the Selling of American Empire"

10/5 - anniversary of Gandhi's birth - field trip to Knight library

9/28 - The Spiritual Basis of 9/11 and the 'War' on Terror -(Orval Etter)

9/21 - Post-Mortem on the Tolerance/Intolerance Breakfast, (reports and discussion)

9/14 - Complicity on 9/11:? Common-Sense Physics and The WORLD TRADE TOWERS - Dan Athearn

Clearly, masquerading as opposition and dissident opinion, we have racist 'trufing' perhaps of the John Birch variey morphed via the leftist elite into the UNHOLY ALLIANCE of true stupidity.

Well then, perhaps a Second Amendment ...

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Soldiers used tear gas, plastic bullets and water cannons to scatter tens of thousands who massed Thursday to protest constitutional reforms that would permit Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to run for re-election indefinitely.

Led by university students, protesters chanted "Freedom! Freedom!" and warned that 69 amendments drafted by the Chavista-dominated National Assembly would violate civil liberties and derail democracy.

It was the biggest turnout against Chavez in months, and appeared to revive Venezuela's languid opposition at a time when the president seems as strong as ever. Students promised more street demonstrations over the weekend, but no opposition-led protests were planned for Friday.

"This is a dictatorship masked as democracy," said Jorge Rivas, an 18- year-old student. "Chavez wants our country to be like Cuba, and we're not going to allow that to occur."

Authorities broke up the protest outside the headquarters of the country's electoral council, reporting that six police officers and one student were

injured. But students said dozens of protesters were hurt during the melee. The local Globovision television network broadcast footage of several police beating an unarmed protester with billy clubs.

Student leader Freddy Guevara said it was not immediately clear how many students were arrested, and he urged local human rights groups to help verify the number of detained protesters.

Freddy Guevara? Can T shirts be far behind?

These are essentially brave kids, children standing in objection to what is clearly a fascism, even a racist one, which coolly speaks the dialectic of an dreamlike egalitarian socialism, with the cynical knowledge that no one believes them, and they know those who disbelieve know they know it, and could care less.

Never has the value of the Second Amendment been more clear then when we contemplate a government like that of Chavez which makes such a law compulsory among free peoples.

Either the government fears the people, or the reverse. There is no other state of being available.

GERTZ- WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army has tested a ground-based laser system that could neutralize improvised explosive devices in Iraq.

The army conducted tests of the Avenger-mounted laser system in late September 2007 at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Ala. The laser system, also designed to destroy unexploded ordnance, was developed by Boeing.

"Boeing's investment strategy is to move some of its new directed energy weapon systems into field demonstrations, and Laser Avenger is the first one we're rolling out," said Gary Fitzmire, vice president and program director of Boeing Directed Energy Systems. "Laser Avenger provides the speed-of-light and ultra-precision capability that the warfighter needs today to safely neutralize improvised explosive devices and unexploded ordnance."

Executives said the Laser Avenger engaged and destroyed five IED and UXO threats in test-firings on Sept. 26-27. They said the Laser Avenger was equipped with a 1-kilowatt solid-state laser fired from an unspecified range.

"During the test, the system also took a step toward demonstrating a counter-unmanned aerial vehicle capability by destroying two small unmanned aerial vehicles that were stationary on the ground," Boeing said.

With the way western Europe has been in thrall to the Palestinians and bent over for any oil anywhere? I have my doubts that this would be useful to either party.

TEL AVIV — Israel has requested a formal partnership with NATO.

Officials said the government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has been negotiating with the Western alliance for a relationship that would include intelligence exchange, military exercises and joint operations. They said NATO has been considering the Israeli proposal.

"Israel seeks a formal partnership relationship with NATO," Israeli Foreign Minister Tsipi Livni said on Oct. 22. "Israel's efforts to enhance relations with NATO are part of its broader foreign policy to bolster Israel's multilateral diplomacy."

In an address to the Israel-NATO dialogue, Ms. Livni said Israel requires NATO cooperation for regional security, Middle East Newsline reported. Israel has sought NATO help in securing the border between Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip, under Hamas rule since June 2007.

Congrats to David H ...

Kuwait News Agency - 02 November, 2007

Kuwait condemned a campaign launched by some American universities against Islam and called on the International Community to take a firm stand against such racial measures.

This came in the Kuwaiti delegation's speech addressed by Khaled Bader Al-Khalifa, late on Wednesday, at the United Nations General Assembly on the Culture of Peace.

He said one must firmly stand against those who seek racial and religious sedition because such acts represent a serious threat to the efforts made to spread the culture of peace.

Here is your culture of peace:
Book 041, Number 6985:

Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: The last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a tree would say: Muslim, or the servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him; but the tree Gharqad would not say, for it is the tree of the Jews.

Renounce such hate first, and there will be a meeting of the minds, putzes.

The Kuwaiti official welcomed all efforts to support the culture of peace by UN member states and the major role carried out by the general assembly in this respect.

009.005
So when the sacred months have passed away, then slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them captives and besiege them and lie in wait for them in every ambush, then if they repent and keep up prayer and pay the poor-rate, leave their way free to them; surely Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.

He said Kuwait is sparing no efforts to spread the understanding of "moderation in Islam" where the cabinet issued a decision to form a committee aimed at spreading the understanding of moderation

009.029
Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.

The respect of human rights and equality among all sectors of the society are the basic of the culture of peace, he concluded

009.030
The Jews call 'Uzair a son of Allah, and the Christians call Christ the son of Allah. That is a saying from their mouth; (in this) they but imitate what the unbelievers of old used to say. Allah's curse be on them: how they are deluded away from the Truth!

Just let us know anytime converting from Islam to anything else is a protected human right by your govts, that's all we ask.

BORING STUPIDITY

Cisco plans additional $7.5 billion of investments in China

BEIJING: Network gear maker Cisco Systems Inc. on Thursday announced a multi-year, US$16 billion (€11.1 billion) series of initiatives to expand in China with investments in manufacturing, venture capital and education efforts.

"We're going to the next chapter for Cisco in China," said Cisco Chief Executive John Chambers said at a news conference.

The ventures include a partnership with Alibaba Group, China's biggest online commerce company, to develop business services for small and medium-sized companies, Chambers said.

Other efforts include doubling Cisco's manufacturing in China, a venture capital partnership with a govenment bank and support for technology education.

OMG WTF?

The company says its total commitments in China to date are US$8.5 billion (€5.9 billion).

Cisco and the government-owned China Development Bank will explore a joint US$100 million (€69.22 million) program to provide capital and expertise for innovative Chinese businesses, Chambers said.

He said that would include companies in information technology, health care, communications and other fields.

Cisco and Alibaba agreed to explore collaboration in Web-based business services for small and medium-sized companies and expanding Alibaba's overseas market, the companies said.

You mean, like penetrating the american market?

San Jose-based Cisco is the world's largest networking equipment maker, now has more than 61,500 employees worldwide and $34.92 billion in revenue in the latest fiscal year.

That's LINKSYS routers and cards, people.
Would it do America any good if we switched to NETGEAR?
When will all this be enough?

OPEC says pumping more won't bring oil price down

LONDON: Representatives from top oil producing countries Tuesday blamed the steady advance of oil toward $100 a barrel on a combination of financial speculation, geopolitical instability and a shortfall in refining capacity.

The president of OPEC, Mohammed bin Dhaen al-Hamli, who is also the oil minister of the United Arab Emirates, pledged to keep markets amply supplied. But at an oil industry conference in London, he said there was only so much OPEC could do in the current circumstances to keep a lid on prices.

"Increasingly oil markets are being driven by forces beyond OPEC's control, such as geopolitical events and the growing influence of financial investors," Hamli said. "We are of course concerned about the high level of oil prices."

He declined to say if, or when, the price of oil would reach $100, but he noted that OPEC members already had decided last month to increase output by 500,000 barrels a day from Nov. 1.

Heads of state of OPEC members will be meeting next month in Riyadh. But Hamli said there were no plans currently to raise output at that meeting.

Look there is no doubt that worries over a war with Iran and subsequent efforts by them to close off Hormuz play a role here, but NOTHING trumps the law of supply and demand. Efforts to argue otherwise are a farce. So, please don't piss on my back and tell me it's raining.

"To increase by 500,000 or one million barrels, do you believe today it will bring back the price?" Attiyah asked. "I don't think so," he said, emphasizing his view that the price of oil had become almost wholly

decoupled from supplies.

Financial players "lost a lot of money on real estate, shares and bonds, and then they jumped to

commodities," including oil, Attiyah said.

He also heaped responsibility for the high price on a shortage of refining capacity, which was creating unusually high demand for products like jet fuel and gasoline.

Attiyah also suggested that European governments in particular were too reluctant to lower their high taxes on oil for fear of losing precious revenues.

"Please don't blame us - you blame us for the last 50 years," Attiyah said.

1973, you jerk!!
You do get the blame!